Chapter 717 - The Patrol Squadrons
Sunlight filtered through the window lattice. On the bed, the old man stirred and let out a groan. Those who had been standing or sitting at his bedside rose instantly to their feet.
The young woman who had been slumped over the bed's edge lifted her head and gently propped him up. His eyes were glazed, momentarily lost as to where he was.
"Where... is this..."
"The inn," she said quickly. "The Luo family released us."
"Oh." The old man's eyes drifted closed, a wave of relief passing over his weathered features. "This is... their territory... if they insist on taking the horse... just give it to them... we're outsiders here... we'll only come out worse if there's trouble..."
"Rest easy, Father. Lord Luo didn't take the horse. He had his men escort us back to the inn."
"Oh." The old man relaxed visibly, but his eyes flew open again, anxiety creasing his brow. "He didn't demand that you—"
"No—" The young woman's eyes brimmed with tears. "Lord Luo said nothing at all. He simply had us brought back."
"Oh." The assurance seemed to drain the last of his strength. He slipped back into unconsciousness.
A man of about forty spoke up: "The old master's condition still doesn't look good. Should we leave immediately?"
"In his state? He'd die before we reached the next town." The middle-aged woman who answered was decent-looking but haggard. Like the young woman, she wore the short jacket and trousers of a traveling performer.
"If we stay, things might only get worse." The only young man in the room spoke with evident worry. "What if the Luo family has ill intentions? What if Lord Luo takes a liking to Senior Sister?"
"The Luo family are the tyrants here—they could do whatever they pleased," the middle-aged man reasoned. "If he wanted to harm her, he could have done so already. Once we were inside his compound, we were completely at his mercy. Why release us only to cause trouble later?"
"Who knows what scheme he's plotting?" The young man's face bore a wound, clearly from a beating by the militia. He said bitterly, "Just look at his lackeys. You can tell the master is no better."
The middle-aged woman cast a nervous glance at the window. "Good or bad, it's not our concern. Let the old master rest a few days. Once he can travel, we leave. The problem is we've got no money left. Between our horses and equipment, we'll need to hire a larger boat. We'll have to give a few more performances."
An epidemic in Sanliang Market had struck down the whole troupe in turns. Unable to perform, they had burned through their savings on lodging, doctors, and medicine—otherwise they would never have fallen into the moneylender's usury trap.
"Sanliang is actually a good venue—large crowds, decent earnings per show," the middle-aged man sighed. "But after this incident, performing here with peace of mind seems impossible."
The young man spoke again: "I think Senior Sister shouldn't perform anymore! Who knows what trouble might arise?"
The room fell silent. He had a point, but the troupe's star attraction was precisely this young woman—Qingxia, known by her stage name "Rival to the Azure Cloud." Hers was a family tradition of performance arts. Not only was her horsemanship extraordinary, but she excelled at archery, slingshot, sword dancing, bowl balancing, and tightrope walking. The others had their own genuine skills, but having a woman—especially a reasonably attractive young woman—perform equestrian stunts meant each show brought in fifty or sixty percent more coin.
Without "Rival to the Azure Cloud," who knew how long it would take to scrape together travel money? And the old master's condition might not truly be improving. Lodging and medicine all cost silver.
Qingxia raised her head. "I'll still perform. We know something about this town now—the Luo family are tigers. Since the tiger let us walk out of its jaws, the other wolves and dogs probably won't bother us either."
"Senior Sister!" the young man protested.
"Xiaosuo, don't try to dissuade me." Qingxia's mind was made up. "I'm this troupe's star. If I don't perform, the money trickles in too slowly, and we'll be trapped here even longer."
Jiang Suo muttered a few more objections, but the others had visibly brightened. They traveled and performed to earn a living. This was a good place for business. If their star refused to take the stage, how could a handful of adults and a few children carry the show?
The next day, the troupe resumed performing at the threshing ground. Though Guangdong had suffered several calamities since the Wanli reign and various disturbances had risen and fallen, overall it remained far better off than the war-torn Central Plains. The common folk still led passable lives. Rural entertainment was scarce, so a young woman performing equestrian stunts drew spectators not just from the town but from surrounding villages. The first day's business was quite good—and no one came to harass them.
Seeing such success, everyone threw themselves into their performances. To maximize earnings, Qingxia decided to display her archery skills, which she normally kept in reserve. This was a secret family art. Though as a woman she couldn't draw the most powerful bows, with an ordinary infantry bow her accuracy was virtually flawless. Her specialty—shooting coins while on horseback—had been passed down through generations.
When she demonstrated this skill, the sensation was enormous. Spectators came from farther and farther away to watch. Several militia instructors in town observed in secret admiration: this was genuine skill, not empty showmanship.
They earned considerable money, but the old master's condition worsened. They had tried every doctor in town and taken all manner of medicines to no avail. Anxiety mounted—they had been here nearly three months. Normally, a month of performing would have been enough, but now only their few special skills were barely sustaining them. At this rate, even supporting themselves would become difficult.
