Chapter 437

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Liu Minyou hurried back along the road and encountered troops from many other military garrisons. The moment they saw the Flying Tiger banner of Dengzhou Garrison clearing the way, they all kept their distance. These armies marched in disorderly ranks, with large numbers of stragglers trailing behind. When they saw the Dengzhou Garrison approaching, they gathered by the roadside and asked whether Dengzhou was recruiting soldiers.

The guards stayed on alert, their short guns all loaded with ammunition. Fortunately, those roving soldiers lacked the nerve to approach. After traveling another stretch, Liu Minyou caught up with the Dragon Cavalry. Zhu Daichun's guards delivered Liu Minyou to Zhong Laosi's position, relayed orders for Zhong Laosi to provide escort, and then turned back to rejoin Zhu Daichun's main force.

Liu Minyou asked Zhong Laosi, "Vice Battalion Commander Zhong, I have often heard Lord Chen say you have a head for battle. Do you think we can catch up with the roving bandits in this pursuit?"

Zhong Laosi answered carelessly, "We won't catch them. According to the last Henan intelligence summary forwarded by the Military Orders Directorate, the majority of Henan's Mao troops are in northern Yubei, all deployed to block the roving bandits' eastern flank, and the same goes for the various guest armies. Luoyang and Kaifeng together have fewer than four thousand troops on paper, and no more than two thousand in actual strength. Henan has long been an interior region; its troops are far less battle-worthy than the frontier armies, and their retainers are thoroughly mediocre. It would be a mercy if the roving bandits didn't attack them. With heavy snow blanketing the sky and dozens of bandit groups scattering in all directions, the Henan troops are probably so scared they've pissed their pants."

Liu Minyou turned his head to look at Zhong Laosi. "Zhu Daichun's force is entirely infantry. By your account, they can't catch up either. Then why are they in such a rush? And what were they doing in September and October?"

"That bastard Zhu Daichun..." Zhong Laosi started cursing but stopped himself mid-sentence. He rolled his eyes and said to Liu Minyou, "That bastard does know his way around a fight. Not pursuing isn't an option either. Wherever the roving bandits go, they seize food and drink. Having someone in pursuit limits the damage they do to the countryside. The moment they hear our Dengzhou Garrison is coming, they'll be too busy running to waste time hunting down the common folk in hiding."

"So that's how it is." Liu Minyou thought Zhong Laosi's reasoning made sense. Pursuing was better than not pursuing.

Zhong Laosi saw that Liu Minyou still looked deep in thought and hastily changed the subject. "Mr. Liu, of those dozen or so four-wheeled wagons you brought, three broke down after just two hundred li. How did that happen? I heard that traveling all the way from Denglai to Lin County, only four broke down."

"They were overloaded." Liu Minyou was indeed drawn into this technical problem. He frowned and said, "I told Zhu Daichun that the official roads in Henan are in poor condition and to load them lightly. But those baggage soldiers, wouldn't you know it, not only loaded them to the brim, some even sat on top. Naturally, they broke easily."

"These four-wheeled wagons are actually very useful. If the entire baggage battalion had four-wheelers this time, then our Dragon Cavalry could have kept up. I've calculated it: the old eight-hanger carts could only haul a bit over ten dan, but now with four-wheelers, hauling twenty or thirty dan is no problem."

Liu Minyou nodded. "That's true, but here in the north, the roads pose some problems. The official roads everywhere have been neglected for years. In some places, two-wheeled carts might still work better. That's why we brought a dozen or so for you to test, and sure enough, problems emerged."

"Then, Lord Liu, let me ask you something. This time, none of the other directorates at the Regional Commander's headquarters sent anyone. Why did only those people from the Military Affairs Directorate come running? I hear they're going to evaluate me. Can you give me a hint?"

He turned his head to glance at the Dragon Cavalry soldiers around them and said to Zhong Laosi with a smile, "The people from the Military Affairs Directorate have come to conduct an evaluation. They plan to convert your entire Dragon Cavalry into musketeers, with everyone using bayonets..."

Zhong Laosi clapped his hands in excitement and, not even waiting for Liu Minyou to finish, interrupted, "I've long wanted to be rid of those damned long spears. They're especially troublesome for cavalry to carry, getting in the way during pursuits, and you can't fire them from a distance. Once you dismount and finish forming ranks, you can't move a muscle. Unless you're paired with other battalions, the detached squads are the most useful. Now it'll be all detached squads."

