1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 200 In the Name of Defending the Righteous
Although the power of black powder cannot be compared with that of yellow powder.

If the power is insufficient, make up for it with the equivalent amount.

To ensure a successful bombing of the Quanzhou city wall, Peng Gang spared no expense, burying a full 3,800 jin of gunpowder under the foundation of the city wall!

With such a quantity of gunpowder, as long as the tunnel is dug accurately and the gunpowder is buried well, it would be more than enough to blow up the walls of a provincial capital, let alone the small prefecture capital.

The thirty-odd Green Standard Army soldiers and militiamen from Quanzhou who were near the epicenter were instantly blown away by the blast wave. They flew high into the air like kites with broken strings, and then crashed down heavily. Some of them hit the battlements and broke their bones and flesh on the spot; others fell directly into the wall and into the huge crater created by the explosion. They were buried by the rolling bricks, with only half of their bloody and mangled arms sticking out and trembling slightly in the dust.

The defenders who were further away had barely looked up when they were hit by flying bricks and stones!

The original blue bricks on the city wall were instantly turned into huge, highly destructive fragments under the impact of the massive shockwave!
Some of the soldiers and civilians guarding the city had half of their faces sliced ​​off by broken bricks, and they fell backward before they could even let out a scream.

These soldiers and civilians who defended the city were lucky; at least they died quickly and without much suffering.

The soldiers and civilians who survived the rain of sharp, broken bricks and tiles, their skin ripped, their internal organs pierced, and their bones severed, were the most tragically affected.

Because these injured people were close to the epicenter, the huge shockwave had already shattered their internal organs. The injured people felt their heads throbbing, their ears ringing, their chests feeling tight and nauseous, and no part of their bodies felt any relief.

Many of the wounded instinctively tried to find weapons to end their suffering, but their limbs were no longer under their control.

Twenty-odd soldiers and civilians, whose positions were slightly further from the epicenter, were covered in blood as they struggled to their feet amidst the smoke and dust. Their ears were ringing and their eyes were filled with ash, so they could only crawl on their stomachs by instinct, uttering howls like wild beasts.

Cao Xiepei was suddenly jolted, feeling a violent shaking beneath his feet. The wall tilted, and he was thrown to the ground, blood spurting from his mouth and nose. He slammed his head against the edge of the battlement and became unconscious.

Cao Xiepei's attendants cried out in alarm and tried to help him up, but half of the city wall had already collapsed outwards. In an instant, three or four of Cao Xiepei's close followers, along with more than a dozen of Wu Changxian's personal guards, were swallowed up along with bricks and soil into the swirling dust pit.

Wu Changxian tried to pull Cao Xiepei away from the city wall near the South Gate, but bricks rained down from the sky, hitting them both heavily.

The impact sent the two men, along with seven or eight close followers and soldiers, flying through the air with their flesh and bones shattered!

They were knocked to the ground by a hail of blue bricks.

With his mouth full of dirt and blood, Cao Xiepei tried to get up to defend the city, but his leg bones had already been smashed to pieces, and he could not move.

Cao Xiepei shook his head, which was throbbing with pain and his ears were ringing, and roared words he could barely hear himself: "Kill the cult bandits! Hold the line—hold on—"

Wu Changxian leaned against the side of the broken city wall, his eyes wide with horror. He stood up, sword in hand, and was about to draw his sword and shout for the troops to be organized when a large flag of the right battalion of Yongzhou Town broke in the wind and slammed hard onto Wu Changxian's forehead.

After being struck by the flagpole of the battalion flag, Wu Changxian, who was already suffering from severe internal injuries, lost consciousness and was never able to stand up again.

The Quanzhou garrison near the West Gate was already in complete disarray, with figures jumbled in the dust and wailing filling the air.

Within a radius of twenty or thirty feet from the blast point, Qing soldiers and civilians were either killed by the shockwave, buried alive, injured by shrapnel, or fell off the high walls; less than one in ten survived.

The Qing soldiers and their comrades, who were about twenty or thirty paces away, were also dragging their ailing bodies, crying and stumbling around, even losing their weapons.

The West Gate was the key point of defense for the entire city's garrison.

To defend against the attack by the Left Army, more than 400 soldiers and civilians gathered near the West Gate before the explosion.

