Chapter 2280: Beheading Plan
Liu Youwang said, "He was a Juren, you're also a Juren—it's a perfect match!"
Chang Qingyun had no idea what Liu Youwang meant by "perfect match," so he could only offer a vague, "...Yes..."
Liu Youwang rose and stretched, releasing a wave of stale sweat mingled with wine fumes that assaulted Chang Qingyun's face. The stench grew thicker by the moment, but Chang Qingyun dared neither cover his nose nor let any hint of disgust show.
"Sun Qiaoniang—you know her?"
Chang Qingyun's heart sank. Steeling himself, he replied, "She lives next door to me... Registrar Sun's daughter."
"I intend to take Sun Qiaoniang as my wife," Liu Youwang announced.
Chang Qingyun's chest tightened. He didn't dare respond.
"Though I'm a Camp Manager, I can't just seize another man's woman by force—especially not an official's daughter. One must leave some face. So I plan to marry her properly, with formal matchmaking." Liu Youwang scratched at his chest absently. "The problem is this stubborn girl insists she won't marry without an elder's blessing. Registrar Sun went and hanged himself, and all she has left is a distant cousin and a stepmother—no proper elders. Nobody to give consent. So I've decided: you'll be her adoptive father. Her father was a Juren, you're a Juren—it won't disgrace her."
Chang Qingyun was dumbfounded. What kind of absurd scheme was this?
"But... I never knew Registrar Sun's family at all..." Chang Qingyun shook his head repeatedly. "We have no connection whatsoever. How could I act as her elder? The Sun family would never agree..."
"Bullshit! You live right next door to his daughter—what do you mean 'never knew them'?" Liu Youwang snapped. "Whether the Sun family agrees or not doesn't matter one damn bit! Stop your yammering! It's settled! Go back and clean yourself up, put on some decent clothes. Tonight I'll have Qiaoniang come kowtow to you as her adoptive father!"
Chang Qingyun wanted to refuse, but he knew Liu Youwang's methods all too well. One word of refusal, and the man had endless ways to make him suffer. He had no choice but to bow his head in submission.
Liu Youwang grabbed a stack of ration coupons and flung them carelessly to the floor.
"Take these coupons and get yourself some decent clothes. Pick up some good wine and food too. You'll be my father-in-law after all—you need to look the part!" He burst into raucous laughter.
Chang Qingyun burned with rage. He longed to curse aloud—Villain! Scoundrel!—but dared not open his mouth. Swallowing his shame and humiliation, he gathered up the scattered coupons and retreated from the room.
He returned to his quarters utterly dispirited. Chang Qingyun had no heart for painting anymore. He collapsed onto his bed, chest churning with resentment. These Hair thieves truly trampled scholars underfoot! First they forced officials' wives and daughters into degradation, and now this—forced marriage! He didn't believe for a moment any "formal matchmaking" was genuine. Liu Youwang came from humble origins, and his character had always been utterly vile. In the camp, he was notorious for coercion and bribery, for taking women and discarding them when he grew tired of his sport. This so-called proper wedding was surely because Sun Qiaoniang had resisted so fiercely that he feared being charged with rape. The Australians punished such crimes among their subordinates severely—Liu Youwang must have had some apprehension on that score.
And now Chang Qingyun was being made an "adoptive father" to legitimize this atrocity—wasn't that aiding a tyrant in his evil?
He had no dealings with the Sun family. Even when Registrar Sun was alive, and even as neighbors in this camp, he and Qiaoniang had exchanged hardly a few words. Yet at this moment, Liu Youwang's forced marriage made him feel the searing agony of a conquered nation.
When the rabbit dies, the fox grieves. To what depths must scholars be trampled before these Hair thieves would be satisfied?
He considered reporting this to the True Hairs through Zhao Fengtian. But he was merely a captive, while Liu Youwang was a senior "Fake Hair." Even if he filed a complaint, even if it succeeded, the Australians wouldn't punish Liu Youwang harshly—after all, the man claimed he wanted to marry her properly! Chang Qingyun would only make an enemy of Liu Youwang for nothing.
We must do as Yi Haoran did! Otherwise, do they really think scholars are so easily bullied?
He had once rather disapproved of Yi Haoran's actions, resenting how the man had dragged him into this against his will. But now, that long-dormant fire blazed up in his chest once more.
Yet upon further reflection, he cooled down again. He was just a scholar. Confronting Liu Youwang directly would only result in being dragged out and publicly whipped with his trousers stripped off—or worse, hanged—while the Hair thieves laughed at his "overreaching." No other outcome was possible. If he was going to act, he had to strike where it hurt! Let them see that scholars were not to be trifled with!
Thinking thus, he desperately wanted to see Yi Haoran.
Yi Haoran's persuasion at Dragon Mother Temple had left Cai Lan thoroughly shaken. He hadn't invited her to join his conspiracy on the spot—he still couldn't trust her completely and dared not reveal his true intentions. But he could tell that a flame of vengeance had been rekindled in this woman's heart. They agreed to communicate through Jiang Qiuchan in the future.
As long as that flame burned, it would prove useful when the time came.
Yi Haoran felt everything was falling into place, and his spirits soared. He now had Jiang Qiuchan and Cai Lan as his line directly into the Hair thieves' inner sanctum, along with warriors like Jiang Suo and Song Ming to support him. The conditions for a great undertaking were in place. The only question remaining was how to accomplish something truly earth-shattering.
