Chapter 1743: Even Hong Taiji Panicked!

Fan Wencheng was carried before Hong Taiji by two white-armored soldiers. He had run all the way from the earthen wall outside Beijing to the Later Jin army's main camp north of Shunyi—a distance nearly as long as a marathon!

By the time he reached the Later Jin camp, this loyal slave of the Later Jin was utterly exhausted, nearly running himself to death—this slave was truly devoted to the Later Jin with all his heart!

"Great—Great Khan, the Southern Army's Capital Camps have marched out of Beijing!" Fan Wencheng took a bowl of cold water from one of Hong Taiji's white-armored personal guards, drank a large mouthful, then said while gasping for breath, "At least a hundred thousand troops! Ahem, their armor and weapons are fine, their formations strict, their morale high—this slave saw it with his own eyes! This slave, this slave—"

"How is that possible? How could the Capital Camps troops be that elite?"

Fan Wencheng's words were cut off before he could finish by a dark-faced man in his forties wearing blue cloth-faced armor.

Fan Wencheng glanced at him and said with an ingratiating smile, "Consort of Fushun, every word this slave speaks is true! This slave saw it with his own eyes beneath the earthen wall north of Beijing—"

The Consort of Fushun was Li Yongfang, now the number one great Han traitor of the Great Jin state, Nurhaci's grandson-in-law, Abatai's old son-in-law (he was older than Abatai himself!), and a good slave utterly loyal to the Great Jin.

He was a proper Ming army officer by origin, having risen to the post of Garrison Commander of the Fushun Chiliarch's Office before defecting to the Later Jin. He knew all about the Capital Camps' tricks for fooling muddleheaded rulers.

"Seeing with your own eyes can still be false!" Li Yongfang said. "The Southern Dynasty's Capital Camps troops exist precisely to fool those muddleheaded rulers and treacherous ministers. The Southern Dynasty's emperors don't understand either—they just look at the spectacle and the neatness. Actually, those Capital Camps soldiers have marks on the ground beneath their feet; standing on them they're perfectly straight. But it's useless—they can't move. The moment the great formation moves, it falls apart. Fan Wencheng, did you see their great formation move?"

Fan Wencheng thought about it—it seemed they hadn't moved. When he saw the "Capital Camps elite," they were already in position.

Just as he was about to answer, Dorgon suddenly said, "The Southern Dynasty's little emperor now truly understands warfare. What he did over in Kharchin territory—one look and you can tell he's an expert who has thoroughly read the Romance of the Three Kingdoms."

Right! The Southern Emperor's martial prowess is first under heaven, and his art of war is also first under heaven—could he be fooled by a bunch of fake-account soldiers?

Hong Taiji's expression grew grave, because he had already heard scattered reports that the Ming's little emperor was killing and burning in Kharchin Mongol territory—these reports had all come from north of the border wall!

It turned out that quite a few Kharchin Mongol chieftains had been driven to desperation by Zhu Youjian, and knowing that Hong Taiji was inside the wall, they had climbed over it (because Zhao Shuaijiao had drawn off troops to guard Yiyuan Pass and Xifeng Pass to secure Shanhai Pass's rear, the middle and western sections of the Ji Garrison's border wall were essentially undefended) and found the Later Jin army's main camp at Shunyi.

Learning that Zhu Youjian had gone to ravage Kharchin Mongol territory, even Hong Taiji panicked!

This Zhu Youjian, leaving his old nest Beijing unattended to go play the villain in Kharchin Mongol territory, could only mean two things: first, that Zhu Youjian had absolute confidence in the defenses around the capital region! Second, that Zhu Youjian meant to take advantage of the Kharchin Mongols' able-bodied men being away on campaign to clean out the Kharchin Mongol tribes—either driving them off, slaughtering them, or absorbing them!

This was the same brilliant tactic Sima Zhongda used to resist Zhuge Liang!

Once these Mongol tribes living on the northern slopes of the Yan Mountains and the Bashang grasslands were driven off or annexed by Zhu Youjian, it would be hard for the Great Jin to attack the Ji Garrison's Great Wall again.

Because from Shenyang to the Ji Garrison's border wall was over a thousand li. Hong Taiji's great army could not possibly carry grain a thousand li, and had to rely on the Kharchin Mongols for supplies. Otherwise, if they stayed outside the border wall for ten days or half a month, they would run out of grain, and the campaign through the passes would turn into "six expeditions from Qishan."

But even knowing the situation in Kharchin Mongol territory was bad, Hong Taiji was unwilling to withdraw his troops to go to the rescue. Because he knew that withdrawing now would be too late—by the time his army arrived, Zhu Youjian would have long since finished ravaging the Kharchin tribes east of the Xuanfu border wall. If he brought troops there, not only would he get no supplies, he would also have to distribute grain for relief!

And when the time came, Zhu Youjian would simply shrink back inside the Xuanfu border wall, wait until Hong Taiji ran out of grain and withdrew, then come out beyond the wall again to kill and burn. What could Hong Taiji do then?

