Chapter 536: Late Emperor Li, You Must Pretend to Be Alive — Part One

When night fell on the twenty-eighth day of the fourth month of the third year of Yongchang of the Shun, over the battlefield on both banks of the Hudu River in Gong'an County, Jingzhou Prefecture, the Yongchang Son of Heaven Li Zicheng felt that victory was already in his grasp!

The Ming troops still resisting on the battlefield had shrunk from the original three groups to just one — the force holding Tangjia Mountain.

The fighting at Lotus Temple had ended just as the shen hour was passing! After paying a cost of several hundred casualties, the Shun army's brave warriors had finally broken through the Ming defenses and charged into the temple. After a short and fierce melee, Li Zicheng's great "Roving" banner was flying high above Lotus Temple — Li Zicheng himself had now moved his headquarters to Lotus Temple, waiting for the news of Tangjia Mountain's fall.

And in the northeast corner of the battlefield, the ten-thousand-odd Shun infantry and cavalry under Liu Zongmin's command had also won their fight, driving Jin Shenghuan's and Qiu Lei's forces — more than twice their number — to the west bank of the Hudu River. But Li Zicheng did not have Liu Zongmin return; instead he ordered him to keep leading his troops in pursuit!

Half of Liu Zongmin's force was cavalry, and chasing down the infantry of Jin Shenghuan and Qiu Lei was as easy as slicing melons and chopping vegetables!

Li Zicheng, a veteran of countless battles, knew all too well that when two armies truly clashed, trading blows back and forth, not many men actually died. Especially when both sides were fairly regular troops, and every soldier had a suit of armor protecting his life — cutting a man down was no easy thing. Even swinging a blunt armor-breaking weapon, beating a living man to death took the strength of nine oxen and two tigers — that was an enemy, after all! Who would stand there so obediently and let you beat him? Wouldn't he block with a shield or a weapon? And every so often he'd strike back at you.

But once victory and defeat were decided, and one side began fleeing in panic, then killing became easy — a one-sided slaughter. The pursued side threw away armor and helmets, and had no way to form a solid line. And if the pursuing side had a good number of cavalry, a close-pressing pursuit could run tens of thousands of enemies into the ground.

How could Li Zicheng, the most skilled user of cavalry, let such an opportunity pass? So when he learned that some twenty or thirty thousand Ming troops had forded the Hudu River and fled west, he immediately ordered Liu Zongmin to lead his force in pursuit. They had already chased them twenty or thirty li!

In addition, the one or two thousand Ming ironclad cavalry that had been active on the edge of the battlefield since morning had now withdrawn to the west bank of the Hudu River to rest and regroup.

But they had not been driven off by the Shun cavalry — rather, they had fought until men and horses were exhausted and had no choice but to withdraw. Yet they had not gone far, still remaining on the lower reaches of the Hudu River, and had occupied several riverside villages as strongpoints.

Because in the day's fighting they had performed with extraordinary valor, routing several thousand Shun cavalry in successive engagements, killing or capturing seven or eight hundred men, and seizing six or seven hundred warhorses. So their withdrawal actually let the Shun cavalrymen on the Tangjia Mountain battlefield breathe a huge sigh of relief — those iron-clad killing gods were finally gone! Farewell, and don't come back!

Since they weren't seeing them off, naturally no one went to disturb their rest — they were only a thousand-odd men in all, and with or without them, the outcome of today's Battle of Tangjia Mountain would not change.

"Your Majesty, the Zhu rebels on Tangjia Mountain still refuse to surrender! And they're stubborn as ever — they killed Hao Xiaozhong, who was sent up the mountain to urge surrender!"

The Second Military Advisor Gu Junen came bustling in from outside the main hall of Lotus Temple, saluted Li Zicheng, who was happily eating a meat-filled flatbread, and then reported the result of the surrender overture.

Hearing that Hao Xiaozhong had been killed, Li Zicheng did not seem much concerned, merely snorting: "Find a decent coffin and lay Hao Xiaozhong to rest."

"Your Majesty," Gu Junen said, "only the body was sent back — there's no head!"

"No head?" Li Zicheng laughed. "Then have a shorter coffin made."

"As commanded." Gu Junen answered, but did not move to go attend to Hao Xiaozhong's burial — he still had to offer Li Zicheng his counsel!

"Your Majesty," Gu Junen said, "there are at most ten thousand men on Tangjia Mountain. In this battle we have destroyed at least twenty or thirty thousand of the Zhu rebels, with several thousand captured alone — a great victory!"

He had only spoken half of what he meant; the other half was that they should quit while they were ahead!

