"Put down your weapons and don't resist unnecessary resistance!" A slightly crappy English was introduced into Lieutenant Schmidt's ears. After raising his head slightly, Lieutenant Schmidt saw clearly that there were seven people surrounding them, wearing camouflage uniforms unique to the Taiping Army, and were covered with branches. Their faces were covered with dark things, and they didn't know what it was. ☆→

Second Lieutenant Schmidt's original panic slowly calmed down. He wanted to resist, but thinking of his wife far away from the ocean, he finally chose to put down his weapons, squat on the ground like the other two remaining soldiers.

"What are your name, position and task?" After confiscating the clean weapons, a Taiping Army officer began to interrogate, but Lieutenant Schmidt said to himself in his heart, "You cannot betray your compatriots and comrades, you cannot, absolutely not."

"Name! Position! Mission!" Another shouting sounded, and the other two soldiers reported their names and positions, but they also gritted their teeth and did not say their mission. Finally, Lieutenant Schmidt gritted his teeth and said, "Schmidt Lawrence, Lieutenant of the First Regiment of the Royal Guards Dragoon!"

"What is your mission?! I don't want to torture you, but if I don't get the answer I want, you will suffer a lot." The Taiping Army officer squatted down and stared at Schmidt fiercely. From his eyes, Schmidt saw the cruelty of the venomous snake. But Schmidt still gritted his teeth. He could not betray his compatriots and comrades. He was ready to be beaten and tortured, and he was ready to fulfill his belief.

"Cut off their fingers and toes one by one until they speak!" The officer's tone was cold and cruel. It was chilling, and Schmidt was still in a tight grip. But the two soldiers behind him began to cry and beg for mercy. Both soldiers were soldiers who had only been in the army for half a year. Having not experienced the Crimean War, Schmidt closed his eyes in pain, preparing to accept this cruel reality. Two Taiping soldiers rushed up and held Schmidt, stepped on one of his hands under his feet, and placed a bright bayonet on Schmidt's finger. Schmidt trembled all over, fear made him almost unable to help but speak.

But at this moment, a Taiping soldier walked to the officer and said, "Sergeant, I found this from their paper bags." He spoke in Chinese. Of course, Schmidt didn't know what they were talking about, but after seeing the letter with the seal of the coalition commander, he felt something was wrong, and he only hoped that the Taiping soldiers would not understand the English above.

Sure enough, the officer seemed to be unable to understand the content of the letter, but he pondered for a moment and said, "Take them back and hand them over to the people in the battalion's staff!" Schmidt still didn't understand the Chinese language, but he escaped the fate of breaking his fingers, and he and two other soldiers became prisoners.

After being tied up, Schmidt and the other two were escorted to the south by five Taiping soldiers. In the darkness, they could only be led by ropes, and after passing through a sorghum field, they crossed the canal from a single-plank bridge. Schmidt was affiliated with the reconnaissance team of the Dragoon regiment, and he swore that he never knew there was such a single-plank bridge leading to the south. However, the Taiping Army looked for it as if it was familiar with the road.

After walking about three miles, they came to another village, and the sentry in the ambush in the dark made a code word. After the Taiping Army who led their Taiping Army answered, the group was released. Schmidt was surprised to find that there were at least a dozen Taiping Army hidden in the woods on the farmland outside the village. Schmidt also saw them coming out of their hiding place. Then more than ten people walked out of the village and exchanged positions with them.

They were all lurking masters. Schmidt was thinking in his heart. At this moment, he suddenly began to worry in his heart that the Taiping Army troops could lurk so close to Tianjin City. What their target was naturally self-evident. The ridiculous General Sutton even said that there was no sign of Taiping Army activities in this area!

After entering the village, Schmidt was alone and was escorted into a village house. Through the small courtyard unique to the house, he saw two Taiping Army officers and several big and thick soldiers. These soldiers were shirtless and there were storm fires in the house, which looked like a torture room.

After the two officers read the letter Schmidt was supposed to send General Napier, one of the bearded officers asked, "Is your task to General Napier?"

Schmidt knew as soon as he heard it, they had already understood the contents of the letter. Although ordinary soldiers might not understand English, the Taiping Army had a deep relationship with Britain and France, and their upper-level officers would definitely understand it. So Schmidt wilted like a deflated ball and nodded reluctantly.

The bearded officer was very excited and said a few words of Chinese and handed the letter to another officer. The officer hurried out with the letter. Schmidt guessed that they had forwarded the letter to a higher-level command center. He also knew the value of the letter. Just like the letter to General Sutton, it mentioned Major General Michele and General Colino's plan to reinforce Tianjin and Tanggu. Schmidt regretted that he did not expect to destroy the letter at the first time.

