Chapter 453: The Originator of the Trouble

As Liu Chengyun entered the Zhuanglang Garrison City with the Marshal's Headquarters honor guard, the atmosphere in the river valley grew even heavier.

The over seven thousand Mongol cavalry led by Xie Erhu and Ahaidaiching also exploited their advantage in mobility for sudden raids.

They first bypassed the hard-to-capture Songshan Fort, then rampaged north and south through the Songshan area, breaking through the Dajing Garrison City and Abaling Fort on the edge of the great desert at Songshan's flank, nearly cutting Gansu and Shaanxi in two.

Then they turned back south. He had originally intended to besiege Baoding Fort on Songshan's new frontier on the north bank of the Yellow River at Lanzhou, but in a short time the mighty forts and cities on both north and south had all changed hands. The fifty defenders of Baoding Fort were isolated, helpless, and had no will to fight. Luo Rucai marched his army slightly north, and Baoding Fort promptly surrendered.

Chai Shihua, leading the Commander-in-Chief's Guard Battalion, raced day and night. His scout cavalry clashed on the road with Xie Erhu's Mongol cavalry swarming everywhere. Learning that the situation to the south had changed and that Liu Chengzong had led troops into Zhuanglang Garrison City, he quickly dispatched scouts to report the military situation to Gulang Gorge before continuing south to provide support.

Afterward, the Commander-in-Chief's Guard Battalion and Basang's Western Tibetan Brigade faced each other across the river valley. Two small-scale clashes broke out, but ultimately they failed to form battle lines against each other. They stared at one another for a day, and Chai Shihua chose to withdraw five li.

It was not that he lost his nerve, but that Ding Shaoyin was beyond saving.

The Liangzhou Wagon Camp was surrounded in the very center. The tribal soldiers had built man-high barrier walls of timber and earth on three sides—north, east, and west—of the wagon camp, and the trench on the south side had already been dug. They could not get out.

The barrier walls and trench were easy to break through. If he charged, he indeed had a chance to briefly rout the tribal soldiers and pull Ding Shaoyin out, but there was also a chance he would trap himself inside.

Most critically, the men could be pulled out, but the wagons could not. A wagon camp without its wagons and cannons had no proper ability to form battle lines in field combat. After much deliberation, Chai Shihua merely sent men to clash briefly three times and shot several letters over the barrier walls, telling Ding Shaoyin that more reinforcements were coming and to hold fast and await relief.

At least, surrounded inside, they had water and grain and could stall and wait for the situation to change.

What Chai Shihua feared was not Basang's Western Tibetan Camp, but the Mongol slave cavalry in the Songshan mountains to the east. In several small-unit clashes, his troops had failed to gain any advantage against the Mongol cavalry.

If he had not experienced it personally, he would not have believed it even if someone told him.

For men of their generation, no matter which of the Nine Border Garrisons, if troops of equal strength fought a wild field battle ten times, the border army should win ten times. There was no other possibility.

If the northern slaves wanted to win, with triple the strength they could barely withdraw unscathed before the border army's reinforcements arrived. With over five times the strength in a direct assault, and if their organizational structure was fairly good, they might be able to rout and annihilate the border army.

As for the reason—on this side were foot, horse, and artillery soldiers clad in cloth-faced iron armor; on the other side were herder-soldiers in robes shooting stone-tipped and bone-tipped arrows. Though both were indeed armies, their equipment levels were a thousand years apart, and there was truly no glory in it.

But this time it was different. Chai Shihua's scout cavalry reported the characteristics of the slave cavalry: they were facing what was practically a bunch of Mongol rich second-generation heirs.

Several small squads had nearly identical armor-wearing rates. Apart from a few wearing heirloom iron-studded leather armor, at least fifty percent of the soldiers wore chainmail, four-mirror armor, or even cloth-faced iron armor. Of the arrowheads brought back, at most one in ten was stone or bone; the rest were all brand-new forged arrowheads, including armor-piercing plum-needle arrows specially equipped and man-killing beryllium arrows.

They even saw cavalrymen carrying iron pots on their backs and fully armored slave cavalry with both man and horse clad in armor.

