There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 159: Battle Situation Evolution
It was only a matter of time before Yongshun Prefecture surrendered. As mentioned before, although the Han army had not yet attacked Yongshun Prefecture, it had been surrounded on all sides.

To the west are the White Lotus bandits in Sichuan, to the north are the Miao rebels in Laifeng, to the east is the territory of the Han army, and to the south are the resurgent Miao people in western Hunan.

The Yongshun prefect had already laid low, and the gentry of Yongshun were already prepared, waiting to welcome the Han army with food and drink. If the Yongshun officials were not stupid, they would have voluntarily surrendered the city first, at least to save their lives.

In order to show his sincerity, the Yongshun Tongzhi simply sent his own son as a hostage. He was indeed his biological son, but he was born to a concubine. Although serving as an official in the pseudo-Qing Dynasty meant he had to live in a foreign land and could not bring his wife and children with him, he could still take a concubine when he arrived in the local area!

Nie Yu didn't know whether to be happy or helpless about Yongshun Prefecture's initiative to surrender.

Territorial expansion is not always a good thing. If Yongshun Prefecture does not submit, the Han army and the White Lotus Sect in Sichuan and the Miao people in Laifeng can still live in peace. Yongshun Prefecture is the strategic buffer zone in between.

Now, the middle buffer zone is gone and has become the territory of the Han army. The future strategic deployment of the Han army will inevitably be affected.

In fact, it is not just that. The reason why the Han army did not take advantage of the situation and capture the frightened Yongshun Prefecture was because it was poor, too poor.

Because Yongshun Prefecture lies in the Wuling Mountains, like the Miao people's territory in western Hunan, it shares a mountainous and hilly landscape. To put it bluntly, it's a prefecture nestled in a mountain valley, incredibly poor, having been repeatedly exploited by the former Hunan Governor, Jiang Sheng, until all the benefits had been squeezed out.

There is no harm without comparison. For the gentry in other prefectures, the Han army's plan to divide their land and prohibit them from owning slaves was a terrible evil. But for the gentry in Yongshun, the Han army simply divided their land and left them with a few hundred acres. They no longer had to bear heavy taxes, but helped them to inventory their land, eliminate unauthorized land, reform the tax law, and reduce taxes. This was truly a royal army!
If the royal army were to attack them, they would be crazy enough to think of gathering troops to resist.

Despite his helplessness, Yongshun Prefecture offered to surrender, even arresting the reckless prefect as a token of his allegiance. Although Nie Yu felt a bit overwhelmed, he accepted the offer. After all, it was a truly surrendered prefecture, and with so much land and population, it was impossible to refuse. However, the financial implications were significant. Instead of dispatching officials to divide up the land and administer it, establishing town officials and a rural farmers' union would yield little initial returns, and might even cost a considerable amount of money.

After repeated consideration, Nie Yu discussed with his civil and military subordinates such as Lin Wenchang, and finally decided not to re-plan the towns in Yongshun Prefecture, but only to maintain the basic township divisions and systems. At the same time, more land could be distributed because there were too many mountains here and the land was too barren.

Fortunately, Nie Yu still had enough land. Yongshun Prefecture had a small population, and the previous extortion and plunder had forced many people to either flee famine or starve to death. The remaining land was redistributed, and each household could get a few more acres of land.

The problem is that the consumption of money and food is somewhat unsustainable. Because the new tax law and land distribution policy continued to be implemented, the taxes that the Han army could receive seemed to be endless, but to maintain a huge bureaucratic administrative system, financial expenditures were like water and were not enough at all.

Lin Wenchang of the Ministry of Revenue has almost turned his hair white with worry.

Of course, there are also benefits. Yongshun Prefecture is not the only one that truly submits to the central government. The other three counties that also submit include Xinhua, Qiyang and Xintian.

These three counties belong to Baoqing Prefecture and Yongzhou Prefecture respectively. Yes, these are the two prefectures where the Yao people are rebelling.

The Yao people of Baoqing Prefecture were the most daring. Although they had already changed their flag to the Han flag, the Yao leader Lan Jinlong still called himself "King Wei" and openly ordered the officials to lead them. After conquering the city of Wugang, he simply ascended the throne in Wugang and established a small Wei Kingdom court.

Anyway, when the Han army civil and military officials saw the news reported by the Xinhua County Magistrate when he surrendered, they were almost furious.

