1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 375 At the End of One's Skills, One Cannot Defend

The practice of building fortified villages in Nanyang Prefecture began in the late Ming Dynasty.

During the peasant uprisings of the late Ming Dynasty, the peasant armies of Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong frequently operated in the border area between Henan and Hubei. Nanyang, as an important town in southwestern Henan, suffered repeated ravages of war and banditry. In order to resist the invasion of roving bandits, the gentry of Nanyang spontaneously built fortified villages for self-protection.

In the early Qing Dynasty, the Qing government's rule was not yet stable, and the Nanyang area faced threats from anti-Qing forces such as the Southern Ming forces and local armed groups, which further intensified the need for building fortified villages in Nanyang.

The peak of fortified village construction in the Nanyang area is currently underway.

Through on-site observation, Xie Bin noticed that many of the stockade walls were newly built rammed earth walls, and the moats were also newly dug.

It must have been because the Qing government had repeatedly lost important towns in Hubei the year before last, and the Northern Expeditionary Army had passed through Henan last year. The gentry of Nanyang felt threatened and pressured, and spontaneously repaired and expanded the fortresses and strongholds on the outskirts of the city.

The walls and moats around Nanyang City extend outwards, clearly indicating that the Qing government in Nanyang had the idea of ​​building an earthen walled city to encircle the large and small fortified towns around Nanyang City, connecting them into one, in order to protect the main city and make Nanyang City a de facto inner city.

However, due to the short timeframe, the surrounding earthen walls had not yet been completed.

This is a major advantage for the Northern Army in attacking the outskirts of Nanyang.

The outlying cities and fortresses of Nanyang were not yet connected, making them easier to defeat one by one.

The Wancheng District of Nanyang City in later generations was the seat of Nanyang Prefecture during the Qing Dynasty.

The main city of Nanyang is not large, covering an area of ​​0.86 square kilometers. However, if you include the surrounding towns and fortresses of all sizes, the actual area of ​​the city walls can be more than double that.

Henan has a long history, and all the cities within its borders were built very early.

The area of ​​city walls varies greatly among the three provinces of Guangxi, Hunan, and Hubei. Cities near the territory of Tusi (chieftains) are extremely small, resembling small villages, which is basically non-existent in Henan.

The lower limit of the city wall area in Henan is relatively high and more balanced. The main city wall area of ​​a prefecture-level city is only one or two square kilometers.

Kaifeng, the provincial capital, is the only major city in the province, with a main urban area of ​​nearly thirteen square kilometers, larger than Guangxi, Changsha, and Wuchang, which the Northern Army had previously encountered.

"The garrison commander of Nanyang is no benevolent man. According to the prisoners, he personally led the night raid. What audacity! I've never seen such a bold Qing general outside of Guangxi."

After interrogating the prisoners, Zhang Ze walked into Xie Bin's command tent with his notebook in his pocket and looked at Xie Bin, who was staring at the sand table with a worried expression.

“Even in Guangxi, there were very few generals like this,” Xie Bin said.

Regardless of the fact that the strength of the Northern Army and the Taiping Army is no longer comparable to what it was in Guangxi.

Even in Guangxi, the Qing Dynasty generals they encountered dared to rush in without knowing the true strength or weaknesses of the Northern Army and the Taiping Army.

Qing generals who had even a slight understanding of the Northern Army and the Taiping Army all avoided the campaign against the "bandits of western Guangdong" and wished they could stay far away from them.

"Does Commander Xie have any ideas on how to attack Nanyang?" Zhang Ze asked.

"I have ordered the Tu Battalion to dig a tunnel leading to the walls of Yuyang Village, but the Qing soldiers have dug several deep trenches outside the walls, which increases the difficulty of our tunnel digging," Xie Bin said, pointing his index finger at Yuyang Village on the sand table.

There are more than a dozen scattered fortresses and strongholds of varying sizes in the suburbs of Nanyang City.

It would be too time-consuming and laborious to eliminate all of these dozen or so large and small fortresses, and there is no need for it. We can simply choose the most important ones to attack.

