Chapter 334: Withdrawal

Dengzhou Garrison continued attacking the south gate that day. The low walls of Fuzhou city came under fierce direct fire from Dengzhou artillery, making it impossible to stand on the ramparts. But the Later Jin troops defended the city with stubborn resolve. Whenever the Ming army showed signs of using scaling ladders to mount the walls, they fought back desperately — with fire attacks or stones — twice repelling the Dengzhou soldiers preparing to ascend.

The Jianzhou bandits inside the city were numerous, and their supply of the most potent defensive items like fire oil was ample. Chen Xin, worried about excessive losses, did not launch an all-out assault on Fuzhou. The Jianzhou bandits, repeatedly beaten back when they tried to sally forth, were equally terrified. They frantically piled bricks, stones, and timber inside the city gates, sealing the main entrance completely. Both sides wary of each other, the clash at the south gate, though noisy, grew less and less brutal.

The attack on the south gate continued for two days. Beneath the wall, burned and destroyed Dengzhou siege equipment piled up in heaps. Under cover of night, the Later Jin soldiers quietly stacked bricks and stones, or laid cloth bags filled with sand and gravel, restoring the breastworks atop the wall.

The terrified Later Jin soldiers no longer dared to meet the Ming forces head-on at the south gate, only sending cavalry from the north to harass and pin them down. But they defended the city with great determination. During the second day's siege, whenever artillery fire knocked out a section of the breastworks, bondservants would immediately come up to repair it.

While the fighting raged at the south gate, thick smoke billowed north of Fuzhou. Twenty groups of Ming raiding cavalry burned grain fields as they went. These scouts, newly granted the privilege of two horses each, came and went like the wind. The Later Jin troops along the route had all been drawn away to Fuzhou, leaving only the old, the weak, and bondservants to guard the fortified hamlets. They could only watch helplessly as those scouts set fires everywhere across the open country, burning most of the nearly ripe wheat fields.

On the evening of the second day, the harassing cavalry gradually returned to Fuzhou. They had encountered a small force of Bordered Red Banner cavalry at Yongningjian. The Dengzhou Garrison, having achieved its operational objectives, suddenly withdrew from outside Fuzhou before dawn on the second day.

The withdrawal was a complex maneuver. The Dengzhou Garrison transported its heavy baggage on flat-bottomed boats across the Fuzhou River, sending them directly out to sea from the river mouth. The infantry withdrew carrying only their own equipment, marching at high speed. That morning, the Dengzhou Garrison still sent cavalry to patrol the city perimeter, creating the illusion of a continued attack. Two shichen later, the main cavalry force vanished through Hongshankou southeast of the city. The roving cavalry set fire to the remaining wheat fields outside the city before departing.

The Later Jin troops in Fuzhou, having suffered heavy defeats in every sally over the past few days, suspected another Ming trap. Paralyzed by suspicion, they repeatedly sent out scouts to investigate. Only after confirming the Ming army had withdrawn did they send seven hundred Plain Blue Banner cavalry from the unobstructed north gate to follow. By then, the Ming infantry had already completely crossed the Fuzhou River.

The Dengzhou Garrison did not split its forces for the withdrawal this time. All combat units retreated by land. Cavalry and Long Qibing guarded the two main fords of the Fuzhou River. The Dengzhou cavalry and Long Qibing were intermixed, with dismounted musketeers positioned between the cavalry formations. The firepower of their muskets posed a grave threat in the narrow ford. The Later Jin soldiers dared not charge the confined crossing. The Dengzhou infantry withdrew unmolested, with the Guards First Regiment acting as rearguard, the entire army retreating in good order.

Just as the Later Jin and Ming armies stood facing off, a scout arrived from Fuzhou with an urgent report: Ming warships had appeared near Paichashi. At least three hundred cavalry immediately turned back. The remaining Later Jin forces no longer had the strength to mount an effective attack on the Ming army and seemed more intent on merely observing their withdrawal.

