Chapter 59: The Great Victory at Ban City

This is a tradition of the He family. Following every victorious campaign, successive Marquises of Wuning would send these documents back home for the younger generations to study.
This ensured that even if the head of the Marquis of Wuning's household was not an exceptionally brilliant military commander, he would still know how to wage war.

He Chongan merely glanced at the newly hung map of the Western Sea, and his mind went blank.
It was too abstract, bearing no resemblance whatsoever to the map of Burma in his own mind.
He could only make out that the Western Sea Prefecture city and several county towns were distributed along the Great Golden Sand River—also known as the Irrawaddy River. The Western Sea Prefecture was located near the estuary of the Irrawaddy River, still some distance from the open sea, and this battle had been fought primarily near the mouth of the river.
As for anything further, he simply could not decipher it.
He had no choice but to listen to He Ziqi's explanation.

He Ziqi first read through all the letters, explaining the positions of the troops on the map and the encounters they faced, thereby reconstructing the entire campaign.
The war in the Western Sea appeared to involve two parties.
In reality, there were three.
One was naturally the imperial court; another was the Western barbarians.
And the third comprised the local chieftains, the native people of Burma.

As He Chongan deduced to himself, these Western barbarians were likely the British. Yet he could not be certain; such profound shifts in Eastern history could not have failed to influence the West. Nor could he make rash judgments; he would have to find documentation later.
The indigenous troops of Burma were extremely numerous, numbering in the tens or hundreds of thousands according to the military dispatches.
Indeed, the local chieftains had a vast following. In terms of troop numbers, whether they sided with the Western barbarians or the Great Xia army, the tribal soldiers formed the absolute mainstream. However, in the journals of the Marquis of Wuning and his officers at all levels, these natives were not taken seriously at all, dismissed in a few brief strokes as numbering ten thousand or several tens of thousands. Their function was largely that of cheerleaders on the battlefield.

Conversely, the accounts regarding the Western barbarians were extremely precise.
The total number of Western barbarians participating in the battle was approximately three thousand two hundred.
The authorized strength of the Great Xia army was twenty thousand, but in reality, they were garrisoned across various locations. For this campaign, the Marquis of Wuning drew upon four thousand elite troops, all led by members of the He family.

The Western barbarians had come simply to harass, driven even by commercial motives—selling weapons and training troops for the local chieftains. It was a way to make money while causing trouble for the imperial court.
Until then, a balance had been maintained.
However, the situation changed last year.
Following the rainy season of the previous year, the Western barbarians found a port along the Western Sea—specifically the coast of the Bay of Bengal—and built a city there, establishing a fortified port.
The local place name sounded something like Ban, and the Western Sea authorities directly designated it as Bancheng Port.
Previously, warfare in the Western Sea had been frequent, but the Western barbarians had rarely engaged the Great Xia army in direct combat.

Whether it was the Western barbarians or the Marquis of Wuning, both sides were accustomed to using local chieftains to fight local chieftains.
This was primarily to minimize attrition and save money.
Yet the action taken by the Western barbarians broke this prior tacit understanding.
Once the Western barbarians established a long-term, stable stronghold in the Western Sea, the next time they returned, the scale would likely not be just two or three thousand men. Once the Western barbarians transferred large armies from India, the situation in the Western Sea would become perilous.
Furthermore, politically speaking, letting the Western barbarians harass them was of little consequence. But allowing them to gain a foothold in the Western Sea meant a loss of territory.
Both publicly and privately, for the sake of the state and themselves, this was something the Marquis of Wuning could never tolerate.
Therefore, he resolved to fight this battle at all costs.

The Marquis of Wuning made careful calculations and personally sneaked out to scout the roads and observe the enemy's city defenses. He discovered that although the fortress was incomplete, it was easy to defend and difficult to attack. A direct assault would likely result in a stalemate, which the Western Sea could not sustain.
He had no choice but to use a surprise strategy.
He exerted overwhelming suppression on the Meng tribe, who were supported by the Western barbarians.
The Marquis personally led his troops out several times, making a great show of force with little actual impact,
as if he were powerless against the Meng tribe.

Emboldened, the Meng tribe attacked the tribes allied with Great Xia, causing many chieftains to secretly submit to them. Their power grew increasingly formidable, and they harbored ambitions of establishing an independent state. Yet, wary of the Western Sea army, they appealed to the Western barbarians for reinforcements.
The Western barbarians decided to dispatch a thousand or so elites in support.

