Chapter 592: Scared Witless

No one had a clearer view of the front line than Zu Dale, who was lying prone on the river embankment.

He watched as Gao Yingdeng's four columns of horse-leading infantry swiftly formed into a square formation, then used warhorses and war chariots as cover on three sides of the formation, methodically deploying their musket battalions.

At that moment, he had already scrambled up from the ground, clapping his hands to summon his household retainers to bring his horse, intending to pass word to the thousand-plus Liaodong cavalry under his command to launch a charge from the eastern side of this musket square to support Zu Kuan.

But before the retainer leading his horse could even reach the top of the embankment, in the next instant the swarming cavalry over there had already charged to the edge of the square, and cannons and muskets roared one after another.

Zu Dale raised a hand, did one clap push-up, and flattened himself on the ground again.

One exchange — just one exchange, and those rebel musketeers actually put out a denser hail of bullets than the artillery unit, shearing away an entire layer of the horse column.

In just three short volleys, half of Zu Kuan's horse column was crippled, and wounded horses were running wild everywhere.

The men of the Zu family army had lived together day and night; watching the remnants of Zu Kuan's crippled cavalry being chased all over the battlefield by the Marshal's Headquarters horse column, Zu Dale's household retainers were shaking him, urgently asking whether to send troops to help, but Zu Dale... could not hear them.

In the instant the gun smoke from the three volleys began to clear, Zu Dale, still seven or eight li from the killing field, thought he had gone deaf.

He could not hear the distant sounds of slaughter; the scene before his eyes froze entirely; his mind was completely blank; his whole body seemed to have become nothing but a heart, with only a deafening heartbeat — thump, thump, thump — exploding through all his senses.

He could hear nothing at all.

By the time Zu Dale came back to his senses, he was already standing on the soil of the Wei River's southern bank.

Still in shock, he had no idea how he had gotten across; only the soaked clothes inside his armor and the heavy iron boots filled with river water reminded him that his river crossing seemed to have been a bit too hasty.

He did not even understand how, when he had clearly been seven or eight li from the battlefield and those rebels could not possibly have harmed a hair on his head no matter what, he could have been frightened into such a state.

Even after reaching the opposite bank, Zu Dale still could not pull himself out of the panic of a narrow escape from death.

Not only had Zu Dale never seen it, he had never even imagined that any enemy in the world could, in the course of any war, campaign, or battle, kill or wound several hundred Liaodong soldiers in just a few instants.

This lingering shock did not ease until his household retainers reported the results of the troop count, and only then did Zu Dale's emotions stabilize a little.

Heh heh — of the one thousand four hundred and forty cavalry under his command, only a few were missing.

But he had also picked up an extra two hundred cavalry.

They were those Eastern Miao cavalry under Yang Zhengfang's command who had earlier been driven from the battlefield.

After escaping danger, they had been lying prone north of the river embankment observing the battlefield, looking for a chance to rejoin their unit.

At that time, Zu Dale was already lying prone south of the river embankment, so despite having over a thousand friendly cavalry nearby, the panicked Eastern Miao cavalry had no idea their allies were right beside them.

It was not until Zu Dale did his push-ups on the embankment and then led his main force in a desperate dash that the Eastern Miao cavalry realized the Liaodong troops had been right next to them all along, and they chased after them and ran across the river.

In fact, because they pursued so closely, the Liaodong troops thought they were cavalry from the Marshal's Headquarters, and as soon as they crossed the river they grabbed their three-eyed guns and started shooting.

The Eastern Miao cavalry could not explain themselves clearly, so they ended up fighting a skirmish right by the river.

But with one side in a hurry to run and the other unwilling to fight, they only inflicted casualties on each other before the Eastern Miao cavalry withdrew first.

Yet after withdrawing, they absolutely dared not stay on the north side of the river, so that cavalry battalion driven from the battlefield picked a corner of the Mao Hulu troops' position to go through and reestablish contact, and were gathered under Zu Dale's command.

The fighting to the north was still going on, but Zu Dale had already made up his mind — no matter what, he would not cross the river to the Wei River's northern bank again.

