Jianning Besieged

"This way! Haul that over here!"

"Drive those posts in solid! From here to there—yes! Just like that!"

Under the blazing sun of high summer, bare-chested men sweated at the work of driving timber and digging a moat. The fields before the north gate of Jianning swarmed like an anthill. Men poured sweat as they raised a palisade and threw a camp together.

West of the city ran the Jianxi, one of the three rivers that make up the upper Min. Several boats worked the current, watching with sharp eyes for anyone who might try to slip out beyond the walls.

The brick ramparts ran nine li around—some four kilometers—and stood one zhang and nine chi high, about six meters. Jianning's southern and western walls met the river, and a broad canal barred the east. Cut the waterways, seal the northern fields where dry land still touched the city, and the place could be shut up perfectly.

Deng Keming, marshal of Great Han, was surveying that watertight net with a savage scowl.

"Marshal, these Hubei louts are no joke."

The subordinate addressed him with all the dignity of the old neighborhood-thug days. Deng Keming knit his brow and grumbled.

"Right. Properly good. Proper. Why can't the lot of you manage half of that?"

"Come on—those men answer straight to His Highness the King of Han. No, His Majesty, don't they? They've got more armored troops than we do, and they've fought the big battles. A siege like this is old habit to them."

"Excuses. Hardly a man's way of talking...."

Deng Keming glared at the grumbling officer and growled, then turned that glare on the Hubei army laying the encirclement and preparing the assault with practiced ease.

He was a son of Linjiang Circuit in Jiangxi. From boyhood he had led gangs of ruffians and bent the villages to his will. When the Red Turbans began to run wild, he raised his younger brother Deng Zhiming and his sworn brothers, seized the counties round about, and styled himself marshal. Then Chen Youliang—a warlord he could not hope to match—took Jiangxi, and Deng led his band under that banner without a backward glance. He was given the southern Jiangxi front, and the task of conquering Fujian.

At the start, once they had forced the hard mountains and the narrow passes into the province, they had driven forward in fine style. Back then he had been sure all of Fujian would fall into his hand...

Chen Youding, the righteous-army captain of Tingzhou. It was the year before last that the country lout had given him a thorough beating. Deng had scorned him for having so few men, but the bastard refused a straight fight. He struck and vanished along Fujian's cruel mountain tracks, cut the grain road, and wore them down until they simply could not hold.

"That green whelp may be an unlucky star, but he seems to have a commander's eye all the same. The way he handles this Hubei army. The way he took Shaowu in a single stroke..."

"Aye. Well. He's a capable one, I'll grant."

Deng Keming pouted, but he did not deny it.

After the Fujian fiasco, his lord Chen Youliang had attached an army supervisor to him, and reinforcements with the man. Stuck and straining inside the province, Deng had then watched Hubei troops come over Shanguan, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠that grim pass in the Wuyi Mountains, and on their strength he had seized most of inland Fujian at a stroke.

"Hah. Speak of the tiger, and he comes walking..."

Deng Keming watched a young commander approaching with his guards, looking thoroughly angry. Kang Tai.

"Marshal Deng, what in the world is this? You swore not even a rat would get out of Jianning."

"And what are you displeased about this time, Supervisor Kang?"

"My men caught a courier the garrison sent out! We put him to the question. Relief couriers have gone off in every direction, haven't they?"

The whelp had the nerve to interrogate his own superior. Deng Keming's temper flared.

"And how am I supposed to ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠catch every man who runs for the hills? My officers and I did everything that could be done!"

Kang Tai bit back the retort he wanted to fling at the marshal's excuses. The force Deng had brought was not small, and though Kang held a supervisor's rank, the commander of the Fujian expedition was still Marshal Deng Keming. To fall out with each other in the middle of enemy country would be folly. Besides, however far Deng fell short of filling the post, he was no incompetent general.

"We questioned the man we took. The people Jianning asked for help are Chen Youding, on the Tingzhou road, and the Duke of Yue, who holds Fuzhou."

"Chen Youding? They sent to a man five hundred li off—mountains to cross and rivers to ford, near on a hundred and forty miles? Hah?"

Deng Keming, who had suffered a great defeat at Chen Youding's hands, ground his teeth.

"Unless his liver's jumped clean out of his belly, he won't move. He'd have to stake his life on marching an army down mountain tracks with no grain behind him. One slip and he's finished."

Kang Tai nodded. Deng Keming had fought in Fujian for years and knew the ground and the local temper, and he spoke as if there were no argument.

"Then what of the Duke of Yue? They say last month he finished that Huihui, Saifuding, and took the city of Fuzhou..."

