There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 254 Emperor Qianlong Suffers a Stroke
Two more days passed.

"Report! My lord, the governor has sent a messenger with urgent military news."

"Let him in quickly."

Before long, the messenger was brought into the main hall of the government office. Wan Ning immediately asked impatiently, "Tell me quickly, what is the situation with Governor Zhang's army?"

The messenger hadn't expected the question to be so direct. He replied, "The commander-in-chief personally led an army of 30,000 men in a decisive battle against the Han rebels at Shengmi Ferry a few days ago, but they were ambushed and suffered a defeat."

"How badly did they lose? How many troops are left?" Wan Ning asked.

This was his biggest concern. In his view, it didn't matter if they lost, but if they lost as badly as he had, losing all 30,000 troops, then there was basically no point in defending Nanchang.

The messenger replied: "Our army suffered a great defeat, but the main force is still intact. However, we are temporarily unable to break through the Han rebels. The governor plans to proceed slowly and cautiously. Please make sure to hold Nanchang City firmly."

After the messenger finished speaking, he took out a handwritten letter from Zhang Chengji from his sleeve. Wan Ning carefully examined the official seal and credentials inside and determined that it was not a forgery by the Han traitors.

Wan Ning read the letter quickly, finding it mainly recounting the course of the battle with almost no concealment or embellishment.

In the letter, the Qing army suffered a particularly crushing defeat, with almost all of the local militia captured. However, the main force of the Green Standard Army was still intact, and the local militia from Linjiang were also still there, so they still had some fighting strength for the time being. However, they needed to plan for the long term.

Wan Ning breathed a sigh of relief and sent the letter to his subordinates in Nanchang Prefecture.

After reading it, the officials' previous fear and panic finally eased a little.

……

Fengcheng County.

The county seat has been temporarily taken over by Zhang Chengji and Liu Ding, and the Fengcheng County Magistrate has been confined to the county government compound.

Liu Ding didn't even bother with formalities and just looked at the Gan River and said, "My Governor Zhang, you've led us to accomplish some great things."

First, he sent a personal guard to deliver a message to the provincial governor of the Manchu Eight Banners, deceiving him that his main force was still intact and that the entire army had not been wiped out. This was to encourage the enemy to fight desperately to defend the city. Even if the city was successfully defended, the enemy would be furious and impeach them if they found out later.

Moreover, although Zhang Chengji was the Governor of Jiangxi and also held the title of Jiangxi Military Commander, which allowed him to control the province's military defenses during wartime, it did not mean that this governor could act with impunity and imprison a county magistrate, a seventh-rank official appointed by the imperial court.

If this gets out, losing one's official position would be the least of one's worries.

Zhang Chengji said calmly, "General Liu, let me tell you the truth! If we report this great defeat truthfully, neither of us will escape death. But if we can hold Nanchang, the Han rebels will be few in number and have gone on a long and arduous campaign. They are very likely to give up. Even if the rebels don't leave, we can take our time. As long as the rebels are not quelled, and we can prove ourselves useful, then these crimes are nothing."

Zhang Chengji was very clever. He understood Qianlong's implication and knew that as long as he could quell the Han traitors, even if he only forced them to leave Jiangxi, he could still make amends for his past mistakes.

As for offending the Manchu governor and imprisoning a court official without any reason, those were all desperate measures taken to protect Nanchang.

Hearing this, Liu Ding felt somewhat helpless. He was already on the same side as the other party. If even Zhang Chengji was punished, then there was no need to worry about him. The only way to save his own life was to protect Zhang Chengji and help him get away with it.

Liu Ding asked, "So what do we do now?"

Zhang Chengji said, "Naturally, we should immediately mobilize troops from Linjiang, Fuzhou, and Ruizhou to strengthen our defenses and retake Nanchang!"

So they've recaptured Nanchang?
Liu Ding raised an eyebrow and shook his head, saying, "Linjiang is blocked by the river from Ganjiang to Ji'an. The local militia there cannot be moved lightly. We still need to transfer troops from prefectures such as Fuzhou, Jianchang, and Ruizhou. Even though Nanchang Prefecture suffered a major defeat before and lost many local militia and laborers, Nanchang is a large city and the capital of Jiangxi. The Han bandits will not be able to take it down in a short time."

