Chapter 848: Shunzhi Battles Shi Kefa — Part Two

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At dusk on the third day of the first month of the seventh year of the Great Ming's Hongxing era, near a small village called Zhuangqiao Village about fifteen li northeast of Yanshan Town in Cangzhou, forty "black-gun soldiers" belonging to the Great Ming's Huaibei garrison command ambushed several hundred Mongol cavalry belonging to the Great Qing's Ju Ud League, opening the prelude to the great battle between the two Ming armies that history records as the Battle of Yanshan.

However, before dawn arrived on the fourth day of the first month of the seventh year of Hongxing, neither side in the engagement had realized that they had already run head-on into the other side's main force.

In fact, this important battle, later called by posterity "the first engagement between modern armies in the East," was begun amid utter chaos.

This was simply a muddled battle between modern armies.

After setting an ambush in the small grove outside Zhuangqiao Village and killing more than thirty Mongol cavalrymen, Platoon Leader Li Tieniu of Huang Degong's army had his men sweep the battlefield, then, carrying fresh heads, leading away uninjured Mongol horses, and having picked up a pile of assorted odds and ends, they withdrew to Zhuangqiao Village, which looked relatively sturdy, to prepare to eat and sleep.

Right — the several hundred Mongol warriors they had ambushed had by this time already fled without a trace.

These Mongols from the Ju Ud League were not from the Khorchin Six Banners, so their equipment and fighting strength were both utterly wretched; back on the Hetao grasslands they had already been somewhat frightened by the black guns wielded by the Prince of Dai's men. So after Bilta Har sent them out, they had been on edge the whole time, not even daring to let loose when plundering Han villages.

But they still fell into the trap. While plundering a group of fleeing Han refugees, they were shot at from ambush by Ming troops lying in wait by the roadside, and then struck by a charge from a troop of gun-cavalry. The several hundred Mongols took fright, and in their panic, not knowing how many enemies there were, simply scattered in a rout.

The completely victorious Li Tieniu did not pursue them either. After sweeping the battlefield, he escorted the hundred or so weeping commoners they had rescued back to Zhuangqiao Village — these commoners were the farmers of Zhuangqiao Village. The village had been taken at noon by Li Tieniu's men using twenty flintlock muskets. After taking Zhuangqiao Village, Li Tieniu learned from the villagers that Mongol cavalry were active nearby, and then "borrowed" the villagers of Zhuangqiao Village to lay a trap.

Li Tieniu, who had thought he could rest comfortably in Zhuangqiao Village for the night, had just enjoyed a fine meal with his men and had not yet arranged the order of rotating watches when the warning gunshots rang out.

This time it was Mongols again, but clearly more formidable than the previous ones. They were men of the Khorchin Six Banners, led by the Jasagh of the Khorchin Left Wing Middle Banner, who was also a Prince and imperial son-in-law, named Manzhuxili. He was Wu Keshan's younger brother, and also family with the Great Qing state, having married a daughter of Hong Taiji's adopted daughter, a princess of Yoto's house, becoming a Hoshoi imperial son-in-law.

This time he brought his own fifteen hundred cavalry and Zhuobutai's firearms battalion out together. The Mongol cavalry moved fast, so they went ahead to clear the way and were the first to reach the battlefield.

Unlike the previous "miscellaneous Mongols," the men Manzhuxili brought were genuine Khorchin warriors, every man protected by armor, and moreover there were more than a hundred matchlock soldiers guarding Prince Manzhuxili.

However, after Manzhuxili reached the battlefield, he did not immediately order his subordinates to launch a frontal assault. For he discovered that although Zhuangqiao Village was a small village, it possessed a double layer of defenses consisting of a wooden palisade and an earthen wall. The wooden palisade could stop horses, and the earthen wall could shelter the defenders.

In addition, at the four corners of the square-shaped village stood four tall wooden towers.

This was no village where fat Han sheep lived at all — it was a small but sturdy fortress!

Looking at the defensive works of Zhuangqiao Village, Manzhuxili felt rather helpless. A tiny village, and they had made it look like this — what did it mean? Who were they defending against?

These days he had received quite a few reports from his subordinates saying that foraging was not easy! The Han villages in the Northern Metropolitan Area were all built almost like fortresses, and the able-bodied men inside the villages were all armed — fighting them was very troublesome!

And now what was defending inside were Ming black-gun soldiers — how many men would have to die to take it?

