Chapter 843: Variables (Begging for Monthly Tickets, Begging for Subscriptions)

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Li Yuanyin and Xia Wanchun exchanged a glance. Li Yuanyin said, "That's our flintlocks firing — should be a clash with the eastern barbarians' cavalry. Take some men and support them! If you run into a large force, pull back at once."

"Yes!"

Xia Wanchun answered, and immediately led the two platoons under his command, switched to warhorses, and with the horse archers as the vanguard, galloped toward the sound of gunfire.

Meanwhile, Li Yuanyin raised a hand, summoned several orderlies, and then shouted, "Pass the word to every battalion: prepare for battle!"

Li Yuanyin was now leading three battalions, 1,500 cavalry in all, deep into the area near Dacheng County on the border between Hejian Prefecture and Shuntian Prefecture, so naturally he had to be cautious, ready at any moment to fight or to slip away.

And the reason they dared to push so deep was to carry out a scorched-earth policy across the southern part of Northern Zhili!

How do you carry out a scorched-earth policy with 1,500 cavalry?

Actually, it can be done!

Because the southern part of Northern Zhili had been unsettled for the past few years. Although the Ming army had not entered Northern Zhili during the last northern expedition, the region still lay under the shadow of the Ming army's blade, so many "stockaded villages" had sprung up.

And these stockaded villages were by no means of one mind with the Great Qing. After all, the Great Qing's rule in these parts had lasted only a few years, and there was no system linking top and bottom — no civil examinations or anything of the sort. Shunzhi had announced that examinations would be held, but they had never actually been implemented.

So once the Great Qing's local centers of rule — the prefectural and county seats — were broken by the invading Ming army, and the roads through the countryside were controlled by the mule cavalry, these stockaded villages became "independent."

Closing their stockades and looking to their own defense became the most natural thing in the world!

Once the stockaded villages of southern Northern Zhili closed their stockades to protect themselves, the Great Qing's rule there collapsed!

Although the Great Ming might not be able to take these stockaded villages into its hands right away, the Great Qing certainly could no longer draw resources from there.

If the Shunzhi Emperor still did nothing, and simply watched the collapse of Qing rule in southern Northern Zhili, then before long the Great Qing would probably truly become a "Great Liao dynasty."

If he was unwilling to become a "Liao state," then he would have to send troops out from Beijing!

As long as Shunzhi sent troops, Shi Kefa's objective would be achieved.

Xia Wanchun had already reached the front line where the firefight was underway, bringing with him two platoons, more than seventy cavalry in all.

It was a long-abandoned village, full of broken walls and fire-gutted houses, close by a nameless little river whose surface had frozen over; nearby stood a broken bridge, and on the far bank there was a stretch of woods.

One platoon of Xia Wanchun's force was crossing the river over the ice when it was suddenly attacked by Mongol cavalry charging out of the woods.

Fortunately, the Mongols liked to shoot from horseback, and they were also timid, not daring to close in too near, so the first wave of attack caused no casualties — instead it only startled the snake.

The standard marching order of the Ming "mule soldiers" was horse archers opening the way, black-gun soldiers in the middle, and lance cavalry bringing up the rear. The Mongols' first wave struck the Ming horse archers at the head of the column. These horse archers were all seasoned veterans with quick reactions; they immediately drew their Kaiyuan bows and returned fire — their bows and arrows were both of fine quality, the bows being Kaiyuan bows reinforced with plenty of water-buffalo horn, the arrows being Sanbuqi arrows, far superior to the bows and arrows in Mongol hands. And they held nothing back, opening up at once with rapid successive shooting; nine horse archers loosed more than fifty arrows in the blink of an eye. Though they did not shoot a single Mongol dead, they did bring down five Mongol horses. Seeing how fiercely they shot, the Mongols for the moment did not dare advance.

It was precisely this hesitation that allowed the nineteen black-gun soldiers behind to dismount from their mules and hand their warhorses and mules over to the rear-guard lance cavalry, who led them into the village. Once dismounted, the black-gun soldiers formed a line on the bank of the little river, then loaded their pieces and fixed bayonets. Just as they finished, the horse archers in front fell back. When the Mongols saw the Ming horse archers about to flee, their courage swelled, and they came charging up in a disorderly rush — only to be met by a volley that drove them back, leaving four or five corpses and three warhorses on the ice of the little river, the horses still twitching and screaming in agony.

