Chapter 41 Counting the People of Hebei

"I heard that in the early years of the Yuan Dynasty, there was an invasion of Japan, but it failed to land successfully. Did they learn any lessons this time? Is there anything special about Japan's ports?" Grand Admiral of the Navy John Pedias seemed very interested in these technical issues.

"Actually, there weren't any real lessons learned," Zhao Liang said honestly. "A relative of mine followed the army back then. According to him, the port defenses of the Japanese were very ordinary, and anyone who put in a bit of effort could have taken them. The reason they couldn't take them before was simply because they didn't care enough."

"Is that so..." Pedias looked somewhat disappointed.

"Indeed," Shi Ke replied. "We still have records from the Yuan Dynasty here that show the situation at the time. Later on, I'll have the clerk send a volume over to your department, and you'll understand once you take a look."

"Alright, thank you." Pedias still had some doubts, but accepted the offer anyway.

"Once you get the book, just count how many people from Hebei were dispatched for each military campaign, and you'll know how much importance the Yuan central government attached to it," Guo Kang reminded him, seeing this. "Of course, this is limited to the early Yuan Dynasty. In the later period, you'd have to count the people from Henan."

This was an experience Guo Kang had verified himself.

Within the jurisdiction of the Central Secretariat—the broad definition of "Hebei people" at the time—lay the core strength of the Yuan Dynasty. The number of people from this region participating in a battle directly reflected the scale of force the Yuan Dynasty invested in that theater.

"Let me give you an example," he thought for a moment and said. "During the Yuan Dynasty's first invasion of Japan, the Mongol Alquchi served as the Commander-in-Chief of the Expedition to the East, Liu Fuheng from Hebei as the Left Deputy Commander, and the Korean Hong Daguk as the Right Deputy Commander, leading a joint Mongol-Chinese army of over ten thousand men. In addition, there were more than five thousand Korean troops led by the general Kim Pang-gyong following along."

"This Liu Fuheng was a native of Dongping Road under the Central Secretariat, and a disciple of the renowned statesman Yelü Chucai. He once followed Kublai Khan on the expedition against Ariq Böke, fighting all the way to Karakorum, and had a proven military record."

"You see, just by counting like this, you realize that despite all the names listed, he was actually the only one seriously going there to fight," he concluded.

"Does this mean the Yuan Dynasty didn't take it seriously?" someone asked.

"Perhaps they took it slightly seriously," Guo Kang hesitated. "But not entirely..."

"The early stages of the war progressed very smoothly. Although the Yuan army didn't have many effective troops, they still crushed the local resistance and successfully landed," he said, trying to phrase it in a way that was easy for everyone to understand. "The Japanese... Sultan mobilized nearby Emirs to provide support. As a result, during the engagement, Liu Fuheng got too close to the front lines for ease of command and was wounded by an arrow shot by a Mamluk. After the battle, he had no choice but to return to the ships to recover from his wounds."

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"Since he was the only one fighting earnestly, once he was wounded, the others had even less will to fight. Alquchi and the others neither took over the command nor arranged for a pursuit. Seeing Liu Fuheng return to the ships to regroup, they took the opportunity to return to the ships as well, and then directly announced a retreat to go home. And just like that, the war ended."

"Just like that?" Papadopoulos said in surprise.

"They weren't taking it seriously to begin with," Guo Kang spread his hands. "A few years later, the envoys sent by Emperor Shizu Kublai Khan were killed by the Japanese Sultan. Kublai Khan was furious, which is why he thought of fighting them again."

"Of course, by this time, not only the Japanese Caliph, but actually the Japanese Sultan as well, had been reduced to a figurehead. The ones holding real power were the Japanese Atabegs, the Hojo clan."

"That's completely normal," Pedias pointed out. "Unlike Persian scholar-bureaucrats, warlords have never been good at diplomacy; they can mess up anything. Please continue. We can understand. Did they send their main force this time?"

