Chapter 684: Heavy Encirclement

At present, Guide Prefecture is swarming with roving bandits everywhere. Where the bulk of them are heading, and where their main camp lies — even Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen find it hard to determine with certainty.

The bandits have large numbers of mounted troops, making it difficult for scouts to detect their specific movements. Their main body of infantry and cavalry seems to be surging toward Xuzhou in Southern Zhili and Fengyang Prefecture, yet some scouts report back that their main force still appears to be staying within the borders of Guide Prefecture.

These can be set aside for now. The bandits specifically located at Suizhou, Zhecheng, Ningling, and other places can be wiped out first.

Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen both had great confidence in their troops' fighting strength. Of course, they also had worries — they feared whether the roving bandits might possess artillery, for dense arquebus and pike formations fear nothing more than enemy cannon bombardment.

Both men had intelligence that wherever Li Chuang went, he paid great attention to collecting artillery — a lesson, it was said, beaten into him by Marquis of Yongning Wang Dou. All the way east to Guide Prefecture, they had encountered bandits using some firelocks, three-eyed guns, bird guns, and the like, but had not seen them carrying artillery with the army.

Cao Bianjiao questioned Li Zhen carefully, and Li Zhen said that during the half-month Li Chuang assaulted the prefectural city, he never saw them use artillery bombardment; on the contrary, their own cannon fire blasted and killed quite a number of bandit men and horses.

The two men set their minds at ease. Beginning on the eighth day, they started clearing out the bandits throughout Guide Prefecture — like a thunderbolt sweeping across...

Tenth day. Zhecheng.

"Ah, the government troops are coming — it's the cavalry of the two Counts, Cao and Wang..."

On the flat wilderness, dust rose in all directions. Over thirty thousand bandit foot soldiers, their faces ashen, stared at the great earth before them, where iron cavalry surged in like a tide — fiery red armor, like a vast red ocean.

Seeing that mountain-toppling, sea-sweeping momentum, many bandits gasped cold air, their legs trembling.

Looking again at the horse troops to their rear and on both flanks — though they watched the government cavalry charge straight at the frontal infantry formation, they had already made every preparation to flee at any moment.

"Loose arrows! Loose arrows!"

Among the bandits drawn up in formation, only a few men shot scattered, sparse arrows, or some fired three-eyed guns and bird guns. But seeing the awe-inspiring might of the iron cavalry charging the formation, terror instantly spread through every man's heart. Not just anyone could face a cavalry charge in formation on open plains.

"Ah!"

They shot arrows and fired guns from far away, not caring whether they hit anything or not.

Then they watched the cavalry roll in, charging like terrifying billows and raging waves. In an instant, they collapsed, howling as they fled backward, throwing the long-pike formation drawn up behind them into chaos — and then the entire infantry formation was in complete disorder.

"Boom!"

The tide-like cavalry crashed into the formation with a roar, trampling the bandits' infantry formation into patch after patch of bloody pulp. Looking again at those bandit horse troops — they had already fled far away...

Eleventh day. Luyi.

"Ah, Cao Bianjiao! Cao Bianjiao..."

"It's Wang Tingchen..."

Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen, leading the cavalry under their command, in just a short span of days had extinguished many bands of roving bandits within Guide Prefecture. Their infantry under command, along with the local government troops of the prefectural city and the village braves and militia, could only follow behind gathering the fruits of victory.

The situation was excellent on all fronts. After successively sweeping away the numerous bandit bands west and southwest of the prefecture, both men believed they could now advance toward the eastern part of Guide Prefecture and the southeast, where the bandits were more densely concentrated.

Sixteenth day.

Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen led their grand army toward Xiayi. As before, their cavalry opened the way, with infantry following. The bandits gathered there had fewer foot soldiers and more mounted troops, but the two men combined their cavalry to over five thousand riders and very easily routed the bandits' horse troops.

On the seventeenth day of the eighth month of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, they entered the territory of Yongcheng.

