Chapter 27: Ji Zhou

  The emperor said, taking out a map (provided by the traitor Fan Yongdou): "I have here a detailed map of Ji Zhou. The city is about five miles east of Yan Shan, and normally the river water is too deep to cross, but now it's winter and the water is low. Tomorrow morning we'll arrive at the front of Ji Zhou City to observe the enemy's formation. If the defense strength within the city is not as strong as Jinzhou or Guanningkou, then we can attack and take it down. If the losses are too great, we can retreat through the foot of Yan Shan. I reckon Yuan Chonghuan won't dare come out of the city to block us. What do you all think?"

  "Hurray for Da Yanming!" The Mongolians were the first to shout out.

  "What if the Ningxia army cuts off our retreat route?" Dorgon asked with some doubt.

  The emperor nodded and explained: "If the army still returns by this road in the end, it can also return by detour. If the Ming army dares to come out of the city, I am willing to fight a field battle!"

  Yuan Chonghuan received the report from Ye Bucong and saw the two captured Mongolian soldiers, he secretly sighed and ordered the whole city to mobilize and prepare to defend against the enemy.

  After the night watchmen finished their report, they settled down the two injured brothers and went to the military supply officer to receive their reward. As they were about to leave, the two injured brothers both asked Hu Hao to collect it on their behalf.

  But who would have thought that what he actually received was only one or two silver coins? Hu Hao immediately blew up on the spot. Governor Yuan said it was thirty taels, how dare you deduct it?

  This kind of scene, the military officer has seen a lot, and doesn't care about Hu Hao at all. He throws out a sentence: This is not a place for you to be reckless, I am just following orders from above.

  Thirty taels were allocated, but only one tael was given, the difference is so great, it can be dismissed with just one sentence. Hu Hao definitely won't do it, and he got into an argument with the military supply officer along with his brothers under his command.

  It's not a Tianchao person if you don't gather around when it's lively. Soon, a crowd of people gathered around.

  Some helped Hu Hao, and some helped the military officer.

  Just then, Deputy General He Kehang arrived on his rounds and saw that it looked like a vegetable market before the arrival of a great enemy. His personal guards used whips to clear the way as they walked past.

  The onlookers saw a high-ranking military officer approaching and hastily dispersed to a distance, craning their necks to look over here.

  The onlookers dispersed, leaving only the quartermaster and Hu Hao standing there like fighting cocks.

  He Keqiang, who was about 1.8 meters tall, walked over with a loud and powerful gait, accompanied by his bodyguards, exerting an invisible pressure on both sides, forcing them to come over and pay their respects first.

  "What's all the commotion about? Don't you know the enemy is right in front of us? Now you'll see what military law is!"

  "Hu Hao spoke up first: 'General, I have come to report that after scouting out the main force of Jian Yu's troops and capturing two of their scouts, Hu Hao, who was in charge of distributing the reward silver, only gave us one or two taels each. The original reward promised by the General before the battle was 30 taels per person! This is outrageous, and we have two brothers who were injured as well.'"

  It's not that he dared to embezzle, the military supply officer also cried out in grievance: "General, it's not that I dare to withhold, I'm also acting on orders from above."

  He Kexuan was taken aback: "Who gave you the order?"

  The military officer looked around and saw that everyone on the side was staring at him. He then said to He Kegan: "General, please step forward and speak."

  He furrowed his brow and shouted: "What can't be said to people's faces? Speak directly!"

  The quartermaster looked embarrassed: "This, this..."

  "What's this, say."

  The military officer looked at Hu Hao and they all had a look of wanting to eat him, looking at him. Anyway, he didn't care, directly saying: "As ordered by General Zu!"

  The people around were stunned. He Kegan didn't expect it to be his superior's order, but now that the great enemy is in front of us, the military and soldiers must be appeased.

  He said: "You must have misunderstood. According to the supervisor's instructions, 30 taels were issued for each one. I will communicate with General Dai and it is definitely not what you mean."

  The quartermaster also wanted to say that He Kegang saw, raised his eyes and glared, a strong momentum scared the quartermaster. Knowing that if he didn't do as He Kegang said, he wouldn't be able to get through this pass now, so he had to issue 30 taels each.

  Hu Hao and his party saw this result and quickly thanked He Kegan.

  He Ke laughed and helped them up, saying: "Thanks to you for investigating the movement of Jian Yu's main force, and since Du Shi had already mentioned the reward of silver before, these rewards were originally yours, no need to thank Ben Jiang."

  They were overjoyed and left after receiving their reward and thanking them.

  After handling this matter, He Ke went to find Zu Dashou. In his heart, he vaguely felt that this was true, but with a great enemy in front of him, he thought of going to persuade General Da.

  But as soon as this matter was brought up, the smiling and welcoming Zu Dashou immediately turned serious: "Do you think my money is falling from the sky? Thirty taels for one person, fifteen people would be four hundred and fifty taels. You gave it to him this time, but what about next time when others ask, can you give it to them every time?"

  He Keqiang was about to speak when he was interrupted by Zu Dashou: "Don't take matters into your own hands next time, or I'll deduct it from your salary."

  "With the great enemy at hand, the commander-in-chief gave a reward in front of the whole army. Isn't the commander afraid of damaging his own reputation by doing so?" He Kegan finally spoke up and directly questioned Zu Dashou.

  "This commander said that if you don't care, then don't care. If anyone dares to disrupt the distribution of military supplies again, don't blame me for being impolite." Zu Dashou's face had frozen like an ice block.

  "The Commander-in-Chief is the one who has been gracious to me, and if it weren't for him, I wouldn't be where I am today. The General damaged the Commander's reputation, and I couldn't just stand by and watch. I'm going to report this to the Commander."

