Chapter 499: Seeing Is Believing

Outside Gaotai City, the two sprawling wounded camps stretched across the land, the anguished wails and groans of injured soldiers rising and falling in broken waves.

Liu Chengzong used a curved steel needle to stitch up the wound before him, washed his hands in hot water, patted Hei Chengyin lying on the sickbed, and grinned. "Your luck is truly good. Rest three to five months and you'll be full of life again. I've had a sedan chair prepared for you — would you like to return to Suzhou to rest, or travel a bit further with me and rest in Ganzhou?"

Ding Guodong's subordinate, Squad Commander Hei Chengyin, was the first man to scale the walls of Gaotai City. Relying on his armor to fight atop the wall, he took the most brutal beating. The cloth covering of his cloth-faced iron armor was slashed to tatters like a mop, the domed armor plates were pierced by thirteen arrows, stuck with seven small lead cakes, and embedded with three iron pellets.

But these were all minor external and internal injuries. The most serious life-threatening wound on his body came from his leg — his leg had been broken in a fall. It's said that the Ming soldiers dealing with him realized their weapons couldn't finish him off quickly, so a strongman rushed forward barehanded and, using a Zhou Cang Shouldering-the-Blade throw, hurled him off the horse path.

Zhou Cang Shouldering-the-Blade is a throwing technique in wrestling, also called Arm-Twisting Reverse Throw or Arm-Twisting Throw, similar to an over-the-shoulder throw.

Hei Chengyin was knocked completely senseless by the throw. Fortunately, Ding Guodong's unit scaled the wall so quickly that follow-up forces began fighting on the wall, and the defenders had no time to deal with this fellow who looked dead beneath the wall. No one finished him off, so he got to keep his life.

Hei Chengyin's head was still ringing from the fall. Hearing Liu Chengzong's question, he asked, "Great King, what of the several Hundred-Commanders who scaled the wall with me?"

The smile on Liu Chengzong's face slowly faded. He gently shook his head. "All gone. There was one called Huozhe Hazhi — seeing you thrown off the wall, he tackled that strongman around the waist and dragged him off the wall with him, avenging you, but he too fell in battle beneath the wall. Of the remaining four, two died atop the wall, and the other two were too gravely wounded and could not be saved after being withdrawn."

Hei Chengyin's heavily bearded face was filled with profound sorrow. Liu Chengzong could not tell if it was from the pain of his wounds or grief in his heart. His eyes brimmed with tears that did not fall, he only clenched his teeth tightly, and only after a long while did he let out a sigh.

"This is war."

In truth, the casualty rate of over ninety percent among officers of Hundred-Commander rank and above in Ding Guodong's unit was not surprising to Liu Chengzong. On the contrary, it was the explosive combat effectiveness this Battalion Commander's unit displayed atop Gaotai's walls that truly surprised Liu Chengzong.

Because although Ding Guodong was a Mobile Corps Vice General, the soldiers he commanded while garrisoning Jiayu Pass were not from a mobile corps, but garrison troops led by two Battalion Commanders from Suzhou Guard.

In the guard-and-battalion system, three-tenths of the banner troops defended the city and seven-tenths farmed the land. Hei Chengyin was originally a hereditary Battalion Commander of Suzhou Guard. After surrendering to the Marshal's Army, their eight hundred soldiers were reorganized on the spot into an understrength Battalion Commander's unit.

Their advantage was having eaten very well for the previous three months. Their disadvantage was that the soldiers' equipment was poor. Even the armor quality of Squad Leaders and even Platoon Leaders was inferior to that of the battalion soldiers in Mi Layin's unit, who came from the former Suzhou Battalion.

In other words, the five Hundred-Commanders who scaled the wall with Hei Chengyin were all formerly Hundred-Household Commanders. Under Ding Guodong, only officers of this rank generally met two conditions.

First, possessing officer's armor of compliant quality. Second, possessing the physical strength and training to fight in armor.

It was just that after this battle, Ding Guodong's directly subordinate officers were nearly wiped out in a single engagement.

Liu Chengzong did not join in the sighing. He simply said, "Commander Ding still has one Hundred-Commander subordinate named Chang Huli. I have already promoted him to Battalion Commander. The nine Hundred-Commanders who fell in battle were all of guard-officer origin. In each case, a brother, son, or nephew shall inherit the Hundred-Household Commander post, and after the war they will proceed to the new Xining Academy for study."

