Chapter 293: Refusing to Claim Credit

Morale was soaring—shouting "For the Emperor!" and charging the roving bandits with reckless disregard for death—that was the true picture of the government troops at this moment.

The two sides had been fighting for roughly four hours, and not to mention the government troops were already on the verge of collapse, even the roving bandits were utterly exhausted. This battle at Gu Pass was shaping up to be a mirror image of the historic Battle of Shanhai Pass.

In history, Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui had fought outside Shanhai Pass for most of a day, with Wu Sangui barely holding on. When it looked like he was about to be finished, and everyone thought the battle was drawing to a close, the treacherous barbarian chieftain Dorgon suddenly burst forth with his Dzungar army.

Back then, the Dzungars were just like the current Imperial Guard—they didn't need to fight at all. They charged with a shout, and the Dashun army collapsed in total rout.

Whether it was the historic Battle of Shanhai Pass or this current Battle of Gu Pass, both shared one thing in common: from start to finish, the Dashun army always had the most men. But when an army collapses, it collapses like a mountain falling—at that point, numbers no longer mattered; it was purely a matter of morale.

A huge turn of events suddenly occurred on the battlefield. The Dashun side was exhausted, while the reinforcements were bursting with energy. Add to that the fact that they had no idea how many enemies there were, and the enemy—boosted by the arrival of reinforcements and the Emperor himself—was riding a wave of soaring morale. In an instant, the situation reversed into a complete two-sided swing.

At this moment, even the most exhausted officers and soldiers had to expend their last ounce of strength. After all, for many people, fighting for the Emperor had always been just a slogan—but having the Emperor watching them fight from behind was a first in their lives.

Moreover, this Imperial Guard truly was different from the old Capital Camps. They had routed the roving bandits the moment they entered the fray. If they didn't press forward now, they'd never get another chance in this lifetime.

At this time, many of the original government troops on Gu Pass were using old-style matchlock bird-gun muskets. After firing once, reloading for another shot required a long, tedious process—but the battlefield situation allowed no waiting. Right now was the time to compete for military merit; there was no room for fiddling with muskets.

After most of the musketmen fired their one shot, they had no time to reload. They simply slung their muskets over their shoulders, grabbed whatever saber or spear was at hand, and sprinted after the main body of the Imperial Guard, rushing to the front—kill one enemy, earn one share of merit.

In truth, it wasn't just the battlefield situation driving the officers and soldiers to such valor. Many clearly remembered that the Chongzhen Emperor had issued a self-blame edict last year, along with decrees similar to abolishing the hereditary military household farmland system.

It was explicitly stated therein that military merit must be credited to every individual soldier, and that every Ming officer or soldier who died in battle was entitled to be enshrined in the Temple of Loyal Martyrs in the capital. Even if not for their own future, they wanted to earn a name for their fallen brothers and their families.

Unlike the other government troops who broke into a mad dash, the Imperial Guard was different. Many junior officers kept shouting commands to maintain formation. Chen Qiyu, watching from the city wall, noticed that this Imperial Guard—appearing on the battlefield for the first time—was advancing in orderly ranks even while in pursuit.

Watching the confident smile on the Chongzhen Emperor's face beside him, Chen Qiyu finally relaxed. From the current situation alone, this Imperial Guard was truly worlds apart from the formerly rotten Capital Camps.

To avoid exposing any opening for the enemy to counterattack, most officers strictly restrained their subordinates. Even in pursuit, they advanced in organized waves. As a result, even the roving bandits who wanted to counterattack could never muster any real threat.

In fact, this had long been Zhang Shize's plan. As early as the night before departing for Gu Pass, Zhang Shize had summoned the three Imperial Guard Regional Commanders—Wu Qihua, Chang Shilong, and Hu Hailong—to discuss various tactics.

After the discussion concluded, the three returned to their own camps and informed twelve Company Commanders including Li Shiyao, who then passed the orders further down. The commands were transmitted level by level, and because the Imperial Guard had a clear chain of command, efficiency was extremely high.

Of the three, Wu Qihua was a veteran officer of the original Ten Regiments Camp with considerable prestige and seniority. The other two were different—both were newly promoted talents. Chang Shilong had previously been an Assistant Regional Commander of the Tongzhou Guard, while Hu Hailong was a Vice Regional Commander from Baoding.