The news had reached them only after they had already mustered and marched on Jianning, and Kang Tai was quietly uneasy. Who was the Duke of Yue? The famous general of the realm who had broken Zhu Yuanzhang—the very man His Highness the King of Han, no, His Majesty, was even now locked with in a grinding seesaw fight—in a single battle, head-on. Chen Youliang's own army had felt it too. Marshal Hang Boseo, driving for Zhedong by way of the Xinzhou circuit, had lost his head to the Duke of Yue's troops. A black dragon. Every hegemon reaching for the mastery of Jiangnan held his breath and watched where it moved.

"The Duke of Yue, the Duke of Yue. I'm sick to death of the name. Haven't you lost your nerve before we've even fought him?"

"Marshal Deng! This is no time for jokes!"

Deng Keming pursed his lips and waved him off.

"I've grown my bones on battlefields. You think I haven't thought of that? I've already called my brother Deng Zhiming to Yanping and set him to hold it fast."

"Yanping, you say?"

Deng Keming squatted and scratched a map in the dirt with a twig.

"If the Duke of Yue means to bring an army up from Fuzhou to relieve this place, he has to row against the Min. And the throat that grips that current—the Throat of Fujian—that's Yanping, isn't it?"

"I know that much."

Deng Keming snorted at Kang Tai's sour face and kept drawing.

"This Jianning in front of us at least has fields to the north, so a siege comes easy enough, eh? But Yanping is wrapped on three sides by the Min, deep and wide, and the ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠mountains to the west are vicious. You follow?"

"Hm...."

"And the brick walls are thick. Since old times they've called it the Copper Fortress. In a word: killing ground, and walls to match. Impregnable."

Kang Tai nodded along, though Deng Keming grinned like some wastrel the whole time he explained it.

"And how long has the Duke of Yue even held the Fuzhou circuit? You think those damned Fujian militia captains are the sort who shut their mouths and behave? The moment they see a gap, they'll bare their teeth."

"That much is true."

"And most of that elite army of his is still over in Zhedong, isn't it? Whatever he brought here is twenty or thirty thousand at the outside. He can't leave Fuzhou empty when he's only just planted his feet..."

Deng Keming stroked his chin, turned it over, and slapped his palm.

"Send a relief army and it's twenty thousand at best. My brother Zhiming has ten thousand holding Yanping."

"Twice the men, against an impregnable fortress..."

"Right. Hard going, wouldn't you say? And suppose he leaves Yanping behind and comes this way anyway?"

Deng Keming smiled, ugly and pleased.

"My brother stops the water. We stop his front. Then what?"

"We'd have him between us..."

"And the great and famous Lord Duke of Yue might just croak in our hands. Wouldn't he?"

For all his looks, Deng Keming was showing a real grasp of the field, and Kang Tai had to agree.

Both men had pinned great hopes on this Fujian campaign. Since their lord Chen Youliang had taken the imperial throne of Great Han, he and Zhu Yuanzhang had been tearing at each other over who would rule the Yangtze. And in the midst of that, the two of them had been sent not to the foremost front but to this backwater corner of Fujian. Fail to win the great merit of taking the whole province, and they would never stand out among the brilliant marshals and generals of Great Han.

Deng Keming was not of the Hubei stock that formed Great Han's mainstream. Merit was the only way to harden his place and win Chen Youliang's trust. Kang Tai's position was no different, in truth. Hu Tingrui—a warlord out of Mianyang in Hubei, Chen Youliang's own country, and now chancellor of the Jiangxi Branch Secretariat—was his uncle on his mother's side. For the man who backed him, Kang Tai meant to win a conspicuous merit here and lay the foundation of his rise in Great Han.

That was why both had agreed to haul vast stores and manpower over the cruel tracks of the Wuyi range, and to squeeze and concentrate every force they could gather in Fujian. For one purpose only: to bring down the Jianning that lay before their eyes.

"Come, Supervisor Kang. Let's go over what we've prepared."

"We've laborers, tools, and timber enough to drive mines under the walls. And the carpenters are already assembling the cloud ladders and the siege towers...."

They did not much like each other, but both were desperate, and they put their heads together over the siege.

"We hit the northern stretch of wall first. The trebuchets, those bowl-mouths, and the general cannons—where do they stand?"

"The carpenters are putting the trebuchets together now. The gunners for the bowl-mouths and the general cannons are ready, but powder's a little short..."

"And the fire-arrows to burn their palisades..."

They had brought every kind of military store out of Jiangxi, and pressed into service the powder weapons seized in Fujian besides. The armies of Deng Keming and Kang Tai had finished their preparations.

"Slow! Advance slow!!! Keep your bodies behind the shields! Don't catch a blind arrow!"

"Fire the cannon!!! Loose the heavy crossbows, I said!!!"

Doom. Doom. Doom. Doom. Doom. Doom. Doom.

Tens of thousands advanced on Jianning's northern wall like a swarm of ants.

"Chen Youliang's army has Jianning surrounded?"

"Y-yes, Your Grace!"

As ill luck would have it, the courier arrived not long after Lin Quansheng had gone. He cried out, face tight with urgency.

