Chapter 75: Advancing Triumphantly

Just as Cao Wenzhao and that young soldier simultaneously charged into the whirlpool surrounding Yang Xin, the Mongols watching from a distance quietly left.

They already knew who the victor was.

Aobadaiqing took one last, complicated look at the center of the battlefield. Cao Wenzhao and the other soldier were advancing with unstoppable force. Leading the Ming cavalry behind them, they were like two sharp knives stabbing straight into this massive whirlpool, piercing right through it. Near the center of the encircled area, which they were getting closer to, corpses piled up. Yang Xin, who was shot full of arrows like a hedgehog, stood on the pile of dead bodies that even rose above the water’s surface. He wielded his extravagant Green Dragon Crescent Blade, slaughtering the Jiannu wildly. Their blood dyed the river red, even creating a flowing patch of crimson downstream…

And the Jiannu on the outskirts were already collapsing.

Three thousand Ming cavalry swept across the battlefield. These well-equipped, well-trained professional soldiers, their morale whipped into a fervor by the undefeatable fierce generals, saw their combat prowess explode to its limit. They swung their various weapons without pause, killing relentlessly.

Even the Capital Garrison troops in the distance joined in.

This was a great chance to seize merit; the Capital Garrison had come precisely to earn achievements.

Aobadaiqing looked again at the official in red robes.

The latter remained on horseback at the rear, watching them from within a protective ring of guards. Behind him were the various ceremonial banners representing the Liaodong Military Commissioner. Further south, dust clouds rose from countless marching warhorses; it was clear that more Ming troops were rushing to arrive. Aobadaiqing exchanged looks with the two Noyan beside him. Then they too turned their horses and galloped off after their departed countrymen. They left in great haste, because they also had to get ahead of the Ming army. Half an hour later, Mongolian cavalry disguised as fleeing Jiannu soldiers mixed in with the real rout, launched a surprise attack and captured Tieling’s Qingyun Gate. Immediately after, thirty thousand Mongolian cavalry poured into the city. The Jiannu garrisoning Tieling, powerless against an enemy thirty times their number, negotiated with Chahua. In exchange for releasing the imprisoned Zaisai and his son, they received Chahua’s permission to abandon the city and flee.

By this time, the battle at Fan River had also ended.

“This stuff still isn’t good enough!”

Yang Xin, who was bandaging his wounds, looked at his Full Iron Armor with great dissatisfaction.

He had gotten wounded after all.

The main issue was that although the Full Iron Armor was assembled from large iron plates, the spaces between the plates were leather and cloth. The seams were overlapping, sewn tightly together with cord like stitching cloth. This was fundamentally different from European plate armor.

After prolonged fighting, iron plates were bound to come loose.

Even though he wore three layers of armor, he had been hit by far too many arrows. Ultimately, a few arrows managed to pierce through due to the armor’s flaws. However, they didn’t cause any real harm, as arrows that penetrated the iron plates had little force left. A few minor wounds were nothing to him. Additionally, his iron faceguard wasn’t sturdy enough. His helmet was fine; he had added steel plates himself to the outside of his phoenix-wing helmet. It was genuine Su Steel, costing one and a half taels of silver per catty. He wouldn’t suffer a tragedy like Du Song. But the faceguard was standard-issue; it couldn’t stop armor-piercing arrows shot at close range. Fortunately, he had added an extra curved steel plate as a visor. Combined with his excellent eyesight and quick reflexes allowing him to dodge, this ensured his face wasn’t turned into a sieve. In short, for a man as conspicuous, or hate-attracting, as him on the battlefield, such protection was still insufficient.

“The only solution then is to get a set of what the Westerners call full plate armor.”

Chen Yujie said.

“Ordinary full plate armor won’t do either. Theirs has grades too. Truly high-end plate armor must be custom-made by an armorer and use the best materials. Common plate armor is similarly useless.”

Yang Xin shook his head.

One shouldn’t think that just any European plate armor was incredibly sturdy. There was an essential difference between the high-end custom pieces worn by monarchs and nobles and the mass-produced sets bought with a few months’ wages by common soldiers. But he couldn’t exactly commission a European armorer either. Currently, the plate armor one could find in the East was the mass-produced kind worn by European colonists. These paupers themselves couldn’t even afford decent meals back in Europe. How could they possibly make plate armor? If they knew how to make plate armor, why would they risk their lives coming to the East?

Europe was in the midst of the Thirty Years’ War; armorers weren’t short of business.

“Brother Yang, this is the brother who, like me, was the first to charge in to reach you!”

Cao Wenzhao came over and said.

Behind him followed that young soldier.

The latter was truly an ordinary soldier, around twenty years old, wearing cotton-and-iron armor, looking at Yang Xin with the admiration of a fan.

“What is this brother’s honorable name?”

Yang Xin asked.

He had actually been nearing his limit later on. After all, he was human, not a god. If Cao Wenzhao and this man hadn’t arrived in time, he would have had to abandon Abatai and break out. Their timely arrival and fierce attack from the outside shattered the morale of the Jiannu encircling him. Under the continuous attacks of the arriving Ming troops, they completely collapsed.

The man hurried forward and saluted.

“Reporting to General Yang, this humble one is Huang Degong, from the Kaiyuan Guard!”

He said.

“Huang Degong!”

Yang Xin once again drew out the name as he spoke.

Come to think of it, that made sense. Huang Degong’s ancestral home was Hefei, but he was actually from a Military Household of the Kaiyuan Guard. Just like Zhou Yuji’s ancestral home was Suining, but he was actually from a Military Household of the Guangning Central Garrison Guard. Qi Jiguang, although a hereditary Assistant Imperial Guard Commander of the Dengzhou Guard, liked to sign his name as ‘Qi Jiguang of Dingyuan’ in various places because his ancestral home was Dingyuan, Anhui. His ancestor was a personal guard of Zhu Yuanzhang.

