Chapter 109: More Roving Bandits Have Entered the City

When Cao Yu heard that the river surface had caught fire, he hurriedly turned his head to look — and at a single glance, cold dread shot through him again and again.

There was far more than fire on the river: a vast expanse of drifting, glowing flames had appeared. No one could tell how many fire ships there were, all of them slowly, unhurriedly coming downstream. As they drew closer and closer to the pontoon bridge, Cao Yu could already feel the waves of heat from the fire ships rushing against his face.

"Enemy attack! Fire attack! Run—" Cao Yu bellowed, then turned and sprinted for the south bank of the Wei River.

This could hardly be called desertion, because the pontoon bridge could not be moved, and there were no weapons on the bridge capable of sinking the fire ships. All anyone could do was watch helplessly as the fire ships slowly closed in. Apart from fleeing to report to his superiors, Cao Yu had no idea what else to do.

In truth, there was no need for him to report at all. The sentries on the north and south walls of Tianjin Garrison, as well as the sailors aboard the Shen family's sand ships on the river east of the pontoon bridge, had all already spotted the fire ships coming.

The warning bugles sounded, mournful and drawn-out, and a flurry of commotion broke out atop the walls and on the ships' decks. The Shen family sailors sleeping in the cabins were all jolted awake. Without even bothering to dress or wash, they weighed anchor and worked the oars under the boatswains' urging, setting the sand ships moving downstream.

But along the way downstream, the Shun army had already piled up quite a few earthen mounds along the riverbank. Archers had long since climbed onto these mounds, and the moment they saw a sand ship draw near, they loosed fire arrows from their elevated position.

Seen from a distance, it looked like countless shooting stars trailing fire — arrowheads streaking through the sky in perfect parabolic arcs, then falling onto the first sand ship to come within range.

The Shen family's sand ships were all seagoing vessels with enormous hulls. A single ship could carry four thousand to six thousand shi of cargo, and each deck had four or five masts. At the moment there was a faint southwesterly breeze over the river, so the masts were all flying canvas sails and cloth sails — every one of them highly flammable material. Struck by the fire arrows, they quickly caught alight. Seen from afar, each became a fiercely blazing fire ship, a terrifying sight.

When the fire arrows ignited the sails, wave after wave of cheers rose from the earthen mounds on both banks of the Wei River.

Yet this sand ship with its sails ablaze did not stop moving. It kept sailing forward, as though it had not noticed the fire burning above its own head...

At the same time, as one fire ship after another slammed into the Wei River pontoon bridge, the bridge too began to catch fire.

Wu Xiang and Cao Youyi, who were directly commanding the city's defense, were both veteran generals and of course knew they had to guard against an enemy fire attack on the pontoon bridge. So they had long since coated the bridge with fireproof mud. Moreover, it had rained for several days in a row, and the bridge's timbers had soaked up moisture, making them hard to ignite. But after being rammed by one burning fire ship after another and roasted at close range for a while, even the mud-coated timbers finally began to burn.

Before long, the bridge spanning the Wei River had become a single blazing fire dragon.

Outside the eastern and southern walls of Tianjin Garrison's south city, once the darkness and morning mist had been successively dispersed by the sunlight, the soldiers manning the walls also cried out in alarm.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

Immediately, the warning horns sounded, one urgent blast pressing hard upon the next.

Outside the city, more than ten thousand infantry and cavalry flying the Shun war banners had already finished forming their battle lines. Conscripted laborers pushed shield carts and battering rams, or simply shouldered straw sacks stuffed full of earth, and under the soldiers' driving, they advanced with heaving, panting breaths.

Compared with the Shun troops that had been attacking the north city continuously for three days, the Shun troops attacking the south city were visibly far more orderly, and their rate of armor-wearing was higher by more than ten percent. They had the look of an elite force.

Responsible for defending the south city were Zhu Chunjie and Wang Zhou, commanding just under six thousand men of the Hard-Working New Army's Left Division. This division had only been rotated from the front lines at Tianjin Garrison's north city to the south city the previous evening. For the three days before that, the Left Division had held the north city, fighting for three full days and nights. The unit, originally 6,500 strong, had received nearly 500 replacements during those three days of fierce fighting. Now fewer than 6,000 remained — a full 1,000 casualties, of whom more than 500 were killed outright. The losses were truly devastating!

Moreover, the entire division was exhausted to the extreme. Every man wished he could sleep for a day and a night and do absolutely nothing.

But no one expected that after only one night of rotation, they would have to face another bitter battle.

