The Red Chamber begins with a bastard

Chapter 729 Three-pronged Advance
In late July of the twelfth year of the Qiansheng reign, Jia Huan finally completed his preparations and began to order a large-scale suppression campaign. The previous dispatch of Generals Sun Ting and Zhang Yi to attack Taozhou was merely an appetizer; the real feast was yet to come.

This large-scale suppression operation was divided into three routes. The northern route, led by General Man Gui of Ganzhou, consisted of 10,000 troops and set off from Xining to advance eastward, responsible for pacifying the bandit forces in Ningxia, Pingliang Prefecture, and Qingyang Prefecture.

The central army, led by Shi Tou Xingwei, also held the rank of general, and numbered 10,000. It set off from Lintao Prefecture and marched eastward, responsible for pacifying the bandit forces in the Gongchang Prefecture and Fengxiang Prefecture area.

The Southern Route Army, led by Tie Hu, who held the title of General, also had 10,000 troops and was responsible for suppressing the bandit forces in the Minzhou, Longnan, and Hanzhong areas.

In other words, the total strength was only 30,000, while the rebel army in Shaanxi and Shanxi exceeded 300,000. With 30,000 against 300,000, the difference was tenfold, and the disparity in strength was too great. Not to mention outsiders, even the supervising officer Duan Yong felt that Jia Huan was too arrogant and frequently urged him to conscript more troops. In any case, the pay was sufficient, and more people meant more strength.

However, Jia Huan remained unmoved. As the saying goes, quality is more important than quantity in warfare, especially in domestic pacification campaigns. Mobility is the key. These bandits are mostly refugees, moving in small groups, aimlessly ravaging one prefecture or county before moving on to the next. Their whereabouts are unpredictable. Using small, highly mobile elite troops to encircle and suppress them is not only efficient but also the most cost-effective.

In addition, although the number of bandits sounds frightening, often tens or hundreds of thousands, most of them have families with them, and only one or two out of ten young men are capable of fighting. In other words, out of 300,000 bandits, at most only 50,000 or 60,000 can go to the battlefield to fight. Moreover, these bandits are poorly equipped and weak in combat. In a head-on battle, they are no match for regular troops.

On the contrary, the 30,000 troops mobilized by Jia Huan were all elite soldiers from the border regions. Each army was equipped with a 2,000-man firearms battalion and a 1,000-man cavalry battalion. Their superior equipment and formidable fighting strength were undoubtedly far beyond what the rebel army could match. To put it dramatically, they were like cutting tofu with a big knife.

As the saying goes, good steel should be used on the blade. Although the imperial court generously agreed to allocate two million taels of military funds, it was not allocated all at once. So far, only three hundred thousand taels have been received. There is really no need to spend it recklessly. It should be noted that to maintain the normal operation of an army, the number of logistics personnel is at least twice the number of troops.

In other words, a 30,000-strong army would require 60,000 people for logistical support, which would be extremely costly. If the force were expanded to 100,000, then 200,000 people would be needed for logistics, which would be very uneconomical. Therefore, Jia Huan ignored Duan Yong's request for reinforcements. In his view, 30,000 elite troops were enough, at least for now. If reinforcements were indeed needed in the future, that would be discussed later.

Getting back to the main point, after Jia Huan dispatched the three groups of men, he took up residence at the commander's mansion in Lintao Prefecture, awaiting good news from all sides.

It is worth mentioning that Chen Qiyu was indeed a talented person, even a prodigy, who managed logistics in an orderly manner. The arrangement of provisions, weapons, horses, medicines, and logistics personnel, etc., were originally extremely complex and tedious tasks, but he managed them with ease and precision, without making the slightest mistake.

Tsk tsk, I don't know how this old scholar's brain is structured, it's like a sophisticated machine. Sometimes even Jia Huan can't help but sigh that Scholar Chen was born to do this, and he has really struck gold this time.

According to the list of bandits presented by Chen Qiyu, there were more than 270 bandit groups in Shaanxi Province. Including those not listed, the number was estimated to be more than 300, including groups such as: A Wall, A Tiger, A Flower, A Dragon, Big Fool, Heavenly Monkey, Little Qin King, King of Rebellion, Stars All Over the Sky, Xing Honglang, King Anshi, etc. It can be said that dragons and tigers roam the land, and lords and kings are as common as dogs.

However, the few hundred bandit groups were mostly insignificant, like ants, with no real strength. As a result, the northern and central armies made extremely smooth progress. Wherever they went, large and small rebel armies were wiped out, or fled in panic, slinking away from the jurisdiction of Shaanxi Province.

Next, Jia Huan and Duan Yong's task is to restore local order, resettle prisoners and refugees, and organize the resumption of production. This is the most difficult and troublesome task. If the aftermath is not handled well, the bandit army that has been quelled will soon rise from the ashes. They cannot afford to be careless.

