At midnight, the night was quiet, the birds were silent, and Zhu Pingan was still in his study, wielding a brush and drafting official documents.
While Zhu Pingan was writing, Tai Ping County, which was 60 miles away from Jingnan County, was caught in a sea of flames.
This group of Japanese invaders was none other than Heihachirou and the Japanese invaders under his command who had touched blood in Jingnan County.
Jiangmen, the leader of the Hungry Wolves Alliance, had divided Jingnan and Taiping counties between Ping Hachiro. After the bloodshed in Jingnan County, Heihachirou had to give up Jingnan, which was a difficult bone to gnaw on, and instead led the remaining 1,000-odd Japanese soldiers under his command to Taiping County.
Taiping County was in the northwest of Jingnan County, and the two counties were neighbours, not far away from each other, with a distance of only 60 to 70 miles between the two county towns. The news that the Japanese were burning and looting in Jingnan and besieging the town of Jingnan County reached Taiping in less than half a day. All the people in Taiping County were sympathetic to their old neighbour’s misery, but at the same time, they were glad that Taiping County was not near the sea, or else they would be the ones who suffered from the Japanese invaders today.
Of course, after hearing the news of the Japanese invaders in Jingnan, Taiping County also had a panic, but the panic was not too serious.
After all, the Japanese invaders were now in Jingnan. The ones who suffered were the Taoists, not the poor Taoists.
As for whether the Japanese invaders will come to Tai Ping County or not, it’s a toss-up. Tai Ping County is not near the sea, so the number of times we encountered Japanese invaders is very few, and this time the Japanese invaders are expected to do the same thing as in the past, robbing a handful of counties along the coast, such as Jingnan, and then calling out to disappear far away from the sea.
In addition, even if the Japanese pirates come to Taiping County, we also have time to prepare, the Japanese pirates are now besieging the Jingnan County, and it will take time to break through Jingnan County, even if they break through the Jingnan County, they will have to burn and loot the Jingnan County for a day or two, right?
Therefore, under this kind of psychological effect, the panic in Taiping County is not too serious, although some people heard the news that the Japanese invaders plundered Jingnan, they hurriedly packed up their things and fled with their children and daughters, but most of the people are quite calm, waiting for tomorrow and the day after tomorrow to inquire about the news, and then pack up their things to flee not too late.
In fact, not only the people, but also the Taiping County Office did not attach great importance to it at the first time.
After getting the news that the Japanese invaders had plundered Jingnan, Taiping County Yamen also started to make preparations, issued notices to inform the Japanese invaders in Jingnan, notified the people in the district to be careful of the Japanese invaders, ordered all the magistrates who were out of the county to go back to the county yamen to be on standby, notified the soldiers of the guards stationed in the county town to be more vigilant and take precautionary measures, and sent someone to notify and call up the civilian strongmen and archers of the soldiers’ room of the Taiping County Yamen to go back to the county town to guard against the Japanese invaders……
However, even though Taiping County did some actions, it did not pay enough attention and did not supervise the implementation in time.
The people of Taiping County never expected the Japanese to come so quickly.
Half-tightened, half-loosened, half-refused, half-guarded, Tai Ping County suffered all of a sudden.
When Heihachiro’s group of Japanese pirates, who had touched blood in Jingnan, retreated from Jingnan in the night and swooped down on Taiping County instead, Taiping County was still in a deep sleep, and was caught off guard by the crime-ridden Japanese pirates who came to their door.
Blood!
Struggle!
Despair!
Crying!
As soon as they stepped into Taiping County and came across the first village, the Japanese invaders started to burn, loot, pillage, and assault the women, and did all kinds of evils, taking out their wounds and bad luck in Jingnan County.
One village after another was ruined by the Japanese and burned into a sea of fire, as miserable as hell on earth. ……
Before Taiping County could react, Heihachiro had already led the Japanese to break through the villages and towns under the jurisdiction of Taiping County, and came straight to Taiping County, killing and plundering women and children, looting money and foodstuffs, and burning houses along the way.
