Chapter 693: Testing the Waters

Binzhou, Tingkou Town.

The indispensable passage from Xi'an Prefecture to Qingyang and Pingliang Prefectures.

Pack mules wound in a long train, carts and horses rumbled and creaked; boatmen along the banks of the Jing River shouted their work chants as they loaded and unloaded cart after cart of military supplies onto the boats.

On the low ridges beside the riverbank, every hilltop bristled with banners marking the roads; company after company of armored soldiers, hands on sabers and spears, marched in long serpent formations that constantly split and merged with the terrain, rolling up their battle flags as they buried their heads and hurried north.

The Marshal's headquarters' vast northern expedition army was like a bolt of lightning, nearly choking the official road from Xi'an into Qingyang, so at the northern plateau of Tingkou Town it split apart, fanning out along the official roads and small paths between the loess hills and ridges, dividing into five columns that spread northward.

The rear supply grain routes likewise split into three here, according to road conditions — using donkey carts to haul on the official roads, pack mules to carry on the ridge paths, and large and small boats to ship on the Jing River waterway — transporting military grain and heavy supplies in batches to Qingyang Prefecture city in the north and Pingliang Prefecture city in the northwest.

Liu Chengzong's field headquarters halted temporarily here.

Listening to the chaotic shouts of men and neighing of horses, watching the enormous dust cloud rising above the river valley, shrouding the distant loess hills in a haze, Liu the Lion was extremely satisfied with this military deployment.

Even though Tingkou Town looked utterly chaotic, Liu the Lion was still extremely satisfied with the initial conditions of this advance.

Because from Xi'an Prefecture northward, through Yaozhou to Binzhou, the loess plateaus all ran north-south, and with many travelers, the roads were clear and unobstructed.

The ten battalions of troops and heavy supplies deployed in columns across the great plateau, mule carts taking the official roads, soldiers traveling light on the small paths, spreading out and moving very comfortably.

But once they entered Binzhou territory, the roads became difficult — not only did the terrain rise and begin to climb, but the mountain ridges gradually turned east-west, and the various roads on the plateau converged into one place; for the hundred-plus li to Changwu County, this was the only decent road that could accommodate heavy supply vehicles.

Binzhou, Ningzhou, and Jingzhou, belonging respectively to Xi'an, Qingyang, and Pingliang Prefectures — in this border region where the three prefectures met, even the official roads had gone unrepaired for over a decade.

The roads, long neglected and full of potholes, were a morass of mud after the snow melted, keeping the vanguard Clan Battalion desperately busy — cutting paths through mountains and bridging streams as they went; the reports Jin Chanzi sent to Ren Quan'er were nothing but curses and bewilderment.

How the hell can there be trees growing on the official road?

Jin Chanzi had been made the vanguard because he had operated in this area before, repeatedly darting back and forth across mountain trails and rivers, leading the destitute Han princely clan through every kind of mountain path.

But a large corps on the march, carrying numerous heavy supply carts and horses, was after all nothing like his past operations with a few hundred men relying on their own two legs to scurry about — many roads were simply impassable.

Besides, the times had changed. Before, this place was a geomantic treasure land for the fugitive Jin Chanzi, because the terrible road conditions could effectively delay government troops' advance; for all he knew, the trees on the official road had been planted by his own men.

But now he was the government troops.

Yet the Clan Battalion's morale was still quite good.

The men of the Han and Su princely clans, overseeing the Qin clan's new recruits filling potholes and pulling carts up front, all muttered that once they dealt with the Qing clan, they could liberate themselves — all the dirty and exhausting work could be dumped on the Qing clan's people.

The Marshal's headquarters had a mature set of imperial clan management methods, capable of ensuring every person went where they ought to go.

Those with courage and strength willing to earn rank on horseback entered the Clan Battalion as soldiers; those with intelligence wanting to be officials could enter the Rites Office as clerks; those whose crimes filled every ledger could be hung from trees; those unqualified even for the trees were sent to Zhou Taimeng to frolic with the Eastern European outlaws.

