1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 136 The Transport Captain [Third Update! Please Subscribe! Please Vote!]

After observing and interacting with them, Peng Gang had figured out what kind of Qing army was in front of him.

He hurriedly ordered the artillery battery to cease fire, fearing that the Qing army would be unable to withstand the artillery bombardment and would collapse.

In order to complete the encirclement of the Qing army, like wrapping a dumpling with a thin skin and a large filling, Peng Gang left only two companies of riflemen to protect the musketeers and artillerymen.

Let Li Qi lead the Second Battalion, along with the 100 central army flags and 400 central army flags left to him by Lin Qirong, to flank the Qing army along the hillside. After he launches his charge, drive the Qing army towards the Dongxiang River, and kill or capture as many Qing soldiers and militia as possible.

"The cultists are out of ammunition! Push forward! Anyone who retreats will be executed!"

Qin Ding tried three times to persuade Zhou Tianjue to retreat, but to no avail. He had no choice but to bite the bullet and personally lead the troops to the top.

He had no idea whether the God Society's artillery had run out of ammunition.

All he could do was convince his soldiers and trainees that God would teach the bandits that they were truly out of ammunition, thus bolstering their courage.

Qin Dingsan watched with growing anxiety as the Catholic Church bandits leaned against the hillside to their left.

When the two armies were about 110 or 120 paces apart, thousands of Qing muskets of varying lengths were raised. The Qing musketeers tilted their heads, closed their eyes, and kept their heads far away from the muskets, fearing that the muskets would explode, and fired at the left flank of the army on the hillside.

"Lie down!"

Peng Gang did not intend to engage in a firefight with the Qing army's musketeers at such a distance, and ordered everyone to lie down to reduce the area exposed to bullets and minimize casualties.

The Qing army clearly had thousands of muskets, but the gunfire was sparse and infrequent, like someone having diarrhea.

Peng Gang instructed his musketeers to wait until the enemy was within 35 paces (about 50 meters) before firing.

The enemy was still far away, and Peng Gang was personally supervising the battle without giving the order to fire. The 768 musketeers of the musket battalion remained motionless, lying on the muddy ground like rocks, carefully protecting the match cords, and did not fire back.

Although the Qing army had over a thousand arquebuses, at a distance of 110 to 120 paces, the enemy was prone, making their accuracy a serious concern.

The gunfire sounded exciting, but after five or six volleys, only about ten men in Peng Gang's left wing were hit.

Peng Gang did not retaliate because he was waiting for Li Qi's Second Battalion, along with 100 Central Army soldiers and 400 Central Army soldiers to flank the Qing army, so as to annihilate the Qing army's manpower to the greatest extent possible.

After six volleys of gunfire from the Qing army, Li Qi's men were basically in position.

"stand up!"

Peng Gang then ordered the musket battalion and artillery company to return fire.

The artillery company, needless to say, had already loaded its ammunition and aimed its sixteen mountain-splitting cannons at the Qing army formation. Upon receiving the order, it immediately ignited the cannons and began firing.

The musket battalion, having risen from the mud, beat their drums and advanced, closing the distance to the Qing musketmen to sixty or seventy paces.

The musket battalion originally wanted to close the firing distance to thirty or forty paces.

Unfortunately, the Qing army's tolerance for casualties was too low. The artillery company only fired two rounds of cannon fire before Qing soldiers began to flee back in droves.

The musket battalion had to fire from a distance of sixty or seventy paces ahead of time.

Although the accuracy of firing the musket at this distance was still not satisfactory.

The musket battalion was equipped with 210 flintlock muskets, either homemade or purchased before the war, and 220 well-made matchlock muskets.

Even the arquebuses captured from the Qing army, which were unavoidable for equipping, were selected only when they were in good condition.

In addition, the musket battalion was well-trained and would subconsciously aim before firing.

In just one volley of 192 muskets fired by the left wing musketeers, the momentum of the left wing musketeers overwhelmed that of the Qing arquebusiers.

Its accuracy was also much higher than that of the Qing army's arquebusiers, and it swept down more than fifty Qing soldiers in just one volley.

By the time the fourth company finished firing its volley, more than two hundred Qing soldiers had been shot down by the left army's muskets, and the Qing army's formation had completely collapsed.

