Chapter 802: Bingzi

The Zhou Prince heir's promise to treat gold like dirt injected a shot of adrenaline into the Henan officials.

In war and disaster, money itself matters little — what matters is the confidence money brings, and above confidence stands grain.

The heir Zhu Gongxiao happened to be able to deliver all three of these essentials for surviving a disaster.

He was the richest man in all of Kaifeng Prefecture, the one with the most grain; until the Zhou Prince granaries ran empty, he could supply Kaifeng Prefecture and even Zhang Renxue with boundless confidence.

Yang Shengwu, however, needed no confidence.

He himself was confidence.

He was a Yunnan man; his ancestors were military officers who followed Mu Ying into Yunnan and later garrisoned Kunming. By his grandfather's generation, the family served as officials in Mile and settled their household registry there.

He passed the county exam at twenty, was selected as a tribute student at twenty-seven, passed the provincial exam at twenty-nine, and then, because his father and mother passed away one after the other, observed six consecutive years of mourning.

At thirty-six he re-emerged from retirement, placed seventeenth in the palace examination, was appointed a Hanlin Academy bachelor, and that same year was selected as an investigating censor for the Guizhou Circuit.

That was the fourth year of the Chongzhen reign.

Which is to say, Yang Shengwu has now been an official for a total of five years, successively conducting inspection tours of Guizhou, Shanxi, and Henan — in Guizhou he purged corrupt officials, in Shanxi he caused salt-pond output to skyrocket and, on the side, led troops to wipe out the White Lotus rebellion, in Henan he reported the Prince of Tang raising troops, and now he has run straight into the Yellow River dike breach.

This world presented no difficulty before Yang Shengwu; every matter he encountered he handled with effortless ease.

The day of the breach, after leaving the Zhou Prince Palace, he packed up his belongings and moved into the main flood-defense dike outside the Kaifeng city wall.

He first summoned village elders and degree-holding gentry familiar with the river conditions, personally drew up a river-control plan and supervised the river works, then, relying on the grain and pay issued by the Zhou Prince Palace, posted notices to recruit displaced commoners as laborers. He began living on the dike, eating and lodging together with the laborers, reinforcing the river embankment.

Zhang Renxue, as the regional commander, derived his pessimism about the breach from the Marshal's Army eyeing them like a tiger watching its prey.

Yang Shengwu, as a civil official, saw this year's breach as a stroke of fortune within misfortune.

The river dike had long gone without repair and was due to be fixed.

People often harbor a gambler's hope. Had it not breached, at a time when the Great Ming was engulfed in flames of war and short of money everywhere, with manpower, material, and funds all being piled onto the war effort — to focus them on repairing the river dike?

Harder than climbing to heaven.

So it was bound to collapse sooner or later.

A breach this year was far better than a breach next year. After all, this year the Yellow River basin suffered a full-line drought from Qinghai to Shanxi; the water volume was insufficient, and the mother river displayed barely three-tenths of her full majesty.

But once it breached, the manpower, material, and funds to rebuild the dike would naturally arrive.

Kaifeng had long suffered from river disasters. Yang Shengwu intended to seize this moment to turn Heigangkou into a flood-control project that would not breach for a hundred years.

At the same time, recruitment inside and outside Kaifeng Prefecture, supported by the Zhou Prince Palace's money and grain, was progressing with extreme smoothness.

A community militia battalion of nearly a thousand men was formed in an extremely short time, its soldiers all sons of officials and degree-holders who supplied their own weapons, were assigned defense sectors on the wall, and drilled in defensive operations.

Regional Commander Zhang Renxue also sent men to find boats. He had originally intended to force a crossing to Tongwaxiang on the opposite bank, but the banks allowed no landing, so they could only drift with the current until they were carried to Dingjiadaokou in Guide Prefecture. Still, the mission was accomplished: official documents and letters were shot by arrow across the river into Shandong territory.

The official document was a memorial to the imperial court; the letter was addressed to Shandong Governor Yan Jizu.

Zhang Renxue hoped the court would take note of the threat posed by this Yellow River breach and his speculation about a possible incursion by Liu Chengzong, and requested the Emperor and the Ministry of War to prepare contingency plans.

The letter to Yan Jizu, meanwhile, expressed the hope that Shandong troops could deploy defenses along the Yellow River, so that if the Henan princely mansions were besieged, Shandong forces could swiftly cross the border to provide support.

