1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 258 The Fuel of Heaven

Outside the south wall of Changsha city.

Yang Fuqing and Lin Qirong, who were in charge of the siege, witnessed wave after wave of Taiping soldiers being pelted with oil, bricks, stones, and lead bullets thrown from the city walls by the Qing army, leaving corpses strewn everywhere and blood flowing in streams.

The blood-red setting sun shone on the city walls, casting long, thin, and grotesque shadows of the Qing soldiers.

The breach was filled with mountains of corpses and broken weapons, as well as stones thrown down from the city walls by Qing soldiers.

The corpses and stones had piled up to a height of over ten feet.

Now, the Taiping soldiers attacking the Taiping Army can only struggle to climb upwards, scrambling through the slippery, blood-red bricks and stones of varying sizes and the corpses of their comrades, braving the rain of stones and lead bullets.

The attack on Changsha is becoming increasingly difficult.

"Back off! Charging again is suicide!"

Unable to contain himself any longer, Lin Qirong grabbed a Guangxi veteran who was about to leap up with a rattan shield. He looked at the half of his face, which was smashed by stones and covered in blood, and the Taiping soldiers falling one after another not far away.

Covered in blood, Lin Qirong steeled his resolve and stopped Yang Fuqing, who was urging the attack on: "Guozong! We can't attack anymore! If we keep going, all the brothers will be wiped out!"

"Inspector Lin! If we give up halfway now, the brothers who went before us will have sacrificed themselves in vain! If we attack Changsha again, even more people will die!" Yang Fuqing's face was ashen, but his eyes remained burning.

Lin Qirong gritted his teeth and said in a low voice, "But many of those charging ahead are old brothers... old brothers who fought their way out of Guangxi. Guozong, wouldn't it be safer to withdraw and rest for a while before attacking a weaker spot?"

Seeing that if the fighting continued, half of the troops he had brought from Guangxi would be wiped out, Lin Qirong couldn't bear it and persuaded Yang Fuqing to retreat and regroup before launching another attack.

"Sure?" Yang Fuqing sneered, pointing his fish-head knife at the city wall.

"The Eastern King wants us to spare no effort to take Changsha quickly. If I hesitate even for a moment, wouldn't I be ruining the Eastern King's great plan!"

Lin Qirong remained silent for a long time, tears welling up in his eyes.

He wasn't afraid of death, but he couldn't bear to see his old comrades, who had accompanied him all the way, clad in tattered clothes and armor, knowing they were going to die, still crawling towards the hellish city wall. It was as if they weren't human, but more like firewood in a stove.

Just then, more and more Qing soldiers appeared on the city wall, and the sound of gunfire from inside the city became increasingly frequent.

This made matters worse for the Taiping army, whose siege was already going poorly.

This scene was also witnessed by Yang Xiuqing and others, who were holding up their telescopes two miles away.

"Eastern King! The Qing demon reinforcements have arrived. Our brothers who attacked the city suffered too many casualties, didn't they?"

With Qing reinforcements arriving, the hope of storming into Changsha was dwindling. The Taiping army had suffered heavy casualties, with many of their veterans perishing during the siege. Yang Yingqing felt it was time to withdraw the attacking troops.

Yang Xiuqing turned a deaf ear. As the commander-in-chief of an army, if he only focused on the casualties of a few hundred or a thousand people, he would be too petty and would be unable to accomplish great things.

He was not a heartless man who cared about the lives of the soldiers in the Eastern Palace. For the future of the Kingdom of Heaven, someone had to make a sacrifice.

"How's the progress at the North Palace?"

Hearing the cannon fire coming from the west bank of the Xiang River, Yang Xiuqing inquired about the progress of the Northern Palace troops attacking Shuiluzhou.

"The Northern Palace troops have already crossed the river. If the Northern Palace soldiers were as fearless as my Eastern Palace soldiers, they should already have established themselves on the islands of Shuilu." Yang Yingqing said somewhat sarcastically.

"Investigate again, report again!" Yang Xiuqing waved his hand, signaling to continue investigating the movements of the Northern Palace troops and to report to him on the progress of the Northern Palace's attack on Shuiluzhou. At the same time, he added three thousand soldiers to the gap in Kuixing Tower.

