MLMD -Chapter 364 Rescue

After Yue Yang brought in large quantities of green three-color camouflage uniforms and stab-resistant vests from the modern world, the troops under his command began a large-scale re-equipment. As for why Yue Yang only obtained these old-style three-color camouflage uniforms, there was only one reason:

They were cheap. A set of old-style three-color camouflage cost only about fifty yuan at factory price. Even adding a helmet and a stab-resistant vest, the total would be at most four to five hundred yuan. By contrast, a set of new infrared-resistant digital camouflage would cost no less than six or seven hundred yuan—and there was no real need for it. After all, Yue Yang now commanded over a hundred thousand troops. Even if each person were issued just two summer sets and two winter sets per year, the total cost would still be enormous.

Yang Guozhu looked around at the surrounding troops. As far as the eye could see, everything was green. To someone used to the imposing sight of iron armor, it felt somewhat awkward. However, Yang Guozhu was a veteran of the battlefield after all. He naturally understood the difference between soldiers marching in armor weighing dozens of jin and those advancing lightly equipped. So even though he felt a bit uncomfortable, he didn’t say anything more.

Just as he was about to order the troops to speed up, a detachment of cavalry galloped toward them from the front. The riders were moving fast and soon reached Yang Guozhu, loudly reporting:

“Reporting, sir! A group of Tatars has been discovered ahead, attacking Deng County. The enemy numbers about a thousand men. Please give your orders!”

“Tatars?”

Yang Guozhu’s spirits immediately lifted, and he quickly asked, “Have the Tatars discovered you?”

The scout grinned. “Don’t worry, sir. The brothers spotted them from far away with telescopes. The Tatars can’t see us.”

“Good!” Yang Guozhu turned to Hu Dawei beside him. “General Hu, after coming out for so many days, we’ve finally run into Tatars. How do you think we should fight them?”

Hu Dawei also grew excited, rubbing his hands. “Damn it, we’ve finally run into something that breathes! No need to say more—hit the bastards! The only concern is that the Tatars might slip away, so how to fight them needs careful planning.”

“Right!” Yang Guozhu nodded. The two spoke quietly for a moment before beginning to make arrangements…

Deng County was a small county under the capital’s outskirts, with the entire city covering less than ten li. When the Qing troops approached, the county magistrate and the local gentry fled overnight with their families and household servants. At this time, only a single defense officer remained in the city, leading just over five hundred hastily assembled soldiers to resist the Qing attack from the city walls.

Originally, this defense officer believed that relying on the city walls would allow them to hold out for several days and wait for reinforcements. But unexpectedly, after only one morning of fighting, more than half of the five hundred defenders were killed or wounded, and several times the Qing nearly broke onto the walls. If not for him leading dozens of personal retainers to rush around desperately reinforcing weak points, the city would have fallen long ago.

The Qing troops attacking the city belonged to the Bordered White Banner, led by a Jalargachi named Qi Hala. At this moment, he was directing his mounted and foot soldiers in the assault. Under the cover of shield carts, archers loosed wave after wave of arrows onto the walls, and defenders constantly fell from above.

“Quick! Push that ladder over there! Hurry and pour the golden soup over there!”

The walls of Deng County were filled with the stench of blood and a pungent, nauseating smell. Several large iron cauldrons were set up, filled with what was commonly known as “golden soup”—human waste. Fires burned beneath them, boiling the filth. Several soldiers scooped it up with ladles and poured it down from the walls.

“Ah—!”

A conscripted young man was pouring a ladle of the boiling filth over the wall. Because he leaned too far out from the parapet, he was quickly spotted by archers below. An arrow struck the artery in his neck. He collapsed instantly, blood spurting out in great gushes. It was clear he wouldn’t survive.

Many others met the same fate. Having never received training and not knowing how to protect themselves, many of these young men were treated as live targets by the Qing archers, suffering heavy casualties.

Qi Hala was not tall but extremely solidly built. His round, flat face, collapsed nose, thick fleshy cheeks, and triangular eyes made him look especially vicious. Watching the young men and defenders fall one after another on the walls, he nodded in satisfaction. At this rate, in another one or two hours, the Ming troops on the walls would be finished. Then he could lead his warriors into the city to enjoy the spoils of victory. The thought of weak Han women struggling and crying beneath him filled him with excitement, and a certain part of his body began to ache uncomfortably.

With a ferocious grin, Qi Hala shouted, “Tell the lads—whoever is first into the city, I’ll let him pick ten women and slaves first! Everyone else may go three days without sheathing their blades!”

A Niru officer was startled. “My lord… isn’t that inappropriate? The Great Khan ordered that we must not stay too long in one place, otherwise if Xuan-Da troops move to pin us down, we’ll be in trouble!”

