weaving

Chapter 1531 Hejian in Crisis

On the seventh day of the intercalary eleventh month, Qing County was besieged by the Jurchens.

Magistrate Chang Xing led the soldiers and civilians in the city to resist the Jurchens in the west. Due to the unsuccessful attack from the west, the main force of the Jurchens quickly moved to the south. They attacked the city walls with arrows and sent infantry to swarm up the walls. After a fierce battle, the more than two thousand local gentry and soldiers defending the city were exhausted and could not withstand the attack.

When Qingxian County fell, the county magistrate Chang Xing was captured by the Jurchens. The treasury was looted, the people in the city were taken captive, and all their wealth was plundered.

Since the Jurchens already knew that Liu Zeqing, the general of Shandong, had led his troops into Wei and was stationed in Renqiu, leaving the Shandong Linqing area vulnerable, they did not linger in Qingxian County. Instead, they immediately divided their forces and marched south towards Linqing.

On the eighth day, the Jurchens captured Bazhou, and Zhao Hui, the military commissioner of Hejin, Nan'an, Ding Shiyi, and Li Shiguang, the former councilor of Changzhen Circuit, were killed.

On the same day, Wang Xiangheng, the governor of Zhejiang, received a dispatch from the Ministry of War to transfer 4,000 Zhejiang soldiers to the capital. Wang Xiangheng immediately ordered Li Mengqi, the military commander of Jiaxing and Huzhou, to lead 4,000 officers and soldiers of the standard battalion to enter the capital region on the appointed date.

…………

On the same day, the eighth day, Liu Zeqing, the general of Shandong, received a proclamation from the imperial court, ordering him to immediately lead his troops back to defend Linqing.

Upon receiving the imperial edict, Liu Zeqing dared not delay. He immediately summoned his generals Wang Guodong, Zheng Longfang, Yao Wenchang, Deng Yanyang, Jia Yingkui, Fang Yinke, Duan Shouyi, and Xu Yuming to arrange the defense of Linqing. On the same day, he led his army south and advanced rapidly toward Linqing.

However, at this moment, most of the Jurchens had already crossed the Hun River, and their vanguard cavalry had even crossed Cangzhou and appeared near Banbidian, fifteen miles north of Nanpi City.

Therefore, Liu Zeqing's return to defend Linqing at this time was much more dangerous than when he entered the capital to guard it. He faced the possibility of encountering enemy cavalry at any moment and had to be careful during his march.

Sure enough, when Liu Zeqing led his army to Shanjiaqiao in Xian County, he encountered Zhou Erchun, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of War. Zhou Erchun said that the Jurchens on the east bank of the Grand Canal had reached Lianwo. Upon hearing this news, Liu Zeqing immediately ordered Fang Yinke and others to arrive at Songmen in Wuqiao County on the ninth day and to reach Linqing on the tenth day before seizing the Jurchens.

The ninth day, night.

When Liu Zeqing led his army to Gaojiazhuang in Songmen, he received shocking news: the deputy generals Wang Guodong, Deng Yanyang, Jia Yingkui and other generals who commanded the rear army encountered Jurchen cavalry on the march. In order to avoid the enemy's advance, they abandoned the main road and fled westward.

At dawn, Liu Zeqing received a message from Shi Min, a censor in the Ministry of War, saying that there was a group of rebel soldiers in Silitun, four miles east of Wuyi County, who were looting and setting fires, and hoped that Liu Zeqing would send troops to suppress them as soon as possible.

Liu Zeqing couldn't help but suspect that this chaotic army was the rear guard of Wang Guodong who had fled west earlier. Therefore, he ordered guerrilla commander Wang Xianzheng to lead his troops to Silitun. When they arrived, they found that it was just a small group of Jurchen scouts who had disappeared without a trace in the middle of the night.

Finally, Liu Zeqing had no choice but to lead more than a thousand cavalrymen to rush towards Linqing to provide reinforcements.

…………

On the eighth day of the intercalary eleventh month, Zhang Cheng, the Earl of Yongning, had already led his main force to Gaoyang County, Baoding Prefecture.

On the same day, Li Jiyu's Xuanwu Camp encountered a group of Jurchens in Anzhou. It was the Han Army Plain Red Banner, which had just been formed by Jurchen chieftain Huang Taiji, and its Gushan Ezhen was Wu Shoujin.

