There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 179 Jingmen Land
"Run!"

"Traitors are all demons!"

The Qing army actually had more than 1,600 cavalrymen left, which was more than double the number of Han cavalrymen.

However, the morale of the Qing cavalry had completely collapsed, and even the barely cohesive military formation within them could no longer be maintained.

The Green Standard Army cavalry in each province scattered and fled.

They've already collapsed completely, so why bother sticking together? They should all mind their own business and find a way to break through and survive!

As for what to do about the military commander?
That's none of their business. They're Green Standard Army cavalry, not Manchu Eight Banners. The military commander did indeed owe them a debt of gratitude, but that debt had already been repaid in the decisive charge just now, after suffering more than half of their casualties.

Old general, I'm sorry, but you'd better pray for yourself!
The Qing cavalry suffered a major defeat, and these were Green Standard Army cavalry from various provinces, who scattered and fled in panic.

Because the escape was so chaotic, although the main force of the Han cavalry was intact and their morale was high, they did not know how to pursue them for a while.

After a moment's thought, Wu Liehu immediately decided to divide his troops. He didn't dare to divide too many, but simply split the cavalry into three.

Two Han cavalry units, each with two hundred riders, went to pursue two Qing cavalry units that had suffered the greatest number of defeats.

He personally led three hundred cavalrymen to cooperate with the infantry on the main battlefield to harass and attack the Qing army camp, which was in chaos due to the defeat of the cavalry.

"Boom boom boom!"

The Han army's artillerymen seized the opportunity, turning their guns around and firing a volley at the Qing army's positions.

With such frequent changes in cannon aim, it didn't matter whether they could hit accurately; the key was that the Han army could fire, but the Qing army could no longer fire.

Twenty cannons, all opened fire and bombarded the area!
The deafening roar of cannons had an immediate effect, further alarming the already demoralized Qing army.

Even though not a single shell actually hit its target, the Qing army's initial panic quickly escalated into complete chaos.

On the main battlefield, the Qing troops engaged in attack and combat couldn't move and had no time to care about where the cannons were firing. But the reinforcements in the rear could see and hear everything clearly.

"We...we've lost!"

"The cavalry has fled, and the rebels are coming!"

"Run! The rebels have fired their cannons!"

"..."

After a series of incoherent shouts, the Qing army on the main battlefield immediately fell into chaos. Countless Qing soldiers stopped charging forward and instead desperately tried to escape.

The supervisory team initially tried to do their duty, but after killing only a few, they too began to flee in disarray.

There was no way to control the situation; it was out of control. Several Qing soldiers who were supervising the battle were even surrounded and hacked to pieces by fleeing soldiers who were trying to escape.

What's the point of fighting? Let's just go with the flow and run!
"Dong dong dong dong!"

Behind the Qing army camp, Mingliang was still urging the troops on. He wasn't unaware of the cavalry's collapse; he simply refused to believe it.

Having already given their all, they were still able to wait for the enemy to tire themselves out. They had taken into account the rebels' firearms and the fact that the rebels didn't have enough cavalry, so they spared no expense and sent all three thousand cavalrymen into the fray.

But in the end, he still lost, and lost particularly badly!

That's three thousand cavalry! The Han traitors' cavalry clearly number less than a thousand, roughly eight hundred. How could eight hundred men lose to three thousand cavalry?

Mingliang seemed to have seen it as well. The Han cavalrymen were all fearless and capable of launching desperate charges. Even when facing cavalrymen several times their size, they could maintain their formation and not fall into disarray.

The cavalry formation stretched out in the distance, which at first did not reveal anything about them, and still does not reveal anything about them now.

It's nothing more than a group of cavalrymen standing in a row, running and charging together, and then... they win!

In cavalry battles, the Han traitors would have won if they had won. But his three thousand cavalrymen couldn't even break through the Han traitors' left flank infantry square, and instead lost several hundred cavalrymen in a short period of time.

"General, retreat quickly! It will be too late if we don't retreat now!"

The deputy general couldn't hold back any longer and pulled back Mingliang, who was still blindly beating the drum, and quickly tried to persuade him.

Originally intended as a cheering drumbeat, the war drums now seemed to have become the charge for Qing soldiers fleeing the battlefield amidst the complete rout.

Mingliang was pulled back, but he was still dazed. His army still numbered quite a bit. Even if they couldn't win, they could retreat calmly. But what he was seeing now was the complete rout of his own army on the battlefield.

This was an army of 20,000, with several thousand fighting head-on. Thousands of them collapsed in droves, and many deserters didn't even see the Han soldiers once they saw them.

This can crash?
With morale shattered and morale collapsing, even a military genius couldn't save the situation.

"General, I'm sorry to offend you!"

Seeing that Mingliang was still in a daze, the deputy general gritted his teeth, pointed at two guards, grabbed Mingliang, and ran away.

The deputy general fled with Mingliang, and the other generals finally received permission to retreat. They couldn't care less about the troops fighting at the front; they immediately pulled in their personal guards and the few remaining troops from the rear who hadn't been able to join the battle or keep up with the collapsing forces. What was this about a leisurely retreat? Nothing mattered anymore. At this point, whoever ran the fastest, whoever took the right route, would be able to escape.

Tens of thousands of Qing troops were abandoned. These Qing generals scattered and fled in panic, each with only a few hundred or even a hundred men with them. However, quite a few Qing troops, more than a thousand, escaped from protecting the Governor of Huguang, Mingliang.

Without cavalry, the main force of the Qing cavalry, though scattered beforehand, was still caught up by the relentless Han cavalry.

The Qing cavalry had lost all morale and dared not resist or fight. They could only flee blindly and in a sorry state, and not many of them were able to escape.

