Chapter 123: Harassment

The news of the Qing army's retreat spread throughout the city in an instant, plunging the whole of New City into a frenzy of excitement.

Earlier, when the Qing army had been attacking the city, the townsfolk had heard the thunder of cannon fire from the south and the roar of battle that carried ceaselessly into the city. Many people had been extremely tense, terrified that if the Tartars breached the walls they would be plundered.

Many had lived through the roving bandits of the Central Plains and were deeply afraid of war, especially having heard that the Tartars were even more ruthless than the bandits — massacring entire cities was routine for them, and even when they did not slaughter everyone, they would carry off the whole populace beyond the passes to be slaves.

Imagining that living death, quite a few people had even prepared to take their own lives once the Tartars broke through. When they learned the Tartars had been routed and driven back, everyone was beside themselves with joy and came of their own accord to the southern city to welcome the heroes who had repelled the Tartars.

Seeing the cheers of the common folk, the officers and men of the New Camp were deeply moved and proud; a tremendous sense of accomplishment welled up within them.

Sun Yingyuan said to the assembled officers and men of the New Camp: "You all see this! We soldiers fight and bleed precisely to defend our homes and loved ones from being carried off by the Tartars. Do you think all the effort you put in before was worth it or not?"

The officers and men all called out in unison: "Worth it!"

Sun Yingyuan raised his arm and shouted: "Kill the Tartars, defend our homes, protect our Great Ming!"

"Kill the Tartars, defend our homes, protect our Great Ming!"

All the soldiers joined in the cry, and then the people of New City followed suit. The shouts of tens of thousands shook the very heavens, and even the retreating Qing army felt a pang of alarm.

The Qing army lifted its siege of New City and withdrew to an open stretch of ground five li south of the city, where they pitched camp.

After returning to camp in defeat, Yangguri took stock of the Qing army's losses. In this battle the Qing had committed thirty thousand men, with nearly ten thousand attacking the walls, and the number of dead had reached over six thousand.

This included more than two thousand armored soldiers of the Manchu Banners; the Han and Mongol troops of the Eight Banners, along with some tribal soldiers from the northeast, had been virtually wiped out to the last man — a truly grievous loss.

Facing the strange looks from the commanders of the various banners, Yangguri was both humiliated and furious, and fell ill that very night — whether from rage or from fear of the severe punishment Hong Taiji would mete out upon his return to Shengjing, no one could say. That fat bastard Hong Taiji was ruthless when it came to making people suffer.

Abatai, for his part, could not have cared less about this battle — the dead were not from his own banner, and besides, it was Yangguri himself who had insisted on storming the city. The blame lay with him alone.

Yangguri sat on his sickbed discussing matters with Abatai: New City could not be taken, they should withdraw as soon as possible, and the best course was to join forces with Ajige's troops and leave the passes through Lengkou.

Abatai's mind was far sharper than Yangguri's, and he naturally knew that the army's morale was at rock bottom and they could not continue besieging the city. If they suffered further heavy losses and the various Ming forces crept up quietly and enveloped them, they would be finished.

Thus Abatai had long since planned the withdrawal — to catch up with the vanguard under Prince Wuying Ajige, combine their forces, and then take the population and supplies out through Lengkou. That would bring this campaign against Ming to an end. As for reward or punishment, that would all depend on that Eighth Brother of his.

After the two had settled matters, they decided to pack up through the night and retreat at dawn the next day.

After the defense of New City, Zhu Cilang first ordered the remains of the civilians gathered and buried together in a single place with a great stele raised over them, then had the battlefield swept and the results of the fighting tallied.

In this defensive battle, the Qing army's two assaults on the city had both been repelled, with 5,345 heads taken. Not a single prisoner was captured alive — many of the bodies had been blown to pieces, their faces so mangled they could not be counted as heads, which grieved the officers and men of the New Camp no end.

The spoils captured were considerable as well: over 6,500 items of swords, spears, shields, and banners; 3,243 suits of iron armor; over 1,900 suits of mail; over 2,600 suits of cotton armor; over 3,100 suits of leather armor; plus over a hundred war horses and more than eighty thousand taels of silver stripped from the Tartars' bodies.

Though most of this armor was damaged, a fair amount was still intact — some pieces merely had a small bullet hole here and there, and with a bit of patching and light modification they could be issued to soldiers in the New Camp who lacked armor. As for the silver and coin found, it was divided on the spot!

