There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 400 The Battle of Henan
October of the second year of Xinghua.

Nie Yu officially dispatched troops to Fujian, with two routes.

The Western Route Army set off from Jiangxi, carrying this year's autumn grain to take over southern Fujian, while also providing disaster relief and comfort to the local people.

The Northern Route Army marched south from Zhejiang, advancing rapidly and breaking through Fuzhou.

Southern Fujian had completely fallen, and the Han army surrendered without resistance. Only northern Fujian remained, which was no longer able to withstand the attack of the Zhejiang Han army.

The Zhejiang army had just marched south and hadn't even passed Fuzhou yet.

Fuzhou, the Governor's Office.

"Wang Zhiyi, what are you trying to do?" Jue Luo Changlin, the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, looked at Wang Zhiyi, the Fujian Governor, who had already led his troops to surround the Governor-General's office, with disbelief on his face.

Wang Zhiyi said calmly, "Your Excellency, I wish to live. I am a Han Chinese and cannot die with you. Therefore, I beg Your Excellency to grant me this wish and give the people of Fuzhou a way to survive!"

Upon hearing this, Jue Luo Changlin became completely hysterical: "Wang Zhiyi, you dog-like lackey... no, you're not even a lackey, you're just a Han Chinese nikan, worse than a lowly dog. I am the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, a noble member of the Manchu Eight Banners and the Aisin Gioro Imperial Family. You lowly nikans cannot kill me!"

Upon hearing this, Wang Zhiyi showed no anger or resentment. Her eyes remained indifferent as she looked at Jue Luo Changlin, as if she were looking at a dead man.

It should be said that he was looking at a dead man. As a Manchu, and of the Aisin Gioro clan, anyone could have survived, but he absolutely could not.

Seeing that Jue Luo Changlin was already half-mad, Wang Zhiyi was too lazy to waste any more words with him: "Men, send the governor on his way!"

Two Qing army captains from the Fujian Green Standard Army, having received orders from the governor, drew their long swords and strode toward Jue Luo Changlin, who was already acting like a madman.

The governor's office was easily overthrown by Wang Zhiyi's rebellion.

This guy dared to lead his army to besiege the Governor's Mansion. The Fujian Green Standard Army Qing soldiers under his command who were willing to rebel together, if not all of them, then most of them had already defected.

Wang Zhiyi's earlier plan was to take advantage of the fact that Governor-General Jue Luo Changlin and the Eight Banners garrison were caught off guard and split his forces into two groups.

He personally led the attack on the governor's office.

The other main force directly surrounded the Manchu city of Fuzhou, determined not to let a single Manchu escape.

All the cannons and muskets were brought out and bombarded the entire city of Fuzhou. At the same time, the generals of each town launched a fierce attack on the city of Fuzhou, disregarding casualties.

The city, which was besieged in the morning, was captured by the Green Camp before noon.

The more than 30,000 Manchu people in the city were almost all massacred, including the elderly and children.

Emperor Nie Yu of the Great Han Dynasty was quite merciful, only killing adult male Manchus over the age of ten, and even sparing the bondservants of Manchu families.

But these Qing troops from the Green Standard Army in Fujian were not so kind.

They had always looked down on the Manchu barbarians, and now that the Manchu barbarians in Fujian were on the verge of defeat, and they had suffered heavy casualties while attacking the Manchu city, they naturally wanted to chop off a few more heads and play with the Manchu barbarians.

Moreover, these Manchu bannermen with queues were also credited with responding to the anti-Qing movement.

How can they prove they were working hard to kill the Tartars if they didn't cut off a few more heads?
If Wang Zhiyi hadn't strictly restrained them and warned them in advance that the Han army would soon reach Fuzhou, these Green Standard Army soldiers, who hadn't yet had their fill of killing, would probably have launched several more waves of killing innocent people to claim credit.

The entire city of Fuzhou was emptied of people, and the Governor-General of Fujian and Zhejiang, Jue Luo Changlin, was killed. Before the Han army even arrived in Fuzhou, white flags had already been raised on the city walls.

