Chapter 128: The Sixty-Four Villages East of the Heilong River (Part II)

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The Sixty-Four Villages East of the River have always been Chinese territory. They stretch from the river mouth opposite Heihe Town in Aigun County southward to Holmojin Village, covering an area of 3,600 square kilometers. The Treaty of Aigun stipulated that Chinese people enjoyed the right to reside in the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River, while the Qing government exercised jurisdiction over the inhabitants, though it did not possess sovereignty over the land.

When the Boxer Movement broke out in 1900, the Qing government had no attention to spare for the Northeast. Russia sent troops to create the Blagoveshchensk Massacre and the Massacre of the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River. On July 15, Gribsky, the military governor of Russia’s Amur Province, announced a ban on Chinese people crossing the river and detained every ferry. On July 16, heavily armed Cossacks and volunteer soldiers stormed Chinese homes and arrested more than three thousand people.

Early on the morning of July 17, Russian soldiers drove all the captives toward the village of Blagoveshchensk. They called it “crossing the river,” but in reality they were herding people into the water to drown them. Those who tried to break through the encirclement were met by Cossack bayonets and bullets. Some women threw their children onto the bank and begged the soldiers to spare them at least, but the Cossacks merely impaled the infants on their bayonets...

Many wounded survivors on the shore were treated as corpses and thrown into the river. A layer of half-dead people floated upon the water, tumbling eastward with the current. This was the Blagoveshchensk Massacre, a slaughter devoid of all humanity that continued until July 21. More than five thousand Chinese people perished.

While the Amur authorities were carrying out the massacre at Blagoveshchensk, they dispatched another force toward the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River, where they conducted repeated massacres of the Chinese residents. Russian troops drove the villagers into a large building, set it ablaze, and burned most of them alive.

The bodies of the Chinese victims from the Blagoveshchensk Massacre and the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River clogged the entire surface of the river. Even three weeks later, corpses were still drifting downstream. The mighty Amur had become an endless river of blood. It was the greatest massacre, the greatest tragedy, and the greatest crime ever witnessed upon that river.

After the Boxer Movement arose in the Northeast, the Siberian and Amur authorities of Russia mobilized more than twenty thousand troops. The game War followed historical conditions, and the Russian army in this region numbered over twenty-five thousand. Preventing the massacre would be extremely difficult. In Chen Hao’s memories, millions of Chinese players had fought fiercely against the Russian forces, but because the players had been far too weak in the early stages of the game, they ultimately failed to alter the storyline quest.

There was another memory that filled Chen Hao with rage. When the Chinese players fought desperately to prevent the two massacres, more than a million Russian players took part in the atrocities committed by the Russian NPC army, caring nothing for whether their actions were humane. At that time, China was facing the invasion of the Eight-Nation Alliance, and the overwhelming majority of players were near the capital. Those who traveled to the Northeast gained no advantage in their clashes with the Russians.

Players in the early stages of the game were absolutely no match for the elite Russian troops. Even if they filled the battlefield with their lives, they could not defeat the NPC army. That was why Chen Hao thought of joining forces with the bandits of the Northeast. The northeastern bandits had committed countless atrocities, but when faced with Russian brutality, most of them would choose to resist—provided they could be gathered together.

White-Faced Freak had decent diplomatic skills. However, persuading bandits whose levels were far higher than his own would not be easy. Even if his eloquence were unmatched, he would still have to meet the bandit chiefs first. Therefore, Chen Hao could only pave the way with silver.

He would invest a large sum of money as gifts for the bandits, giving White-Faced Freak an opportunity to persuade them. How many could be convinced would be left to fate.

Because the storyline involved crimes against humanity committed by the Russian army, the system would give special assistance to anyone attempting to change it. As long as enough money was invested, the difficulty of White-Faced Freak’s negotiations with the bandits would be greatly reduced. If he could bring more than ten thousand mounted bandits under his command, they could surely attract the players involved in the quest to join their ranks as well. Reversing the storyline would then become possible.