Xie Bin had long ago identified Yuyang Village as his primary target for breakthrough.

Yuyang Village is a large fortified village located on the southern outskirts of Nanyang City, adjacent to the Baihe River. Its northern wall is only seven or eight zhang away from the southern wall of the main city of Nanyang. If Yuyang Village can be captured, their artillery firepower can cover most of Nanyang City.

Attacking the main city of Nanyang from Yuyang Village would be much easier; it would only take breaking through a distance of seven or eight zhang.

Attacking the main city of Nanyang from Yuyang City would be much less costly and more efficient, as there are existing stockade walls for cover.

The distance of seven or eight zhang (approximately 33-40 meters) can be crossed by filling in soil or by digging a tunnel, requiring relatively little time and manpower.

Of course, Xie Bin also considered that Yuyangzhai was located near the Baihe River when he chose to break through from Yuyangzhai.

Although the lower reaches of the Baihe River are too narrow and the riverbed is silted up, making it difficult for large ships to navigate.

Let alone steam-powered paddlewheel warships, even slightly larger traditional wooden ships would have difficulty passing through.

However, they brought more than 3,000 boatmen with them on their journey north to Nanyang, and managed to tow most of the small and medium-sized boats with a displacement of less than 20 tons to the Baihe River section near Nanyang City.

The section of the Baihe River near Nanyang City is slightly deeper and wider, which is advantageous for naval operations.

The land and naval forces can support each other in attacking Yuyang Village.

Just then, a muffled sound came from underground in the direction of Yuyang Village.

At first, Xie Bin and Zhang Ze in the command tent thought that the brothers of the Tu Camp had successfully blown up the earthen wall of Yuyang Village, and they were happy and excited about it.

But soon, both of them realized that the sound of the explosion sounded a bit strange.

Although the deep trenches forced the Tu Camp to dig the tunnels even deeper, the commotion caused by blowing up the city wall could not have been so small.

Furthermore, even if the Tu Camp successfully excavates the tunnel to the foot of Yuyang Village, the battalion commander of the Tu Camp would still need to consult Xie Bin before the blasting.

Just as Xie Bin and Zhang Ze had suspected, not long after the explosion, Peng Yong, who was at the front line, came to the command tent and told Xie Bin what had happened: "The Qing soldiers in Yuyang Village dug tunnels from inside the village outwards, blocking our tunnels. The sound just now was from the Qing soldiers blowing up our tunnels. More than a dozen soldiers from the earthen camp were buried alive in the tunnels. The tunnels leading to Yuyang Village are destroyed."

"The Qing troops in Yuyang Village also know how to operate in reverse tunnels?" Zhang Ze asked in surprise. "They learned it quite quickly."

The Qing army and the Northern Palace army, along with the Taiping army, had been fighting for more than three years. It was no secret that the Northern Palace army and the Taiping army preferred to use the method of tunneling to attack cities.

During the battles, the Qing army gradually accumulated some methods to counter siege warfare.

Anti-tunnel warfare is one of them.

Once the Qing army discovered signs of the Taiping Army digging tunnels, they would dig vertical or diagonal trenches from inside the city to cut off the enemy's tunnels, or even flood, smoke, or blow up the tunnels to directly destroy them.

In past battles, the Qing army's common practice was to flood the tunnels with water and smoke, and to directly engage in blasting resistance. It was very rare for them to destroy the tunnels with explosives.

"Finally, we've found a Qing general who has some courage and is willing to use his brain to defend the city," Xie Bin said after a moment of contemplation.

"Pass on my order to have the Tu Camp dig more tunnels. When digging tunnels, be sure to bring two Tu Camp soldiers who are good at listening. Stop and listen for sound every two feet of tunneling to prevent the Qing army from counter-tunneling."

Intense tunnel battles had already occurred two years earlier during the Battle of Changsha.

Overall, in tunnel warfare, the offense and defense still hold a considerable initiative.

In the Battle of Changsha, the Taiping army's earthen troops used the sheer number of tunnels to overwhelm the Qing army defending the city, keeping them constantly on the move. They successfully dug the tunnels to the foundation of the southern wall of Changsha and blew them up, causing a section of the wall to collapse.

