1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 209 It’s a foregone conclusion
"Why doesn't Commander Luo follow the strategy of the Sun-Liu alliance in burning the Red Cliffs and attack the government army's fleet with fire?"

Li Yantong looked at the Xiangjiang River, which was now in complete chaos, and asked in bewilderment.

Li Yantong could understand Luo Dagang's desire to capture Li Xingyuan alive, since the Qing army was in disarray and Li Xingyuan had lost control of the situation.

Li Yantong simply couldn't understand why Luo Dagang didn't resort to fire.

Huangsha Pass was the only way for the Qing army to return to Lingling, the capital of Yongzhou Prefecture. The Qing army was only concerned with escaping and hid a few small rafts so that they would not be discovered by the Qing army.

The Qing army fleet had many ships, and they were currently blocked by underwater stakes and wooden embankments, making it impossible to advance or retreat. If Luo Dagang had hidden some rafts filled with firewood upstream in advance, and then set them on fire and launched them down the river, he was sure to burn a large number of Qing soldiers to death.

“What a fine ship! I wouldn’t bear to burn our own ship,” Luo Dagang said with a smile.

He did consider using fire, but he didn't adopt the plan because he coveted the Qing army's ships.

During Li Xingyuan's time in Yongzhou Prefecture, he must have requisitioned almost all the ships that could be requisitioned within the prefecture.

Even if Zuo Jun conquers the entire territory of Yongzhou, he will not be able to purchase many ships.

The Left Army now numbers over 70,000 and is engaged in mobile warfare.

The supplies consumed by more than 70,000 people could not be transported by land alone, even if all 70,000 men, women, and children were on the field.

When there are waterways available, the carrying capacity and efficiency of boats and rafts are many times greater than that of human and animal power.

Even a raft made of dozens of bamboo poles, if tied securely, can easily carry eighty or ninety stones during the dry season.

Moreover, Li Xingyuan's fleet also included many cargo ships, stern-tailed boats, and rafts, which had relatively considerable carrying capacity.

Zuo Jun made his fortune on the banks of the Qianjiang River, fighting his way from Bitanxun in Xunzhou Prefecture to Guilin Prefecture, all by water.

When they reached Yongfu County on the banks of the Luoqing River, Zuo Jun had amassed about 730 boats and rafts of various kinds, either through capture, purchase, or self-made, and also had about 40 converted warships.

Unfortunately, the Guiliu Canal, which was already shallow, had long been silted up and could not be navigable by boat. Zuo Jun had no choice but to abandon the boats and rafts he had painstakingly collected and travel by land to enter the Li River basin.

Although the Zuo army had tried its best to search for boats and rafts along the way from Daxu to Quanzhou, it only managed to find more than 240 boats and rafts.

Two hundred and forty boats and rafts sounds like a lot, but more than half of them are small rafts, and the number of proper large boats is very small, with a pitifully small carrying capacity.

Having come from a naval background, Luo Dagang knew the importance of warships in the Yangtze River basin. Naturally, he was reluctant to burn these high-quality ships and wanted to capture them for his own use.

Luo Dagang wanted to capture Li Xingyuan alive, but Li Xingyuan seemed unwilling to give Luo Dagang the chance.

"My lord, please do not be alarmed. This subordinate will cover your retreat!"

Sun Yingzhao, the Yongzhou garrison commander promoted by Li Xingyuan, pushed through the chaotic troops and boarded Li Xingyuan's imperial envoy's boat, intending to cover Li Xingyuan's retreat.

On the deck, Li Xingyuan, looking haggard and with empty, lifeless eyes, looked back. Not to mention that the boats and rafts behind him were all jostling and bumping into each other, and the river was in complete chaos, making it difficult for even small boats to turn around.

Even if his ship could turn around and head south, so what?
Peng Gang's pursuers were right behind them.

"Boats are colliding and the river is congested, so my boat can't move." Li Xingyuan sighed helplessly, "Peng's traitorous troops are hot on our heels, and we can't escape."

“There is always a way out! I still have over a hundred personal guards who can cover your landing and break through the encirclement!” Sun Yingzhao said, kneeling on one knee.

Li Xingyuan turned her head to look at the shore.

By this time, the Qing soldiers and local militia who had jumped into the water earlier had already reached the shore.