Or be frolicked with.

In any case, all roads led to the same destination — a one-way ticket.

In this advance, thanks to accumulated experience and the excellent organization of the newly formed field brigades, even though the troops again exceeded thirty thousand, and counting the heavy supply transport the manpower nearly reached forty thousand, Liu Chengzong felt extremely comfortable in command.

Like an arm directing a finger.

Of course there were problems too, such as several battalions' slow marching speed and the congestion of troops and supplies within Changwu County.

But none of this came from Liu Chengzong's command; even if there were jams on the road, each battalion had pre-arranged garrison stations, and while letting the horses and mules graze, each battalion was also training in long-distance marching and camp defense during the advance — the situation was very optimistic.

As for those several slow battalions, they were mainly the two brigades' reinforcement battalions; their marching speed was extremely slow, reaching only half of what the Marshal's Army field marching regulations stipulated.

This was a problem with the reinforcement battalion's organization.

The reinforcement battalions were entirely gunners and musketeers; firearms and ammunition seized the carrying space of the mules and horses, and they were simultaneously equipped with armor, causing their march to be far too encumbered.

In Ming army organization, whether Qi Jiguang's infantry or Sun Chengzong's wagon camps, firearm troops uniformly wore no armor — a compromise of defense yielding to logistics.

Although this made Ming firearm wagon camps easily surrounded by reckless Mongol raiders, it also guaranteed their mobility, allowing them to reach the battlefield on time and construct wagon fortifications to hold the line.

But the Marshal's headquarters' various battalions had never had the situation of newly recruited troops uniformly outfitted; as the war progressed, surrendered troops and peasant armies submitting under various leaders continuously replenished them — there were always more soldiers than authorized slots, and more armor than soldiers.

Originally, Liu Chengzong's approach to this situation was to exploit the advantage of having many mules and horses, supplementing each unit with more light war carts to increase the carrying capacity for heavy muskets and large-caliber guns.

And no problems had occurred.

Yet after all, he had relatively little experience commanding large corps; he had only led advances of over twenty thousand men three times.

The first was from Xining to Gansu, which went extremely smoothly; although there were no roads beyond the pass, the hard surface of the Gobi Desert created favorable conditions for the Marshal's Army's numerous carts and cavalry to move rapidly.

And on the vast northwestern desert and Gobi, the demands on the commander to know the routes and find water sources were high, but the impact on command was minimal.

The second was the eastern campaign, his first time commanding such a massive force; although they likewise carried no logistics, they encountered problems of command breakdown and improper disposition.

This time, Liu Chengzong had no problems — the problem was the road conditions.

The heavy carrying loads of the reinforcement battalions had caused no issues during daily drills on the Guanzhong Plain, but marching north under these road conditions, the problems surfaced.

This time they were moving from low to high ground, climbing with nearly every step; the animals, even at a normal pace, were under heavy strain, let alone having to carry the soldiers' armor and firearms — in four days, the two battalions lost over sixty mules and donkeys, collapsing dead.

Once the animals died, the soldiers had to pull the carts; as a result they walked slower and slower, unable to keep up even with the artillery's sixty-li-per-day pace, let alone the infantry's eighty li.

Liu the Lion was puzzled at first — how come the two reinforcement battalions were falling behind shoulder to shoulder? Could they be planning to mutiny?

But he thought, no way. The First Brigade's reinforcement battalion commander, Tang Tong, was from Jingyang; and even if he wanted to mutiny, the Second Brigade's reinforcement battalion wouldn't — their commander was Ah Liu from Yongning, whose defining trait was having no one to rely on.

Later they discovered they really were just walking slowly; the cannons were already being pulled by men, eight men not matching one donkey.

What damn reinforcements are these? By the time you two reach the battlefield, the front line will be completely dead.

Just as they reached Tingkou Town, Liu Chengzong ordered the two of them to head straight for their garrison stations, and to wait for mules from the rear before advancing again; there was no rush even if they walked slowly — after all, once past this stretch, the road would be smooth.

