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

Chapter 36 Charge! Seize the grain! We'd rather die!
"Your Excellency! The enemy has cannons!" the garrison commander cried out in terror. No sooner had he spoken than the cannons roared in!
Several muffled booms followed by a fine, rustling sound like raindrops. Hong Chengchou risked glancing up, then quickly retreated back into his position, shouting, "Don't be afraid! It's just a small, crouching cannon; it can't penetrate our grain transport vehicles!"

"Sir! The grain sacks are leaking!" someone suddenly shouted.

With a soft rustling sound, the golden millet flowed down the gap in the grain sack.

"My goodness, so much food!" a bandit soldier murmured, licking his chapped lips.

"Charge! Seize the grain! Even if we die, we're safe!" The bandits went berserk, swarming in from all directions, and even their leader couldn't keep them in check.

"Hold on!" Hong Chengchou forced out a hoarse voice from his throat. However, he didn't notice that even his own thighs were trembling.

Whoosh! A liver-colored spear thrust out from a gap in the wagon formation, and a bandit soldier ran straight into it. The spear entered from the left side of his neck, exiting close to his cervical spine, and large gushes of blood gushed from his mouth.

With a soft "pop," like a wooden stick being pulled from mud, the spear was pulled from his neck.

The bandit soldier instinctively reached out to stop it, but a large amount of blood flowed down his arm and under his armpit. He felt dizzy, and his legs gave way, causing him to collapse to the ground. In his last moments, he used his last bit of strength to scoop up a handful of millet and put it in his mouth, but he was too weak to chew.

With a snap, the person behind him stepped on his head. His teeth shattered on the parched, hard earth, and blood washed out along with the handful of millet.

The oval-shaped wagon formation spread out like a hedgehog, hundreds of spears thrashing about, reaping the lives of the bandits outside, just as they had the day before. However, this situation didn't last long; new corpses piled on top of the old, quickly forming a gentle slope. The spears, blocked by the bodies, could no longer penetrate.

The bandits stepped over the corpses of their comrades to rush up the wall, and then jumped down from above the grain carts, rendering Hong Chengchou's cart formation defense completely ineffective.

"Your Excellency, let's run!" The last two centurions exchanged a glance, then each grabbed Hong Chengchou on either side and began to flee. They directed their men to pull two carts over, and everyone escaped along the breach.

Fortunately, the bandits were not obsessed with killing them. The reason they were able to charge forward despite the heavy casualties was simply because they were too hungry.

After the bandits rushed in, they ripped open the grain sacks and stuffed the millet directly into their mouths.

They chewed and chewed, their gums being cut by the hard, rough millet, their loose, yellowed teeth being knocked out, but they didn't care. They chewed and chewed, swallowing the bloody grains with difficulty, which had a metallic taste.

Rumble! Rumble! The sound of horses' hooves rang out.

"The government troops are coming!" the bandits cried out in terror.

Bang! Bang! Bang! A burst of rapid gunfire erupted, billowing smoke. A troop of cavalry burst through the smoke, and bandits struck by bullets lay on the ground howling in pain, only to be mercilessly trampled into mincemeat by the galloping horses. The experienced bandits had no will to resist; the moment they saw the cavalry charging, they abandoned their companions and uttered only one word: Escape!
A mounted general held his musket upside down, using his horse's speed to close in on the bandits before swinging it upwards at an angle. The three-barreled musket, about the size of a bowl, struck the bandit's head like a hammer hitting an egg. With a muffled thud, the bandit's skull shattered, and he flew backwards to the ground. On the musket barrel, white brain matter bloomed against the blood-red surface, a particularly gruesome sight.

This was a one-sided massacre. Thousands of government cavalry charged back and forth around the supply wagons, encountering virtually no resistance. The bandits scattered and fled, but having eaten everything edible, they had no mules or horses left, so how could they possibly escape this pursuit?!
The grain transport soldiers stood frozen in place, watching the carnage unfold in utter horror.

"I surrender, please don't kill me!" a bandit cried, kneeling and begging for mercy. But he was met with a merciless blade. His head flew into the air; looking at his headless corpse lying on the ground, wasn't this a kind of liberation?

An hour later, the Ming cavalry returned one after another from afar. Each cavalryman's horse had heads hanging from both sides. The soldiers' jubilant expressions and the heads with their ferocious expressions, dripping blood, together created a bizarre and terrifying scene.

Hong Chengchou straightened his official robes, clasped his hands in a salute, and said, "General, I am Hong Chengchou, the Grain Supervisor of Shaanxi. I am extremely grateful for your help this time."

"You flatter me, Governor! I am Du Hongyu, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Yansui, ordered by the Imperial Court to relieve the siege of Yan'an Prefecture." Du Hongyu stepped aside to avoid the curtsy and bowed.

"I am here on the orders of the governor to deliver grain to Yan'an Prefecture, and I am traveling the same route as the general," Hong Chengchou said after a moment's thought, his eyes flashing.

Du Hongyu smiled and said politely, "That's very good. Governor, you may accompany me."

"Then we will have to rely on the general," Hong Chengchou said gratefully.

Hong Chengchou and his men loaded the scattered grain onto carts, but ultimately failed to recover all of it. The dozen or so empty grain carts were just enough to carry the first merit of Du Hongyu's troops. The grain carts, carrying a large number of heads, headed towards Yan'an Prefecture, ten miles away.

Beneath the walls of Yan'an, corpses piled up like mountains. The bandits had no intention of cleaning up their comrades' bodies; they merely stripped them naked, scavenged the meager belongings left behind, and left the corpses to rot naked, their rotting flesh exposed. Milky-white maggots, resembling grains of rice, eagerly crawled out of the dead men's pores.

The stench outside the city was so strong that it stung the eyes, and the soldiers on the city wall could barely open their eyes because of it.

After a prolonged siege, the bandit army, which had been painstakingly assembled, fell apart. Since they were of different backgrounds, even if the rebels in Yan'an chose to cooperate with them, how could they really respect these refugees? Small-scale conflicts even broke out between the two sides.

Wang Er, the leader of the peasant uprising, also lost absolute leadership after expanding his army due to insufficient personal prestige. After his failed siege, his orders were ridiculed by all sides.

In truth, if it weren't for an internal traitor, how could such a large city have fallen so easily? Although the bandits were formidable in number, they lacked even decent siege equipment; their few breech-loading cannons couldn't even leave a dent in the thick city walls. Furthermore, a swarm siege was far beyond the capabilities of these disorganized refugees.
Prefect Zhu Tongmeng of Yan'an Prefecture had a fairly good reputation, known for his integrity and uprightness, and was highly respected by the people. He was also skilled in both literature and military strategy. Under his leadership, Yan'an Prefecture successfully held out. However, the biggest problem facing him now was no longer defending the city, but rather the shortage of food and the plague!

(End of this chapter)