Chapter 773: Matching

Yulin City.

Generally speaking, the larger a city, the more defenders it requires, and the longer the defensive line, the easier it is for gaps to appear.

But Yulin City does not need to follow this rule, because strictly speaking, Yulin is not a city at all.

Rather, it is Shaanxi's key defensive stronghold facing the Mongols — a fortress complex similar to Tong Pass or Shanhai Pass.

In the late Yuan and early Ming, during the Hongwu reign, it was not yet a border zone, merely a market that sprang up spontaneously along the dividing line between farming and nomadic life.

Later, after the Dongsheng Garrison established in the Ordos fell, Yulin was fortified into a stockade called Yulin Stockade, serving as a frontline outpost in the back-and-forth struggle against the Mongols pushing south.

The Ming court established the Yansui Garrison in Suide and expanded Yulin Stockade into Yulin Fort.

It was not until the Chenghua reign that Yulin was made a garrison. The northern city was built adjoining Yulin Fort to serve as the Yulin Garrison City. Over the next hundred-plus years, as Ming forces grew increasingly dominant on this battlefield, Yulin City transformed from a frontline outpost into a logistics base, undergoing continuous, massive expansion.

Around a single city, they expanded north, then south, ring after ring of city walls enclosing ring after ring of city walls.

The western wall was extended to the Yuxi River, the eastern wall pushed to the foot of Camel Peak Mountain. When width could no longer increase, they further increased the length. The southern wall was built to the bank of the Yuyang River, and the northern wall advanced all the way to Red Stone Gorge.

Ultimately, it formed a fortress complex of three great strongholds running north to south: the Northern Guard Tower, the Central City, and the Lingxiao Pagoda.

But there are many cities that are easy to defend and hard to attack. Yulin City's ability to withstand the Marshal's army's siege was not primarily because the city had natural defenses to rely on, but because the people inside this city gathered together every armed force in all of Shaanxi unwilling to surrender to Liu Chengzong.

Men from Gansu fled to Ningxia, Ningxia's soldiers then fled to Yansui, and in the end, all of them burrowed into this Yulin City.

As for Yulin's original army, over these years of counterinsurgency warfare, those who wanted to flee or turn bandit had long since run off. The ones who remained were diehards.

The seventeenth day of the seventh month.

Yu Chongxiao, Chief Military Commander of the Yansui Garrison, stood atop the Northern Guard Tower, gazing far into the distance at the Northern Guard Platform four li away.

Yulin's northern city wall had no gate, only a gate tower. Originally, the north required no defense, but the Marshal's army outside the city, under Ren Quan'er's command, had used artillery fire to seize the Northern Guard Platform four li away, forcing the defenders to deploy troops on the northern wall.

This was because the Northern Guard Platform was a solid, four-story fortress. Originally a Ming army observation post for monitoring the Horse-Trading City and the Tribute-Paying City, it was built atop Red Mountain and constructed to a height exceeding nine zhang, making it the commanding height on Yulin's defensive line.

Once this platform was taken, everything within a radius of over ten li, including the defensive troop movements of Yulin's northern city, lay exposed to full view.

Fortunately, Yulin City had an abundance of military officers. With seven city gates, there were enough to assign one Chief Military Commander to each gate and still have some to spare.

By now, all three frontiers and five garrisons of Shaanxi had fallen into Liu Chengzong's hands. Only this Yulin City and Hancheng still belonged to the Great Ming. Yu Chongxiao no longer cared that he was the rightful Chief Military Commander; he consulted with the idle commanders on every matter.

Because although the old commanders were idle, they still retained their household retainers.

Yu Chongxiao understood very well that the mental state of Yulin City's soldiers and civilians was utter chaos.

But this chaos did not mean they would surrender at the first letter from the Marshal's army. It was exactly the opposite — chaos to the point that no one could possibly persuade them to surrender.

Because in Yulin right now, from the commanders down to the soldiers and civilians, no one knew what they ought to do.

