Chapter 847: Shunzhi Battles Shi Kefa, Part One

Huang Degong, advancing north from Wuqiao toward Tianjin, had always been a famous general with a strong sense of method. In the old Southern Ming system, he was the number one great commander! The Left family's army had come down the river in such numbers, and in the end they had all been defeated by him — which shows how brilliant his military skill was.

And now, he had also studied dozens of battle cases from the Thirty Years' War, which had greatly raised his ability to employ gunpowder-weapon troops, and his army had also been comprehensively upgraded, basically reaching the level of the late Thirty Years' War in Europe.

This was no small thing. The French and British armies of the Napoleonic Wars were formidable, but how could you produce them in the 17th century? There was a gap of more than a hundred years! Not only could the tactical level not be reached, but the weapons and equipment were not up to it either!

Although there were flintlock muskets and smoothbore cannon, the flintlocks of the 17th century still differed greatly from those of the 19th century. For example, by the 19th century rifled muskets were already widespread; even in the early 19th century, skirmishers armed with rifles existed in the armies of many countries. In the 17th century, rifles also existed, but it was absolutely impossible to equip an army with them in large numbers. As for artillery, the gap was even greater: the mainstream field guns of the present were still 3-pounders and 6-pounders, and they were generally heavy, while the bore-finishing techniques could not compare with those of a hundred-plus years later. So their power was still somewhat lacking.

Moreover, in siege techniques, the gap of more than a hundred years was also very great. In the 19th century, a bastion fort was no longer much of a problem. But in the mid-17th century, attacking a bastion fort was still quite a headache.

With everyone having no good solution against bastion forts, it was still very difficult to mount the kind of free-flowing, exhilarating offensives seen in the Napoleonic Wars.

So Huang Degong's great army had set out carrying quite a few shovels and sandbags. If they encountered an unexpectedly strong enemy, they would build a bastion fort on the spot, hold it, and wait for reinforcements.

And in order to detect a possible strong enemy in advance, Huang Degong had also scattered one of his "Black Gun Battalions" outward by platoons, spreading a screen of scouts in front of his main army.

Huang Degong was not the only one who knew to use cavalry to search ahead. His opponent Baiyintu knew this too, so he, like Huang Degong, had scattered out large numbers of cavalry.

However, he was reluctant to send out the musket cavalry of the Vanguard Battalion — the Vanguard Battalion was originally meant for exactly this kind of work! But their performance in the Battle of Jieshi Mountain had been too brilliant, so they had been promoted to main force. Besides, Baiyintu had as many as ten thousand Mongol iron cavalry under his command — cavalry of the Mongol Ju Ud League, led by Gürün Efu Birtahar, son of the Khorchin Prince Wu Keshan.

The six Khorchin banners held a very special place within "Great Qing Mongolia." They were extremely close to the Qing imperial house, and in the early Qing it was no exaggeration to call them the "empress clan."

The so-called "Mongols and Manchus are one family" meant that these six Khorchin banners and the Manchus were one family. Galdan's Dzungar tribe and the Manchus were certainly not one family.

Two of Gürün Efu Birtahar's aunts and one great-aunt had all married Hong Taiji, and he himself had married his own cousin — Bumbutai's daughter, Princess Gürün Yongmu — making him doubly tied by marriage to the Aisin Gioro house!

Because the relationship was so close, the Manchus' wariness toward the Khorchin Mongols was also the slightest. They did not much control their weapons and equipment, and when they went to war they often brought them along.

Over time, the cavalry of the six Khorchin banners not only improved their equipment, but also honed their fighting strength, becoming the strongest among the Mongols south and north of the Gobi.

And for the sake of Wu Keshan's support of his fine son-in-law Shunzhi, this time he had also spent heavily, mobilizing a full 15,000 cavalry from the Ju Ud League under his control, of whom as many as 10,000 came from the six Khorchin banners! And of these ten thousand, five thousand had been kept by Shunzhi in Tianjin as palace guards — how much trust in Wu Keshan was that! The remaining five thousand, plus five thousand from the other banners of the Ju Ud League, were all handed to Birtahar to march out with Baiyintu.