Even though it was a defensive battle, the New Camp still lost many men — over 1,400 dead. These new recruits, experiencing battle for the first time, had been somewhat flustered; unlike veterans, they did not seek cover behind the crenellations after an attack, and many were shot down by Tartar archers.

After the tempering of this battle, Zhu Cilang believed the new recruits of the New Camp would mature all the faster and become fine soldiers.

After the Qing army pitched camp five li south of New City, Zhu Cilang did not dare be careless. He sent out his Longxiang Night Scouts to reconnoiter at full strength, and when he learned that the Qing camp was packing up its belongings, Zhu Cilang gave a cold snort.

"Thinking of leaving? It won't be that easy!"

The New Camp's infantry had been tempered by real combat, but the cavalry was still half-baked. Zhu Cilang decided to take the cavalry out for some practice as well.

At present Zhu Cilang had under his command a thousand cavalry of the Yongwei Camp, 3,500 cavalry of the Shenshu Camp, and 4,000 cavalry of the New Camp — of which the New Camp's cavalry were the most useless. When they had first trained in horsemanship, it was just like practicing driving at a driving school back in later ages — many men sharing a single horse.

The warhorses they now had were replacements acquired later. Riding and cutting at dummy targets was no problem, but facing living men — especially mounted Tartars — they would probably panic at the mere sight of a large body of enemy cavalry and have no ability to fight back at all.

So Zhu Cilang decided first to build up their courage, giving the New Camp cavalry a "road test" exercise.

That very night, Zhu Cilang ordered a total of five thousand cavalry from the Yongwei Camp and the New Camp to assume an attack formation and, under cover of darkness, harass the Qing camp five li away.

It was a dark night with a high wind. Outside New City the iron hooves thundered — the spectacle of five thousand warhorses moving out at once shook the ground for miles around. The Qing sentry cavalry posted outside the camp, startled out of their wits, hurriedly raised the alarm.

Lights flared up one after another in the Qing camp, the clash of armor and weapons rang out without cease, and then the neighing of great numbers of warhorses came — the Qing cavalry assembled at top speed and began to counterattack the Ming cavalry.

But before they had even left the camp, the Ming cavalry had split into two wings and circled back to New City, leaving only a bunch of dumbfounded Tartar horsemen behind.

It was the middle of the night and not fit for pursuit, and besides, many in the Qing army suffered from night blindness and rarely moved about after dark. The Qing cavalry could only curse loudly, then dismount and return to camp to go back to sleep in frustration.

In ancient times people knew nothing of balanced nutrition; many lacked vitamin A and suffered night blindness, unable to see clearly or at all in dim light or darkness, making movement difficult.

The Yongwei Camp and the New Camp had originally had quite a few men with night blindness as well, but since both camps held nighttime musters every other day during routine training, anyone with the condition had long since been identified.

Zhu Cilang had specifically treated these men through diet, supplementing their vitamin A daily. In addition, the daily rations of the entire camp included foods rich in vitamin A to prevent night blindness. Pig liver and other animal organs were too expensive to afford, but vegetables like carrots were available, with the occasional egg thrown in.

Apart from those with congenital night blindness, most soldiers in the Yongwei Camp and the New Camp had their condition cured, so they could roam about freely at night without any real risk of falling behind the column and failing to make it back.

Less than half an hour after the Qing cavalry returned to camp, the five thousand cavalry in New City rode out again to harass them. The Qing cavalry mounted up once more to meet them, and the Ming cavalry made a circuit and rode back into the city.

With this same trick, over the course of one night the Ming harassed the Qing camp nine times. In the latter part of the night the Qing cavalry simply stopped coming out, only stepping up their scouts' patrols of the surroundings — but before long those scouts were dealt with by the Longxiang Night Scouts.

Yang Qili even led a few Longxiang Night Scouts carrying a tiger-crouch cannon, crouching hidden in a patch of grass a li from the Qing camp, quietly loading it with grapeshot, and then firing a round straight into the Qing camp.

The entire night, the Qing camp was in an uproar, tormented beyond endurance by the harassment. Though the tiger-crouch cannon's shot from a li away lacked the power to kill, it was maddening! What it was like to sleep under the muzzle of a cannon — only those who had experienced it could know!

Only at around four in the morning did the cavalry of the two camps cease their harassment. The moment they returned to New City, following orders from above, they slipped back into their tents and fell fast asleep, paying no heed to anything else, conserving their strength for the great battle to come.