Chapter 415: Tianjin Guard

Tianjin was called Zhigu in ancient times.

After the mid-Yuan period, the Zhigu Fortress, still a large fishing village, was renamed Haijin Town, becoming the canal grain transshipment center of that era.

In the second year of the Ming Jianwen reign (1400), the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, crossed the Grand Canal here to head south and contend for the throne. That one journey saw Zhu Di drive his nephew from the stage and seize the Dragon Throne. After this, Zhu Di, having transitioned from Prince of Yan to the Yongle Emperor, renamed the place Tianjin — meaning the ford the Son of Heaven once crossed.

As a strategic military site and transportation hub in the north, after the Yongle Emperor relocated the capital to Beijing, he soon ordered the construction of a walled city and the establishment of a garrison at Tianjin in the second year of the Yongle era, calling it Tianjin Guard.

Tianjin Guard City lies in what later generations would call the Old City district. The entire garrison city has a perimeter of nine li, a total area of 1.64 square kilometers, wide east to west and narrow north to south, shaped like an abacus, hence also called Suanpan Cheng.

The garrison city's layout followed that of a traditional Chinese county seat, with a cross-shaped main street connecting north-south and east-west, and a Drum Tower built at the intersection of the cross streets.

Within the garrison city, the court not only established military offices such as the various Guard Commanders, the Thousand-Household Offices, the Judicial Office, the Records Office, and the Troop Purification Office, but also set up a series of civil official yamens for military defense, general administration, canal transport, grain and salt, and so on.

Although the Ming court did not value Tianjin's locational advantage in maritime transport, relying solely on the far-reaching Hai River water system and the north-south Grand Canal, Tianjin effortlessly became the grain transport hub of the Great Ming's north.

Thus, since the mid-Yuan period, Tianjin had been a major commercial port with a forest of masts, numerous temples, and a multitude of merchant households.

January 10, 1630, at Tianjin's Dagu Kou. At this sea inlet of the Hai River, so well-known to later generations, thick black smoke rose from the outer sea early this morning.

The reason Dagu Kou is so famous is probably mostly due to that battle against the Anglo-French Allied Forces in the late Qing. However, during the Ming dynasty, Dagu Kou was already a critical coastal defense site: "The land commands the key ford of nine rivers, the road connects the carts and boats of seven provinces," "The gateway to Beijing-Tianjin, the throat of sea and land."

Although not on the massive scale of gun positions seen in the late Qing, in the Ming dynasty, Dagu Kou likewise had Dun Tai with mounted cannons and stationed troops.

And so, at this moment, the Guard Commander Qian Laosi, crouched atop the Dagu Kou Dun Tai, felt his scalp tingle.

The waters of the Hai River, mixed with muddy yellow silt, collided with the winter blue-green seawater at the river mouth, making the sea surface a turbid, blackish-yellow color.

Across this blackish-yellow sea surface, a mass of large ships belching black smoke had already filled the river mouth. Among these strange ships, some flew white sails, others flew Chinese-style rigid sails, but without exception, all the vessels were emitting smoke, some thick, some faint.

Although Commander Qian had seen these strange black-smoke-belching ships many times recently, when he saw so many of them blanketing the sea surface early this morning, he still couldn't help but feel a sense of dread and oppression.

"Good thing they're our own troops. These southerners are damn peculiar." Accompanying Commander Qian's muttering was the approach of the sea vessels: the Fleet of the North had fully organized its formation and, led by the earlier-arriving "Monitor," was slowly entering the Hai River mouth in a single-file line.

A month and a half ago, one day, the Monitor, just like today, appeared at the Hai River mouth in the early morning.

At that time, Commander Qian had immediately ordered the wolf-smoke beacons lit: Tianjin Guard had never seen Western-style soft-sail ships since its founding, and the locally-born Commander Qian naturally did not take the strange ships for friends.

At that time, the Manchu Qing had just laid siege to the capital, and the civil and military officials throughout Tianjin Guard, so close to Beijing, were already startled three times a day, their nerves stretched to the breaking point.

