Blessed by God

 

For a moment I was pleasantly surprised that this chapter was short (this has only happened like two times), then I remembered that the new site cuts the chapters in parts! I almost cried. Thank you for waiting. We’re 40/79 chapters in! 39 chapters more and we’re done with this beautiful story. —Bambi.

Chapter 40. Giving up a foot to rescue a brother

 

After the fire incident, when Fiyanggū beheaded several soldiers, only then did Yinzhen understand how the fire happened, and Yinyou for his part, didn’t ask much.

Two days later, it started to rain and their army didn’t have enough rain gear. There was worry that the soldiers would get sick if they traveled in the rain. One sick soldier could spread the sickness to others, and a diseased-riddled army would be troublesome. Fiyanggū had no choice but to stop the whole army and find a slope to set up camp.

In the military tent, Yinzhen’s face was gloomy. If the rain kept falling like this, the original battle plan will have to be shelved. If Galdan’s retreat couldn’t be cut off, the entire army generals will be punished.

On his left was Fiyanggū, and on his right was the eighth brother Yinsi. No matter what their positions were at this time, they all had the same worries.

Yinsi tilted his head to look at the pensive Yinzhen. In the past two years, he and this fourth brother have been very at odds, and the two had fought a lot in the open and in the dark, but this time if the fourth brother was unlucky, he will not get any benefits. 

He unconsciously tapped on the table, “No matter what, we must rush to the Ongi River1 翁金河 wēngjīnhé. The Ongi River in central Mongolia.  as soon as possible.”

 

 

Hearing the sound of rain outside, Fiyanggū frowned slightly, “What do the two princes think?”

Yinzhen thought for a while and asked, “How many soldiers can you distribute rain gear?”

Fiyanggū’s eyes brightened slightly, “One fifth.”

Yinzhen said in a deep voice, “Since that’s the case, it’s better to let those who have rain gear go first, and the rest of them will travel lightly. They will accelerate their marching after the rain stops.”

“If we do it this way, and we encounter a large number of Galdan’s army, what should we do if our army is insufficient?” Yinsi retracted his finger from tapping on the table, and spoke slowly. “If Galdan escaped under our hands, who will take responsibility for this mistake?”

Yinzhen lowered his eyelids slightly, “There are two possibilities. One is that because the army was too slow we let Galdan escape without putting up a fight. The other option is to try and fight him to the point of damaging Galdan’s vitality. We have to choose one.”

In any case, they couldn’t let Galdan escape back to his lair. Letting the tiger return to the mountain will only cause endless trouble.

Yinyou, who was about to enter the tent, stopped on his tracks when he heard this. He flipped the bamboo hat on his head, feeling a bit lost. From his previous life, he knew that the Qing army would be victorious and defeat Galdan. He also knew Galdan would commit suicide by taking poison, but frankly speaking, he didn’t know how they won.

Before meeting with the West Army, Yinyou had already received Kangxi’s order to lead the Bordered Yellow Banner battalion. He looked back at the soldiers standing guard in the rain. The lives of all these people were all in the hands of their leader. If he made a wrong decision, these people would die.

“Wait another day. If the rain continues tomorrow, let most of the troops go first.”

Yinyou listened to Fiyanggū’s words, turned around and returned to his tent.

At noon on the second day, when the rain stopped, Fiyanggū was overjoyed, and immediately led all his troops to advance at full speed. When they reached the Ongi River, the Central Route Army led by Kangxi had already left and entered the north of the Gobi Desert to approach Galdan’s army. The West Army hurried forward, and after crossing the Tula River, they heard the news that Galdan had fled.

”Report!” A soldier rushed to Fiyanggū’s horse. “General, the enemy camp is fifteen kilometers ahead.”

Fiyanggū looked at the three imperial princes behind him, “What plans do the princes have?”

Yinzhen glanced at the tiredness of the soldiers around him. The rush of the past few days was indeed unbearable. He thought for a while. “Now that everyone has been on the road for several days, tired and hungry, why not set up camp for everyone to rest and raise their spirits. Then we will fight with all our might.”

Yinsi nodded silently, and Yinyou on the side had no objection either.

“That’s exactly what nucai2奴才 núcai. Slave.  wants too,” Fiyanggū looked at the surrounding terrain, and quickly arranged the camp’s location. He then breathed a sigh of relief.

The formation chosen by Fiyanggū was easy to defend and difficult to attack, and most of the soldiers rested peacefully that night. The next day several generals went to the general’s tent to discuss countermeasures.

“That being the case, the general Zhengsun, the fourth prince, the seventh prince, and the eighth prince will lead the army to guard against the mountain, and the last general will lead people to detour to Galdan’s lair and cut off his retreat. This is the plan. Do any of you have any comments?” Fiyanggū looked away from the map and looked at the fourth and eighth princes.

