Chapter 377: Like Father, Like Son

Outside Lanzhou, lights blazed bright — a broken line of trenches, hills, and rivers stretching fourteen li hemmed in the giant city, making it impossible to enter and even harder to leave.

In just a few short days, every defending soldier and officer inside Lanzhou had seen through the Marshal's headquarters' strategy: encircle Lanzhou without assaulting it, and turn to plunder the surrounding regions for grain and fodder.

On the evening of the fifth day of the fourth month, Lanzhou Guard battalion commander Zhu Ying, whose family was outside the city, led sixty household troops and banner soldiers on horseback out of the city; before they even reached Wo Bridge, concentrated fire from muskets dispersed on the opposite bank cut them down on the spot — only three men and eight horses made it back inside.

He Renlong, watching from the wall, ground his teeth in fury and said to the ashen-faced You Shilu: "Liao Garrison Great Pursuit Wind muskets. The bandit Liu has under him an old Sa'erhu veteran, Cao Yao, formerly of the capital army firearms camp, a specialist in these weapons."

You Shilu braced himself against the battlements and glanced at him, the torchlight hiding a veiled thought in his eyes: "All General He's soldiers — you know them like the back of your hand."

He Renlong's eyes widened. You sick old man, don't you smear me: "Commander, what virtue or ability do I possess? Before, they were the court's frontier troops; later, the court's deserters; now, the court's rebels."

You Shilu shot a glance at He Renlong's thoroughly cowed face and paid no mind to his nonsense — there wasn't a soul in the entire Yansui Garrison who didn't know Liu Chengzong was sent out by you to forage.

He waved a hand: "I won't argue that with you. But letting soldiers go is one thing — why did you let all the capable ones go?"

Faced with such a soul-searching question, He Renlong said nothing, because You Shilu's premise was wrong.

He was absolutely certain that among the groups sent out from Yuhe Fort, Liu Chengzu and Cao Yao were decent enough as officers, and Liu Chengzong was a vanguard pick, different from the rest.

Those soldiers were indeed the least capable men in the fort, but they were still good soldiers — they simply never had the chance to receive the army's full training.

He truly had done everything in his power to leave the elite veterans for the court, even though the court believed he had six hundred men when in reality he had only three hundred.

He would have loved to keep every soldier under his own command, but he was an officer, and an officer's first duty is to win when troops are needed.

The court's soldier rations were only so much — six hundred men couldn't be fed. Three hundred was fewer, but once fed they could fight to the death, and fighting to the death meant victory.

He had strained every sinew just to solve his soldiers' grain problem, while those who left had no restraints — as long as they had blades in hand, whoever they robbed, they never had to worry about food and warmth.

It wasn't that he let the capable ones go — it was that the court simply couldn't hold onto capable men.

To say nothing else, just look at promotions: this so-called "military lineage" sounds fine, but what is it in reality? It's practically sealed off the path of advancement for those below.

As He Renlong looked at You Shilu, a string of grapes surfaced in his mind.

The topmost grape on this string was a man named Zhang Chen, a famed general active through the Longqing and Wanli reigns who garrisoned all four frontiers — when Altan Khan once sought to cross the Helan Mountains to attack the Oirats, Zhang Chen refused him passage, and Altan spoke insolently.

Altan's temper was great, but Zhang Chen's temper was greater — he breached the Han and Tang canals and arrayed his troops at Chishui Pass, forcing Altan to abandon his attack plans.

For three years of border markets after that, wherever Zhang Chen garrisoned, the Mongols dared not raise their voices.

Zhang Chen had three grandsons, named Zhang Yingchang, Zhang Quanchang, and Zhang Dechang. Zhang Yingchang had just this year been promoted from Yansui Garrison Anding Deputy Regional Commander to Shanxi Regional Commander; Zhang Dechang served as Deputy Regional Commander in Baoding; and Zhang Quanchang was at this very moment inside Lanzhou, serving as Deputy Regional Commander of the Patrol Standard Camp.

These three men's father was Zhang Chen's eldest son, Zhang Chengyin, who first served as Yansui Regional Commander and later as Guangning Regional Commander, and died at Fushun in the forty-sixth year of Wanli.

