Chapter 716: Seventy Arrows

Ajige was, in truth, a bit of a fool when it came to the politics of managing family relationships.

But given his upbringing and his social circle, the fact that he was still alive at all was no small feat.

Seven years older than Dorgon, he could never really get along with his own full brothers. By his teens he was already following the old Khan on campaign, spending all his days chasing after Amin and Manggūltai, as thick as thieves with them.

These two fine elder brothers of his were both outrageously unorthodox figures even by Later Jin standards.

Amin — a ferocious warrior with a glorious battle record.

He had fought at Sarhū, annihilated the Yehe, taken Shenyang and Liaoyang, invaded Korea twice, swept through the Khalkha Barin and Jarud tribes, attacked Ningyuan and Jinzhou, and defeated the Ming at Yongping.

After Nurhaci's death, he turned into something of a philosopher, tormented by the fact that he had been born a man, and deeply envied the stones on the mountain, which were not subject to Hong Taiji's authority.

He went around telling everyone that he dreamed of Nurhaci whipping him, but that he had a yellow python protecting his body, so he was not afraid of his old uncle's lash.

When he led troops on campaign, he ran wild, acting entirely on the principle that a general in the field is not bound by his sovereign's orders.

When they invaded Korea and made a treaty, the Koreans sent envoys over. After the business was done and everyone was preparing to withdraw, he said, "Go back if you want, but I'm planning to stay right here." In the end, no one supported him, his bid for independence failed, and he returned to Shenyang full of resentment.

During the Jisi Incident, Hong Taiji ordered him to pacify the captives in the four cities of Zunhua and Yongping, to salvage the Later Jin image and reduce resistance in future breaches of the border.

He said he understood, then promptly issued a hair-shaving decree in Yongping. Afterwards, when his army was defeated and he abandoned the city, he massacred the city before leaving — crack, crack — and when Hong Taiji heard the news, he was so furious he wept on the spot.

He had absolutely none of an elder brother's sense of responsibility. When he was in Yongping and heard that Hong Taiji was charging him with crimes, his first reaction was not to defend himself, but to kick up a fuss: "Ajige, Manggūltai, and I are as thick as thieves — we do everything together. Why the hell aren't you punishing them? Why are you only targeting me?"

Manggūltai — likewise a ferocious warrior with a glorious battle record.

He attacked Ula, fought at Sarhū, pacified the Yehe, drove out Ligdan to rescue the Khorchin, attacked the Barin... He was only a year younger than Amin, and basically every battle Amin fought, he was there too.

He murdered his own mother to curry favor — a notorious beast. Yet even so, after Nurhaci's death, when no one nominated him to succeed the throne, he held his nose and cast his vote for Hong Taiji, and resentment grew in his heart.

During the siege of Dalinghe, he reported to Hong Taiji that his troops had suffered heavy losses at the hands of the Ming army, and demanded that subordinates who had been reassigned to other units be returned to him.

Hong Taiji rapped him with a single remark, saying he disobeyed orders and squandered opportunities in battle.

To the Jianzhou nobility, this was no big deal. From the time Nurhaci rose to power until Hong Taiji ascended the throne, practically every one of the Aisin Gioro clan's relatives and nephews had disobeyed orders at some point.

To put it bluntly, Hong Taiji wanted to consolidate absolute power, and Manggūltai was in his way. Now that he had a handle on him, he seized the chance to strike.

It was just a power struggle — if you can win, you fight; if you can't, you admit defeat.

There are many ways to fight a power struggle.

Manggūltai could not even manage to be reckless.

His choice was to explode on the spot. In front of a crowd of great nobles, he drew his blade, glared, and cursed Hong Taiji. As the cursing went on, he simply pulled the blade out — but once it was out, he didn't dare thrust it forward.

When a blade leaves its sheath, it must taste blood. One of the two men was bound to die.

Sometimes, more would die.

