There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 460 The City Falls After Being Bombarded
The next day.

Before dawn, the Han army pushed out their giant cannons and bombarded the city of Jining.

"Boom boom boom!"

Under the intense bombardment, more Han soldiers and civilians were carrying wooden blocks and materials to the moat to lay a pontoon bridge for crossing the river.

This disgusted the Qing army, but they were powerless to stop it and could only stand in the city gate tower and watch helplessly.

Even then, they only dared to sneak up and observe, fearing that they might be spotted by the Han army lookouts who would then aim their cannons at their position.

After another day of relentless bombardment, the southern wall of Jining City was no longer covered with stone bricks, revealing large areas of pitted, thick layers of rammed earth.

These thick layers of rammed earth were actually more durable than the bluestone brick walls. No matter whether it was a cannon or a siege cannon, the shells fired at the Han army could not penetrate the defenses directly. Instead, they were deflected and embedded in the walls by the rammed earth.

Of course, this won't last long; rammed earth is rammed earth, and there's a limit to how much force it can release.

With each shell, chunks of earth would be knocked off the wall, and the surface of the wall would be constantly deformed by the pressure.

"Boom boom boom!"

After two more days of bombardment, the Qing army could no longer sit still.

It wasn't just that the city walls couldn't withstand the constant bombardment; the Han army was also building bridges across the moat at an incredibly fast pace.

At this rate, the city walls might not even collapse before the moat is completely covered with pontoon bridges built by Han soldiers and laborers.

Feng Jiangong, a military officer, personally led his Qing army from Dengzhou Town. After opening the city gates, he prepared to cross the river and burn the bridge built by the Han army.

However, he had just led over a thousand of his personal guards out of the city and hadn't even had a chance to cross the river to make a move when he saw that behind the Han laborers, there were already over two thousand Han musketeers.

These musketeers, all carrying standard rifled muskets, immediately pointed their guns at Feng Jiangong and his troops as soon as they saw them running out.

Now that there was no need to cross the river, Feng Jiangong could only lead his personal guards back to the city in disgrace.

Unable to leave the city, the Qing army had no other choice but to risk deploying the city's defensive cannons.

Since no one dared to operate it, Tian Yonghe personally took charge. He came from the Gansu military and knew how to operate artillery.

Aiming, loading, firing—all done in one smooth motion.

"boom!"

The shells accurately hit a section of the river-crossing bridge, and the wooden plank-paved pontoon bridge was instantly destroyed by the impact of the shells.

The river was covered with broken pieces of wood and rotten planks, and there were many bridge builders who had fallen into the water and were swimming back in fear.

When the Qing soldiers on the city wall saw the pontoon bridge destroyed by a single cannon shot, they burst into cheers.

However, before the Qing army could celebrate for long, the Han army's artillery positions received news.

All the cannons immediately turned around and aimed at the Qing army's city defense cannons that had just fired and whose muzzles were still smoking.

"Boom boom boom!"

Thirty-five cannons fired simultaneously. The Qing artillerymen, who had just fired their first shot, were immediately met with a barrage of fire from the Han army.

Although the hit rate of smoothbore cannons is generally very low, the Han army's artillery fire was so dense that it was almost a saturation bombardment.

All three of the Qing army's city defense cannons were hit by cannonballs, with one of them being lucky enough to catch a cannonball from the giant cannon.

The cannon itself was fine, but the gunners surrounding it all suffered terrible misfortune.

Those hit by cannon fire fared relatively well, with only several gunners dying. The Qing soldiers directly struck by the massive cannon fire were truly devastated; the bombardment instantly detonated the accumulated gunpowder barrels.

The explosion of a large amount of gunpowder nearly wiped out all the Qing soldiers surrounding the city defense cannon.

Charred arms and limbs flew everywhere, and the barely surviving Qing soldiers were all terrified and fled in panic.

The Qing army was completely helpless, because even the general who led them to fire the cannons was seriously wounded by the cannon fire.

The description of it as "seriously injured" was actually due to a shell hitting a nearby city wall, causing Tian Yonghe, who was directing the firing, to lose his balance and hit his head on the parapet, cracking his skull.

Although the injury wasn't that serious, the bloody mess still terrified Tian Yonghe.

He clearly remembered that the closest point where the shell hit him was no more than 3 meters away. It was a shell from a giant cannon, and the massive impact almost deafened him.

That's terrifying! The Han army's cannons are truly terrifying!

Tian Yonghe was indeed from a military background in Gansu, but he was still human, and humans are afraid of death. Especially now that he held the high position of general, and the Qing Dynasty was declining, a general was much more valuable than before.

He was, after all, a high-ranking military officer with nearly 10,000 troops. Together with Feng Jiangong, they were responsible for guarding two-thirds of Shandong Province.

The other third was the military defense area of ​​the Governor-General of the Eastern River, and the Grand Canal, which runs through Shandong, was also under the jurisdiction of the Governor-General of the Eastern River.

The Qing army inside the city walls remained inactive, but the Han army's siege progress was not lagging behind at all.

Those who were firing cannons continued to bombard the city walls, while those responsible for laying the pontoon bridges continued to lead the laborers in laying them.

If there weren't enough laborers, they would use grain to conscript them from surrounding villages.

The people of the surrounding villages were all very willing to serve as laborers for the Han army. This was because the Han army not only provided them with food, but also promised to distribute land and settle them down after capturing Jining City.

