Chapter 249: 247 — Taking the City by Night

In the fourth watch of the night, Tao Aizhi descended in a basket hung from the wall.

Li Zheng had his camp several li away, so Tao had to sprint the whole distance; before he had run two li, he was already gasping for breath.

Tao Aizhi braced his hands on his knees, bent over and panted heavily, then after catching his breath a little, ran on.

"Aiyo!"

Suddenly, Tao Aizhi was tripped by someone, and when he tried to scramble up, a blade was already pressed against his throat.

A hidden sentry of the Great Unity Army had been lying in the grass the whole time.

Tao Aizhi said urgently, "Take me to your commander at once — I have urgent military intelligence to report!"

At these words, the hidden sentry dared not delay; he immediately searched Tao Aizhi for weapons, then led him at a run toward his own side's main camp.

Learning Tao Aizhi's identity, Li Zheng was rather astonished and could not help smiling. "You actually dared leave the city. Aren't you afraid that Governor will kill your brothers?"

"Huff, huff, huff, huff…"

Tao Aizhi was nearly collapsing from exhaustion. Though in the prime of life, he was after all a man of letters, and sprinting several li had long since exceeded his physical limits.

After entering the encampment, Tao Aizhi slowed to a walk, and was still panting when he entered the command tent. He steadied himself for a moment, got his breath somewhat under control, cupped his hands, and said, "I falsely claimed to be surrendering under a ruse and arranged with the Governor to lure you, General, into attacking the city three days from now."

Li Zheng asked, "Then what day do you think we should attack?"

"I beg the General to dispatch troops at once — attack tonight during the fifth watch. The Governor will never expect it!" said Tao Aizhi.

Tao Aizhi had left the city at two-thirty in the morning; running and pausing along the way, by the time he met Li Zheng it was already nearly three o'clock. For him to tell Li Zheng to attack at the fifth watch meant the Great Unity Army would have to assemble at night, carry scaling ladders, and race several li — all within roughly two hours.

"Tonight?" Li Zheng did not dare gamble on it. He did not know Tao Aizhi well, nor did he know much about the situation inside the city.

Most critically, to win the Governor's trust, Tao Aizhi had moved his entire family into the city, so Li Zheng held no hostages at all.

Time was pressing, and Tao Aizhi said anxiously, "General, do not hesitate — bind me quickly, I myself will serve as hostage. If the plan fails, just kill me. Tonight is a perfect opportunity. The Governor knows I left the city at the fourth watch; he will never imagine the General attacking at the fifth watch!"

Tao Aizhi was willing to be a hostage himself; hearing this, Li Zheng was at last moved, and asked, "Tell me your plan."

Tao Aizhi quickly explained: "Governor Wang Zhiliang is extremely cautious. The more than eleven thousand defenders in the city are divided into three shifts to guard the walls in rotation, changing guard every morning and evening. Moreover, only two quarter-hours before each shift change is anyone told which militia unit will defend which sector. All the city gates without barbicans have been sealed shut by him. The gates with barbicans are all guarded by troops he brought himself."

"He does know how to defend a city — no wonder you've made no move until now," Li Zheng nodded.

Tao Aizhi continued, "Tonight my second brother is defending one section of the south wall, my third brother one section of the north wall, and my fourth brother is resting in the barracks inside the city. I have already given instructions: at the fifth watch, three torches will be lit on the south wall. As soon as the General attacks the south wall, my fourth brother will start fires inside the city, my second brother will receive the General at the south wall, and my third brother will seize the chance to sow chaos at the north wall."

"Aside from you four brothers, who else knows of this?" Li Zheng asked.

"Only a few trusted household slaves know. General, rest assured — they will absolutely not leak the secret," Tao Aizhi said with complete certainty.

Twenty years ago, the Tao family had only four males left, one of them an old man near death.

The Tao family's tens of thousands of mu of land had relied entirely on trusted household slaves to hold things together. Fearing that their slaves and tenant farmers would make trouble, they treated people very generously: the slaves' monthly wages and the tenants' rents were the most favorable for scores of li around.

