Chapter 278: A'Liu

Liu Chengzong had not come to fight a battle.

The hunters who had entered camp during the night brought him the despair of the Línkǎ Depön.

He believed the moment had come. The Línkǎ Depön's army, trapped in the ruins, was now an isolated force and at a disadvantage in numbers. If he sent someone to demand their surrender, he should be able to receive this enemy army's capitulation.

So the entire army cooked at the third watch and set out before dawn at the fourth watch, sending Monk Wang ahead of the lines to convey his willingness to accept surrender.

Unfortunately, the Línkǎ Depön did not share this tacit understanding.

Not only did the Línkǎ Depön refuse to surrender, he cursed Monk Wang so viciously that blood seemed about to spray from his head.

Furious, Liu Chengzong ordered the artillery to fill the lion cannons to the brim with grapeshot and had the heavy muskets overcharged with powder. He deployed a vast horizontal formation, layer upon layer, pressing straight down from the northeast of the river valley.

The overcharged powder was meant to penetrate the simple wooden ramparts the enemy had thrown up overnight, and to punch through armor.

Through his telescope, he saw the source of the enemy's confidence in refusing surrender: a heavy infantry force supported by cavalry.

The heavy infantry numbered seven or eight hundred men, with over four hundred suits of sleeveless iron lamellar armor, equipped with eighteen-foot pikes and door-sized greatshields, as well as heavy crossbows with multiple bracing struts operated by two or three men.

Liu Chengzong called this type of lamellar armor "ring armor." It was like an iron sack, narrow at the top and wide at the bottom. When not worn, you could lift it, let go, and it would collapse into ring after ring of iron plates.

On one hand, this group's equipment was outrageously good; on the other, its style did not belong to the Western Tibetan tribes but was more akin to the southwestern frontier peoples.

In mountain warfare, these heavy infantrymen would have caused him considerable trouble, but here in this river valley, it meant nothing.

Liu Chengzong could foresee that what would unfold here would be a battle that could not stir his fighting spirit.

The military adage "an inch longer, an inch stronger" means any shortcoming is fatal.

The heavy crossbows with their multi-strut construction looked immensely powerful, but their range could not be very far. Liu Chengzong estimated a hundred paces at most, while his cannons and heavy muskets could launch an attack from beyond two hundred paces.

A gap of merely a hundred paces was enough to leave these enemies stranded and helpless.

After all, judging by their deployment, they intended to resist from behind hastily built defensive works. Fortifications are immobile — either stand there and take cannon fire, or leap out and charge. Either way meant death.

The enemy had clearly reached the same conclusion.

So as Liu Chengzong peered through his telescope to probe the enemy situation, he saw the heavy infantry at the front lines stirring restlessly, and the enemy officers seemed to be arguing fiercely.

Then they turned on each other.

The infighting began when a tribal soldier ran out from the defensive line, apparently wanting to parley again with Liu Chengzong's men. But before he could reach the middle of the field, a Béri nobleman on horseback behind him slashed his neck with a single stroke of his blade.

Chaos erupted in the enemy ranks. Some of the heavy infantry turned and charged the Béri troops. The Béri soldiers, suddenly attacked by allies, saw some join the counterattack while many more fled toward the hills on both sides.

Liu Chengzong did not stand idle while they fought among themselves. He ordered the army to keep advancing, the artillery to fire on the routed enemies fleeing to the flanks, and the infantry to charge the formationless enemy in squads. Wherever they went, those heavy infantrymen were extremely docile, laying down their weapons one after another and shouting in Chinese to surrender to the "government troops."

The head-on engagement lasted only a brief moment. By the time Xie Erhu led the Mongol horse troops in sweeping charges across the river valley on the other flank, the battle was already drawing to a close.

The process of receiving surrender filled Liu Chengzong with deep emotion. Any policy with a clear inclination will affect the course of a war.

By now, everyone in Kham knew that these Han troops summoned by Nangchen Gama would seize a nobleman's land the moment they saw one, and would even let some slave brat become a master.

The consequence of such a policy was that even at a disadvantage, the noble masters were unwilling to surrender to him, so that battle had to be fought.

Because on the question of whether to fight or not, the lowly slaves had no say. But the upside was that when it came to real fighting with real blades and spears, most of the enemy's will to resist was extremely weak.

After all, the ones actually holding weapons and standing in formation to fight were not those lofty masters high above, but the slaves ground into the very dust. Given the chance, they were more than happy to surrender.

That heavy infantry force of over seven hundred men surrendered to him as well, and their leader was soon brought before Liu Chengzong.

The leader was an old man past forty, holding the Línkǎ Depön's head. Brought over, he performed a proper kowtow and spoke Chinese with perfect, clear enunciation. The form of address stunned Liu Chengzong: "A'Liu, Regional Commander of the Great Liang Kingdom, kowtows before the Grand Marshal."

The Great Liang Kingdom? And a Regional Commander of Great Liang at that — an official rank.

Liu Chengzong found it very strange. He studied the grey-haired old general before him.

Old, yes, but he didn't look like he had lived over seven hundred years. Zhu Wen had been dead for so long — could he still have a surviving general in this world?

