Chapter 168
Chapter 168
[After Zhu Yuanzhang Returned to the Great Ming – 19]
In the previous life, Esen had marched on Beijing with Zhu Qizhen, only to find Yu Qian waiting in full readiness. The Oirat army had faced off against the Ming forces outside the capital for five full days. When relief armies from across the realm were about to arrive, Esen, fearing encirclement, had hastily pillaged the surrounding area and retreated north.
This time, Zhu Yuanzhang was directing the overall situation, and the preparations were far more complete. Yu Qian had no worries behind him, while Hu Ying, Wang Zhi, and the others gave him their full support. As a result, Esen gained even less than before. He launched fierce assaults at Desheng Gate and Xizhimen in turn but failed to open a breach. After holding out for three and a half days, he finally decided to withdraw in defeat.
The journey there and back alone consumed two or three days. Added to the three and a half days encamped outside Beijing, the expedition had lasted roughly six days in all. Food for men, fodder for horses, and damaged weapons amounted to no small expense.
It had been decades since Emperor Taizong of the Ming Dynasty, Zhu Di, moved the capital to Beijing. It was home to dukes, marquises, and nobles, a place overflowing with wealth and luxury. If the Oirats could truly break into the city, there would be so much treasure to plunder that even every horse in their army could not have carried it all!
Unfortunately, after three days of ferocious attacks, they had failed to shake the city in the slightest. All the grain, manpower, and resources already committed had been wasted. Worse still, the cunning Ming had evacuated the towns near the capital long ago. The Oirats could raid Han settlements along the frontier, but how much wealth could possibly be squeezed from such places?
Escorted by his guards, Esen rode away. Before departing, he looked back longingly. The setting sun hung amid clouds of glowing dusk, magnificent, brilliant, and grand.
Tears spilled down his face. “After parting today, who knows when I will reach Beijing again?”
The army was returning empty-handed, and his confidants were dispirited as well. Seeing their lord so desolate, one gently consoled him. “With the Grand Preceptor’s might and the Oirats’ present strength, this subordinate believes that day cannot be far away!”
Esen cracked his whip and laughed heroically. “Exactly! The next time I reach Beijing will be the day my name shakes the world!”
At that moment, the rearguard came galloping up. “Run! The Ming army is about to catch us!”
Esen’s laughter stopped as abruptly as though a sharp pair of scissors had snipped it in two.
…
Zhu Qizhen sat on horseback with the reins in hand. The dying sunlight washed across his face, unable to conceal its desolation and defeat.
He looked back until Beijing’s outline disappeared from view. Then he glanced at the Oirat cavalry around him, guards in name but jailers in truth, and a sinister shadow flashed through his eyes.
Yuan Bin saw it. He pushed past the surrounding Oirat riders and urged his horse closer. “Where there is life, there is hope, Your Majesty. Since Esen failed to take Beijing, he naturally will not dare mistreat you…”
Zhu Qizhen smiled indifferently and shook his head but said nothing.
Yuan Bin was only a subject. How could he possibly understand an emperor’s thoughts?
Esen had befriended Zhu Qizhen and treated him with great respect, even assigning his own wife and daughters to attend him. Zhu Qizhen had not feared him before the siege of Beijing, much less now.
What he had not expected was that he himself could lead two hundred thousand elite troops to a crushing defeat, while his younger cousin from his uncle’s branch could hold the capital with little more than two hundred thousand motley soldiers.
His cousin had truly secured the throne beneath him.
By comparison, Zhu Qizhen’s boastful personal campaign and subsequent defeat at Tumu Fortress must have made him an even greater laughingstock in the eyes of the world.
Officials had a saying: once a man left, his tea went cold. The same was true of emperors. Once there was a new emperor, who cared about the old one? Hu Ying, Wang Zhi, and Yu Qian had all rushed to wag their tails before the new sovereign. Even Zhu Qizhen’s birth mother and his lawful wife, Empress Qian, had sent only eight carts of treasure at the beginning. After that, there had been no word from either of them.
As for Xi Ning, the eunuch he had favored, the man had eagerly surrendered to Esen, serving him hand and foot and leading every charge.
