Chapter 36: Section One

After the Guangning army finished assembling, it immediately moved to Zhenwu Fort.

On the night of the nineteenth day of the first month of the second year of the Tianqi reign, Zhenwu Fort received definite news: the Later Jin vanguard had crossed the Sancha River, and the river defense troops had swiftly collapsed. The Later Jin immediately began constructing pontoon bridges; opposite the Sancha River pontoon bridge lay Xiping Fort, and urgent dispatches from the Liaohe garrison came one after another.

Huang Shi’s force was in reality just a single Company Commander’s mounted unit. Although they were called cavalry, most of the men had only undergone basic riding training. The soldiers had no problem moving on horseback, but half of them still lacked the skill to fight from the saddle.

Seeing that they were about to march out, a wave of panic spread among Huang Shi’s subordinates. He dispatched his capable lieutenant, Acting Squad Commander Zhao Manxiong, to calm them. Yang Luhuo had volunteered for this task, but Huang Shi was still somewhat worried that he was one of Sun Degong’s men and would seize the chance to spread words that shook morale, so Yang Luhuo was merely given a few words of encouragement.

The Liaodong Provincial Governor Wang Huazhen was now caught in a dilemma. The Guangning Regional Commander Chen Qu vigorously advocated an immediate attack, proposing to set up fortifications behind Xiping Fort while the Later Jin main army was still crossing the river, thus preventing the Later Jin from assaulting Xiping unhindered. Sun Degong, however, repeatedly urged Wang Huazhen to act prudently and not rush into an attack, lest they fall for the Later Jin’s scheme of luring the tiger out of the mountains.

Wang Huazhen hesitated for a long time, unable to make a decision. The sixty-thousand-strong Guangning army sat idle for a day at Zhenwu, a mere one-hour journey from Xiping.

By the afternoon of the next day, the chaotic temporary headquarters of the Liaodong Provincial Governor received another urgent dispatch from Xiping: over half of the Later Jin’s thirty thousand combat troops had crossed the river. The garrison, having long awaited reinforcements in vain, saw the Xiping Mobile Corps Commander lose patience and sally forth on his own, attempting to burn the Sancha River crossing bridge, but every attempt failed due to insufficient strength.

At midnight, Vice Regional Commander Luo Yiguan sent another urgent dispatch: all forty thousand of the Later Jin’s support and logistics troops had crossed the Liao River and were constructing siege equipment opposite Xiping, estimated to be completed by the following morning.

Vice Regional Commander Luo stated that the soldiers could not understand why Zhenwu, being so close to Xiping, showed no sign of movement. He also reported that the fort’s officers were resolutely demanding to sally out and destroy the Later Jin siege equipment; otherwise, with the Later Jin attacking the fort with tenfold strength, Xiping simply could not hold out for long.

This indicated that morale at Xiping Fort had already begun to crumble and the troops were starting to fall into disorder; Luo Yiguan was losing control of his forces. Wang Huazhen pondered for a long time but could not devise a foolproof plan.

In the early morning hours, Sun Degong urgently summoned Huang Shi and then fired off a string of orders: “Huang Shi, Wang Huazhen has finally decided. He wants to hear Xiong Tingbi’s opinion before making a decision, and he also wants to request some reinforcements. This errand has been assigned to me. Now, you are to go immediately to Guangning Right Garrison to see Xiong Tingbi.”

“May I ask, my lord, what should I say?”

“Say whatever Wang Huazhen tells you to say.” Sun Degong spoke with an air of indifference, then handed Huang Shi a letter and relayed Wang Huazhen’s instructions.

According to the original historical records, Xiong Tingbi, due to his discord with Wang Huazhen, had refused to mobilize the entire Guan-Ning army. But to gain Sun Degong’s trust, Huang Shi still asked: “If Xiong Tingbi leads the Guan-Ning army here, should I try to delay him?”

“Oh, you needn’t worry,” Sun Degong laughed and patted Huang Shi on the shoulder. “Xiong Tingbi will absolutely not send troops. You may go at ease.”

“Yes, my lord.”

After coming out, Huang Shi immediately ordered Jin Qiude to ready horses and accompany him south. He had originally wanted to call Zhao Manxiong, but that fellow had been calming the soldiers all night and was now asleep.

After leaving Zhenwu Fort, Huang Shi spurred his horse to the front, while Jin Qiude followed behind holding a torch: “My lord, where are we going?”

“To Guangning Right Garrison, to Grand Coordinator Xiong’s place.” Mounted on his horse, Huang Shi could no longer suppress his excitement.

Since the rise of the Later Jin, the Great Ming had concentrated the material resources of the entire realm on a single corner of Liaodong to suppress it, a matter of tremendous gravity. As long as Guangning could be secured, the Great Ming’s supplies would flow ceaselessly into this strategic town — the only remaining strategic town in Liaodong. And whoever controlled the Guangning garrison would, in effect, control half of the imperial court’s national expenditures.

