Chapter 153: Setting the Strategy (Part 1)

Gongsun Xun, having chatted so deeply with Shen Pei just after his arrival that they were completely absorbed, suddenly had a flash of impulse and brought up the difficult problem he had encountered with his confidants the night before.

Of course, the moment he said it he regretted it a little... it was far too rash.

But what he absolutely never expected, and what immediately filled him with astonished delight, was that the other party could give such a swift and definite affirmative answer.

"What my lord worries about is that the county magistrate's regulations prevent you from assembling sufficient troops, and if you entrust this matter to the Grand Administrator, or even join forces with the Grand Administrators of several surrounding commanderies, the credit will be hard-pressed to fall upon your own shoulders?" Shen Pei inquired earnestly.

"Exactly so." Now that things had reached this point, Gongsun Xun naturally calmed his mind and answered frankly. "Does Zhengnan have anything to teach me?"

"From what I know," Shen Pei said composedly, "this dynasty's military forces have always valued quality over quantity. Thus, once warfare becomes prolonged, the central authority will issue direct orders to recruit and hire troops on the spot to form an army, and these temporary forces are not limited to Han troops... Coming from Liaoxi, I saw along the way countless Xianbei and Wuhuan mixed barbarians, all in awe of and submitting to Han civilization. Why does my lord not imitate the Huangzhong Volunteer Corps and temporarily recruit a few of them?"

Gongsun Xun shook his head repeatedly, then suddenly burst out laughing — he was not mocking Shen Pei, but mocking himself. As a son of a border commandery, how could he have forgotten this? To actually need Shen Pei to remind him? He truly had been muddle-headed!

Indeed, within the Great Han dynasty's system, it was very difficult for him to obtain troops, but outside the Great Han's system, or rather on its semi-periphery, there were troops aplenty... namely, those various semi-Sinicized minority tribes living along the border.

It must be said, there was certainly a degree of nationalism in this era, but around the Great Han, this nationalism was more of a one-way street. In other words, Father Han discriminated against everyone else, forbidding you from secretly pretending to be Han people, and then all the surrounding peoples, except for one Tanshihuai who was both stubborn and somewhat capable, mostly joined Father Han in discriminating against themselves... Hadn't they seen that Mushroom King Yayakeyou, wearing a straight-hem robe and a beam crown, pretending to be an old Confucian scholar?

And then there were the Di people... Gongsun Xun, perhaps influenced by his own mother, had somewhat skewed values. When he saw official documents concerning the Di at the Imperial Secretariat, he felt it was utterly unjust! The pitiful Di people farmed the land in Longxi, and had been placed under the governance of Han commanderies ever since Emperor Wu of Han, tilling the soil for nearly three hundred years — a standard Sinicized agrarian people — yet still no one was willing to grant them Great Han nationality. No matter how they pleaded, it was refused. It was truly pitiable beyond words!

And according to Lady Gongsun, later dynasties actually caused the southwestern barbarians to revolt constantly because of the policy of replacing native chieftains with appointed officials... it was also hard to comprehend!

In summary, these borderland minorities did not care whom they fought. One could even say that, aside from feeling a bit timid about fighting the Great Han, they had no scruples even about turning back and fighting their own people... as long as there were rewards. If over time a sense of loyalty developed, it was mostly loyalty to an individual, and had nothing to do with ethnicity or state.

For example, the Huangzhong Volunteer Corps that Shen Pei mentioned were actually Qiang-assimilated foreigners who had migrated from the Western Regions. Yet in Duan Jiong's battles against the Western Qiang, they displayed such ferocious bravery that their fame shook Xiliang, to the point that when the Western Qiang fought Duan Jiong, they specifically shouted for the Huangzhong Volunteer Corps to come out and fight them. These mercenaries had truly reached a certain level of professionalism.

Returning to the matter at hand, in Youzhou there were actually similar tribes specially maintained by the imperial court... indeed, the Wuhuan people. And with Gongsun Xun's rank, he naturally was not qualified to summon the large Wuhuan tribes that were considered part of the system, but he was qualified to use his own reputation, family background, official position, and financial resources to summon all the mixed barbarians and the middle and lower-tier Xianbei and Wuhuan tribes within his line of sight!

