There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 459 Bombarding Jining
Jining Prefecture.

It was only in the second year of the Yongzheng Emperor's reign that it was upgraded to a directly governed prefecture; prior to that, it had always been a prefecture under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou Prefecture.

However, in reality, Jining Prefecture, which is located at the hub of the Grand Canal, far surpasses Yanzhou Prefecture in terms of both economic prosperity and advanced water conservancy and transportation.

Even in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, Jining was still governed by the prefecture system, which governed Yanzhou, a subordinate prefecture. The reason why it was later reversed was simply because Jining was very unlucky, as the Prince of Lu happened to be enfeoffed in Yanzhou.

According to the regulations for princes of the Ming Dynasty, the localities where they were stationed had to be upgraded to prefectures. Therefore, Yanzhou was automatically upgraded to Yanzhou Prefecture, while Jining Prefecture was downgraded to Jining Prefecture and placed under the jurisdiction of Yanzhou Prefecture.

It wasn't until the Manchus came to Shandong that Emperor Yongzheng felt that Jining Prefecture, with its location on the Grand Canal, was too important, and thus it was upgraded to a directly governed prefecture.

"The battle hasn't even started yet, and there's already a traitor within the Qing army's ranks." Yang Fang looked at the coded intelligence report sent by the spies in Jining City and couldn't help but find it amusing.

Staff Officer Xia Yongqian was more cautious, reminding him: "Since it is a secret intelligence sent by Qing traitors, it should be somewhat credible, but to be on the safe side, we still cannot believe it all."

"It doesn't matter. Whether you believe it or not, we'll have to fight it out eventually."

Yang Fang said, "I deliberately divided my troops to lure you into a trap. Now that the Qing dogs have arrived, we can't just let Jining City go and run back!"

Yang Fang arrived earlier than the Qing army. The reason he hadn't attacked Jining Prefecture was that he was waiting for the Qing army to move south. After waiting for several days, the Qing army finally couldn't sit still any longer and marched south to reinforce Jining Prefecture.

Yang Fang has achieved her goal; now it's time to unleash her full potential and officially begin the siege.

According to intelligence sent from Jining, the Qing army that entered Jining city numbered approximately 5. Moreover, regular troops accounted for a high proportion, with nearly 3 troops, while the remaining 2 were local militia whose combat capabilities were unknown.

It was impractical to cram so many troops into the single city of Jining. Therefore, the Qing army specifically allocated 25,000 troops, half of whom were Green Standard Army soldiers and half were local militia, to garrison the outer city of Jining.

Jining Prefecture was, after all, a former prefectural city, and located on a key section of the Grand Canal, making it strategically and economically important.

Therefore, Jining Prefecture had not only one prefectural city, but also an outer city. The outer city was built in the second year of the Tianqi reign of the late Ming Dynasty, mainly to defend against peasant uprisings. It used the Yuehe River (Yue River) as a moat and built a wide outer city on the south bank (locally known as "weizi").

(This map is divided in the middle; the upper half is Jining City, and the lower half is Jining Outer City.)
Guocheng, Jining.

The Green Standard Army stationed here were the two Green Standard Army garrisons in Shandong Province: Yanzhou Garrison and Dengzhou Garrison.

There were also more than 1 local militia members, who were basically used as cannon fodder and laborers and were not counted in the Qing army's regular military strength.

"The Southern Army's commander is far too arrogant. He actually gave up his numerical advantage and sent troops to attack Jining Prefecture. This has inadvertently given us a chance to win," Tian Yonghe said, looking out from the city tower at the Han army's camp.

Feng Jiangong chimed in, "That's right. Judging from the size of the Southern Army's camp, their regular troops definitely don't exceed ten thousand. On the other hand, we have as many as thirty thousand regular troops, and they are mainly focused on defending the city. Our chances of winning should be very high."

Tian Yonghe said, "We still need to be careful. The Southern Army was able to control half of the South. Even if its commander is a bit stupid, the Southern Army's fighting strength is definitely not weak. In fact, the arrogance of the Southern Army's commander may even stem from the elite strength of the Southern Army."

As the two were talking, they suddenly saw movement in the Han army camp.

Tian Yonghe hurriedly took out the telescope that Commander Yinghe had lent him and looked towards the direction of the Han army camp. He saw several huge objects being slowly pushed out from the depths of the Han army camp.

The objects were truly enormous; dozens of laborers were needed to push and pull them, and each of these enormous objects required dozens of people to do so.

"What is that?"

Tian Yonghe was initially puzzled, but as she looked around, she gradually realized something was wrong.

A huge thing... doesn't it look a bit like a cannon?
No, it's not just somewhat similar, it looks like a cannon!

Tian Yonghe almost thought he was seeing things. He saw the incredibly long and thick cannon barrel, the huge connecting wheels, and dozens of laborers pulling it slowly with thick ropes and oxen and horses. This showed just how heavy the cannon was.

"Wow, such a huge... such a huge cannon!"

While Tian Yonghe was still staring blankly through his binoculars, sharp-eyed soldiers on the city wall pointed at the massive siege cannons that the Han army had pushed out outside the city and exclaimed in surprise.

Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong couldn't even stop them. The siege cannons that the Han army brought out were too big. Even without a telescope, it was clear that they were giant cannons.

Such a large-caliber, heavy artillery piece could scare anyone to death. Even these two generals, who were considered to be battle-hardened and highly skilled, felt their legs tremble when they saw it.

