Chapter 458: Uprising Against Encirclement and Suppression

Qu Shaoyang caused such a big fuss, how could Zhang Xiulan, as the highest official in Dongbiandao, stay out of it?

Upon hearing that Qu Shaoyang had led his troops to surround the East Road government office, Zhang Xiulan immediately came out to see Qu Shaoyang, trying to persuade him to stop.

“Shaoyang, I know you’ve been wronged, but you can’t be so impulsive.

What’s the difference between what you’re doing and rebelling?
What if the imperial court sends a large army to encircle and suppress us? How can you resist? Wouldn’t you end up harming everyone?”

Zhang Xiulan was really scared.

With Qu Shaoyang’s current prestige in the Eastern Road, he will definitely get a lot of support.

If Qu Shaoyang really raised the flag of rebellion, it is estimated that most of the people would follow him. This would be too scary.

“In this political career, with all its ups and downs, no one can say that they have never experienced setbacks.

Wasn’t my adoptive father also falsely accused and dismissed from his official position?
You have done a good job as the Inspector General over the years and enjoy a high reputation among the people. You are a capable official.

Especially this time, he led the army to fight against Russia and protected the people in the eastern road from disaster, and his work was hard and his contribution was great.

The imperial court will not let a capable person like you sit idle, and your adoptive father cannot watch you lose your job.

Now, the Empress Dowager and Your Majesty have not returned to the capital from their hunting trip in the west, and the court is uneasy.

Please be patient for a while. When the two palaces return, your foster father will definitely find a way to get you back to your post.”

Zhang Xiulan loved and respected this adopted son from the bottom of his heart.

When Zhang Xiulan was falsely accused and dismissed from office, it was Qu Shaoyang, He Houqi and others who made arrangements and spent a large sum of money to get Zhang Xiulan reinstated.

Now that Qu Shaoyang is in trouble, Zhang Xiulan naturally cannot sit idly by. He will definitely try his best to mediate and seek justice for Qu Shaoyang.

But if Qu Shaoyang rebels, things will become difficult.

“Listen to your foster father, stop before anything goes wrong, and don’t do anything stupid.

You should go back and rest for a while and wait patiently for news. You have been fighting all over the country for the past two years and have worked hard. It is time for you to take a good rest.

Don’t worry, as long as the two palaces return safely and the Russians withdraw their troops, the merits and demerits will be settled.”

In fact, not only Qu Shaoyang felt aggrieved, but Zhang Xiulan also felt aggrieved.

When most of the Fengtian Province fell, the Eastern Road always held its ground, not a single city was occupied by the Russian army, and countless enemies were killed.

Under normal circumstances, all the officials of Dongbiandao should be rewarded for their great achievements.

However, Tsarist Russia had occupied most of the Northeast and refused to withdraw its troops, and the negotiations between the two countries were at a stalemate.

In order to appease the situation and ensure that the Empress Dowager and the Emperor could return to Beijing smoothly, the court had to submit to the powers.

Not only did the officials from the East Road not receive any rewards, they were also punished by their superiors. Who would be happy about this?

But what can you do if you are not happy?
Zhao Shuqiao, the Grand Councilor who escorted Cixi all the way to Xi’an, was eventually sentenced to death in order to appease the anger of the foreign powers.

Even the people of Xi’an City begged for mercy, but they were unable to save their lives.

That was Zhao Shuqiao’s contribution in protecting the emperor, but wasn’t it useless?

In the capital, Prince Duan Zai Yi and Duke Fuguo Zailan were both sentenced to death with a reprieve from execution, but the court granted them a pardon and exiled them forever to Xinjiang, never to be allowed to return to Beijing.

They were princes and dukes, real royal relatives with immense power, yet didn’t they almost lose their lives?
In order to please the great powers and make them withdraw their troops, the imperial court is now willing to do anything.

Zhang Xiuan has been in the officialdom for many years and is well aware of the dangers involved. For now, he can only endure it for the time being and wait for the Empress Dowager and the Emperor to return to Beijing before thinking of a solution.

“Shao Yang, you are still young and don’t understand. In the officialdom, dismissal is not a big deal.

