Red Mansion: I am Jia Lian

Chapter 697 Representatives of Civilization

It was inevitable that Jia Zhi looked down on the natives. With over a hundred people, they couldn't even form a proper line. They were all in a chaotic mess. How could they fight a war like that?

The next day, at dawn, the Donghua army appeared in neat rows outside the city. Everyone was very quiet, and the only sound was the rustling of the battle flags in the wind.

When Jia Zhi appeared on horseback, surrounded by his guards, a cheer erupted from the crowd, and everyone shouted at the top of their lungs, "Donghua, you will win!"

As the eldest brother, Jia Quan did not compete for the limelight. This was something Jia Zhi paid for by working hard overseas alone, far away from her parents.

Jia Zhi had long been accustomed to this situation. The regular army of the northern province was, in essence, Jia's private army. This was only possible because it was in Donghua; if it were in his native land, he would have been accused of treason eight hundred times over.

All deployments had been arranged beforehand. The current battle situation was one side surrounded, one side vulnerable. The cavalry regiment was to advance and scout for enemy reinforcements. If they encountered small reinforcements, they would easily eliminate them; if it was a large reinforcement, that was unlikely, as there were no larger cities within a 200-kilometer radius. The cavalry regiment's primary task was still pursuit.

Deeply influenced by Jia Lian, the Jia family members always put on a polite face towards Westerners, but never truly regarded them as good people.

As for whether or not to escalate the war, Jia Zhi certainly wouldn't be foolish. The Donghua Jia clan must seize every opportunity to develop; a prolonged war would only hinder their progress.

"start!"

At Jia Zhi's command, the ground of the artillery position trembled slightly, and a roar filled the air as shells were fired.

From a distance, the small town appears as if flowers of flames and smoke are blooming both in front of and behind its walls.

From a close-up perspective, after the 75mm recoil gun fires, the gun barrel recoils violently, and the artillerymen quickly reset, reload, and fire again.

Five minutes of artillery preparation may seem like a very short time, but it caused enormous casualties to the militia defending the city.

Yesterday's battle to cross the river only resulted in casualties among the militia who advanced to the riverbank positions; today, the entire city is trembling under the shock of artillery fire.

Regardless of age or gender, everyone felt a sense of impending doom.

The Donghua Army advanced in a relatively loose formation. With the advent of new artillery and breech-loading rifles, the attacking side had abandoned the tactic of firing in line formations. In the words of the Donghua Army, "I can hit you, but you have a hard time hitting me."

It's foolish to cling to old tactics despite having superior weaponry, failing to capitalize on strengths and mitigate weaknesses. Europeans have indeed left a stereotypical image on the world in this regard, such as the British army launching their attack while playing bagpipes during the Battle of the Somme. Of course, the Maxim gun doesn't exist yet. However, its development isn't complicated; with the advent of propellant bullets, it was likely developed fifty years earlier.

The Donghua Army was still equipped with needle guns that used paper-cased bullets. Nevertheless, when they advanced to within firing range, they could suppress sporadic counterattacks from within the city with rapid fire.

The mortars accompanying the advancing infantry spotted the surviving artillery pieces on the city wall, decisively aimed and fired, eliminating the greatest threat, and then launched suppressive fire on areas with large numbers of enemy soldiers.

The projectiles, with their curved trajectories, fell like the Grim Reaper's scythe, emitting a sharp whistling sound.

From the start of the bombardment to the breaching of the city walls, it took only about half an hour. They took the city walls in a single charge.

The American militiamen, still holding their smoothbore muskets, retreated into the city in a panic. Sporadic resistance continued, but many more people desperately dropped their weapons and raised their hands.

The mayor, police chief, judges, and others, along with more than a hundred people, guarded the last stronghold in the city, the city hall.

Americans at this time were full of pioneering spirit; they were not afraid of fighting and were willing to sacrifice themselves.

Of course, it also depends on the opponent. The current opponent is Donghua people. There has never been a conflict between the two sides before, but there have been some business dealings, such as tea.

Speaking of tea, one cannot help but mention the Boston Tea Party. My history textbooks didn't cover the details when I was a child, but I only discovered it when I looked it up as an adult. It turned out that American merchants were hoarding tea to sell at high prices, and British merchants were able to ship the tea to America in time. The American merchants, having lost their guard, bribed workers to sabotage the event.

