Chapter 91: Fighting in Cheat Mode, Unstoppable as a Splitting Bamboo Stalk

In the Deer Cauldron realm, Ma Jun’s reckless meddling had thrown everything completely off course.

With only two short months of preparation, the three hundred thousand-strong Volunteer Army set out in haste.

For this war, Ma Jun deliberately issued a proclamation:

From ancient times, when emperors ruled under Heaven, the land of the Middle Kingdom stood within to control the foreign tribes, while the tribes lived beyond the borders and served the Middle Kingdom. Never has it been heard that foreigners should dwell in the Middle Kingdom and govern all under Heaven. Since the founding of the Ming, the world had known peace.

But afterward its descendants sank into decadence, lost the proper order between ruler and subject, eunuchs seized power, and the censorate burned with complaint.

Though Emperor Chongzhen strove day and night to set the realm aright, Heaven’s mandate had already been lost. Disasters spread everywhere, the people turned in disaffection and revolt, and the world rose in arms, leaving the sons and daughters of our land dead with their brains and blood smeared across the earth, the living unable to protect even their own flesh and blood. Truly, this was the hour when Heaven loathed their virtue and cast them aside.

At such a time, the northern invaders came to seize Heaven’s fortune for themselves. Yet the vital force of the Central Plains remained strong, and Heaven sent forth a sage to drive out the foreign hordes, restore the glory of the Han, reestablish law and order, and save the common people.

I was once but a common man, lingering for years in obscurity, seeking only to restore the honor of the Han people. And now, the land under my command is gradually at peace, the people are somewhat fed, the troops are somewhat disciplined, and the northern invaders are but a dying breath. I believe the hour of great endeavor has arrived.

I still remember how Chen Tang of the Han once said that the heads of the barbarian leaders should be hung in the market streets as a warning to distant lands: whoever dares offend mighty Han, no matter how far away, shall surely be punished!

Today, Zhuoyan likewise possesses the loyalty and courage of the ancients, and desires to lead the army to war, to rescue the living from misery and restore the dignity of Han officials.

Fearing that the people may not yet understand and may instead take me for their foe, carrying their households north in flight and sinking even deeper into ruin, I therefore proclaim in advance: when the army arrives, let the people not flee. My orders are strict, and not a hair on anyone’s head shall be harmed. Those who submit to me shall forever know peace within the Middle Kingdom; those who oppose me shall flee beyond the frontier.

For the people of our land, Heaven has surely ordained that it be our own people who bring them peace. What place is there for barbarians to rule them!

The proclamation above borrowed most of its phrasing from Zhu Yuanzhang’s Northern Expedition manifesto. Friends who do not know this need not mind the word Middle Kingdom; it existed in ancient times.

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A proclamation is a kind of rallying cry. Once issued and spread abroad, it helps gather the will of the people. It is usually released only when the tide is already in hand, or before some major campaign, so as to lend a little brilliance to one’s own name.

In this proclamation, the name Zhuoyan was Ma Jun’s style name. Zhu meant excellence, distinction; Yan meant a man of talent and virtue. It matched the meaning of Jun perfectly. Chen Jinnan had given him that courtesy name when Ma Jun married, though it had never once been used.

On the surface, Ma Jun was very confident he could defeat the Qing army. In secret, the pieces he had planted throughout the southern regions, together with nearly ten thousand soldiers dispatched from the North American base, spread all manner of favorable rumors.

In the modern age, information travels with astonishing speed, yet even so, many people remain ignorant and unclear, drifting wherever public opinion carries them. In ancient times, there was even less need to say it: the people’s hearts can be deceived.

With heaven’s timing, favorable terrain, and the people’s support all gathered together, the Han Volunteer Army rose at once.

In the military camp of the Shaanxi region, banners blotted out the sky. Tens of thousands of soldiers stood ready to march. On the oath platform, Li Shili had just finished reading the proclamation.

Ma Jun wore black armor, his tall and upright frame holding a pitch-black spear, his expression stern beyond measure. He looked every inch the great general.

“Soldiers, the war to wash away the humiliation and blood of our Han people is about to begin! In this battle, victory is certain! We will fight to the death!”

With nearly ten years of inner power behind him, Ma Jun had a tremendous voice, and every word rang with force.

The soldiers below were only a fraction of the total force for this campaign. After all, with more than three hundred thousand men, they could not all be gathered in one small place for the oath-taking.

These men were the elite of the Volunteer Army, every one of them hardened by mountains of corpses and rivers of blood. They had followed Ma Jun through countless campaigns, north and south, and had seen firsthand how ruthless he could be on the battlefield.

And because they all worshiped him, once their idol spoke, their blood surged hot. They hurriedly shouted along with him, “Fight to the death! Fight to the death!”

