Chapter 247: Policy Proposals

After receiving the formal salutes of Zhang Kui—the former Vice Regional Commander of the Yongwei Camp who had been promoted to Regional Commander of Shanhai Pass—and Huang Zhen, the Vice Regional Commander of Shanhai Pass, along with the other principal commanders, Hong Chengchou held brief talks with Zhang Kui and the others, then led Shen Shiyu and a retinue of personal guards into the middle of the long column of horsemen, riding out through the pass onto the Liaoxi Corridor.

"Supreme Commander, how did the Wu family suddenly see the light? They actually sent so many cavalry out of the pass with Governor Hong. Isn't the court afraid that the Wu family's main force will leave the pass and join up with the Zu family to stir up trouble?"

Huang Zhen, who had returned to the arrow tower atop the pass wall after seeing Hong Chengchou off, asked in puzzlement.

"His Majesty's plans are inscrutable—do you think the famous Hong Hengjiu is so easy to deal with? There are all sorts of layers to this, so let's not rack our brains over it! Old Huang, per the Supreme Commander's arrangements, in a few days you'll take the craftsmen from inside the pass to Sha Housuo and give the barracks there a good expansion. Aim to finish within the year—the court will soon ship the military pay and provisions the craftsmen need. I've been thinking—could His Majesty be planning to move against Jianzhou? Why else would he suddenly order the barracks expanded? Sha Housuo is awfully close to Ningyuan and Jinzhou! Tsk tsk! If we really do go to war with Jianzhou, that's a golden chance for us to win merit! When that day comes, I'll beg to join the fighting no matter what—who knows, I might even win a noble title to pass down to my descendants!"

Zhang Kui stroked the coarse beard beneath his chin, unable to stop his imagination from running wild.

Sha Housuo lies between Shanhai Pass and Ningyuan, with the sea to its east. It is a fortress of modest scale, currently garrisoned by five hundred soldiers under the command of a Battalion Commander from Shanhai Pass.

Per Hong Chengchou's instructions, Shanhai Pass was to expand the Sha Housuo barracks as quickly as possible. The new barracks had to accommodate at least thirty thousand men and be completed before the third month of the eleventh year of Chongzhen. Storehouses for grain, fodder, and supplies were also to be prepared for a force of over thirty thousand. Once completed, the Ministry of War would arrange for specialists to deliver the military funds. As for why the barracks were being expanded, Hong Chengchou said little.

It must be said that Zhang Kui's instincts were sharp. Hong Chengchou's order to expand the Sha Housuo barracks was preparation for a possible offensive against Jianzhou the following year—Sha Housuo would become a staging post for the Great Ming's official armies once they left the pass.

If war with Jianzhou truly broke out next year, with over a hundred thousand troops plus at least a hundred thousand laborers, nearly three hundred thousand men could not possibly all surge to the Jinzhou front at once—Jinzhou simply could not bear it. The army would have to be dispatched to the front in batches.

In Hong Chengchou's plan, even if no large-scale fighting occurred next year, the expansion of Sha Housuo was still imperative, because campaigning against Jianzhou was only a matter of time—making thorough preparations in advance was the proper course.

Once the expansion was complete, he would petition for orders to transfer troops, moving several tens of thousands of troops from inside the pass to the Sha Housuo barracks to pressure Zu Dashou at Jinzhou, forcing him to dare not act rashly. Then he would rotate the Jinzhou garrison back in batches, moving the Ming troops from inside the pass forward to the Songshan area, gradually weakening the strength of the Liaoxi faction.

When the secret memorial Hong Chengchou had sent back before leaving the pass reached the capital, Zhu Youjian was in the Qianqing Palace reading the policy proposals of two senior ministers—Sun Chuanting and Chen Qiyu—regarding next year's campaign against Jianzhou.

In his personal memorial, Sun Chuanting first expressed gratitude for the Emperor's gift of a residence in the capital, and conveyed immense thanks for His Majesty sending men to move his entire family from Daizhou to the capital. He knew this meant he would soon return to serve in the capital, in a position of at least the first rank, such as Minister or above.

Regarding the possible war next year, Sun Chuanting took a positive and affirmative stance. The proposal he put forward in his memorial coincided with Hong Chengchou's: borrow the road to destroy Guo. By massing troops along the Jinzhou line and using military force as a deterrent, they could completely dismantle the Liaoxi faction's power, plug the bottomless pit of the Liaodong levy, and allow the court to devote more money and grain to improving the people's livelihoods.

