Chapter 457: Zhubokou

With a whoosh, a bare chicken leg bone flew out from the city wall. A stubble-covered head popped up; he picked at his teeth with his fingers, pulled out a few shreds of chicken meat stuck between them, then stuffed them back into his mouth and chewed with a squelching sound.

Outside the city moat, a group of commoners who had just arrived knelt on the ground, pleading bitterly, "Milords, generals, our father and mother officials, we beg you to open the gate and let us in."

As they spoke, several commoners brought out their silver and held it high above their heads.

The stubble-headed man craned his neck and looked around. "You dog-spawned wretches think it's that easy? How the hell am I supposed to know if there are any Tatar spies among you? All of you, get the hell out of here."

An old man below the wall kowtowed and said, "Lord Zhang, this old man is from Cigouying. I pass by here all the time—how can you not recognize me? Besides, the Tatars come from Liaodong; our accents don't match theirs at all."

The stubble-headed man on the wall blinked, thinking it seemed to make sense, and grunted a few times. A private secretary beside him leaned in. "Company Commander, sir, it's true that the old man is among them, but there are so many others. If a few spies are mixed in, we're all finished."

The other rank-and-file soldiers around them nodded in agreement. The stubble-headed man stuck his head out and shouted, "All of you, get the hell out of here. This gate stays shut no matter what. Keep jabbering and I'll cut every last one of you down. Get up into the hills and keep your eyes open. Today I'm going to crush that Huang Taiji."

The commoners below immediately burst into a chorus of pleas. They didn't care about fighting Tatars; they just wanted to get inside the city and save their lives. Some with worse tempers immediately started cursing. The stubble-headed man grew impatient and waved a hand at a few of his retainers.

"Throw stones, throw stones." The top of the wall was in chaos. A shower of tiles and small stones was hurled down, and the commoners dodged in every direction. Seeing that the gate truly would not open, they fled while cursing. The stronger ones climbed toward the hills on either side; some, feeling it was unsafe, turned and headed south.

Only then did the stubble-headed man sit down, satisfied. He tossed his large blade to the ground with a clang. Another chicken leg was handed to him from the side. Humming a tune, the stubble-headed man slowly gnawed at it.

This stubble-headed man was Zhang Xiushen, the Company Commander of Zhubokou. His name was quite refined, but in truth he was a brute. Although he habitually exploited his soldiers and extorted tolls, he was naturally fierce and loved a fight. While the troops at most passes between Daizhou and Lingqiu had fled, he insisted on staying.

He had only a little over three hundred soldiers under his command, and more than a hundred had run off, leaving barely over a hundred men at the moment. He organized the people of Zhubokou Pass, along with some able-bodied commoners who had fled there earlier, into a motley crew, determined to fight the Jianzhou Bandits to the death here. With this thick-skulled Company Commander around, the commoners seemed to have a pillar of support and no one ran for the time being.

Zhubokou was a pass from Datong to Zhili. Going south past Cigouying and Wuwangkou, one could reach Fuping County in Northern Zhili all the way. Unlike Daoma Pass and Zijing Pass, which followed river courses, this was a deep ravine between great mountains. It might have been the course of a river that changed its path many years ago; the terrain was relatively flat and suitable for travel. After passing Zhubokou and heading north, one entered the narrow basin where Daizhou and Fanshi County lay. Following the basin further northeast led to Lingqiu County.

To the north and south of Zhubokou were steep cliffs. At its narrowest point, it was only thirty or forty paces wide. The Zhubokou Pass fortification was built at a slightly flatter spot to prevent the enemy from attacking the wall from the cliff tops. Zhubokou controlled the road through the valley, blocking this natural stronghold.

This place was very close to the later-famous Pingxing Pass. Pingxing Pass normally garrisoned three thousand troops and also had the duty of reinforcing Zhubokou. Like other Ming armies elsewhere, after subtracting vacancies and non-combatants, Pingxing Pass had only one or two hundred retainers capable of fighting, and they could not be counted on at this moment. Daizhou and Fanshi had just been raided by two other columns of Later Jin troops and could not send any reinforcements either. Zhubokou could only rely on itself.

But Zhang Xiushen was not worried at all. He took out what little family fortune he had and distributed it to the remaining soldiers. He seized chickens, ducks, and fat pigs inside and outside the pass and fed the soldiers and civilian braves meat every day. He had always thought the Jianzhou Bandits would come from the north. He waited a long time but they never came; instead, quite a few commoners from Lingqiu arrived. He had heard about the events in Liaodong during the Tianqi era. Whether friendly troops or commoners came, he refused to open the gate no matter what, making them trek over the mountains to go around. Of course, Zhang Xiushen received plenty of curses for it.

There were still some commoners below who could not walk any further, pleading from a distance for him to open the gate. Suddenly, there was a commotion in the distance. The commoners who had just headed south turned back and fled toward Zhubokou. The private secretary beside him stared wide-eyed. Seeing a few figures on horseback approaching, he suddenly let out a shriek, "The Tatars are here!"

The top of the wall instantly fell into chaos. The civilian braves turned and fled. Some of the more timid ones crouched down and wailed loudly. Zhang Xiushen shouted at his only thirty-odd retainers. Those retainers blocked the city stairs and beat the soldiers and civilian braves indiscriminately with clubs, barely managing to stop the pandemonium.

Zhang Xiushen grabbed the basket beside him and flung the roast chickens and roast ducks inside all over the ground. He raised his head and addressed the panicked civilian braves, "All of you listen up. These past days, you've had your fill of wine and meat. You think you were eating for free? The Tatars are here to steal your belongings. You dog-spawned wretches can't outrun a damn thing. Hold this wall and you live. If you can't hold it, you can't outrun their horses anyway, so you'll die either way. Anyone who runs, I'll kill first. There's meat on the ground—if you're going to fight to the death, then eat it."