The fourth prince and the eighth prince were at odds with each other, and each knew more or less what was going on in the court. Luring the enemy was no small feat. One prince led the Plain Red Banner and the other the Plain Blue Banner. Choosing who to send was particularly difficult. If he let the fourth prince go, some people would say that he’d formed a party with the fourth prince but letting the eighth prince go was not an option as he was unwilling to give up this military achievement to his son-in-law’s opponent.

The other lieutenants also understood this fragile balance and didn’t speak. No one wanted to offend the two princes.

Seeing this situation, Yinyou opened his mouth, then closed it again; he didn’t want to step on this muddy water either.

“From the point of view of this general, the seventh prince has been in the barracks for some time now. How about letting the seventh prince do this?” Sun Sike3孙思克 sūnsīkè. Sun Sike (1628-1700), courtesy name Jinchen and nickname Fuzhai. He was a military general of the Qing Dynasty. Son of Sun Degong. Here’s his Chinese Wikipedia page., who was standing aside, said. “The fourth prince and the eighth prince must also fight the enemy with all their strength. Is this acceptable?”

Fiyanggū nodded slightly, apparently having no opinion on the matter.

“The general is right,” Yinsi replied indifferently, his heart was like a mirror4下心如明鏡 – the heart is like a mirror. “Refer to the thorough observation and perception of people and things that appear in front of you”.: most of these people turned towards the fourth brother, and everyone here knew that the seventh brother was close to the fourth brother. Letting the seventh brother take the credit was better than directly giving it the fourth brother, anyway, he couldn’t get it.

Yinyou suddenly felt that he had become a fisherman5渔翁之利 yúwēng zhī lì. “The fisherman’s profit” is a metaphor when two parties quarrel and make a third-party profit. It means to sit back and reap the benefits. , and a fisherman who could get benefits without even moving his hands. The problem was that this benefit was a bit too hot.

Two days later, Yinyou sent more than 400 people to lure the enemy. Sure enough, Galdan was really angry and vowed to take down the mountain. The Qing army first used cannons to repel the shotgun soldiers. When the enemies tried to go up the mountain, they released stones to stop them; then they fought with arrows, and in the end, it was hand-to-hand combat where the true battle began.

The feeling of killing a man for the first time was horrific. It was entirely different from killing a chicken and a duck. Yinyou’s hand holding the sword was sweating, but when Galdan’s army rushed up from behind, he still didn’t hesitate. This was a battlefield, he was a man and an imperial prince of the Great Qing. At this time, even if his heart was fearful, he couldn’t even have the slightest intention to retreat. As soon as he took a step back, he would become a joke among princes, and his E’niang and her clan would all become a joke among the Eighth Banners’ noble families.

What was the difference between killing one person and killing ten people? Fear and numbness. When he’d cut down a person with the sword, sometimes blood from the neck artery would spray on Yinyou’s hands and face but he didn’t even have time to wipe it off, and so he continued to defend against the next enemy soldier.

Yinzhen and Yinsi on the one side were also bloodstained, but their movements did not slow down. The imperial princes who were originally aloof, at a time like this, could only be red-eyes6杀红了眼 shāhóng liǎo yǎn. It means killing until one loses all reason, and enters a state of mental numbness, only knowing mechanical killing, killing, killing! Describes fighting to the point of being uncontrollable. Source. generals.

A group of soldiers approved by Galdan rushed up the mountain but soon fell down. The so-called shotgun soldiers were not seen much, and they had no resistance at all under the guns and cannon of the Qing army.

After killing a group of enemies, the silver armor on Yinyou’s body was already stained red with blood. He looked at the enemies who continued to charge up the mountain, and said coldly, “Bring the bow.”

He drew the bow and shot the arrow. Woosh, the arrow passed through the chest of the enemy general riding in front of the cavalry, and fell off the horse.

“Sons of the Great Qing, let these people know the prestige of our Qing Dynasty. Where do we have to be afraid of such bastards!” 

Yinzhen, who was riding beside him on the horse, heard him and immediately shouted, “Praise the Qing Dynasty! Sons of the Great Qing, cut off the heads of the enemies, and share the emperor’s worries!”

At this time, the red-eyed soldiers were full of murderous intent , and when they heard the impassioned words of the fourth prince, they charged at the enemy with howls, but those enemy men had already lost most of their fighting spirit.

“Fourth brother, eighth brother, let Galdan come and die here today!” Yinyou tilted his head and smiled brightly at Yinzhen and Yinyou, his blood-stained face looked particularly attractive at this moment.

“Okay,” Yinsi clenched the cold knife stained with blood. His usual gentle demeanor was nowhere to be found, and his body was full of killing intent.

With a whip to his horse, Yinzhen rushed to the front, and the soldiers who stayed close to him to protect him also followed, fearing that something might happen to this noble master. Seeing this scene, Yinyou raised his whip and followed with a smile.

