1848 Great Qing Charcoal Burners

Chapter 330 Times have changed
Although among the five major geographical regions of Hubei, the short-haired shogunate occupies most of southeastern and northeastern Hubei and a small part of the Jianghan Plain.

However, the Qing government still maintained two complete geographical regions: northwestern Hubei centered on Xiangyang and southwestern Hubei centered on Yichang.

Many of Hubei's strong soldiers came from places like Yunyang in northwestern Hubei. Some time ago, many landlords and militias from Hanyang Prefecture also fled to Xiangyang, the temporary provincial capital of Hubei, under the siege of the short-haired rebels.

After more than half a year, Hubei Governor Chong Lun, Hubei Commander Bao Qibao, and Hubei Assistant Militia Leader Luo Raodian, among others, purged the Hubei Green Standard Army and organized militias.

They had some usable soldiers at their disposal.

Hunan and Hubei are an inseparable whole; if one part is lost, the other will suffer. This is a principle that even if Chonglun, a Manchu of the Plain Yellow Banner, was so foolish as to be beyond comprehension, he did not understand.

Bao Qibao, who participated in the Battle of Changsha, and Luo Raodian, who was known as a capable official in Hunan, certainly understood.

Zhang Liangji hoped that Hubei Province could put pressure on Hanyang.

“What Shi Qing said is very true. I will write to Governor Chong and Su Xi and ask them to send troops to Hanyang.” Luo Bingzhang said, his hands trembling as he turned the prayer beads in his hand.

Although the rank of the governor-general in the Qing Dynasty was higher than that of the governor.

In official correspondence and ceremonial occasions, the governor-general held a higher status than the provincial governor.

When they meet, the governor must bow to the viceroy, and when they submit a joint memorial, the viceroy usually takes the lead.

However, the relationship between the governor-general and the provincial governor was not strictly hierarchical, but rather a cooperative and restrictive relationship based on the principle of checks and balances. The provincial governor was not entirely subordinate to the governor-general.

This was a deliberate act by the Qing emperors to strengthen central authority and prevent local governors from becoming too powerful.

The governor-general could exert influence over the governor, influence the governor's decisions, and reach a consensus through negotiation, but usually could not directly order the governor.

Therefore, Luo Bingzhang was asking Hubei Governor Chonglun to send troops, rather than directly ordering Chonglun to send troops.

The combination of governors-general and governors in the Qing Dynasty generally took three forms.

One type is a strong governor-general and a weak provincial governor; another is a weak governor-general and a strong provincial governor; and the last type is a situation where the governor-general and the provincial governor are evenly matched.

The current situation in the Hunan region is characterized by a strong governor-general and a weak provincial governor.

Zhang Liangji, the governor of Hunan, was a newly promoted official from Xinjiang with little experience, while Chonglun was a typical incompetent member of the Eight Banners. Neither of them could challenge the prestige and influence that Luo Bingzhang had accumulated in the Hunan region after the Battle of Changsha.

If Luo Bingzhang can suppress these two governors, and he writes to Chonglun to coordinate the deployment of Hubei's military forces to pressure the short-haired rebels, Chonglun will most likely agree.

The current combination of a strong governor-general and a weak provincial governor in the Hunan region is highly efficient and relatively ideal, but it is a governor-general and provincial governor structure that the emperor does not approve of.

The situation of a weak governor-general and a strong provincial governor is relatively rare nowadays. For example, Yuan Shikai, the governor of Shandong, was a particularly rare example of a powerful provincial governor.

The equal power between the governors-general and governors represents the lowest level of administrative efficiency, with the most severe internal friction. It essentially signifies discord between the governors-general and governors, and was mainly concentrated in the late Qing Dynasty when the situation in the region gradually spiraled out of control.

In a system where the governor-general is strong and the provincial governor is weak, or vice versa, even if the two sides are at odds, the confrontation between the governor-general and the provincial governor is mostly a covert struggle. At most, they submit secret memorials to the emperor to report on each other, and they outwardly comply but inwardly defy each other.

When the governors and viceroys are evenly matched, their discord becomes an open and public struggle.

Later, Zeng Guofan, the Viceroy of Liangjiang, and Shen Baozhen, the Governor of Jiangxi, broke off relations over the dispute over the likin tax revenue in Jiangxi to fund the army, resulting in a public feud that lasted for several years.

