Chapter 670: The Newly Attached Army

A rolling torrent of metal spread along the official road from Xuanfu Garrison City to Wanquan Right Guard. Warriors in black-trimmed armor, gripping their weapons, marched forward in orderly ranks beneath the sun-and-moon banners. The pounding of hooves and the tramp of military boots churned up vast clouds of dust.

On a hillock beside the official road, a gust of wind swept past, snapping the great banner with a sharp crack. The silver Black Tortoise sculpture atop its finial blazed dazzlingly under the sunlight, too brilliant to look upon directly. The officers standing on the hillock merely watched the scene below with solemn eyes.

Dense rows of cap-shaped helmets bobbed and swayed; layer upon layer of long spears and flintlock muskets gleamed in rhythmic flashes. The radiance of helmets and weapons stretched on, with no beginning in sight ahead and no end in sight behind.

"Grand Commandant, by tomorrow our Black Tortoise Army can reach Xinghe Suo City."

"Mm. Today the feathered cavalry can already cross Wild Fox Ridge."

……

Standing on the slope and rubbing his nose, Du Xun watched that river of armor and clothing. Red tassels atop the helmets stretched into the distance. On the finials of the sun-and-moon banners, bronze and iron Black Tortoise sculptures stood out vividly — the iron ones, of course, were the most numerous.

Bronze-sculpture banners could only be possessed by battalion commanders; silver sculptures marked the army headquarters' great banner.

"To hell with that Wang Dou, always squandering money like it's nothing."

Du Xun thought to himself, watching the cold gleam of countless armored soldiers striding below. At the same time, innumerable wagons hauled supplies and matériel. Marching out beyond the frontier, once a battle was fought, who knew how much matériel would be consumed.

The crack troops of the Pacification Army — even if Du Xun did not fear them, he had to fear them. But that was not what he was thinking about. Slowly, he exhaled a single sentence: "Fighting a battle beyond the frontier, hauling this much grain and supplies — when will they ever recoup the cost? No wonder everyone says going beyond the frontier to fight the Tatars is a money-losing business. The Marquis of Yongning has been reckless."

A trusted eunuch beside him said, "Indeed. Taking one sheng of grain per soldier per day as the standard, for ten thousand troops over one month, how many dan of grain are needed? For twenty or thirty thousand troops, how many dan more? And then there are the countless warhorses and mules — the dried grass and bean fodder they require is also an ocean. Transporting it all the way, there are losses on top of that. And there is still other matériel. If this campaign drags on for several months…"

He clicked his tongue. "Back when Chengzu first campaigned in the northern desert, he mobilized thirty thousand Wugang wagons and transported two hundred fifty thousand dan of grain."

A eunuch suddenly said, "Why not simply live off the enemy?"

The moment those words came out, everyone looked at him as if he were an idiot.

Eunuch Du was even more delighted to curse him, puffing out his round, rolling frame and showing off.

"You donkey-brain! Who doesn't know about living off the enemy? But you need a place to live off! The steppe is boundless — apart from tribes, there's only grass. If the tribes all run off and leave nothing but grass behind, how do you live off that? Eat grass?"

That eunuch, scolded until he could not find his bearings, could only say repeatedly, "Yes, yes, Eunuch is right."

Seeing him like this, Du Xun instead found the fellow rather agreeable. He looked down again. Besides the wagons of the Pacification Army's supply battalion, there were also many hired civilian laborers, straining as they pulled wheelbarrows along the official road.

On those carts, besides flour and rice, there was also a great deal of dried grass, bean fodder, ceramic jars of meat, even honeycomb briquettes, iron nails, and the like loaded on them. And there were many merchant caravans, hauling vegetables, driving chickens, ducks, pigs, and sheep forward.

Du Xun snorted loudly again. That Wang Dou did not conscript labor but hired civilian workers — this too made him curse inwardly. Was money meant to be used like this? Squandering grain and silver!

In his heart, there was a sentence he did not speak aloud: "If all that money were given to me instead, how fine would that be?"

Wang Dou treated him like a chamber pot — keeping the good things for himself and dumping all the bad things on him, earning him the name "Treacherous Army" in the garrison city. This infuriated Du Xun beyond measure. Cunning, crafty, miserly… such labels, Du Xun privately plastered onto Wang Dou without spending a single coin.

Yet Du Xun had to admit, these civilian laborers were brimming with drive, because the rations and wages they received were even more than what they could earn from ordinary work — naturally, they were eager and enthusiastic.

