Chapter 247: Small Formation, Great Battle—Unruffled in the Face of Crisis

After fleeing the city in panic, the Assistant Regional Commander and several Mobile Corps Commander officers could barely restrain their own men, let alone the others who had their own agendas from the start.

Many people, upon seeing the five hundred Qi soldiers waiting not far away, were not particularly afraid, but neither did they want to serve as a shield. At a time like this, the safest course was naturally to scatter and flee separately—mind one's own business and avoid provoking that trouble.

Though this mob of deserters was numerous, the moment they left the city they scattered in every direction trying to escape, rather than charging together at the enemy as their leaders had imagined.

Unable to control his men, and fearing that forcibly regrouping might provoke other incidents, the Assistant Regional Commander could only decide to unite the household retainers of several Mobile Corps Commander generals and charge straight through.

After all, even the number of household retainers under their command was roughly equal to these Qi soldiers before them, and with the addition of gathered stragglers, how could they fail to defeat the household servants led by three young boys?

That said, escaping this time was already a stroke of luck—had this matter been handled by other generals or by Chen Qiyu himself, he would surely have perished within the city long ago, never making it out.

As things stood now, it was most likely those three Qi brats being overconfident, still imagining these few hundred men were the Qi family army of the Wanli era, where a few hundred could chase thousands in a desperate rout.

This time, he would show them how this Assistant Regional Commander taught this so-called Qi family army a lesson.

During the charge, the Assistant Regional Commander and several Mobile Corps Commander officers were still rallying their respective subordinates.

Of course, what they said was nothing more than: "Everyone need not worry—these Qi soldiers are no different from other government troops, perhaps even inferior. They are led by three young boys, armed only with simple rattan shields and standard-issue spears. Once we charge through, it will be like chopping melons and vegetables." And so on and so forth.

At first, the household retainers and stragglers under them truly saw nothing wrong with these words—after all, the Qi family that once awed the north and south now amounted to nothing more than these three beardless young boys.

Soldiers trained by three young boys, not even possessing a single suit of iron armor—what could they possibly accomplish?

Even at this moment, the Assistant Regional Commander was still thinking that Chen Qiyu and Mou Wenshou inside the city had gone too far. Did they have no regard whatsoever for the laws of the Great Ming? He was still a holder of official rank under the court—since when did one resort to violence over a mere disagreement?

Once he defected to Li Chuang, he would surely settle this account with them properly!

Yet this Assistant Regional Commander never once reflected on his own deeds over the years serving under Liu Liangzuo—whether he had ever held the court's laws he now invoked so piously in any regard.

From the successive handling of Jiang Xiang, Wang Chengyin, and Liu Zeqing, Chen Qiyu naturally understood the Chongzhen Emperor's deep wariness and disgust toward these regional warlords. Eliminating these generals who hoarded troops and defied court orders one by one was, from any angle, a tremendous good.

From the very day he assumed office, Chen Qiyu had treated the entire five provinces of the Central Plains as one great game of chess. Whether for the greater cause of suppressing bandits, or for the Chongzhen Emperor and the Great Ming, men like Zuo Liangyu and Liu Liangzuo had to be eliminated.

Moreover, the civil official faction bore a bitter hatred toward these generals as well. Chen Qiyu had absolute authority, and with his status as a civil official serving as Supreme Commander, such matters naturally met with far fewer obstacles.

"Kill these government troops, and we shall defect to the Dashing King! Then we shall fight our way back—every soul at Gu Pass, man and beast alike, shall not be spared! Women, money, grain—all will be yours, and we will not interfere!"

The Assistant Regional Commander and several Mobile Corps Commander officers were bellowing at the top of their lungs, promising rewards that could never be fulfilled. Yet even so, these stragglers who gave little thought to anything still took the words at face value, and in a surge of excitement, charged forward in droves.

"To deal with the likes of these, we need Grandfather Qi's Mandarin Duck Formation—form up!" Qi Yuanbi, who had been waiting for some time, let out a cold laugh, raised his great spear, and stood firm at the front. Though not yet twenty years of age, he inspired no small measure of awe.

The one who had trained these five hundred Qi soldiers was Wu Zhong, an old general of the original Qi family. He had pacified the coastal pirates and once garrisoned Jizhou, and was well versed in dealing with chaotic melees and large-scale formation battles alike.

The current scale was actually quite small—there was no need for the formations used against Altan Khan. The Mandarin Duck Formation used against the wokou was more than sufficient against these utterly undisciplined rabble.

Since the court had not issued military pay and provisions or armor for many years, all of these five hundred Qi soldiers' weapons and equipment were either old relics from before, or newly manufactured from cheap materials like rattan and bamboo according to Qi family methods.

To be honest, they did not even have more than a few proper steel blades and leather armors.

At Qi Yuanbi's command, Wu Chengye quickly instructed each squad leader to pass the order down. In truth, there was little to pass—five hundred Qi soldiers were not many to begin with, and they were all gathered together, so basically a shout over the shoulder was heard by everyone.

While the deserters were still bickering among themselves, the Qi soldiers had quietly shifted their formation.

The Qi family army's Mandarin Duck Formation was famous throughout the world, and certain great minds had naturally devised methods to counter it. But these stragglers before them had not even read the most basic Romance of the Three Kingdoms, let alone knew anything about breaking the Mandarin Duck Formation.

