Part 272: Forcing Kong to Rebel

The Dongjiang garrison on the remote Liaodong Peninsula was also unstable at this time. Huang Long was unable to suppress Mao Wenlong’s former subordinates, and the internal strife that began with the killing of Chen Jisheng was escalating.

Under the combined influence of internal and external factors, it was only a matter of time before the former Dongjiang men launched a large-scale uprising. All three Senators held this view.

The difficulty was that their one-way transparency no longer existed, and Kong Youde’s next move had become unpredictable.

The top priority now was to predict Kong’s next move and make corresponding preparations.

Zhu Mingxia leaned over the map, his colored pencil constantly moving on the glass plate. Lu Wenyuan and Chen Sigen watched him nervously. As the military commander, he was responsible for predicting the enemy’s next concrete move.

“I think Kong Youde’s movements won’t be too different,” Zhu Mingxia said after studying the map for a long time.

He pointed to the large-scale map on the table, cleared his throat, and said:

“First, we all agree that Kong Youde’s rebellion was the product of a clash between harsh weather and irreconcilable contradictions. It was inevitable, at most differing only in time and place.

“Secondly, we need to know why Kong Youde attacked Dengzhou. This is very important and will directly affect our next actions. Kong knows Sun Yuanhua well and knows that he is different from other Ming officials. Sun Yuanhua’s attitude towards the former Dongjiang men is the most friendly. Whether Kong was trying to lull him into a false sense of security and quickly expand his gains, or he genuinely hoped to be pardoned, Sun Yuanhua was the best choice. If he led his troops to Dengzhou, there was a glimmer of hope of being pardoned. That’s the first point. The second point is that Dengzhou has his colleagues and former subordinates, and a large number of Liaodong soldiers. These Liaodong soldiers faced the same problems as Kong Youde’s troops and harbored the same grievances. If he were to rebel, only in Dengzhou could he find enough reliable and battle-hardened allies. The third point is that as a general with long-term combat experience, once he raised the banner of rebellion, he would need a base with ample food and weapons, and a good position for advance and retreat. Looking at the surrounding cities, Dengzhou is the most suitable. Dengzhou is the main gathering place for Kong Youde and other former Dongjiang men, and most of the islands in the Bohai Bay are occupied by former Dongjiang subordinates, making it easy for them to support each other. Although the mutiny was not planned by him, once it broke out, he had no choice but to return to his own people and use the former Dongjiang subordinates to quickly strengthen his forces. If he was content to roam around and operate in Shandong for too long, his strength would be exhausted.

“Finally, his close allies like Geng Zhongming are in Dengzhou city. With their cooperation from within, Dengzhou is the easiest city to take. It is precisely because of these three points that as long as Kong raises the banner of rebellion, Dengzhou is his best choice—and his inevitable choice.”

“You have a point. So, Kong Youde will return to Dengzhou sooner or later.”

“As long as Kong Youde’s troops are not too far from Shandong, this will be his best choice after the mutiny,” Zhu Mingxia said with great confidence. “Based on this prediction, our countermeasures are simple.”

Zhu Mingxia suggested immediately dispatching all reconnaissance cavalry and local native spies to scout Kong’s movements. In addition to the cavalry conducting long-range tracking and searching, the original route to reinforce Dalinghe in Liaodong could not be neglected, to prevent him from actually going to the front line.

Kong’s troops were all cavalry, with a distinct appearance, making it difficult for them to hide their tracks for long, and there was no fear of the reconnaissance soldiers mistaking them. As for the local natives, they would immediately send people to the vicinity of Dengzhou to spread the news of his village massacres. In a few days, these stories, embellished by the locals, would reach the ears of the Liaodong soldiers and Sun Yuanhua’s mansion.

Word of mouth usually travels slowly. Under normal circumstances, it would take a considerable amount of time for news from Wuqiao in Hebei to reach Dengzhou. Now, they would accelerate this diffusion themselves.

“Finally, if Kong Youde really goes to the Dalinghe front line or other factors prevent him from going to Dengzhou, then we will have to incite the Liaodong soldiers in Dengzhou to rebel ourselves. That’s another topic.”

“Haha, good summary, Little Zhu!” Chen Sigen interjected. “You can write the report to the Senate!”

“According to organizational principles, all matters must be discussed and decided by the three of us together. Besides, now is not the time to write reports,” Zhu Mingxia said.

Chen Sigen considered for a moment and said, “You have a point. But I want to remind you of one thing: you just mentioned the importance of this uncertainty. We still can’t accurately predict Kong Youde’s actions. If we just passively monitor him and spread some rumors, it won’t be enough. We must actively intervene and make him act according to our will—only then can we have the necessary certainty.”

Zhu Mingxia said, “Should we directly incite his subordinates?”

“We don’t have the ability to incite them now,” Chen Sigen chuckled. “Have you forgotten what Lu Wenyuan said before: ‘To openly lead troops to cut off the canal is tantamount to rebellion.’ We are not sure if he can pull off a job, but I am sure that we can do one for him! We’ll put him in a position where he can’t get out of it, and he’ll have to rebel even if he doesn’t want to!”