As an aside, Mohugou and his extremely Sinicized Mohu Xianbei tribe were already one of the Gongsun clan's most frequently used vassal tribes... and it was said that this fellow had been faring increasingly well lately.

Late at night, after Shen Pei's welcoming banquet, Gongsun Xun called to stay Lu Fan, Lou Gui, Wang Xiu, and Han Dang, who had been summoned back by express rider... and of course, Shen Pei himself.

Then, just these six men went together to Zhao Yun's courtyard to hold another small banquet. The autumn wind was rustling, so they did not let the serving maids attend them for long.

"Is it feasible?!" Lu Fan asked seriously. All his knowledge of the five commanderies beyond the Youzhou border had been acquired on short notice over these past two months, so he was truly completely in the dark.

Of course, from another perspective, Lu Ziheng's hasty and shallow questioning also faintly carried a sense of 'asserting his own position' — it must be understood that Shen Pei's arrival had somewhat affected his originally exceptionally stable standing. However, Lu Ziheng was no fool; he naturally knew that in the future, only more and more talents would flock to serve under his lord. As Gongsun Xun's first personal retainer, he needed both to adopt the correct attitude and to remain somewhat on guard.

At this moment, asking a question that had to be asked before anyone else could, the significance of seizing the initiative far outweighed the question itself.

"It is feasible." Han Dang set down his wine cup and was the first to respond. As a native of Liaoxi, his answer was crisp and decisive. "I haven't yet fully grasped the situation from Liaodong towards Lelang, but just from Liaoxi to Xuantu alone, there are no fewer than tens of thousands of mixed barbarians that can be gathered, even said to number a hundred tribes. Moreover, even many Wuhuan chieftains and Xianbei chieftains registered with the court and Danhan Mountain, if there is money and silk to be shared, are willing to bring troops for private work... In fact, after the Young Lord burned Danhan Mountain, his fame shook the northern frontier. If summoned, these people might not dare to refuse!"

"There are actually so many mixed barbarians?" Even Shen Pei, who had raised the suggestion, was momentarily astonished, his chopsticks pausing mid-air. "I only saw along the road that there were quite a few tribes attached to our Great Han, trading with each other, but I never imagined such a scale! Tens of thousands of mixed barbarians — if they were gathered together, would they not become a menace like the various Qiang of Xiliang?"

"Dog-like wretches, how could they become a menace?" Gongsun Xun, seated at the head, said with utter nonchalance. "What we should worry about is these people's combat effectiveness... Don't be fooled by their so-called hundred tribes and tens of thousands in number. If the main force ever falters, they'll run faster than anyone! When I was young, I heard the clan elders say that back when Tanshihuai was just rising, when the Xianbei raided the border, they followed behind; when our Han troops went out to sweep the field, they also followed behind. Over time, when the two states fought, neither side would allow these people to come near, to save wasting army provisions!"

"The Young Lord is right," Han Dang said with a laugh, raising his cup. "Even to scavenge behind a great army, one must pay attention to background and strength. What hundred tribes, what tens of thousands — which local doesn't know? It's just that the mixed barbarians are too mixed and too chaotic... However, that fellow Mohugou's Mohu tribe is a rare orthodox Xianbei tribe here in Liaoxi, and what's rare is that the few men under that kid are not bad at the craft of war either."

"It is precisely this kind of tribe we need." Gongsun Xun frankly said, pressing his hand on the table. "The Mohu Xianbei, the Duan tribe Xianbei, and call out two respectable chieftains from the Wuhuan — that will give us three thousand elite troops... Then we select seven or eight from among these mixed barbarians, those with two or three hundred able-bodied men, and have them beat the drums on the flanks and fight when the wind is at our backs. That should basically piece together an army that can barely fight."

