Chapter 98: Not Fated for That

Feng Rang roared furiously from the top of the wall. A cannonball had snapped the flagpole at its closest, but Lu Cheng caught it before it fell.

He even suspected the artillerymen were deliberately firing wide. In the end, he rolled up his own sleeves and aimed the cannon himself.

The artillerymen were certainly firing wide on purpose — but even if they hadn't been, hitting the mark was impossible.

Not just now — until the Industrial Revolution, no cannon existed that could hit whatever you pointed at from four or five hundred paces.

You aimed roughly in a direction, at a target with a margin of error three or four paces wide and seven or eight paces deep.

To score a hit required the best cannon, the roundest ball, and the finest gunner — all three were indispensable.

Liu Chengzong knew Feng Rang was anxious, but this truly was not something individual will could decide.

At seventy paces, aiming with a bow, a man already looked smaller than an arrowhead — let alone at four or five hundred paces.

Trying to hit a single man at this distance?

The gunners' skill could no longer play a decisive role; everything depended on whether the target managed to catch the shot.

He consoled him: "It's fine. General Lu's courage is admirable, but he can't escape."

From the battlements, Liu Chengzong noticed that the archers below the pass were retreating along with Lu Cheng's formation.

The arquebusiers had stayed behind as a rearguard and were also pulling back in layered waves, but they loaded slower and slower — powder from their flasks often spilled outside the barrel while they poured.

Some men were so exhausted they had to lean on their swords just to walk; others could walk no further.

They simply sat on the ground and poured powder into their barrels.

If this were not a life-or-death battle — if it were anything else — they would never have pushed themselves to such a state.

"With the soldiers' strength at this level, what use is there in rousing the troops any further?"

Liu Chengzong gave a light laugh. "Even if we ordered them to charge out, could they outrun our horses?"

He lifted his head toward the horizon. White light had already emerged in the east, casting a layer of gray over the earth.

In that deathly gray stillness, the government troops around Lu Cheng gathered thicker and thicker — from a few dozen men to over a hundred, until they formed a square formation of more than two hundred.

But the soldiers' organization had been shattered. Men knew only to follow an officer, though not necessarily their own.

Some squads were large, some small; the square formation pieced together from these squads looked utterly disordered.

As the sky brightened slightly, a standoff gradually took shape: bandit soldiers outside, government troops within.

Cao Yao tried twice to lead the bandits in a charge, but their will to fight was lacking. Before they even made contact, the men in front fell back.

Yet the government troops could walk no further either. Men inside sat; men outside stood. The chaotic formation tottered on the verge of collapse.

It needed only one last straw to crush them.

Liu Chengzong believed he was that straw.

With a groaning creak, the heavy pass gates swung open. Someone inside the gate shouted: "Lay down your weapons and surrender — your lives will be spared!"

Bang!

Bang!

Among the scattered government soldiers sitting outside the pass, some stubbornly fired their arquebus rounds toward the gate, while others abandoned futile resistance and tossed their weapons aside.

The distance was great, and what little strength they had left could not aim the heavy matchlocks accurately. Only one ball struck a bandit soldier in the gate tunnel, knocking a mounted courier flat against his horse with a muffled groan; he lay gasping over the saddle.

The lead ball had not pierced his armor.

Like flowing water, the cavalry poured out from the gate tunnel and fanned out to both sides, each rider spreading apart, bows drawn and lances leveled, charging toward the government soldiers who still clutched their weapons.

Some men struggled to their feet, staggering and stumbling as they tried to swing their blades. In the blink of an eye, they either fell beneath arrows or were brutally lifted by the clamped shafts of line lances, then slammed heavily to the ground.

The infantry advanced behind them — three to five men surrounding each captive, stripping away armor and weapons, then herding them together outside the pass.

When Liu Chengzong spurred his horse forward to regroup with his subordinates outside the walls, Cao Yao was already riding before the enemy formation, shouting demands for surrender.

No one surrendered. The men clustered together in the center, unsure what was happening.

Soon, a man emerged from the government ranks waving a flag. He carried no weapon. Drawing near, he said: "I am the Battalion Commander of Yanshui Pass. We surrender. Two conditions — the soldiers' lives must be preserved."

"Tch. Surrounded, and still making demands."

