Military Aircraft Division.

The foreman, Minister of Military Aircraft Fu Lehun, and the Minister of Military Aircraft Qinggui, Liang Guozhi, and Yuan Shoutong had been on duty all night last night, but not because of the National Assembly that would be held soon, but because the war in Taiwan had been going well, but it suddenly took a sharp turn for the worse.

After the Tiandihui rebellion broke out in Taiwan last year, the Qing court ordered Chai Daji, the former garrison of Fuzhou, to serve as the chief military officer of Taiwan, and together with Huang Shijian, the commander of the Fujian Navy Division, Ren Chengen, the commander of the Fujian Green Battalion, and Xu Dingshi, the deputy general of the Fujian Security Association, led more than 7,000 soldiers and horses to cross the sea to quell the rebellion.

Two months later, the Qing army successfully landed at Lukang in the southwest corner of Taiwan, and then launched an attack on the rebels.

At first, the battle was unfavorable to the Qing army, and Xu Dingshi, the deputy general of the Fujian Security Association, was surrounded by the superior ambush set in advance by the rebel leader Lin Shuangwen.

However, Xu Dingshi's troops did not panic like Taiwan's green battalion because they were encircled, and on the one hand, they used the surrounding terrain to form a defensive line with muskets and mountain artillery, and the soldiers cooperated with each other and stubbornly resisted.

The rebels numbered more than 20,000, but their equipment was inferior to that of the officers and soldiers, and although they had a numerical advantage, they were never able to break through the defense line of Xubu.

After receiving the news of Xu Bu's request for help, the new chief soldier of Taiwan Town, Chai Daji, hurriedly led troops to rescue.

The battle report said that after Chai Daji arrived with his troops, he launched a fierce attack on the back of the rebels, which was said to be "arrows like flying locusts, covering the sky and covering the sun", and Xu Dingshi's troops also immediately attacked outward from the encirclement, and the rebels could not arrive, and they were instantly crushed, with heavy casualties and no army.

After the war, more than 3,000 rebels were killed and killed, and thousands more surrendered.

The thief leader Lin Shuangwen led the remnants to retreat to Zhuluo County, but was hit by the combined efforts of the military and civilians of Zhuluo County, and there were countless casualties, so that Lin Shuangwen could not rely on Zhuluo.

Feeling the fierce loyalty of the military and people of Zhuluo County to the Qing Dynasty, the Military Aircraft Department reported the matter to the emperor, and Qianlong in the deep palace in order to commend the loyalty of the people of Zhuluo County, took the meaning of "Jiaqi loyalty", and changed Zhuluo County to Chiayi County.

This defeat also caused a split within the rebels, and many backbone elements of the Heaven and Earth Society were timid, fearing that they would be uprooted by the Qing army, so they led their troops to break away from Lin Shuangwen, including Yan Yan, a fellow villager who introduced Lin Shuangwen to the Heaven and Earth Society.

Yan Yan was previously named the master of the torture hall by Wan Yunlong, the leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, for assisting Lin Shuangwen in instigating the uprising.

Lin Zhenguo, the deputy marshal of the rebel army, surrendered immediately after being captured by the Qing army, and confessed a lot of details about the Heaven and Earth Society, and even said that Lin Shuangwen dared to launch an uprising in Taiwan because he received support from within the Qing army.

The evidence is that after Lin Shuangwen returned to Taiwan from the mainland, he not only brought a lot of money, but also brought a lot of weapons.

This information made the Fujian side attach great importance to it, and Yu Wenyi, the governor of Fujian, personally tried it, but Lin Zhenguo only knew that there was support behind Lin Shuangwen, and this person had a very high status in the Qing court, but he didn't know who it was.

In the end, he was punished, and the one who secretly supported Lin Shuangwen was the Qing army official in Fujian, so shocked that Yu Wenyi hurriedly ordered Lin Zhenguo to be killed.

I didn't dare to report it at all, because it would put everyone in Fujian officialdom at risk.

didn't dare to report it to the imperial court, but really suspected that there were thieves in Fujian officialdom, so Yu Wenyi began a secret investigation with the support of Debao, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang.

So far, there has been no result.

The first battle was victorious, and the Qing army crossed Taiwan to make persistent efforts, and won three battles in June and July, although there were not many enemies annihilated, and they failed to surround the thief leader Lin Shuangwen, but they effectively dealt a blow to the uprising of the Heaven and Earth Society, and recovered nearly half of the cities and towns occupied by the rebels.

