Chapter 1436: First, a Heavy Snow

Who could have imagined such a scene? The Zhao Army, from top to bottom, found it all perfectly ordinary — things that ought to be done as a matter of course. But in the eyes of the local Liaodong people, it was inconceivable. Every single day's expenditure was a mountain of gold and a sea of silver. Silver, coin, and supplies poured in like flowing water, yet they could still be consumed with such composure.

Just how prosperous was Xuzhou? Although they had already seen countless great ships streaming endlessly and supplies piled high as mountains and vast as seas before the sea was sealed, only when the actual consumption began did they understand what kind of wealth this represented.

As for the Jianzhou Jurchens, they were merely observing from the outside and could not grasp the internal situation at all. They could only speculate, thinking that the Zhao Army must be having a hard time enduring this freezing wind and heavy snow.

On the Zhao Army's side, they took everything for granted but had no idea of the reasons behind it. Occasionally, someone would wonder: why was it so terribly difficult for the Great Ming to support a large army, with every campaign mobilization stirring up such public resentment and causing unbearable suffering in the localities, while the Zhao Army was so abundantly supplied, as if the resources were inexhaustible? The territory the Zhao Army controlled was far smaller than what the Great Ming controlled. Yet, having thought this far, no one delved any deeper. The final conclusion was simply that Lord Jin was omnipotent, and that was why things turned out this way.

Hardly anyone thought about the system or industry and commerce. It was because of the Zhao Army's highly efficient system that they could mobilize with maximum efficiency and avoid pointless waste in the process. But even more important was industry and commerce. The Great Ming, the Jurchens, and even the Mongols — in a certain sense, they all lived at the mercy of nature. Their wealth came from nothing more than planting and animal husbandry, or at most, plundering. Under such conditions, the surplus wealth they could mobilize was extremely limited, and they simply could not support an army of such massive scale or such enormous consumption of supplies. If they did so, there would inevitably be enormous negative consequences.

But Zhao Jin's Xuzhou system was different. His wealth was drawn from industry and commerce: brewing liquor from grain, smelting ore to forge iron, spinning yarn and weaving cloth, ocean-going trade, and Sino-foreign trade. The surplus wealth created by these was as different from the yields of farming, herding, and plundering as clouds are from mud — greater by several times, dozens of times, even hundreds of times. Moreover, farming and herding only yielded produce during limited seasons of the year, while industry and commerce created surplus wealth ceaselessly, all year round, at every moment.

Relying on these, Zhao Jin forged the most powerful army of this era. Relying on these, he supplied a vast, heaven-spanning quantity of materiel.

Seeing those mountain-like, sea-like supplies, the first reaction of many Liaodong and Shandong commoners was not that Xuzhou was fabulously wealthy, but that the common people on Xuzhou's lands must be living in bitter hardship. Such enormous expenditure, they thought, could only be achieved by scraping the earth three zhang deep — the people must have been bled dry, their very marrow sucked out. Yet after talking with the soldiers and learning that Xuzhou was a place where people lived in peace and contentment, each of them found it impossible to understand.

Because in this era, very few people understood the Zhao Army's system or knew why the Zhao Army was so powerful. They simply believed Zhao Jin could turn stone to gold, as if everything appeared out of thin air.

"The greatest trouble for us right now isn't the cold — it's this snow that's about to fall but hasn't yet," Chen Sheng said during a discussion in the command tent.

Ever since the main Jianzhou Jurchen army had stationed itself at Fifty Stockade Post and Yongning Garrison City, the sky had been overcast for several days running. The heavens were thick with leaden clouds, yet the weather was not as cold as the days before, and the wind had grown very slight. But such weather meant snow was coming — a heavy snow.

Firearms fear water, though snow is slightly better than rain. In the rain, the Zhao Army's firelocks and cannons cannot fire at all. In snow, as long as care is taken to protect them, they can still be fired, but the rate of fire will certainly slow. Moreover, after firing, the firearms grow hot, and the falling snow melts into dampness, which will likewise affect shooting and may even cause misfires.

The Zhao Army's firearms are lethally sharp — the magic weapon for victory in battle after battle. If it snows, that advantage will be impaired, affecting the entire army's combat strength.

However, there was no worry that the enemy would attack during a heavy snowfall. In swirling, heavy snow, firearms indeed cannot fire, but neither can cavalry or infantry operate in weather that obstructs vision and even hampers movement. Here, orders cannot even be transmitted smoothly. If any disturbance arose, uncontrollable situations could occur on the battlefield. A victory would be fine, but a great defeat would be a catastrophe.

In warfare, one seeks absolute certainty; no one would stake their life on such a risk. Amin and Jirgalang had brought out roughly two-fifths of Jianzhou's capital, and Chen Sheng led a quarter of the Zhao Army's strength. Both sides bore heavy responsibilities, and neither dared to gamble on a risky venture.

Yet this snow, poised to fall but not yet falling, affected the Zhao Army more and the Jianzhou Jurchens less. The Jurchen, Mongol, and Han troops of the Jianzhou Jurchens were far better adapted to the windy, snowy weather of the Liao lands. A competent commander would exploit this heavy snow or avoid it, seeking advantage and shunning harm.

For Amin, however, there was not much time left to waste. The provisions and fodder for an army of fifty thousand were no small matter, especially with nearly ten thousand cavalry among them — the food for men and the chewing of horses made it a bottomless pit.

Although the Jianzhou Jurchens had made sufficient preparations before this great battle, once things were actually set in motion, it was still somewhat taxing. Moreover, for the Jianzhou Jurchens, this great battle was, in the first place, a matter of having gathered enough strength to seek a decisive fight. They had to resolve this mortal threat on the Liaonan Peninsula as quickly as possible. They could not afford to delay, nor did they dare to.

