1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 259 Letting Go

As Peng Gang had predicted, more and more soldiers from the Northern Palace set foot on the Shuiluzhou Island.

The Qing troops on Shuiluzhou collapsed and were unable to mount a proper counterattack, let alone drive the soldiers of Beidian off Shuiluzhou.

Before long, the more than forty forts on Shuiluzhou Island were successively captured by the soldiers of the Northern Palace.

The soldiers of the North Palace who had climbed onto Shuiluzhou quickly moved the heavy cannons that were originally aimed at Yuelu Mountain to the right bank of Shuiluzhou and pointed the cannons toward Changsha City.

Shuiluzhou is a long and narrow sandbar, with its widest point being no more than three hundred meters. The sandbar is also flat.

Although the cannons on the Shuiluzhou Fortress were very heavy, including many heavy cannons weighing over a thousand catties, the soldiers of the Northern Palace managed to overcome the challenges.

More than forty heavy cannons were towed into place before the Qing army could launch a counterattack. The artillerymen of the heavy artillery battalion also quickly went ashore and excitedly began to operate the newly captured cannons.

Upon learning that the Northern Palace had captured Shuiluzhou and that Changsha City had been unable to be captured after a prolonged siege, Yang Xiuqing decisively ordered a halt to the attack on Changsha City.

The Eastern Palace halted its attack on Changsha City, and Luo Bingzhang hurriedly recruited civilians to fill the gap near the Kui Xing Tower on the south wall.

Sai Shang'a then organized troops to cross the Xiang River and recapture Shuiluzhou.

The Qing army's sailors and naval troops were not the same as the Northern Palace's naval forces, capable of crossing the river and seizing islands under cannon fire.

The artillerymen on Shuiluzhou Island fired only two or three rounds. The Qing army's sailors and cavalry refused to cross the river by boat.

Even with the generous reward offered by Saishana, no one responded.

Enraged, Sai Shang'a could do nothing but complain that the Hunan water troops were useless.

When Luo Bingzhang learned that the Changsha naval forces were useless and unable to recapture the land and water islands, he was not as annoyed as Sai Shang'a.

However, he was determined to take advantage of the opportunity presented by the lifting of the ban on local militia training in Hunan to train a new and capable naval force.

It's true that Shuiluzhou was lost, but it's also true that Changsha City was saved.

The rebels have been besieging Changsha for a long time without success, and now the Xiangjiang River waterway is open to traffic.

As long as the cultists aren't stubborn, the next step should be to lift the siege of Changsha, just like they did with Guilin.

Luo Bingzhang was the governor of Hunan. For him, the withdrawal of the religious bandits from Changsha was not necessarily a bad thing.

How to suppress the religious bandits is something that should be the concern of Sai Shang'a, the imperial commissioner in charge of suppressing the bandits.

Although the defense of Changsha City relied on guest troops, especially the northern guest troops brought by Sai Shang'a.

However, within Changsha, from Luo Bingzhang to the common people of Changsha, not a single person liked these visiting soldiers.

Those northern soldiers not only raped and looted in Changsha, but they also made a scene over things like not being able to get noodles or accidentally being served spicy food, forcing the Changsha authorities to compensate them with silver.

Luo Bingzhang couldn't wait for the long-haired and short-haired soldiers to leave Changsha. Once they were gone, these difficult-to-please guest soldiers would have no reason to stay in Changsha any longer.

Of course, Peng Gang and Yang Xiuqing also shared this idea.

After all, Changsha was not the only provincial capital in the country. Only the Heavenly King Hong Xiuquan regretted that he could not take Changsha as his own paradise.

"In the battle of Shuiluzhou, 526 Qing soldiers were killed and 2,340 Qing soldiers were captured. The remaining Qing soldiers, seeing that the situation was not good, all ran back to Changsha City."

How many Qing soldiers drowned while swimming back to Changsha and perished in the fish remains unknown to me.

In addition, Qing army guerrillas Xiao Fengchun, Bao Yunzhu, Qin Ruhu, and other Qing generals were killed. As for Cang Jingtian, the prefect of Changsha who was in charge of guarding Shuiluzhou, according to the prisoners' confession, he saw that the situation was not good and fled back to Changsha city by boat.

