Chapter 68

And you, Huang Taiji, control only a corner of Liaodong and Liaoxi!

As soon as Fan Wencheng finished speaking,

the Great Hall of State immediately fell into a deathly silence.

Finally, Huang Taiji slowly sat down, gritted his teeth, and said in a low voice,

"Then what should this Khan do now?"

Fan Wencheng declared with absolute certainty,

"Whatever the Great Khan should do, do it!"

"Reorganize the army, prepare for war, and gather grain!"

"We must fight to the death, fight a stubborn battle. As long as we pin down these hundred thousand Great Ming troops firmly in Liaoxi, even if it takes longer, our Great Jin will win!"

Fan Wencheng saw very clearly.

Even if Zhu Youjian has gathered a huge sum of silver, what good does it do?

Silver, no matter how much you talk about it, is just a pile of stones.

It cannot be eaten, nor can it be drunk.

The Great Ming, due to years of natural disasters, simply cannot produce enough grain and fodder.

Therefore, as long as the delay is prolonged,

the Great Ming army will surely be defeated!

Having said this,

Fan Wencheng suddenly seemed to think of something.

He then looked at Huang Taiji and said in a low voice,

"Great Khan, perhaps it is already time for you to do another thing."

Hearing this, Huang Taiji was stunned.

"What thing?"

Fan Wencheng said in a low voice with a blank expression,

"Ascend the throne and assume the imperial title immediately!"

Upon hearing these four words,

Huang Taiji's vision immediately grew hazy.

Proclaim himself Emperor?!

Fan Wencheng continued to report in a low voice,

"Since matters have come to this, whether we win or lose, everyone in our Great Jin must strive with all their might in this battle."

"Back then, the Ming Taizu delayed proclaiming himself King because Chen Youliang was to the west, Zhang Shicheng was to the east, and Fang Guozhen was to the north."

"The Former Yuan's attention was not on the Ming Taizu, so the matter of proclaiming himself Emperor had to be postponed."

"Now, the entire Great Ming court has clearly regarded our Great Jin as a deadly threat."

"Since the Great Khan has nowhere left to hide, you must provide a proper title for all the soldiers and people of the entire Liaodong region!"

Since the First Dragon founded the empire and swept away the six states over sixteen hundred years ago, the erosion of imperial power over the people of the world has reached an unimaginable degree.

As long as you, Huang Taiji, do not proclaim yourself Emperor, in the eyes of the gentry throughout Liaodong, you are one notch lower than the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming.

You are ultimately just a warlord entrenched outside the passes.

No matter what, they will need to leave some face for the Son of Heaven.

And to make them contribute to the fullest extent for yourself,

the most critical factor is that seemingly worthless "imperial title"!

In the vast sea of historical records, this small "imperial title" has played the role of the final straw too many times!

In an instant, a fire seemed to burn within Huang Taiji's eyes!

65, Fan Wencheng: This subject knows nothing of war, but this subject knows the Great Ming!

As soon as Fan Wencheng spoke these words,

Dorgon, Kong Youde, and Badali immediately understood.

They looked at Huang Taiji in unison and shouted loudly,

"We, your subjects, humbly request the Great Khan to immediately assume the imperial title!"

Huang Taiji stood motionless inside the Great Hall of State.

He did not respond.

Nor did he oppose.

At certain times,

often having no attitude is the clearest attitude!

At dawn the next day,

the Manchu Beiles, the Eight Mongol Gushan Eljins, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, Geng Jingzhong, and Fan Wencheng and other civil officials gathered outside the palace gate.

Dorgon held a memorial in Manchu script, Kong Youde held one in Han script, and Badali held one in Mongol script; leading ministers of the Manchu, Han, and Mongol peoples through the three Palace Sect arches of the palace gate, they entered the palace to urge the ascension.

After three refusals and three concessions,

Huang Taiji, draped in a dragon robe, amidst the shouts of "Your Majesty" from the crowd of officials, led the hundred officials out of the city to sacrifice to Heaven.

He established the state name as Great Qing, changed the era name to Chongde, and ascended the throne of the Son of Heaven!

By this time,

Zhu Youjian and Huang Taiji were like gamblers who had killed until their eyes were red.

The two brought all their respective chips and rushed straight to the card table of this gamble.

—Dalinghe.

Ever since receiving the imperial edict transmitted from Shengjing.

The Later Jin troops and cavalry defending Dalinghe had already replaced their banners; the great flag bearing the character "Qing" and the banners of the Eight Banners now fluttered in the wind atop the city walls.

And all this news had already reached the ears of Hong Chengchou, the Viceroy of Jiliao.

Inside the central military commander's tent, Hong Chengchou stared fixedly at the map of Dalinghe before him.

Behind Hong Chengchou stood eight Regional Commanders of the Great Ming.

"Where have the naval vessels reached?"

A General, still bearing traces of youth, immediately clasped his fists and replied.

"Reporting to the Regional Commander: one hundred and fifty warships of the navy have arrived at the mouth of the Dalinghe River."

Hong Chengchou himself snatched the command flag before him and, with a fierce motion, slammed it down onto the sand table before the assembled generals.

"Yang Guozhu, Wu Sangui, Li Fuming, receive your orders!"

"Your humble general is here!"

"You three shall each lead your respective forces starting today to besiege Dalinghe; all units are to surround but not attack, and must not engage the enemy without explicit orders!"

"Yes!"

"Wang Pu, Tang Tong, Cao Bianjiao, Bai Guangen, receive your orders!"

"Your humble general is here!"

"You four shall immediately lead your respective forces to cross the Linghe River by force via the river mouth; within three days, you must ensure the entire force crosses the Linghe!"

"Yes!"

Hong Chengchou abandoned the timidity and hesitation that had characterized his actions in history.

Instead, he employed the very same stratagem used by Huang Taiji.

That was to first besiege Dalinghe, then lure the main Qing forces to come to their aid, and engage the enemy in open battle.

A classic tactic of besieging a point to strike at reinforcements.

In fact, the generals of the Ming army were quite capable of implementing such a tactic.

However, once one chooses to besiege a point and strike at reinforcements, one is inevitably forced to engage the enemy in close combat and fight a field battle.

And field battles happen to be the greatest weakness of the Ming army.

Therefore, Ming generals mostly abandoned this approach, often choosing instead to crush their opponents through sheer numerical superiority.

But this time, Hong Chengchou was different.

All the troops of the Ming army participating in this campaign were elite forces from the Nine Borders, fully paid in silver and rations.

Their armor and weapons had cost several million taels of gleaming silver.