Southern Ming Rebel Army

Chapter 367 Dorgon's Personal Expedition

Shanxi, Datong.

After conquering Taiyuan, Jiang Xiang had occupied all of Shanxi. In order to resist the Qing army, Jiang Xiang promoted a large number of volunteers and assigned these anti-Qing heroes to garrison the outermost passes, while the main force guarded his own nest, Datong.

In the southeast of Datong, Hunyuan, Guangling, Lingqiu and other places are not only easy to defend, but also threaten Beijing. For these places, Jiang Xiang divided several thousand troops into each city and sent his trusted men to garrison.

The area of Datong threatened the heart of the Qing court, and Dorgon absolutely could not tolerate this area being out of control, so Dorgon planned to advance in two directions to attack Shanxi from both sides.

The army was led by Dorgon himself. His troops consisted of almost all the bannermen in Beijing, as well as some Han bannermen, baoyi, and Mongolian soldiers. There were about 50,000 people on this route. The army started from Beijing, went around Taohuabao, passed Changning, attacked Weizhou, Guangling, Luanlingguan, and finally went directly to Datong.

The other route was that of Bai Yintu's troops. With 60,000 soldiers, they returned from the south, attacked Jingjing Pass from Zhending Prefecture, captured Yangquan, and finally surrounded Taiyuan. As for Jiang Xiang's rebellion, for Dorgon, as long as he could capture Taiyuan and Datong, then the rest of the places would be easily pacified, if not easily conquered by issuing an edict.

Dorgon understood the principle of capturing the leader first. Before Baiyintu started to attack Jingjing Pass, he personally led his troops to attack Taohua Fort. The Qing army broke through the fort in half a day. The defenders of Changning were all organized by the rebel army. The city was small, the people were few, and the armor and weapons were crude. Under Dorgon's fierce attack, they could not hold out for more than a day before being broken by the Qing army.

The same was true for Weizhou City. Only under Guangling City did Dorgon hit a snag.

The commander of Guangling City was Jiang Rang, the cousin of Jiang Xiang. There were 2,000 elite soldiers in the city and more than 3,000 volunteers from various villages, a total of more than 5,000 people stationed in Guangling. When Jiang Xiang raised his army, everyone else had a way to retreat, but the Jiang family members had no way to retreat. They surrendered and then rebelled again, and surrendered again. No matter who they were, they had to consider whether the Qing court would abandon them, and the credibility of the Qing court was obviously not enough for Jiang Rang to trust.

Under the city of Guangling, smoke rose in all directions, the smoke reflected on the city walls, Jiang Rang's battle robe was stained with blood, and arrows rained down from both inside and outside the city.

Jiang Rang stood on the city wall with a determined look in his eyes and a long sword in his hand. He was Jiang Xiang's cousin, and if he took a step back he would fall into an abyss. Since there was no way to retreat, he would fight to the death.

The Qing army surrounded the city, with drums and horns blaring and battle flags fluttering. Dorgon personally supervised the battle. If Shanxi was not stable, then the Qing would have no way to retreat. Dorgon was ruthless and ordered a fierce attack day and night. Artillery roared and bombarded the city day and night, but Jiang Rang and his subordinates still resisted stubbornly and defended the city to the death.

Until night fell, Dorgon ordered his soldiers to light torches to illuminate the darkness, making Guangling City an isolated island in the light. Taking advantage of the firelight, the Qing army launched rounds of fierce attacks, the sound of killing was deafening, and Guangling City seemed to be crumbling.

Jiang Rang was determined to defend the city, and the defenders led by Jiang Xiang took advantage of the terrain to block the fierce attacks of the Qing army. They used the fortifications on the city wall, fired arrows, and threw down rolling logs and stones, causing heavy casualties to the Qing army and hindering their offensive.

In this way, the two sides were in a stalemate for three days and two nights. The fighting was extremely fierce. Although the defenders in Guangling City were exhausted, they still vowed to live and die with the city.

However, on the afternoon of the fourth day, a section of the city wall near the city gate on the south side of Guangling City was blown down by artillery fire. The morale of the defenders plummeted, and the Qing army took the opportunity to pour in. Jiang Xiang led the remaining troops to try to retake the gap, and a fierce street battle ensued.

