Chapter 179: The Underground Government

Jiang Suo smiled contemptuously and gave a gentle push. The innkeeper lost his balance, stumbled, and nearly fell flat on his face. His club clattered to the ground, drawing a roar of laughter from the crowd in the courtyard.

The innkeeper, now red with shame and anger, cursed and ordered his men to attack. He saw his men shrink back, none daring to step forward—they knew this troupe of performers was highly skilled, and they would surely lose a fight.

The innkeeper hadn’t expected these people, who he thought he had leverage over, to treat him with such disdain, and in front of a crowd of local paupers no less. He couldn’t afford to lose face like this. He scrambled to his feet and ran into a small room.

Qingxia spat and muttered under her breath, “Bullying the weak and fearing the strong!” She was about to open the courtyard gate to leave when the innkeeper rushed out again, holding a gong and beating it frantically.

The sharp, urgent sound of the gong echoed in the air. The people in the courtyard froze—it was the alarm gong, usually sounded only for bandit alerts or fires. When the gong sounded, the night watchmen, militia, and fire brigade would come running. Now that the Aussies were in charge, what was the use of sounding this gong?

As it turned out, it was still useful. The sound of hurried footsteps approached from outside. Then, voices shouted, “Where’s the gong? Where’s the gong?”

The innkeeper, as if seeing his saviors, darted out, yanked open the back gate, and shrieked, “Sir! There’s a militia leader who slipped through the net here!”

No one had expected him to pull such a move. The people in the courtyard were stunned, as if struck by lightning. After the Kun thieves broke the stockade, they hadn’t looted and didn’t kill indiscriminately, but militia leaders and instructors, if caught, faced certain death! Just now at the meeting on the threshing ground, three martial arts masters, all recently hired as militia instructors, had been publicly hanged.

Qingxia’s mind went blank. Seeing Jiang Suo draw his short sword from his waist, ready to fight to the death, she quickly pressed his hand down. “Don’t!” she whispered urgently.

Although Jiang Suo was hot-blooded, he was obedient to his master and senior sister. He immediately stopped and sheathed his sword. At that moment, a squad of marines rushed in.

Shortly after occupying Sanliangshi, the Fubo Army had restored basic order in the town, including the alarm gong system and the night watchmen’s rounds. Patrols were dispatched to wander the streets day and night, searching for fugitives and maintaining order, preventing looting.

Each patrol team was assigned a local night watchman as a guide and translator. As soon as the gong sounded, the marines arrived.

“What’s going on?” the corporal leading the squad asked, looking at the people in the courtyard. When he saw Qingxia and her group carrying weapons, he frowned and shouted, “You, put your weapons on the ground!”

Qingxia quickly unbuckled the short sword at her waist and nudged Jiang Suo. Reluctantly, Jiang Suo also took off his sword and threw it on the ground. There were seven or eight of them. Whether in hand-to-hand combat or unarmed, he felt he could handle them, but the Kun thieves’ firearms were formidable. Not to mention they had the wounded Jiang Niang with them, even if the three of them were uninjured, they could fight their way out of this courtyard but not out of the town.

The innkeeper bowed and scraped as he approached. “Sir—”

“I am a corporal,” the leading Kun thief said sternly. “Why did you sound the gong?”

“Corporal Sir!” the innkeeper said, showing his badge. “I am the town’s liai…son…” In his haste, he forgot the “son” in “liaison.” “These three are all militia instructors under that despot Luo Tianqiu. Look at that woman, she’s even wounded.”

“Is that so.” The corporal looked at them. Their appearance and demeanor were indeed those of martial artists. According to regulations, they were to be arrested and interrogated before a decision was made.

“Take them away!” the corporal waved his hand.

“Yes, sir!” The soldiers immediately came forward to take them away.

“Sir, we’ve been wronged!” Qingxia fell to her knees with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly. “We are just performers. The weapons we carry are for our performances. This innkeeper coveted our horse and tried to extort us. When he failed, he falsely accused us. Please investigate, sir!” She kowtowed several more times.

