There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 472 Zhili Liaodong
The Manchu troops withdrew, and this withdrawal plunged nearly half of Zhili (present-day Hebei) into chaos, with local officials fleeing as much as possible.
The Han side received the news, and after repeated confirmation by the intelligence spies, it was determined that the Manchus were not luring the enemy deep into their territory.

Even if we lure the enemy deep into our territory, giving up so much land at once will make it much harder to take it back later.

Since the Qing Dynasty is being so generous, if the Han Dynasty doesn't take the opportunity to send troops to occupy the territory, it would be a waste of the Qing court's good intentions.

Although the Han Dynasty had just finished a major battle and had recovered the entire Shandong and Henan provinces, and was basically quite well-fed, Nie Yu still gritted his teeth and sent troops out, not aiming to conquer everything, but rather to occupy as much territory as possible.

Fortunately, the Manchus had already fled, and those Zhili regions that the Manchus had abandoned finally gave up any illusions about the Qing court. When the Han army arrived, they decisively cut off their queues and surrendered to the Han.

Furthermore, due to limited supplies, the Han army was unable to occupy all areas and could only try to control the major cities as much as possible based on the principle of proximity.

Many nearby villages and towns, seeing that the Han army was taking a long time to arrive, simply took the initiative to come and ask the Han army to come and take over.

If the Han army couldn't spare any troops, then ask the Han army for a flag to take back to your hometown and plant it there.

What's even more absurd is that in many places nominally controlled by the Qing army, they hadn't completely withdrawn, and the local people followed suit, spontaneously changing their flags and banners.

The remaining Qing officials pretended not to see it, or simply ignored it completely.

This action is somewhat similar to the "Weihaiwei Boundary Demarcation Dispute" a century later, both involving local people spontaneously raising flags to demarcate boundaries. However, in the case of the Han people, the Han flag was being fought over by the people of Zhili, who wanted to become Han subjects, while in the case of the people of Weihaiwei a century later, they first dug up the British flag and then voluntarily raised it.

There was no other reason. At first, the people of Weihaiwei dug up the British flag because they didn't want to be slaves of the British. Later, they took the initiative to raise the British flag because they were forced into this situation by the Qing Dynasty.

Because the British were invaders, but their taxes were not high, so at least they had a way to survive. The Qing Dynasty, on the other hand, truly exploited the people to the death and allowed bandits, corrupt officials, and other groups to oppress them.

To be able to force the righteous people of Weihaiwei, who were defending their homeland, to the point of voluntarily "selling out their country" and begging for survival, our Great Qing Dynasty is truly remarkable!
Meanwhile, the Han army, faced with the spontaneous flag-changing by the people of Zhili, maintained its stance of neither accepting the cities nor stopping or dissuading them.

The Han army truly had very little spare strength. Even in the directly governed prefectures and counties that had already been recovered and occupied, the Han army only stationed small-scale troops for the time being, and temporarily conscripted some officials from Shandong to maintain stability.

There's no rush to distribute the land yet. We should focus on registering the households of the people first, and then deal with the rest next year depending on the situation.

……

Shengjing.

General Jin Chang of Shengjing looked at the battle reports and losses sent from various cities under his jurisdiction with a livid face, wishing he could tear them all to shreds on the spot: "These damned Nikan Han soldiers, they didn't come here to fight, they just came here to kill people."

Wu Liehu's campaign reached the outskirts of Shengjing City almost half a year ago, but the impact of that campaign continues to this day.

The most obvious thing is that Wu Liehu really doesn't hold back when it comes to killing Tartars!
Because Wu Liehu had previously reached the outskirts of Shengjing City, Jin Chang was so frightened that he urgently conscripted local bannermen to enter Shengjing City to help defend it. He also drove away Han serfs and bondservants, fearing that these guys would turn against him, and at the same time, he wanted to save food in the city.

But Jin Chang did not expect that the Han army would not follow the rules of martial ethics. They came to provoke us and then left without any intention of attacking the city. They even took away the Han slaves and bondservants they had driven away.

If that were all, it would have been fine. While the Han army was abducting Han slaves and bondservants, they also carried out a double massacre of all the Manchu families in the towns and villages surrounding Shengjing who had not managed to escape.

Everywhere around Shengjing City, one could see mounds of heads piled up like jingguan.

The soldiers guarding the city, including the Han Eight Banners, were almost all wearing mourning clothes.

While massacring Manchu people outside the Great Wall, Wu Liehu also set fire to crops in the fields, trampling on what he couldn't burn.

In short, after several waves of attacks, large areas around Shengjing were completely turned into no-man's land. Not only were the Manchus wiped out, but the crops in the fields also failed completely.

That was too ruthless, so ruthless that even the Qing Dynasty trembled in fear!
Jin Chang did attempt to march south and annihilate the Han army, but the Han army refused to fight him. As soon as he arrived, the Han army withdrew, retreating all the way to Gaiping County.

Gaiping County was easily captured by the Han army, but when it came to the Qing army, they were completely helpless against it.

The people of Gaiping were once serfs and bondservants under the Manchu Qing dynasty, living a precarious and precarious life as slaves. Now that the Han army had distributed land to them, freeing them from their servitude and ensuring they had enough to eat, they naturally worked tirelessly to fight for the Han army.

