"Holy soldiers of the heavens! For our five mu of paddy fields, for our way of living, kill the demons! Defend the land!"
At the same time, Xiao Zhangbao, the youngest among the "twelve apostles", addressed the new soldiers behind him and then raised a red banner with the six big characters "kill demons and protect soil" before leading the first group to break through the ambush and leave the courtyard.
Following him, there were dozens of fresh recruits from the Taiping Army who had just received land and assets and had made up their minds to defend the land they had been allotted and the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom's government with their lives.
Different from those calling out slogans like "kill the Qing demons, go to heaven," these Hunan Taiping Army soldiers did not want to go to heaven. They simply wanted to hold onto the land they had just acquired—the land that was their guarantee as human beings on earth, their assurance of being able to raise children and pass down their lineage. It was something worth sacrificing their lives for.
Over the past few days, Luoyao Guo's "twelve apostles" had repeatedly instilled into their hundreds of men the principles of "kill demons and protect soil."
This is the most practical and simple truth!
So it is both easy to explain and easy to understand.
So those poor fellows who have taken the land and wealth of Huang Laoshi's family, whether they are diligent but cannot make headway or were originally not very literate, have now come to understand this simplest and most practical truth.
They know for whom and why they are fighting.
After understanding the true principles and knowing for whom and why they are fighting, they have been elevated; they have become part of the "half-step revolutionary army." They are now a force completely in a different league from the Manchu Banner troops and the Green Standard Army.
However, they are still at a basic level and have not yet evolved into full-fledged revolutionary army. Otherwise, the "Qing demons" would certainly crumble upon contact.
"Kill the Qing demons, protect the land......Zhu Ba is here, who dares to decide life or death?"
In a narrow alley within the town of E Taogang, Zhu Ba, one of the "Twelve Angels" like Wang Yan, had encountered a team of Qing demons' soldiers chasing several female saints. Zhu Ba was originally a beggar, but unlike Wang Yan, he was professional. He had begged on Di Street for eight years and not only didn't starve to death but also became strong-limbed and round-lumbed. He was truly a "start with one bowl and dominate the begging ground" kind of guy!
However, he also knows that there is no future in begging. For beggars who want to turn their fortunes around, the only way is to rise up and rebel!
So on the first day of Luoyao Guo's arrival in E Taogang, he boldly took his only asset—a bowl for begging—and joined the Taiping Army. Due to his positive attitude and good speaking skills, he became one of the "twelve apostles".
The path to success was laid out before him, and he naturally had to grasp it firmly and fight hard for it.
At this moment, seeing a few weakened Qing demons, Zhu Ba put down his long spear with the red banner in hand and shouted loudly before charging up to be the first one to go.
The Qing demons they met were here to catch the female taipings, but now a group of male taipings suddenly appeared, led by a particularly robust Taiping soldier who was so strong that he looked like a bull. He had a flat forehead, a wide chin, and a thickly bearded splotchy face. If he mounted two horns, he would look almost like Sun Wukong!
Looking at such a figure, and with the sudden emergence of the Cantonese song "A Man Should Reinforce Himself" in the sky, even the most foolish Qing soldiers knew they had fallen into a trap!
"Oh no! They've fallen into a trap! Quick, run!"
A quick-thinking Qing demon shouted right away.
"Big fellow, King of the Beasts is here..."
Immediately, someone recognized Zhu Ba as the legendary Bull King – the news of the Heavenly Bull's arrival had spread among the Qing forces in Hunan and Guangxi. Yu Wanqing's soldiers were all sharp-eyed and knew what had happened.
However, they didn't believe much, otherwise they wouldn't have dared to come to E Taogang to bully the female taipings.
Who would have thought they would meet a suspect... Could it be that they had smoked too much opium and were experiencing hallucinations?
"Pfft!"
Before the unfortunate soul who mistook Zhu Ba for "Luo Ba" could react, the "Zhu Ba Bull King" had already thrust his spear into his chest!
The guy had no time to scream. He only looked down at the spear sticking into his chest, and then he felt a sudden darkness, very unwillingly...
Zhu Ba lifted his foot and kicked the man off the spear, spraying blood that splattered on Zhu Ba's face. With the blood, Zhu Ba now looked even more like a demon king!
Although it was his first time killing someone, he felt no fear at all and was extremely excited. He raised the spear in his hand, howled, and charged at the other Qing soldiers. The new Taiping Army recruits who had been willing to fight to the death from the start now saw their "lecturer" so fierce; what more was there to say? They followed and fought as well.
So a wave of people charged recklessly forward and came face to face with the Qing demons' soldiers in a narrow alley.
The opium effect had worn off on the Qing soldiers, and they couldn't stand against the new Taiping Army recruits who were determined to fight to the death. They were soon killed in a pile in the narrow alley, with only a few crying and running up onto the embankment street.
"Oh no, the Bull King has arrived!"
"Oh no, the heavenly Bull King has arrived in E Taogang..."
......
As the cries of "The Bull King has come" echoed in the embankment street, the street had already turned into a war zone with bullets flying everywhere.
