Chapter 1288 - Siege of Dengzhou Broken
Kong Youde slowly tucked the sheaf of papers into his breast and fixed his gaze on the other man. "Why would the Manor Lord wish to reveal the location of the government's grain depots to me?"
Chen Sigen smiled faintly. "If you find it useful, use it. If not, burn it."
Kong Youde pressed further. "To speak frankly, I still harbor some doubts about this... Could this be an invitation into a trap?"—hoping to goad some useful information from the other party.
Chen Sigen's smile did not waver. "A trap? Is one truly necessary?" His expression hardened, and he gave a cold laugh. "If we wished it, your heads would have been displayed across the Nine Frontiers months ago. Why wait until now?"
The words were extraordinarily rude, arrogant beyond measure. Kong Youde felt hot anger rise within him, but he knew the other party was not boasting. Suppressing his fury, he cupped his fists. "Then I thank the Manor Lord. Kong takes his leave." He rose and departed.
After obtaining this intelligence, Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde conferred. Continuing to defend desperately within the city would not sustain them much longer. Among the government reinforcements were the elite Guan-Ning Army—including two thousand "barbarian soldiers" renowned as the fiercest fighters, all Mongol and Later Jin defectors who had surrendered to the Ming. In open battle, the rebels stood no chance. The rout at Beima Town had made that abundantly clear: their cavalry and infantry, hastily assembled using looted livestock, were no match for seasoned field cavalry.
This left raiding the grain depot to force a government retreat as their only viable option besides fleeing by sea.
However, rebel-held territory had now contracted to Dengzhou alone. To reach Qingzhou meant crossing through Laizhou—an exceedingly risky proposition. Laizhou City currently housed thousands of government soldiers under Sun Yuanhua and Zhang Tao, men who had fought the rebels until their eyes burned red with hatred. If they blocked and intercepted the raiding force, whether going or returning, the losses would be catastrophic. The entire strike force might well be annihilated.
The two commanders calculated repeatedly before concluding that delay would only breed further trouble. While the newly arrived government forces had not yet completed their encirclement, and while heavy snow fell to suppress activity in the wilderness, they would dispatch cavalry for a surprise assault on Qingzhou to burn the government's grain stores in a single stroke.
Once the plan was set, Kong Youde assembled a strike force built around his household retainers and personal guards, secretly reinforced by the trusted men of various Dongjiang generals. Six hundred elite cavalry gathered in all. Each man was given a full meal and issued winter clothing. Silver was distributed. Each soldier was equipped with one horse and one mule, carrying six days' worth of dry rations and fodder. Under cover of the heavy snowfall pouring from the sky, they quietly opened the city gates and slipped away along the coastline.
Snow fell continuously. Goose-feather flakes swiftly buried all traces of their passing. In the bitter cold, the government army's scouts no longer ventured far. Kong Youde's six hundred cavalry proceeded without incident, entering Qingzhou territory with minimal losses.
Though Qingzhou was one of the Three Prefectures of Eastern Shandong, the successful defense of Laizhou City had spared it the worst of the Dengzhou-Laizhou Rebellion. Apart from being swept by rebel forces retreating to Dengzhou early on, it had remained relatively stable afterward—nothing like the thousand-li wastelands bereft of human trace. Naturally, the government troops' alertness here was considerably diminished.
When Kong Youde's cavalry suddenly materialized in Qingzhou, they smashed through a succession of grain storage points at Zhuqiao, Huangshanguan, and elsewhere, putting tens of thousands of shi of transshipped provisions to the torch. Qingzhou Intendant Yang Jin hastily led troops to intercept, only to be defeated and killed in battle. At a single stroke, the Shandong Field Headquarters—which had been preparing to "collect full merit"—was thrown into complete chaos.
This winter was extraordinarily harsh. By the eleventh lunar month, heavy snow was already falling. Combined with the piercing sea winds, the soldiers suffered terribly from the freezing cold, their skin cracking and splitting. The suppression forces had arrived unprepared for such weather. Zhu Dadian and Xie Sanbin dispatched agents everywhere to collect padded jackets and fur coats, as well as reed mats and strong spirits to comfort the troops. They distributed reward silver repeatedly, straining every sinew to stabilize morale.
Then rumors spread through the camps that the grain had been burned. Before anyone could trace the source, an emergency messenger from Qingzhou arrived at the main camp.
For Zhu Dadian and his colleagues, this was nothing less than a thunderbolt from clear skies. In the dead of winter, tens of thousands of troops were encamped beneath a fortified city—and their supplies had been cut off. In an instant, they faced the prospect of total annihilation.
Upon receiving this emergency dispatch, Zhu Dadian immediately summoned the civil officials and military commanders in the main camp to discuss countermeasures. The generals' consensus was unanimous: with four days' worth of grain still in the camp, they should strike camp and retreat to Laizhou, Qingzhou, and other locations to obtain supplies locally. They could resume the siege once the grain route was restored.
Zhu Dadian hesitated. He had poured out his heart's blood for this siege of Dengzhou. The rebels had been reduced to fish thrashing in a disturbed pot—and then this catastrophe struck the supply line. According to the urgent report from Qingzhou, the rebels appeared to have sent roving cavalry to attack the various grain depots.
Since this was a raid without rear support, the enemy could not sustain their operations for long. Four days' grain remained in camp. If emergency measures could be arranged, perhaps the siege could be maintained. His thoughts turned to Manor Lord Lu, who had already promised a thousand shi of grain. Surely another few thousand shi would not be beyond his means. By all accounts, he had gathered tens of thousands of refugees in the Zhaoyuan area and must have substantial stores. And Huang County was not far...
