1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 153 Heavy Cannon [Bonus Chapter for Helmsman 2021XXXX0514!]

Xiang Rong's Chu army and Zhengan troops were the backbone of the Qing army on the western front. With the backbone gone, the remaining Qing troops were no threat.

All the soldiers of the Left Army had to do was pursue the fleeing enemy and expand their gains.

As for whether the routed Qing army would regroup and organize a counterattack, Peng Gang was not worried about that.

The Chu army, which had been relatively unscathed more than two months ago and had entered Xunzhou Prefecture with the remaining strength from its campaign against the Heaven and Earth Society in Guilin, was barely capable of this.

Now, it's hard to say whether Xiang Rong himself still has any fighting spirit, let alone the Chu army and Zhengan soldiers under his command whose fighting power is built up by money.

Peng Gang personally led the central army to capture the most difficult camp, Sanlixu.

Xie Bin, who attacked the Yunnan Army camp and defense line on the left wing, and Li Qi, who attacked the Qing Army militia camp and defense line on the right wing, also successively sent messengers to deliver reports of their victories.

They broke through the camps of the Yunnan army and the local militia. Some of the Yunnan army and the local militia fled towards Wuxuan City, while others fled towards Xiangzhou City.

The Qing army's impenetrable defenses around Zijing Mountain and Pingzai Mountain were torn to pieces by Peng Gang's left wing.

The strategy of trapping the bandits in Guangxi, devised by Imperial Commissioner Lin Zexu and Guangxi Governor Zhang Bilu, among others, thus failed.

After capturing Xiang Rong's Sanlixu Chu army camp, Peng Gang was surprised to find an unexpected bonus: 65,000 taels of fine Guilin prefectural silver ingots inside the camp.

It is estimated that when Xiang Rong entered Guilin to suppress the Heaven and Earth Society, the Guilin authorities raised military funds for Xiang Rong. Xiang Rong's Chu army and Zhengan army were defeated too quickly and failed to take all the gold and silver with them.

Now all 65,000 taels of silver have gone to Peng Gang.

Compared to the 65,000 taels of silver, Peng Gang's biggest gain from this battle was the capture of a full twenty-six intact heavy cannons weighing over 500 jin each!
All of them are high-quality heavy artillery manufactured by the Guangdong Ordnance Bureau!

This is something you can't buy even if you have money in Guangxi.

Although compared to Europe and North America, these heavy artillery pieces that the Eight Banners garrison in Guangzhou were so proud of were technically more than a century outdated.

However, in the early years of the Xianfeng Emperor's reign, these heavy cannons were truly vital military weapons of the Qing Dynasty.

So far, 261 Mongolian warhorses have been captured.

Unfortunately, there were very few skilled horsemen in Guangxi, otherwise Peng Gang could have taken this opportunity to form a company of cavalry.

Forget about having proper cavalry; the entire Taiping Army probably couldn't muster more than two hundred skilled horsemen.

However, given enough time, dragoons capable of both mounted mobility and dismounted combat can still be trained. Some musketeers in the first company of the first battalion have some experience on horseback.

On a gun emplacement piled with more than twenty corpses, over sixty Guizhou soldiers, dressed in rags and covered in mud and blood, laid down their weapons and knelt to welcome Peng Gang.

"General Peng!"

Peng Gang had already heard that a small contingent of Guizhou troops had come to the rescue while the Zuo army and the Chu army were locked in fierce battle, capturing a fort as a token of their loyalty.

He glanced at the corpses on the gun emplacement; most of the Qing soldiers who had died had been killed by hand.

These corpses included those of Chu soldiers, Eight Banners soldiers, and Guizhou soldiers.

They were able to seize the fort and hold out until the Taiping Army captured the Sanlixu camp.

The Guizhou army isn't incapable of fighting.

How could the Guizhou army be so cowardly under Zhou Tianjue's command?

Indeed, there are no soldiers who can't fight, only commanders who can't lead troops.

"Please rise, Mr. Yang!"

Peng Gang personally stepped forward to help Yang Huwei up.

Yang Huwei came to him with utmost sincerity.

Yang Huwei's righteous act of attacking the fort was equivalent to indirectly saving the lives of many soldiers of the Left Army and reducing their casualties.

For this reason alone, Yang Huwei deserved Peng Gang's personal help to his feet.

Moreover, after capturing the fort, Yang Huwei fought a bloody battle with two hundred Chu soldiers, which dispersed the Chu army's forces and reduced the offensive pressure on the left flank.

Peng Gang had many subordinates who were former officers of the Green Standard Army.

