The word "capture" is explained in "Shuowen Jiezi" as "captured by the army".
From ancient times to the present, there are three purposes behind killing prisoners: to vent emotions, to eliminate enemy forces, and to intimidate them. There is no need to argue that killing prisoners is an uncivilized and brutal act, but there are often deep-seated motivations behind these purposes.
Such as food shortage. Primitive societies often did this, and there were countless examples of it in ancient societies. Even during World War II in modern times, the Japanese were still doing it. Chinese, Koreans, Americans, British, Australians, Indians, and even our own people, there is nothing they don’t eat.
Another example is that it is difficult to control. In the "Battle of Changping", Bai Qi was worried about "Zhao's soldiers repeating themselves" and killed more than 200,000 people; Xiang Yu, after defeating a large number with a small number in the Battle of Julu, was worried that the Qin officials and soldiers would be too dissatisfied, so he killed more than 20 people. Wan surrendered his troops to the south of Xin'an City.
Zhao Xin then sent several telegrams back and forth with Liu Sheng, from which he learned the whole story.
The final decision was made by Liu Sheng, Fan Tong, and Jiang Fan. The ones who supervised the execution were the cavalry brigade commander Samusu and the head of the intelligence bureau's troops stationed on the western front. The specific people who took action were more than 2,000 transformed Eight Banners soldiers and soldiers. Prisoners of the Qing army. Number of people handled, 4,416.
When the Western Front troops attacked the East Road of Xinjiang, except for a few escapees, most of the Eight Banners soldiers in Gucheng and Barkol simply surrendered. No matter what, there are few people who are not afraid of the hail of bullets from the North Korean Navy. The number of Xiaoqi infantry who surrendered from the ancient city was 1,600, and the number of raised cavalry and infantry that surrendered from Barkol was 1,300.
The so-called "nurturing soldiers" are actually the remaining vacancies in the Eight Banners that cannot be filled. After the Qing Dynasty unified the country, the Eight Banners had a quota of soldiers, and the population multiplied day by day. In order to solve the livelihood problem of the banner people, starting from the 17th year of Shunzhi, 4,800 Yuding people were selected from Manchu, Mongolian and Han banners to train in skills and called them "nurturing soldiers". The pay was less than that of regular soldiers, with a monthly salary of one to two and a half cents. The Manchu and Mongolian soldiers were given rice, while the Han army had no rice.
Regardless of the small amount of money given, there are still so many people who can’t even get a chance! Because the vacancies for each assistant leader are fixed.
Before the rise of the Beihai Town Army, the number of training soldiers under the Manchu Qing Dynasty was only over 26,000. After Mingliang lost the battle of Ningguta and the Northern Navy once again captured a large number of Eight Banners soldiers and refused to release them, the Qing government had to cancel the quota limit, fully doubling the number of soldiers.
These Eight Banners soldiers in Xinjiang are different from the Green Camp soldiers. The latter are dedicated to farming and are useless in fighting; the former is different. They are a viable force placed by the Qing government in Xinjiang.
As a result, after a long winter of transformational education and training, most of these Eight Banners prisoners who were skilled in bow and horse became cavalry in the Western Front Army. Coupled with the addition of a small number of Han Chinese and Uyghur recruits, cavalry and horseback riding became more important. The number of infantrymen swelled rapidly.
With sufficient mobile troops, Liu Sheng turned his attention to the South Tianshan Road and formulated a battle plan to advance north and south. Samusu led two regiments of cavalry and one regiment of cavalry infantry to take charge of the southern front. By the way, Wang Rong has now become the battalion commander, and Timur has also been promoted to deputy company commander.
The addition of more than 2,000 regularized Eight Banners cavalry made Samusu's march very smooth. The Qing troops in various places along the way surrendered under their persuasion, and even became the leading party. If he hadn't wasted too much time dealing with civil affairs issues in Turpan, Samusu felt that he could attack Yarkand in one fell swoop.
However, success is only temporary. When the troops arrived at Luntai, bad news came one after another from the west.
First of all, the total force of the Kokand Kingdom's invasion of southern Xinjiang reaches tens of thousands, and they are personally led by Kokand Khan Narbuta. They have already occupied Kashgar, Yingjisar, Wush and Aksu, and are stationed in southern Xinjiang. The Qing army retreated to Yarkand.
Secondly, Narbukhan Tower supported Polonidu's son, Samsak, who fled to Andiyan. He openly returned to Xinjiang in the name of revenge. With the support of Kokand Khan Narbuta, in Kashgar Gar established the "Batur Khanate", which was originally the banner of Hezhuo and Zhuo at that time, and also caused the dormant Hezhuo remnants to emerge. In addition, more dignitaries who returned to Xinjiang and were sympathetic to the Hezhuo group because of religious factors and other traditional relationships with the Hezhuo group, although they were already loyal to the Qing court, also joined their ranks.
