Chapter 56: Strange Bedfellows

The cruelest thing was that in the second half of 1630, the Special Investigation Command believed that the various special investigation teams under its command should be given opportunities for practical combat training. Multiple special investigation teams were deployed to various counties in northern Qiongzhou to carry out extensive “hunts.” The special investigation teams operated in small groups, infiltrating the core areas of the mountains to carry out raids and ambushes. This kind of battle, where a gunshot suddenly rang out and a person was killed without seeing the enemy, was difficult for even the most stubborn bandits to bear. During the transfer, the invisible god of death always followed the team. In addition to the occasional gunshots that reaped lives, any bandit who left the sight of the main group would disappear from time to time.

Hu Lanyan’s team could not gain a foothold. After a series of deaths and desertions, only twenty or thirty people were left. And he didn’t dare to disband the team and go down the mountain to live an honest life—they had gotten rid of the work team before, and now the Australians were offering a reward of 3,000 circulation coupons for his head. Anyone who provided effective information could also get one hundred to five hundred circulation coupons. Any bandit who captured or killed Hu Lanyan and Gou Er would be pardoned, and the Australians would also arrange for their resettlement. After the news came out, Hu Lanyan saw his men’s eyes glowing green, looking like hungry wolves.

Hu Lanyan complained every other day that Gou Er had come up with the idea of “eliminating the work team” and had made a mortal enemy of the Australians—now there was no possibility of surrendering and being pardoned.

Gou Er was at the end of his rope and had to flee all the way. During his flight, he happened to see a notice: the notice was about the trial of “war criminals.” Because the notice was old and most of it was damaged, the content on it was barely legible. It was roughly about the Australians sentencing some of the officers and soldiers who had come to “suppress the bandits” and were captured to “hard labor” or “death.” The Australians’ trial of officers and soldiers was not a shocking thing to him, but Gou Er saw Lai Da’s name at the end of a long list of people sentenced to death on the notice.

The news of Lai Da’s death shocked Gou Er very much—Lai Da was not an important person, just one of his capable lackeys. Even though he was now at the end of his rope, Lai Da was not an important person to him. But Lai Da’s death seemed to announce something to him.

In a state of constant fear, Hu Lanyan finally could not hold on in Danzhou. He gathered the remaining twenty or so people and announced that they could not stay in Danzhou and were preparing to flee to Changhua. Anyone who was willing to follow could continue to follow, and those who were not would disband.

Most of Hu Lanyan’s bandits were from Danzhou, and no one wanted to go to Changhua—besides, they had no idea how to survive in Changhua. Many people had long thought of disbanding and going home. As soon as Hu Lanyan said to disband, except for a few die-hards, everyone else ran away.

“Are we really going to Changhua?” Gou Er knew a little about Changhua. This place was full of “savages,” and a little further inland was the territory of the Li people. A small group of bandits like them, who were not familiar with the place and could not speak the language, could not operate at all. Not to mention that there were only seven or eight people left.

“Of course not,” Hu Lanyan had already made a plan. “Let’s cross the sea! To the country of Champa! I have a few old brothers there who have a few boats at sea for business. Let’s go to them for now!”

Although Gou Er was reluctant to leave his hometown, he was at a dead end. He could no longer stay on Hainan Island. It was better to go overseas to hide for a while—he knew that Champa was not far from here, only a day or two by boat. If the situation turned for the better, it would be easy to come back.

So Hu Lanyan, Gou Xunli, and four or five of their confidants quietly found a fishing household by the sea, spent a few taels of silver, and went to Jiangping. Jiangping was a “three-no-man’s-land” on the border between China and Vietnam. Most of the residents were half-fishermen and half-pirates, and there were also many desperadoes from both China and Vietnam. The group of people finally settled down in Jiangping and had a good night’s sleep. The next step was to return to their old profession and continue their old business without capital.

Shen Hu wanted to do a big job and sent people to Jiangping to recruit troops, so these two also came along. Now Gou Xunli and Hu Lanyan, with their ten or so brothers, were gathered in a valley dozens of miles away from Hon Gai with a large group of people. The bandits of all kinds, with different costumes and strange shapes, were sitting or standing around the fire. Some were cooking food, some were taking off their tattered clothes to catch lice, and some were drinking and gambling. From time to time, there were bursts of laughter and strange cries. They held all kinds of weapons: rusty broadswords, sharpened bamboo spears, and some people carried European sabers and Japanese katanas and wakizashi. Some people were simply carrying farm tools and harpoons. A part of the “professional” fierce bandits carried bows and arrows and matchlocks. There were even a few small iron cannons.

Gou Er lay on the ground, feigning sleep—it was warmer here than in Qiongzhou. Hu Lanyan was drinking wine with relish. This was sent by Shen Hu. The leaders of each group more or less got some wine and meat.

“Brother!” Hu Lanyan kicked Gou Xunli. “Don’t sleep! Get up and drink with me!”

