Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 373, Catching a Turtle in a Jar

Li Jia persuaded the Qian family scion he knew to join him in persuading Qian Yi to surrender once they entered the city.

The other party was grateful to Li Jia for saving his life from the barbarians, so he granted Li Jia's request.

The group did not stop and continued heading towards Changsha.

The barbarians moved freely in the mountains and forests, even faster than elite armies, but once they left the mountains and forests, marching quickly on flat roads was not their forte.

This is an issue of adaptability, and the soldiers' physical strength and fitness also play a significant role.

Peng An repeatedly urged his troops to march quickly, even resorting to killing his subordinates.

Finally, the army arrived in Changsha.

Although it was a little later than expected, thankfully it ended without any serious incident.

The garrison of Changsha was thrown into a panic.

Peng An ordered the barbarian troops to attack the city.

These barbarians have no idea how to attack a city. They just yell and charge up the walls in a chaotic manner. They don't even have siege equipment. They just use grappling hooks and ladders to climb up the walls. If the Huaiyin army were defending the city, no matter how many people came, they would have to be sent back sideways.

Fortunately, the garrison on the city walls was just local government troops.

We have enjoyed peace for a long time and have long since stopped fighting.

They were unaware of the plan; they were merely pawns to be manipulated.

The two sides fought to a standstill.

The defending troops were better equipped than the barbarian soldiers and had the advantage of terrain.

The barbarian soldiers were numerous and fearless.

While the battle raged on, Li Jia led Peng An to the west side of the city wall.

The siege was merely a facade.

Peng An volunteered to come, not to bring his men to their deaths at the city gates.

He came here to make a name for himself because Li Jia had an inside man who could open the city gates from the inside!

Meanwhile, Li Jia arrived at the west side of the city gate.

He had already made an agreement with Gong Qi.

The two sides exchanged the secret signal, and the city gate opened.

Peng An was overjoyed and hurriedly led his troops into the city.

The city's garrison was thrown into chaos and confusion.

Some fled, some resisted.

People closed their doors and windows, hoping to escape the calamity.

They were unaware of the plan, nor did they know that they had become pawns.

The saying "One general's success is built on the bones of ten thousand" is cruel, but it is also a reality.

The barbarian soldiers charged in all at once, scattering the defending troops.

After the barbarian soldiers entered the city, the situation quickly spiraled out of control.

The burning, killing, and looting caused great suffering to the people.

Peng An did his best to control the situation. This was not because he cared about the people, but because he believed that all the wealth in the city belonged to him and he could not allow these peasants to plunder at will.

Unfortunately, even Peng An could not fully command the barbarians who were blinded by greed.

"General Peng, lead your men to occupy the forts and the governor's office first!"

Li Jia spoke rationally.

Knowing the gravity of the situation, Peng An immediately ordered a squad of trusted barbarian soldiers to act according to Li Jia's instructions.

This was an elite barbarian force under his direct command, numbering only eight hundred men. Normally used to suppress rebels within the tribe, it was now his strongest unit.

Peng An led these men to take control of the city's main defensive fortifications.

The other barbarian soldiers, however, mostly went out of control.

They had been poor for too long. Before, everyone in the mountains was just as poor, so they didn't think much of it. But now that they had left the mountains and entered the bustling city of Changsha, the city's prosperity made them lose their minds.

The group of over 30,000 people was a motley crew, with members of different tribes not knowing each other. Once chaos ensued, Peng An's attempts to control them were ineffective, and his orders could not be relayed.

A group of barbarian soldiers stormed into a shop with a sinister grin, killed the hiding shopkeeper, and stole rice, flour, clothes, copper coins, and silver coins from the shop. Ironically, the shop's most valuable silver notes were not taken.

A troop of barbarian soldiers stormed into a mansion belonging to a wealthy family. The soldiers killed the men, and the women who resisted were also killed. Then they looted the place. One uneducated barbarian filled a large bag with the exquisite, gilded bricks and tiles of the courtyard and carried it heavily on his back.

With these, he would go back and marry ten wives, build a big house, and then build a small house. The small house would be filled with grain so that he would never go hungry again. He could buy medicine if he got sick, and he could also redeem his younger brother who had been sold a long time ago... The barbarian soldier thought to himself as he carried a large bag of bricks and tiles, sweating profusely.

After walking a distance, feeling extremely heavy, he stopped to think for a moment. Looking at the large bag of "goods," the barbarian soldier finally took off his clothes, threw away his blood-stained knife, and then carried the bag on his back. His emaciated body looked as if it would collapse under the weight of the large bag at any moment.

Suddenly, the sound of the earthenware pot shattering was heard.

Many earthenware pots were thrown from the air and shattered on the ground.

A pungent, oily smell wafted out.

Immediately afterwards, a fire broke out!
Spirals of fire shot out and spread in all directions, quickly igniting the streets, which were mainly constructed of wood.

The barbarian soldiers fled in terror.

However, the city gate they had entered through was blocked again. A group of fully armed soldiers stood like an impregnable wall, coldly watching them as if they were a group of animals, without any emotion whatsoever.

These barbarian soldiers, who had previously lived in mountain tribes, looked like primitive people compared to the fully armed Huaiyin army.

They tried to rush out, but they couldn't get out at all.

Many people couldn't get through.

They rushed into the city, but were blocked on key roads as well.

All the barbarian soldiers were confined to a commercial area near the west gate of Changsha. This area was bustling, and He Ai was certain that most of the barbarian soldiers would not be able to move from here, so he chose to trap them here.

In fact, not many barbarian soldiers were directly burned.

But heat and smoke are deadly weapons that kill even faster than flames.

The barbarian soldier who had been carrying the "goods" fled quickly was finding it too heavy. He was panting heavily after running only a short distance, and having already marched for more than a day, he had no strength left.

What sustained him was only greed and... a wicked hope.

In reality, there aren't many miracles.

Heatwave, thick smoke, suffocation.

The barbarian soldiers quickly ran out of energy.

To make matters worse, the bag accidentally got some kerosene on it and started to burn.

The barbarian soldiers rushed forward to put out the fire without regard for anything else; it was his wife, his house, everything he owned.

Eventually, the kerosene stuck to his body, and the barbarian soldier rolled on the ground in pain, getting even more kerosene on him.

Screams and wails.

The flames burned, melting away the greed and resentment in those eyes, which streamed down their hollow sockets.

It is comforting to know that he died a much more tragic death than the innocent Han people who had died in their homes before.

On the other side, Peng An's elite troops were also surrounded.

These so-called elite barbarian soldiers were like chicks in front of the Huaiyin army. Their long Miao swords could not cut through their armor at all, and the flintlock musket bullets easily blasted bloody holes in the barbarian soldiers.

Elite troops fell en masse.

Peng An's face was filled with anger and fear. "Li Jia has ruined me!"

He escaped under the protection of his personal guards.

He had many fearless bodyguards who risked their lives to protect him.

These Deadpools are all babies bought from other people's homes, brainwashed and trained from a young age, and selected like a venomous insect, eventually becoming emotionless weapons that are unafraid of death.

These people used their bodies to protect Peng An as he escaped.

Thirty or forty of them died, but they fought desperately to break through the encirclement.

Then they discovered there was a second layer of enclosure.

Peng An was in despair.

He chose to surrender.

Not yet satisfied, He Ai captured him alive with just two layers of encirclement.

He actually had a third layer of encirclement.

Beyond the third encirclement was another city wall.

There were also ambushes at Lotus Ridge in the past.

Lotus Ridge also has...

(End of this chapter)