Three Reasons
"Will the court's officials now holding the Jianning Circuit truly submit to you, my lord? I cannot say they would even be grateful if we rode to their rescue."
Great Generals Lee Dae-nam, Hojo Kagetora, and Makdong. Set those three aside, and the young commander who stood out most sharply in the army was Seok Geum. At the chill in his voice, and at the officers murmuring their assent, Liu Ji shut his eyes tight.
The generals gave Duke of Yue Lim Hyeon an absolute loyalty. Liu Ji knew all too well the temper that had taken root among them: the court's inept, corrupt officials were nothing but useless obstacles. Only the Duke of Yue's absolute authority kept their blades from turning on the court. Civil officials who offered him private fealty as their lord, rather than as a superior who had merely received a court post, were not few—but they were nothing beside the army.
Even so, it would not do. Loyalty to the court, or loyalty to the Duke of Yue himself—hearts might differ, but was the first task not to put down the turmoil in Fujian? Liu Ji steeled himself and looked to the Duke.
"Master Bowen, what are these three reasons of yours?"
"Your Grace is Pingzhang Zhengshi of the Fujian Branch Secretariat. All eight prefectures of Fujian lie under your jurisdiction. If you know Jianning is in peril and still turn your face away, what then?"
"Hm..."
"Since you pacified Fuzhou, the great clans and the common people of Fujian have watched your every move with high hopes. That Master Gakheon dragged his aged bones here of his own will to remonstrate is itself born of those hopes."
Liu Ji appealed to the young Duke in an earnest voice.
"For more than ten years the people of Fujian have been ground down by men who speak of loyalty and the peace of the people, all while nursing ambitions of their own and carving out private domains. You must show them that you are different—that you set public righteousness above private desire."
"Public righteousness over private desire..."
The youth tapped his fingers on the desk, sunk in thought, and Liu Ji pressed on without pause.
"The first reason is to hold the moral ground and win the people's trust. The second is another matter. This moment is the perfect chance to tear Chen Youliang's faction out by the roots."
"Why do you call it a good chance?"
"Did Master Gakheon not say as much the other day? Chen Youliang's men stand on shaky ground for now, but if they take Jianning they will become a great calamity."
Liu Ji pointed to the inland stretch of Fujian on the map drawn across the board—Jianning, Yanping, Shaowu, and on to Tingzhou.
"The moment they bring Jianning down, their momentum will shake the whole of Fujian. The fires of rebellion that have smoldered for a time will flare again, and foreign tribes and rebel remnants hiding in the mountains will flock to them and swell their strength still further."
The Duke gave no answer.
"By contrast, now—while they have thrown their full strength toward Jianning—is the moment to strike. Do not merely relieve the city. Annihilate them and pull them up by the roots, and you can seize most of inland Fujian in a single stroke."
Liu Ji was speaking of hard advantage now, and most of those seated nodded. Even Seok Geum, the young commander who had been glaring at him with cold eyes, raised no objection.
"The third reason is my fear of what follows if Jianning should somehow drive them off without Your Grace's help."
"Why would that be a problem?"
At Duke of Yue Lim Hyeon's question, Liu Ji's finger moved on the map from Tingzhou to Qingliu County.
"Master Gakheon was deeply uneasy about the warlord Chen Youding, who has gathered a great force there and is locked in struggle with Chen Youliang's army. Did they not say Jianning has already sent to him for aid?"
"Chen Youding..."
"Fujian's chaos has dragged on a long while, yet no single power has truly stood out. The Ispah army in Quanzhou is comparatively strong, but they are Huihui—foreign Muslims—and that sets a limit on how far the local people will rally to them."
Liu Ji ran through Fujian's principal powers.
"The three houses of Xinghua are a rabble hardly worth the mention. Luo Liang of Zhangzhou is accomplished in both letters and arms, but he spends his strength settling the people rather than expanding his reach."
"You are saying Chen Youding is different."
"Chen Youding began as nothing more than a minor righteous-army captain in a single county. Then Chen Youliang's army came over the mountains, and in fighting them he won a name. In effect he has absorbed the righteous armies and the She tribes scattered through Tingzhou, and grown into a considerable power."
To rise as a great warlord in an age of chaos, a man needed talent and the favor of the times. More than either, he needed ambition—a hunger that did not stop. Luo Liang had no such fire. Chen Youding did. That was the problem.
"Chen Youding joined the righteous armies empty-handed, began in the petty posts of patrol inspector and county defender, and climbed all the way to route commander of Tingzhou. He is a man out of legend. Set beside Luo Liang, whose fame is of long standing, he is a young newcomer—but his ferocity is beyond comparison."
"A man eaten up with ambition..."
"They say Chen Youding makes deft use of Fujian's cruel mountain paths. If he slips in by some side trail and wins the great merit of relieving the siege of Jianning, what then?"
Liu Ji was certain a great ambition burned in the young Duke of Yue's heart. Yet at least he was a hero who acted, as a minister of the court, according to rightful cause; who cherished the people, honored scholars, and did not spill blood lightly. For the sake of Fujian's people, the war had to end. A new warlord rising to stand against An Hyeon—Chen Youding, arrogant and cruel, at that—gaining strength, and Fujian drowning in war once more: that was not what Liu Ji wanted.
I looked at Liu Ji and smiled.
"As you say, Master, if Chen Youding wins a feat like that, the court may well start making trouble. They might hand him high office to keep me in check, or split Fujian in two again, as they did before, and tell each of us to govern a piece..."
"Ahem..."
Liu Ji, who had once tried to check me with a scheme to divide Zhedong into a Left Circuit and a Right Circuit, flushed and coughed into his fist.
"Well then. What do the rest of you think?"