"But it's still not enough!" Han Dang, hearing this, could not help but set down his wine cup and earnestly advise. "Young Lord, you still need a Han army detachment that can hold the line! That one thousand civil defense troops can only serve as a rearguard. It would be best to have another thousand true Han elite soldiers!"

Gongsun Xun slowly nodded: "Indeed. The most powerful of these tribes only number seven or eight hundred men. According to their temperament, our Han army must be the largest one to be able to command them... At least a thousand elite troops! And preferably cavalry! Only then will we have sufficient battlefield dominance!"

"And Young Lord," Lou Gui, who had been mostly silent, also slowly spoke up, "to get Mohugou and the others to come from Liaoxi, I'm afraid we can only summon them through the Anli Trading Company's channels, right?"

The group fell silent for a moment, except for Shen Pei, who seemed slightly puzzled: "My lord, when I paid respects to the Old Madam earlier, you told me not to mention the Goguryeo matter. Why is that? Could it be that the Old Madam is unwilling to see this matter come to fruition?"

"Indeed." Gongsun Xun smiled awkwardly. "My mother does not wish for me to stand out again... the specific reasons, I will explain slowly another time."

Shen Pei sensed something was amiss, so he nodded slightly for the time being and asked no further.

"If that is the case," Wang Xiu, also participating in such a meeting for the first time, could not help but interject, "once the great army is mobilized, according to what my lord just said, there will likely be seven or eight thousand men at that time... An army of such scale, even if only going to nearby Goguryeo, the matter of logistics and supply will still be enormous. If the province and commandery are not allowed to step in, where will the civilian laborers and provisions come from?"

Gongsun Xun was momentarily speechless... Had he just filled one seemingly impossible pit, only to immediately discover so many new ones?

"A minimum of one thousand elite cavalry; channels to mobilize the various tribes; logistics and supply..." Seeing that everyone had been silent for a long time, Lu Ziheng continued to act as the summarizer of the meeting. "These are the three matters, then."

"Let us set that aside for now." Gongsun Xun suddenly smiled and raised his cup to ask: "Zibo and Ziheng spent the entire day talking with that Mushroom King in the courtyard without coming out. How did the talks actually go?"

"That Yayakeyou is a wily old fox, talking utter nonsense." Just as Lu Fan was about to speak, Lou Gui had already angrily set down his chopsticks and begun. "One hour he was patting his belly, saying he could bring over the Huan'na tribe, which is similarly ostracized and suppressed, and then two of the five tribes would certainly act as inside agents; the next hour he suddenly said with a straight face that all that before was nonsense, and that his real reliance was actually a force of one thousand five hundred palace garrison troops, because he had been the Regional Commander of that garrison; and just when we were so angry we were about to leave, he pulled us back, saying all that before was just a test, that he was acting alone this time, and could only rely on his own tribe's forces..."

"Two points, then." Lu Fan helplessly added from the side. "He indeed came this time seeking external aid to destroy Myeongnim Dap-bu, and his resolve is firm. But if he cannot meet a true figure of power and authority, he will not reveal his real reliance."

"Have him come to see me immediately, then," Gongsun Xun said dismissively.

Everyone nodded in agreement... Goguryeo was no more than the equivalent of one Han commandery, and this was but a tribal chief within it, a wretch as destitute as a stray dog. What else could come of their own lord, a mere Magistrate of Xiangping, negotiating with him?

However, those three matters were indeed troubling...

"There is no need for excessive worry." Seeing this, Gongsun Xun laughed again and raised his cup. "It is still better than having no clue at all at the very beginning. The problems below seem to be more about small tricks to deceive the heavens and cross the sea. If we think carefully, solutions must exist... You all go back and await my news. Also, Yigong, go and call that Yayakeyou over."

The group hastily raised their cups and took their leave.

This was already Zhao Yun's inner courtyard, so once the gathering ended, everyone left cleanly, with no one lingering. But a moment later, that Yayakeyou, belly protruding, followed Han Dang in.

PS: Thanks to Mo Shaoshang for the fifth supreme patronage. Immensely grateful.

(End of Chapter)