“Probably never before had the Sichuanese seen fighters like these – men for whom soldiering was not just a rice bowl, and youths ready to commit suicide to win. Were they human beings or madmen or gods? Was their own morale affected? Did they perhaps not shoot to kill? Did some of them secretly pray that these men would succeed in their attempt?”

Beixi bridge is the only major bridge that connects the Northern areas of the Great Sui Dynasty to it’s wealthy Central Plains, building by the second emperor of the Sui Dynasty, it acted as the springboard that brought an end to the nomadic barbarians that had constantly raided the Central Plains, that had occurred as long as the beginning of the annals of time.

The emperor then subsequently divided the Northern region into numerous counties, left to bicker among themselves, in order to no longer form any system of a united nomadic horde.

That is why the area had never gotten a designated name, only referred to as the Northern areas of the Great Sui Dynasty.

Regardless, the Beixi bridge itself was built upon the great Hejiang river, spanning twenty meters wide where Beixi bridge was built, it appears black, as a result of the fertile soil it carries.

Surround Beixi bridge is Beixi town, originally a military camp build nearly nine hundred years ago, long before the founding of the Sui Dynasty, it had developed into a bustling small town, which all merchants from the Northern regions, or even the Northern empire, have to pass in order to arrive at the Central Plains, beginning with the province of Huxi.

Nearly a month had passed since Xu Jin was made aware of Li Ming’s crossing. Admiring his soldiers stripping away the planks of the bridge, leaving only its metal framework behind, while constructing fortifications on the Huxi side of the bridge, Xu Jin closes his eyes, with Si Yan by his side, occasionally reading reports from their scouts.

“My lord, we have hidden the remaining five thousand of our elite cavalry along with thirty thousand light infantry armed with muskets hidden within a forest at the side of the Northern regions, completely out of sight and ready to ambush the traitor’s band of rebels as they attempt to cross the bridge,” Si Yan reported.

“Furthermore, five thousand spearmen are garrisoning Beixi town, while the remaining one thousand crossbowmen are at the banks of the Hejiang river, ready to fire at the traitors as they cross the bridge,” Si Yan continued.

Xu Jin hummed in agreement, before suddenly asking,” And how will we retrieve my daughter after the battle is done?”

“This servant has naturally planned for this, I have instructed the remainder of our forces to garrison the downstream of Hejiang River, if she attempts to flee through the river, she would need to bypass four thousand light infantry if she were to gain her freedom,” Si Yan answered.

“Good plan, a good plan,” Xu Jin complimented, before asking Si Yan,” And how much of these men are fresh recruits?”

“My lord, excluding the cavalry, the heavy infantry too had spent years campaigning against our Southern neighbours, however, the light infantry had yet to prove themselves in actual battle, however, this servant had mixed them with more experienced troops to decrease the chance of retreat.”

“Good, very good,” Xu Jin once again praised.

During this whole conversation, Si Yan had not mentioned a far better option, to remove the bridge altogether, which was due to his sentiments as an individual from Huxi province, this was the bridge that brought endless trade towards his province, it would be incredibly difficult to entirely rebuild it, thus, he had left the iron chains untouched, swaying above the black river.

Li Ming had been expanding her bases of control since a month ago, with even a few towns falling under her control, after the villages surrounding thoroughly surrounded them, the professional soldiers she had trained with then attack with the support of the local villages, ultimately capturing the town.

Currently, many of the cities are too large for Li Ming to take over without encountering a significant resistance that may damage the foundation of her army, and thus, she left them alone until a grand army has risen.

Regardless, she campaign of arousing the villages had been successful, with the vast majority of the Northern region’s villages and towns falling under her firm grasp.

Furthermore, the recruitment for the professional army had expanded, citizens from rural villages along with urban city dwellers are conscripted into the military, similarly receiving training for a month, they are deployed into the ranks, with her army now swelling up to twenty thousand, all equipped with flintlock muskets.

Xu Jin would certainly not have expected the drastic increase in the size of Li Ming’s army, with its size increase five times. That is mainly due to the ease of access the flintlock muskets require, compared to skills such as horse riding or bowmanship, it is far superior in this aspect.

