1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 139 Moving Camp at Dachong
Inside the former Wang family compound in Dachong.

Chen Ajiu, who had just returned from the eastern front, informed Peng Gang of the situation on the Dongxiang battlefield.

Although Yang Xiuqing and others eventually succeeded in persuading Hong Xiuquan, who was unwilling to leave Pingnan City, to move to Jintian.

By the time Yang Xiuqing and others persuaded Hong Xiuquan to move his capital away from Pingnan City, it was already too late. The Qing army from Guangdong had almost reached the gates of Pingnan City.

There were still about 20% of the grain, fodder, and military supplies in Pingnan City that hadn't been transported away in time, so they had no choice but to burn them.

The Taiping army obtained a great deal of grain and fodder in Pingnan City.

Even if only 20% of the grain was burned, it still amounted to more than 4,500 shi of grain! A significant portion of that was rice!
At present, Guangxi is still experiencing a year of famine. More than 4,500 shi of grain is a huge strategic resource for both the Qing army and the Taiping army.

It's a real shame that it was burned.

Especially now that the troops from other provinces have basically arrived, it will not be as easy for the Taiping Army to seize grain and military supplies from the Qing army as before.

Although the Taiping army's retreat was relatively orderly and did not turn into a rout.

Unfortunately, the troops pursuing the Taiping army were Qing troops that Lin Zexu, Wulantai, and others had just brought into Guangxi and had been given ample provisions and pay.

These Qing soldiers were in high spirits and eager to make a name for themselves, so they pursued the Taiping army very closely.

The Taiping army's rearguard suffered over 300 casualties before successfully escorting Hong Xiuquan and his 36 concubines safely to Jintian.

"Military Advisor Feng is a man of great loyalty and righteousness. Half a month ago, in order to meet up with Ling Shiba's brothers, Military Advisor Feng sent Hu Yihuang, the deputy commander of the rear army, with more than a thousand people to Xinyi to meet up with Ling Shiba's men. Unexpectedly, they collided head-on with more than a thousand Qing cavalrymen from Guangdong halfway there. Only half of them returned, and even Hu Yihuang's fate is unknown."

Chen Ajiu explained to Peng Gang in detail how the rear army had dispatched a detachment to Xinyi, Guangdong, to meet up with Ling Shiba's Taiping army.

Peng Gang was quite surprised when he first heard the news.

cavalry?

In the Guangdong and Guangxi regions, there was only one unit with over a thousand organized cavalry: the Eight Banners troops stationed in Guangzhou.

Although Hu Yihuang's rear army was one of the weaker fighting forces in the Taiping Army.

However, strength and weakness are relative.

The rear army had also participated in the Jintian Regiment. As long as the troop strength was not too disparate, they could easily deal with ordinary Qing troops.

Peng Gang did not believe that the Eight Banners troops during the Xianfeng era still had the ability to defeat two thousand Taiping Army infantrymen.

Unless all of these thousands of Eight Banner cavalrymen were Solon cavalrymen.

To my recollection, there is no record of the Solon cavalry engaging in battle with the Taiping Army within Guangxi territory.

"Hu Yihuang's rear guard was defeated by the Eight Banners cavalry?" Peng Gang asked, frowning.

He found it hard to believe that Hu Yihuang's two thousand rear guards would be defeated by the Eight Banners troops.

"They'd never seen so many horses before and were terrified. According to those who came back, the cavalry didn't dare charge at them, and their rear guard was routed by local militia from Guangdong and Hunan," Chen Ajiu said.

Hearing this, Peng Gang felt relieved. That's more like it; that's the Eight Banners he remembered.

This Eight Banners army should be the Eight Banners army of Ulantai, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Guangdong.

More than the Eight Banners troops, Peng Gang was concerned about the identities of the two local militias that had defeated Hu Yihuang's army.

Many Qing troops entered Guangxi from Hunan to fight, but there were not many local militia.

Could it be that Jiang Zhongyuan's Chu Yong has also arrived in Guangxi?

Finally, Chen Ajiu briefed Peng Gang on the recent situation on the eastern front.

After stabilizing their position, the main force of the Taiping army on the eastern front launched three major battles against the Qing army in Jiangkouwei, Guancun, and Siwangcun within just seven days.

Apart from the battle at Jiangkouwei, which ended in a draw, the two sides fought to a draw.

Both battles at Guancun and Siwangcun ended in victory for the Taiping Army.

The Qing army suffered far more casualties than the Taiping army, at least two or three times as many!
However, the Taiping army, though victorious, did not gain the upper hand, and the two sides were locked in a stalemate on the eastern front.

Having a general understanding of the situation on the eastern front, Peng Gang instructed his staff to create a new sand table in Dachong for research purposes, based on the latest intelligence.

