Volume 11: The First Law Chapter 36: The wind rises and the clouds fly

The flags on the city walls changed.

The original flying flag of the Hu family had long disappeared, and was replaced by a "mountain" flag, which fluttered in the wind, stained with a little bright red blood, and was particularly conspicuous.

The bloody smell at the city gate was so strong that it could not be dispelled. The ground was soaked with blood, dyed black and red, which was disgusting.

As rookie recruits, the Qingshan Army soldiers experienced the cruelty of war for the first time.

Lu Qingshan glanced around, sweeping over the dark faces stained with blood.

Suddenly, he laughed and asked, "Boys, who killed anyone in this battle? How many did you kill?"

"I... killed him!"

"I killed one!"

"I killed one too!"

"One is nothing, I killed two!"

"You're so proud of just two? Grandpa, I killed two and a half!"

Lu Qingshan picked out the soldier who said he killed two and a half people, "You little bastard, you are so dishonest. How can you say you killed half a person?"

The soldier who was caught was very young, but his eyes revealed a cunning and cleverness.

Lu Qingshan still remembered him. He was the first person to take action and throw stones at Manager Hu.

"That's right, Xiao Haizi, you dare to brag in front of the general!" The others followed with good-natured laughter.

The young soldier who was called a child blushed, pointed at a soldier next to him and raised his head and said, "I'm not bragging. If I had chopped him down with that sword, that guy would have been beheaded. He insisted on coming to help me, and stabbed him from the side first, killing him directly and stealing my head!"

"There's no such thing as fighting over heads on the battlefield. Naturally, whoever kills the person gets the head." The soldier was also unconvinced.

"Boys, there's no need to argue. On the battlefield, swords are merciless. Whoever kills will get the credit. But don't be depressed. I'll count the half head you got today." Lu Qingshan laughed and said generously.

"When you kill an enemy on the battlefield in the future, remember to draw your sword quickly, and don't let others get there first." After a pause, Lu Qingshan asked again, "Little bastard, how old are you this year, and what's your name?"

The young soldier's face turned red, but this time it was not flushed, but red with excitement.

"General, I am fourteen years old this year. As for my name, it is Xiao Haizi."

He was a slave, and slaves were not entitled to have surnames.

"Xiao Haizi is not okay. It sounds like a eunuch's name. If I go out to register my name, I will lose face." Lu Qingshan thought for a moment and waved his hand, saying, "Since you don't have a surname, then you should take my surname. From now on, you will be called Lu Hai."

"Thank you, General, for giving me your surname!" Lu Hai was unable to conceal his excitement and knelt down on one knee and said loudly.

The Qingshan soldiers around cast envious glances.

This can be regarded as a grant of a family surname, which represents the importance attached to Lu Hai.

Lu Qingshan waved his hand and said, "Let's clean up the battlefield first. Don't let your guard down. This is just the beginning and the road to revolution is still long."

…

The Qingshan soldiers obeyed the order and quickly dispersed to clean up the battlefield and count the losses.

In this battle, even though Lu Qingshan was so brave, the Qingshan army, which had only received twenty days of training, still had many problems, so the losses were not small.

Of course, the gains were also significant. Not to mention the capture of Anling City, after this battle, with the reduction in personnel, the remaining Qingshan troops were no longer new recruits, and their quality was much improved.

Lu Qingshan led his troops to capture the inner city, which was the Hu family's mansion - their defense forces were basically exhausted in the previous defense of the city, so this final cleanup was very smooth.

Lu Qingshan was extremely cruel to the people of the Hu family and did not leave any of them alive.

"Treat your comrades as warmly as spring, and treat your enemies as cruelly and ruthlessly as winter." This is what Lu Qingshan said to his soldiers.

They have already witnessed Lu Qingshan's cruelty and ruthlessness.

They also soon saw Lu Qingshan's spring-like warmth.

As for the civilians in the city, after entering Anling City, Lu Qingshan made three laws with the people: anyone who kills will be put to death, and anyone who injures or steals will be punished.

According to him, the Qingshan Army is the people's army, and what they do is for liberation, and burning, killing and looting are absolutely not allowed.

In addition, Lu Qingshan also distributed the farmland that originally belonged to the ruling class in the city directly to the people in the city.

Return land to the people.

This move made everyone burst into tears of gratitude.

As for slaves, Lu Qingshan absorbed them into the Qingshan Army to strengthen the Qingshan Army.

According to Lu Qingshan, these are all comrades, great comrades.

——After completing the initial finishing work, Lu Qingshan also set up a celebration banquet and rewarded the entire army. Gold, silver and other valuables were distributed without any stinginess, which once again rallied the army's morale.

After taking over Anling City and obtaining the assets accumulated and exploited by the upper class in the city over the years, this reward was no longer a problem for Lu Qingshan, and it also gave him the financial resources to support more troops.

Maintaining an army is a very costly undertaking.

