Chapter 53: Section One

Worthless Confucian scholars are not worth consulting!

He could think what he liked, but matters still had to be dealt with. Had he not needed something from Huang Shi right now, Fang Zhenru would never have used such a polite tone.

Although a Censor was only of the seventh rank, the Ming dynasty subordinated military officers to civil officials, so civil officials wielded enormous power. Never mind that Huang Shi was merely a fourth-rank Regional Military Commissioner — even a third-rank Assistant Regional Commander could be thrown down and flogged by a Censor at the slightest disagreement.

Huang Shi was utterly powerless to oppose a civil official's authority and could only cast a pleading look toward the Prefect of Guangning, Gao Bangzuo.

"The affairs of the Guangning army are not for this prefecture to speak on. Everything shall be done as my lord Fang instructs." Gao Bangzuo avoided Huang Shi's gaze and turned to order his subordinates to assemble the troops of the prefectural government office.

"This official knows that Regional Military Commissioner Huang is a brave commander, but the courage of a common man cannot accomplish great things." Fang Zhenru's tone was exceedingly gentle, and his words fit perfectly with the tradition of despising military officers: "This official has his own strategies. Regional Military Commissioner Huang need only obey this official's command."

"Yes, your subordinate obeys. Please give your orders, my lord." Huang Shi knew that since the Prefect of Guangning and the Liaodong Censor had already lost confidence, he had absolutely no chance of snatching victory from danger.

Huang Shi escorted Fang Zhenru and the troops of the Guangning prefectural government office to the north gate. Jin Qiude and Zhao Manxiong had already finished reorganizing the counter-rebellion army. Without waiting for Huang Shi to question them, they ran over to beg for punishment: "Your subordinates are incompetent. Some soldiers took advantage of the chaos to scatter and flee. Please punish us, my lord."

"How many troops do we still have now?"

"We still have four hundred and sixty cavalry and six hundred infantry."

The several hundred soldiers who had fled were mostly those conscripted after entering the city; the soldiers who had followed from Xiping were basically all still present. The series of military operations over the past two days had brought Huang Shi prestige, and most of the scattered cavalry gathered along the Xiping road were willing to obey Huang Shi's orders, including many of Fei Liguo's followers.

When Huang Shi appeared, the more than three hundred cavalry who had followed him the whole way cheered for him together, raising their weapons high. This scene also stirred the other soldiers, and the army's morale was thus firmly settled.

"Regional Military Commissioner Huang, please help this prefecture gather the refugees."

Huang Shi was now thoroughly irritated with Gao Bangzuo, but he still ordered his men to cooperate as best they could. Although they were abandoning Guangning, Huang Shi did not want these several hundred thousand residents to scatter and flee in all directions. He realized he still had a bottom line.

"Ignite the grain stores, cloth stores, and other warehouses. Detonate the gunpowder depot. Zhao Manxiong, take a squad. Our army will take turns re-equipping at the armory, then burn it." Huang Shi remembered that in history, Nurhaci had carried off two hundred cannons, tens of thousands of suits of armor, a million dan of rice and beans, and vast quantities of silver from Guangning, and had not finished hauling away the spoils until the end of the third year of the Tianqi reign. Now he would not get so much as a single hair.

Although it was still afternoon, a great fire soon blazed across the sky within Guangning city, clearly visible for scores of li in every direction. Gao Bangzuo was still gathering the common people, organizing hands to support the elderly and lead the young. Dispersed civilians would surely be robbed and plundered by mountain bandits and routed soldiers. In chaotic times, human life was worth less than a dog's.

Fang Zhenru ordered the Guangning army to travel together with Gao Bangzuo's refugee column so as to provide protection. The Guangning prefectural government office led the way with the refugees, followed by the more than two thousand Guangning army soldiers Huang Shi had gathered. The same old problem remained: there were no officers. Their temporary Regional Commander — Huang Shi could only hope they would not encounter any battle.

The soldiers departed squad by squad. Huang Shi stayed until the end with three hundred cavalry:

"My lord, let us set out."

Gao Bangzuo acted as if he had not heard, merely staring blankly at the raging flames atop the walls of Guangning. Fang Zhenru whispered to Huang Shi: "When the court expanded and rebuilt Guangning city, every brick and stone of the gate towers, every warehouse and military camp — all were personally supervised and urgently constructed by my lord Gao. And now he must watch as the entire city is consigned to the flames."