His staff officers were not formally trained and had not received systematic modern education; none of them possessed the ability to formulate a practical and feasible battle plan.

However, they still have a reasonably good ability to collect and organize intelligence on both sides and to analyze the overall war situation.

"General, don't you plan to return to Red Lotus Village?" Zhang Ze asked boldly.

Honglian Village already has a sand table model, but Peng Gang asked the staff to make a new one in Dachong, indicating that Peng Gang wanted to set up his headquarters in Dachong and had no plans to return to Honglian Village for the time being.

Zhang Ze lived in Honglianping and Honglian Village for more than two years.

Leaving his familiar surroundings suddenly made Zhang Ze feel somewhat uncomfortable.

Compared to Dachong, Zhang Ze still prefers to stay in the familiar Honglian Village.

This was not only Zhang Ze's idea, but also the idea of ​​several other staff officers, they just didn't say it out loud.

"Given the current situation in Dongxiang, is it appropriate for us to return to Honglian Village now?" Peng Gang did not answer directly, but instead let his staff think about the question themselves.

The five staff officers fell into deep thought.

The main force of the Taiping Army was tied up by the Qing army on the eastern front and could not return to Dongxiang for the time being.

Lin Qirong's central army suffered heavy casualties after engaging with the Chu army and Zhengan troops.

If their left wing retreats to Honglian Village, and Xiang Rong's Qing troops seize the opportunity to attack Dongxiang, Lin Qirong may not be able to stop them.

If Lin Qirong cannot stop Xiang Rong's Qing army, in the end, won't the Zuo army continue to march north to clean up Lin Qirong's mess?

However, their situation would be much more passive then than it is now.

"It was my oversight." Having figured out the crux of the matter, Zhang Ze lowered his head with some shame and said.

Peng Gang and his students had spent more than two years together, and he knew them well enough.

When he asked these staff officers to create a new sand table in Dachong, the expressions of the other staff officers were similar to Zhang Ze's. First, they were surprised, then somewhat unwilling, and their thoughts were almost written on their faces.

“You are soldiers now, not civilians. Wherever you are stationed, that is your home,” Peng Gang said seriously as he reassured them.

“Being in Dachong allows us to better protect Honglian Village and Bitan Flood Control.” After saying this, Peng Gang asked the battalion and company commanders to bring in paper and pens for a meeting.

After being tempered by two major battles.

All of Zuo Jun's troops had combat experience, and he wanted to hear his officers' opinions on the Qing army and summarize the current combat experience.

In order to better deal with the Qing army's encirclement and suppression in the future.

"The fighting will and combat capability of different units of the Qing army were too disparate." Lu Qin's battalion, namely the musket battalion, participated in both the Dongxiang and Sanlixu battles.

In both battles, the First Battalion served as the main force.

This battle also marked the first time their left wing had clashed with visiting troops from other provinces who had entered Guangxi.

Compared to Zhou Tianjue's Guizhou and Yunnan armies and Xiang Rong's Chu and Zhengan troops.

The stark contrast in the fighting will and combat effectiveness between the two armies left a very deep impression on Lu Qin.

It's hard to believe that both of these armies were actually Qing troops.

“The gap between the Qing army commanders was even greater than the gap in their deployments.” Xie Bin’s attention was more focused on the Qing army commanders.

"Zhou Tianjue and Xiang Rong are commanders with completely different personalities. Zhou Tianjue's methods of using troops are incomprehensible, and his various absurd behaviors are difficult to predict with common sense."

“There were too many opium addicts in the Qing army. Take our captured Guizhou and Yunnan soldiers, for example. In one battalion of three hundred soldiers, there were a hundred and twenty opium pipes. The number of opium pipes was almost as many as the number of their muskets.” Li Qi was in charge of capturing Qing army prisoners after the Battle of Mocun. He was most impressed by the large number of opium addicts in the Qing army.

"Actually, in close combat, the Qing army's militia were better at fighting and more willing to engage in close-quarters combat than the Green Standard Army. It's just that the militia's equipment was too rudimentary. Many of the strong and Yao soldiers recruited by Zhou Tianjue were still fighting us with bamboo spears and wooden spears," Hu Daniu said.

"The Green Standard Army's spears and sabers weren't much better; they were as brittle as dry bamboo. When I was killing Chu soldiers and Zhengan soldiers, I broke and chopped several Green Standard Army sabers in half," Huang Dabiao recalled.

“Many of the Qing soldiers don’t speak the same language. Many of the Zhuang and Yao soldiers we captured can’t even speak Mandarin; they can only speak their local dialect,” Qiu Zhongliang said after thinking for a moment.

"If they can't even communicate in the same language, then there's no way to expect them to cooperate well on the battlefield."

After discussing and summarizing the shortcomings of the Qing army, Peng Gang then asked his officers to summarize their own shortcomings.

