Forty-eight years of Qianlong

Chapter 428
On June 54, [-]th year of Qianlong, there was heavy rain outside Hunchun City.

The siege war has entered No. 17 days, and the fortifications set up by the Qing army on the mountains on the east, south, and north sides of Hunchun City were reduced to ruins one after another amidst the rumbling guns of the Northern Navy.Amidst the smoke, the Beihai offensive troops appeared and disappeared from time to time.

The cannons on the Qing army's defense line no longer dared to show off their might.There are ramps and shelters behind all the artillery positions. When the Beihai Navy does not come up, they wait in the shelters. They will not be pushed out until the Beihai Sea is close to two miles. If you fire two or three artillery pieces in a hurry, you have to retreat immediately. Otherwise, the artillery shells of the Beihai Navy will have eyes, and a few shots can blow up the cannons to pieces.This has happened several times.

The rain made the trenches of the Qing army muddy and slippery. It was summer, but the temperature was below ten degrees.The rain-soaked helmet and foam studs became cold and heavy, but even so, no one dared to take them off; maybe at some point they would be able to stop a stray bullet from nowhere.

The heavy muskets were also cold to handle. In order to prevent the rain from wetting the matchlock and gunpowder pool, most of the Qing army only loaded the powder and fired hastily when the Northern Navy appeared in sight.All the musketeers hid the ox horn pots containing the gunpowder in their arms to keep them dry. If the supervisor team sent by the Chinese army found that someone's gunpowder could not be ignited, they would drag it down and beat the twenty army sticks.

Such weather affects archery.Not to mention poor accuracy, bowstrings tanned with tendons and silk will also lead to reduced elasticity and insufficient strength after being damp.Now the archers of the Qing army have to find a shelter to wipe off the rainwater on the bow body and bowstring immediately after throwing a few arrows in a hurry.

Some of the Qing troops hiding in the trenches were holding a broken umbrella, while others leaned together under a piece of oilcloth to keep warm; some squatted in the small hole they dug for only one person and hummed. while most people can only wear wet armor and wipe the rain from their faces with their hands from time to time.

"Junmen, if this rain continues, within two days, our muskets and cannons will all be turned into sticks of fire."

"Junmen, the food supply in the city is almost bottoming out, and we can hold on for another five days at most."

In the past, in addition to local production, part of the food in Hunchun was purchased from Li Chao and transported from Jilin City. Now the road leading to Jilin City is blocked by the Northern Navy, and there is an inland river fleet of the Northern Navy on the Tumen River With the blockade, food cannot be delivered at all.

After hearing the complaints from his subordinates, the official guard stared at his bloodshot eyes and asked, "Have the people sent to Qingyuan Mansion come back?"

The general on the west side of Hunchun who was in charge of guarding shook his head and said, "Not yet, it's still daytime, so you can only cross the river at night."

Since the start of the war, although the Northern Navy has dispatched more than a dozen inland riverboats to patrol the Tumen River and the Hunchun River day and night, the river is so long that there is always a place to sneak across.

Guanbao knew that it would be difficult to keep Hunchun, but he thought he was deeply favored by the emperor, and the worst would be to kill himself and become a benevolent.The problem is that it doesn't matter if he himself dies. The more than 2 people under his command and the thousands of family members of banner people in Hecheng can't all be buried with him. He has to find a way out.

Now the road to Jilin has been blocked by the Beihai Navy, and if you want to withdraw, you can only go to Li Dynasty.Hunchun and Li Chao are only separated by a river. Twenty miles west of the city is the Tumen River, and the other side is Qingyuan Mansion.

The official security had sent people there twice before, but the Cui Fu Yin opposite said that the entry of heavenly soldiers was a serious matter, and he needed to report it to Hanyang.Ten days passed, Guanbao felt that he couldn't wait any longer, and he had to evacuate the families of the generals in the city and some of their troops to the opposite bank first.

He glanced at Qitai who was sitting at the bottom, and felt more and more that he couldn't see through this person.

Said he was brave?At the beginning, he fled without a fight in Ninggu Tower, flattered and bribed He Shen, and finally escaped the court's punishment.Let him be stationed at the Mongolian River camp, but he was shot through in less than a day.

Can he be said to be cowardly?In the subsequent defensive battles at Yingchengzi, Gangouzi and Sachicheng, this man once again put on a bloody battle stance.His whole body was also covered with scars, and he couldn't stand it any longer, so he retreated with his remnant soldiers.