"Your Excellency, Governor-General, Duanmao has reinforced Yuezhou Prefecture's capital, Baling. In Jiangxi, could we ask Sai Zhongtang to send troops to Jiujiang Prefecture to capture Dehua and Hukou, the capitals of Jiujiang Prefecture, and dredge the Yangtze River waterway?" Changsha Prefect Zhu Sunyi suggested.

Peng Gang's initiative to reinforce Baling objectively fulfilled Sai Shang'a's request for Hunan to contain the short-sighted forces in the three towns of Wuhan.

The situation suddenly became delicate. Now, the Hunan authorities were eager for Sai Shang'a from Jiangxi to send troops to Jiujiang to launch a multi-pronged attack on the short-haired rebels in the three towns of Wuhan.

Luo Bingzhang and Zhang Liangji exchanged a glance and nodded in tacit agreement.

The vast and misty Dongting Lake stretches for eight hundred miles.

The morning mist of early summer shrouded the waters around the hillside of Huxinzhou Island like a light veil.

Due to the recent frequent activities of the short-haired naval forces on Dongting Lake, Li Delin, the deputy commander of the Dongting Naval Force, was well aware of the true nature of the Dongting Naval Force's Green Standard Army naval forces.

Li Delin dared not engage in a direct confrontation with the short-haired navy in Dongting Lake. Instead, he obeyed the orders of Xiang Rong and He Chun and made the decision to avoid battle and protect the ships and personnel. He gathered all the ships and personnel of the Dongting naval force to Pianshan Island in the center of Dongting Lake.

Pianshan is a large island in the southeast of Junshan, the most famous island in Dongting Lake, and is adjacent to the mainland.

Like Junshan Island, after a long period of natural siltation and human reclamation, this area has become polder land and no longer resembles the original lake island.

But in the 1850s, it was still an island in the middle of a lake.

When Hunan Governor Xiang Rong and General He Chun first established the Yuezhou Camp, they took a liking to Pianshan Island, which was adjacent to the mainland, and drove away the residents of Pianshan Island who made a living by farming and fishing around the lake.

They seized their houses and quickly transformed the area into a naval base for the Dongting Army, protecting the nearby waters while maintaining contact between the Yuezhou camp on the shore and the supply lines to Changsha.

Li Delin, the deputy commander of the Dongting Naval Force, stood on his ship, his hand on his goose-wing sword, his gaze sweeping over the densely packed warships gathered around him.

All sorts of boats, large and small, lined up end to end, almost filling the shallow waters near Pianshan Water Camp, huddled together like a herd of frightened livestock.

This was a strategy Li Delin had no choice but to implement to avoid battle and save his ships and people. He hoped that by taking advantage of the shallow waters near the camp and the cannons on the hillside, he could prevent the short-haired Mao's large ships and ghost ships (paddle steamers) from operating.

"Everyone, be on your guard! Load the cannons with solid shot, and make sure the musketeers have enough ammunition. If the Taiping rebels dare to attack with small boats, let them all drown!"

Li Delin gave orders to the busy Dongting Lake naval officers.

As Li Delin was giving instructions, a low, mechanical roar came from afar, like muffled thunder rolling across a lake.

"not good!"

A sharp-eyed sailor let out a piercing scream, pointing at the five steam paddle steamers that were cutting through the waves and getting closer and closer to them.

"Ghost ships! More ghost ships! Five of them! A full five ghost ships!"

Since the opening of the five ports, a large number of Western ships have flooded into the ports.

The officers and soldiers of the Green Standard Army's naval forces along the southern coast had seen Western steamships to varying degrees, and after seeing them many times, they were no longer so afraid.

As for the inland regions, even a high-ranking official like Hu Linyi fell ill from the melancholy of seeing two Western steamships traveling swiftly on the Yangtze River for the first time. He vomited blood on his way home and died of depression. This was even more true for ordinary people.

In the first few days after the steamships arrived in the three towns of Wuhan, they frightened five or six old men to death, two of whom were still students.

However, Peng Gang handled the matter quietly, and it did not have a significant impact.

Just like someone who has been confined to darkness and has not been exposed to light for a long time, it is inevitable that they will feel somewhat uncomfortable when they are first exposed to strong light.

These ordinary Green Standard Army sailors watched helplessly as the paddle steamer drew ever closer, its wheels spinning rapidly with terrifying noise, its horn blaring intermittently, and its massive smokestacks billowing thick black smoke. In an instant, chaos ensued.

