Chapter 219: Section Thirty-Four: New Recruits

On the twenty-second day of the tenth month of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, Zhangsheng Island.

On the reviewing stand of the training ground stood a group of officers wearing red-tasseled phoenix-wing helmets, their chests covered with medals they had earned. Below the reviewing stand, rank after rank of soldiers in iron helmets and full armor, armed with sharp weapons, marched past in precise square formations, kicking their legs high in unison. As each square formation passed before the reviewing stand, its commanding officer would draw his saber, gently kiss the blade in the posture taught by Deng Ken of Taixi, then raise it high and vertical.

The officer would hold the saber aloft until directly in front of the reviewing stand, then slash it forcefully downward to the horizontal in a feint toward the stand, while turning his head and shouting in a mighty voice: "The Great Ming's strongest troops — the Zhangsheng Army salutes you, my lord!"

The four hundred-plus soldiers behind the officer would, with this feint-slashing motion, turn their heads in unison toward the reviewing stand, then after passing Zhao Manxiong continue looking forward, accompanied by the unbroken tramp of military boots, marching valiantly past the reviewing stand...

The officers on the reviewing stand clustered around three men at the center: Acting Camp Commander He Dingyuan of Firefighting Camp, Acting Camp Commander Yang Zhiyuan of Rock Camp, and brevet Assistant Regional Commander Zhao Manxiong. Before Huang Shi left, he had promoted Zhao Manxiong to brevet Assistant Regional Commander, putting him temporarily in charge of managing his directly subordinate troops and personal territory. The first reason for making Zhao Manxiong this brevet Assistant Regional Commander was that Zhao Manxiong was still the person Huang Shi trusted most; the second was that when Huang Shi departed, he thought he would return very soon and felt Zhao Manxiong would not need to handle any work requiring decisiveness; the final reason was that Zhao Manxiong was a man who could rise and fall with grace — Huang Shi had already spoken with him privately before leaving, and once he returned he would strip Zhao Manxiong of the brevet Assistant Regional Commander title. With anyone else, Huang Shi would have felt somewhat embarrassed to do this.

Zhao Manxiong and the others were not yet thirty, but all three generals kept their faces tightly drawn and their lips firmly shut. Beyond the air of premature gravity they strained to project, every officer on Zhangsheng Island felt wave after wave of awe during the military parade — even senior officers like Zhao Manxiong who had experienced it many times were no exception.

In private, He Dingyuan had once said: "Watching the parade is something that excites me. Whenever the officers and men shout that battle cry, I wish I could shout with them; whenever I watch them march past me with indomitable spirit, I feel the heroic vigor in my chest surge so full it nearly bursts out."

The Zhangsheng Island military parade was developed jointly by Huang Shi and Deng Ken. Beyond the daytime parade now being held, Adolf Deng Ken had also independently designed a nighttime torch procession, for which he even specially designed matching high-waisted knee-length military boots, black uniforms, black capes, and fiery red armbands.

Watching the squad rehearsals, Huang Shi privately admitted that Deng Ken's torch procession had a very powerful visual impact, but preparing the full regalia for several thousand officers and men was simply too expensive, and the torches and grease were not cheap either. So in the end, the nighttime procession idea was abandoned.

The effort Huang Shi put into the parade was primarily to enhance the officers' and soldiers' sense of honor. Beyond the officers, the soldiers who participated in the parade also responded very well — the stirring military music, the orderly ranks, and the feeling of being watched all had a fine effect on improving the soldiers' sense of belonging and honor.

Today's parade was held to celebrate the completion of basic training for another four hundred infantry recruits. These were also the last batch of soldiers scheduled to finish training. Most of them were veterans from the Vanguard Camp. These four hundred soldiers would complete coordination training on the island with four hundred Zhangsheng Army veterans, and once these eight hundred infantry formed two combat-effective units, they would be sent to reinforce Zhang Minghe's command — according to Huang Shi's plan, this should have been completed long ago.

