1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 361 The Noble Lady of the Northern Palace
As the Minister of Militia Training in Anhui, after Lü Xianji moved his camp to Shucheng County, he was neither in the county government office in Shucheng County nor in the old camp in Shucheng County.

Instead, they used their meager remaining money and grain to hold a grand ceremony to worship Zhou Yu at the Zhou Clan Ancestral Hall, praying for Zhou Yu's blessing so that Lü Xianji could successfully train his troops in Shucheng.

Li Hongzhang, Yuan Jiasan, and Zhao Yun were both amused and exasperated by Lü Xianji's absurd behavior.

Lu Xianji had no connection whatsoever with the Zhou family, not even remotely. Why would Zhou Yu protect Lu Xianji?
Li Hongzhang felt that Lü Xianji's worship of Lü Bu was more reliable than his worship of Zhou Yu.

As a high-ranking official of the second rank who was enjoying the emperor's favor, Lü Xianji received more tributes along the way from Zhili to Anhui than he could raise for training troops after arriving in Anhui.

However, Lü Xianji has always been a person who "separates public and private matters." Lü Xianji believes that paying tribute to Zhou Gongjin is for the purpose of better organizing the militia, and is therefore a public matter.

The expenses for the memorial service for Zhou Yu were all paid from the already meager funds of the Lianyong Duke.

Li Hongzhang, Yuan Jiasan, and Zhao Yun were furious, but they couldn't do anything to Lü Xianji.

After all, Lu Xianji was the leader of their four-man Anhui militia group, and also their only senior member.

Without Lü Xianji's status as a second-rank official as a selling point, the Anhui local authorities, with Yuan and Zhao's fifth-rank official positions and Li Hongzhang's seventh-rank official position, would not have accepted their authority.

Ultimately, it's because they are in a lowly position and have little influence.

No matter how abstract or unreliable Lü Xianji may be, if they want to organize the Anhui militia, they must rely on him.

After Lü Xianji finished paying respects to Zhou Yu, Li Hongzhang, Yuan Jiasan, and Zhao Yun earnestly persuaded him to return to Hefei and apologize to Zhou Tianjue. They even directly pointed out that Zhou Tianjue's days were numbered and there was no need to argue with a dying man.

With Zhou Tianjue kicking his own legs, the position of Governor of Anhui will inevitably fall into the hands of Lü Xianji.

If the Anhui militia is organized properly, it will be a sure thing for Lü Xianji to be promoted to governor, reaching the highest position in the country, or to return to the capital and be promoted to a ministerial position.

All Lü Xianji had to do was temporarily yield, but he would gain military and political power in Anhui and a bright future.

Logically speaking, any normal person would know what to choose in this situation.

However, Lü Xianji was not a normal person. No matter how much Li Hongzhang, Yuan Jiasan, and Zhao Yun pleaded with him, he remained unmoved and showed no intention of returning to Hefei to submit to Zhou Tianjue. Instead, he severely reprimanded them.

Li Hongzhang, Yuan Jiasan, and Zhao Yun were all extremely disappointed with Lü Xianji and deeply worried about the future of the Anhui militia.

Perhaps because Lü Xianji's surname wasn't Zhou, Lü Xianji's sincerity failed to move Zhou Yu.

For a whole month, the four-man training group from Anhui made no progress in training the militia in Shucheng; on the contrary, more and more militia members deserted.

As Li Hongzhang had predicted, none of the four men were from Shucheng, and the locals did not trust them.

In addition, the Taiping Rebellion caused panic throughout Anhui, and the Nian Rebellion also frequently harassed Shucheng County. The able-bodied men of Shucheng County either hid at home or fled into the mountains for refuge, fearing that they would be conscripted.

Li Hongzhang, Yuan Jiasan, and Zhao Yun spent a month trying to recruit people in Shucheng, but they basically failed to do so.

Their biggest gain this month was that when Yuan Jiasan was in Hefei, he wrote a letter to his fellow Henan native, Li Mengqun, the Minister of Militia in Jiangxi, requesting that Li Mengqun provide them with some guns and weapons for the purpose of organizing the Anhui Militia.

Li Mengqun finally responded. He not only sent Yuan Jiasan fifty self-propelled muskets purchased from the British, but also three hundred high-quality Green Standard Army muskets.

They also sent them 10,000 taels of silver and 200 taels of gold to help them train the Anhui Army.

