Chapter Ninety-Four: Faith

As soon as they were clear of the gate, Zhen Youcai hurried after Wang Pu and asked in a low voice, “General, might you want to think it over again? If we fail to seize the cattle and sheep, the one who suffers is only Zhang Zian; it has nothing to do with us. Attacking Sanbulachuan for the sake of that old eunuch is far too risky, in my humble opinion it is not worth it.”

Wang Pu stopped and turned back. “Youcai, do you honestly think the attack on Sanbulachuan is for Zhang Zian’s sake?”

Zhen Youcai stared blankly. “Isn’t it?”

“Of course not.” Wang Pu shook his head, his tone grave. “What I am doing may look like it is for Zhang Zian, but in truth it is for the more than ten thousand border troops in Datong, for the hundreds of thousands of people in Datong Prefecture, and for ourselves as well. This herd of cattle and sheep is simply too important to us. We must drive it back to Datong.”

“This...” Zhen Youcai said in confusion, “I truly do not understand.”

When it came to intrigue and dirty tricks, Zhen Youcai was indeed a fine hand. But when it came to planning the great affairs of a ruler, he fell far short. At most, he could be a sniveling schemer; he would never become a man like Zhang Liang or Chen Ping, for he had no strategic vision.

As for Wang Pu, he looked like nothing more than a hot-blooded, loyal man with little sense, but that was not the truth. Beneath that seemingly simple exterior lay a mind far from simple.

His courage and loyalty appeared only before the brothers and lover he would die to protect. To shield them, Wang Pu would even sacrifice himself if necessary. To many, such behavior seemed idiotic, foolish, reckless. But Wang Pu did not see it that way. He had his own principles.

So at times, Wang Pu looked like nothing more than a brainless brute.

Yet when he faced an enemy, in an instant he would don an entirely different face. He would push his ruthlessness and cruelty to the limit, becoming fiercer than a wolf and more cunning than a fox. This was no empty boast.

At the Battle of Songshan, Wang Pu had keenly spotted the Manchu army’s fatal weakness. He sent an unexpected force straight for their heart, Shengjing, causing the siege of Songshan and Jinzhou to come to nothing. During this raid on Guihua, Wang Pu not only ordered every Mongol encountered on the march to be cut down without mercy, he also slaughtered everyone in the city of Guihua.

To the Manchu and the Mongols, Wang Pu was absolutely a cruel and cunning devil.

Thus it was hard to say exactly what kind of man Wang Pu was. In short, he was simply Wang Pu. At times he seemed straightforward; at others, utterly impossible to read. Right now, for example, Zhen Youcai could not see as far ahead as Wang Pu could. He had no idea what Wang Pu was thinking.

Seeing the baffled look on Zhen Youcai’s face, Wang Pu asked, “Youcai, do you truly not understand?”

Zhen Youcai shook his head honestly. “I truly do not.”

“Very well.” Wang Pu nodded. “Then let me ask you this: since the start of winter last year until now, has there been a single drop of rain in all of Datong Prefecture, no, in all of Shanxi?”

Zhen Youcai nodded. “There has not.”

“Originally, once winter came there should have been a heavy snowfall. That would have eased the drought in Shanxi and Datong. But now it is already the sixth day of the first lunar month, and there is still no sign of snow, is there?”

Zhen Youcai nodded again.

Wang Pu’s expression grew increasingly solemn. “Youcai, have you ever thought about what would happen if the whole winter and the spring both pass without snow?”

After thinking it over, Zhen Youcai said in a low voice, “If that were so, then the green seedlings the people sowed would all wither and die. Next spring’s wheat would yield nothing. Right now the treasury is empty, and the court has already stopped supplying grain even to the border armies of the Nine Frontiers. There would certainly be no grain to spare for relief. By then, who knows how many more would starve.”

“Hunger is not the worst of it,” Wang Pu said darkly. “What I fear is that the rebel bandits from Henan will send men here. Once the poor of Shanxi have no path to survival, and someone fans the flames, they will surely rise in revolt. There is an old saying: when the nest is overturned, no egg remains intact. If even all of Shanxi falls into chaos, then it will be impossible for us to stand apart and remain untouched.”