Then there are the two sons of the Huojisi family who returned to Hotan and Yarkand. With the support of the Manchu ministers in both places, they recruited the followers of the Black Mountain sect who had been persecuted by the White Mountain sect and organized a group of 7,000 people. Army.
When Liu Sheng and Fan Tong received the telegram from Samusu, they immediately realized that the next opponent of the Northern Navy was not just the Qing army. To deal with the troops of Kokand and Samsak, we must carry out a devastating blow with thunderous force and show no mercy.
Zhao Xin once told them that although Xiao and Zhuo were taken care of by Zhaohui and Huo Jizhan's head was made into a "Gabala bowl" by Qianlong, the two people's remaining influence in Huijiang society is still very strong. So be sure to pay attention to Samsak's movements. Although there are very few records about this person in the history books of the Qing Dynasty, he is the only descendant of the Hezhuo family after all, and his status as a "saint" is very appealing.
According to the analysis of copies of letters archived by the Urumqi Deputy Governor's Yamen and the rumors obtained from local merchants and travelers by the intelligence bureau's personnel stationed in the Western Front troops, Samsak is by no means "living a life" as the Qing court thought. "It's like a beggar's life." His whereabouts in Central Asia have been erratic over the years, traveling extensively, secretly amassing money, and have been accumulating enough strength to support his return to Xinjiang.
Zhao Xin once asserted that the Baishan faction and the Hezhuo remnant party formed a group with Samsak as the core and capable of operating in the vast area of Central Asia, including the hinterland of Huijiang. Now it seems that his words have come true. Samsak and his followers came back this time to restore the power of their ancestors in the Huijiang area.
Zhao Xin was able to leave the Manchus alone and not fight against the Qing Dynasty, but resolutely led the Northern Navy to the north to fight against Tsarist Russia. Now he is also willing to risk tens of thousands of Northern Navy soldiers to enter the Tianshan Mountains. It would be better to keep the Manchus lingering in the pass, but to completely eradicate the descendants of Hezhuo and the remaining parties first.
For this reason, he sent another telegram to the Western Front Command after the beginning of spring and requested that the entire army be notified. This battle would not only lead out of Congling in the west and penetrate into Central Asia, but also the invading Kokand army and the remnants of Hezhuo. eliminate.
So why did Qianlong follow Heshen's suggestion and return Huojisi's two sons to southern Xinjiang when he was still alive? The monarch and his ministers have already figured out Zhao Xin's personality to a close. The more chaotic Xinjiang is, the less time the Beihai Navy will have to look south, and the more time it will have for itself.
The problem is that Qianlong never expected that the food in Beihai Town was so abundant that Zhao Xin could fully afford the food and salary for the Sendai clan's 10,000 servants. This also allowed him to free up his hands to deal with the Li Dynasty first and stabilize the east. Border, and then pointed the sword at Shengjing.
Closer to home, when Samusu led his army to Kuqa, as expected, they encountered Samusak's 5,000 men and horses, in addition to 2,000 Kokand cavalry. It would be up to other Northern Navy generals to come directly to clear the ground with artillery fire. The enemy would either be too scared to run away or run away for their lives.
The question is who is Samusu? He was one of the thirteen armored soldiers captured on Bear Island and an old man from Beihai Town. He treated Zhao Xin as if he were his own parents, and he would hit him wherever he pointed.
The most important thing is that because Zhao Xin speaks the later-generation Beijing dialect that is fused with Manchu and is also a serious Beicheng dialect, there has always been a secret rumor among the indigenous Manchus in Beihai Town and the Eight Banners naturalized soldiers. Prince Zhao is actually from the clan, and he is also a descendant of Prince Lian, so following Prince Zhao does not count as rebellion.
Well, Boss Zhao now has three identities: the former Ming clan, the Immortal clan, and the Manchu clan. The first two are purely self-inflicted, but the latter is really unjust!
Samusu deeply understood Zhao Xin's spirit of "total elimination". He did not directly set up a large formation to clear the ground with artillery fire. Instead, he showed the enemy weakness and sent some Eight Banners troops captured in Luntai to lead the battle and lure the enemy. went deep and set up an ambush in Qilish, a hundred miles northwest of Kuqa.
Samusak's rebels were originally going to fight a round platform, otherwise they wouldn't have put so many troops in Kuqa. In addition, they did not know much about the North Navy, so they fell into the trap. Three thousand cavalry were wiped out in just one hour, and one-third of them surrendered due to fright. After that, Samusu hurriedly cleaned the battlefield and led his troops overnight to surround the entire city and back city of Kuqa.
Because there are still innocent people in the two cities, it is not possible to clear the ground with artillery fire, but it is no problem to use drones for reconnaissance and then conduct a roll call of artillery shells.
