Chapter 173: The Patrol Detachment

Sunlight streamed in through the window lattice. The old man lying on the bed moved and let out a groan. The few people sitting or standing by the bed all stood up with a start.

The woman, who had been leaning over the edge of the bed, suddenly raised her head and supported the old man. The old man’s eyes were dazed, as if he didn’t know where he was for a moment.

“Where… is this…”

“In the inn,” the woman said quickly. “The Luo family released us.”

“Oh,” the old man closed his eyes, seeming to let out a sigh of relief. “This is… their territory… If they insist on the horse… just give it to them… If we make a fuss, we outsiders will definitely suffer…”

“Father, don’t worry. Master Luo didn’t take the horse. He had someone send us back to the inn.”

“Oh,” the old man sighed in relief, but then his eyes opened again, showing a look of anxiety. “He didn’t ask you to…”

“No—” the woman’s voice was already choked with tears. “Master Luo didn’t say anything, he just had someone send us back.”

“Oh,” the old man said, seeming to be relieved, and fell back into a slumber.

A middle-aged man in his forties next to him said, “The old master’s health still doesn’t look good. Should we set off immediately?”

“With his health, how can he travel? He’ll die on the road,” said the middle-aged woman in the room. She was still quite good-looking, though her face was haggard. Like the young woman, she also wore short, practical trousers and a jacket, a performer’s attire.

“I’m afraid if we don’t leave, things will get complicated,” said the only young man in the room. “What if the Luo family has ill intentions? What if that Master Luo has designs on senior sister?”

“The Luo family are the local tyrants here. They can do whatever they want. If he had designs on your senior sister, he could have acted just now. If he had taken her to his mansion, she would have been at his mercy. There’s no need to release us first and then cause trouble,” the middle-aged man said.

“Who knows what evil plans he has. These rich people, not a single one of them is good,” the young man said indignantly, his face bearing a scar, probably from the fists and clubs of the militia earlier. “You can tell from his lackeys that this master is no good person either.”

The middle-aged woman looked out the window nervously. “Good or bad, it’s none of our business. Let’s let the old master rest for a few days. We’ll leave as soon as he can travel. But we have no money, and with our horses and equipment, we’ll have to hire a large boat to leave. We’ll have to perform for a few more days.”

This time in Sanliangshi, the whole troupe had fallen ill with the seasonal epidemic, one after another. Not only could they not perform, but they had also spent all their savings on lodging, doctors, and medicine. If not for this, they wouldn’t have fallen into the trap of the money shop’s high-interest loans in the first place.

“This Sanliangshi is a good place to perform. There are many spectators, and we can earn a lot of money in one go. But now we’ve run into this. We can’t perform with peace of mind,” the middle-aged man sighed.

The young man opened his mouth. “I think senior sister can’t go out to perform anymore! We can’t guarantee that something won’t happen again.”

The room fell silent. What the young man said was reasonable, but the star of their traveling troupe was this young woman—her real name was Xiao Xia’er, and her stage name was Sai Qingxia. Her performing skills were a family tradition. Not only was her horsemanship superb, but she was also proficient in archery, sword dancing, and even balancing bowls and walking on a tightrope. Although the others also had their own real skills, having a woman, especially a good-looking young woman, perform on horseback would earn them fifty to sixty percent more money in one show.

Now, if Sai Qingxia didn’t perform, who knew how long it would take to raise enough money for their journey. Moreover, the old master’s illness was not necessarily getting better, and lodging and medicine all cost money.

Qingxia raised her head and said, “I still have to perform! We know a little about the situation in this town now. The Luo family is the tiger. Since the tiger didn’t eat us and let us out of its den, the other hungry wolves and stray dogs probably won’t come to bother us either.”

“Senior sister!” the young man said anxiously. “…”

“Little Suozi, you don’t have to persuade me,” Qingxia had made up her mind. “I’m the star of this troupe. If I don’t perform, the money will come slowly, and it will be even harder for us to leave.”

