Chapter 740: Feigned Surrender

Half a shichen.

That was the time Liu Chengzong gave Shang Kexi.

He was not mistaken — although the one reading the letter in Liaoyang City was Kong Youde, Liu the Lion had indeed spent this half shichen on Shang Kexi.

Just before Liu Chengzong sent the letter, Gao Yingdeng was already at the Taizi River bend twenty li northwest of Liaoyang, using boats along the bank to build a pontoon bridge and driving log piles into the riverbed.

As for the letter itself, it was merely Liu the Lion giving Kong Youde's brain something to chew on.

To keep him from leading troops out to cause trouble during this half shichen of work.

According to intelligence, the Later Jin–era Han general Shi Tingzhu had followed Ajige to the capital region; Geng Zhongming, one of the Three Surrendered Kings, had followed Hong Taiji to southern Liaodong.

Only Shang Kexi and Kong Youde were left commanding Han armies that had been heavily drained of troops.

Kong Youde was in Liaoyang, where his forces could barely hold the city — no need to worry about him.

But Shang Kexi was in Haizhou, and he might command a naval force.

This was Liu Chengzong's deduction after marching south and hearing Qian Shisheng recount the origins of the Three Surrendered Kings.

Qian Shisheng was quite sympathetic to Shang Kexi's plight: when Kong and Geng were fleeing at sea, Shang's naval forces had pounded them hard; after they landed and surrendered to the Jin, they led Jin troops to attack Lüshun, killing not only Huang Long but also slaughtering over three hundred of Shang Kexi's entire household in the city — the hatred among the Three Surrendered Kings ran deep.

He believed Shang Kexi would not come to reinforce Kong Youde.

But Liu Chengzong was a commander; he could not gamble the lives of his army on the table and bet on luck.

A navy is not like an army. In land warfare, while the weak defeating the strong does not exist, the few defeating the many is possible.

A navy is far more brutish. The Ming dynasty's famed naval commander Yu Dayou stated it clearly in his military writings: naval warfare has no other art — large ships defeat small ships, large cannons defeat small cannons, many ships defeat few ships, many cannons defeat few cannons.

More is beautiful, bigger is stronger, sturdy ships and sharp cannons.

If the enemy has ships, they will naturally prevail over his lack of ships.

In land battle, even if Shang Kexi sent ten thousand men, the Marshal's army would not fear them. But on the Taizi River, even just ten warships and a thousand soldiers would be enough to blockade the river, bombard his troops with ship cannons, and land at any time and any place, while he could do nothing to them.

Therefore, although Liu Chengzong also believed Shang Kexi would not come to reinforce Kong Youde, he still had to prepare for both possibilities.

This judgment of his had nothing to do with the hatred between Kong and Shang.

The story goes that Kong Youde led Jin troops to kill over three hundred of Shang Kexi's entire household, but in this era, "household" meant more than just blood relatives — it usually included servants and household retainers as well.

Without counting that way, there wouldn't be so many people. The entire Old Liu clan at Black Dragon King Temple Mountain numbered just over five hundred — Shang Kexi would have to be brain-damaged to move his entire clan to Lüshun, a frontline war zone with no escape route.

Besides, Shang Kexi's closest father and brothers had all died at the hands of the Later Jin — where would so many clansmen come from?

The killing of servants and household retainers would indeed create hatred, but that hatred was limited — not enough to make Shang Kexi defy military orders and leave friendly forces to die.

The basis for Liu Chengzong's judgment that he would not send troops to aid Liaoyang was that Zu Dashou's Jinzhou army was squatting on the west bank of the Liao River.

He did not for a moment think that Zu Dashou and his Liaodong Vanguard Garrison were honest men — that a threatening letter from him, the bandit chieftain of the west, could truly make tens of thousands of troops squat obediently in western Liaodong.

If they were really that honest, Hong Taiji would have devoured them clean long ago.

The only reason Zu's army did not enter eastern Liaodong was that they had weighed the situation on all sides and judged that entering eastern Liaodong was not suitable.

Liu Chengzong's threat was at most one of the important chips contributing to that judgment. Let Shang Kexi try leaving Haizhou City, and Zu Dashou's troops would dare to sweep into Haizhou the moment he left and plunder his home base into barren ground.

