Chapter 111: More Crafty Commoners Are Trying to Harm Us Again (Extra Chapter — Please Recommend)

Seeing the streets full of blue-clad, white-capped "righteous soldiers" holding sharp blades, the first thing the Chongzhen Emperor of the Great Ming thought of was actually his unfilial and rebellious son, Zhu Cilang.

Unfilial son! Come save Us quickly! There are more crafty commoners trying to harm Us again...

Unfortunately, that unfilial son couldn't come now even if he wanted to! The pontoon bridge over the Wei River had been burned, and the honest merchant Shen Tingyang's sand boats were also racing away, slipping downstream along the Wei River, with the sails of quite a few boats even set on fire.

"Your Majesty, do not panic! This subject has come to rescue you!"

Just when Chongzhen was calling for his son with no response, the legendary loyal subject finally appeared. The Chongzhen Emperor looked in the direction of the voice and saw a man in full armor, leaning on a long spear, running over panting heavily. The Chongzhen Emperor took a careful look, and his heart went half cold — this loyal subject was actually Duke of Cheng, Zhu Chunchen.

The Duke of Cheng certainly couldn't fight, but after all, he was wholeheartedly loyal. So the Chongzhen Emperor felt he shouldn't dampen a loyal subject's enthusiasm, and thus nodded heavily at Zhu Chunchen and loudly praised him: "The Duke of Cheng is indeed loyal and brave! We command you to engage the bandits at once. We shall stand inside the gate of the temporary palace to steady the line for you!"

What? Engage the bandits?! Doesn't "rescuing the sovereign" mean escorting the Emperor inside the temporary palace to take shelter? How did it turn into engaging the bandits with Chongzhen... Did he not even look at whether this great loyal subject Zhu could fight?

When Zhu Chunchen heard Chongzhen's decree, stars burst before his eyes. How could this Emperor be so different from the Thousand Years? The Thousand Years might be cunning and ruthless, but he genuinely considered the people below him, and wouldn't casually send people on suicide missions.

But by now the Chongzhen Emperor no longer had real power, and Zhu Chunchen wasn't very afraid of him, so he stopped in his tracks, unwilling to go to his death. Yet at this moment, the several civil officials who had come out with Chongzhen began to stir things up.

"Duke of Cheng, you are a Commander, and a hereditary noble who has received imperial favor for generations. Now that matters are urgent, this is exactly the time for you to show your loyalty to the nation. What are you hesitating for?"

"Duke of Cheng, if you fight the bandits with all your might for His Majesty today, you will surely go down in history and be revered by later generations of the Great Ming. This humble official will certainly report to His Highness the Crown Prince and request merit for you!"

"The Duke is loyal and brave, unmatched in the world. This humble official admires you beyond measure, and will now compose a poem to send the Duke off in glory..."

Well now, they've even started composing poetry.

Spurred on by them, Zhu Chunchen had no choice. He was a Commander, a Duke, the foremost of the meritorious nobles — he had to save face.

So he could only grit his teeth and roar: "Those of you not afraid to die, follow me, damn it! The time has come to repay the court!"

Whether inspired by his loyalty and righteousness, or afraid of Zhu Cilang settling accounts later, the banner commander guarding the gate of the temporary palace — Qin Mingtao, a military jinshi of the sixteenth year of Chongzhen — also roared, and with a long-handled saber in hand, called his banner's brothers forward.

"My Lord Duke, together with Qin, let us hold the palace gate!" The man surnamed Qin was clearly a better fighter than Zhu Chunchen — his martial skill went without saying; how could a military jinshi be lacking? And he also understood something of battle formations. He immediately called the eighty armored soldiers under his command to form a saber-and-spear formation, blocking the gate of the temporary palace.

The banner of soldiers led by Qin Mingtao also belonged to Zhu Cilang's guard battalion, so they had golden armor (all armor of the Han generals) for protection. As for their weapons, they were mainly long spears. When fighting dismounted, three of the four squads in a banner carried long spears, and one squad carried saber and shield. They had no ranged weapons such as bows or firelocks.

The reason for this was, first, that bows were not easy to store for long periods, so most of the bows in the armories of the Capital Camps, the Purified Army, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard were rotten and unusable. Second, because Zhu Cilang's guard battalion had many showpieces and few with real skill, giving them bows would have been useless anyway.

However, the old camp soldiers of the Shun army who had rushed outside Chongzhen's temporary palace didn't seem to have many bows either, and their weapons were even inferior to those of Qin Mingtao's men. Not only did they lack armor, they had hardly any shields, and most of them had only a short weapon — not even a few long spears.

