Chapter 1656: The Son of Heaven Guards the Gate, and the Son of Heaven Keeps Household Retainers

The Liaodong garrison had originally been bled dry.

Zhu Youjian had long since heard similar talk from that rebellious son of his and from Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu, and their circle!

The reason the Liaodong garrison collapsed, and the reason the Jianzhou barbarians were able to rise, was, to put it plainly, the covert struggle between the Ming court and the Liaodong garrison. The court felt that the Liaodong garrison had grown too large to control: Li Chengliang sat on several thousand household retainers, ran roughshod beyond the passes, and skimmed every sort of profit, looking for all the world like a king beyond the Wall. And the Liaodong military clique headed by Li Chengliang deliberately kept the enemy alive to preserve their own importance, unwilling to carry out a thorough conquest of the various Jurchen tribes.

The Imjin War in Joseon, which broke out during the Wanli reign, became an opportunity for the Ming court to drain the power of the Liaodong military clique. In the year before the Imjin War began, Li Chengliang had already been removed from office by censor impeachments, although Li Rusong, Li Rubai, Li Ruzhang, Li Rumei, and a batch of veteran generals Li Chengliang had trained were still given important commands. But with Li Chengliang gone as Regional Commander, the financial resources the Liaodong military clique commanded took a severe cut.

After Li Chengliang left office, the Liaodong garrison changed commanders eight times in ten years, with each commander averaging little more than a year in post. It was utterly impossible for any of them, like Li Chengliang with his long tenure in Liaodong, to sweep every sort of local interest in Liaodong into his own pocket and then use the greater part of it to maintain household retainers.

Moreover, even if these short-term Liaodong commanders could scrape together a bit of silver, they still had to grease palms above and below, and set aside a little for their own retirement.

Thus the economic foundation that sustained the Liaodong garrison's household retainers was severely shaken after Li Chengliang left office.

Barely a year after Li Chengliang's departure, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, the ruler of Japan, launched the Imjin invasion of Joseon. The Liaodong military clique, its economic base already shaken, threw itself with tremendous enthusiasm, under the leadership of Li Chengliang's son Li Rusong, into a war to aid Joseon that left them so ruined they could not find north.

The war to aid Joseon, which they had expected to win quickly, dragged on for more than six years, and the fighting power of the Japanese pirate army also exceeded the Liaodong military clique's expectations. The household retainers owned by the Li Chengliang family suffered catastrophic losses in the war.

If Li Chengliang had still been Regional Commander of Liaodong, those losses could have been slowly made up after the war by skimming the profits of Liaodong, but Li Chengliang had long been out of office. Although in the twenty-fifth year of Wanli (1597), the Wanli Emperor, seemingly aware that the Liaodong garrison's military strength was in danger of disintegrating, appointed Li Rusong as Regional Commander of Liaodong, Li Rusong had not yet used the post to recoup his losses before he was killed in battle the following year, in the fourth month, fighting the Mongol Tümen tribe (the Chahar). Li Rusong's unexpected death in battle in fact shows that the Li family's retainer force had already been bled down to almost nothing after the Joseon campaign.

Otherwise, given the fighting power the Li family retainers had shown at the Battle of Byeokjegwan, a few tens of thousands of Tümen nomadic cavalry could never have defeated three thousand Liaodong retainer iron cavalry.

Although in the twenty-ninth year of Wanli, Li Chengliang was once again brought back into service, taking up the post of Regional Commander of Liaodong at the advanced age of seventy-six, by then the Li family retainers had long lost their former splendor, and the aged, muddled Li Chengliang had neither the energy nor the will to rebuild his family's iron cavalry. With what strength he had left, he would rather have piled up a little more family property for his descendants!

So Li Chengliang's second term as Regional Commander of Liaodong could only maintain a surface stability, and by the time he was impeached and forced out again, the situation in Liaodong had already deteriorated to a dangerous degree.

"Yang Gao," Zhu Youjian said, looking at Yang Gao, "you have served long on the frontier, twice held the post of Supreme Commander, and were on close terms with the Li family of Tieling. You should be thoroughly familiar with the household retainers maintained by frontier garrison generals."

Yang Gao nodded. "This old subject knows a little of the matter."

"Then can you tell Us, what are household retainers? And why do frontier generals maintain them?"

At these words Yang Gao first sighed, then said: "This old subject knows little of the southern armies, and only knows the military affairs of Liaodong. The household retainers maintained by the various Liaodong generals are mostly iron cavalry used for charging and breaking enemy lines. Among the Liaodong garrison's various forces, infantry can be filled with regular troops, but the iron cavalry is almost entirely household retainers.

The reason for this is that iron cavalry is hard to obtain and hard to maintain. With the pay and provisions regular troops receive, one simply cannot produce iron cavalry. Take the Liaodong garrison as an example: a household retainer's rations, clothing, and equipment exceed a regular soldier's by tenfold, and only thus can they wear stout armor, ride fine horses, and be used to break the enemy line whenever a great foe appears.

