Chapter 849: Shunzhi Battles Shi Kefa, Part Two

Prince Manzhuxili, in order to save his own life, truly cast aside even his Manchu kin... Still, the effect seemed rather good. Before he called out, quite a few matchlocks had already been lit and leveled, their muzzles pointed straight at him! The moment his words were out, those muskets raised their muzzles.

The Prince let out a huge breath of relief — he was a prince of the Golden Family! When the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty came to rule the steppe, they might well still have use for him!

With that thought, he spurred his horse forward alone, saying as he went: "Don't hurt me — I am a prince of the Golden Family, I am Manzhuxili, the Jasagh of the Khorchin Left Wing Middle Banner... I am sincerely surrendering to the Great Ming Celestial Dynasty!"

"Dismount, quickly — dismount and walk over..."

Someone was calling to him in Mongolian.

Manzhuxili heard that the man's Mongolian was quite good, and answered with a smile: "Very well, very well, I'll dismount at once and walk over."

He did indeed dismount and walked over on his own. Though the sky was very dark at this hour, some moonlight still spilled down, and only when he drew near did he notice something was off.

Why were these Ming infantrymen wearing yellow cotton armor? They looked a bit like those personal guard battalions of the Shunzhi Emperor! Weren't the Ming troops all dressed in red with black breastplates over it? When had they changed clothes?

Before he could figure it out, several burly men in yellow cotton armor, each with a queue hanging down the back of his head, had already pounced and wrenched Prince Manzhuxili's arms behind his back. They bound his wrists with a strip of rawhide, and their grip was rough, making Prince Manzhu howl.

"What are you doing? What are you doing?"

"What are we doing?" one of the yellow-armored warriors snorted. "Taking a backstabbing wretch like you to see His Majesty, of course!"

Manzhuxili already knew something was wrong...

"See His Majesty? Go where to see him?"

The yellow-armored warrior smiled: "To Tianjin to see His Majesty, of course... Prince, you can just wait to take that blade!"

"Go to Tianjin to see His Majesty? Which country's emperor is that?"

"The Great Qing's Emperor, of course!"

"Aiyo, you can't treat me like this — I am a son-in-law of the Great Qing, I've bled for the Great Qing, I've served it well... My elder sister is the Empress Dowager!"

"Enough of your nonsense!"

So it turned out Manzhuxili had run into the Great Qing firearms battalion led by Jumbutai!

Well now — he'd tried to surrender and surrendered to the wrong people...

It was Jumbutai who had ordered Manzhuxili seized, but he could not execute this muddled prince to uphold military law, because the man was, after all, the Empress Dowager's younger brother and the Empress's uncle. With that status, whether he lived or died was far from certain!

After having Manzhuxili taken away, Jumbutai began directing his troops to fall back and look for defensible terrain on which to form a position.

By questioning Manzhuxili's guards, he had already learned that a large body of Ming infantry had arrived.

The Ming black-musket cavalry were formidable, but they were not the main force in the end — the Ming main force was surely the infantry!

The arrival of a large body of Ming infantry meant he had run straight into the Ming main force!

A large body of Ming infantry was certainly more than he could fight... Jumbutai's firearms battalion had only about 2,500 fighting men in all, of whom the infantry numbered just 8 niru, a little over 2,000 men, plus 2 artillery niru equipped with 12 three-pounder cannon.

With only that much strength, if they truly met a large Ming force, they would be ground down in no time.

So the Qing firearms battalion was not meant for attack, but for holding ground — the tactic now used by the Shunzhi faction of the Qing was to use the firearms battalion to draw in the Ming infantry, then use cavalry to swing around behind the Ming rear. They were, after all, primarily a cavalry force, and in an age when firearms were maturing day by day, cavalry naturally fought on the flanks and by envelopment.

Jumbutai directed his troops to withdraw slowly, not too far — only to an abandoned temple about three li northeast of Zhuangqiao Village, where they set up a defense.

No one knew what this temple was called, but it was quite large in scale and must once have flourished. Its outer wall was built of brick, but had been smashed down; the good whole bricks had mostly been carried off, leaving only broken bricks and the base of the wall still heaped on the ground.

