1
項忠韓雍余子俊 〈（阮勤）〉 朱英秦纮
Xiang Zhong, Han Yong, and Yu Zijun (Ruan Qin)]〉 Zhu Ying and Qin Hong
2
項忠，字藎臣，嘉興人。 正統七年進士。 授刑部主事，進員外郎。 從英宗陷於瓦剌，令飼馬，乘間挾二馬南奔。 馬疲，棄之，徒跣行七晝夜，始達宣府。
Xiang Zhong, whose courtesy name was Jinchen, came from Jiaxing. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventh year of the Zhengtong reign. He was appointed a principal clerk in the Ministry of Justice and later promoted to vice-director. When the Yingzong Emperor fell captive to the Oirats, Xiang was put to tending horses; he seized a chance to take two mounts and ride south to escape. The horses gave out, so he left them behind and walked barefoot for seven days and nights before he reached Xuanfu.
3
景泰中，由郎中遷廣東副使。 按行高州，諜報賊攜男女數百剽村落。 忠曰：「賊無攜家理，必被掠良民也。」 戒諸將毋妄殺。 已，訊所俘獲，果然，盡釋之。 從征瀧水瑤有功，增俸一秩。
Under the Jingtai Emperor he was moved from director to vice-commissioner of Guangdong. While inspecting Gaozhou, he received intelligence that bandits were dragging off several hundred men and women as they raided villages. Zhong said, "Bandits would not bring their families along—those people must be civilians they have abducted. He ordered his commanders not to slaughter people at random. When the prisoners were later questioned, this proved true, and he released them all. He served with distinction in the campaign against the Yao of Longshui and received a one-grade increase in salary.
4
天順初，歷陜西按察使。 母憂歸，部民詣闕乞留，詔起復。 時陜西連歲災傷，忠發廩振，且請輕罪納米，民賴以濟。
Early in the Tianshun reign he served as surveillance commissioner of Shaanxi. When he went home to observe mourning for his mother, the people of his jurisdiction petitioned the throne to keep him in office, and an edict recalled him from mourning. Shaanxi had suffered successive years of disaster; Zhong opened the granaries for relief and secured permission for minor offenders to pay fines in grain, and the people were thereby sustained.
5
七年以大理卿召，民乞留如前，遂改右副都御史，巡撫其地。 洮、岷羌叛，忠疏言：「羌誌在劫掠，盡誅則傷仁，遽撫則不威，請聽臣便宜從事。」 報可。 乃發兵據險，揚聲進討，眾盡降。 西安水泉鹵不可飲，為開龍首渠及皂河，引水入城。 又疏鄭、白二渠，溉涇陽、三原、醴泉、高陵、臨潼五縣田七萬余頃，民祠祀之。
In the seventh year he was summoned to serve as president of the Court of Judicial Review; the people again petitioned to keep him, so he was instead appointed right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of the region. When the Qiang of Tao and Min rebelled, Zhong memorialized: "The Qiang live to raid; killing them all would be cruel, yet rushing to appease them would show weakness. Please let me act as circumstances require. The court approved his request. He then deployed troops to hold the strategic passes, proclaimed a full-scale advance, and the rebels all surrendered. Xi'an's springs were brackish and undrinkable, so he opened the Longshou Canal and the Zao River to bring fresh water into the city. He also dredged the Zheng and Bai canals, irrigating more than seventy thousand qing of farmland across five counties, and the people erected shrines in his honor.
6
陜西數苦兵。 成化元年上言：「三邊大將遇敵逗留，雖雲才怯，亦由權輕。 士卒畏敵不畏將，是以戰無成功。 宜許以軍法從事。 廟堂舉將才，逾年不聞有一人應詔。 陜西風土強勁，古多名將，豈無其人？ 但格於不能答策耳。 今天下學校生徒善答策者百不一二，奈何責之武人。」 帝善其言，而所司守故事不能用。
Shaanxi had long suffered from repeated warfare. In the first year of Chenghua he memorialized: "The frontier generals hang back when they meet the enemy; though people call them cowardly, their authority is also too weak. The troops fear the enemy more than their own officers, and that is why campaigns fail. They should be empowered to enforce military law. The court has called for talented generals, yet for more than a year not a single qualified man has come forward. Shaanxi breeds hardy men; many famous generals came from there in antiquity—are there really none today? They are only excluded because they cannot pass the policy-essay examination. Today scarcely one student in a hundred can handle the policy essays—how can we demand that of soldiers? The emperor approved his advice, but the responsible offices clung to precedent and would not act on it.
7
毛裏孩寇延綏，詔忠偕彰武伯楊信禦之，無功。 明年，信議大舉搜河套，敕忠提督軍務。 忠方赴延綏，而寇復陷開城，深入靜寧、隆德六州縣，大掠而去。 兵部劾忠，帝特宥之，搜套師亦不出。 又明年，召理院事。
When Molihai raided Yan-sui, Zhong was ordered to join the Marquis of Zhangwu, Yang Xin, in repelling him, but they achieved nothing. The following year Yang Xin proposed a major sweep of the Ordos, and Zhong was ordered to take charge of military affairs. Zhong was on his way to Yan-sui when the raiders again seized Kaicheng and swept deep into six prefectures and counties around Jingning and Longde, looting heavily before withdrawing. The Ministry of War impeached Zhong, but the emperor pardoned him; the Ordos expedition never marched. The year after that he was recalled to head the Court of Judicial Review.
8
四年，滿俊反。 滿俊者，亦名滿四。 其祖巴丹，自明初率所部歸附，世以千戶畜牧為雄長。 仍故俗，無科徭。 其地在開城縣之固原裏，接邊境。 俊獷悍，素藏匿奸盜，出邊抄掠。 會有獄連俊，有司跡逋至其家，多要求。 俊怒，遂激眾為亂。 守臣遣俊侄指揮璹往捕。 俊殺其從者，劫璹叛，入據石城。 石城，即唐吐番石堡。 城稱險固，非數萬人不能克者也。 山上有城寨，四面峭壁，中鑿五石井以貯水，惟一徑可緣而上。 俊自稱招賢王，有眾四千。 都指揮邢端等禦之，敗績。 不再月，眾至二萬，關中震動。 乃命忠總督軍務，與監督軍務太監劉祥、總兵官都督劉玉帥京營及陜西四鎮兵討之。 師未行，而巡撫陳價等先以兵三萬進討，復大敗。 賊因官軍器甲，勢益張。 朝議欲益兵。 忠慮京軍脆弱不足恃，且更遣大將撓事權，因上言：「臣等調兵三萬三千余人，足以滅賊。 今秋深草寒，若更調他軍，恐往復需時，賊得遠遁。 且邊兵不能久留，益兵非便。」 大學士彭時、商輅主其議，京軍得毋遣。
In the fourth year Man Jun rose in rebellion. Man Jun was also known as Man Si. His grandfather Badan had submitted with his people at the founding of the dynasty; for generations the family had been chiliarchs and livestock chiefs who dominated the region. They kept their old ways and owed no taxes or corvée. Their lands lay in Guyuan district of Kaicheng County, along the frontier. Jun was fierce and unruly, had long sheltered outlaws, and regularly crossed the border to raid. A legal case implicated Jun; when officials tracing fugitives came to his home, they made excessive demands. Enraged, Jun stirred the people to rebellion. The local authorities sent Jun's nephew, Commander Sui, to arrest him. Jun killed Sui's escort, seized Sui, rose in revolt, and seized the fortress of Shicheng. Shicheng was the Tang-era Tibetan stronghold known as Shibao. The fortress was famously impregnable; it could not be taken without tens of thousands of men. A fortified camp crowned the mountain, cliffs on every side; five stone wells were cut inside to hold water, and only one narrow path led up. Jun proclaimed himself the King Who Recruits the Worthy and mustered four thousand followers. Regional Commander Xing Duan and others marched against him and were routed. Within a month his force swelled to twenty thousand, and all of Guanzhong was alarmed. Zhong was appointed overall commander, and with the eunuch Liu Xiang as military supervisor and Regional Commander Liu Yu as field commander, he led the capital garrison and troops from Shaanxi's four defense commands against the rebels. Before the main army marched, Grand Coordinator Chen Jia advanced first with thirty thousand men and was routed again. The rebels seized government arms and armor and grew stronger still. The court debated sending reinforcements. Zhong feared the capital troops were too weak to rely on and that dispatching another senior commander would muddy the chain of command, so he memorialized: "The more than thirty-three thousand men we have assembled are enough to destroy the rebels. Autumn is deep and the grass withered; if we wait for more troops, the rebels will escape before they arrive. Frontier troops cannot stay in the field long; reinforcements would do more harm than good. Grand Secretaries Peng Shi and Shang Lu backed his plan, and the capital troops were not sent.