Every day after nightfall, Huang Shi ordered the new recruits and the routed soldiers gathered along the way to encamp on the inside, while the veterans and the troops of the prefectural government office encamped on the outside, surrounding and protecting the common people on all sides. Gao Bangzuo took charge of administration, and it was orderly enough. The historical tragedy of hundreds of thousands of refugees freezing to death in the wilderness did not occur after all.

From the early morning of the second day, the heavens were unkind and it began to snow. On the third day after leaving Guangning, a courier rushed over and delivered to Fang Zhenru an order from the Liaodong Grand Coordinator Xiong Tingbi: burn down all granaries, supply depots, and fortresses.

The Great Ming had managed Liaodong for two hundred years, constructing several hundred fortresses and stockpiling vast quantities of supplies. When Korean envoys passed through Liaodong and beheld this endless, unbroken chain of fortifications stretching for thousands of li, they would invariably sigh in admiration at the abundant resources of the Middle Kingdom. When Huang Shi heard this order, he understood that Xiong Tingbi had finally committed this grave error.

The Great Ming had poured two hundred years of national strength into building a defense-in-depth hundreds of li deep in Liaodong, and this order consigned it all to the flames. Thereafter, the Liao territories west of Fengjibao were occupied by the Mongols, the Later Jin cavalry could ride unhindered once they crossed the Liao River, and Sun Chengzong would have to start building anew from beyond Shanhai Pass.

Several hundred fortress cities in Liaodong began to burn one after another. Millions of people were displaced. Everywhere Huang Shi passed on his journey south, there were only broken walls, shattered remnants, and wisps of green smoke.

Beyond this, several dozen more fortresses surrendered to the Later Jin, because the garrisons of the surrounding fortresses had all retreated. Amid the chaos, the troops, people, and supplies in these fortresses all fell into Later Jin hands. They included: Jinzhou, Songshan, Dalinghe, Xiaolinghe, Qianmaling, Zhengan, Jinchang, Zhongan, Panshan, Xingshan, Qiaoshoubao, Xixingbao, Tiechangbao, Jin'anbao, Youtunwei, Tuanshanbao, Zhenningbao, Zhenyuanbao, Zhen'anbao, Zhenjingbao, Zhenwubao, Zhenyibao, Daqingbao, Dakangbao, Dajingbao, Daningbao, Dapingbao, Da'anbao, Daxingbao, Damaobao, Dashengbao, Dazhenbao, Dafubao, Dadingbao, Zhuangzhenbao, Qijiabao, Lüyang Post Station, Shisanshan Post Station, and others.

After the Later Jin carried off the population and supplies, they also burned all these fortresses to the ground. In history, the Great Ming would exhaust its national strength over the next twenty years, stirring the realm to a boiling frenzy, yet the defensive system east of the Liao would not recover even a tenth of its former state.

A few days after the great fire in Liao territory, the relief army from the Mongols arrived at Guangning. When they saw this expanse of ruins, their hearts and gallbladders quaked with fear, and they spread word that the Later Jin's power was immense. The Mongols briefly skirmished with the Later Jin vanguard and then retreated, but this skirmish did block the Later Jin pursuit, allowing the Guangning army to move south safely. However, once the Ming army had withdrawn into Liaoxi, the many Mongol tribes also came to believe that the Later Jin could survive, and one after another they began to waver and hedge their bets, starting to conduct secret communications with the Later Jin.

"Xiong Tingbi, Grand Coordinator Xiong, if I did not know that there are Later Jin spies by your side, I would truly say you too are a minister who harms the nation, utterly courting your own death."

In the original history, the Guanning Army at its furthest only advanced to the Dalinghe, and the land area was less than seven percent of all of Liao. Most of the time, the hundred thousand Guanning troops were compressed by an even smaller number of Later Jin troops into the Liaoxi Corridor between Shanhai Pass and Jinzhou, occupying less than five percent of the land.

Huang Shi believed that for the grim situation Liaoxi would face in the future, Xiong Tingbi's general retreat order could not escape blame.

Since history still had not changed dramatically, Huang Shi knew that going to Shanhai Pass would offer him no chance to achieve merit and establish a career. This order left the Ming army without even a pinpoint of land to stand on beyond the pass. What was most needed now was a fortification expert like Yuan Chonghuan.