“I have no authority to investigate. You’ll come with me to the public office,” the corporal said, waving his hand. He turned to the innkeeper. “Since you are the accuser, you must come too!”

“Yes, yes, I’ll go right away,” the innkeeper said with a wide smile. “She’s just trying to argue her way out of it. Look at that woman, she has a fresh wound on her leg…”

Qingxia’s face turned pale. Other things could be explained, but the fresh wound on Jiang Niang’s leg was inexplicable—if she hadn’t fought the Kun thieves, how could she have a bayonet wound on her leg?

A triumphant look appeared on the innkeeper’s face, and he added fuel to the fire. “This woman is an excellent archer. She might have even wounded your brothers.”

Qingxia’s face was deathly pale. Seeing the innkeeper chattering on, adding insult to injury, each sentence more vicious than the last, she knew that once they reached the so-called public office, there would be no coming out. She repeatedly cried out that she was wronged and turned to plead with the other peasants in the courtyard to testify that the innkeeper was falsely accusing them because his extortion had failed.

However, the peasants in the courtyard knew that the innkeeper had already sold himself to the Aussies. How would they dare to get involved in this mess? They all remained silent as cicadas in winter. Qingxia knew she was an outsider and no one was willing to help. In despair, she secretly regretted her lack of experience. She should have just given up the horse. She knew she wasn’t clean, having served as a trainer for the Luo family, yet she still tried to be tough. She wasn’t afraid of being caught, beaten, or killed by the Aussies, but now the whole troupe was implicated, with no one left outside to run errands and try to rescue them.

At this thought, she was filled with regret, but it was too late to turn back. Her only hope was to see what happened at the public office and act accordingly. She secretly resolved that as long as she could save everyone, she would sacrifice anything.

The night before Qingxia and her group were arrested, Wen Desi arrived in Sanliangshi with reinforcements.

Sanliang Town was the largest market town captured by the task force. It was also an important commercial distribution center for Dongguan and several neighboring counties, holding significant commercial importance. The spoils of war and the number of prisoners captured were the largest, so it received great attention from the Elders of the task force. After the news of Shi Zhiqi being wounded by an arrow arrived, Wen Desi immediately set out, bringing several Elders and some civil affairs personnel to Sanliangshi, preparing to establish a presence there.

The reinforcement team led by Wen Desi had to clear the wooden stakes from the river channel along the way to allow the “long dragon” transport boats to pass. They cleared the way as they went and only arrived at Sanliangshi in the afternoon. By then, the battle was basically over. Although it took some time to capture the Luo residence, it was occupied before dark.

Wen Desi immediately directed the troops to carry out “cleanup” and “screening” work throughout Sanliang. A batch of people was immediately hanged, and the operation to confiscate property continued until late at night.

The work of hunting down and eliminating the remaining enemies continued throughout the night. More than four hundred marines blockaded all entrances and exits, and patrol teams with torches patrolled every street and alley, searching for any natives trying to escape. The captured people were all sent to the temporary detention camps near the threshing ground and the public office to await their fate.

The resistance in Sanliangshi was the strongest, and the marines’ retaliation was particularly brutal. Although they were bound by discipline and could not vent their anger on the common people, they were not so polite to the militia. If anyone showed the slightest resistance or spoke disrespectfully, they would be bayoneted on the spot.

After signing the first batch of execution orders, Wen Desi stretched his body. It wasn’t easy being a leader, signing so many orders at once. He stood up and looked at the brightly lit courtyard. The courtyard had been cleared, and marines were now on guard under the eaves. The bayonets reflected the light of the torches in the courtyard, glinting coldly.

He called over an officer on duty. “Where is Detachment Commander Shi?”

“He is in the temporary hospital. I will take you there right away,” the officer said respectfully.

A side courtyard of the public office had been converted into a hospital. The east warm pavilion was turned into a temporary operating room. A rosewood table served as an operating table, curtains were hung around it, and a dozen or so spotlights were arranged around it—the electricity was provided by a bicycle-powered generator outside, with marines taking turns pedaling.

