Chapter 477: Seeking Reinforcements

Across the desert and paddy fields surrounding the Gaotai Battalion Fort, within a fifty-li radius, three armies churned up dust as they raced at full speed.

Gao Yingdeng led over two thousand troops to the west, Tang Shiming led over two thousand troops to the north, and between these two forces was over a thousand cavalry led by Tang Tong, the Forward Battalion Commander of Gao Yingdeng's camp.

Tang Tong was a hard-luck case — he fell from his horse during the chaos of the He-Huang campaign, got clubbed in the head by a mace, and woke up from his coma already in Xining. Dazed and confused, he didn't even get a surrender ceremony before becoming a surrendered officer of the Marshal's Office, assigned a very low official rank and honorific title: Stalwart Army Commandant.

The Marshal's Office military honorific ranks were divided into three tiers — General, Colonel, and Commandant — each tier further divided into three grades and nine steps. Stalwart Army Commandant was the first step of the First-Rank Commandant; he'd have to climb one more full rank just to reach the lowest Ninth-Step Colonel.

Officers granted this honorific step were typically given the substantive post of Squad Commander... Tang Tong had been captured while holding the post of Mobile Corps General of Yansui Garrison; this honorific rank was very low for him.

This was because, in the imperial court, Tang Tong was a fast-track officer. His promotion speed nearly rivaled that of Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu. In the second year of Chongzhen, he was still a common soldier who brought his own retainers to enlist. By repeatedly crushing Wang Zuogua at Hancheng, by the fifth year of Chongzhen when he appeared on the He-Huang battlefield, he was already a Mobile Corps General.

For this reason, Liu Chengzong did not give him an excessively high rank. However, Old Master Liu took such surrendered officers very seriously — he assigned physicians to tend his wounds, gave him a residence and pastureland, and even helped arrange a match for him from Yang Qi's household, making him Yang Qi's son-in-law.

Liu Xiangyu understood clearly that his second son was inwardly proud, a frontier army leader who had risen from humble beginnings, and he always harbored some misgivings toward high-ranking surrendered officers.

Whenever a high-ranking post fell vacant, Liu the Lion much preferred to promote a trusted officer from his own following.

Under these conditions, of the three Regional Commanders, the one he favored most was He Huchen; Wang Cheng'en, who was less willing to exert himself for the Marshal's Office, came second; and the one he looked down on most was Yang Qi, whose mind was always on currying favor with his superiors.

At root, this attitude came down to He Huchen having the advantage of having fought Liu Chengzong in the early years. Back then, the Lion's Camp had few soldiers and scant officers, the fighting was grueling, and it proved that He Huchen's ability was not lacking.

But in Liu Xiangyu's eyes, of the three Regional Commanders, the most reliable was Yang Qi. How great a man's ability was did not matter much; what mattered was how much of that ability he was willing to use in your service.

As long as the Marshal's Office still held He-Huang, Yang Qi was the most reliable surrendered officer. Liu Xiangyu preferred to use Yang Qi to strengthen the sense of belonging among the surrendered officers.

After all, family dependents were the weakest aspect for the Marshal's Office's own core officers — these men were all bachelors, making it very difficult to absorb outsiders through marriage alliances and kinship ties.

This was something Liu Xiangyu had learned from his cheap nephew, Hooge: when dealing with surrendered officers, entice those of low moral character with profit; let those of high moral character start a family.

At this moment, after half a day galloping through the desert, the Gobi landscape finally faded from Tang Tong's eyes, and what spread before him was an endless oasis, where crisscrossing irrigation channels divided the fields.

At the distant sight of the dust raised by the army, the farming households planting cotton at the desert's edge scattered and fled in all directions.

Tang Tong reined in his warhorse before an irrigation channel. The relay scouts had already been unable to keep up with him half a shichen ago; the last relay report they delivered was that Gao Yingdeng had already struck camp and that two thousand troops were moving in his direction.

He gazed into the distance and shook his head. The fields farther away drew close to a large canal. Had he not seen it with his own eyes, he would have found it hard to imagine that an oasis hemmed in by desert could have vast fields planted with rice.

Were it not for this great drought, were it not for this war, this place would be a Jiangnan beyond the frontier.

