The New Destiny of the Ming Dynasty

While Huang Taiji was raging in the Empress's Palace, Yang Zhen was leading Yang Zhan'ao and Yan San, trudging through the reeds on the west side of Shazhou Island.

The tide begins to recede gradually at sunrise, and by midday, it has completely receded.

On the west side of Shazhou Island, separated by a tidal river and shallow reed beds, the water has receded, but the path remains muddy and difficult to traverse.

"Achoo!"

Yang Zhen sneezed again, startling several unidentified water birds that fluttered up from the reeds.

Yang Zhen rubbed his nose, cursing inwardly. "Some bastard must be plotting against me behind my back. Otherwise, why have I been sneezing so many times this morning?"

Of course, if he knew that the one plotting against him was the Manchu puppet emperor Huang Taiji, I wonder what he would think!

"Did you see that? With this muddy reed marsh, we're at least safe on that sandbar island for now! Unless the Tartars suddenly bring out a fleet of large ships, they can only watch helplessly. What can they do to us?!"

"Yes! The Manchu and Mongol cavalry of the Tartars are formidable! We have to admit that! But no matter how formidable their Manchu and Mongol cavalry are, can they really break through this reed marshland and reach our sandbar island?!"

"Especially the Manchu cavalry, all of them are heavy cavalry. If they dare to come here, not only will their speed advantage be gone, but their advantage as heavy cavalry will also become their disadvantage. Once they get stuck in this mud, they won't be able to move and they'll be at our mercy!"

"Besides, I admit that the heavy artillery of those Tartars led by the Third Prince is powerful, but can they come over here? Do they dare to come over? Can they even get here?! I don't believe they would dare to bring their heavy artillery, which they rely on for survival among the Tartars, here!?"

"I refuse to believe this nonsense! If they really dare to come, I'll blow up every single one they bring. Let's see how many they can muster! Do they have more cannons, or do I have more hand grenades!"

The terrain on the south bank of the Xiaoling River is relatively low, and this large reed marsh is much larger than the one north of the Xiaoling River estuary.

Yang Zhen and his group took a boat into the reed marshes, rested for a while at the water source they had found earlier, and then disembarked and walked westward on foot.

They had been walking westward through this muddy reed marsh for almost half an hour, but still couldn't see the end of it.

In the reed marshes near the sea, there are many streams and ponds, teeming with fish. Some of the fish left behind by the receding tide are quite large; catching a few is enough for a good meal.

This scene made Yang Zhen, who hadn't eaten any meat for many days, drool. However, he needed to continue scouting westward and didn't have time to catch fish himself.

Yang Zhan'ao and Yan San were both steady, deep, and serious people. Yang Zhen felt that the three of them were walking with their heads down and getting bored, so he took the initiative to start a conversation, and once they started, they couldn't stop talking:

"I see this reed bed is quite large, and there's no one around. You don't need to deliberately keep quiet! Speak your mind!"

"Since you have instructed me to speak, then I shall speak!"

Walking to Yang Zhen's left and a step behind, Yan San couldn't help but say after hearing Yang Zhen's words, "I've heard so much from you, sir! I know that the Tartars' heavy cavalry and heavy artillery probably won't dare to come here for the time being, and our garrison on Shazhou Island is safe for now! But I'm wondering, if the Tartars really don't come, won't all of your previous arrangements be in vain?"

Hearing that Yan San, a former pirate, seemed to understand the situation, Yang Zhen asked him again, "Do you have something on your mind? There's no one else here, so you can speak frankly!"

"My lord! While I was listening to you speak, I kept thinking, since this place is so disadvantageous to the Tartars, why don't we try to lure their heavy cavalry here? If they really come and get trapped, we won't have to do anything else. We can just set a fire and burn them all to ashes!"

As soon as Yan San finished speaking, Yang Zhen was pondering when he saw Yang Zhan'ao turn around to look at Yan San, then say with a disdainful expression, "Brother Yan, do you think all the Manchu Tartars are idiots?!"

"Those Tartar leaders, how could they be so foolish? Knowing full well that this reed marshland is full of loose sand and mud, they still dared to venture in! If they were really that foolish, how could our Great Ming Dynasty, and the Liaodong border army, have suffered so many defeats over the years!"

Yan San, unconvinced by Yang Zhan'ao's words, immediately retorted, "But what if those Tartar leaders didn't know? If the magistrate hadn't brought us here today, how would we have known that this reed marshland was like this?!"

Yan San's words startled Yang Zhen and Yang Zhan'ao. Before they could react, he quickly added, "The reed marshes to the north are on higher ground, so it's not like that! At high tide, seawater flows back into the river mouth and mixes with the river water to enter the reed marshes. At low tide, although there is a layer of water in the reed marshes there, the ground is solid enough for people and horses to walk on!"

"But what about here?! It's very different! I've been in the navy for so many years, and I've traveled to many places by the sea and water, but I never knew that the reed beds here looked like this! The Tartars, especially the leaders of the Manchu Tartars, used to live in the mountains and forests, how could they know this situation?!"

"Moreover, even if we can't lure in the main Tartar army, can't we at least bring in small groups of Tartar scouts? We're all going to kill Tartars, we don't mind having too many, but we can't mind having too few! As long as the Tartars dare to come in, kill one if they come in, kill two if they come in!"

Upon hearing this, Yang Zhen couldn't help but clap his hands in praise: "Excellent! Provincial Third! You're right! We can't have too many Tartars to kill, but we can't have too few either! There aren't many real Tartars to begin with, so we'll kill one as many as we can! This is what we call nibbling away at the problem bit by bit!"

"Right now, the Tartars are strong, and we are weak! But the Tartars are in the open, and we are in the shadows! We cannot underestimate their intelligence, but we also cannot overestimate their cunning! What if there are some truly clueless fools?! If we can't defeat them fair and square, surely we can defeat them through some underhanded tactics?!"

When Yang Zhen said this, Yang Zhan'ao and Yan San also laughed.

Yan San then smiled and picked up where Yang Zhen left off, saying, "Your words are indeed insightful, sir. I understood them immediately! We cannot underestimate the Tartars' wisdom, but we also cannot overestimate their intelligence! That's the point!"

"I have heard that when Kong Youde and his men surrendered to the Tartars by sea, they brought with them countless warships. However, the Tartar Eight Banners nobles only valued the firearms, heavy cannons, and men they brought! All the large and small ships they brought were left unused!"

"Over the years, the assets of the Dengzhou-Laizhou naval forces that they took away back then have long since rotted away on the shore! Otherwise, where would our Juehua Island naval camp have a foothold now on this Liaodong Peninsula!"

"You're no longer a member of the Juehua Island Naval Battalion; you're now a member of our Ningyuan Vanguard Battalion!"

Yang Zhanao knew that Yan San's words made sense, but when he heard him mention "Juehua Island Naval Camp", he immediately discovered a loophole and pointed it out to him.

Upon hearing this, Yan San immediately smiled and said, "Yes."

Yang Zhen himself seemed not to have heard their bickering at all. After listening to Yan San's words, he fell into thought, and his previous ideas of luring the enemy and ambushing them immediately became clear.