Anti-Qing: Starting from the Jintian Uprising

Chapter 268: Three whips shatter the sense of honor, and the confession is all about the names of allies!
Kalam was carried back to the artillery position by Tang soldiers.

Several medical staff came up to check his injuries and treat his wounds, but their actions were obviously rough.

There is no difference between manipulating Kalam and manipulating a pig.

"Captain Liu, this foreign guy is lucky. Although he was shot, it didn't hurt any vital parts. Just treat the wound and take care of it for a while and he will be alive."

A medical officer reported to the company commander Liu Changbao who came to check on the prisoners.

Liu Chang nodded and said.

"Ah, very good."

"You guys take good care of this ghost guy and treat his wounds. Don't let him die. I will arrange for someone to take him for interrogation later."

Upon hearing this, several medical staff nodded in agreement, and then began to roughly suture Karam's wound, directly pouring alcohol to disinfect it, and then applying medicine and bandaging it.

Although Kalam fell into coma again, his body was still twitching due to the stimulation of alcohol.

Liu Chang turned and left, and soon several soldiers came and took Karam to the interrogation room.

Several people tied him to an execution rack, and Karam was still unconscious.

A basin of cold water was poured directly on him.

In an instant, Kalam, who was in a coma, shuddered and woke up.

Liu Chang sat upright behind a chair, glanced at Karam from the corner of his eyes, and asked expressionlessly.

"Name, gender, age!"

"Tell the truth!"

As soon as Liu Chang finished speaking, the translator beside him immediately repeated his question in French.

Kalam opened his mouth and shook his head.

"I am a French soldier. For a soldier, honor is more important than life."

"Don't even think about getting any answers from me."

Liu Chang didn't get angry when he heard this, he just sneered and said.

"I hope your bones are as hard as your mouth."

After he finished speaking, Liu Chang immediately waved his hand to signal several Tang soldiers waiting on the side to go forward and greet Karam.

With a snap, a whip hit Karam directly, leaving an obvious whip mark.

The whip tore open his flesh, and bright red blood oozed out from the whip marks, staining his clothes red...

Kalam couldn't help but let out a scream.

But then, there were two more whip cracks.

A sharp pain came, and Karam couldn't bear it anymore, so he spoke hurriedly.

"I said!"

"Stop, stop fighting. I'll tell you whatever you want to ask!"

In fact, when the first whip was struck, Kalam had already been enlightened and was ready to confess.

Unfortunately, his mouth was a little slow, and he got whipped twice more for nothing.

After listening to the translator's retelling, Liu Chang couldn't help but sneer.

"It would have been better if you had done this earlier. You got whipped three times for nothing."

"Name, age, gender, position!"

"Tell the truth!"

After hearing this, Karam didn't dare to be stubborn anymore and could only confess the truth.

"My name is Richard Karam, I'm forty years old, male."

"Belonging to the 3rd Regiment of the French Royal Guard, serving as the captain of the second company, with the rank of captain."

Liu Chang nodded and continued to ask.

"How many troops does each coalition have in this battle, and who is leading them?"

After hearing Liu Chang's question, Karam was obviously relieved and told him all the information he knew very straightforwardly.

Well, if he were asked to reveal the French army’s own intelligence, he might feel a little guilty.

But if it was about conveying information about the rest of the coalition forces, then he didn't care.

Well, as the saying goes, three whips will break the sense of honor, and all the confessions are the names of allies.

After finishing this, Liu Chang continued to ask with his eyes narrowed.

"Very good, then let's talk about the French army."

"What's the name of your regiment commander? How many soldiers are there in the regiment? What are their main weapons?"

"Tell us everything!"

Karam's expression changed noticeably when he heard this.

Liu Chang in front of him seemed to see Karam's dilemma and said with a sneer.

"Haha, since Captain Kalam has already disclosed so much information about our allies, why should he hide the remaining information?"

"Besides, you are not the only prisoner captured by the Tang Dynasty in this battle. Even if you don't say it, there are many people who will say it!"

Liu Chang's interrogation was very skillful.

They first asked some irrelevant questions, such as name and age, to reduce Kalam's resistance to interrogation.

Then, he asked about the information of other slightly more important coalition forces to test Karam's bottom line.

After he has confessed some secrets of the Allied forces, ask him about the secrets of the French army.

At this time, Kalam, who had already confessed many secrets, actually had no choice.

To put it bluntly, it is like boiling a frog in warm water.

Test the opponent's bottom line little by little, and then break it.

In the end, Karam, who had lost his bottom line, could only confess as much as he knew.

Karam opened his mouth, hesitated for a while, and finally spoke.

"Our regiment commander is Lieutenant Colonel Porter. There are more than 1,300 soldiers in the regiment. Our main weapons are new muzzle-loading rifles and Napoleon cannons..."

After the interrogation, Liu Chang took the intelligence he had obtained from Karam and went to report to their leader.

