There is no such thing as the Kangxi and Qianlong eras

Chapter 28 Is this called invincible?
The Qing army took almost two days to march the thirty miles before they could see the city wall of Yidu County.

Hui Ling had never fought in a war or led troops. The only connection he had was that he had served as a leading minister in Yili and observed how the local garrison officers trained the troops.

He was very cautious. Even after learning from the Zhijiang County Magistrate that the Yidu rebels were weak, he did not rush into battle. Instead, he adopted a strategy of advancing slowly, hoping to see if he could use the military might of the Eight Banners to force the rebels to make mistakes.

Rioters are rioters. Even if they are bewitched by a cult, they are just fools with no fighting power. They look intimidating when they gather together, but they will collapse at the first touch if a real fight breaks out.

only……

The current situation was a little confusing for him.

The gates of Yidu County were closed, and flags were fluttering everywhere on the city walls. These flags were specially made by Nie Yu, and had a big "Han" character written on them.

There is no other meaning, it is just to overthrow the Qing Dynasty and restore the Han Dynasty.

"What do you think?" Hui Ling asked.

Hui Ling did not come alone to suppress the bandits. He also brought Shaoxing legal advisors, who were standard in the Qing Dynasty officialdom, as his staff.

Feng Zhi, a staff advisor with a mustache and a melon-shaped cap, said, "General, the rebels are using the Han as their banner, clearly demonstrating their intention to overthrow the Qing and restore the Han. Now that they see the governor's army here and have closed the city gates, it's clear they intend to hold the city. We should immediately order the entire army to attack the city and not encourage the rebels' arrogance."

Another advisor surnamed Liu also nodded and said, "Advisor Feng is right. Now that the Yidu rebels have seen Marshal Fu's army arrive, they not only refuse to abandon the city and flee, but choose to defend the county to the death. This is a cardinal sin of military strategy. Since ancient times, those who defend a city too long will inevitably lose it!"

"General Fu, besides this, the rebels chose to hold the county town, which means that their internal morale is unstable, and at the very least, they dare not engage our army directly. Therefore, General Fu has nothing to worry about. As long as our army attacks the city with all its might, the rebels in the city will surely be defeated in one battle!"

"It is autumn now. As long as we defeat the rebel leader in Yidu, we can march north with the momentum of a great victory and join forces with Yichang to suppress the religious bandits in Changyang."

"..."

Listening to his staff and advisors, they all offered suggestions, suggesting that they could ignore the rebels in Yidu County and directly attack the city to defeat the enemy.

Huiling thought about it and felt that the advantage should be mine.

He has an army of 3,000, Yidu is not a big county, and he still has 300 Manchu soldiers as the core elite. Are you afraid that he can't defeat a bunch of religious bandits and fools?
It is not wrong to think so, because in history, Hui Ling actually led 300 Manchu soldiers, plus a few hundred Green Camp soldiers from Yichang Town, and used almost brainless tactics to fight against Zhang Zhengmo's 20,000-strong army. The battle lasted for more than a year.

In the end, he suffered heavy casualties and was forced to lead troops from Hunan to help him.

"Pass on my order to the army, all troops, attack the city immediately!"

At Hui Ling's command, three hundred Manchu soldiers acted as supervisors, driving the civilian workers and brave soldiers to attack the city.

"Dudududu da da da..."

"Kill!"

Amidst the sound of gongs and drums, a large number of soldiers armed with various old weapons and carrying simple wooden ladders rushed forward with no formation at all.

The city wall of Yidu County is not high. According to the "Yidu County Chronicles", it is 4 feet, which is about meters.

The height of 4 meters can indeed be reached by climbing a ladder. No wonder Huiling's staff looked down on him so much.

Soon, someone rushed to the foot of the city, set up a wooden ladder, and climbed up without caring whether there was anyone above.

Unfortunately, before he could climb halfway, a bunch of wolf spears stabbed at him.

"What is this?"

"Ah! It hurts! Stop stabbing!"

