Chapter 562: The Great Formation

At daybreak, Dorgon, clad in a finely crafted suit of silver-white iron armor, sat astride his horse at the foot of Zhuanzi Hill west of Yulinpu. Two hundred paces ahead lay Zhuanzishan Village — a critical strongpoint in Huang Taiji's westward-attack tactics. Seizing it would allow them to press south and force the Dengzhou line back past Zhuanzi Hill. That would compel the Dengzhou left wing to defend a much larger area, giving the Later Jin cavalry a broader front and making it easier to find weak spots in the Dengzhou left wing for a breakthrough.

Rumbling sounds rolled out from inside Zhuanzishan Village. Dorgon had fought in the defense of Lüshun; that noise came from the Dengzhou army's porcelain grenades. Against a well-fortified position, those porcelain grenades were terrifying weapons. In the late Ming era, when cold steel still dominated, the grenades' flames, explosions, and shrapnel shattered the morale of many soldiers. The Dengzhou army often used them at night, which only magnified their psychological impact.

Back then, the mere sound of those porcelain grenades had made Dorgon's heart pound with dread. After retreating to central Liaodong, he had men try to replicate them, and he studied the copies over and over. In the end, he concluded they were only useful in specific situations. In a true pitched battle on open plains, these porcelain grenades would be of little use.

For this decisive battle, Dorgon, Yoto, and Haoge had each been assigned to seize abandoned villages in three different directions. The Dengzhou rocket harassment had only just ended when they set out. According to Huang Taiji's plan, the operation to seize the abandoned villages could not begin too early; if the Dengzhou army spotted them, they might refuse to come out and instead drag the fighting into the evening, turning it into a grinding stalemate among the villages — a protracted battle that would disadvantage the Later Jin. Therefore, the seizure had to happen right around the time the Dengzhou troops left their camp.

By the time the three columns arrived, the Dengzhou soldiers had also reached the villages. The two sides clashed in chaotic fighting in the darkness before dawn, the jumbled ruins inside the villages intensifying the confusion. Casualties on both sides were heavy. Out of fear of the Dengzhou porcelain grenades, Dorgon dared not send too many men into the village. In the dim light, he had no idea how many more Dengzhou soldiers were still behind them, so he also dared not cut off Dengzhou reinforcements by moving to the village's southern side. He could only keep feeding in more soldiers to replace the casualties.

Dorgon's own strength was no longer what it had been in the first year of Tiancong. On Shenmi Island he had lost his banner's gūsa ejen, and at the battle of Fuzhou the Plain White Banner had suffered nearly a thousand killed or captured — its vitality badly damaged. Most of those losses came from Dorgon's personally controlled niru. He had only fifteen such niru in total; although they were strong niru left by the old chieftain, they could not withstand this kind of attrition.

That was why, during the retreat from Lüshun, Dorgon had disregarded Huang Taiji's strict orders and pulled out his banner's White Armor Soldiers first. That ultimately caused the collapse of the earthen wall defense line. After returning, he was demoted to Doroi Beile. Although his subordinates and brothers still called him the Fourteenth Beile, they only did so in private to save his face.

Because of his poor performance at Lüshun, Huang Taiji was deeply dissatisfied with him. Afterwards, Dorgon was ordered to guard Fuzhou and Gaizhou, bearing the brunt of the Dengzhou army's repeated offensives. For years Dorgon's strength went unreplenished. Facing Dengzhou attacks, he often hid inside the cities and passively avoided battle. Ajige, by contrast, performed far better, and word had it that Huang Taiji was already considering replacing the banner lord.

By now, however, Dorgon no longer cared about the empty title of banner lord. He was the banner lord now, yet he could do nothing about Ajige; in the future, Ajige would likewise be unable to do anything about him. What mattered most was still real strength. Coupled with his years-long dread of the Dengzhou army, that was why Dorgon had consistently opposed a decisive battle with Dengzhou at Gaizhou.

But no matter how much he opposed it, he could only follow Huang Taiji to Yulinpu. At this point, there was no turning back. Shouts of battle and gunfire rang out from inside Zhuanzishan Village. Wounded Later Jin soldiers kept retreating from the village entrance, and Dorgon kept feeding in replacements. Since arriving here, Dorgon had already committed three hundred armored soldiers and over four hundred auxiliaries, but he had not deployed the bayara as Huang Taiji intended. He himself was still hesitating. He understood the importance of this battle, but the bayara were his greatest asset, the guarantee of his status. He had not yet made up his mind whether to commit them here.

