Zhu Xiaosong left as quietly as he arrived, with over a hundred able-bodied men. With a wave of his hand, he took away several chests of gold and silver, leaving behind a poem.
If nothing unexpected happened, the poem personally inscribed by Zhu Xiaosong should have increased the entrance fee to Quanlin Temple by two yuan compared to other temples.
But unfortunately, while Zhu Xiaosong had the courage to write such a poem, Abbot Wuzhi of Quanlin Temple likely did not have the courage to keep it.
Zhu Xiaosong didn't seem to mind. For him, the most important thing now was to quickly go to the Quanlin Imperial Palace.
He didn't care about craftsmen or money; it was mainly because he liked the beautiful scenery of the Quanlin Imperial Palace.
When Zhu Xiaosong and his men arrived at the outer woods of the Quanlin Imperial Palace, they found the perimeter heavily guarded, with sentries every five steps and patrols every ten. They could faintly see many eunuchs and palace maids constantly shuttling back and forth.
Zhu Laosan asked, "Brother, has this palace received any wind of trouble?"
After saying that, Zhu Laosan shook his head and answered himself, "That's not right either. If the palace had received any wind of trouble, then it's been so long since we killed officials and distributed grain in Sishui County, why haven't we seen any government troops come to suppress us?"
Zhu Xiaosong chuckled and said, "It's normal to be on alert if there's any news; it's not normal if there isn't.
There's a saying in official circles: 'The more you do, the more mistakes you make; the less you do, the fewer mistakes you make; if you do nothing, you make no mistakes.' The garrison at Quanlin Imperial Palace has no responsibility to suppress bandits or quell rebellions. They are just here to guard the house for that deaf old dog Qian. As for outside the palace, even if the world turns upside down, what does it have to do with them?"
Zhu Laosan finally understood and couldn't help but shake his head, saying, "If everyone is afraid of making mistakes and does nothing, then who will do anything? Our Jade Emperor Mountain people should not be like this in the future. Brother must set a rule."
Zhu Xiaosong smiled and nodded, saying, "Naturally. Do you remember what I told you back then? We want everyone in the world to be able to afford food and clothing. If the people of our Jade Emperor Mountain dare not take the initiative, how can we talk about ideals?"
After speaking, Zhu Xiaosong beckoned and called Liu Erniu, asking, "Erniu, are the things you prepared ready?"
Liu Erniu bowed low and replied, "Everything is ready. The brothers have also been ambushed around the area, and now we are just waiting for the Great Chieftain's command."
Zhu Xiaosong grunted, thought for a moment, and then gave the order: "Execute!"
Liu Erniu's expression became serious, and he replied, "Yes!"
After responding, Liu Erniu bowed low and ran back. The able-bodied men of Jade Emperor Mountain also began to get busy.
Only after the men had set up a simple catapult made of poles and ropes did Liu Erniu pull out a whistle from his懷. After another man placed a grenade into the bowl behind the catapult and took out a flint, Liu Erniu blew the whistle forcefully.
If it were a large catapult for attacking a city, even if Zhu Xiaosong knew the principle, he might not have been able to obtain enough materials in a short time, and even if he could, he wouldn't be able to bring it to the mountain.
But to make this kind of simple catapult for launching grenades that didn't require a very long range, it was much easier.
The young man responsible for ignition lit the fuse of the grenade with the flint. Another young man on the side forcefully pulled the trigger mechanism, and the grenade spun and flew out.
Then, Zhu Xiaosong watched helplessly as the grenade missed its target.
Since the accuracy of killing couldn't be solved, the killing radius should be increased. It made perfect sense!
With a bang, the grenade that had just landed exploded. Explosions of grenades also sounded from several other directions.
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
The successive explosions completely stunned the guards outside the palace. However, when the guards gathered to find traces of the enemy, they couldn't find a single shadow. They could only shoot arrows in the direction from which the grenades came.
Then a rather amusing scene occurred.
Arrows, as a weapon, certainly had range, but range did not represent effective killing range. Because the range of ordinary arrows could reach about three hundred meters, but the effective killing range was only about seventy meters.
To achieve long-range, large-area effective killing, it could only be done by throwing volleys of arrows. However, the guard force of the entire Quanlin Imperial Palace was not enough to support this kind of tactic, because that deaf old dog Qian had not yet left the capital.
If that deaf old dog Qian were in Quanlin Imperial Palace now, there would be the Vanguard Battalion, the Imperial Guard Battalion, the Imperial Guard Bureau, the Infantry Battalion, the Swift Cavalry Battalion, and other Qing troops guarding here. Even if they were piled up by sheer numbers, they could have crushed Zhu Xiaosong to death.
The problem was that deaf old dog Qian had not yet arrived at the Quanlin Imperial Palace, so the entire palace's guard force consisted only of the more than a thousand soldiers of the Imperial Household Department responsible for internal security, and more than a thousand troops responsible for external security. Even if the inner guards rushed out and combined with the outer troops, it would only be about two thousand people. Divided among more than ten posts, each post would only have two hundred people, and not everyone among those two hundred people had arrows.
What was even more critical was that although the simple catapults made by Zhu Xiaosong and his men did not have a longer range than arrows, this thing did not have the concept of effective killing – what kind of effective killing range does a grenade have? As far as it can be thrown, that is its killing range!
And when the Qing soldiers on guard finally discovered the figures of Zhu Xiaosong and his men and wanted to charge forward to fight with swords, the rebels of Jade Emperor Mountain would take out more grenades and throw them.
Fragmentary damage, my dear, this thing could only explode in one place at a time, but those fragments would fly everywhere – although these fragments could not easily kill people, the damage they caused was considerable.