"Captain, this is the information we obtained from the prisoners of war we captured during this interrogation." "Please take a look!"

Lin Bao took the confession, glanced through it briefly, and couldn't help but marvel at it.

"Wow, that's a lot of things to explain!"

Liu Chang said with a smile.

"These foreigners are so soft-hearted that they can't stand the torture and confess."

Lin Bao nodded and said.

"Well, send this information to Guangzhou by telegram and ask the king to make the decision!"

Knowing that a war was approaching, Li Yi specially set up a telegraph network in all the provincial capitals along the coast of Guangzhou to ensure the timeliness of information communication.

Hong Kong is no exception!

Well, it uses submarine cables.

Although laying cables across oceans is troublesome, it is actually not difficult if you are just laying cables across a strait that is only a few kilometers long.

……

Porter led his troops back to the allied warships and went to report to Elgin and Gros.

"I'm sorry, Sir Gro, the Tang army's artillery position had very strong fortifications, and we were unable to charge up."

Potter stood in front of Elgin and Gro, and spoke with a somewhat depressed look.

Elgin and Ge Guo looked at each other, and Ge Luo asked.

"How could such brave French soldiers be defeated by a group of yellow monkeys?"

"Tell me in detail what happened!"

Potter heard this with a somewhat dejected look on his face.

"While we were charging towards the fort, we were blocked by the Tang army's artillery fire."

"The quality of the Tang Army's gunners is very good. Not only are they accurate, but they can also switch between solid bullets and shotgun shells very smoothly."

"After rushing through the Tang army's artillery fire, we were stopped by a barbed wire fence."

"At the same time, the Tang army also began firing muskets that could fire continuously at extremely high speeds, aiming at us who were blocked by the barbed wire and pouring fire."

"In just a few moments, hundreds of the Empire's warriors were shot to death in front of the barbed wire."

"But even so, we still couldn't break through the Tang army's barbed wire."

"In order to prevent our brothers from sacrificing their lives in vain, I can only order the troops to temporarily withdraw and rest..."

Upon hearing this, Elgin and Groh looked a little confused.

They felt as if things were beyond their control.

In their inherent impression, the Eastern army should be the kind of garbage that has long braids, still uses old matchlocks from several centuries ago, or cold weapons such as spears as weapons, and looks more like farmers than soldiers.

They could never imagine that the Eastern army could master more advanced weapons and possess better combat skills than theirs.

The feeling of losing control of this matter made Elgin and Gross feel a little confused and at a loss.

Elgin picked up the red wine glass in front of him and took a sip, then said with a grim look.

"It seems that our plan to capture the Tang army's Zhongmen Fort first and then occupy Hong Kong is likely to fail."

Gro shook his head and said.

"maybe."

"If we can send enough elite troops to land and fight, and pay a certain amount of casualties as a price, we may be able to capture the Middle Gate Fort."

Seymour on the side spoke immediately.

"Captain Porter led a team that suffered hundreds of casualties but still failed to reach the edge of the middle gate turret."

"Sir Gro, have you ever thought about how many casualties we will suffer if we really storm the Middle Gate Battery at all costs, even if we can finally capture this battery?"

"One thousand? Two thousand? Or three thousand five thousand?"

"Our expeditionary force has only 3.3 people in total. If we really suffer thousands of casualties for a fort, then even if our expeditionary force is wiped out, I'm afraid we won't be able to force the Tang Kingdom to surrender and seek peace."

After hearing this, Gro had to admit that what Seymour said made sense.

But he still frowned and asked.

"So Seymour, what do you think our army should do next?"

Upon hearing this, Seymour also fell silent.

Elgin on the side spoke up.

"The Tang army at the Zhongmen Fort has already taken precautions. It will be difficult for us to capture the Zhongmen Fort at a very low cost. There is no need to fight any further."

"Instead of continuing to fight at the Zhongmen Fort, why not try to launch a surprise attack while the Tang troops at the Dajiao Fort and Shajiao Fort may not be able to react in time?"

"If it succeeds, we will have hope of reaching the Pearl River."

"If it doesn't work, we can think of another strategy."

Hearing this, everyone around nodded in agreement.

Shi Delu and Enming on the side had strange expressions on their faces.

They originally thought that this foreigner was very powerful, but unexpectedly it was just a show-off.

After facing the Tang bandits, there is no difference between them and the Qing Dynasty, they will also suffer the same defeat.

……

The news of the outbreak of war in Hong Kong was quickly transmitted to Guangzhou via telegram.

Li Yi received a report from the front line in the conference room.

【Great victory! 】

Looking at the two eye-catching words at the beginning of the telegram, Li Yi felt very happy.

"Hahaha!"

"They say that the foreigners are hard to match with their powerful ships and guns, but now it seems that they are just that good."

"No matter how strong the ships and cannons are, they are nothing compared to the artillery of the Tang Dynasty."

(End of this chapter)