Chapter 291: Section 48: Fighting Will

Before setting out on this southwestern campaign, Huang Shi gave the matter careful thought and decided he would personally command the Firefighting Battalion. He assigned the Boulder and Vanguard Battalions to He Dingyuan and Jia Minghe. Barring unforeseen circumstances, those two would serve as battalion commanders for those units until the expedition's end.

With the army's complete reorganization now finished, the Vanguard Battalion had long since lost all of its independence, and Jia Minghe had become just another ordinary officer within Huang Shi's system. Yet Huang Shi had no intention of shortchanging old Vanguard Battalion hands like Jia Minghe and Pu Guanshui because of that, for he felt that "burning the bridge after crossing the river" was a truly unsavory reputation to have. Besides, drawing some new blood into his own faction also helped dilute the entrenched influence of his old subordinates.

Huang Shi ordered armor and cannons shipped to Nanchang, then transported onward to Guizhou via the Yangtze River. The soldiers, however, all carried their helmets and weapons on their persons. Huang Shi believed that since they were an army, such basic equipment ought never to leave a soldier's side. That month Funingzhen could still produce a portion of armor, and these newly manufactured supplies would also be sent to the southwestern front at the highest priority. With that shipment added in, Huang Shi figured the shortfall in iron armor would be just about covered.

But the Yangtze's shipping capacity was limited, and the portion of it Huang Shi could secure was even more precious. According to the intelligence reports he had analyzed, the shipping capacity he could obtain over the next few months would, beyond transporting supplies, only suffice to move roughly one battalion's worth of troops. In the end Huang Shi decided to use that capacity to transport the Vanguard Battalion along with auxiliary personnel from the Military Intelligence Department and the Staff Department.

Coastal shipping along the southeast seaboard could also bear part of the burden, moving troops by sea from Fujian to Guangzhou, then northward along the Guangdong official road into Guizhou. But the transport capacity on that route was also limited. Lately the pirates in the Min Sea had grown more and more active, tying down the main attention of the Fujian provincial navy, so the shipping capacity could not support an entire battalion.

Still, although pirate activity was growing bolder by the day, Huang Shi reckoned that when the pirates encountered troopships packed with officers and soldiers, they still would not have the nerve to jump aboard and plunder them. So since there was some shipping capacity to be had, Huang Shi meant to use it. He had the Boulder Battalion transfer most of its baggage to the Yangtze route and sent He Dingyuan to lead the men by ship to Guangzhou, then travel overland to Guizhou.

After exhausting every bit of capacity on the sea route and the Yangtze, the last remaining battalion had only one road left: take the overland route through Jiangxi and Huguang into Guizhou. This road was without question the longest and most grueling, and the potential troubles along the way were likely to be many. Huang Shi decided to lead this column in person.

Yet the hardship brought its own reward. Although the Firefighting Battalion would have to exert the greatest effort, once the troops heard that Huang Shi himself would lead them, the morale of the entire battalion soared instead. As the veteran unit that had followed Huang Shi for six years, the soldiers within it possessed an immense sense of pride.

"When the critical moment comes, it still falls to us, the Firefighting Battalion."

"Our Firefighting Battalion is both the best at fighting and the best at enduring hardship."

"Our Firefighting Battalion is the old guard among the Grand Commander's old guard."

According to Zhang Pan's report, the officers and men of the Firefighting Battalion were brimming with confidence and voiced no complaints. Even the newly replenished soldiers were itching to prove themselves.

With the morale problem solved, what remained were the issues of logistics and speed. Apart from the sheer hardship, this march was also burdened by baggage. Although Huang Shi could dispense with carrying armor and cannons, grain had to be consumed in enormous quantities every single day.

"Perhaps we can obtain some from the local government offices, so the troops can carry a bit less grain. Our army is marching under orders, after all, and has the right to draw supplies locally." When they first calculated the cost of grain transport, Yang Zhiyuan had been so pained he ground his teeth. If the grain for these two thousand five hundred li had to be hauled entirely by manpower organized from Funingzhen, then just to keep these five thousand men fed, Funingzhen would have to mobilize a hundred thousand auxiliary troops and hire vast numbers of carts and civilian laborers along the way. The entire garrison would be utterly drained and impoverished.

