Chapter 317- Hong Xiuquan
Translator: TeamTWO
Editor: Nora
Xunzhou, Taiping Country Base.
Compared to the other peasant uprisings, talents filled the movement that Hong Xiuquan led in Taiping Country. At the start of the uprising, there were Yang Xiuqing, Feng Yunshan, Xiao Chaogui, Feng Changhui, and Shi Dakai—these five core members. Out of the five, Shi Dakai was really good at war and a much-needed general.
The five of them had met their ends in similar manners.
Feng Yunshan and Xiao Chaogui died in battle at the start of the uprising. During the middle portion, Yang Xiuqing grew arrogant from his victories and Feng Changhui murdered him. Not long after, Hong Xiuquan executed Feng Changhui.
The only lucky survivor, Shi Dakai, left because of Hong Xiuquan's jealousy toward him. Shi Dakai brought away his forces and fought independently. But due to his distance from the base, he couldn't escaped death.
Apart from the core five, there were the Tian Official Lin Fengxiang, Di Official Li Kaifang, Chun Official Hu Yihuang, Xia Official Lai Hanying, Qiu Official Zheng Lichang, Dong Official Xu Zhongchang and more. These people were all capable leaders.
Near the end of the uprising, Li Xiucheng, Chen Yucheng, and the like appeared in Taping Country. These were young leaders, Li Xiucheng was the most elite among them. Moreover, he was very loyal.
Based on the settings that Gaia created, these core members would appear too after the leader of the uprising appeared in the wilderness.
Of course, Gaia removed their negative experiences like jealousy, betrayal, arrogance, and biases.
The members of the uprising group that appeared in the wilderness all had the same dream and motivation.
They aimed to build their ideal country in the wilderness.
Hence, the moment Hong Xiuquan appeared in the wilderness, he had tens of generals besides him. In addition to his nearly bug-like refugee recruiting skill, he had three thousand refugees in less than five days.
Because of his appearance, the lords in Xunzhou found that their refugee spawning rate had dropped. In truth, Hong Xiuquan had taken them all away.
With three thousand refugees, Hong Xiuquan had the basic strength required to stand up in the wilderness.
As it was an uprising group, they were naturally all soldiers.
Over 10 generals, one main one deputy, split into units. They had split the three thousand refugees into six units. The generals made use of this time to give these refugees some basic training.
Next, they needed to take down a territory and build their base.
The player territories in the wilderness that survived till this day had at least reached grade 3 town, so their population had reached 10 thousand. The better ones had upgraded to grade 1 County and had a population upper limit of 20 thousand.
In addition to the subsidiary territories, the lords had a more optimistic situation.
If the three thousand refugees in the uprising army tried to take down a player territory, it would be akin to throwing an egg at a rock. The refugees were using vegetable knives to fight against a proper army—merely courting death.
In history, the uprising army used their numbers to gain an advantage. They had limited chances to create upsets as underdogs against bigger forces.
However, Hong Xiuquan had no choice but to take the chance.
One could describe the recruited refugees as a bunch of locusts. They could not produce grain, they brought too little food, and they were about to die in a few days.
Thankfully, their identity gave the uprising army a good cover.
As the leader of the uprising army, Hong Xiuquan had many ideas. After many days of observation, he chose a suitable territory and prepared to act the next day.
Early in the morning, he arranged Shi Dakai to lead a unit. They would act as new refugees and walk toward the city gates. When the guards saw the shabbily dressed refugees, they didn’t pay much attention despite the wrong numbers. After all, the numbers in these few days didn't have a pattern. It could suddenly increase by a hundred and no one would care. They would just allow them in.
The moment he entered, Shi Dakai made use of the chance to lead the troops to attack. The vegetable knives in their hands killed the guards, and they successfully took down the city gates.
The troops that hid outside the gates swarmed out and entered the city after they saw the plan succeed.
When he saw the army enter, Shi Dakai made the decision to gather the weapons the guards had left. Then, they rush toward the armory. He clearly knew that the strong forces were at the barracks. If these men came to reinforce, they wouldn't stand a fighting chance with such noob equipment.
Hence, they would only have a chance of winning if they managed to take down the armory.
