Chapter 662

As early as when Li Zicheng, Ge, the Left Five Camps, and others were attacking Luoshan, Ding Qirui and his men had already gathered at Xiangyang, Suizhou, Yingshan, and other places, watching helplessly as Sun Yingyuan fought alone without reinforcements and died in battle.

After all, Ding Qirui bore the heavy responsibility entrusted by the imperial court and had demanded that the Ming army take the initiative to break the siege around Sun Yingyuan. However, the most powerful Regional Commander, Zuo Liangyu, insisted on holding fast and refused to go out to battle, saying, "The bandits' edge is sharp; they cannot be struck yet."

Since he had spoken thus, the other Ming commanders were also unwilling to go out and fight, lest they themselves be besieged and then struck by reinforcements. It was not until Sun Yingyuan died in battle and the Chuang bandits and the others led their troops north that they collectively breathed a sigh of relief.

The allied forces of Li Zicheng and the others marched north all the way, attacking and occupying every department and county of Runing Prefecture along the route. They also attempted to attack the prefectural seat of Ruyang but failed to take it, so they led their troops and withdrew. Ding Qirui and the other grand armies watched just as helplessly, powerless to do anything.

Only after repeatedly confirming and verifying that the forces of Li Chuang, Ge, the Left Five Camps, and the others had left Runing Prefecture and showed signs of pressing toward Kaifeng, and under the strict orders of the imperial edict, did Ding Qirui and the others hurriedly move north from Xiangyang, passing through Nanyang Prefecture and other places, heading for Kaifeng Prefecture.

However, judging by the distance, they would not be able to reach the outskirts of Kaifeng City until at least the middle of the sixth month.

……

When the Baoding army reached the northern bank of the Yellow River, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen were in the midst of drilling their troops.

After the two returned from Henan Prefecture, their garrison was southeast of Kaifeng City, in an area not far from Chenliu County, by the banks of the Sui River.

These places were all plains, originally areas dense with suburban market towns. However, after repeated sweeps by the roving bandits, one market town after another had become ruins, with piles of rubble and weeds covering the ground. Occasionally, a few people drifted among them, making them seem like ghost towns.

But after the two Counts set up camp here, because they severely cracked down on bandits and exterminated some small bands of roving bandits and brigands in the surrounding area, clusters of mat-shed dwellings began to gather around the camp. Some people did business, some grew vegetables, and some took the chance to plant a little grain. It was considerably livelier than in days past.

Although they emulated the Jingbian Army and Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen strove to enforce strict discipline and avoid troubling the common people as much as possible, the people who gathered near the military camp were still somewhat uneasy at heart. After all, the reputation of government troops was far too bad.

Yet even the worst order was better than no order at all. Without the protection of the army, those who did not live in large cities or lacked the ability to fortify stockades for self-defense would be swallowed whole, skin and bones, by the countless bandit gangs and brigands that infested the region.

These sorts who flew the banners of "robbing the rich to aid the poor," "executing Heaven's justice," and "eliminating the cruel and bringing peace to the good" not only burned, killed, and plundered wealthy households, but also did not spare the poor. They seized every last chicken, duck, cow, and sheep, and even looted the little remaining coarse grain.

Any household with a comely young lady would see her seized and defiled. Those who dared resist were killed on the spot; those who did not resist were inexplicably killed as well. Add to that their mutual plundering and slaughtering, and any hope of peacefully farming and living was nothing but a delusion.

Because the roving bandits swept back and forth, the power of the authorities grew ever weaker. Many places in Henan had already prematurely entered an era that many novel protagonists favor: an era where the strong preyed on the weak, the dark laws of the jungle prevailed, and anarchism ran rampant.

However, what makes humans different from wild beasts is the existence of order and a certain moral baseline. When the law of the jungle truly prevails, it often means the dynasty has reached its end, the common people's lives are at their most miserable, and the population has been decimated to less than one in ten. This is not a pleasant experience.

Seeing that the armies of the two Counts were different, the people in the surrounding mat-shed dwellings even suggested that they collect some fees. That way, they would be people under the protection of the grand army and could effectively evade harassment from the runners, soldiers, and ruffian thugs within Kaifeng City.

Inside the camp.

"Fire!"

Several ranks of arquebusiers pulled their triggers. A ceaseless crackling erupted, flames and smoke billowed, and wood splinters flew from the targets ahead.