Jin Qiude objected at once: "However, if we draw supplies from the local government offices, the first problem is wastage — that is not the main issue, we can simply let them have a little extra. But I fear it will affect the army's marching speed."

On such matters He Dingyuan had always kept his mouth shut. Had Huang Shi not dragged him in to listen, he would have been far more interested in doing some other work. Jia Minghe and Zhao Manxiong also had no opinions. The former was new to his post and reluctant to speak too much; the latter had not yet fully weighed all the conflicting interests involved.

Ever since the status of military officers had greatly declined in the mid-Ming period, the civil official clique had felt it imperative to tighten control over army movements. The guard battalion system had left each individual military commander with very limited logistical capacity of his own. Even the present Huang Shi could barely organize grain transport over a thousand li, let alone an ordinary garrison command. The civil officials therefore believed that if they could control grain supplies along the route, they could further strengthen their grip on the military commanders.

Thus, before court discipline collapsed under the Chongzhen reign, local Ming government offices generally refused to hand grain directly to the commanding officer. Instead, they prepared the food themselves and dispatched local troops and government office runners to distribute it by headcount. The civil officials claimed this left the military commanders little opportunity to embezzle, but Huang Shi believed it made embezzlement far easier for the civil officials.

If that were all, it might still have been tolerable. But subsequently the Ming civil officials considered a new problem: was it really necessary to let marching troops eat their fill? The civil official clique generally held that if soldiers ate too much, they would become sluggish and move with difficulty, which was clearly disadvantageous for a march. The civil official clique therefore later stipulated that transient troops passing through were to be given only two meals a day.

Had it stopped there, it might still have been bearable. Yet the Ming civil official clique soon discovered another potential loophole: if an army marched fast enough to pass through two counties, or even three, in a single day, then the soldiers could end up eating four or even six meals. Would that not be letting those louts swindle a free advantage? So the Ming civil official clique tacked on an additional rule: troops arriving that same day would not be fed. Only after they had halted locally for a full day could the soldiers be given food. Thus the last avenue by which soldiers might "eat more and take more" was thoroughly sealed off.

The members of the Ming army were human beings, not mules; they could not live on grass. The soldiers naturally wished to increase the frequency of their meals as much as possible. Therefore, even in urgent situations, when the Ming army moved it would march one day and halt the next, so as to ensure the soldiers could eat one day out of every two.

In reality, in most cases Ming army movements were even slower than that, because the soldiers knew full well that once they struck camp, they would have no chance to eat that day. Morale would therefore plummet at the moment of departure, sometimes even to the point of mutiny. On some occasions, commanders anxious to make speed even had to offer reward money to entice the soldiers to break camp and set out.

When the situation was not particularly urgent, the soldiers naturally preferred to halt longer and march less. The commanders also understood that hungry soldiers, even if they marched, could not march fast. An army with low morale not only moved slowly but was also prone to mass desertion and thievery. Ming commanders therefore generally declined to invite trouble by insisting on forced marches, and instead responded to the soldiers' calls by slowly dawdling along the road.

The marching problem Jin Qiude raised referred to precisely this situation. Now that they were marching through the interior, Huang Shi had to abide by this set of rules. If Huang Shi marched one day and halted the next, he would have to carry enough grain himself to feed the troops on the marching day — in other words, pay for half out of his own pocket. If Huang Shi marched one day and rested two, he could seemingly carry a bit less grain, eating more at the local government offices and less on the road, and by gritting their teeth they could scrape by. If they dawdled along like other Ming armies, then they could have the soldiers save up a little food each day, and marching one day out of every three would still pose no problem.

If he did it that way, Huang Shi would have no hope of reaching Guizhou in under a year or so. He therefore chose a third path — scattering money.

"My lord intends to spend money to buy grain for an entire army of five thousand?"

When Huang Shi voiced this idea, the officers under him were all deeply shaken. "How much money would that cost?"

Huang Shi believed this method was the most convenient, because the local commoners always had surplus grain. As long as the army could produce silver, even if the commoners' own grain was insufficient they could go elsewhere to buy it. That would be equivalent to gaining a huge body of one-time logistical personnel. "It will still be cheaper than hauling the grain ourselves, and carrying silver is far lighter than carrying grain."

Though everyone agreed with Huang Shi's words, Yang Zhiyuan clearly had not yet wrapped his head around it. "But we are government troops. We are going to help the southwestern border forces. Why should our Funingzhen have to pay?"