Furthermore, during the fighting at the north city, this Left Guard had received the support of two thousand armored cavalry personally led by Wu Sanfu — a force composed of Zhu Cilang's bodyguard battalion and the Dragon Cavalry Battalion, which had been converted from the Great Han Generals. Although they had little actual combat experience and their training was not particularly thorough, they were at least all big, strong, powerful men, and they had iron armor protecting their bodies. Under Wu Sanfu's command, even when they dismounted and fought on foot, their power was tremendous!

But these two thousand armored cavalry had not rotated to the south city; they had all remained in the north city. Now that the pontoon bridge had been burned, these two thousand iron cavalry could not come to support the south city's defensive battle for quite some time.

The man Zhu Cilang had left in the south city to take charge of the overall situation was Wu Xiang, Guard Commander of the Military Administration Guard under the Marshal's Office of the Army-Fostering Command.

When he learned that a large enemy force had appeared outside the south city, he was holding command at what had originally been the Regional Commander's yamen and was now the Grand Marshal's Office of the Army-Fostering Command.

This place was now the most critical location in all of Tianjin Garrison — even more critical than the Chongzhen Emperor's temporary palace! Because the gold and silver, worth more than four million taels of silver, that Zhu Cilang had brought out of Beijing was now entirely stored here!

Soldiers gather where there is pay. As long as this gold and silver, scraped together from Beijing, was not lost, Zhu Cilang's Hard-Working New Army could be maintained. If troop strength did not increase, this "deposit" of more than four million taels would be enough to support the Hard-Working New Army for more than two years.

Right now he had money, troops, and fighting strength. If this money were lost, what great Ming dynasty could Zhu Cilang still rescue? He would not even have the strength to protect himself.

Therefore, the treasury of the Grand Marshal's Office of the Army-Fostering Command was now jointly administered by three parties: the Military Administration Guard under Wu Xiang's direction, the Military Affairs Office under Fatso Bi Jiucheng (Zhu Cilang's working office), and the Camp Affairs Office under Soy-Sauce Huang and Old-Mi Su.

Among them, the personal guard battalion directly subordinate to the Military Administration Guard was responsible for guarding the treasury; the Military Affairs Office handled auditing and expenditure approval; and the Camp Affairs Office managed the treasury's cashiering and accounts.

And to protect the treasury, Zhu Cilang had also left Wu Xiang all three hundred-plus golden-armored warriors of the Grand Marshal's Office's bodyguard battalion. Added to that was the personal guard battalion under the Military Administration Guard.

At this moment, the combat troops inside the Grand Marshal's Office numbered close to seven hundred.

And in the temporary palace where the Chongzhen Emperor resided — that is, inside the Tianjin Governor's yamen — there were also more than three hundred personal guards from a battalion Zhu Cilang had dispatched.

In addition, the Embroidered Uniform Guard subordinate to the Grand Marshal's Office of the Army-Fostering Command also numbered about one thousand men, all deployed in the south city.

In other words, at this moment inside Tianjin's south city, besides the six thousand Left Division officers and men manning the four walls, there were also three battalions of personal guards and bodyguards plus one Embroidered Uniform Guard — a total force exceeding eight thousand men.

With eight thousand men in hand, and with the walls of Tianjin Garrison as well, Wu Xiang was still quite composed when he heard the news that the pontoon bridge had been burned and that the Shun army was about to assault the city.

He immediately mustered two banners of golden-armored bodyguards, donned his own full armor, and, surrounded by a dozen or so old household retainers roughly his own age, rode out of the Grand Marshal's Office in grand style, preparing to go up onto the wall in person to oversee the battle.

But he had not gone far from the Grand Marshal's Office — had only just turned a street corner — when one of the old household retainers following Wu Xiang suddenly cried out in alarm.

"Roving bandits! The roving bandits have entered the city!"

Wu Xiang, sitting calmly and composedly on horseback, was startled at these words. When he fixed his gaze forward, every hair on his body stood on end. Had it not been for the steadiness built up over half a lifetime of soldiering, the old man might well have toppled from his horse.

Roving bandits... the roving bandits' main camp has already entered the city! How is this possible?!

Several hundred, nearly a thousand men — all in blue clothes and white caps, every one of them gripping a sharp blade, looking like ferocious demons — were right in front of Wu Xiang.

This made Wu Xiang's old heart tremble with fright! There must be traitors inside Tianjin Garrison again! They had let the roving bandits' main camp right in!

What was to be done now!

(End of Chapter)