Chapter 250: The Academy

In the last ten days of the first month of the fourth year of Chongzhen, the ice and snow in the Ju'er Bay river valley had just begun to melt.

Baitang Taiji collected his armor at Sun Moon Mountain and, thoroughly satisfied, set off under Dai Daozi's escort back to Eight Corner City in Little River Bend.

This New Year had been, for him, an exceedingly happy one.

Liu Chengzong had procured a good many firecrackers, which Baitang set off to his heart's content, and had also given him five sets of purple-flower cloth armor and fifty government-made goose-quill sabers.

These third-hand sabers and armor were of considerable value, all fine goods forged by the Shanxi Pingyang Guard Armory in the twenty-fifth year of Wanli, worth at least twenty-six taels of silver in Han territory.

But in Qinghai, they were worth seven hundred sheep, roughly equal to the entire wealth of three moderately well-off pastoralist households.

And even then, there was a price but no market.

This directly increased the number of sabers under Baitang Taiji's control by thirty percent.

Baitang Taiji was not poor; quite the contrary, he was very wealthy.

In Baitang's tribe, there were five great clans and over thirty lesser clans, each household head possessing more than three hundred head of livestock, capable of mustering over three thousand mounted herder-warriors.

But their main weapons were light bows, hook-sickle spears, bone maces, and dog-beating staves.

The dog-beating staff was not a stick, but a homemade implement used by herders in the Amdo region to fend off wild beasts — an iron lump tied to a rope, similar to a meteor dart, called a gorkor.

Here, only the hook-sickle spear was a standard-issue Tumed weapon, and it was also the chief culprit behind the low head-count of Ming troops along the Nine Borders.

Whenever the Mongols invaded Han territory, the greatest tribal chieftain would issue a summons before battle, setting a day and place to gather; each tribe would then migrate their herds toward that location, discuss the direction of the incursion, and complete pre-battle reorganization.

They formed groups of three riders, one of whom would carry a hook-sickle spear, responsible both for charging and for hooking away fallen men or corpses; generally, once he hooked a man and threw him onto a spare horse, he could flee.

This was a divine tool for making one's fortune beyond the frontier; according to their tradition, a man hooked and brought back owed a debt of gratitude.

If what was hooked back was a corpse, the corpse was handed over to the widow, and the belongings on the body and the horse both went to the corpse-bearer.

If the man rescued was an ordinary person, then his household property and wealth would be split evenly with his benefactor.

If the man rescued was a taiji, then one had struck it rich; by tradition, the nobleman would bring out his arms, armor, warhorse, and wealth and let his benefactor take his pick.

Baitang Taiji's ancestors had also known glory; his grandfather was the full brother of Altan Khan.

When his father was young, Altan Khan of the Tumed, with the aid of White Lotus sectarians, had utterly bankrupted the Great Ming's economic sanctions.

Han people built fortified settlements on the Tumed Plain, producing daily necessities and forging sharp blades, sturdy armor, cloud ladders, battering rams, and siege engines, enabling the Right Wing's Three Tumen to field over forty thousand armored cavalry.

Even by the time Baitang split off his own camp, his followers still possessed over a thousand suits of armor and more than four thousand sabers; the hook-sickle spear was, by comparison, a relatively scarce weapon.

In that era, the Tumed tribe was the undisputed overlord of the steppe; wherever the warhorses of the Right Wing's Three Tumen pointed, they brought nightmares to all.

Under Altan Khan's orders alone, Qiejin Huang Taiji of the Ordos tribe campaigned west against the Oirats in the forty-first year of Jiajing, subjugating the Torguts; in the forty-fifth year of Jiajing, he conquered Ü-Tsang; and in the first year of Wanli, he fought his way through the Oirat grazing lands, his military edge reaching all the way to Suyab, where he routed the Kazakh Great Khan Aksar and seized his wife before returning.

Yet such a ferocious fiend's greatest achievement during the Wanli era was compiling a Buddhist scripture, while his official rank rose from Assistant Commander to Dragon-Tiger General.

