Chapter 16: Capture of Pingnan County Town

  Niu Tao looked at the city wall and saw that there were so few people attacking this time, not even bringing siege equipment. He asked Zhang Guoliang standing beside him, "What kind of trick is the rebel playing? Can't they take the city with just these thirty or fifty men?"

  Zhang Guoliang said: "Don't worry, sir..." Before he could finish speaking, the city wall began to shake and a loud rumbling sound was heard.

  "Go and see what's going on, everyone can rest assured that it was just an earthquake earlier." Zhang Guoliang shouted hoarsely as he saw the officers and soldiers on the city wall in a flurry.

  "Sir, it's bad! The city gate has been blown open!" A yamen runner crawled up to the county magistrate's side to report.

  The county magistrate lost his spirit and said, "How can this be? Heaven is destroying me! Guo Liang, what do you think we should do now?"

  Zhang Guoliang said: "For now, the only way is to withdraw from the city first and then make a better plan." He's not stupid either. With tens of thousands of rebels outside, charging into the city would turn them into minced meat.

  "The Qing Code, those who lose a city will be put to death. It's better to share the fate of the city and die together. You can leave now, Guo Liang, keep your useful life and serve the country well." Nai Tao wanted to leave immediately, but he still had to maintain some dignity, so that when the superior officials came to interrogate him, he could say that he was forced out of the city by his subordinates.

  Zhang Guoliang hastily said, "If we don't leave now, it will be too late. We have offended the adults." He signaled to his trusted subordinates to take the county magistrate away, and with their troops, they disregarded the pleas of the scholars and rushed out of the city. Only after leaving the city did they discover that there was no way to go, as Pingnan County was surrounded by water on three sides, and there were no boats. Without a boat, they could only charge forward from the rebel's front line.

  County Magistrate Nie Tao said in despair, "Why don't we go back and defend the city, so as to preserve our reputation."

  The teacher who followed behind said: "I have prepared several boats ahead of time, just in case for today, let's hurry up and run."

  The pursuing soldiers are coming, Zhang Guoliang and others can only believe in the words of the teacher, when they run to the riverbank, they see several boats, but there are not enough for a group of over a thousand people. Zhang Guoliang now sends the county magistrate, the teacher and other important figures and their families onto the boat, and orders his own militia to rush onto the boat first, leaving behind a crowd of desperate people as the boat sets off.

  When Li Yunzhong entered the city, the enemy had been basically cleared out. He set up his command center in the county government office without hesitation. At this time, the county government office was empty and deserted. Thinking of being locked up in prison a few days ago, he ordered to release all prisoners from the prison. Many prisoners even expressed their willingness to join the righteous army. Li Yunzhong did not expect that there were so many soldiers in the big prison. Soon, Wang Gang came to report: He had taken over the whole city, and Li De's first division, Wang Xin's third division, and Liu Cai's fourth division were pursuing the remaining enemy forces. Now, only his second division and Li Yunzhong's fifth division were left in the city.

  This time, more than 10,000 soldiers and horses came to attack the city. Only the central army entered the city, while the vanguard and rearguard were left outside the city. Only those above the rank of brigade commander were allowed to enter the city.

  Zhang Guoliang and Ni Tao led the defeated soldiers upstream, and after several hours, they arrived at Xunzhou Prefecture. They met with Governor Gu Yuanke and informed him of the fall of Pingshan County. Gu Yuanke did not dare to be slow, as rebels had appeared in his jurisdiction and occupied the county seat. If he didn't quickly put down the rebellion, he feared that his official position would not be secure. He hastily ordered someone to notify General Zhou Fengqi and Deputy General Li Dianyuan of Xunzhou to come together for a discussion.

  Zhou Fengqi, the commander of Junzhou, looked at Zhang Guoliang and Ni Tao kneeling on the ground and angrily asked: "Just a group of refugees, you were beaten so badly that you fled in disarray. What's the use of the court feeding you?"

  Li Dianyuan said: "Zhang Guoliang? Your new name is good, tell me in detail how the rebels occupied the county city."

  Last year when Li Dianyuan was suppressing the Tiandihui rebels in Pingnan, Zhang Guoliang was under his command and he had a very good impression of this brave and daring militia leader.

