Chapter 532: Southern Expedition Reserve Battalion

For three full days and nights after taking control of Lanzhou, Liu Chengzong reviewed all the outstanding issues the Marshal's headquarters had accumulated since the northern expedition.

Once that was done, he slept a deep, satisfying sleep. When he woke again, brimming with energy, he dispatched couriers in all directions — sending orders to Gansu Governor Cao Yao and to Zhang Tianlin, who was garrisoned along the Zhuanglang River valley, and sending men to contact the various rebel kings of the Qinling ranges. He wanted to wipe out the Ming forces in Hexi completely before next spring arrived.

Using Lanzhou as the hub, he could clearly feel that orders and intelligence were flowing down and back far more smoothly. This was largely thanks to the two express relay routes his father, Liu Xiangyu, had established in He-Huang during his northern campaign.

Originally, once Liu Chengzong reached Lanzhou, Liu Xiangyu had planned to shut down these two temporary express routes. From their establishment to the present, three months' expenses had exceeded four thousand seven hundred taels, and they had delivered only six letters in total — the input and output were truly disproportionate.

If Liu Chengzong had been in Gansu, for Liu Xiangyu this would have been a safeguard. The express route could go unused, but if some piece of news could turn the tide of war, he could get it into his second son's hands at the earliest possible moment. Even if it was just a single letter, no matter how great the investment, it would have been worth it.

But now that Lion Liu was back, surrounded by their own massed armies in Lanzhou, these two express routes no longer needed to exist, as far as Liu Xiangyu was concerned.

Yet Liu Chengzong would not allow it, because Liangzhou had not yet surrendered. The Marshal's headquarters' territory still had a missing piece, not yet linked into a continuous whole, and urgent reports from the Gansu Governor's office still had to cross the Qilian Mountains to reach He-Huang.

It was precisely because this extremely costly express route existed that Feng Rang's battalion, camped at the Gulang Gorge pass on the Lanzhou front line — a journey of five hundred li from Lanzhou — took two days and one night for a letter to arrive, even by express.

That stretch had winding mountain roads where horses could not even break into a run, and for part of the way, relay station soldiers had to carry the messages on foot in alternating shifts. By contrast, the thousand-li road from Ganzhou to Lanzhou that Cao Yao traveled could cut straight south through a Qilian Mountain pass controlled by the five Yellow Fan tribes. Using the super-fast He-Huang express route, a letter could reach Lanzhou in just a single day and night.

Even though this thing cost over a thousand taels extra each month, Liu Chengzong felt it was well worth it. At the very least, until Liangzhou surrendered, the express relay route would continue to operate.

In a state of constant, gnawing anxiety, Feng Shuangli led his troops across the Yellow River. Only after entering Xigu did he meet up with Li Laochai, who was reorganizing his army there, and then he entered Lanzhou city for an audience with Liu Chengzong, where he learned that he was to be sent to Ü-Tsang as a reserve battalion.

As far as Feng Shuangli was concerned, it did not matter where he went. Broadly speaking, all the officers of the Western Brigade naturally accepted Liu Chengzong's leadership... They had once been Wang Jiayin's army, later became Zhang Xianzhong's army, and now they had become Liu Chengzong's army.

People climb upward. Zhang Xianzhong could give them more wealth than Wang Jiayin, and Liu Chengzong could give them greater authority than Zhang Xianzhong.

Of course, more important than the power that came with official rank was the sense of unhurried security. In this world, nothing set one's mind at ease more than the eight hundred thousand mu of grain fields in the He-Huang Valley and the three hundred thousand shi of stored grain in Xining.

If there was anything, it was the million mu of irrigated fields in Lanzhou's Jin County.

The day Feng Shuangli entered the city, Zhang Xianzhong also learned the news. He was the only man in the Western Brigade dissatisfied with the current state of affairs — after all, following someone else was not as good as calling the shots himself. But Old Zhang had no choice at the moment; his army had already been thrown into disarray by Liu Chengzong's Military Office.

