novelSusiti Chapter 30 The best defense is offense
Chapter 30 The best defense is offense
At the end of November in the second year of the Shunzhi reign (1645), the bloodstains on the walls of Wuchang were still wet.
As dawn broke, Ma Yongsheng stood on the watchtower of the former Huguang Governor's Office, his gaze passing over the dilapidated city wall and heading northeast.
There, the vanguard of the Qing army's 5,000-strong detachment had already appeared on the horizon, a dark mass like a swarm of ants, rapidly approaching.
The fighting within the city has not yet completely subsided.
Scattered sounds of fighting came from the direction of the military camp in the north of the city; it was the last remnant of the Qing army stubbornly resisting.
But the outcome was already decided—after a night of bloody fighting, the Xinghan Army controlled more than 70% of Wuchang, captured more than 1,200 Qing soldiers, and seized three granaries, two armories, and one treasury.
More importantly, they controlled some of the ships at the Yangtze River docks.
"Chief, the Qing reinforcements have about a thousand men at the vanguard and are less than five li from the city gate." Tie Zhu strode up the watchtower, breathing heavily. "Instructor Sun is organizing the city's defenses, but we have too few men. Including the newly recruited surrendered soldiers from the Left Army, we have no more than four thousand who can fight. We also need to divide our forces to guard the prisoners and maintain order within the city..."
Ma Yongsheng didn't turn around, but simply asked, "How is the mobilization of the people going?"
"As you instructed, the granaries were opened and the grain was distributed. The people who received the grain were very excited, and many able-bodied men volunteered to help defend the city. But..." Tie Zhu hesitated for a moment, "They are untrained and lack weapons, I'm afraid..."
"We have enough weapons." Ma Yongsheng finally turned around. "The swords and spears captured from the armory are enough to arm five thousand men. Have Instructor Sun organize the able-bodied men who are willing to defend the city into teams of fifty, with five veterans leading each team. They are not required to charge into battle; they only need to be able to move logs and stones, operate defensive equipment, and assist in treating the wounded."
He paused for a moment, then added, "Also, bring up all the Han Banner officers among the prisoners."
"Does the chieftain want to persuade us to surrender?"
"Persuade them to surrender? No." A cold glint flashed in Ma Yongsheng's eyes. "I want to use their heads."
Soon, the seventeen captured Han Banner officers were brought up to the city wall.
These men were all captured in the street fighting last night. They ranged in rank from lieutenant to captain, and most of them were wounded. Their expressions ranged from arrogant to fearful.
Ma Yongsheng walked up to them, his gaze sweeping over each face: "You are all Han Chinese, yet you serve the Manchus, helping them shave the heads of your fellow countrymen and take their lives. According to the law, you should be beheaded."
Several officers' legs buckled and they knelt down, begging for mercy.
But some were defiant. A burly captain with a fierce face spat out, "Kill me if you want! Since I've eaten the Eight Banners' grain, I'm not afraid of death! Once General Hong's army arrives, all of you rebels will be buried with me!"
Instead of getting angry, Ma Yongsheng laughed: "Good, you have guts. Then I'll grant your wish." He looked at Tiezhu, "Tie up these few with guts and put them in the most conspicuous place on the city wall. The rest..." He turned his gaze to those kneeling and begging for mercy, "I'll give you a chance to live."
He pointed to the Qing army approaching outside the city: "Go tell your masters that Wuchang is now under the Ma family. If you want to take it back, you'll have to pay with your lives. Also, take this message with you: Han people don't kill Han people. If you have even a shred of courage left, then rebel against them and fight your way back to the capital with me!"
Upon hearing this, the captain cursed loudly, "You dog! You think...?"
Before he could finish speaking, Ma Yongsheng had already pointed the short stick at his neck.
The high-voltage current instantly penetrated his entire body, causing the officer to convulse, foam at the mouth, and collapse to the ground.
Ma Yongsheng didn't even glance at him, and said to Tiezhu, "Tie him up, let him see with his own eyes how Hong Chengchou will save him."
He then turned to the trembling officers and asked, "Are any of you willing to deliver a message?"
"Yes! Yes!" The men kowtowed repeatedly.
"Then go. Remember, deliver the message. If he dares to try anything funny..." Ma Yongsheng pointed to the still convulsing Zuo Ling on the ground, "He is the example."
Several officers were released from the city and scrambled towards the Qing army.
Watching their retreating figures, Tie Zhu asked worriedly, "Chief, won't this provoke the Qing army and make them attack even more frantically?"
"That's exactly what I want—their madness," Ma Yongsheng said calmly. "Hong Chengchou is a steady strategist, and he excels at overwhelming others with his power. To deal with someone like that, you have to disrupt his rhythm and force him to make mistakes." He looked further northeast. "Those five thousand detachments were just a probe. Hong Chengchou's main force is still north of Huangzhou. Once he received news of the fall of Wuchang, he only had two choices: either abandon Huangzhou and focus all his efforts on retaking Wuchang to the south, or divide his forces to cover both the north and the south."
Which one would he choose?
