Daming Yinghua

Chapter 465 Decisive Battle ()

In the fourth year of Taichang in the Ming Dynasty and the ninth year of Tianming in the Later Jin Dynasty, the capital of the Later Jin Dynasty was Hetuala.

Outside the south city, on the high platform in front of the "hall", Nurhaci, who had completed the flag-offering ceremony, looked down at the five flags lined up in the wilderness in front of him like a patrolling eagle.

These five flags were: the Plain Yellow and Bordered Yellow flags led by Nurhaci himself, the Plain White flag led by Huang Taiji, the Bordered Red flag led by Yuetuo, and the Bordered White flag led by Dudu, the son of Chu Ying, the old chieftain who had been executed long ago.

At the same time, Wuzhen Chaoha, a team consisting of Han musketeers, artillerymen, copper and blacksmiths, and Korean musketeers, also served under Yuetuo.

The two flags left to guard Hetuala were the Bordered Blue Banner led by Amin, and the Plain Blue Banner led by Dergelei.

After Daishan handed over the grain shipped from Korea to Yuetuo, he selected fifty white-armored Bayalas and two hundred red-armored Bayalas from the twenty or so Niulu under his command, gave them to his father Huang Taiji, and left Hetuala.

He wanted to order the soldiers of the Zhenghong Banner to deploy the Maolianwei to the area between the Tumen River and Huining to guard the backyard for Amin and Dergelei.

This was Nurhaci's final arrangement for the Eight Banners before the great war.

Since the Jiannu did not conquer several important cities in Liaodong of the Ming Dynasty in succession as in history, they did not seize an astonishing number of Han slaves and food wealth. The national strength did not increase, and the natural climate made the situation worse. Many Jiannu people starved to death or froze to death. Even after conquering the Yehe tribe and unifying the entire Jurchens, the number of Eight Banners soldiers at this year is only about 40,000.

In this expedition, there were five banners and one hundred Niulu soldiers, including white armor, red armor, and cotton armor, totaling 25,000 people, and nearly 10,000 bondservants.

But Nurhaci was quite confident in the wealth he had accumulated with all his efforts.

Six years ago, when they were in high spirits and fought Fushun, they also sent out 20,000 men. However, due to the ambushes and deceptions set by the enemy, as well as the tacit cooperation between the host and guest armies of the Ming Dynasty, the Jin Dynasty suffered a defeat and suffered heavy losses.

Things are different now. In Nurhaci's view, the new emperor of the Ming Dynasty is even more foolish.

He used military pay to build palaces, which forced the soldiers in the camp to riot for pay. The civil officials sent by the emperor were incompetent. It was probably because his political enemies in the capital instigated the emperor to make things difficult for him, and it also affected local Liaodong generals like Mao Wenlong.

Of course, the main reason why the old chief believed that the shame of Fushun would not be repeated in Kaiyuan and Tieling was not only because the Yehe Jurchens, who were formerly the lackeys of the Ming Dynasty, had been conquered by Jianzhou and surrendered to the Great Jin, but also because the Great Jin now had artillery to bombard city walls.

Nurhaci, who claimed that he would become a great leader, walked down from the platform where he swore an oath.

Concubine Abahai came forward to greet them.

Even though the Jianzhou Jurchens now had a country name, they were essentially still a tribe similar to a slave society. They even retained the custom of levirate marriage and had no taboo on concubines appearing in front of civil and military officials in the outer court.

Nurhaci took the wine cup from Abahai and handed it to the beiles, big and small. After they drank the liquor, he handed them leaves coated with honey and asked them to lick them as an auspicious ceremony to pray for a great victory.

When she came to Huang Taiji, the leader of the Plain White Banner, Abahai summoned up the courage to say to Nurhaci: "Great Khan, let Dorgon and Dodo also go with the army and follow the Fourth Beile. It was the Fourth Beile who taught them how to ride and shoot."

Nurhaci narrowed his eyes under his white eyebrows and turned to look at the two young sons holding plates beside Abahai.

Abahai gave birth to three sons for Nurhaci: Ajige, Dorgon and Dodo.

Ajige was nineteen years old this year and was one of the young beiles who went on the expedition. He was in Nurhaci's Zhenghuang Banner. Dorgon and Dodo were only twelve and ten years old respectively and were left in Hetuala.

