Chapter 484: Outflanking

On the second day of the second month of the twelfth year of Chongzhen, in Dacheng County, Shuntian Prefecture, Northern Zhili.

The Anqing Battalion formed ranks on the Official Road. Though they numbered only a little over two thousand men, their carriages numbered in the hundreds, and their column stretched far into the distance.

After the mutiny at Wuqiao, the entire Relief Army's morale had grown increasingly listless. The Qing army advanced north along multiple routes, including Shanghe and Wuding, while the Relief Army moved in parallel on the western flank.

The Qing army, burdened with a massive column of captives and carriages, had no intention of actively seeking a pitched battle with the Ming Army. After several days, the two sides seemed to have reached a tacit understanding, advancing north side by side while maintaining distance, with only small-scale engagements in the no-man's-land between them.

Thus, the headcount from each engagement for this Relief Army of tens of thousands was invariably in the single digits. Zhou Yuji, leading his Household Retainers in an ambush, happened to take exactly ten heads, raising the count by an order of magnitude.

This Capital Battalion was now on the road ahead. Yesterday, Sun Chuanting had issued an Order Token. Having confirmed that the Qing army continued to march north, he judged they would not cross the river from Dacheng, so the Relief Army was to proceed to Dong'an County.

The Anqing Battalion still marched in Liu Yuliang's train, arranging its own encampment and sentries daily and taking no part in any offensive actions. Pang Yu still met with Liu Yuliang every day, and no one ever mentioned the events of the mutiny.

But Liu Yuliang's carriage had yet to arrive, and the entire Relief Army of tens of thousands waited along the route.

Wu Dacai waited to one side. He said to Pang Yu in a low voice, "My lord, yesterday Sun Doutang's Order Token was sent to all camps, explicitly ordering us to break camp today. Surely there won't be some new development?"

"Even once we break camp, that doesn't mean things won't change. We'd best just wait patiently."

Having spoken, Pang Yu glanced toward the Capital Battalion's position. Most of their tents were astonishingly still standing. At the camp gate, Relay Horses dashed urgently back and forth, apparently communicating with Sun Chuanting up ahead.

They had been encamped at Dacheng for five days. Each day, a handful of Household Retainers went out to scout, clashing sporadically with the Jurchen Slaves' Scout Cavalry. The Qing main force had not come west. That meant the command level had yet to decide whether to move or not, yet every camp had already packed its gear — weapons, tents, and the like all loaded onto carts. To the officers of the Anqing Battalion, this was utterly incomprehensible.

Tu Dianli and Zhuang Chaozheng were also with the Central Army. The two conversed in low tones, and Wu Dacai joined in. From time to time, they glanced over toward Liu Yuliang's Central Army.

Pang Ding came to Pang Yu's side and said, "Young Master, Liu Zhongtang is an Imperial Inspector. Having already provoked public outrage before, how does he dare still meddle in military affairs, stumbling at every turn? I wonder how he ever managed to become Chief Grand Secretary."

"Being an official and fighting a war are two different things. He's simply been sent to handle a task he's not skilled at, which is why he stumbles at every turn. The fall of Jinan shook the realm, and there's an even more delicate matter — a feudal prince was lost." Pang Yu glanced left and right. "His fate is still unknown. If a living prince falls into the hands of the Eastern Invaders, it would be a grave taboo for the Emperor. The military orders coming from the court grow harsher by the day. Liu Zhongtang dares not retreat, and the Tartars ahead are no easy target either. He was trapped with no way forward or back from the start."

At that moment, a squad of riders came galloping from the front, veering off before the Anqing Battalion and heading for Liu Yuliang's Central Army. This group carried no banners, but Sun Chuanting seemed to be among them. Some matter must have been deadlocked, requiring him to come see Liu Yuliang in person.

Pang Ding watched the cavalry squad reach the Capital Battalion's gate and continued, "And why would Sun Doutang think that, after being ostracized by all the civil and military officials, we would still risk our lives fighting for him?"

Pang Yu answered with a question. "Does Sun Doutang ultimately want to fight, or not?"

