Chapter 300: Before the Walls of Dengzhou

The wind was biting cold, and a dead silence hung over the area before the walls of Dengzhou.

Today was the second day of the first month of the Renchen year (the fifth year of the Chongzhen era).

It was the second day of the Lunar New Year, a time for families to celebrate. In peaceful years past, even the poorest families, as long as they weren’t on the verge of starvation, would put up couplets, hang door gods, and set off a few firecrackers.

But now, the land outside Dengzhou was a scorched earth. Villages had been reduced to rubble, with charred wood smoldering and sending up wisps of blue smoke.

In the fields, amidst the broken bricks and tiles, lay stiffened corpses everywhere. The blood had congealed and turned black in the severe cold.

Snowflakes began to fall from the darkening sky, gradually covering the official jackets, armor, tattered clothes, and silk robes.

The people who had been scavenging for spoils among the corpses could no longer bear the cold and had left one by one. The land was a vast, desolate expanse.

In this barren and grim snowfield, hidden among a common local burial ground, were four or five men.

They were dressed very warmly, wearing white camouflage suits, and were concealed in cleverly constructed snow fortifications. Even if someone were to walk right up to them, they might not be discovered. These men were members of the Special Reconnaissance Team under the command of Chen Sigen.

The burial ground was a grove of mixed trees with complex terrain, making it easy to hide. And from one side of the burial ground, a dry riverbed in winter led away, its banks lined with more mixed trees, providing an easy escape route.

From here, it was less than a kilometer to the main camp of the rebel army of Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng at Mishen Mountain. They had a clear view of the rebels’ every move. Similarly, the south gate of Dengzhou, to the north of Mishen Mountain, was also clearly visible.

It had been over a month since the twenty-second day of the eleventh month of the fourth year of the Chongzhen era, when the rebel army had marched straight to the walls of Dengzhou and the four gates were closed.

During this time, both the garrison in Dengzhou and the rebel army outside had maintained a relative calm. In fact, the rebel army had not attacked Qingzhou or Laizhou, but had marched directly to Dengzhou.

During this period, neither the Governor of Deng-Lai, Sun Yuanhua, nor the Governor of Shandong, Yu Dacheng, had intercepted or blocked the rebel army. And the rebel army, apart from plundering the villages and towns along the way, had not touched any of the prefectures or counties, bypassing all the cities.

With a strange kind of tacit understanding, the two sides had entered a stalemate before the walls of Dengzhou.

For the Shandong Forward Committee, which was silently gathering refugees on Qimu Island in Longkou, this was not surprising. The situation of the Dengzhou rebellion was extremely complex. The Grand Library had consulted historical records and research materials from multiple sources to produce a detailed report. In general, the two sides were not irreconcilable, but each had their own agenda in this turmoil. Sun Yuanhua had been trying to pacify the rebel army to maintain his power and position in the Deng-Lai region. And Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde had been walking a tightrope between “being pacified” and “becoming independent,” trying to extract more concessions from the Ming court to maximize the benefits for themselves and the Liaodong group.

With one side trying its best to “pacify” and the other trying to use the “pacification” to gain benefits, the hostile actions between the two sides had not escalated.

Although the common people outside the city had suffered, and there were intermittent clashes between scouting parties, the two sides had not yet had a real, large-scale battle. The rebel army had not launched a direct attack on Dengzhou.

Although the Dengzhou battlefield had fallen into a temporary calm, under the surface of tranquility, the undercurrents of various forces were surging. The Foreign Intelligence Bureau, through its “connections” and intelligence personnel planted in Dengzhou and the governor’s yamen via Lu Wenyuan and the church, although low in status and without access to secrets, had seen and heard enough to prove that since Kong Youde had raised the banner of rebellion in Hebei, the two sides had been in secret contact. Kong Youde’s “request for pacification” and Sun Yuanhua’s “advocacy for pacification” were no secret either inside or outside Dengzhou.

Sun Yuanhua had an unclear relationship with the old Liaodong hands. According to the accusations of some of his political enemies, Sun Yuanhua’s appointment as the Governor of Deng-Lai was related to Kong Youde’s bribery of high officials in the court with gold, silver, and jewels. Therefore, after becoming the Governor of Deng-Lai, Sun Yuanhua had paid special attention to Kong Youde. And Chen Youshi, an old hand from Pi Island, had also bribed Sun Yuanhua, allowing Kong Youde and other old hands from Pi Island to develop in Deng-Lai.

As for the Governor of Shandong, Yu Dacheng, who had halted his troops after the mutiny and also advocated for pacification, it was said to be the result of Kong Youde sending him a cartload of gold, silver, and treasures through Sun Yuanhua.

Whether these things were true or just political “mud-slinging,” it was a fact that Sun Yuanhua’s attitude towards the rebel army was ambiguous, and he was consistently trying to pacify them. The Dengzhou Forward Committee believed that, even setting aside the political and economic entanglements, Sun Yuanhua had always been trying to bring the old Liaodong hands from Pi Island under his own command and retrain them into an important military force against the Later Jin. That was why he was always trying to pacify Kong Youde and the other rebels.

But his efforts were doomed to fail. This appeasement would ultimately lead him to his own destruction.

Both the old Liaodong hands and the Ming officialdom he was part of were rotten fruits. His personal efforts and those of a few other officials would not bring about much effect.

Not long ago, to the east of the city, the governor’s standard-bearer, Zhang Tao, who was garrisoned outside the city to guard the gates, and the Deng-Lai Commander-in-Chief, Zhang Keda, had engaged in a fierce battle with the rebel army. Zhang Keda’s southern troops had won a victory, but Zhang Tao’s troops were all Liaodong men. In a situation where the battle was going very smoothly, they suddenly disregarded Zhang Tao’s command and withdrew from the battlefield. Zhang Keda’s southern troops were counterattacked by the rebels and almost wiped out. Most of Zhang Tao’s men surrendered to the rebels.

