Chapter 390: The Cunning Nurhaci

"Commander, scouts report that Wild Boar Skin is already thirty li away." Li Guangrong came to Xiong Tingbi's side and said.

Upon hearing this, Xiong Tingbi merely nodded lightly.

Then he turned to look at Li Guangrong and asked directly: "Have those who needed to withdraw already pulled back inside?"

"Rest assured, Commander, everyone has withdrawn." Li Guangrong nodded and said: "After clearing the fields and fortifying the defenses, there's hardly any population left in this area, so no need to worry about the enemy living off our land. Unless they bypass Shenyang and go around behind us." Li Guangrong said with a smile.

Xiong Tingbi nodded—on this point, he was confident in his heart as well.

If the enemy wanted to bypass Shenyang, they would have to be wary of the Great Ming's official army sortieing to strike at their lair.

As long as Shenyang was not taken, Wild Boar Skin would not dare make any move. Whether striking east or west, they would not dare.

"Then pass the order down, tell them to be ready." Xiong Tingbi said.

By the afternoon, Xiong Tingbi could already see Wild Boar Skin's cavalry through his telescope.

These men galloped their horses around Shenyang, but did not dare approach too close—otherwise the cannons on the walls would open fire and give them a proper taste of trouble.

By the time the sun set in the west, Wild Boar Skin's main army had also arrived, setting up camp ten li outside Shenyang—truly, they could not get any closer.

Once before they had camped at five li, and then they got bombarded by the cannons. Ever since then, they had pulled their camp back to the ten-li mark.

After holding the telescope and looking for a while, Xiong Tingbi lowered it.

"Commander, should we lead the men out for a charge?" Li Guangrong looked at Xiong Tingbi and said: "While they haven't yet gotten their footing, let's strike and teach them a lesson, let them know our might, and it will also boost our own morale."

Xiong Tingbi glanced at Li Guangrong, a helpless expression on his face.

Clearly, Li Guangrong's words represented the attitude of many in Liaodong—plainly put, they wanted to fight a battle.

With all this equipment, all this training, all this grain and pay, their combat effectiveness had risen by more than a little.

Under such circumstances, these men wanted to earn merit, wanted to go out and fight a battle, wanted to verify their own strength.

But Xiong Tingbi knew they absolutely could not go out and fight. The reason was also simple—he could not bear the cost of defeat.

If they did not go out and fight, at worst morale would take a dip, with no great loss.

If they went out and fought, and were defeated, Shenyang might be lost. Once Shenyang was lost, his mission would be unfulfilled, and his crime would be great.

According to Wang Zaijin, once Shenyang and Liaoyang fell, the situation in Liaodong would be nothing but a broken endgame.

So Xiong Tingbi shook his head and said: "We cannot go out and fight."

"Commander, this is an opportunity!" Li Guangrong said hastily.

Xiong Tingbi shook his head. "Since you know it's an opportunity, do you think they don't know it's an opportunity too?"

"Look at the formation they've laid out—loose and sloppy—and when they set up their camp, they showed no spirit at all. Is that the level they should be at? After fighting them so many times, don't you still know their strength?"

"Look at how they are now—does that resemble their original strength? This is nothing more than baiting us, luring us out of the city to fight them."

"Once we go out of the city to fight them, there will certainly be troops sweeping in from behind and ambushes springing up all around. By then we won't be able to come back."

"If we don't rescue the men outside, morale in the city will fall even further; if we forcefully rescue them, it may well cause problems for Shenyang. When that time comes, none of us can bear that responsibility."

Seeing Xiong Tingbi speak so seriously and earnestly, Li Guangrong hesitated a little and could not help but look outside.

As he looked, Li Guangrong began to feel that Xiong Tingbi's words made sense, so he turned and said to Xiong Tingbi: "The Commander's vision is keen and his plans far-reaching—truly beyond the reach of men like us."

Glancing at Li Guangrong, Xiong Tingbi nodded and said: "Pass the word, go tell them—there will be plenty of opportunities to kill the enemy. We must always be ready to kill the enemy, but we cannot fall for their tricks. Otherwise it wouldn't be killing the enemy, it would be suicide."

"Yes, Commander." Li Guangrong acknowledged and hurried off to relay the order.

Xiong Tingbi let out a light sigh of relief.

In truth, the reason he said such things was not because he had truly seen through it all.

He had only seen a part; the rest was him talking nonsense—though, of course, it was also a guess.

In Xiong Tingbi's view, if the enemy wanted to defeat him or take Shenyang, the only way was to lure him out of the city to fight.

As long as he went out to fight, the enemy would have a chance to take Shenyang. Apart from that, there was simply no other way.

If it were him attacking Shenyang, he too could only use this one method.

Draw the army out of Shenyang, then slaughter them outside the walls, and as the routed troops fled in defeat, press the attack and take Shenyang directly.

If they assaulted Shenyang by force, it would be filling the moat with lives. Xiong Tingbi did not believe Wild Boar Skin had that many lives to throw in.

In the camp outside the city.

Nurhaci stood on a hillock, gazing toward Shenyang.

