Chapter 37: The Great Battle 1

In the deep autumn season, the earth lay barren, with withered plants and sparse, desolate fields.

Around the hour of Chen, on a mountain ten li southeast of Ruyang City, the seat of Runing Prefecture in Henan, Lu Xiangsheng, Commander-General of Military Affairs for Five Provinces, was observing the roving bandits' camp stretching for dozens of li in the distance from the mountaintop. He was tall and gaunt, clad in a suit of chainmail, wearing an eight-panel helmet, with iron arm guards on both forearms. Yang Maogong, Adjutant of the Tianxiong Army, stood attending at his side, while Lu Xiangsheng's personal bodyguard Wu Dading stood behind him, hand resting on a twenty-jin long blade.

After observing for a long while, Lu Xiangsheng's brows knitted tightly. He turned and strode down the mountain, with Yang Maogong and Wu Dading hurrying to follow behind.

Yang Maogong asked: "Commander-General, the bandits are formidable in force. How should we respond?"

Lu Xiangsheng replied without turning his head as he walked: "The Dashing King's bandits have always been our greatest adversary. His ranks include numerous Fan and Han cavalry—defeating them is easy, but annihilating them is nearly impossible. This time the Dashing King has joined camps with Zhang Xianzhong, swelling their numbers to several hundred thousand. Indeed, they are hard to break in a single stroke. Once we return to camp, summon all the generals for a council!"

Upon arriving at the main tent of the camp at the mountain's foot, Lu Xiangsheng ordered that all officers of Battalion Commander rank and above be summoned, along with Liaodong generals Zu Kuan and Li Chongjin, who had been dispatched by the Ministry of War, to discuss matters.

Before long, the various officers of the Tianxiong Army filed into the main tent one after another, while Zu Kuan, Li Chongjin, and the other Liaodong officers arrived belatedly.

Once everyone had assembled, Lu Xiangsheng looked at the crowd with a composed expression and spoke slowly: "The Dashing King's bandits and the Dashing King's—the bandits of the Dashing King and the bandit Zhang have besieged Ruyang for several days now, and the prefectural seat is in imminent peril. As imperial troops of the court, our duty is naturally to suppress the bandits and defend our territory. I have just surveyed the enemy positions—though their numbers are great, they have not established any stockade on the outer perimeter, and their garrison defense is extremely lax. Only near the prefectural city can one see slightly more orderly camps. This shows they are but a motley rabble. Our army currently sits on the bandits' flank. I have resolved to first cut them down with crossbows, then charge with our cavalry, and after smashing their outer lines, drive the routed soldiers to crash into their main camp. This battle does not seek to slay the Dashing King in one stroke, but rather to inflict heavy casualties on the main force of his old camp, weaken his effective strength, and lift the siege of Ruyang. Return to your units, prepare meals, and then launch the assault. What say you all?"

The Tianxiong Army had been forged single-handedly by Lu Xiangsheng from Daming Prefecture and was utterly loyal to him—from Yang Maogong on down, all clasped their hands in salute and accepted the order. Over on the other side, the subordinates of Zu Kuan and Li Chongjin broke into a buzz of murmuring discussion.

Lu Xiangsheng's gaze swept over. Zu Kuan, stocky of build with a face full of bushy whiskers, stepped forward carelessly and clasped his hands: "Commander-General, the bandit forces are immense, numbering several hundred thousand men. Your Tianxiong Army has only five thousand troops, this humble officer commands no more than three thousand cavalry, and General Li has but seventeen hundred. Together that's less than ten thousand men—to attack several hundred thousand bandits, I fear our losses would be severe. This humble officer is not one to fear the enemy or shrink from battle—these bandits crawled out of mountain gullies and I've never held them in regard—but with the enemy so numerous, I worry my lads would suffer too heavy a toll!"

Yang Maogong and the other Tianxiong Army officers were furious to see him openly defy the Commander-General to his face, and their looks toward Zu Kuan turned hostile. These barbarians from Liaodong, relying on their elite troops, were arrogant and overbearing, looking down on everyone.

Lu Xiangsheng's expression did not change. He asked: "Then what does General Zu think we should do?"