Chen Hao opened his character panel. At level twenty, his attributes were:

Name: Chen Baxian
Level: 20
Rank: Second Lieutenant
Subordinates: 0/0
Territory: 0
Belief: Constitutional Monarchy

Politics: 27
(Including Scheming, Prestige, Administration, Diplomacy, Culture, and Propaganda; 20 points available for allocation)

Scheming: 22
Prestige: 25
Administration: 20
Diplomacy: 20
Culture: 51 + 1
(The Three Character Classic)

Propaganda: 20

Special Skill: Bewitchment
(A political special skill. When this skill is used, there is a 1% chance of causing an NPC to change their beliefs and become your subordinate. Failure carries a very high chance of provoking retaliation from the target. Use only in safe circumstances.)

Military: 36
(Including Command and Individual Combat; 20 points available for allocation)

Command: 25
(Including Strategic Analysis and Tactical Execution)

Strategic Analysis: 24
Tactical Execution: 27

Infantry Proficiency: D
Artillery Proficiency: D
Cavalry Proficiency: B
Combat Engineering Proficiency: D
Naval Proficiency: D
Air Force Proficiency: D
Special Operations Proficiency: D
Espionage Proficiency: D

Special Skill: Galloping Charge
(A command-type special skill. When commanding a cavalry unit of fewer than one thousand men, movement speed increases by 10% and the rate at which the horses lose stamina decreases by 10%. The effect diminishes when commanding more than one thousand cavalrymen, and drops to a 5% increase when commanding ten thousand cavalrymen.)

Individual Combat: 51

Strength: 41 + 3
(Plum Blossom Boxing)

Determines stamina, speed, resistance to attack, and recovery ability.

Marksmanship: 54
Melee Combat: 40 + 4
(Plum Blossom Boxing)

Stealth: 60
Riding License: Grandmaster-Level Horsemanship

Special Skill: Bloodbath
(An individual-combat special skill. In close-quarters combat, combat power increases by 20%. There is a 1% chance of instantly killing an opponent regardless of the difference in level.)

Skill Panel:

Five Tigers Severing the Gate Saber: Advanced
(2,436/10,000)

One of the highest-level saber techniques. At the advanced level, using a saber-type weapon increases Melee Combat by 7, with a 10% chance of beheading an enemy in a single strike. When fighting Japanese soldiers, their Melee Combat attribute decreases by 14%.

Plum Blossom Boxing: Advanced
(1,266/10,000)

One of China’s traditional boxing arts, effective for strengthening the body and improving health. At the advanced level, Strength increases by 3, Melee Combat by 4, and Agility by 10%.

Cloud-Ladder Movement: Intermediate
(125/1,000)

Increases movement speed by 12% and vertical jumping height by 70%. Wall-climbing ability increases by 100%. Once this body technique reaches the advanced level, the practitioner becomes as light as a swallow, able to vault walls and walk across rooftops as easily as on level ground.

Borrowing a Knife to Kill
(Intermediate passive skill)

When a player has a conflict with someone, he may use a third party to deal with the enemy. When a special situation suitable for this scheming skill arises, the system has a 30% chance of providing psychological guidance.

Of the three major attribute categories, Chen Hao’s strongest was Individual Combat. After all his efforts during this period, his Individual Combat attribute had already surpassed fifty despite being only level twenty.

After looking over his attributes, he felt somewhat regretful. When he had first entered the game, he had planned to follow an individual-combat path during the early stages, so he had assigned his free Military points to Melee Combat. Now he wanted to change direction and accelerate his development, but his Command attribute was simply too low.

A Command score of twenty-five was enough to serve as a company commander in an NPC army. But commanding more than ten thousand unruly mounted bandits would be nothing but a fool’s dream.

