Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 623 Xiang Rong is still on his way~
"Guilin's scenery is the best under heaven!"

"Mr. Zhou is absolutely right."

Outside Guilin city, gazing at the karst landform dominated by carbonate rocks and the surrounding mountains and rivers, Lin Dao nodded repeatedly in admiration.

The only thing that wasn't so satisfying was that most of the hilltops were bare.

The closer to areas of human activity, the more of these barren hills there are.

Only on distant hilltops, large and small, can one find vegetation cover.

Unfortunately, vegetation is the primary source of fuel in this era.

These are essential for boiling water and cooking.

The people around them remained completely unmoved by the scenery before them.

They've been looking at mountains and rivers since birth, not only watching them grow up, but also frequently swimming in the water and chopping wood and cutting grass on the mountains.

It's truly baffling that the association leader is so fond of these landscapes.

"The people here are very nice."

Looking away, Lin Dao chuckled, "A scalpel for overcharging customers isn't that sharp, doesn't seem like it...hehe~~"

This is even more incomprehensible.

In a good mood, I continued walking along the forest path.

After climbing to the top of a hill, what came into view was a series of terraced fields.

This is the famous Longji Rice Terraces.

“The land here in Guangxi is too barren.”

Lin Dao sighed, "If we could farm on flat land, who would want to go up the mountain to farm?"

The terraced fields here are famous, but as he said, given a choice, who would want to farm on the mountain?
You should know that carrying water up a mountain is real physical labor.

"Guangxi has too large a population and too little arable land."

"The vast majority of them were concentrated in the hands of landlords, wealthy people, and government officials."

"On average, ordinary people don't even own an acre of land. How are they supposed to make a living?"

"We can only survive by eating sweet potatoes."

In Lin Dao's view, conflicts between the local people and the Hakka people, clan pressure, and so on are all things that can be overcome and alleviated.

The real pressure lies in feeding so many people with a limited amount of barren land.

He wasn't some corrupt official who complained about the large population causing social problems and beheaded hundreds or thousands of people every year in any county, using population reduction as a way to alleviate the conflict.

Lin Dao came here to help the oppressed and impoverished people of the Central Plains to live a better life.

The horrific scene of people surviving on sweet potatoes, with corpses of the starving everywhere along the roads, and a high mortality rate, must be changed.

If we rely entirely on sending supplies from other dimensions to provide support...
At that time, Guangxi had a registered population of over nine million, approaching ten million.

If we include those living in seclusion, as well as various ethnic groups in the mountains, the number is at least over ten million.

The land in Guangxi cannot support so many people.

"We need to take a large number of people with us."

Walking through the terraced fields, Lin Dao's thoughts shifted: "The most important thing is to eliminate the officials who are in charge of mites and the local landlords and gentry."

"Distribute the vast majority of the land they possessed to the people who remained."

A significant reason why land cannot support a large population is the unfair distribution of land.

A small number of officials, local landlords and gentry, and even bigwigs in the capital divided up the vast majority of the land.

If the land in Lindao were distributed, it would surely be able to support most of the people.

By resolving the conflicts between the Hakka and the indigenous people, as well as the influence of clan power, people can settle down and live in peace, thus supporting even more people.

As for the bandit problem, Lin Dao planned to leave it to the Taiping Army stationed in Guangxi.

"Damn it, if all else fails, we might as well head south to Vietnam and seize their fertile land."

Lin Dao had already planned this for a long time.

He wants to take back not only the autumn-leaf crabapple, but all the land!

As for territories further away, he will take them over using the methods invented by the Europeans.

Why should hundreds of millions of people in the Central Plains be forced to live in poverty, crammed together, unable to get enough to eat or wear, and living hand to mouth?

It's just guns and cannons, I have those too!

The people of Central Asia, who make up one-tenth of the world's population, possess far too little land wealth.

This is unfair. After Lin Dao wipes out the scourge of the barbarians, he will inevitably have to declare his authority to the whole world.
We demand justice!

He wanted to reclaim the opportunities and gains he had lost because of the slaughter of wild boar skin.

"Guilin is under siege, an emergency!"

"Where's Xiang Rong? What's Xiang Rong doing?"

He's still on his way to Guilin.

The massive rebel army moved slowly but steadily toward Guilin.

It was a despairing sense of oppression, like Mount Tai pressing down on you.

The civil and military officials in Guilin sent urgent military intelligence to the capital once a day.

From the initial 400-li express courier service to the later 600-li express courier service, and even the unprecedented use of 800-li express courier service.

The civil and military officials in the city are going crazy.

The intelligence gathered indicates that the encircling rebel army numbers at least several hundred thousand!
Although the large number of elderly, weak, women and children slowed down their movement.

But they had a duty to defend their territory, and the civil and military officials within the city dared not flee.

All they could do was keep sending messages to the capital, requesting reinforcements to save their lives.

That's an army of hundreds of thousands; if each one of them urinated, they could flood the city of Guilin.

What they are most hoping for now is that the newly appointed Governor of Guangxi, Xiang Rong, will come and take up his post as soon as possible.

"Min Zhengfeng, you bastard!"

Inside Guilin city, Zheng Zushen, the governor of Guangxi, launched into a tirade of curses.

"You bastard, you ran pretty fast!"

When the imperial court issued the decree rescinding Min Zhengfeng's order, the former governor of Guangxi was still complaining and grieving, and even shed tears.

