Chapter 545: The Battle of Guihua City

The attack of the three Khans of Mobei on Guihua City went unexpectedly smoothly.

During the Wanli reign, the Tumed tribe's Altan Khan commanded forty thousand armored cavalry. To the east, he stood as an equal rival to the Chahar Great Khan; to the west, he dispatched troops as far as Suyab, and from across Gansu he remotely controlled Qinghai. To the north, he was called Altan Khan; to the south, he was the King of the Great Ming's Golden Kingdom — the Sacred Lion of the steppe, a hegemon of his age.

But after Altan Khan died, the second-generation Prince of Obedience was inherited by Sengge Düüreng Taiji. After his death, Altan Khan's grandson, Daiching Taiji, also fell from his horse and died. The Third Lady wished to annex his tribe and sought to marry Daiching Taiji's wife, Bahan Biji, to her and Altan Khan's son, Butashili. But Altan Khan's adopted son, Qata Taiji, supported marrying Bahan Biji to Sengge Düüreng Taiji's eldest son, Chüreke.

The city of Baisheng then erupted into the Great Battle of Baisheng, which lasted five months.

In the end, Chüreke succeeded as Prince of Obedience, took the Third Lady in levirate marriage, and divorced Bahan Biji. Bahan Biji was then married to the Third Lady's son, Butashili. The power of the Tumed tribe was greatly diminished.

When Chüreke died, the succession of the new Prince of Obedience once again triggered a great war. This time, the two sides were Chüreke's grandson, Boshigt, and Butashili's son, Sünang Taiji. Although due to the intervention of the various Tumed nobles, Boshigt was able to inherit the title of Prince of Obedience, Sünang Taiji never obeyed Boshigt, and the Tumed subsequently split apart.

As Ligdan Khan advanced westward, the fourth-generation Prince of Obedience, Boshigt, could not resist. After ambushing Ligdan Khan once, the Tumed tribe's remaining elite troops and strong generals suffered more than half dead or wounded, and the tribe subsequently collapsed and disintegrated.

His successor, Ombu, fled to the Daqing Mountains. When the Later Jin army arrived, the polite way to put it is that he submitted to the Later Jin, but in reality, just like Zhang Xianzhong submitting to Liu Chengzong, it was surrender.

At this time, the Tumed were mainly divided among three leaders. First was the Prince of Obedience's successor, Ombu. The Later Jin did not allow him to inherit the title of Prince of Obedience, severing ties with the Great Ming, but as the ruler of the Borjigin clan in the Fengzhou Flats, he still held the support of the various Tumed nobles.

Next were two Tabunang from the Uriankhai, one named Uriankhai Shanba and the other Uriankhai Genggel. Both were sons-in-law of the Tumed tribe.

Uriankhai is a very special surname among the Mongols. Mongol society is not one where "are kings and nobles born of a special seed?" The Borjigin clan holds absolute ruling authority over the southern steppe; all power struggles are struggles that occur within the Borjigin clan.

Not being a chieftain, they naturally did not need to consider how to lead a tribe to survive. The Uriankhai clan could not yet be said to be the sole exception on the southern steppe, but they were the only clan qualified to regard independence as a goal.

Because the tradition of the Uriankhai clan can be summed up in five words: loyalty, but not absolute.

To the south, the nobles of the Uriankhai clan had sworn loyalty to the Great Ming for generations, serving as Commandants of the Duoyan Guard. To the north, the Uriankhai clan had intermarried with the Borjigin clan for generations, holding the title of Tabunang — that is, sons-in-law of the Borjigin.

The Great Ming and the Northern Yuan, two great empires, took turns serving the Uriankhai alone, dancing on the edge of a knife with irrepressible delight.

But on the other hand, the individuals of the Uriankhai clan were extremely loyal.

It was precisely because of this clan heritage that, by the era of Ligdan Khan, the Uriankhai tribe had already played itself out of existence. This is not to say they were weak — quite the opposite, the Uriankhai's influence was very great — but they simply had too many identities.

Everywhere on the steppe there were people surnamed Uriankhai, yet there was no tribe called Uriankhai.

A man who became a Tabunang of the Chahar was a loyal and devoted favored minister of the Chahar Great Khan; one who became a Tabunang of the Tumed was a wholehearted hawk and hound of the Tumed; one who became a Tabunang of the Kharchin was a red-blooded and loyal claw and fang of the Kharchin.

