1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 157 Siege
Peng Gang remained outside the main force of the Taiping Army for a long period of time.

In addition to Qin Richang, deputy commander of the First Army, who had long fought alongside the Zuo Jun Shuiying in the south bank of Qianjiang, and Lin Qirong, battalion commander of the Central Army stationed in Dongxiang.

Other Taiping generals lacked a clear understanding of the current strength of the Left Army.

When the good news first arrived, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui only thought that Zuo Jun was very strong because he could defeat tens of thousands of Qing troops on his own.

As for how strong they are, whether they are stronger than the central army or the vanguard.

Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui were not entirely clear about the matter, nor did they want to admit it.

Less than three days had passed since the Battle of Sanlixu ended.

At this time, Peng Gang proposed to besiege Wuxuan and cross the Qianjiang River to attack Zhang Bilu's Qing army from both sides.

This sent another signal to everyone present.

That is, the Left Army not only defeated Xiang Rong's tens of thousands of Qing troops, but also suffered relatively few casualties.

If the casualties of the Left Army are too heavy, Peng Gang will definitely not continue to use troops on a large scale.

They defeated tens of thousands of elite Qing troops with minimal casualties of their own.

Although neither Yang Xiuqing nor Xiao Chaogui wanted the Left Army to be stronger than their Central Army and Vanguard Army.

But both of them had to admit it.

Neither the current central army nor the vanguard has the capability to independently defeat tens of thousands of elite Qing troops.

Since entering the Zijing Mountain base area, the morale of the Taiping Army has not been as high as it used to be.

Even though Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui repeatedly invoked the spirits of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother to boost morale.

He even first proposed the concept of a small paradise when he descended to earth, offering a pie-in-the-sky promise to the heavenly soldiers to temporarily stabilize the morale of the Taiping army.

But both of them knew that the encouragement from their Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother could not replace a real victory.

The morale boost from their divine intervention is now less significant than the 1,300 jin of salt that Peng Gang brought.

After receiving the salt, some soldiers in each army shouted "Long live Military Advisor Peng!"

If this continues, the prestige of the Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother will be inferior to that of the seventh brother in the mortal world. What kind of behavior is this?

Small meetings discuss important matters, while large meetings discuss trivial matters.

The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was no exception.

During the period of the God God Society, all decisions of the society were discussed and decided in secret meetings between Hong Xiuquan, Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaogui, and Yang Xiuqing.

Now, Peng Gang, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai have been added to the original four.

The four-person meeting has become a seven-person meeting.

Peng Gang's proposed strategy was indeed risky, but if successful, the Qing army in Guangxi would find it difficult to stop the Taiping army's advance.

As for the Qing troops in neighboring provinces, apart from the large and powerful Guangdong Qing troops...

The Qing army's mobile forces in Yunnan, Guizhou, and Hunan had long been depleted.

After discussion, Peng Gang's six immortal brothers and his immortal brother-in-law all agreed to Peng Gang's strategy.

The only point of contention was how many armies to allocate from the main force and which armies to send to support and cooperate with the left wing in combat.

In this regard, Xiao Chaogui played a trick.

Peng Gang wanted two armies to cooperate in supporting the Left Army's operations, while Xiao Chaogui proposed transferring the Rear Army and the Central Army to support and cooperate with the Left Army's operations.

Nominally, there are two armies.

It was actually only one and a half troops.

The other half of the Central Army was already engaged in a fierce battle with Zhang Bilu on the south bank of the Qian River.

Needless to say, Wei Changhui would definitely follow Xiao Chaogui's lead. Yang Xiuqing also sided with Xiao Chaogui this time, supporting Xiao Chaogui's proposal to send the rear army and the central army to support and cooperate with the left army in combat.

Feng Yunshan and Shi Dakai believed that the number of troops in the rear army and half of the central army was too small.

The strength of the rear army was not outstanding among the various armies. When Hu Yihuang led the rear army to Xinyi, Guangdong to meet Ling Shiba, they were intercepted by the Qing army halfway.

This battle resulted in the loss of many of the main force's troops in the rear army, and its strength has yet to fully recover.

The First Army was quite strong, but Shi Dakai only commanded a little over half of it, not the entire First Army.

With three votes against three, the last vote held by Hong Xiuquan, the Heavenly King who had remained silent until now, was of paramount importance.

Just as Hong Xiuquan was about to speak, Xiao Chaogui urged the Heavenly Brother to descend to earth and cast his vote for Jesus as well.

Wei Changhui spoke first: "The Qing demon army is gathering outside Fengmen'ao. The elderly, weak, women and children of the Heavenly Kingdom are all in Mengchong and Sanjiang. If too many holy soldiers are transferred to fight in the west, how can the safety of Mengchong and Sanjiang be guaranteed?"

Hearing that the increased troop deployment in the east would threaten the safety of Mengchong and Sanjiang, Hong Xiuquan glanced at Xiao Chaogui, who was about to descend to earth, and after a moment's deliberation, reluctantly agreed to support Xiao Chaogui's proposal.