When he learned that the rebels had successively defeated the government troops and that hundreds of thousands of soldiers were marching towards Guilin, this bastard ran faster than a rabbit, taking his family and fleeing the city back to his hometown. He had been dismissed from his post, and now that he was free of official duties, he could run away with impunity.

But the civil and military officials in Guilin City were determined to hold their ground.

The contrast between the two sides left those who remained filled them with resentment, envy, jealousy, and hatred.

And Xiang Rong, who will replace this bastard, is still on his way!

No one can take the blame when they try to shift the blame!
In the current situation, Zheng Zushen has to shoulder the burden alone.

Given the Qing Dynasty's tradition of shifting blame and passing the buck, he couldn't find anyone to take the blame or share the responsibility, which made him extremely uncomfortable.

They criticized Min Zhengfeng for a while, and then criticized Xiang Rong for a while.

Having no other choice, Zheng Zushen summoned all the civil and military officials to discuss how to deal with the situation.

The atmosphere inside was somewhat somber.
Everyone had long faces and looked dejected.

There was no other way; that was an army of hundreds of thousands.
This isn't just hype; it's a real, densely packed area filled with people, stretching as far as the eye can see.

"Zhou Zhentai".

Zheng Zushen looked at the only person who could fight and asked, "You said you would send troops to probe, but what was the result?"

Zhou Zhentai was Zhou Fengqi, the commander-in-chief of Zhenyuan County, Guizhou. The title of commander-in-chief was Zhentai. Yiketanbu, who was killed in Cangwu County, was his subordinate.

If it's an admiral, then it's a military commander.

In the Beiyang Fleet, Ding Ruchang was known as Commander Ding.

"Tried it."

Zhou Fengqi shook his head with a wry smile, "1,500 elite soldiers, planning a surprise attack."

"As a result, before they could even launch an attack from their hiding place in the mountains, they were discovered by the rebel scouts and were surrounded and attacked instead."

"Only a few hundred people made it back in the end."

The claim of 1,500 elite soldiers is an exaggeration; they were just ordinary Green Standard Army soldiers.

It's a real 1,500 people, not the kind where it's 10,000 on paper but actually 2,500.

It's true that they were spotted by Taiping Army sentries equipped with advanced equipment like binoculars, but the claim that they were surrounded and managed to break out in hundreds is pure fabrication.

In reality, it was the deputy general leading the team who observed the surroundings from the mountain and realized that something was wrong.

Qing generals had a natural advantage, or rather, a fully developed skill, in detecting danger and escaping.

They hurriedly fled before the Taiping army's encirclement could be formed.

The casualties were caused by the Taiping army catching up with and killing them, not by them breaking through the encirclement.

Being hunted down versus breaking out of an encirclement represents two completely different displays of combat ability.

Even in this critical situation, Zhou Fengqi has to keep things looking good.

"How many troops are stationed in the city?" Zheng Zushen asked, his face dark.

The imperial court's reinforcements are too far away to be of immediate help; for the time being, we can only rely on ourselves.

"Each battalion, approximately eight thousand men."

Before he could finish speaking, Zheng Zushen slammed his fist on the table in a fit of rage, shouting, "I want to hear the truth! The truth!"

"What time is it? Stop talking nonsense to me!"

"When has your Green Camp ever actually had a number of 8,000 people?"

We're all navigating the officialdom, so we know all the tricks of the trade.

At this point, still reporting the numbers from the military roster is truly suicidal.

"Real numbers~"

"The actual number is approximately 1,300 people."

"There have been deserters these past few days, but the number has been decreasing."

In Guangdong, because they directly faced foreigners, the imperial court kept a close eye on them, so the Green Standard Army's use of funds for non-existent employees was still under control.

But in Guangxi, at least on the surface, nothing has happened.
The number of "ghost employees" in the pro-independence camp is much larger.

Moreover, as news spread that hundreds of thousands of rebels were approaching, the veteran members of the Green Camp also began to flee, causing the number of rebels to continue to decline.

"Your swords, are you perhaps too weak to lift?"

Under immense pressure, Zheng Zushen glared fiercely at them, "Whose young master or nobleman is this deserter? Can't he be killed?"

"Yes, yes~" At this moment, the highest-ranking Green Standard Army general in the city was a deputy general, who was scolded so badly that he couldn't lift his head. "He must be severely punished."

"continued!"

"There are about 800 people in Fubiao and Tibiao."

The Green Standard Army was an important component of the Qing Dynasty's military force.

In addition to the front, rear, left, right, and center battalions of the Green Standard Army, each governor-general, governor, admiral, and general in various regions had their own personal guards, collectively referred to as their own regiments.

They were respectively called the Governor-General's Banner, the Provincial Governor's Banner, the Commander-in-Chief's Banner, and the General's Banner.

Abbreviations: Dubiao, Fubiao, Tibiao, Zhenbiao.

The Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi was not in Guilin, so naturally his headquarters were not there either.

Zheng Zushen's pacification force and Min Zhengfeng's levy, though said to have 800 men, were actually inflated figures.

"The Guizhou Green Standard Army reinforcements numbered approximately 2,700."

"There are about a thousand yamen runners, constables, and patrol inspectors."

"There were more than 300 students."

"The local gentry militia has about four thousand members."

"The number of able-bodied men summoned is approximately ten thousand."

On the surface, it is already quite large, enough to defend the city.

But as everyone knows, the actual situation is that they are basically unusable.

Defending the city can only be a matter of holding on.

The real hope is reinforcements.
Zheng Zushen gazed northwards and called out with deep affection.

"Your Majesty, we beg you to send reinforcements immediately to save Guangxi!"

(End of this chapter)