Chapter 248: Strategy

Chen Qiyu had been in the post of Fengyang Governor and concurrently Governor-General of Grain Transport for nearly two years. During this period, apart from his regular duties, he had also taken on the task of overseeing the roving bandit prisoners of war in dredging the silted sections of the Grand Canal.

After nearly two years of high-intensity labor, of the original fifty thousand prisoners of war, more than five thousand had died from illness or accidents. These dead were hastily buried, without even a tombstone.

The prisoners had altogether dredged over three hundred li of river sections, mostly concentrated in the Huai'an stretch of the Grand Canal, making this originally severely silted waterway completely unobstructed—even large vessels of several hundred liao could pass freely without needing manual towing.

The silt dredged from the river was used as fertilizer and was all transported to the fields on both banks of the canal to enrich the soil.

These fields had been newly reclaimed by disaster victims relocated from Henan by the court. Over a million refugees from the many prefectures and counties of Nanyang Prefecture and Ruyang Prefecture, under the organization and management of local officials, had in nearly two years opened up over a hundred thousand qing of contiguous new farmland in the wasteland along both banks of the canal.

Zhu Youjian had issued an edict that relocated disaster victims were each to be given ten mu of allotted land per person, and these fields were exempt from rent and taxes; apart from the allotted land, rent and taxes on each family's additional newly reclaimed fields were set at one in twelve, which greatly raised the refugees' enthusiasm for opening wasteland.

To help the refugees survive the famine years, Chen Qiyu, by imperial decree, built a large granary every thirty li, intercepting a million shi of grain tribute for storage, then distributed each person's daily ration of grain, salt, and dried vegetables into the refugees' hands, ensuring they had enough strength to sustain their daily labor.

Fortunately, the years of severe drought in the north had not yet spread to the Jiangnan region. Grain production in Zhejiang, Huguang, and South Zhili had not been greatly affected, and grain tribute collection had gone relatively smoothly. These large granaries were not left empty, and the refugees' food supply was guaranteed.

Chen Qiyu now devoted most of his energy to settling newly arrived refugees and mediating conflicts between them and local officials and people, shouldering more of the civil responsibilities of the Fengyang Governor. He delegated the river dredging and grain transport duties respectively to the Bureau Secretary of the Ministry of Works and the grain collection official of the Ministry of Revenue in his yamen; he himself, accompanied by two brothers from his clan and a retinue of close attendants, traveled around inspecting matters concerning refugee settlement and cultivation, so as to stabilize the refugees' hearts and prevent civil unrest arising from conflicts among the people.

Chen Qiyu had no real interest in grain transport duties. He knew the grain transport yamen would operate normally without him, and there would be no conspicuous merit to be gained there. What the current Emperor valued more was whether refugee resettlement was properly handled—so long as he achieved notable results in this matter, it would easily attract the Emperor's attention and appreciation.

The relocation of over a million refugees was a vast and burdensome project. Although Zhu Youjian had also allocated huge sums from the privy purse for refugee resettlement costs, each specific matter still required enormous manpower, material resources, planning, and organization—including surveying terrain, reasonably constructing dwellings, and determining how many people should form a village based on the available wasteland—all sorts of complicated and trivial work.

Although the number of relocated refugees this time was great, the resettlement was handled relatively reasonably, with no major oversights. This was mainly due to the assistance of Henan local officials who had moved along with the refugees, and the supervision of the court's dispatched inspecting Censors and numerous members of the Embroidered Uniform Guard was also indispensable.

That's right—not only were the refugees from several Henan prefectures, departments, and counties relocated far away, but most of those local officials also came along.

In the disaster-affected areas, apart from a few gentry and wealthy households and some self-sufficient owner-cultivators, nearly all the common people without means were relocated to the Huai'an stretch of the Grand Canal. In places like Nanyang, apart from the chief officials and a few retainers left behind, the rest served as organizers leading the refugees to the locations designated by the court. With the assistance of these officials familiar with local conditions, this large-scale, batch-by-batch migration was able to be completed relatively smoothly.

Of course, involving the movement of such a large population, all sorts of incidents occurred along the way that were complicated and multifarious—Chen Qiyu only mentioned them briefly in his memorial.

After receiving Zhu Youjian's edict soliciting his opinion, Chen Qiyu immediately realized this was a golden opportunity for him to return to the center of power in the capital. Since the Emperor would consult him on such matters of military and state importance, it fully demonstrated that the Emperor valued his abilities highly. This was an honor normally enjoyed only by senior court ministers. So long as he presented distinctive and brilliant insights and proposals in his memorial, perhaps he too would have the chance to participate in the war—and with sufficient military merit, no one could stop his return to the capital.

In his memorial, Chen Qiyu first gave a rough description of how he had resettled the refugees over the past two years, and only then touched upon next year's military campaign.