Taiwan's general soldier Chai Daji sent a more detailed report to the governor of Fujian, saying that although Lin Shuangwen's rebels were many thieves, most of them had no intention of opposing the Qing Dynasty at all, but were only coerced by the thieves or seeking refuge.

Therefore, it is proposed to suppress and appease the strategy of resolutely attacking the core of the thieves on the one hand, and leniency on the other hand on the thieves, so that it will not be long before the thieves will collapse themselves.

Yu Wenyi agreed with Chai Daji's pacification policy, and more than 10,000 thieves came to surrender in just over a month, and many places began to contact the Qing army, hoping to get their protection, and were also willing to provide financial and food support for the official army to suppress the thieves.

Debao, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, said happily: "The forest thieves have betrayed their relatives and left, and at most more than a month, Taiwan can be determined." ”

Ren Chengen, the commander of Fujian's Green Battalion, said that although the rebels were nominally composed of members of the Heaven and Earth Society, most of them were actually from Zhangzhou, Fujian.

However, it was not the officers and soldiers who fought more tenaciously against the rebels, and even refused to surrender, but the people of Quanzhou.

Ren Chengen analyzed that the reason why the people of Quanzhou helped the official army to become the enemy of the rebels was mainly because they were afraid that the Zhangzhou people would harm their interests after ruling Taiwan.

Therefore, it was proposed to vigorously appease the people of Quanzhou and focus on cracking down on the people of Zhangzhou.

The fine work also found that the thief leader Lin Shuangwen repeatedly asked the rebels not to be enemies of the Quanzhou people, saying that they should unanimously fight against the Qing Dynasty, but the Heaven and Earth Society was originally a group of rabble, without any program, and the previous Zhangzhou people and Quanzhou people fought in Taiwan for hundreds of years, and the contradictions between the two governments could not be reconciled at all.

As a result, most of the Quanzhou people, who accounted for one-third of Taiwan's population, fell to the Qing army, and in addition, the Tiandihui rebel army failed one after another, and the internal division was sharply reduced from the original 100,000 to less than 20,000, and the Qing army was chased by nowhere to stay.

Debao, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, even wrote to the imperial court, believing that a governor should be set up in Taiwan to govern it, so as to increase the imperial court's rule over Taiwan, so as not to make enemies of the imperial court at every turn.

At this juncture, the war suddenly changed dramatically.

First of all, Huang Shijian, the commander of the Fujian Navy Division, sent an 800-mile express report, saying that there were criminals from Yangyi warships who attacked the grain and grass transfer point set up by the Qing army in Penghu, destroyed 4 of our warships, and killed more than 20 of our Qing soldiers.

Later, Yu Wenyi, the governor of Fujian, forwarded an urgent report to Ren Chengen, the governor of Fujian Green Battalion, saying that he had received a report that the thief leader Lin Shuangwen might have fled to the area of Fengshan County in southern Taiwan, so he led his troops to exterminate him.

However, when fighting with the thieves, suddenly a black flag thief army came from its flank, and in addition to the Han thief soldiers, there were many deep-eyed sorghum red-haired Xiyi soldiers, the number of whom was not less than hundreds, and the sharpness of the muskets and artillery was far better than that of our Qing soldiers.

The black flag soldier was very brave and good at fighting, not only equipped with a large number of firearms, but also the thief leader was not afraid of death, and repeatedly led the thief soldiers to brave the arrows and guns to charge into battle.

Ren Chengen saw that the thief was very young, and in the process of charging into battle, his crown was shattered once, and he wore a robe and hakama, but he was not injured.

Under his leadership, the Black Flag thieves became more and more courageous, and the officers and soldiers could not resist and had to retreat.

Subsequently, the rebels took the black flag thieves as the backbone, and entangled a large number of thieves to storm Tainan, where the capital city of Taiwan was located.

The loss of Tainan revived the momentum of the rebels, who were already struggling to survive, and the Black Flag Army even threatened to drive all the Qing troops into the sea, and then counterattack Fujian and wave its army north.

What to say, "Destroy the green camp first, and then level the eight banners." China's soldiers, only my black flag! ”

In view of the complete rout of the Qing army in Taiwan, if it is difficult to annihilate the whole army, Debao, the governor of Fujian and Zhejiang, can only ask the imperial court to send reinforcements quickly, and send more Zhenman soldiers and imperial guards to come, otherwise it will be difficult to quell the rebellion in Taiwan.

The Military Aircraft Department has discussed back and forth, and apart from discussing the possibility that the Taiwan rebels may collude with Westerners, there is really no regulation on how to distribute reinforcements.

Because, there is no reinforcement at all.