1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 211 Decent
With insufficient troops to defend the city, Huang Wenchen wanted to follow the example of the late prefect of Quanzhou, Cao Xiepei, and requested that each household contribute one able-bodied man to organize the local militia in Lingling City to defend the city and ensure its safety.

Unfortunately, times have changed, and regardless of whether Huang Wenchen has the same ability to sway people as Cao Xiepei, the prefect of Quanzhou.

After all, the lesson of Quanzhou City was right before their eyes. Sending a group of militiamen with little military training to defend the city and fight against the Left Army was tantamount to sending them to their deaths.

Whether they were ordinary people or wealthy gentry, none of them wanted to send men to guard the city.

Huang Wenchen repeated his old rhetoric, sending people to spread rumors that the short-haired militia would massacre the city after breaking through its defenses, in an attempt to deceive the local militia into defending the city.

Quanzhou City is not far from Lingling, the capital of Yongzhou Prefecture, so such a clumsy rumor could not easily deceive the people of Lingling City.

As the captured laborers of Lingling City returned safely to the city with their remaining travel expenses, the rumors of the Short-haired Mao massacre were disproven.

The short-haired people did not kill or conscript captured wartime laborers; instead, they sent them home with travel expenses.

Huang Wenchen's fabricated and smeared claims that such an army would massacre a city are unbelievable to anyone with a modicum of common sense.

In addition, members of the Heaven and Earth Society who infiltrated Lingling City took the opportunity to spread rumors that the Left Army was powerful and invincible, and that the Left Army was a benevolent and righteous army with strict discipline, and that it did not harm the people in the slightest.

Very few people in Lingling City responded to Huang Wenchen's call to send men to defend the city.

Huang Wenchen was busy for most of the day, until Peng Gang's left army's fleet sailed down the Xiang River and up the Xiao River, appearing near the Xiaoxiang Gate of Lingling City on the east bank of the Xiao River.

The number of soldiers guarding Lingling City did not increase; instead, many deserted.

Only a handful of two or three hundred men remained by the side of Huang Wenchen, the prefect of Yongzhou, who were willing to follow him and defend Lingling City.

Lingling City, as the largest city in southwestern Hunan, has seven city gates.

Two or three hundred men wouldn't be enough to defend Lingling City, let alone just the seven city gates.

Knowing that there was nothing that could be done and that Lingling City could not be defended, Huang Wenchen left a will and shot it out of the city, pleading with Peng Gang to treat the people of Lingling City well after entering the city.

He immediately returned to the Yongzhou Prefecture government office, changed his whole family into decent new clothes, and hung himself with a white silk ribbon in a dignified manner.

After Huang Wenchen hanged himself, Lingling City was effectively a ghost town.

The left wing troops landed and lined up outside the main north gate to tidy their military bearing.

After tidying up the troops, the Third Battalion was the first to enter the city through the north gate to scout out whether there were any ambushes near the city gate or inside the city.

After confirming that the Qing army had not feigned surrender and that they truly had no troops left to defend, they abandoned Lingling City.

Xie Bin then took control of the north gate, borrowed brooms and buckets from the city's residents, and swept the streets where Peng Gang was entering the city, in preparation for Peng Gang to lead his large army into the city.

The other troops outside the north gate remained where they were, waiting for Peng Gang's order to enter the city.

Peng Gang brought out the troops from Guangxi, including Yang Huwei's Provisional Twelfth Battalion, which consisted of half of its members being prisoners of war.

They were able to obey Peng Gang's orders without question.

However, the Hunan Heaven and Earth Society members who followed Peng Gang could not endure the strict discipline imposed by Zuo Jun along the way, and nearly half of them dispersed.

Even when they followed Zuo Jun to Lingling City, the Hunan Heaven and Earth Society...

It was also because Peng Gang allowed so many members of the Heaven and Earth Society to leave the group so that those who stayed could get a bigger share of money and food.

