Chapter 249: Where Has Ma Shiying Gone? (Monthly Tickets Reached 4,200 — Bonus Chapter)

The Great Sacrifice Altar.

The cheering of the three armies drifted over from the east bank of the Qinhuai River. The light of torches, too, began to flicker and move about.

Zhu Guobi, the Marquis of Funing, stood at the window of a two-story building facing east, dressed in a loose scholar's robe, holding a telescope motionless as he watched the east bank of the Qinhuai.

The ten or twenty thousand Nanjing Capital Camps troops stationed at the Great Sacrifice Altar were now under Zhu Guobi's command. Among the ennobled families of Nanjing, he counted as one of the more capable in battle; earlier he had joined Lu Zhenfei in reorganizing the grain-transport troops at Huai'an Prefecture. He had also gathered several hundred household retainers for himself, and along the way had quietly pocketed two hundred thousand taels of silver meant to be shipped to Dengzhou.

And it was precisely because of those two hundred thousand taels that he had fallen step by step to his present state — otherwise, he might have gone with Lu Zhenfei to become a hero of the national salvation.

But after learning how Zhu Cilang had "forced donations" in Beijing and reorganized the guard stations in Dengzhou and Laizhou, he felt that a corrupt official as big as himself would certainly come to no good end if he fell into the Crown Prince's hands.

So he had fled to Nanjing and thrown in with Xu Hongji and Huang Shu in the cause of rallying to the throne. Until this afternoon, the cause had looked rather promising. He had been well employed, commanding troops stationed at the Great Sacrifice Altar. If the armed remonstrance succeeded and the Crown Prince surrendered power, he would unquestionably be a great hero in the eyes of the Chongzhen Emperor. His past corruption would no longer matter, and he might even be able to embezzle a bit more.

But the moment Zhu Cilang's great army entered Qilin Gate, the situation had changed beyond all expectation!

This Crown Prince did not go to the Xiao Mausoleum to pay respects to his ancestors, nor to the imperial city at Chaoyang Gate. Instead he encamped east of the Qinhuai River, and sent out large detachments of armored cavalry to seize the bridges, patrol the riverbanks, and drive away idlers... Was he deploying for battle?

When Zhu Guobi received his subordinates' report, he was thrown into a panic at once. He had no mind for drinking or listening to songs; he grabbed a telescope and found a high place to observe. And then he heard the cheering of the Hard-Working New Army...

"My lord, what are they shouting?"

A woman came up from downstairs. She was about eighteen or nineteen, dressed in a long white Suzhou-embroidered satin skirt, her bearing graceful and extremely alluring. Her bosom was full and quite remarkable; she had an oval face, willow-leaf eyebrows, and a pair of large, glistening eyes that rippled with autumn waves, appearing charming and seductive. The moment the beauty appeared, she drew Zhu Guobi's attention.

He lowered the telescope and turned to look at his beloved beauty, then sighed: "Baimen, go... I have placed three hundred taels of gold with Dou'er; it will last you for a while. You and she should go back to Chaoku Street and take shelter for now."

At this sorrowful point, tears came to Zhu Guobi's eyes.

This woman was his beloved concubine, named Kou Baimen, one of the Eight Beauties of Qinhuai — one of the Eight Beauties.

Seeing Zhu Guobi weeping in grief, Kou Baimen was somewhat puzzled. "Why is my lord like this? Just this afternoon my lord told me that once this rally to the throne succeeded, he could enjoy wealth and rank forever in Jiangnan..."

Zhu Guobi only shook his head: "Say no more. If I can escape this deadly calamity, I will come to Chaoku Street to find you. If I cannot... then find a good family and marry. Only remember — do not enter a marquis's household again."

Kou Baimen looked at Zhu Guobi's frightened and uneasy appearance, gave a soft sigh, and performed a blessing curtsey: "This slave will surely wait for my lord on Chaoku Street."

With that, she turned and left.

Zhu Guobi watched her go downstairs, then turned his gaze once more toward the Qinhuai River to the east. He simply stared blankly, doing nothing, not knowing what to do.

By now all the bridges over the Qinhuai were controlled by the Crown Prince's new army. Nothing could stop them from hurling themselves at the nearly undefended Great Sacrifice Altar.

To say the Great Sacrifice Altar was undefended was because the place had long fallen into disrepair; the earthen walls on all sides had half collapsed, and few of the buildings within were intact, making it very difficult to fortify.

Moreover, Zhu Guobi did not dare set up defenses outside the Great Sacrifice Altar. It was nighttime, after all... if he let that rabble out, they might well scatter and vanish!

