Chapter 146: The Tunnel

"Murder! The bandit soldiers are killing people!"

"The bastards actually did it!"

Along with the cheers of the Taiping Army came countless cries of alarm from the able-bodied men on the city wall, while the Qing army erupted in curses from the breach.

"A grieving army is bound to win.

With the bandits pulling a stunt like this, it seems that before the Guangzhou relief troops arrive, the bandits won't be setting one foot inside my Xinhui city."

Zheng Guodong did not even look at the execution taking place across from him, and said lightly to Company Commander Qin Wu beside him.

Qin Wu hurriedly chimed in: "Sir is right. The more the bandits act like this, the more our brothers will share a common hatred for the enemy. Heh, the bandits' method actually boosts our morale. Look, sir, our brothers are all holding back their strength, eager to avenge our men!"

"Mm..."

Zheng Guodong swept a glance over them, and sure enough, his subordinates all had round glaring eyes and gnashing teeth, their expressions wishing they could hack the bandits across from them into ten thousand pieces.

His subordinates' display naturally greatly satisfied Zheng Guodong. He gave a slight nod, and felt a few more degrees of confidence about holding Xinhui city.

When Heaven is about to place a great responsibility on a man...

Zheng Guodong did not know why this thought came to him. Perhaps he had been suppressed for too long, and this time, it ought to be his chance to win merit and make his name.

The bandits are not worth a single blow!

On the other side, the face of Su Xianting, company captain of the Han Banners, was somewhat twisted, twisted almost to the point of savagery.

"Chop!"

"Chop!"

"Chop!"

Shao Jiugong seemed to do it deliberately, drawing out his tone as he issued one life-taking shout after another.

One head after another rolled to the ground amid his fierce shouts.

It was not that no Qing soldiers had begged for mercy, but after seeing that no matter how their companions in front begged, the Taiping Army still cut off their heads without hesitation, the Qing soldiers behind all gave up hope.

The only thing they could do was let out the most piercing shrieks as they died.

Scream after scream made the faces of the Taiping Army officers and men flush red — not the red of shame, but the red of hot blood.

Look, the Tartars feel pain too!

Look, the Tartars fear death too!

Look, they can scream too!

Fang Yi was also one of the executioners of these surrendered soldiers. The head he cut off belonged to a camp soldier named Jin Lin. He had seen him before, had drunk with him, eaten meat with him, and fought over the same woman.

Fang Yi clearly remembered that when he raised his blade, Jin Lin suddenly turned his head and said to him: "Good brother, give me a quick end!"

After his blade swung down, Fang Yi did not dare look, and only after the Taiping soldiers to his left and right ordered him to step back did he dare open his eyes. Opening them made him feel somewhat better — Jin Lin's neck had been severed thoroughly, and very cleanly.

The execution of the captives continued. The severed heads drew the eyes of the Taiping Army officers and men, and also drew the attention of the Qing troops on the wall.

At this moment, right inside the Taiping Army camp, a squad of elite sappers from the Vanguard Battalion, under the personal leadership of centurion Tie Yi, was quietly digging a tunnel leading straight to the wall of Xinhui city.

Digging a tunnel three or four li long underground, while ensuring the tunnel did not veer off course during the digging, was without doubt an enormous and extremely precise civil engineering project.

Yet while this project might be extremely difficult for others, for miners who spent years on end digging pits and tunnels underground, it was merely routine.

To avoid being discovered by the Qing troops on the wall, the earth dug out by the sappers was wrapped in clothing and carried bundle by bundle to the rear of the camp, rather than being piled directly at the tunnel mouth.

Logs used to shore up the tunnel were also transported inside under the cover of various carts and horses.

Xinhui county seat was not far from the Tan River, and the terrain around the county seat was flat plain, so there was a great deal of groundwater, which added considerable difficulty to the digging.

After half a shichen of digging, Tie Yi and his men had only managed to dig a tunnel more than nine chi deep, nearly six chi wide, and about eight zhang long. (Author's note: one zhang is about 3.3 meters, and one meter is about 3.3 chi.)

The water in the tunnel could not possibly be drained dry, so nearly all the Vanguard Battalion sappers digging inside had both knees soaking in water.

Fortunately, although there was water underground, it was not a silt bog; the yellow clay was quite solid, which allowed the digging work to continue.

Tie Yi's specialty was placing powder charges for blasting; he was not proficient at tunnel digging.

The man in charge of the entire digging operation was platoon commander Zhang Fulai, an old miner who had led teams underground at the Old Phoenix Village copper mine, and whose mastery of underground work Tie Yi could not hope to match.

