There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 247 Heading south to attack Nanchang?
The day after the fall of De'an County, Fang Jie led a thousand Han soldiers and arrived late.

He originally came to help the Han army in De'an to launch a joint attack on the county town. Now that the county town has been captured, there's no need for that anymore; it's time to discuss the next steps.

Commander Wang said, "Now that Chang and De'an counties have been captured, we should return to our troops to cooperate with the general and take Nankang Prefecture. Then the entire northern part of Poyang Lake will belong to our Great Han."

Fang Jie pointed to the map and said, "The area west of Poyang Lake and north of Nanchang Prefecture is basically our Han territory. The tens of thousands of reinforcements that the puppet Qing brought from Nanchang Prefecture just suffered a major defeat. At least for the short term, the puppet Qing will definitely not dare to easily move north again. As for Nankang Prefecture, it is isolated and without support. Our naval brothers are responsible for cutting off the enemy at Poyang Lake, and the Xiushui River and Boyangchuan are under our control. So, taking Nankang Prefecture is only a matter of time. Whether you and I go back or not is not of much use to the general."

"What do you mean?" Commander Wang's eyes flashed.

Fang Jie grinned: "Since the pseudo-Qing dares not come again so easily, how about we go over there?"

Good heavens, these words stunned Commander Wang. He hadn't expected the other party to be so bold.

If the Qing army doesn't dare to come, then let them go?

Commander Wang shook his head and said, "Nanchang Prefecture is the capital of Jiangxi Province. No matter how incompetent the corrupt officials of the puppet Qing Dynasty are, how could they be so careless about the defense of the provincial capital? Our army is small in number. If we rush south like this, we may encounter some problems."

Fang Jie laughed and said, "Fortune favors the bold. Although our army is not large, General, aren't you currently besieging the great city of Nankang with only a few thousand soldiers? Furthermore, Nanchang Prefecture is the capital of Jiangxi Province. Even if we can't take it, the Qing dogs don't know our strength. We just suffered a great defeat. What do you think the Qing dogs would do if we now put on a show of heading south to attack Nanchang Prefecture?"

Once you put it that way, I understood instantly.

It's the same old trick: besiege the enemy's stronghold and attack their reinforcements!
It's the same old tactic, but even bolder than before. They're besieging the town and attacking reinforcements, but they've only hit the county seat. Even if there's still Nankang Prefecture, it's being besieged by Yang Fang himself, who has brought cannons and a navy, so their fighting strength is not weak.

But now, Fang Jie plans to take the Han army from De'an south to attack Nanchang Prefecture.

Including the troops left to guard Jianchang County and De'an County to ensure control of Xiushui and Boyangchuan, the actual number of Han troops who could follow south should not exceed two thousand.

Two thousand men are going to attack a prefectural city, the capital of a province. Even the most elite and capable Solon soldiers of the current puppet Qing dynasty probably couldn't accomplish such a feat.

The fact that the Solon soldiers were brave and fierce in battle does not mean they were good at attacking cities. It is still the case that two thousand men attacked the city of Nanchang.

Commander Wang was indeed seriously considering the matter. Even if he were given a few cannons, he would still have to put in a lot of effort to take Nanchang Prefecture with half of his men. There was no guarantee that he could succeed.

However, if the goal is not to attack the city, but simply to lure the Qing army to come to the rescue of Nanchang, and then take the opportunity to ambush and wipe out all the reinforcements, thus depleting the manpower of the puppet Qing and crushing the morale of the Nanchang army.

That's not necessarily a bad thing to do!
Fang Jie added, "Even if the siege and reinforcement attack fails, and the Qing forces don't fall for it, our army doesn't have much baggage. If things turn against us, we can retreat quickly and withdraw at any time."

If you can't win, just run away. It's no big deal.

It's truly foolish to fight when you can't win!

It must be said that the Han army had become somewhat arrogant and complacent. First, they easily captured Jiujiang Prefecture, a strategic location connecting seven provinces and a vital town along the Yangtze River. This led the entire Han army, including Yang Fang, to develop extreme contempt and even disdain for the Qing army in Jiangxi.

Yang Fang marched south and besieged Nankang Prefecture. Seeing that he could not take it in a short time, he actually agreed to his generals' suggestion to divide his troops and march south to first capture De'an and Jianchang counties.

This shows a complete disregard for the Qing army. After taking Jianchang and De'an, they even planned to send troops south to attack Nanchang Prefecture.

Even if this is a strategy of besieging a point to lure reinforcements, it's still quite outrageous.

