Red Mansion: Fuyao River and Mountain

Chapter 298: Sweeping the Court and Shocking the Sky

March 12, the 14th year of Jiazhao.

At this time, in the capital, the coldness is gradually fading away, and signs of spring are showing.

But in the mountains and rivers of northern Liaoning, the cold winter has not yet taken its final steps, and the sky and earth are still shrouded in a gloomy and cold evil.

Jia Cong's memorial on the strategy for pacifying the Jurchens prompted Emperor Jia Zhao to adjust his war strategy against the Jurchens again.

On the imperial edict sent to Liaodong Town, there was a line of words that seemed shocking and full of murderous intent.

Sweep away the old Jurchen court and wipe out their powerful bloodline!
Emperor Jiazhao wanted to wipe out the last remaining fighting force of the Jurchens in exchange for decades of peace on the Liaodong border.

Since receiving the military edict from the capital, Liang Chengzong, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong Town, has conducted careful reconnaissance and investigation, held multiple military consultations, and made relevant troop deployments.

Finally, he listened to Jia Cong's advice and prepared for a month. In April, when the snow on the mountains melted, he would reorganize the troops and carry out a clean-up operation to prevent the Jurchens from escaping into the mountains and becoming impossible to pursue.

The Jurchens had already suffered heavy losses after their six thousand elite soldiers were annihilated in a single battle by the Zhou Dynasty at Yafu Pass.

According to scouts, the Jurchen tribes had no more than 2,000 strong men available, and it would be difficult to recover without ten years of hard work.

After a month of preparation, the tail end of the extremely cold winter would only consume more of the Jurchens' stored food and lives.

……

By the beginning of April, when the snow in Liaodong had begun to melt, several troops swarmed out from the three passes of the Liaodong border town and gathered thirty miles northwest of Yafu Pass.

Then the troops were divided into four routes: left, middle, right and rear, and they went deep into the Jurchen former territory to wipe out the remaining enemies of the Three Guards.

On the left, Liu Yong, the lieutenant general of Yafu Pass, led three thousand elite cavalrymen out of Dunhe, Yunjiang, across Shimen, over Yongchang Mountain, and to the watershed.

The central army was led by Deng Hui, the guerrilla general of Yonglan Pass, with 3,000 elite cavalrymen, who marched out of Bolang Mountain, Zhuoyu Ridge, passed Meng Mountain, crossed Suzi River, and arrived at Yonghui City.

The right wing army was led by Jia Cong, the director of the Firearms Department and General Wuding, who led a thousand firearms soldiers and five hundred elite cavalry through Yafu Pass, Xichangkou, Pantuo City, Xuesong Ridge, and Moyun Mountain to Bazhu River.

The rear army consisted of more than 2,000 people, responsible for the transportation of food and supplies, as well as the escort of the old and weak Jurchen captives.

Among the three armies of left, center and right, although Jia Cong's troops were only half of those of the other two armies, he commanded almost all the firearms troops of the Liaodong Army.

Therefore, the strength of the 1,500-man right wing army is no less than the 3,000 elite cavalry of the left and center armies.

The Battle of Yafu Pass allowed the Liaodong army to witness the tremendous power of firearms.

Therefore, when sending out troops this time, Liang Chengzong had thought of dividing the firearms troops into three routes.

Liu Yongzheng, who led the left wing, was the first to raise objections, although he had witnessed the power of firearms with his own eyes in the battle of Yafu Pass.

But precisely because he was present at the scene, he knew better than anyone else that the reason why firearms were so powerful in this battle was due to Jia Cong's excellent command and use of firearms.

Whether it was measuring the distance with artillery on the city wall or alternating the use of porcelain thunder fire weapons, Jia Cong could always choose the most suitable time to launch, which was something no one else could match.

Liu Yongzheng's best tactic is rapid cavalry assault. He is a layman in using firearms. Giving him a bunch of musketeers will not only make it difficult for them to maximize their effectiveness, but will also occupy his troops.

In comparison, it would be more practical to let him command another thousand elite cavalry.