"Good!"

Wang Tingchen shouted his approval loudly and ordered his subordinates to bring over the targets. Looking at the large holes torn through them, he laughed heartily: "Yama's arquebus truly is Yama's arquebus. If this hits a man, how could he possibly survive?"

Cao Bianjiao nodded: "The Eastern Route arquebus is indeed sharp. But Brother Wang, does training like this not consume too much ammunition? You must realize that we do not produce it ourselves; every shot fired is one less. Although there is gunpowder locally, not only is its power weak, but the powder and shot often do not match the specifications. We still need to conserve a little."

Wang Tingchen said, "It doesn't matter. There are still plenty of arquebuses and ammunition in the stores... Moreover, back when we fought alongside the Marquis of Yongning in Liaodong, didn't he also say this? For arquebusiers, the most important thing is peacetime training. If they are well-trained, they prove deadly in battle. He also said that when his arquebusiers joined the fight, they would fire only two or three volleys and the battle would be over."

Wang Tingchen continued, "Of course, we cannot just sit idle and eat through our reserves. Fortunately, the grain and pay supplies for you and me are quite good, and our recent bandit suppression has also yielded some silver and grain. I hear that the Sanjin Trading House has set up several places called 'offices' in Pingyang Prefecture and Lu'an Prefecture in Shanxi, specifically to sell arquebuses and powder. It's not far from Kaifeng, so let us hurry and go buy some more ammunition."

Wang Dou's experiences were now widely circulated, and the story of how he rose to prominence by suppressing bandits in his early days had also drawn the attention of many interested parties. Therefore, whenever Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen had nothing else to do, they would dispatch troops to suppress bandits everywhere, pacifying the region while also reaping some silver and grain.

Do not underestimate those bandit stockades. In various parts of present-day Henan, those capable of building stockades were either powerful and influential gentry or fierce bandits. They often possessed hundreds of qing of land and numerous cattle and sheep. Back in the Shangluo Mountains, Li Zicheng had survived precisely by attacking stockades; often, breaching a single stockade could feed his grand army for a long time.

When government troops passed through, they also frequently "borrowed grain" from stockades large and small.

Hearing Wang Tingchen speak thus, Cao Bianjiao was somewhat reassured. In their current armies, the arquebusiers were the absolute core of their fighting strength, so their dependence on powerful ammunition was growing ever greater.

"Fire!"

Another wave of arquebuses spewed great plumes of smoke and flame forward.

The two men patrolled the camp. At that moment, horns sounded continuously within the camp, and battle cries shook the heavens. The officers and soldiers were undergoing training, and the glow of the rising dawn shone upon them, glinting and flashing.

These officers and soldiers had fierce and rugged expressions, but it was evident that their numbers were fewer than when they had first marched south. Training according to the Jingbian Army's organization meant that replenishing their ranks was not easy.

Moreover, the troops of the two men generally only drilled for a while in the morning. One reason was that the weather was growing hot; the other was that prolonged drilling posed a severe test to the army's provisions. Without meat or with very little meat supplied, such training was clearly impossible.

This was especially true for the pikemen and sword-and-shield men, who expended enormous physical strength.

Only the arquebusiers, as long as they had ammunition, could train for longer periods than soldiers of other branches.

Just as they were watching, suddenly a scout came to report that the Baoding Viceroy, Yang Wenyue, leading Regional Commander Hu Dawei and others, had crossed the Yellow River and was approaching.

Wang Tingchen laughed heartily: "Commander Hu has also come. We must go and welcome him."

……

The next day, they also heard that envoys from the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War had arrived from Lu'an Prefecture. They were escorting and transporting a large batch of fine Eastern Route arquebuses and ammunition. They had taken the route through Shanxi, as traveling this way was safer.

Accompanying them was a group called the "Xuanfu Garrison Military Observation Delegation," composed of some Jingbian Army advisors, clerks, garrison provosts, military officers, and the like, along with a unit of Jingbian Army arquebusiers as escorts. One of the leading figures was Advisor Wen Shiyan, who held the honorary rank of Left Captain. They had come to observe the military situation in Henan.

Having received favors leaves one short-handed, and having eaten another's food makes one soft-spoken. Wang Dou had given the Ministry of War ten thousand arquebuses and a great deal of gunpowder, so regarding this peculiar request of his, the imperial court could only hold its nose and accept it.

