[{"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-280":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},1205569,1561,"Chapter 280: Combining Forces","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-280",280,"\u003Cp>\"Commander, ahead is the Ji River. Tonight our army can camp by the Ru River.\" Early that morning, Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu led the troops out first. The several-thousand-strong army passed through Zanhuang and Yuanshi, and near evening they reached the banks of the Ye River not far from Zhaocheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By their reckoning, the entire army had covered over one hundred twenty li that day. Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu were deeply satisfied with this marching speed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The soldiers must be allowed to rest well.\" Yang Guozhu glanced back at the great army behind him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this bone-chilling cold where dripping water freezes instantly, every soldier's face was blue and purple from the cold. Guo Yingxian, the personal guard commander behind Yang Guozhu, kept exhaling white mist, but the thick breath from his mouth froze onto his beard in the blink of an eye, leaving a white patch around his lips.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bitter wind cut like knives across the body. Wearing armor in this weather was sheer torment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So all the troops from Xuanfu Garrison, including the Shunxiang Army, carried their armor on their backs. The soldiers of the Main Battalion, in particular, placed their armor on their horses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In any case, with night scouts patrolling everywhere, even if a great enemy approached, the troops would never have time to don their armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides that, everyone wrapped themselves up like zongzi. Whatever cold-proof items they could find, they wore them all. Their heads and faces were tightly wrapped in cloth, striving not to expose any skin to the air.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But the weather was truly too cold. Yang Guozhu and Wang Dou both worried that under such a long-distance march,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the soldiers might become exhausted and suffer frostbite, leading to non-combat attrition.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Today's marching speed had already greatly satisfied Yang Guozhu and Wang Dou. The excellent condition of the Shunxiang Army, in particular, made Yang Guozhu praise them endlessly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>His Main Battalion was fully mounted, but after a full day, both men and horses were still weary.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In contrast, Wang Dou's Shunxiang Army,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>after marching over a hundred li, still seemed to have energy to spare. Yang Guozhu could not help but marvel.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou knew that after that brutally savage Battle of Julu, the soldiers who survived\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>had been completely reborn. Both physically and psychologically, they had reached the peak state they could achieve. Coupled with over ten days of rest and recuperation in Zanhuang, such an ideal condition was hardly surprising.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Still, Wang Dou had to remain cautious. He knew that attrition from illness, unfamiliar climates, weather, and other causes was common at this time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Every one of these surviving soldiers was a seed for a future officer. He could not afford to let the harsh weather and long march cause losses in his army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, besides having all army physicians accompany the march, Wang Dou decided that after today, they would cover only a hundred li a day for the remaining journey, to maintain the soldiers' ample physical strength and mental state.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was precedent. During the early Song Dynasty Battle of Gaoliang River, Zhao Guangyi led the Song army on a continuous ten-day march.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They covered over a hundred li each day, and upon reaching their objective, immediately launched an assault on the city that lasted thirteen consecutive days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their opponents, the Liao cavalry, also put on an outstanding performance, covering one thousand two hundred li in six days and engaging the Song army at Youzhou City by evening.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, the physical quality of Ming people could not compare to that of Song people. During the Han dynasties, the average height of Han men was one meter eight; during the Tang and Song, it was one meter seven; by the Ming and Qing, it was only one meter six.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the Western nations of this time, the average male height had dropped even further to one meter five five. In terms of physical fitness, both East and West were declining with each generation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>But even so, if they could maintain such performance over a six-day march, it would be a very proud achievement in the military history of the Great Ming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu gave the order to set up camp, the Shunxiang Army and the Main Battalion immediately bustled into action, taking tents from the accompanying wagons.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Besides carrying several days' worth of rations for the entire army, these wagons were used to transport the marching tents.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Each squad of several dozen men shared one tent.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The night scout riders had long since finished reconnoitering suitable camping ground, and the army simply set up camp at the chosen site.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>What they set up was merely a simple spear camp. Long spears were planted around the perimeter of the camp, linked together with ropes to form a line, and caltrops were scattered at key points.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not even a trench was dug around the campsite, let alone the mixed earth-and-timber palisade walls or wooden walls.