Chapter 1169: The Fleeing Xuzhou Bandits

As for those rumors he had heard, Qin Danning believed them even less. How could a bunch of mere village militia and local braves beat the government troops so badly? And that nonsense about an inspection in the rain scaring off three thousand armored cavalry — what a joke. The truth was simply that everyone had grown soft after being stationed in this land of wealth and comfort for so long, so they dared not fight and were unwilling to fight.

So the moment the Grand Coordinator's order came down, Qin Danning immediately mustered the elite of his own brigade and rendezvoused with the other detachments. They hurried north, and in winter, a fast horse from the Yangzhou area to Qingjiangpu took less than two days — more than enough to catch the enemy off guard. Qin Danning had even imagined charging straight into the enemy camp and smashing these rebels to pieces. That would surely be an extraordinary feat.

But Qin Danning also noticed that among the troops gathering from various places, quite a few men were in very low spirits. Even the cavalry of his own brigade were the same. The cavalry that had come from Nanjing, on the other hand, were brimming with high morale and kept talking about how they would cut loose and enjoy themselves once they reached Qingjiangpu.

They rushed on like this until midnight. The place to halt and set up camp for the night had long been arranged. Supplying fodder and provisions for a thousand cavalry would have been a great strain elsewhere, but in Yangzhou Prefecture, as long as the salt merchants were willing to pay, it was no problem at all. Qin Danning knew this was copying the methods of those Xuzhou rebels — using manors as supply depots and encampments. He had to admit, this method worked very well within the borders of the Great Ming, though it would be useless when fighting the Tatar bandits on the Nine Frontiers.

After resting for the night, they should have set out the next morning and reached Qingjiangpu by afternoon, where they would encounter the forward sentries of the Xuzhou bandits. Qin Danning urged his men on, telling everyone to ride at full speed. But to his surprise, at this distance, everyone tacitly slowed down. Several battalion commanders and company commanders stiffened their necks and insisted that caution came first. The cavalry sent by the Wolf Mountain Vice General, in particular, looked ready to start a bloody brawl at the slightest provocation. And the men sent from the Central Capital Fengyang, despite having received strict orders from the Defense Commissioner Eunuch before departure, were also full of reluctance.

They dawdled like this for an hour, leaving Qin Danning restless and irritable, when a fast rider from Qingjiangpu came galloping up. He even had the secret signal and password that the Grand Coordinator had arranged in advance. This express messenger brought a piece of news: Zhao Jin had already been lured into a death trap, and the Xuzhou bandit chieftains were about to be wiped out in one fell swoop. The Xuzhou troops in Qingjiangpu would immediately be left leaderless. The righteous people of Qingjiangpu were ready to welcome the imperial army into the city with baskets of food and jars of drink.

Qin Danning had received hints from his superiors before setting out, but he had never imagined there was such a brilliant scheme. The other elite cavalry units that had come along must have received similar news. Once they knew this was a sure thing, everyone grew excited. Those who had been hesitating just moments before were suddenly bursting with energy. They no longer cared about secrecy and spread the news directly. The cavalrymen, who had been cowering and wavering, instantly boiled over with fighting spirit. What were the Xuzhou village braves without their commander? Nothing but loose sand. No wonder the superiors dared to take this risk despite past lessons — so this was the plan all along.

These fifteen hundred cavalrymen were instantly fired up and began racing toward Qingjiangpu. Qin Danning had made his way to his current position step by step after beheading a few Tatar heads at Xuanfu back in the day, and he still possessed the caution befitting a military officer. He did not let the guide leave, but made him advance alongside him, constantly probing for information along the way.

He had not expected that the man who came to deliver the message was not from Qingjiangpu, but a government soldier of Yangzhou origin who later did shady work for a certain salt merchant. He was deeply involved this time and had liaised with the authorities many times, which was why he had been sent to deliver this urgent message. So this man knew a great deal — for instance, that the martial arts tournament was a death trap aimed at Zhao Jin, that the best fighters from both the government and the underworld would strike simultaneously, that the men each faction brought would fight with reckless abandon, and that there were people in Qingjiangpu setting fires and sowing chaos in the areas the Xuzhou forces controlled. By now, Qingjiangpu should be in complete turmoil.

The Yangzhou salt merchants and the wealthy merchants of Qingjiangpu had all made promises: as long as their family properties were left untouched, the soldiers could do as they pleased within Qingjiangpu, and there would be generous rewards and thanks afterward to honor the troops. So it was such a meticulously laid plan. And this arrangement, which was practically a license to plunder, drove the government cavalry into a frenzy. Everyone pressed on faster and faster, terrified of falling behind, of missing out on both glory and pleasure.

They hurried and rushed, and by the time they reached Qingjiangpu, the sun was already slanting west. Along the way, they had questioned some travelers and merchants coming from Qingjiangpu, but they knew nothing. The martial arts tournament was beyond their reach, and with the New Year approaching, everyone was busy with preparations. Besides, judging by the travel time, even if something had happened at the tournament, they would not have heard the news yet.

Merit and spoils had already set every man's mind ablaze. Hurry there — arrive late and there would be nothing good left. And they had received plenty of prior warnings: there would be Xuzhou scouts and patrols along the road, various sentry posts; the Xuzhou troops would quickly spot them, and then the battle would begin. As a reasonably competent military officer, Qin Danning had naturally made the appropriate arrangements. He had experienced cavalrymen ranging ahead, but according to their reports, they had found no trace of any enemy eyes and ears whatsoever.

