The Han culture is spreading strongly in Southeast Asia

Chapter 363 An era has come to an end
This was a truly tragic victory. The emerging Xing Tang Army ran into the last rays of the Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty.

If Mo Zibu had traveled through time twenty or thirty years later, the Eight Banners of the Manchus would have degenerated to the point where they could not even defeat the heroes of the White Lotus Sect, Chen De, a cook, would have been able to stab three or four palace guards, and a hundred people from the Tianli Sect would have been able to rush into the palace and sit on the dragon throne.

But at this time, the tens of thousands of people that Emperor Qianlong had raised with all his efforts were still very combat-ready.

Pei Changwu lay in the mud, with several long arrows stuck in his chest, his body covered with horse hoof prints, and his blood filled the large and small pits.

Mo Zibu walked over, closed Pei Changwu's wide-open eyes, and then took off the red headband from his head that was stained with blood and mud.

There is a ruby inlaid in the middle of this red headband. Pei Changwu is tall and has great martial arts skills. Judging from his appearance alone, he looks more like a military commander than Mo Zibu, who is wearing a vermilion lacquered helmet with the word "Yong".

Therefore, he suffered the most attacks, and the cavalry of the Qing vanguard camp directed at least 30% of their firepower towards Pei Changwu.

Mo Zibu tied the headband around his forehead, and tears slowly fell from his face, which was blackened by gunpowder.

Several ordinary soldiers who came over followed him with red eyes, dragged Pei Changwu's body out of the blood and mud, put it in a dry place, and wrapped it with white cloth.

Wu Shixiu, the assistant commander-in-chief of the Five Military Commandery, came over and opened his notebook. "The main force of the central army is estimated to have lost around a thousand men in battle. The remains of approximately one hundred and forty officers above the rank of Junior Guard have been discovered."

He paused for a moment before hesitantly saying, "Young Master Wen died in battle!"

Mo Zibu's heart skipped a beat. The loss was too great!
Gongzi Wen was none other than his uncle Chen Dasheng's fourth son, his cousin Chen Guangwen. Because his uncle Chen Dasheng had the title of Duke of Gaozhou, his cousin Chen Guangwen was also generally called Gongzi Wen.

"Chen Guangyao's troops on the right wing suffered approximately 500 casualties, including one deputy captain and 17 captains."

"Chen Lian's left wing suffered heavy losses from a surprise attack by the Qing cavalry, with at least a thousand men killed. Louis Cullen, a thousand-man commander of the Taixi Yicong Regiment, was killed in action, and Lieutenant Colonel Frederick of the Guards Grenadiers was seriously injured. Major General Chen Lian suffered over thirty wounds and is now in a coma from excessive blood loss."

"The Eight Kings Temple blocking troops suffered 1,100 casualties, including the Thousand Commander Mo Gong, who was killed in action. Another 6 Hundred Commanders and 45 officers above the rank of Junior Guard were lost."

Chen Lian was in charge of assisting and holding the line this time, but he faced the powerful Qing general Hailancha, and was attacked by his Eight Banners cavalry and more than a thousand Solon people. If it were not for the victory of the right wing and the central army, he would have almost collapsed.

"Send a message to the Prime Minister Pei Jiannan, asking him to organize all the doctors in Beihe to rush to Tokyo and transport all the wounded to Haiyang Prefecture for centralized treatment.

He ordered Lin Tong, the Grand Secretary of Zhaowu Palace, to go to Gia Dinh and Thonburi to collect medicinal materials.

He ordered Count Olivier to lead the fleet directly to Guangzhou Bay, bombard the Qing Dynasty's Humen Fortress, and send back the news of the great victory.

He ordered Li Xianwen, Marquis of Yinchuan, to take immediate action in Guangdong to buy up all the best wound medicines and tonics on the market, leaving not a single cent for the Tartars.

Then have the brothers from Kunlun Mountain bring fifty famous doctors from Guangzhou who are experts in treating sword wounds and setting bones to Beihe. I don’t care what means they use!

After saying so many words in one breath, Mo Zibu felt as if his heart was being cut by a knife, and he even staggered a little.

It seems that the 65,000-strong army lost only 3,600 to 3,700 people, which is only 5% of the casualties, which doesn't seem much.

But in fact, among these 65,000 people, only 5,500 guards and 22,000 garrison troops really fought to the death. The others were not arranged to the front line at all, and they only participated in the attack at the last moment.

In other words, at least 3,000 of the 27,500 main force members were missing.

Among them, about 300 officers above the rank of junior guard may have died in the battle, including two thousand-man commanders, three deputy thousand-man commanders, and more than 40 hundred-man commanders. Major generals like Chen Lian are now in danger of death.

