Chapter 42

In the era before rifled muskets, the formation of musketeers with samurai flanking was the mainstream of warfare. Now, the musketeer formation of Luo Huo serves as the main firepower, while the bandits from Taibai Peak surge in from the flanks, forming a solid shield. Any stragglers daring to sneak an attack will be mercilessly cut down.

This tactic was not something Xiao Letian came up with on a whim; it is almost the essence of all battle formations in Western smoothbore gun history. The Spanish tercios used pikemen on the flanks, while in the Napoleonic era, artillery and dragoons were used for flank protection.

Even in the recently concluded American Civil War, musketeers needed cavalry and skirmishers for cover. However, those foreigners were not as extravagant as Xiao Letian, who had over a hundred bandits as guards for just ten musketeers. How could their combat effectiveness not be high?

The sky over Taibai Peak was dominated by the Northern Expeditionary Army, which was the elite of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Otherwise, it would not have been possible for them to fight their way to Tianjin with just over twenty thousand troops. Many of the soldiers in this unit had backgrounds in the southern bandit world.

To put it bluntly, the army led by the military advisor Xiao Letian was almost entirely composed of bandits. Individually, they were no match for Xiang Shaolong, but when a group of bandits learned to coordinate in military formations, even ten Xiang Shaolongs would not be a match for them.

"Luo Huo, have you found Mr. Xiao?" Xiao Hexin asked nervously.

"No, but the back door of the thatched cottage is open..." Luo Huo held up a torch and peered into the valley.

"Go after him. As long as you get close to Mr. Xiao, he will send a signal!" With that, Xiao Hexin was the first to jump down into the valley. Soon, the entire valley was lit up with the light of torches, and over a hundred people searched like a long dragon.

"Wang Huaiyuan, capture the injured enemies and give them basic treatment... these will be our hostages!" came the roar of Xiao Hexin from the valley.

At this moment, Xiao Letian had already seen the firelight behind him. After listening carefully for a long time, when the familiar sound of musket volleys came, he instinctively reached for the phosphorus flare, but then thought better of it. There might be many enemies hiding in the darkness, and if the first ones to arrive were enemies, it would be disastrous.

Thinking this, he whispered to Hu Nü, "Ignore them, let's continue down the mountain, and don't make a sound." After walking for an unknown amount of time, the two suddenly heard the rustling of grass and trees behind them. Xiao Letian quickly pulled Hu Nü to hide in the grass.

But before they could fully hide, a cold, hard object pressed against Xiao Letian's waist. "Mr. Xiao, we meet again. This is your pistol, and you know its power better than I do," said Xiang Shaolong.

Damn, Xiao Letian cursed inwardly, never expecting this guy to be so quick. "Sir Long, can't we talk this out? What deep grudge do we have that you are chasing me like this? Who hired you? No matter how much they pay, I'll pay double, okay?"

Xiang Shaolong laughed bitterly. "Don't play games with me. Trying to buy time for your men to come and save you? Dream on. Move back with me, quickly..."

Under the threat of the pistol, Xiao Letian and Hu Nü slowly moved backward. In the faint starlight, they were surprised to discover a cave behind the grass. After all three entered the cave, Xiang Shaolong blocked the entrance with grass, and the three remained silent under the threat of the gun.

Soon, the sound of musket fire and the clash of weapons echoed from a distance. "Capture them alive, take hostages..." It was Sima Yun, leading his men to surround the disciples of Xiang Family Manor.

Xiao Letian clearly felt Xiang Shaolong trembling, perhaps this northern bandit leader had never experienced such humiliation in his life.

Soon, the light of torches began to flicker at the cave entrance. As figures moved, the three saw two disciples of Xiang Family Manor bound and carried away like pigs. Sima Yun looked around but did not find the cave entrance, then led his men deeper into the valley.

After more than half an hour, the outside of the cave finally quieted down. Xiao Letian then whispered, "Sir Long... you saw them, those were your disciples. In the martial world, disciples are your legacy. It's not easy to gather so many, why ruin everything?"

"If my guess is correct, the people coming to save me have already set off for Xiang Family Manor. To save my life, they will definitely use your family as leverage..."

"Shut up! You heretic, killing you is doing the world a favor!" Sir Long's forehead was sweating, but he still spoke defiantly. Xiao Letian was furious, thinking that this Qing Dynasty was truly beyond saving. From top to bottom, everyone had been thoroughly brainwashed by feudal ideology, and it was impossible to reason with them.

"Haha," Xiao Letian said with a cold laugh. "So, Sir Long, you've read my works? It seems you consider them like 'Journey to the West' or 'Investiture of the Gods'? Truly beyond saving, taking lies as truth, and even speaking with such confidence, I spit..."