The Jiangxi battlefield was a complex web of conflicting forces, with the Long-Haired Rebels in Madang and the Short-Haired Rebels in Dehua and Ruichang counties of Jiujiang.

Li Mengqun was under great pressure on the Jiangxi battlefield. He heard that the imperial court had sent a new minister in charge of local militia training to Anhui, and that some of his fellow Henan natives were among them.

Li Mengqun was very excited and hoped that Lü Xianji, Yuan Jiasan, Li Hongzhang, and Zhao Yun could organize the local militia in Anhui to relieve some of the pressure on the Jiangxi battlefield.

After reading Li Mengqun's reply to Yuan Jiasan, Li Hongzhang couldn't help but exclaim, "Young man, you are so young yet you have such a broad mind; your future is limitless!"

The Li Mengqun and Yuan Jiasan families did not have much interaction. Li Mengqun was from Gushi, Guang Prefecture, Henan, while Yuan Jiasan was from Xiangcheng, Henan. It would be a stretch to say that they were from the same hometown.

Even so, Li Mengqun not only agreed to Yuan Jiasan's request, but also sent him gold and silver.

Although Li Mengqun enjoys the emperor's favor and holds the title of prefect, his rank is higher than that of Yuan Jiasan, a fifth-rank official in the capital.

However, in his reply to Yuan Jiasan, Li Mengqun was humble, referring to himself as a junior to Yuan Jiasan, who was a generation older than him.

Just reading the reply is soothing.

Considering the behavior of Lü Xianji, who was a generation older than Li Mengqun, after arriving in Anhui, Li, Yuan, and Zhao all sighed that comparisons are odious.

"I fired a few shots with my personal guards at the foreign gun that Shaoqiao sent me, and it's really a good thing," Yuan Jiasan said with admiration as he played with the homemade pistol that Li Mengqun had given him.

"I've heard that Wu Jianzhang, the Shanghai Daotai, is well-acquainted with foreigners. We can entrust him to purchase some foreign guns and cannons for our Anhui provincial militia," Zhao Yun said.

The imperial court originally had very strict control over firearms, but since the Taiping Rebellion, these restrictions have been greatly relaxed.

Not only were the Guangfu soldiers under General Wulantai of Jingzhou equipped with foreign guns, but the Chu soldiers under Jiang Zhongyuan and the Gan soldiers under Li Mengqun were also equipped with a very small number of foreign guns, either by purchasing them from Wulantai or by purchasing them through other channels.

I heard that Ulantai also purchased some foreign cannons in Guangzhou and transported them to Changsha for Changsha's defense.

“It all depends on human effort. The Anhui Army doesn’t even have many men left in its old camp. What use would it be if we bought a thousand or eight hundred foreign guns?” Li Hongzhang frowned.

Li Hongzhang believed that compared to guns and weapons, the most pressing problems facing the Anhui Army were manpower, money, and food.

After a full month of training in Shucheng County with no progress whatsoever, Lü Xianji finally became anxious.

However, Lü Xianji still had no intention of returning to Hefei. Instead, he thought that since he could not recruit soldiers in Shucheng, he should send Yuan Jiasan, Li Hongzhang, and Zhao Yun back to their hometowns to use their influence to recruit soldiers and raise funds and pay wages before coming to Shucheng to regroup.

Although this move is hardly a good strategy, Li Hongzhang originally brought about four hundred men from Hefei to Shucheng County, but now only about three hundred remain.

However, Lü Xianji made some changes, which was better than all four of them being stuck in Shucheng doing nothing. Li Hongzhang, Yuan Jiasan, and Zhao Yun all agreed to return to their hometowns to recruit soldiers and raise funds before making further plans.

Yuan Jiasan, who had long been utterly disappointed with Lü Xianji, was the first to flee, leading his entourage north to his hometown of Xiangcheng, Henan, overnight.

Zhao Yun was from Taihu County in western Anqing Prefecture, while Shi Dakai's Taiping rebels were stationed in Wangjiang County of Anqing Prefecture.

Its minister Mao would occasionally travel to the neighboring counties of Susong and Taihu to plunder money and grain from wealthy households.

Taihu County was far from peaceful, and Zhao Yun had few armed guards to protect him. Li Hongzhang was worried about Zhao Yun's safety, so he ordered Liu Douzhai to lead more than a hundred Luzhou soldiers to escort Zhao Yun back to Taihu County to recruit more soldiers.

