Chapter 323: Section 62: Betrayal (Part 2) (Grand Finale)

Seeing Huang Shi still sunk in silent deliberation, Dorgon — his body pinned motionless to the ground — shook his head, swung the queue behind his head forward before his eyes, and spat on it several times with loud "pei pei" sounds: "Marshal, your slave has always felt this queue is just like a pig's tail. Every time your slave walked along dragging this pig's tail, the moment I thought of the graceful, noble robes and caps of the Great Ming, I felt both envy and sorrow. Even if you must kill me, please, Marshal, first cut off this pig's tail of your slave's. I absolutely refuse to die wearing it."

Huang Shi burst out laughing, and his hand, which had been suspended in midair, withdrew. The men in the tent did not quite understand why Huang Shi was laughing; they all assumed he was merely laughing at Dorgon's craven fear of death, so they all chimed in and laughed along to be agreeable.

Seeing that Huang Shi's attitude had softened somewhat, Dorgon rolled his eyes and began shouting again: "If the Marshal does not kill your slave, then you are the father who has given your slave a second life! Father, Father, Father…"

As Dorgon shouted, he kowtowed desperately on the ground with heavy thuds, knocking his forehead bloody.

Huang Shi shook his head and sighed with emotion: "Truly a son of Nurhaci — he has indeed inherited his father's ways."

"That old slave ruined your slave's entire clan." Dorgon cursed again with bitter hatred, spat once more onto the ground, and then immediately resumed shouting at the top of his lungs: "When I heard that Father had slaughtered that old slave, your slave could not have been happier. That old slave should have died long ago. Father killed him well, Father killed him well indeed!"

Now Huang Shi understood how Liaodong Commander Li Chengliang could have softened his heart toward Nurhaci. Nurhaci must have cursed his own father and grandfather just as viciously before Li Chengliang back then. Huang Shi said flatly to Dorgon: "The Great Ming has a law: rebels under sixteen may be pardoned; those sixteen and above are not. Your fate is poor — your age is simply too great."

Dorgon struggled a few more times on the ground, strained to lift his head, and yelled at the top of his voice: "Father, your slave is an uncivilized savage from beyond the pale. When I was born is truly hard to say. At most I am only seventeen — really not much older. Your slave has long wished to submit. Father, you must spare your slave."

Huang Shi gave another cold laugh: "Pardon for those under sixteen is nothing more than castration and entry into the palace. It is no good thing either."

At these words, a look of delight actually surfaced on Dorgon's face. He grinned and said: "Father, your slave is willing, willing! Father may not know this, but ever since I was born I have detested women. I would gladly enter the palace and serve the Son of Heaven. Ah, that would truly be the greatest blessing under heaven! Father, send your slave there quickly — I never wanted to be a man in the first place."

Fan Wencheng, standing to the side, suddenly interjected: "But you took a wife very early, and it seems you have two secondary consorts."

"That is true, but your slave has never touched them." Dorgon hurried to defend himself, and again he strained to lift his head and shouted frantically at Huang Shi: "Father, by the vast heavens and the thick earth, that was only to deceive people's eyes. Your slave has never touched a woman. Father, look — your slave has women by his side, yet clearly not one is pregnant. That is precisely because your slave only likes men and does not like women."

Huang Shi searched his memory: historically, Dorgon had no children either; it seemed very likely he was indeed a homosexual. Dorgon was still wailing piteously below. Huang Shi pondered in silence for a moment, then suddenly his face broke into a smile: "Very well, I can send you to the palace. But this name of yours is no longer convenient to use. Hmm — you are very clever and very clear-headed, so you shall be called Rui. Ha ha, when we meet again, it will be as Eunuch Rui."

"Many thanks to Father for bestowing a name!" Eunuch Rui — Dorgon — hurriedly voiced his loud gratitude.

Huang Shi waved his hand again and ordered the man taken away: "Send someone to deliver him to the palace."

