Chapter 328: Chaotic Battle (Requesting Monthly Tickets)

The Dengzhou infantry square broke off pursuit. Zhu Guobin, leading his guards, galloped to the infantry square. The company commander hurried over to meet him. Zhu Guobin roared at the infantry company commander, "First and third company detachments, form ranks on the spot! The square is to pull back in formation and hold the ferry crossing."

He had also seen the reinforcements from both sides closing in at the same time. The Later Jin reinforcements had arrived half a day earlier than Zhu Guobin had estimated. To the east, Chen Xin's Guard Battalion had yet to appear. He had already dispatched two waves of relay riders to send urgent appeals to Chen Xin.

With Jianzhou bandits appearing to the north, the square infantry had to pull back to defend the ferry crossing. The Later Jin infantry had collapsed, but their cavalry still retained combat capability, which posed a huge threat to the Dengzhou cavalry battalion defending the western flank. If the cavalry remained in place, they would quickly be caught in a pincer from both sides, and cavalry in a stationary state simply lacked the defensive power of infantry.

Under threat from both directions, completely blocking the enemy cavalry was no longer realistic, but the Later Jin infantry absolutely could not be allowed to regroup smoothly. As long as they held until the two company columns from the south arrived, the bulk of the Later Jin infantry would be intercepted.

Zhu Guobin spurred his horse and galloped to Tan Shen, who had just returned. Pointing to the place opposite where the Later Jin infantry had left a large herd of horses, he said, "Pursue that infantry — one platoon at a time. Ignore their cavalry. Just charge straight into their rear formation. Keep charging until you reach open ground to the south, then wheel and charge again. The more chaos, the better. Don't let them regroup."

Tan Shen hesitated. "That will cost us heavy losses. Perhaps we should..."

"Carry it out! Even if the cavalry are wiped out, we cannot let them regroup." Time was pressing. Zhu Guobin ignored Tan Shen's opinion entirely, threw down that one line, wheeled his horse, and rode toward the fourth company detachment that had just been summoned, ordering that banner captain to return his detachment to its parent unit and reinforce the square's firepower.

The square infantry reversed direction on the spot. Officers barked orders. The soldiers stepped forward one by one to fill out what had been the rearmost rank. The front ranks of the square promptly became a tight, dense battle line, but the rear ranks were already ragged and incomplete. Drums then sounded, and the square advanced at quick march toward the ferry crossing. To the north, dust rose high — the Later Jin troops were already within a few li.

Tan Shen released all the cavalry in his hands. Operating by platoon, they used small-formation cavalry arrays to repeatedly charge the screening Later Jin horsemen. Once they broke through a gap, they continued pursuing the fleeing Later Jin soldiers. Seven cavalry platoons charged in rotation. The rout of the Later Jin infantry gave them a target. That was the place the Later Jin cavalry had to rescue, which could force the Later Jin cavalry to abandon hit-and-run skirmishing.

To cover their infantry, the Later Jin cavalry had no choice but to steel themselves and meet the attack head-on. The two detachments remaining on the eastern side of the battlefield formed dense formations and launched volley after volley at the Later Jin troops passing in all directions, severely disrupting the Later Jin cavalry's freedom of maneuver. Some bayara made desperate charges, using foot bows to exchange fire with the Ming troops, inflicting considerable casualties on the detachments. These scattered warriors were then promptly defeated by platoon volleys from flintlock muskets and became corpses on the ground.

Under wave after wave of charges by the dense Dengzhou cavalry formations, corpses from both sides littered the field. The Later Jin cavalry grew more and more scattered. Often, before they could regroup, another Ming cavalry charge was upon them. Even the bayara no longer dared to face the Dengzhou cavalry formations head-on, only shooting from the flanks. The Dengzhou cavalry formations ignored the attacks coming from both wings and simply charged straight ahead with ferocious momentum. Though their losses were severe, they inflicted even greater slaughter on the Later Jin routed troops, thoroughly disrupting the Later Jin infantry's last chance to regroup.

Ming troops also appeared to the south. The Later Jin foot soldiers, their fighting spirit completely shattered, panicked. They ran across the battlefield howling madly, weapons, armor, and helmets discarded everywhere. Only one thought remained in their minds: to seize a horse from the rear formation and flee for their lives before anyone else.