Moreover, Tao Aizhi had long since made promises to those trusted household slaves in the army. As long as they helped the Great Unity Army take Changsha, they would be granted their freedom afterward — these slaves were even more impatient than Tao Aizhi himself.

"Muster the troops — no baggage, only scaling ladders. Depart immediately once assembled!"

Once Li Zheng made his decision, he acted at once.

He did not bind Tao Aizhi either, simply left him in the camp and had the grain transport unit guard him.

Li Zheng actually did not have many troops under his command — only 1,500 regular soldiers and 1,500 peasant soldiers; all the rest were civilian laborers in the grain transport corps. Originally there had been 2,000 regulars and 2,000 peasant soldiers, but 500 of each had been sent south to help Huang Yao attack Xiangtan.

With only 3,000 troops left, they had nonetheless frightened the 11,000 defenders into not daring to come out.

Because Wang Zhiliang, Wang Qisheng, and the others all refused to believe the rebel force numbered only three thousand. They counted Li Zheng's grain transport corps as well, making it a force of nearly ten thousand overall.

It could indeed be counted that way — Li Zheng's grain transport laborers, once thrown into battle, would probably be more formidable than the newly formed militia inside the city, or at least far more eager to fight.

The three thousand soldiers assembled at night, took up their cloud ladders, and took thirty minutes in all, leaving an hour and a half.

Li Zheng led the troops himself, neither hurrying nor dawdling, advancing at a quick march — they did not even need to run.

It was only a few li; arriving in an hour and a half gave them time to spare.

Midway they had to cross a small river, where Li Zheng had several dozen small boats.

These boats assembled on the small river at night, not far from Li Zheng's main camp. By day they dispersed onto the Liuyang River and the Xiang River to serve as scout boats, probing for news and movements in every direction.

The seven thousand-odd militia routed by Hu Dinggui's night raid had taken the greater part of a day to cross a single small river.

Yet Li Zheng's three thousand men, crossing the river at night, took only forty minutes.

They reached a spot outside the city and lay in ambush at a distance. It was not yet the fifth watch, so Li Zheng had his soldiers all lie flat on the ground — though the night mosquitoes bit till they were restless and irritable.

Li Zheng took out his telescope and observed. He waited a long time, and at last saw three torches lit together on the south wall as the signal.

"Go!"

Every soldier held a bamboo slip between his teeth. Silent and soundless, they followed Li Zheng in a jogging charge.

Before they even reached the moat, they were spotted by the sentries on watch.

"Clang, clang, clang, clang, clang!"

Bronze gongs sounded from the gate tower, and a sentry cried out in terror, "The rebels are here! The rebels are here!"

The defenders inside the city fell into chaos, but it was far better than at Xiangtan — they did not simply collapse and flee. This was mainly because Wang Zhiliang knew military matters; he had arranged the city's defenses very well and had also taught the gentry leading the militia all manner of countermeasures.

Wang Zhiliang ate and slept on the gate tower itself. Startled awake, he saw disorder everywhere and immediately gave the order: "There's no time to heat oil or boiling filth — prepare to hurl stones and logs. Also, summon all the troops resting in the city to defend the walls!"

These orders were relayed by Wang Zhiliang's trusted men, and the defenders on the nearby walls gradually steadied.

But inside the city, chaos reigned. The militia men off-duty and resting were nearly thrown into a camp panic by the uproar on the walls. Prefect Wang Qisheng and County Magistrate Yang Guanji each led officials to calm them, while also organizing runners and clerks for various support tasks.

Changsha was very fortunate: its Governor, Prefect, and County Magistrate were all officials who could act and dared to act.

Just then, fires suddenly broke out inside the city, throwing the off-duty militia who had not yet assembled into chaos once more within the city. The Prefect and County Magistrate could only first lead men to fight the fires.

Wang Zhiliang sensed something was wrong; every sign indicated there must be rebel collaborators inside the city.

