There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 436 Jinzhou Resumption
The fall of Jinzhou was far too easy; the number of Jinzhou civilians who came out to welcome them was even less than the number of Han soldiers who entered the city.

This place is so poor; it truly lives up to its name as a harsh and cold land. It lacks everything, and the city is still the old one. They can't even gather enough manpower to rebuild it.

When Akdan, the garrison commander of Jinzhou and magistrate of Ninghai County, was brought before Wu Liehu, Akdan was still in a daze. He still didn't understand which army Wu Liehu came from.

It is true that Emperor Jiaqing had previously transferred troops from outside the Great Wall, but he only transferred elite troops from Shengjing, which had nothing to do with remote cities like Jinzhou.

Moreover, when Jiaqing mobilized troops, he only said that they were to enter the pass to quell a rebellion, without specifying what kind of rebellion was being quelled. These Qing troops outside the pass knew even less about the Han troops than the Han people inside the pass.

Historically, even though the Qing Dynasty had been extinct for many years, Qing troops were still stationed and defending the remote northwest regions, completely unaware that even the emperor was gone.

"Are you the magistrate of this place?" Wu Liehu asked Akdan, who was kneeling on the ground.

Although Akdan was a Manchu, many of his serfs were Han Chinese. Moreover, the Manchu language of the pseudo-Qing dynasty was an abstract product, and very few Manchus actually knew Manchu; most had become Sinicized in their language.

Akdan nodded hurriedly: "This servant...this servant is the magistrate of Jinzhou and also the garrison commander of Jinzhou."

"Where are your soldiers?" Wu Liehu then asked.

Akdan, trembling, continued to answer: "I have 872 soldiers under my command, but they have all been dismissed by me to farm... and also to harvest fish and hunt. The general came in a hurry, and I haven't had time to gather them... to gather them."

"Tsk..."

Wu Liehu stroked his chin, wondering what exactly was going on in Jinzhou.
He wanted to know where the guy had hidden the people so he could go and chop some heads off, but the guy told him that the people had all been taken to farm and hunt.

Damn it, they're just drawing salaries without working!

So, should the Qing troops in this area be killed or not?

Wu Liehu asked, "This county... never mind, how many people are left in this city?" After asking, he added, "I'm asking about all the people, not just Han and Manchu. There shouldn't be just this many people, right?"

Akdan said, "That's all...that's all the people we have. Adding the few hundred soldiers that I have, the entire city has less than two thousand residents."

Wu Liehu then asked, "How many Qing troops are stationed in the nearby towns? Where are they most numerous, and what is their equipment like?"

“This servant…this servant doesn’t know either.” Akdan stammered and shook his head.

Wu Liehu kicked him: "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"General, spare me! General, spare me! This servant truly doesn't know. Each city's garrison has a quota of soldiers, but how many are vacant is unknown to this servant!" Akdan cried out on his knees, not daring to get up for fear of angering Wu Liehu and having him slashed.

Hearing this result left Wu Liehu speechless.

Since that's the case, there's no other way but to have this guy mark the Qing army garrisons in various places according to the map, and then write down the number of Qing army troops he knows.

Even if they really can't win, they're all cavalry. If they can't win, can't they just run away?
As long as they carefully avoid the Dalinghe Horse Ranch in Jinzhou, even if they are riding southern horses that are shorter than Mongolian horses, escaping shouldn't be a big problem.

Akdan had already been captured, so he worked very hard at drawing, depicting almost the entire distribution of Qing troops around Jinzhou.

However, that was only the surrounding area; he knew little about places further away, such as Fuzhou (Fuxian) and Xiongyue.

That's normal. Jinzhou is so poor that it has no time to care about how many troops are stationed in Fuzhou and Xiong Yue.

After reviewing Akdan's hand-drawn map of the Qing army's deployment in Liaodong, Wu Liehu, after discussing the matter with his deputy and taking advice from the accompanying merchants, decided to first capture Lushunkou, south of Jinzhou.

Lushunkou was an important port on the Liaodong Peninsula. Although it had not been developed for a long time, merchants still recognized its value.

Wu Liehu had little interest in doing business; he simply noticed that there was a Qing army deputy commander stationed in Lushunkou, with a nominal troop strength of nearly 500.

The presence of over 500 Qing troops stationed in Lushun was not a threat, but if they were to harass them, it would still cause some trouble.

Jinzhou County is more than 100 li away from Lushunkou. It would take infantry about a day and a half to march there, while cavalry could reach it in less than a day.

Two hundred Han cavalrymen arrived, all carrying rifled flintlock muskets.

"Kill!"

"Kill the clear dog!"

"The great man is victorious!"

After a few shouts of battle, 200 cavalrymen charged toward Lushunkou, not even bothering to fire their muskets.

What a waste of bullets!

Although there was a Qing army garrison stationed at Lushunkou, it was at best a small seaside town, and could hardly even be considered a small town, even more shabby than Jinzhou County.

There are almost no permanent residents here, only scattered serf villages.

When Lushun Assistant Commander Desheng heard the shouts of battle approaching, his reaction was similar to that of Akdan, the garrison commander of Jinzhou; both were completely bewildered.

what's the situation?
A big man? Which big man?
Before the Qing army in Lushun could react, the Han cavalry charged forward and, without hesitation, beheaded anyone with a queue and armor.

