mtl008 Chapter 612 It's better to cut off one finger than to injure it.
Chapter 612 It's better to cut off one finger than to injure it.
Liu Ye thought for a moment and said to Liu Guozhu, "The grain supplies are already on their way, but they are too far away to be of immediate use. Moreover, cooking a meal here would give the Tartars a chance to escape... How about this, I will have my men give you their dry rations, and your men can fill their stomachs first. We can endure it for now and eat after we defeat the Tartars and the grain supplies arrive."
Liu Guozhu didn't stand on ceremony. After all, they had come all the way from Qionghai Navy at their invitation to help, so it was only right that they received some preferential treatment. He nodded in agreement, "That would be very good."
After Liu Guozhu left, Yan Guang asked worriedly, "General, we gave them our rations, so what will we eat?"
Liu Ye glanced back in the direction of Tianjin and replied, "I believe Qin Tian will deliver the supplies; there shouldn't be any major problems. Even if Qin Tian fails to complete his mission, the fleet docked in Tianjin Port still has some grain, enough to last us for two more days."
"But if we continue north or return to Qiongzhou, we won't have enough food..."
"Fighting the war is the priority right now, we can't worry about that now," Liu Ye said firmly. "After the war is over, whether we buy or loot, we can still get enough food to take back to Qiongzhou."
Yan Guang asked cautiously, "General, are we pursuing Abatai so relentlessly that we must kill him before we stop?"
“Although Abatai’s status is not very prominent and he has been excluded from the core circle of power by Huang Taiji, he is, after all, Nurhaci’s own son and a seasoned general. Now that he is alone and isolated, when else should we kill him if not now? If he joins forces with Ajige, the two of them will be much harder to kill,” Liu Ye explained. “Whether it is Abatai, Ajige, Dorgon, or Dodo, I will definitely eliminate them as long as there is an opportunity. Without these people, who will the Tartars send to lead their troops into the pass? These so-called famous generals have all been trained through years of battles and with lives on their hands. Once they die, the Tartars will be in a period of transition and there will be no capable generals to emerge in the short term.”
Yan Guang seemed to be deep in thought. This line of thinking was simple and crude, but very practical. As the saying goes, a bad soldier is a bad soldier, but a bad general makes a bad army. Without a capable and skilled general, even if the Tartars are proficient in archery and horsemanship, it's all in vain. It's better to cut off one finger than to injure all ten. If you kill Abatai today, Ajige tomorrow, and Dorgon the day after, without his henchmen, no matter how talented and ambitious Huang Taiji is, he'll be like a skilled cook without rice.
Thinking of this, a brilliant idea struck him, and he suggested, "Since the general has this idea, I have a plan. Since the troops in Tianjin are afraid of battle and unwilling to help, why not directly request reinforcements from the capital and send nearby troops to intercept them at the front? Not to mention the hundreds of thousands of troops in the capital garrison, there are also many troops gathered in the Tongzhou area. We can set up a trap in Tongzhou, which would be much less strenuous than chasing them from the rear like we are now."
Liu Ye was somewhat tempted, but also hesitant. He pondered, "Lin San went to the capital to request an order from the Ministry of War, but there's still no response. I'm afraid the situation is not good. If the Ministry of War won't even mobilize the troops in Tianjin, how could they possibly mobilize troops near the capital? Ajige is still in Beizhili. It's already good enough that Chongzhen isn't mobilizing troops from all over the country to defend the emperor, let alone diverting manpower to help me. It doesn't seem very reliable..."
Yan Guang volunteered: "Man proposes, God disposes. How will we know the emperor won't send troops if we don't try? I am willing to go to the capital and, with the help of the Grand Secretary, persuade the emperor to send troops. Please send me to the capital, General." In his view, his former master, Lin San, was, after all, a barbarian who could hardly read a word. He was good at killing, but not good at communication. What Lin San couldn't do, he might be able to do. If he succeeded, it would be a great achievement.
Liu Ye thought for a moment and nodded: "If you can't catch up with Abatai before dark, then you should give it a try." After dark, it would be disadvantageous for both sides in terms of marching or fighting, and the pursuit would have to come to an end. However, Yan Guang and the others could take advantage of the cover of darkness to travel through the night, bypassing the Later Jin army and heading to the capital.
He ordered his men, "Send word to the entire army: no matter how hard or tiring it is, grit your teeth and persevere! Speed up! Catch up with the Tartars before nightfall. Whether we succeed today depends on this gamble!" Although the Qionghai Army was disciplined, soldiers were ultimately flesh and blood, not machines. Even with the Baoding cavalry slowing the enemy's march, it was already remarkable that over ten thousand infantrymen, on foot for a hundred li, could keep up with the almost entirely cavalry Zhenglan Banner army, with very few falling behind. If they missed the daytime opportunity, that momentum would be lost, and catching up with the enemy tomorrow would be extremely difficult.
After the order reached the entire army, the three regiments simultaneously quickened their pace, dragging their leaden legs and gritting their teeth for a final sprint. At this time, Liu Guozhu's men, having regained some strength after eating a few mouthfuls of dry rations with cold water, also launched their attack.
Abatai stared at the pursuers with a gloomy expression, drew his sword, and said coldly, "It seems they want to make a gamble before nightfall. Since they're so persistent, I'll settle things with them!" As long as he could wipe out this cavalry during the chaos of darkness, Qionghai Town would be powerless against him, and he would be free to roam the world.
The exhausted troops clashed again. Both sides were at their last gasp, with less than half their usual strength, but the ferocity of the battle was no less than before.
Liu Guozhu resolutely led his remaining three thousand cavalrymen into the Tartar ranks, while Abatai personally led the Bayara and a large contingent of armored soldiers in a counterattack, and the two sides engaged in a fierce melee. With the elite Bayara and armored soldiers providing support, Liu Guozhu's remaining troops could not withstand the onslaught and retreated step by step. Swords clashed, spears flew, blood splattered, and the panting of men and horses mingled together. The fierce battle, illuminated by the setting sun, presented a breathtakingly magnificent spectacle.
Liu Guozhu bought time with the lives of his soldiers. Half an hour later, Xu Yifan's second regiment arrived and joined the battle, replacing the Baoding cavalry who were almost decimated.
By this time, the sun had already set. Abatai, seeing that the Baoding cavalry had essentially lost their fighting capacity and that their tactical objective had been achieved, sounded the retreat to avoid entanglement with the Qionghai Army. The Later Jin cavalry retreated like a tide, disengaging from the battle, leaving only the soldiers of the Second Regiment staring at the dust kicked up by the horses' hooves, unsure whether to pursue or not.
When Liu Ye arrived with his large force, it was already completely dark. He looked regretfully at the sky, then at the few remaining cavalry under Liu Guozhu's command, and sighed, "Heaven is not on my side. Abatai was lucky to escape today; we'll have to wait for another opportunity."