The North Gate of the embankment street was where Luoyao Guo's most trusted disciple, Wang Yan, along with Xiang Wu, Ma Baocai, and Chen Ji, hid with their teams. Each of the four disciples had been allocated about one hundred new recruits. They were the accompanying lecturers for these new recruits and told them the truths in the "Book of Opposition" every day.
Today, as the real time for going into battle arrived, the four of them had to lead by example and go into battle first.
However, Luoyao Guo didn't want to use them as cannon fodder, so the female archers who had previously run back had already climbed onto the walls around the North Gate of the embankment street. Now they were taking cover behind bags of rice and shooting down at their enemies from a high and advantageous position!
A white flag with the six red characters "Wu Shibin died here" stood in the middle of the road leading to the North Gate of the embankment street, surrounded by a dozen or so Qing demons—all of them Wu Shibin's bodyguards.
Just now, this fellow saw the flag but didn't go to pull it down himself; instead, he sent his subordinates to do it, only for all of them to be killed by the female soldiers on the city wall using "one-hundred-step bullets."
Wu Shibin's response was quite quick, and as soon as he heard the gunshot, he jumped off his horse instinctively. He even managed to lead the horse along with him while calling for backup to cover his retreat.
But he was still a step late, and before he could retreat a few steps, Wang Yan, Xiang Wu, Ma Baocai, and Chen Ji, along with hundreds of new Taiping Army recruits led by them, charged out in a cheerful and resolute tone of the Cantonese song "A Man Should Reinforce Himself" amidst the battle that had turned into chaos.
Seeing this group of Taiping Army male soldiers, Wu Shibin's opium smokers were so scared that their "opium high" vanished!
They were originally here to loot money and women, planning to bully the Taiping Army female soldiers. But now they saw so many Taiping Army male soldiers everywhere, how could they possibly have imagined this?
This is when they've been tricked and duped!
Moreover, they had just fought against the female Taiping soldiers, and now the men were coming to seek revenge with red eyes. How could they possibly win against that?
Wu Shibin also knew he had made a mistake, but as an experienced general who had fought against the British in Guangdong, he was not easily intimidated.
So at this moment, he didn't just make a hasty retreat, but kept calling for his subordinates to gather around him. The more they banded together, the easier it would be to break out!
With the group of people surrounding Wu Shibin, it was indeed difficult to make a move. Although Wang Yan, Xiang Wu, Ma Baocai, and Chen Ji were not true martial arts experts, they were capable of leading the charge. However, when it came to deploying soldiers in battle formation and facing a group of tightly packed Qing troops, their abilities were somewhat limited.
As a result, the battle on the embankment street became stuck.
Despite the powerful shooting from the female Taiping soldiers above, who kept firing bullets into the Qing army crowd.
However, under Wu Shibin's control, the Qing army was still able to move towards the South Gate of the embankment street.
At this very moment, Wu Shibin heard someone behind him shouting "The Bull King has arrived!"
How could there be a Bull King?
Ah, right, the "Heavenly Demon King"!
Is it really true?
"No way, absolutely not..." Even if Wu Shibin truly believed it, he still shouted "Absolutely not" to keep his subordinates' morale up, "There's no such thing as a Bull King... Don't panic, let's charge out together!"
However, the morale of the soldiers under his command was still shaken!
There's no way out. After all, the "Bull King" was not just any ordinary man but also a multitude of male and female Taiping soldiers who emerged from the alleys behind them... It's like they're cutting off their retreat!
......
"Xiuling, see that? That's a big Qing demon officer, dressed very flashy and quite fat. It could be Wu Shibin... See it?
"Saw it!"
On the high tower next to the North Gate of the embankment street, Luoyao Guo was holding a sky-mirror for his female bodyguard Wei Xuelian to see.
Although Wu Shibin was hidden among the chaotic crowd, he couldn't escape the powerful "100 million-pixel" lens of the enemy.
Take a photo first, then zoom in, and everything will be crystal clear!
So after Luoyao Guo discovered that his "semi-revolutionary army" seemed unable to swallow the advancing Qing demons, he took out his "magic weapon" to search for Qing demon leaders, and even called upon Wei Xuelian, who had good shooting skills.
When Wei Xuelian arrived, she was carrying a brown bass rifle already loaded with bullets. This rifle was one of the thirty brown bass rifles seized from Huang Shijie's home!
"Can you hit the target?" Luoyao Guo asked.
"Let me see..."
Wei Xuelian tilted her head to look at the "sky-mirror" and then turned her gaze back down to the battlefield below. She searched back and forth for quite a while before finally spotting the right target. With a confident declaration, "Yes!" she confirmed that she could hit it.
"Great! Fire!"
"Yes!"
As Wei Xuelian raised the somewhat familiar brown bass rifle, she closed one eye, pointed the barrel at Wu Shibin who was wearing chainmail and a black jacket, and took aim.
Then without any hesitation, she fired a single shot. A "hundred-yard bullet" that had been cut to size struck Wu Shibin directly in the shoulder.