Looking at Shenyang's tightly shut gates, the forest of blades and spears atop the walls, and even able to see the dark, gaping cannon muzzles, Nurhaci's expression turned very grim.

This time, it would probably end in failure again at the final step.

After pondering for a moment, Nurhaci said: "It seems the Ming army has no intention of coming out of the city."

"This Xiong Tingbi really has become a turtle hiding in its shell." Daišan, standing beside Nurhaci, said with some irritation: "Ever since this Xiong Tingbi arrived in Liaodong, all of the Ming army's strategies have changed. We need to think of something."

Nurhaci nodded and said: "Do you have any good ideas?"

"Perhaps we can head west." Daišan said after thinking for a moment: "Since the Ming army likes to hide in Shenyang, let them hide. We'll head west first and deal with that old bastard Ligdan."

As for that Ligdan Khan of the Mongols, Daišan harbored deep resentment.

Originally everyone should have united to attack the Ming, but who could have imagined that shortsighted fellow would actually ally with the Ming instead—truly infuriating. Most critically, Ligdan Khan had actually humiliated his father the Khan.

Glancing at Daišan, a flash of approval appeared in Nurhaci's eyes.

In fact, this was exactly what Nurhaci had been thinking.

This time he had come to Liaodong to probe the Ming army—if they still hid in Shenyang and would not come out, then he would begin trying to infiltrate westward.

If the Ming army came out for a battle, then he would take Shenyang first. After all, if he did not take Shenyang, he could not go west with full strength.

But he could instead lure the Ming army out by going west, making them leave the city to attack him; if they did not come, he would simply fight his way west all along the way.

By then, as long as he allied with more Mongol tribes, he could begin attacking from other directions. The Great Ming's border was so long—it was not as if only Liaodong could be a battlefield.

By that time, where would there not be a place he could break through?

Nurhaci had in fact already set his target—to start with the five tribes of the Inner Khalkha.

Originally, the five tribes of the Inner Khalkha had also been allied with the Great Ming.

During the Battle of Sarhu, Zaisai, the chieftain of the five tribes of the Inner Khalkha, immediately led an army of ten thousand with his two sons to rush to the aid of Tieling.

Unfortunately, the newly defeated Ming army did not hold out until this relief force arrived, and Tieling soon fell.

Seeing that Tieling was beyond saving, Zaisai decided to camp for one night and then withdraw his troops.

After learning of Zaisai's army's movements, Nurhaci suddenly rode out of the city at dawn the next day and launched a fierce assault on Zaisai's forces.

Zaisai was caught completely off guard, and his entire army collapsed. Zaisai and his two sons were all captured by Nurhaci.

Nurhaci did not casually execute Zaisai and his sons, but instead kept them as hostages to control the Inner Khalkha.

With the Inner Khalkha alliance gripped by the throat, they had no choice but to send envoys to sue for peace in October of the following year, requesting an alliance meeting with Nurhaci.

In November, all the powerful chieftains of the five tribes of the Inner Khalkha, led by Joriktu Hong Baturu, held a great alliance meeting with Nurhaci, pledging to jointly wage war against the Ming.

However, this time Nurhaci planned to change his strategy — to have them re-ally with him, amending the pact to jointly fight against the Ming into one targeting Ligdan Khan instead.

This time, Nurhaci wanted them to fully join his side. Because once the alliance pact was changed, it would mean they had broken away from the Great Khan of the Mongols — that would represent their betrayal of the Mongol Great Khan, leaving them no choice but to join Nurhaci's ranks.

As long as he could achieve such an alliance pact, Nurhaci would be able to open the gate to the west — not only gaining a route to march westward, but also gaining the manpower to do so.

For Nurhaci, this was also an extremely critical point, so he cared about it very much.

If he could not take Shenyang, then he would turn his head westward.

As for Nurhaci's thoughts, Xiong Tingbi, standing atop the city wall, naturally had no idea. Even if he did know, he would not have cared.

Pacifying the Mongols was not something Xiong Tingbi needed to handle at all. Wang Zaijin, the Governor of Guangning, had that responsibility — though word had it that things were not going very smoothly.

Ligdan Khan was an insatiably greedy man who had long been using "wild boar skin" to extort benefits from the Great Ming. Word was that the two sides had nearly fallen out just a couple of days ago.

This made Xiong Tingbi somewhat worried as well — if the Guangning flank came under attack from Ligdan Khan, that would spell real trouble. At the time, he too had broken out in a cold sweat.

But in the end, Wang Zaijin managed to suppress the matter, seemingly with considerable success, which put Xiong Tingbi's mind at ease.

"Commander, the orders have been passed down." Li Guangrong once again came to Xiong Tingbi's side and said in a loud voice.

"Very good." Xiong Tingbi nodded and said: "Have the brothers prepare. They won't be able to assault the city tonight — I estimate it will be early tomorrow morning. Everyone should rest well tonight, and tomorrow morning we'll be ready to receive their assault."

"Commander, why not let your subordinate take some men for a night raid on their camp?" Li Guangrong said with some excitement, his face full of anticipation.