?
On the morning of February 6th, 1852, next to a forest on a mountain ridge in Guangxi, Dayao Mountain.
More than twenty young soldiers were on the battlefield. They were all dressed in the clothing of the common people of Guangxi. They wore short black shirts and pants made of coarse cloth, with a white coarse cloth belt around their waists. Their legs were bound with white cloth, and they wore straw sandals on their feet. Because of the cold weather, the soldiers' feet were wrapped with cloth that was supposed to be white, but was now so dirty that it was impossible to tell the color. Their heads were not wrapped with the kind of cloth used in Guangxi. Because everyone had tied their long hair into a bun, a white coarse cloth band was wrapped around their heads. At first glance, they looked like a funeral procession.
A young man with thick eyebrows and big eyes stopped in the middle of the battlefield. His chiseled face had the mellowness of a young man. No matter how one looked at him, he did not look more than 20 years old. This young man was called Vézé. He was 19 years old this year, and he served as a major in the Taiping army. Vézé walked up to the corpse of a Qing Army soldier. This Qing Army soldier was probably a low-ranking officer, and he had a single saber hanging from his waist. In the battle that had just ended, more than ten Qing Army soldiers had been killed by Vézé and his subordinates. When the officer saw Vézé and the others rush out, he immediately turned tail and ran. Vézé caught up to him and stabbed him to death with a spear. He did not even have time to unsheathe his single saber.
Because of the intense exercise just now, Vézé was panting heavily. The temperature in Guangxi was currently only 6 or 7 degrees Celsius. The breath exhaled from his mouth and nose quickly condensed into white mist in the cold winter air. Bending down, Vézé untied the saber from the corpse. When he unsheathed the single saber, he saw that it was just a very ordinary standard iron saber. There was nothing special about it.
"Fourth Uncle, should we chase after those Yao people?" a corporal of the Taiping army called Wei Changrong asked excitedly. This group of Qing Army was meeting with a group of Yao tribesmen, and happened to be spotted by Vézé and the others who were marching here. Vézé led his men to set up an ambush, while he led half of his men to sneak over and launch a surprise attack. When the soldiers saw the Taiping army suddenly rushing out from the forest, they were so frightened that they screamed, turned around and ran down the mountain. The fleeing Qing Army ran head-first into the pocket formation set up by Vézé and was completely surrounded. In the blink of an eye, the dozen or so soldiers were completely annihilated. As for the Yao people, they turned around and ran up the mountain. At this point, they were already far away.
Hearing his nephew and squad leader, Wei Changrong Vézé's question, Vézé smiled and said, "Who are we going after? It's not like we're going to make life difficult for the Yao people on the mountain. Hurry up, clean up the battlefield and continue forward! "
"Wei Sima, what should we do with these Qing Army corpses?" asked another soldier of the Taiping army. The one who spoke was Zhang Yingchen, a corporal under Vézé.
"Don't stay on this road. We're here to scout. After we're done searching, just find a deserted ravine and throw them in," answered Vézé.
The twenty or so Taiping army soldiers excitedly searched the corpses of the Qing Army. They took away the money and weapons they carried. The cloth shoes on the Qing Army's feet were also pulled off. The Taiping army soldiers finally removed the waist tags and belts of the Qing Army.
Vézé stood at the side and watched the soldiers search. He wanted to see what they had found, but his attention was involuntarily drawn to the heads of the Qing Army. This was not the first time Vézé had seen the heads of the Qing Army. These Qing Army soldiers all had the 1852 Manchu Qing official hairstyle. This hairstyle was commonly known as the "Money Rat Tail". It was a hairstyle that was shaved off all the hair around the head, leaving only the hair in the center of the head. It was shaped like a coin, and the hair in the center was braided down, shaped like a rat's tail. This "rat's tail" had to be able to pass through a copper coin.
After killing these Qing Army soldiers with his own hands, Vézé's boiling killing intent had dissipated. However, when he saw the Qing Army's "Money Rat Tail" hairstyle, Vézé's heart was still filled with a strong hatred. This was not because of Vézé's bloodlust, but because of Vézé's unique background. Compared to the hundreds of men and women in the Taiping army who were now called "Sima", and compared to the 20,000 soldiers in the Taiping army, Vézé was undoubtedly the most special. Because he was a time traveler.
Three months ago, Vézé Sima was just a 21st-century technician, specializing in the design and manufacture of propellers. After graduating from university, he was assigned to work in a large state-owned shipping company in the north. Under the arrangement of his father, who was a senior engineer, Vézé was assigned to work at the grassroots level for more than two years. He first learned in various workshops to familiarize himself with the various departments of the shipping industry, and then he was sent back to the design department. After a week of using the drawing tablet and CAD on the computer, Vézé found himself "waking up" as a 19-year-old "Tianping Heavenly Soldier" at the end of 1851. After more than three months of suffering, Vézé was now a "Sima" who led five five-man squads.
Returning to 1851, Vézé naturally felt a strong sense of discomfort. One of the most intense discomfort was the strong sense of disgust when he saw the "Money Rat's Tail".
