Chapter 512: Gulang Gorge

Liu Chengzong looked at the reply Lin Chengdong had sent him and laughed to those around him: "Why does this letter stink so much of bullshit?"

He was no fool — the highest-ranking official in this city was Vice Regional Commander Li Hongsi, the current garrison commander was Liangzhou Route Army Vice General Liu Shaozong, and Ganzhou Route Army Vice General Lin Chengdong, when you got down to it, was nothing more than a retreating officer who had brought his division back intact.

A man of that standing, shamelessly writing back to say Liangzhou City bore no hostility toward the Marshal's Headquarters — Liu Chengzong figured that promise carried less weight than a fart from himself.

At the front line, Yang Qi, Fengweizhen, Gao Yingdeng, and others stood beside Liu Chengzong. Yang Qi read the letter and laughed: "Marshal, what the letter says isn't exactly wrong, but don't fall for their trick — they're trying to lure you into severing Long."

Liu Chengzong frowned slightly. His ultimate objective for this campaign was precisely to sever Long. Hearing Yang Qi's words, he couldn't help asking: "What they said is nonsense. Severing Long is enormously difficult. The Marquis of Wu's northern expedition was over a thousand years ago, and back then Ningxia was still barbarian territory."

"Over the past millennium, how many roads have been built in Hexi? Ningxia connects directly to Liangzhou via the Songshan Road, and reinforcing Guyuan from the south is also exceptionally convenient. If we want to take the line of Zhongwei, Guyuan, and Baoji without capturing Ningxia, severing Long is just a pipe dream."

Yang Qi slowly shook his head, gazing at Liangzhou City, which looked like a thin line on the horizon several li away, and said: "I venture to say, whether we sever Long or not actually makes no difference."

Liu Chengzong glanced at Yang Qi. "General Yang, what do you mean by that?"

Seeing that Liu Chengzong was not angry, Yang Qi felt very pleased. He knew Liu Chengzong had always held him in low regard and had feared the Marshal would lack the patience to hear him out. Now it seemed that although Liu Chengzong disliked him, he could still listen to what he had to say — this was a good sign.

He clasped his fists and said: "War, to put it plainly, is not about victory or defeat, life or death, strength or weakness. It comes down to a single word: attrition."

"Attrition?"

Yang Qi nodded: "Exactly, attrition. Lives, coin, grain — pile them onto the front line. If you produce more people than you lose, and grow more grain than you consume, the war can go on endlessly. Whoever can't sustain the attrition loses."

Liu Chengzong laughed as he listened. He agreed with Yang Qi's argument, but the way it sounded… the advantage was not on his side.

On this point, Liu the Lion had self-awareness. Ever since he had taken control of Hehuang, the Yellow River line had become a war front.

Even though the Marshal's Headquarters had done everything in its power to minimize the impact of warfare, smallpox, and drought, in Hehuang the number of deaths each year had still exceeded the number of births.

Only last year had the figures approached parity.

It was only because he had been constantly expanding and continuously drawing more people into Hehuang that the population growth under his rule looked impressive.

Of course, in a horizontal comparison, Hehuang was probably the place in the northwest with the fewest deaths in recent years, but there wasn't much point comparing… who was he supposed to compare with? In all of Shaanxi, apart from that small patch of Guanzhong, where else was there any place that could even be called governed?

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "You think we can sustain an attrition war?"

"We can!"

Yang Qi answered with firm conviction, then shook his head and said: "Marshal, you absolutely must not attack Ningxia. The places where we should be deploying troops right now are, first, Liangzhou; second, Songshan; third, Qinzhou."

Having said this, he laughed: "As long as our army makes a slight move toward attacking Songshan, the Ming forces in the Zhuanglang River Valley will scatter on their own. By then, even if you, Marshal, don't sever Long, Hong Chengchou will sever Long. Even if the court replaces him with someone else as Supreme Commander of the Three Frontiers, they will still sever Long."

"Because historically, Gansu's grain accounts barely balance on paper, but in reality it relies on supplies from Lanzhou. And the court's situation is even more helpless — they have to transport grain from Guanzhong."

