Chapter 384: When a Lion Strikes a Rabbit, It Must Use Full Strength

"My prince," Fan Wencheng was not leaving until tomorrow, so today he still had to keep offering counsel to Dorgon, "this slave feels it is now very hard for us to drive Li Zicheng out of Xi'an and Xiangyang. First, Li Zicheng himself is unwilling to leave. This slave has received word that Li Zicheng distributed land and servants to his veteran camp soldiers in Xiangyang and Yunyang, and the veteran camp soldiers have all become lordly soldiers — how could they possibly leave?"

Dorgon's brows furrowed deeply, and he nodded slightly. This matter was indeed unexpected — Li Zicheng was actually learning from the Great Qing and from the Ming dynasty's Zhu Cilang!

Now tens of thousands of veteran camp soldiers had carved up the land of Xiangyang and Yunyang among themselves and become landlords and rich men. With millions of mu of land and over a million people in their grasp, how could they be willing to give it up easily?

Moreover, the terrain of Xiangyang and Yunyang was unfavorable for attack. If tens of thousands of Shun veteran camp soldiers truly fought to the death in defense, would the Great Qing dare launch a frontal assault? How many men did the Eight Banners' sons actually number? If tens of thousands were really killed, would that not be the end of everything?

Fan Wencheng continued, "Second, Zhu Cilang has now made it plain that he wants war with us, which means he is bearing half our military strength on Li Zicheng's behalf. There is no way for us to ignore the Southern Dynasty. Even if Your Highness could endure it, the men below could not!"

"Isn't that so!" Dorgon drew a breath and said, "One princess — what would We not be willing to part with for the sake of the Great Qing? And Zhu Cilang is truly a hero, absolutely worthy of Dong'e."

"But Zhu Cilang will not let the matter rest for the sake of one woman. He will certainly stir up trouble in Liaodong and Liaoxi."

This Dorgon, who could lay the foundation for the Great Qing's two-hundred-year dominion over all under heaven, naturally had his extraordinary qualities. And his greatest extraordinary quality was that his mind was extremely clear and he saw problems with great penetration — those things he did around Beijing, though later generations smeared them as misrule, had he not done them, the Great Qing in history would most likely have ended up in the situation of a Greater Jin state, and would never have held the realm for over two hundred years!

And in this time and space, after the Battle of Dagu, he had come to regard Zhu Cilang as an opponent who could stand on equal footing with himself. Toward this opponent, he harbored not the slightest intention of underestimating him.

Therefore he had always been unwilling to wage a full-scale war against Zhu Cilang before thoroughly defeating Li Zicheng. Even when Zhu Cilang had last launched a northern expedition aimed at supporting Li Zicheng, Dorgon had not launched a full counterattack, but instead planned to marry his daughter to Zhu Cilang.

"Your Highness is sagacious!" Fan Wencheng said. "Zhu Cilang is indeed a hero among heroes, so our Great Qing must deal with him with full strength, and absolutely must not respond with a detached force."

"Correct. When a lion strikes a rabbit, it must use full strength." Dorgon nodded, his brows tightly knit. "And Zhu Cilang is no ordinary rabbit — he does not permit us to hold anything back!"

Fan Wencheng frowned. "Even if we exert full strength, we can only stop at the northern bank of the Yangtze."

Dorgon shook his head. "Not the northern bank of the Yangtze — the northern bank of the Huai River!"

"The northern bank of the Huai?" Jirgalang frowned. "The Huai is not very wide, and in winter the water level is very shallow. If they hold it, it can still be forded — how could our Manchu grand army fail to cross?"

Dorgon laughed. "I have read the histories and found that since ancient times, those who took Jiangnan mostly succeeded by entering the Yangtze from the Han River. Relying solely on the eastern route, crossing the Huai and the Yangtze to take all of Jiangdong, is extremely difficult to accomplish. If Jiangdong cannot be pacified, the Huai-Yangtze region is also very hard to take in full. After all, Huainan is narrow in terrain compared to Huaibei; east of the Huai, waterways spread everywhere; west of the Huai, there is the barrier of the Dabie Mountains. Near the Yangtze there are also cities such as Anqing, Hezhou, Jiangpu, Yizheng, Yangzhou, Guazhou, and Tongzhou that can be defended along the river. Even if we took most of Huainan, we would still have to station a large army there for long-term defense. The bit of tax revenue obtained from Huainan would probably not even cover the military expenses."

"Moreover, the Southern Dynasty has arranged a great deal in Shandong. In particular, there is a strong city, Dengzhou, situated on the shore of the Bohai Sea, where a naval fleet can be stationed — it is now the lair of the so-called Northern Fleet. If it cannot be uprooted, the coasts of Liaodong, Liaoxi, and Northern Zhili will never know peace again. Liaodong, Liaoxi, and Northern Zhili are the foundation of our Great Qing. If they lie under the Southern Dynasty's sword day and night, then even if we gained Huainan, we could not hold it for long. Better to halt our troops north of the Huai, first take all of Shandong and Henan, and then slowly plan for Jingzhou and Xiangyang. If we can obtain the commanderies of Jing and Xiang, then we may consider the plan of taking the southeast."