The three men conferred on a small boat. Song Ming's proposal was to contact various "old hands" throughout the city—scattered former officials and officers who were everywhere now, some having even become Fake Hairs themselves. He suggested reaching out to all of them while simultaneously sending messengers to Guangxi to coordinate with the Court. When the imperial army arrived, those inside the city would rise up together, seize the passes and gates, and reclaim Wuzhou.
Given the complete rout the Two Guangs forces had suffered, recapturing Wuzhou would be a magnificent feat comparable to the great Guangdong Victory of the past.
But Yi Haoran quickly rejected the plan. The Guangxi forces had been so thoroughly routed that expecting them to send a surprise force over mountains and ridges was nearly impossible. Even if they could take Wuzhou, a lightly-equipped detachment certainly couldn't hold it. Moreover, success would require recruiting widely among former personnel—and the more people involved in a conspiracy, the greater the chance of betrayal. Especially given the current state of the war, how many truly loyal scholars could they expect to find? That had to be weighed carefully.
Yi Haoran's thinking ran in an entirely different direction. They were few in number, he acknowledged, but they had a route directly into the enemy's heart. They could emulate Hou Dagou's surprise raid on Wuzhou from years past.
Yi Haoran had learned of this historical episode only while studying old "Yao Pacification" records in Xiong Wencan's Shogunate. In the seventh year of Tianshun, Hou Dagou had besieged Wuzhou Prefecture with seven hundred men, attacking repeatedly without success. He feigned retreat. Commander-in-Chief Chen Jing relaxed his guard. Then on the night of November thirteenth, Hou Dagou suddenly led his elite troops to scale the walls at the foot of Tea Mountain. With help from agents inside, they stormed the heavily-defended Wuzhou Prefecture Yamen and conquered the city in a single stroke. The rebel army looted freely, freed prisoners, and executed Prefecture Instructor Ren Qu and Administration Commissioner Song Qin. They captured Chen Jing, took Deputy Commissioner Zhou Shu hostage, and swiftly withdrew from the city.
Yi Haoran believed their current situation closely resembled Hou Dagou's: a small force of elite fighters with inside contacts, facing a city with lax defenses. Employing the same tactic, they had a seventy percent chance of success.
"What exactly do you mean, Master Yi?" Both Jiang Suo and Song Ming were stunned by this audacious plan.
"We infiltrate the city in a surprise attack and take down Xie Erren in one stroke!" Yi Haoran declared, his killing intent palpable. "If circumstances permit, we capture him alive and present him to the Court in Guangxi. If time is short, we take his head!"
Given the current situation, even if they couldn't recapture Wuzhou, beheading or capturing a genuine True Australian would be rare good news for the Court. Everyone involved would earn tremendous merit. Jiang Suo said nothing, but Song Ming's eyes lit up immediately. This was far simpler than his own "Recapture Wuzhou" plan—and far more achievable! He understood the gap between Ming forces and Australian forces; once the garrisons inside and outside the city reacted, a few thousand men in a partial detachment might not be a match for the Australians. If they failed to take Wuzhou, some of them would face not just absence of merit but actual punishment for failure.
By comparison, Advisor Yi's plan of striking hard and retreating immediately was far more brilliant.
"Still, taking down Xie Erren won't be easy either..." Jiang Suo said. "The National Army now has several hundred men inside Wuzhou city. Though many carry only standard spears and aren't well-trained, there's still a company of Fubo Army stationed outside the city, plus National Army troops inside. Even if we successfully raid the Three Headquarters, even if the troops inside can't intercept us in time, the Fubo Army outside will move. We'd have a hard time escaping..."
They had all witnessed the Fubo Army's combat prowess. No one was confident of retreating intact under their pursuit.
"So we need to create a diversion for them at Sanheui."
"What do you have in mind, Advisor?"
"There are more than four thousand captives at Sanheui right now. If we can incite them to riot, the Hair thief army outside the city will be pinned down."
"That's a good approach," Jiang Suo nodded. "But how do we make the captives riot? The Australians manage their prisoners very systematically."
"We'll have to wait for the right opportunity." This was actually the aspect Yi Haoran found most troublesome. Several thousand captives in the camp, neither abused nor lacking food and clothing—why would they riot? He had brought Chang Qingyun into the fold, but the scholar had neither the courage nor the ability to incite an uprising.
"If we can't start a riot, what about simply sending men to set fires?" Song Ming suggested. The Sanheui captive camp was all brick, wood, grain, and thatch—extremely flammable. A major fire would certainly cause chaos and pin down the garrison outside the city just as effectively.
This method was far easier than inciting a riot. But Yi Haoran had visited the camp and knew that setting fires wasn't so simple either. The Australians managed the camp with extreme efficiency; buildings were spaced at regular intervals, with water buckets and sandbags at the ready. If there weren't enough ignition points or the fires weren't fierce enough, they would be quickly extinguished.
Still, he was reluctant to dampen their enthusiasm at this moment. "That's also a possibility. Let's all think it over. Regardless of the method, as long as we can tie down the garrison outside the city, we have a chance of victory!" He narrowed his eyes slightly. "We'll think on it. We'll think on it."
Next Update: Volume 7 - Guangzhou Governance Part 484 (End of Chapter)