lovenovelstory Chapter 94 First subdue, then conquer
Chapter 94 First subdue, then conquer
Chapter 95 First subdue, then conquer
Chapter 094 Chen Ying never expected that Bomubogor, after he was severely weakened by the Jurchens, would still dare to lead his troops south to extort him.
Of course, Chen Ying was also prejudiced, thinking about Bomubogor's situation from the perspective of a Han Chinese. Under these circumstances, he had to befriend the Ming Dynasty, even if it meant acting subservient, which was much better than forcing his way in and demanding things from them.
The problem is that Bomubogor is not a Han Chinese; he is merely the leader of the Solon tribe. From childhood to adulthood, he has actually seen very few Han Chinese, let alone learned any survival wisdom from them.
The Solon tribe originated from the Northern Shiwei during the Northern Wei Dynasty and the Ju tribe during the Tang Dynasty. During the Yuan Dynasty, they were called the people of the forest. In the late Ming and early Qing Dynasties, they were divided into three branches: the Solon tribe, the Solon sub-tribe, and the reindeer herder tribe. They mainly lived in the Heilongjiang and Jingqili River basins. They were not simply a nomadic people, but rather a fishing and hunting people who lived by hunting wild animals such as sable, tiger, and deer, as well as fishing and gathering. They lived the life of "people of the forest".
They were divided into the Horse Herders and the Reindeer Herders based on their different lifestyles, while the Solon tribe was a combination of the Horse Herders and Reindeer Herders. Their lives were very hard, and sandstorms and frost could come at any time, taking their lives. Sometimes, after a heavy snowfall, several clans would freeze or starve to death and disappear from the forests or grasslands.
If there is little snow or no snow, it will be even worse. The animals they hunt rely on preying on herbivores and need a lot of water. Without snow, there is no water. When there is no water, the pasture is sparse, the prey will decrease, and they will have an even harder time.
As the Jurchens rose to power, they captured not only black slaves but also wild Jurchens and Haixi Jurchens, often taking advantage of the situation and eliminating them as well.
More importantly, because of the rise of the Jurchens, Han Chinese caravans dared not venture deep into the areas where they lived. Although Shanxi merchants would smuggle large quantities of goods to the Jurchens, these goods were mainly transported to the Jurchen settlements. Now, they were being transported directly to Shenyang, where the Jurchens could not afford salt, tea, or cloth all year round.
The Solon tribe shares some similarities with nomadic peoples; they both enjoy raiding southwards. If they don't raid, they'll die. The Solon tribe, in dire straits, actually lack the resources to repay debts or provide food. Their first instinct is to rob someone; it's become second nature.
Seeing Chen Ying's attitude, Bomubogor, being no fool, understood the meaning behind Chen Ying's words through the translator, and his face darkened: "Your Excellency, do you mean you no longer wish to be friends with our Solon tribe?"
"We Han Chinese have a proverb: 'We welcome friends with fine wine, but we meet wolves with hunting rifles.' Solon chieftain, your attitude has greatly displeased me!"
Chen Ying also knew that although he couldn't mention the word "Hu," the problem was that the Hu people feared power but not virtue. Although the Jurchens had almost wiped out a tribe with tens of thousands of people, the Solon tribe remained loyal to the Jurchens, and very loyal at that, because they couldn't defeat the Jurchens.
Unfortunately, the Jurchens won more battles than they lost in their wars with the Ming Dynasty, which gave Bomubogor the confidence to threaten Chen Ying. More importantly, Chen Ying's troops gave him an opportunity.
Because he was only obsessed with armor and swords, and the Shahe New Army was only equipped with a small number of armored soldiers. These armored soldiers were divided into two parts: one part was Chen Ying's heavily armored personal guards, numbering about five hundred, and the other part was the Shuangcheng Guard Cavalry, numbering about one thousand.
In Bomubogor's view, Chen Ying was a weakling. His strength was not on the same level as the Jurchens. In fact, from the perspective of armor alone, the Jurchens not only had more armored soldiers than Chen Ying, but also more than the Ming Dynasty.