Zu Kuan replied nonchalantly: "This humble officer believes that in a few more days the bandits will breach Runing. Once the city falls, they will surely plunder it wholesale, and even the bandits on the outer perimeter will join in the looting. At that moment of chaos, we can follow behind and strike—we are certain to rout the bandits utterly!" The Liaodong officers chimed in one after another in support of their commander's plan.

Anger rose in Lu Xiangsheng's heart, but none of it showed on his face. He said: "General Zu speaks from the perspective of military strategy, and this plan is certainly feasible. But have you considered the officials, gentry, and common folk within Runing city? If the city falls, given the bandits' nature, how many households among the populace will be shattered and destroyed?"

Zu Kuan raised his eyes to the sky and said arrogantly: "We are imperial troops of the court—our sole duty is to suppress bandits. As for the common folk, that is the business of the civil authorities, none of our concern!"

Lu Xiangsheng could finally contain himself no longer. Displeasure showed on his face, and his tone turned stern: "Since we are imperial troops, our duty is to protect the realm and comfort the people! I have been commanded to oversee military and civil affairs of five provinces, and I will never sit idly by while a tragedy of city-fall and slaughter unfolds before my very eyes! General Zu need say no more—the Ministry of War has placed your Liaodong forces under my command, and you will obey my orders! Once the cavalry charges, I will ride at the very front myself. Go prepare!"

The Tianxiong Army officers knelt on one knee to receive the order. Zu Kuan still wished to voice further defiance, but Li Chongjin behind him secretly tugged at his armor, and he grudgingly desisted. He made a cursory clasped-hand salute to Lu Xiangsheng and strode off with his subordinates.

After the generals had left the tent, Yang Maogong said indignantly: "That Liaodong barbarian Zu is so insolent! The Commander-General should have ordered him executed for defying a superior's command! That would take the wind out of those Liaodong fellows! How dare he speak to you like that—does he have any respect for the court at all?"

Lu Xiangsheng shook his head and said: "With a great battle imminent, how could one arbitrarily execute a senior general? The Liaodong generals have grown arrogant and overbearing because the court relies on them to resist the Jianzhou barbarians. Now the 180,000 troops of Liaodong have become a tail too big to wag. His Majesty and the ministers at court know this well, but beset by internal strife and external threats, they can only let it be! Alas, the only course now is to first exterminate the roving bandits before we can find a way to resolve these problems!"

Yang Maogong's face showed bewilderment. He said: "Commander-General, can the roving bandits truly be exterminated? This subordinate has followed you in campaigns across the realm since the second year of Chongzhen, yet the bandits have grown from a few thousand or tens of thousands back then to tens of thousands or hundreds of thousands now—the more we suppress, the more there are. This officer and all the old brothers under me feel less and less confident!"

Lu Xiangsheng slowly walked up to Yang Maogong and looked at this beloved general who had followed him for six years and experienced over a hundred battles large and small. Placing both hands on Yang Maogong's shoulders, his bright eyes fixed on the other man's, he called him by his courtesy name and said gently: "Hanchen, in all these years you've followed me, we have fought shoulder to shoulder and carved our way out of mountains of corpses and seas of blood time and again. In name I am your superior, but in my heart I regard you as a nephew. The bond between us is like family. I too was once as lost as you are now—the road ahead perilous, unsure which way to turn. When exhausted and weary, I too have thought again and again of my ailing mother back home, and longed for the beautiful scenery of Jiangnan. But now our Great Ming's border defenses have been ruined utterly, the Central Plains are ravaged by roving bandits, calamities of heaven and man come one after another, and the people are displaced, their families broken and destroyed. As a minister of the Great Ming, steeped in the wisdom of the sages, I know I must stand up and shoulder the responsibility that is mine. As for the outcome—Heaven will arrange it! You and all the brothers of the Tianxiong Army—we all fight for one common goal: to sweep the realm clean, return to the people a world of peace, let them live and work in contentment, and suffer no more the miseries of war. Just last month, I received a secret letter from His Majesty. In it, His Majesty candidly admitted that he had been too hasty in pressing the bandit-suppression campaign, and asked me and Governor Hong to change our original strategy of suppressing the bandits by a fixed deadline, and instead proceed gradually. He also stated his unconditional trust in and support for me and Governor Hong, telling us to act freely without fear of unfavorable talk at court—all consequences, His Majesty would bear alone! Hanchen, do you know? Before June, to fulfill His Majesty's commission of suppressing the bandits within half a year, how terrified and uneasy I was inside, afraid that my own inadequacy would delay His Majesty's great enterprise! You know as well that in pursuit of the bandits, to complete my mission, I once went days on end without sleep or rest, simply afraid of failing His Majesty's expectations! Though I knew it was impossible, I still fought with all my might! And I thank you old brothers who have followed me for so many years—away from home for years without once returning to visit, and some brothers now lie sleeping forever in foreign soil!" At this point, Lu Xiangsheng's eyes reddened slightly and his voice choked.