Huang Shi, for his part, saw nothing strange about it. Though it was somewhat peculiar for border defense troops marching under imperial decree to suppress a rebellion to have the general foot the bill, was this not the Great Ming? Feudal dynasties always had their historical limitations. "What we need most is time. Spending a bit more money is not a problem."

Jin Qiude shot Huang Shi an odd look. "Grand Commander, is our time really that tight? I, for one, feel there is no need to rush. Fighting slowly could also save some silver."

"That would take many extra months, even years. Besides, the first blow in a war is always the most powerful. We must pull all three battalions to the Yunnan-Guizhou front within three months, then launch a thunderous strike. Swiftly quelling the rebellion is the most cost-saving method of all." After saying this, Huang Shi glanced again at Jin Qiude and added, "That holds true for the state and for our Funingzhen alike."

"Three months to march from Xiapu to Guiyang..." Jin Qiude murmured the figure under his breath, lowered his head to flip open a document before him, and after a moment looked up again. "Grand Commander, this route is roughly two thousand four hundred li. That means thirty li a day, for ninety days straight."

"Mm, about that." Huang Shi nodded. He had that figure well in mind.

Back in the Liaonan hill country, the Changsheng Island regulations set the daily marching speed at forty li. With forced marching, they could reach sixty li a day, but forced marching could not be sustained beyond five days. Jin Qiude probed cautiously, "Grand Commander, from Xiapu to Guizhou, these two thousand-odd li are nearly all mountain roads. Would it not be better to allow a bit more leeway in our schedule? If we reduce the marching speed to twenty li a day, I believe there would be no problem whatsoever."

Li Yunrui also loudly seconded him. "Grand Commander, I too support Mobile Corps Commander Jin's suggestion. In the past, the Ming army's daily marching speed on this route was ten li. Though they are far from comparable to our Funing army, thirty li a day may still be beyond our reach."

Huang Shi planned to enter Jiangxi via Ruijin in Ganzhou Prefecture, then proceed through Hengzhou and Baoqing, crossing the entire breadth of Huguang by the shortest route straight to Guiyang, the provincial capital of Guizhou. "Once we enter Guizhou we will have reached the border zone. The shorter the time we spend on the road, the less money we will need to spend. So we must still accelerate as much as possible."

Jin Qiude and the others still seemed hesitant. After all, the average daily speed of Ming armies was generally ten li; a strategic movement speed of fifteen li was already considered high speed. In the past, even the long-distance strategic maneuver speed of pure cavalry units had been no more than twenty li a day. The thirty li Huang Shi proposed was truly without precedent, and so they were all still somewhat nervous at heart.

Since this kind of long-distance, high-speed foot march was also a first for the Funing army, Huang Shi's subordinates, though they did not openly contradict him, all had their worry written plainly on their faces. Huang Shi softened his tone and asked, "Gentlemen, what does marching speed primarily depend on?"

"First, logistics — keeping the soldiers well fed and well supplied. And then morale. The higher the officers' and men's morale, the faster the marching speed."

"Mm, correct." Huang Shi was very satisfied with his subordinates' understanding. He recalled that modern biology stated the most enduring mammal on earth was the human being, and modern military theory also seemed to hold that human marching speed was fundamentally determined by fighting will. That was why, after the emergence of nation-states, the average daily marching speed of modern armies had successively surpassed thirty li. And after the twentieth century, the daily marching speed of human armies had advanced by leaps and bounds; aside from the two legs of a human, no other animal could keep pace with the advance of armored vehicles and tanks.

In the time-space Huang Shi originally came from, he did not know which Chinese army could be called a modern army, so he had no choice but to use a contemporary army as his benchmark. He reached out and traced a line along the marching route he had drawn. Regardless of spring, summer, autumn, or winter, that first contemporary Chinese army's attack advance speed along this route had been one hundred li per day, and it had sustained that for a year with no rear area and no supplies.

They were all Chinese. Huang Shi still remembered that contemporary army's forced march record: in twenty-eight hours they had successively smashed through two blocking enemy forces, attacked and advanced two hundred and forty li over rugged mountain roads, and then immediately clambered over an iron-chain bridge to crush the last enemy unit. Most outrageously, as they dashed along the mountain paths they had actually managed to bring with them one small mountain gun and several heavy machine guns.

