Chapter 171: War Against the Roving Bandits

Just after leaving Suzhou city, Zhu Cilang received an urgent intelligence report from the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The bandit chief Tuo Xianling, the One-Word King, was leading tens of thousands of roving bandits straight for Suzhou, intending to ambush and kill him.

After receiving the intelligence, Zhu Cilang was quite composed, with even a hint of excitement—after so long marching south, he had finally encountered a roving bandit force of respectable size.

Zhu Cilang had no goodwill whatsoever toward the roving bandits. The roving bandits were originally refugee bands formed by displaced peasants crushed by heavy taxes and stripped of their land. At first, their resistance against the authorities was not wrong and deserved sympathy.

However, since the Jisi Incident in the second year of Chongzhen, large numbers of scattered Shanxi, Xuan-Da, and Shaanxi officers and soldiers had turned outlaw or joined the roving bandits. From then on, the roving bandits began large-scale destruction of production—wherever they passed, they harvested grain and plundered the land. Women and able-bodied young men were forcibly conscripted into the bandit ranks, while children were generally killed.

Whenever the roving bandits captured a city, they would inevitably demolish the city walls, burn down the houses, and dig three feet into the ground. The court needed money to console the roving bandits, money to send troops to suppress them, and money to rebuild the localities.

Gradually, the court's finances were dragged to ruin. The scholar-officials would never step forward to donate money, so the court's taxes could only continue to be apportioned onto the peasants who had not fled, creating a vicious cycle. Thus the roving bandits bred without end, growing from over ten thousand men in Shaanxi in the first year of Chongzhen to several hundred thousand today.

The roving bandits only engaged in plunder and destruction, never production or development. Hence the Great Ming's national strength grew ever weaker. Natural disasters were merely the trigger; man-made calamities were the primary cause.

The court called them roving bandits and roving rebels not to disparage them, but because they were truly wandering robbers and thieves—utterly unworthy of the name "peasant army," let alone "righteous army."

On the fifteenth day of the first month in the eighth year of Chongzhen, the roving bandits captured Fengyang, the Central Capital, killing tens of thousands of residents and burning over twenty thousand houses. Some even cut open pregnant women, pulled out the infants, and impaled them on spear shafts while laughing and playing.

On the twenty-fourth day of the first month in the eighth year of Chongzhen, the roving bandits attacked Shucheng, seizing several thousand women from Huoshan and Luzhou (Hefei), forcing these women to strip naked beneath the city walls. Any who resisted even slightly were tortured to death by dismemberment.

After failing to take Chuzhou, the roving bandits seized several hundred women from nearby villages, collectively violated them, and then beheaded them all.

These roving bandits killed and massacred cities at the slightest whim—utterly horrifying to hear of. Their cruelty was in no way inferior to the Tartars beyond the passes.

Historically, it was only in the thirteenth year of Chongzhen that Li Zicheng proclaimed the slogans "Equalize the fields, exempt the levies" and "Kill one man is as killing my father; rape one woman is as raping my mother" to win hearts, and ceased massacring cities.

In the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, Li Zicheng established the Dashun regime in Xiangyang, and further pacified the people with the slogan "No levies for three years, not one person killed." Even so, Li Zicheng ultimately failed to win the people's hearts.

They shouted "no grain levies" loudly enough in peacetime, yet in the end, after seizing the northern lands for themselves, all they brought the people was greater military disaster and the notorious roast-levy—supplies extorted by literally roasting people until they sizzled and dripped with oil.

Even Li Zicheng, the finest among all the roving bandit factions, was like this; the rest need not even be mentioned. This crop of righteous armies at the end of the Ming was far inferior to that of the end of the Yuan.

Within Fengyang Prefecture, in Mengcheng County.

On a potholed post road, an army was trudging along, travel-worn and dusty. Most of the soldiers wore head wraps and cloth armor; some did not even have cloth armor.

Among their ranks were several large banners already riddled with holes, bearing the character "Tuo." Beneath the banners, many soldiers tucked their hands into tattered cotton coats, breathing steam as they shouldered weapons and trudged slowly along.

Ever since Zhu Cilang led his army south, Zhang Xianzhong had also dispatched many spies to probe the Ming army's movements. He quickly learned that the Yongwei Camp would be passing through Suzhou.

