Chapter 1281: How to Become a Loyal Martyr: A Five-Pronged Advance?

In the darkness of night, a fiery dragon stretching for dozens of li still wound its way along the mountain roads of southern Shaanxi, rolling forward like an unstoppable tide.

This was the great army personally led by Wu Sangui, Governor-General of Sichuan and Shaanxi, Military Commissioner of Hexi, Grand Protector of Anxi, and Duke of Liang — when it marched south from Dasan Pass, it had consisted of one central army plus the Hexi Army and Anxi Army stationed in Shaanxi, a force of over forty-five thousand men in total. Yet by the time they passed through Maling Pass in Feng County, their numbers had already broken sixty thousand!

The reason Wu Sangui's forces grew larger the farther they marched was that after the main army entered Feng County, laborers who had suffered oppression at the hands of the Shun dynasty's landlord-class garrison troops, along with local able-bodied men of Feng County, kept joining the imperial army!

These were all hardy, hard-working men accustomed to mountain roads, and they were also familiar with the terrain along the Sanguan Road and the Jinniu Road. With their addition, Wu Sangui's great army found it far easier to advance along the narrow, rugged Sanguan Road, and no longer needed to worry about enemy ambushes — Liu Maoxia and Wang Youwen selected a group of dare-to-die volunteers from among the Feng County able-bodied men who had joined them, and had them lead the bravest of Wu Sangui's troops in searching and standing guard in the forests ahead of and on both flanks of the main army. If Li Dingguo truly had an army lying in ambush there, it could not escape their notice.

Once it was confirmed that there were no ambushers ahead, Wu Sangui's courage swelled. In order to reach Lueyang as quickly as possible to join forces with the vanguard under Shang Kexi and Kong Tingxun, and also to move his troops as quickly as possible into the Sichuan Basin or the Hanzhong Basin, where grain was more plentiful, so as to ease the pressure of logistics and transport, Wu Sangui ordered his great army to press on day and night, advancing southward.

The Sanguan Road also proved far easier to travel than Wu Sangui had imagined. The wooden gallery plank roads had long since been replaced by stone-paved cliff roads, which not only had a solid roadbed but also offered strong carrying capacity, allowing two sedan chairs and four horses to pass abreast. It could not compare with the broad, stone-paved official roads of the southeast, but compared with the rammed-earth official roads of the Guanzhong Plain, it was nearly as good.

"Commander, the replacement of the plank roads with stone cliff roads began as early as the Tang dynasty, but the great expansion of the work came in our own dynasty. At the end of the Tang, there were still wooden gallery plank roads north of Sanguan, but by the Wanli reign of our dynasty, north of Caoliang Tower in Feng County there were no more plank roads at all — all had been converted into stone cliff roads wide enough for four horses abreast. And after the roving bandits entered Shu, they spent enormous effort building stone cliff roads, forcibly conscripting laborers to repair the roads every year — sometimes hundreds of thousands, at the least over a hundred thousand, without pause for thirteen or fourteen years. Today the Sanguan Road has not a single foot of plank road left; it is entirely stone cliff road. As for the Jinniu Road, it was always easier to travel than the Sanguan Road, and with thirteen or fourteen years of continuous construction, it too has now been built into a great thoroughfare. The roving bandits spared no labor of the people, undertaking great construction projects and building so many stone cliff roads, originally for a northern campaign against Guanzhong — they never imagined it would today convenience the Commander's troops marching south. Truly they have spun a cocoon around themselves!"

The one speaking with Wu Sangui was Liu Maoxia, who now, together with Wang Youwen, was responsible for managing the laborers and volunteer militia. Taking advantage of his work, he had also investigated conditions within the Shun dynasty's territory, and had become even more certain that the roving bandits had lost the hearts of the people.

"Chuxuan," Wu Sangui asked, "these past few days so many able-bodied men and volunteers have come to join us — there is no deception in this, is there?"

Wu Sangui had fought battles his entire life, yet this was the first time he had ever encountered a situation where an army grew larger the more it fought!

He thought for a moment, then added: "Even if the common people have long suffered under the roving bandits, would they really compete to join the campaign? In the past, when this commander was at Ningyuan, I never saw many Liaodong men eagerly enlisting in the army!"

Indeed, back then the Liaodong people who followed Xiong Tingbi into the pass numbered 2.7 million! Later, when Sun Chengzong and Yuan Chonghuan pursued the policy of "Liaodong men defending Liaodong soil," they only managed to mobilize a little over 300,000 people to go to Ningyuan to build the city. Those Liaodong men willing to join the army and fight the Tartars to the death were even fewer, and those who did enlist received the very highest pay the Great Ming had to offer.

Yet now, these able-bodied volunteers following Wu Sangui south did not have a single copper coin to their name.

"The Commander may not be aware," Liu Maoxia said with a smile, "but this too is the roving bandits spinning a cocoon around themselves! The people of Sichuan were never fond of warfare, nor did they take pride in military service. But after the roving bandits entered Sichuan, they concentrated all avenues of advancement into a single channel, exalting the garrison-farmer soldiers above all. Without entering the garrison system, one could not hold office, could not be recommended for promotion, and could only labor at farming or manual work, never rising in the world. Thus for twenty years, the people of Sichuan have taken pride in military service, seeking it yet unable to attain it. Today, when they can follow the imperial army and win merit and establish themselves, how could they not vie to be first?"