Soon he composed himself, lowered his hands from Yang Maogong's shoulders, and paced slowly through the tent with his hands clasped behind his back, speaking as he walked: "Hanchen, I sensed a change in His Majesty from that letter—a change subtle, yet I detected it nonetheless. His Majesty seems a different man—no longer rash and quick to anger, no longer headstrong and competitive. He has become steady and composed, wise and responsible. This greatly heartens me! Hanchen, let me tell you—His Majesty, mindful that our forces have long lacked military pay and provisions, has already allocated money and grain from the privy purse to us. Because the region is unsettled, the supplies have been transported to Ruzhou. After this battle is done, I will lead you to Runing to draw the pay and provisions, and take the opportunity to rest and regroup. Let the soldiers send word of safety to their families, and remit their pay home to support their households. Hanchen, in this battle we must hit the Dashing King hard and drive him back into the mountains, so that the people of the Central Plains may enjoy a measure of peace. Go spread the news to the brothers, and let morale be lifted!"

Yang Maogong felt genuine admiration for Lu Xiangsheng. As a high minister of state, whenever facing the enemy, Lu Xiangsheng charged into the fray in the identity of a civil official, brave beyond compare, greatly inspiring the morale of the entire army.

Once, the army had gone three days without grain, and Lu Xiangsheng likewise ate and drank nothing, winning him deep devotion from the officers and men, who all fought with valor. In the absence of pay and provisions, Lu Xiangsheng could only rely on the force of his character to inspire his men—leading from the front, sharing hardships with his troops, and constantly exhorting them with loyalty and righteousness. It was thus that the Tianxiong Army gradually grew into one of the finest elite forces in the realm.

Now hearing that the emperor had allocated pay and provisions—Yang Maogong, who had not seen military pay in over a year, was as delighted as a child. He clenched his fist and swung it, grinning and laughing heartily.

But as he laughed, tears slowly began to fall from his eyes. The laughter gradually turned to sobs, until at last he was weeping uncontrollably.

Lu Xiangsheng felt deep empathy for Yang Maogong's reaction. The Tianxiong Army's pay had been cut off for over a year, and even grain had come intermittently. While pursuing the bandits Lao Huihui and Guo Tianxing in Yunyang, they had spent days in deep mountains and remote valleys, in desolate regions stretching a thousand li without human habitation, living alongside the soldiers and servants, with supplies exhausted and going hungry for days on end. It was under such conditions that he had led his men to slaughter tens of thousands of bandits, winning nine battles in nine engagements, until at last the bandits of the Yunyang region vanished without a trace.

He walked over and patted Yang Maogong on the back, smiling: "What's this? So happy to hear the pay is coming that you've gone silly?"

Yang Maogong stopped crying, wiped his face with the back of his hand, and said with reddened eyes: "This officer was thinking of the fallen brothers—their families still don't know they've died, and the old and young at home still wait for them to send pay home to support the household! This officer just thought—I'll divide my own pay into several portions and send them to the families of the fallen brothers I knew well. It's not much, but it's a token of my regard!" Before he could finish, his voice choked up again.

Tears streamed down Lu Xiangsheng's face. Several times he tried to speak, and several times his voice failed him with sobs. It was a long while before his emotions settled.