"He'll hesitate." Ma Yongsheng's lips curled into a slight smile. "And that hesitation is our opportunity."
At the beginning of Chenshi (7-9 AM), the vanguard of a 5,000-strong Qing army detachment arrived at the walls of Wuchang.
The leader was Ma Degong, the deputy general of the Han Army Banner. He was originally a subordinate of Zuo Liangyu and worked very hard after surrendering to the Qing.
He saw the "Revive Han" banner fluttering on the city wall, and then he saw the officers tied to the pillars of the city wall. He was so angry that he was furious.
"Traitor! How dare you!" Ma Degong roared from his horse, "Surrender immediately and I'll spare your life! Otherwise, when the city falls, not a single chicken or dog will be spared!"
On the city wall, Ma Yongsheng personally addressed him: "Ma Degong, you are also a Han Chinese, yet you serve the Manchus like a dog, helping them kill your own compatriots and shave the heads of your own ancestors. Aren't you ashamed? If you still have even a shred of the spirit of a Han Chinese son, defect now, and I will offer you the position of vanguard officer. In the future, when we recover our lost lands, you will be a hero. If you remain obstinate, those men on the city wall will be your example!"
Enraged by being publicly humiliated, Ma Degong immediately ordered an attack on the city.
However, the Qing army had come from afar and lacked siege equipment, so they could only organize their forces to forcefully attack the city gates.
The walls of Wuchang were tall and sturdy, and the Xinghan Army was well-prepared. Their first charge was quickly repelled, leaving behind more than a hundred corpses.
Ma Degong then calmed down and realized that a direct assault would be difficult, so he ordered his troops to set up camp and sent a messenger to Hong Chengchou to request support from the main force.
For the next three days, the area around Wuchang became a meat grinder.
Ma Degong launched seven attacks, each one more ferocious than the last.
However, the Xinghan Army held its ground very firmly, not only relying on the city walls for defense, but also organizing elite troops to launch counterattacks and burn the Qing army's siege equipment on several occasions.
Ma Yongsheng personally directed the defense from the city walls, and his "predictive" ability played a huge role in the defense of the city—he could always predict the main direction of the Qing army's attack in advance and adjust the deployment of troops in a timely manner.
By the evening of the third day, the Qing army's 5,000-strong detachment had suffered nearly 1,000 casualties, and morale was low.
Although Wuchang also suffered hundreds of casualties, morale was high, and the newly mobilized laborers gradually became familiar with the city defense procedures, greatly reducing the pressure on the regular army.
More importantly, news came back from Huangzhou.
"Chief! Urgent report from Huangzhou!" Wang Pu rushed into the government office, travel-worn but with a joyful expression. "Hong Chengchou's main force has moved! But not all of them are coming to Wuchang. He has divided his troops! He left 20,000 to continue besieging Huangzhou, while he himself is leading 30,000 elite troops, heading towards Wuchang! They are expected to arrive in five days!"
Inside the council hall, all the generals were shocked upon hearing this.
"Thirty thousand?!" Instructor Sun gasped. "Adding the four thousand remnants below the city, that's thirty-four thousand. We have less than five thousand combat-ready soldiers at most... This..."
"The pressure on Huangzhou has eased, which is a good thing." Ma Yongsheng appeared quite calm. "Huang Zongxi and Xu Guangqi have 15,000 men, enough to hold out against 20,000 Qing troops for a month. As long as we can hold off Hong Chengchou's main force here..."
He walked to the map, moved his finger westward from Wuchang, and landed on a point: "Kuizhou".
"Kuizhou?" The crowd asked, puzzled.
"The gateway to Sichuan, the throat of the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River." Ma Yongsheng's eyes gleamed. "Hong Chengchou led his main force south to Wuchang, leaving northern Sichuan vulnerable. We, on the other hand, have already made preparations in Sichuan."
Then everyone remembered that three months ago, Ma Yongsheng had secretly dispatched a team of 300 men, carrying a large amount of gold and silver and “Xinghan” documents, to advance along the Yangtze River to contact anti-Qing righteous armies and remnants of the former Ming army in various parts of Sichuan.
At the time, no one understood why resources were being wasted in Sichuan, which was thousands of miles away from Hubei and Hunan.
I get it now.
"Did the chieftain have planned this all along?" Tie Zhu suddenly realized.
"It wasn't premeditated, it was a setup," Ma Yongsheng said. "The world is like a game of chess; you can't just look at the immediate move. Hong Chengchou thought he was besieging us, but he didn't realize he had already fallen into his trap."
He issued a series of orders:
First, strengthen the defenses of Wuchang and prepare to receive Hong Chengchou's main force; we must hold out for at least half a month.
Second, immediately dispatch a fast boat up the Yangtze River to contact the leaders in Sichuan and order them to take advantage of the vulnerability of northern Sichuan to launch an uprising, seize Kuizhou, and threaten Chongqing.
Third, send people to contact He Tengjiao's troops in Hunan (the governor of the Southern Ming) and Jin Shenghuan's troops in Jiangxi (a general who defected to the Ming), and ask them to rise up at the same time to contain the Qing army.
