[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-290":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220907,1614,"Chapter 290: Section 47: Westward Journey","stealing-ming-chapter-290",290,"\u003Cp>From the end of the sixth year of the Tianqi reign to the fifth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, this period was also a time of great development for Funing Garrison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Funing Garrison was originally a military town mixing guard battalion soldiers and recruited troops, but after the Dutch were successfully driven out of Penghu, the \"brilliant and martial\" Eunuch Wei Zhongxian believed that the Fujian coastal situation was now perfectly secure, so he immediately ordered the disbandment of all recruited troops within Funing Garrison. Now, most of the former elite soldiers of Funing Garrison have switched careers and gone into piracy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Apart from the tens of thousands of core troops brought by Huang Shi, there were also tens of thousands of military household males and three thousand qing of military farmland in the Xiapu area. In theory, these one hundred and twenty thousand males were all full-fledged guard battalion military households. If purely in theory, Huang Shi not only did not have to pay them a single copper in military wages, but could also take twenty percent of the military farmland's income each year to cover the garrison's expenses.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>If Huang Shi actually did that, his mobilization capacity would plummet to around three thousand combat soldiers plus thirty thousand auxiliary troops, and he might not even be able to properly equip those three thousand combat soldiers with weapons. This was roughly the normal mobilization capacity of a Ming army garrison. To support a grand expedition to the southwest, the troops Huang Shi could dispatch would absolutely not exceed five thousand, and those with combat effectiveness would certainly not reach two thousand, not to mention the issues of retainers, personal guards, and the loss of military farmland.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Under normal circumstances, the directly controlled forces of a Regional Commander level military officer amounted to only this much. The civil official faction believed this would guarantee that a military officer absolutely lacked the ability to carve out an independent domain or rebel. However, Huang Shi did not merely intend to be a normal military officer. In his ambitious plan, he wanted to train tens of thousands of combat troops and turn the entire military farmland of Funing Garrison into a giant \"industrial zone.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the first ten days of the twelfth month of the sixth year of Tianqi, the last batch of workers, including Bao Bowen, had already arrived in Fujian, more than half a month earlier than Huang Shi had expected. Because the stockpiled silver had all been left to the Left Associate Command of Dongjiang Garrison, for a period afterward Huang Shi could only divert merchant funds from Liu Qingyang's loans to maintain the operations of Funing Garrison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since it was diverted funds, Huang Shi was very cautious in the twelfth month and only drew fifty thousand taels of silver. Although this sum was nothing compared to the enormous amount of two million seven hundred thousand taels, this money was quite substantial for the former Changsheng Island officers and soldiers who were always short on funds. After all, they had never dared to spend fifty thousand taels of silver so freely in a single month before.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With ample financial support, Huang Shi was able to apply all manpower to restoring production capacity. The machine tools were quickly assembled, and in Jiangnan, where water resources were abundant, Huang Shi could begin mass-producing machines instead of building large numbers of windmills. However, for the stability and ease of control of the water flow, Huang Shi had planned from the start to build several small reservoirs. For Huang Shi's \"heavy industry,\" reservoirs were like storage batteries, windmills were like generators, and watermills were like electric motors. Although Fujian seemed not to need many generators, building a few more \"storage batteries\" was always a case of being prepared.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After formulating the plan to develop the army with full force, the production of armor and helmets was naturally the top priority of Funing Garrison. When Huang Shi was transferred from Dongjiang Garrison to Funing Garrison, the Tianqi Emperor also graciously issued a special edict to Nanzhili, ordering the Nanjing Armory to prioritize the military supplies needed by Funing Garrison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, an emperor's edict was one thing, and the execution below was another. Huang Shi knew very well that the goods from the Nanjing Armory were not so easy to get his hands on. Therefore, when Huang Shi went to Quanzhou in the first month, he only requested large quantities of leather armor and gunpowder from the Fujian Provincial Governor Zhu Yifeng. As for various types of iron armor, he did not mention a single word.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the mid-Ming period, when military officers at various levels wanted to obtain weapons for their troops, they generally had to pay one-tenth of the weapon's value. This was also the main income for the civil officials in charge of the armories. Therefore, officers at all levels were generally unwilling to equip their battalion troops with relatively expensive weapons like armor and shields; if they had money, they would spend it on their own retainers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Although it was somewhat absurd that a state's generals had to pay to equip the state's army, Huang Shi lacked the courage of Mao Wenlong to challenge these unwritten rules, and Mao Wenlong's situation was enough to extinguish all of Huang Shi's \"hot-bloodedness.