While Emperor Xianfeng was waiting for news from Jiangsu, another bad news reached the palace.
The first one is that Baoding Prefecture organized a group training to encircle and suppress the bandits in Laiyuan. The reason why they encircled and suppressed this place first is because it is an important transportation road connecting Shanxi.
If it is opened as soon as possible, supplies from Shanxi can be transported to the capital.
The current Governor-General of Zhili, Guarjia Guiliang, is the father-in-law of Prince Gong and just took over as Governor-General of Zhili last year.
Guiliang organized all the soldiers and horses around Baoding and the landlords to train and prepare armed forces, hoping to complete his victory in one battle, capture Laiyuan in one fell swoop, and open up the road to Feihuxing.
Lu Feiyan adopted a strategy of avoiding the real situation and taking advantage of the weak point, and retreated the defenders of Laiyuan from Laiyuan to the mountain pass behind.
Guiliang's men easily occupied Laiyuan and used it as a logistics base for the attack. They then entered the mountains to pursue the fleeing rebels. However, as soon as they entered the mountains, they were constantly harassed by a small group of Huai navy troops in the mountains.
Their guns were very accurate. They often couldn't see where their people were, they could only hear the sound of gunshots. Then they chased them through the smoke, only to find that they had already disappeared without a trace.
These people were very cunning. They all retreated and even placed a grenade and booby trap where they had been.
When the pursuing Qing soldiers ran over, they tripped on the thin rope made of hair tied to the grenade ring, and with a "bang", another large piece of Qing soldiers were blown up.
Therefore, the soldiers organized by Guiliang were full of fear of the mountain road ahead. Qing troops were dying every moment, and no one knew whether they would be killed next.
In this way, the Qing army, which was originally preparing for a quick battle, was dragged into the mountains.
At this time, the main force of the Taihang Column secretly came out of Fuping County one night, and in the early morning of the same day they captured Shunping County, the capital of Baoding. Some of the troops left behind plundered the entire Shunping County treasury and large households in the county. The main force
After a short rest, they reached Baoding Fucheng the next morning.
Several special operations team members dressed up as farmers rushing to the morning market and drove a donkey carrying gunpowder to the city gate.
When the Qing army guarding the gate realized something was wrong, the fuse on the donkey had already been ignited.
The blindfolded donkey was frightened, but it could only spin in circles. There was a loud noise and the city gate was blown down.
At this time, the cavalry of the Taihang column came over from a distance, and it was too late for the remaining Qing troops to block the city gate.
Before the artillery on the city wall could fire, the Taihang column had already rushed into the city gate. Some people dismounted and climbed up the steps along the city wall.
The soldiers of the Taihang Column often hid in the corner and threw a bunch of grenades. When the enemy was stunned by the bombing, commandos armed with shotguns would open the way in front.
Soldiers holding rifles were responsible for cleaning up injured or fleeing Qing troops, as well as those Qing musketeers who were preparing for cold shots in the distance.
With such cooperation, the city gate was quickly taken down. The soldiers who entered the city advanced along the streets to the Zhili Governor's Yamen. At the Governor's Yamen, the Taihang column encountered sporadic resistance.
These were the Qing troops sent by Governor Guiliang to the rear. Guiliang himself had already slipped out through the back door under the protection of the guards of Dubiao Camp.
The governor has all fled, and no one in the city can organize a decent resistance.
The Taihang column actually captured Baoding City, where the Zhili Governor's Palace is located, at a negligible cost.
This suddenly shocked the entire Zhili and the entire capital.
Xianfeng had no choice but to ask Shengbao and Senggelinqin to mobilize troops to regain Baoding.
Baoding is too important to Beijing. After crossing Baoding, the rebel army can penetrate directly into the capital without any obstacles in between.
Shengbao and Senggelinqin also knew the seriousness of the matter, so they quickly dispatched 15,000 troops and headed west to recapture Baoding.
Just when Seng Gelinqin led the 15,000 troops were about to reach Baoding Fucheng, the 2,000 soldiers of the Taihang column who had captured Baoding Fucheng had already packed up their supplies and withdrew westward.
Each of them had a horse to travel, and all the supplies were transported on carts. This time, the Taihang column went to Baoding and looted the Zhili Governor's Office. At the same time, they conducted a thorough search of the wealthy households in the city, and their belongings were left behind.
It was also to support the Qing government, so I simply used all of it to support the cause of resisting the Qing Dynasty.
The Taihang Column suddenly had millions of taels of gold and silver in their hands, as well as a large amount of food supplies.
There was a lot of food collected from the landlords and gentry, and they could not take it all away, so the Taihang column distributed the food to the poor people. Although each family did not receive much food, it was enough to make the people grateful.
You must know that there is a serious food shortage around Beijing. Nearly 100,000 refugees have gathered outside Beijing. However, Emperor Xianfeng could not provide any food for relief.
In this way, the Taihang column retreated all the way west to Fuping. When it went out, it had 2,000 people, but when it came back, it became 20,000.
There was no other way. Some poor people had to retreat with the Taihang Column. They had no way of survival outside. However, the Taihang Column had no time to wait for them. They just pointed out the direction to them and stepped up their retreat.
