Chapter 246: Camp Riot, Breaching The City, Looting
After reading the book reviews in the previous chapter, Great Khan, I accept the criticism and will take it as a warning.
The twilight was like ink, and the Northern Frontier Army surrounded Ganzhou City. The bronze bells on the city walls let out broken whimpers in the wind.
Mi Qin Tiele huddled behind the cold city parapet, but this tall and majestic Ganzhou City offered him no sense of security.
The campfires of the Northern Frontier Army outside the city formed a crimson chain, trapping Ganzhou City in a scarlet cage. Bright yellow banners flapped in the night wind, like thousands of flickering vipers.
Mi Qin Tiele did not know if he could survive this ordeal.
“Buddha, I, Mi Qin Tiele, have worshipped you for half my life. You must protect me this time.”
Mi Qin Tiele, like a gambler who had lost all his money, knelt on the ground and prayed to a jade Buddha pendant.
He had already witnessed the terrifying gunpowder weapons of the Northern Frontier Army, whose strict formations were destroyed under their bombardment.
Mi Qin Tiele now only hoped that the Ganzhou city walls were strong enough to withstand the bombardment of the Northern Frontier Army’s artillery.
As long as they held out until Waiming Shian’s reinforcements arrived, Ganzhou City would be safe, and he, Mi Qin Tiele, would have a chance to make a comeback.
At that very moment, a personal guard quickly ascended the city wall and came to his side, saying in a low voice, “Commander, it’s ready.”
Upon hearing this, Mi Qin Tiele’s eyes instantly became sharp.
He said in a deep voice, “Let’s go!”
Afterward, Mi Qin Tiele led his personal guards back to the Commander’s Office and entered a room in the back courtyard.
At this time, more than a dozen large boxes were already piled up here.
He slowly opened one of them, and it was filled with gold, silver, jewelry, land deeds, and the like.
This was the wealth he had accumulated over many years as a general through extorting the common people, exploiting soldiers’ pay, embezzling military expenses, and even impersonating bandits to loot wealthy merchants.
The total value of these treasures was no less than 300,000 Liang.
“Although a person’s life is but a fleeting moment, coming and going in a hurry, in the end, it’s nothing more than a handful of dust.”
“But money can move gods and demons~”
Mi Qin Tiele grabbed a handful of gold and silver, then slowly let it fall, listening to the crisp sound of the coins, looking entranced.
In his life, he had been greedy for money and lustful, and a corrupt official clinging to power.
These more than a dozen large boxes of wealth were his lifeblood.
The Northern Frontier Army was besieging the city, and Ganzhou was in grave danger.
Whether Ganzhou City was breached by the Northern Frontier Army or Waiming Shian’s reinforcements arrived, this wealth would not be safe.
Therefore, Mi Qin Tiele intended to leave a fallback plan for himself.
He would hide this wealth and use it as capital for his comeback in the future.
So, Mi Qin Tiele sealed the lids and had his personal guards move them onto a horse carriage.
He personally led men to transport them to an ordinary courtyard east of the city.
Under the moonlight, they were moved into the house. A cellar entrance had already been dug here, large enough to hold all the boxes.
“Have the people who dug the pit been dealt with?” Mi Qin Tiele asked.
The personal guard in charge of this matter immediately whispered, “They are being dealt with, and no one will know about this place.”
Mi Qin Tiele nodded slightly and then ordered the boxes to be carried inside.
The entrance was sealed and disguised, making it difficult to detect the cellar from the outside.
“Phew~”
Mi Qin Tiele breathed a sigh of relief.
If he surrendered to the Northern Frontier Army, he might save his life, but he would certainly lose all his power and would only be able to live out his days in idleness in the Northern Frontier.
He was unwilling to accept this, and furthermore, his family was in Xingqing Prefecture, so he did not surrender easily.
Although the responsibility for the defeat at the Battle of the Han Great Wall could be shifted to the deputy general, he would inevitably be held accountable.
A demotion would be the least of it; he might even be thrown into prison.
At that time, he would have to rely on this gold and silver treasures for bribes and favors.
“Let’s go back!” Mi Qin Tiele said in a deep voice.
After he left with his men, the courtyard returned to peace, with no trace of any hidden treasure.
However, Mi Qin Tiele and his entourage did not return to the Commander’s Office but went to the city walls.
As soon as they reached the city wall, a group of soldiers armed with bows and crossbows surrounded them.