The plan's failure to be completed was not the fault of Zhao Manxiong or the other Zhangsheng officers. Ever since Huang Shi had left, Army Supervisor Wu Mu had been persistently trying to replicate several legendary battle formations. From long before, Wu Mu had been intensely interested in Zhuge Wuhou's Eight Trigrams Formation from the Romance of the Three Kingdoms, especially the dizziness, confusion, and hallucination effects that formation supposedly conferred — effects that made Eunuch Wu drool with longing.

In the past, Huang Shi had always been on the island, and the former bodyguard had felt he could not get a word in. Now that Huang Shi was finally away, Wu Mu believed his chance to apply learning to practice had arrived. As for the remaining few men, Wu Mu had secretly labeled them in his mind: Zhao Manxiong was a "dog-headed strategist," He Dingyuan was "mere brute courage," and Yang Zhiyuan was a "dirt-farming peasant."

Eunuch Wu believed that since he had always been at Huang Shi's side, he could obviously view problems from a commanding height — at least better than a dog-headed strategist, a reckless brute, and an honest peasant. After reading the Romance of the Three Kingdoms over and over many more times, Wu Mu pestered Zhao Manxiong and the others to let him drill his own understanding of the "Nine Palaces Eight Trigrams Formation"...

The parade concluded, and Zhao Manxiong gave the order to prepare for the exercise. This exercise would be performed by the first batch of recruits trained after the Fuzhou campaign. They had already been drilling together with veterans for two months, and the best among them were already quite impressive. Using recruits who had just completed the entire training process for the exercise not only allowed observation of each unit's condition, but also provided a fine demonstration for today's batch of soldiers just out of recruit camp. After issuing the order, Zhao Manxiong exhaled in satisfaction: "Though a bit late, it is finally about to be done."

Yang Zhiyuan beside him chuckled softly at these words, then cautiously murmured a complaint: "Fortunately Eunuch Wu finally lost heart, otherwise who knows when the work His Lordship assigned would ever have been finished."

"Exactly, fortunate indeed." He Dingyuan's ears were always sharp; he loudly agreed upon hearing this. Although they all enjoyed drinking with Eunuch Wu, they generally believed themselves more skilled in military affairs than he was: "When His Lordship returns and finds the troops not properly trained, he'll surely take it out on us again, and we might even get beaten with the military rod under dereliction-of-duty regulations. Hmm, I hear Eunuch Wu is also writing a military treatise — ha, I think..."

Zhao Manxiong and Yang Zhiyuan barked in unison: "Shut your mouth!"

The final exercise was a live-fire drill. The fifty recruits participating in this exercise were assembled from the Firefighting and Rock Camps at a standard of five soldiers per company. After the Fuzhou campaign, including the wounded who had returned to their units, Zhangsheng Island still had over three thousand veteran infantry. Besides drawing a batch of elites to the training corps, Huang Shi had spread the remaining veterans across the three camps including the Vanguard Camp, so each company in these two field camps had around two hundred recruits. For this final exercise, every company commander had sent their best recruits.

Dugu Qiu was one of these fifty soldiers. A few months ago, when he first arrived at recruit camp, he had been assigned to Instructor Song Army Supervisor's squad, so Dugu Qiu's basic training life was nothing short of a nightmare. According to Zhangsheng Island's military regulations, an instructor who beat a soldier without cause would face extremely severe punishment. But Song Army Supervisor fully demonstrated the traditional wisdom of the Chinese working people — he never picked on Dugu Qiu outside of training hours...

It was only on the training ground that Instructor Song's eyes, when observing Dugu Qiu's movements, were forever ten times sharper than the hungriest eagle. The slightest error, delay, or irregularity from Dugu Qiu would be immediately pointed out by Song Army Supervisor, followed by a vicious beating that never exceeded the regulations by a single rod or whip. If it were just the vicious beatings, that would be one thing, but the problem was that Song Army Supervisor's beatings never caused serious consequences. Every time the military physician examined Dugu Qiu's injuries, he would issue the assessment: "Relatively severe flesh wounds, but can continue training."

