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

Chapter 179 Tactical Counterattack, the Jurchen Slaves' Elimination Game!
Wanping had no city; its county government was located in the capital, making it one of Beijing's directly administered counties. As Beijing's southwestern gateway and a major rear area, the Ming court initially did not consider the defense of Lugou Bridge. It's important to understand that the Ming Dynasty's frontiers were initially located in Kaiping and Wanquan Commandery, thousands of miles from Beijing, which was merely a rear supply distribution center.

The garrison stationed at Lugou Bridge had no fortified city to rely on, and the bridge itself couldn't accommodate six thousand men. These six thousand men were encamped on the north bank, supposedly as a wagon camp, but where in the capital could such a large number of elite troops come from?
The force used to defend Beijing consisted of fewer than 30,000 elite troops. The main equipment of this wagon battalion was arquebuses, supplemented by some breech-loading cannons, ball-operated cannons, and tiger-squatting cannons, as well as four large cannons.

The chariot camp was stationed on the north bank. If the enemy came from the south, the Lugou Bridge would naturally be impregnable, as "one man can hold the pass against ten thousand." Unfortunately, the enemy came from the north, cutting off the Lugou Bridge's connection with the capital.

The battle at Lugou Bridge began earlier than that in the capital. Facing the 30,000-strong army led by Amin and Mangultai, the defending troops held out tenaciously for two days, but were ultimately defeated due to the sudden change in weather on the third day and being outnumbered.

The chariot formation was forced to collapse, and the cavalrymen of the chariot camp were killed in battle. As a result, the Ming infantrymen had difficulty escaping when faced with the pursuit of the slave cavalry, and the greatest casualties occurred during the final retreat.

Of course, the Jurchens also suffered heavy losses in order to capture Lugou Bridge: more than half of the three thousand Mongol cavalrymen who served as the vanguard were lost, and after they defected, hundreds more were killed by Amin and Mangultai, resulting in the near annihilation of the entire army; the number of Han Chinese bondservants who were not counted as human by the Jurchens was even greater.

Under normal circumstances, the Jurchens would not be so willing to expend their bondservants. However, this time they captured so many new bondservants that they could not take them with them or afford to support them, so they went all out to exploit them.

The art of war is to employ deception and deception. Huang Taiji knew that Beijing was heavily fortified, so he naturally did not have high hopes of taking it. A large city like Beijing could not be taken by force; the most effective method was to besiege it until it ran out of ammunition and food and people resorted to cannibalism. At that point, the young emperor of the Ming Dynasty would naturally surrender.

Taking Lugou Bridge was Huang Taiji's pre-arranged plan: he would go to the north of the capital to attract the Ming court's attention, and then send another army to take Lugou Bridge and then Tongzhou, thus cutting off the north and south, and the capital would be within his grasp!

In the original historical timeline, Huang Taiji did just that and succeeded. Zhu Youjian was not unaware of the importance of Lugou Bridge and had tried his best to defend it, but unfortunately, Wanping City, the bridgehead of Lugou Bridge, had not yet been built, leaving Lugou Bridge in a state of being virtually indefensible.

Under normal circumstances, tens of thousands of arquebuses should still be quite effective, but unfortunately, fate was full of malice towards him and the Ming Dynasty.

As dawn broke, the sun slowly rose, and the rain and snow gradually subsided. However, the sunrise, which should have been full of hope, now illuminated a scene of apocalypse. Amin and Mangultai stood together, their faces devoid of joy.

"Has the message been communicated to Huang Taiji?" Amin asked.

Mangultai glanced at Amin and said calmly, "We've fought a bloody battle and suffered considerable losses. We need to rest. Let's inform Huang Taiji later, so he won't urge us for reinforcements!"

Beneath the walls of Beijing, the battle grew increasingly fierce. Huang Taiji dispatched 3,000 cavalry to probe the Ming reinforcements' formation, only to be met with a dense, hedgehog-like array of long spears.

Due to material limitations, they couldn't obtain large quantities of high-quality, inexpensive ash wood for spear shafts like the Sichuan White-Spear Soldiers, but elm and mulberry wood from the north were also good options. Furthermore, considering the Jurchens' preference for close-range archery, Lu Xiang-sheng prepared javelins to accompany their spears.

Three thousand Jurchen cavalry charged forward and unleashed a barrage of archery, only to have over a hundred of their own riders fall. To break through the Jurchen lines, they faced the towering, muscular men of Hebei. While their professional skills couldn't match those of the true White-Spear Soldiers, their strength was immense. They wielded their five-meter-long spears with incredible agility, thrusting and striking repeatedly, leaving the Jurchen cavalry reeling.

What has eliminated spear formations has never been mounted archers, or even heavy cavalry, but artillery. Now that the Jurchens' artillery has also ceased firing, this is the source of Lu Xiangshan's confidence to lead a large infantry army into open battle against them.

Seeing the Ming army's formidable defenses and finding no opening, the slave cavalry were about to retreat when they saw the Ming army formation open several gaping holes, from which two thousand fully armed Ming heavy cavalry charged out. The Ming cavalry's momentum was already established, and by the time the slaves reined in their horses to escape, it was already too late.

The commander of the Four Guards Battalion was recently quite depressed. Once, their four battalions were the emperor's lifeblood; they were the legitimate, hereditary guards of the Ming Dynasty, but a group of Sichuan barbarians had surpassed them. Those Sichuan barbarians weren't particularly imposing, their appearance clearly different from the Han Chinese; how could they compare to the upright and disciplined guards?