Although the Jurchens claimed that Nurhaci had thirteen suits of armored cavalry, the problem is that Nurhaci did not initially have many armored soldiers. However, the turning point actually came at the Battle of Sal Lake.
In this battle, almost all the firearms, armor, and weapons carried by the hundreds of thousands of Ming troops from the four routes fell into the hands of the Jurchens. Then, in the first year of the Tianqi reign, the fall of Liaoyang and Shenyang, two important towns in Liaodong, allowed the Jurchens to acquire decades of military equipment accumulated in Liaodong. This part of the armor even included the armor prepared by Emperor Wanli during the Korean War, which had been managed by Li Chengliang for decades. At that time, the arsenal in Liaoyang was sufficient to equip hundreds of thousands of people.
It can be said that the Jurchen Eight Banners armor, in terms of both quantity and quality, far exceeded the total of the Liaodong Army and the Dongjiang Army. In particular, the Jurchen horse armor was of high quality and made with ample materials. After the Battle of Sarhu, the armor that the Ming army replenished was made with inferior materials because the court had no money. Meanwhile, the Jurchen horse armor was uniformly made by the Ming Dynasty in the early Wanli period.
In the great victory at the Sanjiang Plain, Chen Ying captured tens of thousands of pieces of armor. Although most of them were destroyed by artillery and firearms, the problem was that Chen Ying actually discovered armor that had been supervised to be manufactured in the tenth year of the Jiajing reign.
The Ming Dynasty had very advanced technology in preserving armor. Keep in mind that the tenth year of Jiajing's reign was 1531. This armor was almost a hundred years old, with standard-thickness plates of three millimeters, and it was still intact. Even with steel from later generations, it would be very difficult to preserve it for nearly a hundred years.
Chen Ying looked at these armors but couldn't figure out how they worked. They weren't coated with anti-rust paint or thick grease. Even when the armor plates were placed in water, no oil appeared on the surface. The armor plates were jet black and shiny, but there were no signs of oxidation.
Although Bomubogor had seen firearms during the Battle of the Three Rivers Plain, at that time, the Jurchens were launching a fierce attack at all costs, and they had already reached the front of the Shahe New Army. The two sides were engaged in a life-or-death struggle, and he only caught a glimpse of them and did not understand the true power of firearms at all.
Bomubogor stared intently at Chen Ying's face: "Your Excellency, you should think this through. Our Solon tribe lost over 4,600 of our best warriors fighting the Jurchens for you. Our food supplies are long gone. Winter is here, the snow has sealed the forests, and the rest of our tribe has no food, no salt, no tea. The women are crying, the children are starving, and some of the elderly have begun to starve themselves, saving their food for the younger generation—"
As the translator translated Bomubogor's words, Chen Ying didn't naively believe that Bomubogor was just playing the victim and crying poverty. Sure enough, he continued rambling on: "Your Majesty, we Solon people don't know how to farm or herd livestock, we only know how to hunt. Some of our people are already eating tree bark and leather straps. We won't survive until spring. I have no other choice. If Your Majesty doesn't give us food, we Solon people are going to die anyway."
"Then we'll die beneath the walls of Twin Cities. We still have over 30,000 men who can wield bows; our entire tribe is armed. Counting women and children, we still have hundreds of thousands of men. These hundreds of thousands of us can smash our way to our deaths against your city walls, and let the adults see how the Solons die!"
The translator then translated these words. Chen Ying remained calm, but the expressions of Hamutai, Menggun, and the others around him changed drastically. Of course, they were different from Chen Ying. Their language differences were like dialects today, with similar grammar. If they spoke slowly, they could understand each other by listening and guessing.
They were extremely agitated. These ignorant Solon people dared to threaten Lord Chen of the Upper Kingdom. Did they have a death wish?
Of course, Chen Ying didn't really understand what Bomubo was thinking either. He was confused at this moment, just like his former teacher, who thought about it for ten days and ten nights but couldn't figure out what gave Nehru the courage to provoke China.