"Just as you said earlier, Marshal, the Marquis of Wu's northern expedition was a thousand years ago. Back then, Hexi's troops were self-sufficient in grain. Now Hexi is a blank wasteland — even if there were people, they'd be hard to settle, let alone the fact that the Marshal's Headquarters no longer has the surplus strength for a distant expedition and a major battle, and the court has even less."

Yang Qi's words were very interesting. He explained Hong Chengchou's actions from a different angle, and in those actions, Liu Chengzong saw his past self.

To be precise, the strategy Hong Chengchou was using was exactly the standard tactic of the roving bandits — a great stride of retreat on the battlefield, stretching the government troops' operational radius and pulling open gaps.

Only, what Hong Chengchou wanted to stretch was Liu Chengzong's supply line. By trying to lure Liu Chengzong into a great stride forward through abandoning territory, he sought to drag the Marshal's Army down to the same position as the government troops.

Of course, Liu Chengzong believed Hong Chengchou did not have that much boldness — he had simply been beaten to the point of having no other choice, suffering repeated battlefield defeats, and finally retreating by going with the flow… Still, it was rather clever.

Just then, Fengweizhen, who was in charge of the artillery, stepped forward and said: "Marshal, the cannons are ready."

"Open fire. Aim at the city wall. Try to land at least one shot."

Liu Chengzong smiled and patted Yang Qi. "I'll consider what you've said. Let's first see how the cannon fire hits the wall."

Operating a heavy cannon weighing a full five thousand seven hundred jin was no small test for the Marshal's Army artillerymen, and at a distance of four li, it was hard to speak of any accuracy.

Liu Chengzong was not a professional artillery commander — his cannons and gun crews had always been operated by others — but after so many years of war, having seen every type of cannon, he knew full well the difficulty of bombarding a city wall from four li away.

He had great confidence in the quality of his artillerymen, but the cannons of this era had to obey fundamental laws — they were simply not easy to aim accurately. The best cannon, the best gunner, firing at a target two zhang wide and six chi tall from two li away, could only manage one hit in six shots.

In Hehuang during peacetime, at every grand drill, this was precisely the exercise each gun squad practiced: a thousand-jin cannon firing thirty-six shots in one quarter-hour, landing six hits — the entire gun squad would receive mutton and milk wine personally distributed by Liu Chengzong.

At this distance, all those sighting gauges and mathematics were pure crap — a target this large was just a line at two li.

On the battlefield, this was the width and height of a Battalion Commander's column formation appearing at two li. At this distance, there was no way to distinguish where a man's head or chest was; you could only tell whether it was cavalry or infantry.

Gunners of this caliber, gun crews with this rate of fire — anywhere under heaven, they were the elite of the elite. A thousand jin of gunpowder couldn't even produce one.

That was why, when attacking a city, Liu Chengzong always demanded the cannons close to within one li and fire on the battlements and crenellations — because at one li, accuracy effectively improved to one hit in three shots.

Fortunately, Liangzhou City was very tall. Even at four li, it looked more than twice as large as their daily training targets. Only then did Liu Chengzong have the confidence to have the artillery fire three shots and at least land one.

To his absolute surprise, the artillery fired shot after shot, and Liu Chengzong, holding his telescope, reaped extraordinary delight — they had landed two hits, and one had even struck a crenellation!

Pure luck. Liu the Lion was one hundred percent certain — pure luck.

What disappointed him, however, was that the heavy cannon's power was not as earth-shattering or as immense as he had imagined.

On the wall face, it merely pulverized a few of the outermost city bricks, cracked a few bricks on the second layer, and didn't even reach the face of the third layer. The only thing that gratified him was the shot that hit the crenellation — it blasted the crenellation clean open.

To achieve the same effect with a thousand-jin cannon would have required at least three shots.

For Li Hongsi and the other Liangzhou garrison commanders, however, what brought them the greatest shock was actually the shot that missed — because the belatedly reacting Li Hongsi had the garrison search the city for the cannonball, and they couldn't find it.

That cannonball had grazed the edge of a crenellation on the west wall, flown clear across the entire city of Liangzhou, and landed outside the East Gate, deeply embedding itself in the irrigated earth and leaving a hole a chi deep.

