Chapter 415: Gao Hongtu, Unafraid of Cold Water — Part 2

"Victory! Victory! Victory!" Over the battlefield of the night battle by the Tu River, a tremendous shout suddenly erupted, like the roar of mountains and seas. The sound rolled westward along the Tu River and quickly reached the ears of Gao Hongtu, Governor of Shandong in the Great Ming.

What? Victory already? Isn't this a bit too easy? Could it be that the Tartars were all asleep in the middle of the night, leaving only some useless Green Standard troops to keep watch?

Governor Gao Hongtu could scarcely believe his own ears, so he turned his head and asked Li Dakai beside him, "What are the men up ahead shouting?"

"My lord Governor," Li Dakai was already so excited he could barely contain himself, "Victory, it's victory! Our vanguard has won the day — Li Chengdong has done splendidly!"

"So quickly?" Gao Hongtu still found it hard to believe. "It's only been a short while!"

"My lord Governor," Li Dakai said with a grin, "this time you've staked a truly lavish reward. The soldiers get land, and Li Chengdong has the whole of Tai'an Prefecture fighting with their lives on the line. Even the Tartars couldn't hold them back!"

"Is that so?"

Gao Hongtu stroked his beard, thinking to himself: So it turns out this official is quite the capable commander! How is it that His Majesty the Son of Heaven never discovered this talent? In the end it took the Crown Prince to see it. If the Son of Heaven had put this official to use earlier, pacifying Liaodong and exterminating the bandits, the realm would have been at peace long ago, wouldn't it?

Just as he was lost in these wild thoughts, several fast horses came galloping up along the column of the Ming army's "wagon-fort brigade" that was just then emerging from the "earthen enclosure." They spotted Gao Hongtu's Three Armies Command Banner and were quickly brought over by the Governor's personal guards.

"Reporting to my lord Governor: Regional Commander Li has sent this humble one to report that he has routed the Tartar blocking force of about five thousand men, and is now pressing the pursuit hard, advancing eastward!"

"Truly? Is this true?" Gao Hongtu still dared not believe it.

"Absolutely true!" the mounted messenger gave an affirmative reply.

Gao Hongtu looked at Li Dakai.

Li Dakai said, "My lord Governor, perhaps the Tartars never expected us to break out tonight. The opportunity is rare — let us press on and move faster!"

"Good!" Gao Hongtu nodded emphatically. "Pass the word: the vanguard has won a great victory and the road is open. The whole army is to march at speed — these twenty li must be covered before the hour of si!"

"Aye!"

As Gao Hongtu's personal guards spurred their horses off to relay the order, the great army, which had been advancing slow and steady as a forest, suddenly began to quicken its pace!

If Gao Hongtu and Dodo had swapped places, the latter would certainly not have quickened the march just because the vanguard had won.

For Gao Hongtu's main force of more than twenty thousand men was currently drawn up in a special formation that advanced slowly, relying on the wagon-fort array — it was not something that could be sped up just because one wished it. Moreover, the vanguard's victory had come far too easily. Even if it was not a trick, it had merely caught the enemy off guard.

Once the enemy recovered, they would surely organize a new assault — and given the speed of the Eight Banners troops, that new assault would come quickly.

So the correct course now was to call back the battle-mad Li Chengdong at once, and together guard the great wagon formation, fighting while withdrawing.

But Gao Hongtu, along with the two "talented commanders" he trusted — Li Dakai and Zhang Mingzhen — were none of them seasoned veterans of many campaigns, and they had no experience at all of fighting the Eight Banners.

Thus, at dawn of that day, they were all somewhat muddle-headed!

And because of their muddle-headedness, the great force of more than twenty thousand men began, step by step, to sink into crisis.

The crisis first appeared where the wagon column was passing through the Qing army's trenches and breastworks — because of the trenches and breastworks, the shield-wagon units could not get through. So Gao Hongtu had dispatched a "laborer brigade" to dig and fill, intending to level the road and push down the breastworks.

But when Gao Hongtu's order to accelerate the march came down, the work was only half done.

Although only half done, the road could still be forced through with difficulty. So the "wagon troops" behind could not wait — they pushed their shield-wagons directly through, lurching and swaying over the bumpy road surface. This is where things began to fall into disorder. Some wagons got through smoothly, but after several dozen had passed, the road surface, which had never been tamped firm, had become terribly rutted and pitted. In the end, one shield-wagon was not pushed properly and toppled over at once, blocking the road.

