Chapter 148: 146 Night March Detour (For Alliance Leader

No military plan is set in stone!

After arriving in Fenyi County, Zhao Han obtained more detailed intelligence.

Prefect Tian Younian's core elite troops came from the official kiln craftsmen of Binjiang Township. With the New Year approaching, the soldiers would certainly be home — striking straight there would yield twice the result with half the effort.

When Zhu Yuanzhang built the city walls of Nanjing, the inner layer of wall bricks was white, all produced in Binjiang Township.

These white wall bricks were all fired from kaolin clay, also called "white clay bricks" or "white porcelain bricks," far sturdier than ordinary blue-gray wall bricks. The Yuanzhou Assistant Prefect Sui Yun, who supervised their production, earned Zhu Yuanzhang's high praise and was promoted from Principal Grade Six straight to Provincial Surveillance Commissioner at Principal Grade Three.

Binjiang Township had an official kiln, which the officials ran into utter ruin. A few years ago the kiln workers rioted, and Prefect Tian Younian personally recruited and pacified them to settle the matter.

He recruited five hundred kiln workers as soldiers, wiped out the bandits in the Wugong Mountains, then went on to eliminate the rebels in Pingxiang County. Hearing that a huge bandit force had emerged in Luling County to the south, he immediately expanded the local militia, and now commands three thousand troops.

Those five hundred kiln workers were elite soldiers trained over two full years!

The very night he met Song Yingxing, Zhao Han personally led his troops out, leaving the city defense to Fei Ruhe.

Since commandeering boats would cause too much commotion, Zhao Han marched his troops across the Wannian Bridge and advanced along the south bank of the Yuan River by night. They force-marched forty li in one night, reached Binjiang Township at dawn, and launched the attack without resting.

The townspeople had not even reacted before three thousand soldiers swept through the town, charging toward the kiln workers' settlement just west of town.

"Surrender and you will not be killed!"

In squads of ten, they dispersed and stormed into every dwelling, then marched out the kiln workers and their entire families.

…

Xiong Yao's family had been kiln workers for generations, registered under the artisan household registry. The official kiln had long since collapsed; they all made a living working for private kilns. Life was hard, but they got by.

Then five years ago, the prefect at the time suddenly had a mad whim and declared he would add an outer ring to the prefectural city walls.

Kiln-worker households like Xiong Yao's were conscripted for labor service, bringing their own dry rations to fire city-wall bricks for the government.

By regulation, although corvée laborers received no wages, the government was required to issue grain rations. But the rations were embezzled by the clerks, and the kiln workers simply could not survive. In desperation, they killed the supervising clerk and rose in revolt.

The unrest dragged on for half a year. The prefect took his silver and was promoted away, and the new prefect, Tian Younian, took office.

Xiong Yao deeply admired Prefect Tian — he had dared to come alone to offer amnesty, and in the end only executed the two ringleaders of the revolt.

Xiong Yao was recruited by the prefect into the local militia, with a monthly wage of two dou of grain. Moreover, they drilled once every five days. Since he lived very close to the prefectural city, after deducting travel time, he could work and earn money on three of those days.

Prefect Tian was formidable at training troops. He said the monthly wage was two dou, and it was two dou — never a single deduction. When they went to Pingxiang County to suppress bandits, there was even a campaign stipend. Xiong Yao almost wished they could fight battles every day.

This year life had been much easier; the family had even stocked up on New Year's goods.

On the twenty-ninth of the twelfth month, after a year of toil, Xiong Yao wanted to sleep in for once.

Suddenly, he heard noises outside. Before he could even finish dressing, a group of soldiers burst in.

"Surrender and you will not be killed!"

His wife, children, and elderly family were all seized. Xiong Yao had just pulled on his trousers. With his whole family's lives at stake, he dared not resist at all.

He was taken to an open ground outside to assemble. Xiong Yao saw that many people had already been rounded up — women, children, and the elderly stood together, while the able-bodied men were ordered to stand apart.

What was going on?

No one knew what was going on. They had all been waiting to celebrate the New Year, and now, in a daze, this had happened.

