Chapter 74: Volume Three: Defender of Shunxiang Fort, Chapter Seventy-Four: Ambition

Volume Three: Defender of Shunxiang Fort, Chapter Seventy-Four: Ambition

The seventeenth day of the tenth month, eighth year of the Chongzhen reign. Early morning.

The Shunxiang Fort training ground lay three li south of the fort, covering over a hectare. Built during the Yongle years, it had once been the autumn drill and assembly ground for the entire Battalion. With the passage of many years, the training ground was now dilapidated everywhere.

At this moment, the training ground was packed with the officers and soldiers of Shunxiang Fort, great and small.

In the Great Ming’s northern lands during the late tenth month of the lunar calendar, the weather was already bitterly cold. Today, even a fine, drifting snow was falling, and when the north wind blew, it made a man shiver all over. Looking down, although many of the Shunxiang Fort soldiers wore thick padded cotton or fur jackets, most were huddled into balls, stamping their feet and hands, utterly lacking the bearing of soldiers.

What was even more disheartening was that the Shunxiang Fort roster listed three hundred and twenty-three men, yet there were probably not two hundred and fifty present. Of the six squad commanders, apart from Xu Lu’s squad, not a single squad had forty men. Even among these men, half were old or weak. Every one of them wore tattered military uniforms, and many were sallow and emaciated. Clad in thin military coats, they shivered in the biting cold wind. Even the weapons in their hands were rust-spotted, clearly never having been maintained.

When these men met Wang Dou’s sweeping gaze, they were all numb, their eyes and faces expressionless. In Wang Dou’s view, these men were already ruined.

The only slightly better ones were the retainers beside each squad commander and vice squad commander. Each squad had about eleven or twelve of them, mostly able-bodied young men, and their armor and weapons were fairly complete. However, their formation discipline was also slack and sloppy — a typical motley crowd.

Even the fifty-man squad led by Xu Lu, the former personal commander of Xu Zhongjun, which consisted entirely of retainers, could not be said to have any formation to speak of. These retainers, if placed in Jingbian Fort, would all be unqualified soldiers. Yet placed in Shunxiang Fort and the guard battalions across the Great Ming, they were already the primary fighting force.

On the high platform of the training ground’s drill hall, Wang Dou swept his gaze over those Shunxiang Fort soldiers below. His expression was grim. The deterioration of the Shunxiang Fort army far exceeded his expectations. Could these troops fight? Wang Dou deeply doubted it.

Wang Dou wore the silver-white iron armor captured from the Later Jin army, which drew many gazes from below. Combined with the fact that he, the newly appointed Defender, was reviewing the troops, a constant murmur of discussion rose from below. Beside him, Lin Daofu and the Garrison Adjudicator Chi Dacheng also stood solemnly, hands on their swords.

Chi Dacheng’s face was stern, an expression that never changed in ten thousand years. Lin Daofu, clad in a full suit of iron armor, appeared even taller and more powerfully built. His expression was also grim at this moment, his gaze constantly sweeping over the soldiers of Shunxiang Fort while also frequently glancing toward the soldiers from Jingbian Fort.

Those were the good soldiers — every one of them young, with thick, sturdy builds, and especially outstanding in discipline. Clad in armor, they merely stood solemnly holding their blades in the freezing weather.

They were arrayed in six horizontal ranks, twelve men per rank. No matter from which angle one looked, they formed a straight line. Despite the bitter cold, while the Shunxiang Fort soldiers beside them were all huddled and shivering, these men exhaled thick white plumes of breath yet remained utterly motionless, letting snowflakes settle on their bodies. Every face was stern, eyes fixed forward.

Directly in front of these squads, Han Chao and Han Zhong stood solemnly in armor, also completely motionless. Even Xie Yike, standing over with the combat squads, kept his face tightly drawn, his expression excessively stern.

This kind of military discipline and bearing made the Shunxiang Fort soldiers watching beside them feel fear and awe. In particular, those who had participated in the bandit-suppression campaign some time ago wore expressions of even deeper reverence.

Xu Lu stood on the right with his squad of retainers, watching the Jingbian Fort soldiers beside him. He felt deeply uncomfortable inside. He had gathered the entire fort’s strength and spent many years raising this one squad of retainers, yet their military bearing and combat strength were far inferior to those of Jingbian Fort soldiers who had only been roughly drilled for a few months. How could this not fill his heart with a profound sense of defeat?

After watching the platform below for a long while, Wang Dou said in a deep voice, “Sir Lin, why are the fort’s military affairs so dilapidated?”

Lin Daofu was in charge of Shunxiang Fort’s battalion training and drilling. With the army so deteriorated, Wang Dou naturally questioned Lin Daofu.

Lin Daofu clasped his fists and said in a deep voice, “My lord, drilling troops requires silver, coin, grain, and pay. The fort’s grain and rice are insufficient. This subordinate has the will but not the means!”