So upon seeing the relayed wolf-smoke signals, the entire city was thrown into great alarm; merchants and civilians inside and out fled in panic, the scene one of utter chaos. Then the main force of the Water Forts, personally led by Regional Commander Wang Hong, surged out with imposing momentum, descending along the Hai River, ready to meet the Tartars' Water Army.

The reason the Water Forts were so valiant was this: as a bridgehead for troop assembly and supply, the Tianjin officers knew full well that the Tartars' Water Army was no real threat, purely chicken feed, which is why they sallied forth.

Then, when Regional Commander Wang rushed to Dagu Kou and saw the Monitor, flying white sails and cruising leisurely in the distance, everyone was dumbfounded.

And upon seeing the rightful party, the Monitor then lowered a boat, sent an envoy, and met with Wang Hong bearing documents.

After Wang Hong finished reading a pile of official correspondence sent from the Fujian Grand Coordinator's Office, he couldn't help but point at the messenger and curse, nearly dragging this oddly-dressed short-haired sea bandit out to be executed — Damn it, you scared the piss out of me and this is what you show me? Do you know how much loss of life and property this caused the people of Tianjin?

However, this farce really couldn't be blamed on the Monitor.

As early as when the Monitor went to Fuzhou to receive its documents and depart, another eight-hundred-li express dispatch had been sent to the Ministry of War in the capital. It clearly stated that ships would be heading north to Tianjin in the coming days, requesting the Ministry of War to forward the notice to Tianjin Guard — this was standard procedure.

What no one expected was that when the dispatch reached the capital, the Nine Gates were already shut because the Tartars were fiercely battling right under the city walls. As a result, the dispatch was delayed for a long time before an opportunity was found to hoist it up from below the walls.

As for things like forwarding confirmations, those truly didn't exist. Recently, the volume of military intelligence dispatches sent to various places had skyrocketed, yet the Capital's communication channels were intermittent at best, so a low-priority dispatch like the one from Fujian was simply buried alive at the Ministry of War. Until the very day the Monitor arrived at Dagu Kou, the Ministry of War had not sent anyone to Tianjin to notify them...

And so, the Monitor had originally expected to meet some official in charge, but never imagined that the Tianjin Regional Commander himself would personally lead a large fleet of ships out to confront them...

After the farce was explained and Regional Commander Wang had vented his anger, the two sides formally made contact, and the Monitor accompanied the fleet back to Jin City.

Unexpectedly, after arriving at Jin City, the Monitor replenished its coal, water, and food on the spot, and then set sail again two days later, leaving word that it was going out to sea to scout the Tartar situation...

This once again infuriated the Regional Commander.

However, the Monitor was a Guest Army here for the King's service. Theoretically, this ship was not under the jurisdiction of the Tianjin Regional Commander or the Grand Coordinator's Office — the high-ranking official at the Ministry of War responsible for commanding the defense of Beijing was the Monitor's direct superior.

This highlights the drawback of the Ming dynasty's neglect of the navy: for reinforcements like the Fleet of the North arriving by sea, the Regional Commander trapped in the capital, or even the Chongzhen Emperor himself, actually had no way to command them directly. In other words, after Regional Commander Cao came ashore, he could perfectly use the excuse of "blocked military orders" to linger in Tianjin and refuse to leave, and the local Tianjin authorities would be helpless against these people.

Of course, this is only true for the troops of the Transmigrators.

Normally speaking, since provisions and logistics all required local supply, a Guest Army, no matter what it did, had to defer to the local officials and couldn't be so arrogant.

But the Monitor was just that arrogant: once crates of Cao silver dollars were thrown out, all sorts of top-grade coal, glutinous rice, fruits, vegetables, meat, and other provisions were continuously delivered to the ship by local merchants. The glutinous rice among this was even the "White Grain" from the Taicang granary, exclusively reserved for the Imperial Household and titled nobility... where was the justice in that?