And the difficulty of maintaining iron cavalry is not merely a matter of more pay and provisions producing iron cavalry. It also requires the commander to select men with care and supervise them constantly, which costs time and effort. If the commander does not hold full authority, if the troops cannot belong to the general, then why would he spend so much thought on selecting and supervising iron cavalry? Therefore, in the northern armies, iron cavalry simply must be household retainers!

And a general without household retainer iron cavalry has only infantry at his disposal. That is enough for defending cities and holding passes, but absolutely not enough to contend for victory in the field."

This Yang Gao may have been a poor hand at fighting battles, but after so many years in the Liaodong garrison, he truly did know his trade. At the very least, he was far better than those gentlemen at court who knew only how to hold forth grandly!

And the answer Yang Gao gave Zhu Youjian basically matched the facts.

These so-called household retainers were in reality the feudal knights owned by the military cliques of the Ming frontier garrisons. They belonged to the warlords personally (vassals of vassals), not to the Ming court. And it was precisely this relationship of subordination that made the frontier warlords willing to spend blood and treasure on their retainers.

And the role of these iron-armored, iron-horsed knights in the fighting along the Ming's northern frontier was extremely obvious. Without them, field battles on the flat terrain of the north simply could not be fought at all!

Because in this age, cavalry was still the master of the battlefield! One need only look at the Wanli-era Joseon campaign: over a hundred thousand Japanese invaders, tempered by Japan's Warring States period and equipped with large numbers of "iron cannon" matchlocks, were held in check precisely because their cavalry was too weak, by a group of Ming northern warlords led by the western Ma (Ma Gui) and the eastern Li.

Zhu Youjian was silent for a moment, then spoke again: "Yang Gao, if We wish to recover Liaodong, should We not also raise more than ten thousand household retainers of the Son of Heaven, able to wear iron armor, ride fine horses, and break strong formations?"

What?

Household retainers of the Son of Heaven?

Yang Gao was stunned. What was this young emperor trying to do? Did he want to lead iron cavalry into battle against the Tartars himself? Did the Grand Secretaries and censors at court know about this? Had this young emperor dragged him out of the Imperial Prison just to have him organize household retainers for him?

"Your Majesty," cold sweat was already breaking out on old Yang's forehead, "household retainers are for rough fighting men who charge into battle. You—you are the supreme sovereign who commands generals!"

Zhu Youjian's tone suddenly deepened: "We are the Son of Heaven who guards the gate of the realm! If Liaodong had not been lost, We would not need to consider facing the enemy in battle. But now Liaodong has been lost by you—"

Yang Gao's legs trembled with fright, and he dropped to his knees before Zhu Youjian.

Zhu Youjian said heavily: "Beyond Shanhai Pass there remains only a narrow strip! North of the long walls of Jizhou and Xuanfu, everything belongs to the barbarians as well. Who can guarantee the barbarians and the eastern barbarians will not break through the walls? If the caitiffs reach the outskirts of the capital, then We will need household retainers to charge into battle!

Yang Gao! You have served long in the army and should know how to select and train household retainers. Are you willing to help Us select and train them?"

"I am willing... This subject is willing to redeem his crimes through service!"

How could Yang Gao dare say he was unwilling? His death sentence still stood! If he uttered half a word of refusal, his head would fall at once. Zhu Youjian could kill him with full justification!

Zhu Youjian smiled and nodded. "Good, good. We knew your conscience was not entirely dead, so We will give you this chance. We intend to use five million mu of land near the capital to support ten thousand households of retainers. Do you think it can be done?"

"That can certainly be done, only—" Yang Gao thought to himself, only where on earth were five million mu of land to be found?

"The land will be found! You need not worry about that." Zhu Youjian said. "Is there anything else you need?"

Yang Gao drew a breath and said: "Land alone is still not enough. A large sum of silver must also be put in. Five hundred mu of land per man may look like a great deal, but a retainer's expenses are also very large. They are not men alone; most have families, and the wealthier retainers even have servants. Moreover, a retainer's warhorse, equipment, and armor are mostly provided by himself. Five hundred mu of land alone is not enough, so Your Majesty must also add a sum of silver, and every year must still provide silver and grain. The expenses will be considerable!

If the number of retainers reaches ten thousand households, then every year Your Majesty would have to put in another several hundred thousand taels of silver..."

Old Wang's book "Dreaming Back to the Spring of Great Ming" goes on sale May 1st. Interested readers, please go take a look. I beg you!

Transmigrated to the Great Ming, taking the civil exams as an unregistered person, wanting to study but with no teacher.

Fortunately, right next door is Longchang Post, where Wang Yangming was exiled—though I'll still have to wait a few years. So first I'll grab a teacher and bring him home to make do with.

(End of Chapter)