Especially the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department, who originally wanted to charge out to gain military merits, was completely stunned by the continuous explosions. He cried and wailed, ordering the soldiers to gather together.
This was even more to Zhu Xiaosong's liking!
By the time Zhu Xiaosong had used more than half of the nearly a thousand grenades he brought, the palace guards were basically all dead or wounded, and there wasn't a single person left who could stand with a sword.
With less than two hundred soldiers, they killed nearly two thousand Tatar soldiers without suffering any losses, almost perfectly recreating the feat of ambushing the five hundred soldiers of the Yanzhou Military Affairs Office last time. Even the most seriously injured was a unlucky fellow who tripped on a stone while running too fast and sprained his ankle.
Zhu Lao Er, who had been guarding Zhu Xiaosong's side, was so stunned by this scene that he couldn't help but say, "See if there are any unexploded ones on the ground later. We absolutely cannot let these fall into the hands of the Tatars."
Zhu Xiaosong nodded in agreement, then led Zhu Lao Er and other strong men out of the woods and surrounded the howling palace guards on the ground.
By this time, the chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department had stopped wailing. Upon seeing Zhu Xiaosong, who was weighing and playing with a grenade in his hand, appearing with less than two hundred people behind him, this unnamed chief eunuch of the Imperial Household Department immediately shouted in a shrill voice, "You are rebelling! Rebelling!"
Zhu Xiaosong stepped on the eunuch's face and laughed, "I know this is rebellion, do you need to tell me? Tell me, how many craftsmen are there in the palace, and where are they?"
The chief eunuch wailed, "You won't get a single word out of me!"
Zhu Xiaosong was amused. First, he gave the eunuch a thumbs-up and praised, "You're a tough one! I, Zhu Xiaosong, have killed so many officials, but you are the most steadfast of them all!"
After praising him, Zhu Xiaosong turned his head and shouted, "Erniu! Take this dead eunuch down and give him a good wash!"
Liu Erniu first said "Yes" in response, but then frowned, "Great Chieftain, we only brought one pot. Why don't we just skip the washing and try dismemberment by a thousand cuts?"
As soon as Zhu Xiaosong revealed his identity, the chief eunuch was already scared to death. Seeing Liu Erniu preparing to skin him alive, the chief eunuch was so scared that he wet and soiled himself, shouting, "I'll talk! I'll talk!"
Zhu Xiaosong then chuckled and said, "Speak, where are the craftsmen."
After getting the location of the craftsmen from the chief eunuch, Zhu Xiaosong dispatched some of his men to guard the palace guards, while he led the remaining men towards the palace.
There were no longer many guards inside the palace at this time. The eunuchs and palace maids who had not gone out were either kneeling and begging for mercy or running around like headless flies. Zhu Xiaosong ignored them and went directly to the workshop district mentioned by the chief eunuch.
Quanlin Imperial Palace had dozens of springs that interconnected and flowed together, creating a magnificent spectacle. The entire palace was divided into a palace area and a garden scenic area. The palace area was further divided into three routes: left, middle, and right. The left route contained the administrative offices, the military affairs room, the Siming Pavilion, and the inner duty room; the right route contained the administrative offices, the dining hall, the duty room, the垂花门, and the照房; the middle route contained the照壁, the main palace gate, the second palace gate, the side hall, the垂花门, the sleeping hall, and the Buddhist hall. Between the three palace routes, pavilions, terraces, towers, and阁s were built, connected by covered corridors. In the garden scenic area, herds of deer roamed the woods, with pavilions, terraces, pavilions, and阁s nestled among elm, willow, pine, and cypress trees.
Compared to the Forbidden City, which was dominated by solemnity, Quanlin Imperial Palace was more about elegant and small delights.
Even Zhu Xiaosong, who was knowledgeable, couldn't help but praise, "If you talk about knowing how to play and how to squander, it really has to be that deaf old dog Qian."
Liu Erniu said eagerly, "Great Chieftain, why don't we just burn down this palace? The two thousand guards were heavily injured and still couldn't defeat our less than two hundred men. I say the Tatars are nothing special."
Zhu Xiaosong glared at Liu Erniu and reprimanded, "Burn what! This palace was built with the blood and sweat of the common people. You say burn it and we burn it? If you say such nonsense again next time, I'll burn you first!"
Walking through the halls and pavilions to the workshop district, Zhu Xiaosong shouted to the craftsmen in the courtyard, "Don't be afraid! I don't like killing people, and I'm only here to invite you up the mountain today."
The leading craftsman knelt on the ground with a thud and pleaded, "Good sir, spare my life! If I follow you up the mountain, won't the authorities arrest my family and question them? I know where the valuable things are in this palace, please spare us!"
Zhu Xiaosong said, "Don't worry, since I said I'm taking you up the mountain, I'll bring your wives, children, and elders along. We won't wrong you."
The craftsman thought to himself, how can I trust this? If we are kidnapped, the authorities might arrest my family or they might not. If my whole family follows you up the mountain, when the imperial army arrives, won't my whole family suffer disaster?
Thinking of this, the craftsman pleaded, "Why don't we follow the good sir up the mountain, and my family doesn't need to?"
The other craftsmen also knelt and begged, "We are willing to follow the good sir up the mountain, please spare our families!"
Zhu Xiaosong said, "That is up to you. Rest assured, as long as you do as I say, I will definitely give you the wages you deserve and will not treat you unfairly."
After comforting the craftsmen for a few words, Zhu Xiaosong ordered Liu Erniu, "Take them, let's go."
Zhu Xiaosong left as quietly as he arrived, with a wave of his hand, he packed up the craftsmen and some valuable gold and jewelry from the palace, and coincidentally left behind a ground of severely injured and dead palace guards.