Chapter 241: Quenching Thirst by Gazing at Plums

"The Anren Army is disbanded; its soldiers will be distributed to the other armies of Longyou to fill vacancies as needed. Applications will be submitted and assigned by the Longyou Jiedushi."

"The Tianwei Army will be expanded to ten thousand men (excluding the Shibu City garrison), with soldiers selected from the best of the various Longyou armies. In principle, priority will be given to former soldiers of the Anren Army and the Heyuan Army.

The Tianwei Army's pay will include an additional issue of autumn clothing on top of the spring and winter clothing. Officers from any army who wish to serve in the Tianwei Army may report privately to the Jiedushi without needing approval from their respective army commanders."

"Geshu Han will serve as commander of the Tianwei Army, Lun Weizhen as deputy commander, and the former deputy commander of the Heyuan Army, Gao Xiuyan, will transfer to deputy commander of the Tianwei Army. Other personnel appointments will not be detailed here."

"Each of the Longyou armies shall, on a voluntary basis, select fifty men each to form one battalion, led by Gao Xiuyan to Lanzhou's Jincheng, to observe the condition of the treasury and granaries and publicly verify their authenticity.

Upon return, they shall report the true situation to their respective armies and escort a portion of military pay back to Shanzhou."

"All Longyou armies must weed out the old and weak, after which the rosters will be fixed based on actual headcount. If there are vacancies, they shall be reported to the Longyou Jiedu Headquarters, and the Jiedushi will petition the court to replenish the troops."

"Those weeded out—the old, weak, sick, and disabled—will be resettled in Lanzhou for farming and land cultivation."

……

Wang Nande read aloud while feeling puzzled in his heart, and eventually simply stopped speaking. This notice posted at the entrance of the Longyou Jiedu Headquarters had many aspects that were incomprehensible, yet many aspects were perfectly reasonable, fully meeting the expectations of the frontier army generals.

At first glance, Fang Chongyong seemed to merely be going with the flow, without saying he would drive anyone in the Longyou frontier army to ruin or make an example of anyone.

But in reality, through disbanding the Anren Army, "expanding" the Tianwei Army, and bringing in the Lun family's retainer forces from Liangzhou in Hexi, his moves were by no means small.

These open stratagems dismantled the original structure of the Longyou frontier army and broke up the subordinate relationships between army commanders and frontier generals. By drawing elite troops from each Longyou army and then inserting former Anren Army personnel among them, the "personal networks" forming within each army were torn to pieces.

In short, he was not playing by the usual rules.

The advantage of doing this was that Fang Chongyong, as acting Longyou Jiedushi, had to a certain extent secured his official position and gained control over military command. He also used the method of pulling out the firewood from under the pot to level the factional strongholds in the frontier army that might be dissatisfied with him and pay lip service while acting otherwise.

But the drawbacks were equally obvious: the original understanding among the various armies was broken. No matter which soldier it was, having unfamiliar comrades around would naturally make them feel uncomfortable, thereby producing a sense of rejection.

This did indeed affect combat effectiveness—the so-called "generals not knowing their soldiers, soldiers not knowing their generals" referred to exactly this situation.

However, Wang Nande was quite understanding of this.

As acting Jiedushi, if fighting truly broke out in Longyou, none of the army commanders would heed Fang Chongyong's orders; instead, they would act on their own understanding of the battle situation, each "doing their own thing."

It was perfectly normal for people to think this way—Wang Nande himself thought the same.

Because a Jiedushi parachuted in from the court often did not understand local conditions, civil or military. Such a person could manage commanding troops in peacetime, and following his orders would not matter much. But once fighting broke out, the Jiedushi was very likely to make wrong decisions, far less clear-sighted than the army commanders familiar with the local area.

Yet in war, if an army lacked unified command, or if command authority was insufficient, then the margin for error was very small. The slightest misstep could lead to collapse, or to the Jiedushi being sold out.

So from Fang Chongyong's perspective, rather than letting every subordinate have their own ideas, it was better to have them all follow his command alone, even if it reduced the army's combat effectiveness.

Wang Nande was not the only one who held this view; it was just that no one said it aloud. After copying the notice, each took it back to their own garrison.

What these people did not know, however, was that Fang Chongyong's thinking was far less complicated than they expected.

Young Master Fang's series of moves had only one purpose: to lay low and hold on!