The shore was not safe, so Luo Dagang not only set up hidden wooden weirs on the surface of the Xiangjiang River.

Traps and barbed wire were also set up along the riverbank, specifically to wait for the Qing army to land.

The first Qing soldiers to land had mostly fallen into traps, either falling into pits and being killed or injured by bamboo or wooden spikes, or stepping on caltrops and clutching their legs in agony.

Even if they manage to escape the trap, the left army and the Heaven and Earth Society's muskets and crossbows await them ahead.

Behind the musketeers and crossbowmen were numerous spearmen, swordsmen, and even local civilians armed with harpoons, pitchforks, machetes, sickles, and carrying poles, all seeking revenge.

Given this situation, it's no wonder that the morale of his soldiers and local militia has already collapsed, making it impossible for them to rally together and break through the encirclement.

Even if they could regroup and form a battle line, it would be difficult to break through the encirclement.

Knowing he could not escape this calamity, Li Xingyuan ordered his family to bring a box of gold and silver, which he then tightly bound to his body.

Carrying a heavy chest full of gold and silver, the elderly and ailing Li Xingyuan moved with difficulty. He looked at Sun Yingzhao and said, "General Sun, you shall see me off on my final journey and throw me into the river."

"I hope you will consider this carefully, sir, and not take your own life!" Sun Yingzhao put down his knife, knelt on both knees, and refused to get up, saying in a choked voice.

Sun Yingzhao was much more kind and honest than Liu Changqing, who had disappeared long ago.

Li Xingyuan was a powerful patron whom Sun Yingzhao had finally managed to latch onto. On the other hand, Li Xingyuan had been taking good care of Sun Yingzhao lately, and Sun Yingzhao was grateful and couldn't bring himself to harm him.

"I am an imperial envoy, how can I fall into the hands of bandits and tarnish my reputation in my later years?" Li Xingyuan roared. "General Sun, please help me fulfill my last wish and preserve my honor! Hurry up! What are you waiting for?! Are you waiting for the cult bandits to capture me alive?"

Sun Yingzhao gritted his teeth and, together with a burly bodyguard, lifted Li Xingyuan up and jumped into the surging Xiang River with a splash. On the shore, Luo Dagang watched through his binoculars as Li Xingyuan jumped into the Xiang River with a box strapped to it and sank, stamping his feet in regret.

Well, there's no way to capture Li Xingyuan alive now.

Although the Heaven and Earth Society is not good at fighting tough battles, it performs quite well in battles where it is winning.

Li Yantong, with his troops, relentlessly surrounded over six thousand Qing soldiers and local militia on both banks of the Xiang River, making it difficult for the leaderless Qing army to break out.

The Qing army organized eight or nine breakout attempts, large and small, but all failed.

Even though Generals Liu Changqing and Sun Yingzhao personally led their personal guards to break through the encirclement, they were easily driven back to the riverbank by Li Qi's Second Battalion and Xie Bin's Third Battalion, respectively.

Even Liu Changqing was hit and killed by the iron pellets fired from the mountain-splitting cannon.

Seeing that the personal guards of the two generals had been easily defeated by the short-haired rebels, and that one of the generals had been killed on the spot, the Qing army had no hope of breaking out.

The Qing army gradually laid down their weapons and begged for surrender to Luo Dagang in large numbers.

From then on, Li Xingyuan's main force of the Qing army in southern Hunan was annihilated, Li Xingyuan died in the Xiang River, and Liu Changqing was killed in a failed breakout attempt.

The situation in southern Hunan was hopeless, and the Taiping Army's entry into Hunan was a foregone conclusion.

Zuo Jun often captured Qing soldiers, but this was the first time he had captured nearly 6,000 Qing soldiers at once.

Luo Dagang tied up the prisoners and had the local villagers help identify the laborers in the group.

Luo Dagang did not make things difficult for the ordinary laborers, except for the labor leader and the head laborer. After verifying that they were indeed laborers and not soldiers or militiamen in disguise, he released them. Before they left, he gave them three liters of rice and one qian of silver as travel expenses so that they could return to their hometowns.

Zuo Jun not only released them, but also gave them travel expenses.

