Chapter 47: Those Who Show Off Die

Several hundred Qing cavalrymen on horseback whistled at the Ming troops defending the city, jeering loudly in Manchu and issuing endless provocations.

Just as this group of Qing soldiers was heaping scorn on the Ming troops atop the wall, they suddenly saw a row of dark, gaping musket barrels emerge from the crenellations, aimed straight at them.

Then a continuous string of crackling thunder-like reports rang out. In an instant, the top of the wall was shrouded in thick smoke, but it was quickly blown away by the breeze.

The Qing troops below the wall were caught completely off guard. Several dozen men were shot dead in a flash. Then a second and third volley came from the wall, firing round after round in rotation—the gunfire never ceased.

After several volleys, the several hundred elite Qing troops below the wall fell into utter chaos. Half of them were wiped out in an instant; the rest were those who had wheeled their horses around and fled during the very first volley.

When Zhu Cilang ordered the Capital Camps archers to shoot, he had already passed the order for two thousand musketeers of the Yongwei Camp to ascend the wall and form five ranks. As soon as the Qing troops entered musket range, they were to step forward rank by rank and fire.

The effective range of the Qing infantry bow was sixty paces. The pampered soldiers of the Capital Camps in the Ming army hadn't trained in mounted archery in eight hundred years—even shooting downward from the wall, they could barely reach sixty paces.

Some useless fellows could only shoot thirty paces, and only a rare few could manage eighty.

But in Zhu Cilang's eyes, the very uselessness these worthless soldiers displayed at this moment happened to help him.

The Yongwei Camp musketeers were equipped with the Great Ming's most advanced Lumi muskets and flintlock muskets, with a range of around one hundred fifty paces. These elite Qing troops wore at least two layers of heavy armor, possibly even three.

Zhu Cilang calculated that the Yongwei Camp's muskets would only have a chance of piercing their three layers of heavy armor once they closed to within eighty paces. Therefore, he had been patiently waiting for the opportunity.

Finally, when all of these Qing troops had entered a distance of about seventy paces from the wall, he gave the order to open fire. Sure enough, a single volley wiped out the greater part of them.

A thunderous roar of cheers immediately erupted from the wall. Wiping out over two hundred elite Qing soldiers in one volley was no small achievement, and it also vented a good deal of pent-up anger.

Down below the wall, the few dozen remaining Qing troops were stunned, their souls nearly frightened out of them.

Although they all knew the Ming army had firearms, in their impression Ming firearms were no better than fire pokers—either they exploded in the barrel or they fired prematurely out of range. There was almost no precedent of the Ming letting them get close before shooting.

A dozen or so Qing soldiers, without a second thought, spurred their horses forward, trying to recover the corpse of the niru janggin.

That unlucky niru janggin, because he was the most conspicuous in dress, had received special attention and had his head blown apart during the second volley.

The actions of these dozen or so Qing soldiers were no different from seeking death. Just as they approached the niru janggin's corpse, the Yongwei Camp on the wall fired another volley, and the dozen or so Qing soldiers tumbled from their saddles almost simultaneously.

Another burst of cheers erupted from the wall, and now it was their turn to mock the Qing troops.

The few dozen remaining Qing troops below the wall all wore looks of terror, their earlier arrogance completely gone. Instinctively they reined their horses back, retreating until they had passed the two-hundred-pace mark before stopping.

Many commoners who had been lucky enough to survive also seized this opportunity to sprint toward the city wall, wanting only to put as much distance as possible between themselves and the Qing troops.

Gazing down from the wall, Zhu Cilang saw those few dozen Qing troops still lingering below the city, clearly unwilling to retreat in defeat, yet afraid to approach the wall.

Zhu Cilang knew well that the Qing army had a tradition: they must bring back the bodies of their fallen soldiers, especially when their leader, the niru janggin, lay here.

Zhu Cilang said, "Since they won't leave, fire a volley of cannon at them—give them a little extra treat."

Some artillerymen of the Capital Camps on the wall received the order and began firing, but the shots either fell long or went wide, not even coming close to the Qing troops. Zhu Cilang watched with a furrowed brow, while the Duke of Ying, Zhang Zhiji, was red-faced with embarrassment.

