Qing Yao

Chapter 312 Vacuum Hometown!

Suzhou.

A massacre that should never have happened has been going on for three days. Hundreds of thousands of starving refugees, under the influence of rumors and the White Lotus Sect, have perished wave after wave at the foot of the city walls, armed with primitive tools such as sticks and hoes.

"The White Lotus Sect keeps sending refugees to attack the city while they hide in the back, clearly trying to deplete our arrows and gunpowder."

On the city wall, the commander of the Qing army defending the city was Zhou Ku, a guerrilla who had recently led his troops from Fengyang. He was also unlucky. He originally thought that Lord Zhao had sent them here to help with disaster relief, but he did not expect that the disaster victims would rebel after only a few days.

As the highest-ranking Green Standard Army general in the Suzhou area, Zhou Ku was thrust into the limelight. But he had no fighting skills whatsoever. If it weren't for the high walls of Suzhou and the White Lotus Sect's lack of siege weapons, he would have fled long ago.

After three days of defense, Zhou Ku realized that the White Lotus Sect was using the refugees to deplete the defenders' equipment. If they continued fighting like this, their arrows and gunpowder would eventually run out. However, he couldn't escape now, because there were more and more refugees outside the city, and he didn't know where the White Lotus Sect had tricked them into coming from.

The most critical issue is that the main force of the White Lotus Sect consists of the Nian rebels from northern Anhui. These Nian rebels are armed with real weapons, including muskets. Zhou Ku has seen Nian rebels riding mules and horses operating outside the city more than once. If they were to abandon Suzhou and flee, they would probably be caught up by the Nian rebels before they even reached Fengyang.

Without the support of high city walls, the Green Camp's fighting capacity would definitely collapse with a single charge.

Helpless, they had no choice but to grit their teeth and hold on, waiting for reinforcements.

In their line of sight, the disaster victims surged forward in a dark mass, followed by a group of about three or four hundred people with red headscarves on their heads, presumably the White Lotus Sect's supervisory team.

As the refugees approached the city walls once more, the Qing soldiers on the walls fired their guns and arrows, and the refugees at the forefront fell one after another.

The victims behind them had fear in their eyes. Their instincts made them want to stop, but the crowd surged forward like a tidal wave. If they stopped, there would only be one outcome: they would be swallowed up by the crowd and trampled to death.

The corpses piled up below the city walls were already taller than a person. The only weapons the unarmed refugees had to attack the city were ladders that the White Lotus Sect had scavenged from various places. They were not unaware that their purpose was to be "cannon fodder," but the sweet potato they could get if they survived was more precious than their lives.

Half an hour later, the refugees retreated like a tide, and there were thousands more corpses under the city wall than before. From the air, it looked like a scene of carnage, with corpses everywhere and the wails of those who had not yet breathed their last.

An elderly Green Standard Army veteran's right hand trembled uncontrollably, not from fear, but from drawing the bow for an extended period of time.

Through the battlements, the old soldier saw someone moving in the pile of corpses below. Upon closer inspection, he saw a seven or eight-year-old child whose chest had been hit by a musket and was bleeding profusely. The child's face was contorted in pain, but his hands were gripping the ladder leaning against the pile of corpses, trying to climb up.

"This baby is about the same age as my third son, right?"

The old soldier sighed deeply, his hands trembling as he nocked an arrow and aimed it at the child's forehead. With a twang of the bowstring, the arrow shot out instantly, piercing the child's skull with a "thud," and the child fell backward onto the pile of corpses, head tilted back in resentment.

Beneath him was his father.

Before the old soldier could catch his breath, the damned White Lotus Sect drove the disaster victims to surge forward again.

This time, even more came, and finally, some believers with red headscarves appeared in the ranks, probably because they felt the defenders were running out of arrows and gunpowder.

Some of these believers, whose heads were wrapped in red turbans, carried bows, some carried guns, but most carried sharpened bamboo sticks.

After rushing to the city walls, the White Lotus followers suddenly began to shout: "Vacuum Homeland, Eternal Mother!"

"A vacuum hometown, a birthless mother!"

The victims immediately let out inhuman howls, and the victims in the front row suddenly grabbed blood-stained clods of earth from the ground and frantically stuffed them into their mouths and chewed them, as if they were the "Guanyin soil" promised by the cult leader.

This scene terrified Li Wen, the prefect of Suzhou, who was watching the battle from the upper city. The long sword he had just snatched from the yamen runner to bolster his courage slipped from his grasp and fell to the ground with a clang.

None of the Green Standard Army officers around him mocked the prefect, because it was already a rare privilege for civil officials to be able to go up to the city wall to watch the battle, and besides, they were also afraid.

Tongzhi Cui Xiu was also on the city gate tower, watching everything unfold before him. His heart ached with regret, for if he had persuaded the prefect to open the gates and distribute grain, perhaps these famine victims wouldn't have been incited by the White Lotus Rebellion. But now it was too late for regrets; thinking too much was useless. The most urgent task was to defend Suzhou, or everything would be over.

