1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 169 Strategic Shift
Before the meeting, Xiao Guoda brought two battalion commanders from the provisional battalion to Peng Gang to ask if the battalion commanders of the provisional battalion were considered battalion commanders and whether they were qualified to attend the meeting.

Xiao Guoda wanted to take this opportunity to find out Peng Gang's attitude towards the provisional battalion.

Should the provisional battalion be reduced back to the male battalion, retained in its establishment, or directly upgraded to a standing battalion?
The five provisional battalions have performed very well all the way, showing courage and determination in battle, especially the 7th and 8th provisional battalions.

The capture of Wuxuan came at a heavy cost, with a total of 187 men killed in action across the two battalions.

Now is the time for military action, and Peng Gang has no reason to send these provisional battalions, which have been tested in actual combat and formed combat capabilities, back to the reserve.

Peng Gang's attitude was inclined to upgrade the five provisional battalions to regular battalions.

“The battalion commander of the provisional battalion is still a battalion commander, so let’s all discuss this together,” Peng Gang said to Xiao Guoda after a moment of contemplation.

"The main leaders of the children's camp, the women's camp, and the elderly camp were also summoned."

Once all attendees had arrived, Peng Gang officially began the meeting: "The Qing army's encirclement of us has been broken, and the autumn harvest has long been over. All the grain near Dachong has been harvested."

Our army has more than 37,000 men, and we consume more than 400 shi of rice every day. If we continue to stay in the mountains, even if the Qing army does not come to besiege us, we will starve to death in the mountains.

What should we do next? Where should we advance? What are your thoughts? Please feel free to speak.

If prisoners of war are included, Peng Gang's army numbered over 40,000.

It's not a long-term solution for 40,000 people to stay in the mountains.

The Qing army, which had broken through two lines, led to the death of the Guangxi governor.

They have created a valuable strategic window, and the Qing army certainly won't be able to restrict their actions in the near future.

The current situation is very favorable to them.

The strategic defensive phase has ended, and it's time for a strategic shift to a wider world.

The senior officers of the Left Army who attended the meeting were all very young, generally around twenty years old.

Apart from Peng Gang, who had lived two lives, the other young people had never even left their own prefecture or county in their entire lives, so their knowledge was relatively limited.

Among those who had traveled outside the province and had broad experience, only a few older, high-ranking officers of the Left Army who were leaders of the Heaven and Earth Society and officers of the Green Standard Army were Luo Dagang, Su Sanniang, Qiu Ersao, and Xie Bin.

These people also have more ideas than those relatively simple-minded young people.

Logically, such an important strategic decision as where to proceed should be discussed at headquarters.

Peng Gang's decision to discuss this matter within the Left Army indicates that he was already considering breaking away from the Taiping Army and acting independently.

Luo Dagang, Xie Bin, and others were actually quite resistant to foreign religions.

The God Society's actions in taking down the Wang family of Mengchong and digging up their ancestral graves were very gratifying to the Zijingshan Society members who had long suffered oppression from the Wang family.

However, this also caused some resentment among members of the God Worshippers Society who were not from Zijingshan.

It would be more accurate to say that Luo Dagang and Xie Bin joined Peng Gang's forces rather than the God Society and the Taiping Army.

When Peng Gang decided to act alone, Luo Dagang, Xie Bin, and the others not only didn't find anything wrong with it, but were actually quite pleased.

Peng Gang had considered discussing the next steps of the campaign with his brothers-in-law.

However, signs of political infighting have already begun to emerge within the Heavenly Kingdom's upper echelons.

The last time Peng Gang went to Mengchong, he requested reinforcements to cooperate in annihilating the Qing army under Zhang Bilu on the south bank of Qianjiang.

Peng Gang's achievements surpassed those of the main force, and several of his close associates, including Yang Xiuqing, were wary of him.

At that time, Peng Gang's left wing had only defeated the Qing army under Xiang Rong and Zhou Tianjue on the western front.

Peng Gang's contribution was further enhanced by the annihilation of Zhang Bilu's Qing army on the southern front.

This will only make them more wary.