After the infantry crossed the Langu River, the cavalry withdrew in sequence. The Later Jin troops then pursued across the Fuzhou River. The two sides faced off again at the Langu River. The Ming cavalry pulled back once more after the infantry entered the mountains. The mandarin duck formation infantry of the Guards Battalion set up layered defenses in the mountainous terrain, covering each other as they withdrew. After the Later Jin troops were ambushed twice by Wan Dan landmine cannons, they finally dared not continue the pursuit and let the main Ming force slowly depart.

The autumn campaign of the fifth year of Chongzhen at Fuzhou thus concluded. Apart from the major victory on the second day of the campaign, the two subsequent days of siege warfare inflicted over four hundred total casualties on the Later Jin army, mainly among the Ujen Cooha and Tianyou troops. All wheat fields from Fuzhou to Yongningjian were burned to ash.

Most of Chen Xin's campaign objectives were achieved. Fuzhou was not taken, partly due to his fear of casualties, and partly to give the Later Jin army a reason to keep garrisoning it. More importantly, the Later Jin troops' determination to defend was very strong, and the Dengzhou forces did not hold an absolute advantage. This dealt a certain blow to morale, but the subsequent promotions and combat rewards would quickly restore it.

In Shenyang, Yue Tuo received a stream of urgent reports. He had only three thousand men to guard Shenyang, yet Ming forces were conducting raids all along the eastern coast of Liaodong. He urgently conscripted five thousand armored soldiers and surplus males from the various banners. He sent two thousand men to reinforce Fenghuang City and Zhenjiang, and personally led three thousand to reinforce Fuzhou. When he reached Gaizhou, he received word that the Ming army had withdrawn. But the Ming navy had appeared multiple times at Paichashi near Fuzhou, and a few ships had even reached Lianyun Island. Yue Tuo had to leave a thousand cavalry to garrison Gaizhou and led the remaining two thousand to Fuzhou. Along the way, wheat fields lay burned everywhere; even the autumn-dried wild grass had been burned in many places, leaving the earth covered in patches of black. By then, the Ming army had been gone for several days, but the devastating losses of the Bordered White Banner still shocked him. Manggultai and Dorgon brought him to the south gate. Bloodstains and pockmarks from bullets still remained in the gate tunnel. The shattered crenellations atop the south wall shook him even more. This time, the Ming army had also brought a slightly larger cannon, still very fast to move and fire.

Dorgon found several solid iron cannonballs on South Gate Street. Weighed, they were roughly six jin. The smaller cannonballs weighed about three jin. The Later Jin soldiers on the south wall had seen them being moved; a few soldiers could push them along, so their weight was estimated at no more than a thousand jin. The smallest cannonballs, weighing one jin, were confirmed to be fired by those Frankish breech-loaders.

Yue Tuo thought of the Hongyi cannons made by Ding Qiming. Those weighed five thousand jin yet only fired a seven-jin ball. Though they had some effect at Dalinghe, they were far from being able to accompany an army on the march like the Deng–Lai troops' guns. Moreover, their manufacture was extremely difficult. Both the lost-wax and clay-mold methods required months for the molds to dry, and often only one out of ten molds produced a usable cannon. Judging from the Shenmi Island and this recent battle, these small cannons, though short-ranged, possessed high power and accuracy within one li. In field battles, their grapeshot had an astonishing rate of fire. Without the cover of shield carts, any frontal charge would result in heavy casualties. Their combat utility far surpassed that of the Hongyi cannons.

Dorgon looked dejected. His Bordered White Banner had nearly a thousand men killed in battle or captured, and over a hundred more in the city died of their wounds. Of over a thousand bondservants, only a few dozen managed to escape back. This was a severe blow to their strength. Manggultai, on the other hand, wore a smug expression. His Plain Blue Banner had both rescued Dorgon and held Fuzhou, even pursuing the Dengzhou troops at the end, with fewer than a hundred casualties. Against any other Ming army, losing a hundred men would have enraged Manggultai, but this time, he actually felt somewhat pleased with himself.

Led by the two, Yue Tuo went to inspect the Deng–Lai army's position at Niangniang Temple. The caltrops and javelins the Ming troops had deployed had already been retrieved by the navy. The two breastworks, front and rear, and the trench were still there. The breastworks had some half-height gaps, likely for cannons. At intervals, a sally channel was left open. On both sides of the approach in front of the position, the ground was covered with holes large and small, the excavated earth piled beside them, stretching all the way to fifty paces from the position.