The next day, Huang Shi went out of camp to stroll, accompanied only by Zhao Manxiong. The two walked and talked, covering not only military matters but also some trivial intrigues.

Zhao Manxiong had some opinions about Jin Qiude, but Huang Shi did not take them seriously. He believed that the "heart of a king" included confidence, and being overly wary of one's subordinates was a sign of lacking self-assurance. As for Jin Qiude himself, just as Huang Taiji had said, used well, he was nothing more than a sharp blade in the hand of a hegemon.

Take Huang Shi himself, for example — was Huang Taiji's judgment any worse than Jin Qiude's? Could he not see his ambition? It was simply that a king possesses the bearing of a king and does not fear ambition in the slightest.

"Ah—" In the empty, deserted wilderness, Huang Shi let out a long howl to the sky. Zhao Manxiong stood silently behind him.

Huang Shi shouted until he was utterly exhausted, then stopped. As if speaking to Zhao Manxiong, and also as if talking to himself, he said: "I am so tired. Living is so exhausting."

"Sometimes, I truly want to retire to the mountains and forests, plant two mu of land, and hunt rabbits in my spare time." Huang Shi plopped down onto the ground, took off his helmet, and flung it far aside: "Marry a pretty wife, and have a bunch of plump little sons."

"Farming? Your subordinate thinks that is also very tiring."

"A slip of the tongue." Huang Shi chuckled lightly: "I meant buy more land and hire people to farm it. Then I could enjoy life, right?"

"Not bad," Zhao Manxiong clapped his hands in approval: "You could also take a few concubines — that would be even more enjoyable. My lord, please take me with you quickly. Let me be your steward, and help you lead the dogs when you hunt."

"Fine, I will certainly invite you to be my steward." Huang Shi closed his eyes and fantasized, his face full of faint, happy smiles. Only after a long while did he open his eyes and say: "Brother Manxiong, you very nearly persuaded me."

"Only just nearly? Aiya, what a pity. Had I known, I would have used all my strength just now. Then your subordinate would be Steward to Master Huang."

The two exchanged a smile.

"My lord, we will soon reach Ningyuan, and then we can head straight for Shanhai Pass. Once there, we can relax for a while." After laughing, Huang Shi and he began to walk back.

Go to Liaoxi and live a life of leisure? Huang Shi did not speak. He stretched his arms lightly and yawned. The north wind swept across the ground, and Huang Shi's armor caught the wind. He stopped walking, closed his eyes, and listened intently to the fluttering sound of the red tassel on his helmet. Truly leisurely and carefree. How he wished he could just stand in the wind like this forever. These few days since leaving Guangning had actually been the most relaxed stretch of time Huang Shi had experienced in a long while.

"With the battle of Guangning, my lord has already become renowned throughout the land. At this moment of defeat, when Liao commanders are either fleeing or surrendering, once my lord reaches Liaoxi, he will surely be heavily employed by the imperial court." Zhao Manxiong spoke loudly from behind. Huang Shi stood facing the wind, hands on his hips, noncommittal, his cloak billowing and snapping behind him.

Huang Shi opened his eyes and gazed into the firmament. A voice seemed to come from the sky: "Go to Liaodong. There are thousands of li of mountains and rivers there — a place vast as the sea and sky, where great things can be accomplished!"

Zhao Manxiong's voice continued to come from behind: "My lord is also strikingly heroic in bearing. Along this journey, your subordinate has seen many young ladies frequently fixing their eyes on my lord. And with my lord's limitless future prospects, proposing marriage to a scholarly family would not be considered a disgrace to them."

"Is that so?" With his tall stature and imposing military attire, Huang Shi could still be considered eye-catching. A generous salary and a family — they beckoned to him from the other side of Shanhai Pass.

The voice from the unseen whispered in his ear: "How can a true man be controlled by civil officials, languishing in depression for four years in a Liaoxi without warfare?"

Ningyuan was soon in sight. Huang Shi finally made up his mind and went to take his leave of Fang Zhenru and Gao Bangzuo:

"Is Regional Military Commissioner Huang planning to become a deserter?" Fang Zhenru was greatly startled and looked at Huang Shi in disbelief.