Now he could only hold out for a while here at the Great Sacrifice Altar. If he could hold until Huang Degong committed his troops, perhaps he might escape this calamity.

"Fix bayonets! Fix bayonets... unless the enemy is within five paces, none of you bastards fire!"

The booming voice of Hao Yaoqi, commander of the First Brigade of the Hard-Working New Army's infantry, rang ceaselessly in the ears of more than a thousand musketeers. In truth, he did not need to remind them; these veterans of roving-bandit origin already knew what to do.

They were Heaven's soldiers who had defeated the Tartars! Later, when Zhu Cilang reorganized the new army again, he had deliberately granted them the designation of the First Brigade, to honor their valor!

How could such "Heaven's soldiers" fire wildly on the battlefield? Moreover, through several months of strict training and the recent real combat at Zhenjiang, these "Heaven's soldiers" all knew the advantage of firing at close range.

In their view, what they now held in their hands was not a musket at all, but a spear that could fire deadly shot — firing one round before closing to hand-to-hand combat, that was the correct way to use a musket!

Moreover, in the Battle of Zhenjiang they had discovered a new fact: their enemies were utterly terrified of a musket with bayonet fixed and loaded but not yet fired! Household retainers of ordinary quality, seeing the Hard-Working New Army's musketeers charging at them, would flee in panic, without even the courage to engage...

Fighting hand-to-hand with a broadsword against a bayonet-fixed rifle is the stuff of storytellers! Did they really think the other side would not fire? One shot at a few paces' distance — was that not just standing there waiting to die?

So Hao Yaoqi now had to hold his men back, keep them from firing, and have them charge just like that with muskets leveled, killing their way right up to the enemy's face.

Bang bang bang...

The sound of muskets firing rang out beyond the east, south, and north walls of the Great Sacrifice Altar!

It was not the attacking Hard-Working New Army firing, but the defending Nanjing Capital Camps troops' muskets going off. Wild firing, of course!

In the pitch dark, no one knew where the enemy was. All they heard was the Hard-Working New Army's cry of "Ten thousand victories! Ten thousand victories!" growing louder and louder. So the Nanjing Capital Camps musketeers guarding the collapsed earthen walls could not help but open fire.

With the roar of muskets, casualties inevitably followed!

They did not hit the enemy; instead there were multiple barrel-burst accidents! Heart-rending screams rang out all along the three fronts — east, south, and north — of the Great Sacrifice Altar.

The officers commanding the Nanjing Capital Camps had almost none of them ever been to the front, and ordinarily did not train their troops much — they were all "Nth-generation" picks from the guard stations, serving in the Nanjing Capital Camps to earn a living. They had taken Xu Hongji's silver and followed the rally to the throne, thinking they were only there to make noise. Who knew it would come to real fighting!

Oh, actually it had not come to real fighting yet — not one musket of the Hard-Working New Army had fired!

All the casualties the Nanjing Capital Camps had suffered so far were caused by bursting barrels!

In these times, even muskets supplied to the frontier armies burst; could the muskets given to the Nanjing Capital Camps be any good? And these Nanjing Capital Camps musketeers were unskilled, with no fixed powder charges; many of them loaded powder without any sense of measure, sometimes too much, sometimes too little. Too little and the shot fell short; too much and of course the barrel burst.

So without the Hard-Working New Army firing a single shot, Zhu Guobi's men had already suffered considerable casualties...

And the sound of gunfire from the Great Sacrifice Altar carried far in the quiet night; by the time it reached Linggu Temple, one could still faintly hear a little of it.

"Commander Huang, it seems the fighting has started!"

By now Ma Shiying had appeared before Huang Degong in full military dress. Huang Degong looked at the Governor-General of Fengyang's attire and inwardly felt great admiration.

Was he going to take the field personally to rally to the throne? A true loyal minister!

Huang Degong frowned and said: "It seems it has started. Governor-General, should we commit our troops?"

Ma Shiying shook his head. "Not yet... The Duke of Wei is the supreme commander. Without his order, we cannot move. But we must be prepared."

"How should we prepare?" Huang Degong asked.

"First, deploy the formation. My Guizhou troops are skilled at marching in mountainous terrain and can take the vanguard; have them form up outside the temple gate."

"Very well." Huang Degong nodded lightly. Ma Shiying was his superior, and also held Chongzhen's "handkerchief edict," so of course he had to obey.

Ma Shiying then produced a blank memorial and handed it to Huang Degong. "We must also jointly submit a memorial to His Majesty, explaining why we raised troops... I will write the memorial myself; you sign your name first."

"Good! I am entirely at the Governor-General's command."