Chapter 1062: Oh No, the Ming Army Is Going to Attack Shengjing! (Please Subscribe)

It's over!

We've run into roving bandits!

The onlookers all felt their hearts turn to ice!

What kind of government troops were these people? Their conduct was exactly like roving bandits — not only did they want to seize goods, they also wanted to seize people. What was even more hateful was that they made Fan Family Manor's clients and hired laborers pay a blood-price by cutting human flesh, forcing them to stay and defend Fan Family Manor as cannon fodder!

And the government troops had also let the "old and weak bannermen" around Fan Family Manor who had witnessed the flesh-cutting go back. Go back to do what? To report to Prince Doni's great army, of course! And these people dared not conceal anything, because every household had someone — mainly women and half-grown boys — carried off by the Ming army, and they had to clear themselves of suspicion!

So they had to denounce Fan Family Manor's "Qing collaborators" with all their might.

And even if Doni knew full well that the Ming army was playing the trick of coercing the populace, he still had to grit his teeth and attack Fan Family Manor, because the morale of the troops under his command was already wavering, and he had to use the heads of "traitors" to overawe them! Otherwise, once morale collapsed, the army would be impossible to lead!

To prevent Doni from going soft, before leaving Fan Family Manor, Tian Yiqing had also done two utterly ruthless things that cut off all paths of retreat.

The first was that he had not killed off the two Fan families completely. Instead, he had left behind a dozen or so elderly women and young girls not yet grown, and sent them to Doni to weep and wail about their miserable fate — this was a performance staged for the rebel troops under Doni's command!

When the hare dies, the fox grieves!

The second thing was that he ordered the more than two hundred thousand shi of wheat that could not be carried away to be burned to ashes in one blaze, leaving Fan Family Manor with less than ten thousand shi of rations.

Now even if Doni wanted to spare Fan Family Manor, he had no excuse that would satisfy his men. It had to be said that the officials of the Great Ming now were far more wicked than they had been when the Chongzhen Emperor held power! Everything they did drove people relentlessly down the road to becoming Ming loyalists and martyrs!

After completing this series of wicked deeds — killing, kidnapping, coercing, framing — Huang Degong and Tian Yiqing continued on their way, heading east toward Shenyang!

Not to attack Shenyang, but to continue their wicked work. Eastward from Guangning, there were still many more "Fan Family Manors" waiting for them to torment!

Jiabusi had already drawn up a list before leaving the country. Now they went manor by manor, destroying each according to the list, guaranteed to make Doni and the high-ranking rebels around him unable to bear it.

Unable to bear it, they would have to give chase!

And as for chasing — they would never catch up!

"My lord, our master died such a miserable death!"

"My lord, you must avenge our master!"

"My lord, the Fan family is finished, all finished — not a single one with a handle was left behind!"

"My lord, you must see justice done for us!"

A crowd of old women and young girls from the Fan family had already been brought back by Qing cavalry patrols to the Qing army's Liangfangkou camp on the east bank of the lower Liao River. Disheveled and filthy, they knelt before Doni, weeping as if they were about to die.

Doni's face was ashen. The Qing generals standing to his left and right were all dumbstruck.

The wickedness of the Ming army had exceeded their imagination. They had even learned the trick of forcing commoners to pay a blood-price — had they learned that from the roving bandits?

And they had also learned the skill of slipping into enemy territory to wreak havoc — was that not the tactic of the Taizong Emperor's several campaigns through the passes?

Fine! The great Celestial Dynasty of Ming refused to learn anything good, but had learned every last vicious and underhanded trick of others. Could such a court still be wanted?

"Take them away and keep them all under guard!" Doni waved a hand, and the white-armored and red-armored soldiers in the great tent hauled the weeping women out. The tent immediately became much quieter.

Just as Doni was about to say something, there came another burst of hurried footsteps outside. Then a white-armored soldier strode in quickly, gave Doni a dajian salute, and presented an envelope with both hands: "My lord, urgent report from Shengjing Prefecture!"

Shengjing? What had happened at Shengjing now?

Doni quickly had an attendant bring the envelope over, took out the letter, and handed it to him. He had read only a few lines when he suddenly shot to his feet.

"My lord, what is it?"

"My lord, what has happened at Shengjing?"

Seeing him like this, the generals on both sides also grew somewhat alarmed, and someone immediately asked.

Doni said: "Tens of thousands of Ming troops have crossed the Liao River and the Hala River, and have also broken through Changsheng Fort within Shengjing Prefecture."