— I have painstakingly trained this army for so long. From top to bottom they are brimming with morale and their fighting will is rock-solid. Surely they cannot fall short of even thirty percent of that?

"Does anyone here doubt the morale of our Funing army?"

Huang Shi swept his gaze around the room at his subordinates. They all remained silent. "Good, then it is settled. Our only problem is to keep the soldiers well fed and well watered."

On the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign,

Mang Gurtai and Jirgalang's thousand-odd Later Jin cavalrymen rode straight south along the official road. As they advanced, the houses and farmsteads on both sides of the road began to blaze one after another, turning into an unbroken stretch of ruined walls and rubble. Occasionally the cavalry would catch up to a group of Liaoxi military households or merchants fleeing south. Under the Later Jin army's stern orders, these people turned around and headed toward Liaoyang, toward their life of slavery...

When Jirgalang arrived leading reinforcements, the official road was nearly choked with soldiers and civilians coming north to surrender. Tens of thousands of people silently obeyed the Later Jin army's commands, obediently burned down their own houses, shouldered their household possessions, and set off toward Jinzhou. According to Jirgalang's description, as he traveled south along the official road, his force was like a single leaf skiff amid a flood, as though it might at any moment be capsized by the surrendering Liaoxi Ming troops.

Because the haul was so plentiful, Mang Gurtai and Jirgalang for the time being ceased their southward advance and instead summoned Yoto and Ajige to join them in hauling away the spoils.

While the Later Jin busied themselves relocating Liaoxi, Hong Taiji remained fixated on persuading Zhao Lujiao to surrender.

That day Hong Taiji proposed a suggestion to Jinzhou's defender Zhao Lujiao: fight one battle outside the city to decide the outcome. The Later Jin would send ten men, the Ming army one thousand. If the Later Jin won, the Ming army would surrender; if the Ming army won, the Later Jin would lift the siege.

Zhao Lujiao asked Hong Taiji in return: What if you seize the chance to storm the city gate?

Hong Taiji swore an oath: I guarantee I will not seize the chance to storm the city gate.

Zhao Lujiao replied: I do not trust you!

Hong Taiji thereupon cursed Zhao Lujiao: "Like a wild badger burrowing into its hole, hiding head and tail, howling madly to itself, thinking none can do anything to it!?"

That same day Hong Taiji dispatched couriers galloping back to Liaoyang, ordering every Later Jin niru to mobilize urgently and send out another large body of manpower to the Liaoxi Corridor to help with the relocation. Upon hearing that Hong Taiji's haul was immense, Amin and Daišan, who had just returned to Liaoyang, also set out in haste. They could not even wait for the main army still in Korea that had not yet returned to central Liaodong, but hurriedly gathered twenty thousand banner men and bondservants and, that very night, pushed their carts toward the Liaoxi Corridor.

The Later Jin forces encircling Jinzhou kept hauling from the sixteenth day of the fifth month all the way to the twenty-second. Then they dug three trenches around Jinzhou to hem in Zhao Lujiao, left a portion of troops to watch Jinzhou city, and the main Later Jin army immediately marched south along the official road, beginning to collect the grain, fodder, and supplies left behind near Ningyuan.

……

On the twenty-fourth day of the fifth month, in Fujian, Tingzhou Prefecture. Tingzhou.

Huang Shi cupped his hands in farewell to the officials, merchants, and commoners who had come out of the city to see him off, then leaped onto his horse and silently waved a hand. The drums rumbled to life once more, and the red banner followed Huang Shi as it began to move forward. Behind the banner, the soldiers gripped their weapons tightly, their expressions solemn as they stepped out, rolling westward in a mighty column.

Hong Antong drew close to Huang Shi and reported in a low voice: "Grand Commander, further ahead is the Jiangxi border. Yes, it's Ganzhou Prefecture, Ruijin."

"Yes, I know."

In the sixteen days since departing Funingzhou, the Firefighting Battalion had covered five hundred and fifty li, averaging nearly thirty-five li a day — a pace even faster than Huang Shi had estimated. But this kind of long-term march would still continue for several dozen more days, and Huang Shi, in truth, had no great confidence in how much longer the soldiers could hold out.