Though the Mongols on horseback were still thin and small, to Chai Shihua there was no doubt: the Great Ming's decades-long economic blockade against the sea bandits had failed. The utterly destitute and ferocious West Sea Mongols had been rearmed by Liu Chengzong.

Faced with the letter Chai Shihua sent into the barrier walls, what could Ding Shaoyin say?

He did not blame Chai Shihua at all and even felt some gratitude in his heart. From the moment he saw the honor guard belonging to the former Ningxia Regional Commander raised atop the walls of Zhuanglang Garrison City, Ding Shaoyin knew he would have a hard time escaping.

Everyone knew that in the Marshal's Headquarters, the Regional Commander's honor guard was Liu Chengzong's honor guard.

Liu Chengzong appearing at Zhuanglang Garrison City meant that Hong Chengchou, the Supreme Commander of the Three Borders who had stationed his main force at Ganzhou and Yongchang, had made a strategic misjudgment. The Marshal's Headquarters had never intended to cross the mountains from the start; instead, they were massing their main force to attack Lanzhou and block the army from the Gansu direction at the Zhuanglang River.

Others used the strength of a lion to seize a rabbit, but they were still building up power. Now with great armies massed on both banks of the Yellow River at Lanzhou, Ding Shaoyin could only resign himself to bad luck, believing they were the price of the Supreme Commander's misjudgment.

Fortunately, they were a wagon camp, and the opponent's chosen tactic was siege, so for the moment he did not have to worry about being quickly annihilated.

It was a good thing Chai Shihua had not fought his way in. Without the war wagons, Chai Shihua could run, but he could not.

War, especially this kind of Ming army versus Ming army war—what you know, I know too; what you have, I have too.

In Ding Shaoyin's view, no schemes or tricks would work in the coming battle. Only by drawing up an imposing battle formation for a decisive clash, then using orthodox forces to engage and unorthodox forces to... both sides' unorthodox forces would meet, the unorthodox would become orthodox, and then again use orthodox to engage and unorthodox to strike.

In the end, whoever had more men on a local battlefield would win a local victory by fighting many against few, and by stacking multiple local victories would create a situation of many striking few on the greater battlefield and win the final victory.

At this moment, however, Hong Chengchou, in Gulang Gorge, acted as if he did not see the urgent frontline military reports, clutching his elite troops and strong generals and refusing to let go.

Originally, Hong Chengchou had wanted to transfer Yang Yanchang, but he simply could not move him. That famous Shaanxi general, the God of War of Yan'an—who didn't know him? Did you, Hong Chengchou, alone want to command him? Yansui Governor Chen Qiyu and Shaanxi Governor Lian Guoshi both wanted to pull Yang Yanchang's model army to their own defense lines.

In the end, Chen Qiyu won, and the two counties of Anding and Huining were designated as Yang Yanchang's defense zone.

After all, due to the movements of Li Zicheng and others, Lian Guoshi had already entered Xi'an Prefecture, mainly guarding against the hundred thousand roving bandits on the Shangluo Circuit. Hong Chengchou was in Gansu, guarding against attacks from the Marshal's Headquarters.

And Chen Qiyu had it the worst. He was defending the southwestern part of Shaanxi. To the southeast was the Shaanxi bandit horde led by Chuang Jiang Li Zicheng, to the south was Chuang Wang Gao Yingxiang who had entered the mountains of Hanzhong Prefecture, and to the northwest was Lanzhou, occupied by Liu Chengzong. Any of them could launch an attack on him.

When Liu Chengzong's honor guard entered Zhuanglang Garrison, Hong Chengchou was not very nervous, but it truly frightened Chen Qiyu badly.

Chen Qiyu thought, I invited Yang Yanchang precisely to deal with Liu Chengzong. Transferring him away now—isn't that taking my life? Whoever dares to snatch him from me, don't blame me for turning hostile!

Hong Chengchou did not argue with him. He had the three elite divisions of Cao Wenzhao, Bai Guang'en, and Yang Jiamo in hand, and what he was waiting for was a decisive battle that would cripple Liu Chengzong.

Faced with Chai Shihua's request for aid, Hong Chengchou was exceptionally relaxed. He sent a man with a reply to Chai Shihua, in which he firmly and confidently asserted that Zhuanglang Garrison was bait.