The current situation is very similar. Chen Ying led the Shahe New Army to defeat the Jurchen Right Wing Four Banners led by Dai Shan on the main battlefield, with more than 40,000 elite troops. This battle has awakened the various tribes of Haixi Jurchen and Wild Jurchen, and they all came to Chen Ying to curry favor.
The problem is that the Solons also participated in that battle. They should have seen the fragments of the Jurchen bodies killed by artillery fire, and they should have seen that the Jurchens' iron armor and leather armor were as fragile as paper in front of their cannons and firearms.
Times have changed. Now it's the age of firearms. It's not about who has the thickest armor or the sharpest sword. Are you saying Bomubogor is blind?
Don't say that the Soren tribe only has tens of thousands of people. That's just a boast. The real elite of their entire tribe can't possibly exceed 30,000. But do you think 30,000 people can take down Shuangchengwei? That's too simplistic. More importantly, Shuangchengwei doesn't have much food.
Even if they conquer Shuangchengwei, they won't get much. Chen Ying didn't have 150,000 shi of grain in Shuangchengwei, not even 20,000 shi, or even 10,000 shi. In reality, he only had a little over 7,000 shi.
However, Chen Ying possessed a large amount of grain in Yongning Port. Through the introduction of Zhang Guoxun, the naval adjutant of Dengzhou, Chen Fengyi from Qimen, Huizhou, who was the head of the Chen family, one of the four major Huizhou merchant families, sent someone to negotiate after learning that Chen Ying wanted to buy grain.
Chen Fengyi arrived in Yongning a month ago and negotiated directly with Su Mei. The two parties reached a cooperation agreement. Chen's Company, as the general agent of Jiangnan, won the agency rights for its flagship products, including Tianqi-type rice from Shahe, Huimin rice seed drill, and four-wheeled carriages. Chen's Company sold 600,000 shi of rice to Chen Ying at a price of eight qian of silver per shi.
Eight qian of silver per shi of grain cannot be considered very cheap. Basically, after deducting transportation costs, there is absolutely no profit. It can be said that the Chen family business did not intend to make money from Chen Ying's silver from the grain. Of course, the Chen family did not lose money either; they could have made more money from other sources.
The grain transaction could be settled with payment for the goods. Now, let alone 150,000 shi, he could even come up with 300,000 shi of grain once the grain from the Chen family's trading company arrived. But the problem was that Chen Ying couldn't possibly lend it to Bomubogor.
Looking at the fierce-looking Soren leader, Chen Ying felt a surge of complex emotions.
He recalled the history of later generations, how Huang Taiji ultimately subdued them over two years with countless lives lost, incorporating them into the Eight Banners and making them the sharpest blade of the Manchu Qing Dynasty. Their cavalry roamed the deserts during the Kangxi era and launched expeditions against the Dzungars during the Qianlong era, achieving great military exploits, but also shedding their last drop of blood.
But now, they still want to extort Chen Ying. Chen Ying has made up his mind that since Huang Taiji has subdued the Solon tribe, he will also subdue them. He will subdue them first and then negotiate terms.
Thinking of this, Chen Ying smiled and said, "Bomubogor, you helped me fight the war, and I will remember your contributions."
I will not shortchange you on the rewards you are due. But I cannot accept your extortionate behavior.
A flash of anger crossed Bomubogor's eyes: "It's not extortion! It's a plea! We're begging you, sir, to save the lives of our Solon tribe!"
"Is this how you beg for help?"
Chen Ying sneered, "What did you mean by that just now? Kill yourself by crashing into the city walls? Was that a plea or a threat?"
Bomubogor roared, "So what if you take this as a threat?"
Chen Ying looked into Bomubogor's eyes and said, word by word, "Then let's speak frankly. If you don't hide anything, I will be frank too—"
At this point, Chen Ying pointed to the distant Shuangchengwei City and laughed, "I have plenty of grain. Don't even mention 150,000 shi, I could have 1.5 million shi. If you want grain, you'll have to see what you can do!"
