Chapter 177: Liu Deshan's Backyard

After Shi Zhiqi was hit by the arrow, the battle paused for a moment, but the attack soon resumed. Following the chain of command, the captain of the 2nd Marine Company took over command of the entire detachment. He observed the surroundings. The watchtower stood isolated, surrounded by a large open space, making a concealed approach impossible. The defenders seemed to have an ample supply of projectiles. Moreover, when the watchtower was built, to prevent tunneling tactics, the foundation, about a man’s height, was made of heavy stones and stone slabs, making it very sturdy. A 12-pounder mountain howitzer might not be able to breach it. The only weakness was the watchtower’s main gate—it was very thick, clad in iron, and studded with large nails. This gate was the weakest point at the base of the watchtower—no target, no matter how thick, could withstand a solid shot from a 12-pounder mountain howitzer.

The two howitzers were dragged to the south side of the watchtower. The marines cleared the few remaining militia and retainers who were putting up a last stand in the streets with their bayonets and dragged the cannons through the streets. A gunner on loan from the army climbed onto a roof, observed for a moment, and decided to set up the artillery position in the backyard of a civilian house on the street.

The owner of this house was named Liu Deshan, a tall and sturdy man by the standards of the time, with a full beard. He had the air of a northern man, but at this moment, he was hiding deep in his inner residence, listening to the sounds of cannons and fighting outside, and chanting Buddhist scriptures. He prayed that neither the Kun thieves nor the militia would visit his small but comfortable house. This small courtyard protected not only his life but also the various Shandong local products he had piled up in the side rooms. He had brought them all the way from Shandong with great hardship, planning to sell them in Sanliang and then use the money to trade in various straw-woven products and Guangdong local products to Shandong. This place was an important commodity distribution center in Dongguan County, and he had been doing business here for many years, roughly half a year in Shandong and half a year in Guangdong. His business was doing well. He hated bandits and highwaymen the most in his life—because his goods had been lost to them several times in his business career, almost driving him to hang himself.

When the Kun thieves were about to attack Sanliangshi, Liu Deshan had originally wanted to flee with his goods. But the Kun thieves came very quickly, and all sorts of rumors were flying around, one moment saying where the Kun thieves had reached, the next saying which villages and towns they had occupied. Liu Deshan dared not act rashly and had to stay in the town.

“My goodness,” Liu Deshan hid in the back hall, with several servants and clerks huddled around him, all trembling. “These plague-ridden Kun thieves, just sell your Aussie goods and be done with it—why become bandits…”

A clerk asked, “The Kun thieves are the Aussies?”

“That’s right. The Aussies who make the Aussie goods,” Liu Deshan muttered to himself. “I don’t know what devil possessed them to become bandits…”

“I heard it was the government forcing the people to rebel… Some big shots in the province and the capital had their eyes on their property.”

“These officials, all with black hearts, only care about making money. In the end, it’s us common people who suffer…” Before Liu Deshan could finish his sentence, there was a loud boom outside. A cannonball probably hit the roof, and there was a clattering sound. Liu Deshan trembled again. Hearing the sounds of fighting, gunfire, and running getting closer and closer, he knew that the battlefield was probably moving towards this area. The thought that if the Kun thieves were to rush in, he would not only lose his goods but also his life, made him tremble like a leaf.

The several servants around him were also trembling. One of his clerks was hiding under a long table, holding his head and not moving. Liu Deshan cursed, “You bunch of cowards…”

Just as he said this, there was a chaotic sound of voices and footsteps in the front courtyard. Then, with a “bang,” the outer courtyard gate was opened. Liu Deshan was scared out of his wits. Besides saying “My goodness,” he couldn’t say anything else.

The footsteps in the courtyard became more and more dense, and then someone shouted to saw off the threshold of the courtyard gate. Liu Deshan thought, they even saw off the threshold when they rob. Before his brain could process it, the room door was violently kicked open, and three or four figures in blue short jackets jumped in.

