Chapter 142: Section Twenty-Six: The Threat

As Huang Shi fell silent once more, Nanxinkou likewise became utterly quiet again.

"Eunuch Wu, please be at ease," Huang Shi decided first to reassure the Army Supervisor when he spoke again. Feigning nonchalance, he smiled and said: "The Jianzhou slaves stationed in Liaonan are the Two Red Banners. The two banners together have just over forty niru, each niru with fewer than three hundred adult males, of whom no more than a hundred are combat soldiers. After the battles of Lüshun and Jinzhou, the Two Red Banners of the Jianzhou slaves have already been severely weakened. This is merely a defensive fort of the Jianzhou slaves; it poses no great threat."

"That is good then." Wu Mu was clearly much relieved, but a question immediately followed that choked Huang Shi silent.

"But if this fort is completed, won't our army's movements be right under the eyes of the Jianzhou slaves?"

How could this Wu Mu, a mere bodyguard, speak with such penetrating clarity? Yet before Huang Shi could figure out the logic of it, the next round of assault began.

"And the Jianzhou slaves could stockpile siege equipment and provisions inside the fort — that still seems to pose no small threat, does it not?"

Both questions were very difficult to answer. Huang Shi looked at Wu Mu oddly — could this fellow be a hidden master of profound depth?

Wu Mu, for his part, did not notice anything strange in Huang Shi's expression. He turned his head and asked Li Yunrui: "At the last military council, this servant recalls that Company Commander Li, you also mentioned a third point — what was it?"

"Reporting to the Army Supervisor, the Jianzhou slaves could also rely on this fort to build yet another fort at Beixinkou, cutting off our army's sources of intelligence." Li Yunrui immediately reported to Wu Mu with the eagerness of a monkey offering up a treasure.

Huang Shi shot Li Yunrui a fierce glare. It seemed he would have to drop hints to these subordinates about what could be said to the Army Supervisor and what must not be mentioned.

But since Wu Mu had already looked back at him, Huang Shi had no choice but to rally his spirits and argue desperately: "The Jianzhou slaves have no troops to attack with — this matter is certain beyond doubt. The Jianzhou slaves' Plain Yellow Banner is with the Mongol Lin Danhan, the Bordered Yellow Banner is with the Mongol Bayan tribe, the Plain Blue is at Lianshan confronting our Dongjiang army's Kuandian division, and the Bordered Blue is at Fengcheng guarding against the Korean Dongjiang army. Therefore only the Jianzhou slaves' Two Red Banners are here — they absolutely lack the strength to attack!"

"Do the Jianzhou slaves not have Eight Banners?"

"Yes, and there are also the Two White Banners stationed at Liaoyang and Shenyang." Huang Shi steeled himself and pressed on — first pacify this Army Supervisor and then worry about the rest: "Those are for guarding against the Guanning Army in Liaoxi. The Liaozhen Guanning Army has one hundred sixty thousand troops. The Jianzhou slaves' two banners are already hard-pressed by them and absolutely, absolutely cannot be redeployed to Liaonan."

This argument was only good enough to fool Wu Mu. The faces of the surrounding officers all showed unconvinced expressions. Of the Guanning Army's one hundred sixty thousand troops on the rolls, at least one hundred thousand were auxiliary soldiers used to build fortifications. Moreover, Ningyuan Fort had only just been completed; it was another two hundred li forward to Jinzhou, over a hundred li beyond Jinzhou to the Dalinghe, several hundred li more to the Hexi territory where the former Guangning Army had been stationed, and from there to the Sanchahe was still several hundred li. By the time the Guanning Army had laid its pontoon bridges again, the Two White Banners could have made ten round trips.

Fortunately, Wu Mu let out a breath as if a great weight had been lifted. Huang Shi casually drew his saber and sketched a rough map of Liaonan on the ground, then struck while the iron was hot: "The Bordered Red Banner must guard westward against our army while also defending southward against the Lüshun army — it should already be extremely strained. After all, the Jianzhou slaves' Plain Red Banner is far off at Gaizhou..."

At this point Huang Shi looked down at the sketch map, his voice growing smaller and smaller until it gradually died away. Wu Mu watched him for a while, full of hope, and finally could not help calling out: "General Huang."

"Oh," Huang Shi raised his head as if waking from a dream, blinked, and smiled: "It is nothing. I shall walk a little further along the shore and see if there are any defensive oversights. Eunuch Wu, please do as you wish."

After Wu Mu and the two Embroidered Uniform Guard officers had left, Huang Shi gathered several men around him and pointed with the tip of his saber at Gaizhou's position: "What do you all think — will the Jianzhou slaves' Plain Red Banner move south?"

The officers discussed it for a while. They all felt that the vast territory from Gaizhou to Haizhou would require at least one banner to cover it. However, the Two Red Banners had suffered considerable losses this year. For the Later Jin to rely on a single, severely weakened Bordered Red Banner to resist the pincer pressure from both Lüshun and Changsheng was truly stretching their resources thin.

The final conclusion was: "It is very hard to say."

"From Yaozhou and Haizhou to Gaizhou — several hundred li of coastline. If the Plain Red Banner moves south to resist the Lüshun army," Huang Shi once again gazed out at the eastern shore and could not help indulging in fantasy: "and the Bordered Red Banner is also pinned down on the opposite shore, then this entire area would have only the Jianzhou slaves' local garrison troops left, with no mobile force whatsoever that could threaten a Great Ming army launching a surprise raid."

"My lord, that is still a matter of the distant future. Let us first attend to what is before our eyes."

"Garrison Commander Yang speaks rightly," Huang Shi pulled his mind back from fantasy and called over a soldier: "Go and invite Mr. Deng Ken here at once." Then he instructed his subordinates: "Since there is this fort that can store equipment and provisions, we must still cut the ice. This year we shall mobilize all six thousand adult males, and the women must also go to boil water and tend the sick."

"As ordered, my lord."

"At the same time as we increase the patrols... Commissioner Li, mobilize our army's spies and monitor the roads between Gaizhou and Fuzhou."

"As ordered, my lord." According to the existing regulations on Changsheng Island, Li Yunrui would analyze the volume of courier traffic and the provisions stockpiled at each relay station, and submit directly to Huang Shi a concise movement forecast.

Huang Shi did not give further instructions. He once again suppressed his desire to personally intervene — I am just an ordinary man, not a military genius. What I can rely on to contend with the heroes of this era is only a more modernized military system.

After Deng Ken arrived, Huang Shi asked him what kind of cannon could bombard the fort on the opposite shore.

"The Jianzhou slaves clearly have no understanding of firearms," Deng Ken had already observed the deployment on the opposite shore. That fort was only two li from the Nanxinkou shore of Changsheng Island, evidently still built based on experience from the cold-weapons era: "An eighteen-pounder could reach them."

"A red-barbarian cannon?"

"Yes."

Huang Shi's expression grew somewhat somber: "Do you know that the Jesuits' red-barbarian cannon sells for five thousand taels of silver per piece?"

"If you cast it yourself, the raw materials would only be a few hundred taels; with labor included it would probably be within a thousand taels." In truth, Deng Ken was still overestimating, but Huang Shi had no frame of reference either.

"Very well, then let us begin as soon as possible." Huang Shi stamped the ground beneath his feet, indicating that the gun emplacement would be set up right here in the future: "And then — let the great cannons roar and blast his mother."