Yue Tuo mused, "This was to guard against our shield carts."

Dorgon said, somewhat weakly, "That day, when I saw them doing this, I knew these Dengzhou soldiers would be hard to fight. These holes and mounds not only stop shield carts but also hinder our roving cavalry. Horses cannot gallop at all in front of their lines. And this was only the second day. Had it dragged on a few more days, who knows what they would have built."

Manggultai said coldly, "Add some poisoned caltrops in the holes, and one step in means death. That night at the ford, several armored soldiers I sent on a night raid stepped on those things and are all dead today. There's also a kind of buried mine they plant by the roadside. When it explodes, stones fly everywhere. My pursuing armored soldiers were hit twice, seven or eight died. There are too many mountains around Fuzhou and Jinzhou, and these Dengzhou soldiers are truly fierce. Yue Tuo, since you're in charge of the Ministry of War, tell the Great Khan: give these four southern garrisons to that Chen Xin, and see if he dares take them."

"Fourth Beile speaks the truth. These Ming troops are not easy to deal with, and their forces are growing ever more numerous. Entrenched in Jinzhou, they will soon become a major threat to our Great Jin." Yue Tuo suddenly sighed. "Now, defending Fuzhou is a problem, and not defending it is also a problem. If we abandon it entirely, the next time Chen Xin comes, central Liao will have no screen or protection, and he could march straight into the fertile lands of Haizhou. If we garrison Fuzhou, too few troops won't do, and too many... the grain and fodder... Let's wait for the Great Khan to return and decide."

Manggultai continued, "You know, these Dengzhou soldiers not only have fine guns and cannons, but in formation battle, they beat Little Fourteen's armored soldiers until they pissed their pants. If I hadn't come fast, Little Fourteen would have been finished in there. If anyone still says we should defend it, then all eight houses should send troops to defend. What sense does it make to only send two banners? Isn't that right, Little Fourteen?"

Dorgon glanced at the two of them upon hearing this. He was standing right there, yet they spoke as if he wasn't present. Supposedly, they were all relatives: Manggultai was his half-brother by the same father, and Yue Tuo was his nephew. Though outwardly they acted as usual, their words now carried a hint of disdain. It was because the Bordered White Banner had suffered heavy losses, mostly from Dorgon's own niru. Dorgon's authority had diminished somewhat. Three hundred of the losses were men under Ajige's niru, and Dorgon still didn't know how he would deal with Ajige's fury later.

After Manggultai finished complaining, Yue Tuo called over a bithesi clerk and ordered him to draw the Ming army's defensive lines. This place would certainly have to be leveled, lest the Ming army use it again next time. However, the Ming army's trenches were something they could learn from.

These Later Jin military aristocrats were also highly capable learners, extremely adept at drawing lessons from combat. Any superior tactic or weapon encountered in battle, they wished to adopt for their own use. The Hongyi cannons, which the Ming army had only recently equipped, were quickly valued by them, and captured Hongyi cannon operators were given the best treatment. Now, they were also imitating the Dengzhou Garrison's equipment and tactics. And in the matter of digging trenches, they were better at it than the Ming army.

The trenches the Later Jin troops dug in the later phase of the Dalinghe campaign had already been improved, becoming an inverted triangle shape, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom, with a slope of about sixty degrees. Anyone falling in would find it very difficult to climb out, and the bottom was even too narrow to stand on. In the later Song–Jin campaign, it was this type of trench they dug.

While the bithesi clerk drew the diagram, Yue Tuo walked alone to the seaside. Changsheng Island opposite was clearly visible. His brow furrowed slightly. His greatest worry about the Deng–Lai army was not how good their weapons were, but that they now dared to fight the Great Jin army in the field and hold their own. This army had shown strong fighting spirit since Gu'an, and after arriving at Lushun, their offensive desire was even stronger. Now, the area east of Pingyang River had become forbidden ground for Great Jin scouts. The reputation of the Great Jin army seemed to have no effect on them whatsoever.

