Chapter 19: Section Seven

No matter how much Hong Taiji displayed his kingly charisma, a thread of reason always flickered in Huang Shi’s heart. That thread was this: you absolutely must not take advantage of this man. If you swallowed his fragrant bait, he would devour you, skin and bones and all. This thread of reason was like what the Daoists call the flame of innate spirit, sustaining Huang Shi’s last psychological line of defense.

“What the Beile says is absolutely right; this humble one feels as if doused with enlightening dew.” Huang Shi no longer hesitated and loudly declared, “It is only that this humble one has one matter he does not understand and wishes to ask the Beile.”

“Speak, then.”

“I have heard that the Khan did not designate the Beile as his successor. I wonder if that is so?”

Hong Taiji did not answer but instead asked in return, “If I were able to succeed to the throne of the Great Jin Khan, Huang Shi, would you be willing to serve?”

“Yes, this humble one is willing to labor like a hound or a horse.”

“Very good.” Hong Taiji immediately helped Huang Shi to his feet and even brushed the dust from his clothes. “Before that, Huang Shi, you must help this Beile establish merit and achievements, so that Father Khan will regard this Beile more highly. Only thus can I ascend to the Khan’s throne.”

“Yes, this humble one will surely strive unto death for the Beile.”

The two at once staged a deeply moving drama of lord and vassal in perfect accord, like fish finding water. From the very start, Hong Taiji had set a strategy of letting loose only to draw in tighter, and just now he had deliberately crafted an atmosphere of alternating tension and ease. Seeing yet another talent gathered into his pouch, he felt a surge of ease in his heart: “I’ve swallowed him.”

Huang Shi, who was putting on a show of being moved to tears of gratitude, was equally overjoyed. Ever since encountering Hong Taiji at Li Yongfang’s place, he had not slept a single peaceful night, and now he secretly rejoiced in his heart: “I’ve survived. I’ve finally escaped from the jaws of death.”

And so both men were thoroughly delighted. Over these days, while deploying military affairs, Hong Taiji had also smoothly completed the subjugation of Huang Shi, and was naturally quite pleased with himself. In his experience, the image of a modern man did not exist; he had never seen a madman who, even as a common soldier, plotted to usurp a dynasty. Huang Shi was equally pleased—an ordinary man who could fight a national sanda champion to a draw would of course be pleased.

After renewing the rites between lord and vassal, they sat down separately. As his heart surged with emotion, Huang Shi also began to warn himself: his opponent merely thought of him as a common soldier with unrecognized talent. In Hong Taiji’s eyes, he was probably no more than an ant. Before a sovereign of such heroic vision and grand strategy, it was best to keep a low profile and not make him exert his full strength, or else he would certainly be left holding the bag.

“After eliminating Mao Wenlong, you must still return to Guangning, or else Wang Huazhen will grow suspicious.”

“Yes.”

“When you return, Wang Huazhen will surely question you about the Great Jin military situation. You must answer truthfully, so that Wang Huazhen will rely even more on Li Yongfang as an internal agent.”

“Yes.” Is he not the least bit afraid that I might change my mind by then and leak the Great Jin’s secrets? Huang Shi exclaimed in admiration, “Trusting those he employs without suspicion—the Beile’s magnanimity is truly unmatched in the world.”

Hong Taiji answered without the slightest hesitation: “I trust you.”

Hong Taiji did not believe for a moment that Huang Shi was the sort of man willing to sacrifice his life for honor and integrity. Moreover, he had sensed Huang Shi’s longing for wealth and rank. He had always been very confident in his ability to read people. Hong Taiji knew that Huang Shi was also well aware: the things he could give Huang Shi were things the Great Ming could never produce. Besides, even if Huang Shi went back and talked wildly, Hong Taiji was not afraid—Wang Huazhen simply would not believe him. Huang Shi was no trusted confidant; otherwise he would never have been sent on a spy’s errand, a mission with nine chances in ten of death.

The last and most crucial point: Huang Shi had nothing to gain by telling Wang Huazhen. As the contact man and Sun Degong’s personal guard, if he wasn’t beheaded along with Wang Huazhen, he should thank heaven and earth. Since Hong Taiji had seen clearly that Huang Shi was no hero who would sacrifice himself for righteousness, on what grounds would Huang Shi betray the Later Jin?

Huang Shi had indeed mulled this matter over in his heart—better to deal with a clever enemy than to bare one’s soul to a pig-headed superior, because a pig’s behavior is unpredictable; any day, if Wang Huazhen’s mind happened to shift, his own head might go flying. Still, Hong Taiji’s words stirred him for a moment: “The Beile’s profound kindness is more than this humble one can ever repay.”

“Trust is something you won for yourself,” Hong Taiji said, smiling kindly at Huang Shi. A proper measure of prodding was still necessary. “This morning, you already won my trust.”

Hong Taiji’s final words kept Huang Shi awake for another whole night. Every time he recalled how that morning he had entertained the thought of killing him and defecting to Zhenjiang, Huang Shi cursed himself in his heart for a fool. How could a man like this possibly trust others lightly? And even more, how could he possibly “carelessly” place himself in danger?

Two days later, a stream of victory reports arrived from Li Yongfang’s side. The resistance forces for hundreds of li around Zhenjiang were utterly incapable of withstanding a single blow; it was estimated that they would very soon sweep away the volunteer armies and join up with Hong Taiji at Zhenjiang.

