Chapter 1791: Bombarding Hong Taiji — Part One

At the confluence of the Rehe and Luanhe rivers, at the foot of the densely forested Great North Mountain, there was a stretch of open river flat that had now become a huge construction site.

A great camp to house twenty or thirty thousand men was already being leveled and built. Soldiers from the garrisons of Datong, Xuanfu, and other towns, along with laborers hauled in from Yongping Prefecture, were wolfing down white-flour steamed buns. They clustered in knots, and here and there a Company Commander or a foreman stood in the middle shouting, "In a while we're going into the water to build the dam! Anyone who goes in gets an extra 100 small cash today, plus two taels of erguotou! Who'll do it?"

The Ming did have corvée labor. Although in some places and some trades one could pay money to be excused from service or hire a substitute, unpaid labor was still the norm. But to speed up the construction of the Rehe fortress, Zhu Youjian had drawn a sum of silver from the privy purse to pay the civilian laborers and reward the soldiers.

Besides being willing to spend money, after Zhu Youjian arrived at Rehe he also went about with Sun Yuanhua's assistant, Han Lin — who in his previous life had written the Shouyu Quanshu — and with Xu Guangqi, the Minister of Works who had followed along all the way from Xuanfu. Together they roamed the hills and river valleys around the confluence of the Rehe and Luanhe, surveying the terrain, and Zhu Youjian personally designed the Rehe fortress while also looking for fertile land suitable for military farming.

Zhu Youjian was the man in the Great Ming, perhaps in the whole world, who best understood both building fortresses and storming them — Marshal Vauban of France had not even been born yet, and Zhu Youjian had already read all of his works. So he knew how to build those fiendishly complicated bastion forts, and he also knew how to break through an extraordinarily strong one.

But the Rehe fortress he personally designed and oversaw was not an extraordinarily strong bastion fort. It was a mountain town backed against the hills and facing the water — that is, the lower level leaned on the Rehe River and Great North Mountain, and then level by level it climbed the slope all the way to the mountaintop. At first glance it somewhat resembled a Japanese castle, but it would not have that lightning-attracting "tenshukaku" keep.

As for materials, he also took the cheap and simple route: the walls were of rammed earth wrapped in sandbags, and the arrow towers, tall pavilions, and gate towers were all of timber.

In addition, he would build bastion-shaped outworks for mounting Folangji cannon and general's cannon. These outworks were also piled up layer by layer from rammed earth and sandbags, solid inside, and extremely sturdy.

Because the outworks provided interlocking fields of fire, and because the terrain was exploited to the utmost, the Rehe fortress, though built on a large scale, needed only a small garrison to hold out.

And upstream on the Rehe, where the river valley narrowed to the point of having no cultivation value, Zhu Youjian had men build a much smaller fortress than Rehe Fort, called Gouguan Fort. With Gouguan Fort and Rehe Fort blocking the two ends, the entire Rehe valley became a fine place that outsiders would find very hard to fight their way into. The long narrow flats on both sides of the Rehe would all be fertile land that could be opened up for farming.

The position of the Rehe valley was roughly directly in front of Mameng Mountain. As long as the Ming army held the Rehe valley, it could advance step by step along several comparatively narrow mountain valleys toward Mameng Mountain — this was true fortress advance, pressing forward section by section!

Besides pressing toward Mameng Mountain from the front, Zhu Youjian could also choose to go around by way of the comparatively open Kuan River basin south of Mameng Mountain. The Kuan River basin was the Chahar Loop region — as the name suggests, it had once been a stronghold of the Chahar tribe. Not only was the terrain open, the land was also very fertile, and it was now a pasture of the Eight Banners Mongols.

According to Zhu Youjian's plan, once the Rehe fortress was completed, he would lead the main force to shift camp to the Chahar Loop and seize this pasture. Then, still using the method of consolidating every step, he would press toward the rear of Mameng Mountain.

If the Eight Banners Mongols and the slave-bandits of the Plain Blue Banner below Mameng Mountain still held their ground and did not move, then Zhu Youjian would go a step further and thrust directly into the Keke Loop, which was also the old site of Daning Guard.

By then, there would be no fear that the Tartars on Mameng Mountain would not stir!

After spending the day roaming the middle reaches of the Rehe valley, Zhu Youjian had now returned to the Rehe main camp with Xu Guangqi, Han Lin, and the others, escorted by more than a hundred mounted personal guards.

All along the way, what he saw was not only bustling activity but the thriving vigor of spring — an entirely upward atmosphere. This was an atmosphere that could not be felt inside the passes, where development had reached a bottleneck and a predicament was gradually taking shape.

This was the positive mood that only expansion could bring!

