There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 461: Great Trend
The capture of Jining's outer city by the Han army was not too unexpected for Yinghe.

If Guo Cheng had been able to hold off the Han army, he wouldn't have been driven from Xuzhou to Shandong in such a sorry state.

It was not surprising that Guocheng was captured, but the fact that the Shandong Second Garrison Green Standard Army stationed in Guocheng was almost completely wiped out was something that Yinghe found hard to accept.

No, it's only been a few days!

It is conservatively estimated that it would not have taken even ten days or half a month for the Han army to break through the city, and the nearly 30,000-strong defending force was almost completely wiped out.

The defeat was absolutely devastating!
The British did indeed intend to use the Shandong Green Standard Army as cannon fodder, but before they could even be used in the real battle, they were almost all wiped out. So how could they fight the war?
Yinghe wanted to kill Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong, who had fled back to the city in a sorry state, but he was afraid that killing them might shake the morale of the troops in the city.

After all, Jining Prefecture still had more than 30,000 troops, less than half of whom were Eight Banners soldiers; the rest were all Green Standard Army soldiers from Shandong. Even among the Eight Banners soldiers, more than 2000 were from the Qingzhou Eight Banners, who were not under the command of Yinghe and were not of one mind.

Blessings are unparalleled, and misfortunes do not come singly.

The shadow of Guo Cheng's crushing defeat had not yet dissipated when more bad news arrived.

"Report!"

A messenger came from the northwest. Because the Han army had besieged Jining, the messenger dared not enter the city directly and took a long detour before he was able to enter.

Before Yinghe could even ask a question, Wang Bingtao, the Governor-General of the Eastern River, hurriedly said, "What military intelligence is there? Speak quickly!"

"Jiaxiang County is gone!" the messenger said succinctly.

Upon hearing this news, Yinghe fell silent for a moment. But when he saw the letter brought by the messenger, he was so angry that he almost lost his temper and started cursing.

The letter was written by the magistrate of Jiaxiang County, but it was written in a rather arrogant and unrestrained manner, clearly stating that he had submitted to the will of the people and surrendered to the Han army.

He also advised Jining to surrender quickly and stop resisting. At the same time, he said that the so-called Eight Banners were all Tartars and inferior races, and should obediently offer their necks for execution, and make a mound of heads with their queues, which was the proper fate for them, the Manchu Tartars.

Good heavens, they're really not even going to pretend anymore, not even bothering to feign surrender.

Even the fact that this messenger was able to come to Jining was because the magistrate of Jiaxiang County specially released him, just to humiliate and provoke Yinghe.

Such humiliation of the Qing Dynasty and the Eight Banners—could Yinghe, as a member of the Upper Three Banners of the Manchu Eight Banners, tolerate it?

He's really good at holding back; he had no choice but to!
Jiaxiang County has already invested; Yinghe is not unaware of his current predicament.

With Jining Prefecture besieged, it was impossible to defend it. Not to mention the Han army's siege cannons, there were also those strange firearms that could blow through the city walls, which Yinghe had no way to deal with.

If he doesn't run away, he'll end up like the Battle of Xuzhou, with the city collapsing and him losing the battle. But if he does run away, he probably won't need to stay in Shandong afterward.

It's all pointless now. Jining is gone, and they're just fleeing without a fight. Shandong is impossible to defend anymore, and their own troops will become terrified of the Han.

Yinghe is now truly in a dilemma. If he doesn't run, he'll have to wait for Jining to fall. If he's lucky, he might be able to break out, but if he's unlucky, he might be surrounded by the Han army and won't be able to leave.

If they were to run now, they might be able to break through and escape, but the already disadvantaged situation in Shandong would collapse completely.

The collapse of the Shandong battlefield could even further affect the Henan battlefield, creating a serious chain reaction.

There's no way, there's really no way.

The gap in combat strength, troop numbers, and firearms between the Qing army and the Han army was enormous. Even in terms of food and finances, although the Han army was also struggling, it was still much better off than the Qing army, which was already struggling to make ends meet.