When the Han army said they were going to fight, they really meant it, holding nothing back!
The two months spent digging tunnels in Xuzhou were purely for testing the feasibility of using coffins to blow up the city walls. If a forced siege were to be launched, siege cannons would definitely be more cost-effective and efficient.

The traditional method of attacking cities by overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers had long been largely obsolete for the Han army.

Nowadays, unless it's a small city, or a city with weak garrison, or even no army at all, soldiers are sent to climb siege towers to launch a forced assault.

The Han army deployed five siege cannons, the bases of which had been dug several days in advance.

As the giant cannon entered the fort, the laborers rushed forward to carry out the final backfilling and securing.

Once the work was completed, the civilian laborers left the field, and the artillery battalion operators moved in.

Before firing, clean the cannon barrel one last time.

The shells and gunpowder were loaded, and the gun position was adjusted simultaneously. The shells and gunpowder were specially made, ensuring their power was immense.

"Aim! Ready!"

"Ignite the fire, fire!"

"Boom boom boom!"

The massive cannon fire was like thunder in a clear sky.

Even though the artillerymen in the artillery battalion had stuffed cotton into their ears beforehand, they were still affected by the tinnitus.

Before the Han army artillerymen could even fire, the Qing army soldiers had already fled down the city wall in disarray.

No one dared to suppress it; with such a powerful cannon firing, were they supposed to just run away and wait to die?
In a salvo, only one of the five shells hit the target, and the entire artillery vehicle was displaced due to recoil.

The civilian laborers could only step forward and push the gun carriage back, while the gunners recorded the data and readjusted the gun position.

The entire city wall of Jining was violently shaken by that cannonball, as if an earthquake had occurred.

A huge crater appeared directly on the thick city wall, shattering many bluestone bricks along with it, and cracks spread around it like a spider web.

After one round of shelling, there was only a pause of about ten minutes.

The second round of shelling has begun.

"Boom boom boom!"

Another deafening roar, like thunder from an earthquake.

The five giant cannons bombarded Jining City relentlessly. There were no Qing soldiers left on the city wall, including the two Qing generals, Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong, who were forced to run down the city wall with their personal guards.

They were indeed from military backgrounds and confident they could fight a few battles. But no matter how skilled they were, the Han army's use of such rudimentary firearms completely rendered them helpless.

The Han army not only bombarded the city walls with siege cannons, but also brought thirty-five cannons to bombard the city walls as well.

Under the cover of heavy artillery fire, the Han army's laborers were rapidly constructing a wooden bridge to cross the river.

Jining Guocheng used the natural Yuehe River as its moat. However, the river was too wide and deep, making it difficult to fill in. It would be more convenient and faster to build a bridge across the river.

The siege cannons bombarded the city for half a day before ceasing their bombardment at dusk.

Even though the city walls of Jining were thick enough, they were still ravaged by the heavy artillery fire. There was hardly a single intact section of the wall; it was riddled with rubble and craters.

The Qing troops defending the city listened to the deafening cannon fire outside until evening, and their morale plummeted as the cannon fire ceased.

The Qing soldiers in the Green Standard Army were relatively well-controlled and could be kept in check, preventing mutiny and desertion. However, the remaining 10,000 local militia and militia were almost entirely newly recruited soldiers temporarily conscripted by the Qing army, despite being given ample food and pay.

No matter how much food and pay we have, it's not worth risking our lives for them!

Many local militia and laborers had already decided that once the city walls were breached by the Han army, they would either flee or simply surrender.

It's impossible for them to fight for the Qing army; the Qing army are all Tartars, while the troops outside the city are all Han Chinese. Moreover, they're about to conquer Shandong, and the Han emperor in the south will soon become the emperor of Shandong.

They can naturally weigh the pros and cons of each matter clearly.

At this moment, Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong were discussing countermeasures in an empty room, with a shell that a soldier had picked up lying in front of them.

The shells were huge, bigger than their heads, and each shell weighed over forty kilograms, almost as heavy as a person.

Feng Jiangong spoke first, saying, "We can't continue like this. I inspected the area before I came here. Not to mention the local militia and local militia, even my own Dengzhou troops are demoralized and looking fearful. If we let the Southern army outside the city bombard us again, the army will likely mutinied as soon as the city walls collapse!"

Tian Yonghe's face was also grim. He finally understood why Yinghe had sent them to defend Guocheng. They knew the Han army had powerful cannons, so they were sent as cannon fodder.

Tian Yonghe thought for a moment and said, "Now we have two choices. One is to take the initiative to leave the city and fight the Southern Army. The Southern Army's giant cannons are powerful, but the larger the cannons are, the more inconvenient they are to move. As long as we take the initiative to leave the city, the Southern Army will not be able to use their giant cannons."

“This won’t do. The Southern army has been bombarding the city walls all day, and their morale is already completely shattered. Going out of the city now would be suicide,” Feng Jiangong said, shaking his head.

Tian Yonghe continued, "Then we should defend Guocheng to the death, keep the Southern Army tied up here, and at the same time ask the Commander for reinforcements. Even if the city wall is breached, we can still rely on the gap to continue defending the city and wait for the Commander's army to launch a surprise attack on the Southern Army's camp."

This is pure nonsense. Putting aside whether Britain will cooperate with their plan, just look at their current morale. Once the city walls really collapse, the army will immediately mutini and collapse.

Moreover, even if they could hold their ground, why would Yinghe risk sending troops to launch a surprise attack on the Han army camp?

They failed to win last time, and if the two of them fail to gain the upper hand this time, Yinghe will definitely cower in Jining Prefecture and remain inactive.

(End of this chapter)