1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 158 Tonight, the government distributes porridge.
The message shouted by the messenger was Feng Yunshan's idea; Peng Gang wouldn't let his messenger shout such mystical words.

Although the Taiping army messengers' shouts caused a stir among the Qing troops who heard them, the Qing troops inside Wuxuan City did not intend to surrender.

A governor of Guangxi, a military commander of Hunan, a magistrate of Guiping County, and more than a dozen high-ranking Green Standard Army officers, including deputy generals, brigade generals, and guerrillas, were stationed in Wuxuan City.

The Qing troops inside Wuxuan City did not surrender so easily.

Of course, Peng Gang did not expect the Qing troops garrison in Wuxuan City to surrender.

There were at least several thousand Qing soldiers and militiamen in Wuxuan City, and Peng Gang did not have the capacity to take in so many surrendered Qing soldiers at once.

"fire!"

The Qing troops inside Wuxuan City were unwilling to surrender, which suited Peng Gang's wishes perfectly. Peng Gang then ordered the city to be shelled.

Chen Xuyuan, the company commander of the heavy artillery company, had long been eager to try his hand at firing heavy artillery.

Upon Peng Gang's order, Chen Xuyuan commanded each artillery group to fire in turn for calibration firing.

Rumble!
Sixteen earth-shattering roars echoed across the fields, and smoke billowed from the muzzles of the sixteen cannons.

The shell was fired and flew out of the barrel.

Since it was the first time using heavy artillery, the various artillery groups were not yet familiar with the trajectory and propellant charge of the heavy artillery.

Of the first round of sixteen shots, fourteen went too high.

The shells flew directly over the city wall and crashed into Wuxuan County.

Only two cannon shots hit the city wall, causing it to tremble slightly. Dust and ash fell from the wall like snowflakes, startling the Qing soldiers on the city wall so much that they almost knelt down.

"That's great! That's wonderful! In the past, it was always our Taiping Heavenly Army that was suppressed by the Qing devils' heavy artillery and suffered endlessly! Today, the tables have finally turned, and it's the Qing devils' turn to taste the heavy artillery of our Taiping Heavenly Army!"

Witnessing firsthand the Qing army in Wuxuan City trembling under the heavy artillery fire of the Taiping Army, Hu Yihuang exclaimed how exhilarating it was.

The gunners in each artillery group of the heavy artillery company were all veteran gunners transferred from the original artillery company.

These veteran artillerymen were trained by Peng Gang with money. In the past two and a half years, they have fired more cannons than many Qing army artillerymen have fired in their entire lives.

Although they are all very young, only in their teens or early twenties, they are already seasoned veterans.

After firing a round of shots, the gunners of each artillery group in the heavy artillery company reduced the amount of propellant based on their experience.

Although these captured heavy artillery pieces were all produced by the Guangdong Ordnance Bureau and were of superior quality.

However, the quality is relatively good compared to the cannons produced by the Guangxi Ordnance Bureau.

The Qing army's heavy artillery was not produced in a standardized manner, and the trajectories of each cannon varied greatly, forcing gunners to figure it out on their own based on experience.

Soon, the heavy artillery company launched a second round of shelling on Wuxuan City.

After a round of calibration, the accuracy of the second round of artillery fire improved, with four out of sixteen shots hitting the Wuxuan city wall.

The city wall of Wuxuan County has a base thickness of 12 feet (about 3.84 meters) and narrows to 8 feet (about 2.56 meters) at the top.

Although the heavy artillery used by the heavy artillery company was Qing Dynasty heavy artillery, the shells it fired only weighed six or seven kilograms. It was unrealistic to expect the heavy artillery company to simply bombard the one-zhang-thick Wuxuan County city wall.

Peng Gang's purpose in bombarding the city wall was not to collapse it, but to demoralize the Qing troops defending the city and force them to flee.

The Qing army artillerymen inside Wuxuan City fired cannons from the city walls in retaliation.

At a distance of 600 meters, the Qing army's mountain-splitting cannons could not reach the left army's heavy artillery company's position at all; the Qing army's mountain-splitting cannons could only make a sound.

"The West Gate Wharf and South Gate Wharf of Wuxuan County, as well as the south bank of the Qianjiang River, are not fortified. Is Seventh Brother going to let the Qing demons in the city leave through the Qianjiang waterway?"