Xie Bin, Hou Jiyong, and even Chen Nanshan were all lower-ranking officers in the Green Camp.

However, Xie Bin and Hou Jiyong had known Peng Gang for nearly two years and were his friends before the uprising.

Chen Nanshan was captured and reformed for seven or eight months before he was put to use.

Yang Huwei was the first Green Standard Army officer to defect to the Left Army during the war.

Human hearts are made of flesh and blood. Peng Gang's practice of not indiscriminately killing prisoners and treating them well did have an effect.

If it weren't for the fact that the released veterans of the Guizhou army spread the word about the Zuo army's good treatment of prisoners of war, Yang Huwei, even if dissatisfied with the Qing army, would not have taken the risk of making the decision to defect on the eve of battle.

“General Peng, I know the locations of several grain depots behind the Qing forces. There is still some grain stored in the depots. I am willing to lead these brothers from Qingjiang to capture the Qing forces’ grain depots for you, so that they will not be burned by the Qing forces in the chaos of battle!” Yang Huwei volunteered.

"Can you ride a horse?" Peng Gang asked.

His question is not superfluous.

Although the Qing court explicitly prohibited military officers from riding in sedan chairs, by the early years of the Xianfeng Emperor's reign, this prohibition had become virtually ineffective.

There were many military officers who preferred to ride in sedan chairs rather than on horseback.

Min Zhengwen, the Guangxi governor who was frightened to death in the Battle of Dateng Gorge, liked to travel by sedan chair.

"Yes, Your subordinate will!" Yang Huwei replied firmly.

Seeing that Yang Huwei's goose-feather saber had already been cut with several nicks, Peng Gang took off his own saber from his waist, led his horse over and handed it to Yang Huwei: "Consider this horse and this saber as my gift to you."

Peng Gang was riding a rather tall Yunnan horse.

Even the tallest Yunnan horse is still a Yunnan horse. This time, having captured Mongolian warhorses from the Eight Banners, Peng Gang took the opportunity to get himself a better mount.

"Your subordinate will certainly live up to General Peng's expectations!" Yang Huwei's voice trembled and choked as he accepted the sword presented by Peng Gang with both hands.

His sincerity in surrendering was genuine, and Peng Gang's sincerity in accepting him was equally genuine! He made the right choice!

As Yang Huwei and his sixty-odd Guizhou soldiers turned to leave, Peng Gang suddenly remembered something and called out to them, "Wait a minute!"

Yang Huwei was taken aback, thinking that Peng Gang was about to change his mind, and stood there dumbfounded.

Peng Gang ordered the guards of the First Company of the First Battalion who were accompanying him to take off their red scarves and put them on the Guizhou troops under Yang Huwei's command: "Wear the red scarves to avoid being accidentally injured by friendly forces."

Not all troops knew that a Qing army unit from Guizhou had surrendered and defected. If Yang Huwei were to brazenly go and occupy the Qing army's grain depot...

If they encountered other troops, especially Xie Bin and Li Qi's troops, they would most likely be mistaken for Qing soldiers and accidentally wounded.

"General, aren't you afraid they're just feigning surrender and returning to Wuxuan?" Huang Dabiao felt uneasy seeing Peng Gang give Yang Huwei his sword and horse, and even let Yang Huwei lead the newly surrendered Guizhou soldiers to seize the Qing army's grain depot.

“They not only killed the Green Standard Army soldiers, but also the Eight Banners soldiers. They fired cannons at Xiang Rong, and they have no way to retreat.” Peng Gang shook his head. Even if they were to feign surrender, it wouldn’t be Yang Huwei’s method.

"Trust those you employ, and don't employ those you don't trust. I trust them."

The finishing touches were still being done, but the only drawback was that they flooded the Qing army camp at Sanlixu before the attack.

The Qing army suffered severe damage to its supplies, and much of its grain is still soaking in water.

Peng Gang could only order the civilian laborers who rushed to the battlefield to salvage supplies, salvaging as much as they could.

The most excited about this battle were actually the artillery company, whose sense of participation wasn't very strong.

The young men of the artillery company did not participate in the pursuit of the remaining enemy troops; instead, they gathered around the captured Qing army heavy artillery, stroking it and praising it with admiration.

"Tsk tsk tsk! This cannon must weigh a thousand pounds!" A gunner from an artillery company, who was no more than twenty years old, squatted down next to the gun carriage, his eyes almost touching the cannon barrel, his fingers tracing the inscription.

“‘Made in the Guangdong Arsenal in the 20th year of the Daoguang Emperor’s reign’, hey! This thing is a precious artifact personally manufactured by the Guangdong Arsenal of the Qing government!”

