Qing Yao

Chapter 390 I Love Lord Zhao

The correct way to say "Build strongholds and fight tough battles" is "Build strongholds and fight tough battles".

The inventor was Zeng Guofan, the founder of the Xiang Army and a notorious traitor nicknamed "Zeng the Head-Shaver".

The core of this tactic is to transform mobile warfare into positional warfare through extensive fortifications, thereby using one's own superior resources to wear down the enemy.

Both the Taiping Army and the Nian Army, which took over the mantle of the Taiping Army and continued to resist the Qing, were defeated by this tactic.

Now, the popular support of the salt bandits in northern Anhui has been undermined by Zhao An through "political work." The bandit leaders and key forces have been forced to hide in Jiushan. The Qing army besieging them numbering in the tens of thousands. Zhao An also controls the financial and grain resources of Anhui Province. Naturally, he chose the siege tactic to minimize battlefield variables and ensure that the bandit suppression campaign he personally commanded would be a great victory. In this way, he could use this achievement to go to Beijing to meet the Chairman and strive for the appointment as the Governor of Anhui, thus becoming the youngest regional governor in the Qing Dynasty.

However, he changed "build strongholds and fight protracted battles" to "build stalemates and fight tough battles".

Both are driven by political needs, and there is no essential difference between building strongholds and holding out fortified positions. However, there is a significant difference between fighting a protracted battle and fighting a hard battle.

Are being able to fight a protracted war and being able to fight a tough war the same thing?
According to Zhao An's requirements, the Green Standard Army now needs to make use of all the resources in the mountains, either by building stone walls, felling trees and setting up fences, or digging deep trenches in areas where they can be dug. And it's not just one trench, but at least three, with pits densely interspersed between each trench, thus forming an impenetrable encirclement. Unless the salt bandits inside surrender, they won't be able to escape.

Without popular support, without external food supplies, and without the help of locals familiar with the terrain, it would be a pipe dream, if not impossible, for these two thousand salt merchants to hold the village to the death.

The surrendered salt bandits successively revealed that Xie and Yang had hidden a large amount of gold, silver and salt in the mountains. Their food reserves were insufficient due to Zhao An's sudden action. Although Jiushan was easy to defend and difficult to attack, the bandits could not obtain food locally. Therefore, if they were besieged for two or three months, the salt bandits would indeed collapse without a fight.

Therefore, military adventurism must never be allowed to rise.

Because a failed assault could allow the salt bandits to break through, or even trigger a chain reaction like an ant hole on a dike, causing the encirclement that Zhao An had painstakingly built to collapse.

If the salt bandits were to break out, Xie and Yang, knowing they had no chance of survival, would probably have to fight back even if they didn't become Li Zicheng or Zhang Xianzhong.

That would really create a mess.

Zhao An will also face a serious crisis of trust. The old man will have to know that not only did he fail to quell the White Lotus Rebellion, but he also threw Anhui into chaos. It wasn't the "small loan gang" that ripped the old man out of his pocket, but rather the old man's order that instantly wiped out Zhao An's bank account.

How did it come about? How did it disappear?

In short, the principle of establishing strongholds and fighting tough battles cannot be shaken, and the Green Standard Army, under the acting governor, dared not disobey the military orders.

Next, the Green Standard Army transformed into a construction team, carrying out large-scale construction around Black Rock Village. A trench one zhang deep and two zhang wide was like a giant python coiled at the foot of the mountain. Thick wooden piles were heavily rammed into the soil to form an airtight fence. Every hundred paces, there was a sentry post that could hide several soldiers, complete with bows, crossbows, and muskets.

The trenches weren't just one, but three, with numerous pits in between filled with sharpened bamboo. In areas where digging was impossible, high walls were built with stones, and large quantities of kerosene canisters were hidden at the corners of these walls.

The governor's and viceroy's guards each dispatched a unit to guard the area, and to strike down any salt bandits who left the village, so as to ensure that the rear siege fortifications would not be affected.