The members of the Heaven and Earth Society, who had only recently joined the Left Army, were discussing and complaining. Some members even sat down on the ground because they found standing too tiring. They kept asking when they would enter the city, how much money and grain they would receive, and whether the leaders would be able to plunder the women in the city and whether they, as lowly soldiers, would also have a good time.

The Heaven and Earth Society was specifically led and controlled by Luo Dagang.

These members of the Heaven and Earth Society who were making such a fuss were mostly Ma Yuji's subordinates. Luo Dagang couldn't help but frown when he saw this.

Discipline was reiterated, stating that upon entering the city, killing, looting, rape, theft, and disturbing the peace were prohibited. Private rewards would be distributed by the Holy Treasury.

Anyone who dares to violate military discipline will be executed for murder, looting, and rape; those who steal or disturb the peace will be punished with military rods.

The last glimmer of hope for the speculators who were clinging to a gamble was shattered.

Seeing that Luo Dagang's attitude was serious and resolute, it didn't seem like he was just putting on an act.

Ma Yuji, the leader of the Tiandihui in southern Hunan, was unwilling to continue following Zuo Jun. He felt that it was better to be a bandit, living a carefree life of drinking and eating meat from large bowls, dividing gold and silver by the scale, and robbing and looting.

As of now, four leaders of the Tiandihui in southern Hunan have explicitly stated that they have joined Zuo Jun's army: the brothers Liu Daiwei and Liu Tongwei, Ma Yuji, and Li Yantong.

Ma Yuji's departure with his team was a major event. Luo Dagang originally intended to bring Ma Yuji to say goodbye to Peng Gang and part ways amicably.

Ma Yuji was unwilling to see Peng Gang, so Luo Dagang had no choice but to go to Peng Gang alone and report the matter to him.

“Since Ma Yuji is not of one mind with us, we cannot force him to follow us,” Peng Gang said after a moment’s thought.

"Even if we can't be of one mind, we can still work together. Please tell Ma Yuji that as long as he doesn't surrender to the Qing, we can still be friends in the future. If fate allows, we'll meet again in the martial world."

Historically, the Taiping Army fought its way from Guangxi to Jiangnan, and the quality of its followers along the way steadily declined.

The quality of our Guangxi brothers is the highest, followed by Hunan.

Most of those who joined the Taiping Army after the capture of Wuchang were opportunists with impure motives, and many were morally corrupt. This explains why historical records left by people in the Jiangnan region who experienced the Taiping Rebellion offer polarized, even contradictory, evaluations of the Taiping Army.

Some praised the Taiping Army for their love of the people, while others condemned their poor discipline and bloody massacres.

In fact, both of the two completely different eyewitness accounts are true.

Those who experienced the Taiping Rebellion firsthand had different impressions of the Taiping Army depending on whether they encountered the new or old Taiping Army.

The old brothers from Guangxi and some of the old brothers from Hunan, apart from being a bit superstitious because of their beliefs, have always been very disciplined, treated the people well, and even shared their own food rations with the people.

The new members recruited after the capture of Wuchang, especially those from the Liangjiang region, were mostly shrewd and worldly-wise individuals, and their discipline was indeed a cause for concern.

Even the Qing army admitted that they were most afraid of facing the old bandits in western Guangdong, especially the old bandits in Jintian.

They declared that the old bandit Jintian in western Guangdong was difficult to defeat, while the new bandit in Liangjiang was well-planned and easy to win.

This is why, at that time, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom already had hundreds of thousands of troops, and the annihilation of a mere 20,000 Northern Expeditionary Army was an extremely heavy blow to the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

The generals of the 20,000-strong Northern Expeditionary Army were mostly old brothers from the Jintian Uprising, and the soldiers were mostly old brothers from Guangxi and Hunan.

The annihilation of 20,000 staunch and loyal Taiping veterans meant that even if Hong Xiuquan and Yang Xiuqing recruited 200,000 new soldiers in Jiangnan, they could not make up for the loss of 20,000 Northern Expeditionary soldiers.

Peng Gang's left wing also inevitably faces this problem.

