Chapter 424: The Curtain Rises on Battle

After two days of marching, Dorgon led the thirty full-strength niru of the Two White Banners, along with nearly five thousand Joseon musketeers, totaling over thirteen thousand men and horses, arriving at the Qing army camp east of Zhenyuan Fort, where they joined forces with the Two Red Banners, Two Blue Banners, and the Han Army Banner. The Qing forces on the southern front now numbered around fifty thousand in total.

Ajige, meanwhile, remained in place with the remaining fifteen niru of the Two White Banners, over four thousand men, keeping watch on the nearby Ming fortress garrisons while ensuring the Qing army's rear line would not be cut off.

To be safe, before leading his troops south, Dorgon sent word to Jirgalang, who was camped near Songjin, ordering the rear Qing forces to break camp and move south so they could come to the aid of the central Qing army at any moment should it come under Ming attack.

And just as the Two White Banners were moving south to reinforce Yoto, Chen Qiyu, having reached consensus with Sun Chuanting and Qin Liangyu, led his guard battalion along with Li Lu's five hundred men, guided by Night Scouts utterly familiar with the terrain, into the vast forest on the western side, embarking on their northward journey.

Chen Qiyu's mission was to consolidate the Ming forces in the central sector's several fortresses—Desheng Fort, Xiping Fort, and Zhenshan Fort among them—and seize the opportunity to defeat the Qing forces tasked with coordination in the center, cutting off the rear of the main Qing army to the south.

Of course, whether cutting off the Qing army's rear would have any effect depended on what kind of results the Ming forces on the front line achieved.

Sun Chuanting, Chen Qiyu, and Qin Liangyu were all in agreement that the Qing forces left behind in the central sector numbered around five thousand. As long as the Ming employed sound tactics, even if they could not completely annihilate them, they should have a chance at victory.

It all came down to how Chen Qiyu deployed and commanded.

"Prince Cheng, how do we fight next? Do we split our forces or concentrate them to crush the Ming reinforcements?"

In Yoto's tent, Dorgon asked in a low voice, addressing Yoto who sat beside him. Abatai, Kong Youde, Gerileng, and the meiren janggin of the Eight Banners stood in ranks to the left and right of the tent.

Dorgon had always looked down on Yoto, who was of the younger generation. Had it not been for this nephew of his persuading his father Daišan back then, causing the Two Red Banners to throw their full support behind Hong Taiji and greatly boosting his power, allowing him to smoothly gain absolute authority over the Eight Banners, who would sit on the throne was still anyone's guess.

From that point on, the Two White Banners from top to bottom harbored intense hatred for Yoto.

Though Dorgon nursed an unshakable hatred for Yoto in his heart, with a great enemy at hand, all conflicts had to be set aside for now. How to defeat the Ming army across the field was the foremost matter of importance.

"I think concentrating our forces is best! The Ming firearms across the way are truly formidable—we need the full strength of the Eight Banners to deal with them! Here's my plan for this battle: the Two Red Banners hold the center; after the Joseon musketeers advance and exchange fire with the Ming gunners, the Two Red Banners seek an opening to charge in and engage in close combat; the Two White Banners take the left, the Two Blue Banners the right, the Mongol Eight Banners spread across both flanks, and the Han Army Banner guards the main camp. Whichever Ming unit's formation loosens, the cavalry strikes immediately! What does Prince Rui think?"

What Dorgon meant by splitting forces was actually committing the main strength to a decisive battle with the Ming army, then sending a detached force to seize the Ming baggage camp by surprise, thereby striking at Ming morale.

But Yoto, who had been leading troops here for over ten days, knew full well in his heart that after committing his main force and fighting for several days, he had only managed to drive the two garrisons' defenders back into the baggage camp at tremendous cost. Sending a small force to take the Ming baggage camp was simply out of the question.

Though the Ming defenders had retreated into the baggage camp, their losses were roughly equal to the Qing's, and there were still at least three thousand men inside.

Over these past few days, who knew how many more defensive works the Ming had dug inside—taking the baggage camp would still require considerable effort and trouble.