Tang Tong did not linger long in sentiment, because a Jiangnan beyond the frontier was lovely in every way — except that it was utterly unsuited for northern armies to fight in. He immediately ordered his troops to shift southward along the edge of the cotton fields to avoid being caught by the enemy.

To the north, the relay scouts under Zhenyi Mobile Corps Commander Tang Mingshi had already caught up, and his army was only twenty li away. Watching this Marshal's Office cavalry force hesitate before the paddy fields, he laughed long and hard in excitement, ordering his relay riders forward as his two thousand infantry and cavalry, divided into five columns, lunged toward Tang Tong.

Tang Mingshi was familiar with the terrain here. Tang Tong's turn southward meant, to him, that victory was in sight.

Because further south lay the east-west ridges carved over millions of years by the snowmelt floods of the Qilian Mountains, forming a natural barrier that cut off the path ahead; and to the east were paddy fields fragmented by rivers and intersecting channels. Once this isolated Marshal's Office force entered that corner, it meant entering a dead end.

Swiftly, one hundred ninety-two relay riders of the Zhenyi Army spread their battle line into an arc-shaped encirclement twenty li wide, filling the ten-li battlefield between the two armies.

Tang Tong pushed south in silence for another dozen or so li, gradually sensing that something was wrong. Earlier, when the distance was greater, he had thought those mountain shadows belonged to the Qilian range. Now, as the high ground ahead drew nearer and nearer, and he could make out deep gullies not far away, his heart went half cold.

It was not because of the battle — wherever the fight happened, Gao Yingdeng's order to him was to lure the enemy. The luring was now a success; all that remained was to hold on and await reinforcements.

He was simply afraid he had led them the wrong way and would be relieved of command on the battlefield by these arrogant, fierce soldiers under him.

Tang Tong knew perfectly well that although all the dozen-plus battalions belonged to the Marshal's Office's army, they had sharply distinct allegiances and tiers. The Tiger Guard and Elite Troops battalions were forces personally led by Liu Chengzong; the two field brigades of four battalions were Liu Chengzong's core main-force troops.

Those four battalions had many surrendered soldiers, but there was no discrimination among the soldiers — discrimination existed only among the officers.

Which is to say, in this battalion, he was the only outsider. Under these circumstances, with the cautionary tale of Bee-Sting Zhang Zhen before him, any decision that went against the men's will could easily get him relieved of command on the battlefield.

But there was a bright side too: although Bee-Sting Zhang Zhen had been relieved of command on the battlefield, he later gained important assignments thanks to his battle merit in the night raid on the National Preceptor Khan, and was now serving as the Deputy Brigade Commander of the Suzhou Battalion.

Fortunately, as Tang Tong observed the mood of the two Squad Commanders under him, they seemed to have not the slightest awareness of their cornered predicament. In fact, both Squad Commanders were eager for action; they spurred their horses up to him and, one after the other, requested battle: "Battalion Commander, we can't be chased to a dead end — let's turn around and hit them for a spell!"

"Right, being chased the whole way is too stifling!"

One of these Squad Commanders was called Crooked Beam, a Ningxia man who had formerly been one of He Huchen's relay riders; the other was called Li Balaing, a peddler from Wen'an Relay Station in his early years, who had been one of Luo Rucai's soldiers and was expert in night fighting.

Tang Tong thought briefly, then said to the two: "Generals, the enemy has divided into five columns. We can pick one column and strike with our cavalry, but we must not get bogged down. Once we've broken their edge, we must turn back and form an infantry line. Otherwise, we won't hold out until General Gao arrives with reinforcements, and we'll also risk being shelled by the enemy — they have many cannons."

Crooked Beam and Li Balaing were delighted by these words, their goodwill toward Tang Tong soaring rapidly... To put it plainly, the Marshal's Office core officers' rejection of high-ranking surrendered officers stemmed, to a large degree, from an arrogance born of inferiority.

Deep down, they greatly envied Tang Tong's Mobile Corps General rank in the imperial court, but on the other hand, having achieved their own accomplishments from lowly stations, they were acutely sensitive and unwilling to be looked down upon.

Tang Tong discussing the military deployment in a consultative manner made the two very comfortable.

