Chapter 191: Forced to Withdraw

Hong Taiji now found himself in something of a dilemma. Listening to the opinions of Daishan, Amin, and Dorgon, he only felt his head throbbing worse than before.

He had originally thought that once his grand army reached Dongjiang, crushing Mao Wenlong would be the easiest thing in the world.

He never expected that not only would he gain little advantage in a direct confrontation, but Mao Wenlong would have even more dirty tricks up his sleeve in private, leaving him utterly unable to guard against them.

If he withdrew his troops now, that dog Mao Wenlong certainly wouldn't let him off so easily. Pulling his army back would inevitably give Mao Wenlong a chance to stir up trouble during the retreat.

If he did not withdraw, Hong Taiji was confident he could eventually crush Mao Wenlong. After all, no matter how many of those off-the-board tricks or palm-thunder devices you had, they would run out one day.

As long as he was willing to throw the Han Eight Banners in as cannon fodder to fill the gap, a little ditch like Mao Wenlong would be filled flat sooner or later.

But the current situation clearly no longer allowed him to keep dragging this out at Dongjiang.

His in-laws, the Khorchin, were now being hammered by the remnants of the old Yehe Nine Tribes—now the Xibe Eight Tribes—allied with the Ming barbarians, and had been driven like stray dogs, constantly retreating toward the direction of Shengjing.

Had it been any other tribe, he would not have been so worried. But Khorchin was different.

His entire source of warhorses depended on the Khorchin tribe, and especially after his good ally, Supreme Commander Yuan, had been butchered by the Ming dog emperor, Khorchin's importance had become ever more pronounced.

Now, if the Great Jin wanted to obtain supplies from inside the passes of the Ming barbarians, they would first have to fight their way out of the passes, borrow a route through the Mongols, circle around to Khorchin, and then reach Shengjing.

The old method of obtaining supplies directly through Shanhai Pass was clearly no longer viable.

It was precisely because of this that the more Hong Taiji thought about it, the more torn he felt.

However, someone soon arrived to help him make the decision to withdraw.

Following a long, drawn-out "Report—" from outside the Khan's tent, Manggultai's younger brother, Degelei, once again brought Hong Taiji bad news: "Great Khan, the Ming troops at Shanhai Pass are on the move.

Zhao Shuaijiao's forces have already advanced, charging toward Shengjing. Moreover, a cavalry unit flying Man Gui's banner has also joined the Yehe Nine Tribes' remnants in their siege of Khorchin."

Staring at Degelei before him, Hong Taiji felt an overwhelming urge to flog the man to death on the spot.

The last time, at the foot of the Ming barbarians' capital, it was this very man who had brought the news of Liu Xingzuo's rebellion and the massacre at Liaoyang.

And now, it was this same bastard again, bringing word that the Ming had begun marching on Shengjing and that Khorchin was under attack.

Are you a goddamn jinx, you bastard?!

Hong Taiji cursed bitterly in his heart, but helplessly said to Daishan and the others, "Pass on Our command: we retreat overnight, starting tonight. We shall prepare to return to Shengjing immediately. Khorchin cannot be allowed to fall."

Daishan and the others bowed and responded, "Ja! Your slaves obey!"

Just as the men dispersed to carry out their orders, Zhang Xianzhong had also led his men to a nearby hilltop.

Gazing at the pitch-black camp of the Jianzhou barbarians in the distance, lit only by a few scattered points of light, Zhang Xianzhong bared his teeth in a grin and asked, "Well? Can we reach 'em or not?"

A Centurion beside him measured with his fingers for a long while, then said dejectedly, "Sir, this humble one can't say for sure. The range the Jianzhou barbarians' night patrols cover now is much wider than before.

And since we took the easy way and used horses to haul these little cannons up the mountain, we're a bit too far away."

Zhang Xianzhong glared. "Then what else are we supposed to do? Look at the ground ahead—where could packhorses haul these bronze and iron lumps up? Figure something out for me. We can't just let the dog Jianzhou barbarians get nothing but a loud show, can we?"

The Centurion curled his lip. "Fine by me. As long as you've got a way to move these bronze and iron lumps another three to five li forward, this humble one guarantees he'll blast a whole heap of Jianzhou barbarians dead!"

Zhang Xianzhong was angered into a laugh. "Hey, Yu Linsheng, you son of a bitch spent ages pulling strings to get yourself transferred here from Datong, and you came just to piss me off?"

Yu Linsheng, who had long since grown familiar with Zhang Xianzhong, didn't get angry at the scolding. He just chuckled and said, "Then what do you suggest, sir?

At this kind of distance, all we can do is let the Jianzhou barbarians hear a few bangs. Push any further forward, and when the Jianzhou barbarians come after us, how are we supposed to run?"

