Red Mansion: Seizing Jiangdong, starting with pirates

Chapter 48, Imperial Reinforcements

"Boss, more than a dozen people were beaten to death in the West Shed today. The laborers are almost at their limit. Why don't we start a rebellion?"

"Wait a little longer. The chief leader said that we should wait until the imperial court dispatches troops to suppress the Huaiyin bandits before we take action. This way, we can reap the benefits while sitting back and waiting."

"But what if those laborers rebel themselves..."

"You worry too much. How dare those peasants? Wait a few more days, wait a few more days..."

In a small and cramped shed.

There was a sour smell everywhere.

Wu Sheng lay on the bed with a piece of wood in his mouth.

On Wu Sheng's back, there were two whip marks of blood and flesh, which had already festered and were extremely painful.

"Asheng, bear with the pain!"

A middle-aged man said.

Wu Sheng nodded.

The man picked up a wooden stick and rolled it hard on Wu Sheng's back.

Wu Sheng suddenly let out a violent scream.

Using a wooden stick to squeeze out the pus from the wound without any other measures is tantamount to torture.

The extreme pain made Wu Sheng's face soaked with sweat, and the wood in his mouth was almost bitten off by his teeth.

Fortunately, the pus mixed with blood was finally squeezed out successfully.

The middle-aged man took out a bag of wood ash and sprinkled it evenly on Wu Sheng's wound.

After a treatment that was comparable to torture, Wu Sheng was almost exhausted.

The man patted Wu Sheng on the shoulder and said comfortingly:
"Don't worry, Ah Sheng, my folk remedy is definitely effective. Look at Wu Lao Er, who was injured yesterday. He worked all day today without complaining about the pain. By the way, Wu Lao Er, how are you doing?"

"Hey, are you asleep?"

“…Dead, dead!”

Wu Laoer did not die from whipping, the real cause of death was hunger.

If someone dies, the supervisor must be notified.

It was not because they were worried about the safety of the laborers, but because they were afraid that someone would pretend to be dead and escape.

After a while, the supervisor came over cursing. After confirming that Wu Laoer was really dead, the supervisor ordered his men to throw Wu Laoer out.

The man hurriedly and diligently carried Wu Laoer out.

Then he spoke nicely and begged for mercy in front of the supervisor, saying that he could do two jobs by himself tomorrow, just to let the injured Wu Sheng take a day off to recuperate.

The supervisor naturally didn't want to agree, so the man gritted his teeth, took out a bowl covered in mud from under his bed and presented it to the supervisor.

He dug this out of the ground by chance while working a month ago. It should be considered an antique and worth some money.

"You are sensible."

The supervisor took the bowl with a smile and agreed to the man's request.

The next day.

"Rest? Who told you to rest? Get out and work!"

"Sir, you said yesterday that the bowl..."

"Snapped!"

A loud lash of the whip knocked the man to the ground.

"How dare you slander an official of the imperial court? Come, hang this fellow up and beat him to death!"

After a few whips, the man was covered in blood.

The laborers watched this scene, all of them were angry but dared not say anything.

The overseer laughed contemptuously.

Suddenly, he was hit on the head by a heavy object.

The supervisor turned away in confusion.

But then Wu Sheng came at him hard again with a thick wooden pole.

The pole hit the overseer right on the head.

The overseer looked up and fell down. Two of his men were shocked and rushed over.

Wu Sheng swung the wooden pole in his hand in a very methodical manner and knocked the two men to the ground.

The reason why Wu Sheng had such martial arts skills was that he was not from an ordinary family.

Wu Sheng's father was originally a small flag officer of the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

Under the influence of his father, Wu Sheng practiced martial arts since he was young and became strong and healthy.

Later, his father unfortunately passed away. Wu Sheng should have filled his father's vacancy in the Jinyiwei, but at this time the old prime minister happened to die and Emperor Longqing came to power.

Because Emperor Longqing did not trust the Jinyiwei, he dismissed the commander of the Jinyiwei and suspended all the powers of the Jinyiwei.

This resulted in Wu Sheng being unable to fill his father's vacancy, and later he was drafted into the army for a series of reasons and sent to a work shed.

