Chapter 1285: Now It Is Wu Sangui's Turn

On the second day of the second month, the dragon raises its head.

Shang Kexi had been cold for a full twenty-four double-hours now, yet Li Dingguo, Luo Hu, and the forty-five thousand officers and men under their command all had hearts burning like fire.

Because yet another great victory was already within easy reach!

Since the Ming army invading Hanzhong had come by no fewer than five routes, after the Battle of Mian County ended on the thirtieth, Li Dingguo had no time at all to let his troops rest before ordering them back into combat. The roughly fifty-some-thousand-man army remaining after the Battle of Mian County (before the Mian County campaign Li Dingguo had concentrated a total of sixty thousand troops, of whom ten thousand had been held in reserve and never engaged, while of the fifty thousand who did fight, more than three thousand had been killed or wounded) was divided by him into two parts. Chen Yongfu led more than ten thousand men in pursuit of the defeated troops under Kong Tingxun, heading toward Lueyang. He and Luo Hu led the remaining roughly forty-five thousand on a forced march of fifty or sixty li, reaching the east bank of the Bao River, a little over ten li northwest of the prefectural seat of Hanzhong, to await Wu Guogui's force coming from Maling Pass.

Unlike the previous battle, where they had formed ranks and met the enemy head-on, this time Li Dingguo dispersed twenty thousand of the forty-five thousand men he had brought among a dozen or more extremely sturdy villages and towns on the east bank of the Bao River. He then placed the remaining twenty-five thousand troops behind these villages and towns, concealed in ambush. In this way he created the false impression that the Shun army was preparing to resist step by step and defend the prefectural seat of Hanzhong to the death.

Wu Guogui had brought as many as twenty thousand men to the south of the prefectural seat of Hanzhong, and in addition three infantry divisions of the Guards commanded by Yan Yingyuan were hurrying over by way of the Baoxie Road, the Ziwu Road, and the Tangluo Road. If the four forces could link up, their combined strength would reach as much as sixty-five thousand!

Moreover, he did not know that Shang Kexi was already thoroughly cold, and still believed that Grand General Shang was fighting in the Mian County area and would soon arrive near the prefectural seat of Hanzhong as well.

So when Wu Guogui saw the Shun army assume a posture of defending Hanzhong, he very naturally assumed the advantage was his. He immediately drew up a plan to attack and advance along the Bao River, seize the villages and towns held by the Shun troops, and open a passage for the attack on Hanzhong.

The fighting between the two sides began in the early hours of the second day of the second month. Because Wu Guogui's troops had won battle after battle, and because along the way they had received the warm support of the laboring people of southern Shaanxi, they felt excellent and their morale was high — they could even fight night battles like the Guards.

Under the cover of a small number of 3-catty cannon, Wu Guogui sent out twenty battalions of infantry, divided into three columns, to begin attacking three villages and towns heavily defended by Shun troops. At the same time he dispatched cavalry to screen his left flank, and sent seven battalions to take up defensive positions along the Bao River, lest his left flank be surprised.

The battle opened at the third quarter of the zi hour on the second day of the second month. Under the cover of the cannon, the high-spirited Ming troops first charged into Lijiayingzi, which lay right beside the Bao River — one could tell from the place name that this was a village where fubing military households had gathered, built like a military camp and extremely hard to crack. There were moats and earthen walls on the outside, and inside it was laid out like a chessboard, so it had to be contested square by square.

At the same time as the fierce battle at Lijiayingzi began, Shijiabao and Hewan Village also came under furious Ming assault. Shijiabao was likewise a fubing military household village, very sturdy and hard to crack. Hewan Village, however, was a village of local Hanzhong farming households, and when the Ming troops charged in, many common folk were still living inside the village. Seeing that the royal army they had awaited for twenty years had finally arrived, they were beside themselves with excitement, and quite a few young men who dreamed of joining the army fell upon the defending Shun troops — the result was chaos on the Shun side, and the village was quickly taken by the Ming.

Seeing victory in the first engagement, Wu Guogui's head grew even hotter, and he committed six more infantry battalions plus eight of the nine battalions that had just broken through Hewan Village, again dividing them into two columns to attack two more villages. Of those two villages, one was a fubing village and the other a village of poor Hanzhong peasants. So the Ming quickly seized the peasant village, while bogging down in bitter fighting in the other fubing village. And the victorious Ming column soon bogged down in bitter fighting at yet another fubing village called Andingying.

By the time the fierce fighting at the front reached the early morning of the second day of the second month, both commanders had thrown in reinforcements. Li Dingguo committed ten battalions, while Wu Guogui, whose forces at hand were limited, still scraped together three battalions and threw them into Lijiaying, where the fighting had first begun. And his investment finally paid off at the wu hour on the second day of the second month: relying on absolute superiority in numbers, eleven Ming battalions at last drove the Shun troops, far fewer than themselves, out of Lijiaying.

But Wu Guogui's victories ended there!

