Southern Ming Rebel Army

As night fell, the air became cooler and there was silence outside Suzhou city. On a moonlit night with sparse stars, the breeze caressed the air, frogs croaked, and only the occasional chirping of crickets could be heard.

The gate of Suzhou city slowly opened. Meng Jun, Lin Shiqi, Zhang Shun, Qian Biao and others led their horses out of the city gate in an orderly manner. All the horses had short bamboo poles tied to their mouths to prevent them from neighing. As they walked out of the city gate, a faint stench of rotting corpses wafted over. The corpses left by Li Chengdong's troops under the city were not cleaned up. Meng Jun decided that no matter whether the surprise attack tonight was successful or not, the battlefield must be cleaned up. Otherwise, if it was delayed for a few more days, a plague might break out in Suzhou city, and by then Suzhou city would surely become a living hell.

The Qing army camp was stationed on a flat ground five or six miles away from Suzhou city. At this moment, the camp was silent. The surrounding fires were burning around the camp, and the faint flames illuminated the outside of the camp. The outer patrol teams also patrolled around the camp from time to time. Although the patrol soldiers were all listless, they were still responsible. Li Chengdong came from the peasant uprising army and had followed Li Zicheng, the King of Rebellion, and Gao Jie, the Mountain Hawk. He first surrendered to the Ming and then to the Qing. He was a veteran and had rich battlefield experience. Although he was a little contemptuous of the rebels in Suzhou city at this time and the camp was not strong, he never relaxed his patrols on the periphery.

Meng Jun selected 2,300 soldiers tonight, including 300 cavalrymen and 2,000 infantrymen. Under the cover of night, Meng Jun was watching the Qing army camp from a slope two miles away. The rebels in the rear had already begun to form a team, and if they moved forward a little more, they would be easily discovered by the Qing army.

"Governor, there is a flat area in front of the Qing army camp. There is nowhere to hide ahead," Lin Shiqi asked while squatting beside Meng Jun.

Meng Jun looked at the sparse torches in the Qing army camp, pinched the stone powder on the ground, and sprinkled it forward, saying with a firm face, "Put on armor, cavalry mount their horses, and storm the camp." After hearing this, everyone around him was silent, and silently began to put on armor and began to make final preparations before the war.

The cavalry began to march slowly, Meng Jun and Lin Shiqi walked side by side in the front, Gao Yi and his personal guards followed closely beside Meng Jun. Qian Biao could not ride a horse, so he trotted behind with an axe in his hand, and the infantry followed closely behind in helmets and armor.

One of the patrolmen in the Qing army camp asked in confusion, "Old Third, did you hear any noise?"

The man called Lao San yawned and replied nonchalantly, "There is no sound. The battle was so fierce during the day. Those people in the city must be sleeping now. How could they come out to attack us in the middle of the night?" After saying that, he continued to move forward. After taking a few steps, he suddenly turned around to look in the direction of Suzhou City. He stopped and listened attentively. At this time, the sound of horse hooves began to come gradually and clearly.

"Da Da Da... Da Da Da" the sound of horse hooves became louder and louder. The third brother looked at the sound coming from the darkness in horror. After a moment, the third brother shouted to everyone, "Did you all hear it?"

"I heard it, it sounded like the sound of horse hooves," one person said uncertainly, and the person next to him immediately retorted, "What do you mean by sounded like? It was the sound of horse hooves, an enemy attack."

The third brother looked at the darkness, turned around and ran towards the camp, shouting as he ran, "Hurry up, the enemy is attacking, come quickly, the enemy is attacking, the enemy is attacking!" The voice reached the camp. At this time, most of the Qing troops were fast asleep, and some who were lightly sleeping were immediately awakened.

At this time, Meng Jun's cavalry could already see the fence of the Qing army camp. Meng Jun shouted loudly, "Charge!" Within a few hundred meters, the cavalry had rushed to the gate of the camp. Gao Yi and dozens of guards jumped off their horses before their horses stopped completely. Several people rushed forward, lifted the chevaux de frise and moved to the side. Meng Jun picked up a short spear from the side of the horse and threw it at the Qing soldier at the gate. The spear was so powerful that it pierced the Qing soldier's chest on the spot. Meng Jun discovered early on that his throwing accuracy was very high, so he prepared five short spears for himself.