  "Report to Your Excellency, the rebels are not ordinary refugees. Among them are the Tiandihui rebel Li Kuang and the female bandit Su San Niang who has been roaming around Lingshan County and Qinzhou. There is also the leader of the Bai Shangdi sect, Li Yunzhong. They have tens of thousands of people. The soldiers inside the city are less than a thousand. The rebels attacked the city for several days in a row, fearing no death, and our casualties were heavy. Later, the rebels used explosives to blast open the city gate, and we fought hard but ultimately could not resist."

  Zhou Fengqi was automatically filtering out the self-boasting words, but when he heard that the rebels had used explosives to blast open the city gate, he became serious. He couldn't help but say: "Among the rebels, there are actually people who know how to use gunpowder!"

  Li Dianyuan thought that he was in a difficult situation and did not forget to save his master, and intentionally tried to exonerate Zhang Guoliang, saying: "Last time I went to Pingnan County for inspection, I noticed that the gathering of the Lord's Prayer had ulterior motives, and ordered the patrol officer to pay close attention."

  Magistrate Gu Yuan Kai also pushed it away: "A few days ago, I just issued a public notice to let you guard against it, and didn't expect that the city would be lost today."

  The three of them looked at each other, seeing that the responsibility was all pushed onto the head of Pingnan County Magistrate, and began to discuss preparations for suppressing the bandits. In order to share the responsibility and strengthen their forces, they also called in Qingjiang Deputy General Iketanbu, and sent a public letter to Guangxi Governor, reporting the news of Pingnan County's fall. After all, it was tens of thousands of rebels, and no one wanted to take on this responsibility.

  Gu Yuanke then called Jia Zhu, the county magistrate of Ping County in Gui Prefecture, to inform him of the news that the Heavenly Lord's sect was plotting a rebellion. He told Jia to strictly guard against the Heavenly Lord's sect within his jurisdiction and not allow the rebels under his rule to enter the city again, otherwise all these high-ranking officials would be caught together.

  Zhou Fengqi said: "The rebel memory has attacked Pingnan, the south and north are all mountainous areas. If the rebels want to do something, they can only go west or east. Going west is to come to fight against Junzhou, which is a self-inflicted wound. Going east is to Tengxian County, and Tengxian County belongs to Wuzhou Prefecture. As long as we drive the rebels to Tengxian County, we will have a backing."

  Li Dianyuan was ambitious, having experienced many battles and having no fear of the rebels. Instead, he wanted to use this opportunity to advance his career, saying "There are not a few God Worshipping Society members in the Jin Tian area. With the addition of local militia, we have almost 4,000 men. Let's eliminate them first and then retake Pingnan County."

  Zhou Fengqi was worried that the prefectural city would be lost and opposed it, saying "It's not appropriate, how can we abandon our nest and leave? Before the reinforcements arrive, at least 2,000 people should be left to defend the prefectural city. The most troops sent to suppress the bandits is 1,000, plus the militia, there are 2,000, it's easy to annihilate the rebels." He thought to himself, you can get promoted by annihilating the rebels, but I won't, so it's better to keep the prefectural city safe.

  Zhou Fengqi heard that there were only two thousand people, but earlier he had heard Zhang Guoliang say that there were tens of thousands of people in the Pingnan County area alone. Although there was some exaggeration, he wouldn't take risks easily. He said, "Then it's troublesome for Deputy General Li." As he spoke, he intentionally slowed down his pronunciation of the two words 'Deputy General'.

  "General Li has been through a hundred battles and is even more invincible against rebels." Kuang Yung-kai also flattered.

  Li Dianyuan already thought that 2,000 people were not a small number. When he eliminated the rebels of the Tiandihui, he only needed a few hundred people. He agreed with this plan and added: "Let Zhang Guoliang wear his crime and let him serve in the army as a general." This is not just wearing a crime, but it's simply a three-level promotion, from an ordinary citizen to a seventh-grade official, commanding over 100 soldiers.

  Zhang Guoliang, who was kneeling on the ground, did not mention it, but Nai Tao also said that he was willing to wear his crime and make amends in the army. Li Dianyuan also thought it would be good to understand more about the people of the Lord's Church.