Chapter 22: Chaos

Luoding was now in utter chaos. The great fire had startled everyone from their dreams.

Everywhere, common folk were fighting the flames, and everywhere, panicked crowds surged about. Qing soldiers desperate to flee were running wildly through the city, startling women and children into shrieking one after another.

The fire, just as Baldy had feared, had already spread to the residential quarters. Houses were being devoured by the blaze, and the heartbroken wailing of common folk who had lost loved ones was enough to break a man's heart.

After Kong Guoliang led his personal guards charging out, he found the streets already impassable. Years of continuous warfare had kept Luoding's residents on constant edge.

When they heard the shouts that Ming troops had entered the city, some wealthy households that had been close to the Qing army began fleeing the city with their families, to avoid being purged by the Ming forces.

Once they started running, they immediately set off a stampede of even more people.

In any dynasty, the common people of China follow the crowd. Even if they knew they were in no danger, the moment they saw others running, they would blindly run too — to say nothing of the fact that those fleeing were gentry and wealthy households.

In the eyes of ordinary folk, such people were knowledgeable and well-informed. If even they were running, what was a poor wretch like themselves staying behind for?

The residents of Luoding, desperate to leave the city, with no one to organize them, helped the old and carried the young, and swarmed into the streets with bundles large and small, instantly jamming the narrow thoroughfares solid.

"Out of the way! Out of the way!"

The Qing soldiers, frantic to escape the city, revealed their vicious true nature in their desperation to survive. They began slaughtering the crowd ahead of them.

When a woman fell beneath a Qing blade, the crowd exploded. People scattered in every direction, making the streets even more chaotic and making it even harder for the Qing soldiers, who had wanted to hack a path out, to move at all.

Outside the city, the drums beat louder and louder, and the Ming army's battle cries drew closer and closer. Kong Guoliang, like a bird startled by the mere twang of a bow, spurred his horse in panic and charged straight into the crowd.

His personal guards followed suit. In an instant, a gap was smashed through the crowd.

Dozens of common folk, along with several Qing soldiers, were knocked to the ground by the warhorses, and beneath the trampling hooves rose a chorus of wailing.

Though Luoding was a prefectural seat, it had only two city gates, east and west. The east gate was clearly the Ming army's main point of attack, and most of the battle cries came from that direction.

The west gate, by contrast, was quiet. Without a second thought, Kong Guoliang chose to flee toward the west gate.

Seeing the Battalion Commander leading his personal guards on horseback toward the west gate, some Qing soldiers who had fled the camp began following toward the west gate as well. Most wore only their undershorts, and some did not even have a weapon in hand.

In the panic, many Qing soldiers had their shoes trampled off, and running barefoot on the flagstone road was agonizing.

What was terrifying was not the chaos itself, but the absence of anyone to rally around. Now that they had caught sight of the Battalion Commander, the Qing troops at once had a goal, and they fled for their lives after him without regard for anything else.

On the road to the west gate, another hundred or more innocent common folk were either trampled by warhorses or slaughtered beneath Qing blades.

The great fire in the city startled even Zhou Shixiang outside the walls. Amid the howling of the gale, his brow furrowed.

He knew that from this fire, the city's common folk would surely suffer heavy casualties, and half the houses in the city would likely burn as well. But at this point, there was nothing he could do to save them.

When he had decided to set the fire, he had known full well that the innocent common folk who died in the blaze would far outnumber the Qing soldiers.

But there was no helping it, and no controlling it. No one wanted such a thing to happen. Yet if it meant avoiding civilian casualties by giving up the capture of Luoding, Zhou Shixiang absolutely could not agree to that.

A single general's glory is built on ten thousand bleached bones — and how could those ten thousand bones all be soldiers' bones? Likely the common folk died in even greater numbers.

Even in the twenty-first century, several hundred years later, war could not avoid civilian casualties, let alone in this age.

Zhou Shixiang consoled himself as best he could, forcing himself to set aside his later-age morality.

After pounding the drum with all his strength several dozen more times, he threw down the drumsticks and said to Song Xianggong, who had been standing beside him the whole time: "Master Song, we enter the city."

"Enter the city?"

Song Xianggong hesitated. Entering the city now was probably still unsafe.

