[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-48":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220665,1614,"Chapter 48: Section Thirteen","stealing-ming-chapter-48",48,"\u003Cp>Huang Shi listened with a faint smile for a while. The soldiers of the pacification army, suddenly released from their excessive tension, burst into waves of roaring laughter. He guessed that the other side, hearing this jeering and cursing, must be both ashamed and furious. And the expressions on the faces of the protagonists in those stories as they now faced Sun Degong must be very amusing — Huang Shi regretted that he had no chance to see them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Arrows still kept shooting over, and the cannons still boomed from time to time, but the pacification army was no longer panicked. The wounded soldiers all began cursing loudly: \"You bastards on the other side, once we finish you off, we'll go take care of your slutty womenfolk.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now that morale had risen, Huang Shi was at ease. He did not commit his own one hundred men to the fight, but instead called over Jin Qiude. \"Bring your men and follow me.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since Fei Liguo could pin down Sun Degong's core forces here, Huang Shi had no intention of staying. He assembled two hundred soldiers and began sweeping around Guangning city. The rebel forces scattered throughout the city now consisted only of small squads, all built around Sun Degong's old troops as the backbone, with coerced Ming soldiers making up the bulk. Huang Shi resolved to trim away these outer wings first.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a while, quite a few people suddenly came running up behind Huang Shi — a team of civilian laborers led by government office runners from the prefect's office. They carried water and shouldered planks, giving the pacification soldiers drink and carrying away the wounded. It turned out that Wang Huazhen had already begun gathering scattered troops, and Prefect Gao Bangzuo was gradually pulling his constables out.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With men now in hand, Gao Bangzuo immediately set about fighting fires, calming the populace, and organizing civilian laborers to rush the wounded to safety. This at once greatly lightened the pressure on Huang Shi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After another while, Gao Bangzuo even managed to scrounge up some camels and sent them over, towing three small cannons behind them. Whenever Huang Shi encountered a rebel strongpoint, he directed his soldiers to blast it with the small cannons, and progress accelerated dramatically. Before long, Huang Shi had swept through and secured the gunpowder storehouse and the grain storehouse. Every time he captured a storehouse, he would soon see Prefect Gao hurrying over to take charge of it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Along the way, Huang Shi continuously incorporated rebels and small groups of Ming soldiers into his force. In just over two double-hours, he appointed six squad commanders, two of whom were actually rebels who had switched sides. By the time all this was done, it was already two ke past noon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before the hour of Wei, the prefect's office actually delivered hot food, which greatly surprised Huang Shi. After questioning the government office runners, he learned that Gao Bangzuo was distributing rice and cloth, encouraging the city residents to help with cooking and care for the wounded. The womenfolk who had settled down were all making bandages, or washing vegetables and rinsing rice, slaughtering pigs and preparing meals. In the areas controlled by the pacification army, every household had lit its stove, and cooking smoke was already curling up in wisps.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao Bangzuo had been beaten to a pulp by Sun Degong during the upheaval, and in less than half a double-hour had lost all his storehouses. Had the pacification army not arrived, even the prefect's office could not have held out much longer. So Huang Shi had originally looked down on this Confucian scholar, but now, drinking meat broth and with his men eating hot food, and with buckets of thirst-quenching well water on the carts beside him, he began to feel that Prefect Gao was not such a bad man after all.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After eating and drinking his fill, Huang Shi returned to the main battlefield. Sun Degong's men had fought bitterly for most of the day on empty stomachs, and with the pacification army continuously receiving reinforcements, they were now surrounded in the Sun residence.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The one commanding the battle now was that Guangning officer who had protected Wang Huazhen during his escape. He had already shed his bloodstained battle robe and changed into a new cloak, and was sitting behind the lines directing the taunting. But the content had now changed to: \"Capture Sun Degong alive, reward one thousand silver taels, hereditary company commander.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The great banner of the fake Guan-Ning Assistant Regional Commander was gone now. On the banner behind that military officer were written a line of large characters: \"Guangning Assistant Regional Commander Jiang.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Your subordinate pays respects to the General.\" Huang Shi gave a respectful military salute. \"The rebels at the Guangning grain storehouse, cloth storehouse, gunpowder storehouse, and the west and south city gates have been swept clear.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You are Commander Huang, correct? I am Jiang Chaodong.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"General Jiang.\" Huang Shi saluted again, feeling that the name was quite a mouthful.