Calling them new talents was because they had never served in the Capital Camps before; this was their first time being summoned to serve as generals in the Imperial Guard. As for combat experience, neither was inferior to anyone else—otherwise they could never have been selected for such important posts as Regional Commander.

Take Chang Shilong, for example. He had spent years stationed in the Tongzhou area, training both new recruits and veterans with equal skill. He was tactful in his dealings, knew how to adapt, and was steady and composed—never letting circumstances sway his judgment.

Even Li Banghua, the Left Censor-in-Chief of the Censorate who held military men in great disdain, had to concede admiration for Chongzhen's appointment of Chang Shilong as one of the Imperial Guard's three Regional Commanders, praising it as "a move that benefits the state and the people, and brings stability to the troops."

As for Hu Hailong, he was ruthless by nature, but fierce in battle and utterly loyal to the court.

Before serving as Vice Regional Commander of Baoding, Hu Hailong had been promoted to the rank of Mobile Corps Commander for his battlefield merits. He had then followed Governor-General Yang Wenyue on suppression campaigns across the region. With extraordinary martial prowess and deep familiarity with the roving bandits' tactics, he had once been lavishly praised by Yang Wenyue in a memorial as "the bravest within the three prefectures of Baoding."

At the time, Zhang Shize's concern was that the Imperial Guard soldiers had never been on a real battlefield. They could all fight when the wind was at their backs, but the roving bandits—after years of pitched battles—were no longer what they had once been. One careless mistake and the enemy might seize an opportunity to turn the tables.

Though Hu Hailong was ferocious, he was not without brains. Years of suppression campaigns and bitter fighting against the roving bandits had given him deep insight into this very matter.

In the decade before Chongzhen's reign, he had gone on suppression campaigns across five provinces. It was common for government troops in the Central Plains to rout the roving bandits in battle—but it was also all too common for them to be caught by a sudden counterattack and suffer defeat.

The root cause was that when government troops gave chase, they often assumed victory was already theirs and began squabbling over military merit and plunder, ignoring the roving bandits' advantage in numbers. The government troops at Gu Pass were doing exactly the same now.

When the roving bandits saw the government troops' formations thrown into chaos by the pursuit, they would wheel around and charge—and it almost always worked. But this time it didn't. The Imperial Guard, serving as the main force, showed no signs of disorder. They advanced slowly, as if in no hurry at all.

As the two sides remained locked in stalemate, some of the roving bandits' veteran camps couldn't hold back and launched counterattacks first. But often, the moment they wheeled around to charge—before their horses could even take a stride—they were shot from their saddles by the flintlock volley formations within the Imperial Guard.

This Ming army that had come to reinforce seemed different from the usual Ming forces. Not only were their armor and weapons brand new from top to bottom, even their firearms were lethally sharp—at around a hundred paces, they could punch straight through the horse armor of the roving bandits' veteran cavalry, inflicting severe wounds.

Because the Imperial Guard's formations were orderly, with infantry advancing steadily right behind the musketeers, these veteran camp soldiers who had roamed the Central Plains felt that even charging forward would fail to break the enemy. Once again, they tasted the agony of being able only to watch the enemy while being unable to strike back.

The last time they had tasted this pain was when they fought against Sun Chuanting's Shaanxi army wagon formation. Recalling it now, the Shaanxi army's wagon formation had been virtually impenetrable—musketeers firing from every direction, like a slowly advancing fortress, extremely troublesome to deal with.

Had it not been for the Emperor before them constantly pressing for battle, forcing Sun Chuanting into hasty combat, defeating the Shaanxi army would have required considerably more effort.

Now the Imperial Guard's flintlock muskets were even more formidable than the Shaanxi army's firearms. The veteran camp soldiers' will was not made of steel—on the contrary, they were more cunning and pragmatic than the ordinary regular troops.

Faced with a situation where they could only be passively slaughtered, with the enemy in orderly formation and no possibility of a successful counterattack, they naturally realized at once that they were the fish on the chopping block. Once the enemy infantry closed in, even escape would be impossible.

The roving bandits' veteran camp soldiers had roamed the Central Plains not by relying on brute force like the Dzungars. At this moment, those who had been plotting counterattacks gave up, not daring to fight any longer. They wheeled their horses around and fled at full gallop.

This time, they truly ran.