Kong Youde, seeing the look of doubt on Dorgon's face, quickly gave a brief account of the assault on the Ming garrison camp, emphasizing the threat posed by the Ming's three-dimensional defense.

Following that, Shang Kexi and the others also frankly admitted that against those low walls and artillery platforms, there was simply no good way to break the Ming positions except by filling them with men's lives.

Dorgon listened to everyone's words and pondered for a moment. Unable to think of a good method to break such fortifications, he finally agreed to Yoto's strategy: first concentrate heavy forces to defeat the Ming reinforcements, then breach the camp palisades from three directions and smash the baggage camp in one stroke.

After a day of rest and reorganization, at the chen hour of the third day after the Two White Banners arrived, horns sounded in waves that shook heaven and earth. Countless banners of every color snapped in the wind as tens of thousands of Qing troops filed out of their respective camps, beginning to assemble by niru.

Just as the Eight Banner soldiers were forming up under their regimental banners, preparing to press south, inside the Ming baggage camp five li from the Qing army camp, Sun Yingyuan stood atop a high artillery platform, watching through a spyglass as several thousand Qing cavalry rode out first.

According to the strategic deployment Sun Chuanting had sent word of, the Qing army's primary target was the Ming reinforcements—they certainly intended to concentrate heavy forces and swallow up the twenty thousand relief troops in one bite.

Once both sides squared off and the fighting grew fierce, with the Qing's attention fully fixed on the southwest, the wagon camp would seize the moment to exit the camp, pressing from the east toward the west, striving to shatter the Qing left wing. Then Sun Chuanting and Qin Liangyu would advance with their main forces and join the wagon camp to deal the Qing a heavy blow.

Whether it was Yoto or later Dorgon, both believed the baggage camp held only a few thousand remnant Ming troops who had been defeated. They surely would aim only to hold the camp and would never take the initiative to sally forth and seek battle—such a move would be nothing short of suicide.

Therefore, the Qing would certainly not treat the eastern side as an area requiring defense, which gave the wagon camp a golden opportunity to win by surprise.

And the wagon camp, with its overwhelmingly powerful firepower, would serve as the surprise force, becoming the decisive element that determined the course of the entire battle.

War is the way of deception.

Knowing oneself but not the enemy—one victory, one defeat.

Knowing neither oneself nor the enemy—defeat without victory.

Knowing both oneself and the enemy—a hundred battles, no peril.

With the Qing army's knowledge of the Ming's troop dispositions and fighting strength being extremely limited, their odds of victory were truly too slim.

Though the wagon camp's movement speed was not fast, don't forget what kind of place this was.

On a battlefield of this scale, where both sides had committed fifty or sixty thousand men or more, aside from cavalry roaming the periphery, soldiers arrayed in formation and locked in combat could not move quickly at all.

By the time word that Ming troops had suddenly appeared on their flank reached the Qing commanders Yoto and Dorgon, setting aside whether the two could even make a timely and accurate response, even if they hastily devised a countermeasure, how long would it take to send orders to the Qing commander on the left wing?

That span of time would be more than enough for the wagon camp to show its might.

Moreover, although the flank-shield carts were first created by Qi Jiguang during the Wanli era, and had once defeated the Mongol Tartars beyond the passes several times with their formidable firepower, decades later now, not to mention the Qing army, even among the Mongol Eight Banners no one would know what kind of monster this was, let alone how to defend against or counter it.

When this monster, akin to a rolling fortress, appeared, any Qing soldier who tried to attack it would smash his head bloody against it.

After half a shichen of preparation, nearly five thousand Joseon musketeers took the vanguard and marched south in formation. After they had advanced about two li, the remaining eight thousand or so soldiers of the Two Red Banners set out after them, followed finally by the Two White Banners and Two Blue Banners advancing on the left and right.

With forests of spears and gleaming armor, the Qing army pressed toward the Ming with overwhelming momentum.

The curtain slowly rose on a great battle between Ming and Qing.