In fact, what Shi Dakai and Peng Gang said when they left Mengchongwei Fortress that day made sense.

The eastern gateway to Zijing Mountain, Fengmen'ao, is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Deploying a single main force to guard Fengmen'ao is more than enough.

They could have freed up more troops to encircle and annihilate Zhang Bilu on the southern front.

Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui did not send the central army, the vanguard army, or the right wing. They only sent the rear army and half of the central army.

It's hard to say that they didn't intend to use this opportunity to weaken the Left Army and the other two non-Guiping direct forces.

The political structure of the Heavenly Kingdom's top leadership was inherently unstable. Not only had the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan been sidelined, but he also lacked ambition.

There is also the potential for divine intervention in political and military affairs.

His brothers and brothers-in-law, though seemingly divine, could share hardship but not happiness.

When faced with strong external pressure, we can absolutely unite as one when in adversity or desperate situation.

With less external pressure and a relatively stable situation, it's hard to say whether unity can still be achieved.

And now is precisely the best time for the Taiping Army since they withdrew from Pingnan County.

Going to Mengchong to negotiate with them would not only be difficult to reach a conclusion, but would also likely waste a precious strategic window of opportunity in the ensuing stalemate.

Shi Dakai had told Peng Gang that Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui, who held the highest power in the Heavenly Kingdom, favored Gui Ping's direct troops but neglected the collateral troops of Fei Gui Ping.

Historically, the Taiping Army only reached a size of 100,000 after entering Hunan and receiving support from the Hunan Heaven and Earth Society and miners, and after a new round of expansion.

Now, the Taiping Army, including the Left Army, has more than 100,000 members.

Although the troop strength is much greater than at the same stage in history, the corresponding logistical pressure is also much greater.

Peng Gang's Left Army was not part of Guiping's direct forces.

If logistics are strained, Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui will definitely prioritize their own loyal followers.

Even though Peng Gang and Yang Xiuqing had a good personal relationship.

However, when it comes to core interests, personal relationships must give way to core interests.

If it were Peng Gang himself, he would only allocate some supplies to friendly forces when the Left Army had ample supplies.

Instead of following the main force, we should consider the whims of our Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother when allocating resources.

It's better to forge your own path and make a living.

Inside the hall, the attendees discussed the matter animatedly, eventually summarizing it into four main proposals. The first proposal was to attack Guiping City.

Guiping was the closest and most familiar prefecture city to them.

The Qing army was gathering in Guiping, which had a large stockpile of grain and military supplies. Taking Guiping would temporarily solve the supply problem.

However, this claim was the first to be overturned.

The Qing army garrison in Guiping City outnumbered the Zuo army in total. The city was well-fortified and had powerful artillery. With Lin Zexu personally overseeing the city, attacking Guiping was too risky, and the chances of capturing it were extremely slim. It was not worth it.

The second proposal is to travel north along the Qianjiang and Liujiang waterways to Xiangzhou City.

Xiangzhou City is a prefecture-level city, which is a grade lower than a prefectural city.

The main garrison in Xiangzhou was the Yunnan army under Li Nengchen, the general of Linyuan Town, who had been terrified of them. Their fighting strength was weak, making them relatively easier to defeat.

Although Xiangzhou City doesn't have as much military supplies as Guiping City, it still has some, enough to supply their troops for half a month.

After capturing Xiangzhou City, troops and their families can obtain supplies and rest there.

Depending on the situation at that time, one could advance north to Liuzhou or even Guilin Prefecture, the provincial capital.

Guangxi is a barren and impoverished region, with the three prefectures that produce the most grain being Guilin, Wuzhou, and Liuzhou.

These three prefectures are also the three prefectures in Guangxi with the highest level of development and Sinicization.

At the end of the Daoguang era, Guilin Prefecture alone collected 123,000 shi of rice annually, the highest in the province, accounting for a quarter of Guangxi's total land tax.

Of course, this is only the land tax collected on paper; the actual amount collected is far higher than this figure.

At the same time, the land tax collected by Wuzhou Prefecture was around 100,000 shi, slightly less than that of Guilin Prefecture.

