The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 63: Smash the dark Qing Dynasty! (Friday, o'clock, please order first!)

It was late at night. In the Qing army barracks where Yu Wanqing's troops were stationed, around a bonfire, about two hundred soldiers in uniform were weighing the heavy "Eagle Dollars" in their hands while looking at one of Yu Wanqing's godsons.

Yu Wanqing's godson was named Yu Dabao. He was broad-shouldered and fat-faced, with an untidy beard and a fierce look in his eyes.

"Rebellion!" Yu Dabao shouted, "If we don't rebel, we will be eaten alive by Huang and Zhang! Huang's little property was almost robbed by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and he is almost a pauper. Why is he still organizing militia? Does he have money to give us?"

"Definitely not!" One of Yu Wanqing's "new godsons" immediately took over the question.

"When we followed General Yu, we didn't have much money all year round. That was a regular army! Now we are changing to a militia, won't we still go hungry for nine meals out of three days?"

This time it was Yu Wanqing's old subordinates who agreed, but from what he said, it seemed that Uncle Yu was also a corrupt official who sucked the blood of his soldiers.

Yu Dabao certainly would not let his subordinates divert the topic, and quickly shouted: "Instead of doing this, it is better to follow the Taiping Army and enjoy the good life. The Taiping Army is very generous, giving each of us ten British eagles! After the mission is accomplished, another ten will be given! A total of twenty British eagles, we can't even save up these twenty British eagles in two years of serving Emperor Xianfeng! Brothers, what do you think, should we rebel or not?"

"Yes!" said an old Qing soldier with a gray beard, looking ferocious. "I have served the Manchu emperor as a soldier for thirty years, and I have not saved up twenty taels. I am so poor! Now I can get twenty taels if I rebel! What are you still hesitating about? Rebel against him!"

"I'm rebelling too!" Another old soldier in his forties with a scar on his face stuffed ten silver dollars into his arms and said through gritted teeth, "With the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's move, I don't think they can succeed!
Anyway, I can't make any progress as a Green Camp soldier, so I might as well rebel and maybe I can become a founding hero!"

The two veterans enjoyed extremely high prestige among Yu Wanqingti's standard-bearing soldiers who stayed behind in Daozhou. Once they took the lead, the more than 200 people under them were eager to try, and soon they all started to rebel.

Yu Dabao drew out his sword and waved it, "You are all great. Let me tell you something. The Tiandihui brothers in Daozhou City will also join us in the rebellion! As long as we take the lead, everyone in Daozhou City will rebel!"

He pointed at the scarred man in his forties and said, "Ji Dapao, you are the gunner. Hurry up and take a few people to set up the cannon and fire it towards the prefectural government office!"

"Yes!" Ji Dapao waved his hand and called a few friends to go set up the cannon together.

They are called cannons, but in fact they are just a few small cannons weighing two or three hundred pounds. They are usually mounted on a cart. When they are ready to be fired, they have to build a gun pier with mud and sandbags, and then lift the cannon up and place it properly, and then fix the cannon with hemp ropes and wooden stakes.

This process was too troublesome, so Yu Wanqing simply left the artillery team behind to look after the house that day.

Today, these cannons were quickly set up at the entrance of the military camp! Yu Wanqing's camp was set up at the entrance of the parade ground in Daozhou City, occupying the barracks of the original Daozhou City Defense Camp, and the Daozhou government office was just across the street.

However, when Ji Dapao led people to set up the cannon, it was late at night, and the soldiers guarding the gate of Daozhou government office were all dozing off, so no one saw it.

Ji Dapao was really a daring person. After setting up the cannon, he and a dozen of his old friends loaded the shells and gunpowder. Then he lifted up his robe and knelt down. He kowtowed to the cannon and shouted, "Grandpa Cannon, bless us!"

This cannon is from our grandfather's generation!
It was cast during the reign of Emperor Qianlong and participated in the Jinchuan Campaign! Three generations of Ji Dapao's family have served it.

After knocking, Ji Dapao lit the fuse on the butt of the cannon. As the sparks drilled into the fire port, this grandfather-generation cannon roared with a "boom".

Then a loud "click" was heard coming from the government office opposite, followed by inexplicable shouts of surprise.

"Oh my God! Door, why did the door fall down?"

"You, how do you watch the door?"

"I, I, I don't know!"

Ji Dapao didn't care what the other side shouted. He just directed his artillerymen to load ammunition into this "cannon grandpa" and another younger cannon dad, and fired two more shots at the opposite yamen.

"Boom boom."

