Chapter 1057: The Counter-Sarhu Plan (Please Subscribe)

"Heh, the New Army of Tribulation can fight, no doubt about that — but it still has to be used properly. Duke of Chengguo, since We have appointed you Regional Commander for the pacification of Liaodong, We naturally mean to grant you full authority. The Grand Marshal's Office's plan is only a suggestion; the specific way to fight is yours to decide!"

Although the Zhu Emperor still felt that Zhu Chunchen was not a reliable Regional Commander, the five-route Liaodong pacification plan drawn up by the Grand Marshal's Office seemed even less reliable. So the Zhu Emperor wanted to hear the plans of Zhu Chunchen and the Liaodong Governor-General's Office.

"Your Majesty, your subjects have made slight modifications on the basis of the five-route Liaodong pacification plan and drawn up a counter-Sarhu plan."

The unreliable Zhu Chunchen produced a thick memorial and presented it with both hands. A eunuch standing nearby hurried forward to take the memorial and then handed it to the Zhu Emperor.

Zhu Cilang saw that the memorial was a thick stack that would take a while to read, so he directly asked Zhu Chunchen, "Duke of Chengguo, how did you modify it? Someone, bring the map of Liaodong!"

"Your Majesty, there is no need to fetch the map, because your subjects have not changed the routes of advance, only adjusted the numbers of troops on each route. The changes are not great," said Zhu Chunchen.

"Only adjusted the numbers?" Zhu Cilang asked. "How did you adjust them?"

"Your subjects first reduced the numbers of the two large armies advancing along the Daling River and the Xiaoling River," said Zhu Chunchen. "The Daling and Xiaoling Rivers are shallow and difficult to navigate, so the logistics of the two armies are extremely difficult to transport, relying entirely on mules and horses for hauling. And the number of mules and horses that the Beiping and Daning armies can provide is limited, hardly enough to supply four divisions of troops.

In addition, the mountains of western Liaodong are cut by a thousand gullies and ten thousand ravines, making it very easy to infiltrate and lie in ambush. The two armies themselves can be extremely cautious, but their rear lines are very hard to maintain and are extremely easy for the eastern barbarians to cut off. Therefore your subjects believe that the Daling River and Xiaoling River routes should not use large bodies of infantry, but should instead use light cavalry to make a show of strength and draw the eastern barbarians' main force. Your subjects plan to deploy four Black Cavalry regiments on each of the Daling River and Xiaoling River routes, supplemented by two or three thousand Mongol light cavalry."

The Black Cavalry regiments were the black-gun mule regiments. After the Northern Expedition, the Ming army had enough mules and horses to supply them, so it began expanding the Black Cavalry regiments on a large scale. By now, including the six important northern garrison commands of Daning, Beiping, Anbei, Shuofang, Hexi, and Anxi, the Ming army had a total of twenty-four independent Black Cavalry regiments, plus another thirty Black Cavalry battalions attached to infantry divisions, altogether more than sixty thousand Black Cavalry.

If one added the number of shock cavalry equipped with folded-ear horses and Arabian horses, and did not count the varying numbers of cavalry held by the garrisons of Chuanbian, Chuanxi, Dongning, Beiting, Jin'ou, Jinghai, and others, nor the tribal cavalry attached to the various Ming vassal commands, nor various scattered cavalry units, the total number of cavalry possessed by the Ming army already exceeded eighty thousand!

Zhu Cilang frowned. "Four Black Cavalry regiments, counting auxiliary troops, come to only ten thousand men; if counting only combat troops, just eight thousand. And the cavalry of those small Mongol tribes have little fighting power. Can this force withstand the onslaught of the eastern barbarians' main strength?"

"It should be no problem," Zhu Chunchen said with a smile. "The Black Cavalry and the Mongol nomadic cavalry are not troops for hard fighting, but they are skilled at small-unit skirmishing. Once dispersed, they can absolutely drive all the eastern barbarians' mounted scouts and patrols out of the forward area. By then the eastern barbarians will not know the true strength or weakness of the Daling River and Xiaoling River routes, so how can they act freely? Even if the eastern barbarians throw everything into an attack, both routes are dispersed light cavalry — they can simply leave whenever they wish."

"That makes some sense. Then how are the remaining eight divisions to be deployed?" the Zhu Emperor asked.

Zhu Chunchen said, "The remaining eight divisions will first be divided into three parts. One part will land at the mouth of the Liao River — one division is enough. Any more would just be queuing for boats; better to use them elsewhere first.

One part will strike Shanhai Pass — one division. Shanhai Pass is a place the eastern barbarians must abandon; they cannot have stationed heavy troops there. A feint against a weak defense will suffice. We only need to attach one extra artillery regiment to the division at Shanhai Pass, bombard heavily with heavy cannon, and exaggerate the show of force. That should make the eastern barbarians holding the pass mistakenly believe a great army is coming, and they will retreat after token resistance.