\" Thus, Huang Shi still planned to honestly pay up and continue his path of being a fence-sitter. Of course, Huang Shi only chose relatively cheap items. A suit of leather armor only required paying the armory officials two taels. This time, Huang Shi requested the allocation of five thousand suits of leather armor for his arquebusiers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After three months of wrangling and bargaining, with the help of some \"old friends\" in Nanzhili, the Fujian Provincial Governor Zhu Yifeng exerted tremendous effort and finally managed to secure these items for Huang Shi. After the Ministry of Works and the Ministry of War in Nanzhili issued the official approval, Huang Shi gave red envelopes to Zhu Yifeng and his friends in Nanzhili respectively, then sent men to the Nanjing Armory to pay the money and retrieve the armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This batch of leather armor was of the most common quality, with limited defensive capability, but its greatest advantage was its lightness. A suit of leather armor weighed only twenty jin, which was not a significant burden for combat in the southern mountainous regions. Besides being unwilling to spend money, Huang Shi had another consideration: whether it was the various heavy armor produced by the Ministry of Works, or arquebuses and breech-loading swivel guns, they had absolutely no credibility guarantee, and encountering counterfeits or shoddy goods meant absolutely no returns.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Therefore, although Huang Shi had now obtained the right to have weapons allocated by the Ministry of Works, he still preferred to produce his own iron armor and helmets, especially the iron armor needed by heavy infantry. Under Bao Bowen's efforts, in the first month of the seventh year of Tianqi, Funing Garrison began producing steel. By the latter part of the first month of the seventh year of Tianqi, Huang Shi's precious machine tools finally began operating again.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the first month, Huang Shi again squeezed fifty thousand taels of silver from Liu Qingyang. Supported by these funds, Funing Garrison was transformed into a military town with a half-guard battalion, half-recruited troop system. The battalion soldiers and workers within it all received a fixed monthly wage of one tael. The others, of course, could only be unpaid, cheap labor. Currently, a portion of them still had to continue farming and fishing, but Huang Shi only collected a ten percent tax. This tax revenue allowed Huang Shi to free up other military households to perform manual labor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the second month of the seventh year of Tianqi, the Japanese Shogunate launched an attack on the Zhangzhou Domain. However, in terms of incompetence, the Shogunate's army was no better than the Zhangzhou Domain army Yang Zhiyuan encountered on his last trip to Japan. In the first report Yang Zhiyuan wrote to Huang Shi, he claimed the only difference between the two was that the Shogunate's army had more men.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>To preemptively stop the humanitarian disaster against the people of Zhangzhou, Yang Zhiyuan and the Panshi Battalion naturally would not stand by and watch. Yang Zhiyuan reported to Huang Shi that he planned to use the Zhangzhou Domain's border fortresses to tie down the Shogunate and Japanese feudal lords' armies coming from several directions, while concentrating the new Zhangzhou army and the Panshi Battalion for use as a mobile force to defeat the punitive expedition armies one by one.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the end of the second month of the seventh year of Tianqi, Funing Garrison had produced six hundred sets of new-style armor. The armor used by the Funing Army itself was not just a breastplate; it also required matching protective armor for the shoulders, arms, legs, shins, and other parts. Before finalizing the production requirements, Huang Shi first consulted He Dingyuan. The latter demanded that the total weight of a full armor set must not exceed thirty-two jin. This figure was about seventy percent of the weight of a full-body heavy cotton armor, comparable to the iron scale armor Sun Chengzong had issued to Huang Shi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Dingyuan believed this weight would not affect the infantry's tactical movements. Huang Shi passed this opinion on to the Funing Garrison Armaments Department and let them operate on their own. In any case, Huang Shi's main idea was to increase the iron content percentage of the armor. The iron content percentage of a chest plate was almost one hundred percent, which should both reduce weight and improve defensive effectiveness.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi was also very satisfied with the armor produced. The Armaments Department even further compressed the armor's weight to thirty jin, only ten jin heavier than the arquebusiers' leather armor. Furthermore, the standard-issue helmet of Funing Garrison could be integrated with the Funing Garrison iron armor. This way, when the helmet was struck, the significant impact force would be borne by the chest. This helmet weighed a full five jin.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the beginning of this month, Huang Shi again took fifty thousand taels of silver from Liu Qingyang. After receiving this silver, Huang Shi immediately trained eight thousand new soldiers. Added to the existing troops, Funing Garrison now had over fifteen thousand combat troops drawing military pay. The Armaments Department also had nearly two thousand people to pay, so the monthly military payroll alone was seventeen thousand taels. Adding training expenses and maintenance costs, the monthly spending on the army had already exceeded thirty thousand taels.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the third month of the seventh year of Tianqi, Liu Qingyang's trading group began earning income from the previous month. The Dark Council was optimistic about the trade's profit prospects. Even after deducting necessary interest payments, the total profit for the full month of the second month reached about one hundred fifty thousand taels of silver. After reviewing the report, the first order Huang Shi issued was: in the third month, Liu Qingyang must remit one hundred thousand taels of silver.