Chapter 223: Section 38: Facing Peril

Liaodong Grand Coordinator Gao Di broke out in a cold sweat as he listened; he waved his hands repeatedly in alarm: "Commander Yang, don't you go harming this Grand Coordinator. If I order a retreat today, tomorrow it'll be my turn to have my head passed around the Nine Frontier Garrisons."

Yang Qi, his eyes blurred with tears, raised his head and shouted: "My Lord Gao, you only know the first part, not the second. Xiong Tingbi was not condemned because he ordered a retreat..."

Hearing this, Gao Di thought to himself: "How could I not know that? Do I need you, Yang Qi, to teach me? I know far better than you the relationship between that foul-mouthed Xiong and the court officials."

At that moment Yang Qi shouted hoarsely again: "...Xiong Tingbi was clearly condemned because he ordered the retreat too late, My Lord Gao."

This argument stunned Gao Di: "What do you mean by that?"

Yang Qi saw that Gao Di was listening intently, and his own spirits lifted: "My Lord Gao, with your keen insight, since Xiong Tingbi was able to cover the Liaodong refugees and routed troops fleeing south, he must have had the opportunity to turn and fight. It was precisely because Xiong Tingbi feared the enemy like a tiger that he fled in such disarray, and the imperial court was enraged precisely because of that."

After waving away the other Guan-Ning generals, Gao Di first called Yang Qi up from the ground, then lowered his voice and asked: "In Commander Yang's opinion, if Xiong Tingbi had not covered the million Liaodong refugees and routed troops, but instead fled back to Shanhai Pass alone on horseback, would that not have been fearing the enemy like a tiger?"

"Exactly! My Lord Gao, with your keen insight, if back then Xiong Tingbi had never set a single step beyond Shanhai Pass, never gone to Guangning's Right Garrison to receive Wang Huazhen, then the Guangning rout could never have been pinned on him." At this point Yang Qi's eyes blazed like lightning, his beard and hair bristled. He smacked his right fist heavily into his left palm: "My Lord Gao, please see — if we retreat before the Jianzhou slaves even arrive, that naturally does not count as fleeing in fear of the enemy. But if we wait until the Jianzhou slaves come and then retreat, that is fleeing, and we'll lose our heads."

Gao Di stared dumbfounded for a moment, then recalled Mao Wenlong's patrol report: "But this Grand Coordinator has heard that the Jianzhou slaves have only come with forty thousand men this time. Yet the Guan-Ning Army clearly has eight Xie, forty field battalions, totaling one hundred fifteen thousand troops, plus over forty thousand garrisoning the various forts. Moreover, among the military farming households under Liaozhen, there are over two hundred thousand able-bodied men who could serve as auxiliaries. Why can we not give battle?"

Yang Qi smiled bitterly and replied: "My Lord Gao, with your keen insight, never mind those farming military households — of the entire Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry's one hundred sixty thousand troops, not one in a hundred has been on a battlefield, and not one in a thousand has killed in battle formation. And this lowly general has heard that the Jianzhou slaves are peerless in mounted archery, every one of them able to stand on horseback and shoot arrows!"

"Stand on horseback and shoot arrows?" Gao Di was startled again upon hearing this. This scholar could not even ride a horse; standing on horseback was already unimaginable enough, let alone adding archery to it.

"Yes, My Lord Gao, the Jianzhou slaves all stand on horseback to shoot arrows in order to achieve greater range, that's how formidable they are." Yang Qi clicked his tongue repeatedly to express amazement, then with a mournful face spread his hands: "This lowly general has heard that the Jianzhou slaves can all shoot from either side on horseback. Every arrow reaches a hundred paces, every shot strikes a vital point, shooting farther than our bird guns. This battle truly cannot be fought."

Watching the stupefied Gao Di, Yang Qi leaned closer and added in a low voice: "My Lord Gao devises strategies from the command tent, so naturally you must know yourself and know the enemy. But to avoid affecting morale, this lowly general has kept all this intelligence suppressed, fearing that if the soldiers learned of it they would lose their fighting spirit."

"Well done, well done." Gao Di nodded repeatedly in praise. He mulled it over carefully — it seemed this battle truly would be hard to fight. But he still had some lingering doubts: "Then how did the troops under Dongjiang's Marshal Mao fight? Huang Shi and Chen Jisheng each reported several thousand heads, needless to say, and there were also men named Mao Yongshi, Mao Youjie, and so on, all reporting heads as well. His Excellency Yuan of the Ningyuan Forward Route said he had inspected them all."

