There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 111: He who knows the current affairs is a hero
Xing Zhao stood on the city wall, looking at the Han army besieging the city outside, and couldn't help feeling a little annoyed.

The Han army clearly did not attack the city immediately, but this inaction made him feel very uneasy. He always felt that something big was going to happen, or something bad was going to happen to him.

Damn it, why haven't the reinforcements arrived yet?

Xingzhao couldn't send out a messenger, but Taoyuan County was to the west of Changde Prefecture. There had been no news from Changde for so long. Was the Taoyuan County Magistrate a fool?

Can't you see any problem with this?
Well! Actually, it was seen that the Taoyuan County Magistrate even sent people to Changde Prefecture to inquire about the situation. As a result, they saw that Changde Prefecture was surrounded by the Han army, and even the Yuan River was full of patrolling bandits and blocked.

Then...

Just bury your head in the ground and act like an ostrich!
Changde was surrounded by rebels. What use was there in relying on a mere county magistrate like him?

The Taoyuan County Magistrate pretended not to know and did not even send anyone to Chenzhou to report the news. If he had reported the news, he would have been an insider. Even if he knew the truth, he would not have saved the city. What if he was held accountable and retaliated against afterwards?

"The rebels are coming!"

A soldier cried out in surprise.

Xing Zhao quickly looked over and saw that there were indeed several people riding horses running towards him.

There were very few people coming and they were not running fast. They must have come to persuade them to surrender.

Several riders rushed to the foot of the city wall, but were not within the range of the Qing army archers. Xing Zhao keenly noticed that there was a man among them who was not wearing armor or a helmet, and his head was bald with a braid.

Fu Zhina took out a loudspeaker, which was lent to him by the Han army. It was said that it could transmit sound a hundred miles away (not that exaggerated).

When the switch was pressed, a slight tinnitus was heard, followed by the Qing soldiers who were watching on the city wall, and Xing Zhao who was full of scrutiny.

"I am Fuzhina, Hesheli Fuzhina. My ancestor was Suo Ni Da Zhong Tang, a senior official during the reigns of Emperor Shunzhi and Emperor Shengzu. I have Empress Xiaochengren, the wife of Emperor Shengzu Kangxi!"

Wow, except for the first two sentences which are true, the rest is pure exaggeration.

Fuzhina’s surname was Hesheli, Sony’s surname was also Hesheli, and Kangxi’s queen was also Sony’s granddaughter, but what does this have to do with Fuzhina?
You have to know that Sony was a founding minister of the Qing Dynasty and a member of the Manchu Plain Yellow Banner, one of the upper three banners, while Fu Zhina was a member of the Plain Red Banner, firmly in the lower five banners. Fortunately, his clothes and armor were stripped by the Han army, otherwise, his red cotton armor alone (the Plain Red Banner wore red, and the Plain Yellow Banner wore yellow) would have exposed him.

It is true that Fu Zhina is flattering himself, and Xing Zhao must know it, but it is useless for him to know it, because the Manchurian soldiers under his command do not know it!
The Manchu soldiers didn't know, and the other Green Camp soldiers and the recruited and trained Yongying soldiers were even less aware of it.

Xing Zhao was shocked: "Shoot! Shoot quickly!"

“Swoosh~~Swoosh~~!”

Unfortunately, it was still a step too late.

The rain of arrows was sparse, and few people obeyed the orders. Those who did obeyed the orders also "accidentally" shot the wrong way.

Who dares to shoot? This is a big figure of the Hesheli clan. His ancestors were Suo Ni Zhong Tang and Empress Dowager Kangxi, the emperor of the Qing Dynasty. With these titles, he sounds very impressive.

Even those who knew some of the inside story were either doubtful and hesitant, or felt that since we were all Manchus, the general was wrong to just shoot arrows and kill people without any explanation.

It was unclear whether he had done something wrong or not, but Xing Zhao was about to feel dizzy.

Finished!

