Chapter 1725: The Eastern Barbarians Approach Shanhai Pass!

West of Datong, Zhu Youjian had seized girls, displayed his martial prowess, formed an alliance with Lindan Batur, and even gained the title of Wuliangha Chiliarch Ordu and more than half of the Daqing Mountains as his territory. He was absolutely elated.

But after extreme joy, sorrow was very likely to follow!

The reason for the sorrow, of course, was that Hong Taiji, that eastern barbarian, had not developed according to the route map of the previous life — Hong Taiji had not been reborn with a script in hand, so how could he know that his first incursion into the interior should have occurred in the tenth month of the third year of Tiancong? And even if he did know, he would have had to move it up!

Because in the previous life, what he had faced was a benighted ruler who thought himself wise, hoodwinked by that braggart Yuan Chonghuan, who had single-mindedly strengthened western Liaoning while neglecting the defenses of Ji Town, Xuanfu, and Datong, and had also fought a mutually devastating melee with the Hutudun Khan.

And Yuan Chonghuan had made no shortage of foolish moves himself: on one hand, he openly sold grain to relieve the Kharchin Mongols, who were suffering from famine, which led to a great deal of grain being resold to the Later Jin; on the other, he had executed Mao Wenlong of Dongjiang, and even indulged in wild fantasies about killing the commander and using his troops.

Faced with two opponents who made one blunder after another, Hong Taiji could naturally prepare for war at his leisure, with no urgency to enter the interior.

But the Southern Emperor, who had now become an old fox, made far fewer foolish moves. Not long after taking power, he began withdrawing from western Liaoning and strengthening Ji Town, Xuanfu, and Datong. Moreover, he had strengthened Mao Wenlong's forces, allowing Mao Wenlong to establish a major stronghold at Jinzhou Guard — for now, Mao Wenlong's main energies were devoted to the defense of Jinzhou, so he had little spare capacity to harass the Later Jin's rear. But once his defenses at Jinzhou Guard withstood this winter's test, after the spring of next year the activities of the Pacifying Liao Army were certain to intensify.

And the news coming from the western front also spurred Hong Taiji to hasten his southward invasion — more and more reports were now arriving, all saying that the Ming army had won a victory at Datong and that the Hutudun Khan had suffered devastating losses!

Although no one knew how Zhu Youjian would deal with the defeated Chahar tribe, two things were certain: first, Zhu Youjian would be the strongest enemy the Later Jin had ever encountered! Second, Zhu Youjian and his elite troops were not in Northern Zhili, but in Datong Garrison.

So if Hong Taiji did not now break through the still relatively weak border wall of Ji Town, when would he?

And the unusual movements beyond the Great Wall of Ji Town that had begun in early July of the first year of Chongzhen could hardly have completely escaped the eyes and ears of the newly appointed Regional Commander of Ji Town, Zhao Shuaijiao.

Reports that the great army of the Jianzhou slaves had already reached the area beyond the Great Wall of Ji Town, and that the various Kharchin Mongol tribes were defecting to the Jianzhou slaves one after another and would serve as their vanguard, had been flying in like snowflakes since mid-July to Santunying Fortress, northwest of Yongping Prefecture and near Zunhua County.

This Santunying Fortress was only a small town capable of holding a few hundred households, yet it was the seat of the garrison headquarters of Jizhou Garrison, one of the nine key border garrisons.

The fact that this small town of Santunying served as the garrison headquarters in itself illustrated the weakness of Jizhou Garrison. Although Jizhou Garrison was ranked among the nine border garrisons and bore the heavy responsibility of defending more than a thousand li of the Great Wall line protecting Beijing, unlike the neighboring Liao Garrison, Xuanfu Garrison, and Datong Garrison, Jizhou Garrison had no actual territory.

Having no actual territory meant that it only administered troops and had no jurisdiction over civilians; it had only a line of Great Wall defenses and some pass fortresses, and beyond that no territory of its own.

Such a military garrison without actual territory might seem quite normal from a later perspective — military and civil administration ought to be separated, after all! But the military foundation of the Ming dynasty was the military farm colony system, that is, supporting troops through farming colonies, sustaining troops with land.

Therefore, on Ming territory there were large numbers of guard battalions with actual territory, that is, guard battalions that combined military and civilian administration. Considering that these guard battalions had long practiced hereditary offices and hereditary soldiers, they could also be regarded as feudal fiefdoms — the so-called military-household serf soldiers criticized by later generations were in fact serfs of feudal military aristocrats, not true warriors.

The Ming military system, from the very beginning, was saturated with strong feudal military characteristics, and was not the mercenary recruitment system of the Song dynasty.

And the weakening of Ming military power was also due to the gradual collapse of this feudal military system of sustaining troops with land — this collapse of the feudal military system of sustaining troops with land was not unique to the Ming either; historically, Turkey, India, Persia, and other states that had practiced various forms of land-based military service all experienced the collapse of the land-based military service system.