Because the White Lotus leader Zhao Quan was dead — sent to Beijing and executed by Altan Khan, who had founded the Great Ming Jin Kingdom.

From that point on, the Tumed, and indeed the entire Southern Desert, once again lost the ability to manufacture their own arms and armor.

By the present day, the surviving stock of arms and armor varied widely among the Mongol tribes.

Broadly speaking, those who controlled trade routes and were farther from the Great Ming had more arms and armor, while those closer to the Great Ming or in remote areas had less.

Those who had fought major battles with the Great Ming and, moreover, lost, had the least — this almost named the Horoqin Eight Tribes of Qinghai outright.

They had lost nearly all their sabers and armor.

Instead, the hook-sickle spear, owing to its fortune-making nature, had become the most numerous weapon in the tribe.

As for proper sabers, counting the one at Baitang's waist, he had only one hundred and thirty-seven.

And of those, more than half were Tibetan blades, all looted during earlier raids into Tibet.

Often, people know full well that what is being fed to them is poison, yet they must still swallow it.

Baitang Taiji was no fool; he understood perfectly well what Liu Chengzong intended by giving him armor and sabers.

Giving things only to him, and nothing to Lhazang, was plainly an attempt to sow discord between the brothers.

But could he refuse these things? He could not.

In Liu Chengzong's words, this was nothing yet; in the future, there would be countless more things for him to buy.

There were indeed countless things.

After the Lantern Festival on the fifteenth of the first month, the nights around Xining still froze, but the days grew warmer and warmer.

The Lion Army also busied themselves, taking advantage of the daylight to cart the clay dug out from the pit-houses the previous autumn to the riverbank, where they built several brick kilns to begin firing once the weather warmed.

Elsewhere, Liu Chengzong took Lin Wei on a circuit of the river valley and began surveying the abandoned arable land.

Ju'er Bay's geographical position resembled a T-junction, with the Huang River basin running west to east and the Medicine Water River running north to south, which was highly favorable for digging canals and irrigation, though flat farmland was scarce.

Unfamiliar with the local agricultural conditions, Liu Chengzong sent someone specifically to summon Gongbu Dorje from Sun Moon Mountain.

After some inquiries, given his current manpower situation, the outlook was relatively optimistic.

The farmland here was divided into three types: river-water land, shallow-mountain land, and brain-mountain land. River-water land was naturally the best — low altitude, high temperatures, ample irrigation, and consequently high yields.

Brain-mountain land was exactly the opposite.

After surveying, the surrounding land suitable for canal irrigation could be divided into three triangular zones: two to the northwest and one to the south, all flatland between the mountains, requiring three main canals and twelve branch canals to irrigate over twenty-seven thousand mu of surrounding fields.

On the hillsides, however, there were over sixty thousand mu of shallow-mountain land and over eighty thousand mu of brain-mountain land; grain grown in these places yielded even less per mu than in northern Shaanxi.

According to Lin Wei's calculations, if they recruited refugees and mountain folk to till the land, after setting aside enough for the common people's subsistence, the grain handed over in the first year would likely cover about one twenty-fifth of the army's provisions.

The rest would depend on the development of the trading settlement; if all the land could be opened up and utilized, it might cover anywhere from one twentieth to one tenth.

That is to say, at most, they could collect just under twenty thousand shi of grain here.

At this moment, Liu Chengzong had a sudden realization.

Why Lhazang's tribute tax was one tenth — because for many mountain fields, after leaving the common people the grain essential for survival, what could actually be collected was only a little more than one tenth.

And that was already heavy taxation.

Nevertheless, Liu the Lion was very optimistic about Ju'er Bay's future prospects; it was inherently impossible to expect a single Ju'er Bay to feed nearly twenty thousand troops.

Xining could not help much either; although it had a sufficiently large market with ten thousand shi of grain available for sale each year, its agricultural labor still had surplus.

If the people of the He-Huang Valley planted more grain this year, the grain that eventually appeared on the market would likely be enough to supply his elder brother's three thousand men.

His troops needed seven hundred jin of grain per man per year — this place could support two thousand people.