The barracks that Zhang Keda and Zhang Tao had set up outside the city to guard it were all abandoned, and the weapons and supplies in the camps all fell into the hands of the rebels. The rebels’ strength was immediately boosted. Originally, Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde’s troops numbered only a little over a thousand men. Now, with the addition of several thousand surrendered soldiers from Zhang Tao’s unit, their military might was greatly enhanced.

What was worse was that Zhang Tao’s troops were all Liaodong men, from the same origin as the rebels. They all harbored a deep hatred for the people, officials, and soldiers of the Deng-Lai region, and their internal cohesion was extremely strong. They were all eager to fight their way into Dengzhou for “revenge.”

Dengzhou appeared to be a strong city, with mountains of grain, provisions, and silver piled up inside, hundreds of cannons, and six to seven thousand new and old troops, many of whom had been trained by the Portuguese. But many of the generals and soldiers were Liaodong men, and a large number of discontented Liaodong people lived in the city. Internally, it was already divided and disloyal, like a paper tiger.

In the mixed woods, the NCO leading the team raised his binoculars and once again observed the desolate land around him. The snow was falling more and more densely, but the military-grade thermal clothing from another time he was wearing completely insulated him from the cold. He carefully turned the focus knob of his Russian binoculars, observing. Like the “special forces soldiers” common in another time, in fact, this NCO had been an authentic Shandong farmer just two years ago.

“All clear, no abnormalities,” the NCO said, looking at his watch—the Special Reconnaissance Team was one of the few units where both naturalized citizen NCOs and officers were issued watches. “Report to headquarters!”

A radio operator opened a 2W radio and began another scheduled broadcast. Chen Sigen’s orders to the observation team were to report the situation on the Dengzhou battlefield every hour. The special recon team members knew that a sudden order from headquarters to increase the frequency of daily reports was often a sign of an impending major event.

At the same time, inside Dengzhou, Huang Ande was lying in a room in Sun Yuan’s house, resting with his eyes closed. Two loaded 1630-type revolvers were hidden under his waist, and a grenade was hidden under his pillow.

Such precautions were by no means unnecessary. Sun Yuan was not at home. Because Zhang Keda and Zhang Tao had been defeated outside the city today, the atmosphere inside the city had suddenly become tense. As one of Sun Yuanhua’s personal retainers, Sun Yuan had been assembled at the governor’s yamen to “sleep on his spear and await the dawn.” At the same time, the Liaodong people in the city had also begun to stir.

Since the rebel army had arrived at the walls of Dengzhou in the eleventh month, the more than one hundred thousand old hands from the Eastern River who had been relocated from Pi Island, Lüshun, and other places had become a source of anxiety for the officials in the city.

The conflict between the Liaodong people and the local military and civilians of Dengzhou had become very sharp since the large-scale migration of the Eastern River military and civilians. Starting from the first year of the Chongzhen era, a large number of Liaodong people had crossed the sea from Pi Island to Dengzhou and been settled by local officials. In total, there were no less than several hundred thousand.

From the moment they set foot on the land of Dengzhou, these hundreds of thousands of Liaodong people were exploited and abused by the local officials. Many of the Liaodong people who had returned to the mainland by sea, unable to bear the torture and exploitation, had to flee back to the Eastern River. As a result, when the Deng-Lai Commander-in-Chief, Yang Guodong, went to Pi Island on official business in the first year of the Chongzhen era, a crowd of resentful Liaodong people gathered and tried to kill him to vent their anger.

In addition, many of the Liaodong people who had crossed the sea to Dengzhou in the early years of the Chongzhen era had been granted titles by Mao Wenlong, to the extent that “in the streets, those with yellow canopies and golden belts were innumerable.” So much so that after Mao Wenlong was killed in the second year of the Chongzhen era, the Governor of Shandong, Wang Congyi, requested in a memorial to strengthen the defenses, suggesting that “as soon as any sails are seen approaching from the sea to the west, they should be fired upon with cannons, as a precaution.” This shows the image of Mao Wenlong and the Eastern River Liaodong people in the minds of the people of Shandong and the extent of the tension between the two sides.

Historical documents often describe the tense relationship between the two sides, saying, “The Liaodong men have always been fierce and tough, and the people of Deng cannot bear them,” or “Since the loss of Liaoyang, more than a hundred thousand Liaodong people have fled to Deng-Lai for refuge. The local people often humiliate them, and sometimes they kill each other. The Liaodong people are resentful,” or “The Liaodong people fled inwards to escape disaster, and the local people are their daily enemies. Admonitions have not been heeded.” In addition, the Supervising Secretary, Xie Sanbin, once said, “The Liaodong people in the area are quite restless.” And when the rebel army returned to Dengzhou, it was even said that “the people of Deng have always been cruel to the Liaodong people. Even when the army was at the city walls, they did not stop killing the Liaodong people.” Therefore, Ai Rong, in his letter to the Inspector-General, Liu Yulie, summarized the reasons for the mutiny as: “Kong and Li are accustomed to being fierce and treacherous, that is one reason for rebellion; they have accumulated resentment from being bullied by the people of Deng, that is a second reason; they are unwilling to be stationed far away in Ningyuan, that is a third reason.”

To suppress the Liaodong people in the city, since the rebel army had arrived at the city walls, the governor’s yamen, the commander-in-chief’s yamen, and the supervising army’s yamen had all sent out patrols. They carried orders to patrol the city of Dengzhou and the water city, strictly forbidding “gathering in crowds to make noise” and “spreading rumors.” Every few days, some unlucky person would be beheaded as a public example.