It's clear that although Yang Fang himself didn't say it, all the commanders and officers under his command were eager to make a name for themselves. They were desperate to achieve merit, because doing so would lead to promotions and advancements under the rapidly expanding military structure. Even if they didn't have enough official positions to go around, they would still make sure Yang Fang remembered them.

The two were still discussing whether to head south, how many soldiers to take, whether to bring laborers, or to recruit local farmers by dividing the land.

Just then, a messenger hurriedly brought a telegram with the following translation: "Commanders, the general has telegraphed that the city of Nankang has fallen!"

"what?"

Both of them were somewhat surprised, almost thinking they had misheard. Because they had only been heading south for a little over half a month, and to go from besieging the stronghold to capturing two counties in just over half a month was already quite fast.

Nankang Prefecture was not a large city, but it was not an ordinary county town either. The entire city of Nankang Prefecture was not without resistance. The prefect of Nankang, Zhang Dunpei, had managed to raise tens of thousands of local militia to defend the city, and the reserves of food and provisions were also relatively sufficient.

If they stubbornly defend the city, it will take the Han army several months to take it down.

It was precisely because Yang Fang understood this that he first divided his forces and marched south. Since it wouldn't be possible to take the city quickly, it was better to divide his forces to attack other areas, achieve some victories, and consolidate and advance the front line.

But now, with De'an and Jianchang just fallen and the southern front just beginning to connect, Nankang Prefecture has already been captured.

Fang Jie took the report and carefully read through the detailed battle report, and suddenly he didn't find it strange at all.

As I said before, Jiangxi is a very special place. It is a place where cultural heritage converges and commerce is very developed and strong. Having enjoyed so many benefits, it must have paid some price.

When literary culture flourishes, military strength inevitably declines.

This wasn't just the case in Jiangxi; it was pretty much the same across all the southern provinces. In general, provinces with relatively prosperous commerce and wealth were not very good at fighting wars.

The Jiangxi Green Standard Army, numbering in the tens of thousands, had only fought one battle in decades, which was when it was defeated by the "King of Slaughter" in Ji'an, resulting in the death of a Nanrui general.

The gentry of Jiangxi were even more formidable. For decades, the region had enjoyed peace and prosperity, with only occasional disturbances caused by bandits and outlaws, most of whom were involved with landlords and gentry.

Jiangxi is simply too rich, and Jiangnan is simply too rich. As local taxes become increasingly heavy, Jiangxi, with its own financial advantages, will not allow the people to truly become unable to survive on a large scale.

If the common people can survive, then no one will rebel; the landlords and gentry have long been accustomed to a life of ease.

To what extent was this comfort?

Several decades later, during the Taiping Rebellion, the Qing government repeatedly imposed levies on the gentry of Jiangxi. The gentry of Jiangxi did not resist at all, and paid whatever amount they asked for, their spines were too weak to stand up.

It's not as exaggerated as it will be decades later, but it's not much different; that's how it is for the gentry of Nankang Prefecture.

They originally wanted to protect their land, so they were willing to donate money and grain to the government to recruit soldiers and help the government fight against the Han rebels. But then the Han rebels stopped attacking the city and started dividing up their land, which was a disaster for them.

The gentry of Nankang jointly petitioned Zhang Dunpei, asking him to send troops to stop the Han traitors from continuing to redistribute land.

Zhang Dunpei sternly refused, insisting on remaining in his post, which greatly disappointed the gentry of Nankang with the government.

The stalemate lasted for more than half a month, and some gentry members watched as their land was completely divided up. Even if the Han traitors left, it would be difficult for them to get their land back, because all the land deeds were gone. Even if the deeds were still there, the spittle of so many tenants who had acquired the land would be enough to drown their families.

These gentry realized that they had contributed money and grain to help the government recruit soldiers in order to protect their land. But now that they had given money and grain, they still couldn't keep their land. So why should they continue to follow the government?

The Han army's propaganda policy must be dealt with by corrupt officials, but the gentry can be spared. Those who surrender voluntarily can keep their family's wealth and retain two hundred acres of land.

If the siege continues, they will be the ones who suffer. It's clear that the government troops can't win, while the Han army has a good chance of winning.

Then there's no other choice but to become a thief!

The day before the fall of De'an County, the gentry of Nankang Prefecture, who had already lost their land, did not hate the Han army. Instead, they secretly colluded and bribed the yamen runners and local militia to capture the unsuspecting Prefect Zhang Dunpei.

The prefect was captured, and the assistant prefect, the sub-prefect, and the county magistrate of the surrounding county were all executed in one fell swoop.

Nankang Prefecture was captured by Yang Fang without bloodshed, and she also took away a large portion of the fields in the surrounding towns and villages.

(End of this chapter)