9
忠遂與巡撫都御史馬文升分軍七道，抵石城下，與戰，斬獲多。 伏羌伯毛忠乘勝奪其西北山，幾破，忽中流矢死。 玉亦被圍。 諸軍欲退，忠斬一千戶以徇。 眾力戰，玉得出，乃列圍困之。 適有星孛於臺鬥，中朝多言「占在秦分，師不利」。 忠曰：「李晟討朱泚，熒惑守歲，此何害。」 日遣兵薄城下，焚芻草，絕汲道。 賊窘欲降，邀忠與文升相見。 忠偕劉玉單騎赴之，文升亦從數十騎至，呼俊、璹諭以速降。 賊遙望羅拜，忠直前挾璹以歸。 俊氣沮，猶豫不出。 忠命縛木為橋，人負土囊填濠塹，擊以銅炮，死者益眾。 賊倚愛將楊虎貍為謀主，夜出汲被擒。 忠貰其死，諭以購賊賞格。 示之金，且賜金帶鉤。 縱歸，使誘俊出戰，伏兵擒焉。 急擊下石城，盡獲余寇。 毀其城，鑿石紀功。 增一衛於固原西北西安廢城，留兵戍之而還。
Zhong and Grand Coordinator Ma Wensheng then divided their forces into seven columns, reached Shicheng, fought, and inflicted heavy casualties. The Earl of Fuxiang, Mao Zhong, pressed the attack and seized the northwest hill; victory was near when he was struck by a stray arrow and killed. Liu Yu was also surrounded. The troops wanted to retreat; Zhong executed a chiliarch to enforce discipline. The men fought on until Liu Yu broke free, and they then tightened the siege around the fortress. A comet then appeared in the Tail and Dipper constellations, and many at court said, "The omen points to the Qin region—the campaign will go ill." Zhong replied, "When Li Sheng campaigned against Zhu Ci, Mars stood in the year star's place—what harm did that do? Each day he sent troops to press the walls, burned the fodder grass, and cut off their water supply. Hard pressed, the rebels wished to surrender and asked to meet Zhong and Ma Wensheng. Zhong rode out alone with Liu Yu; Ma Wensheng came with a few dozen horsemen and called to Jun and Sui to surrender at once. The rebels bowed from a distance; Zhong rode forward, seized Sui, and brought him back. Jun's spirit broke, but he still hesitated to come out. Zhong had timbers lashed into bridges; men carried earth-filled sacks to fill the moats, and bronze cannon fire piled up the dead. The rebels relied on their favorite commander Yang Hulu as strategist; he went out one night to draw water and was captured. Zhong spared his life and told him the reward scale for turning in rebels. He showed him gold and gave him a gold belt hook as a gift. He sent him back to lure Jun out to fight; ambush troops seized Jun. They stormed Shicheng and captured all the remaining rebels. They razed the fortress and carved an inscription in stone to commemorate the victory. They established a new guard post at the abandoned city of Xi'an northwest of Guyuan, left a garrison, and withdrew.
10
初，石城未下，天甚寒，士卒頗困。 忠慮賊奔突，乘凍渡河與套寇合，日夜治攻具。 身當矢石不少避，大小三百余戰。 彭時、商輅知忠能辦賊，不從中制，卒用殄賊。 論功，進右都御史，與林聰協掌院事。
Before Shicheng fell, the weather was bitterly cold and the troops were suffering badly. Zhong feared the rebels would break out, cross the frozen river, and join the Ordos raiders, so he worked day and night preparing siege equipment. He personally faced arrows and stones without flinching through more than three hundred engagements, large and small. Peng Shi and Shang Lu knew Zhong could finish the job and did not interfere from the capital; in the end the rebels were destroyed. For his merit he was promoted to right censor-in-chief and shared administration of the Censorate with Lin Cong.
11
白圭既平劉通，荊、襄間流民屯結如故。 通黨李胡子者名原，偽稱平王，與小王洪、王彪等掠南漳、房、內鄉、渭南諸縣。 流民附賊者至百萬。 六年冬，詔忠總督軍務，與湖廣總兵官李震討之。 忠乃奏調永順、保靖土兵。 而先分軍列要害，多設旗幟鉦鼓，遣人入山招諭。 流民歸者四十余萬，彪亦就擒。 時白圭為兵部，遣錦衣百戶吳綬贊參將王信軍。 綬欲攘功，不利賊瓦解。 縱流言，圭信之，止土兵毋調。 忠疏爭，且劾綬罪，帝為召綬還，而聽調土兵如故。 合二十五萬，分八道逼之，流民歸者又數萬。 賊潛伏山寨，伺間出劫。 忠命副使余洵、都指揮李振擊之，遇於竹山。 乘溪漲半渡截擊，擒李原、小王洪等，賊多溺死。 忠移軍竹山，捕余孽。 復招流民五十萬，斬首六百四十，俘八百有奇，家口三萬余人。 戶選一丁，戍湖廣邊衛，余令歸籍給田。 疏陳善後十事，悉允行。
After Bai Gui suppressed Liu Tong, displaced people between Jing and Xiang still clustered in camps as before. Liu Tong's follower Li Huzi, whose given name was Yuan, styled himself the Prince of Peace and, with Hong and Wang Biao and others, raided Nanzhang, Fang, Neixiang, Weinan, and neighboring counties. Displaced people who joined the rebels numbered as many as a million. In the winter of the sixth year Zhong was ordered to take overall command and, with Huguang Commander Li Zhen, suppress them. Zhong memorialized to mobilize the native troops of Yongshun and Baojing. First he deployed troops at key points, set up banners, gongs, and drums, and sent men into the mountains to offer terms. More than four hundred thousand displaced people came back, and Wang Biao was captured. Bai Gui was then Minister of War; he sent Embroidered Guard officer Wu Shou to assist Vice-Commander Wang Xin's force. Wu Shou wanted the credit for himself and did not want the rebels to collapse peacefully. He spread rumors; Bai Gui believed them and halted the native troops' mobilization. Zhong protested by memorial and impeached Wu Shou; the emperor recalled Shou and allowed the native troops to be mobilized as planned. With two hundred fifty thousand men assembled, they pressed in eight columns, and tens of thousands more displaced people returned. The rebels hid in mountain stockades and struck whenever they saw an opening. Zhong ordered Vice-Commissioner Yu Xun and Regional Commander Li Zhen to attack them and met the rebels at Zhushan. They struck while the rebels were half across the swollen stream, capturing Li Yuan and the lesser king Hong; many rebels drowned. Zhong moved his army to Zhushan to hunt down the remaining rebels. He brought back another five hundred thousand displaced people, took six hundred forty heads, captured more than eight hundred rebels, and seized more than thirty thousand dependents. From each household one man was drafted to garrison Huguang's frontier guards; the rest were sent home to their registers and given farmland. He memorialized ten follow-up measures for pacification, and the court approved them all.