Feng Yunshan inspected the vicinity of Wuxuan City and found that Peng Gang had not only failed to defend the West Gate, West Gate Wharf, and South Gate Wharf, but also lacked even the most basic firepower blockade.

Feng Yunshan knew that Peng Gang couldn't have missed such a huge loophole; it must have been Peng Gang's intention to leave an escape route for the Qing army inside Wuxuan City.

“The Qing demons’ ships can’t carry that many people away. More Qing demons will have to cross the Qianjiang River and escape by land from the south bank,” Peng Gang said, shaking his head slightly.

The riverboats prepared by the Qing army at the West Gate and South Gate wharves could not take away the several thousand Qing soldiers inside the city.

Peng Gang did not station any troops to defend the south bank of Qianjiang, hoping that the Qing army in Wuxuan City could escape by land from the south bank.

"It's a pity that our forces are still somewhat stretched thin, otherwise we could have wiped out the Qing demons in Wuxuan City as well," Feng Yunshan said with regret.

“The remaining Qing troops in Wuxuan City have already been decimated and terrified by us, so they are no longer a concern. It doesn’t matter whether we wipe them out sooner or later.” Peng Gang raised his binoculars to observe the Qing troops in Wuxuan City who were trembling and running around like headless flies.

“The Qing demons under Zhang Yaotou’s command have won one victory after another and are gaining momentum. That Qing demon force is the real threat.”

If it weren't for the need to conserve resources to deal with Zhang Bilu's Qing army, the Qing armies under Zhou Tianjue and Xiang Rong in Wuxuan City would have been better.

Even if the left and rear armies combined their full strength, they could barely manage to take it down.

Everything has its priorities. The most urgent task is to first eliminate Zhang Bilu's Qing army on the south bank of the Qian River and open up a new situation.

The Qing troops under Xiang Rong and Zhou Tianjue could not pose a significant threat to the Taiping Army in the short term.

Eliminating the Qing army within Wuxuan City would at most be considered a victory in a single battle.

Zhang Bilu's Qing army was not severely damaged. Eliminating Zhang Bilu's Qing army was a strategic victory that could fundamentally reverse the unfavorable situation of the Taiping Army. The relative importance of these two factors is self-evident.

The heavy artillery company's sixteen cannons consumed an astonishing amount of gunpowder, averaging two and a half pounds per shot. After only five rounds, approximately two hundred pounds of gunpowder had been reduced to smoke.

Artillery is indeed expensive; the two hundred pounds of gunpowder fired by the heavy artillery company just now was enough for the musket battalion to fight a high-intensity battle.

But it did have an effect. By the fifth round, the veteran gunners in each gun group were basically familiar with the trajectory of their respective cannons.

By the fifth round, twelve out of the sixteen heavy cannons were able to hit the city wall.

The high accuracy of the heavy artillery company amazed both friendly generals, Feng Yunshan and Hu Yihuang.

They all felt that the artillerymen of the Left Army fired more accurately than the artillerymen of the Qing Army's artillery battalion.

Not only friendly forces, but also enemy forces inside the city felt that the rebel artillerymen were firing incredibly accurately.

Many Qing soldiers were worried that if the fighting continued, the walls of Wuxuan City would really be bombarded and collapsed by the rebels' heavy artillery.

Despite the Green Standard Army and local militia leaders' assurances to their soldiers and militias that the walls of Wuxuan City had just been repaired in the 21st year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign (nine years prior), and that the rebels' heavy artillery could not possibly breach the walls and allow them to enter, the situation remained unchanged.

At the same time, it was emphasized that the cultists did not have much gunpowder, and after firing these rounds of artillery, the cultists' heavy artillery would be nothing but a pile of scrap metal.

But the soldiers and militia dared not gamble that the walls of Wuxuan County would stand forever, much less that the rebels would not breach Wuxuan City.

The claim that the cultists lacked gunpowder is utter nonsense!
The gunpowder and heavy artillery of the Sanlixu camp were seized by the short-haired cult bandits.

Anyone with a modicum of common sense knows that the short-haired cultists are unlikely to be short of gunpowder right now.

The soldiers and militia members in Wuxuan City were filled with anxiety and were skeptical of the claims made by the Green Standard Army officers and militia leaders.

