Chapter 172: The Zhu Crown Prince Wields Troops Like a God (Thirteenth Update)

Two or three thousand reinforcements from the Plain Blue Banner?

Duolong and Geng Zhongming exchanged a glance, both at a loss whether to laugh or cry.

These reinforcements had come far too late. Had they arrived a step earlier, they might have crushed that reincarnated Zhu Hongwu. Coming now, they could probably do no more than retreat together.

"The Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, lives again — ten thousand victories!"

The Ming army's cheers swept toward them. Duolong was startled again and hurriedly said to Geng Zhongming, "We cannot hold. Withdraw first and link up with the reinforcements, then hold the pontoon bridge. That way the Zhu crown prince will find it very hard to gain a foothold at Dagu. If we can force the Zhu crown prince back this time, that will count as giving some account of ourselves."

In the current situation, capturing Zhu Cilang was impossible. The man was already being hailed as the Great Ancestor, the Exalted Emperor, reborn — what the hell were you supposed to capture? Not getting captured yourself was already the gods and Buddhas protecting you.

But neither could they let him stay entrenched at Dagu. With a "Zhu Yuanzhang reborn" sitting at Dagu, would the Prince Regent still dare enter Beijing? Even if he entered, he would not be secure!

So Duolong could only settle for the next best thing: first seize the throat of Dagu — the Wei River pontoon bridge — so that Dagu would remain under the sword's edge of the Eight Banners' great army at all times.

Although Zhu Cilang was very likely Zhu Yuanzhang reincarnated, the troops he had on hand were after all too few; he could not possibly fight a head-on battle against a hundred thousand heavenly soldiers of the Eight Banners. If he could not hold the Wei River, he would have no choice but to withdraw south.

And once Zhu Cilang withdrew south, would the Great Qing not have successfully entered and taken the Central Plain?

Since ancient times, he who gains the Central Plain gains the realm. Once the Great Qing held the Central Plain, even if it could not sweep the whole realm, maintaining the northern half and fighting out a Jin–Song standoff would hardly be difficult, would it?

Duolong and Geng Zhongming had finally withdrawn from the battlefield! Only a little over five hundred true Tartars and fewer than a hundred of Geng Zhongming's personal guards left with them. Nearly sixteen hundred fake Tartars of the Plain Yellow Banner all became prey for the Ming troops, who were now in soaring spirits and hunting them down.

Up to this point in the battle, the Ming army could be said to have won a complete victory!

Yet the appearance of two or three thousand blue-clad, blue-bannered troops at the edge of the battlefield still cast a shadow over Zhu Cilang's victory.

His victory had come a little too late. A hundred thousand Manchu troops had already entered the pass, had defeated Li Zicheng's main force, and had most likely also brought tens of thousands of the Guanning Army under their control.

Losing one or two thousand here at Dagu was utterly negligible — a single hair from nine oxen. And now the Manchus had sent another two or three thousand Plain Blue Banner reinforcements. It seemed time to quit while ahead and withdraw the troops.

"Thousand Years, the troops coming are likely Manchu Plain Blue Banner or Bordered Blue Banner soldiers!" Wu Xiang, who had just been overjoyed, was now tense again. "These are true Manchus, not to be compared with those Han troops of the Eight Banners."

He still did not know that the ones Hao Yaoqi's musketeers had shot down in heaps of corpses were the elite of the Manchu Two White Banners — genuine, authentic Manchu heavenly soldiers!

But even if he had known, he would not have dared believe it. After all, once a man has knelt too long, standing up again is not easy.

That was why Zhu Cilang had not used the Guanning elite brought by Wu Guoyong, but instead used veteran roving-bandit soldiers captured in the Tianjin garrison campaign as musketeers — a completely correct choice.

"So what if they are true Manchus?" Zhu Cilang snorted. "We do not believe true Manchus are all made of iron! We intend to meet these true Manchus!"

Wu Xiang and Wu Sanfu exchanged glances, both looking grave.

The Crown Prince did not know how fearsome the Eight Banners' heavenly soldiers were. But he was in high spirits right now, and remonstrating would probably be useless. Better to take things one step at a time.

If it truly came to the worst, they would just protect the Crown Prince and flee!

"Beat the drums, form ranks!" Zhu Cilang shouted the order. "The Central Division vanguard and the Raider Cavalry Division will lead the way in pursuit of the defeated Manchu troops, until every last Tartar is driven to the north bank of the Wei River!"

Hearing Zhu Cilang's order, Wu Xiang and Wu Sanfu both breathed a great sigh of relief — so this Crown Prince did know to quit while ahead. Although what they had defeated was merely the Han troops of the Eight Banners, it was still a great victory.

With this great victory, the backbone of the Hard-Working New Army had stiffened considerably. Going forward, whether they marched south to Jinling or negotiated peace with the Tartars, they would have far more confidence. Which of the so-called Four Garrisons of Jiangbei in the south had ever defeated three thousand Tartars in one battle and killed more than two thousand of them?

