Chapter 52: The Reward

"Could the Ming army be using a feint to lure our troops out of the city?"

Lu Gongming could not be sure whether the Ming army really had only this many men; at any rate, something looked off.

But with the fate of Deqing and his own life at stake, this County Magistrate, who had no command over troops, did not dare make a rash judgment, so he looked to Zhang Dade, hoping the other man could spot something and clear up his doubts.

Zhang Dade, however, paid him no attention. Tilting his head, he asked Battalion Commander Tang Sanshui, "Whose troops are this Taiping Camp?"

"Your subordinate does not know. I have never heard of any such camp in the Ming army."

Tang Sanshui opened his mouth and carefully went through every Ming camp in Guangdong: the Governor-General's, the Governor's, this duke's, that marquis's — counting the naval forces, several dozen commands large and small — yet he had never heard of any flying the banner of this Taiping Camp.

Zhang Dade shot a glance at Lu Gongming, then lowered his voice and asked, "Could they be under Li Dingguo?"

"No. Definitely not!"

On this point Tang Sanshui was quite certain, because he had never heard of Li Dingguo's Great Western bandits forming a separate camp; only those motley irregulars threw up camps left and right like that.

"As long as it's not Li Dingguo, we're fine."

Zhang Dade breathed a sigh of relief. As long as it was not Li Dingguo's troops, there was nothing to fear from them. He was just weighing whether to lead men out for a probe when Tang Sanshui suddenly pointed at those Ming soldiers in astonishment and cried, "Sir! Queues! Queues!"

Queues?

Everyone looked where he pointed and was taken aback — many of the soldiers in that Ming force still wore queues at the back of their heads!

Are these damn Ming troops or our own Green Standard men?

Zhang Dade rubbed his forehead, truly baffled. If you were Ming troops, you should not be wearing queues; if you were Qing troops, why were you dressed in Ming uniforms?

If the Ming army had shaved their heads to disguise themselves as Qing troops and trick their way into the city, then they ought to have changed their clothes too — otherwise how could they fool the city?

And if you were Qing troops disguised as Ming troops, no orders had come down from above about that either. What the hell was going on?

While he was still puzzling over it, Tang Sanshui shouted again, "Sir, someone's coming over from the other side!"

Hm?

Zhang Dade raised his eyes and looked. Sure enough, a man on horseback had ridden down from the city wall opposite. Seeing two of his personal guards raising their bows to shoot, he hastily stopped them: "Don't shoot! Let him come. Hear what he has to say."

At that, the guards hurriedly lowered their bows.

The rider was no fool either. He halted his horse just beyond bowshot, then shouted at the top of his lungs toward the wall, "Zhang Mazi, do you still recognize your Grandpa Shao?"

The voice sounded so familiar that Zhang Dade instinctively craned out to look — and the sight at once sent fury surging through him: the man below the wall was none other than Shao Jiugong, who had made a fool of him twice back in the day!

"You bastard!"

Zhang Dade opened his mouth and cursed, but after cursing he stood there stunned, because he remembered that this Shao Jiugong had been with Kong Guoliang in Luoding. How was it that Kong Guoliang was dead, yet he was not, and had even joined the Ming army?

Shao Jiugong answered that question for him himself, shouting from below the wall, "I, Shao Jiugong, have already switched allegiance back to the Ming!

Zhang Mazi, if you know what's good for you, hand over the city, and I'll put in a few good words for you with my commander — I guarantee you'll keep your post as Garrison Commander.

If you don't know what's good for you, once our great army fights its way in, we'll be taking your dog's life!"

"With just this handful of men, you think you can take my Deqing?"

Zhang Dade laughed instead of getting angry. It was not that he was overconfident — never mind the hundred or so men before him, even if another one or two thousand came, they still would not take Deqing.

Besides, these Ming troops did not even have siege equipment. What were they going to attack with?

This talk was nothing but bluffing. Not worth a fart!

Gazing at the queue on the back of Shao Jiugong's head, Zhang Dade gave a cold snort.

Now he understood why all these Ming troops still wore queues: it looked very much as though Shao Jiugong had secretly gone over to the Ming and turned traitor, and because the rising had been hasty, they had not yet had time to cut the queues off.

"My Taiping Camp is all elite troops, every man worth ten! Never mind your little Deqing — we'd dare march on Zhaoqing Prefecture itself!"

Shao Jiugong had come as bait, not to attack the city.

Seeing that Zhang Mazi made no move, he grew anxious, fearing the fellow really meant to wait for the Taiping Camp to assault the walls, so he taunted him: "Zhang Mazi, back then I sent you running and dropping your armor, and today I can just as easily beat you to your knees begging for mercy!

If you don't believe it, bring your men out and test yourself against your Grandpa Shao. Hiding inside the city counts for shit!"

From Shao Jiugong's impression, this Zhang Dade was a crude brute, and crude men cannot stand being taunted — he would surely charge out without a second word to fight to the death. But not a stir came from the wall.

He stared at the city gate for a long while, yet still saw no furious Zhang Dade leading troops out.

What's going on?

Had his clever scheme backfired? Did that Zhang Mazi really mean to hold the city and refuse to come out?

Zhou Shixiang glanced at Shao Jiugong below the wall and wondered what to do if Zhang Dade truly would not come out. What he did not know was that at that very moment, someone on the wall was pointing at him.

The one pointing at Zhou Shixiang was Wu Changshou, the Assistant Magistrate of Deqing, who had been watching from the wall all along and was now speaking about him to Lu Gongming.

"Sir, doesn't that man look familiar?"

"Which one?" Lu Gongming did not know whom Wu Changshou meant.

Wu Changshou pointed at Zhou Shixiang on horseback: "That one riding the gray horse."

