Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 191 Jiaqing Wants to Change Commander

The wind was howling in the cold, and all the soldiers wrapped their cotton coats tightly and walked barefoot on the muddy mountain path with difficulty.

Chen Gu even sent out a large number of scouts over ten miles away to investigate carefully for any ambushes. The morale of the soldiers was extremely low when marching in this kind of terrain and weather. Once they encountered an ambush, they could easily suffer heavy losses in a panic.

Chen Gu doesn't want to be overturned by Fu Cha Mingliang when the situation is so good.

Fu Cha Mingliang's army of more than 20,000 was stationed in Langzhong, Bazhong and Guang'an counties to form a pincer attack. The main force was in Langzhong to guard against Chen Gu, and the logistics were in Guangyuan, the safest place. As for Bazhong, it was to receive the large clans who fled from Nanchong, Dazhou and other prefectures and counties in the future and station troops there.

At the same time, troops were sent to Dazhou and other places to collect food and fodder for the army in preparation for defending Langzhong.

Fu Cha Mingliang naturally understood that he was now a nail driven into Sichuan by the imperial army. As long as his army was there, Chen Gu would not be considered to have occupied the entire Sichuan, and there would be no separatist power. It would be much easier for the imperial court to attack Sichuan.

But if Chen Gu were to remove this thorn in his side, Sichuan would become a separatist force. Given Sichuan's unique geographical location, even if Chen Gu proclaimed himself emperor in Sichuan, the imperial court would be unable to do anything to him for the time being, and it would be extremely difficult to attack Sichuan.

Therefore, Fu Cha Mingliang could not retreat, not even a single step.

As early as half a month ago, after Fu Cha Mingliang realized that there was no hope of rescuing his son and Chengdu had fallen into the hands of Chen Gu, he had already asked the court for help and carefully analyzed the current situation.

Chen Jue's dominance is inevitable. If he is not eliminated quickly, he will inevitably seize Sichuan and then compete with the imperial court.

With the current financial revenue of the imperial court, it would probably be a long time before it could attack Sichuan from the three counties and defeat Chen Gu.

After receiving Mingliang's petition for help, Jiaqing almost vomited blood in anger. He didn't understand why Chen Jue had just come out of retirement two or three months ago, and in just three short months, the whole Sichuan was divided into one part by Chen Jue?

Is it that Chen the Executor is a man of many talents, or are the soldiers of our Qing Dynasty all good-for-nothings?
It would be fine if other people were just good-for-nothings, but Fucha Mingliang went to the battlefield when he was a teenager, and was a famous general who ranked among the top three in terms of merit in the Jinchuan Campaign!
Judging from the military newspaper, Fucha Mingliang did nothing wrong.

However, Shaanxi Governor Fei Mo Yongbao gave a different explanation in his memorial, saying that Fu Cha Mingliang was afraid of fighting and thus marched too slowly, which led to his failure to enter Chengdu in time, causing the rebel army to grow stronger and the entire Sichuan province to become out of control.

At the same time, Yongbao also made ambiguous suggestions, saying that Fucha Mingliang might be dissatisfied with the court. After all, Mingliang had been sitting on the bench for so many years, and had been demoted from a frontier official to a low military position such as deputy governor. It would be hard to convince people if he said that he had no complaints in his heart.

Yongbao and Mingliang were not on good terms, and this was something known to all the civil and military officials in the court, but Yongbao's words were not without reason.

Because Fucha Mingliang was the nephew of Qianlong's first empress, Fucha, but the one who finally sat on the throne was Jiaqing, the son of Empress Xiaoyichun, Wei Jia.

In this way, no matter how capable Fu Cha Mingliang is, he has to sit on the bench, and the stronger his ability is, the more he has to sit on the bench.

It can be said that Qianlong spared Fu Cha Mingliang's life because of his past contributions.

So in Jiaqing's view, what complaints did you, Fu Cha Mingliang, have? You, Fu Cha Mingliang, had complaints against the court, not against Jiaqing!
Silk reinforcements were definitely needed, but Jiaqing wanted to replace the commander-in-chief Fu Cha Mingliang before the reinforcements were sent, and even escorted him to Beijing to be punished.

Upon learning that Jiaqing was planning to change his general at the last minute, the military ministers were horrified and tried to persuade Jiaqing to revoke his decision.

Even Zhu Gui advised, "Changing the commander in the middle of a battle is a taboo on the battlefield. Your Majesty must not do this. Besides, Mingliang's son has died in the hands of the enemy army. Mingliang will certainly avenge his son. So you should do your best to destroy the enemy army. What else is there to worry about?"

Are you kidding? There is absolutely no one in the court who is better at fighting than Fucha Mingliang. If Fucha Mingliang is replaced, who else can be used?

Are we going to use that villain Fei Mo Yongbao?
In terms of ability, Yongbao is not even as good as Delentang and Lebao, and is almost at the same level as Adis. How could he be a match for Chen Gu?

What's more, Chen Gu's military strength and momentum have greatly increased. If Yong Bao is really replaced to lead the army, by then, let alone Sichuan, I am afraid that Shaanxi will become the next Sichuan.

Even if Fu Cha Mingliang is not a match for Chen Gu, he is definitely better than that idiot Yong Bao. Forget about taking back Sichuan, but at least he should have no problem holding on to the existing territory. At the very least, he can retreat to Hanzhong and continue to maintain high pressure on the rebel army.

After repeated persuasion from many ministers, Jiaqing finally gave up the plan to replace Mingliang. Taking into account the discord between Yongbao and Mingliang, Jiaqing ordered the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu, Marat Songjun, to personally lead an army of 20,000 to Sichuan to support Fucha Mingliang.

At the same time, he ordered Zhang Jiaqinggui, the Grand Tutor of the Crown Prince and the Grand Secretary of Wenyuan Pavilion, to be the Minister of Counsellor to supervise military affairs in Hubei.

It was definitely too late to send troops from Hubei at this time, but we had to prepare for defense to prevent the enemy army from leaving Sichuan and attacking the two lakes area in an instant.

By then, let alone how many places we can capture, as long as the enemy army causes harassment along the river, especially causing unrest in the south of the Yangtze River, I'm afraid there will be problems with food in the capital.

Although the court made arrangements in a timely manner, the back and forth took a lot of time, and the original timely response became less timely.

Fu Cha Mingliang did send out a small group of troops to try to ambush Chen Gu's army, but unfortunately Chen Gu was extremely cautious and would rather march slowly than leave without making sure it was safe, so he didn't give Fu Cha Mingliang any chance at all.

The scouts of both sides fought each other. Although Chen Gu's army suffered a disadvantage due to the ambush, the advantage in armaments made up for it. In fact, the casualties of both sides were greater for the scouts of the imperial army.

After traveling through the mountains for five or six days, Chen Gu finally led his army to the outskirts of Langzhong City. Langzhong was just a small county town located in the mountains and had a small population.

Fortunately, it is easy to quarry stones in the mountains, so although Langzhong City is not big and the city wall is only 15 meters high, the city wall is made entirely of stone slabs and is very solid.

But Fucha Mingliang knew that the city did not have much advantage over the bandit army, and the trenches invented by the bandit army could even be of use to them.

I don't know what was going on in the bandit chief's head, but he actually came up with the idea of ​​building a bamboo frame to attack the city. Coupled with the bandit army's powerful firearms, the effectiveness of the city wall was infinitely weakened.

(End of this chapter)