Chapter 737: Inviting Strife

Three Forks River.

Liaodong Vanguard Garrison.

Zu Dashou knew there were enemies to the north. As soon as word of the missing scouts came back, all nineteen battalions of the Vanguard Garrison entered combat readiness.

Five scouts were a small matter; what mattered was the strange place they disappeared. The place was called Aosi Niru, a village the Jin state established in the first year of the Tianqi reign.

Aosi Niru existed only briefly. When Nurhaci took Liaoyang and Shenyang and ordered the shaving of heads, the Liao people rose in arms, and the niru manors outside the border wall were successively uprooted by the Guanning Army.

The Jurchen noble Aosi, who had established the niru, also died in battle that year.

Because the land there was rich and fertile, it kept changing hands between Ming and Jin as the battle lines shifted. When the Later Jin held the advantage, the place was a niru village stronghold; when Guanning held the advantage, it was a military farmstead.

But at this moment, the Jurchen strongholds had all fully withdrawn inside the border wall by Hong Taiji's decree — Banner troops should not have appeared there.

If the Eight Banners army had shown up there, the most likely possibility was that they intended to bypass Three Forks River and strike the Guangning-Jinzhou line from outside the border wall.

Therefore, the moment the missing scouts were discovered, Colonel Xu Chengyou of the Vanguard Left Battalion reported the news to the central command and led his troops north in pursuit.

And then that battalion was surrounded.

Guanning was the only unit in the Ming army order of battle that possessed independent battlefield survivability and was a proper military formation.

Zu Dashou's Vanguard Garrison comprised thirty-four garrison battalions and nineteen combat battalions — fifty-three battalions in all, sixty-eight thousand horse and foot soldiers, each battalion just over a thousand strong.

This was not due to embezzled payrolls; their authorized strength was simply small battalions of just over a thousand.

Officers, like Liu Chengzong's Tiger Guard Battalion, mostly held lower nominal ranks with higher actual responsibilities.

Of the nineteen combat battalions Zu Dashou personally led, four were Yi-character battalions akin to personal troops — the Pacify Yi Left and Right Battalions and the Surrender Yi Left and Right Battalions.

The remaining fifteen battalions were divided into five armies by Vanguard, Rear Guard, Central Authority, Left Wing, and Right Wing; each army was further split into left, center, and right battalions, respectively commanded by two Vice Commanders and one Colonel.

Among them, the three Vanguard battalions had slightly more troops, totaling forty-five to forty-six hundred men; the others were all three battalions with thirty-one to thirty-two hundred men.

This arrangement of stronger commanders and smaller units was primarily designed to counter the Later Jin's plundering raids at the one-thousand-five-hundred-man jalan level.

The entire army had only Zu Dashou, a single Seal-Bearing General, ensuring unified military authority and sufficient troop strength.

But this time, they had misjudged from the very start.

Xu Chengyou led the Vanguard Left Battalion's fifteen hundred cavalry north in pursuit to gather intelligence and cross blades with the infiltrating "Eight Banners Vanguard."

When they arrived, they ended up fighting the Marshal's Army's relay cavalry instead.

While the fighting raged up front, word was passed back.

Following behind were the two Vice Commanders, Yang Zhen and Wu Sangui. Seeing the intelligence, they were both shocked and delighted.

Xu Chengyou reported that the raiders were fake Tatars of the Han Banners and Mongol Banners, and they even knew how to use relay soldiers to screen the battlefield.

Xu Chengyou also reported that the eastern brigands had somehow improved their horse stock — these men all rode tall, imposing horses that looked quite frightening.

But they were not hard to beat.

After all, they were just relay soldiers, not part of the regular army's combat order. The Guanning Vanguard only needed to exert some effort to drive them from the field; they were just hard to capture.

After much effort, Xu Chengyou expelled the relay cavalry and then, by the riverbank, saw a scene his mind could never have imagined in his lifetime.

Along the riverbank stood several encampments, with men building a bridge across the shallows of the river.

At the camp gates of several encampments flew the great banners of "Han Princely Fief Division," "Qin Princely Fief Division," and "Su Princely Fief Division." Those building the bridge by the shore were the "Xiangling" and "Leping" companies. The larger formations below also carried banners — things like Bulwark State and Serving State.

