Chapter 1698: Bring Us Our Rumi Musket!

On the seventh day of the sixth month in the first year of Chongzhen, at the drill-ground city of the northern pass of Datong, in the Son of Heaven's traveling palace, the Temple of Zhenwu.

"Your Majesty, the Tiger Cub Khan's main camp is set on Mount Baideng, less than twenty li from the city of Datong. This Mount Baideng is the very place where, in ancient times, Liu Bang, Emperor Gaozu of Han, was surrounded by the Xiongnu in the Siege of Baideng. At present our troops and the Chahar forces face each other across the Yu River. West of the Yu River is where our cavalry patrols and scouts come and go on watch; east of the Yu River, the Chahar horsemen are moving about everywhere."

The man standing bowed beside the young Son of Heaven, explaining the military situation around Datong to Zhu Youjian inside the Temple of Zhenwu, which had been pressed into service as the imperial traveling palace, was Man Gui, Regional Commander of Datong.

Before the two of them was a wall, and on the wall hung a map of the terrain around Datong, showing the Yu River and Mount Baideng, with a good many Mongol yurts drawn at the foot of Mount Baideng.

Yang Gao, Sun Zushou, Chen Qiyu, and Hong Chengchou, the four "Grand Staff Officers," along with Hei Yunlong, Commander of the Imperial Guard, and others, followed behind Zhu Youjian and Man Gui, craning their necks to look at the map.

What was now underway was the pre-battle council of war!

The men Zhu Youjian had gathered each had their assigned duties. Sun Chuanting, Lu Xiangsheng, Sun Yingyuan, Zhou Yuji, Wu Xiang, Cao Wenzhao, and Huang Degong, along with Hei Yunlong's son Hei Mingxiao, each commanded a regiment, and were called Regiment Commanders or Assistant Regional Commanders of the Regiment (those of civil rank leading troops were called Regiment Commanders). Hei Yunlong and Liu Yingkun were in overall charge of daily training, discipline, logistics, and organization. Yang Gao, Sun Zushou, Chen Qiyu, and Hong Chengchou formed a general staff, responsible for drawing up plans for operations, marches, training, and encampment, transmitting Zhu Youjian's military orders, and also for training the "seeds of command"—the young bodyguards who followed at Zhu Youjian's side, as well as promising talents selected from the eight regiments before the tent.

In addition there was Sun Yuanhua, whom Zhu Youjian had assigned to a post solely in charge of equipment; he was at present still in Macao buying firearms and recruiting Western soldiers.

This lineup, set in the early years of Chongzhen, could be called magnificent—a gathering of mighty generals and a convergence of worthy talent. Seeing all these able men, Man Gui's confidence in this young Son of Heaven grew a little stronger. Perhaps the Tiger Cub Khan really could be driven off?

"Commander Man," Yang Gao said at this point, stroking his beard as he interjected, "where should the main army cross the river? Do your men have any reliable footholds on the opposite bank?"

So they really meant to fight!

Man Gui was inwardly groaning. Across the river were a hundred thousand Chahar Tartars, while his own fighting men in Datong numbered only a little over ten thousand. Even if they sallied forth in full force, together with the ten thousand-odd cavalry the Son of Heaven had brought, they would still have only twenty thousand.

Twenty thousand against a hundred thousand was far too few.

"Ah, the Yu River is deep, and now in the rainy summer season it cannot be forded. Boats must be prepared before the river can be crossed."

Man Gui was quick-witted enough, using the depth of the Yu River as an excuse to buy time. He also knew that the court was surely mobilizing troops and assigning commanders—although this young Son of Heaven Zhu Youjian was acting somewhat out of line, neither of the two factions at court would want him to die on the spot.

Because Zhu Youjian had no son, and if he died, the Prince of Fu, Zhu Changxun, would become the man closest to the throne!

And this Prince of Fu had, in the struggle over the succession years ago, made enemies of many great ministers at court; once he took the throne he would certainly launch reprisals. The Donglin Faction, whose enmity with the Prince of Fu ran deepest, was in league with the Liaodong military clique, and at that point they might well resort to force to put the Prince of Duan, Zhu Changhao, on the throne, while the eunuch faction would back the Prince of Fu, Zhu Changxun.

The Great Ming, already beset by troubles within and without, might well fall into civil war!

So Man Gui reckoned that the courtiers would do everything in their power to mobilize troops and send reinforcements to Datong. Once the Capital Camps' relief forces arrived, the Tiger Cub Khan would naturally withdraw, and then all parties would be safe and sound.

"Rainy?" Zhu Youjian frowned. "But what We have seen within the borders of Datong is drought and little rain, with rivers run dry. The Yu River still has water, but the level cannot be very deep, can it?"

"Your Majesty, there were heavy rains upstream on the Yu River in recent days," Man Gui said, "so the water level in the Yu River is not shallow."

