Chapter 855: Long Spears and Foreign Horsemen

Shunzhi was not the only one missing Dorgon — his dearest imperial uncle Dodo was at this very moment thinking of his fourteenth brother too!

How did you end up with such a clown of a son? Sending troops so recklessly, fighting battles with no head or tail — who does he take after?

On the seventh day of the first month of the eleventh year of Shunzhi, Dodo had already reached Jizhou. The moment he entered the city, before he had even had a chance to settle in, he learned that the Shunzhi Emperor had gone out to station himself at Tianjin and was preparing to fight a decisive battle against Shi Kefa, who was advancing north, in Hejian Prefecture.

"This — how, how did he leave Beijing? Beijing is such a fine place to stay — what is he running off to Tianjin for? Wouldn't it have been enough to send Zhuobutai with the firearms battalion to hold the Tianjin garrison? Holding Tianjin, Beijing, and the great camps north and south of the Yellow River — even if that couldn't guarantee victory, it wouldn't lead to a great defeat! The old Liao-Song standoff could still have been maintained! Now he goes out to station at Tianjin and wants a decisive battle with Shi Kefa — one slight misstep and it will be a great defeat!"

Dodo simply could not believe his ears. Shunzhi's way of doing things was far too unreliable! He wouldn't stay in the impregnable city of Beijing — what was he wandering out for? And he wanted a decisive battle with Shi Kefa — did he think that just because Shi Kefa always lost battles, he was easy to bully?

The man lost battles without collapsing, rose again after every defeat, and grew stronger the more he was beaten — that was no simple thing!

"Imperial Uncle, surely His Majesty won't lose to Shi Kefa?" Nikan had come to Yutian together with Dodo, and he did not take Shi Kefa too seriously. "This Shi Kefa is a defeated foe of ours — he's lost to us many times!"

"That was when we and the Chengzong Emperor went to fight him!" Dodo pressed his temples. "His Majesty is a little brat — how could he beat that man? And the Ming army has been growing stronger year by year. We can't look at them with the old eyes of five or six years ago. Nikan, just watch — within two days, news of His Majesty's defeat will arrive!"

Nikan thought for a moment, then suddenly lowered his voice: "Imperial Uncle, His Majesty won't die, will he?"

Dodo glanced at him and sighed: "If he did die, at least he'd have lived up to his Ama!"

"By the way," Nikan looked left and right, and only after making sure there were no outsiders did he ask again, "Imperial Uncle, who exactly is His Majesty's Ama?"

"Taizong and Chengzong!" Dodo said. "Everyone knows that — don't you?"

"No, I mean his real Ama."

"Of course it's—" Dodo faltered, then shook his head. "You'd have to ask the Empress Dowager!" Only then did he sense something was off. "Nikan, why are you asking this?"

Nikan gave an awkward smile: "There are rumors going around outside, saying His Majesty is, is the seed of the Imperial Ama."

Dodo snorted: "I don't see it — and he doesn't resemble Taizong either! His head doesn't work at all. What are we going to do!"

He was right in the middle of speaking ill of Shunzhi when news that made him jump arrived!

And two pieces of it at once!

The first was that Ming cavalry had already appeared within the borders of Dong'an and Wuqing counties near the Tianjin garrison!

The second was that the Shunzhi Emperor was now trapped in the Tianjin garrison, with only a little over ten thousand men left around him.

"Trapped in Tianjin, with only ten thousand or so left?" Dodo's eyes went wide as he stared at the imperial bodyguard who had brought him the message. "What about the rest? They weren't all wiped out by Shi Kefa—"

"Imperial Uncle," the bodyguard said with a mournful face, "the rest are all south of the Tianjin garrison — presumably locked in bitter fighting!"

"What do you mean, 'presumably locked in bitter fighting'?" Dodo asked.

The bodyguard said: "This slave doesn't know the specifics, but this slave does know that when His Majesty marched out from the Tianjin garrison to reinforce the Grand Minister of the Interior Baiyintu, he nearly ran head-on into a southern barbarian army of twenty or thirty thousand men, and only escaped disaster by retreating in time. But this southern army did not follow us back to the Tianjin garrison — presumably they went south to attack the Grand Minister of the Interior Baiyintu."

It was over!

Dodo rolled his eyes. Baiyintu was in grave danger! Losing over half his force was certain. That boy Fulin simply had no idea how to fight a war!

After sending off the bodyguard Shunzhi had dispatched to seek aid, Dodo convened a council of war inside the former Jizhou Regional Commander's yamen in Jizhou city.

He summoned all those who had entered the pass with him: Nikan, Yue Le, Heluohui, Bahana, Tantai, Lengsengji, Mulima, Zhandai, and the rest.