At last Zhen Youcai began to understand Wang Pu’s painstaking intentions. But after a moment’s thought he still asked, puzzled, “But Shanxi has several million people. Just these cattle and sheep from the Tumed are probably nowhere near enough, are they? And weren’t these cattle and sheep meant as pay for the border troops?”

Wang Pu said, “What the border troops need is silver, not cattle and sheep. When the time comes, our Wang family will simply spend silver to buy the cattle and sheep back from the soldiers. As for whether this herd is enough, we can only do our utmost and leave the rest to heaven. We cannot look after the other prefectures and counties, but Datong Prefecture must not be allowed to fall into disorder.”

“I understand.” Zhen Youcai nodded, his expression solemn. “I understand the general’s meaning now. Datong Prefecture is the foundation on which the general stands, and the people of Datong Prefecture are the foundation of Datong Prefecture itself. These cattle and sheep are the grain that will allow the people of Datong to survive this barren year, so we must drive them back at any cost.”

Wang Pu nodded heavily. “Datong is our foundation. At least for now, that is true.”

However, that was not the only reason Wang Pu had decided to attack Sanbulachuan. There was another reason he had not spoken aloud.

One other reason he had resolutely chosen to strike Sanbulachuan was, in fact, the very purpose behind his surprise raid on Guihua in the first place: training the troops.

Because Zhang Zian had acted on his own, the Korchin tribe advanced two full days earlier than planned. The scheme to meet the Mongol cavalry in battle at Mituo Mountain Pass had therefore already collapsed. If they now gave up and withdrew with the army back to Datong, then this surprise raid on Guihua would count as a failure, and Wang Pu would have failed entirely to achieve his aim of training his troops.

Although Wang Pu had already given those old campaign-hardened rogues and highwaymen a lesson in discipline outside Guihua City, that could only restrain their behavior. To change, at the root, the will and character of such men was nothing but wishful thinking.

Whether those old soldiers and bandits would become completely loyal to Wang Pu after returning to Datong was not yet worth considering. What worried Wang Pu most was how long they could endure when pressed by adversity. Though they were formidable one by one in combat, they lacked one crucial thing: confidence.

The old soldiers were used to losing. The moment things looked wrong, their instinct was to turn and run.

As for the highwaymen, their trade had always been robbery and plunder. Their creed was survival first. At the first sign that the wind had shifted, they would bolt without hesitation.

To make these “miscellaneous troops” full of confidence, so that even against the strongest enemy they would never feel psychologically inferior, was no easy task.

The best way to build confidence was simple: fight more battles, and win more battles.

If they could win a hundred battles in a row, then even a rabble would become overflowing with confidence. Conversely, if they lost a hundred battles in succession, even the most elite army would become a rabble.

If time allowed, Wang Pu could of course cultivate his troops’ confidence slowly. But unfortunately, he did not have much time. The Chongzhen Emperor would not grant him enough of it. Nor would the Manchu. By next spring at the latest, the Manchu Eight Banners cavalry would certainly break through the passes and enter through Datong.

An undeniable fact was that the Manchu Eight Banners could be called the strongest army in the world at this moment in history. Wang Pu, who knew history well, understood this with perfect clarity. He would never deceive himself. In other words, if this army was not trained before the Manchu arrived next spring, then all would be lost.

An army without confidence could never withstand the assault of the Eight Banners.

In short, the time Wang Pu had left to train his troops was running out. The enemies available to train against were few as well. The rebel bandits were far away in the Central Plains. The Tumed had already fallen apart. The Manchu were the last opponents Wang Pu wanted to face right now. It seemed he had no other choice. He could only use the Korchin people as his training ground.

Though the Korchin bore the name of the Golden Family, compared with their ancestors who had once swept across the world, they were nowhere near as formidable. They had even lost the once-prized Mongol advantage in mounted archery. Ironically, the archery skills of the four thousand cavalry under Wang Pu were actually superior to those of the Korchin.

