Chapter 138: Key Garrison

In the imperial palace, the Chongzhen Emperor's mood was truly complicated upon seeing the memorial from Linqing in Shandong.

Originally, it had been the Chongzhen Emperor's intention to have Liu Zeqing escorted to the capital and executed by slow slicing, and even a skilled executioner had already been found.

The Chongzhen Emperor thought that if Liu Zeqing, the Shandong Regional Commander and a local military commander with real power, were put to death by the court, then Liu Liangzuo, Zuo Liangyu, and those other restless military commanders might exercise a bit more caution in their future conduct.

If that were the case, perhaps two households of common folk might escape their original fate, but who could have imagined such a thing happening—truly, no one had foreseen this.

A military officer devoured alive by commoners, and as for Liu Zeqing's household retainers, according to Zhang Shize's memorial, when the aftermath was investigated, scarcely a few could still have their faces recognized.

This was the first such occurrence since the founding of the dynasty, and Liu Zeqing had, through his own actions, secured a place in history in a certain regard—showing just how deeply the people hated arrogant, harmful military commanders like Liu Zeqing who abused their power.

Thinking of this, the Chongzhen Emperor suddenly recalled a scene from a television drama of later ages and asked:

"What is the character of the people in the Linqing area like?"

Wang Cheng'en had long since sent men to investigate the affairs of Linqing thoroughly, and had himself pored over the Eastern Depot's archives, so he now replied with composure:

"I report to Your Majesty: the people of Linqing are fierce and hardy. Since the Hongwu era, conflicts among the local populace have been frequent, and now armed brawls are even more common."

The Chongzhen Emperor, being from a later age, naturally knew the combat effectiveness of the retainers bred by the Great Ming's retainer system.

Liu Zeqing's retainers were clad in iron armor and wielded steel blades—they could be considered seasoned fighting men. Though their army had collapsed like a mountain falling, how could they have been wiped out in a narrow alley by a crowd of commoners wielding rakes and hoes?

If these commoners were truly so formidable in combat, then if they could be recruited as soldiers and trained for one's own use, that would naturally be best.

"Oh?" The Chongzhen Emperor, who had already been of this mind, grew even more interested upon hearing Wang Cheng'en's words, and asked with a smile: "Why do the people engage in armed brawls?"

Wang Cheng'en immediately replied: "To answer Your Majesty, outside the city of Linqing there are two ochre mines with extremely rich deposits. During the Tianqi era, the Eastern Depot established mining supervisors there to collect mining taxes, and from there transported ore to the capital to forge iron implements."

"Precisely because the people there are fierce and hardy and not easy to govern, when the Eastern Depot later consolidated its power outside the capital, this place was abandoned and left unattended—and so it remains to this day."

Hearing these words, the Chongzhen Emperor nodded and immediately issued an order:

"Send an edict: have Zhang Shize remain in Linqing for some time longer, and see whether any commoners wish to join the Capital Camps and serve the nation!"

"This old servant will see to it at once."

Going back a few days earlier—when Zhang Shize was leading the Capital Camps south to surround and annihilate Liu Zeqing—the Ji Garrison area, over a hundred li northeast of the capital's outskirts, was also dense with government troops, with carts and horses constantly coming and going, bustling with activity.

The Ji Garrison was one of the Nine Border Garrisons upon which the Great Ming relied for defense. Its jurisdiction encompassed the Yongping, Changping, and Miyun areas, and since the Yongle era its fixed establishment had been a standing force of over eighty-five thousand border troops, serving as the northeastern shield of the capital.

Many rivers flowed into the Ji Garrison area from beyond the Great Wall, and along its defense line of two thousand li, the records mentioned over one hundred ninety passes and defiles of various sizes where troops had been stationed, with over forty important fortresses among them.

The Chongzhen Emperor had even skimmed a couple of chapters of The Art of War in his later life—this was truly a perilous strategic ground that military strategists through the ages would fight over.

Indeed, the Chongzhen Emperor, who had only just escaped the crisis of hanging himself from a southeastern branch, had already begun, before even pacifying the realm, to dream of the grand vision of the Great Ming one day conquering the world.

When national strength permitted in the future, if he could link Shanhai Pass in the east with Xifengkou and Panjiakou in the center, and Gubeikou and Juyong Pass in the west into one continuous line, the Jianzhou barbarians wouldn't amount to a damn thing.

Give him fifty years—they might not even manage to break in before they destroyed themselves through their own infighting.

After destroying the Jianzhou barbarians, he could rebuild the Daning Guard, assimilate the Mongols, and then contend with Russia to the north over territory—wouldn't that be just delightful.

Returning to reality, the Chongzhen Emperor's face full of longing turned to dark clouds—first he had to resolve the damned matter of Wu Sangui demanding military pay!