In fact, right now he simply did not want to fight Liu Chengzong at all; the heavy musket firepower of Gao Yingdeng's battalion had shaken him too deeply, and Zu Kuan's actions had brought too many casualties to the Zu family army... he could not afford to lose any more.

He was dead set on this: no matter how the fighting to the north turned out, unless Liu Chengzong was routed, he would absolutely not take a single step across the Wei River.

He would just stand on the southern bank and gather the routed troops; he was going to refill this battalion to full strength, and no matter whose soldiers they were, if he picked them up, they were his.

"Make these arrangements for now, set up camp on the spot. As for how to fight the rest of this battle... we'll talk when that barbarian Lu gets here!"

While Zu Dale was arranging things in perfect order south of the river, the Liaodong cavalry on the Wei River's northern bank were having a far worse time.

Zu Kuan's force of over one thousand four hundred cavalry suffered massive casualties in the short time it took them to enter the firing range of Gao Yingdeng's unit.

Of the four Battalion Commanders, one was killed and one wounded; of the seventeen Company Commanders serving as cavalry captains, six died on the spot, and five more had their mounts shot dead and were thrown from their horses; of the thirty-five cavalry squad leaders, because they were at the very front of the horse column on the line of engagement, a full twenty-two were killed.

Only five Company Commanders, because they were positioned at the rear of the formation, were able to lead their horse columns in an organized retreat.

But their warhorses had long since run out of steam; in a single day they had rushed over from the Wei River's southern bank and then run a round trip of over ten li between the riverbank and Xingping County.

The Liaodong soldiers' horses were already failing when they charged the infantry formation and could only press forward in a quick trot, but the problem was that at this moment not only were the Liaodong soldiers on their backs terrified, the horses they were pressing down on were terrified too, and they simply refused to obey their riders' commands, bolting at top speed until they were foaming at the mouth.

They had fled less than two li in total before the six Liaodong cavalry battalions were overtaken by the four hundred-plus cavalry led by Tang Tong; the outrider cavalry with their three-eyed guns and the guards with their pistols chased and fired as they went.

These hungry devils, thinking of their own donkey-meat fire-breads, shot madly at the Liaodong soldiers' mounts, and in no time at all turned six Liaodong cavalry battalions into six infantry battalions, surrounded them, and gave them a thorough gang-beating.

The situation for the Huguang army crossing the river to the west was even more miserable; from their position they could not see clearly what was happening on the central battlefield at all.

Lei Shisheng had followed Zu Kuan's advice and specifically traveled five or six li westward from the southern bank before building a pontoon bridge and beginning to cross the river.

As a result, just as his vanguard had crossed the river, Zu Kuan had already spotted an opening and launched a charge from the locust grove; not long after he charged over, a cavalry force came back from the direction Zu Kuan had gone.

Lei Shisheng was standing on the pontoon bridge in the middle of the Wei River at that moment, and he truly believed it was Zu Kuan being chased back from the battlefield by the Marshal's army.

After all, how could enemy troops possibly come that fast?

And from the same direction as Zu Kuan — brother here is in the middle of crossing the river! Couldn't you, Zu Kuan, at least block them a little?

Surely you'd lend a brother a hand!

So the ones coming could not possibly be enemy troops; it had to be Zu Kuan being chased back.

The Huguang troops who had crossed the river showed not the slightest intention of taking defensive precautions; they just kept crossing the river in waves over the little pontoon bridge on the Wei River.

Of course, it could not be said that they had absolutely no defenses at all; they made way for "Zu Kuan" and then did set up some defensive positions.

They set up their arquebuses and small cannons, but not aimed at "Zu Kuan" — rather, they were prepared to defend against the nonexistent pursuers behind "Zu Kuan."

Zhao Zhirui, in the midst of his galloping charge, was dumbfounded watching the river-crossing Ming army acting as if they were sleepwalking.

Zhao Zhirui had previously been the Suzhou Regional Commander; ever since being defeated by Liu Chengzong, he had fled into Liangzhou and racked his brains every day thinking of a way to strike a blow against Liu the Lion, until Liangzhou ran out of grain and he had no choice but to hold his nose, go with the flow, and surrender to Liu Chengzong.