At that time, Zhang Chengyin had under him a Mobile Corps General, a Yulin hereditary military examinee from a Regional Commander's line, named You Shigong — dismissed after Zhang Chengyin fell in battle, later reinstated by Yang Hao, assigned to Li Rubai's division at Sa'erhu, and died at Shenyang in the Tianqi era.

You Shigong's second brother, You Shiwei, was now Changping Regional Commander; his third brother was the very You Shilu standing before He Renlong.

The post of Yansui Garrison Regional Commander had been rotating among the Wang, Jiang, You, Du, Zhao, Zhang, Bai, and Hou families for over a hundred years — only one man in ten ever came from an outside surname.

And when by sheer luck an outsider did emerge, that outsider would in turn pull up a whole long string of his own clansmen, making it even harder for those who came after to rise.

Of course, all these men could fight — but then, who among those who rose from the ranks to become a military officer couldn't?

In the awkward silence between the two, a disturbance stirred in the eastern part of the city at night — faintly, from far off, came what sounded like cheers from the defending troops.

You Shilu immediately sent someone to inquire, and before long a soldier returned with word: Battalion Commander Huang had come back.

Battalion Commander Huang was named Huang Ming, an officer of Hezhou Camp. The previous evening, on Patrol Censor Lian Guoshi's orders, he had led five hundred of his war-cart troops in a breakout from the more lightly besieged eastern side of the city, to make contact with the armies at Lintao and Gongchang.

Lanzhou's terrain — facing the Yellow River with Five Springs Mountain at its back — determined its nature as a place easy to defend and hard to attack.

Liu Chengzong's besieging army was thus forced to split its encirclement between east and west: more troops in the west, fewer in the east, though a cavalry force had circled past Lanzhou from the Yellow River's northern bank and headed east.

This situation should have greatly favored the defenders — with just a little risk, they could have created an opportunity to maul the besieging force on the eastern side, then turned back to defend the western wall.

But Lanzhou's fatal flaw was the Prince of Su's princely estate, and the city's enormous scale made troop maneuvers difficult — not the slightest risk could be taken.

So although the besieging force on the eastern side was not large, the defenders could not maneuver either; they could only hold the walls and pin their hopes on outside relief from the east.

Huang Ming's war-cart troops were fiercely powerful and utterly reliable. They were equipped with the Total Victory Battle Fire Light Carts improved by Liu Tianhe during the Jiajing era — each cart weighed one hundred fifty jin, with a single wheel three chi one cun high and four legs, the front two legs fitted with round iron pivots that could be retracted while advancing.

Each cart carried: one small Folangji cannon with a three-liang powder charge and three-liang shot; one Nest of Bees rocket launcher; one three-eyed gun; one fire tube; four horse-checking spears, two great axes, a horse-chopping saber and a hook-sickle; it also carried shovels and picks, shields, chevaux-de-frise, iron ropes, military tents, marching rations, and other supplies.

These men laid long planks across the carts, five to a team, and charged out pushing the carts, crossing the trenches on plank bridges — the weaker besieging force on the eastern side had no desire to stop them.

The officer in charge of the eastern sector was Zhang Tianlin. Liu Chengzong's order to him was to not let the Prince of Su escape; his troops merely had to ensure that no large force interfered with Yang Yao's grain-moving operations in the east.

These five hundred men had carts, cannons, and shields. Zhang Tianlin mulled it over, studied them carefully through his telescope, confirmed they were all soldiers, and let them pass — he merely sent riders to notify Yang Yao in the east of this news and warn him to be wary of this suicide squad.

Zhang Tianlin had also come up as a frontier army squad leader, and he was thoroughly familiar with these old-school war carts. The Folangji mounted on them was called a Number Four — thirty jin, light and fast, and once set in camp formation, it was an iron tortoise.

It wasn't that he couldn't grind them down and swallow them whole, but there were no high-value targets inside, and the cost would be too great — it wasn't necessary.

Better to see what they were trying to do.

In the end, this war-cart force did nothing at all — wandered around outside for a full day and night, then came right back, just with slightly more people, having gathered up some wealthy households and local gentry whom Yang Yao had stripped of money and grain, and now charged blindly back toward Lanzhou.

Zhang Tianlin wondered: was this tortoise formation on a sightseeing tour?

