The gunfire at Lexington kicked off the American Revolution.
The gunfire at Jimingyi kicked off another Qing campaign against the Jinchuan bandits.
The gunfire started on April 21st.
The cause was that a group of bandits crossed the ceasefire line between the two armies and attacked the Mardang grain depot that had just been put into operation in the rear of the Qing army.
This depot was built by Fulehun, the former governor of Sichuan. Since the completion of the project will greatly shorten the time for the Qing army to transport grain from the rear to the front, after Fulehun resigned, the project was carried out by Bo Qing'e, the deputy general of the left in Dingxi.
Continue the construction under personal supervision.
After the construction of the grain depot was completed, Bo Qing asked General Dingxi to transfer a large amount of grain, ammunition, copper sheets, and artillery materials from various places for centralized storage.
The Mardang grain depot is located more than thirty miles behind the front line and belongs to the deep rear area of the Qing army, so there is no need to worry about attacks by Japanese thieves.
However, the more unlikely things happen, they happen.
On April 10th, a group of thieves sneaked into the rear and attacked the grain depot. Not only did they kill more than 100 Eight Banners soldiers and more than 300 Green Battalion officers and soldiers guarding the grain depot, but also caused a large number of equipment stored in the depot to be destroyed by fire, and the loss of money and food was indescribable.
count.
After hearing the news, Bo Qing'e rushed to the scene and looked at the granary that had been burned to ruins by the fire and the corpses of the dead officers and soldiers. Even though he had been in battle for a long time and saw how cruel he was, he couldn't help crying and even fainted for a time.
A final inventory of the accounts showed that the attack caused as much as 3.17 million taels of personal and property losses.
This incident also shocked the army and the imperial court.
Dingxi General Fengsheng was speechless for a long time after hearing the news.
Compared with previous predecessors, what Feng Shengquan inherited was a complete mess.
Due to the successive defeats at Muguomu, the Agui turmoil, and the Mingliang camp attack, the Qing army's command that blocked the Jinchuan and Jinchuan rivers was seriously out of line. In particular, a large number of Eight Banners generals died in civil strife, causing the Qing army's overall combat effectiveness to plummet.
After Feng Sheng'e took office, he made a secret report to the emperor. After three incidents, the number of junior officers of the Eight Banners such as Lan Ling and the number of forward commanders in the army was less than one-third of the original number; the number of mid-level officers such as forward guards and forward staff officers was less than four percent of the original number.
one; senior generals are less than one tenth.
The heaviest losses were suffered by the Eight Banners of Manchu and Mongolia. Compared with the thirty-eighth year of Qianlong's reign, the officer mortality rate was as high as 70%.
The forward battalion, firearms battalion, Shanpu battalion, and Jianrui battalion, the four Eight Banners Forbidden Forces that came from the capital, suffered a loss of up to 60% of their troops.
The Eight Banners relied on the elite Sauron soldiers to lose thousands of people.
At present, there are only more than 2,400 Eight Banners soldiers in the four battalions left in total. Due to the large number of missing officers, the forbidden brigade of the four battalions can be said to exist in name only.
Therefore, Feng Sheng'e suggested that the emperor issue an order to recruit new recruits from the Eight Banners garrison in the capital to supplement them. If the capital's disciples cannot be used, they can be recruited from the Eight Banners garrison in various places. If this is not possible, some battalions should be given the qualification to carry the flag.
In order to rebuild the Eight Banners in Beijing as soon as possible.
The severe situation of the Eight Banners Army in Jinchuan forced Qianlong to suspend the policy of the Han Army and the Eight Banners becoming Han people, and even planned to recall part of the Han Army that had become Han people.
However, doing so would bring disgrace to the emperor, so he issued an order to the Manchu, Mongolian, and Han Dynasty eight banners to reorganize their disciples, increase the number of soldiers raised by each banner, and conduct several additional tests to pay tribute to Tang'a in order to be able to go to the front of the Jinchuan Army as soon as possible.
Replenish your children.
Feng Sheng'e also asked the emperor to make an early decision on whether to fight or peace, so as to avoid the discussion before the army causing the morale of the army to fluctuate.
Feng Sheng'e personally prefers to continue to encircle and suppress the bandits, because although the attack on Mingliang Camp was a treasonous act initiated by some bold Eight Banners disciples, it also represented the will of a considerable number of officers and soldiers to a certain extent.
The siege of Jinchuan and Jinchuan has lasted for hundreds of years. The imperial court has spent countless money and food and sacrificed countless soldiers to greatly deplete the strength of the bandits. They are about to achieve their full success and suddenly have to negotiate a peace. Even if the peace negotiation has a purpose, it has a certain meaning.
