Chapter 1519: The Mad King, the Fool King, and the King of War

"Banzai! Banzai!"

In the desert, green as far as the eye could see, the densely packed Qingzhou warriors let out thunderous cheers. Standing atop a watchtower, King Jiaqing Zhu Cihuan and his two wives — his principal consort Shimazu Naoyoshi and his secondary consort Hoshina Naomi — all wore satisfied smiles.

All three were in full battle dress, wearing red-lacquered plate armor with a touch of Japanese styling, and they looked thoroughly imposing.

Around the watchtower where they stood stretched a long section of border wall, its ramparts blown full of gaps by cannon fire. These border walls were good enough for dealing with small bands of Japanese bandits, but before an army of more than ten thousand fully armed warriors dragging along over ten cannons, they were no better than paper!

The moment the great army arrived and the cannons roared, in less than two hours the defending Sonora militia could no longer hold out — some surrendered, some fled. Not only did they abandon to the invading Jiaqing warriors the border wall that had cost Don Juan José no small number of silver pesos, they also left behind all the cornmeal stored in several watchtowers, handing it over to the invading Qingzhou warriors.

This was an unexpected windfall. Originally these Qingzhou devils, who had not brought enough rations, had been prepared to eat cactus if it came to that (they had already sampled the giant saguaro cacti of the Sonoran Desert, and it seemed they were not lethal). Now, however, they had enough cornmeal to steam cornbread!

The border wall in the middle of the Sonoran Desert had not been built right up against the Jiaqing Kingdom's Qingzhou City (San Diego), but rather out in the desert, seven or eight hundred li from Qingzhou City and still twelve hundred li from the port of Guaymas.

Moreover, the Sonora provincial militia garrisoning the border wall would send out cavalry to patrol the desert north of the wall.

So the defenders of the Sonora border wall had ample time to burn their stored grain and then make their escape.

Yet beyond Zhu Cihuan and his companions' expectations, the Sonora provincial militia garrisoning the border wall, when faced with an army of more than ten thousand Qingzhou warriors, actually chose to hold their shabby wall — and the result, of course, was a great favor to Zhu Cihuan.

Because this sortie by the Qingzhou warrior army was, in truth, a battle fought "without logistics"!

The Jiaqing Kingdom had only this much to its foundation. If one did not count those who held Jiaqing noble status but did not live in the Jiaqing realm, the true Jiaqing people numbered no more than one hundred thousand — and that was not the number of able-bodied men, but the total population!

Had the population not been so small, the Jiaqing Kingdom would never have adopted the "one fief, one soldier" system, under which there were only warriors and no commoners! Yet the "one fief, one soldier" system could only solve the Jiaqing Kingdom's problem of insufficient manpower; it could not break the predicament of national weakness. In truth, the "one fief, one soldier" system was only a short-term shot in the arm, not a long-term solution at all.

What accumulated through this system was not true national strength, but merely the strength for a single battle. And even that single battle could not be fought properly, because all the able-bodied men were warriors. Thus once the able-bodied men went to war, production in the rear largely ground to a halt. At most they could barely sustain the livelihood of the old and weak; supporting the front lines was simply impossible.

So the King of Jiaqing could only lead an army with no logistical line of support, carrying military rations barely enough for thirty days (the Jiaqing army had few horses; any more and they could not carry it), and embark on an expedition that was little short of gambling with their lives.

When Zhu Cihuan, the King of Jiaqing and Regional Commander of the three armies, first heard of this plan from Shimazu Naoyoshi, he was badly startled — carrying thirty days of grain and marching two thousand li meant covering more than sixty, nearly seventy li a day, and they would have to fight battles along the way!

Although the Governor-General of New Spain in Sonora, the Count of Iturbide, was an old soldier without much brains, and the border wall the New Spaniards had built in the Sonoran Desert was no better than paper.

Still, the New Spanish soldiers could use a scorched-earth strategy against the invading Jiaqing army — if the Count of Iturbide could see through the Jiaqing army's intentions, he could also concentrate his forces to hold the port of Guaymas. Once the Jiaqing army failed to seize this supply port, then more than ten thousand men would have nothing to eat in the desert but cactus.

