There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 454 A Motley Crew is Also the Han Army
The Heavenly Principle Sect uprising was very swift; they had barely finalized the gathering when they were already making preparations.

Compared to the historical White Lotus Rebellion, this time the White Lotus sect doesn't plan to attack the Forbidden City. This is because the Forbidden City was placed under full martial law last year, making it virtually impossible for ordinary Han Chinese to enter unless they are Manchus or Han bannermen servants.

However, although the attack on the Forbidden City has ceased, the expansion of the Tianli Sect's followers in Henan and Shandong provinces has far exceeded the historical scale of the Tianli Sect.

This is normal. The Qing government has done too many abstract things, even forcing miners in Shanxi to revolt in large numbers, and the people in the north are living in increasingly miserable conditions.

When people are in distress, they either flee, rebel, or join a religion, and then rebel again!

The Qing government's outrageous actions provided a huge source of believers for the still immature Heavenly Principle Sect.

Moreover, they were all believers who harbored extreme hatred for the Qing government.

In order to coordinate with the Han army's northern expedition, Li Wencheng, Lin Qing, and Feng Keshan, the three main leaders of the Heavenly Principle Sect, decided to first launch an uprising in Chengwu County.

It just so happens that Chengwu County is Feng Keshan's territory. As the leader of the Li Gua sect, Feng Keshan is not only skilled in deceiving people with cult rhetoric, but also proficient in the Chuojiao boxing technique.

Chuojiao boxing originated in the Song Dynasty and is known as the "outstanding style of Northern leg techniques".

Feng Keshan further developed and popularized this boxing style, successfully integrating it into the Tianli Sect's own system, and was revered as the "Martial Saint" by his followers.

Lin Qing, the leader of the Heavenly Principle Sect who infiltrated the Jiaqing Emperor's palace in history, was revered as the "Sage of Literature".

As for Li Wencheng, the most powerful leader with the most followers, he originally called himself "Yan Shuang Shi Ba Zi" (Eighteen Sons of Yan Shuang), which corresponds to the anti-Qing children's rhyme in Henan: "If you want red flowers to bloom, you must wait for Yan Shuang to come."

By the way, these three also have three very prestigious titles: Li Wencheng is the Human Emperor, Feng Keshan is the Earth Emperor, and Lin Qing is the Heavenly Emperor.

No wonder Lin Qing was able to storm the Forbidden City!

The group swore an oath of brotherhood on a hillside in the countryside, and subsequently abandoned the original banners and symbols of the Heavenly Principle Sect, replacing them with hastily made banners of the Great Han Dynasty.

In any case, the Heavenly Principle Sect was a mixed force, a hybrid of various sects such as the Eight Trigrams Sect, the Glory Society, the White Sun Sect, the Red Sun Sect, and the Green Sun Sect. It was a mixed sect that was prematurely born due to the chaos in the north.

It's just a change of name now, and not many believers find it inappropriate. Even if some do, they will simply follow the crowd.

In a short period of time, the Heavenly Principle Sect changed its name and reorganized into the "City Martial Army," and gathered more than 10,000 people in the countryside. Even after removing the elderly, women, children, and those with families, there were still three or four thousand people.

These guys are incredibly bold; they either don't do anything at all, or they attack the county seat directly.

The magistrate of Chengwu County is named Wang Huaqiao. He is a Han Chinese, but his ancestral home is Daxing County, which is a county attached to Beijing. He only came to Chengwu County last year.

Chengwu County is very close to Guide Prefecture in Henan and Xuzhou Prefecture in Jiangsu, separated only by Shanxian County and Caoxian County.

The original garrison in Chengwu County consisted of only two battalions: the Yanzhou Town Caozhou Battalion and the Huangyunhe Battalion of the East River Governor (a subordinate of the Jiangnan River Governor, considered a subordinate of Kang Jitian).

The total strength of the troops was no more than eight hundred men, and they had just been transferred away by the Governor-General of Donghe and the General of Yanzhou to join forces with Yinghe's army in Jinan.

The "Chengwu Army" arrived in the county town, set up camp overnight, and discussed how to attack the city.

