Chapter 75: Marching to the Rescue

In the fifth month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, the scorching sun baked the earth; the sweltering summer had arrived, and the heat rising from the ground was suffocating.

On the official road leading to the Fengyang Deputy Commander's Office of the Central Capital, an army stretching several li was advancing rapidly. Soldiers marched three abreast in neat ranks, the dust kicked up by their steps lingering in the air for a long time. To increase marching speed, the soldiers' armor and weapons had been handed over to the baggage train in the rear. Two thousand recruited able-bodied men either drove carts, carried loads on shoulder poles, or pushed wheelbarrows, fully laden with grain, fodder, armor, and equipment, following close behind the column.

This force was none other than the troops under Huang Degong of Shan County. He and Zhou Yuji had been ordered to recruit men in Shandong to form a new army. Since both had risen from the lowest ranks of common soldiers to senior generals through accumulated merit, their military experience was extremely rich. When recruiting, they deliberately selected honest, dependable sons of good families with many male members in the household who could endure hardship. In the end, they recruited four thousand new men.

After Huang Degong and Zhou Yuji took over the unit of the executed Wu Shangwen, with the cooperation of the outspoken Battalion Commander Wu Qun, they purged all the cunning and treacherous elements from the army. The old and weak were given five taels of settlement silver and sent home. The original force of over two thousand men, after strict screening, was reduced to just over a thousand. Added to the four thousand newly recruited soldiers, an army of over five thousand was finally assembled.

The vast majority of the new soldiers were illiterate sons of farming families who, from birth to adulthood, had never ranged beyond ten li from home. Though honest and obedient, their limited experience and rigid thinking made training extremely difficult. Simply teaching them to distinguish the various banners, drums, and horns of the army gave Huang Degong, Zhou Yuji, and the mid-level officers selected from the five hundred cavalrymen no end of headaches.

Chiliarch Wu Qun, as a local native, played a major role in drilling these new recruits. Because the Shandong dialect was particularly heavy, the officers of the Yongwei Camp found communication extremely awkward. Though Wu Qun was a born-and-bred local, he spoke the official language with great fluency. He led several Centurions and squad leaders, bridging communications up and down, throwing himself entirely into the training of the new soldiers. After months of磨合, these thousands of farm boys who knew nothing finally began to take on the semblance of soldiers. Of course, the officers' scolding and beating in the process was unavoidable—a common occurrence in military service.

Once the ranks gradually took shape, even stricter drill in formation and weapons handling began. The new recruits, now slowly accustomed to military life, under the stern discipline of their officers and the exemplary leadership of veteran soldiers, displayed the honest, simple, hardworking, and obedient nature of Shandong men to the fullest. Soldiers who made mistakes, whether beaten with wooden staves or whipped with horsewhips by their officers, showed not the slightest resentment or resistance—they simply endured in silence. When the order came to advance with leveled spears, even if a wall stood before them, the new soldiers would charge straight into it unless the order to halt was given.

Huang Degong and Zhou Yuji were extremely satisfied with these new recruits. Aside from being a bit rigid in thinking and slightly slow in reaction, they were beyond reproach in loyalty and obedience. Combined with the tall, sturdy physiques characteristic of Shandong men, given time and tempered by battle, this force was certain to become a formidable army.

What they did not know was that in the impoverished northwestern region of Shandong, being able to join the official army, eat one's fill every day, and receive a monthly salary of one tael of official silver was a blessing countless people could not even dream of. Never mind being beaten only when one made mistakes during drill—as long as one could eat one's fill every day, one would gladly take a beating daily. After all, farming folk had thick skin and tough flesh, and the officers did not strike to kill. One simply endured. Since one ate their food and could even save up silver to send home, one ought to listen well and drill well—wasn't that only natural? Such was the thinking of nearly all the new soldiers.

Just as the new army began formal formation drills, Zhou Yuji received an imperial edict transferring him to serve as the commanding general of Sun Chuanting's Shaanxi army. The two had known each other for years and were the closest of friends. Now, suddenly separated to different regions, in these chaotic times of war, who knew when they would meet again—or even whether they would live to see each other. Huang Degong, breaking military regulations, sent his personal guards to the market to buy a jar of wine to see Zhou Yuji off. The two men each downed two bowls heartily, smashed the bowls on the ground, clasped their fists, and exchanged a mutual "take care." Zhou Yuji then mounted his horse with the dozen or so personal guards who had been prepared and rode straight for Shaanxi.

