Late Ming Dynasty: From the Defeated Soldiers at Daling River to Ascending the Throne

Chen Feng and his two companions made their way to the city gate, only to find that the gate had been demolished, leaving only a dark archway.

Inside the fort, broken bricks and tiles stretched all the way to the center of the street, with charred house frames on both sides.

Everywhere there were ruins and the corpses of Ming soldiers; as soon as you entered, a stench of rotting corpses hit you.

Meng Changgeng frowned slightly and covered his nose. "Boss, this place... is not a place for the living."

Chen Feng remained silent, his eyes scanning the inside and outside of the fortress. Judging from the state of the corpses' decay, the Tartars must have breached the city less than half a month ago.

Judging from the internal condition and the damaged city walls, the Tartars only dismantled the fortifications of this fortified village and had no intention of occupying it.

The most critical issue is that this fort only has one gate on the east side.

"This fort only has one gate," Chen Feng said slowly. "If someone blocks the gate, we're like turtles trapped in a jar."

He gestured to the two of them to retreat, and then began to slowly back away.

The three had just turned around and hadn't even had time to lift their feet when a dozen or so people suddenly appeared from behind the ruins.

A dozen or so men, all disheveled and dirty, clutching dulled knives and sharpened wooden sticks, sparsely blocked the city gate.

The leader was a towering, dark-skinned man with a full beard, his messy hair hastily tied up with a tattered rag, and his mandarin duck battle jacket torn to shreds, revealing bulging muscles underneath.

He carried a broadsword with a missing tooth in his hand, and just by standing there, he exuded a fierce aura without even saying a word.

"Pah!" The burly man spat, his eyes darting between Chen Feng's yellow-embroidered cotton armor and Aji's Mongolian hairstyle. His voice, booming like a broken gong, rang out, "So it's just a Niru Zhangjing (military commander) with two bondservantes out raiding! Perfect, we're short of horses and armor, let's borrow your heads and find a way to survive!"

The fleeing soldiers behind him started shouting, their eyes fixed on the horses and the armor and weapons on their backs, their greed undisguised.

Chen Feng stepped out of the shadows, revealing his face. "Look carefully, I'm not a Tartar, I'm a Han Chinese."

The burly man was taken aback, then his smile grew even more ferocious: "Han Chinese? Han Chinese are even better! Killing Tartars will bring trouble. I'll slaughter you bunch of Tartar dogs, and keep your heads to use as chamber pots!"

The man then waved his hand and shouted, "Brothers, charge! Chop them down! Horses and armor are our capital for becoming outlaws!"

Chen Feng stepped forward and said in an official tone, "Insolence! I am Chen Feng, a centurion under General Song! You routs, how dare you ambush and kill your superior? Retreat immediately, or I may forgive your offense!"

He hoped that his fake title of commander-in-chief would intimidate the defeated soldiers, but he was clearly overthinking it.

The burly man spat out another mouthful of phlegm and laughed loudly, "A captain? Last night, when I was fleeing for my life, I killed a hundred or so captains and lieutenants! In this godforsaken place, don't think you're some nobody captain; even if General Song came, I'd still kill you without hesitation! Brothers, don't listen to his nonsense, charge!"

A few of the bolder defeated soldiers followed the burly black man and surged forward, displaying the ruthlessness of desperate criminals.

Chen Feng placed his hand on the hilt of his knife, while Meng Changgeng drew an arrow from his quiver, nocked it on his bowstring, and the two retreated.

At this critical moment, Aji, who had been hiding behind Chen Feng, made his move.

He leaped onto the horse's back and drew his bow to its fullest extent.

With three sharp "whoosh" sounds, three arrows skimmed the ground and "thump! thump! thump!" embedded themselves in the hard soil less than an inch in front of the burly man's toes, their fletchings still trembling violently and buzzing.

The group of people at the front suddenly stopped in their tracks, stunned by Aji's move.

In that brief moment of hesitation, Chen Feng made his move.

He didn't draw his sword, but instead used his shoulder armor to knock aside the two men charging at the front and went straight for the leader, a burly black man.

The burly man reacted quickly, swinging his broadsword and slashing with tremendous force.

Chen Feng sidestepped the blade, the blade sparking as it grazed his breastplate.

Chen Feng's left hand flashed as he grabbed the wrist holding the knife, and pressed it down. At the same time, his right foot shoved between the man's legs to pin him down, and with a burst of power from his waist, he executed a clean and swift hand-to-hand trip!

"Thump!" The burly, dark-skinned man's mountain-like body slammed solidly onto the hard ground, causing him to groan.

The burly man dropped his broadsword, and Meng Changgeng rushed forward, kicking the broadsword behind him and drawing his bow to protect Chen Feng's back.

Chen Feng's knee was already pressed against the burly man's lower back, and he had his thick arm twisted behind his back with one hand to the extreme. With a little force, he could break the man's arm.

All of this happened in the blink of an eye. By the time the fleeing soldiers came to their senses, their most valiant leader was already being held down on the ground like a dead fish.

