Chapter 87: The Musket Shows Its Might

For the villagers, the time of overthrowing the landlords and dividing the land was not only immensely gratifying but also brought an unattainable joy, and the days that followed were quite comfortable for everyone in the village.

First, everyone in the village was allocated land, tools of production, and grain, enabling them to eat their fill and stay warm.

Second, the newly established committee truly acted in the spirit of serving the people; besides the school previously established, it also trained barefoot doctors to address the lack of physicians in the village, with their wages paid by the committee to ensure every villager could receive medical care even without money.

Third, the committee formed farming teams to cultivate fields for families with soldiers, occasionally organized the Red Guard to do farm work for Red Guard families, and even organized villagers to build small-scale water conservancy facilities and produce some relatively advanced farming tools to help farmers till the land.

That feeling of life getting better and better brought immense satisfaction to everyone's hearts until the tax collectors arrived.

As soon as these tax collectors arrived, they clamored to see the local landlord, but since the landlords had been killed by them, naturally they could not come; seeing the landlord would not appear, the tax collectors slammed the table and stated the purpose of their visit.

It turned out that recently, a large number of slaves purchased by the Jurchens in this area had escaped in bulk; to compensate the Jurchens for their losses, these several villages were required to provide men to serve as slaves for the Jurchens. Hearing this, the local Red Guard directly killed the tax collectors.

Upon learning this news, the county magistrate flew into a rage and immediately notified the county's patrol inspector to lead troops at once to suppress the rebels.

Once the order was issued, the secret agents in the county town returned without stopping to report the news.

Upon learning the news that the magistrate had sent troops to encircle and annihilate them, Zhang Chu'an and Zhang Xiaofan felt quite complex emotions, for they truly did not expect the magistrate to give them such an opportunity, taking a full three months to reach them, and coming not to inspect the situation but to collect taxes.

Building their revolutionary base so smoothly felt somewhat unreal to them.

Although this was the first battle for their revolutionary army, they were very confident, for this unit was not only a force with faith but also equipped with Type 56 semi-automatic rifles capable of crushing this era.

The battle plan was also very simple: divide the troops into three routes, set up ambushes on the enemy's inevitable path, and strive to swallow the three routes of patrol inspectors in one bite.

"Guarantee to complete the mission." After the three company commanders made their pledges together, they each set up ambushes on the enemy's inevitable path.

Fighting the county's patrol troops for the first time, everyone felt somewhat nervous; covering themselves with camouflage, not a single person dared to breathe heavily.

Company Commander Li Ziming, fully aware of this situation, comforted them: "Everyone, do not be nervous. Representative Zhang has already told us that the patrol inspectors in the county town are all paper tigers, lacking the courage to fight us to the death, and moreover, they wield cold weapons like swords, spears, and halberds, not the guns in our hands."

They don't have the kind of guns in our hands? Hearing the company commander's comfort, all the soldiers relaxed and gripped the guns in their hands tightly; although this weapon is called a gun, it belongs to ranged weapons just like the bow and arrow.

But this weapon is far more terrifying than the bow and arrow; the bow and arrow must be drawn by rare strongmen to shoot over a hundred paces, but this gun, even an ordinary person like him can fire up to four hundred paces.

The little thing called a bullet fired by this weapon easily pierces through an iron pot.

With this weapon, he can easily take down ten archers.

After about two or three hours, the enemy arrived; seeing the patrol troops from the county town, they were somewhat stunned, as they resembled the hooligans in the village, and even looked less sturdy than the landlords' guards.

They wore the same clothes as the hooligan guards, wielding long weapons like red-tasseled spears, and there were about twenty or thirty holding bows and arrows.

Most importantly, they surprisingly had no so-called armor on their bodies, nor did they have the so-called "guns" in their hands.

It was noon, the weather was extremely hot, and the patrol inspector Yang Shi, who had come to suppress the rebellion, couldn't help wiping sweat and said: "This ghostly weather is so hot; I wonder what the magistrate my lord is thinking. A mere rebellion of a few villages could be easily quelled by one patrol unit, yet he sends all three of us patrol inspectors to mobilize."

This kind of mission offers no profit and is hard work; oh well, who can do anything when the Jurchens are ruling now.

Suddenly, with a "Bang!", the patrol inspector turned pale with fright; "Not good, these mud-legs know military strategy, they actually ambushed us on the road we were coming!" Just as he was pondering how to counterattack.

A deafening sound resounded across the sky, continuous and terrifying. His soldiers, like wheat cut down, fell one by one into pools of blood; their lives vanished in an instant, turning into patches of desolate red.

He stood there, facing this tragic scene, his eyes filled with confusion and despair. Until the moment he was killed, he still did not know what power had defeated them; this power was so strong, like demons from hell, leaving them no chance to fight back.

Not only they but also the soldiers who fired the guns found it unbelievable; even Company Commander Li Ziming was somewhat incredulous. They had so easily annihilated a patrol unit; one-third of the county's army was so utterly useless.

For safety's sake, Li Ziming ordered all soldiers to change magazines and, at a distance of several dozen meters, fired a few more shots at that patrol unit.

The patrol soldiers who had originally been wailing in pain finally breathed their last.

After discovering that everyone had been killed by them, a soldier in the company asked the company political instructor Huang Xujiu: "Did doing this violate the principle set by the Representative that we must not mistreat prisoners?"

Hearing this question, Huang Xujiu scratched his head and said: "They didn't shout surrender, so they shouldn't count as prisoners; only those who shout surrender count as prisoners, right?"

The soldier who raised the question said "Oh" and said nothing more.

The situation in the other two companies was similar, but each captured a few prisoners; the news of the great victory by the three companies made the people of the several villages very happy, and they wanted to hold a joint celebration party.

However, this meeting was called off by the two of them, for in their view, defeating these three patrol units was truly nothing to be proud of.

That night, all military cadres and committee members held a meeting; the main content of the meeting was to summarize the experience of this battle and determine the next steps.

As soon as the meeting began, Company Commander Hu Ke of the Second Company couldn't wait to say: "In this battle, we finally understand why the Representatives said they are paper tigers; our regiment aimed at them and fired a few shots, killing them all. Now the troops in the county town have been completely annihilated by us. Representative, it is time for us to march into the county town."

Zhang Xiaofan looked at Hu Ke and asked: "And then? After we seize the county town, we rebel loudly, and then the prefecture sends troops to suppress us; by then, what comes will not be the kind of trash we saw today. But if we do not attack the county town, the magistrate will suppress the news of the patrol unit's destruction to save his official position."

"We only have three hundred people; if we take the county town now, the rural areas can only rely on the landlords to manage them. In that case, we would be no different from the oppressive governments of the Song Dynasty and the Jin Kingdom in the eyes of the broad masses. When the common people do not stand on our side, the landlords will stab us in the back."

After hearing Zhang Xiaofan's words, Hu Ke lowered his head and said: "I am sorry, Regiment Commander, I was too impatient."

"No need for that; anyone would be somewhat arrogant after easily achieving victory." Zhang Xiaofan waved his hand, indicating Hu Ke need not worry.

"Just now, Regiment Commander Zhang has already stated our disadvantages: our numbers are too small, the landlord lords are naturally opposed to us, and the broad masses do not yet understand us. Therefore, we need to be down-to-earth, go deep into the vast countryside to liberate the masses, establish a people's government, and let more masses truly feel the benefits we bring them, so they will stand on our side."

"We must adhere to this principle of surrounding the cities from the countryside for a very long time to come," Zhang Chu'an couldn't help but sigh.

"Yes," everyone said in unison.