Chapter 23: Songshan Pond Report

  When Hong Chengchou rushed to the capital with 800 li of urgent news, Wang Pu led more than 800 households to advance to Jiulian City, and not far ahead was the Yalu River. After crossing the Yalu River, it would be the border of Korea.

  Jiulian City is also known as Zhenjiang. During the Ming Dynasty, General Mao Wenlong of the Eastern Jiangsu Garrison fought a bloody battle against Jian Nu here. This battle was also Mao Wenlong's rise to fame. However, Mao Wenlong was later killed by Yuan Chonghuan, and Jian Nu moved from the barren Changbai Mountains to the fertile Liaohe Plain. Jiulian City was abandoned and is now in ruins like Liaoyang.

  Let me introduce North Korea again briefly.

  In 1392, Yi Seong-gye overthrew the last king of Goryeo and established the Joseon Dynasty, also known as the Lee Dynasty. During its heyday, the population of the Joseon Dynasty exceeded one million, but after Japan's invasion and two massacres by Qing troops, Korea was severely damaged, with a population that plummeted from over 1 million to less than 300,000. The population of Hanyang, the capital city, also dropped sharply from 100,000 to less than 30,000.

  Wang Pu pointed with his whip at the dilapidated city wall in front of him and asked Zhen Youcai behind him, "Youcai, where does this lead to?"

  "General, just ahead is Jiulian City. The river to the south of the city is the Yalu River. Once we cross the Yalu River, we will enter the borders of the Joseon Kingdom. Before Jian Nu rose up, this Jiulian City was a trading hub for border trade between my Great Ming and Joseon. I have also come here to purchase ginseng from Korea."

  Wang Pu looked up at the sky and saw that it was getting late, so he ordered the scar-faced man beside him: "Scarface, pass on the order to set up camp in Jiulian City tonight and cross the river early tomorrow morning."

  "Yes."

  Scarface nodded and left with an order.

  Wang Pu dismounted and stretched his legs, which had become numb from riding for a long time. He turned to Zhen Youcai and said, "Youcai, if we enter the borders of Joseon like this, won't we encounter difficulties with the Koreans? After all, Joseon has already been intimidated by Jinwu, and now it's a vassal state of Jinwu."

  Zhen Youcai said: "I've been thinking about this problem all along the way, I think we should be careful in our actions."

  "What's your good plan?"

  Zhen Youcai said: "Pretend to be a slave."

  "Disguise as Jian Nu?" Wang Pu nodded, "Yes, this is a good idea. The costumes and armor are all ready-made. For the necessary times to dress up and confuse Jian Nu, more than 100 sets of Red Flag armor captured in Changyong Fortress and more than 1,000 sets of Jian Nu horse cloaks have not been thrown away yet."

  Zhen Youcai said: "To be cautious, I think we should shave our hair in the style of Jian Nu."

  "That's no problem," said Wang Pu. "At worst, after boarding the ship, brothers will shave off the hair on top of their heads and become bald."

  Note: The Manchu hairstyle did not originally resemble the half-shaved head with a long braid at the back, as often depicted in Qing dynasty dramas. Initially, only a small amount of hair was allowed to be left, about the size of a coin, and it was tied into a small braid, euphemistically called "golden money mouse tail".

  Zhen Youcai's eyes rolled over and he continued: "General, having the brothers disguise themselves as slaves has an additional advantage."

  Wang Bodao said: "Oh, let's talk about it?"

  Zhen Youcai said: "Let the brothers pretend to be Jian Nu, and they can burn, kill and loot freely within the borders of Korea. The Koreans will put this account on the head of Jian Nu, and the generals and brothers can have fun and benefit from it. In the end, they can also let Jian Nu take the blame, why not?"

  "Good for you, Zhen Youcai, your brain is really useful." Wang Pu sneered, "Let's do it this way, Xiao Qi come over here."

  Wang Xiao Qi hurriedly ran in front of Wang Pu and asked: "General, are you looking for me?"

  "Pass the order, all brothers shave their heads and style them like Jian Nu's. Then select over a hundred men to wear Jian Nu's crimson flag cavalry armor, and have the rest of the brothers change into Jian Nu's battle robes."

  "Ah, shaved into the Jianzhou hairstyle?" Wang Xiaoqi frowned and said, "General, it's often said that one's body hair is given by their parents, how can we casually shave it off? Moreover, if we shave it into the Jianzhou style, what if when we return to the Great Ming, others accuse us of having surrendered to the Jianzhou, wouldn't that be a stain that even jumping into the Yellow River couldn't wash clean?"

  "Shut up." Wang Pu said impatiently, "You go tell the brothers that as long as they are willing to shave their heads, once we enter Korea, they can do whatever they want, I don't believe these bastards will still refuse to shave their heads."

  "What's going on?" Wang Xiaoqi's eyes lit up, "That Korean woman..."

  "Alright," Wang Pu said, "You can have fun, but you cannot bring women along on military expeditions."

  "It's all right, it's all right." Wang Xiaoqi said with a sly smile, "I'll go and spread the word, heh heh."

  ■■■

  Dorgon, the Prince Zheng of the First Rank, led five thousand cavalrymen in a day-and-night rush to Lianyungang. Only after arriving there did he realize that the Ming army had never been there. Dorgon thought it impossible for Jirgalang, the Prince Zheng, to deceive him; since the Ming army was not at Lianyungang, they must have changed direction en route and gone in another direction.

