Chapter 1727: Has Hong Taiji Fallen into the Trap?

"Great Khan, the Second Beile's troops have already stormed Yiyuan Pass, slain several dozen southern soldiers, and scattered the rest!"

"Great Khan, the Second Beile's vanguard has engaged roughly 2,000 southern infantry and cavalry inside Yiyuan Pass. Arrows are falling like rain on both sides; our army is locked in fierce combat. The Second Beile requests that the Great Khan send reinforcements!"

One rider after another came galloping in at full speed, hurriedly reporting the military situation. Hong Taiji sat inside his great tent pitched beside the Qinglong River (a tributary of the Luan River, near Jieling Pass and not far from Yiyuan Pass), a large map spread before him — maps that traitors like Sun Degong and Li Yongfang, men thoroughly familiar with the terrain of Ji and Liao, had drawn for Hong Taiji. Without such men to guide the way, Hong Taiji would not have found it so easy to creep up to the edge of the Great Wall.

His present plan was in fact to make a feint to the east while striking in the west. The tens of thousands of crack troops at Shanhai Pass and in the Liao garrison were not his objective. His objective was to break through the passes and plunder at will — to seize a great haul first and relieve the Great Jin's grain shortage. And even if he meant to kill off some of the Liao garrison's elite along the way, he certainly was not going to fight a decisive battle inside Shanhai Pass!

Fighting inside Shanhai Pass — if defeated, there was nothing more to say. But even if victorious, the Ming army could fall back and take shelter in Shanhai Pass and Funing. Those fortresses might not match Ningyuan (Shanhai Pass's inward-facing defenses were not strong), but the Liao garrison troops were still formidable defenders of cities. The old Khan, Tianming, had been humiliated once beneath the walls of Ningyuan, and Hong Taiji himself had suffered one severe setback each at Ningyuan and Jinzhou.

This time Hong Taiji had emptied his realm for a distant expedition, sending his main force deep into enemy territory — how could he possibly go inside Shanhai Pass to attack strong cities held fast by the Liao garrison? If the attack dragged on without success, the whole trip would have been for nothing, and nobody would reimburse his travel expenses! Even if he won, he still had to reckon his own losses. Attacking a strong fortress like Shanhai Pass, with Yuan Chonghuan holding the walls, would cost twenty or thirty thousand dead and wounded even in victory!

How could anyone fight a war like that?

So sending the Second Beile Amin to attack Yiyuan Pass was a feint! It was meant to frighten the Ming army and draw the main force of the Jizhou garrison from Santunying to Yiyuan Pass, after which Hong Taiji could lead the main army in through Xifeng Pass.

Only by entering Xifeng Pass would there be fat meat and fine fish to feast on!

Hong Taiji had it all planned out. Once through Xifeng Pass, he would first devour Zunhua county town; after Zunhua, Yutian; after Yutian, Jizhou; after Jizhou, Pinggu; after Pinggu, Shunyi; and after Shunyi, he would feint at Beijing to draw off the Ming army, then fall upon great Tongzhou. After finishing Tongzhou, he would return in triumph, heading straight for Miyun and out through Gubei Pass.

After eating his way through Zunhua, Yutian, Jizhou, Pinggu, Shunyi, and Tongzhou, the Great Jin would be rich!

With all that fat meat waiting, why enter Yiyuan Pass? To gnaw on Shanhai Pass amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood? Did Hong Taiji not want to go on being Great Khan?

"What is Amin playing at?" Hong Taiji was furious at once. "I sent him to put on a show of force — why has he gone straight in? And now he's locked in combat with the southern army inside Yiyuan Pass. What is he trying to do?"

"Great Khan," Dorgon, who was in attendance in Hong Taiji's tent, now spoke up, "the Second Beile followed the old Khan for many years and is a veteran of many battles. He would not be so muddled. Since he has fought his way into Yiyuan Pass, there must be a reason for it."

Prompted by Dorgon, Hong Taiji also felt something was odd. He knew this brother of his, only seventeen years old, had a very quick mind and considered problems with great thoroughness — a man who could be entrusted with heavy responsibility.

He said to Dorgon, "Take your White Armored troops and go have a look. Give the Second Beile some support while you're at it."

"Zhe!"

Dorgon answered, withdrew from the great tent, and then led the White Armored troops of the Plain White Banner at a gallop to Yiyuan Pass. By the time he arrived, the Second Beile Amin had already beaten back the Ming force that had engaged him inside Yiyuan Pass. But Amin had not pursued his victory; instead he had withdrawn his troops to the pass itself. When Dorgon saw him, he was standing atop the wall of the Yiyuan Pass Great Wall, a gourd of fine wine in one hand, drinking as he admired the scenery.