It can be said that the Xing Tang Army was on the verge of serious damage.

This is the cruelty of the era of hot weapons. If it were the era of cold weapons, everyone would have stacked armor, and in a four-hour battle, the combined deaths on both sides would be hundreds or thousands.

But in this era where a single lead bullet can kill a person, the elite troops on both sides are mixed in the meat grinder, and the casualties will be huge.

This is also the reason why the Eight Banners soldiers were destined to be unable to fight in modern wars. The population base was too small. No matter how brave you were or how many layers of armor you wore, they would all be the same on the battlefield. After a few more battles, they would be exterminated.

"What about the Tartars? How many casualties did they suffer?" Mo Zibu asked in a deep voice.

Wu Shixiu's face finally lit up with uncontrollable joy. "At least five thousand Tartars have been killed. In addition, there are at least nine thousand wounded or captured. There are still two to three thousand who have not retreated back to Tokyo. The various forces are stepping up their pursuit."

As soon as Mo Zibu heard this number, he knew that the Qing Dynasty was doomed. Even if there were only two or three thousand of the Eight Banners stationed in Beijing among these fourteen or fifteen thousand people, it would be a devastating loss for the Qing Dynasty.

"Have Deng and Chen Chang make arrangements. Instruct the village chiefs in all regions to organize the civilians and conduct a dragnet search. Don't let any of them escape."

In the city of Tokyo, the Qing army was truly panicked. For the first time, they felt the horror of an army equipped entirely with flintlock muskets and artillery that was no less powerful than theirs.

According to previous combat experience, if the enemy was not an army like the Xing Tang Army that possessed so many firearms, they would not have suffered such a terrible defeat today.

Even if they were defeated so badly, they would not be completely powerless to fight back. It would take at least three or four rounds of tug-of-war before they could truly collapse.

"Let's go, everyone. The wounded and sick will stay here with me. The rest of you will disperse and break out. As many as you can escape. Someone must tell His Majesty about the situation here. We Manchus can no longer rely on our own horseback archery."

Agui, who had lost a son and two nephews in battle, seemed to have aged twenty years in an instant. He spoke to the Qing generals with some bitterness.

On the 27th day of the twelfth lunar month, while the Xing Tang army had not yet completely encircled the Qing army, the Qing army broke out in three directions. Nguyen Van Hue took more than 10,000 cannon fodder to the northeast, attempting to cross the Phu Liang River in the upper reaches and return to Lang Son.

Fucha Kuilin led 10,000 people northward towards Gaoping.

After Chen Guangyao captured Gaoping, he did not station troops there, so the Qing army placed several trusted chieftains from Guangxi to take over Gaoping. As long as Kuilin retreated, he would be basically safe.

Hailancha led 7,000 people to the northwest to find Tu Side, the governor of Yunnan and Guizhou who was besieging Xuanhua. Although they were few in number, at least each of them had a horse. The internal and external firearms battalions, the vanguard battalion and part of the elite battalion were all here.

They look small in number, but they are actually the main force.

As for the Green Camp, most of them were directly abandoned. They and the wounded Bannermen stayed behind with Agui in Tokyo City to buy time for the breakout troops. There were about 16,000 to 17,000 of them.

In the early morning, Nguyen Van Hue's troops were forced to put on the uniforms of the Qing Dynasty's Green Camp soldiers and break out first. This was also the reason why Agui agreed to let him go instead of staying in Tokyo City and waiting to die.

But the Manchus were too inhumane. They made these Yue people wear the uniforms of the Green Camp soldiers, fly the colorful flags of the Eight Banners soldiers, and even wear the cloth armor of the Eight Banners soldiers.

But they didn't give them any war horses, nor did they give them many weapons. They couldn't even give each person a sword. They were just sending them to their deaths.

Therefore, at the beginning, Nguyen Van Hue successfully attracted most of the attention of the Xing Tang Army, but after they broke through the first blockade line, most of them immediately cried and surrendered to the Xing Tang Army in Annan dialect.

This time, the Qing Dynasty was sold out.

Mo Zibu quickly dispatched troops to encircle and capture them, and ignored Nguyen Van Hue's tens of thousands of men, because Ye Xianchun had more than a thousand men in Cishan County who could block them.

He basically ignored Agui in the city. This old thief was just a pile of dry bones in the grave.

Mo Zibu's main focus was on the other two groups. It could be said that Ah Gui's timing was very appropriate. The Xing Tang Army had just experienced a bloody battle, and the mobilized civilians had not yet arrived. Even tens of thousands of people could not completely encircle the city of Dongjing.