"Thank you, Father, thank you, Father, thank you, Father…" Even after Dorgon was dragged out of the tent, he continued shouting his thanks all the way, his resonant voice carrying back from the distance, unceasing.

After dealing with the matters at Zunhua, Huang Shi left Zu Dashou to hold the city and sent the remaining troops to attack Xifengkou. The Later Jin forces concentrated there were more numerous than Huang Shi had imagined, and Hu Yining's assault was not proceeding smoothly.

……

Early the next morning,

Zhang Pan accompanied Huang Shi as they hurried toward Xifengkou. He too had now been brought out by Huang Shi to gain experience on campaign. After capturing Zunhua, everyone had assumed they could finally breathe easy, but Huang Shi still wore a deeply worried expression and looked not the least bit relaxed. Zhang Pan said to him with a smile: "Elder Brother, the Jianzhou slaves now have no hope of escape even if they sprouted wings. There is no need to be so tense."

"Essentially, yes, but they still have one path left: abandon their baggage before Zunhua, have their cavalry fight to the death to break through our blocking forces, and then flee for their lives through Xifengkou." If Xifengkou was not taken, Huang Shi always worried that Hong Taiji would take a small number of trusted followers and break out.

But everyone knew that even if that succeeded, at most only a handful of trusted followers could escape. Zhang Pan laughed heartily: "Elder Brother, you are overthinking it. Never mind whether they can break through at all — even if they flee in such a wretched state, how many could possibly escape? It would be nothing more than clinging to a few last gasps."

"I also know the likelihood is small, but there is still that one loose thread. Until the day I sew it shut, I cannot set my mind at ease."

Seeing Huang Shi so stubborn, Zhang Pan did not try to dissuade him further, though a trace of puzzlement showed faintly on his face.

Without turning his head to look back, Huang Shi said flatly to Zhang Pan: "Little Brother, do you still remember the time your father and brother brought me back after the rescue?"

Huang Shi did not turn his head to look back. He spoke flatly to Zhang Zaidi: "Little brother, do you still remember the time when your father and brother brought you back after saving you?"

Huang Shi let out a long sigh: "Before I woke up, I was trapped in a terrifying dream. In my nightmare, the Jianzhou slaves breached the passes. They drowned the whole land of Huaxia in a sea of blood, and then came a darkness that blotted out the sky… The blood on the ground never vanished; it was only that the sky had turned so utterly black that it became nearly invisible to the eye."

Zhang Pan chuckled softly: "So that is why. Elder Brother is overthinking it. With the Jianzhou slaves' paltry numbers, how many more days can they keep hopping about?"

"Yes, it should never have come to that! But that dream was too real — so real that I dare not believe it was only a dream," Huang Shi murmured in agreement. Zhang Pan saw the utter gravity on Huang Shi's face and wiped the smile from his own. Huang Shi continued speaking: "I have had this nightmare for eight years now. Now it is finally about to leave me. I must free myself from this nightmare with my own hands."

"Yes, it should not have been this way! But that dream was too real, so much so that I hardly dare believe it was only a dream," Huang Shi softly agreed. Zhang Zaidi saw the utter seriousness on Huang Shi's face and put away his smile. He heard Huang Shi continue: "I have had this nightmare for eight years now. Now it is finally about to leave me. I must free myself from this nightmare with my own hands."

The tenth day of the twelfth month, Zunhua.

Zu Dashou stood atop the city wall, awe-inspiring and imposing, pointing down with his finger and cursing: "Jianzhou slaves, this place shall be your grave!"

Fan Wencheng stood right beside Zu Dashou. Now he did not even wear a helmet, letting his jet-black wig cascade down over his shoulders. Hearing Zu Dashou's curses, Fan Wencheng nodded repeatedly and joined in, roaring down at the city: "Slave chieftain, I wish I could devour your flesh and sleep on your hide — only then would the hatred in my heart be relieved!"

