Chapter 424: Who Dares Refuse to Submit? Hooge Refuses

The stifling, muggy air hung over Xuzhou City in the heart of Henan Province, and in the rear courtyard of the prefectural office there was not even a breath of cross-draught. The branches of the willows in the courtyard had not stirred for the better part of the day.

On the willow trees, the cicadas kept up a ceaseless shrill buzzing. It grated on the nerves of the Qing Prince Su, Hooge. The sweltering summer heat of Xuzhou was something Hooge, accustomed to the cool climate beyond the pass in the northeast, simply could not endure. Stripped to the waist, his hairy chest exposed, he lay on a bamboo couch beneath a willow in the courtyard, ceaselessly fanning himself with a palm-leaf fan. At this moment he was even beginning to miss the cool climate of his old home beyond the pass.

But longing was one thing; if he were actually told to pack up and go home, he would be unwilling.

For he had now helped his little brother Fulin seize the very heart of the Central Plain, and he knew the saying: he who gains the Central Plain gains the realm. After all, he had read Romance of the Three Kingdoms, one of the three great classics — otherwise he would not have placed his main camp in Henan at Xuzhou. Was not Xuzhou the old lair of Cao Cao, Xuchang?

In Hooge's view, Luoyang was too far off to one side; the prefectural seat of Kaifeng had been scoured into a wasteland by the great flood; Suiyang had been emptied out by Huang Degong, and its position was likewise rather out of the way. Only Xuzhou, which belonged to Kaifeng Prefecture, was still reasonably prosperous, and its location was fairly central — almost exactly the middle of the Central Plain.

Holding Xuzhou made campaigning east or west comparatively easy, and it was also easy to requisition grain and conscript labourers. Using this place as a base, sooner or later he could take the whole Central Plain!

So in Hooge's own view, this disposition was extremely shrewd. The only thing that dissatisfied him a little was that the summer in Xuzhou was too hot for him, and there was no place nearby where he could escape the heat.

Just as Hooge had found a patch of shade to hide from the fiercest heat of the afternoon, Oboi's loud, blustering voice suddenly came in from outside the courtyard.

"My Prince, my Prince — more good tidings from Shandong!"

More good tidings from Shandong!

The moment Hooge heard Oboi bellowing those two words, "Shandong," his temper flared! What was so remarkable about it? Was it not just the annihilation of forty or fifty thousand Nikan militia? Not even elite troops, and yet they boasted and blared about it day after day — were they not sick of it?

And Dodo's side had suffered no small casualties either — probably over ten thousand, with nearly a thousand of the true Manchus of the Eight Banners among the dead! And they still claimed it was from overexertion and illness brought on by failing to acclimatise to the climate and water. Who were they trying to fool?

Were the bodies of true Manchu bannermen really that frail? One sweep through Shandong, and in only a few days nearly a thousand had died of sickness. Dodo had brought only twelve or thirteen thousand true Manchus to Shandong in all. At that rate of dying, they would be wiped out in less than two years!

So the true Manchus of their two Plain White Banners all had bodies like bean curd dregs? If that were really so, what was the point of fighting at all? Why not go home early, eat well, and wait to die?

Besides, how was it that the true Manchus under Hooge rarely fell ill? The number of true Manchus under his command was about the same as the number under Dodo, yet in the past month or two only twenty or thirty had died of sickness — that was a normal figure!

Fighting a miserable, pyrrhic victory was one thing — a pyrrhic victory was still a victory! But Dorgon, that treacherous villain, still boasted about it every day, and had even conferred on Dodo the title of Prince of the First Rank, and it was said he was going to make Dodo a Prince Regent, equal in standing to Jirgalang!

On what grounds? He was the eldest son of the late emperor, half a step from being the Son of Heaven himself, and he still had no princely title of the first rank and no regency — yet Dodo had both!

Dodo himself was even more hateful — every few days he reported some worthless "great victory"! He even bragged about capturing a county town. Truly shameless beyond all measure.

Just as Hooge was about to open his mouth and send the man away, he saw Oboi come running in, looking as though he had just been fished out of the water. Wiping the sweat from his face, Oboi saluted Hooge: "My Prince, your slave Oboi pays his respects."

"Aiyo, Oboi, look at you — you're so hot you look like you fell in the water!" Hooge shook his head repeatedly. "What's so urgent that you had to rush like that?"

"I had to rush!" Oboi stamped his foot. "Beile Nikan has taken Xuzhou City!"

"What?" Hooge doubted his own ears. "What did you say?"

"Beile Nikan has taken Xuzhou!"

"Xuzhou? How is that possible?" Hooge could no longer stay seated. He sprang to his feet. "How many men does Dodo have? With his forces stretched so thin, how could he have men to spare to take Xuzhou?"

Oboi presented the field report with both hands and said: "My Prince, the report says that Beile Nikan, acting on the orders of Prince Yu, led three thousand elite bannermen to raid between Pei and Feng, where he encountered a force of over ten thousand southern troops under Gao Jie, routed them in a single battle, after which Gao Jie abandoned Xuzhou and fled east to Haizhou, and Holhoi then advanced and occupied Xuzhou!"

"Nikan is truly brave — far better than Dodo!" Hooge praised him, then took the field report from Oboi's hands and read it carefully.