"How others fought, this lowly general does not know. But that Commander Huang possesses valor that ten thousand men cannot match. It is said he can wield a eighteen-foot horse lance, and every time he draws a bow he must draw two ten-stone bows simultaneously. And, Commander Huang has a great general under him named He Dingyuan — though a bit inferior to Commander Huang, he can still wield a sixteen-foot horse lance." As he spoke well of Huang Shi, Yang Qi raised his right thumb high; when he mentioned He Dingyuan, he raised his left thumb just as high: "That He Dingyuan is also a master of throwing knives. Within two hundred paces, he uses throwing knives to sever heads as easily as taking something out of a bag."

This time the scholar Gao Di was truly utterly dumbstruck. He murmured quietly: "Two hundred paces — that's a full li, isn't it? This Grand Coordinator has spent ten years in bitter study, my eyesight is not very good. Beyond one li, let alone throwing knives, I can't even make out a person clearly."

"Yes, yes, this lowly general is also ashamed of his own inadequacy." After echoing a few times, Yang Qi continued, spittle flying: "That Changsheng Island is said to have several more superior generals, such as Zhao Manxiong, Jin Qiude, Yang Zhiyuan, and others. Slaughtering entire armies and crushing solid formations are as easy for them as reading the lines on one's own palm."

When he said "reading the lines on one's own palm," Regional Commander Yang actually turned over his left palm, extended a finger of his right hand to trace over it, and swayed his head as he leaned in to examine his own palm lines.

Grand Coordinator Gao accompanied Regional Commander Yang in looking at his palm, then mused: "If a tiny speck of land like Changsheng Island has so many fierce generals, could it be that our Liaozhen has no good men?"

"No, no." Yang Qi shook his head like a rattle-drum and said to Gao Di with a deeply pained expression: "If My Lord Gao does not believe this lowly general's words, you may go see for yourself. In our Guan-Ning Army, those who can wield a seven-foot horse lance or draw a five-stone bow are already very few. Hmm, think of that Commander Huang — five years ago at the Battle of Guangning he already had nearly a thousand armored riders. Over these five years, his elite retainers are said to number several thousand..."

"Several thousand?" This number startled Gao Di again.

Yang Qi immediately launched into another round of sighs and lamentations, stamping his feet and clapping his hands as he cried: "Yes, My Lord Gao, with your keen insight, Commander Huang has several thousand battle-hardened retainers under him, yet the entire Guan-Ning Army does not have a single thousand troops who have seen a battlefield. My Lord Gao, it is not that this lowly general does not do his utmost — truly, this battle cannot be fought."

Gao Di found some sense in this, but he still hesitated: "But those nearly one hundred forts beyond the Pass, built over five years at a cost of over seven million taels of silver from the state — to abandon them in a single day..."

"Those forts were built by Grand Secretary Sun, not by you, My Lord Gao. Is that not so?" Yang Qi's eyes observed every minute change in Gao Di's expression: "If those forts cannot hold back the Jianzhou slaves, then naturally it is Grand Secretary Sun who squandered state funds. What does that have to do with you, My Lord Gao?"

"That is true." Gao Di's mind was already stirring. He stroked his long beard for a while, then asked with some concern: "Back then Xiong Tingbi ordered all forts, granaries, and supplies burned. The court charged him with 'burning all stores.' This..."

Hearing this, Yang Qi knew that Gao Di's heart had been moved. He laughed heartily: "My Lord Gao, what difficulty is there in this? This time we will only withdraw troops from beyond the Pass. None of the forts or granaries are to be burned. As for the supplies, let the lads haul everything back. Won't that settle the matter?"

Gao Di pondered a while longer. There seemed to be one more very serious problem: "Then what if the Jianzhou slaves come to attack Shanhai Pass?"

"My Lord Gao, with your keen insight," Yang Qi clearly had it all thought out. He stamped his foot: "Our Shanhai Pass leans against great mountains on the left and embraces the great sea on the right. It is the foremost impregnable pass under heaven. How could it be so easily taken?"

These past days the Guan-Ning Army's officers had long since reached a private consensus: retreating would at most cost Gao Di alone his life; not retreating would likely mean they all died alongside Gao Di. So they had long since resolved that, no matter what, they must bamboozle this scholar Gao Di into a daze.

Everyone knew that the Later Jin had no more than two hundred niru. Even if Nurhaci emptied his entire country to come, that would be no more than twenty thousand armored men. Besides, with Dongjiang's Mao Wenlong present, the Later Jin would have to leave some men to guard their homes. Yang Qi figured that deploying one hundred sixty thousand troops at Shanhai Pass, then fighting ten against one, with so many cannons and firelocks, they could surely hold Shanhai Pass.

It all sounded very reasonable. Gao Di also felt that troops were valuable when concentrated, not dispersed. He nodded: "But we must still make more preparations and strive for a completely foolproof plan."

"We can send all the military households through, then cover Shanhai Pass with cannons and firelocks. When the Jianzhou slaves see our strict defenses, they may well retreat. And even if the Jianzhou slaves dare to assault the walls, heng..." A cold gleam flashed in Yang Qi's eyes, and a fierce look showed on his face: "We'll pour cannon and firelock fire down on them like water. Are the Jianzhou slaves made of steel and iron?"

