Chapter 77: Yours! It’s All Yours!

“What the heck!”

The moment the door was smashed open, Yang Xin saw a dark cannon muzzle pointing at him, with Jin Yuhe glaring at him viciously…

He threw himself to the ground.

Almost at the same time, the muzzle of the Frankish Cannon spewed fire, and a dense spray of grapeshot whistled over Yang Xin’s head, immediately felling a swath of the excited Mongolian cavalry charging in behind him. Then Yang Xin sprang up from the ground. The Jiannu soldiers beside Jin Yuhe surged forward with their long spears, while behind them, Jin Yuhe personally carried a heavy cartridge to reload the Frankish Cannon.

But he didn’t get the chance to kill this demon who had ruined his dream of becoming a loyal servant of the Great Qing.

Like a raging beast, Yang Xin once again picked up the huge boulder and hurled it directly at the Jiannu ahead. The narrow gate passage instantly became a scene of flying flesh and blood. The boulder, weighing nearly three hundred catties, was thrown with a speed of at least fifty or sixty, sweeping through the entire passage. As the boulder flew out, Yang Xin followed. When the boulder landed, he picked it up a second time and smashed it directly at the Frankish Cannon. Just as Jin Yuhe was about to fire a second time, the boulder crashed down right onto the cannon’s carriage at the rear, flipping it over instantly. Simultaneously, the lit fuse reached its end. The overturned muzzle now pointed directly at Jin Yuhe. The suddenly erupting flames and the loaded grapeshot blasted his entire upper body into a mist of blood spraying backward.

Meanwhile, Mongol soldiers poured in behind Yang Xin.

Having rushed out of the gate passage, Yang Xin casually threw the boulder into the crowd of Jiannu opposite…

“Yours! It’s all yours!”

He pointed at the main street of Kaiyuan city, turned around, and roared at the Mongolian cavalry behind him.

Amid his roar, thirty thousand Mongolian cavalry surged in like an endless flood, trampling over the Jiannu corpses covering the ground. Excited nomads on galloping warhorses brandished their curved sabers and long spears, madly cutting down all enemies who tried to stop them. The Jiannu, hastily forming ranks to fight, were knocked down one after another and trampled beneath the horses’ hooves.

And so, Kaiyuan was recaptured.

There was no street fighting.

The Jiannu couldn’t mount street fighting either.

The city gate had fallen too quickly. Most Jiannu were still defending on the city walls. Even the other gates didn’t know this one had been breached. Even if they knew, they couldn’t react in time. Once the Mongolian cavalry entered the city, they were unstoppable. Galloping warhorses would trample all resisting enemies under their hooves. Despite his deep reluctance, Hurhan had no choice but to order the city abandoned. The Jiannu on the walls quickly retreated toward the east gate. They even left behind most of their warhorses inside the city.

Because there was simply no way down to find their horses.

Kaiyuan wasn’t that big anyway, only about three li from north to south. The Mongolian cavalry entering the city galloped straight along the central main street. In just a few minutes, they were already approaching the north gate. Other cavalry units splitting off were galloping through the city at the same speed. The entire city was rapidly being submerged by the flood of cavalry. All streets and alleys were filled with Mongolian cavalry riding at full speed.

How could the Jiannu even get down from the walls?

Let alone go to their garrison barracks to find their warhorses.

Except for a few who were originally inside the city and, seeing the situation turn bad, quickly mounted up and fled, most of those defending on the walls escaped on foot. They then hurried northeast along the main road. However, the Mongolian cavalry had no interest in pursuing the retreating Jiannu. Their goal was the grain inside the city.

Chahua had helped the Ming army precisely to get this share of the loot.

Therefore, after breaching Kaiyuan, the most important thing for them was plunder.

And they had to be fast.

Under Chahua’s orders, the Noyans led their men to quickly strip the city of everything they could plunder, loading it onto carts and wagons. Not even the fall of night stopped them. The entire Kaiyuan was cleaned out.

As for the Ming army…

The Ming army was collecting heads, and incidentally, gathering the families of the traitors who hadn’t had time to flee.

Such as Jin Yuhe’s concubines and daughters.

Meanwhile, relying on the fact that no one dared to provoke him, Yang Xin, along with Huang Zhen and the men from the Capital Garrison, went wild seizing Jiannu warhorses and cutting off Jiannu heads, including those of the traitors who had recently shaved their heads. Basically, anyone left in Kaiyuan was of that sort. Those unwilling to surrender had either died or fled south like Huang Degong. Those who remained were mostly like Jin Yuhe. They were wealthy merchants and local bosses under the Great Ming’s rule, and now, by betraying the Great Ming, they had become good slaves of Wild Boar Skin. In the original history, they would have become hereditary nobles of our Great Qing…

For example, Jin Yuhe’s son would later serve as Deputy Minister of the Ministry of War under Emperor Fulin.

But now, everything came to a screeching halt.

In short, the breached city of Kaiyuan was full of frenzied looting.

The Mongols plundered grain, horses, gold, silver, and treasures. The Ming army seized heads, horses, and women. There were even many fights breaking out over loot. In fact, this was common. Fortunately, Yang Xin’s authority to suppress such fights still worked. The Mongolian cavalry were completely in awe of him; his words carried weight. But the entire city could still be said to have completely lost order. It was filled with roving bands of looters—thirty-five thousand hungry wolves, all cavalry, inside a city with a total area of less than three square kilometers. It could only be described as crowded.

Still, it wasn’t a case of too many wolves and too little meat.