Past Changwu County, heading further northwest, whether to Qingyang or Pingliang, the roads were good.

This junction of the three prefectures happened to be the confluence of the Malian River, the Pu River, and the Jing River; past here, heading to Qingyang meant ascending the great north-south plateau, while heading to Pingliang meant entering the Jing River valley — not only were the roads easy, but fodder and dry rations had been prepared along the way.

Comparatively, Pingliang Prefecture had prepared more dry rations, and Qingyang Prefecture had prepared more fodder.

Of course, these were not free; Liu Chengzong only had the standing to arbitrarily conscript corvée labor in his own Qinghai base.

In Pingliang and Qingyang, that wouldn't do; to have the common people prepare food, he had to pay silver to buy it.

Of course, the most crucial point was that Pingliang and Qingyang, under the governance of Jiang Yingchang and Ju Sirang, had people and land, which gave him the opportunity to spend money.

In Qinghai, holding silver and walking two li, let alone buying anything, you'd be hard-pressed to even run into a robber — he could only conscript corvée labor.

Although Liu Chengzong's main force was moving slowly through Tingkou Town, the Clan Battalion's vanguard, together with the reconnaissance cavalry, had already entered Pingliang city and begun transmitting frontline reconnaissance reports back to the field headquarters.

The first reconnaissance report was from Wang Wenxiu, reporting that a group of over four hundred surrendered officers and troops, led by Ningxia Mobile Corps Commander Liu Fangming and Assistant Commander Ma Xiantu, had fled to Half City and knocked on the pass seeking to surrender, due to their involvement in the Ningxia mutiny, with Zuo Liangyu's troops in pursuit behind them.

The defending officer at the Second Side Wall, Yang Yanchang, had already let them into Half City.

Liu Chengzong read the border report and nodded to himself — a fully automatic general was still the more reliable option.

Half the city lay north of the second border wall, the wall itself in the middle, and Red Castle Fort to the south. Station the surrendered general in there, and even a false surrender wouldn't cause trouble.

Compared to that, Liu the Lion was more curious about Hong Chengchou — what in Ningxia had this fellow done to make heaven rage and men resent, driving border troops to mutiny and even pushing high local officials like a Mobile Corps General and an Assistant Commander to come over to his side.

Barely half a shichen later, Wang Wenxiu in Pingliang sent another border report over.

The report said Yang Yanchang had ordered his subordinate Xiao Guangdou to abandon half the city, move both his troops and the surrendered general inside the border wall, and planned to mass his forces and sally out beyond the wall to fight a defensive counterattack, trapping the pursuing Ming army in the half-city.

Liu Chengzong looked at the report and jumped — his heart sank.

Yang Yanchang, upon hearing Zuo Liangyu's name, had not only refrained from turning tail and running, but actually had the nerve to fight a defensive counterattack and even wanted to pin the man down in half the city.

The problem was — was Zuo Liangyu that easy to beat up?

Among all the Ming commanders currently inside the passes, ranked by fighting strength, Liu Chengzong in his mind would place Zuo Liangyu number one under heaven.

For no other reason than that old fox Zuo Liangyu knew very well how to preserve his strength. Right now, he and Zhang Yingchang were the only ones with their command structures still fully intact.

Zhang Yingchang had simply never crossed paths with Liu Chengzong at all, while Zuo Liangyu was already a seasoned veteran who had slipped from the lion's jaws several times.

The key point was that Yang Yanchang's courage had come at the wrong time.

For one, Zuo Liangyu's force was not trying to push south and seize Shaanxi — they were merely pursuing mutinous rebel troops.

For another, when Yang Yanchang made this plan, he still had no idea that Liu Chengzong in Xi'an had already launched his northern campaign.

Liu the Lion flipped through the defense map. At this very moment, the nearest reinforcements to Yang Yanchang were in Pingliang, three hundred li away. Tell me, why are you being so fierce?

"He'd better not get himself killed by Zuo Liangyu!"

Liu the Lion was actually quite fond of Yang Yanchang — they were old friends, after all.

