1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 196 The Strategy of Burrowing
"Does the artillery company carrying enough ammunition?" Peng Gang asked unhurriedly.

His purpose in ordering the artillery company to bombard the city was not to collapse the city walls of Quanzhou.

The walls of Quanzhou City were very strong, even when Chen Xuyuan's heavy artillery company came.

Even if sixteen heavy cannons fired simultaneously, they might not be able to breach the city walls of Quanzhou.

Knowing that ordinary cannons could not pose a significant threat to the city walls of Quanzhou, they still bombarded the city with all their might in order to create a false impression, deceive others, and attract the attention of the city's defenders.

Peng Gang had another method for breaching the city walls of Quanzhou.

Although Liang Zhen was a second-term trainee, his experience was relatively short and his overall performance was not high.

However, those cadets who were selected for the artillery units and became officers must have been among the best in mathematics.

Liang Zhen stood still and did some mental calculations, then quickly gave an accurate answer: "Based on today's shelling intensity, the ammunition carried by the mountain-splitting artillery company is only enough for five days."

"Then continue shelling Quanzhou City tomorrow. Without my order, unless the mountain gun is destroyed and there is a risk of it exploding, no firing is allowed to stop." Peng Gang gave Liang Zhen a firm order.

Five days is enough time to transport gunpowder from Xing'an to Xiangshan.

"Yes!" Liang Zhen saluted Peng Gang in front of the Amitabha Buddha statue and left the Amitabha Buddha Hall.

Later, Lu Qin and Chen Miao, who were in charge of leading soldiers who were miners to survey the geological conditions around Quanzhou City, came to report to Peng Gang with several soldiers covered in mud.

Peng Gang currently has a plentiful supply of gunpowder.

It's not that Peng Gang is exaggerating, but the total amount of gunpowder possessed by the other Taiping armies combined probably didn't even reach one-fifth of that of the Left Army.

Since artillery bombardment could not breach the walls of Quanzhou City, and the Left Army had an ample supply of gunpowder, it would be better to use earthwork to dig a tunnel directly under the city wall to transport the gunpowder to the foundation of the wall, and then carry out targeted blasting to breach the walls of Quanzhou City.

Some soldiers in the Left Army were miners, but their numbers were small and they were not organized into a single unit.

Currently, the army with the largest number of soldiers from mining backgrounds among the various armies of the Taiping Army is the Central Army.

The core members of Qin Rigang's First Army were miners from the Longshan Silver Mine in Guixian County.

Unfortunately, Qin Rigang followed Shi Dakai to cover the rear of the main force of the Taiping Army and has not yet arrived in Guilin Prefecture.

Otherwise, given the past relationship between Peng Gang and Qin Rigang, it would certainly not have been a problem to borrow a group of elite soldiers from the First Army who were miners to dig tunnels from Qin Rigang.

Since Qin Rigang was far away and could not be relied upon, Peng Gang could only rely entirely on the Zuo Jun's own strength to independently complete the siege from the ground.

This is also a good opportunity to build and train an engineering corps.

"The four gates of Quanzhou City are tightly closed, and the Qing army is not even letting the old and weak out of the city. Cao Xiepei is determined to drag all the people of the city down with him! He wants to be remembered in history!" Lu Qin said angrily.

"Let's put aside that unlucky fellow Cao Xiepei for now. Have you completed the task of investigating the geological conditions around Quanzhou City and bringing back some samples?" Peng Gang asked.

Peng Gang didn't care about Cao Xiepei's ideas.

History is always written by the victors.

If he succeeds in overthrowing the corrupt and reactionary Qing Dynasty in the future, the rights and wrongs of the battle of Quanzhou will be decided by him.

This battle marked the first time the Left Army attempted to use earthwork techniques to breach the city walls of Quanzhou City by blasting them from a fixed point in the ground.

Since it was the first time and there was no experience, Peng Gang had to check every detail to ensure everything went smoothly before he could feel at ease.

Cao Xiepei was determined to defend Quanzhou City to the death. The biggest advantage of the Quanzhou City defenders was the sturdy city walls. As long as the city walls were not breached, even if Quanzhou City was captured by force, the casualties of the Left Army would be heavy.

“Of the four gates of Quanzhou City, only the soil near the West Gate is relatively loose clay. Although there are some gravels mixed in the soil, the gravels near the West Gate are small and easy to dig. The gravels near the other three gates are large and plentiful, making them difficult to dig.” Chen Miao, covered in mud, said as he and eight soldiers who were miners carried four wooden buckets into the Amitabha Buddha Hall.

"The soil in these four wooden buckets was dug from the vicinity of the four gates of Quanzhou City."

Peng Gang examined the soil sample carefully and then rubbed it in the wooden bucket.

Of the four buckets of soil, the soil near the West Gate was indeed the softest, with the fewest and smallest gravels.

“There are dense residential houses outside the West Gate. We can use these houses as cover to dig tunnels deep into the wall foundation and place explosives to blow up the city wall,” Lu Qin said.

"The southern barbican of Quanzhou City was added during the Jiajing period of the Ming Dynasty. The connection between the old and new walls is not very strong, making it relatively fragile and easy to be blown up."

Quanzhou is located at the confluence of three rivers, connecting Hunan and Guangxi, and is an important transportation hub on the Hunan-Guangxi corridor.

Taking advantage of its geographical location, Quanzhou City had a thriving commercial sector, with many residential buildings outside the city walls. This was very similar to the situation in Cangwu City, which was attacked by the main force of the Taiping Army.