"In his heart, he wants to fight. If he doesn't, he can't justify himself to the Ministry of War. But relying on the various garrisons and camps under him, he can't fight. So he can't block the Eastern Invaders head-on and force a major battle. He can only follow them north, shoulder to shoulder. When he reports to the Ministry of War, he'll say he anticipated the Eastern Invaders' spearhead would cross the river from Cangzhou, so the Relief Troops moved first to Cangzhou. Then he'll say the Eastern Invaders were going to cross from Qing County, so we moved north to Qing County. Then after that, Dacheng. This way, advancing north side by side is reframed as intercepting a river crossing, making it seem he truly followed the Ministry of War's ministry dispatch to outflank them. It's hard on Sun Doutang."

"Words can be written however one pleases, but battle results don't lie. Do you think the Ministry of War and the Emperor will believe such talk?"

Pang Ding covered his mouth with his hand. "Of course not. So even while not fighting, he still has to fight. He originally planned to rely on his trusted Provincial Commander's Standard Troops and Lintao troops to put up a fight. But during the last mutiny, those two Camp Heads were both involved. Clearly, they can't be relied on either. So now he's wondering if he can rely on us. That day, Liu Zhongtang sold us out. When Sun Doutang came to our camp that night, first it was to reassure us, and second, he wanted to pull us away from Liu Zhongtang. But he values his status, so he sent Cao Bianjiao to tell us about Liu Zhongtang selling us out, hoping we'd pledge allegiance to him in the future, risk our lives in a fight, and produce a respectable battle record to ultimately save his own position."

Pang Yu nodded. "That's about the size of it. Do you think he swayed me that day?"

"I think the Young Master still wants to fight one serious battle. I just don't know if it was Sun Doutang who swayed you, or if the Young Master wanted to fight all along."

Pang Yu smiled faintly. "It is indeed hard on Sun Doutang. If you were the Regional Commander of Relief, leading this motley assortment of internal and external armies, how would you plan to fight?"

Pang Ding frowned, thought for a moment, and said, "I could only do the same as now — accompany the Tartars north."

He shook his head after speaking. Pang Yu also sighed softly. Neither had any interest in continuing the conversation. The entire battalion waited on the road for another quarter-hour before they saw a string of Relay Horses dash out from the Capital Battalion, apparently to deliver orders.

A Relay Horse also arrived at the Anqing Battalion's Central Army. Pang Yu was probably the first to receive the order, which simply instructed the troops to cook a meal and the General Officers to assemble at the Central Army for a Military Council.

Cooking now would require sending the Fire Soldiers back to the Camp Ground and somehow procuring Firewood, which would throw the ranks into disarray. Tu Dianli suggested switching to dry rations. The order was quickly relayed. The officers of the Anqing Battalion could guess that the soldiers would be full of misgivings again — their perfectly good tents struck, marched out, and now neither moving nor staying, just standing in the wind on the road.

Wu Dacai and Zhuang Chaozheng both muttered under their breath. There was no need to ask whom they were cursing. This was an army of tens of thousands; every senseless change of orders was a heavy blow to morale. But as far as Pang Yu was concerned, nothing that happened in the Relief Army could surprise him anymore.

Pang Yu did not head for the Capital Battalion immediately. He waited until other Recognition Banners began arriving, then started toward the Central Army. On the way, he ran into Wang Pu and Liu Qin. Liu Qin ignored him with a Cold Expression, but Wang Pu was amiable and took the initiative to greet Pang Yu.

Wang Pu currently commanded the strongest force in the Relief Army, especially in cavalry numbers, though Pang Yu had no way to assess their actual combat effectiveness.

The man was, however, quite talkative. On the way, he briefed Pang Yu on the enemy situation as known to the Xuan-Da forces, which was slightly more detailed than Sun Chuanting's briefing. After leaving Jinan, the Qing army had been pressing north with great urgency. Despite such an enormous column, they still marched over thirty li each day.

They attacked almost no cities or towns along the way and were now approaching Tianjin. The Grand Canal met the sea here, and the Qing army would inevitably cross the river at some point.

Wang Pu did not delve further at this point. Because Liu Yuliang had previously used Pang Yu as a shield, everyone knew Pang Yu wanted to intercept the Qing army's River Crossing. The Qing army was racing home like an arrow; if anyone truly tried to block them, it would undoubtedly be a vicious battle.

None of the various commanders wanted to risk their lives, and even exerting effort could only be a token gesture, putting them in sharp opposition to Pang Yu's thinking. So Wang Pu found it inconvenient to continue, lest it spark another dispute.