So Hong Taiji was truly in an impossible position now!

Hong Taiji thought for a while, then suddenly asked, "The Southern Dynasty's Capital Camps are all infantry, right?"

"Mostly infantry," Fan Wencheng said. "This slave didn't see much cavalry."

Li Yongfang also said, "The Southern Dynasty's Capital Camps have thirty-five thousand horses on the books, but in reality at most ten-some thousand are usable—barely enough to form a few thousand cavalry."

"Then there's nothing to fear." Hong Taiji drew a breath. "We have more mounted troops. If we want to leave, we can leave at any time—they can't stop us. But for now, we can afford to wait a little longer."

Wait a little longer—but no good news came from waiting!

What came instead was word that the Ming Capital Camps troops and the Ji-Liao troops were closing in step by step at a pace of six or seven li a day!

Six or seven li a day—really not much faster than a snail crawling! The advance of these two armies was so slow, it was plainly fear of the enemy and dread of battle—they were afraid of the Later Jin's Eight Banners troops.

But Hong Taiji, upon receiving this news, was not the least bit pleased.

Because the Later Jin's Eight Banners troops were indeed formidable fighters. Even if the Ming's Capital Camps troops and Ji-Liao troops really were somewhat elite, they could not easily win in open-field battle.

So fighting from behind city walls and fortified camps was still the best approach.

By the nineteenth day of the ninth month, Hong Taiji, who had grown somewhat impatient waiting in the main camp at Shunyi, personally took Dorgon, Dodo, Fan Wencheng, Li Yongfang, and others, escorted by a company of white-armored soldiers, forward to the vicinity of Beiyuan, to observe from across the Wenyu River the advancing Capital Camps troops' military bearing.

At a single glance, Hong Taiji panicked even more!

"Isn't this a bit too cautious?" Standing at a second-floor window of a large house by the Wenyu River, after watching for a while through a telescope, Hong Taiji's brow was nearly knotted into a ball.

Because he discovered that the Capital Camps were not marching in column formation, but had deployed one square formation after another, advancing with mutual cover—utterly without a flaw to exploit!

"Have they been probed?" Hong Taiji asked.

"Great Khan," the Bordered Yellow Banner's white-armored Garrison Commander, a big bearded man named Oboi, stood bowing at Hong Taiji's side and took the question, "This slave has led men to probe them several times, but the Southern troops all march with side-carts, and the carts are fitted with cheval-de-frise spears. Once this slave and the others get close, they take position behind the side-carts and set up the cheval-de-frise spears."

"Do they have firearms?" Hong Taiji asked again.

"Not many firearms," Oboi said with a frown, "and they don't shoot arrows recklessly either. Every time this slave and the others get close, only then do skilled archers come out to trade shots with us. Their infantry bows are not bad, and their armor is sturdy—we can't get any advantage."

In fact, most of the Capital Camps troops couldn't shoot arrows at all—otherwise they wouldn't have been equipped with so many long spears. These men carried long spears not because they were brave in close combat, but because they had no firearms (left behind by Wang Zaijin to defend Beijing), couldn't shoot arrows, couldn't throw javelins either—all they could do was poke people with a long spear. But the Capital Camps army did have a small number of sharpshooters—some were officers who had passed the military examinations, some were drill instructors from noble households. Each of the Capital Camps' thirty-six camps had eight or ten men who could shoot arrows.

Hong Taiji frowned and said nothing. The men around him were silent too—even Li Yongfang, who had previously looked down on the Capital Camps troops, said not a word.

These Capital Camps troops could send men out to trade shots with the white-armored soldiers—clearly they had some real ability! And they had also assumed this tortoise-shell iron formation of advancing step by step and fortifying as they went—truly hard to deal with!

"Great Khan," Dorgon said, "we can't smash head-on against them! Even if we won, we'd suffer heavy casualties—not worth it!"

Hong Taiji glanced at him. "Old Fourteen, you've always been full of schemes. What do you suggest?"

"Great Khan," Dorgon said, "right now the Southern army's Capital Camps and Liao troops are both like iron tortoises. We need to find a way to maneuver them, make them anxious—only then will they expose a weakness!"

Hong Taiji frowned. "Then where should we strike to make them anxious?"

Dorgon said, "How about... striking Beijing?"

Hong Taiji looked at Fan Wencheng. Fan Wencheng shook his head. "No, no. Beijing's moat is a full ten zhang wide—if it doesn't freeze over, how do we cross?"

"Strike Tongzhou?"

"No. Tongzhou has the Shuntian Governor Gao Hongtu in command, and its city defenses are about the same as Zunhua's."

Another hard nut! Hong Taiji gritted his teeth. "Fan Wencheng, you tell me—around Beijing, where is relatively weak?"

"Strike Changping!" Fan Wencheng said. "Changping has the imperial tombs on Tianshou Mountain. The imperial tombs cover a huge area and aren't inside the Changping fortress—the Southern troops can't defend it all."

"Strike Changping." Hong Taiji nodded. "Good—we strike Changping!"

(End of Chapter)