After a brief discussion, the two decided on the spot: Crooked Beam would lead the Left Division's six hundred cavalry to strike the enemy, while Tang Tong would lead Li Balaing's Right Division's six hundred men to dig trenches and unload firearms.

Quickly, Tang Tong found a position suitable for defense — using a deep gully carved by meltwater as a moat, he set the camp perimeter by placing firearm-laden war wagons at the four corners, used the warhorses, donkeys, and mules at the camp's edge as temporary cover, and began digging trenches and constructing simple earthen walls to defend against cannon fire.

Firearms were unloaded from the war wagons one after another. Standing at the camp's edge, Tang Tong surveyed the soldiers constructing the defensive line, raised his eyes to the north, watched the receding figures of Crooked Beam's cavalry, and slowly clenched his jaw.

In truth, he had thought about fleeing back to the imperial court. Ever since his wounds healed, he had been making such plans. He had not spent much time studying at the Academy or in the Tiger Guard Camp, and had been continuously planning how to escape.

But once the fighting started, Tang Tong increasingly felt that fleeing back seemed pointless. Without being able to bring intelligence that could turn the tide of the war, it would be very hard for him to clear himself of the crime of serving in the Marshal's Office. And from his position as a Battalion Commander in the Marshal's Office, he found it very hard to see any hope of the Ming army winning a decisive battle.

For him, this war was a case of knowing both sides. The two sides' organization, equipment, and combat habits were extremely similar, yet in every aspect, the Marshal's Office had made targeted improvements over Ming army tactics.

If he fled back, and the imperial army lost again, and he was captured again — then what was the point of fleeing back in the first place?

During the process of setting up camp, there was almost nothing for Tang Tong to intervene in. The five Centurions under Li Balaing had a clear division of labor: four hundred-man squads dug trenches on the four sides, while the other Centurion led men to dismantle the mule carts and drive carts to fetch water.

One thousand-jin cannon and two Lion cannons were placed at the central command, while another eight two-hundred-jin Lion cannons were positioned on the four sides of the camp formation.

At the edge of the trench, the soldiers used dismantled cart planks and shields as retaining boards, filled the space between with sand, and piled earth on the outside, building up simple goat-and-horse walls on all four sides, behind which they set up wall guns and heavy arquebuses.

Comparing it to Ming army camps of the past, Tang Tong noticed that the Marshal's Office troops carried no chevaux-de-frise, relying entirely on earthworks to construct such low walls in a standardized manner.

He could not help but seek out a Centurion and ask, "Why is it built this way?"

"General, to stop lead balls." The Centurion laughed, patting the sand-filled plank wall his men had piled up. "General Bee-Sting used this at Heka Grassland to defend against the Tatars' long muskets. Wet sand and wooden planks can stop lead balls, and they're not afraid of cannon grapeshot either."

Tang Tong found it rather ingenious. He looked the sand-filled plank wall over again and again, then casually asked, "Then why not bring chevaux-de-frise?"

The Centurion shrugged and spread his hands: "The Grand Marshal didn't provide them."

Chevaux-de-frise for the Marshal's Office army had always existed in Liu Chengzong's words, but they had never actually been supplied.

Before the march into Gansu, it was an expedition without the conditions to carry such heavy materiel; after arriving in Gansu, it was because he had too few mules to transport them.

"Many" and "few" are relative. In total numbers, one Marshal's Office battalion had as many mules and horses as two Ming battalions, but one Ming regular battalion could free up seventy-two mules to carry one hundred forty-four bundles of chevaux-de-frise components, which when deployed on the battlefield became eight hundred sixty-four individual chevaux-de-frise.

For the Ming army, it didn't matter if men had no horses or mules to ride, as long as the weapons and equipment were fully brought; for the Marshal's Office, it was fine if weapons and equipment weren't fully brought, but the men had to have horses to ride — at worst, they had to have at least a donkey or a mule.

This was the one weakness Tang Tong discovered in the Marshal's Office: they simply could not free up that bit of transport capacity. Or perhaps they were overly arrogant, believing that Ming cavalry would never have the chance to trample their battle formations.

Trench after trench was rapidly dug, and Tang Tong could now make out the galloping cavalry squadrons several li away.

