Chapter 444: Speculation

After Yan Guan left, Pang Yu studied the map a moment longer and said, "Half our troops are heavy armor infantry, while the Tartars' main force is cavalry — tens of thousands of cavalry. Our mobility cannot match theirs. The best approach is to use defense to multiply our strength against a potential Tartar attack. If we need a position to hold, where should we choose?"

"For two thousand troops, a county seat with walls at least three zhang five chi high and a perimeter no more than five li would be most suitable." Tu Dianli looked at Pang Yu. "The closest are Qingping County, Boping County, and Chiping County. Larger ones include Gaotang Prefecture and Dongchang Prefecture. But this humble one believes none of these prefectures or counties will let our guest army enter the city — they may not even permit us to camp near the walls. If our army rashly advances and is denied entry, we will have to fight tens of thousands of Tartars outside the city."

At this, Chen Rulie said, "All along the way, the prefectures and counties have kept their gates tightly shut. Now that the Xuan-Da army has been annihilated, panic is everywhere. These places will be even less likely to open their gates, nor will they provide marching rations. We would be better off choosing a Grand Canal water courier station — at least we would not lack grain."

Pang Yu pondered for a moment. "Weijiawan also counts as a water courier station. Would it be feasible to set up a defense there?"

Pang Ding, who was standing nearby, heard this and stole a glance at Pang Yu. He scrutinized him carefully for a moment but still could not tell whether Pang Yu truly intended to stay at Weijiawan. Chen Rulie and Zhuang Chaozheng exchanged a few quiet words. Jiang Guoyong's expression remained as usual. Wu Dacai seemed about to speak but stopped himself.

Tu Dianli thought for a moment, then said, "Weijiawan is rich in grain and goods, but the market area is far too large. The roads crisscross and walls and buildings interlock — our battalions would likely become disordered in their deployment. Second, the place has no city wall, and the ground is frozen too hard to easily dig trenches or build earthen ramparts. Third, this place is certain to lie directly on the main line of march of the Tartar main army. If our army blocks this point, the Tartars' follow-on carriages and baggage will be unable to move, and the Tartars will surely mass every banner to assault us. Precisely because grain and goods are so abundant here, there is no city wall. Therefore, your subordinate still recommends marching south. First go to Boping County. If we cannot enter the city, then bypass Dongchang Prefecture and choose Thirty-Li Post or Tongcheng Post north of Dong'e to establish a defense. Our army passed through both these market towns on the way here. They are far smaller than Weijiawan. Our two thousand troops can set up a defense along the edge of the market town, which is suitable. There will still be grain and goods inside that can be used for military supplies. Your subordinate believes the Tartar vanguard will not advance beyond Dong'e. Our army avoids their sharp edge while remaining not far from their main body. Once their vanguard passes, we can then tie down their follow-on marching columns."

Pang Yu stood up and took two paces. The Advisory Room had already given its recommendation to withdraw south, and none of the other officers had objected, but Pang Yu still had not made up his mind. He appeared very cautious about pulling back. Even Pang Ding could not tell whether the young master was putting on an act or truly hesitating.

After a long while, Pang Yu returned to the table and sat down. In a steady tone, he said, "In this King's Service campaign, the objective of the Anqing Cavalry Camp has never been to defend some particular place, but to destroy Tartar troops — more precisely, to destroy a portion of the Tartar army. This objective has never changed. But we must adjust our specific actions according to the situation. If things had gone as we first envisioned — Xuan-Da smashes one banner, relief troops converge from all sides, the Tartars' morale collapses and they are forced to retreat north — under those circumstances, if they moved toward Weijiawan, we should have garrisoned this place, just as the Third Division did at Erlang Town, tightly strangling the official road and never retreating no matter the casualties."

Tu Dianli nodded silently. Pang Yu looked at the position of Wei County. "But the situation actually unfolding is not like that. Tens of thousands of Tartars are just two hundred li away, with only Linqing between us. The Xuan-Da army has been destroyed. The Liao Garrison fled in rout and cowered inside Linqing. The other relief armies must also have completely lost the will to fight. In this theater of operations, we have no friendly forces. Right now, our objective is not how many Tartars we can kill — it is to preserve ourselves first and wait for more favorable conditions. So we are not fleeing in panic like the Liao Garrison. Rather, it is like two men in a duel: first evade the opponent's fists and kicks, and wait for his chest and belly to be exposed."

Everyone present nodded together. Pang Yu made no mention at all of his superiors or the Ministry of War, nor did he bring up any possible investigation by the court. No one else asked about it either.

Only when he heard this did Pang Ding breathe a sigh of relief. Tu Dianli, however, showed no joy. The Advisory Room's earlier assessments had been completely wrong. This time, Pang Yu had still accepted the Advisory Room's advice. Although Tu Dianli had not personally gone into battle, he still bore an immense mental burden.