After half a month of Song Army Supervisor's discipline, Dugu Qiu could step to the drumbeat as well as a soldier who had trained for three months. By the time basic training was nearly over after one month, when instructors from other recruit squads happened to see Dugu Qiu's basic technical movements, they all praised him, saying his movements were almost comparable to a one-year veteran's... and even at this point, Dugu Qiu still bore roughly half of all the beatings in his recruit squad.

Ever since leaving recruit camp, Dugu Qiu felt as if he had suddenly ascended from hell to heaven. He was assigned to Company A of Firefighting Camp. In his infantry company, every officer praised his standardized movements, his high obedience to officers, and how quickly he learned technical movements — he never needed to be taught a second time. When the company recommended soldiers this time, the company commander had named him first. His company commander, Assistant Regional Commander, squad commander, and section leader all placed high hopes on Dugu Qiu, wishing he could win honor for the company in this exercise.

The fifty recruits wore the standard Zhangsheng Island infantry battle helmets — those round-topped helmets with long neck guards — and each man was also outfitted with a standard set of iron scale armor (now, due to further armor shortages, recruits were no longer issued iron armor but instead sheltered within the phalanx). They formed a small rectangular formation ten men wide and five men deep, each file composed of soldiers from the same infantry company. Every file leader was also the finest soldier in his company.

Dugu Qiu stood with head high and chest out at the very first position on the left of the formation's front rank. He knew that the great men on the distant reviewing stand were looking this way, and the several thousand soldiers arrayed behind the reviewing stand were looking this way too. This feeling of being the focus of countless eyes made Dugu Qiu sweat uncontrollably. He felt his body stiffen and refuse to obey him. Though Dugu Qiu kept telling himself to be calm, to be steady, his whole body still trembled involuntarily.

Extremely tense, Dugu Qiu felt he could not possibly execute orders properly, and this worry made him burn with anxiety. As the waiting continued, even Dugu Qiu's breathing became uneven... until he saw an officer leading the standard-bearer, drummer, and support squad striding over... The officer's build and the manner of his stride instantly stopped Dugu Qiu's breath. Along with the suffocation surged a wave of terror, and this terror brought with it a nausea that almost made him vomit.

The officer striding over was none other than Song Army Supervisor. Elite recruits like Dugu Qiu had made his eye too critical, too demanding. With this primary target gone, Song Army Supervisor's attention dispersed back onto others, and he suddenly found that in recruit camp, no one's movements looked satisfactory to him anymore... Instructor Song trained squad after squad of high-quality recruits. Honors rained down upon him like droplets, and verbal praise and written commendations from higher-ups nearly drowned him.

Now every company scrambled to get recruits trained by Song Army Supervisor. The leadership at all levels of the training corps regarded him as the prize colt among this batch of training instructors. When Zhao Manxiong ordered the climactic live-fire drill to be prepared, the training corps unhesitatingly dispatched its top-tier instructor — Song Army Supervisor.

What Huang Shi most detested in Ming military tradition was the "soldiers belong to the general" model. Of course, the officers and soldiers under his command were indisputably his private property, but he absolutely forbade the soldiers under him from becoming the property of individual officers. Without question, Huang Shi also knew how inefficient the Song dynasty's model of "soldiers not knowing their general, generals not knowing their soldiers" was.

To break this traditional feudal barrier without causing negative effects, Huang Shi had been promoting on Zhangsheng Island a military rank system copied from the future — namely, that all officers and soldiers must unconditionally obey higher-ranking officers, unless a still higher-ranking officer explicitly issued a contrary order. Through Huang Shi's efforts, Zhangsheng Island's military orders had been standardized, and systems like instructors, recruit camps, and frequent lateral transfers of officers were also designed to prevent the privatization of soldiers.