Some even believe that those ghost ships are not ships, but ghosts that have come to earth from the underworld, and that what comes out of the chimneys is not smoke, but souls.

Upon hearing this, Li Delin's heart clenched. He rushed to the bow of the ship and raised his telescope.

Five colossal vessels billowing black smoke formed a menacing battle line and reappeared in the deep water.

This time, however, the ghost ships did not rush towards us as usual. Instead, they slowly came to a stop a mile away, their massive hulls resting steadily on the lake surface.

A cold silence is more suffocating than a direct, reckless charge.

Seeing this situation, Li Delin became increasingly uneasy.

"They...they stopped?" asked the captain beside Li Delin, puzzled.

Li Delin's pupils suddenly contracted. He realized something and roared, "Damn it! It's artillery fire! They're going to shell us! Spread out! Take cover!"

But his orders seemed so weak and ineffective in the crowded and malfunctioning ship formation that they were difficult to convey and implement.

Before he could finish speaking, a paddle steamer opposite him suddenly spewed out intense flames and thick smoke from its side!

Boom!

With a deafening roar, a scorching shell, accompanied by a teeth-grinding shriek, pierced the sky, swept over their heads, and landed precisely on the artillery platform of the Pianshan Water Camp.

Immediately afterwards, the second, the third... the five paddle steamers opened fire in succession, and the shells rained down on the naval camp's watchtowers, barracks, gunpowder magazines, and any other places where coastal defenses could be deployed.

The explosions were continuous and deafening.

The Pianshan Water Camp was instantly thrown into chaos.

The Qing army gunners who tried to operate the coastal defense cannons had never seen such a sight before. They were so frightened that they fled in terror, leaving behind only an empty and devastated fortress.

Both the Qing troops on the ships and those in the Pianshan naval camp were completely stunned by this unimaginable long-range precision firepower, and were utterly unable to mount any effective counterattack. The Qing sailors who were lucky enough to survive desperately sought cover, trembling with fear. Although the ship carrying Li Delin, the deputy commander of Dongting, was not directly hit by the cannon fire because it was in shallow water, the huge columns of water kicked up by the shells landing near him continuously pounded the deck, causing the ship to rock violently.

He watched helplessly as his painstakingly built base was torn apart and destroyed inch by inch, his eyes bloodshot and his fists clenched so tightly they cracked, yet he was powerless to do anything about it.

Under the cover of this fierce and precise artillery fire, the Northern Palace Navy unleashed its true killing move!

Two or three hundred sampans and small boats with very shallow drafts emerged from behind the massive paddle steamer like mother fish giving birth!

Like nimble hunting dogs, taking advantage of the smoke and fire, and the chaos of the Dongting naval forces, they swiftly pounced on the base of the Pianshan naval camp.

Commander Chen Miao, holding a Colt revolver already loaded with lead bullets and a percussion cap, stood at the bow of the first speedboat and led the charge towards the Qing army's naval base at Paping Mountain: "Brothers, now is the time to kill the enemy and make meritorious contributions! Follow me to seize the camp!"

To Chen Miao's left and right were more than twenty soldiers from the Northern Palace, all carrying Colt pistols and slung knives at their waists.

These twenty-odd pistolmen were not naval soldiers, but rather twenty-odd personal guards, lent by Peng Gang to Chen Miao, who were skilled in swimming and not prone to seasickness, to serve as the vanguard in this attack on the Pianshan naval camp.

"Kill! Kill! Kill!"

The soldiers of the Northern Palace who were fighting roared with fury and rowed with all their might. The boats rushed like arrows towards the ruins of the pier and the beach gun emplacements.

"Hold on! Fire arrows! Fire guns! Open fire!"

Having retreated in disarray to the pier on the shore, Li Delin shouted hoarsely as he directed the remaining soldiers around him to fire arrows and guns, attempting to repel the relentless Northern Palace troops who were almost catching up with them.

Upon receiving the order, the guards were about to turn around and fire their guns and arrows when Chen Miao and more than twenty pistolmen, who were at the forefront, showed no fear. They raised their pistols and emptied their magazines at the Qing soldiers a dozen paces away, firing all six bullets in one go.

Twenty-odd men managed to unleash the firepower that would have taken hundreds of men firing in a volley. Before the Qing army's archers and musketeers could even raise their guns and fire their arrows, nearly half of them fell dead.

Li Delin saw it clearly, his mouth agape, unable to utter a word for a long time.