In late eleventh month of the fifth year of the Tianqi reign, the newly appointed Liaodong Grand Coordinator Gao Di, citing the recent defeat at Yaozhou and low morale among government troops, ordered the voluntary abandonment of the two-hundred-li Liaoxi Corridor beyond the Pass, and simultaneously memorialized the court with his reasons. At this time, the Later Jin main force was still assembling at Liaoyang; the enemy had not yet taken a single step east of the river.

Since Sun Chengzong had taken charge of Liaodong, he had first built over fifty forts from Shanhai Pass to Ningyuan, the largest of which, the Ningyuan Fortress, took nearly three years to complete, only finishing by the end of the third year of Tianqi. After that, Sun Chengzong began building a large fortress complex centered on Ningyuan. Now the outermost forts, such as Ningyuan's Right Garrison, were already over one hundred fifty li out.

By the fifth year of Tianqi, Sun Chengzong felt the forts were more or less complete and began considering offensive operations. Encouraged by Huang Shi's recovery of Fuzhou, Sun Chengzong had been looking for an opportunity to cross the Liao River and recover Yaozhou and Niangniang Palace, thereby linking the defense zones of the Guan-Ning Army and the Dongjiang Army. (At this time, Dongjiang Army commander Zhang Pan had just once again recovered Lüshun and Jinzhou Guard, and ordered troops to be stationed on Changsheng Island, Tu'er Island, and Lianyun Island. He had also taken the lead in attacking Yaozhou at the end of the eighth month, attempting to establish contact with the Liaoxi Army. After the Dongjiang Army's attack was repulsed, Sun Chengzong also began to take an interest in Yaozhou. Due to the stimulus Huang Shi gave Sun Chengzong in this timeline, Sun Chengzong's resolve was naturally even greater than in the original history.)

Precisely because Sun Chengzong had assumed an offensive posture, apart from the three battalions directly under the Liaodong Regional Military Commission and the troops deployed between Shanhai Pass and Ningyuan, the remaining six Xie of the Guan-Ning Army were all positioned between Ningyuan and Jinzhou. In this battle of Yaozhou, although one Xie being routed by a single banner of the Plain Blue Banner sounded better than in the history of Huang Shi's previous life, the losses were actually more severe. Not only did the Ningyuan Central Xie lose over half its strength, but Ma Shilong was also stripped of most of his duties and sent back to Shanhai Pass to cool his heels.

Relying on the Great Ming's formidable recovery capacity and the enormous annual investment of several million taels of silver, the Ningyuan Central Xie did recover some vitality, but the Xie's grievous losses still delivered a tremendous shock to the officers of all Guan-Ning Army units. The terror now pervading the Guan-Ning Army was not much less than in the original history.

In this thick atmosphere of defeatism, Gao Di's withdrawal order had only just reached Ningyuan when the three Xie of Ming troops subordinate to Shanhai Pass immediately marched south as ordered. Fifteen battalions of Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry abandoned everything they could abandon. Not a single one of the countless granaries stocked with vast stores of grain, fodder, and weapons was burned. The Guan-Ning Army merely pasted seals on each storehouse and left in haste. According to Great Ming Ministry of War statistics, the supplies abandoned by the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry north of Ningyuan included: one hundred fifty thousand dan of rice and beans, one million jin of dry fodder, over eighty thousand bolts of cotton cloth, over one million two hundred thousand taels of silver, over thirty thousand suits of armor, over one thousand cannons, and countless firelocks, bows, arrows, swords, and shields.

The panicked retreat of the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry also greatly alarmed the local military farming households. They soon received retreat orders passed down by local military farming commanders. The military households of Liaoxi, supporting the elderly and carrying the young, left their stations, abandoning intact houses and villages behind them. Over a million refugees formed a rolling tide of humanity fleeing south. For a time, the official road from Jinzhou to Shanhai Pass was densely packed. Military households carrying bundles on their backs and straggling Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry mingled together. Just as historical records describe: the road resounded with weeping that shook the heavens, and by the roadside, officers and soldiers frozen or starved to death could be seen everywhere...

Ninth day of the twelfth month, fifth year of Tianqi. Jingcheng.

Out of sheer boredom, Huang Shi and Jin Qiude went out to a restaurant to drink tea and listen to music. Ever since Huang Shi's last visit to the imperial palace to see Wei Zhongxian, the Tianqi Emperor had seemed somewhat displeased, and so had delayed summoning Huang Shi. By late last month, the Liaoxi front was in a state of alarm three times a day, and the Emperor had no leisure to conduct merit reviews and bestow rewards, or to whitewash the peace.