Instinctively he thought of Tao Aizhi, but he could not bring himself to believe it.

Because the militia raised by the Tao family accounted for forty percent of the city's total defenders. If the Tao family went over to the rebels, how could Changsha possibly hold?

Moreover, the Tao family was a major local clan with tens of thousands of mu of land — how could they risk joining the rebels?

Furthermore, Tao Aizhi had left the city at the fourth watch, and the rebel troops arrived at the fifth watch. To execute such a night march without prior preparation, and to do it so swiftly — Wang Zhiliang admitted to himself that he could not manage it. How high must those soldiers' discipline be!

Wang Zhiliang strode toward the section of wall held by the Tao family troops, and at once flew into a great rage: "You treacherous curs, how dare you!"

Along the various sections of the city wall, braziers had been lit one after another — only the section held by the Tao family troops remained relatively dark. Not a single brazier was lit there; instead, three torches had been raised, clearly meant as a signal.

Five hundred peasant soldiers launched a feint against another section of the wall, while the remaining 2,500 troops of the Great Unity Army all surged toward the place marked by the torch signal.

Tao Longzhi dropped all pretense and shouted with all his might, "Lads, follow me — kill the officials and rise in revolt!"

"Kill the officials and rise in revolt! The young master has already gone over to Heavenly King Zhao!" Several trusted household slaves echoed the cry; they served as the low-level commanders.

The Tao family troops had been bewildered and fearful, but at the shouts of the household slaves, they quickly grasped the situation — the rebels storming the wall were their own people. The thousand Tao family troops here immediately turned and charged at the friendly forces beside them, catching those allies utterly off guard.

We agreed to defend the city together — how did you turn bandit?

Further away, the gentryman surnamed Zhang quickly realized what was happening. Sensing that the government troops were doomed, and to preserve his family, he shouted urgently, "Lads, follow me and go over to Heavenly King Zhao! Kill!"

The Tao family had a thousand troops, the Zhang family five hundred; they struck the friendly forces caught between them from front and rear.

The leader of the militia caught in the middle was surnamed Li, brought by Governor Wang Zhiliang specifically to keep the local militias separated — yet now they faced this inexplicable pincer attack. The militiamen put up only token resistance before dropping to their knees and surrendering in droves. A few, driven to desperation, simply leaped from the wall; a fall from that height would at the very least break a leg.

Wan Sitong, Hu Dinggui, and Chen Fugui had already successfully scaled the wall. The addition of Great Unity soldiers stripped the fight of all suspense.

At that moment, the fire inside the city had yet to be extinguished. The militiamen off rotation were in utter chaos — most had run to fight the fire, a few headed to the gate tower to reinforce the fight, and some had slipped into civilian homes to hide.

Wang Zhiliang was trying to rally his forces to resist when Tao Yunfeng suddenly turned traitor at the north wall.

The fire and chaos within the city, the fighting at the north wall, the fighting at the south wall — all of it created the illusion that rebels were everywhere. Those militiamen, who had undergone barely a few days of training, broke and fled in wave after wave. They abandoned the walls and tried to run for the city gates to get out.

Although the troops guarding the gates had all been brought by Wang Zhiliang, they too were hastily conscripted militiamen. Far from stopping anyone from opening the gates, they took the initiative to open them themselves and fled the city under cover of darkness.

"We surrender! We surrender!"

Great Unity Army soldiers, together with the Tao and Zhang family troops, routed two enemy groups in succession along the south wall. Those who remained gave up fighting — they fled if they could, and those who could not surrendered and begged for their lives.

Wang Zhiliang was preparing to fight to the death when the soldiers around him scattered and fled. A few with black hearts simply pinned him to the ground.

"We surrender! We surrender! We've captured the Governor!"

Li Zheng swept a glance over the scene inside the city and said to Tao Longzhi, "Take your men and put out the fires. The surrendered government troops — all of them go fight the fire too!"

Wang Zhiliang ceased struggling and shut his eyes to await death, feeling that he was finally released.

(End of Chapter)