Chapter 218: The Battle of the Stone Bridge (Part One)

On the twentieth day of the tenth month of the tenth year of the Chongzhen reign, at the capital, Yongdingmen.

Wang Dou's several thousand troops marched out with the main army and arrived outside Yongdingmen yesterday. The capital garrison officers defending the area from Yongdingmen to Youanmen were several Assistant Regional Commanders and Mobile Corps Commanders from the Five Armies Fourth Battalion, the Divine Pivot Third Battalion, the Divine Pivot Fourth Battalion, and the Divine Mechanism Fifth Battalion.

Tens of thousands of Qing soldiers were at Tongzhou, only a few dozen li away. Their scout riders came daily without cease. Although each battalion was equipped with large numbers of war wagons, chevaux-de-frise, cannons, and such, the officers and men of the various battalions were still in constant terror, and large numbers of garrison troops deserted every day. Only when Lu Xiangsheng arrived with the troops of the three garrisons of Xuan-Da did their mood settle slightly.

They strongly demanded that the divinely brave and invincible Xuan-Da brothers stand in front. Lu Xiangsheng did not decline, and deployed the more than twenty thousand Xuan-Da troops along the two city gates, each about ten li from the city.

Wang Dou's more than three thousand men were deployed to the area that later generations would call Yizhuang. This region was all flatland, with many rivers and canals and fertile soil. It had originally been a place of dense villages and towns near the capital, but in the ninth year of Chongzhen, the villages in this area had already been burned once by the Qing army.

Two years later, the Qing soldiers came again. The new homes the common people had built were once more burned and destroyed by the Qing soldiers. When Wang Dou reached Yizhuang, the surrounding villages were either still blazing with raging fires or were broken walls and ruins trailing wisps of smoke. The surviving common people could only flee into the capital city, supporting the old and carrying the young, turning back to gaze at their homes and weeping loudly.

When Wang Dou led his troops here, a crowd of terrified common folk was just fleeing this area. Seeing Wang Dou's several thousand troops, they were even more frightened and fled far away. Wang Dou distinctly heard a few people muttering: "These dog soldiers have no skill at killing the Tatars, but they're fierce when it comes to harming the common folk."

At that, Han Zhong and Xie Yike flew into a rage and were about to spur their horses forward to drag out those few insolent loudmouths.

Wang Dou sternly stopped them, saying: "We came to guard the capital and protect the common people. We did not come here to quarrel with them. If you have the mind to argue with a few commoners, you might as well save your strength to fight the Tatars. Besides, many government troops are truly disgraceful — you cannot blame the common people for speaking bitterly."

Troops

The Qing soldiers continued to harass the eastern suburbs. After many capital garrison troops scattered and fled, they roamed in bands of three or five. When they encountered Qing scouts, they fled at the mere sight of them, but when they encountered refugees, they were like wolves and tigers, looting property and raping women — their methods were no better than those of the Qing soldiers.

Wang

As soon as Wang Dou first arrived in the Yizhuang area, he encountered a dozen or so routed soldiers looting the common people. Wang Dou was furious. He had these dozen-odd routed soldiers seized, ignored their weeping and threats, and had them all beheaded.

At this place called Yizhuang, on the left was a rather large canal that flowed all the way into the capital. On the other side of that canal was the defense post of Li Jianming, Mobile Corps Commander of the Xuanfu Garrison. Not far to the right of the canal was a small, tiny hillock, on which stood a beacon tower the locals called Yan Dun. The tower platform was about eight meters high, with surrounding walls several dozen zhang around. By now, the few tower guards who had been stationed there had long since vanished without a trace.

A few dozen zhang from the canal, right next to the left side of the tower platform, there was a winding official road.

The official road was over one zhang wide, covered with deep cart ruts worn by years of use. About ten zhang in front of the tower platform, a small stone bridge spanned the road. The river water had long since dried up. Both banks of the river were thick with wheat fields. Winter was fast approaching, and a few seedlings sown in autumn poked out of the wheat fields, leaning every which way. The wheat fields stretched past the right side of Yan Dun, extending several li until they reached another deep canal.

At the far end of the small stone bridge stood a stone tablet about to topple over. The inscription had long since become blurred and illegible; only the signature line faintly showed the large characters: "Erected in the Chenghua reign of the Great Ming."

For several li around, only this official road was passable. Everything else was either fields or canals. Perhaps infantry and cavalry could cross through the empty fields, but to haul any carts or baggage, one had no choice but to take the official road.

