Colonial Era: From Remnants to European Dominator

The blade sank into the stream, and blood splattered with the ripples, staining the clear water crimson. The Junggar soldier, singing a Kazakh ballad, stared blankly at the flock of geese flying in the distance. His lips were cracked, but he had long since lost the desire for water. He wanted to go home, back to his tribe.

Even eating insects would be better than this.

Here, life is worthless, like wild grass on the prairie, one row falls and another rises, endlessly. Everything is like a toy manipulated by death; some are brought to life, but many more are played to death.

"It's Qing cavalry!!"

"Mount up! Mount up!!"

A familiar whistle rang out, and the young Kazakh soldier casually wiped dry his sword, which had only been with him for five days and was already showing signs of chipping, before mounting his fourth warhorse.

The first three horses were basically dead, and even their corpses were eaten. The front line was so short of food that killing horses and eating meat was common. One tribal team that had been fighting for more than ten days had even started eating people.

Of course, they still eat the meat of the Qing dogs, but I don't know when they will run out of Qing dog meat and start eating their own people's flesh.

The Qing cavalry came and went quickly, like bees gathering nectar, rarely lingering. The Dzungars understood that this was a war of attrition, using exhaustion to drive the tribes away from the Dzungars, eventually leading them to part ways and achieving victory without a fight.

The battle outside Yumen Pass has lasted for two months. During these two months, more than 150,000 Qing troops have gathered along the Hami-Yumen line, while the Dzungar side has also mobilized more than 100,000 cavalry and infantry from various tribes.

Both the Qing army and the Dzungar Khanate had reasons not to lose this war. If the Qing army lost, it would have no capital to advance westward for the next few years, or even ten years. If the Dzungar Khanate lost, even if it only lost tens of thousands of its elite cavalry, then the Ili royal court would face annihilation.

After all, the tribes from various parts of the Western Regions that were dragged into this war were mostly fighting with the intention of stalling the Jurchens, fearing that if the Dzungars fell, they would be swallowed up by the Jurchens. If they were really going to invest without regard to cost, there would be far more than just 70,000 or 80,000 people here now.

This war came suddenly, and the large-scale Qing-Dzungar War, which deviated from the original history, was a war fought at the wrong time and in the wrong place, in which everyone was at fault.

The Dzungar Khanate was still in the late stages of its heyday, and the Qing Empire was not as powerful as it was in the mid-Qianlong period. The two sides were like two wild beasts fighting madly for honor, constantly colliding and tearing each other's flesh and hair, but neither could do anything to the other for the time being.

"Urgent report from Shaanxi: Yulin has fallen, Yansui garrison suffered heavy losses, with less than one-tenth remaining. Commander Zhou Kaijie was killed in the chaos of war in Yulin, and Prefect Chen Tianzhi died for his country."

"What?!"

Inside the general's mansion in Hami City, the Dingxi Army generals, who had gathered to discuss the next offensive, were all greatly alarmed upon hearing the report.

[The meaning of pacifying the Northwest.]

The general in charge of the entire Dingxi Army was Bandi, a veteran who had followed the campaign against the Dzungars during the Yongzheng era. Born into the Bordered Yellow Banner of the Mongols, he was now fifty-eight years old. His long braid behind his official hat was graying, but because of his martial arts training in his youth, his back was exceptionally straight. Therefore, he was granted the title of General Dingbei by the Hongli Emperor and commanded this army of hundreds of thousands in the Northwest with a tiger tally and a precious sword.

"Yansui Town is an important town in Shaanxi, one of the nine border towns in the country, with a strong army. How could it be destroyed? Could it be that the Junggar has another strong army that bypassed the northern desert and went straight to the southern desert, so that they could have attacked Yansui Town?"

"It is not impossible for a cavalry force to penetrate deep into the southern and northern deserts and reach Yulin. Didn't the Dzungar Khanate try this a few times back then, but they all failed?"

Orong'an, a Manchu of the Bordered Blue Banner, currently serving as a counselor and in charge of the firearms battalion, then continued:

"Regardless of the current situation, the defeat of Yansui is a defeat, and the fall of Yulin is also a fact. The question now is how to resolve this: whether to await the imperial decree or to send a troop back to Shaanxi to reinforce Guanzhong and safeguard our rear."

"The primary duty of the Dingxi Army is to annihilate the Dzungars, not to return to Guanzhong as some claim. If we send troops without authorization, neither of us will be able to bear the consequences if His Majesty inquires."

Bandi, being a veteran, quickly offered a solution:

"Send all the captured and unused weapons back to Shaanxi and hand them over to Qingfu, the Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi. At that time, it will have nothing to do with us on the front lines, both morally and logically. We only need to focus on fighting. As long as we destroy the Dzungar Khanate, we will all be meritorious officials of the court. At that time, His Majesty will not only not care about a mere Yansui Town, but will also be overjoyed and reward all the soldiers of my Dingxi Army."

"As for escorting the weapons back to Guanzhong, you can handle that, Kuilin."

Sensing the expectation placed upon him by Bandi, Kuilin, born into the Fucha family and the Empress's nephew, was overjoyed. He finally had a chance to show his face before the Emperor and immediately knelt down to pay his respects.

"This humble general will certainly not fail the old commander's expectations!!"

The other few, who also came from the Eight Banners nobility or even the imperial family, had different expressions. Some were disdainful, some were envious, and some were resentful and wished they could tear the kneeling Kuilin to pieces.