The Marshal's army of nomadic raiders, as long as they could win, could plunder whomever they pleased. But the Jinzhou army, the Three Surrendered Kings, and Hong Taiji, defending their home territories, had far more to consider.

That said, this half shichen did indeed cause great confusion for Kong Youde inside the city.

Kong Youde did a great deal of useless work in that half shichen.

He discussed a feigned surrender with his bodyguard Bai Yunlong and generals Xian Guoan, Quan Jie, and others.

His original intent was to genuinely surrender, but this was not something he could decide on his own — at the very least, he would need to bring the army and its population with him in surrender for Liu Chengzong to regard him as someone of consequence.

So he could only use a feigned surrender to probe his subordinates' thoughts.

As a result, Xian Guoan and Quan Jie, who had rebelled with him in Shandong, chatted enthusiastically about the feigned-surrender tactic — because Bai Yunlong was right there beside them.

But Guard Bai was utterly speechless.

Bai Yunlong was originally a bayara of the Jianzhou division, nicknamed Bai Xiazi — xiazi being the Manchu word for bodyguard.

In Liaoyang City, he controlled an armed force of fewer than two hundred men, dispersed among all the generals' bodyguards and household retainers.

Yet he wanted to surrender.

Because the Jianzhou Jurchens were not living well under Hong Taiji's rule either. Under Nurhaci, they had been solidly Plain Yellow Banner, but Hong Taiji had turned them into Plain White Banner. He should have become a general long ago, but instead he had been assigned to a surrendered general like Kong Youde, given a Han surname, and made a bodyguard.

The key point was, Bai Yunlong was a bodyguard. If he had been assigned to be a bodyguard at Dorgon's side, that would have been one thing.

But this surrendered general Kong Youde simply could not hold his head high. Any random Manchu company captain passing through Liaoyang, and he would have to lay out a banquet and entertain lavishly, fawning like a bootlicker.

Following a master like this — what fucking future could there be!

With the measly garrison in Liaoyang City, if they couldn't hold it, what else was there but surrender — wait for death?

Yet these Han generals before him clearly did not want to surrender. One after another, they offered plans and strategies to resist the nomadic invasion on behalf of Daiching, with even more enthusiasm than he, a genuine Plain Yellow Banner man by birth.

What could Bai Yunlong say? He could say nothing. He could only spit on the ground with a dark expression, fold his arms to the side, and watch them brainstorm.

And his dark expression was interpreted by Kong Youde and the others as suspicion that they wanted to surrender, so each of them schemed and strategized with even greater gusto.

Quan Jie clapped his hands. "My Prince, don't write him back. Have the north gate commander send word that we want to surrender. The Wudi Gate's barbican is large — let a few hundred men inside, then blast them dead with the Frankish cannons on the wall!"

This was Geng Zhongming's ultimate trick at Dengzhou — open the water gate to let Ming ships into Dengzhou, then spring the ambush, kill the soldiers, and seize the ships.

Bai Yunlong couldn't take it anymore. "Hey, hey, generals — let's just defend the city properly and not pull any damned cursed tricks. When the barbarians break in later and slaughter the city, your families are all inside — aren't you the least bit afraid?"

Good heavens — the generals beat their chests with thunderous assurance, all kinds of guarantees, putting on a show of soaring morale.

Bai Yunlong thought to himself: 'Fuck his granny, these plague-ridden fucking traitors.'

He waved his hand. "You're not afraid, but I am. If we lose the battle, at worst we wait for the barbarians to leave and flee back to Shengjing — it's just a lashing. Don't make it so we can't hold the city and everyone gets slaughtered too."

Xian Guoan and Quan Jie exchanged a glance. Both thought this dog of a xiazi was spouting nothing but crap — if you lose the city and flee back, you get a lashing, since you weren't the one fighting anyway, but we'll lose our lives.

The commander of Wudi Gate at the north wall was called Sun Long, also one of Kong Youde's old subordinates who had taken part in the Deng-Lai rebellion, granted the rank of Mobile Corps General after surrendering to the Jin.