Because he had beaten up Zhang Tianlin, Zhang Tianlin demanded him as his deputy general, and every day all he saw was the treachery of the human heart.

You come over in good faith to serve as deputy general, and he, damn him, assigns ten guards to watch you when you go to the latrine — you're afraid of being blown sky-high even while taking a shit!

Under this kind of tight-surveillance working environment, General Zhao was under such mental stress that he had nightmares every day, to the point that even when he led troops into battle he did not do his job properly, just loitering on the flank of the Zhengan army, his heart full of conflict.

On one hand, he did not want the army he was in to be defeated in this pitched battle; after all, this was a major battlefield with over thirty thousand troops committed by both sides, and once defeated and entering the pursuit phase, even Liu Chengzong might not be able to save his own life, let alone a mere deputy general like himself.

But on the other hand, he also did not want Liu Chengzong to win comfortably, especially not a total victory won because of his own contributions.

So he simply went through the motions without putting in any real effort; as soon as he found an excuse to leave the central battlefield, he ran all the way over to where the Ming army was crossing the river — as long as he stopped them at the riverbank, that would count as completing his mission.

Yet, unexpectedly, the brothers from Huguang, in an instant, let him feel the warm hospitality of a long-awaited reunion.

Zhao Zhirui's original plan was just like what he'd done on the eastern side — have his horse troops surround the enemy and blast away with their guns from a hundred paces out.

But when he saw Lei Shisheng being so enthusiastic, deliberately having his soldiers open a path through the middle of the formation, even setting up firelocks and cannons but not aiming them at his men — this kind of welcome preparation instantly made General Zhao's brain crash.

What's the meaning of this?

Zhao Zhirui simply changed tactics. Brandishing his battle sword, he ordered his troops to sling their firelocks over their shoulders, drew their bone-spike maces and goose-quill sabers, and charged in single file through the gap the Huguang troops had opened, smashing into the river-crossing Huguang forces in the shortest possible time, scattering them in all directions and bursting clean through their formation.

By the time he regrouped his cavalry on the west side of the Huguang army and wheeled around for another charge, Lei Shisheng's two-thousand-odd men who had crossed the river were already scattered in every direction, their formation completely gone.

The Huguang troops on the far bank who hadn't yet crossed abandoned the crossing in panic, terrified that Zhao Zhirui would charge across the pontoon bridge. They threw away their armor and supplies and fled eastward.

These men were quickly scooped up by Zu Dale, who had been waiting in ambush several li away for a long time. Just like that, an entire Huguang battalion was gone.

After a battle like this, Zhao Zhirui, who had been swaggering arrogantly along the north bank of the Wei River, found that the little bit of resentment he'd been nursing — that urge to just go through the motions without really fighting — had completely vanished. Instead, he felt that going with the flow and surrendering to Liu Chengzong back in Liangzhou had been a blessing in disguise.

Fighting a pitched battle alongside a coalition of muddle-headed fools like these — it'd be a miracle if they won!

By the time Liu Chengzong brought the main army up to the central battlefield, reports of victory were pouring in from all directions. In his eyes, the overall outcome of the campaign was already settled.

Only Zhang Tianlin was reporting: "Commander, the two infantry battalions led by the enemy general are still putting up stubborn resistance."

Liu the Lion actually felt that calling it stubborn resistance wasn't quite right — it was more like they were just passively fighting back.

When your dismounted cavalry, Zhang Tianlin, closed in and engaged them, they'd form ranks and fight you. On the other three sides where no one was attacking, the soldiers just stood there, like old mice that had spotted a cat — not moving a muscle.

Liu Chengzong was puzzled by the posture of the Zhengan and Maohulu battalions, because judging by their formation, it looked more like these men had voluntarily charged out of their entrenched positions, complete with ditches and earthen ramparts, to do battle.

But how could an army that launched an offensive fight a battle like this... The Great Khan expressed that he could not understand, but he was deeply shaken.

Still, compared to Zu Kuan's fate, Yang Zhengfang's luck was actually much better.

