Part 271: Northward and Eastward

This reaction soon reached Qimu Island. The reports from the various spies sent out by Lu Wenyuan were consistently “no situation found.” This made Lu Wenyuan, Chen Sigen, Zhu Mingxia, and the other Senators, who were originally full of confidence and just waiting for the action to begin, grow anxious.

According to the timetable, Kong Youde raised the banner of rebellion on October 31st, and on November 22nd, he led his army to the gates of Dengzhou city. Only 22 days had passed in between. Now, several days had already passed, and the spies scouting the official road in Huang County should have at least received some vague news, such as “someone has rebelled.” After all, Kong Youde’s force had more than a thousand men and was well-equipped; it was not a force that would be overlooked.

But the merchants traveling from the direction of Dezhou brought no such news.

In the blink of an eye, it was the tenth of November, and there was still no news from the road. The group could no longer sit still. After an urgent consultation, Zhu Mingxia decided to send out disguised reconnaissance cavalry. Lu Wenyuan, through his connections with Sun Yuanhua, had bought a dozen Mongolian horses from the Dengzhou army to serve as mounts for the reconnaissance soldiers. The Fubo Army had always lacked fast mobile capabilities in battlefield reconnaissance.

The reconnaissance cavalry were not from the Special Reconnaissance Team, but from the cavalry training squadron of the Northbound Detachment. Considering that many horses might be captured during the Dengzhou operation, in order to use them on the spot, a company from the Army Training Corps’ cavalry training squadron was incorporated into the Northbound Detachment. One platoon had already been transported to Qimu Island.

The Fubo Army’s principle for using cavalry was similar to the light cavalry tactics of the Napoleonic era, that is, mainly for reconnaissance, harassment, and pursuit, and generally not for cavalry battles or breakthroughs. Therefore, the cavalry in the training squadron had all received reconnaissance training.

Lu Wenyuan looked at the dozen or so disguised reconnaissance cavalrymen before him. They really looked like a bunch of losers: a lone small merchant pretending to be a horse caravan runner, accompanied by a servant leading a donkey. They all spoke a Shandong dialect that was hard to understand. Lu Wenyuan asked and found that they were not all from Shandong; they had all been specially trained and were fluent in the dialect.

“They have been training for more than a year. This is their first real combat,” Zhu Mingxia said. “I had originally planned to put them into battle later, but I didn’t expect them to be needed so soon.”

Each reconnaissance cavalryman had a monocular telescope, a revolver, and two grenades. The cavalrymen kept an eye on each other for support, and the two teams were never more than a hilltop or a line of sight apart. According to the plan, seven or eight teams were sent out in the direction of Dezhou, advancing in three to five echelons of search.

The reconnaissance cavalrymen advanced along the main road towards Wuqiao, gathering information along the way, but they found no useful information. It was not until one cavalry group reached Sangyuan Town in Wuqiao County that they got useful news from a local peddler.

Kong Youde’s troops had passed through here ten days ago and headed north. The chicken-stealing incident had indeed happened, but the matter was later settled. The soldier who had stolen the chicken and killed the servant was beheaded, and the master of the Wang family did not pursue the matter further. Kong Youde had already led his troops away.

But what happened next terrified the local people. A few days later, news came that a large village dozens of li away had been wiped out. Although the government said it was the work of bandits, everyone said it was most likely done by the Liaodong soldiers. Several large households in the slaughtered village had some wealthy relatives, so the matter could not be hushed up. The local gentry jointly went to the county magistrate and also sent people to the prefecture to complain about these lawless “soldier-bandits.”

“Is it useful to go to the government about this?” a reconnaissance cavalryman asked, feigning ignorance. “In my hometown, if a soldier kills a few people, the county magistrate won’t care. He’ll insist it was done by bandits. Even going to the provincial officials might not be useful.”

“You’re a traveling merchant, sir, you’ve seen a lot. What haven’t you seen? We common people, if a soldier kills us, we’re just killed. But several large households in the village died, and they were all related to several gentry in this county. One family was related to the Wang family by marriage. Master Wang couldn’t pretend not to see it—they are all from the same village, and he couldn’t explain it to the locals.”

The reconnaissance cavalryman did not dare to delay. He immediately sent someone back to report the news to the Senators on Qimu Island.

This caused anxiety among the “Qimu Island trio.” The news brought by the reconnaissance cavalry indicated that Kong Youde had not raised the banner of rebellion in Wuqiao as in the old timeline, but had settled the matter through other means. In that case, he would lead his army to continue north, and would either suffer a defeat at Dalinghe and die or surrender, or, because he went further north, the morale of his army would waver and he would directly defect to the Manchus.

Once this happened, the plan to use Kong Youde to disrupt Shandong would completely fail. Many subsequent plans would have to be revised. In particular, it would be highly questionable whether occupying Jeju Island was still necessary.

“If Kong Youde doesn’t rebel, we have to force him to rebel!” Zhu Mingxia slapped the table. “Otherwise, we’ll have to go into battle ourselves.”

Chen Sigen said, “Can we use Sun Yuanhua to pressure him? He’s slaughtering villages and wiping out households like this. It would be hard for Sun Yuanhua to protect him.”

