Chapter 115: Whose Reinforcements? (Please Favorite, Please Recommend)

"They've charged up! Old Chen, well done!"

"My Lord, this isn't all Old Chen's doing... mainly something went wrong inside Tianjin Guard City — looks like the common folk have risen up!"

"Haha, this is what they call 'a just cause gains much support, an unjust cause gains little'... Our Shun has justice on its side, so we get plenty of support!"

"My Lord speaks most truly. But since there's a commoners' uprising inside Tianjin Guard City, once we enter the city, will we still be able to..."

The ones discussing justice and injustice were Li Guo and Chen Yongfu. These two were mighty pleased with themselves!

Although the uprising inside Tianjin Guard City had been put down, the disturbance in the city still affected the morale of the defenders on the walls. Once men's hearts wavered, the defense grew shaky, and in the end Chen Yongfu's "Lads' Army" charged up in one rush and stormed the south wall that Zhu Chunjie was personally defending. And even the gunpowder stored in the south gate tower was accidentally set alight — the fire blazed up something fierce!

Li Guo glanced at Chen Yongfu, who seemed about to speak but held back. He understood what the other man wanted to say, and didn't play dumb. With a laugh he said: "What pickings can poor commoners offer? The rich households in the city won't be welcoming the Roving King."

Chen Yongfu smiled and cupped his hands: "With those words from My Lord, this general's brothers can fight with free rein!"

Li Guo smiled and nodded. He was about to say a few more words of encouragement when the rapid sound of hoofbeats reached him. Li Guo turned his head and saw several dispatch riders galloping toward him, coming to a halt beneath Li Guo's great banner.

"My Lord, Young Master Li has sent this humble one to report that the north bank of the Wei River is in urgent danger. The bandit Zhu's Crown Prince has led troops out of the city and has already defeated Tang Tong's force."

"Young Master Li" was Li Yan's nickname, and his subordinates called him that too. Li Yan and Hong Niangzi were in charge of the fighting on the Wei River itself, and that fighting seemed to be going rather smoothly. The Zheng family's sand-boats all seemed to have fled.

So Li Yan and Hong Niangzi had leisure to turn their attention to the fighting on shore, and discovered that Zhu Cilang had actually personally led troops out of the city and defeated Tang Tong.

Li Guo snorted: "That Tang Tong is truly useless! Commander Chen, I leave Tianjin's south city to you. I'm leading my troops across the river to catch the Zhu Crown Prince myself!"

Chen Yongfu said: "Rest easy, My Lord. My troops have already charged onto the wall. Sooner or later we'll take Tianjin's south city."

Li Guo nodded approvingly. He knew Chen Yongfu's ability — since his men had already charged onto the south wall, breaking the city was only a matter of time.

And so Li Guo parted ways with Chen Yongfu and led his 2,000 cavalry toward a canal dock west of Tianjin Guard. Li Yan had left some grain-transport boats there for building a new pontoon bridge, so that the main forces of Li Guo and Chen Yongfu could return to the north bank of the Wei River if necessary.

But building a pontoon bridge took some effort, and when Li Guo arrived at the dock with his troops, the bridge still wasn't finished. While Li Guo waited for the bridge to be completed, Zhu Cilang and Wu Sanfu — fresh from routing a mob of rabble — were not idle either. They left Wang Ran and Wang Qi in command of the two brigades of the Right Division to keep watch on Tang Tong's remnants. Then they turned their forces to attack the man-made earthen mound on the north bank of the Wei River.

Guarding that mound were archers Tang Tong had also sent out — about four or five hundred men. By the time Zhu Cilang and Wu Sanfu arrived with their troops, they had been shooting arrows there all morning. Every man's arms ached, and they had little strength left for another fight.

Wu Sanfu was fierce and bold. The moment he reached the foot of the mound he dismounted, then called up a battalion of long-handled saber men, formed them in a single line, each man gripping a great three-pointed double-edged blade, and launched an uphill assault.

In truth, this man-made earthen mound wasn't very high — at most ten or twenty feet. The archers on top simply couldn't stop the charge of these iron-clad soldiers, who came on like a pack of fiends.

And those archers had no heart to die for the Shun Son of Heaven. Seeing they were no match, they immediately knelt and begged to surrender, switching back to the Great Ming side once more.

The man who brought his troops over in surrender was a short, stocky, solidly built Battalion Commander of the Tang family army, in his twenties, named Yu Shao'an. Wu Sanfu dragged him all the way down from the mound to Zhu Cilang's horse.

Yu Shao'an saw a young man in golden armor smiling as he looked at him, and found it rather strange. Wu Sanfu beside him roared: "This is the Crown Prince — kowtow!"

He's the Crown Prince!?

The Crown Prince of the Great Ming was now wearing helmet and armor, ranging across the battlefield? What was going on?