Take You Shilu alone, for example. As early as the great battle in Hehuang, he was already plagued by chronic illness — coughing above, discharging below, bleeding from both ends. Surrender to what end? He could not even mount a horse. If he surrendered, could he earn battle merits for Liu Chengzong or what?

What Yulin had in greatest abundance were crippled generals and old officers like You Shilu, their bodies wrecked by battle wounds.

And for their household retainers, it was the same. The You family had an estate west of the city, and the retainers also had land west of the city. What would change if they surrendered to Liu Chengzong? They had long ago had their fill of wretched warfare.

Therefore, facing the tight encirclement of the Marshal's army, Yulin City's morale was as if locked in place. They had long since stopped caring about living; one death was the same as any other. Better to fight to the death defending the city — at least it would be a bit more glorious.

Not only had they mustered a defending force exceeding twelve thousand, including the old and weak, they had also gathered the entire garrison's sick and disabled to form three battalions of field troops.

That was when they at least had some grain, however.

By now, every household in Yulin City had seen the bottom of its grain stores.

Just then, Yu Chongxiao saw several riders racing over from the Northern Guard Platform, holding high a white flag with the words "Delivering a Letter" written on it. As they neared the city moat, a soldier holding the flag dismounted, laboriously crossed two defensive trenches, and stood at the edge of the moat. Drawing his bow to full, he shot a large arrow onto the rampart wall on this side of the moat.

Yulin's northern city had no gate. Soldiers descended by rope from the gate tower, retrieved the letter, and handed it to Yu Chongxiao atop the wall.

During this period, Ren Quan'er had written no small number of letters to the defending officers inside the city.

Cutting off communication between Ren Quan'er and the city's defending officers was practically the main task of Yu Chongxiao, You Shilu, and the other idle commanders.

Because the Yansui Garrison was where Liu Chengzong had served in the army, and Yulin City had also gathered the routed officers and defeated soldiers who had fled from Gansu and Ningxia. No one could say for certain whether someone inside might be in secret contact with those outside the city, or had old ties with the enemy.

Crucially, as for this fellow Ren Quan'er — how good he was at fighting, Yu Chongxiao did not know, but his skill at being brazenly persistent was remarkably high.

As long as this fellow outside the city learned a defending officer's name and knew their defensive position, even if he did not know them, he would force himself to write letters making small talk, filling the page with nonsense that had nothing to do with the war.

However, to Yu Chongxiao's surprise, the letter shot beneath the city wall this time was actually not written by Ren Quan'er.

Because Ren Quan'er had a strange habit: when writing letters, he addressed those of his own generation as uncle, and those of the elder generation as grandpa.

Take Yu Chongxiao, for example. A letter from Ren Quan'er to him would bear the words: To be opened personally by Grandpa Yu.

Yu Chongxiao had always thought Ren Quan'er had something wrong with his brain, a skewed perception of his own age and generational seniority.

Calling people uncle did not stop him from smashing their heads in.

In Yulin City, there was someone who got cocky from such closeness — the idle commander Wang Shiqin, for instance. He and Wang Pu were blood brothers, their father being Wang Wei, who had held nine general's seals and guarded the frontier for fifty years.

When he saw Ren Quan'er address him in a letter as "Garrison Prince Wang," his heart swelled with pride, and he even wanted to persuade Ren Quan'er to surrender. He wrote a reply from the angles of loyalty and court promotion, only to be cursed at by Ren Quan'er until the blood drained from his face. He nearly choked to death on the spot and wanted to lead troops out of the city for a field battle with Ren Quan'er.

Mainly, Ren Quan'er's reply was far too absurd. He actually said his official post of Commander was given by Grand Marshal Liu and had absolutely nothing to do with the imperial court.

In Wang Shiqin's view, was that not utter bullshit?

When you became Commander, Liu Chengzong was still a bandit chief being chased all over the place by government troops. Where would he get you a high post like Commander?

It took Yu Chongxiao and the others strenuously talking him down to dissuade him and stop Wang Shiqin from going mad.

