Chapter 1706: Learning the Enemy's Skills to Subdue the Tartars

On the ninth day of the sixth month, at White Climb Mountain.

After the two armies had rested and reorganized for nearly the whole of the eighth, on the ninth day of the sixth month the Battle of White Climb began anew.

Once fighting resumed, the pattern of battle shifted from cavalry melee to positional assault and defense. Khutuktu Khan's great army deployed for defense on the heights of White Climb Mountain, ringing the high ground with several thousand large carts linked end to end to form a very traditional Mongol circular camp, then reinforced it with wooden shields and earth. They presented the posture of a force resolved to fight to the death.

The host now gathered under Khutuktu Khan's banner still numbered more than forty thousand, and all of them knew by now that the Great Khan had not died — the one who had failed in single combat against the Southern Emperor yesterday was not the Great Khan himself, but the Great Khan's sister, the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai. The Great Khan was safe and sound, and moreover was determined to fight to the death here at White Climb Mountain against the Ming dynasty, the Great Yuan's sworn enemy of more than two hundred and eighty years!

The rise or fall of the Great Yuan would be decided in this one battle!

On the evening of the eighth, Khutuktu Khan had already proclaimed that if the Battle of White Climb was won, his great army would seize the garrison city of Datong.

Once Datong was taken, the Great Yuan dynasty would have formally returned to the Central Plains!

That would be the true restoration of the Great Yuan!

After that would come the fall of the Ming and the rise of the Yuan — all under Heaven would return to the rule of the Great Mongol Nation!

The boasting was grand enough, but the Mongols of the Chakhar tribe were a simple folk. Roused by their Great Khan, plied with a little fermented mare's milk and a fragrant meal of roast meat, they more or less believed it. Their flagging morale revived, and from top to bottom they rubbed their hands and clenched their fists, waiting to give the Ming army a sound thrashing from behind their circular camp.

The defeat on the seventh had come mainly because the chaotic night melee had stunned them, and because the Grand Princess of the Uriankhai, burning to avenge her husband, had impersonated the Great Khan to challenge the Southern Emperor to single combat and been captured alive. That had thrown the Chakhar into utter confusion, and the Ming army had seized the chance to win an easy victory.

But today was different. Here were forty or fifty thousand Chakhar warriors holding a strong position, while the Ming army facing them looked to be fewer in number. How could they possibly lose?

So early on the morning of the eighth, the Mongols on White Climb Mountain were still brimming with confidence — until they saw hundreds of shield-carts forming rank after rank, screening Ming foot soldiers and mounted armored troops as they appeared on the battlefield west of White Climb Mountain.

"This is—" Ligdan Batur, standing on the highest point of White Climb Mountain with a spyglass in hand, took one look at the formation the Ming army had drawn up and felt the urge to flee again!

Because the formation the Ming army had deployed today was all too familiar to him: shield-carts in front, foot soldiers behind, mounted armored troops holding the rear!

Was this a Ming army? This was the Eight Banners!

What was going on? Could it be that what he faced was not the young Ming Emperor but the Later Jin's Tiancong Khan? No, that couldn't be — this was Shanxi, not Liaodong!

How had the Tiancong Khan gotten here? Could the Zhu Youjian he had encountered yesterday have been the Tiancong Khan in disguise?

"Elder Brother," said Ligdan Batur's younger brother, the Shatu Taiji, who had just taken command of the central army's ten-thousand, "the Ming army's tactics look just about the same as the Later Jin's — shield-carts clearing the way, armored foot archers behind, mounted armored troops holding the rear! How are we supposed to fight this?"

How to fight it? With cannon against the shield-carts, of course — or, lacking cannon, with heavy turtledove-beak matchlocks. So long as the shield-carts could be shattered, the flying splinters would carry their own killing power.

But Ligdan Batur had no cannon, and no heavy turtledove-beak matchlocks either. His Mongol warriors had only bows, and most of them did not even have a decent bow! With those soft bows fit only for shooting game, they could not so much as dent the shield-carts, let alone harm the dismounted tent-guard warriors with their Kaiyuan bows following behind the carts. Those tent-guard warriors were every one of them clad in long armor, wearing flying-saucer helmets proof against plunging arrows, and they were crouched behind the shield-carts besides. The Mongol archers could not hit their faces at all, while the arrows the tent-guards loosed in high arcs could effectively kill Mongol archers who had almost no protection.

This set of tactics was what the Later Jin had worked out after long years of fighting the Ming army and the Mongols — a method for the strong to bully the weak.

