Chapter 105: Night Raid

In the small hours of the morning, when a person's weariness is heaviest and sleep is deepest, the roving bandits' great camp outside the city was pitch black, and the few sentries on watch had also found places to sleep. The camp, which had not been set up with palisades, was like a naked maiden, exposed to the sight of all.

The moon in the sky was covered by a patch of dark clouds, and a gentle breeze blew, bringing a hint of coolness. Just as the hour of Chou arrived, the south gate of Shouzhou quietly opened. The bricks, stones, and timber that had originally blocked the city gate had been cleared away completely, and ranks of armored, weapon-bearing government troops filed out of the city in silence, one after another.

These were one hundred soldiers selected by Huang Degong from his army, led by Chiliarch Wu Qun. Huang Degong had wanted to lead the sortie personally, but was firmly overruled by several chiliarchs on the grounds that the commander must not be placed in peril. Because several chiliarchs all wanted to win merit and reward, and could not settle the dispute, they could only decide who would lead the troops by throwing dice. In the end, Wu Qun, amid the angry shouts of "Cheating!" and "Trickery!" from the others, gleefully obtained the right to command.

All one hundred men carried short weapons such as long knives, hammers, and axes. After all, this was not a pitched battle in formation; short weapons were more suited to close combat. Fearing reflection, the originally gleaming blades and axe edges had been daubed with ink, and up close one could smell a strong odor.

Most of the soldiers carried fire-starters hidden in bamboo tubes at their bosoms; when needed, they removed the cap at the lower end, took out the fire-starter, and blew on it to ignite it.

Another dozen or so men carefully carried bamboo baskets, in which were earthenware jars wrapped in thick cotton cloth, containing boiling vegetable oil that was now cooling. Another dozen or so men each carried several paper packets filled with gunpowder; vegetable oil plus gunpowder was enough to make the fire spread even more fiercely.

During the day, Huang Degong had carefully observed the bandit camp from the arrow tower. Although he had not been able to discover where the bandits' cavalry was, nor seen Gao Yingxiang's great tent, he had noticed that in the northwest corner of the bandit camp there was an area set up with palisades and a camp gate, and the tents there were also fairly neat and orderly, standing out conspicuously in the chaotic bandit camp. It seemed this was where the bandits' elite forces were.

The place Huang Degong had seen was precisely where a two-thousand-strong cavalry force of the Dashing King's camp was stationed. Gao Yingxiang, to guard against Zhang Xianzhong, had ordered Gao Ying'en to set up camp there to keep watch on Zhang Xianzhong's camp.

As for Gao Yingxiang's great tent, it was situated at the center of the entire camp outside the south gate, a full five li or more from Shouzhou city, beyond the range of normal vision, so Huang Degong had not discovered it.

The one hundred men selected this time were all soldiers who could see at night, were bold yet careful, and were willing to stake their lives for promotion and reward.

After the night-raid force had all left the city, the city gate was not closed. In the gate tunnel and inside the city, one thousand government troops sat resting, prepared to receive the returning raiders. On the city walls flanking the gate, five hundred archers were also ready, quietly awaiting the return of the night-raid soldiers.

One had to admit Huang Degong was extremely bold—leaving the city gate wide open like that, not at all afraid that the roving bandits might counterattack the raiding troops and then take advantage of the open gate to charge into the city. The nickname "Huang the Daredevil" had not been given wrongly; he truly did not think much of the bandits' fighting ability.

Wu Qun was at the very front of the column. Seeing that everyone had assembled, he gripped a short axe and, without a word, headed northwest. The one hundred men fanned out behind him, following closely.

The darkness before dawn was as thick as concentrated ink. Wu Qun and his men could only grope their way forward, heading toward the direction where a faint light glowed in the distance. The light came from a lantern the bandits had hung at their camp gate, some two or three li away.

But the darkness likewise gave them excellent cover. Several hundred men advanced silently; occasionally someone tripped over debris on the ground and made a noise, but there was no other sound at all.

After about a quarter of an hour, Wu Qun and his men neared the outermost bandit camp. From the chaotic tents, grass shelters, and hovels came snoring that rose and fell one after another. The bandits were sleeping soundly; no one noticed or detected the government troops crouching in the darkness barely a dozen paces away.