Just as they were at their wits' end, terrifying news swept through the town: the crop-heads had come.
Chen Haiyang, resting and resupplying at the Bogue, had already received intelligence reports: government troops were establishing heavy defenses at Wuchong, with extensive fortifications and concentrated forces. He instructed his squadron commanders to temporarily avoid entering the Provincial River zone—meaning they were not to pass Wuchong. His plan was to wait until enemy forces had concentrated sufficiently, then strike in one decisive blow to shatter Guangzhou's will to resist completely.
In the meantime, he ordered the patrol squadrons to strike in all directions, further undermining the morale of Guangzhou's officials, gentry, and populace.
The patrol squadrons were designated by English letters, each operating independently. Though squadron commanders had authority to initiate independent actions, including military attacks, Chen Haiyang strictly prohibited any squadron from conducting village annihilations or collective massacres without explicit permission. A balance of mercy and might was his guiding principle. To ensure no squadron suffered defeats that might damage their image, each was required to employ peaceful means wherever possible rather than relying purely on military action.
Wen Desi volunteered to lead a squadron deep into the Pearl River region. Though Chen Haiyang expressed concern for his safety, Chief Wen declared bravely that such danger was nothing.
"Those who fear death don't make revolution! In our cause, we can't just sit in offices reading documents and issuing orders. We must take up swords and guns and fight the old powers!" Chief Wen proclaimed grandly at the Bogue's temporary pier. With that, he strode toward his boat.
D Squadron, under his command, raised sail and, propelled by wind and oar, made its way upriver.
D Squadron comprised ten sampans and five long-dragons. Over two hundred marines and sailors, plus about ten civil affairs personnel. They carried one cannon and various engineering equipment. The long-dragons were larger vessels, able to store supplies and transport cannons. They also provided comfortable sleeping quarters. Wen Desi's "flagship" was aboard a long-dragon; the modest cabin had been carefully appointed, with high marks for both safety and comfort.
The expeditionary force had organized six squadrons in total. They dispersed to townships within Dongguan, Xin'an, Shunde, Xiangshan, Nanhai, and Panyu counties, posting proclamations everywhere and collecting "Reasonable Burden." Guangzhou Prefecture was thrown into alarm.
Xu Tingfa's passive avoidance of battle left the squadrons operating in the Pearl River tributaries virtually unopposed. Guided by former pirates who knew the waterways intimately, the squadrons penetrated various channels. These former pirates were familiar with the surrounding terrain—which towns were wealthy, which were heavily defended with fierce militia and counted as "hard targets," which were isolated and counted as "soft targets."
D Squadron's objective was Shunde. The squadron sailed along the rivers, issuing proclamations to villages and towns, establishing the "Reasonable Burden" system wherever they went. This required almost no effort—under the Australians' fearsome reputation, most villages and towns dared not resist, accepting both the proclamations and the burden.
For communities that offered no resistance, the squadron not only refrained from harassment and extortion but paid cash for all requisitioned supplies and labor. The Reasonable Burden quotas were quite reasonable, never exceeding what a village could bear. Some were even remarkably light.
D Squadron's first encounter with resistance came at Sanshan. After their demands were rejected, Wen Desi ordered an assault. A 12-pounder howitzer mounted on a long-dragon quickly blasted a gap over ten meters wide in the bamboo palisade the villagers had built. The militia behind the palisade gathered at the gap, firing arrows in dense volleys to stop the soldiers from breaking through. Several crude cannons fired intermittently, but the distance was still too great for their projectiles to find any targets. The soldiers used Minié rifles and the 12-pounder mountain howitzer to bombard the breach from long range, quickly routing the militia clustered behind the palisade. They left the ground strewn with corpses. Then soldiers rapidly deployed a lightweight engineer's bridge from boat to shore across the ditch and entered the village.
Sanshan Village was already in total chaos. Women, elderly, and children scrambled to escape. The ground was littered with abandoned shoes, bundles, and scattered objects. But the very ditches and palisades that had protected the village now blocked their flight. D Squadron set up blockade lines at several exits, trapping everyone inside.
Afterward, a village-wide assembly was held at the threshing ground. Villagers were herded there to await their fate. A sea of black-haired heads milled about. Surrounding marines and sailors stood with bayonet-fixed rifles or raised machetes, blades glinting coldly.
In the center of the threshing ground stood something the villagers had never seen—a wide wooden frame with nooses hanging from it.
Captured prisoners knelt weakly to one side. Among them were prominent village figures—anyone capable of organizing militia had some property. Most held examination degrees; at minimum, they were wealthy landowners.
According to Wen Desi's standard thinking, resistance demanded severe punishment. But this Pearl River expedition was not about establishing a long-term base. Excessive punishment might instead inspire local resistance. So the policy toward local defiance was "moderate punishment, divide the masses, strike the magnates."
