The Ming Dynasty began from Sarhu

Chapter 384 No One Can Be Left Behind

Contrary to Emperor Wuding's expectations, the bandits did not cross the river to launch a night attack after nightfall, but instead closed the camp gates and refused to come out.

As the saying goes, when the enemy retreats, we advance. Since the bandits don't fight anymore, the Kaiyuan army will fight.

Wang Erhu and several battalion officers organized manpower overnight. At midnight, the sword and shield soldiers covered the artillerymen and lowered themselves down from the Yongdingmen city wall at night to launch artillery attacks on the bandits on the south bank.

Under the cover of darkness, the night attack artillery sneaked all the way to the edge of the moat. When they were only two miles away from the bandit camp, they deployed all the divine fire flying crows they brought with them and fired a wave of rockets every half an hour according to the targets marked in advance, trying to cause maximum panic to the bandits.

Hundreds of rockets streaked across the dark night sky like flaming phoenixes, exploding and burning above the heads of the sleeping bandits. The simple and shabby tents instantly turned into a sea of fire. Countless people woke up from their dreams, ran around naked in the sea of fire, and howled like wild beasts.

The identities of these bandits under Liu Zongmin were varied. There were surrendered soldiers from the border army, bandits from Henan, and more were refugees who had never been to the battlefield and had never seen blood.

After the tents were set on fire, these people ran around like headless flies, exacerbating the chaotic situation. It was not until the whistling divine fire crows illuminated the dark river bank into daylight that the leaders of each camp remembered to organize people to put out the fire.

In the firelight, the bandits' figures flickered. The servants, carrying buckets, hurried to the river to fetch water. They were quickly met with intense fire from the Kaiyuan musketeers. After leaving behind a large number of corpses, the bandits sent archers to stand on the south bank of the river, firing light arrows at the Kaiyuan troops across the river.

Arrows and stones flew across the moat in front of Yongding Gate. Across the narrow river channel which was thirty steps wide, the lead bullets of the musketeers and the arrows of the bandits rushed towards each other but missed each other, just like the love that Beauvoir believed in, full of tragedy.

I long to see you, but please remember that I will not ask to see you. This is not because I am proud, you know I have no pride in front of you, but because, only when you also want to see me, our meeting will be meaningful. (Beauvoir)

~~~~~~~
Rockets flew over the river, illuminating the bodies of the bandits floating on the river with an unsettling whistling sound.

The two sides fought back and forth for most of the night, from midnight to noon. During this time, the bandits pushed the Portuguese cannon up the slope (it was difficult for the cannon to gain a foothold on the slope during the day) and fired at the top of the Yongding Gate city wall, barely suppressing the government army's artillery fire.

When it was getting light, this inexplicable night battle finally ended. After this battle, the bandits lost more than 2,000 people. The burning tents on the south bank were still emitting wisps of green smoke, and the stench of roasting human flesh wafted in the distance. Some bandits on the shore slumped on the ground, looking at the Yongdingmen city wall in a daze.

At the beginning of the morning hour, an exhausted Wang Erhu ordered the various camps to tally their casualties. He found only a mere hundred wounded, most of them from light arrows hurled by the bandits, and none seriously injured. Feeling elated, he dispatched a report of the battle's results to Emperor Wuding.

The bandits who had been advancing eastward and were invincible suffered a major setback in front of Yongding Gate and were forced to stop their attack. Fortunately, the defenders in the city had no intention of fighting back.

The battle at Yongdingmen reached a stalemate.

Liu Zongmin was furious and executed two generals from the old camp, then ordered the army to attack Guang'anmen instead.

~~~~
In front of the Guang'anmen moat, there was still the trench and breastwork position commonly used by the Kaiyuan Army, with several field guns hidden behind the position.

The defenders were lying in the trenches in all directions, snoring loudly, and there was a pacification soldier on guard at every interval.

All the manpower that can be mobilized from the city is here.

After Zhu He took over the position, he heard that many people had not slept for two days - the bandits kept launching tentative attacks on Guang'anmen, and the soldiers defending the city were short of manpower and had no time to rest - so he let the soldiers rest on the spot.

The instructor, Chu Jinsheng, objected loudly, "Kaiyuan military law requires soldiers to remain sober before battle! Officer Zhu, you'll be beheaded for doing this!"

Like Chu Jinsheng and Zhu He, they were temporarily transferred from Yongdingmen to help defend Guang'anmen because the main force of the bandits had already moved here.

"Emperor Wu Ding once said that a soldier who doesn't know how to rest can't be a good general. If we can't win this battle, everyone will be beheaded. If we win, you can chop off one of my heads!"

Chu Jinsheng stopped talking.

The soldiers in the trenches had swollen eyelids, unkempt hair, dark skin, sunken eye sockets, and looked half human, half ghost.

Although a soldier who doesn't know how to rest cannot become a general, Zhu He hadn't slept for three days and three nights. He picked up a scallion and slapped himself in the face when he felt sleepy, then took a couple of bites. The pungent smell choked him and made him lose all sleepiness.

"Officer Zhu, where are our reinforcements?"

Zhu He chewed some green onions, shuddered as if he had smoked some marijuana, and pointed at the soldiers snoring loudly in the trenches:
"Here."

The instructor's eyes widened as he repeated, "That's all?"

Zhu He nodded solemnly, as if it was a matter of course, stepped forward, patted Chu Jinsheng on the shoulder, and said to the instructor with a smile:
"Old Jin, be content. We have combat troops, pacification troops, and able-bodied men. You know, all the soldiers over at Chongwenmen have died. Now the pacification troops are holding the front. It will only take half a day. We are much better than Old Zhao and the others. We still have one, two..."

