Chapter 278: Making Good Use of Wu Sangui (Posted at Midnight at Readers' Request)

The first year of Shunzhi of the Great Qing, the thirteenth day of the tenth month, before dawn.

At this time, far to the north, the more than thirty thousand Qing troops led by Dodo, Kong Youde, and Shang Kexi had already broken through Pingxing Pass and, with lightning speed, swept through Fanshi and Daizhou, surging like floodwaters through a breached dike toward Li Zicheng's great rear base at Taiyuan Prefecture.

Yet Wu Sangui's forces on the Guguan—Jingxing line were still slowly building strong camps and fighting dull battles, showing not the slightest intention of racing Dodo for the first credit.

However, the thirty thousand Guanning Army troops Wu Sangui had brought to the Jingxing front had not, as Li Zicheng imagined, fallen into low morale because they no longer had the Ming court's support.

What Li Zicheng did not know was that in the past, the pay silver the Ming court issued to the Guanning Army had half of it skimmed off before it even left Beijing! What actually reached the bottom-rank soldiers was hardly anything. The main income of the Guanning Army's officers and men actually came from the lands beyond the pass and from battle rewards.

The rewards had to be given; otherwise the soldiers would swear not to fight hard, and the senior officers could not bear it either!

And the lands beyond the pass were the most solid source of income. Although this was the so-called Little Ice Age, one season of wheat could still be grown here in western Liaoning. No one dared encroach on the lands at Ningyuan, and no taxes had to be paid to anyone; they were all divided up among the Guanning Army's officers and men. And the wheat produced did not have to be supplied as army rations either — it was all their own!

After the Great Qing replaced the Great Ming as the Guanning Army's new master, although there was no pay silver to issue, the lands they occupied in western Liaoning had actually increased — originally the lands the Guanning Army occupied ran from Shanhai Pass to the Ningyuan Central-Left Garrison. Any farther east were Jinzhou and Guangning, controlled by the Qing army.

Now the Manchus had almost their entire people enter the pass, and the population beyond the pass suddenly thinned out. Many fine fields had no one to farm them. The Jinzhou and Guangning area had already been sparsely populated because of the Ming-Qing tug-of-war, and now it was even more deserted, free for the Guanning Army to occupy as they pleased.

If in history the Qing had not transferred Wu Sangui's forces into the pass, but had let them open up and multiply on the fertile lands of Guangning and Ningyuan for more than twenty years, then by the time the Kangxi Emperor thought of reducing the feudatories, the population bred from the Guanning Army's forty thousand households would likely have outnumbered the total of the Eight Banners' sons who entered Beijing to become city folk. Then the Revolt of the Three Feudatories would have become Wu Sangui entering the pass!

But Dorgon would not let the Wu family army settle down peacefully in western and eastern Liaodong to bear children and multiply — since he had, after establishing the capital at Beijing, brought the entire Eight Banners into the pass (a few people were left beyond the pass, but not many), he would not let a Han military group fill the population vacuum beyond the pass.

Moreover, Wu Sangui was a trump card in Dorgon's hand that could be put to great use!

Just as Wu Sanfeng and Wu Sangui had analyzed that day, what Dorgon the Prince Regent was most uneasy about was actually the group of Eight Banners princes and nobles headed by Hooge.

Dorgon's current position, to put it bluntly, was holding the Son of Heaven to command the feudal lords! Somewhat similar to Zhu Cilang.

But Zhu Cilang was the Crown Prince, and he could ascend the throne and become Emperor. Whereas Dorgon was an imperial uncle, and basically could not seize Shunzhi's throne — Hong Taiji had quite a few sons! And the old Khan Nurhaci also had many sons; on what grounds could Dorgon usurp the throne?

So among the Eight Banners princes and nobles, there were plenty who were not convinced, and the strongest of them was Hong Taiji's eldest son, Hooge.

If Dorgon were to draw up a "blacklist," the first name on it could not be Wu Sangui, nor Zhu Cilang — it would absolutely be Hooge! And after Hooge there were Ajige, Jirgalang, Nikan, Daishan, Abatai, and a whole host of others; only after all of them were dead would it be Zhu Cilang's turn. And whether Wu Sangui could even make the list was hard to say.

Because Dorgon could not let these Manchu princes grow powerful, and to control their growth, he could only make good use of Wu Sangui, this Han traitor.

Besides, the special relationship between Wu Sangui and Zhu Cilang was something Dorgon could not entirely ignore. So while making good use of Wu Sangui, he also had to move Wu Sangui to a new nest early.

