Chapter 566: The Western Front

Drums thundered in waves. Under the white banner with red borders, the Bordered White Banner guided over two thousand true Jurchen foot soldiers as they surged mightily toward the mountain village ahead. Huang Taiji's western flank attack formally commenced. In front of the Jurchen foot soldiers were several dozen shielded carts manned by bondservants; on each wing were over a thousand Bordered White Banner cavalry; and behind them were the Bordered White Banner's Uzhen Chao Ha.

Duoduo's banner lord flag was positioned on the eastern side. To pin down Dengzhou's center, Huang Taiji had dispatched five hundred supernumeraries from the Bordered Yellow Banner to contest Wangjiatun Village. The center had already begun fighting by now, yet Duoduo's brow remained tightly furrowed.

Duoduo was the last child born to Abahai, and also the one most doted on by the old chieftain. The Later Jin had a long tradition of spoiling the youngest son, so Duoduo inherited the old chieftain's thirty strongest niru. Fifteen of those niru were the old Plain Yellow Banner niru that Nurhaci had always kept for himself, only handed over to Duoduo when the old chieftain died.

An ordinary Eight Banners niru had roughly three hundred able-bodied men; some newly formed niru had only a hundred or so; the smallest half-niru had just over ten households. But in the Plain White Banner's strongest niru, the able-bodied men numbered over seven hundred — fully double that of an ordinary niru. The Plain White Banner's strength was such that no other banner in the entire Later Jin Eight Banners surpassed it. Even the Plain Yellow Banner that Huang Taiji now controlled could not match Duoduo's Bordered White Banner.

Although Duoduo was not very old, having been doted on by Nurhaci since childhood, his character was arrogant and domineering. Right after the old chieftain died, Duoduo had even volunteered himself to be the Great Jin Khan. Naturally, no one paid any attention to that twelve- or thirteen-year-old child at the time.

By the eighth year of Chongzhen, this chief architect of the Yangzhou Ten Days Massacre had already passed the age of twenty. After Abahai's death, Duoduo's arrogance had been somewhat reined in, and after years of tempering he had become rather cunning. From the first year of Tiancong until now, he had not fought any truly tough battles, nor did he stick his neck out. The only time Dengzhou Garrison struck him was during the Lüshun offensive and defensive battle, when Duoduo followed Dorgon on the Later Jin right wing. He had not exerted any real effort in the assault, yet in the end Dorgon bore all the blame.

His own strength had suffered no real losses, and he had never missed out on any of the successive plundering expeditions. By the eighth year of Chongzhen, the Bordered White Banner remained the strongest banner in the Later Jin. This time it was once again placed on the right wing to take part in a formal pitched battle, right under Huang Taiji's watchful eye, with no chance to shirk or cut corners. The order Huang Taiji gave to the two White Banners and the Bordered Red Banner was to break through the Dengzhou left wing and then rout the entire Dengzhou grand formation. The left-wing commander was Yoto, and Yoto naturally used the strongest Bordered White Banner for the frontal assault on Zhuanzi Village. In a great battle that would decide the Later Jin's fate, Duoduo was still very sensible and raised no objections.

The Later Jin troops had no concept of infantry-artillery coordination. Before the assault, they fired three salvos at Zhuanzi Village using five Tianyou Zhuwei Grand Generals. Due to poor accuracy, more than half missed their targets. After the cannons finished firing, the Bordered White Banner infantry formation, composed of over two thousand armored soldiers and supernumeraries, split into a front and a rear formation and advanced under the command of their respective niru banners. Shielded carts and skirmishers screened their front. After many engagements with Dengzhou foot soldiers, the Later Jin had also strengthened the skirmishers in front of their grand formations to counter Dengzhou's long-range strikes.

Amid the ruins of Zhuanzi Village, directly facing the Bordered White Banner foot soldiers, bright helmets with red tassels emerged. Two eight-pounder cannons and one four-pounder cannon revealed their muzzles. Behind Zhuanzi Village, a Ming army company-commander cavalry formation began adjusting its formation.

Duoduo had long since noticed that Ming cavalry force. After signal flags waved a few times, over a thousand Bordered White Banner mounted armored soldiers on the Later Jin infantry's left wing slowly advanced to prevent the Dengzhou cavalry from charging the infantry's flank.

From the west came wave after wave of muffled thunder-like sounds. Duoduo turned his head to look and saw the Plain White Banner cavalry, the Mongol Left Wing, and the Outer Vassal Mongol Khorchin and Khalkha tribes passing through Zhangwang Stockade and heading west of Zhuanzi Mountain. They would bypass Zhuanzi Mountain and directly strike the Dengzhou Garrison's left wing. Three hundred Plain White Banner foot armored soldiers were climbing the northern slope of Zhuanzi Mountain, preparing to seize the commanding heights of the left wing. Those black silhouettes stood out starkly against the white mountain backdrop.