As retaliation for resisting the Australians, the village's militia commander, training leaders, and instructors—except those already killed or missing—were all hanged before the assembled villagers. Their property was completely confiscated. As for ordinary people—commoners and common militiamen—the civil affairs propagandists announced that everyone had been manipulated and coerced by the wealthy magnates. Since weapons had been confiscated, no further punishment would follow. However, any future attacks on Australian personnel or refusal of Reasonable Burden would result in "far more severe retaliation."
Even this retaliation was severe enough. Death sentences were waived, but living punishment remained. After negotiation, Sanshan Village's entire population paid gold, silver, fabric, rice, and other goods equivalent to roughly a thousand taels of silver. Their assigned Reasonable Burden was also calculated at triple the normal rate.
D Squadron stayed one night at Sanshan, then continued upriver. They successively occupied Mazhou and Pingzhou. Villagers there, having heard of Sanshan's fate, dared not resist. The Reasonable Burden system was easily established. The boats soon filled with tribute. Then D Squadron arrived at Shawan. Shawan's terrain favored defenders—surrounded by water, densely wooded—and residents had built embankments along the shore bristling with bamboo stakes.
D Squadron anchored before Shawan for the night. The next morning, Wen Desi discovered the shores were densely packed with militia—a forest of weapons. Various strange flags flew along the riverbank.
The moment the squadron's boats moved, Shawan's militia fired a volley—over a dozen crude cannons firing together created an impressive spectacle. Smoke shrouded the entire riverbank, but the projectiles were mostly nails, iron scraps, broken porcelain, and pebbles. They splashed into the river barely ten meters out, entirely ineffective.
The long-dragons' cannons and Minié rifles fired simultaneously, instantly clearing the riverbank defenses. Then, under covering fire, sampans carried marines toward the shore. The militiamen shouted defiantly, firing guns and cannons at random, but the accurate Minié rifle fire quickly dispersed them. When the militia realized the crop-heads could shoot them from far beyond their own weapons' range—while even their cannons couldn't reach the enemy—this terrifying reality immediately shook their morale. Then a crude cannon suddenly exploded, killing or wounding over a dozen men. This accident triggered the complete collapse of the Shawan militia. Though the local militia commander Liang Kefa led his household guards in a desperate stand, he and his guards were quickly bayoneted by the marines. Over a dozen more militia commanders, deputy commanders, training leaders, and instructors from various villages were killed or captured. These key personnel had all stood at the front to rally morale; during the rout, most failed to escape.
D Squadron took only an hour and a half that morning to rout over a thousand militia jointly sent by six nearby villages. After killing and capturing a third of them, Shawan and neighboring villages sent envoys to submit. They not only paid one tael of silver per prisoner as ransom but also paid several thousand taels in "reparations." Wen Desi ordered execution of captured militia commanders and training leaders from among the local gentry, following the Sanshan precedent, and confiscated their movable property. Ordinary commoners were forgiven, and troops maintained strict discipline throughout—no looting, arson, or violation. This balanced approach of severity and leniency, treating different groups differently, greatly reduced commoners' interest in resisting the Fubo Army. The gentry and magnates were terrified out of their wits and dared not contemplate armed resistance again.
While Wen Desi's squadron rampaged through Shunde's waterways, Shi Zhiqi's E Squadron roved freely along the Pearl River's main channel, encountering no opposition. He continuously burned numerous river-patrol stations, patrol-inspector offices, and other government facilities along the banks. After capturing Daojiao and Dafen islands, which had attempted resistance, Shi Zhiqi led his troops to seize a battery under construction south of Xiangshan County. He scattered the hundreds of militia defending it, demolished the battery, then appeared beneath Xiangshan's walls. Though Shi Zhiqi had fewer than two hundred men and a dozen boats, the Xiangshan County Magistrate, shocked by his unstoppable advance and pressured by terrified local gentry, ultimately abandoned plans for armed resistance. He dispatched several gentry representatives to negotiate terms, ultimately paying five thousand taels of "city-ransom" for Shi Zhiqi's withdrawal. This experience gave the transmigrators new insight: local officials were often willing to seek compromise.
All squadrons' operations along the Pearl River proceeded smoothly. Even where fighting occurred, casualties remained very light. Squadron commanders followed their instructions: never fight far from the waterways—as long as they stayed near water, they could receive effective fire support from cannons mounted on long-dragons. They never spent nights in local villages, preferring to camp outdoors or sleep aboard their boats—the latter a lesson learned from the work teams' experience in Danzhou.
Shi Zhiqi returned to the Bogue once—to unload spoils, prisoners, and the few wounded from this patrol. After reloading supplies and rotating some personnel, he led the squadron toward Dongguan County. This time, his target was Sanliang Market.
(End of Chapter)