He had to be careful. Charles Harris was an old fox, William Scott a vicious wolf—neither of them was any good, and he was dancing on the edge of a blade. He had to ensure everything was foolproof. The consequences of directly defecting to either of these two were unpredictable, since his escape had already altered history. Likewise, it was hard to say how the original masterminds and main operators behind bringing the Qing troops into the pass would react to his arrival. So the best plan was to head straight for Shanhaiguan, first using the emperor’s name to take control of the army under the command of the Shanhaiguan general Peter Reed. Unlike William Scott’s private troops, Peter Reed’s army had been hastily recruited from the local area, and the emperor’s authority still carried some weight with them. Besides, Peter Reed was clearly not on the same level as Charles Harris or William Scott as an opponent—dealing with him would be much easier than dealing with those two. Once he controlled Peter Reed’s tens of thousands of troops, he could wait at Shanhaiguan for William Scott to return; with soldiers in hand, he would have leverage.

This was a safer approach.

“Your servant obeys the imperial command!”

Matthew Turner quickly said.

“Enemy troops!”

At that moment, a Jinyiwei suddenly cried out in alarm.

Henry Clark quickly turned his head. Behind them, cavalry were galloping, kicking up dust—clearly, the Shun army pursuing them had arrived. As a boss-level target, Abraham Lincoln would of course do everything to hunt him down, and it was likely that more than one group of pursuers was searching for him. He dared not delay any longer, urgently spurred his horse, and led fifty-two Jinyiwei, a eunuch, a common woman, and a child in arms, racing toward Jizhou City. However, the pursuers behind were clearly faster. Just half an hour later, as they reached Jizhou, the banner of the Chuang army was already visible.

“Open the gate quickly, the imperial carriage has arrived!”

Matthew Turner rushed to the base of Jizhou’s walls and shouted loudly upward.

A head poked out from the city wall, then quickly withdrew. But the gate they hoped for did not open, nor did anyone else appear. The whole of Jizhou seemed to have become a dead city, silent as the grave.

“Open the gate quickly, the imperial carriage has arrived!”

Matthew Turner shouted anxiously.

Henry Clark sighed, handed the girl to Alice Wright, then stepped forward, patted Matthew Turner on the shoulder, and said, “Stop shouting. If the enemy troops hadn’t arrived, maybe they would have opened the gate. Now that the enemy is here, the fact that they haven’t come out to capture us and hand us over already shows they have some shred of decency left.”

There was nothing strange about this. When the tree falls, the monkeys scatter. He, the emperor, was already in such a state, and looking at the Shun army behind, it was obvious that Beijing had fallen. If those local officials had any integrity, Abraham Lincoln wouldn’t have entered Beijing in the first place. Now, the fact that they hadn’t come out to seize him and curry favor with their new master was already a sign of conscience.

“These beasts!”

Matthew Turner said bitterly, looking up at the empty city wall.

Henry Clark said nothing more. He silently turned his head, glanced at the several hundred pursuers less than a kilometer away, then took a spear from a Jinyiwei, controlled his horse, and slowly rode to the front. With a cold smile, he faced the approaching enemy, holding his spear across his body. The Jinyiwei also drew their weapons, lining up silently at his sides, backs to the tightly shut gates of Jizhou, waiting for their final fate.

“Am I a complete failure as an emperor?”

Henry Clark said with a bitter smile.

“Your Majesty, I don’t know about anything else, but I do know the common people truly suffer. Though there have been endless natural disasters, border troubles, and bandit uprisings, and the court is riven by factional strife and disorder, Your Majesty’s constant changes of policy are also a factor.”

Matthew Turner replied with a bitter smile as well.

“Then why didn’t you say so before?”

Henry Clark asked.

“If I had said such things before, as a lowly Qianhu, I would have been thrown into prison.”

Matthew Turner said.

“Haha, you are a loyal subject. You are all loyal subjects. Today, to die with you all, I have no regrets. Kill! We men of Great Ming, even in death, must die gloriously!”

With that, Henry Clark fiercely spurred his horse, charging straight at the Shun army a few hundred meters away. All the Jinyiwei at his sides urged their horses forward as well, even Old Harris followed with his blade. Opposite them, the several hundred Shun cavalry also formed a line, raising their spears and charging forward. In an instant, the two sides collided.

Henry Clark was at the very front. At the moment of impact, he twisted his body, dodging a spear thrust at his chest, while at the same time driving his own spear into his opponent’s chest. The force was so great that the spear pierced straight through. As they passed each other, Henry Clark grabbed his opponent’s spear with his right hand, and, as if he had eyes in the back of his head, stabbed it backward to the left, the spearhead plunging into the side of Matthew Turner’s opponent. At the same time, Henry Clark grabbed the front end of his own spear with his left hand, yanked it out, and, with a backhanded throw, struck a third cavalryman in the chest.

He then immediately discarded the spear in his right hand, grabbed another spear thrusting at him from the right, bent it upward with force, turning the waxwood shaft into a U-shape, and thrust it forward, the tip piercing the cavalryman’s throat.

But at that very moment, a bowstring twanged from the enemy ranks, and an arrow struck him squarely in the chest.