Moreover, could these barbarians wielding guns possibly be better than our elite troops, who are proficient in all eighteen martial arts, capable of fighting on horseback and on foot? The young men were eager to make a name for themselves, and the commanders of the four battalions had already discussed their plans before the battle. This time, they were determined to make a name for themselves and not let the emperor look down on them again.

"kill!!!"

Beneath the dark visors, the soldiers of the Fourth Guard Battalion had bloodshot eyes. Although they had never been on the battlefield before, they were willing to risk everything for the honor in their hearts. Like newborn calves unafraid of tigers, in certain situations, greenhorns can unleash greater power than seasoned veterans.

These guards came from distinguished backgrounds; they were all from respectable families. No matter how difficult the Ming Dynasty was or how poor the emperor was, their military pay was never withheld. They used the latest and best equipment in the Ming Dynasty and rode the top-class warhorses from the Imperial Horse Administration.

"Aaaaah, have these Ming dogs gone mad? They're all out of their minds, charging in like this! Do they think they can survive?!" The Jurchen cavalry were terrified by the Ming army's formation. "This isn't some decisive battle, why are you all risking your lives right from the start?!" In a narrow encounter, the brave prevail. These battle-hardened Jurchen cavalrymen were cowardly; they lacked the courage to face the Ming cavalry head-on, unwilling to risk their lives in a fight. People change. Every Jurchen cavalryman was essentially a small slave owner; the more elite they were, the higher their status, the more slaves they owned, the better their lives, and the more they valued their lives.

When they're winning a game, their equipment and experience don't reveal much, and it's often not these people who are actually risking their lives to die and become cannon fodder.

Now, facing a true life-or-death battle, they are afraid. Even though they were once fearless madmen, they have gained too much, and with gain comes the fear of loss. When a person keeps winning, victory will eventually devour that person.

When Huang Taiji saw this, his eyes nearly popped out of their sockets. With his years of war experience, he could easily tell that these Ming cavalrymen were nothing more than a bunch of good-looking soldiers wearing nice armor. Their formations were completely disorganized, and they knew nothing about basic cavalry tactics such as encirclement and splitting. He could pick any Niru Ejen from his own troops and he would be better than these Ming generals.

The question is, why were his elite troops so utterly routed by this group of Ming cavalry?!
Before him lay an evenly matched force, with corpses piled high like mountains; behind him, the Ming army's wagon camp formation had already been breached, and they were just one step away from victory.

However, their most anticipated strategy of besieging the city and attacking its reinforcements failed. Huang Taiji was left with only a little over three thousand guards, and the colossal city before him was so immense and unfathomable; he didn't know how many more soldiers might emerge from within. For the first time, Huang Taiji felt a chill of fear.

"Your mother is a servant! You damned little emperor, you have so many tricks up your sleeve, why have you only just started using them now? If I had such a military force, would I have been able to prevent foreign enemies from entering the pass?!" Huang Taiji cursed loudly!
"Withdraw the troops!!!" Huang Taiji roared in fury. Countless people had said these words to him before, but this time they came from his own mouth. The mournful sound of bugles filled the air, and the Jurchen cavalry beneath Beijing retreated like a receding tide. Cannons roared from the city walls, a "farewell" for the Jurchens, and several hundred more were captured.

"The best strategy is to subdue the enemy without fighting." Lu Xiang-sheng breathed a sigh of relief as he watched the Jurchens choose to retreat. Forcing the Jurchens to retreat was already a success for his reinforcements. If a full-scale war had broken out with the Jurchens, he wouldn't have wanted to lose the lives of his Hebei men; fewer deaths were always better.

"General, the Jurchens have withdrawn their troops. Should we continue fighting?!"

"Withdraw troops?! Dream on! This place isn't a place they can come and go as they please!" Cao Bianjiao said angrily.

"But the Jurchens aren't in the camp! Are we still going to launch a surprise attack on the Plain Yellow Banner camp?!"

"The main force of the Jurchens is besieging our Ming Dynasty's chariot camp, and Huang Taiji must be among them. Even if we can't find Huang Taiji, it would be good to kill a few Jurchen princes; they could be ennobled as earls or marquises! Let's kill these Jurchen prisoners, set fire to the camp, and then we're off!"

"Your Majesty! The rain, the rain has stopped!!!" Inside the palace, a young eunuch rushed over with a joyful expression.

"Good!" Zhu Youjian stood up excitedly and looked at Zhu Xieyuan.

Zhu Xieyuan nodded and said, "Send the order: Yu Zigao's chariot battalion will engage at Chaoyang Gate! Let Commander Qin lead the main force of the capital garrison into battle."

"Is the final battle about to begin?!" Zhu Youjian asked.

"It's time. We can't keep taking hits without fighting back. The capital region has been ravaged by the Jurchens for so long. The court needs to fight a decisive battle to establish its authority."

"Can we keep them?" Zhu Youjian asked with some concern.

Zhu Xieyuan smiled slightly, placed a few small chess pieces on the sand table, and said, "Yang Hao's 20,000 elite troops moved to Jizhou yesterday, and the 8,000 White Spear Soldiers have crossed the Tongzhou border. Including the Shenshu Camp cavalry, we also have over 10,000 cavalry. It won't be so easy for the Jurchens to retreat."

"Since Your Majesty has used yourself as bait to lure the Jurchens into the capital, I must naturally exchange this sacrifice for a worthwhile victory, so as not to betray the hundreds of thousands of soldiers and civilians of my Great Ming who died!"

"Good, counterattack!" Zhu Youjian was excited. Although the idea of ​​a quick victory was dangerous, he couldn't help but feel a bit of wishful thinking. What if it worked?

(End of this chapter)