Without waiting for Nurhaci to speak, Huang Taiji pretended to be a caring brother and said, "Fourteenth and fifteenth brothers are still young. If you want to fight Nikan, let's do it next time."

Seeing that Huang Taiji seemed disdainful of her meaningful request, Abahai dared not say any more words in public.

Unexpectedly, after a slight hesitation, Nurhaci said in a loud voice: "Okay, a calf can also kill a tiger, so forget about the Fifteenth Prince and stay with your mother. But the Fourteenth Prince will join the Plain White Banner and follow the Fourth Prince."

When Dorgon heard this, he was so happy that he immediately knelt down and said to his father: "Thank you, father. I want to compete with my twelfth brother to see whether he can kill more Ming soldiers or I can kill more Ming soldiers."

The white-armored soldiers around cheered at the right time.

Huang Taiji naturally wanted to join in the fun, so he hurriedly ordered his personal soldiers to get a set of armor.

In that brief moment, he had completely suppressed his disgust for Abahai's attempt to please her.

Huang Taiji thought that he could use this war to further deepen his relationship with Dorgon. After all, the old Khan was almost 65 years old. If something unexpected happened during this expedition, and he didn't have time to leave a will about who to give the two yellow flags to, he could take the initiative to propose that the Plain Yellow Flag be given to Ajige and the Bordered Yellow Flag be given to Dorgon, and then slowly gather the latter's troops.

When the fourth prince, the most respected one under the Great Jin Dynasty, was calculating, Degelei, who was not far away, bit his back teeth hard.

"A little brat who hasn't even grown any hair on his mouth can go to Kaiyuan and Tieling to get a share of the pie. I, Degelei, must also go and capture Aiyang City to let my father know that the Zhenglan Banner is still the strongest hunter among the Eight Banners even without Manggurtai."

The sound of conch shells, more unpleasant than the howl of a wolf, rang out. More than 30,000 soldiers and bannermen marched northward along the Suzi River. After crossing the Hunhe River near Jiefan Village, Nurhaci followed the plan prepared in advance and ordered Du Du to lead 4,000 men of the Bordered White Banner westward to plunder along the way and make some noise, as if they were going to march straight to the city of Shenyang.

The old chief himself led the real main force of 20,000 Jin troops and continued to march northward, marching through the territories of the Jurchen tribes. All the way, he kept a distance of about 50 miles from the military forts of Fu'an, Chaihe, Songshan and others in the western Ming territory. During this time, he kept sending out scouts throughout the area to prevent the advance route from being detected by the Ming army's night guards roaming outside the pass.

Mu Zaohua followed the Wuzhen Chaoha Firearms Team and walked ahead of the army's food and supplies, but was still one or two kilometers away from the front line.

After she went to Nurhaci and openly told him about the killing of Zhang Da, Huang Taiji did not overtly react negatively to her. He even firmly opposed it when Nurhaci proposed that Tong Yangxing go on the expedition with the firearms team. He said that the Tong family had been severely punished not long ago and should not be used in the nearly one year of foreign offensives.

However, on the day the army set out, there was suddenly a new commander in Wuzhen Chaoha's team.

Yue Tuo said to Mu Zaohua, "Aobai is now the general of the Fourth Prince. I will command the cavalry and infantry of the Red Banner. I feel relieved that General Aobai will be in charge of the firearms with you."

Mu Zaohua stared at Aobai, whose bravery she had witnessed in Emao City, and asked expressionlessly, "When we are arranging the battle array, will we listen to me or General Aobai?"

Without waiting for Yuetuo to speak again, Aobai replied: "During the march, I taught Master Ezhen to hurry up. When we reach the city of Kaiyuan, Master will give the orders."

Mu Zaohua caught a glimpse of Yuetuo's soothing gaze and pursed her lips: "Don't worry, Beile Yuetuo, it's not like I'm unfamiliar with Aobai. Wuzhen is so difficult, just leave it to the two of us, and let those copper and iron tools directly destroy the city wall of Kaiyuan."

At noon that day, Mu Zaohua and Aobai were riding on their horses, one leading the way and the other supporting the firearms team, crossing the Xiaoqing River from the shallows, when suddenly a scout came galloping in front.

"The Khan orders you to hurry up and catch up with the infantry and cavalry! Kaiyuan's garrison commander Ma Lin has left for Shenyang. The Khan said that tomorrow morning, we, the Great Jin, will take Guangshun Pass and march towards Kaiyuan City!"