Chapter 201: The Northern Expedition

Every member of the Qing army, from Pan Dingxin to the lowest-ranking soldiers, harbored deep fear at the name Liu Yu. The Qing feared foreigners, yet those foreigners feared this boy named Liu Yu—God only knew if he had three heads and six arms! In that instant, the Qing army fell utterly silent, but the next moment, they frantically summoned their best troops, preparing for the worst.

“Tell the artillery unit! Don’t fear losing cannons or running out of ammunition. I, Pan Dingxin, will cover any losses!”

On the other side of the battlefield, Liu Yu clenched his fist and shouted at his officers, “It depends on you this time!”

Strictly speaking, Liu Yu did not have a large force. Due to the heavy losses in the Battle of Hanoi and the long journey, after accepting France’s surrender, he could only hastily assemble eight infantry companies and two artillery companies to reinforce Taiyuan.

But upon seeing the chaotic situation ahead, he knew exactly what he was risking. “Order the troops to engage in battle immediately! Advance toward the sound of gunfire!”

“Advance toward the sound of gunfire!”

Without even time to wipe the sweat from their foreheads, the three infantry companies immediately formed battle formations and launched a direct attack on the Qing army. One of Wang Debang’s infantry battalions was already on the verge of collapse, so it was shattered the moment it came under fire.

Then, the Black Flag Army sent in two more infantry companies to exploit the gap, like a sharp sword piercing straight into Pan Dingxin’s heart. The three infantry battalions of the Qing army in that sector retreated like a tide.

They ran for their lives but encountered even heavier fire from the Black Flag Army. They fled without even seeing their enemies, terrified of those in grass-green uniforms.

“What to do? What to do?”

That was the thought in every Qing soldier’s mind. This green tide was unstoppable, crushing everything in its path. Not to mention the two artillery companies under Liu Yu, whose synchronized firing sent the Qing artillery unit into chaos. The gunners abandoned their cannons and fled.

To make matters worse, soon after, trumpets sounded from the Black Flag Army’s positions—another infantry battalion arriving from Hanoi to join the fight. With their addition, the onslaught became even more devastating.

“Kill!”

The Qing soldiers could no longer hear even the sound of cannons or gunfire. All they saw were soldiers in grass-green uniforms, charging at them with bayonets gleaming in the light—one, two, three… ten, a hundred, a thousand!

When they realized they could no longer see any allies, only the Black Flag Army everywhere, they dropped their muskets, food bags, and newly acquired rifles and ran desperately backward. Yet the cries of battle from the Black Flag Army grew louder and louder.

“Retreat! Retreat!” Wang Debang ordered loudly. “We can’t lose everything here today!”

Although many battalions had already collapsed, as a high-ranking commander on the front lines, Wang Debang was the first to make this decision. “It’s getting dark! Get as many out as possible. We can’t lose everything here!”