The group of civilian braves and soldiers looked at each other. Finally, some with courage went to pick up the meat. Zhang Xiushen laughed heartily, grabbed his large blade from the ground, and said, "There are still some with balls after all. A few Tatars, what the hell are you afraid of? Watch closely and see how I kill Tatars. Lads, follow me on horseback to kill Tatars!"

"Kill!"

Under the dumbfounded gaze of the civilian braves on the wall, Zhang Xiushen, majestic and imposing, led a group of retainers charging out of the city gate. The few Later Jin vanguard soldiers ahead unhurriedly turned their horses, gradually adjusting their speed, maintaining a distance of thirty or forty paces from Zhang Xiushen and his men. Skillfully controlling their horses with their legs, they used both hands to continuously shoot arrows backward with their cavalry bows.

The two sides raced in a lightning-fast pursuit. Zhang Xiushen had the best horse, and his riding skills were equally superb. Holding a shield in one hand and his large blade in the other, he repeatedly blocked the arrows from the enemy's weak bows with his shield.

A few of his retainers were also brave, exchanging shots with the enemy using their cavalry bows, but they were still somewhat outmatched by the Later Jin vanguard soldiers. Three were hit by arrows in succession. Seeing the situation turn dire, Zhang Xiushen quickly led his group of retainers back, shut the gate tightly, and went back up to the gate tower.

"Those dog-spawned Tatars really do have some skill. Looks like I'm going to meet my end today. I'll drag a few more down with me as cushions." Zhang Xiushen cursed in flustered rage as he climbed the gate tower. The moment he reached the top of the wall, he switched to a smug expression and laughed loudly at the group of civilian braves, "See that? The Tatars were chased far away by me. I challenged them to single combat, and not one dared to come."

By the time Manggultai arrived below the wall, the number of commoners he had captured had already reached six thousand. Along the way, he had also overrun more than ten watchtowers. Accompanying him were over four hundred armored soldiers and three hundred bondservants. At the rear, over a hundred armored soldiers brought up the rear guard. Another two hundred armored soldiers, led by Tobohui, had gone toward Wuwangkou to seize more people.

Manggultai, his queue streaked with gray, stopped in front of Zhubokou. The pass before him was not particularly imposing. This Later Jin Grand Beile, who had followed Nurhaci on campaigns since childhood, did not take it seriously.

In the original course of history, Manggultai had already been stripped of his title of Hosoi Beile after the Battle of Dalinghe, becoming a Doroi Beile like Abatai, and had died under mysterious circumstances at the end of the fifth year of Chongzhen. Although he hated Chen Xin, it was precisely the emergence of Dengzhou that caused shifts in the Later Jin's internal situation. Huang Taiji's authority was repeatedly suppressed by Dengzhou, allowing Manggultai and Daišan to look out for each other and preserve their lives to this day.

As one of the most senior beile in the Later Jin, he was habitually domineering and irascible. During the era of Nurhaci, he frequently made enemies among his brothers. His personal relationships were extremely poor, and even his own full brother Degelei often clashed with him. Once Nurhaci died, Manggultai feared no one and became even more arrogant, taking delight in defying the authority of the Later Jin Khan.

He and Daišan had set traps for Huang Taiji in the Jisi year. When they reached Kalaqin, they suddenly proposed that they could not enter the pass, first making a show of opposition. If any setbacks occurred, they would use it against Huang Taiji. Unexpectedly, the entry into the pass went smoothly overall. Later, after Amin's defeat at the Four Cities, Manggultai behaved himself for a while. But Huang Taiji's move to seize banner authority inevitably offended diehards like him. The conflict between the two sides deepened. Huang Taiji held the righteous title of Later Jin Khan and his cunning was far beyond Manggultai's comparison; he could generally still keep Manggultai in check.

Finally, at the Battle of Lushun, Manggultai and Daišan set another trap for Huang Taiji, raising objections early at the Deliberative Council. After the battle, they used Dengzhou to suppress Huang Taiji's prestige. Now was his moment of greatest triumph. Because of the severe defeat at Lushun, some mid-level nobles began to doubt Huang Taiji's policies. In the past, whenever Huang Taiji consolidated power, there would always be victories on the battlefield or in plundering to compensate the various banners. Without this exchange as a foundation, Huang Taiji was left with no means to achieve his ends—this was also why he needed to continuously plunder the Great Ming. These nobles identified more with the conservative thinking of Manggultai and Daišan. With the support of part of the Eight Banners, Huang Taiji's orders were no different from waste paper to him.

When he came from Guangchang, he had received an urgent order from Huang Taiji. The forces of Liaozhen Militia Regional Commander Wu Xiang and Shanhai Pass Regional Commander You Shiwei were already approaching Xuanfu. Huang Taiji demanded that all armies converge on Datong to prepare for besieging the city and striking the reinforcements. Manggultai, firstly, did not take Wu Xiang seriously, and secondly, did not take Huang Taiji seriously either. He leisurely continued plundering with his troops, even taking a long detour to come via Wuwangkou.

Now, seeing that the Ming troops at Zhubokou had not fled—and it was a pass after all, not something that could be taken in a single charge—Manggultai looked around. Although people could bypass it by walking the hillsides, carts and horses could not. All baggage would have to be abandoned, so he had to capture this pass.

The commander of the Bayara guards behind him asked Manggultai, "Master, shall we attack first or wait for Master Tobohui to return? Should we build some shield carts?"

Manggultai turned to look behind him. "A tiny little pass, why wait for Tobohui? Have those captured Nikans dig earth and carry stones. Start with the weakest ones. When they die, pile their corpses into the fill." (To be continued...)