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The rebellion in Yanjing was sudden and spread quickly to the surrounding states and counties.
There was also chaos around Tianjin, with protest flags flying everywhere. The fastest growing group was led by a man named Wang Guichen.
Wang Guichen was once a soldier in the Dengzhou Navy. After the Qing Dynasty entered the Pass, he was unwilling to be a bondservant, so he gathered dozens of people and set up his lair in Sanjiaodian. On weekdays, dozens of people would gather or disperse, appearing and disappearing at random.
Sanjiaodian is located on the west side of Tianjin. As the water from Fenghe River, Lugou River, Baigou River, Baohe River and other rivers flowed in, the Weihe River (Haihe River) could not drain the water in time, thus forming a large lake.
In Hebei area, people are accustomed to calling lakes "dian". At this time, the Sanjiaodian on the west side of Tianjin is wider than the Baiyangdian in Hejian Prefecture to the south.
As soon as the area around Yanjing was in chaos, Wang Guichen recruited soldiers and horses, and gathered more than 500 people in just a few days. At that time, there was only one Niulu of 200 Qing troops stationed in Tianjin.
Wang Guichen sent some men to sneak into the city, preparing to seize the city with internal and external forces. On the same day, Liu Zhongqin led his fifty warships into Dagukou.
"Report! Boss, it's the Qin army coming, with the black flag of the Qin army on the ship, ten gunboats, ten gunboats in total... Boss, it's so majestic... Each gunboat has ten cannons on one side..." Mo Liang, his subordinate, ran back and forth, reporting breathlessly.
Wang Guichen wiped the sweat from his cheeks. His cheeks were a little thin, but the lines were firm, and his pair of inverted shaggy eyebrows made him look murderous.
He slammed the ghost-head knife in his hand to the ground and said, "We can't wait any longer. Let's seize Tianjin first."
Mo Liang asked in confusion: "Boss, are we going to rebel against the Qin Dynasty as well?"
"Who said we are going to rebel against the Qin Dynasty? Can you afford it?"
"The Qin army's coming is a good thing. Why did the boss take the risk of attacking Tianjin before the Qin army?"
The second in command, Li Sangui, who was standing next to him, scolded him, "You know nothing. The first in command is going to use Tianjin as a token of our surrender. Do you understand?"
"I understand. I understand..."
Wang Guichen was a very practical person. He did what he said. He immediately ordered his insiders to set fire in the city to create panic, and then he personally led 203 people to attack the north gate of Tianjin.
He chose to attack the north gate for a reason. He was very cunning and knew that it would be difficult to capture Tianjin with his own manpower. If he couldn't get the pledge of surrender, he had to at least make a gesture.
You know what, when Abale, the Niulu Zhangjing, and his Qing troops in the city learned that dozens of Qin warships were bombarding Dagukou, they thought this was a prelude to a large-scale landing of the Qin army. There were precedents for this in Korea. They only had 200 people, and they were really scared and almost wanted to abandon the city and flee.
Then civil strife broke out in the city, and then Wang Guichen led his men to attack the city. This series of events together was like a combination of punches. The Qing army defending the city had no intention of fighting. When Liu Zhongqin's warships approached the north gate of Tianjin, Wang Guichen had already led the way. He attacked the top of the city and was about to get his name.
"What's going on? Who dared to rob Tianjin under my nose? Boom! Boom..." Liu Zhongqin finally reached the city of Tianjin, and saw that the North Gate was about to be breached by a group of people. How could this be? Isn't this just picking peaches from my crotch
The Wei River (part of the Grand Canal) flows from south to north and meets the Lu River from Beijing. It then turns east and flows into the Bohai Sea. The west and north of Tianjin Wei City are close to the river, and the Qin army's artillery can completely cover the northern city wall which is within reach.
"Don't fire! Don't fire!" At the critical moment, Mo Liang ran to the shore with a small white flag and shouted at the top of his voice, "Heavenly soldiers and generals of the Qin Dynasty, we are good people, we are all good people! We are fighting against the Jiannu, don't fire!"
Liu Zhongqin felt very comfortable after hearing Mo Liang's shouting. After all, he had become a heavenly soldier. He leaned against the side of the boat and shouted, "Stop talking nonsense. No matter if you are good people or not, Tianjin belongs to me. If you know what's good for you, retreat quickly. Get out of here!"
"General of the Qin Dynasty, listen to me. We attacked Tianjin not to occupy it, but to give it to you, General."
"Hey, that's better. Whoever is the leader among you, tell him to come and pay his respects to me."
"General, our leader is fighting bloody battles on the city wall. Once we capture Tianjin, we will come to see you immediately."
Somehow, upon hearing the three words "big boss", General Liu Zhongqin felt very cordial, and the expression on his face eased a little.
"Come on, lower your firing angle for me and fire a few cannons at the city wall. Meng Yuan, take 300 men off the boat and go to help. Be careful and don't let others trick you. Damn it, if the boat capsizes in the ditch, it will be a disaster."