"..."

The wolf guard was too long. The city wall was 4 meters high, and the wolf guard occupied 3 meters, making it very inconvenient to even dance on the city wall.

But it is just right for defending the city. If the branches cut out by the wolf thorn prick someone, it is hard to say whether it will be fatal or not, but it will definitely hurt.

Especially since these soldiers had no armor protection and relied entirely on their flesh and blood, they would be stabbed all over if they were not careful.

The pain made it impossible to hold onto the ladder and the whole person would fall down.

Several wolf-gun soldiers on the top of the city stretched out their wolf-guns and waved them randomly at the soldiers on the wooden ladders, stabbing them randomly.

Every time, at least one person can be taken away.

It is difficult to kill someone if you fall from a height of 4 meters, but since they couldn't get up, these soldiers were a little at a loss.

After all, they are not professional soldiers and have no ability to respond on the spot. The most they can do is swing their swords around, but apart from wasting energy, they can only chop off a few branches at most, which is useless.

What?

The soldiers who fell down from the city either lay on the ground wailing in pain, or stood up at a loss, not knowing whether they should go up again with cuts all over their bodies.

Not far away, Hui Ling, who was watching the whole game, was a little confused.

According to his thinking, shouldn't he lead his entire army forward, and then the county town would be captured in a blink of an eye, the rebels would flee in all directions, and he would lead his army to take advantage of the chaos to launch a surprise attack and capture the rebel leader alive?
Why has it become like this now?

Also, he saw clearly what the rebels' weapons were. They didn't look like spears, but had dense branches on them. If they were swung, they could make people fall off the ladder covered in blood.

A knowledgeable staff member looked at it for a moment and suddenly exclaimed, "It's Lang Xian!"

"What is Lang Xian?" Hui Ling wondered.

The master was stunned for a moment, then explained, "It's a weapon made of southern bamboo, with the top sharpened and the branches left..."

Hui Ling frowned and said, "You mean, the rebels have only used a few bamboos to stop us outside Yidu County?"

The master quickly corrected him: "General Fu, these are not just a few bamboos. Although the Wolf Charter is made of bamboo, it is a magical weapon used by the Qi Family Army of the Ming Dynasty to fight against the Japanese pirates. It is extremely powerful."

Hui Ling angrily said, "I don't care about the Qi Family Army, I just want a plan to defeat the bandits!" The master's face turned bitter. After thinking for a while, he really came up with a good idea. He gritted his teeth and offered a suggestion: "The soldiers have no armor, and there is no general in front to lead them. That's why they are afraid of a few wolf soldiers. Therefore, we can let the Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers under the command of General Fu go into battle. The Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers are protected by cotton armor, and with the Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers fighting, they can deter the soldiers and make them dare not retreat. We can definitely break the city!"

"Okay! Amuha, take two hundred Manchu soldiers with you and go help us. We must capture the city before dusk!"

"Order!"

Two hundred Manchu soldiers quickly joined the battlefield. They were all wearing brightly colored cotton armor and helmets, protecting themselves tightly. The wolf spear was no longer useful.

These Manchu soldiers did not immediately force their way up, but just watched from below and drove away the cowardly soldiers who were fleeing.

After seeing the pattern of the wolf's sword swinging, a brave Manchu soldier immediately climbed up with the sword handle in his mouth and crouched down.

This guy's cotton armor was so obvious that a team rushed over without anyone reminding him.

As soon as the Manchu soldier's hands climbed onto the parapet, two Tang swords chopped down.

One knife missed, and the other hit the target!

"what!!!"

The bravest soldier who climbed up first had his finger cut off on the spot and fell down with him.

When the other Manchu soldiers saw this, they were not afraid. Instead, they learned from their mistakes. Seven or eight of them climbed the ladder at the same time. They did not climb the wall first, but when they saw that the height was about the same, they swung their swords and chopped.

Regardless of whether you can hit anyone or not, you should first drive away the rebels who are guarding.

