Chapter Seventy-Four: Harassment Warfare

“Have the thousand-household commander and other officers been captured?”

“Thousand-Household Liu has been captured. Most of the officers have been killed. Not many were captured alive.”

“Did anyone escape?”

“No one escaped.”

“Alright, bring all the officials up!”

Of the officers in the post city, from the rank of small banner and above, including hundred-household commanders, probationary hundred-household commanders, and those with specific duties but no official rank, there were more than twenty in total. More than half of them had been killed in the riot before the city was breached. Only about ten were brought before Wei Aiwen.

They were all tied with their hands behind their backs, their hair disheveled, and some were still bleeding. They were all panting heavily, as if they had not yet recovered from the shock.

“Which one is Thousand-Household Liu?”

As soon as Wei Aiwen asked, this thousand-household commander began to shout loudly: “Rebels!!! Rebels!!! The court will deal with you sooner or later!!! Rebels!!!”

Wei Aiwen understood a little of the military dialect. Hearing his cursing, he frowned and asked, “Is this that Thousand-Household Liu?”

Lin Fu said: “It’s him. This dog has several personal guards around him. They fought desperately to protect him and saved his life.”

“Have any of the personal guards been captured alive?”

“There is one, a half-grown boy. He was cut by a sword and kept cursing. If we hadn’t rescued him, he would have been killed by the military households.” Lin Fu asked, “Should we spare his life…”

“Of course we should. Have you forgotten the Three Main Rules of Discipline and the Eight Points for Attention again!” Wei Aiwen said with dissatisfaction. “Let the medic take a look. If he can be saved, save him. He’s just a small personal guard. What great crime could he have committed?”

Lin Fu quickly replied: “Yes.”

Wei Aiwen glanced at the captured thousand-household commander but did not deal with him immediately. He asked: “How are the military households?”

“The leading few, I have placed them in the martial arts hall. The rest of the able-bodied men are waiting in front of the martial arts hall to be dealt with,” Lin Fu said. “Should I call them over?”

“Alright, you call the leaders over,” Wei Aiwen was making plans.

The two leading military households were called over. When they saw Wei Aiwen standing in the middle of the crowd, they knew he was a high-ranking official among the bandits and quickly knelt down.

“Get up, we don’t do this,” Wei Aiwen said in the military dialect. “What are your names?”

The two military households were named Hao Guoxin and Cui Zheng. They were both in their thirties, thin and small, with a withered appearance. Let alone looking like soldiers, they were not even as good as the local peasants. Wei Aiwen asked them a few questions and learned that they were both local-born children of military households. Because this place was for suppressing the Li people, the military equipment of the garrison was relatively complete, and the able-bodied men were often drilled. Not only were their weapons and armor complete, but they also kept some horses and mules.

From the conversation, Wei Aiwen learned that they hated this group of “masters” very much. The hereditary military officers and military households in the garrison were originally comrades-in-arms, but they gradually became a relationship of landlord and serf. The official land of the garrison was theoretically the state’s, and the garrison soldiers cultivated it as their rations and pay. In fact, almost all the harvest was taken by the military officers, and the ordinary military households could only get a small amount to survive. The military households were not only state serfs, but also the slaves of the military officers. Generation after generation, they were used as slaves without pay. Not only were they poor, but they were also often abused and killed by the military officers.

Wei Aiwen had long known about these things. After he entered the city, he saw the military households killing and raping the families of the military officers, not even sparing the women and children. He knew that the hatred between them was extremely deep, far beyond ordinary conflicts.

“Since that’s the case, today I will vent your anger for you suffering brothers,” Wei Aiwen said. “In a moment, I will hand the people over to you. You can try and sentence them yourselves. Whether you want to behead them or feed them to the dogs is up to you.”

Hao Guoxin and others originally did not know how this bandit was going to deal with them. They were very afraid that the bandits would recruit and accept traitors and persuade Thousand-Household Liu and others to surrender, so they were a little uneasy. Now that they heard that they were going to be given a chance to vent their anger, they were overjoyed. They quickly knelt down and kowtowed, saying:

“These wolf-hearted and dog-lunged guys, we have long wanted to take their dog lives.”

“Alright, take them away,” he said, ordering the soldiers to escort most of them to the martial arts hall and hand them over to the military households for a “struggle session,” and then hang them all. He only left the secretary in charge of the accounts in the thousand-household post to check the supplies, and also left a hundred-household commander.

