Chapter 338: Annihilation

Sure enough, at mid-morning the next day, as Gao Shiyin's great army closed in on the first checkpoint of the "Tyrant Tian" Shanzhai, the defenders only then realized in alarm that government troops had arrived, and began screaming in utter terror.

The Intelligence Division had dispatched a squad of Night Scouts to reconnoiter this area, and every hidden night scout or ambush lookout the bandits had posted had been eliminated. To these bandit defenders, the government troops' arrival was like a bolt from the blue; caught completely off guard, they instantly fell into chaos.

This checkpoint was set between two mountain passes and could be considered a strategic strongpoint. The gate wall was built of large stone blocks, and before it lay a slope several dozen paces long, with a crooked scattering of steps laid across it — by all accounts a position easy to defend and hard to attack.

The bandits guarding the checkpoint numbered fewer than a hundred, but the headman in charge was a trusted confidant of "Tyrant Tian" and was equipped with outstanding firepower — relative to the other bandits in the stronghold, that is. They had over twenty bows, more than ten bird guns, and over thirty three-eyed guns.

The gate wall was also piled high with rolling logs and stones. Government troops had launched encirclement campaigns here before, but each time, logs and stones rained down on them, and the troops would invariably retreat in defeat before this very wall. After successfully repelling several such campaigns, "Tyrant Tian" had boasted that this checkpoint was as impregnable as a fortress of metal.

The government troops arrived suddenly, and without a sound, a group of armored soldiers wielding bird guns came charging ferociously up from the foot of the mountain.

Watching their advancing figures, the dozen or so bandits patrolling atop the gate wall first stood dumbstruck as wooden chickens; some rubbed their eyes desperately. Some shouted, and then someone clanged the bronze alarm drum. Others frantically drew their bows, or desperately tried to load ammunition into their bird guns and three-eyed guns.

The bandits gathered inside the houses behind the checkpoint, who had been gambling, also came scrambling out in panic at their headman's barked orders upon hearing the alarm.

"Fire!"

The vanguard attacking the stronghold consisted of soldiers from the First Company under Gao Shiyin's command. Among them were two squads of fire-gun troops, all equipped with Lumi guns. Restricted by the terrain, their forces could not easily deploy, so the first wave assaulting the gate wall was one squad of fire-gun troops and one of pikemen from within the company.

When they closed to within a hundred paces, a few arrows drifted over from above, and then several rolling logs tumbled down the slope. As for the defenders' three-eyed guns and bird guns, loading their ammunition was clearly not something that could be done in a short while.

The distance was great, so neither the arrows nor the rolling logs and stones posed much of a threat.

At that moment, the squad leader of the fire-gun unit had already given the order to open fire.

The fifty fire-gun soldiers attacking the checkpoint deployed in a five-wave assault formation, each man taking advantageous terrain for cover.

Although the terrain prevented each squad from forming neat, orderly ranks, the front row of fire-gun troops fired a single volley.

Amid the deep "pop-pop" reports of the Lumi guns, heart-rending screams came from the bandits crowding onto the gate wall. At least five or six men pitched forward to the ground. Most had their bodies pierced by lead balls, but the exit wounds were several times larger than the balls themselves.

One bandit's skull was blown apart, his brains and blood bursting out like a shattered egg.

The government troops' bird guns could shoot so far, and so accurately. Watching their comrades beside them tumble and wail from the hits, some bandits were frozen in terror. The more quick-witted ones immediately ducked behind the stone parapet. No matter how the headman cursed and raged, they refused to raise their heads.

Seeing the results of the first squad's shooting, the squad leader issued another shouted command: "Fire!"

Another squad of Lumi gunners pulled their triggers. Ten Lumi guns spat fierce flame, and on the gate wall, several more bandits who had been standing dumbly had blood mist erupt from their chests. One bandit screamed and toppled off the gate wall, his corpse rolling all the way down the slope, dislodging stones that clattered noisily.

The panicked screams on the gate wall intensified. More rolling logs and stones were hurled down, and some arrows and bird-gun shots came their way, but at such a distance and in such chaos, there was no accuracy to speak of.

"Fire at will!"

The squad leader passed the order. In this kind of terrain, volley fire was rather difficult; suppressing the enemy with firepower from a distance to cover the pikemen brothers' assault would suffice.

"Pop-pop" reports rang out like beans bursting in a pan. Billowing gunpowder smoke continuously spewed from each man's barrel. Though there were only fifty Lumi guns, to the bandits on the gate wall, it felt like a storm of bullets. Any who so much as exposed their heads or bodies invariably ended up shot and rolling on the ground.

Damned government troops, their bird-gun firepower is this fierce, and they can shoot this accurately from over a hundred paces away — are they even letting us live?

