1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 198 Second-rate Qing Army
“The Commander of Wudu is overthinking it. When the rebels first rose up at the beginning of last year, I personally supervised the repair of the city walls of Quanzhou. Quanzhou is now as solid as a rock.” Cao Xiepei pondered for a moment and then asked Wu Changxian.

"Commander Wu, let me ask you this: how much gunpowder would the Short-Haired Cult bandits need to blow up the city walls of Quanzhou?"

After careful consideration, Wu Changxian replied, "Lord Cao is skilled in repairing the city walls. If the Short-Haired Rebels want to blow up the city walls of Quanzhou, they would need to use at least a thousand catties of medicine to damage the city walls if they dug the tunnels accurately."

Wu Changxian inspected the city walls of Quanzhou and found that Cao Xiepei had indeed done a good job in repairing them.

Although both are prefecture cities, the condition of the city walls in Quanzhou is much better than that of Yongzhou, which he recently visited.

Li Xingyuan, the imperial envoy stationed in Yongzhou, has recently been repairing the city walls, which seems somewhat like a last-minute effort.

When Cao Xiepei was repairing the city wall of Quanzhou, it was just the two major Tiandihui bandits, Li Yuanfa in southern Hunan and Chen Yagui in northern Guangxi, who were causing trouble.

At that time, the God Society was not well-known.

When Cao Xiepei first repaired the city wall to defend against the Heaven and Earth Society, he unexpectedly found it very useful in dealing with the God God Society bandits.

Wu Changxian had to admit that, compared to many local officials, he was...

Cao Xiepei was a capable official, giving people a sense of reliability.

It was precisely because Cao Xiepei was reliable, and because the God Society bandits had already reached the gates of Guilin, that Wu Changxian made up his mind to stay in Quanzhou City with his brothers to help Cao Xiepei defend the city.

“Even if there are skilled tunnel diggers among the short-haired cultists, they wouldn’t be able to obtain over a thousand pounds of gunpowder,” Cao Xiepei analyzed earnestly.

"The three county towns and one prefecture city captured by the Short-Haired Rebels were all small towns, not military towns. The gunpowder they obtained was at most six or seven hundred catties. In recent days, the Short-Haired Rebels' cannon fire has become increasingly sparse, which means that the Short-Haired Rebels have very little gunpowder left."

Cao Xiepei did not believe that the Left Army had enough gunpowder to blow up the city walls, as most of Guangxi's gunpowder was stockpiled in Guilin, the provincial capital, and Liuzhou, a military stronghold.

Since the uprising of the God Society, although they have captured many cities, at least Guilin and Liuzhou, which serve as a fig leaf, have not been lost.

"Perhaps I am overthinking it."

Wu Changxian thought about it again and realized it made sense. Gunpowder is not food; it cannot grow from the ground. The only way for the rebels to obtain gunpowder was to capture it from government troops.

Apart from a few cities captured by the religious bandits, he had not heard of any other government troops having large quantities of gunpowder seized by the bandits.

It's unlikely that the short-haired cultists would have enough gunpowder to blow up the city walls.

A thousand catties of gunpowder—there aren't that many usable gunpowders in the entire city right now.

On the third day, subsequent troops arrived and set up camp near Jeonju City.

Peng Gang ordered the First and Fifth Battalions to withdraw and rest.

On one hand, the Provisional Battalion was ordered to replace the First and Fifth Battalions in launching a feint attack on Quanzhou City. This was intended to draw the attention of the Qing troops defending Quanzhou City and to gain practical combat experience.

On one hand, skilled gunpowder masters and firecracker makers from the rear arsenal were transferred to prepare the gunpowder.

During the days of digging the tunnels, Li Xingyuan witnessed and heard about the precarious situation in Guilin and Quanzhou, and was deeply worried.

Guilin City has a large army and many generals, and the famous general Xiang Rong from the southern frontier is in charge. Xiang Rong is not good at suppressing bandits, but he is good at defending them, and there is the fortified city of Guilin to rely on.

Li Xingyuan was not too worried about the defense of Guilin City.

Moreover, Li Xingyuan was in Yongzhou and had not yet entered Guangxi territory.

Even if Guilin falls, Li Xingyuan bears some responsibility. However, the primary responsibility does not lie with Li Xingyuan, but with the three individuals who previously served as acting imperial commissioners: Zhou Tianjue, the governor of Guangxi; Lao Chongguang, the provincial treasurer of Guangxi; and Xiang Rong, the military commander of Guangxi.

Before Li Xingyuan had formally handed over power to Zhou Tianjue, if Emperor Xianfeng were to blame him for the Guilin incident, Li Xingyuan could easily shift the blame to Zhou Tianjue, Xiang Rong, and others.

Li Xingyuan was more worried about the defense of the Jeonju area.