To protect officers and meritorious veterans, Zhangsheng Island strictly forbade officers and soldiers from wearing medals on the battlefield, but this was an exercise, so Song Army Supervisor had put on all his medals. He wore an officer's red-tasseled phoenix-wing pointed helmet, a large red cape draped diagonally and hanging to the ground, black boots and greaves on his feet, a tiger-head leather belt at his waist, and a chestful of dazzling medals so bright they blinded the eye. The most conspicuous among them was that Third-Class Distinguished Service Medal. The gleaming brass plaque was always scrubbed spotless by Song Army Supervisor, and his fiancée had personally made an extra-wide, colorfully striped sash for it. The silk used for this privately made sash had cost Instructor Song more than half a month's salary, and he naturally never missed any opportunity to wear his medals.

When Song Army Supervisor's gaze swept past, Dugu Qiu, like a frog that had spotted a venomous snake, felt his entire body go numb. His heart suddenly contracted and nearly stopped. From that moment on, his body stopped trembling, his cold sweat stopped flowing, and he no longer cared whether great men on the reviewing stand were watching him. As he had in recruit camp, he listened to Song Army Supervisor's every word with total concentration, terrified of missing a single syllable.

First came the mission briefing unique to Zhangsheng Island. Song Army Supervisor waved his arm behind him. Six hundred meters away, Deng Ken was already prepared with his artillery crews: "Enemy artillery directly ahead is continuously bombarding our column. To guard against possible enemy screening forces, our unit will advance slowly under artillery fire to conserve strength, and finally destroy the enemy artillery in one stroke with a fierce cold-steel assault."

After he finished speaking, the support soldiers carrying exercise equipment came over and handed the gear to the soldiers participating in the exercise. Once the support soldiers dispersed, Song Army Supervisor turned to face the direction of the artillery and stood firm. He took several deep breaths, straightened his chest with effort, placed his left hand on the hilt of his saber, and pointed his right hand heavily forward: "Advance."

When Deng Ken saw this unit of soldiers begin to move their feet in time with the drumbeat, he too vigorously waved his arm: "Fire."

The two gun crews began firing upon the order. Shells screamed toward the distant infantry unit. Almost the instant the shells left the barrels, the crew members began the reloading process in orderly fashion, while the crew squad commanders and observers also calmly and steadily began observing the shell impacts.

Advancing slowly under artillery fire while maintaining formation was one of the Zhangsheng Army's important training subjects. At first, soldiers were made to stand in formation listening to blank artillery fire; once they adapted to the sound of cannon, they practiced marching amid blank fire. Finally, of course, came marching and formation changes under live fire.

Naturally, during this kind of training, the artillery would never deliberately fire at their own infantry. They would let the shells fly above or to the left and right of the troops. The purpose of this training was to eliminate the soldiers' fear of cannon. Huang Shi had always worried that one day they would face the Later Jin's cannon. Although this worry had yet to materialize, the counter-artillery training had never stopped.

Today, the counter-artillery training for this batch of recruits led by Song Army Supervisor had only begun a month ago, with just a few sessions in total. After they had marched two hundred meters, Deng Ken's artillery had also adjusted their aim, and shell after shell screamed continuously over their heads and past their flanks. The observing officers watched with keen interest as their movements grew somewhat stiff from tension, and smiles appeared on the faces of the three Mobile Corps Commanders on the reviewing stand.

He Dingyuan remarked with some regret: "Recruits after all — even shelling from this far is already affecting them."

"Only one month of counter-artillery training — this is acceptable." Yang Zhiyuan smiled as he countered. So far, most of the soldiers still held their waists straight and their gazes directly forward without wavering. He watched the lead man, Song Army Supervisor, for a while longer and finally nodded: "This Instructor Song is quite good. He has a good grasp of the marching rhythm, and his officer's bearing is well maintained."

The infantry soon advanced to within about two hundred meters of the artillery. Deng Ken, controlling the gun crews, also grew somewhat tense. Today's exercise plan still carried considerable risk, which was why he had come personally to command at the front line. Deng Ken nodded slightly, and his orderly said solemnly: "As ordered."