“You~ You~”
Some of these seven or eight personal guards were confused and didn’t understand what was happening, while others looked horrified, realizing something.
To maintain secrecy, Mi Qin Tiele intended to silence them.
Indeed, Mi Qin Tiele turned around with a cold expression and said in a deep voice, “These people colluded with the Northern Frontier barbarians, committed treason, and intended to capture me, this commander, and hand over Ganzhou City.”
“Their crimes are unforgivable. Execute them immediately.”
As the words fell, a general said in a deep voice, “As ordered.”
Immediately, all these personal guards fell amidst a hail of arrows.
A cold glint flashed in Mi Qin Tiele’s eyes, and he thought to himself, “Don’t blame me for being ruthless, only blame you for knowing too much.”
Thus, the specific whereabouts of those treasures were known only to him.
However, on the other side, problems arose in dealing with the soldiers who dug the cellar.
Gou Sheng was a native of Dunhuang who had grown up eating from many families.
Knowing that one must be ruthless to establish oneself, he became increasingly fierce from his youth, becoming a top man in the village.
Two years ago, the Northern Frontier Army had captured Dunhuang and Guazhou and looted 100,000 common people northward.
Gou Sheng then became a Northern Frontier Army Household.
Moreover, due to his bravery in battle and repeated military merits, he had become a Centurion in the Northern Frontier Army within just two years.
This time, nearly a hundred natives from Dunhuang and Guazhou were selected and infiltrated into Ganzhou City.
Their mission was sabotage, to cooperate from within and without with the main army to capture Ganzhou City.
However, they did not expect that due to the impending war, all the male laborers in the city were conscripted.
These nearly one hundred men were no exception; each was given a broken spearhead, or even just a wooden stick as a weapon, and joined the ranks of the city’s defenders.
However, these minor changes did not affect their plan.
They planned to set fires throughout the city tonight to create chaos, preferably to incite a camp riot, and to facilitate the army’s entry into the city.
“Are all personnel accounted for?”
In the darkness, Gou Sheng met with the three Captains under his command, preparing to act.
But at this moment, one of the Captains said, “One of my Squad Leaders cannot be contacted for the time being.”
Hearing this, Gou Sheng’s brows furrowed.
A Squad Leader had seven or eight men, which was not a negligible force.
“What happened?”
“After dinner, a personal guard from the Commander’s Office came and took away everyone from the Eighth Squad, saying they were going to reinforce the city walls.”
Many of the Ganzhou Army’s units were hastily assembled, and that squad of Northern Frontier Army personnel happened to be among those being transferred.
“Time waits for no one~”
Gou Sheng was about to act immediately, but before he could finish speaking, he suddenly saw a faint firelight appearing somewhere in the city.
It was accompanied by a loud firecracker sound.
“Bang~”
“That’s my Squad Leader,” the Captain immediately stood up, looking at the direction of the firelight and saying urgently.
The firelight didn’t prove anything, but the firecracker was a signal among the Northern Frontier spies.
“It seems they’ve run into trouble,” Gou Sheng said in a deep voice.
He then looked at the three Captains and said, “Act immediately.”
“Old Zhou, take your men to support the Eighth Squad.”
“The rest of you, disperse to various parts of the camp and kill anyone you see.
“The more chaos, the better.”
As the words fell, the three Captains nodded: “As ordered.”
At the same time, Mi Qin Tiele, who had just ordered the execution of the personal guards, saw the flames in the city and heard the firecrackers even earlier.
“What’s going on?”
“Quick, send someone to apprehend the villains immediately,” Mi Qin Tiele said nervously.
At such a tense moment, a sudden fire in the city was definitely not a trivial matter; it was very likely that Northern Frontier spies had infiltrated.
But before his men could investigate the situation, shouts of killing erupted from another camp.
“There are spies, Northern Frontier barbarians have infiltrated!”
Unknowingly, someone’s first desperate cry spread like a plague. The sleeping soldiers awoke from their nightmares, grabbed their weapons, and rushed out.
In the darkness, people jostled against each other, the sound of shoulders and bodies colliding completely igniting panic.
Seizing this opportunity, Gou Sheng’s spies began to slash at the people around them, repeatedly muttering, “Spies, people with bald heads are all Northern Frontier barbarians’ spies.”
“Brothers, kill those spies.”
However, those they attacked looked bewildered; some were tragically cut down, while others instinctively counterattacked.
Their fight quickly drew other soldiers into the fray.
