The Qing Dynasty is about to end

Chapter 747 Go north and be “Xian Zicheng”!

In the early morning, the air of Lawrence, a small town on the Kansas River, was filled with the aroma of corn porridge mixed with pickled pork. The weeds growing out of the cracks in the bricks of the main street of the town had turned yellow. Three hunchbacked white old men squatted under the broken sign of "Jefferson Grocery", trembling as they repaired the boots of several black knights. The weather was very cold, and their fingers were frozen purple, but they dared not stop - yesterday an old man dawdled and was hanged on the branches of a big tree outside the town.

Belle, wrapped in a stolen woolen shawl, stood in front of the glass window on the second floor of the church. She saw a white girl in a corseted skirt kneeling on the broken glass to clean the blood at the door of the pharmacy on the corner. The bruises on the girl's neck were more glaring than the iodine label in the medicine cabinet.

"What are you looking at?" Xianfeng's voice came from behind. He had just finished the "One Minute Battle" and was lying on the big bed smoking a cigar.

"That girl. Her father is the doctor in town." Bell said softly.

Xianfeng exhaled smoke: "Now she is Black Tom's white coat." He turned his head and looked at the plump Belle, "Just like you, a bitch, are now my white coat."

With the "Eight Banners", there must be "Baoyi slaves"! The Baoyi in the "Black, Red and Yellow" Army included both "black" and "white" people, and "yellow Baoyi" and "red Baoyi" did not exist yet. Because there were very few yellow people in the "Black, Red and Yellow" Army, they were all bannermen. As for the red Indians, although they learned nomadism with the help of the Mongolian Yellow Bannermen, the internal hierarchy was not clear, and they had not yet progressed to the point where they could distinguish between bannermen and Baoyi slaves.

Hundreds of looted Conestoga wagons were parked in the court square. New black guards were barefoot, carrying bags of cornmeal from a warehouse and loading them onto wagons. A "black flag" wearing a blue hat and leather boots poked the newcomers in the waist with a whip: "Be quick! After loading this wagon, you can get a big bowl of delicious 'grizzle' (a kind of corn porridge)!" He had a yellow cloth wrapped around his left arm - a mark of having fought three tough battles with Governor Zhao Si.

Bell turned around and saw Zhao Sizheng wearing his military uniform. His thin body looked really decent in the gray tweed uniform - this man gave Bell a very strange feeling. He was clearly from a poor family, but he had a particularly noble temperament, a bit like the old European aristocrats she had entertained when she was a prostitute in Atlanta.

"We can't defend Lawrence." Xianfeng suddenly said, "White bitch, are you going with me or to New York?"

Black Tom's curses could be heard from downstairs. His bay horse galloped over and almost knocked over the white woman who was cleaning the glass at the door of the pharmacy. The frightened white woman sobbed, and Black Tom roared: "Why are you crying? You are so timid, you are even worse than Miss McMullen!"

It seems that the daughter of the McMullen family is the "white moonlight" of Black Tom!

Suddenly, the church bell rang sharply—the alarm of the Black, Red, and Yellow. A black knight under Black Tom rode up on horseback and shouted at the top of his voice in the courthouse square: "Topeka is lost! The Yankee infantry has also occupied the Smoky Mountains in the south!"

On the steps of the courthouse, the black officers who were studying the Anti-Scripture were in a frenzy. Some threw their books on the steps, and many more drew their Colt revolvers. A "Black Flag" officer wearing a stolen mink coat stepped on the mailbox and shouted, "Return to Topeka! Pull out the white devils' intestines and use them as food!"

The black guards beside the carriage stopped loading and were whipped on the back by a "black flag" and said, "What are you looking at! You black guards, don't try to be lazy. If you don't load a hundred carts, you will starve tonight!"

Xianfeng fastened his belt, took out a Colt pistol from under his pillow and put it in the holster. "Have you made up your mind?" he said to Bell, "I'm leaving Lawrence tonight!" His voice was as calm as if he was discussing what to eat for dinner.

"Leaving tonight?" Bell inquired. "Back to Topeka?"

"No, cross the river to the north!" Xianfeng said, "First cross the Kansas River, then cross the Missouri River!"

"Cross the Missouri River?" Bell grabbed his shawl tightly. "The north bank of the Missouri River is the territory of the Union Army."

"That's why we have to go!" Xianfeng walked up to Belle and patted her on the buttocks. "Topeka is an empty bag, Lawrence is an iron coffin, and there is great potential north of the Missouri River!"

There was a sudden uproar downstairs. Black Tom and a large group of black officers crowded at the church door, their eyes red, waving Colt pistols or sabers in their hands.

"General!" Black Tom, with his hot temper, shouted louder than anyone else. "The white devils have taken over Topeka! We must go back and tear them apart!"

Xianfeng slowly put on his blue military cap, pushed open the creaking balcony door, and walked onto the balcony.

