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Volume 3: The Wind Rises in the South Chapter 123: Captured

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    "Come on, rush in!" Zhang Qi shouted loudly, and kicked open the cabin door, just in time to collide with a British officer who rushed out. Zhang Qi, who reacted very quickly, hit him hard  The pistol handle hit the opponent's nose. The enemy let out a sharp scream and ran into Zhang Qi's arms, knocking him to the ground. Zhang Qi stretched out his leg and brought the opponent to the ground.  The two people immediately rolled on the ground and started wrestling.  Kitchener felt a sharp sting all over his face, as if a wooden wedge had been embedded in his skull. The blow must have broken his nose bone and penetrated the nerve, otherwise it wouldn't have been so painful.  .  He tried his best to hold back the pain, turned over suddenly, pressed his opponent to the ground, and clamped his hands on the opponent's neck.  With the help of the light from the fire on the deck, he could vaguely see the enemy's waxy skin on the ground, his high cheekbones, and slightly slanted eyes.  "It's the Chinese, and the attackers are the Shun Army! Did the Chinese decide to strike first?" An idea immediately flashed in Kitchener's mind. At this moment, there was a loud noise on the deck, as if something exploded.  Kitchener was stunned for a moment, and his hand relaxed a little. Zhang Qi, who was struggling on the ground, seized the opportunity and used all his strength to give Kitchener a hard blow on the ribs with his elbow.  "Ah!" Kitchener reached out to cover his left rib, and the flank nerve bundle quickly transmitted the pain to his brain, making his mind go blank at this moment. Zhang Qi took the opportunity to force it out of his body.  Overturned, climbed up.  Several Jun soldiers rushed forward and pushed Kitchener to the ground.  "Tie him up tight, don't let him escape!" Zhang Qi gasped, staring at the enemy who almost strangled him to death with lingering fear.  At dawn the next day, there was a miserable scene on the deck of the "Thames", with bullet marks left by the battle everywhere. At the doorway into the bottom cabin, a large piece of the solid teak deck was damaged, and there were jagged cracks on the edges of the crack.  This is the remnant of last night's battle.  The attackers poured gunpowder on the hatch, and then when the sailors and soldiers waiting in the bottom heard the sound of gunfire and rushed to the deck, they fired at the gunpowder on the ground. The exploding gunpowder immediately burned seven or eight British sailors to death.  In order to deal with the stubborn enemies in the bottom cabin, Wei Sunan simply lit the remaining gunpowder and the barrels and threw them into the bottom cabin, thus forcing the British in the bottom cabin to stop resisting.  Fortunately, the ship's bottom deck is still very strong, otherwise the "Thames" would have been at the bottom of the Irrawaddy River by now.  In the woods on the shore, a dozen British prisoners were digging pits with pickaxes, preparing to bury the more than twenty companions who died in yesterday's battle. When the pits were dug, they put the bodies into the pits one by one.  After covering it with soil, a makeshift cross was inserted on top.  A bearded chaplain prayed softly in front of the cross. The other British prisoners also took off their hats, stood behind him with their heads bowed, and crossed themselves on their chests.  The Shunjun soldiers standing aside watched all this with interest.  "Brother, that guy in the robe and long beard must be a foreign monk and Taoist priest!" asked a soldier from the Shun Army who still had pimples on his face.  "It doesn't really look like it, but it looks a bit like the Feng Shui master in our village. Look at the silver thing on his chest, maybe it's the compass used by foreigners!" Another soldier said, pointing to the cross on the chest of the chaplain.  .  At the same time, on the other side of the forest, Zhang Qi and Wei Sunan were standing next to four or five officer prisoners, discussing what to do next.  "Sunan, do you think we should send some of our people to escort these officers back to Bagan, and the rest of us should continue moving forward, or should we all go back?" "Sir!" Wei Sunan thought for a moment and replied: "I think  We should all retreat. If our guess is correct, then the British attack is imminent, and there is no point in our continued advance!" "What if we guessed wrong?" "Sir, you last night?  The captured officer is a colonel from his uniform, which is already a very high-ranking officer among foreigners. If such a person is captured alive, the British will soon notice it. If we continue to move forward, won't we be committing suicide? " "  Well, what you said makes sense!" Zhang Qi nodded: "Then we will return to Bagan by boat immediately. It's a pity that you only know a few words in English, otherwise you can ask these guys here first!"  At this point, Zhang Qi sighed.  In the bottom cabin, Kitchener pressed his hand on his right rib, which made him feel better. From the deck, there was a burst of laughter. This was last night's attacker celebrating his victory.  "How stupid. If you insist on anchoring in the middle of the river like a few days ago, the Chinese will not be able to successfully attack. The tools they used to board the ship yesterday were just a few simple bamboo rafts, which were obviously improvised by them.  !" Kitchener felt a sharp burning on his cheek.Even the pain in my nose is no longer so uncomfortable.  As a British gentleman with a high self-esteem, Kitchener was unwilling to shift the responsibility for the failure to the captain. And most importantly, the captain of the "Thames" had already seen God at this time - a bullet penetrated it.  His left lung was already fatally injured in this crude environment.  "But this group of Chinese should be just a reconnaissance force, not the vanguard of a large army. Otherwise, they should continue to move forward instead of all boarding the ship and escorting themselves back! The Chinese should already know their military rank, but they still  He didn¡¯t know his true identity. Fortunately, the few officers who knew his identity had died in yesterday¡¯s battle. The remaining sailors and soldiers didn¡¯t know the truth. If they were lucky, they might be able to escape. "Kitchener.  Thinking calmly, he knew in his heart that the only weapon he had after death was his mind: "Calm down, you must be calm, Kitchener! You must be like Julius Caesar, even if he was captured by pirates, he still behaved  With dignity and wisdom, I will crucify all these Chinese bandits when I get the chance!" Bagan, Pier.  Batu stood nervously at the table. A telegraph operator was wearing earphones nervously and recording the codes on the paper. After a while, the telegraph operator put down the earphones and started decoding.  Then he handed the translated message to Batu.  Batu received the telegram and saw only six words on it, "Everything goes well, call back!" He breathed a sigh of relief and heard the congratulations of the officers in his ears.  "Congratulations, sir, the telegram between Bagan and Mandalay has finally been connected!" "Yes! Once the telegram is connected, there is no need to be like in the past. If something happens here, Mandalay will only know about it after four or five days!"  Batu suppressed the excitement in his heart, stuffed the copy into his arms, and said in a deep voice: "Call me back, everything is fine, don't miss it!" It turned out that with the efforts of Zao Guoquan and Chen Zaixing, Shunjun finally completed Mande  With the establishment of cable telegraphs between Le and Bagan, and the upstream Myitkyina, Lashio and other places, the Kingdom of Myanmar has completed control of more than two-thirds of Myanmar¡¯s territory, leaving less than one-third  , but the richest Lower Burma region was still in the hands of the British.  As soon as Batu walked out of the telegraph room, an officer rushed over from outside and saluted him: "Sir, the group of Burmese bandits outside the city are causing trouble again and asked us to hand over their leader!" "Their leader!"  ?" Batu snorted coldly: "Didn't you tell them that Your Majesty has a decree to summon Song Shen and let them wait in peace? " "My lord, I have already said so, but those Burmese bandits just  He didn¡¯t listen, and he still said, and said¡ª¡± At this point, the officer lowered his head, and it was obvious that the following words were not very polite.  "What else are you talking about?" Batu asked forcefully, his face darkening.  "They also said that if they don't see Song Shen within two days, they will rebel!" "Hmph!" Batu snorted coldly: "They are indeed a group of villains without a king and father.  For their sake, they were wiped out a long time ago, so why are they still jumping up and down now?" He thought for a moment and whispered: "Go to the city and ask Governor Diok to come over. I have something important to discuss with him!" "Then!  How should we deal with those Burmese bandits? " "You said that the round trip from Bagan to Mandalay will take at least ten days, just let them wait patiently!" Batu waved his hand impatiently and dismissed them.  If he had followed his own temperament, he would have sent troops to annihilate them long ago, but he also knew that the situation in Myanmar is complicated now, and the British may invade again at any time. It is not difficult to defeat these Burmese bandits, but the rest of the gangs are spread throughout Central Myanmar. Once they are torn apart,  Face, the situation will soon deteriorate. Thinking of this, Batu couldn't help but regret his decision to hand over Song Shen to the Burmese nobles. Otherwise, if he was in his hands now, he would have a way out.  About two hours later, someone announced that Diok had arrived.  Batu hurriedly got up and went out. He was still seven or eight steps away from the opponent and asked urgently: "Is Songshen still in Bagan now?" "How come you are still there? I will send him to Mandalay by boat that day!"  "Oops!" Batu stumbled and said: "Those gangsters are making a big fuss and want their leader from me!" "Sir, you don't want to put the ginseng back, do you?" Diok's face showed a smile.  Surprised look: "Don't you Shun people have a saying? 'It's easy to tie a tiger but hard to control it!'" "Of course I know, but now it's time to rush, even the poison must be taken, otherwise those gangsters  If it breaks out, the whole situation will be ruined! " "So what?" Diok said with a smile: "My lord has thousands of troops, how can it be difficult to deal with just a few bandits?  "It's a good thing?" "What do you mean?" Diok looked around and said in a low voice.If they start an uprising, your Excellency can deduce in the book that you have detected in advance that they are ready to make a move, so you will first arrest the leader of the bandits through a trick, and then attack the rest.  It¡¯s really a great achievement!  " Batu was stunned when he heard this. Indeed, as Diok said, Mandalay did not know the causal relationship between the arrest of Song Shen and the gangster uprising. As long as he can handle the matter properly in the end, his superiors will not  The person who accused me of acting like a fool and provoking a civil uprising has naturally pocketed the large sum of benefits I just received. However, it feels like I am being led around by others, which makes me very unhappy when I think of this.  Batu suddenly sneered and asked: "Mr. Governor, when you suggested that I arrest Song Shen, did you already anticipate the current situation?  Diok smiled slightly when he heard this: "Sir, if people like Song Shen are left outside, do you feel at ease?"  If he hadn't been arrested, maybe there wouldn't be such a big fuss now, but if something happened, it would be a hundred times more troublesome than it is now. Isn't it obvious what should be done?  "
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