So the ones now fighting in the vanguard for Baiyintu were the five thousand "iron cavalry" from the non-Khorchin elements of the Ju Ud League.

Birtahar divided them into ten companies and spread them out ahead of the main body, screening the army as it marched south.

Because the mission of Baiyintu and Birtahar was to cut off the rear of the Ming army advancing north, they could not advance along the canal, but instead marched three or four li east of it. It was said that this way they could bypass the Ming main force, whose location they did not even know.

Fighting a war on the wild guesses of "Suo Yuanzhi," this was the only way to deploy.

Huang Degong, for his part, was advancing along the east bank of the canal. That is to say, there was still a distance of thirty or forty li between the two armies advancing toward each other. If they had not spread such a wide search net, they might well have missed each other.

If the cavalry detachment Birtahar had sent out to scout the road had been a little smaller, Huang Degong might not have changed his direction of march either.

But matters of fate are truly impossible to explain!

When fate arrives, even a blind cat can run into a dead rat!

Bang-bang-bang—

When the gunfire came from the northeast, it was already dusk on the third day of the first month of the seventh year of the Ming Hongxing reign!

Huang Degong's central army had just encamped around a fairly prosperous town northeast of Cangzhou. Salt was produced near Cangzhou, and after Huai salt and Qing salt could no longer enter the Qing market, the Changlu salt of Cangzhou and the Xiezhou salt of Shanxi became the mainstream of the Qing salt industry.

So the several towns east of Cangzhou had become one of the few "bright spots of economic growth" here in Northern Zhili!

Huang Degong had moved into a salt merchant's residence and was just about to enjoy a fine hot meal when he heard the gunfire.

"Where's the shooting?" Huang Degong set down a freshly roasted leg of lamb and began shouting.

"Northeast!" Qi Yuanbi, military advisor to the Governor-General's office of Shandong and Liaodong, was operating together with Huang Degong, and he immediately made an accurate judgment.

Huang Degong snorted. "There may be a fight to be had. Everyone eat quickly. And pour out your wine! Damn it all, no one is allowed to drink and botch the business."

"Aye!"

The generals dining with Great General Huang all roared their assent, poured out their fine wine, and then buried their heads in meat and steamed buns. Before long, the gunfire came again, and this time it did not stop. After another while, the gunfire grew even denser! Clearly more Ming "Black Gun soldiers" had joined the fight.

By the time everyone had finished eating, the report from the front had already arrived!

"Commander, fifteen li northeast of Yanshan Town, a large force of Mongol cavalry has been discovered!"

"Heh heh," Huang Degong laughed. "Mongol cavalry delivered right to our door! Two infantry regiments and two cannon batteries should be enough. Who will make this trip?"

"Commander," Qi Yuanbi immediately rose and cupped his hands, "let me go!"

"Fine!" Huang Degong laughed. "With Military Advisor Qi taking the field, those Mongols are as good as dead!"

"They're mule soldiers! They beat several hundred of our men in one stroke — looks like there are quite a few of them!"

At the same time, Birtahar was discussing much the same matter with Baiyintu. He said: "Let's send out the Vanguard Battalion!"

"It's almost dark!" Baiyintu shook his head. "Cavalry alone won't do any good. Let your Mongol cavalry go out together with the Firearms Battalion. Commander Zhuo, how about you make the trip?"

The commander of the Firearms Battalion was Oboi's elder brother, Zhuobutai. He and Oboi had now split their bets, one backing the Imperial Uncle, the other backing the Emperor.

And he was also well employed under Shunzhi, commanding a Firearms Battalion of 2,500 men. This Firearms Battalion was not entirely equipped with firearms; in fact it was much like a Ming infantry regiment, with four firearms niru, four pike niru, and two artillery niru under it.

"Fine!" Zhuobutai had just finished his evening meal and wiped his mouth. "Leave it to me. Just watch!"

【Youyue Book City, a free book-reading source-switching app. Android phones need to download and install via Google Play; Apple phones need to log in with a non-mainland-China account to download and install.】