Cao Yao sneered from horseback, then glanced over at Liu Chengzong and said quietly, "You decide. The brothers really have no strength left to fight. They need to sleep an hour inside the pass before we move on."

Liu Chengzong was astonished. That Mobile Corps Commander Lu had been so unyielding just moments ago, bold enough to burn a banner in the dark to guide his soldiers. Now, seeing escape was impossible, he had sent a man straight out to surrender.

A man of rather flexible moral boundaries, it seemed.

There was a real chance he could be swept along into rebellion!

A mid-ranking officer who commanded troops directly on the front line — Liu Chengzong desperately needed men like that.

He made up his mind: as long as this was a genuine surrender, he would tie that Mobile Corps Commander Lu onto a mule and haul him away by force if necessary.

He waved a retainer off to fetch ropes from inside the town, then after a moment's thought said: "Fine. Lay down your weapons, strip off your armor, and come out to surrender one by one in formation. We will not kill you.

What is the second condition?"

Battalion Commander Bao did not answer. He simply turned and made a hand signal toward the government square formation.

It seemed they had already resolved to surrender before this moment.

The soldiers parted to open a path through the ranks, then in droves laid down their weapons and abandoned resistance. The corridor they cleared led straight to the very center of the formation.

There, a man in full helmet and armor leaned slantwise against a flagpole. The battle standard was mostly burned away. On his cloth-faced armor, blood had soaked through from his left ribs, staining all the way down to the armored skirt.

Battalion Commander Bao turned back and said: "The cannon shattered the flagpole. The general was wounded by wooden splinters. As he walked us to the end, he ordered us to surrender. We ask that the chief not desecrate General Lu's body."

"Dead?"

Liu Chengzong gazed out from horseback. It did not look feigned, but he feared a trap if he drew too close, so he was in no hurry. "Why would I desecrate his body? No one's going to reward me for it. Tell your men to remove their armor."

Once Battalion Commander Bao turned and headed back into the formation, Liu Chengzong finally frowned, narrowed his eyes, drew a deep breath, and let it out in a heavy sigh. He said to Cao Yao: "How did he die? Four cannons on the wall fired twelve volleys, and he dodged every one.

A man with luck that big — killed by a little wooden splinter in the end?"

Cao Yao laughed at the sight of him like this. Yawning, he sent orders for the scout-bandits to keep the government soldiers under tight watch and beware a feigned surrender. Only then did he say: "What's the matter? Unhappy you didn't get to charge the formation alone and cut him down yourself?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head.

Sometimes he was a bit reckless, true — but that was risking his life after weighing the situation, not charging in with both eyes shut to throw it away.

The enemy commander had only a handful of men around him, separated from his main force — he could use his horse's momentum and charge right in.

If the man were standing inside a battle formation, that would be out of the question.

"I know my own limits. Without Lord Guan the Second's ability, I won't attempt Lord Guan the Second's feats... So, this roving soldier, where's your hometown?"

As they were talking, the cavalry brought ropes out from the city, and by the pale light of early dawn, they began accepting the surrender.

He sent Wei Qian'er up to Flagstone Hill to serve as a lookout. Liu Chengzong arranged everything around him, then said with a touch of melancholy, "Once we leave, send two prisoners to carry their general's body back to his hometown. He was a true man.

I'd originally planned to take him captive, but who knew he didn't have that fate — and I didn't have that fate either."

Cao Yao nodded in agreement. "Alright, I'll arrange that in a moment... For the next two or three days, there probably won't be any pursuers. Head for Yanchang?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "What if someone like Li Bei shows up, the type who just charges ahead with his head down? In our current physical condition, we definitely can't outrun him. Cross the river — cross the Yellow River into Shanxi."

"Who do we know in Shanxi? We'll be strangers in an unfamiliar land. Don't count on me for this — I've only stayed in Datong, I don't know the roads anywhere else."

"We won't stay long. Once we enter Shanxi, Shaanxi troops won't cross the border. We'll rest up properly for a few days, then come back and enter Yanchang. There are plenty of battles ahead, and these men..."

Liu Chengzong stretched out his arm, pointing at the dead general's corpse standing propped against the flagpole in the middle of the battlefield, and said, "Once these men are all dead, the Great Ming's allotted span will have run out."