Chapter 119: Volume Three: Defender of Shunxiang Fortress — Chapter 119: Abatai

Volume Three: Defender of Shunxiang Fortress — Chapter 119: Abatai

At that moment, the one raging inside the great tent was a rough-featured Qing soldier commander, nearing fifty, his suit of gilded armor strikingly conspicuous.

Kneeling on the ground, utterly dejected, was the Jalangga who had suffered defeat beneath Shunxiang Fortress. Around the tent sat several other men dressed as Jalanggas, along with a few Mongols. Their gazes were all fixed on the furiously raging Qing commander in the center of the tent.

Brandishing a leather whip, he said furiously, "Yanzha, I told you before: when you encounter a large city the Ming defend tightly, you must bypass it and concentrate on plundering their people and wealth to weaken the Ming state. Yet you disobeyed my orders. You lost so many of my banner's brave warriors beneath that city — how can I not be angry?"

The angrier he grew, the more he wanted to shout the order to have the Jalangga dragged out and beheaded as a warning to others!

That Jalangga was scared out of his wits, his body going limp and collapsing to the ground.

Seeing him like this, the Qing commander grew even angrier. He stormed about, bellowing orders for his men to drag the Jalangga out.

Witnessing his towering rage, every commander in the tent was terrified and dared not speak. Then someone beside him coughed and spoke: "Prince Raoyu, calm your anger. Yanzha Jalangga has indeed erred this time, but considering his outstanding battle merits in the past and the great service he has rendered for the Great Qing, spare him this once."

The speaker was dressed as a Mongol, wearing hoop-linked iron armor, aged over fifty, with two wisps of a rat-like mustache and rather sly, shifty eyes.

Seeing this man, the Qing commander's expression eased somewhat. He said, "So it is Doroduleng Beise speaking up for this slave."

That Qing commander was none other than the Qing state's Prince Raoyu, Abatai. This time he had entered the pass with the Qing Prince of Wuying, Ajige, and Beile Yangguli, breaking through from Great Ming's Dushikou. After capturing the various forts along the way, they finally halted at Yanzhou Prefecture, before Juyong Pass.

While waiting for news of the other Qing army that had entered the pass through Xifengkou, Ajige's force had also split into several columns to plunder the prefectures and garrisons around Yanzhou. Abatai was mainly responsible for looting the area around Huailai Garrison and Baoanzhou Garrison. Abatai's haul had been quite rich; he had already plundered over ten thousand people, along with a great many cattle, sheep, and valuables.

Amidst this string of smooth successes, the news of that Jalangga's crushing defeat had come unexpectedly — how could it not enrage him? When he saw the utterly dejected Qing soldiers that Jalangga brought back, he could scarcely believe his eyes. Were these still the invincible, supremely confident Great Qing soldiers?

Abatai could already be certain that this Jalangga's Qing soldiers were ruined. Their spirit and morale were gone; without that sharp edge, they had no will to fight. Their low spirits were also a severe blow to the high morale within the banner.

On top of that, the Jalangga had disobeyed his orders and insisted on attacking a strong city — how could he not be furious?

However, since this Mongol was pleading for the Jalangga, Abatai could not afford to disregard his standing.

At present, there were two Mongol commanders in his tent. The one pleading was named Emubu Chuhur, the Gushan Ezhen of the Outer Mongol Tumed Right Banner. The other was named Shanba, the Gushan Ezhen of the Outer Mongol Tumed Left Banner. Among them, Emubu Chuhur had even been enfeoffed by Huang Taiji as Doroduleng Beise.

In the eighth year of Chongzhen, after several large-scale punitive expeditions against the Chahar and the submission of most of the Monan Mongols, Huang Taiji conducted a census of the able-bodied men of the Kharchin and Tumed, obtaining a total of 16,953 able-bodied men. With three hundred men forming one Niru, one hundred fifty archers forming one Zuo, and fifty men forming one armored soldier, they were organized into eleven banners.

