Chapter 575: Advance, Dorgon!

Beijing, the Prince Regent's residence.

The Great Qing Imperial Uncle Prince Regent Dorgon, just back from observing artillery at the Fengtai encampment, was in excellent spirits. Ever since Hooge's death, his mood had been heavy — not from guilt over Hooge's passing, but from deep worry over the Ming's steadily rising military strength!

Though he liked to keep sayings such as "He who gains the Central Plain gains all under Heaven" and "To settle the south from the north is as easy as turning over one's hand" on his lips, in his heart he was clear as a mirror: the world of today was no longer the same as in the Eastern Jin, the Northern and Southern Dynasties, or the Southern Song.

The Eastern Jin, the Southern Dynasties, and the Southern Song had no way to obtain Western firearms, Western cannon, and Western officers from across the seas!

But now the Western barbarians were rising, and the steppe was in decline!

Just last winter, the meiren i janggin garrisoning Ningguta and the Tusiyetu Khan Gombu of the Mongols had each sent envoys to the capital to report to Dorgon on the eastward expansion of the Russians.

The meiren i janggin garrisoning Ningguta reported that a small band of Russians had made their way into Daur territory along the Heilong River basin, and that many Bargu people (Buryats) who had originally lived northwest of the Heilong River around Lake Baihar and the Barguzin River (the Lake Baikal region) had been driven out by the Russians and had fled into the territory under the Ningguta meiren i janggin.

The Tusiyetu Khan Gombu's memorial stated that in the autumn of the third year of Shunzhi, the Bargu people living north of the Tusiyetu Khan's territory had once borrowed several hundred troops from the Tusiyetu Khan, and together with their own warriors had mustered over a thousand men in all, then launched an attack on a Russian cavalry force numbering fewer than a hundred (sixty men). After a bitter day of fighting, they had been forced to abandon the attack because of excessive casualties — in other words, they had been soundly thrashed!

Over a thousand men attacking a few dozen of the enemy — not only did they fail to win, they got beaten up in return!

The ferocity of the Russians truly made Dorgon's heart pound with dread.

Moreover, before these two reports of Russian incursions from the Ningguta meiren i janggin and the Tusiyetu Khan, Dorgon had already received much intelligence about Russia's eastward invasions — the most shocking of which was that the Khanate of Sibir, which had split off from the Golden Horde, had been conquered and destroyed by the Russians several decades earlier!

And according to Bruce, the envoy of the English nation, this Russia that had destroyed the Khanate of Sibir could not even be considered powerful among the Western nations — it was merely a second-rate power.

Before the Battle of Blood Creek, Dorgon had not taken the strength of the Western barbarians too seriously — after all, the Western barbarians were still far away from the Great Qing!

Even if they had destroyed the Khanate of Sibir and stretched their claws into the Bargu people's territory, they would not pose any real threat to the Great Qing.

Because more than ten thousand li of forest, desert, mountains, and rivers formed the most reliable barrier on the Great Qing's northern frontier — it was impossible for the Western barbarian Russians to send a large army that far.

But when he learned through his spies that the Ming's new army had suddenly grown strong only after adopting the Western barbarians' new-style cannon and new-style tactics, he realized the gravity of the problem.

It was very hard for the Western barbarians to come overland in great numbers, but they could sell advanced firearms to the Ming by sea, and could even provide Western officers to Zhu Cilang.

Zhu Cilang was nothing like his foolish Imperial Father Chongzhen — he was especially skilled at extracting and amassing wealth. In the autumn and winter of last year, he had led two million penniless northern refugees to Huguang to extract wealth, and had apparently gone as far as Guangdong. Along the way he had not only solved the problem of feeding two million people, but had also thoroughly reorganized the land of Huguang and the customs and commercial taxes of Guangdong.

It was estimated that this year the Southern Ming court's revenues would reach thirty to forty million shi of grain and ten to twenty million taels of silver!

With that much revenue, plus the Westerners' cannon, firearms, and officers, the Great Qing would be in grave danger.

The moment he thought of the Great Qing's crisis, Dorgon's mood sank into gloom — so much so that he even lost interest in usurping the throne. Usurp it for what? To become the last emperor of the Great Qing?

That was why the Great Qing was still in the fourth year of Shunzhi, and Dorgon was still only an Imperial Uncle Prince Regent.

But today, after returning from Fengtai, the smile on Dorgon's face was so thick it would not fade no matter what.

