Chapter 650: The Grand Marshal Who Knows Nothing

On the sixth day of the ninth month, Zhao Kebian, the Director of the Hexi Bureau in the Ministry of War, entered Xi'an Prefecture.

Zhao Kebian had been serving in the Ministry of War for nearly two years, and the facts had proven that this job was truly no cushy post.

Even Liu Chengzong could see it — Zhao Kebian, who had climbed onto the Shaoling Plateau, had unexpectedly sprouted a few strands of white hair at his temples.

Over these nearly two years, the Ministry of War had practically been following behind Liu Chengzong cleaning up his mess; before they could even sort out the military registers and rewards and punishments for He-Huang, Gansu was suddenly taken into the fold, and off they went running to Gansu.

Before the work in Gansu was finished, Shaanxi had become new territory for the Marshal's headquarters, and Zhao Kebian's work these past two years could be described as rushing about frantically, far more grueling than fighting a war.

Now, Zhao Kebian had come running to the city of Xi'an Prefecture not only to record merits for the Marshal's army, but also to register the soldiers of the Marshal's army on the military rolls.

Because he, this Director of the Ministry of War, did not even know exactly how many brigades and how many battalions the Marshal's headquarters currently had.

But what Zhao Kebian absolutely never expected was that when he posed this question to Liu Chengzong, his Grand Marshal was actually stumped by him.

Liu Chengzong looked left and right, evading the question, and shook his head. "When we were fighting nonstop, there were no problems; the moment the fighting stops, flaws show up everywhere."

With the eastern campaign to pacify Guanzhong largely settled, the Marshal's army had absorbed surrendered officers and troops, creating a huge mess of irrational unit structures; furthermore, under the pressure of military provisions, they had been unable to reorganize in time and had to split the army across several prefectures just to eat.

The organization and garrisons of the Marshal's headquarters' army were at their most chaotic moment.

Liu the Lion calculated for a long while beneath the Buddha statue before saying to Zhao Kebian, "We have twenty-one battalions in Shaanxi, and in He-Huang..."

With Zhang Yichuan's ability and the situation in Henan, whether those five battalions could even survive was truly hard to say.

Faced with this scale of army, Zhao Kebian wore an expression of utter despair. "Grand Marshal, do all these men's military registrations... have to be filed under Hexi?"

"Ha, they certainly can't all be filed under Hexi!"

Liu Chengzong laughed. "But this is indeed a problem right now. The Marshal's Headquarters Ministry of War only has one Regional Military Affairs Bureau in Hexi — that's not enough. So, you come to Guanzhong."

Zhao Kebian had originally been beaming with joy upon hearing the first half of the sentence.

But upon hearing the second half, his face immediately fell again. He slightly raised the prosthetic hand on his right arm and said, "Grand Marshal, with my hand... am I really supposed to keep being a civil official?"

To be honest, two years ago, after he was wounded following the mounted assassination of the Guoshi Khan, when Liu Chengzong had him enter the Ministry of War to take up a civil post, Zhao Kebian had truly believed at the time that Liu Chengzong was giving him a leisurely sinecure to retire on.

But now that he had done it for two years, the Ministry of War in the Marshal's headquarters did hold great power, but serving those big-headed soldiers all day long was, damn it, far more exhausting than being a soldier.

When soldiers weren't at war, they at least had a garrison to hold; the Ministry of War was practically a mobile office, scurrying about outside all day long, from Kangning to Xining, from Xining to Liangzhou, from Liangzhou to Gansu, and now they had come running to Xi'an.

The key issue was that Zhao Kebian's greatest shortcoming lay in his arm — he had no right hand.

He had trained for two years; his left hand could hold a blade, but it could not grip a brush steadily.

In reality, lacking a right hand, he was certainly more suited to be a military officer than a civil official.

Because paperwork was an indispensable part of the job for a civil official, whereas a military officer's duty was commanding campaigns — personally fighting in close combat was not essential.

"Didn't I send people to look after your daily needs? Pick two clever ones to be your clerks; let them do the writing, and you just handle the stamping."

Liu Chengzong spoke on this matter with absolute finality, brooking no doubt. "The Ministry of War is of immense importance. Entrusting it to anyone else, I would not be at ease."