Lu Gongming narrowed his eyes and looked. After a moment, he let out an "Eh?" and said, "Strange. That man does look somewhat familiar."

"The arrest circular sent from Guangzhou a few days ago — does Your Honor remember it?" Wu Changshou prompted.

At that reminder, Lu Gongming suddenly recalled whom the man resembled. He looked at him again and nodded: "He does look somewhat like him."

Below the wall, Shao Jiugong was still cursing away, but Zhang Dade could not be bothered to answer him. Let him curse a while longer: if I fell for your goading that easily, then I'd have wasted these two years listening to the Romance of the Three Kingdoms!

Once you've cursed yourself out and think I'm not coming, then I'll come out — just to do the opposite of what you want! If I catch you this time, I'll flay you alive, you turtle-spawned whelp!

Turning back, he saw Lu Gongming and Wu Changshou muttering mysteriously about whether someone looked like someone or not. Curious, he curled his lip and asked, "Looks like who?"

Lu Gongming did not hide it from him. He asked, "Does Your Honor know General You Yunlong?"

Zhang Dade said with a laugh, "General You is a favorite of the Prince, and an old acquaintance of Regional Commander Xu as well. How could I not know him?"

Lu Gongming said, "Then Your Honor must know of General You's assassination in Xinhui."

"Of course I know. Why bring that up?" Zhang Dade grew more puzzled, unsure what Lu Gongming was getting at.

Lu Gongming did not keep him in suspense.

"After General You was assassinated, the county received an arrest circular from the provincial capital.

It said the killer of General You was a Xinhui xiucai named Zhou Shixiang. The local authorities had someone who knew him draw his portrait.

Because it was a xiucai killing an official, I was particularly struck by it and studied it a few times. Just now I looked at that man on the gray horse over there and thought he closely resembles Zhou Shixiang — but I cannot be sure."

"Which one?" Zhang Dade craned out to look as well, quite curious to see what the xiucai who had killed You Yunlong looked like.

Wu Changshou hastily pointed him out: "That one riding the gray horse!"

Zhang Dade looked a few times, drew his head back, and ordered Wu Changshou, "Go fetch that portrait and let me see it."

Wu Changshou glanced at Lu Gongming; the latter nodded, and he hurried off to get the portrait.

As Wu Changshou went for the portrait, Lu Gongming remembered something and said to Zhang Dade, "Your Honor, after General You was assassinated, the Prince of Pingnan was furious and personally issued a reward: whoever captures or kills Zhou Shixiang will be promoted two ranks and given a hundred taels of silver.

That is no small reward."

At those words, Zhang Dade's eyes bulged: "There's such a fine deal as that?"

A Garrison Commander was a fifth-rank military officer, pressed down upon by the Provincial Military Commander, Regional Commander, Vice Regional Commander, Assistant Regional Commander, Mobile Corps Commander, and Route Commander, with Battalion Commander and Company Commander below him.

A two-rank promotion would make him a Mobile Corps Commander, a third-rank-from-the-top military post. Normally, advancing even one rank required battle merit, and the merit required for each rank differed — rising was extremely difficult.

Zhang Dade had held his post as Garrison Commander for over three years without managing to rise to Route Commander, yet now he needed only to capture or kill one xiucai to become a Mobile Corps Commander. His heart was instantly stirred.

Tang Sanshui and the rest were all fired up too. A fine deal like this — everyone who saw it had a share. If the Garrison Commander became a Mobile Corps Commander, they could rise along with him.

Watching these roughnecks stare at the men outside the city as if their eyeballs were about to drop out, Lu Gongming's heart sank. He regretted opening his mouth, but he did not know how to take the words back.

After what felt like an age, Wu Changshou finally brought the portrait. Zhang Dade could not wait; he snatched it and spread it open.

Tang Sanshui and the others crowded around, and even Lu Gongming set aside his reserve and craned in for a close look. Before he could make it out, there was a sharp "Smack!" — Zhang Dade slapped the portrait hard and cried out in delight, "It's this brat!

It's this brat! Brothers, grab your weapons!

Take this man, and rise in rank and fortune with me!"

"Grab your weapons — rise in rank and fortune!"

With a rush, Tang Sanshui and the others drew their blades and ran down from the wall.

This is bad!

Lu Gongming saw the situation was turning bad and hurried forward to block him: "My lord, do not act rashly! We do not know the Ming army's strength — we must not sally forth lightly! If we fall into a trap, Deqing is finished!"

Zhang Dade, eager for promotion, replied without turning his head: "Rest easy, Lord Lu. I will take only my trusted men to seize that xiucai.

If the Ming army truly has a large force lying in ambush, I will simply turn back." So saying, he led his men down from the gate tower and busied himself ordering horses mustered and troops assembled.

Lu Gongming could not stop him. Fearing the Ming army outside truly had large reinforcements and that Zhang Dade's sortie would fall into a trap, he was frantic with worry.

Fortunately Wu Changshou kept his head and reminded him to immediately dispatch runners to organize the city's able-bodied young men onto the walls — in case Zhang Dade and his men walked into a Ming ambush, the burden of defending the city would fall on these young men.

Just as Zhou Shixiang's patience was about to run out and he was considering withdrawing his troops, the city gate suddenly swung open.

Several mounted Qing army officers charged out first, followed by a green banner, and beneath that banner were dense ranks of Green Standard soldiers carrying long spears.

"Zhang Mazi, you've fallen for my trick after all!"

Shao Jiugong laughed heartily and wheeled his horse to flee back — only to find that Zhang Dade had not led his men charging at him, but had instead charged straight toward the rear. He gaped in astonishment: "Zhang Mazi, are you blind? I'm right here! I'm right here!"