"You're of official army stock?" Zhu Cilang saw him staring blankly, so he didn't wait for the kowtow and spoke first.

This Yu Shao'an was in fact of Ming army origin — he'd been a Company Commander in the Ming army, and only got promoted after following Tang Tong in defecting to the Shun. Because his defection was so recent, he hadn't even changed out of his mandarin-duck battle jacket, so Zhu Cilang could tell his background at a glance.

"This humble one was originally a Company Commander under the Miyun Regional Commander, and followed that traitor Tang Tong in rebellion..." Yu Shao'an hastily kowtowed. "But this humble one's body is in the Shun camp while his heart remains with the Ming. I've always been looking for a chance to return to the fold — the moment I saw the royal army just now, I surrendered at once."

"Oh..." Zhu Cilang kept his smiling expression. "So you're a loyal subject after all!"

"Yes, yes, this subject is loyal..." Whether Yu Shao'an was truly a loyal subject of the Great Ming only he himself knew, but he certainly had no wish to become a martyr for the Shun.

"Since you are a loyal subject," Zhu Cilang said with a smile, "go do something for Us... persuade Tang Tong to submit! He is now trapped by Our troops in a rampart, with perhaps one or two thousand men left. If he is willing to surrender and return to the fold, his life will be spared, and every man who follows him will get two taels of silver as reward. If he remains obstinate, once We break the rampart, every last man will be beheaded!"

What? Persuade Tang Tong to surrender? Isn't that just walking to my death? Yu Shao'an didn't dare go. Weeping and wailing, he kowtowed and begged for mercy. Zhu Cilang didn't waste words with him — with a wave of his hand he had men drag Yu Shao'an off.

Watching Yu Shao'an being taken away, Wu Sanfu spurred his horse over to Zhu Cilang and said in a low voice: "Thousand Years... we have no boats and can't cross the river! Perhaps we should withdraw to Dagukou for the time being."

"At Dagukou there are several thousand sailors of Su Guansheng's fleet, and most of the nobles and officials who fled the capital on the sixteenth and seventeenth days of the third month are gathered there, with plenty of gold and silver on them..."

On the sixteenth and seventeenth, Zhu Cilang had raised a great deal of gold and silver by selling exit permits. At the same time, the officials and nobles he let go had carried off vast amounts of gold and silver with them.

And most of those people were now gathered at Dagukou, waiting for a favorable wind before they could leave.

If Zhu Cilang lost the silver stored in Tianjin Guard's south city, he would have no choice but to seize their silver.

But if it came to that, Zhu Cilang's "court" would be left looking rather shabby.

"Impossible!" Zhu Cilang shook his head. "My father-in-law, my Imperial Father, and my Imperial Mother are all inside Tianjin Guard's south city. How can We simply abandon them and flee?"

Hearing Zhu Cilang mention Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu was moved for a moment, but then he frowned again: "But the Wei River can't be crossed..."

"Why can't it be crossed?" Zhu Cilang raised his riding crop and pointed at the mound that had just been taken. "Plant Our dragon banner there!

Also, send men to chase down the Shen family sand-boats and order them to return at once!"

"This subject receives the order!" Wu Sanfu accepted the command, but before he could set about carrying it out, several night-scouts came galloping from the north. They found Zhu Cilang's army command banner, rode up near Zhu Cilang, and were stopped by Chen Yidao.

Chen Yidao went forward to question them, then spurred his horse back to Zhu Cilang and Wu Sanfu. "Reporting to Thousand Years: the night-scouts have spotted a body of cavalry approaching from the northeast, numbering over a thousand riders."

"Northeast?"

"Over a thousand riders?"

Zhu Cilang and Wu Sanfu exchanged a glance.

"Do we know whose cavalry?" Zhu Cilang asked.

"Not yet clear."

Wu Sanfu said: "Could it be reinforcements for the roving bandits?"

Zhu Cilang shook his head: "When will they reach us?"

Chen Yidao answered: "According to the night-scouts, at the earliest an hour and a half."

Zhu Cilang's brow knotted. If reinforcements for the Roving Bandit really were coming, then he would have no choice but to let down his Imperial Father and Imperial Mother. Filial son though he was, he also bore the glorious mission of restoring the Great Ming — entrusted to him by Zhu Yuanzhang. And the Exalted Emperor, Grand Progenitor, outranked the Chongzhen Emperor...

At that thought, Zhu Cilang gritted his teeth and said to Wu Sanfu: "Take the cavalry and press Tang Tong — see if you can pull him over. If you can, set an ambush at the rampart where Tang Tong is holed up. If what's coming is roving-bandit reinforcements, they'll seek out Tang Tong first."

"A brilliant plan, Crown Prince! This subject will carry it out at once!"

"Also, send orders to Cao Youyi: have him bring the men and the silver out of the north city and rendezvous with Us."

(End of Chapter)