Chapter 145: The City Wall

"Brother Chen, do you think the bandits will break in?"

On the city wall, a young man named Fan Si carefully lowered a rolling log from his shoulder, then looked worriedly at the companion behind him. Both of them had been press-ganged by the Qing army just yesterday to help defend the wall.

Fan Si had only come into the city from the countryside at the start of the month. He had figured that since most of the people in the city were dead, a great many houses had become ownerless.

And since they were ownerless, taking one cost nothing, so Fan Si had wanted to claim a house for himself, so he could bring his old mother in from the countryside to live with him.

But after entering the city he discovered that all the good houses had already been taken, many of them by people who had come over from Guangzhou. Those people all had some connection to the officials, and they were hardly the sort he dared offend.

Unable to claim a good house, Fan Si could only look for one that was not too shabby to live in. But before he had even settled on a house, Xinhui city was besieged by the bandit soldiers again!

According to those Green Standard soldiers, this time the bandit soldiers had come with no less force than when the Old Bandit besieged the city last year.

Regional Commander Wu had been killed by them at Guifeng Mountain, and now that the bandit soldiers were at the very walls, not one of those Green Standard soldiers dared go out of the city to fight them.

Fan Si was truly afraid. He was terrified that this time the bandit soldiers would fight their way into the city, and if that happened, a conscripted defender like him would certainly not escape death.

Because the Green Standard men had said that once the bandit soldiers broke through, they would surely massacre the city, and then no one, old or young, woman or child, would escape alive.

Thinking that if he died, there would be no one left to care for his old mother in the countryside, Fan Si was sick with regret. He should never, ever have believed what those men from the neighboring village said and come into this city to claim a house.

And now look — no house claimed, and his life was about to be lost too.

That Brother Chen, however, was not as afraid as Fan Si. He rubbed his hands together and said offhandedly, "Relax, the bandits won't get in.

Last year the Old Bandit's army of tens of thousands was beaten back. However strong the bandits are this time, can they be more formidable than the Old Bandit?"

At these words, Fan Si's heart eased, and he nodded hurriedly.

"True.

When I was back in the countryside I heard people say that among the bandit soldiers nowadays, the Old Bandit's force is the best at fighting. Since even the Old Bandit couldn't take our Xinhui, no one else should even dream of taking it."

As he spoke, he did not notice that Brother Chen's expression had turned terribly grim.

The bandit soldiers could not get in — but what about the Qing army?

Watching the group of Green Standard soldiers leaning over the battlements and looking out, Chen Yucai's eyelid would not stop twitching, for some reason. Because he remembered the white bones he had personally gathered from a dry well in the city at the start of the year.

The Qing soldiers on the wall were still staring intently outside the city.

Though they were a mile and a half away, and most men's eyesight was not sharp enough to make out exactly what the Taiping Army on the other side was doing, from their comrades' exclamations they already had a rough idea of what the Taiping Army was about to do next.

Some Green Standard soldiers muttered among themselves: "Plenty of those captives are banner lords. How could the bandits bear to kill them? Those banner lords could be exchanged with the higher-ups for a good deal of silver and grain."

"Who knows. When the Old Bandit came last year, he captured banner lords too, but no one ever heard of the Old Bandit killing them. Why would the bandit soldiers want to kill them this time?"

What the Green Standard soldiers were discussing was last year's affair. At that time, after Li Dingguo's great army had fought its way into Guangdong, it had captured a good number of Han Banners Qing soldiers, but had not killed them.

Instead, it had exchanged those Han Banners captives with Guangzhou for a batch of supplies the Ming army urgently needed.

Although the two princes of Pingnan and Jingnan had kept the matter hidden from the Qing court, no wall in the world is without cracks, and at least the Qing soldiers in Xinhui more or less all knew of it.

The affair had also caused many Han Banners Qing soldiers to lose their former resolve to fight to the death when facing Li Dingguo's forces.

Had the Manchu troops from Beijing not arrived at the critical moment of the siege and shattered the Ming army's lines in one blow, Xinhui would likely have fallen to Li Dingguo long ago.

"Stop all your jabbering! Pull yourselves together! The bandit soldiers may attack the city at any moment. Load the powder into the cannon barrels, keep your eyes sharp, and the moment the bandits move, open fire on them!"

Under the officers' suppression, the Qing soldiers on the wall shut their mouths and each made their final preparations, waiting only for the bandit soldiers to attack so they could teach them a harsh lesson.

"The bandits are killing our brothers right in front of us to scare us! Don't be afraid, brothers — we beat the Old Bandit, so what can this lot of bandits do to us!"

"When the bandits come up, fire on command! Don't let your hands shake! Aim where they're thickest! Do you all hear me!"

"We hear you!"

The Han Banners gunners roared in response. Compared with those Green Standard soldiers, they had not the slightest fear of the bandit soldiers outside the city, nor any sympathy for their captured comrades.

Su Xianting, the company captain of the Bordered Blue Banner who had escaped with his life from Guifeng Mountain, was also on the wall. But now he was staring solemnly out beyond the city, a completely different man from the bedraggled figure fleeing for his life two days before.

"Tell Assistant Regional Commander Zheng to make his men fight for their lives, or else he shouldn't blame my men for using their blades!"

"Yes, sir!"

A personal guard goshiha immediately went to relay the message. Hearing what Su Xianting had sent, Zheng Guodong said nothing, only gave a cold snort.

County Magistrate Huang Zhizheng had already gone down from the wall with the Assistant Magistrate and a crowd of petty clerks from the personnel office. He was a scholar, too weak to truss a chicken, and staying on the wall would do no good.

Besides, a scene of two armies slaughtering each other was better left unwatched, lest the sight of blood turn his stomach.

The County Magistrate dared not watch, and the Assistant Magistrate and the others dared even less.

They had already mobilized every able-bodied man left in the city to go up and help defend the wall, and had prepared the food the defenders needed and the supplies for holding the city.

What came next was the business of those blade-wielding soldiers fighting for their lives — they could neither help nor interfere.

As he descended the steps from the wall, Huang Zhizheng suddenly asked the Assistant Magistrate, "Has all the treasury silver been carried over?"

"All of it, same as last year. Not a single copper coin left behind. Huang Si has men watching it; nothing will go wrong."

The Assistant Magistrate answered hastily, then unconsciously paused mid-step, glanced around, and lowered his voice. "Same as last time — your share has already been sent to the inner hall."

At this, Huang Zhizheng gave a faint "Oh," then clasped his hands behind his back and strolled slowly away. Seeing him like this, the Assistant Magistrate could not help cursing inwardly, though his face showed nothing. He hurried to catch up and spoke obsequiously of other matters.

Outside the city, Shao Jiugong could wait no longer. His face was somewhat savage, somewhat excited, his bloodthirsty eyes fixed red upon the Qing soldiers on the wall. Under the gaze of countless eyes on and below the wall, he raised his saber and slashed downward.

"Cut!"

The surrendered Green Standard soldier acting as executioner was given no room to hesitate. The long blade in his hand chopped toward the neck of the kneeling Han Banners soldier.

"Thunk!"

The head rolled to the ground at the sound. The cut was clean and swift, with not the slightest thread of flesh left connected. The banner soldier only let out a muffled grunt before dying.

"Ten thousand victories!"

As the first head hit the ground, a cheer burst from the Taiping Army.