Chapter 172: Attack and Defense (Eleven)

The commander of the household troops, Qin Guocheng, was a hereditary servant of the Shang family. His grandfather had moved with Shang Kexi's grandfather, Shang Jiguan, to Haizhou in Liaodong.

Qin Guocheng's father had been a personal guard of Shang Kexi's elder brother, Shang Kejin. After Shang Kejin was defeated and killed in a bloody battle against the Jin troops, Qin Guocheng's father died in loyalty to his master.

Qin Guocheng, then fifteen, was captured by the Jin army and became a slave in a company of the Plain Blue Banner of the Later Jin Manchus.

After Shang Kexi surrendered to the Jin, Hong Taiji, to soothe Shang Kexi's heart, returned to the Shang family all the captured members of the Shang clan from over the years, and among them was Qin Guocheng.

After Qin Guocheng returned to the Shang family, because his ancestors for generations had been house-born servants of the Shang family, Shang Kexi placed great trust in him.

Over twenty years, the former house-born servant had become a commander of the Prince of Pingnan's household troops, leading the household troops in battle across the south and north for the Prince of Pingnan and winning illustrious merit.

Among the Prince of Pingnan's subordinates he was one of the foremost figures, in no way inferior to Xu Erxian, who held Zhaoqing, or to Ban Zhifu, the foremost man of the prince's establishment.

Were it not for his age and seniority, the foremost man under the Prince of Pingnan might well have been him, Qin Guocheng!

At this moment, Qin Guocheng stood below the wall in a pointed helmet and heavy armor that arrows could not pierce. The corpses strewn everywhere around him did not draw his attention in the least; his gaze was fixed firmly on the top of the wall.

From time to time cannonballs burst beside him, yet he did not so much as frown, his face as calm and composed as drifting clouds.

The Han Banners were modeled on the Manchu Eight Banners system, with offices such as commander, deputy commander, colonel, assistant colonel, and company captain.

Shang Kexi was a Han prince, and the Qing court had allowed him to hold the south permanently once the Southern Ming was pacified.

Therefore, although Shang Kexi's troops belonged to the Bordered Blue Banner of the Han army, all official appointments were decided by Shang Kexi himself, and the Qing court did not interfere.

Thus, although Shang Kexi had several commanders under him, most held empty titles and did not actually lead troops. His second son, Shang Zhixiao, for example, was a commander but had never led troops.

Only two commanders actually led troops: one was the old East River man Ban Zhifu, and the other was the old Shang family man Qin Guocheng.

That Shang Kexi trusted him so deeply naturally filled Qin Guocheng with gratitude, and he was willing to die for the Prince of Pingnan.

Yet occasionally he would recall the scenes of Liaodong in those years, recall his father's death, recall the deaths of the old master and the eldest young master, recall the Prince of Pingnan's two wives throwing themselves into a well after being violated by the Jin troops, recall the deaths of more than seventy members of three generations of the Qin family, recall everything he had endured in the years he was a slave of the Jin...

But what was past could not be changed, and the cruel deaths of his kin were not enough to rouse the blood and courage in Qin Guocheng's breast. Now, wealth and glory were all bestowed by the Prince of Pingnan, and for the rest of his life he would be the prince's ox and horse!

Being a traitor to the Han did not seem so shameful, after all — at least I am still alive!

Being an unfilial descendant did not seem so disgraceful, after all — at least I am still alive!

Being a butcher of my own countrymen brought no remorse, after all — at least it is others who die!

If the prince uses me, then I am a vicious dog. If a dog cannot bite, what use would the prince have for me!

Take Xinhui, and leave neither chicken nor dog alive!

If Xinhui could be slaughtered once, it can be slaughtered a second time!

In a flash of lightning, Qin Guocheng drove his fist hard toward the city wall.

"Kill!"

Seven hundred Shang household troops in double armor and wielding long sabers savagely shoved the camp soldiers blocking their way to the ground, then trampled over their bodies as they climbed the scaling ladders.

"Loose arrows! Loose arrows!"

The ferocity of the household troops infuriated Lin Shanzhi, but he dared not show the slightest displeasure.

Instead he roared himself hoarse, ordering the archers to suppress the Taiping Army on the wall with all their might so that the household troops could climb the ladders smoothly.

Arrows flew like birds onto the thirty-foot-high wall of Xinhui, some burying themselves atop the wall, some flying on past to the rear of the wall.

After the household troops began scaling the wall, the other Han Banner troops supporting the assault also surged forward with a roar.

