Chapter 832: Sharing a Bed with Different Dreams

What proved most devastating was that in the latter half of 1630, the Special Reconnaissance Command determined their various special reconnaissance squads required opportunities for combat training. Multiple squads were deployed across the prefectures and counties of northern Qiong to conduct extensive "hunting." Operating in small groups, the special reconnaissance squads infiltrated core mountain locations to execute harassment and ambush operations. This style of warfare—a gunshot ringing out suddenly, one man dead, yet the enemy nowhere to be seen—was difficult for even the most stubborn bandits to endure. During their movements, an invisible reaper constantly shadowed their ranks. Beyond the occasional gunfire harvesting lives, any bandit who strayed from the main group's sight would sometimes vanish entirely.

Hu Lanyan's gang could no longer maintain a foothold. Between deaths and desertions, only twenty or thirty men remained. They dared not disband and descend the mountain to live honest lives—after all, they had killed the work team. Now the Australians had placed a bounty of three thousand circulation vouchers on Hu Lanyan's head. Those who provided useful information could receive one hundred to five hundred vouchers. Any bandit who captured or killed Hu Lanyan and Gou Er and surrendered them would be pardoned, and the Australians would even resettle them. After this news circulated, Hu Lanyan examined his subordinates one by one—all had green eyes glinting like hungry wolves.

Hu Lanyan complained incessantly that Gou Er had concocted the scheme to "eliminate the work team," creating an eternal blood feud with the Australians. Now not even the possibility of surrender remained.

Gou Er was at the end of his rope and had to keep drifting. While wandering, he happened upon a notice: it concerned the trial of "war criminals." The notice was old and half-damaged, but the content remained roughly legible. Essentially, the Australians had sentenced some government soldiers captured during the "suppression" campaign to "war crimes." Some received hard labor; some received death sentences. The Australians trying government soldiers was not particularly shocking to him, but at the bottom of the long list of death sentences, Gou Er spotted Lai Da's name.

News of Lai Da's death shook Gou Er profoundly. Lai Da had not been an important figure—merely one of his useful lackeys. Even now, at the end of his rope, Lai Da remained unimportant to him. But Lai Da's death seemed to announce something.

Living in constant terror, Hu Lanyan finally could not hold on in Danzhou. He gathered the remaining twenty-odd men and announced they could no longer stay in Danzhou—he planned to flee to Changhua. Those wanting to follow could continue; those unwilling could disband on the spot.

Most of the Hu Lanyan gang were Danzhou locals, and no one wished to go to Changhua. Besides, how would they survive in Changhua? Nobody had any idea. Many had long been contemplating disbandment and returning home. When Hu Lanyan mentioned disbanding, everyone except a handful of diehards fled.

"Are we really going to Changhua?" Gou Er knew something of that place. It was all "savages" there. Venturing slightly inland meant entering Li people's territory. Their small band of outside bandits were strangers from head to toe—they didn't speak the language and couldn't operate at all. Not to mention only seven or eight of them remained now.

"Of course not." Hu Lanyan had already made plans. "We'll cross the sea! Go to the Champa Kingdom! I have a few old brothers there, sailing some ships for business on the sea. We'll seek shelter with them first!"

Though Gou Er didn't wish to leave his homeland, he was currently at his wit's end. He couldn't remain on Hainan Island any longer. Better to take shelter overseas first—he roughly understood that Champa wasn't far, just a day or two by boat. If conditions improved, returning would be easy.

So Hu Lanyan, Gou Xunli, and four or five confidants quietly located a fisherman family on the beach, paid several taels of silver, and departed for Jiangping. Jiangping was a "no man's land" on the Sino-Vietnamese border, inhabited mostly by "fishermen" who were half-fishers, half-pirates, along with numerous desperadoes from both China and Vietnam. Once the group reached Jiangping, they finally settled down and obtained a peaceful night's sleep. Then they resumed their old profession, continuing the no-capital trade.

When Shen Hu sought to pull off a major job and sent recruiters to Jiangping, these two joined up. Now Gou Xunli and Hu Lanyan, leading their dozen-odd brothers, had gathered with the main force in a valley some dozens of li from Hongji. Variously dressed and oddly shaped bandits from all factions sat or stood around fires. Some cooked food; others had removed their rags and were picking lice; still others drank and gambled. Bursts of laughter and strange cries erupted from time to time. They carried an assortment of weapons: rusty broadswords, sharpened bamboo spears, and some even European sabers and Japanese tachi and uchigatana. Some simply held farming tools and harpoons. A portion who appeared more "professional" carried bows and arrows and matchlocks. There were even a few small iron cannons.

Gou Er lay on the ground feigning sleep—the weather here was warmer than in Qiongzhou. Hu Lanyan drank with evident relish. The wine had been sent by Shen Hu; each faction's leaders received a share of wine and meat.

"Brother!" Hu Lanyan kicked Gou Xunli. "Don't sleep! Get up and drink together!"