12
忠之下令逐流民也，有司一切驅逼。 不前，即殺之。 民有自洪武中占籍者，亦在遺中。 戍者舟行多疫死。 給事中梁璟因星變求言，劾忠妄殺。 白圭亦言流民既成業者，宜隨所在著籍，又駁忠所上功次互異。 帝皆不聽。 進忠左都御史。 蔭子綬錦衣千戶，諸將錄功有差。
When Zhong ordered displaced people expelled, local officials drove everyone out without distinction. Anyone who lagged behind was killed. People who had held registered residence since the Hongwu reign were expelled along with the rest. Many of those sent to the frontier garrisons died of plague on the boats. Supervising Secretary Liang Jing, citing a celestial omen, called for frank counsel and impeached Zhong for indiscriminate killing. Bai Gui also argued that displaced people who had already settled should be registered where they were, and he challenged inconsistencies in Zhong's merit reports. The emperor rejected all of these objections. Zhong was promoted to left censor-in-chief. His son Jing received an hereditary post as chiliarch in the Embroidered Uniform Guard, and the generals were rewarded according to their merit.
13
忠上疏言：「臣先後招撫流民復業者九十三萬余人，賊黨遁入深山，又招諭解散自歸者五十萬人。 俘獲百人，皆首惡耳。 今言皆良家子，則前此屢奏猖獗難禦者，伊誰也？ 賊黨罪固當死，正因不忍濫誅，故令丁壯謫發遣戍。 其久附籍者，或乃占山四十餘里，招聚無賴千人，爭鬥劫殺。 若此者，可以久居故不遣乎？ 臣揭榜曉賊，謂已殺數千，蓋張虛勢怵之，非實事也。 且圭固嘗身任其事，今日之事又圭所遺。 先時，中外議者謂荊、襄之患何日得寧。 今幸平靖，而流言沸騰，以臣為口實。 昔馬援薏苡蒙謗，鄧艾檻車被征。 功不見錄，身更不保。 臣幸際聖明，願賜骸骨，勿使臣為馬、鄧之續。」 帝溫詔答之。
Zhong memorialized: "I have settled more than nine hundred thirty thousand displaced people back into productive life. Another five hundred thousand who had fled into the mountains came back when summoned to disband. The hundred prisoners taken were all ringleaders. If they were all innocent commoners, who were the rampant rebels I repeatedly reported as impossible to control? The rebel partisans deserved death, but unwilling to slaughter indiscriminately, I sent able-bodied men to frontier garrison duty instead. Some who had long held registered residence had seized more than forty li of mountain land, gathered a thousand ruffians, and fought, robbed, and killed. Were such men to be left alone simply because they had lived there a long time? When I posted proclamations claiming several thousand had been killed, that was bluff to frighten them—not fact. Moreover Bai Gui had personally handled this affair; today's troubles are the legacy he left behind. Before this, court and country alike wondered when the troubles of Jing and Xiang would ever end. Now that the region is finally at peace, rumors boil over and make me their target. Ma Yuan was slandered over Job's tears, and Deng Ai was summoned home in a prisoner cart. Their merit went unrecognized and they could not even save themselves. I have been fortunate to serve a sage reign; I beg leave to retire and not share the fate of Ma Yuan and Deng Ai. The emperor replied with a gracious edict.
14
八年召還，與李賓協掌院事。 後二年拜刑部尚書，尋代圭為兵部。
In the eighth year he was recalled to share administration of the Censorate with Li Bin. Two years later he became Minister of Justice and soon replaced Bai Gui as Minister of War.
15
汪直開西廠，恣橫，忠屢遭侮不能堪。 會大學士商輅等劾直，忠亦倡九卿劾之。 奏留中，而西廠遂罷，直深恨之。 未幾，西廠復設，直以吳綬為腹心，綬挾前憾，伺忠益急。 忠不自安，乞歸治病。 未行，而綬嗾偵事者誣忠罪。 給事中郭鏜、御史馮貫等復交章劾忠，事連其子經、太監黃賜、興寧伯李震、彰武伯楊信等。 詔法司會錦衣衛廷鞫，忠抗辯不少屈。 然眾知出直意，無敢為之白者，竟斥為民，賜與震等亦得罪。 直敗，復官，致仕。 家居二十六年，至弘治十五年乃卒，年八十二。 贈太子太保，謚襄毅。
When Wang Zhi opened the Western Depot and acted with reckless arrogance, Zhong was repeatedly humiliated and could bear it no longer. When Grand Secretary Shang Lu and others impeached Wang Zhi, Zhong also led the nine chief ministers in doing so. The memorial was kept at court, but the Western Depot was abolished; Wang Zhi hated Zhong deeply. Before long the Western Depot was restored; Wang Zhi made Wu Shou his right hand, and Shou, nursing his old grudge, watched for chances against Zhong all the more closely. Uneasy, Zhong asked to retire home to treat his illness. Before he could leave, Wu Shou incited investigators to frame Zhong with crimes. Supervising Secretary Guo Yong, Censor Feng Guan, and others impeached Zhong again, implicating his son Jing, the eunuch Huang Ci, the Earl of Xingning Li Zhen, the Marquis of Zhangwu Yang Xin, and others. The court ordered a joint trial by the judicial offices and the Embroidered Uniform Guard; Zhong defended himself without yielding. Everyone knew this came from Wang Zhi; none dared speak for Zhong, and he was reduced to commoner status; Huang Ci, Li Zhen, and the others were punished as well. When Wang Zhi fell, Zhong was restored to office and then retired. He lived in retirement for twenty-six years and died in the fifteenth year of Hongzhi at the age of eighty-two. He was posthumously made Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent with the posthumous name Xiangyi.
16
忠倜儻多大略，練戎務，強直不阿，敏於政事，故所在著稱。
Zhong was unconventional and far-sighted, skilled in military affairs, forceful and upright, and quick in administration; wherever he served he won renown.
17
子經，經子錫，錫子治元，皆舉進士。 經，江西參政。 錫，南京光祿寺卿。 治元，員外郎。
His son Jing, Jing's son Xi, and Xi's son Zhiyuan all became jinshi. Jing served as administrative commissioner of Jiangxi. Xi served as director of the Court of Imperial Entertainments at Nanjing. Zhiyuan served as a vice-director.
18
韓雍，字永熙，長洲人。 正統七年進士。 授御史。 負氣果敢，以才略稱。 錄囚南畿。 碭山教諭某笞膳夫，膳夫逃匿，父訴教諭殺其子，取他屍支解以證。 既誣服，雍蹤跡得之，白其冤。 出巡河道。 已，巡按江西，黜貪墨吏五十七人。 廬陵、太和盜起，捕誅之。
Han Yong, whose courtesy name was Yongxi, came from Changzhou. He passed the jinshi examination in the seventh year of the Zhengtong reign. He was appointed a censor. Proud and resolute, he was known for his talent and strategic ability. He reviewed criminal cases in the southern metropolitan region. A director of studies in Dangshan beat a cook who fled; the cook's father accused the director of murder, dismembered another corpse to fabricate evidence. After a false confession had been extracted, Yong tracked the cook down and cleared the injustice. He toured the waterways on inspection. Later, as touring censor of Jiangxi, he dismissed fifty-seven corrupt officials. When bandits rose in Luling and Taihe, he captured and executed them.