The bandits on the gate wall fell into utter disarray.

The training of the Shunxiang Army now followed the same standards as the Qi Family Army: targets were set up at a hundred or eighty paces; hitting once in three shots was passing, hitting twice in three shots was excellent. Among the veterans of the Shunxiang Army, at least more than half could meet the excellent standard.

The Lumi gun in particular had long range, outstanding armor-piercing capability, and very high accuracy. Moreover, in the hands of the Shunxiang Army, it used fixed paper cartridge ammunition, which loaded quickly and sustained continuous firepower — truly adding wings to a tiger.

This squad of fire-gun troops from the First Company kept firing continuously, slowly pressing closer, advancing from a hundred paces to fifty, suppressing the bandits on the gate wall so thoroughly they could not even lift their heads. Seeing the situation was favorable, the Company Commander was very satisfied and, with a wave of his hand, ordered the pikemen to charge.

By now, the gate wall was silent as a graveyard. When the squad of pikemen battered open the gate and rushed inside, apart from some corpses and wounded men groaning on the ground, it was deathly quiet — not a single living soul in sight.

"Good, victory in the first battle! Mark a merit for the two squads of brothers from the First Company!"

At the foot of the mountain, Gao Shiyin was greatly pleased upon receiving the victory report. He laughed heartily and licked his lips; this battle report did not surprise him. If even suppressing some local bandits required exhausting his mental energy, how would he fight the Manchus and roving bandits in the future? Gao Shiyin had led troops independently several times, but always for bandit suppression; he longed for the day he could independently lead an army against the Manchus.

He issued an order: "The First Company will continue the attack, sweeping through every bandit checkpoint. Within today, my great army shall breach the bandit stronghold and end this battle."

After the soldiers of the First Company, Ren Division, breached the first checkpoint, they pressed on without pause, continuing along the road to assault the remaining gate walls. According to the Night Scouts' intelligence, the bandits under Tian Dabang had established three checkpoints and five stockades before their main stronghold.

Under the thunderous assault of the First Company soldiers serving as the vanguard, the bandits either abandoned their checkpoints and fled for their lives, or offered token resistance — but after the Lumi gunners fired a few rounds and killed a few of them, they instantly collapsed. The fighting often lasted less than a quarter of an hour.

The First Company soldiers seized each checkpoint and stockade without pausing, leaving the follow-up work to the Second Company soldiers coming up behind.

By noon, they had already pressed close to Tian Dabang's main stronghold, Yangzhong Stockade. The government troops had suddenly appeared to kill and slaughter, and inside Yangzhong Stockade, Tian Dabang and his men were all thrown into chaos. How the troops under that General Who Pacifies the Realm had descended like divine soldiers from heaven and arrived so swiftly — there was no time left to investigate the reasons.

What chilled their hearts was the battle strength of the Shunxiang Army. The checkpoint walls they had relied on as natural barriers, the hordes of desperate cutthroats under their command — all now seemed like a joke. This Yangzhong Stockade would also be hard to defend. Everyone inwardly regretted it deeply; they had not heeded the government's offer of amnesty. Now...

They had some understanding of that General Who Pacifies the Realm's style. The window for surrender had passed; even if they surrendered now, there was no guarantee Wang Dou would spare them. Their only option was to hold out to the death and await a chance for survival. The stockade held years of accumulated plundered treasure; to abandon it just like that — neither Tian Dabang nor any of the headmen, great or small, could bear to part with it.

They hoped to hold out for a few days; if the government troops failed to take the stronghold by storm and withdrew, they would then have the capital to bargain with Wang Dou in the future.

But how many men the Shunxiang Army had brought, who was leading them, and what their equipment was like — they were utterly clueless. Whether they could hold the stockade, they had not the slightest confidence.

Just as they were in a noisy uproar, having discussed nothing of substance, the First Company soldiers had already arrived at the walls. Upon receiving the news, Tian Dabang hurriedly climbed the stockade to observe the elite government troops outside, and could not help sucking in a breath of cold air.

This army was completely different from the government troops in his memory. Even just these two hundred-odd soldiers could already steadily overrun his stockade. Fortunately, they had not attacked yet.

At the beginning of the first quarter past noon, Gao Shiyin's main army arrived. Seeing their great force of nearly a thousand men, all uniformly armored combat soldiers with a multitude of bird guns, Tian Dabang looked at the subordinates beside him — every single face was ashen with despair.

The Shunxiang Army had broken through three checkpoints and five stockades in a short time. According to the bandits who had fled back, the government troops' bird guns were terrifyingly effective, picking off their brothers one by one from over a hundred paces away, while they themselves had no way to retaliate.

