Chapter 862: What? The Great Qing Is Gone! Part Four

His dispositions had basically been guessed by the Prince de Condé... Actually, there was nothing hard to guess. Thanks to the Shunzhi Emperor, Dodo had been dealt a terrible hand and had no real choice but to fight Condé in a set-piece battle — and a set-piece battle between armies in this transitional stage between cold and hot weapons was probably the thing the Prince de Condé knew best.

Wasn't that how the entire Thirty Years' War had been fought? Condé had studied these things since childhood — how could he guess wrong?

And Dodo was now weeping without tears, eaten up with regret... Why had he ever become Imperial Uncle! After the Battle of Jieshi Mountain he should have marched into Beijing and seized the throne directly — no, not seized it, he should have taken back the throne that was rightfully his.

But he had gone soft at the critical moment and hadn't put a bullet through Shunzhi, and had even let him go off and manage that scrap of territory inside the passes on his own.

He had assumed Shunzhi would stay put in Beijing and defend it to the death... Beijing was such a solid city, painstakingly built up since Dorgon's lifetime at enormous cost. As long as Shunzhi held it faithfully until death, he could have worn down a good many of the Great Ming's soldiers — at the very least he could have burned through a lot of Ming army grain, right?

Then when Dodo led the great army from beyond the passes and the northern desert sweeping down, would he have had any trouble driving off a Ming army stalled beneath a strong city?

But that brat Shunzhi must have taken the wrong medicine — he went out of the city himself to command the great army in battle against the Ming northern expedition.

Who did he think he was? Li Shimin?

And now look — he'd gotten himself surrounded inside the Tianjin garrison, waiting for his good uncle to come fish him out...

Dodo had no choice but to go fish him out. The Yellow River decisive-battle plan he had spent so long planning had already gone down the drain — no one had imagined the Ming could dig earth and build dams so well! And Emperor Zhu had been carting in silver load after load to hire civilian laborers to help with the work... It was simply bullying the poor! Utterly dishonorable!

With the Yellow River decisive battle gone, the siege of the Tianjin garrison now concerned the very survival of the Great Qing!

No matter how useless Shunzhi was, he was still the Great Qing's emperor. If he surrendered to the Great Ming, the Great Qing's territory inside the passes would collapse like an avalanche!

If everything inside the passes was lost, then beyond the passes they would be harassed day and night by the Ming army's "black-gun mule soldiers." By then, the disruption of the farming season and the extra conscription alone would bankrupt all the bannermen and banner commoners under Dodo...

Once the bannermen and banner commoners were bankrupted, the Great Qing dynasty would be utterly finished!

So Dodo could only steel himself and fight this battle.

After completing the campaign dispositions, Dodo did not sleep all night. He sat alone in his great tent and had someone bring out the spirit tablets of his father Nurhaci and his brother Dorgon, and set them before him. One living man and two spirit tablets sat facing each other like that the whole night.

When the sky was gradually brightening, the voice of Zhandai, the bayara banner-commandant, suddenly came from outside the great tent: "Imperial Uncle, cooking smoke is rising thick from the southern barbarians' camp!"

Dodo answered: "Ah... They are about to march. I didn't expect them to take the offensive."

This was somewhat unexpected. Dodo felt the advantage was on his side — he had more cavalry and also held the favorable terrain. So the Ming army would very likely dig trenches and hold... He hadn't expected them to attack on their own initiative!

He paused. "Send word to every camp: set the pots and cook, prepare three days' rations, and prepare one fine meal... What time is it now?"

"The third quarter of the yin hour!"

"Good. At the third quarter of the mao hour, the whole army eats its fill; at the first quarter of the chen hour, every niru musters!" Dodo drew a deep breath and said, "Also order the commandants of every camp to report to the main army at the third quarter of the mao hour!"

"Zhe!"

Shi Kefa had also not slept all night, because the battle to be fought today directly concerned the survival of the eastern barbarians!

If it went well, the eastern barbarians, who had been a scourge since the Wanli years, would inevitably march toward destruction... Perhaps they could drag it out a little longer — five years, or eight — but in the end they were doomed to defeat and ruin.

And he, Shi Kefa, would go down in history because of this "Battle of Desheng Marsh"... He murmured under his breath: "Desheng Marsh... A fine name!"