Therefore, Mo Zibu could only adopt the strategy of key blockades, which created conditions for the Qing army to break out.

In the dim light of early morning, the Qing army made a big fuss about breaking out. Led by the Xibai musketeers and a small number of Green Camp musketeers, they formed groups of a dozen or so and shouted in all directions. The orange-red flashes of the muskets were everywhere, making it difficult to tell the direction.

"Ryan, Ayao, come here!" Mo Zibu called Ryan Stein and Chen Guangyao to the map, "If the Qing army wants to break out, they can only succeed in Xuanhua and Gaoping.

Gaoping is close but the road conditions and terrain are more complicated. The Qing Dynasty will probably let the infantry go through Gaoping, so I will give you the cavalry.

You must pursue them relentlessly. I have also sent Deng and Chen Chang to mobilize the militia from Shanxi and Taiyuan. As long as you keep a close eye on them, they will most likely not be able to escape."

Reinstein nodded and quickly went down to make arrangements. Mo Zibu pointed to the map and said to Chen Guangyao, "The main force of the Qing army will definitely go through Xuanhua. Xuanhua is far away but the terrain is flat, which is suitable for warhorse maneuvers, and the Qing army has a lot of warhorses."

"Your Majesty, do you mean to annihilate them in Xuanguang?" Chen Guangyao asked.

Mo Zibu nodded. "War horses are indeed very fast, but they lack the endurance of humans. Furthermore, the Qing army had to break out in such a short time, so the horses certainly didn't get enough rest, and their stamina would be even lower."

As long as you keep making noise and don't let the Qing army rest, by the time they run more than 200 miles to Xuanhua, the war horses will probably be unable to continue.

The key to this battle is not you, but whether Wu Wenchu can hold Xuanguang."

Mo Zibu really wanted to kill all the Qing troops, but he had already lost a cousin in battle and didn't want anything to happen to Chen Guangyao. So after a moment of silence, Mo Zibu said:
“If Wu Wenchu can hold Xuanhua, then you must attack at all costs and leave all the Qing troops behind.

If Wu Wenchu has been defeated by the Tartar Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, then the chieftains north of Xuanguang must have already surrendered to the Tartars. You must act according to the circumstances and ensure your own safety first."

After arranging the pursuit, Mo Zibu personally led his guards to the northeast to block the enemy. Even if he couldn't stop them, he couldn't let the Qing army break out easily. They had to be made to pay a heavy price.

On the fourth day of the twelfth lunar month, Ryanstein led the Xing Tang Army, followed by a large number of cavalry, and caught up with more than 10,000 Qing soldiers from the Kuilin tribe who had broken through the siege in Taiyuan Prefecture, 50 kilometers northeast of Tokyo.

The prefects of Shanxi, Taiyuan and other prefectures also organized more than 40,000 militiamen to participate in the roundup. The Kuilin tribe was unfamiliar with the geography and was blocked from front and back by four or five times their number of pursuers, leaving them with no way to escape.

In panic, although the Qing army broke through three blockade lines, they completely lost their way and crashed into the Lishui River in Dongxi County, Taiyuan Prefecture.

The floating bridge on the bank of Lishui River had already been demolished by the militia of Dongxi County. Ruan Zhuang, a top-ranking Jinshi who was selected through the imperial examination by Mo Zibu himself, led more than 2,000 militiamen to defend the river bank and successfully delayed the Qing army for two quarters of an hour.

Later, Reinstein arrived and tens of thousands of people attacked the Qing army. The Qing army had not had hot food for several days and was already exhausted. Unable to withstand the attack, they all jumped into the Lishui River.

Commander Kuilin and other Manchu nobles and guards committed suicide in despair. Green Camp generals including Chai Daji, the general of Fujian Taiwan Town, died in battle. Shang Weisheng, the deputy general of Guangxi Youjiang Town under the Han Army Flag, and others were captured. Only a few hundred people escaped by swimming. The 14,000-strong army was basically wiped out.

One hundred kilometers northwest of Tokyo, Xuanguang Prefecture.

Wu Wenchu was ordering his men to reinforce the collapsed city wall of the northern city of Xuanhua. More than 4,000 of his men, including those from the former Tây Sơn Army in Yenhận Town and Huang Gongzhi's former troops from Dien Bien Town, had suffered more than a thousand casualties.

At this time, except for the 20,000 to 30,000 people that Mo Zibu had spent ten years to raise, it was indeed difficult for the rest of the army to defeat the Qing Dynasty on the front battlefield.