Whatever the case, Battalion Commander Huang Ming was Lanzhou's hero — only he brought back no good news for Lanzhou, but instead the dire tidings that Jin County had already been taken.

That night, Lian Guoshi had food prepared for the shaken wealthy households and gentry, handed the task of defending the western wall to You Shilu, summoned his officers, and had one elder chosen from among the gentry to report on conditions outside the city.

In the government office within Lanzhou's outer city, the elder rambled on and on about his grievances — how much grain and money the bandits had looted from his home, how many utensils they'd taken, down to the fine detail of a vase from the Jingtai era, until the Patrol Censor and the generals were nodding off.

He Renlong, listening from the side, couldn't help grinning.

Things had reached such a state — on the west side, the civilian porters hauling money and grain for the Marshal's headquarters jostled shoulder to shoulder; mule trains crossing the Yellow River ran day and night without cease; the wealthy households plundered across the countryside numbered far more than a hundred, and the money and grain shipped to the river mouth far exceeded a hundred thousand.

In a matter of days, the wealthy families around Lanzhou had met with utter catastrophe — who knew how many tragedies had unfolded? He Renlong alone knew of two rural families of good surname who prized their wealth over their lives, gathered their household servants and tenant farmers with firearms to hold their ground, and in the end earned themselves the extermination of their entire house.

The sky itself had fallen! Who still cared about your measly handful of odds and ends?

Zhang Quanchang snapped at the elder: "Old sir, be grateful you escaped with your life. What is the enemy situation outside the city?"

At the mention of the enemy, the elder grew even more agitated than when he'd been robbed: "A dark tide of cavalry rode their horses right up the city walls — first they struck Qingshui Fort, then Jin County town. Gone, everything gone!"

"Utter nonsense!" Lian Guoshi glared furiously. "How can warhorses ride up city walls? Did someone open the gates and surrender?"

The elder knew this room was full of high officials and great generals, but he truly had not lied, and in his panic he tried to explain — but before he could get a word out, Zhang Quanchang cut him off.

Zhang Quanchang did not seem surprised by the notion of riding horses up city walls; what showed on his face was more sheer frustration. He steadied himself slightly and said to Lian Guoshi: "My lord, Qingshui Fort has not received a single tael of silver for repairs in twelve years."

He Huchen, standing in the back, let out a sigh. He knew it.

He knew it was about the wall repairs. This matter was all too familiar to him — during his tenure as commander of Yuhe Fort, his most important task had been begging Yulin Garrison for funds to repair the walls, and from the day he took office to the day he was promoted, Yuhe Fort's walls had never been fixed.

Even so, he still sent troops every year to patch the gaps in the city wall with earth and planks. If he didn't, Yufu Fort would probably be just like Qingshui Fort now — you could ride a horse straight up onto it.

It figures that at a place like Qingshui Fort, nobody took the fortress walls seriously. Who would ever imagine that in the Jincheng region, you'd face an enemy army assaulting the city?

Lian Guoshi's face was full of disbelief and chagrin, yet he could not utter a single word.

Without question, this was his dereliction of duty. Ever since he took office, this Grand Coordinator had neither toured nor soothed; his main energy had been devoted to supervising the army and suppressing bandits, dragging the five garrison armies back and forth across the Liupan Mountains in running battles.

Besides, even if he weren't tied up supervising the army, he couldn't tour anyway. In the Shaanxi of today, once you left Guanzhong, you couldn't travel even two hundred li without bringing troops.

In truth, it wasn't just Lian Guoshi who found it unimaginable that the Marshal's Office army had taken the city on horseback — even Yang Yao himself never expected he'd mount a city wall on horseback in his lifetime.

Of course, the one who found all of this the most absurd was still Liu Chengzong.

Just as Lian Guoshi and the others were receiving the news inside Lanzhou City, at the great camp west of Lanzhou, Liu Chengzong was likewise compiling the battle reports Yang Yao had sent back, in order to plot the latest situation on the map.

The battle report made it very clear: when Anning Fort was breached, Yang Yao led his troops across the Yellow River at Lanzhou's East Ford, split his forces in two at Yingpan Mountain to raid toward Jin County, plundered wealthy households along the way to give to poor families, swept through over forty camps, and drove straight to Qingshui Horse Post in Jin County.