Unlike last month, Li Ming had primarily remained in Bingjiang, spending most of her time personally training the soldiers, while also incite undying loyalty within these soldiers, yet not towards her, but instead the idea of a republic.

These men and women possessed enough courage to happily die for their cause, perhaps even to the degree of madness.

Along with the recruitment of people, the city had also produce twenty light cannons, along with a number of smaller mortars which will be carried by soldiers.

Soon, she had brought her twelve thousand men towards a nearby town at Beixi bridge, which they had planned to remerge all the soldiers, it appears she was the last to arrive, as aside from a few individuals that had likely died from outside causes, the majority of the army was here already.

Admiring the number of troops that could form a division, she paused, before beginning to speak.

“Soldiers of the sparkling republic, you have seen not only the disaster brought to your homes by the famine, caused by the unregulated greed of imperial officials, resulting in those closest to you dead, yet you also have seen the miracle that had been brought when the matter had been put into your own hands. Now, we stand at a crossroad, we will remain isolated in the Northern regions of the empire, or will we expand the revolution, so that the whole of the Sui Dynasty will have the ability to decide for themselves.”

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(Please be gentle with me, I can’t write speeches)

It appears words did not even need to be said before the entirety of the army in front of Li Ming had their spirits burning, with some even raising their muskets toward the sky.

After the crowd had calmed down, Li Ming led the men on horseback, as she was too short to observe the battlefield on foot, ultimately, the army had marched just a li away from the bank of Hejiang River.

Li Ming, passing by a forest, continued, until the skeleton of Beixi bridge was visible.

Li Ming’s smile remained on her face, yet much of the soldiers showed faces of shock, where were the planks that made up the bridge, now only the iron chains remain, appearing incredibly unstable, swaying in the wind, while the end of the bridge contains a number of heavily fortified positions, with crossbowmen positioned behind it.

Below the empty bridge was Hejiang, if one falls down, the current would carry them downstream, into the heartland of the empire, yet the individual would undoubtedly be dead by then unless they were immortal.

Li Ming appeared unresponsive, yet before long, let out a brief sigh, and gathered her troops.

“Liu One, how do you say we deal with this,” Li Ming asked.

“General Li, I suggest we avoid crossing the bridge, there is no way we are able to cross the bridge, we should head back,” Liu One replied.

Li Ming, looking at the forest they had passed, objected,” And what if they had prepared an ambush for us, trapping us with our backs at Hejiang.”

“General Li, our army is able to fight back their forces,” Liu One replied, with somewhat confidence.

“That is not possible, our troops are untrained, to go against their troops would be near suicide,” Li Ming replied.

“General, I cannot speak for the troops, however, I am willing to face death for the revolution,” Liu One remarked.

“Do not speak of yourself in that manner, you are a general now, leading five thousand men,” Li Ming replied, shaking her head.

Liu One remained silent, yet perhaps surprisingly, his younger brother Liu Four spoke up.

“General, I am willing to volunteer to go across the remains of Beixi Bridge,” Liu Four said, with a degree of determinedness in his voice.

Following Liu Four, nearly ninety other soldiers too volunteered, all from the Light Infantry.

Li Ming, pleasantly surprised at their dedication, yet did not speak much on it, begin to instruct them.

“Leave all your baggage on the carriages, bringing with yourself only the most well maintained of rifles, ten grenades, and a large knife,” Li Ming said to thirty of them, before turning to the other sixty,” You will each carry a plank, as you progress behind the other thirty men, each one of you will replace a portion of the bridge, meanwhile, we shall support you through the mortars and cannons.”

The soldiers signalled their understanding, and after either deposing themselves of all equipment or gather a piece of wood, they proceeded to walk towards the bridge.

Just as they walked onto the edge of the bank, the sound of gallops could be heard.

The troops Xu Jin had placed within the forest had emerged, the musketeers, who are in greater number than Li Ming, began to fire at her army.

As Li Ming had already noticed their existence after she had spotted the bridge, the soldiers were already organised in line formations, and soon, volleys began to be exchanged.

As the distance was rather great between the two armies, not much casualties were experienced, yet soon the enemy musketeers began marching.