Thinking of this, Guanbao shook his head subconsciously.

At this time, although Na Qitai didn't say a word, the secret letter he saw in the morning kept flashing in his mind.

The letter was found in the backyard of the mansion when the rain stopped last night. It was wrapped in a layer of oilcloth and tied with a silver bar inside. There was no signature on the cover.But that silver bar has no place in the world except Beihai Town, and the fifth aunt who has been to Fuldan City can understand what's going on at a glance.

It was already this morning when Na Qitai saw the letter, the content inside was of great importance, and his Zheng Fujin was too timid to take this hot potato, so Aunt Wu asked Chang Wu to ask Na Qitai for advice.

The letter was written by Lu Shoushan, the head of the Second Beihai Regiment, who Na Qitai didn't know, but the problem was that Lu Shoushan was delivering the message for Zhao Xin, which was unusual.But what frightened Na Qitai the most was that Hunchun City was surrounded by more than 2 Qing troops, and there was a curfew at night. How did they get in?And it's his backyard!

In this letter, Zhao Xin first expressed his apology for the sudden attack, and hoped that Na Qitai would understand that the so-called "soldier's cunning" was like this, and it was normal to make a surprise attack.In the second paragraph, the topic changed, and Nian said that we have worked closely together for so many years, and last year you took the initiative to give up Ning Guta, so it is not easy for me to kill you.Right now the road to Jilin can't go, why don't you go to North Korea to hide?

When Na Qitai saw it, he was furious, knowing that Zhao Xin must not hold his fart well.Wherever I go, I call, I can't help but think about Li Chao again.

But what is there to calculate in that poor place of Li Chao?I want nothing.When he was in Ninggu Pagoda earlier, every year Li Chao sent people to bring cattle to the exchange market. It can be said that he wanted almost everything except ginseng.

To be honest, Na Qitai had been dealing with Beihai Town for so many years, and he really couldn't understand Zhao Xin's ways.The imperial court has been beaten all over the head, so what are you waiting for if you don't take down Shengjing and then enter the customs?Or if they occupy such a large territory, others would have already claimed the throne and divided the land.

The last time Aunt Wu came back with her son and daughter for treatment, after telling the whole story, Na Qitai decided to send his son to Beihai Town.Just because of his status in the imperial court, Zhao Xin must not treat the child badly.

Moreover, Fifth Aunt heard from that Doctor Wu that Beihai Town is currently inoculating adults and children with "vaccinia" to prevent smallpox.Na Qitai has heard of human pox, and it is said that the risk is very high. Even if he has money, many banner families dare not get vaccinated.

After nightfall, the people sent to Qingyuan Mansion returned.This time, the Cui Fu Yin was uncharacteristically, and unexpectedly agreed to the withdrawal of the Qing army to the territory of the Li Dynasty.After careful questioning by the official security guard, he found out that Marshal Fu had sent envoys to Xianzhou, and by putting pressure on the supervisor in charge of Xianjing Road, he forced the other party to agree to the withdrawal of the Qing army into the territory of the Li Dynasty.The generals were overjoyed when they heard the news, and hurriedly formulated a detailed plan for evacuation at night.

On the other side, Deng Fei had received Zhao Xin's order early on, asking him to turn a blind eye to the Qing army withdrawing to the Li Dynasty, but he couldn't let it go, and the number needed to be controlled.

So Deng Fei first reduced the number of boats and the number of patrols on the Tumen River at night, and basically fired a flare on the river every hour.In this way, the Qing army only had less than an hour to cross the river each time; after a night of tossing, they could only evacuate more than 1000 people.

After a few days of tossing, when the Qing army had almost withdrawn 6000 to [-] people, Deng Fei issued an ultimatum to the Hunchun defenders on behalf of the Beihai Navy.Order all the Qing troops to lay down their weapons, get out of the trenches and surrender, otherwise the day when the Northern Navy launches a general offensive will be the day when the Qing troops perish.In the ultimatum, the North Navy reiterated its ethnic policy, that is, it will never discriminate and oppress the "Iche Manchuria" represented by the Kurkazi people and other ethnic groups.

It is said that this policy of Beihai Town has aroused the resentment of many young people in the power plant. These guys all shouted the slogan of "expel the Tartars and restore China".Fortunately, they usually live on the east bank of the Sila River and rarely cross the river, which did not cause too much impact on the residents.

