1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 151 The Decisive Battle at Sanlixu

The order to attack was given, and the drummer began to beat out rapid, aggressive drumbeats.

The 1st Battalion was in the center, the 10th Provisional Battalion was on the left flank, and the 11th Provisional Battalion was on the right flank.

As for Qiu Zhongliang's four battalions, they were used as reserves in case of unforeseen circumstances.

Three full-strength battalions, totaling 2,300 men, surged forward like an unstoppable torrent, marching to the beat of drums, and launched a relentless attack on the Qing army camp at Sanlixu.

The Qing army's camp at Sanlixu had a half-zhang-high earthen wall. On the way to the Qing army's camp at Sanlixu, there were also pits and traps, bamboo and wooden stakes, and iron caltrops.

However, the flood had already cleared many obstacles from the path of the attacking Left Army soldiers.

The coverings on the pits and traps were washed away, revealing large, conspicuous holes.

The bamboo and wooden skewers were washed away and became crooked, greatly reducing their effectiveness.

Without any secure anchoring, the iron caltrops were simply rolled up to the base of the earthen wall of the Sanlixu camp.

Even the earthen walls were washed away, leaving several large gaps.

These gaps are precisely what the attacking forces are targeting!

The Qing troops inside the Sanlixu camp were searching for anything they could carry in an attempt to plug the gap in the earthen wall.

Peng Gang observed the Qing army's actions but remained unconcerned.

Not to mention that there were too many gaps in the earthen walls of the main camp, the attacking troops were only two miles away from the Qing army's earthen walls. Given the Qing army's poor organization, it was impossible for them to plug the gaps in a short period of time.

Even if they blocked it, the earthen wall, which was half a zhang high and about the same thickness as the mud-brick house wall of his old house in Qingfeng Village, could be breached by climbing or digging.

Peng Gang's biggest concern was the five towering artillery platforms inside the Sanlixu camp.

That is the biggest threat to the attacking forces.

Through the telescope, Peng Gang could see Qing troops moving around on the forts. These five Qing army forts, presumably due to their terrain, were not affected by the flood and were able to fire normally.

If the Qing army's artillerymen were skilled enough and could load their guns quickly enough, they could inflict considerable casualties on the attacking forces.

As expected, the Qing army's five artillery positions opened fire in succession, attempting to halt the advance of the attacking troops.

The Qing army's first volley of artillery fire all missed.

After all, the attacking troops were still two miles away from the Qing army's artillery positions.

The Qing army fired cannons from a great distance, which Peng Gang, who had fought against the Qing army many times, was already used to.

It would be alarming if the Qing army's artillery could refrain from firing at long range.

When the attacking troops advanced to within about a mile of the fort,

The attacking force finally suffered casualties, with two cannon shots hitting their formation.

One cannon shot landed on the 10th Provisional Battalion's formation, and another cannon shot landed on the 1st Battalion's formation.

The soldiers of the First Battalion were all seasoned veterans; a single solid shot was not enough to destroy their will to attack.

The soldiers of the First Battalion continued their advance expressionlessly, as if nothing had happened, disregarding life and death.

The 10th Provisional Battalion was on the battlefield for the first time. When the shells landed in the ranks, four or five people were instantly killed or injured, which caused quite a stir.

However, the soldiers of the Provisional 10th Battalion, determined to repay General Peng's kindness, maintained high morale and, under the command and guidance of their officers, kept their formation and order in place, continuing to march forward with firm steps.

Before long, the attacking force entered the range of the Qing army's arquebuses, and was only about a hundred paces away from the Chu army's arquebusiers behind the earthen wall of the Sanlixu camp.

Peng Gang was somewhat surprised that the Qing army did not fire cannons or matchlock guns at this distance.

It's likely that the Qing army's cannons and matchlock guns were soaked in water, or that they didn't have enough gunpowder to fire.

Based on Peng Gang's understanding of the Qing army, it was impossible for them to leave their long-range weapons unused and wait to engage in hand-to-hand combat with his left flank. The more than 1,300 arquebusiers of the Chu army either stood at the gap or used the wet earthen walls of the camp as cover, tilting their heads and closing their eyes, firing their arquebuses at the attacking left flank.

The Chu army suffered from an unusually high rate of misfires due to dampness in its arquebuses, matchlocks, and gunpowder.

Peng Gang roughly estimated that at least 70% of the Chu army's arquebuses misfired, and at most only around 400 arquebuses actually fired.

Moreover, the Chu army's arquebusiers had no concept of aiming and focusing their fire; they basically just fired randomly in a general direction, causing very limited casualties to the attacking forces on the left flank.