Along the way, a dozen or so soldiers had already fallen behind due to illness. But since they were marching on their own country's soil, Huang Shi had no need to halt for the stragglers; the local government offices had promised to send people to care for them. If the number of stragglers was not too large, the local administrative bodies could even arrange post horses for them so they could catch up with the column.

Once outside the city, Huang Shi dismounted in one motion and took the lead in walking alongside the soldiers along the official road. Incidents were inevitable on the march, and Huang Shi had already issued orders that, aside from the horses used by the Internal Guard and the Engineer Corps, all other horses were to serve only the lightly wounded and the sick; no one else was permitted to use horse power. When entering a city, Huang Shi did not wish to draw too much attention, so he would ride for a while, but the moment they left the city, he would set an example by walking with the soldiers.

In Huang Shi's column, the army horses probably bore the lightest burden — they carried nothing at all, and even their fodder was shouldered by the soldiers. Yet even marching at such an easy pace, the horses kept losing condition. Every day, each horse had to eat several jin of grain to recover its strength, and at night the logistics soldiers fed them night fodder. But barring the unexpected, Huang Shi estimated that in twenty more days at most, the army horses brought from Fujian would all be unable to keep up with the column.

By now, the riding horses used by the Internal Guard and Engineers spearheading the march had all been swapped for horses from nearby post stations. Huang Shi secretly resolved that once they entered Jiangxi, he would no longer conserve horse power; apart from keeping a few horses to continue experiments, he would simply use the rest without restraint and swap them when they were spent.

At every fork in the road, one or two men from the Firefighting Battalion's Engineer Corps or the Funing Garrison's Internal Guard would appear. They silently directed the troops onto the correct fork, then saluted the massive column. In recent days, the dispatched engineers had repeatedly discovered road condition problems or calculated in advance the diversion capacity of smaller paths; their work had saved the entire battalion countless detours.

Huang Shi was quite inventive: he had the Internal Guard soldiers wear helmets dyed a snowy white — all that was missing was the word "Military Police" written on them. As for the engineers, Huang Shi had originally wanted them to wear green helmets, but this design met with unanimous opposition from every officer and soldier in the Engineer Corps, so now the engineers' helmets were dyed yellow.

As they marched, a white-helmeted rider spurred his horse straight to Huang Shi's side, leaned down, and loudly reported: "Grand Commander, three li ahead there is a village by the roadside."

Huang Shi did not pause his steps for a moment, only answering flatly: "Understood. Go."

"At your command." The white-helmeted rider saluted with solemn formality, then clamped his legs hard against the horse's flanks and galloped off into the distance ahead.

When the dense ranks of the Forest of Feathers passed before that small village, some old people and children inside the village stood by the roadside, quietly watching this unusual army.

As Huang Shi strode past the village, he vigorously waved his right arm and shouted at the top of his lungs: "Courage! Victory!"

"Courage! Victory!"

The soldiers of the Firefighting Battalion roared in unison, simultaneously raising the weapons in their right hands twice in rhythmic beats toward the upper right.

"Courage! Victory!"

As the dense Forest of Feathers streamed endlessly past the village, the resounding shouts echoed continuously above the tiny settlement. Whenever they passed a village, the officers and soldiers of the Firefighting Battalion would shout their work chant like this, and every time they did, their steps seemed to grow lighter. Even at dusk when the sun was sinking west, when the soldiers raised their fervent chant, they would at the same time drive away all the exhaustion that filled their bodies.

At noon, the Firefighting Battalion marched into the designated rest area. The commoners recruited from nearby had already prepared the food. According to the latest order, when the Firefighting Battalion soldiers collected their food, they must loudly thank the surrounding commoners before they could take their share.

"Many thanks, many thanks." Zhang Chengye said it loudly twice in a row, then took his several large steamed buns and ran off to one side, ready to start eating. Just as the ravenously hungry Zhang Chengye was about to take his first bite, a commoner suddenly held a gourd ladle of water out before him. Zhang Chengye immediately stood up, took the ladle, and at the same time hastily said: "Many thanks, many thanks."

Huang Shi mobilized every propaganda tool at his disposal to impress upon the officers and soldiers the righteous deeds of these commoners. He told the troops that without these commoners selling them food and helping them cook, they would go hungry or have to eat cold food. Huang Shi said these things every day, day after day, until Zhang Chengye's ears were nearly calloused from hearing it. But Zhang Chengye dared not utter a single word of complaint; the lesson of Wang Qinian was still fresh in his memory.

