Chapter 411: Go Haul the Hongyi Cannons Up Here

Under the urging of Dodo and a pack of Eight Banners lords, some Green Standard traitor soldiers still braved the arrow rain and the javelins hurled at them and charged up the wagon fort!

It had to be said, the Green Standard soldiers did have some fight in them! They could eat their fill, draw their full pay, their weapons weren't too shabby, and they had Eight Banners lords and booi slaves supervising the battle — and those men would really take your life!

So when these Green Standard soldiers had earlier served as Ming troops, if they had run into this wagon fort held fast by Shandong militia, there was no way they could have fought their way up — maybe the Guanning Army or the Qin Army directly under Sun Chuanting could have done it, but ordinary Ming troops shouldn't even dream of it. But now, who the hell dared not fight to the death?

Didn't they see old Master Xu Dingguo down there fighting for his life with his two sons?

Come to think of it, it really was pitiful. They'd had a decent life — why did they have to go and become traitors? That Liu Zeqing was now clinging to Zhu Cilang, spending all his days in the brothels and pleasure houses along both banks of the Qinhuai River, living it up and throwing money around, living a life more comfortable than words could say. And Zhu Cilang couldn't do a thing about him! He was the perfect model of a "retired warlord"! If you punished him, who would ever willingly step down again?

But even though the old Xu family, father and sons, had staked their lives, the Green Standard troops under their command were still held dead in place by the defenders.

Because the militia troops under Gao Hongtu that they ran into were no ordinary Ming army either — although he did not support Zhu Cilang's usurpation, Zhu Cilang wanted him as cannon fodder, so he had still given him, Shi Kefa, and Zuo Maodi the highest authority! Authority that Sun Chuanting and Lu Xiangsheng in the past would never have dared even dream of. Gao Hongtu was no mere Governor of Shandong — he was a military governor!

He held all military and civil power in one hand, had no eunuchs or officials around him dragging him down, and no censors who did nothing but impeach him all day.

In short, he could do whatever he wanted, as long as he didn't turn traitor. If a subordinate official under him did a poor job, killing or dismissing him was entirely up to him!

Besides his exceptionally high authority, Gao Hongtu had also received some money and grain from Zhu Cilang. Although he wasn't as "rich" as Shi Kefa, Zuo Maodi, or Zhu Yihai, Zhu Cilang had still given him half of the money and grain earned from the special examination's "juren-selling" scheme (the other half went to Zuo Maodi). So he had a bit of money at his disposal and could pay his militia something. The pay wasn't much, but no one dared skim it, and no one padded the rolls with phantom soldiers — it actually went to real use.

As the Xu family's Green Standard troops were scaling the wagon fort, the Shandong militia's pikemen and sword-and-shield men had already thrown themselves forward. The pikemen formed up row after row, raising their long spears and thrusting upward fiercely, while the sword-and-shield men first hurled javelins, and after throwing their two javelins surged up onto the wagon fort to fight the Qing troops hand to hand. In the blink of an eye, both sides were locked in combat atop and below the wagon fort, and from time to time men screamed as they toppled off the seven- or eight-foot-high fort!

Xu Dingguo and his two sons also turned savage, all of them charging across the moat and closing in beneath the wagon fort, where they took up bows with their personal guards and shot upward.

These men were all career soldiers with years of service, and they did have skill with the bow. Each man carried a Kaiyuan bow, and the arrows they loosed were fast and accurate, quickly shooting down quite a few of the militiamen who had charged onto the wagon fort to fight the Qing troops hand to hand.

But the remaining militiamen still fought to the death and refused to retreat! Nor did they dare retreat — Gao Hongtu, "Gao the King of Hell," was watching from behind! Retreating not only meant certain death, it would drag their families down with them!

Still, the situation was gradually turning in the Qing army's favor, because the Ming militia's casualties were, in the end, growing larger and larger. Just at that moment, the Ming side suddenly let out an earth-shaking roar: "Kill the traitors! Kill the Tartars! Kill the traitors! Kill the Tartars—"

The next instant, a large body of warriors clad in cloth-faced iron armor, following a stout fellow in full-length armor, came charging in with swords and shields.

These men were all household-retainer-grade warriors, and what was more, Li Chengdong was personally leading the charge! Li Chengdong, like Xu Dingguo, had no choice but to stake his life. Because Gao Hongtu was supervising the battle from behind! At this point Gao Hongtu had only committed a bit over ten thousand militiamen, with half still held in reserve and not yet used — just right for keeping Li Chengdong in check.