"Second Beile, what is going on? The Great Khan ordered you to feint — why did you go and take Yiyuan Pass?" Dorgon asked the moment he saw Amin.

Amin was not Nurhaci's son, but the son of Nurhaci's brother Šurhaci. His father had once split with Nurhaci and tried to go over to the imperial court, only to be imprisoned until death, and two of his brothers had been killed as well. Amin himself had been spared only through the intercession of Hong Taiji and others, and later inherited his father's following and campaigned north and south under Nurhaci and Hong Taiji. But among the Later Jin's Beiles, he was always an outsider.

So although Dorgon was decades younger than him and had not been ranked among the great Beiles, he still dared to swagger and bark orders in front of Amin.

"I don't know what's going on either!" Amin did not take offense at Dorgon's tone; he simply spread his hands. "I was feinting too, but the southern soldiers were so useless — they ran at the first blow."

This was a feint running head-on into a baiting tactic!

"What? They ran at the first blow?" Dorgon was taken aback. "This is Yiyuan Pass!"

"Exactly!" Amin nodded. "I also thought it strange, so I led troops deeper in to probe, and ran into 2,000 southern soldiers."

"How did the fighting go?" Dorgon asked quickly.

"They ran again!" Amin said. "They loosed a few volleys of arrows, fired off a round of musketry, and then vanished. I feared a trap, so I did not pursue, and withdrew my troops back here."

"There is indeed a trap!" Dorgon said. "The southern soldiers inside Shanhai Pass should be Liao troops — they ought not to be this useless." He thought for a moment. "Could the southern army be trying to lure us deep, then ambush us between Shanhai Pass and Tu'er Mountain?"

"Not likely," Amin shook his head. "The terrain inside Shanhai Pass is fairly flat and open — not a good place for an ambush. But it would suit a pitched battle fought in the open. The southern army must want a decisive battle inside the pass!"

"A decisive battle?" Dorgon was startled. "Are they not afraid of being utterly routed by us?"

Amin gave a scornful laugh and took a drink. "It's not so easy. The Liao army can fight well enough when defending their own home — we cannot fight them on their own doorstep."

"I understand!" Dorgon's mind worked fast after all. "The southern soldiers mean to wear us down inside Shanhai Pass!"

"More or less," Amin said, taking another swig. "But this way, we've still drawn the southern troops to the Yiyuan Pass area. Xifeng Pass should be easier to take now, shouldn't it?"

"I'm afraid not!" Dorgon shook his head. "Since the southern troops have spread their net inside Shanhai Pass, they must have concentrated a large force at Shanhai Pass itself. If we break through Xifeng Pass, their main force will surely turn and march west."

"So what?" Amin said. "The southern troops are slow; they won't keep up with us."

"But there is still that young Son of Heaven whose valor crowns the three armies!" Dorgon said. "If we let them follow us all the way until they join up with the Southern Emperor's cavalry, we will be hard pressed. And we don't know whether those fortresses inside the pass are easy to take or not. If they all turn out to be tough nuts, we'll be in serious trouble."

Amin thought it over and agreed. He asked, "Then what do we do?"

Dorgon smiled. "No hurry. The Great Khan will have a plan!"

"Long live the Great Khan! Long live the Great Khan!"

When a mass of yellow banners appeared atop the wall of the Yiyuan Pass Great Wall, cheers merged into one continuous roar in the air.

Zhao Shuaijiao, with his son Zhao Guangrong and a small escort of personal guards, stood in a patch of mountain forest below the Yiyuan Pass Great Wall, his back against a large tree, holding a telescope and staring fixedly at the opposite slope and the wall.

The Yiyuan Pass Great Wall and the surrounding slopes were now covered everywhere with banners of yellow, white, red, blue, and other colors. Through the telescope, Zhao Shuaijiao could faintly make out large numbers of Jianzhou caitiff Eight Banners troops pitching tents, digging trenches, and building stockades on the slopes and along the wall.

From the look of it, the Jianzhou caitiffs' main army was going to encamp around the Yiyuan Pass Great Wall!

"Father Marshal, Hong Taiji!" Zhao Guangrong suddenly cried out. After the shout, he raised an arm and pointed at a watchtower on the Yiyuan Pass wall. "Over there, over there..."

Zhao Shuaijiao quickly trained his telescope on that watchtower and looked carefully. Sure enough, there was a burly, imposing man in a bright yellow cloth-faced armor, surrounded by a crowd of Jianzhou caitiff soldiers likewise clad in yellow cloth-faced armor, appearing at the top of the watchtower. Behind him, someone held a yellow silk canopy to shade him from the sun.

Zhao Shuaijiao let out a breath and said heavily, "It is Hong Taiji... He has come!"

(End of Chapter)