1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 225 Battle of Changsha

"The cultists' heavy artillery, though called heavy artillery, is actually only about 800 or 900 pounds at its heaviest. It's fine for attacking county towns and prefectural cities, but it would be very difficult to attack the provincial capital," Jiang Zhongyuan patiently explained to Bao Qibao.

"There are plenty of cannons weighing four or five thousand catties in Changsha. Why worry that cannons can't defeat the cult bandits? If the cult bandits occupy Miaogaofeng, we can just bombard them with the cannons until they are completely wiped out."

Commander Bao, I walked around the city wall a few times. There are too many red cannons on the west wall facing the Xiang River; it's such a waste.

The rebel navy was weak and would not launch an attack on Changsha from the Xiang River.

We could simply move a few cannons from the west wall to Tianxin Pavilion to attack Miaogaofeng. That way, even if the rebels occupied Miaogaofeng, it wouldn't be of much use.

Jiang Zhongyuan served under Ulantai, the Guangdong military commander, when he fought in Guangxi last year. The heavy artillery currently possessed by the Taiping Army all originated from Ulantai's Guangdong artillery battalion.

Jiang Zhongyuan, a gunner from the Guangdong Artillery Battalion, not only saw it, but also touched it.

Undeniably, the cannons of the Guangdong artillery battalion were indeed good cannons, but compared to the heavy cannons weighing two or three thousand catties or more that were equipped in Changsha, the cannons equipped by the Taiping Army were not up to par.

"I almost forgot about that," Bao Qibao said, rubbing his forehead. "I'll go make arrangements right away and send some cannons to the vicinity of Tianxin Pavilion. I'll make sure those cult bandits on Shangmiao Peak never return!"

After speaking, Bao Qibao set about making the arrangements.

With the Taiping army approaching Changsha and under the dual pressure of Luo Bingzhang, the repair work on the city walls of Changsha progressed very smoothly.

Since the city wall belongs to the public, there is relatively little resistance to its repair.

As for demolishing the private shops, houses, and sheds outside the city, the resistance they faced was much greater than that for repairing the city walls.

It goes without saying that the shacks where ordinary people live are no problem. If there are troublemakers who are unwilling to demolish, we can just beat them until they are scared, maimed, or even killed before demolishing them.

But it wasn't just ordinary people who opposed the demolition of houses outside the city; the gentry of Changsha also did.

Many Changsha gentry owned properties outside the city and possessed a large number of real estates.

The government dared not treat these gentry in the same brutal manner they would treat ordinary people.

Faced with the widespread opposition from the Changsha gentry, Luo Bingzhang was filled with hatred and extreme annoyance at these Changsha gentry who disregarded the overall situation.

He had no choice but to settle for second best and organize manpower to build an earthen wall outside the city to defend against the enemy, creating a buffer zone outside the city to delay the Taiping army's attack on the city.

Soon, however, Luo Bingzhang no longer had to worry about the opposition from the Changsha gentry to the demolition of the tall houses outside the city.

Xiao Chaogui led a group of famous generals from the Western Palace of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, including Lin Fengxiang, Zeng Shuiyuan, and Li Kaifang. They did not linger in battles along the way, and did not even bother to attack Xiangtan County on the banks of the Xiang River. They led three thousand of the most elite regular troops from the Western Palace and sailed straight to Changsha, the capital of Hunan Province.

To ensure the surprise attack would be highly effective, Xiao Chaogui dispatched all the Western Palace cavalry accompanying him.

He gave a death order to the more than one hundred cavalrymen of the Western Palace to pursue and annihilate all Qing scouts monitoring the Western Palace, so as to prevent them from sneaking back to Changsha to report the situation.

The cavalry of the Western Palace spared no effort in pursuing and annihilating the Qing scouts who were monitoring the movements of the Western Palace troops.

Faced with the sudden pursuit by the Western Palace cavalry, the Qing scouts were caught off guard and suffered heavy losses, with almost the entire army wiped out.

The only surviving Qing scout, severely wounded and covered in blood, rushed into Changsha and informed the soldiers and civilians of the city that the Taiping army's vanguard was heading straight for Changsha, disregarding Xiangtan County.

Upon learning that the Taiping army's vanguard had arrived, Luo Bingzhang had no time to argue with the ignorant gentry of Changsha. He hurriedly gathered the soldiers and civilians outside Changsha into the city and immediately imposed martial law on the entire city to prevent Taiping spies from infiltrating.

Xiao Chaogui disembarked from the boat and boarded the sedan chair five miles away from the south wall of Changsha.

At this time, Xiao Chaogui was unaware that Changsha had been placed under martial law. Before boarding his Western King's yellow sedan chair, eager to make a name for himself and gain recognition, Xiao Chaogui impatiently urged Zeng Shuiyuan, who was already wearing Green Standard Army uniform, to "Attack the city quickly. Don't delay and miss the opportunity. If we wait any longer and the Qing demons close the city gates, Changsha will be much harder to capture."

"Yes, Your Highness!"

Xiao Chaogui was in a hurry, and Zeng Shuiyuan didn't even have time to find a guide. Following the example of the Northern Palace's surprise attack on Luorong County, he led more than 400 Western Palace soldiers disguised as Green Standard Army soldiers and hurriedly headed towards Huangdao Gate, which was the closest gate to them.

Xiao Chaogui and Zeng Shuiyuan's idea was good, but they only learned a little bit of the basics of Zuo Jun's night raid on Luorong County, and the whole operation was too hasty and crude.

