Chapter 439: Santun Camp

On the morning of March 28th, the Flying Tiger Battalion's third day of thrusting into the mountains.

Xuanchengzi straightened the Daoist crown on his head, stroked his long beard, silently recited "Immeasurable Lord" in his heart, then lifted his leg over the high threshold and stepped into the main hall of Bixia Palace.

In the vast and majestic hall stood some "incense guests" dressed in strange green jackets.

The only person among this group of soldiers wearing a Ming military officer's robe was now standing with his back to Xuanchengzi, looking up and studying the principal deity enshrined in Bixia Palace: Bixia Yuanjun.

"General, have some mountain tea."

Xuanchengzi came up behind the benefactor, turned sideways, and revealed the Daoist child behind him carrying a tea tray.

"Oh, there's tea too. Many thanks, Daoist Priest."

The military officer turned around, took a sip from the tea bowl, and couldn't help nodding: "The tea is good, with a distinctive flavor."

Daoist Priest Xuanchengzi smiled and explained: "This tea was passed down from my master's master, with a unique preparation method. In the past, the Great Generals down the mountain all enjoyed it. I often heard from my master that the Qi Great General back then also frequently came to the hall to drink tea."

"Heh heh, I understand, I understand. The officers and soldiers of Ji Garrison often come here to worship the immortals. This general knows all about that."

The military officer said this, then reached into his bosom and pulled out several gleaming silver cakes, placing them in the old priest's hand: "I'm more or less half a man of Ji Garrison myself, so we fellows are no exception today. Here, this is incense money."

"Immeasurable Lord. This old priest thanks the General."

"Heh heh, old priest, don't be in a hurry to thank me. This general still has some questions for you."

"Please instruct me, General."

"Mm. Do you know how many Tartars are in the garrison city below the mountain?"

"The total number is around five to six hundred, all cavalry."

"Do they have any contact with their neighbors left and right?"

"In recent days, more have gone east and fewer have come west. Every day, two or three riders always pass through."

"Yo ho, old priest, I find you quite perceptive?"

"To be honest with the General, ever since the mountain below was occupied by the Tartars, I have watched day and night, never ceasing to pray for the army's return."

"Very good. This general assures you, it won't be long before you can collect offerings from incense guests again."

The terrain of the entire Yanshan Corridor is like this: from Beijing heading east, after passing through Ji Garrison, a narrow pass flanked by mountains on both sides, you reach the Zunhua Plain, which is 40 li long and wide.

Continuing east past the Zunhua Plain, the terrain narrows sharply, becoming a crucial mountain passage 80 li long with an average width of less than one li.

This crucial passage connects to the Li River on the left and the Luan River on the right, running parallel by water and land, and is extremely important.

After exiting this narrow passage, you reach another Luan River Plain. This place is already near the sea, adjacent to Qinhuangdao, with a series of strategic mountain strongholds to the north including Shanhai Pass and Xifengkou.

In short, the terrain of the entire Yanshan Corridor is like a dumbbell: plains at both ends, with a thin bar in the middle.

The Transmigrators' battle plan this time will begin breaking the deadlock from the exact center point of the dumbbell.

As for the left side of the dumbbell, since Zunhua, held by the Tartar soldiers, is only a mere eighty li from Ji Garrison where the Ming Army is entrenched, both sides are currently in a tense confrontation, so the Transmigrators don't intend to wade into those muddy waters.

Keeping Zunhua to let the two groups restrain each other, buying the Transmigrators time to deal with the Tartars on the right side of the dumbbell, is the most logical solution.

This way, Santun Camp, the strategic location at the very center of the dumbbell, becomes the first nail the Transmigrators must pull out.

The administrative seat of Ji Garrison was originally set at Shiziyu in the early Ming. By the time of Ming Yingzong, as conflicts with the northern nomadic tribes began to intensify and defensive pressure on the Border Army increased, Hu Yong, then the seventh Regional Commander of Ji Garrison, moved the seat to the better-located Santun Camp, thus establishing Santun Camp's 186-year legacy as the garrison's administrative base.

