Chapter 727: Songmo Prefecture

On the southern foothills of the Xing'an Mountains, by the banks of the Xar Moron River.

Liu Chengzong reined in his horse atop the earthen platform, his gaze sweeping over the rolling, undulating mountain ridges.

This desolate earthen platform, two li long from east to west, one li wide from north to south, and six li in circumference, was the seat of the Songmo Protectorate from the Tang dynasty.

In truth, Liu Chengzong had not known what place this was at first; even when he dispatched troops, he had set up camp and palisades on this wild earthen platform overgrown with beets and weeds, and after sleeping half the night, he had only felt the terrain was unusually flat and strangely peculiar.

It was not until the Northern Yuan Camp went to the front lines and achieved great success raiding the tribes that had betrayed Chahar, seizing over a hundred thousand people and livestock, that Liu Shizi, thinking to withdraw his forces, had Zhang Xianzhong lead troops to dig trenches in the rear to delay any pursuing soldiers.

Only then did they unearth a stone stele from the twenty-second year of the Zhenguan era, inscribed with the account of the Khitan chieftain of the Dahe clan submitting to the interior, and how Emperor Taizong of Tang established the Songmo Protectorate, appointing the Dahe clan as Protector-General, dividing the Khitan tribes into nine prefectures, and establishing inspectors to govern the various Khitan tribes.

Only then did Liu Chengzong and the commanders of the field headquarters realize that this riverside platform deep in the remote mountains had once been a strategic stronghold controlling the Khitan.

Zhang Xianzhong had rendered great merit by digging up the stone, and Liu Shizi, without a second word, transferred Ding Guodong's unit to the rear, escorting over twenty thousand captives here to gather timber and stone and begin constructing a fortress.

Building a fortress, from site selection to construction, is a very complex matter, by no means something that can be decided in a short time.

But Liu Shizi's thinking was simple.

Since the Great Tang had built a city here, all the preparatory work required for construction must have already been done, historically.

The population beyond the frontier is sparse, and the natural environment has changed far less over the millennia than inside the passes, so he could skip those preliminary preparations and begin by planning the fortress's layout and structure.

First, pile up the city walls and dig the moats, then dispatch mounted scouts to simultaneously survey the mountains, geography, hydrology, resources, and other environmental factors.

In fact, the location of the Songmo Protectorate seat truly commanded a strategic pass, suitable for building a fortress to hold.

To its north, it leans against mountain ridges, all running north to south, meaning a series of ravines could shelter troop encampments; to the east and west, rivers originate from the mountains; to the south lies the Xar Moron River, and the banks of the Baicha River on the opposite shore are equally suitable for constructing forts and stockades to defend.

At the same time, the banks of four or five surrounding rivers all boast lush water and grass, and the river valleys and flat hills can also be planted with crops.

If one had the spare time, sufficient manpower, and invested enough capital, centered on Songmo Prefecture, one could entirely construct a complete defensive system along the vital communication routes of the southern Xing'an Mountains.

Of course, for Liu Chengzong, this was an impossibility.

"The eastern brigands have got Elinchen scurrying all over Khorchin; those Mongol soldiers running wild can't hold them off for long."

Liu Chengzong raised his horsewhip, pointing toward the great river's two banks, and said to Zhang Xianzhong at his side, "Ignore the opposite bank for now. No need to rush firing bricks or quarrying stone. First, erect a timber stockade on the high platform, ram thick earth, and build a square fortress one li on each side."

Zhang Xianzhong did not find this request difficult, and said, "Marshal, if it's just ramming earth to build a one-li-square fort, twenty thousand laborers—though they're a mix of old, weak, women, and children—could finish it in half a month."

"Mm..."

Hearing this, Liu Chengzong slowly shook his head. "We don't have that many people. I've already ordered Wu Sihu of the Northern Yuan Camp to tally the able-bodied men among the captive tribes. Those between fifteen and fifty, and without disability, are to be conscripted from among them and given wives and children."

Zhang Xianzhong raised his eyebrows.

As a man who had once independently raised an army, he was thoroughly familiar with personnel matters. He had done these things himself earlier while escorting captives to dig trenches, and had a clear idea of the numbers; he simply had not overstepped his authority to report to Liu Chengzong.

Among those over twenty thousand tribal captives, besides forty-seven nobles, there were over sixty-five hundred able-bodied men of suitable age.

However, Zhang Xianzhong's tally had been for ages sixteen to sixty, and he had been very lenient regarding disabilities—as long as a man could dig trenches or fell trees, he was not considered physically unfit.

