1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 215 Fire Support Units
After the meeting, Yang Xiuqing summoned Chen Chengrong and Lin Qirong and instructed them, "Daozhou, Guiyangzhou, and Chenzhou are mountainous and the roads are dangerous. The elderly, weak, women, and children of the central army do not need to accompany the army. I will give you two thousand tokens to escort the elderly, weak, women, and children of the central army to Lingling."

The three places Yang Xiuqing wanted to attack were not easy to traverse. If the Qing army in Guangxi discovered that the central army was advancing westward to Daozhou, they would definitely send troops to pursue them.

Bringing military dependents along not only increases logistical pressure, but also requires diverting some troops to protect them.

After careful consideration, Yang Xiuqing decided to send Chen Chengrong and Lin Qirong with the 37,000 family members of the central army to Lingling, the capital of Yongzhou, to settle down first.

Lingling was under the control of the Northern Palace. The 37,000 family members accompanying the army to Lingling would definitely need to rely on the Northern Palace's provisions.

Since the order was issued, the Northern Palace has never taken anything from the Imperial Treasury; on the contrary, it has supplied a considerable amount of food and supplies to the various armies.

Chen Chengrong and Lin Qirong had both fought alongside the Northern Palace forces and were among the Eastern Palace members who knew the Northern King best.

Given the character of the Northern King, he certainly wouldn't watch the 37,000 family members accompanying the army in the East Palace starve to death; he would provide rations for the 37,000 family members of the Central Army.

However, the two of them felt that it was somewhat unfair for Yang Xiuqing to lead the East Palace's banners and banners into battle while the North Palace provided provisions for the East Palace's elderly, weak, women, and children.

Although they thought this way, neither of them voiced their true thoughts or questioned Yang Xiuqing's decision to her face.

The main force of the Taiping Army was in a very sorry state when they moved from Guilin to Quanzhou.

Not only the Auxiliary King and the Wing King were punished.

Chen Chengrong and Lin Qirong were also flogged, and because they were from the East Palace, they received even more flogging.

"Yes, Your Highness." Chen Chengrong and Lin Qirong didn't say anything more and accepted the task assigned to them by Yang Xiuqing.

Inside the government office in Lingling City.

It was learned that Cheng Yucai and Bao Qibao had led their troops away from Hengyang, the capital of Hengzhou Prefecture, and fled north to Changsha.

With only Tao Enpei, the prefect of Hengzhou, recruiting and training local militia to defend Hengyang, the Qing government's garrison in Hengzhou was relatively weak.

Peng Gang dispatched Luo Dagang to lead five battalions, a heavy artillery company, and a newly formed engineer battalion, to sail north and besiege Hengyang using the same siege tactics employed in Quanzhou City.

Luo Dagang led his troops to conquer Hengzhou. Li Qi, the battalion commander of the second battalion who captured Dong'an County, brought two thousand new recruits from Dong'an County, along with provisions and supplies, and arrived at Lingling City by boat. He brought the battle report he had written to Peng Gang and reported the situation in Dong'an County to him.

"Liang Zhen is still collecting money and grain in Dong'an County. Dong'an County is not very rich. At present, it has only obtained 5,633 shi of grain, 87,420 taels of silver, and 3,235 taels of gold."

"What about the casualties?" Peng Gang, who was writing a book, put down his pen and looked up to ask.

In Li Qi's previous letter, it was reported that the magistrate of Dong'an County did not abandon the city and flee, but instead organized local militias to resist.

This was Li Qi's first time leading troops to attack a city independently, and Peng Gang was particularly concerned about the casualties of the Second Battalion, the Provisional Eleventh Battalion, and the Mountain-Splitting Artillery Company that participated in the battle.

"The Second Battalion suffered 21 casualties, the Provisional Eleventh Battalion suffered 45 casualties, and the Mountain-Splitting Artillery Company suffered no casualties," Li Qi said, handing over his battle report.

"Your Highness, on the way here I heard that we seized a lot of mountain-splitting cannons from the armory in Lingling City. Could we set up a mountain-splitting cannon company in each battalion?"

Having tasted success in this operation alongside Liang Zhen's mountain-splitting artillery company and independently commanding a fully-fledged mountain-splitting artillery company, Li Qi hoped that Peng Gang could delegate the organization of the mountain-splitting artillery to battalion-level units.

Compared to heavy artillery, the infantry battalions preferred mountain-splitting cannons.

Although heavy artillery is powerful, it is also heavy, making it difficult to transport and move, and it cannot be deployed at any time.

The mountain-splitting gun was different. Even if it weighed two or three hundred pounds, the gun crew could pull or even carry it while running around, providing timely fire support for the infantry.

Therefore, the battalion commanders of various infantry battalions mostly favored mountain-splitting guns, while they were not particularly fond of heavy artillery.

After all, they knew that the entire Left Army only had twenty-one heavy artillery pieces, and it was impossible to demote such heavy weapons to the battalion level.

The mountain-splitting cannon was different. The Qing army had a lot of mountain-splitting cannons, and the Left Army also captured a lot of them. The arsenal could also manufacture mountain-splitting cannons themselves.

The left wing has a sufficient reserve of mountain-splitting artillery.

Previously, the mountain-splitting guns were not distributed to the battalions because of two reasons: first, there was a shortage of gunpowder, and second, there were not enough skilled gunners.

Lingling, the capital of Yongzhou Prefecture, was a major military town with a similar strategic position to Maping, the capital of Liuzhou Prefecture, and the Qing army's armory had a rich stockpile of weapons and ammunition.

After the battles of Huangshaguan and Lingling, Peng Gang equipped six battalions with captured muskets.

Now, nine out of the twelve battalions of the Left Army have been equipped with muskets.

In addition, there are 1,800 bird guns in reserve.

