Chapter 431: Still One Man Short

In Xining, the autumn grasses and trees withered. In the blink of an eye after Mid-Autumn, the leaves on the trees had all fallen clean away.

Winter swept in on a bone-piercing, biting wind, yet the heavens showed no sign of sending snow — only dry and cold, making it hard to bear.

In the side hall on the second floor of the west building of the Marshal's headquarters in New City, Liu Chengzong had specially set up his maps and even made a sand table of the Qinghai farming region on the table.

The largest wall stood completely blank; several students from the New City Academy were collaborating to paint a giant topographic map of Gansu, working from over thirty smaller maps sent in from various quarters.

Inside the room, the generals of the Marshal's headquarters were preparing for the next war by the warm glow of oil lamps — Gansu.

After four years stationed in Qinghai, through the combined intelligence gathered by Wang Ziyong, Lanzhou Mobile Corps Commander Shi Xiang, Haixi County Magistrate Chen Qindai, and others, the picture of Gansu had never been so clear in Liu Chengzong's eyes.

The Grand Coordinator of Gansu was called Bai Yiqing, a native of Wujin County, Changzhou Prefecture, South Zhili, a presented scholar who had previously served as prefect, Shaanxi Surveillance Vice Commissioner supervising the Xining Military Defense Circuit, Shaanxi Administration Vice Commissioner, and other posts.

The Regional Commander of Gansu was called Yang Jiamo, over fifty years of age. Compared to the intelligence on Bai Yiqing, Liu Chengzong knew Yang Jiamo better — this man was a descendant of Yang Ye.

In Liangzhou there were three branches of the Yang family generals: Yang Shui, Yang Sheng, and Yang Zhongyu. Yang Jiamo was a descendant of Yang Sheng.

At the end of the Yuan dynasty, the realm fell into chaos. Yang Zheng, of the Jianghuai Yang clan, led his three sons and two nephews to follow Zhu Yuanzhang. Yang Zheng's grandson Yang Wen had four sons; among them, Yang Sheng, because his elder brother Yang Xiong had fallen in battle against the Yuan, was appointed to the Yanshan Guard as a replacement.

Later, Yang Sheng followed the Prince of Yan, Zhu Di, through the entire Jingnan Campaign and on five expeditions into the northern deserts. He was enfeoffed as Vice Commander of the Left Guard of the Imperial Insignia and General of Cherishing Distant Lands. After his son Yang Bin inherited his father's post, in the sixth year of the Xuande reign he requested a transfer to the Liangzhou Guard.

From that time on, the Yang family hereditarily held the post of Liangzhou Guard Commander. For two hundred years they lived in Wuwei as generals, father and son side by side, brothers joining hands, sons and grandsons succeeding one another, forever guarding the western frontier.

Passed down to Yang Jiamo, it was already the eighth generation.

The circumstances of the other two branches were much the same — ancestors who had earned merit in battle against the Yuan, later generations garrisoning Liangzhou for generations. They were the greatest obstacle to Liu Chengzong taking Gansu.

Apart from Xining Guard, Gansu Garrison administered eleven guards and three independent defense battalions. After the Wanli fortieth year, when Gansu Regional Inspector Xu Yangliang proposed "dividing assistant routes to consolidate authority over affairs," just as Qi Jiguang had carried out assistant-route reforms in Ji Garrison, Gansu Garrison also formed a vertical three-tier command structure of garrison, assistant, and route.

Specifically, the Gansu Garrison Regional Commander commanded the divisional assistant regional commanders, and the divisional assistant regional commanders commanded the various route mobile corps commanders. Before this, assistant regional commanders and mobile corps commanders were not subordinate to one another; both were directly managed by the regional commander.

Originally, after the Wanli period, Gansu had become a five-route jurisdiction, but Xining Guard had not been independent for long before Liu Chengzong swallowed it up. Therefore, Gansu's current structure remained a four-route divisional defense zone.

These four routes were the Zhuanglang Route, the Liangzhou Route, the Ganzhou Route, and the Suzhou Route.

The Zhuanglang Route, centered on Zhuanglang Guard City on the Zhuanglang River, had a defense zone encompassing Zhuanglang Guard, Hongchengzi Fort, and Zhenqiang Relay Station Fort.

