Nanyang Storm 1864

Chapter 56: Picking up a big merit

At this moment, there were continuous gunshots and shouts of killing on both sides of the river bank. The two sides were fighting in a bloody battle and the situation was in chaos.

It was at this time...

Zheng Guohui saw the right opportunity. He had already noticed that the bearded bandit leader was unhappy.

He immediately led several of his personal guards out of the cabin, lined up in a row, and ordered, "See that bearded man on horseback on the riverbank? He's the one waving a knife and shouting. Everyone, aim your guns!"

"Aimed?"

"Aiming at my Lord."

"No talking, hold your breath, aim, and fire!" Zheng Guohui gave the order, and immediately four crisp gunshots like popping beans were heard in his ears, accompanied by thick smoke rising.

The two sides were only forty or fifty meters apart. The big man on horseback was shocked and looked down in disbelief.

He had been hit by two bullets in the chest and abdomen, leaving shocking bloody holes. Blood gushed out and soaked his clothes.

Zheng Guohui was overjoyed when he saw this. He calmly raised his gun, took aim, fired one shot, and then fired another.

After the crisp sound of a gunshot,

The bearded man on horseback was shaken again as the bullet hit his left chest with such force that he was thrown off his horse.

"It's done..."

Zheng Guohui put down the rifle in his hand, his face full of joy, and was then dragged into the cabin by Zheng Gui and several other personal soldiers.

The Nian bandits who swarmed in were so numerous that they became the best targets on the ship. The musketeers could clear out a large area with a round of intensive volleys.

Just a few minutes

The right bank of the canal was littered with corpses lying all over the place, and bright red blood was flowing out, dyeing half of the river red.

Even so, many fearless bandits rushed to the stranded ship and fought with the officers and soldiers on board.

The swordsmen and shieldmen guarding the side of the boat swung their swords and slashed fiercely. More and more Nian bandits rushed forward one after another. The pile of corpses on the bow of the ship stranded on the shore was so high that it directly fell onto the side of the boat.

There were only more than twenty officers and soldiers on the ship, and it was finally lost under the attack of bandits who outnumbered it several times.

More bandits rushed onto the deck and the two sides fought fiercely. Due to the small space, more bandits fell into the water with a "splash, splash".

After enduring the initial fierce attack, the musketeers on the fleet won the victory with a deadly rain of bullets, finally defeating the desperate bandits, who fled in a trail of corpses.

The musketeers on other ships immediately turned their guns and fired fiercely at the bandits who had rushed onto the stranded official ship. With just one round of volleys, twenty or thirty bandits were instantly wiped out.

Seeing that the situation was not good, the lucky survivors jumped out of the boat and escaped.

At this moment, there were only seven blood-soaked officers and soldiers on the stranded ship, staggering to the brink of collapse. Their hands had softened from killing, and they finally withstood the enemy's fierce attack.

"General, order all the fleets to rush to the shore, all officers and soldiers to disembark and go ashore, and pursue in full force. No mistakes are allowed."

Give an order

All the boats turned around and ran aground on the right bank.

The officers and soldiers on the ship jumped off the bow one after another, with the swordsmen and shieldmen in front and the musketeers in the back. They quickly ran to the river bank and began to form a team, preparing to launch a large-scale counterattack.

After the bloody battle

On the nine ships led by Zheng Guohui, apart from the sailors, there were only more than 140 officers and soldiers left, and more than 40 people were killed or injured.

Although the enemy suffered heavy casualties, they still had four or five hundred people.

After abandoning the boat and landing

Zheng Guohui led the officers and soldiers marching in formation along the river bank. The musketeers stopped from time to time and fired volleys at the enemy, knocking down more fleeing bandits.

The swordsmen and shieldmen walking in the front continued to finish off the enemies, who were howling in pain, and killed them with one blow.

Not far ahead, they saw a man and a horse lying among a pile of corpses. It was the bearded man who was in command, but he had already died.

Zheng Gui, the captain of the personal guards, hurried forward to search and soon pulled out a cloth bag and a purse from the man, and handed them over with both hands.

Zheng Guohui didn't even look at the purse, but directly opened the cloth bag. Inside were two gold seals and a yellow paper letter wrapped in a white flag.

Two golden tiger-head seals bore the inscriptions "Prince Wei Li Yuntai" and "Divinely Granted Nian Army Flag Leader." The yellow paper envelope contained a Nian Army alliance document, detailing a date and year when the various Nian Army factions met, each with their own five flags: yellow, white, blue, black, and red. Each faction appointed a flag leader: so-and-so... so-and-so...

Zheng Guohui laughed out loud when he got it. This was truly a great achievement.

Li Yuntai, the leader of the White Flag who was killed in this battle, was the King of Guards of the Nian Army and the main force of one of the five flags of the Nian Army. His contribution was not small.