At this time, Wu Sheng knocked down the two men, grabbed a knife, and without hesitation beheaded the supervisor, then raised the head and shouted to the people around him:

"Brothers, these cruel officials do not regard us as human beings. They beat us today and will beat you tomorrow. Ask yourself, have you ever had a full meal since you came here? They have no intention of letting us survive. If we work hard, we will die. If we resist, we will die. Why don't we rebel? If we don't rebel now, when will we rebel?"

After saying that, Wu Sheng cut off the official flag and started a rebellion!

The laborers, who had long been oppressed to the limit, responded one after another.

Two hundred thousand angry anti-republicans slaughtered all the supervisors, craftsmen and managers in Rong'an Academy. The plaque written by Emperor Longqing himself, "Sheltering the poor scholars of the world and bringing them joy", was ruthlessly trampled underfoot.

Wu Sheng distributed the food in the supervisor's warehouse to everyone, so that everyone had a full meal.

At this time, some people felt like giving up and going home after having finished their meal.

Wu Sheng hacked the man to death.

Wu Sheng threatened that since he had rebelled, he had no way out. If he went home now, the government would come to arrest him. It would be a way to death and would harm his whole family. Only by rushing into Xinzhou City and defending it could everyone's lives be saved!

After hearing these words, everyone was frightened and afraid.

Wu Sheng also said that as long as Xinzhou was captured, each person would be rewarded with ten taels of silver, and each person could capture a woman in the city as his wife!

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone's eyes lit up.

Wu Sheng's promise successfully mobilized the enthusiasm of these people.

At that moment, the anti-people rushed towards Xinzhou City under the leadership of Wu Sheng.

As a thousand-year-old ancient city, Xinzhou City has high walls and is easy to defend but difficult to attack.

Although Wu Sheng and his laborers were numerous, they had almost no siege equipment, and even bladed weapons were pitifully few, so siege was simply a fantasy.

Fortunately, Wu Sheng thought of a way. He took out the plaque written by Emperor Longqing, put on the clothes of the chief, selected a team of stronger men to go into the city together, and threatened that the golden plaque bestowed by the emperor was damaged and he would report it to the prefect immediately.

When the soldiers guarding the city saw the golden plaque, they did not dare to delay and quickly let Wu Sheng and others enter the city.

After Wu Sheng and others entered the city, they suddenly attacked and killed the soldiers guarding the city. They sent out a signal to let the large army outside rush into Xinzhou City.

Soon, Xinzhou City was broken.

Huaizhou.

Since Fang Yong defeated Duke Shanguo, his power expanded again, with the number of troops expanded to 100,000, with more than 30,000 surrendered soldiers.

The territory advanced to the south, approaching Fanliang Lake, and to the north it approached Zhongwu.

Wu Yuan advised Fang Yong that the court would send troops to help soon, so they should strike first and occupy Zhongwu as a barrier to resist the court's troops.

Fang Yong adopted Wu Yuan's suggestion and led his troops to attack Zhongwu.

As a thousand-year-old ancient city, Zhongwu also has strong defenses and is difficult to attack.

But fortunately, the officials defending the city did not have strong willpower.

While Fang Yong was attacking fiercely, he sent people to persuade them to surrender, and Zhong Wu's chief officer soon wavered in his determination.

However, this time, luck was not on Fang Yong's side.

General Chen Zhengdu, who was sent by the imperial court to conquer the south, arrived in time with his troops.

Chen Zhengdu is Chen Ruiwen's cousin and also a descendant of the Duke of Qi, but their blood relationship is relatively weak.

Before this, Chen Zhengdu had been serving in the imperial guards under Emperor Longqing. Due to his young experience, Emperor Longqing was reluctant to promote him.

After Chen Ruiwen died for his country, Emperor Longqing saw an opportunity and took the opportunity to attribute Chen Ruiwen's contributions to Chen Zhengdu. Although Duke Qi's lineage strongly opposed this, Emperor Longqing still went his own way and insisted on promoting Chen Zhengdu to the position.

Now, Chen Zhengdu was exceptionally appointed as the General of the Southern Expedition, leading 80,000 elite troops to rush to the aid of Huaizhou and take over the army under the Duke of Shanguo.

(End of this chapter)