So this battle plan, from which there was no return, was fundamentally staking the lives of more than ten thousand people! If anything at all went wrong, the expeditionary army would run out of food and be defeated — that would mean total annihilation!

And worse still, Zhu Cihuan himself was on that "blacklist" of more than ten thousand. He had to lead the campaign in person, and he had to display sufficient valor. Leading more than ten thousand men into a war where most would likely starve to death at the front — if he was not a fool, then he was mad.

King Jiaqing Zhu Cihuan was neither a fool nor mad, and he refused Shimazu Naoyoshi's proposal on the spot. But this woman was ruthless enough — she actually threatened him with seppuku!

If it had been Shimazu Naoyoshi alone threatening seppuku, Zhu Cihuan most likely would not have yielded; he did not believe Naoyoshi would actually cut. But his other wife, Naomi, the daughter of Hoshina Masateru, actually joined in the commotion and also threatened seppuku!

That would not do!

Hoshina Naomi was someone Zhu Cihuan had watched grow up, so he knew the girl's stubborn temper. If she said she would cut, she truly would cut her belly open!

Moreover, this girl had entered Zhu Cihuan's bedchamber on behalf of the Hoshina family only after the death of Zhu Cihuan's other concubine, Hoshina Masateru's younger sister.

Zhu Cihuan was very clear about his true position in the Jiaqing Kingdom!

The Jiaqing Kingdom was in fact a colonial state founded by a group of "surplus warriors" who had no prospects in Japan, using his name as their banner!

As king, he was nothing more than an ancestral tablet set up for veneration; the real power lay with the two great warrior families, the Shimazu and the Hoshina.

Although the Shimazu family's head was Shimazu Nobuhisa, most of the Shimazu clansmen listened to Shimazu Naoyoshi.

The Hoshina family's head was Hoshina Masateru, and he was Zhu Cihuan's staunchest supporter. It was said the relationship between the two men was most unusual!

If Zhu Cihuan lost Shimazu Naoyoshi and also lost Hoshina Masateru's support, then his reign as King of Jiaqing would be at an end.

So even knowing it was a gamble with his life, Zhu Cihuan could only grit his teeth and stake his life on it!

He had not expected the opening of this life-or-death gamble to go so smoothly!

According to the quartermaster's report, the captured cornmeal was enough to feed more than ten thousand Qingzhou warriors cornbread for ten days. With ten extra days of cornbread, the King of Jiaqing's chances of winning this gamble had greatly increased.

If he were defeated and starved to death in the Sonoran Desert, he would without doubt be known as the Mad King, the Fool King. But if he won the gamble — then this "battle without grain" would go down in history, and he would be the great founding sovereign of the Jiaqing Kingdom, the ever-victorious King of War!

After he announced the "cornbread glad tidings" to the whole army, what greeted him was a frenzy of shouting.

Just at that moment, Hoshina Masateru, also clad in red plate armor, came swiftly up the watchtower to Zhu Cihuan's side and reported in a low voice: "Your Highness, according to the scouts, several hundred New Spanish cavalry are rapidly approaching us! They are about thirty li away."

"What?" Zhu Cihuan was taken aback. "Several hundred? Are you sure there is no mistake?"

"There is no mistake," Hoshina Masateru said. "It was the Takeda family's cavalry unit that spotted them. Five hundred riders at most."

"Your Highness," Shimazu Naoyoshi interjected, "the Spaniards surely never imagined we would send a great army advancing overland. They must have thought we had dispatched only a small force, and so they are advancing recklessly. This is our chance to crush them in one blow!

The Spanish knights in Sonora are not numerous. If five hundred have truly come, that is essentially all of them. If we can destroy them, then within Sonora there will be no force left capable of resisting us!"

"Good!" This time Zhu Cihuan made a prompt decision. In one motion he drew his katana, raised it high above his head, then thrust it sharply southward. The cheering warriors below all fell silent, watching their "King of War" and holding their breath.

Zhu Cihuan shouted: "Gentlemen — the Spanish cavalry, several hundred strong, are thirty li away! Destroy them, and no one in all of Sonora can stand in our way. Once Sonora is taken, the gate to Sinaloa will lie open. Once Sinaloa is taken, Mexico City will be fifteen hundred li away! Warriors of Qingzhou, advance!"

(End of Chapter)