At the same time, intelligence came from Liaoyang that Mao Wenlong’s forces from the Guangning army had raided Lüshun, Jinzhou, Gaizhou, Fuzhou, and Haizhou. This news made Hong Taiji laugh uproariously; he repeatedly used the term “vermin” to describe Mao Wenlong. This move not only exposed his latent strength but also confirmed to the Later Jin that Zhenjiang was already isolated and without aid. Mao Wenlong’s attempt to bluff and disperse the Later Jin army only strengthened the Later Jin’s resolve to swiftly eliminate this future trouble.

By now, Huang Shi enjoyed considerable freedom. He had been granted permission to observe how siege engines were constructed, how field camps were deployed, and how scouting patrols were arranged. Since there was nothing else to do at the moment, Hong Taiji was also happy to answer some of his questions, but there were still many things Huang Shi knew only the how and not the why. Hong Taiji told him plainly that understanding these things required the experience of commanding large armies, that he could not explain them clearly to Huang Shi all at once, and that Huang Shi did not need to understand them.

Li Yongfang’s five thousand Han troops soon arrived. Once the Han troops were there, the Later Jin army began clearing obstacles outside the city walls of Zhenjiang. The counterfire of arrows from the city walls was extremely sparse; watching this, Huang Shi shook his head repeatedly. Even he, a man with no war experience whatsoever, could see that the Zhenjiang Guangning army was wretchedly equipped and utterly incapable of resistance.

The day after demolishing the low walls and trenches outside the west gate, the Later Jin army pushed forward the observation towers they had built. There were no catapults inside the city to counterattack, not even primitive resistance like pouring oil and shooting fire. They could only trade batch after batch of lives for time. Later Jin soldiers took turns climbing the towers to shoot arrows, while several thousand more soldiers ceaselessly dug earth, bagged it, and transported it to the foot of the walls.

“This is not battle; this is slaughter. What was that trick Yuan Chonghuan pulled called? Relying on strong walls and using great cannons. Indeed, if they had red-barbarian cannons, even just one, the observation towers could not have been pushed forward. If they had a few, this earth mound could never have been piled up.” Huang Shi watched as the Later Jin army leisurely spent the entire morning shooting arrows while slowly raising the earth rampart higher.

Five hundred Later Jin heavy-armored soldiers, having eaten their midday meal, began forming up in a disorderly hubbub. Most of them were Han troops, with one Jurchen warrior leading every ten men. First they donned cotton-padded inner garments, then fine-scale soft armor, and finally strapped on iron shoulder guards and heart-protecting mirrors. The weapons they carried were long iron blades suited for close combat, and each man also held a round shield.

The defensive moat had already been filled in. At a single order from the Later Jin officers, masses of heavy-armored infantry surged to the foot of the walls. The flags on the observation towers directed them to avoid the rolling logs and stones, and they leaned the scaling towers against the city wall. Soldiers filed in one by one through the doors at the rear of the scaling towers and soon appeared atop the battlements.

The obstacles around the city had not been completely cleared, so only a few scaling towers could be pushed forward. The Ming army repeatedly launched short counterattacks, several times beating back the Later Jin soldiers who had climbed the walls. Although the losses inflicted were not great, the Ming army succeeded in confining the Later Jin forces to the top of the wall, greatly diminishing the covering effect of the Later Jin archers and preventing their numerical superiority from unfolding.

By now, however, the defenders’ attention was clearly entirely drawn by these soldiers scaling the walls. Below, three thousand Later Jin soldiers methodically continued filling trenches and dismantling abatis. Over a thousand Jurchen cavalrymen were arrayed in neat formation facing the city gate, guarding against any Guangning army sortie to destroy the siege engines, and also waiting to charge in the moment the city fell.

The fierce fighting continued until evening. The moat had been filled in for several dozen more zhang. Huang Shi noticed that the cavalrymen at the city gate were also showing signs of slackening; the horses beneath them had begun to lower their heads and pant, even attempting to find some grass to eat. At last, the sound of gongs rose from the Later Jin central command. The observation towers frantically sprayed a rain of arrows to cover the retreat of the soldiers who had scaled the walls, and then the various towers and platforms were pulled back. Huang Shi let out a breath of relief—today’s assault on the city seemed to have come to an end. On the walls of Zhenjiang’s west gate, blood spilled over the battlements and trickled down the walls in streams; the fiery red city gate blazed like a flower in full bloom.

The day’s performance struck Huang Shi as somewhat strange. The Later Jin army had clearly not exerted its full strength. “I remember that historically the Zhenjiang garrison held out in defense for three days,” Huang Shi thought, very puzzled, feeling that the Zhenjiang garrison was not as combat-effective as he had imagined. “But Mao Wenlong slipped away two days before Zhenjiang fell, so that should be tonight. I must go see him off and earn a cheap favor.”

That night, on the pretext of observing the patrols, Huang Shi left the Later Jin main camp alone on horseback. He quietly rode to the edge of the woods east of Zhenjiang, tethered his horse, bound its mouth tight, and climbed a tree by himself, straining his eyes toward the city walls. He waited until midnight. Just as Huang Shi was muttering to himself that he might have missed it, he finally saw the torches on the city wall suddenly go dark over a short stretch. In that patch of pitch blackness, no shadows could be seen at all.

That’s the place. Huang Shi crept stealthily down the tree and, bending at the waist, broke into a jog.