This greatly surprised the laborers, who were used to losing a hundred coins for every day they worked, and they thought they were dreaming.

There were four types of conscripted laborers in the Qing Dynasty.

These were respectively: canal transport laborers, river maintenance workers, wartime military laborers, and post station grooms.

The civilian laborers captured by Luo Dagang were among the worst-treated wartime laborers, who not only had to provide their own food and travel expenses, but also faced danger.

Generally speaking, soldiers and laborers in wartime are required to prepare five days' worth of rations. Although the government promises to provide reimbursement after the war, it is only a promise. Delays, withholdings, or even non-payment are common occurrences.

The folk saying that soldiers carried their own coffins to carry grain is not an exaggeration, as the mortality rate of soldiers during wartime has always been very high.

Not only because the war was urgent and there were not enough soldiers and militia, but also because civilian laborers were often used as cannon fodder, resulting in a high casualty rate among civilian laborers.

More often than not, laborers either died from overwork, starvation, or torture.

In reality, being able to lose a hundred coins a day is considered lucky.

The various pretexts used by the clerks and officials to exploit the laborers included: boat repair fees, equipment fees, exemption from whipping (paying money to avoid being whipped by the supervisor), and funeral expenses (prepayment for shrouding the body after death; nominally an advance payment, but in reality, it was outright robbery, and the surviving laborers dared not ask for the money back), and so on.

A laborer who is required to work for a month must pay the equivalent of selling half an acre of paddy field just to survive.

Those who were conscripted were essentially self-funded slaves with no security whatsoever. The Qing government exploited the laborers so severely that deaths, escapes, and even mutinies among them became commonplace.

Therefore, even if the quota of husbands was filled before the Qing army set out, it was still necessary to constantly recruit new husbands along the way to replenish the ranks. If the quota was not filled, then refugees and beggars would be recruited to make up the numbers.

Having won the favor of the laborers, Luo Dagang took the opportunity to inquire about the situation in Lingling City from the laborers conscripted from Yongzhou Prefecture.

Having survived and received money and grain, the laborers of Lingling City told Luo Dagang what they knew.

Luo Dagang learned from these laborers that there were not many soldiers and militias in Lingling, the capital of Yongzhou Prefecture. Most of the soldiers and militias in Yongzhou Prefecture had already been brought out by Li Xingyuan.

Currently, the only regular troops in Lingling City are the thousand Sichuan soldiers under General Yu Wanqing of the Northern Sichuan Garrison, one or two hundred local Yongzhou Garrison Green Standard Army soldiers, and four or five hundred militia under Prefect Huang Wenchen of Yongzhou.

Yu Wanqing's Sichuan army was a guest army with very poor discipline. They often indulged in drinking, gambling, prostitution, and smoking in Lingling City, as well as vandalism, theft, arson, and other illegal activities, causing great suffering to the people of Lingling City.

The relationship between the prefect of Yongzhou and Yu Wanqing was very strained.

In conclusion, the defenses of Lingling, the capital of Yongzhou Prefecture, are currently very weak.

"Vice Commander Luo, Lingling City is undefended. This is a golden opportunity to attack and capture it! We can seize the opportunity and take Lingling City in one fell swoop! Establishing a foothold in Lingling City would be a tremendous achievement!"

Upon learning from the laborers that Lingling City was poorly defended, Chen Shiqing was very excited and suggested that Luo Dagang send troops directly to take Lingling City of Yongzhou Prefecture.

"Yes, Commander Luo! Opportunity knocks but once!" Li Yantong was overjoyed after gaining an advantage in the Battle of Huangsha Pass. In the past, he wouldn't have dared to attack Dong'an County, which was only 60 or 70 miles north of Huangsha Pass, let alone Yongzhou Prefecture.

Li Yantong's confidence in attacking Lingling, the capital of Yongzhou Prefecture, stemmed from the more than two thousand brave and well-equipped soldiers of the Left Army brought by Luo Dagang.

Luo Dagang's two thousand-plus men, plus Li Yantong's two thousand-plus men.

Having just decisively defeated the government army and killed the imperial envoy and general, their morale was extremely high. If they could gather a few thousand more members of the Heaven and Earth Society from southern Hunan to come and help them, taking over the long-coveted Lingling City would not be difficult.

(End of this chapter)