It wasn't until they were within fifty paces that the casualties of the left-wing attacking force began to rise significantly.

At this distance, however, the Chu army's arquebusiers had very few opportunities left to fire.

They advanced to within about thirty paces of the camp wall at Sanlixu.

The musketeers of the First Battalion halted at the command of Battalion Commander Lu Qin, and the four companies raised their pre-loaded muskets and took turns firing at the Chu army musketeers at the breach in the camp wall in retaliation.

As for the Chu arquebusiers leaning against the camp wall, they only exposed half of their bodies because of the camp wall as cover. Lu Qin ignored them and instead ordered all the musketeers in the camp to concentrate their fire on the Chu arquebusiers who had a larger area of ​​exposure to bullets at the gap in the camp wall.

In just one volley of fire, hundreds of Chu arquebusiers fell dead at the breach in the camp wall.

The Chu army's arquebusiers immediately showed signs of retreat.

Xiang Rong personally oversaw the battle with his assassin squad, killing over a dozen of the fastest-running Chu arquebusiers before barely managing to halt their rout.

However, Xiang Rong's efforts only resulted in the Chu army's musketeers enduring an extra volley of gunfire from a battalion.

Seeing that the musketeers' morale was really low, Xiang Rong ordered the Zhengan soldiers, whose morale was slightly higher and who had not yet engaged the Taiping Army's left wing, to fill the gap in the camp wall, attempting to use the broken wall to block the left wing's attack.

Faced with the forest of spears of the Zhengan soldiers, Xiao Guoda, the battalion commander of the 11th Provisional Battalion, was eager to try his hand at spear fighting with the Zhengan soldiers and show off his skills. Even the deputy battalion commander of the 11th Provisional Battalion could not stop him.

Lu Qin had fought against the Zhengan soldiers before, and the Zhengan soldiers were quite strong. This was the first time the Provisional Eleventh Battalion had been on the battlefield. If they were to fight the Zhengan soldiers with long spears, they might not be able to defeat them.

To put it another way, the Chu army's arquebusiers were on the verge of collapse, and their battalion was only thirty or forty paces away from the Zhengan soldiers' gun formation.

The number of Zhengan soldiers killed by the first battalion firing volleys of gunfire was more than the number of Zhengan soldiers killed by the eleventh provisional battalion after a long gun battle with them.

Lu Qin ordered each company to fire volleys of gunfire from the Zhengan soldiers' gun formation, while he himself blew whistles, waved command flags, and shouted, finally managing to stop the 11th Provisional Battalion's formation.

As Lu Qin had predicted, at a distance of less than forty paces, after enduring only one volley of gunfire from a battalion, the Zhengan soldiers' spear formation showed signs of loosening and collapsing.

At that very moment, in the Sanlixu camp, apart from Xiang Rong's 2,600 Chu soldiers and 1,300 Zhengan soldiers who were earnestly resisting the Taiping Army's left wing attack, the Qing troops were also engaged in other tasks.

The remaining troops each had their own agendas.

Two thousand two hundred local militia members were drawn into the Chu army by Xiang Rong.

The more than three hundred Eight Banner soldiers had long since disappeared.

Yiketanbu, the deputy commander of the Qingjiang garrison in Guizhou, only managed to gather six or seven hundred Qingjiang Green Standard Army soldiers, who stood sparsely behind the Chu army. The remaining three or four hundred Green Standard Army soldiers had long since disappeared.

The situation of the guerrilla force of Guzhou Town in Guizhou Province under Han Yongqi was much better. Of the six hundred guerrilla soldiers, Han Yongqi had gathered five hundred.

Iktambu and Han Yongqi were both observing the situation. If Xiang Rong's Chu army and Zhengan soldiers could defeat the short-haired men, they would join them in the fight.

Military merit is something you shouldn't refuse.

If we can't win, we'll just abandon the Sanlixu camp and move on to Wuxuan.

They were in the rear guard, and as long as they ran fast, the Chu army and Zhengan soldiers would cover their rear.

Under a gun emplacement within the camp, Yang Huwei, the Qingjiang garrison commander, led more than eighty Guizhou soldiers to the gun emplacement.

Wang Zhi, a battalion commander under Yang Huwei, followed Yang Huwei to the foot of the artillery platform with a heavy heart. He hesitated and said, "Is Qian Rong really going to make a move now? The short-haired rebels haven't even broken in yet. What if Xiang Junmen and the others drive them back? Wouldn't we brothers be doomed here?"

(End of this chapter)