To this end, Jia Huan has sent people to Fujian and Lingnan to purchase large quantities of sweet potato seedlings and corn seeds, preparing to promote trial planting in the mountainous and hilly areas under his jurisdiction.

Although sweet potatoes and corn are undoubtedly high-yield crops, they are not without requirements for climate, environment, and soil. To avoid overreaching and causing problems, Jia Huan remained cautious and only promoted trial planting in mountainous and hilly areas. In fertile areas such as plains and valleys, the original crops were still planted. In this way, even if the trial planting failed, the impact would not be too great.

Getting back to the main point, Man Gui of the Northern Route Army and Xing Wei of the Central Route Army were advancing quite smoothly, but Tie Hu of the Southern Route Army encountered trouble, and quite a bit of trouble at that.

It is said that Tiehu was ordered to lead 10,000 elite troops southward. They first arrived at Tianshui County, and then went straight to Luo Rucai's base in Huizhou.

This Huizhou is not Anhui, but Huizhou under the jurisdiction of Gongchang Prefecture in Shaanxi Province. It is located on the western side of the Qinling Mountains. The area has many rivers, mountain valleys, and lush trees, which is not conducive to cavalry movement. In addition, the autumn in the Longnan region is particularly rainy and the continuous rain is also unfavorable for the use of firearms by the Jin army.

As a result, the combat strength of Tie Hu's 10,000 elite troops was significantly affected. The key issue was that Luo Rucai, who occupied the Huizhou area, was also quite powerful, commanding 50,000 to 60,000 bandits. He was a tough nut to crack and not so easy to chew!
Tiehu led his army in a fierce attack on Huizhou City for half a month, but still failed to take it down. Instead, he lost some of his men. His soldiers were very frustrated. They were well-equipped, but they couldn't do anything against the bandit army on the city wall who only used broken copper and scrap iron. Damn rain, when will it stop?
Southern Shaanxi borders Sichuan, characterized by high mountains and dense forests. Located between two river basins, it naturally receives abundant rainfall, mostly concentrated in summer and autumn. Autumn brings continuous rain, sometimes lasting for a whole month, enough to drive anyone crazy. As a poet once wrote: "You ask when I will return, but there is no set date; the autumn rain in Bashan swells the ponds at night."

Of course, the rebel army in the city was also in a bad situation. They couldn't defeat the government troops in a head-on confrontation, and they couldn't hold out by hiding in the city either. Why? Because they were out of food!

Although the bandit leader Luo Rucai was cunning and untrustworthy, his vision was really poor, and he was not worthy of the nickname "Cao Cao". Cao Cao held the emperor hostage to command the princes. He had both skill and strategy. Luo Rucai's vision was limited to the surrounding area. He only thought about which town to plunder today and which city to raid tomorrow. He only knew how to burn, kill and loot (things came quickly). He did not engage in production at all and had no long-term planning. Therefore, the grain reserves in Huizhou City were not much to begin with.

Sure enough, after being besieged by Tie Hu for half a month, the food supply in Huizhou City was running out. The daily consumption of 50,000 to 60,000 people was quite staggering. In order to maintain the fighting strength, Luo Rucai had no choice but to order the reduction of rations. Men were given one meal a day, while the elderly, weak, women and children could only drink half a bowl of thin porridge. Everyone was starving and complaining bitterly.

This was clearly not a long-term solution. If things continued to escalate, the city would likely fall on its own. That's why Luo Rucai was anxious and came up with a plan—to surrender!
Of course, Luo Rucai's surrender was not genuine; to be precise, it was a feigned surrender, a tactic he had used before. When Luo Rucai first launched his rebellion, he only had a few hundred men and was being soundly beaten by the prefect of Huizhou. Just when he was about to be defeated, he pretended to accept the offer of amnesty. Once he recovered, he suddenly launched an attack, ambushing and killing the unsuspecting prefect of Huizhou. Luo Rucai then seized the opportunity to occupy Huizhou city, greatly increasing his strength, which now numbers fifty to sixty thousand men.

Therefore, the nickname "Cao Cao" wasn't given lightly. Although Luo Rucai lacked Cao Cao's strategic vision, he was certainly no less cunning, ruthless, and fickle. After deciding to feign surrender, Luo Rucai immediately sent men with two chests of gold and silver treasures out of the city to Tie Hu's camp. He first flattered Tie Hu with sweet words, then presented the gold and silver treasures, expressing his willingness to submit to the court. However, he said he needed time to persuade his men to halt the siege and retreat thirty li. Once he had convinced his men, he would lead them out of the city to surrender.

If it were someone else, they might have been fooled by Luo Rucai. Unfortunately, Tie Hu was neither a soft-hearted civil official nor a money-grubbing military man. He agreed verbally and accepted the treasure, but then ordered the attack on the city to continue. The two boxes of treasure were even used as a prize, awarded to whichever team under his command entered the city first.