To be able to storm Changsha, avenge Xiao Chaogui, and make Changsha a small paradise in heaven would be the best outcome.

If they can't take it, it's acceptable to tie down the Qing army forces in Changsha, wait for the Northern Palace to take Shuiluzhou and open up the Xiangjiang waterway, and then move on to Wuchang.

Of course, this is on the premise that the Northern Palace must conquer the Water and Land Continent.

If the Northern Palace cannot capture Shuiluzhou and cannot break into Changsha City, that would be an unacceptable outcome for Yang Xiuqing.

Looking at the soldiers of the Eastern Palace who kept falling during the siege, Yang Xiuqing couldn't help but murmur, "Peng Gang, you must take Shuiluzhou for me. If you fail to take Shuiluzhou, don't blame me for being merciless."

On the west bank of the Xiang River, mist hangs heavy, and the river wind howls.

Peng Gang stood atop Yuelu Mountain, gazing at the long, narrow sandbar in the middle of the river called "Shuiluzhou".

Smoke and fire filled the air on the island, where the Qing army's camp was heavily fortified, with numerous artillery positions and the dark muzzles of cannons firing continuously from the west bank.

Yang Xiuqing was adding firewood to the furnace on the south wall of Changsha, and Peng Gang was adding fuel to the furnace on Shuiluzhou Island.

On the river, thousands of soldiers from the Northern Palace, some on bamboo rafts and others in sampans, spread out and, like arrows released from a bow, crossed the river from the west bank to Shuilu Island.

Faced with the attack of the Northern Palace soldiers crossing the river, the Qing troops on Shuiluzhou Island lit their cannons. More than forty cannons spewed flames, and iron balls flew through the air and crashed into the river, sending water columns soaring into the sky.

Boats and rafts were frequently hit by bullets and exploded, causing the soldiers on board to be thrown into the river, their blood splashing red on the surface.

"Brother, save me—"

"Hold on, don't panic! Don't panic!"

"We're less than a mile from the shore, let's swim there!"

Shouts of battle and cries of agony mingled together, turning the river into a battlefield in an instant.

Peng Gang stared at the horrific scene before him, his brows furrowed and his fists clenched so tightly they cracked.

"Heavy artillery battalion! Suppress fire! Even if you damage the cannons, cover the landing of the Sixth Regiment!" Peng Gang shouted the order, his voice cold and unyielding.

Both banks of the Xiang River are flat mudflats and farmland, and the two sides are almost completely open with each other. There is no way to take shortcuts when attacking Shuiluzhou; only a direct assault is possible.

The Sixth Regiment, which was in charge of the main attack, suffered heavy casualties. Providing fire support to the Sixth Regiment, which was crossing the river to attack, regardless of the cost, was the greatest help Peng Gang could give to these brave soldiers of the Sixth Regiment.

In addition to the heavy artillery positions on the shore, the North Palace gunboats, converted from various types of ships, also braved the Qing army's artillery fire and continuously fired at the Qing army's artillery positions on the island.

Despite three or four gunboats already being hit and flooded, the soldiers around them fought on relentlessly, continuing to fire cannons at the island.

Fortunately, the riverbank was more than ten miles long, and the attack formation of the Sixth Regiment was sufficiently dispersed, so although some boats and personnel were hit by artillery fire while crossing the river.

The losses are still within an acceptable range.

Damn it, if only we had proper inland gunboats, or even small steamships carrying small cannons.

Peng Gang sighed inwardly.

The river warships converted by the Northern Palace Navy were essentially just civilian riverboats equipped with large mountain-splitting cannons, and could not be considered true gunboats.

With each shot fired, the ship rocked violently, and the accuracy of the shells was appalling.

Before long, several light boats that had rushed ahead had landed on the beach. Soldiers of the Sixth Regiment jumped into the water and waded upstream. Some of the newly recruited Fujian and Chaozhou prisoners of war even swam across the Xiang River with their knives tucked in their sleeves and waded ashore on the mudflats.

They saw that the soldiers of the Northern Palace had already landed on the Water and Land Continent.

The Qing soldiers stationed on Shuiluzhou Island were clearly panicked.

Nearby Qing officers hurriedly organized the surrounding troops to form ranks and raise their guns to meet the enemy, attempting to drive the Beidian soldiers who had landed into the Xiang River with muskets.