“I’m afraid not. Sun Yuanhua’s ability to command his army is limited, and he has a weak hold on his subordinates. He also sees the former Dongjiang men as his own capital,” Lu Wenyuan shook his head repeatedly. “Besides, this kind of thing is not uncommon in the late Ming. Sun Yuanhua won’t make trouble for a fierce general with strong troops like Kong Youde over this.”

“I think we can only count on the local gentry in Wuqiao, like the Wang family,” Lu Wenyuan, as an external affairs officer, had received a lot of professional historical training and had spent several months with Zhao Yingong in Shandong. He was relatively familiar with the social and living conditions of the Ming Dynasty and proposed a new plan after some consideration.

Lu Wenyuan continued, “The Wang family is a famous and powerful gentry family in Wuqiao. The head of this family, Wang Xiangchun, is a key member of the Donglin Party. He was listed in the ‘Donglin Roll Call of Generals’ and was known as the ‘Sky Damaging Star, White Stripe in the Waves’.”

“Wow, ‘White Stripe in the Waves’! The eunuch party was quite talented,” Chen Sigen laughed.

“And Wang Xiangchun has a cousin named Wang Xiangjin, who is the Provincial Administration Commissioner of Zhejiang—not a low position either. Not to mention the two brothers, Wang Xiangchun alone could give Kong Youde a hard time.”

The question was whether the Wang family was willing to take the lead. Lu Wenyuan believed that the possibility of the Wang family taking the lead was high.

Since the master of the Wang family was willing to stand up for a servant’s chicken, then for a village in their own locality to be slaughtered, with distant relatives involved, they would have to speak out, whether for public or private reasons.

“The problem is that even if they speak out, it will be several months later, which will be too late.”

Lu Wenyuan scratched his head. Since he had grown his hair into a topknot, he couldn’t wash it often, and his scalp often itched. “That’s true.”

“The top priority now is to find Kong Youde’s troops and find out his next move so we can take action,” Zhu Mingxia said. Originally, their knowledge of history gave them a sense of “one-way transparency” on the battlefield situation. Now, Kong Youde’s abnormal actions had once again shrouded the battlefield in the “fog of war.”

“Where are they now?”

According to the reconnaissance cavalry’s report, after Kong Youde led his troops out of Wuqiao County, he went north for about twenty li, slaughtered a large village, and then disappeared.

“…There are still several groups searching along the way. The latest news hasn’t arrived yet.”

Zhu Mingxia opened the map and marked Kong Youde’s last known location. From the map, if he wanted to continue north to Shanhaiguan to reinforce Dalinghe, he should have gone east, not suddenly north. To the north were Dongguang County and Nanpi County, which were far from the route to Shanhaiguan.

“What is he doing in Dongguang and Nanpi?” Chen Sigen was somewhat puzzled. “Could it be…” He noticed that both of these counties were on the banks of the Grand Canal. “He’s not planning to rob the boats on the canal, is he?”

The Grand Canal was a major north-south transportation artery, with hundreds or even thousands of boats sailing on it every day. It was clearly a very lucrative target.

“No, he wouldn’t dare,” Lu Wenyuan shook his head. “To openly lead troops to intercept boats on the canal is tantamount to rebellion…”

“He was going to rebel anyway.”

“That’s true.”

Zhu Mingxia said, “I estimate that Kong Youde’s move north to Dongguang and Nanpi is either to make a big score on the canal or it’s just a feint.”

He believed the latter was more likely.

If Kong Youde had intended to rebel, he could have done it in Wuqiao. There was no need to go to Nanpi or Dongguang. Wuqiao County itself was enough for him to plunder. His avoidance of Wuqiao County and move north clearly had an element of disassociating himself from the matter. Once the court investigated, he could deny it—his route was not originally to the north.

“…Kong Youde’s men are cavalry, and their mobility is very fast. He could have gone north, slaughtering several villages along the way, making a big score, and then suddenly turned east, returning to his original route to continue towards Shanhaiguan. With sufficient provisions, a cavalry force can travel 40 kilometers a day without any problem.”

“But in that case, wouldn’t he not be rebelling in Shandong?”

“There is indeed such a possibility,” Lu Wenyuan said. “However, historically, Kong Youde did not initially intend to rebel. He was somewhat forced into the Wuqiao mutiny. The decision to launch the mutiny was mainly made by the lower-ranking officers and soldiers.”

This showed that the rebellious sentiment had always existed among the former Dongjiang subordinates in Shandong. When Kong Youde mutinied in Wuqiao, he immediately received the support of Geng Zhongming and other former Dongjiang men in Dengzhou. Throughout the Dengzhou Rebellion, the rebel army continuously received support from the former Dongjiang subordinates and grew rapidly.

“On a deeper level, the mutiny of the former Dongjiang subordinates was inevitable. Just look at the situation in Shandong.”

Lu Wenyuan had been in Shandong for several months and had had a lot of contact with the church, the government, the army, and the common people. In his view, the rebellion of the Liaodong army was inevitable. The conflict between the guest army and the host army in Shandong was constant, and the land was barren and the people poor. The power of the gentry and powerful families was also heavy. The Liaodong army, which had long been marginalized and discriminated against, had accumulated enough resentment. It just needed a spark.