The Yuzhong Basin east of Lanzhou was heavily militarized. As far back as the Han dynasty, when Huo Qubing campaigned in the Hexi Corridor, he built forts and set up camps here, and by the end of the Han it had directly become Han Sui's main base.

From then on, through repeated back-and-forth seesawing and changing hands, abandoned ancient earthen forts and army encampments could be seen everywhere, and most of the local settlements were named after some "camp" or other.

This militarization, however, did not pose any difficulty for the horse camp.

Because the people living in these camp-named settlements were all banner troops, military dependents, or commoners with some connection to the banner troops. It was these very banner troops who guided Yang Yao as he raced over the mountains and ridges in his surprise attack. Everything was familiar territory, just like coming home.

It was only when they reached Qingshui Post that they finally met with a door slammed shut.

The postmaster of Qingshui Horse Post spotted him from afar and immediately shut the city gate, ordering the post soldiers to each take up arms and prepare to defend the city to the death. There weren't many post soldiers, but Yang Yao had no proper siege equipment at hand, so he didn't intend to assault the city.

Yet it was also right here that his subordinate, Brigade General Yang Chengzu, reported that Qingshui Fort, barely a single li from the post city, seemed to offer an exploitable opportunity.

Yang Yao went over to take a look. The wall of Qingshui Fort had a huge breach; the slope of the wall was so low it only reached a man's height. You could leap up just by stepping on a horse's back. He immediately gave the order to attack, driving warhorses, donkeys, and mules to the foot of the wall.

The defenders hadn't shown much fighting spirit to begin with. They figured that if bandits had entered the Yuzhong Basin, Lanzhou City must have already fallen. So they just fired off two volleys from their guns and cannons — bang bang — the first round at the sky, the second at the ground. Seeing that they couldn't scare Yang Yao off, they turned around and surrendered.

They had no choice but to surrender anyway. Originally, you needed to step on a horse's back to climb the wall. By the time they'd fired into the sky, the soldiers driving the horses were already at the foot of the wall. By the time they'd fired at the ground, they discovered the enemy no longer needed to step on horses to leap onto the wall.

They just stepped straight onto the horse corpses and rode right up.

Qingshui Fort surrendered, and soon the post soldiers at Qingshui Post also killed their officers and surrendered. Immediately, some of the surrendered troops volunteered to go and persuade Tiaocheng to surrender. Right on their heels, the garrisons at Shizichuan Fort and Jiehe Pass fled at the mere rumor of their approach.

As for Jin County — Jin County was actually a pretty decent medium-sized city. It had a moat, it had tall brick-faced walls, everything you'd expect... except troops.

That city had over a thousand battlements but only a few dozen civilian conscripts. There were, however, three licentiates inside the city who were a real pity. One of them, when Yang Yao's cavalry unit approached the city, ran around the walls shouting, calling on the common people to mount the walls and resist the enemy. He was struck by an arrow and died of his wounds.

There were also two brothers from Lintao, named Ding Guangyao and Ding Guangcai, both licentiates as well, who actually dared to lead a few companions, cracking their whips and spurring their horses, leveling lances and shooting from horseback, trying to force open a path out.

Liu Chengzong set down the battle report and shook his head. A pity they weren't bandit troops. That kind of courage and skill alone cannot stand against an army.

He sighed and wrote back to Yang Yao, telling him he needed to make it clear to the common people that the Marshal's Office did not make enemies of the common people and would not wantonly kill the innocent.

Then, under his own signature, he ordered that steles be erected and biographies recorded for the fallen licentiate and the civilian conscripts who defended the city. He had some grain taken from the plundered wealth of the rich households to provide as compensation — not to record their futile sacrifice in opposing him, but to commemorate their defense of their neighbors.

No matter how heaven and earth overturn, the world will always need heroes like these.

Of course, at the very end of the letter, Liu Chengzong emphatically urged Yang Yao: once the stele was built and hearts and minds were sufficiently won over, hurry up and raze the Jin County seat. His elder brother Liu Chengzu had already set out from the southern route to pacify Hezhou, and they were to rendezvous at Didao in the end.

Move the grain back as quickly as possible — there were still two Great Khans waiting for him to deal with out west.