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a simple camp naturally entailed some risk, but in order to conserve the soldiers' strength, speed up setting up and striking camp, and seize marching time,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>this risk had to be taken.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Only, to prevent the outbreak of disease, quite a few drainage ditches and latrines were dug within the camp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>While the soldiers busied themselves setting up camp, Yang Guozhu and Wang Dou patrolled the perimeter. Watching the Shunxiang Army move swiftly and orderly, it did not take long before a well-organized camp appeared before everyone's eyes. The soldiers moved into warm and comfortable tents, gathered around the cooking fires, and loudly talked and laughed in a hubbub.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Scalding hot water and food quickly drove the chill from their bodies and lifted their spirits even more.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In contrast, Yang Guozhu's Main Battalion was much slower in setting up camp. The soldiers of this Main Battalion possessed outstanding individual combat ability, and after the Battle of Julu, their personal martial prowess had reached its peak.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yet that lax and undisciplined nature still could not be corrected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, after being left to die by their allied forces, the soldiers' hearts for serving the Great Ming unto death had grown fainter. In particular, many of the men originally under the former Xuanfu Assistant Regional Commander Zhang Yan, who had been integrated into the Main Battalion, were utterly dejected.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>For this expedition, Yang Guozhu had to promise them many benefits\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>before they were willing to come.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>How unlike Wang Dou, whose soldiers followed without the slightest hesitation at a single command.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Watching Wang Dou constantly inquire after his soldiers' well-being, with morale soaring wherever he went, Yang Guozhu could not help but fall into deep thought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He invited Wang Dou to speak in his tent. Wang Dou's two Company Commanders, Wen Fangliang and Zhong Xiancai, also followed at his side.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Commander, today our army marched over one hundred twenty li. The journey was smooth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Tomorrow our army will pass directly through Zhaocheng, march nearly a hundred li, and by afternoon can reach Wuji to set up camp.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The day after, our great army will go from Wuji to Dingzhou, a march of less than eighty li, allowing the soldiers to rest early and properly celebrate the New Year. On the first day of the new year,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>our great army will set out from Dingzhou, pass directly through Qingdu and Wanxian, and reach Mancheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A march of over one hundred thirty li.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At Mancheng, our great army will replenish provisions and rest for half a day.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>From the afternoon of the second day to the afternoon of the third day, our great army will march from Mancheng directly to Yizhou, covering over one hundred twenty li.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>We will rendezvous with the relief troops from my Baoan Prefecture, rest on the spot, and quietly await the arrival of Commander Hu's heavy baggage unit.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Guozhu nodded. Wang Dou's route arrangement was methodical and orderly; he had nothing to add. The old general sat upright in the tent, his body likewise clad in thick, solid iron armor. His personal guard commander Guo Yingxian beside him was similarly armored.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gazing at Wang Dou for a long moment, Yang Guozhu said, \"General Wang, my Main Battalion consists entirely of cavalry, so covering a hundred li a day is no worry. Your Shunxiang Army is all infantry and wagons. In this freezing winter long march, will any soldiers fall behind or suffer attrition?\" Wang Dou replied, \"Commander, you need not worry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The soldiers' morale is high. Marching for only a few days should pose no problem.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Guo Yingxian called out enviously, \"Old Wang, I truly don't know how you train your troops. Even I, Old Guo, look upon those fine soldiers with the greatest fondness.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After that great battle, Guo Yingxian was already on brotherly terms with Wang Dou, and his tone had become the very familiar \"Old Wang.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing Guo Yingxian speak thus,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Fangliang and Zhong Xiancai, seated below Wang Dou, both showed proud expressions on their faces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Seeing the expectant look in Yang Guozhu's eyes, Wang Dou said, \"Commander.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>General Guo.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, my training methods — back when I was at Gaoyang, I already spoke of them with the Viceroy and the three Field Marshals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To make soldiers obey orders and halt at command, one must purge the army of camp riffraff and oil-slick veterans, then raise and drill new units from scratch. Otherwise, military discipline and regulations are nothing but empty words on paper.