Deng Hui, the guerrilla general of Yonglan Pass, was also a brave general from Liaodong. Although he had heard of the power of firearms, he had not witnessed the battle of Yafu Pass with his own eyes and was also unfamiliar with the use of firearms.

In the end, he also adopted Liu Yongzheng's choice of troops.

From this point of view, Liu Yongzheng and Deng Hui are both pragmatic and meticulous generals who understand that the strengths of others are not their own, and that only by using the tactics they are most familiar with can they achieve the greatest results.

In the end, Liang Chengzong changed his original intention. Except for leaving behind the artillery battalion and the necessary firearms soldiers stationed at the pass, the remaining one thousand firearms soldiers were led by Jia Cong.

……

Jia Cong led the right-wing army and marched for eight or nine days, destroying four or five Jurchen castles along the way.

The army killed 560 brave Jurchens, rescued more than 400 captured Han people, and captured more than 800 Jurchen prisoners.

He showed no mercy to the young and strong Jurchens who put up a stubborn resistance, and he carefully screened those who were willing to surrender. He showed no tolerance to those who pretended to obey his orders but actually disobeyed them, and he did his best to drain the Jurchens' vitality.

The captured people were taken back and dealt with by the rear army.

As Jia Cong led his troops deeper into the Baishan and Heishui regions, he had to overcome the psychological barrier that a merciful army cannot be commanded.

He knew better than anyone how great a hidden danger the Jurchen powerful bloodline would pose to future generations.

……

On this day, on the banks of the Yunchang River in northern Liao, there was the important Jurchen city of Pantuo.

A team of Da Zhou servants rode out of the open city gate.

Not long after, a large army of several thousand men marched into the city in a mighty force.

Jia Cong rode a black horse, wore green rhinoceros armor, a curved sword at his waist, and a pitch-black bearskin cloak.

After leading the troops on treks for many days, being buffeted by wind and frost, and being toiled on the battlefield, he lost a lot of weight, and his originally fair skin became bronze-like in color.

But the spirit in his eyes became more and more vigorous, exuding an edge that was difficult to look at.

Ai Li was still following Jia Cong closely, wearing a long green gown with indigo embroidered branches and vines, a long sword hanging from her waist, and a short-sleeved deerskin jacket, looking heroic. She also had a snow-white fox fur coat around her neck, and a playful wolf fur hat with colorful patterns on her head. Her azure blue eyes were as clear as water, shining brightly and eye-catching.

Ever since they joined hands to charge into the battlefield and kill the enemy at Yafu Pass, and helped each other in life and death, the relationship between them was no longer just that of an employer and a guard connected by two taels of gold.

Originally, Ellie was just a simple-minded girl from the border village who relied on her swordsmanship to work as a bodyguard for the southern merchants in the town and earn gold to support her mother.

If Jia Cong had not appeared, she might have spent several years saving enough gold, and then would have taken her mother back to her hometown in the south of the Yangtze River, and then gradually disappeared from the world.

But her unexpected encounter with Jia Cong changed her original trajectory. Jia Cong's friendliness and wisdom made her see a new world.

It was not just the wars and battles in front of her, and the victory over the enemy. Through their contact and chats, she learned about the prosperity of the capital and the beauty of the south of the Yangtze River.

It turns out that this world is not just the vast snowfields of Liaobei, the struggle for life and death, fast horses and sharp swords. This world is so vast that it made the young girl full of yearning.

Until that day of the Battle of Yafu Pass, amidst the rush of thousands of troops, she watched Fanercha's golden sword slash across Jia Cong's chest and abdomen.

The palpitations and pain at that moment were like a heavy blow, awakening the softest part of the heart of this brave girl who had been walking on the edge of a knife since childhood.

From that moment on, staying with Jia Cong became a habit for Ellie, and it was no longer just a matter of two taels of gold a month.

For Jia Cong, Ai Li is an important part of this expedition. She is not only a brave and skilled guard, but her superb falconry training skills allow Jia Cong to detect the enemy as quickly as possible.

