Chapter 23: Beheading

Zhou Shixiang had every reason to be anxious. The Mount Dachao bandits who had entered the city numbered only a little over thirty, while the Qing Battalion Commander was fleeing toward the west gate with more than a hundred men.

Right now they were panicked and thinking only of escape, but the moment they discovered that what had charged into the city was no Li Dingguo army at all, the trouble would be enormous.

You can guard against ten thousand things, but it is the one in ten thousand that kills you!

Striking suddenly under cover of night, killing and burning — the Mount Dachao men were practiced hands at that. But if it came to facing the Qing army in open, pitched battle, they were probably no match for them at all.

Besides, the Mount Dachao bandits were really nothing but a rabble! Had the Qing army not feared Li Dingguo like a tiger, how could this fox-borrowing-the-tiger's-might scheme ever have succeeded!

Fearing that things might go wrong, Zhou Shixiang was frantic with worry, wishing he could sprout wings and fly to the west gate.

At this point, apart from killing the Qing Battalion Commander in one stroke, leaving the remaining Qing troops leaderless and utterly collapsing, he could think of no other way.

"Hyah! Hyah! Hyah!"

Zhou Shixiang cracked his whip several times. The big gray horse beneath him plainly sensed its new rider's urgency, but the way ahead was no open road — everywhere were burning houses, everywhere panicked crowds, and even if the horse wanted to run faster, it could not.

Several times the big gray horse nearly plowed into the crowd ahead. Had it not been for the fine horsemanship Zhou Shixiang had drilled in his previous life as a cavalryman, he would likely have been thrown many times over.

To reach the west gate at top speed and yet not crash into the crowd — there is no such thing in this world as having it both ways!

Much as he wished otherwise, the big gray horse still knocked a middle-aged man frantically fleeing for his life to the ground. Without sparing the man more than a glance, Zhou Shixiang rode on, his heart full of guilt, leaving behind only the man's screams and the curses of the common folk.

"Kill them! Kill them for me!"

Before he even reached the west gate, Zhou Shixiang could hear the shouting of battle ahead. By the firelight he saw several dozen Qing soldiers and more than twenty Mount Dachao men locked in combat beneath the gate arch.

Amid the flash of blades and firelight, twenty or thirty corpses already lay on the ground.

The space beneath the gate arch was small, with dozens of men tangled in close combat, and the light inside was dim. No one could tell who was who; friend and foe could only be told by whether a head had hair or not.

Zhou Shixiang did not see Boss Hu, and his heart sank, thinking Boss Hu had already fallen. But seeing that the Mount Dachao men beneath the gate arch showed no panic, and faintly hearing Ge Wu's voice, he steadied himself.

He knew Boss Hu was surely not dead — otherwise these bandits would not still be holding off the Qing troops so desperately; they would have scattered long ago.

An army without its head cannot move, and bandits without their leader are even more helpless!

Besides the several dozen Qing soldiers fighting for the gate beneath the arch, Zhou Shixiang also saw several mounted Qing soldiers less than ten zhang from the gate.

Because they had fled in such haste, none of these Qing soldiers wore hats, and their uniforms were thrown on any which way, so from clothing alone there was no telling which one was the Qing Battalion Commander.

But this did not stump Zhou Shixiang.

He fixed his eyes on them and studied them carefully for a while, then noticed one man constantly signaling toward the gate arch and shouting something from time to time, while the other mounted Qing soldiers merely clustered around him without making any gestures.

After a moment's thought, Zhou Shixiang knew the signaling Qing soldier had to be the Battalion Commander, and the rest were most likely his personal guards.

Shoot the horse first to bring down the rider; seize the bandit chief to defeat the bandits!

Having determined which target to kill, Zhou Shixiang held his breath, drew You Yunlong's saber from its scabbard, and drove his legs hard against the horse. The big gray horse neighed at once, flung out its hooves, and charged forward.

