Chapter 45: Section Ten

Although this proposal did not surprise Fei Liguo, he still considered it for a long time. Sitting on the ground, Fei Liguo gripped his waist saber in his right hand and used it to draw circles in the sandy soil, occasionally letting out a few sighs.

After deep deliberation, Fei Liguo believed he had made ample preparations and organized his thoughts: "Why should we kill Sun Degong? As you said, Sun Degong will inevitably rebel in Guangning, and the sooner this happens the better. So it will be either tonight or tomorrow morning at the latest that he makes his move. When that happens, we can flee to Liaoxi and be safe. I will not do something that risks my life."

"Zu Dashou." Huang Shi said just three words. Since Fei Liguo was already convinced that Vice Regional Commander Zu Dashou was a spy, fleeing to Liaoxi was clearly also very unsafe.

The goal of first suppressing before raising had not been achieved, so Fei Liguo asked again: "What benefit is there in killing Sun Degong?"

This was the core issue. Huang Shi also understood that Fei Liguo's long preamble was a common bargaining tactic, after all Huang Shi was a Regional Military Commissioner while Fei Liguo was a Company Commander. Since he was asking Fei Liguo to risk his life with him, if he did not clearly explain the benefits beforehand, Fei Liguo would not be at ease.

"Regional Commander Liu Qu is dead, Vice Regional Commander Luo Yiguan is also dead, and Vice Regional Commander Mao Wenlong is far away in Korea. Not to mention Sun Degong's rebellion, the other Guangning Army generals are likely all in grave danger. The vacancies go without saying, and these men's properties are all in Guangning." Both fame and fortune — Huang Shi laid out the big cake and waited for Fei Liguo to cut into it.

"If Guangning cannot be held," since the Later Jin had risen in arms, the Ming army had never once successfully defended a city, Fei Liguo began drawing circles on the ground again: "we may not necessarily have enough time to move their family wealth, and as for official posts, don't even think about it."

"The two of us together have nearly five hundred soldiers, plus enough horses. Also, how much reward do you estimate Sun Degong's head will be worth?" Huang Shi, seeing that Fei Liguo was already tempted, did his utmost to encourage him.

"Ah, my wife and younger sister are both in Guangning. If there truly is a chance of success, I must go and try." Fei Liguo let out a heavy sigh and finally made up his mind: "Sun Degong has a total of eight Company Commander units, eleven hundred men. You have two hundred men, and my unit has one hundred twenty. He still has seven hundred soldiers. Add the servants of the Sun residence, and he can scrape together another hundred men. He has certainly contacted other officers as well — let's count it as a thousand men. What is your plan?"

"When we left Guangning, there were still fifteen thousand reserve soldiers in the city, and Wang Huazhen had over a hundred personal guards. Sun Degong's seven hundred men have to control several city gates, control over ten thousand soldiers in the city, deal with Wang Huazhen, and seize the armory, the gunpowder depot, and the various government offices. His forces will be very dispersed."

Fei Liguo calculated in his mind: "He will have at most a hundred men around him, or maybe only a few dozen, perhaps even just his personal guards. Even so, it is still very tight. Once he reacts, his forces will still be several times ours, and the soldiers in the city are not necessarily reliable. Also, do you think he might have gone to borrow troops from the Jianzhou slaves?"

"No, there isn't enough time. Right now there are no more than two or three generals in Guangning. Sun Degong, with forethought against the unprepared, will deal with them, and Guangning will effectively be an empty city. I suspect Sun Degong will inevitably spread the word that the Guangning Army has been completely annihilated and that the Jianzhou slaves are at the city gates. For him, encouraging the soldiers to flee Guangning is the best strategy. We think the defending soldiers are unreliable, and Sun Degong will think them even more unreliable."

Historically, this was exactly what Sun Degong did. When the ten thousand soldiers in Guangning heard that the Later Jin grand army was advancing, they either scattered in a panic or surrendered to Sun Degong. Because apart from Sun Degong there were very few senior officers present, the rebel army, with a force of just over a thousand men, seized the city gates and equipment depots.

"So we only need to proclaim that Xiong Tingbi has routed the Jianzhou slaves and recaptured Xipingbao." The plan Fei Liguo proposed coincided perfectly with Huang Shi's own.

"Correct. Sun Degong's subordinate Company Commanders will have no problem following him, but the common soldiers are certainly motivated by the desire to stay alive. As soon as they hear that Xiong Tingbi has won or that the Guan-Ning grand army is advancing, not to mention the coerced common soldiers, even the rebels themselves will fall into chaos."

Fei Liguo stood up and fastened his waist saber back onto his armor: "Then our only problem is how to enter the city. I do not believe Sun Degong will fail to immediately seize control of the city gates."

"Exactly. That is our only trouble."

Huang Shi outlined a rough plan. Fei Liguo, seasoned and experienced, corrected the plan's flaws one by one. Once the two had finished their discussion, they immediately split up to act.

Originally, for this great battle, Guangning Garrison had already drawn away the able-bodied soldiers from the various guard battalions and post stations. The news of defeat had also caused some of the remaining soldiers to flee, so when Huang Shi swept through the surrounding post stations, it was practically effortless. If the officials at the post stations or the Squad Commanders of the guard battalions showed the slightest resistance, Jin Qiude led his men swarming in to hack them to pieces. Needless to say, the horses, and even the remaining post station soldiers and guard troops were all forcibly conscripted by Huang Shi into his army, suddenly adding nearly two hundred more men.

