1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 176 The First Fortified City of Guangxi
Meanwhile, the reconnaissance troops of Luo Dagang, deputy commander of the Left Army, had reached the Liujiang River near Maping, the capital of Liuzhou Prefecture.

The city wall of Maping City had a circumference of eight li and three fen (approximately 4780 meters). The foundation was built with stone blocks (1.5 meters deep) to prevent invading enemies from tunneling through it. The wall itself was made of rammed earth and was up to four meters thick, and was covered with two layers of blue bricks.

It wasn't just the walls around the city gate that were covered with bricks; all the walls were covered with blue bricks, and even two layers of bricks!

On the Liujiang River, many soldiers of the Left Army were seeing a formidable city with all its walls covered in bricks for the first time, which broadened their horizons.

Before seeing the city wall of Maping City with their own eyes, they all thought that all city walls were like those of Guiping City, Wuxuan City, and Xiangzhou City, all made of rammed earth, with only the area near the city gates covered in brick.

The fully brick-clad city walls of Mapingcheng, the capital of Liuzhou Prefecture, completely overturned the perceptions of these Zuo Jun soldiers who had never traveled far and had little experience, making them realize what a truly fortified city was.

Li Qi, who was following Luo Dagang to scout out Maping City and draw up a map of it, couldn't help but exclaim as he marked the Qing army's artillery positions on the map: "So there are city walls made entirely of bricks! If these bricks were used to build courtyards, how many large brick courtyards could be built?"

"The fortified city of Guangxi truly lives up to its name!" Even Luo Dagang, standing on the bow of the ship, hesitated to approach the fortified city before him.

The city wall of Mapingcheng is three zhang (9.6 meters) high along the river, especially the southwest side of the Liujiang River bank wall, which is even four zhang (12.8 meters) high, serving both flood control and defense against enemy ships climbing over it.

In terms of the scale of the city walls, no city in Guangxi can compare with Maping City, and Guilin, the provincial capital, is no exception.

The moat of Maping City draws water from the Liujiang River, and is 12.8 meters wide and 4.8 meters deep, making it the largest moat in Guangxi prefectural cities.

The most challenging aspect is that Mapingcheng is surrounded by Liujiang on three sides, severely limiting the attacking side's offensive options.

This is clearly a peninsula fortress!
On the city wall of Maping, Qin Dingsan, who was in charge of the defense of Maping, saw the Taiping Army's naval corps approaching Maping to conduct reconnaissance. He ordered the Liuzhou naval corps to launch an attack and harass Luo Dagang's boat corps.

Luo Dagang ordered the boat battalion to use the mountain-splitting cannons on the boats to retaliate, repelling the harassment from the Liuzhou naval force.

Having repelled the Qing army's naval camp, Luo Dagang was about to approach for further reconnaissance.

The two Qing generals on the city wall of Maping, Zhou Fengqi, the general of Yunyang Town in Hubei, and Qin Dingsan, the general of Guizhou, urgently ordered the heavy cannons weighing over a thousand catties on the Linjiang Fort to fire, using heavy firepower to block the Liujiang River and prevent Luo Dagang from getting close enough to investigate and find out the true situation of Maping.

Not long after Qin Dingsan's defeat at Mocun, he managed to escape back to Wuxuan. With the permission of Zhou Tianjue and Lin Zexu, he returned to Guizhou to mobilize and recruit troops.

After returning to Guangxi, Qin Dingsan continued to train his new recruits and local militia in Liuzhou.

At that time, Zhou Tianjue transferred three battalions of soldiers from Liuzhou to Wuxuan.

Liuzhou was the most important military town in Guangxi. Lin Zexu was worried about the loss of Liuzhou, so he ordered Qin Dingsan, who was on his second trip to Guangxi, to temporarily take charge of military affairs in Liuzhou and to train new soldiers to be ready for orders.

Unfortunately, Qin Dingsan did not live to see Lin Zexu's arrival, as Lin Zexu died before he could be summoned.

After Lin Zexu's death, Zhou Tianjue seized power and repeatedly ordered Qin Dingsan's troops to be transferred to Guiping as his own elite force.

Qin Dingsan was tricked by Zhou Tianjue during his first campaign in Guangxi.

Qin Dingsan vividly remembered the battle of Mocun, and naturally he was unwilling to accept the empty promises Zhou Tianjue made to him and to obey Zhou Tianjue's orders again.

Therefore, he remained in Ma Ping, the capital of Liuzhou.

Zhou Fengqi, the general of Yunyang Town in Hubei, was one of the last foreign soldiers that Lin Zexu conscripted to fight in Guangxi.