After the explosion, almost all of the more than 400 Qing soldiers and civilians near the West Gate lost their fighting ability. The more than 100 Qing soldiers and civilians who were lucky enough to survive and were still able to move were also terrified and at a loss. They were somewhat mentally unstable and could not be effectively mobilized and organized to defend the city and fill the gap.

The Zuo Jun troops closest to the West Gate city wall were a dozen or so engineering soldiers from the Wang Ji Dyehouse.

Liu Yonggu, the engineering company commander who was in charge of starting the fire and had just crawled out of the tunnel, was still shaken.

If it weren't for the fact that he had been working in the mines since he could remember and was fast at running through the tunnels, he would have been buried in the tunnels and never come out again.

Liu Yonggu and a dozen or so engineering soldiers were a hundred feet away from the epicenter. This distance was not far, but they were all affected by the explosion to some extent and felt some physical discomfort.

He glanced at the gap in the west wall, which was a hundred feet away and empty of any defenders, then turned to look at the attacking army at the foot of Xiangshan Mountain behind him.

Liu Yonggu was extremely excited: "Being close to the water tower means getting the moon first! Brothers! Follow me and charge! Let's take the credit for being the first to scale the walls!"

With that, Liu Yonggu grabbed a pickaxe and led a dozen or so engineers toward the breach in the west gate wall without looking back.

At the foot of Xiangshan Mountain, the rapid and inspiring drumbeats of the attack resounded.

A force of three thousand attacking troops surged slowly toward the precarious city of Jeonju like an overwhelming tide.

When the attacking troops crossed the moat by building a bridge and arrived near the devastated western wall, they found themselves in a state of disarray.

Liu Yonggu and more than a dozen other engineers had already occupied the breach in the west wall, ready to welcome the attacking main force.

Three thousand elite soldiers of the Left Army gradually entered Quanzhou City through a huge gap nearly three zhang wide.

On the crumbling city wall, Cao Xiepei, severely wounded and with both legs broken, could only watch helplessly as wave after wave of Left Army soldiers entered Quanzhou City with weapons in hand, filled with impotent rage.

Enraged, Cao Xiepei felt a burning sensation in his throat and spat out a mouthful of blood. He stared with his triangular eyes as he watched the Left Army enter the city with resentment.

After capturing the West Gate, the attacking Left Army soldiers swarmed in orderly from the West Gate, rushed into the Wenmiao Alley, and occupied the entire prefectural government office.

The remnants of the Qing army and local militia near the west gate of Quanzhou City were routed, with some dying and others fleeing, and the city's defenses seemed to have collapsed.

Along the long street, where flames ignited, doors were wide open, corpses lay strewn at the alley entrances, blood stained the base of walls, and women, children, and the elderly fled in panic, their cries of agony never ceasing.

Li Qi, Cheng Dashun, Xiao Maoling, and other officers of the Left Army, who were in charge of attacking Quanzhou City, thought that taking control of the city and the Quanzhou government office would be equivalent to taking control of Quanzhou City.

The resistance in Quanzhou was far stronger than they had anticipated, unlike in the past.

Not to mention that the city walls were destroyed by explosions, the Left Army soldiers, whose numbers were several times greater than the defending troops, stormed into the city.

Even if only one gate is lost, the defending troops inside the city will have no will to resist and will soon surrender and beg for their lives.

For example, Luorong County was easily occupied and controlled by the Left Army that very night after Yang Huwei feigned an attack.

Even after capturing the prefectural government offices, the defending soldiers and civilians in the prefectural city continued to resist.

Instead, they engaged in more organized street fighting with the Left Army soldiers who had stormed into the city, attempting to drive the Left Army, which had already established a firm foothold in the city, out of Quanzhou.

At the foot of Xiangshan Mountain, Peng Gang was slightly surprised to learn that a fierce street battle had broken out in Quanzhou City.

This was the first time the Left Army had encountered street fighting in a siege since the uprising began.

Travel-worn and covered in blood, Li Qi rode up to Peng Gang's command post. He dismounted and reported to Peng Gang: "The students of the state academy and the sons of local gentry are still harboring treacherous intentions. They are instigating their classmates and clansmen, and organizing the uninformed Mongol people in the city to continue their futile resistance. Your Highness is incompetent, and I fear you will be unable to enter Quanzhou City today. I beg Your Highness to punish me."

