Chapter 402

"You start. First curse Huang Taiji for having an affair with Abahai, then say the old chieftain found out, so he took a desperate gamble and poisoned Nurhaci to death."

"My lord, what does 'having an affair' mean?"

"It means sleeping together." Huang Side answered impatiently.

The one who asked was a barbarian soldier brought by Wu Jianzhong. He was formerly of the Yehe tribe; when the Later Jin destroyed Yehe, his clan was slaughtered brutally. Later he became a trusted aide of Liu Xingzuo. He spoke the barbarian tongue and had always been in the Blue Team at the Laizhou training base, helping new recruits familiarize themselves with Later Jin tactics. To ensure effectiveness, he was required to keep his appearance and attire unchanged, queue still in place. Ordinarily, he dared not go out without comrades accompanying him. This time, Huang Side had seconded him to Lüshun for this baffling propaganda war.

He scratched the helmet on his head. "Lord Huang, the one who slept with Abahai was Daišan."

"Cut the chatter. When I tell you to say Huang Taiji, you say Huang Taiji." Huang Side was peremptory. He had originally obtained a good deal of Later Jin intelligence from the Information Bureau; Wu Jianzhong was Liu Xingzuo's trusted aide and had heard most of the sordid affairs among the Later Jin. This time, the surrendered Bakšan was also considered high-ranking. Once all the messy stories were told, Huang Side worked through the night to draft an outline for a cursing campaign, aimed at dividing the Later Jin's true Jurchens, or at the very least sapping their morale.

"After killing the old chieftain, Huang Taiji then set his eyes on Amin's concubine..."

"That's called a Fujin."

"Whatever. Anyway, it's Amin's minor wife. So he found an excuse to lock Amin away. Next, he'll set his eyes on Abatai's Fujin. That's why Abatai is pushed to the front this time, that's how it came about... Eh?"

Huang Side's mouth hung open. The barbarian soldier also looked at him curiously. "Set his eyes on what?"

"This next part is for cursing Dorgon." Huang Side gave a dry cough. Last night he had submitted the outline to Chen Xin for approval, expecting Chen Xin would not write any comments. But just now he saw that Chen Xin had made a revision — it actually said Dorgon had set his eyes on Hong Taiji's minor wife, planning to learn from Huang Taiji's method: kill Hong Taiji and then seize this concubine. Even the name was written: Bumbutai. Huang Side never bothered to remember such irrelevant names; he had no idea how Chen Xin remembered them.

"Hmm, among the Borjigit women Huang Taiji married, one was an aunt, two were nieces. All came from Khorchin. The one who married over in the tenth year of Tianming, that one is called Bumbutai. Dorgon has his eyes on her. After cursing Dorgon, you then curse Hooge. Hmm, it's Dorgon who has his eyes on Hooge's primary consort, also from Khorchin. Tsk tsk. What should this Manggusi even call Hooge..."

Huang Side rambled on for a long while, not even fully sorting it out himself. Fortunately, the Blue Team's barbarian soldier knew a bit and kept filling in the gaps in his own mind. Once he finally understood, he raised a wooden megaphone and immediately began cursing. This round of cursing dragged in everything, randomly tying the Later Jin nobility into all sorts of relationships.

He cursed in the Jurchen tongue, then in Mongolian, then in Chinese — this was his greatest strength. Most Yehe people spoke Mongolian, and he was also fluent in Jurchen and Chinese, a multi-talented individual.

The barbarian soldier began cursing in Chinese, later going off-script and cursing wildly, starting from Daišan all the way to Dorgon. Only the youngest, Dodo, had no material to work with. On the Later Jin side was the Bordered Yellow Banner line; furious roars erupted from within, and countless light arrows flew out. Both the barbarian soldier and Huang Side hid behind the breastwork of the earthen wall, shielded by overhanging covers. The guards on either side added two more protective shields. Through a gap in the breastwork, they stuck out the megaphone and continued cursing.

Behind the Dengzhou Battalion's earthen wall, waves of laughter erupted. The barbarian soldier cursed with growing enthusiasm, embellishing as he went. Huang Side stood beside him, beaming with delight, feeling the effect was even better than he had imagined.