For the vast majority of soldiers, a cannonball damaging a crenellation was perfectly normal, and a cannonball flying clear over the entire city of Liangzhou was also perfectly normal — but a cannonball that could damage a crenellation and then fly clear over the entire city of Liangzhou, that was not normal.

When Li Hongsi heard the soldiers report that the cannonball had been fired from outside the West Gate and landed outside the East Gate, he was utterly dumbfounded.

What the hell kind of thing was this?

In a field battle, this thing would be an absolute terror — before you even saw anyone, a cannonball would land right on your head.

He decided on the spot that he would rather die than leave the city. Inside the city, even if they took cannon fire, they could still hold out for a while. Leaving the city for a field battle would absolutely see them crushed to pulp by those heavy cannons.

Outside the city, meanwhile, Liu Chengzong was also reflecting on the cannon's range — they had loaded too much powder.

Traditionally, their cannons were loaded with powder equal in weight to the cannonball. This had worked very well with the light Lion Cannons and the medium thousand-jin cannons, and the artillerymen were all trained this way — they were most familiar with this powder charge, which satisfied both the power requirement and ensured the gunners' accuracy.

But for this type of heavy cannon, with a twenty-jin cannonball, loading twenty jin of powder seemed… unnecessary.

A thousand-jin cannon loaded with seven jin of powder, fired at maximum range with eyes closed, could at most reach six li. At that distance, even if the target was only as thin as a line, at least they could still see a line.

The heavy cannon, using a twenty-jin powder bag and a slightly higher firing angle, could reach beyond ten li — at that range, you truly couldn't even see a line. Whether for siege or field battle, this was a range they had absolutely no use for.

Although the Marshal's Headquarters was no pauper when it came to gunpowder, not being poor was no reason to waste it. Liu Chengzong estimated that for this cannon, using only half or even a third of the shot weight in powder would suffice.

Soon, he had an opportunity to experiment — fighting had broken out in the southeast.

Cavalry attached to Feng Rang's division's wagon camp, while occupying the Songshan frontier, had clashed with the Gulang garrison. Then, in just three shichen, five Ming detachments converged from Songshan, Maya Mountain, and the Zhuanglang River Valley — a full two thousand-plus Han and tribal horse and foot soldiers reached Gulang.

In terms of momentum, the Ming army immediately intimidated Feng Rang. In his entire life he had never seen Ming reinforcements arrive so swiftly, and he hurriedly had his scouts send word to Liu Chengzong, saying: "Commander, I think I've poked a hornet's nest!"

Liu Chengzong thought to himself, no kidding. Yang Qi just told me he felt the Ming army in the Zhuanglang River Valley couldn't hold out much longer and was about to retreat, and then their retreat route got cut off — of course they'd come swarming in.

Liu Shizi immediately sent word to Wei Qian'er's camp behind Feng Rang, informing him that the Ming army's intent was not to fight a pitched battle, but to use the Songshan Chongbian to flee toward Ningxia.

He told Wei Qian'er, don't try to stop all the enemies. I'm sending you a cannon — just pick a lucky one and pound them.

Liu Shizi had it all nicely figured out, but this army corps in the Zhuanglang River Valley had actually, upon hearing that Hong Chengchou was withdrawing toward Ningxia, deliberately turned north and come back to fight him.

This army corps had four commanders: Cao Wenzhao, Chai Shihua, Ding Shaoyin, and Bai Guang'en. Each of them had a reason they couldn't run.

The orders Cao Wenzhao and Bai Guang'en received were to garrison Zhuanglang Garrison and hold Songshan inside the second line of border walls.

Because Songshan was completely encircled by the Great Wall. Back when the Songshan Mongols caused trouble, it was precisely because the border wall connecting Ningxia and Liangzhou had been buried by yellow sand, and the Mongols simply walked over the sand into Songshan.

Later the court built border walls on the west, south, and east sides of Songshan, called the Songshan New Border. The core idea of the new border was to fence all the water sources, pastureland, and farmland outside, leaving only barren land inside, and to build fortresses in those places, forming the Songshan defense system.

Later, after defeating the Songshan Mongols, the court built another stretch of Great Wall north of Songshan and south of the old border wall that was prone to being buried by yellow sand, called the Songshan Chongbian.