The cavalry led by Crooked Beam easily broke through the outpost sentries' defensive line, charging head-on toward the infantry battalion on the left wing that was still donning their armor. But the Ming army's reaction was also swift — a company of armored cavalry guarding near the infantry immediately rode out to intercept.

The remaining Ming companies also halted one after another, donning their armor and forming up into square formations.

Seeing no advantage to be gained, Crooked Beam led his unit a li westward. Noticing the Ming cavalry behind were still in pursuit, he gave a sharp whistle, and all ten cavalry squads wheeled around, launching sudden strikes at the Ming cavalry formation from every direction at oblique angles.

Neither side's cavalry chose to close in for melee combat. For a moment, stray arrows scattered and firelocks roared in unison. The two armies had barely clashed for a moment when the sound of gongs and drums rang out. It stunned Crooked Beam, whose blood had just begun to boil — he was so agitated he nearly cursed at Tang Tong, but listening carefully, he realized something was off. The sound was coming from within the Ming army's formation.

In an instant, the Ming cavalry withdrew in alternating waves. Crooked Beam led his troops in relentless pursuit, managing to gain some small advantages, and only ordered a withdrawal when they had nearly reached three hundred paces from the enemy line.

As the cavalry returned to the formation, Crooked Beam still huffed angrily, "If I hadn't seen those two great Frankish cannons of theirs, I'd have trampled their formation for sure."

Tang Tong, however, had no attention to spare for his boasting. Peering through his telescope again and again at the shifting enemy formation, he watched as the surrounding Ming outpost riders rapidly contracted, and some men galloped frantically northward. Soon after, the sound of horns came from the enemy formation.

After a moment of puzzlement, he abruptly turned his head and said to Crooked Beam, "Dismount and form ranks at once, prepare to hold position — they're about to launch a full assault!"

Crooked Beam still had no idea what was going on. He directly addressed him as General and asked, "General, how can you tell?"

"That gong just now was abnormal. Their outpost riders are fleeing north in a panic, and now they're all dismounting and forming columns, pushing the Crouching Tiger Cannons to the very front. They must be planning to force a charge against our lines."

Tang Tong, telescope fixed on the enemy formation, rattled off that long string of observations. Only at the end did he lower the telescope, draw a deep breath, and say, "My guess is the enemy has discovered General Gao's movements. Our mission is already accomplished — as long as we withstand their charge, the encirclement will be complete."

Crooked Beam and Li Baliang understood after hearing the explanation, now grasping the enemy's little scheme. Both nodded heavily and relayed the orders to every company commander under their command.

Amid the rising and falling of commands and martial music, the soldiers in the trench-and-rampart fortifications on all four sides swiftly assembled. Hefting heavy muskets and wall guns, they centered on the northern parapet wall, crossed the trenches on the east and west sides, and extended slightly outward on both flanks to prevent the enemy from achieving a focused breakthrough in the first wave of assault.

On the other side of the battlefield, Garrison-Pacifying Mobile Corps Commander Tang Mingshi was also observing the enemy's deployment. However, with that rammed-earth parapet wall in the way, he could not see their weapons and equipment clearly and could only barely make out the width of their formation.

Indeed, just as Tang Tong had surmised, Tang Mingshi's outpost riders had discovered Gao Yingdeng's force of over two thousand cavalry thirty li to the northwest, and now understood the Marshal Army's feint tactic.

Clearly, the Marshal Army had over three thousand men, while he had only a little over two thousand troops — no advantage in numbers. But he did not choose to flee. Instead, he sent north to Gaotai Camel City, fifty li away, to request reinforcements, hoping to completely devour this rebel force whose total strength approached four thousand.

When the horns sounded once more, the officers of every rank in the Garrison-Pacifying Army led their columns in a charge against Tang Tong's position. They had all been briefed on the Vice Regional Commander's analysis of the Marshal Manor army's equipment. The order was to close within fifty paces and use the numerical superiority of their Crouching Tiger Cannons and Barbarian-Subduing Cannons to blast the enemy formation apart.

Watching column after column advancing at a rapid pace carrying small cannons, Crooked Beam behind the parapet wall was dumbstruck. "What... what are they playing at? They're already within range of our wall guns!"