Chapter 23 Nian Army

When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom swept across the south, the Qing Empire also caught fire in the north: a man from Anhui raised his flag and rebelled. The man who raised the flag to rebel is called Zhang Luoxing. Compared with the experience of Zhu Baba (Zhu Yuanzhang), an old man from Anhui, who turned from a bell-beating monk to an uprising fighter, Zhang Luoxing is a bit inferior, because he was already a professional in murder and arson before the uprising. In fact, Zhang Luoxing came from a good background, and his family was a landlord.In that era of poor clothing and food, he was living a middle-class life with enough food and clothing, and he was the envy of others, but Zhang Luoxing was not satisfied.He is an ambitious and adventurous man, never content with getting rich.So he began to work hard to make money, but his way of making money is a bit special-selling private salt.

In any dynasty in history, the tax on salt was the main source of national finance.Therefore, table salt is monopolized by the state and is a controlled item. Anyone who sells illegal salt is illegal and will be beheaded.But Zhang Luoxing doesn't think so, the seawater is just there, if I don't expose it, others will expose it, if I don't sell it, others will sell it, it's a lack of understanding to let such an easy way to make money go unused. Moreover, Zhang Luoxing is not afraid of breaking the law. He is rich and loyal, so he has many friends from the underworld.Later, with these friends as the backbone, he organized a large armed force and started armed smuggling.Naturally, his private salt business grew bigger and bigger, and the local government had nothing to do with him.

In 1852, Zhang Luoxing saw that Hong Xiuquan's career was so prosperous that he was about to become emperor. Zhang Luoxing realized that if he didn't act, he would not even be able to drink soup.So, with the support of his brothers, he united with the peasant friends who could not grow land or eat, and raised the banner of rebellion. This rebel army was known as the "Nian Army" in history. Since then, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom and the Nian Army have echoed from north to south, causing chaos in the world. Thanks to the repeated confrontation with the government in the years of salt smuggling, members of Zhang Luoxing's direct lineage are particularly good at a method of warfare-mobile warfare, a method of warfare that is especially suitable for defensive counterattacks.When the Qing army attacked, they retreated in great strides, and then took advantage of the Qing army's unpreparedness to suddenly return their carbine guns, or circle in circles in an area, dragging until the Qing army was tired, and then attacked suddenly.

Qing army, we will crush you on the run! For a while, the Qing army was beaten back by the Nian army.In the life-and-death struggle with the Qing army, the scope of the Nian army's activities became wider and wider, and it basically came and went freely in Jiangsu, Shandong, Henan, Anhui and other provinces.