Chapter 116: The Death of Tang Tong (Please Favorite, Please Recommend)

By the banks of the Wei River, a brand-new pontoon bridge had already taken shape across the broad water. On each of the forcibly commandeered grain barges stood one or two of Li Yan's and Hong Niangzi's men. Under their direction, the boatmen lined the barges up side by side on the water, lashed them together with ropes, then laid long planks over them to fix the barges in place — and so a simple pontoon bridge was made. Above and below the bridge, the boatmen bustled about in a frenzy, while the blue-coated, white-capped soldiers of the Shun's Heavenly Host barked curses from time to time, urging the work on faster.

The pontoon bridge was already passable, if barely. A mounted scout of the Shun army picked his way across on horseback, reached the south bank, and found Li Guo sitting beneath his great command banner with his eyes closed in rest.

"Reporting to the Marquis: a body of cavalry has appeared to the northwest, more than a thousand strong. We do not know whose men they are."

"You don't know whose men they are?" asked a burly, curly-bearded man standing beside Li Guo. "Did they not fly any banner?"

"No banner was seen."

The curly-bearded man turned his head and said to Li Guo, "Brother, could it be reinforcements for the Zhu traitor?"

"Perhaps." Li Guo narrowed his eyes. "There's still no word of the Zhu traitor's Guanning Army at Yongping submitting, is there?"

"Today's field report said nothing of it." The curly-bearded man was named Li You, Li Guo's brother and his second-in-command. "But with Xin Sizhong and Luo Hu leading troops to watch them, the Zhu traitors at Yongping shouldn't be able to pull out a large force to march south."

"Naturally," Li Guo said with a smile. "If it were a large force, they wouldn't be hiding their movements like this, not even daring to fly a banner... Still, they may not be the Wu family's troops either. Perhaps they're local strongmen from nearby, or Zhu-traitor officers and men who want to submit to us."

"Elder Brother is right. Plenty of good men have come over to us these days."

Li Guo thought for a moment, then added: "At most it's a thousand men — nothing to fear. Wu Sangui's Yi Ding cavalry is about that good, and no more. Could the Zhu traitor have any finer elite troops than that?"

"Of course not." Li You laughed heartily.

Just then, one of Li Yan's subordinate officers came up at a quick pace and reported: "Reporting to the Marquis, the pontoon bridge is firmly secured."

"Good!" Li Guo clapped his hands, rose to his feet, and said, "Pass the order: cross the river. Link up with Tang Tong first, then together we go and seize the Zhu traitor's Crown Prince!"

His personal guards around him roared their assent.

...

The mournful sound of a horn rose and echoed around the rampart where Tang Tong was entrenched. This kind of horn was not something commonly used in the Ming army; it was what the various barbarians beyond the passes and north of the frontier were accustomed to using. The Guanning Army dealt with them often and had also hired many barbarian warriors as household retainers. That was why they possessed such horns.

A tall, white-haired old man sat on horseback at that moment, blowing the horn slowly and with force. The low, mournful wail carried over the rampart built of straw sacks and reached the ears of every officer and soldier of the Tang family's force.

South of the rampart, with their backs to the north gate of Tianjin's northern wall, a large body of armored cavalry had dismounted and was forming up for attack on ground that had drunk its fill of water and turned somewhat muddy underfoot.

The Tang family's soldiers, bracing themselves against the straw sacks and mantlets as they peered out, trembled with fear at the sight of those iron-tower giants.

These Yi Ding cavalrymen had not exactly covered themselves in glory atop the north gate tower of Tianjin. But now, drawn up in battle formation, they were a chilling sight indeed!

Look at their formation, their sheer bulk, their bearing... the way they held their long-hafted sabers and spears — they looked just like the door gods in paintings!

It seemed the Yi Ding cavalry were formidable after all. They must have held back on the city wall — they had been deceiving Regional Commander Tang Tong...

Tang Tong was watching too, his face pale with fright, though he struggled to put on a brave front.

"Heh, they look impressive enough — almost a match for the Great Han Generals. But what use is that? The Shun has already won the realm. This Wu Sangui still clings in foolish loyalty to the Zhu traitor, trying to stop a chariot with a mantis's arm. Utterly laughable..."

Just as he was bolstering his own courage, Yu Shao'an — that loyal subject whose body was in the Shun camp but whose heart remained with the Ming — came running over with a white flag raised, steeling himself, howling at the top of his lungs as he ran.

"I am Yu Shao'an, commander of the archery battalion, Yu Shao'an..."

"Commander, it looks like Yu Shao'an has been caught by the Zhu traitor!"

"He's probably come to urge surrender. Should we let him through?"

Someone beside Tang Tong said.

