Chapter 146: Guangzhou
In Sanyuanli, General Wei Zuo Bang heard gunshots coming from the front and said to Deputy General Waitabu: "There seems to be a war ahead. Should we go to help?"
Waitab asked with wide eyes, "What order did the Governor give us?"
Wei Zuobang was stunned and replied, "The general has forgotten. The Governor repeatedly ordered us to pick up the General in Sanyuan."
After saying that, Wei Zuobang smiled knowingly and complimented: "My wise man, I will almost be fooled by short hair. The general attacked Niulanggang. How could he come back so early? It was obviously a rebel who set up a suspicion array to lure our army into being deceived."
Waitabu said meaningfully: "But you can't say this when you meet the Governor. After all, the Governor is far away in Guangzhou and you don't know the truth here. If the Governor thinks that our army is sitting on the sidelines, wouldn't we betray us?"
"Yes... I didn't hear anything. If the general was missing after two hours, he should have gone around Sanyuanli and returned to Guangzhou City, and we should have returned." Wei Zuobang immediately understood what Waitabu meant.
Chen Guohui ran to Wang Zhenxiong in panic and cried loudly: "Sir, the musket team is surrounded by thieves. Let's retreat quickly. When they annihilate the musket team, we can't even leave!"
Wang Zhenxiong said angrily: "The eight hundred foreign gun team is still there? How can I explain to the Governor when I return to the city!"
"I can't stop it, I'm defeated..." The Chinese Army Association's consignment company rolled and crawled to Wang Zhenxiong's legs, shouting: "The short hair is amazing, brothers can't stop it anymore, please retreat quickly!"
Wang Zhenxiong was in a dilemma. Looking at the expectant gazes around him, he made a cruel decision to leave the troops who were resisting: "Retreat, retreat, how much can the entire army escape, and the entire army retreated to Sanyuanli, with a large army responding there and a fort behind, so Shorthaired must not dare to pursue."
Wang Zhenxiong led two thousand men to leave the brigade first and fled to Sanyuanli to the south.
Huang Darong looked at the faint and shadowless Central Army, laughed furiously, and shouted: "Brothers, please surrender, we have been abandoned!"
The nearby Qing soldiers woke up in an instant, and acted as they said and put down their weapons.
Zuo Zongtang said to Li Shixian, Li Wenmao: "Continue to pursue the remaining Qing soldiers, it is best to wipe them out of Guangzhou."
When he arrived at Sanyuanli, Wang Zhenxiong angrily asked Waitabu: "Why don't you send troops to support me? Our army is less than four miles away."
Unexpectedly, Wang Zhenxiong could come back alive, and he was killed by the senior official. Waitabu felt guilty and bowed his head to admit his mistake: "I knew my mistake. I thought I had attacked Niulanggang, but there was only a short-haired old-fashioned array in front of me. Please forgive me."
Wang Zhenxiong held the big knife tightly. If the other party had not been a Manchu, he would have ordered him to tie him up: "I won't talk about this for now. The entire army will retreat to Guangzhou immediately, and the pursuers will arrive immediately."
A quarter of an hour later, the Han army chased to Sanyuanli. Li Wenmao said to Li Shixian: "The Liuhua Bridge is ahead. Because the city wall has been disrepaired for a long time, the Qing army built forts in Yongkang, Qiding, Baoji, Gongji and Yuexiu Mountain. Half a month ago, our rebel army attacked several times, with heavy casualties and no one rushed to the bottom of the city wall."
Li Shixian sighed and said with emotion: "The walls of Guangzhou are high and thick, and the turrets are surrounded by scattered cities. If you want to capture such a strong city, you must respond to it internally."
Li Wenmao inserted a big knife to the ground and gritted his teeth: "Because the traitor betrayed, all the brothers from the Tiandihui Society in the city and their families were killed, and even the newborn children were not spared. The body was abandoned in the Pearl River. The river water turned red overnight and broke into Guangzhou. I must avenge them."
Seeing that the rebels around him were all angry, Li Shixian quickly comforted him: "As long as we kill the rebels, we will never let them go. After breaking the city, we will definitely bring them to justice to comfort the spirit of the righteous in heaven!"
By joining all the troops, Zuo Zongtang decided to take advantage of the victory to attack Guangzhou City.
Seeing that the leaders of the rebel army were in distress, Li Shixian advised: "Report to the general, there are many artillery batteries around the city wall in Guangzhou. Our army will suffer heavy casualties by forcibly siegeing the city. The last general is willing to sneak into the city, contact all the righteous men, initiate a case in the city, cooperate with the army to attack the city, and ask the general for permission."
Li Wenmao followed and said, "The last general is willing to follow Li Juncheng into the city."
He Liu echoed: "The father-in-law of the Mo General is Wang Yinlin. He has hundreds of disciples, relatives and friends in the city. The Mo General is willing to persuade him to rebel."
Zuo Zongtang advised: "Why should Commander Li take risks? It's a good thing to conquer Guangzhou? If you have an accident, how can I explain to Your Majesty!"
Li Shixian smiled and said, "Wu Shaorong, a wealthy businessman in the city, also lost sincerity to the Han army. Moreover, he was received by His Majesty in Nanjing and named a knight. Your Majesty's vision will never be wrong. Even if he fails, the last general will not have any worries about his fate. Please rest assured."
