Chapter 247: The Chase

When the fox-borrowing-the-tiger’s-might Jin Guan was taunting the Later Jin army, Huang Shi and his guard were resting their horses. As a man of modern times, he had always believed that the experiential advantage of barbarians could, and certainly would, be overwhelmed by the courage and organization of a modern army. Huang Shi silently reviewed the course of the engagement in his mind — saber close-assault not only produced good statistics on the training ground, but had also proven highly effective in actual combat.

Judging from actual combat experience, although the current officers and soldiers of Changsheng Island had improved enormously, they probably still could not match the Later Jin army on even terms, so the gap in proficiency had to be compensated for by a brave offensive spirit. However, Huang Shi believed that closing the proficiency gap was only a matter of time. As long as Changsheng Island persisted in a war of attrition, the two sides’ proficiency would grow closer and closer. For instance, in the recent campaigns, the Later Jin Heavy Armor Soldiers could no longer give Huang Shi the overwhelming sense of shock they had during the Battle of Gaizhou.

The Later Jin army on the opposite side did not look very numerous. Huang Shi estimated their numbers to be about half of the Dongjiang army’s. Although some scattered soldiers were still hurrying over to rally under the banners opposite, it seemed unlikely they would surpass his own force’s strength. Seizing the opportunity while the enemy was assembling, Huang Shi, his guards, and their mounts all panted heavily, recovering their strength as quickly as possible.

Huang Shi’s judgment on this was not far wrong. The force pursuing nearly a thousand fleeing Ming troops was merely two Later Jin companies. When they set out on this expedition into Liaoxi, each had brought eighty armored soldiers. Along the way, they had suffered constant attrition from illness, had to leave men behind to guard and secure their rear line, and also had to dispatch escorts to transport captured grain and fodder back to Haizhou. Thus, by the time they reached Ningyuan, each of these two companies had only sixty riders.

During today’s pursuit, because the Guan-Ning army had already scattered and fled, these two companies ordered to pursue had also split into two routes to outflank them. The company on that route had just collapsed under the Dongjiang army’s attack, its men and horses all fleeing for their lives. Now this company, watching the distant snake banner, suddenly felt its chest filled with a sense of helplessness.

In past battles against the Dongjiang army, although there had been victories and defeats on both sides, they had after all won more than they lost. But against this Huang Shi before their eyes, the Later Jin army had not won a single engagement. The early battles were dismissed by the Later Jin army as the Dongjiang army winning by numbers, but after the Battle of Nanguan, they themselves began to feel that this explanation was somewhat unreliable. Yet the entire Later Jin army, from top to bottom, preferred to believe that at Nanguan their own side had simply been too exhausted — if not for the fatigue from the rapid raid on Lüshun, it should not have turned out that way.

But the Battle of Fuzhou mercilessly shattered that explanation. Although Nurhaci tried his utmost to cover up the truth of the Fuzhou battle, the Later Jin army, high and low, could not find many excuses. In particular, Mang Gūltai, the banner lord of the Plain Blue Banner, was utterly dejected. By the time of this Battle of Juehua, the entire Later Jin army had thought that the opposing side had nothing but simple field fortifications, far from being an impregnable stronghold — yet they had thrown away so many lives without even scratching the enemy’s skin.

The morale within the Later Jin army was now far worse than simply low. From the typical Third Beile Mang Gūltai at the top, down to the boy soldiers of thirteen or fourteen who had not yet come of age, they all firmly believed that the Changsheng army absolutely dared not fight the Later Jin cavalry in open battle. Many pessimistic Later Jin soldiers conceded that the Changsheng army was brave, conceded that they were united, and conceded that they could fight well — but no matter the time or place, every single Later Jin officer and soldier never forgot to add: “If it were a head-on cavalry clash, one of our warriors could fight twenty of those Changsheng Island mongrels!”

“Jian slaves, have you come to seek your deaths?”

Jin Guan bellowed another taunt toward the opposite side. Huang Shi still showed no reaction, but he could not help thinking with deep malice — if the Jian slave cavalry charged over, and this fellow Jin Guan turned his head to find that I had already fled, what expression would appear on his face?

Although Huang Shi was forbearing enough to let Jin Guan steal the limelight, Zhang Minghe behind him could endure it no longer. He suddenly burst out from behind Huang Shi and, very inopportunely, yelled at Jin Guan: “Assistant Regional Commander Jin, where are my three hundred firelocks? Return them to me at once!”