Moreover, Gao Hongtu had his hand on the pay routes of the two warlords Li Chengdong and Ma Degong — the Ministry of War did not pay them directly, but paid Gao Hongtu instead!

With Li Chengdong's and Ma Degong's pay in his grip, and with forty thousand militiamen who feared neither death nor hardship, Gao Hongtu could make Li Chengdong and Ma Degong sell their lives at the critical moment.

And once Li Chengdong sold his life, Xu Dingguo had to tuck tail and flee!

Li Chengdong was the main force under Gao Jie, and Gao Jie's troops were one of the two great main forces of the old Ming army — the Qin Army, one of the two alongside the Guanning Army. When they truly turned ferocious, Xu Dingguo's Henan troops simply couldn't hold, and were either hacked into mincemeat or came tumbling off the wagon fort wailing.

Xu Dingguo and his two sons also turned savage, sending their personal guards to seize several dazed junior officers who had fled back, shoving them to the ground and chopping off their heads. Even so, the rout could not be stopped. The Xu family's Green Standard troops rolled back like a receding flood and tumbled into the moat outside the wagon fort. The moat was neither deep nor wide and could normally be crossed in a single roll. But the Green Standard soldiers who fell in simply could not get out, because the booi slaves, who were tougher than them, were guarding the other side of the moat. The moment they saw anyone trying to pull back out, they hacked at them, trying to force them to turn and fight again.

But the Shandong militia and Li Chengdong's household retainers atop the wagon fort also took a volley of arrows from the Eight Banners troops, and quite a few were shot down. The rest hurriedly withdrew, leaning against the wagon fort and raising their shields to protect their heads and faces.

But the militia's archers were still shooting, wave after wave of arrow rain falling into the moat, making the traitor Green Standard soldiers wail for their fathers and mothers.

"Master Xu! The brothers really can't hold on!"

"Master Xu, have mercy, let us fall back a bit!"

"Go talk to the Eight Banners lords, beg them to spare our lives! If we all die off, who'll charge the enemy for them?"

What could Xu Dingguo do? He himself was stuck in the moat and couldn't get out. One of his sons had been struck in the face by an arrowhead — a through-and-through wound, his whole head and face covered in blood, and no one knew whether he would live. Hearing his men's wailing, he could only shut his eyes and say nothing.

Just then, a sound of metal striking metal rang out!

It turned out Dodo had ordered the retreat. He had been supervising the battle from behind the whole time, and of course he had seen how desperately the Xu family's Green Standard troops had fought. In this one assault, at least a thousand and several hundred had been killed or wounded! They had already collapsed, and pressing them further was useless. They could only be allowed to fall back and regroup, then launch the next wave.

At the sound of the gong, the Xu family's Green Standard troops and the booi slaves guarding the moat's edge all felt as if they'd been granted a great reprieve and fell back one after another. They didn't need to retreat far — twenty-some paces, to behind the "shield-cart line," was enough.

Watching the Green Standard and booi troops ahead all fall back, and seeing that the Ming troops did not pursue, Dodo let out a breath and said to Holhoi beside him: "Gather all the booi slaves and Green Standard troops, and have them dig a moat and pile up a breastwork along the shield-cart line.

Also, send someone to hurry Cao Zhenyan and have him bring the Hongyi cannons up at once."

Holhoi was taken aback: "My Prince, you mean to use the Hongyi cannons to blast their wagon formation? Isn't that using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken?"

Dodo snorted: "If not the Hongyi cannons, then what? Send our brave warriors to fill it with their lives? You've seen what those Nikans are like — not so easy to deal with. That assault just now was a probe. If they'd been easy to handle, there'd be no need to bother surrounding them."

"My Prince, our brave warriors—"

Dodo waved a hand: "Our Eight Banners elite cannot be used like that! They're just militia — why should we throw two or three thousand of our own into them? How many men do we have to throw in?"

This prince saw things clearly indeed. If the Great Qing was to conquer the realm, it had to rely on Han traitors to do the dying!

"My Prince," Holhoi said with a deep frown, "but we don't have many Green Standard troops and booi slaves to spare for dying either."

Dodo smiled: "Once we smash Gao Hongtu and Zuo Maodi, people will naturally come over to us! Don't forget, since ancient times, whoever wins the Central Plains wins the realm! And isn't the Central Plains just Henan, Shandong, Shanxi, and Northern Zhili?"

(End of Chapter)