However, they also put forward a requirement: the delegation would only have the right to observe and absolutely no other powers whatsoever.

……

On the fourteenth day of the sixth month, at Taikang.

Taikang was about four hundred-plus li southeast of Kaifeng City, with the Guo River flowing to its north. At this time, the city had long since been captured by Li Zicheng and the others, and along both banks of the Guo River, there seemed to be an endless expanse of encampments.

Early in the morning, Li Zicheng led his subordinate generals to inspect the camp and the soldiers' drilling. Their allied forces had been halted here for several days now, mainly because everyone had heard that a large portion of government reinforcements, especially containing many powerful armies and fierce generals, was approaching, which had bred doubt and anxiety.

Li Zicheng kept a very tight grip on the drilling of the Five Camps' soldiers, a habit he had formed back in the Shangluo Mountains. Of course, limited by supplies, their drilling time could not be long either.

For the infantry, the main drill was with the long spear. In the Ming army, the Yang Family Spear technique was generally prevalent. When arrayed for battle, it all came down to just a few moves, and the same was true for the Chuang Army. The demands on them could not be too high; being able to thrust forward and form ranks properly was already good enough. Of course, tens of thousands of men practicing the spear formation was quite a spectacular sight.

The more elite soldiers practiced the sword and shield, as well as the bow and arrow.

"The ranks of the righteous army are growing larger and larger."

Hearing the neighing of warhorses and the shouting of battle cries, the Chuang generals around him were all excited. Only Li Zicheng sighed: "It's just that grain and fodder are so hard to sustain."

As soon as Li Zicheng said this, everyone shared the same lament. Indeed, grain and fodder were difficult. The Chuang Army had distributed land and fields in Henan Prefecture and collected no grain tax for five years, so they could not harvest a single grain of rice and could not become a source of support. They could only ceaselessly attack and plunder cities, which then increased their numbers, further exacerbating the grain and fodder difficulties, in an endless cycle.

Li Zicheng had sighed more than once over the hardship of supplying grain and fodder. Historically, Hou Xun had also spoken of this situation with Li Chuang.

"...Those from my hometown who have come from among the bandits all say they number a million. For now, let us estimate five hundred thousand men and a hundred thousand horses. Each man eats one sheng of grain per day, each horse three sheng per day. This means that wherever they go, they must obtain eight thousand zhong of grain daily. The Central Plains are parched for a thousand li, with no human habitation in sight. From now on, how can this be achieved..."

To sustain his enormous "grand army," Li Zicheng had no choice but to constantly roam and sweep across the land.

After inspecting various places, it was nearly noon, and the heads of each division had already been invited over.

"Let us go. Whether to march north and press toward Kaifeng—today we must make a decision."

At the old camp's headquarters, inside a temple in the southwest part of the city.

"I've long heard that the Chuang King lives frugally, sharing weal and woe with his officers and men, eating coarse grain and wild vegetables, drinking rough-brewed rice wine — and it's truly so."

"Indeed, with several hundred thousand troops under his command, why must the Chuang King treat himself so poorly?"

Inside the great hall, several large feasts had been laid out. The various chiefs of the Ge-Zuo Five Battalions — Old Hui Ma Shouying, Geli Yan He Yilong, Left Golden King He Jin, World-Governing King Liu Xiyao, World-Contending King Lin Yangcheng — as well as Luo Rucai of the Cao Camp, and Sun Kewang and Li Dingguo of the former Xian Camp, sat in attendance.

The subordinate officers of each chief were entertained by the various Chuang generals, playing drinking games and toasting one another.

Looking at the feast, the food and drink were coarse and poor — a few chickens, slaughtered on the spot to entertain the chiefs. Some sighed in admiration, while others inwardly disapproved. What was the rebellion for, if not to live well? Living such bitter days, one might as well not rebel at all.

Luo Rucai in particular was long accustomed to comfort. No matter how dire things became, he never gave up the several hundred wives, concubines, and dancing girls he had gathered. Coarse tea and plain fare felt truly hard to swallow, but being a smooth man, he naturally showed no sign of it.

Of course, in coming here to discuss matters, food and drink were only trifles. After a hurried lunch, everyone settled in to confer.

"The government troops are powerful, especially with no small number of elite frontier soldiers among them. If we truly meet them head-on, victory or defeat is hard to predict."

Stroking his two whiskers like a rich merchant, Luo Rucai sighed.