The Liangzhou Route, centered on Liangzhou Guard City in Wuwei, had a defense zone encompassing Yongchang Guard, Zhenfan Guard, Liangzhou Guard, and Gulang Independent Defense Battalion.

The Ganzhou Route, centered on Ganzhou Garrison City in Zhangye, had a defense zone encompassing the five Ganzhou Guards, Shandan Guard, and Gaotai Independent Defense Battalion.

The Suzhou Route, centered on Suzhou Guard City in Jiuquan, had a defense zone encompassing Suzhou Guard and Zhenyi Independent Battalion.

In general terms, Gansu's guard troops had a theoretical quota of over sixty thousand, with the number of field camp soldiers around twenty thousand — though this was only the theoretical design.

In reality, Gansu Garrison had been short of its quota since the early Ming. It was always short and always replenished. Where there were deserters, there was conscription by roll — perfectly normal — until troops were sent out to fight several disastrous defeats, guard troops enlisted in the field camps, and soldiers simply could not be replenished, so the quota had to be reduced.

This problem did not appear in Gansu alone; all garrisons were the same. Reducing the quota was something everyone was happy about. After all, the total amount of military farmland did not change much; with fewer men, there were fewer mouths to feed.

Therefore, according to estimates by Gansu surrendered soldiers in the Marshal's headquarters, Gansu's army would be no fewer than forty thousand, but also no more than fifty thousand.

Including the army, the Hexi Corridor had a population of 1,620,744, concentrated in the three great oases of Liangzhou, Ganzhou, and Suzhou.

In the past, Liu the Lion had not dared to entertain designs on Gansu; now he believed he had to give it a try.

It was not so much that grain and fodder were now plentiful, but rather that a small problem had arisen within his army.

After Mid-Autumn, the six crack field battalions stationed near New City had ceased daily training and company drill. They were assigned encampments, built barracks suitable for both military and civilian use, and prepared for winter.

Each battalion's soldiers were assigned encampments in areas suitable for cultivation. At their encampments, the soldiers chopped firewood, mixed mud and fired bricks, dug latrines, built houses, slaughtered pigs and stewed meat, pickled vegetables and made sauces, preparing to pass a warm and prosperous winter.

These tasks did not necessarily require the army to do them, but the frontline commanders had all reported to the Marshal's headquarters after Mid-Autumn that the atmosphere in the army after the war was poor and suggested finding something for the men to do.

The specific mentality of the soldiers varied slightly from battalion to battalion, but the general problem still stemmed from the hidden flaw of the Oirat war having come too quickly.

The Marshal's headquarters had fought the He-Huang Campaign and the Oirat Campaign almost back-to-back. For the He-Huang Campaign, they had a total of thirty thousand troops, of which crack soldiers numbered no more than ten thousand. Less than two months later, in the Oirat Campaign, thirty thousand troops were sent to the battlefield, with over twenty thousand more from the Garrison Herder Battalions protecting the supply lines.

Of the seven combat battalions that took the field alone, nearly twenty thousand were surrendered soldiers.

These surrendered soldiers had undergone almost no consolidation training. In less than a month after being captured or surrendering, they were issued weapons and armor, reorganized, and sent to another battlefield.

The only reason Liu the Lion dared to do this was that these men had never had enough to eat under their old masters, and the opponents were Mongols, to whom Ming troops found it extremely difficult to defect.

The surrendered troops displayed excellent military skills and obedience during the war, matching Liu the Lion's impression of veterans, which gave him a slight sense of relief after the battle.

His attitude — or rather, the attitude of all the generals in the Marshal's headquarters — toward surrendered Ming troops was essentially the same: in their eyes, a soldier's status as a surrendered soldier lasted only until the battle before them.

As far back as the Lion Camp era, their soldiers had always been predominantly surrendered troops. Even among the current thirteen senior generals at the battalion commander level, Wei Qian'er was a surrendered courier-station runner, Huang Shengxiao a surrendered soldier from Yanshui Pass, A Liu a surrendered general from Kangning Prefecture, and A Hai Daiqing a surrendered Khalkha general.

Now, they were all their own people.