The people in the city might survive, but those officials certainly won't.

He turned his gaze to Prefect Li Wen, whose face was ashen, and felt a deep resentment. Yesterday, a reinforcement had arrived and broken through the White Lotus Sect's blockade to reach the city. They said it was a transport army sent by the Provincial Governor to assist in the defense of Suzhou.

Although this transport army consisted of only 500 men and had a variety of weapons, they looked stronger than the Green Standard Army. If they could enter the city, they would undoubtedly greatly increase the city's defenses. However, Li Wen said that the transport army had long been defunct and that the transport army in Anhui was located in Huainan along the Yangtze River. How could they suddenly come to northern Anhui? Therefore, he suspected that they were White Lotus Sect members in disguise and refused to allow them to enter the city.

Seeing this, the transport troops outside the city cursed angrily. The more they cursed, the more suspicious Li Wen became. Finally, seeing that the city gates were not open, the transport troops left, still cursing.

The White Lotus Sect probably saw that this transport force was all strong and capable and did not dare to intercept them, which made Li Wen even more convinced that his suspicions were correct.

However, Cui Xiu believed that this transport army was indeed sent by the provincial governor, because the provincial governor also served as the grain transport commissioner, and the grain transport commissioner's office had a transport army in Jiangning.

Unfortunately, rank matters, and he could only watch helplessly as the reinforcements left.

At this moment, Zhou Ku focused his mind and observed the refugees below the city walls, occasionally glancing into the distance. He knew that the White Lotus Cult members below were not the elite of the White Lotus Cult; they had only been sent to test how much counterattack the defenders still had. Therefore, he ordered his soldiers not to fire their guns and arrows easily, but to let the refugees go down to the city walls and pelt them with stones and rolling logs.

This order made it easy for the flooded refugees to reach the foot of the city wall. As the refugees climbed the ladders, the fanatical White Lotus followers would occasionally throw grappling hooks at the top of the wall.

The Qing army was not about to let the refugees climb up smoothly. Some pushed ladders, others cut down grappling hooks. The White Lotus followers below, armed with muskets and crossbows, also fired their guns and arrows at the city walls. Qing soldiers were frequently hit and fell to the ground.

But even more disaster victims were crushed to death. In just a short while, the corpses piled up several feet thick under the city wall. Just when the disaster victims could no longer hold on, the retreat bell rang from behind.

Upon hearing the bell, the disaster victims felt as if they had been granted a pardon. They abandoned their dead and wounded companions and ran back desperately, fearing that if they were too slow, they would be shot by the Qing soldiers on the city wall.

Under the banner of the Eternal Mother, a burly man with a long beard on horseback said to Li Jie, the leader of the Nian Rebellion, beside him: "I see that the Qing dogs' gunpowder and arrows are almost used up. We have to get serious with them. We can't waste any more time in Suzhou, or the Qing dogs' reinforcements will arrive soon."

The man's name was Gong Shengzu. He was not from Anhui, but from Hubei. He was a disciple developed in Hubei by Liu Zhixie, the leader of the Sanyang Sect. He was also a key member who returned to Anhui with Liu Zhixie last year to spread the religion. He had previously secretly developed several thousand believers in the Bozhou area and had a "divine army" of more than 800 people under his command.

Li Jie was from a prominent local clan in northern Anhui. After following Liu Zhixie, he led the Nian Rebellion, which was mainly composed of clan members, to various places. However, the uprising in Suzhou was not Liu Zhixie's idea, but rather Gong Shengzu's unauthorized action without permission.

Li Jie initially didn't want to join Gong Shengzu in rebelling against the Qing Dynasty, but Gong Shengzu was a senior disciple who had followed the leader for many years and held high prestige within the sect. Li Jie, a new disciple who had just joined the White Lotus Sect after undergoing three tribulations, was no match for him. Furthermore, seeing the large number of refugees in Suzhou, and considering the many deaths of his clansmen during the Qing army's previous suppression of the Nian rebels in Bozhou, he steeled himself and joined Gong Shengzu's cause. The Nian rebels active in Mengcheng had sent word yesterday that the elite Qing troops stationed there had been mobilized. These Qing soldiers were extremely brutal, killing any groups of refugees they saw without questioning whether they were members of the White Lotus Sect.

They are currently pressing towards Suzhou in force. If Gong Shengzu and his men linger in Suzhou any longer, they are likely to be attacked from both sides by the Qing army.

In light of this, Gong Shengzu decided not to wait any longer.

If we can capture Suzhou, we can not only obtain the city's food supplies, but also use Suzhou to repel the Qing army's offensive. Moreover, capturing Suzhou will stir up anti-Qing sentiment in northern Anhui. At that time, Christians in various places will rise up in rebellion, and the Qing army will inevitably be caught off guard and exhausted.

In this way, the restoration of the Ming Dynasty would not be the dream of the White Lotus Sect!

His master wouldn't blame him for acting on his own initiative.

"Alright!"

