Chapter 376: Li the Fleeing King

The Qing army appearing outside the Great Wall at Weiyuan Fort was led by Ajige! They had withdrawn from beneath the walls of Datong a month earlier. However, they had not returned to Beijing to make little Tartars; instead, they had rested and reorganized for over ten days on the grasslands north of the Great Wall in Datong Prefecture, and after joining forces with the Tumed Left and Right Banner Mongol troops that Dorgon had summoned, they had advanced westward together to the Hetao grasslands beyond the border wall of Yulin Garrison.

Their numbers were not small — the Eight Banners, plus Han troops, plus the nomadic Tumed Mongols (who did not belong to the Eight Banners Mongols), made a total force of forty to fifty thousand. Their supplies along the way were all provided by the Tumed Left and Right Banners — the Tumed cavalry had driven herds of cattle and sheep to rendezvous with Ajige!

This steppe-style campaign was nothing new for the Qing army. As early as the sixth year of Tiancong, Hong Taiji, then still the Great Khan of the Later Jin, had launched a steppe expedition involving a hundred thousand men, leading a coalition of Later Jin and Mongol tribal forces in pursuit of Ligdan Khan all the way to Guihua City (Hohhot)!

Compared with that expedition of more than ten years earlier, this expedition commanded by Ajige was truly nothing much. But for the Shun army, which had no experience fighting beyond the frontier, Ajige's attack on Yulin came as a great surprise. So much so that when word of the Qing attack on Weiyuan Fort reached Li Zicheng's temporary palace at Tong Pass, the Shun high command was thrown into shock.

"H-how can this be?" Li Zicheng, who had just returned to the temporary palace after inspecting the quiet front lines, cried out in alarm. "Weren't the Tartar caitiffs said to have been defeated at Datong Prefecture? How could they have gone to Yulin? Chief Military Advisor, explain to me — what in the world is going on?"

Song Xiance was also thrown into a panic, and even forgot to count on his fingers. "Y-Your Majesty... we have been tricked again by Wang Yongji and Jiang Xiang!"

"Right, right!" Li Zicheng was truly furious, his face ashen, his teeth clenched. "I've been tricked by them again... They are plainly traitorous scoundrels in league with the Tartars!"

"Right! It must be that Wang Yongji and Jiang Xiang colluded with the Tartars and sold us out!" Liu Zongmin also began shouting. "We can't let them get away with this!"

"We can't let them get away with it!"

"We can't let them!"

In the great hall of the temporary palace, there was a clamor of cries for punishment, and the Shun generals all gnashed their teeth, wishing they could ride to Datong Prefecture and finish off Wang Yongji and Jiang Xiang.

But this time they were truly wronging good men. Although Wang Yongji and Jiang Xiang had inflated their headcount of enemy dead — which was nothing unusual for Ming troops — beyond that they had done nothing at all.

Moreover, the first siege of Datong could indeed be judged a Ming victory — they had besieged it all winter without harming Datong in the slightest, and in the end the Qing army had abandoned tens of thousands of slaves and retreated in disgrace. How was that not a defeat?

"Enough of this useless talk!" Li Zicheng, watching his subordinates make a racket, was growing irritated, and waved a hand. "Say something useful!"

"Your Majesty," Luo Hu spoke first, "the military report from Yulin says Weiyuan Fort has not yet fallen. If we send troops to relieve it at once, we may still be in time!"

Weiyuan Fort indeed had not fallen. The battle of Weiyuan Fort lasted eight days and seven nights, and it was not until the fifth day of the fourth month in the second year of the Shun Yongchang era that the fort was breached. The more than three thousand defending soldiers and civilians were all slaughtered, not one spared!

The fall of Yulin City, the Shun's major stronghold in Yulin Garrison, would be delayed until the seventh month of the second year of Yongchang. For it was only after breaking Weiyuan Fort that the Qing army shifted its forces to besiege Yulin City. And Yulin City's garrison was far larger than Weiyuan Fort's, and its walls far stronger, so the Qing army besieged it for more than thirty days before breaking it. The soldiers and civilians inside Yulin City were, like those of Weiyuan Fort, slaughtered to the last.

"There's no time..." Liu Fangliang shook his head. "The defenders along the Yulin Garrison border wall are too few — three or four thousand in all. The Tartar caitiffs will surely find a place to break through the wall."

What he said was not wrong! Although Weiyuan Fort and Yulin City held out for quite some time, the troops tasked with attacking them were merely the Han troops under Ajige. The main force led by Ajige broke through the Yulin border wall at Huaiyuan Fort near Weiyuan Fort. Then, following the border wall, they broke through the strategic Yanzhou Pass south of Yulin City, left a force to watch Yulin City, and their vanguard had now occupied Li Zicheng's hometown, Tianbao County (Mizhi).

But the resistance of Weiyuan Fort and Yulin City still slowed Ajige's advance — because the commander leading the attack was Ajige, not Dodo. The latter used troops boldly and decisively, while Ajige leaned toward caution. Before taking Weiyuan Fort and shifting his forces to besiege Yulin City, he did not dare to push south in force, and this gave Li Zicheng time to adjust his deployments.