A close examination of the American Revolutionary War reveals that it was essentially a group of local bullies who, for their own benefit, conceived the idea of ​​becoming warlords and took action.

He was just lucky to have met Louis XVI, the founding father of the United States, who was a complete lunatic; otherwise, he would have been defeated long ago.

The so-called great victory was actually not that significant in terms of scale.

From a historical perspective, Americans say that destiny is predetermined, and they are absolutely right. Otherwise, there would be no Lincoln or Roosevelt, even though both were inevitable historical outcomes.

The development of productive forces to a certain stage is a historical inevitability; without these two, there would be others.

After the Donghua Army entered the city, the sporadic resistance was quickly eliminated, and the residents of the city hid in their homes, awaiting their fate.

The native army also wanted to enter the city, but Jaji ordered them to stay put and told them that they would get a share of the spoils.

The tribal chiefs were very indignant, but Jia Zhi's attitude was clear and firm, so they had no choice but to back down. The chiefs were able to go into the city with Jia Zhi to see what the battle would entail.

The small town had at most a thousand households, and the main road was heavily guarded by Donghua Army soldiers. Some soldiers went up to the rooftops to guard against sudden attacks from above.

Well, it's funny to think about it, but there's a precedent where security within a 300-meter radius is practically non-existent, yet Charlie Kirk was still shot dead.

Do Americans not learn from their mistakes even within a year? It's truly incomprehensible.

When this happened in the US, some people on Simplified Chinese websites came out to defend it, barking wildly at the onlookers as if someone was dancing on their ancestral graves.

Inside the city hall building, the mayor saw that the gunfire in the city had stopped, and that the Donghua Army soldiers did not rush into civilian houses, nor did they kill or set fires or do anything for pleasure.

The soldiers of the Donghua Army were even putting out fires, so are the people of Donghua really different?

With this in mind, the mayor consulted with others and, seeing that the Donghua Army had merely surrounded the city without immediately launching an attack, waiting for the cannons to come into view through the binoculars, the mayor rejected the others' objections, raised a white flag, and walked out of the city hall.

"I wish to speak with your commander in person," the mayor said loudly as he was stopped and searched by soldiers. The soldiers ignored him and led him directly to Jia Zhi. "Surrender. You have already fought!" Jia Zhi said calmly to the mayor.

The mayor took out a handkerchief, wiped the sweat from his face, and said in a slightly trembling voice, "I can surrender, but how can you guarantee that you won't harm our people?"

Jia Zhi smiled silently, and after thinking about it, decided it wasn't necessary to forcefully attack the city hall, lest it cause unnecessary casualties. After all, every Donghua person was precious, having crossed the sea from thousands of miles away.

“How can I put it? What can I say to make you believe me? I don’t believe in your Lord, so I can’t swear an oath to your Lord. You can’t believe that either! You can only believe that my promise is valid, otherwise you wouldn’t be standing here. So, I can only tell you that my soldiers are strictly disciplined, and they will not treat you the way you treat the Indians.”

After listening to Jia Zhi's words, the mayor remained silent for a while before saying, "Please allow me to go back and discuss this with everyone."

Jia Zhi took out her pocket watch, glanced at it, and said calmly, "It's 9:30 now. I hope you can make a decision before 11:00."

The mayor took off his hat, pressed it to his chest, bowed slightly, and turned to go back.

Jia Quan watched for a while, then whispered to Jia Zhi, "Believe me, even if you don't kill them, you won't get their gratitude."

Jia Zhi sighed, "Brother, we were raised by the same father."

Jia Quan smiled slightly, and the two brothers dismounted and found a place under the eaves to stand, inviting the tribal chiefs to come and speak.

"I promise you all that all weapons captured in the battle will be your spoils of war, and the grain and wine in the granaries will also be yours. On the condition that none of your soldiers are allowed to enter the city."

A tribal chief stepped forward angrily and asked, "Why? They can kill our people, but we can't kill them? Which side are you on?"

Faced with the questioning, Jia Zhi showed no anger, replying calmly, "For no other reason than that the people of Donghua, and our motherland, represent civilization. If you don't understand, then think about how we interact with each other. If we were like those white Westerners, would you still be willing to form an alliance with us?"