These must be the Kun thieves. Although Liu Deshan was scared to death, he couldn’t help but secretly observe this group of Kun thieves, whom he had only heard of but never seen. They all wore iron hats that looked like fire basins on their heads, held Aussie muskets in their hands, and had dark faces, panting, but looked very energetic.

The marines, however, had no time to waste words with them. After a brief inspection of the surroundings, someone suddenly shouted, “All clear!”

“Good, everyone, to the backyard!” The leader of the group was not tall, but his voice was very loud. He held a pistol in his left hand and a strange saber in his right, shouting orders. After saying this, he said to the trembling people on the ground, “Don’t be afraid. We need to borrow your place to set up our cannons. Stay in the room and don’t go out, to avoid being accidentally injured!”

With that, he hurried out with his saber. Liu Deshan finally felt a little relieved. Seeing that the people had gone out and the door was open, he quickly crawled over and closed it again. He then peeked through the window that looked into the backyard. He saw that twenty or thirty Kun thieves had already gathered in the backyard and were busy. They had even pushed down a section of the surrounding wall. The gap in the wall was filled with rubble and broken wood, and several Kun thieves were lying behind it, firing their muskets at the watchtower outside the courtyard wall. The sound was both loud and crisp. Then, with a shout, they pushed a two-wheeled cannon in and pushed it all the way to the gap.

“My goodness. They’re going to bombard the watchtower…” Liu Deshan had just said this when he felt someone push him. He realized that the clerks and servants who had been trembling with him just now were now all peeking through the window like they were watching a spectacle.

“You bunch of good-for-nothings!” Liu Deshan couldn’t help but curse. “I feed you for nothing…”

Suddenly, his face stiffened. He saw several Kun thieves carrying bundles of straw mats and straw bags filled with local products into the courtyard. It didn’t look like they were going to rob, but rather to use them to build up a gun platform.

Liu Deshan let out a sharp cry. “My goodness. My dried tangerine peel! My donkey-hide gelatin! My straw mats…”

Before he could finish listing his goods that were about to be ravaged, the small Kun thief leader who had just rushed into the room with a saber stopped his men from moving the goods. He seemed to have reprimanded them, and the Kun thieves moved the things back. Liu Deshan breathed a sigh of relief, but then he thought that the Kun thief leader must have been afraid that his men would damage the goods, so he didn’t allow them to be used for the gun platform. Now they were probably going to move them out as spoils of war…

Liu Deshan’s heart sank again. He thought of the five hundred taels of silver he had hidden under the floor tiles under his bed in the bedroom. What if the Kun thieves forced him to hand over the silver? Liu Deshan had heard many stories of bandits extorting and kidnapping people: some would light a candle in a chamber pot and force people to sit on it, some would hang people from a tree and roast their feet… all sorts of tortures. He had so many goods, so he must have silver. If the Kun thieves thought of this, they would definitely force him to tell them…

Thinking of these terrifying methods, Liu Deshan almost wet his pants. Just as he was thinking about whether to find a place to hide, the cannon in the courtyard fired.

The 12-pounder mountain howitzer spewed out a cloud of thick smoke. The ground shook, and the walls, windows, and even the floor trembled. For a moment, Liu Deshan felt like he couldn’t breathe. In the red flash of light, he vaguely saw a black iron ball fly out. The heavy-looking two-wheeled cannon actually jumped back more than twenty feet.

The cannonball did not hit the gate, but it hit the protruding balcony above the gate. Bricks and stones flew, and the thick brick wall collapsed, sending down two unrecognizable, mutilated corpses. There was probably a stove in the balcony, and the corpses were on fire.

Besides the pungent smell of gunpowder, there was also a strong stench in the air—it turned out that a large pot of feces was being boiled in the balcony. As soon as people rushed to the gatehouse, the people above would pull the pot, and the boiling feces, boiling water, or hot oil would pour down the brick path, scalding the attackers below.

A hole appeared above the gate. Immediately, some militia members tried to fill the gap with wooden barrels and bags of dirt. Some militia members leaned out of the gap, recklessly shooting arrows and firing muskets. People kept getting shot and falling from above.