Moreover, this large-scale expedition beyond the frontier could be called a grand undertaking unseen in the dynasty for a hundred years. Many people from the garrison city followed along, seizing the chance to show their faces and perhaps do a bit of business.

Who knew how many tens of thousands of troops were massed beyond the frontier, or how long they would fight. The various kinds of matériel needed were oceanic — cattle, sheep, chickens, ducks, melons, fruit, and vegetables were merely routine. Things like honeycomb briquettes and iron nails were all needed in considerable quantities. Setting up workshops and mines nearby beyond the frontier would supply them promptly and also save on costs.

/>

As the Army Supervisor of Xuanfu Garrison, Du Xun represented the imperial court and also bore the secret assignment of reporting the causes and consequences of this campaign to the Chongzhen Emperor. He had been allotted the duty of accompanying the army to record merits and supervise the transport of provisions.

At first he was quite delighted, thinking he could make a huge profit. Then he discovered he was merely an empty shell. He could not insert his hand into the internal affairs of the Pacification Army at all and could only scrape a few scraps at the edges. Inwardly seething with rage, he cursed again: "To hell with that Wang Dou! Old Du here has had eight lifetimes of bad luck, running into this jinx!"

……

Han Chao's Black Tortoise Army, serving as the vanguard, had set out from the garrison city and traveled all the way past Wanquan Left Guard City, Right Guard City, Xinkai Kou Fort, Wild Fox Ridge, and other places.

Along the Great Ming's frontier garrisons, generally every ten or twenty li, a relay station or heated post was established. After Wang Dou arrived at the garrison city, he ordered all circuits of Xuanfu Garrison to handle matters as the Eastern Circuit did, demarcating a portion of the surrounding area to be placed under the relay stations' names.

This portion of land could be worked by the relay soldiers or their families, or it could be rented out — leased to merchants to run inns, tea houses, wine shops, warehouses, civilian postal services, and the like.

Travel and transport were a rigid demand of the common people. Food and lodging while traveling, the mailing of letters and goods, and so on — these were even more rigid demands. Whoever controlled transportation controlled wealth.

Thus, although a portion of the relay stations' income had to be handed over to the authorities, the portion that was retained alone allowed these relay soldiers, just like the relay soldiers of the Eastern Circuit, to become part of the first to grow wealthy. The relay stations throughout Xuanfu Garrison increasingly became major taxpayers.

Of course, this was also the result of Wang Dou's standardizing and curtailing the "conveying and hosting of traveling officials" at each relay station. Otherwise, no matter how much income the relay stations earned, it would not be enough for the officials coming and going along the route to eat and drink.

Relay stations were transportation hubs, but their military uses — flying reports of military affairs, transmitting dispatches, transporting supplies — were even greater. Now the relay soldiers of Xuanfu Garrison either merely collected rent or let their wives and children run commercial enterprises, while they themselves concentrated on military postal affairs. If their posts were lost, all that income would be lost as well.

After Wang Dou took office, along this road from Xuanfu Garrison City to Wanquan Right Guard and on to Xinghe Suo beyond the frontier, not only had the relay stations undergone a great transformation, but the official road itself had been renovated and leveled, making travel smooth. Now, in the warehouses along each relay route, large quantities of supplies, grain, and rice were stockpiled. Transport was conducted relay-style, station by station.

The Pacification Army's military regulation was to rest for one quarter-hour after every ten li of marching. According to the marching pace, a portion of the soldiers could just reach a relay station, rest nearby, drink hot water, and eat a few steaming hot buns to replenish their strength.

From this point onward, the relay stations along the route also worked day and night making buns, steamed bread, griddle cakes, boiling meat soup, and the like.

The feathered cavalry of the Black Tortoise Army's central battalion crossed Wild Fox Ridge on the first day of the eighth month and reached Xinghe Suo. On the second day, the Black Tortoise Army's left and right second-class battalions also crossed Wild Fox Ridge. Three battalions, over ten thousand officers and soldiers — the entire force reached the area of Xinghe Suo and Shacheng.

By this time, it was roughly September by the later solar calendar, and there was a distinct sense of autumnal severity. Although the sky was high and the clouds pale, the breeze clear and the air crisp, and the green grass grew lush and upright, the grasslands on some hilly and flatland areas were already slightly withered and yellow. The white birches and larches had also changed the color of their leaves, some even turning golden yellow.

Some Black Tortoise Army soldiers who had never seen the scenery beyond the frontier could not help but exclaim in admiration, feeling that the landscape beyond the frontier was quite different from the Central Plains.

