"Proud and laughing at the waves, hot blood and heat stronger than the red sun, iron forged bones and steel, a hundred thousand broads in the chest, eyes stretching thousands of miles long, vow to rise and be strong to be a hero."
The resounding song of "Mankind Should Strengthen Themselves" has suddenly erupted outside Chenzhou City on the western bank of the Chen River, at this very moment!
However, this time "Mankind Should Strengthen Themselves" is not sung in Cantonese dialect, but rather by tens of thousands of people singing together in Xiang Lake accent and Hakka dialect!
Chenzhou City is surrounded on all sides—west, north, south, and even within—the four sides are all filled with Taiping Army troops or fellow brothers of the Heaven and Earth Society who have worshiped the God.
Looking out from the city gate of Chenzhou City, where the city magistrate Sun En Bao stood, it has already become an ocean of scarlet!
Beyond the city walls of Chenzhou, there are countless "Red-headed Men" in the vast area, and their numbers are likely to be as high as 30,000 or 40,000. The green military camp soldiers and local militia stationed on the ramparts of Chenzhou City are so terrified that their liver and gall bladder are on the verge of bursting.
As the official responsible for defending Chenzhou, Sun Enbao's face was as pale as death, his expression filled with despair. His lips trembled as he said, "How could there be so many? How could there be so many? There are over 70,000 people! Where did they come from?"
The number of the Taiping Army is much more than what he imagined!
Three months ago, after the fall of Daozhou, he had meticulously collected intelligence on the Taiping Army. At that time, there were only a few thousand Taiping troops arriving from Jingling. Even if you count the Taiping troops attacking Jingling, the number cannot exceed 30,000.
The Taiping Army is currently on a path to besiege Lianzhou in Guangdong, another group is advancing north along the Gan River towards Quanzhou in search of ill luck for the imperial commissioner Sai Shang'Er, while a third group has started to lay siege to Lingling. Yet another group has set out from Lanshan County within the territory of Guiyangzhou, advancing towards Chenzhou with the goal of capturing cities and territories.
Yes, that's right. The Taiping Army is dividing its forces into four routes!
Even if the Taiping Army expanded its forces in Daozhou, increasing its troops to 50,000 or 60,000, divided by four would mean that each route could have no more than 10,000 soldiers, and this is under the assumption that Daozhou leaves no troops behind.
But now, outside the city walls of Chenzhou Prefecture alone, there are tens of thousands of red-haired people, with red flags waving and red scarves covering the fields. They are also singing a war song together. Although Sun Enbao cannot understand the lyrics, he still feels a sense of heart-stopping fear.
This is going to be a showdown!
Thinking of "dignity", Sun Enbao's tears were welling up.
Like Wang Kuiyi of Daozhou, both Sun Enbao and he came from a scholar background and only became the magistrate of Chenzhou after taking out a large amount of "rented official debt." Being a prefect is far more prestigious than being a prefect of a scattered prefecture. To secure this position, he had to borrow a substantial amount of money from the capital, and the term for this post as a prefect was only three years.
The saying "Three years as a clear-handed prefect, ten thousand silver snowflakes" doesn't take into account the cost. If you calculate the cost, he would have to be extremely meticulous in his greed, and cannot fall victim to such disasters as mourning family or uprisings, just to earn a few thousand silver snowflakes.
Under normal circumstances, the Han scholars who performed poorly in the imperial examination, even if they passed, would spend 20 to 30 years in official life and retire with several thousand taels of silver. It is considered a successful life for them to return home.
But what Sun Enbao is facing now is not an ordinary natural disaster or civil unrest, but several thousands of Taiping Army troops that are a death sentence.
"Master Sun, it's no use staying here, we have to run away. As long as we keep our lives, there will always be a way to make fire!"
Whispering to Sun Enbao in a trembling voice was Chen Qishu, the most powerful "Huang Laozi" in Chenzhou, also known as "Lord Huang". Just like Huang Shijie, he was a loyalist of the Qing Dynasty and a leader of a militia organization that chanted the ancient text of "Against The Master".
Turning around, Sun Enbao gave Chen Qishu a stern look: "Those who say 'as long as there is still a green mountain, there will always be firewood to burn' are you? You are not a guardian of the soil, but have eight hundred bandits under your command. If you run to the office of Zongtan Hall, you will at least become a supplementary magistrate! And I will have to be escorted to the capital and handed over to the Ministry for discussion and punishment like Wang Kuijie!"
"Not so, not so," Chen Qishu didn't know how to comfort Sun Enbao and could only casually reply a few words.
Because the outcome of Wang Kuiyi is already there for all to see!
