Guangzong Yaoming

Chapter 329 The Price of Youth

"So the Jianzhou Jurchens really rebelled?"

In the Forbidden City, Empress Dowager Li specifically called Wang An over.

"Grand Empress Dowager, they are rebelling." Wang An's face was full of worry. "This time it's not easy to deal with. The Tartars, the Jianzhou Jurchens, and Korea... have all rebelled. I heard that I have ordered people to capture Nurhaci's son. And his daughter... What should I do?"

"Cut the grass at its roots!" Empress Dowager Li was concerned about this matter because it was "a warning from the Bodhisattva."

Now that Jianzhou has rebelled, she is very nervous, especially when she heard that even North Korea has joined in the rebellion.

"What's going on outside? Are there any unusual movements among the ministers in the court?" Empress Dowager Li did not wait for his answer and continued, "Go and call Chen Ju back! The capital cannot afford any problems at this time!"

"Yes, I will obey the order of the Empress Dowager."

Wang An was infected by her nervousness, and then said worriedly: "Some people are indeed very worried, and there are many memorials impeaching the Privy Council. Although they did not say anything wrong about Your Majesty, they said that Tian Shumi was stubborn and ambitious, which means Your Majesty..."

"How can these fools understand the emperor's painstaking efforts!" Empress Dowager Li snorted coldly. She thought for a moment and said, "Go and call the concubines of the Yehe tribe over. The military situation in Liaodong is tight now, so we need them to help the emperor!"

She was prepared to treat Yehenara well.

Now, Queen Mother Li was worried and anxious, and after seeing her, she remembered the rumors about her.

It can make the world prosperous or destroy the world...

Although she firmly believed that her grandson was blessed with great fortune and destiny, she could not help but think about the most horrible scenario.

But at this moment, he could not take care of anything else, so he first called Nurhaci's fourth daughter Mukushi in front of her and ordered her to be executed.

"The emperor played hard to get. He seized three tribes from the Jianzhou Jurchens last year, and now he has indeed provoked them to rebel. You must send a message to the Yehe tribe and work with the Ming Dynasty to wipe out Nurhaci. Since the emperor has avenged your blood feud, you must serve him wholeheartedly from now on!"

Yehenala Dongge was now in ecstasy and nodded hurriedly: "I will definitely persuade my brother!"

Zhu Changluo, who was in Jizhou Town, didn't know that Empress Dowager Li had killed Nurhaci's son and daughter directly, which was very straightforward.

Now, in front of Li Chengliang, who had just captured the Tashan Heights, Tang Guda was tied up tightly and kneeling there.

"Your Majesty will decide how to deal with you."

After sending people to take him to Jizhou to guard the city, Li Chengliang had to face these remaining Jurchen soldiers.

After a tough battle, he dispersed these 3,000 Jurchen soldiers and arranged them into various camps, with no more than a few hundred people in each camp.

"What I said still counts!" Li Chengliang stared at the three leaders, "Since Nurhaci has rebelled against the Ming Dynasty, you will no longer be commanded by his son. If you are willing to serve me, you must help me win this battle!"

The Jurchen soldiers had already seen the Ming Dynasty's Xinjing Camp trained by Li Chengliang himself. That was the result of Zhu Changluo's disinterest in material enjoyment and his generous training for several years.

Are these three leaders still going to work for Jianzhou? They are originally from the three tribes of Haixi.

"You all know about the great victory at Laoha River. The Tartars wanted to block the reinforcements from the interior, but they were no match for them at Tashan! Now they are just stray dogs, and the Jianzhou Jurchens will soon be destroyed! A bright future is in front of you. Rest for an hour and then pursue them immediately!"

More than thirty miles to their north, Lindan Batur and Dai Qing had already realized that this was a trap.

After the appearance of Li Chengliang's general flag, coupled with the strong defenses around Jinzhou, they realized that the reason for breaking through Dashengbao, Dafubao and the border walls between them was not just because of the weak military forces here.

What’s even more terrible is that with the combined strength of the Aohan and Naiman tribes, the base camp on the other side of the Laoha River was originally strong enough to be defended for a long time.

But no one expected that Tumed and Liu Jing would attack from the west together.

"Now we can only go east!" Lindan Batur said bitterly, "If we had known this would happen, we should have attacked the Ming army in Jizhou fiercely. The generals and soldiers there were afraid of fighting!"

Dai Qing knew that he was blaming himself for persuading him to change his strategy, but Dai Qing was in a bad mood too.

However, Lindan Batur said to go east, but the news brought back by the scouts from the east was not optimistic.

At Dalingh River, there were more than 20,000 Ming troops assembled, and the number of them was especially large among civilians.

To the north are numerous forts.

If you are delayed even a little, you may be surrounded.

"We must go west!" Dai Qing opposed Lindan Batur's strategy, "We must go west to Dajian Mountain and Daling River Valley. Now we can only delay until the snow is thick, until we reach Khorchin and Jianzhou, so that the Liaodong Ming army will be distracted and have time to deal with it!"

