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Volume 1: Fierce Battle in Changsha Chapter 171: Conversation

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    The sun was blazing, and the weather at the end of May was already very sultry. On the official road back from Qingpu, the choking yellow ash was rising, making people feel even more breathless.

    Ronglu was riding on a green horse. On one side were hundreds of mercenaries from Shanghai, and on the other side were more than 300 green camp soldiers mobilized from Qingpu County. He and several Shangyu reserve guards were riding in the center,  The soldiers on both sides were clearly separated.

    Most of the green battalion soldiers in Qingpu County were transferred from Jiangbei to suppress the Qingpu anti-grain rebels. The battle last night caused a lot of losses to the Qingpu rebels. The leader Zhou Lichun and others were also almost captured, which greatly improved the power of these green battalion soldiers who had been repeatedly defeated.  Morale, before this, the rebels in Qingpu, Shanghai, and Songjiang encircled and suppressed Qingpu many times, but they all lost troops and generals.  Wearing dirty uniforms, they escorted more than a hundred rebel prisoners captured last night in a showy manner, and they finally felt proud and proud.

    But compared with the foreign soldiers, Ronglu felt that they were far behind.  The mercenaries of the foreign devils were very mixed because they were all volunteers. Among them were adventurers who came to the East with merchant ships to prospect for gold, as well as exiled thieves and robbers, as well as Baotou soldiers from India, black slaves from Manila, and even a few  An Arab.

    Ronglu originally couldn't believe that such a multinational force would win, but after the battle last night, Ronglu understood that these mercenaries had a very strong purpose, and they just wanted to get rewards for killing the enemies in front of them.  The price offered by Ronglu was one tael of silver for every gangster captured or killed. Under such a heavy reward, these mercenaries knew exactly what they should do.  And those green camp soldiers are just serving as soldiers to get paid and save their lives. There is no national concept in their views.

    Thinking of this, Ronglu couldn't help but smile mockingly. Wasn't what he did in the south also for himself?  It has nothing to do with the country, the country, or the nation. He is just for his own power.

    "Hey, George, how many did you kill last night?" A British mercenary asked his companion: "I killed five, and I can get more than one hundred and twenty pounds."

    Next to him, George, a skinny British man, grinned and said: "James, I have about the same amount. This reward is higher than the reward we got for destroying pirates in Guangdong."

    Then James chuckled and said: "Our employer is much more generous than the British government. It is very dangerous to destroy pirates in the south, but each pirate can only get twenty pounds as a reward, while here almost every gangster can get twenty-five pounds.  And it¡¯s not too dangerous, I plan to keep doing it and save up to five hundred pounds.¡±

    George shrugged and said: "I hope too, but unfortunately Lord Wenhan said that it is okay to exterminate the bandits near Shanghai, but it must not be used to deal with the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in the west. Why would this affect the government's national policy? James, I hate those politicians, they only know  Compromise, you don¡¯t even know where to find such a lucrative job?¡±

    James patted him on the shoulder and smiled: "Forget it, as long as we stay in the East, there will be plenty of opportunities. I don't want to be sent back to the country for making a mistake, or even sent to the Black Sea to stare at those bearded Russians.  "

    The words of the two British mercenaries reached Ronglu's ears, and he sneered. These British people had been entangled with the Qing pirates since they started trading with the Qing Dynasty. The Royal Navy of the British Empire was far from awe of the Qing pirates.  It is a great irony to surpass the Great Qingsui Master.  As early as June 1825, Britain, which could not bear the pirate attacks, passed the "Act to Encourage the Capture or Destruction of Pirate Ships". The "price" for pirates, whether they were alive or dead, was 20 pounds, which became a real "headhunting business."  So Ronglu offered a price of one hundred taels of silver per person to the Knife Club gangsters in Shanghai, which was almost 25 pounds when converted into pounds, so there were many foreign devils willing to do this job.

