Chapter 131 Who in the world doesn’t know
The Nian Army fled very slowly with their baggage.

Although Song Laosan was half-hearted in his pursuit, he finally caught up.

From afar, it sounded like a fierce battle was taking place between the two sides.

The Shuzi Camp fired a dense barrage of rapid gunfire, and thick smoke billowed from the matchlock muskets of the Nian Army.

The greedy Nian Army was only concerned with saving the arms and silver when they fled, and they ran away when they saw all the prisoners.

The Yi Army in the prisoner camp inexplicably found themselves unarmed and being captured by a reinforced battalion of new soldiers with bayonets, and became prisoners of the Huai Army without knowing it.

Song Lao San smiled and ordered, “Okay, we have captured so many traitors, it’s enough for us to report. Take the prisoners back!”

“We are not traitors!”

Song Laosan’s simple face showed natural astonishment, “How come you are mixed up with them if you are not the Nianzi?”

“We are the captured Yi Army.”

Song Laosan scratched his head. “I heard that if the Nian rebels don’t join the group, they will be killed. How can there be prisoners? Did you surrender to the Nian rebels and join the group? Tell the truth, or I will kill you right away!”

There was an immediate cowardly confession, “General Song brought us into the group… but he hasn’t issued us weapons yet.”

“I told you, aren’t you still the Nian rebels? Don’t worry, we in the Huai Army treat prisoners well. We will let them go after they have worked for two days. Come on, take them away!”

It was very hard for the Song Club to chase the enemy. The guns were very heavy, and it was very tiring for both sides to fire into the air, right?
Another 1,501 strong Nian Army prisoners were captured, including Song Qing, the burly “traitorous Nian bandit leader”. There were a total of more than 1,000 soldiers, which was very stressful to guard. But the credit was almost done, and Song Lao San returned victorious.

As for Shao Quanzhong, he had nothing to do and was walking around with his hands behind his back. Hai Qing was directing the military police and supervising the Huai Army to clean up the battlefield carefully.

This was a huge battle, with more than 20,000 casualties on all sides. Cleaning up the battlefield was a tiring job.

The number of casualties includes: 11,000 Miao bandits were killed by the Yi Army, 4,000 were killed by the Nian Army, and 3,000 were killed by the Huai Army. 3,500 people were killed in the Yi Army, 3,000 people were killed in the Nian Army, and zero people were killed in the Huai Army.

Hai Qing was very excited about the job of cutting off heads, and his fair, beardless face was flushed with excitement. “These 3,000 Nian troops have long hair, so cut off their heads as well, and ask the logistics soldiers to pickle them with lime. Hey, hey, don’t cut off heads just because you see them. The pigtailed heads of the Yi Army are useless, so just bury them.”

The three thousand Nian bandits were killed by Miao Peilin’s subordinates. They cannot say who did it. This is definitely our achievement. Who objects?
Seeing Song Laosan coming back with a large number of “Nian bandit prisoners”, Shao Quanzhong looked worried, “It’s troublesome to have too many prisoners after winning a battle, and we have to chase the Nian bandits. Lin Buer! It’s your turn.”

It took Song Laosan a lot of time to go back and forth, but fortunately the Nian bandits were reluctant to leave their baggage behind and walked slowly.

After the captured Song Qing and his comrades heard that Lin’s troops were chasing them, a fierce gun battle broke out in the distance for a long time. The gunshots gradually faded away and headed towards the Nian Army’s old nest, Woyang.

The Shuzi Camp was Shao Quanzhong’s confidant, and its temporary station was not far from Shao Quanzhong’s battlefield headquarters. Coincidentally, among the prisoners tied together with ropes, Song Qing was the closest to Shao Quanzhong.

When the heads were almost cut off, the logistics soldiers worked in an assembly line to salt lime, load the bodies onto trucks, and then began to bury them.

The purpose of burying corpses on the battlefield is to prevent plague; it is impossible to dig graves and erect tombstones one by one.

The engineers dug a large mass grave and threw 24,500 bodies into it. Only 3,500 Yi soldiers had heads. This mass grave would later become a place where horror legends would circulate widely.

One general’s success is built on the bones of thousands of soldiers. When Shao Quanzhong pacified northern Anhui, more than 20,000 innocent souls were added to the list.

It was dark when they finished cleaning the battlefield, and they rushed back on a fast horse.

Song Qinger heard the messenger report to Shao Quanzhong, “The ‘Bo’ Battalion defeated the Nian Army. In one wave of attack, they broke through Woyang City. Zhang Lexing’s troops fled north in a panic. Battalion Commander Lin is now stationed in Woyang with his troops to suppress the local situation.”

Crazy Lin was notorious for his bravery, but Song Qing had heard of Baturu, who was awarded a yellow jacket and a blue feather. It was not surprising that this guy was so good at fighting.