To create favorable conditions for annihilating the enemy for the next Jiedushi, and then he, the one who dug the well and dug the pit, would smoothly slip away!

Rising by trampling on the Tibetans was impossible. With an emperor like Brother Ji, don't even think about such things.

If anyone could fight the Tibetans, Brother Ji would pin that person down at a frontier town to fight the Tibetans, transferring him from Hexi to Longyou, from Longyou to Jiannan—wherever the Tibetans were causing the most trouble, that was where he would be stuffed.

Such a life was not pleasant, and Fang Chongyong at least did not want to be treated as expendable material for forging "Great Tang glory."

Fang Chongyong had already written to his father-in-law Wang Zhongsi, detailing his arrangements. Once he finished recruiting the personnel needed for the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army here, he would find an opportunity to slip away.

Of course, while it was impossible to fight a protracted war with the Tibetans on a scale of hundreds of thousands, it was also impossible to not fight at all.

By now the arrow was on the string and had to be released; the Supi King bringing his retainers to surrender to Tang was a foregone conclusion, with no way to stop it.

……

The night was deep, yet the study of the Longyou Jiedu Headquarters was still brightly lit. The five Lun brothers were there, listening to Fang Chongyong lay out his battle plan.

"The Anren Army's garrison is already empty; the troops have been withdrawn to the Heyuan Army's garrison.

I plan to catch the Tibetans off guard right here. This is not the Tibetans' preset battlefield, and with the Anren Army disbanded, Tang forces here are thin. In the Tibetans' eyes, it seems there is an advantage to be gained."

Fang Chongyong pointed at Xingsuchuan, where the Anren Army had been stationed, on the map. North of Datong City there was a pasture, with lush grass and water, well-suited for grazing—ideal for a battlefield!

Fang Chongyong had an important purpose in disbanding the Anren Army: to deliberately sell a vulnerability to the Tibetans. Otherwise, he had better ways to handle it.

Fang Chongyong guessed that, following the Tibetans' line of thought:

First step: the Supi King surrenders to Great Tang;

Second step: negotiate with Great Tang for his return;

Third step: after being refused, full national mobilization, and the great army marches on Shibu City with the force of a tiger descending a mountain.

After completing these three steps, the Tibetan war machine would be fully operational.

For the Tibetans, winning or losing did not matter much: winning was certainly important, but even if they lost, Great Tang could not establish a foothold on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. If they lost, the Tibetans would simply rest and recover the following year. Battle casualties could also reduce internal population pressure, so it was not entirely a bad thing.

Although Fang Chongyong had no experience commanding large-scale operations, he was already very proficient at battles on the scale of ten thousand men. At the very least, he had practiced many times in Hexi and was by no means a layman.

To strike the Tibetans from behind, one absolutely could not follow the Tibetans' own logic. Therefore, interrupting the Tibetans' "buildup of strength" became the best option.

Fang Chongyong's plan was to fight a battle that the Tibetans would suffer in silence, with the scale kept at the ten-thousand level, that is, the size of one army. This would leave the Tibetans no opening to exploit morally, and could also temporarily curb their ambitious plans.

Once this battle was fought, he could hand over the affairs of the Longyou frontier army to Wang Zhongsi, who was coming to take over, and return to Chang'an with the Yinqiang Xiaojie Army's recruits to train troops.

"Awaiting the Jiedushi's orders!"

The five Lun brothers dropped to one knee and requested to fight.

"No rush. The Tibetans do not seem ready; there is no need to act for now.

The Supi King has been talking about surrendering to Great Tang, but nothing has happened yet. It is likely that the Tibetans' internal rebellions from the change of Tsenpo have not yet been fully quelled.

Take your retainers to Lanzhou via the shorter minor roads; you should arrive in a few days.

There are pastures near Lanzhou, and troops of various origins will gradually gather there. Once you arrive, someone will tell you how to train and reorganize.

Once training is smooth, bring the reorganized retainers back to Shanzhou, and we will discuss it then. These men will form the backbone of the Tianwei Army."

Fang Chongyong said with a smile.

The five Lun brothers were overjoyed, not expecting to receive such an important assignment as soon as they arrived in Longyou, and one that required no effort at all.

Although Fang Chongyong had made it sound complicated, and Lanzhou was indeed east of Longyou, it was actually not far from Shanzhou. What Fang Chongyong had instructed could be entirely completed within ten days.

According to the military orders Fang Chongyong had just issued, the Anren Army had been stripped of its designation, and its corresponding garrison was already empty.