Now everything fell into chaos!

According to Gao Hongtu's orders, the shield-wagons and infantry were organized together in the same banner units. If the wagons could not move, the soldiers could not move either. So his army became disjointed: the several dozen shield-wagons that had already crossed the trenches and breastworks, along with several thousand infantry, were advancing rapidly, while everyone and everything else was blocked.

At this moment Gao Hongtu made his second mistake: he did not order the several dozen wagons and several thousand men who had already crossed to immediately go over to the defensive, but instead sent them hurrying on toward Fort Ren.

At the same time, he did not have the blocked men and wagons form a crescent-moon array, but merely ordered Zhang Mingzhen to take men and clear the road.

In this way, Gao Hongtu's great army was effectively split into three parts. One part was with Li Chengdong, pursuing and slaughtering the defeated troops under Wu Weihua — Wu Weihua himself was not with his troops; he was on the other side of the trench, and had now become a Regional Commander with no soldiers left.

One part was scattered along the official road east of the Qing trenches and breastworks, the ranks loose, everyone intent only on pressing eastward.

And one part remained with Gao Hongtu, waiting for the road to be cleared!

It was at this very moment that Dodo's assault began!

Dodo's great army was at this time divided into four parts. One part was Wu Weihua's defeated troops, who had been cut down by Li Chengdong's men and were fleeing in utter panic — not worth mentioning.

One part, led by Gang'atai, numbered five thousand (of whom only a few hundred were true Manchus), and had already crossed the Tu River to block Gao Hongtu's great army — the Tu River was not deep, and could be forded in many places. So Dodo had also posted men on the north bank, sealing the river line to prevent Gao Hongtu's men from escaping by wading across.

The remaining forces Dodo now split in two. One part, led by Heluohui, struck at the Ming troops on the official road east of the Qing trenches and breastworks — since Heluohui did not have many men under him, he did not seek to annihilate them, only to drive them off and then seal the road, so that the Ming army's elite vanguard could not return to reinforce.

The main force Dodo led in person, and it began to close in on Gao Hongtu's main body! Moreover, his cavalry appeared at an exceedingly unfortunate moment — just when the road had been cleared and the column could have continued forward!

"The Tartars are here!"

No one knew who shouted it. Gao Hongtu's great army, which a moment before had been a din of shouting men and neighing horses, suddenly fell silent in an instant. Everyone halted; even the mules and horses in the ranks made no sound at that moment.

All eyes turned southward. There, rank after rank of cavalry suddenly appeared in the hazy distance, hooves rumbling like thunder, like surging waves. There was no need to say it — this was the Qing army's main force. They must have discovered the Ming army's breakout and come charging in to strike!

"Quick, quick! Form the wagon array! Form the wagon array!" Gao Hongtu had recovered his wits and was shouting at the top of his lungs.

But his formation was already somewhat scattered, and his forces had been split into several parts. How could the array be formed so easily?

"My lord Governor," Li Dakai, standing beside him, suggested, "let Ma Degong lead his troops out to hold the Tartars for a while."

Gao Hongtu hastily agreed: "Yes, yes! Ma Degong, Ma Degong — quickly, summon Ma Degong!"

But where was any sign of Ma Degong?

The fellow had taken the rear-guard assignment, bringing up the very rear with two thousand cavalry. When the Qing army appeared, he knew at once that things were going badly, so he turned around and fled back into the "earthen enclosure." He did not stay long inside the enclosure either. Seeing that the situation on the battlefield was turning grim, he slipped away once more, fleeing to Liaocheng, thirty li away — and carrying with him the news that Gao Hongtu's entire army had been "wiped out."

Without the screening protection of Ma Degong's cavalry, Gao Hongtu's ten-odd thousand men no longer had time to form the crescent-moon array, and could only deploy on the spot to resist.

And Dodo's blow this time was one he was determined to land. In the first wave alone, he committed no fewer than ten thousand cavalry!

At that moment, the Eight Banners horsemen all but filled the entire battlefield!

Yet Gao Hongtu's militia displayed ample composure and tenacity — they did not, astonishingly, scatter in a single panicked rout. Before the Qing cavalry arrived, the three-eyed arquebusiers, the archers, the sword-and-shield men gripping their javelins, and the spearmen bearing ten-foot pikes had all formed up in good order, leaning on more than two hundred shield-wagons, prepared for a desperate fight to the death!

The bloody battle of the Tu River had now truly reached its climax!

(End of Chapter)