Zhaoqing Mansion, at the foot of the soap curtain mountain at the junction of Heshan and Kaiping border, a large village called Guru Village. Pen ~ fun ~ pavilion www.biquge.info

Although Guru Village is close to the foot of the mountain, there are not many paddy fields, but there is a lot of dry land, there are more than 800 households in the village, 700 are local Cantonese natives, and another 100 or so are Hakka people.

But the fields in the village basically belong to the industry of the native people, and the Hakka people can only open up some barren land in the mountains, but the mountains are too barren to make a living, so the one hundred Hakka families in the village, there are seventy or eighty families who can only make a living by renting the fields of the local native squires, one of whom is a local squire named Ai Si, who has hundreds of acres of land, not only the ancient Confucian village, but also the largest landlord in the vicinity of dozens of miles.

A few days ago, a Hakka trader from other places brought news from the city of Guangzhou, saying that Liangguang had been occupied by a holy king named Feng Yunshan, who had tens of thousands of troops, and announced that he would divide the land evenly and would soon be promoted to Guru Village.

For a while, the natives and guests in Guru Village were shocked by the news and talked about it.

The Hakka people naturally cheered, but the natives who had fields, especially the local squires with many fields, sighed and scolded the holy king for deserving of death. Especially Ai Si, he hated the one named Feng Yunshan even more, and he gritted his teeth with hatred.

On this day, more than ten Hakka tenants in Ai Si's family quarreled with Ai Si because of the matter of renting grain.

Ai Si saw more than ten Hakka people, so he called the family Ding Nursing Home and the village people to help, the two sides had a dispute, and it turned into a group fight, this gang of fighting brave Hakka people, although there were only more than ten people, but the Ai four families more than 20 people and clansmen were beaten all over the house, and the Hakka people fought up, and they accidentally killed the only son of Ai Si's family.

This time broke into a big disaster, the grief-stricken Ai Si, immediately called more hundreds of people, surrounded more than ten Hakka people, unexpectedly, the Hakka people are very united, and more than 100 Hakka families in the village are also all armed with flat poles and sticks, etc., and these hundreds of natives confronted each other.

Ai Si lost his only son, hated in his heart, sent people to the neighboring village to call a large number of natives, surrounded the entire Guru Village, out of control, and killed all the more than 100 Hakka families in the entire Guru Village, and only three or five people escaped from the village.

As soon as he saw that hundreds of people had been killed, Ai Si's hatred also disappeared, and when he came to his senses, he couldn't help but be afraid. First, he was afraid that the Hakka people would come to retaliate if he found out, and second, he was afraid that the government would know about it and arrest him.

At this time, a teacher surnamed Gu invited by Ai Si for his son gave Ai Si an idea and said: "The owner, since it has reached such a point, it is better to simply do something big and not go in vain in the world!" ”

Ai Si was really annoyed, and said unhappily: "Sir, my son is also dead, so what else do you have to joke with you." ”

"Boss, I'm not joking with you. Now you have caused a catastrophe that will not only affect your family, but also your entire clan! Master Gu scares Ai Si alarmistly, wanting to achieve his goal.

It turned out that this Master Gu was the staff of the original acting governor of Guangdong, Bai Gui, after the city of Guangzhou was broken, he was separated on the way to escape, but he fled to this ancient Confucian village. Master Gu felt that he was blessed by Bai Gui's knowledge, and after learning that Bai Gui was captured by the rebels, he was escorted back to Guangzhou City for public trial and beheading, so he thought about avenging Bai Gui, of course, more than that, if there was a riot in Guangzhou, or even successfully recovered Guangzhou City, it would be a great merit, and then the court would reward him, and the glory and wealth of his descendants would be inexhaustible.

So, he continued to persuade Ai Si: "Dongjia, you have been in this mountain village for a long time, and you may not know that the people who occupy Guangzhou City now are the long-haired thieves who rebelled in Guangxi the year before last and claimed to be the Taiping Army. This group of Taiping troops, their slogan is to divide the land equally, treat the rich squires like enemies, kill them all, confiscate the family property, and divide the land to the Hakka people. Most of them are Hakka, and many of the leaders are Hakka, so they are very good to the Hakka people. If you let them know that you organized people to kill so many Hakka people, I'm afraid that ......"

"No wonder a few days ago, the Hakka vendor said that the Holy King announced that he would divide the land equally. It turned out to be the reason you said, Mr. Gu! Hmph, these long-haired thieves are robbers! However, Ai Si's body is weak, so what can he do? Ai Si sighed.

"Don't be discouraged, owner. Now there is an excellent opportunity, it depends on whether you can catch it! Master Gu told him about the situation in Guangzhou City, saying that in Guangzhou City, most of the long-haired thieves had already gone out to fight, and it was the emptiest time for the long-haired thieves.

However, in the city, there is a group of Tiandihui rebels mainly composed of natives, and these people, after some inquiries by Master Gu, learned that they are not really taking refuge in the long-haired thieves, and the long-haired thieves also treat them as outsiders, so they are an object that can be used. Master Gu also said that through some squires in the city, he had already contacted thousands of volunteers, and as an internal response, as long as he could lead thousands of people to attack the city suddenly, he could break the city in one fell swoop.

