1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 374 More like government troops than government troops

When Xie Bin and Chen Miao captured Dengzhou, Peng Gang's imperial edict supporting their attack on Nanyang finally reached the front lines.

With Peng Gang's clear instructions, Xie Bin and Chen Miao finally felt relieved and were able to lead their troops towards Nanyang without any burdens.

Xie Bin and Peng Yong, leading the seven battalions of the Northern Palace main force, were riding high after taking over Xinye, Dengzhou, Tangxian and other southern prefectures and counties of Nanyang Prefecture with unstoppable momentum.

On their march toward Nanyang, they encountered almost no significant resistance, and all the cities surrendered without a fight. This led many soldiers to believe that the Qing army in Henan Province was nothing special.

They felt that Nanyang Prefecture was like the cities they had attacked in northwestern Hubei and southern Henan, and could be taken relatively easily.

Riding high on their winning streak, the Northern Army marched northward in a mighty force, soon reaching the vicinity of Nanyang City.

When the vanguard reached the banks of the Baihe River, about twenty miles south of Nanyang City, the elite scouts sent out earlier brought back the latest intelligence, causing Xie Bin and Peng Yong's nerves, which had just relaxed, to tighten again.

"Report——!"

Several scouts covered in dust rushed to see Xie Bin and reported on their observations of the area near Nanyang City over the past few days.

"Something is amiss in Nanyang City. My subordinates have been observing for days and have noticed that several groups of Green Standard Army soldiers, bearing the banner of Nanyang Town in Henan, have entered Nanyang City from different directions! There are quite a few of them, I estimate no less than three thousand!"

"Oh?" Xie Bin frowned and exchanged a glance with Peng Yong beside him.

When the Qing army in Henan was attacked by the Northern Army, it did nothing and showed no intention of sending troops across provinces to reinforce Xiangfan.

The Qing army in Henan was quite proactive in rescuing Nanyang within the province.

Peng Yong asked the scouts in a deep voice, "Did you see the enemy's flags clearly? Do you know where these Qing soldiers came from?"

Another scout chimed in, "Reporting to the Emperor, based on their route, they came from the south, east, and northwest. Their banners are varied, including those of Deng Xin Camp, Runing Camp, and Chenzhou Camp, and there are even a small number of reinforcements flying the banners of the Hebei Town Green Standard Army!"

"I see... Qiu Lian'en is quite something!" Xie Bin said after a moment's thought.

"Our progress has been so smooth that the Qing troops in places like Xin Dengtang have fled without a fight. It seems that the troops did not run away at the first sign of trouble, but rather that General Qiu Lian'en of Nanyang Town took the initiative to withdraw his troops, abandon the outer cities, and concentrate all his limited forces in Nanyang Prefecture to protect Nanyang."

Peng Yong agreed with Xie Bin's point of view: "No wonder that in the cities we took over, apart from some yamen runners and idle local militia, we didn't encounter any of the regular soldiers from Nanyang Town."

I thought the Henan soldiers were all cowardly and deserted, but it turns out they were all transferred away beforehand by Qiu Lian'en and his men. This Qiu Lian'en is much more decisive and shrewd than Bao Qibao from Fancheng, who only knows how to pray to gods and Buddhas.

Xie Bin said, "Qiu Lian'en has the courage to make tough decisions, but dividing his troops to guard the outer prefectures and counties will only lead to their defeat one by one and unnecessary losses. It would be better to pull back our fists and concentrate all our forces to defend the fortified city of Nanyang. This is not a bad idea. In this way, the number of troops in Nanyang is probably far greater than we previously estimated. Nanyang is not as easy to take as we thought."

Many Qing generals recognized that dividing their forces would make them vulnerable to being defeated one by one, and thus consolidated their forces to defend a major city. However, those who dared to do so and take responsibility for abandoning the city were extremely rare. Qiu Lian'en, on the other hand, was a leading figure in the Green Standard Army.

