Wind Rises in North America 1625

Chapter 491 Hesitation
Songshan City, the Grand Hall of the Commander-in-Chief.

A few oil lamps flickered in the draft, casting the shadows of the people in the hall onto the wall, their light and shadow shifting like those of shadow puppets, creating an atmosphere of solemnity.

Wearing a sable cloak, Hong Chengchou, in the dim light, repeatedly stroked the Liaodong map on the table with his fingers, his fingertips drawing deep creases in the area between Songshan and Jinzhou.

Outside the hall, the clapper struck five times, its dull sound penetrating the heavy felt curtains.

It was already past midnight; in another hour, the east would probably begin to lighten with the first hint of dawn.

But the generals in the hall showed no signs of fatigue. Many had sunken eyes and bloodshot eyes, but none of them showed any signs of exhaustion.

They gathered in twos and threes, whispering about the various military reports sent back the previous night, their eyes occasionally glancing at the figure sitting upright behind the commander's desk.

"Report..."

A sharp shout broke the silence of the hall. The heavy cotton curtain was suddenly flung open with a "whoosh," and a cold wind carrying snowflakes rushed in like a knife. Several oil lamps in the hall tilted to one side, spilling oil onto the tables, and the flames licked the wood, making a soft "sizzling" sound.

A scout knelt down with a thud, his black armor covered in a thin layer of ice. As he knelt, the armor plates collided, and ice shards fell down, piling up in a small heap at his feet.

He was panting heavily, his voice hoarse from the cold: "Reporting to the Commander-in-Chief, the Qing army has dismantled 40% of the tents at the Bordered Yellow Banner and Plain Yellow Banner camps. The Plain Blue Banner cavalry is moving northwest, and judging from the direction... it seems to be heading towards Guangning!"
Upon hearing this, all the generals in the hall turned their gazes toward Hong Chengchou, their breaths seemingly pausing for a moment.

"Investigate again!" Hong Chengchou pondered for a moment, then waved his hand and gave the order.

"Yes, sir!" The scout kowtowed and backed out of the command tent. As the cotton curtain fell, a gust of cold wind swept in.

"Commander-in-Chief..." General Wang Pu of Datong said with a joyful expression, taking two steps forward and bowing, "The Tartars are trying to escape! We must quickly organize our troops and pursue them. We cannot let them retreat so easily!"

Sitting beside him, the military supervisor Zhang Ruolin slowly picked at the tea froth with a silver skewer. His pale face was accentuated by his gray brocade robe. "General Wang, please calm down. Liaoyang is one of the few large cities in Liaodong, with high and thick walls. Moreover, it is located in the heart of the Qing territory. What makes the Xinhua people think they can take it in one fell swoop?"

"Does the military supervisor not believe in the new Chinese?" General Cao Bianjiao of Yutian asked in a deep voice.

The Bijia Mountain supply camp, alerted by Xinhua News Agency, made advance preparations for defense, which enabled them to repel the attacking thousands of Qing cavalry and thus preserve the army's essential supplies!
“Xinhua people are naturally trustworthy.” Zhang Ruolin put down his teacup, turned his head and glanced at the silent Hong Chengchou, his tone carrying a hint of barely perceptible sarcasm, “But we must guard against the Qing barbarians using a trick, using the false news of the fall of Liaoyang to lure us into pursuit, so that our army is suddenly attacked and the whole army collapses.”

"Supervisor General..." Cao Bianjiao took a deep breath, cupped his hands, and said, "Supervisor General, you are mistaken! Even if the Qing barbarians wanted to retreat, they could have quietly broken camp and left. Why must they leave in such a panicked and chaotic manner? Furthermore, if the Qing barbarians wanted to spread false information, they wouldn't have used the Xinhua people as a pretext to lure our army into pursuit, and then set up an ambush to kill us."

“Hehe…” Zhang Ruolin chuckled twice. “General Cao is mistaken! If the Qing army were to use the capture of Liaoyang by the Liaonan Garrison as a pretext, then it would be a completely false rumor. Would you really fall for it? It is precisely because of the inconspicuous Xinhua people that this plan to lure the enemy into pursuit seems somewhat real and credible.”

Upon hearing this, Cao Bianjiao was speechless.

The Liaonan Garrison's fighting strength was weak, and the fact that General Ma Degong was cowardly and afraid of death had long been known throughout Liaodong.

In the few years since he took up his post in Lushun and presided over Liaonan Town, he has never fought a decent battle. Not only has he not cut off many of the Tartar heads, but he has not even recruited a single Han slave to help him escape. He has been hiding in Lushun City all along.

On ordinary days, besides constantly asking the Liaodong governor for money and grain, he stayed in the city, ordering his soldiers and laborers to continuously reinforce the city walls, without having any intention of advancing north to recover lost territory.

Two months ago, a report of victory suddenly arrived, saying that after a fierce battle, Xiong Yue, Gaizhou and Yaozhou were successively recovered, hundreds of heads were taken, and a glorious victory was achieved.