"Do as your brother-in-law wishes, and send the rear army and the central army to cooperate in the battle to kill the Qing demon army!"

After leaving Mengchong Fortress, and seeing no one around, Shi Dakai said indignantly, "The mountain path at Fengmen Pass is rugged and less than two feet wide. Above it are sheer cliffs thousands of feet high, and below it lies the Purple River, a deep abyss. Such a treacherous pass is so formidable that it could hold off ten thousand men. Why would we need to leave three armies to defend Fengmen Pass? Second Brother, why didn't Seventh Brother argue for our rights?"

Unlike Peng Gang, Shi Dakai had fought alongside the main force for more than half a year.

Shi Dakai had long learned the lesson of the practice of treating the main force of Hou Guiping's army as the main force and the subordinate forces of Bo Ta County as an unfair one.

This battle concerns the survival of the Heavenly Kingdom, yet the Guiping Gang, for their own selfish reasons, blocked Peng Gang's forces, which made Shi Dakai resentful.

“This is no one’s fault but Second Brother’s,” Peng Gang said, shaking his head. “Brother-in-law was just preparing for the Heavenly Brother to descend to earth. Even if Second Brother had expressed his support for us, it wouldn’t have changed the outcome.”

This is not really Hong Xiuquan's fault; Hong Xiuquan was unwilling to let Feng Yunshan take risks.

Hong Xiuquan and Peng Gang had both witnessed Xiao Chaogui's elaborate preparations for the Heavenly Brother's descent to earth.

Even if Hong Xiuquan stood on their side, Xiao Chaogui could still invoke the Heavenly Brother to oppose him.

"Let me give you a heads-up, including the best players, I can only muster a maximum of 2,100 men. I'm not so sure about Third Brother's rear guard, but I estimate that including the best players, they'll only have a maximum of 3,500 or 3,600 men." Shi Dakai told Peng Gang the truth.

In other words, once Feng Yunshan and Shi Dakai's forces were in place, the total number of Taiping Army troops participating in this battle would exceed 10,000.

The number of troops involved was no less than that of the Battle of Dateng Gorge. "That's enough." After Shi Dakai revealed his plans, Peng Gang was greatly relieved and felt that this battle was going to be fought.

Even if headquarters doesn't allocate troops to Peng Gang, and he only has the Left Army and half of Qin Richang's Central Army, Peng Gang will still try to take a beating on Zhang Bilu's Qing army.

They were able to recruit more than 5,000 Taiping soldiers, even though many of them were mixed in with the Taiping rebels.

Peng Gang was already very satisfied.

With so many troops involved, coordinating them effectively is a major challenge.

In the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, soldiers were owned by their generals, and the "sacred soldiers" of each army were the private troops of their respective army commanders.

It's not that you can completely command troops just because Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui lent you their troops after a secret meeting.

Qin Richang and Chen Ajiu are almost at their breaking point on the south bank of the Qian River; reinforcements should arrive as soon as possible.

Qin Richang and Shi Dakai were both men in the First Army of Guixian County.

Peng Gang ordered Shi Dakai to lead the Central Army south along the opposite river valley to Bitanxun, then cross the Qianjiang River directly from Bitanxun to enter Lianhua Mountain to support Qin Richang and Chen Ajiu in defending Lianhua Mountain and containing Zhang Bilu's Qing army.

The Honglian Village arsenal also has a stockpile of 25 Polu guns, 62 homemade muskets, three homemade mountain-splitting cannons, 470 long spears, and 235 jin of gunpowder.

Seeing that the equipment of the Central Army was rather poor, Peng Gang wrote to Luo Dagang, who was stationed at Bitan, requesting that all the stockpiled 62 homemade muskets, 3 mountain cannons, 470 long guns, and 120 catties of gunpowder be allocated to the Central Army.

At the same time, an additional 500 shi of grain, 3 shi of salt, and 300 jin of cured meat were allocated to the Central Army as wartime rations.

Feng Yunshan and Hu Yihuang's rear guard followed Peng Gang's left flank in the battle.

The number of troops in the rear army was not much different from Shi Dakai's estimate.

The total number of players on both the front and back of the main army is 3,700.

When the rear army marched to Wuxuan City, half of the original artillery company had been separated to form a heavy artillery company.

The supply train also towed sixteen heavy cannons to the outskirts of Wuxuan County.

The last time the rear army saw a complete unit of the left army was in Pingnan City, when Chen Ajiu's left army boat battalion was dredging the Xunjiang waterway for the main supply troops.

Several months later, they saw the Left Army again, which was strong and well-fed, with even the laborers able to eat their fill of grain and salt.

Feng Yunshan and Hu Yihuang finally understood why Zuo Jun was able to defeat Xiang Rong's tens of thousands of Qing troops on the western front with the strength of a single army.

Looking at the Left Army, with its bright flags, excellent equipment, numerous guns and cannons, and some units with uniform clothing colors, they were impressed.

