Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 633 Planting Lotus Flowers

"You're Saisang?"

Looking at the chubby old man in front of him, Lin Dao asked, "The Treaty of Nanjing, which ceded territory and paid reparations, was signed by you?"

Upon hearing this, Sai Shang'a, who was bound like a rice dumpling, immediately raised his head and glared angrily.

"This was signed by an elder; what does it have to do with me!"

They lost the war against England and had to cede territory and pay reparations.

Such a shameful act is despised even among mites.

Compared to the commonplace attitude decades later, where people would rather give to outsiders than to their own servants, at least there was still some sense of shame.

Saishana knew perfectly well that this day next year would probably be the anniversary of his death.

In that case, we absolutely cannot take the blame.

"Oh."

Lin Dao nodded. "I heard that when we were fighting the foreigners, you were a proponent of surrender and even falsely accused Lin Yuanfu, who advocated war, of wanting to surrender?"

Upon hearing these words, Saishana rolled his eyes.

"Ten years ago, when we went to war with the foreigners, I never advocated surrendering!"

"When the English attacked Zhejiang, I went to Tianjin to strengthen coastal defense and strongly advocated resistance. How could I have advocated surrender?"

"As for the matter of framing Lin Yuanfu, that was Mu Zhang'a's doing, what does it have to do with me!"

"Oh." Lin Dao nodded again.

"So your name is Mu Zhang'a. It's all because your names are so similar."

Saishan was speechless.

How am I any like that sycophantic fool?

"Since you were the one who advocated war when fighting against the foreigners, then you will be spared the punishment of planting lotus flowers."

Lin Dao gestured with his chin toward Xiao Chaogui, "Give him some face."

Several Taiping soldiers stepped forward and dragged him away like a wild boar.

As he was being dragged along the ground, he looked towards the Xiangjiang River not far to the side.

Dozens of boats of varying sizes gathered together, and every now and then, bound Qing soldiers and officers were pushed off the boats.

These Qing soldiers and officers all had buoys strapped to their legs, and if you looked down through the water, it really did look like they were planting lotus flowers.

Lin Dao's attitude toward the Qing army has always been very clear.

All officers, including junior officers, were punished, because the Qing army's officers and generals were all bad people, and their hands were stained with the blood of the people.

As for the soldiers, the order was to kill one out of ten.

What remains after that is to conduct whistleblowing and cross-examination.

Anyone who has blood on their hands must pay the price.

For two hundred years, uprisings have almost never stopped in various places.

Few Qing soldiers who suppressed uprisings hadn't shed blood on their hands.

Not only did they massacre the rebels, but in accordance with the Qing dynasty's tradition, they also carried out large-scale, organized massacres in the areas where the uprisings took place.

It wasn't simply about killing innocent people and claiming credit; rather, the Qing rulers, as colonizers, believed that the foundation for suppressing resistance lay in eradicating the very basis of resistance—the local people.

After slaughtering the civilians, the rebel army naturally became like water without roots.

This purely colonial strategy is exactly the same as the way colonizers across the ocean dealt with the Shang Dynasty.

It was even more brutal, comparable to the massacres and rapes committed by Spain in the New World.

When he arrived at Lindao, he would retaliate with a knife against anyone who had ever laid a hand on the people.

Some people have advised that such a large-scale massacre of prisoners would lead to fierce resistance when fighting against the Qing army in the future.

But Lin Dao didn't care. To him, no matter how much an ant jumps around, it's just an ant that he can crush with a flick of his wrist.

As for the numerous weapons, equipment, and military supplies captured, none of them were wasted.

After sorting through the materials, the useful ones were given to the auxiliary soldiers, while the useless ones were simply recycled as raw materials.

"Meeting Head~"

Wei Changhui, who was in charge of statistics, ran over and said, "The preliminary statistics are out."

"This battle killed approximately 20,000 Qing demons."

"Those who were killed by gunfire, those who were blown up, those who were too badly injured to survive, those who trampled each other to death during the rout, those who fell into the river and died—all of these are included."

"Several thousand Qing demons escaped, and more than half of them went into the mountains."

"Brothers, go and hunt them down; we should be able to catch quite a few."

"There were probably four or five thousand prisoners."

"The Qing forces' various camps have been captured, and over 20,000 laborers have been taken prisoner."

Upon hearing this, Lin Dao raised his hand to signal a pause.

"The laborers are all unfortunate people who were forcibly conscripted. Don't use words like 'arrest'; 'rescue' is the correct word."

"Yes, yes," Wei Changhui nodded repeatedly. "We rescued over 20,000 able-bodied men, but quite a few of them are seriously ill."

"Arrange for military doctors to go and treat him," Lin Dao instructed again. "This is the last time I'm telling you, don't be stingy with the medicine; I have plenty of it."

The medicine that Lin Dao brought had miraculous, immediate effects.

Many illnesses that were considered incurable in this era actually improved or were even cured after using the medicines provided by Lin Dao.

Such a miraculous medicine was naturally collected as a panacea.

Even though Lin Dao repeatedly instructed them not to worry about the source and just use the medicine, the apprentices from various pharmacies and the trainee medics drawn from the army were still reluctant to use it.

"Take orders."

Wei Changhui nodded again, indicating that he had received the message.

At first, he was also worried that there wouldn't be enough of the miracle drug.

After all, in an era of scarcity, the more effective something is, the more expensive and scarce it becomes.

But after witnessing Lin Dao use his great supernatural powers to transport large, long iron boxes filled with all kinds of divine medicines, his worries gradually disappeared.