As Zhu He spoke, he began to count the people sleeping in the trenches. When he counted to 257, sleepiness hit this stubborn and warlike Kaiyuan general like a cannonball.

He dozed off, then woke up again. Seeing the instructor still standing in front of him, he asked without any embarrassment:

"Old Jin, where did you count just now?"

Jin Chusheng said coldly: "Don't count."

"what?"

"The bandits are coming."

~~~~~
The vanguard of the bandits rushed to cross the river. The vanguard were just cannon fodder, and their role was still to consume the defenders' artillery shells.

A large number of refugees paddled wooden boards and rushed towards the Guang'anmen city.

Compared to Yongdingmen, the artillery on the top of Guang'anmen seemed much sparser, and the gunners were flying around like headless flies - many of them were temporarily transferred from the Shenji Battalion. The former Shenji Battalion was already rotten to the point of being rotten. If the Kaiyuan artillery hadn't been completely empty, they wouldn't have appeared here.

Zhu He planned to use the two hundred Divine Fire Flying Crows allocated to Guang'anmen against the elite bandits, the cavalry of the old camp. The first round of artillery fire from the city walls killed over a hundred people, three of whom were defenders on the city walls. A gunner from the Divine Machine Camp had overfilled the gunpowder barrel, causing it to explode.

The river was not wide to begin with, and the level of the gunners dispatched from the Shenjiying was really worrying. The fifty French cannons and red cannons fired three rounds vigorously, and most of the shells flew to unknown places - the only thing to be thankful for was that they did not hit the Kaiyuan soldiers under the city.

Most of the bandits crossed the river safely, but about a hundred unlucky ones were directly hit by artillery and their bodies were completely destroyed.

"Damn, what the hell!"

Zhu He was so angry that he threw the green onion on the ground and stepped on it twice. Suddenly he thought of Wang Congzhi and Han Zhenyi. Fortunately, the two artillery commanders were still in Shaanxi. If they saw this scene, they would probably be angry to death.

"Pass the order! Bandits, approach the parapet. Firearms, hold still. Only archers are allowed to shoot!"

Zhu He's strategy was simple. He concealed his own strength and gave the bandits the illusion that Guang'anmen was short of firearms, thereby attracting a large number of enemy troops to cross the river. He then used rockets to bombard the enemy, while the musketeers pursued them, striving to inflict the greatest damage on the bandits.

The vanguard of the bandits was getting closer and closer. Apart from a few mines that were stepped on and artillery shells whose accuracy varied by dozens of steps, the Kaiyuan army did not launch any counterattack.

Chu Jinsheng looked anxiously at the watchtower behind the breastwork, wanting to know the exact strength of the bandits.

Finally, the archers hidden in the watchtower discovered the enemy.

A head and an arm popped out from the tower and gestured to Chu Jinsheng.

In this era, flag signals and hand gestures are the most effective communication tools on the battlefield, no doubt about it.

Zhu He saw that it was Sun Xiaoqi, the young archer who had hit the bull's eye with three consecutive arrows at the Kaiyuan shooting range three years ago.

A rare smile appeared on the corners of Old Zhu's cracked mouth.

"More than a thousand servants, more than two hundred old camps, and more,"

Chu Jinsheng quickly translated beside him. Zhu He rubbed his bloodshot eyes and looked at the other side like a tiger.

"There are also shield carts. Their weapons are long swords and bows, but they don't have cannons."

After Sun Xiaoqi made the gesture, he immediately retracted his head.

"The archers can't hold on! The musketeers have to move in!"

The instructor was worried.

"Wait a little longer, there's no rush."

Zhu He stood up and shouted to the soldier who had just woken up from a deep sleep:
"I started fighting with the Emperor in the 47th year of the Wanli reign. For over seven years, I fought my way from Sarhu to Hunhe River, fearing no one! I just sent people to persuade Li Xianzhong to surrender, but he refused to do so and even sent people to die. Every one of us brothers in the 11th Guards Army is a hero, a brave man! Your parents and brothers are watching you. Today, you will either kill all the bandits or be killed by them! I'm not afraid to tell you, if you die, Emperor Wuding will die, and so will your family! These beasts even eat human flesh, there's nothing they can't do!"

"This road was paved by everyone. You all have several lives on your shoulders. Our fallen brothers are watching from heaven! They are waiting for you to kill more bandits, so you can't die easily, everyone!"

Zhu He's voice was hoarse and deafening.

"Listen carefully, I have no control over the other city gates. Every soldier at Guang'an Gate must kill ten bandits! You can only die if you kill ten! Not even one less!"

"Did you hear that?"

The eight hundred soldiers of the 1st and 2nd Battalions of the 11th Guards Army shouted in unison:

"heard it!"

Zhu He mobilized the soldiers' emotions, turned around and looked at the instructor Chu Jinsheng, smiling broadly, and said:

“Lao Jin, I am a rough guy, not good at speaking, and I don’t speak well. Do you have anything else to say to the brothers?”

As he said this, he handed the loudspeaker to Chu Jinsheng.

The instructor was speechless.

Zhu He smiled and waved his hand, pointing the command flag at the bandits rushing forward:
"Take ten each and send them on their way!"

~~~~~
"Whoosh!"

A heavy arrow shot out from the high platform, as fast as lightning. The man who was rushing in the front was shocked and hit in the chest by the arrow.

The heavy arrow hit the rogue with great force, and the arrowhead penetrated the rogue's chest and came out from his back.

Si Yang looked at the arrow that shot into his body in disbelief, his hands limp and powerless in the air, and he almost fell to the ground.

Thirty steps away, Sun Xiaoqi clenched the short bow that was still trembling, and a faint smile appeared on the corner of his mouth.

(End of this chapter)