Chapter 250: Whoever Opposes Us Is a Eunuch-Faction Traitor!

The scattered cracks of matchlock fire and the shouts of battle had already merged into a single roar. The rolling banner-lines of the Hard-Working New Army, rank after rank, surged forward like wave upon wave, crashing savagely against the Nanjing Capital Camps' defensive line holding three sides of the Great Sacrificial Altar.

The Nanjing troops who had just been blazing away wildly could no longer get off a single shot; every muzzle now firing belonged to the Hard-Working New Army.

The reason the Nanjing troops could not fire was that matchlocks of this era could not manage sustained volleys. The Japanese matchlocks used by the New Army were of comparatively fine make, and even they could only withstand five successive shots. The Nanjing troops' matchlocks were nowhere near as good — after three shots at most, they had to wait for the barrels to cool before they could reload.

Their earlier wild firing had produced their present inability to fire.

Yet the soldiers of the Hard-Working New Army, seething with killing intent and shouting slogans that shook the heavens, each held a loaded matchlock in hand! How could these Nanjing troops, stripped of their main firepower, possibly hold them off?

And the New Army's musketeers fought in a manner that truly defied expectation. They did not fire in volleys, because the enemy lay behind half-collapsed earthen walls and made poor targets. So they simply pressed forward through the feeble, wildly shot arrows and launched a direct bayonet charge!

Charging into hand-to-hand combat with loaded matchlocks and fixed bayonets!

In this age, there was surely no tactic more terrifying than this!

Who would dare meet them? How long were your sword and spear? Before you could reach them, they would blast you down with a single shot... A few blind fools — likely death-sworn men kept at great expense by Zhu Guobi — rushed out from behind the earthen walls with shields raised and single sabers in hand, and every last one of them, without exception, was shot down like a target.

The remaining weak troops were utterly cowed. How many mace of silver did they draw in pay? Was it worth fighting to the death like this? Besides, they could not win even if they tried. Never mind that the enemy's matchlocks were loaded — even if they were not, they still could not win... That thing fixed to the muzzle, more than three feet long, impossible to tell whether it was a knife or an iron spike, was terrifying just to look at!

Moreover, the Crown Prince's soldiers all wore heavy cloth-faced iron armor that ordinary swords and sabers could not cut through, and that arrows could scarcely pierce. What was more frightening was that, wearing such heavy cloth-faced armor, they still ran so fast — what kind of stamina did that take? Could it be that these men serving the Crown Prince actually got their fill of rice every day? It was truly beyond belief...

It was precisely while the Nanjing Capital Camps troops were marveling at the impossibility of it all that their line was broken. In truth, no very fierce fighting had occurred. That Zhu Guobi's Capital Camps troops had held on until "they broke upon meeting the enemy" was already no small feat — this was, after all, their first encounter with the Hard-Working New Army, and they did not know how formidable it was. Had there been a second time, they would assuredly have fled at the first sight of it!

"They've broken through... I did not expect Zhu Guobi to have some nerve after all — he actually did not flee at the first sight of them... Zhang Wenjue's brigade looks to have made the trip for nothing."

Zhu Cilang's main body had by now pressed forward to within less than three hundred paces of the Great Sacrificial Altar, so he could roughly make out how easily Hao Yaoqi's force, under cover of night, had broken through the Nanjing Capital Camps' defense.

For the battle at the Great Sacrificial Altar, Wu Sanfu, commanding on the front line, had employed the strategy of surrounding three sides and leaving one open. He used three musket brigades — Hao Yaoqi's, Chen Yidao's, and Sun Fugui's — to assault three sides of the altar, leaving only the west side unattacked, but there he had laid an ambush with Zhang Wenjue's brigade of musketeers.

In addition, Wang Ran and Wang Guoyong each led a cavalry brigade held in reserve, while also standing watch over the battlefield.

"It will not be for nothing," said Wu Xiang, who was following beside Zhu Cilang. A seasoned veteran commander worthy of his reputation, he said to Zhu Cilang with a smile, "Zhu Guobi will surely have abandoned his troops and slipped away quietly on his own... Within the time it takes a stick of incense to burn, Zhang Wenjue's side will certainly open fire."

"So that is how it is!" Zhu Cilang glanced at his father-in-law: worthy of an old hand at fleeing — rich in experience!

Wu Xiang stroked his beard, thought for a moment, and added, "The Great Sacrificial Altar is the easiest target. The Xiaoling Guard will not be so easy to deal with!"

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang asked. "Is Father-in-Law worried that Huang Degong will come down from the mountain?"

"Exactly!" Wu Xiang said. "The Xiaoling Guard, after all, has walls to shelter behind... Although we have six Hongyi cannon, our gunners are not very skilled, and no one knows how long it will take to batter open the walls. If the six thousand men at Linggu Temple choose that moment to charge down, it could be somewhat troublesome."