A lie had to be kept consistent!

But Man Gui had only half finished speaking when, from somewhere, came a burst of "ping-ping-pang-pang"—the sound of three-eyed guns firing. Man Gui, who had been telling his lie without a change of expression, turned pale the moment he heard it.

Zhu Youjian was no fool either. He knew it was most likely Chahar roving cavalry who had slipped across the Yu River and come to probe the defenses near Datong—the commotion when he had led more than ten thousand iron cavalry into Datong the day before had been considerable, and as long as the Chahar men were not blind or deaf, they would certainly have learned of it.

At this thought, he did not ask Man Gui, but instead shot a glance at Sun Zushou: "Staff Officer Sun, go take a look."

Sun Zushou received the imperial command and immediately strode out of the Temple of Zhenwu. Meanwhile the sound of three-eyed guns firing still came intermittently, and the fighting sounded lively enough; it seemed quite a few Chahar cavalry had crossed the river!

Zhu Youjian said with a smile to Man Gui, "Commander Man, it seems the Tiger Cub Khan's men have found a shallow ford they can cross."

Man Gui could only force a bitter smile: "Your Majesty is sagacious."

Before long, Sun Zushou returned to the traveling palace in the Temple of Zhenwu, saluted with folded hands, and reported: "Your Majesty, this subject has just ascended the tower of the Xuandong Gate and made a survey with a telescope. I found that on the west bank of the Yu River, ten li outside the city, small parties of cavalry are engaged in combat."

Zhu Youjian looked at Man Gui again, and Man Gui had no choice but to answer truthfully: "Your Majesty, this subject sent several hundred cavalry to patrol back and forth along the Yu River outside the northern pass. They must have run into Tartar roving cavalry."

Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "The Tartar roving cavalry must know where the river can be forded, don't they?"

"They should know."

Zhu Youjian nodded: "Good! We shall go capture a few Tartars and ask them."

What? The Emperor was going to capture them personally?

Man Gui could hardly believe his ears!

While he stood stunned, Zhu Youjian had already given the order: "Have the First Regiment of the Army Before the Tent send out one battalion of cavalry to ride out of the city with Us!"

"Your Majesty, you must not!"

Man Gui had recovered himself by now and immediately spoke up to dissuade him. But how could Zhu Youjian be willing to listen to him? His very purpose in coming to Datong was to fight a war, and no one was going to stop him.

So he paid Man Gui no heed, but strode out of the great hall where the council of war was being held. The young personal guards waiting outside immediately gathered around him.

Zhu Youjian said in a loud voice: "Armor Us! We are going out of the city to do battle with the Tartar cavalry! We want to see just how great the martial skill of these Mongols is!"

What? He meant to fight as well? This time it was not only Man Gui who was startled—Yang Gao, Sun Zushou, Chen Qiyu, Hong Chengchou, and Hei Yunlong were all shocked too. Although they all knew Zhu Youjian's martial skill was very high, that had been play-fighting on the drill ground at Nanhaizi, which was not the same thing as going onto a battlefield!

They were just about to speak up and dissuade him when Zhu Youjian added another line: "Also—bring Us Our Rumi musket!"

That Zhu Youjian's martial skill was the finest under heaven was no idle boast—he had real skill! His real skill was shooting from ambush with a Rumi musket. His marksmanship was superb: he could take a man's life from seventy or eighty paces away! Even the foremost warrior of the Mongols could not withstand such an art!

The current foremost warrior of the Mongols was Guiyingqia, famed as first in wrestling among the Mongols, first in archery among the Mongols, first in horsemanship among the Mongols—the foremost warrior in all three! Moreover, he was the leader of the Iron Lance Konot Ten Sumu, the Tiger Cub Khan's elite unit. In recent years he had campaigned east and west on the Tiger Cub Khan's behalf, and had almost never known defeat.

The day before, the Tiger Cub Khan had learned that ten or twenty thousand Ming cavalry had come to reinforce Datong, and sensing that the Ming army was about to launch a counterattack, he had sent his brother-in-law and foremost Mongol warrior Guiyingqia, leading one sumu of Iron Lance cavalry plus more than a thousand armed herdsmen, across the Yu River to test the Ming army's strength.

Guiyingqia did not send out the Iron Lance cavalry right away, but instead used the armed herdsmen as cannon fodder, sending them to kill and burn in several villages on the west bank of the Yu River. As a result they collided with the mounted patrols Man Gui had sent out. The two sides fought a confused melee on the west bank of the Yu River, lively enough, but neither side used its full strength. The Ming side used bows and three-eyed guns, while the Chahar armed herdsmen merely shot arrows from a distance; neither side showed any intention of charging in for hand-to-hand combat.

Guiyingqia, for his part, was in no hurry to act. He had chosen a small grove by the river and was lying low, waiting for the armed herdsmen he had sent out to lure out the big fish.

(End of Chapter)