Chapter 196 Primary Liberation (III)
Qingzhou fell very quickly, and the prefect was not even able to organize a decent resistance. The female bandit leader Qian Qing rode a horse through the city gate and arrived in front of the prefect's office.
According to intelligence, the troops defending Qingzhou had been completely withdrawn in the previous battles, and there were only a few dozen Green Camp soldiers left in the huge Qingzhou Prefecture. This time, the attack on Qingzhou was not even a few dozen people. The rest of the story was quite cliché, and the final resistance was so weak that it was laughable.
When the Qingzhou prefect was dragged out, he was still cursing. He was not cursing Qian Qing, but those bastards who had abandoned the prefect and fled on their own.
The prefect was stripped of his hat and feather, and he and his relatives were imprisoned. Then the city of Qingzhou was searched and officials were arrested according to the list.
After finally finishing the work, Commander Qian Qing called a meeting. The female second battalion commander asked in confusion: "Sister, why don't those people run away?"
"You shouldn't ask me. So many people have been arrested, you should go ask them." Qian Qing immediately pushed the trouble away.
The two thought about it and felt it made sense, so they went out.
Not long after, the Qingzhou prefect who was being interrogated saw the door open and a man walked in. Thinking it was just an ordinary thief, the prefect glanced at him casually and then lowered his eyes. At this time, he was in a state of confusion and didn't want to care about others at all.
However, after a moment, the prefect raised his head again. After taking a few glances, he was sure that it was actually a woman.
The woman was also wearing the military uniform of Huo Chong's men, and a military cap. Her dark hair was tucked into the cap, with only the hair on her temples sticking out.
The button-down military uniform with a front opening was different from that of the male soldiers in that the legs of her military pants were wider at the thighs. The prefect had never seen a woman wearing such clothes before, and immediately felt that "the rituals and music were broken, and the country would no longer be a country."
The interrogator saluted and greeted them, "Captain Hu, does the commander have any orders?"
"Sister... let me ask you something. Why don't these people run away?" Liangliang answered.
The person in charge of the interrogation was also someone who had followed Huo Chong in the early days, that is, he had been under Qian Qing's management. At this time, hearing Qian Qing's order, of course he did not dare to delay and immediately questioned the Qingzhou prefect.
The Qingzhou prefect was already upset, and he never expected to be interrogated by a woman in addition to a man. He felt a surge of anger rushing to his head, and he didn't care about his life or death. He loudly asked the two, "Who are you!"
"What are you arguing about!" the interrogator shouted immediately. Even if he was the so-called prefect, as a prisoner, there was no reason for him to be arrogant.
The two did not expect to be yelled at. They were slightly surprised and then said, "I am a company commander under Mr. Huo. I came here to ask you, if you knew you would be caught, why didn't you run away?"
The two were not very old, only about eighteen or nineteen years old. When they asked questions, they were innocent like children of their age. This innocence made the prefect feel as if he was burned by a branding iron, and he was so angry that he almost jumped up.
It's not that he didn't want to escape, but there was no place to escape. He could only stay in the city and perish with the Qing Dynasty in Qingzhou. On the contrary, many of the soldiers guarding the city ran away. In the eyes of the court, those soldiers were like ants, and they didn't care about their lives at all, so they didn't care what they did at this time.
The prefect felt extremely aggrieved that no one was buried with him when his life came to an end. When he was questioned by a woman, he felt even more miserable.
"I... I... I am loyal to the court, how could I run away!" The prefect howled like a wounded wolf.
The two women didn't get any understandable answers, so they finally found time to ask Qian Qing. Qian Qing thought that the two women were just curious, but before the two women came to ask, several other female soldiers had asked almost the same question. In desperation, Qian Qing called together the officers of the two female barracks and told them her opinion.
"Under the Qing Dynasty system, if a city is breached and an official flees, he is guilty of a capital crime. But this is not the most important thing. What is the most important thing? Do you sisters have any ideas?"
Among Huo Chong's 40 battalions, there are two female battalions. These female battalions are certainly not military prostitutes, but a unit of pure female soldiers. Huo Chong originally did not want to form a female battalion, but to disperse the female soldiers to various units. However, Qian Qing firmly opposed it, believing that doing so would only make male soldiers look down on female soldiers.
The final compromise was to first form a female barracks, and then disband it after they had made certain military achievements.
At this time, the female barracks had not yet completed what Qian Qing said, "independently participating in five major battles that could be put on the stage", so they continued to exist independently.
The women in the female barracks think differently from the male soldiers. When asked questions by Qian Qing, the second-in-command, most of their answers were emotional, such as "I'm too embarrassed to see people", "I'm embarrassed", and "I'm afraid the Qing emperor will be angry".
Listening to this female opinion, Qian Qing couldn't help but miss the conversation with Huo Chong. That kind of simple, clear, cold and ruthless conversation that went straight to the heart was just too good.
When everyone had finished speaking, Qian Qing gave her cold opinion, "Those officials...those Qing bandits think we can't win. If they believed we would win, of course they would run away. Because they think we can't win, they think if they run away and are caught by the Qing, they will die."