Zhang Tumu had just performed surgery to remove a bullet from a militia member’s abdomen and had sutured the wound. It was hard to say if the patient would survive; the conditions were too primitive. But at least with surgery, he had a chance of survival. Without it, he would surely die.

“Pay attention to nursing, especially giving the medicine on time,” Zhang Tumu instructed the medic. He then soaked his blood-stained latex gloves in a basin of clean water, washed them carefully, and then soaked them in a basin of alcohol. In Lingao, a nurse would do these things for him, but here he had to do it himself.

Zhang Tumu was the army surgeon. He had brought several native medical students studying emergency surgery and a lot of equipment and medicine. Besides intending to save lives, he also wanted to get some practice. Originally, he had set up a medical station at Humen, but the patrol battles on the Pearl River had not produced many seriously wounded who required his personal attention. In the end, he decided to move with the detachment. If there were no one of his own to save, at least he could save the prisoners.

With this in mind, this small medical team left half of its people and equipment behind, and the rest boarded the boats to Shiwan, which Shi Zhiqi had occupied. Zhang Tumu was bored in Shiwan when the news of Shi Zhiqi being wounded by an arrow arrived. He immediately rushed to Sanliang Town with his apprentices and equipment, escorted by soldiers.

He had originally thought he would be saving Shi Zhiqi, but when he arrived, he saw that Shi Zhiqi’s injury was not life-threatening. He was sitting dejectedly on a couch, the arrowhead and a small piece of the shaft still in his body. The army medic, seeing that the wound was close to a major artery, did not dare to cut it open to remove the arrowhead and had to wait for Zhang Tumu.

Qingxia’s arrow had hit him on the “armor” he wore over his uniform—this was protective gear issued to Elders who were not equipped with stab-proof vests, similar to an old-style steel plate body armor, with steel plates inserted in key areas. The arrow had accurately hit the steel plate over his heart, missing his heart by a hair’s breadth.

If it had really hit, Shi Zhiqi would have died on the spot, even if he had ten lives. The arrow was deflected by the steel plate, and the arrowhead slanted into his shoulder. The wound was not serious. Zhang Tumu cleaned the wound, gave him a tetanus shot, and also gave him antibiotics.

“You’re quite lucky,” Zhang Tumu said as he sutured Shi Zhiqi’s wound without any anesthesia, while Shi Zhiqi winced in pain. “It almost hit the artery. If it had, you would have been a goner, waiting for a memorial service at Cuigang.”

“Dr. Zhang, don’t you have any sympathy?” Shi Zhiqi groaned on the sickbed. “My bones aren’t broken, are they…”

“The bones aren’t broken, but you have severe soft tissue contusions, which is also bad. You’ll need to rest well for a while. After returning to Lingao, get an X-ray to see if there’s any damage to the ligaments and joints—I’m not an orthopedist, so I can’t guarantee anything,” Zhang Tumu said, washing his hands. “You were lucky not to break any bones falling from the roof. Be careful in the future!”

Shi Zhiqi said weakly, “We are Marine Corps officers, always leading from the front.”

“Hehe,” Zhang Tumu smiled. “To be honest, you are indeed the most seriously injured person in your detachment.”

Shi Zhiqi couldn’t help but let out a cry of either shame or anger. “Twelve men died, front and back, and I myself was wounded! How am I going to explain this when I get back? I’ve lost both face and substance!”

“It’s fourteen dead. Two more were killed in action while attacking the stockade,” Zhang Tumu said. “But all the wounded are fine.”

“Good heavens,” Shi Zhiqi groaned, probably touching a painful spot, and winced again.

Zhang Tumu said, “Do you want me to give you some painkillers?”

“No need. The painkillers you have are just opium and coca. I’m not touching that stuff,” Shi Zhiqi said. “How about some porn…”

“The laptop is out of battery,” Zhang Tumu immediately refused. “You’d better get some rest. I’ll give you a sleeping pill made by Runshitang. Liu San boasts that it’s a pure traditional Chinese medicine preparation—of course, opium is also a pure traditional Chinese medicine preparation.”