Li Jie nodded in agreement with Gong Shengzu's arrangement and had someone inform the clansmen to prepare. Then he said with some regret, "If the salt bandits that Master contacted could come over, our strength would be even greater."

Gong Shengzu scoffed, “Don’t count on those salt merchants. They’re only willing to risk their lives for money. Don’t even think about getting them to rebel with us.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he raised the command flag in his hand, and hundreds of White Lotus "divine soldiers" who were resting on the ground immediately stood up. Each of them had a brand-new red scarf tied around their neck, forming a red tide line under the scorching sun.

"Please, Eternal Mother!"

As Gong Shengzu's voice fell, the conch shell rang out, and eight barefoot children carried out a clay statue of the Eternal Mother. With each step they took, a blood-stained lotus flower was left at their feet.

The dozen or so Nian rebel groups that participated in the attack on Suzhou, together with the "divine soldiers" commanded by Gong Shengzu, silently watched the Eternal Mother, their eyes filled with fanaticism, and then, amidst the sound of conch shells, resolutely marched towards Suzhou City.

"The White Lotus Sect's heretics have arrived!"

The Qing soldiers on the walls of Suzhou realized that the real test had arrived, and everyone watched nervously as the red tide of blood slowly pressed towards the city walls.

Leading the way was the statue of the Eternal Mother, carried by eight children.

These children were expressionless, like ghosts, as if a paradise lay ahead, not a hell that could take their lives at any moment.

"Fire arrows!"

Zhou Ku's voice was trembling.

When the first volley of arrows fell, a chilling scene unfolded: those hit by arrows did not fall and wail, but instead staggered forward, supporting each other.

An old man whose lung had been pierced by a bullet even laughed wildly as he tore open his clothes, revealing a Bagua diagram drawn in cinnabar on his chest.

"May the Eternal Mother bless the Great Ming Dynasty!"

The eight children's innocent roars echoed across the city walls, causing the attacking cultists and Nian soldiers to scream and charge forward as if under a spell.

More than thirty wheelbarrows wrapped in wet cotton quilts suddenly appeared in the Qing army's sight. The wheelbarrows were all carrying gunpowder in jars, which was collected by the White Lotus sect members from various places in northern Anhui.

Originally intended for making fireworks and firecrackers, this gunpowder was now used by the White Lotus Sect as a weapon to blow up the city gates.

The White Lotus followers pushing these wheelbarrows were all wearing cotton clothes soaked in water, and there were people specifically assigned to hold simple shields or even iron pots to shield them from the Qing army's guns and arrows.

The White Lotus Divine Soldiers under Gong Shengzu did not use shields to defend against the Qing army's attacks, but rather coffin boards dug out from the cemeteries within a radius of dozens of miles.

These thick coffin boards were all inscribed with the talisman "invulnerable to swords and spears" in cinnabar.

The soldiers at the forefront suddenly pulled out gray cloth bags from their robes and threw them forward, which instantly split open and emitted plumes of smoke.

It was unclear what the smoke was made of, but it limited the Qing army's visibility. When the smoke cleared, the Qing army discovered that the White Lotus sect had already reached the foot of the city wall.

The frenzied White Lotus Army continued to charge against the walls of Suzhou. Both sides were blinded by rage, knowing they had no way out.

With the added boost of "religion," the morale of the White Lotus Army was so high that even the Qing soldiers on the city walls were terrified. If it weren't for the high city walls as a support, most of them would probably have already fled.

The Nian rebels in northern Anhui were indeed formidable; their archers were unerring, and the Qing army dared not even peek out from behind the battlements.

One of the Nian soldiers, Ding Wang, was particularly skilled with a slingshot. In his hands, round iron balls were more effective than guns. He hid behind the ranks and targeted Qing officers, killing a battalion commander and two sentry officers in succession.

With a loud bang, the city gate was blown open by the White Lotus Sect, but it was not blown open. Instead, it caused a fire, which frightened the Qing soldiers hiding behind the gate. They quickly poured water to put out the fire, while the able-bodied men conscripted by the government carried huge logs and stones to block the city gate.

The fierce battle was still a struggle between scaling and counter-scaling the city walls. Seven layers of corpses had been piled up at the base of the walls, with the bottom layer consisting of bodies trampled into the mud.

The Qing troops on the city wall used every weapon they could find, throwing down burning cotton quilts and pots of hot oil that they had previously been reluctant to pour out.
A strange fragrance quickly filled the air.

It smells like meat.

A tragic massacre of humans was unfolding beneath the walls of Suzhou. Zhao An, who was rushing from Sizhou to Suzhou, arrived at Dadianyi, less than a hundred miles from Suzhou.

Besides the more than 600 soldiers of the Sizhou Green Standard Army, Zhao An had more than 300 men from Hou Feng's troops who had spontaneously come with him to the rescue, as well as more than 700 brothers from the Cao Gang brought by Ye Zhigui.

They were equipped with very few firearms, only a little over 100, and the rest were all cold weapons.

He will face hundreds of thousands of rebellious disaster victims, as well as the White Lotus elites who have coerced these victims.

(End of this chapter)