"Those who are soldiers, step forward. Do not make me interrogate you by force!"

Xiong Yao glanced left and right, saw everyone hesitating, then looked toward his wife and children — spears were pointed at them.

With no other choice, someone stepped forward, and Xiong Yao followed.

Zhao Han said, "Count them."

The signal officer swiftly tallied and soon reported, "Regional Commander, four hundred and thirty-six men in total!"

It had to be more than that. When Tian Younian recruited kiln workers as soldiers, he initially took only five hundred, but later recruited over three hundred more in batches.

After some interrogation, it quickly became clear: some had abandoned their families and fled, while others lived farther away.

Zhao Han immediately ordered men to seize them. At another kiln-worker settlement, over a hundred more households were rounded up, many of them ordinary kiln workers.

At last, Zhao Han asked, "Who has trained with the bow? Raise your hand."

"I have," Xiong Yao raised his hand.

Just then, a small boat docked at Binjiang Township.

The official runner disembarked and sprinted as he ran, shouting, "The Prefect is mustering troops, the Prefect is mustering troops! Be sure to reach the military camp outside the prefectural city by noon of the fourth day of the new year! The Prefect is mustering troops, the Prefect is mustering troops…"

The runner was simply too fast. The townspeople failed to stop him, and the sentries did not react in time — in the blink of an eye, he had already dashed out of town.

"The Prefect is muster— Mother of… rebels!"

The runner turned and fled in terror, scurrying straight back into town, where several sentries seized him.

Dragged before Zhao Han, the man immediately dropped to his knees and wailed, "Spare me, General, spare me!"

Zhao Han asked with a smile, "Prefect Tian is mustering troops?"

The runner answered frantically, "Fenyi County town is lost. His Excellency the Prefect is mustering troops on the fourth day of the new year."

"Prefect Tian is considerate of his soldiers after all, waiting until after the new year," Zhao Han remarked dryly, then asked, "How many men are defending the prefectural city?"

The runner spilled everything like beans pouring from a bamboo tube: "When His Excellency heard that Fenyi County had been… taken, he mustered several hundred men to defend the city last night."

The situation was now very clear: Tian Younian was extremely nervous and did not regard Zhao Han as an ordinary rebel.

Those several hundred city defenders were most likely from the vicinity of the prefectural city. Guarding the city over the New Year would surely be causing widespread grumbling.

Zhao Han walked up to Xiong Yao. "You are a bowman squad leader?"

"Yes," Xiong Yao said.

Zhao Han asked, "How many of the kiln workers have trained with the bow?"

"Only about a hundred," Xiong Yao said.

"Where are the other bowmen?" Zhao Han asked again.

Xiong Yao said, "Scattered across the various townships."

Some townships were quite far. Mustering troops on the fourth day of the new year took travel time into account — completing assembly within five days was already impressively efficient.

Whether this Prefect Tian Younian was any good at fighting was hard to say, but he certainly had a system for training troops.

Zhao Han asked no more about military matters. Instead, he took his personal guards and went to inspect the kiln sites.

His subordinate officers organized the captives, gathering their belongings in preparation to take them all away. Whether they had served as soldiers or not, everyone was to be brought back to Ji'an Prefecture. Zhao Han's territory also had kaolin clay, and he was sorely in need of kiln workers to fire porcelain.

Arriving at a private kiln, Zhao Han found that the owner and managers had all fled. He picked up a piece of porcelain to examine it and discovered the product quality was rather poor.

The difference was obvious at a glance; it could not compare at all with the porcelain of Jingdezhen.

"Where is this stuff sold?" Zhao Han asked.

A private-kiln manager who had not managed to flee in time said, "Merchants come to buy it up, load it onto boats, and ship it to the Fujian and Guangdong region. I hear it's sold overseas."

So it was an export product. Presumably, even these inferior wares could fetch a good price when shipped to Europe.

Zhao Han walked a few dozen paces farther and pointed at a kiln cave already overgrown with weeds. "Why was this one abandoned?"

The manager hurried into the kiln cave and brought out a white city-wall brick. "Left over from when the Hongwu Emperor built the walls of Nanjing. They've been piled there for over two hundred years, and no government office has dared to use them."