For this matter, Chen Qingsong had called these people together for a meeting.He first listened to those people's grievances with a blank face, and then he asked, you said to restore the Chinese nation, well, what areas does the Chinese Communist Party include?

The so-called "Zhonghua" mentioned in the Ming Dynasty refers to the "63 provinces in the south and north" where the Han people live in concentrated communities.So do you want the Manchu-dominated Northeast?Do you want Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang and Tibet?Do you want the East Siberia we brought down?

You talk about expelling the Tartars, but let’s not talk about filling the Eight Banners. What do the Mongols think?What do the border residents of other ethnic groups think?
All of you here, who can guarantee that your ancestors are pure-bred Erlitou residents, not mixed with any northern ethnic blood?
China has been a multi-ethnic country since the Southern and Northern Dynasties, and the cultural identity passed down from generation to generation has contributed to the pluralistic integration of the Chinese nation.The ancients confusedly engaged in the debate between Hua and Yi, but you still jumped into it.After the Revolution of [-], did you suffer less from this?How did Outer Mongolia get lost?Why do many Manchus support the establishment of Manchukuo?

Don't forget, now the British have reached into Nepal!Are you calling for the expulsion of the Tartars, are you planning to push the Tibetans to the British? !Push the ministries of Outer Mongolia to Tsarist Russia? !

Why has the Beihai Navy not entered the customs for five years?Because it is China's territory in the first place, and it will not be lost one day at a time, but if the Outer Northeast and Outer Mongolia are not controlled first, then the world will be in chaos and the frontiers will be in turmoil. fill? !
Chen Qingsong is usually smiling, looking harmless to humans and animals.But his barrage of questioning left all the young people present speechless.It was only then that everyone remembered that this former leader was now the boss of the Civil Affairs Department of Beihai Town.

Later, if Wu An'an hadn't helped smooth things over, the meeting might have broken up unhappy.

Sure enough, Deng Fei's ultimatum hit the psychological defense of many Qing troops.The reason why they desperately resisted was because the upper echelons of the Qing army had been preaching that the Beihai Navy would slaughter all the people; don’t look at the Beihai Navy taking you captive and giving you food, drinking and healing, that is to use you to exchange money with the court.

In fact, many of the Eight Banners stationed in Hunchun are Hezhe people who migrated here from the city with three surnames, such as the Hu Xi family, the Gu Fa Ti family, the Xi Sha family, and the Yi Ma Cha family.Coupled with the fact that the Qing court has continuously transferred troops from Guannei and Mongolia in recent years, the Han army and the Eight Banners Mongolia from Khalkha accounted for the vast majority.

On both fronts, dozens of Beihai soldiers held up a large iron horn and kept announcing the content of the ultimatum. All the Qing troops who heard it were panicked and no longer had the courage to resist.

"Damn it, I don't want to fight anymore, I'll go home and farm!"

"Brother Hu, why do these rebels still say that they want to pay travel expenses to go home? Can this be true?"

"I've heard people say that the roads in Beihai Town are paved with gold, the houses are built with silver, and the windows are equipped with crystal glass. It's a good day! You don't have to worry about food and clothing."

"That's right! I've also heard that they use that and that for farming. Yes, Muliu cows and horses for farming."

"Ah?! Brother Hu, is what you said true?"

"Cut~~ I have no experience." The Qing soldier surnamed Hu said with a mysterious face: "Haven't you heard that the book talks about the Three Kingdoms? Zhuge Kongming, Muliu cattle and horses transporting army rations, there are still fakes."

"I've heard of it, but it doesn't say that wooden oxen and horses are used to cultivate the land?"

"You know what! If you can transport grain, you can plant land. Let me tell you, when you wake up in the morning, you will set up a good mechanism, and the wooden animals will go to work in the field by themselves, so you don't have to worry about it! When it's late, you guess What's the matter, the wooden cow and the wooden horse walked back to the barn by themselves, and they didn't need to be fed grass."

"Oh my god! If we get a hundred heads, how much land will we have to grow!"

"That's right. When I was not vacant, I got up every morning to mow grass and feed the cows. When the farming season was busy, I had to feed the concentrate, and the money went out. It would be great if I had a wooden cow, hehe."

The Qing soldier surnamed Hu became more and more evil as he spoke. The people around were dumbfounded, and even the gunner behind him came over and listened silently.Everyone talked happily, forgetting that they were on the battlefield for a moment, until the leader of their team came to inspect, and then everyone dispersed.