Fengyang Prefecture sent the necessary materials for the construction and a large amount of food to Jiushan. In order to give the soldiers the strength to work, Zhao An specially approved a note to allocate 10,000 taels of silver from the provincial treasury to purchase live pigs and sheep to be transported to the front line.

With such a large commotion by the Qing army, how could the salt bandits entrenched in Heiyan Village not notice? Even a fool would realize after two days that the Qing army was trying to trap them to death if they didn't know what the Qing army was doing at first.

The bandit leader Xie Hongwu, who was guarding the stronghold, had traveled all over the country with his brother Xie Hongyi and was somewhat knowledgeable in military strategy. He knew that if things continued like this, his side would eventually be doomed due to running out of ammunition and food. However, the number of Qing troops surrounding them was too large, and the Anhui governor's troops and the Liangjiang governor's troops were suppressing them from the front. This made it impossible for Xie Hongwu to leave the stronghold and destroy the Qing army's fortifications. He could only inform his brother of the situation.

The Qing army's side resembled a dusty construction site, with over four thousand Qing soldiers and several thousand laborers organized by Fengyang Prefecture working together to build the fortifications, creating quite a lively scene.

But the most eye-catching figure was the young provincial governor, dressed in a short jacket and working alongside the soldiers. "Make sure this area is tamped down more firmly; the foundation piles must be deep, otherwise the thieves can easily push the fence down!"

After setting down the logs, which were as thick as bowls, Zhao An, along with several soldiers, gave some instructions on the quality of the work. He then decided that actions speak louder than words, so he embedded the logs into the designated positions and took the tamping hammer handed to him by the soldiers and began to hammer them one by one.

This demeanor doesn't resemble that of a high-ranking official at all.

These past few days, Zhao An has ignored the advice of his generals and insisted on working alongside his soldiers. Surprisingly, he has won over the hearts of the army even faster than he has won over the hearts of the people.

Every Green Standard Army soldier on the construction site knew that Lord Zhao ate the same food, slept the same way, and did the same work as them.

After several days of work, Zhao An, the acting governor of the second rank, had completely become one with the soldiers, chatting and laughing with them. While he might not have been a devoted father to his soldiers, every soldier who came into contact with him held him in high esteem.

After completing the sample, Zhao An casually took the towel Yang Xiaoshuan handed him and wiped his sweat. A young soldier with a still somewhat childish face next to him boldly asked, "Sir, how do you, such a high-ranking officer, know how to ram the earth?"

"Never eaten pork, but have you never seen a pig run?"

Zhao An casually draped the towel over his shoulder and repeated a phrase he had said countless times: that he, Lord Zhao, came from a poor farming family, not from a rich second-generation who had been waited on hand and foot since childhood.

His sentimental demeanor mirrored his emotional outpouring on stage, recounting how poor his family was as a child, how his life was practically nonexistent, and how he never forgot his roots after becoming an official.
The advanced performance captivated the hearts of the Green Standard Army soldiers, who also came from impoverished backgrounds.

Finally, he didn't forget to loudly ask the soldiers, "Do you know why we're doing these things?"

One of the quick-witted guards immediately chimed in, "I don't know!"

"It's because this time we're going to trap the thieves, prevent them from getting out, and starve them. That way, we can eliminate them without lifting a finger!"

As soon as Zhao An finished speaking, Yang Xiaoshuan chimed in, "If we launch a direct assault, many of our brothers will die. The commander is doing this to protect you! What's that saying the commander often says? Right, it's better to sweat than to bleed!"

Is it better to sweat more than bleed more?

The simple truth was passed down among the soldiers, accurately conveying Zhao An's two intentions: first, that the soldiers must know why they were doing this, and thus extend to what they were fighting for.

Only by knowing why we are fighting can our combat effectiveness increase exponentially.

Secondly, we must let the soldiers know that Lord Zhao cares about them!

Adults love and care for us, so should we love and care for adults in return?

The answer is yes.

Subtly, Anhui will only have one voice, and that voice will surely resound throughout the two rivers region and throughout the Qing Dynasty.

Hi!

(End of this chapter)