Another indigenous chieftain stepped forward and asked, "What if we are attacked by white-skinned demons again in the future?"

This time, Jia Zhi answered decisively: "I will send people to help you build sturdy settlements so that you can hold out long enough before receiving our reinforcements. Of course, you can't rely solely on us. In this world, no one can be trusted; relying on yourself is the safest option. As an ally, I can guarantee to help you train as many people as possible to adapt and survive."

Upon hearing this, the leaders bowed and retreated, bidding farewell and leaving the city. In truth, they understood perfectly well that the biggest difference between the East Chinese and the white devils was that the East Chinese kept their word.

Even the most distrustful tribal chiefs of the Donghua people never experienced a sneak attack initiated by them.

Those tribes that were wiped out by the Donghua people were all those who coveted the Donghua people's valuables and wanted to take advantage of them, but ended up being defeated instead.

After the tribal chiefs left, the city hall doors opened quickly, and everyone came out, putting their weapons aside before silently following the mayor, who was holding a white flag.

Jia Zhi reappeared before the mayor and told him, "I promise that the Donghua Army will not intentionally harm any innocent person. If your people launch an attack, that's a different story."

The mayor nodded: "I accept on behalf of everyone!"

Jia Quan chuckled, but thankfully turned his head away in time.

Jia Zhi smiled slightly and said, "The person in charge stays. The others can go back and tell everyone to hand over their weapons and not force us to search their homes."

After a slight hesitation, the mayor said, "I accept your terms on behalf of everyone once again."

It's really not easy; at least they're willing to use honorifics now.

All we can say is that if a country can become a world hegemon, as bystanders, we must believe that this country must have done something right.

One of the reasons why Britain became a world superpower is that capitalists use a rope to make workers sleep and still charge them money.

The point here is not to criticize capitalism for being inhuman, but to show the audience how patient the British were at the time, that they didn't even rebel.

The Spanish gained an early advantage during the Age of Exploration because only 30% of their crew returned from their first ship. Even so, many more were still willing to venture out on adventures.

We may look down on their character and their bottomless moral standards, but we cannot look down on their fighting spirit.

If we think about it carefully, didn't the days when people in the Ming and Qing dynasties could make a fortune just by selling tea, silk, and porcelain at their doorsteps sow the seeds of modern-day disasters?

Having been ahead of the world for over a thousand years, have we also developed path dependence?
Of course, we should be thankful that the difference between Eastern and Western rulers lies in the fact that they followed the "winning theory," while we preferred to record the humiliations of history and, through reflection, crush any opponent that stood in our way of national rejuvenation. So the fact that everyone can chatter online now isn't because any individual is particularly brilliant, but rather because the previous two generations were truly remarkable.

Western rulers' attempts to revise history in order to win are not new; the Whig Party's Whig historiography, which reverses cause and effect, began to do so centuries ago.

Every theory lags behind practice. If the Whigs, after beheading Charles I, tried desperately to legitimize their actions by rewriting history, they wouldn't tell you that the Pope rejected the Magna Carta. Nor would they tell you what the initial rebellious nobles went through.

Two hundred years later, a man named Fukuyama did the same thing. His aim was to cater to the era of "winning through intellectual pursuits."

Let me give you an example from my own experience. Many veteran authors in the online literature world became famous overnight with a single book, only to disappear from the scene quickly. These people almost all have one thing in common: they don't know why they became famous.

This example may not be accurate, but what I really want to say is that Americans don't even understand how they won the Cold War. Perhaps some people understand, but they can't say it. Saying it might really lead to them being shot eight times in the back and committing suicide.

One by one, the households in the city threw their weapons onto the streets. After the Donghua Army collected all the weapons, they sent them out of the city to be distributed among the native tribes. Then, they used the captured wagons to transport the grain, wine and meat from the warehouses out of the city as spoils of war for the natives.

After the natives who had obtained their spoils left one after another, Jia Zhi, the leader of the Donghua Army, summoned the mayor and other officials and gave them a letter to pass on to the US government.

After doing all this, the Donghua Army withdrew voluntarily. The Americans in the small town, watching the Donghua Army actually leave, were dumbfounded, repeatedly making the sign of the cross on their chests, "Thank God!"

(End of this chapter)