Chapter 128: Total Annihilation

He rushed to the west side and saw that a large group of the enemy had already crowded the edge of the trench, throwing things in and setting up ladders. Just then, the other two men arrived, and the four of them opened fire on the enemy to the west.

They fired shot after shot, a hail of bullets felling a dozen bandits. The ones behind them turned and fled.

The whistle blew again, and everyone dropped their hot rifles and ran to the other side. The soldiers who could still move were helping to reload. This half-hour was the busiest of Wang Wu’s life. Running, shooting, running, shooting. The sergeant’s whistle blew shrilly, seemingly without end. Everyone was breathless and on the verge of collapse. Finally, the enemy retreated again.

“How much ammunition do we have left?” Wang Wu asked the sergeant.

“Plenty of ammunition, over 2,000 rounds,” the sergeant said. “Plenty of guns too, just no one to use them.”

“Don’t conserve ammunition. Fire as soon as the enemy approaches. We can’t let them get close to the earthworks to shoot arrows. Our men are too precious.”

Now, they had only 24 people left. Some of the sick had died, and the rest were critically ill. Two more had been killed in the fighting.

The number of people who could take up arms, including Liu Bin who had barely used a rifle, was only seven.

The survivors were exhausted by the fierce fighting. Another day of this, and they would be wiped out.

“Bury all the dead in the camp,” Wang Wu ordered. “Collect their personal belongings and bury them separately. Bury them well.”

He returned to the command post tent and took all the work team’s documents, manuals, maps, and all the team members’ identification papers to the field kitchen outside. He struck a match and set them on fire.

Then he threw his own identification and scrip into the fire. The flames roared, and black ashes flew from the stove.

It won’t be long before my head is chopped off, Wang Wu thought, staring into the fire and lighting a cigarette. I’m going to die.

Barring a miracle, the annihilation of their small team was inevitable.

He thought of his wife and children, of his land and house. He was a rich peasant. After the bandits were eliminated in Daolu Village, free from their extortion, he had worked hard and built up a prosperous household. He had become a model farmer in the area. The Heaven and Earth Society had even approached him about joining. He had been eager, planning to use the “Australian farming methods” to achieve great things after joining.

Wang Wu knew that after his death, he would be buried with full honors at Cuigang, escorted by an honor guard on a gun carriage, with a gun salute and a funeral procession. His wife, children, and parents would receive a large death benefit, and his family would always be cared for by the Australians. No greedy relatives, clansmen, or villagers would dare to covet his property, and no one would dare to bully his wife and children, because they were “families of the fallen”—a noble title in the civil system of the Transmigration Empire. Only the families of those who died in battle could enjoy this title and the privileges that came with it.

He knew all this—he would have no worries after his death.

He returned to the tent that served as a makeshift infirmary. The air inside was foul, filled with the smell of death. Liu Bin was squatting next to a soldier who had just died, her hands covering her face, sobbing.

Wang Wu wanted to say something to comfort her, but he couldn’t find the words. He wasn’t like Director Du or Director Dong, who could speak eloquently and reasonably about anything.

He thought for a long time and then went out again. The sergeant was cleaning his rifle. A pile of rifles lay beside him, and he meticulously cleaned each one.

“We’ll need them again soon,” he said. “Can’t have a dirty gun.”

Wang Wu said, “I wish we had grenades.”

“I heard they were all used up at Chengmai. Now they’re only issued to the field army on the Qiongshan front,” the sergeant said. “When our battalion went to fight at Chengmai, everyone got two. They were great! One throw would take down a whole bunch—a real ‘palm-thunder’!”

“Have you disposed of the extra stuff?”

“We’re just a half-platoon; we don’t have any documents,” the sergeant said calmly. “As for the military IDs, I’ve already collected and burned them all. Only this—” He pointed to the two medals on his chest.

They were the recently issued “Chengmai Campaign Victory Medal” and the “First Counter-Encirclement Campaign Victory Medal.”

“The bandits certainly won’t want these, so I’m keeping them.”

“Bury them for your family. It’s something to remember you by.”

“I have no family,” the sergeant said with a bitter smile. “Didn’t have time to get married—lucky I didn’t.”

As they were talking, the whistle blew from the watchtower. “The enemy is forming up!”

The battle erupted once again.

In the afternoon, the bandits went into the village and tore the thatched roofs off the villagers’ houses. They also gathered a large amount of dry firewood and wild grass, piling it upwind and setting it on fire. The damp straw produced a thick, acrid smoke that drifted toward the camp.