Zhao Yun thanked Li Hongzhang and then set off south to his hometown by Taihu Lake.

After Zhao Yun left, Li Hongzhang went to his hometown of Modian in Hefei. With the help of his third brother Li Hezhang, he mobilized and recruited seven hundred young men from Modian. He treated them well and persuaded them to come to Shucheng.

Knowing that he had no hope of recruiting brave men in Shucheng County, Lü Xianji had no choice but to entrust his cousin Wei Deyu, who lived in his hometown of Jingde, to recruit some fellow villagers to come to Shucheng to plan a big event together.

After Lü Xianji, Li Hongzhang, and Zhao Yun brought their relatives and fellow villagers from their hometowns, leveraging their family influence, they finally managed to set up the framework of the Anhui Army.

Yuan Jiasan was nowhere to be found, nor had any letters been received, which greatly puzzled Lü Xianji, Li Hongzhang, and Zhao Yun.

Although Xiangcheng in Henan is far away, Yuan Jiasan shouldn't have been out of contact for so long.

It wasn't until Lü Xianji received a report that he learned Yuan Jiasan had recruited a group of local militia in Xiangcheng, Henan, who had joined Zhou Tianjue's ranks and were now working with Zhang Guoliang, one of Zhou Tianjue's capable lieutenants, to suppress the Nian rebels in northern Anhui.

Lu Xianji was furious and, disregarding official decorum, couldn't help but curse loudly in public: "That son of a bitch Yuan Jiasan! An ungrateful wretch! He actually led the Xiangcheng villagers to join Zhou Tianjue. Is he trying to follow Zhang Guoliang's example and recognize this old bastard Zhou Tianjue as his father?"

When Li Hongzhang and Zhao Yun learned that Yuan Jiasan had switched allegiance to Zhou Tianjue, they were quite surprised and wondered what Yuan Jiasan's intentions were in joining Zhou Tianjue's faction.

Given his age, Zhou Tianjue doesn't have much time left to live.

In terms of future prospects, Zhou Tianjue's performance in suppressing both the Long-haired and Short-haired rebels was mediocre, and he was almost captured alive by the Short-haired rebels several times.

Zhou Tianjue was able to become the governor of Anhui purely because the court was facing a talent shortage and no one was willing to take on the risk of becoming the governor of Anhui, a hot potato, so he picked up this cheap job.

Despite his eccentricities and incompetence, Lü Xianji was clearly a more worthy investment and follower than Zhou Tianjue in terms of future prospects and potential. "Minister, please calm down. As the saying goes, those who walk different paths cannot make plans together. Wu Qiao has left, so be it. The bandit situation is urgent; our priority should be to focus on training our troops," Zhao Yun advised.

Zhao Yun knew that his military talent was far inferior to that of Li Hongzhang and Yuan Jiasan. He felt it was a great pity that Yuan Jiasan had switched allegiance.

However, Yuan Jiasan is gone, and anger alone won't change anything. Even if the three of them are left, the militia training still has to be done.

Lu Xian was basically seething with resentment after being outmaneuvered by Zhou Tianjue in Hefei.

To avoid Zhou Tianjue's sharp edge, Lü Xianji voluntarily left Hefei for Shucheng, only to have Zhou Tianjue poach his men. Lü Xianji simply couldn't swallow this insult.

"I intend to impeach Yuan Jiasan and Zhou Tianjue!" Lü Xianji said through gritted teeth, his anger blazing.

"May I ask how Your Excellency intends to impeach me?" Li Hongzhang asked, looking at Lü Xianji.

“Yuan Jiasan was acting on imperial orders to assist me in organizing the Anhui militia. Zhou Tianjue blatantly poached Yuan Jiasan, which is an open act of disobeying imperial orders and disrupting the overall situation of the Anhui militia! Isn’t this enough to impeach them both?” Lü Xianji said emphatically.

Li Hongzhang and Zhao Yun exchanged a glance, shook their heads helplessly, and let out a soft sigh.

They haven't figured out the specifics of Yuan Jiasan's defection to Zhou Tianjue.

The claim that Zhou Tianjue openly poached Yuan Jiasan is only Lü Xianji's side of the story. It's also possible that Yuan Jiasan was utterly disappointed with Lü Xianji and turned to Zhou Tianjue on his own initiative.

Regardless, this is ultimately an embarrassing incident within their team and should not be made public.

It is not wise to spread scandals instead of covering them up.