At the end of a passage some dozens of paces wide and several hundred paces long lay the bandits' elite camp.

A lantern hung high on each side of the camp gate. In the dim yellow light, two sentries with helmets askew and armor awry sat leaning against the palisade, hugging their long spears and snoring loudly.

By the faint light, Wu Qun waved his hand, and several soldiers behind him, crouching low, crept forward along both sides of the passage, hugging the outer tents. These men were all skilled in martial arts and adept at close-quarters killing.

It was high summer; the heat of the day went without saying, and even the night was so hot it was hard to sleep, only cooling slightly in the latter half of the night.

The two bandit sentries had come on duty at the hour of Zi. After standing for a little less than half an hour, they were yawning endlessly, and finally, unable to hold on, they simply leaned against the palisade and fell fast asleep.

The roving bandits ordinarily had no military discipline at all. Gao Yingxiang and the others were all of common birth and understood nothing of the ways of soldiering. Moreover, the roving bandits numbered in the hundreds of thousands at a drop, the vast majority being farmers who scratched a living from the soil, and simply could not be controlled, so they were left to their own devices like a flock of sheep.

The composition of the Dashing King's camp's cavalry was also quite complex, including former horse bandits, barbarians from beyond the frontier, and even deserters from the border troops. As his most relied-upon fighting force, Gao Yingxiang took the cavalry quite seriously. He also knew his own methods were inadequate, so the cavalry's leaders, great and small, were basically former government officers. These border troops were old soldiers, and naturally brought some of the government army's regulations with them—setting up camp and posting sentries being among them. Unfortunately, the roving bandits had long been accustomed to slackness and negligence, and many regulations existed in form only, without substance. Now, with a strong city before them and pursuers behind, even the most basic sentry duty and camp patrols had been neglected.

One of the most important factors was this: since Gao Yingxiang had raised his banner, in several years of countless engagements with various government armies, the government troops had never once launched a night attack against the roving bandits.

Several soldiers crept to near the camp gate, their forms hidden in the shadows of the tents. After looking around, two figures lunged forward, clapping a hand over the bandits' mouths, then driving sharp daggers into the side of the bandits' necks and yanking downward hard. The bandits' carotid arteries and windpipes were severed, and great gouts of blood spurted out violently as they slipped from their sweet dreams into boundless eternal night.

After disposing of the sentries, the several soldiers immediately opened the camp gate, and Wu Qun led the remaining soldiers, treading on tiptoe, swiftly closing in on the gate.

Once through the gate, Wu Qun made a hand signal. He himself led several dozen men along the right palisade toward the rear, while the remaining several dozen, led by a Centurion, went along the left toward the rear. Their objective was to find the bandits' cavalry stables and fodder, then set fires to panic the horses.

Wu Qun led his men swiftly along the palisade toward the rear. After turning a corner, the light of the lanterns at the camp gate could no longer be seen, and the group returned to groping forward in the dark.

Wu Qun, walking at the front, suddenly stepped on something. He lost his balance and pitched forward onto the ground, his short axe flying from his hand. Immediately a loud, abusive shout rang out: "Ow! Damn your mother! Are you blind! Fuck your mother!"

It turned out to be a bandit who could not stand the summer heat. Finding the tent too crowded and hot, he had slipped out in the middle of the night to cool off and sleep here. In his sleep, Wu Qun had stepped on him, and he immediately began cursing loudly.

Wu Qun reached out to grope for his weapon. One soldier raised his blade and chopped downward; in the darkness he could not see clearly, and the blade struck the bandit's thigh. The bandit let out a piercing scream that carried far through the silent night.

Wu Qun hastily rolled forward, afraid of being accidentally wounded by his own men. Several government soldiers brought down blades and axes together. After a few more screams, the bandit was finally struck in the neck by an axe and died.

Though it had lasted only a few breaths, the screams still roused the bandits in the nearby tents. The startled bandits leaped up one after another—some groped in the dark for weapons, some ran out of the tents to look, some fumbled for flint to light oil lamps.

Wu Qun scrambled to his feet and, seeing this, growled in a low voice: "First ten men, stay! Sun San! Set the tents alight! The rest of you, follow me to the rear!"