With this great victory as a foundation, Zhu Cilang would surely not dare send troops to follow the Shun army into Sichuan.

Moreover, the elite Ming troops bottled up at Huya Mountain should now be able to be drawn out. As long as they could be lured to the Gong'an–Shishou area, Li Zicheng could turn his army back to Huya Mountain.

And this battle at Tangjia Mountain had destroyed tens of thousands of Zhu Cilang's miscellaneous troops, which would surely strike fear into the hearts of the miscellaneous commanders who had submitted to Zhu Cilang. Without them aiding Zhu in his wickedness, Zhu Cilang's own core forces alone would be hard-pressed just to digest Huguang — advancing further into Sichuan would stretch him far too thin.

Li Zicheng nodded and smiled: "It is indeed a great victory. One more day of fighting should take Tangjia Mountain. The Zhu rebels on Tangjia Mountain are elite troops — destroy them, and Zhu Cilang will truly be wounded in his vital strength."

The Roving King had fought the Ming army for years and knew that ordinary Ming troops were just filler; the real fighting strength lay in the household retainers. If the household retainers could not be destroyed, killing any number of ordinary Ming soldiers was of little use.

And the Ming troops on Tangjia Mountain were so stubborn and fought so well that they were most likely a force built around the various generals' household retainers — so Li Zicheng wanted to strike while the iron was hot and wipe them out in one blow!

At the same time, Gong'an County town, less than thirty li from the Tangjia Mountain battlefield, was already in a state of full martial law and combat readiness.

Zhu Cilang, commanding from within Gong'an County town, had grown tense as well. He had never imagined that the fifty-thousand-strong army of Zhang Yong, Qiu Lei, and Jin Shenghuan, facing a Shun force of roughly equal numbers, would collapse after holding out for just one day. Now only the force on Tangjia Mountain, where Zhang Yong and Zhu Cizhao were holding out together, was still resisting — and Tangjia Mountain was such a small patch of ground that it could hold at most ten thousand men.

The remaining troops had either been destroyed by Li Zicheng or were in the process of being destroyed.

Li Zicheng's army — who would have thought it could fight so well!

"Thousand Years! Thousand Years! Just give this slave five hundred men, and this slave will lead them to charge the enemy lines — either break through to Tangjia Mountain, or die for the Ming realm!"

Besides Li Zicheng on the Tangjia Mountain battlefield giving Zhu Cilang a headache, there was also a eunuch chattering endlessly in his ear — one named Wang Cheng'en!

For the past two years, Wang Cheng'en had been protecting Zhu Cizhao, assisting him with all his heart and devotion, single-mindedly hoping to raise Zhu Cizhao into a pillar of the Ming like the Chongzhen Emperor.

He had never imagined that the Crown Prince Zhu Cilang could be so ruthless as to send his own younger brother to the battlefield — and now he was surrounded on Tangjia Mountain, about to die.

Wang Cheng'en had originally wanted to go and "die together" with Zhu Cizhao, but Zhu Cizhao had been worried about Zuo Mengmei and had kept Wang Cheng'en with her — which was what had delayed Wang Cheng'en's death.

And Zhu Cilang truly had no way to deal with this Companion Wang — he was a Crown Prince who always repaid his debts! And he owed Wang Cheng'en an enormous debt — he would not be where he was today without Wang Cheng'en's supreme contributions!

So Zhu Cilang could only speak kindly to him: "Companion Wang, do not be anxious. How could We stand by and watch Our fourth brother throw his life away? We have already ordered Yan Yingyuan to assemble the troops. At first light tomorrow, We will lead the eight thousand elite soldiers in Gong'an city to fight Li Zicheng to the death!"

"Really?" Wang Cheng'en did not quite believe Zhu Cilang — this Zhu Cilang was far too fond of deceiving people!

"Of course it's true! Xiaobao, quickly take Companion Wang to the parade ground to watch Yan Yingyuan muster the troops!"

Huang Xiaobao, standing nearby, hurried forward and half-dragged, half-pulled Wang Cheng'en away.

Yan Yingyuan really was mustering troops. What Zhu Cilang had told Wang Cheng'en was not entirely a lie — the part about Yan Yingyuan mustering troops was true.

In order to hold Gong'an city when necessary, Zhu Cilang had provisionally established the Hardship-Overcoming New Army Guards Division, merging his own bodyguard battalion with three newly formed regiments to strengthen control.

With a garrison of three regiments — over eight thousand men — Gong'an County town and the large quantities of supplies stored within the city could rest easy.

As for Li Zicheng outside the city besieging Tangjia Mountain, they could only entrust the matter to the infantry under Wu Guoyong — and hope they ran faster.