However, Wuzhou is the gateway to trade along the Xijiang River, and its commerce is thriving. It can collect 110,000 to 120,000 taels of likin every year, ranking first in the province.

More than 70% of Guangxi rice transported to Guangdong via the Xijiang River passes through Wuzhou Pass.

Counterintuitively, despite the continuous natural disasters, food shortages, and widespread famine in Guangxi, grain from Guangxi was still continuously transported by grain merchants to the relatively less food-scarce Guangfu region.

Because the price of grain in Guangzhou is more than 40% higher than in Guangxi.

The annual rice production of Liuzhou Prefecture was approximately 80,000 shi (a unit of dry measure), which was less than that of Guilin Prefecture and Wuzhou Prefecture.

However, Liuzhou Prefecture was an important military town and had stockpiled a large amount of military rations, with a considerable amount of military rations.

In the past, the Qing army stationed in Wuxuan, Xiangzhou, Zhou Tianjue, and Xiangrong on the western front relied on the exploitation of Wuxuan and Xiangzhou for food supplies, and another major source of food was the emergency grain transfer from Liuzhou.

The third proposal is to attack Wuzhou, resupply there, and then sail down the West River to Zhaoqing, directly seizing the Guangzhou-centered Guangfu region as the base for establishing a business.

The fourth and least popular proposal advocated advancing westward into Yunnan and Guizhou, arguing that the Yunnan and Guizhou armies would be easier to defeat. Like the first proposal, this one was quickly rejected.

If Peng Gang's team only has one or two thousand people, then it is indeed worth considering moving westward to Yunnan and Guizhou.

But his army numbered 40,000.

The grain supply route is the lifeline.

Based on the food consumption of 40,000 people, even if they eat sparingly, it would take half a month to capture a county town or a large embankment to replenish their food supply in order to maintain their consumption.

Heading westward into Yunnan and Guizhou, there were no convenient waterways along the way, nor were there large grain-producing areas to provide timely supplies.

If out of 40,000 people who took this route, it would be a miracle if 10,000 of them survived and made it into Yunnan and Guizhou.

In another historical timeline, in 1852, Xiao Chaogui led 20,000 light troops to raid Changsha. Apart from Xiao Chaogui's own impatient nature, the fundamental reason was that the main Taiping army was running out of food in Chenzhou and had to divide its troops to find food.

After weighing the options, only the second and third proposals are the most realistic and feasible.

They could either travel north to Guilin via the Qianliu waterway, capture Guilin, or seek an opportunity to enter Hunan via the Xiang-Gui Corridor Plain (Quanzhou).

This route has many advantages: there are existing waterways to travel along, the route passes through many grain-producing areas, there are many medium and large cities, it is easy to obtain supplies, and it can also take care of the elderly, weak, women and children in the team.

Heading east to Wuzhou, then towards Zhaoqing, and occupying Guangfu is also a feasible option.

However, with the main force of the Qing army on the eastern front still intact, taking this route would easily result in being caught in a pincer movement between Lin Zexu's Guangxi Qing army and Xu Guangjin's Guangdong Qing army.

Considering that many people in the Qing court believed that Peng Gang was the leader of the God Society bandits, this possibility is not low.

However, when it came to Guangdong, Peng Gang was most concerned about two other issues, which were his plans to seize control of the Guangfu region and even the entire Guangdong province as his base.

"If we could take over Guangdong, that would be best. The region is prosperous, with more grain than Guangxi and a considerable amount of customs revenue every year. The merchants of the Thirteen Factories are also incredibly wealthy, enough to cover our military expenses for several years. It's also a good thing I haven't had Cantonese food in a long time and I'm missing its flavor."

Luo Dagang was from Jiaying Prefecture (Meizhou) in Guangdong. He inevitably had the desire to return home in glory, and he was quite supportive of going east to Guangdong.

"I think it's inappropriate to occupy Guangdong." Xie Bin disagreed with moving eastward into Guangdong.

