There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 160 Dilemma
The fact that the White Lotus Rebellion in Xiangyang, with more than 200,000 men, could be defeated by less than 20,000 Qing troops seems exaggerated at first glance, but upon closer examination, it is not surprising.

Despite the nominal strength of 200,000 troops in the Xiangyang rebel army, it was internally divided into numerous factions and factions, with the various units that made up the rebel army itself being divided into three main parts based on their respective prefectures and regions:

Xiangyang, Yunyang, Yichang.

Under the three prefectures, there are further subdivisions of the leaders of various rebel armies, ranging from a few thousand to tens of thousands. Even the Xiangyang rebel army directly under Wang Cong'er is not a one-man show.

If it were just a matter of multiple orders being issued, that would be one thing, but of these more than 200,000 rebels, less than one-tenth were actually capable of fighting.

One-tenth of the 200,000-strong army is 20,000, and these 20,000 will be divided up by several White Lotus Sect leaders.

Thus, the rebel army was forcibly mixed up, with multiple orders issued and the people's hearts were not united. On the other hand, the Qing army had already been training together for more than a month, and internally they could at least basically obey orders. In addition, E Hui himself was brave and good at fighting and dared to lead the troops.

It would be a miracle if the rebel army could still win.

"These 200,000 White Lotus rebels in Xiangyang are so easily defeated! Governor Huiling of Hubei missed the opportunity, leading to this dire situation. He deserves to die!" E Hui, whose cotton armor was still stained with blood, cursed as he watched his soldiers cleaning up the battlefield.

Despite his ample preparations, including treating the White Lotus Rebellion in Xiangyang as a formidable enemy, the 200,000-strong rebel army crumbled at the first encounter, proving to be nothing more than a rabble.

Mingliang shook his head: "Whether Huiling should be killed or not is not something you or I can decide. Whether he is the governor of Hubei or a member of the Mongol Eight Banners, the final decision on how to deal with him must be made by the Emperor Emeritus. The problem now is that although the White Lotus Rebellion has been defeated and the siege of Xiangyang has been lifted, we have only captured and killed less than a third of the rebels. The rest have all scattered and fled..."

E Hui said, "General, this is not something we should be concerned about. The Emperor Emeritus only sent you and me to suppress these rebels in Huguang. If the rebels flee to other places, then it is none of our business."

Well, the policy of killing without burying is simple for E Hui, but it's terrible for neighboring Sichuan, Shaanxi, Gansu, and Henan.

E Hui suddenly asked, "Let's not talk about these White Lotus Sect bandits anymore. General, do you know any details about the Han traitors entrenched in Hunan?"

When E Hui asked him, Mingliang did not hide anything and said frankly: "The origin of the Hunan bandits: although they initially carried the banner of the White Lotus Sect, and even Zhang Zhengmo, the leader of the White Lotus Sect in Yichang, publicly acknowledged him as the leader, in reality the Hunan bandits and the White Lotus Sect were two different things. The two should only have a cooperative relationship, and this cooperative relationship may have ended in practice after the Hunan bandits seized Jingzhou."

"As for the specific origins of the Hunan bandits, I can't say for sure, but what is certain is that the leader of these bandits is no ordinary person. I seem to see in him a bit the shadow of Li Zicheng, the rebel who broke through the Ming capital when our ancestors entered the pass. If such a rebel is not eliminated as soon as possible, he will surely become a major threat to our Qing Dynasty in the future!"

Good heavens, Bright's few words of evaluation made E Hui's expression turn serious on the spot.

Although the rebel Li Zicheng failed to seize power, the Ming Dynasty did indeed perish at his hands.

This is quite a high evaluation; in fact, E Hui thinks it's even a bit too high.

"Are the bandits from Hunan really that powerful?" E Hui asked, frowning.