Although large amounts of supplies had been transported away earlier, to sustain the operations of the fifty-thousand-strong army at the Yehe City front, there were still vast stockpiles of supplies here. After all, Kaiyuan was itself a commercial city. Besides the various supplies stockpiled by the Ming army, there were also goods brought by merchants for trade with the Jurchens. Wild Boar Skin had harvested plenty from this city, and there was plenty left that hadn’t been transported away in time. Even many personal spoils looted by the Jiannu were here, since they also had to pass through here on their way back to Hetu Ala. The shortest route was to enter Zhenbei Pass and exit Guangshun Pass.

Now it was all looted.

Amid this chaos, dawn of the next day finally arrived.

“What a beautiful day!”

Yang Xin said cheerfully, gnawing on a roasted lamb leg.

He was currently sitting on the wall of Kaiyuan’s east gate, facing the rising morning sun, admiring the picturesque scenery before him. A river wound its way through the rolling mountains, separating the banks lined with forests now tinged with autumn colors. The morning clouds in the sky were like brocade. By the riverside, two riders galloped toward him. One of them was desperately waving a flag in his direction…

“Darn it, won’t even let a man eat in peace!”

Yang Xin said with a displeased look, his good mood disrupted.

“Order the retreat!”

Chen Yujie beside him said.

Those were Cao Wenzhao and Huang Degong. Yang Xin certainly wasn’t a qualified commander. In fact, he had enjoyed looting happily himself the previous night, though he only seized warhorses. He and his few true subordinates had grabbed over a hundred warhorses alone. But Cao Wenzhao was more fitting of a commander’s role. Just as the thirty-thousand-plus hungry wolves in the city were almost ready to turn on each other over the loot, he led Huang Degong to quickly follow the retreating Jiannu. Hurhan must have withdrawn to Weiyuan Fortress, waiting there for Wild Boar Skin. Relying on Huang Degong, a local familiar with the terrain, the two of them tracked the Jiannu and lay in wait outside Weiyuan Fortress.

Their return now meant only one thing.

Wild Boar Skin had arrived.

It was eighty li from Yehe City to Weiyuan Fortress, exactly a day’s march for a large army. This meant that as soon as Wild Boar Skin received Hurhan’s urgent message, he immediately marched south in full force. Considering he wouldn’t have started right away, the Jiannu might have even marched south through the night.

At the very least, the attack on Yehe City had been suspended for now.

If it hadn’t already been captured.

If Wild Boar Skin couldn’t obtain new grain supplies next, then at least this year he could no longer launch attacks. An army of fifty thousand consumed vast amounts of grain daily. Wild Boar Skin had neither the ability to transport it over hundreds of li of mountain roads from Hetu Ala, nor did he have such large surplus stocks. In fact, with the grain in Kaiyuan looted, his fifty-thousand-strong army would go hungry even on their march back.

Yang Xin picked up the lamb leg, patted his behind, stood up, and looked with infinite emotion at the land under the morning sun…

“Let’s go, back to Shenyang!”

He said.

“I thought you’d run off to meet them in battle!”

Chen Yujie said.

“Am I stupid? Take on fifty thousand Jiannu coming with a grudge all by myself? I do like charging head-on, and I do always like doing the unexpected. But you should know, I’m not an idiot. I charge only when I can overwhelm them. If I can’t overwhelm them, I still have to run. One person charging fifty thousand Jiannu? That would really be an idiot!”

Yang Xin said.

Indeed, if you can’t overwhelm them, you run.

Carrying a Green Dragon Crescent Blade, there was absolutely no way he could overwhelm Wild Boar Skin’s fifty-thousand-strong army. They would trample him into paste. He dared to charge against Abatai’s two thousand cavalry because there was a river in front of him, and the latter couldn’t build up a proper charge. He dared to charge head-on against the countless Jiannu on Kaiyuan’s walls because only a few hundred Jiannu could actually reach him. It was a city wall; Jiannu beyond a frontal width of fifty meters could basically be ignored by him.

He did like charging.

But he didn’t charge without thinking.

After they descended from the city wall, Cao Wenzhao and the other soon arrived.

Wild Boar Skin’s army had exited Weiyuan Fortress.

And among them was the yellow silk canopy used only by himself.

This news quickly spread through the city at top speed. Immediately afterward, without any suspense, all the troops scattered in a rush. Actually, the Mongolian cavalry had already begun withdrawing since midnight. By now, more than half had already left, having gotten what they wanted. As for Li Ruzhen, he hadn’t stationed himself in Kaiyuan city at all. He had long since taken a few household servants and fled back to Zhonggu Fortress. The Ming troops left in Kaiyuan were commanded by Yang Xin and Chen Yujie. Everyone had the sense that if fifty thousand Jiannu were marching south and you didn’t run, you were a fool.

After the two gave the retreat order, all Ming troops rapidly withdrew.

Almost everyone returned heavily laden. The vast majority had seized extra horses. Those who hadn’t traded other looted goods with the Mongols for them. Horses weren’t considered very valuable among the Mongols, but if taken to Shenyang, Xiong Tingbi, who was busy arming new recruits, would buy them at a high price. In the end, the five thousand Ming troops leaving Kaiyuan actually took three thousand extra horses with them.

These extra horses carried the Jiannu heads they had taken as trophies and carried the women from the traitors’ families. Against the backdrop of the blazing flames rising from the ignited Kaiyuan city, the whole procession was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

But soon, their joy vanished.

“Run! Fast!”

On the south bank of the river in Henan, Yang Xin looked at the dust clouds raised by thousands of troops and horses in the distance and roared at the soldiers who still hadn’t realized it was time to flee for their lives.