Chapter 1376: Tanggudai's Decision

1376. Chapter 1376: Tanggudai's Decision

Not long after, word came back: it was only a few dozen riders, circling and shadowing them from a distance, not daring to come closer and harass them.

"Ignore them. If they get close, swallow them up!" Tanggudai made his decision quickly. He had over six thousand troops under his command, nearly a thousand of them cavalry. A few dozen enemy riders truly meant nothing.

But as the army advanced, the riders appearing behind them grew more and more numerous. The scattered cavalry coalesced into mounted squads, still following at a leisurely pace from the rear.

This shadowing made Tanggudai and his subordinates restless and irritable. From a few dozen riders, they had swelled to several hundred—a scale that could no longer be ignored. After much hesitation, Tanggudai sent out his own cavalry to drive them off, but the pursuing riders refused to engage, galloping away whenever they drew near. This only made everyone more agitated and uneasy.

Though the Xuzhou cavalry prowling on the periphery would not charge the main force, they were far from harmless. Tanggudai's retreat, though panicked, was still by the book—scouts ranged ahead and behind, observing and reporting back constantly. But the scattered riders operating on the fringes became prey: they were either driven back or killed en route.

Aisin Gioro Tanggudai was very cautious about sending out large cavalry detachments. If his own forces came up empty and the enemy cavalry broke into his infantry columns, an uncontrollable collapse would follow—total annihilation was entirely possible. If he only wanted to save his own skin, he would have fled long ago with the mounted troops. Why else endure this slow march?

"Treat them like flies buzzing around cow dung. We walk our own path and pay them no mind. Once we reach Yongning Fortress, what can they possibly do?"

Everything north of Fuzhou was territory firmly under Jianzhou Jurchen control. These cavalry without a base of support could not stir up much trouble. Tanggudai had that much confidence.

Reckoning the distance, Yongning Fortress was nearly at hand. The Xuzhou cavalry that had been raiding and harassing them no longer circled Tanggudai's force, but fell back behind them, forming squads of several dozen riders each, simply following at a slow pace.

Cold sweat was already seeping from Tanggudai's forehead. These suddenly-appearing riders could not match Mongol or Jurchen cavalry in horsemanship, yet their ability to mass, disperse, advance, and withdraw was far superior. Moreover, they all rode sturdy horses, and their equipment looked uniform and complete—vastly better than the Ming army's scrawny mounts and tattered armor. Their calm composure was even more chilling. Though clearly outnumbered, they showed not the slightest panic or impatience, just kept pursuing at that unhurried pace the whole time.

Perhaps military glory and advancement were not so easily won after all. Better to return to Shenyang and enjoy himself there. Tanggudai's ambition and drive were dwindling fast.

The sun would soon set, but there was still over an hour and a half before the sky turned completely dark. Beyond the passes, summer and autumn days were long and nights short. Though the autumn equinox had already passed, darkness still fell much later than it did inside the passes.

"Yongning Fortress is just ahead!" someone shouted. A stir rippled through the ranks. After running themselves ragged all this way, they had finally reached their temporary destination. They could catch their breath and drink some water. And the further north they went, the closer they were to their main base—that brought some measure of reassurance.

After the brief commotion, some even turned and hurled curses at the enemy mounted squad trailing behind them. You've got the guts to follow us this far—let's see if you've got the guts to follow us into the city! Their marching pace quickened slightly.

"Ahead... ahead..." Someone suddenly cried out, voice trembling uncontrollably. Before the words were even finished, his tone had warped into something unrecognizable.

Even without Tanggudai's order, the column began to halt. Those in front stopped, while those behind kept pressing forward faster. The ranks jostled and shoved against each other, already falling into some disorder.

Word from the front finally reached the rear. Everyone now knew: beneath the walls of Yongning Fortress, a force of troops was drawn up, waiting to receive them.

Tanggudai's column began to stir, then the entire force ground to a halt. The clamor grew louder and louder. They had been fleeing in tense silence the whole way, but now, at this moment, they could no longer hold themselves together.

"My lord, what do we do?"

"Every niru below needs to keep their men in check, or we'll fall apart. Some are already running for the outskirts."

The company commanders leading the main force were all growing desperate, sending men one after another to request orders. Though the situation before them was dire, it had not yet reached the final breaking point. Never mind what the enemy might do—if this continued, they would collapse on their own first.

Tanggudai wanted to speak, but when he opened his mouth, not a single word came out. He swallowed several times, yet his throat still felt parched and scorched dry, without a trace of saliva to moisten it. He felt his whole body clenching tight. Though he was running hot all over from exertion, at this moment he felt a chill rise from the soles of his feet straight to his forehead, so cold that he began to shiver outright.

"Meiren i janggin! Make a decision!" A company commander of the Plain Blue Banner lost patience, reached out and yanked Tanggudai's reins, raising his voice as he did so.

That action made Tanggudai's whole body tremble. He managed to collect himself, at least. As the commanding general of this column, his every word and gesture had to carry dignity and decorum. A subordinate officer's insolent disrespect like this was grounds for military law. Tanggudai felt his face burn with humiliation, but when he looked around, he saw that aside from the angry expressions on the faces of his own guards' niru commander, the other company commanders all wore cold sneers and looks of contempt.

