Chapter 152: Hunan Army's Defeat
Chapter 152: Hunan Army's Defeat
Yinghan sent people to persuade Li Qinbang to surrender. Li Qinbang agreed to accept the amnesty and help him lure and capture Zhang Lexing. They communicated with each other through their trusted subordinates.
After the contact was made and the plan was implemented, Yinghan came to Li Qinbang's camp with his guards. When he first met Li Qinbang, he looked so depressed.
Yinghan understood that anyone who became a traitor would feel bad. It seemed that Li Qinbang still had some loyalty in his heart, but he had to betray Zhang Lexing in order to save his life.
He didn't know that the confidant sent by Li Qinbang to ask him to participate in the arrest of Zhang Lexing was arrested by Zhang Lexing and Tian Xing as soon as he left the camp. Then Zhang Lexing's personal soldiers went to find him with Li Qinbang's badge and warrant.
When he arrived with his guards, five hundred of Li Qinbang's cronies had already been killed in the camp, and the atmosphere was bloody.
After all, among the two thousand Blue Flag soldiers, many were loyal to Zhang Lexing, and they were forced to rebel with Li Qinbang.
After Tian Xing personally led the Detective Department's Second Operations Team to capture more than a dozen of Li Qinbang's personal guards, Zhang Lexing had already taken control of the Blue Flag situation without the help of the 500 sharpshooters brought by Tian Xing.
When Tian Xing followed Zhang Zhidong's plan and ordered the massacre of Li Qinbang's loyal followers who had surrendered, Zhang Lexing acquiesced, although he couldn't bear it. However, he promised to spare Li Qinbang's life if he cooperated with him.
Being held hostage by a top master, and not knowing whether Zhang Lexing would keep his word and spare him, it would be strange if Li Qinbang's face looked good.
Yinghan was thinking about something else. He was willing to take the risk and bravely enter Li Qinbang's Blue Flag Camp to participate in trapping Zhang Lexing. If he succeeded, it would be a great achievement.
Of course, in reality, if Li Qinbang was pretending to surrender, his men were all strong men among the Bannermen. As long as they held on for a few minutes, his cavalrymen not far away would have already saddled their horses, with their swords drawn, and would arrive quickly.
In fact, I didn't take any big risk, the main thing was that the idea of recruiting was a good one.
Humph, I am a noble bannerman, both intelligent and brave. I saw that Shao Quanzhong was also a prefect, and he actually climbed step by step to the high position of Taotai. Now I am actually ranked below Shao Quanzhong. How can this be possible?
This time I will let you see who owns the Qing Dynasty and what it means that people of bannerman bloodline are given priority in promotion.
Zhang Lexing's head is not as valuable as those of Chen Yucheng and Yang Fuqing. Even if you, Shao Quanzhong, capture Zhang Lexing, you may not be promoted.
If I catch him, I will definitely be promoted, maybe several levels, maybe even to the position of Censor, which is better than a crappy Taotai like you.
Now you see, Zhang Lexing was successfully captured, and my achievement is secure.
After receiving the news from Yinghan, Senggelinqin was overjoyed. After fighting for several years, he finally succeeded in capturing his old rival.
Humph, once you become a thief, you can never truly repent. Not only will you be tortured to death, your son will be tortured to death, and even the three thousand bandits who surrendered and the two thousand subordinates of the recruited lackey will be beheaded.
Today I am going to kill a lot of people to warn these rebellious Han people. Wouldn't it be better to be a good citizen of the Qing Dynasty? If you serve us masters well, we may raise the flag for you and grant you the status of a bondservant.
Senggelinqin kept calling the Qing Dynasty "our Great Qing", forgetting that he was a descendant of Genghis Khan...
Under Senggelinqin's urging, his men marched a hundred miles a day, doubling their speed, and caught up with the Nian Army in a day and a half.
Seeing Yinghan coming forward to greet Daqian himself, the monk king nodded arrogantly, "I will report your contribution truthfully, bring Zhang Lexing here!"
Zhang Lexing was pushed and shoved over, Senggelinqin pointed his whip at him and laughed loudly towards the sky.
He laughed for a long time, then suddenly his expression became kind, "I appreciate your ability. If you can persuade the whole army to rebel, I can spare your life."
Zhang Lexing looked at Senggelinqin, smiling, "I finally meet you. We should finally settle our grievances."
Senggelinqin felt something was wrong when he heard this, but when he saw Zhang Lexing bending down, he thought that Zhang Lexing was going to kowtow to him. He felt very proud and was in the best mood of his life.
Zhang Lexing suddenly fell to the ground, and the two "Blue Flag soldiers of the Nian Army who surrendered to him" who were escorting him also fell to the ground.
Countless gun barrels suddenly appeared in Li Qinbang's tent behind him. With a "bang", countless blood holes suddenly appeared on Senggelinqin's body while he was riding on the horse, and he fell off the horse in disbelief.