Among them, the original Mongol Niru under the Eight Banners of Manchuria plus the newly submitted Mongol able-bodied men totaled 7,830, forming eight banners. Their banner colors and official system were identical to the Eight Banners of Manchuria, led by minister consorts, becoming the Eight Banners of Mongolia, standing alongside the Eight Banners of Manchuria.

Apart from these Eight Banners of Mongolia, the remaining three banners with over nine thousand able-bodied men belonged to the Outer Mongols. They were: the Kharchin tribe's Gulusixiabu as Gushan Ezhen, leading one banner of 5,286 men; the Tumed Right Wing's Emubu Chuhur as Gushan Ezhen, leading one banner of 1,826 men; and the Tumed Left Wing's Shanba as Gushan Ezhen, leading one banner of 2,110 men.

The three Outer Mongol banners were likewise subordinate to the Qing state and were required to march out and fight alongside Qing soldiers whenever ordered. For this Qing invasion of Ming, Ajige had summoned the Outer Mongol troops to campaign against the Ming, and these three banners had come along gleefully. Eager to prove themselves before their masters, they had brought the majority of their banners' able-bodied men.

The Mongol commanders currently in Abatai's main camp were the Tumed Right Wing's Gushan Ezhen Emubu Chuhur and the Tumed Left Wing's Gushan Ezhen Shanba. Each had brought fifteen hundred men, including several hundred armored combat soldiers.

Since both banners were small, their organization differed slightly from the Eight Banners of Mongolia: fifty men formed one Zuo, and ten men formed one armored soldier. Their banners and armor still retained their own distinctive features. Their cavalry carried a single large black-tasseled sitting banner and all wore red-tasseled hats, with Ming-style willow-leaf armor and petal helmets underneath. Their infantry wore only red-tasseled hats without armor; the Ming called them Red-Tasseled Tatars.

They had been assigned to Abatai's Bordered White Banner and campaigned alongside him. During this period of plundering, they too had reaped considerable rewards. In a pleasant mood, Emubu Chuhur spoke up to plead for the Jalangga — after all, it cost him nothing to be generous with someone else's favor and earn a personal debt of gratitude for free.

Huang Taiji vigorously promoted a policy of Manchu-Mongol unity, and the Manchu and Mongol upper classes were linked by many marriages. Of Huang Taiji's sixteen daughters, fourteen were married to Mongols. Under the influence of Huang Taiji's policies, even someone as exalted as Abatai had to take his allies' opinions seriously.

Now, after hearing Emubu Chuhur's words, he glared and shouted at the Jalangga: "Since Doroduleng Beise speaks for you, I will spare your life today. However, you disobeyed my orders and insisted on attacking a strong city, causing heavy casualties among our brave warriors — that cannot go unpunished. Drag him out and give him a severe beating."

The Jalangga breathed a sigh of relief; at least his head was saved. But thinking of the physical pain to come, he still said in a low voice with a mournful face: "That was no strong city, just a Battalion Commander's garrison fort..."

"Wait."

Abatai had sharp ears. Though the Jalangga's voice was low, he had heard him.

He barked: "What did you just say, you slave? You were attacking only a Battalion Commander's garrison fort? Tell me everything that happened these past few days in detail."

The Jalangga knelt on the ground and recounted, one by one, the circumstances of his battles with Wang Dou over the past few days, from the siege warfare to the field battles. Abatai questioned him very closely — how the Shunxiang army defended, how they fought, the composition of their weapons and military strength, everything was asked about in great detail.

The more he listened, the brighter his eyes became. When he heard that Wang Dou had even dared to leave the city and engage his army in open field battle, he cut off the Jalangga's endless chatter.

He paced back and forth twice inside the tent, then slowly uttered a single sentence: "If this whelp is not eliminated, he will surely become a calamity for our Great Qing in the future!"