Late Ming Dynasty: So what if Emperor Chongzhen was inactive?!

Chapter 148 Hanging Dorgon at Zhengyang Gate
Zu Dashou did not have such a strong desire to defect. He was just not absolutely loyal to the Ming Dynasty and wanted to find a new home in advance to prepare an escape route for himself.

He hadn't expected this probing attack to turn out so ugly. As the commander-in-chief of Jinzhou, his subordinates showed him no respect, leaving him utterly humiliated. The news of the Jurchen withdrawal, ironically, broke the deadlock and, by a twist of fate, extricated him from the predicament.

However, today's incident has planted a seed of discord between them. How will the generals view him in the future? Will today's events be reported to the court and reach the emperor's ears?
A shadow fell over Zu Dashou's heart, so much so that while everyone else smiled at the news of the Jurchens' withdrawal, he couldn't manage a smile. His unusual behavior only solidified everyone's suspicions: "Damn it, the Jurchens have retreated and you're still frowning? You really are a traitor!"

Zu Dashou sensed that something was wrong and quickly forced a smile. However, he felt wronged instead, thinking that he was more wronged than Dou E. A gentleman judges by actions, not intentions. He clearly had not defected to the enemy!
However, despite the growing discord among them, things haven't escalated to the point of open conflict yet. Deputy General He Kegang was assigned to Jinzhou specifically to hinder Zu Dashou, so his somewhat excessive remarks aren't surprising. Cao Wenzhao, on the other hand, was more mindful of the bigger picture and gave Zu Dashou some face.

However, Jinzhou was, after all, Zu Dashou's stronghold. The Zu family's influence occupied half the city, and Zu-surname generals held key positions, achieving a balance with generals of other surnames; none could truly subdue the others. The situation in Jinzhou was actually a microcosm of the entire Ming Dynasty. The Ming emperors and ministers valued the art of ruling the world more than the principles of governance, playing the balancing act with unparalleled skill—unfortunately, they overdid it!

Zu Dashou felt uncomfortable after being bullied by his subordinates. Cao Wenzhao was also uncomfortable here; these scheming and sordid affairs were polluting the air, making it hard for him to breathe. He stood up from his armchair, the sound of his armor clashing sending a chill down everyone's spines, and many instinctively reached for their weapons at their waists.

Zu Dashou glared at Cao Wenzhao with a gloomy look. Who comes to a meeting wearing armor?! Cao Wenzhao's fierce eyes swept over the crowd. Although he didn't say anything sarcastic, his eyes revealed a hint of disdain.

He clasped his hands in a fist salute to Zu Dashou and said, “General, although the Jurchens have retreated, we cannot sit idly by and watch them withdraw without firing a single arrow. It would be difficult to explain to the court. I request to lead the Right Garrison Cavalry to pursue and kill them. If we can achieve some success, we can give an explanation to all parties.”

Zu Dashou frowned, then suddenly burst into laughter: "Ziyi, you underestimate me. How can I let you have all the credit for this? I will muster three thousand elite cavalry and go with you!"

Once suspicion takes hold, it's hard to dispel. Cao Wenzhao was a seasoned general, not a rookie fresh out of battle; he wasn't so easily fooled. Zu Dashou's performance might fool others, but it couldn't fool him. To truly wash away the shame, only iron and blood could prove it.

If Zu Dashou had executed Huang Taiji, or even the lesser-known Daišan or Mangultai, then regardless of what he had said or done before, no one would suspect him of wanting to join the Jurchens. But for now…

Cao Wenzhao did not respond to Zu Dashou's words, but nodded, pretending not to understand, and said, "In that case, I will set off first as the vanguard. General, you will lead the army behind me to cover my retreat!"

After saying this, Cao Wenzhao turned and left with his nephew, who was much taller than him.

At this moment, compared to the various squabbles among the higher-ups, the soldiers at the grassroots level in Jinzhou didn't have so many thoughts. Cheers erupted continuously from the city walls of Jinzhou. They only knew that war meant death, and the enemy had retreated without a fight, allowing them to reap a victory for nothing while they themselves remained alive and well—that was something to be happy about. With the New Year approaching, everyone's thoughts had long since wandered off elsewhere.