Simple, practical, efficient, and not hard to imitate, which was why Zhu Youjian's tent-guard army had learned the trick too, and now put it to use against Mongols weaker than themselves.

"Elder Brother, let us send in the iron-lance cavalry!" The Shatu Taiji had no better idea, so he proposed committing the armored cavalry in a counterattack.

Ligdan Batur shook his head. "The time is not yet right. We have only this many armored men — we cannot afford to spend them!"

Ligdan Batur's iron-lance cavalry had suffered grievous losses in the fighting on the seventh and in the small hours of the eighth. Two companies had been completely wiped out, and the remaining eight companies had taken considerable losses as well. They might not even be able to field two thousand men now! His Gol Tumen cavalry was still intact, but those were his personal guards, the men who would escort him, the Great Khan, in flight.

The Great Khan thought for a moment, then added: "First exchange arrows for a while. Then pick brave men from each tribe, and have the iron-lance cavalry hold the line behind them!"

That was the method of using armored cavalry to drive armed herdsmen forward as cannon fodder!

The Shatu Taiji could think of no better plan either, so he acknowledged the order and went off to levy brave men from the various tribes.

Unlike Ligdan Batur, who preferred to hang back and supervise the fighting, Zhu Youjian had once again donned armor and taken the field, riding with his young personal guards on big horses, spear in hand and a Lumi matchlock slung across his back, following right behind his own cavalry — he had not come forward to supervise the battle, but to look for another chance to fire a sneaking shot!

The first time he had fired a sneaking shot he had killed the foremost warrior of the Mongols; the second time he had shot a Grand Princess of the Uriankhai. This time, with any luck, he might hit a real Great Khan — that would be a prize indeed!

So once the formation was set, he handed the army over to Hei Yunlong and Man Gui, and rode forward with his personal guards to do some target shooting.

"Your Majesty, our shield-carts are nearly upon their circular camp!" Wu Sangui, riding beside Zhu Youjian, rose in his stirrups and craned his neck for a look, then turned and called out to Zhu Youjian, "They seem to have begun shooting!"

Zhu Youjian reined in his warhorse, also rose in his stirrups, and took out a telescope to watch the battle, keeping an eye out for a chance to do some shooting of his own.

Through the telescope, Zhu Youjian took in the whole situation before him.

The men pushing the shield-carts forward were all garrison troops brought out from Datong city. They wore no armor, but Man Gui had provided each of them with a round shield to hold over his head like a hat, so the Mongol arrows falling from the sky could hardly hurt them.

Behind the shield-carts came the armored tent-guard troops, each carrying a leather shield as well. Most of the warriors now raised their shields to protect head and face and kept advancing. Only a few brave men with bows had rushed up to the shield-carts, using them for cover as they moved forward and loosed arrows as they went — these were the sharpshooters of the tent-guard army, men who could hit a man-shaped target at over a hundred paces. It was they who had started this, opening fire from seventy or eighty paces out to kill the unarmored Mongols behind the circular camp and goad them into loosing volleys of arrows in reply.

Their purpose in doing this was to wear down the Mongol archers' strength — shooting a bow is hard physical work! An ordinary archer could loose twenty or thirty arrows in a battle before his arm ached and he had no strength left. Even a tent-guard champion using a relatively soft Kaiyuan bow had only enough strength for thirty or forty arrows, so they had to be used sparingly.

When Zhu Youjian saw the Mongols begin loosing wild volleys of arrows from seventy or eighty paces out, he laughed at once and said to those around him: "They are our old opponents after all — six of one and half a dozen of the other, with the very same flaws. No wonder they cannot beat the eastern barbarians! Sangui, Wentao, if you two were to take command in Ligdan Batur's place, facing Our shield-carts, foot soldiers, and mounted armored troops, how would you break them?"

"With a massed charge of long spears!" said Wu Sangui. "Then follow with iron cavalry. That should break the shield-cart formation."

Hei Wentao said: "At the same time, light cavalry could be sent around to our rear and flanks. Your Majesty, Ligdan Batur has few iron cavalry, but he has no shortage of light horse. If the circular camp cannot hold, he will likely send light cavalry out to sweep around and strike — that must be guarded against."

Zhu Youjian nodded. "Good! You have indeed made progress. We have not taught you in vain!" He smiled. "But Ligdan Batur is doomed to lose today. His long spears cannot pierce Our shield-carts, and his light horse are no match for the tent-guard cavalry!"

His words had scarcely faded when the battlefield rang with the sound of suona horns — the tent-guard officers at the front were giving the order for a massed volley of arrows!

The climax of the Battle of White Climb had finally begun!

(End of Chapter)