Chapter 616: The Many Amas Make Their Move

In all fairness, His Majesty the Zhu Emperor's "fortress tactics" have actually been employed rather well. Compared to that bald fellow's "fortress advance, consolidating every step," and that "build hard camps, fight dull battles" Zeng the Head-Shaver, he is hardly inferior.

But the problem is that the Dorgon he has run into is a master of mobile warfare!

Historically, the commander of the Qing army's fourth incursion past the Wall was none other than Dorgon! This fellow wandered all the way from the northeast to Shandong, burning, killing, and plundering the whole way, slaughtering countless cities — the atrocity of the Jinan Massacre was his doing! That time he entered the Wall in the eleventh year of Chongzhen and only swaggered out again in the twelfth, carrying off as many as 462,300 people and livestock — the largest haul of the five incursions before the full-scale entry in the first year of Shunzhi.

When Zhu Cilang's "hard camps and dull battles" ran into a mobile-warfare expert like Dorgon, it was only natural that they would not work very well.

Of course, this does not mean the "hard camps and dull battles" approach itself is wrong — it is just that the camps are not hard enough, and the fortresses are still too few.

In a word, the investment is still not enough!

After all, Zhu Cilang has not had long to bring the southeastern realm to order — less than four years. To have reached his present position is already no small achievement.

At the provisional court in Liaocheng, Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, Huang Degong, Li Shiyuan, Li Chengdong, Hao Yaoqi, Wang Qi, Yan Yingyuan, and others had already arrived under orders, and the council of war began at once.

"Your Majesty, this subject believes the eastern barbarians' southern-route army is a feint. No matter what that route does, it cannot cross the Huai River! Even if the Huai could freeze over, no one would dare walk across it! Moreover, we still have two divisions available in Fengyang Prefecture and Yingtian Prefecture, and quite a few infantry regiments garrisoned at key points along the Huai. It can hardly be called undefended."

At the council of war, Huang Degong put forward a view opposite to Li Yan's. Although the Qing army still occupied one of his counties, he was not the least bit anxious.

He paused, then added: "This subject believes the eastern barbarians' true objective is still Jinan Prefecture! Because the purpose of the eastern barbarians in fighting us is to seize Shandong — especially Jinan, Qingzhou, Laizhou, and Dengzhou in Shandong. Only by holding these four prefectures can their old home beyond the Pass be secure, and can the gateway of Tianjin be secure."

"Commander Huang is absolutely right!" Gao Hongtu also agreed with Huang Degong's view. "The military reports sent up from Jinan Prefecture say that the eastern barbarians' great army is unlike before: they are not plundering money and people, and at the forts and stockades they pass they only extort some grain and fodder. Clearly they mean to win over the people's hearts. So this subject believes that what the eastern barbarians covet is land and population, not gold, silver, and treasure."

"Your Majesty, this subject also believes what the eastern barbarians covet is still the land of Shandong," said Zuo Maodi. "Although Jinan is the provincial capital of Shandong, its walls are broken and unrepaired, and it has few defenders. If it meets Dorgon's main force, I fear it cannot hold. If Jinan falls, the lands along both banks of the Daqing River may no longer belong to the state, and Qingzhou Prefecture will become the front line and suffer the ravages of the eastern barbarians!"

That seems reasonable!

Zhu Cilang glanced again at Shi Kefa. Shi Kefa had never been very accurate in military matters — he could serve as a contrarian indicator!

"Your Majesty," Shi Kefa said thoughtfully, "this subject believes both the northern and southern routes of the eastern barbarians are feints, intended to disperse our forces so that they may force a decisive battle with us and retake Liaocheng. That is the eastern barbarians' true purpose."

That must be nonsense, right?

Whatever Zhu Cilang thought inwardly, his face remained impassive.

"Your Majesty," Yan Yingyuan now spoke up, "Xuzhou cannot be ignored, Jinan cannot be left unrescued, and Liaocheng must be firmly held all the more!"

Zhu Cilang glanced at him: "Minister Yan, do we have that many troops to use?"

"Your Majesty," Yan Yingyuan said, "of the eastern barbarians' northern and southern route armies, at least one is a feint. If they can play at feints, why can we not mix the feigned and the real?"

Indeed! Zhu Cilang smiled. Feint and real, feint and real — We like that best of all!

Yan Yingyuan continued: "This subject proposes that Your Majesty personally lead troops to relieve Jinan, that the military advisor lead troops to relieve Xuzhou, and that Your Majesty's banners and insignia be left behind in Liaocheng."

"Split our forces into three?" Zhu Cilang frowned. "Would that not be too dispersed?"

