Chongzhen's domineering

Chapter 146 Feint to the East, Attack in the West: A Tai Chi Tale (Part 5)

The Jurchens began to build siege weapons.

The Jurchen cavalry, who had been camped in the woods for nearly a month, seemed to have suddenly gone mad, and started hacking at the big trees in the woods.

Around 9:00 AM, the sun is high in the sky, the morning mist has dissipated, and it is the best time of day for visibility.

On the border wall, Sun Chuanting, Cao Wenzhao, Cao Bianjiao, Sun Yingyuan, Zhou Yuji, and other generals were all looking at the Jurchen cavalry camp through large binoculars.

The Jurchens were acting like they were possessed, frantically cutting down trees. One by one, the trees in the forest fell down, and their warhorses seemed to be used to pull logs.

Sun Chuanting examined the situation carefully for a while, then calmly said, "Judging by the time, their infantry should arrive in the next few days. It seems that the Jurchens are preparing for a strong attack."

Anyone can see that.

If you don't want to launch a direct assault on the wall, why cut down so many big trees?
Sun Yingyuan said with admiration, "Your Majesty is too wise. Under the pretext of the Jurchen invasion and the need to reorganize the defense line of the capital, you have blocked all the entrances and exits from Juyong Pass to Huanghua Town, including the north of Jizhou Town, for more than 20 days. Huang Taiji probably doesn't even know that our 80,000 chariots and soldiers have come to reinforce us."

Your Majesty is truly wise.

This move tricked Huang Taiji so badly that he wasted almost a month of his time.

Huang Taiji certainly hasn't received the news yet. If he had, he would have run away long ago. Why would he have cut down so many tree trunks?

Sun Chuanting nodded slowly and said, "Your Majesty's move is truly brilliant. We should learn from it. Sometimes, we can also use the spies in the court. We should try to hide the information we don't want the Jurchens to know, and we should let the spies pass on the information or even false information that we want the Jurchens to know as soon as possible. This way, we can keep the Jurchens in the dark."

Yes, I really need to learn this trick.

Sun Yingyuan pondered, "My lord, should we conceal the cannons on the chariots? This time, when attacking the border wall, Huang Taiji will definitely send infantry from the Northern Yuan and even Liaodong to attack, and will not send cavalry at all."

If we bring the cannons up, we can only kill some conscripted infantrymen, which doesn't seem very useful. The cannons on our chariots are mainly for dealing with cavalry. If we expose ourselves so early, the Jurchen cavalry will definitely avoid chariots from a distance, and we'll have little chance of hitting them.

There was really no need to expose the cannons on the tank this time.

Sun Chuanting nodded slowly and said, "Yes, you are right. We have enough men to guard the border. Your 80,000 chariot soldiers, plus the 50,000 Liaodong infantrymen we have brought in here, plus the 10,000 musketeers from the Beijing garrison, make a total of 140,000. The Jurchens have at most 50,000 to 60,000 infantrymen forcibly conscripted."

Our border guards outnumber the Jurchen infantry by more than double, and we also have 40,000 muskets. We won't suffer any casualties even without artillery. We can save the artillery for later use against Jurchen cavalry.

If Huang Taiji knew that they were casually chatting about how to ambush his cavalry, he would probably be so angry he'd vomit blood.

This time, he was truly tricked.

He had no idea that 80,000 cavalrymen from the capital were coming to support Liaodong, and he was unaware that Sun Chuanting was already expanding the Liaodong army. He thought that Liaodong only had about 60,000 border troops plus 20,000 cavalrymen from the capital.

This is the principle of knowing yourself but not your enemy. Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you win every battle. If you only know yourself but not your enemy, you will likely be defeated nine times out of ten.

He mistakenly believed that there were only 80,000 Ming troops in Liaodong at present, and that the Liaodong border troops also needed to guard the Guanningjin defense line, and that it was impossible to leave no troops at all along the Shuangtaizi River line, and that cavalry had to be sent to patrol the west bank of the Liao River and even the southern coast.

Based on this calculation, Sun Chuanting could only muster a maximum of 30,000 infantrymen and 10,000 to 20,000 cavalrymen to guard this section of the wall.

He conscripted over 50,000 infantrymen, who were focused on attacking a single point on the border wall, while Sun Chuanting had over a hundred miles of border wall to defend.

If we calculate it that way, it's already quite impressive that Sun Chuanting was able to mobilize 20,000 to 30,000 troops to defend against their infantry attacks.

His reason for still wanting to launch a strong attack on the side wall was based on this judgment.

This section of the wall has no moat and is only about ten feet high. It is very likely that more than 50,000 infantrymen could break through it by attacking one point. Once this point of the wall is breached, he can lead his cavalry to rush in, and the Liaodong border army will surely suffer another defeat.

At that time, he will not only be able to recover the millions of acres of farmland between Shuangtaizi River and Daliao River, but may also be able to encircle and annihilate the main force of the Liaodong Border Army.

People sometimes love to dream, and Huang Taiji was dreaming right now.

The reason he loved to dream so much was probably because of the great defeat of the Ming army in Liaodong that began in the first year of the Tianqi reign.

