Chapter 397: Confucius Protects: Immune to Blade and Spear, Part Two

"May the Most Sage First Teacher Confucius protect us."

Through his telescope Dodo saw those eight characters and was somewhat dumbfounded. What was going on here? Why was Confucius being invoked for protection? Today was a battle, not the civil service examinations. If you wanted protection, you ought to seek Lord Guan the Second. Why go looking for Confucius? Had you uncultured Nikan never read Romance of the Three Kingdoms?

"Kill! Kill them all for me!"

"Fight into Qufu, seize the silver, seize the women!"

"Kill every last person surnamed Kong!"

The Green Standard troops surged forward with battle cries and quickly reached the outer edge of the moat before Fort C. Most of them could not read and had no idea how formidable Confucius was — Confucius was a scholar nine chi tall, of boundless strength, who never went without a sword! Otherwise how could he have traveled the states reasoning with people? The men of the Central Plain in the Spring and Autumn period were fierce; if Confucius had truly been too weak to truss a chicken, who would have reasoned with him properly?

Moreover, Confucius's father Shuliang He was a warrior who held up a thousand-jin portcullis with his bare hands — how great must his strength have been? Could his son have lacked two or three hundred jin of strength?

However, Kong Yinzhi, the descendant heir of Confucius (perhaps an impostor), had no such great strength, could not wield a sword, and even less could he lift a thousand-jin portcullis.

When the attack and defense of Fort C began, he merely hid inside the great Kong mansion, kneeling before the ancestral tablets and trembling. Who knew what Confucius's spirit in heaven would think if he saw this?

Perhaps the Master's spirit in heaven would not spare Kong Yinzhi a single glance, for the bloody battle had already unfolded above and below the western wall of Fort C.

Outside the ring-shaped moat, several dozen shield carts stood in crooked rows. Behind the shield carts were all Green Standard archers, drawn up in loose, sloppy ranks, lofting arrows wave after wave onto the wall. The density of the arrows was not high, but it still kept the defenders on the wall from raising their heads, and they could barely loose a few shafts in return.

Under this cover, the other Green Standard troops kept hurling sandbags stuffed with earth into the moat, and soon they had filled in several passageways.

Liu Liangzuo's brother Liu Liangchen led more than a hundred Han troops of the Plain Yellow Banner, driving over a thousand Green Standard soldiers to the front line. Of these thousand-odd men, about half wore tattered cloth-faced iron armor, and they looked as if they could put up a fight.

Although these Green Standard troops had once been Ming soldiers, they were now more "disciplined" than before. Because the Green Standard commanders had Eight Banners masters above them, they did not dare withhold pay or pad the muster rolls. So after these Ming troops who had surrendered to the Great Qing became Green Standard soldiers, their treatment had generally improved! Moreover, the weapons in their hands were more effective than before! They had thrown away those disorderly firearms good only for frightening people and exchanged them for cold steel that could truly kill. The number of armor sets had also clearly increased, and good armor and good helmets were no longer reserved for household retainers and officers, but were given to the soldiers who truly charged into battle.

Besides, they now had more opportunities to loot!

Although most Ming troops in these days were also undisciplined, and plenty of units brought ruin wherever they went, the problem was that the Ming court still held the richest territory in China, and Ming armies could not very well plunder the court's own territory at will!

And now there was also that Army-Soothing Crown Prince Zhu Cilang, who had raised a new hardship army with land allotments and full pay, and had fenced off the best territory of the Ming southeast so that no ragtag troops could ravage it. That was truly too unreasonable.

It was precisely for these reasons that after defecting to the Great Qing, the soldiers of Liu Liangzuo and Xu Dingguo had far more drive than before.

And Dorgon was generous enough. He did not punish these two for "slandering the Prince Who Pacifies the West," but instead stuffed the small Ming units that had been absorbed in Northern Zhili and Shanxi into their ranks. He also raised Liu Liangzuo and Xu Dingguo into the Banners, making them good slaves of the Great Qing!

In addition, Dorgon sent Han troops of the Plain Yellow Banner and Plain White Banner directly into their units to serve as the backbone of the Green Standard soldiers. Liu Liangchen was one such officer, entering with a niru of Han troops into the Green Standard unit commanded by his elder brother Liu Liangzuo.