Last time, while Huang Shi was speaking, Wang Qinian had muttered under his breath: "Didn't they take silver for it too?"

For that one grumbling remark, Huang Shi had turned hostile on the spot and demoted Wang Qinian from Company Commander to Squad Commander, merely allowing him to temporarily retain the title of Acting Company Commander and continue leading his unit. Huang Shi had also declared that, in consideration of it being Wang Qinian's first offense, he was letting him off lightly; if he ever heard similar words from any other officer's mouth, that officer would not need to remain in the Firefighting Battalion, but would be sent back to Funing Garrison at once and placed in the reserve officer rolls.

These days, Huang Shi repeated this view of his over and over: regardless of whether these commoners took money, their selling goods to the Firefighting Battalion was a kindness; all the work the commoners did for the Firefighting Battalion was a righteous deed; all commoners who had helped the Firefighting Battalion were righteous people, righteous heroes. It was precisely with the help of these righteous heroes that the Firefighting Battalion could march light and need not transport grain all the way from Funing Garrison themselves. He, Huang Shi, had no way to repay these righteous deeds, and could only give these righteous heroes double the market price in silver as a mere token of his regard.

Under the repeated indoctrination of the Internal Guard, the Loyalist Catholic Church, and the officer corps, Zhang Chengye gradually began to feel that what Huang Shi said had some truth to it, and his soldiers, too, grew increasingly grateful toward the commoners they met along the way.

While the Firefighting Battalion officers and soldiers ate, Huang Shi had Hong Antong hand over silver far exceeding the market price to the village headman, and at the same time personally expressed his thanks to that elder again and again.

Only after the elder, his face full of embarrassment, had left did Huang Shi breathe a sigh of relief and begin eating his own ration.

Biting off huge mouthfuls of steamed bun, Hong Antong exclaimed in admiration: "Grand Commander truly treats the worthy with the utmost courtesy."

Huang Shi said with a smile: "They helped us tremendously, didn't they? It's only right that I thank them a few times."

"Grand Commander sees far."

As a senior officer of Funing Garrison who participated in Huang Shi's decision-making, Hong Antong knew perfectly well what calculations Huang Shi was making. Huang Shi felt that besides paying double the market price in silver, they should also make the officers and soldiers sincerely grateful to the commoners. Huang Shi also believed that there were no fools in this world; whether a person was truly grateful or not, the common people could sense it.

Hong Antong had once doubted that, given the Firefighting Battalion's marching speed, no matter how many good deeds Huang Shi did, the news would not spread very far. But at the time, Huang Shi had smiled and told him: "You underestimate the common people. I assure you, their news always travels ten times faster than our marching speed."

The situation over these days increasingly proved the correctness of Huang Shi's foresight. Now it was easier and easier for the Internal Guard to purchase grain and fodder. Every day on the road ahead, they would encounter commoners who seemed to have come as if to a market fair. Many of them had set out before dawn, crossing hills and mountains from over a dozen li away, and had long been waiting along the Firefighting Battalion's line of march, hoping to sell various farm products to the Funing Army.

In the afternoon, not long after the column had set out again, an Internal Guard rushed over to report: the Firefighting Battalion's evening meal and lodging for the day were already arranged. The several villages ahead had even broken out in a dispute over the chance to help the Firefighting Battalion build a temporary camp and provide supper. In the end, the Internal Guard in charge simply split the army up so that several villages could each get some business.

"Ah, I have a feeling that this journey of ours will grow more and more comfortable as we go," Huang Shi said, walking without pause, a long sigh of emotion escaping his lips. The commoners along this road were all very poor, yet the Firefighting Battalion ate quite well — eggs every morning for breakfast, meat every day, and even hot foot-washing water prepared at night. "Never underestimate the power of the people."

After a moment, Huang Shi suddenly spoke again: "Mm. Add another order. From now on, before departing each day, the officers and soldiers are to sing a military song in chorus for these righteous commoners, to thank them for their righteous deeds."

……

On the evening of the twenty-sixth day, Manggultai and Jirgalang led the Later Jin vanguard to the walls of Ningyuan.