Peng Gang put in a lot of effort to ensure the success of the night raid on Luorong County, paying meticulous attention to every detail.

The members of the Green Standard Army disguised as Qing soldiers during the night raid on Luorong County were prisoners of war from the Guizhou Qingjiang Army. They not only had all the necessary identification tokens, but they also carefully forged Xiang Rong's transfer order. The number of them was also strictly controlled to be in the dozens.

Zeng Shuiyuan not only disguised himself as a veteran of the Taiping Heavenly Court in Guangxi to serve as a Hunan Green Standard Army soldier, but also led about four hundred men straight to Huangdaomen on the south wall of Changsha in broad daylight, completely assuming that the Qing army in Changsha was a fool. The Qing army may have been timid and afraid of losing their lives, but they were not stupid.

Before Zeng Shuiyuan and his entourage even got close, Hunan Governor Bao Qibao, who was personally overseeing Huangdaomen, saw through their disguise at a glance.

He had already mobilized all the Green Standard Army soldiers he could from Changsha. It was impossible for there to be an entire battalion of Green Standard Army soldiers, numbering over four hundred, outside Changsha now.

Moreover, the colors of these "Green Standard Army soldiers'" uniforms were clearly not those of the Changsha Brigade Green Standard Army, and the Changsha Brigade Green Standard Army soldiers were never so orderly when marching.

Bao Qibao ordered the soldiers on the city wall to practice bravery and not to fire without his command, intending to let Zeng Shuiyuan and his group get closer before attacking.

With the Huangdaomen city gate closed and the all-powerful City God protecting them, the Qing soldiers near the south wall, who were well-trained and not afraid of the Taiping Army approaching the city gate, unusually carried out Bao Qibao's order and refrained from firing their cannons from a distance.

As Zeng Shuiyuan drew closer to the Yellow Gate, he could clearly see that it was closed, and his heart sank.

However, the Qing troops on the city wall did not fire at them, which fueled Zeng Shuiyuan's wishful thinking.

Zeng Shuiyuan thought that the Qing army garrison in Changsha had not seen through his disguise, otherwise, given the Qing army's nature, they would have opened fire long ago.

With this in mind, Zeng Shuiyuan continued to advance towards Huangdaomen, intending to walk to the moat and knock on the gate to trick the city gate into opening by pretending to be a defeated soldier from Xiangtan. He had long since ignored the fact that the fierce soldiers of the Western Palace behind him did not look like defeated soldiers at all.

Before Zeng Shuiyuan could even speak as he approached the moat, the Qing soldiers on the city wall shouted, "Kill the cultists!"

Before the shouts had even faded, the Qing soldiers on the city wall unleashed a barrage of guns, cannons, and crossbows.

A hail of bullets swept towards the more than four hundred Taiping Army soldiers in the Western Palace.

"Oh no! The Qing demons have seen through us! Retreat!"

Zeng Shuiyuan was terrified. He quickly raised his shield to protect himself and retreated to the houses behind him to avoid the Qing army's artillery fire.

Even though Zeng Shuiyuan and the others reacted very quickly, they couldn't outrun the artillery shells.

Fifty or sixty elite soldiers from the Western Palace still lost their lives before Huangdao Gate.

After the Taiping army was driven back, the Qing soldiers and warriors near Huangdaomen were greatly encouraged and shouted in celebration, thanking the City God, the Eastern Peak Emperor, and the Jade Emperor for their protection.

Zeng Shuiyuan's surprise attack on Changsha failed, and he lost fifty or sixty elite soldiers of the Western Palace.

Inside the sedan chair of the Western King, Xiao Chaogui felt both heartache and deep regret.

Having failed in their surprise attack, Changsha had to find another way to conquer it.

Xiao Chaogui commanded his troops to clear out the scattered Qing soldiers outside Changsha and quickly took control of the strategic high points outside the south wall of Changsha.

Bao Qibao heeded Jiang Zhongyuan's advice and has brought the Qing troops outside the city into Changsha.

The Western Palace troops carried out their combat missions very smoothly during this phase.

Around sunset, the Western Palace troops had completely taken control of the Jinji Temple, Hongen Temple, Jingang Temple, and Nanmen Academy outside the south wall, surrounding Changsha from the south and announcing that tens of thousands of Taiping Heavenly Kingdom soldiers had surrounded Changsha.

After nightfall, Xiao Chaogui did not rest. He sent skilled archers to shoot surrender letters into Changsha city, demanding that the Qing civil and military officials in Changsha see the situation clearly, surrender the city quickly, and offered high-ranking officials of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom as a lure.

There were many high-ranking officials from Hunan in Changsha. They were already in high positions, so why would they care about the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom official positions promised to them by Xiao Chaogui?

Xiao Chaogui's attempts to persuade them to surrender naturally yielded no results.

Xiao Chaogui was furious. Under the cover of the garrison outside the south wall, he fired cannons at the Qing soldiers and militia on the south wall through the gaps in the residential walls to cover the attacking troops filling the moat and launching an assault.

However, bags filled with chaff and soil had been placed on the city walls in advance, which were very effective in blocking cannonballs and bullets.

The gunners and artillerymen in the West Palace fired from a low position onto a high one. Although the volley of gunfire was very lively and the scene was intimidating, it did not kill many Qing soldiers.

On the contrary, the Qing troops on the city wall, with their superior position, were able to launch a counterattack that made it extremely difficult for the gunners in the western palace to fight back.

　Update from June 24th
　　
　
(End of this chapter)