[{"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-666":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},1205955,1561,"Chapter 666: This Land","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-666",666,"\u003Cp>Remember in one second, provide you with wonderful novel reading.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mid-seventh month of the fifteenth year of Chongzhen, on the North Circuit of the Xuanfu Patrol Route, Dushi City.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This city is the northernmost pass of the Great Wall in Xuanfu Garrison, and also one of the most strategically perilous passes along the Wall. Looking at the White River about a li south of the city, a flat-topped rock juts abruptly from the plain, towering in solitude like a strange stone. Several li north of the city at Beishan Pass, two mountains clamp together so tightly that only a single rider can pass through.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The mighty pass looms high; looking at the continuous Great Wall spreading across the mountain ridges, beacon towers follow one after another. Yet in many places along the Wall, sections are already broken and ruined, and the mountain ridges are bare — to say nothing of trees, even weeds are scarce. Barbarian horses can easily enter through the various hillocks and slopes from any direction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At this moment, the commanders were all gathered around Wang Dou, gazing out from a mountain ridge. Pointing to one spot, Advisor Qin Yi said in a voice full of the weight of time: \"Xuan Garrison is bordered on three sides, and Dushi is the very throat of the entire garrison. Its terrain juts out behind the mountains, hanging isolated beyond the frontier. The shoulder and back of the capital lies in Xuan Garrison, and the shoulder and back of Xuan Garrison lies in Dushi.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He said: \"Towering on the frontier, easy to defend and hard to attack — this is ground that every strategist must contest. In the twentieth year of Yongle, when Chengzu personally led his third campaign into Mobei, the great army crossed here through Dushi Pass and advanced on Kaiping. Arughtai dared not give battle, abandoned all his baggage, and fled north.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighed: \"It is a pity that in the fifth year of Xuande, the Great Ming lost Daning, abandoned Xinghe, and Kaiping hung isolated beyond the frontier. Marquis of Yangwu, Xue Lu, petitioned repeatedly, and the Great Ming then abandoned over three hundred li of territory, losing the strategic barrier of the Luan River and Dragon Ridge. Thereafter, the northern barbarians repeatedly invaded through Dushi Pass.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou said: \"Just as to defend the Yangtze one must defend the Huai, to defend Dushi one must defend Kaiping. At present, our forces have already occupied Pingding Fort (later Guyuan), establishing various garrison stations and pasturelands. In the future, we can advance along the Luan River, restore the old Kaiping Guard, and then occupy Yingchang to the north, controlling the surrounding pasturelands and desert.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the sixteenth day of the seventh month, Wang Dou again led the Guard Battalion and the various commanders of the Pacifying Frontier Army, setting out from Wanquan Right Guard City, crossing Wild Fox Ridge, to inspect Xinghe Station, Shacheng, and other places beyond the frontier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The temperature difference beyond the frontier is extreme; in just a little more time, frost will begin to fall, and the sunlight is very intense. So everyone wore thick autumn and winter clothes and rode sturdy horses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wild Fox Ridge has towering, precipitous mountains and fierce, violent winds. Wild geese flying past here, when they meet the wind, often plummet down. It is the boundary between later Wanquan County and Zhangbei County, the dividing line between the plateau and the lowlands, and also the dividing line between farming and nomadic herding. Because the forests were tall and the grasses thick, and in ancient times wild foxes gathered in packs, it was called Wild Fox Ridge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The group ascended Wild Fox Ridge. Gao Shiyin spurred his horse and sighed with emotion: \"No wild foxes to be seen, only Mongolian gazelles — shoot one and roast it to eat.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At noon, everyone feasted heartily, all eating the Mongolian gazelle that Gao Shiyin had \"shot.\" Pointing to the peaks before them, Qin Yi sighed: \"This ridge has witnessed all the rise and fall of the Central Plains. When Genghis Khan attacked the Jin, the Jin army claimed four hundred thousand men and formed battle lines north of Wild Fox Ridge. They were utterly defeated, and their elite troops were completely lost.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"When our dynasty destroyed the Great Yuan, Emperor Shun of Yuan fled the city with his civil and military officials and consorts, crossing Wild Fox Ridge and fleeing to the Yuan Upper Capital. In the third year of Hongwu, the Campaigning Left Vice General, Duke Li Wenzhong, led one hundred thousand men out of Wild Fox Ridge, dealt a crushing defeat to the remnant Yuan forces, and captured the Duke Tielimichi and over sixty others. During the Yongle years, Chengzu personally led several campaigns into Mobei, going back and forth through Wild Fox Ridge.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He sighed: \"After the Xuande-era border contraction, from the fifth year of Xuande to the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing, the northern barbarians launched large-scale invasions thirty-eight times. Looking north from here, cold mist and withered grass — the winds of the Central Plains have been cut off from this place ever since.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao Shiyin laughed heartily: \"Though I too am a scholar, I am not as full of melancholy as Advisor Qin. This advancing and retreating is quite normal. Look, haven't our Han troops once again marched beyond the frontier?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The riders threaded their way through mountain valleys and paths, occasionally spotting wild animals emerging. Once they exited the mountain pass, the view opened wide before them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sparse woods, willow thickets, grasslands, and winding river waters, lakes everywhere — patches of birch and maple, many leaves already slowly turning golden yellow, interspersed with fiery red. Gold and red leaves shone together, layered emerald flowing into gold!