“I dare not rest—we are the only two Elders here, and you haven’t led troops before. I’m afraid things will go wrong if I rely on the native officers to command.”

“I think they are all performing very well, in an orderly manner. The order in the town has been restored, so don’t worry. Besides, President Wen is coming with the D Detachment this afternoon. With him here, what are you worried about?”

“President Wen is coming too?”

“That’s right. He’ll probably come to see you after he’s done with his business,” Zhang Tumu smiled. “It’s a pity Huang Zhua’zi isn’t here to play the role of a photojournalist. Otherwise, we could take a few pictures of ‘President Wen cordially visiting the combat hero Shi Zhiqi.’ Maybe it could even be included in primary school textbooks in the future.”

“Stop making fun of me,” Shi Zhiqi knew he was teasing him about his “glorious deeds” on Lantau Island. “What good would taking that photo do me…”

“It won’t do you any good, but it will do President Wen good. What a great propaganda material.”

“What good would it do me!” President Wen’s voice sounded from outside. “I don’t care for it. A man should rely on his strength! Such empty things are useless!”

Wen Desi had indeed come to visit Shi Zhiqi. His purpose, of course, was not to take pictures, but to discuss the handling of the subsequent affairs of Sanliangshi. He wanted Shi Zhiqi’s opinion.

In terms of “administrative level,” Wen Desi was much higher than Shi Zhiqi, but they were both Elders, and the town was mainly captured by Shi Zhiqi’s detachment. Although he was now injured and unable to handle affairs, this formal respect had to be fully expressed.

“…I don’t have any particular views. President Wen, you can decide as you see fit,” Shi Zhiqi said with an air of infinite trust. “However, we must retaliate fiercely, to let them know the consequences of resisting our Fubo Army…” Fearing that President Wen would suspect he was demanding severe retaliation because he himself had been hit by an arrow, he quickly recounted the story of how his men had been hit by a “ten-thousand-man enemy” on the river, losing an entire squad.

“I can’t swallow this… eleven marines, all the best young men… gone just like that…” Shi Zhiqi became emotional as he spoke. After all, these soldiers had grown up under his command.

“Hmm,” Wen Desi nodded, but did not indicate what he would do. He felt that the case Shi Zhiqi had mentioned was very necessary to be discussed in the staff meeting—the natives had already begun to consciously or unconsciously try some asymmetric tactical countermeasures, and this trend must be paid attention to.

“I will thoroughly investigate this matter,” Wen Desi said. “As for retaliation, the resistance in Sanliang was so stubborn, it’s a good opportunity to eliminate the local tyrants. But,” he expressed concern, “we can’t stay here for long. It’s a pity that we can’t establish a government after eliminating them.”

“I suggest setting up an underground party…” Shi Zhiqi said. “Didn’t the Foreign Intelligence Bureau set up the ‘Mountain and Sea’ routes and a ‘Five Elements Banner’ system? They have both business and intelligence operations. We can just have Jiang Shan dispatch some native personnel to do business here, set up a local team, and both make money and provide intelligence.”

Using the advantage of the current military occupation, they could clean up all possible opponents and support a group of collaborators as the peripheral force of the underground party, secretly controlling some important market towns.

Market towns are the link between cities and the countryside, and have a strong radiating and penetrating ability on the countryside. The surrounding rural economy is greatly influenced by the market towns. This would be of great help for future currency or commodity penetration.

Wen Desi had considered this plan before—including Wu De, Jiang Shan, and Si Kaide, they had all exchanged views with him via telegram on some of the follow-up matters after the “tax collection” operations in the villages along the Pearl River. Among them, they had discussed that for some large market towns captured by force, it would be a pity to just kill a batch of people, rob a batch of things, set up a few agents to handle the “reasonable burden,” and then withdraw. It would be best to take advantage of the Ming and Qing governments’ weak control over the countryside and establish an “underground government” in the vacuum.