Chapter 447: Mobilizing Troops

"The Jianzhou bandits have invaded Xuan-Da!" Wen Tiren immediately stood up and took the battlefield report from Liang Tingdong's hands. The report only mentioned the two routes in Xuanfu; the third route from Datong had launched slightly later and was not yet included in this first report.

Wen Tiren had little skill in military matters, but after years of ups and downs in court politics, he never lost his composure in the face of any event. This year the realm had been beset by troubles: after crossing the Mianchi, the roving bandits had scattered across Henan to plunder, and urgent memorials from all over Henan flew in like snowflakes. The Grand Secretariat had not even enjoyed a proper New Year, and a large number of civil and military officials in Henan had already been punished. Before things could settle down, now the Jianzhou bandits had entered Shanxi.

At that moment, Wen Tiren asked Liang Tingdong, who had delivered the report: "What does the Minister of War believe should be the response?"

Liang Tingdong said gravely: "Zhang Zongheng claims there are a hundred thousand Jianzhou bandits, but this humble official believes the number is not that high. Even including the Mongols, it is at most fifty or sixty thousand. Last year they suffered heavy losses at Lvshun; those heads piled outside the city were examined one by one — they were no fake. This humble official believes the most urgent tasks are: first, strictly order all localities in Xuan-Da to hold their cities tightly; second, order the troops of Baoding and Changping to reinforce the inner Great Wall passes such as Juyong Pass and Zijing Pass, to prevent the Jianzhou bandits from breaking into the capital region; third, yesterday Zunhua relayed reports of unusual movements by the Kalaqin outside the Jizhen border wall. We must order the border passes of Xuan-Da and Jizhen to conduct distant reconnaissance and defense. Only after confirming that the main Jianzhou force is in Xuan-Da can we dispatch the forces of Miyun, Tongzhou, Liaozhen, Zunhua, and Yongping to relieve them, so as to avoid falling for the Jianzhou bandits' stratagem of making a noise in the east while striking in the west. And the fourth is to draw back the troops encircling and suppressing the roving bandits, especially the border army cavalry of the three frontiers of Xuan-Da, Shanxi, and Shaanxi."

Wen Tiren listened to Liang Tingdong's clear exposition and nodded approvingly: "The Minister of War truly deserves his reputation as a frontier talent, seeing at a glance that the capital region is the core. However, if the Jianzhou bandits come with a great army, relying on temporarily drawn border troops may not suffice to repel them; we still need a force to serve as the mainstay."

Liang Tingdong knew Wen Tiren was referring to Dengzhou Garrison. The main force of Dengzhou Garrison was in Liaonan and could not possibly reach Xuan-Da at this time; another portion was in Denglai and Qing, but Denglai was a full two thousand li from Xuan-Da. Marching there would take at least forty to fifty days, and given the condition of ordinary troops, they would be in no shape to fight upon arrival. He hesitated and said: "What the Elderly Gentleman says is a cardinal principle of military science, but Denglai is too far away. Perhaps by the time they arrive, the Jianzhou bandits will have already withdrawn. It would be better to order them to attack the Southern Four Garrisons in Liaonan, forcing the Jianzhou bandits to appeal to the Jianzhou Chieftain for help. In this way, the Chieftain would have to withdraw his troops early, exhausting the enemy without exhausting ourselves..."

Wen Tiren raised a hand slightly, cutting him off: "What the Minister of War says about besieging Wei to rescue Zhao is not wrong, but how do you know when the Jianzhou bandits will withdraw? Now that the Jianzhou bandits are weak in Liaonan, what if they unleash their troops into the capital region and force His Majesty to negotiate peace? Where would the court's dignity be then? If we wait until then to dispatch Dengzhou Garrison, the urging would be more urgent than sparks from a fire. Chen Xin would have to exhaust his troops on a distant expedition while the Jianzhou bandits wait at ease for the weary. How does that compare to having Chen Xin bring his troops to Jingshi in advance? This would benefit both the court and Chen Xin. It is not necessarily required that they go to Xuan-Da; the priority is still to guard the capital region. The Ministry of War cannot explain all these intricacies in official dispatches. The Minister of War should write a private letter to explain things clearly to Chen Xin."