The File Leader named Sun San was indeed Wu Qun's subordinate. Receiving the order, he charged forward with his long knife, the ten soldiers of the front rank following behind him, while Wu Qun led the remaining soldiers sprinting along the palisade toward the rear.

In summer the days are long and the nights short. It was now the middle of the hour of Chou, and the sky was already beginning to lighten slightly. Though one could not yet make out a man's face a few paces away, rough outlines were already visible.

Several bandits had already run out of the tents ahead—some holding blades, some empty-handed—shouting and looking around in all directions.

Sun San put force into his waist and legs and charged at the bandits who were making the noise.

Though the several bandits roused by the screams had run out of their tents, in the darkness their eyes could not reach far, and they did not know what was happening. As they stood outside the tent doors questioning one another, several figures suddenly appeared out of the darkness before them.

"Who's there?"

"Halt!"

The shouts had barely ceased when the several bandits, still alarmed and uncertain, were struck by blades and axes. Several screams rang out in succession, and the bandits were cut down to the ground.

"Pour the oil! Light the fire!" Sun San shouted.

One soldier pulled the wooden stopper from the cotton-wrapped earthenware jar and, hugging the jar, began pouring oil over the tents before him. Several fire-starters were blown alight, and the oil-soaked tents caught fire. With the throwing in of several packets of gunpowder, the flames leaped up violently and, aided by the breeze, blazed fiercely.

As the firelight rose, everything around was exposed without concealment, and bandits from several dozen tents nearby came running out one after another.

"It's the government troops!"

"Fire!"

"Kill them!"

"Put out the fire, quick!"

Amid the chaos of shouts and roars, several dozen men bearing weapons charged over.

"Quick, quick, quick! Light the fires!" Sun San roared, raising his blade to meet the charging bandits. The remaining soldiers, after successively setting several more tents ablaze, took up their weapons and charged at the bandits.

When Wu Qun and his men were about to reach the rear camp, the sound of war horses neighing rose up, and faint firelight appeared in the bandits' rear camp.

Wu Qun's heart leaped with joy—the soldiers on the left flank had already succeeded!

He shouted loudly: "Quick!" and then charged at full speed toward the firelight, with several dozen soldiers straining to keep up behind him.

By now the bandit camp had dissolved into utter chaos. Every sleeping bandit had been roused, and the camp was filled with panicked bandits running wildly in all directions.

When Wu Qun reached the source of the fire, the flames were already raging fiercely. Several piles of fodder several men tall had been ignited, and in the firelight figures flickered as several hundred refugees who tended the war horses fled in terror.

The more than two thousand war horses in the dozen or so stables, frightened by the firelight, neighed and shied away. Centurion Zhang Shuangquan was leading men in cutting the tethers, and several hundred horses, freed from their tethers, bolted in every direction. Many refugees were knocked to the ground by the horses, bones broken and sinews snapped, vomiting great mouthfuls of blood.

Wu Qun looked up and saw that fire had also appeared where Sun San had been left behind, and large numbers of bandits were rushing this way. He roared: "Set the stables alight! Quick! A few men, follow me!"

After Wu Qun led his force away, Huang Degong stood motionless on the city wall, hands clasped behind his back, gazing toward the northwest. Several chiliarchs were at the city gate, waiting to direct the support.

Time seemed to stand still. It felt as though the raiding troops had left the city days ago, yet the distant bandit camp remained utterly silent.

Suddenly, a ball of flame—orange-red fire—blazed up, and within the firelight, figures seemed to flicker.

It worked! Huang Degong's heart leapt with joy.

But the fire was not as large as he had imagined. No! If it truly were the bandits' cavalry camp, the hay should have ignited into towering flames. The current blaze, though considerable and spreading in all directions, did not burn high.

Could he have misjudged? Was the burning site not the bandits' cavalry camp, but merely an ordinary roving bandit camp? Yet common roving bandits rarely set up camp palisades—what exactly was the situation? These hundred men must not be thrown away!

Just as Huang Degong was stewing in frustration, the distant sky suddenly lit up, and then flames shot skyward. Faint shouts of men and neighs of horses drifted from the bandit camp, carrying far across the silent night.

It truly worked!

Huang Degong struck his fist into his palm, and shouted excitedly in a loud voice: "Prepare for battle!"