Red Mansion: Picking up a Lin Daiyu

Chapter 132 The King of Qin Leads the Army Again
"Your Highness, Your Highness, something bad has happened. The warehouse in the city is on fire!"

The soldiers rushed to the King of Qin's room and called out loudly.

In the room, the King of Qin's illness relapsed due to days of hard work, but he wanted to recover as soon as possible, so he took a larger dose of medicine.

However, this caused the King of Qin to be drowsy every day. It took him more than ten days of sleep to recover his energy, which was much longer than the three days he had expected.

At this moment, King Qin heard the noise outside and frowned slightly.

"Come in, what are you panicking about?"

The King of Qin wiped the sweat from his forehead, put on his outer coat, sat on the edge of the bed, and listened to the soldiers report the current situation in the city.

"Your Highness, the Korean envoys who were left in the city a few days ago planted spies in the city and deliberately set fire to the warehouse, burning more than half of the food and supplies!"

Another person rushed to report, "Your Highness, General Yin led his troops to battle unsuccessfully and was defeated twice by Eyidu. Daxing Fort was not well fortified and was captured by the Jurchen cavalry! General Yin led his troops to break through, but now his life or death is unknown!"

However, as if it were not too late to make matters worse, another person came in with an urgent report, "Your Highness, there are Goryeo ships docking at the pier outside the city, but the people getting off the ships are all Jurchen cavalry! They are about to cut off the food supply route between Ningyuan City and Ping'an Fort, making it impossible for us to transport supplies. Ping'an Fort is in danger!"

The three of them knelt on the ground, waiting for the King of Qin to issue military orders.

The King of Qin frowned and thought for a moment, then said, "First put out the fire, move the baggage in the warehouse, and investigate the spies in the city. Then, summon the officers from all the departments in the city. I have something to discuss with you about the war..."

As soon as he opened his eyes, the situation became so critical that even the King of Qin felt it was difficult.

In front of them, there were Jurchen cavalry who defeated the main army and captured the fort. They would surely attack Ningyuan City soon. Moreover, the artillery lost by Yin Taihe's army also made up for the Jurchens' temporary disadvantage in firearms.

Later, the rebellious Goryeo Kingdom set fire to the city and cut off Ningyuan City's retreat, trying to turn Ningyuan City into an isolated island, encircle and annihilate the Dachang Army there, completely defeat this Northern Expedition Army, and even capture themselves.

"Why did Goryeo collude with the Jurchens? Did the Jianzhou Jurchens promise them great benefits? But Goryeo and the Jianzhou Jurchens are neighbors. Even if the Jianzhou Jurchens agree to make peace, they are ambitious and are more likely to break the contract. Making peace with such a person is like raising a wolf. Goryeo should not be a fool. Or something unexpected happened in Goryeo."

Unable to figure it out for a moment, the King of Qin stopped thinking about it and ordered his servants to put on a set of armor for him. Then he dragged his sick body to the meeting hall nearby to meet with the generals and officers in the city.

The originally noisy meeting hall immediately became silent after the King of Qin entered. All the soldiers kept silent, saluted the King of Qin respectfully, and felt relieved.

It seemed that seeing the King of Qin recover from his illness, they felt more at ease.

"Your Highness, the city is in danger now. I'm afraid Ningyuan City cannot be defended. Now considering that the Goryeo-Jurchen coalition behind Ningyuan City has not yet reached a large scale, and Your Highness is ill, it is better to go through Ningyuan City through Ping'an Fort and retreat to Shanhaiguan first, and then make plans."

The King of Qin glanced at everyone, slammed the table and said angrily: "Who do you think I am, that idiot Yin Taihe? If we withdraw from the city now, it will only cause the army to collapse, and the Jurchens will take another city without bloodshed. And the lone army in Daxing Fort will surely be wiped out. Is this the result you want?"

All the soldiers lowered their heads. Indeed, the battles had not been going well in recent days, and all they had heard was bad news, which made them consider retreating to Shanhaiguan.

If the war situation in the capital becomes more serious, he will want to return to the capital to protect his home.

"I am the Crown Prince of Dachang! As long as I am in this city, the Jurchens will not be able to break it!"

After shouting angrily, the King of Qin slowly exhaled and calmly issued a military order: "Everyone, pass on my military order, repair fortifications in the north of the city, and wait for the Jurchens to attack. As for the Goryeo army in the south, their two ships only transported a few hundred people to the rear, so why worry? Order my black-armored army to intercept them, destroy the ships on the shore, cut off their retreat, and eat up the enemy troops in the rear first! Then set up outposts on the coast to prevent enemy reinforcements!"

The officers in the city were shocked and quickly responded with a bow, "I obey your command!"

Someone else worriedly said, "Your Highness, the food and grass in the city are only enough for our army to use for another month. Even if the food supply is stabilized, it will be difficult to transport a large amount of supplies from Shanhaiguan to replenish the city's warehouses. The surplus food from all over the country has long been concentrated in the capital. I am afraid that the army will not be able to sustain it."

Hearing this, the soldiers felt their hearts sink again and their faces all looked unhappy.

The soldiers and horses move forward before the food and grass are moved.

The officers thought it was a difficult matter, but the King of Qin said calmly: "I have been prepared for this matter. Before I went north, I ordered the Governor of Liangzhe to help Liaodong. Now his ships carrying troops and grain should have entered the Bohai Bay by now. There is no need to worry about logistics. Let's stabilize the front line first!"

The officers no longer had any doubts, and they accepted the order and left with high morale, wanting to vent all the frustration they had felt in recent days in this battle after the King of Qin led the troops.