    Ronglu didn't care whether Shanghai would be occupied by the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom next. He knew that this time and space was different from the history he knew, so he could only do the tasks assigned to him by Sushun. He didn't want to worry about other things.  I can't control it either.

    When he returned to the north gate of Shanghai City, Ronglu was shocked by the bloody scene in front of him. Thousands of headless corpses were densely packed in dozens of large pits. Qing troops were constantly pushing and tying them up in a row next to the large pits.  The rebels knelt down beside the pit, and the executioners of the Qing army stepped forward, raised their swords, and swiftly chopped off the heads, then pushed the corpses to the bottom of the pit with their kicks, and then brought the next batch in, and so on.

    "My God, what are these yellow people doing?" It was George who spoke. He couldn't help but retched a few times after he finished speaking: "James, are these people crazy?"

    James didn't seem to care and said calmly: "George, they are killing the rebels, but I didn't expect there to be so many. George, we suffered a big loss. We should have stayed in the city with Harry and the others last night.  , that way I might catch or kill twenty gangsters!¡±

    ?Ronglu had no time to listen to the discussion of the two British patients. He shouted angrily and ordered a guard behind him to rush over and call Cheng'en who was staying in the city to suppress thieves.

    After a while, Cheng En was seen riding a fast horse from the execution platform. He came to Ronglu, turned over and dismounted, bowed his hands and said, "Brother, are you back? We're going to kill you in the city."  Hundreds of gangsters and more than 8,000 gangsters were captured"

    Before he could finish speaking, Ronglu got off his horse, rushed forward with great fury, picked up Cheng'en's collar and shouted angrily: "How did I tell you? I only ask the first offender. As long as the subordinate is willing to submit to the court, don't kill him."  !Why did you kill so many people?!"

    Cheng'en's face was a little pale. He didn't expect Ronglu to be so angry. He also got angry, pushed Ronglu's hand away, and shouted: "It was Su Songtai Dao Wu Jianzhang who ordered all the captured thieves to be executed.  What are you yelling at me?!"

    Ronglu raised his jaw slightly, but still said angrily: "You are also the one who sticks to worship Tang in this mission. We have an imperial edict from Lord Sushun. Do you want to listen to Wu Jianzhang?!"

    Cheng'en was also furious and shouted angrily: "Are you crazy?! Mr. Wu is right, there are more than 8,000 thieves, we only have a few hundred officers and soldiers, and the rest are foreign soldiers. If the foreigners  When our soldiers quit fighting, do you think hundreds of us will be torn apart by these eight thousand thieves?"

    Ronglu was stunned for a moment, unable to answer. Chengen panted heavily and said angrily: "Do you think I am willing to kill people? If there were no foreign soldiers to control the situation, how could Wu Jianzhang's hundreds of opium-smoking soldiers be brave?  These thieves are afraid that they will disappear. There are only a dozen of us. How do you ask us to complete what Mr. Sushun told us? Besides, we have to imprison and feed more than 8,000 people. Where can we find so many cells and food?  ?!¡±

    Rong Lu's tense face relaxed slightly, and Cheng En sighed and said: "Brother Rong, you and I are both Manchus. If these Han people take over Shanghai, we Manchus will be the first to die. So many people will die."  I don't want to either, but they want to rebel against us and the imperial court, so we have to kill them."

    Ronglu said calmly: "Do you think killing people will stop them from rebelling?"

    Chengen spat out thick phlegm and said viciously: "There are tens of thousands of long-haired thieves in Suzhou and Hangzhou waiting to kill us. I don't understand all the twists and turns. I only know that if you kill one more, you will lose."  Not at all dangerous.¡±

    While they were talking, several Qing court officials rushed over from the execution platform. The leader was a man with a sharp mouth and monkey cheeks. He was wearing a fourth-grade civil service uniform. The smile on his face made Rong Lu feel sick. This person was the person in Cantonese who said he was happy selling chickens.  Su Songtao, Wu Jianzhang, was followed by Shanghai magistrate Yuan Zude and other Shanghai county officials.