Seeing that the passageways had been filled in, Liu Liangchen at once raised his long saber and bellowed at the top of his lungs: "All of you, charge with me! God damn it, advance only, never retreat — take this goddamn Qufu!"

The Green Standard troops and Han troops following him had long been unable to hold back. Among them were plenty of battle-hardened old veterans who had already seen that the fortress before them was weakly defended. Now, hearing Liu Liangchen's order, they all surged forward with shouts.

At the same time, the two Green Standard Regional Commanders Xu Dingguo and Wu Weihua also directed their own troops across the moat over the passageways that had just been filled in.

Three waves of men surged forward like a tide. On the wall above, the militia guards who saw these three masses of men could only cry out in alarm. Their means of defending the wall were limited: they had no firearms and only a few bows. They could only raise logs and stones under the cover of shields and hurl them down, while others poured down bucket after bucket of scalding, foul-smelling "golden juice." Meanwhile, men below were still shooting arrows, volley after volley, and the arrowheads falling among the militia clad only in cloth brought death and wounds in swathes!

Heart-rending screams rose from every part of the wall, while wails and sobs rose from every part of the town. The militia on the wall heard those cries and knew they could not retreat, or their families would all become ghosts under the Qing soldiers' blades. So they ignored the deadly arrows coming from below, and every man resolved to fight to the death, waiting for the Qing troops to come up and do battle.

On the wall they fought with their lives; below, eyes had turned red as well. The archers who had been shooting from behind the shield carts now all rushed to the edge of the moat. No longer firing in volleys, they shot arrow after arrow up at the wall, and their accuracy at once improved considerably.

Liu Liangchen, trusting in his heavy armor, stood directly beneath the wall, shouting and fighting furiously!

Scaling ladders were raised one after another, and Green Standard soldiers holding shields over their heads risked their lives to climb. The defenders on the wall ignored the rain of arrows, and everything that could be thrown down seemed to come down all at once. Qing soldiers struck by stones and logs or scalded by golden juice kept tumbling down; some died on the spot, while others who survived wailed for their fathers and mothers beneath the wall.

But some Green Standard soldiers still gained the wall. The militia on the wall summoned their utmost courage and surged in from all directions, and the two sides tangled into one mass. Though the Qing troops were fully armored and better armed, the militia defending the town fought with their very lives! Some brandished swords, some swung hoes, some charged with dung forks. Many threw away their lives, using desperate one-life-for-one-life tactics, and somehow managed to hold off the Qing assault. But they could only hold — they had no strength left to drive the enemy off the wall.

"They're up! They're up, Gūsa Ejēn! Our men are on the wall — the defenses of Qufu are nothing special!"

Liu Liangzuo had not taken the field in person today, but had handed command to his brother and stayed by Holoi's side. Now he was dancing with joy.

Holoi wore an easy smile. He had thought a castle that even Hongyi cannon could not bite into would be hard to take; he had not expected them to gain the wall in a single wave. It seemed Qufu was nothing much after all. If it fell, the first credit would go to the Liu family's troops!

Just as Holoi was feeling pleased with himself, someone beside him suddenly shouted: "Gūsa Ejēn, the southerners' relief force is marching out of the main city of Qufu!"

Holoi hurriedly raised his telescope and peered toward the main city of Qufu. The first thing that entered his view was an enormous spirit tablet being carried by men, inscribed with the words: THE SEAT OF THE MOST SAGE FIRST TEACHER CONFUCIUS!

"Carrying a spirit tablet, heh." Holoi was amused. "And Confucius's tablet at that — what is the meaning of this?"

Liu Liangzuo answered with a smile: "Shi Kefa and Kong Yinzhi are both pedantic Confucian scholars who cannot fight. They only know how to put on this empty show. Better to let your subordinate take men and give them a good thrashing!"

"Very well!" Holoi nodded. "Take your own troops, and draw another thousand men from the Xu family's army. Remember, do not go near the main city of Qufu — there are sure to be cannon on the great wall!"

"Ja!"

(End of Chapter)