Chapter 133: Despair

From the fleeing crowd, some people suddenly turned and charged back.

The Qing soldiers in pursuit thought at first that more "bandit troops" were counterattacking, but when they saw that the ones rushing toward them were a crowd of old men and women whose teeth had all fallen out, the Qing soldiers burst into roaring laughter, then with savage grins raised their blades and charged at the old people.

"Die, you old wretch!"

"Old bandit, take my blade!"

Amid the jeering laughter, a Green Standard soldier's long saber slashed down viciously on a white-haired old man. With a scream of "Ah—", the old man's upper body was cleaved clean in two while he still lived.

"Kill them! Kill every one of these old wretches!"

The Qing soldiers hacked madly at the old people who had stayed behind so their families could escape. Facing elders the same age as their own parents, some old enough to be their grandfathers, they showed not a shred of sympathy or hesitation.

There was not even a trace of reluctance on their faces—only frenzied killing, frenzied killing...

Over by the stele forest, more than a hundred women had not managed to flee toward the front mountain and were surrounded by a dozen or so Green Standard soldiers. With women, the Green Standard troops suddenly turned "tender and gallant."

They did not use their blades to reap the women's lives, but instead ordered them to come out of the stele forest at once and await the Great Qing soldiers' disposal.

The women's faces all bore bleak, bitter smiles. In times of chaos, they knew better than anyone what fate awaited women, and they understood even more clearly what these Great Qing soldiers most liked to do to women.

Though obeying the order and walking out would let them cling to life for a while, such a shameful survival bought with their chastity was not what they wanted.

Their men were either already dead, or fighting these beasts to the death, or hurrying here under the Battalion Commander's command. Whether in life or death, they would not disgrace their men, still less leave shame upon their husbands.

"In life we are people of the Taiping Camp; in death we are ghosts of the Taiping Camp!"

"Qing dogs! My man will surely come and slaughter you all to avenge me!"

The women answered the Qing soldiers with action. They cursed them viciously and hurled stones at them with all their strength.

"These whore-spawned bitches—refusing a toast only to drink a forfeit! Brothers, get up there and chop them to pieces!"

The Green Standard soldier in charge was infuriated by the women's actions and bellowed, ready to slaughter these ungrateful wenches. But his companions did not heed his words and raise their butcher's blades against the women.

Instead, one after another, they stared at the women with lecherous eyes, as though the harder the women cursed and the harder they threw, the more their animal lust was aroused.

"A bunch of worthless curs! Stop gawking, damn you all—there'll be plenty of fun later. Now follow me! Anyone who doesn't move can think over the consequences himself!"

"The banner lords are all out there killing rebels. If you lot start amusing yourselves here, heh heh..."

The lead Green Standard soldier cursed them irritably. At his words, the Green Standard troops came to their senses. One by one they forcibly suppressed their lust and, somewhat unwillingly, took up their blades and charged toward the front mountain.

After the Qing soldiers left, the women in the stele forest fell silent. After a long while, someone—no one knew who—sighed, and then they silently walked toward the rear mountain. There, there was a little-known path, but what was better known was a cliff a hundred meters high.

Soon, one woman's figure after another emerged from the shadows, following close behind the woman who had come out first.

They held on to one another, some sobbing quietly, some with tears streaming down their faces, some wild with grief and despair.

"My child, my child! You heaven-cursed Tartars—give me back my child!"

In the scripture hall, a woman driven mad rushed at the Qing soldiers, scratching and biting. But how could her frail body pose any threat to those strong soldiers?

The Qing soldiers merely laughed loudly, as if the infant corpses covering the floor did not exist at all, as if these mothers who had lost their children were nothing but their playthings.

The banner soldiers who stormed into the scripture hall had no mercy. They used their great blades to drive out the women and children hiding inside, then left wound after wound on their bodies.

Babbling infants would never again call for their mothers; dying mothers would never again hold their children or feed them a mouthful of milk.

Two banner soldiers whose faces had been scratched dragged the woman who had clawed and bitten them outside the scripture hall. One pinned her body down with all his strength while the other, with a lewd grin, raised his great blade and hacked at the woman's feet.

"Ah—!"

The searing pain made the woman scream as though her heart and lungs were being torn out. Eyes wide with terror, she watched as the banner soldier held up her two severed feet and examined them.

While chasing the commoners fleeing toward the front mountain, more than twenty Green Standard soldiers surrounded over a hundred people. Facing the Qing soldiers' butchering blades and looking at the corpses on the road behind them, these people knew what awaited them.

Some did not fear death; some were numbed by sheer terror; some trembled uncontrollably with fear.

Some people suddenly dropped to their knees and kowtowed to the Qing soldiers without stopping, pleading over and over that they were not "bandit troops" but commoners abducted by the "bandit troops."

They had never worked for the "bandit troops," had never killed any Great Qing officers or soldiers, and their hearts had always been loyal to the Great Qing—as could be seen from the queues still on the backs of their heads.

They begged the Great Qing soldiers to spare them and let them go home. But what they got in return were the Qing soldiers' butchering blades slashing down on their heads.

"Spare me! Spare me, sirs... Ah—!"

"I'm a loyal subject of the Great Qing! I'm a loyal subject of the Great Qing! You can't kill me, you can't kill me..."

Their pleas only made the Qing soldiers more brutal. Ignoring the victims' screams, they simply hacked off their heads with impatience.

After the slaughter, only corpses covered the ground. The sole survivors were a dozen or so girls of seven or eight.

The Qing army did not kill these little girls—not because their consciences troubled them or because they could not bear it, but because the company captain Su Xianting had just given the order: these girls were all valuable goods, and no one was to kill them.

Once they returned to Xinhui, he would sell the girls to the brothels of Guangzhou.

Scene after scene of human tragedy played out unceasingly on the rear mountain of Yutai Temple. Fewer than a hundred Qing soldiers slaughtered nearly ten times their number of the old, the weak, women, and children.

On the front mountain, after half a shichen of desperate resistance, the second line of defense also fell to the Qing army. Zhao Sihai led his remnant troops back to the third line of defense—the Great Hero Hall.

At the same time, under Zhao Wu's cover, Song Xianggong led over a hundred remnant soldiers and several hundred old, weak, women, and children who had fled from the rear mountain back as well.

The vast Great Hero Hall was packed with people, and the square before the hall was even more crowded with panicked, helpless crowds.

The Qing army surrounded the area of the Great Hero Hall from both front and rear. The rear camp's remaining fighting strength numbered fewer than five hundred.

Panic gripped every heart; it was a scene of doomsday. Even Song Xianggong felt the despair of a lost cause.

Dawn was still a shichen away, yet the front camp had still not arrived. It seemed the several thousand old and weak remaining in the rear camp would truly be buried today in this pure Buddhist ground.