"The conflict between the local people and the immigrants in Guangdong was even more intense than in Guangxi. The hatred between the local people and the immigrants was as deep as the sea. In the 20th year of the Daoguang Emperor's reign, when I followed Chen Liansheng to Guangzhou to fight against the British, even with a formidable enemy at hand, the local Green Standard Army soldiers and local militias in Guangdong were still fighting amongst themselves with the immigrant soldiers."

Xie Bin had spent some time in Guangdong and witnessed firsthand the fierce competition between local and migrant workers, a conflict that was almost irreconcilable.

What Xie Bin said was exactly what Peng Gang was most worried about.

The land disputes in Guangdong are even more intense than those in Guangxi.

The core area of ​​Guangdong is the Guangfu region centered on Guangzhou in the Pearl River Delta.

If Guangdong were to become his base, Peng Gang's main enemy would not be the Qing army.

Instead, it was the Cantonese people who had a deep-seated hatred for the Hakka people, as well as the powerful clan forces in the area.

Unless Peng Gang can kill all the Cantonese people to make room for the Hakka people, this problem will remain unsolved in the short term.

A base area needs a mass base. When Peng Gang occupied Guangdong as his base, the problem he faced was not just a lack of mass base, but that most of the masses were hostile to him.

Taking Guangdong as a base would be too costly to manage the internal conflicts between the local people and the Hakka, and was certainly not a good strategy.

"How strong is the Qing army in Guangdong?" Peng Gang looked at Luo Dagang and Xie Bin and asked them about the strength of the Qing army in Guangdong.

“Ulantai brought about half of the Eight Banners garrison from Guangzhou into Guangxi. I estimate that there are still more than a thousand armored soldiers in the Guangzhou garrison. I don’t know much about the Green Standard Army, but it’s definitely more than Guangxi,” Luo Dagang said after thinking for a moment.

"The number of regular troops in the Guangdong Green Standard Army is around 70,000. Of course, this is the number of people receiving pay on paper. If we calculate that 40% of the quota is for non-regular troops, there are still 40,000 Green Standard Army soldiers." Xie Bin knew more about the Green Standard Army than Luo Dagang.

Although Xie Bin's account differs slightly, it is largely the same.

According to records in documents such as the "Draft History of the Qing Dynasty: Military Affairs" and the "Collected Statutes of the Qing Dynasty", the number of regular soldiers in the Green Standard Army in Guangdong Province was approximately 68,000 to 69,000.

During the mid-to-late Qing Dynasty, the actual number of Green Standard Army soldiers was far lower than the authorized number.

The vacancy rate is usually between 30% and 50% or even higher.

Taking the middle value, the actual number of DPP members in Guangdong is indeed just over 40,000.

Although Lin Zexu transferred some Green Standard Army troops from Guangdong to Guangxi, the Green Standard Army in Guangdong still numbered around 30,000.

“If we attack Guangdong, the Guangdong pro-independence camp will be secondary,” Qiu Ersao interjected.

"The brothers of the rear army and the first army said that the Dongyong and Chaoyong brought by Lin Zexu fought very fiercely against them, even more hard than the Green Standard Army."

On the eastern front, the Taiping army appeared to be fighting the Qing army.

In reality, the main force of the Taiping Army was fighting against the Dongyong and Chaoyong in Guangdong, while the Green Standard Army and the Eight Banners were mostly watching from the sidelines and acting as cheerleaders.

Jiang Zhongyuan's Chu Yong is also a formidable opponent, but Chu Yong has too few men.

In direct combat, Lin Zexu still relied on the large numbers of the Dongyong and Chaoyong troops.

Peng Gang even suspected that Lin Zexu had deliberately recruited so many Dongyong and Chaoyong soldiers to suppress the Taiping Army, which was mainly composed of Hakka people, in Guangxi.

Dong Yong and Chao Yong played so fiercely and aggressively in their away games.

It would be even more difficult to play against them if they were playing on their home turf in Guangdong.

Peng Gang paced back and forth in the main hall, pondering whether to head east or north.

The Qing army in Guangdong was indeed much stronger than that in Guangxi, and Guangdong did not lack food and supplies.