Before there was an industry, the only way to support the war was to fight.

…

The former main hall of the Hu family's inner residence has now changed its owner.

A map was placed on the desk. Lu Qingshan stood in front of the desk thinking. Gu Tianyan and other important leaders of the Qingshan Army at the time surrounded him.

"General, should we attack Feiyun City next?" Gu Tianyan asked, looking at the map. "It is the closest city to our Anling City."

If you want to take over the Hu family's fiefdom, according to common sense, you should take it down one city at a time.

But unexpectedly, Lu Qingshan shook his head firmly.

"Feiyun City is not like Anling City. It is one of the most powerful cities in the Hu family. It has sufficient guards, magnificent city walls, and complete defense equipment. Most of the Qingshan Army soldiers have only been on the battlefield once, and there are even many newly recruited slaves. Taking them to attack Feiyun City is simply sending them to their deaths."

His finger slowly slid across the map. "Look, aren't there still so many towns and villages around Feiyun City?"

"General, are you going to target these small towns and villages?" Gu Tianyan's eyes widened.

"Why not? In these places, everyone from the town mayor to the village chief is named Hu."

"The man with the surname Hu is our enemy."

"But these are just some small villages. Even if we take them down, it seems... there won't be much meaning?" Gu Tianyan hesitated.

This is common sense.

If you want to go to war, you have to go straight to the enemy's important areas. How can you attack a small village?

"Who said it's meaningless?" Lu Qingshan smiled and said confidently, "Don't underestimate these small villages and towns."

“As the saying goes, a single spark can start a prairie fire.”

"Don't let your thoughts remain in the old ways. The path we are taking now is a revolutionary path."

“The revolutionary path must adhere to seeking truth from facts, proceed from reality in everything, and dare to break the shackles of ideological constraints and dogmatism.”

“It is better to have no books than to believe in them completely.”

"Tianyan, we must believe in military books, but we cannot completely trust them either."

"We are currently not strong enough, but we have unlimited potential, which just needs to be developed. So what we need to do now is to launch armed uprisings among the serfs in the villages where the enemy's ruling power is relatively weak, expand the Qingshan Army, establish revolutionary bases, and combine armed struggle with land revolution to establish bases. Then, we will rely on the bases to develop revolutionary forces."

"This is the correct revolutionary path that suits the situation of our Qingshan Army."

Gu Tianyan was confused and dazed after hearing these words.

Lu Qingshan didn't care. He waved his hand and laid out the overall strategy, "'Encircle the cities from the countryside' is the path our Qingshan Army will take!"

The general had spoken, and no one dared to disobey. They quickly responded, "We will obey your orders!"

…

Estuary wharf.

Nearly ten thousand Qingshan troops gathered here.

Nearly a hundred boats lined up on the river, creating a spectacular sight.

Anling City is a transit city with extremely developed transportation. Because it transports heavy objects such as ores and weapons, water transportation is particularly well developed, and a large river leads to various places.

The villages and towns that Lu Qingshan targeted were located on both sides of the river.

As the saying goes, speed is of the essence in war. After three days of rest, the Qingshan Army, which had almost doubled in size compared to when they came, had already gathered in the open space next to the dock.

"The world has changed hands many times," Lu Qingshan said to the whole army standing on a temporary high platform, "someone was once named Zhao, some was once named Li, some was once named Wang..."

"The only thing he has never been called is the people."

"But the people should be the masters of the world."

"This world is wrong, and someone should make it right."

"This is the closest opportunity for our people to take control of their own destiny in tens of thousands of years of history," Lu Qingshan raised his right hand and clenched it into a fist. "This is an opportunity to spread the seeds of revolution."

"Gentlemen, there is no room for compromise in the struggle against the reactionaries. The revolution will also involve sacrifices. Many of you have never even held a weapon a few days ago. In this line of work, there will definitely be sacrifices."

"Perhaps, you will feel fear, which is normal."

"But you have to understand, there is no revolution without bloodshed."

"Your blood will not be shed in vain, it will eventually bring victory to the revolution."

"For the sake of sacrifice, we have great ambitions. We dare to change the sun and the moon into a new sky." Lu Qingshan loosened his raised fist and turned it into a palm, then waved it downwards, "All troops, board the ship!"

After saying that, Lu Qingshan leaped down from the high platform and was the first to jump onto the deck of the leading ship in the fleet.

The Qingshan Army followed closely behind and boarded the ship in an orderly manner. In half a quarter of an hour, all of them were on board.

"Set sail!" Lu Qingshan waved his hand.

Woo woo woo!

The departure horn sounded.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The crew lowered the sails together.

The wind was strong and the sails were whistling.

Nearly a hundred large and small boats filled with Qingshan Army soldiers took off with the wind and sailed downstream.

The dock was filled with people lining the shore to see them off.

Although it has only been three days, the Qingshan Army has already won the trust and support of the people.

This is not surprising.