Chapter 557

In the Marshal's yamen at Lanzhou, Liu Chengzong was receiving Li Hongsi, who had hurried over from Liangzhou.

Two days earlier, Li Hongsi had sent men to deliver his surrender letter to Cao Yao, the Marshal's commander garrisoning Gansu. He had expected a warm welcome from the Marshal's Office, but instead Cao Yao marched troops straight into the Wuwei Oasis and, coordinating with Feng Rang's wagon corps at Gulang Gorge, surrounded Liangzhou.

The reason was that Li Hongsi's surrender terms were a bit too numerous.

The Liangzhou army had surrendered because their provisions were cut off, but taking them in was actually very troublesome — after all, they still retained their fighting strength. So even though Cao Yao had been granted full authority over Gansu by Liu Chengzong, Li Hongsi's demands still made his scalp crawl.

Among those demands, things like providing relief to the people of Liangzhou and forbidding the looting of the city — those Cao Yao could agree to. There wasn't much in the way of goods or army provisions left in Liangzhou anyway, and as for relieving the common people, that had always been Liu Chengzong's consistent policy; there was nothing to argue about there.

But Liangzhou had earlier held over ten thousand troops. After Cao Wenzhao was transferred to Ningxia, the city still had seven thousand men. Five thousand followed Li Hongsi in surrendering to the Marshal's Office, while another two thousand wanted to leave. Li Hongsi also hoped the Marshal's Office would agree to let them take their weapons and armor with them.

Seven thousand troops or five thousand troops — whether as an enemy army in wartime or a surrendered army after, neither was a small number.

Inducing surrender, pacifying, resettling, stationing, army provisions — all of it was trouble.

Cao Yao sent a letter reporting to Lanzhou, outlining the general situation of the surrender and proposing that Li Hongsi be sent to Lanzhou for an audience first, while the Gansu side used that time to get a clear picture of the surrendered troops.

The moment Liu Chengzong saw this letter, he understood the complex mix of wariness, delight, and regard Cao Yao felt toward this surrendered army.

Wariness toward a surrendered army was perfectly normal; delight toward a surrendered army was also perfectly normal.

With this army's surrender, all of Gansu fell into the hands of the Marshal's Office, and it had even won considerable popular support… The five thousand troops who stayed were all local Gansu border troops. The two thousand who wanted to leave were all guest troops from Shaanxi, half of whom came from Li Hongsi's own original command.

Li Hongsi had retreated from Ganzhou to Liangzhou. His own troops had already suffered heavy losses — some had surrendered to the Marshal's Office, some had turned bandit and become horse bandits. By the time he finally withdrew to Liangzhou, not many of his original men remained. Now, with another portion pulling out, he was naturally a Vice General without any troops of his own.

A man like that could be trusted after surrendering.

But regarding the surrendered troops was not so normal. Defeated subordinates — what was there to regard so highly?

Still, after looking at the list Cao Yao had sent, Liu Chengzong thought: Hmm… the regard was not without reason.

In this army of five thousand that had gathered from the entire Gansu campaign as they retreated eastward, the concentration of officers was far too high. There were no fewer than five Regional Commanders alone — Zhao Zhirui, Lin Chengdong, Sheng Lue, Fang Maogong, Li Changling — and even more Brigade Commanders and Company Commanders below them.

Liu Chengzong was stunned when he saw that number. The Gansu Garrison had four Defense Regional Commanders: Zhao Zhirui, Regional Commander of Suzhou; Lin Chengdong, Regional Commander of Ganzhou; Lu Yunchang, Regional Commander of Zhuanglang; and Liu Shaozong, who during the war had served as Regional Commander of Liangzhou and acting Vice General. He had fought them all — no, he hadn't fought Liu Shaozong, but they had exchanged letters beneath the walls of Liangzhou, so that counted as having dealt with him.

Among them, Lu Yunchang had been driven off. Liu Shaozong was besieged inside the city and was not on the current surrender list; it looked like he intended to head for Ningxia. Also absent from the list was a certain Xiang Xiyin, another old veteran who often fought alongside Liu Shaozong — a Metropolitan Graduate of the military examinations from Puzhou in Shanxi.