Compared to the Qing army, the Taiping army's strength lay in open field battles.

They lack experience in siege warfare.

The march into Guangdong was bound to pass through two prefectural cities along the Xijiang River.

That is to say, Wuzhou and Zhaoqing will definitely be attacked, and Guangzhou will definitely be attacked as well.

The Left Army had fought siege battles, but both siege battles were fought in Wuxuan County.

The Left Army currently lacks experience in attacking cities of the prefectural level.

The Qing troops in Wuzhou and Zhaoqing prefectures are definitely not as numerous as those on the Guiping front. Peng Gang has heavy artillery and is confident that he can take these two prefecture cities.

As for attacking Guangzhou, the provincial capital, to be honest, he didn't have much confidence.

Moreover, taking Guangzhou would present another rather thorny issue: how to manage diplomatic relations with the British government and the British Indian authorities.

After careful consideration, Peng Gang still felt that heading north along the Qianliu Waterway, fighting and recruiting soldiers along the way, expanding his army and base, was the safest course of action.

With the main force of the Qing army on the western front annihilated, this route offers the option of both offense and defense, with a relatively high margin for error.

Xiangzhou City is a prefecture-level city, with a higher city standard than Wuxuan but lower than Guiping. This is a good opportunity to train and accumulate the ability and experience to attack prefecture-level cities.

Peng Gang returned to his seat and, facing everyone's gaze, made a decision: "I will first lead the troops north to attack Xiangzhou City. If we can capture Xiangzhou, all the troops will be transferred to Xiangzhou City. If we cannot capture it, we will decide what to do next. All troops should go back and prepare properly, pack their belongings, and wait for my order to move the troops."

If we can capture Xiangzhou, we will move our camp there and continue north to Liuzhou and Guilin.

If you can't take it down.

If a woman can be open and closed, then a man should naturally be able to bend and stretch.

If the advance into Xiangzhou fails, we can simply return to the Immortal Brothers, apologize, and follow the main force.

Wuxuan City was still in the hands of the Left Army, and was defended by Cheng Dashun's Provisional Seventh Battalion and Xiao Maoling's Provisional Eighth Battalion.

The army can assemble in Wuxuan, rest briefly, and then attack Xiangzhou in the north.

To attack Xiangzhou, we need to take the Qianliu waterway, and we must bring a boat battalion with us.

Peng Gang ordered Chen Ajiu to lead five battalions (boat battalions) to join the first, second, third, provisional tenth, and provisional eleventh battalions in the expedition to Xiangzhou.

Luo Dagang commanded the Sixth Battalion (Boat Battalion), the Fourth Battalion, and the Provisional Ninth Battalion to guard the rear, protecting the elderly, women, and children in the camps, and preventing the Qing army from resorting to desperate measures and launching a surprise attack on Pingzai Mountain's stronghold.

Before setting off, Peng Gang wrote to Meng Chong, informing his brothers and sisters-in-law that he was going to attack Xiangzhou.

The response from the Mengchong headquarters was rather slow.

When Peng Gang finalized the plan to attack Xiangzhou City.

The decision-makers of the God Society at the Mengchong headquarters were still immersed in the joy of eliminating Zhang Bilu's Qing army on the southern front, and had no clear plan for the future.

When Peng Gang's letter arrived at Mengchongwei Fortress, Hong Xiuquan, Xiao Chaogui, Yang Xiuqing, and others were greatly angered.

Despite Peng Gang's nice words in the letter, saying that the Left Army should be the vanguard and pave the way for the Heavenly Army.

However, it is an indisputable fact that Peng Gang led his troops north to attack Xiangzhou without consulting or obtaining permission from headquarters.

They were furious, but there was nothing they could do about Peng Gang.

The main credit for the annihilation of the Qing army on the western and southern fronts went to Peng Gang's left wing.

Although Zuo Jun preferred to work alone, he made greater contributions than other armies.

Even if they were dissatisfied with Peng Gang's arbitrary decision to send troops to Xiangzhou without consulting him, they could not find any compelling reason to criticize him.

(End of this chapter)