Chapter 14: Zhang Su's Successive Bad Ideas

  Li Yunzhong and his brothers returned to the village of Shanren, facing a dilemma: whether to rebel or not. All his brothers looked at Li Yunzhong, which put him in a difficult position. If they rebelled, they should wait for Hong Xiuquan and Feng Yunshan to take charge; if they didn't, it would be waiting for the government troops to come and take revenge.

  Su San Niang said impatiently, "A group of old men, why are you so timid and fearful? When I rebelled in the past, I wasn't as scaredy-cat as you guys."

  Li Yunzhong was spurred on by Su Sanniang, thinking to himself, "How can I show weakness in front of the one I love?" Suddenly his heroic nature flared up and he shouted, "Rebel! Rebel! Everyone go gather our troops and prepare for rebellion."

  "You go back and gather all the followers to Siwang Town, where the terrain is open and close to the county town. I will lead the elite cavalry to attack Pingnan County. Ah, big brother, you are in charge of contacting the followers in the county town, and be sure to open the city gate when we arrive with our troops." Li Yunzhong again instructed Meng Shangsheng

  Hu Yihuang and others all let out a sigh of relief, fearing that Li Yunzhong would choose to wait at home for the arrival of government troops. He indicated that he was going back to prepare to gather the Bai Shangdi teaching believers.

  Meng Shangsheng said: He would personally rush to the county town to command his followers to open the city gate.

  Li Yunzhong, Su Sanniang and Lai Wanzheng rode horses in the front, followed by six thousand men and horses behind them. Occasionally, cavalrymen would run on the road to urge everyone to hurry up.

  The city wall can be seen gradually, but it is seen that Meng Shangsheng and several people are running towards the team. Li Yunzhong gestures to stop advancing and says to Meng Shangsheng: "What's going on? Why is the city gate closed?"

  Meng Shang took a deep breath and said loudly, "It's possible that the county magistrate has already received the news and closed the city gate ahead of time."

  Li Yunzhong looked at the county town in front of him, and the city wall was already filled with Qing soldiers. He also recognized the county magistrate who had put him in prison, and he was now on the city wall, surrounded by many people.

  Li Yunzhong was stunned and didn't know what to do for a moment, involuntarily looking at Su Sanniang and Lai Wang, wanting to ask the professionals for their opinions.

  "Since we can't capture it by strategy, let's attack with force. The county seat is hastily arranged and must be imperfectly deployed."

  Li Yun thought: We also rushed to attack the city, without even bringing any equipment, how can we climb up the city wall? It seems that in the future when attacking a city again, we must learn from our mistakes.

  "No, let's return to Siwang Town and gather with the people. County Magistrate isn't supposed to guard the county town? Let him guard it, we'll send troops to occupy each township."

  In less than half a watch, Li Yunzhong led his men to Siwang Town, where many of the sect members had already gathered. He told them about the plan to attack the county town.

  Hu Yihuang said, "Many of the local people have heard that we are going to rebel and refuse to come to our camp."

  Li Yunzhong couldn't think of a good solution either, after all, he couldn't force people to rebel with a knife. He wondered how Hong Xiuquan had managed it in his past life, and how he had been able to get so many people to follow him.

  Zhang Weikun said with a sigh, "It's the same where I am. Many people refuse to come no matter how much they're persuaded. Those ungrateful and disloyal things are infuriating me to death."

  "It's not their fault, the people won't rebel unless they're driven to desperation." Li Yunzhong sighed and immediately estimated how many followers would come to the camp, and couldn't help but wonder: why were European medieval believers so fanatical.

  Zhang Sui looked around to make sure there were no outsiders, then returned and said in a stern voice, "Then let's drive them to desperation, set fire to their houses and fields, and leave them with nothing. Let's see if they can still come."

  Li Yunzhong wanted to object, but seeing Hu Yihuang and others all agreed, he fell silent. He could only comfort himself: as the saying goes, "bandits are like combs, soldiers are like thistles". Even if they don't burn their houses, when the government troops come to surround and wipe them out, they will still be looted clean.

  "Set it on fire, send someone to secretly set the fire and say it was done by the government. Then send someone to pretend to put out the fire, so that the people will be grateful to us and won't regret it. We should separate a family and lead them around for hundreds of miles, even if they want to go home, they won't be able to find their way back, and can only follow us." Zhang Bimu saw that everyone agreed with what he said, and came up with more vicious ideas.

  "Good, this is a good plan, no need to be hated by the common people, and can also frame the government, haha... Then there's no need for us to persuade them, the common people will follow and rebel too. Some common people have never left their village several times, they are afraid that even if they walk hundreds of miles, they don't know which direction their home is in." Meng Shangsheng thought Zhang Sui's one after another losing tricks were truly clapping his hands and shouting "Excellent".

  Once the decision to burn down the houses was made, people were sent to various places to set fires. Later on, regardless of whether they were temples or not, many houses were burned down, leaving many civilians homeless. Li Yunzhong also worried about the large number of elderly, weak, women and children in the army.

  Li Yunzhong brought his brothers to Su Sanniang and Chai Wan, saying straightforwardly, "You two, as the saying goes, a snake can't move without its head, an army can't function without its commander. Since you want to rebel, you can only listen to one side."

  "I am willing to obey Mr.'s orders."

  Su San Niang also said "I am willing to join the Church of God."