At daybreak, the Japanese were already burning and looting, driving more than 1,000 young and strong people with butcher’s swords and surrounding the city of Taiping County.
The governor of Taiping County at that time was Wang Fengming (王凤鸣), a forty-seven year old man from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, whose name was Suqing (肃卿). When the Japanese invaders came to the city, Wang was having breakfast, and when he heard that the Japanese invaders were coming to the city, he dropped his chopsticks on the ground.
“Nonsense! When the news came yesterday, weren’t the Japanese still besieging Jingnan County, how could they be underneath the city of my Taiping County?!”
After Governor Wang regained his senses from the shock, his first reaction was that his subordinates had lied about the military information, and he slammed the table vigorously and reprimanded.
“Magistrate, how many guts do I have to dare to talk nonsense in front of you. It’s really the Japanese invaders that are approaching the city. If you don’t believe me, County Eunuch, come out and listen.”
The servant who reported the news shook his head repeatedly, reaching out and pointing to the outside of the house to say to Zhixian Wang.
Wang Zhixian looked at the errand boy twice and saw that the errand boy didn’t look like he was lying, just like she said, and he didn’t dare to lie in front of himself, so he got up and left the table. The errand boy panicked and took two quick steps to help Wang Zhixian open the curtain, Wang Zhixian walked out and walked to the centre of the courtyard, and sure enough, there was a shouting and killing sound vaguely coming from outside.
On hearing this, Wang Zhixian’s pupils instantly widened, his face turned grey, and a cold sweat gushed down his back.
“Damn it, how did the Japanese bandits suddenly come, quick, quick, notify Xiahou county magistrate, gather all the magistrates to go up to the city wall with me!”
Wang Zhi Xian was like an ant in a hot pot in the courtyard, circling around several times, and finally clenched his teeth and ordered loudly to the errand boy.
“Magistrate, when I came to report, I heard that County Minister Xiahou had already rushed to the city wall at the first opportunity after getting the news.”The errand boy returned.
“Then you quickly go and gather the errand boys, not one of them, all of them, and follow this official to the city walls.”
After Governor Wang heard that Prefect Xiahou had rushed to the city walls, he nodded and hurriedly ordered the errand boy to quickly go and gather the magistrates.
Soon, Governor Wang led the eighty or so magistrates hastily summoned to the city wall of Taiping County.
On the city wall, County Minister Xiahou was arranging the defences, dispersing the eighty-six soldiers of the guard stationed in the county town, as well as the one hundred and twenty-eight civilian soldiers and bowmen under the jurisdiction of the military room that had been called up, on the four city walls.
“Greetings County Honour.”
Xiahou County Minister rushed to the entrance of the city wall steps to greet Governor Wang upon hearing the news.
“There is no need for Xiahou County Minister to be polite, how is the situation outside the city?”Governor Wang waved his hand and asked.
“The Japanese have more than a thousand people, wrapped up with more than a thousand people, and have surrounded my Taiping County City.”
Xiahou County Minister arched his hand and returned.
“What ……What, more than two thousand?!”
When Magistrate Wang heard this, his grey face steeply turned pale, and the voice he made trembled a little.
“Half of them are the people who are being held hostage.”County Minister Xiahou corrected.
“More than a thousand Japanese invaders are not trivial, besides, many of the Japanese invaders themselves were converted by the people.”
Governor Wang shook his head and took two quick steps to the mouth of the wall stacks and looked out.
Only to see the smoke and dust rolling outside, scalped and barefooted Japanese pirates were killing and fierce, the Japanese swords and other weapons in their hands were still dripping with blood, outside the city, the Japanese pirates were roaming the mountains, and there were so many of them that they couldn’t even be seen at a glance.
The hideous and brawny Japanese invaders surrounded the county town, crying out in ghosts and wolves, shouting and killing sounds deafening.
“The Japanese pirates are so powerful that it is difficult to defend the county town of Taiping, so we might as well abandon the city and leave.”
Wang Zhixian, with a miserable face, withdrew his sight from the Japanese pirates outside the city, swept his side, shook his head, and whispered to Xiahou County Minister.