By the time Zhou Fengqi led his troops to Liuzhou, the Qing army in Xunzhou Prefecture was already showing signs of collapse, and Lin Zexu was critically ill.

Zhou Fengqi then remained in Liuzhou to observe the development of the situation, and did not rashly enter Xunzhou Prefecture.

Later, Li Nengchen, the general of Linyuan Town of Yunnan Army, led the Yunnan Army on a flight through Liuzhou and informed Qin Dingsan and Zhou Fengqi that the two short-haired bandits had already reached Xiangzhou and intended to continue north to Guilin and Liuzhou.

Zhou Fengqi and Qin Dingsan dared not leave the fortified city of Maping.

The Qing army's artillery fire was fierce, and the waterway that they were trying to scout was blocked by more than a dozen cannons. Luo Dagang had no choice but to withdraw his troops in frustration.

He and Li Qi brought the vanguard of the Left Army. If they were hit by the Qing army's cannons due to his personal command error and died on the Liujiang River, he would have no way to explain it to Peng Gang when he returned.

"Deputy Commander Luo, the Qing army has blockaded the river, making it impossible to get any closer for reconnaissance. Let's go back and report to the general."

Li Qi, on the longboat, carefully put it away and offered his suggestion to Luo Dagang.

In his early years, Luo Dagang was a bandit leader in the Tiandihui (a secret society), and his style was to fight if he could win and run if he couldn't.

The Qing army's firepower in Ma Pingcheng was too fierce, making it impossible to continue reconnaissance. Luo Dagang had also been planning to retreat: "I had the same idea. Let's withdraw!"

After speaking, Luo Dagang and Li Qi quickly gathered their reconnaissance scouts and retreated.

When news of the Taiping Army's main force capturing Cangwu reached Xiangzhou City...

The slowest-moving battalions in the left army, the old men's battalion and the women's battalion, have all arrived at the Xiangzhou camp without anyone falling behind.

After a brief rest in Xiangzhou, the Left Army, with the elderly and children in tow and their baggage, continued northward along the Qianliu Waterway, heading straight for Liuzhou.

Many people in Xiangzhou were willing to follow Peng Gang, and four thousand people from Xiangzhou were incorporated into the Left Army's camps and went north to seek food.

These four thousand people from Xiangzhou also joined the army as a family, including many elderly, weak, women and children, with less than two thousand able-bodied men.

Peng Gang's forces thus rapidly expanded to 44,000 men (including prisoners).

The number of troops has reached half of the main force.

Of course, this is only temporary.

After Yang Xiuqing and Xiao Chaogui captured Pingnan, Tengxian, and Cangwu, the capital of Wuzhou Prefecture, it was impossible for them not to recruit soldiers in these areas.

Although Peng Gang had already sensed that the main force of the Taiping Army would make a big move when he learned that Xiang Rong had left Guiping and taken a large number of the elite Qing troops with him,

However, the main force captured Pingnan, Tengxian, and Cangwu in less than twenty days.

Xiao Chaogui himself even managed to be the first to scale the cliff, which surprised and delighted Peng Gang.

If these divine brothers and brothers-in-law can work together, they can indeed accomplish something truly earth-shattering.

As the various battalions of the Left Army gradually left Xiangzhou City, the people of Xiangzhou City were even more enthusiastic than when the Left Army had just entered the city, spontaneously lining the streets to see them off.

At the city gate, a group of elderly people from Xiangzhou, who were too frail and unable to move easily, lamented that they wished they were younger so they could have gone with Zuo Jun.

"When will you come back?"

An elderly man, well past seventy, stopped Huang Dabiao's horse and asked him earnestly.

Huang Dabiao looked at Peng Gang beside him. Huang Dabiao could not answer the old man's question; only the gentleman beside him could answer it.

"We will definitely come back again," Peng Gang replied confidently, meeting the expectant gazes of the elderly people from Xiangzhou around him.

Peng Gang didn't know when his army would be able to return to Xiangzhou and Xunzhou.

But one thing is for sure.

As long as he or his army still exists in the future, they will definitely return to their hometown in Guangxi.

After leaving Xiangzhou, Peng Gang's advance troops arrived at Jiangkou Town, the confluence of the Liujiang and Luoqingjiang Rivers, and stationed themselves there.

The two river channels also represent two different paths.

One option was to sail up the Liujiang River and attack Maping, the capital of Liuzhou Prefecture, the most important military town in Guangxi, in order to replenish supplies and provisions.