The Taiping army ultimately failed to capture Changsha, not because of the local troops, but because the ground forces failed to break into the city, thus ending their efforts at the last minute.

Xie Bin had fought against the garrison of Nanyang City before. The garrison of Nanyang was far weaker than the garrison of Changsha. Their morale was maintained by a small number of elite troops. As long as he could break through the walls of Yuyang Village, even just a small section, Xie Bin was confident that he could take Yuyang Village and then the main city of Nanyang.

Since the tunnels were destroyed by the Qing army using anti-tunneling blasting, the soldiers of the Tu Battalion have entered an unprecedented state of high-intensity operation.

Xie Bin has given a death order: at all costs, the tunnel must be dug under the walls of Yuyang Village, or the battalion and company commanders of the Tu Battalion will be fired.

This was the first time Xie Bin had issued such a strict order since taking command, and no one thought he was just making empty threats.

The battalion and company commanders of the earthen camp dared not slack off, and the company commanders even went down into the tunnels themselves to carry out earthwork operations.

The tunnels had been destroyed by the Qing army using anti-tunneling blasting, resulting in the loss of more than a dozen soldiers in the Tu Battalion. The soldiers of the Tu Battalion were determined to avenge their fallen brothers.

Over the next few days, beneath the ground outside Yuyang Village, the earthen camp would simultaneously dig seven main tunnels, like groundhogs burrowing, extending in a fan shape towards the village walls. Each main tunnel would branch off into several smaller tunnels, making it difficult to distinguish between the real and the illusory.
The soldiers were divided into three shifts, digging day and night in shifts. To prevent the Qing army from intercepting them again, each digging team was equipped with two soldiers with keen hearing to listen for sounds, in order to prevent the Qing army in Yuyang Village from using the same trick again.

The simultaneous advance of multiple tunnels made it difficult for the Qing troops in Yuyang Village to distinguish between real and fake tunnels, leaving them exhausted from dealing with the situation.

Of the seven main tunnels, three were feint tunnels, which were dug shallower and made more noise, intended to attract the attention of the Qing army and their counter-tunneling forces.

The other four tunnels were dug as quietly as possible towards the village wall.

Ground troops were not idle either, constantly using artillery and mortars to harass the direction of the stockade walls, covering up the sounds of digging underground.

After nightfall, Xie Bin dispatched small elite units from the Third Regiment to eliminate any Qing army sentries outside the stockade walls, preventing them from eavesdropping on the exact location of the earthen camp's operations. Inside the stockade, the Qing troops, under the strict orders of Qiu Lian'en, the garrison commander of Nanyang Town, also racked their brains to counterattack.

They also dug trenches from inside the village outwards and sent out sound-detecting agents to try and pinpoint the movements of the Northern Palace's earthen camp. A unique battle unfolded between the two sides underground.

Several times, the tunnels dug by the Beidian Tuying were nearly discovered and blown up by the Qing army. Fortunately, the local scouts gave early warnings and abandoned some of the branch tunnels in time, thus preserving the main tunnels.

This kind of high-intensity confrontation under extreme conditions is extremely mentally and physically exhausting. The soldiers of the Tu Camp advanced inch by inch in the dark and damp underground environment, braving the lack of oxygen and the danger of being buried alive at any time.

The Qing soldiers' perseverance was far inferior to that of the soldiers of the Northern Palace Earth Camp.

The soldiers of the Northern Palace's local army were all miners; the veterans were miners from the Hunan region, while the new recruits were miners from Daye County, Hubei Province.

They worked and made a living in dark and damp tunnels year-round, making them more adaptable to the harsh environment than the Qing army.

In the past, when we were miners, let alone working three shifts, working two shifts, and not sleeping or resting were the norm.

What the Qing soldiers found unbearable was simply normal working conditions for these miners.

At first, the Qing soldiers in Yuyang Village were able to keep up with the pace of the battle.