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jiang Chaodong smiled at Huang Shi. \"I just asked Company Commander Fei. Your loyalty and righteousness are known to me now, and the Provincial Governor also knows and has summoned him away. The traitor Sun is now tightly surrounded. Commander Huang, are you willing to seize this merit?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Thank you, my lord Jiang. Your subordinate will certainly capture Sun Degong alive.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After arriving outside Sun Degong's residence, Huang Shi saw Zhao Manxiong. After the senior Company Commander Fei had left, Acting Company Commander Zhao had become the frontline commander. Wang Huazhen had just been to the armory and had personally called out to the rebels. The morale of the pacification army and the rebels had now completely swapped places.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, as the battle dragged on, the rebels who had been keeping watch over the ten thousand Guangning soldiers within the city had either been pulled away by Sun Degong to join the fight, or had surrendered or fled. Many Ming soldiers had also seized the chance to switch sides and rally under the banners of the Provincial Governor and the Prefect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Now in Guangning city, only the east gate was still held by the rebel officer Lu Guozhi. Not long before, Sun Degong had led several hundred diehard followers in an attempt to break out toward the east gate, but had been forced back into his residence by the pacification army and tightly surrounded.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi and Fei Liguo had discussed what to say to Wang Huazhen. The gist was that Sun Degong had hinted at his plans to the two of them, but neither had complied. Before the battle at Xiping, the two had found Sun Degong suspicious and had gone together to seize him, only to be outmaneuvered by his treachery. After discussing it, they felt they could not flee alone, so they gathered their subordinates and returned to Guangning.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Degong's reputation was now utterly ruined; no one would believe anything he said. And Huang Shi and the others reckoned that Sun Degong also considered the two of them traitors. That way, nothing would be exposed. But Huang Shi still wanted to ask Fei Liguo personally and hear exactly what he had said. After searching for a long time without finding Fei Liguo, he grew somewhat puzzled and asked Zhao Manxiong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"After Lord Wang returned, he put Assistant Regional Commander Jiang in command of the battle. The armory was soon taken, and Sun Degong was forced back into the Sun residence. Fei Liguo wanted to show off and led the assault, but took an arrow in the calf and has withdrawn to recover.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How many people are still inside the Sun residence?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"A hundred or so, maybe fewer.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"How did it come to this? Why didn't he break out directly from the armory?\" Huang Shi was somewhat puzzled.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhao Manxiong shook his head. His own superior was a man who ate alone and the whole family was fed, but others were not like that. \"Sun Degong's old mother, wife and children, his entire household of several hundred, are all in Guangning. He wanted to cover his family's escape. Otherwise, with his martial prowess, they could not have stopped him.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But now that he was surrounded on all sides, it was different. Just earlier, Sun Degong had carried his mother on his back while trying to break out, and had suffered several severe wounds; it was said his arm had also been cut off. Now the rebels were a spent force. After the failed breakout and being trapped, Sun Degong had very few men left.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I never imagined Sun Degong was a filial son.\" Huang Shi suddenly felt a touch of melancholy, but it lasted only an instant. For the sake of glory and riches, this man had caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Ming soldiers, leaving behind so many orphans and widowed mothers, so many white-haired elders. \"All troops, hear the order: storm the Sun residence. Spare no male. The womenfolk you may take for yourselves.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Attack!\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing that merit was within easy reach, Huang Shi's subordinates' morale soared. They quickly charged into the Sun residence, capturing alive Sun Degong's accomplices — Company Commander Lang Shaozhen, Garrison Commander Huang Jin, and others. Sun Degong himself committed suicide at the last moment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most of Sun Degong's able-bodied retainers and male servants had already died in battle. The survivors were immediately cut down to the last man — each head was worth five silver taels. The womenfolk of the Sun household were promptly divided up among Huang Shi's soldiers. The cries and wails that resounded through the Sun residence gave Huang Shi a feeling of déjà vu, reminding him of that Ming court spy in Liaoyang — the first man whose entire family was exterminated because of Huang Shi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sitting in the main hall of the Sun residence, Huang Shi drifted hazily into his memories, never once thinking that if the Sun household did not weep, then the hundreds of thousands of commoners in Guangning would have to weep — how could this compare to the merchant who was harmed last time? Just as he was growing despondent, the voice of Yang Luhuo startled him awake: \"Your subordinate has brought Miss Sun and her personal maidservant.\"\u003C\u002Fp>",1719,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","e9f1c6ad49bafdc96947c47e6f18741627210298bf86f9356433760a388c1f6d","stealing-ming-chapter-49","stealing-ming-chapter-47",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]