Many people were dismissed and then returned to work soon after, and even got promoted. It’s not surprising at all.” Zhang Xiluan advised earnestly.

“Godfather, you don’t need to persuade me anymore, I have made up my mind.

Zengqi can dismiss anyone he wants, but he can’t use me to please his Tsarist father.

If I do not resist today and allow Zengqi and the Russians to oppress me, the Russian army will be able to march to the east tomorrow and the people will be in dire straits again.

I don’t care about my own honor or disgrace, but I cannot let down so many of my brothers who died on the battlefield, and the people who supported me without hesitation. I must give them an explanation.”

Qu Shaoyang was determined and did not waver no matter how Zhang Xiulan tried to persuade him.

“I will have to bear with you for a while. Once things are settled here, if you don’t want to live in Phoenix City, Shao Yang will send you away.”

As the uprising has not started yet, no information can be leaked, so Zhang Xiulan can only be confined in the East Road Yamen.

When the dust settles in the future, Zhang Xiulan can go wherever he wants.

Upon hearing this, Zhang Xiulan wanted to speak, but didn’t know what to say.

Now the guarding forces in Phoenix City have been controlled by Qu Shaoyang, and the same situation is probably true in other places.

Zhang Xiulan knew that Qu Shaoyang was determined to cause trouble and he would definitely not be able to stop him.

In the end, Zhang Xiulan had no choice but to return to the government office and try to find other solutions.

After Qu Shaoyang took control of Phoenix City, he immediately arranged for Er Yuehong and Meng Lanxin to lead their troops back to Linjiang City.

He also instructed them to control Linjiang, Fusong, Tadian, Niangniangku, Gudonghe and other places to prevent the enemy from infiltrating and causing trouble.

That was Qu Shaoyang’s last base. Once the uprising failed, they could rely on the mountain terrain and mass base to fight the enemy to the end.

Qu Shaoyang wrote a letter personally and asked Meng Lanxin to take it back to Chen Xiuyun, explaining his current situation.

At the same time, he reminded Chen Xiuyun to guard the rear area, especially important materials such as gold mines, coal mines, and iron ore, which are the foundation of the war.

The arsenal, which was the former gunpowder workshop, produced as many types of shells, bullets, grenades, explosives, etc. as possible.

Another thing is food and fodder. We need to seize the time to collect and stockpile food from all over the place.

At this point, there is no way out. We have to give it a try, even if it means risking everything we have.

Qu Shaoyang has taken control of Phoenix City, and news has also come from Chen Yunhan that Xiuyan, Kuandian and Huairen have all been taken control.

Tonghua and Hailong were originally the areas of activity of the Loyal Army. Qu Shaoyang arranged people to go there to assist and directly control Tonghua City and part of Hailong.

At this point, all areas under the jurisdiction of Dongbiandao were under the control of Qu Shaoyang.

So Qu Shaoyang ordered people to write a manifesto to attack the invading Russian army and the traitorous officials.

The article clearly states that the Russian invaders’ chaos, disturbances in China, invasion of our territory, killing civilians, and harming lives are truly heinous crimes.

The call was made to the people of the Northeast to rise up and resist, vowing to fight the Russian invaders to the end, expel the Russian invaders, recover our territory, and protect our people. At the same time, the manifesto also exposed the shameless behavior of Qing government officials who surrendered and sold out their country.

In the name of protecting the people, they are actually greedy for life and afraid of death, selling out the country for their own benefit.

He disregarded the country and the people, sold out the people’s interests and curryed favor with the Russian invaders. This is truly hateful and everyone deserves to kill him.

The manifesto called on people with lofty ideals in Dongbiandao, Fengtian Province, and even the entire three northeastern provinces to jointly denounce the rebellion, unite, expel the Russian invaders, and return a stable Northeast to the people.

The document announced that from now on, Dongbian Dao would be independent, no longer under the jurisdiction of Fengtian Province, and no longer obey the orders of General Fengtian.

After the manifesto was written, people were asked to copy countless copies, which were then posted in cities throughout the Eastern Road and distributed throughout Fengtian and Jilin provinces.