Another route was to go up the Luoqing River and attack small towns along the way, such as Luorong County, Luzhai Town (Luzhai County was Luorong County during the Qing Dynasty, and Luorong County was located in the middle of the later Luzhai County, with its county seat being the later Luorong Town), and Yongfu County, to obtain supplies.

Both paths have their advantages and disadvantages.

Liuzhou, as the most important military stronghold in Guangxi and one of the residences of the Guangxi Governor-General, certainly possessed supplies, especially military supplies, comparable to those of the main force that had recently captured Cangwu, the capital of Wuzhou.

If we can capture Maping, whether or not we fight in Guilin afterwards will be insignificant.

However, the city of Ma Ping in Liuzhou was difficult to capture, even more so than Lingui City in Guilin, the provincial capital.

Another route was to go up the Luoqing River and attack small towns along the way for supplies.

The advantage of this route is its safety; the small towns along the way are relatively easy to capture, and you can even take them without a fight. The disadvantage is that there are not many supplies.

Take, for example, Jiangkou Town, where Peng Gang is currently located.

Before the vanguard even reached Jiangkou Town, the Green Standard Army soldiers and local militia stationed nearby had already all fled.

However, Jiangkou Town had very little food. The Left Army only managed to purchase 3,125 shi of various grains in Jiangkou Town, most of which were coarse grains.

This amount of food is only enough for the Left Army's troops to consume for five or six days.

After stationing his troops in Jiangkou Town, Peng Gang convened a meeting with five staff officers from the General Staff Department and officers of battalion level and above.

Besides Chen Ajiu, the battalion commander in charge of covering the rear, there was also Xie Bin, the battalion commander of the third battalion.

The main officers of the Left Army have gathered in Jiangkou Town.

To better understand the situation in Ma Ping, Liuzhou Prefecture, Peng Gang unusually invited Yang Huwei, the battalion commander of the Qian Battalion, Wang Zhi, the deputy battalion commander, Li Rui, the former general of Guzhou Town who had a tendency to defect, and Chang Sheng, the deputy general of the Qian Army, to attend this meeting.

The Qian Battalion is not yet fully formed. Currently, only 125 people in the entire Qian Battalion are undergoing training in preparation for future expansion. Although Yang Huwei and Wang Zhi are nominally the battalion commander and deputy battalion commander, they are only nominal officers.

Li Rui and Chang Sheng need no further explanation; they only showed a tendency to defect and surrender, but did not explicitly state that they wanted to join Zuo Jun and serve Peng Gang.

Peng Gang invited these individuals, who were not originally qualified to participate in the highest-level military conference of the Left Army, to attend the meeting in order to better understand the situation in Maping, the capital of Liuzhou, and to decide whether to attack Maping.

These surrendered Green Standard Army generals mostly transited through Guilin and Liuzhou before entering Xunzhou Prefecture when they entered Guangxi.

They had all served as guest generals in Maping, the capital of Liuzhou Prefecture, for a short period of time, and were the most familiar with and knowledgeable about Maping among the Left Army troops.

News of the Taiping Army's main force capturing the first city of Wuzhou and taking over Cangwu, the capital of Wuzhou, reached the Left Army.

In addition, since the Battle of Bogong'ao, the Left Army has not encountered a formidable enemy, and some generals have become somewhat arrogant and complacent.

In particular, generals who were unfamiliar with the situation in Maping, Liuzhou Prefecture, believed that since the main force of the Taiping Army could capture Cangwu City, their Left Army could also capture Maping City.

Luo Dagang and Li Qi personally led troops to scout out Maping City. Their attitude differed from that of the other Left Army generals; they all unanimously opposed attacking Maping City.

“Ma Ping City is surrounded on three sides by the Liujiang River as a moat. The city is equipped with both land and naval forces of the Green Standard Army. The city wall, which is eight and three-tenths li long, is entirely covered with brick. When I was scouting along the Liujiang River, Qing army artillerymen in the city fired heavy cannons to disperse us.” Luo Dagang spoke first.

Mapingcheng is a peninsula military fortress with an area of ​​2.3 square kilometers, surrounded by the Liujiang River on three sides, and is indeed extremely difficult to attack.

Historically, the Dacheng Army of the Dacheng Kingdom, which rose up under the influence of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, failed to capture Guangzhou and turned westward into Guangxi.

They captured Zhaoqing and Guiping prefectures relatively easily along the way, and made Guiping prefecture their capital.

However, when they attacked Maping, the capital of Liuzhou Prefecture, in 1854, they suffered a setback. They bombarded Maping with cannons for ten months without breaking through the city walls, which shows how strong the city walls of Maping were.

