The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 47 Brothers, we found the money, and there is a woman ahead! (At this critical moment, please read on!)
It is now the beginning of May in the lunar calendar, and the weather near Yongzhou Prefecture is really a bit hot and humid. Today is another sunny day. When the sun shines in the afternoon, there is a bit of steam on the official roads on both sides of the Xiaoshui River.

This is a tough time for the two thousand Green Camp soldiers under General Yu!

Although the treatment of the admiral's standard soldiers was better than that of most Green Camp soldiers, it was still the Green Camp no matter how good it was! They were not the Eight Banners Heavenly Soldiers. How much money was there a month? Why risk their lives? Before this expedition to aid Guangxi, the standard soldiers under Yu Wanqing had "three things not to do" - not to do it when it was too hot, not to do it when it was too cold, and not to do it when it rained!
This "not moving" means no marching or drill!
Of course, when the weather is neither too cold nor too hot and it doesn't rain, they don't move much, and it's considered good if they can get some exercise in once every ten days or so.

Otherwise, they wouldn't be able to even march smoothly and complain all the way.

"Is General Yu almost done? He's been walking all day!"

"General Yu, I can't walk any more. It's still so hot, let the brothers take a break!"

"General Yu, you must love your soldiers like your own sons! We really can't leave."

"General Yu, please be kind."

Hearing the cries of the group of uncle soldiers below, Yu Wanqing, who was marching on horseback with dozens of strong Goshahas, was almost furious!
He never treated these soldiers badly on weekdays! Although he also took some vacancies and drank some blood from the soldiers, he never forced his subordinates to train hard, and they rarely did drills throughout the year.

He also knew that most of the model soldiers under him had their own livelihoods - some ran small businesses, some were craftsmen, some grew vegetables, some raised ducks, and some followed the bosses of the Changsha Tiandihui to collect protection fees. Anyway, Yu Wanqing didn't ask anything!
There aren't many people as easy to talk to as him in the Qing officialdom nowadays, right?

But why did these bastards give up at the critical moment?

We're almost at Etang Town, why are you already complaining?
This is the critical moment for Yu Wanqing and Yu Junmen to make achievements! As long as they can kill a few hundred female longhairs in Etang, according to the current Qing officialdom rule of "multiplying by ten" to report, they can report a few thousand gains. As for those longhairs are all female. There is no need to report. In the eyes of Yu Junmen, men and women are the same. As long as they are rebels, the results of the battle will be multiplied by ten.

If the few thousand gains are reported, and Bao Qibao loses Lingling again, then Yu Wanqing will be reinstated as the governor of Hunan, right? Once he becomes the governor of Hunan, he can find another opportunity to control a prefecture.
No, we must cheer up and win this battle!
Yu Wanqing was just about to say something to encourage his men when he suddenly heard three gunshots coming from the front of the team. This frightened Admiral Yu! Although he was a military scholar with unparalleled martial arts skills, there were shotguns everywhere on the battlefield these days!

He quickly looked up and found that the gunshots came from a small village ahead.

The official road from Shuangpai Town to Etang Town passes right through this small village. It seems that Changmao has set an ambush in the village!

The Goshahas under his command were all real elites. When the gunshots rang out, they automatically split into two groups, and one group drew out their sabers and pistols and rushed forward. Yu Wanqing knew that his standard-bearers were unreliable. If they really went to the battlefield and something happened, he could only rely on dozens of his personal soldiers, the Goshahas, to serve as the backbone. They would not go to fight with the Taiping rebels, but to control the troops in front and prevent them from "running away when they see the thieves."

The other half of Goshaha formed a circle around Yu Wanqing, surrounding him, the Lieutenant General Wu Shibin, and Mr. Huang Shijie - if the brothers who went up to the front could not stabilize the team, they would have to protect General Yu and escape.

At this time, several gunshots were heard from the front, and it was obvious that an exchange of fire was taking place.

Yu Wanqing didn't dare to continue sitting on the horse. How big of a target was this? He quickly turned over and dismounted, and at the same time ordered his lieutenant general Wu Shibin: "Old Wu, go to the front and see that the soldiers leading the charge today are Zhang Dingxiang's garrison soldiers. They can't hold on for too long!"

The Lieutenant General Wu was a middle-aged man in his early forties, with a strong build and a full beard. He looked quite fierce, but the Taiping Army in front of him was extremely ferocious!
Wu Shibin first cursed the eighteen generations of the Yu family in his mind, and then reluctantly led a dozen of his personal soldiers and went forward.