Hearing these curses, Hong Taiji merely sighed quietly and showed no reaction, but it enraged Manggūltai beside him. He pointed at Fan Wencheng and bellowed: "You slave, greedy for life and afraid of death, fickle and inconstant — if I ever catch you, I will have you sliced into a thousand pieces and use your heart and liver to wash down my wine."

Faced with Manggūltai's fury, Fan Wencheng merely laughed uproariously without cease.

After cursing Fan Wencheng a few more times, Manggūltai turned his head and began cursing Zu Dashou furiously: "Coward! Truly a dog exploiting its master's power! If Huang Shi were not here, would a cur like you even dare look a man in the eye?"

Zu Dashou flew into a rage at these words and shouted a command: "Men, prepare my horse! This general shall ride out to slay the foe and personally tear apart this slave's big mouth!"

Fan Wencheng hurriedly called out: "My lord, wait! The Marshal wants you to hold this city firmly. You bear a heavy responsibility — why stoop to the level of these Jianzhou slaves?"

Zu Dashou stroked his beard and remained sunk in silent deliberation, as if faintly unwilling to let the matter go.

Seeing this, Fan Wencheng again pleaded earnestly at the top of his voice: "Though my lord is brave and invincible, you must understand that the Jianzhou slaves are cunning. This is precisely a ploy to goad you into action. I beg you, my lord, to see this clearly."

Zu Dashou put on an expression of sudden enlightenment, turned, and bowed deeply in thanks: "Your insight, sir, has cleared this general's confusion in an instant. Had it not been for you today, I, Zu, would nearly have fallen into the Jianzhou slaves' trap."

Fan Wencheng hurriedly bowed in return and proclaimed in a ringing voice: "That the General does not raise troops out of anger and sees through the Jianzhou slaves' wicked scheme is truly a great blessing for this city, a great blessing for the nation."

While Zu Dashou and Fan Wencheng were putting on this duet atop the wall, Hong Taiji had already ordered the army to continue advancing: "Send out extra scouts to probe in all directions. Leave four hundred men to seal the four gates of Zunhua and keep Zu Dashou cowed."

Before they had gone a few li, scouts came galloping back to report that a Ming blocking force had been sighted ahead. The banners flying above them bore the three viper insignia, and their numbers were roughly six or seven thousand.

Hong Taiji urged the army forward without a word. Soon the Ming troops appeared before him. Hong Taiji looked with his own eyes at the banners and the military bearing of the opposing force. For a moment, he could no longer speak.

"Let us withdraw. We will go to Gubeikou." Manggūltai came to his senses quickly; he was already mentally prepared for this.

These words pulled Hong Taiji's gaze back from his fixed stare. He turned his head to look at Manggūltai and said coldly: "Withdraw? Withdraw to where? Today we will fight Huang Shi to the death."

"We cannot win. Let us go. Abandon the main body of troops, take only light cavalry and elite soldiers — we can certainly cut a bloody path out and return beyond the passes."

"Impossible. And if we abandon the main body and our allies, even if we escape beyond the passes, what then?" Hong Taiji pointed his riding crop at the Ming army opposite: "Rather than perish without a fight, why not stake everything on a desperate charge forward and decide the outcome in one battle?"

"Impossible. And even if we abandoned the main force and our allies, what then, even if we could flee beyond the pass?" Hong Taiji's riding crop pointed toward the Ming army opposite them. "Rather than perish without a fight, why not stake everything on one desperate charge and decide the victor?"

"Advance and there may be a sliver of survival; retreat and there is absolutely no hope of life. Without anyone else attacking us, our own army's morale will collapse." Hong Taiji pressed his palms together toward the heavens, murmured a few words of prayer, then cast his gaze back: "The Ming army may seem numerous and powerful, but in truth they all merely rely on Huang Shi's momentum. If we fight desperately forward and take Huang Shi's head in one stroke, then no matter how many Ming troops there are, they will scatter like birds and beasts! Right now our army is in a death ground — every man will fight with desperate courage. Who wins and who loses is not yet known!"