The bearded bandit leader looked unusual at first glance, and this was also the main target of his army's pursuit and annihilation. Now that the goal had been achieved, he would naturally call off the attack.

Zheng Guohui ordered his men to finish off the dead bodies and then cut off their heads one by one. The main force of the Nian bandits was different from those refugees, and their heads were also military merits.

This battle was a great victory, with a total of 566 enemies killed and the bandit leader Li Yuntai killed, which was truly inspiring.

A ship was separated from the merchant ships at the back to carry the severed heads, the body of the bandit leader Li Yuntai, the bodies of the soldiers who died in the battle, and the injured who were all treated one by one.

The actions of the officers and soldiers made the Nian bandits on the left bank of the river furious. They stood on the river bank, brandishing their swords and guns, and cursing loudly.

But the officers and soldiers ignored them and just finished the task at hand.

After a delay of more than two hours, the fleet continued to head north.

The remaining Nian bandits who stayed on the left bank of the canal could only watch the fleet sail away, feeling grief and indignation in their hearts, even though they shouted at the top of their lungs.

Until around 5 pm
The northbound fleet arrived belatedly at the wharf of Kunshan County (note: Liangshan County). The Kunshan County Magistrate who came to greet them was horrified to see that the fleet in front was full of arrows and large patches of blood.

Zheng Guohui walked off the boat with a gloomy face and immediately ordered the soldiers of Kunshan County to be on full alert to prevent the Nian bandits from attacking the county town and killing them by surprise.

In addition, doctors and physicians in the city were urgently summoned to provide treatment as six or seven seriously injured soldiers were in very serious condition.

These were Zheng Guohui's trusted personal soldiers, many of whom were veterans of the Tongzhou militia. He would be heartbroken if any of them were injured.

In this bloody battle, 16 people were killed on the spot, eight were seriously injured, and more than others were slightly injured.

The territory of Shandong Province was where the Nian bandits were rampant. The northwest of Shandong was mountainous and densely forested, the southwest of Shandong was full of lakes, and there were also vast plains in the east of Shandong, which gave the main force of the Huai Army who was suppressing the bandits a headache.

The famous Qing general Zeng Guofan's method of "building strong camps and fighting stupid battles" did not work well against the Nian Army. From last year to now, they have been repeatedly defeated and suffered many defeats.

A thunderclap

Zheng Guohui, who had originally headed north to the capital, won a complete victory and killed the bandit leader Wei Wang Li Yuntai on the spot. If the news were spread, it would surely shock the court and the public and win applause.

When the magistrate of Kunshan first heard that the adults' boat had been attacked, his face turned pale with worry.

Later, when I heard that Zheng Guohui led his troops to fight with the remaining strength, killed more than a thousand enemies, and countless people fell into the water, and killed the bandit leader Li Yuntai on the spot, I can't imagine how wonderful his expression must have been.

It's okay in other places, but in several provinces of Shandong and Henan, Prince Wei Li Yuntai was a man who could stop children from crying at night. Together with Prince Yong Gong Deshu, Prince Zun Lai Wenguang, and Prince Lu Ren Zhu, they were known as the "Four Heavenly Kings" and had killed countless people.

Zeng Guofan led tens of thousands of main forces of the Huai Army to encircle and suppress the rebellion in Zibo and other places for more than a year, but he did not achieve any success and suffered repeated defeats.

This shows how cunning the Nian Army was and how no ordinary person could defeat them.

According to the latest news

The imperial court has mobilized Li Hongzhang, the governor-general of Liangjiang, Zuo Zongtang, the governor-general of Zhejiang and Fujian, and Zeng Guofan to "concentrate troops and surround the rebellion from all sides" to completely wipe out the Nian bandit rebellion.

After the order was issued, the entire Kunshan County quickly became highly alert, the city gates were closed and locked, and the number of patrol soldiers was doubled.

Due to the rampant Nian bandits, Kunshan City had only 180 soldiers defending the city, 600 local militiamen, and 170-odd transport soldiers under the governor of the grain transport system, totaling nearly soldiers.

If we add the more than one hundred officers and soldiers of the fleet docked at the pier, and two or three hundred armed guards, the military force is indeed not weak.

In the bloody battle of Nanwang Town
The total number of Nian bandits stranded on the left bank of the canal was only about 1,300 or 1,140, ​​which was roughly the same as the number of troops in Kunshan City, and they had no obvious advantage.

No one with a clear mind would choose to attack a city with such a force.

Just be afraid of everything.

To be cautious, Zheng Guohui led his men into the city. After thoroughly understanding the defense arrangements, he personally took charge of the city and took full command of all the troops.

Fortunately, there was no conversation that night and nothing unexpected happened.

The fleet stayed in Liangshan City for two days, took the heads with them, and left all seven seriously injured soldiers in the city for treatment before continuing north to the capital.

(End of this chapter)