[{"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-873":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},1206162,1561,"Chapter 873","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-873",873,"\u003Cp>On the sixteenth day of the fourth month of the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, You Shiwei’s vanguard seized Changping City. Lei Xianbin led the Xuanwu Army cavalry to link up with them, then unfolded various arrangements: inventorying captured goods, setting up defenses, mopping up remnant bandits, and providing disaster relief to the people.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Near noon, Wang Dou led the main force from Juyong Pass to Changping. Along the way, they went to Mount Tianshou to pay respects at the tomb of the late Emperor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Early in the fourth month, the roving bandits had buried the late Emperor together in the tomb of Imperial Consort Tian. Nearby was the accompanying tomb of the martyred grand eunuch Wang Chengen. When the group paid their respects, the Crown Prince struck his head on the ground in violent grief, and all the officials wept and bowed with tears. The Crown Prince ordered the tomb renamed Si Ling, and also had a stele erected for Wang Chengen to commend his loyal martyrdom for his sovereign.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Si Ling was crude and extremely small in scale; the tomb grounds needed repair. But with a great battle imminent, repairs would have to wait until after the war.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After consulting with Grand Commander Wang Dou, the Crown Prince resolved to discuss the state funeral and tomb repairs only after the roving bandits were annihilated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the afternoon, the vast, mighty army reached Changping. The Crown Prince and his party were settled in the Provincial Governor’s government office and other places to rest, while Wang Dou still set his field headquarters inside the Drum Tower.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This Drum Tower was the highest point in Changping City. It housed a copper clepsydra and markers for every command point in the city. In peacetime, drums were beaten to announce the hours to the populace; in wartime, one could ascend to command the troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He recalled that in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, Lu Xiangsheng had set his field headquarters inside this very Drum Tower. Back then, Wang Dou was still a Mobile Corps Commander and had also entered the Drum Tower to take part in councils. Now, looking at everything familiar in the Drum Tower, all kinds of past events came to mind — the years like a song, one could not help but sigh with emotion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By now, You Shiwei and the others had returned victorious. They reported to Wang Dou that their Shaanxi-Gansu army had struck fiercely, and in less than a shichen, swiftly routed the twenty thousand troops of the bandit generals Liu Zeqing, Qiu Lei, and others. Their army pressed hard in pursuit, and the bandit general Liu Zeqing fled toward the capital with only a hundred-odd riders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The bandit general Qiu Lei’s whereabouts were temporarily unknown, but they had dispatched cavalry detachments to search closely, reckoning that this bandit general would sooner or later find it hard to escape the vast net of heaven and earth.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also, their army had already taken control of key points such as Chaozong Bridge, Gonghua City, and Anji Bridge, with several thousand cavalry of the vanguard stationed at Tangjialing Post and Dang’er Ridge and other places. Earlier, they had also sent troops to set up guard at Bafu Mountain, ten li southeast of Changping City, and other spots to guard against Liu Liangzuo and others at Shunyi launching a flank attack, though there had been no movement from that side yet.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou lavishly praised You Shiwei and the others, recording great merit for them. He pondered for a long moment, feeling that this force of Shaanxi-Gansu officers still had its uses. He ordered that, aside from Chaozong Bridge, Gonghua City, and Anji Bridge — which would be taken over by the Jingbian Army — the Shaanxi-Gansu troops would continue to be stationed at Tangjialing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Their mission was to absolutely prevent the roving bandits from crossing Tangjialing. Everything behind and beyond the ridge must be screened, and must not be detected by the bandits’ scout riders.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, they could also try attacking Qinghe Post. Of course, they must not press too hard or strike too fiercely, lest they drive the roving bandits at Qinghe Post away. In short, they needed to convey a sense of: “I really want to hit you, but I just can’t take it, and I’ve already tried my best.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Finally, he exhorted You Shiwei and the others to make sure their subordinates paid attention to military discipline; otherwise, if extreme joy turned to sorrow and they lost their heads, that would be bad.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>You Shiwei and the others loudly acknowledged the order and departed in high spirits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With Liu Zeqing and Qiu Lei’s two bandits routed, the twenty thousand soldiers under their command had scattered everywhere. If they were left to roam the countryside, the future harm would be immense. Wang Dou ordered his cavalry detachments to join the search and suppression. In particular, the gallants from the various security firms had even more experience dealing with this kind of roving bandit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, logistics officials and the Judicial Commissioner jointly inventoried and verified the spoils from this battle. By evening, Sun Sanjie happily reported to Wang Dou that a rough estimate showed they had already seized eight million taels of silver, four thousand horses and mules, and countless weapons and military equipment from the roving bandits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou said happily, “Good, our capital has been recouped.