With that, Hong Taiji turned his head and bellowed his orders: "Inform the entire army: if you do not wish to die here, then you must smash the enemy force before us. Our homeland is just a few dozen li away. Smash them and we can go home at once — home, right away!"

Manggūltai grabbed hold of Hong Taiji and stared hard into his eyes: "And if we cannot smash them? Then we will not even have a chance to retreat."

"We already have none," Hong Taiji violently shook off Manggūltai's hand and continued issuing orders to the men around him: "Unload all the pack horses. Every single horse goes to the battlefield. Every man who can hold a blade goes to the battlefield. Leave only the absolute minimum men behind to guard the captives…"

"No." Manggūltai shouted, cutting Hong Taiji off. He seized the reins of Hong Taiji's mount and pulled the horse backward: "We retreat. We find another path."

"Fifth Brother, let go." Hong Taiji cried out loudly, grappling with Manggūltai for the reins.

Manggūltai, heedless of everything, yanked the reins forward with all his strength and, without turning his head, shouted: "Eighth Brother, in the past your elder brother has always listened to you, but this time you must listen to me for once…"

Manggūltai's words stopped abruptly. The reins slipped from his hand. He slowly turned his head, his gaze dropping to stare for a moment at the blade now buried in his waist, then slowly raised his eyes to look at his younger brother. The look in his brother's eyes had become utterly alien; it was as if Manggūltai had never known this person before.

Hong Taiji's lips were pressed tight. He gripped the hilt and twisted it hard. As the blade churned, a great mass of blood clots sprayed from Manggūltai's mouth. Hong Taiji then wrenched the blade outward with force. Manggūltai's lips moved a few times, as if he wanted to say something, but at last he toppled backward toward the sky, crashed heavily to the ground, his head lolling to strike the earth, his eyes wide open in death.

Hong Taiji pressed his lips tight, gripped the sword hilt and twisted it hard — as the blade churned, a great mass of blood clots sprayed from Manggūltai's mouth. Hong Taiji then wrenched the sword outward with force. Manggūltai's lips moved slightly, as if he wanted to say something. But finally he toppled backward, crashing heavily onto the ground, his head lolling to strike the earth, his eyes wide open as he died.

Huang Taiji wiped the blood from his blade, then pointed it straight at the corpse on the ground and barked fiercely at those around him: “Whoever dares retreat a single step shall share his crime!”

……

The two battalions of mounted troops had already been handed over to He Dingyuan’s command. He and the large group of other Ming officers all stayed behind the infantry. The two battalions of mounted troops, plus the personal guard squads of several dozen officers, totaled nearly three thousand cavalry. Once the Later Jin army began to collapse, they would launch a merciless pursuit.

This time He Dingyuan had specially shipped a giant horse from Beihai. The twelve-hundred-jin great horse made the other Ming military officers drool with envy, and they all clamored for He Dingyuan to lend them the horse for breeding. He Dingyuan first let their craving build to a peak, then generously declared that in a few years he would give each of them ten giant horses — though of course, those would all be crossbreeds with native stock. Even if Huang Shi did not forbid it, He Dingyuan would never bear to give away those purebred great horses.

Huang Shi put He Dingyuan in charge of directing the pursuit, while reminding him to be absolutely cautious. He Dingyuan laughed heartily: “The Marshal leaves no stratagem unaccounted for — the Jian slaves have already entered a death trap, and I have such a fine steed. Marshal, please set your mind at ease. Not a single hair on this junior officer’s body will be harmed.”

The Vanguard Battalion was split by Huang Shi into two parts. The larger part remained at Xifengkou — if any small bands of enemy troops fled there, Jia Minghe guaranteed he would absolutely not let them pass the pass. The smaller part was placed at Santun Camp by Huang Shi, where Yang Zhiyuan would block any possibility of flight in the other direction.