Absolute overwhelming strength can no longer be easily reversed by simple strategies and tactics.

Before Yinghe could even struggle or make a fuss, bad news kept coming to Jining.

"Report! Wenshang County has been captured by the Han army!"

"Report! Zou County has also been captured by the Han army!"

"Report! The city of Yanzhou is besieged by tens of thousands of Han troops (including laborers), and the prefect has died in battle."

"Report! Qufu County is besieged by Han troops. Requesting the commander-in-chief to send troops to its aid..."

"..."

The series of bad news had already left Yinghe feeling distraught.

With the successive capture of Jiaxiang County, Wenshang County, Zou County, and others, Jining has practically become an isolated city.

The rapid fall of Yanzhou Prefecture in eastern Jining was another blow to Jining.

Now, even Qufu County is besieged by the Han army.

Qufu County is different from Yanzhou Prefecture and Jining Prefecture. Those two places can only be considered strategic locations at most, but Qufu County is a high ground in terms of political opinion.

This is the location of the Duke Yansheng's Mansion, and also the hometown of Confucius. Even though the Han Dynasty has decided to remove the Duke Yansheng's Mansion in Qufu and re-appoint the Southern Confucian Duke as the new Duke Yansheng, and establish new Confucian doctrines, the Southern Confucian Duke Yansheng still has to move to Qufu first.

This is necessary, at least for now, as the Han Dynasty cannot abolish the title of Duke Yansheng. It can only be transformed into an honorary title, without any special privileges or benefits. Later, the secular influence of the Duke Yansheng within Confucianism can be gradually weakened, transforming it into a purely spiritual symbol.

With Qufu County besieged by the Han army, it was as if the "hearts and minds" of all the scholars in the land had also been seized by the Han army.

Once Qufu was lost, the Qing Dynasty essentially lost the "hearts and minds" of the educated class.

Although the Manchu Qing dynasty was based on the Eight Banners, the role of Han Chinese scholars was also significant. They were involved in local stability, as well as tax collection and corvée labor.

Especially now, the Qing Dynasty is in decline. Even if it eventually defeats the Han Dynasty, it will have essentially lost control over the local areas and will have to rely on Han scholars and local gentry officials to indirectly control the local areas.

The Han army's massacre of the Eight Banners was too ruthless, killing both Manchu and Han Eight Banners members together, almost wiping out the local Eight Banners, and greatly weakening the foundation of the Qing Dynasty. The Taiping Rebellion in history was able to cripple the Qing Dynasty not only because of its immense destruction, but also because it killed too many Manchus, causing the Qing Dynasty to almost lose its voice in the Jiangnan region.

With the fall of Yanzhou and the siege of Qufu, Yinghe finally made up his mind.

He was about to run away!
And they had to flee overnight, without any food or supplies, to rescue Qufu County? Rescue my foot!

Yinghe is lucky if he can save himself first. Once he runs away, Shandong is probably beyond saving. What's the point of saving Qufu then?
Ying and Gang had just decided to flee, but before they even left, the news was unsurprisingly leaked.

It wasn't entirely a leak; rather, Han Chinese spies in Jining received a message from Yang Fang. They were instructed to find Zhang Tiren, the prefect of Jining, and prepare for a coordinated attack on the city, preventing the Qing army from escaping again.

When they attacked Xuzhou, Yang Fang let Yinghe escape. He never expected Yinghe to be so shameless as to throw away his own people, who were also from the Eight Banners, as cannon fodder.

In Jining Prefecture now, with Yinghe as the Qing army commander-in-chief, it's no surprise that he'll have to flee again.

Running away is like surrendering; it's addictive. Once you do it once, you'll do it again.

Within the city of Jining, with the deliberate cooperation of Prefect Zhang Tiren, rumors quickly spread that Yinghe was going to flee with the Eight Banners and abandon the Shandong Green Standard Army as cannon fodder.

