Chapter 828: Dodo Sits Calmly on the Fishing Platform

"The little Emperor is getting ready to drag the Mongols into the Central Plains?" Dodo asked the men beside him in a low voice, and everyone nodded silently. Though no one laughed aloud, every face wore a look of barely concealed delight.

Dodo turned his gaze to Chuo'erji. He was a Mongol of the Borjigit clan; his father was Ming'an, a Beile of the Khorchin Uruud tribe. Ming'an had taken part in the Nine-Tribe Allied Army campaign of the twenty-first year of Wanli, as one of the nine tribes. After the allied army's crushing defeat, he had gone over to Nurhaci and even presented his daughter to Nurhaci as a secondary consort. This Ming'an had died in the early years of Shunzhi, leaving behind several sons, all of them now major figures among the Eight Banners Mongols.

In the great battle at Jieshi Mountain, Ming'an's sons had hedged their bets on both sides. Chuo'erji threw in with Dodo, while Chuo'erji's younger brother Namushengge tagged along with Ajige and did little more than go through the motions.

Because his skill at fence-sitting, speculation, and clinging to the right thighs was first-rate, Namushengge suffered no punishment after the battle. Instead, Shunzhi put him to important use, making him an Inner Minister and commander of the Kheshig camp.

Chuo'erji, for his part, followed Dodo and also held an important post, commanding the Mongol cavalry recruited from the three eastern Mongol leagues of Jirem, Juu Uda, and Xilingol. After the battle of Jieshi Mountain, Dodo had discovered how useful gun-cavalry were, and so he began expanding their numbers. The simplest way was to recruit warriors from the three eastern Mongol leagues and train them.

Because he maintained certain contacts with Namushengge and the Khorchin tribe, Chuo'erji had a clear picture of the situation on the Hetao battlefield.

Now, seeing Dodo's gaze on him, he smiled and said: "His Majesty has done exactly as the Imperial Uncle expected. The moment he saw the Mongol cavalry massed at Hetao, he conceived the idea of using them in the Central Plains. And with the Hetao campaign going poorly, everyone from top to bottom has begun thinking of shifting those troops to the Central Plains."

"The Hetao battle has already been fought?" Dodo was taken aback.

He considered himself well-informed, yet he had not heard a word about a major battle at Hetao.

"No great battle — just skirmishing," Chuo'erji said. "The Ming cavalry of Shuofang Garrison have copied the methods of our vanguard camp, combining firearms with cavalry. What's more, they know how to lay ambushes and snipe from cover. They've inflicted heavy losses on the warriors of the Josotu, Juu Uda, Xilingol, and Ulanqab leagues and the three khans of the Khalkha."

"Ambushes? Sniping from cover?" Dodo's brow furrowed. A military man of his caliber, who had also spent so long playing with gun-cavalry, had of course already realized that firearms plus cavalry could be played in many different ways!

And he had also worked out by deduction that the ways firearms plus cavalry could be played were extremely unfavorable to the Great Qing and to the Manchus!

Because the Manchu cavalry's bag of tricks — shooting from horseback, shooting on foot, fighting hand-to-hand on foot — was of little use against a firearm that "could move at high speed."

Of course, the Great Qing's vanguard camp cavalry could still smash the Ming gun-cavalry in a set-piece battle. The problem was that apart from two armies drawn up face to face for a pitched battle, cavalry scattered across a broad battlefield rarely fought fair and square. Roving cavalry, after all, roved — that was the whole point of Mobile Corps Commander warfare!

Although the Qing vanguard camp cavalry also had firearms and also knew tricks like ambush, surprise attack, and Mobile Corps Commander warfare, the problem was that they were no better at these underhanded tactics than the Han Chinese.

If a Manchu warrior — precious as some rare exotic animal — had no real skill that could overwhelm Han soldiers whose numbers ran into the tens of millions, then being reduced to trading musket fire and using dirty tricks that everyone else could play as well... the consequences were too dreadful to contemplate!

Though he understood all this perfectly in his heart, Dodo's face still wore the look of a man calmly seated on the fishing platform.

"Excellent! Everything is proceeding as anticipated, and everything is under control!" Dodo said with a smile. "In the Central Plains campaign, speed favors us, while protraction favors the Ming. Were it not for the threat of the Henan and Hebei camps breaching the Yellow River dikes, Zhu Cilang would certainly fight us a war of attrition. If it dragged on for years, our soldiers at the front would gain nothing, and the land back home would have no one to till it. They would inevitably exhaust their resources, end up with nothing, and naturally be unable to bear the burden of military service. Then we would suffer defeat without ever being defeated!

