Chapter 19: Li Yunzhong confesses his love to Su San Niang

  The sky is breaking, the earth is misty and hazy, as if covered with a layer of silver-gray gauze. The night fog slowly faded, turned white, like a flowing transparent body, the east turned white.

  Teng County received an unexpected guest: Xiao Zhaogui. Li Yunzhong didn't understand what he was up to again, and told everyone to withdraw, leaving only him, Xiao Zhaogui, Hong Xiuquan, and Feng Yunshan in the house.

  He only saw Xiao Zhaogui shaking his head, waving his hands wildly and muttering to himself: "Jesus, come into me." As soon as he stopped moving, his whole demeanor became solemn and majestic.

  "Heavenly Brother" looked at Hong Xiuquan and said: "Xiuquan, you are guilty."

  Hong Xiuquan replied with a sincere and fearful tone: "Xiuquan knows his mistake, please forgive me, Heavenly Brother."

  "Is it the father who is great, or the son? Is it the elder brother who is great, or the younger brother?"

  Hong Xiuquan respectfully said: "Yes, elder brother and big brother."

  "Big Brother", he said: "Why should I let you and your brother come to see me?"

  Hong Xiuquan trembled and said: "Xiuquan knows his mistake, it should be Xiuquan who goes to welcome Grandfather and Elder Brother."

  "Heavenly Brother" said: "You are able to know your mistakes, that's good, Xiuquan. If the Heavenly Father and I hadn't sent down Xiuqing and Zhaogui to support you, you would have been in a difficult situation indeed."

  Hong Xiuquan asked: "Heavenly Brother, did Taiping have a military strategist?"

  Heavenly Brother replied: "Feng Yunshan, Yang Xiuqing, Xiao Chaogui and Li Yuanzhong are all military strategists. Hong Xiuquan's younger brother, the sun is you, the moon is your wife. Feng Yunshan has three stars in his birth chart, Yang Xiuqing also has three stars, Xiao Chaogui has two stars, and Li Yuanzhong has two stars."

  ……

  Li Yunzhong saw them distributing power like a child's play, and he couldn't help but laugh and cry at the same time. It felt as if they had entered a mythical era. Hong Xiuquan had received 'higher education' after all, how could he let two 'country bumpkins' play tricks on him?

  Xiao Chaogui woke up and hastily asked himself if he had made any mistakes just now, it seems that he also has some guilty conscience.

  Hong Xiuquan instructed Xiao Chaogui to immediately go with Feng Yunshan to welcome Yang Xiuqing.

  Li Yunzhong stayed behind to preside over the overall situation.

  Hong Xiuquan had gone for several days without news, so Hu Yihuang sent someone to investigate at Zijing Mountain. It turned out that he and Feng Yunshan had gone to Guizhou to invite a man named Shi Dakai, and Li Yunzhong regretted not going with them, thus missing the opportunity to meet the tragic hero Shi Dakai.

  Zhang Sui plotted early in the morning to lead a group of brothers to find Li Yunzhong and said: "According to the scout's report, the imperial court has sent Lin Zexu as the imperial commissioner to come and suppress the bandits. There are several provinces with nearly 100,000 government soldiers under his command. Northwest Guilin has 20,000, yesterday rushed to Wuzhou 20,000, plus the people of Yongan, we are now facing more than 40,000 Qing soldiers."

  Li Yunzhong was shocked to hear Lin Zexu's name. In his heart, he still thought that the great hero who had destroyed opium at Humen was already killed by the imperial court, and did not expect him to be alive. He really didn't want to confront Lin Zexu, or else he would feel like a big villain.

  "What's the news about the Qing army heading in the direction of Wuzhou?" Li Yunzhong asked.

  Zhang Sui said: "Lin Zexu is personally stationed in Wuzhou, and there are no signs of troops coming to attack Tongxu County yet."

  "Send someone to closely monitor the Qing army in Wuzhou, find out why they are not making a move, and also transfer all the refugees from Tongxu County, the children's army, and the women's camp to Pingnan County. Leave only our combat troops stationed in Tongxu County," Li Yunzhong ordered.