This was not an excessive request, because under court regulations, ever since the Zhang Zhi rebellion in the eighth year of Chongzhen, the Southern Metropolitan Region, Henan, Shandong, Huguang, and Sichuan had already become a coordinated-warfare theater when Lu Xiangsheng assumed the post of Supreme Commander.

Of course, given the speed of information transmission in this era, so-called coordinated warfare was nothing but empty words.

Yet they had fought rather well — punching the White Lotus, kicking Li Zicheng, holding Xiangyang against Liu Chengzong, and, on the side, annihilating the Ancient Origin True Dragon Emperor Wang Benren, causing that new dynasty, which possessed the abdication virtues of Yao and Shun, to perish in its second generation.

It was just that Zhang Renxue's wish to draw allied provincial armies into Henan to jointly resist Liu Chengzong was destined to come to nothing.

Because just a few days before his memorial reached the court, an urgent report from Pi Island, forwarded through Shandong, had already been rushed by relay into the capital.

Pi Island Commander Shen Shikui sent an urgent report: the Later Jin state had massed a large army along the riverbank, intent on attacking Pi Island, and he requested the court dispatch troops to support him.

The document was presented to the Grand Secretariat, and Wen Tiren hurried into the palace.

The Chongzhen Emperor, who had only just enjoyed a few comfortable days, once again felt his heart leap into his throat.

This urgent military intelligence entering the palace came as a complete shock to Chongzhen.

It made Chongzhen so frantic that he cursed Chengzong right there in the palace.

He suspected he had been deceived again — that it was very likely Liu Chengzong had falsely reported battle achievements to gain prestige, and that the Later Jin state had never suffered a crippling defeat at all.

Otherwise, how could they, shortly after suffering a great defeat, once again raise troops and cross the sea to attack Pi Island?

But no one would think this was false news.

Because Shen Shikui was the last of the old-generation leaders of the Dongjiang Garrison. He had originally been on the court's list for removal as well, and had survived the Dongjiang Garrison's years of successive upheavals purely by luck and ability.

When Huang Long died, Shen Shikui's assumption of the commander's post was in fact the result of a court compromise.

On this matter, Chongzhen and Shen Shikui shared an unspoken understanding.

Unless faced with a genuine threat, Shen Shikui would absolutely never willingly allow more Ming generals to land on Pi Island.

But correspondingly, Chongzhen would not be so naive and childish as to leave Pi Island to die.

Chongzhen and his court ministers had expended enormous effort to solve the problem, dating back to Mao Wenlong on Pi Island, of generals refusing to obey orders, precisely to ensure the Dongjiang Garrison's loyalty and reliability.

Therefore, when Pi Island sounded the alarm and the court dispatched reinforcements, for the Great Ming it was never a multiple-choice question.

Unfortunately, at this moment, Chongzhen discovered he had no one left around him to deploy.

Because the Supreme Commanders directing the resistance against Ajige's invasion, Zhang Fengyi and Liang Tingdong, had been angered to death and died of illness, respectively.

Liang Tingdong was the Supreme Commander of Xuanda. He took office just before Ajige breached the passes, rushing across Xuanfu, Datong, and Shanxi, personally inspecting the border and planning. He discovered the border defenses were fragile, the troops' pay and provisions utterly lacking, and found no place to even begin, until worry and overwork made him ill.

Then when the great enemy raided the border and the flames of war ignited, he disregarded his sick body, personally donned armor, inspired the officers and men, and himself directed the army in fierce battle, shifting operations between Liangxiang, Tongzhou, Jizhou, and other places. Weakened by illness, he fell from his horse at Xiaidian in Tongzhou and suffered a fracture.

Zhang Fengyi was the Minister of War. Throughout the Later Jin invasion in the ninth year of Chongzhen, with limited troops and scarce provisions, he pursued, blocked, and intercepted the Later Jin army. Together with Liang Tingdong at Lianggou, he personally commanded and defeated Ajige.

Tactically, the victory could hardly be called a complete triumph — the Later Jin raiders split up and rampaged, and the Great Ming's capital heartland indeed paid a bitter price.

But such a performance was already tens of thousands of times stronger than the Ministry of War's during the Jisi Incident.

At least this time, the Ming army was organized.

It would be no exaggeration to say Zhang Fengyi was the most outstanding and capable Minister of War of the Chongzhen reign.

But Zhang Fengyi had died of illness the month before last, and Liang Tingdong died of illness this month.

Both of them, to some degree, had been angered to death.

First was the political pressure of the court's accountability after the battle — the character and way of doing things of the Chongzhen Emperor need no elaboration.