Fortunately, the little Emperor was willing to listen to counsel. He established camps north and south of the Yellow River to force Zhu Cilang into a quick decisive battle. Now he has also duped tens of thousands of Mongol warriors into sweeping through the Central Plains. This will inevitably leave the Ming army hard-pressed whether advancing or retreating, forcing them to risk a long, deep thrust in search of a quick decision. This is exactly the situation of the Song-Jin campaign!"

"Imperial Uncle," asked Nikan, the foremost general under Dodo's command, "should we prepare to march?"

"Of course!" Dodo laughed. "After autumn, muster an army of eighty thousand and prepare to settle the Central Plains once more!"

Xuzhou was now a city overflowing with soldiers and supplies. As early as five years before, when Zhu Cilang had concluded the armistice with the Great Qing, this place had been designated as the future base city for the northern expedition.

Xuzhou was chosen as the base, of course, for the convenience of advancing westward along the Yellow River waterway. The Yellow River at present, truth be told, was not well suited to navigation. In spring and summer the current ran swift and was prone to flooding (the stretch within Ming territory was unlikely to flood, but the riverbed in Qing territory was in terrible shape); in autumn the water was too shallow for large vessels to pass. Moreover, there were many dangerous rapids and shoals, and the slightest carelessness could capsize a boat.

But in an inland campaign, having a waterway to transport grain, fodder, and supplies was still far better than having no river at all and relying entirely on mules and horses to haul everything!

The Huaibei section of the Grand Canal was now impassable (the Huainan and Jiangnan sections, by contrast, were excellently maintained and still earned large sums in tolls every year), so the Zhu Emperor could only make the best possible use of the Yellow River.

And to make use of the Yellow River for water transport, it was of course necessary to make good use of Xuzhou as a transportation hub. Although there was no longer a canal link between Xuzhou and the Huai River, the only stretch truly requiring overland transport was the section of less than a hundred li between Hongze Lake and Luoma Lake at Suqian. To strengthen transport efficiency, the Zhu Emperor had ordered the roads widened and paved with stone slabs, purchased from Shanghai's Shen Che many four-wheeled wagons that could be drawn by four donkeys or mules, and built a great number of warehouses in Xuzhou to store the supplies that had been arriving steadily during peacetime.

In addition to the roads and warehouses built within Xuzhou's territory, a large number of military camps, docks, shipyards, and an arsenal capable of casting and repairing cannon had also been constructed one after another over the past few years.

To enable Xuzhou to bear this heavy responsibility while keeping itself safe from the Yellow River's threat, Zhu Cilang had also poured a fortune into the city walls of Xuzhou and the Yellow River dikes.

Furthermore, Zhu Cilang had ordered the Navy Bureau and the Shipbuilding Bureau to establish a Yellow River Shipyard in Xuzhou, design and build a batch of small sand-boats capable of navigating the Yellow River, and organize the Yellow River Fleet!

Five years of war preparations, incalculable investment — now at last everything was ready, and all that remained was to march.

From the summer of the sixth year of Hongxing, the Ming army's field forces — the Model New Army — began advancing toward Xuzhou from all directions, regiment by regiment.

The organization of the Model New Army's infantry had not changed greatly in five years. The vast majority of infantry regiments still employed Maurice-style pike-and-shot tactics, and their weapons were still pikes and the Hongxing Year Three matchlock. Only a very few units had received the Hongxing Year Six flintlock, which had just been finalized and was beginning mass production — the unit equipped with the Hongxing Year Six flintlock was a single regiment, which had abolished its pike companies and adopted an all-firearm configuration!

While organization had not changed greatly, the number of Model New Army infantry regiments had increased enormously, reaching as many as 150. At full strength (2,500 men each), the Model New Army's field infantry alone would number as many as 375,000!

The New Army's cavalry had also expanded greatly over the past five years. In peacetime, the Ming New Army's cavalry was organized on the battalion basis (there were also cavalry regiments, but not many). Thanks to the large-scale introduction of warhorses from the northwest and the emergence of gun-cavalry, the Ming cavalry had finally been able to expand substantially, and now numbered 50 battalions (including mounted infantry), with a total strength of over twenty thousand men and more than fifty thousand horses and mules!

Though cavalry (and mounted infantry) on this scale could not compare in numbers with the Qing cavalry, did the old Manchus of the Eight Banners dare compare numbers of men with the Ming?

(End of Chapter)