"The entire southern situation is in a state of deterioration. Although my emperor has awakened, it is too late. It is impossible to clean up the country in a short period of time.

Guangdong is finished. The Tiandihui has the support of the Huaxia Department. The government can't hold out for long. We have to find another way to get out, such as joining the Tiandihui. "Rong An said with a smile.

Xu Dao's eyes lit up and he laughed, "Haha, young master, this is a brilliant plan. The Tiandihui is just a bunch of mud legs. Although they have the support of the Huaxia Department and their combat power has increased a lot, compared to the young master, they are just some chickens and dogs.

Let's join the Tiandihui first, and then we can take over Guangdong and penetrate the enemy. With Zhang Shan as support, as long as we act at the critical moment, we will definitely be able to deal a fatal blow to the enemy army!"

"Let's go, we'll go to Dongguan to join the Tiandihui first!" Rong An said with a smile.

Before the rebellion, the Tiandihui had a very tight organization in order to guard against suppression by the imperial court. However, after the rebellion, in order to increase its strength as quickly as possible, it recruited soldiers on a large scale, and its organization became loose.

However, the 3,000 Eight Banners soldiers of the Guangzhou General's Mansion and most of the Green Camp troops were tied up at the border between Guangdong and Guangxi to guard against the Hua Xia Tribe. This gave the Tiandihui an opportunity to revolt, and with the military support of the Hua Xia Tribe, the Tiandihui developed extremely rapidly in the past few months.

The Tiandihui first started their rebellion in Boluo and soon took over the entire Huizhou. However, at the beginning they did not dare to attack the direction of Guangzhou, but instead attacked Chaoshan, Heyuan and other places in the east to strengthen their strength.

However, now it has begun to develop westward and has already reached Dongguan.

Beyond Dongguan are Panyu and Guangzhou. As long as we can take over Panyu, Guangzhou and other places, the whole of Guangdong will be almost taken over.

Panyu is very close to Dongguan. It only takes two or three hours by fast horse, and only two days by walking.

At this time, the Tiandihui and the government army were confronting Humen Town, and it only took one day to travel from Panyu to Humen.

Rong An first went to the military camp of the imperial court in Humen to take a look, and then left in disappointment.

Humen was an import and export port, and most of the imported opium was unloaded here, which led to Lin Zexu's destruction of opium in Humen.

Opium is naturally much cheaper here.

As soon as Rong An entered the military camp, he smelled a sweet scent. Rong An naturally knew how powerful the soldiers who liked to smoke opium were.

"Your Majesty, your ban on smoking is not thorough. Even the bandit chieftain Chen Gu knows that opium must be strictly prohibited. All the officials in the court actually turned a blind eye to the harm of opium for a little silver. They really deserve to be killed!" Rong An said with a grim face.

"There is a chance!" Xu Dao comforted him, "After the young master has put order into the chaos, banning opium will be nothing more than a trivial matter. Your Majesty is also clear about the ban on opium, it's just that the people below are pretending to obey but secretly disobeying.

When the day comes when the young master sets things right, as long as you have the support of your majesty, everything will be easy to do."

Rong An smiled and nodded.

The two men took a boat through Humen and found a place to stay for one night, but they did not stay in Humen. Although Humen was the place where the two armies confronted each other, the headquarters of the Tiandihui was not in Humen, nor even in the county town in the south, because it was too close to the battlefield.

Instead, it was located further back in Rongting, Dongguan County, which is the Zhangmutou Town in later generations.

After a day's journey, the two arrived at the foot of Guanyin Mountain.

Guanyin Mountain in Rongting, Dongguan County was first built in the Tang Dynasty. After several expansions, it has become very large at this time.

Because he had made preparations in advance, Rong An met a high-ranking member of the Tiandihui, Chen Si, who was also called Lanxi Si, when he arrived at Guanyin Mountain. Chen Si's parents died early, and he often wore rotten clogs discarded by others, so he got the nickname Lanxi Si.

Chen Si and Zhang Jinxiu were neighbors, and they were the leaders of the Tiandihui uprising.

As for how Rong An knew Chen Si, he actually didn’t know him before. But it doesn’t matter whether they knew each other before or not. As long as one has money, he will have a good relationship with anyone.

And Rong An must be rich.

"My name is Zhang Jia'an, nice to meet the Fourth Master!" Rong An bowed to Chen Si.

Rong An was tall and handsome. In comparison, the short Chen Si looked like a gangster. Chen Si was very pleased with Rong An's respect. Especially since Rong An gave him ten silver notes worth one thousand taels as a gift, which made Chen Si's attitude towards him even better.

"Well, why do you want to join my Tiandihui?" Chen Si nodded arrogantly and asked.

"The imperial court is unjust, and the Tiandihui will plead for the people. Although I am not talented, I also want to contribute to the anti-Qing Daye Army!" Rong An replied.

Many people have come to join the Tiandihui recently. Chen Si has heard many high-sounding reasons. He knows in his heart that these guys just come here to speculate because they see that the Tiandihui is powerful now, and has the support of the Huaxia Department behind it, and the imperial court is obviously unable to hold on.

Chen Si didn't care about that. If you are willing to come, then I will accept you. There is strength in numbers.

As for what position will be assigned to you, it depends on your own performance. If that doesn't mean anything, then go to the battlefield as a soldier and contribute your life to the Tiandihui.

If you can give a large sum of money like Rong An did, it is not impossible to give you a position as a general, or even let you lead an army alone.

Of course, you need to prepare the soldiers, armaments, food and so on by yourself.

Rong An naturally had everything he needed. All he needed was a title. The title of a general of the Tiandihui was enough.

The next day, Rong An formed an army of 2,000 people with his own private armed forces as the backbone. As long as there is money, it is easy to organize a peasant army with low combat effectiveness.

Given the level of chaos in Guangdong at the time, it would be easier to make money with troops.

Rong An led his troops northward to attack Zengcheng County and Conghua County, plundering wealthy gentry and recruiting soldiers along the way. When he returned to Guangzhou at the end of the year, he had an army of 100,000 under his command.

Of course, the so-called 100,000-strong army was just a fictitious number, as they wanted to include the civilians who transported grain. However, although there were not 100,000 combat soldiers, there were 50,000, and 10,000 of them were the main force who had been carefully selected.

The Tiandihui had more troops, claiming to have an army of 500,000. Even if Rong An was excluded, they still had more than 100,000 soldiers. Unfortunately, they were of no use as they were blocked at Humen by 5,000 opium-smoking Green Camp soldiers, and could never advance.

Moreover, Zhang Jinxiu and Chen Si were killed in battle one after another under Rong An's design. If it weren't for the fact that the Tiandihui had too many troops and the Green Camp Army had poor combat effectiveness, I'm afraid the Tiandihui would have been wiped out.

But it doesn’t matter to Rong An. As long as he takes Guangzhou, with his current reputation, he will be able to serve as the chief leader of the Tiandihui.

If all else fails, we can seize power by force.

(End of this chapter)