    Wu Jianzhang came to Rong Lu, hurriedly held up his hands in apology and said with a smile: "Master Rong has returned victoriously, I am very happy to congratulate you."

    Ronglu looked down on Wu Jianzhang very much. He had too much of a philistine streak in him. He snorted and said, "Wu Daotai, did you order the execution of these thieves?"

    Wu Jianzhang nodded and bowed with a smile: "Sir Rong, these thieves are unrepentant. They found many weapons and illegal objects in the house where they were hiding. They even bought a lot of red cloth, preparing to imitate the long-haired thieves.  He covered his head with a red scarf and rebelled. The evidence is conclusive and he deserves to die."

    Ronglu said lightly: "Master Wu, you killed so many people, are you not afraid of criticism from the imperial censor? And most of them seem to be your fellow villagers, don't they have any sympathy at all?"

    Wu Jianzhang's expression changed drastically when he heard this. Originally, Rong Lu was just angry and wanted to say something sarcastic, but it sounded different to Wu Jianzhang's ears. Many of these thieves were Cantonese, and many of them were still in his own country.  He worked in the Yamen, and now that the Dongchuang Incident happened, he would not hesitate to kill so many people. If some censors in the capital randomly participated in the impeachment and made the court think that they were involved in the Guangdong Gang's conspiracy to rebel, they would not hesitate to kill people to silence them after the incident.  That will definitely arouse the suspicion of the court. Losing his official position and getting a wife is a small matter, but implicating the nine clans will be a big deal.  And Ronglu and others are all guards in the Forbidden City, and the one with the lowest official position is a third-class guard. Anyone who is sent to the outside is also a military attach¨¦ or garrison. They are either Manchu nobles, and the most unlucky ones are all Hechao.  The people and nobles of China and Manchuria are inextricably linked, and it is definitely not something that my small Taoist platform can afford to offend. If I make these men unhappy and talk nonsense when I return to the capital, I will definitely not be able to live with it.

    The arrests started last night. Wu Jianzhang did not expect that there were so many undercover rebels hidden in his yamen, and they were all fellow villagers who were very close to him on weekdays. After interrogating several people, Wu Jianzhang realized that these people had long been interested in rebelling.  Afraid that he would be implicated in the rebellion of these people, his staff came up with the idea of ??killing all the thieves as a warning to the court, so Wu Jianzhang encouraged Cheng'en to order the execution of the captured thieves. Unexpectedly, Ronglu still  Reluctant to let him go, he carefully whispered: "Master Rong, this time all of you are here on business."Thank you very much for your hard work in appeasing the place for me. I am very grateful. Later, each of the adults will give you a generous gift to show your appreciation. I only hope that you will have many kind words after you return to Beijing.  "

    Ronglu's eyes widened, but before he could recover, Chengen immediately smiled and said: "Master Wu is loyal to the sun and the moon. We all know that, but if this generous gift is heavier, your loyalty will naturally be weakened."  It will be higher.¡±

    Wu Jianzhang immediately understood and nodded with a smile: "This is natural, this is natural, I guarantee that all of you will be satisfied."

    Ronglu didn't say anything anymore. After Cheng'en and Wu Jianzhang complimented each other for a few words, Wu Jianzhang went back to prepare generous gifts.

    After Wu Jianzhang left, Chengen chuckled and patted Rong Lu on the shoulder and said: "Brother Rong, it turns out that you are singing this drama, and it shocked me. It turns out that this old man Wu is stupid because of his money.  It¡¯s time to make a big deal, but next time you want to act in a drama and give me a thumbs up, tell me beforehand. Those who don¡¯t know may think you are really complaining for these untouchables and thieves.¡±

    Ronglu was speechless. He could only shake his head and smile bitterly, and rode back to the city alone. He didn't want to see anything, hear anything, or care about anything now.
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