Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 289 Shenyang's Outer Defense Line

"Why?" Ding Baiying asked.

"It only says to sell livestock to farmers. But you're a bodyguard." The governor handed the badge and document to the yamen runner. The yamen runner understood and handed it back to Ding Baiying.

Ding Baiying, the "Governor," was quite wealthy and didn't mind paying a higher price than the market price for a horse. "I can pay more."

"There's no way I can raise the price." The governor closed the book. "This government isn't doing business. Get out."

"Governor, I'm going north to Liaoyang." Ding Baiying wanted to explain, but was interrupted by the governor.

"Let's go!" The governor waved his hand. "There are differences between men and women, and I don't want anyone to carry you out. Just walk on your own."

"Oh! Yes." People shouldn't argue with officials. If the government didn't speak against Ding Baiying, then she had no choice.

Ding Baiying left in frustration. Before she even left the command post, she heard the not-too-rushed sound of horse hooves approaching. She quickly stepped out and saw a squad of five cavalrymen pull their reins to a halt at the entrance to the military preparation office, then collectively dismount.

"You two stay here and watch over the horses. I'll take someone in to deliver the message." Kong Youxing handed his reins to his younger brother Kong Youde, and then pointed to another young cavalryman.

"Okay." The two responded in unison.

"Which office are you from and what are you doing here?" The guards from the military preparation office stopped him and asked as usual.

"I'm Kong Youxing, a cavalry sergeant under Lieutenant Mao Wenlong of Liaoyang. I'm here to deliver news from the headquarters to your government." Kong Youxing proudly signed up, then took out a token and handed it over. He'd been promoted from a simple private to sergeant of this newly formed cavalry unit. This was his first assignment.

"Okay. You can go in." The guard checked the token and let him pass. "The deputy envoy is in the back hall."

"Thank you." Kong Youxing held his sword and ran into the yamen.

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When Kong Youxing arrived at the back hall, Zhang Quan, Minister of the Imperial Court and concurrently the Military Governor of Jinfu Haigai, was sitting in his seat with a bitter face, flipping through a booklet just handed to him by an official. This booklet recorded in detail the military affairs office's income and expenditure of money and the flow of supplies yesterday.

For the past two months, his office had been spending thousands of taels of silver almost daily. It could be said that the money was flowing freely. However, this wasn't a cause for concern for Zhang Quan. Haizhou was the second-largest logistics center outside of Liaoyang, and the treasury directly managed by the Haizhou Military Preparations Office had long-term storage of tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands, of taels of silver. The office wasn't short of money, and as long as the honest official didn't act out of character and make excessive claims, he could withstand the investigation.

At present, what bothers him most is the problem of logistics.

Following the Japanese invasion, the Ming Dynasty maintained a strict maritime ban on imports from the northern Zhili region. It wasn't until the 46th year of the Wanli reign, when Nurhaci launched a rebellion and the Liaodong region became convulsed, that the imperial court dispatched Yang Hao to the Liaodong region to conduct a raid. This policy was finally relaxed, and official grain began to be shipped to the Liaodong region by sea. Prior to this, grain from the south, after reaching Tianjin, was transported overland to the capital and various towns.

However, loosening up does not mean fully opening up. Even in the early days of Xiong Tingbi's reign in Liao, a lot of government grain still had to be transported by land.

This was because traveling overland involved losses. Shanhaiguan to Liaoyang was 800 li, and a round trip for the grain train took over 40 days, requiring both food and fodder for the people and horses. Rain could soak the grain, and the grain could scatter as the horses and donkeys crossed the mountains. Encountering bandits could also result in significant losses. In short, all these losses were called "losses," and with losses came corruption. Consequently, the cost of transporting a single dan of grain by the government was higher than for the people.

In order to switch all government grain shipments to sea transport, Xiong Tingbi repeatedly argued with officials from the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue. From the Minister of State to the Vice Minister, he scolded everyone in the two government offices, and finally, all government grain was shipped by sea.

But after the sea was changed, new contradictions arose.

Xiong Tingbi repeatedly suggested shipping the grain directly to Gaizhou, the closest shipping point to Liaoning and Shenyang. However, the Ministry of Revenue consistently ignored his requests, always claiming that Gaizhou's water conditions were complex and the sea was densely covered with reefs, making it a dangerous journey for ship captains, and instead sent the grain to Jinzhou or Lushun.

However, the distance between Jin and Luzhou was nearly the same as that between Shanhaiguan and Liaoyang, which was simply a waste of time. Therefore, Xiong Tingbi repeatedly wrote to the newly appointed Minister of Military Affairs, Li Changgeng, urging him to ship the military supplies to Gaizhou by sea. However, the officials in charge of this task consistently refused to cooperate, resulting in the military supplies piling up in Lushun and Jinzhou. However, due to the bottleneck of land transportation capacity, the supplies could not be quickly transported to the front lines, resulting in a large amount of unnecessary waste.