Furthermore, impeaching Zhou Tianjue would not only exacerbate the conflict with him but also delay the training of local militias in Shucheng and the overall situation of militia training in Anhui.

Yuan Jiasan was, after all, a fifth-rank official and the head of the Anhui militia. The transfer of Yuan Jiasan was no small matter. Without the approval of Emperor Xianfeng, how could Zhou Tianjue dare to take Yuan Jiasan in?

It's possible that this matter was approved by Emperor Xianfeng, and that Yuan Jiasan and Zhou Tianjue were rashly impeached for disobeying imperial orders without understanding the full story.

What if this was Emperor Xianfeng's idea? Wouldn't that be a slap in the face for him?
"Minister, please calm down. Think about it carefully. Without the imperial decree, would Yuan Jiasan, with his temperament, dare to openly bring Xiang Chengyong to join Zhou Tianjue? And would Zhou Tianjue dare to accept Yuan Jiasan?" Li Hongzhang advised.

"Better safe than sorry. Let's wait for further news. If it is indeed Yuan Jiasan and Zhou Tianjue who made the decision on their own, then it's not too late to submit a memorial to impeach them."

After Li Hongzhang's reminder, Lü Xianji gradually calmed down and realized that Li Hongzhang's words made sense.

Yuan Jiasan was as slippery as an eel, and he wouldn't be so foolish as to throw himself into Zhou Tianjue's arms without Xianfeng's permission, especially since he brought Xiang Chengyong with him.

Sure enough, a few days later, Emperor Xianfeng's imperial edict arrived in Shucheng.

Yuan Jiasan joined Zhou Tianjue's service when he was traveling north to Xiangcheng, Henan. On his way through Hefei, he took the initiative to meet Zhou Tianjue and expressed his willingness to help Zhou Tianjue train his militia.

Zhou Tianjue was willing to accept the recommendation of even someone like Zhang Guoliang, let alone Yuan Jiasan, who has an impeccable background.

He then jointly submitted a memorial with Yuan Jiasan, explaining the matter.

Emperor Xianfeng did not care whether Yuan Jiasan was working for Lü Xianji or Zhou Tianjue; he only cared whether the Anhui Army could be established. Without much thought, he agreed.

Lu Xianji breathed a sigh of relief upon seeing the imperial edict, thankful that he had heeded Li Hongzhang's advice and had not rashly submitted an edict to impeach Zhou Tianjue and Yuan Jiasan.

To express his gratitude, he gave Li Hongzhang 10,000 taels of silver and 1,500 shi of various grains, and instructed Li Hongzhang to train his bravery well.

Li Hongzhang felt a mix of emotions as he looked at the money and grain sent by Lü Xianji.

They had asked Lü Xianji for money and provisions many times before, but Lü Xianji was stingy. However, because of this matter, Lü Xianji generously allocated so much money and provisions to them.

In any case, there's no need to worry about money and supplies in the short term.

With the Anhui Army's old camp just taking shape, Li Hongzhang felt that if the army only trained and didn't prove its worth on the battlefield, it would never grow into a truly effective force.

Li Hongzhang certainly wouldn't dare provoke the short-haired rebels in Huangmei and Luotian counties of Huangzhou Prefecture in Hubei Province, and he also felt that his local militias were not yet a match for the battle-hardened elites of the long-haired rebels under Shi Dakai in Anqing Prefecture to the south.

After much deliberation, Li Hongzhang decided to follow Yuan Jiasan's example and lead his local militia to suppress local bandits and Nian rebels in Anhui to train his troops.

There are no secrets that stay hidden forever, let alone the Qing Dynasty, a dilapidated wall that lets in the wind from all sides.

News that Lü, Yuan, Li, and Zhao were transferred to Anhui to run local militias, and that they had a falling out with Zhou Tianjue and moved to Shucheng, quickly reached Wuchang.

"Zhou Tianjue really never disappoints us. He didn't get along with Lin Zexu in Guangxi, and he couldn't even see eye to eye with Lü Xianji in Anhui," Huang Bingxian remarked.

Zhang Ze couldn't help but laugh and said, "Zhou Tianjue helped us a lot in Guangxi, and he can still help us in Anhui. He is truly our 'benefactor'."

Zhou Tianjue and Lu Xianji, the minister in charge of the Anhui militia, were at odds, and the Northern Palace indeed benefited greatly from this.