Xu Chengyou even saw, among the outer cordon of soldiers carrying blades and raising firearms on alert, a cluster of soldiers escorting a single rider — and that man, over his armor, was actually wearing a dragon robe.

The Guanning soldiers who had fought hard to break through the relay cavalry's defensive line were all dumbstruck, craning their necks forward on horseback, mouths agape and unable to close.

The first personal cavalryman to recover his wits asked Xu Chengyou, "General, do the eastern brigands usurp titles this blatantly? They even copied the names of princely fiefs?"

Xu Chengyou had no idea what was going on either; the dumbfounded look on his face was only greater than his soldiers'.

Hearing this, he involuntarily raised a hand and scratched his weather-beaten cheek with a fingernail. "Damn eerie. Where the hell did imperial relatives come from?"

He shook his head and muttered to himself, "Something's wrong. These are all Shaanxi princely fiefs... What the hell are those bastards doing building a bridge here? Report to Commander Wu at once — these are not eastern brigands!"

Too late.

While they were still observing from afar, an even more bizarre scene was already closing in.

Mongol cavalry holding high the great banner of the Northern Yuan had already spread into a lake formation, enveloping the entire riverbank. The imperial relatives on the shore also mounted their war carts and joined the order of battle, slowly advancing toward them.

The very sight of the characters on that great banner made Xu Chengyou's head throb.

He was completely baffled, having no idea what kind of battlefield he was standing on.

Defending the frontiers for twenty years, Xu Chengyou had never imagined that one day he would be flanked and caught between the two great empires of Great Yuan and Great Ming.

Just then, the general in lamellar armor with the dragon robe draped over it rode over from the riverbank. Behind him, two military attendants bore the great banner of the "Qin Princely Fief Division." Fearless and unhesitating, he headed straight for the Vanguard Right Battalion's position.

Reaching the front, his military attendant advanced and shouted, "Which Guanning battalion is this? The Heir of the Qin Princely Fief is here — have your commander come out to meet me!"

"General, beware of a trap!"

A household soldier tugged at Xu Chengyou, but Xu Chengyou paid no heed and also brought two riders forward.

By now he understood — the troops appearing on the battlefield were the Marshal's Army of the northwestern rebel Liu Chengzong.

Because all these princely fiefs were from Shaanxi and had already been overrun by Liu Chengzong. That the imperial clan members had actually been specially organized into battalions was something Xu Chengyou had never expected.

He went out to meet this Heir of the Qin Princely Fief with no intention of negotiating at all; he simply wanted to seize the chance to capture the heir first and, holding this high-ranking hostage, return to Three Forks River.

But since the Heir of the Qin Princely Fief dared to come before the battle lines, he was not afraid of being taken hostage.

As soon as Xu Chengyou reached the Heir of the Qin Princely Fief, the heir saluted first and said, "I am Zhu Cunji, Heir of the Qin Princely Fief, a mere Squad Commander in the Marshal's Army. General, do not trouble yourself thinking of taking me hostage. This is a letter from Grand Secretary of the Inner Cabinet and Minister of Rites Qian Shisheng to the Liaodong Vanguard's Commander Zu."

With that, Zhu Cunji handed the letter to Xu Chengyou and said, "Withdraw your troops. The Grand Marshal has no intention of making an enemy of Guanning. Do not invite trouble upon yourselves."

Zhu Cunji saw Xu Chengyou's flickering gaze and thought Xu Chengyou still wanted to seize him, so he smiled and said, "I am the third son of the Prince of Qin. The title of Heir was granted by the Grand Marshal. The heir appointed by the Great Ming is in a Xi'an jail. If capturing me were of any use, I would not have come here."

The Imperial Clan Battalion, and Zhu Cunji in particular, had no fear of the Ming army whatsoever.

Zhu Cunji thought to himself, it was only the Grand Marshal who had made him Heir of the Qin Princely Fief. Had it been the Great Ming, the Emperor would still have to rack his brains to find a way to make him a Commandery Prince.

The two sides did not come to blows. After a brief exchange, the Northern Yuan Battalion cavalry opened a passage to the south, allowing the Guanning troops to withdraw on their own.