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After getting the money, Huang Shi again expanded the Armaments Department. After the expansion, the Funing Garrison Armaments Department suddenly possessed over eight thousand people. This month, the military payroll Funing Garrison had to pay out also reached as high as twenty-four thousand taels. Faced with such generous military pay, many girls from the mountainous areas of Fujian began to be tempted, and some started marrying into Funing Garrison.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In this month, Yang Zhiyuan continuously sent good news. Under the joint \"persuasion\" of the Panshi Battalion and the new Zhangzhou Domain army, the various southwestern domains of Japan successively repented and withdrew from the unjust war against the people of Zhangzhou. These domains also expressed their willingness to further strengthen cooperation with the Zhangzhou Domain.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>However, \"dispatching troops without authorization is tantamount to rebellion,\" and moreover, Japan was a \"nation not to be conquered\" as decreed by Zhu Hongwu. Therefore, Huang Shi did not dare to openly collude with the various Japanese domains. These tasks had to be left entirely to Heidao Yifu. After all, Morizumi Nobuyoshi was ultimately an elder of the Zhangzhou Domain; letting him come forward to help Huang Shi manage business dealings was still not entirely reassuring.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Yang Zhiyuan also reported to Huang Shi that after a month of bitter fighting, the main force of the Japanese Shogunate was still halted at the Zhangzhou Domain's border fortresses. Although the garrison troops inside the fortresses were also the old-style army of the Zhangzhou Domain, they were equipped with large numbers of cannons, and these fortresses were all old-style bastion structures designed for the Zhangzhou Domain by Changsheng Island's engineers.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Japanese Shogunate army, primarily equipped with bows, bamboo spears, and samurai swords, was at a complete loss against the Zhangzhou Domain's fortresses and could only pin their hopes on capturing them through a long-term siege. According to Yang Zhiyuan, the Panshi Battalion and the new Zhangzhou Domain army had suffered almost no losses in the previous phase of fighting and were currently resting and recuperating in the rear, preparing to set out next month for a decisive battle with the Shogunate's main force.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the same time, Yang Zhiyuan also reported: having witnessed the power of the new Zhangzhou Domain army, Morizumi Nobuyoshi's prestige within the Zhangzhou Domain had just reached a new peak. The Zhangzhou Domain warriors had also swept away the tense atmosphere from the start of the war, and cries of \"March on Kanto, burn Edo\" were clamorous for a time. Elder Morizumi had secretly consulted Yang Zhiyuan on the issue of guiding public opinion, and Yang Zhiyuan therefore requested Huang Shi to clearly indicate the next step's operational strategy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the fourth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, Huang Shi again obtained one hundred thousand taels of silver from Liu Qingyang. Although Funing Garrison did not expand this month, Huang Shi ordered a pay raise for the soldiers. The monthly salary of an ordinary soldier was increased from one tael to one tael and five qian. This salary was already comparable to that of the Guanning Army and far higher than the standard three qian of silver for recruited troops in Zhejiang and Guangdong provinces.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The vast number of soldiers in Funing Garrison resolutely supported Huang Shi's decision, and Huang Shi took this opportunity to restore the silver certificate system, still calling them military notes externally. This time, Huang Shi learned his lesson; he had the edges of the silver coins milled with ridges to prevent people from shaving off the edges. The silver coins issued this time were still seventy percent silver, so if no one exchanged them, although Huang Shi had raised wages, he actually did not pay out more silver.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi maintained the credibility of the silver coins by allowing them to be freely exchanged. Although a few individual new soldiers exchanged their silver coins for silver taels, under the influence of the veterans, most of the Fujian new soldiers trusted Huang Shi. Moreover, the silver coins were indeed convenient, and their value was clearly written, preventing anyone from being cheated.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This wage level immediately caused a sensation in the vicinity of Funing Garrison. Taking Fujian's land tax as an example, the agricultural tax set by the Wanli Emperor was only five li per mu per year, and one dan of top-quality rice was only worth four qian of silver. Yet a combat soldier in Funing Garrison received one tael and five qian in military pay per month. An ordinary farmer or fisherman toiling for a year might not earn as much as a soldier earned in a month.