Only Yuan Bin had remained loyal and stayed at Zhu Qizhen’s side. And there had also been Teacher Wang…
At the thought of Wang Zhen, sorrow darkened Zhu Qizhen’s heart. After the army collapsed at Tumu Fortress, Teacher Wang had died amid the rout. Those treacherous subjects had swarmed him and beaten him to death with their own hands. Zhu Qizhen had later tried to send someone to recover Teacher Wang’s remains, but even that wish had gone unfulfilled!
Hatred twisted his face. He cast one final glance toward Beijing, then jerked his head around and spurred his horse forward.
“Your Majesty…”
Yuan Bin hurried after him.
…
The Oirat army first withdrew to Liangxiang and joined the garrison stationed there, then turned west toward Juyong Pass.
They had been full of excitement on the march to Beijing. Now their spirits were every bit as low on the road back. With pursuers at their heels, there was even less cause for cheer.
The Ming army pursued them to within twenty miles of Juyong Pass. Only when Esen’s column had drawn far ahead did the gongs sound a recall, and the pursuers turned back to report.
When scouts brought the news, Esen secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
At the entrance to Juyong Pass, the vanguard sent men ahead to call for the gate. Esen’s expression remained dark as he casually loosened the strap of his helmet to catch his breath. The pent-up frustration in his chest, however, would not disperse so easily.
If the commander felt this way, his generals and soldiers felt worse. When they saw the gates of Juyong Pass standing open, no one gave it a second thought. They wanted only to enter, rest for half the night, reorganize, plunder the countryside, and then return home to Oirat territory.
At that moment, everything changed!
The soldiers stationed on either side of the gate suddenly attacked. Caught wholly unprepared, the Oirats suffered heavy losses. Realizing something was wrong, Esen hurriedly ordered the army to withdraw-but the gates of Juyong Pass slammed shut with a thunderous crash!
Nearly ten thousand soldiers had already entered. Now trapped inside, they were unlikely to survive. Esen had never imagined that, after escaping destruction outside Beijing, they would die for nothing inside Juyong Pass because of a single moment’s carelessness!
The sounds of slaughter and anguished screams spilled over the walls. Esen’s heart convulsed. With a cry of grief, tears rolled down his face.
He wheeled his horse around and raced back the way he had come.
The Oirat army had assaulted Beijing for three and a half days without gaining an inch. The first reason was Yu Qian’s effective command and the unity of soldiers and civilians. The second was the Ming army’s ferocious, unpredictable firearms. Esen had already lost two younger brothers to those weapons. Faced with them again, how could he not panic?
With their commander fleeing in disgrace, the cavalry and infantry below him fell into even greater disorder. Unable to tell one direction from another, they ran blindly. In the next instant, cannon fire crashed among them. Anyone struck was torn apart at once, arms and legs flying in a gruesome rain.
The bloody reality deepened the chaos. Tens of thousands of soldiers lost all formation, turning the retreat into a disaster. When Oirat casualties were counted afterward, more men had died under their comrades’ feet than from the firearms.
The false banners used to deceive the Oirats were torn down. A banner bearing the character Zhu snapped in the northern wind. Zhu Yuanzhang stood with his hands behind his back, his face composed, and waved an order.
“Bring my horse! I will personally take Esen’s head!”
Esen had fled Beijing at seventy miles an hour; now he was going at least one hundred and eighty. He had commanded armies for years and knew how defeat could collapse an army like a landslide. Once morale broke, restoring it was nearly impossible!
He clenched the reins so tightly that veins bulged across the back of his hand. His teeth cut into his tongue, filling his mouth with the taste of blood.
He had withdrawn in such haste because Ming reinforcements were coming and he could not afford to be trapped. Yet the very thing he feared had happened. Juyong Pass was in enemy hands, while Beijing remained unconquered. Where else could he go?
If he stayed here, he truly would be surrounded and swallowed whole!
After galloping wildly for a long time, the outline of Beijing reappeared ahead. Recalling the grand declaration he had made upon leaving, Esen felt desolation seep into his heart. His gaze slid aside, and amid the chaos he suddenly spotted Zhu Qizhen bent low over his jolting horse. Yuan Bin, face taut with strain, struggled to protect him.