Liu Minyou watched Zhong Laosi gesticulating with glee and shook his head. The man could be irritating at times, but he had no devious twists in him, which made his company pleasant enough.

Amid Zhong Laosi's chatter, the two of them followed the main body of red-coated Dragon Cavalry toward the encampment at Hui County. This was Liu Minyou's first visit to Henan, and the desolation along the way shocked him. In northern Yubei, there was hardly a single intact village. In the wake of the roving bandits, no human habitation could be seen for a hundred li. There were many corpses by the roadside, mostly roving bandits and refugees, or conscripted laborers forcibly taken by government troops. Many were already covered by white snow.

"This place, Henan — drought, flood, and locust plagues come in relentless cycles, and now there are roving bandits on top of it. The bandits' destructive power is greater than the other three combined. Every place they pass is left with homes shattered and people dead. How many years will it take to recover? Vice Battalion Commander Zhong, you also come from hardship. Think of every possible way. Even wiping out the roving bandits a single day sooner would be a good thing."

Zhong Laosi stopped his chatter, stole a glance at Liu Minyou, lowered his head, and sighed. "This... this humble officer understands. Truth be told, this humble officer feels that fighting the Jianzhou bandits is still a bit more straightforward."

Liu Minyou laughed when he heard this. "The Jianzhou bandits were battered and humiliated this year. Right now, they're probably crying their eyes out somewhere."

Inside the Later Jin workshop north of Shenyang City, a long table had been set up within the high walls. On it lay more than ten flintlock muskets. Several men wearing dog-fur hats were examining them in front of the table, and behind each man stood two Later Jin soldiers with drawn swords keeping watch.

A few paces behind the long table stood a group of White Armor Soldiers with banner pennants thrust into their backs. Huang Taiji sat upright in the center. Because they were testing firearms today, Sonin had arranged for the most elite vanguard troops to serve as guards and monitors, lest any of the surrendered Dengzhou soldiers suddenly harbor malicious thoughts.

He Changjiu was also before the long table. He cautiously examined a Later Jin musket, pulling back the hammer and dry-firing it several times. The spring tension was slightly lighter than those from Dengzhou. He estimated that the mainspring inside was thinner, or perhaps less elastic.

Tang Yingtai, who had surrendered alongside him, tested the other guns. None had the problem of failing to strike. Clearly, the Later Jin overseers had done a decent job, and the quality was at least basically guaranteed. The barrels, however, varied considerably. Bore diameters and wall thicknesses were not uniform; some differences were quite large. The outer surfaces of the barrels were especially rough, making it impossible to mount a bayonet.

In the middle of the table lay the captured muskets from Dengzhou Garrison. Though not finely finished, they had always been extremely durable, and the manufacturing tolerances were nowhere near as exaggerated as those of the Later Jin muskets. This was because Wendeng's measuring instruments were calibrated once every quarter, the manufacturing process was divided into complete steps, and corresponding functional departments were established. Both process control and quality control were in place. Coupled with the application of machinery such as hydraulic barrel-drilling and rolling mills, neither quality nor output was something Later Jin could match. For Later Jin, merely hammering out the iron sheets to make the barrels consumed an enormous amount of man-hours.

Dengzhou's requirements for workers were also not as high as the single-craftsman approach. Each person only needed to master their own part. But He Changjiu and the others did not understand any of the workshop's processes, so they could offer Huang Taiji no suggestions whatsoever regarding manufacturing. They could only examine the finished products for differences.

After looking them over for a while, they began loading them with the paper cartridges laid out on the table. These paper cartridges were an idea proposed by the surrendered soldiers, and their manufacture was relatively simple. Each banner could arrange for bondservants within their own niru to produce them.

Each man selected a suitable musket and began firing with a series of bangs. The several surrendered soldiers operated the muskets with practiced skill, achieving a rate of fire of about two rounds per minute. Tang Yingtai's rate was especially fast, roughly three rounds per minute. The long wooden planks seventy paces away flew with splinters.

Watching from behind, Huang Taiji's expression darkened somewhat. These several Dengzhou soldiers operated their weapons with extreme proficiency. What was alarming was that they came from different Dengzhou battalions, their original garrisons separated by a hundred li, yet their drill movements were almost identical. Two of them were even pikemen who had only received basic operational training with muskets.