Then he turned and shouted toward the two six-pounder gun crews: "Ricochet fire."

Under the command, the two six-pounders were continuously depressed. By the time they reached the angle required by the gun captains, loading was also completed almost at the same instant. These two gun crews were the most coordinated on Zhangsheng Island, and also the two most accurate in their firing.

The shells struck the ground and then bounced up toward the infantry. The high-speed spinning shells emitted a piercing shriek as they tore across the infantry's thin battle line.

When these two shells skimmed over the soldiers' heads, quite a few soldiers could not help making slight dodging or ducking motions. Accidents had not been unheard of in previous counter-artillery training. Although there had been no accidents for two months, these recruits had all heard of the devastation when a shell plowed into a crowd. Since Zhangsheng Island began counter-artillery training, nearly fifty soldiers had died in accidents. The twenty-odd lucky ones who had been wounded by shellfire but not killed had almost all undergone amputation surgery — on Zhangsheng Island, without antibiotics, failing to cut away a limb mangled by a cannonball meant certain death.

Among these training accidents, the worst case of friendly fire had caused nearly twenty casualties. Today, Zhao Manxiong had Deng Ken personally take charge of the guns precisely to avoid bloodshed as much as possible.

Another ricochet came flying toward Song Army Supervisor. As a member of the training corps who had undergone counter-artillery training many times, Song Army Supervisor maintained his posture with one hand resting on his saber hilt, his right arm swinging powerfully through the air. He walked steadily at the lead with eyes wide open, his stride not varying in the slightest. The wind stirred up by the screaming shell ruffled Song Army Supervisor's beard, but he still held his waist ramrod straight and did not even blink, walking like a great Siberian bear — as calm and composed as a giant bear advancing upon a seal. It was merely a cannonball.

After several accidents occurred in the counter-artillery training, some had suggested that Huang Shi halt the live-fire exercises and simply use blank cannon fire to train courage. At the time, this proposal gained the support of quite a few officers, because everyone felt it was too unjust for soldiers they had painstakingly trained to die under their own side's cannon fire. After several officers were killed by cannon fire, this outcry grew even louder — after all, cannonballs truly had no eyes, and losing officers pained Huang Shi's subordinates deeply.

In response, Huang Shi added two new regulations: first, compensation for officers and soldiers who died in training accidents would be treated the same as for those killed in battle; second, the pay of the artillery officers and soldiers responsible for the accident would be docked. But the proposal to halt live-fire exercises itself was flatly rejected.

"Every drop of blood we shed on the training ground is a price that must be paid to make the Great Ming's imperial army invincible under heaven."

After Huang Shi's death, this sentence was carved in characters and posted on the walls of the Beijing Officers Academy. Of course... the two characters "Great Ming" were erased from the sentence.

Several hundred years later, this sentence was included in the primary school textbooks of many Third World countries, which used it to denounce the ambitious imperialists, their arrogance, and their insufferable conceit...

Dugu Qiu followed behind Song Army Supervisor in constant trepidation. His fear of this devil before him made him oblivious to the cannonballs and the comrades beside him. They advanced to within less than thirty meters of the artillery, and Song Army Supervisor abruptly halted, swinging his right arm forward with all his might: "Assault —"

Without a second thought, Dugu Qiu charged forward clutching the wooden stake issued to him. He had been assigned the task of plugging a cannon's muzzle...

Twenty meters...

Fifteen meters...

In normal counter-artillery training, this was when the exercise should end. But today, watching the young soldier charging toward him, Deng Ken directly ordered the gun crew beside him: "Fire!"

Barely ten meters in front of Dugu Qiu, the artillerymen unhesitatingly thrust the torch toward the touchhole. This recruit, hearing the urging drumbeats behind him, did not pause his stride for an instant. Without hesitation, he raised the wooden stake in his arms above his head and, following the standard technical movement, thrust it toward the cannon's muzzle. Just before the stake reached its target, the muzzle in front of Dugu Qiu belched flame...