19
十三年冬，處州賊葉宗留自福建轉犯江西。 官軍不利，都督僉事陳榮、指揮劉真遇伏死。 詔雍及鎮守侍郎楊寧督軍民協守。 會福建巡按御史汪澄牒鄰境會討賊鄧茂七，俄以賊議降，止兵。 雍曰：「賊果降，退未晚也。」 趨進，賊已叛，澄坐得罪死。 人以是服雍識。
In the winter of the thirteenth year the Chuzhou rebel Ye Zongliu turned from Fujian to raid Jiangxi. Government troops fared poorly; Regional Commander Chen Rong and Commander Liu Zhen were ambushed and killed. Yong and Defending Vice-Minister Yang Ning were ordered to coordinate troops and civilians in defense. The Fujian touring censor Wang Cheng had called neighboring districts to join against the rebel Deng Maoqi, but soon halted the army when the rebels offered to surrender. Yong said, "If they truly surrender, we can withdraw then—it is not too late. He pressed forward, but the rebels had already rebelled again; Wang Cheng was executed for his error. People admired Yong's judgment from this episode.
20
景泰二年擢廣東副使。 大學士陳循薦為右僉都御史，代楊寧巡撫江西。 歲饑，奏免秋糧。 劾奏寧王不法事，王府官皆得罪。 時雍年甫三十，赫然有才望，所規畫措置，鹹可為後法。
In the second year of Jingtai he was promoted to vice-commissioner of Guangdong. Grand Secretary Chen Xun recommended him as right vice censor-in-chief to replace Yang Ning as grand coordinator of Jiangxi. During a famine year he secured remission of the autumn grain tax. He impeached the Prince of Ning for unlawful conduct, and all the princely establishment officials were punished. Yong was only thirty, yet already renowned for talent; his plans and measures became models for later administrators.
21
天順初，罷天下巡撫官，改山西副使。 寧王以前憾劾其擅乘肩輿諸事，下獄，奪官。 起大理少卿。 尋復為右僉都御史，佐寇深理院事。 石亨既誅，錦衣指揮劉敬坐飯亨直房，用朋黨律論死。 雍言：「律重朋黨，謂阿比亂朝政也。 以一飯當之，豈律意？ 且亨盛時大臣朝夕趨門，不坐，獨坐敬何也？」 深嘆服，出之。 母憂，起復。 四年，巡撫宣府、大同。 七年議事入覲，帝壯其貌，留為兵部右侍郎。
Early in the Tianshun reign the empire's grand coordinators were abolished, and Yong was transferred to vice-commissioner of Shanxi. The Prince of Ning, nursing an old grudge, impeached him for unauthorized use of a sedan chair; Yong was imprisoned and stripped of office. He was recalled as vice-president of the Court of Judicial Review. Soon he was restored as right vice censor-in-chief to assist Kou Shen in running the Censorate. After Shi Heng was executed, Embroidered Guard Commander Liu Jing was sentenced to death under the faction statute for dining in Heng's private quarters. Yong argued, "The law treats factions severely because it means forming cliques to disrupt court governance. To apply that to a single meal—can that be what the law intends? When Heng was at his height, great ministers visited him daily without punishment—why punish Jing alone for one meal? Kou Shen sighed in admiration and released him. When his mother died he was recalled from mourning to office. In the fourth year he served as grand coordinator of Xuanfu and Datong. In the seventh year he came to court to discuss affairs; the emperor admired his bearing and kept him as right vice minister of War.
22
雍馳至南京，集諸將議方略。 先是，編修邱濬上書大學士李賢，言賊在廣東者宜驅，在廣西者宜困。 欲宿兵大藤峽，扼其出入，蹂其禾稼，期一二年盡賊。 賢善之，獻於朝，詔錄示諸將。 諸將主其說，請令遊擊將軍和勇率番騎趨廣東，而大軍直趨廣西，分兵撲滅。 雍曰：「賊已蔓延數千里，而所至與戰，是自敝也。 當全師直搗大藤峽。 南可援高、肇、雷、廉； 東可應南、韶； 西可取柳、慶； 北可斷陽峒諸路。 首尾相應，攻其腹心。 巢穴既傾，余迎刃解耳。 舍此不圖，而分兵四出，賊益奔突，郡邑益殘，所謂救火而噓之也。」 眾曰「善。」 輔亦知雍才足辦賊，軍謀一聽雍。
Yong galloped to Nanjing and gathered the generals to plan strategy. Earlier, Compiler Qiu Jun had written to Grand Secretary Li Xian arguing that rebels in Guangdong should be driven out and those in Guangxi should be hemmed in. He proposed stationing troops at Dateng Gorge to block their movements, destroy their crops, and exterminate the rebels within a year or two. Li Xian approved the plan, presented it at court, and an edict ordered it copied for the generals. The generals favored this plan, proposing that Mobile Commander He Yong lead tribal cavalry into Guangdong while the main army marched into Guangxi to stamp out the rebels in separate columns. Yong said, "The rebels have spread over thousands of li; fighting wherever we find them will only exhaust us. We should concentrate the entire army and strike straight at Dateng Gorge. To the south we can support Gao, Zhao, Lei, and Lian; to the east we can respond to Nanxiong and Shaozhou; to the west we can take Liuzhou and Qingzhou; to the north we can cut off the Yangdong routes. With head and tail coordinated, we strike at their heart. Once the nest is destroyed, the rest will fall apart easily. To abandon this and divide our forces in four directions would only let the rebels run wild and devastate more districts—it would be like trying to put out a fire while blowing on it. Everyone agreed, "Good." Fu also knew Yong was capable of finishing the campaign, and left all military planning to him.
23
雍等遂倍道趨全州。 陽峒苗掠興安，擊破之。 至桂林，斬失機指揮李英等四人以徇。 按地圖與諸將議曰：「賊以修仁、荔浦為羽翼，當先收二縣以孤賊勢。」 乃督兵十六萬人，分五道，先破修仁賊，窮追至力山。 擒千二百余人，斬首七千三百級。 荔浦亦定。
Yong and his forces then marched at forced pace to Quanzhou. When Yangdong Miao raided Xing'an, they attacked and defeated them. When he reached Guilin, he had Commander Li Ying and three other officers who had missed their chance beheaded as an object lesson. Studying the map, he conferenced with his generals: "The rebels use Xiuren and Lipu as their wings; we must seize those two counties first to isolate their power. He mustered 160,000 troops in five columns, smashed the Xiuren rebels first, and pursued them all the way to Lishan. They took more than 1,200 prisoners and counted 7,300 enemy heads. Lipu was pacified as well.
24
十月至潯州，延問父老，皆曰：「峽，天險，不可攻，宜以計困。」 雍曰：「峽延廣六百餘里，安能使困？ 兵分則力弱，師老則財匱，賊何時得平？ 吾計決矣。」 遂長驅至峽口。 儒生、裏老數十人伏道左，願為向導。 雍見即罵曰：「賊敢紿我！」 叱左右縛斬之，左右皆愕，既縛，而袂中利刃出。 推問，果賊也。 悉支解刳腸胃，分掛林箐中，累累相屬。 賊大驚曰：「韓公天神也！」 雍令總兵官歐信等為五哨，自象州、武宣攻其北； 身與輔督都指揮白全等為八哨，自桂平、平南攻其南； 參將孫震等為二哨，從水路入； 而別分兵守諸隘口。 賊魁侯大狗等大懼，先移其累重於桂州橫石塘，而立柵南山，多置滾木、礧石、鏢槍、藥弩拒官軍。
In the tenth month he reached Xunzhou and asked the local elders, who all said, "The gorge is impregnable by nature; do not assault it—use stratagem to wear the rebels down. Yong replied, "The gorge stretches more than six hundred li—how can we possibly hem them in? Dividing our forces weakens us; a prolonged campaign exhausts our funds—when would the rebels ever be pacified? My mind is made up. He marched straight to the gorge mouth. Dozens of scholars and village elders waited by the roadside, offering to guide the army. Yong spotted them and immediately shouted, "You rebels dare try to fool me! He ordered his men to seize and execute them. His attendants were astonished—but once bound, blades appeared from their sleeves. Under interrogation, they proved to be rebels in disguise. He had them all dismembered and disemboweled, the parts hung in clusters through the woods. The rebels were terrified: "Marshal Han is a god! Yong assigned Commander Ou Xin to five squads attacking from the north through Xiangzhou and Wuxuan; he himself, with Wang Fu supervising Regional Commander Bai Quan in eight squads, struck from the south through Guiping and Pingnan; Assistant Commander Sun Zhen led two squads in by water; while other detachments held the passes. Rebel chief Hou Dagou and his lieutenants were terrified. They moved their families and supplies to Hengshi Pond near Guizhou and fortified the southern hills with rolling logs, boulders, hooked spears, and poisoned crossbows to hold off the imperial troops.