So although the Regional Commander was displeased, in the face of a Local Tyrant, no one cared much about his temper.

Thus, the Monitor went out to sea three days and rested two, treating Tianjin Guard like a hotel. Over the course of a month and a half, the Monitor sailed through all the sea areas, including Bohai Bay and even the coasts of Dalian and Korea.

Then, on January 5th, the Monitor broke its pattern for the first time and did not go out to sea. It stayed in Tianjin to rest and refit while notifying all the yamens: the Fujian fleet coming to serve the King was about to arrive, and this time there must be no repeat of the farce.

On the 9th, the Monitor took a few Ming patrol ships out to sea to wait. By the morning of the 10th, from the Dun Tai at Dagu Kou, Commander Qian saw the Fleet of the North.

Seeing several warships identical to the Monitor, Commander Qian had learned his lesson this time and obediently refrained from lighting the wolf-smoke. Then, after a round of communication, the Fleet of the North, led by the Monitor and several Ming ships, slowly sailed into the Hai River, heading straight for Tianjin Guard.

Like Guangzhou City, Tianjin, also being at a river mouth, had numerous rivers. Over 300 tributary streams and rivers converged from upstream, and the Hai River, which ultimately gathered the hundred waters and surged into the sea, was the largest river in North China.

In later generations, Dagu Kou is about fifty kilometers from the Old City. But in the Ming dynasty, since the coastline had not yet extended, after the fleet sailed less than forty kilometers upriver, the rectangular shape of Tianjin Guard City came into view from afar.

The garrison site of Tianjin Guard City was at the so-called Sancha Kou, the confluence of the Hai River, Wei He, and Ziya River, also known as Zhigu.

Southeast of the garrison city was Dazhigu, the grain transport hub where the north-south Canal and the Hai River merged. Looking out from the bow, Dazhigu was packed with boats lining the shore, luxurious mansions stretching in rows, and terraces standing everywhere, as if the war in the northern capital wasn't happening at all — a scene of heedless revelry.

After the Fleet of the North arrived outside the garrison city gates, it did not enter the city in its entirety: although the garrison city had water gates and Water Forts, firstly, the space was limited, and secondly, government offices and civilian residences had long since packed every bit of the city to the brim. Therefore, the Fleet of the North, with its abundant equipment and need for privacy, had to find another place to station itself.

So the fleet dropped anchor outside the city. Only the fleet's flagship, the "Contention," with those three great banners hanging from its mast, slowly sailed into the garrison city's water gate.

At this time, Tianjin Governor Zhai Fengchong and Regional Commander Wang Hong, along with the city's major and minor officials, were already waiting at the Water Forts dock.

Zhai Fengchong was a native of Shandong. Previously, he had been purged by Wei Zhongxian and stripped of his rank to become a commoner. Later, at the beginning of the Chongzhen reign, he was appointed as the Ministry of War Right Vice Minister, and last year he took over from Ministry of Revenue Vice Minister Cui Erjin, transferring to the post of Tianjin Governor.

In the Ming dynasty, Tianjin previously did not have the two high-ranking civil and military posts of Governor and Regional Commander. Back when the Yongle Emperor built Jin City, he mobilized a full three Guard units to garrison Tianjin, which were Tianjin Guard, Tianjin Left Guard, and Tianjin Right Guard.

These three Guard units were of equal rank, and for a long time, there had been no higher-ranking official to oversee Tianjin as a whole.

However, during the Wanli Era, because Japan invaded Korea, the Ming court, on one hand, dispatched troops to aid Korea, and on the other hand, established the posts of Governor and Regional Commander in Tianjin, specifically responsible for maritime defense and the protection of the Capital. But just two years later, when the Japanese affair concluded, these posts were abolished again.

Then, during the Tianqi era, as the Manchu Qing grew powerful in the north, because Tianjin's strategic importance increased daily, the court re-established the posts of Governor and Regional Commander in Tianjin.