The stragglers' tactics were much the same as the roving bandits—simply relying on numbers to overwhelm.

The long shield bearers stood at the front ranks holding large shields woven from rattan, moving slowly, armed with short blades. In plain terms, they existed solely to absorb damage so the other troop types behind could deal it out.

The stragglers had not charged more than a few steps when they suddenly saw the enemy's front-rank long shield bearers crouch down, followed immediately by a great roar as countless javelins flew toward them, cutting down dozens to a hundred of the stragglers in an instant.

The remaining stragglers were seized with terror, their ears filled with screams of agony, their noses filled with the bloody breath of the battlefield. In that moment, the courage they had just mustered was worn away by more than half.

Before long, driven on desperately by the Assistant Regional Commander and the Mobile Corps Commander officers, the remaining stragglers—without reforming their ranks—charged forward again in chaotic shouts.

The long shield bearers were few in number, basically only one or two per squad. Behind them stood the rattan shield bearers carrying lighter rattan shields. These rattan shield bearers were equipped differently from the long shield bearers, carrying Qi-family self-made javelins and waist sabers—more than enough for face-to-face combat with these stragglers.

But when all was said and done, the main offensive force of the Qi side in battle was never the long shield bearers or rattan shield bearers. As Qi Jiguang had written, their task was primarily to cover the advance of the rear ranks and maintain the formation.

Of course, the rattan shield bearers' equipment was not inferior to that of ordinary infantry—besides providing cover, they could also engage in close combat with the enemy without losing the upper hand.

They stepped forward with measured strides, showing no fear whatsoever in the face of an enemy nearly twice their number. The Assistant Regional Commander even observed that these Qi soldiers' marching steps did not deviate in the slightest—they moved as one single man.

For a brief instant, the Assistant Regional Commander began to wonder if he had chosen the wrong side.

When the distance closed to about the last hundred paces, a fierce roar suddenly erupted from the enemy formation. The entire Qi formation began moving at virtually the same instant, plunging headlong into the midst of the stragglers.

In that moment, the utterly unprepared stragglers were cut down by at least a hundred or more of these Qi soldiers who seemed possessed, and the number was still climbing.

But then again, the stragglers at the front were after all mere cannon fodder. The household retainers behind them were armored soldiers, their steel blades easily able to cut through the simple cloth armor worn by the Qi soldiers.

Soon, under the frenzied assault of these household retainers, the Qi soldiers gradually began to falter.

Next to take the stage were the primary combatants among this batch of Qi soldiers—the entire formation revolved around them. They were the famed wolf-brush bearers.

The wolf-brush was made from moso bamboo grown in the south, selecting the old and sturdy stalks, with the bamboo tip cut diagonally to a sharp point while leaving the surrounding sharp branches intact. Measured by later standards, each wolf-brush was approximately three meters in length. The wolf-brush bearers used the sharp blades at the front of the wolf-brush to stab and kill enemies, covering the advance of the shield bearers and the attack of the spear bearers behind.

Though the Qi soldiers numbered only five hundred, they maintained an exceptionally strict system of squads and ranks. Each squad had two wolf-brush bearers standing on either side, who, during gaps in the fighting, thrust their three-meter wolf-brushes out from a distance, inflicting heavy casualties while the enemy was locked in melee with the front-rank long shield bearers and rattan shield bearers.

The most infuriating thing is not that you cannot defeat the enemy—it is knowing full well you could win, yet being unable to reach them.

These wolf-brushes were covered in hooked barbs. Seemingly aware that the enemy's household retainers wore iron armor, the wolf-brush bearers never attacked head-on. Instead, they typically struck unexpectedly at the neck or from underfoot when the enemy was overwhelmed, breaking through their defenses.

This type of attack was the hardest to defend against. Even household retainers with rich battlefield experience found it difficult to guard against attacks at their feet and from hidden angles while fighting for their lives.

Some household retainers were accidentally stabbed in the calf and collapsed with screams of agony. These were not fatal wounds, but before they could leap back up to continue fighting, rattan shield bearers who had been watching closely rushed in to finish them off, hacking them into pulp.

Even so, after paying a tremendous price in casualties, the stragglers still forcibly broke through the front-rank rattan shield bearers.

"Hahaha! Cut down all those holding wolf-brushes first!"

"Who would have thought these things could be so devastating!"

The stragglers were exulting when they saw the wolf-brush bearers, showing no desire to linger in battle, retreat several steps—and immediately after, a batch of spear bearers wielding long spears charged out from their flanks.

These spear bearers had been waiting in the rear for a long time, and even their charge followed the predetermined formation, each covering the positions of the shield bearers and wolf-brush bearers on the left and right ahead of them.

Not only that, when the spear bearers charged, soldiers carrying "tang-pa" tridents generally followed behind them. However, these soldiers primarily served in a support role, not going up to fight.

The stragglers were naturally not fools. The enemy's frontal formation was clearly impenetrable, so the Assistant Regional Commander, without a second word, directly pulled out a portion of his household retainers for a flanking attack, hoping to break this still-immature Mandarin Duck Formation from the side.

But he had only taken a few steps when he happened to run into Qi Yuangong, who had been waiting at leisure for some time. The two sides became entangled, and before long, those soldiers carrying "tang-pa" tridents also drew their short blades and rushed forward to support.

In an instant, the Assistant Regional Commander found himself trapped within the Qi soldiers' formation.