Chapter 432: This Is Walking into a Trap

, to rescue the Great Ming

"That Southern Barbarian Crown Prince really does have some ability — in less than a year he's put the southeast in fine order. Otherwise Dodo wouldn't be fighting so hard in Shandong without a victory. So for the battle across the Huai, we must plan carefully and must not fall into the Southern Barbarian's trap..."

Hooge tapped his fingers on the table as he laid out his analysis to Mandahai, Oboi, Shuozhan, Kong Youde, Shang Kexi, and the others who had gathered at the Grand General's headquarters.

In the art of war, though Hooge could not compare with the brothers Dorgon and Dodo, he was still a veteran commander long tested in battle. And with fierce generals like Mandahai and Oboi at his side, his standard was by no means low.

As for an opponent like Zhu Cilang, he naturally gave him considerable regard — after all, the Great Qing had yet to gain any advantage over Zhu Cilang! How could he dare let his guard drop?

"Prince Su," spoke Mandahai, grandson of Daishan, who had brought the Plain Red Banner troops on this campaign and ranked second in Hooge's column, "do you think the Southern Barbarian will set a trap for us south of the Huai?"

"Heh, of course he will." Hooge laughed. "Zhu Cilang is nothing like that honest father of his. That brat is cunning! Dodo has suffered plenty at his hands in Shandong... and the Prince Regent gets headaches every day because of him!"

Speaking of Dorgon's headaches, Hooge's face was full of schadenfreude. That Zhu Cilang really was rotten to the core — slandering and smearing Dorgon on one hand, sending troops to harass western Liaoning and Liaodong on another, and on top of that taking liberties with Princess Donggo... and he had still managed to leave Dodo stuck in the Shandong quagmire, with no telling when the fighting would end.

Mandahai stroked his beard, frowning slightly. "Right now our troops are strong and our horses sturdy. The Eight Banners, the Han troops, and the Green Standard together make fifty or sixty thousand men, and we have forty Hongyi cannon... What trick could they possibly have?"

Oboi said, "Nothing more than making us bog down before a strong city, wearing out our troops and exhausting our veterans, then striking us with heavy forces... Fengyang Prefecture's seat may well be the bait he has left for us!"

"Oboi," Hooge looked at his trusted right-hand man, "what clever plan do you have?"

"I do!" Oboi laughed heartily. "We can use the same method Prince Yu used in Shandong... Those Nikans reckon our troops will grow old and weary, so we'll do just the opposite and advance slowly and solidly. First cross the Huai, then establish camp, then storm Fengyang. When the Southern Barbarian troops come, we'll meet them in a decisive battle. If they advance with fortifications, we'll hold them off with fortifications of our own. The Southern Barbarian Crown Prince failed to turn Fengyang into an impregnable fortress — that was his blunder! If we take Fengyang Prefecture's seat, we simply won't leave. Let's see what he does then?"

Fengyang Prefecture's seat was no ordinary prefectural city — it was the Great Ming's Central Capital, the site of the tomb of Zhu Yuanzhang's parents. If Hooge occupied it for long, how could Zhu Cilang have the face to usurp the throne?

Hooge nodded repeatedly. "Good! Oboi, you truly are a general the late emperor cherished... Do any of you have another plan?" His eyes swept across the thatched hall. "If not, we'll go with Oboi's plan!"

Shang Kexi immediately rose to his feet. "My Prince, leave Fengyang Prefecture's seat to your subordinate to attack!"

Kong Youde also stood. "My Prince, your subordinate also wishes to attack Fengyang Prefecture."

"Good, good," Hooge said. "You can go together."

"Zha!" Shang Kexi and Kong Youde both received their orders.

"Mandahai!" Hooge called Mandahai's name.

"Your subordinate is here!" Mandahai also rose respectfully.

"The land north of the Huai is yours!" Hooge ordered. "Keep an eye on Huang Degong!"

"Rest assured, my Prince, your subordinate will not fail in his mission!"

"Oboi, Shuozhan," Hooge continued, "you will cross the Huai with me... We'll station troops at Changhuai Guard and wait for the Southern Barbarian brat's troops to come! I am not Dodo, and I don't want to seize much territory south of the Huai. I just want Zhu Cilang to know the might of our Great Qing heavenly soldiers!"

"Zha!"

Word that Hooge's great army had crossed the Huai and come south was sent at the first moment by six-hundred-li express to the Jiangbei Grand Camp.