Even the finest Tatar scouts could not conceal themselves so perfectly. The Xuzhou sentries could not possibly possess such superb skill. Since the usual arrangements were absent, something must have gone wrong in Qingjiangpu. This made Qin Danning feel considerably more at ease.

Though Qingjiangpu was a large place, there were not many routes by which a thousand cavalry could enter and maneuver. From south to north, there was only the road along the Grand Canal. And taking this road, before entering Qingjiangpu, they would inevitably pass one of the Xuzhou bandits' military camps. Everyone had figured it out perfectly: whatever had happened in Qingjiangpu, they would be able to see the signs from this camp. If it really was a trap, they could simply leave.

When the government cavalry's forward scouts approached within two hundred paces of the camp, the camp sentries finally noticed them and ran back to report in a fluster. No one came out to give chase. The government forward scouts also saw one or two carts loaded with supplies coming out of the camp, and men carrying bundles on their backs. They were about to run!

Upon receiving this report, the government cavalrymen were instantly energized and quickened their pace. By the time the main body of the government cavalry closed to within five hundred paces, the troops inside the camp had already fallen into complete chaos. They came bursting out of the camp in a panic and fled toward the heart of Qingjiangpu. This sight finally put the government cavalry, from officers to men, completely at ease. If Qingjiangpu were not in chaos, how could these bandit soldiers be so frantic?

"Pursue them! Don't rush to kill — just chase these routed bandits and keep them running. Even if some can still form up and resist, they'll be scattered by this mob of fleeing troops." Qin Danning gave the order, and everyone immediately obeyed.

But with merit and spoils lying ahead, no one was willing to slow down. At first, they managed to hold back, but later they ran faster and faster, terrified of being left behind. Chasing like this, herding them like sheep was out of the question. The fleeing bandit soldiers ahead noisily came to a halt and tried to form ranks for battle. This made Qin Danning laugh out loud. Infantry without cavalry trying to fight a mounted force — wasn't that just seeking death? The government troops of the Great Ming really had gone rotten, if a bunch of posturing bandits like this could intimidate nearly twenty thousand troops of the Southern Metropolitan Region for almost three years.

Although the Xuzhou bandit soldiers ahead had stopped and formed ranks, everyone had already thrown caution to the wind, because anyone could see the carts and supplies scattered messily along the roadside — clearly the supplies they had been trying to haul away just moments ago. Wasn't this exactly what a crisis looked like? Thank goodness they had ridden at full speed; otherwise, this juicy piece of meat before them would have escaped. Even if they couldn't herd them like sheep, devouring this lot would surely bring plenty of spoils.

Qingjiangpu truly was a rich and fertile treasure ground. Just look at all these things abandoned on and beside the road, and these oxen, horses, and carts. How much had these Xuzhou bandits plundered over the past three years?

"Brothers, one final push! Smash these bandits, and I won't take a share of the spoils — you men divide it all first!" At this critical moment, Qin Danning naturally would not stand in the way of everyone's fortune. In fact, he even sweetened the deal. In the Great Ming military, the commanding officer was entitled to thirty percent of all spoils. Qin Danning's words gave away a considerable profit. This fired up the government cavalry even more. Strange cries rang out on all sides as every man vied to be the first to charge.

But the terrain here would not allow them to spread out for a full charge. The road and the flat ground around it were only so wide, and the Grand Canal had not yet frozen over. Moreover, the Xuzhou bandits had scattered carts and supplies all around. Still, this allowed the cavalry to form a horizontal line of a dozen or so riders and press forward. Such a front was powerful enough. They scrambled and jostled; the morning's cowardice and hesitation had long since vanished without a trace. Meanwhile, the Xuzhou bandit soldiers were also milling about in noisy confusion. From time to time, men fled toward the roadside, and there were even screams — presumably the bandit leaders were killing men to force them to fight.

"Charge! Charge!"

Shouts rang out continuously. The government infantry might have been a chaotic mess, but the cavalry were no slouches. The bulk of a unit's pay and provisions was spent in real terms on the cavalry and their mounts. The government cavalry's mounted combat skills were genuinely quite good. Even at a gallop, they had already formed their ranks, spacing out front and rear, and thundered forward in a charge.

Anyone familiar with combat knew that in a cavalry charge, the real killing sometimes did not come from the collision at the moment of impact, but from the pressure beforehand. The infantry at the very front of the formation, facing the terrifying momentum of a cavalry force, often could not hold and would collapse and scatter in waves. The real lethality was the pursuit that followed, with the cavalry riding them down from behind. At that point, it was like slaughtering chickens and sheep from horseback — there was practically no resistance to speak of.

The ranks of the Xuzhou bandits ahead were still in chaos, but the government cavalrymen charging at the very front were beginning to sense something was wrong. This chaos seemed a little too orderly. And while the men in front were running back and forth in confusion, why were the ones behind standing firm and busy? What weapons were they holding? Could those be firearms? What use could those things possibly be?

Two hundred paces. One hundred fifty paces. One hundred paces. Fifty paces. The men in front could not slow down even if they wanted to. Yet the government cavalry could also see the panic and alarm on the faces of the Xuzhou bandits. At this point, they could only charge ahead. There was no other choice.

Forty paces! The government cavalrymen at the front had already leveled their lances. At this distance, the horses had begun their final sprint. At this distance, whether the chaos ahead was real or feigned, any formation made of men could be smashed open!

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