Covered in blood, Qin Dingsan and his personal guards killed more than thirty deserters who had fled from the front, but they could not stop the Qing army's retreat.

To make matters worse, Li Qi's force of about 1,200 Taiping soldiers, who had just raided the flank of the Qing army, rushed down the gentle slope like a torrent, seemingly intent on sweeping away and devouring this scattered, rotten bunch of fish and shrimp.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, Qin Dingsan rode his horse to Zhou Tianjue's sedan chair, dismounted, and knelt down with his sword at the ready: "Your Excellency! These God Society bandits are no ordinary people! Our army has already scattered! I humbly request Your Excellency to consider the overall situation of suppressing the bandits, move to Sanlixu, gather the remaining troops, and then make further plans!"

"If the local militia and guerrillas have collapsed, so be it. As long as the elite Green Standard Army hasn't collapsed, that's good. Once the rebels reach the front lines, we'll fight them and drive them back." Zhou Tianjue sat upright in his official sedan chair, forcibly putting on an expression of composure even if a mountain collapsed before him, and gave the order.

Qin Dingsan had a bitter pill to swallow.

We can't even beat these cult bandits with gunfire, so how can we expect to defeat them in hand-to-hand combat?
During the reign of Emperor Qianlong, there were hardly any Green Standard Army units in the Qing Dynasty that dared to engage in close-quarters combat with the enemy!

"The Green Standard Army collapsed even earlier than the local militias!" Qin Dingsan almost cried. "The hundred or so personal guards who supervised the battle around me, and the hundred or so personal guards beside the Governor's sedan chair, were the last elite troops that hadn't disbanded!"

They can only command about two hundred personal guards now. Is it a pipe dream to expect these two hundred men to kill more than two thousand cult bandits?

Furthermore, even if the cult bandits couldn't win in hand-to-hand combat, they still had guns and cannons!

Since things have come to this, fleeing is the best course of action; as long as one survives, there's always hope.

Qin Dingsan had no intention of losing his life here with Zhou Tianjue.

He had made up his mind that even if Zhou Tianjue acted foolishly and refused to run away, he would disobey orders and carry Zhou Tianjue back to Sanlixu.

"What are you all standing there for! Quickly carry the Governor back to Sanli Market!"

Seeing the God Society cult members getting closer and closer, Li Mengqun became anxious and shouted at the sedan chair bearers whose legs were shaking like sieves, before Qin Dingsan could react.

The sedan bearers had wanted to run away for a long time, but since the master had not given the order and there were about a hundred guards standing around, they were afraid that they would be chopped up by the master's guards before they could run a few steps, so they did not dare to run.

As soon as Li Mengqun spoke, the sedan chair bearers were as if granted a pardon, and they carried the official sedan chair and ran frantically in the direction they had come from.

Their speed was not much slower than that of soldiers who had lost their weapons and were training in a militia.

In the exchange of fire, this Qing army was able to hold its own against the left army's musket battalion and artillery company, even with the supervisory team holding the line and Peng Gang holding back.

When hand-to-hand combat began, the Qing army's performance was even more appalling. Before the fighting even started, many Qing soldiers and local militiamen dropped their weapons and surrendered without resistance.

Very few Qing soldiers dared to engage in close combat with the Taiping Army.

The Qing army was defeated so quickly that even the spearmen of the left wing felt somewhat disappointed.

The officers of the long spear unit, in particular, were hoping that this Qing army could be used like the Qing army on the south bank of Dateng Gorge, allowing them to train their troops and improve their close-combat skills.

Li Qi was busy directing his spearmen and allied forces to capture the Qing soldiers who had been herded like ducks into the Dongxiang River for training, so he certainly couldn't spare any time to pursue the fleeing Qing officers.

Lu Qin volunteered to pursue the high-ranking Qing officer: "The high-ranking Qing officer has escaped! General, shall we pursue him?"

"Chase! But don't relentlessly pursue them! Just kill the soldiers next to the Qing general, and let the general go!" Peng Gang instructed.

"Let him go? General! I don't quite understand. He's a high-ranking official! Capturing him or killing him would be a great achievement!" Lu Qin asked, puzzled.

Peng Gang pointed to the more than two hundred supply wagons left behind by the Qing army on the battlefield, as well as the weapons and flags scattered all over the ground, and said, "If we capture him, who will be our transport captain from now on?"