It turned out that twenty years of Shun dynasty rule over southern Shaanxi, Sichuan, Yunnan, and other regions had, to a certain extent, changed the people's customs and values.

Under the stimulus of the policy of concentrating all advancement into a single channel, the martial and warlike spirit of the garrison-farmer households inevitably influenced the common people as well — after all, the Great Shun Empire was built upon the foundation of the Great Ming, where "all beneath the Son of Heaven are subjects and servants." Although the Ming had its untouchables and its ennobled aristocracy, their numbers were very small; the remaining farming households, artisan households, merchant households, military households, and so on were in fact relatively equal. Moreover, by the middle and late Ming, people of every household category could alike grow wealthy, alike sit for the civil examinations, and alike join the military.

Therefore, the Sichuan people ruled by the Shun garrison-farmer system were unwilling to admit that they were inferior to the garrison-farmer households. The notion of "are the mighty born of a special seed?" could not be changed in a mere twenty years.

Yet the custom of martial valor and military service had begun to spread throughout the territory of the Great Shun Empire!

In particular, the generation that had grown up under Shun rule all felt that joining the imperial army was an opportunity to change their own social station!

Wu Sangui nodded and laughed: "Indeed, they have spun a cocoon around themselves. They do not know how to educate and transform the people, nor do they permit the people to seek wealth or office; they know only to rely on force to oppress. In the end, they will surely be devoured by the backlash! It seems the roving bandits' fortunes are already spent!"

Just as he finished speaking, a dispatch rider carrying a lantern came galloping up at full speed, found Wu Sangui's central army, and shouted from horseback: "Victory report! Victory report! The Chuanbian Army has stormed and taken Lueyang!"

Wu Sangui burst into loud laughter upon hearing this: "Excellent, excellent, excellent! With Lueyang taken, the Qishan Road and Hanzhong are both within our grasp. The roving bandits' fate is sealed!"

"Uncle, the roving bandits' defeated troops have all retreated toward Yangping Pass! It seems they intend to abandon their territory in Hanzhong and along the Qishan Road, and hold fast at Yangping Pass."

In Lueyang city, Kong Tingxun, who had spent the entire afternoon pursuing the Shun army, returned victorious with his cavalry only after nightfall, coming back to the city of Lueyang that had been occupied by the Chuanbian Army that very morning.

Lueyang was the hub of southern Shaanxi. To the south lay Yangping Pass — anyone with even a little knowledge of history and geography knew what kind of place that was. To the west lay the Qishan Road; if the Qishan Road came under Ming control, then the Ming army could advance into the Sichuan Basin via the Yinping Trail or the Songpan Highlands. To the east lay Mian County, the gateway to the Hanzhong Basin, where Li Dingguo's Dingjun Mountain camp was located — that place could be called the great base camp for the Shun's northern campaign against Guanzhong!

"You say the roving bandits will abandon Hanzhong?" Shang Kexi found this somewhat hard to believe. "From Hanzhong into Shu there are the Micang Road and the Lizhi Road, and moreover Hanzhong lies to the rear of Yunyang. Once Hanzhong is abandoned, Yunyang cannot be held either. Add to that the southern part of Gongchang Prefecture where the Qishan Road lies — they would lose two and a half prefectures in one stroke!"

Kong Tingxun laughed: "I also thought it unlikely, but the situation before our eyes is exactly that! The roving bandit cavalry that withdrew from Lueyang all went south, retreating toward Yangping Pass. And the cavalry I sent to scout toward Mian County rode fifty li to the southeast before turning back, and found no sign of any large roving bandit force passing through."

"Could they truly have abandoned Hanzhong?"

"They must have abandoned it!" Kong Tingxun said. "Yesterday we received military reports that Commander Wu has also detached troops to descend eastward from Maling Pass, and has ordered three divisions of the Guards Army to enter Hanzhong via the Ziwu Road, the Baoxie Road, and the Tangluo Road. If we then detach another force from Lueyang to advance eastward, that would be five armies advancing side by side — how could Hanzhong possibly be defended?"

"Perhaps the roving bandits have an ambush lying in the Hanzhong Basin?" Shang Kexi said hesitantly.

"How is that possible?" Kong Tingxun said. "The roving bandits excel at mountain warfare, but the Hanzhong Basin is all flatland, favorable for warhorses to charge. They would forgo ambushing in the mountains and go ambush on the plains instead? Would that not be seeking their own deaths?"

"That is true."

"Uncle," Kong Tingxun said, "why don't we select fifteen thousand elite troops and march east from Lueyang to Mian County? If we can take Dingjun Mountain, that would be a great achievement! Then you, Uncle, could be enfeoffed as a Duke, and your nephew could also gain a marquisate."

Shang Kexi thought for a moment, then said: "Search the hundred li from Lueyang to Mian County thoroughly once more. If there truly is no ambush, then we shall march east!"

(End of Chapter)