"Are there still many of these city bricks left?" Zhao Han asked.

The manager answered, "There are fifty or sixty brick kilns around here, and every kiln cave is stacked with city bricks. No one dares throw them out, and no one dares use them, so they've just sat piled there all this time."

These white city bricks had been fired to the point of vitrification, making them exceptionally durable for building fortifications. Zhao Han decided that whenever he built a city in the future, he would come and take them.

The three thousand troops took turns sleeping. At noon, they sought out the major households of the town, opened their granaries, and took grain. They rested until the next day — New Year's Eve — when Zhao Han finally led the kiln workers and their families, nearly four thousand people in all, swaggering out of Binjiang Town.

"Back to the county seat to celebrate the New Year!"

Zhao Han had his soldiers shout this, and the men laughed and sang, while the kiln workers wore gloomy, anxious faces.

After traveling a few li, Zhao Han suddenly split his forces and headed into the mountains.

He sent five hundred troops to escort the kiln workers and their families to Fenyi County seat, while he himself led twenty-five hundred soldiers on a flanking detour.

Three kiln workers — those with the largest families and who had served as soldiers — were kept behind by Zhao Han to serve as guides.

Zhao Han spent New Year's Eve in the mountains.

At noon, they ate wheat cakes with pickled vegetables. Zhao Han walked along, clasping his fist in salute before every soldier he passed, saying over and over, "Happy New Year! Happy New Year!"

"Happy New Year, Regional Commander!" the soldiers responded one after another.

Spending the New Year tramping through the mountains, some soldiers could not help but harbor resentment in their hearts. Yet Zhao Han went to each one to offer New Year greetings, shouting "Happy New Year" a full thousand times, and at once the men's spirits were roused to fervor.

They dared not march by day. They gathered dead branches and dry grass to cushion the ground, spread their cotton quilts on top, and slept.

At night, they marched on through the cold wind. Even those who caught colds and fevers had to keep up. The entire route lay along the fringe of the Wugong Mountains, in hilly terrain. Once the snow melted to ankle depth, marching became quite manageable.

Xiong Yao was one of the three guides. None of them dared try anything reckless.

Zhao Han had made it clear: if this campaign ended in defeat, he would slaughter every last member of their families back in the county seat!

"General, ahead is Yuegong Ridge. The Prefect's training ground is set up at the foot of the hill," Xiong Yao said, pointing ahead.

Traveling by night and hiding by day the whole way, and stopping and starting repeatedly, when Zhao Han reached the troop-concealment point it was only the afternoon of the second day of the New Year. Prefect Tian had not even finished assembling his troops yet.

Scouts were sent out, disguised as woodcutters, to go down the mountain, sell firewood outside the city, and return.

Zhao Han obtained a preliminary picture of the military situation: the garrison defending Yuanzhou's prefectural seat already numbered over a thousand, but the parade ground and barracks below Yuegong Ridge stood empty. Tian Younian's troops were all quartered and fed inside the city.

Zhao Han could only remain in the mountains to rest, and to prepare torches for the night raid.

The soldiers removed their puttees and held them against their bodies to dry. Before the operation, they would tie them onto wooden staves to make torches. When they left Binjiang Town, they had also procured a great deal of vegetable oil, likewise to make fire-starting materials.

On the third day of the New Year, the scouts returned to report.

Outside the prefectural city, many boats were being loaded with grain — those were Prefect Tian's military rations for the campaign.

Judging by the number of boats, they were certainly not enough to carry three thousand soldiers. Most likely, the supplies would go by water, while the soldiers marched alongside the river. That way, even if they walked into an ambush, the grain boats could flee at once.

Moreover, soldiers had already begun moving into the barracks below Yuegong Ridge.

On the fourth day of the New Year, the scouts returned once more.

The troops in the barracks numbered far more than three thousand — perhaps five or six thousand. No one knew where the Prefect had managed to recruit so many local militia.

Zhao Han now had two choices: set an ambush along the riverbank halfway down the route, or launch a direct night raid on their barracks.

(End of Chapter)