With this in mind, Xie Bin was not in a hurry to attack the city. He immediately ordered: "Order the entire army to set up camp four miles outside Nanyang City, dig deep trenches, set up more abatis, establish a foothold and stabilize the position first, and do not advance rashly!"

Send out more scouts to expand the reconnaissance area! Not only should we thoroughly investigate the defenses of Nanyang's city walls, troop deployment, and artillery positions, but we should also closely monitor whether there are any signs of Qing troops continuing to reinforce Nanyang in the western and central Henan directions, especially in the directions of Ruzhou, Xuchang, and Kaifeng. We must be on high alert to prevent Qing reinforcements!
The earthen camp immediately surveyed the terrain, began digging tunnels, and constructed siege equipment in preparation for an assault!

Upon receiving the order, the Northern Palace army quickly transitioned from marching formation to combat readiness, and a massive encampment began to take root outside Nanyang City.

Xie Bin personally arranged the camp and wrote to Lu Qin, who was stationed in Xiangfan, explaining the situation in Nanyang and requesting that Lu Qin send more troops to Nanyang for the purpose of attacking Nanyang.

The troop strength in Nanyang City exceeded their previous estimates. Even if Chen Miao could bring two battalions to the battlefield after capturing Biyang County, nine battalions would probably be insufficient to attack Nanyang City.

After doing all this, Xie Bin personally led the 1st Company of the 1st Battalion of the 3rd Regiment to patrol and explore the area around Nanyang City, only to find that the villages and towns on the outskirts of Nanyang City were deserted.

As the scouts from the North Palace said, the people outside the city had been moved into Nanyang City and the surrounding fortresses long before their army arrived.

The ability to relocate tens of thousands of people from the outskirts of Nanyang in a short period of time was not something that could be accomplished solely by the military commanders of Nanyang; it required the cooperation of local officials, and these officials possessed a highly efficient bureaucratic system.

Based on this, Xie Bin concluded that the relationship between Qiu Lian'en, the garrison commander of Nanyang, and Gu Jiaheng, the prefect of Nanyang, should be relatively harmonious, at least there was no discord between the civil and military officials. Among all the local officials of the Qing Dynasty, Gu Jiaheng, the prefect of Nanyang, was definitely outstanding in his administrative abilities.

This is not good news for Xie Bin, Peng Yong, and others.

One of the important reasons why they were able to quickly capture Xiangfan was the lack of unity among the Qing court officials in Xiangfan.

Lu Yinggu, the governor of Henan, did his best to salvage the crisis in Henan within his own capabilities.

Even after the Northern Army had set up camp outside Nanyang City, Qing reinforcements continued to gather near Nanyang City from other directions.

Before the Northern Army had even begun its attack on the city, Peng Yong requested permission to lead two battalions to intercept reinforcements.

Xie Bin agreed to Peng Yong's request and gave him two battalions to intercept the Qing reinforcements that were approaching Nanyang City.

He personally oversaw the main camp outside Nanyang City to prevent Qing troops inside the city from sneaking out and raiding the camp while Peng Yong was fighting for reinforcements.

The Qing troops that came to reinforce Nanyang City were of diverse origin, not under the command of each other, and their forces were scattered and fighting independently.

The Green Standard Army reinforcements from both Nanyang Town and Hebei Town were all in battalion units.

Even the largest battalion has no more than five or six hundred men.

Those with small numbers, a battalion of no more than one or two hundred people.

The battalion structure of the North Palace was originally designed to be modeled after the basic combat unit of the Qing army's Green Standard Army, the "battalion".

The battalion of Beidian had nearly 800 men at full strength, and each company under the battalion was equipped with an independent mountain-splitting artillery squad and a musket squad as fire support units.

These independent artillery squads and rifle squads are firepower units that can be deployed by the company level itself without needing to request instructions from higher authorities.

Only when heavy artillery and cavalry units are needed is a special application required to higher authorities.

In wartime, if the fighting is carried out at the battalion level, the battalion commanders like to combine the artillery squads and rifle squads of their four companies into a single artillery platoon and rifle platoon for centralized deployment.