Yan Yingyuan said: "Jinan is close to Mount Tai. Your Majesty need not enter the city, nor need you meet the eastern barbarians in battle. You need only occupy the defensible high ground, first ascertain the enemy's true and feigned dispositions, and then make a decision."

"As for the Xuzhou-Haizhou direction, the military advisor can move the two divisions stationed at Fengyang and Nanjing northward, and press toward the eastern barbarians with three divisions. As long as we advance steadily and securely, nothing can go wrong."

Zhu Cilang pondered: "That is indeed a plan!"

Northern Zhili, the city of Daming Prefecture.

By this time, the Great Qing Imperial Ama Dorgon had already led his main force here in a secret transfer from Zhengzhou!

The reason it was "secret" was that the true movements of Dorgon and his main force had now become the highest-level military secret of the Great Qing Empire.

On the one hand, the city of Shangqiu in Guide Prefecture had become the public "Imperial Ama provisional court." All memorials requiring the Imperial Ama's review were, without exception, rushed by 600-li express courier to the provisional court at Shangqiu. And all Imperial Ama edicts were likewise issued from the provisional court at Shangqiu.

On the other hand, Daming Prefecture, Guide Prefecture, and Kaifeng Prefecture had all been placed under martial law after the fall of Liaocheng. Mounted troops of the Plain Green Banner controlled the main roads and intersections of the three prefectures; without a token from the Imperial Ama's provisional court, no one was allowed to pass.

Furthermore, the city of Daming Prefecture, where Dorgon himself was located, had become the most heavily guarded place of all. All the gates of Daming were controlled by the guards of the Plain White Banner. Without Dorgon's order, not even a fly could fly in or out!

And along the border between Daming Prefecture and the Eastern Depot Prefecture, mounted troops of the Plain Green Banner patrolled day and night, sealing it off completely.

These measures had, for the time being, rendered useless the intelligence network in the Central Plain that the Ming Embroidered Uniform Guard had labored so hard to lay down.

Intelligence could still be gathered — the Great Qing imperial merchant Jabusi had followed Dorgon to Daming!

But he had no way to send out the intelligence he had obtained — in this age there was no telegraph and no network; passing on a bit of secret intelligence depended on secret couriers. Yet now even a fly could hardly fly out of Daming Prefecture's city, let alone a secret courier.

While hiding himself away, Dorgon at the same time kept his eyes wide open, watching Zhu Cilang's movements at every moment.

"Imperial Ama, Zhu Cilang is still in Liaocheng and has not moved!"

Suksaha reported to Dorgon, in a heavily guarded residence within the city of Daming, the intelligence he had just gathered.

"He certainly can keep his composure!" Dorgon said with a smile and a nod.

Suksaha added: "But he has still split off troops and sent them south."

"Xuzhou and Haizhou are his rear line — he cannot possibly ignore them. It should be one division sent south." Dorgon thought for a moment. "But Mandahai is a veteran general of our Great Qing; nothing will go wrong."

The task he had assigned Mandahai was simply to make a circuit and then withdraw, so he was not much worried.

"What of the Jinan side?" Dorgon asked next about the situation at Jinan.

"Imperial Ama," Fan Wencheng took over the question, "Bolo's report has not yet arrived, but our Jinan prefectural yamen (stationed at Dezhou) has reported that the local militia along the Daqing River and the Tu River have quieted down considerably. It seems they have learned to be afraid."

Dorgon smiled and clapped his hands: "It seems things on Bolo's side are going smoothly enough."

He thought for a moment: "It is time for us to move as well — eastward!"

Suksaha asked: "Are we attacking Liaocheng?"

"No," Dorgon said with a wave of his hand. "Zhu Cilang has at least two divisions of the Hardship-Overcoming New Army with him, and with the troops in Shandong and Huaibei added in, he has seventy or eighty thousand men! And he has a strong city to rely on. Even if we could win, the casualties would be too heavy. It would not be worth it."

Right now, Zhu Cilang's problem was a shortage of horses, while Dorgon's problem was a shortage of men. So a battle that killed ten thousand of the enemy at the cost of five thousand of his own was one he simply would not fight.

Besides, if Zhu Cilang really had seventy or eighty thousand men defending Liaocheng, he was not confident of victory either.

"If only we could kill Zhu Cilang," Suksaha muttered.

Dorgon laughed: "How could it be that easy to kill him? That boy is no first-timer on the battlefield — he is slippery as an eel. So let us not pin our hopes on that."

"Then where do we strike?"

"Strike —" Dorgon waved his hand. "We will decide later! There will always be somewhere to strike. But for now, the important thing is to get moving. We must draw the Ming army out of Liaocheng. As long as they move, we will have our chance!"

(End of Chapter)