The Left Army's current rate of firearm equipment is even higher than that of the Qing Army.

They fought their way from Xunzhou in Guangxi to Lingling in Yongzhou, southern Hunan.

The two artillery companies also gained experience, and Peng Gang was indeed considering delegating the mountain-splitting artillery to battalion-level units. However, Li Qi's steps were a bit too ambitious, proposing to assign a mountain-splitting artillery company to each battalion.

“Li Qi, you have quite the appetite. Even if I hollow out Liang Zhen’s mountain-splitting artillery company, I still couldn’t build twelve mountain-splitting artillery companies,” Peng Gang said with a smile and a shake of his head.

“It’s unrealistic to form twelve mountain-splitting artillery companies. Let’s have six old battalions, each with a mountain-splitting artillery platoon. We got a lot of matchlock guns in Lingling City this time, so let’s have twelve battalions, each with a matchlock gun platoon.”

In addition to equipping each of the six old battalions with a mountain-splitting artillery platoon, Peng Gang also planned to equip all the battalions with a dedicated musket platoon.

The slingshot is cheap, easy to maintain and operate, requires only two or three people to operate, and is also easy to carry. It is very useful for fighting low-intensity, low-level wars.

The Qing army favored using matchlock muskets as infantry support weapons, resulting in a very high number of matchlock muskets in their arsenal.

It is much easier to form a musket platoon than a mountain-splitting artillery platoon, which requires drawing experienced gunners from the mountain-splitting artillery company to train new gunners.

As for musket operators, with a little training from musket operators and mastering the amount of propellant to prevent the gun from exploding, they can become qualified musket operators in a short period of time.

The musketeers of the left wing preferred to fire at close range.

Many musketeers preferred to load two or even three lead bullets into the gun, using the flintlock musket and matchlock musket as shotguns.

The usage is actually the same as the Qing army's matchlock gun, which was also used by the Qing army to fire shot.

Actually, the slingshot is not bad; it's quite suitable for the current Chinese battlefield.

The Left Army also used matchlock muskets, but the matchlock muskets used by the Left Army were basically modified by the arsenal. Matchlock muskets in good condition were selected and the matchlock ignition was changed to flintlock ignition.

The Qing army's use of matchlock guns against the Left Army yielded little result, not because of the guns themselves, but because of the personnel.

Peng Gang had seen Qing troops using matchlock guns on the battlefield.

It was rare to find a Qing army matchlock gunner who dared to let the enemy get close before firing; the vast majority of Qing soldiers preferred to fire a few shots from more than a hundred paces away, hoping for a lucky draw.

The Qing army's matchlock guns were poorly made; it would be strange if they could hit a target with shotgun shells fired from over a hundred paces away.

This tactic is only used to scare off ignorant bandits who lack firearms and are just another rabble.

When faced with the Taiping Army, a tough and daring force, the Qing army's musketeers' tactics were completely ineffective.

“One platoon at a time,” Li Qi said excitedly, rubbing his hands together.

A mountain-splitting artillery platoon also has four artillery groups, which is barely enough.

"Take the Second Battalion to the camp in the west of the city and find a place to set up camp and rest, and help with the porridge distribution." Peng Gang glanced at Liu Tongwei, who had been waiting for a long time, and sent Li Qi away.

"Yes." Li Qi accepted the order and turned to leave the main hall of the government office.

After Li Qi left, Liu Tongwei went to Peng Gang's desk and presented him with the compiled information on the wealthy families of Yongzhou.

Of the three leaders of the Tiandihui (Heaven and Earth Society) in southern Hunan who joined Peng Gang, Li Yantong was a man of humble origins, while the brothers Liu Daiwei and Liu Tongwei were not.

Liu Daiwei and Liu Tongwei were born into wealthy peasant families and attended private school for a few years, gaining a basic understanding of literature.

Zuo Jun had always been a mobile force, and the wealthy households in Yongzhou Prefecture were taking chances, thinking that Zuo Jun would not stay in Yongzhou Prefecture for long. Therefore, they were not very cooperative with Zuo Jun's work of collecting silver and grain.

The wealthy families in Lingling City were relatively easy to deal with, as they were right under the noses of the Zuo Jun garrison, making it relatively easy to confiscate their property.

It's relatively more troublesome to confiscate the money and grain of wealthy families in Yongzhou, who are located outside Lingling City.

Without a clear objective, the efficiency of confiscating money and grain from these wealthy households was very low.

Fortunately, many members of the Yongzhou Tiandihui who joined Zuo Jun were familiar with the local wealthy families and could conduct targeted searches and raids on each of them based on the list of wealthy families compiled by Liu Tongwei.

Liu Tongwei had only recently joined the Left Army and did not know Arabic numerals, so he was still used to writing vertically, which made Peng Gang a little uncomfortable.

After carefully reviewing the list provided by Liu Tongwei, I noticed that apart from the local gentry and wealthy families, the local merchant groups and mine owners, such as the salt merchants of Yongzhou, the timber merchants of Qiyang, and the tin mine owners of Ningyuan, all had considerable assets.

The first year of the Xianfeng reign was another bumper harvest year in Yongzhou Prefecture. Roughly calculated, the amount of money and grain that large households in Yongzhou Prefecture could theoretically collect was more than all previous years combined.

After the confiscation work in Yongzhou Prefecture was completed, the cash in the Left Army's treasury easily exceeded one million.

"Take three battalions from the western camp and lead them out of the city. Recruit according to the list. Be quick," Peng Gang instructed Liu Tongwei.

Xiao Chaogui, Wei Changhui, and Shi Dakai will arrive in Lingling soon, and they will surely take advantage of the wealthy families after they arrive.

Peng Gang wanted to take over the major local businesses before they arrived in Lingling.

(End of this chapter)