Even more frightening was the speed of their expansion. In the second year of Chongzhen, they had only a little over two thousand men. By the fourth year of Chongzhen, when suppressing the Dengzhou rebellion, Kong Youde estimated they had at least four thousand, including a few hundred cavalry. And this time, just in southern Liao, they had mobilized over five thousand men, with nearly two thousand cavalry. Yue Tuo understood the Ming military system, but from the descriptions of Dorgon and others, all the other Ming units were of one pattern, showing they were all under Chen Xin's control. In Yue Tuo's understanding, this had already become a military fiefdom similar to the Zu family army. The only difference was that Chen Xin was more belligerent and more hostile toward Great Jin. If he was allowed to expand at this rate, in a few years, the balance of power would completely reverse.

His gaze turned southeast, toward Lushun. That place was the key to southern Liao...

Chen Xin had already returned to Nanguan by this time. The nearly one thousand captured warhorses could double the size of the cavalry. The flat terrain around Nanguan was perfect for training cavalry, and it was also relatively safe, unlike Jinzhou, which was on the front line.

Given the excellent performance of the heavy weapons banner unit this time, he also planned to equip the Long Qibing regiment with this type of rocket cart. Its mobility was similar to the four-pounder cannon cart, and the wheel spokes were of the same design, adding no extra difficulty to maintenance. For the ordinary pike-and-shot regiments, it would be left for a later step.

Next came a series of tasks: pensions, wounded soldier resettlement, merit reporting, troop replenishment, combat summaries, and training improvements. However, Chen Xin himself did not have much to do now. The various functional departments below handled things, submitting reports for his signature once completed. Then, he would have the Aide Office select some military merits for spot-check verification.

The most complicated of these was merit reporting. After the internal merit determination was complete, the battle merits reported to the imperial court were a different system entirely. The Military Affairs Department needed to convert the Dengzhou Garrison's own verified merits into head-count merits, matching them to different meritorious individuals. This task was even more troublesome than verifying the military merits themselves. Each time, Chen Xin would not report too many people, to reduce the court's influence within the Dengzhou Garrison. It often required many revisions.

This time, the cavalry and mounted infantry had suffered relatively heavy losses, and they also had to face possible Jianzhou bandit retaliation at Jinzhou. Chen Xin temporarily changed the replenishment method, directly drawing soldiers from the Fourth Battalion's pike-and-shot regiment to fill up the Long Qibing, then transferring reserve soldiers from Dengzhou to replenish the pike-and-shot regiment. But the cavalry battalion's replenishment still had to come from Dengzhou.

The Guards First Regiment, having participated in the mopping-up and wall assault operations, could be transferred back to Dengzhou for replenishment. Chen Xin planned to rotate in the Second Battalion's mandarin duck formation regiment for combat duty, all under Zhu Guobin's command.

He stayed at Nanguan for over ten days, completing the combat summary and participating in several tactical improvement exercises. After the military merit verification was finalized, he personally awarded medals to the meritorious personnel of each unit. The amount of the combat reward this time was also communicated to every soldier, deposited by the Logistics Department into each person's military registration number, to be collected upon returning to Dengzhou. Coupled with several commendation meetings organized by the training officers, morale in the army quickly soared again.

After these matters were settled, Chen Xin returned to Lushun. The route was still desolate, with only some military households from Lushun hoeing the plains south of Nanguan to clear weeds, preparing to sow alfalfa.

This forage grass, hailed as the king of pasture, was recommended for planting by the agricultural group after experiments in southern Liao. A relatively cold-resistant variety was chosen. Alfalfa can be eaten by both horses and humans, is rich in crude protein, carbohydrates, and vitamins, adapts well to the land, and can even improve soil quality. However, it is vulnerable to weeds during the seedling stage, so the land must be turned first. After sowing in August, winter would soon arrive, freezing the weed seedlings and seeds to death. The alfalfa seeds, being highly adaptable, would sprout early and seize nutrients, and once their root systems grew large, they could effectively suppress weeds.

By next year, the alfalfa near Nanguan could begin to be harvested. After two years, it could be cut multiple times, providing ample horse fodder. Their roots would also enrich the soil, saving the step of fertilizing if the land were later converted to grain cultivation.