Upon receiving the feigned-surrender order, Sun Long sent a man with a letter to contact the roving cavalry outside the city.

Gao Yingdeng's main-force camp was driving piles in the river channel, and those roaming outside the city were all troops from the First Roving Cavalry Camp under Zuo Guangxian.

Zuo Guangxian received the glad tidings that defenders inside the city intended to surrender and immediately forwarded it to the central army.

Liu Chengzong was overjoyed at the sight of the surrender letter.

Compared to Kong Youde, who had already been enfeoffed as a prince, what he actually looked forward to most was the surrender of mid-level officers like Sun Long.

After all, when someone like Kong Youde surrendered, his role was to pull a bunch of subordinates into surrendering with him, and then be given a lofty official post and hung up as a figurehead.

But a mid-level officer like Sun Long was experienced, directly commanded skills and soldiers, and was someone who could truly get work done once he came over.

"Write back to him. This is the first surrender in Liaoyang. Appoint him directly as Liaoyang Battalion Commander. After we take Liaoyang City, all surrendered troops will be assigned under his command. As for opening the city gates... don't open them. Tell him to be extremely careful, and just lead his troops and protect his family as they flee out. Every officer and soldier who comes out with him will be promoted one rank. Have Zuo Guangxian prepare to receive them."

It was not that Liu Chengzong had seen through a trap.

Rather, by this time he had already obtained a map of Liaoyang City. The northern city's north gate was not important in Liaoyang's overall defensive system.

The city had a figure-eight-shaped layout. Even if they took the north wall of the northern city, the north wall of the southern city would still lie across the middle. Moreover, military equipment like cannons could not easily bombard the southern city's north wall from inside the city.

Besides, the vast majority of Liaoyang's wealth was concentrated in the southern city.

So his plan for attacking the city had always been to strike the southern city's west gate, occupy the southern city, and force the enemy troops inside the city into the northern city.

This was the fastest way to breach the city, plunder it, and obtain the most spoils of war.

The northern city contained a Zizai Prefecture and a Dongning Guard. Back when the Ming army ruled Liaodong, it was a poor place used to resettle surrendered Jurchen and Korean barbarians.

When Nurhaci ruled Liaodong, he drove the Han people into the northern city. After being plundered by Jianzhou, they were still dirt poor.

Even if they took the northern city and the defenders withdrew to the southern city, he would still have to attack the southern city.

In that case, they might as well attack the southern city directly.

Such a plan would not change just because one northern city garrison commander surrendered.

As a result, the letter he sent into the city sank like a stone in the sea. Then, observing the troop movements, the defenders on the north wall were withdrawn elsewhere and the garrison was rotated.

Liu the Lion mulled it over and realized something was wrong.

"It's a false surrender."

Liu Chengzong did not think the enemy was trying to lure them into the city to kill them. He simply issued an order urging Gao Yingdeng to hurry back with the main camp and prepare for the siege: "They want to stall for time."

Gao Yingdeng was already on his way back. A letter arrived first, and upon reading it, Liu Chengzong clapped and laughed heartily.

Gao Yingdeng's main camp had not only driven stakes into the river channel to the north to prevent warships from approaching Liaoyang, but had also laid minefields at several suitable landing points and along the banks.

Especially near the staked waters, when warships sailed there, their hulls would strike the hidden stakes. If they launched small boats to land, they would be hit by the mines.

However, since they had not brought actual mines, these mines were improvised devices made from thousand-catty field cannon powder combined with grapeshot and gravel. They had also buried several dozen rocket projectiles, scattered across several landing sites, linked together by thin cords soaked in saltpeter water as fuses.

Without steel wheels, they naturally had to leave a few men watching in the reed beds along the shore to ignite them manually.

This whole set of traps delighted Liu Chengzong. Rocket projectiles were truly wonderful things. Improvising them into mines on the battlefield could cause even greater casualties. The method was well worth promoting widely.

Gao Yingdeng was quite good at making small inventions.

Of course, the biggest invention was what Gao Yingdeng wrote in his letter: his men had hauled back over a hundred trimmed logs.