Still, it would not do to leave without at least making a show of attacking, so Manzhuxili ordered his matchlock men to move out, but not to get too close — just fire from a distance and make some noise, enough to give an account of themselves to the Manchu lords.

And so more than a hundred matchlock guns began cracking and popping away.

They could not kill many people, but the noise was tremendous, and it quickly drew in a "black-gun platoon" operating nearby.

These Ming black-gun soldiers were all cunning. They did not form up to fight Manzhuxili's warriors in the open, but instead crept up in the dark to fire from ambush — firing from horseback, then fleeing after each shot, luring the Mongols into pursuit. If the Mongols took the bait, then they could wait to be mobbed by gun-cavalry and bow-cavalry!

After suffering losses several times, Manzhuxili sent out a large force of cavalry to drive them off. At the same time, another platoon of black-gun soldiers arrived, so another round of chaotic fighting opened up around Zhuangqiao Village.

And the melee between the two Ming black-gun platoons and the Mongols made the scouts Manzhuxili had sent out rather reluctant to move about — the sky was so dark, and there were so many Ming soldiers firing from ambush all around, so of course the Mongol warriors had to be a bit careful.

As a result, the Shandong-Liaodong Governor-General's staff officer Qi Yuanbi and Huang Degong's adopted son Huang Fugui, leading a Huaibei army infantry regiment, crept up on Zhuangqiao Village under cover of darkness — Qi Yuanbi had set out with two regiments and two artillery batteries, but halfway there he heard intense gunfire in the direction of Zhuangqiao Village, so he had an old regimental commander with him, Sun Yougong, advance slowly with one regiment and the two artillery batteries, while he himself and Huang Fugui led one regiment of infantry, formed into three battalion squares, and rushed by forced march toward Zhuangqiao Village.

Because these Ming infantrymen were all marching in the dark without lighting torches, and the battlefield at Zhuangqiao Village was at that moment full of noise and clamor, it was not until the vanguard battalion of Ming infantry reached the south side of Zhuangqiao Village and began forming up and lighting their match cords that Manzhuxili received a report from his subordinates.

And he did not know the specifics either — he only knew that a force of southern barbarian infantry had arrived!

"What? Infantry? Not mounted?" Manzhuxili asked in astonishment.

"Infantry, and they've formed square, carrying very long spears," a Mongol warrior loudly reported. "And they also have many matchlock guns. When this slave got close, they were lighting their match cords!"

"A large force of southern barbarians!" Manzhuxili drew a sharp breath. This was truly muddled beyond belief — he had actually let a large force of Ming infantry creep right under his nose in the chaos. Fortunately they were still using matchlocks; if they had switched to flintlocks, he would not even know it now!

"Sound the horn, retreat!" Although Manzhuxili and the Great Qing state were one family, he still did not want to let his own warriors fight the Han to the death — and they could not win such a fight anyway.

Never mind that the Han firearms were deadly and their squares solid — even Li Chengliang's household retainers of old were more than the Mongol warriors could defeat!

But while the horn was easy to blow, retreating was somewhat difficult.

For before Prince Manzhu could gather up his matchlock men, the Ming infantry had already begun their attack!

They did not go anywhere else, but advanced straight toward the place where Manzhuxili was. Because Manzhuxili had had his men light a bonfire not far from his side, and more than a hundred Mongol matchlock men were firing in front of him — a very lively scene indeed — he had become a very large target.

The two platoons of Ming gun-cavalry operating around Zhuangqiao Village also spotted their own reinforcements arriving, so they stopped skirmishing and tangling with the Mongol cavalry and all charged toward Manzhuxili's position.

And those Mongol cavalrymen skirmishing around Zhuangqiao Village reacted with remarkable speed — upon hearing the retreat horn, they immediately scattered and fled in all directions, none of them even going to look for their Prince.

Now Prince Manzhu truly could not cry even if he wanted to, and he had no time for tears either. Abandoning the matchlock men who had not yet found their warhorses, he fled north under the escort of a small number of personal guards. But he had not run far when he ran head-on into a large body of pikemen and musketeers.

Prince Manzhu knew the situation was dire — he must not let the Ming muskets fire, or he would lose his life.

So this quick-witted Prince shouted in Chinese at the top of his lungs: "Great Ming celestial troops, do not open fire! I am a Prince of Khorchin, and I am willing to submit to the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty!"

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