The Red Mansions

Chapter 1424 Jia Heng: The Jurchens rose quickly, and fell suddenly (asking for monthly tickets!)

Chapter 1424 Jia Heng: The Jurchens rose quickly, and fell suddenly... (Please give me a monthly ticket!)

Shengjing City

As night falls and dusk deepens, lanterns have been hung on the city gate tower, emitting circles of orange light in the darkness.

The daytime fighting gradually subsided, and in the towering Shengjing city, in the government office with a vermilion-lacquered and copper-nailed gate, Dorgon was now sitting on a pearwood chair in the middle of the hall, his face solemn, almost like black water.

"You should have seen today's siege." Dorgon paused, nodded, and said, "The Han army's fire guns hit wherever they pointed, and we had no idea what to do."

"Since our army is not good at defending the city, we should use our weakness to meet the enemy's strength. We have to fight outside the city and defeat the Han navy. Only then can we completely break the deadlock." Hu Sai said with a solemn expression and bowed.

Lekedehun also agreed and said: "Instead of waiting for the main force of the Han army to arrive and complete the encirclement outside the city wall, it is better for our army to take the initiative to attack and defeat the Han army in front of us first."

Previously, Lekedehun had thought of using this method, but on the one hand, Jia Fang led the cavalry to gallop outside, and on the other hand, there were not many troops in Shengjing City, which was originally stretched to the limit.

Dorgon pondered for a moment, a look of determination appeared on his calm, fair face, and he said, "Husai, you lead a flag of the Red Banner soldiers and horses to leave the city overnight and harass the Han army's navy's food supply route. You must not make any mistakes."

Hu Sai's face became serious and he bowed in response.

In fact, it is a bit late to do these things at this time.

Because Xie Zaiyi had led 20,000 cavalry, the Han army had more cavalry. Before Dorgon returned, the Han navy had 60,000 soldiers, and the Hebei border army had about 20,000 to 30,000 soldiers, all of whom were cavalry.

Although the chances of winning were still slim at that time, there was still a chance to fight. However, Husai, Shuosai and others who were defending the city did not have such courage.

This resulted in the opportunity being fleeting, and the two or three-day window period quickly disappeared.

After all, the Shengjing City had experienced the successive capture of Ningyuan, Jinzhou, Liaoyang and Hetuala cities, and was like a frightened bird, in a state of panic all day long.

No one could have thought of concentrating superior forces to eliminate this weak force of the Han army.

Shuo Sai's face turned serious, and he said with a folded hand: "Fourteenth Uncle, today the Red Barbarian Cannons were placed on the top of the city, but they were blown away by the Han Army's cannons. Fourteenth Uncle, why don't you take the Red Barbarian Cannons out of the city gate and fight to the death with the Han Army."

Dorgon's eyes were deep under his thick eyebrows. He shook his head gently and said, "The red cannon is too heavy and inconvenient to move around. Besides, the enemy cavalry is moving around freely, so they will not sit idly by."

There are some things that Dorgon has thought about, but they are completely unfeasible. Pulling the red cannon out of the city to bombard the enemy's camp would be difficult to accomplish as long as the Han cavalry was harassing the camp.

If this works, then when the armies are facing each other, the red cannons can bombard the enemy camp and attack during the chaos.

When Shuosai heard this, he was speechless for a moment.

Dorgon nodded and said, "In the next two days, mobilize all the princes and nobles in the city to defend the city together and guard against the Han army's attack."

Several people present nodded in agreement.

However, a heavy and depressed mood weighed on everyone's heart, making it hard to breathe.

As he spoke, Dorgon walked out of the inner study and returned to his bedroom along the brightly lit corridor. Not long after, he raised his eyes and looked at Concubine Zhuang, who was accompanied by a group of palace maids and nurses.

Concern welled up on Concubine Zhuang's flawless face, and she said, "Fourteenth brother, how was the battle to defend the city today?"

Dorgon said: "The Han army had just attacked the city and was repelled. The Eight Banners of the Qing Dynasty killed countless enemies, and Shengjing City is as solid as a rock."

Concubine Zhuang's beautiful eyes twinkled under her willow-leaf brows, and she asked, "Fourteenth brother, has the Duke of Wei from the Han court arrived?"

Dorgon was silent for a moment, then said, "He hasn't come yet, but he should be here with a large force soon."

Concubine Zhuang's eyebrows were as beautiful as willow leaves, and her eyes were filled with worry. She asked softly, "If the Han court leads a large army to attack, can the city still resist?"

Dorgon pretended to be relaxed and said, "We have already made arrangements, so there shouldn't be any problems. Let's deal with the troops outside the city first, and the rest of the battle will be easy."