By the time Han Chao arrived, places like Xinghe Suo, Shacheng, and Miehuhai had already been utterly transformed. Supplies from everywhere converged here. Civilian laborers and merchant caravans coming and going gathered in throngs. Every garrison village and merchant hamlet was packed with people. This stretch of land beyond the frontier bustled as noisily as a garrison city.

However, the civilian laborers and merchant caravans only transported the various kinds of matériel this far. Continuing further west would rely on the supply battalion and the Black Tortoise Army soldiers to carry them.

At the shen hour in the afternoon, the army headquarters' great banner fluttered high beside the Haliutu River. Its finial was a massive white-silver Black Tortoise sculpture. At the upper end of the banner were two Black Tortoise emblems; below were wave, sun, and moon motifs — the insignia of the Black Tortoise Army.

This kind of great banner could only be possessed by army commanders and battalion commanders, and it was only used when encamping.

The square banners used by the rest during marching were lighter and more convenient. Moreover, apart from the army-specific sculptures on the finials, the banners bore only sun, moon, and wave motifs, without any Vermilion Bird or Black Tortoise emblems.

After the main army arrived, the soldiers of the three battalions all encamped beside the Haliutu River. Tents like wildflowers densely covered the grassland — one tent per squad. Because this area was absolutely safe territory, they did not construct wooden walls or dig moats; they merely scattered iron caltrops around the camp perimeter and assigned patrol personnel.

On the afternoon of that day, the newly attached Mongol troops who pastured along the Luanhe River area — roughly three thousand cavalry — passed northwest of Mantaor and through places like Pingdingbao, also traveling west to the Shacheng line.

The officer of their Newly Attached Battalion was Zeng Jiuyi, who at this time held the military rank of Company Commander and the honorific rank of Commandant. Shen Shiqi oversaw both the Loyalty Battalion and the Newly Attached Battalion; Zeng Jiuyi was in charge of the Newly Attached Battalion's affairs. Within it, there was also one company of the Pacification Army, with officers such as the Provost and the Pacification Officer assigned.

Both men were figures of cruelty and ruthlessness. Whether the men of the Loyalty Battalion or the Newly Attached Battalion, all held them in awe and fear.

The Logistics Department Commissioner Qi Tianliang and the Supply Battalion Officer Sun Sanjie had long since arrived in the Shacheng area. They welcomed the arrival of the Black Tortoise Army and the Newly Attached Army, supplying large quantities of hot water and numerous pigs and sheep to feast the officers and soldiers of Han Chao's and other units.

On a long-distance march, if after encamping one had the means to wash one's feet with hot water, one could march farther the next day and was less prone to illness. Having hot meals and hot dishes to eat was even more ideal.

……

Tall, burly, and stout, his face covered in horizontal flesh, Zeng Jiuyi — as vicious-looking as Shen Shiqi — led these Mongols in. Although there were three thousand cavalry within the battalion, they belonged to many different tribes, many of them small tribes with few adult males.

The largest tribe had only contributed five hundred soldiers. Some of the smaller tribes could only muster a few dozen fighting men. For these submissive tribal soldiers, those who reached five hundred men were given a Pacification Army Company Commander's banner; those who reached two hundred men were given a Squad Commander's banner.

They were directly subordinate to the central army, so their banners were trimmed in gold. The finials also bore iron sculptures of sun, moon, and waves. However, each company and each unit also raised a sulde wrapped in wolf pelts, each of a different shape, representing their own tribal styles.

As for their administration, the Shogunate had so far not intervened much. Only in their pasturage areas had it stationed some officials from the Civil Affairs Department and the Naturalization Department to guide them in raising chickens and ducks, and in handling permits and the like.

One thing, however, had long since been rectified: their clothing and adornments were changed back to the original style.

After Huang Taiji ascended the throne, he strictly ordered that the Han, Mongols, and others within his realm must all wear their hair in queues and dress in Manchu style, with violators beheaded. So gradually, the various Mongol tribes came to dress in the Manchu fashion as well — arrow sleeves, crooked and slanted buttoned garments.

Under the Shogunate's orders for rectification, they changed back to the original Mongol attire, with right-lapel robes.

On this campaign, they handed over a portion of their cattle, sheep, chickens, and ducks to the Logistics Department as military provisions. The soldiers of each tribe also brought along some cheese, dried meat, hard rations, and the like. However, a large part of their provisions and forage was still supplied uniformly by the Jingbian Army.