The search team of the Planning Institute then took the prisoners to the various warehouses and residences to inventory and receive the supplies. There was no exciting property in the thousand-household post city, only grain, military equipment, and livestock. The most valuable was the capture of more than twenty horses and mules. The horses were very small, probably the common pony-sized horses from the Yunnan-Guizhou-Sichuan region.

It took a day to inventory the supplies and hold the struggle session. In the fanatical atmosphere of the struggle session, Thousand-Household Liu and his men were all hanged on the trees outside the fortress. How to deal with their families caused a quarrel among the military households. Some wanted to divide the women, and some advocated killing them all. The two sides argued so much that they were almost about to draw their swords. In the end, the opinion of “cutting the weeds and digging up the roots” prevailed. The military households dragged the families and lackeys of the military officers to the riverbank outside the fortress, made them kneel down, and then beheaded them one by one.

While the military households were killing people, Wei Aiwen called the hundred-household commander he had specially left behind to him. This hundred-household commander had long been scared out of his wits. As soon as he saw Wei Aiwen, he collapsed to the ground and repeatedly begged for his life.

“I’ll spare your dog life,” Wei Aiwen said. “You get out of here immediately and go to the Haikou Thousand-Household Post to report to Tang Yunwen for help!”

“I dare not! I dare not!”

“Go quickly. If you dare not to go and report, I will hand over your entire family to the military households,” Wei Aiwen tilted his head and gestured towards the riverbank, where screams were constantly coming from.

“Yes, yes, yes, I will definitely go!” The hundred-household commander quickly got up.

Wei Aiwen called two soldiers and instructed them to escort this hundred-household commander all the way to the border of Lingao and Chengmai.

Subsequently, all the military households in the two garrisons were moved away and resettled in various communes. As for the houses, materials, and land of these two garrisons, they were taken over by the Civil Affairs People’s Committee for the resettlement of other immigrants.

As for Hao Guoxin and Cui Zheng, one was assigned to the machinery factory for training as a worker, and the other was assigned to Nick to raise horses. Wei Aiwen recruited a group of hot-blooded young men in their late teens from the military households to fill the training team, preparing to give them preliminary training before political training. Now that they had blood on their hands, he was not afraid that they would not follow the Transmigration Group to the end.

You Laohu, with his more than three hundred men, crossed the border of Lingao and Chengmai with a great deal of noise. He was a little regretful that the flag had not yet been made, and the march was not at all majestic.

The mission of this task force was to create a momentum, so You Laohu deliberately slowed down the speed of the march along the way. When they encountered a village, they would always rest for a while. The villagers in the village fled at the sight of them. You Laohu did not send people to pursue them, but only instructed everyone to pay attention to discipline, not to enter private houses without permission, and not to take the things of the common people. Before leaving, they would post some slogans on the walls.

When they encountered a larger fortified village along the way, You Laohu would always send people to levy grain. The village, seeing that they had cannons, dared not to disobey, and all gave them a dozen or so shi of grain to deal with it. You Laohu did not ask for more. Anyway, as long as the news of the Fubo Army’s arrival was spread, it was enough.

In this way, his troops walked and rested, stopped and went, and only arrived at Chengmai County town after a whole day of walking. This speed made You Laohu feel surprisingly slow. In fact, according to the normal post road itinerary of the government, it was half a day from Qiongshan to Chengmai, and exactly one day from Chengmai to Lingao.

When You Laohu’s scouts arrived at the foot of the city, it was a long summer day, and the city gate of this county town was not yet closed. The villagers and common people were coming and going, and there was no sign of preparing for war. It was not until the large contingent of troops appeared that the county town was in a panic, and they rushed to close the city gate.

You Laohu knew that if he wanted to seize the city, he could succeed even with a running charge. But since He Ming did not want him to occupy Chengmai County town, there was no need to go to the trouble. He immediately ordered them to occupy a high ground outside the city and set up camp there.

The company commander of this infantry company was also an Elder, named Yu Zhiqian. Yu Zhiqian was a fair-skinned young man who loved to read and had a scholarly air about him. He was a semi-military enthusiast, but his enthusiasm was for modern military affairs. He was not interested in modern things at all. He belonged to the “line formation” party.