Their roar shook the heavens. Even though it was not the first time Ma Jun had witnessed tens of thousands of voices shouting as one, he too felt his own spirit rise with them.

In such moments, the power of the group is immense, and an individual’s will is often swept along by it.

After the sacrificial slaughter of the livestock, everyone’s excitement flared once more as though they had been injected with a feverish dose of energy. Then Ma Jun swept a hand downward. “Advance!”

An army going to war could not, of course, travel in sedan chairs. Mu Jianping, who had followed Ma Jun, had no choice but to dress as a man and ride a horse beside him. All of this was well known to the soldiers.

For a commander to bring a woman to war would normally unsettle the army’s morale. But by now everyone had grown used to it, and Ma Jun’s skill at persuasion was formidable. Add to that generous rations and pay, and his own valor in slaying enemies on the battlefield, and the soldiers had nothing but respect for him.

Once they left the city and marched for three days and two nights, the three hundred thousand troops assembled. They were divided into three columns. Ma Jun, together with the men of Green Wood Hall, led one hundred thousand infantry toward Jinyang Spring. The other two columns each took ten thousand cavalry and ninety thousand foot soldiers. The three forces formed their lines simultaneously along the northern border of Hebei.

This expedition opened the grand and mighty enterprise of unification. And this unification would not merely mean the unification of the Central Plains.

At the same time that the Volunteer Army set out, the resistance forces south of the Yangtze also watched hungrily. Though all of them wanted to drive out the Manchu invaders and seize a heaven-sent share of merit for themselves, each was really scheming for his own future benefit.

Unfortunately, the leaders of those rebel armies distrusted one another, and their strength was insufficient. None dared move rashly, fearing trouble in their own rear. Ma Jun’s planted pieces naturally played a great role in this as well.

Four months later, after losing fifty thousand men, the three hundred thousand-strong army had Beijing surrounded. The Qing dynasty was stillborn, hanging by a thread.

In the searing heat of midsummer, the air itself seemed to burn. Soldiers wore heavy armor, and even when standing still, beads of sweat dotted their foreheads. There was no need to mention battle.

After years of war, with both internal and external troubles wearing them down, Empress Dowager Xiaozhuang was powerless to turn the tide. The Qing forces had suffered grievously, and the once-valiant banner troops were already growing mixed in quality, no longer the same force they had been.

Ma Jun’s army, meanwhile, remained as though empowered by some hidden blessing. Their weapons and equipment were exceptionally advanced, and their wounded were treated with astonishing speed.

Compared side by side, the Qing were retreating step by step. By now it was too late for regret. Although they had arranged fallback plans, many of the higher-ups were eager to flee back beyond the passes. Sadly for them, they were blocked early on by the ten thousand heavenly soldiers Ma Jun had laid in ambush.

Any important figure who showed his face was instantly met by countless Soul-Snatching Darts, and died without ever understanding why.

As for the less important ones, they were allowed to flee for the moment and would be dealt with later.

“Storm the city!”

On a black charger, Ma Jun’s armor stained with blood, he raised the long spear in his hand and shouted, “Kill the Manchu dogs! Avenge our humiliation and our dead!”

By now, only eighty thousand Qing troops remained inside the capital. The great red cannons that had played such a powerful role in the dramas and stories were nowhere to be seen. There was no possibility of defending the city.

The oppressive heat made the soldiers’ blood even hotter. It was the final hour of war, and all were fighting with extraordinary ferocity.

In barely half a day, they had broken into the city.

“Kill!”

At the head of the charge, Ma Jun struck first at every turn. With each sweep of his hand, he sent up rivers of blood, staining his robes and armor, staining his cheeks.

Deep in human nature lies a streak of savagery, an instinct for slaughter like that of wild beasts. It is intoxicating, and it loosens the mind wonderfully.

The Volunteer Army kept strict discipline. Toward honest common people, they never harmed a hair. This was truly no harm at all, because Ma Jun had cheated his way to power; he was not starting from nothing, and there was no need to plunder the property of peasants or landlords to feed the army.

But toward their enemies, the Volunteer Army showed not the slightest mercy. Their principle was to leave no survivors: only the dead, never prisoners.

The fighting continued for a day and a night, and Beijing ran red.

At dawn, just as the first light of morning appeared and golden radiance spilled over the land, Ma Jun led ten thousand officers into the Forbidden City.

He climbed the steps of the Hall of Supreme Harmony and walked forward alone along the central path.

As he strode ahead, soldiers opened the doors of the great hall. Ma Jun entered without the slightest hesitation, went straight forward, and then dropped into the gilded throne of the Nine Dragons, the emperor’s seat.

Turning his head, he faced the rising sun, its brilliance falling across his body, and looked toward the men under his command.