Chapter 60: Humen

Zhang Yu ran all the way home and saw that Huifu Lane was still the same as usual. The shops had all taken down their boards and were doing business leisurely. His own walnut crisp shop was also open. His father was kneading dough in the shop, the oven had been lit, and the aroma of walnut oil was wafting out. His parents were busy around the kneading board.

“Dad! Stop working, close the shop!” Zhang Yu rushed in and shouted without choosing his words.

His father’s face immediately darkened. People who ran a business were most taboo about saying “close the shop.” At night, they only said “closing time.” The business was not good originally. It was a coincidence that it had just started to pick up, and now this reckless boy shouted like this. He couldn’t help but scold, “You plague-ridden thing! What nonsense are you talking about?!”

Zhang Yu didn’t have time to explain and shouted at the top of his lungs, “Put up the boards! The soldiers are passing through the street! The short-hairs… the short-hairs… the thieves have entered the city! Guangzhou—Guangzhou—is broken!”

His father was so shocked that his jaw dropped, and the rolling pin in his hand fell to the ground. The terrible words “soldiers passing by” and “city broken” entered his ears. Since the Jiajing reign, when Guangzhou had built a city wall to protect the commercial area on the river bank due to the rampant Japanese pirates, there had been no alarm here for more than a hundred years, let alone the disaster of war. But for the people at that time, words like soldiers passing by and city broken were not unfamiliar. Terrible scenes immediately appeared in Zhang Yu’s parents’ minds: streets engulfed in fire, merchants running in all directions, soldiers burning, killing, and looting… Their faces turned pale, and they couldn’t say a word for a long time. It was Zhang Yu who reacted quickly and urged them to close the door and “put up the shop boards” in a hurry. The people in the shop then woke up as if from a dream and rushed to put up the shop boards. Zhang Yu’s mother said anxiously, “Quick, put out the stove too!”

His father said, “What’s the point of putting out the stove? The walnut crisps inside have just been put in. They will be half-cooked!”

“This strong aroma, are you afraid that your family won’t be the first to be robbed!” Zhang Yu’s mother shouted with her hands on her hips. As she spoke, she lifted a bucket of water and poured it into the furnace. The flames inside made a “hiss” sound and were immediately extinguished.

Zhang Yu didn’t have time to worry about the shop. He jumped out of the shop to take down the banner. The banner was hung high and was originally hung up and down with a forked pole. Zhang Yu couldn’t reach the hook above and jumped anxiously under the banner, looking very funny, which made the girl in the tofu shop opposite cover her mouth and laugh.

The daughter of the tofu shop was originally leaning against the door selling the tofu she had made early in the morning. Seeing Zhang Yu running back and the walnut crisp shop in a mess, she was stretching her head to watch the excitement. Zhang Yu turned his head and happened to see her. Seeing her standing in front of the shop door watching the excitement with a dazed look, he shouted anxiously, “Why don’t you tell your father to put up the boards! The short-haired scoundrels have entered the city! The soldiers are passing by!”

It didn’t matter that he shouted this. The originally quiet and peaceful Huifu Lane street suddenly became chaotic. In an instant, the shops and households were in a state of chaos: people were packing things, putting up shop boards, closing doors and windows… Some were crying out in pain from being bumped, some were shouting at the top of their lungs in anxiety, and some were slapping their thighs and crying and singing for some reason. The young lady of the tofu shop hadn’t come to her senses yet when her mother dragged her to the back, smeared her face with ash from the stove, and hid her in the woodshed, not allowing her to come out.

“You hide well! Don’t come out no matter what you hear!”

The young lady of the tofu shop was so scared that she trembled all over. She already knew about worldly affairs and knew the fate of young girls and young wives who fell into the hands of chaotic soldiers. She was so scared that she hid in the pile of firewood and didn’t dare to move.

People’s potential is infinite in a crisis. Zhang Yu jumped a few times and actually took down the banner. He dragged it into the shop. As soon as he came in, the last shop board behind him slammed shut with a bang, and a thick horizontal bolt was put on it, and a large lock was fastened.

The shop was pitch black, with only a little light coming in through the cracks in the shop boards. His father lowered his voice and said, “Everyone, don’t make a sound. Pack up everything and carry it to the back.”

Everyone lowered their voices and tiptoed to pack up their things. Flour, walnuts, sugar… even the uncooked walnut crisps were packed up one by one and taken into the inner house by Zhang Yu’s father.

Zhang Yu was not at ease and followed his mother to check all the doors and windows. His mother hid in the bedroom, packed up the family’s valuables, and hid them under the square bricks in the inner hall. She also told Zhang Yu to go to the front shop to watch the assistants and apprentices.

“You watch them and don’t let them do anything bad. Although they were all introduced by acquaintances and are considered honest and decent, you can’t be too careful. You can’t guarantee that they won’t have bad ideas when they see the chaos.”

The assistants and apprentices in the shop were all from other counties. Since the soldiers were passing by outside, there was no reason to kick them out. They usually slept on the floor in the shop, and now they had nowhere to go. Zhang Yu’s mother sent him to watch them to prevent them from “colluding with bandits.”

Zhang Yu nodded, “Mom, I know! I think we should hang the special license outside…”

“The situation outside is unclear right now. If we hang it out, it will attract attention. It’s better to wait and see.”