What was a son born of a low-ranking consort worth? Without a maternal uncle's capital invested, in Jianzhou, in the Jin Kingdom, he was nothing. When military law was in effect and you acted the part of a commander, they would humor you and listen. But in the current situation, if you could not produce a decision and showed cowardice in front of everyone, why would anyone still bother to humor you?

Such undisguised expressions made Tanggudai even more miserable. Yet, for one, he was used to it, and for another, he knew that at a moment like this, he had to endure. He could only endure.

"To the east are mountains. Crossing them eastward leads to the sea. That region is full of Ming-dog remnants. If we go that way, the column will inevitably scatter, and it will likely be a dead end. Who knows if there are more Xuzhou troops over there." Tanggudai steadied himself for a moment, then began laying out the situation in a muffled voice.

"To the west is the sea. Turning back, there are cavalry blocking the way, and those Xuzhou troops as well. That's a dead end too!"

"Meiren i janggin, but there are troops ahead as well, and they don't look easy to deal with. What do we do?" One company commander interrupted impatiently. Everyone could see the situation clearly enough; there was no need to laboriously spell it out.

Tanggudai ignored the insolence. He was saying all this, in truth, to steady his own mind. Before he could speak again, the scouts he had just sent out came galloping back, their faces utterly stricken with despair. They drew near and shouted, "My lord, cavalry! There's cavalry ahead too! Cavalry!"

"What are you howling for? Is someone dead?! Get back out there and look again!" This unrestrained shouting enraged Tanggudai and the company commanders alike. Some used blades, some used whips, and they beat the men straight back.

Yet after learning this news, for a moment, no one had the heart to continue the discussion. Tanggudai flicked his reins and urged his horse toward the front of the formation. The others exchanged glances. Someone cursed under his breath, but in the current circumstances, there was no other choice but to follow to the front and see for themselves.

"Cavalry... all cavalry..." Drawing closer to the front, they could see somewhat more clearly—or rather, they knew the scouts would not deceive them, but had still clung to a sliver of wishful thinking. Now even that sliver had vanished completely.

Before Yongning Fortress, a dark, dense battle line had already formed. The banners there were waving, and the already tall line suddenly rose a notch higher. Everyone present, seasoned by many battles, knew what this meant: the enemy cavalry had mounted their horses.

They had fled for their lives, racing all the way from Fuzhou without rest, never imagining that another killing ground had been prepared for them here. Thinking of their own exhaustion and hardship, then thinking of the enemy waiting at their leisure—it made their hearts sink even deeper.

"How can they have so many cavalry? When did these cavalry reach Yongning? How did we get no word at all?" Tanggudai, still mounted, cried out involuntarily.

No one answered him, though everyone harbored questions much the same as Tanggudai's. Judging by the width of the battle line, the mounted force beneath Yongning's walls numbered at least a thousand riders. A cavalry force of that scale was equivalent to several times their number in infantry. The supplies it required, the commotion of its movement—Yongning Fortress was so close to Fuzhou, there was no reason they should only be discovering this now, only learning of it at this moment.

"The mounted troops behind us are forming up! They're about to charge!" From the rear of the Jianzhou Jurchen force rose a heart-rending shout. Earlier, the movements of those few hundred enemy riders would not have caused such great panic. The column Tanggudai led numbered over six thousand, with nearly a thousand cavalry of its own. A few hundred enemy riders could at most exploit a few gaps; they posed no real threat. But now, with over a thousand cavalry waiting in leisure directly ahead, a pincer had already taken shape.

Before the Jianzhou Jurchen commanders could make a decision, they saw the cavalry battle line ahead begin to move. A thousand paces still separated the two sides. It would take some time to go from a slow advance to a full charge. Yet everyone knew there was no way to evade. Any lateral movement would throw their formation into chaos. At this critical moment, the infantry were already hard to keep in check. If they broke into a rout, they would be pigs and sheep under the cavalry's blades. But against superior cavalry, were they supposed to charge head-on?

"All of you, young and old, our only option now is to smash straight through! If we can break through, we open a path to survival. If we can't, then we fight to the death and be done with it!" Tanggudai said in a rough voice. This was the only way now. No retreat was possible. West was the sea, east were the mountains. The only way was forward!

"Charge through? Even if those were just a thousand-odd Ming cavalry ahead, we still wouldn't dare charge!" One company commander said, his face dark.

When Jianzhou Jurchen forces fought the Ming army, they held a great advantage in infantry combat, but had no superiority in cavalry—at best, they had "numbers." Because the Jurchens were allied with the Mongols, their source of cavalry was naturally abundant. But Ming cavalry were all well-provisioned, well-paid elite troops. In a fight with equal numbers, they truly could not gain any advantage.

Tanggudai flew into a rage. At a juncture like this, someone was still openly defying him. He flipped his hand and drew his blade, roaring from horseback: "I have followed the Great Khan in campaign since childhood, through over a hundred battles great and small, and never once shrunk from the field! Now you all talk this way and that—do you mean to flee?! Do you not fear our Great Jin's military law?! Do you not fear your families being punished and made slaves?!"

These words enraged the other company commanders, but Tanggudai's personal guard niru was at his side. Seeing their master draw his blade, they all followed suit. For a moment, a dense, murderous aura filled the air.