Chapter 279: What Are We Fighting For?

Beneath the black canopy of night, raging flames blazed within the two great camps of Wu's army. Xiao Hu'er, a battalion commander of the Shun army's Children's Battalion, supported a wounded comrade as he once again withdrew from the wagon fort that Wu's troops were stubbornly holding. This wagon fort lay at the center of Wu's Second Camp, Jia Unit — in truth it was simply a ring of the great wagons used to haul grain, armor, and equipment, drawn into a circle to protect the core of the Second Camp, Jia Unit. It was nothing more than a crude field work, hardly solid at all. Yet the Guanning Army soldiers under Wu Sangui defending it held with the utmost determination, beating back four fierce assaults by the Shun army in succession. Before the wagon fort, the corpses of soldiers from both sides lay piled in layers beyond counting!

The brigade Xiao Hu belonged to (the Shun army's organization was roughly battalion, brigade, section, and squad, four levels) had taken part in three of the fierce assaults. The first two times they had been driven back by enemy fire from arquebuses and bows. On the third assault, because the enemy's arquebuses had all grown too hot from firing and could no longer function, the fighting came to hand-to-hand combat with cold steel. The battle was extraordinarily fierce. The Shun army's soldiers at one point broke into the wagon fort and charged all the way to the enemy's central command tent. But they were defeated after an iron-tower-like Wu army general personally led several dozen armored guards in a counterattack.

A counterattack by merely a few dozen Ming armored warriors had routed several hundred soldiers of the Children's Battalion! If such a thing had happened at the start of the year, while the Shun army was marching on Beijing, it would have been utterly inconceivable.

But now, it was nothing remarkable. Because a rebel army like the Shun had never had much depth to begin with. In equipment, training, and logistics they were all barely adequate — what they relied on was sheer drive to conquer the realm and rule it. When victory was in sight, of course every man fought bravely and nothing could stop them. But once everyone realized that conquering the realm did not mean getting a share in ruling it, their drive, their dash, their desperate effort vanished in an instant without a trace.

The Children's Battalion that Xiao Hu'er belonged to still counted as having relatively high morale among the Shun army's battalions. After all, many of the Children's Battalion's soldiers were orphans with no one to rely on who had joined the army, and had long since come to regard the Shun dynasty as their home and Li Zicheng as their father. Even if they suffered grievances, they could not abandon their home or their father.

But when Xiao Hu'er and the others met the refugees fleeing from the Beijing area beneath the Great Wall at Guguan, and learned how the accursed Tartars were rewarding their own people, they all felt bitter inside — look at how those people were ruling the realm! They were distributing land, distributing houses — everything within three hundred li of Beijing had been given away.

Yet on their own side, after risking their lives to help His Majesty win the realm, all they had gotten in the end was ten taels of silver. After retreating to Shanxi, His Majesty was just as stingy as ever, simply letting everyone keep soldiering for their rations.

It seemed His Majesty had never treated the brothers as his children, only as men selling their lives for one tael of silver a month in pay.

In that case, everyone might as well take it easy — doing right by that one tael of silver was enough.

Probably the fighting spirit propped up by one tael of silver was nearly spent, for this wave of retreat was far more violent than the previous two. They fell back three or four hundred paces without being able to stop, and nearly got chased out of the camp by the enemy. In the end it was Luo Hu, supervising the battle, who turned ruthless, beheading several battalion and squad commanders who had fled the field, and only then barely stemming the collapse.

Xiao Hu'er too was brought over by one of Luo Hu's personal guards. Having fought through three engagements, and having earlier supported a comrade all the way back from the front line, he was badly spent. He came to a stop before Luo Hu, panted for a while, then said hoarsely, "Big Brother, what do we do?"

Xiao Hu'er had lost both parents and had been brought into the Shun army by Luo Hu, so he had taken Luo's surname as well, becoming Luo Xiaohu, and called Luo Hu "Big Brother."

Luo Hu looked at his little brother, whose face and head were covered in sweat, blood, and the grime of smoke and fire, and felt a pang of pity in his heart — everyone was fighting so desperately, yet what had they gotten for it?

He drew a deep breath of air thick with the smell of gunpowder and coughed once. "Xiao Hu, you take command of the brigade. Lead the brothers in one more charge!"

The previous Mobile Corps Commander had just been relieved of his post by Luo Hu because of the three defeats.

Xiao Hu turned to look at the blazing, fire-lit front line, stared blankly for a moment, then said, "Big Brother, three charges have failed. The initiative is already lost."