The small officer rolled up his sleeves and swung his saber. “Another shot! Aim better!”

The next shot hit the gate squarely, and the sturdy gate was instantly shattered. Then another solid shot flew straight through the gate opening, tumbling all the way, and knocked down a large number of militia members who had gathered in the gate opening, ready to fight the charging enemy to the death.

The charge was sounded, and the marines rushed forward, instantly capturing the first floor of the watchtower. The militia and retainers refused to surrender and continued to throw “ten-thousand-man enemies” and bricks and tiles down from the staircase. The marine company commander ordered a fire to be set on the ground floor. The watchtower had originally stored a lot of firearms: sulfur, gunpowder packets, and “ten-thousand-man enemies.” The marines added some flammable materials from various places on the ground floor and set another fire. Thick smoke and flames quickly filled the ground floor of the watchtower. The gunpowder exploded continuously, and white and black smoke billowed upwards. Soon, the entire watchtower was spewing smoke from every window and opening.

The people in the watchtower lost their ability to resist and jumped down from the second floor one after another. Some broke their legs, some died from the fall, but most managed to escape with their lives and became prisoners.

After the watchtower was captured, the Kun thieves dragged the cannon out of the courtyard. A young Kun thief even came to their room and talked to them:

“Sorry to trouble you, master, for tearing down a section of your wall.”

“Oh, it’s nothing, nothing. I was going to tear it down anyway…” Liu Deshan said incoherently.

“And the tiles on your roof, our comrades have broken quite a few. I’m afraid it will leak.”

“It’s nothing. The tiles… if they’re broken, they’re broken… a leak is even better.”

“And that threshold—”

“I’ve been wanting to saw it off for a long time.”

“You’re quite interesting, master. Don’t worry, we’ll have it all repaired for you in a few days,” the young man said with a smile, shouldering his rifle and leaving. After a while, the courtyard was completely quiet. Liu Deshan and the others still didn’t dare to go out. Liu Deshan was worried about his goods, so he kicked one of his clerks hard in the buttocks.

“Quick! Go and see if the Kun… the Aussies have left…”

The clerk went out with a long face. He came back a while later and reported that the Aussies were all gone. They had even closed the main gate for them.

Liu Deshan quickly went out to see. Indeed, everyone was gone. The two side rooms where the goods were stored, one had its lock intact, the other had its lock broken, but a temporary seal had been put on it—the paste was not yet dry. Liu Deshan was startled, thinking that his goods had been confiscated. But then he saw the words “Private property, belongs to the original owner, do not open without permission” written on it. He quickly ordered someone to break the seal.

Because many of the goods inside had been moved out by the marines earlier to build the gun emplacement, and were later returned on the leader’s order, they were in some disarray. But a quick glance showed that there was no major damage. Liu Deshan breathed a sigh of relief, and his whole body went limp as if exhausted. He almost cried with joy.

He had never expected to suffer no loss at all after being caught in a battle. This made Liu Deshan feel like he had escaped from the jaws of death. His fear and terror of the Kun thieves suddenly turned into gratitude. As for the demolished wall and the broken tiles, they were completely insignificant.

“The Aussie army is truly a righteous army. Their business reputation probably won’t be bad either,” Liu Deshan’s merchant mind immediately started turning.

Liu Deshan quickly instructed his clerks to temporarily block the gap in the backyard wall with bricks and stones, and to fix the sawn-off threshold with a wooden strip and nails—otherwise, the door wouldn’t close properly. He then had them boil water and pour all of last year’s old tea leaves into it.

“Master, should we send it to the Aussies now?” a clerk asked.

“Not for now,” Liu Deshan’s eyes rolled. He thought, I shouldn’t be the first to stick my neck out. It’s better to wait until the battle of Sanliangshi is over and the situation is completely clear before going to “offer condolences.”

After the watchtower was captured, the defense of Sanliang Town had mostly collapsed. The temporarily conscripted able-bodied men had lost their will to fight, and many had thrown away their weapons and fled home. Only the militia bureau, the other two watchtowers, and the Luo family compound were still resisting. These places were defended by the militia and the retainers of the various families. Their will to fight was relatively strong, and with the family heads now promising large rewards, their defense was very stubborn.