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the fourth month, for the entire month, large crowds came to Funing Garrison every day to sign up for military service. However, Huang Shi had already given an order that recruitment must prioritize the garrison's own military households. Disappointed, many of these males who came to enlist actually requested to join the military registry, starting as ordinary military households of Funing Garrison. Even after being told there were no further immediate plans for army expansion, many still expressed they didn't mind, resolutely demanding to become military households and work for Huang Shi for free, as long as they had food to eat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Since the masses were so enthusiastic, Huang Shi felt embarrassed to let them down, so he recruited over ten thousand people to do manual labor, even saving on the customary settling-in allowance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>With the manpower, after building more reservoirs and watermills, Huang Shi further introduced a three-shift system. In any case, the armaments company had trained several thousand workers, so there was absolutely no worry about manual skills. Through a month of working through the night by lamplight, by the end of the fourth month, the Armaments Department had produced one thousand seven hundred sets of armor. Adding the output from the second and third months, Funing Garrison had stockpiled three thousand sets of new-style iron armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the end of the fourth month, Yang Zhiyuan led the Panshi Battalion to Funing Garrison. The just war of the people of the Zhangzhou Domain in striving for regional autonomy had ended in mid-fourth month. More precisely, after the combined forces of the new Zhangzhou Domain army and the Panshi Battalion engaged the Shogunate army on the eighth day of the fourth month, the military conflict was already declared over. What remained was the work of the politicians.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Zhangzhou side had an army centered on three thousand modern troops, supplemented by nearly ten thousand high-morale peasants defending their homes and country; their enemy was over fifty thousand peasants from Kanto, plus several thousand armor-clad \"sword masters,\" who had already been bogged down beneath strong city walls for two months.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The result of the battle: under the bombardment of field cannons, the great army of the Tokugawa Shogunate began to collapse as rapidly as the predecessors who had first encountered this army. In this era, the Tokugawa hatamoto samurai were indeed slightly stronger than the Zhangzhou Domain army and the armies of the southwestern domains. They still tried to maintain formation and advance to enter melee combat. But when the new army used terrifying chain shot and canister shot, this force, reputed to be the strongest in Japan, also began to flee. The last few samurai were also turned into colanders by arquebus fire...\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After routing the Shogunate army, the allied forces conducted a pursuit lasting an entire day. By nightfall, the allied forces had taken over ten thousand heads and captured over twenty thousand prisoners. According to Huang Shi's instructions, Morizumi Nobuyoshi subsequently displayed the demeanor of a true statesman. He not only gave the tens of thousands of prisoners a full meal but also released them unconditionally.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The conditions finally proposed by the Zhangzhou Domain left the Shogunate so astonished they were speechless. Never in Japanese history had there been such reasonable, well-founded, and moderate terms, especially against the backdrop of such an unprecedented crushing defeat. To prevent the Zhangzhou Domain from going back on its word, the Tokugawa Shogunate impatiently dispatched envoys to sign a new treaty with the Zhangzhou Domain, and peace was thus restored in Japan.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After the Panshi Battalion arrived in Fujian, the three field battalions under Funing Garrison's command—Jiuhuo, Panshi, and Xuanfeng—had a total of nine thousand officers and men, with a total shortage of six thousand personnel. By the end of the fourth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, Huang Shi's eight thousand new soldiers had completed basic training. He immediately brought all three field battalions up to full strength and also selected some seed officers and men from the three old field battalions, placing them together with the remaining new soldiers into the Tianyi Battalion.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As of the first day of the fifth month of the seventh year of Tianqi, the Jiuhuo, Panshi, and Xuanfeng battalions of Funing Garrison had fifteen thousand officers and men, with twenty-four infantry companies, and three each of artillery companies, cavalry companies, engineer companies, and logistics companies. Among the twenty-four infantry companies, there were six thousand pikemen and three thousand six hundred arquebusiers. Huang Shi had three thousand sets of new-style armor and two thousand two hundred remaining sets of old-style iron scale armor. Adding three thousand six hundred suits of leather armor, he finally managed to roughly equip the infantry units with armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The logistics companies, needless to say, definitely had no armor. The armor for the artillery companies had also been completely eliminated, as artillerymen no longer needed to go up and fight desperately. The engineer companies were issued a batch of leather armor. As for the cavalry companies, Huang Shi once again withheld their iron armor, issuing only leather armor to make do.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Dingyuan came over and vigorously vented a string of complaints, but Huang Shi truly had no more goods on hand. To scrape together iron armor for the infantry, he had even taken back the iron armor of the Inner Guard unit. Besides, within the Funing Army's structure, the main tasks of the cavalry companies were reconnaissance and pursuit. Huang Shi had very sufficient reason not to give them iron armor, and He Dingyuan ultimately had to accept reality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Before He Dingyuan left, Huang Shi consoled him: \"Brother He, rest assured, in another two months the infantry armor should be almost fully allocated, and then I will start producing breastplates. That will be equipment for the cavalry.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Dingyuan, who already had one leg out the tent door, pulled his leg back in upon hearing this: \"Commander, I've heard you say this for several years now, but every time there's a shortage of supplies, you immediately and without a second thought withhold from the cavalry companies. If the infantry lacks armor, Commander takes from the cavalry; if the artillery lacks horses, Commander also takes from the cavalry; and the Inner Guard simply takes men from the cavalry.