Let people from all over the country know that the Eastern Province has declared independence and is rising up to resist Russia.

As soon as the manifesto was released, the entire Fengtian Province and even the Northeast region were shaken, and anti-Russian volunteers from all over the country responded and rushed to join.

The people of the eastern region donated money and manpower and joined the cause.

On the other side in Fengtian, Zengqi was so angry that he almost vomited blood after reading the manifesto.

This manifesto is tantamount to tearing Zengqi’s face off and stepping on it. How can we tolerate this?
Zengqi immediately reported to the court that Qu Shaoyang, the inspector of the Eastern Circuit, was planning a rebellion.

The Tsarist Russia was furious when it heard the news.

The Russian senior official in Kwantung, Alexeev, realized the seriousness of the situation, so he ordered Cherpisky, Goribalsky and Colonel Mishchenko of the Railway Protection Army to divide their troops into three groups to once again encircle and suppress the Eastern Road.

At the same time, he ordered Cossack Cavalry Captain Madritov to lead a special forces team composed of traitors, collaborators and secret agents to engage in conspiracy activities such as appeasement and assassination.

These people distributed leaflets and posted notices everywhere, using high positions and generous salaries as bait to lure people in an attempt to sow discord, assassinate and disintegrate the resistance forces in the East Road.

With the cooperation of the Qing Dynasty’s patrol teams, the three armies of Tsarist Russia launched attacks on the rebel forces in Tonghua, Fenghuangcheng, Xiuyan and other places.

Qu Shaoyang was well aware of the strength of the Tsarist Russian Army, which was particularly good at positional warfare.

Therefore, Qu Shaoyang repeatedly instructed the generals of various departments not to fight the enemy head-on, but to adopt various methods to harass the enemy and use the terrain advantages to fight guerrilla warfare and protracted wars.

On September 12, as soon as Chaerpisky led the Tsarist Russian army into Hailong and Tonghua, they were immediately attacked by the troops of Wang Heda and Dong Laodao.

While the enemy was still in shock, Chen Yunhan, Zhao Zhengguo and others led an elite cavalry force to attack Xinbinbao, the seat of Xingjing Hall.

Xinbin was originally named Hetuala. The old city, about 30 miles west of Xinbin Fort, was the first capital of the Later Jin Dynasty established by Nurhaci, the founder of the Qing Dynasty.

Ten miles further west is Yongling, the burial site of the ancestors of the Qing Dynasty.

This place is the birthplace of the Qing Dynasty, and there must not be any mistakes.

Therefore, the Tongzhi of Xingjing Hall hurriedly asked for help from the Deputy Governor-General of Xingjing. However, the Deputy Governor-General of Xingjing had no soldiers to mobilize, so he could only beg for reinforcements from Nicholas who was stationed there.

Nicholas led more than 500 Russian troops from Yongling to the outskirts of Xinbinbao. Sun Shouchang, the co-governor of Xingjing Hall, hurriedly led officers and soldiers to welcome them.

At this time, Chen Yunhan and others had been waiting for a long time. They ambushed at the mountain pass outside Xinbinbao, waiting for the Russian army to tire themselves out, and suddenly launched a fierce attack on the Russian army, with bullets raining down.

More than a hundred of Nicholas’s men were killed immediately, and the Qing army and the Tsarist Russian army were forced to flee in all directions, suffering heavy losses.

Chen Yunhan led his troops to charge and in just ten days, they captured Xinbinbao three times, Laocheng once, and fought fiercely in Yongling.

Countless Russian and Qing troops were wounded or killed, and a large amount of military pay, firearms and other supplies were seized, achieving a great victory.

On the other hand, Liu Yonghe and others stationed in Tonghua deliberately withdrew from the city after learning the news.

When Chaerpiski led the main force to Tonghua City, they found it was an empty city.

Before he could react, Liu Yonghe, Liu Binghe, Yang Yulin and others led their troops to surround and besiege Chaerpiski’s troops in the city, closing the door and beating the dog.

Czerpiski’s troops suffered heavy casualties, and by the time they broke out of the encirclement, they had less than half their strength left.

In this battle, a large number of military equipment and supplies were seized, which was a rich harvest.