"This... this humble official understands." Liang Tingdong replied helplessly after hearing this. Wen Tiren thought that moving a great army was as easy as merchants walking to market. Moreover, he would not speak himself but had Liang Tingdong go and tell Chen Xin, which inevitably meant owing Chen Xin a personal favor.

At the end of last year, the Emperor had said that Dengzhou Garrison had fought battle after battle and should not be over-deployed. At that time, Liang Tingdong had even written to Chen Xin, saying that Dengzhou troops would be requisitioned less often in the future. Now, as soon as war broke out, they were still the only choice.

Liang Tingdong also understood Wen Tiren's difficulty. No matter how badly the fighting went in Shanxi, there were the Viceroy of Xuan-Da, the Provincial Governor of Xuanfu, and the Provincial Governor of Datong to bear the responsibility, with a host of military defense and regional commanders below them to handle things. There was no shortage of scapegoats. But once the Jianzhou bandits broke into the capital region, it became a problem of national magnitude, with a completely different impact. Blame could reach all the way to the Senior Grand Secretary. The censors would surely submit a flood of memorials. If Dengzhou troops were only dispatched then, those censors would again speak of failed planning, with the blame resting on the Senior Grand Secretary and the like.

Having finished giving his instructions, Wen Tiren added to Liang Tingdong: "Yesterday His Majesty spoke of the matter of the Qingzhou Military Defense Circuit. This post had been abolished before. Now that there is a Qingzhou Regional Commander, this Military Defense Circuit is also needed. Since you oversee the Ministry of War, in selecting the candidate, you must absolutely not use anyone from the Donglin faction, lest they make trouble for Chen Xin."

"This humble official understands. This Military Defense Circuit will certainly not be given to one of those disobedient sorts." Liang Tingdong responded in a low voice. The Qingzhou Military Defense Circuit was extremely important. Chen Xin gave considerable benefits every year, whether in silver or political advantage. What was needed was for Liang Tingdong and Wen Tiren to look after things at court and reduce troubles for Dengzhou. If they could not even settle a Military Defense Circuit now, future deployments would not be so convenient.

The current difficulty was that the Minister of Personnel was no longer a direct subordinate of Wen Tiren. The previous Minister of Personnel, Min Hongxue, was a fellow townsman of Wen Tiren. He had risen to a capital post on the strength of his achievements as Provincial Governor of Yunnan, and with Wen Tiren's help had become Minister of Personnel. This man was quite capable, but he was too close to Wen Tiren, and his stance was too conspicuous. Anyone who attacked Zhou Yanru and the Donglin faction was quietly promoted, making him a thorn in the Donglin faction's side. The Donglin faction had aimed very accurately this time. Zhang Jie and the Vice Minister of the Court of the Imperial Stud, He Shishou, gathered a group of censors and supervising secretaries, who repeatedly impeached Min Hongxue for colluding with Wen Tiren in factional malfeasance. Out of the need for checks and balances, the Emperor kept Wen Tiren but dismissed Min Hongxue, severing one of Wen Tiren's arms — a major victory for the Donglin faction.

So afterward, Wen Tiren had also been quietly engaging in self-reflection. Although Liang Tingdong belonged to his faction, the two of them would occasionally stage small disagreements before the Emperor. But what worried Liang Tingdong was not checks and balances, but that Wen Tiren could no longer recruit for his faction. The Emperor wanted him to be a solitary minister. Those previously implicated in the eunuch case could not be used. The scholars who came up through the imperial examinations each year were mostly from Jiangnan, Jiangxi, and similar regions, and they mostly leaned toward the Donglin faction and the Fushe. Wen Tiren could only pick up a few leftovers. So in terms of factional strength, Wen Tiren held no advantage, and court affairs were far from being decided by him alone.

Liang Tingdong could not quite understand the Emperor. If the Emperor wanted to check and balance the Donglin faction, he should assign the Minister of Personnel to Wen Tiren's faction, so as to effectively control the scale of the Donglin faction at court. And the one he should most replace with another faction was the Minister of War. Now it was exactly the opposite. So he believed the Emperor's political skill was actually not yet mature. But this was not something he could go and tell the Emperor.