When the Zhejiang Han army arrived in Fuzhou, they found it absurd.

The army marched south in a mighty force. First, Fuzhou surrendered without a fight, and then, without another battle, it took over the capital of Fuzhou.

This was also due to the harsh reality that Fujian was so poor that it was almost unable to afford food. During the Kangxi and Qianlong reigns, Fujian was frequently plagued by famine.

Today, war rages across the south, and Fujian, being mountainous, already struggles to be self-sufficient in food. Furthermore, the puppet Qing government's exorbitant taxes and forced the widespread cultivation of barbarians further reduce grain production.

The people of Fujian had long since reached their limit and wanted to rebel.

The Han Dynasty launched an attack on Fujian in October and had already occupied the entire province by November.

A place that military strategists have never contested, its reputation is well-deserved!
……

The Han dynasty has already occupied the last gap in Fujian in Jiangnan and gained a huge Fujian navy for free.

Nie Yu was even happier to hear the news than if he had recovered Fujian.

Although the Fujian Navy was somewhat outdated, its warships, number of vessels, and large crew made it a ready-made seed for the Han Navy.

The timber for the Han Dynasty's ships is currently being dried in the shade. It is expected that in another two or three years, the design and construction of the first batch of new-style warships will begin.

This captured Fujian naval fleet, a puppet Qing dynasty force, can serve as a transitional naval fleet for the Great Han Dynasty and can also counterbalance Cai Qian's pirate fleet.

Cai Qian had indeed submitted to the Han Dynasty, and Nie Yu even granted him a hereditary marquisate, but his pirate fleet was a mixed bag.

The Han Dynasty will eventually formalize these fleets and cannot continue to allow Cai to maintain an independent pirate organization.

However, now that the Han army has taken over Fujian, there are three urgent matters to attend to:
First, reorganize the Fujian Navy and make it serve the Han Dynasty.

Secondly, grain was used to provide relief to disaster victims and militia in Fujian, many of whom were victims who could no longer endure the disaster and rebelled.

Third, taking advantage of the gap in order to rebuild after Fujian was just taken over, they destroyed the plantation economy of the entire province.

Doing the three things separately isn't difficult, and doing them together isn't difficult either; it's just a matter of time. Before the autumn harvest arrives next year, the Han Dynasty probably won't easily launch another military campaign. ...

Meanwhile, the Han dynasty easily conquered Fujian in the south, while the Qing dynasty in the north had been locked in a stalemate for several years, and the battle was finally about to be decided.

This October, early winter.

As the climate in the north began to cool down, Liu Zhixie, the leader of the White Lotus sect who occupied southern Henan, believed, based on his past experience fighting and confronting the Qing army, that the Qing army would probably take a break and cease hostilities for a few months.

In the dead of winter, with the weather freezing cold, who would want to come out and fight?

The Han army was able to enter Fujian to fight from October to November because Fujian has a subtropical climate, with hot and rainy summers and mild and dry winters. Even the average temperature in January is no less than 10 degrees Celsius, and there are very few severe cold weather events.

However, Liu Zhixie had overlooked the fact that the Qing army that came to attack them was not an ordinary Qing army, and the commander of the Qing army was also no ordinary person.

First, let's talk about the Qing army's commander-in-chief, Yinghe, and deputy commander, Liu Yong. Yinghe was a trusted confidant promoted by Jiaqing, while Liu Yong was a loyal lackey of the Qing Dynasty.

The two men came to Henan with only one purpose: to destroy the White Lotus Sect as soon as possible.

There's no need to harbor enemies to enhance one's own prestige!

The defeats suffered by the Zhili Eight Banners and Green Standard Army, which had attacked earlier by the puppet Qing forces, in the Henan battlefield had already led Liu Zhixie to underestimate the Qing army.

The troops that Yinghe and Liu Yong brought this time were not the Qing army from Zhili, but the Eight Banners and Solon soldiers from outside the Great Wall.