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi laughed: \"Isn't this all because Brother He trains troops so effectively? Training eight thousand elite soldiers at once naturally means supplies can't quite keep up.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No, Commander, you're blaming me again,\" He Dingyuan flatly denied this claim and loudly retorted: \"Every time I say we should train more cavalry, Commander, you always say there's no money. But every time there's a little money, you expand the infantry, artillery, engineers, even the logistics troops, while the cavalry is always cut again and again, with no hope in sight. This time in Fujian, Commander, you expanded eight thousand infantry in one go. If you still say there's no money, I absolutely do not believe it.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"One horse is worth ten infantrymen. Eight thousand infantry sounds like a lot, but if you raise horses, this money is only enough to support one thousand cavalry. Besides, we're going to the southwestern mountains; one thousand cavalry is clearly not as useful as eight thousand infantry.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No matter where you go, one thousand cavalry cannot defeat Commander's eight thousand infantry, but that is no reason not to form cavalry companies!\" He Dingyuan's voice grew louder as he shouted, the veins on his neck already bulging.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I know, I know.\" Huang Shi smiled cheerfully, not angry at all. Seeing that He Dingyuan's resentment had reached a certain point, he decided to reveal a secret to him: \"Alright, actually I've already bought a batch of good horses, absolutely the kind you've never seen before.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"What good horses?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Brother He, roughly how heavy was the best horse you've ever ridden?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmm, around five hundred fifty jin, just under six hundred jin. That was back in my hometown in Shaanxi. In Liaodong, they're all small four-hundred-jin horses, nowhere near as good as the horses we have in Shaanxi.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mongolian horses generally weigh just over two hundred kilograms, and carrying a single rider is already quite strenuous. Huang Shi's large mount was carefully selected and only weighed a bit over five hundred jin. He himself weighed one hundred eighty jin, plus several tens of jin of armor and weapons, leaving the horse with no spare strength to wear any horse armor.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, the Hetao horses of Shaanxi are indeed famous throughout the land, but those large horses aren't common either, are they?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Not common, horses around four hundred-plus jin are the most common.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi nodded, extended a finger, and wagged it at He Dingyuan: \"Brother He, after I came to Xiapu, I ordered a batch of breeding stock from the Red Barbarians. These horses are all over one thousand two hundred jin each.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Dingyuan was stunned for a moment, then burst into loud laughter: \"The barbarians just talk nonsense. Where would such huge horses exist? I've never heard of such a thing.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"You mean, if I really manage to buy them, Brother He, you wouldn't want any?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Dingyuan studied Huang Shi with suspicious eyes. The latter leisurely raised his teacup and began to drink. \"Want them? Why wouldn't I? But I've heard that a large horse over six hundred catties is already worth more than a thousand taels of silver. A truly thousand-catty horse would have to cost ten thousand taels.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The Red Barbarians sell them cheaper than that. Last twelfth month I made a deal with the Jesuits. They'll find ten stallions and twenty mares for me. After shipping them here and raising them for a month, they must reach twelve hundred catties. I'm paying them two hundred thousand taels in total.\" Huang Shi made it clear these were breeding stock, meant for stud once they arrived.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>He Dingyuan calculated in his head. A twelve-hundred-catty horse, besides carrying a rider, could also bear seventy or eighty catties of heavy horse armor. This truly delighted him beyond expectation. \"My lord, when will the horses arrive?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I estimate they can be shipped here this year.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That one sentence from Huang Shi made He Dingyuan stare blankly. He muttered, \"But it's only the fourth month now.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes,\" Huang Shi admitted this without a blush or a quickened heartbeat. \"Once this batch of horses arrives, we'll start breeding. Then, when the foals grow up, Brother He, you can form a powerful mounted company.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fifth month, third day, seventh year of Tianqi. Xiapu.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After Huang Shi paid this month's military wages with the silver coin in the treasury, there was still a surplus of ten thousand taels. The military farms had yielded considerable harvests. The garrison's harvest was enough to feed the hundred thousand-plus mouths within the garrison. At the end of last month, Huang Shi had ordered Liu Qingyang to deliver two hundred thousand taels of silver this month, and that money arrived yesterday. Huang Shi examined the report that came with it. Because Huang Shi kept drawing out large sums of silver, Liu Qingyang's side had not yet made up the deficit.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"No rush. There are still over two years left.