For soldiers to undergo basic drill, they must at least be fed their fill of coarse grain every day. Otherwise, their bodies would be weak and strengthless; even running a few laps around the training ground could easily lead to exhaustion, collapse, and unconsciousness. If the training intensity were to be increased, some meat would also have to be added daily; otherwise, they would soon urinate blood and die.

Shunxiang Fort was dilapidated, its funds and grain exhausted. Lin Daofu was indeed like a clever wife unable to cook without rice.

Wang Dou said, “Why are the fort’s active-duty officers and soldiers so few?”

Lin Daofu said in a deep voice, “My lord, the military households within the fort are constantly deserting. The officers must support their own retainers. This subordinate is powerless to do anything!”

In the Great Ming’s frontier garrison guard battalions, seven-tenths of the troops farmed the military colonies, and three-tenths guarded the city. These were called active-duty officers and soldiers. After the guard battalion’s colony grain was collected, a portion was handed over to the higher authorities, and a portion was used to support the fort’s officers and these active-duty soldiers. The remaining miscellaneous-duty soldiers and colony soldiers performed labor service and cultivation.

In the early Ming, the output of the military colonies could almost entirely meet the entire army’s needs, hence the troops were strong and the horses sturdy, and the officers and men were at ease. However, after the Xuande reign, large numbers of active-duty soldiers from the guard battalions deserted, and many colony soldiers were conscripted to become active-duty garrison troops, with their original colony lands transferred to surplus males for cultivation. As times changed, by the mid-to-late Ming, it had become common practice for regular soldiers to fill the ranks while surplus males worked the colonies.

At this time, not to mention that active-duty officers and soldiers in guard battalions everywhere continued to desert in large numbers, those who remained were mostly mere shells, rarely drilling for more than a few days a year, their minds solely occupied with their own families and fields. Even if there were able-bodied young men, they were unwilling to serve as regular soldiers and merely sent the old and weak from their households as substitutes.

Moreover, in order to support their own retainers, the officers not only embezzled grain and pay but also encouraged this phenomenon, so that they could use it to pocket the pay of non-existent soldiers.

In the final analysis, it all came down to two words: grain and pay.

After hearing Lin Daofu’s words, Wang Dou remained deep in thought. After he had those Shunxiang Fort soldiers demonstrate their formations and martial skills once more, his face remained expressionless. He merely said to Lin Daofu, “Sir Lin, pass down the order: starting tomorrow, I will inspect all forts under my jurisdiction!”

…

Starting from the eighteenth day of the tenth month, Wang Dou had Han Chao lead that squad of night scouts as his escort, while Han Zhong led several squads of combat soldiers to remain and guard the fort. Taking with him Lin Daofu of Shunxiang Fort, Garrison Adjudicator Chi Dacheng, and Xu Lu and others, he braved the severe cold and inspected each subordinate fort in succession.

Apart from the two large military forts of Dongjiazhuang and Huiyao Fort, Shunxiang Fort’s jurisdiction also included eleven colony forts: Zhouzhuang, Huzhuang, Chafang Fort, Yizhuang, and others. Among them, Ganzhuang Fort, Yagou Fort, Shiweng Fort, and Chadao Fort were colony forts under the jurisdiction of Huiyao Fort.

Setting aside the strenuous efforts of the various colony head officers to curry favor, from what Wang Dou observed, the situation at every colony fort was extremely dire. Colony fields were abandoned and overgrown, plow oxen were thin and weak, military households within the forts were deserting in droves, and the able-bodied young men were growing ever fewer. Seeing these conditions, it was impossible for Wang Dou not to furrow his brow.

On the twentieth day of the tenth month, Wang Dou led his party of men and horses to Huiyao Fort. Huiyao Fort’s squad commander Chang Zhengwei and vice squad commander Zhong Dayong respectfully received Wang Dou and his party.

Huiyao Fort occupied a strategically important position, located on the key pass road connecting Meiyu Battalion, Mashuikou, and Bao’an Department. The fort was built on a hillside, with the Dongfang River to its west, making its terrain strategically difficult. The fort’s perimeter measured one li and two hundred and sixty paces, not faced with brick. It was garrisoned by a squad commander leading fifty men for defense, with jurisdiction over four beacon towers.

Inside the fort, there was only one main street and a few small alleys, inhabited by several dozen military households. Perhaps because Huiyao Fort was located in the hilly and mountainous central region of Bao’an Department with relatively little arable land, the military households inside Huiyao Fort were even poorer than those in Dongjiazhuang and Xinzhuang.

The so-called main street was merely a slightly wider dirt road, full of potholes and bumps everywhere. On both sides of the street were mostly dilapidated buildings like mud-brick houses and thatched huts. The people walking on the road were mostly men and women in tattered clothes, shivering all over from the cold. There were only two shops in the fort, selling goods like grain, rice, and miscellaneous items.