Jiang Suo muttered a few more words of protest, but the others in the room brightened up. They were traveling performers trying to make a living. It was rare to find a place where business was good. If the star didn’t perform, how could they and a few children support the show?

The next day, the troupe continued to perform on horseback at the threshing ground. Although Guangdong had suffered several natural disasters and various disturbances and banditry since the Wanli era, it was still much better than the northern central plains. The people’s lives were still manageable, and there was little entertainment in the countryside. A young woman performing on horseback attracted not only the local townspeople but also idle villagers from nearby villages who came to watch the excitement when they had free time. The business on the first day was very good, and no one came to harass them.

Seeing that the market was so good, everyone performed with all their might. To earn more money, Qingxia decided to show off her archery skills, which she usually didn’t perform. This was a skill passed down in her family for generations. Although Qingxia was a woman and couldn’t draw a very strong bow, she was a hundred-percent accurate with a standard infantry bow, and she had a special trick of shooting a coin on horseback, a family heirloom.

This skill caused a great sensation. More and more people came from the surrounding countryside to watch. Several of the town’s militia instructors also secretly praised her, saying that it was real skill, not just for show.

They earned a lot of money, but the old master’s illness became more and more serious. They had consulted all the doctors in the town and had taken all sorts of medicines, but there was still no improvement. Everyone gradually became anxious—they had been here for almost three months. Performing for a month was about the limit. Now they were just relying on a few special skills to hold the stage. If this continued, it would be difficult to make a living.

Just as they were feeling helpless, a terrible piece of news spread through the town: the Kun thieves had come.

Chen Haiyang, who was resting and resupplying at Humen, had already received a report: the government forces were heavily fortifying Wuyong, not only building large forts but also concentrating a large number of troops. So he instructed the detachment commanders not to enter the provincial river area for the time being—that is, not to pass Wuyong. He planned to wait until the enemy’s forces were more or less gathered and then launch a decisive battle to completely destroy Guangzhou’s will to resist.

Before that, he ordered the patrol detachments to strike out in all directions to further weaken the morale of the Guangzhou officials, gentry, and common people.

The patrol detachments were sorted by English letters. Each detachment acted independently. Although the detachment commanders were authorized to act independently, including launching military attacks, Chen Haiyang strictly forbade any detachment from carrying out village exterminations or massacres without permission. His guiding principle was a combination of grace and power. To ensure that the detachments did not suffer defeats that would damage their image, each detachment was required to use peaceful means as much as possible to achieve their goals, rather than purely military action.

Wen Desi volunteered to lead a detachment deep into the Pearl River. Although Chen Haiyang expressed concern for his safety, President Wen bravely stated, “This little danger is nothing.”

“If you’re afraid of death, don’t join the revolution! In our cause, we can’t just sit in the office reading documents and issuing orders. We have to go out and fight the old forces with real swords and guns!” President Wen said with great enthusiasm to Chen Haiyang and the others at the temporary pier in Humen. With that, he strode towards his boat.

The D Detachment he led raised its sails and slowly sailed upstream, propelled by both sail and oar.

The D Detachment consisted of ten sampans and five “long dragons.” There were over two hundred marines and sailors, as well as a dozen or so civil affairs personnel. They carried one cannon and some engineering equipment. The “long dragons” were larger and could store supplies and transport cannons. Of course, they also provided comfortable sleeping quarters. Wen Desi’s “flagship” was on a “long dragon.” The small cabin had been carefully arranged and decorated, and was both safe and comfortable.

The task force had formed a total of 6 detachments. They set out separately for the towns and villages in the counties of Dongguan, Xin’an, Shunde, Xiangshan, Nanhai, and Panyu, posting notices everywhere and extorting “reasonable burdens.” For a time, the entire Guangzhou prefecture was in an uproar.

