The black-faced man stared at Ning Chen. “You’re Ning Chen?”
Ning Chen beckoned, and one of the musketeers handed his musket across.
Ning Chen took it and looked it over, and only then did he nod at the black-faced man. “I am. And what do I call you?”
“Li Ping.”
Ning Chen looked at him and said sharply, “Every one of you is a son of Great Xuan, and here you are following Chang Chengyun into treason against your own country… are you fit to be called sons of Great Xuan?”
“Have you thought about your parents, your wives, your children? Did your father and mother raise you so you could sell your country?”
“We are all sons of Great Xuan, so I’ll give you a chance. Surrender and you live… otherwise you are cut down where you stand!”
Li Ping smiled coldly, with contempt in it.
“Loyalty and honor cannot both be kept whole. You serve your master and I serve mine… General Ning can spare us the stirring speeches. We are loyal to the Left Chancellor to the bone, and nothing you say will turn us.”
“Ning Chen, while this general stands here, you will not open that gate.”
“Men like you are not enough for this general to kill. I advise you to put down your weapons—”
BANG!!!
A noise like a peal of thunder cut Li Ping off, and cut off his life with it.
There was no honor in it. Ning Chen raised his hand while the man was still talking and simply fired.
The bullet took him between the brows.
Li Ping did not even have time to close his eyes before he went off his horse headfirst.
To shoot a man, shoot his horse first; to take the bandits, take their king first.
Ning Chen did not hesitate for an instant. “Fire!” he shouted.
BANG! BANG! BANG!!!
A noise like a peal of thunder, loud enough to make the deaf hear, and black smoke and firelight rolled over everything.
The rebels had not taken in Li Ping’s death yet, and they went down in swathes, like wheat under the sickle.
The front rank fired and fell straight back to reload… the rear rank stepped up at once, the two ranks relieving each other.
In that storm of shot the rebels died beyond counting.
In no time the shrieking rang against the sky.
Li Ping their commander was dead, and they had lost their backbone.
Seeing man after man go down beside them, the rebels were in terror and ran in every direction like flies with their heads off.
Men crowded into men. Some were knocked down and trampled to death where they fell.
The ground was heaped with bodies and the blood ran like a river.
The powder smoke hung thick, and the smell of blood was sharp enough to turn a man’s stomach.
Of a thousand men, better than a third were dead in a moment.
Ning Chen raised his hand and the firing stopped.
“I’ll say it one last time. Put down your weapons, surrender, and you live!”
“I know you were led into this. We are all sons of Great Xuan. I don’t want you dying with the name of traitors on you, and I want your families dragged down with you even less.”
“I’m giving you the chance to start again as men. Put down your weapons. This is the last chance you get.”
Ning Chen shouted it at the top of his voice.
The rebels had had the courage frightened out of them long since.
One man dropped the blade in his hand in a panic.
Where there was one there were two.
In no time the clatter of falling metal was continuous, and the ground was covered in weapons.
Ning Chen said sharply, “All of you, over to the side. Hands behind your heads and get down!”
“Old Feng, take men and open the gate.”
“Yes!”
Feng Qizheng took a troop over at a run.
With a heavy grinding sound, the great gate came open.
Outside, Yuan Long and Mu Anbang had their eyes fixed on it.
They saw it open.
Yuan Long let out a roar of excitement. “Brothers! Follow me!”
“Kill… kill!”
The war cry shook the sky.
Yuan Long and Mu Anbang led better than twenty thousand men pouring into the city like a flood.
Ning Chen shouted, “Yuan Long, Mu Anbang, hear the order… any man who throws down his weapons and surrenders lives. Any man who resists is cut down where he stands!”
“Yes!”
Yuan Long and Mu Anbang took the order together.
Ning Chen pointed his saber at one of the rebels. “Tell me. Where is the Left Chancellor?”
“The — the Governor’s residence!”
Ning Chen turned his head to Feng Qizheng. “Old Feng, I’m giving you fifty men. Hold this gate for me and keep an eye on these men… if they try anything, cut them down.”