"First Battalion, Provisional Twelfth Battalion! Assist in the siege!" After understanding the situation in Quanzhou City, Peng Gang decided to deploy two more battalions to clear out the Qing soldiers and civilians who were stubbornly defending the city as soon as possible.

"Capture and clear every street and alley, every house in the entire city one by one, escort the law-abiding citizens out of the city and put them under centralized guard, and kill on the spot any who resist stubbornly, whether they are soldiers or civilians!"

The soldiers and civilians in Quanzhou City still had a high willingness to resist. Before the attacking Left Army soldiers completely controlled Quanzhou City, Peng Gang had no intention of entering the city.

"I obey my orders!"

Chen Miao, the acting battalion commander of the First Battalion, and Yang Huwei, the battalion commander of the Provisional Twelfth Battalion, received Peng Gang's orders and led their respective units toward the already crumbling Quanzhou City with great fanfare and high spirits.

After a day and night of street fighting, civilians from Quanzhou were continuously evacuated from the city. Cao Xiepei's claim that 20,000 soldiers and civilians in Quanzhou would fight to the death against the Left Army's attack on the city was clearly an exaggeration.

For an entire day, the soldiers of the Left Army who were attacking the city cleared most of the streets and alleys in Quanzhou City, but they still managed to find fewer than 7,000 civilians in the city.

Even if we dig three feet into the ground after dawn and find every single person in the entire city, it's unlikely that the total population of the city would exceed ten thousand.

The claim that 20,000 people in the entire city fought to the death is completely unfounded; however, the claim that more than 2,000 people put up a fierce resistance is true.

Peng Gang summoned some surviving residents of Quanzhou for questioning.

According to the people of Quanzhou, before and after the Zuo army soldiers entered Xiangshan, many people in Quanzhou wanted to leave the city to escape the war.

However, Cao Xiepei, the prefect of Quanzhou, kept the four gates closed, forbidding anyone from leaving the city, and demanded that every household send able-bodied men to train daily to assist in defending the city.

Not everyone agrees with Cao Xiepei's decision.

However, those families who clamored to leave the city and refused to send men to assist the government in defending the city were all exterminated by Cao Xiepei, and their property was confiscated to reward the soldiers and civilians who defended the city.

Those who survived had nowhere to go, so Cao Xiepei had his followers and students from the state school spread the word every day, saying that the short-haired religious bandits not only raped women and children and kidnapped children, but also coerced adults and young men into joining the "bandits," and that they would destroy Confucian temples and ancestral halls, and only allow foreigners to worship their Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother.

Therefore, they could only follow Cao Xiepei to defend Quanzhou City to the death, hoping for the arrival of government reinforcements.

As night fell, the left flank's offensive temporarily halted.

Li Qi, the battalion commander in charge of the attack, reported the situation inside the city to Peng Gang again.

"Except for the Confucian Temple and the State Academy in the west of the city, the rest of the city is under our control!"
Only near the Confucian temple and the prefectural school, local students and young scholars organized their own families, tenant farmers, and remnants of Qing soldiers to stubbornly resist, and they could not be persuaded to surrender.

The system of state schools and Confucian temples (academies), which are usually referred to together as "academies," was the core place for local official education in the Qing Dynasty.

The prefectural school was located in the southeast of the city. It was built on Liushan Mountain during the Song Dynasty, moved to its current location during the Hongwu reign of the Ming Dynasty, and remained there during the Qing Dynasty.

Quanzhou Confucian Temple is located in the southeast corner of Quanzhou City, backed by Xiangshan Mountain and facing the Xiangjiang River.

Quanzhou Confucian Temple is a temple-school combined structure, located next to the west side of the Confucian Temple.

"How old are these students and those who have completed the preliminary studies? Are there many of them?" Peng Gang asked, his brows furrowed slightly.

"The younger ones are fourteen or fifteen, and the older ones are around thirty, about the same age as our soldiers," Li Qi replied.

"The state school and the Confucian temple together have two or three hundred people, but the number of students and students in the junior school is estimated to be only forty or fifty."

The young people who cling to the state school and Confucian temple are in the stage of forming their worldview, outlook on life, and values. Their cognitive structure is not yet sound, they lack rational judgment, and they are easily swayed by strong ideologies or emotional discourses.

Cao Xiepei was skilled in rhetoric and could easily sway people's hearts. His advocacy of protecting the orthodox tradition was undoubtedly very appealing to these young men.