Gou Xunli slowly got up and took the pottery cup. The wine was local rice wine, unfiltered, with dregs floating in it. A sour and stinky smell of bad fermentation immediately rushed into his nose. In the past, he would not even have looked at it. Even the lower-class servants and thugs in his mansion would not drink such inferior wine. Thinking of the Gou family members killed by the Australians and his son whose whereabouts were unknown, he was stunned for a moment, holding the cup and forgetting to drink.

“Brother, what’s wrong? Let’s get drunk today.” Hu Lanyan smiled meaningfully and took a big gulp from the cup.

“Nothing.” Gou Xunli took a sip. “Tomorrow we will fight the Australians…”

Hu Lanyan looked around and said in a low voice, “Brother, what do you think we should do tomorrow?”

Shen Hu had pulled together such a motley crew. The people at sea were not under Shen Hu’s control, and the pirate leaders were naturally responsible for the attack. But on land, with these one thousand or so people, there was bound to be a problem of order in battle. Who would go first and who would go last.

“I’m afraid Shen Hu will force our brothers to be the vanguard, to help him consume the Australians, and then he will come to reap the benefits,” Hu Lanyan said.

“We only have these ten or so people, Shen Hu doesn’t care about us. It’s not our turn to be consumed.” Gou Xunli thought for a moment. “He probably thinks that place is a piece of fat meat. I think: Shen Hu will launch a two-pronged attack.”

“What do you mean?”

“Think about it, Shen Hu has a few hundred people of his own. But he has pulled so many people together. He must feel that he can’t do it alone. But he is also afraid that others will take away the benefits. So he certainly can’t let outsiders take the lead. Besides, everyone is not a fool. Who is willing to charge into the breach and die for nothing? So he will definitely lead a team to attack one way, and the other small groups will attack the other way. Whoever breaks through the stockade gets the loot. As long as the stockade is broken, his people will definitely be able to get the biggest benefits.”

“Well said!” Hu Lanyan said with sincere admiration. “I also felt that there must be some scheme of Shen Hu’s in it, but I just couldn’t figure it out.” He poured himself another cup of wine. “What do you think our brothers should do? We have few people. Tomorrow, when we are mixed in the team, we won’t be able to get much good stuff even if we break through the stockade…”

“I say, big brother, do you think we can break through the stockade tomorrow?” Gou Xunli said with a bitter smile. “It would be a blessing if Shen Hu could escape with his life tomorrow. They don’t know, but we two brothers are clear about the Australians’ abilities, aren’t we?”

Hu Lanyan shook his head: “I don’t think so. I heard from Shen Hu’s spies that there are dozens of people with Australian muskets inside, and the rest are just spearmen…”

Gou Xunli shook his head repeatedly. Hu Lanyan thought about his own experience in Danzhou and was immediately discouraged.

“What do you think we should do? Just slip away? But we came here for nothing?”

Of course, this trip was not a complete waste. It was agreed in Jiangping that they would be given some money and food when they arrived in Hon Gai. Hu Lanyan’s group also received some silver and rice.

“Hmph, I think we should talk to Shen Hu about the matter of charging after the smoke is released. We have to let the Australians suffer some losses!” Gou Xunli said viciously—although he knew it was insignificant to the Australians, he still hoped to kill a few more short-hair thieves to vent his anger. “And then—” his eyes rolled, and he began to speak in a low voice.

Shen Hu stood on a small hill, with dozens of his trusted followers behind him. He watched with satisfaction as his “troops” marched towards Hon Gai. Although the appearance of these troops was not much better than that of beggars, and because they had plundered and raped along the way, the team was very long and the speed was extremely slow. Shen Hu watched as one guy was wrapped in a few tattered cloth packages that he had probably snatched, and another had probably just raped a woman in a village he had passed, and was walking on the road without even wearing pants. Fortunately, the weather here was warm, and being naked would not cause any harm.

Shen Hu didn’t care much about the style of this group of people. Anyway, in another half an hour, Shen Hu’s mountain stronghold and some other smaller bandit gangs around it would all arrive in Hon Gai. The mere thirty soldiers guarding the mining area would definitely not be their opponents. According to the intelligence, there were only about seven or eight hundred adult men in the mining area, and most of them would definitely not take up arms to resist, and would most likely flee in all directions. The remaining resistance was nothing more than those local braves. A few cannons might cause some trouble, but he estimated that at most it would delay the fall of the stockade for a few hours. And the stockade in the mining area did not look strong at all. Although the walls were very thick, they were quite short, and could be climbed with a little effort.

Breaking through the stockade would definitely yield a lot of good things. The three stockades in Hon Gai now housed one thousand or so people. There was a lot of food and provisions stored. It was said that many good Chinese goods had also been transported, and there were also ships moored in the port—but those were the prey of the “Fanhai Bao” from Jiangping. Fanhai Bao had long coveted the ships in Hon Gai that could catch a lot of fish at once with their new fishing gear, so this time he and Shen Hu hit it off.