After much discussion, they still couldn't come up with anything.

These leaders were all complete brutes, except for Chen Xingye, who was an intellectual and worked in intelligence. How could he possibly know anything about fighting?

On the second day.

"Dang Dang Dang!"

"Kill the Qing monster!"

Tens of thousands of troops rushed out of the camp all at once, carrying simple wooden ladders, and directly used the ant-like siege tactic most commonly used by the rebel army.

The key issue is that not only did they launch a surprise attack, but no one even bothered to fill in the moat.

A large group of militiamen, carrying wooden ladders, jumped into the moat and swam towards Chengwu County.

This left Magistrate Wang Huaqiao completely bewildered. He had no idea what was going on, only that an army had arrived outside the city yesterday, and it seemed to be quite large in number.

I was just wondering how to defend the city and whether to surrender when the enemy attacked the very next day, and their attack was so simplistic.

The rebels carried wooden ladders ashore. Chengwu County did not organize any defenses, and there were not even any archers to shoot arrows. They were all yamen runners temporarily pulled up by the county magistrate to check the situation.

These constables originally wanted to escape, but then they saw the rebel army coming ashore outside, and they leaned the ladder against the city wall.

If the ladder is too short to reach the city wall, you can only get halfway up.

The two sides, one on the city wall and the other below, stood there staring at each other, holding onto their ladders.

"Dang Dang Dang!"

"Uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu"

Many people ran out of the rebel camp outside the city, carrying gongs, drums and trumpets, and played them desperately.

After much fanfare, they finally managed to call back the embarrassed attacking troops.

Wang Huaqiao watched the entire retreat of the rebel army without knowing what had happened or even where the rebel army came from.

They don't look like Han soldiers from the south.
What a motley crew!

It was the advisor who promptly reminded him: "My lord, my lord? The enemy has retreated. You should quickly send someone out of the city to inquire and find out which army came from outside the city. I just observed from afar that the enemy seemed to be flying Chinese characters on their flags. Although they were somewhat rudimentary, I'm afraid they might really be the Han army!"

“Han army…” Wang Huaqiao paused for a moment upon hearing this, then immediately rebuked, “If it’s the Han army, what’s the point of scouting? We should arrange for the defense of the city immediately.” The clerk said, “But sir, judging from a rough estimate, the enemy outside the city has at least tens of thousands of troops. Our Wu County, including all the officials and civilians, has only two or three thousand households, not much more than the enemy outside the city… How can we defend the city?”

Wang Huaqiao retorted stubbornly, "You saw the enemy's posture outside the city, sir. They're just a rabble, why can't they..."

Before he could even finish speaking, the clerk interrupted him, saying, "Sir, don't forget, we are just a rabble. Even the prefect in the manor doesn't have many soldiers under his command right now."

Wang Huaqiao finally fell silent, and after a long pause, he suddenly asked, "Does the clerk mean for me to surrender the city?"

"Does Your Excellency have any other choice?" the advisor countered.

Wang Huaqiao's face showed a struggle: "But I am an official appointed by the Qing Dynasty. The Emperor ordered me to come here as the county magistrate. How can I easily disregard the Emperor's grace? Besides, my wife, children and elderly parents are all in the capital. If I surrender like this, wouldn't I be committing an act of filial impiety?"

Upon hearing this, the clerk basically understood Wang Huaqiao's stance and immediately said, "Sir, you are a Han Chinese, not a Manchu slave. Your surrender of the city is for the greater good of the Han people and to spare the people of the city from the suffering of war. I implore you, sir, to bear the pain for the sake of the country and to sacrifice your filial piety to your family!"

These words gave Wang Huaqiao a way out, and at the same time, they finally made him make up his mind.

He was neither a Manchu, nor a member of the Han Eight Banners, nor even a bondservant. As a genuine Han Chinese official from Beijing, he had no psychological burden in surrendering.

Given the current situation, anyone with a brain knows that the Qing Dynasty is basically unable to destroy the Han Dynasty now.

But who will ultimately have the last laugh remains to be seen.

However, in the eyes of Wang Huaqiao, a Han official from Beijing, the Qing Dynasty's reign was over.