According to Song Qing’s analysis, the Nian Army was probably frightened by the firepower of the Huai Army, and the soldiers had no intention of fighting, so they directly abandoned the city and fled. Song Qing sighed, the Huai Army was really powerful. He had fought with the Nian Army for so many years, and he had done his best to protect Bozhou. In just a few days after they entered Anhui, they had already captured Zhang Lexing’s lair.

Shao Quanzhong’s somewhat artificial surprise came to my ears, “Great! A great achievement. Brother Tian, ​​go and continue to pursue the Nian bandits. You must drive them out of northern Anhui.”

Hearing Tian Xing leading his men to set off overnight, Song Qing shook his head.

If you send out your pursuers in waves, is it possible for the Xingzi Battalion to catch up with the Nian bandits? Woyang is only fifty miles away from Henan. By the time your troops arrive, they will have already fled to Lin Province and are out of your defense zone.

Lin Buer’s messenger hadn’t finished speaking yet, “The Nian bandits are running fast. Commander Lin has seized a large number of letters from local militia leaders communicating with the Nian bandits in Zhang Lexing’s mansion, and asked his subordinates to deliver them urgently.”

Song Qing knew this. Zhang Lexing had been entrenched in Woyang for many years, and he could not support 30,000 soldiers with just one county, so he often had to go out to rob forage.

In order to protect themselves, the militiamen who were responsible for defending the surrounding areas had to pretend to be friendly with the Nian bandits and pay them food as protection fees in exchange for Zhang Lexing not attacking them.

Only Song’s Yi Army was not afraid of them, and no handle fell into the hands of the Nian bandits…

Shao Quanzhong seemed to be reading letters one by one, sighing.

“Alas, who in the world doesn’t know the Nian Rebellion? Look at them. They usually act like loyal subjects of the Qing Dynasty, but they are actually like this in secret? Eh? Song Qing actually surrendered to the Nian Rebellion? And he even wrote such a servile letter of surrender?”

Song Qing’s heart sank when he heard this. It’s over. I have more leverage over the Nian bandits. Zhang Lexing, ah Zhang Lexing, you, you are killing me.

Song Qing was in a state of anxiety and asked to meet with Shao Quanzhong to explain. He was immediately hit with the butt of a rifle and had to shut up and wait for the opportunity.

After the battlefield was cleaned up, the Huai Army set up camp here. The 1,500 prisoners led by Song Qing were taken to a newly built temporary prisoner camp and imprisoned together with 33,000 Miao bandit prisoners.

What surprised the captives was that the Huai Army had sufficient logistics and all the captives were provided with adequate meals. The treatment of the captives was better than when they were Miao bandits or Yi Army.

The only difference is that the Huai Army has meat to eat after winning the battle, but the prisoners have no meat to eat.

The number of prisoners was too large, and even though they were tied together with ropes, it was still a huge safety factor. Half of the Huai Army was sleeping while the other half was guarding, as if they were facing a powerful enemy.

In fact, they were worrying too much. When the Miao bandit captives heard that they would be released after working for a few days, they were reluctant to leave the Huai Army. Where can they find a place to eat? They were unwilling to leave even if we chased them away. We are willing to work for a few more days.

Tian Xing seemed very dissatisfied with the Xing Camp’s overnight attack, and the troops chasing the Nian bandits moved at a leisurely pace.

The Nian bandits are famous for their swift mobility. Zhang Lexing’s troops are almost entirely made up of local dragoons consisting of mules, unbred horses and donkeys. Can we still catch up with them?

Who would have thought that after marching for a night and passing through Woyang City where Lin Buer was temporarily stationed, they actually caught up with the Nian Army at the banks of the Bao River.

This time, the Nian Army brought their families with them. The large army included the elderly, the weak, women and children, and there were actually more than 100,000 of them. They brought all the pots and pans with them. Woyang City was carefully emptied, so they moved so slowly.

I don’t know how they could have lost those letters when they retreated with so many things.

The Xing Camp saw Zhang Lexing and the people crossing the river, but they did not attack them until they were halfway across. The Xing Camp watched from the side for a long time before all the Nian troops had finally crossed the river.

The other side of the river was the border of Henan Province. The Nian Army refused to move away and built a series of temporary villages along the Bao River.

Zhang Lexing had money, so he paid salaries to the 30,000 Nian troops and also formed a 200-man quick-gun guard. The main force of the Nian army, led by Prince Wo, headed straight for Heze, preparing to open up a new base there.

Six days later, the Nian Army, with sufficient food and money, high morale and fast guns, captured Heze. The Chahar governor Ishwangbu was killed and Senggelinqin fled to Tangjiakou.

(End of this chapter)