"Oops, the wall is falling again"

"what happened?"

"Why did this good wall collapse?"

"Go and report to the governor!"

The reaction of these gatekeepers is really slow. They still don’t know that someone is bombarding their government office with cannons!

However, Zhang Dingxiang, who was having supper with Wang Kuiyi in the inner hall of the government office, was an experienced person. When he heard the "boom boom boom" sound of the cannons, he knew something was wrong. "Fire cannons? Someone is firing cannons!" Zhang Dingxiang stood up suddenly.

"What?" Huang Shijie, who was a little drunk, suddenly became nervous. "The Chang Chang Maos are attacking the city?"

"No, not that far. It seems like someone is firing cannons outside the government office?"

Wang Kuiyi looked at Zhang Dingxiang and said, "How is this possible? Old Zhang, are you drunk?"

"Boom boom."

Two more shots!

Then I heard someone outside shouting, "Master, Master, something bad has happened! The gate of the government office has suddenly collapsed, and a section of the wall has also collapsed!"

"what?"

"Someone is bombarding the state government?"

"There is a rebellion in Daozhou City!"

Now Wang Kuiyi, Huang Shijie and Zhang Dingxiang all knew that something was wrong!

However, Magistrate Wang Da was still calm and reacted immediately: "Ziying, Captain Zhang, hurry up and mobilize the militia to suppress the rebels, and also protect me to break through the siege!"

"Listen! Someone is setting off a cannon!"

In the mansion where more than thirty incense masters and hall masters of the Tiandihui in Daozhou gathered, some people had already heard the sound of cannons.

This cannon sound is the signal for uprising!

"It's Yu Dabao, his Green Camp has started fighting!" Jiao Hong slammed the table, looking at the group of Hongmen brothers who were already "dressing up" below with burning eyes - these people had already wrapped red scarves on their heads, but their braids had not been cut. In case the situation went wrong, they could still pretend to be obedient citizens of the Qing Dynasty!

"It's time for the heroes of the Tiandihui to take action!" Jiao Hong stood up and said to Xu Yuegui beside him, "Sister-in-law, you will be the commander-in-chief of the three armies and guard the central camp. Xianggui and I will be the left and right vanguards and take the north and west gates respectively to welcome the Taiping Army into the city!"

Xu Yuegui nodded, looking excited: "Okay! I will stay in the central army and wait for your victory report!"

The three of them then discussed for a while and divided the "Thirty-Six Xiangtang Volunteer Army" into three parts. One part followed Xu Yuegui and was responsible for controlling the streets around the Daozhou Recruiting Hall headquarters. The other two parts followed Xu Xianggui and Jiao Hong to occupy the north gate and west gate of Daozhou City.

The "Thirty-Six Xiangtang Volunteers" were said to have tens of thousands of men, but in reality there were only a few hundred or so of them, all of whom were strong miners and also brothers of the Tiandihui.

They were ready now, all of them had red scarves wrapped around their heads, holding spears in their hands, short knives on their waists, and some of them even had homemade explosives, squatting in the alleys around the headquarters of the Recruiting Army Hall. Each of them received a few taels of silver, and also learned the ballad "Welcome to the Taiping", and they all knew why the Taiping Army was fighting!
Jiao Hong left behind several hundred miners who had revolted to follow Xu Yuegui to watch over the house, and the remaining nearly three thousand people were divided into two groups. They ran along two streets with torches, heading towards the two city gates of Daozhou respectively, while they ran, they loudly sang the ballad "Welcome Peace".

"Kill the evil spirits of the Qing Dynasty, slaughter the evil gentry, open the city gates to welcome peace, and when peace comes, divide the land! Divide the land, divide the wealth, and make sure everyone is well fed and warm. No rent, no debt, and equality everywhere in the world."

As the song of "Welcome Peace" became louder and louder, the crowds rushing towards the west and north gates of Daozhou became more and more surging!
At the same time, Xu Yuegui, who stayed behind, led his men to set a fire in an empty and dilapidated yard piled with firewood and flammable items. A raging fire suddenly broke out!

The entire Daozhou City soon began to boil like a boiling pot.

"The Taiping Army is entering the city!"

"Oh my god, the longhair is coming!"

"The Tiandihui has also rebelled!"

"The Green Camp has also rebelled!"

"Kill the Qing demons, kill the evil gentry, open the city gates and welcome peace"

All kinds of shouts, accompanied by gunshots, cannon fire, and explosions, quickly gathered together and turned into a raging torrent, as if it was about to destroy the dark and panic-stricken Qing Dynasty!
(End of this chapter)