Chapter 305: Counterattack

Bodies were pierced by spears and fell as corpses, yet they could do nothing to the other side. The refugees' frenzy could not last long; once those at the very front died, those behind hesitated and refused to advance. Even more turned and fled in panic. The refugees were numerous after all, and some charged toward the mixed left and right squads, but these were few in number. Reaching those two squads, they were nothing but easy prey. An even smaller number of refugees ran toward the militia training corps at the rear. For these martial men, such scattered, isolated foes were gifts delivered to their doorstep — a perfect chance to draw blood.

In truth, aside from the first few rows of the Zhao Character Battalion's main force engaging the enemy, most of the men were simply following and advancing. The great triangular formation remained completely unchanged.

"Archers, loose at will! Shoot at the men ahead!" Zhao Jin roared the order. The archers who had been sheltering behind each squad rushed out, drawing their bows and nocking arrows on the move. With their bodies unsteady, accuracy was naturally out of the question, but the refugee formation ahead was far too dense. As long as the arrows were lobbed over, they inflicted casualties at once. Over a hundred bows opened and loosed in volleys, and the refugees died in droves.

After the initial contact, stabbed by spears and shot by arrows, the refugees' frenzy had been doused by blood and death. When shoved and forced to storm the city walls, they might have been fearless of death, but when they could not kill the enemy and had room to flee, who would still fight to the death? The starving and displaced had been driven from Shandong to Xuzhou for one reason alone — they wanted to live. The desire for survival burned in their hearts.

Wherever the Zhao Character Battalion's blade pointed, there was hardly any engagement. The refugees scattered and fled in all directions. Now the militia and village braves beyond the main force and the two mixed squads began to kill. They had originally hidden behind the square formations; now, seeing the tide turn, they surged forward one after another. Every time they overran the boundaries of the square formations, they were shouted back with harsh reprimands. They spread out along the two flanks of the three pin-character squads.

These martial men were at least not starving. Most had some degree of training, and many carried real steel weapons. Even those holding bamboo poles or wooden staves had them cut to a certain length, sharpened, fire-hardened, and even dipped in filth water. Even the village braves and militia, who had little combat strength, still looked out for one another because they were from the same native soil.

Compared to the overall fighting strength of the Zhao Character Battalion, these men were naturally far inferior, but if taken individually and matched against the Zhao Character Battalion's household retainers, some would still prove superior — let alone when facing these refugees. Once battle was joined on both sides, it was like chopping melons and slicing vegetables, and they grew steadily more excited.

The relief force coming to the Zhao Character Battalion's aid was like a giant sharp wedge, hammered straight into the great host of tens of thousands of refugees — driving deeper and deeper, splitting them directly open.

The refugee host massed beneath the walls of Xuzhou City had already fallen into chaos. The moment they saw the Zhao Character Battalion advancing, they scrambled frantically to dodge and flee. A few men shoved, dozens fell into disorder, hundreds and thousands scattered in evasion — the human sea and human tide of refugees was pushed back from beneath the city walls and dispersed.

The refugees beneath the walls had seemed chaotic, but they had in fact been layered. Those selected able-bodied refugees, those fake refugees wearing only tattered clothes, had all been pushed to the front. Even the several hundred cavalry at the rear had followed forward. But as the Zhao Character Battalion pressed in from outside, the refugees panicked and trampled one another, shoving and fleeing everywhere in chaos, throwing everything into utter disarray.

"Tell Hou Wu and Old Xia to pull all their men back! Back! To my position!" Xu Hongju stood there bellowing.

Men bearing weapons had already surrounded him. Any refugee who drew near was beaten and hacked back by them in a frenzy. From where Xu Hongju stood, he could not see what was happening too far away, but he knew the situation had already spiraled out of control.

"Find Liu Cheng! Tell them to go meet Hou Wu and Old Xia! Rally right here, rally right here!" Xu Hongju remained fairly composed, issuing orders with desperate urgency.

From the cavalry that had circled back, Liu Cheng had already learned of the Zhao Character Battalion's arrival. What he had not expected was that the other side had several thousand men and horses — and several hundred cavalry of their own.

"Since it's just fetching men, we brothers will do them this favor. If they tell us to go fight, then to hell with them." Liu Cheng roared from horseback. With the situation suddenly in chaos, if he did not speak this way, he feared he would lose his grip on the unit entirely.

That bowl of gruel had long since been burned through. Many refugees had not even managed to grab that single bowl. Hungry and weak, their fervent mood had also vanished like smoke. Now everyone was running, everyone was panicking. The "kind-hearted" incense heads who normally spoke of Maitreya's compassion and the Eternal Mother's protection had all vanished without a trace. They had now utterly become a sheet of loose sand.

Before such loose sand, Liu Cheng's cavalry could advance and withdraw with ease. They cared nothing for human life; if anyone blocked the way, they simply hacked them down. With blades slashing and hooves trampling, they cleared a path with little effort and extracted the core members gathered before the city gate and along the slope.

The sun set in the west, dust billowed into the air, and beyond ten paces one could not make out any movement. The Zhao Character Battalion pressed steadily toward the city walls. The refugees who had swarmed like ants beneath the walls all fled outward. The siege of the city had been lifted.

Commander Wang had been lying prone atop the city wall without moving. Commander Liang, who had rushed over to help, had lain down beside him and had not moved since either. The two of them stared dumbly at the Zhao Character Battalion's advance below the walls.