Twenty thousand Qing troops marched south from Xiangyang to Jingmen, specifically to besiege the city and intercept reinforcements, but ultimately suffered a crushing defeat.

More than two-thirds of the Qing army were left outside Yuan'an County. The battlefield situation had completely turned against them. The Dangyang militia that had been brought over were all frightened by the Han army's fighting strength.

Zhu Guangdian, the temporary commander of the Dangyang rebels, reacted quickly upon seeing the overwhelming victory. He hurriedly drew his sword and shouted, "Brothers, the Han have won, the Qing have lost! Let's kill the Qing together!"

"kill!"

More than three thousand rebel soldiers from Dangyang, still wearing rebel uniforms and using rebel weapons, plunged headlong into the pile of Qing army routs.

They might not be able to fight the Qing army head-on, but if they follow the Han army and fight with the wind at their backs, it's a piece of cake.

After slaughtering several fleeing soldiers, Zhu Guangdian felt an undisguised sense of satisfaction and was about to continue the pursuit when a rider galloped up and shouted, "What are you doing? Immediately cooperate with my army to surround and encircle these Qing soldiers and prevent them from escaping! Also, anyone who kneels and surrenders will be spared!"

Upon hearing the cavalryman's command, Zhu Guangdian realized that he was only part of the Han army's auxiliary force. He quickly assured them that he would obey orders and would not delay the Han army's strategic deployment.

What puzzled him was that when they encountered Qing demons, shouldn't they have killed them all? Why were they resorting to the surrender and avoid death ritual?
Kill them all?
If Nie Yu heard this, he would be cursing Zhu Guangdian to the nose. It's all because of these White Lotus Sect members. They should have just focused on opposing the Qing Dynasty properly, but instead they ruined the local area.

Soldiers pass by like combs, thieves pass by like hairpins!
The continued corruption of the White Lotus sect in Xiangyang led to an influx of countless refugees into Jingzhou, a situation that brought both pain and pleasure to the Han army.

The happiness came from the increased population; for any regime, population is always the primary productive force. However, too many people came, putting immense pressure on the Han army's land. There wasn't enough land to go around, so they had to relocate the surplus population to sparsely populated areas in Hunan.

The back-and-forth trips involved another financial expenditure.

Moreover, the continuous destruction led to a sharp decline in the local population, which put pressure on the land and population, and also made Xiangyang, Yichang and other prefectures and counties extremely desolate.

When the Han army takes over these prefectures in the future, there will be a lot of land available, but with no people left to farm, how to restore production will be a big problem.

The Han army and the rebel army in Dangyang quickly completed the encirclement. Some of the Qing soldiers who had fled had nowhere to escape and even tried to jump into the river to escape.

Anyone who tried to escape by swimming was allowed to be freely shot at by the Han army from the table.

In the end, most of the Qing soldiers who jumped into the river were either shot dead or sank while swimming because they didn't have time to take off their armor. Even those who managed to take off their armor and escaped the Han army's shooting were already in June, past the hottest time of summer.

The Han and Qing armies had been fighting for a day, and it was getting dark. The Qing soldiers still in the river couldn't get ashore anytime soon; if they did, they would be killed. They could only keep swimming in the river.

After a day of fighting, they were exhausted and only wearing a single layer of clothing. Soaking in the river like that, even if they managed to escape, they would catch a bad cold.

There's no need to worry about the Qing soldiers who jumped into the river. The main force of the Han army has already encircled most of the Qing army's routed troops. Including the Dangyang righteous army and the Yuan'an County righteous army that just came out of the city to help (get some support), the Qing army's routed troops' retreat has been completely blocked.

There was no desperate counterattack, because even the banner representing Mingliang, the Governor-General of Huguang, had fallen.

With the military commanders all fleeing, who cared about the imperial banner anymore? Of course, they all ran for their lives.

In ancient times, when communication methods were extremely limited, the banner was the soul of the army. The fall of the banner had a greater and more direct impact than the death of the commander-in-chief.

Soldiers can't keep track of what's happening to their commander in real time, but the banner is so conspicuous that if it suddenly disappears, even a fool would know that something is wrong with the commander.

Without the soul of the banner, the Qing army had lost all will to resist, and the Han army was also surrounding them while shouting "Kneel down and surrender and you will not be killed".

They couldn't fight back, they couldn't escape, and they didn't even know if the military commander was dead. The rebels were still outside trying to persuade them to surrender, saying that they could live if they surrendered.

Even if it's just to survive, these Qing soldiers really don't want to fight anymore!

Before evening, most of the defeated Qing soldiers chose to kneel and surrender. Those few who resisted stubbornly or tried to escape were shot dead on the spot.

The Han army won a great victory in this battle!
The Han army suffered fewer than a thousand casualties, but killed more than four thousand Qing soldiers and captured tens of thousands of Qing soldiers. No more than three thousand Qing soldiers managed to escape. It was a pity that they failed to capture the big fish, the Huguang Governor Mingliang.

In addition, more than a thousand usable warhorses were captured, and the Qing army's cavalry was basically rendered useless after this battle.

As evening fell, the Han army entered Yuan'an County. The county magistrate, Xi Yunfeng, willingly surrendered the county seat and obeyed the Han army's arrangement to go south to Jingzhou for a "promotion".

Yuan'an and Dangyang counties were finally brought under the control of the Han army.

There is no magistrate for Yuan'an County at the moment, so we need to send one from Jingzhou.

Bai Nan rested for two days in Yuan'an County, and then personally led three thousand Han soldiers to directly attack Jingmen Prefecture to the east.

Halfway through the march, the army received news that Jingmen Prefecture had surrendered.

(End of this chapter)