At my question Makdong nodded, as if in agreement.
"I—I think the same, my lord!"
Beside him, Huindungi rolled his eyes, then hastily chimed in at the sight of his sworn elder brother.
"There is sense in what Master Bowen says. If we mean to settle Fujian as quickly as we can, it would be a bad business for someone capable of standing against my lord to arise..."
The man whose hair had gone half to gray stroked his beard and nodded.
"And if they drive the bandits off without Your Grace's aid, Jianning's officials gain a pretext to refuse your orders. Would it not be faster, and more effective, to go yourself, relieve Jianning, and then secure both military command and civil authority there?"
I swept my gaze over the assembly and found one man sitting with his mouth shut tight, only watching the mood of the room. Among commanders who were, for the most part, still young, he was the only one past forty.
"Division Commander Fang. Do you have an opinion?"
"M-me, Your Grace? This subordinate?"
Fang Guozhen, wound tight as a bowstring, blinked.
"Yes. I'm curious what you think."
Fang Guozhen hesitated, eyes unsteady, swallowed hard, and spoke.
"In this subordinate's view, relieving Jianning is the right course."
"And why is that?"
"After the victory in the last sea battle, the waters of Fujian are as good as in your hands, my lord. Xinghua on the coast, and that lot in Quanzhou—they're rats in a jar. You can go and take them whenever you please."
I was quietly impressed. Fang Guozhen was showing more insight than I had expected. Then again, he had once fled by sea from Zhedong all the way down the Fujian coast, plundering in every direction. To his eye the coastal towns must have looked like nothing so much as a row of choice eating-houses, waiting to be picked clean.
"Damn right, my lord! This sea's yours now, ain't it?"
Huindungi slammed a fist on the table as he shouted. Shut his mouth and he looked every inch a refined young noble; open it, and he gave off the thick reek of a wastrel who had prowled the night streets of Gaegyeong. A laugh nearly escaped me. Still, I liked that he never changed.
"The interior's a different story. Chen Youliang's army, or this Chen Youding—once either of them holds the inland, they won't be easy to get at."
"Why do you think so?"
"The interior of Zhedong is broad basin country. A great army moves easily there. Fujian's interior is all cruel mountains and narrow roads, so a great army can barely move at all."
"Supply lines would be easy to cut."
"Yes. When I was young I went back and forth there trading salt. The farther upstream you go, the narrower the channels—only small boats can pass—and there are hidden side paths everywhere. Fine country for bandits to lie low and run wild."
Hearing it, I understood how Chen Youding, with only a small force, had beaten Chen Youliang's great army—and why he could remain standing in the very heart of Tingzhou even after Chen Youliang's men had seized the prefecture.
"If they throw up mountain forts at every key point, dig in, and hit the supply lines from the side paths, even throwing in a great army won't bring results in a short time."
"Cut the grass before it grows thick, and pull it out by the roots?"
"Yes, my lord."
If Liu Ji's proposal was strategy, Fang Guozhen's words carried the tactical eye of a commander who had actually walked that ground.
My palm cracked down on the desk. When every eye turned to me, I declared in a carrying voice.
"We obey your command, my lord!"
The council's subject shifted to how the army would move.
"First we must take Yanping. Take Yanping, and the siege of Jianning loosens of itself."
"Brother! This is where our navy has to—"
Amid the noisy clash of argument, Liu Ji stepped in.
"The greatest problem is that the force we can actually mobilize falls short. We have thirty thousand troops in Fuzhou in all, but we cannot move every one of them."
I nodded at Liu Ji's point. The Tiger Hunting Army was two divisions, twelve thousand; the navy another twelve thousand; the Garrison Army six thousand. We were reorganizing Fuzhou's righteous armies into the Patrol Army and militia, but we could not yet trust them fully, and they were not elite enough for a battlefield. To guard against rebellion inside Fuzhou, and to watch the approaches of Xinghua and Quanzhou to the south, we would have to leave at least ten thousand behind.
"The enemy besieging Jianning numbers forty to fifty thousand at the least. Add their troops at Yanping and elsewhere, and twenty thousand of our own will not be enough."
"Master Bowen. Aren't you rating us a little too low? Our lord's army has never lost, though we have always been fewer than the enemy."
It was rare for Dolswe to raise his voice. Liu Ji only smiled.
"How should I fail to know that? Only—how, with twenty thousand men, do we stop them from running?"
Liu Ji went to the board and indicated the country around Jianning.
"Suppose we take Yanping, then push upstream to Jianning and break them. If I were the enemy commanders Deng Keming or Kang Tai, I would scatter into the cruel mountains west of Jianning and flee toward Shaowu Circuit, which they already hold."
"Mm..."
"Then we could not net them all at a stroke. If they keep their strength intact and hole up in the mountains of Jianning, Yanping, Shaowu, and Tingzhou, we will not clear them out in any short time."
Everyone nodded at Liu Ji's explanation. I stared at the map until, all at once, a thought came to me.
"To cut off their retreat... we'll have to bring in an army from another direction."
At my words the civil officials and officers in the room tilted their heads.
"Another direction, you say..."
"Do you mean to move the armies of Xinzhou and Chuzhou?"
Liu Ji looked at me with the faintest smile, and I nodded. Our minds had met without a word.
"They will think I have only thirty thousand. What happens when my army arrives from a place they never expected?"
I smiled and gave the order to Makdong and Huindungi.
"Have the fastest ships made ready. The letters must reach Wenzhou and Mingzhou as quickly as they can."
"We'll see to it at once, my lord!"
When my army came over the high mountains and appeared suddenly at their backs, they would be frightened out of their wits. The thought of it was something to look forward to.