Chapter 438: Lao Sun

After laying out the campaign background, Marine Commander Qian Tieshan pointed out: although there are still two full months before Amin historically withdraws from Lengkou Pass, the Transmigrators would do best to launch their offensive against the Qing Army between late March and early April.

Because starting from late March, the counterattack force led by Sun Chengzong will begin gathering scouts from Jizhou, then deploy troops from both east and west, finally launching a major offensive in May — a pincer encirclement to drive out all the Later Jin cavalry holding the various cities in one stroke.

Qian Tieshan's plan won unanimous agreement from those at the meeting: seizing enough Tartar heads before the Ming Court's "Recovery Army" retook lost territory was the established course all along; there was nothing to hesitate about.

The Transmigrators had no desire to get entangled with those King's Rescue Troops. That crowd looked massive in number, but in reality their origins were a mess, their skill at claiming credit and shirking blame was formidable beyond compare, and getting mixed up with them meant trouble.

So over the next ten-plus days, the Northern Advance Force entrenched in Jinwei pressed on with a series of intense pre-battle preparations.

These tasks included not only stockpiling large quantities of supplies, but also the three hundred newly arrived soldiers seizing every moment to begin intensive riding training — the horses rested but the men did not; tied one by one onto horseback, they were jolted until they vomited their guts out.

Although these three hundred men were not slated to enter the battlefield according to plan, as the campaign's overall reserve force, it was essential for them to learn to ride, at least reaching the standard of mounted infantry.

During this process, Cao Regional Commander also fought a war of words with a major court figure — the Minister of War, Grand Secretary of Zhongji Hall, Regional Commander of Capital Military Affairs, old man Sun Chengzong.

It is said that after a certain Regional Commander, flying the banner of King's Rescue, lingered in Tianjin and refused to leave, initially the Capital side paid no attention: during the Jisi Incident, the King's Rescue troops gathered near the Capital were claimed to number four hundred thousand, though in reality there were two to three hundred thousand; amid this chaos of commanders and soldiers from every region, no one noticed a certain Southern Regional Commander who nominally had only a few hundred troops.

This situation changed after March.

With the Later Jin main army withdrawing, the Capital began gradually reopening its gates, and the density of information exchange between the Ministry of War and the various regions returned to normal levels.

As a result, Comrade Sun Chengzong, whom Chongzhen had promoted on the front lines to Minister of War, finally took notice of Cao Regional Commander not long ago — the merit report from Tianjin had arrived, bearing the signatures of civil officials, which proved the achievements were genuine.

So old man Sun casually issued an order: the Zhangchao Deputy Regional Commander, Cao, was to immediately lead his troops to the Capital environs to await assignment.

Then a few days later, Cao Regional Commander's official dispatch arrived. The dispatch went like this: due to a previous desperate battle with the Tartar Soldiers, Cao Regional Commander had personally entered the fray, "suffered seven wounds on his body," bled all over the ground, and only then managed to cut down over a dozen Tartar heads; therefore the Regional Commander was currently recuperating and unable to move about.

On top of that, too many of the Southern Soldiers here were unaccustomed to the climate and the majority had fallen ill, so they could not come to the Capital environs to join the converging battle for the time being... Cao Regional Commander pledged that as soon as his health showed improvement, he would immediately come to serve under Daren's command.

Normally speaking, Sun Chengzong would have let this dispatch pass after reading it, but that was not how things went. Since Cao Regional Commander's dispatch from Tianjin had arrived, other people's dispatches could come as well, and among these were also some private letters. So old Sun quickly figured out everything that Cao had been up to in Tianjin.

This being the case, old Sun became thoroughly intrigued by this Cao Jiangjun — he had sailed a thousand li across the sea to arrive, yet after landing he lingered in Tianjin and refused to move; he had come for King's Rescue, yet he busied himself with trade to the neglect of His Majesty; he had come to idle away his days, yet he led troops in a raid against the Tartars...

