Chapter 42: A Minor Victory Brings News of Triumph-The Last Crown Prince of the Ming Dynasty(A few words, full of meaning.)

Fang Sanhu sat on horseback while a dozen armored men wielding sabers behind him relentlessly beat the slow-moving conscripts with the flat of their blades. "Charge quickly, do not stop!"

"General Mo has issued an order: anyone who retrieves a single spearhead from the imperial troops will be promoted to an armored frontline soldier. Those who fail to bring back even half a a shaft and retreat will be beheaded!"

"Get a hold of a musket, and we can be armored and become frontline soldiers under General Dang! Brothers, charge together!"

Among the three thousand Shun rebel conscripts, leaders roared one after another.

Wielding rusted red-tasseled spears, holding inferior broken sabers, or even carrying hoes, the three thousand Shun conscripts ran forward in huge strides.

"There's still a chance... There's still a chance..." Fang Sanhu muttered as he looked ahead. "A single volley can kill at most the foremost hundred men. There are three thousand charging now, and several thousand more still locked in fierce battle with the imperial troops. Once we close in for hand-to-hand combat, we can grind them down to death!"

On the battlefield, Zheng Yaorui gasped heavily. Across the hundreds of meters wide road, wounded and fallen conscripts lay everywhere.

He managed to find a slightly open space. Ahead of him were countless conscripts blocked by the impenetrable spear formation; to his left and right were conscripts constantly drifting to the edges in attempts to flee; and behind him were conscripts pressing forward relentlessly, driven by fear and greed into the charge.

Zheng Yaorui felt his breathing grow difficult, his thoughts seemingly frozen.

Yet soon, his mind jolted back to activity.

When the two armies closed to within eighty paces, the sound of muskets firing erupted.

Bang, bang, bang...

Over a hundred Shun conscripts suddenly stiffened.

"Advance!" A resonant voice rang out.

As if they would never tire, a thousand spearmen shouted in unison: "Advance!"

"Kill!"

Like a basin of ice-cold water poured over him in winter, Zheng Yaorui snapped awake and scrambled forward, scrambling and crawling. In that instant, Zheng Yaorui burst forth with boundless speed, overtaking face after face until he reached the very tail end of the Shun conscript force, stopping only when a long spear barred his way.

"Do not retreat! Take another step back and I'll start killing!" Fang Sanhu's eyes bulged like bells as he glared at the hundred or so conscripts who had fled alongside Zheng Yaorui, raising a thirty-jin custom-made heavy spear high in his hands.

Behind Fang Sanhu, a dozen armored frontline soldiers stared fixedly at his spear.

Zheng Yaorui dropped heavily to his knees, kowtowing incessantly. "Master Fang, I, Zheng Yaorui, beg you, spare my life... Thirteen of my family members died of famine while fleeing, and now I am the only one left alive. I don't want to fight anymore. Those imperial soldiers are like iron, and the thousand men under our command have already been wiped out. We truly cannot beat them! Master Fang..."

Fang Sanhu's eyes stared wide, his sideburns bristling as he gasped for breath. Looking past Zheng Yaorui toward the frontline, he muttered frantically in his heart: "Why haven't they routed the imperial troops yet... Why aren't they exhausted? Are the imperial soldiers made of iron?"

Suddenly, gazing at the imperial soldiers gradually emerging clearly from behind the smoke, Fang Sanhu cried out in alarm and anger: "No... That volley of muskets was just fired! These are a completely fresh batch of imperial soldiers..."

Zheng Yaorui said with a terrified expression, "The imperial troops have reinforcements, we can't win. I don't want to die, I don't want to die!"

With that, Zheng Yaorui tried to run again, but was pinned down by Fang Sanhu's soldiers.

"Lord Hu... Should we kill him?" At that moment, a man beside Fang Sanhu asked softly.

With an icy gaze, Fang Sanhu was about to utter that chilling word when he suddenly paused. Then, Fang Sanhu leaped off his horse and threw himself flat onto the ground.

After merely five breaths of time, Fang Sanhu's expression turned utterly vacant.