Two booming roars drew Duoduo's attention back to Zhuanzi Village. White smoke billowed from within the village as the eight-pounder cannons opened fire. Black iron shot streaked into the mass of Later Jin soldiers at a speed visible to the naked eye, like an iron plow rending black earth, leaving behind furrows of missing and broken men.

A pang of heartache seized Duoduo. Every single manpower of the Later Jin was precious, and even more so to a banner lord. A banner lord's voice and authority were intimately tied to his strength. Dorgon's current plight was a cautionary tale.

Due to inadequate preparation, the entire Later Jin right wing had only a few dozen shielded carts. In battle against Dengzhou troops, they would quickly be lost, and after that they would have to rely on armored soldiers charging with their lives. Thinking of this, Duoduo could not help but feel some resentment toward his brother Dorgon. If Dorgon had seized Zhuanzi Village earlier, the Bordered White Banner would not now have to face a Dengzhou Garrison that held the advantage of terrain.

Under the pounding of cannon fire, the Bordered White Banner infantry continued to advance. The light casualties had not yet broken their courage; instead, they stirred the ferocity of these barbarians. This time, Huang Taiji had offered generous rewards and had them listed in detail and proclaimed to the entire army. There were not only military merits and career prospects, but also land, bondservants, grain, and silver. For these Later Jin rank-and-file soldiers suffering from cold and hunger, these were incentives enough to ignite their savagery.

Behind the two thousand foot soldiers were nearly a thousand Bordered White Banner Uzhen Chao Ha. The right wing was the Later Jin troops' main assault direction, and also the direction with the fewest Uzhen Chao Ha. These Han soldiers were quite useful in defensive battles, but fell far short in offensive operations that required more courage. The Bordered Red Banner's Uzhen Chao Ha had long since been taken by Dudu to Lianshan Pass. The Plain White Banner's had been left in Haizhou and Gaizhou, guarding those cities alongside some armored soldiers to protect the Jianzhou bandits' rear. The right wing's only Uzhen Chao Ha were Duoduo's Bordered White Banner troops. Duoduo very much wanted to put them at the very front as cannon fodder, but Huang Taiji had strictly forbidden using Uzhen Chao Ha as vanguards. This was a lesson from the Battle of Caohe Fortress. These bondservant-conscripted soldiers could not fight with the fierce valor of their masters, yet when fleeing they ran like madmen, instead throwing their own army's formation into chaos.

The Bordered White Banner drums quickened their rhythm. The Bordered White Banner foot armored soldiers moved faster and faster. In Duoduo's field of vision, a sea of surging, bobbing helmets filled the view. The three cannons inside Zhuanzi Village fired iron shot at a steady rate, from a distance of one li all the way down to one hundred fifty paces. Shielded carts struck by six-catty iron shot shattered into pieces. Splinters spraying like bullets knocked down clusters of bondservants. The line of shielded carts became riddled with gaps. The wrecked carts remained along the path the great army passed, turning into relics of the battlefield. Blood flowed across the snow-white earth, like crimson flowers blooming one after another in the snow.

Over two thousand foot soldiers closed to within a few dozen paces of Zhuanzi Village. To the stirring beat of the great drums, they began their charge. The ferocity in the Later Jin soldiers' blood erupted, and frenzied howls resounded across the land. The three Dengzhou cannons swiftly fired two rounds of canister shot, concentrating on positions without shielded cart cover. Over seven hundred lead balls were sprayed into the dense crowd. After each volley, the Later Jin front ranks toppled in unison, yet this still could not stop the advance of the human tide.

When they charged to within thirty paces of Zhuanzi Village, several pieces of white cloth on the rammed-earth wall defense line were torn away, revealing four crouching-tiger cannons used exclusively by Dengzhou killer squads. Several booms immediately followed. Several more gaps were punched into the Later Jin troops' battle line. One Mandarin Duck Formation company had four killer squads in total, one cannon per squad, providing close-range dense fire support for the killer squads.

Given Dengzhou's absolute superiority in long-range firepower, Duoduo had even abandoned the heavy arrow volleys they were most skilled at, throwing his men directly into close combat with the Dengzhou Garrison. After suffering heavy casualties, the Bordered White Banner foot soldiers finally broke through to the edge of the village under the cover of the last remaining shielded carts.

The Dengzhou killer squads, arrayed in tight formation, immediately engaged the Later Jin soldiers in bloody close combat. Spears and great blades thrust and hacked back and forth in clusters atop the rammed-earth wall. Casualties on both sides began to surge. Two hundred arquebusiers of the First Company, positioned on higher ground amid the ruins, fired repeatedly into the mass of Later Jin troops outside the village.

Garrisoned inside Zhuanzi Village was the First Company of the First Regiment of the Fourth Battalion. The first regiment of every battalion was organized according to the Qi Family Army system. Dengzhou Garrison's Mandarin Duck Formation could combine with arquebusiers to form a twenty-four-man battle group, or use the most classic twelve-man killer squad. In even narrower spaces, it could split into five- or six-man Small Three Talents Formations — extremely suited for fighting in such ruins.