He had witnessed firsthand the price of grain in Beijing a couple of years ago. At first, it was acceptable, but eventually it rose to the point where there was no market for it, and a farcical grain shortage ensued.

This is Beijing, the capital of a country!
If the capital city is experiencing a food shortage, is that still a country?

Anyway, from that time on, Wang Huaqiao already felt that the Qing Dynasty was about to collapse.

Now, if the enemy outside the city is indeed the "Han army," then he would naturally be willing to surrender the city, so that he could at least save his life and fortune in the new dynasty, and perhaps even make a great contribution and gain wealth by surrendering the city.

As for his wife, children, and elderly parents?

His parents died early, leaving him only with his wives, concubines, and children in Daxing County. His wives and concubines were not important, nor were his daughters; it was his two sons who were a bit of a pity.

But there was no other way; it was for the greater good of the nation.

Fortunately, he is still young and can remarry and have a son.

At noon, Wang Huaqiao sent his yamen runners out of the city to inquire.

After inquiring, it turned out that the rabble outside the city was indeed the "Han Army," but not the real "Han Army." Rather, it was a local militia recruited and gathered by the Han Army, and there was even an angel from Nanjing among them.

Wang Huaqiao, free from all worries, even neglecting lunch, decisively opened the city gates and surrendered.

Although this guy's surrender was shameless, at least he surrendered and spared the people of Chengwu County from the ravages of war. Moreover, Chen Xingye was so busy subduing the Heavenly Principle Sect that he completely overlooked the fact that the Heavenly Principle Sect's fighting strength was too weak.

If the Heavenly Principles Sect's rebel army were allowed to attack cities and seize territory on its own, even if it dragged on until His Majesty's army marched north, it would be difficult for them to even take over Chengwu County.

Chen Xingye repeatedly promised Wang Huaqiao that he would not be punished for serving the Manchu Qing dynasty after his surrender, and that he would be rewarded for his contributions.

It wasn't entirely a deception or appeasement, because Wang Huaqiao wasn't a lackey of the Eight Banners, and he had only arrived in Chengwu County last year, so he basically hadn't had time to do evil and harm the people, and his reputation as an official was indeed quite good.

Moreover, this guy is from Daxing County. Giving him a symbolic reward will allow him to contribute some useful intelligence, giving the Han people a more direct understanding of the situation in the capital of the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Chengwu County was captured so easily that the hastily made Chinese character flags were hung up that very day.

After that, the army began its eastward and westward campaigns, dividing into three routes to attack Shanxian, Caoxian, and Dingtaoxian respectively.

Shanxian and Caoxian were under Qing control, and the White Lotus Sect had little influence there. However, these two counties were too close to Han territory and had no garrison.

Upon seeing the Heavenly Principle Sect army raise the Han flag, they did not hesitate.

Either the magistrate surrendered directly, or his subordinates beheaded him and then opened the city gates to surrender.

On the contrary, Dingtao County, which belonged to the territory of the Heavenly Principle Sect, actually fought a battle, though the battle was somewhat abstract.

The magistrate of Dingtao County vowed never to surrender and led his yamen runners to defend the city. The Tianli Sect rebels who arrived in Dingtao County finally learned their lesson and used siege ladders of suitable length, but still no one filled in the moat.

He uttered the words "Kill the Qing demons".

The siege was carried out entirely by the rebel soldiers who carried wooden ladders and swam across; those who couldn't swim simply didn't participate in the siege.

After the battle, the Tianli Sect rebels and the Dingtao County government officials suffered a total of seven casualties, with two others missing.

As the fighting continued, the city gates of Dingtao County were opened.

It was the local gentry and followers of the Heavenly Principle Sect who took the opportunity to bribe the gatekeepers and open the city gates, allowing the rebel army to enter.

When the time came, the magistrate of Dingtao County thought of surrendering, but the rebel army didn't tolerate him and dragged him out and beheaded him.

In short, in just a few days, the southern part of Caozhou Prefecture was almost completely lost.

When the news reached the ears of the prefects of Caozhou and Jining, they could hardly believe it.

(End of this chapter)