Late Qing Dynasty Executioner

Chapter 185 Xing Honghai's Methods
Is rice delicious with fried pickles?

Of course it is delicious, especially the pickles are fried with lard, which makes them taste even more fragrant.

"It's a pity that you are only fit to eat sweet potato porridge, radish porridge and pickles!" Xing Honghai sneered loudly: "Do you know why?

Because a large part of the value generated by your hard work was taken away by the imperial court, and then exploited again by corrupt officials and gentry, so in the end there will be very little left in your hands.

Corrupt officials can live to their sixties or seventies, or even eighties or nineties, while you work hard and become old in your thirties or forties, and your forties or fifties are almost the end of your life.

Not only you, but your descendants will also suffer the same fate!"

Everyone instantly felt that the rice in their bowl no longer smelled good. Although what Xing Honghai said was true, it was a bit discouraging once such a thing was brought to the surface.

"Now your chance has come, join us in the rebellion. If you join us in the rebellion, you will not only have rice to eat, but I will also let you eat meat and give your children and grandchildren a chance to be born.

Do you know why all the gentlemen in Jianyang ran away?
That's because they are scared after being beaten by us. Everything they say is slander against us. Not only will we not eat human beings, we will also distribute the land equally among you and give you all our land.

Not only the land, but also their houses can be divided into you. Today you can move into the master's house with your family.

As for whether you can eat meat today, that depends on whether you are willing to join us in rebelling.

Now make your choice. If you want to eat meat, follow us. Let’s attack the landlord’s manor and steal food, houses, land and meat.

Don't worry, you don't have to do anything, just follow me to move things, and you can have meat to eat as long as you follow me to move things."

Xing Honghai's last words completely moved everyone. Eating meat and dividing the land is of course great, but risking one's life for it is not cost-effective. However, if one can get meat by just running around and moving some things, that is another matter.

Xing Honghai did not lie. He led his army to sweep the landlords' estates outside Jianyang City that day. Even though the landlords had fled and taken away all their valuables, it was impossible for them to take away all the food and livestock. Some would always be left behind.

Xing Honghai's methods were not as gentle as Chen Gu's. After breaking into the landlord's manor, he took away all the useful things he could. Except for the elderly, the weak, women and children, and leaving them a certain amount of food, he took away everything he could, including the young and strong.

With Xing Honghai's two thousand troops and the strength of two thousand armed young men, it would be easy to attack the landlord's manor in the county town, not to mention that it would be even easier if the owner escaped in advance.

With the addition of new young and strong people, Xing Honghai armed the 2,000 young and strong people originally from Jianyang County. Since there were not so many weapons, he used bamboo poles.

After sharpening the more than three-meter-long bamboo pole, leave another bamboo branch and sharpen it. The pointed bamboo pole is used to pierce the chest, and the sharpened bamboo branch is used to pierce the face. It is also very powerful. Moreover, the bamboo pole is light and has a long attack distance.

Five young men holding bamboo poles, paired with a swordsman, an archer, a spearman, and a musketeer, can take care of the enemy at long, medium and short distances. In addition, with the advantage in troop numbers, they can beat the enemy without any chance of fighting back.

Xing Honghai used this set of tactics to quickly sweep through the landlords' estates in various counties and towns outside Chengdu. In the absence of regular troops, Xing Honghai's force deployment was simply invincible.

In addition, with the development of bamboo platforms and bamboo frames for siege, the short county town walls and the walls of the landlords' manors could not stop him at all.

After entering Chengdu, in order to save time, Xing Honghai simply divided his troops into two pairs. One team was led by him personally to circle around the north of Chengdu, and the other team was led by Zhou Shi to the south.

By the time the two armies met outside the west gate of Chengdu, the total number of troops had exceeded 70,000. Although it did not reach the expected 100,000 troops, that was because they left some troops to garrison in the occupied areas to ensure stability in the places they passed through.

"Although 70,000 troops are a little less, it should be enough to capture Chengdu!"

Xing Honghai couldn't help feeling a little proud as he looked at the troops stationed all over the mountains behind him.

"It's already autumn, and there's plenty of hay in the wild. Be careful of the enemy burning down your camp!" Zhou Shi reminded.

"Indeed!" Xing Honghai nodded and said with a smile: "Give orders to everyone to collect all the firewood around the camp. Except for the necessary firewood for cooking, burn the rest. If it really doesn't work, we can just burn it ourselves first."

Chengdu was the capital of Shu during the Three Kingdoms period, so they were naturally very familiar with the deeds of Zhuge Liang, Liu Bei and others. In addition, Chen Gu had set fires in Jiangjin and Fobao respectively, so Xing Honghai and his men were particularly careful about being burned down.

Moreover, since the advent of cannons, the army's dense formation was no longer so useful. Instead, it suffered heavy casualties under the rolling of artillery shells, so the 70,000-strong army was stationed in a relatively dispersed manner.

Even if the entire camp was burned down, there would not be too much damage, at least there would be time to react.

"Send people to collect bamboos to build bamboo frames for attacking the city. Although we have sufficient food and grass, we also need to feed many people. The majority of them are still in Chengdu. Only by taking down this city can we feel completely at ease."

“Do we really have to use human lives to fill the gap?” Mayor Zhou asked with some reluctance.

"What else?" Xing Honghai sneered, "There are cannons on the city walls, and there are also many musketeers. We in the Green Camp don't have the armaments like the Buddhist Treasures. Apart from sacrificing lives, what else can we do?

Don't worry, when the time comes, we will besiege from three sides and cover the entire wall with bamboo frames. The pressure of attacking the city should not be too great. After all, the loading speed of muskets and cannons is not fast, and there are not too many of them. It is impossible to defend such a long wall."

Chengdu is a huge city. The total length of the city walls on four sides is more than ten kilometers, and the three sides are seven or eight thousand meters long. To defend such a long city wall, a large number of troops are needed. However, Chengdu no longer has a regular army, but there are many young and strong people.

But it is actually not very effective for ordinary young and strong people to use bird guns, and there are not so many guns and cannons in Chengdu.

Of course, the height of Chengdu city wall is also exaggerated. It was originally two zhang high, and it was raised to three zhang during the Jinchuan Campaign, which is equivalent to ten meters high. It is only slightly lower than the city wall of Beijing in the world, and it is the highest in the southwest.

(End of this chapter)