Chapter 53: The Relief Force

Gun Di Long, who was supervising the battle from the rear formation, watched his men fall back in defeat once again, and his face immediately darkened. He swung himself onto his horse, drew the long blade from his waist, and dug his heels into the horse's flanks. The warhorse lunged forward, and he galloped up to the first bandit who had retreated. With a single chop, the bandit's head rolled to the side, blood spurting a full chi high from the neck stump as the body toppled stiffly to the ground.

The nearby bandits were so terrified their faces lost all color, and they halted in their tracks at once. Gun Di Long reined in his horse, raised his blade to point at the crowd of bandits, and bellowed: "Damn your mothers! Run again and I'll slaughter every last one of you!"

Pi Lizhen also hurried over with several personal guards, shouting loudly: "Who's your leader?"

A bandit of about thirty years old rushed out from the crowd, forcing a smile: "Chief Pi, I was leading this group. I'll charge again right now—I guarantee we'll take the city this time!"

Pi Lizhen swung his horsewhip and lashed him about the head and face without mercy, cursing as he struck: "Damn you, Wang Si! If it weren't for the years you've followed me, I'd flay you alive today! Get your men reorganized and attack again—fail this time and I'll chop off your dog head!"

Wang Si dared not dodge. He gritted his teeth and let the whip fall on his body, knowing full well that if Pi Lizhen hadn't been beating him with the whip, Gun Di Long would have already taken his head off.

Gun Di Long watched coldly from the side. He knew well that Pi Lizhen and Wang Si had come from the same village, and that Pi now commanded over two thousand men—a figure of some standing. Seeing Pi Lizhen tire of whipping and Wang Si's face already split open and bleeding, Gun Di Long spoke coldly: "Wang Si, I'll give you half an hour to take the city. Fail, and you can cut your own throat!"

Ignoring the pain, Wang Si turned and drew his blade, roaring viciously: "Damn your mothers! Get yourselves reorganized now! Take the prefectural city, and the silver and the women will be ours!"

Nothing stirred the bandits more than silver and women. At these words their morale surged, and under the direction of their lesser leaders they began to form ranks, then selected their boldest men to lead the assault.

On the city wall, Xu Zhiyuan and the others watched the chaotic roving bandits begin to organize, and their hearts grew heavy. After several rounds of fierce fighting, the government troops and militia had both suffered grievous casualties. Of the thousand government soldiers, only some four hundred could still fight; of the more than two thousand militia, barely a thousand remained. The boulders and great timbers used for defense were nearly exhausted, only one cauldron of boiling oil still sat over the fire sending up wisps of smoke, and of the several dozen archers, nearly half were dead. Blades, spears, and arrows were still plentiful, but hands were woefully short—this time they absolutely could not hold.

After the bandits finished forming up, several hundred burly and fierce fighters were selected to serve as the vanguard for breaking the city wall. Gun Di Long publicly promised that the first man to scale the wall would receive a hundred taels of silver, and that after the city fell, he would be awarded an official's wife. Spurred on by the double lure of rich reward and officials' women, the bandits all rubbed their fists and stamped their feet with eagerness, surging toward the city wall with murderous intent.

Xu Zhiyuan smiled bitterly: "Garrison Commander Dong, the three of us haven't the strength to kill a chicken. Staying here would only require men to guard us. I and Messieurs Wang and Zhao will now go up to the second floor of the arrow tower. Have some of the militia pile firewood inside the tower, pour the boiling oil from the cauldron over it, and leave a few men with torches. If the bandits breach the city, light the tower immediately. Even in death, we will not allow those bandits to defile our bodies!" With that, he turned and, together with Wang Renyuan and Zhao Yuzhi, strode into the tower. Dong Qigao bowed deeply to their retreating backs, then gave his orders. Several militiamen went off separately to gather firewood and other combustibles.

Just as the bandits were about to reach the foot of the wall, a tremendous uproar suddenly erupted from the bandits' rear formation a few li away. Dong Qigao stood atop the wall and gazed out, faintly making out dust rising in clouds at Sanli Bridge. Figures were shifting within the bandit camp, countless bandits seeming to run and rally, while several warhorses galloped swiftly toward this direction. Dong Qigao shouted orders to prepare to meet the enemy. The government troops and militia formed small squads and took their positions at their assigned crenellations, waiting for the bandit assault.

Gun Di Long and Pi Lizhen also vaguely heard the commotion from the direction of the main camp behind them. While they were still wondering what it meant, several riders arrived at a gallop. Gun Di Long saw that they were Ma Shizhong's personal guards, led by Zhao Hanwa. From the anxious look on Zhao Hanwa's face, Gun Di Long immediately sensed something was terribly wrong.

Zhao Hanwa reined in his mount, leaped from the horse, and strode quickly to Gun Di Long, shouting hoarsely: "Chief Yang! Government troops have attacked! The Great Leader has been killed! Chief He and Chief Gao in the main camp say to call off the attack on the city and return at once to meet the enemy!"

Hearing that Ma Shizhong was dead, Gun Di Long was both furious and frantic. He and Ma Shizhong had grown up together, as close as one person. In the space of a single hour, his dearest brother was dead!

Gun Di Long roared: "How did the Great Leader die?! Why aren't you the one dead instead?!"

Tears streamed down Zhao Hanwa's face, and the other personal guards also burst into loud weeping. Ma Shizhong had been cruel by nature, but he had been generous and tolerant toward those around him. His sudden death grieved the guards deeply.

