There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 147 A great victory
Yang Fang's counterattack did play a decisive role.

According to the original war situation, the Qing army would at most suffer a defeat, but Eldengbao and Mingliang were both veterans with rich combat experience. When they saw the situation was not good, they were able to quickly gather the main force and cut off the rear to protect themselves.

At most, they lost one Delentang. This guy was so crazy that he trapped himself and Baturu's guards in the Han army's square formation. Even if the Qing army preserved its main force, it could not break through to rescue him. However, with Yang Fang's defection at the last minute, he forcibly broke through the Qing army's central green camp, and the situation deteriorated beyond redemption.

Eldengbao and Mingliang did try hard, but the situation was hopeless and they were lucky to save their own lives, so they had no time to care about the defeated main force of the central army.

There were too many defeated Qing soldiers, and they were too scattered. The Han army did not have enough troops, so they could only focus on pursuing the large groups of defeated soldiers and trying to capture the fleeing Eldengbao and Mingliang.

Yang Fang, who was mixed in with the defeated Qing army, was indeed very fierce. Although one of his arms was still bandaged, he still held a knife in one hand and led more than a thousand Guizhou soldiers under his command to block the defeated Qing army halfway as they fled south. Tens of thousands of Green Camp defeated soldiers were blocked and unable to move.

There was a general of the Guangdong Green Camp who saw that Yang Fang could only fight with one arm. He wanted to run away in a hurry. He was not familiar with Yang Fang and did not know what level of martial arts he was, so he forcibly led his personal soldiers to charge into the battle.

then……

He died, barely lasting a second before Yang Fang replaced the spear with one hand and killed him from the horse.

The general was killed in battle in an instant, and the Qing soldiers under him lost their backbone. They either knelt on the ground and begged for surrender or fled in all directions.

The Han army continued to pursue the enemy for a whole day, and only gathered at Madi Town at dusk to prepare to set up camp and rest.

Yang family mansion.

This place has temporarily become the temporary command center of the Han army. The original owner of the house, Mr. Yang, thought that the people coming were soldiers and was very frightened. But when the people came in, he found that they were actually rebels.

The key point is that these rebels were more disciplined than the officers and soldiers. Not only did they not forcibly demand money, food, wine and meat, they also did not rape women or kill people indiscriminately. At most, they took his house to temporarily camp.

When Mr. Yang saw this strange rebel who neither robbed nor killed people, he was puzzled and couldn't help but have other thoughts.

"Dad, I've already inquired about it. The government troops were indeed defeated by the rebels. There are tens of thousands of prisoners alone, packed tightly together. There are also several generals among them. One of my children has seen them, and they are indeed the generals of the government army!"

"As expected, it seems the government and the imperial court are powerless to stop the rebels. Son! Tomorrow, go to the rebels... no, the Han army generals, and see if you can surrender and seek a position there."

"Dad, you're exaggerating! The imperial court still has a large army. We were only defeated once. If the government settles accounts with us later, our family will be finished!"

"What rebels? They're the Han army! Also, if I tell you to go, just go. Why are you talking so much nonsense? Don't I, your father, know whether the imperial court is useful or not? If we lose this battle, the imperial court won't be back for at least three to five years. And I've seen that the Han army has strict military discipline. They're not just ordinary rebels. If our Yang family surrenders early, we might be able to gain the merit of following the emperor!"

"But Dad, regardless of everything else, this rebel... the Han army seems to want to take our land?"

"Then let them divide up some of the land. When you become a high-ranking official in the future, how much land will you need?"

"But……"

"What's the but? Are you going or not? If not, I'll pretend I don't have a son like you."

"..."

Like Mr. Yang, who forced his son to join the Han army halfway, several other wealthy families in the town were also doing the same thing.

After this battle, the Han army was no longer the same as before, even if it could not leap over the dragon gate. If the Han army had strict military discipline, in the eyes of the landlords and gentry, they were at most traitors who followed the rules and respected them as scholars.

Now, the Qing army was defeated, and there were tens of thousands of captured soldiers, and countless generals, captains, and captains.

In the eyes of the gentry and scholars, although this may not be a definite success, it at least gives them the confidence and strength to establish a separatist regime.

When it comes to rebellion, there is no such thing as a guaranteed win. If the chances of winning are high, then it is worth it for ambitious people to make a bet and invest.

You become a prime minister and enjoy a hundred years of wealth, but you lose? If you lose, just surrender!

Even though the Manchus came to power and used the Eight Banners to seize the power of the gentry and landlords, it was now the Qianlong and Jiaqing periods, and the Qing court's control over the local areas was no longer as strong as before, and it had to rely on these landlords and gentry.

As the saying goes, the law does not punish the masses. During the Three Feudatories Rebellion, not all the generals and officials involved were executed. Only the core members of the rebel group and a small number of stubborn resistance elements were actually executed. Most of the anti-Qing officials and generals were pardoned afterward and were able to continue to serve in their official positions and enjoy wealth and prosperity.

Shang Kexi, the die-hard traitor, did not actually participate and returned to Guangdong to continue his role as the "King of Pingnan".

But Nie Yu was sitting in the lobby of the house, listening attentively to the post-war reports from his generals and the military secretary.