As for "killing the commander and using his troops," Dorgon would not do that — that sort of thing could easily blow up in his face. Even if he succeeded in executing Wu Sangui, Wu Sanfeng, and the others, and gained control of the Guanning Army, what then?

The Wu family had planted trusted men throughout the Guanning Army. If Dorgon killed their masters, would they serve Dorgon with all their hearts? Could Dorgon use them with confidence?

What if they all went over to Hooge? Once Hooge's power grew, wouldn't Dorgon's regency be finished?

As for destroying the Guanning Army — who would go? That would cost lives. Which banner would be willing to lose several thousand men to fight the Guanning Army to annihilation?

So moving the Guanning Army away, and using it well, was Dorgon's only correct choice.

And Dorgon made no mistake on this question. Even though he knew there was surely contact between Wu Sangui and Zhu Cilang, he turned a blind eye. Because he knew that Wu Sangui would not go to war with the mighty Eight Banners troops unless driven to desperation.

At this moment Wu Sangui held in his hand a personal letter from Zhu Cilang — Zhu Cilang now wrote Wu Sangui three personal letters every month, and Wu Sangui replied to every single one!

His current stance was in fact plain to see: fight only the roving bandits, not the Great Ming, and not rebel against the Great Qing.

"Heh, father-in-law and son-in-law do see things alike!" By the dim candlelight, Wu Sangui finished reading Zhu Cilang's letter, then murmured his comment — he said this because Zhu Cilang had actually thought the same as Dorgon.

Both wanted Wu Sangui to deal with Li Zicheng, only the direction of the troops differed slightly. In the letter, Zhu Cilang suggested Wu Sangui first take Henan Prefecture as his home base, then expand toward Nanyang Prefecture and Xiangyang Prefecture, cutting off Li Zicheng's passage south down the Han River.

While Dorgon hoped Wu Sangui would advance into Shaanxi, turning Li Zicheng's old nest into Wu Sangui's "fief," so that he would stay put in Shaanxi from then on.

After finishing the letter, Wu Sangui folded the paper into a long strip and lit it on the candle flame. The moment the letter caught fire, a series of dull booms reached Wu Sangui's ears, startling him so that the half-burned letter fell from his hand to the ground.

Then he saw Liu Sheng lift the tent flap and walk in. "My Prince, the First and Second Battalions of the Jia Division are under attack!"

Wu Sangui sprang to his feet, then strode out of his tent and looked up toward the southwest. Above the Jia Division's First and Second Battalions, sparks kept bursting in the sky! Someone was firing alarm rockets.

"Pass the order to all battalions: keep calm. Anyone who moves rashly will be executed without mercy!" Wu Sangui's face darkened. "Barbarian lancers, to horse! Armor up! Saddle the horses!"

His words had barely fallen when, on the hillside at the northwest corner of the Wu army's great camp, points of light suddenly blazed up like a sea of stars, and faintly came the sound of drums and horns!

Wu Sangui snorted: "A show of force!"

Liu Sheng had by now followed him out of the tent. Hearing Wu Sangui's words, he leaned close to his ear and said in a low voice, "My Prince... perhaps we should send an urgent appeal to Prince Ying, saying the roving bandits' great army has arrived. That way we can turn from attack to defense!"

During this period, Wu Sangui's men had been making feint attacks along the Guguan Great Wall line, and had taken some losses. If they could switch from attack to defense, nothing could be better.

These words struck exactly what Wu Sangui wanted. He nodded. "True enough... Liu Sheng, bring the personal guard's musket company too, and come with me to the front to take a look."

"They've broken in, they've broken in!"

Li Zicheng muttered to himself. His brows were knotted together, and his single eye stared motionlessly at the two Wu army camps blazing sky-high.

The Shun army's Children's Battalion and Iron Men Battalion had by now charged into these two camps, and had conveniently set fires, igniting tents, arrow towers, wagons, fodder, and the like, causing no small chaos. Yet the Wu troops caught by surprise had not collapsed; they were still fighting desperately. Moreover, the Wu family army's camps were very solidly built — besides the outer palisade, there was also an inner perimeter, formed by circling wagons and shield carts to protect the core tents.

Now both sides were locked in slaughter at the "inner perimeter"!

Battle cries, booming, and the clang of gongs and drums came wave after wave from those two camps.

Clearly, the warriors of the raiding Iron Men Battalion and Children's Battalion had once again fallen into bitter combat!

(End of Chapter)