  Dorgon did not dare to slack off and hastily dispatched scouts in all directions to investigate. Finally, they found out that a large Ming army was heading towards Jiuliancheng with great fanfare. Just as Dorgon was about to lead his troops in pursuit, Dorje sent a swift horse with a secret letter, which stated that Shengjing would undergo a major change and ordered Dorgon to hurry back to Shengjing with his troops immediately.

  It is necessary to introduce the relationship between Ajige, Dorgon and Dodo. Ajige was the twelfth son of Nurhaci, Dorgon was the fourteenth son of Nurhaci, and Dodo was the fifteenth son of Nurhaci. The three were all born to Empress Abahai. Dorgon was the lord of the Plain White Banner, while Ajige and Dodo were lords of the Bordered White Banner.

  Dorgon ordered Dodo to lead 5,000 Bordered White Banner cavalrymen back to Shengjing at top speed, with the simple goal of preparing for the impending struggle for the throne.

  Dorgon's greatest opponent was Prince Su, Hauge, who was the eldest son of Hong Taiji. The Plain Yellow and Bordered Yellow Banners were both loyal to him, and Hauge himself was also the banner master of the Plain Blue Banner, with a very strong force. At this critical moment, Dorgon and his 5,000 Iron Riders could not leave Shengjing far behind.

  Without any hesitation, Dorgon decided to give up the pursuit of the Ming army and now the most important thing was to lead his troops back to the capital to help his brother Dorgon seize the throne.

  Dorgon's idea was the same as that of Jirhalang and others. Although they shouted slogans to rescue Huang Taiji at all costs, everyone knew that it was already impossible to rescue Huang Taiji. Saying some nice words was just a show. In their hearts, they had already begun to calculate which camp they should stand in for the upcoming throne struggle.

  ■■■

  Forbidden City, Palace of Heavenly Purity.

  The brilliant mother, the hundred officials lined up in a long queue under the leadership of the inner attendant and slowly entered the Taihe Hall of the Forbidden City. As usual, Emperor Chongzhen was already seated on the dragon throne early, one of the 16 emperors of the Ming Dynasty, Emperor Chongzhen is the most diligent one, even more diligent than Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty.

  Some historians even say that Emperor Chongzhen never missed a single morning court session from the day he ascended to the throne until his death on Coal Hill, averaging less than two hours of sleep per day. This statement is not very credible, but it is certain that Emperor Chongzhen was one of the few diligent emperors in the over 2,000-year history of China's feudal society.

  All officials knelt three times and kowtowed nine times, after shouting "Long live the emperor" they retreated to their respective positions, then one by one lowered their heads and stopped speaking. The great Ming dynasty is having an unlucky year, the northern border is being ravaged by slaves, bandits are running amok in the central plains, and several provinces including Huguang, Zhejiang, Shandong, Henan, Hebei, and Shanxi have been experiencing severe drought for years, with thousands of miles of barren land, locust plagues, and many prefectures have already started to resort to cannibalism.

  The national situation is precarious and there is a great deal of powerlessness. In such an extraordinary period, it's better to pretend to be mute if you can't speak.

  The Emperor Chongzhen's brow furrowed, the performance of the officials made him very dissatisfied. They were fed by the emperor and served the emperor, but now that the country was in trouble, these officials were all pretending to be deaf and dumb, what kind of thing was this?

  The Emperor Chongzhen's gaze fell on Chen Xinyi, the Minister of War, and asked: "Minister Chen, has the relief army been sent to Songshan to lift the siege?"

  Chen Xingjia hastily stepped forward and memorialized: "Your Majesty, I have arranged for three routes of reinforcements to go out of the pass and lift the siege of Songshan."

  "Hmm." The Chongzhen Emperor nodded, his embarrassed expression slightly easing, and then asked, "When can the three armies arrive at Songshan? How many troops do we have?"

  Chen Xinjia hesitated: "This..."

  Chongzhen Emperor asked: "What's wrong, Minister Chen? Is there any difficulty or obstacle?"

  Chen Xingjia had no choice but to say: "Your Majesty, the three routes of reinforcements have a total strength of over 9,000 troops."

  "What! Only over 9,000 people?" Emperor Chongzhen said in great anger, "With only this many troops, how can we lift the siege of Songshan?"

  "Your Majesty, the troops from Jingying, Jizhou, Xuanfu, Miyun and Datong have all been deployed, it's really impossible to mobilize more reinforcements."

  "I don't care about these things." Chongzhen Emperor angrily said, "If you can't send reinforcements, it's your incompetence. If Songshan and Jinzhou are lost, I will interrogate you!"

  Chen Xinjia was so frightened that he knocked his head on the ground and didn't dare say another word.

  "Bao, Songshan Tang Bao..."

  At this moment, a small eunuch held up a memorial with both hands and stepped quickly into the grand hall.

  The two classes of officials were expressionless, and these days they almost received daily reports from Songshan, which was nothing more than saying that the situation in Songshan and Jinzhou was critical, urging the court to send troops as soon as possible.

  The little eunuch rushed to the foot of the jade steps, and the pen-holding eunuch Wang Cheng'en hastily took over the report and presented it to Emperor Chongzhen's imperial desk. Emperor Chongzhen opened the report with an expressionless face, read a few lines, and suddenly his complexion changed greatly. He stood up from the dragon chair in an instant, and his hands holding the report began to tremble slightly.

  The officials who were secretly peeking at the scene with their heads lowered suddenly began to drum up in their hearts, thinking that Songshan and Hong Chengchou were finished, otherwise, the emperor would not have been so angry.