I truly cannot fathom you, can I?

Fortunately, old Sun was rich in experience; with a turn of his mind, he believed he had seen through Cao Regional Commander's innermost thoughts.

Lao Sun indeed had ample experience in dealing with military strongmen.

Not long before, when Yuan Chonghuan was seized by Chongzhen atop the Capital's gate tower, Comrade Zu Dashou — Yuan Chonghuan's intimate comrade standing at his side, core leader of the Liaoxi Generals Clique, master of selling out teammates in the Late Ming, and cannibalistic chief divider of spoils for the Liaoxiang Group — was likewise "both legs trembling" and "sweating like broth."

And what happened next? The moment Comrade Zu Dashou stepped down from the gate tower, he turned right around and fled with his army... Yes, Zu Dashou once again displayed the Guanning Army's ancestral craft, selling out his teammate and fleeing at the critical moment.

The one he sold out this time was the Emperor.

At this critical juncture, Sun Chengzong, who had long overseen military affairs in Jizhou and Liaodong and presided over the construction of the Guanningjin Defense Line, hurriedly wrote a letter and persuaded Zu Dashou, who had already fled halfway, to stop.

Yet even so, Comrade Zu Dashou remained in Jizhou from then on, and for the rest of his life, never again set foot within the Capital.

Therefore, old Sun, who had spent nearly half his life dealing with the Liaoxi military strongmen, had a fairly clear grasp of a warlord's mindset — while dealing with the court, always maintain independence; at the slightest sign of trouble, this lord will serve no more.

So although the two sides had never met, Sun Chengzong now believed he had done his research on this former sea bandit, Cao Regional Commander: he was the same breed as Zu Dashou and his ilk; compared to Zu Dashou, Cao was merely a bit more blatant in his warlord posturing, that was all.

Moreover, there was one more thing that made old Sun take an exceptional interest in Cao Regional Commander: lavish wealth.

In old Sun's impression, apart from the Guanning Army, which swallowed vast amounts of the court's annual revenue every year, there was not a single military man under heaven who was not dirt poor.

Some commanders did it to support their Household Retainers, others simply to secure promotion, get rich, and live a life of luxury; thus they massively skimped on the common soldiers' pay and provisions, resulting in their troops' low combat effectiveness and utter lack of fighting spirit.

Yet from some intelligence old Sun had recently received, wherever this Regional Commander from the south went, Merchants flocked to him, and southern goods rolled in in waves — he had the unmistakable air of a contemporary Tao Zhu.

So old Sun wished to engage more with Cao Regional Commander: a military strongman who was one of a kind, capable of sustaining himself, was, in the long run, a figure more worthy of investigation than the Guanning Army.

And so old Sun picked up his brush and wrote Cao Regional Commander a letter.

The content of this letter suited a military strongman's tastes perfectly: old Sun not only offered warm words of encouragement to the commoner-born Cao, but also solemnly expressed appreciation for this spirit of sailing a thousand li across the sea for King's Rescue.

At the same time, old Sun also made a promise in the letter: as long as Cao Regional Commander could achieve new merits in the subsequent King Qin Campaign, he would certainly petition for honors for the General before His Majesty — this was the treatment befitting a pillar of the court.

In the end, what old Sun's deeply sincere letter earned in return was still that same set of excuses from Cao Jiangjun, only phrased a bit more politely: once the Southern Soldiers under his command recovered, Cao Chuan would surely lead his troops north and fight a decisive battle to the death against the Tartar Captives, to repay His Excellency the Scholar's great kindness, and so on.

At this point, there was nothing Sun Chengzong could do. The reason the court could mobilize the empire's armies relied on nothing more than provisions and pay. Now that this fellow Cao had no shortage of silver, Sun Chengzong could not possibly move this unit; the man could linger in Tianjin as long as he pleased.