So they absolutely must not throw away a victory won with such difficulty.

While the Hard-Working New Army quit while ahead, using tight formations and slow advance to force the "fake Tartars" to retreat, Duolong and Geng Zhongming had already fled in disarray with a few hundred defeated troops, gradually pulling away from their pursuers.

Watching the enemy behind grow farther and farther away, the foremost warrior of the Manchus finally let out a long breath and said to Geng Zhongming, riding alongside him, "They are Ming troops after all. They do not dare pursue."

Geng Zhongming smiled bitterly. "The Ming troops still have some fear of our Eight Banners' heavenly soldiers."

"My lord, Captain, the troops ahead do not seem to be Plain Blue Banner!"

At that moment one of Geng Zhongming's personal guards suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs, "They seem to be forming a battle line!"

What?

Duolong whipped his head around and saw that most of those blue-clad soldiers had dismounted and formed a gun line near the southern fort of the pontoon bridge. The blue-clad soldiers who had not dismounted each held sword or spear and had deployed in formation behind the gun line.

What was the meaning of this?

Could it be that because his own men were all wearing Ming army uniforms, they had not been recognized?

Though they could not figure out what these Plain Blue Banner troops intended, Duolong and Geng Zhongming still led their men toward them. After a while longer, the distance between the two sides closed, and they could make out the clothing opposite them clearly.

The moment they saw the clothing clearly, the Eight Banners' heavenly soldiers cried out in alarm one after another. It turned out the "blue-clad soldiers" drawn up in battle formation beside the pontoon bridge were not Plain White Banner Qing troops at all, but men wearing a blue garment over their original armor and battle jackets.

"Not the Plain Blue Banner!"

"They're Ming troops in blue clothes!"

"We've been tricked!"

"Despicable..."

Duolong too realized he had been deceived! He thought to himself: This Zhu Ming crown prince, this Zhu Yuanzhang reborn, is truly formidable! He had prepared an ambush long ago. Now there were blockers ahead and pursuers behind — they could only fight it out with them!

With that thought, he suddenly drew his saber and roared, "Warriors of the Great Qing, when brave men meet in a narrow pass, the brave win! Charge with me!"

The foremost warrior of the Manchus was now going to fight for his life!

"Madam, the government troops and rebel soldiers ahead are charging at us! They seem to want to fight us to the death!"

"Hmph! Then take them down — consider it our gift of greeting to the Thousand Years!"

The speakers were the two leaders of the "blue-clad soldiers": one was Hong Niangzi, now changed into a blue outfit, and the other was her husband Li Yan, also in blue clothes and a blue cap. The Shun army had originally worn blue clothes and white caps, but Li Yan and Hong Niangzi no longer followed that non-resisting emperor Li Zicheng, and to distinguish themselves they had dyed their caps blue.

Li Yan shouted the order: "Beat the drums!"

"Dong dong dong—"

At the sound of the war drums, the fewer than three thousand spearmen, archers, and sword-and-shield men drawn up in battle formation each gripped their weapons and assumed a combat stance. Behind them were two or three hundred cavalry, spread out in groups of several dozen, their backs to the Wei River and the pontoon bridge. Hong Niangzi and Li Yan personally led several dozen riders, positioned behind the infantry line to oversee the battle.

And behind these spearmen, archers, sword-and-shield men, and cavalry, there were also four Hongyi cannons! But they had no carriages and were mounted directly on large carts, making them inconvenient to fire, so they had not been put to use.

These four Hongyi cannons were what Li Yan had requested from Li Zicheng after arriving in Beijing. Along with them came fewer than a thousand reinforcements — not from the Shun army's old camp, but elite troops selected from captured Ming soldiers, all incorporated into the units of Li Yan and Hong Niangzi. Now they had all followed the couple to join Zhu Cilang!

And the timing of their arrival at Dagu was truly too coincidental — they happened to arrive just as Duolong and Geng Zhongming were defeated.

A group of cavalry in Ming army uniforms being chased by Ming troops flying the crown prince's banner — no need to ask, there must be traitorous ministers and rebels at Dagu opposing the Crown Prince. In these times there was little loyalty to the death; the Zhu crown prince had also seized control of the Chongzhen Emperor, so it was only natural that some of his subordinates were disloyal!

Hong Niangzi was also warm-hearted, and she had long since accepted the rank of Chiliarch of the Marshal's Headquarters that Zhu Cilang had conferred on her, so of course she now had to put in a vigorous performance.

So she had her troops spread out their formation and block the foremost warrior of the Manchus.

This foremost warrior of the Manchus was truly cursed with bad luck — he had inexplicably run into yet another enemy force that did not know how fearsome the Tartars were, and did not even know he was a Tartar.

And they were fresh troops besides, while his own side was exhausted, men and horses alike, with pursuers right behind them!

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(End of chapter)