Zhang Xianzhong smacked his lips, frustrated. "Fine then, we'll just make some real noise for the Jianzhou bastards. Didn't you say some shells make a louder bang than others? Can you modify these into the louder kind?"

Yu Linsheng was startled by the suggestion. "No way! That'll damage the cannon barrels. Fire too many of those, and these cannons will be ruined. How would you explain that to the Grand General?"

Zhang Xianzhong's ox-like eyes bulged as he glared at Yu Linsheng. "Are you stupid? Just modify a few, that's all. As long as we mix in a few extra-loud ones to keep the Jianzhou barbarians from sleeping, that's enough. We're not modifying all of them. Pig brain!"

Yu Linsheng said glumly, "Still won't work. We can modify them, sure, but there's no saltpeter here. What are we supposed to do?"

Now Zhang Xianzhong was stumped too. The two men stared at each other wide-eyed for a long moment before Zhang Xianzhong said bitterly, "I must have been blind back then, to go through all that trouble to get you transferred over."

Yu Linsheng chuckled twice and said, "Can't blame me for that. I told you long ago, I only wanted to get into the fray and hack people up. I never wanted to hide in the back firing cannons!"

"Alright, alright, enough jabbering. Hurry up and set up these broken pieces of junk, then give the Jianzhou barbarians a couple of bangs to warm them up!" The frustrated Zhang Xianzhong waved his hand and ordered.

Hearing this, Yu Linsheng wasted no more words. He turned around and led his brothers in arms to start fiddling with the iron lumps.

Zhang Kewang, who had been at Zhang Xianzhong's side all along, had been eyeing these big fellows enviously for a long time. Seeing this, he made to follow and help tinker with them.

But before Zhang Kewang could even touch the iron lumps, Zhang Xianzhong kicked him from behind.

He spun around to see Zhang Xianzhong, who moments ago had been treating these cannons like scrap metal, now glaring with ox-like eyes and shouting, "What are you blindly meddling for?! These iron lumps are precious treasures.

You little brat don't know the first thing about handling them—what if you break one?!"

After Zhang Kewang retreated to the side with an embarrassed grin, Yu Linsheng and his men finished setting up the eight cannons, each barrel angled obliquely toward the Jianzhou barbarians' camp.

Seeing Yu Linsheng look his way, Zhang Xianzhong said, "Groups of four, take turns. Don't stop. Fire two volleys, then rest for a quarter of an hour before firing again."

Yu Linsheng nodded to show he understood, then turned his head and barked, "First group, fire!"

Immediately, Ming soldiers touched their fire sticks to the fuses protruding from the cannon barrels. With a series of hissing sounds, the fuses burned rapidly into the barrels.

Then came several thunderous "Boom—boom—" sounds as four shells shot from the barrels in succession and flew toward the Jianzhou barbarians' camp. A few breaths later, another four shells were launched.

But after flying about three li, the shells' momentum was spent, and they began to plummet diagonally downward.

Only upon hitting the ground did they explode with a "Boom—" "Boom—", kicking up bursts of flame.

Zhang Xianzhong watched the distant flames ignited by the shells and curled his lip. "What goddamn useless junk. If these could shoot thirty li, I could wipe out these Jianzhou barbarians all by myself."

As Zhang Xianzhong's words faded, several more cannon booms followed, and another eight shells flew out in succession—Yu Linsheng and his brothers had swiftly reloaded and fired another volley.

Watching flames begin to flicker to life in the distant Jianzhou barbarian camp, Zhang Xianzhong, assuming the cannon fire was keeping them from sleeping, gleefully declared, "A great wind rises, the clouds fly—cannons fire, blast 'em to the sky!

No sleep for the Jianzhou barbarians tonight—we'll carry on tomorrow, alright!"

Hearing Zhang Xianzhong's mangled doggerel verse, the supervising eunuch, who had been playing dead and silent all along, burst out laughing and cursed, "This humble servant finds General Zhang's poem quite excellent! Mm, excellent indeed!

Who knows, General Zhang might just top the imperial examinations as zhuangyuan one day!"

Zhang Xianzhong's weathered face flushed red. Though the torchlight in the night made it less obvious, he still said sheepishly, "Come on, Cai Wu, I've always treated you well, haven't I? Why do you love cutting me down so much?"

While Zhang Xianzhong and his men were having a grand old time, Hong Taiji was anything but amused. His face dark, Hong Taiji summoned his personal guards and ordered, "Pass on Our command: tell them all to hurry up. We march tonight."

After the guards left to carry out the order, the enraged Hong Taiji swept everything off the table and let out a low roar: "Don't you fucking think only your Great Ming has cannons! We will have them too, sooner or later!"

With that, his gaze turned toward the west, as if he could see the Chongzhen Emperor by doing so. Hong Taiji murmured to himself, "We'll count this round as Our loss, but you won't be gloating for long, you dog emperor Chongzhen!"

(End of Chapter)