"Kill..."
"Those who surrender will avoid death..."
Throughout the city, killing cries continued to move from the west gate to the east. The surrendered Eight Banners soldiers were taken to the vanguard by the bandit suppressing army.
For the flag soldiers who were still resisting in the city at this time, the bandit suppressing army asked these surrender soldiers to go up and persuade them to surrender if they could. If they refused to surrender, they were left to deal with it on their own. Unless these troops surrendered and fought with the resisting Eight Banners defenders until all of them were killed or injured, the bandit suppressing army would not take action.
"Fabage, surrender quickly. The anti-bandit army commander has said that surrendering now can save you from death. If you continue to be stubborn and dare to resist, your whole family will be buried with you." Southwest of Manchu City The leader of a group of soldiers who surrendered to the Eighth Route Army shouted loudly to the leader of another group who was still resisting with swords and bows in hand.
"Muladuo, you guys dare to betray your master and the court. You will definitely die a good death. You don't need to waste your words here. Even if I die, I, Fabage, will be loyal to the emperor and will never betray the court. . If you are really capable, just come here!" The red-flag defense lieutenant named Valbag was yelling angrily at the captors.
"Varbag, I have nothing to say if you want to die, but don't you think about your family members? The bandit suppression army has already invaded Mancheng, and there is no way for anyone to escape in Mancheng at this time. Maybe, those who don't surrender will have to be buried together with their whole family." Murado continued to persuade him earnestly, hoping that Fabag would be more sensible.
"Muladuo, please don't waste any more words. When did I, the Eight Banners disciples, appear to be cowards like you? If you have the ability, just come over. Even if I go to hell, I am worthy of the imperial court and worthy of the Holy Master. A loyal and brave man. I will become a hero again after eighteen years. Shameless betrayers like you will definitely be in hell for eternity." Vabag cursed sonorously, looking righteous and awe-inspiring.
"You madman, an unreasonable fool. Do you have to have everyone buried with you?" Murado got angry and cursed after hearing what Valbag said.
Immediately, seeing that Mulado, who was unable to persuade Bagh to surrender, turned his efforts to persuade Bagh to surrender, he turned to the soldiers with the red flag behind him and shouted to them: "The soldiers behind Fbag who are under the red flag, now The entire city has been surrounded by three levels of bandit suppressing troops, one inside and three outside."
"Originally, the bandit suppressing army ordered to prepare to massacre us all in the city. However, Zhang Liuge, the leader of the bandit suppressing army, was kind and gave the order. Those who put down their weapons and surrender at this time can still avoid death. If they still choose to continue to resist, their whole family will be killed. Buried with him. Everyone, please think about your family and don’t be stupid with this lunatic named Valbag.”
Mulado's shouting made the red flag soldiers behind Fabag moved.
"That's right. Since the rebels promised that they could surrender, why not surrender and save their lives if they can save their lives?"
Listening to Murado's shouting, Fabag shouted in his heart that it was not good. If I had given the soldiers behind me more time to think, I might have stopped them from surrendering and had them hacked to death before surrendering.
"Everyone, rush forward and kill these rebels." Valbag turned around and shouted to the flag soldiers behind him.
However, under the command shouted by Valbag, no one moved, and everyone seemed to be watching.
"Qiang..."
I saw Valbag instantly pull out the military-style sword hanging on his waist, and then slashed at the young flag soldier standing motionless in front of him.
"puff…"
Before the flag soldier, who was only wearing a simple leather armor, could react, Valbag had already broken the armor with a knife, and he fell to the ground howling.
The flag soldier's blood spurted out with the knife and splashed onto Valbag's face. The blood flowed from Valbag's cheek to his chin, and then dripped. All these scenes looked particularly ferocious on the face of the ferocious Valbag.
"Come forward and kill the rebels in front of you. If anyone dares to resist the former, he will be treated like this person." Valbag held a simple knife in his hand and pointed at the flag soldiers lying on the ground, covering their wounds and wailing, and shouted loudly.
"Kill..."
Therefore, under the intimidation of Valbag and the leadership of several diehard loyalists of Valbag, the Zhenghong Banner soldiers who were originally motionless had no choice but to follow "everyone" and rush toward Mula with swords and shouts.
Under the supervision of the bandit suppressing army, Mulado and his group of surrender soldiers could only rush forward with their swords in hand to fight with the overcoming flag soldiers.
"Dang...dang...dang..."
As soon as the two parties come into contact, their swords will clash with each other.
They were comrades a while ago, but now they are life-and-death enemies.
Originally out of hatred for the Manchus, Zhang Rui really wanted to have the bandit suppressing army implement a thorough policy of massacre.
However, shortly after the bandit-suppressing army entered Mancheng Gate, the bandit-suppressing army attacking the city came over and asked Zhang Rui for instructions: At this time, the Eight Banners soldiers knelt down and surrendered. Should they kill these surrendered soldiers?
This request suddenly reminded Zhang Rui of something.
When the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom attacked Nanjing, they massacred more than 20,000 Manchus in the city, but they also lost 70,000 to 80,000 soldiers.
Obviously, blindly killing people may relieve their anger, but in the end, they will kill one thousand enemies and suffer eight hundred losses. Not to mention that he might suffer more casualties?
If the people in this city are not given a way to survive at all, there will be no way to divide them, and they will only form a fight between trapped beasts. Even if the bandit-suppressing army can kill them all, it will still cause considerable damage to the bandit-suppressing army. This is completely inconsistent with Zhang Rui's ideal plan.
Later, the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom gradually declined. Seeing the defeat of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, the Eight Kings who guarded Suzhou City surrendered to Li Hongzhang, who was attacking Suzhou City at that time.
Li Hongzhang pretended to lure the eight kings of Suzhou City to surrender, but in the end he broke his promise and killed them. At the same time, more than 20,000 Taiping soldiers who surrendered in Suzhou were also massacred by the Qing army without any defense.
Li Hongzhang's treacherous massacre was not only despicable by those great Confucians. Zeng Guofan, who always regarded himself as a "Confucian scholar", highly praised this incident, saying that "in recent events here, Li Shaoquan was the fastest to kill and surrender the eight kings in Suzhou" and "he was extremely discerning and ruthless".
"Since the Qing army mostly does things without principles or methods, why should I tell you this?" Thinking of this, Zhang Rui had a plan in his mind.
"Don't you want to surrender? Okay, I will leave you to surrender. But I will only accept the surrender of the entire city. If those who refuse to surrender, I will leave you to deal with them. As for those who still refuse to surrender, the Manchus will die. Loyal people, don’t blame me for not giving your family a chance.”
So, following Zhang Rui's order. For the sake of their families, the soldiers who surrendered could only pick up the sword again and fight with their former "comrades" even if they knew that this was a naked conspiracy.