Upon hearing Zhang Minghe’s shout, Jin Guan’s face instantly filled with embarrassment. Although they had devised a plan to swindle some supplies from Changsheng Island, for safety’s sake, Assistant Regional Commander Jin and the others had ultimately locked their target onto Zhang Minghe. First, because this fellow held low rank and was young, they old foxes felt sure they could lead him around by the nose. Second, Assistant Regional Commander Jin and the others judged others by their own standards, thinking that Zhang Minghe’s separate camp was surely not Huang Shi’s direct line, and perhaps Huang Shi was even hoping Zhang Minghe would stumble so he could discipline him. Third, they further reckoned that Zhang Minghe might not be of one heart with Huang Shi, and perhaps they could give him some sweeteners and draw him onto their own crooked boat.

“The firelocks were handed over to Assistant Regional Commander Hu. When Assistant Regional Commander Hu returns, General Zhang can ask him and will know at once.” Jin Guan hemmed and hawed, shoving the blame onto Hu Yining, whose life or death was unknown. The moment he had seen Zhang Minghe following close behind Huang Shi, Assistant Regional Commander Jin had been groaning inwardly. Now, seeing that he seemed to have offended Huang Shi and had also suffered a crushing defeat, Assistant Regional Commander Jin was so full of regret his guts turned green.

Wu Yu and Zhang Guoqing had gone out on the attack today alongside Assistant Regional Commander Jin and Assistant Regional Commander Hu, and had now fled back together with Jin Guan. These two Mobile Corps Commanders quickly chimed in, flatly asserting that Hu Yining was not only the chief culprit who devised, instigated, and executed the swindle, but had also monopolized all of Zhang Minghe’s firelocks.

Zhang Minghe, red-faced and thick-necked, seemed about to argue further. Huang Shi gave a soft shout and called him

back. Now was not the time to settle accounts with these people. Huang Shi had invested so much capital in them, and seeing that this victory could also help them climb to high positions, he still counted on them to spread some good words for Changsheng Island. Huang Shi thought, if he were to come work in Liaoxi in the future, having these acquaintances he had dealt with would always be better. Even if he did not come to Liaoxi, he might still do some business with them, doing useful work for Changsheng Island and Liaonan. It would not do now to throw away all previous efforts over a few hundred firelocks.

But none of these reasons was the most critical. Huang Shi had always firmly believed one point: when a great enemy is before you, it is never a good time for internal strife.

After calling back the indignant Zhang Minghe, Huang Shi felt that his side’s horses had rested enough, while the Later Jin army opposite seemed not yet to have recovered. He flipped himself onto his warhorse and once more drew his long sword.

Although there had been long-term rigorous training, as long as a single day passed without the test of actual combat, Huang Shi could not set his mind at ease for a single day. After the personal combat just now, Huang Shi had reached several conclusions. First, the fear of being preempted by the enemy could be overcome. Second, the consequences of the enemy striking first were not unbearable. Last, the close-assault effect of the saber was good — very, very good.

Theory on paper can never compare to personal experience. Filled with confidence from the battle just now, Huang Shi raised his long sword high and slashed it through the air a few times toward the heads of the enemy before him, while at the same time looking around at his subordinates. Like Huang Shi, these men all displayed even stronger fighting spirit and confidence than before they had set out. One after another, they impatiently leaped onto their horses and drew their gleaming white blades.

The officers, in order of rank from high to low, urged their horses forward a stretch. Behind them were the veteran Inner Guard soldiers with the longest service, then the Inner Guard of average service length, and at the very rear of the formation were the young soldiers with the least combat experience, who had only been on the battlefield once or twice. In silence, the officers and soldiers, arrayed by rank, all pointed their sabers together with Huang Shi toward the distant enemy.

The friendly troops before them had tactfully moved aside. The unobstructed, open earth stretched from before their horses all the way to the enemy banners in the distance. Out of the corner of his eye, Huang Shi swept a glance at Ningyuan Fort on the right. Countless heads swarmed atop it, and the burning gazes they cast over made Huang Shi suddenly feel as if he were bathed in blazing sunlight. “Brothers, let us go smash the Jian slaves!”

“At your command, my lord — smash the Jian slaves!”

Huang Shi lowered his face mask, and his legs clamped heavily against the horse’s flanks…

The Later Jin company commander on the hill had been observing the Ming army on the opposite hilltop all along. Although the snake banner before his eyes was already the nightmare of the Later Jin army, this company commander, like all Later Jin officers and soldiers, believed that the Changsheng Island cavalry was merely a pursuit cavalry, and that they absolutely lacked the courage to clash head-on with the Later Jin army. Had not the Changsheng Island cavalry always only had the guts to pursue? Had they eaten a bear’s heart and a leopard’s gall today?