One of the two white jade pillars that supported the Qing Dynasty, the monk king who roamed the world, was hit by twenty bullets and died.
The twenty bullets were fired by the Xingzi Camp gunners brought by Tian Xing. In order to ensure the success of the sniper, twenty people were used to fire at the same time. In fact, the gunners were hiding in the nearest tent, which was only a few dozen meters away. Less than twenty people were needed, but the monk king was too important, so several times the insurance was added.
These twenty people were the sharpshooters under Tian Xing. They had practiced their skills very hard and were not much different from Song Laosan. Only one gunshot was heard when twenty people fired at the same time.
The sound of gunfire was an order, and then 480 people fired at the same time. The cavalry behind Senggelinqin suddenly became sparse, with more than 300 people falling to the ground in one wave.
This is because there are so many people, and it is inevitable that some aiming is repeated. Most of the quick shots actually hit the target.
The generals and personal soldiers following Senggelinqin were instantly killed, and the remaining ordinary Mongolian soldiers were suddenly at a loss.
Fifteen hundred blue flag soldiers rushed out of the camp, holding goose-feather knives. Zhang Lexing jumped up and laughed, "Kill!"
Senggelinqin brought 10,000 Mongolian cavalrymen with him. It was impossible for them to swarm around him. The vanguard was only 2,000 people.
The main general was killed, and more than 300 people were killed again, and chaos immediately broke out.
The small leaders shouted and wanted to reorganize the troops to attack the 1,500 people, but they saw Zhang Lexing and two bodyguards retreating, and the 500-man quick-gun team had already fired the second volley.
More than 300 people were brought down.
Driven by Senggelinqin, the Mongolian soldiers doubled their speed and covered a hundred miles a day. They were extremely tired and at the end of their strength. They were suddenly attacked and suffered thirty percent casualties. Finally, their morale collapsed and they turned around and fled.
As for the Nian Army, they had a lot of horses, mules, and donkeys, but almost no cavalry. If the Mongolian cavalry wanted to escape, they would not be able to catch up.
The ordinary soldier with the knife knew what was happening and just pretended to chase him without actually doing so.
However, the five hundred musketeers from the Xingzi Battalion, wearing red scarves and dressed as Nian Army soldiers, fired slowly at the rate of three shots per minute. Their bullets chased the fleeing Mongolian soldiers and escorted them all the way to a place two miles away.
No one paid attention to Yinghan, who was "lucky" enough not to be shot. He jumped onto an ownerless warhorse, crouched down and ran away, following the Mongolian soldiers.
Immediately, the two thousand militia troops stationed not far from him were attacked by Zhang Lexing's three thousand troops, the fifteen hundred blue flag soldiers and the five hundred fake blue flag army quick-gun troops.
The last elite troops of the 4,500 main forces of the Nian Army, plus 500 sharpshooters from the Xingzi Camp, attacked the 2,000 militiamen who had lost their commander. The outcome was no surprise: more than 800 of the militiamen were killed and the army was routed.
Yinghan and the Mongolian soldiers fled five miles and encountered the Mongolian center army of 5,000 soldiers. The Mongolian center army had been attacking for two days and was resting, so they were unable to attack.
By the time Yinghan had reorganized his troops and recovered his strength, he had gathered 3,000 rear troops. When more than 9,000 people came to look for the Nian Army, it was already the next day, and the 4,500 Nian Army had disappeared without a trace.
Three days later, the imperial court simultaneously received two urgent battle reports from a distance of 800 miles.
The Huai Army, under the order of the monk king, blocked the Nian Army led by Zhang Lexing who was fleeing westward to Shaanxi and trying to join forces with the Guangdong bandit Chen Decai between Tongbai and Xuchang.
The bandit leader Zhang Lexing was killed and two thousand people were beheaded. The remaining Nian troops were scattered and fled into the countryside. The main force of the Nian army had disappeared as a whole.
The Huai Army suffered minor losses in this battle, with casualties totaling less than 500, which did not affect its combat effectiveness.
The governor of Suzhou, Sartu Yinghan, fell into a trap set by Li Qinbang, a general of the Nian Army and the commander of the Blue Flag Army. His two thousand militiamen were defeated, and the Mongolian vanguard lost seven hundred soldiers. Senggelinqin was unfortunately killed in the battle.
The court's response was delayed because it was dealing with another piece of unfortunate news.
Zeng Guofan personally led the Hunan Army to besiege Nanjing. Li Xiucheng was ordered to return to support from the front lines of Ningbo, Shanghai, Hangzhou and Quzhou. He personally led 200,000 Taiping troops and fought fiercely with the Hunan Army at Yuhuatai.
The two sides fought fiercely for forty-four days, and the Hunan Army suffered a crushing defeat, losing one-third of its troops, and Zeng Guoquan was seriously injured.
Zeng Guofan wrote in a memorial that “my heart is worn out and my courage is broken” and requested urgent tactical guidance.
(End of this chapter)