Just as he was driving forward "very cautiously", a series of gunshots were heard from the front, followed by cheers.

"Victory, victory!"

"The long-haired woman ran away"

"It's copper coins, there are copper coins!" These were the cheers of the Hunan Green Camp soldiers! Wu Shibin's courage suddenly rose, he drew his saber and shouted forward: "I am General Wu Shibin, the long-haired thief is here, don't run away!"

The personal soldiers following him also became excited. They drew their sabers, shouted loudly, and drove their horses forward.

After a while, Wu Shibin had rushed into the village where the fighting took place. The villagers there had long disappeared. Outside a yard that was obviously a landlord's house, a group of Green Camp soldiers were surrounding an overturned donkey cart and looting something.
His several Goshhas were very alert. They knew there was something good when they saw this, so they rushed forward on horseback, shouting loudly as they rushed forward: "General Wu, the lieutenant general of the central army, has arrived. Everyone, hurry up and form your troops!"

Wu Shibin, the lieutenant general of the levy, was in charge of the levy of Admiral Yu Wanqing, which meant that those who were looting the donkey carts, except for the subordinates of the captain Zhang Dingxiang, were all his subordinates. But even Captain Zhang himself, a small flood control captain, did not dare to provoke the lieutenant general of the levy!

So when the people heard that Wu Shibin was coming, they had to leave the overturned donkey cart obediently, leaving behind copper coins scattered all over the ground, a pile of colorful silk clothes and several overturned wooden boxes. It was obvious that this was a donkey cart carrying money and property, and no one knew how it overturned.

Just as Wu Shibin was about to ask a question, Zhang Dingxiang came over, bowed, and reported joyfully, "Reporting to the Lieutenant General of the Central Army, I have fulfilled my mission and fought hard to repel hundreds of female bandits. I have seized a donkey cart and a military flag, and killed and wounded dozens of female bandits!"

As he spoke, he took out a red flag and unfolded it. On the flag were embroidered a few Chinese characters: The Tenth Soldier of the Female Front Army.

Wu Shibin smiled and asked, "Okay, Lao Zhang, you can kill the generals and capture the flags!"

He and Zhang Dingxiang were quite familiar with each other. They were both from the Green Camp and had joined together back then. They were both captains when they started out. Unfortunately, their careers were very different later on.

"I didn't kill the general, I just took the flag." Zhang Dingxiang smiled shyly, "She's such a delicate girl, I can't bring myself to kill her!"

"Delicate? Can those Guangxi Hakka female soldiers with big feet be delicate?"

Zhang Dingxiang smiled and said, "Master Wu, you may not know that the female longhaired girls I just encountered did not have bound feet, but they were all young and very pretty."

"Look at you, have you never seen a woman?" Wu Shibin looked at Zhang Dingxiang with contempt.

"Really! It's true!" Zhang Dingxiang said with a grin, "If I had known from the beginning that I would be meeting such long-haired women, I would have caught a few of them and presented them to you and General Yu."

Just as he said this, two more gunshots were heard from the north, and then a Green Camp soldier came running over, shouting as he ran: "Master, Master, there are still a lot of female long-haired people outside the village, dozens of them are riding horses, and there are also many donkey carts!"

Wu Shibin glanced at Zhang Dingxiang and said, "Old Zhang, would you like to go and take a look together?"

Zhang Dingxiang smiled and called out to his left and right: "Brothers, there is a woman outside the village, don't miss this opportunity!"

"twitter!"

I don't know if it was because they had just defeated the female Taiping and snatched a lot of copper coins and silk clothes that inspired this group of Green Camp soldiers, but they shouted "Zha" so loudly.

So Wu Shibin led his own Geshaha and Zhang Dingxiang's dozen men to the northern exit of the village and looked out. He saw dozens of donkey carts parked on the official road outside the village, all of which looked fully loaded. In the fields on both sides of the convoy, there were already about 200 female soldiers in red clothes and red scarves forming a team.

On the official road, dozens of female cavalrymen were coming, leading them was a rather grown-up woman wearing a red robe, a red scarf on her head, and holding a red tasseled spear. She looked quite dashing. Behind her was a fluttering red flag with four big characters written on it - Deputy General Manager Su!
"Su Sanniang," Wu Shibin muttered in a low voice, and then shouted, "Quick, go and report to General Yu, the bandit leader Su Sanniang is leading more than 200 female bandits, escorting dozens of carts of valuables, and is just to the north of the village!"

(End of this chapter)