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under the impact of his string of great victories, Wang Dou’s training methods had been probed by every possible means — not only by Lu Xiangsheng, but also by Yang Guozhu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hu Dawei, Wang Pu, and the others had long since exhausted every trick to inquire into them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Knowing he could not keep them secret, Wang Dou had long ago openly shared his insights with everyone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was that a soldier’s household registration in Baoan Department had to include farmland distributed under Baoan Department’s jurisdiction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The third was even stranger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>A man had to have established his own household and family, with a wife at home; a man without a wife could not be selected for the army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To put it plainly, the Shunxiang Army was an army of fellow villagers and fellow clansmen composed of landlords and owner-peasants, and it implicitly held each soldier’s wife and children as hostages. Add to that assembly-line-style harsh drilling and a fair system of rewards and punishments.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That was why this army grew stronger the more it fought.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>There was one more point Wang Dou did not voice, and few in this world could see it clearly: the Shunxiang Army had the highest literacy rate in the entire Great Ming.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Upon entering the Shunxiang Army,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>the very first requirement was compulsory literacy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou placed heavy emphasis on this: anyone who could not recite the army regulations by heart would be dealt with by the disciplinary rod, and officers received double the punishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After training, most recruits could fluently recite every regulation in the army, and they knew exactly how to respond to any situation they encountered.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although the army had no great scholars, this ensured there were no illiterates in the Shunxiang Army. They could better grasp the orders issued by their officers, achieving to the greatest degree the ideal of moving like a limb at the will of the finger.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Coupled with the army’s martial-rank hierarchy, even if officers were killed in large numbers, the force could be rapidly reorganized according to regulations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such an army, generally well-nourished, with an effective reward-and-punishment system and a high degree of training and organization —\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>compared with the slave-soldiers common throughout the Great Ming, who had no sense of honor, no military discipline, and whose organization and chain of command were practically nonexistent,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>naturally stood out as conspicuously as a crane among chickens. It would have been hard for it not to shine.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even the Qing troops were far inferior to the Shunxiang Army in their degree of organization.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, it was also hard for famous generals to emerge from Wang Dou’s Shunxiang Army, but with this army’s outstanding overall combat power, using sheer strength to break all stratagems, it could thoroughly sweep every famous general beneath its feet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Guozhu and the others dimly grasped the training insights Wang Dou shared, yet they also felt as if dense fog shrouded them. Yang Guozhu worried that if he followed Wang Dou’s words to the letter, he would risk drawing a tiger and ending up with a dog, and in the end even forfeit his own advantages.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The moment Wang Dou opened his mouth,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>his own main-force battalion would lose more than half its men. The hidden perils and all manner of consequences were more than Yang Guozhu could bear. After a long silence, he sighed: “To dismiss the greater part of my troops — how could this Field Marshal bear to do it?” Third day of the first month, twelfth year of Chongzhen.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the first quarter of the hour of Shen, Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu’s great army had already passed Yizhou and reached a place the locals called Baima Village. Though the bitter wind pierced to the bone and snowflakes lashed their faces,\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou was extremely excited. The army of several thousand had marched for days.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They were about to reach the first strongpoint on the route from Baoan Department to the great North China Plain: Liujing Stockade, a sturdy fortified stockade on the border between Yizhou and Moshui.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Once they reached it, days of arduous marching would come to a full stop.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ahead, dust and smoke rolled up — it was Night Scout Company Commander Wen Daxing, who had personally gone out scouting, racing back. With several night scouts he galloped straight up to Wang Dou. His face was wreathed in smiles, and from horseback he shouted: “General! A few li ahead, Company Commander Han has already led two companies of troops forward to meet us.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou’s face lit up with delight: “Han Chao has come?” He looked around; every face showed joy. Yang Guozhu was also very pleased, and the two gave the order to quicken the march.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Soon the two bodies of troops on the great earth drew closer and closer, and at last they merged. They burst into wave after wave of shouts of “Ten thousand victories!” The soldiers who had gone out to fight and the soldiers who had stayed behind embraced each other tightly.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After six days of forced marching, Wang Dou and Yang Guozhu had led the army a hundred li a day, and the entire force reached the administrative seat of Yizhou.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Old White Ox: Happy New Year — there will be another chapter tonight.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>(To be continued) u\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>。\u003C\u002Fp>",2472,"2026-06-03T14:05:36.780Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","64f2cb3af88b7ffb6104f8306d3f2b4acda195c9198ffc68da0092fd6497208d","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-281","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-279",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]