Apart from these four, the rest were Regional Commanders under the General Commander and the Grand Coordinator. But Yang Jiamo's Regional Commander was Chai Shihua, who had fled to the west. Even counting Bai Yiqing's Grand Coordinator's Guard Battalion, there shouldn't have been this many Regional Commanders.

It was not until Li Hongsi arrived in Lanzhou that he cleared up this puzzle for Liu Chengzong.

"Those three were all Regional Commanders before. They all retired a few years ago when they turned fifty-five. All are Gansu men. When the Grand Commander attacked east this time, the three generals re-recruited their old subordinates and household retainers and offered their services to the army."

As Li Hongsi spoke of these three men, a note of regret crept into his voice. "Unfortunately, by the time they offered their services, the Grand Commander had already taken Ganzhou. Liangzhou alone could hardly mount a counteroffensive, so they endured nine months of misery with me inside the city — and surrendered."

The Ming retirement system originally set the retirement age at seventy under the Yuan. Zhu Yuanzhang lowered it to sixty, and by the reign of the Hongzhi Emperor it was lowered further to fifty-five. First came a promotion in rank, then the granting of cap and girdle, and finally a stipend according to regulations: those of rank three and above received their original official salary; those of rank four and below were promoted one rank and paid accordingly.

"Retirement with cap and girdle" meant they retained their official status after retiring. The promotion in rank was a matter of considerable prestige — for example, if a man's epitaph recorded him as a Vice Commissioner-in-Chief of rank 2b, then his actual official post before retirement was most likely a Commander of rank 3a or an Assistant Commissioner-in-Chief.

So when Liu Chengzong attacked Gansu, for these three retired old men it was a matter of life and death. They had to fight for their retirement pay.

One of the very important missions Li Hongsi had come for this time was to ask on their behalf whether the Marshal's Office would look after the Great Ming's retired old men.

The moment Liu the Lion heard this, he laughed. You shed your blood and gave your lives for the Great Ming, worked your whole lives, and now you come to me asking for your retirement pay, is that it?

He was fretting over provisions right now. The twenty thousand civilians in Liangzhou had to be taken care of. Based on the famine relief standard of three dou of grain per adult per month and one dou five sheng per child, supplying them for six months came to nearly thirty thousand shi of grain.

And the five thousand surrendered troops in Liangzhou — even if all were supplied at the half-ration rate for auxiliary troops, feeding them for a year would still take thirty thousand shi of grain. And keeping troops on such a low standard for a year would certainly cause their physical condition to deteriorate considerably.

At a time like this, Li Hongsi came running over to talk to Liu Chengzong about supporting the Ming army's retired old men. Liu the Lion didn't even want to acknowledge him.

"Those three's salaries could feed three large battalions of my troops. If they have the ability, let them move their entire families to Hehuang and serve me as training officers. I'm willing to grant them the rank of Brigade Commander. Train a few battalions of troops over a few years…" Liu Chengzong raised a hand and pointed to the sky. "When the weather turns favorable in a few years, I'll allow them to retire at rank three."

"If they don't have the ability, they'd best just rest at home early on."

Hearing this, Li Hongsi felt somewhat relieved. He quickly clasped his fists and bowed. "Then I thank the Grand Commander on behalf of the three old generals for his great benevolence."

Three old generals who had joined the army in the Wanli era — they certainly all had ability. Training troops was no problem for them. He had only been worried that Liu Chengzong would ignore them. Now that he had said he would grant them the rank of Brigade Commander, even if the official post was a bit low, at least it was an official rank recognized by the Marshal's Office.

Most crucially, they wouldn't have to go out to war — just training officers. For military men, that was the safest possible treatment.

"They'll have to work."

Liu Chengzong waved his hand, then turned his gaze to Li Hongsi. "We'll set those three aside. You, Lin Chengdong, Zhao Zhirui — you could all go to Ningxia and continue as officials and generals. None of you are leaving?"

These were all high-ranking generals of Gansu — General Commanders, Vice Generals, Regional Commanders, and Mobile Corps Commanders. It was practically a grand gift package of talent reserves delivered by the Gansu campaign.

Li Hongsi shook his head. His expression was calm, but bitterness welled up inside. He opened his mouth, paused, then said, "Gansu… is too far."