Immediately afterwards, Master Gu analyzed Ai Si's advantages again.

"Boss, you are anxious for justice and righteousness, and no one in this area knows your name. As long as you stand up, raise your arms, and tell the long-haired thief's past evil deeds and upcoming evil intentions, I think many local natives, as well as large squires like you, will enthusiastically support you. ”

"Think about it, if you don't drive away the long-haired thieves, all your property will be seized by the long-haired thieves, and your fields will be given to those poor Hakka ghosts by him to please them. Can you stand it? You can't stand it, and the squires of the other villages can't stand it. As long as the owner takes the lead, he will definitely gather from the followers, and when he gathers tens of thousands of horses, he is afraid that he will not be able to capture the city of Guangzhou? ”

"And the long-haired rebels have always been long-haired thieves, and soon the imperial court will organize an army and fight back. If we occupy the city of Guangzhou and hand it over to the imperial court, we will definitely be rewarded by the imperial court and will be remembered for future generations. ”

As Master Gu spoke, he was intoxicated by the picture he described.

Ai Si thought about it and felt that Mr. Gu's words were very reasonable. However, he always felt that something was strange, and couldn't help asking, "Sir, I don't know, why did you persuade me like this?" Could it be that you are a member of the imperial court? ”

"Exactly! To tell you the truth, I am a special envoy of the imperial court to recruit people loyal to the imperial court, form a regimental training, and expel the long-haired thieves! Master Gu pretended to be mysterious, took out a golden holy decree from his sleeve, raised it, and said, "This is the holy decree appointed by the imperial court. ”

Ai Si is just a rich man in the countryside, so he hurriedly bowed his head and bowed, immediately agreed, scattered his family wealth, recruited villagers, and formed a group training.

At the moment, Master Gu appointed himself as the minister of the Guangdong regimental training, appointed Ai Si as the chief of the Heshan regimental training, and contacted the local squires everywhere to recruit brave training.

After a few days' work, the rumor that the long-haired thief in the city of Guangzhou was preparing to attack the landlords and squires to divide the land throughout Guangdong, spread throughout the southern and western parts of Guangzhou. This was a fact that was almost close, and Feng Yunshan really wanted to do this, so many natives with land responded to support the struggle. In particular, many landlords and squires, when they heard that the long-haired thieves wanted to rob their fields, were even more like enmity against the heavens, and they hated to kill them quickly.

At the same time, there are other rumors that the long-haired thieves are colluding with the Hakka people to hand over all the land of Canton to the Hakka people, and the locals of Canton will become tenants or be sold abroad as slaves.

As a result, in the seven or eight counties of Guangzhou Prefecture and Zhaoqing Prefecture, there were groups of anti-long-haired thieves. A few days later, Master Gu organized all the major regimental exercises organized by the locals as the main force, gathered in Heshan, and after some preparations, suddenly launched an attack on Heshan, and with the help of Heshan City, within half an hour, he conquered Heshan City, which was garrisoned by only three hundred long-haired thieves.

For a while, the nearby group training and squire's children came to vote one after another, and the group courage that Master Gu could master quickly reached more than 20,000 people.

Immediately afterwards, Master Gu, Ai Si and others led this group of local natives to attack the neighboring Nanhai County.

Moreover, because almost all of the captive troops in Guangzhou Prefecture were sent out to fight, even the Second Class Brigade that was originally stationed in the area of Guangzhou Prefecture was also sent to Qiongzhou Prefecture, Leizhou Prefecture and other newly captured places to garrison them, and there was a vacancy in the garrison.

In addition, at this time, the news was blocked, and when the villagers heard that their land was going to be allocated to the Hakka people by the long-haired thieves, they believed that the strong character of the Cantonese people made them soon join the army of armed resistance.

Therefore, the villagers who set out from Heshan were unimpeded all the way, coupled with Master Gu's propaganda, many squires with many fields, as well as local natives with a few acres of land at home, were afraid of being robbed of land by long-haired thieves, and joined the attacking village warrior team one after another.

By the way, Ai Si led the villagers to sweep through the villages along the way, burning down the Hakka villages along the way, and coercing the local native villages to attack Guangzhou City together. Soon, by the time the rebellious villagers arrived in Foshan, the ranks had expanded to more than 40,000 people.

At this time, Master Gu received news from Panyu County, the original Manchu Panyu County Order, after the city of Guangzhou was broken, fled to the landlord's house in the countryside of Panyu to hide, and after hearing the news of Master Gu's army, he also organized thousands of people to practice in the township bravery, ready to cooperate with the attack of Master Gu.

Master Gu hurriedly ordered someone to contact the Heaven and Earth Association in Guangzhou City again.

He seemed to feel that Guangzhou City had opened its doors to him, and even fantasized about breaking through Guangzhou City and escorting a group of long-haired thieves, especially the thief chief named Feng Yunshan, to the capital to accept the emperor's reward. (To be continued.) )