The Dengzhou cavalry fought with unleashed fury. After charging through the screening force, they spurred their horses in pursuit, easily cutting down from behind those routed soldiers who offered no resistance at all. Finally, they plunged into the herd of horses the Later Jin infantry had left behind, slashing wildly — just as the Later Jin bayara had done moments before. Hundreds of warhorses stampeded in all directions. The Later Jin rear formation fell into utter chaos. Dust rose everywhere across the battlefield. Panic-stricken men and horses fled in every direction. Wounded soldiers left on the ground wailed loudly, but no one paid them any heed.

The Ming army's western flank was now wide open. Later Jin soldiers who had managed to seize horses began fleeing northward from there in scattered groups. More men, unable to find horses, fled westward in panic straight into the hilly terrain. Some armored soldiers, dazed and disoriented, even jumped directly into the Fuzhou River.

Amid the chaos of battle, Dorgon was trapped in the rear formation by stampeding horses. Around him were his goshiha and some bayara. The confusion before him exceeded what he had anticipated. Everywhere he looked, routed soldiers and panicked horses ran to and fro, with cavalry from both sides charging and killing among them. Spurred by the chaotic scene, his own horse shifted its hooves restlessly. He had to grip the reins tightly. The Ming cavalry's reckless disregard for their own casualties shocked him.

A hundred paces from him, a Dengzhou cavalry unit thundered past. Several routed soldiers fleeing empty-handed could not get out of the way in time and were instantly stabbed by the Ming troopers' blades. Before they even hit the ground, they were bowled over by the horses. After three ranks of hooves trampled over them, a faint haze of dust rose from the earth. The routed soldiers lay there, motionless.

A Later Jin cavalry unit pursued closely behind them, but the Ming company commander led his cavalry straight southward. A few li away, Ming infantry were already in sight. The Later Jin cavalry dared not continue the pursuit. The moment they turned back, the Ming cavalry halted and hastily reformed their ranks. Dorgon could see that their formation was also in great disarray — pikes, tangpa, and sabers were all jumbled together within each line, nowhere near as orderly as at the start. Once roughly aligned, they charged back toward the battlefield. Another Ming cavalry unit charged through from the north, scattering the returning Later Jin pursuers head-on.

Reorganizing the infantry was no longer possible. The meiren i ejen dispatched earlier was nowhere to be seen, swept away by the routed troops to who knew where. The only infantry still in formation were the bayara led by Bakshan.

Dorgon gritted his teeth and loudly ordered the drummer to sound the retreat, telling the soldiers to flee for their lives. With the banner lord's great standard, he charged toward the bayara's position, gathering scattered cavalry along the way.

North of the ferry crossing, the rumble of hooves thundered. Nearly a thousand cavalry gradually came to a halt before the infantry formation, with close to two thousand more infantry approaching from behind. Beneath a great blue banner at the front, Manggūltai sat high on his horse. After hearing the scout's report, his face remained expressionless.

On this expedition, Hong Taiji had neither taken him along nor left him in Shenyang. He had been kept near Fuzhou the entire time. The one overseeing the overall situation in Shenyang was Minister of War Yoto, which left Manggūltai somewhat resentful. After all, Yoto was only a junior beile.

The Later Jin had the Eight Banners system, and now a Six Ministries structure had been added on top of it. At times Hong Taiji issued orders through the Deliberative Assembly; at other times he issued orders through the Six Ministries. Manggūltai was rather bewildered by it all. But he could see that Hong Taiji intended to use the Six Ministries to control military authority, and then use Han officials and Han troops to check the Eight Banners.

Standing beside him was Tohobi, the gūsa ejen of the Plain Blue Banner — or Regional Commander, in Hong Taiji's terminology. Tohobi also had his own several niru and held the right to dispose of the population of those niru. Although Manggūltai was the banner lord, he could not arbitrarily strip those away.

In fact, Tohobi was something like a paternal second cousin to Manggūltai. Tohobi's father was called Longdun, a cousin of Nurhaci, but he had consistently opposed Nurhaci and had done few proper things. Tohobi, however, had great foresight. He recognized early on that Nurhaci could prosper, threw in his lot with him, and was very obedient — much like Yoto and his father nowadays.

Hong Taiji's strategy had always been to win over the middle ranks to counter the upper ranks. When he first succeeded as Khan of the Later Jin, he elevated the Eight Banners' gūsa ejen to the Eight Ministers, giving them the right to participate in the Deliberative Assembly. In one stroke, he bought the loyalty of many, while also diluting the banner lords' influence in the Assembly. People like Jirgalang and Sahaliyan, who controlled portions of niru within their banners, were also targets of his co-optation. After Amin's downfall, Jirgalang naturally succeeded to the Bordered Blue Banner. Hong Taiji's power within the Eight Banners had now completely overwhelmed Daišan and Manggūltai. This caused the middle-ranking cadres like the Eight Banners' gūsa ejen to gravitate further toward Hong Taiji, greatly undercutting the banner lords' authority.

