There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 79 What a coincidence!

Soldiers have no constant momentum, and water has no constant shape.

Nie Yu thought that the Qing army would first attack He Shunan's troops in Huarong County, while Fu Zhina thought that the Han army would decisively abandon Huarong County and run away, so they took a big detour and changed their route to cross the river in Lizhou and go straight to Jingzhou.

What a coincidence, both sides thought of the same thing!
Fu Zhina said that they would cross the river and head north, but they still had to walk on foot. The Anxiang County Magistrate did try to curry favor and get some boats over, but they were all small boats and could not carry a large army.

The Qing army loaded all the food and fodder onto the ships, leaving only the baggage and artillery for the civilians to escort. Even if they encountered an accident, they could mobilize the troops and fight at any time, and the food and fodder would not be damaged.

The Qing army quickly entered the territory of Jingzhou Prefecture, and then dispersed cavalry to scout the enemy situation while searching for villages and towns with inhabitants.

What?
Of course, they looted and robbed food. The food provided by Xingzhao was obviously not enough, and it was not intentional withholding. It was simply because the food from Hubei could not be transported. The food from Hunan alone was already very stretched, and Xingzhao had to squeeze out this little bit of food under great pressure.

In just a few days, almost all the villagers near the border between the two lakes were looted by the Qing army that came to suppress the bandits. These looting Qing soldiers even massacred civilians everywhere while looting.

Well, it’s not about killing innocent people to gain credit, it’s just about killing people for fun.

The passing of bandits is like a comb, and the passing of soldiers is like a grate.

Bandits may still care about sustainability and exhaust the resources, but the foreign troops coming from other provinces, or those coming to suppress rebellions, are all evil spirits in the world.

Burning, killing and looting were commonplace, which led to the fact that many local governors would hardly report a rebellion immediately if they encountered one, but would try to resolve it themselves first. Otherwise, if the court sent troops to suppress it, the rebellion would be in vain and they would have no chance of being evaluated for their political achievements.

Many gentry and landlords whose land had been forcibly divided by the Han army, had heard that the government troops had fought back and thought that good days were back. They were preparing food and drink to serve as guides, but the Qing soldiers who rushed in turned around and slaughtered their entire families on the spot under the pretext of killing rebels.

After destroying several villages in succession, the movements of the Qing army were exposed. The landlords and gentry who had originally wanted to surrender were all frightened when they heard the news. They did not need the Han army officials to persuade them, and they all took out their most valuable money and food to assist the mayors in various places in recruiting soldiers and preparing for resistance.

These mayors are all grassroots officials who came with the army. Others have the opportunity to surrender, but they absolutely cannot surrender.

Not only were they appointed by the General's Office, but also their official positions were all town mayors. This directly changed the grassroots administrative divisions of the Qing Dynasty, which was a blatant contempt for the imperial power of the Qing Dynasty and blocked their retreat.

The gentry contributed money and food, the common people provided manpower and soldiers, and the mayor was responsible for organizing the resistance. They were all united in their hatred of the enemy.

The roving soldiers of the Qing army who were sent out to rob food began to suffer setbacks. These roving soldiers were generally small in number and belonged to small groups of Qing soldiers with little combat effectiveness. Those who had combat effectiveness were all elite soldiers. How could they possibly spread out to plunder?

The Qing soldiers, who had little combat power, met the local militia, who also had little combat power. One side came to rob food and plunder, while the other side came to defend their homes.

After several waves of fighting, several groups of Qing soldiers who were trying to steal food were either surrounded and killed, or several of them died. The rest fled in panic and returned to report the news.

Fu Zhina was surprised when he received the report from the deserters, but he did not pay any attention to it. He claimed that he had 50,000 Qing troops, but in reality, there were only more than one-tenth of them.

Excluding the civilians who cannot fight, the remaining soldiers who can barely fight should be able to gather a little over 4,000, no more.

Fu Zhina didn't know how many people there were in the Han army, but based on past experience, these cult bandits often consisted of both men and women, and could mobilize at least tens of thousands of troops.

No matter how arrogant he was or how much he looked down on the mob of bandits, he would not divide his forces at this time just to encircle those useless villages and towns.

Fu Zhina did not continue along the river, but suddenly turned east, intending to first launch a surprise attack to capture Shishou County and get some boats from there.

Shishou County, military camp outside the city.

"You said your town encountered the Qing army?" Nie Yu was quite surprised.

He had just arrived in Shishou County and was still convening a meeting of military generals to discuss the subsequent strategy for marching south to Yuezhou, when he ran into the Qing army.

Feng Xiuyong was also surprised. This battle situation seemed to be going in the wrong direction. He quickly asked, "Where did the Qing army come from? Does your mayor know any news?"

The messenger who brought the news said, "The Qing army is coming in large numbers, at least tens of thousands. Mayor Liu captured a few survivors who said the Qing army leader appears to be a high-ranking Manchu official, transferred from the Miao battlefield. Even within the army, there are quite a few Manchu soldiers and Hunanese soldiers who speak with a southern mountain accent."

"A high-ranking Manchu official? Transferred from the Miao battlefield?" Feng Xiuyong muttered to himself.

Without a name, he definitely wouldn't know her, and even with a name, it's unlikely he would recognize her.

But it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if we don’t know them. The incomplete information sent by the other party is enough to explain the origin of this sudden appearance of Qing army.

The Miao people were able to send generals to command troops on the battlefield, as well as many Manchu soldiers and Hunan soldiers with accents from the southern mountainous areas.

No need to guess!