Because Wang Kuijie is a servant who has lost his duty, he has no real army under his command. What's left for him? Although Huang Shijie has become a supplementary magistrate and Zhang Dingxiang has become a regional guard, their superior Wang Kuijie has been taken down by Saishang'a and put on the blacklist. A bulletin was sent to Xianfeng there.
Old Man Sai is kind-hearted, thinking that sending Wang Kuiyi to serve in Xinjiang as a military convict would be enough, so the memorial was written in a respectful tone and didn't step on Wang Kuiyi too harshly.
But when Xianfeng saw that Daozhou had fallen, followed by the loss of several counties including Ningyuan, Jiaohua, Yongming, Xinnyuan, Lan mountain and Ganyang, and the Taiping Army had surrounded Lianzhou City in Guangdong Province, he was enraged and directly issued an order to arrest Wang Kuijie and send him to Beijing for trial!
Under the current circumstances of losing troops and territory, how can the Ministry of State handle it in a favorable way?
Certainly, it would be a heavy and severe punishment; that's the demeanor of a walk to the execution ground at Caishikou!
While "State" in Daozhou means a scattered prefecture, it is still a prefecture that is subordinate to a prefecture or directly controlled by a province. Chenzhou City is the capital of a prefecture! The Qing Dynasty has never lost the capital of a prefecture since the rise of the Taiping Army!
Before the fall of Yongan, Quanzhou, and Daozhou cities, all of them were state capitals in scattered prefectures. The capital of Guiyang prefecture may have been lost, but it was just a state capital in a directly governed prefecture. Chenzhou City is the capital of a prefecture.
As the first official to lose a prefectural city, Sun Enbao couldn't help but go to Caishikou to accompany Wang Kuiyi, could he?
Thinking about this, Sun Enbao let out a long sigh: "Well, after all, I've lived for so many years. To be dealt with by the Ministry of State, to be locked up and taken to the capital, to face all kinds of extortion, to sell family property and borrow money from everywhere to repay those debts from the eight flag soldiers! Why bother? It's just a matter of death. When facing difficulties and death for the sake of your king. I will die. The court will have to give me a grand funeral. The creditors can only acknowledge their losses and take their bad debts. They can't go and extort debts from the dependents of loyal heroes.
I, upon death, will be at peace. One hundred things settled."
While speaking, Sun Enbao turned around and walked unsteadily down to the city gate.
Chen Qishu quickly followed, with two tears trickling down his round yellow face: "Sir, sir, please do not forget to submit a memorandum to the Grand Ancestral Temple! Sir, you are about to be a loyal hero. You can plead for grace for your descendants. And, and"
"Understood, understood," Sun Enbao nodded, "Bowen, I understand the rules. I will speak for you in the memorial to the Grand Ancestral Temple! He said this and suddenly bit his teeth angrily: "You must also do something for me! My old retainer Sun Guofu is a servant of Prince Fu's court in Beijing. He is the worst kind of person. Kill him!"
"Alright!" Chen Qishu nodded, agreeing promptly.
Of course he knows why that is the case.
The creditors who put up with the Qing loans are all eight flag nobles. They usually dispatch their household servants to follow those "official white laborers" to teach them how to be greedy and help them do so. Of course, these dog servants are even more greedy, and they dare to take any money they want! Once something goes wrong, the "official white laborers", in fact "official white debtors", bear the brunt.
And this Sun Guofu who followed Sun Enbao was especially greedy and dishonest. Not only did he teach Sun Enbao how to be greedy by hand, but he also used the name of Sun's family members to reach out everywhere, taking whatever money he dared to take. It made Sun Enbao endure immense suffering.
Having such a person follow around as a "rented official" is just revolting, and one would be filled with hatred!
Sun Enbao had no idea how many times he wanted to get rid of this parasitic worm, but he dared not do it in the past? Now. He has nothing to fear. He has already died for his king. Can't he do a heroic deed of eradicating evil from the people?
Even though he himself was an official who harmed the people!
He walked down to the city gate while muttering to himself, "I really want to be a good official, I really do. But they don't let me, they don't let me."
Chen Qishu, following the great corrupt official Sun Enbao, watched his back, listened to his muttering, and for a moment, he was dazed. It seemed that the person behind him was not Sun Enbao but Chen Qishu himself. No, he will not end up like this. He has soldiers!
Chen Qishu suddenly patted the "Anti-Jing" book in his arms, and then, suddenly, the sound of cannon fire echoed in his ears!
"Boom, boom, boom."
The Taiping Army opened fire with their cannons, and Chen Qishu knew that Chenzhou City was about to fall!
