Chapter 404: The General Staff

"Your Highness," Shi Rui'en thought for a moment, "based on my experience in Europe, well-trained infantry is no less mobile than most cavalry. Because warhorses are very delicate animals—they cannot be overused, and they require excellent care. So a purely cavalry unit's speed of movement will not be markedly faster than an excellent infantry unit's.

And the twelve infantry regiments you possess are all highly capable marchers. Their marching ability even surpasses that of armies on European battlefields. So I believe you can absolutely rely on infantry to pursue the Tartar cavalry!

Of course, the choice of battlefield is also very important. If we can compete with the Tartars in mobility in a region crisscrossed by waterways, I believe two legs can defeat four legs!"

This Westerner had fought all his life, but he had never encountered steppe-style cavalry. The cavalry he had faced were all European-style, riding high-quality warhorses carefully bred by human hands—tall, agile, strong, but unable to endure hardship, and extremely expensive.

So no European country, especially in Western and Central Europe, had cavalry willing to run their horses to death fighting a war of movement. And how large were the countries of Western and Central Europe anyway? How could a war of movement that ran horses to death even be fought?

Moreover, Western and Central Europe were now covered with star forts. These bastions, easy to defend and hard to attack, also greatly restricted army mobility.

But the Qing now controlled the Mongolian steppe, giving them a low-cost source of warhorses—and Mongolian horses that could endure hardship at that. So the Qing state was now unafraid to expend horses' lives in maneuver warfare.

Still, luring the Qing army into a region crisscrossed by waterways was a viable approach. Such regions were not forbidden ground for cavalry, but they would restrict cavalry from exercising mobility—though of course infantry mobility would be restricted as well, since no one can walk on water!

Behind the Hall of Literary Splendor within the imperial palace at Nanjing, two new halls of moderate size had just been completed—one called the Hall of Overcoming Hardship, the other the Pavilion of Enduring Spring.

The Pavilion of Enduring Spring was the residence of Zhu Cilang, Ning Xiangyu, Fei Zhen'e, Wu Sanmei, and Zheng Chagu. It was far more spacious than the Eastern Warm Pavilion and Western Warm Pavilion where they had lived before.

The Hall of Overcoming Hardship was where Zhu Cilang held meetings with the Grand Marshal's Office and Ministry of War officials and handled military affairs—in effect, it was the central brain of the Ming army and navy!

Now that full-scale war between the Ming and the Qing had begun, the focus of Zhu Cilang's work as the Army-Supervising Crown Prince had shifted from administrative reform to military affairs.

In the center of the Hall of Overcoming Hardship, several long tables had been pushed together to form a huge map table, and spread across it was an enormous topographical map covering Shandong and Henan provinces, as well as the Jianghuai and Huaibei regions of the Southern Metropolitan Area—one of a series of military maps Zhu Cilang had ordered the Grand Marshal's Office and the Ministry of War to produce together.

It did not look very accurate, but there was nothing better available, so they had to make do. Besides making do with the map, the "staff officers" serving in the Hall of Overcoming Hardship were also make-do choices.

Although Zhu Cilang had long since built himself a simplified version of a general staff—the Military Orders Guard of the Grand Marshal's Office—where under his command was there anyone qualified to serve as chief of the general staff? How could Cao Youyi, Wu Xiang, Wu Sanfu, or Wu Guogui possibly be qualified? Li Yan was somewhat better, but only marginally so—he would have to make do. A few cobblers together can match a Zhuge Liang.

Today, when Zhu Cilang returned to the Hall of Overcoming Hardship after inspecting the Grand Parade Ground, Li Yan and Wu Xiang had already been waiting there for some time. Seeing Zhu Cilang approach, both came forward and saluted. Li Yan was holding a stack of memorials.

Now all military memorials were handled by the Right Section of the Office of Transmission, which delivered them first to the Military Orders Guard of the Grand Marshal's Office. Administrative memorials were handled by the Left Section of the Office of Transmission, which delivered them first to the Grand Secretariat for deliberation.

So the memorials Zhu Cilang now saw were all forwarded by the Military Orders Guard and the Grand Secretariat. The advantage of this arrangement was that it greatly lightened the Crown Prince's workload—he no longer had to bury himself daily in an endless pile of memorials. The disadvantage was that it was easy for him to be deceived.