But Liu Chengzong's conscription standards would certainly be stricter; he estimated that only about five thousand men would remain.

This was mainly because the Northern Yuan Camp included a Grand Jaisang of Chahar, Erincin Daičing, who had previously been stationed with the Ongniud tribe and harbored deep hatred for the tribes that betrayed Chahar.

During this campaign, that fellow had received attached troops from Liu Chengzong and, accompanying the Northern Yuan Camp, had charged into the tribes. For every enemy who dared loose a single arrow, after accepting their surrender, he cut off their right thumb. The over seven hundred able-bodied men he alone brought back could only dig trenches, unable to draw a bow or serve as soldiers.

However, different people hold different views on what constitutes cruelty.

At least in the eyes of Zhang Xianzhong and others, Erincin's actions in the war had nothing to do with cruelty at all; one could even say they were very merciful.

What Zhang Xianzhong could not understand was, instead, Liu Chengzong's plan to give the captive able-bodied men wives and children. "This... Marshal, we are not short of troops right now. Besides, these are defeated foes..."

Liu Shizi shook his head decisively. "There's no choice. Over twenty thousand old, weak, women, and children mean over twenty thousand mouths to feed. Even with the livestock seized from sweeping east of the mountains, we can't sustain that kind of consumption."

"The able-bodied men will be organized into battalions. Distribute the women and children back to the various tumen households in Monan. Keep only the able-bodied men here to build the city walls first."

Mainly, it just wasn't cost-effective.

The old, weak, women, and children could play only a very limited role in building city walls and digging trenches.

Rather than keep them in the Xing'an Mountains consuming provisions and diverting the army's attention, it was better to assign them into families, allocate them to various tribes, and send them back to Monan to raise sheep.

Liu Shizi estimated that in the end, a few thousand people would remain here, and combined with the second-line troops like Ding Guodong's battalion in hand, the manpower for building the city walls would be sufficient.

In reality, even with the livestock seized by the Northern Yuan Camp, the Marshal's Army's provisions were still insufficient.

The war they had initially prepared for was the Monan campaign.

To be precise, the furthest anticipated battlefield was merely north of Zhangjiakou, with the hypothetical enemy being Ajige's Eight Banners corps.

And the commanders and officials of the Field Headquarters, even if they held their noses and accepted the deployment to fight Daicing in Monan, could only barely extend their logistics supply line to Guihua City.

Northern Shaanxi being self-sufficient was already a cause for immense gratitude; it had no capacity whatsoever to supply provisions.

Their grain distribution center was Xi'an Prefecture, and transporting grain to Guihua City was extremely arduous.

Even this was already thanks to the Qin Army's endurance in bitter warfare. The Western Army had been starved so often by the Great Ming that the fried flour meant as emergency rations could be eaten by the troops as regular meals, and they would eat it with great relish.

Yet the course of war cannot always follow one's wishes. Ajige, to evade the Marshal's Army, had leaped into the Xuan-Yun border walls, and Liu Chengzong, unwilling to return empty-handed, could only continue advancing. Now, instead, they had charged to the very front line facing Hong Taiji directly, trapping Ajige behind them.

They had advanced another thousand li.

This, then, became problematic.

The Marshal's Army's carried fried flour was generally a half-month's supply per man. The first batch had long been consumed, and the second batch, transported up, was nearly finished as well.

The logistics officer in the rear, Cheng Yun, had just sent word that the grain behind was insufficient and would likely take another half month to arrive.

In other words, the Marshal's Army was, in the literal sense, about to run out of food.

And this was not Cheng Yun's fault; they had no issues with stockpiling, processing, or transporting grain.

The problem was that after capturing Ningxia and most of Yansui, the army had grown larger and larger, and the number of mouths to feed had increased.

Fortunately, in the campaign on the eastern foothills of the Xing'an Mountains, although the main battlefield had not yielded a decisive outcome, the two raids by the Monan Mongols and the Northern Yuan Camp beside Liu Shizi could still be considered a complete victory.

Liu Chengzong now had ninety thousand sheep and over six thousand cattle in hand, enough to hold out for a while.

Yet, immediately after, another problem arose. The Northern Yuan Camp's raids had struck and plundered the tribes that had previously betrayed Chahar.

These tribes had not experienced Chahar's subsequent successive great wars with the Tumed, so their people and livestock were still relatively prosperous, and, fearing Hong Taiji's withdrawal to Khorchin, their tribal masses surrendered at the mere rumor of their approach.

The Northern Yuan Camp had not only brought back over a hundred thousand head of livestock, cattle, and horses, but also over twenty thousand mouths.