The King of Qin slowly walked back to his own bedchamber and asked his attendants, "Any news from the capital recently?"

"Reporting to His Royal Highness, the Northern Barbarians crossed the Marco Polo Bridge not long ago and besieged the capital. Grand Commander Yue Ling ordered the nine gates to be sealed and strictly defended. Since then, no more war reports have been heard from the capital. However, according to the Shunyi camp, although the Northern Barbarians' offensives became stronger and stronger, they were still held."

The King of Qin nodded repeatedly, picked up the warm teacup beside him, and took a sip to moisten his dry throat.

"That's Yue Ling, how could he fail? Yin Taihe was too anxious, and he was defeated for a while, which disturbed my mind for a while. How could Yue Ling act so rashly?"

"Guangning City is not unassailable. Even if they have deep trenches and strong fortifications, we can still set up echelon formations, gradually advance across the wilderness, and use artillery to open up a path. It's nothing more than using more gunpowder, and fighting off the harassing cavalry with the infantry formations a few more times. There's still a chance of victory."

"Forget it. There is no point in asking for punishment now. We should make preparations to deal with the Jurchen invasion."

...On the twenty-fourth day of the winter month,

Just as the King of Qin had expected, the Jurchen and Goryeo coalition forces that came to Ping'an Fort to disrupt the grain supply were unable to make any progress.

Not to mention Goryeo's pitiful combat effectiveness, even the elite cavalry of the Jurchens would suffer losses when facing the King of Qin's black-armored army.

Thus, by using heavy cavalry to block the enemy and light cavalry to pursue and suppress them, the King of Qin cleared the rear within three days.

They also began to build a fort along the coast of the dock, equipped with dozens of cannons to resist possible threats from the sea and to welcome the arrival of the Governor of Liangzhe.

During these three days, the Jurchens achieved the initial results they wanted to achieve.

After winning many battles in a row, the Jurchens were at their peak of strength and pushed their front line to the foot of Ningyuan City. They sent messages outside the city, urging the defenders to go out of the city and fight.

Eyidu, together with Huerhan, led 10,000 cavalry and 20,000 Liao infantry to the city of Ningyuan, intending to attack the city.

"I never thought the war would go so smoothly. I just used a little trick to make the Crown Prince of Dachang miserable. Now I have captured his only general, Yin Taihe. Can he make any progress in the Liaodong war?"

"If everything goes well today, we can directly break into the city and capture the Crown Prince of Dachang alive. You and I have both made immortal contributions and will be recorded in history."

Huerhan, who had fought against the King of Qin several times and was defeated several times, really could not agree with Eyidu's words.

He just used the connection between the Northern Barbarians and Goryeo to carry out a strategy. Moreover, he was very lucky, as he won several battles when the Crown Prince of Dachang was ill.

If Prince Dachang was safe and sound, the Goryeo envoys would have been discovered when they entered the city.

How can we trust the identity of foreign envoys who have not been notified and have not submitted their credentials beforehand, especially during wartime?

I'm afraid that Yin Taihe, who has a screw loose in his brain, became so proud and lost his mind after being complimented by a few words.

Hu Erhan curled his lips and said, "There is news in the city that the Crown Prince of Dachang has recovered from his illness. Your Excellency must be on guard."

Eyidu shook his head and said, "Huerhan, have you been frightened by the Crown Prince of Dachang?"

Looking at the scar on Huerhan's face, Eyidu, as a senior, taught him: "Scars are proof of a soldier's merits, but they are not the nightmare in your heart. You must always maintain a strong heart and defeat the person who gave you the scar, or even chop off his head."

"This is the spirit of the Jianzhou Jurchens. How can we be afraid before the battle?"

Huerhan bit his lip, feeling that E Yidu was a little unstable.

At the right time, the army had formed up their battle formations, waiting for the order. Eyidu said again: "Aim the captured cannons at Ningyuan City and fire a round of shots. Let them have a taste of what it's like to be bombarded!"

"Yes!"

Not long after, the sound of artillery fire rang out from the Jurchen army, hitting the walls of Ningyuan City.

The King of Qin was in the arrow tower inside the city wall, watching the Jurchen army from afar.

"From the sound of the cannons, most of them are still using homemade cannons. I'm afraid they haven't mastered the use of Portuguese cannons yet. It seems that there are not many defectors in our army."

The King of Qin was secretly pleased, and ordered the soldiers on the city wall, "Fire back quickly!"

After a while of bombardment and when the smoke cleared, the King of Qin looked at the enemy's formation and found it was full of loopholes.

The King of Qin sneered, "The Jurchens only know how to have cannons, how to ignite them, and how to load them with gunpowder, but they don't know how to use cannons in conjunction with infantry to assist in attacking a city. Cannons are not something that can be fired once and then done with, and they can't be moved on the battlefield. If they can't be protected, they'll become sitting ducks."

"Today, I will teach you a lesson!"

When the Jurchens gradually approached the city wall and dug trenches, the King of Qin immediately gave the order: "Send flags to tell the cavalry ambushed in the woods outside the city to attack the artillery formations from left and right. According to my previous arrangement, seize the artillery and shoot them from behind. The morale of the army will surely be disrupted!"

On the top of Ningyuan City, a large banner with the word Qin on it was erected high up and waved in the air a few times.

Immediately, cavalrymen like tigers descending from the mountains rushed out of the forest and attacked the Jurchen artillery positions.

Hearing the shouts and screams, Huerhan was shocked and said hurriedly, "Lord Eyidu, there is an ambush outside the city! Quickly order the rear troops to consolidate the defense line!"

　fifteen

　　
　
(End of this chapter)