Great Qing Dynasty talker

Chapter 160 Sir, we Zaoding are just poor, not stupid.
Inspection Li and his party drove two donkey carts carrying the trophies and walked slowly on the fields.

This place is a sedimentary plain with flat terrain and wide views. They saw a few horses in the distance.

These days, no one who can ride a horse is an ordinary person.

Therefore, Inspector Li quickly stopped and stood on the cart to see who the noble person was.

If necessary, he would have to run all the way to greet him and try his best to leave a good impression on the noble person so that he can do things more conveniently in the future.

bang~
The archers of the Inspection Department just watched as their boss was suddenly shot and burst into blood.

Suddenly they became a mess and fled in all directions.

Li Ergou, with four brothers, shot slowly.

They were carrying extended flintlock guns specially made by the Xishan Gun Factory, which were sharp weapons for assassination.

It was a lot of fun along the way.

Specializing in killing people from far away, these horses were also snatched from the inn.

On the way, he also killed a postman who was delivering a message.

He was illiterate, so he didn't read the letter in the leather mailbox. It was an urgent report from Fukang'an that had to be sent to the Ministry of War on an 800-mile expedited basis.

More than 300 Manchu and Han soldiers were poisoned to death in Taihu, all shipbuilders disappeared, and the timber and semi-finished warships were burned to the ground.

(Craftsmen, and some wood in Xishan Island)
Fukang'an judged that great changes were about to occur in Jiangnan and asked the court to prepare for contingency.

It is best to send high-ranking officials to temporarily control all the Qing troops in the six provinces in Jiangnan.

……

Li Ergou laughed loudly, reloading on the spot before urging his horse to catch up.

On the flat field, he caught up with the archers from the patrol department who were running away like crazy, shot them dead without any haste, and then looked through the loot.

"Boss, I'll light a fire and eat chicken tonight. These officers and soldiers must have just robbed the people and happened to bump into us."

"Then one is still alive."

"Bring it to me."

A shivering archer who had been shot in the arm knelt on the ground and kowtowed.

"Hey, answer the question honestly and spare your life."

"Yes Yes."

"Where is this? What market towns are nearby? How far is it from Yangzhou Mansion?"

"Back to Haohanye, this is the Jiaoxie Salt Farm. 80 miles to the west is Hai'an Town. It's about 300 miles away from Yangzhou Prefecture."

"Bandage him up."

The archer was so flattered that he knelt down and kowtowed as if pounding garlic.

"The emperor is very popular, and the salt merchants are also very popular, but we are chased and beaten when we sell some salt. What kind of world do you think this is?"

"Yes Yes."

"Hey, where are you from?"

"The younger one is from Fu'an."

When Li Ergou heard this, his attitude improved a lot and he tore off a piece of chicken.

"eat."

"Thank you, good man."

"Hurry up and leave when you're full. Remember not to go to Yangzhou. For the sake of my fellow villagers, don't say I don't take care of you. This time, we are going to massacre Yangzhou City again."

The archer trembled in fear.

Li Ergou's eyes widened: "What the hell, the Eight Banners Army massacred them, but our rebel army can't massacre them? Get out of here!"

……

Everyone looked at the figure walking away in panic and asked:

"Boss, why did you let him go?"

"Let him go back to report the news and muddy the water."

"Then there's no need to tear up big chunks of chicken for him to eat, right? What a waste."

"You know what, I'm afraid he'll be exhausted and fall down on the road. It's 80 miles from here to Hai'an Town."

For a time, Ergou's image became much taller.

After eating the roast chicken, everyone focused on the dog again.

In order to fight against the great cause of the Qing Dynasty, let's have another bitter gouzi. It will be roasted until it is burnt and fragrant, and sprinkled with a handful of salt. You can't stop eating it.

Along the way, Li Ergou was surprised to find that the Qing army in eastern Jiangsu was unusually empty.

Before departure, the information provided by the adoptive father was very accurate.

Avoiding the important towns of Huai'an, Yangzhou, and Tongzhou, there were almost no organized Qing troops in large areas of eastern Jiangsu.

They were all flood soldiers, policemen, and salt field thugs. They were ordinary people.

With a group of musketeers, you can walk sideways.

The next day, he became more and more courageous and decided to visit Hai'an Town in the west.

Then, hurry south.

Yizheng is the final destination.

……

At this time, Yangzhou Prefecture was in a state of turmoil.

The four doors were closed tightly, and soldiers patrolled all night long.

The city walls are covered with lanterns, for fear that rebels might come upon them at night.

"Where did the rebel come from?"

"Who knows, there are all kinds of things in the city. Some say it's the White Lotus Sect, some say the Salt Owl, some say the Kitchen Ding, and some say it's Master You who instigated it."

The two were discussing quietly when a gunshot rang out in the night.