After several unsuccessful attempts to capture Gaiping County, the Qing army had no choice but to retreat in disgrace to Shengjing, not even daring to linger in Haicheng.

The cities that the Han army had captured and then abandoned all had their walls and gates destroyed. Repairing them would require manpower, but the local Manchu bannermen had all been slaughtered, and the Han serfs and bondservants had all been captured. Even the livestock and crops that could not be taken were burned and killed.

This left the Qing army completely unable to repair these cities, and even re-immigrating them was difficult.

After all that mobilization, besides wasting a lot of food and resources, the Qing army accomplished nothing. They did nominally recover a few major cities, but it was all for naught.

Jin Chang was disgusted, but there was nothing he could do.

He now even has to face the problem of food shortages in Shengjing and how to help the Manchu people in Shengjing get through the cold winter outside the Great Wall.

Thinking of this, Jin Chang couldn't help but curse again: "Damn Nikan, damn Han army! I will kill them all sooner or later, kill them all!"

...Leaving aside Jin Chang's incompetent rage in Shengjing, the Han army on the Liaodong Peninsula had just received a batch of military supplies transported from Korea.

The Qing army was short of food, but the Han army had plenty. If they were short of food, they could simply buy it from Korea using large ships.

At first, North Korea was not very willing, but after several transactions, they found that the Han army was indeed very trustworthy, completely different from the banditry of the Manchu Qing dynasty.

The Yangban nobles behind the Korean merchants, having tasted the sweetness of doing business with the Han army, all opened up their supplies to the Han in order to make money. As long as the Han could afford it, they were even willing to sell the Korean national treasury's grain reserves to the Han army.

As for the North Korean people? They're just lowly commoners; if they starve to death, so be it.

Anyway, the people of North Korea are all incredibly obedient. Even if they all starve to death, they won't rebel, and even if they did, they wouldn't dare to actually kill the nobles and the king.

Lushunkou.

Since the Han army had already taken over the entire Shandong region, the ships no longer needed to depart from Nanjing, but could directly cross the sea from Dengzhou Prefecture to the Liaodong Peninsula.

Although the Manchus already knew that the Han army was going to Liaodong by boat, they could not stop them and could only watch helplessly as the Han army was transported to Liaodong by boat.

They even feared that after the Han army took Shandong, they would directly cross the sea to attack several important towns such as Tianjin, Jinzhou, and Ningyuan, so they imposed a new round of maritime bans in the north in the three cities.

Several wharves and forts, including Dagu Port in Tianjin, have been abandoned and the local people have been forcibly ordered by the government to return to the mainland.

For a time, public resentment was boiling over, and countless people were hoping that the Han army would quickly march north and attack.

"General, look, the ship seems to have arrived!"

"Oh? Let me see!"

Reminded by his deputy, Wu Liehu quickly picked up his binoculars and looked out at the sea.

Sure enough, a fleet of ships appeared on the distant horizon, rapidly approaching the port of Lushun where they were located.

On the lead ship, a large red flag with Chinese characters was also flying.

That's right, it's a fleet sent by the imperial court. It was worth waiting so long in the cold wind.

Before long, the fleet docked in port, and Wu Liehu, familiar with the area, ran over to greet them.

"Which one is Prefect Wang?"

"Wang Huai'an, Prefect of Liaodong, greets General Wu!"

Through a question-and-answer session, the two quickly identified each other.

Wu Liehu came to the port today to greet the newly appointed prefect of Liaodong by the imperial court.

Because Wu Liehu had taken over the entire Liaodong Peninsula, and his army was not large. Liaodong as a whole was too poor, and the population of the Liaodong Peninsula was too small, so he should not be able to take over the entire Liaodong region in a short period of time.

Therefore, after discussions within the Nanjing cabinet, it was decided to first establish a prefect in Liaodong, assigning all affairs, large and small, of the entire Liaodong Peninsula to the prefect for unified management.

Anyway, the Liaodong Peninsula isn't very large, so it's barely acceptable to classify it as a prefecture. Moreover, its population is so small that it's roughly equivalent to that of a prefecture.

The selection of the prefect of Liaodong was also carried out through multiple rounds of screening.

First and foremost, the ability to endure hardship is a must, along with sufficient experience. At the very least, one must have served as a minor official in a poor area and achieved remarkable political results.

After this selection process, Wang Huai'an was chosen.

When Wang Huai'an disembarked, he saw Wu Liehu coming to greet him. He did not look down on the other party for being a crude and uncouth warrior. On the contrary, he was very courteous.

After a round of polite greetings, Wu Liehu led Wang Huai'an back to Xiong Yue City to hand over the affairs.

As a military general, he was always in charge of civil affairs in Liaodong. Even during times of crisis, when he had to handle both military and political affairs, he was exhausted.

Now that a prefect has finally arrived, I'll definitely take office as soon as possible and be free of worries.

With the new prefect of Liaodong taking office, Xiongyue City will no longer be called Xiongyue City, but will be renamed Liaodong Prefecture.

Of course, this is only a temporary place name. Once the entire Liaodong region is recovered, this place will definitely have to be renamed again.

(End of this chapter)