Feng Xiuyong said: "General, this sudden appearance of Qing troops must be the main force of the Qing army. Whether it is the number of soldiers, the generals in command, or the Manchu and Hunan soldiers, they can all prove it."

Upon hearing this, a secretary frowned and said, "So, since the main force of the Qing army has appeared here, does that mean Huarong County has already fallen, and He's commanding officer has also been completely destroyed?"

Another secretary immediately retorted, "How is that possible? Haven't you read the military report sent back by Commander He? Huarong County is protected from floods, and its walls are as high and thick as those of the provincial capital. Commander He's Han troops are elite and capable of fighting. Even if they fell, they shouldn't have fallen so quickly!"

"If it hadn't fallen, how could the Qing army be here?"

"How should I know? It can't be that Huarong County surrendered, right?"

Nie Yu raised his hand to stop everyone's groundless speculation, then pointed at the map and said, "Huarong County should still be there. If it had fallen, we wouldn't have been completely unaware of it. Even if the Qing army really took Huarong County, they wouldn't have been so stealthy and gone around to our west. This makes no sense!"

This explanation instantly calmed the fluctuating morale of the army. Feng Xiuyong also said, "General, not only that, judging from the current information, the main force of the Qing army is no more than 10,000 people. Even if reinforcements arrive later, we can still defeat the existing Qing army!"

These words touched everyone's heart. If 50,000 Qing troops came, even if the Han army had the advantage in armor and weapons, they would have to consider their tactics.

But there are only less than 10,000 people, and we have to deduct the laborers who transport supplies and food. These people cannot fight, so the remaining combat-ready soldiers are at most half.

If we remove half of the 10,000 Qing troops, that would be 5,000. Let's count them a little more, say 6,000 or 7,000, which is exactly the strength of the Han army.

Six thousand against six thousand, the advantage is really on Han's side now!
The Han army acted quickly. They had just made a decision in the morning and ran into the Qing army's scouts in the afternoon.

Both sides were confused. The Qing scouts were just wandering around and had no expectation of seeing the movements of the rebels. The Han scouts were also ordered to come and investigate the strength of the Qing troops. No one had expected such a coincidence.

The Qing soldiers' scouts had horses, and the Han soldiers' scouts also had horses. The horses were war horses captured from the Manchu soldiers. After removing those that were injured or died of illness, there were still seventy or eighty horses left that could be used.

They are all southern horses with very short shoulders. They cannot be used as cavalry, but they are just right for scouts.

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

"Ta-ta-ta-ta!"

Both sides rode their horses and drew their swords almost at the same time.

After a wave of hedging, no accidents occurred.

The Qing scouts were obviously better at riding, but several of them were chopped down instead.

The Han soldiers, including the scouts, all wore stab-proof vests and carried stainless steel sabers.

Those Qing soldiers and scouts were all from the Green Camp. They didn't have thick and durable cotton armor on them, so how could they withstand the attack of stainless steel sabers?

Seeing that the situation was not good, the few surviving Qing scouts turned around and fled without caring about the few people who fell off their horses but were not dead.

The Han scouts did not chase after them, but instead attacked the wounded and wailing Qing soldiers on the ground one by one, leaving only one alive. The horses were also led away by two men.

"What did you say? Did you discover the bandits' scouts?" Fu Zhina asked with a frown.

Below, two Qing soldiers who had managed to escape were kneeling on the ground, reporting on a recent encounter.

"General, they are indeed the bandits' scouts. They are not far from the main camp. We just spread out when we ran into them."

"General, those bandits seem to possess some kind of sorcery. They clearly don't have armor, but they're not afraid of swords. There are more than a dozen of us facing a few of them, but we're no match."

Fu Zhina couldn't stand it any longer after hearing two sentences: "You don't wear armor, and you're not afraid of swords. Are you trying to say that all the rebels are invulnerable monsters?"

"..."

The two men didn't dare to respond because they couldn't explain it. It was just that a dozen people were beaten by a few people, and they were brought down inexplicably, but the rebels were not in trouble at all.

"Come here! These two are spreading rumors and trying to disrupt the morale of the army. Drag them out and chop them off!"

Immediately, four garrison soldiers came in and dragged away the two Qing soldiers who were begging for mercy.

Fu Zhina's gaze fell back on the map on the table. The Han army was trying to find out his strengths and weaknesses, and he also wanted to find out the strengths and weaknesses of the Han army.

Regardless of whether the two Qing soldiers were lying or not, the scout team he sent out was indeed killed by the Han soldiers.

The fact that the Han army had scouts could be explained. They could have been robbed or obtained after the previous capture of Jingzhou. However, the combat effectiveness of the Han soldiers was somewhat beyond his expectations.

We can see the big picture from the small details. The scouts are so elite, so are the Han soldiers really a mob?
Fuzhina thought for a long time and decided to try a few more times.

In the next few days, the main force of the Qing army was stationed along the river and remained on hold for the time being, but scouts were sent out in large numbers, and many more Manchu soldiers were also sent out.

If there are too many horses, they will collide.

Over the course of two days, several skirmishes broke out between the scouts of the two armies.

Without exception, all the Green Camp scouts were eaten, and few escaped.

The casualties of the Manchu soldiers were not much better, because these guys had very poor combat capabilities on horseback, and their riding skills were not as good as those of the Green Camp scouts.

The Manchu soldiers were wearing cotton armor and fought back and forth with the Han scouts.

The Manchu soldiers rushed over on horseback, and the Han soldiers stripped the cotton armor and clothes off the corpses and led their war horses back.

All in one go!
　Water-Water

　　
　
(End of this chapter)