1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 260 Progress
After failing to capture Changsha, the Taiping army was effectively caught in a dilemma of attacking and besieging the city.

Attacking the city was hopeless; they had no chance of capturing Changsha, a city with plenty of soldiers and supplies.

The strategy is to besiege the city and attack reinforcements, but recently no reinforcements from other places have come to Changsha's aid, so there are no reinforcements to fight.

To avoid repeating the mistakes of Guilin and falling into an even more passive situation, the Taiping army leadership did not hesitate for long and decisively chose to withdraw from Changsha, head to Yuezhou, and then directly to Wuchang.

After agreeing to lift the siege of Changsha, Peng Gang led the Seventh Regiment to dismantle the pontoon bridge near Yuwang City overnight.

After the pontoon bridge was dismantled, boats carrying supplies to each hall and the elderly, women and children to the north hall passed through the waterway and headed north.

The procession of hundreds of thousands of people marched north, a magnificent and awe-inspiring sight.

The staff of the North Hall had always followed Peng Gang.

Huang Bingxian, the chief of staff of the General Staff, did not know whether Peng Gang was going to lead his troops to Changsha to hold off the enemy and meet up with Luo Dagang before heading north, or whether he would wait until the old, weak, women and children left Changsha before heading north.

Huang Bingxian then asked Peng Gang for instructions: "General Luo is still in Xiangxiang County. Does Your Highness intend to personally lead troops to Yuezhou Prefecture, or stay here in Changsha to hold off General Luo's detachment?"

"After the Boys' Camp, Women's Camp, and Old Men's Camp leave Changsha, I will personally lead the troops north," Peng Gang said to Huang Bingxian, putting down the letter that Shi Dakai had just sent.

"Since the West Palace will cover the rear, the North Palace only needs to leave one regiment to cover the heavy artillery battalion on the island. Your staff should pack up and move everything to the ship to wait for me."

To ensure the safety of the Xiangjiang River waterway, the following troops, including the rearguard troops of the West Palace and the troops of Luo Dagang of the main palace, would travel north along the Xiangjiang River.

We must hold onto the land and water islands firmly in our hands.

Defending Shuiluzhou requires artillery, but apart from the North Palace, the other palaces cannot provide enough skilled gunners to operate the cannons on Shuiluzhou.

Zeng Shuiyuan, Lin Fengxiang, Li Kaifang and other core generals of the Western Palace had no objection to the decision to leave the Western Palace to cover the rear.

However, they worried that the infantry of the West Palace alone could not defend Shuiluzhou, so they requested that the artillery of the North Palace be left to defend Shuiluzhou.

Whether for the sake of the overall situation or for the sake of Luo Dagang, who was still in Xiangxiang County, the heavy artillery battalion had to stay behind to guard Shuiluzhou and then withdraw last.

The heavy artillery battalion was the North Palace's prized possession. To ensure the safety of the heavy artillery battalion, Peng Gang left three infantry battalions and one naval battalion at Shuiluzhou to assist the heavy artillery battalion in guarding Shuiluzhou and to be responsible for the subsequent evacuation.

At present, the Northern Palace cannot produce cannons on its own, and the cannons on the water and land islands cannot be destroyed on the spot. We should take as many as possible with us.

As for Luo Dagang's troops in the Northern Palace in Xiangxiang County, Peng Gang was not too worried.

Luo Dagang is a veteran general of the Northern Palace, and his ability to command troops is not a problem.

Furthermore, Luo Dagang commanded two fully-equipped infantry regiments, a mountain-splitting artillery battalion, and a naval battalion, with a complete range of military branches, totaling more than 7,000 troops.

As long as Luo Dagang doesn't attack major cities, i.e., doesn't foolishly attack Changsha, the Qing army's current field combat capabilities are insufficient to defeat him.

“If we leave one regiment and one artillery battalion to guard Shuiluzhou, we will only have around 10,000 regular troops left. How will we attack a large city like Wuchang after we head north?” Huang Bingxian said worriedly.

Huang Bingxian, as a core officer of the Northern Army, was aware that Peng Gang was going north to attack Wuchang.

Huang Bingxian was somewhat worried that the Northern Palace's forces were too scattered and that they would not be able to capture Wuchang.

The Taiping army failed twice in its attacks on cities at the provincial level.

Although the Northern Palace did not directly participate in the sieges, it still had some negative impact on the Northern Palace's officers and soldiers, leaving them with the stereotype that the Qing army found large cities difficult to conquer.