On the earthen wall, over ten Later Jin soldiers stood up and roared as they charged toward the Dengzhou line. The two tiers of musketeers on the wall fired volley after volley, and the Frankish cannons joined in. The dozen-odd Later Jin soldiers were cut down by the dense gunfire. The last Later Jin soldier rushed into the tail end of the horse-blocking trench; suddenly a burst of flame erupted at his feet, and both legs were blown off by a landmine. He fell to the ground, screaming in agony. The musketeers on the opposite side of the trench fired wildly; the Later Jin soldier's body was riddled with bullet holes. After struggling for a moment, he died. But the Dengzhou Battalion did not stop. A nearby four-pounder fired a round of grapeshot at those fallen Later Jin soldiers ahead, silencing all the groaning sounds.

Even during the Later Jin soldiers' charge, the barbarian soldier had kept up his relentless torrent. When he finished cursing, a wave of cheers and applause erupted from behind the Dengzhou earthen wall. The barbarian soldier bowed in all directions, then took off his coconut-shell canteen to drink. Huang Side grabbed him and pulled him down from the earthen wall. Once inside the straw shed at the rear, he burst out laughing. "Well done. Now, let's go."

The barbarian soldier asked in surprise, "Go where?"

"This is the Bordered Yellow Banner. Now that we've finished cursing them, we go curse the Bordered White Banner. Right, curse Dorgon. This script needs a little revision — change it to Dorgon and Abahai..."

"Lord Huang, Abahai is Dorgon's birth mother. That's going too far."

"Oh, then leave that part out. Just curse him for setting his eyes on Bumbutai. We need to curse longer on this part; it was too short just now."

The barbarian soldier's mouth was parched from all the cursing. Finally finding a gap, he took a sip of water and asked, "How many more banners do we have to curse?"

"All of them. We start from the Plain White Banner on the west side and curse all the way until we finish with the Bordered Blue Banner."

The barbarian soldier: "..."

"The three Dorgon brothers, holding two hundred banners' worth of troops, pay only lip service to Huang Taiji while secretly defying him. Dorgon especially bullies his elder brother Ajige within the banner and has set his eyes on Bumbutai. Every time Huang Taiji goes hunting, Dorgon follows nearby, peeping with ill intentions..."

From behind the earthen wall of the Bordered White Banner, the cursing from the opposite side kept coming. Dodo happened to be with Dorgon at the time. His eyes blazed with fury as he abruptly stood up. "Fourteenth Brother, let me lead troops and charge out. I must capture that man and hack him to pieces."

Dorgon hastily pulled him back. With a calm expression, he continued listening. After a moment, he finally laughed.

Dodo said angrily, "Fourteenth Brother, you can still laugh?"

Dorgon shook his head. "This Chen Xin is truly amusing, making up lies like this. He's trying to lure us into charging. Didn't your banner just get seven or eight men drawn out? If you really lead troops to charge, you'll be falling right into his trap."

"Are we supposed to just let them spout such nonsense?"

"We'll curse back. Find a few men with loud voices."

"Chen Xin, a man of Tieling, consistently committed every evil and plagued his hometown in Tieling. After our Great Jin took Tieling, Chen Xin sold himself and threw in his lot with Son-in-law Tong. Yet his evil habits remained unchanged; under the son-in-law's name, he raped and violated women. The villagers were outraged, and the son-in-law was about to arrest him when he fled together with another villain, Liu Minyou. Any Han soldier of the Dengzhou Battalion who seizes these two and delivers them to our Great Jin shall be rewarded with one pig, three dogs, and one copper coin..."

Over a dozen surplus soldiers who knew Chinese shouted in unison. Dodo listened, his brows and eyes crinkling with delight. "Fourteenth Brother, now this is what I call striking back."

Dorgon gave a derisive chuckle. The information they had gathered on Chen Xin's identity amounted to just this much: they knew he was from Tieling in Liaodong and had fled into the pass. They had no way to verify it, nor did anyone think to question it — otherwise, why would Chen Xin fight the Later Jin every time as if injected with chicken blood? So the rumors they fabricated were based on this.

Dorgon laughed. "Don't spend all day thinking about striking back. Look at how badly Abatai has been beaten. Now the grand army has lost several thousand men and only just reached the horse-blocking trench. How many men will it take to take the earthen wall? And behind that earthen wall there's another earthen wall — how many more men then?"

"Fourteenth Brother, I know everything you're saying. Anyway, I'll just stick with you. Ajige keeps clamoring to attack every day — let him go attack."