After all, they had gone to great lengths to get into the Dingxi Army through connections and were given the responsibility of central command and military strategy. It was easy and safe, and seemed perfect in every way. But it didn't have the same reputation as those who fought directly on the battlefield. Some of them had already led troops in battles independently, but the old commander, for the sake of stability, only engaged in small-scale harassment and supply depletion. As a result, many people in the army only knew Bandi Errong'an and were unaware of their honorable names.

Now things are looking up. That wretched boy, Kuilin, has a great job sending military equipment back to Guanzhong. Plus, with such a big matter as Yansui Town, the Emperor will definitely pay special attention. At that time, as long as he shows his face at the table and the Empress whispers in his ear, that wretched boy from the Fucha family will rise to power.

When we meet then, won't I be unable to address him as "Counselor Kuilin" and instead have to call him Lord Fucha?

How could these noble scions, who considered themselves national treasures of the Qing Dynasty and loyal officials for generations, be willing to accept this?

No sooner had they finished discussing the matter of Kuilin than someone volunteered to fight, but Bandi cleverly declined them all. After all, if he really released these princes and nobles from the commander's mansion, there would probably be a major defeat within seven days, and he wouldn't even have time to clean up the mess.

Inside the Dingxi General's mansion, intrigue and backstabbing were rampant, with military merits often being traded for favors. Meanwhile, a hundred miles outside the mansion, the sounds of battle were deafening, blood flowed like rivers, and human bones and horse carcasses were piled together, emitting a foul stench. If the bodies were not burned in time, a plague could easily spread.

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"Pitiable are the bones by the Wuding River, still the dream of a maiden in her spring boudoir."

Looking at the corpses of the people lying along the way, Li Yuanheng was deep in thought. He firmly believed that he was right, but reality was constantly testing his already meager morals.

"Has Na Yan's team arrived yet?"

"The messengers ahead are pursuing them; they are less than thirty li away."

"There were also quite a few Qing troops from southern Mongolia following behind."

Lu Heng quickly added a sentence, and it was this sentence that made Li Yuanheng make up his mind:

"If we follow without fighting, then Guihua City isn't as fortified as we thought."

"Sweep through the area, right in front of these scum dogs, raid all the surrounding areas where we can gather grass and grain. If we can't take Guihua City, we'll go back. After all, we've gained so many people this time, most of them Han Chinese, so we're not at a loss. Let's make one last big profit, fill our pockets, and go home happily."

Despite Li Yuanheng's repeated pronouncements about attacking Guisui City, when the time came, he suddenly lost interest; in reality, he was afraid.

Everyone knows what they would encounter if they attacked Guihua: tens of thousands of troops, a massive city so fortified that it inspired fear, Qing reinforcements that could appear at any moment, and even the betrayal of the Dzungar tribes.

Li Yuanheng is not a fool. He was already favored by fate to be able to capture Yulin and destroy the Yansui Town with more than 10,000 soldiers. If he were to be greedy and fantasize that he was the chosen one of this era, then he would be truly a fool.

"Tell the brothers to hurry up and loot! People, cattle, sheep—even the Mongol tribes are being looted without restraint this time. Those Qing dogs now only have eyes for the Dzungars; this is a golden opportunity to make a fortune!"

As for whether or not to give half as promised after the robbery, Li Yuanheng said that he had already given it in Yulin City, and giving it again would depend on his mood.

Looking at Luo Guisheng, who was still teaching culture to the grassland soldiers and even the Han soldiers in Jinshan, and the scholars in Yulin who had been rallied by him, Li Yuanheng's eyes were complicated. He had long known that these scholars were not to be trifled with. When they came to him, he thought they were all Han people. But now it seemed that they were still following the Confucian and Mencian doctrines at heart.

Of course, it's not that the teachings of Confucius and Mencius are bad, but too many people are using the banner of Confucianism to secretly dream of becoming nobles and high-ranking officials, so he dares not give them important positions for the time being and can only observe them for a while before making a decision.

-------

"Useless, all of you are useless!!"

"They deserve to die, they all deserve to die!!"

In the Imperial Garden within the Forbidden City, Emperor Hongli, who had just received the report, had eyes that looked like he wanted to devour someone. The eunuchs and palace maids were so frightened that they knelt on the ground, not daring to even breathe loudly.

"That Zhou Kaijie, he died in Yulin. Did he think he was my loyal subject? He was nothing but rubbish. A general who cowered in the city waiting for reinforcements and pushed all the dangers onto his subordinates is not my loyal subject, even if he is dead."

"I will also chop off his head, and the heads of his entire family!!"

The young Emperor Hongli didn't care about loyal ministers dying for their country. He only knew that if he suffered a defeat, even if he died, he should be punished accordingly.

Even after scolding him, he still gave the order:

"Zhou Kaijie of Yansui Town was posthumously granted the title of Earl of Loyalty and Bravery, and Chen Tianzhi, the Prefect of Yulin, was posthumously granted the title of Wengong."

"Wang Tingji, who surrendered to the Dzungar Khanate, issued an order to arrest his entire family and execute them all. His close relatives for three generations were all exiled to Ningguta to serve as slaves to the armored soldiers, and their descendants were forbidden from holding office for five generations."

Perhaps due to the reports submitted, Hongli still believed that the army that destroyed Yansui Town was a large force sent by the Dzungars, and therefore directly issued an order:

"Summon troops from both the northern and southern deserts, and combine them with the troops from Zhili to jointly annihilate them. I want to see the heads of the Dzungar barbarians and hear the news of the recapture of Yulin."

"Anyone who delays will be executed!!"