And Huang Shi himself chose a hillside to deploy his formation. He Dingyuan said this patch of ground was such that he could not ride with his horse blindfolded. The Later Jin’s main mounted force slowly assembled before him, a dense black mass blanketing the mountain wilds.

The forty nine-pounder cannons of the Firefighting and Rock Battalions were already arrayed in a single line, and eight hundred artillerymen stood at their posts in high spirits. Behind the artillery position, the six thousand four hundred infantry of sixteen foot companies were drawn up in square, orderly formations. Countless banners fluttered above their heads as they silently watched the distant cavalry horde, like a mass of dark clouds.

Huang Shi sat on horseback before the entire army, also silently watching the dense black mass of Later Jin cavalry opposite. It looked to be no less than fifteen thousand, if not twenty thousand. This number already exceeded the count of armored soldiers Huang Shi knew of; it seemed the enemy was mobilizing with all their might, preparing for a final desperate gamble.

“Never before have I felt the burden on my shoulders as heavy as it is today.” No one stood beside Huang Shi. The barbarian army before him was the enemy he gnashed his teeth in deepest hatred for. Now they had fallen into the net, and Huang Shi believed he was about to strike down the foe he most wished to strike down.

A lone rider came over from the opposite side. He dismounted far in front of Huang Shi’s lines. Several inner guards went out to meet him. After being searched, the envoy walked forward respectfully with slow steps and stopped before Huang Shi’s horse. The envoy brought a plea from Huang Taiji: he begged Huang Shi to let him off at the critical moment, leaving behind only part of the Mongols and part of the bondservants. Huang Taiji said that if Huang Shi nodded, then he would not launch a death-or-glory charge, but would deliberately arrange for part of the Mongols to throw their lives away, allowing Huang Shi to safely gain rich and abundant merit, along with the head of his elder brother Manggūltai.

Huang Taiji’s ultimatum was stated with utter bluntness. He spoke without the slightest concealment, piercing straight through to the ambition and vigilance hidden in Huang Shi’s heart. Huang Taiji told Huang Shi: whether for the purpose of self-preservation, or for the dream of ascending to a higher position, Huang Shi ought to leave a path of survival for the Later Jin. The Later Jin regime, Huang Taiji declared, was both Huang Shi’s life-saving talisman and his ladder.

Hearing such words from a man he had once not dared to lift his eyes to, what rose in Huang Shi’s chest was not pride but sorrow. He refused Huang Taiji’s envoy as tactfully as he could and put forward his own counter-proposal: “Go back and tell your Khan — for the sake of his people, and for his own sake, lay down your arms and surrender. So long as he does not cause my men to shed blood, I will repay him for it. I guarantee I will not wantonly kill a single person, and I will do my utmost to preserve his life, so that he may be reunited with his wife.”

Before the envoy turned to leave, Huang Shi called him back: “Go back and tell your master — no matter what, I have always held his breadth of vision and ability in deep admiration.”

What Huang Shi faced was the most vicious enemy of the Han people in several thousand years — after entering the pass, the Manchu Qing slaughtered nearly two hundred million Han down to forty million. Over the nearly three hundred years that followed, large-scale massacres came one after another, the victims more numerous than all the massacres of the previous two thousand years combined.

What he faced was also the most vicious enemy the Mongol people had ever known in their history — the Manchu Qing ruthlessly enforced a policy of male reduction against the Mongol tribes. Whenever a Mongol tribe exceeded its male quota, lots were drawn to kill the excess males in order to reduce the male population. This indiscriminate slaughter even included the Khorchin Mongols, the iron-hard allies of the Aisin Gioro clan. The Khorchin Mongol male quota was eighty thousand. The slave chieftain Fulin and his son, the slave chieftain Xuan, were just as merciless when slaughtering the Khorchin. In a mere forty years, the father and son slaughtered three hundred thousand Khorchin Mongol males alone.