After receiving the order to dig a tunnel straight to the Xinhui city wall, Zhang Fulai had taken two apprentices and secretly crept beneath Xinhui city the previous night, using the cover of darkness to do a great deal of preparatory work, ensuring the digging mission would not fail.

He had also successfully opened the tunnel mouth, made corresponding adjustments based on the actual conditions underground, and at the current rate of digging, Zhang Fulai guaranteed that by dawn tomorrow the gunpowder would certainly be successfully planted beneath Xinhui city.

Progress reports on the tunnel digging were continuously relayed to Zhou Shixiang. The captives had all been executed, and the bodies and heads had been carried to the rear.

The Qing troops on the wall showed no reaction apart from cursing across the distance. The impatient Jiang He and Ge Zheng proposed trying an assault on the city first, and if it could not be taken, then discuss further.

This proposal was of course rejected by Zhou Shixiang. In yesterday's probing attack, the Tiger Swift Battalion had already lost more than thirty men.

Without enough artillery to suppress the defenders on the wall, he could not possibly throw the lives of the Taiping Camp's few soldiers under the Qing cannons. Besides, traditional siege methods were simply not worth the cost for the attacking side.

Zhou Shixiang did not have the capital to compete with the Qing army in a contest of attrition in lives.

For the entire day, the Qing troops showed no sign of coming out of the city. The Guangzhou Qing troops would arrive in two days at the earliest, which meant the time left for the Taiping Army to take Xinhui city was only two days.

If after two days the Taiping Army could not appear atop the walls of Xinhui, they would face a pincer attack from the Guangzhou Qing troops and the Xinhui garrison.

The sappers digging the tunnel had already rotated through several shifts. Each shift came out looking like clay figures, mud all over their bodies and faces. Many soldiers' hands and feet were rubbed raw with blisters, and the earth carried out of the tunnel had piled up high behind the camp.

Near evening, the Qing troops suddenly fired several cannon shots in the direction of the Taiping Army.

The sound of the cannons made Zhou Shixiang highly tense, thinking the Qing troops had come out of the city, but soon after, the Tiger Swift Battalion at the front reported that the Qing troops had not come out. This left Zhou Shixiang somewhat puzzled.

If they did not intend to come out, why were the Qing troops firing cannons?

Shao Jiugong answered this question for Zhou Shixiang. He told Zhou Shixiang that the few cannon shots the Qing troops fired were merely to boost their own soldiers' morale and incidentally intimidate the Taiping Army, with no other purpose.

Even so, Zhou Shixiang was still uneasy, and ordered the Heroic Might Battalion and the Tiger Swift Battalion to keep a close watch on Xinhui city together, ready for battle at any moment.

At the third quarter of the chou hour, Zhang Fulai, his face weary but unable to suppress his excitement, crawled out of the tunnel. He brought the good news everyone had been waiting for — the tunnel had already been dug beneath the city wall.

"Hah!"

Zhou Shixiang looked at Xinhui city in the night and let out a long breath.

Two large coffins filled with granulated gunpowder were carefully dragged into the tunnel by the sappers, pulled forward step by step through the mud. At the end of the tunnel, beneath the city bricks, Zhang Fulai directed the sappers, who had already opened out a chamber.

A fuse made of hemp rope, soaked in vinegar and dozens of meters long, was sealed in oiled leather by Tie Yi and carried into the tunnel against his chest. He would light the fuse with his own hands, and blow down the wall of Xinhui with his own hands.

Because no one knew exactly how powerful the explosion of two coffins of granulated gunpowder would be, Zhou Shixiang was somewhat worried about Tie Yi's safety. The explosion could certainly bring down the Xinhui city wall, but it would likewise collapse the tunnel.

If the man lighting the fuse could not return to a safe zone before the explosion, he would absolutely be buried alive underground.

Tie Yi refused Zhou Shixiang's order to find someone else to light the fuse. He said to Zhou Shixiang: "My life is a life, and other men's lives are lives too.

If there really is danger after the explosion, then I would rather this centurion die than send another brother to die. Otherwise, what satisfaction would there be in being this centurion?"

Zhou Shixiang did not forcibly order a replacement. What Tie Yi said was exactly what he himself thought — other men's lives are lives too!

Under the silent gaze of everyone, Tie Yi went down into the tunnel without hesitation, and disappeared from their sight.

The sappers who had hauled the coffins came out of the tunnel one after another, worry written on every face. Clearly, on their way back they had already seen their centurion, and knew what their centurion was going to do.

Zhang Fulai was the last to come out. Now only Tie Yi and one of his apprentices remained in the tunnel.