As the Later Jin pressed closer step by step, the Ming army suffered one great defeat after another in Liaodong. The imperial court and the Son of Heaven of the Great Ming also realized that military officers should be granted more authority. Huang Shi recalled that Sun Chengzong was one who loudly advocated “empowering generals,” and historically the court did gradually delegate power to military officers, which ultimately led to the feudal fiefdom-ization of the Liaodong military clique and the Liaoxi martial houses.

The Tianqi Emperor trusted Wei Zhongxian, and the Chongzhen Emperor had extremely low political intelligence — these were historical threads that only Huang Shi knew. And the military’s power during the Tianqi and Chongzhen reigns did indeed grow steadily. Huang Shi remembered that historically, by the late Ming dynasty, the Liaoxi military clique had become a fully independent feudal fiefdom.

Combining these three points, Huang Shi arrived at an absolutely certain deduction: as long as Guangning did not fall, the military officer who controlled the Guangning garrison would possess the Great Ming’s most powerful army. Moreover, this person would have ample opportunity and time to transform this force into a private army, one that knew only its general and not the imperial court.

The first step was to hold Guangning. Both reports Huang Shi had given Sun Degong contained exaggerations; the only difference was which one was more inflated. After Huang Shi’s verification, excluding the weapons brought on this campaign, the Guangning army’s arsenal still had as many as two hundred cannons, forty of which were heavy cannons.

When inspecting the city defenses, Huang Shi discovered that the heavy cannons had not yet been moved onto the city towers, which naturally astonished him greatly.

The first person in history to use heavy cannons for city defense was Yuan Chonghuan. When Ningyuan first received heavy field cannons, the garrison even suggested discarding them, on the grounds that since they did not plan to fight in the field, heavy cannons were utterly useless!

Although unaware of this historical detail, Huang Shi also immediately realized that Guangning could in fact be defended. The battle of Zhenjiang had shown him the Later Jin’s various siege methods. He had no doubt that under the bombardment of heavy cannons, neither observation towers, scaling ladders, nor earthen ramps would stand much of a chance. Most importantly, neither the Later Jin nor the Great Ming had yet realized this — the Later Jin was completely unprepared for such tactics.

Once he realized that Guangning might be defensible, Huang Shi’s only remaining question was how to reap the greatest benefit from this defensive battle.

Huang Shi’s overall plan was to wait for Sun Degong to make his move, then kill Sun Degong to gain the trust of that idiot Wang Huazhen, and use the two hundred cannons to defend against the Later Jin offensive. Holding out for a few days would suffice; Huang Shi was very confident about this. The Mongol reinforcements were also hurrying over by night march — historically, it was they who blocked the Later Jin’s pursuit of Xiong Tingbi’s army.

Furthermore, Mao Wenlong was now mobilizing his entire army, launching a fierce attack on Zhenjiang and threatening Jianzhou. Huang Shi remembered that it was Nurhaci personally leading his elite cavalry back that finally drove the Mobile Corps Commander captain Mao away again. The Later Jin did not have much time to waste beneath the strong walls of Guangning; they were in a situation of fighting on three fronts.

The impending disastrous defeat at Shaling would shock the entire nation. Whether it was Wang Huazhen seeking to shift blame, or the imperial court seeking to boost morale, a hero would need to be established. As long as Huang Shi played this savior role well, honor and status would follow one after another.

His personal objective in going to see Xiong Tingbi today was to advance toward this goal. Thinking that Sun Degong had handed him an opportunity to gain Xiong Tingbi’s trust on a silver platter, Huang Shi could not help but let a smug smile surface. That fellow really was a fool.

“My lord, this course of action is not quite appropriate.” Jin Qiude suddenly spoke, interrupting Huang Shi’s train of thought.

Huang Shi looked at Jin Qiude in surprise: “What? What is not quite appropriate?”

Jin Qiude, as if having made a great resolution, said loudly: “This subordinate believes that my lord calling on me rather than Yang Luhuo to accompany my lord to see Grand Coordinator Xiong is very inappropriate. This subordinate further believes that my lord calling on only me alone to accompany my lord is even more inappropriate.”

Huang Shi abruptly reined in his horse. Jin Qiude rushed past Huang Shi, circled back, and immediately tumbled from the saddle, standing before Huang Shi’s horse.

Huang Shi looked at Jin Qiude’s face, flickering between light and shadow in the firelight, and asked coldly: “Why is it inappropriate? Explain yourself clearly.”

“In reply, my lord,” Jin Qiude answered in a deep voice, “this subordinate believes that even if my lord is on guard against Sun Degong, he should not make it so obvious!”