"Then withdraw the army and fall back to defend Chang'an!" Tian Jianxiu suggested. "Your Majesty, in recent days the Chancellor has requisitioned three hundred thousand shi of grain from the countryside of Chang'an Prefecture and had it all delivered into Chang'an City. Moreover, many of Chang'an's commoners have fled in recent days. If we only pull the army back to defend, and send our own families to Xiangjing, perhaps we can rely on Chang'an's strong walls to wear the Qing army down until they withdraw."

The walls of the Ming's Xi'an Prefecture seat were also exceptionally strong — in the early Ming, Zhu Yuanzhang had been fond of building walls, and the state then had both money and grain and could mobilize corvée labor, so walls were built everywhere they could be. Xi'an was also the seat of the Prince of Qin, and had once been a candidate for the Ming capital, so its walls were built extremely strong. Later, during the Longqing reign, they were reinforced once more, the rammed earth faced with grey brick. By the time Sun Chuanting became Governor-General of Shaanxi, they were reinforced yet again, and had reached a state of absolute impregnability; the city's defenses were in no way inferior to Datong Prefecture's.

If Ajige could not take Datong in several months, then he would likewise be helpless against Li Zicheng's Chang'an.

Moreover, Niu Jinxing had just brought three hundred thousand shi of grain into the city. If Li Zicheng drove out the city's commoners, evacuated the families, and left only thirty thousand men to hold the city, three hundred thousand shi of grain, used sparingly, would be enough to eat for five years...

"Your Majesty," Luo Hu said, "Gao Yigong has fifteen thousand men. Give me another fifteen thousand... I'll hold it for three to five years. I don't believe the Tartars can settle down outside Chang'an and raise children for a living."

This was indeed a way to defeat the Qing — the Eight Banners had a small population. If this city had to be besieged for three years and that city for five, before they could finish conquering all of China, they would have delayed the business of breeding the next generation of Eight Banners successors...

Li Zicheng was somewhat hesitant, and glanced at Song Xiance. The Chief Military Advisor said: "Your Majesty, the Shun still has Xiangjing Prefecture — that is also a capital! Moreover, the Marquis of Bo and the Second Military Advisor have managed Xiangjing well; the people's hearts have turned to us, and the common folk live in peace and contentment."

What? Li Zicheng could hardly believe it. The commoners of Xiangjing Prefecture had all become tenant farmers of the Old Camp soldiers, and they could still be content?

"Your Majesty," Song Xiance continued, "it would be better to first transfer the families to Xiangjing, and then decide, depending on the situation, whether to hold Chang'an City."

Li Zicheng's thick brows furrowed deeply, as if he were deep in agonized thought. Everyone watched him. After a long while, they heard him say: "What if the whole host withdraws to Huguang, and then we plan for Jiangnan?"

"Impossible!" Luo Hu shook his head. "Xiangjing Prefecture is our old nest. It needs time and careful management before it can be made impregnable. If we suddenly abandon Chang'an, the Tartars will surely press on toward Xiangjing. What then? Abandon Xiangjing Prefecture too? Then wouldn't we become stray dogs? As for plotting for Huguang and Jiangnan — the part of Huguang north of the Yangtze may be somewhat easier to take, but the Yangtze is not easy to cross! Has Your Majesty forgotten the Battle of Tianjin Guard?"

Chen Yongfu, who had suffered badly in the Battle of Tianjin Guard, chimed in: "The Earl of Tong Pass is absolutely right. The Zhu traitor's Crown Prince has already gained the Northern Ocean sand-ship gang, the Eighteen Zhi of the Southern Ocean, and the Jianghuai canal army. His naval forces are far stronger than when he was adrift in Tianjin. Can we defeat the Zhu traitor on the Yangtze? If we cannot, how can we plot for Jiangnan?"

"This..." Li Zicheng murmured. "Xiangjing, Yunyang, De'an, Chengtian... these few prefectures are too cramped. If we cannot take Jiangnan, it is no solution in the end."

"Your Majesty," Song Xiance said, "since ancient times, those who took Jiangnan mostly came from the upper and middle reaches, sailing downstream with the current to form an irresistible momentum. If our dynasty wishes to plot for Jiangnan, we must build warships at Xiangjing and train a naval force, accumulating strength for two or three years before we can sweep through in one stroke. During these two or three years, Chang'an Prefecture must not be lost. Otherwise, if the Tartar caitiffs throw their full strength against Xiangjing, we will have no foothold left at all."

Li Zicheng frowned: "I only fear that if we delay too long, the Zhu traitor's Crown Prince will have sunk deep roots in Jiangnan."

"That will not happen," Song Xiance said with a smile. "I have received word that the Zhu traitor's Crown Prince is dissolute and greedy, far surpassing the fatuous ruler Chongzhen. In the southeast he levies extortionate taxes, and the common people are full of resentment. In another two or three years, I fear everyone will be looking west, longing for the royal army."

(End of Chapter)