Santun Camp is a T-junction in the middle section of the Yanshan Corridor.

Its geographical position is extremely important, having long guarded the tribute route for the northern Menggu tribes: "Two she from Xifengkou... Shanhai Pass to the left, Juyong Pass to the right, and it is the hub in the center, emphasizing the importance of the tribute route."

At this junction of Santun Camp, taking the northern mountain path, the distance to Xifengkou is only two she, which is sixty li.

Santun Camp, located right in the middle of the dumbbell's narrow passage, is roughly equidistant from Shanhai Pass to the east and Juyong Pass to the west, making it the optimal location for the Capital's northern military command center: "Close to the border, it avoids the drawback of being too far to help; not at the front line, it has room for strategic maneuver."

For over a hundred years, every successive Ji Garrison Garrison Commander, holding the post of "Foremost Garrison Under Heaven," has set their administrative seat at Santunying Fortress.

Starting March 25th, the Transmigrators' cavalry unit advanced north across 150 li of plain, entering the Yan Mountains' foothills. After this, the unit dispersed and meticulously searched the mountain range spanning over a hundred li in circumference, then gradually assembled at the foot of Jingzhong Mountain on March 30th.

Jingzhong Mountain is 610 meters above sea level, with Santunying Fortress right at its foot, perfectly positioned for overlooking it.

Jingzhong Mountain has beautiful scenery and numerous scenic spots, integrating Buddhism, Daoism, and Confucianism on one mountain. As early as the second year of the Jiajing era, Ji Garrison Garrison Commander Ma Yong built an addition to Bixia Palace on the mountain, enshrining a statue of Bixia Yuanjun, and its incense offerings grew increasingly prosperous. Afterwards, Ji Garrison officers and soldiers, including Qi Jiguang, often climbed this mountain, leaving behind many famous writings and fine verses.

The Transmigrators climbed the mountain and visited the temple today mainly to gather local intelligence and incidentally scout the military situation below the mountain.

The newly appointed Flying Tiger Battalion Commander Zhang Zhongqi, after finishing his chat with the old priest in Bixia Palace, left the palace and went to the observation deck in front of the mountain.

Bixia Palace's incense offerings were thriving, so the old priest from just now, though seemingly quaint and unworldly, was actually an invisible tycoon — the observation deck was paved with Fangshan white marble, carved with deities and patterns, exquisitely beautiful.

On the observation deck at this moment, a group led by Qian Tieshan was gathered around a compact drone ground station, watching something. When Zhang Zhongqi walked closer to look, the ground station's liquid crystal screen prominently displayed an aerial photography feed of Santunying Fortress right below the mountain.

"How many people are inside? The old priest says five to six hundred Tartars."

"About right." Special Operations Team Vice Captain Du Dewei answered: "Our preliminary reconnaissance also came up with that number. No changes in the past couple of days."

Zhang Zhongqi grunted an acknowledgment: "So when do we attack?"

"Tomorrow." Qian Tieshan straightened up at this, put his hands on his hips, and looked around at the surrounding mountain scenery: "Tonight, Old Du will take some men for a close-in reconnaissance. Then we'll hold a meeting and wait for supplies while we're at it."

A nameless valley not far from the foot of Jingzhong Mountain had already become the unit's forward base. This valley was on higher ground, with a river beside it providing a water source, so several rows of grass-green canvas marching tents had already been set up here.

Along both banks of the river, two long rows of horses were lowering their heads to drink. A bit upstream, Flying Tiger Team members who had arrived earlier to camp here were carrying canvas buckets to fetch water, preparing to set up pots and cook rice.

Since the main force of the Later Jin army had already withdrawn, the Tartar soldiers left to garrison the several cities on the rear route could be said to have little fighting spirit — historically, after Sun Chengzong organized his troops, he took all the cities in just one wave of assault.