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Huang Shi was quite philosophical about it. In these four months, three hundred fifty thousand taels of silver had been poured in, and a Funing Army nearly twenty thousand strong had been forcibly hammered into existence by him. Besides the seventeen thousand troops of the four field battalions, Funing Garrison also directly commanded a seven-hundred-man Internal Guard unit, a two-hundred-man Training unit, a fifteen-hundred-man Medical unit, the garrison's directly-controlled logistics troops, and staff departments of varying sizes: the Staff Department, the Military Intelligence Department, the Logistics Department, and the Military Justice Department.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Counting the eight thousand men of the Military Engineering Department, the core organizational components of Funing Garrison already approached thirty thousand people. One month's military wages were over forty thousand taels of silver. Adding in training, mess hall, and other expenses, Funing Garrison's maintenance costs had already broken through the seventy-thousand-tael mark. Fortunately, the garrison's military households could not only be self-sufficient but could also help Huang Shi share some of the burden, and they were a potential source of troop replenishment.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"When I have more money, sooner or later I will have all the male members of Funing Garrison's military households undergo basic military training. Otherwise, why call them military households?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After receiving the enormous sum of two hundred thousand taels of silver, Huang Shi immediately announced that they would set out for the southwest. \"This time, my Funing Army will mobilize all fifteen thousand officers and men of the Firefighting, Rock, and Vanguard battalions. We will also mobilize five hundred Internal Guards, one thousand Medical unit personnel, and the garrison's directly-controlled logistics unit. In addition, the Staff Department, Military Intelligence Department, and Military Justice Department will all send personnel to accompany the expedition. The total will be eighteen thousand eight hundred officers and men.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The listeners below were all brimming with fighting spirit. The scale of this military expedition was unprecedentedly grand. The various commanders of Funing Garrison were all stirred with surging emotions and excitement.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Confer upon Zhao Manxiong the brevet rank of Assistant Regional Commander. During my absence, Assistant Regional Commander Zhao shall have full authority over the military affairs of the Xiapu base camp. After I leave, Assistant Regional Commander Zhao may also recruit two thousand new soldiers from the military households for training. At the same time, have the two thousand officers and men of the Tianyi Battalion make preparations. They must be ready at any time to fill the vacancies in the three battalions at the front.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I obey. I shall devote myself fully to my duties and not betray the trust placed in me by the Grand Commander.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Good. This time I am going to the southwest to serve as Provincial Military Commander overseeing the military affairs of four provinces. It will be difficult for me to divide my attention. Therefore, I have already reported to the Fujian Provincial Governor and the Ministry of War, requesting that they confer upon Elder General Yu the brevet rank of Regional Commander for the Defense of Fujian. However, Elder General Yu's station will remain in Xiamen. He will not interfere here in Xiapu. During festivals and holidays, Assistant Regional Commander Zhao, remember to send letters of greeting to Elder General Yu often. You must absolutely not be remiss in courtesy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"I understand. Please be at ease, Grand Commander.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Good. Now for the military arrangements. The Firefighting Battalion will set out before the tenth of this month. I, your commander, will set out together with the Firefighting Battalion. The Rock Battalion will depart on the fifteenth, with Mobile Corps Commander He leading the unit. The Vanguard Battalion will set out on the twentieth, with Mobile Corps Commander Jia leading the unit.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"We obey.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The Internal Guard and the combat engineers, as the first wave of troops to set out, were responsible for surveying the roads and terrain to assist the main force's march that would follow. The Internal Guard's primary task was directing traffic, while the combat engineers were responsible for sketching road maps and estimating the main force's speed of passage. The combat engineer unit of the Firefighting Battalion had also been specially detached and placed under Ouyang Xin's command. They, together with over a hundred Internal Guard officers and men, would travel by ship to Guangzhou, proceeding ahead along the main force's planned line of march to conduct advance reconnaissance.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Fifth month, seventh day, seventh year of Tianqi. Liaodong.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After four months of fierce battle had heavily damaged the Dongjiang Army, Huang Taiji looked around him. The strategic encirclement that had once been tightly fastened around Later Jin's neck was on the verge of total collapse. He thereupon cast aside his previous humble posture and sent an envoy to deliver a letter to Yuan Chonghuan. In this letter, Huang Taiji heaped scorn upon Yuan Chonghuan's peace negotiations of the past four months, and even more openly taunted him:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"...Even if you can reinforce a few cities, can you make all your cities and the crops in your fields equally secure? If you do not cease the clash of arms, then I, blessed by Heaven's favor, shall take Beijing and bestow it upon myself. The Ming Emperor will flee to Nanjing. What will become of his good name then?...