He had experienced the Taiping Rebellion and knew that as long as he could keep his troops, everything would be manageable. Yet the thought of his elite guards, who had been nearly wiped out not long ago, made his heart bleed again. He paid no attention to the battlefield situation and only focused on rallying his troops to retreat: “Abandon the cannons, supplies, and wealth! What use are they now?” They retreated less than half a mile before Su Yuanchun’s elite guards, armed with large swords, rushed over: “Governor Su orders that those who retreat without permission be executed!” “Charge ahead! Su Yuanchun can’t control me!” Wang Debang, a veteran general from the Taiping Rebellion, unfastened his upper garment and shouted loudly, “Charge! Those who can’t make it will fall into the hands of those black bandits!” Like a tide, Wang Debang’s troops overwhelmed Su Yuanchun’s guards. Wang Debang continued to shout from his horse, “My Chu army soldiers, follow me! Su Yuanchun can’t control me—I’m going to take him to court!” Soon, not only Wang Debang’s Chu army joined forces but other units also followed him in retreat. Wang Debang shouted at several battalion officers, “After we retreat, everyone will know we fought hard to break through. What if some bold guy uses a fake order from Commander Pan to deceive us?” The officers replied in unison, “Kill him on the spot!” With this shared determination, hundreds of men in uniforms advanced unstoppable, even more fiercely than the Black Flag Army’s attacking forces, scattering the Qing army’s rear troops and leaving behind piles of supply wagons. “Wang Debang! Wang Debang!” Su Yuanchun was frantic: “I want your head!” Wang Debang’s disgraceful retreat was like being roasted in hot oil; his ten battalion commanders were already trapped, and even if they tried to escape now, the Black Flag Army wouldn’t let them. Seeing themselves about to be surrounded, several of Su Yuanchun’s officers fought desperately, launching several counterattacks. Though they were quickly defeated by the Black Flag Army, they managed to hold their ground for a while. They shouted at Su Yuanchun, “Sir, sir! Retire quickly! We can’t hold on! We’ll take Wang Debang to the emperor and demand a death sentence for him!” “That’s right, sir! Retire! The situation is hopeless!” Su Yuanchun removed his official hat and looked at the setting sun: “Commander Pan has shown me kindness. As a warrior, I only know to repay kindness!” Facing the growing numbers of Black Flag Army soldiers, he shouted, “Let’s fight to the death together!” “Brothers!” Su Yuanchun threw his saber to the ground. “I’ve fulfilled my duty to the Qing dynasty!” “What should we do? What should we do?” Chen Jiali hugged his head, watching the increasingly violent battlefield, which was no longer a battlefield but a one-sided massacre by the Black Flag Army. Most of the remaining Qing troops were surrounded. They were driven from one battlefield to another, then pushed back by machine guns, as the Black Flag Army mowed down lives like crops. “Damn it! Damn it!”

Chen Jiali was filled with remorse. He should have been on the side of the victors and even serve as a deputy company commander in the Black Flag Army. But in a moment of recklessness, he led over fifty of his men to join the Qing forces, hoping to advance rapidly, only to end up in such a humiliating situation.

Another round of gunfire knocked down dozens of Qing soldiers, who seemed unable to get up again. The deafening sound of cannons made him regret his decision even more.

He regretted his choice, but now there was nothing he could do. He could only hide beside a large rock with these thirty or forty remaining soldiers, bracing for death. He didn’t want to die, but he knew full well that the Black Flag Army never spared traitors. Those who tried to flee by abandoning their weapons would be the first to be killed. Pan Dingxin might have a chance to escape, but he didn’t.

He wanted to stand up and fight his way out, but the piles of corpses around him reminded him that the Black Flag Army was not to be trifled with. His chances of breaking through were practically zero.

“What should I do? What should I do? Damn it!”

He cursed violently, “I’m done living!”

But the next moment, Chen Jiali spotted what he was looking for. He pointed at the huge yellow dragon flag among his men and shouted, “That’s him! That’s him!”

He was referring to Pan Dingxin’s troops. At that time, Pan Dingxin was in a desperate situation. He had lost contact with most of his officers, and after several battles, he had achieved nothing. Now, trapped among the chaotic troops, he led a group of loyal soldiers around, trying to find a way out. But Chen Jiali had found his treasure: “Hurry! Get up! Get up!”

He kicked his men lying on the ground desperately and used the barrel of his gun to push them up. “We’re done! We’re done! Follow me! Capture the traitor Pan Dingxin, and everyone will get a generous reward!”

These few dozen men were Chen Jiali’s core forces. At first, they refused to get up, but when they heard Chen Jiali’s plan, they saw it as a chance to survive against all odds. “Let’s give it our all! Anyway, dying at the hands of the Black Flag Army is the same outcome!”

“Whatever! We’re done! We’re back with the Black Flag Army!”

Just then, Pan Dingxin rushed back from the east toward the west, riding on horseback in a disheveled state, even having lost one of his boots. He saw a group of scattered soldiers trying to gather, not realizing they had fallen into a trap.

“Whatever! We’re done! Let’s surrender!”

At that moment, Chen Jiali’s thirty-something men united. They fired a volley of shots and shouted, “Surrender quickly! We’ve joined the Black Flag Army! Those who don’t surrender will be beheaded! Beheaded!”

These defeated soldiers were already terrified. Now, with such a fierce group of ambushers suddenly appearing, they were terrified and begged for mercy on the ground.

