There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 146 The Qing Dynasty was defeated!

Still never follow the thief?
Even the battalion garrison commander Yang Fang had defected in the middle of the battle. What choice did these Guizhou soldiers have?

Although many Qing soldiers actually didn't understand what was happening, their battalion garrison, which was equivalent to their immediate superiors, had rebelled. It was like their crotch was stained with mud, which was a crime no matter how bad it was.

What else can we do?
They must have joined the rebellion. If they don't rebel now, are they waiting for the garrison commander to be suppressed, so that the general above them will treat them as rebels and chop off their heads as a reward for their great merit?
Yang Fang's betrayal quickly triggered a serious chain reaction. First, several hundred Guizhou soldiers in his own unit defected to the Qing Dynasty. Then, hundreds of newly recruited Guizhou soldiers came in. They had no choice but to join Yang Fang in his rebellion.

A few hundred people plus a few hundred people, that’s thousands of people.

Thousands of people defected, which might not have been of much use under normal circumstances. Compared with the Qing army of more than 100,000, thousands of people were still too few and could not even make a wave.

But in the current situation, the Qing army does not have more than 100,000 troops, and Eldengbao does not have the seal of the commander-in-chief of the three armies. Being able to mobilize tens of thousands of troops to the north is already an emergency measure.

Moreover, Eldengbao did not have the prestige and ability of Fukangan and Helin. At most, he was a veteran of the Eight Banners of Manchuria. He had fought several major battles with Fukangan and others. His ability was not too bad, but not too strong either. He could only be described as mediocre.

It was only thanks to the background of the Eight Banners of Manchuria that the Green Camp of tens of thousands of people from various provinces could be barely restrained, but it was still inevitable that factions and mountain groups appeared in the army, all of which were divided by province and dialect.

Yang Fang led the Guizhou soldiers to defect. After the rebellion, he did not fight in the Guizhou Green Camp army. Instead, he rushed to the Guangdong Green Camp army next door. After chopping down several Guangdong Green Camp soldiers in succession, he raised his sword and shouted: "The Qing Dynasty is defeated! Long live the Han army!"

"The Qing Dynasty has been defeated! Long live the Han army!"

"The Qing Dynasty has been defeated! Long live the Han army!"

"..."

Yang Fang's personal soldiers immediately raised their hands and shouted. They didn't know why the Qing Dynasty was defeated. They just listened to what the garrison commander shouted and shouted the same thing.

Thousands of people shouted together, the shouts were deafening, one after another, and the Guangdong Green Camp that was attacked was all a little dazed.

The Qing Dynasty was defeated? When did it happen and how did it fail?

Not to mention the Qing soldiers of the Guangdong Green Camp, even the captains and captains above them looked confused. They were at the rear of the army, and at most they knew that the front army seemed to be fighting not very well, and even the cavalry that had not been deployed was dispatched.

How long has it been since the Qing Dynasty was defeated?

This is how the real battlefield is. Often, except for the troops in the front line who are engaged in combat, the more troops there are, the less useful they are in reality.

Because most of the local soldiers, from beginning to end, let alone fighting, may not even have seen the shadow of the enemy. They either became winners without doing anything, winning just because they knew everything, or they became losers without doing anything, also suffering a great defeat without knowing anything.

Na Huangdu once said that in a real army, only one or two out of ten people can be used. This does not mean that those one or two are combat-ready soldiers, but that in a war of great intensity, the outcome of the battle often depends on those one or two people.

When a 100,000-man army engages in battle, 70,000 or 80,000 men often follow the main force, setting up camp and running around without seeing a single enemy. They might even have to chop trees and dig pits from time to time. After two or three months, the general will come and say, "We've won! The rebels have been suppressed! We can return to the capital!"

The soldiers had no idea what was going on, but they were happy because they were not injured or killed and had managed to get away with it.

The Guangdong Green Camp that was attacked by Yang Fang was in a similar situation. Up to now, they had not seen any trace of the Han army, let alone what the situation was like in front.

The words "The Qing Dynasty was defeated" instantly plunged the Guangdong Green Camp into chaos. The Qing soldiers below did not know the truth. They only knew to listen to the news, regardless of where the news came from or whether it was true or false.

It’s chaos, it’s all chaos!