“No trouble. Leave it to me!”
“Be careful!”
With that, Ning Chen had the rebel who had answered him brought along to show the way.
“Brothers! Come with me to the Governor’s residence and take the traitor Chang Chengyun alive.”
By this time a number of people had gathered at the Governor’s residence, officials of Mangzhou high and low.
These officials, so imposing on any ordinary day, were shivering now like frightened quail.
Just then Zhuo Heguang came scrambling in half on his hands and knees.
“Your — Your Excellency, it’s bad, it’s very bad… the gate is broken and Ning Chen’s army has fought its way in. Our men cannot hold them at all.”
The Left Chancellor’s old face went white and the fat on him shuddered.
“What do we do? Ning Chen has fought his way in — what do we do?”
“It’s over, we’re dead men… I don’t want to die, I don’t want to die…”
“Your Excellency, what do we do? Make up your mind, quickly, Ning Chen is coming… shouldn’t we surrender?”
The officials of Mangzhou, high and low, were so frightened that a diaper would not have kept them dry.
Shing!!!
The Left Chancellor snatched the saber from the belt of an attendant beside him and with a single stroke killed the official who had spoken of surrender.
The rest of them were struck dumb with fright.
The Left Chancellor’s eyes were cold. “Anyone else who dares say surrender and shake the men’s nerve — this is what he gets.”
“Do you really imagine Ning Chen will let us go if we surrender… mustering troops on our own authority, treason against the state. These are crimes punishable to the ninth degree of kin. Not one of us gets away.”
The Left Chancellor threw the saber back to the attendant and said, low, “Zhang Zhengde?”
A big, powerfully built man strode in from outside, bent and cupped his fists. “This subordinate is here!”
“How many of our men do you have with you?”
“Reporting to Your Excellency, something over three hundred.”
The Left Chancellor nodded. “You will escort us out through the north gate, now… once we reach the frontier and the Grand Tutor, we are safe.”
“All of you, bring nothing. We leave at once!”
Ning Chen brought his men to the Governor’s residence and found it empty.
There was nobody in the whole place but maids and servants.
When he questioned them he learned that the Left Chancellor and the officials of Mangzhou had left about a quarter of an hour before he got there.
Ning Chen’s eyes flickered, and then he smiled coldly.
“The north gate!”
Ning Chen took his men straight for the north gate.
Pan Yucheng listened to the killing in the city and the musket fire, and it ate at him.
He had no idea how the fighting was going.
Ning Chen had told him to hold the north gate and he could not leave it, so all he could do was stand there and fret.
Then Pan Yucheng’s eyes narrowed. He fixed on something ahead of him and said, low, “Ready!”
Every man of them brought his musket up.
A dark mass of people was coming toward them, three hundred or more by the look of it.
This was the Left Chancellor’s party.
The Left Chancellor saw Pan Yucheng and his men too, and his face changed on the instant.
“Pan Yucheng. What are you doing here?”
It was as they came closer that he had recognized Pan Yucheng.
Pan Yucheng smiled slightly. “So it’s his lordship the Left Chancellor. Ning Chen judged you would run this way, and had me waiting here a good while to receive Your Excellency.”
The Left Chancellor’s face went black. That little mongrel Ning Chen again.
Pan Yucheng said pleasantly, “My lord Left Chancellor. Will you surrender?”
Zhang Zhengde lowered his voice. “Your Excellency, they have only a hundred men. This subordinate will take men and deal with him.”
“Deal with—” The Left Chancellor had been about to say deal with him my ass, can’t you see every one of them has a musket? — but he swallowed it. Three hundred men charging together might actually get through.
As far as he knew, a musket took time to load, so in a short space it could only fire the once.
They had three hundred and more, and the other side had only a hundred-odd muskets. There was no way they could kill them all.
The Left Chancellor said, low, “Good. Take your men and charge… if we get out safely I’ll enter it as the first credit to your name, and when we see the Grand Tutor I’ll recommend you to him myself.”
(End of Chapter 246)