The deafening roar and blinding flash nearly knocked Dugu Qiu unconscious. Long after, his vision remained pitch black, and he had no idea where he was. Dizzy and dazed, he felt as if his hands and feet were being seized by someone. That sensation of riding clouds and mist grew even stronger, the stars before his eyes multiplied, and it seemed someone nearby was shouting excitedly.

"This is my soldier, he belongs to my squad..."

In his stupor, Dugu Qiu finally made out the shouting voice — it was definitely his squad officer, Wang Qinian.

On the review platform, Zhao Manxiong, He Dingyuan, and Yang Zhiyuan were all applauding. The final cannon shot of the drill had been a blank. After that brave recruit fell, Deng Ken declared the exercise over. The Jia squad of the Fire Rescue Battalion immediately surged forward. Had the participants been veterans, this drill would have been nothing special, but they were all three-month recruits, so that soldier had thoroughly earned face for his squad. The Jia squad of the Fire Rescue Battalion employed the methods Deng Ken had taught, counting "one, two, three" as they tossed Dugu Qiu into the air, then carried him around to show off to the other squads. Jia squad officer Wang Qinian's face was full of delight and pride. He was certain to receive a share of the commendation and merit citation from the higher-ups, and even if not, he now had material for boasting to the other squad officers.

……

Late tenth month, Tianqi 5

Dongjiangzhen Regional Commander Mao Wenlong sent an urgent field report to the imperial court, the Liaodong Dusi Office, and all of Dongjiangzhen. He first reported that the Later Jin forces facing the Dongjiang main division and the Right Wing had been reduced to only the Bordered Blue Banner.

Next, Mao Wenlong relayed intelligence he had just gathered: Nurhaci had ordered the main forces of seven banners to concentrate at Liaoyang, and simultaneously ordered each niru to provide one oxcart and twenty handcarts to accompany the army on campaign. From this, Mao Wenlong estimated that the Later Jin would mobilize 160 niru, approximately 15,000 armored soldiers, plus unarmored troops, totaling 40,000 to 45,000 men to attack the Liaoxi Corridor. Mao Wenlong believed the specific date of the attack would be the fifteenth day of the twelfth month of Tianqi 5.

(In the original history, Mao Wenlong, two months in advance in a Dongjiang field report, predicted that the Later Jin would dispatch 40,000 to 50,000 troops toward Liaoxi, with the date being the fifteenth day of the first month of Tianqi 6. The exact date of Nurhaci's actual attack was the sixteenth day of the first month, a discrepancy of one day from Mao Wenlong's prediction. Regarding the Later Jin troop strength, the Liaodong Dusi Office's report to the imperial court stated "the barbarian host numbers 40,000," while the Great Ming Ministry of War's post-action tally was "approximately 50,000.")

On the twenty-fifth day of the tenth month of Tianqi 5, the Dongjiangzhen main division, after sending the field report, ordered martial law.

On the twenty-seventh day of the tenth month, Chen Jisheng of the Dongjiangzhen Right Wing ordered mobilization and martial law.

On the twenty-ninth day, the various units of the Dongjiangzhen Left Wing successively ordered full mobilization and martial law in their territories.

……

The Liaodong Dusi Office at Shanhai Pass

Yang Qi, one of the five Regional Commanders of Guanning, clung to the thigh of the newly appointed Liaodong Grand Coordinator Gao Di, his voice choked with tears: "My lord Gao, open field battle is absolutely impossible, and the territory beyond the Pass is absolutely indefensible!"

It had been less than a month since Gao Di was ordered to serve as Grand Coordinator of Liaodong, and this was only his third day at Shanhai Pass.

Seeing Gao Di's face full of distress and that he did not immediately agree, Yang Qi pleaded again: "My lord Gao, let the lads withdraw inside the Pass!"