Yinsi was one step behind the two of them, and seeing the figures of the two on horseback, he wiped the blood on his cheek and rushed forward without hesitation.

When fighting in hand-to-hand combat, the so-called stratagems were meaningless; everyone was simply fighting for their lives. Even the princes who were protected by someone were still in a dangerous situation at this time.

Yinyou knew that none of Kangxi’s sons had died on the battlefield, but the history he knew had changed, and he wondered if any prince would die on the battlefield because of this. He dodged the enemy’s lieutenant’s sword, threw his body forward, and sliced ​​through the opponent’s chest. The opponent felt the pain, so he raised the sword and slashed at him.

Yinyou only dared to scream inwardly, when suddenly a knife appeared from the side, slashing the enemy on the horse, he quickly glanced aside, it turned out to be the eighth brother. At this time, he didn’t bother to thank him, and kicked the enemy off the horse with his right foot. Immediately, one of the soldiers who protected him rushed forward and stabbed the knife into the man’s chest.

 

The battle went on for a long time, but the enemy soldiers still wanted to take down the mountain, and the Qing army fought hard to kill the enemy. Even though they were extremely tired, no one dared to slack around.

The horse under Yinyou had already started to bleed, although most of it was the blood of the enemy, there were also wounds on the horse. For his part, Yinyou didn’t feel tired, the nerves in his whole body were tense to the extreme and there was no other color in his eyes, only dazzling red.

Suddenly seeing an enemy army appear behind Yinzhen, Yinyou’s complexion changed. He quickly turned his horse’s head and pierced the man’s chest with a flying knife; at the same time, he felt his foot hurt, it turned out that his left foot was slashed by the enemy, and blood had started to spurt from the toe.

“Seventh brother!” Yinzhen’s complexion changed. If it wasn’t because the enemy was in front of him, at this moment, he wished he could step forward and hug Yinyou to check his injuries.

“Seventh prince!” The faces of the soldiers around him changed drastically, and after killing the opponent, they gathered around Yinyou.

“What are you panicking about?” Yinyou sat on the horse’s head and scolded with a serious face, “Kill the enemy for me, such a small injury, don’t worry about it!” 

He said that, but inside he couldn’t help crying in his heart; he was afraid that half of his toe was gone. People said that the ten fingers were connected to the heart, but why didn’t they say that the ten toes were also connected to the heart? Otherwise, how could it be so painful?

Seeing that Yinyou’s face had turned pale, Yinzhen looked at his left foot and noticed the bleeding. He quickly turned his head away, and gritting his teeth, he continued to kill the enemy, striking harder and harder. If it wasn’t for him, how could the seventh brother be injured?!

Thinking that just now Yinyou disregarded his own danger to kill the enemy behind him, his knuckles turned white while holding the sword. He pierced an enemy’s throat with one slash, and the back of his hand was sprayed with hot blood.

 

The battle lasted for a day, and Galdan’s lost tens of thousands of troops, in the end, Gerdan led the army to flee.

Yinyou rode on the horse with his back straight. Looking at the blood-stained land, his face was expressionless and his solemnity made the people around him afraid. Even after winning the battle, he still didn’t feel good.

“Seventh brother!” Yinzhen jumped off the horse, looked at Yinyou’s left foot that was no longer bleeding, and walked next to Yinyou’s horse, “Get off the horse quickly, let the military doctor check your injury.”

“Fourth brother…” Yinyou slowly lowered his head, looking at Yinzhen who was full of anxiety.

“What’s the matter?” Yinzhen stretched out his hand to hold Yinyou’s hand tightly gripping the rein. Yinyou’s hand was frighteningly cold.

“Catch me.” Yinyou’s eyes went dark, and he fell down.

“Seventh brother!”

Fainting… was also good.

 

The author has something to say: The process of the battlefield is pure nonsense and has nothing to do with history. I hope that the ancient heroes will forgive this incompetent Butterfly7The author’s pseudonym is Butterfly’s Shadow Beneath the Moon on the battlefield.

 

 

1 翁金河 wēngjīnhé. The Ongi River in central Mongolia. 2奴才 núcai. Slave. 3孙思克 sūnsīkè. Sun Sike (1628-1700), courtesy name Jinchen and nickname Fuzhai. He was a military general of the Qing Dynasty. Son of Sun Degong. Here’s his Chinese Wikipedia page.4下心如明鏡 – the heart is like a mirror. “Refer to the thorough observation and perception of people and things that appear in front of you”.5渔翁之利 yúwēng zhī lì. “The fisherman’s profit” is a metaphor when two parties quarrel and make a third-party profit. It means to sit back and reap the benefits. 6杀红了眼 shāhóng liǎo yǎn. It means killing until one loses all reason, and enters a state of mental numbness, only knowing mechanical killing, killing, killing! Describes fighting to the point of being uncontrollable. Source.7The author’s pseudonym is Butterfly’s Shadow Beneath the Moon