This letter was quickly passed by Xu Chengyou to Vice Commander Wu Sangui of the Vanguard Right Battalion behind him, and then personally rushed by Wu Sangui to Three Forks River to deliver to Zu Dashou.

Zu Dashou had long known that Liu Chengzong had marched out, but he had always believed Liu Chengzong was in the Xing'an Mountains.

Only at this moment did they realize that Liu Chengzong's Marshal Army had already reached the frontier beyond Liaodong, and was even building a bridge across the river — from the looks of it, they meant to fight their way into Liaodong.

"Seems Khorchin isn't enough to fill Liu Chengzong's bandit belly."

Zu Dashou, before even reading the letter, held the envelope and said to his nephew Wu Sangui, "Tens of thousands of troops roaming from south of the Gobi to the frontier beyond Liaodong — he's eaten his fill of men and horses… In the next two or three years, the Central Plains will surely see great war."

To Zu Dashou, Liu Chengzong's line of march and strategic objective were perfectly clear: he had come to feed.

He would eat south of the Gobi clean, then eat Khorchin clean; eat Khorchin clean, then eat Liaodong — and now he was eating right onto the heads of the Eight Banners.

The Marshal's Office's troop strength was fixed. If those tens of thousands of men and horses were not eating in Shaanxi, then Shaanxi's grain this year could be saved. Liu Chengzong, a rebel chieftain, with leftover army provisions — what could he do with them?

Fight a war, of course.

As he spoke, Zu Dashou opened the envelope, and his expression changed.

Liu Chengzong had Qian Shisheng write the letter, but he did not use letter paper — he used a piece of blue cloth: the cotton-armor uniform cloth of the Guanning Army.

And the letter's content, even after Qian Shisheng's polishing, was still not very pleasant to hear.

'Commander Liu has come a thousand li only to seek wealth. If Guanning holds fast to Jinzhou, he shall proceed to the outskirts of Shenyang to hunt for goods and riches; if Guanning troops emerge beyond the Liao River, he shall come to Jinzhou to plunder.'

Zu Dashou merely furrowed his brows and sank into silent thought.

Wu Sangui, who had delivered the letter, was so agitated he nearly jumped up. "Uncle, this vile scoundrel — let us lead troops north and meet him!"

"Enough!"

Zu Dashou shot a displeased look at his spirited nephew, set the letter aside, and said, "Weren't you all also against me crossing the Liao River? Well now, heroes see eye to eye — this simpleton from the northwest simply forbids this old man from crossing the Liao River at all."

Crossing the Liao River was Zu Dashou's heartfelt wish.

But not crossing the Liao River was the wish of every officer in the Liaodong Vanguard Garrison.

The reasons were very complex.

The Guanning Army was the healthiest force in the Great Ming ecosystem today — first, its logistics were relatively sufficient; second, in command it was capable of fighting pitched battles.

Although the Liaoxi defense line was the biggest drain on Great Ming military funds, the Guanning Army did not want to shoulder that blame, because they too were shorted on pay from time to time.

Whether they could get their monthly silver of one tael four qian and monthly grain ration of one dan of millet depended on luck.

The year of the Ningyuan Mutiny — didn't the Guanning Thirteen Battalions mutiny over pay?

Great Ming's central finances were in a constant state of cutting outflow and seeking inflow. When the war within the passes was difficult, military pay beyond the passes was delayed; when beyond the passes was difficult, within the passes got less.

That the Guanning Army had managed to hold on these past few years was entirely due to the indispensable contributions of its successive chief commanders.

First, the military farms at Jinzhou. Gao Huai had thrown Liaodong into chaos and Nurhaci had slaughtered the people — the Jinzhou and Guangning region was emptied of inhabitants. Yuan Chonghuan recruited Mongols for pasturage, and Sun Chengzong expanded military farming.

After the defeat at Dalinghe, Guanning lost twenty thousand men to death and surrender, and the local pressure of land annexation vanished.

The military farms in Liaoxi produced 1.5 million dan of millet annually, stabilizing the price of grain at one tael of silver per dan and soybeans at four qian of silver per dan.

