Chapter 79: Fighting with Back to Water
Chapter 79: Fighting with Back to Water
Xiong Tingbi did have over ten thousand Sichuan troops under him.
But they weren’t the Chieftain Army from Eastern Sichuan. Qin Liangyu’s nephew Qin Bangping, leading Sichuan soldiers, probably had just received the Ministry of War’s orders around this time. They would arrive in Liaodong piecemeal next year, and that wouldn’t be until the year’s end.
These troops were actually ones Liu Ting had requested.
Liu the Broadsword rose to prominence thanks to two major battles in the southwest. His achievements were always linked to the Sichuan Army, and it was the only force he truly trusted. Before the war, he loudly claimed that with thirty thousand Sichuan troops, he alone could solve the Wild Boar Skin problem. Emperor Wanli did indeed transfer Sichuan troops to him, but for various reasons, Liu Ting didn’t get them in time. After the Battle of Sarhu, this force of ten thousand-plus finally arrived. The journey from Sichuan to Liaodong covered over five thousand li. These soldiers were utterly exhausted, and their current fighting capability was questionable. Moreover, Xiong Tingbi couldn’t even fully equip them with armor and weapons.
But defending the city shouldn’t be a problem.
As long as they avoided a head-on clash with the Jiannu in the open field, these Sichuan troops could hold Liaoyang.
Liaodong’s defense used Kaiyuan-Tieling as the frontline and Shenyang as the last line of defense. Shenyang was Liaodong’s true gateway; behind it lay densely populated farming plains. Beyond Shenyang stood Hupi Post on one side and Fengji Fort on the other, forming a triangle with Shenyang. Innumerable smaller forts filled the gaps between these three cities. Liaoyang served as the rear support for this defensive line. Whether the Jiannu crossed the Hun River upstream or downstream, they couldn’t directly attack Liaoyang. Instead, they’d face this tight defense system and risk being trapped by Ming troops between the riverbanks.
Especially He Shixian at Hupi Post.
This guy was probably the only genuinely capable commander in Liaodong at the time. The Wild Boar Skin crossing downstream would have to face him first.
Furthermore, Liaoyang wasn’t defended only by Sichuan troops.
Reinforcements from Xuanfu, Yansui, and even Shandong, among other places who’d marched beyond the pass, were mostly stationed there. Chai Guozhu, the Regional Military Commander of Shanhai Pass, led them. However, these troops were also mostly new recruits. Garrison commanders at the time routinely inflated troop rolls to fund their Household Troops. Small battles were handled by these Household Troops. For major wars, they scrambled to recruit soldiers, often continuing to pocket pay meant for phantom troops…
How else could they fund their Household Troops?
How else could they bribe their superiors for promotions?
This problem persistently plagued the Ming Army. That’s why the actual troops engaged in the Battle of Sarhu remained a mystery. On paper, there were over seventy thousand reinforcements plus over ten thousand locally Recruited Soldiers. This didn’t even include forces pulled from various Liaodong garrison castles. The latter commanded a total force of ninety thousand. Though some were needed to watch the Mongolians, pulling ten or twenty thousand should have been feasible. Theoretically, the attacking Ming force should not have numbered less than one hundred thousand, but the true figure remained unknown. The attack numbers were murky, but even the reported forty thousand deaths were unreliable. That was just written figures sent to the Ministry of War. Ming commanders loved exaggerating fatalities. That’s right—exaggerating. They inflated the death count because the compensation for Recruited Soldiers also passed through their hands. More deaths reported meant more compensation money!
In short, concerning the Ming Army during this period, any numbers—especially troop counts—were wildly inaccurate and severely falsified. Half the reported force missing was unsurprising; a mere third missing was practically honest.
Xiong Tingbi stared at Yang Xin.
Yang Xin stared back at him, rather rudely.
“I won’t send reinforcements to Shenyang. But for anything outside Shenyang, I’ll take responsibility. And you better hold Shenyang. If you dare flee Shenyang, Xiong’s Imperial Sword will be waiting for you!”
Xiong Tingbi said.
He sounded much like he had during the Guangning campaign.