  Another day passed, and Zhang Xun came to Li Yunzhong with excitement, saying: "After investigation, it was found that the Qing army did not move because Lin Zexu was seriously ill. He was originally on a expedition while sick, and when he arrived in Wuzhou, he had been bedridden and was asking the imperial court to send another person to replace him."

  Li Yunzhong let out a sigh of relief and jumped up, saying: "As long as it's not Lin Zexu, even if the emperor himself comes, I'm not afraid." He left Zhang Suimou with a puzzled expression to go find Su San Niang.

  Su San Niang was outside the city, watching the soldiers train with Luo Da Gang, laughing and chatting. Seeing this scene, Li Yun's heart skipped a beat. Having come to this era and traveled hundreds of miles, he had only seen two beautiful women. Hong Xuan Jiao, that beauty, had married Xiao Zhao Gui, but Su San Niang was still available. If she were to be won over by Luo Da Gang, then he might as well become a monk. What's the point of rebelling? Isn't it all for women and money?

  Li Yunzhong walked up to them with an air of pretentiousness and said in a strange tone, "Ah, the weather is nice today, very suitable for chatting... no, I mean, drilling. That Luo Daguang isn't it you, your way of training troops is at least 500 years behind."

  Luo Dagang looked at the drilling soldiers and then turned to Li Yunzhong, asking in confusion: "I've heard some military strategies from others and have been in the official army for a while, are all the Green Camps trained like this?"

  Li Yunzhong pointed at those soldiers who were chopping left and right, up and down, and said: "Look, on the battlefield, when both sides come into contact, it's a flash of knives and swords. Often, one move can decide life or death. When would you have time to show off these moves?"

  Luo Dagang thought for a moment, recalling the scene of the murder, nodded and sighed: "It's really like that, how can we practice then?"

  Li Yunzhong looked at Su Sanniang and boasted, "In a white-blade battle, the most important thing is the explosive force when drawing the knife. The speed of drawing the knife must be fast, which can be achieved with practice. However, it's not necessary to practice many moves, three moves are enough. The first move is to quickly stab the enemy with the knife, the second move is to use the knife to defend against the enemy's attack, usually at the chest level. The third move is to slash, which must be ruthless and accurate, usually slashing at the enemy's neck. Even if you can't see it coming, the enemy will definitely die. In battle, form a group of three people, cover each other, advance together when winning, and retreat together when losing. This kind of soldier is the elite soldier." After finishing speaking, he added another sentence, "You go use my words as a reference to retrain the vanguard soldiers. Remember, what suits you best is the most important." He was really worried that if he used his modern training methods for white-blade battle, it would render the vanguard useless, which wouldn't be worth it.

  "Third Sister, let's not disturb Luo Da and the others during their training. Let's go over there and chat." Li Yunzhong said warmly to Su San Niang.

  Two people walked on the county road, looking at the streets back and forth were patrolling warriors, seeing a few civilians also hurriedly passed by. Su San Niang said: "I didn't expect that it would be so easy to take down the county city. I remember a few months ago, I and Luo Da Guang joined forces to attack Yong'an together, fought for several days, many brothers died, not even reached the city wall."

  Li Yunzhong interrupted, "Not the ladder again, I said last time Luo Dagnan defeated Nanzhou... hehe, what happened afterwards?" Being stared at by Su San Niang's beautiful eyes, Li Yunzhong dryly laughed twice and quickly changed the subject.

  Su San Niang brushed some stray hairs to the side of her face, revealing a captivating expression. She gazed at someone with a "pig-like" appearance and pinched his waist, but suddenly remembered they weren't close, so she blushed bright red and lowered her head, whispering: "Later, the government troops' reinforcements arrived, and Luo Da Gang and I retreated separately."

  Li Yunzhong held onto Su Sanniang's hand, which had not yet been withdrawn, and said with deep emotion: "Sanniang, I...I liked you from the moment I first saw you. These past few days, I've been unable to eat or sleep, and the more I dare not speak to you. Sanniang, you are the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. Will you marry me?"

  Su San Niang forcefully withdrew her hand, her face flushing red, leaving behind a sentence: Let me think about it. Then she hurriedly ran away.

  Li Yunzhong was stunned on the spot, unsure whether she had refused or agreed.