"The enemy number in the tens of thousands! Even when I left the city, they were pouring in like ants..."

"Right. Who is it that asks me for relief?"

"His Excellency Jie Hong, Lianfang Qianshi!"

From the courier's account, the situation was a farce. The moment word came that the great host under Deng Keming and ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠Kang Tai was coming, the route commander of Jianning and most of the officials had simply fled. What remained were Jie Hong of the Censorate, Jinglüeshi Puyan Buka, and soldiers raised from the locality.

"His Excellency Jie sent couriers by the mountain roads east and west. I took a hard side trail east, reached Funing, and came on here."

"He sent west as well?"

"Yes. A courier went to His Excellency Chen Youding, route commander of Tingzhou, begging relief. The general once smashed Deng Keming's army, so His Excellency Jie was certain he would be of help again..."

"Chen Youding is around Qingliu County. Can he relieve Jianning from there?"

"Many under the general are local gentry, and they're at home on mountain tracks. When he taught Deng Keming his lesson before, they moved swift along the hard side paths, and His Excellency Jie is counting on that."

I sent the courier out and called a council at once. Liu Ji, my counselor. Ban Baeksu, newly installed as route commander of Fuzhou. Makdong and Huindungi of the navy. Dolswe of the Tiger Hunting Army, and Fang Guozhen of the Garrison Army. The civil officials who had joined this Fujian expedition, and the principal officers, all of them gathered.

"This is the situation. What do you advise?"

Huindungi was the first to surge forward, full of fire.

"My lord! What are we waiting for? Give the order and this humble general will go blow the bastards to pieces with the cannon—gk!"

Victory after victory had sent his confidence through the roof. He shot to his feet and bellowed—and then let out a strangled yelp. Makdong sat beside him, sworn elder brother and his superior. He had jabbed Huindungi in the ribs and was glaring, savage.

"F-forgive me, my lord. I... I wasn't thinking..."

Huindungi clamped his mouth shut, chastened, and sat. I was smirking at him when a grave voice came.

"My lord, is there any need to rush a relief? The officials of the Jianning circuit are the very men who refused when you summoned them, are they not?"

At Dolswe's words, most of the officers nodded.

"And it has not been long since you took Fuzhou. Draw off troops and leave the place empty, and the righteous-army captains in every quarter may start nursing other thoughts."

"That's right, my lord!"

Dolswe went to the board where the map of Fujian was drawn and pointed at Jianning.

"Jianning lies deep inland, and the mountains around it are cruel. To take a great army that far, the grain has to move on the Min, and to do that we must take Yanping first."

"......."

"Leave Yanping in enemy hands and push past it, and the risk is too great. Our numbers are not large. Should the retreat be cut, or the grain road blocked, and we be driven into a corner, the worst case could cost us dearly."

Dolswe looked at me with a sharp eye.

"So long as you yourself are here, I submit that accepting such a risk is unwise. Rather than rush to save Jianning, we ought to firm up what we hold, and follow the original plan—Xinghua on the coast first, and then the Ispah army in Quanzhou, which has already lost most of its strength. What is your will?"

"B-but then what becomes of Jianning, under siege?"

Ban Baeksu, who had been listening in silence, asked with a troubled face.

"Will the court's officials still holding the Jianning circuit truly submit to you? I am not at all sure they would even be grateful if we saved them."

"....."

"It might not be a bad thing to move only after Jianning has fallen."

At Dolswe's cold voice, the Goryeo officers and the officers out of Zhedong alike nodded their agreement. Most of them were Goryeo men, or men who had started as common soldiers and risen under my banner—retainers in all but name. The civil officials, mostly of the great clans, still kept some identity as servants of the court. The officer corps had little lingering attachment to a court that was court in name alone.

"Hmm...."

I tapped the desk with a finger and sank into thought.

Jie Hong, the man now holding Jianning, was the son of Jie Xisi—a Grand Academician who, rare among the southerners of Jiangxi, had climbed high at the court in Khanbaliq. A southerner, yes, but in truth raised in Khanbaliq from childhood, and loyal enough that, unlike other southerners, he had been trusted with a place in the Censorate. A man of that stamp, stubborn enough to hold Jianning against a great army while everyone else ran, and able enough to keep the city in order through the chaos?

For me, that was a problem of its own. The incompetent, the corrupt, the cowards—I could settle them lawfully under the articles of war, or strip their posts and throw them out, and be done. A man who was diligent, able, and loyal to the court was awkward. Remove him without a pretext and my reputation would be a wreck, and the people's hearts might turn.

"Your Grace, you must relieve Jianning."

While everyone waited in silence for my decision, I looked at the man who had spoken, quiet and low. Past fifty now, a scholar whose clear countenance was set off by a fine beard. Liu Ji met my eyes, unyielding.

"There are three reasons Your Grace must relieve Jianning."