Chapter 418: This Is Heaven Destroying the Great Qing!

"My Prince, my Prince! The Shandong soldiers of the southern barbarians have been driven into the river by our brave warriors!"

"My Prince, we have won! Shandong is now the domain of our Great Qing!"

"My Prince, we have finally won. Ten thousand victories for the Great Qing!"

Seeing the Ming militia soldiers, pressed to the banks of the Tu River, finally rush into the water in chaos, and hearing the cheers of the Eight Banners commanders around him, Dodo, Prince Yu of the Great Qing and General Who Pacifies the Nation, let out a long breath, his eyes growing moist.

This incursion into Shandong had truly been too difficult. Compared with the previous two incursions into Shandong, it was simply a different world! Those two earlier times had been in the last days of the Ming, when the edge of his army's blade swept all before it — truly an invincible heavenly host! But this time, everywhere they went it was either scorched earth or militia and Ming regulars howling as they threw themselves into the fight. Even the bookworms and old peasants of Qufu were shouting "Confucius protects us, blades and spears cannot pierce us!" Was this... was this how men who had studied the sages' books behaved? What books had you Shandong scholars been reading these past two years?

Qufu's stout walls being hard to take was one thing, but this time Gao Hongtu had actually marched out with thirty thousand men to seek battle in the open field! Dodo's forces were no fewer than his. Fighting a field battle with roughly equal numbers — never mind losing, even a stalemate was unacceptable! Even winning by sixty or seventy percent was still a loss!

A victory that killed ten thousand of the enemy at the cost of three thousand of his own was one Dodo could not afford. How many true Manchus capable of fighting did the Great Qing even have? How could he lose three thousand here and five thousand there? What would he do when they were all dead?

So when the Eight Banners warriors had stormed the wagon fort earlier, the Eight Banners warriors bled at the front while Prince Dodo wept at the rear.

When he heard that the Nikan sword-and-shield men had hurled their javelins wildly, killing and wounding many soldiers of both sides locked in melee, he was nearly in tears. How could the fighting go on like this? Even if he destroyed Gao Hongtu, he would have no way to explain himself!

His son Dorbo was still preparing to become Emperor Wen of Wei! If the Manchu warriors who supported the brothers Dorgon and Dodo were all dead, how could they usurp the throne?

"All right, all right," Dodo said with a smile to Helohoi beside him. "We've won at last. A few thousand got away, but the main force has been taken. Gao Hongtu should also be killed or captured. That fellow and Shi Kefa — the two of them are too formidable! Fortunately the Chongzhen Emperor was blind. If he had sent them to be Governor-General of Jiliao, how would we have the situation we have today?"

Helohoi laughed. "And that formidable Gao Hongtu — has he not been captured by you, my Prince?"

His words had barely left his mouth when a white-armored soldier of the Bordered White Banner nearby shouted, "They're fleeing, they're fleeing! The Nikan have all crossed the Tu River!"

What? Crossed the river? Dodo was stunned. On the opposite bank was Gang'atai, his own grand-nephew! How could he have let Gao Hongtu escape?

He hastily raised his telescope and looked over. Sure enough, he saw a great mass of bedraggled Ming soldiers already clambering up the far bank, gasping for breath like so many drowned rats. And the Qing troops under Gang'atai, who should have been waiting on the far bank to seize them, had long since vanished — in their place were three or four thousand extra Ming soldiers!

What was going on? Had Ming reinforcements arrived? Was it Prince of Lu Zhu Yihai, or the filial son Zuo Maodi?

"Th-this—this—" Dodo was so agitated he could barely speak.

In the battle of the Tu River so far, although the Qing troops held the upper hand, the margin was small and the losses were not light. At best it was a pyrrhic victory. If Zhu Yihai and Zuo Maodi brought another twenty or thirty thousand men over now, Dodo would have no choice but to withdraw in disgrace.

If he withdrew, of the Shandong prefectures and counties he had previously occupied, at least eighty percent would be lost. At most he could hold on to a corner of northwestern Shandong.

The Great Qing's third incursion into Shandong would count as a defeat.

"My Prince, my Prince — Gang'atai has come!" Helohoi's voice sounded in Dodo's ear again.

Dodo hurriedly looked around and saw Gang'atai, soaked through, his cotton armor gone, dressed only in his underclothes, coming toward him weeping and wailing, supported by several of the Li family's personal guards.

At the sight of Dodo, Gang'atai could not even walk — he crawled forward, crying out as he crawled: "My Prince, my Prince, this slave is guilty, this slave deserves death ten thousand times over! This slave could not hold back the southern barbarians' great army!"