In order to survive, the Guangdong Green Camp, from the captains and captains to the ordinary Qing soldiers, no longer cared about the formation and frantically charged into the friendly army's formation, trying to lead the army to escape from the battlefield.

If Yang Fang's defection was just like throwing a small stone into the pond, causing a noticeable splash, then the Guangdong Green Camp's riot and escape was like picking up a big stone and smashing it to the bottom of the pond.

In order to escape, the Guangdong Green Camp, a big rock, even followed Yang Fang to charge into other Green Camp formations. Eldengbao was stunned: "What's going on? Don't run, don't panic, the Qing Dynasty is not defeated, the Qing Dynasty is not defeated!"

Unfortunately, it's too late!
There were already extremely serious factional conflicts within the Green Camp of the Qing army due to issues such as dialects and foreign soldiers. Eldengbao was unable to solve the problem and could only try to smooth things over.

Now, it is no use trying to smooth things over, and the consequences and backlash are coming.

Several Green Camp troops neither obeyed Eldengbao nor listened to his orders. They wanted to run away and no one could stop them.

"Come back, come back quickly! Anyone who dares to escape will be killed without mercy! We are not defeated yet, not defeated yet!"

Erdengbao drew his sword and shouted loudly. As he was shouting, the veteran general Mingliang suddenly reined in his horse and turned around to run away.

When Mingliang ran away, Eldengbao was stunned for a moment, as if he had just woken up from a dream. He didn't care about the fleeing troops and hurriedly led his personal soldiers to turn around and run away.

As soon as the main general Eldengbao left, the Qing soldiers responsible for carrying the flag reacted quickly, immediately threw away the big banner, and then ran away, abandoning their weapons and armor.

It can be said that the problem has become very serious now that the commander-in-chief has run away. Now even the banner representing the commander-in-chief has been thrown away by the flag soldiers.

The Qing soldiers in the front army had not noticed it yet. Even the Green Camp cavalry who were a little slow and did not follow the charge and were killed were already halfway back when they suddenly saw it.

The banner has fallen!

Once the banner fell, the commander-in-chief would either die or run away.

No matter which one, the Qing army was defeated in this head-on battle, and it was a crushing defeat.

What Yang Fang did was simple: he saw the deep internal contradictions within the Qing army. Two of the three army commanders had died in quick succession, and while Elyibao seemed capable of commanding the army, his effectiveness was seriously lacking. The Qing army, numbering tens of thousands, outwardly outnumbered the Han army, but internally it was a massive powder keg, poised to explode at the slightest spark.

The Qing army was defeated!

Nie Yu was extremely serious. He drew his sword and shouted, "All troops, attack!"

Of the more than 20,000 Han soldiers, except for the artillery battalion that did not join the charge, all other armies and battalions, including musketeers and crossbowmen, all fired two final shots before following the main force, drawing their swords and launching a counterattack charge towards the Qing army.

Not only were the Han army's infantry phalanxes charging, but the more than one thousand Han army cavalry and more than five hundred Manchu Nuer army cavalry also rushed out from the Han army phalanxes and killed the more than three thousand Green Camp cavalry who were fleeing.

Fifteen thousand were chasing three thousand, or cavalry were chasing cavalry. If it happened at the beginning of the war, no matter how weak the Green Camp's combat power was, they would dare to fight.

But now, if I don’t run fast, I’ll be dead if I get bitten!
Everyone knows how valuable war horses are. If an infantryman is caught up, he can still survive by surrendering, but if a cavalryman is caught up, he will be skinned alive even if he doesn't die.

A phalanx of more than 20,000 Han troops and more than 10,000 young and strong militiamen were chasing after more than 40,000 defeated Qing soldiers and more than 20,000 young and strong Qing civilians.

The defeated Qing army had an overwhelming advantage in manpower, but they had completely lost the courage to fight back.

Just like the Battle of Feishui, the 500,000-strong Former Qin army was forcibly defeated by the 30,000 Northern Army of the Eastern Jin Dynasty!
The First War destroyed the possibility of the Former Qin Dynasty unifying the world and even continuing its national destiny.

The cause of the defeat at the Battle of Feishui was also that Fu Jian gathered a group of surrendered soldiers. The surrendered general took advantage of the confrontation between the two armies and suddenly shouted: "The Qin army is defeated!"

Then, the Qin army was really defeated!

Reality requires logic, but history does not, and neither do historical wars.

(End of this chapter)