Chapter 729: He Tao

These days the Mongols are said to be strong when they are strong, weak when they are weak; their strength lies in that after the Yuan dynasty they possessed hundreds of thousands of iron cavalry—of course an exaggeration, Erda Khan still commands several tens of thousands of cavalry equipped with iron armor. Their weakness lies in their economic and organizational capacity; they can no longer maneuver thousands of miles to strike as in Genghis Khan's era. Bai Lang leads four thousand troops from Datong out of the frontier for a spring hunt, preparing to test the Mongols' mobile concentration ability.

As the climate begins to grow colder, sustaining tens of thousands of warhorses in one place is no easy task. Especially since the Mongols rely on grazing rather than planting fodder and corn to feed their warhorses—corn is still rare in the Han lands, only just being introduced in Hebei. Gathering a dispersed army quickly is not easy either; Ban Sheng City has commerce and can purchase ample grain, making it relatively easy to maintain a standing iron cavalry.

Now Erda has moved a few hundred li away, and obtaining the provisions to sustain a standing force is no longer easy; he must reduce the size of his escort troops.

Bai Lang rallies the army, and has the scholars load the supplies onto wagons, then pushes deep into the desert. The Ming army has not voluntarily left the passes like this for a long time; the last time was during the incompetent Emperor Yingzong's reign, when an expedition suffered a crushing defeat and was chased back into the Great Wall and annihilated, a disgrace that left the Ming aristocracy in decline. Bai Lang leads his troops out of the pass; besides his own imposing aura, even the generals who have repeatedly crossed the pass with him feel uneasy, fearing that tens of thousands of Mongol iron cavalry might suddenly appear and cut them into pieces for a siege. qqxδnew

So they risked everything by sending out distant night patrols to gather intelligence, yet the Datong governor Bai Lang cared not a bit, spending each day leisurely riding his warhorse. Along the way they indeed rarely encountered Mongols; the forward night patrol had met Mongols before, but after they approached once and saw Bai Lang's banner they withdrew. Afterwards they only kept distant watch, and no further raids occurred.

However, they did not encounter any Mongol tribes on the road, but they found many fresh traces of Mongol camps. "Fortify the walls and clear the fields— the Mongols are quite adept at this," Bai Lang said, showing no worry at all. In Datong many wish him to die quickly on the steppe, while many also pray to gods and Buddha for his swift return because Datong feels empty; Bai Lang's death would mean nothing, but those few thousand troops must not be lost.

Even the central court was noisy and clamorous; some even cursed the Datong governor for stirring up border trouble, especially for voluntarily launching an expedition beyond the pass, as if he were a retired lord of the ancestral temple. Others said Prince Shunyi was not very honest and needed to be disciplined, but a three- to five‑day tour beyond the pass was enough; venturing deep into the desert was unwise. The official who previously advocated retaking the He Tao had already been executed by the Jiajing Emperor, and Xia Ge Lao was also unlucky.

From the emperor down to the cabinet, none wanted to retake the He Tao, a collective failure. The grand ambitions of this generation of emperor and cabinet are completely ruined—Bai Lang thought these people truly had nothing to say, even worse than the later barbarian Tartars.

Bai Lang truly has not yet considered retaking the He Tao—he will discuss it when he becomes the Shaanxi Three‑Border Governor among the Nine‑Border Governors. For now he can try overstepping his authority: what would happen if he stormed into the He Tao? He does not plan to cross the Yellow River, but intends to charge straight at the nearby Dongsheng Guard—he had been here long ago, when the place was called Jiuyuan. Crossing Ban Sheng City to strike Jiuyuan, he might even sweep the entire Front Loop or the whole Shouxiang City area.

Bai Lang leads the army forward; as the distance from Datong grows, Mongol forces begin to increase, indicating that Erda has received the news and gathered troops, preparing to encircle them. "Dongsheng Guard is ahead," Bai Lang said, "this is the old stronghold of the right‑wing's thirty‑thousand households; charge forward." Before him a great river stretched, winding along Hebei, and Erda's thirty‑thousand‑strong army appeared ahead.

Bai Lang's camp setup always leaves the subordinates to act on their own—presumably they are all from military families, and the Nine‑Border generals at least know how to camp, which Bai Lang is too lazy to bother with. When the Ming army's night patrol reported that Erda's main camp was ahead, those Ming generals seemed as if struck by a red‑hot iron whip, urging the scholars and soldiers to erect the camp with their lives. No one tried to persuade Bai Lang to withdraw; they knew it was useless and that retreating before the enemy would now be too late.

What else can be done? After all, this is not the late Ming Chongzhen era, when encountering the enemy would cause an immediate rout and the whole army's collapse—a common occurrence then. If one truly fled before the enemy now, it would surely mean beheading and sending the heads to the Nine‑Border. Moreover, their commander is a peerless fierce general, surely with some tactics. The camp can only be a hastily built one, surrounded with transport wagons and topped with a few spiked barriers.

After all, this is only a four‑thousand‑strong army; including the scholars it totals about six thousand. The generals gather at the main tent to hear Bai Lang convene a council. Bai Lang is not at all impatient; he merely allocates each general's forces, keeping only three hundred men at his center. "Tomorrow at the fifth watch we will prepare meals, then I will lead a strike on Erda's main camp. I will be the vanguard; you follow afterward; in one wave we will crush Prince Shunyi, forcing him to truly go to the Capital to appear before the emperor as Prince Shunyi!"

The tactic is exceedingly simple; after half a day of thought the generals could find no objections or additions—aside from the fact that arranging tactics and troop deployments is a civil official's duty, and they were initially only in charge of logistics and staff duties. With such limited forces, they can only attack or defend. Defending with this kind of camp and four thousand troops would likely not withstand repeated assaults by thirty‑thousand Mongol cavalry.

Especially, there is the biggest prize among them—Datong governor Bai Lang himself; if the Datong army can be annihilated and Bai Lang killed, the Datong defensive line would be Erda's to take. So they might as well attack and see; perhaps, as Bai Lang claimed, a single strike could rout Erda's own troops and capture Erda to be sent to the court? In any case, as the whole army trembled with anxiety, night fell.

The generals patrol the camp, fearing that tension might cause a camp fire and worrying whether Erda might launch a night raid. Bai Lang, however, is completely indifferent; he simply sits in the main tent, leaning on a cushion, sleeping soundly. Erda indeed does not launch a night raid—he too worries that Bai Lang might recklessly charge his own army; a night assault by a few elite led by an Innate Expert would be very difficult to handle. "A bamboo spear fears the wolf on both ends," Bai Lang mutters with his eyes closed.

At the fifth watch, the meal was ready; Bai Lang, in a light robe and loose sash, ate heartily, finishing in fifteen minutes. His personal guards stepped forward to armor him, and the entire Datong army began donning armor; when the sun rose, the whole force left the camp in armor, marching toward Erda's main camp.