Although Peng Gang was busy directing the battle and had not yet had time to interrogate the prisoners, he did not know whether the person sitting in the official sedan chair was Zhou Tianjue, this oddball.

Regardless of who it is, just based on the performance of this governor or admiral...

Peng Gang hoped that he could continue to serve as the governor and commander of Guangxi.

Killing or arresting him would only cause the Qing court a real headache if they appointed a more capable governor or commander of Guangxi.

Compared to the monumental achievement of capturing and killing the governor and the admiral, Peng Gang cared more about the tangible supplies he had obtained.

Besides, it's not like the Taiping Army hadn't captured and killed the Guangxi governor before.

In short, keeping that high-ranking Qing official in his sedan chair was more valuable than killing or arresting him.

"Transportation battalion commander?" Although Lu Qin didn't quite understand, he still led the musket battalion in pursuit of the fleeing Qing army remnants, still somewhat bewildered.

The battle near Mocun ended quickly. In this battle, Peng Gang's left wing, together with the supporting central army, killed 365 Qing soldiers near the entrance of Mocun and captured as many as 2,500 Qing soldiers and local militia.

The battlefield was cleaned up and the spoils were counted.

The spoils were so numerous that they were dazzling.

A total of 942 bird guns were captured, along with all the accessories, including the gun mount, powder jars, and lead bullet bags.

Although these muskets were of poor quality, the left-wing musket operators, who were used to using good muskets, looked down on them, thinking that the Green Standard Army's muskets were just fire pokers.

At least it's a fire poker that can be used to start a fire; it's better than nothing.

Eighteen mountain-splitting guns and seven hundred and eighty shells were captured.

The gunpowder seized weighed a full 680 jin, and the lead bullets and lead pellets weighed 1,135 jin.

What's most impressive is the baggage.

Two hundred and sixty-seven supply wagons were scattered haphazardly along the roadsides and among the fields and ditches.

The Qing army was too busy fleeing to have the time or the courage to burn the supply wagons.

The Taiping soldiers didn't even bother to put out the fire.

All the supplies were recovered by the Taiping Army.

Half of the carts were filled with grain, with fine rice and grains filling rattan and bamboo baskets and burlap sacks, roughly estimated to be no less than 200,000 catties (1,666 shi), and more than 4,500 catties (38 shi) of salt were also found.

There were also more than ten cartloads of hay and bean cakes, presumably for the officers' and soldiers' mounts.

They didn't find much silver, only 13,521 taels.

A lot of copper coins were found, and the soldiers tied them in strings to the ends of sticks, like making candied hawthorns, and threw them into sacks specifically for collecting copper coins.

In the end, the copper coins filled thirty-five sacks.

There are 382 head of cattle, horses, mules and donkeys, and a full range of cattle, warhorses and draft horses.

Then there are the Qing army's armor, flags, horns, drums, tents, cooking utensils, cooking pots, and even miscellaneous items such as official documents, rosters, and seals.

The Qing army actually brought more than 382 cattle, horses, mules, and donkeys; many more had been frightened and run away during the battle.

Peng Gang could only order the idle artillery company and the rifle company that had just escorted Qing prisoners into Mocun to stop standing around and hurry up and capture the livestock.

Enthusiastic villagers from nearby Mocun also rushed to help, turning it into a "livestock capture operation".

Many soldiers who were tasked with capturing livestock were exhausted by the animals running around everywhere. When they returned, they complained breathlessly that capturing these large animals was much more troublesome and laborious than capturing Qing soldiers prisoners.

To capture Qing soldiers, all you had to do was shout, and they would stop running. If they were smart enough, they would even find a rope and tie themselves up.

They would follow orders wherever they were told to go, more docile than sheep, afraid of angering the Taiping Army.

Frightened livestock won't be so obedient.

In the process of capturing the valuable livestock, twenty-five Taiping soldiers and more than a dozen villagers were kicked and injured.

The casualties were indeed greater than when capturing Qing soldiers.

After gathering most of the main supplies, Peng Gang ordered his soldiers to dig out the lead bullets from the Qing soldiers' corpses and retrieve the cannonballs fired during the battle.

The Zijingshan and Pingzaishan base areas were poor in resources and could not be self-sufficient in iron and lead.

Any metal is a very valuable strategic resource to them.

Peng Gang had to live frugally.

(End of this chapter)