Although the Dacheng army failed to capture Ma Pingcheng, this was largely due to the effective command of Lao Chongguang, the then governor of Guangxi, who is now the Guangxi provincial governor stationed in Guilin, the provincial capital.

However, the strong defenses of Ma Ping City dampened the morale of the Dacheng army and bought Lao Chongguang time to send reinforcements, which was an important factor in the victory.

Peng Gang was not worried that Lao Chongguang, the Guangxi Provincial Governor who was stationed in Guilin, the provincial capital, would send troops to his aid.

He was eager to engage in open battle with the Qing army.

Peng Gang was concerned about how much time and cost the Left Army would need to take to capture Ma Ping, the capital of Liuzhou.

If the cost is too high, then fighting Ma Ping in Liuzhou Prefecture is not absolutely necessary.

Peng Gang has never been obsessed with conquering cities and seizing territories.

"Does Deputy Commander Luo mean he doesn't approve of attacking Ma Ping, the capital of Liuzhou Prefecture?" Peng Gang turned his head to look at Luo Dagang, who was sitting next to him.

Luo Dagang, as the deputy commander of the Left Army, was the second most important figure in the Left Army after Peng Gang.

He was also one of the few generals in the Left Army who could lead an army independently.

"I do not agree with attacking Mapingcheng." After a moment of contemplation, Luo Dagang nodded and clearly stated his opposition to attacking Mapingcheng.

“But we didn’t get much food in Xiangzhou. Ayi said that our stored food would only last for twenty days at the current rate.” Xiao Guoda, who was eager to make a name for himself, preferred to attack Maping City.

Of course, Xiao Guoda's advocacy for attacking Ma Ping, the capital of Liuzhou, was not entirely out of personal motives.

More importantly, it was due to the increasing logistical pressure on the left wing.

The main force of the Taiping army captured Cangwu City, solving the food problem for at least one quarter.

The Left Army's grain reserves couldn't even last a month, let alone a quarter.

"Are you confident you can take Ma Pingcheng within twenty days? What if you can't take Ma Pingcheng within twenty days?" Luo Dagang countered Xiao Guoda's question.

Xiao Guoda was Peng Gang's maternal uncle. During the Honglianping period, he assisted Peng Gang in burning and selling charcoal in the Honglianping mountain area and was one of the veteran figures of the Left Army.

Although Xiao Guoda is currently only a battalion commander, the old battalion commanders of the Sixth Battalion, who are of the same rank as Xiao Guoda, all have to give him some face.

Only Luo Dagang brought his submarine force as a shareholder, and his military achievements were also impressive, so he didn't really take Xiao Guoda seriously.

“Our main force can take Cangwu City in ten days! Our Left Army can also take Maping City in twenty days!” Xiao Guoda responded.

"Cangwu is a trading post, while Maping is a military town. Cangwu has no heavy artillery, while Maping does. Are the two comparable? Furthermore, the main force suffered heavy casualties in order to capture Cangwu City." Luo Dagang frequently traveled between Guangdong and Guangxi to engage in smuggling, selling a lot of smuggled salt, and often entered and exited Cangwu City.

Among the attendees, Luo Dagang was the most knowledgeable about the situation in Cangwu City.

Cangwu City is the most developed commercial city in Guangxi, with a large number of shops and houses at each city gate.

These civilian buildings near the city gates could provide cover for the Taiping army attacking the city and reduce casualties.

Maping City is a relatively pure military fortress and does not possess the advantages that Cangwu City has over the attacking side.

Not only are there fewer city gates to attack in Maping City, but the city walls are also higher and the moat is deeper. The heavy artillery alone would be enough to give the attacking troops a hard time.

Moreover, according to Luo Dagang's reconnaissance, the Qing army garrison in Maping City was quite large.

Luo Dagang did not find out the exact number, but he was certain that the garrison in Ma Ping, Liuzhou Prefecture, was several times larger than that in Cangwu, Wuzhou Prefecture.

Despite the fact that after the Jintian Battalion Order, the Qing government successively conscripted a large number of Liuzhou soldiers to fight in Xunzhou.

However, given the sheer number of Green Standard Army members in Liuzhou, even with further reassignment, the number of Green Standard Army members remaining in Maping City was still far greater than in Cangwu City.

Moreover, it is said that there are still a large number of guest soldiers in Maping City who have not yet entered Xunzhou Prefecture and are stranded in Maping City.

If you add the local militia, Ma Pingcheng will be a tough nut to crack.

"If we don't attack Maping City, where will the grain come from?" Xiao Guoda countered.

(End of this chapter)