Tonight had been a surprise attack from the start — the whole point was to win by the unexpected. In the three charges just now, if they had been willing to pay twenty or thirty percent losses, or even more, they could have broken through. But everyone had fallen just short of that final push!

Now that Wu's army had reacted, what chance was left?

"Attack once more!" Luo Hu roared. He truly could not accept this!

Under Luo Hu's ferocious glare, Xiao Hu'er had no choice but to call over his squad commanders to round up the scattered brothers, reorganize them, and prepare to launch another assault.

And just at that moment, a mountain-shaking, sea-roaring tide of battle cries and hoofbeats suddenly came from outside Wu's main camp. Luo Hu had also placed a brigade outside the main camp, personally commanded by Vice Regional Commander Chen Chuan, tasked with cutting off Wu's Second Camp, Jia Unit, from the other Wu army camps and preventing Wu's forces from reinforcing the Second Camp, Jia Unit.

Clearly, the brigade commanded by Chen Chuan was now under a ferocious assault by Wu's cavalry!

"Xiao Hu—" Luo Hu, knowing things had gone terribly wrong, bellowed, "Xiao Hu! Xiao Hu!"

Luo Xiaohu, drenched in sweat and in the middle of forming up his men, was again dragged over by Luo Hu's personal guards and brought before Luo Hu.

"Big Brother..."

Luo Hu's voice was already somewhat hoarse. "Quick, quickly take your men to reinforce Vice Regional Commander Chen!"

"Boom-boom-boom—" a thunderous volley rang out. A group of armored soldiers twenty or thirty paces ahead of Liu Sheng was instantly knocked sprawling by the concentrated arquebus fire. The armored soldiers who had not been hit panicked as well and turned to flee one after another.

"Drop the arquebuses! Draw swords! Charge with me!"

Liu Sheng howled at the top of his lungs. The arquebusiers following him threw down their turtledove-foot matchlocks, drew their waist sabers, and with wild howls threw themselves at the retreating Shun armored soldiers.

Like Luo Hu's Children's Battalion, the attacks of Liu Fangliang's armored soldiers had also been beaten back again and again. The Wu army troops holding the First Camp, Jia Unit, to the death had finally held out until Liu Sheng arrived with five hundred arquebusiers as reinforcements.

The arquebusiers under Wu Sangui's command also used turtledove-foot matchlocks supplied by Zheng Zhilong. They were not numerous — around five hundred or so. They had always been Wu Sangui's treasured darlings, and like the Yi barbarian shock cavalry, were personally controlled by him.

Because this arquebusier unit had trained for many years and knew exactly how to properly load and fire, they would of course have been useless against Tartar cavalry, but tonight they were facing the armored soldiers of roving bandits — and Wu's army had an unbroken record of victory against the roving bandits, having already built up a psychological edge. That was why they could stay calm and unhurried, waiting until the enemy charged within twenty or thirty paces before firing a volley. A single volley had shattered the enemy's armored soldiers!

At the same time, the thousand-odd Yi barbarian shock cavalry personally led by Wu Sangui had smashed through the brigade of Children's Battalion infantry commanded by Chen Chuan — the Yi barbarian shock cavalry were an elite force capable of standing against the Eight Banners, certainly not something a Children's Battalion of equal numbers could withstand.

So Chen Chuan had not even held out until Luo Xiaohu's troops arrived before being routed.

Seeing Chen Chuan's brigade of Children's Battalion soldiers collapse, Luo Hu could not hold on either. He did not send Luo Xiaohu out again, but could only howl the order: "Drop the torches! Retreat under cover of darkness!"

Hearing his shout, the Children's Battalion soldiers threw down their torches one after another. The surroundings darkened, but the view into the distance became clearer — sparks of fire covered the hills and fields, slowly flowing, pressing in toward Wu's main camp.

But Luo Hu knew this was the signal for their own retreat!

His Majesty was commanding the main army in a show of force, merely to cover their own soldiers' withdrawal from Wu's camp.

In this battle beneath the Great Wall at Guguan, the Shun army had been defeated again. The Shun army had gone from invincible heavenly soldiers to defeat after defeat — was this turn not a little too fast? If this went on, how could it possibly end well?

Luo Hu sighed bitterly. "Let's go. We've let His Majesty down — defeated again..."

Beside him, Luo Xiaohu let out a long breath and said in a low voice, "Big Brother, the brothers have less and less spirit. This can't go on. You're close to His Majesty — why not talk to him about it?"

Luo Hu sighed again. The Roving King's decline was gradually showing, and Shanxi looked like it would soon be lost as well! Would there still be a chance to give everyone land and houses?

(End of Chapter)