Fourth, the city intensified its efforts to manufacture gunpowder and arrows, repair the damaged city walls, and stockpile food and water.
"Furthermore," Ma Yongsheng looked at Wang Pu, "the Intelligence Bureau must operate at full capacity. I need to know every move of Hong Chengchou's army, the details of every important general in his army, and every node in his supply lines."
"yes!"
Once the order was given, the entire city of Wuchang sprang into action.
Ma Yongsheng only sleeps for two hours a day. The rest of the time he either inspects the defenses on the city wall, supervises the manufacture of weapons in the workshop, or handles government affairs in the yamen.
His five wives were six months pregnant, but he had almost no time to visit them, leaving Aunt Chen and the maids to take care of them.
On November 28, Hong Chengchou's main vanguard arrived outside Wuchang and joined forces with Ma Degong's troops.
The Qing army had a total strength of 35,000 men and surrounded Wuchang.
Hong Chengchou did not attack the city immediately, but instead set up a large camp stretching for more than ten miles, with deep trenches and high walls, putting on the posture of a long-term siege.
At the same time, he sent envoys into the city to persuade Ma Yongsheng to surrender, offering even more favorable terms: not only would he grant Ma Yongsheng the title of "Governor-General of Huguang," but he would also promise that all his generals would be granted official positions, and that the soldiers' pay would be doubled after they were reorganized into the Green Standard Army.
Ma Yongsheng's reply was simple: shave the messenger's head and beard, strip him naked, and lower him down from the city wall with a rope.
Hong Chengchou was finally enraged.
On the first day of the twelfth lunar month, the Qing army launched its first full-scale offensive.
Three hundred cannons (mostly old-style red-coated cannons captured from the Ming army) roared simultaneously, and cannonballs rained down on the Wuchang city wall.
Subsequently, 30,000 Qing troops surged towards the city wall like a tidal wave, deploying ladders, trench bridges, and battering rams.
The battle lasted from dawn until dusk.
The Wuchang city wall was damaged in many places, and the Xinghan Army suffered more than 800 casualties, while the Qing army suffered more than 2,000 casualties.
But the city wall was never breached.
For the next ten days, similar offensive and defensive battles unfolded daily.
Relying on its superior numbers, the Qing army launched repeated attacks, giving the defenders no chance to regroup.
The Xinghan Army relied on the city wall fortifications to put up a stubborn resistance, and repeatedly organized suicide squads to raid the Qing army camps at night and burn their supplies.
Ma Yongsheng visited the front lines almost every day.
On one occasion, when Qing troops stormed the city walls, he personally led his personal guards in a counterattack, killing seven men with his own hands, but his left arm was also wounded by a stray arrow.
But after a simple bandage, he returned to the city wall to take command.
With such a commander, the soldiers will fight to the death.
By December 15th, Wuchang had been besieged for half a month.
The city walls were severely damaged, and the defending troops suffered more than two thousand casualties, leaving fewer than three thousand soldiers capable of fighting.
Although the food supply could last for another month, consumables such as arrows and gunpowder were running out.
Worse still, signs of plague began to appear in the city—a large number of corpses could not be transported out of the city for burial in time, and coupled with the cold and damp winter, the disease began to spread.
"Chief, if this continues, it's only a matter of time before the city falls." Late at night, Instructor Sun dragged his weary body into the yamen, his face full of worry. "More than thirty brothers have fallen ill today. The Qing army's offensive is getting fiercer every day. Hong Chengchou is determined to wear us down."
Ma Yongsheng was looking at a map under the lamp when he heard this. He looked up and asked, "Is there any news from Sichuan?"
"Not yet." Tie Zhu shook his head. "None of the three groups of messengers sent out have returned. I'm afraid they're in grave danger."
Ma Yongsheng remained silent for a moment, then walked to the window.
Outside the window, Wuchang City slept soundly in the winter night, with only the torches on the city walls flickering in the cold wind.
In the distance, the lights of the Qing army camp stretched out like a galaxy.
"Stay for another five days," he suddenly said.
"Five days?" Instructor Sun asked, puzzled. "Chief, can we hold out for another five days?"
"We must defend, whether we can or cannot." Ma Yongsheng turned around, a strange light flashing in his eyes. "There will be a thick fog on the winter solstice, five days from now."
"Dense fog?"
"Yes, a dense fog that's rare in a century," Ma Yongsheng said confidently. "It will last at least two days. That's our chance."
Instructor Sun and Tie Zhu looked at each other in bewilderment.
How did the chieftain know there would be heavy fog in five days? And that it would be a once-in-a-century event?
But they didn't ask.
Their experiences over the past five years have made them realize that the chieftain possesses many inexplicable abilities, and these abilities always save everyone from danger at critical moments.
"Then... what about five days later?" Tie Zhu asked. "Even if there's a thick fog, how will we break through? There are more than 30,000 Qing troops surrounding the city."
"It's not a breakout." Ma Yongsheng walked back to the map, pointed to the Yangtze River, "It's a counterattack."