After sighing inwardly, he went with Wen Tiren to see the Chongzhen Emperor and recounted the gist of what they had just discussed. Though shocked, the Emperor largely agreed with their proposal, raising only one requirement: that the encirclement and suppression of the roving bandits not be relaxed.

Returning to his own office, Liang Tingdong told his subordinates the orders the Ministry of War needed to convey. Then he ground ink for a while himself, lifted his brush, and after thinking for a moment, began to write: "To Commander Chen, with respect. Your previous letter has been received. Before the New Year, I entrusted Daoist Priest to carry a letter to you, mentioning rest and recuperation for Deng Garrison and fewer requisitions. Yet the urgent alarms from the border passes of Xuanfu are more pressing than sparks from a fire, and His Majesty is burning with anxiety..."

"The Jianzhou bandits have reached the Kalaqin. Are they heading for Jizhen or Xuan-Da?"

In the Dengzhou Regional Commander's residence, Chen Xin frowned at the intelligence in his hand. This was the first Mongol report on the movements of the Later Jin's main force. It was stated very definitively, but in this era of backward communications, all sorts of rumors circulated. Intelligence that came back at the same time also suggested that the Jianzhou bandits were only a diversionary force, and that after drawing Liaozhen troops to relieve Xuan-Da, the main Jianzhou force would attack Liaoxi, Jinzhou, and other places.

The Liaoxi intelligence station received many ambiguous and contradictory reports every month. They had to screen them in advance, analyze them, and then forward them to Denglai.

Zhou Shifa said quietly at his side: "If this news is true, Huang Taiji has chosen his timing very well. Although we have planted some lines in the Later Jin, their baojia system is strict. Travel on the roads is normally inconvenient, and in winter, people hardly move about at all. Getting messages out is extremely difficult. He took this opportunity to lead his troops on a distant campaign. If this subordinate's estimate is correct, he will return around the third month. By then, the Liaodong coast will have thawed, and only then can we launch an effective offensive in Liaonan. His main force will also not be far from Liaodong by then."

"In other words, Huang Taiji has exploited a time gap against me. By the time Lvshun thaws in the second or third month, they will basically be on their return journey. Mongol intelligence is equally slow to transmit. We have no way of knowing when they will return to Liaodong, so the intensity of our raids won't be too great. He's calculated it rather well."

Chen Xin paced two circles in the room. Liu Minyou, who happened to be there, could offer no opinion either and could only ask Zhou Shifa: "Has any news come back from Lvshun?"

"There is some. But the reports are mixed. The Later Jin troops still have White Armor Soldiers deployed in Fuzhou. Scouts have difficulty moving back and forth in winter, and Zhu Guobin also cannot determine what is true or false."

Liu Minyou said nothing after hearing this. Military intelligence in this era was always like this; it was very hard to confirm which piece was true. It might well be a Later Jin stratagem to lure the snake out of its hole.

The three of them had never spent a winter in Lvshun, but they were all quite familiar with conditions in Liaodong. The military harbor there froze over, and the coastal waters for several li were covered in ice. If only sending a message out, one could send someone to risk traveling out along the ice layer, transfer to a small boat, and then board a seagoing vessel further out. Approaching the Dengzhou coast, they would have to transfer again. This could work for transmitting messages, but moving troops was absolutely impossible. Even sending messages this way was fraught with danger; the floating ice drifting in the Liaodong Sea was also a potential hazard. Therefore, unless there was major military intelligence, Lvshun would not send anyone to deliver messages.

Chen Xin had no choice but to dismiss Zhou Shifa and have him confirm the news as quickly as possible.

After Zhou Shifa left, Liu Minyou looked at Chen Xin and said: "The court will probably requisition our Dengzhou Garrison again. Should we make some preparations in advance?"

