Chapter 262: Bloody Battle

The Yongwei Camp's heavy-armored infantry, like the Eight Banners soldiers, all wielded heavy weapons such as wolf-teeth clubs—weapons that required no strict formation and were best suited for close-quarters melee combat.

The heavy-armored infantry who arrived first launched attacks from both flanks against the Eight Banners soldiers who were charging forward.

One heavy-armored infantryman, putting his waist and arms into the effort, swung his three-foot-plus wolf-teeth club in a full arc and smashed it down at the head of an Eight Banners soldier.

Because of the crowding, that Eight Banners soldier could not dodge aside, and could only desperately parry with the long-handled saber in his hand; the descending wolf-teeth club was deflected slightly off course but still came down with heavy force—with the sound of bones cracking, that Eight Banners soldier's left shoulder was smashed into a sunken ruin.

That Eight Banners soldier endured the searing pain, and seizing the moment before his opponent could recover his weapon, swung his saber horizontally one-handed, the blade hacking into the heavy-armored infantryman's left ribs. That Yongwei Camp soldier wore mail armor on the outside with a cotton armor underneath, and with the opponent's strength diminished by his grievous wound, the sharp blade did not split through his armor—it only shattered a few of his ribs from the impact.

Under the pain, this Yongwei Camp soldier quickly withdrew his iron club and raised it to strike again, intending to beat this Eight Banners soldier to death beneath the club, when suddenly a sharp ring-pommel saber slashed in diagonally—blade-light flashing as it struck that Eight Banners soldier square in the neck. Blood sprayed like a fountain, and that Eight Banners soldier, his neck nearly severed, fell to the ground without a sound.

Before the Ming sword-and-shield soldier who had delivered that blow could recover his ring-pommel saber, a tiger-tooth spear thrust in from one side and drove deep into his ribs. That sword-and-shield soldier shuddered all over and slowly collapsed, his sword and shield dropping to the ground, large clots of blood and shredded flesh spilling from his mouth—that single thrust had churned his internal organs into pulp.

The soldier wielding the wolf-teeth club let out a muffled roar and swung his club in a vicious smash. The Eight Banners soldier who had just withdrawn his tiger-tooth spear could not dodge in time and was knocked to the ground by the blow; before he could roll away, the second strike came down—with a crisp crack, that iron-helmeted Eight Banners soldier's head was smashed to pulp, white brain matter and crimson blood spilling across the ground.

With the heavy-armored infantry and sword-and-shield soldiers joining the fight, the Eight Banners soldiers who had been pursuing and cutting down the gunners were forced to abandon the chase and turn to battle the Ming troops; most of the gunners were able to withdraw safely.

The booi bondservants who had been fighting the spearmen finally collapsed under the heavy casualties they had suffered—most of the living threw down their weapons and fled back toward the city gate, while a minority knelt on the ground begging to surrender.

Having seen that it was precisely because of these bondservants' desperate blocking that the gunners had been closed in on and slaughtered by the Jianzhou infantry, the spearmen hated these Han Chinese bondservants to the bone. Those who knelt begging to surrender were killed without mercy by the spearmen; some spearmen, heedless of their broken formation, began pursuing the bondservants who were trying to flee into the city, while the women who had survived scattered in all directions hugging the base of the city walls.

Tanggudai knew he would die today, but he resolved inwardly that before his death he would inflict heavy casualties on the Ming army, to reduce the harm this elite force of Ming troops could do to the Great Qing and his masters. Seeing that the Ming heavy-armored soldiers and sword-and-shield men were gradually gaining the upper hand on the field, he looked up and saw that all around, a single Eight Banners soldier often faced the combined assault of several Ming troops—no matter how brave and fierce an Eight Banners soldier was, he could not withstand their coordinated attacks. His men were dying one by one beneath Ming blades and spears, and with his heart twisting like a knife, Tanggudai roared: "Then let us die fighting right here today!"