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It felt like looking at an oil painting.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Here, the temperature was also a bit lower; the average temperature seemed to have dropped considerably. Though autumn had not yet arrived, there was still the feeling of being high up where the cold is too much to bear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Shogunate established garrison forts and pasturelands here, mainly centered around the old Xinghe Station city, Shacheng, and the lake northwest of Shacheng.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Large numbers of refugees migrated here, planting wheat, soybeans, sugar beets, and other crops. And with the vast grasslands here, rich in water and lush in grass, numerous livestock farms were also established. Processing workshops for hides, furs, meat, and other products were set up one after another.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Along the way, dense crowds of garrison settlers were working. These new garrison forts mainly adopted the battalion-farming system, similar to large farms. The garrison settlers were like hired laborers, receiving monthly rations of grain, clothing, wages, salt, tea, and so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, owning one's own land has been the hope of the Chinese people for thousands of years. The current battalion-farming system is a transitional phase; ultimately, land will still be distributed to individual households.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, in the future, some of their official organizations will also remain unchanged. After all, can a single person or a single household have the capacity to build waterworks and resist disasters?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At present, because there is a regulation that those who work diligently may receive priority in obtaining naturalized status and Han status, and priority in land distribution, the battalion-farming system implemented in each garrison fort is still effective. It is also conducive to opening wasteland for farming and expanding horse-drawn plowing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\u002F>\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>These garrison forts not only farm the land, but also have their own livestock farms, chicken and duck farms, vegetable gardens, and more in the surrounding areas. Do not underestimate their material resources. In this campaign beyond the frontier, some old garrison forts like Mantaoer were able to supply the front lines with large amounts of grain, as well as pork and beef, vegetables, timber, coffins, stretchers, fruit, and so on.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This greatly reduced the effort of transporting supplies from inside the passes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Grand General, from the initial establishment of the various garrison forts, the battalion-farming system has been very effective in restoring agricultural production and opening up farmland. However, human nature being what it is, eventually distributing land by household is inevitable.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Zhang Gui, the Commissioner of the Civil Affairs Department, was also accompanying Wang Dou at this time, and he spoke with deep feeling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qin Yi also said: \"Indeed. In the early days of our dynasty, the Battalion Farming Office was established, and within a few years, grain filled the granaries, feeding a million troops without costing the people a single grain.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"It is just that for these farming troops, all the harvest from the battalion farms went to the government, unlike the garrison troops, who paid a fixed amount of grain and kept the rest for themselves. Over time, the land was measured in actual mu, the troops were registered by actual status, and the actual rent was collected. The weak were burdened with losses, the strong encroached and seized, and even the monthly rations of the farming troops were deducted to pay rent taxes, leading to vacancies in the military ranks and losses in both soldiers and agriculture. Ultimately, land was still distributed by military household, with a portion of the grain paid as tax. Of course, now the guard battalions have also decayed.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou sighed: \"Yes, there is never anything perfect in every way. Any thing, over days and months and years, will always develop drawbacks.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He thought of the construction corps of later generations. In the early days, they were also full of vigor and made enormous contributions, but slowly, they too suffered from poor management and severe losses. The attrition was so severe that some divisions were short by over a third of their personnel, with their organizational structure seriously incomplete.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even after the various garrison forts distribute land to individual households in the future, it will be the same — some people are lazy, some are diligent; some manage poorly and cannot pay their grain taxes. Looking across ancient and modern times, in China and abroad, no country in the world has ever found a perfect remedy for this problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The sounds of chickens and dogs could be heard from one to another, horses neighed — the scene before them at each fort was full of vigorous life.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Around the various garrison forts, there were also some small village hamlets, some with a few households, some with a dozen or so, some with several dozen gathered together. The origins of these hamlets were complex: there were meritorious-service fields and pasturelands of retired soldiers, and also farming fields and livestock farms set up by merchant settlers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their buildings also fully displayed the wisdom of the broad masses of the people. There were traditional types with wooden palisade walls, and more commonly, the type where the main gate faced inward and the house walls faced outward, with multiple households clustered together in one area, similar to the courtyard-house architectural complexes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, there were differences, because on the house walls, firing loopholes were opened one after another, small ones, through which the residents could fire outward with bird guns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such buildings integrated dwelling and defense into one, with no need to build separate perimeter walls. To be safer, a trench could be dug beneath the walls. A few dozen women and children inside, armed with bird guns, could send several hundred mounted bandits from beyond the frontier, or some invading tribes, fleeing back in disarray.