Second, the supply channeled by officials and merchants from within the passes.

Not only the capital shipments — part of Guanning's military supplies came from deliveries by civilian merchants.

Third, the commanders found their own ways.

Jinzhou's specialty was jade, and it also had a fairly thriving jade-processing market.

Zu Dashou had been collecting jade and distributing it to the various battalion commanders as military funds; the commanders then sold the jade to merchants in exchange for military supplies.

The significance of the military farms was not to supply the troops directly, but to ensure that grain was available on the local market, so that grain prices would not skyrocket to absurd levels. Once grain prices soared, even if the court did not short their pay, the army would sooner or later collapse.

But this healthiest of forces had long since, from top to bottom, become estranged from the interior.

Wu Sangui, hearing Zu Dashou's words, was momentarily speechless. After a pause, he said, "Uncle, these are two different matters. We are unwilling for you to lead troops across the Liao River because we fear the court will stir up trouble. Have you forgotten the matter of Grand Commandant Sun?"

"To build one Dalinghe Fortress, the interior endlessly dragged its feet. When it was nearly finished, an imperial edict from the Emperor arrived saying 'deliberate further,' work stopped and troops withdrew — and then Hong Taiji came leading his army."

"In the end the battle was lost. Uncle, you know full well what end Grand Commandant Sun met. Those officials from the interior impeached him for provoking hostilities, losing the army, and disgracing the state."

Wu Sangui had achieved success young, daring to fight and risk all. The men under him, unlike his father Wu Xiang's old Liaodong soldiers or Zu Dashou's old Yi guards, were all refugee youths from Liaodong. Every time they fought the Eight Banners, they fought to the death at the front. A deputy regional commander at twenty-eight, he naturally spoke with a hard edge.

To say that losing a battle disgraced the state was one thing, but adding the charge of "provoking hostilities" was going too far.

The Jin Kingdom had slaughtered the people of Liao — they were already the Great Ming's mortal enemy. Where was there any "provoking hostilities" or not? Could it be that if they did not build the fortress, the Eight Banners would simply vanish on their own?

"Those people in the interior have never treated us as their own!"

"Enough!"

Zu Dashou's face showed anger. "Whether they treat us as their own or not — do I need you to tell me?"

In truth, Zu Dashou relied heavily on his nephew Wu Sangui, despite Wu Sangui being absurdly young.

Because he himself was a very simple man. In his youth, he had followed his father to war under Li Chengliang, and had even gone to Korea to fight the dwarves.

But those campaigns back then were far easier to fight than the wars of today.

After his father retired, Zu Dashou became Assistant Commander of Ningyuan Guard — just muddling along. He was once even sentenced to execution after the assizes during the Shenzong reign because he went out hunting and his area of responsibility was raided by Mongol troops.

During the Battle of Guangning, Zu Dashou had planned to lead his remnant troops and defect to the Mongol noble Gongtu, who was pasturing beyond the frontier.

For most of his life, he had followed orders. His ability was extremely strong, but he lacked a backbone; whenever great events arose, his mind was always in turmoil, and he realized things only after the fact. It was Yuan Chonghuan who saved him from fire and water, promoted him, commanded him, and made him the seal-bearing grand general stationed at the very front of the Guan-Ning-Jin defense line.

During the Jisi Incident, his leading his army back to Jinzhou was not entirely because of Yuan Chonghuan or fear, but because his army had become estranged from the court.

His army had stayed outside the city for half a month, fighting several battles. They won at Guangqu Gate and wanted to enter the city to rest and regroup, so they sent a few soldiers to shout at the city wall. But the civilian militia on the walls of Beijing said all Liao generals and Liao men were spies, and threw bricks, killing three of them.

Those three Liao soldiers were named Xie Youcai, Li Chaojiang, and Shen Jingyu.

Elite vanguard troops from within the city came out, drew their blades and slashed at the camp, hacking to death six more Liao soldiers: Liu Cheng, Tian Ruhong, Liu Yougui, Sun Defu, Zhang Shigong, and Zhang Youming.

As soon as Yuan Chonghuan was seized, he turned and fled.