But he did have some means of keeping his ears and eyes open—not relying on the Embroidered Uniform Guard, but by establishing the Advisory Council. Based on the amount of commercial tax paid by each prefecture and county (and land tax once the five-year land-tax exemption expired), local gentry and merchants would jointly recommend councilors, who would reside permanently in Nanjing and work in the Palace of Self-Reflection at the Xiao Mausoleum. Their specific duty was to offer suggestions, report problems, and even impeach officials. At the annual "Palace of Self-Reflection Deliberation" from now on, these councilors would be the main participants.

In addition, Zhu Cilang had recently issued a princely decree permitting Yingtian Prefecture, Suzhou Prefecture, Songjiang Prefecture, Hangzhou Prefecture, Quanzhou Prefecture, and Guangzhou Prefecture—six prefectures in all—to trial-publish private newspapers, in order to open channels of expression. So Zhu Cilang could also learn about local conditions by reading the papers.

"Thousand Years, we have just received a joint memorial from Shi Kefa, Gao Hongtu, Zuo Maodi, and the Prince of Lu." Li Yan handed a memorial to Zhu Cilang. "They want to pile earth into star forts and then advance step by step, fortifying as they go, to corner Dodo's force of Tartar caitiffs."

"Piling earth into star forts—their minds work fast!" Zhu Cilang took the memorial but did not read it, instead striding quickly toward the map table.

The map was already covered with wooden pieces representing both sides—shaped like xiangqi pieces, with their surfaces shaved flat and carved with characters such as "Fort," "Regiment," "Brigade," "Trained," and "Caitiff." This was Li Yan's idea, and it was clear at a glance.

"Your Highness, they want to advance in three columns—one toward Liaocheng, one toward Anping Town, and one toward Qufu." Li Yan used a long wooden rod to push three pieces carved with "Fort" from Jinan, Feicheng, and Tai'an Prefecture on the map to Liaocheng, Anping Town, and Qufu respectively.

Wu Xiang added, "They want to build one fort every twenty li, pushing the forts forward all the way."

"Will it work?" Zhu Cilang was not entirely sure either. He looked at the two men—both little more than half-amateur strategists—and asked for their opinions.

"Your Highness," Li Yan said, "judging from the Battle of Qufu, the Tartar caitiffs have no real way to break a star fort. However, with twenty li between two forts, it seems they still cannot stop the Tartar troops from passing through."

Wu Xiang said, "They cannot be stopped, but once the three star-fort lines are formed, it will be like three daggers thrust in. Dodo will be kept busy for a while." He smiled. "That will stabilize the situation in Shandong, and the southeast will be even more secure."

"Is that so?" Zhu Cilang asked. "Does my esteemed father-in-law think Dodo is so easy to deal with?"

Wu Xiang smiled. "How is it that Dodo is easy to deal with? It is clearly Your Highness's brilliance! Was not this method of piling earth into star forts created by Your Highness? If Hong Chengchou had had this method back then, the Battle of Song-Jin might well have been won!"

Was that so? Zhu Cilang thought it over, and he too felt he was rather brilliant. He looked at Li Yan again. "Strategist, if you were Dodo, what would you do?"

"Well..." Li Yan looked at the map, then suddenly nodded. "This subject does have a method."

"Let's hear it."

Li Yan extended the wooden rod and pushed the piece carved with "Caitiff" from Shandong all the way into Henan.

The Henan front had now opened as well—Huang Degong against Hooge!

Huang Degong certainly could not defeat Hooge, but old Huang was not entirely without tricks.

He could also strengthen the walls and clear the fields!

Before Hooge launched his offensive, Huang Degong had emptied Suizhou—Xu Dingguo's old base—completely, then set it ablaze and burned it to the ground, withdrawing his entire army to Shangqiu. There he fortified along the Sui River and the Mashang River and held firm.

It was now the summer flood season, and the water levels of the Sui River and the Mashang River (which flowed into the Guo River) were high, making them difficult to ford. Moreover, Huang Degong's force had some war junks that could move along the three rivers (which were interconnected at this time), and he could also receive support from Lu Zhenfei's Huai'an naval force. So Hooge had no good options against him for the moment, and the two sides were locked in a standoff between Suiyang and Shangqiu.

(End of Chapter)