Having repelled the counterattack of the Qing army's naval forces, the overall situation at Shuiluzhou was settled. Chen Ajiu handed over the defense of Shuiluzhou to Chen Miao, the deputy commander of the Sixth Regiment, and then went to Yuelu Mountain to report the Sixth Regiment's achievements to Peng Gang.

In the battle of Shuiluzhou, the Northern Palace achieved great success, with its greatest gain being more than forty heavy cannons, especially sixteen of them weighing over a thousand catties, which filled the gap in the Northern Palace's lack of heavy cannons weighing over a thousand catties.

Among them are six cannons that were built during the Kangxi era.

Peng Gang prefers older cannons made before the Qianlong era to new ones, as the quality of cannons made before the Qianlong reign of the Qing Dynasty is still acceptable.

The later the cannons were made, especially during the Jiaqing and Daoguang periods, they were simply unsightly, with so many sand holes that several large bowls of water could be poured into them.

"I saw from the mountain that the Sixth Regiment suffered heavy casualties. How many brothers did the Sixth Regiment lose in this attack on Shuiluzhou?" Peng Gang asked about the Sixth Regiment's casualties.

The Qing soldiers on Shuiluzhou Island were not particularly strong, but their artillery was formidable. Whether fired by elite soldiers or ordinary civilians, the cannonballs had the same power as long as they hit the target.

"One hundred and forty-eight men were killed in action, and four hundred and thirty-five were wounded. Half of them were slightly wounded. After treatment and rest, they can return to camp," Chen Ajiu said with a heavy tone.

With over 500 casualties, this is the largest casualty arsenal suffered by the Northern Fleet since its establishment.

However, compared to the Taiping army that attacked the south wall of Changsha, the casualties of the Beidian army that attacked Shuiluzhou were much better.

Yang Xiuqing and his men attacked the south wall of Changsha, but nearly two thousand people were killed or wounded.

"Go to the reserves and select some new recruits to join the team. I have an important task for you," Peng Gang said, patting Chen Ajiu on the shoulder. Although the North Palace does not have as many troops as the East Palace in name, the East Palace includes both regular and reserve troops, while the North Palace only counts the regular troops, excluding the reserves.

Even if the Northern Palace's entire army suffers casualties of up to two-fifths, there are enough reserve personnel to replenish the ranks.

"Northern King, what is the mission?" Chen Ajiu asked, raising his eyes.

"Go to Baling, the capital of Yuezhou Prefecture, first. The Wing King is in Baling. He has captured Yiyang, Yuanjiang, Xiangyin, and Yuezhou in succession, so he must have acquired quite a few ships. We don't have enough ships, so ask the Wing King to buy some more," Peng Gang instructed.

Although the North Hall has more than 1,100 boats of various sizes, it has the most boats among all the halls.

However, excluding warships and supply ships, less than half of the ships were actually usable for carrying people. In addition, the North Palace had the second largest population after the East Palace, so it was impossible for everyone to have a boat to ride.

Since Shi Dakai has been in Dongting Lake for so long, there should be extra boats in the Wing Palace.

Shi Dakai owed Peng Gang a favor, so if Peng Gang wanted to buy some boats from Shi Dakai, Shi Dakai would definitely agree.

Furthermore, the people of the Eastern Palace also lack boats.

The ships in the auxiliary and wing palaces have surplus, and they will definitely be requisitioned by Yang Xiuqing.

Yang Xiuqing would never use money to buy a boat from Shi Dakai.

"Your subordinate obeys. When shall we depart?" Chen Ajiu asked.

"After replenishing the personnel, take a battalion and set off once the pontoon bridge is dismantled," Peng Gang instructed.

Now that the Xiangjiang River waterway has been opened, the next step should be to head north.

The large ships and supply ships of each palace are all located on the upper reaches of the Xiang River. If the large ships want to go north, they must dismantle the pontoon bridge near the fishing market.

Large ships need to pass under the pontoon bridge, and it's not enough to just remove a small section of the pontoon bridge; a large section needs to be removed.

