Chapter 125: A New Adversary

Of the six tanks, only two continued to advance. The other bandits quickly adopted the same tactic, charging forward while protected by quilts. Biaozi, watching the well that had been converted into a bunker get blown to pieces—with the Russian inside blasted out in two halves—was truly exhilarated. "Good! Brothers, get ready! Fix bayonets!"

Biaozi knew the Russians would not simply stand by and let the bandits charge their positions under the cover of quilts. Since bullets were ineffective, the Russians had no choice but to emerge from their fortifications to stop the "land tanks"—at least, that was the only way Biaozi could imagine them responding.

As soon as the enemy came out, they would charge in for some hand-to-hand combat.

The battle lasted another hour before the Russians finally could not hold on. General Kuropatkin received the final telegram from the Russian commander in Baishan County:

"My dear Commander, allow me to rebuke your incompetence. You orchestrated this operation to annihilate Yang Dagui, yet now, as Yang Dagui launches a charge against me with forces several times my own, you are still nearly forty versts away!

"I cannot hold out until tomorrow morning. These bandits are attacking me with a brand-new tactic; my bullets cannot threaten them. We have run out of shells, and we have few grenades left. The enemy is right under my nose, trying to blow up my final line of defense. I believe they will succeed, for they have all the time in the world!

"I will not sit here waiting for them to break in. I will lead my remaining soldiers out with bayonets to fight these bandits, for I know what dignity is—the dignity of a Russian soldier!

"Very well, please convey my greetings to His Majesty the Tsar. Tell him that in this remote land, five hundred Russian lads died fighting for the honor of their motherland. Please, Your Majesty, look after these five hundred families who have lost their children and husbands. As for you, Commander, I shall remember you in heaven."

The letter was signed by Captain Kapirudosov of the Russian Army.

When Captain Kapirudosov led his remaining soldiers out of the fortifications, the bandits charged with bayonets, both sides roaring as the final confrontation began.

The Russians were incredibly tenacious, and much of the credit for this went to Yang Xiaolin. Yang Dagui’s reputation was already well-established; the Russians did not expect that kneeling would earn them a path to survival. Fighting back-to-back, they engaged the bandits in close-quarters combat. Even though they were vastly outnumbered, their desperate struggle still inflicted significant casualties on the bandits.

The melee lasted for twenty minutes. The bandits paid a price of over three hundred men to defeat the Russians who had rushed out. In the end, four Russian soldiers leaned against a wall together, facing dozens of bayonets, refusing to surrender.

Yang Xiaolin walked over, looked at their blood-stained bodies and their bent bayonets, and said with great sincerity, "Surrender, and I will let you go."

The only answer the Russians gave him was a roar. A sturdy Russian soldier lunged at him with a bayonet.

Yang Xiaolin did not move; he only furrowed his brows. Sui Bing shouted from the side, "Kill!"

Five or six bayonets plunged into the Russian soldier simultaneously. His gun tip was still a few centimeters from Yang Xiaolin. Yang could see the man trying to push forward with all his might, but his arm trembled, and those few centimeters became a distance he would never bridge in his lifetime.

As the bandits pulled their bayonets from his body, the man slumped to the ground. Yang Xiaolin sighed and looked at the other three. "Surrender. I truly will not kill you!"

Those three eventually made the same choice as their comrade.

Looking at the corpses before him, Yang Xiaolin felt a heavy heart. He turned to Nier and said, "I really would have let them go!"

Nier’s lips moved slightly. "I know. But they did not."

Yang Xiaolin let out a long breath and shouted, "Clean up the battlefield! No one is allowed to disturb the locals! If you took anyone's quilts, pay them back!"

Baishan County had only about a thousand households, with five or six thousand people in the town. Including the surrounding areas, the population was barely ten thousand. These locals usually spent their time chopping wood or gathering ginseng to sell to the Russians. To them, it didn't matter if the Russians were plundering; what mattered was that the Russians paid, and with money, they could survive.

Yang Xiaolin’s assault on Baishan had been so swift that many locals hadn't even realized the battle had begun before it was over. The artillery and gunfire had terrified them, and with no city walls to block their path, the residents had fled into the fields outside the city once the fighting started.

As dawn broke, many heard that the shooting had ceased, and the bolder ones returned to check on their homes. Though there was little left in their houses, traditional Chinese values kept them tethered to their humble abodes.

The villagers were shocked upon their return. They might have expected Yang Dagui not to loot, but they never expected that every family’s water vat would be filled to the brim, and for any property damaged, the bandits had left money on the tables to cover the cost.