Seeing the Mongols fall back, the horse archers who had just withdrawn and the eight lance cavalrymen who had returned from the village launched a charge together. Seventeen cavalrymen swept through the fight and actually drove thirty or forty Mongol cavalry back into the woods, cutting down and spearing six of them!

Just as they thought the fight was about to end and that these Mongols, who could not take a beating, would soon run off, a vast dark mass of Mongol cavalry suddenly burst out of the woods — several hundred at least — which badly frightened the thirty-odd Ming mule soldiers. They hurriedly retreated together toward the abandoned village by the river — not with any thought of holding the village, but because part of their warhorses and all of their mules, along with a good deal of baggage, were there; losing them would be a grievous loss.

They had just entered the village when the Mongols outside came flooding across the river like a tide, on the verge of surrounding the village, when suddenly gunfire rang out again, and the Mongols who had surged forward like a tide retreated back across the frozen little river like an ebbing tide.

It turned out that Xia Wanchun had arrived with more than seventy "black-gun soldiers." From a distance he had seen several hundred cavalry in Mongol leather coats circling a dilapidated village, letting out strange cries from time to time, and he knew his men were surrounded inside.

Because the enemy outnumbered him, Xia Wanchun did not dare fight head-on; he only wanted to put on a show of force and scare the Mongols, so as to cover his men's breakout. So he ordered the "black-gun mule soldiers" to mount their warhorses and use the tactic of firing from horseback to frighten the enemy.

But who could have known that the moment thirty-odd flintlocks went off, several hundred Mongol cavalry scattered and fled in panic like a flock of startled sheep.

Seeing this, Xia Wanchun immediately ordered his lance cavalry and horse archers to charge, and several dozen Ming cavalrymen went chasing after four or five hundred Mongol cavalry, cutting them down for a while and driving them back across the little river.

The thirty-odd Ming cavalrymen who had been holed up in the village saw the Mongols retreat and assumed their own main force had arrived. They rushed out eagerly, and only when they reached the riverbank did they discover it was Xia Wanchun who had arrived with two platoons.

"Company commander, where's our main force?" The question came from the commander of Xia Wanchun's first platoon, a man surnamed Niu, a veteran of the Hard Times who had earned his merits — but his career luck was poor. In all his years in the army he had risen and fallen; he had been made a company commander several times, only to be demoted to platoon commander each time in the end, so people had nicknamed him "Niupai."

"Still behind us!" Xia Wanchun said. "It's just us here. How many of the enemy are there? All Mongols?"

"Just our company?" Niupai did not show Xia Wanchun much respect, muttering this, and then stood up in the saddle — now that was real skill! Xia Wanchun could not do it.

Standing on the horse's back, hand shading his brow, he gazed into the distance for a while, then turned his head and said to Xia Wanchun, "This is bad — looks like tens of thousands of cavalry! There was no movement just now, but now they've all come out, split into several groups, all heading our way!"

At the same time, another veteran horse archer had dismounted and was lying flat on the snow listening. After a moment he too shouted, "Company commander! Countless! The hoofbeats are so dense they've merged into one sound — I fear there are tens of thousands of horses!"

"Niupai" was reading the snow-dust, while this veteran was listening to the hoofbeats.

The two men's reports were roughly the same, so it was nine-tenths certain!

This time they had run into a large Qing force!

"Let's pull back!" The words had just left Platoon Commander Niu's mouth when a low, drawn-out horn call sounded from the woods across the river.

Then even more Mongols came charging out of the woods. This time they did not rush forward in a mass, but formed ranks at the edge of the trees, coming on in an endless stream, their numbers soon surpassing a thousand.

Xia Wanchun shook his head and said with a bitter smile, "These Mongols really think highly of us! Over a thousand men against our hundred-odd. Send two men to report back; the rest follow me — we'll fight as we withdraw!"

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