Those few small tribes combined amounted to only thirty thousand people, and they had seized more than half of them—and that was not even the most terrifying part.

What was frightening was that the young Khorchin tribe had numbers — according to prisoner confessions, their left and right flanks together held over twenty thousand households.

E'Linchen and Sachang Taiji from the Southern Desert still hadn't returned.

Honestly, with the grain and fodder situation as it was, Liu Shizi wasn't worried about them taking losses at the hands of the Eight Banners; he was afraid those two would come back in triumph with thirty to fifty thousand men.

If that happened, Grand Marshal Liu would truly go mad.

Right now, Liu Chengzong's most urgent task was to quickly organize these twenty-thousand-plus mouths into three or four thousand households. Even if it cost ten thousand sheep and four thousand head of cattle, he had to assign them to the Southern Desert's two-hundred-thirty-thousand households as fast as possible.

Even if each of them ate only one meal a day — the ration of a single regular soldier — he still had to get them to the rear immediately.

Zhang Xianzhong hugged his helmet, scratching his head and ears beneath his green headscarf. "No men — this city will probably take over a month to build. I'm just afraid the eastern slaves won't give us that much time."

At the end, the Eighth Great King pulled a long face and said, "Marshal, if you ask me, we'd be better off holding out another half month. We've already profited from this raid anyway. Drive the cattle and sheep back to Guihua City, withdraw the troops on the spot, let the Great Ming and the eastern slave Tartars fight it out, and you, Marshal, lead us back to Xi'an to proclaim kingship, establish a government, and live the good life."

"If others think this way, I'm not surprised."

Liu Shizi merely gave Zhang Xianzhong an odd look and said, puzzled, "With your insight, brother, why do you think this way too?"

That single counter-question left Zhang Xianzhong dumbfounded.

Zhang Xianzhong had absolutely no idea what was wrong with thinking that way.

Most of the generals in the Marshal's army now thought the same — their strategic objective, protecting the Southern Desert Mongols, had been fully achieved.

Although Wang Cheng'en and the others had clashed briefly with the Eight Banners on the northern route and taken minor losses, the Mongol-against-Mongol local campaigns had been a complete victory, with abundant gains.

In Zhang Xianzhong's view, given the current situation, there was only one reason left not to withdraw: Liu Chengzong's face.

As he understood him, Liu Shizi was not a man who cared much about face.

Otherwise, he wouldn't have dared to bring up withdrawal, half-joking and half-serious.

Zhang Xianzhong cupped his fists. "Marshal, your subordinate is dull-witted. As things stand, the Northern Yuan Tartars who attached themselves to the eastern slaves have been easily shattered and plundered by our Da soldiers. They won't recover in two or three years — even ten years won't be enough. Once their forces retreat, those Da officials like E'Linchen can push their grazing lands north past the Liao Marshes..."

Listening to Zhang Xianzhong's earnest analysis, Liu Shizi burst out laughing and raised a hand to cut him off. "Brother, you're thinking too far ahead!"

"First, E'Linchen and the others have to make it back. Over ten thousand riders struck into Khorchin, and so far only a bit over a thousand have returned. The cavalry of the two-hundred-thirty-thousand households have all scattered. If we withdraw, where will they run to?"

"Second, the fighting isn't over yet — don't start thinking about how far the Southern Desert tribes can push their territory after the war. Without controlling the Khingan Range, what guarantee do we have that the nobles advancing east of the range won't collude with Daiching?"

"Lastly, I want to go back to Shaanxi too."

"The Eight Banner troops march fast and are ferocious in field battle charges. Huang Taiji has suffered such a huge loss — how could he let it go?"

Liu Chengzong gazed toward the distant undulating mountains, shook his head with a grave expression, and said, "As long as I'm encamped here, Daiching may be unwilling to form a great battle line and fight a pitched battle with me. But if our army withdraws west, his forces will surely come charging in. Unless we deal them a heavy blow... it will be difficult for us to return to Shaanxi."

This, in fact, was the most critical point.

Liu Chengzong knew very well that although his Mongol corps had helped reduce Daiching's Mongol tribes by over ten thousand able-bodied men, this struck at their war potential, not directly at the Eight Banners' bones and sinews.

The field combat capability of Huang Taiji's forces was still intact.

Under such circumstances, they would not be allowed to leave easily.

Liu Chengzong said no more. He simply dismounted, called for a guard to fetch the detailed map the scout riders had drawn while threading through the mountain gullies.

