Chapter 613: Don't Cry, Your Highness — This Official Has a Way

Seeing Sun Zhixie run in, Kong Youde wept even harder. He felt so wronged! His contributions to the Great Qing had been so great — he had brought over so many Hongyi cannons and firelocks when he defected, and had personally taught the Tartar soldiers how to fire cannon. Now he had been thrown into this death trap of Liaocheng and given the same treatment as a live Jiang Gan like Sun Zhixie. Just thinking about it made him feel cheated. And a live Jiang Gan might not necessarily have no way out — he was only a twice-serving subject. No, he was not even a twice-serving subject. He had been "dismissed" by the Chongzhen Emperor, and when he surrendered to the Great Qing he held no office. He was a commoner.

"Don't cry, Your Highness, don't cry. This official has a way!"

Whether he really had a way or was just saying something to console him, Sun Zhixie began rummaging in his sleeve as he spoke.

Was this some secret plan in a brocade pouch? Kong Youde really did stop crying, and simply sat on the rush cushion staring blankly at Sun Zhixie.

Sun Zhixie rummaged for a long while. There was no brocade pouch, but there was a small porcelain bottle.

"Your Highness, look at this!" Sun Zhixie presented it like a treasure, holding the porcelain bottle in both hands as he handed it to Kong Youde. "This is what Imperial Ama told me to bring when I went to Zhengzhou to see him last time, to give to you at the critical moment."

"It's just... a bottle?" Kong Youde thought to himself: Could Ama Dorgon have stuffed a note with a clever plan into the bottle and given it to Sun Zhixie?

"There's something good inside the bottle!" Sun Zhixie said. "It's top-grade arsenic! Drink it in wine, one bottle down, blood flows from all seven orifices, certain death. Then there's nothing left to fear!"

"You—you—you—" Kong Youde raised a finger and pointed at Sun Zhixie, so angry he could not get a word out.

If you've died with blood flowing from all seven orifices... there's still nothing to fear?

"Your Highness, you won't use this?" Sun Zhixie frowned. "Have you prepared some other way to die? Hanging, or cutting your throat?"

"What's this about hanging and cutting throats?" Kong Youde was about to explode with rage. If this poison had not been bestowed by Dorgon, he would have wanted to strangle Sun Zhixie right then.

"Your Highness, Imperial Ama meant only the best for you!" Sun Zhixie shook his head. "Within Liaocheng, anyone can surrender. It's just a twice-serving subject becoming a thrice-serving subject, and a thrice-serving subject becoming a four-times-serving subject. Only you, Your Highness, cannot surrender to the Ming!"

"I... I..." Kong Youde's tears would not stop again.

He was not like Zu Kefa. Zu Kefa surrendered back and forth, but always because he had no choice. After surrendering to the Great Qing he had not been of much use, and besides, his cousin was the Empress of the Great Ming — he had backing. But what about him? How many good things and talented men had he brought to the Great Qing? If he fell into Zhu Cilang's hands, what good death could he possibly have?

Death by a thousand cuts would be the light punishment.

"Your Highness, keep it," Sun Zhixie said gently. "For unforeseen needs!"

Unforeseen needs — Kong Youde thought it over. That was true! If Liaocheng really could not be held, having a bottle of arsenic to down with wine was better than having someone slice the flesh off him with a small knife!

Having put away the arsenic bestowed by Imperial Ama, Kong Youde had a servant in the mansion bring out a gourd of good wine, which he carried himself. Then, in green helmet and green armor — the Plain Green Banner, of course — and under the protection of a group of Plain Green Banner guards, he climbed up onto the walls of Liaocheng.

And what greeted him on the walls of Liaocheng was the earth-shaking battle cry of the Qufu trained army!

"Confucius the Sage protects us — blades and spears cannot pierce us!"

Kong Youde leaned on the crenellations built of sandbags and looked down. He saw countless Ming officers and soldiers, in square formations of about thirty or forty men each, carrying scaling ladders, pushing shield carts — that is, carts with the side-shields moved to the front — raising all kinds of weapons, shouting slogans, surging forward like a tide.

What kind of eye did Kong Youde have? He was a veteran commander of many years. One look from afar and he knew things were bad.

The shield carts were sturdy, the blades were new and fine, all glinting coldly in the sunlight! And every man of this Qufu militia wore armor, and those charging at the very front wore long coats of armor — truly strong armor and sharp weapons!

What gave Kong Youde an even worse headache was that this Qufu trained army did not fight in pure units, but had formed mixed units.

A pure unit meant that a company of dozens or hundreds of men all used one kind of weapon — either firelocks, or saber-and-shield, or long spears. Such a configuration was suited to fighting in formation, easy to command and easy to train!

A mixed unit, by contrast, combined soldiers using different weapons into one company, so that they could cooperate in killing the enemy. This kind of organization was not very useful when fighting in formation, and easily fell into confusion. In the southern mountains it worked well enough, but on the northern plains it had to be paired with side-carts.

But this was an assault on a city, and neither side was drawing up formations, so the mixed units had the advantage.