The Western Brigade had six thousand men in total, and Lion Liu had appointed four Battalion Commandants from it. Take Feng Shuangli, the Right Battalion Commandant of the Western Brigade: of the twelve hundred men under him, five hundred were formerly the troops of Squad Leader Bai Wenxuan, who was now the Left Battalion Commandant.

Everyone knew this was the Marshal's headquarters' method of dividing and dissolving them, but what use was knowing it?

With this organizational structure, even building a Guan Yu Temple would test a commander's social skills. When it really came to fighting, if the Western Brigade's four battalions attacked individually as chiliarch formations, they would surely be fierce as tigers. But the moment those four so-called Battalion Commandants — really just overgrown chiliarchs — launched a joint attack, the battle would inevitably descend into chaos.

Yet Zhang Xianzhong supported Feng Shuangli's entry into Tibet with both hands. If necessary, he would even have raised both feet.

There were two main reasons for this. The first was something Liu Chengzong would not tell him: sending Feng Shuangli into Tibet was to scout the path for him.

Lion Liu's explanation was that the Western Brigade's four battalions were understrength; the Marshal's headquarters currently had limited armor and weapon production capacity, some manpower shortages, and there was no such large troop deficit on the He-Huang side. However, as a newly submitted army, the Western Brigade ought to have its manpower gradually brought up to full strength.

So, they would first dispatch Feng Shuangli to lead his troops into Kangning Prefecture, with orders for Kangning's Prefect, Liu Guoneng, to cooperate — replenishing his troops, training them, and at the same time stationing them in Chamdo as a reserve force for after Li Laochai entered Tibet.

Zhang Xianzhong believed this was Liu Chengzong's endorsement of his Fengyang and Xiangyang strategy, and that he was now preparing troops for his operation.

Otherwise, the Marshal's headquarters currently had what could only be called a massive concentration of forces on both banks of the Yellow River at Lanzhou. Under Brigade Commander Wang Wenxiu were the four battalions of Luo Rucai, Li Wanqing, Yang Chengzu, and Li Laochai; under Lintao Brigade Commander Shi Xiang were the three battalions of the Central Army, Zhang Yunqi, and Li Zude.

In He-Huang were the two Mongol-Tibetan brigades of Basang and Xie Erhu, not to mention the two great camps of Lanzhou's Wei Qian'er and Huangyangchuan's Zhang Tianlin under Brigade Commander Yang Yao.

Add to that Feng Rang's great camp at Gulang Pass directly under Liu Chengzong, and the four small battalions of over two thousand men each — Huben, Gan, Su, and Liang — which he personally led. In Zhang Xianzhong's eyes, the Marshal's headquarters had no need to expand its army at all.

But now Liu Chengzong really was going to replenish the Western Brigade's manpower. What other reason could there be? His own strategic suggestion must have been adopted.

Our Old Zhang just figured the Grand Marshal was that kind of guy — pretty tsundere. I've adopted your suggestion, but I'm not saying so.

He didn't feel Liu Chengzong had deceived him, because Xining Prefecture moved extremely fast. The day after Liu Chengzong sent a letter, they had prepared enough uniforms, bedding, tools, felt tents, livestock, gunpowder, and vehicles for an entire battalion — all ready-made.

While arming the Western Brigade's Right Battalion, Xining Prefecture was also resupplying the Gansu and Liang battalions. Thus, Zhang Xianzhong was able to see the military equipment the Marshal's headquarters had prepared to issue to Feng Shuangli's unit. It was truly beyond reproach.

The standard-issue goose-quill sabers were excellently forged. The soldiers' uniforms were cotton jackets lined with leather armor. The boots, though a bit heavy, were solidly made and very warm. Officers of every rank were also issued cashmere tabards. The cotton quilts for covering and the felt mats for sleeping on were all finely crafted.

Only the felt tents and vehicles were old, but this was something one really couldn't complain about.

Because the Marshal's headquarters simply had no military tent industry. Liu Chengzong was a king of junk; even the tent he himself used was scavenged. Moreover, over the years, the Marshal's army had scavenged tens of thousands of military tents — they couldn't possibly use them all.

