Chapter 396: Confucius Protects Us, Blades and Spears Cannot Harm — Part 1

"Brothers, once we fight our way into Qufu, there'll be silver for the taking and women for the taking!"

"We're taking Qufu! We're getting rich!"

"Getting rich!"

"Long live the Great Qing!"

At the first faint light of dawn, a thunderous roar of cheers erupted across the open fields west of Qufu. Six thousand Green Standard troops, formed up by battalion, had already arrayed themselves into twelve square formations — shield carts in front, infantry behind, armed with bows, saber-and-buckler, and long spears — and now, goaded on by their officers, they were cheering at the top of their lungs.

Unlike the Eight Banners lords of war, who had been allotted banner lands, registered in Beijing households, given Beijing property, and offered twenty-four rungs of promotion to climb, the Green Standard troops in the present Great Qing had no real prospects, were not part of the trusted core, and even drew only the most meager pay. Yet when they followed their Eight Banners masters into the charge, they often fought surprisingly well. There were two main reasons: first, the intimidating presence of the Eight Banners troops; second, the promise of free plunder!

The former was coercion; the latter was enticement. Take away either one, and the Green Standard troops lost their fighting spirit. The promise of plunder especially could never be omitted — otherwise even the Eight Banners troops themselves would lose their drive, let alone be able to drive anyone else.

In the original course of history, many Ming troops who surrendered to the Qing became fearsome fighters, yet after defecting back to the Ming they lost their edge. The reason lay precisely here.

And now, facing a Qufu whose walls even the Hongyi cannons could not breach, the Great Qing's "Prince of Golden Hands," Dodo, had no choice but to resort to the old formula of "burn, kill, loot, and rape" to fire up his men's morale.

Even if Qufu truly ended up being massacred, that was still better than a defeat! So for now he no longer spoke of "killing less and looting less."

Seeing another group of Green Standard troops work themselves into a frenzy, Dodo smiled and nodded, then turned to Holhoi and said, "This is exactly the spirit I want. Holhoi, take five niru and supervise the assault!"

"Ja!"

Holhoi answered with equal delight.

After all, it was the Green Standard troops' lives being spent. If they won, the Eight Banners troops would join in the looting. If they lost, the Eight Banners' losses would not be too great. Why not enjoy it?

"Bring out the spirit tablet of the Ultimate Sage and First Teacher Confucius!"

At the same moment, Shi Kefa — the great Confucian scholar — had changed into full Confucian robes and was standing outside the Confucian Temple within Qufu, shouting at the top of his voice.

Before him, three thousand death-sworn soldiers stood fully armed and in perfect formation, waiting only for the order to march out.

A dozen or more Kong clansmen dressed as Confucian scholars — most of them tenant farmers' sons who had only just changed their surname to Kong — had already carried the enormous spirit tablet of the Ultimate Sage and First Teacher Confucius out of the temple, every face wearing an expression of sacred solemnity.

Shi Kefa turned to the tablet, bowed deeply, and cried out, "May the Ultimate Sage and First Teacher Confucius bless us with swift victory!"

The three thousand death-sworn soldiers bowed as one, all shouting, "Confucius bless us! Swift victory!"

Well, well — Confucius has become a god of war. I wonder if someday there'll be a statue of Confucius holding a matchlock?

Having finished bowing to the tablet, Shi Kefa shouted again, "Today this official will carry the spirit tablet of the Ultimate Sage and First Teacher Confucius and face the crisis of the Confucian faith together with you all! The spirits of Confucius and Mencius in heaven will surely bless us. Even if we die in battle, we die as martyrs for the Confucian faith, and may be enshrined in the Confucian Temple, enjoying the incense offerings of later generations for all time. To die thus is to live on!"

To protect Confucius's grave mound, Shi Kefa was going all out, pulling out every trick he had. Not only was he handing out silver by the fistful, he had even arranged where the death-sworn soldiers would go after dying in battle. Die in battle and become a sage, enshrined in the Confucian Temple — from then on they would all be Confucian sages!

And it must be said, in the Qufu region Confucius truly was more efficacious than any deity! The promise of enshrinement in the Confucian Temple and posthumous canonization as a sage worked even better than handing out silver.

The three thousand "Confucian death-sworn soldiers" instantly boiled over with fervor, all shouting, "The Ultimate Sage and First Teacher, Sage Confucius, bless us! The Sage bless us!"

At this moment, the Green Standard troops were already pushing their shield carts and carrying scaling ladders, surging like a tide toward the Bing-zi fort, which had been pounded by Hongyi cannon fire for an entire day.