The Plain Yellow Banner Han troops led by Geng Zhongde kept the defenders on the facing section of the wall tightly pinned down, preventing them from pulling away to reinforce the area where the household troops were attacking.

The remaining shield carts of the Green Standard were all concentrated together. Lin Shanzhi knew that since the household troops had gone in, he had no choice but to throw everything he had into the fight.

No matter how strong Xinhui's walls were, no matter how fierce the Taiping Army was, they were no match for those household troops.

These soldiers, whom the Prince of Pingnan treated as his most precious treasures, were all picked fighting men of the army, each wearing several layers of armor and utterly unafraid of the Taiping Army's muskets and arrows.

Since the march south, who knew how many Ming army cities had been taken by these household troops in direct assault, and who knew how many Ming soldiers had been shattered by them.

Therefore, no matter how stubborn the Taiping Army on the wall was, they were no match for the household troops, and the fall of Xinhui was only a matter of time.

But before the household troops broke the city, he, Lin Shanzhi, had to push his men even harder to fight and die in the assault, and no matter what, he had to pin down the Taiping Army's counterattacks.

Otherwise, if the household troops fought hard and suffered heavy losses, he would not need the Prince of Pingnan himself to act — the lords of the Bordered Blue Banner would make him pay!

While the struggle on the wall was still raging, the newly appointed County Magistrate of Xinhui, Master Liao, led a group from his yamen up onto the wall with some pork and wine.

But when he found that the Qing army outside the city had not withdrawn and had instead launched another assault, Magistrate Liao's face visibly darkened.

Most of those who had come up with him were security corps members who had never seen battle, and at the sight of the sea of blood and heaps of corpses on and below the wall, their legs trembled and their throats kept swallowing.

Master Liao barely suppressed the fear in his heart and shakily considered whether to go down from the wall at once. But when he saw Song Xianggong sitting fearlessly in the gate tower watching the battle, he hesitated.

He reflected that the fighting was at its fiercest, and he had just become County Magistrate, at the very moment when he should be making his mark.

If he showed cowardice at this critical juncture and was looked down upon by Commander Zhou and Chief Administrator Song, how would he ever rise in the world?

So be it, so be it. I am already past sixty. As the old poem says, how many return from battle since ancient times? At this moment of life and death, though I have not the strength to truss a chicken, I can still raise the soldiers' spirits here.

"Men, set up the drum! This magistrate will beat three rolls of the drum for the soldiers!"

Magistrate Liao's demand left the security corps members dumbfounded. They had come up to the wall to reward the troops, and had brought plenty of wine and meat, but who among them had brought a drum?

In that moment of bewilderment, an arrow or two flew overhead from time to time, frightening the timid security corps members into instinctively throwing themselves flat on the ground.

Only when they saw the arrows fly past the wall and fall behind the city did they scramble back up, a false alarm. Faced with the contemptuous looks of their companions and the passing soldiers and able-bodied men, they did blush a little, somewhat ashamed.

Compared with those ashamed security corps members, Master Liao's nerve seemed to collapse all at once. He stood there muttering to himself, no longer mentioning the drum, yet not mentioning going down from the wall either, leaving the security corps members frantic with worry.

It was at this moment that Zhou Shixiang, who was directing the battle, noticed that Liao Ruixiang had brought people up and was behaving most disgracefully. Enraged, he pulled over a personal guard and told him to tell Liao Ruixiang to take his men down from the wall at once.

At the same time he told the guard to tell Liao Ruixiang that his task was to keep order in the city and organize the laborers and able-bodied men to supply everything the wall needed, not to bring people up to stand foolishly on the wall.

If he stayed on the wall any longer, he, Commander Zhou, would make him boil night-soil like those laborers.

After hearing the guard relay Zhou Shixiang's words, Liao Ruixiang felt no shame, but instead breathed a sigh of relief and hurriedly led his men down from the wall. Say what you will, at heart he was still a timid, fearful scholar.

Though he had awaited death in prison because of a groundless seditious poem, and by a twist of fate had become one of the "rebels," and had even been transformed into the chief official of a county, how could he bear such scenes of killing!

Zhou Shixiang's order for him to go down was doing him a favor. Master Liao was very afraid that if he stayed any longer he would collapse limply to the ground and lose the little bit of dignity he had so painstakingly built up before the security corps members.

Besides, was that night-soil something a human being could boil? Never mind boiling it — just smelling it was enough to kill! I am the dignified chief official of a county; how could I have anything to do with such filth!

Withdraw at once, withdraw at once!