The pontoon bridge in Yuwang City was built by the Dongdian Tuying. Peng Gang didn't know if Yang Xiuqing wanted to keep the pontoon bridge for other uses. Before carrying out a major demolition of the pontoon bridge, it would be better to obtain Yang Xiuqing's consent.

After crossing the pontoon bridge, Peng Gang arrived at Yang Xiuqing's command tent and saw Yang Xiuqing, who looked haggard and had red and swollen eyes.

"Greetings, Fourth Brother." Peng Gang greeted Yang Xiuqing with a fist and palm salute.

"Seventh Brother, sit down." Yang Xiuqing gestured for Peng Gang to sit down and had the maidservant beside him serve him tea.

Yang Xiuqing's attack on Changsha during the day was not a feint, but rather a full-scale assault.

Otherwise, the Qing army in Changsha would not have been unable to spare troops to support Shuiluzhou.

Despite their best efforts, they still failed to capture Changsha. Not only was Yang Xiuqing resentful, but the other high-ranking officials of the Heavenly Kingdom were also somewhat disheartened.

Zeng Shuiyuan even suggested that they could occupy the prefectural city and turn it into a small paradise, which diminished their original ideals.

"Seventh Brother, do you really think we're destined to never conquer a major city?" Yang Xiuqing took a sip of tea and sighed softly. "Guilin and Changsha, each one is harder to conquer than the last."

“Once is enough, twice is too much, but a third time is not enough. Wuchang’s defenses are weak. As long as we dismantle the pontoon bridge and head north, we can reach Wuchang before the main Qing army force in Changsha. We will surely be able to capture Wuchang.” Peng Gang encouraged Yang Xiuqing, “Heavenly Father and Heavenly Brother will bless us to take Wuchang.”

He wasn't trying to comfort Yang Xiuqing; the reason Guilin and Changsha couldn't be captured was because a large number of visiting troops came to their aid.

The Qing government had already drawn almost all of its elite infantry from its regular army, and the Green Standard Army from Hunan, Sichuan, and Guizhou was wiped out by the Taiping Army in Guangxi.

The remaining Shaanxi-Gansu Green Standard Army was besieged in Changsha, and Shuiluzhou was now firmly in Peng Gang's hands.

If we attack Wuchang by boat down the river now, Sai Shang'a will definitely not be able to send reinforcements to Wuchang in time.

"You came here because of the pontoon bridge, didn't you? Your local camp should be returned to you. Take them to dismantle the pontoon bridge. After dismantling it, come north with me to attack Wuchang. Leave the rearguard duties to Zeng Shuiyuan and Lin Fengxiang." Yang Xiuqing picked up his teacup, but then seemed to suddenly remember something, and the teacup he had just picked up froze in mid-air.

"I heard you've found your long-lost brother. Congratulations!"

"I am deeply grateful that you, Fourth Brother, still remembered this matter despite your busy schedule," Peng Gang said.

Yang Xiuqing's determination to head north and his decision not to fight a decisive battle in Changsha relieved Peng Gang.

Before arriving, Peng Gang was worried that Yang Xiuqing was too angry and reckless because of the heavy casualties suffered by the Eastern Palace in attacking Changsha, and was unwilling to give up Changsha easily.

In retrospect, his worries were unnecessary; Yang Xiuqing was not Xiao Chaogui.

Aside from the supreme authority of the Heavenly Kingdom, Yang Xiuqing was able to let go of other things.

“Look at you, you don’t even care about your own brothers. Peng Yong was the first to attack Hengyang and even captured Tao Enpei, the prefect of Hengzhou. Such a great achievement, and you didn’t report it. People who don’t know the situation might think that our Heavenly Kingdom is unfair in its rewards and punishments.” Yang Xiuqing emphasized the word “brothers” and pondered for a moment before speaking.

“Peng Yong is a national leader, and his achievements are enough to convince the public. Let’s reward him with a command position.”

Yang Xiuqing emphasized the word "brothers," but it is unclear whether the brothers Yang Xiuqing referred to were Peng Gang and Peng Yong's blood brothers, or the "immortal brothers" of the Shentian family.

(End of this chapter)