Originally, by his thinking, he had wanted to place Yang Yanchang as a Staff Officer in one of the two brigades directly under the central army, where he knew the man inside and out.

But Ren Quan'er had explained the situation in the Yan'an Battalion. In that battalion, Yang Yanchang was a fully automatic general, and his capable, loyal officers were actually Liu Chengzong's own uncle Liu Xiangshan and cousin Liu Chengguang.

As a child, Liu the Lion had studied at home under his father, then left for Mizhi with his father at a very young age, so he was never very close to the elders, uncles, or cousins of his generation back home.

Still, they were blood kin, and he didn't have much blood kin left. Besides, they hadn't come over to him early on — they'd had their own fortunes while serving the throne.

Of the eight-character generational set — yun shun jia chang guang zong yao zu — Chengchang had died of illness long ago. Chengjia and Chengshun had followed Yang Yanchang on imperial service and died in Liaodong. Chengyao was still alive, but he was young, just a half-grown lad still of studying age.

Chengguang had followed Yang Yanchang and come over to his side, and he could lead troops into battle — that wasn't entirely a bad thing.

Only, Liu Chengzong certainly couldn't keep Chengguang at his side, because the man was just a Squad Commander. The gap was too great; having him around watching every day would only make him fret, and in time he'd grow resentful in his heart.

Better to send him out, somewhere easy to earn merit, casually rack up a few achievements, temper him, and raise him up step by step.

After all, if he stayed in the central army, there probably wouldn't be many chances for him to earn merit.

That was why Liu Chengzong had placed Yang Yanchang under Wang Wenxiu's Longxi Brigade and sent him to garrison the border wall.

In any case, at Guyuan, even if someone broke through the second border wall, there was nothing to fear — that Qingshui River Valley lay between two mountains, and any Ningxia troops coming in that way would just get beaten right back out.

But Liu Chengzong truly hadn't expected Yang Yanchang to be this bold — spotting a chance to fight, he was ready to charge out and beat them up.

The moment Liu Chengzong saw this report, he urgently dispatched men to reply to Wang Wenxiu, ordering him to send reinforcements to support the border wall.

Beyond that, he also sent orders to Zhang Zhen and Ding Guodong of the Yanqing Brigade — Zhang Zhen to guard against the Yansui direction, and Ding Guodong to march out from Huan County in three days, strike at the Ningxia Rear Guard, and sever the link between Ningxia and Yansui.

At the same time, Liu the Lion prayed in his heart that Zuo Liangyu had best not take the bait — his own forces were not yet deployed to their planned positions.

At this moment, the outcome of a small-scale encounter battle would do nothing for the larger picture and would only put Hong Chengchou on alert ahead of time.

After all, being so far away, all he could do was march and pray at the same time.

The next morning, Liu Chengzong was encamped in the wilds between Changwu County and Jingzhou. His troops had only just set out when he received another frontline report forwarded by Wang Wenxiu.

The fighting had started.

But it was nothing like what Liu Chengzong had imagined, nor like Yang Yanchang's plan.

His scheme to have Xiao Guandou yield half the city, trap the Ming army inside, and kick them around in a circle had been quite bold.

But the Ming army was bolder still. Their commanding officer was named Xu Yong, a Mobile Corps General under Zuo Liangyu's banner.

With Xu Yong, it wasn't even a question of falling for the trap or not.

When he saw the half-city Xiao Guandou had yielded, he didn't even spare it a glance. Acting as if the Marshal's Army garrison troops were simply afraid of him, he raised Zuo Liangyu's unit banner and charged straight for the border wall.

He directly turned Yang Yanchang's plan around on him, pinned him atop the Great Wall, and began assaulting the fortifications.

For two days straight, as Liu the Lion marched from Jingzhou to Pingliang City, revisiting old haunts, all he read were the reports Yang Yanchang and Wang Wenxiu sent.

The frontline fighting was quite the spectacle. The first evening, Xu Yong led his troops prowling outside the wall, searching for weak points.