At the foot of the city, Fu Zhina smiled as he rode his horse forward and turned up the volume of the loudspeaker to the maximum, almost shouting.

"My Manchu brothers on the city wall, Changsha is gone! Changsha has been taken by the Han army!"

The call was transmitted through loudspeakers, and almost all the Manchu soldiers, Green Camp soldiers, and Brave Camp trainees on the city wall heard it.

I automatically ignored the first half of the sentence and only heard the second half.

Changsha is gone!

Changsha has fallen, and it was captured by the Han army!

The Han army is the army that is now surrounding them.

How is this possible?
"Quick, quick, shoot, don't let him talk anymore! Shoot!" The prefect Hu Wenquan shouted in shock, not caring that Fu Zhi under the city was a Manchu and that he was surrounded by Manchu soldiers.

It was useless. These Manchu soldiers didn't listen to Hu Wenquan at all and even glared at him.

Hu Wenquan looked at Xing Zhao, who was already stunned. "General, quickly give the order to shoot! We can't let that guy... that person continue talking, otherwise the morale of the Changde army will be in chaos!"

Xing Zhao came back to his senses and forced himself to give the order.

Just like before, the arrows were shot sparsely. This time it wasn't that they were shot off target, but the arrows fell down as soon as they were put on the noose.

Fu Zhina became even more arrogant. He rode forward a few steps, raised his trumpet and shouted, "My Manchu brothers in the city, Changsha is gone! Even the great city of Changsha couldn't withstand the attack of the Han army, let alone this mere city of Changde."

"I know what you're thinking. You're just waiting for reinforcements, but I can tell you clearly that Marshal Fukang and Anfu are dead. You won't get any reinforcements. The Han army is already marching all the way from Changsha and will reach Changde in a few days. By then, the army will be on the border, and you won't have a chance to surrender even if you want to!"

"I know there's an old Han Chinese saying: 'He who knows the current situation is a hero,' and stubborn resistance leads to death. Changde isn't our Manchu homeland. If Changde is lost, are we, the Eight Banners of Manchuria, going to be buried alive with this ruined city?"

"I know you're afraid of Xing Zhao. Not only is he the General of Jingzhou, but he also has the surname Aisin-Gioro. But we're all from the Eight Banners. If we insist that the General of Jingzhou died in battle, who would dare to trace us? I'm also a Manchu. I won't lie to you. And you don't have to worry about the Han army. They can even bypass me. Why would I come to you to persuade you to surrender? What are you afraid of?"

"..."

Fu Zhina took a loud speaker and stood right under the city wall, turning it up loud and shouting in a high-pitched voice to persuade people to surrender.

On the city wall, no one obeyed the order to shoot arrows anymore. They all put their light bows on their backs and lay on the city wall, listening carefully to what Fu Zhina said.

"There are also the Green Camp and the Brave Camp..."

Fu Zhina had only been trying to persuade the Manchu soldiers to surrender, but when he saw many Green Camp Qing soldiers peeking out from the middle, he also included them in the process of persuading them to surrender. In short, as long as they were willing to surrender, they could all survive, Manchus and Han people alike!

But General Xing Zhao of Jingzhou must "die in battle"!
Xing Zhao couldn't stand listening any longer. Seeing that no one obeyed his orders, he grabbed a Han soldier's light bow and shot an arrow in the direction of Fu Zhina under the city.

"call out!"

An arrow was shot, but missed and landed under the hoof of Fuzhi's horse not far away.

Fu Zhina was so frightened that he quickly reined in his horse and fled. Only after he ran a long distance did the rain of arrows begin to fall sparsely.

Xing Zhao was furious, but he didn't dare to vent his anger. Ever since Fu Zhina was shot away by his arrow, he always felt that the Manchu soldiers around him looked at him differently.

This was of course Xing Zhao's illusion, but illusion nonetheless. Xing Zhao was frightened and suspicious, and no longer dared to stay on the city wall.