25
十二月朔，雍等督諸軍水陸並進，擁團牌登山，殊死戰。 連破石門、林峒、沙田、古營諸巢，焚其室廬積聚，賊皆奔潰。 伐木開道，直抵橫石塘及九層樓諸山。 賊復立柵數重，憑高以拒。 官軍誘賊發矢石，度且盡，雍躬督諸軍緣木攀藤上。 別遣壯士從間道先登，據山頂舉炮。 賊不能支，遂大敗。 先後破賊三百二十四寨，生擒大狗及其黨七百八十人，斬首三千二百有奇，墜溺死者不可勝計。 峽有大藤如虹，橫亙兩厓間。 雍斧斷之，改名斷藤峽，勒石紀功而還。 分兵擊余黨，郁林、陽江、洛容、博白次第皆定。
On the first day of the twelfth month, Yong led a combined land-and-water assault; troops bore round shields up the slopes and fought to the death. They stormed nest after nest at Shimen, Lindong, Shatian, and Guying, burned dwellings and stockpiles, and the rebels fled in rout. Cutting roads through the forest, they pressed on to Hengshi Pond and the Jiuceng Tower heights. The rebels threw up line after line of stockades on the heights. Government forces baited the rebels into expending their missiles; when Yong judged the supply nearly spent, he led the troops up cliffs by tree and vine. Elite troops crept up a hidden path, seized the summit, and opened fire with cannon. The rebels could not hold and were routed. In all they took 324 rebel strongholds, captured Hou Dagou and 780 of his men alive, counted more than 3,200 heads, and countless more who fell or drowned. A great vine like a rainbow bridged the two cliffs. Yong severed it with an axe, renamed the gorge Broken Vine Gorge, inscribed a victory stele, and withdrew. Detachments mopped up the remaining rebels, and Yulin, Yangjiang, Luorong, and Bobai were pacified one after another.
26
帝大喜，賜敕嘉勞，召輔等還，遷雍左副都御史，提督兩廣軍務。 雍乃散遣諸軍，以省饋餉。 而遺孽侯鄭昂等遂乘虛陷潯州及洛容、北流二縣。 雍被劾引罪，帝宥之。 雍益發兵撲討。 時諸賊所在蜂起，思恩、潯、賓、柳城悉被擾掠。 流劫至廣東，欽、化二州皆應時破殄。
The emperor was delighted, sent a commendatory edict, recalled Wang Fu and his staff, promoted Yong to left vice censor-in-chief, and put him in charge of military affairs in the two Guang provinces. Yong then sent the armies home to save on provisioning. But remnant rebels led by Hou Zheng'ang seized the moment, overrunning Xunzhou and the counties of Luorong and Beiliu. Yong was impeached and accepted blame, but the emperor excused him. Yong raised more troops to crush them. Rebels were springing up everywhere; Si'en, Xunzhou, Binzhou, and Liucheng all suffered raids. Raids reached into Guangdong; the prefectures of Qinzhou and Huazhou were crushed in turn.
27
四年春，雍以兩廣地大事殷，請東西各設巡撫，帝可之。 命陳濂撫廣東，張鵬撫廣西，而雍專理軍事。 尋以憂歸。 明年，兩廣盜復起，僉事陶魯言：「兩廣地勢錯互，當如臂指相使，不可離析。 近賊犯廣西，臣與廣東三司議調兵，匝月未決，盜賊無所憚。 乞仍命大臣總督便。」 會僉事林錦、巡按御史龔晟亦以為請。 乃罷兩巡撫，而起復雍右都御史，總督如故。 又明年正月，雍疏辭新命，乞終制，不許。 雍抵任，遣參將張壽、遊擊馮昇等分道討賊，忻州八寨蠻及諸山瑤、僮掠州縣者，皆摧破之。 蠻民素懾雍威，寇盜浸息。
In the spring of the fourth year, Yong argued that the two provinces were too large and busy for one man, and asked to split them with separate grand coordinators for east and west; the emperor agreed. Chen Lian was appointed to Guangdong, Zhang Peng to Guangxi, while Yong retained military command alone. Soon afterward he went home on bereavement leave. The following year banditry flared again. Vice Prefect Tao Lu wrote: "The two provinces' terrain is intertwined; they must work like arm and fingers in concert and cannot be split apart. When rebels lately struck Guangxi, the Guangdong administration and I spent a month debating troop transfers, and the bandits lost all fear of us. Please restore a supervising minister with overall command. Vice Prefect Lin Jin and Investigating Censor Gong Sheng made the same request. The court abolished the dual grand coordinators and recalled Yong from mourning as right censor-in-chief with his former overall command restored. The following first month Yong asked to decline the appointment and finish mourning; the emperor refused. Yong took up his post and sent Assistant Commander Zhang Shou and Mobile Commander Feng Sheng against the rebels in several columns, shattering the Xinzhou eight-stockade tribes and the mountain Yao and Zhuang who had been raiding the districts. Tribal peoples who had long feared Yong's prestige quieted down, and banditry gradually subsided.
28
九年，柳、潯諸蠻復叛，參將楊廣等俘斬九百人。 方更進，而賊破懷集縣。 兵部劾雍奏報不實。 廣西鎮守中官黃沁素憾雍抑己，因訐雍，且言其貪欲縱酒，濫賞妄費。 帝遣給事中張謙等往勘。 而廣西布政使何宜、副使張斅銜雍素輕己，共醞釀其罪。 謙還奏，事虛實交半，竟命致仕去。
In the ninth year tribes in Liuzhou and Xunzhou rebelled again; Assistant Commander Yang Guang took nine hundred heads and prisoners. While government forces were pressing forward, rebels smashed Huaiji County. The Ministry of War impeached Yong for misreporting the situation. The Guangxi garrison eunuch Huang Qin, who had long resented Yong's restraints, denounced him as greedy and dissolute, accusing him of lavishing reckless rewards. The emperor sent Supervising Secretary Zhang Qian and others to investigate. Guangxi Provincial Administration Commissioner He Yi and Vice Commissioner Zhang Xiao, who felt Yong had always slighted them, helped manufacture the charges. Zhang Qian reported back that the charges were half true and half false; the emperor ordered Yong to retire.