After all, these Mongol tribes carrying their own food into battle was like the ancient Japanese samurai or the medieval European knights — the drawbacks were obvious. The food they brought was a motley assortment, some good and some poor, and the quantities varied as well.

After fighting for a while, some tribes still had a month's supply left, while others had only five or six days' worth.

This was clearly detrimental to military operations, so unified supply was necessary.

They set up camp to the left of the Xuanwu Army. Since they brought their own tents, each man had a small tent, and the styles were a motley assortment.

Han Chao examined their camp very carefully. He had read in historical records that during the Mongol Yuan period, Mongol army camps were extremely vigilant and tight. They always chose high ground; the commander's tent always faced southeast; patrol cavalry were posted; the tents to the left and right were orderly in their respective camps; sentry riders were spread in all four directions, and the defenses were thorough.

Moreover, the camps employed all sorts of concealment methods. Often before sunset they would be at one location, and after nightfall they would move to another campsite. There were also dummy fortifications, dummy open camps, dummy lamps and fires, and other such measures. So at the height of their power, raiding or launching a night attack on a Mongol army camp was extremely difficult.

But these advantages had clearly been gradually forgotten by the Mongols everywhere. The camp they had just pitched looked like a refugee and displaced-person concentration camp, scattered here and there. It was only after Zeng Jiuyi roared and bellowed that the various tribes took their positions surrounding his tent, front and rear, left and right.

Of course, even so, these Mongols were still of great use in this battle. They knew the grassland conditions well, and their equipment was not bad — each man had at least one horse, or two or three.

After they pitched camp, the Logistics Department also supplied them with hot water, pork, mutton, and other foods. These Mongols had all come on horseback and had no habit of washing their feet; they thought little of soaking their feet in hot water. But they welcomed the supply of hot tea — the nomadic herders of the grasslands could not go a single day without tea.

And when large buckets of glistening red-braised meat, rice, egg soup, vegetables, and the like were carried over, everyone cheered and leaped with joy.

Just as the peasants of the Central Plains tilled the fields but did not necessarily eat the grain they grew, the life of the grassland herders was not as comfortable as one might imagine. Though they raised cattle and sheep, that did not mean they could eat meat often.

In fact, their lives were extremely busy and harsh. All day long they grazed the herds, milked the animals, made cheese, sheared wool, tanned hides, made felt, and also collected animal dung for fuel. In autumn, they had to cut and store pasture grass for the winter.

Besides this, they also had to hunt, gather, and even engage in farming. They toiled ceaselessly, yet it was very hard to fill their bellies. When black disaster or white disaster struck, surviving the calamity was even harder.

So they often had to use cattle and sheep hides, felt, and the like to trade with the common people of the Central Plains for grain, as well as daily necessities like cloth, tea, salt, and iron pots, which they could not do without. Of course, by their custom, they would rob if they could — only they could not always succeed in robbing...

Many poor herders often relied on hunting marmots to survive the winter. But eating too much marmot meat made one susceptible to the plague. In the fourteenth century, the great plague pandemic in Europe, called the "Black Death," raged for several centuries and claimed nearly thirty million lives — it was brought by the Mongol armies, the result of eating too many marmots.

So, many common people of the Central Plains yearned for life beyond the frontier, yet the nomadic herders of the grasslands often envied the settled Han people.

For the newly submitted Mongols stationed and herding by the Luan River, the nomadic life was not wonderful. Generally, they had to move every two weeks to avoid overgrazing the nearby turf — a life of wandering and displacement, with no fixed abode.

Moreover, on the vast grasslands, raising large numbers of cattle and sheep was not easy. Generally speaking, in some of the more barren areas, it took twenty mu of grassland to support a single sheep, and at least three to four hundred sheep to support a family of five. Thus a herder family needed at least six thousand to eight thousand mu of grassland.

So it can be said that the productivity of nomadic herding was very, very low, far lower than agricultural production. The chieftains of the various tribes had now all tasted the benefits of raising cattle and sheep in fixed locations, especially raising chickens and ducks. Though there were drawbacks, it was far better than nomadic herding of cattle and sheep.

They were already unwilling to leave their current way of life, nor could they possibly leave the sphere of influence of the Jingbian Army.

If they left, aside from returning to a life of wandering and displacement, to whom would they sell their chickens and ducks? The nearby nomadic tribes?

And to continue their current life, they could not refuse Wang Dou's orders. Only by sending troops and proving their loyalty could they become registered as Yi subjects, be truly granted land and pasture, and live a settled life. Otherwise, who knew — one day they might be expelled.