"My Prince, have you read the dispatch sent by Oboi, who garrisons Tianjin? He is claiming credit. The entire yamen of the Tianjin amban janggin has toiled for nearly a year and has finally finished building the fort on Dongzui Island. That Oboi may be somewhat rash, but he does have a talent for getting things done."

The speaker was Fan Wencheng, whose ties to Hooge's former subordinates were the closest. While Hooge had been alive, he had still needed to be careful to avoid suspicion. Now that Hooge had been given a grand funeral, he had no more misgivings. The Great Qing's foundation was only so large — could it really afford a mutual slaughter among nine banners? What would be left after the killing was done?

So seeing Dorgon in a good mood, he put in a good word for Oboi.

Dorgon took the memorial, glanced at it, tossed it aside with a smile, then looked at his good brother Dodo, who sat to one side smiling without speaking. "Feeling reassured now? With the fort on Dongzui Island blocking the way, there is no way Zhu Cilang can break in from the direction of Dagu."

Dongzui Island was one of the islands in the Tianjin Wei River, formed by a certain change in the river's course. Dongzui Island had originally been connected to the land on the south bank of the Tianjin Wei River, but a great flood had submerged a stretch of low-lying ground south of the island, creating a new channel and turning Dongzui Island into an island in the middle of the river.

This river island was about fifty-five li in a straight line from Dagu. For an enemy landing at Dagu and then advancing along the Tianjin Wei River, it was a choke point of vital importance.

After Dodo returned to the capital (the Eight Banners troops could not stay out on campaign forever; they had to return home to live their lives), he had personally surveyed the Tianjin Wei River and chosen this Dongzui Island as the site for a fortified defense — actually, even if they had not found Dongzui Island, it would not have mattered. The Tianjin Wei River's channel twisted and turned so much that they could simply have mobilized corvée laborers to dig out an island by sheer effort!

And Oboi, the foremost warrior of the Manchus, had resolutely volunteered for the most arduous post of Tianjin amban janggin, taking responsibility for guarding the nation's gateway for the Great Qing. The work of constructing the fort on Dongzui Island naturally fell to Oboi as well.

Oboi had truly put his heart into it. Not only had he gone to the Shandong front to study the "sandbag forts" left behind by the Ming army, but he had also studied Han Lin's Illustrated Treatise on Forts on his own. In the end he had designed an octagonal bastion fort built against the river embankment, with outer walls of sandbags and inner walls of brick and timber. On the fort's eight gun platforms, Hongyi cannon and Great General cannon were all emplaced, and on the fort's central keep many Folangji cannon were also set up.

As long as the Dongzui Island fortress was not taken by the Ming army, the Tianjin Wei River would be completely sealed off. The idea of following the Tianjin Wei River into the Grand Canal and striking straight at Tongzhou would be nothing but a fool's dream.

If the Tianjin water route could not be opened, then to march overland from Dongzui Island to attack Beijing, the straight-line distance was no less than two hundred fifty li, and the actual distance to be traveled was at least three hundred li, with multiple rivers blocking the way and dozens of strong fortresses along the route.

For an army without strong cavalry and without the ability to haul large numbers of heavy cannon and supplies, trying to fight its way into Beijing the way the Anglo-French allied forces had done was all but impossible — the Anglo-French forces had used Minié balls, rifled muskets, and Armstrong breech-loading rifled cannon.

Moreover, the Eight Banners troops of that time had rotted to the core. The Mongol cavalry under Sengge Rinchen were not Eight Banners troops at all, but trained soldiers recruited from the various nomadic Chahar Mongol banners — nomadic Mongols and Eight Banners Mongols were not the same thing at all!

Dodo was also in a good mood today. He too had gone to see the cannon of the red-haired Englishmen, and with his eye, one look told him how he should fight the Ming's new army in the future.

Now hearing Dorgon's question, he deliberately lowered his voice a little and asked with a smile, "Fourteenth Brother, just as I was leaving my residence, I happened to run into Zu Dashou coming to call. He said Zu Kefa has come again."

"Oh." Dorgon nodded, noncommittal.

Dodo added, "Zu Kefa also brought news: Zhu Cilang has ascended the throne!"

"Is that so?" Dorgon said with a smile. "Who is the Empress?"

"There is no Empress," Dodo said. "He is still waiting for that girl Dong'e! Fourteenth Brother, when will you take the next step? Then Dong'e will be a true Princess!"

(End of Chapter)