Quanzhou City was first built with rammed earth in the sixth year of the Kaibao era of the Northern Song Dynasty (973 AD). At that time, Quanzhou City was more than 3 li in circumference and 1.5 zhang in height.

However, the Quanzhou city that Peng Gang sees now has little to do with the Quanzhou city of the Song Dynasty. The existing city wall of Quanzhou was built in the Ming Dynasty.

The main body of the city wall was completed in the seventh year of Hongwu (1374), and the brickwork on the wall was completed in the eleventh year of Yongle (1413).

The relatively vulnerable southern barbican mentioned by Lu Qin was added in the thirty-sixth year of Jiajing (1557).

After the Jiajing era, the city walls of Quanzhou remained largely unchanged, with later generations only making minor repairs and modifications to the existing structure, which are still in use today.

The South Wengcheng (Southern Barbican) faces Xiangshan Mountain. Excavation work was carried out in the residential areas outside the South Wengcheng, which also facilitated observation of the Qing army's movements near the South Wengcheng from Xiangshan Mountain.

"Where should we start digging? How deep? How long? Do you have any ideas?" Peng Gang asked.

Peng Gang's team did not have any professionally trained engineers. Although the phrase "burrowing underground to breach a city" is simple, it contains many intricacies and nuances.

Investigating the surrounding soil and selecting the most suitable target for excavation is only the first step.

Where to start digging, how deep to dig the tunnel, how to ensure the tunnel doesn't go astray or collapse, how to handle drainage, how to minimize disturbance while digging the tunnel so as not to alert the Qing army garrison inside the city, and even the gunpowder mix for blowing up the walls.

Every step is crucial, and any mistake in any step will lead to failure.

This is why the Taiping Army specifically selected experienced miners to form the Tu Battalion, which was responsible for the task of attacking cities from underground.

This touched upon a blind spot in Lu Qin and Chen Miao's knowledge. They were not miners, had never dug tunnels, and were unfamiliar with civil engineering work.

However, the eight soldiers who had been digging and sampling soil with the two of them during the day were eager to speak.

“Feel free to offer any suggestions you may have, don’t hold back,” Peng Gang encouraged the eight Zuo Jun soldiers, who were miners, behind Lu Qin and Chen Miao to give their advice.

Liu Yonggu, a miner from Xiangzhou, mustered his courage and stepped forward, saying, "Your Highness, I noticed during the day when we were digging that the tunnel could be dug from the Wangji Dyehouse in the south of the city. The dyehouse serves as cover, and it's about two hundred paces from the west gate's barbican, a suitable distance."

When I was in Xiangzhou, I participated in the repair of the city wall of Xiangzhou. Both Quanzhou and Xiangzhou were prefecture cities built during the Ming Dynasty. Although there are differences in their specifications, the differences are not too great.

The foundation of the city wall of Xiangzhou was made of fir wood nails and red sandstone blocks buried two zhang (approximately 6.6 meters) deep underground.

Based on my understanding of the city walls, to maximize the damage to the foundation, the tunnels dug should ideally be two zhang deep. Once the foundation stones are destroyed, even if the walls don't collapse, they won't be as sturdy as before. Perhaps our heavy artillery could even blast down a wall with an unstable foundation.”

Excavating tunnels too far is not feasible. Without professional surveying tools, the longer the tunnel is dug, the greater the cumulative error, and it may not be possible to successfully dig to the foundation of the city wall.

Moreover, the tunnel is too long, requiring a large amount of engineering work, which is time-consuming and labor-intensive.

Getting too close is also not good, as it would make it easy for the Qing soldiers guarding the western gate to spot them.

Two hundred paces is a suitable distance, neither too far nor too near. However, Peng Gang had one doubt: was Wang's Dyehouse really exactly two hundred paces away from the foundation of the West Gate city wall?

Black powder has limited power, and most of the black powder used by the Left Army was obtained from the Qing Army and was of inferior quality.

Even a single step of error could greatly reduce the power of the gunpowder, potentially preventing the city wall from collapsing.

The first attempt at siege from underground has the highest success rate; however, if the first attempt fails, the siege will be exposed.

The Qing army will definitely strengthen its defenses, making it even more difficult to attack the city in the same way again.

"Can you be sure that Wang's Dyehouse is exactly two hundred paces from the city wall near the west gate of Quanzhou?" Peng Gang asked, his eyes fixed intently on Liu Yonggu.

Liu Yonggu was speechless for a moment, and scratched his head embarrassedly, saying, "Your Highness, I estimated the distance based on my past experience. It may not be exactly two hundred steps; there may be a few steps of error, but it won't be too much off."

Peng Gang shook his head upon hearing this: "No, a few steps of error is too great. If the tunnel is dug too far from the foundation of the city wall, even if two or three thousand catties of gunpowder are buried, it may not necessarily damage the foundation."

"Tomorrow at dawn, I'll lead a battalion of soldiers in a feigned attack on the West Gate, using footsteps to determine the distance from Wang's Dyehouse to the base of the West Gate city wall?" Lu Qin volunteered.

“A feint is still an attack. In the second half, we’ll have to jog. Once we start running, it’s inevitable that our strides will be uneven and we might miscount our steps,” Peng Gang said after thinking for a moment.

"To accurately measure the distance between Wang's Dyehouse and the West Gate city wall, one must leisurely walk to the foot of the West Gate city wall."

"To calmly walk to the west gate wall?" Lu Qin thought about it and felt that it was impossible. "Our army has already besieged the city, and the Qing troops inside Quanzhou City are on high alert. How could they allow us to calmly find our way to the west gate wall?"

"Why not?" Peng Gang already had an idea in mind.

(End of this chapter)