Wu Shoujin, a native of Liaoyang, Liaodong, was originally a general of the Ming Dynasty in Liaodong. He surrendered to the Later Jin during the Tianqi era. Due to his military achievements, he was granted the hereditary title of Youji. In the fourth year of Chongzhen, he was appointed as a false official in the Ministry of Revenue. In the seventh year of Chongzhen, he was promoted to the hereditary title of First-Class Jiala Zhangjing.

When Huang Taiji, the chieftain of the Later Nu, established the Eight Banners of the Han Army, he was appointed as the Gushan Ezhen of the Plain Red Banner of the Han Army.

He had originally planned to attack Xiongxian with Shi Tingzhu's Han army under the Bordered Red Banner. After capturing Xiongxian, Wu Shoujin divided his forces to attack Anzhou as originally planned, and waited there for Shi Tingzhu to join him in attacking Gaoyang. However, as soon as he entered Anzhou, Li Jiyu learned of his movements. He led his army to meet Wu Shoujin five miles outside the city and engaged him in a fierce open battle on the shore of Baiyangdian Lake, forcing him to retreat.

At this time, the total strength of the Han army's Eight Banners was only 24,500 men, with each banner consisting of about 3,000 to 4,000 men, mostly infantry armed with firearms, and not many cavalry.

If they were to face other Ming Dynasty government troops, the Han Chinese Eight Banners would still have the upper hand, or even an absolute advantage, in terms of combat strength.

After all, the Ming army itself was afraid of the Jurchens. Whenever they encountered Jurchen troops, regardless of the number of the enemy, they were always worried about being surrounded by their large force. Therefore, they were often defeated in one battle and dared not risk their lives to fight.

Moreover, judging from the equipment and training level of the Ming army at this time, it was indeed no match for the Han Chinese Eight Banners of the Jurchens.

However, Li Jiyu's Xuanwu Camp not only had an advantage in troop strength, but also in firearms equipment and operation, which was far superior to the Jurchen Han army.

Of course, what is most remarkable is that Li Jiyu and his soldiers only felt hatred towards the Jurchen Tartars, but no fear of them!

…………

On the ninth day of the eleventh month of the intercalary period, Wei Zhice led the Tengshe Battalion to set up camp fifteen li south of Li County, Baoding Prefecture, at a place called Tie Dengzhan on the north bank of the Yudai River.

Their scouts have already entered the territory of Suning County in Hejian Prefecture, conducting reconnaissance of the Jurchen cavalry's activities and constantly monitoring their movements in order to seize an opportunity to attack.

On the eleventh, Jiang Xiang, the Assistant Commander-in-Chief of Datong, led 5,000 troops to the area around Bazhou and Xincheng. At this time, the Jurchens had already retreated, and Bazhou was in ruins.

He led his army south, searching and advancing towards Renqiu via Xiongxian, in order to support Zhang Cheng, the Earl of Yongning, who had entered Gaoyang.

…………

On the tenth day of the intercalary eleventh month, a group of Jurchen cavalry appeared in the territory of Hejian.

At this time, Zhou Erchun, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of War, was inspecting the city's defenses in Hejian Prefecture. Upon learning of this news, he immediately led his household servants back to Hejian Prefecture overnight.

Sure enough, on the eleventh day, a large group of Jurchen soldiers were found encamped ten miles north of Hejian Prefecture, and they were already in a battle formation ready to attack the city.

Yan Yinshao, the prefect of Hejian, rallied officials and gentry in the city to resist the attack, while also requesting Zhou Erchun, a supervising secretary of the Ministry of War, to write a letter to the court requesting reinforcements to be sent immediately.

Zhou Erchun knew that there was a Xuan-Da army led by the Earl of Yongning to the west of Suning. He sent an urgent message to the court and wrote a letter to the commander of the Xuan-Da army to the west of Suning, requesting that they come to the aid of Hejian as soon as possible.

On that day, the soldiers and civilians in Hejian City, under the organization of Prefect Yan Yinshao, began the battle to defend the city.

During the day, they bombarded the Jurchen cavalry from the city walls with cannons, and when they got close, they hurled logs and stones down on them. They even selected suicide soldiers to go out of the city to attack the Jurchens who were climbing the walls, and finally succeeded in thwarting the Jurchen offensive.

After nightfall, they organized hundreds of elite soldiers to launch a night raid on the Jurchen army camp, attempting to destroy the Jurchen siege equipment.

Unexpectedly, the Jurchens were well-prepared, extinguishing all the lights and fires in their camp, plunging the entire camp into darkness. This prevented the assassins from discovering the infiltrators in time, ultimately leading to the failure of their raid.