There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 363: Shifting the blame
Nanjing was lost just like that, seemingly illogical, but in fact, it was quite reasonable.

Because Nanjing didn't have many Qing troops to begin with, and the Governor-General of Liangjiang, Li Fenghan, had already sent a wave from Jiangxi. Although Fuchang requested the transfer of 2,000 Green Standard Army soldiers from Xuzhou, even with the addition of the 4,000 Eight Banners troops from Jiangning, the total number of Qing troops was only 6,000.

What can six thousand Qing soldiers do?

Even if the Qing army had 6,000 elite soldiers, they would still be no match for the 30,000 Han soldiers.

Moreover, these Qing troops from Jiangnan, from the Eight Banners to the Green Standard Army, were all people who had lived in peace for a long time and were only good at bullying ordinary people.

War? Don't be ridiculous.

Leaving aside Jiangnan, if the Qing army in the south were truly capable, they wouldn't have been able to fight for ten years against a bunch of White Lotus rabble.

Even if it were eventually suppressed, it wouldn't have been through the efforts of the pseudo-Qing dynasty itself, but rather through the financial and manpower contributions of landlords and gentry, coupled with internal strife within the White Lotus sect, with each faction fighting its own battles. Only then could the White Lotus sect be barely suppressed.

Moreover, even under the unpopular puppet Qing dynasty, their attack on Jiangnan was almost a complete sweep.

Yan Yingyuan launched an uprising in Jiangyin, fighting the "Eighty-One Days of Defense of Jiangyin," a difficult battle to record in history. Meanwhile, in Nanyangqi Village, a rural area of ​​Jiangyin, Xu Xiake's entire family was massacred and their property confiscated by angry villagers and tenant farmers.

Does it feel disjointed?

The gentry and wealthy families raised troops to resist the Qing, while the common people rebelled and killed the gentry who resisted the Qing, regarding the southward-bound Qing army as their lifeline.

What ordinary people want is nothing more than to have enough to eat and to stop being treated like cattle, horses, or slaves, living a precarious existence.

The reason why the entire nation resisted the Qing so quickly was not only because the puppet Qing forced people to shave their heads, but also because the Qing army and the Tartars were all dogs who killed gentry, Ming soldiers, and even civilians.

Nie Yu's rapid and easy advance into Jiangnan was entirely due to three policies: land redistribution, slave release, and family separation.

With the implementation of these three policies, even the most powerful and influential families would be dismantled and broken up.

The people got the land and no longer had to be tenant farmers or work like oxen and horses for the landlords, so they naturally supported the Han Dynasty.

Decades later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was able to gather a million Taiping soldiers in Jiangnan by relying on some vague and unrealistic policies, and even provoked local uprisings in Jiangsu and Zhejiang.

There's no reason why the Han Dynasty, which provided more resources and had a stronger military, couldn't conquer Jiangnan.

……

Zhenjiang Prefecture.

Kang Jitian and Tie Bao stood facing each other in the Zhenjiang Prefectural Government Office.

Before them stood Ailonga, the Xuzhou general who had escaped amidst the chaos on the day Nanjing fell, and Gengyinsu, the deputy military governor of Jiangning.

It was truly a sorry state. Ailonga, a dignified second-rank general, had only a dozen or so personal guards left to protect him after fleeing to Zhenjiang Prefecture, and they were all covered in dust and dirt.

Geng Yinsu was in an even worse situation; including himself, there were only three people left, and all of them were injured.

Tie Bao took a deep breath and demanded, "Explain yourself! What exactly happened? Jiangning is really lost, but how exactly? And how did you two manage to escape?"

The three questions left Ailonga and Gengyinsu speechless, completely at a loss for words.

The two exchanged a few glances before Ailonga spoke first: "I am not clear on the specifics, but I can confirm that General Fu Chang of Jiangning was captured first, which led to chaos in Jiangning. I am powerless to reverse the situation..."

"Enough!" Tie Bao roared. "I don't want to hear about that idiot Fu Chang anymore. I just want to know what exactly happened in Jiangning that day. Jiangning had four thousand elite Eight Banner troops, two thousand of your Xuzhou soldiers, and tens of thousands more recruited to help defend the city. How could the city have fallen so quickly?"

“General Fuchang has not recruited soldiers,” Geng Yinsu added, reminding him.

Kang Jitian was taken aback: "No soldiers recruited? How is he going to defend the city if he doesn't recruit soldiers?"

Neither Gengyinsu nor Ailonga spoke.

Kang Jitian understood; Fu Chang really was a fool.

The reason he and Tie Bao dared not send troops beforehand was not only because they had the backing of Emperor Jiaqing's imperial edict, but also because Nanjing was a large city with a large population, sufficient money, food and military supplies, and they could recruit tens of thousands of soldiers.