\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the very day of the fifth month, seventh day, the Later Jin army's vanguard reached the Liao River. On the eighth, the Later Jin army crossed the Liao River in a single day and set foot on the land of Liaoxi.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After receiving Yuan Chonghuan's memorial, the Ming court ultimately issued an edict commending him, while at the same time ordering him to strengthen his defenses and prepare to defend against a possible Later Jin attack. But nearly a month after receiving Mao Wenlong's warning, the generals, troops, military households, commoners, and merchants of Liaoxi still had not received any alert.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the fifth month, eighth day, Yuan Chonghuan's words that \"the golden defenses grow ever more solid\" still echoed in their ears when Mang Gurtai led two hundred cavalry of the Later Jin vanguard to the walls of Guangning Central-Left Garrison (Dalinghe). The defending commander of the Guan-Ning Army, caught completely off guard, surrendered with the entire city's two thousand Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry and over ten thousand merchants and civilians.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the fifth month, ninth day, Mang Gurtai's two hundred cavalry reached the walls of Guangning Right Garrison (Xiaolinghe). The three thousand Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry inside the city requested to surrender. After receiving Mang Gurtai's consent, they peacefully laid down their weapons and, together with every man, woman, and child in the city, obediently marched east toward Liaoyang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the fifth month, tenth day, the Later Jin army's spearhead reached Jinzhou. The defending commander, Zhao Lujiao, was greatly alarmed when he saw the Later Jin cavalry suddenly appear outside the city. He hastily sent an envoy to request surrender, begging only that the Later Jin army grant him a day's grace so he could have time to persuade his subordinates to surrender together. The Later Jin army agreed and bypassed Jinzhou, continuing south.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>That afternoon, a scout came riding toward the Later Jin vanguard cavalry unit. \"My Lord Beile, the defending commander of Songshan requests to surrender.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mang Gurtai tilted his head and glanced at the scout, saying with some surprise, \"But I haven't even reached the city yet.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The scout hurriedly tumbled from his saddle and dismounted, apologizing to Mang Gurtai. \"Forgive me, my Lord Beile. Your slaves carelessly ventured too close and were spotted by the Ming troops at Songshan.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Earlier, after being discovered by the defending commander of Tashan, the Later Jin scouting niru, filled with the arrogance cultivated along the entire journey, had simply ridden up directly and demanded their surrender. As a result, the defending commander of Tashan had asked them to relay a message to Mang Gurtai: if their lives could be guaranteed, the defending troops were willing to open the city gates and surrender.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Fine. But before they leave, have them tear down the city. Save us the trouble.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Yes, your slave will go relay the order at once.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the time Mang Gurtai rode his horse up to the walls of Songshan, the Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry inside the city were supervising the entire city's merchants and civilians as they worked together, stripping this city—which the state had spent five hundred thousand taels of silver to build and which had been completed less than a month ago—back down to a bare city.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Alright, that's enough for today. Tell the defending commander to start tearing down the wall foundations tomorrow morning.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The next day, as Mang Gurtai set out, he instructed the Ming troops who were tearing down the wall foundations: after they finished dismantling the city, they were to load the city's supplies onto their backs and then walk themselves to Liaoyang.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the fifth month, eleventh day, seventh year of Tianqi, the Later Jin army continued south while simultaneously spreading out to expand their search range. That same day, the ten thousand-plus Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry stationed at Xingshan, Tuanshan, Dading, and other locations separately requested to surrender to the Later Jin army. The Later Jin army's orders were essentially the same: have them destroy, by themselves, the fortresses—whether repaired or unrepaired—and then carry the contents of the cities on their backs and march themselves to Liaoyang to assemble.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Meanwhile, the Ming forces in the direction of Ningyuan had finally received the alarm. The Guan-Ning Iron Cavalry garrisoned at forts such as Lianshan and Xiaotuanshan abandoned their fortresses without the slightest hesitation and swarmed in retreat toward Ningyuan. Without firing a single arrow, the Later Jin army captured a total of seventeen Ming cities, fortresses, and relay posts, both large and small, beyond the passes.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>By the fifth month, thirteenth day, seventh year of Tianqi, since the Battle of Ningyuan, the twenty large and small fortresses beyond the passes that the Ming dynasty had painstakingly built at a cost of five million taels of silver and eighteen months of labor had all been abandoned within four days. During this period, the grain, gunpowder, cannons, bows and arrows, armor, and swords and shields worth millions of taels of silver that the Ming dynasty had transported to these fortresses beyond the passes were all given away for nothing to the Later Jin army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the fifth month, fourteenth day, Jirgalang had already led reinforcements to catch up with Mang Gurtai's vanguard. \"The roads are truly difficult to travel. They're densely packed with people.