Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 199 Desperate Fu Cha Mingliang

"Match cannon, batch cannon!" Fu Cha Mingliang's eyes were bloodshot, and he looked up at the sky and shouted, "Grand Ancestor, please tell me, why does the enemy have the batch cannon that you have sealed for a long time?"

It was naturally impossible for Kangxi to survive and answer Fu Cha Mingliang's question.

"puff!"

Fu Cha Mingliang was so angry that he vomited blood. For a moment, he felt dizzy and almost fell to the ground.

"General!" Woshibu hurried forward to support the staggering Fucha Mingliang.

"I'm fine!" Fu Cha Mingliang pushed Wo Shibu away, forced himself to cheer up, and said through gritted teeth: "I can't fall down now. Things can't go on for us. Let's leave Chongqing and go down the river!"

Faced with thousands of rifles on the city walls, a large number of muskets, countless bombs and detonators, and most deadly of all, submachine guns, the Qing army attacking the city had retreated, but more than three thousand casualties were left under the city walls. The wailing of countless Qing soldiers was heart-wrenching.

Although the Qing army was badly beaten, it did not collapse. Although the retreat was chaotic, after retreating, it quickly formed a formation instead of completely disintegrating.

This made Han Yuanxiao's face full of regret. "Fu Cha Mingliang is indeed a famous general, and his soldiers are also elite enough. Suddenly, he suffered about 30% casualties, but he was able to advance and retreat with reason."

Ai Laosan also nodded with a heavy face. Thirty percent casualties were already very high. He had seen gunfights in mountain strongholds. Ordinary bandits could not withstand even ten percent casualties, let alone thirty percent. If the other side really sent out a fierce man who chopped down a few people in the front row of their side, that group of people would most likely collapse and run for their lives immediately.

With an attack of that intensity just now, even though there were only a few thousand casualties, an ordinary army of even 100,000 would have likely collapsed.

So, they watched Fu Cha Mingliang and his men leave, and the two of them did not dare to leave the city to pursue them.

However, although they did not dare to leave the city to pursue, they could run to the north wall and bombard it with cannons, because the two found that after Fu Cha Mingliang retreated, he actually went downstream.

Yuzhong District, where Chongqing's main city is located, has a long and narrow terrain, and the city was built directly on the riverside. Standing on the city wall, not to mention cannons, even rifles and pistols can attack ships in the Jialing River.

So when Fu Cha Mingliang was escaping, he was attacked from both sides by the main city and Jiangbei city. The two cities together had a total of 1,200 rifles, 20 submachine guns, 40 large and small solid cannons, and Han Yuanxiao's 50 portable guns.

Solid cannons and rifles are fine. Although they are equally powerful, their loading speed is very slow and it takes one or two minutes to fire once. However, the firing frequency of rifles and submachine guns is very high. A rifle can basically fire a bullet every two or three seconds, and a submachine gun can fire a shell in just over ten seconds.

The widest part of Chongqing's main city is only two or three kilometers, but its length exceeds five kilometers. Such a long waterway was so difficult for Fu Cha Mingliang to navigate, and the soldiers on the ship suffered heavy casualties.

Because it was an attack from a high position, there was nowhere to hide. In the end, the living soldiers covered themselves with the bodies of the dead soldiers to reduce casualties.

In less than ten minutes of sailing downstream along the five-kilometer waterway, more than half of the six or seven thousand soldiers were killed or wounded.

What made Fu Cha Mingliang even more desperate was that just as he was about to enter the Yangtze River, there were ships blocking the way at the confluence of the two rivers.

Fu Cha Mingliang was immediately furious. It happened that the river mouth was out of the attack range of Jiangbei City. Fu Cha Mingliang ordered the ships to sail along the north bank of the river to reduce the attack from Chongqing's main city. Then Mingliang's soldiers prepared for battle.

Although the Qing army had suffered more than 70% casualties and only had 2,000 to 3,000 men left, they still had the strength to fight, and had already formed a desperate situation. Since there was no way out, they might as well fight to the death.

This is the difference between elite and ordinary troops. Ordinary troops only think about running away, while elite troops have the courage to fight to the death.

Wu You looked at the opponent's momentum, sighed helplessly, and then decisively ordered to abandon the ship.

After the personnel were transferred to the evacuation ships that had been prepared in advance, the ship blocking the front was immediately set on fire. Because there were kerosene tanks on the ship, it soon became a raging fire.

Fu Cha Mingliang looked at the raging fire on the escape route, then looked up at the two city gates that had been opened. He suddenly felt relieved and ordered, "Transfer all the explosives to a ship to clear the way."

With a huge explosion, a huge exit was blasted open for the ships blocking the river. After Fu Cha Mingliang escaped with the remaining soldiers, he did not flee downstream immediately.

"Woshibu, after you blast open the breach, take a boat and leave. When you pass by the prefectures, counties, garrisons, and fortresses along the river, take away whatever you can, whether it's people or supplies. If you can't take them away, burn them!"

"This~!" Woshibu couldn't help but be shocked.

"Listen to me. Time is running out. Just listen carefully. The enemy army is more powerful than we imagined. Everyone, not only me, but also the officials in the court and Your Majesty, have underestimated them.

These are not ordinary bandits, but rebels who can compete with our Qing Dynasty for power. Go back and tell His Majesty to prepare for an all-out war as soon as possible and ask His Majesty not to be so merciful.

A benevolent ruler cannot expand territory, nor can he cope with a full-scale war like this."

"What about you, General?" Woshubu asked with tears in his eyes.

Woshibu respected this old general who was already in his sixties and even regarded him as an idol.

Fu Cha Mingliang's life can be said to be extremely glorious. In his thirties, he became a high-ranking official like the General of Chengdu by virtue of his military merits and the relationship with his aunt, the Queen. Later, he held positions such as the Governor of Sichuan, the Governor of Shaanxi and Gansu, the General of Yili, and so on. He has always been at the highest level of the court.

Unfortunately, Qianlong later chose Jiaqing, which led to Fu Cha Mingliang being hidden in the dark.

When Jiaqing re-employed Fucha Mingliang, this old general who had lived a glorious life had to start over from the position of deputy governor-general.

However, Fu Cha Mingliang did not resist Jiaqing's order because of his low position. At the age of over 60, he still went into the battlefield and went into the mountains to suppress bandits, working hard for the Qing Dynasty, but he was still suspected by Jiaqing.

But even so, Fu Cha Mingliang still thought of the court at the last moment of his life.

Fu Cha Mingliang lost the three cities in eastern Sichuan and failed to capture Chongqing. He would not feel good if he went back, so he chose to stay and cover Woshubu's retreat, trying to buy time for Woshubu to evacuate the prefectures, counties, garrisons and fortresses along the river.

It would be better to evacuate the troops and population from these places to the rear, so as to increase the foundation for future wars.

(End of this chapter)