Throughout the entire two hundred-plus years of the Great Ming in history, from Hongwu and Yongle down to the present Chongzhen era, border alarms had come every single year without fail—especially after the northward withdrawal from Daning, the abandonment of Kaiping, the cession of Hami in the west, and the loss of the Hetao, there was scarcely a single day of peaceful sleep.

There had been five major crises and wars that imperiled the fate of the Great Ming, and every single one was inseparable from the Ji Garrison.

The first was the "Gengxu Incident" at Gubeikou. In the twenty-ninth year of Jiajing, the Tatar chieftain Altan Khan led a great army to attack Datong. Qiu Luan, the Datong Regional Commander, was a coward who bribed Altan Khan heavily to persuade him not to attack Datong but to turn against another garrison instead.

Altan Khan was also a straightforward man—after accepting the gifts, he truly did not go to Datong, and went along with the current to attack Gubeikou instead. He feigned an assault to pin down the defending forces while secretly breaching the wall at Huangyugou on the western flank.

After Gubeikou fell, Altan Khan took advantage of the momentum to break through Jizhou, capture Huairou, take Changping, and descend upon Tongzhou, unleashing his troops to plunder in all directions and pressing directly upon the walls of the capital. The Jiajing Emperor was shaken, and urgently ordered all garrisons to come to the capital's rescue—yet Altan Khan plundered the capital's outskirts for eight full days before withdrawing through Gubeikou.

The third was the Battle of Panjiakou in the thirty-eighth year of Jiajing. Again it was a Tatar chieftain, this time one named Xilina, who again used the tactic of feinting east while striking west—first attacking Yiyuankou and Lengkou in the eastern Ji Garrison, and while Wang Shu, the then Governor-General of Ji and Liao, shifted troops eastward, seized the opportunity to break through Panjiakou in the center, then plundered westward through Zunhua, Fengrun, Yutian, Jizhou, and other places.

The fourth was the Battle of Hongshankou. In the seventh year of Tianqi, the old Jianzhou barbarian chieftain Hong Taiji attacked Ningyuan, and after defeat at Jinzhou, turned in the second year of Chongzhen to attack Longjing Pass, Da'an Pass, and Hongshankou in the Ji Garrison.

The Jianzhou barbarians captured Zunhua and continued westward, taking Sanhe and Tongzhou in succession, pressing directly upon the capital's walls and attacking Desheng Gate, Guangqu Gate, Lugou Bridge, and Yongding Gate—the capital was in crisis.

The Jianzhou generals all demanded the capture of Beijing, but the old barbarian chieftain had a sudden inspiration—he felt the Great Ming was not yet destined to fall, and besides, taking an empty Beijing would be utterly useless.

Moreover, at that time, the peasant bandits in the Central Plains had not yet made much noise. Li Zicheng, now the famed Dashun Yongchang Emperor, had been a government soldier then, and Zhang Xianzhong had been nothing but a common nobody.

The old barbarian chieftain Hong Taiji wheeled his army eastward, capturing Xianghe, Qian'an, Luanzhou, and Yongping—four cities—before withdrawing through Lengkou beyond the Great Wall.

The fifth was the Battle of Changping. In the fourth month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Hong Taiji again led the Jianzhou barbarians through Dushikou into Juyong Pass, broke through the thinly defended Ji Garrison, and drove straight for Changping, ravaging the capital's outskirts far and wide.

In that invasion, the Jianzhou barbarians plundered military pay and provisions, Shunyi, Qinghe, Huairou, Baodi, Fangshan, Zhuozhou, Yongqing, and other places, killing the men and raping the women—countless families were ruined and destroyed.

The major turning points in the Chongzhen Emperor's memory, aside from the Tumu Incident that later-age experts loved to discuss, had nearly all occurred at the Ji Garrison.

Even a fool could see from this how the defense of the Ji Garrison affected the entire strategic situation—this was also the core reason the Chongzhen Emperor, after resolving the pressing crisis of hanging himself, insisted on reestablishing the Santun Camp of the Ji Garrison.

Jiayuguan in the west, Zhenbeitai in the center, Shanhai Pass in the east.

On the towering city wall of Shanhai Pass's western "Ying'en Gate" stood an entire row of Wu-family soldiers in black armor. They stared fixedly ahead, radiating the fierce killing aura that only long experience on the battlefield could produce.

Not only was the black-bird banner symbolizing the Great Ming hung before the arrow tower that rose high above the main city, but the tall "Wu" banner beside it also echoed it in the distance, showing no sign of yielding—giving one an inexplicable feeling of strangeness.

Before long, a Wu-family Company Commander guarding the city wall furrowed his brow and suddenly shouted at the top of his lungs:

"Dust on the horizon—man the walls!!"