This was all Zhu Yuanzhang’s doing.

When the Jiannu captured Kaiyuan, Huang Degong fled south. He must have fled to Shenyang and was then recruited by Li Ruzhen.

“Don’t call me General. I’m no general. I’m just a commoner with no official position. We are all brothers. Later, I’ll introduce you; an official post is guaranteed!”

He said.

“Thank you, Brother Yang!”

Huang Degong said excitedly.

“What about Li Ruzhen? Pursue quickly! We must push straight through to Kaiyuan in one go, or the ruse will be exposed!”

Yang Xin said, getting up.

He had to remember that what followed behind him wasn’t actually reinforcements. It was just a few hundred cavalry dragging branches back and forth, stirring up clouds of dust to trick Chahua into thinking this was only the vanguard, with the main army continuously arriving!

“Our Commander-in-Chief Li is probably dizzy with happiness. How could he think of such things? Speaking of which, Li Chengliang and Li Rusong, father and son, could be considered both wise and brave. Li Rumei was at least valiant. Li Rubai wasn’t particularly capable, but he did follow Li Rusong to kill Japanese invaders back in the day. But our current Commander-in-Chief really falls a bit short of the Li Family’s reputation!”

Chen Yujie said scornfully.

“Never mind him. As long as he obeys orders, it’s fine!”

Yang Xin said.

Indeed, Li Ruzhen had no ability, but he was easy to fool!

Commander-in-Chief Li, currently blissfully counting Jiannu heads, regarded Yang Xin’s words as gospel. After all, this useless man who had never been on a battlefield had just won an unprecedented great victory. They had routed two thousand, taken eight hundred heads, and captured six hundred warhorses. Especially that middle number—previously, when he “reinforced” Tieling and fled without fighting, he could report to the Wanli Emperor by simply cutting off a hundred or so heads from corpses outside. Now, with eight hundred heads taken—not random fake ones, but genuine trophies—and more importantly, capturing a son of Wild Boar Skin (the unlucky Abatai still hadn’t breathed his last, showing how robust his constitution was), this was the real deal.

“Quick! Listen to Brother Yang! Everyone, get up and march straight on Kaiyuan! Take Kaiyuan, and the reward is fifty thousand taels!”

He howled excitedly.

The soldiers who were dividing the silver immediately put down the silver in their hands. After all, the silver was right there, and Li Ruzhen couldn’t possibly renege. They weren’t cannon fodder soldiers like those others.

All the cavalry quickly mounted up. Leaving a small force to deliver the heads to the Yilu city behind them, including casualties from this battle, the remaining force—two thousand seven hundred elite cavalry plus five hundred from the Capital Garrison, along with Huang Zhen and others still impersonating Xiong Tingbi—all galloped towards Tieling. When they reached Tieling, it was already completely under Chahua’s control. His three hundred Jiannu heads were bought wholesale by Li Ruzhen, pushing the Ming army’s headcount past one thousand in one go. The two old men ignored the fact that they were supposed to be enemies. In the end, silver was most important. Chahua didn’t have much affection for his deceased second brother anyway. Moreover, the money and grain he plundered from Tieling had all the tribes in a frenzy.

As for the people here…

There weren’t many people left.

After Wild Boar Skin captured Tieling, he massacred the city. Apart from a few Han traitors who acted as his insiders, the rest were either dead or had fled. Those traitors certainly wouldn’t stay behind waiting for the Ming army to return.

The Tieling city, cleared by the Mongolian cavalry, was directly handed over to Li Ruzhen.

Thus, he had recaptured Tieling.

That afternoon, Li Rubai in Shenyang, upon receiving news of the great victory, scraped together another relief force that arrived.

This was actually He Shixian’s doing. He Shixian was quite brave. Upon learning Li Ruzhen was counterattacking Tieling, he immediately sent a thousand elite troops as reinforcements. Combined with what Li Rubai scraped together, a total of two thousand reinforcements confirmed the fact that the main army was indeed arriving. Then, that evening, a combined force, counted as five thousand Ming troops and thirty thousand Mongolian cavalry, reached Zhonggu Fortress. But the Jiannu had already abandoned this small fortress, as the more important Kaiyuan lay ahead. Hurhan, even with the troops that had withdrawn from Tieling, had only a little over eight thousand men. In reality, there weren’t even that many, because his purpose in garrisoning Kaiyuan was merely to guard Wild Boar Skin’s logistical base and transport captured supplies from here to Hetu Ala. Many Jiannu were on the transport routes.

East from here, past Jing’an Fort and out through Guangshun Pass, was the main road to Hetu Ala.

The Great Ming established horse markets in Kaiyuan to trade with the various Jurchen tribes. Zhenbei Pass was called the North Pass, mainly for trade with the Haixi Jurchens and the Wild Jurchens who passed through Haixi Jurchen territory. Guangshun Pass was called the South Pass, mainly for trade with the Jianzhou Jurchens. This was Kaiyuan’s importance. This city was the northernmost important trade hub in Liaodong. At its peak, hundreds of Jurchen merchants entered Kaiyuan daily just through Zhenbei Pass. Similarly, vast amounts of supplies were stockpiled here, especially grain, which Wild Boar Skin desperately needed. That’s why he attacked Kaiyuan first, not the closer Shenyang. The grain stockpiled here could support his attack on Yehe City and also help his people in Hetu Ala survive the coming long winter.

This was the most important thing.

Grain was the most crucial objective of this round of attacks for him.

Without enough grain, people would starve in the winter!