Xu Tingfa’s passive avoidance of battle made the various detachments almost unopposed in the inland rivers of the Pearl River. Guided by former pirates who were familiar with the waterways, the detachments went deep into the various river channels. The former pirates knew the surrounding situation and terrain like the back of their hands. They knew which villages and towns were rich, where the defenses were strong and the militia fierce and brave—the “hard grounds”—and where the forces were weak and isolated—the “soft grounds.”

The target of the D Detachment was Shunde. The detachment sailed along the river, issuing proclamations to the various villages and towns and establishing the “reasonable burden” system everywhere. This action required almost no effort. Under the awe of the Aussies, most villages and towns did not dare to resist the detachment and could only accept the proclamations and the “reasonable burden.”

For the villages and towns that did not resist, the detachment not only did not harass or extort them, but also paid for all requisitioned supplies and labor in cash. The amount of the reasonable burden was also very reasonable and did not exceed the village’s ability to pay. Some were even quite light.

The D Detachment’s first encounter with resistance occurred at Sanshan. After their demands were rejected, Wen Desi ordered an attack on Sanshan village. The 12-pounder howitzer mounted on the “long dragon” quickly opened a breach more than ten meters wide in the bamboo fence built by the villagers. The militia members behind the bamboo fence gathered and shot a dense rain of arrows at the breach, trying to stop the soldiers from breaking through. Several native cannons fired one after another, but because the distance was still far, they did not hit anyone. The soldiers fired fiercely at the breach from a distance with Minie rifles and a 12-pounder mountain howitzer, quickly routing the militia members who had gathered behind the bamboo fence to fight, leaving behind a field of corpses. Then, the soldiers quickly used the portable engineering bridges they carried with them to build a passage over the moat and entered the village.

Sanshan village was in chaos. Women, children, and the elderly were fleeing in all directions, and the ground was littered with discarded shoes, bundles, and various objects. But the moat and bamboo fence that had originally protected the village now blocked their escape. The D Detachment set up a blockade at several entrances and exits, trapping all the men, women, and children in the village.

Afterwards, a village-wide meeting was held at the village’s threshing ground. The villagers were herded to the threshing ground to await their fate. A dense crowd of black heads moved about. Around them, marines and sailors stood with bayoneted rifles or large broadswords, their blades glinting.

In the middle of the threshing ground stood a strange new contraption the villagers had never seen before: a wide wooden frame with ropes hanging from it.

The captured prisoners knelt on the side, dejected. Among them were many prominent figures from the village. Those who could organize a militia were all people of some means, most with an official title, or at least wealthy landlords.

According to Wen Desi’s usual thinking, resistance should be dealt with severely. But this time, their entry into the Pearl River was not to establish a long-term base. Overly harsh treatment would only incite the local people’s will to resist. Therefore, the resistance of the local forces was dealt with by “appropriate punishment, dividing the masses, and striking at the powerful.”

As retaliation for resisting the Aussies, the village’s militia commander, training leaders, and militia instructors who had led the resistance were all hanged in front of all the villagers, except for those who had already been killed or were missing. All their property was also confiscated. As for the common people—the peasants and militia members—the civil propaganda personnel announced that they had all been used and forced by the wealthy landlords, so this time, after their weapons were confiscated, they would not be held accountable. In the future, any attack on Aussie personnel or refusal to accept the reasonable burden would be met with “more severe retaliation.”

Even the current retaliation was severe. Although they were spared the death penalty, they still had to suffer. After some bargaining, Sanshan village ended up paying a sum of gold, silver, cloth, rice, and other property equivalent to one thousand taels of silver. Of course, their assessed reasonable burden was also calculated at three times the normal rate.

After staying in Sanshan for one night, the D Detachment continued to advance along the river. They successively occupied Mazhou, Sanshan, and Pingzhou. The villagers in these places, having learned of Sanshan’s fate, did not dare to resist the D Detachment. The reasonable burden system was easily established. The boats were soon filled with the harvested tribute. Then, the D Detachment arrived at Wan, where the terrain was favorable to the defenders. It was surrounded by water, with dense trees, and the local villagers had built dikes along the banks and planted many bamboo stakes.