He spoke with solemn gravity: "Since the second year of Chongzhen, of the brothers who have followed Lu in campaigns, several hundred have fallen in battle, and over a thousand have been wounded or disabled. Lu is ashamed before their fathers, mothers, wives, and children! Though the court has regulations for compensation, for a life once lived, that pittance is nothing at all. Their families, after the agony of losing loved ones, must still struggle to get by! Though I have the will, I lack the power to change these things. But at least we have an enlightened sovereign on the throne! Hanchen, His Majesty has issued an explicit decree to all under Heaven—for all who die fighting valiantly against the roving bandits and the Jianzhou barbarians, their families shall receive one hundred taels of silver and twenty mu of hereditary farmland; for the wounded and disabled, half that amount! His Majesty will also build a shrine and erect a stele in the capital, inscribing upon it the names of all officers and men who gave their lives for the nation. On every festival, officials will be sent to offer sacrifice—as long as the Great Ming endures, the incense shall never cease! I only just read this in the Capital Gazette. Go spread the news first. After this battle, I will have the scribe work with you to compile the names and native places of all those who fell or were disabled over these six years, then report to the Ministry of War, and the aftermath will be handled according to regulations. To prevent the compensation silver from being embezzled, His Majesty has specially ordered the Ministry of War, the Censorate, and the Embroidered Uniform Guard each to send men to supervise the matter. With such an enlightened sovereign, how can we worry that our soldiers will not fight with valor? The suppression of the roving bandits is a cause with great hope!"

Yang Maogong could hardly believe his ears. He was stunned for a moment, then cried out: "Commander-General, is what you just said really true?!"

Lu Xiangsheng smiled at him, his expression certain, and gave a great nod. Yang Maogong let out a howl, turned, and dashed out of the tent. Before long, what Lu Xiangsheng had said spread swiftly through the entire Tianxiong Army camp, and thunderous cheers rang out across the whole encampment.

In the Liaodong cavalry camp not far from the Tianxiong Army's position, Li Chongjin was in Zu Kuan's tent trying to counsel him. Zu Kuan, finding the tent stiflingly hot, had stripped off his armor and was bare-chested, his thick chest hair exposed, cursing and grumbling.

Li Chongjin, in his twenties, was younger than Zu Kuan. His ancestors had been retainers of Li Chengliang's household, and Li Chongjin had learned horsemanship and martial skills from childhood. But because the Li family had long since declined, he gained no advantage from it. He was ambitious nonetheless—starting as a common soldier, he had risen step by step through merit, and now by accumulated achievement held the rank of Mobile Corps Commander of Liaodong, commanding seventeen hundred cavalry, making him a force not to be ignored among the warlords of Liaodong.

He said: "Sir, we are after all imperial troops of the court. In daily matters we can be a bit lax, but this time the Ministry of War has transferred us to the interior, placing us under Commander-General Lu's command, precisely because they value the sharp edge of our Guanning Iron Cavalry. We are in Henan now, not Liaodong. If Commander-General Lu were to have our heads cut off on charges of disobeying orders, that would be a true injustice! Sir, bear with it for now—aren't these just local bandits? No matter how numerous, in our eyes they're nothing but chickens and dogs of clay. After this battle is over, we'll find some excuse to return to Liaodong. Back in our own homeland, we can raise as much hell as we like—don't you agree?"

Zu Kuan shot him a sidelong glance and said: "He wouldn't dare! If he dared cut off my head, that would make an enemy of the entire Guanning Iron Cavalry. When the brothers back home raised a ruckus, the court would surely make him pay with his own life. These days civil officials aren't worth a damn—men like us with guns, blades, and horses, we're the real masters!"

Li Chongjin forced a smile: "This humble officer knows full well that what you say is true, but a wise man doesn't court disaster—let's just say we're doing the court a favor!"

Zu Kuan snorted. Li Chongjin gave a signal, and one of Zu Kuan's personal guards came over to help him into his armor.

Li Chongjin said: "I'll go back and get the lads fed. When battle commences, let's see whether Commander-General Lu truly does charge at the front. If he really does, then I, Li Chongjin, will be convinced!"

Zu Kuan curled his lip in disdain and said: "When have you ever seen a civil official lead a charge? It's all just talk—in the end they'll rely on us old boys to risk our lives, and all the credit will go to them! Damn it all, just thinking about it makes my blood boil. As you say—if that Lu Xiangsheng truly dares to charge the enemy line, even if he kills not a single bandit, I'll be convinced too!"