“What are you afraid of?” Qi Hala snorted. “Xuan-Da is so far away—how could they arrive that quickly? Besides, do you really want to watch the Bordered Yellow Banner and Plain Yellow Banner eat meat while we only drink soup?”

At this thought, Qi Hala’s heart filled with resentment. He and his men had originally belonged to the Bordered Yellow Banner. After Dorgon ascended the throne, they were all demoted to the Bordered White Banner—falling from the Upper Three Banners to the Lower Five. Their待遇 and status dropped sharply, which infuriated him. During this southern invasion, Dorgon had assigned the rich, easy targets to the Upper Three Banners, while the more remote areas were left to the Lower Five. This made Qi Hala extremely dissatisfied, which was why he issued the order of three days without restraint.

Seeing the messenger still standing there, Qi Hala glared and cursed, “Why are you still here? Didn’t you hear my order?”

“Yes!” The messenger hurried off to relay the command.

Once the order was given, the Qing soldiers nearby erupted into cheers, wolf-like howls rising one after another. The rain of arrows toward the city walls grew even denser, and soon no one on the walls dared to show their head.

With no more boiling filth or rolling stones suppressing them, the Qing troops moved quickly. Before long, heavily armored infantry climbed onto the walls. Seeing this, the Qing troops below cheered excitedly. Qi Hala split his mouth into a broad grin—his experience told him that the city was already his.

Just as Qi Hala was rejoicing, several scouts suddenly galloped in from afar, emitting sharp whistles—the signal for enemy discovery.

“Hm… what’s going on?” Qi Hala hadn’t even finished asking when a scout rode up and shouted loudly, “My lord! Ming troops have been spotted to the west!”

“What? Ming troops? How many?” Qi Hala was initially unconcerned. In his view, as long as there weren’t more than four or five thousand, it was nothing to worry about. Having fought the Ming for years, he knew their combat effectiveness well.

The scout, panting from the sprint, said, “My lord, their numbers aren’t large, but… but they’re flying the banners of the Xuan-Da Army!”

“What?! Xuan-Da Army?” Qi Hala nearly fell off his horse in fright.

Ever since Hong Taiji failed in his expedition against the Chahar tribe and died on the return journey, a kind of “fear of Yue” had spread throughout the Qing ranks—a deep-seated dread of Yue Yang and his army. Over the years, the Qing had clashed with Yue Yang many times and suffered repeated defeats. In the end, even their Great Khan had been killed—how could they not fear him? Recently, when Yue Yang took office as Governor-General of Xuan-Da and reorganized the Yingzhou Army into the Xuan-Da Army, Qing spies within the passes reported the news to Shengjing almost immediately. Dorgon and the Qing high command learned of it, and the information quickly spread down the ranks.

Qi Hala grabbed the scout by the collar and demanded, “Are you sure they’re the Xuan-Da Army? How far are they from us?”

The scout said bitterly, “I… I can’t be sure they’re really Xuan-Da troops. They fly Xuan-Da banners, but they aren’t wearing armor. They’re wearing green clothes—something I’ve never seen before!”

“Green clothes, and no armor?” Qi Hala was stunned. What was this? If they were Xuan-Da troops, why weren’t the cavalry armored? Yue Yang’s forces were famous for their wealth—his cavalry, let alone cooks, all received padded armor as a benefit.

Thinking of this made Qi Hala furious. What kind of paupers dared to impersonate the Xuan-Da Army to toy with him? He wanted to send troops to wipe out that audacious Ming unit, but since the siege was at its final stage, he decided to endure it for now. Once Deng County fell, it would be time enough to deal with them. Thus, Qi Hala dismissed the scout’s report and continued pressing the attack—unaware that he had already missed his best chance to escape.

It had to be said that the Qing were efficient. A quarter of an hour later, large numbers of Qing troops surged onto the walls, and the tightly besieged city gates were opened. Deng County officially fell.

Just as Qi Hala was directing all his forces into the city, the sound of galloping hooves and fighting suddenly arose in the distance.

“Damn it, what’s going on? Are the outer guards all useless—” Before he could finish cursing, his words stuck in his throat, because a crisp volley of gunfire rang out behind him.

“What’s going on? How can there be gunfire?” Qi Hala’s face turned deathly pale. He was all too familiar with that sound. Half a year ago, he had seen countless Qing warriors charge on horseback with sabers raised, only to fall in rows under that very gunfire. The bloody scenes still haunted his dreams.

Looking at the Qing troops swarming into the city, Qi Hala regretted for the first time having taken the city too quickly. He no longer cared about anything else and shouted desperately, “Pull back! Don’t enter the city—Xuan-Da troops have arrived!”

But as the saying goes, it’s easy to enter a city, hard to leave it. Once a high-spirited army storms into an enemy city, pulling them back immediately is no simple task—especially in an era when communication relied on shouting. Regrouping a dispersed force was extraordinarily difficult.