Below the city, the Jurchens dismantled and packed up their tents, dragging them away in supply wagons. They also took with them valuables they had looted from the ground in western Liaoning. Actually, they weren't very valuable—just some money, grain, pots and pans—a meager amount. To cover their retreat, the Jurchens also left a thousand-strong cavalry force in short armor to stand guard nearby, keeping a close watch on the direction of Jinzhou.

After observing the situation from the city wall for a while, Cao Wenzhao decided to lead his troops out to confront the Jurchen cavalry.

Beneath the walls of Jinzhou, the heavy city gates were slowly pushed open. Cao Wenzhao, holding his lance upside down, led his cavalry out of the city to form ranks. The unusual activity in Jinzhou was naturally noticed by the Jurchens who were keeping a close watch on the area. Their warhorses pawed the ground restlessly, their nostrils exhaling hot breath that condensed into mist under the cold sky.

They were eager to fight, but fearing the cannons atop Jinzhou city walls, they dared not advance, and could only watch helplessly as more and more Ming cavalry emerged from the city and formed ranks. The Jurchens were indeed warlike, but that was when they were plundering; now that they had retreated, only a fool would want to fight the Ming army.

Every Jurchen cavalryman was a small slave owner. They had to prepare their own rations for battle and calculate profits and losses. Losing too much would lead to bankruptcy! When the Jurchen cavalry commander saw that the Ming army was gathering more and more, he quickly sent his men to call for reinforcements.

Cao Wenzhao spent half an hour gathering two thousand cavalrymen below the city, but did not lead his troops to charge directly. On the one hand, their armor coverage rate was lower than that of the Jurchen cavalry, and on the other hand, cavalry was too precious for the Ming Dynasty, while the Jurchens were almost entirely cavalrymen, which was terrifying. Even if they were mounted infantry, at least they had horses to ride.

The thousands of riders stretched as far as the eye could see, enough to create the effect of thousands of chariots and tens of thousands of riders sweeping across the plains. The two sides began small-scale probing exchanges, quickly passing each other at the edge of the firing range of the Hongyi cannons, exchanging fire, and men were constantly falling from their horses.

The Jurchens dismounted and fought on foot, using powerful bows and mortars to shoot down Ming cavalrymen. The Ming army then set up their standard cavalry cannons to bombard the enemy formation and retaliate.

The intensity of the battle gradually increased, and the number of casualties steadily rose, eventually exceeding double digits. The fighting raged from day to night and back again, from the walls of Jinzhou to the walls of Guangning.

Although the battles here were relatively minor compared to the large-scale battles in Liaonan that involved tens of thousands of soldiers, they were still quite a nuisance to the Jurchens. They did try to gather a large force and launch a counterattack, but Cao Wenzhao simply ignored them. He retreated decisively when it was time to retreat, and chased after the Jurchens when they tried to leave, firing his three-barreled guns at them. Occasionally, when they encountered small Jurchen units that had broken away, he and his nephew would charge into battle.

Left with no other choice, the Jurchens had to abandon some of their supplies and hasten their retreat. Along the line from Jinzhou to Guangning, abandoned supply wagons were a common sight.

In the end, the Ming army suffered 129 casualties, killed 73 Jurchen cavalrymen, rescued more than 400 captured civilians, collected 700-800 cartloads of supplies, and sent the Jurchens back to enemy territory.

It's hard to say whether it was worth paying such a price for the meager gains. Many of the soldiers who died could have stayed in Jinzhou and enjoyed a good New Year, but perhaps that was the fate of these garrison soldiers.

The knights of Houtun dragged their spoils back, smiles on their faces. Casualties were commonplace for them. One moment they might be weeping for their fallen comrades, and the next they could be telling dirty jokes and laughing with their fellow soldiers!
For Huang Taiji, the entanglement with the Ming army during the retreat was indeed a minor skirmish. He could have easily sent thousands of cavalry to crush the Ming army within the city and then calmly withdraw. However, he did not do so because he had more important things to do and also to deceive the Ming court.