"Let him come," Tang Tong said with a smile. "Stalling for a moment suits us fine."

With those words, Yu Shao'an soon came scrambling and crawling into the rampart. After meeting Tang Tong, he said nothing, but first knelt in the mud and kowtowed like a pestle pounding garlic.

"Commander, this small one is guilty. This small one got the brothers of the archery battalion wiped out, and was taken alive by the Zhu traitor... This small one has failed your honored nurturing!"

"Wiped out?" Tang Tong frowned, thinking: Could it be they didn't surrender after all?

"Yes, all gone..." Yu Shao'an burst into loud weeping. "The Zhu traitor's long-saber troops were too ferocious. Every one of them wore heavy armor, impervious to blade and spear. The brothers of the archery battalion fought with all their might but could not hold them off — they were all cut down."

What? All cut down! That ferocious?

The officers and household retainers around Tang Tong all drew sharp, cold breaths.

These Yi Ding cavalrymen truly were savage!

"All dead?" Tang Tong's face turned ashen. "Several hundred men, all dead?"

"All hacked to pieces, every one of them dead without a whole corpse!"

Dead without a whole corpse...

Yu Shao'an wept with a grief beyond measure, tears and snot streaming, and said: "It was Liaodong Regional Commander Wu Sangui himself who led the charge. That Wu Sangui is more vicious than the Tartars — he kills without blinking. When this small one fell into his hands, I was to be hacked to pieces too. Fortunately, His Highness the Thousand Years showed mercy and spared my life, and sent this small one to urge the Commander to turn back to the righteous side. As long as the Commander is willing to turn, every brother who follows the Commander will get a reward of two taels of silver..."

"Hmph!" Tang Tong snorted coldly, cutting off Yu Shao'an. "His family's realm is already lost. Who the hell would keep following him? Following the Zhu family is a dead end!"

"Commander, those words are wrong!" Right beside Tang Tong, someone actually raised his voice in open dissent.

"Who said that?" Tang Tong's gaze swept around and he spotted the speaker — it was his own clansman, Tang Laosi.

"Laosi, what nonsense are you spouting?" Tang Tong glared at Tang Laosi.

"Who's spouting nonsense — the brothers all know perfectly well!" Tang Laosi snorted. "What kind of life did we have when we followed the Zhu family, and what kind of goddamn life do we have now following the Li family? Never mind silver — we haven't seen so much as a copper coin! How many brothers have died these past days attacking the north wall of Tianjin? Has anyone seen a single coin of compensation? If we keep fighting like this, every last one of us brothers is going to die out... Could it be that in the end you'll be the only one left, off to be Li Zicheng's goddamn founding hero?"

"Men! Seize him!" Tang Tong roared. Several of his household retainers drew their weapons and moved forward to make the arrest. But Tang Laosi was not alone — many fierce soldiers of the Tang family's army likewise bared their blades and stepped forward to meet them!

An internal fight was about to break out.

Seeing this, Yu Shao'an hastily opened his throat and shouted: "We're all brothers here — don't wound the harmony! Right now the Zhu family, the Li family, the Zhang family, and the Tartars beyond the passes are all contending for the realm. Fine fellows like us need not fear lacking a chance to win wealth and rank! If the Li family doesn't cherish us, why should we sell our lives for them? As long as we have blades in our hands, wherever we go we'll eat well and drink well! We're all brothers — why draw blades over whom to follow?"

Tang Laosi picked up where he left off: "Those willing to follow Laosi back to the righteous Ming are Laosi's brothers. From now on, hardship shared, fortune shared! Those willing to follow Commander Tang to the Shun — Laosi won't stop you. There are horses in the rampart; mount up and go."

Go?

Tang Tong's face was iron-blue. Could he flee like that? Without his strength, and without having completed the task Li Guo had assigned him, what would he slink back to Beijing for? They had already prepared five thousand sets of ankle-press torture boards for him...

But he didn't dare turn back to the Ming either! The Ming had fallen to its present state precisely because he had betrayed them at Juyong Pass. And what was more, he had taken forty thousand taels of silver from Chongzhen and then gone over to the enemy!

If he went back and fell into the hands of the Chongzhen Emperor, wouldn't he be executed by slow slicing?

"Commander, Laosi speaks reason. We're all brothers — don't wound the harmony..."

The speaker was one of Tang Tong's trusted household retainers. He had originally set out to seize Tang Laosi, but now he stood at Tang Laosi's side!

"You—" Tang Tong flew into a rage. He raised his waist saber and made to lunge forward and cut the man down, when a violent pain suddenly shot through his back. He looked down and saw that a bloodied blade-tip had somehow emerged from his own chest!

(End of Chapter)