There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 166 Something bad happened
the next morning.

The fire in Hanyang City has been extinguished. Originally, the fire should not have been very big, but Huang Yongsheng, that scoundrel, added a lot of firewood and oil to his house in order to cause chaos in Hanyang City.

The fire accidentally burned too fiercely and set fire to the surrounding houses. The Han soldiers and the fire brigade (ancient fire brigade) who entered the city hurriedly put out the fire, which took several hours to extinguish.

The Huang family mansion was almost completely burned to the ground. On the other hand, the Zhang and Li families, because they reacted too slowly, also burned their houses and caused chaos, but they controlled the fire in time and managed to save some of their houses and courtyards.

Because the fall of the city was so sudden, none of the officials in Hanyang, high or low, had time to react. As a result, all kinds of official documents and archives in the prefectural and county offices, as well as important places such as the treasury and the prefectural school, were preserved intact.

During this period, some officials tried to take advantage of the situation and destroy these important archives and books, but they were stopped by their former colleagues and were even tied up and treated as a minor achievement.

Zhang Wuwei, the prefect of Hanyang, acted swiftly. Taking advantage of the moment when the Han soldiers entered the city late at night and were busy stabilizing the situation and putting out fires, he secretly took a waist belt and hanged himself.

When the Han soldiers found him, his eyes had rolled back and he was already dead. He died in a rather elegant manner, hanging himself facing north.

The prefect committed suicide, but the assistant prefect and the vice prefect surrendered without hesitation. The magistrate of Hanyang County and a host of other officials, both high and low, also surrendered. None of them followed suit with suicide or disguised themselves and fled.

Things are different now. The Han army has been in rebellion for more than a year. Even if they are still considered rebels by the local officials and gentry of the Qing government, they are no ordinary rebels, but major rebels who control an entire province.

The people of Shajinwang, Guiyang Yijun, Yao, and Miao were all treated as followers of the Han army. Even in the eyes of Emperor Qianlong in the capital, although the Han army and the White Lotus sect were still "one," the Han army was implicitly in charge of the issue of leadership, while the White Lotus sect was subordinate to the Han army.

Because the Han army's achievements were too outstanding, the White Lotus Rebellion had spread throughout Hubei and Sichuan, and the Han army had spread throughout Hunan, which had already made Emperor Qianlong vigilant. He even specially sent a governor-general and a commander-in-chief to suppress the rebels and quell the rebellion.

……

The news of the fall of Hanyang could not be kept from Wuchang, which was on the other side of the river.

The two prefectures are too close to each other, and both are built along the river. The river between them is not narrow, but it is not as wide as one might imagine.

The coastal artillery erected by the two cities across the river was enough to blockade the confluence of the Yangtze River and the Han army's Dongting Lake navy dared not approach, and could only choose to land at the nearby dock on the south side.

The location of the Yellow Crane Tower is also excellent. It was originally built by the Eastern Wu as a river defense structure to monitor the opposite bank of the Yangtze River and guard against the southward advance of Cao Wei. Even though it was rebuilt several times later and gradually became used by literati to cultivate their sentiments, its strategic role in river defense remains undeniable.

Chen Wang had just received a messenger from Zhang Wuwei asking for help, and before he had even fallen asleep in the middle of the night, he received another urgent report from the soldiers on duty at the Yellow Crane Tower, saying that something had happened in Hanyang City on the other side of the river.

When he hurriedly climbed the Yellow Crane Tower, he saw that on the opposite bank of the river, Hanyang City was already ablaze with flames. It wasn't just the small flames inside the city, but the Han army camp in the south of the city. Countless torches formed a moving curtain of fire, surging into Hanyang City like a tide.

Finished!

This was Chen Wangzhi's thought in a split second.

It wasn't until daytime that it happened.

"Your Excellency, I have already taken a long look from afar by boat. A large flag has been erected on the city wall of Hanyang, with only the character 'Han' written on it. It must be the flag of rebels. This Hanyang city is probably..."

"I understand. You may leave now!"

Chen Wangzhi sighed; the worst had still happened.

Hanyang is gone!

The unexpected turn of events caught him completely off guard.

Chen Wangzhi racked his brains but couldn't understand it. This huge city of Hanyang had at least several thousand Qing soldiers stationed inside.

If Zhang Wuwei could calm down, he could raise more than 10,000 soldiers. No matter how powerful the rebels' artillery is, it would take at least ten days to half a month to breach the city walls!
As a result, the city fell in just one day!
Why did they come so fast?

The fall of Hanyang was so swift that it left Hanyang no time to react and disrupted Chen Wangzhi's plans. What he told Zhang Wuwei earlier was not a lie.

Chen Wangzhi did indeed plan to wait for the Han army to attack Hanyang City first, using Hanyang City to wear down the Han army's morale and fighting strength. Once the Han army was exhausted and its food supplies were depleted, he would then seize the opportunity to cross the river and launch a surprise attack on the Han army.

The idea was terrible, but reality is even worse!
This guy is just like Huiling before him; both of them are complete idiots. Huiling knew absolutely nothing about warfare, while Chen Wangzhi only knew how to read military books and apply formulas, without ever considering the actual difference in combat strength between the Han army and the Qing army.

Indeed, the two sides had roughly the same number of troops, but the Han army, while not necessarily a battle-hardened elite force, had won more than a year of victories, captured countless cities and territories, and trained daily. They also had ample supplies of food and armor.

On the other hand, the Qing army was full of greenhorns, and they hadn't had a proper meal in half a month.

Zhang Wuwei had no other choice but to forcefully defy public opinion, open the granaries to distribute grain, and personally supervise the distribution of grain and soldiers' pay.