At first, the smoke was not a major threat—it was far enough away that the wind dispersed it before it reached the camp. But visibility was still hampered. Batch after batch of bandits used the smoke as cover, advancing section by section, constantly pushing burning piles of thatch toward the earthworks. Eventually, they started fires right at the edge of the trench.

Wang Wu and the others could only fire blindly into the smoke at the crowd, but they couldn’t stop them from setting the fires. Soon, the entire camp was enveloped in a choking smoke. The team members and soldiers wore water-soaked gauze masks, barely able to endure.

The bandits finally launched an all-out charge. They advanced through the smoke, choking on it themselves, but their superior numbers allowed them to push through. Under the cover of the thick smoke, they finally filled in a section of the trench and climbed the earthwork.

The bandits’ faces were covered with wet cloths. They blinked their smoke-irritated eyes and blindly swung their swords and spears, coughing violently as they charged.

Arrows rained down chaotically into the camp. All the able-bodied defenders retreated to the trench on the west side of the earthwork. Wang Wu looked around and saw only three people left beside him.

The sergeant had already been beheaded on the earthwork. His rifle was being waved around by a bandit.

There were still more than ten rifles in the trench. These rifles could not fall into the hands of the bandits!

“Everyone, smash the rifles we don’t need,” Wang Wu said, slamming his own carbine against a rock. The barrel and stock separated, and parts flew everywhere.

The others followed suit, smashing their spare guns. Then they piled all the remaining ammunition at the base of the earthwork and threw a torch on it.

The copper percussion caps exploded like a string of firecrackers, and the gunpowder immediately detonated. More than a thousand Minie balls, propelled by the explosion, shot out like a giant firework, and the bandits screamed in agony.

Wang Wu picked up a soldier’s long-barreled Minie rifle and fixed the bayonet. The others did the same. In the instant before he leaped out of the trench to make his last stand, he saw Liu Bin, who had been squatting on the ground trembling, raise a bayonet and thrust it into her own throat.

Wang Wu roared, “Kill!” It was his last word.

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Liu Yixiao had been incredibly busy these past few days. The five or six work teams he had sent out had all begun their work. The road extending from Lingao was ready for material and labor preparations. Most importantly, he had to quickly prepare for the grain levy and land survey.

The Danzhou Thousand-Household Guard Post had refused to surrender, so Yu Zhiqian had to launch an expedition against it. He quickly forced the military households of the various guard posts to surrender and accept reorganization.

According to policy, a number of the oppressive thousand-household commanders, hundred-household commanders, and squad leaders were arrested—to serve as free labor. The ordinary military households were reorganized. The military households’屯田 (túntián - military farming colonies) were relatively concentrated, making them ideal for large-scale commercial farming. In the past, the military households were the Ming’s official tenants; now, they would become agricultural workers on the Empire’s state farms, which was a logical transition.

Ye Yuming had already sent a “Heaven and Earth Society” work team from Lingao to prepare for the survey of the Danzhou Thousand-Household Guard Post’s lands.

“The buildings in the guard post city and the various forts are a bit old and dilapidated, but their structures are mostly intact. Renovating them won’t be too costly, and they can all be used in the future—much better than those wattle-and-daub houses with thatched roofs,” Yu Zhiqian boasted about the “glorious results” of his expedition.

He had also left troops, ranging from a platoon to a company, in the guard post city and the various forts to reorganize and train the military households. Danzhou was a key town for “suppressing the Li.” Before the Transmigration group had completely unified the Li areas, it was necessary to maintain a deterrent force. Therefore, the military households could not simply be disbanded; they had to maintain a certain level of military strength.

Liu Yixiao expressed his concern. “Without political re-education, directly organizing them into a militia and giving them weapons is too unreliable.”

“No problem, the re-education can come slowly. Right now, we need to ‘suppress the Li’,” Yu Zhiqian told Liu Yixiao. He had learned from a surrendered military household squad leader that there had been signs of instability in the Li areas since their victory over the government army at Chengmai. Some Dong masters were colluding, seemingly with ulterior motives.

“Around late summer and early autumn, the Li people often conduct small-scale raids on Han villages, so this is the time of year when everyone has to be on guard against them.”

The news of the government army’s crushing defeat had caused a stir in the Li areas, which had been quiet for decades since the great Li rebellion at the end of the Wanli era. The Li people were not benevolent souls. In Qiongzhou, where there had long been sharp conflicts between the Han and the Li, the government army’s defeat gave them an excellent opportunity.

“The reports say there’s no unusual movement among the Li in Lingao, and the matter of opening trade posts in the Li areas has been settled—”