Chapter 172: Utterly Helpless

The five thousand iron cavalry of the Yongwei Camp charged into the chaotic camp of the roving bandits like a sharp sword. The riders pierced the bandits' chests with their long lances, then flung them off and continued thrusting toward the next target.

Charging at the very front was Battalion Commander Li Shaoyou of the Yongwei Camp cavalry, who even skewered two or three bandits' bodies with a single thrust, turning them into meat skewers.

Amid a chorus of miserable screams, the bandits were knocked over, men and horses tumbling alike, fleeing in endless rout, utterly unable to organize any effective resistance. Compared to the Tartars, these roving bandits were not even as good as the auxiliary troops of the Eight Banners.

Among the roving bandits, just as with the tactics of the Eight Banners, the troops were divided into five grades: the starving soldiers outermost, then the foot soldiers, then the horse troops, then the swift riders, with the old camp soldiers at the very rear.

The most formidable fighters among the roving bandits were the old camp soldiers — they were the reliance of the bandit chieftains. Even if every other type of troop was wiped out, it did not matter; as long as the old camp soldiers remained, they could easily gather an army of tens of thousands again. Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong had repeatedly relied on their old camp soldiers to stage comebacks, surviving countless campaigns to exterminate them.

On the open wilderness, the clash of weapons and shrill screams rang out one after another, and the thick stench of blood grew ever stronger.

The bandits' horse troops could not even withstand a single exchange against the Yongwei Camp cavalry; they all shrieked in utter panic and wheeled their horses to flee. In the eyes of the roving bandits, these government troops were all heavily armored on heavy horses, their charge surging with the force of an avalanche — how could their own patched cotton jackets possibly resist?

The battle did not last long. After the Yongwei Camp cavalry broke through the bandit formation, they did not halt but continued charging forward and killing, then all burst out the other side.

Tuo Xianling saw the enemy regroup not far away after their single charge, and he was extremely curious — why had they stopped fighting? Were they giving him a chance to catch his breath? Did I, the One-Character King, have no face to save?

As it turned out, the One-Character King truly had no face to save. He hastily ordered his routed troops to regroup and form a defensive line, then hid himself far away.

Tuo Xianling turned to look at the government cavalry that had quickly gathered together again and could not help but suck in a cold breath: "Damn it, where did these troops come from? How can they be so elite, regrouping this fast?"

Tuo Xianling was at least a first-rate figure among the roving bandits and knew the government troops fairly well. The Ming cavalry all wore armor, and these riders before him wore several layers of armor and rode tall war horses — this filled him with astonishment.

In all his years of rebellion, Tuo Xianling had seen countless embroidered-pillow soldiers, but this army before him felt completely different — their momentum was formidable, their killing intent fierce.

"Could this be the Crown Prince's men?" A sudden shock ran through Tuo Xianling's heart, and cold sweat poured out. They had not even reached Suzhou, and the enemy had already found their trail and cut off their road. The enemy's strength was far beyond anything he could overcome.

Just as he was lost in wild speculation, the cavalry opposite had finished their reorganization and charged once more.

Watching his thirty thousand troops scatter in an instant, with fewer than half slowly regrouping, his heart sank. These starving soldiers surged forward when the wind was at their backs and fled when it turned against them. Originally the horse troops and old camp soldiers had been at the rear to supervise, but now the old camp soldiers could not even save themselves — who had time to keep watch?

Seeing the enemy cavalry charging again, Tuo Xianling was seized with panic and shouted: "Withdraw to the town behind us!"

With that, he fled first with the old camp soldiers and horse troops, leaving behind only the utterly bewildered foot soldiers.

As an outstanding chieftain who had rebelled for many years, Tuo Xianling had already developed the unique skill of reading an army's spirit. He could accurately judge a force's combat effectiveness from its bearing and morale.

Against this government cavalry before him, he had no chance of winning in a straight fight — he could only use the advantages of terrain to hold them in check, and perhaps even defeat them.

Cavalry had extremely strong field combat ability, but if placed in a town full of buildings, they could barely bring their advantage into play. Thinking of this, Tuo Xianling made straight for the small town he had just looted.

After Tuo Xianling fled with the old camp soldiers and horse troops, the iron cavalry of the Yongwei Camp began a merciless charge against the remaining ten thousand or more bandit foot soldiers. There was no need for any techniques of cutting off or charging formations — it was simply mindless pursuit and slaughter.