"Imperial Uncle," said Yue Le, the son of Abatai, who had now become Dodo's right-hand man. The man was not only skilled in battle but also had a political mind. He reminded Dodo, "What we fear is not His Majesty dying for the country — what we fear is His Majesty surrendering! I hear that the Zhu Emperor of the Southern Court has already built a Prince Gong's mansion for His Majesty in Nanjing."

Once Shunzhi surrendered, that would mean the end of the Great Qing!

Although Dodo could still proclaim himself emperor, the political damage would be extremely severe, because the Qing ruling group would split again over Shunzhi's return to the Ming, and a pro-Ming faction would emerge!

And the Mongols on the steppe, as well as the Khoshut Khanate in Tibet, might all turn toward the Great Ming!

Yue Le continued: "If His Majesty dies for the country, then you, Imperial Uncle, will be the new emperor of the Great Qing — but what then of His Majesty's heirs?"

Indeed!

If Shunzhi died, he died for nothing!

His son Fuquan was not the Crown Prince and had no claim to the throne — and might even be cut down young because of Dodo's suspicions.

"It won't come to that," said Heluohui. "The Tianjin garrison has strong walls and deep moats, and its military stores are ample. Shi Kefa will find it very hard to break through. As long as the city does not fall, why would His Majesty willingly degrade himself and become a ruler who lost his kingdom?"

Lengsengji said: "Then we also cannot let His Majesty feel completely hopeless — otherwise, Princess Jianning is, after all, a favored consort of the Zhu Emperor."

"But what can we do?" said Nikan. "The great army has just marched a long way and must rest. And if Shi Kefa besieges the Tianjin garrison, that is not without benefit to us."

"How so?" Dodo asked.

"If Shi Kefa learns that His Majesty is in the Tianjin garrison, then he will certainly throw everything into besieging the city, and the Southern Court's eastern-route northern expedition army will be tied down by Tianjin." Nikan paused, then added, "Imperial Uncle, why did we enter the pass?"

Dodo had entered the pass, of course, not to save the three feudatories of the Central Plain, nor to keep Beijing from falling. Because he knew the three feudatories could not be saved, and Beijing did not need saving — even if the Ming army could eventually take Beijing, that would be a matter of years from now.

This time they most likely would not go and attack Beijing!

Because Beijing had already been rebuilt into a strong fortress, and with the Yan Mountains and the Bashang grasslands at its back, the Qing army outside the pass could easily reinforce Beijing.

Moreover, Taiyuan Prefecture in Shanxi was still in Qing hands. Shanxi's terrain commanded the heights, looking down upon Hebei. If the Ming army attacked the strong city of Beijing without first taking Taiyuan, their flank and rear would be insecure. The Qing forces at the three garrisons of Datong, Taiyuan, and Pingyang could very well strike their flank and rear.

So the Ming army would most likely first seize the territory south of Shuntian Prefecture, then move on Taiyuan and Pingyang in Shanxi, and only then attack Beijing — the same order as the Northern Song back in the day.

Dodo said: "It was for the great camps in Henan and Hebei!"

By Dodo's estimate, the great camps in Henan and Hebei were what the Ming army was certain to attack, and what the Qing army was certain to defend. The Qing had to hold out until the turn of spring into summer, when the Yellow River rose, so they could breach the Yellow River dikes and create a flood zone.

In truth, Dodo's purpose in doing this was not to drown Han commoners, but to create panic and wreck agricultural production in Henan, sending the Henan people who feared the Yellow River's waters fleeing as refugees. Once these people fled south, they would all become a burden on the Great Ming. If there could be one or two million refugees, Zhu Cilang would have to dig up several million shi of grain. And once Henan's agricultural production was disrupted, the logistics of the Great Ming's northern expedition army would be disrupted too.

And Zhu Cilang was no fool — he could most likely see the purpose of the great camps north and south of the Yellow River! If he wanted to remove the crisis of the Yellow River flood, then he would have to storm the Henan camp by force — and that would give Dodo the chance to deal the Ming army a heavy blow.

Nikan laughed: "Then that settles it! We need only march south by side roads, and use a detached force to keep in touch with Tianjin and keep watch on Shi Kefa's troops."

Dodo nodded: "That is one way. If the Emperor in Tianjin can become a fragrant bait to draw Shi Kefa, then our chances in the battle for the great camps north and south of the Yellow River will be all the greater."

He paused. "What news is there from Henan? Has the southern army begun its attack on Henan?"

"Not yet," said Nikan, "but the Zhu Emperor will certainly send troops, and he won't delay long."