Pang Yu issued direct orders: "The Advisory Room will formulate the march and defense plan. Following the route just discussed, identify a defensive position. The Garrison Inspector Dui and the cavalry will dispatch an advance party to that location to prepare the position. Chen Rulie, send two companies of cavalry to strengthen scouting on all roads from here to Linqing. Set one ambush sentry post every ten li. Maintain strict control over the situation in this area. Send word to the forward scout cavalry and the distant scout squads: maintain contact with the Tartars. The above orders are to be carried out immediately."

The officers all rose to their feet in unison, saluted, and left the main tent.

The moment they disappeared, Pang Yu let out a long exhale. Pang Ding hurriedly brought over water. This time, Pang Yu's teeth were quite steady. After drinking two mouthfuls, he said, "Good thing Tu Dianli proposed withdrawing south. If he had insisted on defending Weijiawan, I would have had no idea how to handle it."

"Maybe he's afraid too, or maybe he understands the situation. I could tell Wu Dacai and the others were all afraid as well. Who wouldn't want to pull back south a bit?" Pang Ding clapped his hands. "Then should we report the head-hunting merits as soon as possible?"

Pang Yu frowned in thought, then shook his head. "No need. Reporting head-hunting merits requires verification of the heads at both the prefecture and county levels, plus re-inspection by the Military Defense Circuit. Dealing with the local authorities would expose our whereabouts. Right now, the Tartars are all at Wei County. If we report merits, it tells them the Anqing Cavalry Camp has already reached the battlefield. After that, anything bad that happens here will be connected to us. So we cannot report merits right now. Have the heads cured and stored properly. Report them when a more advantageous moment comes. At present, I do not want the court to notice me, and I certainly do not want the Tartars to notice me. For now, we focus entirely on combat. Ever since we came north this time, we haven't guessed the Tartars' movements correctly even once. Let's see how it goes this time."

……

"Today we received an order token from the Central Army forwarded by the Thousand-Leader Headquarters. The Advisory Room's analysis is that the Tartars may turn around and attack Linqing again. They sent word overnight for all scout cavalry to stay on high alert, watch for possible rapid Tartar movements, and not let the Tartars cut off our escape route."

In the early morning of the seventeenth day of the twelfth month, before the sky had fully brightened, inside an Earth Temple on the border between Wei County and Linqing, the scout cavalry of the Cavalry Second Si had gathered in a circle, listening to their Banner Commander relay military intelligence.

Yang Guangdi was on sentry duty atop the roof ridge, his eyes scanning outside, but he was also listening to the Banner Commander speak. After ambushing the small Qing unit, the scout cavalry had immediately broken contact with the combat zone. When they spent the night at Thirty-Li Post, they had not even lit a fire. On the sixteenth, they continued withdrawing east to avoid Qing retaliation. For the past two days, they had been operating in the Linqing border area.

Manda'er and Yang Shisan were also in the courtyard, with two others beside them. That day, after leaving the Anqing army to go to Linqing and join the Liao Garrison, they had encountered two other cavalrymen from the Shanxi Garrison on the road. Those two were returning from Linqing and said that all the gates of Linqing were tightly shut, and every camp outside the city had deep trenches and high ramparts, allowing no one to approach.

The two had no choice but to return to Thirty-Li Post, thus missing that day's ambush battle. For the past two days, they could only follow the scout cavalry, eating and drinking for free — their status somewhat awkward.

Qin Jiuze was not standing inside the scout cavalry's circle, nor was he standing with Manda'er and the others. He stood alone, a little further out. Though he stood farther away, he was still listening intently. The scout cavalry's briefings and morning assemblies both struck him as somewhat novel.

In every garrison, scout cavalry received special treatment, because they often had to operate far from the main force and had considerable autonomy in combat.

In the Anqing army, every unit at the si level and above had its own scout cavalry. The Cavalry Chief-of-a-Thousand Department had a directly subordinate Scout Cavalry Company. Yang Guangdi and his men belonged to the Scout Cavalry Banner Unit of the Second Si. But scout cavalry did not simply run around everywhere. When carrying out reconnaissance missions far from the main force, they were uniformly dispatched by the Scout Cavalry Centurion at the Thousand-Leader Headquarters. Different banner units were assigned to different directions and roads to prevent the enemy from being missed.

If operating in Anqing, the Centurion would specify every single road. But in the unfamiliar northern territory, they had no accurate maps. The Centurion would only give a general direction. Under the special circumstances of the Liao Garrison's rout that day, a Banner Commander could alter the reconnaissance zone, but still had to report back to the Centurion.

Following the assigned direction, the banner unit had to report its reconnaissance results to the Centurion every day. If no report came, the Centurion would assume that the banner unit in that direction had encountered the enemy and been wiped out, and would then dispatch a reserve banner unit to intensify reconnaissance in that direction. In other words, even if the scout cavalry were killed by the enemy, that still held intelligence value.