His words had barely faded when there came a clatter of armor from outside, and then the tent curtain was thrown open and a group of generals, already wearing plate armor with swords hanging from their belts, strode in.

The generals were all dressed much alike: red battle jackets over black plate armor, with black helmets as well — the Ming army's ordinary soldiers now all wore black breastplates and black helmets, and some of the better-off ones even equipped themselves with arm guards, so senior officers' battlefield dress no longer stood out much.

Shi Kefa looked at the assembled generals and asked with concern: "Have you all eaten?"

"We have!"

"We've all eaten!"

"The lads have started eating too..."

Before battle, of course, one ate one's fill!

Shi Kefa nodded: "Good! Do all of you know the responsibilities you must bear today?"

"We do!"

"Your subordinate knows!"

"This general already knows..."

By now the Ming army's command operations were actually carried out through staff officers. Shi Kefa, the Governor-General, just moved his lips; the Governor-General's staff group led by Qi Yuanbi and the Prince de Condé would issue each combat group's battle plan down to the group staff department, and then the group staff officers would carry out dispositions under the leadership of the group commander. If the commander couldn't be bothered to manage things, leaving it to the staff officers below basically wouldn't ruin anything either.

Still, Shi Kefa wanted to say a few words.

"Commander Gao." He first called on Gao Jie by name.

"This general is here."

"You are the vanguard — you must not beat the eastern barbarians' infantry too badly!" Shi Kefa said. "You must draw them out... Whether Vice Regional Commander Li's cavalry flanking maneuver succeeds depends entirely on you!"

Gao Jie laughed heartily and stroked his great beard: "This general is most skilled at feigned defeat... I have led troops for many years and have considerable insight into this art!"

Shi Kefa nodded, thinking to himself: I knew you were best at losing battles — looks like there's no mistake about it!

"Vice Regional Commander Li," Shi Kefa then said to Li Yuanyin, the Governor-General's cavalry vice regional commander, "all eight cavalry battalions are yours! Can you cross Desheng Marsh?"

"Governor-General, set your mind at ease," Li Yuanyin said, thumping his chest in assurance. "My cavalry are all veterans of many battles, best at hard fighting and chaotic melees — no matter how complex the terrain, they will not fear it."

"Regional Commander Wang," Shi Kefa continued, now addressing Wang Qi, "you came from the ranks of the Son of Heaven's guards, and the division you lead is the elite of the elite... The left-flank battle concerns the survival of the entire army. This commander trusts only you with it."

Wang Qi had become a division commander as early as the seventeenth year of Chongzhen. For ten years he had bobbed up and down between division commander and regiment commander, never able to advance a step further — his good relationship with Emperor Zhu did not mean he could escape last-place elimination! In truth, Wang Qi's ability to lead troops was nothing special, and it was indeed hard for him to bear the responsibility of an entire sector.

So the posts of Governor-General, Provincial Commander, and Military Advisor never came around to him...

But if he could render great service in today's decisive battle, then advancing another step would be no problem at all!

"Rest assured, Great Commander!" Wang Qi said loudly. "With this officer on the left flank, nothing can possibly go wrong!"

Shi Kefa nodded: "Good!" He clasped his fists and made a respectful gesture toward the air. "Today's battle concerns the great cause of our Ming restoration. I hope you all will fight bravely and slay the enemy, to repay the sovereign's grace!"

"The Great August Emperor is with us... ever victorious!"

"Northern expedition to the Central Plains, restore the Great Ming!"

At the first quarter of the mao hour, thunderous slogans began to rise from the Ming army's great camp, and the whole camp suddenly boiled over.

The tens of thousands of soldiers under Shi Kefa had long been looking forward to this decisive battle, where military merit could be reaped in abundance!

By this point in the northern expedition, everyone already had a clear measure of the eastern barbarians' strength, and no one feared the enemy anymore.

Since the enemy wasn't much to fear, the chance to earn military merit had arrived — the northern expedition's military merit had long been priced out: land, houses, silver, noble titles... Emperor Zhu didn't go in much for nationalist propaganda; apart from pretending to be the reincarnation of the Great August Emperor, he used solid, tangible benefits to motivate the fighting.

To be honest, once this northern land was conquered, most of the real benefits would go to these very officers and men!

As an Emperor, Zhu Cilang was still very generous to his subordinates...