More than a hundred black officers looked up at their governor like pilgrims. Xianfeng adjusted his military cap and shouted in a hoarse voice: "The Yankees want to crush us with pliers, but we will get into their stomachs - there are 100,000 black brothers on the other side of the Missouri River waiting for us to start!"

An autumn breeze lifted the hem of his military uniform, revealing the Colt revolver stuck crookedly on his belt.

"Topeka was captured by the Yankees? That's great!" Xianfeng suddenly raised his voice, imitating the drawl of a southern plantation owner, "As for this shabby place of Lawrence." He kicked the balcony board hard, "The Yankees want it? We'll just leave them an empty, broken city!"

A few dry laughs broke out in the crowd. Several black officers wrapped in stolen woolen coats put away their weapons. Bell frowned slightly. She felt that it would be difficult for Grant, the Yankee general, to catch Zhao Si, who was more cunning than a fox.

"There are 100,000 black brothers on the Missouri Plains!" Xianfeng suddenly lowered his voice, "If three men out of every ten pick up guns, our team can increase from 13,000 to more than 40,000!"

The cold wind blew up the leaflets on the square, which read "Kill a Yankee soldier, God will give you ten acres." Xianfeng announced loudly: "Feed the mules and horses with enough Kansas wheat and corn! Take away everything that can be taken away, destroy everything that cannot be taken away, and leave nothing for the Yankees. Cross the Kansas River tonight!"

When the crowd dispersed, Bell asked quietly, "Can we really recruit 30,000 people?"

Xianfeng stared at the black officers who were dispersing: "It would be good if we can recruit 15,000." He touched Bell's not-so-thick waist, "Blacks only account for 15% of the U.S. population, and the factories are all controlled by northern whites. Moreover, northern whites are not short of food, and the food in the United States is too abundant. So I can't be Hong Xiuquan, I can only be Li Zicheng."

"Li Zicheng, who is he?" Bell asked.

"A bandit emperor," Xianfeng replied, "who was eventually defeated and killed."

“Then why do you still want it?”

"Because this is a road to survival from death." Xianfeng suddenly grabbed Bell's wrist with such force that she frowned. "Do you think I want to establish serfdom, black flag people and white baoyi?" He let go of her hand and lowered his voice. "That's because we don't have steel mills, arsenals, or even a decent blacksmith shop. So we can't gain an advantage in the east. We can only open up an autonomous black state in the west! And this black state needs population, black flag people, black baoyi and white baoyi! White bitch, have you thought it through? Go to New York, or follow me?"

"I, I followed you!" Bell laughed, "You caught me twice, this must be God's will!"

In the evening, the sound of whipping was heard on the beach of Kansas River. Hundreds of white coats were tying up rafts, and Black Tom's whip swept across the bald head of old Judge White. "Hurry up and work!" Black Tom kicked the old judge into the ice water, "You white maggots should soak in cold water!"

Xianfeng saw the corner of Bell's mouth twitch, but she said nothing.

When night fell, the city hall, city council, courthouse, and library of Lawrence were burned to the skeleton, and a floating bridge built with rafts had been built across the Kansas River. Strings of torches cast flickering lights and shadows on the river, and teams of black flag soldiers walked silently across the floating bridge and arrived at the north bank of the Kansas River. They carried shiny Minié rifles or Mississippi rifles on their shoulders, and hung water bottles and bulging dry food bags on their waists. Their boots stepped on the shaking rafts, making dull creaking sounds.

Xianfeng stood high on the river bank, watching the procession with cold eyes. Belle wrapped her shawl tightly around her shoulders and huddled beside him, the cold wind making her cheeks red. She stole a glance at the thin man - his eyes were colder than the river water, but there was a faint bitter smile on the corner of his mouth.

"Governor, the vanguard has crossed the river." Black Tom rode over to report, his bay horse paddling its hooves impatiently, "The white coats are moving slowly, do you want to..."

"No hurry." Xianfeng waved his hand, "Let them walk slowly, just in time to stop the pursuers for us."

Bell's heart trembled.

In a forest on the other side of the river, the women of the Black Flag Army were busy making a fire and cooking. Several black officers hugged the white women assigned to them and talked and laughed loudly beside the fire. Some of the white women sat numbly, some forced smiles, and some secretly wiped tears - most of them were the daughters of small shop owners, teachers or farmers in Lawrence, but now they have become "trophies".

"General, do we really have to fight all the way to the north bank of the Missouri River?" Bell asked in a low voice.

Xianfeng did not answer, but said calmly: "Li Zicheng was also a bandit in his past, but he almost took over the world in the end."

Belle didn't understand what he was saying, but she knew that this man had a plan deeper than the Missouri River.

In the distance, the flames of Lawrence gradually died down, leaving only a charred ruin.

"Let's go." Xianfeng put away the book and got on his horse. "After crossing this river, we will be 'Xian Zicheng'."

Bell bit his lip and thought, "Why did it become 'Xian' Zicheng again? What is the relationship between 'Xian Zicheng' and Li Zicheng? Brothers? Or father and son?"

(End of this chapter)