For at least six months, Peng Gang will not have to worry about the Qing army rising in Anhui and threatening Huangmei and Luotian counties on the border of Hubei and Anhui, and will not need to deploy too many troops in Huangmei and Luotian counties.

Peng Gang can free up more troops for the battle of Xiangfan.

Although Li Hongzhang was only a seventh-rank official at this time, not the powerful Li Zhongtang, he still had a superior like Lü Xianji above him who had put him in a shackle.

But Peng Gang still did not let his guard down.

Those who can climb from the bottom to the top of power, whether by actively taking advantage of the situation or by the creation of the times.

Their abilities and potential are beyond doubt, and they are far more terrifying than those who are born at the top of the power food chain.

Peng Gang wrote to Shi Dakai, who was still in Wangjiang County, instructing him to pay close attention to and take special care of the local militias of Li Hongzhang and Yuan Jiasan.

After finishing the letter, Peng Gang had Zhou Jihong, the official in charge of military affairs, deliver it. He then looked up at his staff and said seriously, "Don't pin your hopes on the enemy's infighting and mistakes. How is the intelligence gathering going in Xiangfan?"

“The governor of Huguang, Chonglun, is a good-for-nothing who doesn’t care about the military and political affairs of Hubei. He spends his days indulging in wine and women and cannot extricate himself from them. Chonglun has left all the military and political affairs of Hubei to his staff,” Zhang Handai said.

"The military affairs in the Xiangfan area were actually handled by Luo Raodian, the Minister of Militia of Hubei, and Bao Qibao, the Governor of Hubei. Perhaps because our side had never used troops in the Xiangfan area, the Qing court allocated very little military funds to Xiangfan."

Although Xiangfan was a military stronghold, the Qing government only stationed six Green Standard Army battalions there, with a strength of about three thousand men. Three of these battalions were the Xiangyang Garrison Right Battalion, the Front Battalion, and the Xiangyang City Garrison Battalion, which were originally stationed in Xiangfan. The remaining three battalions were drawn from Gucheng County, Guanghua County, and Yunyang Prefecture.

Regarding local militias, the exact number is unknown, but it is estimated that there were over three thousand men stationed in Xiangfan.

As the temporary provincial capital of Hubei, Xiangfan was not a large city with more than 6,000 soldiers stationed there during the war.

To guard against Peng Gang's eastward advance and surprise attack, Sai Shang'a and Zhang Fei stationed tens of thousands of soldiers in the small county town of Hukou.

Leaving aside Changsha and Nanchang, even Hefei, the temporary provincial capital of Anhui, which was in a similar situation, had tens of thousands of Qing soldiers stationed there.

In contrast, the Qing court did not pay much attention to the defense of Xiangfan.

Or perhaps the Qing court did not believe that Peng Gang, having just finished his western expedition and left a large force at the Yuelu Mountain camp, would launch a military campaign against Xiangfan, which was hundreds of miles away, in a short period of time.

"The Qing court has always only transferred grain and money from the south to the north, and it is rare to hear of grain being transferred from the north to the south. Moreover, the Qing court is currently preoccupied with its own problems in the north, and its funds and grain are also very tight. The funds and grain allocated by the capital to Hubei are very limited, and the grain and pay of the Green Standard Army in Xiangfan and Yunyang prefectures were cut off in the middle of last year."

Luo Raodian and Bao Qibao managed to keep up with the food and pay of the Hubei Green Standard Army by exploiting the people of Xiangyang Prefecture, Yunyang Prefecture, Anlu Prefecture, and Jingmen Prefecture.

The local people have long been resentful of the levies imposed by the Xiangfan authorities. As our army marches into Xiangfan, whether the local people will welcome our troops with food and drink, I dare not guarantee. But as long as we maintain military discipline and do not disturb the people, the people in these places will at least not resist us.

"An army marches on its stomach. It is already the tenth day of the first lunar month. The waterway to Xiangfan is not as convenient as the waterway to Changsha. If we conquer Xiangfan, we will need a lot of laborers. The matter of raising grain and military supplies and recruiting laborers should be put on the agenda as soon as possible."

The land survey team is becoming increasingly proficient in tasks such as surveying and dividing the land into equal acreage and registering the land.

Although Zuo Zongtang was still in charge of coordinating the Qingtian Army, the workload was much lighter than at the beginning of the Qingtian campaign, so he was able to pay attention to some matters outside of the Qingtian Army.

(End of this chapter)