The Ganzhou Army soldiers were originally just common people, having joined the army for only a few days.
They didn’t know each other well, let alone trust each other.
They couldn’t even recognize each other face-to-face in the middle of the night.
In addition, following the recent defeat of the 20,000-strong Ganzhou Army outside the city, and with the Northern Frontier Army now besieging the city, the situation was precarious, and everyone felt the pressure of death.
Thus, in this sudden and inexplicable melee, more and more soldiers were passively drawn in.
Even if they didn’t want to fight, they worried that someone else would actively try to kill them.
Thus, a camp riot broke out.
Some were pushed to the ground and instantly trampled into bloody minced meat.
Some swung their swords wildly, but their blades plunged into their comrades’ chests, like vengeful spirits in a hellish battlefield.
“Stop, everyone stop, don’t fight.”
“Those who disobey will be beheaded!” The generals’ shouts were drowned out by the screams.
Even the most valiant soldiers turned red-eyed, attacking anyone around them who might pose a threat.
However, they did not notice that at the beginning of the camp riot, Gou Sheng and the other real spies had quietly tied a yellow cloth strip around their necks.
This served as a certification of identity to avoid friendly fire; soldiers without yellow sashes were enemies.
Once the camp riot truly erupted, these yellow-sashed men quickly disengaged from the camp battle.
They rushed to various parts of the city, holding torches and setting fire to houses, creating even greater chaos.
Outside the city, in the Northern Frontier camp.
A group of women were locked in cages, their fair and delicate skin, exquisite faces, slightly high-bridged noses, and hair colors that were not traditionally pure black were clearly visible.
These women were all from Heluo Chuan.
The Northern Frontier Army had virtually wiped out the entire Heluo Chuan, turning it into a place name.
The once renowned and brave Heluo Chuan tribe had become history, with only over five thousand women of suitable age left, imprisoned by the Northern Frontier Army.
And Li Xiao certainly would not deprive himself.
However, just as he finished everything and was preparing to rest, he suddenly heard faint clamoring sounds from Ganzhou City in the distance.
Li Xiao immediately realized that something had happened in the city.
“Great Protector, three cannon shots. Our scouts are creating chaos,” Zhang Shi said hurriedly.
Although the plan for Ganzhou City was proposed by Li Xiao, it was primarily arranged by Zhang Shi throughout.
He had not held much hope for it. In Li Xiao’s view, war ultimately depended on honorable, direct combat, and schemes were merely auxiliary.
Therefore, Li Xiao’s primary plan was the all-out assault to be launched tomorrow.
However, the people arranged by Zhang Shi seemed to have given him some pleasant surprises.
Dressed in full armor, wearing a dark gold cape, he stood outside the tent, gazing at the silhouette of Ganzhou City from afar, clearly seeing the fires burning within the city.
Li Xiao frowned and said in a low voice, “Could this be a conspiracy by the Dangxiang bald dogs?”
He was worried that the Northern Frontier scouts would be captured by the Ganzhou Army, interrogated, and forced to confess, leading the Ganzhou Army to use a feint to lure the Northern Frontier Army into an ambush.
Zhang Shi did not dare to guarantee anything in this regard.
But this opportunity could not be missed.
Therefore, without much consideration, Li Xiao commanded, “Pass the order, the Wuwei Army will attack the city.”
“Control the city gates, do not enter the city.”
Because the Wuwei Army was a standing army, it had ample time for assembly and training under normal circumstances, and thus could be assembled the fastest.
However, the situation was currently unclear, and the Northern Frontier Army was unfamiliar with the city’s terrain.
Entering the city at night would easily lead to disadvantages in street fighting.
Therefore, Li Xiao’s requirement was to hold the city gates and slowly purge the city after dawn.
At the same time, the camp riot had already spread to the city gates. Although Mi Qin Tiele tried his best to suppress it, it was futile on this chaotic night; all he could do was hope the soldiers would exhaust their strength.
Under these circumstances, Gou Sheng, leading the Northern Frontier spies, along with some rioters, rushed to the city gates.
“Open the city gates, we want to go home.”
Gou Sheng, covered in blood, roared at the city gate soldiers.
This plea deeply resonated with the incited rioters behind him.
They had been conscripted from outside the city and were extremely unwilling.
With the Northern Frontier Army raging outside the city, who wouldn’t worry about the safety of their families?
The thought of going home propelled them, and they were eventually led by Gou Sheng to the city gate.
“Quick, move stones, clear the city gate.”