Despite having a numerical advantage, the Qing army in Lushun was routed by the Han army. In less than fifteen minutes, the Qing army in Lushun was almost completely wiped out, or its ranks were scattered by the Han cavalry and its whereabouts were unknown.

The Han army easily captured Lushunkou, leaving 50 men to temporarily garrison the area, while the remaining 150 cavalry returned to Jinzhou to report back.

……

Fuzhou.

This city is located between Xiong Yue City and Jinzhou City, and it belongs to the same administrative unit as Jinzhou, both having a...

The Eight Banners garrison was under the jurisdiction of Deputy Commander Xiong Yue.

The Han cavalry in the south had just captured Lushun, while scouts sent out in the north were making sporadic incursions toward Fuzhou and Xiong Yue.

You don't know until you run around, and once you start running, you realize how truly harsh and cold the Liaodong Peninsula is.

Not only was the climate bitterly cold, but the population was also extremely sparse. The Han army cavalry traveled for dozens of miles and could only see a few scattered villages.

This is not surprising. During the Jiaqing era, due to the pressure of having too many Manchu bannermen, the bannermen were forced to voluntarily leave the banners and go to Liaodong to cultivate land. Even then, the population of Liaodong was less than 80.

Using this data to extrapolate back, in the early years of the Jiaqing Emperor's reign, he was too busy to develop Liaodong, and it would have been difficult for Liaodong to even have a population of 60.

Moreover, a considerable portion of this population consisted of the families and bondservants of the Eight Banners garrison outside the Great Wall, as well as horse breeders from Liaodong who were mainly concentrated in the Liaoxi Corridor and raised horses for the Qing Dynasty in Dalinghe.

Rounding up or down, there really aren't many people left on the Liaodong Peninsula.

It's important to understand that Liaodong is a vast region, dozens of times the size of Taiwan Prefecture, yet its population is only half that of Taiwan Prefecture.

With such a large population, Taiwan Prefecture would be considered a sparsely populated and impoverished prefecture in mainland China.

Two days later, the Han army's cavalry swept through the outskirts of Fuzhou.

Although it was said to be the outskirts of the city, it was even more desolate than the wilderness, and the Han army cavalry could not see many decent villages or towns.

Eight Han cavalrymen rode their horses toward Fuzhou City, intending to observe the city's defenses.

"Ok?"

The cavalry captain in charge was stunned. He actually saw that the gates of Fuzhou City were open and several Qing soldiers were running out. It seemed that they were... welcoming them?
Indeed, they were welcoming them. The Eight Banners garrison commander of Fuzhou was noticeably more vigilant than the Eight Banners garrison commander of Jinzhou.

The Qing troops in Fuzhou spotted the Han cavalry early on, but they naturally assumed they were important figures from Shengjing.

Because it makes perfect sense!

Although the Manchus claimed to have conquered the world through archery and horsemanship, it did not mean that all the Eight Banner soldiers could ride horses. Especially since this place was outside the Great Wall, those who could ride horses were definitely from the Upper Three Banners or the Eight Banners army from Shengjing City. In remote cities like Fuzhou, almost no one could afford to ride a horse.

Moreover, the uniforms worn by the Han cavalry were all red, which from a distance looked very much like the red cotton armor of the Eight Banners. The cotton armor worn by these Fuzhou garrison soldiers was already old and worn out, and was mainly blue and white.

Although the Red Cotton Armor does not belong to the Upper Three Banners, it is still the first-class among the Lower Five Banners, and is much more noble than those of the Blue and White Banners.

The Han cavalry were a little confused about the situation, but that didn't matter. Not understanding the situation wouldn't stop them from chopping off heads!
At the gate of Fuzhou, Fuzhou Defense Commandant Buyan was leading several Qing soldiers out of the city to wait for them.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

The sound of horses' hooves grew louder as they approached, without slowing down at all; on the contrary, their speed increased.

Buyan sensed something was wrong and looked up. He saw that the cotton armor worn by these "big shots" from Shengjing seemed to be a little different from theirs.

Moreover, the "big shot" leading the group seems to have drawn his sword. He's drawn his sword?
"kill!"

A battle cry rang out.

Buyan cried out in horror, "Enemy attack! Enemy..."

Before the second shout could even be uttered, a swift blade slashed diagonally across. *Thud!*
His head flew straight into the air, and blood gushed from the severed neck.

Several Qing soldiers who were standing in formation to greet them were also stunned and were then slashed and killed by the Han cavalry.

In a short time, chaos had broken out at the gates of Fuzhou City.

There were actually more than 600 Eight Banner troops stationed in Fuzhou. They could easily defeat eight Han cavalrymen, but just like the Eight Banners of Jinzhou, their defenses were only slightly stronger than those of Jinzhou.

This place is too remote and has not been invaded by outsiders for more than a hundred years, so it has long since rotted away.

With the death of Buyan, the garrison commander, the Qing army in Fuzhou was completely bewildered, knowing only that there was an enemy attack, but not knowing where the enemy came from or how many there were.

They just ran, and the city's defenses were thrown into chaos by eight Han cavalrymen, despite the fact that there were more than 600 Eight Banner soldiers in Fuzhou.

(End of this chapter)