Zhu Cilang was just about to execute a few Capital Camps soldiers to restore discipline and summon the Yongwei Camp's artillerymen up, when he received an intelligence report delivered by Li Tingbiao's men.

The report said that after taking Changping, the Qing army had split into left and right wings. The main commander Ajige was leading the main force south toward the Liangxiang area, while Abatai was advancing toward Shunyi and Miyun.

Among them, the janggin of a jalan, Tandai, was leading three thousand men as the rear guard for Ajige's southward army. This cavalry force of three hundred was the next niru under Tandai, sent to provoke and probe beneath the city walls to see whether the Ming army had any intention of pursuing southward.

After reading the intelligence, Zhu Cilang gave a cold laugh and said, "A mere single jalan dares to serve as rear guard, and they even send a niru of Jianzhou barbarians to provoke us beneath the walls—they truly don't know what it means to die!"

Zhu Cilang now understood: this Qing incursion through the pass should still follow the old tradition—seize grain and money, plunder some population to take back, with no intention of attacking Beijing.

In history, the Qing army had entered the pass six times. Except for the sixth time, when they came through Shanhai Pass to take the Central Plains, the first five times were, frankly, nothing but raids.

Even though they had the capability to take Beijing in those earlier attempts, they didn't dare. Because Hong Taiji understood that even if they took Beijing at great cost in men, they could not replace the Great Ming dynasty.

Instead, it would only cause the Ming to move its capital to Nanjing and reestablish the court, which would be extremely disadvantageous to them.

Only by continuously raiding through the pass to plunder population and wealth, strengthening their own power, could the Jianzhou barbarians gradually close the gap with the Great Ming—and only then would they have the capital to take the Central Plains.

It had to be said that Hong Taiji's strategic intent was very accurate.

At this moment, the few dozen Qing troops lingering outside the city could neither advance nor retreat, growing increasingly anxious. Suddenly they saw the massive drawbridge at Xizhi Gate lower, the city gates swing wide open, and several hundred riders charge out from within Beijing.

These Qing troops had never expected the Ming army to charge out. Already terrified by the muskets on the wall, and with the Ming force being so numerous, they immediately wheeled their horses around and fled.

Several hundred Yongwei Camp cavalrymen furiously spurred their horses in pursuit, giving no quarter. The order they had received from His Highness the Crown Prince was: even if these bastards run all the way to Liaodong, you chase them down and cut them to pieces!

Zhu Cilang naturally wouldn't let the Yongwei Camp cavalry take needless risks, because his intelligence showed the nearest large Qing force was still several dozen li away. Moreover, many of these few dozen Qing soldiers had been grazed by musket fire, and their horses were laden with plundered goods—more than enough to ensure the Yongwei Camp cavalry caught them before they could flee back to camp.

Zhu Cilang ordered the Yongwei Camp to ride out and bring the commoners who had fled to the city gates inside, while also having the veterans of the Yongwei Camp take the soldiers who had never seen battle to clean up the battlefield and collect the spoils.

The main purpose was to let them see blood, chop a few heads, and get accustomed to the atmosphere of war.

Those soldiers who had never been in battle, following the veterans' demonstrations, went up to the Qing soldiers lying on the ground groaning and still breathing, and finished them off with stab after stab and shot after shot. Though it was like beating a drowning dog, at least they had finally opened their accounts.

Some soldiers were killing a man for the first time, and with nerves running high, they inevitably stabbed a few extra times. Many muttered while stabbing: "Scared me, did you, you bastard! Showing off, were you, you bastard! Go to hell!"

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Author's note: The terms "Jianzhou barbarians," "Tartars," "slave bandits," "eastern slaves," and similar appellations in this book all refer to the Manchu Qing. It's not that I personally despise them and call them these names—these are the historical terms used at the time, and different people used different habitual forms of address.

"Tartars" was the historical Han Chinese term for northern minority peoples such as the Mongols and Manchus. "Jianzhou barbarians" refers to the Jianzhou Jurchen, the predecessors of the Manchu people.