Upon receiving this intelligence, the Marquis of Wuning left his sons, He Chongxin and He Chongyi, in command of two thousand troops. Making a grand display, they posed as the main force of the Western Sea army and stood in a standoff against the Meng tribe.
Meanwhile, the Marquis himself led two thousand elite cavalry—the entirety of the Western Sea's elite cavalry force—and made a direct dash for Bancheng Port. Descending like gods from the heavens, the Western barbarians had no time to defend the city, and their naval fleet fled first. After taking Bancheng, the Marquis rapidly turned his forces back to cut off the retreat of the Meng tribe.
Within three days, they covered over six hundred li back and forth, winning two consecutive battles.

In a matter of days, the Meng tribe was annihilated, with tens of thousands of heads severed. The Meng tribe, boasting a population of nearly one million, suffered a devastating blow and was carved up by the Marquis and distributed among several surrounding tribes. Three hundred Western barbarians were slain, and over a thousand surrendered. Apart from a dozen large naval vessels and nearly a thousand sailors who managed to escape, everything else fell into the hands of the imperial court, including more than a dozen individuals bearing aristocratic titles.
The great victory at Bancheng was reported upward.

If one merely read the battle dispatches, He Chongan would have thought that He Zizhong, the Marquis of Wuning, possessed divine military prowess, orchestrating a two-year plan and succeeding in a single stroke.
Yet, actually listening to He Ziqi's detailed explanation revealed just how perilous the endeavor had been.
The majority of the warhorses were unaccustomed to the climate of the Western Sea.
The two thousand cavalrymen sent on the long-range raid should ideally have had two horses per man, but in the end, the Marquis failed to gather four thousand mounts. During the surprise raid on Bancheng, they even encountered rain, and quite a few soldiers and officers in the army died of illness.
Had the Western barbarian fleet not seen that the situation was dire and fled on their own accord, a true pitched battle would have made it difficult for the Marquis to achieve a flawless victory, even if he had won.

There was also the tremendous challenge posed by He Chongxin leading a thousand-odd troops to pin down the Meng tribe's forces of over a hundred thousand alongside a thousand Western barbarians.
The brothers He Chongxin and He Chongyi had taken a dozen personal guards with them, challenging the enemy daily and making a great show of strength. To demonstrate their might, the two brothers even charged on horseback against war-elephants, shooting several of them dead in succession,
which struck the Meng tribe with awe as if they were divine beings.

There was no need to dwell on the numerous hazards and strokes of sheer luck involved.
Hearing this now, He Chongan broke out in a cold sweat.
"This was entirely a military gamble. The Marquis of Wuning threw every single combat-capable soldier in the Western Sea onto the table at once. It was only by fortune that he won."
He Chongan was well aware that had the Marquis failed,
the vast majority of the chieftains in the Western Sea would have turned their coats, and the collapse of the situation in the Western Sea would have been imminent.

"Fortunately, the situation in the Western Sea has been somewhat alleviated," He Chongan thought to himself.
With the emperor's approval, next year would see special funding allocated for the Western Sea military budget. Coupled with this victory, the situation in the Western Sea could be considered stabilized.
For the next three to five years, there should be no major problems.
Given He Chongan's understanding of Westerners in this era, the loss of a thousand-odd soldiers was a mere drop in the bucket for Great Xia, but for Westerners managing colonies, it was already a very heavy loss.
Without Western support, the indigenous peoples of Burma could stir up no major trouble.
The crisis facing the Marquis of Wuning's household could be considered resolved.

When He Ziqi finished his explanation, he posed a question: "In this battle, what was the most crucial factor? Let's hear your thoughts."
Someone in the audience replied that the Wuning iron cavalry were invincible under heaven.
Another said that the Marquis was brilliant and martial, an unparalleled military commander of his age.
And so on.
He Ziqi then stated: "The Marquis himself believes that pocket watches were the most vital factor in winning this battle."

He Chongan was momentarily stunned, never having expected that the Marquis of Wuning would rate the role of pocket watches so highly.
Knowing that his creation had played such a significant part in a war against Westerners, He Chongan felt a deep sense of shared honor.