Chapter 1446: Aftermath

The Zhao Family Army's Provisional First Division and the Jianzhou Jurchen Amin contingent clashed on the open plain between Fuzhou and Gaizhou Garrison City. As the decisive battle began, the massed cavalry the Jianzhou Jurchen had assembled suffered horrific casualties under the bombardment of the Zhao Family Army's hundred-plus cannons.

The Zhao Family Army's level of firepower already exceeded the Jianzhou Jurchen troops' understanding and experience. Several times they attempted to launch counterattacks amid the shelling, only to suffer even greater slaughter, until they could no longer hold and collapsed into rout.

On a battlefield with no room to maneuver or flank, the rout of massed cavalry brought catastrophic consequences, directly sweeping away the tens of thousands of infantry behind them. The Zhao Family Army then committed its own cavalry at the opportune moment, intensifying the chaos.

Yue Tuo, serving as deputy commander of the Jianzhou Jurchen grand army, fled with his own troops. Amin and Jirgalang, escorted by their personal guards, also began fleeing for their lives. The Jianzhou Jurchen grand army was on the verge of total collapse.

At that moment, heavy snow fell from the sky. Rain and snow were the natural enemies of the Zhao Family Army's firearms, and this blizzard made the Jianzhou Jurchen leadership feel they still had a chance. They began rallying their troops on the spot, preparing to fight again.

Chen Jisheng and the other observers all lamented that if not for this blizzard, the Zhao Family Army would have annihilated the forces Amin commanded. But heaven did not grant their wish — the heavy snow obstructed all of this. Yet their judgment was wrong.

After the snow began falling, Chen Sheng issued an order to the entire army: the infantry regiments were to advance and pursue the enemy. Arquebusier soldiers were to fire at will, needing only to ensure their matchlocks could discharge. As for the cannons, pre-prepared bamboo canopies for blocking snow were erected over them.

Once the Zhao Family Army's infantry regiments entered the battlefield, the last shred of hope among the Jianzhou Jurchen troops was shattered. The Jianzhou forces were routed completely.

When the battle ended at nightfall, only a little over three thousand Jianzhou Jurchen cavalry had escaped. Jirgalang died in battle, and Amin fled wounded. The Zhao Family Army killed over thirty thousand enemies and took several thousand prisoners; the rest scattered and fled in rout. All the military supplies and provisions Amin's grand army had stockpiled at Yongning Garrison City were captured by Chen Sheng's Provisional First Division.

After the battle ended, Chen Sheng allowed the Zhao Family Army only one night and half a day of rest. By the afternoon of the following day, they had already begun pursuing the Jianzhou Jurchen.

Prisoners and captured carts and horses were used for transport. The supplies the Jianzhou Jurchen had stockpiled were used for consumption. The Zhao Family Army's own winter provisions were also expended without reservation. The First Division, habitually meticulous with every calculation, began consuming resources on a massive scale — all for a single purpose: pursuit and killing of the enemy.

But the Zhao Family Army, composed mainly of infantry, found it very difficult to catch up with the routed Jurchen cavalry. The distance between them grew larger and larger. By the time the pursuit reached Gaizhou Garrison City, Amin had rallied nearly ten thousand defeated troops, both infantry and cavalry. Meanwhile, Nurhaci, Daišan, Manggūltai, and Hong Taiji had mobilized the entire Jianzhou Jurchen grand army and had already reached Haizhou Garrison.

From the very beginning, the Jianzhou Jurchen Jin Kingdom had intended to commit the full strength of the nation to annihilate Chen Sheng's forces. But full mobilization required a long time, and they could not sit idly by while Chen Sheng developed his power at leisure in southern Liaodong. So they first dispatched Amin and Jirgalang with a grand army to engage, planning to raise the stakes as the great battle unfolded — committing all subsequent troops, securing total victory with the posture of a lion pouncing on a rabbit, and then seizing the opportunity to enter the passes and undertake great matters.