The ten thousand or more bandits fled in mad panic, and the Yongwei Camp cavalry stayed right on their heels, never letting up, hammering them viciously every time they caught up.

The commander of this raid was Sun Yingyuan. Unlike Huang Degong, who simply fought head-on, Sun Yingyuan favored technique. Every few charges he would order a withdrawal, rest for a while, let the enemy run a bit farther, then mount up and continue the pursuit, continue the killing.

Along the way, before they even reached the looted town, the bandits had already collapsed into complete disarray. Some chose to kneel and surrender their weapons, while the remnants of the rest kept fleeing, and Sun Yingyuan led his troops in continued pursuit.

"Haha! What a thrill!" Battalion Commander Li Shaoyou laughed heartily.

Since joining the cavalry battalion of the Yongwei Camp, he had never fought such an easy battle. He could not feel that this was a battle at all — a more apt description would be herding ducks.

The bandits fled all the way to the town, scrambling and crawling into the houses within, everyone gasping for breath, not daring to poke their heads out to look.

Looking at his men, who had nearly gone mad from being chased the whole way, Tuo Xianling's expression turned grave, and he sighed inwardly — this was going to be a hard fight!

He then ordered street fighting to be organized within the town, but of the routed troops he could gather, there were fewer than ten thousand. The rest had either been killed by the government troops or had long since fled out of sight in other directions — some had probably thrown away their weapons, changed clothes, and slipped into the fleeing civilians.

Though he had only these men, Tuo Xianling was full of confidence. The town's streets were only so wide — the cavalry's advantage could not be brought to bear, and under the volleys of strong bows and crossbows from his old camp soldiers, those government cavalry could only charge in to their deaths.

No matter what, he could not lose. So Tuo Xianling set up his formations at every intersection, ready to meet the enemy.

However, he was far too naive.

Before the town, Sun Yingyuan, riding his horse, said coldly: "Attack! Kill every last bandit!"

"Yes!" Li Shaoyou clasped his fists in acknowledgment and led his own troops galloping into the town. They maintained a charging formation of six riders abreast, rolling forward through the streets, while the other units entered the town from other streets as well.

The town's streets were not as orderly as those of the cities, paved with blue stone and of limited width. Here the houses were scattered loosely, and the streets were still dirt roads, quite spacious, wide enough for six or seven riders to advance side by side.

At every intersection, old camp soldiers held crossbows at the ready, along with a great number of bandit archers. The other bandits hid in the nearby houses, waiting to surge out and slaughter once the government troops collapsed. They all waited nervously for the troops to arrive, eager to deal them a crushing blow.

Seeing the cavalry rolling toward him, Tuo Xianling's eyes lit up. He stretched out his right hand, ready to order the arrows loosed once the enemy drew close. To his dismay, those riders halted at a distance of one hundred and fifty paces.

Li Shaoyou made a halt gesture, and after carefully observing the enemy for a moment, said coldly: "Dismount, take up the muskets!"

The riders reined in, dismounted one after another, took their muskets from their war horses, and then split into several ranks of a few men each.

Seeing the government troops holding muskets, the bandits began to stir restlessly — after all, everyone knew these things had devastating killing power. If you took a hit from one, the rest of your life would not be a happy one.

Qi Jiguang once said in the *New Book of Effective Discipline*: "The bird-gun musket can pierce armor with its sharpness, its shots find their mark — bows and arrows cannot match it."

When the Qi family army fought, the bird-gun muskets fired at a hundred paces, and at seventy or eighty paces could penetrate heavy armor, while bows and arrows only shot after sixty paces. The power of bows and arrows, whether in range, accuracy, or lethality, was far inferior to the bird-gun musket.

The power of a musket depended on its muzzle velocity and chamber pressure. The paper-cartridge fixed powder charges produced greater chamber pressure than the earlier granular powder. Compared to the bird-gun muskets used by the Qi family army fifty years earlier, the self-igniting Lusmi muskets used by the Yongwei Camp were incomparably more powerful.

Seeing the fear on his men's faces, Tuo Xianling hastily encouraged them: "Those government troops' fire sticks can't even produce a spark — they'll probably blow themselves up! Brothers, charge over now, get close and shoot your arrows, kill the government troops!"

"Kill the government troops!" The bandits howled madly as they surged forward, trying to intimidate the soldiers and make them delay in fear as they reloaded.