For the current Taihang column, speed is the decisive factor in victory.
The main force that returned to Fuping County unloaded their burdens and rushed to Laiyuan County with lightning speed. They raided and occupied Laiyuan County again, completely surrounding Baoding's bandit-suppressing Qing troops in Feihuxing.
All the materials and supplies for the bandit-suppressing army were stored in Laiyuan County, and now they have all fallen into the hands of the Taihang column.
Now these people were panicking. Being hung up and beaten by the Taihang column in the mountains these days, these people had already become frightened birds.
In order to prevent Seng Gelinqin from rushing over to cause trouble, Lu Feiyan decided to eat Feihuxing's 5,000-strong Qing army first.
So the Taihang column in the mountains and the main force in Laiyuan County launched a general attack in one night.
These Qing troops hiding in the camp were still practicing regiments, but they themselves started to cause chaos in the camp. When they heard the sounds of charging and killing from both sides, they broke out "camp roar".
The generals of this Qing army were also aggrieved. At first, they successfully occupied Laiyuan County, which greatly boosted the morale of this team composed of Baoding local green battalions and regiment training.
So they took advantage of the victory and pursued it, but when they entered the mountains, they discovered how rogue these thieves were. They never collided with you head-on.
When you enter, they retreat, and when you retreat, they disturb you. They are as annoying as flies.
When the news of Baoding's failure came through, the general began to retreat. At first, he wanted to ignore the harassment of the bandits and retreat with all his strength, but this almost caused the team to collapse, so he had to slow down and stayed like this for two days.
They haven't even evacuated to Laiyuan County yet.
After setting up camp and counting the number of people, the general felt his heart go cold.
When we entered the mountain, there were still more than 5,000 people in the team, but now there are less than 4,000, which is a full quarter reduction. The morale of the team is also extremely low.
Coupled with the news that Laiyuan County was occupied, everyone was only tempted to run away.
Therefore, the "camp roar" occurred under the charge of the Taihang column.
In this battle, the most important thing the Taihang Column did was to capture prisoners.
The closed mountain road provided great convenience for capturing prisoners. In fact, many prisoners did not want to run away. They dropped their weapons and squatted on the spot, waiting for the Taihang column to capture them.
Through this battle, the Taihang Column obtained a large amount of materials and funds, brought back tens of thousands of young and strong laborers from outside the mountains, and also had three to four thousand prisoners in hand.
Dong Shuheng has sent them a group of technical personnel, who will help the Taihang column prospect for minerals and build coking plants, cement plants, and steel plants. The mineral resources in the Taihang Mountains are very rich.
Areas like those occupied by the Taihang Column were basically important mining areas in later generations, and were very rich in coal and iron resources.
With these manpower, the Taihang Column can renovate the mountain roads and build coal mines and cement plants first. With cement, they can repair roads and build defensive fortresses at a much faster rate.
To the east, Seng Gelinqin successfully occupied Baoding Fucheng. However, he did not gain any advantage in Baoding. What could be robbed was basically robbed.
So the frantic Qing army reached out to ordinary people in Baoding and snatched away all the little food they had received from the Taihang column.
Now there was no food at all in Baoding, and the people were forced to leave their homes. The wealthy families all ran to Beijing, and the ordinary people ran to the Taihang Mountains in the west.
They finally figured out that the thieves in Taihang were better than the imperial court. This is why in troubled times, people like to run to the mountains and forests. Just like Confucius said, "A harsh government is fiercer than a tiger!"
The arrival of these refugees has once again enhanced the strength of the Taihang Column. The Taihang Column is now not short of food, but short of men.
The counties currently occupied by the Taihang Column are poor counties near mountainous areas with sparse populations. There is little land in the mountains and cannot support such a large population.
However, the Taihang Column is not worried about the food problem now. They have the headquarters to deliver a steady stream of food to them. After they build the factories and mines in the mountains, they can exchange coal and steel with the Huaihai Company. In this way, they will not only not eat for free, but also
Can create benefits.
As the refugees settled in the Taihang Mountains, an attraction effect was formed. Who doesn’t have relatives outside?
Through word of mouth, the news that people could survive in the Taihang Mountains spread, and those who could not survive outside the mountains began to migrate into the mountains.
For this reason, the Taihang Column had to set up refugee resettlement sites at several passages into the mountains to uniformly arrange for these refugees.
When Emperor Xianfeng learned that Baoding was lost, he was furious and immediately wanted to remove Guiliang from his post and investigate the crime.
After all, Guiliang was a veteran minister with a banner background. He was finally dismissed from his post, but he was not held accountable.
When Emperor Xianfeng was dealing with Guiliang, he had been observing Yi?'s every move. The strange thing was that Yi? did not intercede for his father-in-law.
However, this made Xianfeng even more uneasy about his sixth brother. Before, Xianfeng placed Yi?
…
Senggelinqin did not continue to attack Fuping County and Laiyuan County to the west. Instead, he left some soldiers to guard Baoding and returned with his army.
Because another piece of bad news came - the bandits in Tianjin broke out...