"More supplies were also seized~~~"

"Swords, spears, halberds~"

"Flags and musical instruments~" "Grain and livestock~"

"Salt-making tools~"

"~~~"

The report concludes with the achievement of killing and capturing high-ranking Qing generals.

"Thirty-seven people were killed in battle, including Wulantai, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Guangdong; Changrui, General of Tianjin Garrison; Changshou, General of Liangzhou Garrison; Dong Guangjia, General of Hebei Garrison; Shao Heling, General of Yunyang Garrison."

"Longevity and good fortune."

He knew those two brothers.

Longevity's son was Ronglu, who later became an important assistant to the old witch.

Changrui was wounded by shrapnel while escorting Saishana through the shelling blockade area, and eventually died from his injuries.

As for Changshou, he was ambushed and killed by Taiping soldiers who had been lying in ambush in the mountains while escorting Sai Shang'a into the mountains.

These Eight Banner generals fought fiercely, and there were even instances of them charging into the enemy lines on horseback to launch counterattacks.

The reason is simple: he knew what the consequences of losing would be. The rebels might give the Green Standard Army and Han soldiers a chance to live, but they, the Eight Banner soldiers, would have absolutely no chance to live.

Since we're going to die anyway, we might as well fight to the death.

The result is the same: no matter how brave a person is, they cannot withstand bullets when faced with a hail of bullets.

"In addition, twenty-three officers and soldiers, including Yu Wanqing, the Hunan Provincial Commander-in-Chief, Liu Changqing, the General of the Northern Sichuan Garrison, and Qin Dingsan, the General of the Zhenyuan Garrison, were captured."

"Saisan's staff, etc."

Compared to the Eight Banners officers who fought to the death, many Green Standard Army officers clearly still held onto hope and chose to surrender.

However, Lin Dao did not give them a chance to live.

If nothing unexpected happens, once the news gets out, very few people will surrender in future battles against the Qing demons.

Fortunately, Lin Dao didn't care; these butchers had to be eliminated.

"Let's follow the old rules."

He waved his hand and said, "As long as they are officers, they should all plant lotus flowers."

"Those staff members will be dealt with in the same way."

"By the way, where is Xiang Rong?"

"Reporting back to the head of the council," Wei Changhui continued, "the prisoners have been interrogated. Xiang Rong did not come; he remained in Yongzhou Prefecture."

"Heh~" Lin Dao chuckled, "He's quite alert."

"Of all the Qing army generals, this man is the only one with any brains."

"Clean up the battlefield and handle the cleanup work."

"Once we're done with this, we'll go back to Quanzhou for a meeting to arrange the troops to stay behind, and then we'll head to Hunan."

For the Battle of Huangsha Pass, Lin Dao only brought a little over 10,000 men.

Most of the Taiping army was scattered throughout Guangxi, busy with matters such as land redistribution.

The situation has now stabilized to a preliminary extent, and Lin Dao has summoned all departments to concentrate in northern Guangxi.

The leaders all rushed over to the whole state for the meeting.

Although it was called a meeting, it was more like a performance review, summarizing one's work in various prefectures, counties, villages and towns.

As for personnel arrangements, Lin Dao ultimately chose Ren Wenbing, who came from the Tiandihui (Heaven and Earth Society) branch, to stay and serve as the garrison commander of Guangxi.

"The Qing troops in Yunnan, Guizhou and other places have all been defeated."

"The people in Guangdong are being held back by Feng Yunshan and Hong Xiuquan, making it difficult for them to come over."

"The key is to guard several entrances and block the passage for the Qing demons to enter."

Lin Dao instructed Ren Wenbing, "Militia units should be established in every village, and they should be trained intensively during the off-season."

"The suppression of bandits in the local areas must continue, while military discipline must be strictly maintained."

"If something happens that involves oppressing the people, I won't go after the lower-ups; I'll only go after you!"

Ren Wenbing thumped his chest loudly.

"Don't worry, Chief!"

"Your subordinate will certainly defend Guangxi well!"

"Defending is one aspect, but stimulating production to enable people to live a better life is even more important."

"Redistribute land, rebuild the judiciary, eliminate conflicts between the indigenous and Hakka peoples, dismantle clan power, and revise taxation."

Lin Dao took out a booklet and handed it over, saying, "I have all of these in mind. Just follow the instructions in the booklet."

Ren Wenbing took the book and glanced at the cover.

The document reads "Recommendations on the Report of Land Reform and Deepening Social Change in Guangxi".

He squeezed the thickness of the books and exclaimed in surprise, "So many? I haven't been attending night school for very long, I might not even recognize them all!"

"What are you thinking about?"

Lin Dao smiled and gestured to the dozens of books stacked thickly on the table beside him. "What you have in your hand is the table of contents; these are the detailed plans."

Looking at the documents that almost filled the table, Ren Wenbing felt his mouth go dry and bitter.

He raised his hand to rub his face, quickly changing the subject.

"The leader said that people from the Hunan Heaven and Earth Society have contacted us, saying they want to support our uprising."

"Yes." Lin Dao nodded. "This is a good thing."

"Tell them to get ready. I'll be heading to Hunan in a few days, and we can meet up then."

“Uh…” Ren Wenbing scratched his head. “They have already raised an army.”

Yongfeng Township, Chen County, Hunan Province.

"Slaughter the village." Xiang Rong, riding his horse, gave the order: "Take the head back, and burn the village to the ground."

"As for this thief."

He pointed his knife at a heavily guarded prisoner, saying, "This thief is the leader of the Hunan branch of the Heaven and Earth Society, a great rebel known as the King of Heavenly Virtue."

“Immediately escort them to the capital and tell them that a key leader of the God Worshipping Society has been captured.”

(End of this chapter)