At this time, the Crown Prince was standing, surrounded by a host of civil and military officials, atop the camp's wall, which stood over a zhang high, watching the new army drilling outside the city.

In the days since crossing the Yangtze, Zhu Cilang had been waiting for Hooge to come south while busying himself with reorganizing his new army's infantry divisions.

After the introduction of the European-style model regiments, the military organization of the Hard-Working New Army had undergone considerable change. Division-level units were temporarily hollowed out, and the great majority of officers serving in division command staffs had been sent down to the twelve model infantry regiments or to the Nanjing Military Academy for study.

And of the New Army's six divisions, the four deployed around Yingtian Prefecture had been reduced to empty shells incapable of functioning, because their officers had all gone off to "study." Thus the "regiment" had become the largest effective tactical unit of the Hard-Working New Army's main force.

Before Zhu Cilang led his troops north this time, there had been a total of 31 regiments stationed in Yingtian Prefecture, of which 15 were model regiments and 16 were non-model regiments. And there were four hollow division-level shells: the Front Division, the Center Division, the Rear Division, and the First Division.

In addition, the Left Division had moved to Shandong in the spring of the eighteenth year of Chongzhen, under the control of the Shandong Regional Command. The Right Division had moved to Fengyang Prefecture, under the control of the Central Capital Garrison Command. These two divisions, unlike the four left in Yingtian, still maintained the highest state of combat readiness, with full division staffs and all four subordinate regiments fully manned and equipped. However, they had been issued no new-style firearms and no cavalry, and therefore lacked the ability to fight in the open field outside the city.

Of the 31 regiments left in Yingtian, 25 had now followed Zhu Cilang to the Jiangbei Grand Camp. Zhu Cilang had assigned them respectively to the Front Division, the Center Division, the Rear Division, the First Division, and the Jiangbei Grand Camp Garrison Command.

Each of the four divisions had under it three model infantry regiments, two non-model infantry regiments, two cavalry battalions, two regiment artillery batteries, and one supply battalion, for a total strength of about 14,000 men. The two cavalry battalions and two regiment artillery batteries all came from the Model Army's two cavalry regiments and one artillery regiment.

The Model Army's cavalry regiments were still two in number, altogether some 3,200 or 3,300 cavalrymen. But there had been some changes in organization and equipment. Originally both cavalry regiments had been "heavy cavalry," but now they had been converted into one regiment of heavy cavalry and one regiment of light cavalry.

The heavy cavalry were lancers, equipped with simple plate armor pieced together from iron sheets, Ming-style eight-panel iron helmets, and arm guards. The light cavalry were horse archers, likewise equipped with simple plate armor and eight-panel helmets, but to make it easier to draw a bow on horseback and to reduce weight, they were not issued arm guards. For horse bows, they used Kaiyuan bows with a draw weight of forty to fifty jin.

The Model Artillery Regiment, meanwhile, was steadily expanding and now had ten artillery batteries, including eight regiment artillery batteries and two Hongyi cannon batteries, with a total of 48 three-pounder regiment guns and 8 twelve-pounder Hongyi cannon.

Now the four new army divisions had been reorganized and were drilling division-level battle formations on the open ground south of the Jiangbei Grand Camp, near the Yangtze. Tens of thousands of men, formed into who knew how many company-level formations, deployed, shifted, and moved along the Yangtze, from time to time raising earth-shaking cheers. It all looked orderly and immensely imposing.

Just then, Li Yan, the Guard Commander of the Military Orders, received a field dispatch handed up by a staff officer below. He unfolded it, and his expression changed slightly at once. Then he moved close to Zhu Cilang.

"Your Highness, urgent military report from the Central Capital Garrison Command!" Li Yan said in a low voice. "The Qing army is crossing the Huai in force near Changhuai Guard..."

"Crossing the Huai in force?" Zhu Cilang asked. "How many men?"

"Tens of thousands!" Li Yan said. "And they have many Hongyi cannon as well!"

"Many Hongyi cannon?"

"Yes," Li Yan said. "According to the report, the Qing army first built gun emplacements on the north bank of the Huai, then used cannon fire to bombard the south bank, sealing off the river and covering the craftsmen as they built a pontoon bridge. Once the bridge was complete, they crossed the Huai while building a bridgehead... It seems this Qing column is advancing very cautiously, using a step-by-step consolidation method, much like Dodo's approach in Shandong."

Zhu Cilang frowned slightly. "So what if they're cautious? As long as they've come, they can forget about withdrawing intact... Once the drill is over, summon a council of war!"

"This subject receives the decree."