He simply couldn't understand how those short-haired men, wielding iron lumps, could kill his dozens of personal guards, whom he had painstakingly trained and nurtured with gold and silver, in the blink of an eye.

Seeing his own soldiers drop their weapons and kneel down in surrender, Li Delin's heart sank to the bottom of ice.

It's over, it's over.

All the talk of avoiding war to save the ships and people ultimately failed; the ships couldn't be saved, and the people couldn't be saved either.

An overwhelming sense of fear and despair welled up inside me.

As the deputy commander of the Dongting Naval Force, having lost his army and territory, how could he possibly live on in this world?

Even if a defeated general manages to escape, he will not escape death and will also bring trouble to his family.

Li Delin staggered back a few steps, his face pale and his eyes unfocused.

He suddenly let out a mournful cry that sounded like both crying and laughing, and abruptly drew the sword from his waist. The gleaming blade reflected Li Delin's despairing face and the chaotic Pianshanshui camp behind him.

Li Delin steeled his heart and, before the Northern Palace soldiers, who had already put away their guns and put on their waist knives, could rush forward, he swiftly slashed his neck with his sword.

Immediately, Li Delin's body convulsed and slowly collapsed to the ground, his eyes still wide open, staring at the smoke-filled sky, his eyes filled with resentment and fear.

Frustrated at failing to capture a high-ranking enemy general, Chen Miao stamped his feet in frustration, feeling it was a great pity.

Fifty or sixty elite soldiers of the Dongting Xieshui Camp were instantly wiped out, and the commander committed suicide. More and more Taiping soldiers have already climbed up to the Pianshan camp.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, the remaining Qing troops' will to resist completely collapsed.

Shouts of "We've surrendered! We've surrendered! We've surrendered!" rose and fell, accompanied by the constant clatter of weapons hitting the ground.

The battle to capture the Pianshan naval camp ended in less than half an hour, with 78 Qing soldiers killed, over 100 wounded, and more than 1,600 sailors surrendering and being captured.

More and more soldiers from the Northern Palace set foot in the Pianshan camp, either escorting prisoners, seizing ships, extinguishing fires, or cleaning up the battlefield and picking up weapons that had been scattered all over the place by the Qing army.

Pianshan Shuiying, the last stronghold of the Dongting Naval Force.

The only continuous waterway connecting Yuezhou Camp to the rear of Changsha was completely cut off by the naval forces of the Sixth Regiment of the Northern Palace, and the territory easily changed hands.

After settling matters at the Pianshan camp, Chen Miao took a small boat to Peng Gang's ship, the Jiangxia, to report the results of the battle to Peng Gang.

Peng Gang bought all six steamships from the Jardine Matheson & Co. and the Liming & Co. and renamed them after the counties that had completed land reform or were in the process of land reform.

The Jiangxia, which Peng Gang was traveling on, was originally the Alloy Huan of the Jardine Matheson & Co.

Of the six steam paddle steamers, five participated in the attack on the Qing army's Pianshan naval camp, except for Peng Gang's ship, which did not directly participate in the battle. They provided fire support for the landing troops.

The Jiangxia was steadily anchored in the deep water, with its two paddle wheels turning slowly to maintain the pressure of the boilers, while the black smokestacks emitted wisps of soot, like the breath of a giant beast at rest.

Approaching Jiangxia, Chen Miao strode briskly and with a high spirit, onto the deck of the Jiangxia.

Peng Gang and Luo Dagang were standing on the foredeck command platform, leaning against the railing, gazing at the Pianshan naval camp not far away.

Huang Bingxian, Zhang Ze, and several other staff officers stood around him, their faces beaming with barely suppressed joy.

The Dongting Xieshui Battalion was the only fully-fledged Green Standard Army naval force in Hunan Province.

Without the Dongting Water-Assisting Battalion, the Hunan authorities could only rely on the still-unformed Xiangyong Navy to fight against the Beidian Navy.

More importantly, with the loss of the Pianshan naval camp and its ships, Xiang Rong, He Chun, and others could no longer escape back to Changsha, the provincial capital, even if they wanted to use the Xiangjiang River.

The Northern Palace is one step closer to its goal of annihilating the Chu army and the Zhengan troops!
Huang Bingxian, Zhang Ze, and several other staff officers had thought that this operation would go smoothly. After all, since the Sixth Regiment was established, it had basically been suppressing the Qing naval forces in Dongting Lake, the Yangtze River, and the Xiang River, and had never suffered a defeat.