Zu Dashou knew better than anyone that the soldiers, civilians, and officials within the passes truly regarded their troops garrisoned beyond Shanhai Pass as outsiders.

After Yuan Chonghuan, no one dared mention recovering Liao; after Sun Chengzong, no one dared mention advancing troops. The only force with the capacity for independent survival lost its initiative and squatted in Jinzhou, lying low.

It was as if the land beyond the passes was solely the Guanning Army's campaign, as if Liaodong had never been Great Ming territory at all.

Others saw Zu Dashou as a frontier grand general of the Great Ming who heeded mobilization but not summons, whom the Ming court could not control and Daiching could not entice — a man who influenced the realm's situation by his own power, the incomparably illustrious Zu Garrison.

Yet his heartache and helplessness, his lack of control over his own fate, were no less than anyone else's — only more.

Zu Dashou knew he had done many foolish things. He Kegang was his close comrade-in-arms, and he had killed him at Dalinghe; Hong Taiji trusted him, and he had deceived him; his family and kin had surrendered with him to the Jin Kingdom, and Zhang Cunren, his good subordinate, had been abandoned in the Jin Kingdom as a turncoat general.

The moment he fled back, Zhang Cunren and those surrendered officers, along with his family dependents and sons and nephews, could all be slaughtered by the Later Jin in a venting of rage.

So now these people wish they could hack him into a thousand pieces and eat his flesh.

Now he has failed the dead who were eaten at Dalinghe, failed his comrades-in-arms, failed the subordinates abandoned in Later Jin, failed the clansmen, sons, and nephews in Shenyang, and even failed Hong Taiji, who had admired him.

Even more, he has failed himself — if he did not fear death, why surrender at Dalinghe? If he did fear death, why flee back to fight again?

The only one he has not failed is the Great Ming court and the Emperor.

"Never mind what his letter says — think about why he had a Grand Secretary write this letter…"

Zu Dashou said, turning his gaze away in frustration and muttering to himself, "What damned sorcery is this — how did the Emperor send a Grand Secretary into a bandits' den?"

Wu Sangui said, "He's telling us not to ruin his plans. Guanning, Liu the bandit, the eastern caitiffs — if any of the three makes a rash move, they all risk being caught in a pincer. He wants to move first and not get pincered, so this letter came."

Having said that, Wu Sangui added irritably, "He can't even manage a few pleasant words, and with that he still wants to do great things."

Zu Dashou thought to himself, What damn use are pleasant words?

Liu Chengzong and the Guanning Army had old grudges and new hatreds.

Of the officers and troops the Guanning Army had transferred into the interior, apart from Li Zhongzhen and Zu Dale's two forces in Yunyang, both Cao Wenzhao and Zu Kuan had been destroyed at Liu Chengzong's hands.

Cao Wenzhao was not so bad — Liu Chengzong at least treated him as a hero serving his own master. After he died in battle, Liu had his body collected, placed in a coffin, and sent into Shanxi, and openly submitted a memorial to the court, extolling Cao Wenzhao's valor and loyalty unto death in the sovereign's service.

Toward Zu Kuan, Liu Chengzong was far more pointed.

Zu Kuan was a Hu child Zu Dashou had watched grow up, and one of the Zu family's finest commanders.

He had not only been Zu Dashou's personal attendant since childhood, but was also the source of power by which Zu Dashou controlled the army, and moreover the symbolic token of Zu Dashou's willingness to let the court transfer trusted men into the interior to suppress the rebels.

Dead — fighting in Guanzhong, struck seven times by Liu Chengzong, man and horse both, and killed.

After death, his head was cut off, filth was slung at his name, and a bulletin was issued calling Zu Kuan a rebel ringleader, saying the body would be held in Xi'an for the Ministry of War clerks to come examine.

Though Liu Chengzong was the Great Ming's number-one rebel under heaven, his official dispatches to the various regions often smuggled in private agendas — yet the court truly believed what he said.

Not only did the Chongzhen Emperor believe it, the court's central officials all believed it.

Because although Liu Chengzong's words were occasionally contradictory and muddled, his values were even more upright than the Chongzhen Emperor's.

When he recommended Ju Sirang and Zuo Maodi for outstanding distinction, saying they were the finest officials, then they were the finest officials under heaven.

