[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army":3,"chapter-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-227":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","A Little Soldier of the Late Ming Border Army",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1205516,1561,"Chapter 227: Sending Troops to Seize Grain","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-227",227,"\u003Cp>A few days ago, Wen Daxing led a squad of Night Scouts on several sweeps around Tongzhou. They roughly mapped some of the local terrain. Among the Qing prisoners captured, some also divulged the garrison situation at Zhangjiawan and other places.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Over these past few days, the Qing troops have been moving south in force. Scout reports say that a large portion of the Qing troops left near Tongzhou have already departed. Aside from the bulk that accompanied the main army, some of the supplies they plundered are still stockpiled near Tongzhou, mostly at places like Zhangjiawan, with a contingent left behind to guard them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou spread out the Zhangjiawan map drawn by the Night Scouts and said in a deep voice, \"Zhangjiawan lies twelve li south of Tongzhou city and sixty li from the capital, at the confluence of the Bai, Fu, Hun, and Li rivers. A few li to its west is Gaolizhuang. Zhangjiawan's walls are over nine hundred zhang in circumference, with five gates and three water locks, and it is currently held by the slaves. This town relies on the rivers and treacherous terrain; it is extremely difficult to assault. We have no heavy cannon and no siege equipment, so for now we will leave it alone.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fortunately, the area west of the town is the docks. There have always been many granaries and storehouses there, and the Tongji Granary is also located here. In the past, tribute grain transported along the Tonghui River could reach Tongzhou and even go directly to the capital. Now these granaries are all held by the slave troops, and they are just right for us to seize for our own use.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We have two choices. One is to attack the various granaries outside Zhangjiawan town. The other is to attack Gaolizhuang; there are some granaries both inside and outside the village, as well as the fodder and supplies the slave thieves have plundered. The slave troops' strength around Zhangjiawan is roughly a few thousand, but counting Tongzhou and other areas, there are still over twenty thousand men.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Wang Dou finished speaking, everyone present fell into deep thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing that there were still over twenty thousand Qing troops in the Tongzhou area, even the bellicose Han Zhong grew cautious. Wen Fangliang said, \"General, if it were only the few thousand Tartar troops at Zhangjiawan, our Baoan grand army would not fear them. But the Tartars are adept at field battles and their scout cavalry range everywhere. If our few thousand troops march on Tongzhou, we certainly cannot hide from them.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I fear that halfway there, Tartar reinforcements from Tongzhou will already have arrived, and we will likely face a bitter field battle. Twenty thousand Tartars probably include seven to eight thousand armored combat troops. With our war wagons and cannon, we have the ability to defend ourselves, but I fear we would then have no strength left to plunder and would fail to achieve our objective. What worries me more is whether the Tartars who have gone south will turn back to aid them.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"In my humble opinion, now is not the right time to strike. Perhaps we can wait two more days.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Zhong said, \"Wait for what? If the Tartars at Tongzhou don't move south, do we just wait until our grain runs out?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Fangliang said, \"Old Han, I am also thinking of our Baoan sons. Our capital is small, only a few thousand men. We must be prudent and then prudent again in all matters.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although Han Zhong thought Wen Fangliang's words were reasonable, he still muttered, \"No satisfaction in this.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhong Diaoyang said, \"I believe Battalion Commander Wen speaks reason. I also think waiting two more days is best.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Most of the men in the room agreed with Wen Fangliang's opinion, believing the time had not yet come for a desperate fight and that caution should prevail.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou stood up, paced two circles inside the room, and said decisively, \"Fine, we will wait two more days. In two days, regardless of how many slave cavalry are near Tongzhou, we will dispatch troops to plunder.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the council that day, Wang Dou again dispatched Night Scouts to closely monitor enemy movements around Tongzhou. Over those two days, the Qing troops at Tongzhou continued to strike camp and move south in a rolling tide. On the afternoon of the second day, the army even captured a Qing Fende Boshiku, from whom they obtained critical intelligence: in the entire Tongzhou area, the remaining Qing troops now numbered less than ten thousand, the bulk having gone to Liangxiang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou pondered. According to history, after the main Qing force massed at Liangxiang, they would quickly conquer Zhuozhou, then split into three routes to penetrate deeper: one from Laishui to Yizhou, one from Xincheng to Xiongxian, and one from Dingxing to Ansu, besieging Baoding. After that, they would again split into eight routes southward, one following the Taihang Mountains, one along the canal, and the routes in between spread across the land between the Taihang Mountains and the Yellow River.