The generals took down the various important points and were ready to fight. As the leader, Hong Xiuquan didn't slack off. He started to spread his beliefs and faith to recruit the masses.
In this territory, the people didn’t have a high level of patriotism and happiness. The lord was violent and the residents and commoners held a lot of resentment toward him. After Hong Xiuquan tempted them, many of them joined his forces.
Hence, with both things considered, victory was in their sights.
Shi Dakai's forces successfully took down the armory, but they had suffered heavy casualties.
The refugees couldn't bother to celebrate and just entered the armory. They simply took any weapon they saw. Besides, they wouldn't know how to use them anyways. They also randomly wore the armor.
After they equipped themselves, the leader gathered the refugees outside the armory, and they prepared for battle.
With such a delay, the proper army from the barracks had finally started to move toward the uprising army.
The proper army of a grade 3 Town had a total of a thousand men that were all well equipped and properly trained. If the opponent was just a normal group of three thousand refugees, these men could take them down without a problem.
Unfortunately, ten elite generals led these three thousand refugees, so victory or defeat was hard to predict.
Under the buffs of the various generals, the combat strength of the uprising army surged.
Furthermore, Hong Xiuquan had scary charisma. The refugees that he recruited were all firm believers and weren't afraid to die. Hence, the morale of the uprising army was really high.
A war was about to start.
At this point, there was no tactics to speak of—only head to head battle.
In the midst of the battle, both sides were equal. People would fall at every moment, which created a very gruesome scene.
At this very moment, the overlord Hong Xiuquan arrived!
The commoner force sauntered behind him. In a short hour, he had recruited a thousand members. His powerful brainwashing ability was really scary.
At the start of the uprising, everyone respected Hong Xiuquan.
Hong Xiuquan arrived at the middle of the battlefield. He braved the arrow rain. Then, he started to try and persuade the proper army to put down their weapons and join the uprising army.
Charm filled his voice. Unknowingly, one would be tempted.
Power filled his actions, and he filled people with hope.
He was the messenger sent from the heavens to save the brothers with problems.
Hong Xiuquan’s temptations, in addition to the heavy casualties from the war, made several members of the proper army lose their will to fight. They stayed in the same spot and did not move.
Compared to the normal soldiers, the generals were more clear headed. Hence, they weren't tempted. They tried their best to shout and wake the men up. They order the soldiers to fight.
Unfortunately, Hong Xiuquan was too much of a bug.
The proper army was like dominos, as more and more of them got tempted. The officials tried their best, but no matter what they tried, the soldiers wouldn't move.
Shi Dakai and the other generals of Hong Xiuquan were also good. They did not bother with those soldiers that did not move. They only attacked those who defended.
With that, the situation on the battlefield had become totally one-sided.
As time passed, those that Hong Xiequan tempted looked at their officers with weird eyes. As these soldiers stared at them, the officers felt a shiver down their spines.
These experienced officers knew that if they tried to force the soldiers to fight, the soldiers might kill them on the spot.
Although Hong Xiuquan didn’t manage to tempt the smart ones, they still made the intelligent choice and surrendered, joining the uprising army.
At this point, the uprising army had gained a total victory.
The lord of the territory was a middle-aged man cooped up in the Lord’s Manor. After he knew that the army had lost, he gave a bitter smile and quickly teleported away.
At the start of the uprising, only a few players were willing to join the uprising army. Most lords had backbone and didn't want to listen and be under NPCs.
The fall of the territory meant that Taiping Country officially had a footing on Xunzhou.
To the uprising army, ruling a place wasn't too hard. The commoners weren't afraid of them and everything developed in the right direction.
As expected, the Taiping Country uprising army was the first of its kind to take down a player territory. This action officially announced the start of the information piece.
Hong Xiuquan had shown his unbeatable charm out in the wilderness. He made use of his guile and broke the spirit of a thousand men.
The lord that left wrote everything that happened on the forums, which caused an uproar amongst the players.
Now, all the players genuinely felt the terror of the uprising. A huge change was about to come!
Some lords in Xunzhou were afraid that the moment they woke up, a huge uprising army would be outside their city wall.
Some of the others learned their lesson. They started to improve the lives of their people and made them happier.
As for whether or not it was too late, only the heavens knew.
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