However, later, after confirmation from various sources, it was found that his so-called great victory was merely an opportunity he gained by taking advantage of the fact that the Qing army had withdrawn its forces and transferred all its troops to the Songjin front, leaving the aforementioned fortresses and villages extremely vulnerable.

Moreover, during the battle, it was the artillery units of the Xinhua people that played a key role in breaching the city. They blasted open the city gates in no time, and then hundreds of Liaonan garrison soldiers swarmed in and slaughtered the few dozen defenders.

In order to accumulate merit in battle, they also killed many of the captured Han slaves, and then shamelessly reported their victory.

Can you imagine?
After capturing just a few fortresses, Liaonan Town had over 700 heads taken, more than some generals on the Songjin front had killed in months.

If the Liaonan Garrison under Ma Degong is really that capable of fighting, why not simply transfer him to the Songshan Camp and let him fight the Qing invaders face to face?
As for the new Chinese, the Ming army initially did not think much of them.

They may have some fighting ability, but it is certainly very limited. They rely on their powerful firearms to deal with some insignificant characters (North Korea: Are you talking about me?).

Otherwise, they never dared to venture deep into the Liaodong hinterland to truly confront the Qing invaders, instead frequently joining forces with the Dongjiang Town to bully the Koreans.

In recent years, they have almost ravaged the west coast of North Korea, occupying many offshore islands, including Jeju Island, and terrifying North Koreans so much that they dare not go to sea.

With their military support, Prince Gwanghae had already occupied most of Hwanghae Province and had even captured Gaegyeong (present-day Kaesong), facing the Joseon army across the river.

But if the new Chinese were to face the Qing invaders, they would probably be outmatched.

Even if they had the advantage of firearms, what good would it do against the charge of tens of thousands of Qing cavalry?

Armed with muskets and cannons, they could only fire two arrows before the Qing cavalry swiftly charged forward, leaving them no choice but to slaughter and kill.

However, the great victory at Bijia Mountain on the night of September 13th completely overturned the understanding of the Ming generals.

If firearms are used properly and the terrain is utilized, they can inflict heavy casualties on the Qing cavalry!

Tong Hanbang led three thousand auxiliary soldiers and, when the tide receded temporarily, urgently deployed a large number of iron caltrops, deer antlers, and chevaux-de-frise on the "sky bridge." He also set up three new barbarian cannons on high ground, and more than two hundred musketeers were divided into three rows to fire in rotation.

Faced with the charge of 5,000 elite Qing cavalry, they relied on the terrain and used concentrated firepower to forcefully keep them out of the camp.

The Qing cavalry fell in droves, yet they could not advance an inch. In the end, they left behind more than 1,200 corpses, and even their commander, Ajige, perished there, retreating in panic.

It's important to note that in this battle, the Ming army suffered fewer than twenty casualties, more than half of whom were patrols stationed at the junction of the land and the overpass. What does this indicate?
With the cover of strong fortifications, or the ability to slow down the Qing army's advance, even a group of auxiliary soldiers with little combat ability could inflict heavy casualties on the powerful Eight Banners soldiers with firearms.

Previously, the Ming court had purchased nearly a hundred "Xinyi cannons" from Xinhua people for use on the Liaodong front and in the anti-bandit battlefields within the Great Wall. Due to their superior performance and great power, as well as their extremely stable and reliable operation, they were very popular with the Ming army in various garrisons.

Later, due to financial difficulties, the procurement volume decreased, but the Ministry of Works' Armory Bureau began to imitate it on a large scale, gradually forming a heavy weapon in the Ming army's equipment that was second only to the "Red Barbarian Cannons", which was widely deployed in cities and fortresses in Liaodong.

Compared to the Ming army's extreme emphasis on artillery, they looked down on muskets and did not particularly like using them.

Although the imperial court purchased over a thousand Xinhua muskets, which proved to have a much greater range and power than the arquebuses and three-barreled muskets manufactured under the supervision of the Ministry of Works' Armory, and were also easier to operate, the Ming army did not attach enough importance to muskets (musket operators had the worst treatment and status in the Ming army, almost the same as auxiliary soldiers), and the gunpowder used was "mostly mixed with ash and soil," which greatly reduced the effectiveness of this weapon in actual combat. It was not widely deployed to the troops, and even if it was, it would be dispersed and organized into ordinary musket units in various units.

They never imagined that muskets could play a dominant role in battle.

During the Battle of Sarhu, most of the Ming musketeers were unable to complete a second reload when the Later Jin cavalry charged, and were routed, becoming lambs to the slaughter.

Unexpectedly, at the Bijia Mountain supply camp, Tong Hanbang used three "New Barbarian Land Battle Cannons," along with more than two hundred musketeers and hundreds of archers, to hold off the Qing barbarian cavalry, preventing them from advancing an inch and forcing them to passively take the beating.