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He was secretly excited. Just Changping alone yielded eight million taels of silver. If they annihilated the roving bandits in the capital, the silver obtained would likely be no less than a hundred million taels in scale.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The roving bandits still occupied many cities and had plundered enormously. If they could all be wiped out, they could gain at least another hundred million taels of silver.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With two hundred million taels of silver in hand in the future, the things they could do would be many.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the seventeenth day of the fourth month, aside from monitoring the movements of the roving bandits in the capital, Wang Dou spent his time listening to reports from all sides on the search and suppression of remnant bandits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In yesterday’s great battle, the Shaanxi-Gansu troops killed and wounded several thousand roving bandits on the spot. The remaining remnant bandits fled in all directions, but by noon, over twelve thousand had already been captured. The reason it went so smoothly, apart from the many Jingbian Army cavalry detachments conducting the search, was also the result of full popular participation.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The roving bandits had not been in Changping long, but they had committed no small number of evils. The common people all hated them to the bone. Now that the roving bandits had become stray curs, how could they not beat a drowning dog?\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Apart from avenging their grievances, because the bandit soldiers had plundered quite a lot, many ordinary soldiers had over a dozen taels of silver hidden on them. Killing or capturing them meant revenge, and even more so, a chance to get rich.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This was personally ordered and permitted by Grand Commander Wang Dou: from the captured roving bandits, apart from military equipment such as horses, bows, arrows, and firearms that had to be turned in, all other valuables and cloth belonged to whoever seized them. At this, the common people became even more eager. In every village for ten li around, the air was filled with shouts of “kill” and “strike.” Wherever the roving bandits fled, they had no place to hide.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the process, at least two to three thousand bandit soldiers were beaten to death alive by the villagers. On the morning of the seventeenth, the bandit general Qiu Lei was caught. Apart from a bruised and swollen face and blood streaming all over his body, his hands and feet had been smashed and broken alive by the villagers with hoes — a sight too horrible to endure.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Dou ordered Qiu Lei taken into custody, to be kept for the army’s sacrificial banner ceremony when they went out to battle.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Also, among the captured prisoners, army riffraff, officers of all ranks, and those with blood debts on their hands were all screened out and handed over to the common people to deal with as they wished, letting them vent their fury. The rest would all be assigned to penal labor battalions, where they would spend a long career of hard labor to atone for their sins.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If they performed well, it was possible that a portion could enter the Loyalty and Righteousness Battalion, or receive other arrangements.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the power of the entire populace, in just two days — the sixteenth and seventeenth — the roving bandits fleeing through the Changping area were completely searched out and suppressed. The few remaining scattered bandit soldiers would be mopped up in no time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course, during the search and suppression, the mountain bandits and local ruffians throughout Changping were also conveniently smashed by the Jingbian Army, leaving every part of Changping Subprefecture clear and bright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the afternoon of the seventeenth, the people’s emotions gradually settled. Wang Dou ordered relief for the common people, but in the form of work-for-relief.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He ordered the construction of Changping’s defensive positions, the widening and leveling of roads, and the building of bridges. Commoners were recruited on a large scale and provided with generous meals and wages. Even women and children could wash clothes and cook for the soldiers, and likewise be provided wages and meals.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The common people eagerly participated. Although some among them had found a bit of silver on the roving bandits, they were all used to frugality. Each of them carefully stored the silver away, deciding to first earn money and meals from the Jingbian Army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Apart from movements in the capital region, Wang Dou of course also paid attention to the Tartars’ movements. The Tartars were pressing toward the capital all the way. They could screen the roving bandits’ messengers and scout horsemen, but they could not cut off the elite scout camp riders sent out by the Jingbian Army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They thought they were moving completely undetected, but in fact, everything fell under the eyes of the elite scout camp’s Night Scouts.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Toward evening, Dorgon led his main army to Shunyi. When the Night Scouts delivered the intelligence to his desk, Wang Dou said with excitement, “Good, everyone’s here.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At that moment, he was on the first floor of the Drum Tower. At the head was a huge iron desk covered with golden tallies, command arrows, and the like. On the wall hung an enormous operational map, and in the center was a sand table. Dense clusters of officers surrounded it, discussing and debating. Wang Dou was also studying the various colored flags and arrows on it, pondering deeply.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the operational plan agreed upon by Wang Dou and the Staff Department, the Jingbian Army’s two hundred thirty thousand troops for this battle were divided into six parts. Among them, Sun Sanjie would defend the rear, leading the logistics battalion, part of the artillery battalion, the rocket battalion, the C-grade battalions, and so on, totaling about thirty thousand men.