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ah, so many have already fled.\" Mang Gurtai sighed repeatedly. Since the day before yesterday, the beacon fires across Liaoxi had been lit one after another. The hundreds of thousands of commoners, merchants, and military households between Jinzhou and Ningyuan were rolling south in flight, which had cost Mang Gurtai quite a few captives.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The Third Beile is truly greedy.\" Jirgalang burst out laughing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Mang Gurtai sized up the men following behind Jirgalang and frowned. \"Why have you brought so few men?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Behind Jirgalang were no more than a thousand-plus cavalry. He explained calmly, \"The defending commander of Jinzhou, Zhao Lujiao, has gone back on his word. He has refused to surrender again.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Oh? What does the Khan intend to do about him?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Jinzhou is a strong city with deep moats. The Khan attacked it the day before yesterday, but it is very difficult to assault. They have many firearms inside the city, and also cannons.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Haha,\" Mang Gurtai laughed a few times and turned his head to look northward. \"Among these hundred thousand-plus Ming troops in Liaoxi, there is at last one man. Truly not easy.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Haha, but there is actually more than one. The defending commander of Physician Fort has also refused to surrender.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmm, that makes two then. How goes the battle at Physician Fort?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"The Khan also sent men to attack it once, but it seems it cannot be taken either.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Right now there's so much stuff we can't even haul it all away. If we can't take them, then don't.\" Mang Gurtai's mood had become very cheerful again these past few days. Ever since Huang Shi had left, life had suddenly become wonderful once more. \"Last time we entered Liaoxi, it was like entering an uninhabited land. This time it's the same from the start. Do you think Ningyuan will surrender?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Haha, let's go take a look.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Alright.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jirgalang's mood was greatly elated. This trip into Liaoxi looked as though it would be very splendid. \"Third Beile, our two Blue Banners fought for so many years in Liaodong. Mao Wenlong's and Chen Jisheng's soldiers, though they were so ragged they couldn't cover their bodies, would put up a wooden fence and a shed and call it a fortress—at most smearing a bit of mud on it—but we never won this easily. Along this Liaoxi road, there are mighty cities and strong walls everywhere. I've also seen the equipment of the surrendered Guan-Ning Army troops. They truly can be called well-armored and sharp-weaponed. How could they be so utterly incapable of withstanding a single blow?\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Hmph. Mao Wenlong's soldiers have nothing but their lives. What else do they have? But these fellows in Liaoxi are all well-fed. They can't bear to die.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Even if they can't bear to die, why don't they at least try to fight? Besides, Liaoxi is completely undefended anyway.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Ah, Mao Wenlong spends every day itching to fight his way back into Liaodong, so naturally his men share that ambition. He hates us to the marrow of his bones, so of course he sleeps with one eye open. Yuan Chonghuan spends every day dreaming of peace talks, so naturally he doesn't even bother with the most basic precautions. With such vermin in command, the Guanning Army could train for ten thousand years and never learn to fight.\" After Mang Gurtai finished speaking, a look of worry suddenly crossed his face:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Those bastards who eat better than the Liaoxi troops and fight harder than the Liaodong troops... they're the truly terrifying ones. You've always been in Liaodong, so you haven't yet seen those beasts.\"\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>……\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the drumbeats drew nearer from afar, the engineers and Internal Guards on the hilltop all set down their work. They turned together to face the official road. The mounted officers, their expressions solemn, carefully straightened their helmets, then slowly raised their hands to their ears, joining the others in saluting the approaching army.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Golden sunlight poured down from the zenith onto the ground. The official road was soon filled with the gleaming snow-bright luster of helmets and weapons, forming a river of metal. Upon this silver river, countless white plumes thrust straight toward the heavens like sharp swords, swaying and advancing in rhythm alongside the dense thicket of spear blades between them.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The rumbling footsteps shook the earth. The joyous drumbeats, like a nimble bird, danced around the column together with the crimson Viper banners. On the hill, the Internal Guard and engineer officers and men thrust out their chests ramrod-straight, holding their salute motionless, like statues standing upon the slope.\u003C\u002Fp>",7024,"2026-06-04T07:54:54.057Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","c9be0b1edd515697d55a3508446caf82b84ea30705f028b74159d355e99a51e4","stealing-ming-chapter-291","stealing-ming-chapter-289",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]