Chapter Forty-Six: The Reason for Battle

Qian Yao shouted, “Captain! From now on, we’ll follow you to fight the Russians, we’ll die with you! Not for anything else, but because we want to be real men!”

As soon as Qian Yao spoke, the others immediately started shouting as well, and Yang Xiaolin didn’t bother with any unified slogan; for a moment, it was a chaotic uproar.

He couldn’t make out what was being said below, but after waiting a while, Yang Xiaolin felt their emotions were stirred enough, so he waved his hand for silence. “Alright, everyone follow me. From now on, we eat the same food, drink the same drink! But let me say something ugly up front—we are not like any other bandits. We have five rules of discipline, and everyone must obey! If anyone dares to defy them, death will be the consequence.”

Yang Xiaolin knew his force was still just a fledgling band, and the benefit of such a beginning was that he could mold them as he pleased; they had no fixed pattern. If left to develop on their own, they’d remain mere bandits in the end.

But if he instilled in them a reason for battle, if he made them feel that fighting alongside him was for a life they could desire, and then bound them by strict discipline, they would become an army. Of course, Yang Xiaolin couldn't just apply the old Red Army theories of conquering the land; he used the simplest, most direct reason—fighting was to be a real man!

Yang Xiaolin didn’t want to be a bandit, at least not for his whole life. Yet what he didn’t expect was that soon, in a very short time, he would be branded a demon, notorious throughout the entire Qing Dynasty as its most infamous bandit!

When the Russians re-entered the mine, they were stunned by what they saw! The bodies of six hundred Russian soldiers were hung high, suspended from stakes that were originally used for punishing Chinese escapees, swaying gently. Their blood had long drained away, leaving their faces deathly pale and terrifying. Hundreds of Russian civilians lay dead throughout the mine—some beaten to death in their beds, others managed to flee their rooms, but could not escape the hand of death.

In one house, Russian soldiers found a family of three. The master of the house was slumped against the wall, battered beyond recognition, his head smashed entirely. He wore only his underclothes, and a gun hung on the wall nearby. Clearly, upon hearing the commotion, he rushed to grab the gun but was a step too slow, killed before he could reach it.

Beside the bed lay a woman in her forties, her lower body stained with dried blood, a deep gash across her neck the fatal wound. Before death, her killers had surely tortured her with the utmost cruelty.

Her eyes were wide open, gazing beside her. In the adjacent bedding was a child of thirteen or fourteen, evidently thinking that hiding under the covers would keep him safe—but he was beaten to death right there, the quilt never lifted.

The Russian soldiers were enraged! Such atrocities, they felt, were theirs to inflict upon the Chinese, not for the Chinese to mimic against their own compatriots! What infuriated them even more was the audacity of the perpetrators, who left a provocative declaration on the plaza’s stone pillar, written in white lime—a virtual declaration of war:

“Those who invade our land, kill!”
“Those who violate our home, kill!”

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“Those who bully our sisters, kill!”
“Those who plunder our property, kill!”
“Those who insult our dignity, kill!”

Signed—Yang the Ghost-Slayer from Western Liaoning.

Five reasons to kill, and Yang the Ghost-Slayer slaughtered every Russian here. In truth, Yang Xiaolin had not wished for many of them to die, especially the elderly and the children. Yet the outcome was their deaths, and Yang Xiaolin once again bore the burden of murder without hesitation.

General Akberil was trembling with rage! That damned Yang the Ghost-Slayer again!

When he received the telegram from the camp, the commander immediately realized this incident was going to be even worse than the Ganzi Tun affair. So he sent his most capable general, Akberil, to deal with the crisis. Akberil had imagined the worst, but never expected it to reach such a degree!

A major mine, six hundred fully-armed Russian soldiers, nearly five hundred Russian civilians—all lost their lives. Akberil marveled at how Yang the Ghost-Slayer had managed to accomplish this! Akberil walked around, finally sitting in anguish on the very stone Yang Xiaolin had once stood upon. “God, what a massacre! Why would the Qing people treat us so?”

A soldier hurried over with hot water. “General, don’t grieve, mind your heart!”

Akberil shook his head. “I’d rather die now; these were our Russian citizens! Heaven knows how upset the commander will be when he learns what happened. If the Tsar receives word, he’ll surely fly into a rage!”

The secretary approached. “General, should we bury the bodies now?”

Akberil was a brilliant general, shrewd in politics as well—his eyes darted as he replied, “No! Take photographs, send them to our journalists, to the British, the French, and all those so-called civilized world reporters! Let them see what these Qing savages did to us! These barbarians—I swear I’ll wipe them out!”

The secretary hesitated. “General, if this spreads, it’ll make a laughingstock of our Russian army, especially among the British. I think we’d be better off handling it ourselves.”

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The reason Akberil earned the commander’s trust was his cunning. In local parlance, he was a master of persuasion.

Amidst this disaster, he keenly sensed something he could exploit. The Russians were currently negotiating with the Qing about the withdrawal from Western Liaoning. Russia did not want to withdraw, but the Treaty of Eight Nations was clear: after the Qing paid the first indemnity, all foreign troops must withdraw from Chinese territory.

This was the consensus among the powers regarding the Chinese “cake”—no one would monopolize or take more than their share. Historically, because Russia refused to withdraw, Japan received generous support from America and Britain during the Russo-Japanese War.

Britain and America were pressing Russia hard, but if they learned that in the northeast there was a force capable of attacking Russian regular troops and destroying Russian mines, they might reconsider their stance.

As for the embarrassment—well, that was easy to fix. Who would believe that a few hundred bandits could wipe out the Russian army? No one! So he could claim that there were ten thousand, even a hundred thousand bandits in Gulu Mountain! He could say the Qing army was powerless against this resistance, so Russian troops had to remain to help!

That was where Akberil’s thinking diverged from the secretary’s. He glanced at him, “Do as I say!”

The secretary quickly took out the camera, photographing each corpse, especially focusing on the elderly and children from multiple angles. Just then, Akberil heard a shout from behind, “General, we found a girl! She’s alive!”

Akberil could hardly believe his ears. A soldier ran over, grinning, “It’s true, General! We found her in an inconspicuous big box, locked inside. The bandits must not have noticed her!”

“Excellent! We need a witness! Bring her here at once!”

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