29
雍洞達闿爽，重信義。 撫江西時，請追謚文天祥、謝枋得。 詔謚天祥忠烈、枋得文節。 有雄略，善斷，動中事機。 臨戰，率躬親矢石，不目瞬。 自奉尊嚴，三司皆長跪白事。 軍門設銅鼓數十，儀節詳密。 裨將以下，繩柙無所假。 兩地鎮守宦官素驕恣，亦惕息無敢肆。 疾惡嚴，坦中不為崖岸，揮斥財帛不少惜。 故雖令行禁止，民得安堵，而謗議亦易起。 為中官所齮龁，公論皆不平。 兩廣人念雍功，尤惜其去，為立祠祀焉。 家居五年卒，年五十七。 正德間，謚襄毅。
Yong was perceptive and forthright, and valued loyalty and honor. While serving as coordinator of Jiangxi, he petitioned for posthumous honors for Wen Tianxiang and Xie Fangde. An edict awarded Tianxiang the posthumous title "Loyal and Stern" and Fangde "Literary Integrity." He had bold strategic vision, decisive judgment, and a knack for timing. In battle he always led from the front under arrow and stone fire without flinching. He carried himself with stern dignity; the three provincial offices all knelt to report to him. His headquarters boasted dozens of bronze drums, and his protocol was meticulously observed. Subordinate officers enjoyed no slack whatsoever in discipline. Even the notoriously arrogant garrison eunuchs in both provinces behaved themselves and dared not act out. He was fierce toward wrongdoing, unpretentious in manner, and spent money freely without counting the cost. Though his rule brought order and the people peace, criticism came easily. Eunuchs undermined him, and public opinion rallied to his defense. The people of the two provinces cherished his achievements, mourned his dismissal, and erected temples in his honor. He died at home five years later, at the age of fifty-seven. During the Zhengde reign he received the posthumous title "Able and Resolute."
30
初以軍功予一子錦衣百戶，雍以授其弟睦。 至是，錄一子國子生。
An initial military reward had granted his son a post in the Imperial Guard as company commander; Yong gave it to his younger brother Mu instead. On this occasion one son was enrolled in the Imperial Academy.
31
余子俊，字士英，青神人。 父祥，戶部郎中。 子俊舉景泰二年進士，授戶部主事，進員外郎。 在部十年，以廉幹稱。 出為西安知府。 歲饑，發廩十萬石振貸。 區畫以償，官不損而民濟。
Yu Zijun, styled Shiying, was a native of Qingshen. His father Xiang served as a bureau director in the Ministry of Revenue. Zijun passed the jinshi examination in the second year of the Jingtai reign, was appointed a principal clerk in the Ministry of Revenue, and rose to assistant department director. He spent ten years in the ministry and earned a reputation for integrity and efficiency. He was appointed prefect of Xi'an. When famine struck, he released a hundred thousand shi of grain from the public granaries for relief loans. He arranged repayment so the treasury suffered no loss while the people were saved.
32
成化初，所司上治行當旌者，知府十人，而子俊為首。 以林聰薦，為陜西右參政，歲餘擢右布政使。 六年轉左，調浙江。 甫半載，拜右副都御史，巡撫延綏。
Early in the Chenghua reign the responsible offices nominated administrators for commendation—ten prefects, with Zijun ranked first. On Lin Cong's recommendation he became right vice commissioner in Shaanxi, and a little over a year later was promoted to right provincial administration commissioner. In the sixth year he was transferred to the left post and reassigned to Zhejiang. After only half a year he was appointed right vice censor-in-chief and grand coordinator of Yan-Sui.
33
先是，巡撫王銳請沿邊築墻建堡，為久遠計，工未興而罷。 子俊上疏言：「三邊惟延慶地平易，利馳突。 寇屢入犯，獲邊人為導，徑入河套屯牧。 自是寇顧居內，我反屯外，急宜於沿邊築墻置堡。 況今舊界石所在，多高山陡厓。 依山形，隨地勢，或鏟削，或壘築，或挑塹，綿引相接，以成邊墻，於計為便。」 尚書白圭以陜民方困，奏緩役。 既而寇入孤山堡，復犯榆林，子俊先後與朱永、許寧擊敗之。
Earlier, Grand Coordinator Wang Rui had proposed building walls and forts along the border as a long-term plan, but the project was halted before work began. Zijun memorialized: "Of the three border regions, only Yanqing has level terrain favorable to cavalry raids. Raiders invaded repeatedly, seized border people as guides, and drove straight into the Ordos bend to pasture their herds. Since then the enemy has settled inside while we camp outside; we must urgently build walls and forts along the border. Moreover, where the old boundary markers stand, there are mostly high mountains and steep cliffs. Following the terrain—cutting slopes, piling earthworks, or digging ditches in continuous stretches to form a border wall—is the most practical approach. Minister Bai Gui, citing the distress of the Shaanxi populace, memorialized to defer the project. Before long raiders entered Gushan Fort and again invaded Yulin; Zijun, together with Zhu Yong and Xu Ning, defeated them in successive engagements.
34
是時，寇據河套，歲發大軍征討，卒無功。 八年秋，子俊復言：「今征套士馬屯延綏者八萬，芻茭煩內地。 若今冬寇不北去，又須備來年軍資。 姑以今年之數約之，米豆需銀九十四萬，草六十萬。 每人運米豆六斗、草四束，應用四百七萬人，約費行資八百二十五萬。 公私煩擾至此，安得不變計。 臣前請築墻建堡，詔事寧舉行。 請於明年春夏寇馬疲乏時，役陜西運糧民五萬，給食興工，期兩月畢事。」 圭猶持前議阻之。 帝是子俊言，命速舉。
At this time the enemy held the Ordos bend; each year a great army was sent on campaign, yet none succeeded. In the autumn of the eighth year Zijun again wrote: "The campaign against the Ordos has eighty thousand troops and horses stationed in Yan-Sui, and fodder requisitions are exhausting the interior. If the raiders do not withdraw north this winter, we must again stock supplies for next year's campaign. Even by this year's figures alone, grain and beans will require nine hundred forty thousand taels of silver, and hay six hundred thousand. At six dou of grain and beans and four bundles of hay per carrier, we would need four million seven hundred thousand men, with transport costs of about eight million two hundred fifty thousand taels. With public and private resources strained to this degree, how can we not change our strategy? I previously requested building walls and forts; an edict ordered the work carried out once affairs were settled. I propose that next spring and summer, when the enemy's horses are exhausted, fifty thousand Shaanxi men who haul grain be conscripted, fed, and set to work, with the project finished within two months." Bai Gui still clung to his earlier position and blocked the plan. The emperor sided with Zijun and ordered the work carried out at once.
35
子俊先用軍功進左副都御史。 明年，又用紅鹽池搗巢功，進右都御史。 寇以搗巢故遠徙，不敢復居套。 內地患稍息，子俊得一意興役。 東起清水營，西抵花馬池，延袤千七百七十里，鑿崖築墻，掘塹其下，連比不絕。 每二三里置敵臺崖寨備巡警。 又於崖寨空處築短墻，橫一斜二如箕狀，以瞭敵避射。 凡築城堡十一，邊墩十五，小墩七十八，崖寨八百十九，役軍四萬人，不三月而成。 墻內之地悉分屯墾，歲得糧六萬石有奇。 十年閏六月，子俊具上其事，因以母老乞歸，慰留不許。
Zijun was first promoted to Left Vice Censor-in-Chief on the strength of his military achievements. The following year, on the merit of striking the enemy's base at Red Salt Pool, he was promoted to Right Censor-in-Chief. The raiders, having had their base destroyed, moved far away and no longer dared occupy the Ordos bend. Threats to the interior eased somewhat, and Zijun was able to devote himself entirely to construction. From Qingshui Camp in the east to Huama Pool in the west—a stretch of 1,770 li—he cut into cliffs and raised walls, dug ditches beneath them, and linked the works in an unbroken line. Every two or three li he built beacon towers and cliff fortresses for patrol and lookout. Where cliff fortresses had open ground, he also built low parapets in a winnowing-basket pattern—one horizontal beam and two slanting sides—to watch the enemy and shelter from arrows. In all he built eleven castles, fifteen major beacon towers, seventy-eight minor towers, and eight hundred nineteen cliff fortresses, employing forty thousand troops; the work was finished in under three months. Land inside the wall was allotted for garrison farming, which each year produced more than sixty thousand shi of grain. In the intercalary sixth month of the tenth year Zijun submitted a full report on the project and, pleading that his mother was elderly, asked to retire; the court comforted him and refused to let him go.