If they couldn't hold Zhuanglang Garrison, even if the Ningxia border troops wanted to come, they'd have to go through the desert; otherwise they'd end up like the Songshan Mongols back then, trapped inside the border walls.

Ding Shaoyin and Chai Shihua's situations were a bit more complicated. Ding Shaoyin was the Assistant Commander of Liangzhou Garrison, and the troops he led were a wagon fort formed from Liangzhou Garrison's banner troops. Their families were still inside Liangzhou Garrison city, and besides, defending Liangzhou was their duty.

As for Chai Shihua, the troops he led were Yang Jiamo's personal battalion. Now that Yang Jiamo was dead and Gansu's last troops had all withdrawn to Liangzhou city... this was the collective will of these personal battalion soldiers, not Chai Shihua's.

For Chai Shihua himself, he cared more about where his clansmen were — he was from Xining Garrison, and the Chai family dependents had long ago been sent into Xining city by Liu Xiangyu to be well cared for, ever since Liu Chengzong occupied Hehuang.

So ever since he led his troops into the Zhuanglang River Valley, whenever others slowly advanced, he stayed put; whenever others charged fiercely forward, he ambled along at a leisurely pace, and even called it, in fine-sounding terms, protecting the wagon fort.

But in reality, when Ding Shaoyin's wagon fort was heavily besieged by Xie Erhu and Basang, the greatest effort Chai Shihua made was to send cavalry charging through the barrier wall to deliver a message, telling Ding Shaoyin there were still reinforcements behind him and to hold on tight.

If Cao Wenzhao and Bai Guang'en hadn't entered the river valley, Ding Shaoyin would have been finished long ago.

So Chai Shihua was in a very awkward position at the moment. If he obediently went to Ningxia, he feared others would report him for holding back his troops. If he didn't go to Ningxia, he feared the men under him, Yang Jiamo's personal troops, wouldn't be happy about it... Life always presents difficult choices; you can't have both fish and bear's paw. He could only lead the most elite troops to drag his allies down a bit.

When Liu Chengzong's letter reached Wei Qian'er's hands, Wei Qian'er was on his way to the front line. After reading it, he stopped feeling rushed, thinking to himself, the Commander said these people are trying to flee toward Ningxia, so I'll wait until I get the cannon before advancing further.

And so, two days dragged by. Feng Rang was also a straightforward man — he felt he could hold off the enemy, and since the Grand Marshal already knew the battlefield situation, he didn't bother telling Wei Qian'er again. Right there, he led a single wagon fort and blocked over ten thousand troops for three days.

It wasn't that Feng Rang was so ferocious; the Gulang Defense Post really was a place easy to defend and hard to attack. Mountains on three sides, the river in the gorge squeezed between two mountains as it flowed out. The ancients said that on the Jingxing Road, carts couldn't travel side by side and cavalry couldn't form ranks — that's roughly the idea here.

The mountain path heading south was especially narrow, but even the pass heading north wasn't very wide once you came out, just a little over one li.

Even the fortress at Gulang Defense Post was very small. Take Liangzhou city: five zhang high, city perimeter over eleven li. Gulang Post: two zhang high, city perimeter four hundred sixty-five paces — equivalent to a sports field plus bleachers, and the kind of sports field without a basketball court at that.

This tiny fort essentially blocked the narrowest mountain pass from Gulang Gorge leading to Liangzhou. And Feng Rang, leading a fully-manned wagon fort with numerous cannons, set up a wagon formation roughly matching the layout of Gulang Fort — the entire valley was within his firing range.

When Wei Qian'er arrived at the battlefield, he saw from far off that the valley was smoking. Two wagon forts of identical organization and identical cannons had set up their wagon formations in the narrow valley, one north and one south, blasting away at each other with cannons large and small — clang clang — intensely exciting.

He turned his head to look within his army at the "Mighty Grand General" Liu Chengzong had sent him, pulled by eight horses, then turned back toward the wagon fort that was trading fire with Feng Rang. In that moment, his eyes shone with the light of a hunter thrilled at the sight of prey.

"Move, move, move! Let's go test the cannon!"

Good evening!