The short-haired cult bandits continued to gather in Quanzhou, stationed more than ten miles north of Quanzhou City. Jiang Zhongyuan, from the Shuitangwan area, sent someone to inform Li Xingyuan that the short-haired cult bandits gathered near Quanzhou City numbered in the tens of thousands. He earnestly requested Li Xingyuan, as the imperial envoy, to send troops into Quanzhou to jointly suppress the short-haired cult bandits.

Jiang Zhongyuan's Chu Yong suffered a great loss when he fought against the Short-haired cult bandits at Bogong'ao. Jiang Zhongyuan did have some understanding of the Short-haired cult bandits.

If you didn't know, when the short-haired barbarians entered Xiangshan, Jiang Zhongyuan had already led two thousand Chu soldiers to attack Xiangshan.

Of the two thousand Chu soldiers under his command, more than half were newly recruited soldiers from his hometown of Xinning. Jiang Zhongyuan knew that his two thousand Chu soldiers alone could not hold the line.

They only dared to confront the short-haired rebels on Xiangshan Mountain, thus tying down some of the rebels' forces for Cao Xiepei in Quanzhou City, and dared not take the initiative to engage the enemy.

The entire city was completely surrounded by the short-haired cult bandits, cutting off all contact with the outside world.

In recent days, Cao Xiepei has been able to send military intelligence to Li Xingyuan by carrier pigeon.

Although Cao Xiepei sent a letter by carrier pigeon to Li Xingyuan informing him that he had repelled the attacks of the short-haired cult bandits several times and was determined to live or die with the entire city.

Li Xingyuan was still worried about Quanzhou.

Within the entire prefecture, there were only a little over a thousand soldiers and local militia in the prefectural capital, and two thousand Chu soldiers near Suoyi Ferry and Shuitang Bay.

Faced with the more than 10,000 short-haired cult bandits mentioned by Jiang Zhongyuan and Cao Xiepei, not to mention the quality of the troops, the government troops were at a considerable disadvantage in terms of numbers compared to the short-haired cult bandits.

Yongzhou was the last barrier for the Taiping Army to enter Hunan. Li Xingyuan himself was from Hunan, and he did not want the Taiping Army to enter Hunan. He wanted to keep the Taiping Army out of Hunan.

If Quanzhou is lost, Li Xingyuan will have to face the legendary, extremely capable and valiant short-haired cult bandits in Yongzhou.

This is the situation that Li Xingyuan least wanted to see.

To protect the entire prefecture, Li Xingyuan had no choice but to urge his two generals, General Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing, to lead 1,000 Hunan soldiers, 2,000 Sichuan soldiers, and 3,000 newly recruited Yongzhou militia into Yongzhou in an attempt to intercept the Short-haired rebels outside Hunan.

Li Xingyuan excelled in literary and political affairs, but commanding troops was not his forte.

Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing were willing to follow Li Xingyuan because Li Xingyuan had been lingering in Hunan and showed no signs of entering Guangxi to suppress bandits.

This is in line with the cowardly and timid nature of Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing.

The two praised Li Qinchai for his maturity, prudence, and steady military tactics, and were happy to follow Li Xingyuan in Yongzhou City, just getting by and passing the days together.

When Li Xingyuan ordered Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing to lead 1,000 Hunan soldiers, 2,000 Sichuan soldiers, and 3,000 newly recruited Yongzhou militia to Quanzhou to suppress the rumored God Society bandits, which were elite short-haired bandits.

Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing changed their tune faster than flipping through a book, immediately switching to a different persona. They spread rumors that Li Xingyuan was underestimating the enemy and advancing recklessly, and that Li Xingyuan intended to use the blood of Sichuan soldiers and newly recruited local militia to stain his official hat.

Both of them were extremely unwilling and refused to go.

Zhang Bilu and Xiang Rong, leading the top-notch Green Standard Army soldiers from Hunan, Sichuan, and Guizhou provinces, were unable to subdue the short-haired religious bandits.

How could the two of them, with only second-rate Green Standard Army soldiers and newly recruited local militia, possibly quell the rebellion?

Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing certainly knew that disobeying the imperial envoy's orders and offending him would have dire consequences.

If he didn't offend the imperial envoy, he would have to go to the whole prefecture to suppress the short-haired religious bandits.

Offending an imperial envoy might at most cost you your official hat, but sending troops to suppress the short-haired rebels could cost you your head.

The lesser of two evils.

After some deliberation, Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing still felt it was better to offend the imperial envoy.

The quality of a general determines the quality of his soldiers.

Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing were lazy and outwardly obeyed Li Xingyuan but inwardly defied him. Their soldiers and their men, Lian Yong, heard that the imperial envoy wanted them to go to Guangxi to suppress the religious bandits.

Some claimed illness, some deserted, and some packed their bags and ran away.

The news that they were going to Quanzhou, Guangxi to suppress the short-haired cult bandits had only been circulating for two days.

Eight or nine hundred of the newly recruited Yongzhou militiamen escaped.

Li Xingyuan was furious, regretting that Emperor Xianfeng hadn't given him the Ebilun sword to keep Liu Changqing and Yu Wanqing, those two seasoned veterans, in check.

(End of this chapter)