Chapter 139: Seizing the Road

After annihilating the Qing troops at the Thousand Hands Hall, the Taiping Army advanced toward the Great Hero Hall. Only when the defenders inside saw reinforcements appear at the hall's entrance did they truly breathe a sigh of relief.

They no longer had any strength left to cheer, and could only sit on the ground, staring at the reinforcements with excitement.

After Song Xianggong and Zhao Sihai, who was supported by Zhao Hu, walked out of the great hall, Song Xianggong could hardly conceal his joy, though what he felt even more was the emotion of having narrowly escaped death.

He tightly gripped the hand of Shao Jiugong, the Hundred-Household Officer of the Xiongwei Camp who had led the troops here, and was so choked up he could not utter a word.

Zhao Sihai's wounds pained him so much that he could not speak; he only pointed anxiously toward the back mountain. Shao Jiugong did not know what he meant, but Zhao Hu at his side hurriedly said that a unit of Qing troops was fleeing toward the back mountain.

As soon as he heard that Qing troops were fleeing toward the back mountain, Shao Jiugong hurriedly left behind a squad of soldiers under Zhao Hu's command to rescue the wounded in the hall.

He personally led the remaining soldiers in pursuit toward the back mountain, and sent men to report the situation to Thousand-Household Officer Zhou Shixiang.

He also ordered the Xianzhen Camp to dispatch troops to the back mountain for the pursuit, making sure that not a single Qing dog would slip through the net.

The Qing troops fleeing to the back mountain were already birds startled by the mere twang of a bowstring. Besides the more than one hundred bannermen under Su Xianting, company captain of the Han Bordered Blue Banner, there were an equal number of Green Standard troops.

Because over two thousand old, weak, women, and children of the Taiping Army on the back mountain had been brutally slaughtered by the Qing troops, the ground was covered with corpses everywhere, making the Qing troops' escape route extremely difficult.

By the time they reached the cliff above the small path on the back mountain, the Han Bannermen and the Green Standard troops began killing each other over who would descend the mountain first.

At this moment of life and death, the Green Standard troops, who ordinarily endured every kind of bullying from the bannermen without daring to utter half a word of complaint, now threw all caution to the wind.

If they let the bannermen go down the mountain first, they themselves would die. Most of their officers had already fled toward the front mountain with Regional Commander Wu Jinzhong, and now there was not even a squad leader among the camp troops.

With no officers to restrain them, and at this moment of life and death, they who held blades in their hands were naturally unwilling to let those bastards of the Han Banners escape first.

Su Xianting could not suppress these Green Standard troops who wanted to live. He could only shout orders for his bannermen to block those camp troops while he himself took a few personal guards and descended the small path first.

While the Qing troops were slaughtering each other over the road, Shao Jiugong had already arrived with his troops. The corpses of the old, weak, women, and children strewn all along the way filled the entire Xiongwei Camp with grief and fury.

When they saw those Qing troops crowded on the back mountain top hacking at one another, the Xiongwei Camp needed no order from Shao Jiugong—they charged up with reddened eyes.

"The rebel soldiers are here! The rebel soldiers are here!"

When they discovered the Taiping Army had caught up, the Qing troops who had been killing each other immediately stopped, but not to face the enemy together. Instead, one after another they shouted and rushed toward the small path.

People pressed against people, and a dozen or so unlucky Qing soldiers were instantly shoved off the cliff by their own comrades.

Seizing the moment when the Qing troops were in complete chaos, Shao Jiugong swiftly led his troops pressing forward, hacking with blades or thrusting with spears, relentlessly driving the Qing troops toward the cliff edge.

Qing soldiers fell one after another at the hands of the vengeful Xiongwei Camp soldiers, and one after another, despairing Qing soldiers jumped off the mountain of their own accord.

The small path that allowed only one person up or down at a time was now packed with people. Su Xianting, who had gone down first, did not dare look back.

He stumbled frantically down the mountain, constantly scraped by rocks and branches on both sides of the path, his face, body, and head covered in bloody gashes. But Company Captain Su, desperate to escape, could no longer care about these flesh wounds.