However, the Tibetans would not rashly violate the agreement between the two sides and seize it without making full preparations. Occupying the position meant they had already struck—the war had begun, and whether or not it should stop would no longer be up to the Tibetans!

Since the Tibetans had painstakingly massed troops at the border garrison, their target was likely the strategic stronghold of Shubao City, and they certainly would not do something that would sacrifice the greater for the lesser.

But at the edges of the Huangshui Valley, there were not only Tibetans, but also Tangut people, Tuyuhun people, and even Uyghurs.

If Great Tang and Tibet were not openly at war, then they could only fight a "shadow war"—that is, Tang or Tibetan forces disguised as Tangut or Tuyuhun tribes, raiding a certain place, carrying off its population and wealth, playing this kind of one-shot deal.

The side that took the loss also had grievances they could not voice.

Without evidence, even if they knew the other side had done it, there was nothing they could do.

Playing this kind of game was Young Master Fang's specialty!

When Fang Chongyong was in Shazhou, he had led soldiers disguised as Sogdians wearing Tang army armor, as well as Turks wearing Tang army armor, and Tuyuhun people wearing Tang army armor.

Those unlucky victims who had taken the beating did not dare say it was the Tang army's doing; they all said they had simply had bad luck and been raided by bandits.

Fang Chongyong saw the five Lun brothers off from the prefectural yamen. These men would lead the two thousand retainers under their command to slip away from Shanzhou by night, heading east to Lanzhou's Jincheng to participate in reorganization and training.

After seeing these people off, Fang Chongyong lay on the soft couch in his study like a dead fish, so exhausted he did not even want to speak.

Every deployment he could make, he had already made.

This situation was just like taking medicine—the remedy needed time to take effect. The only thing to do was wait.

The "medicine" taken might suit the illness, or it might not, or it could even be poison. Before it was taken, no one dared guarantee it would definitely work.

For a moment, Fang Chongyong too began to worry about gains and losses.

Would the Tibetans be too stupid to see through the bait he had set at all?

Or would the Tibetans be too clever, anticipating his anticipation?

The discontent within the Longyou border army, the court's years of unpaid military wages, the Tibetans' restless stirring—these troubles all urgently needed a thorough, satisfying victory to break free.

Fighting a war was to adjust and buy time, so as to conduct an even larger-scale battle.

Fang Chongyong remembered that this great war had raged for over a decade without stopping, all the way until the outbreak of the An-Shi Rebellion. This was a giant pitfall—one must absolutely not fall into it!

Lying on the soft couch, Fang Chongyong felt wave after wave of powerlessness.

Many stopgap policies could preserve Great Tang's peace for a time, but could not change the inherent inefficiency and low productivity of the Longyou region's frontier defense. If things continued this way, Great Tang being bled dry was only a matter of time.

It was as though Fang Chongyong knew that he had done so much to alleviate the problem of unpaid wages for the Longyou border army, yet could not eradicate the matter at its root. He recalled that in the history of his previous life, when the troops of the Hexi and Longyou routes had caused trouble, there was only one reason: the court had defaulted on their military pay.

In other words, under Great Tang's recruitment system, this problem had never been solved, and could not be solved in the future either.

But if no measures were taken regarding Longyou, then the rate of the Longyou border garrison's collapse would very likely exceed imagination. With a great war looming, a military defeat would be like a mountain collapsing—no one would be spared, and at that point everyone would be forced into the game whether they liked it or not.

One person's strength, in the end, was simply too insignificant!

Fang Chongyong felt he had done so many things, yet it seemed as though he had not solved a single problem. If a house's foundation was crooked, no matter how much you papered over the outside, the trend of its collapse would not change.

"The ignorant are truly fortunate."

Lying on the soft couch, he let out a long sigh, somewhat envying those young scions of Wuling in Chang'an who spent their days cockfighting and dog-racing.

As long as I think of nothing, then all is well under heaven. Knowing nothing at all is instead the true wellspring of life's happiness.

Fang Chongyong felt he was living so wearily; he needed to find some amusement at the Tibetans' expense.

……

Lanzhou's Jincheng, located along the banks of the Yellow River, was the economic center of Longyou.

The "Book of Han, Biography of Jing Tong" says: "Walls of metal and moats of boiling water cannot be attacked." Terms like Jincheng and Jintang were all used to metaphorically describe a city's impregnability.