What he faced was also the enemy of the Hui people — the Manchu Qing carried out persistent genocide against the various Hui communities, and formulated the policy of “using the Hui to contain the Han, and using the Han to control the Hui,” doing their utmost to incite ethnic hatred and encourage mutual slaughter between Hui and Han.

What he faced was also the mortal enemy of the Miao people…

What he faced was also the mortal enemy of the Yi people…

What Huang Shi faced was precisely the greatest and most savage enemy of all the peoples who had lived on this continent for thousands of years. On the shoulders of the several thousand officers and soldiers behind him rested the lives of countless millions of innocent common folk to come — never had so few determined the happiness of so many!

The envoy had already ridden back into the opposing formation and emerged no more. The enemy army began to slowly advance…

What Huang Shi faced was also the enemy of Huaxia civilization:

The Ming dynasty possessed brilliant achievements in music and art. For example, twelve-tone equal temperament was proposed during the Ming, and even in Huang Shi’s original era, it remained the cornerstone of modern music — yet it could not survive on the native soil where it was born, because it was banned and destroyed by the Manchu Qing.

Ming medicine was striving to develop. For instance, Chinese medicine for the first time proposed that humans think with the brain, not the heart — but it lost the chance to develop further, because these new theories were banned and destroyed by the Manchu Qing.

The Ming translated Euclid’s Elements… Ming women knew the Earth might be round and debated it, even writing notes on the subject… Ming scholars prepared to write technical books introducing methods of steelmaking and iron smelting — all these books were banned and destroyed by the Manchu Qing.

The slave chieftain Fulin launched a literary inquisition on average once a year. His son averaged one every five years. His grandson averaged one every two years. And his great-grandson Hongli actually launched literary inquisitions at an average rate of twice a year!

The slave chieftain Hongli also compiled the Siku Quanshu, declaring that only three thousand books were permitted to exist in Huaxia. Nearly seven thousand books were banned and destroyed while their titles were recorded; as for those banned and destroyed without even their titles recorded, they were beyond counting. Heavens — never mind the two-millennia-long, brilliant Huaxia tradition. In the Ming dynasty alone, in the Tianqi Emperor’s reign alone, more than twenty thousand books were approved for publication.

In Huang Shi’s personal impression, when one opened the history of the Manchu Qing, apart from “slaughter,” only two words could be seen: ignorance and national betrayal. From the beginning of the Manchu Qing until the 1911 Xinhai Revolution, in all of world history there was not a single Chinese scientific luminary, not a single technological invention belonging to China. Over more than two hundred years of rule, this regime actually signed one thousand one hundred national-betrayal treaties — an average of three per year!

The enemy army halted once more and began to deploy. Huang Shi knew the great battle was ultimately unavoidable. He turned his horse around and gazed at his loyal and valiant troops — his fully Westernized army. Huang Shi had a fully Westernized system, and he also had fully Westernized thought.

— The great civilization founded by our Huaxia ancestors has been ravaged to such a degree that it can no longer revive by its own strength. It must draw nourishment from an external civilization before it can stand upright again.

— Countless books have been obliterated in this darkness. I do not even know what my ancestors once created. When the Jian slaves slander the Great Ming as an ignorant realm just like their own, I cannot even find enough concrete reasons to refute them.

……

“Loyal and valiant soldiers of the Great Ming — I do not speak to you now as the Regional Commander of the Funing Army, nor do I speak to you in the name of General Who Subdues the Caitiffs, nor do I give you orders in the name of Grand Regional Commander of the Great Ming.”

Huang Shi spurred his mount and rode before the officers and soldiers of the Firefighting and Rock Battalions: “Brothers all — brothers who shared hardship with me, Huang Mou, on Changsheng Island — please, as in days past, see me as the Regional Military Commissioner of Changsheng Island. Please lend me, Huang Shi, the strength of your arm!”