Targeting was actually a strategy that served to pacify Jinchuan and Jinchuan, but after all, it was too sudden and many officers and soldiers could not accept it for a while.
Moreover, it was impossible to declare the true purpose of the peace talks to the officers and soldiers.
Therefore, the peace talks themselves are a kind of shaking for the officers and soldiers.
During Mingliang's reign, many Banner and Han officials wrote letters opposing the peace talks. After the attack on the camp, the number of officials opposed to the peace talks increased sharply. Feng Sheng'e was worried that if the court still insisted on peace talks with the rebels, it might trigger another rebellion among the officers and soldiers.
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Emperor Qianlong, who was in Beijing, was also worried about this. He summoned the Chief Military Minister Yu Minzhong, the Minister of Rites Fulehun, the Minister of War Yin Letu and other important ministers who originally proposed the peace talks many times, and asked them whether the peace talks could continue.
And how to prevent officers and soldiers from having extreme reactions due to peace talks.
However, after several discussions, there was no result, because another group of important ministers, headed by the Minister of Military and Aircraft Fulong'an, firmly opposed the peace negotiation with the same bandits.
The father-in-law said the father-in-law's principles, and the mother-in-law said the mother-in-law's principles. In the end, it was Qianlong himself who really made the decision.
Unexpectedly, before the emperor could make up his mind, the Mardan granary where the army's money, food and supplies were stored was attacked.
After the incident reached Beijing, the war faction immediately overwhelmed the peace faction and gained the upper hand.
Qianlong was also very angry and issued a decree asking Feng Sheng'e to stop all contact with the bandits, immediately organize a large army to attack, and secretly ordered that after the leaders of the bandits, such as Sonomu and Senggesang, were captured, they must wait until later.
After receiving the order to send troops, Fengsheng'e immediately organized officers and soldiers to attack.
It's just that unlike the previous offensives organized by General Dingxi, the officers and soldiers organized by Fengsheng'e this time were almost all officers and soldiers of the Green Camp.
For no other reason than the Eight Banners disciples can no longer undertake the task of fighting alone, or even alone.
Bo Qing'e, the left deputy general of Dingxi, requested to command more than 20,000 officers and soldiers to attack Minuo, the official village of Xiaojinchuan.
Meinuo Village was refortified by the Xiaojinchuan bandits. Not only was the fortress high and strong, the walls were solid, and many support points were set up on the periphery.
Bo Qing'e commanded the Qing army to divide the troops and surround them, using artillery to bombard them and attack them with sky cannons. He also ordered Jinchuan Town, Chengdu Town and other green battalion troops to sweep the perimeter.
The leader of Xiaojinchuan, Seng Gesang, who was defending Meno, concentrated all his forces on Meno. Both sides fired cannons and threw fire bombs at each other.
A stalemate formed for a while, with the Qing army unable to defeat the Menuo army and the Fan army unable to repel the Qing army.
In the Chengdu Zhendu Division, more than a thousand battalions led by Bao Guozhong, a disciple of the Eight Banners, captured Liangzhai in Hengshan, west of Menuo. Qianlong was overjoyed when he heard the news and ordered a reward for his future, including a black fox hat and a mink horse coat.
The deputy general of Jinchuan Town and Zu Yingyuan, a disciple of the Eight Banners, also led two thousand officers and soldiers to attack the Sedang blockhouse held by the rebels.
The large blockhouse that the army captured twice.
Bo Qing did not take into account the merits of his subordinates, so he asked General Dingxi to ask for merit for his ancestor Yingyuan.
The victory document in Feng Sheng'an said: "Ying Yuan was originally the leading minister and a subordinate of Jia Jia Shikai, the admiral of Sichuan. This man was devoted to the country and regarded death as home. His loyalty and bravery were rare among the children of the Han army."
When Qianlong learned of the good news, he ordered the Ministry of War to commend the meritorious officers and soldiers, and personally issued a decree to increase the rank of Zu Yingyuan in the general army, reward him with a peacock feather, and give him a second-grade crown.
Not without emotion, he said to He Shen who was waiting beside him: "I didn't expect that heroes would emerge one after another among the Han army."
"The blessing of the Qing Dynasty is also the blessing of the master."
He Shen stopped grinding the inkstone and said, "As far as I know, the former Bao Guozhong and the current ancestor Ying Yuan were both under the command of Jia Jia Shikai. Today's two generals and officers and soldiers fought bravely to kill the thieves. It may not be that they were commanded by Jia Jia Shikai."
Due to the inheritance of the guerrilla spirit of the members.”
"Shikai is a man who leads troops well."
Qianlong glanced at He Shen and said, "But I still have to work hard and temper my temper. I will go to Jingling to see him in a few months."