If it weren't for the surprise attack, Liaonan, under the Jurchen occupation, wouldn't have fallen so easily. If they had taken precautions in advance, the Ming army would have had to pay several times the original price to achieve the current results.

The same principle applied to Huang Taiji. They were adept at surprise attacks, and Huang Taiji didn't want to encounter a well-rested and significantly reinforced Ming army when he launched a surprise attack on the Ming border. Therefore, to minimize leaks and slow the spread of information, the Jurchens below, except for the princes attending the meeting, were unaware of their strategic objectives. Huang Taiji's all-out attack was undertaken because he considered that Mao Wenlong had been crippled and unable to penetrate deep into Liaodong territory for harassment, which emboldened him to do so.

But now that Yuan Keli has already launched a surprise attack on Liaonan, it is hard to guarantee that he will repeat the same trick and launch a surprise attack on Shengjing. Therefore, Huang Taiji left 10,000 men to go back and guard the home, while the rest went west first, ostensibly to fight the Mongols and pursue the remnants of the Chahar tribe. This is the information that Mao Wenlong has obtained.

When Yuan Keli learned of this, he didn't think much of it, simply assuming it was another trick of sacrificing the north for the south and the east for the west. Huang Taiji's maneuvering fooled his own people and successfully kept it from Mao Wenlong and Yuan Keli.

It's not surprising that these two old comrades were careless, because human strength has its limits, and they weren't fortune tellers; naturally, they couldn't have predicted the Jurchens' movements in advance. After all, the Jurchens' strategy of bypassing the Great Wall to enter the pass was only a possibility; there was no precedent for it, and from a military strategy perspective, it wasn't a particularly clever tactic.

Moreover, Huang Taiji chose a very tricky time. Normally, after a major battle, people would rest and recuperate for a period of time before fighting again. He started a second battle immediately after finishing one, which is very counterintuitive.

With the war over, Liaoxi was peaceful, and the Ming court began post-war settlements, plunging both Liaoxi and the capital into jubilation. However, the feelings of the people in the occupied Liaonan region were more complex.

For several years they were Ming subjects, for several years they were bondservant; their identities changed constantly, and this land changed hands repeatedly. During the Tianqi era, they once joyfully embraced the Ming Dynasty and actively rose up in rebellion in response to the Ming army.

Because of Gao Huai's rebellion in Liaodong, which alienated the Ming court, the people turned to Nurhaci, betraying the Ming army, acting as internal agents, and surrendering city gates, leading to the successive fall of Ming's fortified cities in Liaodong. Furthermore, because Nurhaci killed the Wugu people and massacred Han Chinese, they were forced to return to the embrace of the Ming Dynasty.

However, the uprising did not bring them a better life. The Ming army failed to defend Liaonan. The people who had started the uprising were massacred by the Jurchens in a fit of rage. The people of Fuzhou, Haizhou, and Jinzhou were all slaughtered. Those who were lucky enough to survive were sent to the armored soldiers as slaves, where they were exploited and exploited to the point of death. They had no sense of security and no dignity whatsoever.

This time, they were transformed from slaves back into human beings. Logically, they should be happy. But how long could the Ming army hold out this time?! The Liao people who bravely rose up in resistance died, while those who chose to live on lacked a sense of identity and were confused about their place in the world. The Liao people were such a complex group—hateful, pitiful, respectable, and tragic.

In Beijing, Zhu Youjian did not wait for Yuan Keli to return to the capital to report on his duties. Because there were so many things to do, such as settling the people of Dongjiang Town who had been relocated, appeasing the original Liaonan natives, and settling Korean immigrants, the old man could not leave anyone else behind and could only personally take charge of the overall situation in Liaonan.

There was a shortage of officials in Liaonan, but the imperial court was not so enthusiastic about sending officials there. Some of the officials who were willing to go were afraid of death, but others were not afraid of death. It was just that people had an instinctive aversion to being far away from their hometown and isolated overseas.