He had fought his whole life for the Great Ming, campaigning east and west, and had never once considered surrender. Even when Liu Chengzong swept through Gansu like splitting bamboo, he hadn't thought of it — his life in the saddle was too busy; a man could die at any moment, with no chance at all to think about this and that.

Until he was trapped in Liangzhou for nine months. Nine months was far too long — so long that weeds grew in a man's heart. Even he could not help pondering the road ahead. Naturally, he came up with no answer; the future was utterly bleak.

He surrendered to the Marshal's Office not because the army's provisions were exhausted, but because of all the General Commanders and Vice Generals in Gansu, he was now the only one left. If he truly died in this war, he might even earn an imperial altar sacrifice. But if he returned alive, the blame for Gansu's fall would surely be heaped on his back — and then, living would be worse than dying.

As for Zhao Zhirui, Lin Chengdong, and the others, their reasons for surrendering to the Marshal's Office were different from his.

To fight Liu Chengzong, they had been defeated again and again. So many had died. They had retreated into Liangzhou, stripped the countryside bare, endured hunger for nine months, tried every means to scrape together provisions, been cursed at behind their backs by their own fellow countrymen, slaughtered warhorses, donkeys, mules, even plow oxen, all while waiting for the court's relief army to launch a counteroffensive. For what?

Because Liu Chengzong was a rebel army, an enemy. And because Supreme Commander Hong Chengchou had said that if they held Liangzhou, a counteroffensive would come in the spring of this year.

Gansu might be far, but two hundred seventy-plus days — even if you marched only fifteen li a day, even if the relief army was in Fujian, they should have arrived by now.

Fine. Gansu was too far. There was no relief army.

But last year the Later Jin invaded Xuan-Da, and the Marshal's Office sent troops — sent troops at the court's invitation. Without alarm or danger, they borrowed a route through Ningxia and marched out.

Until He Huchen ran up to the walls of Liangzhou and called out to them to go fight the Eastern Caitiffs together, not a single soldier on the walls believed it. Gansu was so far away that the court's relief army couldn't even get here — how could you possibly have gone all the way to Xuan-Da?

But they really had gone. The relief army from Qinghai reached the Xuan-Da defense line. The relief army from Ji Garrison also reached the Xuan-Da defense line. The whole counterattack was fought brilliantly. But what did any of that have to do with Gansu?

To be honest, hearing Li Hongsi say the words "Gansu is too far" with his own mouth — even Liu Chengzong felt a little sympathy. He knew perfectly well what that meant: Gansu was too far from Beijing. They were the ones who had been abandoned. Even more — the ones who had been betrayed.

"The court is using troops everywhere. It happened to coincide with the Eastern Caitiffs' invasion. They couldn't attend to Gansu… Ah."

Those words were not spoken by Li Hongsi, but by Liu Chengzong. He sighed. "The world is a hard place. I'm not comforting you — nor could I possibly comfort you. That so many Gansu generals are willing to come over to me, I couldn't be happier. I just don't want to deceive you."

Liu Chengzong said to Li Hongsi, "The Ming army clashed with my Monan Commandery Prince's Office beyond the Xuan-Da frontier. There were also a few engagements over in Ningxia. They didn't exactly betray you, either."

Li Hongsi's mood had been somewhat low a moment before. Suddenly hearing Liu Chengzong say this, he was directly amused. He truly could not guess in what capacity Liu the Lion was comforting him, and couldn't help letting out a laugh. Only then did he suppress his smile and say solemnly, "The Grand Commander need not comfort me. I am a guest general from Shaanxi. They are the men of Gansu."

It was precisely because Li Hongsi was a guest general that he could see more objectively the court's emptiness and weakness in the northwest, and… that in the court's eyes, the northwest could not even be mentioned in the same breath as Northern Zhili and Liaodong.

Thinking of this, he shook his head helplessly. Only then did he rally his spirits and say to Liu Chengzong, "Grand Commander, I have a request. I earnestly hope the Grand Commander will grant it."

"Speak first."

"The Grand Commander knows the situation in Shaanxi now. Those two thousand troops who wish to leave — could the Grand Commander permit them to depart with their weapons and armor, following Liu Shaozong?"