Most of the teams defending the city were new recruits who had little experience in serious combat. They had taken advantage of the situation when they captured the county the previous night and hadn't fought at all.

This Manchu soldier was wearing cotton armor and slashing at the air with his sword, which really scared people.

The eleven members of the team, including the captain, waited until the enemy climbed onto the city wall, and no one reacted to stop them.

"Hahaha! Kill!"

The Manchu soldier who successfully climbed the ladder first grinned fiercely and swung his sword to chop at a sword and shield soldier in the front row. The sword and shield soldier was horrified and subconsciously swung his sword to chop back.

Ding~~!

With a sound of metal collision, the sword of the Man soldier broke, while the sword in the sword and shield soldier's hand was intact.

Nonsense, a knife made of earthen steel, or steel-clad at that, how could its hardness possibly compare to the Tang sword made of modern industrial manganese steel.

"You bastard, it turns out you're all show and no use. What are you standing there for? Kill him!" The captain reacted and immediately scolded the stunned guy.

"you……"

The Manchu soldiers didn't even have time to say a word before they were stabbed to death on the spot by four long spears, and their bodies were thrown out.

Several other soldiers who climbed the city wall soon suffered the same fate.

The gap in weapons and armor is too huge. They are all manganese steel knives and stainless steel guns. The local steel is no different from scrap iron.

Relying on their advantage in weapons, the morale of the rebel army, which was originally a little afraid of these Manchu soldiers, instantly increased.

What a claim that the Eight Banners were invincible, it turns out they were just paper tigers that looked good but were useless!
How powerful do they think they are?

Two hundred Manchu soldiers were dispatched, but not only did they fail to take the city wall in half a day, but more than twenty of their own men were also killed.

“Dang~dang~!”

The Qing army sounded the retreat.

When the soldiers saw the Manchus retreat, they immediately followed suit and ran away, leaving wooden ladders and weapons everywhere. No one cared about those who were injured and unable to move.

It was a long time after the Qing army withdrew that the gate of Yidu County slowly opened.

Several teams of volunteers emerged from the city. Working in groups of two or three, they directed the temporarily recruited civilians to clean up the battlefield and bury the bodies of the enemy soldiers.

On the city wall, Nie Yu, who was sitting in the middle watching the battlefield, frowned. It was not because he was dissatisfied with the results of the battle, but because he was somewhat surprised by the actual combat power of the Qing soldiers.

Is this the Qing army?
The invincible Eight Banners with tens of thousands of men?

Although Nie Yu knew that the Eight Banners had become extremely corrupt at this time, he still did not underestimate his opponent.

After all, he had never really fought a war before, and he was afraid that one mistake would lead to his own doom.

To be on the safe side, Nie Yu didn't even dare to risk going out of the city to fight. The strategic plan he formulated was mainly conservative, with defense of the city as the priority, and consumption as the second, using the actual combat of defending the city to train the courage and morale of the soldiers.

After the Qing army was almost exhausted, they would use the artillery and fire bombs in their hands as the trump cards to decide the outcome in one fell swoop.

But the result was that after fighting for half the morning, it was like a joke and the Qing army's combat effectiveness was very weak.

Not to mention the bravery of the soldiers, they were just a motley crowd. The Eight Banners Manchu soldiers were slightly better, but they were no match for the enemy.

Nie Yu has been cautiously preparing for war for more than a month, and this is what happens?
Chen Younian, approaching with a bloody Tang sword in hand and the head of an Eight Banners Manchu soldier in his hand, said with a hint of disdain, "General, these Qing Dynasty Eight Banners aren't that great, are they? They're quite invincible, haha!"

Ever since this guy was appointed as a Qianzong and became a general, he has been looking forward to fighting every day.

I finally got the chance to play, but it wasn't satisfying at all because the opponent was so weak.

He killed him in just a few strokes. Not only was his sword swing weak and powerless, but the quality of the sword was also very poor and it broke at the first touch.

(End of this chapter)