Chapter 827: I Demand Your Family's Utmost Sacrifice
In a flash, Gao Chuwu cleared a foothold on the city wall.
Subsequent militia soldiers steadily clambered up the ropes to the ramparts.
A Manchu warrior roared, "Cut those ropes!"
Someone, blade in hand, swung down forcefully at a rope loop attached to a protrusion. Yet, with a sharp clang, the loop remained intact.
The Manchu soldier stared at his blade in astonishment, bewildered. He didn't understand.
That wasn't ordinary rope; it was a steel cable, or rather, many thin steel cables twisted together to form a thick one. How could a crude iron blade possibly cut through it?
Gao Family Village soldiers ceaselessly scaled the steel cables, carving out their ground on the city walls.
Bayonets on flintlock rifles!
They engaged in close-quarters combat while snatching moments to fire a shot.
Damn it, what right did invaders have to talk about chivalry?
They were hitting them exactly where it hurt!
The militia soldiers had already pre-loaded a bullet into their rifles.
With bayonets fixed, they looked ready for a classic bayonet duel with the Manchu. The Manchu warriors, in turn, diligently raised their spears, expecting a fair fight... but halfway through a bayonet thrust, a militia soldier pulled the trigger.
"Bang!"
And another idiot dropped.
The Manchu forces couldn't withstand such a "three-dimensional" assault.
In mere moments, the Manchu suffered a crushing defeat, and Yanmen Pass changed hands.
Of the five hundred Manchu defenders, only two hundred managed to escape through the north gate. The other three hundred perished at Yanmen Pass.
The Gao Family Village Militia didn't pursue; after all, flintlock riflemen weren't well-suited for chases. Their priority was to clear the battlefield.
Soon, a militia soldier discovered a Manchu soldier still clinging to life amidst the corpses.
"Report, there's an injured... mmph..."
Another soldier beside him immediately clapped a hand over his mouth, whispering, "Injured? What injured? No one's injured, only dead men." As he spoke, he plunged his bayonet into the chest of the wounded Manchu soldier with a sickening thud.
The first soldier stared, momentarily stunned. "You..."
The killing soldier whispered, "If this guy goes back alive, he'll end up in a Labor Reform Camp. Do you really want people like him living in Gao Family Village? Didn't you watch that movie about the border soldier by Daling River? You watched it for nothing?"
The first soldier suddenly realized, "Right, right, right!"
Much later, the battlefield was cleared.
A subordinate reported to Gao Chuwu, "Report, battlefield cleared. Not a single prisoner taken, all enemies are dead."
Gao Chuwu said, "Oh, these guys are really fragile. They just die after one hit?"
Perched on his shoulder, the Wooden Puppet Heavenly Lord chuckled, "Do you think I don't know? You finished off all the wounded enemies."
The subordinate's face instantly flushed with embarrassment. "Well... ahem... please mete out punishment, Heavenly Lord."
"I won't punish you," the Wooden Puppet Heavenly Lord declared. "Killing is killing; there's nothing to punish."
The Wooden Puppet Heavenly Lord's tone shifted. "To kill or not to kill, both are paths, both can be taken. Different choices simply lead to different futures. However, I want you to remember one thing: throughout history, there has never been an instance where slaughter alone led to the complete submission and extinction of another race. Never. How vast is the world, how many people carry Manchu blood? Can you truly kill them all with a blade? Ran Min's slaughter of the Five Barbarians, while achieving a temporary effect, ultimately failed to eliminate the barbarian threat to the Central Plains."
The Wooden Puppet Heavenly Lord sighed deeply. "The most effective means of conquering foreign peoples, in the end, is—culture."
The soldiers listened respectfully, though they didn't quite understand. Perhaps this generation of soldiers would never fully grasp it, but when the new generation of Gao Family Village, children like Liu Maopao, grew up, they would surely understand.
Northeast of Daizhou, south of Datong Prefecture.
Huangcaoping Village.
Although named Huangcaoping (Yellow Grassland), it wasn't a plain
, but a mountainous area. The forests were dark and dense, the terrain rugged and difficult to traverse.
Lao Nanfeng, leading his former Guyuan border troops and a large number of new recruits from Puzhou, totaling three thousand men, was stationed on a slope in Huangcaoping.
Below the slope lay the vast plain under Datong Prefecture, with a small village on its edge named "Wangjiayao Village."
Lao Nanfeng glanced down from the hilltop, then pointed at the largest gentry manor in Wangjiayao Village and chuckled, "Let's go, we're going to loot that family."
The old Guyuan veterans beside him gasped in alarm. "Brother Nanfeng, you can't do that! What was our Labor Reform for all those years? Isn't the Flower World Star Agency good enough for us now? We don't want to go back to the Labor Reform Camp."
Lao Nanfeng laughed. "What are you thinking? I run the super profitable 'Flower World Star Agency'; would I even care about the meager fortune of a small gentry family? The 'looting' I'm talking about is different from what you're imagining."
Everyone looked puzzled. "Huh?"
Lao Nanfeng cackled. "Let's set a trap for the Manchu."
Half an hour later...
Lao Nanfeng, with a large contingent of his men, arrived outside the gates of that prominent family in Wangjiayao Village. The family, surnamed Wang, was a local gentry clan with a modest fortune.
Recently, the Manchu had been pillaging indiscriminately near Xuanfu and Datong, terrifying the Wang family. They worried about when the Manchu would reach Wangjiayao Village, their hearts filled with panic.
So, they had summoned all the common folk from Wangjiayao Village into their fortified manor, distributed weapons, and organized themselves for a siege, like a game of tower defense.
It was into this situation that Lao Nanfeng arrived.
He stood at the fortress gate, hands on his hips, completely ignoring the village militia with bows on the fortress walls. He shouted loudly, "Who's in charge of this fortress? Come out and talk!"
Soon, the head of the Wang family appeared, peering over the fortress wall, looking fearfully at Lao Nanfeng. "General, who might you be?"
Lao Nanfeng grunted, "I'm a general from the border army, surname Nan."
The head of the Wang family quickly put on a fawning smile. "Greetings, General Nan."
Lao Nanfeng said, "The Manchu are coming soon, do you know that?" He pointed northwest. "In that direction, there are two thousand Manchu cavalry raiders pillaging everywhere. In about half an hour, they'll reach Wangjiayao Village."
This news scared the Wang family head half to death. "Half an hour? General, save me!"
Lao Nanfeng snorted, "I couldn't care less about saving you. What I need now is for your entire family to dedicate your lives to the imperial court, to serve as bait for us."
Upon hearing this, the Wang family head's face went pale. "What?!"
Lao Nanfeng continued, "When the Manchu arrive, you resist fiercely. Don't run, even if it means death. Hold this fortress well, and I'll lead my troops to surround them from the outside, attacking the Manchu from front and rear. Understand?"
The expression on the Wang family head's face was utterly priceless, as if to say: Sacrifice *my* family? Are you out of your mind?
However, despite his expression, the words that came out of his mouth were, "I will respectfully follow General Nan's orders."
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