When discussing the shortcomings of the Qing army, these officers spoke very enthusiastically and actively.

When it came to exposing their own shortcomings, these officers remained silent, none of them willing to be the first to stand up and point out their own weaknesses.

In response to this situation, Peng Gang became unusually angry and questioned, "Are we really so perfect in our performance on the battlefield? If our army can truly be perfect on the battlefield and perform flawlessly..."

Why did we suffer more than two hundred casualties while pursuing Xiang Rong's routed troops in the battle against Xiang Rong's Chu army and Zhengan troops?
Why, after suffering more than two hundred casualties, did they still fail to completely defeat or even annihilate the Chu army and the Zhengan troops?

Why couldn't they even capture and kill their commander, Xiang Rong?
Knowing yourself and knowing your enemy can help you win a hundred battles.

We must not only understand our enemy, but also understand ourselves and confront our own problems.

"The Chu army has a small number of cavalry, while we only have about twenty scouts for reconnaissance," Xie Bin was the first to stand up and point out their weakness.

"Xiang Rong's Qing troops were very fast and had no cavalry. Even if we defeated the Qing army, it would be difficult to expand our gains."

Xie Bin started the discussion, and Li Qi followed suit: "The victory at Mocun was too easy, and many soldiers became complacent, thinking that Xiang Rong's Chu army, Zhengan soldiers, and Qian and Dian armies were all the same."

It wasn't until we actually engaged in battle that we discovered the Chu army and the Zhengan soldiers, especially the Zhengan soldiers, possessed formidable close-combat abilities. Some of the Zhengan soldiers were even better at spear fighting than our long spearmen.

"Our musketeers and pikemen didn't coordinate very well. By the time we reached Zhangzhong Bridge, our troops were in disarray. We hadn't had time to regroup before engaging the Qing army, and we were basically fighting each other haphazardly. Most of our casualties were caused at that time."

After the meeting, Peng Gang instructed Qiu Zhongliang, Huang Bingxian, and Qiu Zhongmin, who had the best writing skills, to organize and summarize the contents of the meeting, compile them into a booklet, and distribute it to officers at the battalion and company levels for review.

"Company and battalion level officers?" Fourth Battalion Commander Qiu Zhongliang was somewhat troubled. "Many company commanders don't know many characters. Wouldn't it be sufficient to just send the combat summary down to the battalion level? Battalion commanders know more characters and can understand the combat summary."

They had to copy the combat summaries distributed to the battalion and company commanders one by one.

The Left Army had only six battalion commanders, and twelve including deputy battalion commanders, while there were a full twenty-five company commanders.

The workload is incomparable to that of the other day.

“If you don’t understand, ask the battalion commander or look it up in the dictionary! I can’t keep accommodating company commanders who can’t even recognize common characters,” Peng Gang said seriously.

"The three of you just need to copy twelve operational summaries. The rest can be copied by the battalion commanders and deputy battalion commanders themselves."

After saying that, Peng Gang turned and headed towards the Second Battalion's encampment.

The muskets he captured in the Battle of Mocun were enough to rearm a battalion.

Taking this opportunity, Peng Gang planned to train the Second Battalion into a musket battalion.

In this way, the firearms equipment rate of the Left Army will increase from one-sixth to one-third.

Although their firearms equipment rate was still 50-60% lower than that of the Qing army.

However, more sophisticated firearms and more refined training can make up for this gap.

Xiang Rong's Chu army suffered heavy casualties and needed time to heal its wounds.

The Left Army, having just experienced a major battle, was also exhausted and needed time to rest.

For at least the next two weeks, unless the Qing army provokes him.

Otherwise, Peng Gang would not want to provoke a new war.

After all, the situation in Dongxiang is still unclear. If something goes wrong on the western front, the Taiping Army will be in a very passive position.

If Zhou Tianjue, an ambitious but incompetent and self-important fool, were in charge of the overall situation in Guangxi, Peng Gang would have no reason to worry about this.

However, the God Society's uprising was brought forward by more than half a year, allowing Lin Zexu to enter Guangxi despite his advanced age and frail health.

At that time, the person in charge of the overall "bandit suppression" in Guangxi was Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu.

Lin Zexu's reputation not only allowed him to control the civil and military officials in Guangxi, temporarily uniting them, but it even put him above Xu Guangjin, the Governor-General of Guangdong and Guangxi.

He certainly possessed the abilities of a capable and renowned minister.

With Lin Zexu as the imperial commissioner, the Qing government's Guangxi authorities, with their fragmented powers and limited ability to mobilize troops, were unlikely to experience a repeat of the situation where they struggled to even muster a mobile force to suppress the Heaven and Earth Society.

Of course, this is only temporary.

An imperial envoy, exhausted and worn out, was unable to quell the chaos in Guangxi.

(End of this chapter)