Manggūltai considered his own seniority superior to Hong Taiji's. His mother, after all, had been the principal wife — pure lineage, true pedigree. Hong Taiji's mother, Mongols of the Yehe Nara clan, had been a secondary consort married later. So deep down, Manggūltai rather looked down on this younger brother born of a concubine.

When Nurhaci was alive, in order to curry favor with the old chieftain, Manggūltai had always acted as the vanguard in suppressing his brothers. That included the matter of stripping Daišan's right of succession. He had offended quite a few people. Hong Taiji was far more clever than him. Though he had single-handedly orchestrated the exposure of Daišan's affair with Nurhaci's young consort, he put on the appearance of a good man. In the end, he won the old chieftain's favorable impression and defeated Daišan, his greatest rival for the throne. After he succeeded as Khan of the Great Jin, he had the other young consort of Nurhaci — the one who had exposed the affair at his behest — buried alive with the deceased Khan, eliminating the final hidden danger. In terms of intelligence and tactics, Hong Taiji was fully worthy of being the Later Jin Khan.

Manggūltai had a violent temper. Last year, provoked by Hong Taiji, he had drawn his sword in the Khan's presence. Although Daišan helped him out and preserved his status as Senior Beile, this suppression still caused his prestige to plummet. Hong Taiji appeared impartial, but his mind was vicious. Afterwards, in front of everyone, he launched into a tirade, even dragging up the matter of Manggūltai wanting to kill his own mother, Lady Fuca, in his early years, intent on reducing Manggūltai's character to negative territory. This year, after setting up the Six Ministries, Hong Taiji also established a Literary Office and appointed many Han officials, imitating the Ming practice of submitting memorials. Recently, some Han official had submitted a memorial demanding that the two remaining Senior Beiles no longer sit on the same level as the Great Khan. Manggūltai naturally knew who was behind it, and the resentment in his heart deepened another layer.

Regarding this relief mission to Fuzhou, Manggūltai had received word of the Ming landing the day before. The successive Ming troop movements had in fact drawn Yoto's attention. He had repeatedly sent orders from Shenyang, demanding that the forces at Gaizhou move south in sequence — especially the infantry-based Tianyou Army and Ujen Cooha — and had personally made a trip to Gaizhou. Yoto was very astute in his dealings and somewhat kinder to his relatives. When Manggūltai was punished last time, Yoto had not kicked him while he was down. So Manggūltai still appreciated his goodwill and moved his troops forward a certain distance.

Along the route from Fuzhou to Gaizhou, there were many post stations and military forts, all left behind by the former Ming court. They had long been abandoned, but after Jinzhou was taken, Hong Taiji wanted to restore the defensive capability between Fuzhou and Gaizhou. These small military forts could facilitate interior-line operations. The Plain Blue Banner took over some of the forts and, using their assigned bondservants, successively restored places like Yulinpu, Guotoupu, Guo'erpu, Xiongyue Post Station, Xin'anpu, Wushizhai Relay Station, Yongningjian, Mengjiachuanpu, Motapu, and Bajiapu.

A veteran of many campaigns, he avoided making the troop movements too conspicuous. Each time, he moved only small numbers, dispersing the army and stationing them in the various forts, concentrating them between Yongningjian and Xiongyue Post Station. Yongningjian was already fifty li north of Fuzhou, severely restricting Ming scouting activities there.

This movement had only just been completed, and he had intensified his patrol cavalry's counter-reconnaissance. The Dengzhou scouts had not detected it in time. Therefore, Manggūltai was actually not as far from Fuzhou as the Dengzhou garrison had estimated. Once the main army appeared on the official road, Manggūltai released large numbers of scout riders to cut off the routes south. The Ming scouts hidden in the mountain forests could no longer get ahead to report back.

By the time he received the scout report that the Ming army had seized the Fuzhou River ferry crossing, Manggūltai was already nearing Fuzhou. He had originally wanted to teach his little brother Dorgon a lesson and had been dragging his feet, insisting on bringing Fuzhou's Hongyi cannons along. But Tohobi firmly opposed this and kept urging a rapid advance. With this man present, Manggūltai could not be too obvious about it. He had no choice but to abandon the plan to bring the Hongyi cannons, though he insisted on waiting for the Ujen Cooha and other infantry, delaying the advance to the pace of foot soldiers. Still, they had arrived at last.