Compared to most of the Qing army's Green Standard Army battalions, the Beidian battalion not only had a numerical advantage but also far superior firepower.

Peng Yong divided his two battalions into two units to meet the Qing army reinforcements coming to Nanyang. They engaged in fierce fighting with the Qing army battalions that came to Nanyang's aid in the outskirts of Nanyang.

The Henan Qing army battalions that came to Nanyang performed poorly in field battles and were quickly suppressed and defeated one by one by Peng Yong's two battalions. Each field battle lasted only a short time, and the battles were basically over within half an hour.

After five battles, Peng Yong was unable to annihilate all five battalions of Qing soldiers who came to his aid because the Qing reinforcements ran away too quickly and were too scattered.

However, they also achieved the result of killing or capturing nearly a thousand Qing soldiers.

Seeing that the Northern Palace army was fierce in field battles and that they themselves had suffered heavy losses in the field battles, the Qing army stopped sending reinforcements to Nanyang.

After repelling the Qing reinforcements, Peng Gang led his troops back to the main camp near Nanyang City.

As Xie Bin predicted, when Peng Yong divided his forces to attack reinforcements, Qiu Lian'en saw an opportunity and organized two thousand soldiers in Nanyang City. Taking advantage of their familiarity with the local terrain, they launched a night raid on the Beidian army camp on the outskirts of the city.

Xie Bin had anticipated the Qing army's sneak attack. Qiu Lian'en's attempt to steal a chicken backfired, and he fled back to Nanyang City in a sorry state, leaving behind the corpses of more than three hundred Qing soldiers.

Even so, Xie Bin still looked at Qiu Lian'en and the garrison of Nanyang City with new respect.

Since the uprising began, the Northern Army and the Taiping Army have besieged many cities, but it is extremely rare for Qing troops to have the courage to go out and fight in the field while the cities are besieged.

The first clash with the Nanyang garrison ended in victory for the Northern Palace army. Meanwhile, inside the Nanyang General's Office, figures thronged the area, and the air was thick with a pungent stench of blood, sweat, and gunpowder.

Qiu Lian'en's servants had solemn expressions and hurried steps, carrying hot water and wound medicine in and out of the main hall.

Qiu Lian'en slumped in the armchair, and a close attendant was carefully removing his arm armor. The wound on his arm, caused by a short-haired musket, was not deep, but the flesh was torn and bleeding profusely, making it look quite horrifying.

His eyes were closed, and his brows were furrowed tightly in pain.

"General Qiu!"

Prefect Gu Jiaheng of Nanyang Prefecture arrived before he did, but his voice preceded his arrival.

He lifted the hem of his official robe and strode into the main hall. When he saw Qiu Lian'en's disheveled appearance, his heart sank.

Gu Jiaheng forced herself to remain calm, waved for her attendants to leave and wait, and asked with concern, "How is General Qiu's injury? Did the night raid on the Short-Haired Man's camp yield any results?"

Qiu Lian'en was a veteran general during the Jiaqing reign and a descendant of Qiu Lianggong, the Zhejiang Provincial Commander.

Although Qiu Lian'en's early career was smooth, largely due to his father's influence, his promotion to the position of General of Nanyang Town was mainly due to his decent performance in blocking the Northern Expedition of the short-haired rebels and his meritorious service in suppressing the Nian Rebellion last year.

What's even more remarkable is that Qiu Lian'en is one of the few generals among the various garrison commanders who is literate.

Gu Jiaheng treated Qiu Lianen with respect, and the two got along quite well.

Qiu Lian'en slowly opened his bloodshot eyes and waved his uninjured right hand.

"Lord Gu... I am ashamed, I am truly ashamed!" Qiu Lian'en tried to get up, but the movement aggravated his wound, causing him to gasp in pain. He then sat back down heavily in the armchair and said in a self-deprecating tone.

"We lost...more than three hundred soldiers. They were driven back before they could even get close to the edge of the short-haired camp."