A companion nearby who stuck his head out to look fell down.

"The thief is coming."

"The thieves have begun to attack the city."

The gong was beating so fast that no one could sleep that night.

the next morning,

All the officials in Yangzhou City gathered at the government office with dark circles under their eyes.

You Bashi, the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy, asked everyone: "How many thieves are there outside the city? Why can we only hear the noise but not the attack on the city? Aren't the many houses and gardens outside the city left to the harm of thieves?"

All the salt merchants agreed. They have many properties outside the city.

The general of the Yangzhou camp wanted to show off and asked loudly: "I am willing to lead my troops out of the city to fight against the thieves."

Tongzhi heard this and said, "It's a no-brainer. We should be cautious and guard the city."

The officials were quarreling fiercely over whether to leave the city.

The general of the Yangzhou camp was eager to achieve success and had the loudest voice.

……

Suddenly, a subordinate official came to report in a hurry.

"The thieves are looting the salt and silver of the Yun Division."

Youba Shi couldn't hold it in any longer, so he rushed out and yelled at his colleagues:
"The Lianghuai salt tax is the imperial court's money bag. If you stop it again, I will give you a discount."

Tongzhi rolled his eyes:
"Okay, bring me a pen and paper, and sign and stamp. You and I each agree on our own opinions. If something happens in the future, we can go to court to file a lawsuit."

The two of them went toe-to-toe, made two copies, and then walked out of the Yamen.

All the officials quickly followed and went to the city wall to watch the battle.

The Yangzhou camp came out in full force.

More than 1000 soldiers first received 2 taels of departure silver, and then received a promise of 5 taels for their heads, and then left the city in chaos.

Form a team under the city wall and follow the general to slay the bandits.

In the distance, Li Dahu and all the Li family troops looked solemn.

They were really nervous about this battle.

Li Yu mobilized a total of 300 people, serious and well-trained musketeers.Most of them are busy carrying out attacks and collecting money.

It's funny to say that the information was provided by the White Lotus Sect. They have been working in Yangzhou Prefecture for decades and know who has a wealthy family.

The officials, gentry, and salt merchants in Fucheng all had manors and houses in the suburbs.

In addition, there are many wealthy market towns around the canal, and each town has two or three wealthy gentry families.

Li Jiajun was busy transporting these people's belongings. He boarded the ship directly and waited until he reached the Yangtze River before changing ships.

From the Yangtze River to Xishan, Caobang's ships are responsible for transportation.

……

Considering Li Yu's intentions, Liu Qian paid special attention to the general participation in this riot.

Anyone who helps with the transportation will be given 1 tael of silver each.

Those who help lead the way will be given two taels.

Our side claimed to be a "desperate coalition of salt dealers and kitchen men", but was cut off by the Lianghuai Salt Transportation Bureau.

All kinds of true and false information weave a huge "fog of war".

Qianlong and everyone in the military department will be very confused.

A suspicious old emperor would have great distrust of the officials throughout Jiangnan and even Jiangsu.

Maybe he will tour the south personally.

Compared with their companions who were busy loading money, the 100 musketeers under Yangzhou City faced great pressure.

These days, they temporarily formed and armed a Zaoding Musket Team.

It only took 200 days for the 4 kitchen men to get their muskets and go into battle today, standing on the flank of Li's army.

Each person only shot 15 rounds of lead bullets, which can be called an absolute novice.

Li Dahu was still shouting loudly, emphasizing discipline:
"Brothers, the officers and soldiers are coming, don't be afraid of them."

"What you are holding is a matchlock gun, which is very powerful, but don't shoot in advance. You must wait until they get close before shooting."

"Keep your fingers outside the ring."

"Wait until the order is given and then shoot together."

He and several Li family musketeers were the instructors of this "Zao Ding Musketeers Team". During this period, he taught them how to shoot guns step by step.

2 miles away, the Yangzhou Battalion was lining up.

The sword and shield soldiers are in the front, the spear soldiers are in the back, and the two wings are a mixture of matchlock soldiers and archers. This formation is also quite bizarre.

In short, under the shouts of the officers, they came over step by step.

……

On the city tower, Yangzhou officials, gentry and salt merchants all watched nervously.

No one had time to quarrel at this moment. President Jiang Chun held up the telescope he bought with a lot of money and looked unhappy.

"What's wrong?"

"These cooks have expert guidance behind them, and their formations and firearms are in order."

"Will the Yangzhou camp be defeated?"

"Hard to say."

Lao Huang looked around nervously and whispered:

"Does your nursing home have enough people? Can you lend me some manpower? I'll pay for the labor."

"I will send 10 good men to your house this afternoon."

"Thank you, Mr. Jiang."

"I won't say thank you. We Yangzhou salt merchants are on the same branch and we share weal and woe. We will shoulder the difficulties together."