Gou Sheng shouted loudly, and with dozens of Northern Frontier spies, they raced against time, moving stones out from under the city gate archway.
With many hands, despite their bloody palms, the city gate was slowly opened.
In the moonlight, the bright yellow armor of the Northern Frontier Cavalry flowed like molten gold, surging across the open plain in an unstoppable tide.
The iron hooves of thousands of warhorses crushed the frozen earth, their thunderous roars mingling with the neighing of steeds, approaching like muffled thunder from the horizon, making the arrow towers on the city walls tremble and shed dust.
Gou Sheng, seeing this scene, breathed a heavy sigh of relief.
He sternly shouted, “Hold the city gates.”
At this moment, they had acquired some more bows and crossbows, which they had seized from the chaotic enemy forces, enough to hold out for this period.
“Boom boom boom boom~”
The iron cavalry roared, and the Wuwei cavalry formed a wall with their interlocking shields, accelerating their charge into the arrow rain.
Leading the charge was the Centurion army led by Yang Shoujing.
He was clad entirely in yellow cotton armor, with only half his face exposed, gazing at the wide-open city gate.
At the city gate, a group of men dressed in Western Xia commoner attire stood, each with a yellow sash tied around their necks.
Moreover, outside the city gate, one person was waving a yellow Sun and Moon Battle Flag.
Although this could not be ruled out as a trap, the current situation was sufficient to make a gamble.
Because, if they were to attack the city head-on tomorrow, the Northern Frontier Army would undoubtedly suffer greater casualties to take Ganzhou City.
“Kill!”
Yang Shoujing shouted sternly, raising his spear diagonally, its cold glint reflecting the bloody moonlight, the land trembled violently, and the horses in the front row directly charged into the city gate.
Then, nothing happened.
The Ganzhou soldiers, who had been slaughtering each other and were in disarray, saw the Northern Frontier Iron Cavalry charge into the city gate, their fierce expressions instantly turning timid like lambs.
They fled in terror in all directions.
Yang Shoujing, however, strictly followed Li Xiao’s orders and did not advance further once the city gate was secured.
Instead, he established Divine Arm Crossbow defense lines at the city gate and along the city walls on both sides, to resist the counterattack of the Ganzhou Army.
Meanwhile, Mi Qin Tiele also received news of the West City Gate being breached, and his face instantly turned pale with panic.
“Go, leave Ganzhou City.”
With that said, he quickly led his men, traveling light and fast, first to the South Gate, then to the East Gate, but the results were the same.
The Northern Frontier units outside the city had already received their orders.
They were not to attack, but to strictly defend and prevent anyone from within the city from escaping.
Standing on the city wall, looking at the thousands of torches outside the city, dotting the Gobi Desert like stars, Mi Qin Tiele’s heart turned ice cold.
The field combat capabilities of the Northern Frontier Cavalry were well-known, and even in the dark night, he did not believe he could escape the blockade of the Northern Frontier Army.
Going outside the city would only lead to a quicker death.
“It’s over, everything is over~” Mi Qin Tiele’s face was vacant, and he slumped onto the city wall like a puddle of mud.
He regretted it immensely; if only he had known there were Northern Frontier spies in the city, he would not have returned to Ganzhou after the Battle of the Han Great Wall and would have fled directly towards Xingqing Prefecture.
At least, he could have saved his life.
As the first ray of dawn pierced the night sky, Ganzhou City lay scattered with the corpses of those who had killed each other.
The Wuwei Army lifted its defense of the city gates and began to storm into the city, sweeping through Ganzhou City.
“The Great Protector has ordered that those who resist will be killed without mercy.”
“By order of the Northern Frontier Great Protector’s Mansion, all military and civilian personnel within the city, regardless of gender, are not allowed to remain inside the city and must immediately proceed to the areas outside the city for resettlement.”
Some Northern Frontier Soldiers, speaking in the Dunhuang dialect, shouted continuously within the city.
Northern Frontier Cavalry units, organized by Squad Leaders and Captains, were divided into hundreds of small teams, sweeping through the resisting forces within the city.
“Bang~”
A squadron of cavalry crashed open a residence and galloped inside, finding a family of five living there: a man, a woman, and three children.
They were all armed, looking terrified, and pointing their weapons at the Northern Frontier Soldiers who had burst in.
It appeared that this man was a city defense soldier who had fled back from the city wall amidst the chaos.