Chen Xin waved his hand with some irritation: "Preparations we can make, but the cavalry are all in Lvshun and Henan. There are less than a thousand in Denglai. The cavalry section of the military academy just sent a batch of replacements to Zhu Daichun. If I'd known Huang Taiji was going to strike Xuan-Da, I would have had Zhu Daichun leave all the cavalry behind. Now, for the infantry to march over two thousand li, even if tobacco supplies are sufficient along the way, in this world of ice and snow it will take at least forty days, and they'd still need to rest and reorganize before being committed to battle. And Xuan-Da is not Liaonan; we can't just send over ten thousand troops in one go."

"But we can't just ignore the court's requisition orders either. After all, we still receive five or six hundred thousand taels every year. Besides, aren't you the one who loves fighting the Jianzhou bandits the most?"

"That's when we take the initiative to fight them ourselves. Now we'd be running off to someone else's territory. In a place like Shanxi, there are many merchants colluding with the Jianzhou bandits. Our intelligence advantage isn't great, and the risks are considerable. I absolutely do not wish to fight a decisive battle with the Jianzhou bandits in Shanxi. Even Beizhili would be much better." As he spoke, Chen Xin rummaged through his desk, found the order of battle list submitted by the Military Affairs Department, and said while looking at it: "The First Battalion still has one regiment in Liaonan. The Third and Second Battalions each have two regiments in Liaonan. None of them are easy to move. We'll have to move the Guards Battalion."

Liu Minyou asked in a low voice: "If you send the Guards Battalion that far away, who will you rely on to keep Dengzhou Prefectural City under control here?"

Chen Xin hesitated upon hearing this. Although the situation in Dengzhou was stable, there were, after all, various factions. Wang Tingzhi's Provincial Military Commander's Personal Battalion had now changed its central regiment commander, and the right regiment was under Lu Zhi's people. He was always uneasy without troops at his side.

After thinking for a long while, he finally said: "Add the newly formed Guards Regiment to the force, and let them practice long-distance marching as well. This way, we can keep the Guards First Regiment in Dengzhou. With the First Regiment here, it's enough to keep the other battalions in check."

Liu Minyou lowered his head and sighed: "Those young soldiers you've organized and trained — they're more like a youth battalion. They're all sixteen or seventeen. Better not drag them off to war so early."

"No choice. They're the only ones who've completed collective training." Chen Xin swiftly picked up his brush and marked the order of battle list. This young regiment had been organized and trained during the Battle of Lvshun. At that time, many young students had demanded to join the army to fight the Jianzhou bandits, so Dengzhou Garrison recruited nearly a thousand young soldiers. After supplementing them with some non-commissioned officers, they were expanded into the Guards Fourth Regiment.

Liu Minyou said to him: "They all came out of the garrison village literacy classes. They have a cultural foundation and the passion of youth. Being soldiers is certainly good, but I always feel they might be better used elsewhere. Perhaps among them might emerge a Newton, a Riemann..."

Chen Xin shook his head, cutting him off. "Being soldiers is best. This force must be continuously expanded. They are the true future of Dengzhou Garrison, far superior to those farming households. I've put my heart and soul into them. The NCOs and officers inside were all drawn from the Guards Battalion. But soldiers must go to the battlefield. Once these young soldiers become NCOs and are dispersed among the various battalions and companies, the overall combat effectiveness will rise by a large margin."

Having said this, Chen Xin marked another place. "Have the Qingzhou Regional Commander's Main Battalion dispatch one regiment to accompany them. That will make five or six thousand men. Wang Zhangfu will lead the troops to relieve Xuan-Da. In any case, they'll most likely arrive to find nothing. I'll also tell him to march slowly and absolutely not rashly penetrate deep into Xuan-Da. Given the nature of those local officials, we have no reason to fight to the death for them. Sending an isolated force on a distant raid is no child's play. Also, send orders to Zhu Guobin to strike Fuzhou in Liaonan. If we can recover Fuzhou, we can give the court an account of our actions."

"You've forgotten one force."

Chen Xin looked up in surprise: "Who?"

"Zhong Laosi's dragoons from the Fifth Battalion. They were left behind in Linxian by Zhu Daichun and did not follow the main force south." (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to Qidian to vote and cast monthly tickets. Your support is my greatest motivation. Mobile users please go to read.)