"The Prince Regent is truly brilliant!" Jirgalang, having heard Dorgon's lengthy exposition, nodded in admiration. "Then how should we pacify Henan and Shandong? Since the Zhu crown prince is hoping for us to advance into Henan and Shandong, he must have made preparations. Henan and Shandong will not be easy to take, I fear."

Dorgon thought for a while, then frowned and said, "Since we must be a lion striking a rabbit, we must pull the Twelfth Brother's (Ajige's) and Fifteenth Brother's (Dodo's) main forces out of Shaanxi — though we cannot pull them out completely. We must hold Tong Pass, Yan'an, and Yulin, and in this way occupy the strategic advantage of Shaanxi. The rest of the territory, let Wu Sangui and Li Zicheng fight over."

According to Dorgon's arrangement, Shaanxi would be divided three ways among the Qing, the Shun, and Wu — and this arrangement also amounted to treating Wu Sangui as a semi-independent power.

Jirgalang did a mental calculation. "Prince Su has gathered quite a few newly attached troops and has sixty to seventy thousand men on hand. Prince Ying and Prince Yu took no fewer than fifty thousand troops to Shaanxi. Leaving twenty thousand there, they can still draw out thirty thousand. Combined, that makes a host of a hundred thousand!"

These hundred thousand men could not all be true Manchus, of course — the total number of true Manchus was not that large! Even counting the Han troops incorporated into the various banners, one could not field a hundred thousand. Of these hundred thousand, thirty to forty thousand were so-called Green Standard troops. Originally they were either Ming soldiers, local strongmen, or leftover odds and ends from the Shun army system. Now they had all been absorbed by the Qing, drawing pay of one and a half to two taels of silver. But their zeal for soldiering and fighting was not much less, because following the Eight Banners masters meant they could burn, kill, and plunder.

In history, when these Green Standard troops attacked the Southern Ming, their cruelty and zeal were absolutely not inferior to the Eight Banners!

Dorgon nodded. "We still need to use troops in Shanxi. We can have the Twelfth Brother lead troops to deal first with Datong, and then clean up that Prince of Dai up in the Lüliang Mountains!"

"Prince Regent, are we to assault Datong city?"

"No assault on the city."

"A siege, then?"

Dorgon smiled. "Not a siege either. They strengthen their walls; we strip the countryside. We do not believe they can grow crops inside the walls of Datong and feed themselves!"

"Brilliant! Truly brilliant!"

"The Prince Regent is wise!"

"With the Prince Regent here, our Great Qing's foundation in the north is secure!"

Inside the Hall of Martial Valor, a chorus of praise and admiration immediately arose, and Dorgon laughed aloud in satisfaction. After a while, he stopped laughing, his expression darkened once more, and he looked at Jirgalang. "Prince Zheng, do you think Prince Su can shoulder the heavy responsibility of commanding an army of tens of thousands?"

Prince Su Hooge was now the commander of the Qing eastern route army, and had already led troops to capture the prefectural city of Kaifeng, and had also taken over the territory Wu Sangui had left behind after entering Tong Pass. If they were to attack the Ming dynasty's territory in Shandong and Henan next, he should by rights be the commander.

But Dorgon did not want Hooge to win great merit. Last time Hooge had picked up a bargain in Beijing, and Dorgon had been forced to restore his princely title. If he took Shandong and Henan this time, would they have to make him a Prince Regent? And Dorgon was also somewhat uneasy about Hooge. That fellow Hooge was dull-witted — what if he was defeated by the treacherous and cunning Zhu Cilang!

"Prince Regent, do you mean—" Jirgalang looked at Dorgon.

Dorgon voiced his own thought. "What about making Dodo the commander?"

"Prince Regent," Jirgalang shook his head, "do you think Prince Su and Oboi and the others would obey Prince Yu's command?"

"Then Prince Yu would not obey Prince Su either." Dorgon knew his own full brother too well.

Dodo himself had once had a chance to become emperor, which had been ruined by Hooge's father Hong Taiji; and his son Dorbo had also had a chance to become emperor (Dorbo was Dorgon's heir), which had been ruined by Hooge.

With old grudges and new hatreds piled together, before they even defeated Zhu Cilang, uncle and nephew might well start tearing at each other first.

Jirgalang thought for a moment. "How about letting them each fight their own war — let Prince Su continue attacking Henan, and let Prince Yu attack Shandong."

Dorgon nodded. "That is the only way!" He then said to Holoi, "Holoi, you should make a move too. Take ten thousand Eight Banners troops and ten thousand Green Standard troops to support Dodo."

(End of Chapter)