Last winter, Manggūltai and his full brother Degelei both died suddenly from a strange illness that left them unable to speak. Their full sister Mangguji was then exposed for participating in Manggūltai's secret plot to rebel, saying they planned to set a banquet at Hongmen and poison Hong Taiji to death. She was promptly executed as well.

Let's be honest — put these two fine elder brothers, Amin and Manggūltai, on a scale, and together they weigh three hundred catties of treachery and half a brain. In terms of conduct and style, what kind of clever younger brother could they possibly raise?

The fact that Ajige has, up to now, neither managed to get himself killed nor schemed to set himself up as a king — that's all thanks to his mother Abahai's good genes.

The three full brothers — Ajige, Dorgon, and Dodo — were strongest in this: whoever they learned from, they became like them.

Amin's arrogance and Manggūltai's wildness — Ajige has both.

Most crucially, these two men were not all flaws; both had rich combat experience and no small military ability.

Ajige learned that fairly well too.

When he received the reply from Guihua City, the enemy beyond the Manhan Mountains was telling him to wait — don't run.

Ajige's heart gave a jolt.

Without a doubt, the situation was not what he had imagined.

But this was certainly not his fault. Dorgon would not lie to him about Yang Qi's character, so the situation on Yang Qi's side must have changed before this campaign began.

Ajige was merely a bit reckless; he was not actually stupid.

For Yang Qi over in Guihua City to dare send this letter, he clearly had something to rely on. The letter bore no signature, so it might not even be Yang Qi's reply — it could instead be that Liu Chengzong or the Great Ming had dispatched reinforcements to the lands south of the Gobi.

And in this regard, since there had been no unusual movements along the Ming border recently, the most likely scenario was that Liu Chengzong had sent reinforcements south of the Gobi.

In short, for Ajige, no matter what Guihua City was relying on, he had to treat it with caution.

And the most cautious approach was to get his main force out of there immediately, before they were surrounded in this desolate wilderness.

Although the Later Jin army excelled at field combat, their strength lay in mobile warfare, not in forming up in grand battle arrays to fight hard battles.

Because "hard battles" sound good, as if they are very brave and formidable.

In truth, they are simply the desperate move of the side at a strategic disadvantage.

It was the Ming border forces who were always fighting hard battles. With so few men spread across such a long frontier, they were always being met with concentration against dispersion.

The Later Jin army was different. Their battlefield environment was the exterior line, which meant that, without numerical superiority, any Eight Banners general who rashly fought a field battle against the Ming army was a famously stupid fool.

"This letter lacks the long-windedness of Ming soldiers and officers. It's most likely from one of Liu Chengzong's southern barbarians."

Ajige easily formed this conjecture and made his decision: he would not fight him for now, but would enter the border to evade the southern barbarians.

They had a certain intelligence foundation regarding the Marshal's Office. Liu Chengzong's name was also thunderously famous in the north, and his origins were very clear — a southern barbarian who had gone from a roving bandit of the northwest to a entrenched bandit of the Great Northwest.

Those roving bandits were also enemies of the Great Ming, so entering the border to hide would make it impossible for the Marshal's Office men to find them, while simultaneously stretching the Ming border forces thin — killing two birds with one stone.

Immediately, Ajige issued troop deployment orders, concentrating his army in the eastern part of Yunzhou.

With the troops of the two Yellow, two White, two Red, and Plain Blue — seven banners in total — he would enter the border from eastern Yunzhou in three columns.

Ajige and the Eight Banners nobles he led were very familiar with this route. Two years earlier, they had followed Hong Taiji through this very spot to breach the border, fighting a battle against Kong Dengke's Central Army Battalion at Longmen Garrison. They killed over a thousand, and lost over a thousand.

The Bordered Blue Banner, led by Gūsa Ejen Fiyanggū Age, would make a show of force outside the border and then withdraw eastward, while simultaneously sending word to Shenyang of the changed situation at Guihua City.

This campaign was especially important to the newly established Daiqing Gurun, so the deployment was systematic. In the west, Ajige led the army to enter the border through Xuan-Da. In the north, a force was harassing Liaoxi, and Hong Taiji's army was also pressing westward, pinning down the Guan-Ning troops.