Because he loved to read and usually regarded himself as a “staff officer” or “military adviser,” You Laohu simply took him as his chief of staff to give him advice.

“Old Yu,” You Laohu called everyone “Old X,” even Du Wen was called “Old Du.” “We’ve arrived at Chengmai now. It seems that we’ve scared the common people in the four villages quite a bit, but we don’t know how scared the officials in the city are. According to the commander’s intention, we need to make a big show of it. What do you think is a good way to do it?”

“Of course, we have to put on a show of attacking the city,” Yu Zhiqian said with confidence. “But just firing a few cannons outside won’t create any pressure.”

“Don’t analyze the situation. Just tell me what to do.”

“The county town can’t run away. I think we should harass the local area as much as possible,” Yu Zhiqian came up with an idea. He would leave some troops here to monitor the county town, and the other troops would launch an armed parade in the vicinity, levying grain, attacking a few large households, and at the same time conscripting many common people to come and cut down trees under the city to make siege equipment, dig trenches, and build camps, putting on a show of a big fight.

“We have few people, and the people on the city wall are not blind. So we have to make it look like we are the vanguard, and there is a large contingent of troops coming behind us. This way, the people in the county will be in a panic. They will have to go out and ask for help.”

You Laohu laughed loudly and patted his shoulder: “You’ve got it! Alright, we’ll have a good rest tonight, and tomorrow we’ll split our forces to harass Chengmai. We’ll set up camp first.”

The army’s regulations stipulated that as soon as they camped, they had to dig trenches, build earth walls, and set up abatis. You Laohu estimated that harassing Chengmai would not be over in a few days, so he had to build the camp’s defenses more solidly. He had specially brought a few rolls of barbed wire when he set out. Then the soldiers built a simple watchtower more than ten meters high, from which they could clearly see every move on the south wall of Chengmai. The three mountain howitzers they had brought were also built with gun emplacements, and special rainproof sheds were built for the cannons and ammunition carts.

You Laohu led people to inspect the various camps. Needless to say, the soldiers’ morale was high, and the militia’s morale was also high. Everyone guessed that they would attack the city tomorrow, and they were all discussing how to quickly break the city.

You Laohu did not reveal that the mission this time was just harassment. According to the regulations, he inspected the hygiene of each company and platoon, and also urged the cooks to boil water for everyone to soak their feet. The medics carried medicine boxes, treated the blisters on their feet, and applied some traditional Chinese medicine prepared by Liu San. The next day, they could continue to walk long distances. Compared to the regular infantry, the militia had very little long-distance march training, and they also had to pull cannons and transport supplies along the way. Many people fell asleep as soon as their tents were set up. You Laohu urged the militia captains to wake up the sleeping people and tell them to eat and soak their feet.

After the inspection, You Laohu and Yu Zhiqian went to the watchtower together and used night vision binoculars to observe the movement on the city wall. They saw that many torches and lanterns had been lit on the city wall, and many more able-bodied men were patrolling the city.

Compared to the strangely shaped Lingao County town, Chengmai County town was a standard county town, square and regular. The north gate was also set up but not open, but the city walls were not high or thick, and the defenses were not strict. The two of them had led their troops all the way, and they felt that Chengmai had a slightly larger population than Lingao, and the land was better developed. They didn’t know if it was because it was close to the prefectural city.

There was no incident overnight. The next morning, Yu Zhiqian led the team and divided half of the troops to go deep into Chengmai County, levying grain and conscripting men along the way. You Laohu led the rest of the troops to wave flags and shout under the city. The militia also fired muskets at the city from time to time, bluffing.

The militia on the city wall saw that a group of them had left, and there were only a hundred or so left. Their courage grew. People on the city wall kept cursing, and sometimes they also shot arrows down. The Fubo Army was five or six hundred meters away from the city, and even the cannons on the city could not reach them. The two sides cursed each other from the top and bottom of the city wall.

You Laohu, surrounded by his guards and orderlies, stood on a mound, directing the harassment battle. Seeing the militia firing their single-eyed and three-eyed muskets with a great deal of noise, he knew that there were actually no iron pellets inside, and it was purely for show. He couldn’t help but laugh. This kind of fighting was a bit rare. He didn’t know if it could be considered sparrow warfare. While he was lost in thought, the drawbridge was suddenly lowered, and more than two hundred trained braves and militia swarmed out of the city gate, rushed across the moat, and charged with shouts.

