Chapter 104: Taking the City

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The officers all approved of attacking Gaoyao. The vanguard's need for rest and the rear camp's grain problem also forced Zhou Shixiang to attack Gaoyao, so with no objections raised, the order to attack Gaoyao was quickly passed down.

As before, the officers and soldiers each had their own different understanding of attacking Gaoyao. Zhou Shixiang could do nothing about this.

Though he very much wanted to unify the thinking of his officers and men, to give the Taiping Camp a "Sanwan Reorganization," to make the Taiping Camp strive around one common goal and one common ideal, reality would not permit him to do so.

First, the officers came from complicated backgrounds; second, there was no time; third, there were too few educated men in the army.

Since setting out from Luoding, both the vanguard and the rear camp had been in a state of extreme tension and long forced marches. Zhou Shixiang simply had no possibility of stopping to do ideological work on the army, nor any possibility of purging the Taiping Camp's officers.

After all, the Taiping Camp was, strictly speaking, a feudal army. Treating it as a later-era army was unrealistic, and unifying thought was not something Zhou Shixiang could accomplish just by moving his lips.

It required a dedicated group of people to do the work; otherwise, even if he worked himself to death like a pig, he could not accomplish it. Besides, the ones fighting and dying were all those old brothers of bandit and Green Standard origin.

They had only just begun to show some promise, and now you found their bandit air too heavy and wanted to purge them — what the hell kind of thing was that?

Moreover, the urgent matter at hand was how to successfully lead this army of the Taiping Camp — formed from bandits and grown strong by coercing commoners — to its future base at Xiangshan. Compared with this matter, all other problems were secondary.

So long as he could accomplish the great goal of strategic transfer, Zhou Shixiang could tolerate ideological confusion among his subordinates, could tolerate some officers retaining bandit thinking, and could even tolerate some outrageous conduct.

Just as when he had dealt with Chen Mo at Xinxing Town for letting his troops loot — the rod must fall, but the head must never be cut.

At least until they had gained a stable territory and transformed from "roving bandits" into "government troops," unless a crime was monstrous, Zhou Shixiang had no thought of executing anyone.

On the contrary, he would allow them to atone for their crimes through merit and let them bring out their greatest usefulness.

The officers were thinking of getting rich and resting at Gaoyao, while the soldiers were thinking of seizing grain at Gaoyao for their wives and children. With motivation to fight, spirit naturally followed.

At Zhou Shixiang's order, the vanguard quickly assembled and, led by Song Ying, advanced toward Gaoyao.

To achieve the effect of a surprise attack, every commoner encountered along the way was forcibly tied up and brought into the army, lest any of them report to the Gaoyao Green Standard and allow the city's Green Standard to prepare.

Although they did not take the Gaoyao garrison Green Standard seriously, fewer casualties was always better. If they truly had to assault with hard steel and hard blades, some men would inevitably die in battle.

The march was very fast, and as a result, by the time they reached the outskirts of Gaoyao, more than a hundred soldiers had fallen behind because they could not endure the forced march.

After arriving, the remaining soldiers were no better off: some leaned against the woods panting heavily, some propped themselves on their long spears with hearts pounding, some sat down on the ground and refused to move no matter what.

Over a thousand men hid in the woods, too tired to speak. Were it not for the occasional cough, one might have had the illusion that these men were all already dead.

It was fortunate that back at Luoding, Zhou Shixiang had deliberately made forced marches a training item for the soldiers; otherwise, who knew how many men would have collapsed from exhaustion on the march these past days.

Although more than a hundred soldiers had fallen behind on the road, Zhou Shixiang was already quite satisfied.

"Brothers, prepare to attack the city!"

After a short rest of about half an incense stick's time, Zhou Shixiang ordered each unit to prepare for battle.

Upon hearing the order to prepare for battle, some veteran soldiers could not help cheering, for in their eyes, the Gaoyao not far away was like a woman stripped naked waiting for them to mount her.

They gave no thought at all to whether this woman would resist; as long as they charged up, they could have themselves a fine time.

The soldiers who had experienced the Battle of Deqing, the Battle of Xinxing, and the Battle of Sihui were also mostly confident of taking Gaoyao. Having recovered a little strength, their faces wore relaxed smiles, and their pre-battle preparations were complete.

They only awaited the order to launch the attack on Gaoyao.

But those able-bodied young men who had been forcibly swept into the Taiping Camp after Xinxing could not cheer up. One by one, their faces bitter, they looked at Gaoyao ahead. These able-bodied young men had mostly been forcibly dragged into the army after the Taiping Camp occupied Xinxing.

These young recruits, ordinary commoners not long ago, had been with the vanguard for half a month now, but after all they had never been in battle.

They had only been responsible for logistics and chores like cleaning up battlefields, and this was their first time attacking a city garrisoned by Green Standard troops, so the unease in their hearts was understandable.

Many instinctively thought that once the assault began, the Taiping Camp might use them as the first wave of cannon fodder. If that were so, their little lives would most likely be buried at Gaoyao.

Before the assault, Zhou Shixiang again summoned Song Ying and once more questioned him in detail about the Green Standard situation in Gaoyao. Song Ying answered everything, and suggested waiting until after dark to attack, as that would give greater assurance.

Taking a city in broad daylight was indeed very difficult. Without the engineer camp, Zhou Shixiang naturally would not have dared consider a daytime assault, because he did not have many troops to spend.

But with the engineer camp's miners and blasting experience, he naturally did not need to wait until night to attack. On the contrary, he could no longer restrain his desire to see the engineer camp's first live-combat blasting effect.

After the attack order was issued, each unit began to assemble, led by their banner commanders and squad leaders toward Gaoyao. Looking at the not-very-large walls of Gaoyao two or three li away, the entire vanguard held its breath, and the newly added able-bodied young men were especially tense.

After the Taiping Camp emerged from the woods, commoners who had come out of the city to gather firewood soon spotted them. After a brief moment of shock, the commoners threw away the firewood in their hands and ran shouting toward the city.

"Brothers, charge!"

Qin Zhisheng's unit covered the engineer camp, personally led by Tie Yi, as it charged toward the foot of the city wall.

After reaching the wall, Tie Yi was just about to order his men to dig holes and bury explosives when he heard Qin Zhisheng cry out in alarm, followed by something he had not expected — the gate of Gaoyao had not been closed in time.

From the moment the Taiping Camp emerged from the woods to the moment they reached the foot of the wall, the time elapsed should have been enough for the Green Standard troops in the city to take alarm and close the gate.

Yet the fact was that after the Taiping Camp reached the wall, the gate still stood wide open, and there was not even a single Green Standard soldier on the wall. Instead, quite a few commoners from the city were hurrying out through the gate.

What the hell is this, seeing ghosts?

Qin Zhisheng and Tie Yi were both dumbfounded. The latter inexplicably recalled the story of the Empty City Stratagem he had heard when he used to follow his master into the city.

Was it a trick, or was it truly an empty city?

Qin Zhisheng's eyeballs rolled around. Having rolled through military life for the better part of his life, after a brief hesitation he raised his blade and charged into the city.

Seeing Qin Zhisheng lead his men charging into the city, Tie Yi did not think twice and led his men charging in as well.

Once inside, he saw Qin Zhisheng leading his men in close combat with a dozen or so Qing soldiers, and from a distance he heard Qin Zhisheng shouting at him in urgent fury something about the Han Banners, the Han Banners.

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