They would, without the slightest hesitation, offer their complete loyalty to the Borjigin chieftain of their wife's tribe and challenge other members of the Borjigin clan.

Uriankhai Shanba and Uriankhai Genggel were the most powerful Tabunang of the Tumed tribe. When the followers of other Tumed nobles scattered, their military strength diminished, and they became very weak, these two became the last barrier protecting Ombu.

As for the third leader, he was called Gülüge.

This Brother Gulu lived up to his name — a walking disaster and a long-distance running enthusiast. Submitting to the Later Jin was, for him, practically an unalterable decree of Heaven.

He was originally a Mongol noble of the Hūlun state. The Hūlun state was a short-lived nation established by the Haixi Jurchens in the northeast. Later, this state was shattered by Nurhaci. Brother Gulu then led his followers and fled to the Yehe tribe, changed his surname to Nara, and continued to oppose Jianzhou. Then the Yehe tribe was annexed by Nurhaci.

Brother Gulu then jogged all the way from the northeast to the southern steppe, seeking refuge with the fourth-generation Prince of Obedience, Boshigt, becoming a chieftain under his command, plotting and accumulating strength. Then Boshigt was sent flying by Ligdan Khan.

For Brother Gulu, Ligdan Khan was the legitimate Mongol Great Khan and not considered an enemy, so he smoothly submitted to Ligdan Khan, still grazing near Guihua City, continuing to accumulate strength. But the southern steppe of those years was truly not a place suitable for accumulating strength.

Even the most powerful tribes on the steppe were losing people, let alone Brother Gulu, who had been fleeing the whole way. Guihua City saw war year after year, and revenge was nowhere in sight, grinding away the sharpness in Brother Gulu's heart. Just when he had given up on revenge, the Later Jin came again.

As a Mongol noble, the Fengzhou Flats were practically the farthest place he could relocate to. Facing the great army of the Tiancong Khan, where else could he flee? Could he flee to the west, under the rule of that Foolish Khan the Han officials spoke of?

A Wise Khan and a Foolish Khan — just from the names, one could tell whose fighting strength was greater!

The long career of running through the snowy forests and plains had turned Brother Gulu from a young restorer of a fallen state into a young fugitive, and finally, amidst the lonely smoke of the great desert, into a middle-aged surrenderer: tired, no more running, let it all be destroyed.

But surrendering to Hong Taiji did not bring Gülüge's life to an end. Quite the opposite — as a precious, endangered survivor from the Nurhaci era, Hong Taiji entrusted him and another outsider minor chieftain, Hanggou, with the important task of monitoring Ombu, in order to hollow out the Borjigin clan of the Tumed tribe.

Though there was the enmity of a destroyed state and the hatred of seized land, those were already fleeting clouds. By this time, Gülüge had long since believed that surrendering to the Later Jin was an unalterable decree of Heaven.

Upon receiving word from herders that the vast Mobei army was surging over from the west, the three leaders of Guihua City each immediately made their own choice.

Ombu, the fifth-generation Prince of Obedience not yet enfeoffed by the Great Ming, tore off his disguise of surrendering to the Jin. He rallied his old followers, dispatched envoys with a personal letter out of the city to the west, and, in his capacity as a descendant of Genghis Khan, invited Sholui, likewise a Borjigin, to help him restore his state. He promised to open the gates of Guihua City, let the Mobei Mongol army enter the city to slaughter all the Later Jin spies left inside, and establish an unprecedentedly powerful Mongol alliance between Mobei and Monan.

Gülüge, who worked for Hong Taiji, upon receiving the news, immediately dispatched ten mounted squads racing toward the Ming border to inform Hong Taiji, who was campaigning in Ming territory. He then led several hundred troops and rushed to the Silver Buddha Temple inside the city, wanting to be the first to seize control of Ombu, in order to stabilize the hearts and military morale of the various Tumed nobles in the city.

The ones in the most difficult position were the two sons-in-law of the Tumed from the Uriankhai, Shanba and Genggel. After years of continuous warfare, the entire Tumed tribe had just over a hundred thousand people, and their reliable standing troops numbered only a little over five thousand, three thousand of whom were under the control of these two men.