He was a man who rather valued his own life; otherwise, back in the day, he would never have done such things as switching patrons one after another.

But then he thought that since Boss Hu and the others had already seized the gate and fought their way into the city, the Qing army was surely in disarray by now. Entering the city should pose no danger, so why let Zhou Shixiang look down on him?

He nodded and agreed.

At once, Zhou Shixiang picked up the saber that had belonged to You Yunlong, led over the big gray horse, and walked with Song Xianggong toward the city gate. When they reached the gate, they saw Ge Liu leading a few men standing guard there.

Boss Hu was nowhere to be seen. Song Xianggong could not help asking Ge Liu: "Where is Boss Hu?"

Ge Liu bared his teeth, his face full of displeasure. "Big Brother led the brothers off to kill that Tartar Battalion Commander, but left the few of us with this miserable gate-guarding duty. No loyalty at all!"

Hearing Ge Liu say this, Zhou Shixiang shook his head. The Qing troops in the city were not actually Manchu Tartars at all, but Han people just like themselves.

Calling these Jiangxi soldiers, who were fellow Han, "Tartars" seemed rather inappropriate. But this was not the time to correct their views, nor the time to prepare for future screening and dividing of the enemy, so he said nothing and raised his eyes to look into the city.

Not far away, a dense crowd of common folk stood huddled, watching this side in terror and unease. From the look of them, they wanted to leave the city, but feared that Ge Liu and his men guarding the gate would kill them, and so they hesitated, unable to decide.

Zhou Shixiang thought for a moment, then said a few words to Song Xianggong. Song Xianggong, after hearing them, quite agreed.

Zhou Shixiang then led his horse over to the crowd and called out: "Good folk of this place, we are the troops of Assistant Regional Commander Hu of Luoding, under the Great Ming. In attacking this prefectural city, we kill only the Qing army and do not harm the people.

Therefore you need not panic, nor be afraid, and still less need you leave the city. Though the city is in chaos at present, our army has already brought the situation under control.

So you may return home at ease; there is no need to gather here."

Seeing Zhou Shixiang in his scholar's robe, looking like a man of learning and not as fierce as those at the gate, a bold young fellow in the crowd at once shouted: "Our homes have all been burned down. What home is there to go back to?"

Zhou Shixiang said: "Those with no home to return to may stay here for the time being; those with homes may go home." He added, "Those who remain here will not be disturbed by our army in the slightest.

The fire in the city is raging fiercely right now. If you are willing, you may also organize yourselves to fight the fire.

After daybreak, our army may grant compensation to each of you as circumstances allow. We will not leave you without food or clothing."

"Is what you say true?"

The young fellow was somewhat doubtful, and the others also regarded him with suspicion, because they had noticed that the men before them did not look like the Ming army that had been shouting in the city for half the night.

Otherwise, why would they have no weapons, banners, or insignia at all? Those few at the gate looked more like bandits than Ming soldiers.

Zhou Shixiang knew it would be hard to make these common folk believe him right away, and explaining would be too troublesome. Just as he was pondering how best to phrase things, Zhao Sihai came running over in a hurry.

Seeing Zhou Shixiang and Song Xianggong, he at once shouted: "Xiucai! Master Song!"

Song Xianggong could not wait to pull him over and ask: "Brother Sihai, what is the situation? Where is Boss Hu?"

Without even catching his breath, Zhao Sihai pointed west and said: "That Tartar Battalion Commander took a bunch of men and fled toward the west gate. Brother Hu was afraid they'd realize something was wrong and turn back to fight, so he took the brothers to chase them.

He was worried about you, so he sent me back to report!"

Zhou Shixiang tensed and quickly asked him: "How many men did the Battalion Commander take toward the west gate?"

Zhao Sihai said: "A hundred or so in all!"

After hearing this, Zhou Shixiang turned his head and said to Song Xianggong: "Master Song, I leave these common folk in your care. I am going to lend Brother Hu a hand!"

Without waiting for Song Xianggong to agree, he swung himself onto the big gray horse, and with a cry of "Giddyap!" galloped off toward the west gate.

"Brother Zhou — Xiucai — you can't go!"

Song Xianggong and Zhao Sihai could not stop him, and stamped their feet in frustration.