It was just that Ajige was the main attack.

On the other side, the man who had replied to Ajige was none other than Liu Chengzong.

He had just learned the exact news of the Later Jin mobilization from Subadi. While he was busy mobilizing his own forces and remotely directing the Second Brigade's offensive against Yansui Garrison, Ajige's challenge letter arrived.

Looking at Ajige's arrogant and overbearing tone in the letter, Liu the Lion, after seven years of campaigning, could he endure this grievance on Yang Qi's behalf?

He immediately mustered his forces, dispatching over ten thousand cavalry eastward from Yanmen Garrison to scour the southern Gobi grasslands for enemy traces.

Of course, the orders given to this 230,000-household corps led by E'linchen, Sanang Taiji, and Gao Xian were not to engage the Later Jin army, but to act as scout cavalry and seize territory.

Because Liu Chengzong was unfamiliar with the terrain and geography of the southern Gobi, and even the 230,000 households under his command there knew little about the eastern reaches.

Even knowing the Later Jin army was attacking, he could not simply throw his main corps out in a chaotic swarm.

He could only send E'linchen and the others ahead to probe the way, ascertain the enemy's general direction, then formulate a plan and advance in sequence.

Immediately after, an encounter battle erupted between Candaotu Taiji at Yanmen Garrison and the Later Jin vanguard camp.

This was, in truth, an accident.

Even Liu Chengzong had not expected Candaotu Taiji to attack directly.

The moment he received word at Guihua City that fighting had broken out at the front, he led the main army to Manhan Mountain to support the front at any moment, and at the same time received Candaotu Taiji's report on the battle results.

One hundred and twenty enemies killed, thirty-three captured, over a hundred sets of armor seized, and one hundred and ninety-three warhorses taken.

Their own side suffered seventy-two dead and lost forty-four warhorses.

In the words of Zhang Xianzhong, Minister of the Rites Bureau: they fought like dog shit.

Three thousand against five hundred, and producing this result, basically meant that during the actual clash, casualties were equal on both sides.

It was simply that the other side had fewer men and took some losses during the breakout and pursuit.

Liu Chengzong immediately ordered the Chahar Camp transferred back to Ulanqab and summoned Candaotu Taiji back to explain just how he had fought that battle.

Looking at the results alone, he would have thought the Later Jin army had spotted the Chahar Camp first and launched a surprise raid on them.

At the Jining Office in Ulanqab, Yanmen Garrison, Liu Chengzong met with Candaotu Taiji, who had just fought the battle.

Candaotu Taiji knew the fight had been inglorious; shamefaced and downcast, he came to the central command to pay his respects to Liu Chengzong, and also had a set of armor and two horses presented.

It was only then that Liu the Lion realized the Chahar Camp's handling of those five hundred Later Jin troops was, well, how to put it… versatile.

The equipment they carried, riding two horses per man, was more than what three Chahar cavalrymen brought with them, and even accounted for all sorts of situations.

The armor was nothing special — just cotton-padded coats and cloth-faced iron armor; the helmets were Mongolian-style ridged helmets.

That is, on the plates of the helmet, one or two horizontal ridges were forged — in this respect differing from the Ming army's oval helmets.

It was simply that when forging the helmet plates, horizontal ridge lines were hammered out.

Sometimes the helmet was made in segments, sometimes forged as a single piece; there was no real difference in defense between the two.

A single-piece forged helmet looked better, but the forging was a bit more laborious and maintenance was more difficult; these usually appeared on the heads of nobles.

Because one axe blow would ruin the entire helmet, whereas with a segmented one, if the man was unharmed, he could go back, remove the damaged plate, swap in a new leaf, and it would still be usable — these were mostly used by rank-and-file soldiers.

Ming helmets, by contrast, were mostly round, with a slightly higher crown and a bit more internal space.