But the craftsmen alone numbered over a thousand. Leaving only craftsmen here would invite robbery sooner or later, so Juerwan had to be garrisoned with at least a thousand troops.

So he planned a defense system of one walled town, three forts, and twelve beacon towers, built rammed-earth tools, and prepared to tamp earth and construct the forts.

Although a walled town existed in the plan, the need for it was not urgent — the priority was the forts south of the Medicine Water River.

Liu Chengzong's long-prepared illegal structures were finally about to prove their worth.

He intended to have Lin Wei first build a fort fifteen li to the south, in the ravine that choked off the Medicine Water River. It was an ideal site — the river valley path was only two hundred paces wide.

Once a fort was built there, anyone coming from the Little River Bend and passing through the river valley would be within the firing range of wall guns and cannons.

A few Lion Cannons, twenty wall guns, and a garrison of two or three hundred men would be enough to hold Juerwan's southern gate.

As for Juerwan itself, it was mainly planned as a logistics base, with three zones: a market, factories, and a camp. The camp would be inside the town; the factories and market would be outside.

This was a colossal project — it could not be finished in less than two years.

For now, the camp was not a problem. The dugout shelters of the central army camp were roughly sufficient, and they could be expanded later if needed.

The need for city walls was also not urgent; for now, only a rough plan would suffice.

In Liu Chengzong's plan, Juerwan would become the center of the entire Qinghai region for the next several years, even a decade or more. Further west, the road infrastructure could not keep up, and it was too far from Han territory — unfavorable for an eastern campaign.

His capital could only be here.

So if city walls were truly built in the future, they might even encroach on farmland and expand further. That could be left to Lin Wei to build slowly. Liu Chengzong would only be responsible for constructing a prefectural academy inside the town, to serve as his highest institution of learning.

"This academy shall occupy fifty mu of land, with three colleges — Elementary, Middle, and Advanced — and nine disciplines: Classics, Mathematics, Law, Literature, Agriculture, Engineering, Commerce, Medicine, and Military. I would like you, sir, to serve as the Headmaster."

Yang Dingrui, hearing Liu Chengzong's request, let out a sigh.

Being the headmaster of an academy was a rather comfortable position, but right now the academy did not have a single brick to its name. Liu the Lion was doing nothing but making demands — this was not being a headmaster; it was being a foreman.

He had never heard of a headmaster who had to build the school himself first.

But since Liu the Lion had already spoken, what could Yang Dingrui do? He asked, "Are you planning to campaign west?"

Liu Chengzong nodded. "The grain problem must be solved — we need self-sufficiency as soon as possible. Xining and Juerwan can support six thousand troops. The remaining ten thousand-odd will go to Qinghai Lake."

As he spoke, Liu Chengzong smiled. "Daiqing has been waiting for these five hundred men of mine for so long — it's time I met him."

"You going over there could scare Daiqing to death."

Yang Dingrui let out a laugh. The news that Chen Qindai was with Daiqing had already spread.

They all knew that Daiqing had come from the Mobei region with eight hundred fighting men. The equipment in Mobei might be somewhat better than that of the Huoluochi tribe, which had been severely weakened by the Great Ming, but how much better could it really be?

Before the Lion Army, raised and sustained by several Great Ming Regional Commanders, Vice Commanders, and Mobile Corps Commanders, there was no well-equipped unit in the entire northwest.

Which unit on this land could ensure every man had a weapon, armor, a warhorse, and a mule?

Yang Dingrui sat on the heated brick bed and smiled. "Go. Leave the matter of building the prefectural academy to me. Starting the academy early is also good — recruiting some students will help replenish combat losses in the future."

"However, I don't think it's necessary to cram everything into one prefectural academy. Could we not also establish a separate military academy?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "I don't know — I've never tried dividing disciplines like this. Let's try it all. The Elementary College will handle introductory Classics and Mathematics, recruiting children."

"The Middle College will handle Law, Literature, Agriculture, Engineering, Commerce, Medicine, and Military, recruiting youths. Like the Elementary College, it will provide universal education. The Advanced College will be responsible for gathering the most learned people in each discipline together for intensive research."