The rumors spread very quickly, and even the Governor-General of Donghe, Wang Bingtao, and the Deputy Commander of Qingzhou, Guan Ming, came to see Yinghe specifically to ask him for a reasonable explanation.

What explanation could you give? Did you mean you didn't intend to flee and were prepared to fight the Han army to the death?

Even he himself didn't believe it when he said that.

The effect of the "rumor" was immediate. Almost that afternoon, a section of the Green Standard Army stationed on the city wall suddenly turned against the Communists and started an uprising, shouting "Kill the Tartars!"

The Green Standard Army that launched the uprising happened to be Wang Bingtao's Donghe Green Standard Army.

Wang Bingtao, the governor of Donghe, did not even bother to suppress the rebellion. Instead, he mounted his prized horse and, under the protection of his personal guards, hastily retreated towards the north gate.

Also fleeing was Guan Ming, the deputy commander of Qingzhou, who led his two thousand Qingzhou Eight Banners troops in a hasty escape towards the north gate.

However, Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong, who had just fled back to Jining a few days ago, saw that Yinghe was in such a sorry state and that the situation in Shandong was changing so rapidly, it was almost a complete collapse of their army.

So they decided not to run away. They wouldn't gain anything by running away anyway, and would only be buried with the Manchus. It would be better to surrender now.

"Kill the Tartars!"

With a loud shout, the two cut off their braids and, with only a few elite guards, charged into the fleeing soldiers.

They were indeed worthy of being martial arts graduates, and came from the military in Gansu; their individual combat skills were quite impressive.

After several charges, the Qing army soldiers who were in chaos in Jining were no match for them.

When the Han army entered the city, they found that the chaos in Jining had already been suppressed by them. Yang Fang did not recognize the two men and directly gave them orders: "You are not bad. You know how to suppress chaos. Now I will give you a chance to follow me to chase down the fleeing Tartars. If you can capture the Tartar commander alive, I will give you credit!"

"I am willing to die for the General!"

The two were overjoyed upon hearing this and immediately followed Yang Fang, heading towards the North Gate.

Because they were on horseback, they were able to pursue at a much faster pace than the Qing army's Eight Banners troops could escape.

Many of these Qing Dynasty Eight Banner soldiers were infantrymen, and they were quickly caught up by the pursuers led by Yang Fang.

In a panic, one of the Eight Banner soldiers tried to draw his sword to defend himself, but Yang Fang simply held his horse-slaying saber in one hand.

With a powerful and heavy slash, the man and his armor were cleaved in two.

This brutal and fierce slash not only terrified the Eight Banner soldiers, but also Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong, who were following Yang Fang.

The two are now extremely grateful that they switched sides at the crucial moment; otherwise, if they had really encountered a formidable person like Yang Fang, they don't know if the two of them combined would have been enough to fight her.

The Eight Banners rear army was thrown into chaos instantly, and faced with the pursuit of the Han army, it had completely lost the ability to fight back.

Even Tian Yonghe and Feng Jiangong were wielding their waist knives with great effort, charging and slashing through the Eight Banners army formation.

The Eight Banners infantry, who could only run on two legs, had no chance of escape. Even kneeling and surrendering was useless; they would still be killed.

Seeing that the rear guard had been caught up, Yinghe gritted his teeth and finally sent out his trump card, the Solon battalion, to block the Han army.

However, the Han army was not unprepared to face the fierce Solon camp.

"Bang bang bang bang!"

A volley of gunfire from the Han army's musket battalion instantly routed the front ranks of the Solon battalion.

"Light it, fire!"

"Bang bang bang!"

After the musket battalion finished firing, while they were reloading, another wave of rockets was launched straight out.

Under the violent bombardment, the fierce Soren camp was also blown apart.

"Kill the Tartars!"

The one shouting so loudly was Hada's Han army Solon battalion. They had finally been given permission and joined the battlefield with their butcher knives.

(End of this chapter)