Zhang Xianzhong's heart raced with excitement—if he could kill the Great Ming's Crown Prince, his prestige among the righteous armies would soar to its zenith. With such thoughts, he immediately dispatched his top general Tuo Xianling with thirty thousand men on a lightning march to Suzhou, while he himself led the main army in a feigned attack on Luzhou, creating an opportunity for Tuo Xianling to strike Suzhou.

Tuo Xianling, nicknamed the One-Word King, had participated in the Xingyang Assembly in the eighth year of Chongzhen, ranked among the Thirteen Families. Later, as his own fortunes did not develop well, he submitted to Zhang Xianzhong.

Under Zhang Xianzhong's cover, Tuo Xianling took his thirty thousand men and rushed to Suzhou with barely contained eagerness. He felt that this time his fame was about to explode.

After leaving Huoshan, the whole of northern Wan was flat and open, which made Tuo Xianling somewhat ill at ease. Ever since the Chuang King Gao Yingxiang had been sliced apart by the court, the righteous armies had fallen into despondency. Added to being hunted and cornered by the authorities, many had hidden in the mountains, only occasionally emerging in groups to make trouble and deal heavy blows to the government.

Fortunately, his men's spirits were still good, and from time to time sounds of mutual banter and cursing came from the ranks.

Tuo Xianling narrowed his fierce, glinting eyes and muttered to himself: "I truly look forward to seeing how the world reacts once I kill the Crown Prince!"

When the army passed a small town, the townsfolk, having heard the roving rebels were coming, had long since gathered their belongings and scattered, fleeing far away.

The roving bandits ransacked the town house by house, then departed in high spirits. On the way, several forward sentries caught a few wealthy households traveling with their families and brought them before Tuo Xianling.

Several plump, pale wealthy men were so terrified they pissed themselves on the spot, kowtowing and begging for mercy.

"Keep their wives and daughters; cut down all those with cocks!" Tuo Xianling waved his hand and said flatly.

The moment he finished speaking, several old camp soldiers stepped forward, drew their blades, and cut them down. One old camp soldier struck four times in succession, severing the four limbs of a fat rich man one by one. Hot blood sprayed everywhere as the man writhed in agony, until he finally passed out on the ground.

The surrounding roving bandits watched and laughed, shouting that it was thrilling. Tuo Xianling also smiled, then ordered the camp to be set up nearby for rest.

The roving rebels let out a cheer, scattering in groups of a dozen or several dozen across the surrounding area—some chatting idly, some playing finger-guessing games and drinking, a raucous clamor all around.

Tuo Xianling, under his personal guards' arrangements, entered the newly pitched tent, followed closely by several attractive women just captured.

Several generals in felt hats lit charcoal fires, sat in a circle, brought out meat and wine to eat and drink, occasionally glancing toward the tent.

Just as these roving rebels were gathered together making a ruckus, they suddenly heard a rumbling boom from afar that would not cease.

"What is that?" A bandit pointed at a patch of "dark cloud" rapidly approaching in the distance.

"It—it's government troops!" A sharp-eyed bandit cried out in alarm: "Those are government cavalry!"

Five thousand iron cavalry thundered across the boundless plain. Every rider wore an iron helmet with a high-fluttering red tassel. Beneath, they wore crimson cotton armor, plus concealed armor inlaid with iron plates, and over that, black armor that radiated a chilling cold. One glance and a wave of icy dread immediately washed over the onlooker.

Where had this cavalry come from? How could they be so terrifying!

When the roving rebels appeared in the sight of the Yongwei Camp's cavalry, they drew the cold lances from their saddle scabbards and pointed them at the terrified bandits, accelerating into a tide-like charge.

"Quick, meet the enemy!" A bandit general let out a trembling roar.

Massive, heavy hooves pounded the parched ground, producing a muffled thunder that only panicked the roving bandits further. They fell into chaos—how could they dare to fight? They could not help shrinking backward.

Tuo Xianling, the One-Word King, stumbled out of the tent, hoisting up his trousers, staring blankly into the distance with cold sweat pouring down. Before he could even think of how to respond, the cavalry were already charging straight through them without mercy.