The best building in the fort was the Battalion Commander’s official hall. Chang Zhengwei and Zhong Dayong could not produce anything good to entertain their guests, so they slaughtered a pig to host these important figures who had come from Shunxiang Fort.

Toward the two men’s deference and flattery, especially Zhong Dayong’s flowery smiles, Wang Dou paid little attention. He merely asked Chang Zhengwei, “Sir Chang, I have heard that there is an iron mine near Huiyao Fort?”

In later ages, Huiyao Township would be famous in Zhuolu County for its grapes and apricot kernels, and its water resources were also fairly abundant. However, what Wang Dou cared about most right now was the iron ore within the territory that could be used to forge weapons and armor.

Chang Zhengwei pondered and said, “There is one. It is located at Koujiagou. It is an ochre ore deposit, and the grade is quite excellent. However, mining is inconvenient. Only some local villagers go there to dig up some ore for their own use. Ordinarily, few people pay it any attention!”

Ochre ore is hematite, typically reddish-brown in appearance.

After hearing Chang Zhengwei’s words, Wang Dou’s mood became cheerful. He said, “Take me there to have a look!”

…

Returning from Koujiagou, Wang Dou’s mood was even more cheerful. According to the estimates of those accompanying him, the local hematite reserves at Koujiagou were close to two million tons, with an iron content of thirty to forty percent. Once this ore was mined, it could fully meet Wang Dou’s needs.

Mining was somewhat inconvenient, but as the master of an entire battalion, as long as Wang Dou could deploy manpower and had sufficient funds and grain, he could still smelt iron and steel in large quantities.

Afterwards, in a cheerful mood, and accompanied by Chang Zhengwei and others, he toured Mount Huangyang to the northwest of Huiyao Fort. Mount Huangyang would later become a forest park in Zhuolu County. The trees there were evergreen in all seasons, lush and verdant, and wild animals like roe deer and badgers could be seen everywhere. Not far from Mount Huangyang was Mount Dongling, with its jagged, grotesque rocks and beautiful scenery, as well as large tracts of forest and pastureland. For raising horses and gathering medicinal herbs in the future, that place would be an excellent base.

Through these days of Wang Dou inspecting Shunxiang Fort and the various areas of Huiyao Fort, he estimated that within the territory there were seventy to eighty thousand mu of fields and wasteland available for cultivation. Moreover, this was a piece of land where he alone could make the decisions. Gazing at the beautiful mountain scenery, a surge of heroic passion rose in Wang Dou’s heart. He had been able to govern Jingbian Fort well under extremely difficult conditions; he could likewise govern the entire Shunxiang Fort well and secure a foothold for himself in this world.

Reckoning the time, by the latter half of the sixth month next year, the Qing troops would be invading. Time was pressing.

On the thirtieth day of the fifth month, ninth year of the Chongzhen reign, Huang Taiji would dispatch Ajige to command one hundred thousand Eight Banner troops to attack the Ming. On the twenty-seventh day of the sixth month, Ajige’s forces would split into three routes and enter Xifengkou, Dushikou, and other places, converging at Yanqing Department, right beside Bao’an Department. On the eighth day of the ninth month, Ajige would report the capture of one hundred seventy-nine thousand eight hundred and twenty Ming subjects and livestock, and the live capture of the Ming Regional Commander Chao Pichang. The Qing army would return fully laden with plunder.

This was a massive invasion. Reckoning the time, there was not much left. In particular, Bao’an Department was an important grain storage area for Xuanfu Garrison. When the time came, the Qing troops would certainly send soldiers to plunder. How many Qing soldiers would appear beneath Shunxiang Fort then? A thousand men, or ten thousand?

Whether they were roving bandits or northern barbarians, Wang Dou loathed them from the bottom of his heart and looked down on them from the depths of his soul! Whether in the past, the present, or the future, he would never entertain the thought of joining the bandits or surrendering to the barbarians. If the enemy arrived at the city walls, the worst that could happen was to die a glorious, earth-shattering death in battle — better to be shattered jade than an intact tile!

Yet how could he be willing to resign himself to fate? From the moment he arrived in this world, he had been fighting with all his might — from a nameless, penniless common soldier, fighting all the way to his current position as Defender. It had all been won through his own desperate struggle. Even until the very last moment, Wang Dou would not give up.

Wang Dou was full of ambition. He planned to train and organize a strong army of a thousand men before the Qing troops arrived next year. If funds and grain were insufficient, he would go and seize them! In the current chaotic world of the Great Ming, bandits and rebels filled the land. Killing them would, first, bring peace to the people, and second, sustain the army. If they did not die, then it would be his turn to die.

Gazing in the direction of Koujiagou, Wang Dou let out a breath. His future would begin from here.