Chapter 934 - 102: With Yan Here, the Northern Invaders Cannot Set Foot in Kyushu

This is what makes every person in the tribes a born warrior.

Their horsemanship, their skill with the bow and arrow.

These things, which require long years of training to acquire, are absolutely not something the common folk of Kyushu can compare to; and once their numbers begin to surge, the combat power that erupts from among them is naturally incomparably terrifying.

This is Temujin’s greatest source of confidence.

He is by no means without hope of victory.

On the contrary—

Given his abilities, and with such a foundation beneath him, so long as he can seize every opportunity, he truly can tear a bloody chunk of fat from Kyushu’s body.

And for the grasslands, that would already be enough!

...

— A sudden turn in the situation

Yingtian Prefecture, Great Celebration Hall.

Autumn sunlight streamed through the high windows, casting mottled light and shadow upon the mirror-smooth golden bricks of the floor, yet it could not dispel the heaviness and killing intent that suffused the hall.

The scent of dragon musk seemed itself suppressed by the reek of war-smoke drifting in from the border.

The Minister of the Ministry of War held the latest dispatch and read aloud, his voice dry and rasping, the miserable state of the Hebei Western Route: "...three smelting workshops outside Weizhou City have been utterly destroyed, more than a hundred craftsmen killed or wounded, and several thousand displaced people have flooded into the prefectural city;"

"the grain transfer station at Feihu Pass was raided, a loss of five thousand dan of grain, the militiamen escorting the convoy routed;"

"Mongolian raiding cavalry have penetrated to thirty li north of Dingzhou State, burning and plundering villages beyond count, the people’s hearts unsettled..."

Every word was like a whip-lash across the hearts of those gathered in the hall.

Though Gu Yan had used clan networks and various means to barely stabilize the lower bound of the situation, the front line’s passive beating and frantic, exhausted response could not be concealed.

"Your Majesty!" Director of the Secretariat Wang Jian stepped forward first; this veteran general’s beard and hair bristled, his voice resonant like a great bell. "The enemy cavalry are cunning, elusive and ever-shifting."

"Our army is composed mainly of foot soldiers. If we hold to the cities and defend the terrain, we may yet manage; but once we sally out to pursue and strike, we are extremely liable to fall into their ambushes and vainly waste our strength."

"Yet if we allow them to rampage unchecked, the productive forces of the borderlands will be utterly destroyed, the people’s hearts completely lost, and the very foundation of our northern expedition shaken!"

"I beg Your Majesty to make a swift decision: either dispatch additional elite cavalry to their aid, or... adjust our strategy."

He did not voice the rest, but the meaning was clear.

Either find a mobile force that can contend with the Mongolians in the wilds, or else temporarily contract the lines and abandon part of the outer territory—this would undoubtedly deal a heavy blow to morale and make the earlier declaration of a northern expedition seem ridiculous.

A murmur of low debate rose within the hall.

Reinforce with cavalry?

The Great Song is short of horses; the elite cavalry capable of field warfare are already concentrated in the Western Army and in the hands of a few martial clans. They are hard to redeploy, and their numbers fall far short of Mongolia’s.

Contract the defenses?

That would be an even greater political disaster.

Compared with the Northern Border, although the Great Song’s current stock of warhorses is absolutely far greater than in original history, it is still no match for the Northern Border.

Just as this suffocating anxiety and gloom twined together, Gu Qing slowly stepped forward.

He did not look at his colleagues with their varied expressions, but instead bowed deeply toward the imperial throne, his voice level yet carrying a force that admitted no denial: "Your Majesty, Director Wang speaks most truly."

"What the bandits rely upon is nothing more than their swift mounted archery, taking advantage of the fact that our foot soldiers struggle to give chase."

"Yet if they can come, I can also go. With purely passive defense, there will never be a day we break the enemy."

Gu Qing’s voice echoed through the great hall; he did not wait for the Emperor or anyone else to respond, but turned slightly, his gaze sweeping over the ministers’ varied faces. "What Director Wang is concerned about is simply that our army lacks cavalry, and cannot race the enemy horsemen across the open fields."

He paused, then suddenly shifted his tone, crisp and decisive. "Yet the Way of War—how could it consist solely in mounted archery clashing head-on?"

"The enemy seeks to use raiding cavalry to throw our borderlands into chaos, to destroy our foundations; then I shall use ’order’ to counter their ’chaos’, ’focus’ to subdue their ’scattering’."

Gu Yan’s words flashed repeatedly through Gu Qing’s mind.

And Gu Qing’s expression grew ever more severe: "First, the enemy pillages our workshops, aiming to ruin our production and unsettle our people."

"Issue orders to all prefectures and counties of the Hebei Western Route—starting today, all workshops and artisan households not yet affected are to be registered and recorded by the government."

"Grant them ’wartime artisan status’, double the ration and wages, and relocate them in concentrated fashion into nearby military towns and forts whose walls are fully secure. Allocate them grounds, place them under unified supervision by military craft officers, and have them devote themselves exclusively to the repair of armaments, forging of crossbow arrows, tanning and making of leather armor, and the like."

