Early the next morning, Fukang'an first received a thank you note, and then went to the Ministry of War to return the royal flag and the imperial envoy's customs defense. After that, he led three hundred personal guards out of Beijing.
And when he leaves, the Protestants in Gansu will be killed.
After Fukang'an arrived in Xi'an and took over the imperial envoy from A Gui, he had no idea who the generals in the Bird Camp were related to. As long as those who led the troops to escape were served by fifty army sticks, all the errands were removed and replaced by deputies, and he finished the fight himself. The military stick has to be imprisoned to wait for the court to deal with him. For a time, everyone in the Beijing camp was howling like ghosts and wolves as they were beaten with military sticks.
Later during the military parade, Fukang'an bluntly told his officers and soldiers that if there was anyone who was afraid of fighting in the face of the enemy, regardless of their official position, they would be killed on the spot.
After some threats with beatings and threats, he asked his personal guards to carry out boxes of silver. Fukang'an shouted passionately: "This is a great man's meritorious service! Serve the country and the emperor! I, Fukang'an, will not hesitate to die and break my body to pieces to repay the kindness of heaven and earth! I won't take any money from you if you fight this battle well. We all belong to you! I recommend to you that everyone will be promoted!"
At this time, everyone in the firearms camp, who had been frightened by Fukangan, was excited by these words and the white money on the stage!
"I am willing to serve the emperor! I am willing to die for the commander-in-chief!"
On the tenth day of August, Fukang'an led 5,000 Jingying firearms troops from Xi'an to the Yanchuan line. After secretly discussing the strategy with Li Shiyao, they allocated 3,000 men from the Yansui troops and quietly crossed the Yangjinshui and Panyunjian rivers, followed the Jinghe River to the west, and attacked Longde County on the south bank of the Tianshui River.
Under the indiscriminate bombardment of dozens of cannons, the already dilapidated Longde County town fell on that day, and thousands of rebels were killed and injured.
On August 12, Fukang'an continued to lead his army westward and captured Jingning County at the junction of Tianshui River and Kushui River in two days. Jingning was recovered, and communications with Lanzhou, which had been interrupted for many days, were quickly restored.
The Ganliang soldiers, Alxa cavalry and Ningxia reinforcements stationed in Lanzhou did not dare to slack off after receiving Fukang'an's order. They led their troops to attack bravely and captured Huining in five days.
Fukang'an returned to Lunde at this time and recruited and selected more than a thousand "brave soldiers" and "good gunners" among the local Han people and veteran religious people. After some preparations, he launched an attack on Didian Mountain on August 21. Feint attack. The Qing army coming from Huining launched a sneak attack from behind the mountain. The Didianshan rebels fought back bravely, and the Qing army began to besiege. Subsequently, Ma Wenxi, a military officer guarding Didian Mountain, surrendered to Fukang'an, which greatly weakened the New Religious Army. Didian Mountain was immediately lost, and more than 300 New Religious Army members died in the battle.
At this time, Zhang Wenqing and Ma Siwa, who were about to arrive at Changwu, heard that the rear was lost and immediately withdrew their troops to return reinforcements. Li Shiyao led the Shaanxi Dubiao Battalion and the Yansui Army to bite each other's back like candy.
The Protestant Ma Siwa tribe was very itchy about Li Shiyao's "dog skin plaster", so they prepared to fight with him in Chongxin. Seeing this situation, Li Shiyao immediately withdrew his troops for twenty miles and formed a stronghold to defend himself.
Ma Siwa waited in Chongxin for three days but did not see the other party coming, so she led the rebel army to evacuate Chongxin at night. Who would have expected that when they reached the vicinity of Huating, Li Shiyao and his troops followed him again. Ma Siwa simply ignored it and retreated directly to Shifeng Castle.
On August 27, the Qing troops from Fukang'an and West Route attacked Panlong Mountain in two groups with superior force, killing more than 300 people in one battle.
With the defeat of Longde, Jingning, Didianshan, and Panlongshan, the Shifengbao rebels fell into an isolated and helpless situation, and the originally good situation immediately took a turn for the worse. The rebel army Li Kekui, who was far away under the city of Baoji, had already given up attacking Baoji and led his troops back for reinforcements. Li Shiyao's troops deliberately avoided his attack, moved out of the way, and allowed Li Kokui's troops to enter Shifeng Fort.
At this time, the Qing army's five-pronged army was like five outstretched fingers, already hanging over the head of the New Doctrine Army.
On September 1, Fukang'an received news from Li Shiyao that the last rebel troops had entered the pockets he had laid, so his "five fingers" began to clenched together. The Qing troops from all walks of life immediately pushed towards Tongwei and arrived at Lulu Mountain on September 13th; they also passed the Shuangyan Trail and arrived at the foot of Shifeng Fort on the 15th.
Shifengbao is located at the main pass leading to Fuqiang, Tongwei, Huining, Anding, Qinzhou and Gongchang, among the mountains. The castle is high on the top of a mountain, surrounded by cliffs and is very steep.