After thinking for a moment, he said, "When the Han rebels fought against our army, their forces numbered only a few thousand, so they must have been short of troops. We can have the two prefectures of Raozhou and Guangxin send troops to bypass the Han rebels by taking the Jinjiang River. We don't expect them to be able to defeat the Han rebels, but they can harass and cut off the Han rebels' supply lines, thus restraining the rebel-occupied prefectures of Nankang and Jiujiang, and preventing the Han rebels from concentrating their forces to attack Nanchang."

"To relieve the siege of Wei by attacking Zhao? This strategy is feasible." After a moment's thought, Zhang Chengji felt that what Liu Ding, the general of southern Jiangxi, said made sense, and since he still needed the other party's help in fighting the war, he readily agreed.

At noon that day, several groups of messengers rushed to Raozhou, Guangxin, Ruizhou, Fuzhou and other places.

……

Meanwhile, Zhang Chengji and Liu Ding, the two defeated generals and governors, were busy conspiring to deceive their Manchu provincial governor so that he would desperately defend the city, thus giving them time to clean up the mess and buy time for the battle.

Shengmi Ferry, the Han army camp.

Yang Fang has temporarily halted his advance, not because he doesn't want to fight anymore, but because his food and supplies are running low. Attacking Nanchang with 3,000 troops is indeed too difficult.

In addition, the Qing army collapsed too quickly, with too few casualties and too few gains. On the contrary, there were a lot of Qing soldiers captured. Even if all the captured local militia and young men were dismissed, there were still tens of thousands of Qing soldiers from the Gannan Green Standard Army.

These Qing soldiers certainly couldn't be dismissed, but the local militia could be dismissed, since they were just ordinary people who hadn't done anything wrong and their fighting strength was practically nonexistent. Sending them back would only waste the Qing army's supplies.

However, the Qing troops in Gannan Town were all local troops stationed by the puppet Qing regime. They could not be released for nothing; they would be forced to return to the area to work as laborers.

The tens of thousands of Qing prisoners severely hampered the Han army's strength, leaving Yang Fang with a shortage of troops. Even food and supplies were becoming strained due to the sudden increase in prisoners.

Yang Fang adapted to the situation and made strategic adjustments, no longer insisting on continuing to attack Nanchang, since Nanchang had no troops and could be attacked whenever he wanted.

Then let's first incorporate all these prisoners into the labor camp. They can't just eat our food for free. All the prisoners and laborers were taken by the Han army and sailed north along the Gan River to clear the waterway.

The puppet Qing forces stationed at Poyang Lake on the Gan River immediately discovered the massive civilian labor camp mobilized by the Han army.

then……

The Qing troops at Poyang Lake camp scattered in panic.

What else could they do but run? Their commander-in-chief (of Nanrui Town) was dead. The entire Qing army in Poyang Lake Camp numbered no more than a thousand men. Fighting against the Han army's tens of thousands of laborers and soldiers was a joke.
Staff Officer Xia Yongqian sighed helplessly: "The corrupt Qing officials in Jiangxi are still clever. Knowing that they can't defeat our great Han, they blocked and silted up the Ganjiang River in advance, keeping our navy stuck in Poyang Lake. Just clearing the Ganjiang River will take at least many days. During this time, our army's supplies can only be transported via the Xiushui River at the fastest, and we still need to transport them by land by carts and horses."

Yang Fang nodded: "Of course. The Qing dynasty is not stupid. The Gan River runs through the entire province of Jiangxi and connects to Poyang Lake, making it easily accessible. Whoever controls the Gan River can control the waterway transportation of the entire Jiangxi province. If I were a corrupt official of the Qing dynasty, I would block the Gan River first and then fight my Han dynasty."

Although the Han army was strong, even revolutionary, possessing powerful weapons such as rifled guns and sugar-coated bullets, it also meant that the Han army would be more dependent on supplies than the Qing army.

At worst, when the Qing army ran out of ammunition, they could resort to cold weapon warfare. This included the Qing army and the Miao people's militia in western Hunan. Artillery was not suitable for mountainous terrain, so it was the cold weapon-wielding troops that made the most of the battles (Jianrui Battalion).

The Han army, however, was not as effective. Although the Han army was strong, most of its overwhelming victories were achieved by first bombarding the Qing army with artillery fire to break their morale before allowing the cold weapon troops to charge.

