Chapter 401: This Is an Extraordinary Great Victory!

"My Prince, why are we withdrawing? We're about to win!"

The moment Helohui heard that Dodo had ordered a retreat, he came scrambling over in a panic to stop it.

Today's assault had indeed gone badly. A dirt fort thrown up from sandbags had somehow held like an iron bastion. Counting from yesterday's opening bombardment, they had fought for nearly two days and still hadn't taken the last gate tower. The Green Standard, the Han troops, and the Manchu Eight Banners had all taken losses — especially just now, when that volley from the general's cannon had killed several dozen true Tartars!

Moreover, the field battle outside the city had gone badly too. The three thousand Green Standard troops under Liu Liangzuo had been routed by a pack of half-crazed men shouting "blades and spears cannot harm us"! Liu Liangzuo himself had vanished to who knows where. And the Eight Banners' Han troops never even got a chance to bring their Hongyi cannons to bear before the enemy slipped away.

Setting aside civilian losses, in today's fighting the Qing troops' casualties far exceeded those of the Ming side!

This was absolutely not a good omen! The Great Qing troops had not even encountered the legendary K'nan New Army yet, and already they had suffered heavy casualties. If they met the real thing, how badly would they die?

But to concede defeat just like that — Helohui could not resign himself to it.

"My Prince, we could drag the Hongyi cannons up onto the wall and bombard the gate tower!" Cao Zhenyan had come over at some point to offer his advice as well.

Helohui said, "My Prince, this slave thinks the plan will work!"

Dodo looked at Cao Zhenyan. "And what about the main city of Qufu? Do you have a plan for that? It's ten times sturdier than this dirt heap in front of us! Can your cannons bite through it?"

"Well..." Cao Zhenyan gazed at the bastion in the distance, looming like a mountain in the sunset, and sucked in a breath of cold air.

His ten Hongyi cannons couldn't even knock down this dirt heap in front of him, so forget about the great fortress of Qufu! And the round forts outside Qufu were low and relatively easy to scale, but Qufu's great walls were so tall — they would not be easy to climb!

Dodo folded his arms and paced back and forth. "It's not that we couldn't take this dirt heap by force — it would just cost us more casualties. But the question is, if we take a dirt heap, will the people inside Qufu be afraid? Will they surrender? Will they flee?"

He shook his head. "Losing two or three thousand men to gnaw through a dirt heap won't frighten anyone. If it doesn't frighten Shi Kefa and Kong Yinzhi, they won't weep and wail for help. As for besieging the city — how much grain is inside Qufu? How much grain do we have? Who will run out of food first?"

After Dodo's analysis, Helohui, Zhuoluo, and Cao Zhenyan all understood the gravity of the problem.

Now the tens of thousands of Great Qing celestial troops were somewhat stalled beneath a strong city, caught between advance and retreat!

Qufu's walls were strong, and its defenders were clearly no pushovers either. Though they couldn't match the true Tartars of the Eight Banners, they were no worse than the Green Standard troops and the Han second-rate Tartars.

And there was the suspicion that the Sage Confucius was protecting them... It seemed impossible to break Qufu!

Breaking the city by siege would also be difficult. Dodo's army had not harvested much fodder along the way, so they had little surplus grain on hand. If it truly came to a siege, the ones starving first would likely be the Qing troops outside the walls.

Sensing the gravity of the situation, Helohui asked in a low voice, "My Prince, you're not thinking of withdrawing, are you?"

"Of course we can't withdraw!" Dodo said. "But there's no harm in letting Shi Kefa feel pleased with himself for a while!"

He paused. "Today's battle — let him have the victory!"

"Let Shi Kefa win?"

Dodo nodded. "Since we can't overawe the Nikans in Qufu, we might as well use a stratagem of arrogance. Let Shi Kefa feel pleased with himself for a while. As this prince knows, the officials of the Southern Court love to boast — they can inflate a defeat into a great victory. If this prince lets Shi Kefa win a battle, who knows what he'll blow it up into!"

"Helohui, this prince gives you fifteen niru, plus the Green Standard troops of Liu Liangzuo and Xu Dingguo, to remain outside Qufu. Build a great camp along the Yi River, and learn from the Nikans' method — use sandbags filled with earth to build a large fortified camp."

"My Prince," Helohui asked, "are you returning with the army?"

Dodo shook his head and laughed. "Return with what army? Return empty-handed? This prince will take men south for a turn and see if there's anything to be gained."

