Chapter 192: Spies

When the Taiping Army seized Xinhui, Qi Hao and his brothers were holed up in the mountain forests northwest of the city, not far from the Tan River. Besides their bandit work, they also did business with several nearby powers.

Of course, this business was no proper business — every bit of it was blood-soaked. Over time they built up quite a local reputation, and because of their "business" needs they had also gotten entangled with the Qing army.

Though forced by the need to survive into doing business with the Qing army, Qi Hao still had his bottom line.

He repeatedly warned his brothers that doing business with the Qing army was one thing, but they must never be used by them, and absolutely never surrender, lest they disgrace the name of their old lord.

After all, Qi Hao had fought at the old lord's side for so many years, had watched with his own eyes as the old lord was shot dead by Qing troops, had followed the old lord's four sworn sons in retreat from Sichuan to Yunnan, and then fought their way back out of Yunnan.

After all these years, he had nothing to discuss with the Tartars — either you die, or I die!

In all honesty, Qi Hao had done plenty of evil, and plenty of innocents had died under his blade, but for him to surrender to the Tartars — don't even think about it. Unless he, Qi the Fourth, was dead, he would keep fighting the Tartars!

Damn it all, he refused to believe this Han land could truly be taken by the Tartars!

While Qi Hao's brothers were out seeking "livelihood" nearby, they ran into the envoy Zhou Shixiang had sent to contact these Ming army remnants.

Learning that the Taiping Army had taken Xinhui, these former Ming soldiers were naturally shocked, and dared not delay in escorting the envoy up the mountain.

After meeting Qi Hao, the envoy briefly explained the Taiping Army's situation, and finally asked Qi Hao and his men, for the sake of all being soldiers of the Great Ming, to come down from the mountain and reinforce Xinhui.

After more than half a year as bandits, and another half year of waiting, word of their own army had finally come — but which unit was this Taiping Army, and under which lord did it serve?

Qi Hao was certain this Taiping Army was not under the command of Li Dingguo of the Western Prefecture, nor, as far as he could recall, under any other force in Guangdong. But it didn't matter — as long as they fought the Tartars, that was enough.

What's more, this Taiping Army had accomplished what even the Western Prefecture's tens of thousands of troops had failed to do — they had taken Xinhui!

What the gain or loss of Xinhui meant for Guangzhou and the whole situation in Guangdong, Qi Hao, who had once been a Regional Commander, understood perfectly.

He agreed to the envoy's request almost without hesitation, willing to bring his brothers down from the mountain and join the Taiping Army. Yet before they even reached Xinhui, word came that Xinhui was already surrounded by Qing troops.

At this, not only Qi Hao's brothers, but even the Taiping Army envoy who had contacted them lost their bearings, unsure what to do.

Faced with this dilemma, Qi Hao's men wavered.

Half were unwilling to keep advancing toward certain death, saying bluntly that even if they broke through the Qing encirclement and entered the city, it would be useless — couldn't they see the Qing army had Xinhui sealed off three layers deep on the outside and three layers deep on the inside?

If they charged in, they'd starve to death! From the look of it, even if the Taiping Army had taken Xinhui, they couldn't hold it — death was only a matter of time.

That being so, they'd best return to the mountain, lest they throw their lives away for nothing.

The other half refused to go back to the mountain and be bandits again. Most of them were originally from the Daxi Army, and had followed Qi Hao through battle after battle against the Qing for years.

They might not understand any grand national cause, but every one of them was a stout-hearted man who would rather die fighting than surrender to the Tartars.

Now there was an army right before them locked in bitter combat with the Qing — if they didn't go join these good men in killing Tartars and instead shrank back to banditry, what kind of men would that make them? Besides, could they truly live with themselves as bandits?

Which of them hadn't been jolted awake by nightmares in the middle of the night? Which of them could face his own conscience?

Seeing Qi Hao's men fall to arguing, the envoy could do nothing but pin his hopes on Qi Hao, their leader.

Faced with his subordinates' division, Qi Hao was straightforward about it: he simply told those unwilling to join the Taiping Army to go back on their own, while those willing to join would follow him.

He then told the envoy that it was true the Tartars had surrounded Xinhui, but the encirclement wasn't a watertight barrel — charging straight in was out of the question. His handful of men wouldn't even be enough to fill the gaps between the Qing army's teeth.

To get into the city, they'd have to find another way.

Another way?

The envoy was just an ordinary foot soldier in the Taiping Army.

He had been chosen by Zhou Shixiang to go out and contact Ming forces in various places because he could talk and knew a few characters, but he had no particular quick wit, and his courage was no greater than anyone else's.

If he were truly forced to steel himself and charge into the encirclement, he would be afraid too. If not for his old mother and two young siblings still in the city, he might well have stripped off his Taiping Army uniform and run.

When Qi Hao said he would find another way into the city, the envoy was naturally glad and agreed at once, though he still had little hope that Qi Hao could find any safe way in. But this Qi Hao, for all his rough appearance, was a careful-minded man.

He actually spotted a weak point in the Qing defense line, and boldly proposed that in the dead of night they find a small boat, slip ashore from the river, and then quietly make their way into the city.

Landing a large force from the river would certainly not work — unless every man of the Guangdong naval force on the river was dead. But a single small boat carrying a dozen or so men slipping ashore was feasible.

After all, the Qing army only wanted to starve the Taiping Army out, to prevent them from breaking through, and to cut off any Ming reinforcements from every direction. Beyond that, they cared little what went on inside the city.

Even if a few men did slip in, as long as it wasn't a large force and they carried no grain, it made no difference to the Qing.

The envoy could think of no better plan, so he had no choice but to agree to Qi Hao's idea. After carefully observing for several days, Qi Hao finally led them in a night approach toward Xinhui.

The journey was tense but uneventful — though they encountered a Qing naval patrol boat, they were not discovered. After coming ashore they met no Qing troops either, and after much nail-biting, they finally reached the city walls.

A few shouted exchanges later, Zhou Shixiang was called over.

As for Qi Hao and his men coming to join them, there were those in the Taiping Army who were suspicious, and Song Xianggong was one of them.

He reminded Zhou Shixiang that Xinhui had been surrounded for over a month, and of the dozen or so groups sent out of the city earlier, not one had returned. Now suddenly one had appeared, and brought men back with him — it could well be a trick.

If these newcomers were Qing agents planted inside, letting them in so easily might bring disaster.

To make sure Zhou Shixiang took this seriously, Song Xianggong cited several known cases of Qing agents opening city gates from within — whether in the Liaodong campaigns during the Tianqi and Chongzhen reigns, or after the Qing army entered the pass, when faced with strong cities that were hard to take, the Qing often used spies to infiltrate, then coordinated from within to open the gates.

The Qing had used this trick again and again, and it worked again and again, impossible to guard against.

Song Xianggong's warning made Zhou Shixiang uneasy too, and he couldn't help doubting whether these newcomers were genuine. But then he thought: there were only a dozen or so of them.

Even if they were Qing spies, what could they do? As long as they were properly watched, what waves could these men stir up?

But if he refused to let them in, and these men truly were patriots coming to join them, what a pity that would be!

In the end, Zhou Shixiang chose to let them in. Another reason that moved him to do so was curiosity — he was very curious how this group had broken through the Qing defense line and reached the city walls.