36
初，延綏鎮治綏德州，屬縣米脂、吳堡悉在其外。 寇以輕騎入掠，鎮兵覺而追之，輒不及，往往得利去。 自子俊徙鎮榆林，增衛益兵，拓城置戍，攻守器畢具，遂為重鎮，寇抄漸稀，軍民得安耕牧焉。 十二年十二月移撫陜西。 子俊知西安時，以居民患水泉鹹苦，鑿渠引城西潏河入灌，民利之。 久而水溢無所泄。 至是，乃於城西北開渠泄水，使經漢故城達渭。 公私益便，號「余公渠」。 又於涇陽鑿山引水，溉田千余頃。 通南山道，直抵漢中，以便行旅。 學校、公署圮者悉新之。 奏免岷、河、洮三衛之戍南方者萬有奇。 易置南北之更戍者六千有奇，就戍本土。 岷州栗林羌為寇，子俊潛師設伏擊走之。
Originally the Yan-Sui command had its seat at Suide Prefecture, while subordinate counties such as Mizhi and Wubao lay entirely beyond its reach. Raiders swept in on light horse to plunder; garrison troops would discover the attack and give chase, yet almost never overtook them, and the enemy usually escaped with their loot. After Zijun transferred the command to Yulin, enlarged the garrisons, expanded the city, posted troops, and equipped it fully for attack and defense, it became a major stronghold; raids grew rare, and soldiers and civilians could farm and herd in peace. In the twelfth month of the twelfth year he was transferred to Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi. While serving as prefect of Xi'an, Zijun found the townspeople troubled by brackish, bitter well water; he dug a canal to channel the Yu River west of the city for irrigation, to the people's great benefit. In time the water backed up with nowhere to drain. Now he opened a drainage canal northwest of the city, sending the water through the ruins of the old Han capital to the Wei River. Public and private needs were better served, and the canal was named the Yu Gong Canal. He also tunneled through the mountains at Jingyang to bring in water and irrigate more than a thousand qing of farmland. He opened a route over the South Mountains straight through to Hanzhong to ease travel. Every school and government hall in ruins he rebuilt anew. He memorialized to release more than ten thousand troops of the Min, He, and Tao guards who were garrisoned in the south. He reassigned more than six thousand men who rotated between northern and southern garrisons so they could serve on their home soil. When the Lilin Qiang of Minzhou raided, Zijun moved troops in secret, laid an ambush, and drove them back.
37
十三年召為兵部尚書。 奏申明條例十事，又列上軍功賞格，由是中外有所遵守。 緬甸酋卜剌浪欲奪思洪發貢章地，設詞請於朝。 子俊言不宜許，乃諭止之。 貴州巡撫陳儼等以播州苗竊發，請調湖廣、廣西、四川兵五萬，合貴州兵會剿。 子俊言賊在四川，而貴州請討，是邀功也，奏寢其事。 初，子俊論陳鉞掩殺貢夷罪，帝以汪直故宥之。 鉞多方構子俊於直，會母憂歸，得免。
In the thirteenth year he was summoned to the capital as Minister of War. He memorialized to clarify ten regulations and submitted standards for rewarding military merit; from then on the court and the provinces had clear rules to follow. The Burmese chieftain Bolalang sought to seize the tribute domain of Si Hongfa and framed his demand in courteous language to the court. Zijun argued that the request should be denied, and the court issued instructions to refuse. The Guizhou grand coordinator Chen Yan and others, reporting that Bozhou Miao had risen in secret, asked that fifty thousand troops from Huguang, Guangxi, and Sichuan be mobilized to join Guizhou forces in a joint campaign. Zijun observed that the rebels were in Sichuan while Guizhou was asking to lead the campaign—a bid for credit—and memorialized to set the proposal aside. Earlier Zijun had denounced Chen Yue for covering up the slaughter of tributary tribesmen; the emperor pardoned Yue on account of the eunuch Wang Zhi. Yue repeatedly slandered Zijun to Wang Zhi; Zijun was spared only when he left office to observe mourning for his mother.
38
子俊之築邊墻也，或疑沙土易傾，寇至未可恃。 至十八年，寇入犯，許寧等逐之。 寇扼於墻塹，散漫不得出，遂大衄，邊人益思子俊功。
When Zijun built the border wall, some questioned whether sandy earth would hold and whether the works could be trusted once raiders arrived. In the eighteenth year raiders invaded again; Xu Ning and others pursued them. Trapped by the wall and ditch, the raiders were scattered and could not break out; they suffered a crushing defeat, and people on the border came to appreciate Zijun's achievement all the more.
39
服闋，拜戶部尚書，尋加太子太保。 二十年命兼左副都御史，總督大同、宣府軍務。 其冬還朝。 明年正月，星變，陳時弊八事，帝多采納。 未幾，復出行邊。
When his mourning ended he was appointed Minister of Revenue and soon thereafter made Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent. In the twentieth year he was ordered to serve concurrently as Left Vice Censor-in-Chief and to supervise military affairs in Datong and Xuanfu. That winter he returned to the capital. In the first month of the following year, when unusual stars appeared, he submitted eight abuses of the times; the emperor adopted many of his recommendations. Before long he was sent out again to tour the frontier.
40
初，子俊巡歷宣、大，請以延綏邊墻法行之兩鎮，因歲歉而止。 比復出，銳欲行之。 言東起四海冶，西抵黃河，延袤千三百餘里，舊有墩百七十，應增築四百四十，墩高廣皆三丈，計役夫八萬六千，數月可成。 詔明年四月即工。 然是時，歲比不登，公私耗敝，驟興大役，上下難之。 子俊又欲責成於邊臣，而己不親其事。 謗議由是起。 至冬，疏請還京。 帝入蜚語，命改左都御史，巡撫大同。 中官韋敬讒子俊假修邊多侵耗，又劾子俊私恩怨，易將帥。 兵部侍郎阮勤等為白。 帝怒，讓勤等。 而給事、御史復交章劾，中朝多欲傾子俊。 工部侍郎杜謙等往勘，平情按之。 還奏易置將帥如勤等言，所費無私。 然為銀百五十萬，米菽二百三十萬，耗財煩民，不得無罪。 遂落太子太保，致仕去，時二十二年二月也。
Earlier, when Zijun had toured Xuanfu and Datong, he had proposed applying the Yan-Sui wall-building method to both commands, but the plan was halted because of a poor harvest. On this second tour he was determined to see it through. He proposed a line from Sihaizhuan in the east to the Yellow River in the west—more than 1,300 li in all—with 170 existing towers and 440 to be added, each tower three zhang high and wide, requiring an estimated eighty-six thousand laborers and finishable within a few months. An edict set the start of work for the fourth month of the following year. Yet harvests had failed year after year, public and private resources were depleted, and to launch a massive project so suddenly was difficult for everyone, high and low alike. Zijun also wished to hold frontier officials accountable while keeping himself aloof from direct supervision. Criticism and slander followed. By winter he memorialized asking to return to the capital. The emperor gave credence to malicious rumors and reassigned him as Left Censor-in-Chief and Grand Coordinator of Datong. The eunuch Wei Jing accused Zijun of gross waste in the border works and also impeached him for swapping commanders out of personal spite. Vice Minister of War Ruan Qin and others spoke up in his defense. The emperor was angry and rebuked Qin and his colleagues. Yet supervising secretaries and censors submitted further joint impeachments, and many at court were eager to bring Zijun down. Vice Minister of Works Du Qian and others were sent to investigate and weighed the charges even-handedly. On their return they reported that the commander changes were as Ruan Qin had described and that Zijun had taken nothing for himself. Still, the cost had run to 1.5 million taels of silver and 2.3 million units of grain and beans; such waste and burden on the people could not go entirely unpunished. He was therefore stripped of his rank as Junior Mentor of the Heir Apparent and retired from office in the second month of the twenty-second year.