They were sons-in-law of the Borjigin clan. In considering matters, they could neither stake everything like Ombu, nor consider only their own future like Gülüge.

These two unlucky sons-in-law also rushed to the Silver Buddha Temple at the first moment, sent troops to block Gülüge's army, and then charged into the Silver Buddha Temple to persuade Ombu not to open the city gates.

Because once the gates were opened, there would be no room left for maneuver. All were nobles who had long resided in Guihua City and had a clear understanding of the Later Jin's military strength. In the fifth year of Chongzhen, Hong Taiji had stormed into Guihua City and burned ninety-nine percent of the buildings in the city, leaving only one great temple standing.

To defect at a time like this — with the slightest misstep, Ombu would lose his life, and the Tumed would vanish like smoke and scattered clouds.

For Shanba and Genggel, regardless of their personal preferences, the best course of action for the Tumed tribe at this moment was to seek aid from the Kharchin, resist the Mobei Mongol army, and maintain the status quo in the Fengzhou Flats. This way, they would neither completely fall to the Later Jin, nor stand in opposition to Hong Taiji and be annihilated in the coming war.

The Uriankhai surname itself carried no ambition to rule as kings or hegemons. Maintaining their existence was their best destiny.

But at the same time, the two men truly could not stand Gülüge's behavior of acting as a jackal for the tiger. They reminded him not to forget his Mongol identity and that he could not help Hong Taiji exterminate the Borjigin clan.

Yet this persuasion only added fuel to the fire for Gülüge. He was not only forcing himself to forget his Mongol identity, but he also had to force himself to forget the matter of changing his surname to Yehe Nara. Wasn't this precisely bringing up the one thing he least wanted mentioned, jabbing him right in the lung?

Completely unexpected was that just this one simple word of advice triggered a great internal strife and battle within the Tumed tribe.

Before the allied forces of Sholui and Yang Qi even reached Guihua City, the fighting inside the city was already over. Gülüge, who had evaded the Later Jin his whole life, ultimately died in a battle defending the Later Jin. Ombu absorbed his followers and once again ruled the Tumed tribe.

The rallying of the Tumed tribe did not bring any significant shock to the Fengzhou Flats. At this very moment, the Tumed tribe, once the hegemon of Monan who had towered supreme beyond the frontier, could only reorganize a fighting force of three thousand eight hundred and eighty-seven men.

Ombu had just quelled the internal strife with the help of Shanba and Genggel, liberated himself from the surveillance of the Later Jin, and reorganized a barely combat-worthy army. Before the people's hearts could settle, a new problem was thrown before him — the reinforcements he had summoned had arrived.

The first army to reach Guihua City was that of the Kharchin tribe's chieftain, Uriankhai Gürüschiqibu.

Just as the force Ombu of the Tumed relied on was the Uriankhai men Shanba and Genggel, the Uriankhai of the Kharchin tribe had also joined the Kharchin as Tabunang. It was just that in the Kharchin tribe, both sides of the father-in-law and son-in-law relationship had lost some things, making their bond even tighter.

After the allied forces attacked Ligdan Khan, the Chahar carried out brutal reprisals against the Kharchin tribe. The entire tribe either died or fled; only the then-Tabunang Subudi escaped the calamity by taking refuge in Ming territory, relying on his status as Left Commandant of the Great Ming's Duoyan Guard.

After Subudi died, Gürüschiqibu abandoned the name of Uriankhai Duoyan, instead styling himself as the chieftain of the Kharchin tribe, and completely threw his lot in with the Later Jin.

Ombu, Shanba, and Genggel stood on the breached eastern wall of Guihua City, looking eastward at the several hundred Kharchin cavalry raising black banners. They exchanged glances and sighed wordlessly.

When Shanba and Genggel had called for reinforcements, their plan had been to resist the Mobei army. But times had changed. Nothing could be more awkward than this: Gülüge's corpse had already been thrown outside the city walls, an act tantamount to the entire Tumed tribe breaking with the Later Jin. Now that Kharchin reinforcements had arrived, they could not possibly let the Later Jin-aligned Kharchin army enter the city.

The two sides sent envoys back and forth across the wall several times to communicate. Ombu hoped to persuade the Kharchin to leave, but those who had now reached the outside of the city were only the vanguard cavalry. Chieftain Gürüschiqibu's army was still mustering in the rear and could not possibly withdraw.