Second was the psychological pressure from popular rumors, which said the two of them never engaged the Eastern Brigands, merely tailed them and watched them go, and had been eating rhubarb every day on the battlefield trying to kill themselves.

Suicide is easy, but taking it continuously for several months before finally eating yourself to death is a very difficult thing.

In any case, by now, the Great Ming had lost two more outstanding supreme commanders.

The Chongzhen Emperor faced the dilemma of having no one to use, and issued an edict promoting Yang Sichang to Minister of War, ordering him to enter the capital with all haste.

Yang Sichang formally ascended to the center of the Great Ming's power stage.

As early as the previous year, Yang Sichang had submitted to Chongzhen in the Purple Light Pavilion a complete strategic plan addressing the situation under heaven.

The core of that plan lay in first using heavy troops to annihilate Zhang Zhi, who had usurped a title and declared himself emperor in the Central Plains, lest he threaten the grain transport routes; internally, to reorganize the army and build up military strength to accumulate power; against the Eastern Brigands and Western Bandits, one must not contest them by force or seek quick merit, but must hold the strategic passes of rivers and mountains to delay and await change.

Against the Western Bandit Liu Chengzong, who had the potential to declare himself king, he was to be granted a royal title to Yang Qi, severing his arm and weakening his branches.

Against the Eastern Brigand Huang Taiji, who continued to invade, heavy troops were to be sent across the sea to assist in the defense of Joseon, lest he squeeze the manpower and resources of that tributary state.

To put it plainly, it was about managing the Central Plains and containing the east and west.

Yang Sichang's strategic proposal was very comprehensive, but what the Emperor truly took to heart was just the enfeoffment of Yang Qi beyond the frontier as a king.

In the end, this matter even collided with Huang Taiji's plans — both sides enfeoffed Yang Qi, forcing the two envoys to duel with royal seals in Guihua City, contending over who exactly was the father.

Facts proved that neither of them was; Yang Qi in the end still accepted Liu Chengzong's enfeoffment edict.

Yang Sichang entered the capital this time full of ambitious confidence, eager to display his talents.

Because in his view, this year, due to Liu Chengzong and Huang Taiji fighting like two tigers beyond the frontier, the Great Ming's situation was much better than the previous year.

Against the Eastern Brigands, perhaps they really could put up a fight.

As for Chongzhen's suspicions about the Battle of Lingdong, Yang Sichang did not take them seriously at all.

Chongzhen was the emperor; it was perfectly normal for an emperor to be suspicious.

He, Yang Sichang, was not paranoid.

The Marshal's Army and the Later Jin Army — these two forces were far more bandit cavalry than regular army in composition, and Liu Chengzong and Huang Taiji were also two super-massive starving men.

Once those two met face to face, if they didn't beat the other down, strip him clean, and eat until they passed out from carb overload, their legs simply could not pull themselves away — they would absolutely never allow themselves to leave.

What's more, the Guanning Army at the front had seized the opportunity to occupy several cities east of Niuzhuang at the Sancha River mouth, and the military report of Liaoyang being burned was not false either.

A military report like that — even Zu Dashou couldn't have fabricated it.

And now, with Yang Sichang in power, the first thing he did upon entering the palace was to reiterate his strategic proposal to the Emperor, especially the dispatch of twenty thousand troops across the sea — only that with the crisis at Pi Island imminent, they would first relieve Pi Island, and once the crisis was resolved, shift to defend Joseon.

Joseon and Dongjiang Garrison, in the Great Ming's view, were in a relationship where if the lips are gone, the teeth grow cold, under the Later Jin threat.

Neither could be lost; both had to be protected.

It was just that neither Chongzhen nor Yang Sichang underestimated the difficulty of dispatching troops across the sea.

Because the army to aid Joseon had to set out from Shandong, and the current situation in Shandong did not permit optimism.

Wen Tiren was the clearest on Shandong's situation, because the previous Governor of Shandong, Li Maofang, had been brought down by him, and the newly appointed Governor of Shandong, Yan Jizu, had been promoted by him and had long since reported Shandong's situation item by item.

Shandong had already been smashed to pieces during the Wuqiao Mutiny, and its coastal defenses were extremely hollow.

At the same time, the drought conditions were no better than those in Shanxi, Shaanxi, and other places; even because it was coastal, in April this year it had also suffered a hurricane, with torrential rain mixed with fist-sized hailstones piling two feet thick on the ground.

In every county of Shandong this year, locust plagues had already become an unstoppable trend, and a widespread cattle plague had also broken out — everywhere was wasteland.