"... What is this..."

"... Could the General's household retainers do this?"

"... Those several hundred horsemen are fine mounted, but on foot, perhaps not..."

"... If this is just a civilian militia and village braves, then what do they need us government troops for..."

Only the two of them could still converse with any calm. The others had no mind left for amazement — they were all shouting and cheering wildly there. On the very brink of the city's fall, the tide had finally turned; they had finally been saved. Such deliverance from the jaws of death brought the most delirious joy.

With tens of thousands of people in between, Zhao Jin's side had no way of knowing the detailed movements of the refugees. They did not notice that Xu Hongju had already gathered the most essential core troops on the other side of the battlefield. These men all carried weapons and had been mixed in among the refugees the entire time.

On the outer perimeter of Xu Hongju's thousand-plus core, there were another two thousand or so refugee backbone fighters. These men had been selected along the way, fed better than the others, and had followed the incense heads in throwing their weight around. They had already joined the Smelling Incense Sect and were the most utterly devoted. They had been promised they would be taken back to Shandong to enjoy a life of ease. Although quite a few had died in the process of storming the city, they had been held in reserve and used later, so their casualties were far lighter than the refugees'. In the chaos just now, the incense heads' first reaction had been to call these men to rally and protect them, then break out together, and in the end they had made their way to Xu Hongju's side.

On the still outer perimeter of these men were the refugees who had been gathered up. By this point, the refugees were utterly lost and at a loss. Breaching the city was now impossible. They had endured countless hardships to come here, and now their hopes were shattered. They did not know where to go or what to do. As long as someone stepped forward — even if it was by coercion and oppression — they would follow out of sheer instinct.

Under these circumstances, the crowd gathering around Xu Hongju's outer perimeter grew larger and larger, and the atmosphere grew more and more agitated.

"Second Master, let's go!" Hou Wu said in a deep voice. He looked somewhat disheveled, but his expression remained fairly composed.

"Go where!" Xu Hongju said coldly.

"Second Master, the way things stand now, no matter what, the city cannot be taken. We must hurry to the ferry crossing. If anything goes wrong with the boats, then we'll have real trouble." Xia Zhongjin chimed in from the side.

Xu Hongju panted several rough breaths and said in a muffled voice, "We brought nearly a thousand battle-worthy sect members, over two thousand selected from among the refugees, and we can still drive this many refugees ahead of us. How many men did they bring? What is there to fear!"

"Second Master..." Hou Wu and Xia Zhongjin exchanged a glance, drew closer, and said earnestly, "Our lads have marched several hundred li and witnessed the storming of the city and the slaughter here beneath Xuzhou's walls. Next time, they can be put to great use in battle. Along this journey, we've also learned the true strength and weakness of every place. We've already gained quite a lot. Why must we fight for pride here beneath the city walls?"

Xu Hongju's face darkened abruptly. He said in a rough voice, "This time we were supposed to buy back a large batch of weapons from the Xu family of Jingshan — that's gone. Then we were supposed to thoroughly cripple and ruin this Xuzhou — that's gone too. Without the weapons, what can we do? If Xuzhou is not crippled, those few from the Mu family will always have a chance to rise again. This pride must be fought for."

"The Mu family merely placed a congregation master here in Xuzhou. Three-tenths of the evangelists below him still answer to our master. And besides the government offices here, there's Zhao Jin south of the Yellow River and the Xu family on the north bank. It's very hard for our sect to gain any ground..."

"Bullshit! Do you not know the relationship between that Zhao family brat and the Mu family? Did you not see the strength he has in his hands? If he supports the Mu family, then my elder brother will have trouble. Am I in command of this expedition or not? Do you obey orders or not!" Xu Hongju suddenly raised his voice.

The moment he raised his voice, many able-bodied men on the outer perimeter immediately turned their heads and stared at the men beside Xu Hongju, their gazes distinctly hostile. The others wore hesitant expressions.

A flash of anger crossed Xia Zhongjin's face. Hou Wu merely smiled bitterly and shook his head, then immediately spoke: "What is Second Master saying? Of course Second Master is in command."

"Didn't we long ago prepare methods for dealing with government troops? Luo Yu, Luo Pei — you two brothers are always saying you come from the ranks and can fight great battles. The men from three joss sticks' time to ten joss sticks' time are all placed under your command. The sect members led by the incense heads on the outer perimeter are yours as well. Go and annihilate that so-called Zhao Character Battalion for me!" Xu Hongju bellowed his orders.

The two sturdy, brawny men standing beside Xu Hongju immediately bowed and acknowledged the order. The two men tore off the tattered clothes on their bodies, revealing the leather armor beneath. They looked like brothers. The older one was slightly shorter, with a saber scar running from his forehead all the way down to his cheek — yet by chance both his eyes were unharmed, making his face look as though it had been split in two. The other was taller, with a coin-sized scar on each cheek, as though something had pierced through both sides of his face. Both men wore expressions of excitement. They loudly acknowledged the order, picked up their pudao, and strode into the crowd.

"Use everything we prepared beforehand!" Xu Hongju shouted. The two men again gave a loud acknowledgment.

Xu Hongju shot a glance at the silent Hou Wu and Xia Zhongjin beside him, then shouted again: "Whoever takes a head from the Zhao Character Battalion gets a reward of five taels! Whoever can take Zhao Jin's life gets a heavy reward of two thousand taels and a promotion to congregation master!"