It was said this was the land where the Han arose. At the end of Qin, Emperor Gaozu Liu Bang released convicts, slew the serpent and rose in revolt, using Mount Mangdang as his base, and founded the four-hundred-year imperial enterprise of the Great Han. Not far north of Yongcheng county seat lay the famous Mount Mangdang.

The bandit cavalry gathered here were even more numerous. After the two men scattered group after group of enemy riders and pursued them for over ten li, suddenly Cao Bianjiao's brow furrowed. A vague sense that something was wrong welled up in his heart.

How similar was the scene before him to the battle of Ningzhou that year? That year, his own uncle Cao Zhao had fallen into Li Zicheng's ambush and heavy encirclement, fighting to the death.

Looking at the surrounding situation — bandit mounted troops appeared not only ahead, but even on both flanks and to the rear in considerable numbers. They had charged and fought all the way here, never realizing that front, rear, left, and right were now all bandit riders.

"Halt!"

Cao Bianjiao suddenly bellowed. At once the rolling cavalry came to a stop, though some horses still snorted from time to time.

Wang Tingchen said, "General Xiao Cao, what is it?"

The riders around both men all looked at them.

As cavalrymen of the main battalions, every one of them wore armor — long, deep-red surcoats and cloud-winged helmets. Because the surcoats were inlaid with armor plates within, the surface was covered with dense copper rivets and armor bosses. Each rider also wore arm-guards between his arms.

Every one of these riders bore themselves with fierce valor. Having followed Cao Bianjiao and the others through campaigns in Datong, Shaanxi, Liaodong, and various places, their origins were mixed — some were men of Liaodong, some of Datong, and some of Shaanxi and Henan. But having followed for so long, each was utterly loyal.

They were divided into killer squads and firearms squads. The killer squads, besides bowmen and swordsmen, combined all manner of cold weapons.

The firearms squads uniformly carried three-eyed guns, the outside wrapped with iron spikes and sharp heads, making each into a three-eyed wolf-tooth club. After firing, they could raise them and smash enemy heads. Of course, using three-eyed guns on horseback, the accuracy was very poor — often shots went wild, and it was extremely hard to aim true.

Still, compared to bird guns, these mounted riders were already accustomed to the three-eyed guns, and many had decent accuracy when firing from horseback.

Cao Bianjiao gazed into the distance all around and said gravely, "Brother Wang, we can advance no further... We may already have fallen into an ambush."

Wang Tingchen looked around doubtfully. "An ambush? I see no ambush troops. Besides, on this open plain, where could ambush troops be hidden?"

Cao Bianjiao shook his head. "It is an ambush. Their ambush is likely measured in counties as the range. The roving bandits are cunning — they've cast a very wide net."

Wang Tingchen looked around again, alarmed and uncertain.

Sure enough, not long after, their army scouts came racing back. From the direction of Yongcheng county seat, countless roving bandit mounted troops came surging forth. Behind the mounted troops were infantry and famine soldiers stretching beyond sight.

Not only that — from the borders of Dangshan County, the Mount Mangdang area, and even the borders of Haozhou, horse troops and infantry came rushing like clouds, thrusting straight toward the army's rear. Perhaps by this very day they could close the encirclement. From the look of it, they meant to trap the army on this stretch of plain between Xiayi and Yongcheng.

The two men's faces turned grim. It seemed they had entered the circle of the bandits' main force. Where to go, what to do?

If they were to choose the best course, it would of course be for the cavalry to turn back at once toward Guide Prefecture's seat. The bandits' encirclement ring, front and rear, varied in distance and travel time, and was not yet so tight that the cavalry could not break out.

But if the cavalry could escape, what of the infantry?

The road from Yongcheng back to the seat of Guide Prefecture was over two hundred li. The infantry would not get far before being overtaken by the bandits' horse troops. Moreover, once the infantry collapsed in rout, no matter how strong their fighting power, the outcome would likely be total annihilation.

The new battalions under their command — how much heart's blood of theirs had gone into forging them? How could they be abandoned just like that?

Yet if they retreated together with the infantry, the march would be slow, and in the end they would inevitably be completely surrounded by the roving bandits.

The bandits were said to number seven hundred thousand.

Xiaoshuo Net