"All remaining officers and soldiers of every rank shall be promoted and rewarded according to their battle merits, filling the officer ranks to full strength, and then soldiers shall be replenished."

When Hei Chengyin heard the name Chang Huli, life immediately returned to his eyes. "He's still alive? Wonderful!"

In truth, he and Chang Huli were not particularly close. It was just that, having barely escaped with his life, knowing that a colleague he had spent every day with was still alive inevitably stirred excitement.

Chang Huli was not originally called by that name. He was of Yellow-Turban Uyghur descent, his ancestors having settled in Suzhou as far back as the Yuan dynasty. His name was Chang Huli, a name already very much sinicized.

Jade was the ritual object used by the people of the Central Plains in high antiquity to sacrifice to Heaven, Earth, and the four directions. It was divided into bi, cong, gui, zhang, hu, and huang: the bi for rites to Heaven, the cong for rites to Earth, the gui for rites to the East, the hu for rites to the West, the zhang for rites to the South, and the huang for rites to the North.

The White Tiger of the West governs warfare, so the hu was carved into the shape of a tiger. Those with a hole were called tiger-shaped jade pendants; those without a hole were called jade hu, also used to dispatch troops — the jade tiger tally.

In any army, when registering a military roster and seeing this name, one would know at a glance that the man came from a guard-and-battalion officer background, and very likely his father's or grandfather's generation had held no low official rank, possessing a certain degree of education, embodying his parents' hope and prayer that their son would achieve success in military affairs.

But the logic of the Marshal's Army was different.

The men responsible for registering military rosters were widely experienced with all manner of bandit nicknames. Not only would they not probe into even the strangest names, they would even feel a strange sense of kinship.

Sky-Collapsing Charger, Sky-Shooting Charger, Heaven-Soaring Monkey, Li the Old Jackal, Crooked Ridge, Liao Whiskers, Bee-Sting Needle, Mountain-Glowing Red — what kind of freaks and monsters haven't we seen?

Chang Huli — what does that tell us? It tells us this man is a Shaanxi compatriot, his conduct rather sly. Good!

The news that a colleague was still alive brought some comfort to Hei Chengyin, who had just been withdrawn from the battlefield for the first time. He was dazed for a long while. Only when Liu Chengzong had offered a few more words of reassurance, urged him to rest well, and was about to leave, did he suddenly ask with some difficulty, "Grand Marshal... why did you rebel?"

Liu Chengzong paused, then smiled. "That is a very big question. If it were six or seven years ago, I would pull you aside and tell you in detail why I rebelled and why you should follow me. But today, I can only tell you that the time has come."

"Rather than me telling you, it's better you use your own eyes to see. See why the soldiers around you are willing to follow me. Our land, our people — is life better or worse... Go to Ganzhou. I am giving you the post of Seal-Holding Commander of the Ganzhou Left Guard. Go and recuperate. In these few months of recovery, many things will find their answers."

Hei Chengyin was naturally profoundly grateful for the official post and reward, but he was also just as uneasy as Hu Zhishen had been when first receiving the rank of Regional Commander.

Liu Chengzong did not dwell on this. The commanders promoted in this siege battle all needed some time to accept the change in their status, but he no longer needed to worry about these men's loyalty.

They had no absolute loyalty to speak of, but neither did they have absolute disloyalty. The Gansu Regional Commander Yang Jiamo, who had gone through fire and water for them, was their pledge of allegiance.

Liu Chengzong had more important matters to attend to.

The battle of Gaotai was fought with extreme ferocity. In just a single day of close combat, the two armies suffered over two thousand severely wounded and fallen soldiers, with those lightly wounded and disabled also exceeding a thousand.

Liu Chengzong's thorough preparations played a huge role during the siege. In the post-battle casualty report, although the total ratio of fallen and wounded was slightly higher than the Ming army's, that was counting the result of Mo Yujing's unit being raided by Luo Junjie's troops. In the actual siege operation, Suzhou Battalion's casualties were slightly lower than the Ming army's.

But even so, because the assaulting troops were concentrated in Suzhou Battalion, the actual losses were exceptionally heavy.

Before the battle, there were four commanders: Hu Zhishen leading eight hundred men, Mi Layin's unit over nine hundred, Ding Guodong's unit eight hundred, and Bee-Sting Needle's unit five hundred — a total of three thousand.