Liu Four and his group of volunteers had begun crossing the bridge, experiencing heavy fire from the crossbowmen on the other side of the banks, their bodies hugging the bare chain, exposed to the crossbow bolts, yet most of them had bounced off the cliffs of the bank, into the great river.

The men did as Li Ming had instructed, as each man progressed, the one in front placed down their plank, before beginning to return fire back at the enemy crossbowmen.

Soon, one of the men were hit, and soon, a second one, both falling into the black river, creating a loud splash, yet the others seem unaffected by it, continuing to return their fire.

By now, the enemy infantry was advancing quite close, nearly within the range of their muskets.

The crossbowmen who were shooting had not seen anyone fighting like this, it seems they were ready to commit suicide to cross the bridge, some had refused to further fire out of respect perhaps hoping their bolts would miss these daring men.

At last, Liu Four, who was at the front of the manage to cross the bank, madly throwing the grenades he was carrying within his belt, the fortification was soon destroyed.

The crossbowmen soon fled the field after their nests were destroyed, while the men who were carrying the planks had placed it onto the bare metal chains.

Li Ming, seeing this, quickly ordered her men to cross the bridge, with her men soon marching towards the opposite bank of Hejiang river.

The Heartland of the Great Sui Empire, the Central Plains was opened to them.

The enemy forces, upon seeing them crossing the bridge, attempted to cross, yet their attempts were futile.

Soon, the five thousand spearmen who were guarding Beixi town was overrun while Li Ming suffered little casualties, and the army on the other side of the bank, seeing their fellow soldiers being defeated yet could do nothing but watch, was soon demoralised, and began to leave the battlefield.

Ultimately, other than the two that had died crossing the bridge, the few dozen casualties from the brief round of volley fire, Li Ming’s army were almost unscratched.

Li Ming gave each man that had volunteered to cross the bridge half a year's worth of salary, then began to set up in Beixi village.

Later that night, the Liu brothers have gathered around within a single tent.

Liu Four, lying on the bed, appeared pale, while Liu Two was crying, Liu Three was cursing, and Liu One had remained silent.

Indeed, during the crossing of the bridge, Liu Four had not escaped unscratched, rather, he had been hit with a great number of crossbow bolts, some even hitting his vital areas.

Yet Liu Four had braved and crossed the bridge, spearheading their advancement to the other side.

“What is half a year both of salary worth, you alone are worth much more than that,” Liu Three said, yet Liu Four moved his hand to stop his brother from speaking further, struggling, he managed to raise up his body to look at his brothers.

“Older brother, I had volunteered to cross the bridge, this was completely in my calculations,” Liu Four returned.

“Hush fourth brother, speaking further would only weaken yourself,” Liu One advised, yet only receiving a slightly bitter laugh from the dying man.

“Brother, you know that in our village, countless had already died due to the famine, were it not for the reforms General Li had made, perhaps more would have lost their lives.”

“We were lucky enough to avoid this due to our hunting skills, allowing us to be largely unaffected by the crop yields, yet I always felt it was rather irrational to only look after ourselves, after all, us humans have always been social creatures.”

The Liu family could all read, a rare ability in the Great Sui Dynasty, yet Liu Four had always been the most well versed, exceeding in the study of the classics of history.

Looking towards his troublesome other brothers, Liu Four begin to speak,” third brother, cut down on alcohol consumption, I know you had sneaked alcohol despite army orders,” pausing to gasp for breath, he continued,” Second brother, you have to stand up for yourself, if you like the general, just tell her, and oldest brother, look after the general, despite the valiance she displays, she is still a small girl, look out for her,” once again pausing for a breath, he barely squeeze out.

“Keep on fighting for a better future for everyone, so we will not see the famine that had plagued our village once again.”

Just as he finished these sentences, his body, fell backwards.

Xu Jin’s ration had run out, his attempt to stop them at Beixi Bridge had failed, and with his supplies constantly harassed, and many of his soldiers fleeing the battlefield, he could only return to Xuchang.

Looking at Si Yan, which had proposed the disastrous plan, he made the decision to no longer trust this man.