Pang Yu had gleaned one piece of information from Cao Bianjiao: Wang Pu had fallen into a Qing Ambush and lost over a hundred cavalrymen. Naturally, Wang Pu would not bring up such a matter himself.

They soon reached the Central Army. Neither Liu Yuliang nor Sun Chuanting had arrived yet; they were presumably resting in other tents. The General Officers from the various camps arrived one after another. No one paid any attention to Pang Yu. Pang Yu stood with Zhou Yuji. These two, not being from the Border Army system, seemed naturally out of place here.

After the court-opening drum was beaten, Liu Yuliang led the way in, with Sun Chuanting following behind him.

Pang Yu could read nothing from Sun Chuanting's expression.

Once seated, Liu Yuliang gestured for Sun Chuanting to speak, to show he was merely the Imperial Inspector. Yet in reality, he was directly interfering in command. Pang Yu had long grown accustomed to this. From the meeting alone, one could see the chaos of the Relief Army's command structure.

Sun Chuanting stared at the table for a moment, then said, "The gentry and people of Dacheng, hearing the great army is to break camp, have submitted a joint petition to Liu Zhongtang, requesting the army remain to protect them, lest their homeland be ravaged by the Jurchen Slaves."

The great tent fell silent. The assembled Military Officers did not discuss it, but everyone could guess that this so-called petition from the gentry and people was most likely concocted by Liu Yuliang himself, having found some local gentry to write it somewhere, just to find a pretext to avoid going to Dong'an. It was just that the pretext was very flimsy.

The Qing army was now gradually approaching the Grand Canal, positioned roughly southwest of Tianjin. With the canal to their west and north, they would certainly cross the river soon. Sun Chuanting's previous memorials to the Ministry of War had spoken of blocking the enemy at the river crossings at Cangzhou, Qing County, and Dacheng. Now that the Qing army was truly about to cross, if there were no battle results at all, there would be no explaining it away.

The first to be finished would be Sun Chuanting, and Sun Chuanting himself anticipated this. Therefore, he would not make concessions regarding an engagement at the river crossing. This was a compromise reached between the civil and military sides. For the Military Officers, they were willing to accept a superior like Sun Chuanting, who understood military affairs. If Sun Chuanting truly were finished, his replacement might well be someone like Liu Yuliang, and then everyone would suffer.

So all the Military Officers anticipated a somewhat larger-scale engagement soon. Dong'an County was a place they had to go. If luck was on their side, it would be even better if they could stop the Qing army without a major battle. Once the river ice thawed, the Qing army's crossing would be difficult. Though no one dared hope to annihilate the Qing army, they could still hope the Qing would abandon some of their baggage and captives.

What they hadn't expected was that Liu Yuliang could still trot out the gentry and people of Dacheng County as an excuse. This way, they wouldn't even need to go to Dong'an. While the Military Officers were happy to see this outcome, in their hearts they truly looked down on this Chief Grand Secretary.

Sun Chuanting finished speaking expressionlessly and swept his gaze across the tent. The Military Officers' expressions varied. Pang Yu stared at the ground, interacting with no one.

"However, the Eastern Invaders' spearhead is moving north. The thousands of captured commoners are also our Emperor's innocent subjects. We are equally duty-bound to them. Therefore, this official has discussed with Liu Zhongtang and decided to divide our forces..."

A slight stir rippled through the tent. Dividing forces at this point clearly meant one part staying to guard Dacheng and the other heading to Dong'an. Dacheng held almost no danger, while Dong'an lay directly in the path of the Qing army's spearhead. It also showed that Sun Chuanting truly could no longer bear operating alongside Liu Yuliang. These two Excellencies now appeared composed, but they had likely argued fiercely just moments before, finally deciding to split the army. The one remaining at Dacheng would be Liu Yuliang, while Sun Chuanting would lead troops to Dong'an. When dividing forces, each would naturally take their own trusted men.

"The first contingent to advance on Dong'an: Xuanfu Regional Commander Yang Guodong, Lintao Regional Commander Cao Bianjiao, Datong Regional Commander Wang Pu, Xuan-Da Supervisor Battalion Central Battalion's Li Chongzhen, Shaanxi Provincial Commander's Standard Troops's Li Guozheng..." Sun Chuanting raised his eyes. "And the Anqing Cavalry Camp under Pang Yu. Advance immediately on Dong'an to outflank and intercept the Eastern Invaders."