Another part will strike the eastern barbarians' long rampart at Xiaohei Mountain, concentrating six divisions in a fierce assault! We must break through the Xiaohei Mountain rampart in the shortest possible time, then advance in great force along the west coast of the Liaodong Peninsula toward the mouth of the Liao River. After linking up with the division landed at the river mouth, we will then strike at Liaoyang and Shenyang. Once the two cities of Liao and Shen are taken, the great army can safely winter there, and after the spring floods next year, plan further advances."

You call this "slight modifications"? Zhu Cilang thought to himself: your Liaodong Governor-General's Office has completely transformed the Grand Marshal's Office's five-route Liaodong pacification plan beyond recognition. If the eastern barbarians try to play "I'll go by only one route" again, sooner or later they'll run head-on into a great army group of six divisions advancing from the Liaodong Peninsula!

"So the route advancing from Lüshun is the main force!" Zhu Cilang asked. "Who will command this route? It won't be you personally taking the field, will it?"

Zhu Chunchen smiled. "Your subject is old and can no longer face the enemy in battle. Your subject wishes to have Li Yuanyin command the six divisions on the Liaodong front!"

"Li Yuanyin is indeed a rare tiger of a general," Zhu Cilang nodded. "Then what of the other four routes?"

Zhu Chunchen said, "The Shanhai Pass front will be commanded by Wu Guoyong; the route landing at the mouth of the Liao River by Qin Mingtao; the Daling River route by Wang Qi; and the Xiaoling River route by Huang Degong."

"Good," said Zhu Cilang. "Elite troops and strong generals indeed. Then We shall wait in Tianjin to hear reports of victory!"

"Your subordinate Sima Yu, commander of the Fourth Squad, Northern Route Battalion, Hanzhong Army, respectfully greets His Highness the Prince of Jin and His Highness the Prince of Wei, wishing them golden peace."

In Hanzhong, at the great camp on Wudu Mountain, the newly arrived Li Dingguo and Liu Fangliang were receiving an inconspicuous squad commander — that Sima Yu, a Garrison Commander-grade fubing soldier who had come from Liuba County.

Although this Sima Yu was an enviable "great fubing soldier," before the Eight Princes of the Deliberative Council he was nothing more than a sesame-and-mung-bean official. The reason Li Dingguo and Liu Fangliang summoned him as soon as they arrived at Wudu Mountain was that he knew where one could cross the Qinling Mountains and enter the Guanzhong Plain controlled by the Great Ming.

Liuba County, where Sima Yu had settled, was a small county on the southern slopes of the great Qinling Mountains. The mountain folk there knew many small paths by which one could cross the Qinling and travel between Hanzhong and Guanzhong. With the Shun regime controlling foreign trade, quite a few mountain folk of Liuba County had risked the law and taken up the business of smuggling private salt — at present the price of salt within Ming territory was far lower than within Shun territory, while the price of mountain goods within Ming territory was high. So the people of the Liuba mountain region wanted to exchange mountain goods for Ming salt, and then exchange the salt for grain from the farming households of the Hanzhong basin. Although this smuggling could improve the livelihood of Liuba, it caused a massive loss of salt-tax revenue for the Shun dynasty in Hanzhong, and so the fubing soldiers of Liuba had waged a long and arduous struggle against the private salt dealers in the Qinling mountain region.

By now, although the private salt trade had still not been eradicated, they had thoroughly familiarized themselves with the roads through the Qinling, and had also trained themselves in mountain warfare.

Li Dingguo asked Sima Yu, "Sima Yu, We ask you: how many small paths are there in these Qinling Mountains by which one can travel between Hanzhong and Guanzhong?"

"At least ten," Sima Yu replied. "However, these small paths are extremely rugged, and some require climbing over mountains and ridges, so they are not suitable for the passage of a large army."

"Have you walked them all?" Li Dingguo asked again.

"Your subordinate has walked five or six of them."

"What is the farthest you have reached?"

"The farthest I have reached is the vicinity of Chencang Mountain."

"Chencang Mountain?" Li Dingguo's eyes lit up. "You have already crossed the Qinling?"

"I have indeed crossed the Qinling."

"Did you not encounter Ming troops?" Li Dingguo pressed.

Sima Yu smiled. "The ones guarding the various passes of the Qinling are the headquarters troops of the Ming Shaanxi Provincial Commander. They are not much good in a fight and dare not engage us in the Qinling Mountains. They only divide their forces to guard the key points — Chencang, Jinya Pass, Heshangyuan, Wuzhangyuan, Dasan Pass, and the like — and send cavalry patrols back and forth on reconnaissance."

Li Dingguo said thoughtfully to Liu Fangliang, "Prince of Wei, it seems we must revise our plan. We cannot keep staring fixedly at Qishan; we should also learn from Zhuge Liang and send a surprise force out by the Baoxie Road to strike straight for Wuzhangyuan!"

(End of Chapter)