Chapter 1058: The Great Qing Prince Regent Duoni (Please Subscribe)

Outside the Pass, in Shenyang, the former Qing imperial palace.

Wearing the Great Qing dragon robe, the Great Qing Emperor's winter hat on his head, and a string of court beads around his neck, Duoni now sat upright on a dragon throne, his face full of smiles and brimming with confidence.

Duoni was now Aisin Gioro Duoni again, and had moved into the former Qing imperial palace inside Shenyang. But he was not the Great Qing Emperor now — he was the Great Qing Prince Regent of Yu!

It turned out Duoni had also heard the story of "build high walls, store ample grain, and delay claiming the throne," so he too would delay claiming the throne. He would not make himself emperor, but instead support the restoration of Shunzhi — who was hiding away chanting sutras in some great temple in Shanxi — while he himself became Prince Regent. So now the reign era outside the Pass was Shunzhi again, and it was now the fifteenth year of Shunzhi — this was Shunzhi's third time becoming emperor. Three rises and three falls; truly unprecedented.

Of course, Duoni would not actually bring Shunzhi from Shanxi to Shenyang to sit on the dragon throne — even as a puppet he would be troublesome. And Shunzhi would not dare come either.

So the one now sitting on the imperial throne was Duoni, who styled himself Prince Regent!

"Your slaves respectfully wish the Prince Regent golden peace!"

Inside the great hall, a crowd of Great Qing loyal slaves in official hats with peacock feathers all kowtowed and saluted Duoni. But once these men took off their hats, the sight was a bit laughable. They wore Great Qing official robes, court beads around their necks, and Great Qing official hats on their heads — yet not a single hair on their heads had been shaved. They did have queues, of course, but not the money-rat-tail style, nor the moon-head style. Instead, they had gathered their "lovely locks" together and braided them into a twist braid, just like a young maiden.

But Duoni simply pretended not to see it, because he himself wore the same hairstyle — shaving the head was too much trouble, and the weather outside the Pass was bitterly cold; without hair to protect the head, one could easily suffer a stroke. For the sake of his health, Duoni had not shaved his head either, and now also wore a "young maiden's twist braid." If necessary, it could be changed into a topknot at any time.

"Rise!" Duoni smiled and raised a hand, signaling the crowd of Great Qing loyal ministers to stand and speak.

The men below all scrambled to their feet, arranged themselves into two rows, and then all wore confident, assured smiles — though none of them truly felt confident inside, at a moment like this no one dared show weakness, or the Prince Regent would be angry.

Duoni's gaze swept across the faces of the crowd, and finally he nodded with satisfaction, smiling as he toyed with his court beads. His gloomy face seemed almost to glow. Seeing that the men below were just as full of confidence as he was, he smiled and said: "We have just received military reports from the garrisons at Shanhai Pass, Heishan Fort, Yizhou, and Jinzhou. Large bodies of Ming troops have appeared before all of them. It seems the Ming army intends to divide into four routes!"

"The enemy is dividing into four routes again — isn't this just like what the Taizu Emperor faced at the Battle of Sarhu?"

"Heaven truly blesses our Great Qing!"

"This will be easy to deal with. No matter how many routes they come by, we need only go out by one!"

The crowd of Great Qing loyal ministers immediately grew animated, loudly discussing the matter all at once.

Duoni cleared his throat to quiet them, then turned his gaze to Nikan.

Nikan analyzed: "Though the Ming army has thirty divisions of troops plus several powerful feudatories, it has also made many enemies. The most it can pull to Liaodong and Liaoxi is two hundred thousand. Divided into four routes, each route is no more than fifty thousand. Perhaps they will also arrange one route to land somewhere — that would make five routes, and averaged out, each route would be forty thousand. We currently have a total of one hundred ten thousand infantry and cavalry. After deducting the thirty thousand stationed across various places, we still have eighty thousand infantry and cavalry to deploy."

"Eighty thousand against forty thousand — we still have some confidence!" Duoni laughed.

"Prince Regent," said Yolo, the commander who jointly led the armies with Nikan, shaking his head, "we do not know the exact numbers of each Ming route. They may not divide their forces evenly!"

He spoke only half of what he meant; the other half he did not dare say aloud, lest it damage everyone's confidence. And the half he left unsaid was: "Even with eighty thousand against forty thousand, we have no certainty of victory."