Even before the cold weapon troops charged, they would use muskets, crossbows, and grenades in turn, making the Qing army doubt their existence, and then the cold weapon troops would follow up to crush and win.

Without the advantage of firearms, the Han army's combat strength would be greatly reduced if they fought each other with only cold weapons!
It wasn't that the Han army couldn't defeat the Qing army, but rather that the Han army lacked sufficient manpower. The Han army, with only two provinces, was relying solely on its army of cold weapons to fight the puppet Qing dynasty head-on. The puppet Qing dynasty mobilized the entire nation's resources, and the Han army simply couldn't win.

The Taiping Rebellion caused quite a stir, but in the end, it was worn down and killed by the puppet Qing dynasty and the Han Chinese landlord militia.

They also summarized a set of tactics: build strongholds and fight protracted battles.

……

Anqing. Zhu Gui, the governor of Anhui, is engaged in a power struggle with Hui Ling, the governor of Hubei.

Huiling was truly clever and incredibly fast. Before the Han army even entered Huangzhou Prefecture, he had already followed Chengde, leading his several hundred Eight Banners personal guards, all the way to Anhui.

Mingming could have gone down the river to Jiangxi to assess the situation first, but Huiling felt that Jiangxi was too dangerous, with too few troops stationed there. If the Han army advanced eastward, Jiangxi would be unable to stop them at all.

On the contrary, Anhui, which was once half of Jiangnan Province, has a small number of troops stationed there, but it is close to Jiangsu and close enough to Jiangning.

If the Governor-General of Liangjiang saw the Han army enter Jiangxi, he certainly wouldn't sit idly by. Even if Anhui couldn't stop them, he could still flee to Jiangsu to avoid disaster.

As a veteran official of the puppet Qing dynasty and Jiaqing's teacher, Zhu Gui naturally deeply resented Huiling, a governor who fled without a fight and lost the entire territory of Hubei. However, no matter how much he resented him, he could not directly arrest and sentence him.

Because the other party was not only the governor of Hubei, who was of roughly the same rank as him, but also the governor of the Eight Banners of Mongolia. His father was a high-ranking Mongolian official during the Qianlong era, and he was the daughter of Qianlong who helped maintain stability between the Manchus and Mongols.

Moreover, the other side also brought several hundred Manchu Eight Banner soldiers, which made it even more impossible for these Eight Banner soldiers to act rashly.

Zhu Gui could only submit memorials impeaching Hui Ling and requesting severe punishment for the loss of province and territory, otherwise the court's authority would be completely destroyed. Unfortunately, the expected decree of punishment did not come down. Instead, Emperor Qianlong personally issued an edict through the retired emperor, ordering him not to dwell on Hui Ling's trivial matter, but to quickly deploy defenses along the Yangtze River and block the Han traitors' eastward advance into Jiangnan.

Zhu Gui had no choice but to accept the imperial decree and proceed to inspect the river defenses in Wangjiang and Susong.

He had barely arrived in Wangjiang County when an urgent battle report was delivered to him.

Jiujiang and Nankang have fallen, and the Han rebels are pressing on Nanchang. Nanchang is in grave danger!

After reading the battle report, Zhu Gui immediately realized that he was in big trouble.

Not only would he be in trouble, but the Qing Dynasty would also be in trouble. He immediately submitted a memorial and sent it by express courier to inform Qianlong and Jiaqing that they should quickly concentrate their forces to suppress the rebels!

There's no time for careful planning anymore. The Han rebels have already invaded Jiangxi, capturing Jiujiang and Nankang prefectures, and Nanchang is in imminent danger. If we don't send troops to suppress the rebels soon, and Nanchang falls, the entire Jiangnan region will suffer.

Yang Fang's big move this time has indeed attracted the attention of the pseudo-Qing.

It was virtually impossible for the Han Dynasty to continue to survive. One can imagine how furious Emperor Qianlong would be upon receiving the report.
At the same time that Zhu Gui's memorial was sent to the capital, Liu Zhixie, who was rebelling in Ruzhou, received weapons and armor from the Han Dynasty, and his army expanded much faster than in history.

Henan is also quite strange. Despite being in the Central Plains, the Qing dynasty left very few troops stationed there, making it the province with the fewest troops among all the provinces under Qing rule.

The total number of Qing troops in Henan was just over ten thousand.