Hu Yihuang even felt that the main force of the Taiping Heavenly Army in the Mengchong, Sanjiang, and Fengmen'ao areas looked more like a detachment.

Beneath the walls of Wuxuan City, a thousand drums resounded and a hundred horses galloped.

The Guiliu soldiers guarding the city of Wuxuan rubbed their sleepy eyes as they climbed the tower to look around. As far as the eye could see, all below the city were the camps of the Taiping Army.

"It's the cult bandits! The cult bandits are here! The cult bandits are going to attack the city!!"

Before the exclamations could be finished, the sound of drums shook the heavens, and the Taiping army arrived from the north, south, and east. Tens of thousands of Taiping soldiers formed a dark mass, with fluttering banners, gleaming swords and spears, and rolling artillery carts.

As for the west, it wasn't that the Taiping army didn't surround it, but rather that the west was extremely close to Qianjiang. If troops were stationed outside the west gate, the camp would be within range of the Qing army's cannons firing from the west gate.

The newly formed heavy artillery company of the Left Army pushed the newly captured Qing army heavy artillery to a point only 600 meters away from Wuxuan County, raising the muzzles to face the city wall.

Among the many cities in Guangxi, only Guilin, Liuzhou, and Guiping had heavy artillery.

Peng Gang has already interrogated the prisoners captured in the Battle of Sanlixu.

There were no heavy artillery pieces in Wuxuan City, only mountain-splitting cannons.

All the artillery battalions that Ulantai sent to the western front were transferred by Xiang Rong to the front line of Sanlixu to block the left army, and not a single one was left for Zhou Tianjue.

Of course, the discord between Xiang Rong and Zhou Tianjue was a factor, but the main reason was that Xiang Rong underestimated the Zuo army. He did not expect that the Zuo army would break through the Chu army and Zhengan soldiers' defenses so quickly and fiercely, and that they would still have the strength to attack Wuxuan City after breaking through the defenses.

Outside the four gates of Wuxuan County, the vanguard of the Taiping Army had already deployed their lines and begun setting up artillery positions and erecting palisades.

In the farmland and along the village roads, battalions of Taiping soldiers steadily advanced, blocking Wuxuan City from all sides.

On the city wall, the Qing army garrison in Wuxuan witnessed this scene and couldn't help but feel terrified.

Xiang Rong climbed the city wall and looked at the Taiping army lined up like ants below Wuxuan City. He murmured to himself, "These are not bandits, they look more like government troops than government troops."

Xiang Rong had served in the military for many years and was used to seeing government troops go on campaigns, but he had never seen such an orderly and well-trained "bandit army".

Li Mengqun, fully armed, stood atop the city tower, gazing at the Taiping army's continuous camps and cannons aimed directly at Wuxuan. He felt a tightness in his scalp and a bitter taste in his throat.

"General Xiang, can Wuxuan City be defended?" Li Mengqun steadied himself by leaning against the parapet.

Although Li Mengqun and Zhou Tianjue both belonged to the civil service system, Xiang Rong was a military officer in the Green Standard Army.

After spending several months together, Li Mengqun knew who was reliable and who wasn't.

"If we can withstand the Taiping rebels' heavy artillery, Wuxuan City can be defended; if we can't, it's hard to say." Xiang Rong stared grimly at the Taiping army below the city.

The number of government troops and local militia in Wuxuan City was not much less than that of the Taiping Army.

The defense of the city was not a field battle, and the city walls of Wuxuan were higher and thicker than those of the camp at Sanlixu.

The Qing troops defending the city did not lack hope of holding Wuxuan City.

Xiang Rong wasn't sure if the Qing soldiers and local militia defending the city could withstand the heavy artillery bombardment from the rebel army.

At this point, Xiang Rong could only pray that all the gunpowder in the Sanlixu camp had been ruined by the water, and that the Taiping Army didn't have much gunpowder left, so they couldn't fire many heavy artillery shells.

Wuxuan City was already in chaos. The county government office was closed, officials were hiding, and shops in the city were shut down.

They learned that the attacking force was Peng Gang's Left Army, not the Heaven and Earth Society.

The people in Wuxuan City were not afraid at all; on the contrary, they hoped that Peng Gang could once again enter Wuxuan City.

The Qing army had extremely poor discipline. During the three months that the guest army was stationed in Wuxuan, the people of Wuxuan were already full of complaints and suffering. They all missed the righteous army that not only did not harm the people in the slightest, but also set up soup kitchens to distribute porridge to them.

Just as the garrison of Wuxuan City was in chaos and fear, four loud-voiced messengers arrived at the foot of the city wall, raised megaphones made of rolled-up copper sheets, and shouted: "By order of the Supreme Lord, we are to punish the demons! Wuxuan has abandoned its people like weeds, ravaging the countryside! Now our Heavenly Army is at the city gates. Those who open the gates and surrender will be spared. Those who remain obstinate and resist will be reduced to dust by the cannons!"

(End of this chapter)