"Aren't we going to be surrounded in the Daling River Valley? They said they were ambushing reinforcements in the west, but the Ming army went to seize Daning instead!"

"Sweaty..."

Dai Qing was about to continue persuading him when a message came from the west: a Ming army of no more than a thousand people was coming from Xiaoling River.

"We have to kill them!" Dai Qing said immediately, "We need another big victory!"

The military needs it.

"Du Ling is confused! That's obviously a bait, or they are trying to delay us! We can't waste a moment, we must get through the Ming army in the east! I don't believe they have moved all the food and grass in Liaodong into the castles and military camps!"

"Sweaty..."

"I am the Khan! Will Duling obey my orders?" Lindan Batur got angry.

Dai Qing stared at him, gritted his teeth and said, "Okay! Let's go to the east!"

Not long after the noise occurred, Yuan Keli, who was in Dalingh Fort east of Jinzhou, found out about it.

The area west of the Dalingh River is flat, so it is not easy to encircle and annihilate the Khan's army here.

But the timing was good, the lower reaches of the Daling River had not yet frozen, and the Khan's army could not easily cross the river.

"Send a message to the Thirteen Mountain Posts, and have the Hedong army line up along the river, with one camp every five miles!" Yuan Keli made a prompt decision, "Go forward to Xiaolinghe Post, and I will see how they cross the river. After the great victory at Tashan, the Ningyuan Marquis will not miss the opportunity to fight. If we delay them for three days, they will have no choice but to flee back to the west!"

In the Xiaoling River Valley in the west, Dayun and Qin Liangyu also wanted to delay the pace of Khan's army with their men.

After a brief rest in the south, Li Chengliang immediately marched northward with the goal of recaptured Songshan Fort which had been abandoned before.

The small encirclement of the Khan's army was the Yizhou Ming army in the north, Yuan Keli in the east, and Li Chengliang in the south.

In a larger area, the Jizhen border troops led by Li Hualong were heading towards the Dalingh River Valley. Liu Jing left some people behind and led the Tumed cavalry south from the upper reaches of the Laoha River, also heading towards the Dalingh River.

This is the battlefield in the east of Liaodong.

To the northeast of Liaohe River, Ma Gui was rushing eastward along the Liaohe River to support the Liaohe River defense line, and the remnants of Khorchin and Inner Khalkha were attacking.

To the east of Liaodong, the Liaoyuan Military and Civilian Prefecture was now in danger. Nurhaci's first step was naturally not to attack the Ming border wall, but the Liaoyuan Military and Civilian Prefecture and Kuandian Liubao outside the border wall.

Yu Zigao was under tremendous pressure. After all, the first target of this veteran warrior who had fought in many battles for many years in Jianzhou was the Liaoyuan Military and Civilian Prefecture, which was the original site of the three Haixi tribes.

"Take back your old land!" Nurhaci roared, "First take back your old land, then eliminate the Jurchen traitors Yehe tribe, and after taking Kaiyuan, we can march straight into Liaodong. From today on, let the prestige of the Jin Kingdom, which belongs to the Manchus, spread throughout Liaodong!"

Just defend the Hetuala area south of the Hun River!

If the Ming army left Fushun Pass and Yagu Pass, Nurhaci would be happy to fight them in the field.

Perhaps we can also capture some of the Ming army's guns and cannons, which will give us more confidence in attacking the city later.

Before attacking the Ming Dynasty's border wall, we must first make sure that everything outside the wall is clean and there are no future troubles!
The war broke out throughout Liaodong.

Half a day later, before reaching Xiaolinghe Posthouse, Yuan Keli's troops ran head-on into the Khanate's army coming from the east.

Drums sounded loudly and the Ming army formed a battle formation.

"A battle of life and death!" Lindan Batur could see this clearly. At this moment, the young man was riding on his horse, shouting at the top of his lungs to encourage morale, "The Han people will not let us cross the Daling River easily, but we must go east! If we disrupt the entire Liaodong, Khorchin and the Jurchens will win easily! The Han people left the fort to provoke the brave soldiers of the Khan, what do you say!"

"kill!"

"kill!"

"kill!"

"Du Ling, you can't be distracted anymore!"

Dai Qing wanted to say something but stopped.

Why do we have to attack a formation composed of so many Ming troops?
The Khan's court is full of cavalry. If we go around them, will they be able to catch up with us?
The army really needed a big victory, so why not just rush to the Daling River first? Even if there were Ming troops on the other side of the river ready to attack them halfway across the river, they could always defeat the slower with the faster, right?
But the young Khan had suffered a setback at the hands of Tashan before, and now he had to use such a head-on confrontation to re-establish his prestige.

"Hura! Hura!" Dai Qing did not care about anything else. He really had to survive from death. He could not allow any internal conflicts to occur.

After gathering the remaining soldiers who escaped from the Aohan tribe, the Khan's army now has nearly 20,000 troops.

It’s not that we can’t fight.

Yuan Keli looked at the Tatar cavalry charging in front of him and simply shouted, "Your Majesty has ordered that if this battle is successful, no dukes or marquises will be spared! May the Ming Dynasty win forever!"