For the exposed flank of the Zhuanglang River Valley, he adopted the strategy of transferring one Mobile Corps Commander, two Battalion Commanders, and one Guard Commander from Jinglu Garrison and Ningxia Central Garrison, ordering them to lead troops into Songshan to suppress the Mongol cavalry rampaging everywhere and, after victory, to render aid to the river valley.

And his order to Chai Shihua was to vigorously recruit tribal soldiers from Maya Mountain, to throw them into the war with confidence and boldness—the main force of the Marshal's Headquarters was not in Zhuanglang.

Chai Shihua was so angered by the reply that his teeth itched. The Supreme Commander of the Three Borders gave only conclusions without explaining his reasoning. This was clearly using them to take a risk, yet there was no other way. He could only issue conscription orders to the tribes of Maya Mountain and establish a Western Tibetan Army on the spot to follow the campaign.

Even Yang Jiamo, upon hearing of Hong Chengchou's transfer order, made a special trip from Ganzhou to Gulang Gorge to ask what basis he had for such speculation.

Hong Chengchou was very displeased by this and said, "Hong knows that Liangzhou Garrison is the Grand Commandant's hometown and that General Chai's troops are also the Grand Commandant's elite, but I must ask Marshal Yang to hold Ganzhou firmly and not disrupt his own lines. That Little Whirlwind is certainly not in Zhuanglang. The one commanding the operations at Lanzhou is someone else."

The "Little Whirlwind" he spoke of was Liu Chengzong.

Because he had once been on fairly good terms with He Renlong, he knew Liu the Lion's background well. He was all too aware of Liu the Lion's origins as a selected retainer of the household troops.

"Who does Your Excellency think is commanding the operations at Lanzhou?"

Hong Chengchou shook his head. "I do not know either, but it is certainly not him. That Little Whirlwind has never relied heavily on Mongol and Tibetan barbarian auxiliaries when dispatching troops to war. If the Han army is not there, Liu Chengzong is not there."

Of course, this was only one of his many speculations.

The most important basis for his judgment was very simple and crude: if Liu Chengzong were in Lanzhou or even Zhuanglang Garrison, Chai Shihua and Ding Shaoyin would already be dead.

Roving bandits are not government troops. They do not need to control territory, nor do they have the concept of being punished for abandoning land. Therefore, in war they do not escalate incrementally; they only strike to break key points.

Suddenly the dust would rise in whirls, a thousand cavalry, ten thousand troops would come howling. The wagon camp would likely not even have time to deploy before being completely annihilated. Even if they tried to besiege the point and strike the reinforcements, Chai Shihua's relief force would be surrounded and annihilated on the road.

Since both of them were still alive and kicking, Liu Chengzong must not be in Zhuanglang Garrison.

It was just that this matter could not be told to outsiders—it would wound morale too deeply.

He said to Yang Jiamo, "Marshal Yang, please return to Ganzhou. I estimate it will not be long before Little Whirlwind comes crawling out of the mountains."

Yang Jiamo was naturally half-doubting, but what Hong Chengchou said did make sense. The Marshal's Headquarters' Han army had still not appeared in the Zhuanglang River Valley. A mere honor guard probably could not prove anything.

However, just as they were speaking, deserters fleeing back from Songshan confirmed the situation of the Marshal's Headquarters' Han army appearing in Songshan. It was an army attacking northward from the direction of Lanzhou. Because its commander was nicknamed Cao Cao, it was reportedly called Cao Camp.

Hong Chengchou was very unfamiliar with this nickname. He turned to look at Bai Guang'en. Bai Guang'en said, "Your Excellency, I know him. A minor chief who joined Liu Chengzong early on. Not very capable, but dresses very flashily."

Hong Chengchou asked, "Very cunning?"

Bai Guang'en shook his head like a rattle-drum. "He dares to fight to the death, but the earliest major chiefs in Yan'an Prefecture were all unremarkable. They all joined forces with the Liu family men. No one could overshadow Liu Chengzong's reputation, and even now, no one has."

Hong Chengchou asked again, "Could it be that even now, the Dashing King and Dashing General still fall short of Liu Chengzong in reputation?"