When he ordered the victorious ten infantry battalions (leaving one battalion to hold Lijiaying) to carry six 3-catty cannon and launch an attack on another village held by the Shun army, what awaited them were ten thousand Shun infantry personally commanded by Luo Hu and nine 6-pounder cannon!

The two sides joined in a decisive battle on the plain east of the Bao River. The Ming troops, fewer in number and without cavalry support, had their backs to the Bao River and formed a circular defensive position, relying on matchlocks, flintlocks (flintlocks accounting for two-tenths of the total rifles), and grenade-javelins to beat back three Shun assaults, but they were also unable to break out and withdraw.

Wu Guogui, now aware that the enemy far outnumbered his own force, gathered up the seven infantry battalions and three cavalry battalions screening his flank and went to reinforce the ten infantry battalions locked in the decisive battle with the enemy. But halfway there, they were blocked by fifteen thousand infantry and cavalry personally led by Li Dingguo!

Facing an enemy three times his own strength, Wu Guogui had no choice but to order his various units to abandon their positions, disengage from the enemy before them as quickly as possible, and retreat toward Baocheng — he still wanted to hold Baocheng and wait for Yan Yingyuan's Guards.

If even one division — no, half a division — of the Guards could arrive, the prefectural seat of Hanzhong would still be within easy reach!

But Li Dingguo would not give Wu Guogui the slightest chance. Seeing the Ming army begin to retreat, he immediately committed all his forces and launched the pursuit. At the same time he ordered Luo Hu, who had four or five thousand Ming troops trapped by the Bao River, to let them have a "way out," so that they could be utterly smashed in the pursuit!

By the shen hour on the second day of the second month, the Battle of the Bao River had been decided. Battle cries and cheers in Shaanxi accents rang across the entire Bao River battlefield. Looking north from the high ground where the Prince of Jin, Li Dingguo, stood, one could see the blue-clad Shun officers and men surging like a flood, charging furiously at the red-clad Ming troops and scattering the latter in utter disarray, fleeing in all directions.

"My Prince, Baocheng has been retaken by us!"

"My Prince, the remnant troops of the Zhu rebels are fleeing toward Jitou Pass!"

"My Prince, we have captured one banner of the rebel Regional Commander Wu and one banner of the Commander of the Three Armies."

Reports of victory flowed to Li Dingguo's ears like running water, letting this Prince of Jin, who had been stifled on the Shaanxi battlefield for several years, vent a great breath of pent-up frustration.

To whom this realm belongs, it seems, is not yet settled!

Luo Hu, who had just led his troops in retaking Baocheng, came galloping over with several dozen personal guards and ascended the high slope where Li Dingguo sat on horseback.

"Prince of Jin, another great victory!"

Luo Hu had not been this happy in many years. He seemed to have returned to the days when he had followed the old His Majesty Li Zicheng on campaigns east and west, sending the Ming army fleeing with its head in its hands.

"What are the casualties in each unit?" Li Dingguo's question was like a basin of cold water, sobering Luo Hu at once.

"Casualties are not light," Luo Hu said. "This Ming force is Wu Sangui's own picked troops, tougher than Shang Kexi's men we met before. Our losses will likely be no fewer than six thousand!"

In the earlier Battle of Mian County, the Shun army had already lost more than three thousand men; added to this Battle of the Bao River, the losses would likely exceed ten thousand!

Although the Ming side's losses were even greater, their gains were not small either!

Both the battles of Mian County and the Bao River were fought in the Hanzhong basin!

That meant the entire Sanguan Road and the entire Qishan Road would be occupied by the Ming army, and the situation on the Baoxie Road, the Ziwu Road, and the Tangluo Road was unclear, though they would most likely also fall into Ming hands.

In other words, the tactical victories at Mian County and the Bao River had been bought at the price of abandoning five strategic routes and the footholds on the Guanzhong plain.

Even if these two battles could destroy thirty thousand Ming troops, the Shun side would still be the loser.

Because with the loss of the Qishan Road, the Sanguan Road, the Baoxie Road, the Ziwu Road, and the Tangluo Road, the Hanzhong basin would sooner or later be indefensible, and once Hanzhong fell, Yunyang Prefecture would be lost as well!

"My Prince," Luo Hu said, "who do we fight next?"

There were four targets left: the three enemy columns coming by way of the Baoxie Road, the Ziwu Road, and the Tangluo Road, and Wu Sangui, who remained at Lueyang — through interrogating prisoners, Li Dingguo and Luo Hu had already learned that Wu Sangui had arrived at Lueyang!

"Wu Sangui, of course!" Li Dingguo said with a grim face. "The next one to take his turn is Wu Sangui! Marquis Luo, take your troops and pursue this remnant of the Zhu rebels before us toward Maling Pass, and cut off Wu Sangui's line of retreat. We shall strike at Lueyang!"

"My Prince, what about Hanzhong?"

"No fear. With the two fortresses of Dingjun Mountain and Nanzheng to hold, the enemy coming by the Baoxie Road, the Ziwu Road, and the Tangluo Road cannot do anything to Hanzhong for the time being!"

(End of Chapter)