From the initial two groups of twenty-four students in Honglianping who were personally and carefully trained, to a company that attacked Wang Dazuo's fortified position in Dachong, to the first battalion formed during the Honglian Village period, until they had nearly ten thousand soldiers.

The quality of his troops was actually declining, but the two classes of students were holding them up. Although the quality and combat effectiveness of the troops were declining, the lower limit was still within Peng Gang's acceptable range.

The brothers Liu Daiwei and Liu Tongwei had been with Ma Yuji for a long time, and they knew Ma Yuji's character best.

Ma Yuji had previously been flirting with the government and was willing to accept their offer of amnesty, but the conditions offered by the government were far from what Ma Yuji had hoped for.

This is why Ma Yuji hesitated to accept the government's offer of amnesty and continued to be the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Ma Yuji left Zuo Jun and did not wish to meet Peng Gang in person, so he bid farewell to Peng Gang.

Liu Daiwei and Liu Tongwei felt that this was a sign that Ma Yuji was feeling guilty.

The Liu brothers reminded Peng Gang that Ma Yuji was probably trying to use his experience in the Left Army as leverage to negotiate with the Qing government and accept their offer of amnesty.

“Ma Yuji is a shrewd and opportunistic man who is willing to serve the Qing dynasty. The fact that he did not want to come to see the Northern King in person and instead left in a dignified manner is probably because he is guilty.”

Peng Gang also had this suspicion, but Ma Yuji had not surrendered to the Qing after all, and had indeed fought alongside Zuo Jun against the Qing.

Peng Gang couldn't possibly punish Ma Yuji on trumped-up charges.

Although the Heaven and Earth Society was a motley crew of good and bad people, there were still some good ones among them.

Luo Dagang, Chen Ajiu, and others also came from the Heaven and Earth Society and are now Peng Gang's capable henchmen.

Disciplining Ma Yuji based solely on suspicion without concrete evidence would not only push the Hunan Tiandihui, which was being courted, to the opposite side of the Left Army, but would also chill the hearts of former Tiandihui members who had joined the Left Army.

“Ma Yuji is a man of questionable character; we should be wary of him in the future. We should uphold the principle of innocence; we can’t prosecute him without evidence,” Peng Gang said to Luo Dagang after a moment’s thought.

"Give him some money and rations according to his merits. He should not be shortchanged by a single penny. Convey my words to him and tell him to behave himself."

Luo Dagang accepted the order, counted out some money and grain, and distributed them to Ma Yuji. Before leaving, Luo Dagang found a statue of Guan Yu from somewhere.

Grabbing Ma Yuji and not allowing him to refuse, they swore a blood oath before the statue of Guan Yu in front of everyone, becoming sworn brothers and vowing never to surrender to the Qing Dynasty.

Although moral constraints have little effect on people with low moral character, they are practically useless.

Doing something is better than doing nothing.

Luo Dagang didn't believe that all of Ma Yuji's subordinates who witnessed the two of them swearing a blood oath were people without any moral bottom line.

"Enter the city!"

After dealing with the Heaven and Earth Society, Peng Gang mounted a tall, chestnut-colored warhorse, pointed towards the north gate of Lingling City, and gave the order to enter the city.

Lingling City held a position in Hunan roughly equivalent to that of Liuzhou Prefecture in Hunan, while Maping City held a position in Guangxi, except that Lingling City was not as strategically important as Maping City.

It was quite a surprise that they were able to settle in Lingling City so easily.

This would at least save a lot of gunpowder.

Although Peng Gang obtained a considerable amount of gunpowder from Qin Dingsan, he lacked the capacity to produce it himself, so saving some gunpowder was always a good thing.

Each siege uses thousands of kilograms of gunpowder. After two or three sieges, the Left Army's limited reserves will likely be exhausted.

The soldiers of the Third Battalion, who had entered the city ahead of time, had already swept the streets. Led by Xie Bin, they stood guard at the north gate and on both sides of the street, armed with muskets or rifles, to escort Peng Gang into the city.

　Added update from June 23.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)