"The Ming Dynasty will be victorious!"

"The Ming Dynasty will be victorious!"

"Great Ming wins"

The blocking battle east of Jinzhou began.

If the Tatars want to defeat the Ming army here, it will be much easier for them to cross the Dalingh River afterwards.

Deep inside the Liaodong border wall, Daiqing has now lost the territory of the Aohan tribe, and there is no way out for the Khanate.

Either they would die in the endless escape, or the entire Liaodong region of the Ming Dynasty would suffer a strategic defeat.

They could only hope that the collective attack of Khorchin, Inner Khalkha and Jianzhou Jurchens would eventually bring about a turning point in the war situation.

Because of Lindan Batur's angry decision, the scouts who were collecting intelligence in the front quickly passed the news to the south.

Li Chengliang, who had just arrived near Xingshan Post Station south of Songshan Fort, thought for a moment and said, "The Tartars are trying their best to break out to the east. The Jizhen army and Zhang Yonghou may not be able to catch up. Report to Jizhou Town as soon as possible and convey my order. The army near Yizhou will move south, and the defenders in Jinzhou will move east to surround the Tartars on the seashore!"

Then he ordered Zhang Weixian: "Young Master, pass the order down, march quickly!"

This is a rare opportunity. Since the Tartars are not prepared to wait for an opportunity in the west, but insist on breaking through to the east, then the decisive battle will be fought here.

The terrain is flat and vast, and there may still be a number of large and small groups of Tatar cavalry scattered around. It would be more troublesome to pursue and annihilate the enemy afterwards, but it is only a matter of time after all.

Military intelligence was urgently delivered to Jizhou Town, where Zhu Changluo was still digesting the great victory at Tashan.

After hearing this, he became serious: "Lindan Batur is decisive!"

I thought they would take advantage of their greater familiarity with the terrain in the Daling River Valley and look for other opportunities there, but they were determined to break into the heart of Liaodong.

"The situation has come to a point where it's a life-and-death struggle." Tian Le said, "The four tribes of Chahar Lingnan have been badly wounded, and the government troops have already occupied their lair. Now the only way to reverse the defeat is to make the entire Liaodong region collapse. Your Majesty, I think we don't need to be on guard against Shanhaiguan anymore, and we should make plans for the next step. Send reinforcements out of the pass to suppress Jianzhou."

"Xizhi believes that Ningyuan Hou and Governor Yuan will be able to defeat the enemy east of Jinzhou?"

"Of course." Tian Le smiled, "Yuan Liqing left Dalinghe Fort. He had already calculated that Lindan Batur would not be able to swallow the defeat at Tashan. The chieftain is young and hot-tempered. If he escapes far away, the morale of the Tartar army will collapse. He used himself as bait. Since Ningyuan Hou made a prompt decision and rushed over, the Tartars will definitely be defeated. Now we have to quickly send a message to Guangning area to prepare for the subsequent search and suppression of the remaining Tartars. I think we should send a message to Zhangyong Hou and let him rush to Guangning. In addition, let Ninglu Bo go directly to Dasheng Fort. The Tartars should gather their troops together and abandon their escape route to the west."

"At this point, you still hope that the Ming Dynasty will lose the entire Liaodong." Zhu Changluo understood Tian Le's judgment, "Xizhi is saying that Lindan Batur wants to fight guerrilla warfare in Liaodong in a desperate state?"

Having lost the four tribes of Lingnan and failed to defend the Tashan area, the Tatars had of course become an army of woe.

"We can't afford to lose anything with the Jianzhou Jurchens, otherwise the Tartars will take advantage of the situation. It is more important to defeat them as soon as possible."

Zhu Changluo thought for a moment, then said, "Hurry up and send a message to Jinzhou, telling them that the emperor will leave immediately and come to Jinzhou in person later."

Tian Le was startled and tried to dissuade him: "Your Majesty..."

"I don't need to go in person." Zhu Changluo waved his hand, "At least not now. Send the dragon flag quickly, and see if the enemy chief will think of capturing me to turn things around after seeing it."

Tian Le understood, then laughed and said, "That's a good idea..."

"If we can defeat the enemy army and then stabilize Guangning, I will go and reward the three armies!"

Soon, the flags and guards representing the emperor's ceremonial procession rushed towards Shanhaiguan.

By the time they arrived in Jinzhou without stopping, it would have been two or three days since the war had begun.

After all, it took half a day to deliver the urgent package to Jizhou town.

At this moment, the Tatar army, which had attacked Yuan Keli's army several times, had still failed to succeed, and the battle was in a stalemate.

From the north, west and south, the Ming army was rushing towards this side to encircle and surround them. The news reported by the cavalry made Lindan Batur more and more annoyed.

I also increasingly doubted that I had made the wrong decision.

When Li Chengliang's flag appeared on the west bank of Xiaoling River after a quick march, Lindan Batur suddenly felt his breathing very uncomfortable.

Should I have listened to Dai Qing before?
(End of this chapter)