But no matter how much this feudal land-based military service system collapsed, those military garrisons that possessed actual territory still had stronger fighting power than garrisons without actual territory or prefectures entirely ruled by civil officials — although the guard battalion system had become a mere name, the martial spirit of the people in actual-territory garrisons remained relatively fierce, making it easy to recruit elite soldiers and fierce fighters.

Moreover, the Regional Commander of an actual-territory garrison had greater authority and more resources, and when necessary could mobilize large numbers of able-bodied men on the military rolls to join the fight. These military-roll able-bodied men might not be able to take part in field battles, but they could still make do for defending fortresses.

But Jizhou Garrison, this key garrison responsible for defending the Great Wall and protecting the capital, had no land to allot because the military farmlands around the capital region had long been occupied by more than seventy capital army guard battalions. Thus Jizhou Garrison could only become a military garrison with no actual territory and no jurisdiction over civilians.

The Regional Commander's headquarters of Jizhou Garrison therefore could not be placed inside a strong, massive fortress like those of Xuanfu Garrison and Datong Garrison, but could only be placed in Santunying Fortress, this unremarkable little fortress town.

Although this Santunying Fortress had been rebuilt under the direction of Qi Jiguang, no matter how it was rebuilt it was still only a small town, with only three fortresses and nine watchtowers, and apart from several thousand headquarters-battalion troops and the Regional Commander's household retainers, there were no other able-bodied men in the town who could be mobilized.

Once the headquarters battalion and household retainers left the town, Santunying Fortress would be an empty city!

"Father Marshal, recently the Mongols beyond the three passes of Lengkou, Jielingkou, and Yiyuankou have been especially active! The night patrols we sent out to reconnoiter have also suffered heavy losses. It looks like the Jianzhou slaves intend to break through the three-pass border wall and cut off Shanhai Pass's rear route!"

Speaking with Zhao Shuaijiao, who was nearing sixty, in the Regional Commander's headquarters of Jizhou Garrison inside Santunying Fortress, was his son Zhao Guangyuan, who also held the concurrent post of Assistant Regional Commander of the headquarters battalion.

Father and son stood together before a hanging map, their gazes fixed on the Great Wall in the area of Lengkou, Jielingkou, and Yiyuankou — this stretch of the Wall happened to guard the rear route of Shanhai Pass. To Zhao Shuaijiao and Zhao Guangyuan, father and son, who had been transferred from Liao Garrison, it was especially important.

In their view, because of the Ming army's contraction in western Liaoning, the strategic depth before Shanhai Pass was insufficient, and the Later Jin army could easily bypass Ningyuan and press directly to the outside of Shanhai Pass. If another Later Jin force broke through the wall along the line of Lengkou, Jielingkou, and Yiyuankou and circled around to attack Shanhai Pass from behind, the mighty pass of Shanhai might very well be breached!

Because Shanhai Pass's main defensive orientation was toward the outside of the pass, not the inside.

"What does Governor Yuan think?" Zhao Shuaijiao asked his son.

Zhao Guangyuan had just returned from Shanhai Pass — Shanhai Pass had originally been part of Jizhou Garrison's defense zone, but Zhu Youjian had assigned it to Liao Garrison, making it the territory of Yuan Chonghuan, Governor of Liaodong.

In this way, the Shanhai Pass defense line had been split into two parts: Shanhai Pass itself and the long wall at Lengkou, Jielingkou, and Yiyuankou, which inevitably led to buck-passing and the need for coordination. So Zhao Guangyuan often went to Shanhai Pass, and Yuan Chonghuan would also meet and confer with Zhao Guangyuan there.

"Governor Yuan is also worried about Shanhai Pass's rear route being outflanked by the eastern barbarians. He hopes we can place at least ten thousand elite troops transferred from Liao Garrison at Lengkou, Jielingkou, and Yiyuankou."

"But the Great Wall of Jizhou Garrison has seven or eight hundred li that must be strictly defended!" Zhao Shuaijiao frowned as he looked at the Great Wall on the map.

Such a long defense line could not be held at all without more than a hundred thousand elite troops. Moreover, a Governor should be established in Shuntian and Yongping to take charge of Jizhou Garrison's rear support. But at present, Jizhou Garrison had only thirty thousand usable troops in total, and there was no grand Governor who could take overall charge of the military and civilian cities of Shuntian, Yongping, and other places.

Although the Emperor had dispatched several quite capable garrison officials to hold the cities in Shuntian Prefecture near the Jizhou Garrison border wall, on the whole the defenses of Jizhou Garrison, Shuntian Prefecture, and Yongping Prefecture still had not become an integrated whole.

And Zhao Shuaijiao was powerless to change this, so he had no choice but to concentrate part of his limited forces at Santunying and scatter the rest like sprinkling pepper, dispersing them along several hundred li of the Great Wall border line.

Just as father and son were both somewhat troubled, hurried footsteps came from outside the door, followed by the voice of Zhao Shuaijiao's other son, Zhao Guangrong: "Father Marshal, Yiyuankou is in urgent danger! The Jianzhou slaves' troops are attacking the Yiyuankou border wall!"

(End of Chapter)