While the Later Jin army was resting and recovering strength, this company commander had been muttering this to himself over and over, as if in self-hypnosis, trying to make himself believe that the other company had not been defeated in open battle, but had suffered a devastating blow because of a Ming surprise attack. Yet although his mouth kept chattering on and on, the voice of rebuttal in his heart grew louder and louder, and this rebutting voice kept him from ever giving the order to attack.

When he had not given the order to attack earlier, the company commander could still find some reasons to deceive himself — things like “conserving horse strength, waiting for the right moment.” But when the Ming army on the opposite side began to form ranks and array for battle, clearly preparing to attack, the company commander could no longer come up with any reason to comfort himself.

After Huang Shi led the entire army to draw sabers, that Later Jin company commander mechanically ordered all his men to mount up and prepare for battle. But when he saw the distant Ming army begin to ride down the slope, the Later Jin company commander gaped, utterly unable to force out the order to meet them in battle.

Many of the men under the company commander had witnessed the entire process of the engagement just now. In every clash, the number of their own comrades knocked from their horses was no less, if not more, than the enemy’s. Although the Ming army had the advantage in numbers, they had indeed won through fair and square cavalry combat. A huge question slammed heavily against this company commander’s heart: “That company also had sixty riders, and was completely wiped out after only two clashes. Huang Shi not only has more men, but his horses are in better condition than mine. I also have sixty riders — can I beat him?”

When the Ming army charged down the earthen slope and began to accelerate, the Later Jin company commander muttered “too late” a few times, then swiftly wheeled his horse around and shouted to everyone: “Withdraw! Withdraw! Rejoin the main force!”

Huang Shi led his army in tight pursuit. The cheerful sound of wind rose again on either side of his tasseled helmet. The winter ground could not throw up much dust. The enemy troops before them exposed their backs and the backs of their heads to the Ming army. In both armies racing wildly along the path, from time to time men lost their footing and fell from their horses. Those unlucky Later Jin officers and soldiers were either trampled into meat paste by the galloping herd of horses, or had barely struggled to their feet before being cut down again by countless sabers.

In this utterly risk-free chase, Huang Shi, as the one charging at the very front, naturally had the best chance to stain his blade with blood. Right at the start, he had slashed one fleeing enemy soldier. Although he was not certain that one sword strike would be fatal, when he thought of the many men behind him, that enemy soldier might dodge the first day but not the fifteenth — his fate could only be death.

Now another enemy soldier ahead had been unhorsed. That soldier was desperately

flailing both arms, and as he ran forward he tilted his head back, his face lifted to the sky. As Huang Shi galloped past him, one straight downward slash swatted the running man into the dust.

“Ha—” Huang Shi let out a hearty yell. With the battle having reached this stage, he truly felt a thorough, exhilarating satisfaction throughout his entire body.

The frustrations suffered from the Shandong civil officials, the stifled anger from those days in the capital, and the vexations the Liaoxi civil and military officials had caused him — all seemed to be expelled from his body with each slash.

Originally, in order to outflank the fleeing Ming army, this company and the other Later Jin unit had split up and begun to circle wide. During the standoff with the Ming army just now, they had already rounded half of Ningyuan Fort. The Changsheng Island army had now positioned itself across the shortest route to their homeward path. Since this Later Jin company no longer even had the courage to fight to the death to cut open a bloody path, their only option now was to run circles around Ningyuan Fort to shake off the Ming pursuit. As the two groups raced around the fort, the top of Ningyuan Fort was densely packed with soldiers staring wide-eyed downward, along with the military households and civilians assisting in the defense.

Right before their eyes and beneath their feet, a pack of ruthless characters was running for their lives ahead, and an even more ruthless pack was chasing with desperate fury behind. The Guan-Ning army from the seven field camps within the fort, countless military households and able-bodied men, stood packed solid on the city walls. People shoved one another, all trying to squeeze to the wall’s edge to watch this rare spectacle. And the great personages inside Ningyuan Fort also climbed up to the gate tower, staring dumbstruck as the Later Jin army was chased in a life-or-death flight by Ming troops.

The Later Jin army had originally hoped that the Ming army would stop when it was enough. Only after running half a circle around Ningyuan Fort did the Later Jin company commander realize that today’s matter was probably going to be troublesome. These armored soldiers were all his household bondservants. It was precisely because he had so many good riders under him that the banner had allocated him so many horses. Every time someone fell behind, it pained him as if his heart were being twisted.