This answer involved the use of logic. For a moment, the female officers could not quite understand it. Finally, Qian Qing took a lot of effort to explain the internal logic.
When the female officers learned that the officials did not dare to run away because they were afraid of death, if they died in the hands of the Han army, they would still be considered loyal subjects of the Qing Dynasty. If they ran away, they would become criminals and would be dead. Everyone laughed at first, and then they could not help but mock them with women's sarcastic words, "Oh, there are so many ways to die. You are worthy of being educated."
If a man said this, it probably wouldn't be funny. But when women said it, everyone felt the same way and burst into laughter.
After answering the sisters' questions, Qian Qing encouraged everyone and asked them to understand the secret of winning, "We use slow to beat fast. Sisters, don't forget this."
"Sister Qing, shouldn't it be almost time?" Liangliang asked.
"A good warrior controls others rather than being controlled by others." Qian Qing first said this, then wrote it down, and immediately gave an explanation.
The Art of War by Sun Tzu has an important principle for fighting against the enemy, which is: "Control others, not be controlled by others". The so-called "control others" means to mobilize the enemy and take the initiative in the war. "Not to be controlled by others" means not to be mobilized by the enemy and not to put oneself in a passive position in the war. Because whoever takes the initiative can lead the other side by the nose, whoever controls the rhythm of the war can win the final victory.
"Those Qing soldiers are running very fast, they are here to die. Let's fight slowly and kill them all. We really can't run like that."
The female officers were also a little scared when they thought about the psychological pressure brought by the fierce Qing army rushing over. However, according to Huo Chong's strategy of "follow the enemy", the two female battalions not only did not collapse, but instead relaxed as they fought and saw themselves annihilate hundreds of enemies.
"Sisters, don't worry. As long as we stick together, the Qing army won't be able to break our formation. Mr. Huo will definitely not leave us alone. As long as I'm here, no one will be left behind!"
Qian Qing provided some psychological comfort to the people in the female camp and then continued with his work.
In the early Qing Dynasty, Qingzhou Prefecture governed 13 counties, including Yidu, Linzi, Boxing, Gaoyuan, Le'an, Shouguang, Linqu, Anqiu, Changle, Zhucheng, Yishui, Rizhao, and Mengyin, and governed Andongwei and Yizhou. During the reign of Emperor Yongzheng, Yizhou Prefecture was established, and Yishui, Rizhao, Mengyin, and Andongwei were separated and placed under it. At the same time, Yanshen Town and Xiaofu and Huaide Townships of Yidu County were separated to establish Boshan County. Qingzhou Prefecture still governed 11 counties. The prefectural office had officials such as prefects, associate prefects, and magistrates.
Huo Chong had not moved Qingzhou before, not because Qingzhou was unconquerable, but because he was worried that once the troops were withdrawn from Qingzhou, it would cause a very bad impact.
Since Huo Chong was so worried, Qian Qing had to solve this problem. After occupying Qingzhou, Qian Qing quickly sent battalions to attack the counties under Qingzhou Prefecture.
Qingzhou City was already vulnerable, but he didn't expect the resistance in the county below to be even more intense than that of the prefectural city. Qian Qing easily crushed all the resistance and immediately arranged the next task.
Mr. Gao in the Qingzhou Prefecture was very unhappy these days. He was very, very unhappy. The direct reason why Mr. Gao was unhappy was that a guy like Dong Yang, who was originally like an ant, came to his house and wanted to take someone away .
Seeing Mr. Gao's face full of resentment, his wife came over and advised: "Master, why don't you go out and relax. Don't let yourself get bored at home."
Mr. Gao felt warm in his heart. His wife was also a lady from a wealthy family. This "heartache" greatly alleviated Mr. Gao's heartache.
This is not an illness. If you are sick, you can just ask a doctor to see you and prescribe medicine. There is really no doctor to rely on for mental illness, but it is still burning and making people uncomfortable.
Sighing, Master Gao said to his wife, "Forget it. If we go out now, we'll probably be laughed at. Besides, Huo Chong is so fierce, who knows what he'll come up with."
That being said, Mr. Gao was actually not idle in private. He had secretly contacted a group of gentry he was familiar with, and was considering what to do. However, the gentry were timid, and they had heard that Huo Chong had defeated the government troops in Jinan City several times and killed tens of thousands of Qing troops. They did not agree with Mr. Gao's suggestion to form a militia.
Sitting and chatting with his wife, Master Gao felt a little better. A man lives by his face, and a tree lives by its bark. If Huo Chong came in person to ask for the person, Master Gao would not be so angry. After all, Huo Chong was a figure who killed tens of thousands of government troops, and if he came in person, he would be worthy of Master Gao's status.
However, it was a great humiliation for a scoundrel like Dong Yang to come to the door and ask for someone, and Dong Yang was always put in the front and talked directly with the Gao family. In the future, Master Gao was forced to talk to such a lowly person face to face, and he had completely lost his face.
Just when I felt better, a servant came running over and shouted in panic, "Master, something happened! Qingzhou City has been captured."