The Ming army was going to attack Shengjing!?

Were they not too bold?

Could they be the main force of the Ming army?

So the Ming army's main force was this route along the Daling River. They were taking a shortcut straight for Shengjing, to settle everything in one battle!

"My lord, return to relieve them at once!"

"My lord, Shengjing must not fall!"

"My lord—"

Now no one could remain calm, and everyone's judgment had gone wrong — whether Nikan, Oboi, Tantai, Leng Senji, or Yue Le, none of them had ever encountered a Ming mobile corps configured entirely with horses!

Moreover, this mobile corps was not one horse per man, but three horses (or mules) per man, giving it mobility superior to this Qing army, which was now composed mainly of infantry drawn from part-time soldiers and part-time farmers.

Even more terrifying, this Ming mobile corps had broken into the Qing state's granary, so it had no need to worry about food at all.

And the Qing army, to defend its own granary, had to turn back to relieve it and follow in pursuit — even if they could not catch up, they still had to chase!

Otherwise, if the enemy used vicious tricks like killing, kidnapping, coercing, and framing, would they not destroy Shengjing Prefecture?

Without the Liao River granary centered on Shengjing Prefecture, how could Doni hold out? Even if he could continue resisting the Ming, he could no longer fight in the Liao River basin. He could only retreat in great strides to his old base in Jianzhou, relying on the natural defenses of the Wanda Mountains and the Changbai Mountains to barely resist.

But if it came to that, Doni might as well submit early and accept the Great Ming court's terms for divided garrisons!

"Pass the order — strike camp!" Doni said through gritted teeth. "Oboi!"

"This slave is here!" Oboi, who had only recently returned from the Mongol front, answered and stepped forward.

"I give you five thousand — no, I give you ten thousand elite troops of the Vanguard Battalion. Travel day and night and rush to Shengjing. No matter what, you must not let the Ming army break through Shengjing city!"

Although Doni's army was mainly infantry, it was not without cavalry. He still had ten thousand light cavalry of the Vanguard Battalion and ten thousand heavy cavalry of the Valiant Cavalry Battalion. The heavy cavalry lacked mobility and had to fight in coordination with the infantry, so the only force that could be sent out now for emergency relief was the ten thousand light cavalry of the Vanguard Battalion.

As for what Doni's army would use for reconnaissance and screening after the light cavalry left — that could no longer be helped.

"This slave obeys the decree!" Oboi also knew that Shengjing could not be lost, so he accepted the order, turned, and left the great tent to muster his troops — his ten thousand men had to set out immediately, with several hundred li of road waiting for them!

And the remaining seventy thousand troops could not delay either; they would also have to head for Shengjing afterward.

At the same time, in Jinzhou in southern Liaoning, south of the Black Mountain Long Wall held by the Qing army, 120 cast-iron short cannons of 12-jin or 24-jin caliber had already been placed in position. Teams of wagons had hauled countless wooden-fuzed explosive shells and gunpowder to the artillery positions, all piled in semicircular ammunition revetments built of sandbags behind the cannons, waiting to be fired to destroy the Qing army's fortifications and defenders.

These 120 heavy cannons all came from six infantry divisions of the Ming army, as part of their division-level artillery regiments.

At present, the Ming army's field artillery was still mainly division-level, and division-level artillery was divided into light and heavy grades. The light artillery consisted of 3-jin bronze cannons, with four companies under each division artillery regiment, totaling sixteen guns. In battle they were often attached to infantry regiments. The division-level heavy field artillery consisted of three 12-jin cannon companies, two 24-jin cannon companies, and one 24-jin mortar company. Except for the mortar company, which was equipped with six mortars, all the other companies were at full strength with four guns each.

In other words, a division artillery regiment at full strength would possess forty-two guns of various types — extremely powerful firepower!

However, the chance to assemble all forty-two guns on the battlefield was not great, because the 24-jin short cannons and 12-jin short cannons were still too heavy. Except when attacking strong cities, they were basically never all hauled onto the battlefield. An infantry division on field maneuvers usually hauled sixteen 3-jin guns plus four 12-jin guns plus six mortars — twenty-six guns in total.

And today's battle was a siege assault, so all 120 of the 12-jin and 24-jin short cannons belonging to the six divisions had arrived, ready to fire deadly explosive shells at the Black Mountain Long Wall together!

(End of Chapter)