Chapter 136: Hong Taiji's Little Schemes

Dorgon and his two brothers were born of the same mother and were extremely united among themselves. The two White Banners under their command had already become the two most powerful banners within the Eight Banners, with a combined total of ninety-eight niru (all the data here is from records a few years later; at present it should not be this many).

Although Hong Taiji controlled the two Yellow Banners, plus his eldest son Hooge's Plain Blue Banner, that came to only 117 niru in total. The gap between the two sides was not large, which made Hong Taiji feel very unsafe.

Therefore Hong Taiji decided to slowly weaken their strength, but these three brothers were extremely vigilant, unlike Amin and Manggūltai who were so overbearing—they simply gave him no opening to strike. Hong Taiji could only think of crooked schemes from other angles.

For this invasion of the pass, by all rights it should never have been Ajige's turn to serve as Regional Commander. Whether it was Dorgon, or Hooge, or Jirgalang and the other princes, any one of them who came out would have been better than that fool Ajige.

Yet Hong Taiji insisted on personally appointing Ajige as Regional Commander, having him lead the greater part of the two White Banners' forces out through the pass. He also handed his eldest son Hooge's Plain Blue Banner to the always steady Abatai to go out through the pass together, and dispatched Yangguri of the Plain Yellow Banner to follow Ajige.

Hong Taiji's intention was simply to use the Ming army to wear down the strength of the two White Banners. Ajige had a poor head and was rash by nature—once inside the pass he would certainly charge about recklessly, and might well get a sound beating from the Ming army.

Hong Taiji's requirement for Abatai and Yangguri was: when encountering a powerful enemy, do not launch a strong assault—preserve your strength, let Ajige's two White Banner troops do the charging, and you just follow behind them and collect the military merits.

But things turned out exactly the opposite. Yangguri and Abatai each in turn encountered the strongest contingent of the Ming army and got beaten horribly, while Ajige, who never even got a glimpse of the Yongwei Camp, survived to the very end. Truly, heaven plays tricks on men.

Now Hooge's Plain Blue Banner had been fought to ruin, and the balance of power between the two sides had undergone no small change. Hong Taiji could only use the matter of the expedition to turn his spearhead against Ajige—eliminate one, count one; those other two sly foxes could be dealt with slowly later.

After dealing with Ajige and Ashan, the court session continued. Hong Taiji had the assembled ministers discuss the current strength of the Ming army and what the reason was that they had fought so smoothly this time.

How would the assembled ministers know? This time they hadn't gone through the pass to fight the Ming army. For a moment they just stood there staring at each other with wide eyes, not knowing how to speak. Prince Li, Daišan, stood off to one side with his eyes slightly narrowed, as if to say: What the hell does this have to do with me?

Finally, on Jirgalang's suggestion, Hong Taiji ordered Ashan to be summoned back and carefully questioned him about the course of the battle, because apart from Ashan, all the other senior generals who had crossed swords with the Ming army were dead as doornails.

Dorgon gave a cold snort. He could already see it clearly—Hong Taiji was obviously protecting the Plain Blue Banner and wanted to keep Ashan alive!

Ashan came scurrying back in high spirits. He felt that the chance for a special pardon was right before his eyes, so he described the entire course of the campaign against Ming with tremendous effort in the Hall of Supreme Governance, just like an old storyteller—caring about nothing, only moving his mouth.

Ashan had completely thrown caution to the wind. He recounted every major and minor battle in full detail, not even daring to conceal how he had set an ambush at Hongshan only to have his entire force wiped out by the Ming army instead.

The key points among it were naturally those battles where Abatai led troops out through Pinggu to attack Xincheng, up to his death at Lengkou—these were all battles Ashan had personally experienced.

The Manchu and Han ministers throughout the court listened with great care. The losses in this campaign against Ming were far greater than in the previous two, so everyone also wanted to know the reason, the better to get a word in before the throne and leave a good impression with the boss.