"Deputy Governor Defu, you will take charge of defending the city. I'm not feeling well, so I'll go back and rest for a while!"

This arrangement was perfunctory. Without even waiting for Defu to receive the order, he hurried down the city wall.

Behind them, Hu Wenquan and the other civil servants looked at each other, not knowing whether they should leave.

Xing Zhao, the Jingzhou general, ran away!

He escaped at the critical moment when the Han army was at the gates of the city and could launch an attack at any time.

Defu did not say anything, but just followed the procedures and commanded the Qing soldiers guarding the city on the city wall to boil gold juice and kerosene in preparation for defending the city.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Han army attacked the city.

Five red cannons bombarded the city wall of Changde Prefecture.

Under the cover of artillery fire, the laborers carried mud and sand materials to fill the moat.

The Qing army also tried to fight back with city defense artillery, but the Qing army's cannons were only about one meter long and weighed less than 400 kilograms.

(I didn’t find any documented records, but after seeing the unearthed information from the Changde Museum, I concluded that Changde Prefecture had cannons, but they were too small.)

It sounds like it is not small, but when compared with the artillery of the Han army, it can be seen that the artillery of the Han army uses tons as the basic unit of measurement. Even if it is replaced with the red cannon of the Ming Dynasty, the barrel is generally 2 to 3 meters long.

What use is this one-meter-long gun barrel?

When the Qing army's artillery fired, the shells could not hit the Han army's artillery at all, and at most they could only bombard the civilians.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Qing army's artillery fired at the civilians, which was equivalent to exposing their own artillery positions. The Han army's artillery immediately turned its muzzles and fired in the direction of the Qing army's artillery.

The two sides bombarded each other for a whole day, and the Qing army's artillery was completely unable to withstand the attack.

One of the artillery pieces was directly destroyed by an armor-piercing shell, and even the barrel fell off the city wall.

The Qing army artillerymen also suffered heavy casualties. The local damage caused by the armor-piercing shells was too great. In addition, the Qing army artillerymen had not operated artillery for a long time, and they actually ignored the risk of gunpowder barrels piling up and being easily hit by shells and ignited, causing a secondary explosion.

As long as a Han soldier's shell even slightly hit the Qing soldiers, there would be a violent explosion, blowing their limbs flying everywhere.

The Han soldiers' artillerymen are simply bullying!
In the evening, the shelling stopped.

The Changde city wall is fine, with no major damage, but several artillery positions are completely deserted.

In Xingzhao's absence, the morale of the troops on the city wall was unstable. The Green Camp, the Brave Camp, the civilians, and the Manchu soldiers each formed their own small groups.

"Sir, I'm afraid that Changde City can't be defended." Wang He, the co-governor of Changde, said worriedly.

Not only was the Tongzhi worried, but the Changde Tongpan and Wuling County Magistrate (attached to the city) also looked worried.

This was not only because the Han army's artillery was so sharp and the Qing army's gunners were bombarded so badly, but also because of the heartbreaking words that Fu Zhina said when he was trying to persuade the city to surrender during the day.

Hu Wenquan said: "Marshal Fu's death was extremely unfortunate. He died just as the rebel army was marching south. Now, even Changsha has been lost."

"Is Changsha really lost?" Chen Song, the magistrate of Changde, was somewhat skeptical.

Hu Wenquan said, "Does it matter whether Changsha was really lost or not?"

"..."

"Ugh!"

Thousands of words can only be summed up in a sigh.

Whether Changsha was really lost or not is actually not important at all, because as long as the Green Camp, Brave Camp and Manchu soldiers below believe it, the Han army’s goal will be achieved.

As the general of Jingzhou, Xing Zhao was a Manchu, but his surname was Aisin-Gioro, which made him essentially different from other Manchu soldiers.

It's so easy to sow discord!

Xing Zhao panicked and fled down the city wall in fear. Even if he figured it out later, it was too late.

(End of this chapter)