  "Halt! Are you really going to report to the supervisor?"

  He stood still, silently persisting with his waist straight.

  Zu Dashou saw that this stubborn subordinate would probably still go to report to the supervisor, so he lightly said: "This commander is also acting under the orders of the supervisor."

  He Ke's eyes widened in shock, and he slowly turned around, staring at Zu Dashou: "Why?!"

  "Hmph, the supervisor just said it casually, and you actually believed it like those foolish people." After saying that, he didn't bother to explain anything to He Kegan and left on his own, leaving He Kegan in the tent.

  Zu Dashou went to see Yuan Chonghuan, and after seeing him, he told him about the matter. Yuan Chonghuan smiled at Zu Dashou and said: "You don't have to be polite to him either, he's just a straightforward person who won't beat around the bush. Come on, let's go inspect the city defenses with me. This time, Huang Taiji is coming fiercely, we can't afford to be careless."

  During the inspection of the city defense, Yuan Chonghuan was relatively satisfied with the newly added cannons, but he was very dissatisfied with the civilian strongmen dressed as soldiers. They didn't have any military spirit at all, and they were also wearing shabby clothes. He ordered Zu Dashou to send someone to let them rectify their appearance before returning to rest.

  Soon, the night troops who had fled outside the city began to return one after another. Before long, Jian Yu's scouts started appearing outside the city, but they didn't get close and just drove the night troops back into the city.

  In the second year of Chongzhen, on November 13th, the main force of the enemy appeared in the north of Ji Zhou city, vast and dense, endless, with only one thought: all were humans.

  Emperor Taizong led the Beile and Mongolian leaders to observe from a distance outside of Jizhou, not worried in the slightest that the Ming army would emerge from the city to attack.

  Hong Taiji looked at it for a while and burst out laughing. The others didn't understand why he was laughing, so they asked him one after another.

  Emperor Taizong smiled and pointed with his whip, showing them that many of the Ming army's city wall guards were either new recruits or military dependents who had never been to battle. What was there to fear from such opponents?

  Others also understood and burst out laughing together.

  The city of Koxinga has many cannons, if we attack, I'm afraid there will be a lot of damage.

  Then, Huang Taiji ordered the whole army to bypass and pass under the foot of Yan Mountain.

  Yuan Chonghuan gazed at the enemy's formation from atop the city wall and knew they wouldn't be attacking. He couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief, not because he was worried that Jianyu would capture Ji Zhou, but because if Jianyu launched a fierce attack on Ji Zhou, his own main force from Guanning would suffer too great a loss. Cavalry wasn't something that could be easily replenished.

  He Kegang on the other side saw Jianyu moving and was extremely excited, suggesting to Yuan Chonghuan: "The commander is indeed brilliant, these wooden cannons have scared Jianyu into not daring to attack the city. Looking at Jianyu's formation now, I'm afraid he wants to bypass the foot of Yanshan Mountain. I think that when Jianyu has gone halfway and cannot take care of both ends, we should gather all the iron cavalry of Guanning, choose his weak points and attack him, then drive away the defeated soldiers in two directions and roll them up, the opportunity to defeat Jianyu is right before our eyes, commander."

  "Ridiculous!" Before Yuan Chonghuan could respond, Zu Dashou spoke up first.

  "Why so naive?" He Qianer was not convinced.

  "What if Ruo Yu Jian's troops don't care about the part being attacked, and instead cut off their own arm to send their main force to attack the city, how should we deal with it?"

  "Isn't there still Cao Ming Lei's troops from Baoding?"

  "Hmph, just like that bear!"

  Cao Minglei, standing in another corner, pretended not to hear, surrounded by the Guanning Army, with no way to resist, a good man does not suffer verbal humiliation.

  Actually, according to He Kegan's words, there is still a chance. The city of Jizhou is not that easy to conquer, but Zu Dashou is reluctant to risk his trump card troops and fears heavy losses.

  He Kegan no longer argued with Zu Dashou and directly shouted: "Governor?"

  Yuan Chonghuan looked at Jian Yu in the distance and then said to He Kegan: "Fu Yu is right."

  He Kexin's heart was urgent, and he said: "Commander, if the main force of the Jurchen army passes through Ji Zhou safely, how can we explain it to the imperial court, how can we explain it to the emperor? Moreover, after Ji Zhou, cities and villages are densely populated, and I'm afraid many civilians will fall into the hands of the Jurchen bandits."

  Yuan Chonghuan's face sank: "The governor has his own considerations, no need to say more." Nonsense, if you really want to rush out and consume the troops in your hands, it will be difficult to explain and also difficult to protect yourself.

  "Commander, Jian Yu's entire army has crossed into Jizhou and is invading the capital. Wherever they pass, they will inevitably bring death and destruction to the people. The disaster of Liaodong will surely be repeated. Commander, please send out troops!" He Kegan felt a bit unwilling.

  Yuan Chonghuan was very unhappy, ignored him, turned around and left. Zu Dashou and Cao Minglei followed suit, leaving He Kegang standing there stupidly.

  The vanguard of the Jin army quickly crossed over to the south of Ji Zhou City and set up a large camp five miles away, dispatching its elite troops to keep watch on Ji Zhou City and cover the rear troops as they made their way around.

  That night, the Jin army crossed over to the city of Ji Zhou, and the Jin and Ming armies coexisted peacefully. However, the mood of the great general of the Jin army and the Mongolian leader was not comparable to that of the Ming army in the city, just like a lustful ghost seeing a beautiful woman with her clothes half undone, or a glutton seeing a table full of delicacies, or a greedy person seeing a room full of gold, silver, and jewels, they were ready for a big battle.

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