Yet this scene of a thousand li of barren land, when reflected to the central court, was but a few words — amid a land of universal drought and flying locusts, with snow falling in Jiangnan, it was nothing remarkable.

What warranted attention was only what Yan Jizu had stated: the itemized memorial to strengthen the defenses of Qingzhou Prefecture and Jinan Prefecture and to supplement military pay.

This undoubtedly left Yang Sichang at a loss, unable to advance or retreat.

They had troops — Chen Hongfan still had twenty thousand regular soldiers in Dengzhou and Laizhou, and this army had been making preparations to assist in the defense of Joseon all along.

But the Later Jin's attack on Pi Island of the Dongjiang Garrison was bound to be a war of attrition.

And a war of attrition is a contest of supply.

Because the Dongjiang Garrison had absolutely no self-sufficiency capability.

Given Shandong's situation, it clearly could not provide much supply to the Dongjiang Garrison in a war of attrition either.

The key was that the initiative in the campaign was firmly held in the Later Jin Army's hands — when Pi Island would be attacked, and how, was not for the Ming army to decide.

If their reinforcements arrived at Pi Island and the battle had not started, that would be a pure waste of resources.

Faced with this situation, even the iron-headed Yang Sichang dared not accept it, and could only analyze the situation point by point and report it to Wen Tiren.

Wen Tiren was his usual self — when faced with a difficult problem, he only hoped His Majesty would make the sagely decision.

It was Chongzhen who, this time, goaded by Liu Chengzong's great victory beyond the passes, became ruthless: "The Dongjiang Garrison cannot be lost — then we'll outlast him!"

An edict was dispatched to Shandong, ordering Chen Hongfan to remain stationed in Dengzhou with his troops to await relief deployment, and ordering Laizhou Deputy Commander Jin Riguan to lead the Laizhou Naval Camp, Tianjin Naval Camp, and other forces totaling eight thousand soldiers, carrying thirty-two thousand catties of gunpowder, to cross the sea and land on Pi Island to await battle.

Jin Riguan was Chongzhen's favored general, formerly the Deputy Commander of Malanyu — this was a minor deputy commander post defending a pass, actually equivalent in rank to a Regional Commander.

During the Jisi Incident, he led an isolated force defending Malanyu, repelling two Later Jin attacks, and after the battle was directly promoted to Commander-in-Chief of the same rank, first grade; after recovering the four cities of Zunhua and Yongping, he was elevated to Left Commander-in-Chief.

Later, he was once subordinated to Deng Qi's command, but because his rank was higher than Deng Qi's, he refused to submit to authority at all, and was impeached by the Supreme Commander — yet Chongzhen merely admonished and exhorted him.

This time, Chongzhen sent Jin Riguan across the sea first precisely to use his defensive talents, so that when the Dongjiang Garrison came under attack, he would hold Pi Island to the death, awaiting subsequent reinforcements.

It was just that as soon as the edict was issued, a memorial forwarded from Shandong by Yang Shengwu concerning the Yellow River breaching its banks in Henan once again hammered the courage Chongzhen had just roused into the valley floor.

On the very first day Jin Riguan landed on the island, he met Joseon scholars who had fled to Pi Island, who said that Later Jin and Joseon were exchanging state letters, and that Later Jin was set to invade Joseon on the twenty-fifth day of the eleventh month.

The day this news was delivered by fast horse to the capital, it threw Chongzhen's heart into tangled disarray.

He could not analyze whether the Later Jin's real target was Joseon or the Dongjiang Garrison, and the court erupted in fierce debate over this matter — some advocated focusing on defending Dongjiang, arguing that Joseon had its own troops, and it would not be too late for the Ming army to coordinate defense once they came to the Dongjiang Garrison seeking aid.

Yang Sichang, however, held that Joseon's troops were weak and insufficient to face the Later Jin threat alone, and recommended that speed was the essence of warfare — directly deploy troops to assist in Joseon's defense, so that even if the Later Jin army attacked Pi Island, they could still strike their logistics and relieve the siege by besieging the enemy's base.

Chongzhen ultimately adopted Yang Sichang's strategy and ordered Chen Hongfan to set out immediately for Joseon.

But when this edict reached Dengzhou, it was precisely the twenty-fifth day of the eleventh month.

The Later Jin vanguard had already crossed the Yalu River, bypassed the sturdy mountain fortresses, and driven all the way south, heading straight for the Gyeonggi Circuit where the royal capital lay.

Good evening!