Concubine Zhuang hummed softly, temporarily suppressing her anxiety, and said softly: "Fourteenth brother, I have made a white fungus and lotus seed soup. Come over and have some now."

Dorgon stared at Concubine Zhuang, but he had no other thoughts in his mind. He said, "I need to rest well. I still have to defend the city tomorrow. The Han army will not give up the siege."

After hearing this, Concubine Zhuang did not force Dorgon too much. She just nodded slightly and left.

Dorgon then walked quickly towards the hall without saying anything else.

The inky black night behind him seemed like an abyss that swallowed up the entire Shengjing City in an instant. Only a few lanterns were swaying gently in the summer breeze, emitting circles of orange light.

On the other side, the sky was filled with sunset glow and dusk fell. Fushun, north of Shengjing City—

After the great defeat at Niumao Village, Man Dahai led 16,000 bannermen and marched day and night, abandoning Niumao Village. However, Prince Xun did not go directly to Hetuala City.

Instead, he headed south, intending to provide assistance to Shengjing City.

But just as he arrived in Fushun, he heard the news that Jinzhou City had been breached by the Han army. Upon hearing this news, Man Dahai hesitated for a moment and did not go to Shengjing City.

"Your Highness, this is a letter from the Regent via carrier pigeon." At this moment, a groom entered the hall and bowed to Man Dahai, who had a sad face.

Man Dahai frowned and asked, "What did the pigeon write?"

The horseman cupped his hands and said, "Your Majesty, the regent king said that you should harass the Han army's food supply route to relieve the pressure on Shengjing City."

Under Man Dahai's thick eyebrows, his tiger eyes showed a thoughtful look as he murmured, "Disturb the grain route?"

This is a good plan!

The Han army came with all its might this time, and the logistics, military supplies and baggage consumed were enormous, and the food routes were long. If the Han army wanted to retreat, it would need a large number of troops. If it continued to harass, it could at least relieve the pressure on Shengjing.

Man Dahai nodded and said, "Come here, send a few people over so I can discuss this."

After a while, several burly and resolute-looking generals came quickly, bowed and said, "I greet the prince."

"The Regent ordered us to lead the army to harass the Han army's food supply." Man Dahai said softly, and ordered the grooms to bring a map and put it on the table. At this time, several grooms brought an oil lamp to illuminate the sky.

Man Dahai nodded and said, "After the Han army captured Jinzhou, they transported food and fodder from Shanhaiguan to Qiantun and Gaotaibao, and then to Ningyuan City. From Tashan and Daxingbao, they can reach Jinzhou. The food route is long and the Han army cannot gather a large number of troops to escort it. This is our chance."

As Man Dahai spoke, he felt his mind suddenly become clear and his eyes became brighter and brighter.

As the Han army captured Jinzhou and rushed towards Shengjing City again, the opportunity for battle did appear.

In fact, if it were a strategist of later generations who was in charge of the Jurchens, they would abandon Ningyuan, Jinzhou and other big cities and hand them all over to the Han army, then fortify the city and clear the fields, lure the enemy deep into their territory, and then use their familiarity with the terrain of Liaodong to constantly harass the Han army's long food routes, putting the Han army in a desperate situation.

But this is undoubtedly the thinking of a great strategist: "If we keep the land but lose the people, we will lose both the people and the land; if we keep the people but lose the land, we will keep both the people and the land."

Dorgon obviously did not have such courage. If Huang Taiji were still alive, he might have been able to break out of the rut of defending the city.

Several officers nodded and went down to prepare.

After the generals left, Man Dahai looked out at the gradually darkening night and suddenly realized something.

They should not have engaged in an offensive or defensive battle with the Han army, but should have broken up into small groups and engaged in a field battle with the Han army.

It can be said that the Jurchens had the wrong idea from the very beginning of this war.

In other words, without the brutality and flexibility of Nurhaci when he founded the country, the strategy and tactics became rigid and fell into the trap of positional warfare with layers of defense.

This is a new regime, and it has fallen into an inevitable inertia of thinking, which is to begin to attach importance to the responsibility of defending its territory.

Because the people under their rule looked up to them, the Jurchens began to pay attention to the territory under their rule after they became a country.

It was almost like the fifth counter-encirclement and suppression campaign, when people were saved but land was lost, and both people and land were restored. It demonstrated from both positive and negative aspects how to break out of the inertia of thinking.

……

……

On the other side, as the night fell, the moon was bright and the stars were sparse, in the Liaodong land, the slightly hot summer breeze gently blew the branches and leaves of the treetops, in the Han army camp -

At this moment, pine oil torches were burning with a crackling sound in all directions, and teams of soldiers in armor were walking back and forth around the barracks. The weapons and armor plates made a "clattering" sound of collision. In the brightly lit central military tent, two figures were reflected on the tent.