Mingliang nodded: "In the battle of Chenzhou that day, the Hunan rebels used only 20,000 rebel soldiers to defeat our 50,000 battle-hardened soldiers in western Hunan. Delengtai's 2,000 Baturu guards were completely wiped out. These rebel soldiers' firearms were particularly sharp. Not only were their muskets and cannons several times better than our Qing army, but they also had a self-propelled crossbow. In close-range firefights, our archers could hardly withstand them."

"The bandits seem to have a special lining for their armor that can withstand the bullets from their muskets. Even if they are hit by several bullets, they will be completely unharmed. On the other hand, our cotton armor and iron armor are completely unable to withstand the bandits' muskets. The bandits' muskets do not use conventional matchlocks for ignition, but are fired more like flintlocks, and their rate of fire is much faster than ours."

"And then there are the enemy's cannons. Their heavy cannons have very long barrels, and the shells they fire are more powerful and have a longer range than our Red Coat Cannons. Moreover, the enemy's cannons don't seem to be afraid of exploding. At least during our battle with the enemy, their cannons bombarded us for several hours in a row, using different types of shells, and not a single heavy cannon exploded. Not only are the enemy's cannons powerful, but they also have hundreds of smaller cannons that can fire volleys of loose shells to bombard our gunners."

"I heard that the Han traitors seem to have a special kind of siege cannon. It takes dozens of laborers just to pull it. It is several times larger than the Red Coat Cannon. The shells they use are bigger than a human head. That's how the fortified city of Changsha was bombarded down."

Having heard all this, E Hui was already feeling a chill run down his spine. He finally understood how the 100,000-strong army of Xiangxi had lost.

Mingliang may have exaggerated a bit, but even if we remove the exaggeration, the organized artillery, musketeers, and crossbowmen were enough to shock him.

This is the kind of equipment that only the elite troops of the imperial border garrisons should have. The fact that the Han traitors could defeat the Xiangxi Army means that their military equipment must have surpassed... no, it should be said that it far surpassed the Xiangxi Army.

Otherwise, with Ming Liang in charge of the Xiangxi Army and Eledengbao not being an incompetent fool, even if they suffered a major defeat, they wouldn't have been nearly wiped out.

It was only the Han traitors who, with overwhelming superiority, overwhelmed Mingliang and Eledengbao, leaving them completely unable to resist.

After a long silence, E Hui asked incredulously, "Where did these Han traitors get so many cannons? Even if they had so many craftsmen who knew how to cast cannons, it wouldn't be possible to melt down and cast cannon barrels that quickly!"

"..."

Mingliang shook his head without answering, because even he didn't know what was going on. When he saw the Han army bring out so many cannons, including dozens of red-coated cannons, he was almost dumbfounded.

Where did the Han army get so many cannons? They probably didn't even have enough time to melt down and cast the cannon barrels!
"...Anything else? What else is the Han traitor capable of?" E Hui continued to ask. Mingliang said, "The Han traitor seems to have a rather methodical way of managing his army. Not only are they fearless in battle, but they can also turn a blind eye to the deaths of their own troops and continue to press forward. Delengtai and his two thousand Baturu cavalry were surrounded and annihilated in this way."

The Han rebels had a strict military discipline, advanced firearms, and organized artillery and musketeer units, as well as unknown cannon-casting channels.

E Hui wrote down all this information. After he finished writing it down, he felt a headache coming on. How could he possibly fight such a powerful Han traitor?
After pondering for a long time, E Hui asked, "Does the Han traitor have any weaknesses? For example, is he unpopular?"

Mingliang gave a helpless bitter smile: "To say that I was unpopular, I might have been before, but since February, even that last bit of unpopularity has vanished."

"What do you mean?" E Hui asked, somewhat puzzled.

Mingliang said, "Because the Han traitors had already followed His Majesty's example in February, offering sacrifices and personally cultivating the land in their territory, and encouraging agriculture and sericulture!"

Upon hearing this, E Hui did not react immediately. After a moment, he suddenly shouted, "How dare you!"