Fei Liguo had several dozen flagpoles made, all hoisting the banners of the Guan-Ning Army, and he also found a burly subordinate to impersonate an Assistant Regional Commander of the Guan-Ning Army. Then Fei Liguo directed his men to surround a village, slaughtering everyone regardless of age or gender. He tied several dozen heads into queues to pass them off as Later Jin heads, hung them all on the flagpoles, and prepared to use them to deceive the rebels and spread the rumor that the Later Jin had suffered a great defeat. In addition, along the way Fei Liguo also captured several dozen scattered soldiers from Guangning. After executing a few who refused to obey, the rest were broken up and integrated into his Company Commander unit.

In just one short afternoon, the two men expanded their force to seven hundred men. Three hundred against a thousand sounded very bad; seven hundred against a thousand was about right. The two men, in high spirits, began to divide up authority. Troop strength meant status, and even more so it meant merit, so neither was willing to take a loss.

After a round of bargaining, Huang Shi took the larger share, commanding a total of five hundred troops, while the remaining two hundred-plus men went to Fei Liguo. This put Fei Liguo at ease — no matter what, the merit would not all be taken by Huang Shi. If the rebellion was suppressed successfully, a Regional Military Commissioner post was certainly guaranteed. And Huang Shi had cobbled together a Mobile Corps Commander's establishment. He felt that after defeating Sun Degong, he could become the largest single military force in Guangning City, which would be very advantageous for him to secure the post of commanding the city's defense.

However, the two men immediately began to suffer hardships. Huang Shi's suffering was even greater than Fei Liguo's. He had under him only three acting Squad Commanders who did not even have personal guard units, and he simply could not control an army of five hundred men. Although he promoted the three acting Squad Commanders to acting Company Commanders in one breath, Yang Luhuo and the others were all bare-stick appointees, each leading an over-strength Company Commander unit of one hundred twenty men, and all were struggling mightily.

Yang Luhuo and the others urgently established their own personal guard units, selecting men from among Huang Shi's old subordinates. Huang Shi originally had nine personal guards; now three had left, and one had been killed as a Sun Degong spy, leaving only five men. The three acting Company Commanders each also took one to serve as Squad Commander, that is, as the acting Company Commander's deputy.

But there were absolutely no candidates left for acting Squad Commander. Each Company Commander unit of one hundred twenty men had only two officers: one acting Company Commander and one Squad Commander. Even with this desperate pushing of responsibilities onto his subordinates, Huang Shi ultimately found that besides managing the three Company Commander units, he also had to directly command one hundred forty men, without the assistance of a Squad Commander, and with only two personal guards left at his side. Huang Shi felt this situation was impossible to endure.

Fei Liguo's side was not much better, so they decided on an emergency brainwashing session.

Addressing these seven hundred soldiers, Fei Liguo first denounced the war crimes of the Later Jin, describing the horrific scenes of utter devastation left wherever the Manchu army passed, and then told the soldiers that if they did not want their parents and brothers to die, and their wives and daughters to be taken by others, the only path was to fight their way back to Guangning.

Huang Shi immediately followed, taking the stage with promises that after annihilating the Guangning rebels, there would not only be rewards, but they could also divide up the rebel generals' children, women, and treasures. The two-pronged assault by Fei Liguo and Huang Shi barely managed to maintain basic discipline, and they could be reluctantly described as "half regular army, half rabble."

The time had come for Jin Qiude to display his talents. That night, he volunteered to patrol the perimeter of the camp to prevent soldiers from deserting. Just after nightfall, Jin Qiude had already sliced two soldiers to death who had come out to relieve themselves, claiming they were trying to use the opportunity to escape. The wretched, piercing screams of those two unlucky men instantly cowed all the soldiers.

On the twenty-second day of the first month, before dawn, Huang Shi and Fei Liguo mustered their semi-regular army and set out. Although a dozen or so soldiers took the chance to slip away, they still reached Shaling in time.

Around Shaling lay an endless expanse of corpses. The annihilation of tens of thousands of Guangning's elite troops had left behind many weapons and suits of armor. Although the Later Jin had swept through, quite a bit still remained, to the benefit of Huang Shi's group. Jin Qiude once again launched a killing spree, cutting down several men who, after finding weapons, still wanted to scavenge some money from the dead.

At the hour of Si, the two men's semi-rabble approached Guangning, and the towering city walls were already in sight. Not daring to advance further, Huang Shi dispatched several small squads to scout each gate. Before long, they indeed reported back that all four gates were tightly shut.

Although it was within expectations, Fei Liguo was still somewhat disappointed: "Man proposes, Heaven disposes. If Sun Degong subdued Lord Wang yesterday, or if today not a single person inside can fight their way out, then in the end we will still be useless."

"Rest assured. Last night, Sun Degong deploying everything was already the fastest possible speed; he could not have made his move until today at the earliest. Inside the city, the Provincial Governor and the Prefect have over a hundred soldiers and guards under them, plus the soldiers unwilling to join the rebellion. Seizing one city gate should be no problem at all."

After ordering the entire army to dismount and rest, Fei Liguo kept uneasily hacking at a tree with his saber. Whether they could enter the city aside, he could not even fully staff his officers, and the officers' personal guard units had just been recruited. Thinking about commanding this kind of army against Sun Degong's core elite troops, Fei Liguo's heart was filled with dread. He had been a personal guard just two months ago, and now he suddenly had to command several hundred men.

At this moment, Huang Shi was leisurely lying in the shade of a tree resting. Fei Liguo could not tell whether this Regional Military Commissioner who had jumped three ranks at once was confident and composed, or simply ignorant of the immensity of heaven and earth. Fei Liguo now had two wishes: best if Huang Shi's bluff strategy succeeded, or alternatively, if Sun Degong came with seven or eight personal guards and met them in a narrow encounter, then several hundred men could swarm forward and hack Sun Degong to pieces.

"My lord," a scout riding over on horseback began shouting from afar: "The north gate, the north gate."