Early the next morning, Colin set out for the battle, leaving only a hundred men at the base of the left battalion, and all of them were recruited local soldiers, and only ten mercenaries were left as officers.

Zhou Lang's sixty-three men were all dispatched, according to Colin's meaning, he originally wanted to leave Zhou Lang's army, which was not under his direct command, in the left battalion, but Zhou Lang insisted on taking it to the battlefield.

Zhou Lang didn't say the reason, the reason is only known to himself, his army has to brush up on experience, a few more battlefields, even if he doesn't go directly to the battle, it is also an accumulation of experience, and it is the experience of victory, even if it does not help the improvement of actual military skills, but the psychology will definitely accumulate confidence, at least they will become less and less afraid of the Qing army, and the sense of majesty of the Manchu court in their hearts will gradually weaken, and finally they will follow Zhou Lang to rebel with peace of mind.

In addition to these sixty-three people, Zhou Lang added three new subordinates, yesterday evening, Zhou Lang asked Chen Shunzhi to go to Colin's military camp to inquire about the news, and gave a bounty of ten silver dollars, rewarding those who knew Chen Zhouquan's news, Zhou Lang's guess was right, there were many people who knew Chen Zhouquan, and forty or fifty people signed up to receive the reward, these three people knew the most accurate news, and finally got the reward, and was left by Zhou Lang, and explained to Colin that he planned to let these three people be used as liaison personnel with the Fengshan Tiandi Society, and Colin had three hundred local soldiers under him, I didn't care about these three people, so I let them go.

And these three people happily followed Zhou Lang, the reason is very simple, Zhou Lang can give them what Colin can't give, what Colin can give them is nothing more than a generous salary, and Zhou Lang not only paid the salary, but also gave them official positions, and promised the three of them to take the general official vacancy and let each bring ten subordinates.

So they happily threw themselves into Zhou Lang's men.

Zhou Lang can give them official positions, and what they bring to Zhou Lang is not only Chen Zhouquan's news, but also a network of contacts.

Zhou Lang's guess was right, among the local soldiers who joined the Colin Army, there were indeed members of the Heaven and Earth Society, and there was more than one.

The composition of the members of the Heaven and Earth Society has been thoroughly studied in later generations, there are no landlords, there are no ordinary peasants, most of them are idle laborers, urban unemployed residents, and a variety of other irregular occupations, in the ancient division, these people belong to the lower ninth class, separated from the four social identities of Shinong industry and commerce, a small number of people can get involved with the "workers" in Shinong industry and commerce, but they are not yet masters and workshop owners among handicraftsmen, just apprentices and ordinary craftsmen, and more are groups without fixed income, such as coolies on the docks, those who run the rivers and lakes to sell their arts, the dart masters of the dart game, the actors in the pear orchard industry, the storytellers on the flyover, and even the female prostitutes of the hospital prostitutes, in short, they belong to the lowest social status.

Because they are separated from the traditional social relations of Shinong and industrial commerce, their interests are not protected, so there is room for heaven and earth to survive, to put it bluntly, it is a group of poor people who huddle together to keep warm and resist the oppression of powerful interest groups. Therefore, the vast majority of the members of the Heaven and Earth Society did not have any intention of rebelling, but just wanted to be safe. For example, the dockers joined the Heaven and Earth Society in order to prevent merchants from defaulting on their hard-earned money, taking out a little money from their meager income on time to pay their dues, and at the same time, when making trouble, they followed the boss to put pressure on employers such as ship owners, or fought with other dock gangs when they fought for territory.

At least the three people recruited by Zhou Lang have absolutely no revolutionary ideals, one of the three is called Wei Lianli, whose name is foreign, but in fact, he is a prostitute who pulls a strip of skin, and also touches a concubine for a large family, his family has been doing this for several generations, and I heard that there is already a professional skill inheritance; One is called Chen Xiaoshou, who was born with small hands, he is a craftsman, and he makes a living by delivering livestock; There is also a man named Hong Jiuzhi, he is not a beggar, he is also a craftsman, a blacksmith in the city, and the purpose of joining the Heaven and Earth Society is obviously not to rebel, but to fight against the blacksmith shop on the other street to steal business with them.

The three of them also have the names of the rivers and lakes, or the names of the huns, Wei Lianli is called rouge eyes, his eyes are indeed softer and less masculine, but this nickname is mainly to describe that he looks at women accurately, and at a glance he knows whether he is a beauty or not; Chen Xiaoshou is nicknamed "Covering the Sky with One Hand", which is mainly a joke about his small hands, and there is also a nickname called Chen Yishou, it is said that he delivers animals and never gives birth to the second hand, and always reaches in with one hand to grasp the vital point and pull the livestock cubs out; Hong Jiuzhi himself is a nickname, he smashed one finger when he struck iron, and since then he has been out of the blacksmith business, and he has completely fought in heaven and earth, but he himself insists that his hand was cut off when he was fighting.

With these three goods, if they say that their ideal is to oppose the Qing Dynasty and restore the Ming Dynasty, they will not believe it if they kill Zhou Lang.