"No," Guo Kang said. "Because at this time, a massive rebellion instigated by the Mongols broke out. Kaidu, a descendant of Ögedei in the northwest, Shiregi, a descendant of Möngke in the northern steppes, and the Honggirat tribe of the Empress's family in western Liaoning, all rose in revolt."

He pointed to the map and said, "From Liaoyang Province to Beshbalik, the entire northern frontier of the Great Yuan was under attack."

"So, they couldn't spare any troops at that time?" Papadopoulos asked.

"Yes. The war to conquer the Song was not yet over, and the Yuan Dynasty was fighting on two fronts, barely managing to cope," Guo Kang explained further. "All the still-idle Han Chinese guard units went north to suppress the Mongols. Kublai Khan even had to urgently pull manpower back from the southern front—how could they possibly have spare troops to care about a place like Japan?"

"How is it that this Great Khan is always out suppressing Mongols..." Autolycus muttered.

"Anyway, the second expedition against Japan started just like that, in a rush," Guo Kang ignored his question and continued his introduction. "The generals in charge of the army were the same ones as last time, but Liu Fuheng's division was garrisoning Huixi at that time. That place was far more important than Japan and couldn't be left unmanned, so this time there wasn't a single Hebei person of commander rank."

"Isn't that even worse?" Pedias asked. "Without a reliable core unit, how did they plan to land?"

"Well, they did have something. Kublai Khan assigned them nearly ten thousand men from the naval commander Zhang Xi's division, which could be considered Hebei soldiers. However, the quality of the other units was even worse," Guo Kang said. "In the northern route army, Alquchi's Mongol soldiers had encountered a storm when retreating home previously, and though their losses might not have been too heavy, it caused everyone to scatter completely. Therefore, this time, they had no choice but to hastily conscript over ten thousand convicts into the army."

"The Koreans also increased their troop strength considerably, bringing at least ten thousand soldiers. But these people... to be honest, they lowered the overall average combat effectiveness of the army."

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"As compensation, Kublai Khan had the surrendered Southern Song general Fan Wenhu recruit Zhang Shijie's routed soldiers and Southern Chinese volunteers to form the southern route army. This force assembled in Ningbo, preparing to cross the East China Sea and rendezvous directly with the northern route army."

"What was the combat effectiveness of this army like?" Pedias asked.

"About the same as the Persians," Li Xuanying muttered.

Guo Kang quickly motioned for him not to interrupt blindly, and continued, "The training and equipment standards of the Southern Song soldiers were extremely worrying. This had also been the state policy of the Southern Song court all along."

"In the early Southern Song, the ruling official Qin Hui began to intentionally lower the combat effectiveness of the army. When appointing generals, he deliberately selected dull-witted individuals, encouraging everyone to focus on finance rather than military affairs. The military camps were filled with traveling merchants and peddlers, and no one trained."

"Later on, the Southern Song court sent officials to inspect the army and discovered that out of an establishment of twenty thousand men, only a little over six hundred could actually wear armor. The paper numbers of armor had lost all meaning. At this point, the goal was officially accomplished."

"What kind of bizarre mindset is that..." Borjan, the old pedant who specialized in water conservancy engineering, expressed his incomprehension.

"The founding foundation of the Southern Song was an international order of coexistence and opposition with the Jin Dynasty, and this order was most beneficial to the rulers of the Southern Song," Guo Kang explained. "If the military's combat effectiveness were too strong, it would upset this order, so it had to be slightly weakened."

"Of course, being too weak wouldn't do either. Fortunately, the combat effectiveness of the Jin Dynasty was just so-so, so the pressure wasn't actually that great." He thought for a moment and added, "In short, for the imperial court, winning or losing were both very awkward outcomes. Therefore, it was better to pay annual tributes and avoid fighting altogether."

"I have no idea how a country like that managed to sustain itself," Borjan was left completely speechless.

"Look, didn't it end up collapsing anyway?" Guo Kang didn't want to dwell on it and quickly brought the topic to a close.

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