"Secretary, I'm sorry you can't complete the mission. You will be sent back to our rear and become prisoners there until the end of the war. Don't worry, you will not be abused." After the bearded officer finished speaking, he ordered the soldiers to take Schmidt down.

Second Lieutenant Schmidt and two of his soldiers were locked in a black and smelly woodshed. Schmidt couldn't fall asleep all night, and the three comforted each other until midnight. At midnight, the three fell asleep in a daze. At this moment, the door of the woodshed suddenly opened, and several Taiping soldiers holding torches took the three out. A Taiping Army sergeant said to them: "Three, we are ordered to take you back to Nanyuan Camp."

Walking out of the woodshed, I saw that many soldiers gathered in the entire village and lined up in an orderly manner towards the northwest. Schmidt knew that they were heading towards Tianjin City.

After passing through the village, they were heading southwest. When passing by a stone gang outside the village, the sergeant pointed to dozens of new tombs bulging here and said, "Lieutenant, look at these, they are the residents of this village. They were massacred by your coalition forces, and the rest of them fled to the south and never dared to come back again. This is the crime committed by your coalition forces!"

Schmidt looked at the graves in amazement and hurriedly explained: "God, I'm sorry, I don't know these things. When I was in Tongzhou, I didn't know that these things would happen near Tianjin." The other two prisoners also expressed their regrets and condolences to the victims.

The sergeant snorted and said, "We know that after we arrived, we have found out that it was done by your British and Indian soldiers, and we will settle the score with them."

Schmidt breathed a sigh of relief. After the invasion of Indian soldiers and French troops in North Africa, Schmidt had heard of the practice of robbing things at the beginning to killing innocent people. He felt that these people had lost their human nature, perhaps because they had suppressed the colonies for too long, or because the residents here were easy to bully.

After walking in the dark for several miles, the sky became even darker. Schmidt was led by a rope and walked forward involuntarily. Suddenly, on the sky behind him, lights illuminated the sky behind him. With the sound of thunder, the lights polished the sky under the darkness.

Several Taiping soldiers escorted them cheered, and the sergeant said to Schmidt excitedly: "Look, our artillery began to shell Tianjin. The general attack will begin immediately after the shelling. We will take Tianjin back from you before dawn!"

Schmidt and the other three looked back in amazement. The dense light kept shining on the distant sky, as if it was the thunderous wrath from the sky. It could still be seen and heard from such a distance, which shows that the Taiping Army's artillery fire was very dense. Schmidt seemed familiar. In the Crimean War, they also shelled the Russians' Sevastopol Fortress at night. At that time, Schmidt was still a sergeant. He had seen such a scene in a cavalry camp far away, but now the British army is the party that is under the artillery fire.

The Taiping Army sergeant said constantly as if showing off: "We sent many reconnaissance teams over ten days ago. We have already investigated the military deployment inside and outside Tianjin. Your General Sutton is very good. The residents of the entire Tianjin city can enter and exit freely, so our reconnaissance operation is very successful. The reconnaissance team you sent mainly aims at robbery and killing, and knows nothing about our existence."

Schmidt felt the most stingy face, ashamed and humiliated surged in his heart. The Taiping Army was deliberately preparing to wave swords at the coalition forces. It was ridiculous that they were still rejoicing in Tongzhou for negotiations. Damn greed, damn blind pride, damn war!

Schmidt cursed blindly in his heart, but it was useless. From the moment he was captured, he had withdrawn from the war, he had lost his glory and possible praise, he felt that he was not worthy of the Dragoon badge, but at least he had saved his life.

After walking for another half an hour, the Satan fire in the sky gradually faded. Schmidt didn't know what the battle was going on there, so he could only pray in his heart that the reinforcements in Tongzhou could arrive in Tianjin as soon as possible after dawn, and General Sutton and his soldiers in Tianjin could support him for a longer time. Schmidt just estimated the time. It was about three o'clock in the morning when the Taiping Army launched the shelling. This was when the coalition soldiers were asleep. God knew how much General Sutton could organize his soldiers in the night raid. The cunning Taiping Tianzhao people chose the most relaxing and vigilant attack. This was a long-planned one. God knew what the war would evolve. But Schmidt was convinced that this time it seemed that God would not stand on their side... (To be continued, please search for Astronomy, the novel is better and faster!
Chapter completed!