The not-so-wide "sky bridge" was like a bloody path, leaving over a thousand Qing soldiers dead in less than half an hour, ultimately resulting in their defeat and retreat.

When Wu Sangui arrived at Bijia Mountain to provide assistance, he saw not only countless Qing enemy corpses floating on the sea, but also the deafening cheers of three thousand auxiliary soldiers guarding the camp.

Those Xinhua soldiers had told Wu Sangui that if they had two thousand cavalrymen to protect their flanks, they could defeat Qing cavalry, which outnumbered them several times over, in battle with only three to five thousand musketeers and a dozen cannons.

Arquebusiers were not just a group of auxiliary soldiers used to defend cities.

If used properly, it can also be used as a main striker in attacking key targets.

Upon hearing Wu Sangui's account, Hong Chengchou immediately transferred all 600 soldiers from Songshan, Xingshan, Tashan and other places who were armed with Xinhua guns to form a separate battalion under the command of the Dubiao Battalion, led by Dubiao Lieutenant General Sun Wending. They were trained daily in preparation for becoming a surprise force.

Although the Ming army had a slightly different view of the role of firearms, they still believed that the key element in battlefield duels was a large-scale cavalry force, which was the dominant force that determined the outcome of a battle.

When they heard of unusual activity in the Qing army camp in the middle of the night, scouts kept reporting that there had been a major change in the Qing army's rear.

Xinhua Army has captured Liaoyang City!
Ming generals, including Hong Chengchou, were highly skeptical of this.

The Xinhua Army didn't even have decent cavalry, so how could it possibly launch a long-distance raid to attack a fortified city like Liaoyang?

Although they transferred a regular force of more than 400 men from New Zealand last year, they were all musketeers and were completely incapable of long-distance mobile warfare.

Even though they had many horses on islands like Ku Niang Island and Geng Luo Island, and had formed cavalry units of several hundred men, in the eyes of the Ming cavalry generals, they were nothing more than a group of mounted auxiliary soldiers.

Even without the Qing army's elite armored cavalry charging into the enemy lines, our Ming dynasty could easily overwhelm them with a single cavalry unit.

With military strength like theirs, how dare they penetrate deep into the heart of southern Liaoning and seize Liaoyang City?
But as the scouts continued to send back more information, and even a guerrilla unit captured several Qing soldiers, the situation gradually became clearer.

Liaoyang City was indeed captured.

Moreover, led by more than two thousand Xinhua Army soldiers and assisted by several hundred Liaonan garrison officers and soldiers, this fortified city in Liaodong fell in just one day.

It is said that the Han slaves who were rescued, with the tacit approval of the Xinhua Army and the Ming Army, launched a frenzied revenge against the captured Qing Manchu Eight Banners families and bondservants. Thousands of Qing women, children and infants were slaughtered, and more than half of the city was burned down.

This news immediately shook the entire Qing army camp.

No one knew whether this force of over two thousand men would continue north and launch an attack on Shenyang, the puppet capital of the Qing dynasty.

If Shenyang falls again, the Qing invaders will be in big trouble.

The slave chieftain Huang Taiji led an army of over 100,000 to confront the Liaodong army of our Ming Dynasty, but his stronghold behind the enemy was destroyed!
However, judging from the words of the supervising officer Zhang Ruolin, he believed that this was a trap set by the Qing envoy to lure the enemy. They would pretend to retreat under the pretense of the fall of Liaoyang, luring the Ming army to pursue them from behind, and then lay an ambush to severely damage our pursuing troops.

Well, that's a possibility, but the price the Qing dynasty would pay for doing this is far too high!
Scouts kept reporting that the various Qing Eight Banners camps were dismantling their tents, packing their belongings, and retreating northward in groups. Even some heavy siege equipment was being abandoned. Judging from the situation, it didn't seem like they were faking it.

If our army remains unmoved and holds fast to the Songshan camp, wouldn't the Qing invaders be throwing sweet nothings at a blind man, wasting their efforts?

Aren't they afraid that all this commotion will cause chaos in the army and lead to the loss of the camps and trenches that they have worked so hard to build?

In this way, wouldn't the predicament of Jinzhou be resolved?

But are we really going to let the Qing invaders retreat so easily?
At this moment, everyone's eyes were focused on the Grand Coordinator Hong Chengchou, and the air was filled with tension and anticipation.

Chase?
Or should we not pursue it?

Hong Chengchou's fingers continued to slide slowly across the map, his gaze deep and unfathomable, leaving no one able to guess what he was thinking.

Forty percent of the camps had been dismantled, and the cavalry was moving towards Guangning... These fragments were rapidly piecing together in his mind, but he always felt that the most crucial piece was missing.

The news of Ajige's death at Bijia Mountain still echoed in our ears, and the Qing army's morale must have been somewhat dampened. But how could Huang Taiji, that old fox, reveal his true colors so easily?
Will the Qing forces lose their composure after the fall of Liaoyang?

(End of this chapter)