In the game, Command corresponded to military rank. If a player’s Command was below ten, he could only serve as a soldier. With a Command score between ten and twenty, he could serve as a second lieutenant and lead a platoon of several dozen men without reducing the unit’s combat power. With a Command score between twenty and thirty, he could serve as a company commander, and an NPC company under his command would suffer no reduction in combat power...

A force of more than ten thousand men was organized as a division, corresponding to the rank of major general. A Command score of at least seventy was required to prevent any reduction in combat power. Thus, an army needed a large number of officers. If its commanders were all mediocre, allowing someone with only thirty or forty points of Command to serve as a division commander would make it impossible for the unit to display its full combat strength.

A person with a high Command score gained a combat-power bonus when leading a small force. Chen Hao’s Command score was twenty-five. Since the minimum requirement for a company commander was twenty, a company under his command would receive a 5% combat-power increase. If the same company were led by a genius with a Command score of ninety, its combat power would increase by 70%. With equal soldiers and equipment, one company could nearly stand against two companies of the enemy.

If Chen Hao tried to command a force of ten thousand men with a Command score of twenty-five, he would fall far short of the required seventy points for a force larger than a division. As the army’s commanding officer, his unit’s combat power would be reduced by 45%. Moreover, a commander with too low a Command score might provoke mutiny, or cause capable subordinate officers to disobey orders and act against his commands.

In short, even if White-Faced Freak succeeded in gathering more than ten thousand NPC mounted bandits, Chen Hao would not be qualified to command them. To carry out his plan, he had to find an ally with a Command score above seventy, appoint that person as the military commander, and have him lead the bandits into battle.

Chen Hao kept only one hundred silver dollars for himself and handed the rest to White-Faced Freak. He said solemnly, “Freak, whether we can change the storyline of the Sixty-Four Villages East of the River depends on your performance this time.”

White-Faced Freak smiled bitterly. “Brother Chen, the pressure is crushing me! I’m not even sure I can persuade those bandits.”

Chen Hao smiled faintly. “Persuade as many as you can. There’s an arms dealer named Edward in the foreign trading house. After you complete a quest for him, you’ll be able to buy guns from him. Purchase forty standard Mauser pistols and take them to the Northeast. Many of the northeastern bandit chiefs are richer than we are. They won’t care for money as a gift, but if you present them with two good pistols, you’ll have a much better chance.”

White-Faced Freak asked in surprise, “Brother Chen, you’re not going to the Northeast with us?”

Chen Hao shook his head. “I can’t go yet. Even if you persuade those bandits, it won’t help if no one can command them. I have to find a commander. You go to the Northeast first and recruit the bandits. At the same time, complete some instance quests, and have each person hire twenty NPC bandits. None of you have much Scheming, so offer them higher wages when you hire them. Otherwise, these NPCs may betray you.”

“Once I’ve finished dealing with matters here, and we have the Fishing Maxim heavy machine gun in hand, I’ll go to the Northeast with them and fight alongside you.”

White-Faced Freak scratched his head. “You’re usually the one who makes all the decisions. I’m really not used to you leaving. Once we reach the Northeast, I won’t even know what to do.”

Chen Hao laughed. “When you get there, level up and run instance quests as usual. Then have each person hire twenty capable subordinates for me. As for you, Freak, just travel around persuading the bandit chiefs. Do more or less what we did in Penglai.”

White-Faced Freak led the group away. Fishing Passerby also joined the Forward Guard Army. After watching them depart, Chen Hao mounted Snow-Treading Black Charger and urged his horse toward Qilu.

According to his memories, his senior fellow disciple, who would later study at the Beiyang Military Academy, should now have returned to Penglai. Persuading him to help would be the key to changing the storyline quest.

That senior disciple certainly intended to enter a military academy for further study. Convincing him to change his mind and go to the Northeast would not be easy. But if Chen Hao told him that they were going there to fight the Russians who had slaughtered their own countrymen, then with the system’s assistance, there might still be a chance of luring him to the Northeast.

To be continued.

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