At the entrance to the city, the leading Northern Frontier Soldier frowned upon seeing the family and shouted in the Dunhuang dialect, “Lay down your weapons and surrender immediately.”
However, the family seemed not to understand and remained motionless.
Trembling with fear, they still held their weapons pointed at the Northern Frontier Army and shouted in the Uyghur language, “Leave my home, leave my home~”
Ganzhou was, in itself, a city where Hu and Han people intermingled.
In the past, Western Xia had transferred large numbers of Han People to this area to maintain its rule over the Hexi Corridor.
Therefore, the number of Han People in Ganzhou City accounted for about seventy percent, with the remaining thirty percent being Uyghurs, Dangxiang, and others.
“Uyghurs?”
The leading Squad Leader, hearing the man’s shouts, narrowed his eyes, having no patience to prolong the entanglement.
He simply waved his hand and said, “Kill~”
Instantly, the whistling of arrows echoed from behind, and a sharp arrow pierced the man’s chest.
“Ah~”
Amidst his screams, the man fell to the ground, his eyes gradually dimming.
His wife and children stared at the scene in shock, and then began to wail in anguish.
The boy’s face contorted into a ferocious, wolf-like expression, and he picked up his father’s spear, charging towards the Northern Frontier Army.
But he was met with another arrow.
“Hmph, a bunch of Sali Bazi.”
The Squad Leader snorted coldly, looking at the two corpses on the ground.
Sali referred to the former Ganzhou Uyghurs.
Bazi was a nickname given to them by Li Yuanhao years ago, mocking their pathetic state of “crippled begging for peace” after their defeat.
This Squad Leader was from Dunhuang, and his ancestors had a deep-seated blood feud with the Ganzhou Uyghurs.
Therefore, he showed no mercy when killing Uyghurs.
Then, he lightly waved his hand, and two soldiers stepped forward to finish off the two corpses on the ground.
Three other soldiers then approached the remaining mother and two daughters, easily disarming the young mother.
They then hoisted the three of them onto their shoulders, bound their hands and feet, and threw them onto their horses.
In the eyes of the Northern Frontier Han soldiers, these foreign women were not people but a form of wealth, and they were reluctant to kill them.
Afterward, they began to rummage through the Uyghur family’s house extensively.
Grain, gold and silver, bronze ware, cloth and silk, daily necessities, and anything usable was not spared.
The most important objective of the Northern Frontier Army’s southward campaign was looting.
“The Sali Bazi are really rich.”
“Much richer than that Han family from earlier.”
A soldier, holding a bolt of cotton cloth just found in a cabinet, grinned broadly.
The Han family from earlier was so poor they could barely eat, and in the end, they could only be sent to the prisoner of war camp.
But this Uyghur family even had cotton cloth, a scarce commodity produced in the Northern Frontier, indicating they were a wealthy household.
If it were earlier, there might have been some guards and maidservants at home.
However, due to the Northern Frontier’s siege of the city, the guards and household retainers had been conscripted into the army, leaving only the male head of the household to flee back.
“Hmph, the Sali Bazi are very cunning; they are best at deceiving our Han people out of money and possessions,” the Squad Leader said coldly.
Shortly after, they had plundered all the valuable items in the house and found two cellars containing a large amount of grain, forcing them to bring horse carriages to transport it.
They then handed over these items and the captives to the army, awaiting future distribution.
One-third of it belonged to them, their brothers, enough to make their own fortunes substantial.
After reporting their task, the Squad Leader impatiently led his brothers to continue plundering elsewhere.
Due to the camp riot last night, many soldiers were hidden in the civilian residences within the city, so the search had to be conducted with extreme caution.
The Northern Frontier Army had also developed a set of unwritten rules for dealing with these soldiers and civilians.
Those who wielded weapons would be killed!
Han people without weapons would not be killed, but all their property would be confiscated, and they would be demoted to slaves.
After all, Li Xiao’s military orders were thus; the Northern Frontier needed these Han people.
Hu people without weapons who understood Chinese could be spared, as the Chinese Nation was inclusive.
As long as they were willing to actively integrate into Huaxia, not cause trouble, and not seek independence, Li Xiao could let them go.
However, those Hu people without weapons who did not understand Chinese were not protected by Li Xiao’s military orders, and whether they were killed or not was up to the soldiers.
But because many of the grassroots commanders of the Northern Frontier Army came from Dunhuang and Guazhou, and had fought with Hu people numerous times for survival resources in the past, they would adopt extreme measures in this regard.