Following the official road from Yan Dun toward the capital for one li, on the right side of the road, there was a small, tiny village fort. The fort was already completely empty of people.

However, the fort's walls were a full two zhang high. Looking around at the surrounding villages, only this small fort was the least severely damaged. It happened to be right within Wang Dou's defense zone, blocking a key point on the official road. Wang Dou immediately and unceremoniously occupied it. As for that Yan Dun tower and the stone bridge, Wang Dou assigned a fire-lance squad under Han Zhong's command to defend them. When they rested at night, several dozen men packed the beacon tower to the brim.

Everyone else was moved entirely into the fort. At the same time, Wang Dou sent out large numbers of night scouts to reconnoiter enemy movements and urgently survey and map the terrain of this area.

Compared to camping in the open, living in the fort was naturally more convenient, and its defense was also very effective — if the Qing soldiers were foolish enough to besiege his village fort. Including the cavalry, more than half of his camp were fire-lance troops. Wang Dou was confident he could at least hold off a major assault by twenty thousand Qing soldiers.

Wang Dou's only worry was his provisions. The grain and fodder he had brought from Baoanzhou had originally been less than a month's supply. After giving four hundred dan of grain and fodder to the friendly troops of the Xuanfu Garrison, what remained was only enough for ten days. Man is iron, food is steel — skip one meal and you go weak with hunger. If they went several days without food, the combat strength of the elite troops he had brought would rapidly shrink by more than half.

After arriving at the Yizhuang area yesterday afternoon, Wang Dou had inspected all around the village fort on all four sides. Early this morning, Wang Dou again led the various officers of his army to patrol everywhere. The canals on the left and right, in front of and behind the fort — he examined them all carefully.

Now he led his men to the front of Yan Dun and climbed the tower platform to gaze in all directions. Looking toward Tongzhou, the land stretched away in an endless plain, where the glow of fires and smoke from villages burned by the Qing soldiers could be seen. Looking behind him, the majestic silhouette of Beijing city was faintly visible.

This battle has only just begun, Wang Dou thought as he gazed toward Tongzhou, his expression somewhat entranced.

The cold wind on the tower platform was biting. It was nearly the eleventh month, and the weather grew ever colder. Wang Dou made no move to wrap his armor tighter; he simply stood there motionless.

From behind him came the discussion of Han Zhong and Wen Fangliang. Han Zhong said: "This smoke tower is not bad. Together with that stone bridge, it can at least block several hundred Tatar troops."

Wen Fangliang said: "The village forts in the capital region are indeed built thick and solid. That village fort we are stationed at — if we had grain and fodder, and sufficient powder and shot, holding it for a month would be no problem."

Han Zhong said: "I'm just afraid our grain and fodder will soon run short."

Then Wang Dou felt Han Zhong's hot breath on his neck. Han Zhong's large, coarse head poked out beside him, those ox-like eyes looking at Wang Dou with considerable expectation: "General, do you think Eunuch Gao will allocate sufficient grain and fodder to us?"

Wang Dou gave a bitter laugh. Tongzhou had been taken, the canal grain transport was cut off, and the supply of grain and fodder to the capital was even more difficult. Not to mention that the matter of dividing the troops had already arisen. It seemed Gao Qiqian and Yang Sichang had set themselves against Lu Xiangsheng. If grain and fodder supplies had been sufficient, Lu Xiangsheng would not have had to travel far to Zhending, begging for grain over a thousand li.

Yesterday, when the troops of the three garrisons of Xuan-Da arrived outside Yongdingmen, although Gao Qiqian had symbolically allocated a batch of grain and fodder to Lu Xiangsheng, it was a mere drop in the bucket. The troops of the three garrisons of Xuan-Da could not eat for more than a few days on it.

Wang Dou said in a deep voice: "As for counting on Eunuch Gao to supply grain and fodder — better not to set your hopes too high."

He shook his head and spoke the second half of his sentence with a cold laugh: "Fortunately, the Tatar soldiers over there have grain and fodder in abundance."

"We'll discuss it further when Company Commander Wen returns with the night scout brothers!"

The twenty-first day of the tenth month of the eleventh year of the Chongzhen reign, morning.

At the stone bridge by Yan Dun, early in the morning, the place was already bustling.

※

Old Bai Niu:

Writing ran late tonight. The battle below needs to be carefully depicted. As it is late, I will focus on describing it tomorrow.

,