It must be said that Chen Qiyu's strategic vision was indeed outstanding. In his memorial, he ingeniously proposed a strategy of cross-sea operations—a rarity in the Great Ming, where amphibious warfare was generally not valued at the time.

Chen Qiyu suggested that the court dispatch troops to the Denglai line this year, and when the main army marched out through the passes next year for a head-on confrontation with the Jianzhou barbarians, the Jinghai Earl should assemble ships to transport the Denglai regular troops to land on Liaodong. Taking advantage of the moment when the barbarian forces were concentrated along the Jinzhou front line and Liaodong's defenses were weak, the landing troops would directly raid Hetu Ala, completely destroy the Jianzhou ancestral tombs, grind the bones of successive barbarian chieftains to dust, greatly demoralize the barbarian chieftains, then withdraw to the landing point and return to the Great Ming.

Chen Qiyu's scheme was both ruthless and venomous. If war truly broke out, in this era that placed great importance on the theory of fortune and destiny, upon hearing that their ancestral graves had been dug up, their lair had been taken, and Ming troops were also appearing on their left flank, the descendants of the Wild Boar Skin would certainly fall into disarray, greatly increasing the regular troops' chances of victory.

Hetu Ala housed the Manchu ancestral tombs later known as the Qing Yongling, first built during the Wanli era and now still called Xingjing Tomb. Buried there were the Wild Boar Skin's sixth-generation ancestor Mengtemu, great-grandfather Fuman, grandfather Juechangan, father Taksi, as well as his uncles and others. It was a place touted by Hong Taiji and others as possessing the "aura of the Son of Heaven" and served as the spiritual pillar of Jianzhou. Although Hong Taiji had moved the capital to Shengjing after ascending the throne, he still left several thousand elite troops at Hetu Ala to guard the ancestral tombs.

Chen Qiyu suggested to Zhu Youjian that the regular troops landing on Liaodong must be selected from officers and soldiers who feared neither death nor danger, numbering around five thousand. Before battle, heavy rewards should be promised to rouse their spirits; those who fell in battle would have their families generously compensated; officers would be promised high positions to reward their service. As the saying goes, "heavy rewards will always produce brave men"—five thousand men should not be difficult to select, for instance from the surrendered roving bandit units of Zhang Wenyao and Liu Guoneng in Shaanxi.

Chen Qiyu made no attempt to conceal his contempt and hostility toward the surrendered bandit generals. His suggestion that Zhu Youjian select men from these two units was plainly an attempt to kill with a borrowed knife.

In his eyes, these surrendered generals and soldiers were all untrustworthy. When they had originally surrendered to the court, it had been a speculative act taken under duress, and their true intentions were suspect.

Moreover, since Zhang Wenyao's and Liu Guoneng's units had surrendered, they had yet to achieve a single merit. The two units, totaling over ten thousand men, were idly consuming the court's military pay and provisions. Since they were now regular troops, they ought to serve the country. Next year, nearly all of the Great Ming's elite regular forces would be marching out through the passes to fight; leaving these two unstable elements in the interior was truly worrisome. Better to select their bravest and send them to Liaodong—if they returned victorious, that would be an unexpected bonus; if they perished in enemy territory, that too would be sacrifice for the country. This was a plan that served both purposes.

Zhu Youjian deeply appreciated how thorough and complete Chen Qiyu's deliberations were—this was truly the counsel of a seasoned statesman. Although he mentioned that such an extreme scenario was almost impossible to occur, guarding against trouble before it arose was never a bad thing.

The cross-sea operation strategy Chen Qiyu proposed was broadly feasible; the specific operational plan would still need detailed discussion by relevant personnel of the Ministry of War before it could be formulated. Once the Ministry of War produced a plan, Zhu Youjian would issue an edict to select elite troops from Zhang Wenyao's and Liu Guoneng's units to be stationed at Denglai. Zheng Zhilong, meanwhile, would be ordered to dispatch ships northward to reconnoiter landing points and pickup points, transporting regular troops back and forth between Denglai and Liaodong for drills, so that officers and soldiers could adapt to the environment in advance and not lose combat effectiveness from being unaccustomed to the water.

When it came to landing on Liaodong, the first thing Zhu Youjian thought of was Pidao, which Mao Wenlong had once managed. After next year's campaign through the passes began, the Denglai army should immediately seize Pidao, then, using Liaodong Han Chinese familiar with the terrain as guides, march north from Zhenjiang Fort all the way along the western bank of the Yalu River, driving straight for Hetu Ala. History had already proven that the Jianzhou barbarians' forces in this area were extremely weak—directly related to the fact that neither side valued naval forces and no one had ever imagined troops crossing the sea to land.

Especially since the destruction of the Great Ming's Dongjiang town and Hong Taiji's dispatch of troops to conquer Joseon, the Jianzhou barbarians had come to regard Liaodong as their great rear area, focusing all their energy on the Liaoxi region—this provided an excellent opportunity for the regular troops to launch a lightning raid.