He gestured on the map with his hand and said, "The southern foothills of the Khingan Range, running west to east, split into a northern and southern route past the Keshiketeng. On the northern route, we have He Huchen and Feng Rang's wagon camp — one man can hold the pass. On the southern route, I must trouble you, brother, to oversee the construction of Songmo Prefecture City here."

"As for the old Barin tribal lands to the east, Gao Yingdeng will lead the First Brigade to dig trenches and build stockades."

"Songmo Prefecture's terrain is superb. The green mountain path to the west connects to the northern route, allowing troops to be hidden and encamped, making it easy for the northern and southern routes to support each other."

"Build a mountain fortress here. First, ram up earthen walls on all four sides — give it the shape of a city. If the front lines have to fall back after an engagement, they'll have a place to rest and regroup. As for how to build it up later, don't rush — wait until I've finished the design."

Truth be told, all Liu Chengzong knew now was that Daiching's Eight Banners had very strong siege capabilities.

As for how strong the Marshal's army's defensive capabilities actually were, he didn't know.

He could only go by instinct and assume they weren't bad.

Therefore, if circumstances permitted, he didn't plan to build a traditional castle at Songmo Prefecture. Instead, he wanted to use his long-accumulated knowledge and the terrain advantage to design and build a new type of fortress that could bring the Marshal's army's firearms configuration into full play.

This would link the Upper Capital of Yuan, Songmo Prefecture, and the Barin lands to the east into a single line, both protecting the rear environment where the Southern Desert tribes could recuperate and serving as a transit base for blockading and attacking the Daiching state.

"The walls don't need to be too high. Combined with the mountain terrain, fifteen to twenty-five chi is enough. But the walls must be thick. Take the largest of the nine Hongyi cannons cast by the Later Jin that Sachang Taiji captured from Daiching as the standard — leave ample space for a horse path to mount cannons and move troops, then add another three chi."

Those nine cannons of Huang Taiji's were all cast in bronze, each weighing around two thousand five hundred jin, and all bore inscriptions on their barrels naming them Heaven-Blessed Might-Assisting Great Generals.

Just servicing those nine great cannons required one hundred and eighty oxen. Liu Chengzong had no way of bringing such massive pieces back to Shaanxi.

This Songmo Prefecture was the most suitable place to build gun emplacements. Sufficiently powerful cannons could control the entire southern route's critical pass.

Even if Liu Chengzong cast cannons on the steppe, they wouldn't be much larger than the Heaven-Blessed Might-Assisting Great Generals. As long as the wall's horse path could accommodate those cannons, it would basically meet the mounting needs of any subsequent artillery.

Zhang Xianzhong had an adopted son beside him note down the requirements. Insensitive to numbers, he himself didn't think much of it yet.

It was his adopted son Zhang Nengqi beside him who muttered quietly, "Fifteen chi high, over thirty chi thick?"

Few had ever seen a city wall with such a height-to-width ratio — the height of a northern Shaanxi earthen fort, yet thicker than many prefectural city walls.

The cross-section of a rammed-earth wall is trapezoidal. A top width of thirty chi meant the base width would reach forty chi.

Not only had Zhang Nengqi never seen such a bizarre city wall, even Zhang Xianzhong, with his extensive experience breaching cities, had never seen one.

Hearing his adopted son's words, Zhang Xianzhong couldn't help but wonder. He asked, "Marshal, if it's that thick, what's the extra three chi for?"

"The battlements. A city wall's greatest fear is cannon fire shattering the battlements. The battlements must be thick so that soldiers behind the wall can use their firearms and shoot at ease."

"If the wall is very thick, you can also dig cave dwellings into the four inner wall faces, and excavate cellars within the city."

The Khingan Range, and indeed the entire Southern Desert, lacked the foundation to sustain a large force long-term.

The entire Khingan defensive system could at most support one or two battalions in permanent garrison. In reality, even stationing two battalions would be a stretch and would still require development.

To rely on so few troops to hold strategic passes, the fortifications had to be built well.

But Liu Chengzong was pressed for time. He could only confront Huang Taiji on the front line while first building a square fort in the rear, then act according to the situation.

If the battle turned unfavorable, this place would merely be a base for waiting to counterattack. Once the fighting was done, they'd all have to withdraw anyway. There was no need to build it too well — letting the enemy seize it would be worse.

"First, build while fighting."

Liu Chengzong gripped his horsewhip, full of ambition. "Don't touch the outside of the city yet. If we can withstand this battle, later we'll build ravelin bastions outside the walls, making it impregnable and ensuring Daiching never again has a chance to raid west!"

?? Good morning!

? (End of chapter)