In the first year of the Tianqi reign, the Ming army in Liaodong did indeed suffer a crushing defeat all the way from Shenyang to Liaoyang, and then from Liaoyang to Jinzhou. They were finally chased all the way to Ningyuan before the defeat was stopped.

He thought the Ming army in Liaodong would collapse at the first contact, just like in the first year of the Tianqi reign. He didn't even consider how many traitors had helped them back then. If Xiong Tingbi, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, hadn't been impeached and dismissed for no reason, they wouldn't have been able to take Shenyang, let alone fight their way to Ningyuan.

At this point, it was impossible for Sun Chuanting, the commander-in-chief of Liaodong, to be impeached and dismissed for no reason. Therefore, his idea that the Ming army in Liaodong would be defeated was just wishful thinking.

He was still immersed in the dream of the first year of Tianqi. After he gave a series of orders, the siege engine, which was more than ten feet tall, was taking shape, and the infantry were rushing over here.

When the infantry arrived, he allowed them a night to rest. The next morning around dawn, he prepared to launch a strong attack on the border wall.

At this moment, he played a trick. He ordered 50,000 cavalry to assemble first, form a battle formation, and rush towards the border wall!

Sun Chuanting was dumbfounded when he saw this.

What does this guy want to do?

They clearly built a lot of siege engines, and the infantry seemed to have arrived as well, but this guy actually ordered the cavalry to gather and charge this way!
He quickly understood.

The Jurchen cavalry charged to within two miles of the city wall, then turned east and galloped along the wall.

This guy is using a feint!

Clearly, Huang Taiji wanted to use his cavalry to lure the defenders on the border wall into following the cavalry eastward.

Even if they didn't follow the cavalry eastward, the garrison troops in other areas would definitely rush eastward instead of gathering here.

Sun Chuanting was truly speechless at this tactic.

It seems that Huang Taiji was only good at using the feint attack tactic.

After thinking it over carefully, he solemnly said, "Send an order to Wenzhao and Bianjiao to lead their cavalry to follow the Jurchens eastward. Wherever the Jurchen cavalry stops, they will stop there as well, in case the Jurchen cavalry really attack the border wall."

He now had a large enough force under his command. He had assembled 30,000 chariot soldiers and musketeers and 30,000 Liaodong infantrymen along this section of the border wall. He also ordered the Beijing garrison to deploy 4,000 chariots close to this section of the border wall to form a chariot formation covering several miles in radius.

In other words, even if the Jurchen infantry broke through this section of the wall, there were still wagon formations and artillery waiting for them behind. It was impossible for the Jurchen infantry to break through this point where they were concentrating their attack.

The remaining 50,000 chariot soldiers, 20,000 Liaodong infantrymen, and 10,000 Beijing garrison musketeers were evenly distributed along the border wall for over a hundred miles.

Even if the Jurchen cavalry really went east to attack the defenders on the border wall, they could hold out for at least an hour. If Cao Wenzhao and Cao Bianjiao's troops then charged up, the Jurchen cavalry would have no chance of breaching the border wall.

Huang Taiji was secretly pleased when he heard the faint sound of horses' hooves coming from the south side of the border wall.

He immediately ordered all infantry to assemble and await orders.

Once the sound of horses' hooves on both sides had become barely audible, he ordered more than 50,000 infantrymen to push hundreds of siege engines, each about ten feet tall, towards the southern border wall.

Upon seeing this, Sun Chuanting immediately ordered 30,000 musketeers to load bullets and prepare to aim and fire.

He wasn't in a hurry. It wasn't until the Jurchen infantry had pushed the siege engine down to within a hundred paces of the wall, and the archers behind it had drawn their arrows to hurl at the wall, that he loudly ordered, "Fire! Fire continuously!"

With a wave of the command flag, the side wall suddenly erupted in a cacophony of crackling sounds, as if celebrating the Lunar New Year.

The Jurchen infantry suffered over ten thousand casualties in an instant from this barrage of fire, and the rest were so frightened that they shrank behind their chariots and dared not move.

Upon seeing this, Sun Chuanting quickly raised his hand and said, "Cease fire."

Bullets are precious, and he didn't want to waste them.

This time, Huang Taiji was dumbfounded.

How many firearms did the Ming army actually have?
How many soldiers are stationed on this section of the wall?
His feint attack seemed to have no effect whatsoever. The infantry of the Liaodong border army seemed to be completely stationary along this section of the border wall, and each of them was armed with a musket!
How can we fight with so many muskets?
He hesitated for a moment, then gritted his teeth and ordered, "Sound the retreat, withdraw the troops."

"Clang clang clang clang clang," a series of gong sounds rang out, and the Jurchen infantrymen hurriedly abandoned their siege engines and retreated like a tide.

Seeing this, Sun Chuanting loudly ordered, "Fire! Continuous fire!"

Another burst of gunfire erupted from the side wall.

Many Jurchen infantrymen were beaten so badly that they fell to the ground, then got up and ran away in pain, falling to the ground and getting up again in pain, sweating profusely from the pain.

In those days, a musket shot was unlikely to kill unless it hit a vital spot; serious injury was also unlikely, it would just hurt.

Only two or three thousand Jurchen infantrymen were actually killed, but the majority were wounded.

This attack made Huang Taiji feel like he was about to vomit blood.

(End of this chapter)