Yang Jiamo went through fire and water, Cao Wenzhao was defeated and died in battle, Duan Fuxing fought to exhaustion and perished — one by one, Liu Chengzong erected steles for them and submitted memorials.

Never mind that Yang Jiamo went through fire and water because Liu Chengzong forced him to, that Duan Fuxing was besieged in the city and his whole family died, that several of Cao Wenzhao's brothers, sons, and nephews were killed — if he said they were loyal ministers and good generals, then loyal ministers and good generals they were.

Every time he submitted a memorial, the Chongzhen Emperor had to run to the Imperial Ancestral Temple in the Forbidden City and weep before his forebears.

Because for those officers who were defeated and surrendered, the ones Liu Chengzong said nothing about, the Chongzhen Emperor felt no heartache either — Liu Chengzong did not even think they were decent men.

But men like Yang Jiamo, Cao Wenzhao, and Duan Fuxing — the ones who pounded Liu Chengzong hard, killed his men, and were finally driven to death by him, yet he still felt such regret that he submitted memorials to the court for them — these men were truly loyal to the court. What a pity.

When he put it that way, the Chongzhen Emperor's heart ached even more, and he wailed and wailed.

In such circumstances, if Liu Chengzong said Zu Kuan was a rebel ringleader, what would the court do?

To this day, the court has not issued any pension for Zu Kuan and the Liao troops under his command.

And precisely because of Zu Kuan's affair, the Guanning forces of Zu Dashou's faction loathed Liu Chengzong of the Marshal's Manor to the extreme.

Even Wu Sangui, just two days ago at Sancha River, had been strenuously urging his old uncle not to cross the Liao River — if by chance they lost a battle, the court officials would charge Zu Dashou with provoking strife and disgracing the nation, something Zu Dashou could not afford.

And among the soldiers and civilians of Jinzhou, roughly a third now were Mongols whom Yuan Chonghuan and Zu Dashou had recruited in batches over the years — the able-bodied serving in the army, the old and weak farming the fields. These people recognized only Zu Dashou.

If Zu Dashou were taken down, Jinzhou would be finished.

And now, because of a single letter from Liu Chengzong, Wu Sangui was so furious he wanted to lead troops north and have it out with Liu Chengzong.

"He knows pleasant words are useless, so he lifts his foot and aims straight for our vital spot."

Zu Dashou sighed. That one line from Qian Shisheng was enough to make him recognize Liu Chengzong's fearsomeness.

If nothing else, his eye was truly venomous.

Without this letter, Zu Dashou might well have been persuaded by his subordinate commanders not to cross the Liao River. With this letter, the Guanning Army was even less able to cross the Liao River before Liu Chengzong made his move.

Because Jinzhou was their vital spot. If they crossed the Liao River into Liaodong and Liu Chengzong lifted his foot and kicked Jinzhou down, the Guanning Army would explode on the spot.

"As for what you said, about leading troops north to test yourself against Liu Chengzong — that is even more muddled talk."

He said to Wu Sangui, "Matters settle when given time. With three armies clashing in Liaodong, no one will just stand by and watch. If we start fighting Liu Chengzong, do you think Hong Taiji will stand by and watch?"

Zu Dashou shook his head. Impossible.

Of course, the moment the Marshal's Army and the Guanning Army started tearing into each other, the likelihood of the Eight Banners Army openly entering the fray was not great.

But the moment Liu Chengzong's momentum faltered, Hong Taiji's Eight Banners Army would certainly help him. Even at a critical moment, they might pour out their troops and strike both armies at once.

Just as if Liu Chengzong and the Eight Banners Army started fighting and Liu Chengzong's momentum faltered, Zu Dashou could only hold his nose and help him.

"For him to strike first — it looks like reckless arrogance, but in truth it is unwise. That he could write this letter to me does not necessarily mean his intellect is limited. More likely, circumstances forced his hand — provisions."

As he spoke, Zu Dashou considered briefly and said, "Don't rush to reply to his letter. He cannot afford to wait. We will simply watch from the Liao River bank and keep our eyes fixed on them."

?? Good evening!

? (End of chapter)