Bai Guang'en shook his head. He did not know how to explain this to Hong Chengchou. After thinking for a long time, he said, "Even now in battle, the Dashing King's and Dashing General's troops fight the government army to a standstill, perhaps no weaker than Liu Chengzong. But it is not the same."

"When Liu Chengzong defeats the government army, many surrender and few escape back. When other roving bandits defeat the government army, many flee and few surrender."

In truth, in Bai Guang'en's mind, the period before Liu Chengzong marched west and the period after were two entirely different eras for the relationship between the roving bandits and the government army.

This was not entirely because of Liu Chengzong, but also because when outside troops entered Shaanxi and Shanxi, the original moral code where soldiers and bandits each served their own master came to an end, leaving only blood feuds and numbness.

Hong Chengchou was actually rather curious about this as well. "There are plenty of deserters among the roving bandits. How is it that he can recruit government troops to surrender?"

"Commander, when dealing with those unwilling to surrender, Liu Chengzong has always let those willing to surrender do so, and given travel expenses to those unwilling. He is extremely broad-minded... and precisely because of this, local troops rarely fight him to the death."

"Others are different." Bai Guang'en shook his head. "The government army would annihilate defeated roving bandits to the last man, and the roving bandits would retaliate in kind, executing them on the spot. After several rounds of back and forth, in the last two years they have at least stopped killing prisoners."

"Stopped killing prisoners?"

Hong Chengchou raised an eyebrow. "What do they do then, also release them with travel expenses?"

Bai Guang'en laughed. Travel expenses? Realizing his laugh was a bit too unrestrained, he quickly reined in his smile and said, "Usually they chop off a hand and release them. Sometimes they chop off fingers."

Hong Chengchou and Cao Wenzhao exchanged a wordless look and treated it as a joke.

They could only treat it as a joke. Bai Guang'en knew this full well. The mass uprisings in Shaanxi were originally just about getting a bite to eat, soldiers and bandits merely on different paths; there was still a bottom line.

The instigators of the escalating intensity were none other than these two outsiders in the room, who had an addiction to killing prisoners.

And he himself was a turncoat. So whether hands were chopped off or not did not matter to the three of them. The best outcome for the three of them was simply not to fall into anyone else's hands. If defeated and surrounded, they had better finish themselves off quickly; otherwise they would certainly be butchered, and would not even qualify to have their hands chopped off.

But on this matter, neither of them had anything to say.

Back then, everyone believed the Shaanxi roving bandits were a war that could be quickly suppressed, and that it was only the mistaken strategy of pacification and amnesty that caused the war to expand in scale.

Who could have imagined that not only did favorable weather never come, but droughts and floods only grew larger in scale over time?

With things having developed to the current state, no one had any solution.

Hong Chengchou was not the least bit embarrassed. He raised a hand and set the topic aside. In any case, the three of them were grasshoppers tied to the same rope; none could escape. He said, "The most pressing matter is two tasks that need you to handle. General Cao, go to Songshan."

Cao Wenzhao immediately snapped to attention, cupped his fists, and accepted the order. "Yes!"

What satisfied Hong Chengchou most was precisely this tense state of obedience from Cao Wenzhao. The corners of his eyes involuntarily curved up as he said, "After arriving at Songshan, assist the Pacify Barbarian Guard and the reinforcements from Ningxia to ensure the safety of the Songshan road. Our troop supplies, pay, and reinforcements will all be coming from that direction."

"Yes!"

After Cao Wenzhao acknowledged, Hong Chengchou looked at Bai Guang'en and said, "General Bai, you need to make a trip to Ganzhou to investigate a matter."

Bai Guang'en likewise rose to accept the order and asked, "What does the Commander require of your subordinate?"

Hong Chengchou sighed and shook his head. "Someone informed me that recently, things have been going missing from the Ganzhou Garrison city."

Bai Guang'en's pupils suddenly contracted. "Things going missing from the Ganzhou Garrison city?"

Hong Chengchou nodded and said, "Take my command banner and go inspect the weapons, armor, firearms, cannons, warhorses, donkeys, mules, even camels, and all other battalion equipment at the various forts in Ganzhou. Find out exactly what is going on."

"If it is just impoverished military households stealing things, that is one matter."

Hong Chengchou emphasized, "But if there are collaborators of the bandit Liu inside, they must be tracked down!"