They wore their hair in topknots, wrapped in hair cloths, so wearing a pointed helmet was uncomfortable; but the braid-haired Mongol and Later Jin soldiers had no such concern.

On this batch of captured ridged helmets, the very top of the helmet plume was decorated with iron pieces shaped like gourd cakes.

However, the armor and helmets, long spears, long sabers, and sidearms — these weapons were the most normal part of the haul.

Beyond these, the equipment they carried was a bit peculiar.

One bow, one bow case, one multi-layered quiver that could hold seven or eight regular arrows and three specialty arrows.

But for arrows weighing two or three mace, a single equipment set contained a full seventy of them, sixty of which were bundled with hemp rope onto the spare horse's back.

And hemp rope — a full forty lengths, several hemp sacks, a thick stack strung together in a bundle, all hanging from the spare horse's back as well.

Beyond these, the tools included one thick-backed short knife, one axe, one sickle, one iron hook, one whip, one short spear, and four steel chisels.

And other assorted odds and ends — tent cloth, fire striker, arrow nocks, and such small sundries.

These items made Liu the Lion and the assembled officers secretly click their tongues in amazement.

Zhang Xianzhong looked them over again and again, his face a mask of bewilderment, and said to Liu the Lion, "Commander, what did they bring all this junk for?"

Having said that, he nudged Candaotu Taiji with his elbow: "The gear from this one company could outfit a full battalion command of yours."

Liu the Lion was equally baffled; the force Candaotu had fought could hardly be called an elite unit — it looked more like they had wiped out a professional robbery gang.

Let's be honest: an elite cavalryman carrying fifteen catties of arrows — that's understandable.

But what decent person hauls around several goddamn hemp sacks and twenty catties of rope?

"They didn't come to attack Guihua City. Ajige's letter of challenge was just to tie down the Southern Gobi Protectorate so they wouldn't interfere with his border raid. Look at this equipment."

Liu Chengzong thought to himself, it was a good thing he had come personally; otherwise, if Yang Qi were here, he would most likely have fallen for it.

Not because he was more brilliant than Yang Qi, but because if he had not brought the troops forward, Candaotu Taiji would have lacked the confidence to engage, and naturally there would have been none of these spoils.

Had he not seen this equipment specialized for plundering, Liu the Lion, too, would have initially thought Ajige truly wanted a fight with the Southern Gobi.

He pointed at the ground, where an array of various objects lay spread out on the tent cloth.

"Thick-backed hand knives for blazing trails in the wilds, iron hooks for scaling city walls, rope for tying up people and leading livestock, short spears for throwing, steel chisels for prying at walls and breaking down doors, and sickles for harvesting grain in a hurry."

Originally, Candaotu Taiji and the other officers had still been somewhat puzzled by the purpose of the Later Jin vanguard carrying these items.

But after Liu the Lion's enumeration, which ticked them off like a familiar inventory, the functions and scenarios clicked into place, and they all understood.

What the hell did top-tier robbery look like? They had genuinely considered every situation they might face after raiding the border.

The officers at every level of the Marshal's Army had nowhere near this depth of experience in breaching the Great Wall; even an old northern brigand like Candaotu Taiji fell far short.

Wai Liangzi, the camp commander of the First Brigade's Main Soldier Battalion standing behind Gao Yingdeng, could not help but sigh: "The eastern Tartar slaves are truly adept at plunder."

Liu the Lion was also sighing inwardly at the profound accumulated expertise of a Later Jin gang that had spent eighteen years deeply cultivating the art of robbery.

Hearing Wai Liangzi's sigh of admiration for a fellow tradesman's professional skill, he could not help but cast a sidelong glance and laugh: "This is what they mean by 'among any three men walking, one can be my teacher.' One must not underestimate the heroes of the realm."

After this jest, Liu Chengzong's expression turned serious: "Quickly send word that the eastern Tartars are about to enter the border to Fu Regional Commander at Xuanfu. We will also shift our forces eastward. I want to see what he does when he can get in but can't get out!"

"Seal them outside the border wall and trap them to death in the capital region!"