Upon seeing this, the fleeing soldiers hiding behind scattered like birds and beasts.

Chen Feng glanced at the retreating figures of the group, his heart filled with disappointment.

Chen Feng didn't let up, his voice still simmering with anger, "You bastard, I respect you for having the guts to intercept and kill the Tartars! But what kind of skill is it to point a knife at your own comrades who just crawled out of the gates of hell? You think you can live by robbing them? You think you can escape Liaodong and evade the Tartar cavalry by stealing their horses and armor?"

The burly, dark-skinned man struggled on the ground a few times, but didn't move an inch. His face turned red with anger, and he shouted, "You damned Tartar! If you have the guts, kill me!"

Chen Feng glanced at the remaining defeated soldiers and raised his voice: "I am Chen Feng, a centurion under General Song! I am sworn brothers with He, the centurion from Jinzhou!"

Chen Feng paused, then said, "I don't want to defend Jinzhou right now, nor do I want to go back to Shanhaiguan! I just want to lead my brothers who are still breathing and willing to fight, to carve a few pieces of flesh from the Tartars! If you want to follow me, from now on we'll all be of one mind! Let's kill the Tartars! Rob the Tartars! Accumulate military merits! If you don't want to follow, get out of here now, I won't stop you!"

He released his grip, stood up, and kicked the burly black man on the ground away.

The burly man scrambled to his feet and roared, "You officials are all the same! Trying to accumulate military merits! Bah!"

As he spoke, the burly black man lunged at him again.

This time, with the burly man unarmed, Chen Feng was even less afraid. He stretched out two fingers and stabbed them straight into the burly man's eyes.

As soon as Hei Da Yan closed his eyes, his body leaned back, and he felt as if his body was lifted into the air and flipped over in the darkness before crashing heavily to the ground.

Chen Feng knocked the burly man down again, but didn't stop talking, "Would you rather be a cowardly bandit who only bullies his own kind, or come with me and become a Yama whose name makes the Tartars tremble? Choose!!"

The burly man slowly got up from the ground, dusted himself off, and his face turned red and white in turns.

He glanced at Chen Feng, then looked back at the remaining brothers who were at a loss, and finally his gaze fell on the three arrow shafts nailed to the ground. He gulped down.

"What? Still not convinced?" Chen Feng stepped forward, forcing the burly man to retreat half a step.

Fear was clearly visible in the burly man's eyes. He covered his chest with his hands and said, "I surrender, I...I surrender!"

"Are you leaving or not?" Chen Feng stared intently into the burly man's eyes, uttering each word clearly.

"...You mean what you say? You're really going to lead the brothers to rob the Tartars? To accumulate military merits?" The burly man's voice was a little hoarse.

"Food, swords, arrows, horses—whatever the Tartars have, we'll rob them. And not just once. Once we get back to Jinzhou, we'll lead you on a robbing spree! A killing spree!" Chen Feng pointed to the armor and weapons on the horses behind him.

Then Chen Feng turned to the remaining defeated soldiers and said, "As for military merit, I don't care about your little bit!"

The burly man remained silent for a while, glancing at Aji and Meng Changgeng, who were holding bows fully drawn behind Chen Feng, and then back at Chen Feng.

He spat a mouthful of bloody saliva on the ground, then turned to his remaining brothers: "Did you all hear that? This... Boss Chen wants to lead us in business! Take us home! If you're a man, if you want to live a decent life, stay! Cowards, get out now!"

The defeated soldiers looked at each other, some muttering to themselves, others their eyes darting around.

But in the end, they all laid down their weapons and stood behind the big black man.

The burly man then turned around, clasped his hands in a fist salute to Chen Feng, and said in his still-rough voice, "Commander Chen! I, Hao Dadao, and my worthless brothers... we'll sell our lives to you for now!"

Chen Feng's face remained expressionless; he simply nodded and said, "Hao Dadao, I've got it."

Hao Dadao clasped his hands in a fist salute again, "I can't beat you, Commander, I admire you! But you must remember what you said! My previous captain embezzled the pension money of my brothers in the platoon, and last night when he was fleeing for his life, I killed him!"

Chen Feng smiled slightly, patted Hao Dadao on the shoulder, and said, "I always keep my word. I dare not promise anything else, but as long as I have food to eat, my brothers will never go hungry!"

Upon hearing Chen Feng's words, Meng Changgeng, who had just relaxed, twitched as he recalled the difference in treatment he received yesterday: dry biscuits and Chen Feng's dried meat and mare's milk wine.

After subduing Hao Dadao, Chen Feng issued his first "military order": "Hao Dadao, take two men and search the city to see if there's anything usable. Meng Changgeng, you two go to the city wall to keep watch."

He spoke casually, as if the life-or-death confrontation just now was nothing more than a trivial matter.

Meng Changgeng, watching from the side, felt uneasy: Weren't we supposed to be going to Yizhou? Why are we robbing people again?

He tugged at his earlobe, feeling that things were about to get chaotic.