With equipment like this, how did they fight their way into the Tianjin garrison?

At this moment, Juren Fan and Juren Zhang also saw the wedge formation formed by the eighty-plus armored soldiers at the gate of the Governor's yamen. And the two men also saw the yellow dragon banner raised high inside the gate, and faintly made out a group of old men in official robes surrounding a tall man in golden armor, right behind those eighty-plus armored soldiers.

From the look of it, that tall man was the Chongzhen Emperor? Protected by fewer than a hundred armored soldiers?

Haha, an unprecedented achievement!

"That is the fatuous ruler of the Zhu family!" Juren Fan's voice rang like a bronze bell, as he pointed his long spear at Chongzhen from afar. "All of you who want merit, charge with me!"

That was Chongzhen!

A gang of Tianjin garrison idlers and ruffians who longed for and welcomed the Roving King, along with the household slaves of the Zhang and Fan families, all grew excited. Each gripping their weapons, they shouted and surged toward the main gate of the Governor's yamen.

Qin Mingtao watched the chaotic "Shun soldiers" and his doubts deepened. These people looked wrong — clearly a motley mob. At that thought, he too let out a great roar: "Fifth Banner of the Guard Battalion, kill the bandits with me — charge!"

Charge?

Zhu Chunchen's heart jolted in alarm. There were so many roving bandits, and fewer than a hundred on their own side, yet they were going to charge... Could it be that today he truly would become a martyr?

Naturally, he did not want to die, but helplessly, Qin Mingtao had dragged him into the front row of the wedge formation. The moment Qin Mingtao gave the order, someone pushed Zhu Chunchen forward.

The great loyal subject Zhu had no choice but to level his long spear, grip it tightly, and charge forward with his head down.

So a long spear was meant to be leveled...

When the long spear in Zhu Chunchen's hand thrust toward Juren Fan's body, the juren finally realized his own spear-holding posture was wrong — Zhu Chunchen was a Commander after all, and still knew how to use a long spear. But Juren Fan was a proper scholar, who only knew how to use a brush, not a spear.

Yet the genes left by his ancestors still came into play. Juren Fan's reactions on the battlefield were a bit faster than an ordinary person's. Seeing the long spear thrust at him, he had no time to dodge, so he conveniently grabbed a ruffian who had been egging things on beside him and shoved him onto the tip of Zhu Chunchen's long spear. With a muffled squelch, the ruffian didn't even have time to scream before the spear pierced through his body. The head of Zhu Chunchen's long spear was fitted with a red tassel, and blood flowed along the red tassel, dripping onto the ground and staining a large patch red.

The ruffian's corpse then fell backward, and the spear tip was pulled out from between his chest and abdomen, bringing out a spray of blood...

Miserable screams rang out immediately after. The "righteous soldiers" pierced by long spears were not just this one ruffian. Some had avoided vital spots and did not die at once, merely rolling and wailing in pools of blood.

Juren Fan and Juren Zhang were also startled by the sudden death and injury. But very quickly, the desire for unprecedented merit overcame their fear.

The enemy had only a few dozen men, while their own side had over a thousand — how could they fail to win?

"Kill all these armored soldiers, and capture the fatuous ruler alive!"

Juren Fan shouted at length, also leveled his long spear, and lunged at Zhu Chunchen, who had just killed a man.

Spurred on by him, the other "righteous soldiers" also temporarily forgot the danger. Every man brandished blade and spear, howling strangely as they charged forward.

The main gate of the Tianjin Governor's yamen instantly became a bloody mill of flesh and bone!

...

"Thousand Years, Thousand Years... the roving bandits have broken into the south city!"

Zhu Cilang, who was running a fever and sleeping in a daze, only felt his body being shaken from side to side, while a thunderous voice bellowed in his ear.

"What? What happened?" He jolted awake, sat up from a soft wooden bed, and saw his newly appointed head guard Chen Yidao and Wu Sanmei right in front of him. Both their faces were filled with expressions of terror and urgency!

"Thousand Years," Chen Yidao said loudly, "the roving bandits used fire ships to burn the pontoon bridge, drove away the sand boats on the Wei River, and are also fiercely attacking the south city of Tianjin with heavy troops. Moreover... moreover, fire has risen within the south city of Tianjin, and shouts of killing can be heard! The roving bandits — the roving bandits seem to have broken into the south city!"

"What..." When Zhu Cilang heard this, he let out a great roar, his body trembling, drenched in sweat. His temperature dropped at once, and that dazed feeling vanished without a trace.

(End of Chapter)