But they misjudged the Zhao Family Army's strength and never imagined the battle would end so quickly. They had always prepared to face the Zhao Family Army with the same standards they used against Ming forces — except the standard they applied was elite Ming troops. They never realized the Zhao Family Army had long surpassed that level.

Although the troops Chen Sheng commanded had soaring morale, they were, after all, exhausted from pursuit, and their ammunition consumption in battle had been enormous. More critically, the sky never cleared, and snow drifted down from time to time, greatly affecting the discharge of firearms.

But as the mantis stalks the cicada, the oriole follows behind. The main force of the Jianzhou Jurchen Jin army had only been locked in a standoff with Chen Sheng's Zhao Family Army forces for two days when Zhao Jin arrived on the battlefield leading the Zhao Family Army's main force from the Liaoxi Corridor. Accompanying them were several thousand cavalry from Guanning.

After establishing his main camp at Tianjin, Zhao Jin had taken no action against the capital. Instead, he led his grand army all the way north, passing through Ji Garrison and Yongping Prefecture, crossing Shanhai Pass, entering Liao Garrison, and hurrying westward the entire way.

The military houses of Liao Garrison had long harbored the intent to watch from the sidelines and place their bets. On one hand, they blackmailed the imperial court for silver and grain; on the other, they kept their troops motionless, exchanging flirtatious glances with the Jianzhou Jurchen.

In truth, when Zhao Jin led the main force into western Liaodong, the military house powers of Liao Garrison in the region had no intention of submitting. On the contrary, they wanted to mount a resistance. But they had dealt with the Zhao Family Army too little and still did not know how powerful the Zhao Family Army had become. After receiving a harsh lesson, they immediately understood there was no room left for choice and instead scrambled over one another to earn merit for the new dynasty.

Some also said that with the Zhao Family Army staking everything on a single throw like this, heedless of their rear, if the Great Ming were to cut off their retreat, Zhao Jin's entire foundation would topple in a single morning, vanishing without a trace.

In fact, after Zhao Jin led his army away from Tianjin and continued north, the Chongzhen Emperor and a group of high ministers were about to mobilize all available troops to sever Zhao Jin's rear line. But this move was blocked by the ministers who held military authority, and even the leader of the pure-stream faction opposed the action.

Anyone with even a slight understanding of the Zhao Family Army's strength would not support the Chongzhen Emperor's desperate and crazed plan. Even if the rear line were cut, whether the Zhao Family Army's main force or the second-line troops in Shandong and Xuzhou could break through the court's blockade at any time. What was even more embarrassing was that the Zhao Family Army would not lack provisions in Yongping Prefecture and Liao Garrison. Over the years, Liao Garrison and Ji Garrison had made insatiable demands and stockpiled vast quantities of grain and fodder. They certainly could not stop the Zhao Family Army, and these provisions would naturally become Zhao Jin's spoils of war...

For now, Zhao Jin still offered the court a lenient settlement. If matters reached that point, there would likely be no sentiment left to speak of. What kind of brutal situation would ensue — everyone could imagine it, and naturally, none were willing to take the risk.

By the time Zhao Jin led his troops into the Guangning area, the overall situation was already decided. Now it was no longer Nurhaci waiting by the stump for a rabbit, but the Zhao Family Army closing in from two directions.

The Zhao Family Army's combat strength, the Zhao Family Army's marching speed, the Zhao Family Army's equipment — all of this, every bit of it, lay beyond the understanding of the Jianzhou Jurchen Jin Kingdom.

The opening engagement was a clash of cavalry. The Zhao Family Army's cavalry regiments, combined with the auxiliary cavalry of Liao Garrison, also numbered close to ten thousand, and their fighting spirit and morale were both exceedingly high. In the very first battle, they routed the combined Jurchen and Mongol cavalry forces. By this point, anyone could see the overall situation was collapsing. After this battle, the Yehe tribe, which the Jianzhou Jurchen had not yet fully digested, began surrendering to the Zhao Family Army, while the various Mongol tribes scattered and fled.