Dorgon narrowed his eyes. "Ajige clamors to attack, but when have you seen him actually do it? Every night he makes a racket with gongs and drums, but he sends fewer than a hundred troops, and half of them are bondservants. They go up, step on a few mines, and retreat. Then he goes back to Old Eighth to claim credit. Did your grain shipment arrive today?"

"It arrived, delivered by our own people. On the way they ran into a few landmines, just smashed up a few carts, that's all. Those roving Dengzhou troops left in Fuzhou are powerless now anyway."

"Haven't the Niru below been complaining?"

"How could they not? They're all conscripted from the villages. Once the grand army marches, grain is needed everywhere. Every household has to contribute. Privately, grain prices have already reached five taels per shi. If we keep fighting, it'll rise even more."

Dorgon was silent for a moment. This kind of fighting was a war of attrition. Last year at Dalinghe, everyone had already suffered losses. After taking it, all they got was a bunch of bondservants, with very little in the way of material compensation. Fortunately, the later campaign against the Chahar turned a profit, allowing each banner to catch its breath. This Liaonan region was a godforsaken place; for a hundred li from Fuzhou there was not a soul in sight. Around Lüshun there wasn't even grass, only some unburned trees on various hilltops. Wood for shield carts had to be cut from the mountains, laboriously transported down, and built — several hundred bondservants had dropped dead from exhaustion. It was purely a losing proposition.

Dodo sighed from the side. "Tell me, if Second Brother hadn't swept Fuzhou so clean back then, we could at least have foraged some food. Now everything has to be shipped from central Liao. Second Brother, really..."

"Even if he hadn't swept it clean, it wouldn't have been left for us. Chen Xin would have pulled everyone out long ago. Now that we're bogged down here beneath the city walls, what I'm worried about is something happening to our supply line. The grand army shouldn't stay here long. Has the Dongjiang force come out yet?"

"Just now, Sonin came by. From what he said, Huang Long hasn't moved. The Dongjiang troops from Pi Island have reached Tieshan. The ones from Shicheng, Changshan, and Lu Island have come ashore, though. Shang Kexi and Mao Chenglu are the most energetic. They fought a battle with our men at Huanggudao Fort; we cut down a hundred of theirs."

"How many of ours died?"

Dodo seemed almost proud. "The Bordered Blue Banner lost over twenty, all armored soldiers. Shang Kexi and Mao Chenglu have improved compared to before. I hear their blades, spears, and armor all look the part now, not like before."

Dorgon frowned. "The Dongjiang troops are this energetic — could it be that Chen Xin promised them some benefit? Didn't Kong Youde say he could contact those two and get them to hold back their troops?"

"That Han dog's words can't be trusted. All he does is suck up to Old Eighth and Yoto. This time, the Ujen Cooha were all pushed to the front, while the Tianyou Army shrank back to the rear instead."

Dodo suddenly lowered his voice. "I've had men watching the sea from Tieshan. This afternoon they reported that a batch of ships arrived from Dengzhou today. It looked like they were transporting more troops. Now with all these layers of earthen walls, who knows how many troops are actually in Lüshun."

"Stop guessing. We'll hold our flank securely and not let the Dengzhou Battalion launch any surprise attacks. Judging by Old Eighth's attitude, he's not planning to withdraw for now. Those kinds of pits Abatai faced — we'll have to dig a couple ourselves too."

"Bumbutai... ahem..."

After nightfall, the battle line turned pitch black. Both sides still occasionally hurled torches. Shadows flickered now and then within the horse-blocking trench. Scouts from both sides operated near their own defensive lines, alert to any night raid from the enemy.

The barbarian soldier's voice had gone from clear and resonant to a hoarse croak. Huang Side had led him from the Plain White Banner all the way back to the Bordered Yellow Banner, cursing the whole way. Huang Side had wanted to switch men, but aside from him, no one knew the Later Jin language. Bakšan was still a monitored subject and couldn't be moved around freely, so he had no choice but to force this barbarian soldier to continue.

"Also set her eyes on Dorgon, preparing to wait until Huang Taiji dies, then join forces with Dorgon to deal with Hooge, and then make her little brat Fulin the Great Khan, honoring Dorgon as father..."

Just as he reached this point, a gunshot cracked outside, and countless battle cries suddenly erupted. Huang Side shuddered and scrambled, tumbling head over heels down the earthen wall. (To be continued...)