Qiu Lian'en had heard of the infamous reputation of the Short-haired Army and had considered that the raid might not succeed, but he had not expected to be so cowardly as to not even be able to sneak into the Short-haired Army's camp.

Most of the Qing army soldiers were not up to the task. During the suppression of the Nian Rebellion, Qiu Lian'en preferred to win by surprise. He would concentrate his elite troops and personally lead them to launch surprise attacks on the Nian bandits, achieving local breakthroughs. Then, he would use the momentum of victory to have the main force launch a counterattack and defeat the Nian bandits.

Qiu Lian'en has developed a path dependency on this tactic that he has used to death.

The soldiers Qiu Lian'en led to raid the short-haired camp were not a ragtag bunch; they were the elite troops of his garrison, and the brave men were handpicked from the four strongholds of Nanyang in recent days. Who would have thought it would end like this?

It turns out that the Nian Rebellion and the Mao Zedong Rebellion were completely different things, and tactics that worked for the Nian Rebellion might not work for the Mao Zedong Rebellion.

As he spoke, Qiu Lian'en grabbed a half-cup of hot tea from the table beside him and, disregarding his manners, gulped it down. After finishing the tea, Qiu Lian'en wiped his mouth, focused his gaze on Gu Jiaheng's face, and spoke in an increasingly serious tone.

"Lord Gu, it's not that I, Qiu, am being petty or trying to diminish my own prestige, but these short-haired bastards are far too well-prepared. Their sentries, checkpoints, trenches, barricades, pitfalls, and barbed wire are all meticulously arranged and clearly layered."

The rumors of the Shorthaired Army's seasoned experience and high level of training were not unfounded. Our troops had barely reached their outer trenches when they were spotted by spies. The Shorthaired Army reacted with astonishing speed; bullets rained down like a downpour, and musket and shotgun fire was dense and synchronized, without the slightest sign of chaos.

Qiu Lian'en became more and more excited as he spoke, leaning forward slightly, as if trying to convince Gu Jiaheng, or as if trying to convince himself to believe this unbelievable fact.

“Your Excellency! You and I have both dealt with the Nian bandits in southern Henan and northern Anhui. Although those Nian bandits relied on mules and donkeys to come and go like the wind, they fought an unpredictable and mobile war. Looting villages and ambushing grain routes were their specialties. But when have we ever seen the Nian bandits set up camp in such a disciplined manner? When have we ever seen them strictly adhere to military discipline and obey orders as one?”

The Nian rebels relied on sheer courage to attack, but if they encountered fierce resistance, they would often lose heart and turn to find the next easy target.

But this army of short-haired soldiers was completely different. They set up camp with strict rules and regulations, deployed their troops in a well-organized manner, and cooperated seamlessly with each battalion, as if they were born to fight tough battles.

Their firearms are far more formidable than we can imagine. Even more terrifying are their soldiers; facing night attacks, they remain calm and composed, launching swift and powerful counterattacks. This is not the kind of army that can be trained simply with money or bribery; it is a disciplined force forged through rigorous military discipline, ample provisions, and long periods of training.

Qiu Lian'en couldn't help but compare the short-haired army outside the city with his old rival, the Nian rebels.

Compared to the Nian rebels, or even the Taiping rebels he fought against last year.

The short-haired rebels showed no trace of banditry; they were more like government troops than the imperial army.

The strict discipline and powerful firepower of the short-haired, unruly tribe left a very deep impression on Qiu Lian'en.

As Gu Jiaheng listened to Qiu Lian'en's alarmed analysis, her face gradually turned pale.

He had initially held onto a sliver of hope, thinking that with Nanyang's high walls and deep moats, he could hold out for reinforcements and wear down the enemy until they ran out of supplies and retreated.

When Gu Jiaheng faced the Taiping Rebellion's northward advance, he used this method to defend some of the major cities in Henan.

But after hearing Qiu Lianen's firsthand account, his illusions were completely shattered.