However, Cao Xiepei was a state official who had already settled down. Cao Xiepei's protection of the orthodox tradition was also a way of protecting the Cao family's vested interests, so his intentions were not so pure.

The state schools and Confucian temples fought to the death with the spirit of protecting the orthodox tradition, and those young people who did not make it to shore truly believed that they were defending the orthodox tradition.

When Zeng Guofan organized the Xiang Army, he also encouraged passionate local students and scholars in Hunan to join the Xiang Army and serve as scouts (similar to company commanders).

These grassroots officers, all from Hunan, were the backbone of the Hunan Army.

"You held back?" Peng Gang questioned Li Qi.

The forty or fifty scholars and militiamen at the state school and Confucian temple were not formally trained military personnel.

The state school and the Confucian temple were not military fortresses.

The more than 700 soldiers of the Second Battalion led by Li Qi were all veterans who had been through many battles. Their equipment was only slightly inferior to that of the First Battalion, and three of the four companies were equipped with excellent muskets.

If Li Qi were to launch a full-scale attack on the state school and the Confucian temple, Peng Gang would not believe that Li Qi would still be unable to capture the state school and the Confucian temple, which were being held by a group of non-military personnel.

“They are scholars, and I want to give them a chance to surrender, hoping they can be used by our army,” Li Qi said with his head down.

Peng Gang saw through his intentions; he indeed did not go all out in attacking the state school and the Confucian temple, showing mercy.

Peng Gang said coldly, "Regardless of whether they are scholars or not, as long as they haven't laid down their weapons, they are our enemies and should be treated equally! After dawn, bring the heavy artillery and matchlock guns to the Confucian Temple and the prefectural school to fire. I want to see whether their faith is stronger or our guns are tougher!"

"Yes!" Li Qi straightened up and replied.

The next morning, Li Qi, along with two artillery crews borrowed from Chen Xuyuan's heavy artillery company, dragged two heavy cannons weighing over 500 jin each to the state school and the Confucian temple.

Amidst the ruins of the Confucian Temple, a group of ragged, pale-faced students and scholars gathered beneath the dilapidated lecture hall.

The plaque with the three characters "Minglun Hall" that hung high in front of the hall was knocked to the ground by yesterday's earth-shattering explosion, and the cracks on the plaque were as dense as a spider web.

These state school students range in age from fourteen or fifteen to over thirty.

Seeing that the Left Army was about to attack the state school and the Confucian temple again, Quanzhou's instructor, with a blood-stained headband and half his body covered in blood, staggered to the front of the hall.

He looked at all the students and addressed them with great passion and fervor: "You all study the books of sages and have lofty ambitions! Now, the rebels have invaded our city, burned our ancestral temples, destroyed our schools, severed our cultural heritage, and shattered our land! If we do not fight now, when will we ever fight?"

Several older students, with tears in their eyes, kowtowed on the spot and declared loudly, "We are willing to dedicate our lives to defending the nation and upholding its moral principles!"

No sooner had he finished speaking than two loud cannon shots rang out, and the gate of the Confucian Temple was blasted open.

The prefectural instructor, sword in hand, led five or six students to block the gate.

Three muskets, their dark muzzles already inserted into the breached gate of the Confucian Temple, were aimed at them.

"put!"

At Li Qi's command, the three muskets fired almost simultaneously.

Dozens of iron pellets shot out from the muzzle of the gun, instantly knocking down the prefectural instructor and five or six students.

Yesterday, during the attack on the Confucian Temple and the prefectural school, the Second Battalion did not use heavy weapons.

Today, heavy artillery and rifles were brought in directly. These young men, who were barely holding on with their courage and moral integrity, were terrified and at a loss.

After firing their muskets, the musket bearers dispersed, and two more cannon shots rang out, completely shattering the gate of the Confucian Temple.

Li Qi led his arquebusiers through the gates of the Confucian Temple, bringing an end to the half-month-long battle of Quanzhou City.

Zuo Jun thus gained complete control of the entire city.

Quanzhou was the second prefecture city captured by the Left Army, and also the first city that the Left Army had truly captured through a direct assault.

The only remaining obstacle on the Xiang-Gui Corridor is Chu Yong, who is stationed near Jiang Zhongyuan in Shuitang Bay.

(End of this chapter)