Jiang Chun's sense of smell was extremely keen. He spent a lot of money to hire two escort agencies and temporarily added them to the nursing home sequence.

We also borrowed some crossbows and muskets from the Salt Capture Camp.

They even gathered the good horses they usually purchased into the stables.
If something happens to the city defense, at least people can be saved.

He never told anyone this thought.It can only be said that he is a businessman full of crisis, which is completely opposite to the calm and calm appearance on the surface.Under the city, thousands of people from the Yangzhou camp suddenly stopped.

The Yangzhou battalion general discovered that although the group of cooks was small in number, they all held firearms.

Live to hell!

For a moment, he also suspected that the Lianghuai Salt Transport Envoy was causing trouble.

So the offensive formation was temporarily changed, so that the archers and musketeers were in front to engage in the battle from a distance.

The rest of the Green Camp soldiers are on standby, ready to expand the results of the battle.

This kind of lack of courage, long-range versus long-range combat method is quite to the Li Jiajun's liking.

Li Dahu breathed a sigh of relief and smiled.

What he was most afraid of was that the enemy's entire army would be attacked, and a salvo from his side would not be effective, and the kitchen men would collapse.

Then, the Li family's musketeers, which had less than a hundred soldiers, were embarrassed.

The best outcome is that most of them are killed and injured, and it's barely a draw.

"Wait for my order before shooting, don't be nervous."

Bang, bang, the skirmishers arranged by Li Jiajun on both wings opened fire.

After a few sporadic shots, some of the Green Camp soldiers fell down.

Then, they lived up to their expectations, and people started shooting and releasing arrows indiscriminately.

This is very green camp!

On the city wall, a group of officials and gentry watched carefully and slapped the wall bricks and cursed.

……

Half of them emptied their firearms and stood still to reload.

And their companions were also hesitant, should they wait for their companions?Getting shot cannot be done without a companion, it must be shared.

On the opposite side, Li Dahu seized the opportunity to fight.
He shouted: "Old brothers, move forward."

The 80 Li family's musketeers formed two horizontal lines.

They strode forward quickly, but the queue did not scatter.

The Yangzhou battalion general who was supervising the battle suddenly felt as if he had fallen into an ice cave.

The same feeling was felt by the generals of the Salt Capture Battalion who were watching the battle on the city wall.

The civil servants and gentry did not know what this meant, but those with battlefield experience knew that this was something that only an elite firearms battalion could do.

The two horizontal columns of the Li Jiajun quickly moved to a distance of 200 meters from the enemy.

"Stop, raise the gun, and let go."

There was a row of light smoke, and the huddled Yangzhou battalion archers and musketeers fell to the ground.

"Play it again."

Another volley fired, and the effect was still obvious.

Rifling and expanding Mini bullets have obvious advantages.

After the fight, Li Jiajun's musketeers lowered their heads and quickly reloaded regardless of the results.

The sporadic arrows and lead bullets coming from the opposite side couldn't hurt anyone at this distance.

……

The sweaty Yangzhou battalion general took off his helmet and drew his saber:

"Brothers, follow us and charge forward. Each of you will be rewarded with another five taels."

"Keep your promise after the war and never break your promise."

Hundreds of soldiers with swords, shields, and spears roared and charged, following the general's command flag, towards the 200 cooks.

Perhaps, in their subconscious mind, this No. 200 player is better to beat.

Facts have proved that this is also the case. Due to Li Dahu's departure, the command was handed over to Wang Liu.

Wang Liu has acquired some knowledge about firearms these days.

He could only keep shouting: "Brothers Zao Ding, don't panic, wait until the officers and soldiers get close before fighting."

However, under huge psychological pressure, the first row still played early.

The enemy was still a hundred meters away, so he opened fire.

Wang Liu waved his arms and shouted: "Brothers, wait for the order."

The cook in the first row panicked and began to reload tremblingly.

Their nervousness lowered overall morale.

After the green camp soldiers entered the 100-meter range, everyone fired in unison.

The white smoke dissipated, but the enemy was still charging.

In this round just now, about 30 people were shot. The result was not ideal.

The cooks were busy loading gunpowder and lead bullets.

Some people loaded too much, some loaded too little, some forgot to insert lead bullets, and some forgot to take out the bullets to stab them firmly.

In short, their poor performance gave Yangzhou Battalion soldiers great courage.

The general shouted: "Come in, the muskets are just fire sticks."

……

Before he finished speaking, the troops in another headquarters collapsed.

Li Jiajun's 80 musketeers fired four times in one minute.

Green camp archers and musketeers have never seen such a formation.

The corpses were lying on the ground, and the living people quickly threw them away and ran away.

Avoiding the enemy and avoiding one's own people.

Li Dahu breathed a sigh of relief and quickly ordered: "Reload quickly and move forward."