This "Nikan" was a grandson of Nurhaci; his father was Nurhaci's eldest son, Cuyen. In his early years Cuyen had been Nurhaci's heir, but because he struggled for power with the Four Great Beile and the Five Ministers, they conspired together to bring him down. He was imprisoned behind high walls by Nurhaci and finally put to death.

And Hong Taiji, being one of the Four Great Beile, was one of the men who had killed Nikan's father! Later Nikan and his elder brother Commissioner-in-Chief both served Hong Taiji loyally, campaigning east and west and rendering great service, yet because of this old grievance they were constantly suppressed, and Commissioner-in-Chief died of dejection because of it.

So after Hong Taiji's death, Nikan had drawn close to Dorgon and his two brothers. After the Battle of the Tu River, Dorgon had sent Nikan to Shandong to lend Dodo a hand.

And Nikan did indeed seem to have real ability. Not long after joining Dodo's command, he won several victories in succession on the "west bank of the Grand Canal" front. By early in the seventh month he had broken into Xuzhou territory, and with three thousand men had defeated Gao Jie's ten thousand, taking Xuzhou — a place "contested by every strategist" — in passing.

"My Prince," Oboi said, seeing Hooge's brows deeply furrowed and not knowing what he was pondering, and so he spoke up to remind him, "Huang Degong at Shangqiu will probably run too."

It would not matter if Huang Degong ran, but Shangqiu must not fall into Dodo's hands! Otherwise where would Prince Su Hooge put his face?

"Quickly, quickly!" Hooge leapt up from the bamboo couch. "Beat the drums and assemble the commanders! This prince is going to march on Bozhou!"

"Bozhou? Not Shangqiu?"

Hooge snorted. "There's no time. Dodo is now encamped at Jining and is also campaigning southwest of Yanzhou. How far is that from Shangqiu? Would he let me take Shangqiu at my leisure?"

Oboi thought about it — true enough!

Once Gao Jie at Xuzhou fled, Huang Degong at Shangqiu would be attacked from three sides. If he did not run, was he waiting to die? Moreover, Gao Jie had fled east to Haizhou, so the Sui River south of Xuzhou was left unguarded.

Huang Degong would have to fill that gap, shifting his forces to the line from Suzhou to Suining, with his back to Hongze Lake, to protect Huai'an Prefecture. Xuzhou, on the banks of the Yellow River and liable to flood at any time, could be abandoned, but Huai'an Prefecture, the great salt-producing centre on the south bank of the Huai, was a place the Southern Ming absolutely had to hold!

Oboi thought for a moment, then asked: "My Prince, then are we only going to take Bozhou?"

If one looked at the map, Bozhou was a salient jutting into Henan territory. After the fall of Guide Prefecture, it was surrounded on three sides by territory controlled by the Qing army.

"Of course I'm not satisfied with just one Bozhou!" Hooge snorted. "But we must not underestimate the enemy and advance recklessly. Fengyang Prefecture is, after all, where the Ming imperial tombs lie, and it is also the shield protecting the Yangtze. As the saying goes, to hold the Yangtze one must hold the Huai. Fengyang Prefecture will not be easy to take, so we must be cautious."

"My Prince," said Oboi, knowing there was a battle to be fought and his spirits rising, "let your slave lead the first assault!"

Hooge shook his head. "Let Shang Kexi and Bai Guang'en send troops against Yimen Town. You will move out one step later — steady and slow, pressing gradually toward Bozhou."

Kong Youde, Geng Zhongming, and Shang Kexi — the Three Obedient Kings — were all now campaigning in Henan under Hooge. After entering Henan, the armies of these three men had also been expanded, becoming mixed banner-Han corps built around Han bannermen of the Eight Banners as the backbone, with newly attached Green Standard troops as cannon fodder, and a small number of true Manchus as overseers. Their strengths all ranged between ten thousand and fifteen thousand men.

And Bai Guang'en, who had originally surrendered to Li Zicheng, had surrendered to Hooge at Ruzhou, becoming a thrice-turned subject. He himself had been raised to the Bordered Yellow Banner, and the more than ten thousand soldiers under him (he had been brought to Henan by Li Guo and had expanded his army while left at Ruzhou as cannon fodder, which was why he had over ten thousand men) were all incorporated into the Green Standard.

This time Hooge sent out Shang Kexi's fifteen thousand men and Bai Guang'en's ten thousand to strike at Yimen Town, the strategic point south of Bozhou. It was in fact the most cautious possible way of fighting. If anything went wrong, he would not grieve over the deaths of a few Han traitors. If all went smoothly, then Oboi would lead several thousand elite troops of the Bordered Yellow and Plain Red Banners to take Bozhou and enjoy the spoils.

Hooge himself, meanwhile, would lead over ten thousand men of the Plain Blue and Plain Yellow Banners, together with Kong Youde's fifteen thousand, to occupy Suizhou as a reserve force for Oboi, Shang Kexi, Bai Guang'en, and the others.

And Geng Zhongming would remain behind to guard Xuzhou together with the Qing Governor of Henan, Lei Xing, keeping watch on the Shun army at Nanyang.

Hooge drew a breath. "If the opportunity comes, we'll cross the Huai and take a turn around the southern barbarians' Central Capital at Fengyang Prefecture — let Dorgon and Dodo see what we're made of!"

(End of Chapter)