The fighting dragged on until the sky was fully bright, yet the village remained contested. The meiren ejen beside him glanced behind them — the black mass of the Later Jin main force was approaching. In a low voice, he said to Dorgon, "Master, the Great Khan strictly ordered that Zhuanzishan Village must be taken before the main army arrives. The army is nearly here. Perhaps we should send in the bayara."

The bayara ejen beside them also spoke: "The scouts just reported that Haoge has already taken Ertaizi Village."

Dorgon turned his head to look at Zhangwangzhai to the northwest and asked the two men, "Dodo promised that after taking Zhangwangzhai he would send troops to assist me. There are no Dengzhou troops at Zhangwangzhai — why hasn't he come?"

The two men looked at each other. That young beile Dodo was the youngest; he seemed guileless, but in truth he was the worst kind of fence-sitter, and he had no tactical sense in battle. He probably had no real intention of coming to help Dorgon.

Dorgon shook his head and hesitated a moment. Just as he raised his hand to order the bayara into the village, a rumbling sound came from the south. The three men looked up at the same time. Roughly a thousand cavalry were charging toward Zhuanzi Hill, less than two li away. Farther in the distance, the vast Dengzhou army was advancing across the open fields. Their red uniforms and the red tassels of their bright helmets bobbed and surged across the snowfield like a rippling red wave along the horizon.

Dorgon gulped audibly. No longer caring about Zhuanzishan Village, he swiftly pulled his hand back. "Pull out of the village."

On the broad snowfield outside Yulinpu, armor and weapons blanketed the wilderness. Two highly organized human tides, guided by their respective banners, advanced toward each other. From Xu Hill, Dengzhou rocket troops exploited their range advantage to continuously attack the Jianzhou bandit army's formations, each volley roughly ten rockets fired simultaneously.

Two li from the battlefield, the Dengzhou main army began transitioning from march formation. Space had been left in advance along each unit's line of march. Over long marching distances, column formation maintained order better and moved faster. Once they reached the engagement zone, they needed a broader front in line formation to control a wider area and deploy their firepower.

From the three abandoned villages in the center came continuous shouts of battle and the crack of arquebus fire. Both sides had sent advance detachments and had begun contesting the villages before dawn. The fighting inside the villages was extremely fierce. Only Zhangwangzhai, northwest of Zhuanzi Hill, saw no combat.

According to Huang Taiji's established tactics, these three abandoned villages were vital strongpoints for countering Dengzhou firearms and an essential guarantee for the Later Jin's success in battle. The Later Jin vanguard encountered Dengzhou advance detachments contesting all three villages. These advance detachments were mostly dragoon or Mandarin Duck formation units. The two sides fought fiercely over the three ruins. The Later Jin then exploited their advantage in cavalry numbers and speed to dispatch large reinforcements, compressing the Dengzhou cavalry's lines. This limited the reinforcements the Dengzhou advance detachments could receive, giving the Later Jin troops a certain advantage in the fight for the abandoned villages.

At the sixth ke of the chen hour, the first round of fighting for the four small villages between the two battle lines drew to a close. The Later Jin army committed a heavy force of a thousand men to Ertaizi Village on the eastern side and sent Plain Blue Banner cavalry to support them. Two Mandarin Duck formation companies from the Dengzhou Fourth Battalion were driven out of the small village and, covered by a Dengzhou cavalry unit, retreated to Xu Hill — ensuring that Huang Taiji's tactical plan for defending his left wing could be carried out.

Wangjiatun Village in the center lay at the middle of the battle line, the only spot on the open plain that could serve as cover. Both sides committed very strong forces here. After fierce fighting, each side held half the village, foiling the other's plan.

Because of Dorgon's hesitation, Zhuanzishan Village at the eastern foot of Zhuanzi Hill on the western side was seized by the Second Company of the First Brigade of the First Battalion of the Dengzhou army. A Dengzhou cavalry unit arrived soon after. The Second Company's artillery also moved into the village and set up their cannons on the village's northern side.

Zhangwangzhai, northwest of Zhuanzi Hill, was occupied by the Later Jin Plain White Banner, giving the Later Jin army control of the route bypassing the western side of Zhuanzi Hill.

The preliminary contest for advantageous terrain on the battlefield came to an end. The Later Jin army had secured Ertaizi Village on the eastern side, the cavalry corridor west of Zhuanzi Hill, and half of Wangjiatun Village in the center. Huang Taiji's tactical objective of "defend in the east, attack in the west" was halfway achieved. But Zhuanzishan Village, the critical node for the western attack, had fallen into Dengzhou hands.

On the open ground between Xu Hill and Zhuanzi Hill, Dengzhou and Later Jin skirmishing cavalry chased and fought each other. Neither side's skirmishers could drive the other from the field. As the two main armies closed in, the skirmishers' maneuvering space shrank. The larger cavalry support units fell back toward their respective main formations, leaving only scattered horsemen facing off.