Liu Chengzong painted a beautiful picture for Yang Dingrui, spreading his hands. "In the future, when our territory expands, we will establish community-school Elementary Colleges in every place. Those who wish to continue their studies will come to the Middle College here in Juerwan."

"Those who study Law can enter government offices as low-level auxiliary officials. Those who study Literature can teach in the Elementary Colleges or join the army as instructors. Those who study Engineering can enter our three engineering bureaus. Those who study Commerce can work in Juerwan or enter Qinghai's official trade operations. Those who study Medicine can serve in local areas or join the army."

Liu Chengzong's face broke into a smile as he spoke. "And those who study Military — needless to say, these people will, in the future, allow us to accumulate even greater strength for the eastern campaign."

"The eastern campaign, ah..."

Yang Dingrui sighed. "Lion, have you thought carefully about the matter of the eastern campaign?"

"Sir, when have I had the leisure to think about it? We cannot be self-sufficient in grain, we are nearly surrounded by Mongols, we lack men and grain — we can only proceed step by step."

Yang Dingrui laughed happily and raised a hand. "I knew you hadn't thought it through carefully, so I did... The key lies in Lanzhou and Amdo."

Lanzhou, Liu Chengzong knew. Amdo, he was not familiar with — it was a general geographical area, the vast region between Ü-Tsang and Xining, stretching from northwest to southeast.

He asked, "Amdo?"

"What do you imagine the eastern campaign to be — fighting back along the same road?"

Yang Dingrui smiled and said, "Our difficulty is not in battle, but in grain. To campaign east, we must first eliminate our worries from behind. Our worry from behind lies in Zhang Guo's Arm — to solve the problem of the Hexi Corridor, we must first cause problems for Lanzhou."

Lanzhou was the great grain-storage camp of Gansu Garrison. Taking Lanzhou would sever Gansu Garrison's grain supply and communications.

The Huoluochi tribe had once thought the same way, which was why the Ming court launched the seven-month-long Songshan Campaign, built the new Songshan border defenses, and beat them so badly they never recovered.

Liu Chengzong nodded and asked, "Then what about Amdo?"

"East there are mountains and seas, west there is Songpan. From Songpan Guard, enter Sichuan. Songpan was once the garrison seat of the Regional Commander during the Wanli reign. Later, when Yang Yinglong rebelled in Bozhou, the Sichuan Regional Commander's seat was moved to Chongqing, and Songpan was left with only a Vice Regional Commander — they cannot stop us."

"Once we eliminate the worry from Gansu behind us, holding Qinghai and Tibet, we strike straight for Longxi and capture Hanzhong. Dispatch a detached force into Sichuan, attack from both within and without, and we can seize the gateway to Sichuan."

Liu Chengzong rubbed his chin, deep in thought. The roads there, in his memory, were quite dangerous.

Still, if they truly could hold Qinghai and Tibet and rely on local assistance, it might not be impossible.

Attacking Sichuan from both within and without was a good plan — it was just that the route was far too difficult.

But if it succeeded, from Sichuan they could launch a lightning strike into Huguang... Liu Chengzong shook his head. "Sir, this already far exceeds our current strength. We have no capacity to contemplate such things at present."

He could not even think of anyone around him capable of serving as the commander of the detached force entering Sichuan.

Yang Dingrui nodded in understanding. "No matter. I will continue thinking in this direction. After all, you are leaving me in Juerwan — I can send men east to gather intelligence. But since you want me to build the prefectural academy, shouldn't the Great Commander at least write something for it?"

"Write what?"

"Write a couplet. When the academy is finished, have the craftsmen carve it onto the gate."

"Oh, that! Easy enough!"

Liu Chengzong suddenly understood. He rose, found paper and brush in Yang Dingrui's dugout shelter, and dashed off twenty characters.

"Enter the academy to study, and open a thousand years of classics; leave the gate to soldier, and tread across ten thousand li of rivers and mountains."