Jia Heng and Chen Xiao had just finished dinner and were playing chess across a chessboard.

Chen Xiao picked up a chess piece and placed it on the chessboard, and said softly, "Shengjing is not far ahead."

Jia Heng nodded, his eyes slightly moved, looking into the distance, and said: "After many years, the troops of the Han Dynasty's capital camp have finally arrived at Shengjing City again."

Chen Xiao rolled her eyes at the young man in the python robe, her clear eyes full of charm, and said, "The Beijing camp has already arrived in Shengjing City first."

Jia Heng frowned, and as if to smile to himself, he said, "That's what I said."

Chen Xiaoxiu frowned and said softly, "You mean this Jurchen is just going to sit there and wait for death?"

"Probably not." Jia Heng put down his teacup and murmured, "The Jurchens will probably come up with some tricks."

Chen Xiao also frowned and thought deeply, muttering: "For example..."

"For example, they would attack the grain route. The Jurchens would attack the grain route." When Jia Heng mentioned this, he felt more certain in his heart, and said, "When our army attacked Liaodong, the grain route for military supplies was quite long, and this gave the Jurchens the opportunity to harass us along the way."

Chen Xiao's face seemed to be thoughtful, and he said: "The Jurchens are likely to send cavalry to harass the grain route. Our army has hundreds of thousands of troops, and this grain route is long. It is very difficult to protect it."

After thinking for a while, Chen Xiao frowned, his eyes calm, and asked: "Then how do you think we should deal with it?"

Jia Heng said: "Sending cavalry to escort along the way, the key is how to find the traces of the Jurchen cavalry. No matter what, it will definitely be affected."

Chen Xiao picked up the teacup, took a sip, and said, "Leave these to the cavalry commander of the Beijing Camp. However, now that the troops are advancing so smoothly, it is a bit of a dream."

Jia Heng nodded and said with emotion: "It has been a few years in a flash. The Jurchens rose rapidly and fell suddenly."

In fact, the current disintegration of the Jurchens was not caused by these few battles, but rather by Jia Heng's gradual correction of the Han Dynasty since the 14th year of Chongping, first eliminating internal troubles and then dealing with external threats.

As the saying goes, great efforts will eventually lead to great success.

In the early stage, from the contest between Jia Heng and Duoduo in Jiangnan, to Yuetuo's defeat in the northwest, to Ajige and Aobai's successive defeats in Japan and Korea.

The Jurchens' national power did not collapse all at once, but was cut off piece by piece. Finally, the entire country's troops marched north with a force as powerful as thunder and lightning, like a mountain pressing down on their heads. The Jurchens were completely unable to resist.

Many things in the world are not achieved overnight as outsiders think. Instead, they are difficult at first and become easy later after long-term persistence.

However, Shengjing City should not be that easy to capture, this is the foundation of the Qing Dynasty.

If you don't want to cause heavy casualties, or even let them overturn the situation, you need to be like an experienced chess player, completely block all the Jurchens' escape routes, and kill them step by step.

……

……

The next day, the sky was bright. The sun rose early in summer, and the morning light was just breaking. The army of the capital camp to conquer Liao set out quickly. The army of more than one hundred thousand soldiers raised black and red flags and headed straight for Shengjing City.

At this moment, in a new day, the Shengjing City also faced another siege by the Han army.

"Dong dong..."

The war drums rumbled, swords and spears flew like forests, and horses' hooves clattered. A large number of officers and soldiers from the Beijing camp, armed with weapons, came towards Shengjing City in a mighty force to besiege it.

This time, the Jiangnan Navy and the Hebei Border Army were still the main force in the siege, while Xie Zaiyi led a group of cavalry to patrol around Shengjing City, guarding against the soldiers in Shengjing City and the artillery teams that came out of Shengjing City to harass the Han army.

So-called, worry is mutual.

The Han army's artillery and guns were also worried that the Jurchen cavalry would destroy and sabotage the city of Shengjing.

As the sounds of cannons and guns rang out one after another, a large number of Han soldiers wearing red mandarin duck battle jackets rushed towards the city wall like a tide, accompanied by shouts of killing.

A large number of Han soldiers carried wooden ladders and held shining goose-feather knives in their hands, climbing up the city walls.

At this moment, the Jurchen soldiers were also throwing logs and rocks down from the top of the city wall, hitting the Han army who were climbing up the ladders.

In a government office, a group of two white flag guards wearing snow-white copper armor with foam nails stood with their swords in hand, looking alert.