Gu Jiaheng's fingers, which were stroking his beard, trembled slightly. After a long silence, he finally asked in a hoarse voice, "Does Commander Qiu mean that this group of short-haired bandits is even more troublesome than the Nian rebels who roamed Anhui and Henan?"

"They're more than just difficult to deal with!" Qiu Lian'en shook his head and said.

"Although the Nian rebels were numerous, they were like locusts, avoiding the strong and attacking the weak, seeking food and leaving. They were unwilling and not good at fighting this kind of head-on siege warfare. The Nian rebels pursued quick in and out, grabbing what they could and leaving."

The short-haired leader, on the other hand, proceeded step by step, steadily and surely, clearly determined to hold this place firmly and not give up until he had captured Nanyang.

The Nian rebels carried broken knives and tattered guns, and firearms were rarely seen. The short-haired bandits, on the other hand, possessed superior weaponry, especially firearms, which were far better than those equipped in my Nanyang Town.

Previously, the imperial gazette and local reports claimed that they had repeatedly defeated government troops in Huguang, capturing important cities like Baling, Jingyi, and Xiangfan. I, Qiu, had my doubts; perhaps the generals of Huguang were incompetent and exaggerated to cover their tracks. But tonight, I, Qiu, have personally experienced it; the short-haired rebels are indeed difficult to control.”

Gu Jiaheng took a deep breath, forcing herself to calm down: "General Qiu, since this is the case, we have no way out but to unite as one and defend the city to the death. Starting tomorrow, I will personally supervise the yamen runners and militia to intensify patrols within the city, distribute grain to stabilize the people's morale, procure all available supplies for the defense of the city, and send messages to the gentry in the surrounding villages to jointly protect our homeland. Every brick, tile, soldier, and every piece of wood in Nanyang City is at General Qiu's disposal."

Despite his injuries, Qiu Lian'en solemnly clasped his hands in thanks to Gu Jiaheng and said, "Your Excellency Gu is truly virtuous! On behalf of all the soldiers and people of the city, I thank Your Excellency Gu. In open battle outside the city, our army is indeed at a disadvantage. However, in defending the city, Nanyang is well-fortified, with strong fortifications on all sides, and the city's food supplies are relatively plentiful. As long as we, the civil and military officials, are of one mind, the soldiers fight bravely, and the gentry and people of Nanyang support us, we may not be unable to hold them off. If we can wear them down until their troops are exhausted or until reinforcements from the north arrive, there may still be a glimmer of hope."

“Okay!” Gu Jiaheng nodded emphatically.

"These trivial matters will be arranged by this prefecture! General Qiu, please rest and recover from your injuries. The important matter of city defense still needs your supervision!"

Outside Nanyang City, Xie Bin and Peng Yong personally inspected the city walls of Nanyang City.

Compared to Xiangyang, Nanyang's city defense system was also quite unique.

The difficulty in attacking Xiangyang lies in how to break through the moat, which is twenty or thirty zhang wide and as high as a person, and with Fancheng providing support from the other side of the Han River.

Although Nanyang City lacked a city across the river like Fancheng for support, it was not an isolated city.

The difficulty in attacking Nanyang City lies in the fact that the outskirts of Nanyang City are not typical suburban residences, but a defensive system consisting of more than a dozen small and medium-sized defensive fortresses.

Xie Bin had seen many fortified villages in the mountains. In Guangxi, wealthy families would build fortified villages to defend against bandits and rebellious chieftains, as long as their finances allowed.

The God Society's first pot of gold came from attacking the fortress of Wang Zuoxin, a wealthy man in Zijing Mountain, Guiping County. Qiu Zhongliang, the tax police battalion commander, had a father named Qiu Gusan, a wealthy man in Guixian County, who also had a fortress in Muge, Guixian County.

If it weren't for the fortified village of Qiu, the Qiu family would have been wiped out by Zhang Guoliang when he ravaged Guixian County.

This was the first time Xie Bin and Peng Yong had ever seen a fortified village built directly around the city walls of the prefectural city.

(End of this chapter)