The question of whether the walls of Wuxuan could be breached by the heavy artillery of the religious bandits was far more serious than whether the people within Wuxuan City were in a position of popular support.

Wuxuan City was already short of food. After the Qing army entered Wuxuan City, they disregarded the lives of the people and plundered the city's wealth. They wanted to dig up the city to find food, fodder, gold and silver.

The hungry people of Wuxuan, their eyes practically glowing with hunger, only regretted not having gone up Pingzai Mountain earlier and followed Peng Gang; otherwise, they might still have something to eat now.

There were still seven or eight thousand people in Wuxuan City, and they were all hoping that the Taiping Army would enter the city.

In the 21st year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, the people who participated in the repair of the Wuxuan city wall spread rumors that of the 8,526 taels of silver allocated by the county and prefecture governments for the repair of the long-neglected Wuxuan city wall, less than 1,000 taels actually reached the intended recipients. They also spread the rumor that the Wuxuan city wall was merely a shiny, but ineffective structure, unable to withstand the heavy artillery of the Taiping Army.

These rumors reached Zhou Tianjue's ears.

Zhou Tianjue was furious and arrested the county clerks to interrogate them, wanting to know whether the matter was a fabricated rumor or true.

Zhou Tianjue was a cruel official by profession, and the clerks of Wuxuan County could hardly withstand his interrogation.

They quickly confessed everything in detail.

The good news is that it was indeed a rumor.

The bad news is that the actual situation is not much different from the rumors. During the repair of the Wuxuan County city wall in the 21st year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, there were indeed serious cases of shoddy workmanship and embezzlement.

Although the rumored amount of over eight thousand taels of silver was not true, less than a thousand taels actually came into being.

In reality, less than two thousand taels of silver were actually used to repair the city walls of Wuxuan County.

"The unruly people of Wuxuan deserve to die! And you greedy and corrupt officials deserve to die even more!"

Upon learning the truth, Zhou Tianjue's chest heaved violently, and disregarding official decorum, he roared loudly in the county government hall.

I had heard that the officialdom in Guangxi was corrupt, but I never imagined it had deteriorated to this extent.

They even dared to embezzle the money meant for repairing the city walls!
At this moment, Xiang Rong also entered the county government office.

Although the rebels temporarily stopped shelling, morale within Wuxuan City was low and the people were yearning for change.

To eliminate any future troubles, Xiang Rong originally planned to use silver to hire strong young men from Wuxuan to guard the city.

Unfortunately, many young men from Wuxuan were unwilling to serve the Qing Dynasty. Even those who were willing to join the militia were only outwardly compliant but inwardly defiant of the government troops' arrangements, going through the motions but not putting in any real effort.

"Your Excellency, many people in Wuxuan City are aligned with the cultists. If this is not handled properly, the consequences could be dire!" Xiang Rong reported to Zhou Tianjue.

"Li Mengqun! Where is Li Mengqun?!" Zhou Tianjue shouted.

Before long, Li Mengqun hurriedly arrived at the county government office and met with Zhou Tianjue: "Your humble servant is here! I wonder what instructions Your Excellency has?"

"Don't the unruly people of Wuxuan always talk about how good the cultists are, since they give them porridge?" Zhou Tianjue said with a distorted expression.

"Notify all citizens that tonight our government will distribute porridge to everyone in the city. Tell them to come to the county government office to collect their porridge! Let them drink to their hearts' content! Magistrate, I'd like to borrow your Chu army's arquebusiers and mountain cannons!"

Li Mengqun was taken aback. He ordered all the people of Wuxuan to come to the county government office to collect porridge and also asked to borrow arquebusiers and cannons from the Chu army.

Even though Li Mengqun was a greenhorn who had only recently entered officialdom, he knew exactly what Zhou Tianjue wanted to do.

"Your Excellency, is this really the right thing to do?" Li Mengqun asked.

“Since they have already sided with the bandits, they are no longer docile people, they are all thieves! They are not now, and they will be in the future! The Qing Dynasty will be ruined by these treacherous people!” Zhou Tianjue roared.

"Li Mengqun, what's wrong? You can't even do this little thing right?"

"Your humble servant respectfully obeys the orders of Governor Zhou." Li Mengqun, looking dazed as if in a dream, raised his heavy hands and bowed to Zhou Tianjue.

(End of this chapter)