However, the fact that they captured the stronghold of the Dongting Naval Force in less than an hour and annihilated the entire Dongting Naval Force was somewhat beyond the expectations of the staff officers.

Chen Miao strode forward, knelt on one knee, clasped his hands in salute, and excitedly reported to Peng Gang: "Your Highness! Thanks to Your Highness's great fortune and ingenious strategy, the soldiers of our Sixth Regiment have wiped out the Qing army's Pianshan Water Camp!"

Our army suffered the loss of four men and the wounding of thirteen. We killed seventy-eight Qing soldiers and sailors from the Dongting Fleet, wounded over a hundred, and captured over sixteen hundred. The deputy commander of the Dongting Fleet, Li Delin, committed suicide out of fear of punishment! We captured two hundred and forty-seven ships of various sizes, and countless quantities of gunpowder, provisions, and weaponry! The Qing army's Dongting Fleet is now annihilated!

Chen Ajiu, the commander of the Sixth Regiment, is still studying at the Military Academy in Wuchang. Currently, Chen Miao is acting as the commander of the Sixth Regiment.

Chen Miao was understandably excited and thrilled to have achieved such a victory in his first battle as a regimental commander.

"Good!" Luo Dagang exclaimed with delight. He stepped forward and patted Chen Miao's shoulder heavily with his large, fan-like hand.

"Well done, Chen Miao! Well done! That was exhilarating! Hahaha! Your Highness, our navy has truly become a dragon in Dongting Lake now."

Due to the heavy casualties suffered in the Battle of Junshan, the Sixth Regiment not only temporarily replaced its commander.

He also specially dispatched military police to the Sixth Regiment to rectify military discipline. Many of Peng Gang's old brothers, who were former pirates and had joined the submarine force, were retired and assigned to peasant associations in Hanyang, Hanchuan, Huanggang and other places.

Many of the soldiers from the Sixth Regiment, who were originally from the Fujian and Chaozhou armies of the Qing Dynasty and were keen on doing business, were also dismissed and given other jobs.

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that the Sixth Regiment underwent a complete overhaul, with a large number of new recruits from Hubei Province joining the force.

Given that the Hubei recruits did not have a good reputation among the main Taiping Army forces, Luo Dagang was initially worried that the Sixth Regiment's combat strength would be greatly reduced after this turmoil.

His worries proved to be unnecessary; even during turbulent times, the Northern Navy was still able to easily defeat the Qing Dynasty's Green Standard Army navy.

All the generals' eyes were fixed intently on Peng Gang, awaiting his reaction.

Peng Gang turned around with a hearty smile on his face. He personally helped Chen Miao up and praised him generously, "Well done! You didn't let the first-term students down. The entire Sixth Regiment fought with their lives to achieve this resounding victory, which has enhanced the prestige of our Northern Palace Navy. Your contribution is immense. Write a report when you get back and submit it. All the soldiers of the Sixth Regiment who participated in the battle will be rewarded according to their merits!"

Although five steamships aided the battle, Peng Gang also borrowed more than twenty pistolmen from Chen Miao, which reduced the difficulty of storming the beach and capturing Pianshan Shuiying.

Peng Gang was still quite satisfied with the casualty ratio achieved.

Furthermore, the Sixth Regiment, having experienced turmoil and the transfer of a large number of officers, also needed the encouragement of a major victory and the encouragement of Peng Gang himself.

Looking at the ravaged Qing army naval camp in the distance and the densely packed ships of the Northern Palace on the lake, Luo Dagang felt a surge of pride: "Dongting Lake is now in our hands. Xiang Rong and He Chun's tens of thousands of troops have their supply lines cut off and their retreat is exhausted. Their annihilation is just around the corner!"

Xiang Rong had been their opponent since the time he was in the mountains, and they had fought each other many times in Wuxuan County.

Despite the repeated victories of the Northern Palace against the Chu army, the Chu army was simply too fast to be completely annihilated, and the Chu army commander Xiang Rong was never captured or killed.

Although Xiang Rong's record against Bei Dian was poor, compared to the other Qing army units, Xiang Rong could still be considered a formidable opponent.

After more than half a year of stalemate between Luo Dagang and Xiang Rong in Yuezhou, Luo Dagang felt it was time to settle things with Xiang Rong and make up for the regret of failing to annihilate the Chu army.

(End of this chapter)