According to his past experience, after going through a war, surrendered soldiers would integrate with the veterans, and their subsequent performance would get better and better, indicating that the most dangerous period had already passed.

But times had changed. In the wake of the campaign that defeated these surrendered soldiers, the Marshal's headquarters had lavishly granted offices and honors. Short of Liu Chengzong declaring himself king, a new identity had already formed, distinct from that of peasant-rebel roving bandits.

And within this identity, a clear, sharp line had been drawn.

At the same time, Liu Chengzong's policy toward surrendered generals did indeed set them apart. Even though rewards for merit were given equally, the rule that those who surrendered before battle kept their original rank while those who surrendered after battle were demoted left many, though retained in service, feeling resentful in their hearts.

The most critical reason was that the surrendered soldiers had grown familiar with the officers.

At first, people had performed well precisely because a barrier existed.

When that barrier dispersed along with the smoke of battle, the surrendered soldiers and the Marshal's headquarters officers had forged some battlefield camaraderie. Then, after being separated for variolation and gathering together in isolation by the sea, with idle time on their hands, restlessness took root in their hearts.

In the final analysis, it was still the indigestion brought on by using a small force to win big in the He-Huang Campaign.

The He-Huang Campaign had nearly tripled Liu Chengzong's base of power, but the war against the Oirats had not doubled it again on that foundation.

This meant that the upward mobility for his soldiers had shrunk.

Organization and official posts were a matter of one radish, one hole. Even if everyone performed meritorious deeds, as long as the organization remained unchanged, there were only so many holes. Only expansion of the organization was the best way to digest the fruits of war.

People all have expectations. When they can't eat their fill, they want to eat their fill. Once they've eaten their fill, they naturally think about promotion and wealth. But now, those who had earned merit had all been rewarded. Those who had not earned merit would feel envy and jealousy, and with no idea when the next battle would come, it was only human nature for them to make a few odd remarks.

The objective conditions of the matter were laid out plainly. Those who deserved promotion and reward had been promoted and rewarded. For those who had not, a special batch of training was arranged so they could become officers in the Tianshan Mountains in the future. Digesting the remaining men could only wait for the next war.

And it had to be a war that could expand his Han army base by half — Gansu.

On the Qinghai sand table, simply made with paste, sand, and dyes, the encampments of the six battalions were distributed across the many river valleys south of the Qilian Mountains, north of Xining, and south of New City.

According to the Marshal's headquarters' orders, there were not many strict requirements for the locations of the barracks they built, only that the site selection and use be suitable for both military and civilian purposes.

The army was to put themselves in the position of considering: if they were to cultivate the surrounding land, how would they build these barracks?

These barracks were, of course, for the soldiers to live in during the winter, but they were also meant to create several villages that would later conveniently house the common people who came to open up this wilderness.

For example, one battalion under Zhang Tianlin was dispersed by squad commander and stationed across the Yaoshui River valley region.

The plan to open up the Yaoshui River basin was something Liu Chengzong had in mind even before the war with the Oirat began. At the time, he had already had Sky Monkey calculate it — at least seventy thousand mu of irrigated farmland could be reclaimed there.

The army would not be stationed there long-term. Liu Chengzong estimated that by autumn of next year at the latest, they would launch simultaneous surprise attacks on Lanzhou and Gansu.

The decisive battle against the Gansu Garrison's heavy troop formations would be no later than next autumn.

He did not want to fight in autumn. Although autumn fighting was comfortable, judging by this year's pattern, before autumn even arrived, over ten thousand troops had already massed around Lanzhou city. Barring unforeseen events, late next summer would likely look the same.

In his view, attacking Lanzhou and Gansu — even if not carried out simultaneously — would still require dispatching a detached force to garrison the river mouth, to prevent Lanzhou's government troops from crossing the river.

Therefore, the best time to start the war was before autumn. And since summer was inconvenient for soldiers to wear armor, spring was optimal.

Once military action began next year, Hehuang's military strength would inevitably be greatly reduced. By then, the barracks built by these six field battalions could be left for the incoming settlers to live in, reclaiming the land on the spot and digging canals for irrigation.