Sun Chuanting in Shaanxi had long since received word of the alarm, and maintained a high degree of vigilance over the Jianzhou barbarians' conquest and annexation of the Mongol tribes since this spring. He believed that if the Jianzhou barbarians were allowed to keep expanding, and if their expansion went smoothly, their next thrust might well target border garrisons such as Xuan-Da and Yansui. To cope with this highly likely scenario, the court would be forced to pour enormous material and manpower into these garrisons. If this continued, there might well emerge a second or third Liaoxi faction, and the Great Ming would ultimately be dragged down by its border troubles.

Rather than guard against thieves for a thousand days, it is better to strike them a heavy blow before they gather strength.

Sun Chuanting believed that the various official armies, having fought the roving bandits fiercely for years, had accumulated rich battlefield experience. With ample military pay and provisions, complete armor, and greatly improved quality of firearms and blades, both officers and soldiers were high in morale. After a full year of rest and reorganization, even if next year's campaign beyond the pass did not bring a great victory, a great defeat was absolutely impossible.

Sun Chuanting explicitly stated in his memorial that although the Jianzhou barbarians were fierce and skilled in battle, their two most fatal weaknesses were their tiny population and their scarcity of every kind of supply. The Great Ming, by contrast, was vast in territory with abundant manpower and materiel. Even if the official armies' overall fighting strength was slightly inferior to the Jianzhou barbarians', through large-scale pitched battles with mutual attrition, Jianzhou simply could not withstand such enormous consumption.

Zhu Youjian knew his thinking—trade life for life. After all, the Great Ming had plenty of people; even if it took ten to exchange for one, they could exhaust the Jianzhou barbarians' pitifully small population.

A single general's glory is built on ten thousand bones. In the eyes of these famed ministers, a soldier who takes pay must be prepared to die in battle at any moment—this was only natural and proper, especially with generous burial compensation to be had.

In truth, this way of thinking was very common at the time. Nearly every ordinary soldier also felt that since he took the court's money and grain, dying for the Emperor was only right. But Zhu Youjian, who had crossed over from a later age and held an extraordinary reverence for life, found this view somewhat hard to accept deep in his heart.

As for who should command the army leaving the pass, the proud Sun Chuanting did not name a specific candidate, merely saying that all should await His Majesty's decision.

In Sun Chuanting's eyes, whether it was Hong Chengchou, Yang Sichang, or Lu Xiangsheng—or even Chen Qiyu far away in Jianghuai—though all were men of outstanding talent, none was his superior.

Hong Chengchou was shrewd and experienced but too smooth and cautious, not stern enough in commanding his subordinates; Yang Sichang excelled at grand strategy but was short on decisive battlefield judgment, with relatively little combat experience; Lu Xiangsheng was loyal, upright, and brave, but too heavy of heart with mercy, lacking strategic vision—leading a detached force on a surprise raid would best bring out his strengths; Chen Qiyu, though far-seeing in strategy, was prone to complacency and underestimating the enemy—the Chexiang Gorge campaign that year was clear proof.

Zhu Youjian was of course fully aware that Sun Chuanting harbored ambitions to serve as supreme commander of the entire army, and this caused him considerable difficulty.

In terms of overall comprehensive ability, Sun Chuanting was indeed not inferior to Hong Chengchou and the others—one could even say he slightly surpassed them. But Sun Chuanting's greatest shortcoming was that his seniority was not as deep as Hong Chengchou's. In this era that always stressed precedence by seniority, if he issued an edict making Sun Chuanting the commander leading the army into battle, Hong Chengchou and the others would be deeply resentful. If a great victory was won, all would be well; but if the war bogged down in stalemate or ended in a costly victory, Sun Chuanting would face all manner of impeachment and attack, which would be very detrimental to his political future.

This was also one of the reasons Zhu Youjian wanted to lead the campaign personally.

Once he himself became supreme commander, he could bring along all these famed ministers—Hong Chengchou, Sun Chuanting, Yang Sichang, Chen Qiyu—to form a heavyweight brain trust, with no ranking of precedence, all gathering together for open discussion before battles. This would basically prevent mutual hostility and backstabbing among these formidable men. Even if the war did not go smoothly, or ultimately no great victory was won, no court official would dare direct blame at him, the Regional Commander.

We'll see when the time comes—if worst comes to worst, I'll lead the army out of the pass myself. Though I promised Lu Xiangsheng I wouldn't personally campaign again, things are always changing. Once Old Lu leads his troops out beyond the frontier on a surprise raid, I won't have to fear being scolded to my face by that loyal minister. At worst, when we next meet I'll apologize to him and promise there won't be a next time.

Setting Sun Chuanting's proposal aside, Zhu Youjian picked up Chen Qiyu's memorial and began to read.