Since he started the campaign, he has achieved far better results than the left and center armies, which has been fully demonstrated.

……

Pantuo City was originally the territory of Dong Shan, the Left Guard of the Jurchens. Three thousand households of the Left Guard settled here, with nearly ten thousand people. It was the largest Jurchen stronghold in northern Liaoning.

Normally, more than a thousand young and strong soldiers could be mobilized from here, but after the consumption in the battle of Yafu Pass, there are definitely not so many young and strong Jurchens available now.

When he led his army into Pantuo City, he found that the entire town was empty, like a dead city.

Ellie shook her shoulders gently, and the Saker Falcon named Eagle Slave spread its wings and flew high, circling back and forth over Pantuo City.

After only a short while, the eagle suddenly swooped down to the left side of the town, making a sharp eagle cry, then spread its wings and flew high, then swooped down again...

Ellie said, "The eagle slave must have found something on the left side of the town."

As he spoke, he whistled and waved to the eagle slave in the air, and the eagle slave lowered its altitude and flew levelly ahead to lead the way.

After the Battle of Yafu Pass and the recent three-way mopping-up operations by the armies, the Jurchens' former territory is no longer able to gather a single force of over a thousand.

Therefore, Jia Cong did not have too many concerns. He left five hundred musketeers to guard the passes in the city, and took the rest of the troops to chase after the eagle slaves.

They soon arrived at a large house in the east of the city, which must be the residence of the Jurchen nobles in the city.

After a careful check around the mansion, there was nothing unusual. When Jia Cong and Ai Li led their men closer to the gate, they smelled a strong smell of blood.

The soldiers pushed open the door, and the scene inside the mansion shocked everyone.

The mansion was filled with corpses, roughly estimated to be hundreds of them, and most of them were elderly.

These people were all unarmed, and all had been stabbed in the chest and abdomen. It looked like an indiscriminate massacre.

Jia Cong knew that in today's world, medical care was not as advanced as in later generations, and that it was truly a rare age to live to be seventy. In the warm and prosperous Central Plains, living past sixty was considered a long life.

However, in the cold and lonely area of ​​the northern frontier, only a very small number of people live over the age of sixty. In most of the northern areas, the weather is extremely cold, and food and clothing are insufficient. The northern Hu people become extremely old when they are over fifty.

Jia Cong sent soldiers in to check, and after counting, they found a total of more than 480 bodies.

Except for more than ten bodies that were young and strong and carrying a few weapons, the rest were unarmed elderly people.

Ai Li grew up in Liaobei and had heard many stories about the brutality of the Jurchens. She said in a trembling voice, "The Jurchens must have fled along the way and were seriously short of food and grass.

That’s why we regarded these old people as a burden to our food supply, and we killed them all. Those young and strong people with weapons must be the relatives of the old people, and they were all killed if they tried to resist.”

Jia Cong's face was gloomy. These more than 400 corpses were probably all the old and weak people in the town.

Regardless of the era, the brutal massacre of the elderly and the weak is a matter that is condemned by both humans and gods, regardless of race or friend or foe.

……

These Jurchen nobles, who were brave and powerful between the White Mountains and the Black Waters, had their basic conscience and character completely distorted by the law of survival of the fittest.

Pantuo City was the territory of Dong Shan, the Left Guard of the Jurchens. Even this luxurious mansion might be Dong Shan’s residence.

Only Dong Shan, the leader of the Left Guard, had the right to issue a kill order to eliminate the food-eaters on such a large scale.

In order to preserve the last elite combat force and reduce material losses, these Jurchen nobles even spared no effort on their own relatives and clansmen.

Jia Cong recalled the bloody records of later generations, in which foreign races galloped into the Central Plains, and countless common people were like livestock, pigs and sheep, and thousands and thousands fell under the brutal butcher's knife.

Isn't this the tragic replay of the scene before our eyes countless times?

Only by beheading all the leaders and slaughtering all the vicious and stubborn can we bring real opportunities to this vast land of Liaobei and wash away the laws of survival that have been distorted by ambition!

(End of this chapter)