After Ashan finished his spittle-flying account, contemptuous looks appeared on the faces of Dorgon and Dodo. Clearly they thought Ashan was deliberately exaggerating the Ming army's fighting power to cover up his own incompetence.

A composed expression appeared on Hong Taiji's face. He said: "Ashan, according to what you say, a good half of the men and horses lost in this campaign against Ming were because of that Ming crown prince?"

Ashan nodded and said: "Your Majesty speaks truly, it is exactly so. Though the Ming crown prince is young, the Yongwei Camp he leads is incomparably fierce and brave. Most of our Eight Banners' warriors were lost at their hands."

Dodo, however, cut in from the side: "But I've heard that the Ming crown prince is still just a child. Ashan, are you making a joke of the assembled ministers?"

Ashan said with displeasure: "Prince Yu, every word this slave has spoken is true. Your Bordered White Banner has also fought against them. If you don't believe me, summon the warriors of your banner and ask—you'll know at once."

He paused for a moment, then continued: "This slave has heard that the Bordered White Banner's troops have long since been scared out of their wits by the Ming crown prince's Yongwei Camp—no one dares to fight."

On hearing this, Dodo immediately shouted loudly: "Dog slave! Full of nonsense! How could the warriors of my Bordered White Banner possibly fear those barbarians? What an absolute joke!"

Dorgon played along with Dodo, laughing heartily: "A snot-nosed kid beat you into this state? Ashan, you really do tell a fine joke!"

Hooge said from the side in a neither yin nor yang tone: "But I've heard that outside Lengkou Pass, Prince Rui once came face to face with the Ming crown prince—and didn't he come slinking back without loosing a single arrow?"

Although Hooge was a generation younger than Dorgon, he was actually three years older in age. From childhood he had disliked this fourteenth uncle, who was doted on by the old Khan, and now that his own Plain Blue Banner had been fought to ruin this time, there was even more anger burning in his gut.

Seeing that the two were about to start tearing into each other again, Hong Taiji said coldly: "Both of you shut up! Keep listening to what Ashan has to say!"

Dorgon and Hooge each gave a snort and turned their heads away, ignoring each other. Dodo, however, stared at the back of Hooge's head with a face he made no effort to conceal, very much wanting to pick up a brick and smash it hard against that shiny bald back of his big nephew's head.

Seeing that Hong Taiji did not doubt his words, Ashan was greatly reassured and continued: "Reporting to Your Majesty, this slave is not exaggerating. Not only does that Ming crown prince's army have strict discipline and obey every order without fail, they are also skilled in the use of cannons and muskets. The muskets they use are extremely formidable—not only do they have an extremely long range, but their power is also tremendous. Within a hundred paces they can pierce two layers of armor, and within eighty paces they can even punch through three layers of iron armor."

Hong Taiji nodded and said: "The barbarians' muskets are indeed formidable, but most of the men who use them are fools. Our Great Qing army also has muskets. We only need to fire a few false shots before the battle line to deceive most of the Ming army, making them panic and loose their shots. Then our cavalry, taking advantage of the moment they are reloading, swiftly breaks through their formation, and the Ming army's musketeers become completely useless."

Ashan stammered, contradicting him awkwardly: "Your Majesty is most wise. However, the soldiers in the barbarians' Yongwei Camp handle their muskets with great proficiency, and their rate of fire is extremely fast—far beyond what the border troops of the Liao towns can match. Moreover, they obey orders strictly and never fire in panic."

Hong Taiji's brow furrowed slightly. He felt that Ashan was somewhat exaggerating the facts. Of the muskets used by the Ming army along the Nine Borders, the majority were three-eyed hand cannons, with a lethal range of only a few dozen paces and very poor accuracy. Even the several thousand Lumi muskets in Jinzhou city were far from being as powerful as he claimed.

But Hong Taiji had always been extremely cautious toward his enemies and never lightly underestimated an opponent. He looked toward one man among the Han ministers and said: "Prince Gongshun, you are well versed in firearms from your time in the Southern Court. What do you make of this?"