As a result, the Jin army's offensive became even more intense. Luo Rucai was so angry that he jumped up and down and cursed. He never expected that Tie Hu, who looked so rough, would be so uncivilized and shameless than himself. He spat on him!
On the fifteenth day of the eighth month of the twelfth year of the Qiansheng reign (1768), the Mid-Autumn Festival, Huizhou City finally fell. The Jin army, filled with pent-up anger, swarmed in, beheading over a thousand and capturing over thirty thousand. However, Luo Rucai was quick to escape, leading several thousand able-bodied men to break through the city's east gate and flee into the vast Qinling Mountains.

Tie Hu was naturally not going to let him go easily, and relentlessly pursued him until he finally cornered Luo Rucai and his remaining troops in a valley.

However, the valley was gourd-shaped with a very narrow entrance and was surrounded by high mountains and forests. Luo Rucai ordered his bandits to occupy the high ground on both sides of the entrance and to build defensive fortifications inside the valley. Tie Hu personally led his men to attack several times but failed to break in. He could only resort to the same old trick, intending to trap the bandits in the valley. However, there were plenty of mountain products and streams in the valley, so there was no shortage of water. It would be difficult to achieve results in a short time.

The continuous autumn rain continued to fall. As time went by, Tiehu began to get a little impatient and tried to use fire to attack the fire, but the weather was so bad that he couldn't get anything burning and could only stare helplessly.

On this day, Tiehu and his generals were discussing countermeasures in their military tent. The annoying autumn rain was still pattering against the tent, and the damp air seemed to be able to be wrung out.

"General, we can't delay any longer! Let's launch a full-scale attack! Although there will be some casualties, it's better than just sitting here doing nothing. This is so damn frustrating!" Guerrilla General Zhang Yi shouted. He was a brave and warlike man who had long been unable to contain himself.

Even the usually composed Sun Ting chimed in, "This autumn rain is likely to continue. Many of our brothers have already caught the cold. If we delay any longer, the situation will only get worse. General, let's get started! This humble general requests to lead the charge!"

Zhang Yi glared at him and said with dissatisfaction, "Sun Ting, what do you mean by this? I was the one who brought it up first, but now you're the ones who took the lead. This is no way to steal credit."

Sun Ting scoffed, "Do you think this is like going to a brothel and sleeping with women, where there's a first-come, first-served rule? Naturally, whoever the General-in-Chief decides goes first. It's no use you sticking your ass out."

The other soldiers burst into laughter!

Zhang Yi was furious, but his tongue wasn't as eloquent as Sun Ting's, so he could only glare at him with wide, angry eyes and curse, "You bastard surnamed Sun, you're asking for a beating, aren't you? I'll grant your wish!"

“Come on, come on, are you afraid of me?” Sun Ting retorted sharply.

Sun Ting and Zhang Yi were both young generals promoted by Jia Huan. They had cooperated well in attacking Taozhou, quickly wiping out the three bandit groups led by Niu Jinxing, Sao Di Wang, and Chuang Ta Tian. However, being young, neither of them would easily submit to the other, so they were secretly competing with each other.

Tie Hu didn't stop him. If a general doesn't have some courage, how can he lead troops into battle? He'd rather have a tough nut to crack than a sheep that's easy to tame. So he simply stepped aside and said, "Whoever wins goes first. Same rules as before, after defeating the enemy, we'll choose the spoils first."

Sun Ting and Zhang Yi perked up and got into a fighting stance, just then a soldier came in and reported: "General, that thief who delivered the treasure before is here again."

The generals looked at each other in bewilderment. They had already suffered a loss at the hands of the general when Luo Rucai sent people to surrender with treasures in Huizhou City. Could it be that he was still not giving up?
Tie Hu's eyes flashed, and he suddenly laughed, "It's free treasure, why not take it? Bring the person over here."

Soon, a thief with a rat-like mustache and a sleazy appearance was brought in. He was carrying a box in his arms and had a fawning smile on his face. He said, "General Tie, we meet again, hehe!"

"Flying Rat, what brings you here again? Could it be that Luo Rucai still wants to surrender? Last time you at least had two large chests of treasure, but this time you only have a small chest. You are seriously underestimating me, General!" Tie Hu said calmly.

"Flying Rat" was the thief's nickname, which suited his image quite well, except that he couldn't fly.

Flying Rat raised an eyebrow, opened the small wooden box, and was immediately blinded by its golden brilliance. Inside was a golden Buddha statue, about a foot tall, clearly priceless. It seemed that Luo Rucai had indeed acquired quite a few good things after his rebellion.

Flying Rat glanced around smugly and chuckled, "Our General may not have much else, but he certainly has plenty of priceless treasures like these. If General Tie is kind enough, the General is willing to offer them all."

(End of this chapter)