“Can that work?”

“Ha, why not! For our Special Reconnaissance Team, this kind of murder and robbery is like using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. These days, my young lads are bored to tears and eager for some chaos. At most, you can send some more people to cooperate, and it will be absolutely foolproof,” Chen Sigen said.

“But those soldiers under Kong Youde all have a Liaodong accent…” Lu Wenyuan still had some doubts.

“Haha, that’s not a problem either. Our Mandarin is already quite similar to the Liaodong military dialect. Even if it’s not, we can just not speak. When the killing starts, no one will notice any flaws. Besides, even if there are flaws, who else can be blamed but Kong Youde?” Chen Sigen said.

“Old Chen is right, but we still need to be selective about who goes. Wenyuan, didn’t you get some military uniforms and vests before? Find them all. We’ll give him some irrefutable evidence. But as for the specifics, we still need to discuss it.”

“I did get some Ming army vests, but not many,” Lu Wenyuan said. Because he had considered that they might be needed during the operation, he had managed to get some Ming army vests from Dengzhou through Huang Ande’s connections. They were from various battalions, and some were old. But Chen Sigen thought this was even better—it looked more authentic.

“When we act, we’ll tear off the battalion insignia on the vests. That will make it look more real,” Lu Wenyuan said. “And if we wear some tattered robes over them when we act, the look will be even more convincing.”

No one disagreed with Zhu Mingxia’s judgment, and they immediately split up to act. In addition to dispatching all the waiting cavalry, they also selected some sharp-witted individuals from the rescued refugees to go to the roads to gather information.

Lu Wenyuan summoned Huang Ande and ordered him to take a few Shandong-born soldiers to Dengzhou immediately to spread various rumors about Kong Youde among their friends and relatives in the city.

Also sent was one of Lu Wenyuan’s intelligence officers who specialized in contacting the local churches in the eastern three prefectures, to spread the news through church connections.

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Kong Youde led his troops out of Wuqiao County and headed north along the route of what would one day be the Beijing-Shanghai Railway, entering Dongguang County. Dongguang was on the banks of the Southern Grand Canal. Nourished by the canal, its commerce was quite prosperous.

Kong Youde chose to go to Dongguang with the idea of making a score there. Dongguang was not on his route to reinforce Dalinghe in the north. With the rapid mobility of his men, making a detour here to get some benefits for himself and his subordinates was not a problem in terms of time.

Before arriving in Wuqiao, the morale of his men had dropped to an extreme low. There were complaints all along the way, and a dark undercurrent was surging among the soldiers and officers. Kong Youde was a veteran general. If he had not decisively slaughtered a village in Wuqiao that night and obtained a large amount of food and property to appease his subordinates, the best outcome would have been his troops deserting along the way, with half of them gone by the time they reached Shanhaiguan. At worst, these brothers who had been through life and death together would have simply gone on a rampage in Wuqiao County.

Kong Youde did not want to rebel and start a disturbance. He had joined the army as a youth, climbed out of piles of dead bodies, and had finally risen to the rank of a third-grade acting commander. He did not want to casually throw away the future he had fought for. But over the years, whether in Dongjiang or Dengzhou, his future had become increasingly bleak. Although Sun Yuanhua valued him, the entire Ming Dynasty looked like it was terminally ill—there was no hope to be seen.

Take Dongjiang itself. Since Marshal Mao was suddenly executed, followed by the killing of Vice General Chen in an internal strife, and then Huang Long’s arrival on the island, the various units had mutinied over pay, and Dongjiang had descended into a full-scale fratricidal war. The situation was getting worse by the day.

If in the past, under Mao Wenlong, they could at least go out and make a show of force on the Tartars’ territory and launch a surprise attack, now their fighting spirit was getting lower and lower. As soon as the order to reinforce Zhang Chun in Dalinghe was issued, a mood of fearing the enemy like a tiger permeated the ranks, from the officers to the soldiers.

From top to bottom, probably no one in Kong Youde’s unit did not know what would happen to Zhang Chun in Dalinghe. He knew Zhang Chun. He would certainly die for his country. But many more soldiers and generals would die in vain—and he was very likely to be one of them.

The thought of this made it difficult for him to let go.

After Kong Youde led his troops to Dongguang, he quietly settled down in a village not far from the canal. There were many villages near the Southern Grand Canal that “lived off the river,” and quite a few had secretly wealthy households. He sent out his men and slaughtered another village, plundering a large amount of money and grain. The generals and officers all made a small fortune, and the soldiers were well-fed and had some silver. Their morale was also higher than before.

But a more troublesome matter arose. The officers and men, having tasted the sweetness, were somewhat reluctant to leave. Some were even secretly inciting the officers to simply become bandits and make a big score in this rich land.

Kong Youde scoffed at this. Once an army degenerated into bandits, its combat effectiveness would quickly disintegrate. He would then be nothing more than an incompetent mountain king, destined to be destroyed by the government forces and local militias sooner or later.