"All artisan households are exempt from every miscellaneous corvée, and their family members will be collectively settled and provided for by the authorities."

"I will see to it that what the enemy destroys is only a few piles of brick and tile; what I protect are the skills and hearts of tens of thousands of craftsmen!"

— Protect the craftsmen.

Gu Yan had placed this matter first of all.

In today’s Kyushu, the changes these craftsmen can bring are truly immense!

"Second, the enemy splits his forces to raid and plunder, avoiding the solid to strike the void."

"Then I shall ’meet the void with the solid’."

"This minister will order the main forces of Zhending, Zhongshan, and Hejian, to strictly hold the key points of the city defenses."

"Besides that, this minister has also carefully selected daring elite soldiers from each army, fully equipped them with strong crossbows and firearms, and organized them into Mobile Patrol Camps, each camp ranging from one thousand to three thousand men. They will not cling to defending any single city or place, but be specially tasked with patrolling the official roads and grain routes between the cities, as well as the known areas of former workshops."

"If they encounter small bands of raiding cavalry, they shall rely on wagon formations and crossbow arrows, concentrating forces to annihilate them; if they encounter large contingents, they shall light beacons to signal alarm, take up defensive positions at natural chokepoints to delay them, and await reinforcements."

Gu Qing’s expression was extremely grave.

And the heaviness on the faces of those present also unconsciously faded somewhat.

This was the sense of security the Gu Clan had brought to Kyushu.

As long as the Gu Clan still stood.

Even if foreign foes had already killed their way inside, that sense of security would not dissipate.

Whether for common folk, or for them, these court officials.

Gu Qing’s gaze slowly swept across the ministers in the hall whose expressions had steadied slightly, finally returning to the imperial throne, his voice steady and clear, "Third, and also the most urgent matter at hand—since the raiders have already entered our house, how can there be no general to go forth and meet them in battle?"

"The bandit chief Lemei leads thirty thousand cavalry in rampant arrogance; if we allow him to come and go as he pleases, the morale of our army and populace will be hard to revive, while the momentum of the raiders will blaze ever fiercer."

"There must be a sharp expeditionary force, going out beyond the walls, seeking opportunities for battle, to blunt his edge, bind his hands and feet, and make him no longer dare to act so recklessly and without restraint!"

The entire Great Celebration Hall fell utterly silent.

And Gu Qing did not say anything more.

What is regency?

For someone who had reached his level, he already possessed the ability to directly decide everything.

This time he was merely steadying everyone’s hearts!

...

Champion Marquis Mansion, ancestral hall.

"Father, be at ease." Gu Yan’s voice broke the stillness of the ancestral hall, clear and resolute, lacking the usual youthful excitement, holding only a settled composure. "The forebears manifested, Heaven granted sudden enlightenment—clearly this Temujin is the great enemy whom your son is destined to face in this life."

"This is no calamity of fate, but truly a mission."

By now, the matter of the ancestors’ manifestation was no longer any secret within the Gu Clan.

After all, the change in Gu Yan was simply too great.

Such a transformation, like divine intervention, could only be explained by the forebears showing themselves.

And what he said now was already a declaration of his resolve.

Gu Qing naturally could not leave Yingtian.

He was not Gu Hui.

Lacking Gu Hui’s ability to cope with everything, he could only use his own presence to stabilize the situation in Yingtian; only thus could he truly remove all fetters from Gu Yan.

The entire ancestral hall was steeped in silence.

Gu Yan, and the various clan elders of the Gu Clan present, all wore extremely solemn expressions at this moment.

To say they were not nervous would be impossible.

The hatred Temujin bore toward the Gu Clan far surpassed that of any enemy the Gu Clan had faced in the past.

And most crucial of all—

An enemy capable of making the ancestors manifest could not possibly be one easily dealt with!

Yet they would not speak of these things.

As Gu Yan’s words fell, the expressions of all the Gu clansmen grew even more austere, then they all followed Gu Qing in bowing together before each spirit tablet.

Three days later, Gu Yan departed the Capital City by imperial command.

Accompanying him, aside from those three thousand soldiers of the "Northern Border Pacification Mobile Camp," were also several dozen carefully selected Gu clan sons whose Martial Arts were outstanding, serving as Personal Guards and backbone. Outside the Capital City gate, common folk who had heard the news and come of their own accord to see him off packed both sides of the official road, their gazes earnest, yet so quiet that only the sound of the wind could be heard.

Gu Yan reined in his horse, standing beneath tens of thousands of eyes. He did not deliver any long, impassioned speech; he merely let his calm gaze sweep across those faces, some anxious, some full of hope, then raised his voice and said clearly:

"On this march, we shall surely annihilate the northern raiders."

He paused, then spoke word by word, each falling with ringing weight: "As long as Yan yet lives for a single day, the northern barbarian iron cavalry shall not set hoof upon the rivers and mountains of Kyushu!"

With that, he said no more, turned his horse, and rode straight away!....

....