By now Kong Guoliang was frantic beyond measure. He had not noticed that those who had charged into the city were not Ming troops, nor had he realized that the ones desperately blocking his escape were the enemy's main force.

He merely assumed these men were Ming infiltrators who had slipped into the city, and that the main Ming army had not yet arrived.

For this he had to thank the Luoding commoners, who were even more terrified than the Qing troops. It was precisely their shouting and wailing that drowned out the sounds of the city's true enemy, making it impossible for Kong Guoliang to tell how many enemies there really were.

He could only assume the Ming army had already stormed the city, and that if he did not flee at once, death was his only fate.

The delay had already gone on too long. With escape from the city just a hair's breadth away, Kong Guoliang's face had turned extremely grim.

Several times he wanted to dismount and personally seize the gate, yet he feared that once off his horse he would have no chance to remount and flee. So he could only pin his hopes on Shao Jiugong, who was directing the men fighting for the gate.

Just as he was frantic and at a loss, the neighing of a warhorse suddenly sounded from behind. Kong Guoliang's heart jolted with a sense of foreboding: had Ming cavalry caught up?!

He twisted around to look. Where was there any Ming cavalry?

There was only one man and one horse galloping straight at him. Kong Guoliang froze, unsure whether the rider was friend or foe.

The moment he saw the tip of the man's blade pointing straight at him, he understood in a flash and shouted to his personal guards: "Stop him! Stop him!"

"Yes, sir!"

Two of Kong Guoliang's personal guards answered, brandished their blades, and spurred their horses at Zhou Shixiang. As personal guards, their lives were bound up with their commander's.

They ate and drank and drew more pay than the others by far, so if they did not lay down their lives for Kong Guoliang now, when would they?

Kong Guoliang's troops were Green Standard soldiers from Jiangxi. The Green Standard had no cavalry attached; they were infantry to a man.

Only officers of various ranks were issued some Mongol horses as mounts, and the personal guards under them were mostly given inferior nags to ride.

Thus compared with the big gray horse Zhou Shixiang rode, taken from You Yunlong, the mounts of Kong Guoliang's two personal guards looked short and small.

With the big gray horse's advantage in height, and with the skills he had honed on horseback in his previous life, how could Zhou Shixiang take those two personal guards of Kong Guoliang's seriously?

As the two spurred their horses at him, he struck downward from his elevated position and slashed. The blade caught the Qing soldier on the right square in the face.

With a scream, the man tumbled off his horse, and his riderless mount kept charging forward, oblivious.

The personal guard on the left had already groaned inwardly at the sight of the Mongol horse under Zhou Shixiang. When he saw his comrade felled by a single blow, his heart went cold, and all thought of killing vanished.

He wheeled his horse to dodge, but the big gray horse moved faster than his own. His horse's rump had barely turned before Zhou Shixiang's blade struck him in the back, and the blade, carrying the big gray horse's momentum, flung him bodily from the saddle.

Zhou Shixiang had killed two men in rapid succession, so fast that You Yunlong was stunned speechless.

Knowing this man could not be fought head-on, his instinct was to flee the city at once, but at the gate Shao Jiugong and his men had fought desperately and still failed to take it. He was both frantic and furious, and now Zhou Shixiang was charging at him with blade raised.

Left with no choice, he gritted his teeth, reined in his horse, and rode out to meet him himself. Yet even on horseback, his heart quailed and his eyelids twitched uncontrollably — not a trace of his former valor remained.

Since Kong Guoliang had charged, his three remaining personal guards hastily drew their blades and followed, though they lagged somewhat behind.

When brave men meet on a narrow path, the brave one wins!

Zhou Shixiang, whose momentum already overwhelmed Kong Guoliang several times over, charged in without a trace of fear, blade alone. The instant their horses crossed, a jet of blood sprayed into the air, followed by a severed arm dropping to the ground, its hand still clutching a saber.

The moment his arm was hacked off, Kong Guoliang felt as if ten thousand arrows had pierced his heart. Missing an arm, he could not keep his balance on horseback.