"What do you mean by that?"
"It means you're not worthy!"
Chen Ying pointed to Hamutai, Menggun, and other leaders of the Haixi Jurchens beside him and said, "They are the true warriors. We Han people have a saying: 'With just a three-foot sword, one can seek a title.' If you want grain, you can have it; no need to borrow it, I can provide it. If you want salt, I have it too. If you want winter clothes, tea, or silk, I have them all. Do you have that ability?"
Bomubogor said with a ferocious expression, "I understand, Your Majesty. You mean that as long as we defeat your troops, we can borrow grain?"
"That's one way to put it!"
Chen Ying said calmly, "Let me make this clear from the start: I'm sending two thousand men to fight, and you can send six thousand—three times the strength. If any of you can cross this river and reach my camp, I'll consider it a victory. I'll give you three days. If you haven't crossed the river by then, you'll lose! What do you say?"
"Yes, that's perfectly fair!"
Bomubogor originally wanted to say that it wasn't cheap and that it would also require two thousand men, but he changed his mind before he could finish speaking. This matter would determine the fate of the Solon tribe, so he dared not be careless.
"If you lose, I will demand your Solon tribe's submission. I will give you grain, salt, and winter clothes. But you must abide by my rules and obey my orders!"
Listening to the translator's interpretation, Bomubogor laughed loudly, "We Solon people are the most trustworthy of our promises!"
"Since we're fighting, casualties are inevitable. Don't be a sore loser!"
"We Solon people can win, and we can lose!"
Bomubogor understood the underlying meaning in Chen Ying's words: as long as they submitted, they would receive food. Of course, he believed he would not lose. In terms of combat strength, in a head-on confrontation, one-on-one, the Jurchens were no match for them, let alone the Ming army that was so terrified of the Jurchens that they wet their pants at the sight of them.
"I'll give you half an hour to prepare, how about that?"
Chen wanted to surrender to the Solon tribe and also wanted to acquire this skilled mercenary force. However, the Solon people were single-minded; they only believed in strength and power.
"Okay, see you again in half an hour!"
Bomubogor said, "Your Excellency, I have one more request!"
"Speak freely!"
"I have three daughters who are like larks on the Jingqi River, the most beautiful flowers. If I win, you must become my son-in-law and marry my three daughters!"
"No, no!"
Chen Ying waved his hand and said, "I already have a wife; they can only be concubines!"
Chen Ying was not a saint, and he knew that if he wanted to form an alliance with tribes such as the Solon and Xibe, he did need to arrange marriages, because marriage was the foundation of trust between the two sides.
He persuaded Zhou Bin, Wang Gui, Li Cheng, Wang Tiezhu and others to take concubines, but he knew he would have to make sacrifices himself. He never took the plunge because he was worried that his kidneys couldn't handle it.
You should know that the Haixi Jurchen still has fifty or sixty tribes. Each tribe has one member, which means fifty or sixty people. Add to that the various tribes of the Wild Jurchen, and that makes over a hundred people. Even an iron pillar can be ground into a needle.
"No problem!"
Bomubogor said confidently, "I hope you won't go back on your word!"
"Absolutely not!"
Bomubogor didn't know that he had already lost when he agreed to the bet. Chen Yingke didn't play by the rules. Although he sent out two thousand men, it wasn't two thousand muskets, but a full six thousand. There were more than 1,500 musketeers, each with four muskets loaded with bullets. At the same time, five hundred artillerymen were also loaded with shells.
To enhance firepower, all the revolvers equipped by the Royal Guard were given to these soldiers. Each of these 1,500 or so gunners had four one-inch caliber pistols, plus a revolver and two boxes of sixteen grenades each.
If Bomubogor wants to break through such a defensive line, six thousand men are not enough; sixteen thousand would probably be barely enough.
With preparations complete, the two sides separated, and a major battle was about to break out.
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