Although Chongzhen's expansion in the Yanshan region could not be compared at all with the global expansion carried out under that unfilial son in his previous life, Zhu Youjian still understood the meaning of expansion.

Zhu Youjian spurred his horse through the crowd of people saluting him and shouting "Long live His Majesty," heading toward his own great tent.

The Emperor's great tent was pitched at the foot of Great North Mountain, right in the center of this enormous construction site, with a ring of wooden stakes driven around it and an opening left for coming and going. Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui, the two sworn brothers, were standing shoulder to shoulder outside the opening, with a few of their men, and they had a Tartar of the Plain Red Banner in custody!

Zhu Youjian dismounted with a smile. Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui hurried forward to salute, and Zhu Youjian waved a hand: "Dispense with ceremony, dispense with ceremony." Then he pointed at the Plain Red Banner Tartar and said with a laugh, "You've caught a Plain Red Banner man? Is he one of Daishan's subordinates? Bring him into the great tent — We wish to question him personally!"

Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui received the imperial order, and each took one arm of the Tartar and hauled him along as they followed Zhu Youjian into the enclosure and then into the great tent, where they dumped him at the feet of the Zhu Emperor.

"Imperial Lord, the slave-bandit Great Khan Hong Taiji has arrived in the Mameng Mountain area. His khan's tent is set up at Qingcheng, east of Mameng Mountain on the banks of the Laoha River."

Li Zicheng, without waiting for Zhu Youjian to ask, rushed to make his report.

"What? Hong Taiji has already come?" Zhu Youjian was startled. "How is that possible?"

That Mongol Tartar of the Plain Red Banner could understand Chinese. Seeing Zhu Youjian's astonished expression, he burst out laughing: "The Great Khan has already led the main force of the Eight Banners army to Mameng Mountain. Your Ming dynasty is about to be finished, hahaha—"

Oh, so he's brought the main force of the Eight Banners! Zhu Youjian murmured, "That must be tens of thousands of men and horses. What are they going to eat?"

"They'll eat food, of course!" the Mongol Tartar said fiercely. "Don't think that just because our Great Jin state has suffered a famine, the Eight Banners' heavenly soldiers will go hungry. Those who starve to death are the old and weak, not the heavenly soldiers! Besides, last year the Great Khan twice campaigned against the Duoluote tribe, a branch of the Chahar, and captured considerable spoils, all stored at Qingcheng — enough to supply an army of tens of thousands for half a year!"

Enough to feed an army of tens of thousands for half a year? Zhu Youjian thought to himself: If that is true, then we must hurry, while the Luanhe is high with summer water, to transport more grain over from Yongping Prefecture.

At worst... We can wear Hong Taiji down for a year!

We have plenty of patience, and plenty of time!

With that thought, Zhu Youjian turned his head to look at that rather honest Tartar and asked, "What is your name?"

"Hmph," the Tartar turned his head away. "I, Borjigin Morigen, will not tell you!"

"You really won't say?" Zhu Youjian asked, while thinking: Is there anything else We can ask?

"I won't say anything!" Borjigin Morigen wore an expression of tragic resolve. "I am a descendant of Genghis Khan, and I have backbone! Kill me if you want!"

"Truly a man of loyalty and righteousness!" Zhu Youjian nodded. "We most admire loyal and righteous men. Are you willing to surrender?"

"I will not surrender, I will not surrender! I, Borjigin Morigen, am a descendant of the Great Yuan dynasty, and I cannot betray my ancestors!"

Zhu Youjian thought: Is this fellow really that loyal? He probed again: "Should not the descendants of the Great Yuan dynasty obey the Hutudun Khan? He is the legitimate line of the Golden Family!"

"Of course!" the Mongol nodded.

Zhu Youjian nodded and said to Li Zicheng, "Then send a man to escort him to the camp of the Uriankhai Myriarch, and have them send someone to deliver him to the Hutudun Khan."

The Uriankhai Grand Princess was awaiting childbirth in Xuanfu, but her myriarch's ordo had still sent several hundred cavalry to follow Zhu Youjian on campaign.

Li Zicheng and Wu Sangui escorted this Mongol "loyal and righteous man" out of the great tent, and Zhu Youjian gave the order to summon the generals.

Before long, the generals in the Rehe main camp had all arrived at the great tent. After watching them perform the rites between sovereign and subject, Zhu Youjian said with a smile, "We have just received word that Hong Taiji has very likely already arrived at Qingcheng, and has brought tens of thousands of Eight Banners troops. This time he is certainly doomed! We shall send troops into the Chahar Loop to meet this slave-bandit Great Khan!"

(End of Chapter)