This place was originally an old fort and had been uninhabited for many years. In March of the 46th year of Qianlong's reign, Hui people Ma Zhengfang and Ma Zhuang came to the fort to repair it, build walls and dig kilns. After the failure of Su Shisan, the Qing government searched the Protestant congregations; the Protestants had long used Shifeng Fort as a secret stronghold. After several repairs and consolidations, a high wall was built on the top of the peak, and three deep trenches were dug outside the fort. There are hundreds of cave dwellings built everywhere.
The Protestants have stored a large amount of food and equipment in the fort. Outside the fort, there are rugged mountain trails with overlapping ditches. The rebels set up camps in the south and east and west sides of the fort, with tents densely packed, preparing to defend to the death.
On September 18, all five armies under Fukang'an were in place, and he immediately ordered a strong attack. The New Doctrine Army was condescending and drove back the Qing army several times.
On September 21st, Agui arrived at the military camp from Xi'an. Fukang'an ordered various Qing troops to try to cut off the Huashuichuan waterway, and bombarded the barracks in the fort with artillery for two days, and then joined forces to attack again.
On the 23rd, the Qing army launched a large-scale offensive. The New Doctrine Army fought bravely in the face of a powerful enemy and resisted with all their strength, preventing the Qing army from attacking the cliff. In the end, the Qing army only occupied a corner of the mountain, but it was to no avail and suffered many casualties. However, the rebels also suffered heavy casualties in this battle, and their leader Li Kekui was killed.
At this time, tens of thousands of Qing troops gathered under Shifeng Fort and blocked it at all levels. The New Religious Army was unable to escape. However, there were no more than 6,000 capable fighters in the fort, and there were tens of thousands of rebel family members in the fort. As the water source dried up, the rebels found it difficult to eat even if they had food; they had to wait for rain to accumulate some, but it was not enough.
During this period, as the three trenches outside Shifeng Fort were lost one by one, the rebel leader Zhang Wenqing had no choice but to let the rebel family members go down the mountain to survive.
On the second day of October, 2,500 Protestant family members descended from the mountain and surrendered. Agui and Fukang'an ordered their guards to separate the strong men into groups of ten and kill them immediately. Eight hundred people were executed that night.
Late that night, Zhang Wenqing led the rebel troops in the fort to rush down the mountain. Ma Siwa covered behind him, climbed over the long trench, and charged bravely. Fukang'an had already taken precautions. Encouraged by the heavy reward, various Qing troops began to besiege frantically. The Qing army, who was jealous of the money, also took the risk. For a while, guns and arrows were flying up and down the mountain, and fire arrows were raining down. Thousands of people died in the battle inside and outside the trenches, and corpses were scattered all over the fields. Zhang Wenqing was hit by several arrows and retreated to the fort with Ma Siwa.
At dawn, thousands of Qing troops began to swarm up the mountain and rush into the fort to hunt them down. Zhang Wenqing, Ma Siwa and more than 1,700 people were killed. At this point, Shifeng Fort finally fell, and the Tian Wu and Zhang Wenqing uprising completely failed!
In the history of another time and space, Fukang'an, Agui, and Li Shiyao killed a total of 11,000 Protestants. And because of the emergence of Zhao Xin, the Gansu rebellion in this time and space was far larger than in real history, affecting all counties in Longdong.
Before and after this battle, Fukang'an led his troops to massacre nearly 20,000 members of the New Doctrine Army and their family members. After the war, he rewarded more than 6,000 captured women and children from Shifengbao and Didian to the officers and soldiers of the Beijing camp, Sichuan soldiers, and Fan soldiers respectively. Later, more than 500 Protestant family members were found and sent to Jiangning, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, and Guangzhou respectively, and were rewarded as slaves to the officials and soldiers of the provinces. After the war, countless villages in Longdong were reduced to ruins.
After this battle, Fukangan regained his former confidence. At this time, he had been appointed by the Qing government as the governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, taking over from the accused Li Shiyao to handle the aftermath of Gansu.
As for Li Shiyao, Qianlong scolded him in his edict for "playing by mistake", and because he was not good at military affairs, he was first designated as a prisoner. Execution after autumn. Later, it was changed to sit through the bottom of the prison, and no one would be pardoned.
(Historically, in the next year, the fiftieth year of Qianlong's reign, Li Shiyao was released again, acting as the commander-in-chief of the Han army under the Zhenghuang Banner, and riding horses in the Forbidden City.)
However, although Fukang'an was busy dealing with post-war affairs in Shaanxi and Gansu, his originally depressed thoughts came back to life after a big victory.
Fukang'an secretly sent his family south to Guangzhou, entrusting thirteen merchants with large sums of money to seek British muskets, artillery craftsmen and warship manufacturing technology. When he had new cannons and warships, he was going to ask Qianlong for orders to go north again and fight Jilin again, avenging his previous humiliation!
(At the beginning of the 49th year of Qianlong's reign, Guangdong salt merchant Tan Dayuan sued Li Shiyao when he was the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi. Shen Jizhou, the general merchant of the Thirteenth Bank, had bribed Li Shiyao with public funds and committed illegal acts. Qianlong then ordered Fu Kang'an to go to Guangzhou in person to act as the governor of Guangdong and Guangxi to hear the case. So Fu Dashuai is related to the thirteenth line.)
(End of chapter)