When concentrated into volleys, this kind of firepower was utterly terrifying and had repeatedly dealt fatal blows to the Later Jin archers. Yue Tuo, Unage, and Abatai all felt this deeply. Beside them, Shi Tingzhu was the most deeply wounded of all; he had witnessed volley after volley at the battles of Shenmi Island and Fuzhou, and that earth-shattering shock still made his heart pound with fear to this day.

The Battle of Lüshun had cost Later Jin dearly. Dengzhou's new firearms emerged in an endless stream, and every Later Jin banner felt the enormous impact firearms had on cold weapons. Given the current military equipment of the Eight Banners, they were practically helpless against defenses with ferocious firepower. If they encountered a place like Lüshun that could not be completely surrounded, all they could do was stare in frustration.

After winter set in, the Later Jin troops withdrew their forces from Fuzhou, leaving heavy defenses only as far forward as Yulinpu. South of Yulinpu, there were only mounted scouts carrying minimal supplies, serving as forward posts for counter-reconnaissance. A strategic passivity for Later Jin had taken shape across the whole of Liaonan. Places like Xiuyan, subjected to repeated raids by Dengzhou Garrison and Dongjiang Garrison in September and October, would soon be abandoned as well.

After returning to Lüshun, Huang Taiji shut himself away for several days to think. Only then did he emerge to deal with round after round of harassment from Daišan and Manggūltai. In private, he questioned the Dengzhou surrendered soldiers repeatedly alongside Yue Tuo, Haoge, and others. In the workshops, he constantly pressed the craftsmen to make improvements. Today, he had come to inspect a newly manufactured batch of flintlock muskets.

The supervising vanguard troops were extremely tense. Behind them were men of Banner Lord and Regional Commander rank — absolutely nothing could go wrong. Only after the surrendered soldiers had finished firing off the paper cartridges with great difficulty did the guards breathe a sigh of relief. The men returned and knelt before Huang Taiji, awaiting their master's instructions.

Huang Taiji gently bade them rise and said to them, "You are all brave and fierce warriors from Dengzhou Garrison, and each of you participated in the Battle of Lüshun. We need not conceal the truth: the strength of Dengzhou's firearms has surpassed all past and present, and our Great Jin cannot match it. The sheer quantity of their firearms is also difficult to estimate. Watching your drill today has filled us with the highest admiration."

The men said in unison, "We thank the Great Khan for his undue praise."

Sonin looked at Huang Taiji with some pride. This was what he had taught these surrendered soldiers. These men even had to be taught how to kneel, because there was no kneeling ritual in the Denglai army. It had taken great effort just to teach them a passable semblance.

Huang Taiji turned to Tang Yingtai and said, "I hear you were also in a detached squad before. Just now, as we observed, your firearms drill was the most practiced. Since you have used our Great Jin's flintlock muskets, could you explain in detail what differences there are?"

Tang Yingtai had an honest, earnest face. He replied respectfully, "In answer to the Great Khan, the Great Jin's flintlock barrels have thick walls and will absolutely never burst. It is just that the bore diameters vary rather greatly. This slave believes that when distributing them to the various banners, it would be best to group them by similar bore diameter, at least keeping them roughly the same within each niru, so that bullet molds can be shared. Also, because the outer wall thicknesses are uneven, bayonets cannot be used. Each musketeer should still be issued a good chopping blade."

"Indeed, you have insight." Huang Taiji nodded repeatedly and said to Sonin, "Reward Tang Yingtai with twenty taels of silver and five bolts of cotton cloth."

Huang Taiji then turned to He Changjiu. He Changjiu was somewhat nervous. He knelt and said, "This small man believes that muskets are only one part. A battalion must also be properly equipped with cannons. According to Dengzhou's establishment, one cannon is assigned per three hundred or five hundred men, varying. At the mandarin duck squad and company level, they have crouching-tiger cannons, weighing only a bit over thirty jin. If you forgo the iron canister shot, three men can carry the cannon and its ammunition. In mountainous terrain, for breaking gates and blocking paths, nothing can stand against them."

Yue Tuo said in a low voice, "Great Khan, we have captured quite a few crouching-tiger cannons, but their years of manufacture are rather old, and most are rusted. They were used on Shenmi Island, and it is said they burst easily. We will still have to manufacture them anew."

"Then manufacture them anew," Huang Taiji decided immediately. He then asked further about the respective establishments of the Dengzhou square formation and the mandarin duck formation. Both Tang Yingtai and He Changjiu were clear on these; the basic establishment was something every soldier had to memorize.