Zhang Xianzhong was extremely satisfied with everything the Marshal's headquarters provided. The only thing was that Feng Shuangli's Western Brigade Right Battalion did not receive armor. The armor produced by the arsenal was all urgently needed to resupply the Gansu and Liang battalions, and a batch also had to be set aside for the Oirats. Therefore, the plan was for all the new recruits Feng Shuangli raised in Kangning Prefecture to serve as musketeers.

So their equipment consisted only of a single saber each, plus over two hundred lead balls and powder charges, and ten coils of match cord.

Feng Shuangli's trip to Lanzhou was merely a formality — to meet Liu Chengzong, have their army's drill inspected, and hear the Marshal's headquarters' military regulations and reward-and-punishment measures read aloud.

Then they would march to New City. There, they would be supplemented with thirty-six instructors familiar with Mongol and Tibetan languages, collect their equipment, and drive their carts to Kangning Prefecture. Once there, they would recruit another two thousand four hundred men, put uniforms on them, receive Kangning-made muskets, and go straight into training.

Everything was arranged.

Feng Shuangli initially had some distrust of Kangning Prefecture-made muskets and still hoped to draw his firearms from Xining Prefecture. But Liu Chengzong had great trust in the Kangning Prefecture arsenal's Armaments Bureau.

Because as early as when Yang Dingrui and Cao Yao were partnered up in Kangning, they had already discussed Kangning Prefecture's tax revenue issues.

At that time, Kangning Prefecture was still not self-sufficient. This discussion could barely be considered advance planning. Between the two prefectures lay a vast, sparsely populated pastoral region and high-altitude frigid zones, which created enormous obstacles to transporting supplies. The highland barley and dry rations collected there could only be consumed where they were collected in Kangning and could not possibly be shipped to Xining Prefecture.

And the local gold and silver output was not very large either. Although the vast land held rich mineral deposits, the difficulty of extraction varied after all. Easily mined deposits generally had small yields, while those with large reserves were not easy to mine.

Shipping small quantities held little significance for Liu Chengzong.

Therefore, for a very long time, Kangning Prefecture's tax payment consisted of weapons and armor. Later, after the New City arsenal was reorganized into workshops and assembly-line production, Kangning Prefecture's taxes were delivered directly to the Marshal's headquarters' Works Office.

The requirement Shi Chengwo set for that place was to forge musket barrels and armor plates. The armor plates, once forged, needed to be polished bright. The musket barrels, once hammered out, did not need to be bored or threaded — they were shipped directly to the New City arsenal, amounting to just under two hundred cartloads a year.

This "boring" was not drilling a hole through a solid steel rod. It was because, in this era, forging a musket barrel required wrapping an iron plate around an iron mandrel and hammering it into a tube, roughly maintaining a bore in the center. Once hammered out, the mandrel was then withdrawn.

But this was only rough shaping. The interior was not smooth or regular enough, so it needed further work using a boring machine to drill the inside of the barrel smooth. This step of the process universally used a boring machine. However, in the past, blacksmiths in Kangning had low status, lathes were not widespread, and they lacked experience in this area. Purely manual processing speed and yield rates were relatively low, so it was left for New City to do.

That said, Kangning Prefecture could do it too.

Threading followed the same logic. A musket barrel was open from front to back. To allow cleaning of unburnt residue from the bore when not in use, the breech end was usually not welded shut but sealed with a large screw. This required taps and dies to cut the threads. The New City arsenal had craftsmen who specialized in this specific process.

Therefore, in recent years, Kangning Prefecture had made considerable progress in manufacturing muskets. It was only lacking in a few key techniques, and it could fully meet the needs of Feng Shuangli's unit for recruiting two thousand four hundred men.

The time Liu Chengzong gave Li Laochai and Feng Shuangli was seven months.

They would reach Kangning Prefecture by the end of this year. Li Laochai's unit had experience garrisoning Kangning and should advance without hindrance. Feng Shuangli's twelve hundred men, ascending the plateau for the first time, would need a period to acclimate. This was the perfect opportunity to recruit troops and conduct integrated training.

He estimated that the three Huoluochi brothers in Ü-Tsang were probably already preparing to send him New Year's greetings by now, and the envoys who came would inevitably discuss the matter of borrowing troops.