They're not very good at fighting, but they're passable at defending cities.

But now, is this Jiangning General Fu Chang really a human being?
When tens of thousands of Han rebels marched into Jiangning, he dared not recruit soldiers to defend the city even with only six thousand men.

Although everyone knew that the recruits were not soldiers, but only local militia and laborers, whose combat strength was negligible, even if their combat strength was poor, they could still boost morale. Even if they were cannon fodder, it was better than having no one to defend the city, right? Kang Jitian understood, and Tie Bao understood more or less as well.

No wonder Jiangning City fell so quickly. Six thousand against tens of thousands, how could it not fall fast?

Kang Jitian then asked, "So, in the end, it was General Fu Chang of Jiangning who was captured, leaving the city's defenses leaderless, which is why Jiangning was captured by the Han rebels' army, right?"

"Yes."

Ailonga and Gengyinsu responded in unison.

Kang Jitian continued, "Fu Chang shouldn't be in Jiangning City, so how did he get captured by the Han traitors?"

"This humble general doesn't know either; I just heard the news suddenly."

"This humble general is also..."

When asked three questions he knew nothing about, Kang Jitian stopped asking, figuring he could guess the gist of it anyway.

Either the Han traitors have an inside accomplice, or someone in the city has rebelled.

Tie Bao then asked, "When did Jiangning fall? How many troops did the Han rebels actually send? Rumors say there are 100,000, 80,000, or even 50,000. Do you know exactly how many Han rebels came and what their fighting strength is?"

Ailonga replied, "The Han rebel army has come with 30,000 troops to the city, and the pseudo-Han Yangtze River Navy has also cut off the Yangtze River waterway. As for the combat strength of the Han rebel army, I cannot assess it, but judging from their formation and coordination, only a first-rate elite army could achieve such discipline. Moreover, the Han rebel army has brought countless cannons and firearms."

In order to atone for his crime, Ailonga did not deliberately conceal or exaggerate the intelligence of the Han army, but told the truth about everything.

It all depends on whether Governors Tie Bao and Kang Jitian dare to send troops to confront the Han army head-on.

Tie Bao and Kang Jitian were indeed hesitant after hearing this. Although the Han army's strength was almost half of what they had expected, its fighting power was not diminished at all, and was even stronger than they had imagined.

The army of 30,000 was composed of top-notch elite troops, capable of obeying orders without question.

Even if they include Elon's exaggerated portion, at least one-third of those 30,000 men would still meet this level of soldier quality.

It remains to be seen whether one-third of the 10,000 Qing soldiers they brought could be of such high quality.

As for firearms and cannons, they do have firearms and cannons, but their cannons are basically antiques that haven't been used for hundreds of years. Some of them are even cast cannons from the Ming Dynasty.

In contrast, the firearms of the Han army were renowned throughout the world, and many people even believed that the Han army was able to build such a great Han dynasty precisely because of its powerful firearms.

Their military equipment was inferior, their soldiers were of lower quality, and their troop strength was even less than that of the Han army.

Even Nanjing was captured by the Han army. Now that the Qing army is going there, they have to go from being the defenders to the attackers.

How is this played?
Tie Bao looked at Kang Jitian and asked, "Commander Kang, you are the commander-in-chief of the three armies in this battle. What do you think we should do?"

Seeing that things were going wrong, they started shifting the blame?

Kang Jitian sneered inwardly, but remained outwardly calm, uttering four words: "Continue westward."

"Really?" Tie Bao asked, somewhat incredulous.

Kang Jitian explained, "Whether we can win or not, we'll only know after we fight. Even if we can't win, we've done our best, so it's not our fault!"

Got it. We'll attack Nanjing first, and if we can't take it, we'll retreat immediately.

Nanjing has already fallen. Continuing to fight there will only result in more trouble, a waste of manpower, and increased expenditure of money and supplies.

Kang Jitian added, "Also, immediately send a fast boat across the Grand Canal to His Majesty the news of the fall of Jiangning. You two must write down every detail of the battle, no matter how small. Whether you can reduce your punishment depends on yourselves."

The first half of the sentence was addressed to Tie Bao, while the second half was addressed to Ai Long A and Geng Yin Su.

The meaning is self-evident: they want them to pin the blame on General Fu Chang of Jiangning. It's all Fu Chang's fault for not recruiting soldiers, which led to the loss of Nanjing under the Han army's offensive.

This puts them in a dilemma. They forced their way west and fought a battle, but couldn't win. They had no choice but to withdraw their troops and return home to reconsider their strategy.

In short, it's about shifting the blame, and we absolutely have to shift the blame!
Before, they didn't know how to deal with it, but now that even Fuchang has been captured, they can naturally shift the blame however they want.

(End of this chapter)