The detachment, on the one hand, organized the cleaning of the battlefield and the collection of gunpowder—after the fierce battle, the detachment’s gunpowder was almost exhausted, and the mountain howitzer shells were also running out. The acting detachment commander had someone escort the wounded back to Shigang to transport ammunition, while at the same time collecting the gunpowder and firearms discarded by the militia, preparing to clear out the remaining pockets of resistance one by one.

Jiang Suo and Qingxia on the watchtower were not captured. Qingxia had almost no chance to show off her archery skills in the battle. The Kun thieves were very well concealed, always running in a low posture, and would occasionally take cover suddenly, making her lose her aim. And the dense rain of bullets made her afraid to stick her head out to aim, or even to stay behind the loopholes for long to observe—a militia member had his head blown open by a bullet that passed through a loophole. She could only take a quick shot at a rough target through a loophole. It was only when Shi Zhiqi climbed onto the roof and waved his command sword that she seized the opportunity and shot him down with one arrow.

She had originally thought that the Kun thieves would pause their attack after losing a general, or even retreat. Unexpectedly, the Kun thieves continued their attack in an orderly manner, as if the presence of this person made no difference. Qingxia shot a dozen more arrows randomly, not knowing if she had hit anyone.

When the gate was broken down by the cannon, Qingxia knew that the watchtower could not be defended. She and Jiang Suo immediately ran to the northeast corner. Jiang Suo had been prepared. He had hidden a coil of rope, and now he lowered it from the watchtower and slid down. They slipped out through a gap in the marines’ blockade.

At this time, the streets of Sanliang Town were deserted, with every house closed. The streets were littered with various weapons, and occasionally a few corpses lay on the road.

“Senior sister! Where do we go now?”

“I’m going to the Luo family’s ancestral hall to get father out!” Qingxia said. “You go to the north and find the children and Uncle Zhou and the others! We’ll meet at the inn.”

“Alright!” Jiang Suo nodded, stuck his sword behind his back, and ran off.

Qingxia ran wildly. Just as she was about to reach the Luo family’s ancestral hall, she saw that the street ahead was already crowded with many Kun thief soldiers. Her heart sank—the Luo family’s ancestral hall was next to the Luo residence, and now the Luo residence was the main target of the Kun thieves’ attack.

The thought that her father was trapped inside, his fate unknown, made Qingxia extremely anxious. She saw that there was constant gunfire and shouting ahead, and knew that if she tried to force her way in, she would die—she had already witnessed the power of the Kun thieves’ muskets.

She quickly retreated, took a detour, and went through a street on the other side.

But all the intersections were occupied by the Kun thieves. Qingxia dared not stay on the street any longer, afraid that if the Kun thieves found her, she would not be able to explain herself. She hurried back to the inn.

At the inn, the owner was nowhere to be found. Jiang Suo’s face was covered in dust, and he said anxiously that only Jiang Niang had returned—and she was wounded. According to her, they had been caught in a chaotic battle with the militia when the Kun thieves broke in. She had managed to break out with great difficulty, but Uncle Zhou’s whereabouts were unknown. As for the other three young children, they were trapped in the militia bureau. Just now, she had heard that the militia bureau had been captured, with many casualties inside. The rest were taken prisoner and were being escorted to the threshing ground.

“I didn’t dare to get close to see. The Kun thieves have already given the order: kill anyone seen on the streets. They’re shooting at anyone they see now. I almost got shot myself…” Jiang Suo’s body was trembling as he spoke, clearly still in shock. Seeing that Qingxia had arrived at the inn alone, he asked, “What about master?”

“Father is also trapped in the Luo residence!” Qingxia said, tears already falling. Uncle Zhou was missing, the three young apprentices’ whereabouts were unknown, and Jiang Niang was wounded. For a moment, it felt like the sky was falling. Her vision went black, and she fainted.