His mind held only one thought: get down the mountain quickly, and put as much distance between himself and these rebel soldiers as possible.

Going up the mountain was hard, and going down was hard too. The back mountain slope was too steep; one misstep and a man would go tumbling all the way down. Looking from above, there were rolling figures everywhere.

After most of the Qing troops on the mountain top had been wiped out, the remaining thirty or forty bannermen and camp troops saw no hope of escape and could only throw down their weapons and surrender on their knees.

Shao Jiugong ordered men to escort the prisoners to the Great Hero Hall while he led others down the small path in pursuit. The path was truly too narrow, and the slope too steep.

Those above only needed to watch their footing, and they could freely reap the heads of those ahead with blade and sword. The Qing soldiers in front could not even turn around to fight back now.

When they discovered the enemy soldiers on the mountain were coming down the small path in pursuit, Su Xianting's personal guard Zhao Quan, out of loyalty to his master, took several companions and blocked the way beside a wide boulder halfway down the mountain.

While holding back the men above to keep them from descending further, he shouted toward Su Xianting: "Company Captain, your subordinate will hold this place with his men—you get down the mountain, quickly!"

"Zhao Quan, good slave! If you die, this company captain will provide for your wife and children!"

Su Xianting threw out these words in agitation, then hurriedly ran down the mountain path. From beginning to end, he never once looked back at Zhao Quan and those personal guards, nor at the bannermen blocked above and unable to come down.

"Zhao Quan, you son of a bitch! Get out of the way! Are you trying to drag us all down with you?!"

With the road ahead suddenly blocked, the bannermen who were about to come down instantly panicked.

The foremost bannerman said nothing and swung his blade at Zhao Quan, but Zhao Quan and his few men occupied the only advantageous position on this small path, and one man alone was no match for them. With a miserable scream, he was cut down.

The moment he died, his corpse immediately became an obstacle for those behind, and the men behind cursed furiously in their desperation.

Those further back did not know what was happening ahead; they only knew that the men in front had suddenly stopped moving. If they did not move, the rebel soldiers behind were drawing near. If they still did not move, would their backs not surely be cut?!

"Goddamn it, are those in front all sons of bitches?! Move the hell on!"

Amid the sky-filling curses and abuse, someone drew his blade and hacked at the comrade ahead. Instantly, the tragedy of mutual slaughter unfolded once more on the small path.

The Taiping troops coming down the slope saw the bannermen ahead cutting each other down again, and each of them was thoroughly delighted. They too went forward and joined the hacking.

With that, the bannermen ahead cursed their mothers even more frantically, and no longer held back in the slightest. Even if their own father stood before them now, they would probably cut him down with one stroke.

With almost no effort required of the Xiongwei Camp, more than half the bannermen on the small path were dead.

The remaining dozen or so quick-witted ones had long since thrown down their weapons and lain flat on the ground, letting the men behind step over them as they went down the mountain. In any case, they themselves were not running anymore.

A few refused to surrender, and could not break through the gap held by Zhao Quan and his men, so they could only turn and leap resentfully off either side, one miserable scream after another ringing out.

Faced with the advantageous position held by Zhao Quan and the few bannermen, the pursuing Taiping troops did not spend lives to take it. Instead, they passed a thunderclap bomb down from above, hand to hand, and the foremost soldier lit it and hurled it over.

With a boom, black smoke rose, and three bannermen were blown to death on the spot. Of the remaining two, one was knocked unconscious by the blast, and the other—Zhao Quan himself—was severely wounded, wailing in pain and no longer able to stop the Taiping troops.

Having dealt with these watchdog-like bannermen, the Xiongwei Camp hurried through the gap and charged down the mountain.

Unfortunately, they were a step too late: Su Xianting had already fled without a trace, leading the dozen or so other bannermen who had escaped down the mountain.

When Shao Jiugong learned that the banner company captain had escaped, he had no choice but to recall his troops, and instead led his men through every building in Yutai Temple, rooting out one by one the Qing remnants who had not managed to flee.