Due to being deceived and misled by the movies he had seen before, although Vézé had heard of the "Money Rat's Tail", he had always thought that Manchu Qing's hairstyle was actually the "Yin-Yang Hairstyle" of the Manchu Qing, who shaved off the front half of the head and combed the back half into a large braid. When he first came to this world, he saw the true appearance of the "Money Rat's Tail" with his own eyes. The green scalp and the remaining hair on the head were combed into a clown's braid. Wei Ze finally understood why when the Manchurian Qing introduced the 'Yi Hair Edict', the Han people refused to accept this barbaric hairstyle and started a large-scale uprising.
Engineering students majoring in shipbuilding had to learn the history of China's shipbuilding industry. To learn the history of China's shipbuilding industry, they had to learn the modern history of China. Young people who graduated from universities in the 21st century learned about China's glorious past. They saw the future when China would surpass the United States and become the world's largest economy in ten years. The era when China's shipbuilding industry completely fell behind the rest of the world was undoubtedly the era when Manchu Qing ruled. During that era, China suffered endless humiliation, which brought unspeakable pain to young people like Vézé, who grew up in the booming era of China.
China had a glorious past, and China also had a bright future. Therefore, the main culprit that caused China's century-long decline and humiliation was undoubtedly the decadent Manchu Qing regime.
Vézé, like ordinary young people in the 21st century, firmly believed in the unshakable righteousness of fighting against the Qing Dynasty during the Manchu Qing era. Like the young people in China in the 21st century, Vézé also had many ethnic friends, including many Manchu friends. Most of these young people were born and raised in the cities of China. Even young friends of ethnic minorities did not oppose the abolition of ethnic divisions. Therefore, Vézé's great hatred for Manchu Qing was actually quite general, and there was no specific target.
As for the Taiping Rebellion, Vézé's understanding of it was only the content that he had to remember in his history exam. However, when Vézé saw the disgusting "money rat tail" on the heads of the Qing Army, he immediately made up his mind to follow the unfamiliar Taiping Rebellion and overthrow Manchu Qing.
It was very easy to distinguish beauty from ugliness. The hairstyle and clothing of the Taiping army were also very different from China's traditional "high crown and wide belt". Historically, Manchu Qing slandered the Taiping army as "bandits" and "long-haired thieves" because the Taiping army did not shave their hair, but only let their long hair down. The people of Guangxi had the habit of wrapping their hair around their heads. The Taiping army with long hair wore all kinds of wraps around their heads, and they looked very artistic.
Although the hairstyle was the only reason Vézé could completely agree with the Taiping Rebellion, this reason was enough for Vézé, who had long decided to fight against the Qing.
The body search was completed, and the only thing left on the bodies of the Qing Army was a pair of trousers without a belt. Their shirts were also taken off. After all, it was winter, and an extra coat for the Taiping army would help keep them warm. Vézé thought for a moment, and then cut off the braids on the heads of the Qing Army. Looking at Wei Changrong's puzzled expression, Vézé smiled and said, "The braids are not heavy, I can take them back to ask for credit!"
Guangxi was known as the Million Mountains, and there was a valley near the battlefield. The bodies of the Qing Army were thrown into the valley and disappeared in the blink of an eye. The Qing Army's weapons were left on the battlefield. Half of the weapons of the Qing Army were long spears, and the other half were matchlock muskets. This was another thing that Vézé couldn't immediately accept after returning to this era. The Qing Army of this era was actually an army made of firearms.
The history books mentioned that the Qing Army's equipment was outdated, and that they couldn't withstand a single blow from foreign armies. However, the history books didn't mention in detail that the Qing Army's equipment was actually half a firearm. Vézé and the others had walked all the way from Yongan City, south of Dayao Mountain. At this time, the Qing Army was besieging Yongan City, which was occupied by the Taiping Rebellion. Among the Qing Army besieging Yongan City, more than 60% of the soldiers were equipped with flintlocks. The northern and southern barracks of the Qing Army had a large number of cannons. This was completely different from the Qing Army that Vézé had imagined, which was armed with broadswords and spears.
At first, Vézé even thought that he had arrived on a planet similar to Earth. After three months, Vézé was sure that he had indeed returned to the Qing Dynasty. And the Qing Army's main equipment was undoubtedly these matchlock muskets and cannons. This knowledge didn't make Vézé sigh, "Manchu Qing's equipment isn't that bad after all." Instead, it made Vézé feel even more despair towards Manchu Qing and China of this era.
In the arduous history of China's wars, the great army's production capacity, weapons and equipment were all different from the enemy's. Their predecessors fought arduously against the industrialized Japan in their barren base. They tenaciously expanded their base behind the enemy lines, slowly taking back China's territory from the invaders.
Although the Manchu Qing's matchlock muskets were quite different from the flintlock muskets of this era, it was far from the gap between the Eighth Route Army and the enemy, which only had five bullets per battle. In a situation where the difference in weapons and equipment was limited, the Manchu Qing were still able to be beaten into signing countless humiliating treaties. This kind of Manchu Qing must be eliminated. If the Manchu Qing were not eliminated, China was destined to have no future. Vézé firmly believed in this.
The ten or so Qing Army soldiers didn't carry much money. After Vézé made a record, he asked Lin Asheng, who was in charge of logistics, to put the money away.
You've already exceeded your reading limit for today. If you want to read more, please log in.
Login
Select text and click 'Report' to let us know about any bad translation.