Dorgon, wearing a jade crown and a prince's purple jade silk robe, sat on a pear wood chair in the hall. Compared with the panic in the past few days, the Shengjing city now seemed to be accustomed to the daily rumbling of artillery.

Anyway, the Han army cannot enter the city for the time being.

Dorgon put down the teacup on the lacquered wooden table beside him, calmed his thoughts, turned his head to look at his aide Su Hongzu, and said, "Have the servants of each household in the city climbed up to the top of the city wall to help defend the city?"

Su Hongzu said: "Your Majesty, the nobles and families in the city all understand the righteousness and are willing to mobilize their servants to help defend the city."

Dorgon nodded and asked, "There are many soldiers in the city now, and the battle is fierce. I intend to pay a large sum of money to compensate the casualties. How much money does the Ministry of Revenue have?"

When talking about the national treasury reserves, Su Hongzu paused and said in a low voice: "In the past two years, our Qing Dynasty has used troops in Japan and Korea many times, and the national treasury has been consumed by huge amounts, and the income is not enough to cover the expenditure."

Some things are also relative. The Han army launched a large-scale war and consumed an unknown amount of national treasury and silver, and the Jurchens were not much better off.

Compared with the Han Dynasty, which still had taxes from various provinces and tax supplements after the implementation of the new policy, the Qing Dynasty had a serious supply shortage.

Dorgon was silent for a moment, then said, "Hold on for a while longer, and when winter comes, there will be a turning point."

Su Hongzu said: "It won't be a big problem to hold on until the end of the year, but Your Majesty should make more preparations."

Dorgon said: "Let the city collect more food and fodder."

Su Hongzu responded, but the gloom in his heart became thicker.

The Qing ship was about to sink, and the most embarrassed were these former Han ministers, who were all worried that the Han court would send an army to punish them.

During this period, all kinds of rumors arose in Shengjing City, and some Han officials became restless.

Jia Heng's treatment of Han officials in Jinzhou City was also spreading by spies hidden in Shengjing City, shaking the morale of Han officials.

After Su Hongzu left, Dorgon looked solemn and let out a long sigh.

……

……

Three miles away from Prince Rui's Palace is a private house with a painted paulownia wood plaque hanging on the lintel, on which is written "Sun Mansion".

This is Sun Shaozu’s residence in Shengjing City.

Sun Shaozu came in from outside, with a look of fatigue on his broad, bearded face. He sat down on the pearwood chair, picked up the teacup with a "click", and took a sip.

During these days, Sun Shaozu, as a Han general, was also sent by Dorgon to the city to assist in defending it.

At this moment, the hanging beaded curtains could be heard rustling. After a short while, a fragrant breeze like orchid and musk floated gently, and then a beautiful woman in gorgeous clothes, dignified and bright, walked quickly into the hall.

The person was none other than Qiao Die, the eldest daughter of the Qiao family.

"Master." The beautiful lady called softly, and as she spoke, she quickly came closer and said, "These past few days, people say that Shengjing City is going to be broken."

Sun Shaozu nodded and said, "Shengjing City is impregnable, don't worry about it."

As he spoke, he patted one of his shoulders and said, "My arm is very sore right now, can you help me massage my shoulder?"

As she spoke, she came behind Sun Shaozu, stretched out her small hand and gently pressed Sun Shaozu's shoulder, saying, "Master, General Ma's wife said that the city is about to be broken. Will the families of us surrendered generals be... punished by the court?"

It is said that among the Han generals’ circle in Shengjing City, their wives also visited each other frequently.

Sun Shaozu said: "Didn't Jinzhou say that it pardoned many Han generals? Obviously, the Han court did this for us in Shengjing to see."

When Qiao Die heard this, her eyes lit up inexplicably, and she said in a charming voice with a hint of tenderness, "Then what the master means is..."

Sun Shaozu paused for a moment, then lowered his voice and said, "We surrendered generals don't have to worry. We just had no choice but to make a living."

Of course, the reckoning after returning to the court in the future will be another matter. But Sun Shaozu is different. He is an unsung hero who went deep into the enemy country and conveyed enemy intelligence!

I don't ask for the title of Marquis of Zhongshan, but I should be given the title of Earl of Zhongshan, right?

Qiao Die said softly, "Master, these days, the battlefield is full of swords and guns, so you better be careful."

Sun Shaozu said: "Master, you have to guard the city these days, so you have to be careful. The Han people's artillery shells don't recognize people."

At this moment, not only Sun Shaozu was discussing the current situation of Shengjing City.

Anyone with a discerning eye can see that the Qing Dynasty is doomed.

After all, the Han army had fought to the city of Shengjing, while the Qing Dynasty had suffered several consecutive defeats.

(End of this chapter)