From Xiong Tingbi himself, to his former colleague Zhou Yongchun, to the new governor Yuan Yingtai, who also oversaw southern Liaoning, and finally Zhang Quan, who was solely responsible for southern Liaoning, all they did was to treat the symptoms rather than the root cause. Even if the number of donkeys, mules, and other draft animals continued to increase, the waste would not be reduced until the shipping destination was changed from Jinzhou and Lushun to Gaizhou.

"Zhang Bingxian." Kong Youxing came in front of Zhang Quan and saluted respectfully.

Zhang Quan looked up. "What's going on?"

"I am Kong Youxing, a sergeant under the command of Liaoyang guerrilla Mao Wenlong. I have been ordered to come to Haizhou to deliver news from the headquarters." Kong Youxing said.

"Speak." Hearing the word "headquarters", Zhang Quan's already stiff brows furrowed even tighter.

"I report this to the military magistrate," Kong Youxing said, "Liaoyang will execute Gao Huai, the eunuch who formerly collected mining taxes in Liaodong, by lingchi at noon on the 11th of this month. All government offices at all levels in Liaoyang are hereby ordered to announce this and organize the public to go to Liaoyang to witness the execution."

"Ah? Lingchi." Zhang Quan was stunned for a moment, unable to react. He murmured, "When did Gao Huai come to Liaodong?"

Kong Youxing thought Zhang Quan was asking him a question, so he answered seriously, "It was sent by the eunuch envoy."

Zhang Quan nodded silently, then asked, "How many people should we send to Liaoyang?"

"Ten people in the Weicheng and five people in the garrison." Kong Youxing replied.

"Okay." Zhang Quan turned to look at the clerk who was also in the hall. "Did you hear everything?"

"I heard it." The clerk nodded.

"Draft a notice. Then go to the street and pick a few literate people to watch the execution." After saying that, Zhang Quan lowered his head and continued to read his booklet.

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That afternoon, Yang Lian arrived in Shenyang under the protection of guerrilla general Zu Dashou.

Yang Lian did not enter directly from the South Gate, but instead led Zu Dashou and his men to the East Gate of Shenyang. If the Jiannu army went down the Hun River and attacked Shenyang via Fushun, the East Gate of Shenyang would bear the brunt of the attack.

Before they reached the northern suburbs, they were met by a garrison twice as numerous as Zu Dashou's own cavalry. These were the special forces under the command of You Shigong, the deputy general of Shenyang's auxiliary garrison. The term "special forces" meant to achieve victory by surprise, and like the general's standard-bearing troops, they were all elite soldiers.

The special forces came forward not out of vigilance but to pay a visit. The scouts stationed at the watchtower in the southern suburbs of Shenyang had long discovered this cavalry coming from the direction of Liaoyang. They saw the royal flag carried by the flag-bearing officer and notified Shenyang with a special signal. Therefore, You Shigong thought that this was Xiong Tingbi's arrival, so he brought a special force to meet him. The two teams stopped almost at the same time. You Shigong came to the royal flag, but only saw Yang Lian in the uniform of a fourth-rank civil official. He was a little surprised, but he still dismounted and walked over, kneeling on one knee with his fists clasped. "You Shigong pays his respects to Yang Zhongcheng."

Yang Lian also dismounted and bowed. "Greetings, Lieutenant General You. Please stand up."

You Shigong stood up and walked over to Yang Lian, asking, "Central Minister Yang, where is Xiong Zuotang?"

"Only me." Yang Lian said.

You Shigong was startled for a moment, then seemed to understand something. His expression changed slightly, but he asked more questions.

You Shigong knew that Yang Lian went straight to the East Gate to inspect Shenyang's outer defenses again, so he waved his hand and said, "Please come this way."

"Okay." After Yang Lian mounted his horse, You Shigong returned to his own horse and gave an order to the commander of the special forces. "Take the men back to the camp."

"Yes." The special troop commander accepted the order and left. The only people left from You Shigong's group were a team of servants responsible for personal protection.

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You Shigong led Yang Lian to a deep trench under construction at the outermost edge of the East City. This was the twelfth trench outside Shenyang. "How long will it take to complete this trench?" Yang Lian squatted down and observed closely.

"At present, only the east gate section has been basically completed. If we compare it with the ten trenches we excavated before, digging one person deep, supplemented by trenches and fences, and surrounding the entire Shenyang city, it will probably take at least another month." You Shigong replied.