“Military Commissioner Xiong, it’s settled then. But since you’re leaving Shenyang to me, you must support whatever I decide to do here.”
Yang Xin said.
Xiong Tingbi’s tendency to act on stubbornness or pique was troublesome.
“Fine. Do whatever you want inside Shenyang. I’ll appoint Chen Yujie as Army Supervisor. The place lacked a civil overseer anyway. The five hundred Capital Garrison troops will also stay with you. Cao Wenzhao will serve as Deputy Commander, leading them. That Huang Degong, who distinguished himself earlier, is promoted to Militia Captain and assigned as his lieutenant!”
Xiong Tingbi declared.
This was acceptable.
Yang Xin felt satisfied with this outcome.
Xiong Tingbi promptly left.
“Old Xiong is being pretty childish!”
Chen Yujie, largely ignored throughout, cautiously remarked.
Li Rubai and his brother, similarly ignored, both nodded emphatically. Old Xiong was clearly acting stubbornly. This revealed a rather immature side of the Military Commissioner to them now. Then they both looked at Yang Xin. They were fully tied to him now. Xiong Tingbi’s words, aimed at Yang Xin, equally threatened them. In a way, they had already broken openly with Xiong Tingbi. If they dared abandon the city and flee, he would use that Imperial Sword without hesitation. So they had no choice but to stay in Shenyang, find a way to hold it, and their entire hope of doing so rested entirely on Yang Xin.
“Don’t mind him. We don’t have to stick with him anyway. Once this battle’s over, we head back to the Capital!”
Yang Xin declared.
If they truly forced the Wild Boar Skin back, Liaodong would be safe for at least two years. He had no interest in lingering here. The next year was the crucial one for changing the course of the Great Ming Dynasty.
The Capital City was his main battleground.
“Lord Chen (肖城公, referring to Li Rubai), provide me a list of families in the city who might have connections with the Wild Boar Skin. Don’t tell me there are none. This fight is about life or death. I don’t want someone opening the gates for the enemy in the dead of night.”
He said to Li Rubai.
Li Rubai silently nodded.
“Brother Cao, take Lord Chen’s list. Fetch all the leading male members of those families and place them inside the bell tower. Stack hay and pour oil around the tower. Tell them that if Shenyang falls, they’ll have the honor of serving the Great Ming loyally—first. Also, open those grain merchants’ storehouses. Set up porridge kitchens around the city. Families of all men participating in the city’s defense eat for free. Consider this a temporary loan from these merchants; the court will compensate them later at a discounted rate. Execute anyone who resists outright on charges of treason. Arrest any official who obstructs and imprison them under the same accusations.”
Yang Xin instructed Cao Wenzhao.
“Brother Yang!”
Li Rubai gasped, shocked.
Yang Xin immediately raised his hand to stop him.
“Lord Chen, the order is mine. You heard Military Commissioner Xiong himself say I could do whatever I wanted here. You’re merely following Xiong Tingbi’s command. The ones carrying this out are the Capital Garrison. And you,” Yang Xin gestured to the Li brothers, “have no authority over the Capital Garrison troops. So this doesn’t involve you.”
Yang Xin clarified.
Li Rubai promptly shut his mouth.
There would definitely be trouble afterward. The Censors would come biting like rabid dogs. But Yang Xin’s explanation neatly absolved the Li Family. Xiong Tingbi was the one who indulged Yang Xin’s brutality. The Capital Garrison were Yang Xin’s enforcers, and they didn’t report to the Li brothers, the Ming commanders of Liaodong reinforcements; they were under Xiong Tingbi. If the Li brothers couldn’t control these troops, they could only watch them cause mayhem. Even so, they couldn’t help but acknowledge Yang Xin’s sheer audacity. His rumored favor with the Imperial Noble Consort was probably true!
“Lord Chen, order all city gates closed immediately, and have them sealed shut.”
Yang Xin commanded.
Li Rubai motioned to a Household Servant (家奴).