By spring or summer of next year, these two battalions stationed in Chamdo could advance into Ü-Tsang.

Without a doubt, to ensure the coming year's campaign went smoothly, Kangning Prefecture had to begin now to prepare everything a war would require. First, they must dispatch merchant caravans and monk travelers into Ü-Tsang to scout more detailed intelligence. Second, they must prepare all the various war matériel, turning Kangning into a forward base for the invasion of Ü-Tsang.

These matters would have to be entrusted to the officer with the highest screen time in the Marshal's headquarters' various campaigns — Kangning Prefect, General Liu Guoneng.

Liu Chengzong felt this campaign would not be very difficult. The consolidated Kangning Prefecture already had sufficient energy to project power outward; it was merely constrained by the environment, and that power could only be directed toward Ü-Tsang.

At the very least, Kangning sat at the same high altitude as the Lhasa River Valley. By contrast, the route for moving troops from places like Luhuo toward Sichuan involved such extreme elevation changes over a short distance that it simply could not supply a large army. Unless Yazhou was occupied by the Marshal's headquarters, it would be impossible to send support troops from Luhuo or Dajianlu.

But what he could not gauge with certainty was the time frame and the cost of this campaign. He could only carefully and repeatedly exhort Li Laochai.

Li Laochai had a strong tendency to underestimate the army of Ü-Tsang. It wasn't just him — in fact, all the southern expedition commanders, including Liu Chengzong, held the Tsangpa Khan of Ü-Tsang in deep contempt.

After all, they knew perfectly well what the Sixteen Laws were and what the feudal system over there was like. They also understood very clearly the caliber of the army under Baima Taiji of the Huoluochi tribe — it couldn't be called utterly worthless, but Xie Erhu's fully equipped Mongol brigade could absolutely crush it.

And since Baima had survived and thrived in Tibet all this time, the level of the Tsangpa army was already glaringly obvious.

But Liu Chengzong was very worried about this contempt. The outcome of battle, after all, is a matter highly dependent on local conditions, with immense chance involved. In war as a whole, the weak defeating the strong does not exist; but in a single battle, the weak can indeed defeat the strong.

For him, the Marshal's Office's ability to project power into Ü-Tsang was extremely limited — not that it couldn't be done, but that he was unwilling. He could only send two battalions over there; any more and he would be unwilling.

But his repeated, earnest instructions left Li Laochai bewildered. He sensed that in the Grand Marshal's eyes, this expedition carried extraordinary significance, as if it were a piece of territory that absolutely had to be taken.

Having received this assignment, Li Laochai felt deeply dejected inside. What he wanted to attack was the Hexi Corridor, Ningxia, Guyuan, Guanzhong — anywhere would do. Those were real, major campaigns. A southern expedition into Ü-Tsang... just fell a little short.

It felt just like the Grand Marshal ordering him to march a thousand li west, into barren wasteland, to subdue some mountain king along the Golmud River.

Bandit suppression is just bandit suppression — no need to make it sound so grand.

After seeing Li Laochai off, Liu Chengzong leafed through the Liangzhou intelligence report sent over by Cao Yao. It said that Liu Chengzong's old friend Cao Wenzhao had given Wang Ziyong a beating at Yongchang, then withdrew back to Liangzhou City without pressing deeper.

Liu Chengzong studied the map over and over before finally finding a small mountain path on his own southward route. Still, he couldn't figure out why Cao Wenzhao would show up there... Did he really hate Wang Ziyong that much?

Regardless, Cao Wenzhao's arrival in Liangzhou as reinforcements greatly boosted the morale of the Liangzhou garrison. At the same time, however, it brought greater consumption of provisions to Liangzhou City, and soon a battle that was bound to happen would unfold beneath its walls.

Namely, the grain sown by the Marshal's Army, now tended by the Ming troops of Liangzhou — in the end, it would all come down to who reaped the harvest.

But at this critical juncture, Liu Chengzong got an earful.

The one scolding him was the Chongzhen Emperor, a thousand li away within the Forbidden City.

Good evening!