The next morning, taking advantage of fog rising from the Qingshui River, they crossed the shallow border trench beyond the wall and began chiseling at the fortifications.

Halfway through, the defenders shifted over; the two sides traded volleys, and the assaulting troops withdrew — then picked another spot and started chiseling again.

It was like whack-a-mole — hammering east, chiseling west, running the defenders back and forth along the shallow border trench.

By evening, this fellow started calling out challenges from the far side of the border trench, wanting to fight Yang Yanchang in the open field.

Seeing no response from the border wall garrison, he made camp that night below the half-city. But before the second half of the night was over, he led his troops slipping away in secret, leaving Yang Yanchang, who had sallied out to raid him, grasping at empty air.

No sooner had Yang Yanchang emerged from the half-city than Xu Yong wheeled his cavalry around and came back — it was a feint to draw him out.

Only when he spotted the artillery company on the west bank of the Qingshui River did he understand what Yang Yanchang was planning, so he didn't close in to engage, and led his army northward instead.

This gave Liu Chengzong a good long laugh at Yang Yanchang's expense in his heart.

Though they hadn't suffered the slightest loss in this encounter, once his plan failed to keep up with the changes, Yang Yanchang had been completely lost, with Xu Yong seizing every bit of initiative and leading him by the nose.

"Marshal, this Hundred-Household Yang is a disgrace to the nation's might — so clumsy it makes old Zhang here worry!"

The Minister of the Rites Office, having read the reports, was thoroughly unimpressed with this battle record. He shook his head and said, "It wasn't even Zuo Liangyu who came — what was he afraid of?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head and smiled. "This is fine too. At least it can lull Hong Chengchou. If we annihilated Xu Yong's unit with heavy force and made Hong Chengchou start setting up defenses, making a surprise attack on Ningxia difficult, that would actually be worse."

Just then, another urgent dispatch arrived.

This time Liu Chengzong took the letter, read it over and over, a mocking look surfacing on his face. He passed it to Zhang Xianzhong. "Take a look. Hong Chengchou has come to apologize, and he even wants to negotiate peace with us."

Zhang Xianzhong clicked his tongue in wonder. He took the letter and read it, then furrowed his brow and said, "He sure talks sweetly — something about Ningxia suffering a disaster. He even has the gall to ask the Marshal to lend him grain. On what grounds does he negotiate peace with us?"

"You've hit it exactly — he has no standing to negotiate peace at all."

Liu Chengzong pointed casually from horseback and laughed: "Send someone to put this letter in a gift box and have Prince Su's man deliver it to the court. Hong Chengchou, as Supreme Commander, actually wants to bypass the Emperor and negotiate peace in private!"

"Yeah!"

Zhang Xianzhong nodded repeatedly, savoring the maneuver endlessly, then immediately said: "How does the Grand Marshal want to reply? The Protocol Office will draft it for him right away."

That one sentence stunned Liu Chengzong speechless.

He paused, as if pondering something, then spurred his horse off the official road and led Zhang Xianzhong to a nearby earthen mound, saying: "His sending this letter — the peace talks are a pretense; probing is the real intent."

"Counting the days, Xu Yong had just withdrawn from the border wall when the letter arrived. That means Xu Yong failed to catch Liu Fangming, sent word to Hong Chengchou, and he had already written this and sent it this way."

"He knows I must have learned of the Ningxia mutiny from Liu Fangming, but he doesn't know whether I had already captured Grand Coordinator Wang Ji earlier, or gotten word of the Ningxia mutiny from elsewhere."

Liu Chengzong raised a hand and tapped the letter in Zhang Xianzhong's hand: "So with this letter, on one hand he's trying his luck, seeing if I'll give him time to clear out the military farms before fighting. On the other hand, the main purpose is to probe my position."

"Write back tomorrow. Say I'm in Xi'an and very angry that he sent a detached general to attack the border wall. We'll send it out three days from now when we reach Red Castle."

Liu Chengzong bared his teeth in a silent grin: "I'll have him see the letter the morning of the first day, and see me by dusk the next!"