The forty thousand Ming troops of today were stronger than the hundred-some thousand Ming troops at the Battle of Sarhu combined!

And far stronger at that!

And if today's eighty thousand Qing troops were drawn up to fight a pitched battle, they could of course use artillery and muskets to defeat the Later Jin heavenly soldiers of the Battle of Sarhu.

But pitched battle was not the only mode of warfare!

If it came to ambushes, night raids, chaotic forest fighting, cavalry raids, small-unit combat, and the like, today's Qing troops were no match for the Later Jin soldiers of old.

Because the Later Jin soldiers of old were, to put it plainly, made up of a group of hunting and fishing folk from the forests outside the Pass, while the main body of today's Qing army was nothing more than a group of peasants who had braved the journey to the northeast — and had it not been for the backbone cadres of the old Eight Banners and the Regular Green Banner repeatedly proclaiming that the Ming emperor would confiscate the lands they had cleared and farmed, they might not even be willing to fight and kill for Duoni.

Duoni nodded and said: "Yolo makes a good point. The Ming army will not distribute its forces evenly. But that is also our opportunity. We need only find the few columns with smaller numbers and defeat them one by one, and we can win."

Yolo shook his head. "That will not be easy to find. I fear we can only rely on guessing!"

"Prince An, actually we can still guess some of it."

Yolo turned to look. The speaker was Shang Ke'ai, Admiral of the Pacific Fleet.

"Admiral Shang, tell us your thoughts," Yolo said.

Shang Ke'ai smiled. "I do not know much else, but one thing is certain: if the Ming army lands, that route is definitely not the main force."

"Why?" Yolo asked.

"Because their navy simply does not have the ability to put an army of tens of thousands ashore on the beaches of Liaodong and Liaoxi," Shang Ke'ai said. "An army of tens of thousands cannot be transported without several hundred large seagoing vessels. Where would they get so many ships now?"

Yolo nodded. "That is true enough. But how are we to know where they will land?"

"Heh heh, then let us make a guess," Shang Ke'ai said. "First, the general area of the Ming landing must be along the Liaodong and Liaoxi coast of the Bohai Bay.

Second, the landing site must be very close to a river mouth or harbor.

Third, the Ming landing will certainly seek the effect of surprise. If I am not mistaken, they must intend to use a landing operation in coordination with the capture of Shanhai Pass, Jinzhou, or the Heishan Long Wall."

"It must be the Heishan Long Wall!" Nikan said. "The Ming have managed Lüshun Prefecture for many years and stationed heavy troops there. Once the Heishan Long Wall is taken by them, the heavy troops stationed at Lüshun can drive straight in!"

Yolo nodded and said: "If the enemy advances from Lüshun, it is indeed the greatest threat to our army. Going north from Lüshun, three hundred li brings one to the Liao River plain, and seven hundred li to Shenyang. The wheat on the Liao River plain is already ripe now, so the Ming army can easily obtain provisions. Moreover, there are many usable ports along the inner side of the Liaodong Peninsula, so the Ming main force need not worry at all about the transport of provisions and baggage."

Duoni clapped his hands. "Good, good. Have we not already found a brilliant plan to defeat the enemy? We shall place our main army along the Liao River, and at the same time spread scouts widely along the coast east of Jinzhou. The moment the enemy lands in force, we shall strike them before they are prepared!"

Yolo frowned and asked again: "But how do we deal with the Ming army's four routes? Shanhai Pass and the Heishan Long Wall can still hold out, but how should we handle the two routes coming by way of the Great Ling River and the Little Ling River?"

"We can lure the enemy deep!"

Another voice rang out. Duoni looked over and saw it was his trusted confidant Tuhai.

Tuhai said: "Prince Regent, we can lure one of those two routes to the vicinity of the Liao River, then concentrate our eighty thousand troops and deal it a crushing blow! After defeating that route, we can turn back and deal with the landing Ming troops. As long as we can beat back two of their routes, we will have seized the initiative, and from then on we can advance or retreat freely."

"Good, good!" Duoni laughed. "Tuhai, you are indeed Our brain trust. This task of luring the enemy deep, We also entrust to you. Can you handle it?"

Tuhai hastily knelt and saluted: "Rest assured, Prince Regent. No matter how cunning the Ming troops are, this slave will lure them here!"

(End of Chapter)