As though clutching at his final lifeline, Esen shouted, “Take them with us! We retreat by the narrow trails!”
The Ming army had blocked Juyong Pass, but the countryside was riddled with twisting footpaths. A great army could not use them, but several hundred light cavalry could.
The Oirats still remained under his control. If he could escape north, he might yet return in force one day. With Zhu Qizhen in his hands, he had nothing to fear even if they encountered Ming troops along the way.
But… but!
The hundreds of thousands of soldiers who had followed him south through the passes could likely not be saved!
They were the finest warriors of the steppe, the heirs to the glory of the Golden Lineage. To lose them all in a single day-mere pain could not describe it!
Out of the corner of his eye, Esen saw a confidant seize Zhu Qizhen and drag him onto a horse. His heart eased slightly. He paid no mind when Yuan Bin followed close behind. Listening to the thunder of hooves and the screams of his army not far away, Esen felt as though a blade twisted in his heart. Tears poured from his eyes and quickly blurred his vision.
…
Yu Qian and the others watched from the walls for some time. The Oirat army had lost all its former discipline. The soldiers had cast away helmets and armor, and every face was frantic.
Wang Zhi narrowed his eyes. Suddenly, as though he had discovered something, his eyes flew open and delight flooded his face.
“The army of the Great Ming is chasing them! Our reinforcements have arrived!” he shouted.
Even as he spoke, the leading Ming cavalry swept into view. Everyone on the walls stood stunned for an instant. When they recovered, tears streamed down their faces and they laughed with fierce emotion.
“Heaven and the gods protect us! The spirits of our ancestors are watching over the Great Ming!”
Yu Qian thrust up an arm. “Form ranks and sally out! Join the reinforcements and annihilate the Oirat remnants!”
After the Oirats’ earlier retreat, Yu Qian had ordered the entire army commended, while Hu Ying and Wang Zhi tallied merit and issued rewards. Morale had risen to a fever pitch.
Now the reinforcements had arrived, while the terrified Oirat troops fled like homeless curs. The defenders’ fighting spirit blazed even higher. At Yu Qian’s command, they donned armor, took up their weapons, and marched from the city to fight.
One side was rested and burning with courage. The other was fleeing in disarray, utterly routed. The outcome of this battle had been decided before it began.
Esen took only several hundred light cavalry when he escaped along the narrow trails, leaving an army numbering in the hundreds of thousands behind. The defenders of Beijing and Juyong Pass struck from both sides, slaughtering until men and horses alike were drenched in blood. Only after the situation came under control did they finally halt, restore their formations, and begin counting casualties and prisoners.
Yu Qian, Hu Ying, Wang Zhi, and the others saw the invading Oirat army utterly destroyed, and emotion surged through them. Ignoring the rivers of blood and severed limbs outside the city-and even the scattered fighting that continued-they personally went out to receive the commanders of the relief force.
When the young officer at their head learned who Yu Qian and the others were, he hurriedly bowed and explained his identity. “It shames me to say this, but we were originally defenders of Juyong Pass. When the Oirats attacked, we were defeated and scattered in every direction. Fortunately, Lord Yu planned everything with such foresight that General Zhu personally led his guards to reinforce Juyong Pass and rally the defenders of the many passes to its north. Only because of that did we win today’s great victory…”
Yu Qian paled in shock. “I have been trapped in Beijing, unable to spare attention elsewhere. When did I ever send anyone to Juyong Pass? What is this General Zhu’s full name, and where did he come from?!”
The young officer looked even more astonished. “Was General Zhu not sent by Lord Yu?”
Halfway through the question, he froze.
Yu Qian and the others followed his gaze. A troop of light cavalry approached, blades and spears sharp, the murderous aura of battle hanging over them. Their horses’ hooves trampled through blood. The man at their head was no stranger: he was an old retainer from the princely estate who had accompanied the emperor from Luoyang.
He held a black-iron military banner, seven great characters snapping upon it in the wind:
SON OF HEAVEN OF THE GREAT MING, ZHU QIKUN!