Hearing this, Zhao Kebian knew at once that the Grand Marshal was spouting nonsense again.

The Marshal's army had over a hundred thousand men, from top to bottom, and more than half were the Grand Marshal's trusted confidants; among these men, he, Zhao Kebian, did not even rank.

The sole reason Liu Chengzong wanted to keep him in the Ministry of War was that, as a model of one who achieved success in a single battle, he could not be allowed to die.

But there was no need to split hairs with Liu Chengzong over this. Zhao Kebian had worked in the Ministry of War for two years and was no longer the brash youth he once was; he knew he could not change Liu Chengzong's mind.

Therefore, he simply asked, "If I come to Shaanxi, what about Hexi and Gansu?"

"The Ministry of War's Regional Military Affairs Bureau will be relocated here. In Xining, Ganzhou, and Xi'an, we will each establish one Chief Clerk and one Administrative Clerk to oversee the military registers and affairs of each province."

"For Qinghai matters, let Song Shouzhen handle them according to the old ways; transfer Jing Xiaoliu to Gansu to set up the framework. As for the Chief Clerk in Shaanxi, that Wu Panlong, the one with a licentiate background, is idle — use him."

Having said this, Liu Chengzong looked at Zhao Kebian and said, "As for you, see where you feel comfortable. If you're willing to stay in Lanzhou, then stay in Lanzhou first; if you're willing to be in Xi'an, then just stay here for good, so you won't have to run around again later."

On the matter of his posting, Zhao Kebian didn't even need to think. He immediately said, "Grand Marshal, I'll stay in Xi'an. I'm tired of running."

Liu Chengzong was happy to see it happen and readily agreed.

Just as the two had settled this matter, Zhao Kebian took a letter from his bosom and presented it, saying, "Grand Marshal, this is a letter that Master Craftsman Shi asked me to bring to you when I passed through Lanzhou."

"Shi Chengwo?"

Liu Chengzong nodded as he accepted the letter, gestured for Zhao Kebian to rest on the side for now, and waved for the Plumed Guardsman standing in attendance before the Buddha hall to serve tea. Then he opened the letter and read it.

It was rather amusing — seeing that this letter was delivered privately by Zhao Kebian, he had thought some problem had arisen on Shi Chengwo's end.

He never expected that when he unfolded the letter with both hope and apprehension, what he saw was a development prospect plan for the Marshal's headquarters' military industry.

Shi Chengwo proposed that the Marshal's headquarters' Ministry of Works should concentrate its forces to establish a Grand Armory Bureau in Lanzhou and not move it inside the passes for the time being.

Liu Chengzong had barely read the opening when his brows furrowed involuntarily.

With Guanzhong pacified, the Marshal's army faced a massive shortage of firearms; the large-scale absorption of surrendered troops meant that the weapons and equipment for the thirty-odd battalions currently garrisoned in Shaanxi and Gansu were all insufficient.

Even for individual soldier equipment, the supply line from He-Huang to the front lines was far too long.

Not to mention that the land inside the passes and Longxi were separated by the Liupan Mountains into two distinct geographical units, and the transport of large quantities of military equipment had to rely on the Wei River.

Transporting supplies overland and then transferring them to boats on the Wei River was not complicated in itself — it was just that the Wei River... it had seasonal dry spells.

There was no need to even consider the current drought years; even with favorable weather, the Wei River experienced man-made seasonal dry spells from March to May every year.

Because there were too many fields and too many irrigation channels along both banks of the Wei River; when the season came and every place needed water, the downstream ran dry, only to have flood peaks arrive again in June.

And now, in an era of drought, no one could say how long the water transport on the Wei River could last.

The key thing in war is that the most common occurrence is the unexpected.

If the front lines are fighting and the water transport in the rear is cut off, with military equipment and supplies unable to be replenished — wouldn't that lead directly to a total collapse?

But Shi Chengwo had his reasons.

There were two reasons.

First, Guanzhong was still the front line right now; vigorously developing mines and iron smelting, and sinking a fortune into building an armory might not be appropriate for the current situation — they should keep an extra backup plan.