After the battle, Hu Zhishen's unit had seven hundred, Mi Layin's unit six hundred, Ding Guodong's unit over four hundred, and Bee-Sting Needle's unit four hundred — a total of two thousand one hundred, nearly half of whom were wounded. Moreover, of Ding Guodong's ten Hundred-Commanders, only one remained.

Such a brutal battle demanded greater rewards. Therefore, besides fulfilling his pre-battle promises to Suzhou Battalion — allocating land to all the battalion's soldiers and rewarding the three first-to-scale-the-wall Hundred-Commander units with warhorses and livestock — Liu Chengzong also temporarily formed a Hundred-Commander team skilled in calculation from the Tiger Guard Battalion.

They were to tally and price all spoils of war within the city apart from the gold, silver, and copper coins, dividing them into four shares: one share retained by the central army, one share distributed to Suzhou Battalion according to battle merit, one share for fallen-soldier pensions, and the final share as a special reward issued to officers and soldiers who performed with exceptional distinction in the battle.

The seized gold, silver, and copper coins were worth over one thousand four hundred taels of silver. Liu Chengzong used this money for rewards as well, buying back three mu of land from each surviving Suzhou Battalion soldier unwilling to accept land as a reward, at the price of one tael of silver per mu.

As for the fallen soldiers, men were sent to ask their families remaining in Suzhou whether they wanted land or silver. If land, it would be allocated by Suzhou Guard Commander Song Xian; if silver, it would likewise be disbursed by Suzhou Guard.

After this battle, although Suzhou Battalion had suffered considerable damage, the surviving soldiers experienced a qualitative leap in arms and armor. Nearly every man was issued armor, and the vast majority of soldiers also acquired mounts. Liu Chengzong further transferred two Hundred-Commander units of soldiers from the Tiger Guard Battalion into it to serve as low-ranking officers, thereby thoroughly gaining control of Suzhou Battalion.

Now all Suzhou Battalion lacked was a batch of replacement soldiers to restore its full-strength status.

Although Gaotai had many prisoners, Liu Chengzong did not make things difficult for them. After identity verification, ninety-three officers were released toward Suzhou, with orders for Chijin Guard Commander Kang Liangfu to dispatch troops to escort them to Haibei.

Ordinary soldiers who were wounded received medical treatment — medicine where medicine was needed, stitches where stitches were needed. Those inconvenient to move were kept in Gaotai for the time being, placed under the care of Yin Ruyue, Battalion Commander of the temporary Artisan Battalion.

Yin Ruyue was originally a military student of the Confucian school at the Gaotai Battalion Headquarters. At present, for the Marshal's Headquarters, the two locations of Zhenyi and Gaotai had lost the significance of maintaining battalion headquarters.

Therefore, Liu Chengzong consolidated the two areas into Gaotai County. Yin Ruyue became the Marshal's Headquarters' first County Magistrate of Gaotai, responsible for the reconstruction of civilian housing in Gaotai. First, the autumn harvest could not be delayed. Second, even if they had to dig pit dwellings, the reconstruction of civilian housing had to be completed before the freeze set in.

As for the deserters and prisoners who were uninjured, Liu Chengzong had Han Shipan solicit their own wishes. Those willing to join the Marshal's Army would follow the army for the time being and await assignment. Those wishing to go home would be stripped of weapons and armor and released back to Ganzhou.

In the end, over two hundred men willing to join the Marshal's Headquarters remained. Liu Chengzong did not assign them to Suzhou Battalion either. He separately established the framework of a Ganzhou Battalion, which for the time being would operate behind the Tiger Guard Battalion.

These men had fought a bloody battle against Suzhou Battalion at Gaotai City; assigning them to Suzhou Battalion would surely end badly. The task of replenishing Suzhou Battalion's manpower fell to Wei Qian'er, who had earlier taken in over-strength surrendered troops at Suzhou. Nine hundred men were transferred from him and merged into Suzhou Battalion.

The most chaotic place right now was actually Ganzhou.

Gaotai was a small place. The fighting was brutal, but the war's scope of impact was very small. Ganzhou was a large place. The fighting was chaotic, and the scope of impact was broader. By this point in the Gaotai battle, battle reports, patrol reports, and letters sent from the east about Ganzhou had already exceeded eight hundred, and the situation was only gradually becoming clear in Liu the Lion's eyes.

