Chapter 1735: Has General Qi Possessed Him?

Duolongduo has fallen into a horse trap!

He was not the only one to fall in — half of the thirty White Armored soldiers following him also fell into the pits.

And these pits, of course, were all dug on Shi Kefa's orders. It was not that Shi Kefa was especially clever, but that he had copied the standard methods of city defense from the Complete Essentials of the Military Classics, the Record of City Defense, and the Record of the Defense of Xiangyang. In the Song dynasty, and even earlier in the Tang, defensive warfare always began with digging horse traps to trap horses and men. Shi Kefa was a top scholar, so of course he had to put what he had learned to use, and he had his men dig a great many horse traps outside Zunhua according to Song-dynasty standards!

There were not only horse traps — he also had them make large numbers of wooden caltrops, iron caltrops, ground spikes, hoof snares, and abatis. Near the city gates, they dug many horse traps five chi long, three chi wide, and four chi deep. In the other areas, they laid out wooden caltrops, iron caltrops, ground spikes, hoof snares, and abatis — the ground spikes, hoof snares, and abatis were partly buried in the earth, making them extremely troublesome to clear away. The wooden caltrops and iron caltrops were scattered along both banks of the moat and on its bed.

Unless the horse traps were filled in, the ground spikes, hoof snares, and abatis all pulled up, and the wooden and iron caltrops in the moat all picked out, the Later Jin army could not even touch the walls of Zunhua!

And to carry out all these piecemeal tasks — the bed crossbows mounted on the walls of Zunhua were no laughing matter!

"Woo-ao-ao—"

That was the Manchu warrior Duolongduo howling! He was not dead yet — how could a Manchu baturu warrior die so easily? It was only that a sharpened bamboo stake had punched a hole through his thigh and he had lost a great pool of blood. Warrior Duo did not flinch; howling, he pulled his wounded leg free. The blood was still flowing! Warrior Duo hastily tore a strip of cloth from under his cloth-faced armor and, summoning all his strength and enduring the searing pain, bound the top of his thigh tight.

Seeing that the bleeding had been stopped for the moment, Warrior Duo snatched up his long spear and, gritting his teeth, crawled out of the horse trap. Only with great difficulty did he climb out, then he leaned on his spear and propped himself upright. Only then did he turn his head to look toward the Ming side. The Ming troops, who moments ago had been in utter chaos, had now finished forming their ranks — swordsmen and shieldmen in front, spearmen behind — and were howling as they closed in on his position.

Warrior Duo looked around. On his side, half the men had fallen into the pits; a few had already crawled out, all of them wounded. The rest no longer dared to charge and were all shooting arrows from horseback. But every man on the Ming side had armor, and the swordsmen and shieldmen at the front had all raised their swallow-tail shields — the arrows that struck seemed to have little effect.

By this point, Duolongduo could see clearly: the Ming troops at Zunhua were a tough lot, and the civil official defending the city was treacherous too — he had actually pretended to be weak to lure the enemy in, and had dug pits to harm people. Too treacherous!

He absolutely had to warn the three Beile!

With that thought, Duolongduo let out a howl: "Retreat! We cannot fight them beneath the city walls!"

His words had barely left his mouth when he saw the Ming swordsmen and shieldmen at the front suddenly drop their arrow-proof swallow-tail shields — every man had a short spear in hand!

Were those javelins?

Duolongduo stared, somewhat dumbfounded. What were these Ming troops playing at? Why were they not firing their matchlocks? Where were their three-eyed barrel-bursting guns? Why not bring those out? Why throw javelins? Did they not know javelins were obsolete?

Javelins might be obsolete, but they did not burst their barrels! And at close range their killing power was still well assured. Provided, of course, that the soldiers throwing them had actually trained.

These days, Ming army training grew slacker and slacker. The generals cared only about their own household retainers and paid virtually no attention to the ordinary rank-and-file, while the ordinary rank-and-file only cared about drawing their pay and never trained properly. If they really trained well, they went off to become household retainers. So swordsmen-and-shieldmen who could throw javelins (javelins were standard equipment for swordsmen-and-shieldmen) had almost ceased to exist in the Ming regular army.

But Shi Kefa was an exception. He was a jinshi official who had come up through the examinations — what did he know about household retainers or rank-and-file? He could only train his troops according to the methods in the Practical Record of Military Training. Weren't swordsmen-and-shieldmen supposed to know how to throw javelins? General Qi's book said so — how could it be wrong?

Then train! Those who trained well got rewards; those who trained poorly got the plank!