You Laohu did not expect the enemy to dare to come out of the city to fight, but he had the necessary preparations. The infantry platoon covering the militia immediately formed a two-deep line.

“Fire!” The native second lieutenant commanding the infantry platoon swung his command sword down sharply. The sound of the Minie rifles was deafening. You Laohu clearly saw a dozen or so village braves and militia in front fall back as if they had hit a wall. The village braves probably did not expect the bandits’ firearms to be so powerful, and they could kill and wound people from more than half a li away. Their charge immediately hesitated.

The soldiers of the infantry platoon immediately loaded their bullets, followed by the second and third volleys. The rate of fire of the Minie rifle far exceeded that of all firearms at that time. Within a few minutes, more than a dozen more village braves were shot down. The rest of the people were in disarray and ran back to the city in a chaotic manner.

“The turtle’s son still wants to come out for close combat!” You Laohu spat. “He just shrunk back like that!” He couldn’t help but feel a little regretful. The militia around him had all picked up their long spears and formed a formation, ready to fight at any time. He himself also wanted to try the power of the border army’s long sword.

“Battalion commander! Let’s set up the cannons and bombard them with a few shots!” The leader of the artillery student team ran over excitedly to ask for a battle. “Let’s show the dog officials in the city our power!”

You Laohu looked for a long time before saying: “Not today!”

He had already learned from the scouts’ report that more than ten people had secretly lowered themselves from the other two city gates in the middle of the night. The scouts, according to his orders, did not capture them, but only tracked their whereabouts. They found that three or four were heading towards the prefectural city, and the rest were heading to various places in the county.

You Laohu analyzed that this must be the county sending people to various places in the county to mobilize village braves to strengthen the defense of the city. The more village braes gathered in the county, the more widely the news of their siege of Chengmai would spread, so he did not intercept these messengers and let them go everywhere for help. Today, the militia and village braves in the city dared to come out to fight, which showed that the number of people they were preparing to mobilize would not be too small.

In his heart, he was eager to fight a big battle under the city of Chengmai and achieve a great merit. And he was full of confidence in his firepower and the combat effectiveness of his soldiers. He believed that as long as he remained vigilant at all times, he could repel any number of attackers.

The next day, Yu Zhiqian brought back dozens of shi of grain and two or three hundred civilian laborers. The two of them started to work hard under the city. On the one hand, they repaired the camp, and on the other hand, they cut down trees to make siege equipment such as scaling ladders and rams. The officials and gentry on the city wall saw that although the bandits only had a small force, they were driving the civilian laborers to make all kinds of preparations for a siege. In addition, they already knew that the bandits’ firearms were sharp, and they were very afraid. They constantly sent people out to report for help and mobilized the village braves in the county to reinforce the city.

“There are more and more village braves in the city,” You Laohu said. “If we take the city, we can capture another large batch of prisoners.”

Yu Zhiqian did not speak. He felt that because his own forces had not increased in the past few days, and the defense on the city wall had gradually relaxed, he suggested starting to bombard the county town.

“We don’t have enough people, and we might be looked down upon. Let’s give them a taste of cannonballs.”

“Alright, it will also save the militia the trouble of pulling the cannonballs and gunpowder back.”

In order to increase the tension, You Laohu approved the artillery student soldiers to bombard the south gate of the county town. Although the cannonballs of the 12-pounder mountain howitzer could not destroy the city wall, they destroyed half of the city tower and many battlements and parapets, and killed and wounded many defending militia and village braves. In particular, the high-explosive and incendiary shells they fired gave the defending soldiers and civilians a great shock—they had never encountered such powerful artillery fire before. Several fires broke out in the city, and some houses were also destroyed by cannonballs that entered the city. After continuous bombardment, the morale of the defending soldiers and civilians was scattered. If He Ming had not told them not to break the city, Chengmai could have been taken immediately.

You Laohu felt that this was not powerful enough, so he discussed with Yu Zhiqian: instead of wasting cannonballs here, it would be better to use the howitzers to break a few fortresses, destroy a few large households, and take advantage of the war to eliminate a group of local powerful factions to lay the foundation for future rule. By the way, they could also earn more spoils of war. Didn’t the Executive Committee always complain about “not being able to afford to fight”? Capturing people and seizing grain and property could at least serve as a stopgap measure.