This meant that if twenty or thirty thousand settlers moved over in the future and reclaimed five hundred thousand mu of farmland, the Marshal's Manor's existing agricultural zones could essentially be fully developed.

Three to five years later, Qinghai's virgin land would become mature farmland, reaching normal per-mu yields. Calculated at six or seven mu per person, this area could support tens of thousands more people.

By then, whether redistributing the land or keeping it in reserve against drought, the benefits would be immense.

Like his fellow countrymen, Liu Chengzong had the threat of drought deeply rooted in his heart. He could not help but factor drought into every consideration.

In normal times, dry fields simply yielded less than irrigated land. But when drought struck, the dry fields would be the first to fail. A single season of minor drought would barely affect irrigated land.

Even during a multi-season severe drought, irrigated land would only see reduced yields, not suffer total crop failure like dry fields.

Hehuang currently had only three hundred thousand mu of irrigated land. If that number could grow to six hundred thousand mu, then even if drought came, the people's lives would not be greatly impacted.

Of course, if drought came, Liu Chengzong would certainly have to lead his troops out of Hehuang. If he did not leave, Hehuang would need another million mu of irrigated farmland just to feed his soldiers on top of supporting the people.

His army was far more fearsome than any drought.

Liu Chengzong pushed open the second-floor window of the west building and looked out. His exhaled breath formed a white plume in the air. The new city was festooned with lanterns and decorations everywhere for his grand wedding. On the streets, cart after cart of heavily loaded lele carts trundled toward the city granaries.

Those were the new winter uniforms the Marshal's Manor's Hundred Works Bureau had prepared for the army. Cashmere spinning wheels had made spinning yarn from cashmere and wool much easier, and the finished products were allocated by Liu Chengzong to the soldiers of the combat battalions at the first opportunity.

Though cashmere garments were very expensive, they were hardly worth mentioning compared to the soldiers who were loyal to him.

This was not some rhetoric Liu Chengzong used to curry favor. Economically speaking, compared to the enormous cost of maintaining an army, a single one-jin cashmere undershirt per man truly was not worth mentioning.

Cashmere garments were precious, but even if purchased at market price, one piece cost at most about one tael of silver. His combat troops numbered fewer than thirty thousand, and each man drew over twelve taels in annual pay. The bulk of the expense was already spent — Lion Liu did not mind adding a few more good things to boost the soldiers' morale.

The key point was that cashmere clothing was genuinely warm. Issued to the troops, the effect was indeed excellent.

The only blemish was that Liu Chengzong had wanted to outfit every soldier with a set of brocade or silk inner garments and trousers, but due to a shortage of raw materials, he had to abandon the idea.

The cost of these things was not high for Liu Chengzong. He had the Hundred Works Bureau, a government-run factory, and controlled the vast majority of Hehuang's resources. Silver was merely a medium of exchange; to them, grain was the true hard currency.

As long as they could produce it themselves — like the cashmere garments — thanks to the Juerwan market and the spinning wheels, one piece cost less than two mace of silver. Selling ten thousand pieces eastward through merchants would cover the cost of outfitting the entire army with cashmere clothing.

This was partly because Lanzhou also produced cashmere garments; in the Great Ming, cashmere was called "Lan wool."

Just as Liu Chengzong was envisioning the bright future of seizing Lanzhou and monopolizing cashmere, the sound of horse hooves rang out on the street outside the Marshal's Manor yamen. A messenger entered the yamen to report that the northern tribute delegation had already entered the borders of Haixi County.

"A tribute delegation from where?"

"Reporting to the Grand Marshal, it is Subadi of the Khalkha Right Wing, Sholoi of the Eastern Wing, and nobles of the seven tribes, sending men in response to the Grand Marshal's proclamation as Khan."

Liu Chengzong broke into a smile, though it was not one of great joy.

As his ties with the Mongol nobility deepened, he had learned much about the customs of their various tribes. This kind of tribute mission did not amount to substantive submission; it was merely ceremonial. To consider it submission just because of a tribute mission would be utterly shameless self-aggrandizement.

But if one viewed it as ordinary ceremony — if Lion Liu remembered correctly, the Outer Khalkha had three great chieftains. Besides Subadi and Sholoi, there was still one missing.

-----Off-topic-----

Good morning!