With 10,000 Green Standard Army soldiers, suppressing ordinary rebels would be a piece of cake.

Even suppressing Liu Zhixie in history wouldn't have taken too much effort. But Liu Zhixie received help from the Han Dynasty here, and he had no shortage of weapons and supplies. His weapons were even semi-finished products made by the Han Dynasty using new steel.

Although they were all unfinished products, compared to the Qing army's crude steel swords, they could already be considered divine weapons.

Liu Zhixie's followers were a mob, but when the number of mobs increases, a qualitative change can occur.

The Henan Green Standard Army was located in the heart of the Central Plains, a place that was far too peaceful. Like the Qing army in Jiangxi, the Qing army in Henan, including the Eight Banners garrisoned in Kaifeng, had not fought a war for decades.

Emperor Qianlong initially disregarded Liu Zhixie, considering him a rabble, and thus did not mobilize troops from Zhili to Henan.

Qianqing Palace.

Emperor Qianlong tossed the battle report from Henan Province aside. The 88-year-old Qianlong, unusually furious, roared at Heshen: "Heshen, you dog-like lackey! Is this what you meant when you said our Great Qing is in its golden age, that the bandits in Henan are nothing to worry about, easily wiped out? Now, Henan is in complete disarray, Xuzhou has fallen, and Nan'an Prefecture has been looted and nearly turned to rubble. Tell me, just how much trouble do these bandits have to cause before they become a threat?!"

Heshen was completely submissive, enduring Qianlong's angry rants without daring to utter a single rebuttal, for fear of adding fuel to the fire.

After cursing a few times, Emperor Qianlong, in a fit of rage, suddenly broke into a violent coughing fit: "Cough cough... cough cough... cough cough cough!"

Emperor Jiaqing and Heshen, who were kneeling on the ground, exclaimed at the same time, "Your Majesty!"

Emperor Qianlong did not summon Emperor Jiaqing. Instead, he waved his hand and continued to ask Heshen, "Heshen, tell me now, what should we do?"

Hearing this, Heshen already had a plan in mind. He didn't dare to get up and just knelt on the ground, saying, "Your Majesty, Henan is the Central Plains of our Great Qing, and it is naturally not allowed to be lost. This servant has already purchased a batch of firearms from those foreign barbarians. We can use these firearms to equip the elite Eight Banners troops of our Great Qing capital and rush to the Henan battlefield to quell the White Lotus Rebellion."

"They acquired the foreigners' firearms so quickly?" Emperor Qianlong asked with some suspicion.

Those foreigners (the British) were very far from the Qing Dynasty. He was a pen pal of King Louis XVI of France and knew this very well, so he was quite surprised that Heshen bought firearms so quickly.

Heshen replied, "I dare not deceive Your Majesty. A batch of firearms has been purchased, but not many. This is only the first batch. It is to check whether the quality is good. If it is not good, we can replace it with another batch of foreigners to purchase new goods."

Emperor Qianlong nodded in satisfaction and said, "That's good. You must be careful in handling this matter and not let the foreigners deceive you."

At this moment, Emperor Jiaqing suddenly cupped his hands and said, "Father, we can send people to learn from the barbarians how to manufacture firearms. In this way, our Great Qing will be able to manufacture firearms on its own and will no longer be subject to the barbarians."

"..."

Emperor Qianlong remained silent, which can be taken as a deliberate oversight.

Heshen also glanced at Jiaqing with a slight smile, saying nothing, yet it seemed as if he had said everything.

Just as Emperor Qianlong was about to continue questioning Heshen, a palace guard rushed in from outside.

"Report! Your Majesty the Emperor Emeritus, Your Majesty, there is an urgent military situation."

"bring here."

Emperor Qianlong took the memorial, glanced at it briefly, and instantly froze.

Emperor Jiaqing found it strange and was about to ask a question.

The next second, Emperor Qianlong suddenly collapsed onto the soft couch.

"Khan Ama!"

"Long live the Lord!"

Emperor Jiaqing and Heshen disregarded all etiquette and rose to help him up, only to find that Emperor Qianlong had completely fainted.

The memorial lying on the table had a few lines of small characters that read: "The Han traitors have marched east, Jiujiang and Nankang have fallen, and Jiangxi is in danger!"

"Imperial Physician, tell the Imperial Physician quickly!"

(End of this chapter)