Zhao Hanwa sobbed: "Government troops disguised themselves as our scouts, claiming urgent military intelligence. We were drinking in another tent, and the guards in the main tent let their guard down. More than ten disguised government soldiers went straight into the main tent, killed the Great Leader, and rode off!"

Gun Di Long felt his head about to explode. He swung onto his horse, eyes red, and shouted his orders: "Call back those attacking the city! Leave a thousand men to keep the people inside from coming out, and the rest follow me back to camp!" He dug in his heels and lashed his whip, and his warhorse galloped off at full speed. Zhao Hanwa and the others, along with Gun Di Long's personal guards, hastily mounted and followed.

Pi Lizhen was also deeply grieved. He ordered Wang Si's contingent to remain behind to guard against any sally from the government troops in the city, then sent his personal guards to notify the various leaders of their units to form up at once and return to the western main camp to prepare to meet the government forces.

Dong Qigao saw several dozen bandit riders gallop toward the rear formation, and then the bandits who had already reached the foot of the wall began to turn and withdraw. He knew at once that something must have gone wrong in the bandits' main camp. He immediately ran toward the arrow tower to report the situation to Xu Zhiyuan and the others inside.

Entering the tower, he saw the stairway to the second floor already piled high with firewood, with several militiamen coming and going, adding more dry wood. Dong Qigao shouted for them to stop, then climbed the narrow stairs to the second floor.

Inside the second floor, Xu Zhiyuan and the other two were seated in chairs, chatting idly. The three men, who normally bristled with mutual resentment, were now talking and laughing freely. Since death was unavoidable, they might as well face it with ease—besides, their descendants were safe, and their graves would not be overgrown with weeds, untended and unremembered.

Xu Zhiyuan laughed: "Brother Zhiyi, for a juren like you to reach the rank of fifth-rank Vice Prefect, whose carriage did you hitch yourself to among the Grand Secretaries and senior ministers? Here I am, a proper jinshi by examination, and only at the fourth rank. My years are advancing, and I wonder if I'll ever return to the capital in this lifetime, heh heh!" He had always resented that a mere juren stood only one rank below him, and now that he had made peace with life and death, he took the opportunity to needle him through jest.

Wang Renyuan smiled openly: "My fifth rank is already the ceiling for me. Going higher is impossible—after all, my juren status cannot be changed. Brother Wendao, if you have the inclination, I could put in a good word for you before Grand Secretary Wang. We civil officials ultimately need to return to the central government. Without making yourself known before His Majesty, even when the time is ripe you'll find it hard to take a place at court. His Majesty is only human—he naturally employs those he knows well. Don't you agree? Heh heh."

Xu Zhiyuan cursed inwardly: "No wonder he was promoted so fast—so he's Wang Yingxiong's man. The reason I, a jinshi, only reached the fourth rank is simply that I have no one in court!"

He nodded and smiled: "I hear the dishes prepared in your household's kitchen are exquisite beyond compare. When I have leisure, I shall certainly pay a visit and sample them. Brother Zhiyi, don't be stingy, ha ha!"

Wang Renyuan was from Huizhou, from a family of merchants who had accumulated great wealth over generations. He had studied diligently but failed the examinations repeatedly in adulthood, only passing the juren exam past the age of forty. Knowing his talent was spent and further advancement was hopeless, he had bribed Wang Yingxiong with a vast sum to obtain the post of fifth-rank Vice Prefect, and was quite content with it. He loved pleasure and comfort, and when he took up his post in Chuzhou, he had brought a cook from home to prepare fine delicacies for his enjoyment. Little had he expected that Chuzhou, deep in the heart of the Southern Metropolitan Region, would suffer the calamity of bandits breaching its walls. How cruelly fate toys with men.

He stroked his beard and laughed: "You'd be most welcome, of course! When it comes to the art of fine food, I flatter myself I have some small expertise, ha ha!"

Zhao Yuzhi, who was also a juren by background, smiled bitterly: "My lords, the two of you—today we face the Yellow Springs together, and yet you still discuss such trivial matters. Your breadth of mind is something this humble official admires greatly!"

The two men started at his words, immediately snapping back to reality. They exchanged a glance and each shook his head with a wry smile.

Suddenly footsteps sounded on the stairs, and in a moment Dong Qigao reached the upper floor. The men were startled for a moment, then Xu Zhiyuan said urgently: "Garrison Commander Dong, have the bandits already breached the city? Have you come to die for the state alongside us?"

Dong Qigao shook his head: "This humble officer will die fighting—never by his own hand! Just now I observed that the bandits' main camp seemed to be in disorder, and the bandits attacking the city have all withdrawn. I came to report this to you gentlemen!"

Xu Zhiyuan and the others hurried to the arrow window to look. About a li from the city wall, over a thousand bandits sat or stood facing the city, while large contingents of bandits formed up loosely and headed back toward the main camp.

Xu Zhiyuan thought for a moment, then suddenly clapped his hands in delight: "It must be the imperial army that has come! It must be!"

Wang Renyuan said: "Our request for reinforcements was sent to the Southern Metropolitan Region and Fengyang—we sent no one westward. If reinforcements were coming, they ought to arrive from the south or the north. How could they come from the west? Besides, we only sent out the request after the bandits took Hezhou. How could the imperial army possibly arrive this quickly?"

Xu Zhiyuan laughed heartily: "Brother Wang, do you know why you are a juren and I am a jinshi? The difference lies in vision—in judging affairs!"

Before the others could interject, Xu Zhiyuan continued: "Government troops coming from the west—it must be Governor-General Lu! I'd stake my head on it! The relief force is unquestionably Governor-General Lu's!"