However, after persisting for two or three days, the Qing soldiers gradually became lax and gave up. More and more Qing soldiers were unwilling to go down into the tunnels, and even when they did, they did it perfunctorily.

After six days of intensive earthwork, three main roads finally broke through the numerous obstacles and extended to the foundation of the Yuyang Village wall.

Three company commanders personally led a team to carefully transport several coffins filled with medicine into the medicine room at the end of the tunnel and connect them with long fuses.

"Commander Xie, everything is ready. We guarantee we can send the earthen walls of Yuyang Village flying into the sky!"

After completing the preparations, the three company commanders of the local battalion, covered in mud, with dark circles under their eyes and sunken eye sockets, reported to Xie Bin with bright, shining eyes.

Xie Bin took a deep breath, glanced at the siege troops behind him who were already assembled and ready to fight, their swords drawn and ammunition loaded, and nodded heavily: "Fire!"

The order was quickly relayed.

The soldier in charge of lighting the fuse used trembling hands to ignite the oil-soaked fuse. Sparks shot rapidly along the fuse into the deep tunnel.

Everyone held their breath; time seemed to freeze at that moment.

After a few seconds.

Boom!

A deafening roar, ten or even a hundred times more powerful than the last explosion by the Qing army, suddenly erupted from the ground.

Like a thunderclap from a clear sky, it shook the entire earth.

The three sections of the village wall in the southwest direction of Yuyang Village were smashed as if by a giant god's palm amidst the billowing smoke and fire.

Three sections of rammed earth walls, each about four or five zhang long, collapsed and disintegrated instantly, forming a huge V-shaped gap.

Bricks, stones, and earth, mixed with the remains of the defenders who couldn't escape, were thrown into the air and then fell like raindrops.

The soldiers of the Tu Camp applied the poison to the walls of Yuyang Village according to the standards of the city walls of the prefecture. Based on past experience, this amount of poison would be enough to blast open a gap at least two zhang wide.

Clearly, the walls of Yuyang Village were far less sturdy than those of the city walls of the prefectural city.

"Brothers! Follow me!"

Almost at the same time as the explosion, Peng Yong, who was in charge of leading the main attack, suddenly leaped up, brandishing his goose-feather saber and letting out a deafening roar.

"kill!!!"

The elite Northern Palace Army, which had been preparing for a long time, surged out from behind the trenches and bunkers like a flood bursting its banks, rushing towards the huge breach.

Meanwhile, on the Baihe River, naval gunboats launched a massive barrage of artillery fire at other parts of the Yuyang Village walls, attempting to suppress the Qing soldiers inside.

Immediately, the six twelve-pound Napoleon cannons on the heavy artillery position also opened fire one after another, launching shells into Yuyang Village.

For a time, cannons roared inside and outside Yuyang Village, creating a lively and bustling atmosphere.

"Quick! Seal the breach! We absolutely cannot let the short-haired thugs into the village!"

The militia leader on the stockade wall shouted hoarsely, trying to organize the remaining militia to plug the breach.

However, all this is in vain.

The moment the stockade wall collapsed, the morale of the defending troops also crumbled. Faced with the fierce and ravenous elite troops of the Northern Palace swarming in through the breach, their hastily organized resistance appeared pale and powerless.

The battle quickly spread from the breach into the village. The soldiers of the North Palace worked in groups of three, cooperating with each other, using flintlock muskets and bayonets to eliminate the Qing troops who were stubbornly resisting from the houses and barricades.

Although the small number of local militia in Yuyang Village fought tenaciously in street fighting, they were repeatedly defeated by the overwhelming numerical superiority and high morale of the Northern Palace army.

The deafening explosion still seemed to echo in his ears. The roar from the south of the city not only destroyed the earthen walls of Yuyang Village, but also struck Gu Jiaheng, the prefect of Nanyang Prefecture, like a heavy hammer blow.

Without bothering to straighten his slightly askew official hat, Gu Jiaheng stumbled into the General's Office to find Qiu Lian'en.