Gathered around him were a dozen or so Eight Banners soldiers, among them two white-armored soldiers: Dehuna and Shengchuan. White-armored soldiers were the pinnacle of martial might within the Eight Banners—each niru typically had only a few of them, and every one was a hardened warrior of superlative personal skill with over a hundred kills to his name.

With Ming troops surging in from behind and both flanks, continuing to pursue the gunners was no longer possible; the remaining hundred or so Eight Banners soldiers could only entangle themselves in desperate combat with the Ming forces.

Tanggudai's long saber slashed horizontally like lightning; a Ming sword-and-shield soldier who rushed at him hurriedly raised his shield to block, and the long saber, its edge already notched all over, snapped in two upon striking the iron shield. Tanggudai kicked out with his right foot against the shield, sending that sword-and-shield soldier flying. Tanggudai then lunged forward, reached out and seized a heavy-armored soldier's flail, yanking hard toward himself—that heavy-armored soldier, unable to release the flail in time, was dragged over together with his weapon, and Dehuna drove a spear into his throat, then swiftly withdrew the tiger-tooth spear. The heavy-armored soldier fell backward dead, the flail landing in Tanggudai's hands.

Wielding the flail, Tanggudai dashed forward several paces, breaking out of the ring of Eight Banners soldiers, and swept the flail in a horizontal arc—several Ming soldiers were struck in the chest or the arm, either spitting blood and collapsing or left with broken arms, unable to continue fighting.

Seeing him so ferocious, many of the Ming soldiers showed fear on their faces. Dehuna and the others pressed forward and closed in together with Tanggudai; this squad of a dozen or so men charged toward the Eight Banners soldiers who were being surrounded by Ming troops—truly unstoppable wherever they went, rescuing several Eight Banners soldiers while killing or wounding dozens of Ming troops. For a time, the Ming heavy-armored infantry and sword-and-shield men felt utterly helpless against Tanggudai and his men.

A company of spearmen arrived under the lead of their squad leader. After loudly ordering the sword-and-shield men and heavy-armored infantry to make way, over a hundred spearmen formed two ranks and advanced on Tanggudai and his dozen or so men with spears over ten feet long held level—the fine steel spearheads gleaming with a chilling light, some still dripping fresh blood.

The white-armored soldier Shengchuan crouched low, snatched up a shield from the ground, and hunched his body to hide his upper torso behind it. Holding an iron staff in one hand, his eyes fixed on the ground, he charged forward, with several Eight Banners soldiers following close behind.

"Thrust!"

At the squad leader's command, several spears thrust at Shengchuan from the front. Aside from those blocked by his shield, one Ming spearman drove his spear at Shengchuan's lower leg, which he could not cover—with a soft "chi" sound, the sharp spearhead pierced through the iron mesh skirt and struck the shinbone of Shengchuan's leg, blood immediately streaming down his calf.

Reeling from the pain, Shengchuan hurled his shield forward, then, enduring the agony, threw his whole body forward.

One spearman, unable to dodge in time, was struck by the flying shield; before he could react, Shengchuan was already upon him, smashing him to the ground with a single blow of his staff. Just as Shengchuan was about to sweep his staff in a horizontal arc, several spears thrust in at an angle—Shengchuan was pierced in the ribs, the lower abdomen, and the chest. As great gouts of blood poured out, all the strength in his body drained away in an instant, and with a look of unwillingness on his face, he slowly collapsed and died.

Several Eight Banners soldiers following behind him seized the chance to press low and surge forward, their blades and spears working together—several spearmen were cut down, but on a battlefield where the disparity in numbers was so overwhelming, life and death were decided in an instant. These few Eight Banners soldiers were likewise struck by spears thrusting in from the flanks within the blink of an eye, and fell one after another, never to rise again.

By now the Eight Banners soldiers on the battlefield had been nearly all killed or wounded, leaving only Tanggudai and his dozen or so men in their death throes. Tanggudai looked up and saw several columns of thick smoke rising within the city—he knew at once that the Ming army had already broken into the city. These plumes of smoke were the fires set by the Eight Banners soldiers guarding the storehouses, burning the supplies on his orders when the city fell.