The sound of gunfire was like a rain of bullets, sparks flying everywhere.

In an instant, plumes of white smoke rose from the narrow, watery islet.

The Qing army's arquebusiers were clearly poorly trained and lacked composure.

As soon as a few soldiers from the Northern Palace landed, they couldn't help but light a fire about seventy or eighty paces away.

At a distance of seventy or eighty paces, facing the Qing army's arquebusiers, Chen Ajiu, who took the lead and climbed onto the water island, showed no fear, as did the veterans from Guangxi.

The fact that the veterans are not afraid does not mean that the new recruits and the Fujian and Chaozhou soldiers who have just been assigned to the Sixth Regiment are not afraid.

Most of the new recruits who landed, as well as the newly enlisted Fujian and Chaozhou soldiers, were intimidated by the Qing army's arquebusiers pointing their dark gun barrels at them from seventy or eighty paces away, and dared not move forward.

This is where the role of veteran soldiers and generals becomes apparent.

Chen Ajiu first gathered thirty or forty veterans who had landed, and raised his knife to the nearby veterans and newly recruited Fujian and Chaozhou soldiers, shouting: "If you retreat, we will not be able to break through Shuiluzhou in this battle. If we cannot break through Shuiluzhou, we will still be the ones to take the lead in the attack."

Can you guarantee you'll survive the next attack and reach the Water and Land Continent? How can we stop here, cowering and hesitant? Rather than retreating and fighting again, let's fight this battle! Let one battle decide the fate of the world!

"The Qing army is cowardly. As long as we launch an attack, they will surely collapse! Once we capture the fort, Shui Lu Zhou will be ours for the taking!"

"Our families are still behind us. If we can't get off at Shuilu Island, our families won't be able to cross the river to the north, and we'll have nowhere to go!"

"If you die, you'll fly to the sky; if you don't, you'll live forever! Let's give it our all!"

The Guangxi veterans in the group echoed this sentiment.

Chen Ajiu's words also make sense.

The Sixth Regiment is currently the only naval force among the eight regiments of the Northern Palace. Even if they retreat, they will still be the main force attacking Shuiluzhou next time.

At that time, attacking Shuiluzhou would undoubtedly be more dangerous, as it would be facing a better-prepared Qing army.

It would be better to take a gamble and seize Shuiluzhou in one fell swoop, so that the family behind can travel north at ease via the Xiangjiang River.

"Follow me!"

After speaking, Chen Ajiu, along with the new and old soldiers of the 80th and 90th Regiments of the 6th Army, charged towards the three or four hundred Qing musketeers seventy or eighty paces away without looking back.

These Qing arquebusiers were all members of the Hubei Green Standard Army, and were not exactly fierce soldiers of the Green Standard Army.

They could manage to hold their position on the riverbank and fire cannons at the soldiers in the northern palace from a distance, under the supervision of their officers.

Upon seeing that the soldiers of the Northern Palace, after being hit by one or two rounds of gunfire, not only did not flee but also dared to charge at them, they instantly lost their composure and scattered in all directions. Some even found it cumbersome to carry muskets while running away and simply threw them away.

After a year and a half of real combat experience, Chen Ajiu has matured a lot. He is no longer a pure brute. He has learned to consider the overall situation and is more like a military officer than he was when he was in Pingzaishan.

After dispersing the Qing army's musketeers, Chen Ajiu was not in a hurry to pursue them. Instead, he seized the beachhead to help the rest of the troops get ashore.

Shuiluzhou is very large. Eighty or ninety people cannot occupy all the forts on Shuiluzhou. Only by gathering enough manpower can we gain a foothold on Shuiluzhou.

Peng Gang, on Yuelu Mountain, saw through his telescope that his own soldiers had already established a foothold on Shuiluzhou Island, ready to receive the troops that would follow up with the attack.

The troops that landed left about a company to guard the beachhead, while the remaining troops, after some reorganization, began to attack the Qing army's artillery positions on the island in platoons.

Peng Gang finally breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he had a foothold in Shuiluzhou, he could continuously send subsequent land division troops to Shuiluzhou, and the ownership of Shuiluzhou would no longer be in doubt.

(End of this chapter)