  Li Yunzhong knew they were people of the Tiandihui, so he reminded them that "since joining the God Worshipping Society, you cannot be as lax as the Huizhou Party. Do not disobey orders and act on your own."

  "From now on... I will be called Luo Dagang, Lai Wang is dead."

  Su San Niang also said that she will no longer listen to Tian Di Hui's orders from now on.

  Li Yunzhong was both surprised and delighted, Luo Dagang was a fierce general of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, and unexpectedly obtained such a good general. He didn't want to force them too much, so he started discussing with them how to reorganize their troops.

  The team was reorganized into five armies, front, back, middle, left and right. The leader is called a general. The army does not temporarily restrict the number of people, and the army sets up a brigade, with each brigade led by a brigade commander, under which three regiments are set up, and each regiment has five companies, with one company having five platoons. In this way, a platoon has 10 people, a company has 50 people, a regiment has 250 people, and a brigade has 750 people. All are men over the age of 16, unlike before when there were men and women, old and young, all kinds of people.

  The vanguard was composed of 3,000 men and horses led by Ling Shiba and Luo Dagang from Xinyi, and another 1,000 people were drawn from the believers. Ling Shiba served as the commander-in-chief, with Luo Dagang as his deputy. Before Ling Shiba's arrival, Luo Dagang was in command. The vanguard's mission was to charge forward and break through enemy lines, serving as the army's advance guard.

  The rear army was commanded by Meng Shang, with Qian Duo, the original beggar leader, as his deputy. Three thousand men and horses were drawn from the followers to form this army. Their task was to act as a rearguard for the main army, focusing on protecting children, old people and other non-combatants.

  The Chinese army was led by Li Yunzhong himself, with the 3,000 people who had been trained for the longest time, and also incorporated the 2,000 people brought by Su Sanniang. In order to appease this group of people, Su Sanniang was appointed as the deputy commander.

  The left army was led by Hu Yihuang, with Zhang Weikun as his deputy. Four thousand people were selected from the believers to guard the central army and support the front army.

  The right army was led by Zhang Sui, with Zeng Shuoyuan as his deputy, who had performed outstandingly during the missionary period and was also the person who had been imprisoned with Li Yunzhong and rescued together. The remaining 3,000 strong men were all incorporated into the right army. Their mission was also to support the vanguard and guard the central army.

  Li Yunzhong then organized more than 5,000 women into a female army, with Lin Daji as the commander and several of his brothers' wives as deputies. He selected 1,000 brave women to be led by Su San Niang, and formed a children's army consisting of boys between the ages of 8 and 16 to serve as reserves. Children under the age of 8 followed their mothers. The female army was responsible for tasks such as transporting grain and equipment, and other logistical work.

  Regarding the issue of military power, Li Yunzhong did not dare to be ambiguous and let his sworn brothers take charge of command.

  Another day passed before the scattered crowd came to order. Li Yunzhong set up a meeting place at Wang Gang's home, where Wang Gang and Wang Xin were both serving as brigade commanders under Li Yunzhong, while the other two brigade commanders were Li Desheng and Liu Cai, a brave general from Su San Niang's army.

  Li Yunzhong saw that the main characters had all arrived and said, "Since we have rebelled, we must inform Mr. Hong and Mr. Feng. Also, I have sent people to contact Yang Xiuqing in Guiping County and Qin Rigang in Gui County, they also agree to start the uprising and have already ordered their followers to gather." Li Yunzhong was thinking about how Yang Xiuqing would react when he received the letter, the Bai Shangdi sect in the Zijing Mountain area was completely unprepared, if the government troops were sent from Chaozhou Prefecture, they would have to pass through Zijing Mountain and Jintian Town. Without a doubt, Yang Xiuqing would also think that they were coming for them. He had no choice but to help Li Yunzhong resist the government troops coming from the west.

  Everyone present smiled when they heard the news, and Li Yunzhong said, "I think that for now, the imperial court has not sent troops to attack us. Let me mention the main direction of our righteous army: we will first ignore the west side, where Yang Xiuqing and others are holding out. We will first take Pingnan County, then Tong County, and finally strike at Wuzhou Prefecture, and meet up with Ling Shiba who is rushing over from Xinyi County. And see if we can receive Mr. Hong and Mr. Feng." Li Yunzhong did not want Ling Shiba to be abandoned in Guangxi like in history, holding off the Qing army until his defeat and jumping into a well to commit suicide.

  The Left Army's mission is to sweep away the Qing army's forces in the towns, gather food, while the Right Army will rush to Tong County first, contact the believers, and try to drive the Qing army into the county seat. The Female Camp and the Boy Scout Troop will rest on the spot, and the remaining troops will follow me to attack the county seat.

  County Magistrate Ni Tao did not expect that the rebels would come to attack the county city again. Originally, the appearance of rebels in his jurisdiction was enough to be dismissed and investigated. If the county city is occupied by the rebels, he will either be exiled or beheaded. When the rebels first surrounded the city, he had already made preparations to share life and death with the city. Fortunately, the ancestors blessed him, and the rebels retreated after seeing that there was no benefit to be gained. At that time, he thought it would be best for them to go and harm other counties, but unexpectedly, they came back to surround the city again just a day later.

  The teacher standing beside him worried and said, "The rebels have come and gone, I'm afraid they are determined to take the county city. The county magistrate should make early preparations. There are still many wealthy households in this county, shouldn't we ask them to contribute some effort? After all, if the rebels enter the city, they will also suffer from family destruction."