Looking at the several hundred bird guns the government troops outside the stockade possessed — if they were all that formidable...

Just as Tian Dabang and his men inside Yangzhong Stockade were in a panic, outside the stockade, Gao Shiyin laughed wildly for a moment, then bellowed: "Attack!"

He had already clearly assessed the terrain of Yangzhong Stockade. Because it was shielded by the three checkpoints and five stockades, this main stronghold was built inside a basin, with gentle, flat terrain all around. Only on the side facing the main army was there a ring of stockade walls set on a gentle mountain slope. The walls were of wood-and-earth construction, and flanking the stockade gate were several archery towers.

Gao Shiyin did not take such a crude stockade seriously at all. After the soldiers had a brief rest, he immediately gave the order to attack.

The main axis of the assault was the main stockade gate.

Gao Shiyin's style was to sweep through and storm by force. With the Shunxiang Army's formidable battle strength and superior equipment as his backing, even if others might criticize this move as reckless, he still won victory after victory.

The first wave to attack was again the First Company, which overjoyed its Company Commander but drew discontent from the commanders of the other companies. True, the First Company soldiers were equipped with Lumi guns, and having them provide covering fire could minimize casualties among the subordinates. But in a major army operation, they couldn't rely on just one company to do all the fighting, could they?

Under their vehement requests for battle, Gao Shiyin also dispatched the Third Company and Fourth Company soldiers to coordinate.

The three companies of combat troops totaled six hundred men, among them three hundred fire-gun troops with Lumi guns. Though organized by squads and companies, they fought in a dispersed, free-fire manner to suppress and cover. Unlike forming ranks for battle on open fields, when assaulting a city or stockade, having everyone fire at will allowed them to better bring their firepower to bear.

The continuous bombardment of three hundred fire guns was, in the eyes of the bandits on the stockade wall, an incredibly dense rain of bullets.

In particular, the Shunxiang Army's Lumi guns shot extremely far and accurately. Bandits on the stockade wall and archery towers were shot down one after another with miserable screams. The fire-gun troops slowly tightened the suppression, advancing from a hundred paces to fifty, until the bandits around the stockade gate could not even lift their heads.

"The stockade gate is breached!"

A wave of cheers erupted. Under the cover of the fire guns, a group of pikemen temporarily serving as gate-breakers lifted a thick log and rammed the stockade gate. After a series of violent impacts, the wooden gate structure shattered, revealing the bandits inside fleeing in great panic.

"Pikemen, attack!"

Except for one company of soldiers kept as a reserve, the pikemen of the remaining three companies had already formed up in neat ranks. They wore thick iron armor and held long pikes. The veterans were cold and composed; the new recruits' faces were all flushed red as they panted heavily.

Among the pikemen of Ding's Second Division, Zhao Rongkun gripped his long spear tightly, his expression ferocious. He felt no nervousness, only a mind filled with bloodlust and the urge to kill.

In his heart he roared wildly: "I want military merit, I want military merit!"

The central army's drums sounded, and a voice shouted: "Kill all those bandits!"

The pikemen, organized by squads and files, leveled their long spears and poured through the breach like a tide, their throats tearing with heart-rending battle cries. Zhao Rongkun bellowed madly and charged in alongside his file leader.

By the time the Shunxiang Army smashed through the stockade gate, the bandits of Yangzhong Stronghold had already collapsed. No matter how Tian Dabang tried to suppress them, it was useless.

The wolf-like, tiger-fierce Shunxiang troops surged in. Their utterly demonic and savage appearance scared the bandits inside out of their wits, sending them fleeing for their lives.

Seeing the situation turn dire, Tian Dabang had no choice but to flee in blind panic with a group of his trusted old bandits.

Even putting aside their complete lack of will to fight, had they dared to turn and resist, how could they have been a match for the Shunxiang Army's pikemen? Most of those pikemen were veterans who had fought their way back from Julu and Zhuozhou. Even the new recruits trained in the tenth year of Chongzhen were well-versed in coordinated tactics.

They operated in units no smaller than a file: two men led the attack, two struck from the flanks, and one stood ready to assist. Add to that their rigorous training and the fine iron armor they wore, and any of those ordinarily vicious bandits who dared turn and fight would only be throwing their lives away.

Very soon, the bandits were scattered all over the mountain and throughout the stronghold. Those who truly could not escape had no choice but to kneel and surrender.

By the first quarter of the Shen hour, the fighting within the stronghold was essentially over. The bandit chief Tian Dabang, a number of his headmen, and several hundred bandits had been captured.

"A rabble—they crumbled at a single blow!"

Gao Shiyin remarked with feeling, "Still, fighting the Tatars is more satisfying."