Only after A'Liu's extremely deferential explanation did Liu Chengzong understand: this Great Liang Kingdom was the Great Liang of She Chongming, the Yongning Tusi of Sichuan.

A'Liu's life experience was practically a microcosm of Sichuan's turbulent era since the Wanli reign.

He was born in Yongning. In the twenty-eighth year of Wanli, at the age of fifteen, he threw himself into battle at the Great Ming Emperor's call.

The sixth day of the sixth month that year was a fine day. Carrying a heavy crossbow amid the surging tide of men, he stormed Yang Yinglong's Hailongtun fortress.

For many years afterward, A'Liu served as a low-level officer in She Chongming's army. By the first year of Tianqi, he was already a Native Battalion Commander in the Yongning Pacification Commission. Barring the unexpected, that would likely have been the end of his career path.

But that year, the court issued an edict for the Yongning Pacification Commission to dispatch troops to reinforce Liaodong. In an extremely short time, the Commission frantically expanded its armaments and recruited native soldiers. He caught the wind and was promoted to Native Brigade Commander.

In the ninth month of that year, the Yongning Pacification Commission dispatched twenty thousand troops to Chongqing. A'Liu thought they would go to some unimaginably distant place and fight the Jianzhou Tusi on the battlefield.

It was not until the night of the sixteenth day of the ninth month that officers of his rank learned of She Chongming's plan. The next day, using the pretext of the Liaodong reinforcement troops drilling on the parade ground, She Chongming's son-in-law Fan Long gave the order, struck first, and killed the Grand Coordinator Xu Keqiu and over twenty other military and civil officials, formally declaring rebellion.

On the eighteenth day of the tenth month that year, A'Liu was already standing beneath the walls of Chengdu as a Regional Commander of the Great Liang Kingdom. The city's defenders numbered only two thousand, and they needed only a few more days to breach the walls.

But they ran out of time.

Qin Minping and Qin Yiming, the younger brother and nephew of the Shizhu Tusi Qin Liangyu, entered Nanping Pass and cut off their route back to Chongqing, while Qin Liangyu herself led six thousand troops westward up the Yangtze.

Government troops from the court were also massing everywhere. From the tenth month to the twelfth, they fought battles every single day. Wherever they went, there were government troops. In the chaos, A'Liu's army was separated from the main force and withdrew through Greater and Lesser Jinchuan into the western Sichuan highlands.

At that time, his army still possessed formidable combat strength. They could form pike-and-greatshield formations to face off against Ming troops, and could trade fire with Ming troops using matchlocks, often holding their own.

But the local tribes gave them no friendly looks. Dealing with these enemies was far easier than dealing with Ming troops, so they survived, but at great cost.

In the end, he found someone willing to take him in: Lingka, a bandit chieftain of Kham.

Though they could not understand each other's speech, Lingka treated this tribal force extremely well. Not only did he provide A'Liu with the finest wine and meat, he also carved out a specific stretch of mountain forest from his territory and gave it to A'Liu's men to live on.

A'Liu did not betray Lingka's generous treatment. Although the hardships of displacement had cost him over half his troops, he still retained a complete military structure and weaponry. In battle, his men could often fight ten to one, and he was deeply relied upon by Lingka.

But on the western Sichuan highlands, the change in oxygen at altitude made ignition materials unreliable, and the power of gunpowder weapons dropped sharply. Among the wandering native soldiers formed from broken remnants, there were no professional gunpowder craftsmen, and they could not figure out what the problem was.

Later, the firearms were all sold off for food. The soldiers had no choice but to pick up the old craft of making heavy crossbows... Compared to gunpowder, poisoned crossbow bolts were more reliable and better suited to an exile economy.

And even using heavy crossbows, compared to the armies of Kham, their superb weaponry and equipment and sound organizational structure still allowed A'Liu to remain undefeated against equal numbers of enemies.

Before today, A'Liu had never imagined he would kill Lingka.

When he saw Liu Chengzong's army, he wanted to persuade Lingka to surrender.

They were not ignorant bumpkins. They were very familiar with Ming army tactics and firepower superiority. Beneath the walls of Chengdu in the first year of Tianqi, two thousand defenders had brought out four hundred small cannons to trade fire with his matchlocks.

Now he did not even have matchlocks. His soldiers held only heavy crossbows with a maximum range of a hundred paces. He did not want to fight Liu Chengzong, especially after seeing those big tubes in the Lion Army.

In this terrain, with this disparity in firepower, the battle no longer had anything to do with a soldier's courage.

They could not even reach their opponents before being blasted to death by the enemy.

After some discussion with his officers, A Liu again approached Linka Depön, who was rallying the Béri nobles' morale at the front line: "It is still not too late to surrender."

Linka was furious. I've fed you so much wine and meat, and you still can't speak more than a few sentences of the Western Tibetan tongue — and the one coherent sentence you finally manage is to urge me to surrender?

Linka cared about his territory; A Liu cared about his life.

So many of their men had died, so much hardship endured — not so they could eat cannonballs in this place.