Jumbutai's 4 niru of musketeers deployed along the four collapsed sections of wall, and placed 3 cannon facing in each direction.

They had barely finished deploying when the Ming troops came up.

But what came was not infantry, but their "black-musket troops." Because the Qing musketeers had already lit their match cords, tiny points of light appeared scattered through the night, making them living targets for the Ming gunners with their flintlocks.

They all dismounted, formed a loose line, and advanced through the dark with bayonets fixed and flintlocks loaded, opening fire from a half-crouch only thirty paces in front of the Qing infantry line.

The Qing side answered with a crackling rattle of fire as well — not volleys, but scattered independent shots.

Crack-crack-crack, back and forth they went. It was lively enough, but casualties were close to zero... In the dead of night, at such a distance, with smoothbore muskets firing scattered shots — if anyone actually hit, how utterly luckless would the target have to be?

Meanwhile, Qi Yuanbi had already reached Zhuangqiao Village. The ruined temple was the Qing strongpoint, while Zhuangqiao Village was the Ming strongpoint.

The infantry of both the Ming and Qing armies were cautious at this moment — the Qing because they were few, and the Ming because they feared being outflanked.

So both sides first assumed a defensive posture, then probed carefully to ascertain the enemy's situation.

The Ming, having won the earlier engagement and taken some prisoners, had already learned a good deal about the Qing from them.

"Military Advisor, the eastern barbarians' emperor has reached Tianjin... and brought twenty or thirty thousand elite troops with him, mostly cavalry, of whom over ten thousand are Khorchin Mongol iron cavalry — the very ones we just defeated."

The one reporting to Qi Yuanbi was Li Tieniu, who was now beaming with delight — he had rendered great service!

Qi Yuanbi nodded and asked: "Tell me about the terrain."

The military maps of the Cangzhou area were inaccurate — they showed neither Zhuangqiao Village nor that ruined temple, but Li Tieniu had already found out everything by asking around.

He took several cups and saucers and arranged them in front of Qi Yuanbi.

"Military Advisor, this is Zhuangqiao Village, where we are. This is the Guanyin Hall the eastern barbarians now occupy. Here is a stretch of woods called Wild Bear Forest... and there's a small river, though it's already frozen over. The ground all around us is very flat — there's no defensible terrain that could block a cavalry envelopment."

Qi Yuanbi nodded and said to Li Tieniu: "Platoon Leader Li, I will request first-class merit for you. Now, you and your men go rest for a while... There will surely be a great battle tomorrow!"

"Thank you, Military Advisor!" Li Tieniu thanked him and withdrew.

Qi Yuanbi pressed his hand on the edge of the square table, looking at the teacups and saucers on it, his brow furrowed. After thinking for a moment, he said to the two regimental commanders on his left and right: "The eastern barbarians will certainly try to envelop our flank. Our cavalry is far too few to stop them. So we must crush the eastern barbarian infantry at Guanyin Hall before their cavalry completes its envelopment. Cavalry is the hammer, infantry is the anvil... without the anvil, the hammer cannot strike with force."

The Ming infantry's killing power against cavalry was now very strong — a direct charge was simply impossible, and mounted archery was suicide. Striking at supply lines might have some effect, but here in the Northern Metropolitan Region there were many villages where Han people lived, and every village had stored grain that could be seized — those villages could hold off Mongol cavalry, but they could not hold off the Ming infantry, whose assault capability was very strong.

Even if they could not find enough grain, they could still withdraw intact — and might even leave a bastion fort deep in Qing territory to make life miserable for Shunzhi!

So if Shunzhi's side wanted to achieve major results, they had to coordinate infantry and cavalry, with infantry as the regular force and cavalry as the surprise force.

If the infantry were wiped out, then no matter how much cavalry they had, there would be no fight left to make!

"Military Advisor," Huang Fugui, Huang Degong's adopted son, volunteered for battle, "I request the attack! Give me three double-hours and I guarantee I'll smash the Tartars at Guanyin Hall for you!"

"Good!" Qi Yuanbi nodded. "Both artillery companies are yours! Commander Sun and I will lead troops to cover your flanks and rear while you throw everything into the main assault! Do not fear losses... you must crush the eastern barbarian infantry in the shortest possible time!"

"Yes, sir!"