Chapter 102

The entire great hall fell into a deathly silence.

Hong Taiji, who had nearly despaired, sprang up from the dragon throne as if a spring had been installed beneath his rear.

A look of relief continuously surfaced in his eyes.

"Heaven protects the Great Qing, Heaven protects the Great Qing!"

"Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Zhu Youjian, you have ultimately proven yourself muddled and incompetent!"

Hong Taiji immediately fixed a steely gaze on Nikan and asked,

"How many Ming troops have arrived? Where are they now?"

Nikan bowed his head and replied,

"Reporting to Your Majesty, the exact number is unclear; they appear to have crossed the river upstream from the Dalinghe. Our scouts closest to Shengjing have already detected them fifty li from the city!"

Upon hearing this, Hong Taiji nodded repeatedly.

"Good, good; it is good that they have come. The only thing to fear was that they would not come!"

With that, Hong Taiji casually picked up the official hat resting on the imperial desk and muttered to himself,

"Mr. Fan, shall we put up a resistance now, or withdraw directly?"

Beads of fine sweat seeped onto Fan Fan Wencheng's forehead.

Looking somewhat awkwardly at Hong Taiji, he whispered,

"Your Majesty, we must fight; it is better that we engage in battle... At the very least, we must provide an account to the Eight Banners sons of our Great Qing."

After all, we cannot simply grease our heels and flee the moment the Ming army arrives, can we?

With a gloomy expression, Hong Taiji whispered,

"Very well! Dorgon and Jirhalang, you two shall accompany me out of the city to meet this band of Ming troops."

"Dodo and Ajige, you shall take the women and children in the city and immediately return to Xingjing!"

"Yes!"

Since Hong Taiji had long ago prepared a contingency plan, the entire city of Shengjing had already implemented a policy of strengthening defenses and clearing the countryside.

As soon as the Ming army showed any intention of invading,

the remaining Eight Banners soldiers within the city would immediately abandon the fields of Shengjing, retreat to Hetu Ala with the spoils plundered from inside the pass over these past decades, and then wait for an opportunity to strike back.

With that said, Hong Taiji led the soldiers of the Plain Yellow Banner and the Bordered Yellow Banner in a mighty surge out of Shengjing.

Meanwhile, eighty li outside Shengjing, a Ming force of approximately five thousand men, composed entirely of light cavalry, was tensely watching the direction of Shengjing...

91, The Strategic Determination of the Great Ming and the Great Qing!

At the very front of the formation, Cao Cao Bianjiao, his brows tightly knitted, instructed the soldiers behind him.

"When you see the Tartars shortly, you must follow my commands."

"You must listen clearly!"

Cao Cao Bianjiao repeatedly exhorted the surrounding soldiers.

They must hear the battle orders clearly.

Several personal guards beside him looked at Cao Cao Bianjiao with confusion and asked,

"General, it is not that we brothers fear death, but what can such a small number of us accomplish?"

"Exactly; the Tartars have killed so many of our brothers. Even my mother wrote in her letter that she does not expect me to return alive, but only that I kill a few more Tartars."

"..."

After the Battle of Xingshan,

everyone throughout the entire Great Ming had come to hate the Tartars of Liaodong with gnashing teeth.

Only the orders from the Ministry of War had become ambiguous.

Cao Cao Bianjiao alone had personally written more than a dozen memorials requesting battle, filled with misspelled characters, and sent them to the capital.

Yet every single one had been returned by the Ministry of War.

There was only one reason given:

Insufficient preparation.

What exactly would constitute sufficient preparation!

The granaries at Shanhai Pass are already piled full; if we had possessed even half this amount of grain and fodder during the Battle of Sarhu, the conflict would not have turned out so badly!

It was not until the order for this campaign arrived that Cao Cao Bianjiao realized: was the court truly unprepared?!

The truth was simply that they did not want to fight at all!

With a darkened face, Cao Cao Bianjiao whispered,

"Cease this nonsense! Listen well to my commands shortly; do exactly as you are ordered!"

"Yes!"

Before his voice had even faded,

a scout from the distance came galloping up on horseback.

"General! The Tartars are coming! It is the Plain Yellow Banner and the Bordered Yellow Banner!"

Upon hearing this, Cao Cao Bianjiao immediately became alert.

He waved his large hand abruptly.

"Rear guard, shift to the front formation!"

"Rear guard, follow me to meet the Tartars!"

The surrounding soldiers froze upon hearing this.

"Has the General learned this new art of war from the capital?"

"Indeed; General, upon encountering the Tartars, why are we turning our backsides...?"

"Is this what they call Mobile Corps Commander tactics?"

"..."

Cao Cao Bianjiao, ignoring everything else, led over a thousand cavalrymen straight toward Hong Taiji's forces.

Clearly, Hong Taiji had also noticed Cao Cao Bianjiao's troops.

He gave a low-order instruction:

"Dorgon, go give him a taste of it. As soon as the gong sounds, recall the troops; we're preparing to withdraw!"

"Yes!"

Dorgon immediately led several dozen Eight Banners soldiers, brandishing their weapons wildly, and charged straight at Cao Cao Bianjiao.

Watching as the two forces drew closer and closer,

the arrows flying around them inevitably began to thin out.

On a distant hillside, Hong Taiji stared intently at Dorgon's advance.

Just as the two armies were about to clash,

Hong Taiji and Cao Cao Bianjiao almost simultaneously issued their commands.

"Sound the retreat gong!"

"Withdraw!"

Hearing the orders, both the Ming and Qing soldiers froze in unison.

Then, almost everyone witnessed something bizarre: the two forces, which had been on the verge of close combat, suddenly flew apart as if someone in the middle of the battlefield had let out a fart that blasted both sides away.

"General, why are we running?"

Mounted on his horse, Cao Cao Bianjiao couldn't be bothered to address the infantry behind him and roared fiercely:

"Just withdraw when I tell you to!"

"Hurry up and toss away anything useless!"

"Leave the great banners and command flags behind! You little bastards, do not throw away the gunpowder! Oh, you can toss the fuses."

"Shout along with me."

"Great Ming has been defeated! Great Ming has been defeated!"

The personal guards behind Cao Cao Bianjiao followed numbly, their mouths just opening to shout,

when they heard the Qing soldiers behind them screaming at the top of their lungs:

"Great Qing has been defeated! The Han Chinese are charging over!"

Hearing this, the corners of Cao Cao Bianjiao's mouth twitched slightly.

"Damn it! If you can't beat them in fighting, can't you even beat them in shouting?! Put every ounce of strength you have into it! Shout!"