Dodo very much wanted to cut down this useless Gang'atai with one stroke of his blade. But this slave could not be killed casually, because Gang'atai could call Dodo "Fifteenth Grand-uncle"! His father, Li Yongfang, had married one of Dodo's nieces (who was of course older than Dodo). And this Gang'atai had acknowledged Dodo's niece as his own mother, so he was now Dodo's grand-nephew. And Gang'atai's nominal maternal grandfather, Abatai, Prince Raoyu of the Second Rank, was still alive! For the sake of his old brother Abatai, Dodo could not bring his blade down!

Dodo asked crossly: "Was it Zhu Yihai or Zuo Maodi who came?"

This man had the temperament of saying whatever came to mind. Gang'atai had not even thought of shifting the blame onto Zhu Yihai and Zuo Maodi, and here Dodo was reminding him.

Gang'atai was taken aback, but quickly recovered. "It was Zhu Yihai..."

What Zhu Yihai? In truth, it was simply Li Chengdong leading a few thousand men in an attack along the north bank of the Tu River. And that fellow Gang'atai had no idea how to fight — he had risen through flattery, so how could he know how to fight a battle? It had never occurred to him that his flank might be struck by Ming cavalry, so he had not deployed an infantry pike formation on his flank.

As a result, when Li Chengdong came charging in with several hundred cavalry, Gang'atai's left wing collapsed at once!

And Gang'atai was a coward who feared death. He did not dare lead his personal guards in a desperate fight, but instead fled westward for a while, then forded the Tu River to see Dodo.

He knew his offense was no small matter, but he still wanted to live, so he seized on the opening Dodo had handed him and shifted all the blame for the defeat onto Zhu Yihai — it was not that he, Gang'atai, could not fight; it was that Zhu Yihai had too many troops!

"How many came?" Dodo asked.

"Th-there were twenty thousand... perhaps thirty thousand!"

"That many..." Dodo's vision went black.

Was this battle truly going to be lost? What was to be done?

Shanxi was not yet pacified, Henan was only mostly taken, the situation in Shaanxi was murky and uncertain, and this battle at the Tu River in Shandong had been a field battle fought in open array. If it were lost, Wu Sangui's side would certainly turn, Li Zicheng might counterattack in the Central Plains, and as for Zhu Cilang, there was no need to say more — he would surely launch another northern expedition! This was Heaven destroying the Great Qing!

"My Prince, withdraw quickly!" Helohoi, frightened by Gang'atai as well, blurted out the suggestion in a daze.

"We cannot retreat! If we retreat, it is all over!" Dodo said through gritted teeth. "Sound the horns, form ranks — we go to the banks of the Tu River and deploy in battle array!"

Dodo was, after all, a great military strategist, and his decision at the critical moment was the right one. If he had fled with his troops, not only would Shandong be lost, but Henan, Shaanxi, and Shanxi would all turn as well — because battles are not fought with live broadcasts, and people outside the battlefield can usually only judge victory or defeat by who runs first.

Whoever flees first is usually judged the loser. And the side that does not flee can trumpet its triumph to the skies.

If Gao Hongtu's force of under thirty thousand had fought a battle against a Qing force of comparable size, and in the end not only had not been annihilated but had actually "driven back" the Qing troops — if that matter were then given a good puffing-up by that braggart Zhu Cilang, the Great Qing would truly be finished!

By contrast, old Gao Hongtu's military ability was still a bit lacking. He did not realize that he stood on the very edge of victory or defeat, and thought he had lost.

The old man was soaked through, sitting on the riverbank, looking around at the defeated soldiers who had thrown away their armor and weapons, and could not help bursting into loud sobs.

"This old man has failed His Majesty, failed the elders of Shandong..."

At his weeping, the seven or eight thousand men sitting on the riverbank gasping for breath all wept aloud with him — and this weeping exposed their fear.

On the other side of the Tu River, bugles and war drums sounded together. The Eight Banners troops, who had just won a pyrrhic victory and were long since exhausted from days of marching and fighting, summoned their spirits and formed battle lines on the south bank of the Tu River.

This frightened Li Chengdong, who was with Gao Hongtu. He said hurriedly: "Governor, we must go now... if we do not leave, the Tartars will be upon us!"

Gao Hongtu wiped his tears. "So be it. Let us go — back to Jinan Prefecture to drill the troops properly. Once the troops are drilled, we shall come back and fight!"

(End of Chapter)