Huang Shi dismounted before the formation, slapped his horse twice on the rump, and then strode into the midst of his soldiers.

The enemy troops opposite began to accelerate. A boom — then another boom. The artillery began firing upon the enemy army.

Huang Shi gently drew his sword. When the Tianqi Emperor bestowed it upon Huang Shi, he had said that this blade must drink its fill of the blood of traitors and rebels. Rebels were easy enough to deal with — but what of traitors?

— I am but a military officer. I can do my utmost to campaign east and west; I can cut away one festering sore after another from the body of the Great Ming Empire. But my strength ends there. Countless corrupt officials are like borers, stealing away the nation’s foundation, riddling the motherland with a thousand gaping wounds.

— I pacified the She-An Rebellion. I pacified the Min-Yue pirates. Today, I will again deliver a devastating blow to the Jian slaves here. By all reason, the Great Ming should face no more raging tides. The countless common folk of the Central Plains could have their added taxes removed. The state should have funds to relieve disaster victims and money to dredge the river channels. But those who steal the Ming are beyond reason.

— But, if… if the common folk must still rise in revolt… I, Huang Shi, will absolutely never wield a butcher’s blade against starving people. I built this army absolutely not to slaughter innocent commoners. I and my army are absolutely not tools for the thieves to butcher the people.

— Behind the enemy army opposite are countless common folk, folk who suffer calamity because that cur Yuan betrayed the nation. If I were not here, they would undoubtedly be carried off as plunder beyond the pass, to live out miserable lives under the slave-masters’ whips from then on. That cur Yuan was not the first, nor will he be the last traitor who harms the public to fatten his own purse. Their crimes topple the nation, annihilate civilization, and bring suffering upon the common people.

— Yes, I have betrayed many people. Whether Sun Degong, Miss Sun, or Huang Taiji — they all trusted me, opened their hearts to me. But I meant to betray them, because I cannot betray my people. Whether Chongzhen or Tianqi, both may be called deeply gracious to me. But if that day truly comes, I will betray them just the same. I do not care how the history books of later ages will judge my life, because I cannot stand on the opposite side from the countless millions of common folk.

— From the time I first learned to read as a child, my teachers taught me: forever love your people, forever love the people of your motherland. Sun Degong, Miss Sun, Huang Taiji — I have already seen the fury in their eyes. In the future, perhaps that innocent youth will be added to them. I do not know if gods truly exist in this world, nor whether I must face the reproach of those I betrayed after death. But whether I face a court in heaven or on earth, I can look straight into the judge’s eyes and say: the reason I am such a man is that my motherland raised me to be such a man.

Huang Shi suddenly drove his sword heavily into the ground and bellowed with all his strength: “Today, not a single commoner shall be taken beyond the pass, and not a single enemy shall break through our line.”

……

Squad Commander Song Army Supervisor watched the enemy troops running closer and closer and said in a deep voice to his men: “Gentlemen, I am proud to fight shoulder to shoulder with you.”

The drums sounded. Song Army Supervisor drew a deep breath and shouted at the top of his lungs: “Whole company — form hollow square! Front rank — fix bayonets!”

“Kill!”

Du Guqiu and his comrades in the ranks answered the order with a single roaring cry…

Ten thousand horses at full gallop! Bearing the momentum to trample mountains and rivers asunder, the black flood roared as it charged northward. Everything on the plain — the official road, the brush, the cottages… everything, everything trembled before this flood, swallowed by it in an instant. The black army, like seething lava, shrieked as it sought to burn every obstacle before it to ashes… The countless hollow squares of the Funing Army blocking the path of the black flood stretched diagonally from the foot of the slope all the way to the summit, as towering and majestic as a mountain range!

(The End)

Read the sequel to Stealing the Ming, “Wolf and Tiger.”