"You're going south?" Helohui frowned slightly. "Aren't we stretching our battle line too long?"

Dodo's smile faded, and he said coldly, "Stretching it long is exactly what we want! Stretch it long, and Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi will think they see an opening! Once they move, we'll have our chance!"

"Maojia, Maojia — a great victory, a great victory!"

Inside the Duke of Yansheng's mansion in Qufu, Kong Yinzhi was sprawled before the spirit tablet and portrait of his ancestor, the Sage Confucius, half-asleep and dazed. Faintly, he seemed to hear someone shouting "great victory" — this must be a dream! Kong Yinzhi thought to himself: how did I fall asleep while paying respects to my ancestor? My heart is not sincere — this won't do!

"Maojia, Maojia, how did you fall asleep while paying respects to your ancestor?"

That voice sounded again, and this time it was not faint but right by his ear! And the voice sounded familiar — it seemed to be Shi Kefa. At the thought of Shi Kefa, Kong Yinzhi's drowsiness vanished at once — that was the Governor-General of Seven Provinces, the baleful star who held the lives of the entire Qufu Kong clan in his hands! Why had this baleful star, this "Dharma thief," come? Could it be that Qufu had already fallen? If the city had fallen, would he force him to die for the dynasty?

Kong Yinzhi scrambled up from the prayer cushion, rubbed his eyes, and looked around. Sure enough, he saw Shi Kefa's dark face, brimming with joy.

"Daolin, what's happened?" Kong Yinzhi asked.

"We've won, we've won — a great victory!" Shi Kefa clapped his hands and laughed. "Truly the Supreme Sage and First Teacher protects us... We've defeated the Tartar army outside Qufu! We slaughtered the Tartars until their corpses covered the fields — a crushing defeat, the greatest victory since the troubles in Liaodong began!"

"Is that true?" Kong Yinzhi could hardly believe it.

"True, true," Shi Kefa nodded repeatedly. "An unprecedented great victory! The Tartars have already retreated to the banks of the Yi River! We have won a complete victory!"

"They retreated... Ouch!" Kong Yinzhi still suspected he was dreaming, so he steeled himself, stamped his foot, and yanked out a tuft of his own beard — it really hurt! That proved he was not dreaming. The Tartars had truly retreated, and his life was saved!

"Amitabha, Amitabha, the ancestors protect us, the ancestors..." Kong Yinzhi was overjoyed. He pressed his palms together and bowed toward the portrait of the Sage Confucius, yet from his mouth came "Amitabha" — who knew whether the Sage's spirit in heaven understood what "Amitabha" meant?

"Brother Maojia," Shi Kefa said with a smile, "though this battle had the protection of your ancestor's spirit in heaven, it also required the soldiers to fight in blood. As for the rewards..."

"Of course, of course," Kong Yinzhi dared not say half a "no" to Shi Kefa, the Governor-General of Seven Provinces. Right now Qufu's survival depended entirely on Shi Kefa! He could only nod repeatedly. "Everything is at the Supreme Commander's discretion."

"Good, good," Shi Kefa nodded with a smile. "Then let us jointly report the victory to the court! Brother Maojia, how much do you think we should report?"

"Report what?" Kong Yinzhi still didn't understand.

"Enemy heads!" Shi Kefa laughed. "How many should we report?"

"What's the actual number?"

Shi Kefa held up an open hand. "Five hundred!"

"That many?!" The Duke of Yansheng was shocked. "That many, all actual?"

Shi Kefa nodded.

The Duke of Yansheng still found it hard to believe. "We... we really killed five hundred Tartars?"

Of course there weren't that many — Tartars were too precious! How could you casually kill them by the hundreds? Most of those heads were Green Standard troops, a smaller portion were Eight Banners Han troops, and only thirty or forty were true Tartars.

But Shi Kefa still nodded. "The heads have all been cut off — there's no faking it. And this is only the number beheaded. The actual number killed must be several times more!"

"Several times..." Kong Yinzhi's breathing quickened. "Then shall we report five thousand?"

"Five thousand? Let's round it up to a whole number!" Shi Kefa laughed.

Kong Yinzhi was a bit confused. Five thousand was a whole number! Although the jinshi examination didn't test arithmetic, this was common knowledge he ought to know.

"Let's report ten thousand!" Shi Kefa burst out laughing. "Ten thousand enemies slain, one thousand heads taken — now that is an extraordinary great victory!"

(End of Chapter)