Given such a disparity in treatment, even disregarding weaponry and armor, the Qing army could not possibly defeat the Han army; their morale and combat effectiveness were completely outmatched by the Han army.

In addition, the Han army's dozens of cannons were more powerful than the Qing army had imagined. With the limited defenses of Hanyang, without the cooperation of an inside agent, they could not stop the Han army's offensive.

Unfortunately, Chen Wangzhi couldn't think of these things. He could only blame Zhang Wuwei, who had already hanged himself, for being so useless. The city was breached by the rebels in just one day, and he didn't even have time to send troops to rescue him.

After complaining, I was at a loss.

If Hanyang were still standing, Wuchang and Hanyang could have supported each other, and even relied on coastal defense cannons to block the rebel navy from crossing the river to the north.

But now, Hanyang is gone, leaving only Wuchang. The coastal defenses and cannons are much less effective and can no longer effectively stop the rebel navy from crossing the river. Things are going terribly wrong!
The third day after the fall of Hanyang.

The Han army's Dongting Lake naval force brazenly approached Wuchang City. The Qing soldiers' coastal artillerymen noticed immediately and scrambled to load shells and gunpowder.

"Boom boom boom!"

A salvo of artillery fire silenced both coastal defense guns, as the Qing soldiers' gunners were too flustered and their lack of experience led to loading errors.

The other shells fired also fared poorly, either due to insufficient gunpowder loading, resulting in insufficient power and range, or they were fired at completely off target.

Without exception, all the shells missed their mark and sank into the river, splashing up huge sprays of water.

The Han navy continued its advance at full speed, closing in on the riverbank of Wuchang.

The warships of the Han army's Dongting Lake naval forces were mostly converted from civilian ships, so it was impossible to build new large ships. If they wanted to build new large ships, the problem of timber would be unsolvable. It wasn't that the Han army couldn't get timber, but that the timber used for shipbuilding had to be dried in the shade beforehand. If it wasn't dried in the shade beforehand, the warships would rot quickly.

Because the Han army's naval warships were mostly converted from civilian vessels, the selection of artillery that could be mounted was limited. The most powerful and heaviest cannons currently used by the Han army's land artillery could not be mounted on the warships, as the enormous recoil could easily crush the ship's planks. Therefore, they could only mount the slightly lighter red-coated cannons.

Each converted warship could carry a different number of cannons, but generally no more than a few. Since they were converted civilian ships, their structures were significantly different from those of modern Western warships, and there were simply too few reserved gun emplacements to install cannons. The remaining space also had to be used to transport troops and supplies.

To put it more vividly, China's shipbuilding industry at that time generally tended to produce huge and bulky ships, that is, both warships and merchant ships, unlike European colonists who had begun to tend to build more and more purely warships.

This is not to say that China's shipbuilding industry cannot build them, but simply that the needs of China and the West are different. European colonizers wanted to colonize other countries and were constantly on the brink of death at sea. They did not need large ships to carry more cargo. They only needed to load more cannons and then rob other people's large ships of their cargo.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Dongting Lake navy opened fire, with several warships firing their cannons simultaneously.

Although it couldn't be equipped with giant cannons, it was still a red-coated cannon, and its power and range exceeded those of the Qing army's coastal defense cannons.

A salvo of fire startled the gunners of the Qing army's coastal defense cannons.

Because the Han army gunners were not used to firing from ships, their cannonballs, like those of the Qing army, mostly went unfired. Even so, the cannonballs falling so close gave the Qing soldiers on the city walls a fright.

How could the rebels' cannons shoot so far?

"Boom boom boom!"

Another round of cannon fire ensued. It wasn't that the shells had been loaded, but rather that the Han navy had moved to another gun position. Several warships communicated via walkie-talkies and fired almost simultaneously.

More than a dozen shells were fired, and this time two of them finally hit their targets.

A cannonball struck the top of Wuchang city wall, and several unfortunate Qing soldiers who were still watching from that section of the wall were killed instantly because they had no time to dodge.

Seeing the tragic state of their comrades, the remaining Qing soldiers scattered and fled.

The other shell was even more powerful, landing directly on the Wuchang city wall, instantly killing a Qing soldier before bouncing along the crowd, each bounce killing one or more Qing soldiers.

After killing seven or eight Qing soldiers in succession, the cannonball finally landed and began to roll rapidly due to its residual kinetic energy. Several Qing soldiers who were fleeing in panic had their lower legs broken by the rolling, and they fell to the ground howling in pain.

On the walls of Wuchang, the Qing generals did not flee; instead, they drew their swords and roared, "Quickly, counterattack! Counterattack!"

"The rebels are only coming with their navy. Bomb their ships with cannons and send these rebels to feed the fish in the river."

"Boom boom boom!"

Another round of artillery fire followed, again from the Han army's warships.

What a bully!
The Han army had too many warships, and their artillery numbers far surpassed those of Wuchang. The key was that they were hitting stationary targets.

After each round of firing, a few more ships would take their place, and this cycle would continue indefinitely.

The Qing soldiers' artillerymen had barely finished loading the shells when they fired them before they could even aim.

"Boom boom boom!"

As expected, the shells missed.

Bombarding warships on the river with coastal artillery is like shooting at a moving target, which is inherently very difficult.

In addition, the cannons used were smoothbore cannons, and where the cannons could hit depended entirely on luck and the gunner's personal experience.

These Qing soldiers and artillerymen were all new recruits; they had absolutely no experience.

As for relying on luck, even if the Han soldiers' artillerymen fired dozens of shells at the fixed targets in Wuchang, they would only hit a few. With such a worrying hit rate, there was basically no point in relying on it.

(End of this chapter)