If the Tiger Guard Battalion digging large pits and building a cemetery at Gaotai for the over two thousand fallen soldiers of both sides had lowered Liu the Lion's spirits, then the increasingly clear situation in Ganzhou was news that could genuinely make Liu Chengzong happy.

There had been almost no hard fighting over there. The local Ganzhou troops had all been dealt with by Liu Chengzong at Gaotai. Most of the Liangzhou troops had fled back to Liangzhou with Vice Regional Commander Li Hongsi. Those remaining in Ganzhou... how to put it, were all Shaanxi men.

Li Hongsi's own troops were all Shaanxi soldiers; they did not have even a single Gansu Garrison military horse. Zhang Tianlin and Gao Yingdeng's commands were also all Shaanxi soldiers. On the battlefield, only a few commanders like Tang Mingshi led Gansu troops.

On the battlefield, unit structures were completely shattered, every force breaking into fragments and fighting on its own. They were all on the verge of collapse to begin with, but because the battle lines were moving eastward, even in collapse, the two armies collapsed in different ways.

On the Ming army's side, they collapsed into chaos, slaughtered each other, fled in all directions, surrendered at the mere rumor of the enemy's approach, looted everywhere, and in one case a squad leader on horseback even trampled a battalion commander to death.

As for the men under Zhang Tianlin and Gao Yingdeng, some got lost, some fled in the opposite direction, some fell behind, some were captured after falling from their horses and then turned their entire squad; some didn't want to fight and disguised themselves as commoners to spread rebellious ideas; some slipped into the tribal territories to become disseminators of advanced techniques; and some even captured themselves a commanding officer and occupied a fortress to wait for the shifting of Heaven's timing.

The entire battlefield was a muddled mess. After the Marshal's banner was raised at Ganzhou City, the twenty-odd fortresses across the Zhangye oasis all linked up with one another, but the organization of the two battalions was utterly chaotic.

The Marshal's headquarters troops had always been highly autonomous. They had repeatedly broken away from command in the past, yet Liu Chengzong had never once blamed or punished any general or officer for overstepping their authority when acting on their own initiative.

And this time on the Zhangye battlefield, the Marshal's army carried the overwhelming prestige of their great eastern campaign victory. When Shaanxi men met Shaanxi men, a little skirmishing was enough to win over the collapsing government troops, causing the squad, company, and battalion commander units that could win battles to become severely over-strength. To maintain their organizational structure, they all chose to send messengers to Gaotai, appointing themselves to lower or equal ranks, and assuming for themselves a rank one level higher.

Gao Yingdeng was bold — his battalion now had five battalion commanders, two of whom he had appointed as temporary acting battalion commanders. Zhang Tianlin, by all accounts, was also very bold, but because he had earlier plundered the warhorses of Chaghan Taiji, he feared that after the battle Liu the Lion would punish him for multiple offenses at once. His battalion still had three battalion commanders, but now had ten company commanders — three of whom had appointed themselves from platoon commander, and one of whom was a company commander that Yingshanhong the platoon commander had captured and brought back for himself.

Adding the two battalions together, Liu Chengzong made a rough estimate: there were eleven thousand, maybe even twelve thousand men... With a force composition like this, maintaining military discipline was already extremely difficult.

Therefore, the Marshal's army's main force had to advance on Ganzhou as quickly as possible. Otherwise, Zhang Tianlin's and Gao Yingdeng's two battalions would inevitably fall into serious chaos.

It was just like the siege of Gaotai. Yang Jiamo's Ganzhou Battalion had more troops than the Suzhou Battalion, and the two sides fought to a one-to-one kill ratio on the battlements. The Suzhou Battalion's two main battalion commander units suffered over fifty percent casualties, yet Yang Jiamo's army collapsed.

It was simply because the Tiger Guard Battalion, the Mongol Brigade, and Wei Qian'er's Battalion were all stationed nearby. The general momentum alone pressed down on men's hearts — pressed down so that the Suzhou Battalion stood steady as Mount Tai, and pressed down so that the Ganzhou Battalion's troops scattered like a landslide.

As a funeral was completed, the Marshal's army's various battalions advanced on Ganzhou. The news that Liu Chengzong had breached Gaotai and Yang Jiamo had burned himself to death also spread with the deserters through Shandan, Yongchang, and the other garrisons... all the way to the last strong fortress in Gansu that still had both troops and grain: Liangzhou City.

Good evening!