Moreover, for Gürüschiqibu, who had been the first in this war to strike and capture the Ming army's Desheng Fort and had thoroughly become a Later Jin vassal, he could not stand by and watch the Tumed tribe defect to anyone else on this land. Otherwise, if war broke out again, he would be the first to bear the brunt.

By evening, the Kharchin troops gathered east of the city had exceeded three thousand. Mongol mounted squads camped everywhere outside the city. The Kharchin tribe's black banners were visible all around, and everywhere cavalrymen with willow-leaf curved sabers and bone maces at their waists, bows and arrows on their backs, and hook-sickle spears raised, roamed about.

The Kharchin cavalry that had rushed over were nearly losing their patience. At the same time, the Tumed army inside Guihua City grew increasingly cautious toward them, assuming a posture of being fully arrayed and ready for battle.

The standoff lasted until the early morning of the next day, when Gürüschiqibu arrived at Guihua City with another three thousand infantry and cavalry. He immediately issued an ultimatum to Ombu inside the city: let his followers enter the city, the two families make peace, and the Tumed people remain undisturbed as before; otherwise, he would be unable to restrain his followers.

The so-called inability to restrain his followers was naturally a pretext, but Ombu truly could no longer sit still.

He was never someone who could shoulder responsibility to begin with. In the two years since inheriting leadership, the Tumed tribe had declined day by day, choosing the wrong side in every major battle, and his confidence had been ground down to nothing.

Moreover, he had nobles around him who were even less capable of handling matters buzzing in his ear — once this battle started, the Tumed would be finished. The inner burden grew heavier and heavier; Ombud could bear it no longer.

Just then, a noble came running up onto the city wall: "Khan, the west — reinforcements from the west have arrived!"

On the other horizon beyond Guihua City, a vast Mobei cavalry column formed a dark silhouette slowly pressing forward. Ranks of vanguard riders held high banners of every color — among them the dragon banner of Northern Yuan, the flying-tiger banner of the Great Ming, and the great standard of the Mongol Khan.

And behind those banners and standards, at the very rear, was an enormous and strikingly conspicuous supreme commander's great standard, painted with the Taiji Eight Trigrams and star charts.

The other banners the Kharchin tribe did not care about, but that white standard symbolizing the Mongol Khan truly terrified the Kharchin remnants — they thought Ligdan Khan, who had nearly wiped out their entire tribe, had returned.

The Northwest Coalition Army surged forward in great force, enveloping Guihua City from the west, north, and south, then continued advancing eastward until they were three li from the Kharchin tribe's encampment before halting.

Gürüsibü braced as if facing a great foe. On the other side, Sholoi, Gümbü, and Subadi had also stopped for reasons unknown. The two armies stood locked in stalemate. Watching from behind, Yang Qi could only stare wide-eyed. While sending someone to inquire, he muttered to those beside him in bewilderment, "What are they waiting for?"

Not long after, a rider came galloping back to report: "Khan Sholoi is trying to persuade the Kharchin to withdraw."

"Persuade my ass — the eastern brigands will be here any moment."

Yang Qi glared. "If they won't move, we'll make the first move."

Bai Wenxuan took the lead, guiding five hundred riders out from the central army at a restrained pace. Wu Yangchen and Hu Sanhuai each led five hundred riders as well — one group heading north of Guihua City, the other south — like two slender little pincers extending from a massive battle formation, sweeping out in a left and right envelopment.

Their numbers were too small, and they all moved in loose formations at a leisurely pace, looking nothing like troops heading into battle. So much so that the attention of the three Mobei tribes and the Kharchin tribe never fell on them — until the three cavalry columns entered within one li, split into thirty five-rank horizontal formations, and practically enveloped the Kharchin tribe's main camp of nearly six thousand men.

At the same time, behind them, the cavalry columns of the five Mongol battalions under the Marshal's Office also formed up in grand formation and pressed forward. Only then did the rising and falling horn calls sound across the battlefield.

Bai Wenxuan drew his saber from among the ten assault cavalry formations and pointed it straight ahead. With his motion, the hoofbeats of the entire battle formation shifted in rhythm, growing ever more urgent: "Let them see the skill of our Marshal's Office Western Camp troops!"

Good afternoon!