As Wu Xiang spoke, Zhang Shenyan and Han Zanzhou — the two loyal ministers held under guard by the attendants led by Chen Shifang — both drew a sharp breath at the same time. It seemed the great cause of rallying to the throne still had hope!

"There is no need to worry!" Zhu Cilang said with a smile. "Huang Degong has already come over to Our side!"

What? Huang Degong is a traitor!?

The two loyal ministers' hearts seized at once.

Today's battle to rally to the throne had rested entirely on Huang Degong! If he was a traitor, then the Ming realm would fall into the hands of that unfilial son!

Crack-crack-crack...

Dense gunfire suddenly rang out from the northwest. Wu Sanfu laughed aloud in excitement: "They've opened fire! It should be Zhang Wenjue's brigade firing — that wretch Zhu Guobi has indeed abandoned his men and fled first!"

"Elder Brother... the Great Sacrificial Altar seems — seems to have been taken!"

Duke of Wei Xu Hongji had just arrived at the barbican of Chaoyang Gate in a soft sedan chair. Before he had even climbed up to the gate tower, a Guard Commander of a collateral Xu-family branch who held the gate came rushing up in a panic to report the bad news.

"So — so fast?" Xu Hongji was startled. The last trace of spirit drained from his old face in fright. The old man stared wide-eyed and said, "This — this is far too fast, is it not?"

"It certainly is!" The Guard Commander stamped his foot. "We thought the Marquis of Funing, being a great general from Beijing, could at least hold out for a while. Who would have thought he would prove so worthless..."

"This — what is to be done now?" Xu Hongji had completely lost his composure.

He had deployed twenty thousand men at the Great Sacrificial Altar! And in how short a time had those twenty thousand been smashed? This was simply too formidable, was it not?

"Father, perhaps we should withdraw the troops from the Xiaoling Guard and Mount Zhong into the inner city of Nanjing..." Xu Yunjue suggested from the side. "We can hold the inner city and defend it!"

"No, no — a lone city cannot be defended!" Xu Yongji shook his head repeatedly. "Mount Zhong and the Xiaoling Guard are the gateway and support of Nanjing's inner city. If Mount Zhong and the Xiaoling Guard are lost, the inner city of Nanjing becomes a lone city... How long could it hold out?"

"Indeed, and it is still the middle of the night... It would not be easy for more than ten thousand troops to withdraw through Chaoyang Gate! If the Crown Prince's iron cavalry were to pursue and cut them down, the consequences would be unthinkable."

One of Xu Hongji's staff officers, waving a folding fan, offered this reminder.

"Then what is to be done?" Xu Hongji had no plan left either, and could only continue seeking counsel.

Though this staff officer was a scholar, he did understand something of military affairs, and at once said, "This student believes that we must now hold the Xiaoling Guard city firmly... The Xiaoling Guard city is not like the Great Sacrificial Altar; it has walls to rely upon. And the Crown Prince's troops are all men weary from a long march, and surely cannot sustain a prolonged fight. Right now they are fighting on a single surge of momentum; as it goes on, their vigor will surely flag and then fail.

If the Crown Prince's troops are checked at the Xiaoling Guard, we can sally forth from two directions — Mount Zhong and the Chaoyang Gate barbican — and annihilate the Crown Prince's weary troops in one stroke beneath the walls of the Xiaoling Guard city."

"Good, good — we shall do exactly that!" Xu Hongji said. "Send a man to Linggu Temple to arrange with Ma Shiying and Huang Degong... Have them watch for fire rising from the Chaoyang Gate barbican, and then come down the mountain and strike straight for the Xiaoling Guard city!"

"Yes!"

The Xu-family commander answered, and at once dispatched a son or nephew of the family with two household retainers, riding fast horses straight for Linggu Temple on Mount Zhong.

They went — but they never came back!

After waiting half the day with no one returning, the commander grew impatient and sent another son or nephew with two household retainers. The result was the same: they went and never returned... What was going on? Had they lost their way? Impossible — a native of Nanjing going up Mount Zhong could not lose his way. Or had they run into an ambush laid by the Crown Prince's troops?

At that very moment, an earth-shaking, mountain-trembling roar of cannon fire suddenly erupted from the direction of the Xiaoling Guard!

"That — that is a Hongyi cannon! Hongyi cannon are bombarding the Xiaoling Guard city!"

Someone beside Xu Hongji did know something of firearms, and immediately heard what was wrong.

"The Crown Prince's army has Hongyi cannon?"

"How is that possible... where could he have gotten them?"

"Zheng Zhilong! It must be Zheng Zhilong who presented them to the Crown Prince!"

"What is to be done now? The Xiaoling Guard city cannot withstand Hongyi cannon..."

"This won't do — we must have Huang Degong sally forth! We must also send troops out from Chaoyang Gate at the same time!"