Mainly, Wang Shiqin had never been cursed at in his entire life. Had it not been for the battle wounds covering his body from a life of constant campaigning, he would not have been reduced to shrinking inside Yulin City.

And as for that bunch outside the city, Yu Chongxiao and the others knew them all.

Liu Fangming and Ma Xiantu were from the Ningxia Garrison. Xu Yong and Wang Yuncheng were Zuo Liangyu's men. Add to that Ren Quan'er, Ouyang Gun, Ma Ke, and A'Liu from the Marshal's headquarters — with these old soldiers and aging generals in Yulin City, going out for a field battle against those young men was just asking to die, was it not?

It was not until Yu Chongxiao received this letter signed by Liu Chengzong, bearing the words: To be opened personally by Brother Yu.

Only then did Yu Chongxiao finally understand. The generational terms Ren Quan'er used in his letters had nothing to do with himself or the person being addressed.

Ren Quan'er addressed people according to Liu Chengzong's generational standing. No matter how Liu Chengzong addressed someone, Ren Quan'er simply placed himself one generation below Liu Chengzong.

A letter from Liu Chengzong was a novelty for Yu Chongxiao.

Ever since the defeat in Ningxia, when Yu Chongxiao and Zhou Shifeng led their troops fleeing east, scattering the forces of Yanqing Brigade's Ding Guodong along the way and escaping all the way back to the Yansui Garrison, Yu Chongxiao had heard almost no news of Liu Chengzong.

In between, there had only been one letter from Liu Chengzong to Yulin urging surrender, and that letter had produced the opposite effect.

Because Liu the Lion had said: Of Shaanxi's three frontiers and five garrisons, only Yulin City remains. A single tree cannot prop up the sky. You had best surrender.

But to Yulin City, which had gathered Shaanxi's most reckless warriors, these words were nothing short of praise — everyone else surrendered, we didn't, we're truly something else!

Surrender was even less likely now.

Later, Yu Chongxiao only knew that Liu Chengzong had led his troops north into the territory of the Ordos tribe. After that, Yulin City was besieged by Ren Quan'er, completely cut off from the outside world, and naturally no intelligence could get through.

But this letter was different.

Yu Chongxiao immediately took the letter down from the wall, gathered the city's Chief Generals, and spread it out for everyone to see.

The first reaction of everyone who saw the letter was a sharp intake of cold breath.

Wang Shiqin asked in disbelief: "This... what this letter says, is it true or false? That Liu... Liu Chengzong actually burned the Eastern Brigands' capital and killed eighteen thousand Eastern soldiers in field battle?"

You Shilu had fought the Later Jin army during the Jisi Incident and knew more about that region. He corrected: "Not the capital, he only burned Liaoyang."

Wang Shiqin shot him a glance, eyes wide: "Of course I know that. Liaoyang is also a capital — isn't Nanjing a capital too?"

He cursed and said: "Had I known he was going to burn the Eastern Brigands' capital, I would have surrendered before the battle started and gone with him. To burn and plunder on Jianzhou Brigand territory — that would have been a life worth living!"

"That's not Jianzhou Slave territory, that's our Great Ming's land, seized by the Eastern Brigands!"

Seeing several Chief Generals bickering over trivial details, Yu Chongxiao clapped his hands repeatedly to draw their attention. "Gentlemen, gentlemen — whether it's the Eastern Brigands' capital or not, whether the land belongs to Great Ming or the Eastern Brigands, none of this helps us right now!"

"Just look at Marshal Liu's proposal for Yulin City — can we accept it or not? I invited you elders here precisely for this matter."

Yu Chongxiao had absolutely no way to handle these old Chief Generals.

Every one of them came from hereditary military houses passed down through generations — whether they walked with a limp, were missing an eye, or, like You Shilu, had lost so much blood they staggered with every step.

Yet they firmly controlled every aspect of this border stronghold, relying on their household retainers.