"The things you talk about, I've heard them all. You don't believe the earth is round, you don't understand Western science, you can't figure out why Western warships can sail thousands of miles and bombard the Qing defenses, and you don't understand why Western muskets are so powerful, capable of killing without a trace..."

"You admit the power of Western guns and cannons under their military threat, but then refuse to acknowledge their scientific knowledge. You are a bunch of self-deceiving fools, a bunch of contradictory idiots, and a bunch of cowards who refuse to face reality..."

"Shut up!" Sir Long's uninjured arm shot out like lightning, gripping Xiao Letian's throat. He was furious at Xiao Letian's words.

"Are you calling me a coward? I left home at six to learn martial arts, and have killed countless villains, even corrupt officials. Are you calling me a coward?"

Xiao Letian's face turned red. "You... you won't let me speak, that's... that's being a coward, you're afraid of losing the argument..." Sir Long's hand loosened in anger. "Speak, I'll let you speak, I want to hear what you have to say."

Cough, cough, cough. Xiao Letian coughed violently and gasped, "Only practice can reveal the truth. You've read my books, and the Westerner Magellan has already proven the earth is a sphere through his journey. Why did he return to his starting point after traveling west? That's proof..."

"I know what you're going to say, you're just trying to say I'm lying. But let me tell you, four years ago, some of the foreigners who attacked Beijing had circled the earth. Do you believe it? If not, I can take you to ask the foreigners, or even send you on a sea voyage."

Xiao Letian explained simple scientific knowledge as if telling a story to a child, not daring to delve too deep because the concept of a round earth was already hard for the ancients to understand.

In fact, during the process of Western learning spreading to the East, it took time for ordinary Chinese people to accept new things. People are creatures of habit and resistant to change. Many elderly people would never accept new things no matter what you said, like the corrupt scholars like Wang Shizheng. Once they accepted new knowledge, it would mean they were wrong before.

Admitting mistakes is always painful. They would rather deceive themselves than go through the process of self-denial, as it was too painful.

Fortunately, Xiang Shaolong was not an old, stubborn man. At around thirty, he had the courage to accept new things, like "Journey to the West." The powerful figure who hired him had ordered him to kill Xiao Letian and make it a mysterious case. But because Xiang Shaolong had read "Journey to the West" and found some of its content interesting, he did not have the heart to kill.

When he heard Xiao Letian explain these scientific principles in person this year, something inside him seemed to shatter.

Yes, what this heretic said made sense. If the sages were always right, why could foreigners produce warships and cannons that the sages had never seen? If the sages were so powerful, why did the Chinese keep losing to the Westerners?

Therefore, the core of thinking about any problem is to admit that the sages are not omnipotent. At that moment, it was as if Sir Long's entire spiritual world had collapsed. For people of that era, admitting the sages were not omnipotent was more painful than death.

Finally, Xiao Letian pulled out his final trump card and slammed it into Xiang Shaolong. "After the Anglo-French forces burned the Summer Palace four years ago, do you know how much silver the Qing Dynasty paid to make peace? Eight million taels..."

"Do you know how much benefit the Russians, also known as the Roshcha people, gained by just sending Cossack cavalry to threaten the Qing Dynasty and the Anglo-French forces? Over a million square kilometers! My dear Sir Long, do you know how big that is? It's as big as five Zhili provinces..."

Xiang Shaolong was struck as if by lightning, his eyes unfocused. "You... you heretic, you're lying again. The Qing Dynasty lost five Zhili provinces? How come we didn't know?"

Damn, what era was it? The Qing government would never tell the people about such shameful deeds, let alone the Han scholars who thought it was the Manchus selling their land, which had nothing to do with the Han people.

This was the late Qing Dynasty, a time when the concept of a nation had not yet formed. But the lack of a national concept did not mean the people were not patriotic. The story of Yue Fei was passed down through generations, and all Chinese knew that losing territory and selling the country was wrong. This was the most basic value in the hearts of the Chinese.

Xiang Shaolong grabbed Xiao Letian's arm. "Are you lying to me? Tell me, are you lying to me?"

Xiao Letian's face was solemn. "I swear on my ancestors, everything I said is true. I came back to my homeland to tell the Chinese how the foreigners became powerful and how we should catch up. If we don't work hard now, the ceding of territory and the occupation of Beijing will never stop..."

Xiang Shaolong said nothing, turned the revolver around, and pushed it back into Xiao Letian's chest. "You two go, I'll let you go. But if you lied to me today, I'll chase you to the ends of the earth!"

At that moment, Xiao Letian was moved. He even thought about whether he should print some large posters. He thought that if he wrote the details of the Treaty of Beijing and the Treaty of Aigun in plain language and posted them all over the country, it might help.

But, for now, let's not do that. If we do, it might cause chaos. In such a chaotic time, China would always be the one to suffer.