The longer the delay, the greater the expenditure of coin and grain. The longer the delay, the closer the season when the sea would open and ships would come. When that time truly arrived, reinforcements from inside the Pass could land by sea. What meaning would this winter offensive, with its enormous cost, have then? The Jianzhou Jurchens' greatest advantage of time and terrain would become a joke.

Amin, Jirgalang, and Yoto were naturally anxious — it would be no exaggeration to call them ants on a hot pan. Yet they could never find a good opportunity; instead, they had been dealt several harsh blows in the standoff. The grand situation of time and terrain was indeed advantageous to the Jianzhou Jurchens, but the Zhao Army, within this grand situation so unfavorable to them, had managed to claw back some gains in the details.

For Amin and the others, this kind of standoff was a matter of seasoned caution, daring no negligence. But in the eyes of Great Khan Nurhaci and the other beile, it smacked of selfishness — disregarding Jianzhou's greater interests and fixating only on their own banners and niru. The Jianzhou Jin State had staked its blood capital on this great battle, yet you hesitated to advance for the sake of preserving your own troops. Did you think the Great Khan's blade had grown dull?

Orders urging battle were sent continuously from Shenyang to the main camp. Amin and Jirgalang knew there was no longer any possibility of hesitation. They had no choice but to fight.

Yet having come from Gaizhou Garrison City to Fifty Stockade Post and Yongning Garrison City, there were not many options left. Only one road lay open: to fight. The only question was when.

Just as Amin gave the order to prepare for battle the next day — to assault Fuzhou City directly — a heavy snow began falling that very night. Such gloomy weather invariably heralds a great snow.

The snow fell for a night and a day, piling thick upon the ground. Heaven and earth were a vast expanse of white. But this snow forced Amin to postpone the advance. In such heavy, swirling snow, the cavalry's charging power and mobility would be greatly weakened. Besides cavalry, the Jianzhou Jurchens had also brought firearms on this campaign: there were cannons captured from the Liaodong Garrison of the Ming army, as well as Korean matchlock soldiers. These crucial fighting forces could not be dispensed with either.

Speaking of which, the end of the year was already approaching. The Jianzhou Jurchens also celebrated the New Year, and ever since they had seized the Liaodong Garrison, the festive extravagance of New Year's Eve and the First Month had grown greater and greater. The situation inside the Pass in Xuzhou was much the same. Ever since the Zhao Army's rise, the Spring Festival celebrations in Xuzhou had been the finest in all of South Zhili.

But at this moment, neither side had any mind for New Year's joy. Everyone knew that a bloody battle was near.

Judging from the overall situation so far, Amin believed the Zhao Army would defend Fuzhou City to the death, or would fight relying on Fuzhou City. Therefore, the Jianzhou Jurchen army was to strike camp and advance, encircling the city to do battle.

What the Jianzhou Jurchen troops did not expect was that the very next day, after the snow stopped, the Zhao Army marched out of Fuzhou City and set up camp at a position twenty li from the city.

Yongning Garrison City was a little over forty li from Fuzhou City. If a large force moved at a brisk pace, it was a single day's journey — but one would have to march from morning until dark. The Zhao Army's advance, seemingly a case of making trouble for themselves, in fact expressed an intention to actively seek battle.

Compared to other terrain, a city is inevitably easy to defend and hard to assault. If the Zhao Army defended the city to the death, the Jianzhou Jurchens would find the fight far more taxing. Amin had prepared for this, but he had never imagined the Zhao Army would actually come out of the city.

In the end, it's just youthful rashness, just not knowing the immensity of heaven and earth. Have you been reading too much Romance of the Three Kingdoms? To actually dare to array your forces openly like this for a pitched, formal battle — it's the stuff of heroic spirit in operas and tales. But this is a matter of life and death. Every bit of rashness and impetuosity on your side adds a fraction more to our chances of victory.

The thick accumulated snow not only hindered marching but was also a great nuisance during battle. After the Zhao Army constructed their encampment, they began clearing the surrounding snow.

In such bitter cold, there was naturally no question of the snow melting. The Zhao Army soldiers simply cleared out the battlefield they needed. Six infantry regiments, five infantry battalions, one cavalry regiment, and over eighty cannons — the space required was truly not small. Not to mention, one could not merely clear enough space to deploy the formations; one also had to account for the army's maneuvering and movement. The work to be done was truly considerable.

While clearing the snow, they also had to guard against sneak attacks from the Jurchen troops opposite. So several regiments took turns standing guard and working in rotation. The area that needed clearing was enormous, and the piled-up snow was naturally a colossal amount. As a result, a wall of snow was heaped up around the perimeter of the cleared zone, naturally forming the appearance of a walled fortification — nearly a zhang high and extremely thick.

The Zhao Army did not really have much experience dealing with accumulated snow like this. When they saw this "snow city wall" appear all around them, everyone from top to bottom was dumbfounded. Only a few carefree souls found it novel and amusing.

Left with no choice, they had to assign soldiers to keep watch and stand sentry atop this snow wall. They decided they might as well go all the way and used the snow to build even taller observation platforms, making it easier to react in time.

To Chen Jisheng and Zhang Pan, watching this, it seemed like the Zhao Army was simply too childish at heart — what difference was there from playing in the snow? Yet the sight of the snow-clearing also made them sigh with emotion. The Zhao Army's supplies were truly abundant; they were even so amply equipped with tools for sweeping snow.