Therefore, instead of ordering an immediate retreat, he directed the generals to return to their camps temporarily, maintain strict discipline, and await further orders.
After the commanders departed, Zhu Dadian immediately dispatched a fast rider to Laizhou, requesting that Sun Yuanhua first assemble a batch of grain from within the city and transport it to the main camp to steady the troops. He continued deliberating with several key advisors, estimating various difficulties they might encounter and formulating contingency plans. As they talked, the sudden roar of cannon fire erupted from Dengzhou City, followed by bursts of cheering.
Zhu Dadian frowned. "What is this commotion?"
In moments, the noise from the city seemed to spread to the camp itself. Men shouted, horses neighed—a scene of utter chaos. Commander of Suppression in Dengzhou, General of Liaodong Soldiers, Vice Commander-in-Chief Jin Guoqi burst into the tent, speaking urgently:
"My lords, mount your horses at once! The situation is dire!"
"What has happened? Speak clearly!"
"I do not know how, but when word of the severed grain route reached the camps, the soldiers fell into uproar, clamoring to leave. The officers cannot control them—they are being swept along by the mutinous troops in their flight. The camps are in complete panic, collapsing like shattered tiles. The situation is extremely critical. Please mount immediately, my lord, to prepare for any eventuality."
Zhu Dadian forced himself to remain calm. "Go at once and issue strict orders: troops of all camps are forbidden to panic or move of their own accord. They must maintain composure by force if necessary and hold their positions. Anyone who abandons their post to flee is to be beheaded immediately without pardon!"
"By your command!" Jin Guoqi turned and rushed out.
While Zhu Dadian was still wrestling with the crisis, Zu Dashou rode up with a contingent of personal guards, dismounted before Zhu Dadian's tent, and offered a hasty salute before crying out:
"My lord, you must move the camp immediately! The rebels have already sallied from the city—please, my lord, leave at once!"
"The rebels are fish in a pot. There is no cause for alarm." Before he finished speaking, the thunder of cannon fire erupted from the city—the rebels, who had barely fired their guns in recent days, were suddenly unleashing a concentrated barrage. Cannonballs screamed toward the main camp, adding to the chaos.
Zhu Dadian was about to respond when war drums, horns, and conch shells sounded from the rebel lines. Then came the roar of thousands upon thousands of charging troops, the thunder of hooves and battle cries. Everyone heard it clearly: the rebels in Dengzhou had committed their full strength to an assault on the camp. Zu Dashou urged again: "Please move the camp immediately, my lord. We can make plans afterward."
The day after Kong Youde's successful raid, Li Jiucheng received word of the mission's success via a secret envoy dispatched by Manor Lord Lu. He had been skeptical at first, making no immediate move, but ordered his subordinates to feed the horses, sharpen weapons, and prepare to sortie at any moment.
When sudden reports arrived that the government camp was in chaos—men shouting, horses braying—he knew some disaster had befallen them. Most likely, word of the severed grain route had finally reached the troops. Li Jiucheng was himself a veteran of Liaodong who knew the Guan-Ning style of conduct intimately. This could only mean the Guan-Ning generals were abandoning their posts in the crisis. He barked a laugh. "Truly Heaven aids me!" He immediately ordered drums and cannons throughout the city, sending soldiers to proclaim in every street: "The government army's grain route is cut!"
Donning full armor, he personally led an elite vanguard of thirty thousand infantry and cavalry in an assault on the main camp, hoping to shatter the Shandong Field Headquarters in one blow while they were still reeling.
By then, the Guan-Ning camps—the strongest fighting force in the Field Headquarters—had already begun their flight. The remaining troops from Sichuan, Hebei, and the Shandong garrisons followed suit. In moments, the entire encampment dissolved into pandemonium, soldiers scrambling over one another to escape. Zhu Dadian, Xie Sanbin, and the others were seized by their guards, hoisted onto horseback, and borne away in the general rout.
The weather was freezing, the roads treacherous after the snowfall. The Guan-Ning forces, being mostly cavalry, fled first. The other units were mainly infantry and could barely move through the accumulated snow. When the rebels caught up, these men scattered like startled birds, offering no resistance. The rout and pursuit continued into the night. Many government soldiers were killed or captured; countless more simply vanished into the chaos.
Zhu Dadian and his party came perilously close to capture several times. In moments of despair, thoughts of suicide crossed his mind. At the most critical juncture, with his guards scattered and himself alone, a cavalry unit flying the Qimu Island banner suddenly appeared, fired a volley of muskets, repelled the pursuing rebels, and took him into their protection.
Still shaken, Zhu Dadian observed that the rescuers numbered only a little over a hundred. Their leader was a young officer wearing a thick felt wide-brimmed hat, a cotton robe, and cloth wrappings bound around his chest and waist. The hundred cavalrymen with him were dressed identically, carrying muskets slung diagonally across their backs and sabers at their waists. Though none wore armor, they appeared vigorous and formidable.
"This humble one is Huang Ande, paying respects to Your Excellency!" Upon learning that the man he had saved was the Governor of Shandong, the young officer immediately dismounted and knelt before Zhu Dadian's horse in salute. "My lords have suffered a great fright!"
"It is nothing." Hearing the young man's Shandong accent, Zhu Dadian felt immediate reassurance. Composing himself, he replied, "My thanks to you for your timely assistance."
"Please be at ease, my lord. Lord Sun is already personally leading General Zhang to meet you ahead. We shall escort Lord Zhu there directly."