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From early November to early December, the Qing army would successively conquer Dingzhou, Gaoyang, Hengshui, Wuyi, Zaoqiang, Jize, Wen'an, Bazhou, Fucheng, Weixian, Pingxiang, Nanhe, Shahe, Yuanshi, Zanhuang, Lincheng, Gaoyi, Xianxian, and other towns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was the beginning of another catastrophe for the Great Ming. However, the Qing troops who had gone south would not be returning for now. The fewer than ten thousand troops in the Tongzhou area included fewer than three thousand armored combat troops — our Baoan Army does not fear them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Obtaining this intelligence, Wang Dou was secretly delighted. He said happily, \"Good, it seems Heaven itself stands on our side.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Looking at the joy evident on the faces of the assembled officers in the room, he declared loudly, \"The entire army is to prepare tonight. Tomorrow at dawn, we set out — let's go plunder the bastards.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Everyone laughed. In a few more days the army would be out of grain. As the saying goes, a barefoot man does not fear a man wearing shoes. Now they were the barefoot ones, and the Tartar troops were the ones wearing shoes — if not plunder them, then whom?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The night passed without incident. The next day, early on the morning of the twenty-seventh day of the tenth month of the eleventh year of Chongzhen, several thousand Shunxiang Army troops had already assembled in the broad wheat field to the right outside the fort.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The area around the fort with the flattest and most expansive terrain was precisely the wheat fields along its perimeter, which could mass these several thousand troops. In these chaotic times of war, peacefully tending the fields had long become a dream; the surrounding wheat fields had already been trampled countless times by warhorses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A cold wind blew intermittently from the sky, and sometimes a few snowflakes drifted down. The end of the tenth month in the Great Ming lunar calendar was already close to early December in the later solar calendar, and especially in this northern region of the Great Ming, the weather turned cold early. Unlike the damp cold of the south, the winter here in the north was dry and bitterly cold. The snowflakes falling to the ground did not make the ground muddy, only freezing all the roads solid and hard. That was just as well — the roads would be easier to travel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the north wind, the several thousand Shunxiang Army troops stood in neat formation, simply waiting in silence. All of them wore armor — either iron armor or cotton armor lined with iron plates — with red cotton sheepskin-lined overcoats on the outside and iron-mesh boots on their feet. Every man was brimming with vigor. Thanks to the head-taking and captures of previous days, even a portion of the army's logistics troops were now similarly clad in armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since this was all northern territory, the capital region compared to Baoanzhou posed no problem of failing to acclimatize. Moreover, the army was equipped with a large number of medics, personally led by Medical Officer Wang Tianxue, so thus far the army had seen no attrition from illness or failure to acclimatize.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sky had just begun to brighten, but the dark clouds hung as low and heavy as blocks of lead. The world between heaven and earth seemed silent and still; only the vivid red banners, one after another, rolled and fluttered like living things, occasionally making a flapping sound.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Suddenly the sound of hoofbeats arose. Nearly a hundred riders galloped straight from the fort onto the official road. Dozens of great banners danced and streamed in the wind, and among them a fiery red banner bearing the character \"Wang\" was especially conspicuous. All eyes turned to watch as Wang Dou rode all the way to the front of the formation, reined in his horse, and halted.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou slowly swept his gaze over the soldiers in the formation. The Garrison Supervisor, Chi Dacheng, accompanied him at his front, likewise solemnly regarding the grand army. Of the several thousand Shunxiang Army troops before them, aside from one company of arquebusiers left to guard the village fort, all the rest had now assembled in full. The battalion commander of each unit had dismounted and stood in front of their respective formations, and the officers directly under the brigade headquarters — Wen Daxing, Li Guangheng, Zhao Xuan, Zhong Diaoyang, and others — likewise led their Night Scouts, cavalry, artillery, and logistics troops, every man standing erect.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For this expedition to plunder, apart from Squad Commander Tian Qiming, who had originally been left to guard the stone bridge and was now withdrawn to defend the village fort, all the rest were deployed. Hundreds of supply wagons and densely packed artillery carts were likewise arrayed within the formation. The grand command wagons and observation-pole wagons were also dispatched, along with the many horses they had seized — all would accompany them this time, and they were determined to return fully laden.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou had already staked everything on this one throw. If he did not succeed, he would die trying.\u003C\u002Fp>",1703,"2026-06-03T14:05:36.780Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","52aabf59d96a062d9597507294ca1e53dc0fbb8054197c1a6ff9c3dcb3fdf02c","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-228","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-226",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]