The cavalrymen behind him with bows and arrows began to shoot at the Qing soldiers at the door to buy time for Gao Yi and others. While they were talking, the barricades at the door were moved away. Seeing this, Meng Jun shouted, "Charge in, don't stop, keep charging." After that, he rushed in first. Lin Shiqi followed immediately after shooting an arrow, and the cavalrymen behind him rushed in.

The noise immediately woke Li Chengdong up. He sat up at once. Two young girls were curled up beside him with tears on their faces. Li Chengdong had no time to pay attention to these two innocent girls. At this time, the personal soldiers outside the tent opened the big tent and said in panic, "General, the Ming army attacked the camp and broke through the camp gate. They are setting fire everywhere in the camp. Now the camp is in chaos."

Li Chengdong angrily yelled, "A bunch of rubbish! Who's in charge of patrolling tonight? Where are Yuan Yin, Du Yonghe, Yan Keyi, and Zhang Yue?"

"Reporting to the commander, Yang Dafu Yang Lieutenant General will be in charge of the night patrol tonight," the guard replied hurriedly.

As they were talking, Li Yuanyin and Du Yonghe rushed into the tent. As soon as they entered, Li Yuanyin said, "Father, the Ming army has already rushed into the camp." Du Yonghe also said, "General, it's not clear, I don't know how many Ming troops have rushed in."

Li Chengdong cursed, "Why are you panicking? I can hear you. Go and gather the soldiers you can and form a military formation on the spot." Li Yuanyin and Du Yonghe immediately bowed their hands in response. Then they hurried out of the tent with the guards to urgently gather the nearby soldiers.

After saying that, the guards around Li Chengdong hurriedly began to help put on armor. Li Chengdong was so angry that he almost vomited blood. They were all a bunch of pigs. Judging from the noise coming from the camp, even if he drove out the attackers tonight, his army would be almost finished. It would be a blessing from his ancestors if he could preserve 30% or 40%.

As soon as Li Chengdong walked out of the tent, he saw chaos in the camp. Some soldiers were running around like headless flies. Li Chengdong chopped a Qing soldier who was running around in front of him to the ground with a knife. Blood splattered on his face. Li Chengdong shouted with a ferocious face, "Don't run around, gather around me, anyone who runs around will be killed immediately." His personal guards immediately shouted Li Chengdong's order loudly, and gradually hundreds of soldiers gathered around Li Chengdong.

Turning to look at Meng Jun, Meng Jun was extremely excited. He never expected that they could break into the camp so easily. After entering the camp, there was almost no organized resistance. Only some brave men formed a small formation to fight back. However, facing the charge of Meng Jun's cavalry, they were like a mantis trying to stop a chariot, and were unable to delay the cavalry even a step.

As soon as Meng Jun broke into the camp, he divided his cavalry into several teams and attacked everywhere. A large number of tents were set on fire by torches, and the whole camp was as bright as day. Meng Bizhi could see it clearly while standing on the Suzhou city wall. Meng Bizhi excitedly slapped the wall bricks repeatedly, and his palms were red without him realizing it.

The infantrymen following the cavalry had also rushed into the camp, and the Qing army camp was in even greater chaos. A large number of auxiliary soldiers raised their hands and surrendered when they met the rebel infantrymen. As for the cavalrymen, they had no time to pay attention to the Qing soldiers kneeling on the ground. Qian Biao shouted loudly and heartily, "Those who kneel will not be killed, and those who surrender will not be killed."

Li Chengdong's face was already terrifyingly gloomy, and some soldiers beside him were trembling with fear. In the camp, whistling sounds and shrill screams were heard one after another, which seemed even more terrifying in the dim firelight.

At this time, Meng Jun had already seen the army formation assembled by Li Chengdong. Meng Jun saw Li Chengdong, and Li Chengdong also saw Meng Jun. The two exchanged glances. Although they had never met before, they both knew that they were opponents.

Meng Jun looked at the majestic soldiers behind him. Although there were only a hundred riders left, Meng Jun was full of confidence at this moment. He had never had this feeling before. He knew that this charge would surely win!

"Charge!" Meng Jun pointed his sword and shouted loudly.