"Can't you recognize all the characters? You only weigh 800 jin!" a younger artilleryman from the artillery company laughed.

"A treasure?" Chen Xuyuan dismounted, glanced at the 800-pound cannon, and sneered, "Xiang Rong and his gang of Qing dogs used it to defend their position, but we still managed to take it from them."

Liang Zhen, an eighteen-year-old artillery platoon leader, wiped the gray blood from his forehead with the back of his hand, kicked the gun mount, and asked, "Company commander, can this gun be loaded with grapeshot? If we can use this thing to bombard the Qing army's formation, it will be much more powerful than our mountain-splitting cannons."

"It can probably fire three to five pounds of grapeshot!" A sharp-eyed artilleryman peered into the barrel, his voice filled with amazement. "Look how wide the barrel is, it's perfect for bombarding enemy positions!"

"Be careful, everyone!" Chen Xuyuan jumped onto the cannon carriage and wiped the blood and dust off the muzzle with a cloth. "This is a heavy cannon, not an ordinary thing. Be careful not to damage the breech. Tomorrow we have to take it to Wuxuan and use it to fight its former master!"

Before he finished speaking, the artillerymen burst into laughter. Some excitedly lifted their legs to move it, while others circled the gun mount, gesturing about the ammunition caliber and firing angle. Several men were already arguing over who would operate the 800-pound heavy cannon.

Chen Xuyuan touched the cannon barrel and said, "This cannon has few sand holes, clear rifling, smooth barrel walls, and no obvious cracks. It's a good piece of equipment!"

As he spoke, he stood up, gazing at the billowing smoke inside and outside the Sanlixu camp, and said in a somewhat heavy tone, "With this heavy cannon, our Left Army will have more confidence in fighting the Qing army in the future. Remember, this cannon was obtained by our brothers with their lives, and we must live up to their expectations."

In an instant, the previously noisy artillerymen fell silent.

They gazed at the heavy trophy, their eyes filled with both excitement and solemnity.

Since the uprising began, their left wing has suffered greatly from the lack of heavy artillery.

More than half of the casualties suffered by the Left Army were caused by the Qing army's heavy artillery.

To take a recent example, in the Battle of Sanlixu today, at least a hundred soldiers, both new and old, of the Left Army were killed or wounded under the heavy artillery bombardment of the Qing army.

However, the artillerymen in their artillery company, despite their skill in firing cannons, were unable to provide fire support for the musketeers and pikemen.

Unfortunately, while the mountain-splitting gun was easy to carry, its range was simply too short.

It's no exaggeration to say that these heavy cannons were obtained at the cost of the lives of the brothers in the musket and pike battalions.

The Red Lotus Village arsenal attempted to build heavy artillery, but failed.

Since the uprising began, the war has been urgent, and there is a great shortage of firearms at the front.

We could only concentrate our manpower and resources on producing muskets and mountain-splitting guns, and the development of heavy artillery had to be postponed and shelved.

In the silence, someone touched the blood-stained blue shirt on their chest, someone weighed their ammunition pouch, and someone else wiped the sweat from the corner of their eye and whispered, "When we reach the capital one day, we'll take this cannon with us and blast it to smithereens!"

"The prefectural city is too far away. I'll ask the master if we can go to Wuxuan first so we can practice our skills against Wuxuan," Chen Xuyuan said excitedly, rubbing his hands together.

“Everyone’s here. What’s wrong? Now that you have heavy artillery, you’re looking down on the mountain-splitting guns?” Peng Gang walked up to the group of young men from the artillery company.

Upon seeing Peng Gang arrive, the young men of the artillery company quickly stood at attention and saluted him: "General!"

In this battle, not only were twenty-six heavy cannons captured, but also sixty-two mountain-splitting cannons.

The gift Xiang Rong gave him upon meeting him was much more substantial than the one Zhou Tianjue gave him.

With so many cannons, expanding the artillery force should naturally be put on the agenda.

With the rapid expansion of the army, a single artillery company was no longer sufficient.

What's limiting the expansion of the left army's artillery now isn't cannons, but gunpowder.

Artillery, especially heavy artillery, has a much greater need for gunpowder than musketeers.

Peng Gang's Honglian Village arsenal could produce gunpowder.

However, due to the lack of nitrates, the production of gunpowder has always been low.

After four large-scale battles, the gunpowder that Peng Gang had stockpiled through various channels before the war had long been used up.

Currently, the main source of gunpowder for the Left Army is from captured weapons.

(End of this chapter)