Every day, messages were carried by two men with two horses. The Centurion's side would also send two men with two horses to each banner unit to relay the latest enemy situation. So it was not just about gathering information — the scout cavalry's requirements for intelligence transmission were also very high. The tasks of intelligence collection and handover had to be completed that same day, ensuring that Pang Yu, two hundred li away, could receive the latest intelligence before nightfall the next day.

During morning assembly, the Banner Commander always first relayed the intelligence distributed by the Centurion, so the scout cavalry could grasp the surrounding situation. Then he would issue the day's combat tasks, assigning the three squads to different directions within the mission area.

After relaying the Centurion's briefing, the Banner Commander asked, "Any questions on the situation briefing?"

"Banner Commander, I have one. Since the Advisory Room says the Tartars are heading east, and we're right here east of Wei County — if the Tartars come, won't we run straight into them? Should we pull back a bit first?"

The Banner Commander looked up at Yang Guangdi on the wall. "We are going to pull back, but that's for when we discuss deployment in a moment."

Yu Lao'er raised his hand. "Before, the Advisory Room determined the Tartars had exited through Shanxi, so we chased them all the way here. Now we know they were wrong. And now they say they're heading for Shandong — how do we know if they're right this time?"

"If the Advisory Room were right every time, they could rename themselves the Immortal Room." The Banner Commander swept his gaze over the others and said loudly, "How the Advisory Room judges the enemy's movements — they have their own reasoning. But the biggest reasoning is having intelligence, which is the information we scout out for them. So the closer we get to the battlefield, the more frequently we engage the enemy, the more information we gather, and the more accurate the Advisory Room's judgments become. They also have intelligence coming in from other places — they definitely know more than we do. The Advisory Room won't be right every time, but they won't be wrong every time either. We don't know which time they'll be right, so we just have to stay sharp every time."

The Banner Commander waited a moment. Seeing no further questions, he clapped his hands at the group and said, "One extra thing today — good news! The Central Army has awarded our banner unit a First-Class Battle Merit. Qin Jiuze is credited with the primary merit. His Excellency Pang has awarded Qin Jiuze the Tread White Medal, promoted him to Scout Cavalry Sergeant, with a monthly pay of four taels, plus skill pay of two taels five Mace, totaling six taels five Mace. Everyone congratulate Sergeant Qin Jiuze."

The scout cavalry all looked at Qin Jiuze and cheered. This old man had taken down three Tartars in a single day — one White Armor, one bondservant, and one Mounted Armor captured alive — and then conducted the interrogation in Mongolian. In the army, martial prowess was all that mattered. From then on, the scout cavalry all spoke to him with great respect, Yu Lao'er included.

Qin Jiuze had not expected his battle merits to be evaluated so quickly, nor had he imagined this kind of scene. He was suddenly a bit awkward, unsure how to respond. He had wanted to smile, but he still could not name most of the men before him, and he did not even have an Anqing soldier tag yet. He simply could not force a smile. In the end, only the corners of his mouth twitched a few times, and he gave a slight bow to the group.

Manda'er and Yang Shisan, squatting on the ground, lifted their heads, their mouths hanging open for a long moment. They thought they must have misheard, or that the Banner Commander had mistakenly said four taels instead of four Mace. Qin Jiuze had joined this Southern Troops unit only three days ago, and now he had somehow become an officer, drawing six taels in monthly pay — a monthly pay fully three times that of a household retainer in the Nine Borders. And there was some kind of medal too — who knew what kind of treasure that was.

Yang Guangdi on the roof ridge also howled along a few times. Just as he was about to keep shouting, he suddenly spotted mounted figures on the distant official road and immediately raised the Banner Commander's telescope to look.

Three scout cavalrymen were racing in from ahead, waving a flag in this direction.

Yang Guangdi shouted, "The Ambush Army is pulling back! Red Triangle Signal Flag!"

The Banner Commander did not waste a single moment. "Everyone mount up!"

At the Banner Commander's shout, the courtyard instantly burst into activity as everyone readied their horses and gear.

Qin Jiuze had long since packed up. He walked straight to his own horse, briefly checked his weapons, and prepared to mount. He looked up at Yang Guangdi on the roof ridge, then turned and went over to Yang Guangdi's mount. He helped secure the bow case and arrow case properly, and casually grabbed a handful of black beans from the cloth pouch at his side, placing them at Big Fire's mouth to give him extra nourishment — because today, they would likely need to push the horses hard.

Everyone moved quickly. By the time the Ambush Army reached the doorway, the scout cavalry were basically all ready.

The Ambush Army man had ridden back at a full gallop, his horse's body slick with sweat. The moment he reached the entrance, he called out, "Confirmed sighting of three hundred mounted Tartars. By ear on the ground, estimated over a thousand. Coming along the official road. Not splitting their force, not stopping — just pressing hard along the main road. Only three to five li from here now."

The Banner Commander heard this and immediately waved at the scout cavalry in the courtyard. "Everyone, move toward Linqing now!"