Chapter 262: Recapturing Taiyuan (Part 2)

If, when they first charged up, all the Dashun troops guarding the city gate had rushed forward to fight hand-to-hand, the outcome would still have been uncertain—but as things stood, with everyone watching and waiting, trimming their sails to the wind, the result was plain to see.

Of course, this was also a common tactic between the government troops and the roving bandits these days—government troops stripped off that uniform and went about looting at will, and that made them bandits; conversely, if roving bandits put on that uniform and added the pretense of imperial amnesty, they became soldiers.

All of this had actually happened in the blink of an eye. The Dashun soldiers atop Taiyuan's walls had just loosed one volley of lead shot and had not yet had time to launch a second round of attack when the Dashun soldiers clustered at the mouth of the city gate had already begun to collapse.

The Doyan soldiers used ropes to throw Niu Wancai's defensive arrangements into chaos, and the front ranks of the Dashun troops were already showing signs of disorder—at this moment, only a single fierce charge was needed to achieve the objective.

Seeing these fierce-faced, tall and burly Doyan soldiers before them who fought with extraordinary savagery, the Dashun troops—who had never crossed swords with enemies from beyond the Great Wall and had only heard tales of how ferocious they were—felt their courage falter.

Faced with this sudden onslaught, naturally not everyone possessed Niu Wancai's resolve to fight them to the death.

At this moment, most of the cavalry under Gao Jie's command that had charged up from outside reined in their mounts and began to pace back and forth uncertainly beneath the walls.

"Commander, what do we do?" the Vice Regional Commander asked, his expression somewhat hesitant.

"It seems the outcome is already decided—today the credit for the first exploit has been snatched by the Doyan tribe." Gao Jie chuckled once, then waved his hand and said: "Have the brothers pull back a good distance and watch how the Doyan people fight on horseback—let them learn a thing or two!"

"As ordered—this subordinate will pass the word down at once!"

The Doyan soldiers had not yet completely charged inside, and a gap had to be maintained between the two sides. Gao Jie also knew that some of his own troops still harbored resentment toward these barbarian auxiliaries.

Though his expression showed disdain as he spoke, in his heart he actually held considerable admiration for Urmai—setting aside everything else, the mere fact that he had moved his entire tribe inside the passes and completely broken with the Tartar Qing was something many people could not have done.

In fact, as recently as last month, an incident with extremely bad influence had occurred in the army—a soldier, whose entire family had been slaughtered by the barbarians, had taken out his anger on these Uriankhai people and slipped into their camp at night to kill a Doyan soldier.

Urmai's expression had been unpleasant at the time, but he had said nothing, and the rest of the Doyan tribe had been the same. Gao Jie naturally had not found it easy to say much either—the commanders all seemed to know the affair would have bad repercussions, and every one of them put on an air of leaving the matter to the Governor-General of the Five Provinces, Chen Qiyu, to decide.

Chen Qiyu had pondered this matter for a long time as well. In the end, he decided to deal with that soldier with extreme severity.

With Chen Qiyu handling it that way, some soldiers naturally harbored resentment, but the Doyan tribe people were greatly reassured—it could be said to have followed the will of the Chongzhen Emperor.

To this day, no one had dared to repeat such an offense, and the Doyan people consequently felt grateful to Chen Qiyu—when the pre-battle mobilization came, they were also the first batch to step forward and volunteer for combat.

Though the soldiers said nothing, Gao Jie still felt that quite a few of his troops bore hatred toward these Uriankhai people.

In fact, Gao Jie himself had been the same at first—a few years ago these barbarians had even followed the Jianzhou barbarians through the passes to plunder the Han people, and now, because they had married off a daughter, they were following the Great Ming with utter devotion. Only a fool would believe such a thing.

Gao Jie did not believe it, and these straightforward soldiers did not believe it either.

Only now, seeing these Uriankhai people charging boldly at the front and suffering the heaviest casualties, did Gao Jie truly feel their transformation, and in his heart he gained some measure of understanding toward Urmai.

Now that the city gate was in hand, in order for the soldiers of both sides to get along harmoniously and not turn on each other from within, Gao Jie had to deliberately keep them at a distance—Urmai understood this tacitly and did the same.

Both men held absolute authority among their subordinates. After Gao Jie gave the order, the Xuanzhen cavalry quickly began to pull back, and many men took out horse bows from their mounts and began loosing arrows at the city walls.

Han and Uriankhai fighting shoulder to shoulder once again—the first time since the Chengzu Emperor's Jingnan campaign.

