Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 30 The Night of September 7th, the Seventh Year of the Tianqi Reign (Part 2)
"Pfft!" The spear pierced the man's stomach, and a hissing sound came from his mouth as blood gushed out.

A strong wind blew open a corner of the tent flap, and a sliver of firelight shone in for a moment. The old soldier finally saw the man's face clearly. He was the young soldier who had been out on night patrol. The old soldier had even taught this kid how to use a crossbow during the day.

"It's over!" The veteran's face turned pale, and he began to think about how to dispose of the body so that it wouldn't be discovered.

"Enemy attack!!!" Some scoundrel shouted, and now the entire camp is in chaos.

Inside and outside the tent, the veteran chose a place with light, so he pushed open the curtain and came out.

"Whoosh whoosh whoosh!" Three sharp arrows shot towards the veteran. Two of them grazed past him, but one hit him squarely in the back. A sharp pain shot through him, and what terrified him even more was that he seemed unable to breathe.

Another dark figure rushed towards him, this time armed.

"No, wait, they're on our side!!!" the veteran shouted, trying to stop them, but they ignored him.

This made the veteran wonder if he was dreaming, and he felt that the whole world was unreal.

However, his instinct as a survivor of countless battles prevented him from sitting idly by. He slammed his spear down, striking the man squarely in the neck. The force of the blow broke the man's neck. The man twitched a few times but never got up again.

The veteran realized he was wrong. He had thought there would be light outside, but in reality, it was pitch black, so dark you couldn't see your hand in front of your face. The brazier had been overturned; there was no open flame, only charcoal, emitting a faint, reddish glow that couldn't illuminate the surroundings at all. The dim, flickering light only made it more terrifying.

Inside the camp, shouts of battle had become a continuous cacophony.

Three more dark figures rushed toward the veteran. This time he was not so lucky. His right hand, which was holding the gun, fell to the ground along with the gun. The veteran turned to run away but tripped over his pants that had fallen down to his ankles.

"Boom!" A thunderclap resounded in the sky, and the world turned white in an instant.

In that instant of light, the veteran witnessed a scene that resembled purgatory: everyone in the entire camp was frantically hacking and slashing at each other, screaming, howling, laughing, and making bizarre, inhuman howls. They had all gone mad.

The veteran saw someone bite open his comrade's neck with his teeth, blood gushing into the air and spraying several meters high; some were crawling forward by gripping the ground with their fingers, but only half their bodies remained, their intestines dragging seven or eight steps on the ground; and countless others had their hands and feet severed like his...

"Get out! Get out! Don't touch me!" the old soldier shouted, struggling desperately. However, his voice was so small in the scene, and his struggle was so powerless. In the end, he was dragged into the crowd and torn into pieces on the ground.

The White-Clad Soldiers, who had originally planned a night raid, had now retreated to the city walls. From their elevated position, they could barely see the strange scene unfolding inside the city.

However, this scene was something they had never seen before. The battle below could not be called a battle. In their eyes, the group below did not look like people at all, but like a group of twisted monsters that were slashing, tearing and biting each other. Even the veterans who had participated in the bloody battle of Hunhe River bit their lips tightly and turned pale.

Ma Xianglin swallowed hard and subconsciously looked at Qin Liangyu.

"Mother, what is this?" Ma Xianglin couldn't help but ask.

Qin Liangyu remained silent for a long time before finally squeezing out two bloody words from her throat: "Yingxiao!"

The History of Song Dynasty, Biography of Yue Fei, records: "Fei sent his son Yun to lead cavalry straight through their formation... After several dozen rounds of fierce fighting, the enemy's corpses littered the fields... The Jin army was alarmed at night and attacked and killed each other, with tens of thousands dying." The Book of Jin, Biography of Liu Cong, says: "When Cong ascended the Autumn Pavilion, he executed Qi Wuda, the Special Envoy, and Gongshi Yu, the Grand Master of the Palace. That night, the soldiers attacked and killed the generals, and the fire illuminated the palace, resulting in thousands of deaths."

Ma Xianglin had been well-versed in military books since childhood, and he had naturally read records about guerrilla warfare. However, records are just records, and guerrilla warfare was very rare. This was the first time he had witnessed it with his own eyes. When history books became reality, it brought him a chilling feeling.

Qin Liangyu took a deep breath and continued, "Guard the four city walls well, don't let She Chongming escape, he's doomed tonight!"

Ma Xianglin nodded emphatically, looking at the chaotic scene in the city, thinking, "I wonder if we'll still be able to find She Chongming's body by then."

As dawn broke, the first rays of autumn sunlight shone into Beijing.

"It's done, Radana, you're such a good girl!" The deputy commander of the Imperial Guard's elephant training unit was in tears.

The Siamese elephant, Radana, stretched out her long trunk to wipe away the tears of the commander. After struggling on the ground for a while, the newborn elephant successfully stood up.

The elephant training center was filled with joy. Although everyone was exhausted, with dark circles under their eyes, their spirits were incredibly high. They even brought their own blankets to wipe the baby elephant's body, and the officers were instructed to put on their bestowed robes, preparing to go to the palace to meet the emperor and tell him the good news. After all, no baby elephant had been born in the Ming Dynasty for more than a decade, so this could be considered an auspicious sign.

"My lord, remember to ask the emperor for more money and grain! Our elephants eat grass and tree bark every day, and all their fur has fallen out!" Radana's elephant handler said resentfully.

The commander forced a smile, indicating that he would do his best, and then added that the court and the emperor were not having an easy time either.

He was somewhat helpless. Although he was the Vice Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard and was ordered to oversee the Elephant Training Bureau, theoretically he could be on equal footing with the Commander. However, he actually had less than a hundred subordinates, and he had no real status in the Embroidered Uniform Guard system.

As for the elephant officers under his command, they were actually not very high-ranking. They were only slightly better than the servants and craftsmen in the Embroidered Uniform Guard. They had no status at all, otherwise they wouldn't have been unable to persuade a doctor to come back.

In the Sichuan Provincial Administration Commission, sunlight illuminated a horrific scene: in the rebel camp of Zunyi Prefecture, corpses piled up like mountains...

"We've found She Chongming!!!" the soldier shouted.

Qin Liangyu and Ma Xianglin followed the sound and found a mangled corpse on the ground. In the first rays of the morning sun, they could vaguely make out the remaining half of the corpse's face, which did indeed resemble She Chongming.

Ma Xianglin crouched down and dug the corpse's clothes out of the mud. Although to the naked eye, this filthy lump looked no different from other corpses, one could clearly feel the difference in the fabric of the clothes by touching them, because they were made of silk.

"Drag him away and rinse him clean with water," Ma Xianglin ordered.

He stood up, hands on his hips, and looked around. Everywhere he looked were severed limbs and broken bodies; the corpses were only slightly better dismembered than those ravaged by cannon fire. Thousands of people, killing each other—all dead in one night. Even the massacre of surrendered soldiers wasn't this efficient.

"This land will definitely be very fertile next year," Ma Xianglin told a lame joke, but unfortunately no one paid any attention to him.

(End of this chapter)