Although the Qing Dynasty's Yunnan and Guizhou Governor Tu Side only led a detachment of 10,000 people and had only a few hundred Eight Banner soldiers, who were Han Bannermen stationed in Jingzhou with little combat effectiveness, he still defeated Wu Wenchu in a somewhat embarrassing way.

In particular, when Tuside went on the expedition, he brought two to three thousand Yunnan chieftain soldiers, and relying on the prestige of the Qing Dynasty, he recruited the chieftains in the northwest of the Red River Plain and gained more than two thousand soldiers.

Faced with rebellion on three sides, it was considered a good thing that Wu Wenchu was able to defend Xuanhua.

But he didn't expect that a bigger test would soon come.

On the sixth day of the twelfth lunar month, Hailancha led his army to Xuanguang Prefecture and began to attack Wu Wenchu from the front and back together with the Governor of Yunnan and Guizhou, Tu Side.

When Wu Wenchu saw that the Qing army under Hailancha didn't even have a cannon, he immediately understood what was going on. He said to Deng Tingjia, Ruan Liqiu and others:
“If my guess is correct, the king must have defeated the Eastern Tartars, and this Qing army is here to escape.

If we can hold on to Xuanguang now and prevent them from escaping, not only will we be able to rest on our laurels, but we will also ensure wealth and prosperity for our descendants."

After hearing this, everyone expressed their willingness to fight to the death. More than 2,000 of them endured the attacks of nearly 20,000 Qing troops for two days.

Two days later, Xuanguang City was captured, and only a few hundred people including Wu Wenchu were left. The Qing Dynasty controlled most of the urban area, but they still chose to fight in the streets.

Finally, Chen Guangyao's troops arrived. Although the Xingtang army was exhausted, their morale was high. The two sides fought and retreated from Xuanguang City. The Qing army was beaten and lost sight of the overall situation. The horses of Hailancha's army died one after another, and their mobility was greatly reduced.

On the third day of the battle, the Qing army, which was being held hostage by Chen Guangyao, returned to fight a decisive battle with Chen Guangyao, but the 15,000 Qing troops were once again defeated by the more than 7,000 Xing Tang troops.

In the heavy rain, more than a hundred Qing generals including the Governor-General of Yunnan and Guizhou, Tu Side, were killed in the battle. Only three to four thousand Qing soldiers including Hailancha escaped. Most of them were killed, and a small number fled into the mountains to die.

. . . .

Outside the city of Tokyo, Mo Zibu mobilized hundreds of thousands of militiamen to surround the city tightly.

At the same time, Commodore Manuel Bonn also led two thousand naval soldiers ashore, dragging a 36-pound naval gun to assist in the battle.

On the 13th day of the twelfth lunar month, the outer city of Tokyo was finally breached. Agui led hundreds of people to retreat to the royal city and continue street fighting. Mo Zibu was unwilling to allow his soldiers to suffer casualties and chose to surround but not attack.

Agui knew that he was going to die, so he ordered Goshaha to go out of the city and write a letter to Mozibu, requesting the return of the bodies of his son Abida and his two nephews, and to give them a complete body, instead of chopping off their heads to build a mausoleum.

This old guy still knows what the Han people like to do most.

Mo Zibu looked at the Manchu from the Zhengbai Banner who kept kowtowing before him and nodded slowly.

"Go back and tell Ah Gui that I agreed not because of his request, but because I saw his meritorious service in suppressing Huo Zhanji's rebellion and establishing the first garrison in Yili."

"Let him commit suicide. When I restore China in the future, if he still has descendants, I will definitely leave one for him to continue the family line."

Mo Zibu did not lie. Although Agui was a bannerman, he had made contributions in the Western Regions.

Especially after the Junggar tribe was destroyed, the ministers in the court suggested abandoning Ili, believing that "the land is vast and mostly desert, and the old Junggar horses and sheep have been depleted, making it difficult to garrison there."

Only Agui insisted that Ili could be defended, and he personally led people to settle and garrison there for three years, making Ili the political and economic center of the Western Regions.

Later Qing Dynasty maps included places like Lake Balkhash, and Agui made great contributions to this, but later generations failed to keep it.

In Tokyo Royal City, Agui heard the words of Mo Zibu brought back by Goshha and was silent for a long time. Then he murmured:
"Our defeat wasn't unfair. This man lives in the south, but his heart is already in the Western Regions. It seems that the Han people are really going to produce another Zhu Hongwu."

After saying this, the old Manchu general, who was about to turn sixty, pulled out a dagger and stabbed it into his own neck, committing suicide. The remaining hundreds of Qing soldiers opened the city and surrendered.

(End of this chapter)