When the Later Jin army once more beheld the walls of Ningyuan, the twenty Guan-Ning field battalions nearby had already all assembled at Ningyuan on the orders of the Provincial Governor of Liaodong. Facing a great foe, the walls of Ningyuan were densely packed with the brave warriors of the Guan-Ning Army. This time, Ningyuan displayed even greater courage than a year and a half before. The Provincial Governor of Liaodong had ordered only three gates blocked; the east gate facing the sea remained open. Ten battalions — twenty thousand Guan-Ning armored cavalry — were arrayed in perfect formation between the sea and the city wall, ready at any moment to strike hard at the invading bandits.

"So Ningyuan is this small," Jirgalang said upon his first sight of the Ningyuan fortress. It was a guard fort eight hundred meters wide and eight hundred and fifty meters long. "I heard that last time they crammed seven battalions into this city, plus tens of thousands of able-bodied men. How did they fit them all?"

"I don't know, but last time, the men standing on this Ningyuan wall were packed so tight you couldn't move. Think about it — not counting the unarmored able-bodied men, on a wall less than a thousand zhang long, they had twenty thousand armored soldiers alone standing on it. That's twenty men per zhang." (An average of six armored soldiers per meter!)

Jirgalang burst out laughing: "Third Beile must be joking. Wouldn't they have to stand on each other's shoulders? One layer wouldn't even be enough — no, they'd need three or four layers."

"And that's why they came out this time. A surrendered soldier just told us that Ningyuan has concentrated twenty battalions this time, plus tens of thousands of military households who fled here. I reckon they simply couldn't fit inside that little city anymore." Gazing at the Guan-Ning armored cavalry blanketing the city in a dark mass, Manggultai said to Jirgalang beside him with a laugh: "Looks like we miscalculated. They don't seem to intend to surrender."

"Mm. Third Beile, let's set up camp, then send someone to report to the Khan."

"Good."

Manggultai thereupon set up camp north of Ningyuan city and at the same time requested reinforcements from Huang Taiji.

On the twenty-seventh day of the fifth month of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, Manggultai led one thousand Later Jin armored soldiers and faced off against forty thousand Guan-Ning armored cavalry for an entire day. Before nightfall, Huang Taiji arrived with six thousand armored soldiers and over twenty thousand banner men and bondservants pushing carts. Huang Taiji immediately divided the six thousand armored soldiers into nine columns, completely surrounded the forty thousand Guan-Ning armored cavalry within Ningyuan city, and then dispersed his forces to plunder the outskirts of Ningyuan in all directions.

That night, Huang Taiji's main army stayed in the camp that Manggultai's vanguard had built. The carts began transporting the collected supplies in a steady stream back to Liaoyang. The next day, while the six thousand Later Jin armored soldiers continued to surround the forty thousand Guan-Ning armored cavalry and Ningyuan city as tightly as an iron barrel, they also organized men to burn to the ground every fort between Ningyuan and Qiantun that the Ming army had abandoned.

On the twenty-eighth day, seeing that there was nothing left worth taking and estimating little hope of capturing Ningyuan Fort, Huang Taiji turned and departed under the watchful eyes of the Provincial Governor of Liaodong and the twenty Guan-Ning armored cavalry battalions, leaving behind some bondservants to continue harvesting the Liaoxi military farmlands.

"Fifth Brother, we can call this trip a bumper harvest, can't we?"

"Yes, it's been really good this time. We've been in Liaoxi for over a month, and no one has come to disturb us." Manggultai was also in excellent spirits. This meant the Dongjiang Army was nearly crippled; otherwise, Mao Wenlong would never have failed to move.

Huang Taiji pointed into the distance at the gradually receding Ningyuan city and laughed heartily: "This Provincial Governor of Liaodong of the Ming is very interesting. I wager he must be a man who has thoroughly studied the military classics."

"Military classics? Who?" Manggultai snorted with utter contempt. "Yuan Chonghuan, that rat — I've finally figured out how he fights. He just gathers all his troops around himself, several times more than our entire army, then sits inside a fortress and waits for us to finish looting everything around him and withdraw on our own. There's so much stuff here in Liaoxi you can't even haul it all away — who'd be fool enough to go gnaw on him?"