"General Qiu, did you hear that? Yuyang... Yuyang Village is in grave danger! Quickly! Send troops to its aid! Speed ​​is of the essence! Any later and it will be too late! If Yuyang Village falls completely, the southern barrier of the main city will be lost, and the consequences will be unimaginable."

If Gu Jiaheng, a civil official, could understand this, how could Qiu Lianen, a martial arts school, not know it?
Qiu Lian'en turned around abruptly and shook his head helplessly: "Prefect Gu, it's too late. Listen to the noise, this is definitely not a small-scale collapse."

The earthen walls of Yuyang Village were not as deep as the walls of the main city, and could not withstand such a large amount of medicine. At this moment, there must have been several huge gaps in the walls.

The main force of the short-haired rebels, which has been gathering strength for a long time, must have already flooded into the stronghold like a tide. If we send troops to rescue them now, what difference is there between us and sheep entering a tiger's den?

Seeing that Gu Jiaheng was still arguing, Qiu Lian'en grabbed Gu Jiaheng's arm with such force that Gu Jiaheng gasped in pain.

Qiu Lian'en pulled him to the Nanyang city defense map, his finger slamming down on the Yuyang Village marked in red, almost piercing the map: "Prefect Gu! Wake up! Stop having illusions! Yuyang Village is lost! If we send troops now, they'll be met with barrages of artillery fire as soon as they leave the city. Even if we manage to reach Yuyang Village, facing those huge gaps and the well-prepared elite troops of the short-sighted rebels, our reinforcements won't even make a ripple. It will only increase casualties."

"With the battle at this point, we can no longer harbor any illusions. Yuyang Village is beyond saving; the only sensible thing to do now is to find a way to defend the main city."

"The loss of Yuyang Village has shaken the morale of the army and the people, making it difficult to defend the main city." Gu Jiaheng, who had gradually calmed down, couldn't help but sigh deeply and looked up at Qiu Lian'en.

"What good plan does General Qiu have?"

Qiu Lian'en released Gu Jiaheng, pondered for a moment, and said, "Things have come to this point, what good ideas do I have? Just some humble suggestions."

Our soldiers are far inferior to the short-haired rebels. Once the short-haired rebels capture Yuyang Village, their next step will inevitably be to rely on Yuyang Village to launch a direct and fierce attack on the south wall of our main city.

All reserve troops within the city were transferred to the vicinity of the south wall to strengthen its defenses.

He ordered the garrison on the south wall to defend it to the death, and to prepare plenty of rolling logs, stones, molten gold, and oil. He also ordered all available cannons and muskets to be moved to the south wall.

Organize the militia and immediately build a second line of defense on the inner wall using sandbags and bricks. In case... in case the outer wall is breached, we can still put up some resistance and buy some time.

Through these days of fighting with the short-haired enemy, Qiu Lian'en has clearly realized that the gap between his troops and the enemy is too great.

This gap is not just a generational difference in weaponry, but a gap in all aspects.

Qiu Lian'en believed he had tried his best and racked his brains to find a way to defend Nanyang, but unfortunately, the soldiers under his command were simply incompetent.

In less than half an hour, most of the area within Yuyang Village was under the control of the Northern Palace army. Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the remaining Qing soldiers abandoned their weapons and fled in panic towards the main city of Nanyang.

Standing on the ruins of Yuyang Village, which he had just captured and which was still filled with the smell of gunpowder and blood, Xie Bin looked at the city wall of Nanyang, which was so close at hand, and finally showed a relieved and happy expression on his face.

Xie Bin admitted that compared to other Qing generals, the garrison commander of Nanyang City was indeed quite capable and had caused him some trouble.

But so what? Given the quality of the Qing army garrison in Nanyang, let alone Qiu Lian'en, even Huang Taiji himself would have had a hard time saving them.

Xie Bin waved his hand and ordered, "Pass on the order! Fortify the defenses of Yuyang Village, clear the battlefield, and rescue the wounded. All the artillerymen and musketeers must prepare enough shotgun shells and move to the north wall of Yuyang Village. The Third Regiment and the Earth Battalion must quickly prepare enough sandbags and bricks to fill the city!"

(End of this chapter)