This Later Jin unit’s standoff position with the Ming army had originally been slightly north of Ningyuan Fort’s east gate. To shake off the Changsheng Island officers and soldiers, they had first fled straight south, then made a great turn westward from in front of the south gate. Now they were fleeing toward the west gate, their vanguard heading straight for the official road in front of Ningyuan’s north gate.

When the hundred-odd riders below the wall raced past the front of Ningyuan Fort’s west gate, the chase had reached a fever pitch. None of them could spare any attention for the reactions of the spectators atop the west gate tower any longer. First, a cluster of Later Jin cavalry surged horizontally past before their eyes, vanishing northward like rabbits. Then an even larger cluster of Ming cavalry came howling in, pursuing the Later Jin army’s steps into the distance like wolves and tigers.

The crowd atop Ningyuan’s north gate tower watched, dazzled and spellbound, and for a moment no one could speak. After both armies had passed before their eyes, the gaze of the crowd on the tower was also drawn away by Huang Shi’s banner, staring dumbly as that red flag rose and fell amid the billowing dust. One man, surrounded like the moon amid a host of stars, was the first to react. This man was short of stature and dark-skinned, and wore a suit of armor that clearly did not fit him. Stroking the beard beneath his chin, he said with sudden comprehension: “So saber cavalry are this formidable!”

“My lord Yuan, what profound insight!”

“My lord Yuan truly perceives the whole from the smallest detail!”

“My lord Yuan has hit the mark with a single phrase — it truly clears away all my confusion!”

A wave of exclamations had just arisen around them when they heard the thunderous sound of hoofbeats coming from the left, making them all pull back the gazes they had cast to the right. They saw another troop of men and horses surging past from the south of the west gate. The great banner at the front bore a huge character “Jin.” Behind this great red banner were two slightly smaller general’s flags, one with the character “Wu” and the other with the character “Zhang.”

The arrivals were precisely Assistant Regional Commander Jin, Mobile Corps Commander Wu, and Mobile Corps Commander Zhang, leading nearly a thousand Guan-Ning armored cavalry. As this vast force of troops and horses surged forward, its momentum truly shook the earth and the hills. To the eyes of the crowd on the wall, a thousand troops and ten thousand horses flowed past in torrents. The rumbling hoofbeats were deafening, and even the city wall beneath their feet seemed to tremble with them.

The man at the head of this Guan-Ning armored cavalry force wore a golden helmet and silver armor with a great scarlet cloak — it was none other than Jin Guan, Assistant Regional Commander Jin. His tiger-like eyes were wide and round, he bit his lips and ground his teeth, and the copper-colored whiskers on his face bristled one by one. In his right hand he carried a Green Dragon Crescent Blade found from who knows where, and with his left hand he gripped the horse reins tightly. Jin Guan leaned his body slightly forward, leading the entire army in pursuit at the very front. The fierce and rugged nature of his whole being was displayed without reserve, just like a brave and invincible steel-clad general — truly a peerless warrior leaping on horseback and holding his blade crosswise.

Close behind Jin Guan followed another awe-inspiring great general — it was Guan-Ning Mobile Corps Commander Zhang Guoqing. Mobile Corps Commander Zhang gripped the reins beside his horse’s ears tightly with both hands, his body already risen from the saddle, bowing at the waist and standing on the stirrups. Zhang Guoqing’s lips were pressed tightly together, his expression as calm as still water, like an ancient undisturbed well. His deep, profound gaze passed beside Assistant Regional Commander Jin’s form and looked straight toward Huang Shi’s general’s banner further ahead. His legs repeatedly clamped in unceasing rhythm as he urged his horse to follow closely behind Jin Guan.

Wu Yu, whose horsemanship was the worst, could not keep up with Jin Guan and Zhang Guoqing. Under his desperate urging, he just managed to maintain his position in the central column. With knitted brows and glaring eyes, General Wu held his sword pointing straight to the sky with his right hand, grinding his teeth until they creaked, his face as hideous and ferocious as a demon from hell.

“Hyah, hyah…” As they passed before the west gate tower of Ningyuan Fort, the fiendishly fierce Mobile Corps Commander Wu whipped his mount several more times, then swung his treasured sword forward with force. Ignoring the blinding dust swirling into his face, he still screamed at the top of his lungs: “Kill! My lads, kill the slaves!”