As the Deputy General of the Auxiliary Town, You Shigong's primary responsibilities, besides directly commanding special forces to defend against invaders, were to assist the General in overseeing defenses. Specifically, this involved training troops, repairing the city walls, supervising watchtowers, providing relief to soldiers, and protecting the residents. Therefore, he oversaw the repair of the Shenyang Acropolis walls, the construction of the outer defenses, and even the recent roundup and resettlement of the Tatars surrounding Shenyang.

Before Sun Chuanting arrived in Shenyang, You Shigong was busier than He Shixian, but after the young inspector arrived, these tasks were shared between the two of them.

"Why is it taking so long?" Yang Lian carefully followed the trench wall as he dug down, but he still got himself covered in mud. He looked down the straight road of the deep trench and saw a few blurry figures working in the distance.

You Shigong followed suit, walking alongside Yang Lian along the trench. His relatives and Zu Dashou's cavalry followed, leading their horses alongside the trench. "The circumference gets longer as you go further out, and there are plans to widen the trench, so the construction work has doubled."

"It shouldn't take that long to double the project," Yang Lian asked. "And I heard you're using the Tatars you've gathered."

While Sun Chuanting was wary of these Tatars who appeared out of nowhere, he also felt that the Tatars should not be allowed to eat for free and waste the court's food, so he organized them to help dig more outer defensive fortifications.

"Zhongcheng, you are wise," You Shigong said with a simple smile. "We didn't deploy them, we only used the Tatars we had gathered."

"Only? Why not send more people?" Yang Lian asked.

"Recently, Jiannu reconnaissance has become increasingly frequent. Smoke is emitted almost daily from the forts near the Hunhe River. The soldiers have even cut off two heads." You Shigong said, "The commander-in-chief has determined that the Jiannu will make major moves within the next month. We can't continue to waste the defenders' energy. We must conserve our strength."

Yang Lian nodded slightly, and had no objection to the defender's judgment.

"Can the Dunbing soldiers still get the first merit?" Yang Lian asked again.

The main task of the Dunbing was to scout and drive off scattered scouts, and their activities were limited to a small area. If they encountered a larger group of scouts, the Dunbing would only be able to send smoke signals for help and retreat to wait for reinforcements. Therefore, reports of Dunbing killing people were rare, almost non-existent.

"He was shot to death with a bird gun." You Shigong said.

"The bird guns presented as tribute by the Semites?" Yang Lian's eyebrows moved slightly.

"Yes and no." You Shigong shook his head. "To be precise, our craftsmen copied the Western Yi bird cannons and made new ones. We issued some to our soldiers."

"Have the slave soldiers dared to approach the watchtower to conduct reconnaissance?" Yang Lian asked again. While the bird guns were powerful, their range was only a hundred steps. Jiannu cavalry scouts generally wouldn't approach this close to the watchtower.

"No, he was killed by archery on horseback." You Shigong said.

"Can bird guns be fired from a horse?" Yang Lian had only seen bird guns used during drills.

"Yes, there's an iron cover on the firing port, so the powder won't be blown away. It's just a little more difficult to reload. Even the most experienced rider would need a while to do it." You Shigong added, "The horses will be frightened at first, but they'll get used to it after hearing it so many times."

"Okay. I understand." When Yang Lian reached the section of road near the construction site, he saw the Tatars inserting sharpened wooden stakes into the soil under the supervision of fully armed Ming troops.

"Zu Fuyu, pull me up." Yang Lian didn't intend to go any further, so he looked up and shouted. Zu Dashou immediately handed the reins to the guard next to him, and then he lay down on the edge of the trench and extended his hand. "Zhongcheng."

The Tatars heard the shouting and looked over here, but did not take any further action and continued their construction.

Yang Lian and You Shigong came down to the ground one after another. After stabilizing themselves, Yang Lian patted the wet mud off his robe. Then he asked, "How are the rations stored in Shenyang?"

You Shigong followed his gaze and looked at the working Tatars. He said, "Those who work can eat their fill. Those who don't work, the elderly, the weak, women and children, can only receive reduced food."

"Yes. That's right. There's no need to treat them preferentially, at least not yet." Yang Lian nodded with satisfaction. He completely agreed with Xiong Tingbi's views on the Tatars. Even the Liao people couldn't be used as soldiers for the time being, let alone the Tatar refugees.

"Do you want to go and take a look at the Tatar camp?" You Shigong asked proactively.

"I can't go today. Let's go back first." Yang Lian suddenly remembered something and turned around and asked, "You don't have any food stored in the Tatar camp, right?"

You Shigong shook his head and said, "No. According to the general's instructions, we only stored three days' worth of rice in the resettlement camp. We also confiscated all their ironware and livestock, and even their tools after work each day. We redistributed them the next day when the city gates were opened and work resumed."

"Very good. Let's go into the city and go to the government office." Yang Lian mounted his horse and rode slowly along the path between the trenches and ditches with a group of cavalrymen towards the city gate.

(End of this chapter)