These same Ming troops had been beaten into discarding their armor by the Eight Banner troops not long before.

And these same Eight Banner troops, once Sun Chengzong, who held the advantage in troop strength, attacked the city, these guys opened the city gates, whistled, and ran off, their horses' backs loaded with huge bundles of loot.

This was an inevitable situation: the Eight Banner troops' strength was never siege warfare to begin with, not to mention these garrison cavalry had neither long-term provisions nor sufficient numbers, unable to even man the city walls fully — how could they possibly defend to the death without retreating?

Under these circumstances, the Flying Tiger Battalion, now separated from Santun Camp by just one mountain, began to camp openly and boldly, no longer caring about the issue of exposure — the Tartar soldiers had already begun a full-scale withdrawal, just waiting for someone to attack the city, so there was no need at all to send out scouts in all directions.

As the soldiers dispatched over the past few days gradually returned to their units, the nameless valley grew more and more lively, with cooking smoke rising continuously.

By evening, a team of temporarily conscripted mounted Auxiliary Soldiers delivered the first batch of supplies from outside the mountains using pack horses.

These Auxiliary Soldiers were genuine logistics personnel. They stopped the large wagon convoy at the mountain pass to the south, then transferred the supplies onto pack horses and traversed a hundred li of mountain paths to deliver the supplies here.

Seeing the first batch of supplies arrive, the Transmigrators, who had already set up a temporary command post in the valley, now had no more worries about the rear and began preparing for the night's reconnaissance activities. Around ten o'clock at night, the reconnaissance team led by Special Forces Deputy Commander Du Dewei set out on foot right on time.

The moon was bright and stars were sparse. Once the reconnaissance team exited the Jingzhong Mountain pass, they were only a little over one li from Santunying Fortress, so there was no need for horses.

Half an hour after departure, the team arrived at the deserted shanty area outside the moat. The special operations team members, wearing night vision devices, then deployed a DJI drone equipped with an infrared lens and a night vision lens.

The drones Bai had released could only take aerial shots from high altitude, but the drones released now could approach and hover for close-range reconnaissance. Soon, the drone transmitted detailed images of the fortress, and Qian Tieshan, at the command post in Nameless Valley, synchronously received the data as well.

In the third year of the Wanli reign, Qi Jiguang, then serving as Ji Garrison Garrison Commander, allocated funds for a large-scale maintenance of Santunying Fortress.

After the reconstruction, Santunying Fortress was a brick and stone structure, with city walls three zhang high, a top width of one zhang and five chi, and a circumference of seven li.

The fortress had three main gates: Jingzhong Gate to the south, Binri Gate to the east, and Gongjing Gate to the west. Each gate also had a double gate built to strengthen the city's defense. Fifty meters north of the two main gates on the east and west, there were also two side gates, commonly known as the East Gate and West Gate.

Santunying's city defense facilities were very complete: there were watchtowers above the city gates, Ziji Palace was built on the North City Platform, five corner towers were built on the city corners, building platforms were built on the east and west double gates, and nine enemy towers were evenly distributed along the city platform.

In addition, there were still two water passes within the city, allowing the water inside and outside the city to circulate. The moat, seven chi wide and three zhang deep, drew living water from the nearby Heng River. It not only encircled the city once, but also formed Zhen Lake outside the East Gate, which was three hundred fifty zhang long, ten zhang wide, and seven chi deep.

It was a pity that such an exquisite and perfect defense system lacked a matching army to guard it — after the Manchu Qing entered the pass, they launched a surprise attack on Santunying at the first moment. As a result, the Ming Army's morale dispersed and their fighting will was completely gone; they handed over this strategic location without putting up much resistance.

While reconnoitering the architectural details of the fortress, the infrared silhouettes of the Tartar soldier guards constantly patrolling along the city walls also clearly appeared on the liquid crystal screen.

After reconnoitering the city walls, the drone flew toward the General Headquarters inside the fortress... the Tartars' main force was there.