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After all, they had no cannons. The merchant settlers living beyond the frontier all had gun permits, and each had purchased sharp and deadly bird guns, along with powerful gunpowder. How could the bows and arrows of invading enemies be a match for their bird guns?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The main gate was also situated between two buildings. At this spot alone, there were five firing points, two of which could provide flanking fire if the bandits broke through the main gate.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Moreover, the various village hamlets all supported each other. As soon as mounted bandits or the like arrived, the military forts and garrison forts would also send out troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Even more straightforwardly, they also saw buildings similar in style to the Hakka earthen towers, which were even stronger in defense and increasingly welcomed by the merchant settlers beyond the frontier.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Not far northwest of Shacheng, there was a lake, later called Angulinur Lake, but at this time it was called Angkunnaoer Lake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gazing at this lake, it was filled with turtledoves, geese, swan geese, and wild swans of every kind. Seen from afar, they looked like people — some standing, some sitting, some walking. The white ones were like snow, the black ones like ink. If you galloped after them, they would fly up; once the rider left, they would circle back down, fluttering and wheeling in graceful flight above the water's edge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Further northwest, there was another lake, called by the locals Chahannaoer Lake. In the early Ming, the Chahan Naoer Guard had been established here. It was unclear how the lake's name later became \"Chahannaoer,\" which carried a sense of cursing the Han people. So Wang Dou renamed them all: Angkunnaoer Lake became Exterminate the Hu Lake, and Chahannaoer Lake became Pacify the Hu Lake.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Qin Yi said: \"Kaiping was once the Upper Capital of the Yuan, and Shacheng was the Middle Capital of the Yuan. I have heard and read in historical records that this place is most suitable for herding horses. Seeing this today, I finally understand the scenery beyond the frontier. In the past, reading books was only seeing it on paper; it cannot compare to seeing it in person today.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the shores of both lakes, military forts had already been built, and local garrison commanders were established to protect the various large and small garrison forts in the southern range, with the second-class battalions of the Pacifying Frontier Army rotating for garrison duty.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Within the current Pacifying Frontier Army, the warlike spirit was extremely strong. Everyone wanted to go out and fight in field battles. If they were made to garrison for long periods and lost the chance to earn merit, it would inevitably cause discontent among the soldiers. So rotating garrison duty was the best option.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>And these troops, even when stationed locally, spent their days on nothing but drill and more drill, and did not participate in farming or other affairs.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If war broke out, the local garrison commander could also mobilize the forces of the garrison forts and village hamlets under his jurisdiction.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Standing by the lakeside, watching the countless swans, wild geese, hares, roe deer, foxes, and other birds and beasts here, Wang Dou's heart was stirred. The scenery beyond the frontier had its own unique character.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Pointing to the west, Wang Dou said: \"Going west from here, there is Jining Lake. We can reestablish the Guanshan Guard. If we also occupy Guihua City, control the line of the Yin Mountains, and then establish the Kaiping Guard, the line across Monan, with each strongpoint connected, will form a complete defensive system. This land will then return to the possession of our Han people.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Gao Shiyin wagged his head and declaimed: \"They took my Qilian Mountains, so my six kinds of livestock could not breed and multiply; they took my Yanzhi Mountains, so my women lost their rosy complexion... ha ha...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>All the commanders were stirred. Controlling Monan would remove the threat to the northern frontier of Xuan and Da, and a continuous stream of migrants could then pour into this place.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wen Fangliang frowned and said: \"North of the Yin Mountains, it is cold and arid, with desert everywhere. It is difficult for Han people to practice their skilled farming techniques. I have heard that west of the Yin Mountains, the outside is also a continuous stretch of desert and Gobi, extending all the way to the Western Regions — unsuitable for farming, and also inconvenient for herding. Throughout the dynasties of the Central Plains, the northern frontier also reached the Yin Mountains and then stopped as was fitting. Will our Pacifying Frontier Army also stop only after occupying the Yin Mountains?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Han Chao said: \"From a military perspective, north of the Yin Mountains, human habitation ceases, and the desert and Gobi are barren and lifeless. Occupying Monan means that while Han troops would find it difficult to advance north, the Hu barbarians would likewise find it inconvenient to come south to herd their horses.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou smiled faintly: \"Not so. The value of the northern lands is more precious than gold. You will understand in the future.\" (To be continued)\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Novel Network\u003C\u002Fp>",2775,"2026-06-03T14:06:10.567Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","0d96cf381705e16ee18def835d1fb312592a602c2188a7bebd74a289c4a41a56","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-667","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-665",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]