After hearing the report, Tohobi's brow furrowed deeply. On the battlefield ahead, many riderless horses were running loose, and some mounted routed soldiers were fleeing for their lives. On the southern battlefield, men shouted and horses neighed. Squadron after squadron of cavalry darted back and forth — the fighting had become a tangled mess. But right by the Fuzhou River ferry crossing, there were four infantry squares, arranged two in front and two behind to form a larger square, precisely guarding the crossing. From his vantage point, pikes stood dense as a forest, the formation tight and orderly.

The Plain Blue Banner had only a little over twenty niru. In successive engagements, they had been repeatedly and severely mauled by this Deng-Lai army. Their losses were already considerable. The newly supplemented wild Jurchen were still no match for the veterans, so their strength had actually declined. Now they had to face the Deng-Lai army again, and his heart was pounding with apprehension. But Dorgon's great banner was still moving about in the south. Not rescuing him was out of the question.

The Ming army's western flank was already wide open. Rescuing Dorgon would be easy — they only needed to send cavalry charging in to extract him. But whether to continue fighting the Ming army after that, he could not decide. Dorgon had clearly suffered catastrophic losses. If they let the Ming army simply sail away unmolested, and Hong Taiji returned to hold them accountable, he would not get off lightly either.

He glanced behind him. This time they had brought nine hundred armored troops of the Plain Blue Banner, nearly a hundred bayara, and behind them, over a thousand each from the Tianyou Army and the Ujen Cooha. The Ujen Cooha among them were all matchlock soldiers, each also issued a shun knife — roughly the same equipment as the original Wendeng Battalion, except their matchlocks were all old stock, rarely maintained in the past, and of unreliable quality.

The Tianyou Army had a mix of pikes, matchlocks, three-barreled guns, and short arms. At the time, Hong Taiji had ordered Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng to train them on the Wendeng model. The two had fumbled with it for several months, and no one knew how effective it had been.

No matter how much Tohobi stood in awe of Hong Taiji, he had to prioritize his own losses. After all, strength was the foundation of everything. The Deng-Lai army had repeatedly proven its credentials as an elite force. He could not help but have misgivings — especially with Dorgon right before his eyes as a ready-made cautionary example.

Tohobi kept his expression neutral. First, he said in a low voice to Manggūltai, "Third Beile, how should we deploy our formation?"

Manggūltai had fought for decades and could read the situation at a glance. The coarse muscles on his face twitched as he said, "The Ming troops to the south are still several li away. Those Nikhan cavalry are already in disarray too. We have the advantage in cavalry. Take fifty bayara and seven hundred mounted armored troops. Go around those infantry squares via the western flank. First, break through to the rear formation and rescue that little Fourteenth. Drive off the Nikhan cavalry. Then harass the infantry square approaching from the south. Don't let them close in easily."

Tohobi knew this was a sound plan. The Ming infantry had clustered into a single mass with little mobility. The western flank was already open and could be easily bypassed. Sending fresh cavalry into the rear formation to drive off the Ming cavalry would be no problem. Then they could use roving cavalry to harass the approaching infantry square, forcing them to slow their advance and temporarily severing the link between the two Ming infantry forces.

His eyes shifted as he asked, "Master, the Bordered White Banner looks to have suffered grievous losses. If we let the Nikhan go, when the Great Khan returns, won't he blame us for failing to provide adequate relief?"

Manggūltai's face was full of unyielding defiance. He cast a sidelong glance at Tohobi. "Who said I'm letting them go? I'm having you pin down the Nikhan to the south precisely so I can annihilate this bunch of southern barbarians at the ferry crossing. Once we retake the crossing, the Nikhan to the east and south will be cut off from each other. Then we can pick one group to either attack or besiege — it'll be entirely up to us."

Tohobi said in surprise, "Master, you have only a little over two hundred armored troops left. How will you assault that infantry square?"

"My troops have all gone to rescue little Fourteenth, so naturally I can only use them." Manggūltai pointed at the two Han armies forming up nearby, a trace of smugness appearing on his face. (To be continued.)

PS: Dorgon and Ajige are both of the Bordered White Banner; Dodo is of the Plain White Banner. This was an error in the earlier text. It is hereby corrected. Thanks to the reader who pointed it out.