And so the first contact between the two sides ended hastily like this — old Sun was commanding several hundred thousand troops and had no time to keep dragging things out with Cao Regional Commander. Meanwhile, the Transmigrators were likewise making their own pre-battle preparations; everyone was very busy.

In a hurried blur, ten days slipped by.

By the day of March 25th, on the Old Parade Ground, banners fluttered and square formations stood erect; a mixed force of one thousand Imperial soldiers and Native cavalry, their morale brimming, took part in the oath-taking General Assembly.

Seated on the command platform, Cao Regional Commander and the newly appointed Flying Tiger Battalion Commander Zhang Zhongqi each delivered a speech.

The content of the speeches was quite vulgar, nothing more than obey orders and follow commands, the General Daren would certainly not treat everyone poorly — silver would be had if silver was wanted, official posts if official posts were wanted. Cao Jiangjun promised that once this affair was over, the Flying Tiger Battalion would not be disbanded; Daren would continue to support everyone with his own silver, and the days of bathing, eating pig's head meat, and receiving pay on time would go on.

The Scout Field erupted in cheers.

The Native soldiers believed this set of rhetoric without the slightest doubt. Their experiences during this period in the Flying Tiger Battalion had given them a profound Impression of Cao Regional Commander's Capability to fulfill his promises. So today on the Old Parade Ground, Killing Intent filled the air, furious roars rose one after another, morale was high and horses were strong, and everyone was just waiting to go kill Tartars and build their careers.

Even the Native soldiers themselves found the shift in their mindset unbelievable.

At first, these men had thought they were the kind of Auxiliary Soldiers who would shrink in the rear, ready to Escape at any moment. As it turned out, after a period of training and fighting in this completely different military camp, their ability to Escape had greatly improved, yet now every last one of them was itching to take down a few Tartars to go with their wine...

The Ming People did not understand what was called an army's organizational capability, but they could tangibly feel the improvement in their own abilities and the change in their mindset; today on the Scout Field, all of this transformed into what the Ming Army lacked most — confidence to fight the Enemy.

And so, after the final shouts of slogans were finished, the thousand-strong... great army set off.

As the saying goes, provisions go before troops and horses. In fact, one day before the oath-taking General Assembly, a Supply transport convoy composed of fifty large carts had already set out in advance.

The distance from Tianjin to the Remaining Vein of the Yan Mountains to the north was 150 li. According to plan, the Large Cart Convoy would, barring harassment, continuously shuttle back and forth between the two points, providing supplies to the troops.

This way, unless special circumstances arose, the soldiers of the Flying Tiger Battalion could all be committed to combat without having to carry provisions back and forth themselves.

The main body of Cavalry setting out from the Scout Field overtook the Large Cart Convoy on the road later that evening and headed straight north.

For this King Qin force, on the surface Cao Regional Commander was personally leading the campaign, but in reality, Zhang Dongdong went out of the city, circled around once, and then went back. His strength lay in holding the center and dealing with various Power Bases; marching and fighting had nothing to do with him.

The one truly Responsible For Commanding the troops was still Qian Tieshan; the newly arrived Zhang Zhongqi would take over the Flying Tiger Battalion as the Regional Commander's nominal deputy. After the campaign, he would trade his achievements for an Advanced military rank, to facilitate his future stay In the North.

The order of Departure for the entire force was: Special Operations Team — Flying Tiger Battalion — Guard Battalion, setting out one after another.

Although the Flying Tiger Battalion's Establishment was still five hundred-man companies, after setting out this time, communication between units was noticeably strengthened; the soldiers were informed that everyone would Gather into a single integrated regiment for combat at any time.

Then, on the early morning of the second day after Departure, the entire Flying Tiger Battalion charged into the Remaining Vein of the Yan Mountains to the north. The soldiers began to Scatter and search the mountains aggressively under radio Command, utterly without restraint — the Eight Banners' Main Force had already left the pass, so what was there to hold back at a time like this?