Mingliang nodded: "Indeed bold! But effective. Those Han gentry fall for this. I was a student when I was young, so I know what these Han gentry are thinking."

What could they possibly think? It's nothing more than that the Han army had already done the emperor's personal plowing on the second day of the second lunar month, which meant there was absolutely no turning back. Anyone among the rebels could be appeased, and anyone could be appeased, except for the Han army, who couldn't be appeased, not even with feigned appeasement.

Because the Han army had already shown its ambition to seize the world and compete for the emperor's throne, and they even had the strength to do so, even if Emperor Qianlong was old and senile, he could not tolerate the Han army continuing to cause trouble.

E Hui frowned, seriously considering whether or not to send troops now.

Because the Han traitors had even gone so far as to cultivate the land themselves, it was tantamount to forcing him to immediately head south to suppress the traitors. He could choose not to go south, but once Emperor Qianlong learned of the news, he would inevitably have to issue several imperial edicts, urging him to go south with urgent dispatches.

It's alright to head south now. He still has enough money and supplies, and his 20,000 troops have just won a great victory and are in high spirits. They can continue their southward raids and operations.

The problem is, he's afraid he can't win!
The reason why the 20,000 men in the front were able to defeat the 200,000 bandits was because the 3,000 Manchu Eight Banners cavalrymen took advantage of the chaos to charge into the enemy lines, causing the bandits' command system to lose control, and thus they were able to win the battle in one fell swoop.

If the Han traitors were like the White Lotus rebels, E Hui could indeed replicate the Battle of Xiangyang, but after hearing what Mingliang said, how could he replicate it?

The artillery, musketeers, and crossbowmen, along with their disciplined and strictly enforced elite troops, would conservatively number at least 20,000.

With this kind of hedging strategy, there's absolutely no chance of winning!
Mingliang seemed to sense E Hui's inner turmoil and immediately said, "We can't head south now. Heading south now is just suicide!"

Fearing that E Hui would not listen to advice, he added, "Yongshun Prefecture is gone, and the situation in Yuanzhou Prefecture is also unclear. We have no base in Hunan. If we rashly go south, we will not be able to defeat the Han traitors."

"Yongshun Prefecture is gone?" E Hui was first surprised, then his face turned ugly. "But if we don't head south now, this matter can't be kept secret. If the Emperor Emeritus finds out, he will definitely find it unacceptable and will urge us to head south."

Mingliang said, "Then let's stall for time. We'll figure out whether or not to send troops once the Emperor Emeritus finds out and the imperial edict is issued. In the meantime, we should expand and train our army as quickly as possible, and manufacture more guns, cannons, bows, and arrows for war preparation."

Still unwilling to give up, E Hui asked, "What if the Emperor Emeritus reprimands us for being cowardly and hesitant to advance?"

Mingliang said, "It's better to be afraid of the enemy than to die in battle. I'm an old man, and I don't want to die out there like this. You may not know, but these Han traitors would cut off the heads of the Manchus and the Eight Banners whenever they encountered them, and pile them up to make a mound of heads."

Since Mingliang had said that, E Hui was speechless.

Because of his 20,000 troops, only 6,000 were combat-ready soldiers, 3,000 of whom were brought by Mingliang.

If Mingliang doesn't follow him, he'll lose three thousand cavalry, and then the battle won't need to be fought.

E Hui changed the subject and asked, "If we can't send troops south to fight now, are we just going to sit and watch the rebels grow stronger?"

“Even if we go south, we definitely won’t win. We should train our troops first, and once they are well-trained, we can go south and defeat the enemy in one fell swoop,” Mingliang said.

E Hui was already starting to curse. He knew perfectly well what kind of soldiers Hui Ling had trained.

With such lousy local soldiers, it would take several months to train them into an army. If we waited several months, it would be too late.

He finally managed to get back on the bench, and everyone thought he was here to suppress the rebels, but given the current situation, it's a miracle he wasn't killed by the rebels himself!

(End of this chapter)