Shengchuan and the others had been killed in their failed attempt to break through the spear formation; the spearmen continued to press in on the remaining Tanggudai and his men, while the surrounding Ming troops swiftly closed in.

Tanggudai swung his flail and smashed a Ming heavy-armored soldier's skull to pulp, even as two spears thrust into his lower abdomen and ribs. Tanggudai hurled the flail, striking a Ming soldier in the chest—seeing that soldier spit blood and crumple to the ground, a spear thrust like lightning into Tanggudai's right ear and punched out through the left side of his skull. Tanggudai, his bleeding eyes wide open, crashed straight down to the ground like a log and died.

Dehuna killed four Ming soldiers in succession before a spear pierced his thigh; after staggering a few steps, several more spears ran him through the chest and he died. The remaining few Eight Banners soldiers soon perished beneath the blades and spears of the encircling Ming troops.

Even as the fierce battle raged at the south city gate, the government troops at the east and west gates had already broken into the city. Because Tanggudai had concentrated most of the city's mere thousand-plus troops at the south gate, the resistance the government troops met at the east and west gates was not as fierce as at the south gate. After each side slaughtered over a hundred of the Jianzhou barbarians, several Assistant Regional Commanders and Mobile Corps Commanders led their soldiers into Yizhou. Guided by several captured booi bondservants, the government troops soon reached the area where the storehouses stood. The Jianzhou barbarians guarding the storehouses set fires and fought fiercely against the Ming troops, but were soon surrounded and killed. The Yongwei Camp officers hastily organized sentries and firefighting, and sent men to report the news outside the city.

Wu Sangui, who had led three thousand infantry and cavalry along the east bank of the Daling River to arrive outside Yizhou's north gate, immediately launched an attack upon hearing the sound of the siege cannons, striking at the hundred-plus Jianzhou barbarians defending the stone arch bridge outside the north gate. After several volleys of arrows, over half of the hundred-plus Jianzhou barbarians were killed or wounded; then a single cavalry charge wiped out the rest. But because the north gate was barred from within, Wu Sangui could only station men to hold the stone arch bridge, send Night Scouts forward thirty li to reconnoiter, and then wait with his force outside the north gate—until Hong Chengchou entered the city and ordered the north gate opened, allowing this flanking Ming force to enter the city at last.

Only after the Yongwei Camp had finished clearing the battlefield, exterminated the remaining Jianzhou barbarians within the city, and placed all the male and female booi bondservants under guard, did Hong Chengchou, Zu Dashou, and the others enter the undamaged city of Yizhou.

Zu Kuan and Zu Zerun led the cavalry in driving off and besieging the five hundred Jianzhou horsemen outside the city, to ensure the artillerymen could enter the city and rest. Mao Yuanyi, meanwhile, assigned his men to collect the bodies of the fallen soldiers, tend to the wounded, and then arranged for the nearly twenty thousand troops to either enter the city or pitch camp outside. As for whether the Yongwei Camp would remain stationed there or return to the capital, that would await the specific imperial decree after Ji-Liao Supreme Commander Hong Chengchou submitted his memorial.

In the second hall of the former Yizhou Garrison Commander's office, civil and military officials headed by Hong Chengchou and Zu Dashou gathered in full assembly to celebrate the Ming government army's smooth capture of Yizhou.

Seeing the great victory, everyone was beaming with joy—for this was, after all, the most significant victory the Ming had achieved over Jianzhou in over a decade. Not only had lost territory been recovered, but over a thousand genuine Jianzhou elite soldiers had been wiped out, including a jiala zhangjing and several white-armored soldiers. The heads of these Jianzhou barbarians would be severed, treated with lime, and sent to the capital.

Although the Yongwei Camp had also suffered considerable losses in this battle, to Hong Chengchou and the others, the lives of a few ordinary soldiers were not worth mentioning—the great victory was what mattered most.