“Wuchang only has two or three thousand soldiers, while we have around ten thousand regular troops in the North Palace, plus the troops in the East and South Palaces. Why should we worry about not being able to take Wuchang?” Peng Gang said to Huang Bingxian.

Shi Dakai was quite quick-witted.

Yang Xiuqing forbade Shi Dakai from attacking Wuchang, but he didn't forbid Shi Dakai from conducting reconnaissance of Wuchang, attacking the surrounding cities, or intercepting and harassing Qing troops attempting to reinforce Wuchang. According to recent reconnaissance of Wuchang by the wing-palace scouts, the vast city of Wuchang had only two or three thousand defenders, not even enough to fill half of the city walls.

Peng Gang was quite confident about capturing Wuchang.

Peng Gang had made up his mind, so Huang Bingxian said no more, took his leave, and led his staff to pack up the General Staff's documents and load them onto the ship.

The fact that hundreds of thousands of people were transferred by boat right under the noses of the Qing army in Changsha could not be hidden from the hundreds of thousands of eyes in Changsha.

At this time, the Qing soldiers in Changsha were still in fear of the south wall being blown up and the fall of Shuiluzhou, and all their thoughts were focused on defending the city walls.

Faced with the Taiping army's withdrawal, the Qing troops in each garrison only cared about their own defense zone.

The Taiping army fleet sailed north in a swagger, and the governors and generals pretended not to see it, with no one taking the initiative to go out of the city to intercept the Taiping army.

Fearing that if he made this suggestion, his troops would be dispatched out of the city to intercept the Taiping army.

Even the imperial commissioner, Sai Shang'a, deluded himself into believing that the religious bandits in western Guangdong, accustomed to the harsh climate and aversion to cold, would inevitably return to their homeland and would never venture north. He remained firmly seated in Changsha, unmoved.

Of course, there were also brave soldiers among the Qing troops in Changsha.

Given the successful experience of the Guilin garrison actively pursuing the Taiping army as they withdrew from Guilin, and achieving considerable results, this study provides valuable lessons.

Jiang Zhongyuan and Liu Changyou were very interested.

The two men believed they could take advantage of the Taiping army's withdrawal to strike them hard, thus saving face and reporting their victory to the capital.

However, Chu Yong was outnumbered, and it would be difficult for him to successfully pursue and annihilate the Taiping army that was withdrawing from the city alone.

Eager to advance their careers, Jiang Zhongyuan and Liu Changyou went to the governor's office to persuade Luo Bingzhang and Sai Shang'a.

It is hoped that Luo Bingzhang and Sai Shang'a can send a force to join Chu Yong in pursuing and annihilating the "retreating" enemy, and cite the successful experience of Guilin as an example.

Luo Bingzhang and Sai Shang'a were also very interested after hearing this.

After hesitating for a moment, he decided it was worth the risk to send out a few thousand soldiers to give it a try.

Even if we fail, there are still over 100,000 soldiers in Changsha, so there won't be any major setbacks. If we succeed, it will be a great achievement.

Sai Shang'a summoned his trusted general, Fu Cheng, the general of Xi'an Town in Shaanxi, and whispered a few words to Fu Cheng, instructing him to lead four thousand Shaanxi Green Standard Army soldiers and local militia to follow Chu Yong down the city wall and pursue and annihilate the "fleeing bandits" in a disheveled manner.

Fu Cheng understood the message and organized four thousand Shaanxi soldiers to follow Jiang Zhongyuan and Liu Changyou's three thousand Chu soldiers down the south wall of the city, attempting to launch a surprise attack on the Taiping Army's southern camp south of Changsha.

As the saying goes, "A fall into a pit, a gain in your wit."

The Taiping army learned a painful lesson from the withdrawal from Guilin.

The Taiping army made thorough preparations for the evacuation of Changsha.

The Taiping army camps that were the first to withdraw from the siege of Changsha and head north were mostly composed of the elderly, women, children, and children at the end of the road.

The guards at each hall were to be removed only after the elderly, women, children, and the last guards had been successfully removed.

Therefore, although the number of Taiping troops outside Changsha was greatly reduced, those who had not yet left were all elite troops.

They learned that the Qing troops inside Changsha City had been lowered down the south wall and were heading towards the southern camp.

Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, and others, who were still at the South Camp, decided to turn the tables on them.

(End of this chapter)