The D Detachment anchored before Wan for the night. The next morning, Wen Desi found that a large number of militia members had gathered along the banks of Wan, a forest of swords and spears, with all sorts of strange flags fluttering on the riverbank.

As soon as the detachment’s boats moved, the militia of Wan fired a volley of cannon fire. A dozen or so native cannons firing together was an impressive sight. Smoke enveloped the entire riverbank, but the projectiles fired were mostly iron nails, iron sheets, porcelain shards, and small stones. They flew no more than a dozen meters before falling into the river, causing no casualties at all.

The cannons on the “long dragons” and the Minie rifles fired simultaneously, instantly clearing the defensive positions on the riverbank. Then, under the support of artillery fire, sampans carrying marines rowed towards the riverbank. The militia on the shore shouted loudly and fired their guns and cannons randomly, but they were soon dispersed by the accurate fire of the Minie rifles. When the militia members realized that the Kun thieves could shoot and hit them from a great distance, while they couldn’t even hit the enemy with their cannons, this terrifying reality immediately shook their morale. Then, a native cannon suddenly exploded, causing a dozen casualties. The accidental explosion of the cannon caused a total collapse of the Wan militia. Although the local militia commander, Liang Kefa, tried to resist with his own retainers, he and his men were soon cut down by the marines’ bayonets. More than a dozen other militia commanders, deputy commanders, training leaders, and militia instructors from various villages and towns were also killed or captured. These core personnel had all been at the forefront to boost morale and most did not escape during the rout.

The D Detachment took an hour and a half in the morning to rout over a thousand militia members from six nearby villages and towns. After killing and capturing a third of them, Wan and the nearby villages and towns sent representatives to express their submission. They not only redeemed the prisoners at a price of one tael of silver per person but also paid several thousand taels of silver in “compensation.” Wen Desi ordered, following the precedent of Sanshan, the execution of a batch of captured local gentry and prominent families who had served as militia commanders and training leaders, and confiscated their movable property. The common people were not held accountable, and the troops strictly observed discipline during the operation, not looting, not setting fires, and not raping. This combination of leniency and severity, and the differential treatment, greatly weakened the will of the common people to resist the Fubo Army. The gentry and prominent families were even more terrified and no longer dared to think of armed resistance.

While Wen Desi led his detachment rampaging through the waterways of Shunde, Shi Zhiqi’s E Detachment roamed freely on the main channel of the Pearl River, as if in an uninhabited land. He successively burned down several government institutions along the river, such as river police stations and inspection stations. After successively capturing the two islands of Daojiao and Dafen, which had attempted to resist the Fubo Army, Shi Zhiqi led his troops to occupy a fort that the county was building south of Xiangshan. He dispersed the hundreds of militia members guarding the fort, then dismantled the fort, and then appeared before the walls of Xiangshan city. Although Shi Zhiqi had less than two hundred men and a dozen or so boats, the magistrate of Xiangshan County, shocked by his invincible advance, was forced to abandon the idea of armed resistance, also due to the strong opposition of the terrified gentry in the county. He sent several gentry members to his camp to negotiate terms. In the end, Xiangshan County paid a ransom of five thousand taels of silver in exchange for Shi Zhiqi’s withdrawal from the city. This experience gave the Elders a new understanding—local officials were often willing to find a way to compromise.

The operations of the various detachments along the Pearl River were all very smooth, with only minor casualties in the few battles that occurred. The detachment commanders followed their instructions: never fight far from the river—as long as they were close to the river, they could get effective support from the cannons mounted on the “long dragons”; do not stay overnight in local villages, but rather camp in the wild or sleep on the boats—the latter was a lesson learned from the work team in Danzhou.

Shi Zhiqi returned to Humen once—to unload the spoils of war, prisoners, and the very few wounded he had acquired during this cruise. After reloading with supplies and replacing some personnel, he led his detachment towards Dongguan County. This time, his target was Sanliangshi.