The implication was: who's to say Guanzhong might be in their hands this year, but lost again next year?

It was not as secure as Lanzhou.

Second, with Lanzhou as the center, they possessed all the resources needed to establish a Grand Armory Bureau system.

Iron, silver, and lead from Huizhou and Longxi; saltpeter from Huining County; cloth from Wenxian and Liangdang; oil from Taozhou; lacquer from Xigu; paper and wax from Cheng County; plus timber and hides available everywhere — all of this could fully meet the Marshal's headquarters' needs for manufacturing military equipment and uniforms.

Relying on the track wagons of Hehuang and the shipping of the Huang River, raw materials like saltpeter, iron, and copper from Qinghai and other areas could also be conveniently transported to Lanzhou.

A military industry system with greater production capacity was completed in Lanzhou, which could both raise the output of various equipment to a new level and supplement the military needs of the three provinces of Qinghai, Gansu, and Shaanxi, while also facilitating foreign trade with vassals.

For example, the livestock and hide trade with the Oirat, and the corundum, gemstones, and livestock fur trade with Ü-Tsang.

To be honest, Liu Shizi did not care much about the others, but this livestock trade was truly his economic lifeline.

Exchanging weapons and equipment for Oirat livestock could be called the economic lifeline of the Marshal's Office — last year he relied on the fifty thousand sheep the Oirat brought in to solve the most difficult grain and fodder problem of the Gansu campaign.

In all fairness, fifty thousand sheep is not a lot.

Apart from those uninhabited places, which county doesn't have tens of thousands of sheep?

But the profit was far too great.

The weapons and equipment he sold, all added together, cost only twelve thousand taels of silver, which at their prices could only buy sixteen thousand sheep.

Yet among the goods the Oirat drove over to deliver, fifty thousand sheep only made up the small change; there were also one hundred fifty thousand assorted hides, five thousand Tianshan horses, one thousand head of cattle, and various sundries.

Most crucially, the Oirat's sheep were, to the Marshal's Office, like a pasture outside the map, as if conjured out of thin air.

They couldn't slaughter their own sheep freely, or they'd have no breeding stock left; but sheep conjured from outside were different — even if they were all made into army rations, it wouldn't matter, and wouldn't affect the normal breeding of their own livestock.

Thinking from this angle, the Oirat trade was extremely important.

And Shi Chengwo's letter further reminded Liu Chengzong that the three Huoluochi brothers of Ü-Tsang should also be driving their livestock teams back for a visit every year.

They couldn't keep holed up in the snowy mountains forever — otherwise, who would Xining Prefecture sell all those sable coats to?

Holding the letter, Liu Chengzong thought that if it was truly as Shi Chengwo said, building a large arsenal in Lanzhou to integrate the resources of Lintao, Gongchang, Xining, and Kangning prefectures could greatly increase output, then it might not be a bad idea.

He picked up his brush and wrote a reply to Shi Chengwo.

He did not fully agree, only telling Shi Chengwo to first attempt the arrangements for establishing the arsenal in Lanzhou with Chengyun.

Additionally, he wanted the Lanzhou side to send other personnel to open up the canal and overland routes from Lanzhou to Xi'an, and calculate the time cost and transport losses.

Once the reply was sent off via a Yulin Cavalry messenger, Liu Shizi then turned to Zhao Kebian, who was drinking tea in the hall, and said, "I'll first allocate some men to you from the Tiger Guard Camp and the Yulin Camp. Send people to each camp as quickly as possible to complete the military registry, as well as tally their grain, fodder, and weapon and armor consumption, and how much grain, weapons, armor, ammunition, and arrows their garrisons can provide them."

This was the proper business of the Bureau of War, and Zhao Kebian immediately accepted the order. After a hasty meal at the Tiger Guard Camp mess hall in Huayan Temple, he led a group of personnel and threw himself into the work.

Liu Chengzong was extremely anxious to get a clear picture of how many soldiers he currently had and how much supply each prefectural garrison in Shaanxi could provide.

Because he planned, before the city of Xi'an Prefecture opened its gates, to complete the reorganization of the garrison forces of the three provinces of Shaanxi, Qinghai, and Gansu in terms of military structure.