Some elderly and women who hadn't fled even received grain, which they said had been distributed by Yang Dagui after he captured the Russian warehouses. In the more dilapidated houses, the bandits had also left grain and money. Though it wasn't much, it was enough to stretch until the next harvest, which left the residents of Baishan astonished.

Even Chen De, the head of Liudaojiang, had assumed that because he had fought against Yang Xiaolin, his home would be ransacked, his gold and silver treasures stolen, and his house perhaps burned down. Yet, when he returned, the house was intact, the feeding trough for the big yellow ox in front of the door was filled with fodder, and nothing in his home had been touched. A note was posted on his door.

Chen De initially thought it was a warning letter from Yang Xiaolin. When he took it down, he read: "Owner absent. Trespassers will be killed!" Signed: Yang Dagui.

Chen De stared at the note, stunned. He didn't know what to think; his mind went blank. A question slowly surfaced: "Is he really a bandit?"

Baishan was the gateway to the Changbai Mountains; to move from the mountains into the Liao River Plain, one had to control Baishan. If the Russians and the Qing government held it, it would be extremely difficult for him to move in that direction. That was why Yang Xiaolin had put so much effort into this operation.

By the same token, his destruction of the Russian presence in Baishan meant a gap had appeared in the Russian encirclement. It might take the Russians a month or longer to plug that gap, which was enough time for him to rest in the mountains.

There was nothing left on Gulou Mountain. Zhao Yansun had burned it last year, and the Russians had burned it again this year. Looking at the scorched earth on the mountaintop, Yang Xiaolin smiled bitterly and said nothing. He would just have to build a few more wooden houses.

While resting on Gulou Mountain and preparing to face the enemies who might follow, he waited for over half a month, but neither the Russians nor the Qing troops showed any signs of entering the mountains. During this time, the bandits resumed their training, and Yang Xiaolin held another meeting for criticism and self-criticism, allowing the men to summarize their combat experiences.

He understood now that he was not a qualified general. To turn this force into an "Iron Army," he had to let it perfect itself—learn from each battle, learn warfare through warfare. That was how the Great Ancestor had done it.

This time, the bandits gave him some respect, and the meeting was relatively successful. Though everyone was a bit restrained at first, the debate became quite heated once they opened up. There was some swearing, but no one reached for their guns like last time.

The person who brought news from the outside was Naifu Aso. He had returned to Gulou Mountain only half a month prior, and just as Yang Xiaolin was preparing for a new wave of enemy attacks, Aso arrived. He had two tasks: the first was to arrange a meeting between Yang Xiaolin and Sun Yat-sen.

"Xiaolin-kun, congratulations on repelling the Russian attack once again. I find I have become accustomed to congratulating you on your victories."

When Aso met Yang Xiaolin, he said this with a smile. Yang was delighted. "Aso-kun, have the Russians retreated?"

Aso handed him a newspaper. "Please look, Xiaolin-kun. After you took Baishan, the Russian commander Kuropatkin was recalled to his country. It is said the Tsar sent him to Siberia to suppress bandits. The new Russian commander has not yet arrived; the Russian forces here are currently under the command of Akbelier. He has already led his troops back to the Heilongjiang River. It looks like you have at least half a year to rest."

Yang Xiaolin laughed heartily. "Excellent!"

He took the paper and read it carefully. It was a Japanese-run newspaper in China, which commented on the battle’s outcome, generally attributing the result to Russian negligence, which had given Yang Xiaolin an opportunity.

Commander Kuropatkin had been sent to Siberia—not so much because he was defeated by Yang Xiaolin, but because of that final telegram from Captain Kapirudosov. When the telegram reached Russia, the public was outraged by Kuropatkin’s incompetence. Russian newspapers published the full content, and there was a nationwide outcry demanding that Kuropatkin stop embarrassing the empire. Thus, the Tsar reassigned him. General Zeng Qi of the Qing Dynasty was also dismissed by the furious Empress Dowager. Replacing him was Aisin Gioro Zaitao, the youngest Beile of the Manchu Qing.

As Aso walked into the makeshift camp with Yang Xiaolin, he said, "Xiaolin-kun, you must be wary of this Zaitao. He returned from studying in Germany last year and is deeply influenced by German military philosophy, emphasizing the role of weaponry and soldiers. He is also one of the few talented individuals left in the Qing government. He has already declared that he will annihilate you within three years."