Lanzhou's Jincheng was backed by mountains and girdled by rivers, its terrain strategically dominating. To the east it connected to the Longyuan plains, to the west it controlled Yangguan, to the south it overlooked Ba-Shu, and to the north it pressed against Shuofang. It was Longyou's great rear base and blood-making engine, as well as a relay station on the Silk Road, and was therefore far more prosperous than Shanzhou.

Its population was also far larger.

On this day, approximately four hundred Longyou border soldiers from Shanzhou—a force of one battalion's establishment—entered and garrisoned Lanzhou's Jincheng under the guidance of Wang Silu, the Inspector of Lanzhou.

Afterward, Cen Shen, the Jiedushi's Administrative Judge under Fang Chongyong's command, personally led them to Lanzhou's prefectural treasury and granaries. The scale was enormous, far beyond what Shanzhou could compare with!

Accompanied by the teeth-grating sound of wooden axles rubbing together, Lanzhou's prefectural treasury was opened.

This group of provincial soldiers who had never seen the world beheld bundles upon bundles of cloth piled mountain-high, sorted and arranged by category. Not only that, but there were also sheepskins, one after another, too many to count, neatly stacked in another section of the treasury.

The entire treasury was filled with cloth from Jiangnan and the Shu region, stretching as far as the eye could see! Among them were many precious varieties, dazzling to behold!

Facing Gao Xiuyan, who had led the troops there, Cen Shen clasped his hands in salute and asked, "What does General Gao think of Lanzhou's prefectural treasury?"

"Good! Excellent! Jiedushi Fang is truly a man of his word! The border army's wages are settled!"

Gao Xiuyan said excitedly, and the crowd of soldiers behind him were also flushed with excitement, itching to empty Lanzhou's prefectural treasury right then and there!

"Originally, Jiedushi Fang had already arranged with the court to make up the Longyou border army's unpaid wages in full. But then the troubles with the Anren Army and the Heyuan Army blew up, and the Sage was displeased—the reason for which I shall not elaborate.

Now, the word must go out to the border army's officers and men: Lanzhou's prefectural treasury is full, enough to pay the wages with plenty left over. But the Sage has decreed that the troops who mutinied must redeem themselves through meritorious service.

After General Gao returns to Shanzhou, please be sure to inform all the officers and men of the three armies that in the upcoming battles, they must be fierce and resolute. This wealth is waiting for your triumphant return!

Today, you shall escort one hundred thousand bolts of silk back to Shanzhou to make up part of each army's unpaid wages."

Cen Shen, following Fang Chongyong's prior instructions, said to Gao Xiuyan in a loud, resonant voice that many of the soldiers outside the treasury heard, and immediately cheers erupted like thunder.

"Rest assured, Judge Cen. After I return to Shanzhou, I will certainly report truthfully to all the officers and men of the three armies. Jiedushi Fang is a man who honors his word, and we who lick blood from the edge of a blade will not be half-hearted in carrying out our duties!"

Gao Xiuyan excitedly thumped his chest in guarantee, and ordered the soldiers of this border battalion to load one hundred thousand bolts of silk onto ox-carts, to set out and transport them back to Longyou that very day.

These soldiers drawn from various Longyou armies, as though injected with stimulants, quickly loaded the one hundred thousand bolts of silk onto carts and departed from Jincheng in a grand procession that same day.

However, late at night, Wang Silu and Cen Shen led a group of Sogdian merchants to Lanzhou's prefectural treasury.

These merchants, bringing their respective servants, nearly emptied more than half of Lanzhou's prefectural treasury. Under cover of darkness, this group of foreign merchants, carrying vast quantities of wealth and escorted by a massive retinue of guards, headed north to Liangzhou.

"If only we could rob these people, we'd never have to worry about having no money to raise troops."

Watching the receding silhouettes of the Sogdian merchants, Wang Silu said to Cen Shen with a look of unwillingness.

"Inspector Wang's words are greatly mistaken.

Jiedushi Fang has said that we must not break the rules, otherwise no one will believe what we say in the future.

No matter how fine this wealth is, it is borrowed, after all, and must eventually be repaid."

Cen Shen patiently persuaded.

"That's true enough — otherwise, why would those cunning Sogdian Hu be willing to lend us money to put on this act? The Qilin of Hexi — his reputation is naturally different from anyone else's."

Wang Silì said with a sigh, feeling himself no match.

(End of this chapter)