Yet neither he nor Linka foresaw what would happen next.

While the two were still arguing, one of his officers had already slipped over the low wall on his own, attempting to defect to Liu Chengzong's army.

Then a noble under Linka rode out and killed that officer. In an instant, his army fell into chaos, the men seething with fury. He and Linka stared at each other, and in that flash of lightning, countless thoughts surged through his mind.

A Liu drew his blade and killed Linka.

"A clever man."

Liu Chengzong had been listening quietly to A Liu's account. When A Liu finished, he looked at the still-dripping severed head and waved his hand: "Linka did not treat you poorly. You killed him under the press of circumstances. I permit you to gather his body and find a place to bury him."

Having said that, he added: "Your men have surrendered to me. You should know what comes next."

Still maintaining his kowtowing posture, A Liu replied: "I know. To crush the other two Depön armies of the Béri King. I am willing to lead them in charging the enemy lines for the Grand Marshal."

"Good!"

Liu Chengzong clapped and said: "She Chongming is dead, and the Liang Kingdom no longer exists. Since you call yourself a Regional Commander, I hereby appoint you Regional Commander of the Yongning Battalion. After the campaign, there will be separate rewards. Go tell your soldiers to follow me well — I will not treat you poorly."

A Liu gave profuse thanks and retreated backward more than ten paces before letting out a long sigh of relief. He turned to go and bring his disarmed soldiers under control.

Wang Heshang watched his figure, a sour note in his voice: "Grand Marshal, with that paltry force of theirs, he gets to be a Regional Commander?"

Wang Heshang was deeply baffled. His own boss, Wai Liangzi, had fought so fiercely on the battlefield, yet after the battle he had only been appointed a Squad Commander.

This soldier-chief who defected on the brink of battle and murdered his old master — for just this little bit, he gets to be a Regional Commander?

Liu Shizi let out a laugh and shook his head: "You don't understand. What does a Regional Commander count for?"

He was already doing his utmost to suppress the excitement in his heart, but it was truly hard to make himself appear completely calm. Inside, he was more than ten times happier than he showed.

A Liu's troops were decent, and their equipment was not bad either, but none of this was what Liu Chengzong valued. Those troops were not worth granting a full battalion establishment — a Squad Commander would have been about right.

After all, the Lion Army, even counting his elder brother's Xining Battalion, currently had only four Regional Commanders, and every one of them was far more formidable than A Liu.

Liu Chengzong valued A Liu highly. In the eyes of any Tibetan chieftain, this man was not worth three hundred heavy infantry.

But to him, this man was a key to opening the gates of Sichuan — worth more than three thousand heavy infantry.

In this region, finding a key to enter the snowlands was easy, but finding a key to enter Sichuan was exceedingly difficult.

Besides, for some people, becoming a Squad Commander is only the beginning — he would not always have only a handful of Regional Commanders. But for others, Regional Commander might well be the ceiling of their entire life.

These were matters he could not explain to Wang Heshang, nor did he wish to. He merely smiled and said: "I told you before — those who understand Chinese receive good treatment no matter what they do."

To Wang Heshang, these were hardly welcome words. Hearing them, he could not help feeling that the quarry overseer post in Hainan still had a vacancy.

Wang Heshang shrank his neck: "The Grand Marshal is right."

Xie Erhu's Mongol cavalry pursued the fleeing nobles relentlessly — everyone loves the chance to beat a drowning dog. Just then, the scout riders brought Liu Chengzong another piece of good news: Zhang Tianlin's division, with twelve hundred men, had routed the enemy's central Depön army that morning.

The news overjoyed Liu Chengzong: "How did they win?"

The scout rider reported truthfully: "Last night, a hunter from the left-wing Depön broke into Commander Zhang's camp. Under interrogation, he was delivering a message to the central army that the left wing was surrounded. Commander Zhang then let that hunter go into the central army camp."

"Wait — last night, a hunter also broke into Commander Zhang's camp?"

Liu Chengzong exchanged glances with his officers, and everyone's faces showed a comical expression.

So it turned out that last night, it wasn't just his own camp that hunters had slipped into… These hunters truly had a heaven-sent gift. Yesterday Liu Chengzong himself had wanted to find Zhang Tianlin but couldn't — yet these hunters had found him in one go.

They had found everyone they were not supposed to find, except the one man Linka Depön had sent them to locate. Liu Chengzong laughed: "Linka Depön's hunters — their skill at finding the enemy is on par with their skill at carrying knives!"

Once he had finished laughing, the scout rider continued: "Learning that their allies were surrounded, the central army commander tried to flee with his troops this morning. Commander Zhang anticipated this, and while their marching formation was unsteady, he drove straight through and broke their lines, killing twelve officers including the Depön in formation, and capturing over seven hundred soldiers."

Liu Chengzong exchanged glances with his officers, then clapped his hands in excitement: "Done. Only the right wing remains. Encircle and devour them, and the whole of Béri will have no strength left to fight. The great and small tribal states all around will surrender at the mere news. From Qinghai Lake to Chamdo — how much land we can control will depend on our own ability!"