Of course, they had not trained long — only a few months — and their skill was not high. If they had truly reached General Qi's standard, a hundred-odd javelins thrown from a dozen or so paces away could have wiped out the entire squad of White Armored soldiers Duolongduo had brought.

But even two volleys of javelins inflicted heavy losses on Duolongduo's men — eight or maybe nine White Armored soldiers were skewered clean through. Five of them had just crawled out of the pits. Duolongduo was not among them, however, because a mounted White Armored soldier who was close to him had wanted to rescue him and happened to block in front of him, taking the javelin in his place!

Duolongduo had no time to grieve for his good brother. He hastily dragged his not-yet-dead good brother off the saddle, threw him on the ground to await death, mounted the horse himself, and rode off at a gallop to bring word to Ajige, Dorgon, and Dodo.

Watching the Jianzhou caitiffs all flee, Shi Kefa was still not satisfied. He ran to the front of his own formation and began lecturing the group of militia who had just thrown their javelins: "Look at that, look at that — what kind of javelin throwing was that! Over a hundred javelins and you only skewered nine slave-bandits! In General Qi's day, you'd all have your heads cut off!"

What? Only nine skewered? Those were genuine Manchu Tartars!

Several officers who had come over from the Directorate of the Imperial Horses nearly spat blood when they heard Shi Kefa's words.

The militia were honest too — most were simple mountain folk from the nearby hills, not grizzled old soldiers, and being lectured by Shi Kefa made them all somewhat ashamed. Some even admitted their fault: "Your Honor, we know we were wrong. We'll go back and train hard."

Wang Dadou, who knew how things stood, reminded him from the side: "Your Honor, nine genuine Tartars is not a small number, and there are still a few in the pits. This battle has at least fifteen heads taken, and we only lost three dead and six wounded (killed or wounded by the Later Jin White Armored soldiers' arrows). This is a great victory!"

"A great victory? We lost nine dead and wounded and killed fifteen of the enemy — that counts as a great victory?" Shi Kefa glared at Wang Dadou. "Are you telling this official to falsely report battle merits and deceive the sovereign?"

Wang Dadou opened his mouth, not knowing what to say. Taking fifteen genuine Tartar heads and still not allowed to report a great victory?

Shi Kefa waved his hand. "Hurry up and take the heads, clean up the battlefield, and restore the horse traps. The slave-bandits' main force will be here soon — we've got plenty of fighting ahead!"

Santunying, the main camp of the Two White Banners.

Zhao Shuaijiao's old nest had already been taken by the men of the Two White Banners. The Ming troops left to hold it were not as stubborn as Shi Kefa's militia — why would they fight the Later Jin soldiers? When they heard that San'ankou and Longjing Pass had been broken through, they slapped their backsides and ran, fleeing in such haste that the grain and fodder stored in the city, along with the valuables Zhao Shuaijiao had kept there, all fell into the hands of the three brothers Ajige, Dorgon, and Dodo.

Just as the three brothers were rejoicing, Duolongduo — one leg crippled, covered in blood from head to toe — was carried into Santunying.

"Three Beile, this slave is useless. This slave has been defeated. This slave ran into a tough lot at Zunhua—"

The moment Duolongduo saw the three Beile, he burst into tears. This time he had truly suffered a great loss — not only had he lost fifteen White Armored soldiers, but that wounded leg had lost all feeling, and he did not know whether it could be healed. If it could not, how was he to live the rest of his life?

"What happened, Duolongduo?" Ajige looked at Duolongduo's condition, somewhat startled. This was a warrior among the White Armored soldiers!

"Duolongduo," Dorgon also asked, "did you not go out with thirty warriors? How did you lose? How many southern soldiers did you run into?"

"This slave ran into two or three hundred southern infantry outside Zunhua." Duolongduo wept. "This slave was useless. I fell for their horse-trap stratagem and was then struck by their javelins. I lost fifteen warriors, and three more returned badly wounded."

"What?" Dodo cried out. "Two or three hundred infantry did this to you? You White Armored soldiers—"

"Fifteenth Brother!" Dorgon loudly cut his brother off. "Let Duolongduo finish! Perhaps there really are tough southern soldiers at Zunhua!"

Dorgon was younger than Ajige, and the number of niru he held was the smallest of the three, but he was the leader among them. Hearing his words, Dodo stopped berating Duolongduo and instead had him recount in detail the course of the battle beneath the walls of Zunhua.

After hearing it, Dorgon's brow had knotted into a ball. He said to Ajige and Dodo: "The southern soldiers at Zunhua are a tough lot. We must not underestimate them. Let us ask the Great Khan for instructions!"

(End of Chapter)