"Haha, that's exactly what I meant. The Han have a military strategist who wrote a book called The Art of War by Sunzi. In it, he speaks of being immovable as a mountain. I suspect the Ming's Provincial Governor of Liaodong must have read this book. We invaded Joseon — he was immovable as a mountain. We besieged Jinzhou — he was immovable as a mountain. We've carried off all the Han people around Ningyuan — and still he is immovable as a mountain. Haha, from now on, the Ming's Provincial Governor of Liaodong shall be called 'Immovable-as-a-Mountain Yuan Chonghuan.'"

"Immovable as a mountain! What a fine phrase. These Han rats really are numerous — and a rat like this actually dares to write military classics. No wonder they fight so wretchedly."

"Fifth Brother..." Huang Taiji very much wanted to tell Manggultai that he should read more books, but the words turned over in his mouth and, by the time they came out, had become: "After we return to Liaoyang, let's go hunting together."

"Excellent!"

……

Inside Ningyuan City,

"Relying entirely on my lord Yuan's awe-inspiring might, the caitiffs have already retreated."

"With my lord Yuan the elder present here, have those caitiffs eaten the gall of a bear and the heart of a leopard, daring to come throw their lives away?"

……

Amid this chorus of joyful voices celebrating victory, a great shout suddenly rang out: "My lord Yuan, Jinzhou is still besieged! Are we not going to relieve it?"

The generals in the hall saw the man above make a gesture, and at once another wave of cheering and jubilation erupted:

"My lord Yuan's foresight is profound — this must be the caitiffs' ruse to lure us out."

"My lord Yuan sees clearly across ten thousand li — the caitiffs want to catch us with a back-thrust spear."

……

"My lord Yuan!" That tactless voice rang out again: "My lord! The caitiffs have carried off many merchants and commoners, and are still outside reaping our military farms. This humble general is willing to lead three hundred retainers into battle to recover the people and the military farms."

The man seated high in the center made the same gesture.

"My lord Yuan's foresight is profound — the caitiffs are feigning weakness before us; there is certainly a trap."

"Just as my lord Yuan perceives, we absolutely must not lose the greater for the sake of the lesser."

"General Man Gui, I ask you! A few merchants and commoners weighed against Ningyuan City — which is lighter, which is heavier?"

……

At the victory banquet in Ningyuan City, a guard suddenly burst in to report: "Reporting to the Provincial Governor, General Man Gui has taken three hundred retainers and left the city without authorization to pursue the enemy."

After a long silence, a sigh sounded through the hall: "He would not heed my words — a disastrous defeat is certain!"

"My lord Yuan's foresight is profound — ah, what a pity for a brave general like Man Gui."

"Lamentable, lamentable — why would General Man Gui not heed my lord Yuan's words? Truly the courage of a common ruffian."

……

After three rounds of wine, the crowd in the hall was already dead drunk, each baring chest and belly while still boasting and wrangling over merit,

"Reporting to the Provincial Governor, General Man Gui has returned to the city. He has taken over two hundred heads and also recovered more than a thousand commoners."

After a long, awkward silence, a clear sound of a wine cup shattering rang out, and the great hall instantly fell so silent that one could hear a pin drop.

……

On the fifth day of the sixth month of the seventh year of the Tianqi reign, the Later Jin grand army withdrew to Liaodong. Along the Liaoxi Corridor, apart from the three forts of Jinzhou, Physician, and Ningyuan that had refused to surrender, every city, fortress, post station, military farm, and dwelling that the Great Ming had spent eighteen months and millions of silver taels to construct was utterly destroyed by the Later Jin army.

Beyond this, because the Liaodong Regional Military Commission ignored Regional Commander Mao Wenlong of Dongjiangzhen's repeated warnings over the course of a month, the great numbers of merchants, commoners, and military households who had moved into the Liaoxi Corridor during those eighteen months suffered catastrophic losses. The Later Jin not only seized enormous quantities of supplies, but also carried off countless slaves and livestock.

Before the Ning-Jin campaign, the Later Jin regime, due to manpower shortages, had already abandoned the cultivated lands along the Liaohe for a full two years. Now, these farmlands could finally be worked again.

Upon learning that the Later Jin army had withdrawn to Liaodong, Liaodong Provincial Governor Yuan Chonghuan reported a great victory to the imperial court and submitted a memorial to Tianqi requesting that a living shrine be erected in Ningyuan for Wei Zhongxian, whose virtue blankets all living things.