At the same time, in the central army yamen of Humen Fort, a dozen or so fully armored commanders and lieutenants gathered together. They were summoned to the central army yamen for a meeting before dawn today, but they waited until the sky was already turning white, and Chief Liu still hadn’t shown up. They couldn’t help but gather in groups of three or five and whisper to each other.

Although they didn’t know what Chief Liu wanted to discuss at the meeting, everyone estimated that it was related to the short-haired scoundrels.

In the past few months, the ships of the short-haired scoundrels have been frequenting the river. Standing on the top of Wushan Mountain on Yanniangxie Island, the situation on the river can be seen clearly. The number of tugboats coming and going to the Grand World has more than doubled. Although the short-haired scoundrels have spread the word that this is for the goods and decorative building materials prepared for the opening of the Grand World, the soldiers’ intuition still tells them that there is something fishy about this: these ships are not carrying ordinary goods!

Some people said they saw many booted feet exposed under the canvas awning. Others said that cannons were unloaded from the Grand World pier in the middle of the night. Another time, an Australian ship suddenly exploded while sailing on the river and sank to the bottom in a moment…

What the Australians were transporting on their ships was a matter of great concern to the local officials. The Pearl River was the provincial river of Guangdong. As long as they intercepted the ships for inspection, they could know what the Australians were up to. However, since the Australians had besieged Bai’etan, the Ming Dynasty had lost the right to inspect Australian ships. Although there were a few reckless or money-grubbing people who “were not afraid of violence” and “inspected” and “detained” ships flying the flag of the Senate, the result was either that their whole family died in a fire at night or that the whole family committed suicide by drowning hand in hand during the day. After a few times, naturally no one was willing to do this anymore.

The officers on the river defense could see the Australian steamships spewing black smoke passing by on the river every day. They all privately discussed that the Australians would have a “major move” recently. However, even if they knew what the short-haired scoundrels were going to do, what could these people do? The battle in which the short-haired scoundrels broke into the provincial river and reached Bai’etan had left a too deep impression on these people—a complete sense of powerlessness made most of them lose the idea of resisting.

What if they really fought? Everyone was anxiously considering this question. It would be like hitting a stone with an egg, and everything would be destroyed!

Under the sense of despair of not being able to win in battle and not being able to escape, everyone had no plans for the future. They lived day by day with the idea of living one day at a time. Many people also secretly accepted the “subsidies” of the Australians and “rented” their soldiers and ships to the Australians for service, while they themselves lived a life of debauchery in the Ziminlou.

The officers were whispering when suddenly someone behind them shouted, “Raise the tent!” There was a burst of chaos, and everyone stood in line according to their official rank.

They saw Liu Fengsheng, the chief of the Humen Fort coastal defense guerrilla, come out from behind in full armor. His expression was cold and murderous, as if he was going to kill someone. The generals were all stunned: there was no alarm at the moment, what was with Chief Liu’s expression of wanting to fight a battle? Could it be that the Australians had made a move?

Just as they were wondering, a report came from the Yanniangxie Fort: more than twenty warships of the short-haired scoundrels were sailing up the provincial river, approaching the eastern channel of Humen!

Then there was also a report from the Shanghengdang Fort. More than ten warships of the short-haired scoundrels had already entered the western channel of Humen, approaching the Shanghengdang Island Fort from the side and rear. Immediately after, inland river ships flying the flag of the morning star also appeared in the Sanmen channel between Wushan and Humen Fort.

Inadvertently, the large army of the short-haired scoundrels had already besieged the city, forming a pincer attack on Humen Fort. The generals present were cold-footed—many of them had personally experienced the Battle of Humen a few years ago and had a deep impression of the fierceness of the short-haired scoundrels’s artillery fire and the courage of their soldiers.

Now, this army was once again besieging Humen Fort, like a pair of iron tongs that could crush the not-so-hard walnut of Humen with a little force.

In a state of panic, everyone turned their eyes to the person in charge of Humen Fort: Liu Fengsheng.

Chief Liu coughed and said, “The Australians’ army is approaching. Everyone can see the situation in Guangzhou clearly. If we don’t handle it properly, not only will Humen Fort be destroyed, but Guangzhou will also not be able to escape the disaster of war…”

He didn’t talk about how to arrange the defense or how to deploy troops to resist. He started with such a set of words, and the clever ones immediately understood his thoughts. Most of the people here didn’t want to fight. At that moment, someone echoed, “The general is right. We only have six or seven hundred men and horses here, and only a dozen or so cannons. I’m afraid we won’t get any good if we fight the short-haired scoundrels head-on…”

Seeing that Chief Liu did not scold him but even nodded slightly as if in agreement, everyone became bolder and echoed one after another, all saying that the government troops were “weak in soldiers and inferior in equipment, not suitable for battle.” Some suddenly became “loving soldiers as if they were their own children,” crying that the government troops had insufficient food and pay, and their subordinates had not eaten enough for days. Forcing them to go into battle would be just sending them to their deaths in vain.

Liu Fengsheng let them talk for a while. Just as he was about to speak, he saw a person shout loudly, “You raise soldiers for a thousand days to use them for a moment. Don’t you feel ashamed to say such words?!”