By the time Liu Chengzong reached the front lines, the soldiers under Gao Yingdeng's command had already found Zu Kuan. This was a ruthless character, a commoner's son who had climbed to the highest official rank in the Ming army. Liu the Lion had originally intended to persuade him to surrender.

But this unlucky wretch, man and horse alike, had been hit by seven shots. He lay on the battlefield, breathing out more than he breathed in, coughing up great mouthfuls of blood. The medical officers from all four battalions took one look and shook their heads.

Because Zu Kuan had no external injuries. Of the seven lead balls, only one was a heavy one-liang-five-qian ball from a heavy gun, and that heavy ball had struck his mount in the head, killing the warhorse outright.

The remaining six were all three-qian bird-gun balls with extra charges. Zu Kuan's armor was excellent — cotton-and-iron armor, cotton on the outside and iron within. None of the six lead balls had managed to breach it.

His most serious injuries were, first, his left leg crushed by the fallen warhorse, and second, three ribs broken by the impact of deformed armor plates.

Internal injuries like these — never mind that the army medics had no way to treat them under battlefield conditions — even if he were sent to the rear with ample medicine, whether a man lived or died had nothing to do with the physician. It all came down to his eight characters.

Zu Kuan's subordinate, Mobile Corps General Zu Chengyong, had better luck, though. When the guns went off, there was a centurion blocking the way in front of him. The moment he saw the centurion fall from his horse and the horse rear up, he flipped off his own mount, hid behind the horse's corpse, and saved his life.

When Gao Yingdeng's soldiers later fished him out of the battlefield after the fighting, he was completely intact, not a hair harmed, and he surrendered on the spot.

Before the great camp of the Tiger Guard Army, where banners snapped in the wind, Liu Chengzong, sitting astride his horse, raised his whip and pointed at the Zhengan troops' formation. "They don't have much fight left in them. Pull your men back a hundred paces and send someone to offer them surrender."

On the battlefield, Yang Zhengfang was in an extremely awkward position:

Fight — he couldn't win.

Run — he couldn't escape.

He was nearly going mad, regretting for the first time that he had marched his troops too fast.

Why had he gone so fast? They were clearly seven thousand mountain infantry, yet they'd rushed headlong onto the great plains just to take a beating.

Right now he was racking his brains for a way out and had absolutely no will to keep resisting the Marshal's army.

"Pull back a hundred paces?"

Zhang Tianlin's face showed difficulty. "Commander, this humble officer believes that if we first blast them with a volley of rockets, then offer surrender, wouldn't it be easier? What if the infantry pulls back and they run?"

Liu Chengzong looked at the Zhengan troops standing on the battlefield, then looked at Zhang Tianlin, and in an instant understood what this fellow was thinking.

It wasn't that he was afraid they wouldn't surrender — he just purely wanted to blast people.

Liu the Lion laughed. "You're thinking that stockade you built on the north side was built for nothing, aren't you?"

Zhang Tianlin had his thoughts hit dead-on. He broke into an embarrassed, silly grin, thinking to himself: the Commander really gets me!

Liu Chengzong pointed at him with mild exasperation, then gripped his horsewhip and pointed east and west. "To the west are your battalion's dismounted cavalry — is that Zhao Zhirui leading them? Further on toward Xingping County, there's still a thousand riders from the Khoshut Battalion, just waiting for the enemy to flee that way."

"No need to worry about the east, either. Zuo Guangxian of the Tiger Guard Battalion has already led a thousand riders over there. He just reported back that the continuous thunder of guns and cannons here has drawn the common folk of Xianyang out, hand in hand, up onto the plateau to watch the excitement — spectators packed like a wall!"

"Go offer them surrender. If they refuse, we'll talk then. The camp you built will come in handy — we'll rest there tonight."

With that, Liu the Lion stretched out his hand, spread his five fingers wide, then clenched them fiercely. "Within three days at most, we march north to deal with those twenty thousand Ming troops and make the whole realm tremble. Then we come back and take Xi'an. This campaign... is enough to give our army the advantage in Guanzhong and make the officials and scholars of the court toss and turn in fear through the night!"