Traveling through the late Ming Dynasty to promote Chinese civilization

Chapter 373 Guan Ning Army Possesses All the War Merit?

Upon hearing Liu Ye's words, Xu Yifan had an idea and said to the soldiers around him, "Everyone shout together: Li Jiucheng is dead!"

As the soldiers skillfully loaded their ammunition, they shouted, "Li Jiucheng is dead!"

At first, only a few dozen soldiers in the middle were shouting, then the soldiers on both sides joined in, and finally it spread to both ends of the line. The entire Qiongzhou camp was like a relay race, with shouts of "Li Jiucheng is dead!" rising and falling.

The rebels, staring at the dense barrage of bullets advancing, were stunned. Their commander had actually been killed in battle? Due to the chaos of the charge, most of the rebels did not realize that Li Jiucheng had been shot and killed, and that his body had been trampled beyond recognition by the horses' hooves.

Li Jiucheng was not only the commander of this rebel cavalry force, but also the backbone of the entire Shandong rebel army. He orchestrated the mutiny, with Kong Youde only passively cooperating. He participated in and commanded all the major and minor battles after the uprising, and the core Liaodong soldiers of the rebel army held him in high esteem. Now, the enemy was shouting that Li Jiucheng was dead. Although a few rebels still clung to the hope that this was just a psychological tactic, most of them already believed it to be true—given Li Jiucheng's volatile temper, he would have already cursed them if he heard such insults. But now, no matter how much the enemy shouted, there was no response.

The morale of the rebels plummeted to rock bottom during the charge. They instinctively slowed their advance. What should they do now? Should they continue charging forward, or turn back and fight the Guan Ning army to the death?

This hesitation gave the Qiongzhou camp an opportunity, and the dense rain of bullets continued to reap the lives of the rebels. Every now and then, rebel soldiers fell off their horses, and their warhorses collapsed to the ground, all the vigor they had shown during the charge gone.

At this moment, the Guan Ning army had already charged forward. Zu Dabi took the lead, roaring and brandishing his saber as he charged into the enemy ranks, and the cavalry-on-cavalry battle resumed. The rebels had no time to attack the Qiongzhou camp's line of troops again and were forced to turn around and engage in hand-to-hand combat with their powerful opponents.

Xu Yifan asked Liu Ye for instructions: "Should we continue firing?"

Liu Ye shook his head: "The Guan Ning Army is not the Shandong Army, and the Zu family is not Liu Zeqing. We cannot afford to offend them now. Since the rebels have stopped their attack and Li Jiucheng is dead, we have basically achieved our objective. To avoid friendly fire and giving them a handle against us, let's stop firing!"

The Qiongzhou battalion ceased firing, remaining on high alert. The situation in the battle over there quickly became clear.

The rebels were no match for the Guan Ning army to begin with, and their morale plummeted. The enemy, having rested and prepared, quickly showed signs of weakness. The remaining men, having lost the will to fight, scattered and fled. In cavalry combat, fleeing is a grave mistake; exposing one's back to the enemy is tantamount to suicide. The Guan Ning army pursued and easily ended their lives.

Seeing that the situation was hopeless, and that they could neither fight nor escape, the few remaining rebels jumped off their horses, threw down their weapons, knelt on the ground and begged for mercy, pleading only to save their lives.

Liu Ye and his men thought the Guan Ning army was going to take prisoners, but they had no such intention. They rode past the kneeling rebels and easily beheaded them with a single stroke. The rest of them, now that their path to surrender was blocked, picked up their sabers in despair, preparing to mount their horses again and die with their enemies. But the Guan Ning army gave them no chance. Squad after squad of cavalry swept past, and before they could even mount their horses, they were all cut down with a single stroke.

Liu Ye shook his head. In terms of slaughtering enemies who had no will to resist, the Guan Ning Army far surpassed his own.

Half an hour later, the battle ended. All the rebel cavalrymen were killed in action, not a single one survived. As for the rebel infantrymen who had been merely bystanders, they had already fled when the cavalry was attacked from both sides by the Guan Ning Army and the Qiongzhou Camp. The Qiongzhou Camp was too far away to deal with them, and the Guan Ning Army was more focused on Li Jiucheng's cavalry unit and had no time to attend to them. Besides, after the battle, these men had almost disappeared, so they were left alone.

Where the battle took place, blood flowed like a small river, and there were mutilated corpses everywhere, including those of Shandong soldiers and rebels. Unclaimed warhorses wandered nearby, occasionally letting out a neigh, as if lamenting the ferocity of the battle.

The soldiers of the Guan Ning Army dismounted and used their sabers to search the corpses on the ground, seemingly checking for any valuables. Meanwhile, the generals, led by Zu Dabi, gathered together, talked for a while, and then spurred their horses toward the Qiongzhou camp.

Liu Ye thought to himself, "The real show is about to begin." Annihilating thousands of rebel cavalry and killing Li Jiucheng were remarkable achievements in the entire suppression of the rebellion, surpassed only by the recapture of Dengzhou. He never expected to be thrust into such a grand spectacle right from the start, and even more unexpected was that his rival for the credit was the notoriously arrogant and domineering Guan Ning Army. They might very well try to claim all the credit for themselves.

He took a deep breath. No matter what, he would deal with whatever came his way, and he couldn't let the enemy steal all the credit. The Guan Ning Army had always been arrogant and looked down on the other Ming armies, but the Qiongzhou Camp was no pushover either. He ordered, "Order the soldiers to put down their guns and not provoke the Guan Ning Army. But keep a low profile on the outside and remain vigilant on the inside."

Zu Dabi and his men walked to the front of the Qiongzhou camp and then reined in their horses. Wu Sangui smiled and said to Xia Tiannan, "General Liu has trained a very good army. This arquebusiers are well-trained, responsive, and calm in the face of danger. They are truly a strong army! If it weren't for you holding back Li Jiucheng, we might not have been able to win this battle so easily."

Liu Ye breathed a slight sigh of relief. These words essentially sealed the deal; at least the Guan Ning Army didn't intend to claim all the credit for themselves. However, he didn't dare to be careless and cautiously replied, "Thank you for your praise. But compared to yours, your bravery is even more admirable. To be able to annihilate the elite rebel cavalry in a head-on confrontation with relatively few casualties is something only your army could achieve. The Guan Ning Iron Cavalry truly lives up to its name; indeed, it is the strongest army in the Ming Dynasty!"

Like a sedan chair carried by sycophants, everyone flatters and praises each other. A smile appeared on Zu Dabi's face. Although he had heard similar words many times, the fighting prowess of the Qiongzhou Camp was undeniable and had already earned the recognition of the Guan Ning Army generals. Hearing praise from such a formidable figure was far more pleasing than the flattery of an unknown soldier.

Wu Sangui laughed and said, "You flatter me." He pointed to Zu Dabi and introduced him, "Let me introduce you to Lieutenant General Liu. This is Zu Dabi, the deputy general of Shanhaiguan and the commander of the Guan-Ning Army in this campaign to quell the rebellion."

Liu Ye cupped his hands and said, "So you are General Zu. I've heard so much about you."

Zu Da-bi nodded in response.

Wu Sangui continued, "This is Guerrilla General Zu Kuan, this is Captain Zhang Tao, this is my father Wu Xiang..."

When Wu Xiang was introduced, Liu Ye smiled slightly; the father and son, who were destined to be traitors, were now present.