"Your Highness, firelocks—"

Just as Kong Youde was frantic and drenched in sweat, a guard officer beside him suddenly shouted, and tugged at him hard several times.

Only then did Kong Youde snap out of his thoughts. He looked closely and saw that squads of firelock soldiers carrying turtle-dove-foot matchlocks and wearing "plate armor" — actually splint armor — had already come up, passed the Qufu trained troops who were pushing the shield carts forward, stepped onto the frozen lake surface, and rushed to within a few dozen paces of the city wall, where they set up their firelocks and were about to open fire.

So it was the firelock soldiers of the two New Army model divisions who had come up to provide covering fire!

The Prince Who Pacifies the South hastily pulled his head back, then bellowed: "What the hell are you all standing there gaping for? Open fire with the cannon! Fire the muskets! Archers, get ready too—"

His words had barely fallen when the crackling reports of firelocks rang out one after another, and amid the dense gunfire, the occasional boom of cannon sounded.

The battle for Liaocheng had now finally entered the stage of close combat!

"Your Majesty, this is too far forward. Perhaps you should move back a little?"

Li Yan's persuasive voice rang out once more, disturbing Zhu Cilang, who was concentrating intently on watching the assault through his telescope.

The Green Banner troops under Kong Youde still had some fighting strength. Though few in number, their combat power was not weak, and they had been driven to a dead end. They had actually beaten back several waves of assaults by the Ming attack force, which was composed mainly of the Qufu militia army!

But the situation was still gradually turning in the Ming army's favor, because the iron-man soldiers of the Qufu militia had just now charged onto the walls of Liaocheng for the first time, and were locked in combat with Kong Youde's Plain Green Banner troops.

Zhu Cilang was so anxious watching that he could not help spurring his horse forward, and had now reached a forward position less than one and a half li from the southern wall of Liaocheng.

"Is there any news from Dorgon?" Zhu Cilang lowered the telescope and turned to ask Li Yan.

"Not yet." Li Yan shook his head. "Your Majesty, all we know now is that Dorgon is holding a great assembly of his armies at Zhengzhou. We do not know in which direction they will march. The eastern barbarians' cavalry is too formidable. Once they move out in force, our night scouts can only be pulled back, and we will have to rely on the smoke and fire of the watchtower troops to know the enemy's movements."

The watchtower troops were the soldiers who guarded the beacon towers. In order to learn promptly of the movements of the Qing cavalry masses, the Ming army had built many beacon towers in Huaibei, Xuzhou, Shandong, Runing, Nanyang, and other places.

But so far, not a single beacon tower had been lit.

Had Dorgon truly not moved, or had several beacon towers been raided by the Manchu white-armored soldiers?

Just as the Zhu Emperor was beginning to worry, heaven-shaking cheers rang out once more.

"Great Ming, ten thousand victories! Great Ming, ten thousand victories—"

Zhu Cilang and Li Yan both raised their telescopes and looked toward the walls of Liaocheng. They saw a banner reading "Confucius, the Ultimate Sage and First Teacher" planted firmly atop the southern wall of Liaocheng.

A long stretch of the wall was clearly already under the control of the iron-man squad of the Qufu trained army.

And even greater numbers of Qufu troops had by now gathered below this stretch of wall, scrambling over one another to climb up.

Liaocheng had been breached!

Kong Youde had already withdrawn from the wall, and clutching the gourd of poisoned wine, he retreated to his princely mansion.

The arsenic bestowed by Imperial Ama had already been poured in. If he just pinched his nose and poured it down his throat, then there would be nothing left to worry about.

The problem was that Kong Youde did not want to drink it. After he withdrew from the walls of Liaocheng, Sun Zhixie had been coaxing him by his ear: "Your Highness, drink it, drink it quickly! Such fine poisoned wine — one drink and all is over. What are you hesitating for? If you are really captured, won't you suffer death by a thousand cuts?"

But Kong Youde only shook his head. At that moment his adopted son Kong Sixi came running in great strides, and upon reaching Kong Youde, performed a Manchu greeting: "Father Prince, the south gate tower is lost. There are too many southern soldiers; we truly cannot hold on. The men are falling back toward the mansion, and no one knows how long they can hold. You must make a decision quickly!"

"I—I—I—" Kong Youde stammered, unable to speak.

Sun Zhixie, standing beside him, suddenly roared: "His Highness does not want to live! His Highness has said he does not want to live! Captain Kong, quickly send your father to the Western Paradise!"

Kong Youde was stunned. When had he said he did not want to live?

"Father Prince, go well!" Kong Sixi had already thrown himself forward, snatched the wine gourd from Kong Youde's arms, pulled out the stopper, and was about to pour it down Kong Youde's throat.

Kong Youde was not about to "submit to the wine." He shoved Kong Sixi away with all his strength and roared: "You unfilial wretch—"

He had only gotten out one curse when something hard struck the back of his head. Stars burst before his eyes, his whole body went limp, and then ice-cold poisoned wine was poured down his throat. And so it was that the Pacifying South Prince, Kong Youde, finally became a loyal martyr of the Great Qing!

(End of Chapter)