In truth, whether Liu Chengzong could defeat the Eastern Brigands didn't matter much to Yu Chongxiao... In his eyes, the Eight Banners had never been as formidable as Liu Chengzong from the start.

Because he had actually fought Huang Taiji on the Guan-Ning defense line, and he truly had no way to fight Liu Chengzong.

Now that he had received Liu Chengzong's letter, all Yu Chongxiao could think about was that the besieging army was about to grow larger, and with more and better field artillery support, Yulin City probably couldn't even hold out to the death.

So he took Liu Chengzong's proposal in the letter even more seriously.

Liu Chengzong had not only written that he had led his army charging through the Liaodong border wall, plundered Shengjing and Liaoyang, and defeated Huang Taiji's sixty-thousand-strong army in field battle.

More importantly, he addressed Yulin City's future. He was determined to take this territory, but regarding the old generals and veteran soldiers in the city — he didn't care either way.

To be precise, it wasn't that he didn't care; he simply didn't want them.

Yu Chongxiao could tell that Liu Chengzong seemed somewhat annoyed by having too many surrendered troops under his command, to the point that he only wanted the city and the land, with no desire whatsoever for the officers and soldiers.

He had specifically written that those willing to leave could take their families, household retainers, and servants, pass through Shanxi to the capital region, and continue serving the imperial court.

But if they neither surrendered nor left, then when he returned with his army, what awaited Yulin City would likely be total annihilation.

Yu Chongxiao thought these terms were excellent and was wholeheartedly willing to make it happen.

After all, he was still young and not from a Yulin military house — his hometown was in Jingbian, which had long since been taken by the Marshal's army.

In contrast, old Chief Generals like You Shilu and Wang Shiqin were all Yulin natives, with deep local attachments and landed property here.

So this matter ultimately depended on what these old figures had to say.

But as soon as the topic came up, You Shilu and the others fell silent.

After a long pause, You Shilu finally sighed: "Holding out to the death is easy; having a way out makes it hard. Those of you who can leave, just go."

You Shilu wasn't that old, but his body was the worst among all the veteran generals. He could no longer ride into battle.

Even if he went to Beijing, he probably wouldn't be entrusted with important duties by the Emperor again.

For him, growing old and dying in Yulin, even dying in this battle to defend the city, was the more worthwhile choice.

Because the You family still had many descendants serving in military posts, fighting for Great Ming in Shanxi, in the capital region, in Liaodong.

It wasn't just for posthumous fame and rank — he was also thinking of his clansmen's descendants.

Also in Yulin City was Hou Shilu, who had been gravely wounded during the Jisi Incident.

In their youth, these men had all been renowned for their valor, one surpassing the next, each of them seemingly invincible on the battlefield. But once they suffered battle wounds, their military careers were cut short.

Hou Shilu said: "I won't leave either. But since things have come to this, whichever of you goes to the capital — you're all uncles of a sort — please look after my Gongji more."

The moment Yu Chongxiao heard these two old veterans' words, he knew things had gone wrong.

He never expected that just when everyone was frozen in indecision, another old Chief General of the You military house, You Shiwei, who had remained silent all along, looked around the hall, slammed his hand on the tea table, and declared: "Then open the gates!"

"Liu Chengzong may be of humble origins, but his word is still good. If we old bones must die, so be it — but we can't drag the young ones down to die here with us. Better to let the young men die in Shanxi, die in the capital region, than be buried in Yulin alongside us old relics!"

"Then open the gates. Let the younger generation of our clans without official rank, those with sound limbs who can earn merit, pack their valuables, take the women and children, cross the Yellow River, and enter the capital region."

You Shiwei stood up as he spoke, let out a long breath, looked around at everyone in the hall, and finally fixed his gaze on Yu Chongxiao's face. "Chongxiao, you leave the city too. For generations, we have received the Emperor's grace — the fields outside the city all belong to our families."

"Merit in battle is ours to claim; others are unworthy. Death in battle should also be ours to face; others are unworthy as well!"

?? Good afternoon!

? (End of chapter)