Some of the bolder ones simply turned their guns around and joined Chen Jiali’s forces. “I’m done too! I’m done too!”

Beside Pan Dingxin, although there were hundreds of people, in the blink of an eye, only over twenty remained. A few of his loyal soldiers shouted, “Protect our lord quickly! Remember to take care of my wife!”

But as soon as these few guards shouted those words, they already fell in a pool of blood. The men of the Chen family’s Ministry of Rites, having found their life’s purpose, were utterly fearless, slaying over twenty enemies along the way. Chen Jiali personally rushed to Pan Dingxin’s side and pulled him off his horse. As for Pan Dingxin’s flag, it fell into the hands of these chaotic troops. Chen Jiali shouted loudly, “The traitor Pan has been captured alive by us! We’ve turned our backs on them! We’ve turned our backs!” This was merely a scene on the battlefield, yet it signified the end of this battle. With the supreme commander captured, aside from a few Qing soldiers who continued to resist blindly, the rest either surrendered on the spot or broke through the encirclement in the chaos. Aside from Wang Debang, who led more than two thousand men northward, the rest of the Qing troops, even if they fled, were disorganized. The only downside was the loss of Su Yuanchun, a fierce general, though he only led a few dozen men to break through in the chaos. With limited forces on the battlefield, the Black Flag Army eventually allowed him to lead some of his men out. Yet for the Black Flag Army, this battle was quite easy. Cai Yunnan said to Liu Yu with a smile, “Commander, the Qing soldiers are truly weak. Compared to French soldiers, there’s a huge difference!” “With just one regiment and three battalions, I’ve forced over a hundred Qing battalions to retreat step by step. Add five more battalions, and the Qing troops will collapse completely!” Tang Jingsong replied immediately, “The Qing army is no concern!” Although the final outcome hadn’t been decided yet, Tang Jingsong had already come out of the city to welcome Liu Yu, taking the opportunity to seize some advantages. Though military commanders considered him completely ignorant of military affairs, he was extremely self-assured, always comparing himself to Ban Chao and striving to accomplish something extraordinary. Compared to the Qing officials, he could certainly claim to be knowledgeable in military affairs. He said proudly, “Thirty thousand Qing soldiers have been almost completely wiped out here. Fewer than a thousand have escaped—no need to worry. I can easily negotiate with the Qing and divide the territory between us!” These thirty thousand soldiers represented the best of Guangxi province, along with some troops from Guangdong. Even during the Taiping Rebellion, the Qing rarely suffered such heavy losses, let alone after the rebellion, when the provincial militia units were untrained and unfit for battle. Moreover, Tang Jingsong thought of another point: the Qing had not only suffered defeats in the battle of Taiyuan but also lost over ten thousand elite soldiers in the recent battle of Beining. Although it was the period of Rejuvenation under the Tongzhi and Guangxu emperors, as a court official, Tang Jingsong knew well what the national treasury was like. Though it wasn’t completely empty, no treasury could withstand the empress dowager’s plundering. Whether it was for building small temples or pavilions, she would take silver from the Ministry of Revenue. Although the ministry had some savings over the years, it couldn’t withstand the strain of a major war. Likely, the treasury had already run out after the battle of Beining, and the empress dowager probably had no desire to plunder further. Thinking of this, Tang Jingsong felt very pleased: “Commander Liu, in my opinion, we could send envoys to Guilin…” “Create another Three Feudatories? I’m a traitor to the imperial court!”

Liu Yu spoke little, but he countered Tang Jingsong’s words: “We have always been traitors and rebels of the Great Qing. Do not forget the history of our Black Flag Army!”
“But we were pardoned!” Tang Jingsong laughed. “This is a strategy that allows us to attack when necessary and defend when required—nothing more reliable than that! Now that the French have been defeated, we can properly manage things!”
Cai Yunnan interjected, “We should all follow the commander’s lead. Whatever he says, that’s what we’ll do!”
“If I wanted to be a traitor of the Great Qing!” Liu Yu laughed, “In this world, it’s always the winner who prevails and the loser who suffers!”
He looked north, thinking of his homeland in China.
After two hundred years of decline, spring has finally arrived.