Along the way, Chen Xin saw beacon towers on many hilltops. As long as there were qualified soldiers, these fortified platforms could play a significant role. Around Jinzhou's periphery, there were currently several such tower-forts, garrisoned by over a hundred men in peacetime, serving both as supply points for scouts and as early warning posts.

When he arrived at Lushun, he stirred up a fervor among the local settler households. This time, the Dengzhou Garrison had slain over a thousand true barbarians, lifting morale across southern Liao. The Dongjiang Garrison in Liaodong had also made considerable gains, an improvement over the half-dead state of the past two years.

When Chen Xin reached his government office in the city, Song Wenxian had not yet returned from Pidao. A supervising secretary from the Foreign Affairs Department who had stayed behind hurried over. With him was Qin Lufang, the deputy battalion commander of the navy. Qin Lufang was now the naval battalion commander permanently stationed at Lushun.

The man from Foreign Affairs reported to Chen Xin, "My lord, Vice General Mao from Guanglu Island and Vice General Shang from Shicheng Island have arrived. They said they were going to pay respects at General Mao's tomb and stopped by to visit you, my lord. They have been waiting for several days. Commander Qin would not permit them to enter the harbor, so they had no choice but to go to Shuangdao first." His tone seemed to carry some dissatisfaction with Qin Lufang.

"So soon." Chen Xin was slightly surprised. These two had just finished their raiding operations and were said to have made some kills. For them to visit Lushun so quickly was unexpected.

Shang Kexi was a name he knew well, and his feelings toward this man were somewhat complicated. After entering the pass, he had overseen the Guangzhou Massacre, one of the most brutal city slaughters. But at this time, he was still the most active resister of the Later Jin. His father, Shang Xueli, was a martyr who died fighting the Jin on the raid against Hetu Ala. Last time, when Huang Long was held hostage by mutinous soldiers, it was Shang Kexi who fought his way onto the island at the risk of his life, organizing the Dongjiang veterans to counterattack and beheading the ringleader Geng Zhongyu. Geng Zhongyu was Geng Zhongming's younger brother. As a veteran of the Dongjiang Garrison, he had always resented Huang Long, an outsider parachuted in. His instigation of this trouble also implicated Geng Zhongming. One of the reasons Geng Zhongming could firmly resolve to rebel at the time was his fear of being implicated by this younger brother.

Huang Long had been cruelly abused by Geng Zhongyu, losing his nose. Unwilling to stay on Pidao any longer, he had now moved his station to Ludao. Shang Kexi was on Shicheng Island and had been promoted to Vice General.

In the original history, Huang Long went to Lushun, and over a hundred members of Shang Kexi's family, including his elder brother Shang Keyi, all perished at Lushun. They shared an irreconcilable blood feud with the Later Jin.

After the fall of Lushun, the Ming court grew increasingly suspicious of Dongjiang, and its support dwindled. Yet the men of the Dongjiang Garrison were still busy with internal strife. Shen Shikui became the Regional Commander of the Dongjiang Garrison. Because Shang Kexi had rescued Huang Long previously, Shen bore a grudge against him and summoned him to Pidao, planning to execute him. Shang Kexi learned of the plot in advance and, feeling he had no way out, finally threw himself into the arms of his sworn enemy, the Later Jin. Along the way, he slaughtered the Dongjiang soldiers on several southeastern islands. His navy altered the balance of power in the Liao Sea, often causing the Ming navy to flee at the mere sight of him, leading to the complete decline of the Dongjiang Garrison.

His fate always gave Chen Xin an indescribable sense of oppression. Mao Chenglu, on the other hand, had lost the opportunity to join the Dengzhou rebellion and thus kept his life.

Chen Xin nodded and said to the two men, "Lushun is a critical military base for my Dengzhou Garrison. All foreign ships and personnel are strictly prohibited from entering the harbor without authorization. Vice Battalion Commander Qin acted correctly. Steward Wang, arranging for them to stay at Shuangdao was also very proper. Go first and inform them that I have returned to Lushun, but I still have some military affairs to handle. I will see them once those are finished."

(To be continued)