Chapter Thirty-Seven: The Fall of Solitary Stone

After a startled cry, a thunderous crash erupted from the side gate, followed by the deafening cheers of the Oirat army.
"They've breached the wall! They've breached the wall!"
Thousands of Oirat soldiers surged into Dushi Fortress like a tide. The Ming troops still resisting atop the ramparts saw the hopeless situation; some gathered for a last desperate fight, others leaped from the walls in despair, and many abandoned their posts in the final moments, seeking a chance to escape.
"Alive, we are Ming men; dead, we are Ming ghosts! Brothers, let's fight the Tatars to the end!" Some Ming soldiers, refusing to surrender, cried out their final defiance as the Oirat soldiers closed in.
Around two hundred Ming troops made a spontaneous stand at the side gate as the Oirat forces stormed in, but their numbers were too few; they were quickly overwhelmed by the invading tide.
Commanders Song Zhong of Dushi Fortress, Ye Feng, Deputy Commander of Kaiping Guard, Fu Ji'an, and others were killed in action. Ge Xiong, the Thousand Household Officer of the Right Guard, already wounded in earlier battles, took his own life with his blade as the side gate fell.
Commander Song En, who guarded the fortress armory, together with several sub-commanders, set fire to the stored gunpowder to prevent it from falling into Oirat hands. With a thunderous explosion, all the arms for four thousand men were consumed by flames.
The blast from the armory shook the entire fortress. A fierce wind rose, fanning the flames, and soon the interior was filled with dense smoke. Many Ming soldiers, trying to flee, were choked by the fumes, collapsing in fits of coughing; some lost their sight from the smoke and stumbled blindly into the inferno; others, their hearing shattered by the explosion, wandered aimlessly, unable to hear anything through the haze.
The Oirat soldiers had not anticipated the Ming would ignite the armory; the explosion killed over a hundred at the front instantly, and dozens more were struck by flying debris.
Seeing the Ming had lit the powder, and with the wind raging, the fortress engulfed in smoke and flames, Arapada, the Oirat commander directing the assault outside the walls, immediately ordered his men to cease pursuit. All were to retreat to the side gate and hold it firmly, lest the blaze and smoke inside reach them. They would wait for the wind to die down before making their next move.
At this moment, over two thousand Ming soldiers of Kaiping Guard remained inside. After the explosion, some officers rushed to find Commander Zhao Mei to discuss their options. Though the Oirat had breached only the outer wall, Dushi Fortress had both inner and outer sections. The inner fortress, though smaller and lacking the outer's defenses, still boasted walls ten feet high. If all remaining troops could be withdrawn within, the Oirat army might not break through.
But to their shock, these officers discovered their commander was not organizing a last stand within the inner fortress. Instead, Zhao Mei was leading his four hundred personal guards, opening the gate on the southern side to escape!
"Commander Zhao has abandoned us!"

Just as Yang Jun's flight caused the rapid collapse of Wanquan Left Guard earlier, Zhao Mei's escape threw the surviving Ming soldiers who had not yet succumbed to smoke or flames into chaos.
None of the officers now had any will to rally troops to retake the outer gate or defend the inner fortress; all thoughts converged on one thing—escape!
"Lord Zhao, you can't leave us behind!"
Lin Fu, the Hundred Household Officer of Dushi Fortress, saw Zhao Mei at the gate in the distance and cried out desperately. Hearing his shouts, the other officers began to clamour as well, all hoping Zhao Mei would not abandon them to flee alone.
More Ming soldiers, braving the smoke, rushed toward the gate. They had no greater hope than for their commander to lead them in escape, not forsake them.
Seeing the officers and soldiers about to reach the gate and the vanguard still unmoving, Zhao Mei, Commander of Kaiping Guard, lashed his whip and shouted furiously, "If you don't move now, none of you will get out!"
Hearing their commander's angry cry, the cavalry at the front quickly responded, cursing at the obstructing men—"Move aside, damn it, move aside!"—and, without waiting for clearance, spurred their horses through.
"Damn it!"
"Bastards!"
The Ming soldiers who had barely fought their way to the gate from the Tatars' blades were enraged by the cavalry's actions, cursing bitterly, but none dared block the way and quickly retreated to the sides.
The Tatars, seeing several hundred cavalry burst from the fortress, halted their pursuit. They knew these were Zhao Mei's personal guards and dared not intercept them, nor did they retreat, instead looking to their leading officer.
That Tatar commander knew Zhao Mei must be among these horsemen; capturing or killing such a high Ming officer would bring great merit. But Zhao Mei's guards were elite, chosen from the army, no less formidable than the famed Night Raiders. Now, desperate to escape, they would be even more fierce and unyielding.
Dushi Fortress had already fallen. The greatest glory was theirs; capturing Zhao Mei would be a bonus, but risking his own men to block their flight was foolish. Even a cornered rabbit bites, and these men had blades in hand.

The Tatar leader glanced at his own men; after the fight with the Wanquan Guard Ming troops, he'd lost over a hundred, now fewer than three hundred remained, with only a few dozen mounted. This force could hardly stop Zhao Mei and his four hundred cavalry. To stand and fight would mean losing his best men, and his standing with the chief would diminish.
No matter how great the achievement, one must have the strength to claim it!
Without further deliberation, he signaled his troops to withdraw to the sides and let Zhao Mei and his men go.
Seeing the order, the Tatars were overjoyed, quickly clearing the road, leaving the central path open for Zhao Mei and his guards to flee south.
As Zhao Mei and his guards passed, they gritted their teeth, cursing these traitorous wolves, but did not slow, galloping away with a howl, vanishing swiftly into the night.
At the gate, officers who had escaped watched their commander and his cavalry flee, their faces pale, while the soldiers clenched their fists and cursed harshly.
The surviving Ming troops of Wanquan Left and Right Guards were all seized by terror: on one side the Oirat army inside the fortress, on the other the rebellious Tatars, flames roaring, all faces ashen.
"All the officials have run off, what are we supposed to do?"
"Damn it, if we'd known it would turn out like this, we should have run earlier!"
"Don't just stand there, while the Tatars outside haven't come in yet, hurry and run, or we'll all die here!"
"Who was it that led us to storm the fortress earlier? We're all here because you brought us to this dead end, so what do we do now?"