He swayed a few times, then pitched headfirst to the ground. The heavy impact left him dizzy and seeing stars, but he was still a man of grit: clutching his severed arm, he did not cry out, instead staggering as he tried to rise again.

Only, Zhou Shixiang would give him no chance to stand. The big gray horse swept past, and the long blade sliced across the back of his neck, laying flesh open in one stroke.

Kong Guoliang's left hand instinctively reached for his neck, but before it got there his head lolled. His body still stood, yet the queue at the back of his head now hung down to his waist in front.

"Lord Kong is dead! Lord Kong is dead!"

The three personal guards who had witnessed Kong Guoliang's death wailed and howled. The Qing soldiers who heard it all froze, and Shao Jiugong started violently and turned to look.

In his line of sight, Kong Guoliang's body had collapsed to its knees, his head sunk to the ground before him, motionless.

It's over!

The single breath of resolve Shao Jiugong had been holding escaped him, and he stood there in a daze.

"Surrender and you will not be killed!"

Zhou Shixiang reined in his horse and stood with blade held crosswise, his voice so loud it could be heard a full li away.

The Mount Dachao men in the gate arch heard the voice and burst into cheers. Ge Wu cried out in excitement: "It's Brother Zhou! It's Brother Zhou!"

"Brothers, Brother Zhou has killed the Tartar Battalion Commander! Brother Zhou has killed the Tartar Battalion Commander!"

Though Boss Hu could not see what was happening outside, the sudden halt of the Qing attack across from him was enough to confirm that the Tartar Battalion Commander had indeed been killed by Zhou Shixiang. The excitement in his heart truly defied description.

Had Zhou Shixiang failed to kill the Tartar Battalion Commander, the men under him in the gate arch would likely not have held out.

The remaining Qing soldiers had no idea what to do. None of them fought the bandits before them, nor did they retreat. They only stood staring blankly.

"Your Battalion Commander is dead. Do you want to be buried with him? Put down your blades — Han do not kill Han. I guarantee your lives!"

Zhou Shixiang did not want complications. If these Qing soldiers would lay down their weapons, nothing could be better. Victory was already in sight, and he did not want any more needless casualties in this darkness before dawn.

"Company Commander Shao, what do we do?"

Some of the Qing soldiers were wavering. They looked to the only officer left, Shao Jiugong, for him to decide.

Shao Jiugong gave a bitter laugh. Had Kong Guoliang not died, it would not matter even if all these men were killed — as long as he could escape and reach Kong Guozhi, he, Shao Jiugong, would still be a Company Commander, and would still have troops under him.

But now that Kong Guoliang was dead, there was no road left for Shao Jiugong. Even if he could escape, Kong Guozhi, the elder brother, would never let him off.

Seeing that everyone was already wavering, and reflecting that the Ming army indeed had no habit of slaughtering Qing prisoners of war, Shao Jiugong decided to throw caution to the wind. For now, saving his own skin came first.

"Brothers, let us surrender. We have done all we could. The Battalion Commander, if he knows from below, will not blame us."

"We surrender! We surrender!"

Hearing this, the Qing soldiers at once felt relieved. One after another they threw their blades to the ground, then obediently withdrew from the gate arch and walked to the open ground in front.

Boss Hu had once served as Li Chengdong's personal guard, and some of his men had also served in the Ming army, so they naturally knew how to handle surrendered Qing troops. By their thinking, rather than keep these Qing soldiers alive, it would be better to kill them all.

After all, they were short-handed, and if these Qing soldiers learned the truth, they would surely stir up trouble out of resentment.

Boss Hu quietly drew Zhou Shixiang aside and told him his idea of killing the Qing soldiers. Zhou Shixiang firmly opposed it.

In the end Boss Hu yielded, proposing that they first send men to tie up the prisoners and escort them to the prefect's yamen to be held under guard, and after daybreak, once they had full control of the city, they could discuss how to deal with them.