Besides ordering one division of troops to continue pursuing the remaining enemies and combing the mountains to exterminate them, he also gave the order to tally the spoils. As a bandit of many years, the wealth Tian Dabang's family had accumulated over generations was considerable, and now it all became the Shunxiang Army's gain.

The spoils were registered by the quartermaster officers of the brigade headquarters. They were sent by the Logistics Department and were responsible for each brigade's military supplies—a separate system from Gao Shiyin's. Their registrations were in turn verified by the garrison provosts, who were sent by the Provost Department—yet another separate system.

Gazing at these spoils, Gao Shiyin beamed with delight, as did the various battalion commanders following behind him. But looking at the bandits kneeling all over the ground, bound tightly and hanging their heads in dejection, a murderous glint flashed in Gao Shiyin's eyes, and he was about to order them all executed.

After all these years, Gao Shiyin's brutal and bloodthirsty nature had still not changed. But this time the situation was different: the General Who Stabilizes the Realm had ordered that all captured bandits be escorted under guard to Yongning City. Even if Gao Shiyin had the gall of a bear and the nerve of a leopard, he would not dare disobey Wang Dou's command.

Moreover, the army's garrison provosts were watching him like hawks. If he acted on his own, what awaited him would be extremely severe consequences.

"Our great army will remain in the bandit stronghold for three days. After mopping up the bandits who fled, we shall march back to the city."

Gao Shiyin passed down the order. Wang Dou's military directive was for Gao Shiyin to do his utmost to exterminate Tian Dabang's entire force, lest any bandits escape and cause trouble again in the future. Kill as many as possible.

A few days later, after a large-scale mountain sweep confirmed that the bulk of Tian Dabang's force had been destroyed—and that any remaining fish that slipped the net would likely be birds startled by the mere twang of a bow, not daring to linger in the Eastern Circuit any longer—Gao Shiyin finally gave the order for the army to return to the city.

They marched back to Yongning City escorting their spoils of war and a great number of captured bandits. When word spread, the entire Eastern Circuit was astir.

Crowds lined the route in an endless stream to watch. Tian Dabang's band had long plagued the common people of Huailai and Yanqing, who hated them to the marrow of their bones. Now that they had been exterminated, everyone clapped and cheered. Amid the angry denunciations of the people along the road, these bandits, who had once run rampant with unbearable arrogance, now trembled with fear, their former insolence and bluster completely gone.

Tian Dabang, locked in a prisoner's cart, was also pale-faced, deeply sensing that his final day had come.

For the powerful local gentry of Huailai and Yanqing Prefecture, the Shunxiang Army's thunderous annihilation of Tian Dabang's force—such battle prowess—struck fear into every one of their hearts. They had long heard of the Shunxiang Army's reputation, and it was indeed true. All along the way, a steady stream of people came to offer their congratulations and gifts, from local commoners to scholars and powerful gentry families.

When Gao Shiyin's army passed through Huailai, the Circuit Intendant Ma Guoxi personally came out to welcome them and lavished praise on Gao Shiyin's achievements. Bathed in this tide of acclaim, Gao Shiyin and his Shunxiang Army troops on this campaign held their heads even higher and their chests out further, brimming with pride.

When Gao Shiyin led his troops back to Yongning, Wang Dou likewise came out personally to greet them and offered Gao Shiyin warm words of comfort and encouragement. On the eighth day, Wang Dou held a grand public trial assembly of ten thousand in Yongning City. Circuit Intendant Ma Guoxi, the commanders of the various garrisons, Eastern Circuit Grain Administration Assistant Prefect Guo Shitong, and others all attended.

That day, Tian Dabang was executed by lingchi outside the city, the various chief and deputy headmen were cut in two at the waist, and the remaining three hundred-plus bandits were all beheaded. The stench of blood at the execution ground lingered for days before dissipating. Wang Dou's ruthlessness—killing several hundred men at a word—secretly chilled the hearts of all those present.

Tian Dabang was wiped out in the blink of an eye. Of the bandit groups from various regions still lingering in the Eastern Circuit, the more astute ones, trembling in fear, immediately abandoned their strongholds and fled upon receiving the news. As for the more foolish ones...

On the tenth day, Wang Dou dispatched Zhong Xiancai to lead troops on a campaign to exterminate the bandit "Old North Wind" entrenched near Jinghu Fort. The same day, Wang Dou also sent Wen Fangliang out to exterminate the "Old Qingshan" band entrenched within Yanqing Prefecture.

On the thirteenth day, Wang Dou further dispatched Li Guangheng's unit to exterminate the "All Under Heaven Good" band entrenched within Huailai.

On the twentieth day, Wang Dou received a report from the Intelligence Department's night scouts: within the Eastern Circuit, there was no longer any bandit threat.