At the city gate, the passage had in fact been completely forced open by the Doyan soldiers—even that so-called Right Martial Might General of Dashun, Niu Wancai, had died beneath the hooves of the Doyan cavalry, and the remaining Dashun troops were even more terrified, scattering in all directions into the city.

Outside the city, apart from the thousand-odd mounted force Gao Jie had scraped together, large numbers of follow-up troops had also advanced, forming ranks under the orders of Bai Guangen, Mou Wenshou, and others, waiting for commands from the rear.

Before long, a signal soldier came galloping from the rear, waving a small flag, and shouted from afar: "By order of the Governor-General—attack on all fronts, take Taiyuan!"

"Take Taiyuan!"

Mou Wenshou exchanged a glance with his clansman Mou Wenju, laughed heartily a few times, and led his Shandong troops out in the first wave. Bai Guangen, who had fled so swiftly moments before, now also stood sloppily at the front of the formation and led his Datong troops charging forward with killing cries right behind.

In addition, Gao Jie's Xuanzhen troops, Qiu Lei's Wuding troops, and the various government forces that had come under dispatch orders to suppress the rebels all charged toward Taiyuan city as well—beating a drowning dog was precisely what they excelled at.

"Except for the commanders' directly attached cavalry, all others dismount and enter the city to fight on foot! The Governor-General has ordered: take Taiyuan before nightfall!"

Hearing the order, Gao Jie and the others and their scraped-together mounted force resignedly dismounted, brandished their sabers and spears, and charged into Taiyuan city with the main force, engaging in street fighting with the Dashun troops led by Lin Yangcheng.

Just as the sounds of slaughter within Taiyuan city rose and fell in waves, a commander's chariot, escorted by tens of thousands of government troops directly under the Northwest Grand Camp, slowly arrived at an earthen slope not far outside the city.

Chen Qiyu sat upright on the commander's chariot. Though reports of victory came thick and fast, his brows remained tightly knit.

The Northwest Grand Camp was, after all, newly established. Chen Qiyu's intention in having the Northwest Grand Camp follow up outside the city was twofold: first, to drill the troops in formation and battle arrays; second, to see how these raw recruits would perform in the face of a true major battle.

"Transmit this commander's order: after entering the city, no one may rob or harass the populace. Violators will be beheaded without mercy!"

"As ordered!" The signal soldier waiting at the side immediately gave a great shout, mounted his horse, and galloped off toward the city.

Within the city, Lin Yangcheng was engaged in a bitter and arduous street battle.

But the government troops before him seemed impossible to kill off. Lin Yangcheng still remembered last year's eastern campaign—the Dashun army had fielded a million men, and everywhere they went had been scenes of collapse and surrender, without even a token resistance.

Yet merely one year had passed, and not only had the government troops' fighting strength increased enormously, they even dared to strike first after the eastern campaign from Xi'an, directly laying siege to the major stronghold of Taiyuan in force. Lin Yangcheng simply could not understand it.

How could the government troops have changed so enormously within a single year?

"General, Niu Youyong at the north gate has run off, and Ge Sanpao at the east gate has surrendered his troops to the government army!" A Dashun commander came running up boisterously, blood still on his face.

Hearing what he said, Lin Yangcheng's resolve wavered somewhat. Just as he was about to reply, an arrow suddenly shot forth from behind.

The arrow flew like a whirlwind, threading through the crowd, and pierced precisely through that commander's neck. Lin Yangcheng's face was splattered with blood, his eyes went wide, and for a moment he forgot what he had been about to say.

"Kill the Dashun rebels!"

"We surrender, sir—we surrender!"

"Surrender, surrender! Stop fighting! Spare this humble one's life, good sirs!"

The Dashun banners atop the city walls had already been replaced by the excited government troops with the new-style Great Ming dark-bird banners. The Dashun soldiers were terrified out of their wits—apart from a portion of the old camp still following at Lin Yangcheng's side, nearly all the other camps scattered before the wind, either fleeing or surrendering, and so it was throughout the entire city.

Before long, Lin Yangcheng, who had lost all will to fight, threw his steel saber to the ground and said dejectedly:

"Stop fighting—let us surrender!"

In the distance, Urmai, seated on his horse, put away his bow. Seeing that he had not shot dead that rebel chief, he shook his head and said nothing more. Just as he was about to dismount and advance on foot, he suddenly heard a burst of cheering from the Ming troops around him.

Urmai, full of questions, dared not move rashly for a moment. Turning to ask the man beside him, he only then learned that the rebel chief had already led his troops in surrendering to the court.