Zuo Zongtang said: "Since that's the case, I will send someone to contact the Wu family and let you scramble into the city as civil servants."
Three days later, the Wu family
"General Li is here, and Wu is honored!" Wu Shaorong welcomed Li Shixian, Li Wenmao and He Liu into the inner room.
"My father-in-law, why are you here too!" He Liu was still lamenting the great powers of the Han army. The Wu family, the richest man in Guangdong, actually defected to him in advance, and saw his father-in-law and several people sitting in the living room chatting.
Wang Yinlin stood up and smiled and said, "I didn't expect that you guys would just hang out and finally do something that caused a sensation in the world."
"Hehe" Seeing that his father-in-law who had always looked down on him and praised him, He Liu touched his head and smiled foolishly.
Wu Shaorong pulled Li Shixian to introduce to everyone: "This is the commander of the Fifth Army of the Han Army, Li Shixian!"
"Hello, Commander Li!" The remaining seven people from the Ten Tigers of Guangdong stood up and greeted with fists.
"Hello everyone, I heard that Guangdong Ten Tigers assassinate foreigners. Such heroes are the heroes that Li admires the most." Li Shixian also clasped his fists to compliment.
Wang Yinlin was quite happy to hear this. He was cautious all his life. He did such a big thing for the first time in his life. He was immersed in uneasiness all day. Today, he felt relieved when he heard the praises of the Han army generals.
Wu Shaorong asked everyone to take a seat and explained the whole story to Li Shixian: "I returned to Guangzhou from Nanjing and heard that the Han army captured Fujian, I was very excited, so I contacted all the heroes to make some contributions to the Han army. Now that I have commanded by Commander Li, it is foolproof, and I can feel at ease!"
"Mr. Wu is joking. With your call, Guangzhou can be restored as soon as possible. I am only entrusted by the commander to assist you." Li Shixian just wanted to capture Guangzhou as soon as possible, but he didn't care about this merit.
Wu Shaorong's face was rosy and in a good mood, and laughed repeatedly: "Mr. Meng Zuo took a fancy to him, how dare he refuse? General, don't worry, I have contacted my colleagues from the Thirteen corps in the city. They unanimously agreed to surrender to the emperor and agreed to raise the matter in three days."
Li Shixian's tense body was completely relaxed. The thirteen troops in Guangzhou were deeply rooted in power. With their help, it was easy to capture the entire Guangdong: "Since that's the case, I will wait for the good news here. The uprising said, as long as the rebels are divided into two groups, open the city gates one by one, welcome the army into the city, attack the Governor General's Office, and capture the Governor General Lu Jianying of Guangdong and Guangxi."
Wang Yinlin looked at everyone and said, "We will leave the attack on the city gate to us. There are disciples of my Ten Tigers everywhere. If they do their own reasons, it will be smooth to capture the city gate."
Li Shixian smiled calmly, but he didn't expect this trip to go so smoothly. He heard about the famous name of the Ten Tigers in Guangdong when he was a tenant in Guangxi. Many of them opened martial arts schools in Guangzhou city, with dozens or hundreds of disciples. In addition to relatives and friends, they could summon at least 3,000 people to participate in the war. It would be easy to break through a city gate.
...
Su Genji is the son of Su Heihu, the ten tigers of Guangdong. Since his father died at the hands of foreigners, he has always wanted to take revenge. If it weren't for the uncles stopping him, he would have killed him to the Governor's Office of Guangdong and Guangxi and took Ye Mingchen's dog head.
"Several brothers, what I'm going to do tomorrow is in danger. If someone doesn't want to participate, I will never mind. It's still time to quit now."
As Su Heihu's favorite disciple, Wang Jun immediately refuted: "Junior brother, don't persuade him. It is our responsibility to avenge his master. It is rare that the masters are willing to help him. How can we, as capable disciples, refuse!"
The eldest disciple Shi Shou saw many junior brothers' eyes flashing and shouted: "The Han army is attacking the city outside. We cooperate with several masters to attack the city gates. Not only can we avenge our masters, but we can also make contributions to the Han Dynasty. The Han army won the world and we are also meritorious officials. Maybe we can get a single official and half of our position to glorify our ancestors."
Wang Jun broke the case with one palm and threatened everyone: "The elder brother said it well. Everyone knows that the Qing Dynasty said Boxishan, and the Guangzhou Ming said it can be broken. If anyone dares to go and report it, we will not kill you. The Han army will settle the score with you when they enter the city. Everyone should think carefully about it!"
...
It was getting bright, and people holding big swords walked out in all streets, slowly gathered together and headed towards the north gate together.
"Stop, what are you doing? No military orders are allowed to approach the city wall!" The night patrolman shouted at the figure in front of him, chanting with a lantern.
"We are defending the North City under the order of the Governor. Please give the brothers in front of us."
The night patrol leader looked at the other party's clothes seriously and was shocked: "Stop, don't get close anymore! Who are you? Why don't you have an official leader?"
Huang Qilin stepped forward and smiled and said, "Sir, I don't know anything. General Ginseng stayed behind because he just got tired of his stomach. He asked us to come first. Please forgive me for any abruptness."
"You are the coach Huang!" The night patrol leader was shocked and suspicious. Seeing them surrounded him, he hurriedly shouted: "You wait here for a while now, and I will report to the deputy general!"
"puff"
"Ah"
"You... are...rebels! Why are you like this, coach Huang?"
Chapter completed!