Inside Zhang Zian’s command tent, several deputy generals, brigade commanders, and raiding commanders from the Datong garrison had been summoned. During the chaotic brawl not long before, these senior officers had, to save their own lives, mostly changed into ordinary soldiers’ tunics. Some had even smeared blood on their faces and tried to lie among the corpses pretending to be dead.

Zhang Zian was jabbing his finger at them and cursing furiously. “Look at the miserable uselessness of you all. Not human, not ghost, every one of you. With just over two thousand Mongol cavalry chasing more than ten thousand of you down, and then look at the prince consort’s men: fewer than four hundred horsemen dared to chase two thousand Mongols. I am truly ashamed on your behalf!”

“Eunuch, that cannot be compared.” One brigade commander protested, “The prince consort’s men receive five hundred taels of silver for one battle. With that much silver in hand, of course each of them dares to risk his life. But look at our border troops in Datong. All year round they get only a few taels of pay, and even that is constantly in arrears. Who would be willing to stake his life?”

“How dare you talk back!” Zhang Zian barked. “Listen carefully, all of you. You have half a day to gather the defeated troops, two days to assemble all the cattle and sheep, and within five days this herd must be driven across the Great Wall. Whoever fails to complete the task and drags the rest down, do not blame me for turning cold and merciless. Hmph!”

It was plain that Zhang Zian was truly vicious now. To argue with him at this moment would be courting death. Though he was only a supervising eunuch, he held life-and-death power in his hands. Anyone who offended him could be destroyed with a single casual pretext if he summoned the Embroidered Uniform Guard.

The officers hastily assented, and none dared shift blame or offer excuses.

Not far from the border army camp, by the lakeshore, Wang Pu’s three thousand cavalry were watering their horses and resting.

The soldiers had gathered in small groups, discussing the skirmish with the Mongols just now. Cheng Xian, who had risen from a highwayman leader to become a Ming battalion commander, was speaking with spittle flying from his mouth. “You came back too late, so you missed it. What happened then was truly thrilling. The Mongols on the other side had a full two thousand riders, while we had fewer than four hundred!”

“My heavens, four hundred against two thousand? How could that battle even be fought?”

“Exactly. There was no way to fight it at all!”

A dozen soldiers gathered around Cheng Xian set down their water skins and listened intently.

“No way to fight it? That’s what cowards like you would think!” Cheng Xian said with a disdainful look. “Our general certainly did not think so. Guess what he said then?”

“What did the general say?”

“Come on, Old Cheng, tell us.”

“Damn it, you’re killing us.”

The soldiers urged him on one after another.

Cheng Xian held the suspense long enough, then mimicking Wang Pu’s tone, thundered, “The men of our Great Ming are no cowards. Even if we die, we die facing the sky, and even if we die, we die on the road of the charge!”

“Good! Well said!”

“Damn, that really puts fire in a man’s chest!”

The soldiers applauded and shouted their approval.

Cheng Xian sighed as well. “To tell you the truth, brothers, the gap in strength was just too huge. Old Cheng here was inwardly weak-kneed and shaking, too. But when I heard the general say that, some wicked fire surged up inside me. I charged up with him right away. And would you believe it? Somehow, those two thousand Mongol cavalry actually got frightened off by us!”

“To hell with that, and you call that thrilling?” A scornful voice suddenly came from behind Cheng Xian. “You missed even more thrilling things than that.”

“Who the hell is mouthing off behind me?” Cheng Xian rose in annoyance and turned around. The moment he saw who stood behind him, his expression changed a hundred and eighty degrees. He forced a smile. “Well now, Brother Scar, it’s you.”

Brother Scar was naturally Scarface.

Scarface snorted. “Before you and Black Tiger arrived with your two hundred-man detachments, the general had already taken us through two rounds with the Mongol cavalry. Back then they still had two thousand riders, while we had only one hundred and fifty in all. By your logic, should I have been scared enough to wet my pants?”

“How could that be?” Cheng Xian laughed. “Brother Scar has followed the general through water and fire. What great scene has he not seen? Would he really get so scared by a mere few thousand Mongol cavalry?”

“Scarface, Cheng Xian, the general is looking for you.”

Scarface was about to say more when Xiao Qi suddenly came galloping in from afar.