So these two gentlemen were, in fact, only pocket-sized heavyweights among their peers in other garrisons: their Territory was limited to the small area around Tianjin, and their authority and responsibility were confined to coastal defense.

"Hahaha." After a burst of hearty laughter, Regional Commander Cao, clad in a bright red Official Robe, steadily walked down the gangplank with the official's gait he had successfully cultivated in recent years. From afar, he cupped his hands in salute: "Your subordinate, Cao Chuan, pays respects to Governor Zhai and Regional Commander Wang."

"Quickly, dispense with formalities!" Zhai Fengchong and Wang Hong hurriedly returned the greeting as equals: the Ming military emphasized a system of checks and balances, and moreover, Cao Chuan, as a Deputy Regional Commander of a Guest Army, was simply not under the jurisdiction of these two pocket-sized heavyweights, so everyone was properly considered a colleague of the same rank.

After the heavyweights exchanged greetings, Regional Commander Cao also greeted the several mid-ranking civil and military officials from the Military Defense Circuit, the Judicial Office, and the Troop Purification Office.

Only after this did it become the turn of the several hereditary Guard Commanders of the Jin Three Garrisons, clad in red robes, to pay their respects.

By the late Ming, as the guard-battalion system gradually transformed into agricultural estates and military functions weakened, the social standing of military households and guard officers likewise began to decline: "Those bearing the title of Commander, clad in gold and purple robes, bow their heads and lower their eyes, scurrying before the envoys like branded convicts."

From this we can see that the so-called third-rank Guard Commander had already lost all dignity before low-ranking civil officials, thoroughly degenerating into a country landlord wearing a high-ranking official's uniform.

And now, before Commander Cao, who held real military power, the several hereditary commanders and vice commanders of the Jin Three Garrisons were in exactly the same position. Though these men wore high-grade official robes, their status was low, and they were seated last in the order of precedence.

Zhang Dongdong, however, showed no disdain toward these local bosses and maintained proper courtesy; there would be plenty of dealings with them in the future, and no need to sour relations now.

After the pleasantries were exchanged, Commander Cao followed the assembled officials to the main hall of the Water Forts to discuss matters. Recently, many of the King's Rescue troops arriving from various regions had passed through Tianjin, so the local officials had lost all enthusiasm and dispensed with the usual rituals of welcoming and sending off.

Everyone's task now was to hold the meeting quickly: Commander Cao would state his requirements, then settle the logistics issues such as grain and fodder supplies with the civil officials, and that would be that.

Once they were seated according to official rank, Commander Cao got straight to the point and first raised the issue of encampment: since the troops he led were southern soldiers unaccustomed to the northern cold, they would have to rest and reorganize in Tianjin for a period before the question of the battlefield could even be considered.

The King's Rescue army therefore needed to requisition the Old Parade Ground and several wharf warehouses at Dazhigu port for rest and reorganization.

The Monitor had not been idle in Jinwei before this; all such encampment information had long since been investigated.

As a military city, Jinwei naturally had no shortage of parade grounds inside and outside its walls. The Old Parade Ground was a place name, located somewhat farther out, on the banks of the Ziya River to the north. It had still been in use by garrison troops before the Taichang era, but after several major floods, the buildings, gates, and walls were largely damaged and it was abandoned.

Upon hearing Commander Cao specifically request to station troops at the Old Parade Ground for rest and reorganization, the city officials raised no objection — it was, after all, an abandoned site, so letting him have it was no great matter.

As for the wharf warehouses... here, some people were not pleased.

The land along both sides of the canal at Dazhigu was worth its weight in gold; having it requisitioned for no reason was bound to cause some of those present real pain.

Fortunately, Commander Cao could read the meaning behind the music. Seeing the Governor with great difficulty squeeze out one wharf and one warehouse, while the canal-affairs and grain-supervisor officials wore expressions of utter constipation, he laughed heartily and said, "How about this: three wharves, eight large warehouses — I'll pay rent for them, so none of you gentlemen need be put in a difficult position."