The Han army was renowned, and even the people of Shandong had almost all heard of it. For those who hadn't, Han spies constantly spread the word. In short, the people and gentry of Shandong were almost all aware of the Han dynasty's policies of distributing land to the people and reducing taxes.

Even if you want to smear it, it's useless. Not only did the Han army spies have their credit, but the Han Dynasty is no longer what it used to be. It can be described as the "Northern and Southern Dynasties" with the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Given this prevailing trend, even many officials, gentry, and scholars still harbored illusions about the Manchu Qing dynasty. They were unwilling to hand over their land to the Han Chinese, but they would still leave some room for maneuver and dare not go too far.

The Han army was already accelerating its attack on Jining City, while the Qing army commander Yinghe, who was stationed in Jining Prefecture on the north bank of the Grand Canal, did not disappoint.

When faced with Tian Yonghe's message about sending troops from Jining to launch a surprise attack on the Han army's flank, thus turning the tide of battle, Yinghe simply read the message but didn't reply.

Unless the tide of battle turns significantly in our favor, don't even think about getting him to send troops on his own initiative!

Yinghe did not intend to send troops; instead, he wanted to continue observing the development of the battle at Guocheng. Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong, who were in charge of the defense of Guocheng, were not fools and naturally guessed Yinghe's intentions very quickly.

So they secretly formed an alliance and agreed to defend Guocheng to the death. As soon as the city walls were breached, they would immediately lead their troops to flee to the state capital.

He abandoned the provisions, supplies, and local militia, leaving them all to the Han army to deal with. He only took his main force and personal guards back to the city, while simultaneously working together to deal with the questioning from Ying and Commander-in-Chief Ying.

With all parties harboring their own ulterior motives, the Han army moved almost unimpeded, and the construction of the bridge across the river was no longer hindered by the Qing army.

When the Han army realized that the Qing army dared not show themselves, they stopped wasting ammunition and changed the cannon salvo to firing one cannon at a time to ensure that the Qing defenders remained on high alert.

Finally, after bombarding Jining City for 10 consecutive days.

"Boom!"

“Kacha~kacha~kacha~!”

The loud noise was like an earthquake, and a large gap suddenly appeared in the south wall of the city, right in front of both armies.

The crack stretched from top to bottom, extending all the way to the foundation of the wall, and even the ground was riddled with spiderweb-like fissures.

But it only cracked; the city wall did not collapse. Instead, the two halves of the wall remained tightly joined together.

But it was too late. The sudden crack in the city wall was the last straw that broke the morale of the Qing army.

"Kill the Qing dogs!"

With a shout, no one knows who shouted first, but Jining Guocheng instantly fell into chaos.

Those Qing army militia who had already decided to surrender and defect suddenly saw thousands of them draw their swords and rebel.

Well, they're just rebelling; they certainly wouldn't dare to actually attack the Green Standard Army Qing troops.

Although the Green Standard Army was incompetent, it was still a regular army. And since this was the north, the army's combat effectiveness hadn't deteriorated as quickly as it had in the south.

Therefore, these local militias who had drawn their swords and rebelled all rushed to the city gate and beat and killed several Qing soldiers guarding the gate.

They immediately opened the city gates and let the Han army's heavenly soldiers into the city.

They were not alone; the local militias stationed elsewhere also rose up in rebellion one after another.

All the local militia seemed to have agreed in advance to bypass the heavily guarded city gates of the Qing army and Green Standard Army, and instead attack the city gates with few Qing soldiers.

Although the Qing army's Green Standard Army had a numerical advantage over the local militia, the city was simply too large and wide, with eighteen city gates, making it impossible to defend every aspect effectively.

Moreover, the Qing army had no intention of defending the area.

Seeing that all the local militia had defected, Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong made a decisive move. They led the Green Standard Army troops from the two towns under their command, joined forces, and fled north.

They encountered no resistance along the way; the local militia only seized city gates and occasionally ganged up on and killed a few stray Green Standard Army soldiers. They completely ignored the fleeing main force of the Qing army's Green Standard Army, and if they did see them, they decisively avoided them.

Outside the city of Jining, the Han army saw that several city gates were open, so they stopped firing and wasting cannonballs.

The Han army's musketeer battalion, which had been helping to build the bridge, led the way, followed closely by the main force of the Han army, and the entire army charged into the city of Jining.

As soon as the Han army stormed into the city, local militia who had surrendered rushed up to them, offering to be their guides.

These local militia dared not fight the Qing army themselves, and were even afraid of the Qing army of the Green Standard Army, but when the Han army came, they had the Han army to back them up, and they were no longer afraid.

Although the Qing army's Green Standard Army inside Jining City had made some preparations in advance, it was not an easy task for tens of thousands of troops to escape and break through the encirclement, even if they abandoned their food and supplies.

Unfortunately, the Han army advanced too quickly, and the Han army's vanguard quickly caught up with the Qing army's tail.

And then... no more.

The Qing army was thrown into chaos!

First, the rear guard was thrown into chaos, and then the chaos quickly affected the central army, and even the fastest-moving vanguard was not spared.

A hastily planned and even chaotic escape and breakout quickly turned into a complete rout of the entire army.

This is a common problem in ancient armies. Whether they were fighting and pursuing the enemy or retreating, the slightest trouble or obstacle could lead to a complete rout.

This is why ancient generals almost never resorted to feigned attacks, surrenders, or defeats, because the risks were simply too high. They could only use the most elite of their troops, or those who were desperate and took a risk.

The claim of a "high success rate" in historical records is purely a survivor bias, because those who failed all died in battle and their names were never recorded.

(End of this chapter)