At this time, the Jianzhou Jurchen did not yet possess the confidence and resilience they would have in later days. Everything they had gained in Liao Garrison was nothing more than plunder and seizure. To hold it in their hands was good fortune; to lose it was no great pity. In the current situation, the most urgent thing was to flee — to escape with their lives and return to the White Mountains and Black Waters to plot a resurgence.

After the defeat in the first battle, Nurhaci dispatched troops and arranged for Amin, still bearing his wounds, to lead them into combat. Seizing the moment while Amin was engaged, the main force of their own troops retreated first, fleeing. By now, they no longer dared disbelieve the rumors about the Zhao Family Army. Moreover, the Jianzhou Jurchen were not skilled at defending cities, so they did not go to Liaoyang or Shenyang to make a desperate stand. Instead, they set the cities ablaze, looted valuables, and fled toward the northeast.

Retreat, flight, collapse — throughout these processes, the Zhao Family Army pursued relentlessly. Throughout these processes, the Han people of Liao Garrison, who had previously submitted, began to rise in revolt. The Han troops who had already been serving the Jianzhou Jurchen began to betray them. The power of the Jianzhou Jurchen Jin Kingdom began to crumble and disintegrate.

When retreating from Haizhou Garrison City, Nurhaci and his sons may still have been thinking of staging a comeback. By the time they fled from Shenyang City, all they thought of was returning to Jianzhou to enjoy the plundered wealth.

When they encountered blocking troops, the Jianzhou Jurchen leadership thought only of survival — but even that had become very difficult.

Zhao Song's Dingliao Independent Regiment had crossed the mountains of southeastern Liaodong and appeared on the plains of Liaoyang and Shenyang, setting up blocking positions on the route the Jianzhou troops had to take to retreat back to Jianzhou. Zhao Song knew he could not stop Nurhaci and the Jurchen nobles from fleeing, but he could block the Jianzhou Jurchen's remaining military strength, gather these forces, and annihilate them. That would make the Jianzhou Jurchen's destruction no different from total extinction.

Unlike the step-by-step victories of the main army, the Dingliao Independent Regiment fought a very bitter battle. The Jianzhou Jurchen troops knew that if they could not break through this road, it meant complete defeat and destruction, so they attacked with desperate ferocity.

As in those previous battles, the Zhao Family Army with firearms in hand was even more troublesome to deal with on defense than on offense. More crucially, the Han people of Liaoyang and Shenyang rose up en masse to follow and assist — either joining the main army in battle, or delivering provisions and helping in every way they could.

This blocking action succeeded. By the time the Zhao Family Army's main force arrived, only a little over two thousand Jurchen cavalry had escaped. The rest of the troops were either surrounded here or had already scattered in rout.

Amin died in battle. Daišan died in battle. Manggūltai died in battle. Nurhaci, after fleeing back to Hetu Ala, could only continue fleeing ten days later, because the pursuing Zhao Family Army troops did not regard the Great Ming's borders as borders in the slightest and attacked directly. The crude defenses of Hetu Ala were utterly incapable of withstanding cannon fire. Nurhaci was, after all, advanced in age, and this string of defeats dealt him a fatal blow. Beset by troubles from within and without, he fell ill on the road of flight. Without any decent care, he died silently of illness in the snowy mountain forests. Hong Taiji led the remnants of the Jianzhou Jurchen most loyal to him and fled even further north.

By now, there was no longer any need to use the main force to pursue the Jianzhou Jurchen remnants. Cavalry was sent to follow, and at the same time, an enormous bounty was offered. The Jurchen and Mongol tribes among the White Mountains and Black Waters, including those uncivilized wild-man tribes, would all vie fiercely to hunt for the heads of the Jianzhou Jurchen remnants.