Amid the chaotic ruins, battle cries shook the heavens. After fierce fighting around the rammed-earth wall at the perimeter, the Later Jin soldiers, relying on their numerical advantage, fought their way into the village. The First Company used arquebusiers occupying high points in the ruins to provide cover. Killer squads configured in Small Three Talents Formations executed close combat, fighting with multiple weapons in coordination, displaying highly practiced combat skills. They engaged in a bloody battle within the village against four times their number of Later Jin soldiers.

After the fierce battle on Zhuanzi Mountain began, the cavalry engagement on the right side of the village also commenced. One cavalry company-commander unit of the First Dengzhou Cavalry Battalion, using three cavalry squads as one wave, launched dense charges in three waves against the Bordered White Banner mounted armored soldiers. Amid the rumbling of hooves, over three thousand horses' hooves kicked up a skyful of snow powder, with a momentum that seemed to shake the very earth.

The Bordered White Banner cavalry, led by Gūsa Ejen Cergel, fought strenuously against the Dengzhou cavalry. They combined frontal charges with roving skirmishers, constantly attacking the Dengzhou cavalry formation from the flanks. But the Dengzhou cavalry formation deployed three cavalry squads across its front, making the frontage very broad. Each cavalry squad still used the three-rank tactic. The Bordered White Banner cavalry needed to maintain their own formation and could not avoid a frontal engagement. Their tactics struggled to withstand Dengzhou's modern cavalry tactics head-on. They were sent reeling, men and horses toppling, by the dense Dengzhou cavalry. The Bordered White Banner cavalry quickly suffered severe casualties, and their formation was completely shattered.

Bordered White Banner roving horsemen attacked the Dengzhou cavalry formation from both flanks with cavalry bows, inflicting some casualties on the Dengzhou formation as well. But the Dengzhou cavalry formation did not get entangled with them, always maintaining a galloping state. Only some saber cavalrymen returned fire with short blunderbusses. After the first wave of attack passed, the following two waves arrived in quick succession, throwing the Bordered White Banner cavalry formation into great chaos. The roving horsemen entangled with the first wave were also dispersed. Duoduo in the rear formation had no choice but to dispatch one hundred Bayara to counterattack, in order to buy time for the cavalry to reform their ranks.

The Dengzhou Garrison's cavalry attacks came like a violent storm. Duoduo had long since witnessed this at Lüshun, but what he saw this time felt even more ferocious. What he did not know was that the Dengzhou cavalry's training methods were also constantly improving, already approaching the standard of Prussian cavalry in the time of Frederick. Most cavalrymen could close with the enemy in dense cavalry formation over a distance of seven hundred meters or more, and launch a fierce charge in the final stage.

The Bordered White Banner's Gūsa Ejen Cergel was already utterly overwhelmed. This Cergel shared the same name as the Funde Bošokū of that niru under Zhang Zhongqi. Although this man was not prominent in history, he was one of the Eight Ministers of the early Tiancong era, serving as the Bordered White Banner's Gūsa Ejen. Later, during the attack on Pi Island, he was punished. Not only did he lose his hereditary rank, he could no longer serve as Gūsa Ejen either. His political future was thus finished, and he was shuffled off to an idle post as a Ministry of Works administrator, languishing there until just before Huang Taiji's death when he was again promoted to the hereditary rank of Niru Janggin. Although his political career was poor, his son Chentai later rose to become Minister of Personnel and Gūsa Ejen of the Bordered Yellow Banner.

This Gūsa Ejen was now utterly dazed by the blows. The Bordered White Banner cavalry had been thrown into great disorder by one wave of charges. The Dengzhou cavalry that had completed their charge had already withdrawn south of Zhuanzi Village and were reforming their ranks under bugle commands, and their speed appeared very fast. If they came for just one more round, Cergel's cavalry would fall into complete chaos and be unable to shield the infantry's flank.

Just as he was worrying, a roll of drums sounded behind him. When Cergel turned his head to look, over a thousand cavalry under the guidance of a great banner with a red center and white border had already arrived. Cergel breathed a sigh of relief. His confidence in Yoto was considerably stronger than his confidence in Duoduo. With the support of the Bordered Red Banner cavalry, they could at least hold the defense line on the cavalry side.

Cergel's relief did not last long. From the south also sounded a signal cannon. Four small square formations of the First Dengzhou Combat Battalion pressed toward Zhuanzi Village with strict and orderly formation. Then, from southwest of Zhuanzi Mountain rose the sound of conch horns. The Plain White Banner, Mongol Left Wing, and Outer Vassal Mongols' assault on the Dengzhou Garrison's left wing had also begun. The entire western battlefront had entered fierce combat.