The servant immediately rushed out to relay the orders. The Jiannu vanguard was likely nearing Puhe by now. They could probably reach Shenyang within the hour at most. There was no time for anything else; they had to prepare for battle immediately. In fact, the returning elite troops were already manning the city walls, along with the poorly equipped new recruits. Li Rubai had recruited five thousand new soldiers during Yang Xin’s northern expedition. Current troop strength inside the city was twenty thousand—about five thousand seasoned soldiers and fifteen thousand unreliable rabble, including retreating garrison remnants. Few able-bodied men remained; Shenyang’s population had dwindled significantly. Most people with the means had already fled to Liaoyang.
The remaining able-bodied men were largely conscripted. Only an estimated ten to twenty thousand women, children, and elderly remained, including those recently forced back inside the city. So Yang Xin had few civilians left to ‘recruit’. Most wealthy gentry and merchants suspected of colluding with the enemy had already fled to Liaoyang for refuge.
After his reckless military venture (against Jiannu outside the city), many more had fled…
They likely assumed Yang Xin and Li Ruzhen wouldn’t be coming back.
However, food supplies in the city were ample.
These people could flee easily, but grain couldn’t be transported out quickly. Li Rubai had also prohibited them from moving grain stores.
The lack of firearms was a problem, one even Xiong Tingbi faced.
There was a solution…
“Build trebuchets. Small, manpowered trebuchets. Build as many as possible. If rocks run out, tear out the blue bricks from the houses.”
Yang Xin ordered.
Small manpower trebuchets were simple—basically a few logs nailed together. The green new troops were unreliable on the walls, so they just had to stand behind them and fling rocks (or bricks) overhead. Without rocks, fling blue bricks. A flying brick weighing five or six jin falling from the sky? Even with the headgear of that time, a Jiannu soldier wouldn’t hold up—forget just a helmet, even a Kevlar helmet wouldn’t save them!
“They have plenty of gunpowder here, right?”
Yang Xin asked.
“Gunpowder is in ample supply.”
Li Rubai confirmed.
Gunpotder was actually relatively cheap in Ming times. A hundred jin of gunpowder cost nearly as much as a hundred jin of grain at Liaodong’s current market price. The Ministry of Works produced it in bulk, like hundreds of thousands of jin. The Great Ming had easy access to saltpeter. While Europeans at the time relied on scraping soil from toilets, the Ming sourced it from saltpeter caves. Saltpeter cost only 2.5 fen per jin – slightly more expensive than wrought iron but cheaper than quality Su Steel. Sulfur was pricier as it was imported from places like Japan or Ryukyu, costing about four fen per jin. When broken down, it wasn’t hugely expensive.
Even cannons were cheap! The Ministry of Works priced a Frankish Cannon with six spare chambers at only ten taels.
Just ten taels.
For the Great Ming, industrial products weren’t particularly expensive at this time.
“Then make Gunpowder Satchels. Fill one with twenty jin of gunpowder. Load them with things like nails. I’ll make them myself. I’ll use them!”
Yang Xin declared.
Twenty jin of black powder. Yes, it burned relatively slowly. But wrapping it tightly in multiple layers would work. Wrap it in a hundred layers of silk, then add a sturdy outer cloth bag studded densely with outward-pointing nails. Probably weighed a few dozen jin in the end. He could easily throw such a weight several dozen meters.
He wouldn’t throw it downward. He’d toss it skyward.
Consider a gunpowder satchel detonating mid-air above a densely packed formation of Jiannu…
How devastating would the results be?
He thought it could easily kill thirty to fifty.
Suddenly, an officer rushed in hurriedly.
“Commander-in-Chief! Jiannu scout riders spotted outside the walls!”
He reported with a grim face.
“Gentlemen! The Wild Boar Skin is here. The rest is up to us. Life or death hinges on this! Remind the brothers on the walls: Abatai’s corpse was just sent away! If we fall into Wild Boar Skin’s hands, skinning us alive will be the best we can hope for! And remember! Military Commissioner Xiong’s Imperial Sword awaits us! Flee Shenyang? That Imperial Sword will chop our heads off! Grab your weapons! Prepare for bloody combat! Kill! Kill to earn titles for our wives and sons! Kill to bring glory to our ancestors!”
Yang Xin snatched up the Green Dragon Crescent Blade lying nearby, shouting in fierce excitement.