Yuan Keli did consider using Korean officials, but he found that although Korean officials seemed to admire the Ming Dynasty and imitate the Ming system in every way, they were completely different in nature!

The Ming Dynasty implemented a patriarchal hierarchical system based on the "scholars, farmers, artisans, and merchants" hierarchy, forming a landlord-tenant society under a centralized monarchical autocracy; while Korea was a damn slave society!
The officials in North Korea are too cruel to the people; they don't treat them like human beings at all. If these people were directly assigned to Liaonan, the people of Liaonan would probably turn against the enemy and welcome the imperial army again. Left with no other choice, Yuan Keli had to ask the emperor again for more people.

Zhu Youjian thought to himself, "The shortage of officials is easy enough, just hold a special imperial examination." But then he realized that holding a special imperial examination would take time, and even if it were held at the beginning of the year, it would still be several months away. The court officials were unwilling to go to Liaonan, so let those scholars go instead.

The imperial examination system was incredibly competitive, with countless candidates vying for limited positions. In the Ming Dynasty, the number of successful candidates (举人) was excessive, and most were denied official posts. Even those with strong connections who managed to secure a minor official position were looked down upon by those who had passed the higher-level imperial examinations (进士), severely limiting their advancement. A 进士, on the other hand, started as a county magistrate, a powerful figure with the authority to decide life and death, wielding immense influence.

He then ordered small advertisements to be posted at the nine gates of the capital, luring people to Liaonan. He announced that any successful candidate in the imperial examinations who was willing to go to Liaonan would be immediately granted an official position, enjoying the same salary and benefits as officials within the Great Wall, receiving red envelopes during the Lunar New Year, and enjoying mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival.

Each year, the top thirty officials based on their performance evaluations are selected and awarded the title of "Tongjinshi" (a high-ranking scholar in the imperial examinations).

There is a holiday at the end of the year, and you are allowed to go home. The imperial navy will provide free transportation. After serving for three years, you can be selected to return to your hometown. After serving for five years, you can go to the capital to become a government official.

Besides sending reinforcements, Yuan Keli also had Dorgon, a prisoner of war, sent to Beijing. Dorgon was quite influential, receiving a personal reception from Zhu Youjian.

The moment Zhu Youjian saw Dorgon, one thought suddenly popped into his mind: "This guy is only sixteen?!"

Along with Dorgon's armor came his specially made white-trimmed general's armor. Zhu Youjian stroked the armor and said angrily, "Oh dear, how could you treat a dignified Prince Heshuo like this? Who told you to strip him of his armor?!"

Strip him of his armor, who will recognize him? Who will know he's a Jurchen banner chief?! Guards, put his armor back on, bind his hands with thick hemp rope, and hang him on the Zhengyang Gate!!!

"Huh?!" Dorgon exclaimed in surprise. He had loved reading "Romance of the Three Kingdoms" since he was a child. He thought that the Ming emperor would give him a "righteous release of the enemy general" performance. He was just struggling with whether or not to surrender if the Ming emperor treated him with courtesy. But he didn't expect that he was just being delusional!
Dorgon struggled and howled as he was dragged away. Soon after, he was hung on the lintel of Zhengyangmen Gate, the ropes tightening deep into the flesh of his wrists and tied to the crenellations. He was thus suspended in the gate opening, swaying back and forth.

On the city wall, Zhu Youjian even specially sent a team of soldiers to feed him and protect him from being stoned to death by the people so quickly. A notice was posted on the city wall next to him, which stated Dorgon's identity and listed the crimes of himself and his father and brothers.

Although the people of the capital have not yet faced the Jurchens directly and have limited knowledge of them, they still deeply resent the Jurchens because of the large number of people drawn from the Beijing Garrison and Jizhou Garrison during the Battle of Sarhu. Tens of thousands of Ming soldiers died in the Battle of Sarhu, and white banners were everywhere in the capital. In addition, the Liaodong military pay was levied on every ordinary citizen of the Ming Dynasty.

(End of this chapter)