As Qi Hala sweated in panic, the sounds of hooves and gunfire drew ever closer. Soon, scouts reported that large numbers of Ming troops had been spotted all around.

“Bang, bang, bang…”

As the gunfire intensified, more and more Qing soldiers fell in pools of blood. Figures in green uniforms appeared before Qi Hala. At that moment, he realized that breaking out had become a luxury.

“My lord, break out quickly! Otherwise it’ll be too late!” a Goshha shouted anxiously to Qi Hala on horseback.

“Break out…” Qi Hala let out a despairing laugh. “Do you think the Ming have set up such a formation and would still leave us a gap to escape? Even if I could flee alone, would the Great Khan spare me, a defeated general? Rather than being stuffed into a sack and trampled to death by ten thousand horses, I’d rather die fighting here—at least my family in Shengjing won’t be implicated.”

Seeing Qi Hala’s despair, the Goshha understood that there was no escape today. He drew his saber and roared, “My lord, I’ve served you since childhood. Let me give my last loyalty today!”

“Good… then master and servant shall follow the former emperor together today!” Qi Hala took up a tiger-headed spear from his saddle and spurred his horse toward the encircling Ming troops. Behind him followed more than a dozen Goshha and several dozen elite white-armored soldiers…

“Bang, bang, bang…”

From afar, the Ming unit charging toward them formed a firing line under the command of a company officer and pulled their triggers. With the continuous gunfire, Qi Hala and the Qing soldiers behind him were knocked down one after another. Blood poured from their bodies and their horses, soaking into the parched earth almost as soon as it touched the ground, leaving only a field stained red.

Less than half an hour after Qi Hala’s death, the Qing troops outside Deng County were completely wiped out by the arriving Xuan-Da Army. The remaining fewer than three hundred Qing soldiers could only flee desperately through the city. These bandits, moments ago so ferocious, were now like stray dogs, driven out from their hiding places by Xuan-Da troops converging from all directions. Some Qing soldiers, seeing no way out, slaughtered civilians and set houses on fire before dying—but they were quickly annihilated by the responding Xuan-Da troops.

When Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei entered Deng County, they saw only corpses everywhere and more than a dozen thin columns of black smoke.

Looking at the devastation, Yang Guozhu sighed. “No wonder the ancients said: in prosperity, the people suffer; in ruin, the people suffer. Once war breaks out, it’s always the common people who bear the pain.”

Hu Dawei glanced at him strangely. “General Yang, you Han people are really odd. How can there be war without death? Today the enemy kills our people; tomorrow we kill theirs. What’s the use of sighing here?”

“You…” Yang Guozhu shook his head helplessly. Hu Dawei had originally been a surrendered soldier from beyond the frontier—a Mongol who had submitted to the Ming during the Tianqi era and remained fiercely loyal ever since. But having grown up on the steppe, his thinking often differed greatly from others’, leaving people amused and exasperated.

As they spoke, several soldiers brought over a blood-soaked officer and reported, “Reporting, sirs! This man claims to be the defense officer of Deng County and wishes to see you.”

Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei exchanged a glance, curiosity in their eyes. “Oh? Bring him over.”

The man was led forward. His body and face were covered in blood, but from his facial features and the beard under his chin, he appeared to be middle-aged.

Hu Dawei asked with interest, “I am Hu Dawei, Commander of Datong. Are you the one who wished to see General Yang and me?”

The man dropped to his knees with a thud and wept. “This humble officer, Wang Xin, defense officer of Deng County, greets the two lords. Early this morning, Tatars suddenly appeared outside the city. The magistrate and the local gentry fled with their household servants and several hundred soldiers. With no one in charge, I had no choice but to lead a few hundred remnants and local youths to man the walls. But the Tatars were too strong. I held for only half a day before the city fell, and nearly all defenders were killed or wounded. If not for the two lords arriving in time, then… wuwuwu…”

Before he could finish, Wang Xin broke down in loud sobs.

“That magistrate deserves death!”

Hearing this, Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei exchanged looks, both seeing killing intent in each other’s eyes. As soldiers, they hated nothing more than cowards who fled in the face of battle. If that magistrate were before them now, neither could guarantee he wouldn’t draw his blade and cut him down.

At last, Yang Guozhu sighed. “Enough… You did your duty defending the city. If not for your resolute resistance, Deng County could not have held until our arrival. Rest assured—we will report this to Marquis Yue. He will memorialize the court, and you should receive commendation. That magistrate will also be punished.”

Wang Xin gave a bitter smile and shook his head. “This humble officer appreciates your kindness. As long as the court doesn’t punish me, I’ll thank Heaven. As for Magistrate Qian and the others…”

He didn’t finish his sentence, but Yang Guozhu and Hu Dawei already understood his meaning.