The vanguards of the two great armies successively reached the battlefield, both composed mainly of cavalry, to secure their respective deployment positions. The two vanguards were just over two li apart. Once the vanguards stabilized the line, the vast, ocean-like main formations began deploying under the direction of numerous banners and signals.

Si hour. The Dengzhou main army reached its line positions. The white wilderness outside Yulinpu was blanketed in red. The battle line blazed with dazzling red. One orderly square formation after another moved and halted at the sound of horns and drums, their synchronized marching making the very ground tremble faintly. Each battalion moved into its combat position under the direction of banners, signals, and drumbeats.

The Dengzhou main formation was deployed in two lines. The first line consisted of five combat battalions. From Zhuanzi Hill toward Xu Hill, they were, in order: the First, Second, Third, Seventh, and Fourth Combat Battalions.

These five combat battalions in the front line were also deployed in two lines. In each case, the pike-and-shot square infantry were placed forward. Each combat battalion had two square-formation brigade headquarters under its command. The two companies belonging to each brigade headquarters were deployed one behind the other, with seventy paces between front and rear. Within each company, the two platoons were spaced twenty paces apart left to right, allowing them to support each other with flanking fire.

The two companies of the Mandarin Duck formation brigade headquarters belonging to the central combat battalions were split up for use. One company, the most flexible combat group in the Dengzhou army, was deployed between the front and rear square formations to support the front-line fighting and reinforce any weak points at any time. All cavalry elements within each battalion, such as scout riders, were also deployed in this intermediate zone. The other company was deployed behind the second line of the front formation, serving as the battalion's reserve. The Mandarin Duck formations deployed among the square formations could either mass together to fight in Qi Family Army-style large formations or exploit the Mandarin Duck formation's flexibility and high mobility to pass through the gaps between squares and execute rapid attacks and counterattacks against the enemy.

In this era where cold and hot weapons intersected, Chen Xin blended new Western and Eastern military reform tactics together, creating the Dengzhou army's unique combat battalion organization — possessing both the solidity of European pike-and-shot squares and the flexibility of the Qi Family Army's Mandarin Duck formation.

The second line of the main formation consisted of two battalions of the Guards Brigade: the First Guards Battalion on the left and the Second Guards Battalion on the right. The First Brigade Headquarters of the Sixth Battalion, directly under Chen Xin's command, was attached to the second line of the front formation's left wing, placed under the left wing commander and serving as the left wing's reserve. It also guarded the direction west of Zhuanzi Hill to prevent Jianzhou bandit cavalry from using the corridor west of the hill to launch a surprise attack on the rear formation.

The Dengzhou Cavalry Battalion had four cavalry brigade headquarters, two dragoon brigade headquarters, and one directly attached scout cavalry company — a total of 6,800 men. For flexibility of maneuver, the Military Command Department had temporarily reorganized them into two cavalry battalions, each with two cavalry brigade headquarters and one dragoon brigade headquarters. The First Cavalry Battalion was deployed on the far left wing of the front formation, where the terrain was open. The Second Cavalry Battalion was directly under Chen Xin's command and positioned on the left wing of the rear formation.

The Dengzhou army had drawn up a deep, two-line formation. The front formation's First Battalion, the First Brigade of the Sixth Battalion, and the First Cavalry Battalion were grouped as the left wing, under the command of First Battalion commander Fan Shouye. The Second and Third Battalions formed the front formation's center, under the command of Liaonan First Mobile Corps Commander Zheng Sanhu. The Seventh and Fourth Battalions formed the front formation's right wing, under the command of Second Mobile Corps Commander Zhu Guobin.

The rear formation was the Guards Brigade, comprising the First Guards Battalion, the Second Guards Battalion, and the Guards Cavalry Brigade Headquarters, under the command of Wang Changfu, serving as the army's overall reserve. The remaining Second Cavalry Battalion and the combat engineer company were directly under Chen Xin's command.

Through the vanguard contest, although Dengzhou had lost Ertaizi Village, it had secured the crucial Zhuanzishan Village on its left wing. Its right wing had Xu Hill as a strongpoint, and Wangjiatun in the center was still being contested. In the opening phase, they had gained a certain terrain advantage, essentially achieving Chen Xin's goal of dictating the battlefield.

Both sides were elite armies of this era. Their deployment proceeded swiftly. One recognition flag after another appeared in the opposing side's field of view. At the second ke of the si hour on the ninth day of the ninth month of the eighth year of Chongzhen, the two commanders' recognition flags came within sight of each other.

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