The other two Russian armies were also blocked by the Dingbian Army. The one attacking Xiuyan was pinned down in the Xiaopianling, Xidadi and Mingziyu areas.

The Tsarist Russian army that attacked Phoenix City was pinned down in the Dahei Mountain and Baiyungou areas. The Tsarist Russian army was unable to capture the city and suffered heavy losses.

The three-pronged encirclement campaign of the Tsarist Russian army lasted for more than a month, but ultimately ended in failure and the army had to withdraw in disgrace.

Under the jurisdiction of Hailong Hall is a place called Shancheng Town, which is adjacent to the China-Eastern Railway, connected to Fengtian City in the west and Jilin City in the east. It is the transportation bottleneck for the invading Russian army.

The Tsarist Russian army stockpiled a large amount of weapons, ammunition, food, wages and other supplies here.

At the end of October, Qu Shaoyang learned that the Tsarist Russian army was preparing to transport the stored military rations to Fengtian City, so he immediately led his troops to attack Shancheng Town.

In a few days, they went in and out three times, seized a large number of guns, ammunition and supplies, destroyed the government office, and severely punished the pawnshop owners in Qingyuan and Shuangcheng who had colluded with the Tsarist Russian army and aroused great public outrage.

Upon hearing the news, Yiling’a, the chief steward of Hailong Hall, was panicked and hurriedly wrote a letter to Qu Shaoyang, begging him to find a way to return the military rations and release the captured sentry officers, sentry leaders and others.

Qu Shaoyang took advantage of the situation and led more than 200 people to Hailong under the pretext of negotiating to return food and release people, but secretly dispatched a large army to besiege Hailong City.

Upon seeing this, Yiling’a, the general manager of Hailong Hall, was shocked and quickly sent people to Fengtian and Jilin to ask for help.

Under the fierce artillery fire of the Dingbian Army and the cooperation of the people in the city, Qu Shaoyang led his troops in a fierce attack for two days and broke through Hailong City. Seeing that the situation was not good, Yiling’a abandoned the city and fled.

After the Dingbian Army entered the city, they posted documents to announce it to the people.

It is stated that the Russian invaders have deceived China and the people have suffered greatly. The rebel army is determined to join hands with entrepreneurial heroes to wipe out the Russian invaders, and the people do not need to panic.

Qu Shaoyang strictly disciplined the Dingbian Army and did not harm anyone after entering the city, which earned him great love from the people.

Under the banner of “resisting Russian invaders, recovering national territory, and punishing traitors”, the Eastern Righteous Army successively repelled the invasions of Tsarist Russia and the Qing army, occupied Xinbinbao and Hailongcheng, and achieved a major victory in the anti-encirclement and suppression campaign.

Just as Zhang Xiulan thought, Qu Shaoyang and the Dingbian Army had a very high reputation in the Eastern Road and even in Liaodong.

Rebel armies, common people, and scattered Boxer members from all over the country came to join the cause, and many wealthy gentry donated money and supplies to support the rebel army.

Even some Qing troops secretly helped, providing intelligence, acting as traitors, etc.

It was the middle of winter, the weather was freezing cold, and the Qing army and the Tsarist Russian army had suffered repeated setbacks and dared not send out troops again.

Qu Shaoyang also ordered all units to rest in place, while at the same time seizing the time to build fortifications, manufacture weapons, and raise food and wages in preparation for an attack after the weather warmed up, gradually expanding the occupied area and tying down the Russian troops in Luda to reinforce Fengtian.

Since its invasion of Northeast China, Tsarist Russia had never suffered such a great defeat.

At this point, they finally understood one thing: the Qing Dynasty was cowardly and its officials were incompetent, but the people of the Northeast were not cowardly.

Northeastern people have the fighting spirit in their bones. When faced with oppression from invaders, they will resist without hesitation.

The Russian officials stationed in the Northeast were panicked, especially Chaerpitsky who was stationed in Fengtian. He quickly reported the matter to his superiors and put pressure on the Fengtian general and the Qing court, demanding that the Qing court send troops to wipe out the Dingbian Army.

(End of this chapter)