"General, rest assured. I know what to do. You can't trick us!" Meng Yuan responded and immediately went to prepare. He brought a lot of fire guns and thunder bombs. However, before he could take people off the ship, the cannons on the ship had already roared.
One after another, solid bullets whizzed past and slammed violently into the earthen wall of Tianjin, causing the thick wall to tremble continuously and raising dust. Even Wang Guichen, who was attacking the city nearby, had his face covered in dust and was terrified. What was the Qin army doing? Didn't that son of a bitch Mo Liang explain it clearly
Such fierce artillery fire caused the Qing army, which had no intention of fighting, to swarm down the city wall, grab the war horses, escape from the city from the south gate, and rush back to Yanjing.
It is hard to imagine that the Eight Banners soldiers, who were once feared by everyone, actually fled in panic after a barrage of artillery fire.
But this is often the case when a dynasty is about to perish. When the Qing Dynasty entered the pass, hundreds of thousands of Ming troops collapsed in an instant.
The Qing Dynasty is now in a precarious situation and has even lost its birthplace outside the Great Wall. Its situation is even more miserable than that of the Southern Ming Dynasty. One can imagine how low its morale is.
After easily taking Tianjin and collecting several hundred minions, Liu Zhongqin was so excited that he almost exploded.
After resting for a night in Tianjin, he sent Wang Guichen every two days to gather the people who had revolted in various places and use them for his own purposes.
He led his troops towards Beijing City, but as soon as they entered the Lu River, a gunboat in front of them stopped.
"What's going on? What's going on? Raise the flag and ask Ye Dagen why he stopped the boat." Liu Zhongqin's gums were clattering, as if he wanted to hiss someone.
"Report to the general, the gunboat ahead sent out a flag signal saying it was stranded."
"Stranded?" Liu Zhongqin's face turned green. "Quickly launch the boat. I want to go and take a look myself."
You don't know until you see it. When Liu Zhongqin saw the foul language, he had no choice but to curse.
It turned out that the water of Lu River was too shallow and the gunboats had a deep draft, so they couldn't get in at all. Liu Zhongqin had only 1,300 people, and his greatest reliance was the more than 200 cannons on the ten gunboats. Now that the gunboats could not enter the Lu River, what should he do
Bai Shiliang, the deputy commissioner, advised: "General Liu, since the gunboats cannot enter the Lu River, we might as well use Tianjin as a base and gather the nearby righteous people. When we are strong enough, it will not be too late to advance to Yanjing."
"Damn it, how long do we have to wait? Su Jin's cavalry is coming fast. I heard they are almost reaching Zhending Prefecture. Who knows if he will bypass Zhending and suddenly attack Yanjing. If we wait any longer, we may not get a share of this great achievement."
"General Liu, if we don't return to Jiangnan as planned, it will be hard to explain in the future. The King of Qin values our navy. General Liu, if you use the navy as the army, if something goes wrong, the King of Qin will be furious."
That's true. The navy is more difficult to train than the army, and these gunboats are precious treasures. After hearing what Bai Shiliang said, Liu Zhongqin had to give up the idea of converting the navy into the army and march to Yanjing on foot.
After towing out the stranded gunboat, Liu Zhongqin returned to Tianjin unhappily. As Bai Shiliang had said, he used Tianjin as a base to gather a large number of righteous citizens who had revolted near Yanjing.
In the city of Yanjing, Dorgon was already overwhelmed. He had previously ordered He Luohui to retreat to Taiyuan and asked Ajige to send troops to assist Lekedehun in defending Zhending. While defending these two places, he also planned to evacuate women and children from Miyun to Rehe, and then look for an opportunity to reunite with the Khorchin tribe.
The plan was going well, but suddenly, there was chaos around the capital. The military force in the capital was already scarce, and they were unable to suppress the raging civil unrest for a while. The country was in chaos, complete chaos!
If the Manchus outside the city were caught by the Han people, they would all be tortured to death. Even in the outer city where the Han people lived in the capital, ordinary Manchus no longer dared to enter with such arrogance as before.
At this time, news came that Teng Jitai of the Sutni tribe had led his troops to capture Zhangjiakou and was heading for Juyongguan. This was a big deal, as Juyongguan was the last gateway to the west of Yanjing. If He Luo wanted to withdraw in the future, he would have to go through Juyongguan, so this dangerous pass had to be defended first.
The overwhelmed Dorgon had no choice but to order Ajige to quickly return to defend Juyongguan, but what about the civil unrest that affected the entire Shuntian Prefecture and Baoding Prefecture
Before they could figure out how to deal with it, they suddenly heard that Tianjin had been lost and the Qin army had attacked from Bohai. Upon hearing this news, Dorgon was struck by lightning and almost fainted... ..
.(To be continued..)
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