"Leave with weapons and armor?"

Liu Chengzong pondered briefly, then slowly shook his head.

Seeing this, Li Hongsi hurriedly said, "They'll leave the firearms behind and take only iron armor and military coats, bows, sabers, and six arrows. Commander, they must take something to defend themselves."

Leave the firearms behind?

Liu Chengzong couldn't help it — he turned his head and broke into a smile. That Liu Shaozong's ancestor was Liu Sheng, a Centurion of the Yan Mountain Guard during the Yongle reign, who earned merit and was enfeoffed as the Marquis of Anyuan, and established the world's first standing firearms unit, the Divine Machine Battalion.

Making the troops he commands leave their firearms behind is basically leaving behind everything his ancestors built.

But Liu the Lion didn't care about these things. With the growing development of the Sun Moon Mountain Arsenal, newly manufactured arms were already sufficient to re-equip the Marshal's Mansion's various field battalions, and the firearms they fielded had long since moved beyond the influence of Ming army standard-issue fire weapons. Captured firearms were, to him, merely better than nothing — just a few more guns for recruits to train with and carry.

Comparatively, the armor was of somewhat greater use, but the two thousand soldiers leaving with Liu Shaozong were not a large number, and the weapons and armor they carried were not many. To him, they were equally dispensable.

His reason for not letting those two thousand troops take weapons and armor was, in truth, simply to preserve their lives — or to preserve the lives of others.

Liu the Lion had thought this through very clearly. Those defeated soldiers who would not surrender to him had only two choices: either follow Liu Shaozong to Ningxia, or desert and return to Shaanxi.

Going to Ningxia meant defecting to the enemy. The maximum Liu Chengzong could tolerate was letting them go to Ningxia empty-handed, so that Hong Chengchou would have to prepare armor, weapons, and provisions for them. And if the defeated troops deserted and returned to Shaanxi, they absolutely could not be allowed to take weapons and armor.

He remembered with perfect clarity how, back during the great battle of Hehuang, Ming army stragglers carrying weapons and armor had been hunted down by the common people in the Hehuang Valley.

Weapons and armor held immense allure for village militiamen. Without weapons, there would be no killing intent. Without killing intent, they would choose a safer route home, or simply choose to go to Ningxia.

Conversely, if they had weapons and armor, a band of twenty veterans could chase down and slaughter dozens, even over a hundred, roving bandits or militiamen. Shaanxi was nearly depopulated. No matter who killed whom, it was a situation Liu Chengzong was loath to see.

These defeated soldiers who had lost their confidence at Liangzhou remaining in the army in Ningxia and becoming a burden to Hong Chengchou — that was the best outcome in Liu Chengzong's eyes. Hence, they could not carry weapons.

So he said gravely, "There is no need to discuss this further. All military equipment must be left behind. I will give them ten days' marching rations. I have done all that can be expected."

"But Commander, without weapons to defend themselves, even wild beasts on the road could devour them."

"Wild beasts? General Li, our Great Ming court is rife with entrenched abuses, and indeed many officials are mere placeholders who do nothing, but you are underestimating our Great Ming's official troops far too much."

Liu the Lion looked at Li Hongsi and smiled. "They'll be fine. Cutting wood for weapons won't leave them to be devoured by beasts. How about this — for the sake of us all being from the same region, I will have Commandant Cao send Liu Shaozong two hundred long spears, one hundred garrison bows, and six hundred arrows. That will be enough for them to return home safely."

Li Hongsi had nothing more to say. Liu Chengzong's meaning was abundantly clear: two thousand men, given two hundred long spears and one hundred garrison bows — that was telling him plainly that he would not provide that unit with anything for fighting a battle.

Anything over one zhang was a pike, used in large formations for major battles. Under one zhang was a spear, the standard weapon for couriers at post stations and express relay stations, more convenient for moving and shifting in individual combat — but in a military formation, it meant certain death. As for garrison bows, they were essentially bows made by the banner troops' own bowyers, with a draw weight generally around forty jin. Even if all two thousand men were fully equipped with these two things, they couldn't be taken out to fight a war.

Just then, Zhang Yichuan arrived.

Good afternoon!

(End of Chapter)