In fact, the Han army spies had already noticed this intelligence last year and informed Liu Zhixie, urging him to take precautions.

Liu Zhixie was indeed obedient at first and took precautions, but he gradually became complacent and felt that the Eight Banners and Solon soldiers outside the Great Wall were no different from ordinary Qing troops, just empty shells.

Just in November, when the Han army had just conquered Fujian, heavy snow began to fall in Ruzhou, Henan, in the north.

Liu Zhixie thought the year's battle was over and had already withdrawn his troops to prepare to go back and wait for the New Year.

One night, snow was falling heavily, and everything was obscured.

Liu Zhixie's main force has withdrawn, leaving only his disciple and successor, Li Jie, as the commander-in-chief of the front line to remain and take charge of the Ruzhou front-line camp.

"Kill the thief!"

Li Jie was warming himself by the stove in his own camp, drinking warm wine, when he suddenly heard faint shouts of battle outside the camp.

Just as this fellow was about to leave the camp to investigate, a soldier suddenly rushed in, kowtowing to Li Jie in terror, and cried out, "Commander-in-Chief, no, something terrible has happened! There are Qing demons outside, so many Qing demons!"

"Snap! Crack!"

Li Jie smashed the wine bowl in his hand, picked up his weapon, and left the camp to gather his troops and prepare to meet the enemy.

However, when he left the tent, he found that it was too late.

Opposite the main camp, in the snowy night with heavy snow falling, were thousands of Qing cavalrymen holding torches.

Although he could see nothing but torches, Li Jie could still tell that the Qing cavalry opposite him were highly skilled in military matters. They held their torches in perfect unison, with no one falling behind, and their speed was astonishing; they were about to strike in the blink of an eye.

These were all Solon cavalry from outside the Great Wall. Liu Zhixie believed that it was too cold for the Qing army to fight.

But what does this have to do with the Solon soldiers?
Not to mention that the Solon soldiers were inherently hardworking and resilient, the puppet Qing dynasty, in order to hone and protect the Solon people's fighting ability, forbade them from farming and only allowed them to eat raw meat and drink blood, and practice slash-and-burn agriculture.

Moreover, the Solon people live in Heilongjiang, where, not to mention that it's already snowing in Henan, the temperature on this snowy night is not even as cold as the outside world.

The warhorses of these Solon cavalrymen, like the Solon people themselves, had adapted to the harsh climate beyond the Great Wall.

Marching through the snow at night is something that would be difficult for most armies, but did the Solons find it difficult?

While Li Jie was still in a daze, the Qing Dynasty's last trump card—the Solon cavalry—had already begun their assault on the outer camp.

The defensive fortifications that Li Jie had painstakingly dug for his troops were completely ineffective against the charge launched by 2000 Soren cavalry.

In the blink of an eye, the front-line camp of the White Lotus Sect in Ruzhou was flattened by the Solon cavalry.

"Don't run! Follow me and stop the Qing demons!"

"There's nothing to be afraid of regarding the Qing demons. It's snowing now, we can't see clearly, and neither can they. Their horses can't hold on..."

As the commander-in-chief of the front-line camp, Li Jie was still trying to rebuild the defensive line, but unfortunately it was completely useless. Before the defensive line could be set up, it was broken up by the Soren cavalry.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Li Jie shouted and ran after them.

He didn't even dare to defend Ruzhou City, and fled south in a panic to Nanzhao County, where he urgently sealed off Luyang Pass.

When Liu Zhixie of Nanyang Prefecture received the news, he was almost dumbfounded. He had just led his main force back to Nanyang, ready to have a good New Year.

The New Year hasn't even arrived yet, and Ruzhou has already been lost?
Not only was Ruzhou lost, but Li Jie, in order to shirk responsibility and also to bring back intelligence, wrote a letter clearly stating that the Qing army had likely deployed Solon troops.

Those Solon soldiers were not afraid of the severe cold, nor were their warhorses. Could such an army really be accomplished by humans?

(End of this chapter)