Nie Yu didn't care much about this. How brave was he to call himself "King Wei"?
That's great!
If you can't find a reason to go south, isn't this a ready-made excuse?
By the way, there is a tin mine in Xinhua County. This tin mine is a good thing. Its most powerful use is to use it for tin plating and making cans.

Although Nie Yu doesn't need it much now, he will definitely need it in the future. The mall is not omnipotent. If the mall disappears one day, or if he dies in the future, he must fill up the leading technology tree for his descendants.

……

Xiangyang.

The White Lotus rebels had been clashing with the Qing army in Wuchang for nearly half a year, engaging in several battles, each with its own victories. Wang Cong'er, the rebel leader, was truly a heroine. The 150,000-strong White Lotus rebel army, combined with Zhang Zhengmo's forces in Yichang, amounted to nearly 200,000 men, yet Wang Cong'er was able to manipulate them with ease.

Of course, the stalemate lasting this long was due not only to Wang Cong'er's strong command, but also to the fact that the pseudo-Qing commander in charge of suppressing the rebels was Hubei Governor Hui Ling. This guy was a complete idiot, incapable of fighting to begin with, and ever since he was defeated head-on by the Han army last time and captured and used as evidence, he had become completely timid.

Anyway, he saved Xiangyang and the bandits did not continue to advance eastward, so he was a competent governor.

E Hui is here, he can't just slack off like Hui Ling, he is here with the order of the retired emperor.

The capital had been on the bench for so many years and finally revived. He started as the Governor-General of Huguang, responsible for suppressing bandits and rebellions in the two provinces. If he still procrastinated, how could he be worthy of the trust of the retired emperor and the old general Agui?

After meeting with the Huguang Admiral Mingliang, he received the 3,000 remnants of the Green Camp cavalry of the Xiangxi Army brought by the other side, and combined them with his own 3,000 Manchu Eight Banners Guards. E Hui's direct cavalry instantly expanded to more than 6,000 people.

The two cavalry units trained with each other for more than half a month.

In early April, E Hui suddenly launched an uprising, stripped Hui Ling of his military power, and placed him under house arrest.

He then joined forces with Mingliang to impeach Hui Ling for harboring the enemy and at the same time impeached Chen Wangzhi, the governor of Hubei, for levying heavy taxes and oppressing the local people, which led to local rebellions.

Chen Wangzhi had no way to react at all. Before this, E Hui had been in a hurry to make money as soon as he arrived in Wuchang, which gave him a false impression. He thought that the other party was a brainless, greedy and martial man. He completely ignored the fact that the other party could be associated with Agui and Fukangan, so how could his brain be so simple.

Chen Wangzhi had just written a secret memorial, and it probably hadn't even reached Emperor Qianlong's desk yet, when E Hui and Mingliang came together to give him a big blow.

The governor and provincial governor of Hubei were all overthrown and placed under house arrest. The provincial judge of Hubei and the prefect of Wuchang survived by chance, but they were also frightened and afraid of E Hui, so they could only cooperate with the military training and recruitment.

In mid-April, after training his troops for more than half a month, E Hui personally led an army of 20,000, with 6,000 cavalry from his own unit as a backup, and set out for Xiangyang in a mighty force.

Wang Cong'er keenly sensed that there was a trick, but the previous victories had already made the rebel generals generally arrogant. Even Wang Cong'er's most trusted second-in-command Yao Zhifu felt that the Qing army was courting death.

Wang Cong'er had no choice but to suppress his uneasiness and personally lead 200,000 volunteers to follow the Qing army.

As soon as the war started, the Qing army was defeated one-sidedly!
The rebels quickly became furious and launched a pursuit of the defeated Qing army. The huge size of the army caused the formation to quickly get out of control, and they even trampled on each other. Even Wang Cong'er found it difficult to control them.

Just as the rebel army was in chaos, a cavalry of 6,000 men suddenly rushed out from the gate of Xiangyang City and stabbed into the heart of the rebel army like a sharp knife.

The rebel army was defeated!

Wang Cong'er reacted very quickly. When he saw the cavalry coming out, he knew that something was wrong and hurriedly led the old camp to withdraw from the battlefield.

The rebel siege that had plagued Xiangyang for more than half a year was defeated by E Hui in just one battle.

But the problem was not actually solved, but became more serious, because the White Lotus Sect was finally about to start its roving mode.

(End of this chapter)