Gou Xunli slowly rose and accepted the clay cup. The wine was local rice wine, unfiltered, with floating dregs. A fermented, sour, rotten smell immediately assaulted his nostrils. In the past, he would not have deigned even to look at it. Even the lowest servants and thugs in his mansion would not have drunk such inferior wine. Then, thinking of the Gou family members slain by the Australians and his son whose whereabouts remained unknown, he sat holding the cup in a daze, having forgotten to drink.

"Brother, what's wrong? Live for today while you can." Hu Lanyan smiled meaningfully, raised his cup, and took a deep gulp.

"Nothing." Gou Xunli took a sip. "Tomorrow we're going to fight the Australians..."

Hu Lanyan glanced around and spoke in a low voice: "Brother, what do you think we should do tomorrow?"

Shen Hu was leading such a motley crew. The sea forces fell outside Shen Hu's control; the pirate chiefs would naturally handle the maritime assault. But for the thousand-plus men on land, a battle order was required. Who would lead, and who would follow?

"I fear Shen Hu will force us brothers to lead the charge, help him wear down the Australians, then swoop in at the end to reap the rewards," Hu Lanyan said.

"We have only a dozen or so men. Shen Hu won't bother with us. Even if he wants cannon fodder, it won't be our turn." Gou Xunli pondered. "He probably views that place as a piece of fat meat. My guess is Shen Hu will launch a two-pronged attack."

"What do you mean?"

"Think about it. Shen Hu has several hundred men of his own. But he recruited so many others for this job. He must feel uncertain doing it alone. Yet he's also afraid others will claim too large a share of the spoils. So he definitely can't let outsiders take the lead. Besides, nobody's stupid—without benefits, who wants to charge first and sacrifice their own people for nothing? So it must be that he leads one prong himself, while the other small groups attack together on another route. Once the stockade is breached, whoever grabs what keeps it. As long as the stockade is breached, his larger force can definitely claim the biggest share."

"Well said!" Hu Lanyan admired sincerely. "I also sensed some scheme of Shen Hu's, but couldn't work it out." He poured himself another cup of wine. "What do you think we brothers should do? We're few in number. Tomorrow we'll be swept along in the charge, and even if the stockade falls, we won't grab anything worthwhile..."

"Big Brother, do you think we can breach the stockade tomorrow?" Gou Xunli smiled bitterly. "Shen Hu should count his blessings if he escapes with his life tomorrow. They don't know, but don't we brothers understand the Australians' capabilities?"

Hu Lanyan shook his head. "It can't be that bad, can it? I heard from Shen Hu's scouts that there are only a few dozen people with Australian bird guns inside, and the rest carry spears..."

Gou Xunli continued shaking his head. Hu Lanyan thought of their gang's experience in Danzhou and immediately deflated.

"What do you think we should do? Just sneak away? But we came all this way for nothing?"

Of course, the trip wasn't entirely fruitless. As agreed in Jiangping, upon arriving at Hongji, they had received some money and grain upfront. Hu Lanyan's group had also obtained some silver and rice.

"Hmph, I think we should discuss that smoke-screen-then-charge tactic with Shen Hu. Let the Australians suffer a bit at least!" Gou Xunli said viciously. Though he knew it would be insignificant to the Australians, he still hoped to kill a few more of those "bald bandits" to vent his fury. "And then—" He rolled his eyes and whispered.

Shen Hu stood atop a mound with dozens of confidants arrayed behind him, gazing smugly at his "forces" advancing toward Hongji. True, these forces looked barely better than beggars. And because they had been looting and raping along the way, the column stretched out and moved with agonizing slowness. Shen Hu watched one fellow wrapped in what were probably stolen rags, and another who had apparently just violated a woman in a village they passed and simply hadn't bothered to pull his trousers back up, swaggering along the road. Fortunately, the weather here was warm; being stark naked wouldn't freeze anything off.

Shen Hu cared little about these men's behavior. In another half hour, the main force—composed of Shen Hu's stronghold and several smaller bandit gangs—would all arrive at Hongji. The mere thirty soldiers guarding the mining area were certainly no match. According to intelligence, the mining area housed only seven or eight hundred adult men, most of whom certainly wouldn't take up arms to resist—they would scatter and flee for their lives. The only remaining resistance would come from those militiamen. A few cannons might cause some trouble, but he estimated they would at most delay the stockade's fall by a few hours. And the mining area's fortifications appeared far from solid—the walls, though quite thick, were rather low. With a bit of effort, one could climb up.

Breaking the stockade would definitely yield abundant spoils. The three stockades on the Hongji side now housed over a thousand people. Food and provisions alone were stored in great quantities. Rumor had it that many fine Chinese goods had also been shipped in, along with ships moored in the harbor—though those were the prey of Fan Hai Bao from Jiangping. Fan Hai Bao had long coveted the boats with new fishing gear at Hongji that could haul in abundant catches with a single throw. This time, they had hit it off immediately.

(End of Chapter)