Huang Taiji listened while posing questions, and the several surrendered soldiers answered each one. The questioning went on for a full quarter of an hour. In truth, Huang Taiji had asked some of these questions before, but now, in the presence of Yue Tuo, Shi Tingzhu, and the others, he asked them again to reinforce their impression.

When the questioning was done, Huang Taiji bestowed rewards on each of the surrendered soldiers, then had the bayara escort them away. Only the Later Jin generals remained in the courtyard. Huang Taiji ordered the guards to withdraw to a distance, leaving only the officers beside him.

"Most of you have been to Lüshun and just now watched the drill methods of these several Han soldiers. Shi Tingzhu, tell us what you think."

"This slave..." Shi Tingzhu, suddenly called upon, hastily answered, but for a moment did not know what to say. Suddenly collecting himself, he said, "This slave believes we should organize and train a Han army, grant them land, and detach them from their status as household bondservants under the various banners. Use Dengzhou's drill methods and firearms, and give our Great Jin an additional strong army."

After hearing this, Ma Guangyuan also said, "This slave seconds the proposal. In years past, the Ming state had red-barbarian cannons, so our Great Jin built the 'Heaven-Blessed Might-Assisting Great General.' This fine weapon was no longer the enemy's exclusive possession. At the Battle of Dalinghe, we broke their wagon fortifications — this was the result of adapting. Although Dengzhou Garrison is detestable now, their firearms and drill methods truly have merit worth adopting, and they can likewise become possessions of our Great Jin."

Huang Taiji then turned to Yue Tuo and Haoge. Yue Tuo hurriedly said, "This slave believes Ma Guangyuan's words have some reason. Back then, the old Khan could not take Ningyuan, so the Great Khan took the Ming people as teachers, broadly recruiting craftsmen to build red-coated cannons. Today, we cannot take Lüshun. Our Great Jin can likewise take Dengzhou as our teacher. Our Great Jin has strength in mounted archery and foot combat; what we lack is only the single item of firearms. If we make up for this deficiency, then Dengzhou will no longer be worth fearing."

Huang Taiji nodded. "This matter is easy to speak of, but the Ujen Cooha has been established for two or three years now, and the Han soldiers under it still belong to the households of the various banners. You heard what Tang Yingtai said: Dengzhou likewise emphasizes military merit, and every man fights for military merit. Relying solely on bondservants as soldiers is already insufficient to fight Dengzhou. The Jurchen were originally few in number, and they absolutely cannot be drilled in firearms. We must build a true Han army before we can contend with that Dengzhou Garrison. We intend to lead by example: from the Plain Yellow Banner, we will separate out able-bodied Han bondservants, grant each man one xiang of land, and merge them with the Ujen Cooha to form a Han military banner. Each banner must also contribute men."

Yue Tuo hesitated and said, "Great Khan, this year we already suffered considerable losses among the bondservants. If we do this further, each banner will lose a great deal of labor. I fear it may be somewhat difficult to explain."

"That is why we must think of ways," Huang Taiji said, turning his head to look at Haoge and the others behind him. "Some time ago, it was said that Ming roving bandits are in Henan and other places, and the Shanxi troops are all tied down in southern Shanxi and such areas. We intend to launch a campaign into Shanxi at the start of the year, to seize more labor for the various banners."

"But Great Khan, Dengzhou Garrison has over ten thousand troops at Jinzhou..."

"There is no need to fear him. That Chen Xin has only around two thousand cavalry. We will withdraw to Fuzhou and set out on the Shanxi campaign in the twelfth month. Transporting provisions in this world of ice and snow is extremely difficult for them. With the coast frozen, their navy cannot deliver supplies. With ten thousand infantry, he would not dare to come out in full force. A few thousand infantry — our Great Jin can still handle that."

Yue Tuo lowered his head and thought for a moment, then nodded slightly. Huang Taiji closed his eyes and said to the men, "We will commit half of the Eight Banners and have the Mongols contribute more men. They are willing to go on campaign against Xuanfu. If we do not take them into the passes again to gain some benefit... these Mongols will not be so easy to command in the future. At the deliberative assembly, you must think of ways to get all the banners to agree to send troops. Dengzhou Garrison is entrenched in Liaonan. In the Lüshun campaign, we were still too hasty. But there is one thing we are even more certain of now: Dengzhou Garrison is a sickness in the very heart of our Great Jin. If our Great Jin does not think of adapting, there will be no chance to rise again. To change, without manpower, funds, or grain, nothing can be done. The campaign against Xuanfu is the first step." (To be continued...)