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>They would set up defensive lines respectively at Bafu Mountain ten li southeast of Changping, and at Shenling Mountain and Tangshan fifteen li southeast, resolutely blocking any possible rear attack by the slave bandits.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Sun Sanjie had fought the defensive battle at Changling Mountain during the Jinzhou campaign and had defended with distinction. No one objected to him guarding the rear.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, of the remaining two hundred thousand men, the Swift Cavalry General Han Chao would lead the Xuanwu Army mainly to confront the Tartar bandits. His Xuanwu Army had a strength of about twenty-five thousand, including one A-grade battalion, two B-grade battalions, two C-grade battalions, and a portion each of Swift Cavalry and Hunting Cavalry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Added to this were five thousand cavalry from the Newly Attached Battalion, about ten thousand submitted Mongols, about four thousand cavalry of Wang Pu’s new army guard, and then some C-grade battalions not yet assigned to any army, part of the artillery battalion, and the rocket battalion — altogether about sixty thousand horse and foot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one had anything to say about Han Chao dealing with the Tartars. Han Chao was one of the five great generals of the Jingbian Army. If one asked who in the army was most capable of taking charge of a sector alone, apart from Wen Fangliang, it was Han Chao.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the battle beyond the frontier that year, he had led troops in a great battle against the Mongols and had also fought with distinction. The Feathered Cavalry tactic was also invented by him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Han Chao would lead sixty thousand horse and foot against the Tartars. His position at that time would be at Huilongguan on the right side of Tangjialing, then turning northward all the way to the edge of the Sha River, with the battle line stretching continuously for about ten li.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, the Soaring Eagle General Wen Fangliang would lead the Qinglong Army against the roving bandits. His Qinglong Army also had a strength of twenty-five thousand, including one A-grade battalion, one B-grade battalion, three C-grade battalions, and a portion each of Swift Cavalry and Hunting Cavalry.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Added to this were about five thousand cavalry from the Loyalty and Righteousness Battalion, about ten thousand cavalry and retainers of the Shaanxi-Gansu officers, one battalion of over four thousand from the Xuan-Da Viceroy’s Personal Battalion, plus the artillery battalion, the rocket battalion, and some C-grade battalions not yet assigned to any army — altogether about fifty thousand horse and foot.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>No one had anything to say about Wen Fangliang dealing with the roving bandits either. They only worried whether this force might be slightly thin, since the roving bandits far outnumbered the Tartars, yet the troops assigned were fewer instead.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, the Staff Department believed that fifty thousand horse and foot were more than enough to deal with the roving bandits, not to mention the presence of sharp artillery and rockets. Grand General Wang Dou also agreed with their opinion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>So Wen Fangliang would lead fifty thousand horse and foot against the roving bandits. His position at that time would stretch from Wang’er Mountain all the way to Tangjialing, and on to Huilongguan, extending twenty li left and right. Finally, it would link up with Han Chao’s battle line, forming something like an inverted “7” shape.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Such a vast battle formation naturally tested the commander’s command ability. In a forest of human heads, directing certain units to advance or retreat was extremely difficult. In particular, the soldiers in the midst of it, looking around in all directions, saw only the heads of their own men front, back, left, and right. Most of them could only blindly be swept forward, and then blindly move about.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, terrain that allowed one to overlook the entire battlefield was extremely important, and a long-distance viewing tool like a telescope was a divine artifact.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>According to the Staff Department’s analysis and judgment, at this time the roving bandits’ limit was being able to command a battle line of ten to twelve li. The Tartars could command a battle line of about fifteen or sixteen li. The Jingbian Army, because of its high degree of organization and widespread possession of telescopes, could command a battle line up to twenty li.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Spreading the battle line wide naturally had advantages: it was not easy for the enemy to outflank from both wings, while one’s own side could instead slowly carry out encirclement and outflanking.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Then, the remaining troops here numbered ninety thousand. Among them, Wang Dou personally led the Guard Battalion, the Elite Scout Battalion, the Central Cavalry Battalion of lance cavalry, plus some C-grade battalions and the gallants from the security firms — about fifty thousand men serving as the central army and reserve battle force, ready to reinforce any side at any time.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With fifty thousand men as the reserve force, this reserve strength could be said to be extremely ample. If any side could not hold or needed troops committed, Wang Dou’s side could dispatch officers and move troops.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The final forty thousand men were to serve as the grand flanking force.\u003C\u002Fp>",2715,"2026-06-03T14:06:27.906Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","e8a128c1a664d280c38796f9d687f86f508ae03be8c7eb1d11c6cc5179928eef","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-874","a-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-chapter-872",896,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fa-little-soldier-of-the-late-ming-border-army-cover.jpg"]