But Zhou Lang wooed them for a very simple reason, not because of their ability, but because of their relationship. It was nonsense to tell Colin that they had a relationship with Chen Zhouquan, but in fact, their relationship with the three hundred local soldiers recruited by Colin was what Zhou Lang valued more.

Wooing these three people is equivalent to having eyeliner among the soldiers recruited by Colin. Through Wei Lianli and the three of them, Zhou Lang knew that among the Chinese soldiers under Colin, there were not only elements of the Heaven and Earth Society, but they also expanded from it, absorbing a considerable number of people to join the Heaven and Earth Society, and at this time, among the three hundred people, at least one hundred people opened the incense hall, worshiped Guan Gong, and called each other brothers. This is very similar to the Brotherhood organization that flooded the army in the late Qing Dynasty. The reason why this is the case is also very simple, the low-level soldiers, like the low-level people, are not protected by the government, and they need to be organized to stand out for themselves, or to keep warm. Why did it expand so fast, the reason is simpler, as long as the heaven and earth will exist, those who don't join are easy to be bullied.

Therefore, Zhou Lang co-opted Wei Lianli and the three of them, so as to establish contact with the forces of the Heaven and Earth Society under Colin, and if necessary, co-opt this force to kill Colin from the inside, so as to cut off the puppet line that the East India Company planted around him to control him.

Due to the language barrier, Zhou Lang found that as long as he killed Colin, Zhou Lang could calmly incorporate the local Chinese army trained by Colin, and even be able to win over those mercenaries who fought for money in World War II.

But he can't kill Colin yet, because he still needs his military talents, and when he has a firm foothold in Taiwan, Zhou Lang will consider killing Colin in some way, and then quickly build up his forces to guard against a possible counterattack by the East India Company.

And Zhou Lang is also a little worried about the heaven and earth that can help him get rid of Colin, the other party's expansion speed is too fast, among the soldiers recruited by Colin, only a dozen members of the Heaven and Earth Society were infiltrated at the beginning, but in just one month, they attracted one-third of the Chinese soldiers under Colin to join, this expansion speed made Zhou Lang worry about killing Colin, whether he could fully control the army, maybe it would be the same as the end of the Qing Dynasty, the actual control of the army fell into the hands of the party.

In fact, it was not only recruited by Colin, who could not communicate, who did not know the private lives of these soldiers at all, and who did not care about their personal behavior, could not put an end to the organization of the Heaven and Earth Society and the development of the Heaven and Earth Society, and even the Qing army could not put an end to it, Wei Lianli and others clearly told Zhou Lang that in fact, there were a large number of Heaven and Earth Society elements in the Qing army, among the low-level soldiers, even in the Yamen, the Yamen had always been an important part of the Heaven and Earth Society's forces, and there were prison and other places where there were members of the Heaven and Earth Society.

Through the three members of the Heaven and Earth Society, Zhou Lang not only had a preliminary understanding of the situation of the Fengshan Heaven and Earth Society, but also found out what he wanted to know most about Chen Zhouquan's situation.

According to the three of them, Chen Zhouquan is not the leader of the Tiandi Society in Fengshan County, but the leader of the Tiandi Society in the whole of Taiwan. And there have already been several uprisings.

Chen Zhouquan's ancestral home is Tong'an, Fujian, born in Changhua, Taiwan, and is engaged in selling sugar. Just last year (1792), he conspired with Su Ye, another leader of the Heaven and Earth Society, to go to Tong'an, Fujian, to start an uprising, and after the defeat, he led the remnants of his army back to Taiwan. After returning to Taiwan, he came to Fengshan County to join the leader of the Taiwan Heaven and Earth Society, Chen Guangai, launched an uprising in Fengshan, attacked the Fengshan County Ya, and failed again, Chen Guangai died in this battle, Chen Zhouquan replaced him as the leader of the Taiwan Heaven and Earth Society, and then fled from Fengshan and hid in Changhua.

After Zhou Lang heard these circumstances, he made a new assessment of Chen Zhouquan's strength, because it was not the first time that the other party had revolted, so he must have a certain organizational and management ability. Moreover, he was the second uprising in Fengshan County, and apparently there was considerable potential power in the local area as well. It is said that the reason why he chose to attack the county government of Fengshan County last year was that he got the cooperation of the county government officials, but unfortunately a group of rabble could not defeat the regular Qing army. They didn't even take down one of the most basic flood areas of the Qing army, and they sent troops to attack Shijing Xun.

This Shijing Xun is located in the east of Fengshan County, 20 miles, and controls the Lanpoling where Shengfan lives, leading to the official road of Taiwan. But the strength is not strong, the Qing army set up a general here, only seventy-eight soldiers, according to the management of empty salaries, the actual strength is definitely not seventy-eight, such a force, Chen Zhouquan did not defeat down, can only say that his strength is too limited.

The reason why the raid on Fengshan County was successful this time, in addition to the military ability that was exercised after successive failures, the main reason is easy to guess, that is, because to attack the left battalion occupied by Zhou Lang and them, the Qing army transferred too many troops, causing the county town to be empty, and as a result, Chen Zhouquan took advantage of the loophole.

This has to be said to be a major mistake of the Qing army, they underestimated the local rebel forces, but what Zhou Lang didn't know was that in fact, the local Qing army also had unspeakable hardships.