In the days that followed, Huang Degong spent nearly every day at the drill ground, supervising and inspecting the new Battalion Commanders, Company Commanders, and other mid- and low-ranking officers as they trained the soldiers. Wu Qun's original subordinates were broken up and dispersed, and many of the old veterans were promoted as a result. His company was now composed mainly of new recruits, yet he voiced no complaint whatsoever, still devoting all his energy to instructing the new soldiers. His thousand men made the fastest progress—whether in formation marching or live drills, they performed the best among the five Battalion Commanders' units. Huang Degong thought highly of him and planned to report him to the court for promotion once he earned military merit.

After receiving the military order from Commander-General Lu Xiangsheng of the Five Provinces to arrive at Fengyang by the appointed time and act according to circumstances, Huang Degong immediately summoned his officers and announced the order. He then personally went to the county seat of Shan County, found County Magistrate Ren Minyu, showed him Lu Xiangsheng's military order, and explained his idea: since the march would be long and the soldiers would be exhausted carrying armor and weapons, he needed to recruit able-bodied men for a baggage train.

Ren Minyu was a jinshi of the same year in the seventh year of Tianqi. With no one of influence at court, he had been posted to Shan County as County Magistrate for nearly six years. During those six years he had been diligent and conscientious, fulfilling his duties faithfully. Though he had achieved no great administrative accomplishments, at least the people under his governance could still scrape by. According to court regulations, after six years he was due for transfer to another post. He knew well that his next assignment would likely be a poor place much like Shan County. Promotion to a more important position was out of the question—who could he blame but his own lack of connections? If only some powerful minister at court would speak up for him, with his record of governance, taking another step up the ladder should not have been a problem.

Huang Degong's request did not irritate Ren Minyu. The two were one civil and one military official, with little interaction between them, but he had nevertheless heard some news about this unit. He knew that although Huang Degong was a military officer, he was a trusted close minister deeply favored by the Emperor. As long as he could satisfy Huang Degong, then once the official army won a victory, his name might well appear in the battle merits as one who had assisted the troops. Once noticed by the imperial eye, who could say it was not an opportunity? Promotion was nothing more than a single word from the Emperor, after all. Moreover, there was the military order from the Commander-General of the Five Provinces. Though Lu Xiangsheng did not handle civil affairs, who could predict what his future prospects might be? A minister favored by the Emperor had a career path that his own could never match.

Ren Minyu readily agreed to Huang Degong's request. He immediately summoned the clerks of the various county offices and the constables and bailiffs, sending them down to the villages to announce the recruitment drive. He made clear to the people that all who assisted the official army would be exempt from corvée labor for two years. More importantly, Huang Degong had brought silver with him—every willing participant in the baggage train would receive five qian of silver per month plus meals. Under the lure of this double benefit, people from all the surrounding villages eagerly signed up.

The primary reason was that years of severe drought had already spread from Henan into western Shandong. Watching the crops wither and die in the fields, many households with no grain reserves had already begun planning to flee their homes as refugees. Just as they were worrying over what to do, the authorities brought such good news—for many farming families, this was practically the arrival of a bodhisattva come to save them from their suffering.

With no hope of a harvest, the able-bodied men of the household sat idle every day, and one idle mouth consumed as much as several people. Now, by joining the army, they would not only be fed but also paid in silver. With that silver, while grain prices had not yet soared, they could buy more and store it at home. Then they could dig wild vegetables from the fields and catch fish, turtles, shrimp, and crabs from the nearly dried-up rivers, salting them down for preservation. Eaten sparingly, it could last many days. Perhaps Heaven would show mercy and send a few heavy rains, allowing them to plant autumn crops in time—then they might just make it through the year.

Huang Degong looked at the crowd gathered before the county office, at the hopeful eyes set in those worried, suffering faces, and his heart ached terribly. He too came from a poor family—his father had died early, and his mother had raised him, his younger brother, and his younger sister through untold hardship. He knew well the taste of poverty and hunger. He had seen with his own eyes the crops in the fields nearly completely failing, and he wondered how these common people would survive the days ahead.

He turned to Ren Minyu beside him and said, "Magistrate Ren, the drought is too severe. What will the people do if they cannot get enough to eat? If someone like the Dashing King comes along to stir them up, wouldn't that bring another great calamity?"

Ren Minyu shook his head and sighed. "I reported the drought to the court last month, but have yet to receive a reply. I have also mobilized the local gentry to donate silver and grain to the county office to prepare for future contingencies, but very few have responded. The county granary holds only a few hundred dan of grain, and the treasury only a few hundred taels of silver. Even with this paltry sum, while grain prices have not yet gone mad, I have already sent men to the Xuzhou area to purchase grain—buy as much as we can get. As for what the future holds, I do not know either!"