Unfortunately, until the last moment, Guangling City fell into the hands of the Qing army due to being outnumbered, and the remaining defenders, about 300 people, all surrendered to the Qing.

Jiang Rang leaned against the ruins with his eyes wide open. He was already dead. His body was covered in blood. There were more than twenty arrows pierced from his chest and thighs. The long sword in his hand was broken, but he still fought hard with the broken handle to take away a banner soldier. His bravery shocked even Dorgon.

Although Dorgon admired him, he still ordered Jiang Rang's body to be abandoned in the wilderness and all the surrendered soldiers to be killed. In Guangling City, everyone was massacred, and the word was spread that all cities that did not surrender would be massacred.

Jiang Xiang started the rebellion too quickly, and his team was a mixed bag, with fickle people's hearts. Seeing how slaughtered Dorgon was, Guangling was broken, and the neighboring Yingzhou and Shanyin surrendered without a fight, Jiang Xiang was horrified when he received the news that his cousin had been killed and several cities surrendered without a fight. He quickly sent a secret envoy to the south to formally surrender to Meng Jun, saying that he was willing to raise his troops and submit, and asked the king to send troops to help.

Afterwards, the Qing army marched straight into Datong. Facing such a strong city, Dorgon personally came to the city and told Jiang Xiang to surrender: "If someone else had come here, you might have hesitated to obey. Now that I am here in person, you can happily surrender. If you surrender, all your crimes will be pardoned. You can surrender as soon as I receive the order, and I will treat you with kindness as before. Don't be suspicious anymore, as it will harm the officials and people of the city. If you don't surrender after I come, you will have no way to survive. Once I say something, if I don't go back on my words, who in the world will believe me?"

What I mean is that if it were anyone else, you might be afraid and doubtful, but now I, Dorgon, have come here in person. If you surrender, then all of Jiang Xianghe’s people will be pardoned, and everything will be the same as before, with the same kindness. If you remain stubborn, then the whole city will be destroyed. I will never go back on my promise, otherwise, who in the world will believe what I say anymore?

By now, Jiang Xiang was in a difficult situation and could only hold on. Datong City had high walls and thick food and grass, so Jiang Xiang was confident of defending the city. However, he was still afraid of fighting a field battle with Dorgon. Even though Dorgon's troops outside the city were not as numerous as those inside, Jiang Xiang still sternly rejected Wang Fuchen's suggestion to go out of the city to meet the enemy.

After receiving Dorgon's request to surrender, Jiang Xiang replied to Dorgon, "Since I surrendered, I have not committed any crime. I followed the army on the westward expedition, but was not promoted or rewarded, but was instead suspected. Moreover, the officials I selected abused the people, which made it difficult for them. Recently, the British army has arrived and is urging us to prepare food and grass. The soldiers and civilians are suffering. I and the people of Datong are innocent. Who is willing to sit and die? Moreover, the people of the whole city are determined to die. Even if the king is sincere and offers amnesty, who dares to believe it? So we have to issue another decree to clearly point out the way to save our lives. We have to lead the people and wait. There is no other hope..."

Jiang Xiang refused to surrender. Dorgon did not have enough troops to capture Datong. Even if he did, Datong had been an important fortress in the north to resist nomads since the Ming Dynasty, and it could not be easily conquered by just numbers.

Dorgon had no choice but to blockade the city with his army while at the same time announcing to all sides that those who surrendered would not be guilty of any crime. Depending on the number of soldiers they surrendered, they would be given the rank of lieutenant general or deputy general. If they had made contributions, they could even be promoted to higher positions.

Dorgon then sent another messenger, ordering Baiyintu to speed up the march and capture Taiyuan as soon as possible.

…………

Jinling City, inside the Prince Zhou’s Palace.

It was quiet outside the window and the bright moon was hanging high in the sky.

The flowers planted in the garden emit a faint fragrance.

It was already 15:30, but Meng Jun had no desire to sleep. He felt uneasy. He tossed and turned, waking up his wife who was sleeping lightly. Zhang Shu asked with sleepy eyes, "It's late, why don't you go to sleep?"

"Nothing, just continue sleeping."