Because Shanhai Pass simply could not accommodate over a million soldiers and civilians, Gao Di let all the ordinary military households pass through the Pass, keeping only the Guan-Ning Army's various field battalions to strengthen Shanhai Pass's defenses. At the beginning of this month, refugees from Liaoxi began flooding into the capital region, letting the commoners of Jingcheng learn of the full wretched state of Liaoxi. Now Beijing was also in a state of panic; wealthy merchants and rich households were taking their families to Shandong to seek refuge.

Three days ago, the Ming court ordered a full security lockdown of the capital region, trying to give the common people some sense of safety. But this only shook Jingcheng even more. Countless Beijing residents tried to flee south to Shandong, while large numbers of capital region commoners tried to flee into the city to seek shelter. Yet the soldiers at the city gates strictly screened all passersby according to the lockdown order.

Huang Shi, Jin Qiude, and several Changsheng Island internal guards sat in the desolate restaurant, drinking and surveying the streets that no longer bustled as they once had. From the city gates, they could still hear the clamor of shouting and cursing.

"My Lord, for the Guan-Ning Army's retreat to turn out like this — and they haven't even encountered the enemy yet!" Changsheng Island Chief of Staff Jin Qiude had been extremely agitated these past few days. He believed that even a retreat in the face of the enemy should not be this chaotic. In Jin Qiude's words, this was no longer a retreat but a collapse.

Huang Shi neither responded nor offered any comment. The establishment where he and Jin Qiude were eating was somewhat famous in Beijing. In the past, you might not even get a seat if you booked days in advance. Now, the entire place was empty, not even thirty percent full. When he was out on the street yesterday, Huang Shi saw this restaurant post a notice — starting today, all drinks and dishes were fifty percent off. To pass the time, he had brought his companions today to eat cheap food.

By now the several internal guards were eating with grease smeared over their mouths and had drunk their fill. Huang Shi never put on official airs, so Changsheng Island's officers and soldiers were always rather casual in private. As soon as they heard Jin Qiude start, they all began chiming in. Changsheng Island's internal guards were also used by Huang Shi as military police and had all undergone simple traffic management training. They one after another expressed condemnation that Liaoxi had not assigned officials to direct traffic, then vied fiercely to voice their own opinions before Huang Shi, terrified that their Regional Commander might not know they had ideas and insight.

On the streets and markets of Beijing, rumors were now wildly spreading that the Later Jin had a hundred thousand troops marching south. But the Dongjiang Army had been dealing with the Later Jin for several years now, and Jin Qiude scoffed at such rumors: "Liaozhen has forty battalions, one hundred twenty thousand field troops, seventy forts, over forty thousand garrison troops. Even if they dare not fight in the open field, can they not even hold the walls? Grand Coordinator Gao..."

Speaking of a great personage of the current court, Jin Qiude carefully lowered his voice: "Truly a scholar."

"What scholar? Just a waste."

Huang Shi and Jin Qiude turned their heads in shock. At a wine table not far away, a man who looked like a merchant was looking their way. This fellow clearly had extremely sharp ears. He glared at Huang Shi's group a few times, then raised his loud voice again: "Liaodong Grand Coordinator Gao Di — just a waste."

The waiter was just serving that man his food and actually loudly chimed in: "Right, right, Ninth Master speaks well. That Grand Coordinator Gao is just a useless good-for-nothing."

Once the topic was raised, the restaurant erupted. These past few years, to raise military funds, the Ming court had increased many levies and taxes. Wei Zhongxian had even decreed that every pig and every bolt of cloth brought into Beijing must be taxed. Now with the news from Liaoxi boiling over, businessmen's trade was sluggish, and ordinary residents found life even harder. Naturally, every one of them was grinding their teeth in hatred.

That merchant addressed as Ninth Master continued to bellow: "This master here collected a thousand bolts of silk last month. Just entering one city gate cost a full five hundred taels of silver! And now, in broad daylight, I have to close my shop and sit here drinking idle wine... Over the years, this master has contributed to the court's military funds — if not ten thousand, then at least eight thousand taels, all gleaming silver! This master asks for nothing else but to be able to do business in peace. Is that too much?"

The others immediately erupted in another chorus of agreement. This venting suddenly made all the guests in the restaurant feel intimate with one another. Someone in the distance called out: "Yesterday I went to listen to storytelling. The storyteller spoke of Huang Gongbao..."

The crowd shifted topics and began discussing the legendary tales of Huang Shi. The table from Changsheng Island listened in silence.

As someone at a neighboring table spoke, he glanced over at Huang Shi's group and suddenly spoke up: "Speaking of this General Huang, I hear he is still in Jingcheng! Just now, from your accents, gentlemen, you seem to be from Liaodong. I presume you are not officers from the capital garrison or the Imperial Guard?"