There are no drums or flags, but there is confidence in each other.

Almost people lined up side by side and surrounded them.

Looking from the sky, it looks like a waxing moon formation.

At this time, the Zaoding Musketeers fired their second salvo, but the Green Camp soldiers broke into the position.

In an instant, he was defeated.

Li Dahu saw clearly that some people threw away their muskets and ran away.Some turned their muskets into clubs and fought with the Green Camp soldiers.

Some also knelt down directly and surrendered.

No matter how bad the green soldiers were, they could fight with swords and spears several times better than these simple and honest soldiers.

The heads of those who were killed were rolling, which was very majestic.

Li Dahu secretly complained in his heart and shouted:
"On the bayonet."

Then, everyone stopped, pulled out the three-edged bayonets, put them on the barrel of the gun, and wedged iron nails in to fix it.

……

He pointed at a skirmisher not far away and made a gesture.

The skirmishers holding extended flintlock rifles immediately understood.

He bypassed the front, ran quickly to the flank, and stood firm in the backlight.

He placed the flintlock gun on the slanting branch of a small tree, calmed down, and aimed a shot at the Yangzhou battalion general on horseback a hundred meters away.

The gunpowder was added, the barrel was thickened, and a mini bullet roared out.

He passed by and hit a green soldier.

The general just turned his head and glanced, not noticing the danger.

He concentrated on deploying his troops, preparing to defeat the Zao Ding as soon as possible, and then turned to deal with the elite musketeers.

30 breaths later, he was suddenly shot, his inferior cotton armor was pierced, he fell under the horse, and died.

"The general is dead."

The Green Camp soldiers suddenly panicked and were no longer brave.

The backbone is gone, so why fight?

The rewards promised before the war may have been in vain.

Looking at the flank again, the enemy's elite musketry team was small but determined to kill.

Standing still a hundred meters away, a stream of white smoke was sprayed out, and people around him suddenly fell on their backs.

After 20 breaths, another salvo was fired.

The Yangzhou camp collapsed and the army was defeated like a mountain.

……

Li Dahu let out a long breath and directed everyone to slowly shoot at the enemy's back, killing a dozen more people.

"Clean the battlefield, don't kill the prisoners."

Wang Liu came over in a very embarrassed manner. His face was covered with blood, and he didn't know whether it was his own or someone else's.

"Brother Six, how many casualties have Zaoding suffered?"

"More than half."

"The training time is too short, as expected."

After listening to Li Dahu's words, Wang Liu suddenly erupted like a volcano and roared:

“Then you’re going to drive them here to die?”

"Brother Six, who doesn't fight with his head tied to his belt? Who else can they use if they don't need them? Bring the elite under the lord's command here?"

Faced with Dahu's rhetorical question, Wang Liu closed his eyes, squatted down and held his head.

Outside the city, there are more Zao Ding, who only have cold weapons.

They arrived one after another at this time to collect the corpses of their companions and take care of the wounded.

Li Dahu walked up to the prisoners, looked at the dozen or so embarrassed guys, and said:

"We didn't want to rebel, but your government forced us to do so. You sell official salt, we sell private salt, and everyone goes his own way."

"But the Yanyun Yamen is so shady that it actually ends up selling private salt by itself."

"You said, doesn't this force us to rebel?"

The prisoner didn't dare to say more, he kept saying yes and kneeling down to beg for mercy.

"Okay, I don't want to kill more people. You can go."

The prisoner who saved his life ran three miles away in one breath.

When they bring these words back to Yangzhou City, if nothing else happens, there will be internal strife.

You Bashi, the Lianghuai salt transport envoy, will definitely fall into the collective impeachment of Yangzhou officials and gentry groups.

This is part of Li Yu's calculation, and there will be no mistakes.

Officials attacked You Bashi not only to please Shangguan Fukangan, but also to shirk responsibility for the civil unrest in their own government.

Yangzhou salt merchants took the opportunity to remove this heavy stone from their heads.

This is momentum!

……

On the city wall, everyone was stunned.

Tongzhi murmured to himself: "Is he defeated like this?"

"My lord, we can no longer go out of the city to fight. We should focus on defending the city."

"Ah, yes, yes. Recruit more young people to help defend the city. Each person will be paid 500 coins a day, including meals."

Just as he was talking, he suddenly saw a thief approaching from the city holding a white flag:

"Gentlemen of Yangzhou Prefecture, we are not rebels. We are the government forcing the people to rebel. If the merchants in Gouyue do not pay wages, we kitchen workers will not be able to survive."

Tongzhi rolled his eyes and ordered someone to shout:

"Put down your weapons and the court will forgive you. The wages owed to you will be paid today."

"Sir, we Zao Ding are just poor, not stupid."

(End of this chapter)