Gao Yingdeng was a brigade commander, responsible for this assault on Liaoyang City. Given Liaoyang's disadvantage of having a large city but few troops, his tactic was to conceal their attack intentions, further divide the defenders, and scatter them across the four gates on the north, west, and south sides, creating an opportunity to breach the city in one swift stroke.

Artillery was the top priority for the siege, so he had taken the opportunity while planting hidden stakes upstream to specifically fell over a hundred logs roughly the same thickness as the thousand-catty field cannons, mounting them on war carts to impersonate cannon carriages.

The plan was to place these things at the siege positions beyond the drawbridges of the four gates, making the defenders think they were preparing for an all-out assault.

As for which wall they would actually attack, Gao Yingdeng's opinion differed from Liu Chengzong's. He suggested following the defenders' movements, launching a few probing attacks to shift the defenders around, and then striking wherever was easiest to attack and had the fewest men. He aimed to breach Liaoyang within three days.

Liu Chengzong approved this plan.

Soon, from Zhang Xianzhong's side, Li Hongsi's Raider Battalion had several arson squads returning with hundreds of captives under escort.

After a brief period of reorganization, Gao Yingdeng launched the first probing attack on Liaoyang City. His target was the northeast corner of the city, near the Taizi River.

As the thousand-catty cannons and jingal guns assembled outside the city toward the northeast corner, the defenders inside the city shifted in response.

However, the troops did not move to the northwest corner. Instead, they dispersed and assembled in the middle of the northern city and atop the Wudi Gate, guarding the drawbridge while facilitating troop movements.

Kong Youde's officers all had months of experience defending Dengzhou City. Their siege defense experience was extremely rich, and they were not thrown into chaos by the Marshal's army's maneuvers.

After all, with the moat in the way, even if gunfire and cannon fire advanced and flattened the battlements and parapets, the enemy would still ultimately have to fill the moat and raise long ladders to scale the city.

And for scaling the city, a corner exposed to fire from two walls was clearly not a good choice.

Therefore, Kong Youde believed this was merely a probing attack and not worth taking seriously.

But very soon, he was dumbfounded.

It was indeed a probing attack. When the besieging army saw that he was not taking it seriously, a dozen or so field cannons exchanged two volleys with several general's cannons on the wall. After suppressing the defenders' artillery, the captured laborers were immediately shoved forward to dig trenches and pile earth mounds a hundred paces outside the city.

Once several trenches, each several dozen paces wide, were completed, squads of heavy arquebusiers entered the trenches and began precision shooting at any defenders who exposed their heads.

Their precision shooting was not the pinpoint accuracy of hitting a willow leaf at a hundred paces, but rather ten heavy arquebuses aimed at a single battlement from over a hundred paces away, ensuring that one volley would blow off a head.

Show your head, and you die.

They fired two volleys in total, killing eight defenders who showed their heads, including one company commander. This terrified the over three hundred defenders on the wall so much that no one dared to peek out.

The defenders in the northern part of the city already included many civilian conscripts from within the city, who relied entirely on the regular soldiers daring to peek over and observe the situation outside. Now that several of the regular soldiers and officers who dared to show their heads had been shot dead, the rest no longer dared to peek out either.

By this time, the laborers who had been driven and captured from outside the city had also grown bolder and began pushing carts to fetch earth and stone to fill the moat.

The defenders on the wall dared not move. It was Kong Youde, standing at the northwest corner of the city, who saw that the moat outside was already being filled. He hurriedly transferred troops from inside the city to mount the wall and ordered the artillery on the wall to counterattack.

But those cannons could never hit accurately; their trajectories all veered off into the Taizi River.

Because as the laborers below filled the moat, they kept shouting, begging those on the wall not to fire the cannons and not to hit them. They were all commoners who had not been able to withdraw into the city in time, and they were related by blood or marriage to the defenders.

Just as the moat-filling stalemate continued at the northern city, Kong Youde suddenly heard a subordinate report: "Your Highness, the Suqing Gate in the southwest has opened! Someone is running out of the city!"

"Who? Who ran out of the city?"

"It's... it's General Sun. He took over three hundred family members and subordinates and ran out through the Suqing Gate!"

Good morning!

(End of chapter)