nucmednet Chapter 550 Abatai's Countermeasures
Chapter 550 Abatai's Countermeasures
Su Hongtu's strategy of first suppressing and then surging proved remarkably effective. The unprepared Later Jin army suffered heavy casualties under the saturation fire of crossfire. Now, let alone scaling the city walls, simply standing unscathed amidst a hail of lead bullets was a miracle. The Later Jin soldiers, despite their martial prowess, were rendered useless, struggling helplessly in the rain of bullets. They futilely brandished their weapons, howling like wild beasts, before being struck by bullet after bullet and collapsing in defeat.
The battle turned from initial "smooth sailing" to one-sided slaughter in the blink of an eye. Gartu's mind went blank; he didn't know what to do. In his nearly twenty years of military service, he was used to slaughtering Ming soldiers like chickens and sheep, and had never encountered such a reversal.
The gong sounded just in time, and the soldiers breathed a sigh of relief and quickly retreated. The dark mass of people receded like a tide, leaving behind only a mountain of corpses.
Once the soldiers on the city wall confirmed the Tartars' retreat, they joyfully raised their rifles and cheered. Just a few months ago, they were farmers; now they had actually repelled the Tartars, who were said to be "invincible with ten thousand men"! This was something even the elite border troops couldn't do. Pride filled their hearts, and cheers echoed inside and outside the fortress.
The cheers reached the ranks of the Later Jin army and could be faintly heard.
Hearing the cheers from the opposite side, Abatai's face turned ashen. He raised his riding whip and lashed it hard against Gartu, shouting, "Didn't I tell you to retreat immediately if things went wrong? Now count how many men you've lost! I don't care how many of those bondservant slaves die, but I feel heartbroken every time a warrior of the Plain Blue Banner dies. Tell me, where am I supposed to replenish these Niru?"
Gartu, covered in sweat and pale-faced, knelt on the ground and replied, "Your Highness, punish me as you see fit! Gartu failed to carry out your orders and instead suffered heavy losses. Even if you were to cut off my head right now, I would have no complaints!"
With a sharp crack, another whip lashed across his back. Abatai said bitterly, "Even if I kill you, it won't make up for the loss. Your life isn't that precious!"
Gartu nodded in shame: "Yes, yes, even if you cut me into a thousand pieces, it won't help. However, Your Highness, it's not that our Plain Blue Banner warriors are useless, but that this stone fortress is too strange. It's like a dog trying to bite a hedgehog and not knowing where to start! Their cannons and muskets can fire in rapid succession, which is extremely sharp. We simply don't have a chance to fight the Ming dogs head-on."
Abatai did not answer. But he knew that what Gartu said was true. He had seen the battle just now. The strange shape of the stone fortress with its protruding corners caused great difficulties for the attacking side. They could not concentrate their forces on a certain section of the wall, resulting in the attack line being too scattered. More fatally, the protruding corners allowed for crossfire, leaving no blind spots for the attackers to take cover.
This stone fortress was unlike any city he had ever seen before. If the cities on the Liaodong border could be conquered by using human lives, then the battle just now proved that as long as the defenders did not run out of ammunition, even if the number of troops increased several times, they would not be able to take this stone fortress.
Gartu glanced at his expression and tentatively asked, "Your Highness, we entered the pass to seize people and wealth, not to attack cities. There's no need to waste our forces here. Too many losses would not only weaken our own Niru, but might also incur the Khan's wrath. Perhaps..."
Although the words were not explicitly stated, Abatai understood their meaning. He was only leading a detachment of the main army that had entered the pass, and was not tasked with attacking fortified cities. If the losses were too great, it would not only lower his political status and influence within the Jin regime, but also allow Huang Taiji to punish him under the pretext of acting on his own initiative.
To consolidate his power, Huang Taiji resorted to any means necessary. Amin, also a son of the old Khan, was accused of sixteen crimes, imprisoned for ten years, and died of depression. Mangultai was convicted of great disrespect, stripped of his Heshuo Beile title, fined, and removed from his Niru (military unit), excluded from the core power circle. He died suddenly of depression a year later. The four Beile appointed by the old Khan vanished, with only Daišan, who supported Huang Taiji, managing to retain his position, being the only one among them.
Abatai felt increasingly agitated at this thought. He knew his own situation best; the reason he hadn't followed in the footsteps of Amin and Mangultai was mostly because his status as an illegitimate son was too low to pose a threat to Huang Taiji, not because he was kind enough to let him off the hook. However, if he were to hand over his weaknesses to Huang Taiji, he believed the latter would not be lenient and might even use the opportunity to strip him of his Niru (military units) and give them all to the banner lord Hauge, leaving the Plain Blue Banner under Hauge's sole control.
He paced back and forth, pondering a course of action. His original intention in pursuing them into Dengzhou was to eliminate this suddenly emerging powerful army, removing a future thorn in the side of the Jin dynasty and enhancing his own influence within power circles. However, now he risked losing everything, failing to gain any merit and even losing his life savings. He now had only two choices: one was to withdraw in time to minimize losses and find a reason to return and explain to Huang Taiji; the other was to continue fighting, and if he could capture this relatively small stone fortress and annihilate its garrison, he could return to Shengjing with his head held high to claim his glory.
Abatai decided to take a gamble. If he could annihilate this army, whose fighting strength was far superior to that of other Ming armies, and bring back these guns and cannons that could fire continuously, the merit would be enough for him to change the title "Raoyu" before "Raoyu Beile" to "Heshuo".
Having made up his mind, he turned his gaze back to the bastion opposite him and said in a deep voice, "You've followed me for so many years, don't say I don't appreciate our past. Now I'm giving you a chance to redeem yourself. Go and capture some Han Chinese civilians nearby, use them as shields, and attack the city again."
Gartu's eyes lit up. Why hadn't he thought of this? Using local Han Chinese civilians as cannon fodder was a familiar tactic in Liaodong. Many of the defending soldiers couldn't bring themselves to kill their own relatives, friends, or fellow villagers. The Jin dynasty used this method to conquer many cities that were originally considered impregnable.
His mood instantly brightened, and he excitedly said, "I'll get on it right away."
Having been rebuffed at the city walls, the soldiers split up and headed to nearby villages to arrest people, finally finding an outlet for their anger.
On the city wall, Su Hongtu asked Ma Wei, "I heard that the Tartars are not numerous. Did that attack just now hurt them badly? Will they attack again?"
Ma Wei looked at the opposite side with suspicion: "Logically speaking, the Tartars only invade to seize people and wealth, and wouldn't pay too much price for a castle. But they haven't withdrawn their troops. I wonder what kind of trouble they're up to?"