By rights, rewards based on merit should wait until after Xi'an Prefecture was breached, but with his territory expanding unprecedentedly, he was almost losing the ability to manage the army.

Not that he couldn't control them, but the garrison areas were too scattered; a command took at least two days to go back and forth, and the frontline units were basically all over-ranked Regional Commanders.

In other words, the command hierarchy was too flat; they were becoming almost the same as the Ming army.

Therefore, the most urgent task now was to clearly delineate the army's organization and garrison areas before winter arrived, replenish equipment as much as possible, and let the army safely get through this winter.

Because Liu Shizi felt that the plague barrier along the Yellow River and Tong Pass line would likely subside around the New Year once winter's killing frost arrived.

Whether the Ming armies from Shanxi, Henan, and Huguang would counterattack then depended first on whether Li Zicheng and Zhang Yichuan could hold out, and second on whether the Marshal's Office's border defenses were tight enough.

So for Liu Chengzong, the initiative to launch campaigns still rested firmly in his hands.

It was just that, to keep a firm grip on that initiative, he had to first take care of his own affairs.

Specifically, across the three provinces under the Marshal's Office, he would establish seven Circuits — three in Shaanxi, two in Qinghai, and two in Gansu — with one garrison army established in each Circuit.

In Liu Chengzong's vision, this garrison army would be a reinforced brigade headquarters, commanding four battalions: the Main, the Surprise, the Support, and the Mobile.

This Main, Surprise, Support, and Mobile structure was an old Ming system: the Chief Regional Commander led the Main Battalion, the Deputy Regional Commander led the Surprise Battalion, the Mobile Corps General led the Mobile Battalion, and the Regional Commander led the Support Battalion.

However, Liu Chengzong's idea was to give each battalion a different troop strength to assume different tactical responsibilities.

The Main Battalion would be a large camp of five thousand men, the Surprise Battalion a standard camp of three thousand, and the Mobile and Support Battalions would both be small camps of two thousand men.

Of course, the specific troop strength of each battalion would fluctuate slightly around this standard due to unlisted auxiliary personnel.

In summary, the Chief Regional Commander and Deputy Regional Commander would be stationed in the two prefectural seats within the Circuit, while the Mobile Corps General and Regional Commander would garrison key locations, achieving an organization of twelve thousand to fourteen thousand troops per garrison.

If one area met with alarm, the Chief Regional Commander could mobilize the garrison troops to quickly encircle and annihilate one or two Ming battalions.

Even if a large army attacked, the forces of two or three garrisons in a province could deploy a defense under the leadership of the Commander-in-Chief.

After this reorganization, one of their garrisons would have far fewer troops than a Ming garrison, but correspondingly, the garrison's defense area would be smaller and its mobility greater.

At the same time, this best met the current military needs of the Marshal's Office.

They had little need for border defense troops. Currently, the only border threats were the shattered Ningxia Garrison and Yulin Garrison, neither of which had much mobile strength and lacked the ability to threaten the newly established garrison troops.

And the Shanxi direction was blocked by the natural barrier of the Yellow River, so the stationed garrisons were already sufficient.

What truly needed reinforcement was the field army corps personally led by Liu Chengzong.

He planned to use Gao Yingdeng's grand camp and Wei Qian'er's remnant troops as the backbone to establish two field brigades under the central army, each commanding four battalions: Main, Surprise, Support, and Mobile.

It wasn't that he thought two field brigades were enough, but rather that two brigades plus the Tiger Guard and Yulin Camps formed a field army corps of nearly thirty thousand, which happened to be within the limits of Liu Shizi's command ability.

Just right.

After all, Liu Shizi had tried commanding an army of forty thousand, and even marching through a dangerous pass had been a bit of a struggle.

Thirty thousand was just right — neither too idle, nor overwhelming.

Most crucially, the Guanzhong region could indeed supply the pay and provisions for forty thousand garrison troops, which was the most important prerequisite for the military reorganization.

Liu Chengzong already had a plan in mind. The First Field Brigade would begin its expansion from Gao Yingdeng's grand camp, setting a standard for the entire army. Then, over the next one to two years, all troops in the three provinces would be gradually reorganized into the new garrison system.