But from then until it was dark, the eyes of several Qing soldiers looked at each other changed, and there was something inexplicable in their eyes.

After nightfall, hundreds of Qing soldiers climbed out of the trenches and entered the North Navy position under the cover of night.This includes the Qing army surnamed Hu and several companions.On the second day, the surrendered Qing army also joined in the work of preaching after eating bran and big white steamed buns and drinking two bowls of broth.

"Brothers~~ I'm Hu Decai! I won't work for the imperial court anymore. The food and clothes here in Beihai Haijun are good. In the future, each family will return [-] acres of land! You don't have to work on your own, the wooden ox and wooden horse will help you cultivate the land! Bros"

On the Jingbian gate in the east of Hunchun City, the ashen-faced official security guards watched the defenders outside the city unfurl white flags under the shouts of the Beihai Navy, knowing that the situation was over.Feeling weak all over, he refused the support of his own soldiers, walked down the tower with force, and walked towards the government office in the city.

In a courtyard inside Zhending Gate on the west side of the city, Na Qitai, who was in full military uniform, was pacing back and forth in the room with a solemn expression.Suddenly, his brother-in-law Chang Wu pushed the door open and came in. Although his face was greasy and sweaty, he couldn't hide the joy in his expression.

Na Qitai hurriedly asked, "How is it?"

Chang Wu gasped and said in a low voice: "The military leader surnamed Deng has seen you."

Na Qitai interrupted: "How to say?"

Chang Wudao: "As long as you agree to go to Qingyuan Mansion, everything else is easy to talk about."

Na Qitai put on a serious face and said, "That's it?"

Chang Wudao: "Grandpa, I haven't finished talking yet. I'm worried all the way, please let me take a breath first."

After finishing speaking, he went to the table of the Eight Immortals, picked up the teapot, gurgled directly into the spout, wiped his mouth with his sleeve, and said, "Master, this time I really saw the magic weapon of the fairy family!"

"??" Na Qitai was stunned for a moment, raised his foot and kicked the opponent's calf, and cursed: "What nonsense! Hurry up!"

Chang Wu gestured and said, "The one surnamed Deng took me to a tent. The whole room was filled with black boxy iron boxes. I don't know what they were for. Guess what happened? The one surnamed Deng I didn't know how to fiddle with my subordinates, but I actually heard Zhao Wang talking. You said, this is not the method of the Xian family, what is it?"

"Ah! There is such a thing? What did King Zhao say?"

"King Zhao said in person that as long as you take people to Li Dynasty, he will definitely keep our family safe. He will send people to Fuerdan for Fujin, Gege, Changsheng, and even the aunts and grandmas in the house. Go to the city and arrange a yard. And the ginseng side will continue to make it for us."

"Damn it! He's asking Lao Tzu to be his pawn!" Na Qitai muttered, thinking that Zhao Xin really wanted to attack Li Chao.But if he agrees, he will really be on the pirate ship of Beihai Town, and it will be difficult to think about it.

Seeing that Qitai was deep in thought and silent, Chang Wu said again: "Master, King Zhao even said it."

Na Qitai was almost pissed off by Chang Wu, he raised his foot and wanted to kick again, Chang Wu hurriedly jumped to avoid it, and said in his mouth: "If you don't agree, Zhao Wang said, you will still die when the Beihai Navy breaks the city. , then I will send you to Bitter Leaf Island to dig, dig coal!"

On June 23, 5000 Hunchun defenders, led by Na Qitai, the deputy capital of Jilin, broke out from the west gate at night and raided the North Navy's position in the west of Hunchun City. Next, he crossed the Tumen River by force and escaped from birth.The chief general of the Hunchun camp, Guan Bao, led his own soldiers to fight to the death after the city was broken, and eventually died in battle with several shots in his body.

So far, the battle of Hunchun, which lasted for more than a month, finally came to an end.

On the day after Hunchun City was broken, a convoy of five carriages, escorted by a Lianbei navy, quietly left the north gate in the thick night, and then galloped north along the post road.

In the carriage at the beginning, a woman in her 30s dressed in a national flag was holding a three-year-old child, and she swayed from side to side as the body shook.The boy was so jolted that he couldn't fall asleep, he opened his eyes and asked the woman, "Emiang, why didn't Ama come?"

"You, Ama, have to work for others!" The woman said with a sad tone, she patted the child lightly and said, "Good boy, go to sleep."

(End of this chapter)