"General, as of an hour ago, our army has killed or wounded over 4,000 fleeing Qing soldiers and captured over 13,000. We have also routed and wounded over 2,000 cavalrymen of the Qing Baturu Guard, and killed General Delentang. The remaining Qing troops have been dispersed and are fleeing. Commanders Chen and He have already dispatched troops to pursue them. Commanders Bai and Xu have also dispatched additional troops to sweep the remaining small groups of fleeing soldiers from the center of the battlefield." "In this battle, our army has won a great victory. Tens of thousands of Qing troops have been defeated. The land of Hunan and Xiangxi is now in the hands of our Han people!"

This statement may seem like flattery, but it is also the truth. The Qing army was indeed defeated miserably, tens of thousands of troops were wiped out, and even Baturu's guards were killed in this battle.

Eldengbao, Mingliang, and Delentang, the three main generals of the army, one died in the battlefield, and the court's Baturu guards were also wiped out.

The other two did not die, but in order to escape quickly, they only brought their own personal soldiers with them. Even if they could really return to Xiangxi, they would almost be left alone.

That's right, he was left alone, and to make matters worse, almost the day before the decisive battle between the Han army and the Qing army, the tens of thousands of troops that Eldeng had left stationed in western Hunan were wiped out by the Pinglong Miao people.

It shouldn't have been that easy. Although the Qing army was short of manpower, there were still 20,000 combat-ready soldiers left in Xiangxi. Even if Shi Liudeng could seize the opportunity and let him, who was now barely surviving, go head-to-head with the 20,000 or 30,000 Qing troops, it would still be a difficult situation.

However, when sleepiness comes, a pillow is provided. Pang Wencai brought Shi Liudeng a key military intelligence: the Qing army left in Sanchaping was actually not all one force. They had local soldiers from Hunan and Xiangxi, as well as guest soldiers from several provinces, and their distribution was very even.

Such a terrible way of deploying troops came from the hand of veteran general Eldengbao. He had no other choice. If he didn't break up the deployment, he wouldn't be able to suppress the hundreds of thousands of troops under him.

It was fine when there was no war. The several armies were at least at peace with each other and at most they just took care of their own business.

Once the battle began, the Qing army lacked a unified command, and the various generals were unwilling to submit to each other. Shi Liudeng was also a ruthless man. In order to seize the opportunity to turn the tables, he actually mobilized all the Miao people in Pinglong Village and suddenly attacked Sanchaping.

The Miao people fought a desperate battle with unified command.

The Qing army had multiple orders and seemed to have a large number of soldiers and generals, but there were too many soldiers and generals to command them all. There was even a battlefield blunder where two armies collided.

As expected, after a long raid, the Qing army was defeated. Many Qing soldiers were swept away and fled before they even had time to join the battle.

In order to prevent any unexpected events, Eldengbao left behind 20,000 troops, but they were wiped out by the Pinglong Miao people.

The Han army counted the results of the battle in Madi Town. Not counting the captured and killed Qing soldiers, there were more than a thousand captured war horses, and all of them were Mongolian war horses from the north.

This is extremely rare. You know, the cavalry of the Han army have all been riding southwestern horses until now. This Mongolian horse is the first time they have seen it, let alone ridden one.

If we have to compare, riding a Mongolian warhorse is real horse riding, real cavalry, while riding a southwestern horse is no different from riding a dog!

Unfortunately, these war horses have been castrated. Without castration, they cannot serve as cavalry and cannot be used by the Han army for artificial breeding.

It seems that if you want to breed war horses, you still have to plan ahead, either buying them in a mall or starting with WeChat merchants.

Both channels require spending money, and it's the same kind of spending. If there's no war, the Han army's spoils are not just war horses, but also various types of armor, artillery, bird guns, bows and arrows, etc.

Although the Qing army's bird guns and artillery were not very effective against the Han army, but no matter how ineffective the artillery was, it was still artillery!

Together with these armor and cold weapons, if all of them were taken out, at least all the young and strong militiamen on the Han army side could be armed into an army.

Yang Fang suddenly stepped out and said, "General, I request that all the captured Guizhou soldiers be placed under my command. As long as I have these Guizhou soldiers, I am willing to sign a military order and march south to capture the city of Chenzhou for you!"

Yang Fang had just made a great contribution and also submitted a letter of surrender to the Han army. He was already eager to make more achievements as soon as possible so that he could achieve great things on the Han army's side.

Yang Fang is very arrogant, but he has the right to be arrogant.

Because he was such a good fighter, as long as he was given at least two thousand soldiers who could obey his orders like an arm, he would guarantee to take down the city of Chenzhou.

"it is good."

Nie Yu assigned all the thousands of Guizhou Green Camp prisoners to Yang Fang's army, and temporarily handed over the 500-man Manchurian slave army to Yang Fang's command, asking him to lead this mixed army as a vanguard to the south to capture the Chenzhou city.

This battle was fought in an extremely magical way. The total strength of the Han and Qing armies was almost close to 100,000. Nie Yu thought that he would experience a bloody battle, but the actual intensity of the war was not as great as he had imagined.

The casualties of the Han and Qing armies combined were no more than 10,000, or even just over 5,000, and the majority of them were caused by the Qing army.

The Qing army was defeated very quickly, and the Han army didn't even have to put in any effort.

(I will make a sphere of influence map in the next chapter)

(End of this chapter)