A bunch of country bumpkins from Central Asia had never seen such a sex act before. They couldn't hold it any longer before dawn. They tried to escape, but couldn't. There were several machine guns guarding outside each city gate. The red tracer bullets were like devil's whips. As soon as they left the city gate, there was a river of blood. The corpses of people and horses blocked the city gate. After persisting for a day, the rebel leader had no choice but to surrender in Kaicheng after receiving Samusu's promise of "guaranteed preferential treatment."
After entering the city, Samusu first forcibly led all the people in the city out of the city and sent people to escort them to Qilish. Then he imprisoned more than 4,000 rebels and troops from the Kokand Kingdom into the school camp and barracks in the city. In houses everywhere.
Then, they sent a telegram to Liu Sheng and others, waiting for a reply, and then waited until the dead of night, poured oil and set fire, and blocked the city gates with machine guns. Finally, Qing army prisoners armed with swords, guns, bows and arrows entered the city to clean up the fish that had slipped through the net.
Chen Qingsong is the fourth person in the committee who knows the whole incident, and it was Zhao Xin who told him privately before lunch today. At that time, he subconsciously asked the number of people in the mouth, and after repeatedly confirming it from Zhao Xin's mouth, his first reaction was to give himself a mouthful.
I'm really arrogant. Why do I have to ask more about that? !
Zhao Xin saw Chen Qingsong's concerns, so he comforted him: "Old Chen, have you ever thought about it? If we don't do this, our descendants will have to do it too. One generation will do something for another, and our generation will open up frontiers and expand borders." Finish the earthly work and avoid future troubles."
Chen Qingsong sighed and said: "That's what I say, but that's more than four thousand people! There are so many in Kuqa alone. Where are we in Wush? Where's Kashgar? Where's Aksu?"
Zhao Xin took two puffs of cigarette and said in a calm tone: "He Zhuo is not clean, and Xinjiang is in trouble. Since they are taking chestnuts from the fire, it is equivalent to throwing their lives on the gambling table and admitting defeat. It is only natural and right."
"Then why do you insist that Liu and the others leave Congling and enter Central Asia? Our territory is big enough! Just thinking about building roads in the future gives me a headache."
Zhao Xin puffed out a puff of smoke and said in a solemn tone: "The power of God cannot be greater than the law of the country."
Chen Qingsong was stunned for a moment, he knew what Zhao Xin said was right.
By the way, why did Qianlong insist on beating Xiao Hezhuo?
On the surface, the Hezhuo brothers imprisoned more than a hundred Qing officers and soldiers including Deputy Commander Amindao in Kuqa, and then killed them all in the spring of the next year, openly raising the banner of rebellion.
However, the real reason is that this theocratic theocratic system headed by He Zhuo and using the "verbal call" of the leader instead of the law is incompatible with Qianlong's concept of unification centered on the expansion of national sovereignty. Not to mention the Manchus, no regime in a unified China would agree. The White Lotus Sect is the best example.
Qianlong only used the "Amin Dao Incident" as a tool to make a moral argument for the Huijiang unification war, and used it to persuade those princes and ministers who could not be persuaded by pragmatic logic on the issue of using troops in the Western Regions.
It's just that no matter how Zhaohui can fight, it can only stop at Congling due to the long supply line and huge logistical consumption. Moreover, as the Qing Dynasty gradually declined in history, its influence on Central Asia also became "Wang Xiaoer". "Celebrating the New Year", this led to the Zhang Geer Rebellion.
After the afternoon meeting, Chen Qingsong stopped Zhao Xin and asked softly: "How long do you plan to hide that matter?"
Zhao Xin said casually: "We'll talk about it later, or we'll have to be surprised."
"What did you say? Who was surprised?" The two of them turned around and saw Liu Siting and Director Liu Da walking in.
Zhao Xinxiao asked: "Why are you back?"
"I forgot to hang up my bag." Liu Siting picked up the bag from the chair, glanced back and forth at the faces of Zhao Xin and Chen Qingsong, and suddenly said: "You two have a secret, and you have some secrets with Xinjiang people." It's something related, Lao Chen just winked at you."
Depend on! This woman has really poisonous eyes.
"I have a lot of secrets!" Zhao Xin replied with a smile, and then changed the topic: "By the way, how is Mr. Rong Fu's health recently?"
In another time and space, Wang Zhong only lived until 1794. According to records, he probably died of cardiovascular disease. However, because of Wang Zhong's identity as teacher Zhao Xin, he has become the head of the old-style literati in Beihai Town and plays a very important role, so Zhao Xinsheng is afraid that he will have both advantages and disadvantages.
"I personally checked him before he came, and there was nothing wrong. However, some results have not come out yet. Don't worry, I'll let Dr. Wu keep an eye on him." Liu Siting waved her hand and walked out while teasing: "I won't disturb you two and continue. It’s a secret, huh, let’s break away from the organization and have a small meeting.”
(End of chapter)