Meeting the inquiring gazes around him, Fang Sanhu breathed heavily, looked at the hundreds of terrified conscripts, and gave a bitter laugh. "Who is killing whom... is still unknown... Forget it, I'll lead you away!"

With those words, Fang Sanhu pulled his horse around, and a hundred men followed him, galloping off into the depths.

The Shun army formation began to waver.

Simultaneously, a faint vibration rumbled through the ground.

As the billowing smoke and dust from the two musket volleys gradually thinned, a cavalry force five hundred strong appeared on the battlefield.

A fleeting silence descended upon the entire battlefield.

Then, dozens of armored military law enforcers suddenly tore off their armor in a frenzy, turned around, and bolted away in a desperate run.

With the law enforcers gone to maintain order, more and more conscripts across the battlefield began fleeing for their lives.

In the rear, after Mo Gao and his dozen personal guards hacked down nineteen retreating conscripts in succession, he suddenly discovered that a hundred or so retreating conscripts had turned around with ferocious expressions, brandishing hoes and wooden spears as they charged straight at him. "Kill the one surnamed Mo, only then can we stay alive!"

Shock filled Mo Gao's face. Before he could utter a word, he was grabbed by several personal guards who dragged him away in a frantic flight.

In the distance, Dang Shouzuo let out a slow breath, suppressing the heaviness in his chest. Beside him, a man mounted on a tall steed lowered his voice and said, "General, this subordinate requests to fight."

Dang Shouzuo stared fixedly at the charging wave of imperial cavalry, his teeth grinding audibly. Taking a deep breath, he commanded, "If the imperial cavalry charges for one li, you shall intercept them! If not, you must tightly guard the main army and make no rash moves!"

"Understood!"

On the boat, Zhu Cilang watched this scene, smiled, and nodded. "Fighting to this point, if the enemy general isn't a complete fool, he should realize they have no ability to drive us into the water to feed the fish. This Liuyuankou, we are taking it! Someone, pass the order: instruct Liu Zhen to pull back to camp after charging one li."

"Understood!"

"Have the auxiliary corps pitch camp swiftly, and let the military hospital tend to the wounded immediately. Issue another order to the commanders of all units to prepare for a period of stalemate."

Beside him, Si Qi quickly noted it down on a shorthand board. "Understood!"

At the same time, in Kaifeng City, a dozen or so li away from the Liuyuankou ferry, the ramparts were a sea of shifting heads.

Days earlier, when the imperial forces learned that the Shandong garrison had reached the Yellow River north of Kaifeng and intended to move south, the Prince of Zhou had left his palace and begun rousing the city's imperial troops to prepare for reception.

Yet before preparations within the city were complete, battle had erupted ahead.

Atop the battlements, surrounded by a crowd, the Prince of Zhou gazed into the distance, as if he could witness the fierce fighting at Liuyuankou.

Naturally, the sights a dozen li away could not be seen.

However, the imperial soldiers on the city walls soon noticed another spectacle outside.

Beyond the city, a troop of horsemen galloped furiously toward Kaifeng. Right behind them, a squadron of rebel cavalry thundered in hot and ferocious pursuit.

Witnessing this, the civil and military officials on the city walls held their breath. "Could these be the imperial army's scouting messengers?"

"Quickly, provide cover and receive them!" the Prince of Zhou urged impatiently.

Gao Mingheng also said with tension, "Chen Yongfu, lead your men out to receive them personally!"

Hearing this, Chen Yongfu hurriedly replied, "This subordinate obeys!"

Before long, the city gates swung wide, and Chen Yongfu charged out swiftly with his personal guards and retainers.

Seeing this, the rebel cavalry decisively gave up the chase. As soon as the approaching horsemen drew near, they shouted at the top of their lungs: "The Shandong garrison has defeated Dang Shouzuo and established a foothold at Liuyuankou!"

Hearing this, the Prince of Zhou was so moved tears nearly welled in his aged eyes. "Our Kaifeng is saved!"

"Imperial reinforcements have arrived!"

"We are saved!" (To be continued.)