The Hongyi cannon bombardment had actually produced some effect. Though it had not destroyed the fort's walls, which were built of sandbags, earth, and logs, it had burst more than a hundred sandbags, and a good deal of sand and dirt had spilled out, loosening the ramparts somewhat. If Dodo had more cannons and more patience, and kept up the bombardment for half a month or longer, the results might have been better.

But Dodo did not have that many cannons, nor that kind of patience. And even if he had, the Eight Banners and Green Standard troops under his command had no patience to wait any longer.

Inside Qufu there were mountains of gold and silver! A thousand years of the Kong family's extortion was all stored inside Qufu! If the city were breached, wouldn't there be millions — tens of millions — of taels of silver to plunder?

Liu Zhaoji, the Reinforcement Regional Commander under Shi Kefa, had led his men into the Bing-zi fort the previous day. His reason for entering the fort was to prevent the refugees and militia crowded inside from collapsing into rout on their own.

The way Shi Kefa and Kong Yinzhi were defending Qufu was, admittedly, somewhat underhanded. They had turned the refugees they had taken in into cannon fodder, distributing them among the nine forts outside Qufu. Not only were the able-bodied men organized into militia and placed inside the forts, but even the women, children, elderly, and weak were not allowed into the main city of Qufu — and the main city was not very large to begin with. It was already sheltering more than a hundred thousand commoners from Qufu County, packed to bursting, and simply could not hold any more people. Besides, once the able-bodied refugees had no families to protect, they would not fight to the death.

What Liu Zhaoji had brought into the Bing-zi fort, however, were Qufu's local militia, whose families were all inside the main city. Anyone who fled in the face of battle would have his family driven out of the city to fend for themselves!

So they had no choice but to fight to the death too!

Liu Zhaoji, however, did not place the thousand-odd men he had brought with him on the front line. Instead, he stationed them around the Bing-zi fort's only gate, blocking the gate — the sole exit for the more than ten thousand refugees inside the fort.

Now they could either wait for the enemy to come and kill them, or fight to the death. And even if they fought their lives away, they could still go and meet Confucius — what supreme glory that would be!

Several leading figures among the refugees, now dressed in homemade cloth-faced armor, had been brought before Liu Zhaoji. Their families had all been moved into the main city of Qufu, becoming hostages in Shi Kefa's hands.

It was an ugly business, but absolutely necessary! These leading figures among the refugees, to put it bluntly, were people who had fled out of fear — fear of death, fear of the Great Qing. If the Great Qing would spare their lives, surrendering would not have been out of the question for them.

Holding their families hostage was at least some kind of guarantee!

These gentlemen — whether xiucai or juren, no one could tell — had no choice either. Their families were held hostage, their family fortunes were ruined, and two of them had even signed their names to the "Proclamation Against the Tartar Invaders." If they did not fight to the death, there was no way out for them!

Through their efforts, the refugees inside the Bing-zi fort had finally been given some organization. About two thousand able-bodied men had been selected, issued sabers, shields, and long spears, along with a small number of bows and arrows.

The parapets of the Bing-zi fort were also piled high with all manner of debris to hurl down on attackers, and below the walls great cauldrons had been set up, boiling foul-smelling "golden juice" (liquid manure). The strong, big-footed women had also been organized — some carrying wooden buckets to haul the golden juice up to the walls, others wielding shovels to fill sacks with earth for repairing the ramparts.

"The Tartars are nothing to fear! With Sage Confucius blessing us, what have we to fear? Even if we die, damn it, we'll be with Sage Confucius! You're all scholars — you must be delighted at the prospect of meeting Sage Confucius, right? Isn't that what all your studying was for?"

Listening to this crude brute Liu Zhaoji spout nonsense about studying for the sake of meeting Sage Confucius, the juren and xiucai truly felt like weeping without tears.

Studying was for rising in office and getting rich, not for meeting Sage Confucius!

"Commander! Commander! The Tartar troops are coming up!" At that moment, one of Liu Zhaoji's household retainers came sprinting up to report.

"Are they real Tartars?" Liu Zhaoji asked at once.

"No, they're Green Standard troops."

Liu Zhaoji laughed heartily. "Don't be afraid — it's the Green Standard, not real Tartars. Alright, all of you get up on the walls! I'll be right here supervising the battle. I wish you swift victory!"

A Shandong juren of about forty stamped his foot and shouted through gritted teeth, "Then we'll borrow the Commander's auspicious words! Men, raise our great banner — let the Tartars see the might of us Shandong heroes!"

They even had a great banner!

It was just a big piece of white cloth, with eight large characters written on it: "The Ultimate Sage and First Teacher Confucius Protects Us."

(End of Chapter)