41
子俊沈毅寡言，有偉略。 凡奏疏公移，必自屬草，每夜分方寢。 嘗曰：「大臣謀國，當身任利害，豈得遠怨市恩為自全計。」 故榆林始事，怨讟叢起，子俊持之益堅，竟以成功，為數世利。 性孝友，居母憂時，令子寘毋會試，曰：「雖無律令，吾心不忍也。」 嘗蔭子，移以蔭弟。
Zijun was grave, resolute, and sparing of words, yet possessed of great strategic vision. Every memorial and dispatch he drafted with his own hand, and he often did not sleep until the middle watch. He once said, "When great ministers serve the state, they must shoulder its gains and losses themselves. How can they court distant favor and trade in kindness merely to save themselves? Thus when work at Yulin began, complaints and slander piled up, yet Zijun held all the firmer and in the end prevailed, to the lasting benefit of many generations. By nature he was filial and devoted to his kin; while mourning his mother he forbade his son Zhi to sit for the metropolitan examination, saying, "There may be no law against it, but my heart will not allow it. On one occasion he was entitled to extend hereditary privilege to his son, but transferred the benefit to his younger brother instead.
42
子寰，舉進士，終戶部員外郎。 寘，就武蔭為錦衣千戶，終指揮同知。 曾孫承勛、承業，皆進士。 承勛，翰林修撰。 承業，雲南僉事。
His son Huan passed the jinshi examination and rose to secretary in the Ministry of Revenue. Zhi entered service through military hereditary privilege as a thousand-household in the Embroidered Uniform Guard and ended his career as Assistant Commander. His great-grandsons Chengxun and Chengye both became jinshi. Chengxun served as a Hanlin Compiler. Chengye served as Surveillance Vice Commissioner in Yunnan.
43
阮勤，本交阯人，其父內徙，占籍長子。 勤舉景泰五年進士。 歷臺州知府。 清慎有惠政，賜誥旌異。 以右副都御史巡撫陜西。 築墩臺十四所，治垣塹三十餘里。 歲饑，奏免七府租四十余萬石。 入為侍郎，調南京刑部。 蠻邦人著聲中國者，勤為最。
Ruan Qin was originally from Jiaozhi; his father resettled inland and established household registration in Changzi. Qin passed the jinshi examination in the fifth year of the Jingtai reign. He served in succession as prefect of Taizhou. Scrupulous in conduct and careful in office, his benevolent rule earned him an edict of special commendation. As Right Vice Censor-in-Chief he served as Grand Coordinator of Shaanxi. He built fourteen beacon-tower forts and repaired more than thirty li of wall and ditch. During a famine year he memorialized to remit more than four hundred thousand shi of grain rent across seven prefectures. He was recalled to the capital as a vice minister and then transferred to the Nanjing Ministry of Justice. Among men from the southern borderlands who won renown at the Ming court, none stood higher than Qin.
44
朱英，字時傑，桂陽人。 五歲而孤。 力學，舉正統十年進士，授御史。 浙、閩盜起，簡御史十三人與中官分守諸府，英守處州。 而葉宗留黨四出剽掠，處州道梗。 英間道馳至，撫降甚眾，戮賊首周明松等，賊散去乃還。
Zhu Ying, whose courtesy name was Shijie, came from Guiyang. He lost his father at the age of five. He studied with great diligence, passed the jinshi examination in the tenth year of the Zhengtong reign, and was appointed investigating censor. When banditry erupted in Zhejiang and Fujian, thirteen censors were chosen to pair with eunuchs in defending the prefectures; Ying was assigned to Chuzhou. Ye Zongliu's followers, however, were raiding on every side, and the route to Chuzhou was cut off. Ying took a back road at full gallop, won over a great many through persuasion and surrender, executed the bandit leaders Zhou Mingsong and others, and only after the raiders had dispersed did he return.
45
景泰初，御史王豪嘗以勘陳循爭地事，忤循，為所訐。 至是，循草詔，言風憲官被訐者，雖經赦宥，悉與外除。 於是豪當改知縣，英言：「若如詔書，則凡遭御史抨擊之人，皆將挾仇誣訐，而御史愈緘默不言矣。」 章下法司，請如英言，乃復豪職。 未幾，出為廣東右參議。 過家省母，橐中惟賜金十兩。 抵任，撫雕瘵流亡。 立均徭法，十歲一更，民稱便。
Early in the Jingtai reign, Censor Wang Hao had investigated a land dispute involving Chen Xun, offended him, and been impeached by Xun. Now Xun drafted an edict stating that any surveillance official who had been impeached, even if later pardoned by amnesty, must be transferred out of the capital. Wang Hao was therefore to be demoted to magistrate; Ying protested, "If the edict stands, anyone who has ever crossed a censor will nurse a grudge and lodge false charges, and censors will only grow more afraid to speak. The memorial went to the Ministry of Justice, which recommended accepting Ying's view, and Hao's post was restored. Before long he was appointed Right Assistant Commissioner of Guangdong. On his way home to visit his mother, he carried only ten taels of gold the court had bestowed upon him. Upon taking office he comforted the destitute and those displaced by hardship. He instituted a system of equalized corvée labor, reassessed every ten years, and the people welcomed the reform.
46
天順初，兩廣賊愈熾，諸將多濫殺冒功。 巡撫葉盛屬英督察。 參將範信誣宋泰、永平二鄉民為賊，屠戮殆盡，又欲屠進城鄉。 英馳訊，悉縱去。 信忿，留師不還。 英密請於盛，檄信班師，一方始靖。 潮州賊羅劉寧等流劫遠近，屢挫官兵。 英會師破滅之。 還所掠人口數千，別置一營以處婦女，人莫敢犯。
At the start of the Tianshun reign banditry in the two Guangs grew worse, and many generals slaughtered indiscriminately to inflate their battle honors. Grand Coordinator Ye Sheng put Ying in charge of oversight. Deputy Commander Fan Xin falsely denounced the people of Songtai and Yongping as rebels and slaughtered nearly all of them; he then planned to do the same to Jincheng. Ying rode at once to investigate and ordered every captive released. Fan Xin was furious and refused to withdraw his troops. Ying secretly appealed to Sheng, who issued orders recalling Fan Xin; only then was the region pacified. At Chaozhou, the bandits Luo, Liu, Ning, and their followers plundered far and wide and repeatedly routed the government forces. Ying mustered a joint force and wiped them out. He restored several thousand captives to their homes, set apart a separate camp for the women, and no soldier dared molest them.
47
官參議十年，進右參政。 遭母憂。 成化初服闋，補陜西。 大軍討滿四，英主饋餉有功。 歷福建、陜西左、右布政使，皆推行均徭法。 十年以右副都御史巡撫甘肅，先後陳安邊二十八事。 其請徙居戎、安流離、簡貢使，於時務尤切。 明年冬，兩廣總督吳琛卒，廷議以英前在廣東有威信，遂以代琛。
After ten years as a vice commissioner, he was promoted to right vice grand coordinator. He went into mourning for his mother. When the Chenghua reign began and his mourning period ended, he was posted to Shaanxi. During the great expedition against Man Si, Ying directed the supply lines and earned distinction. He served in turn as left and right administration commissioner in Fujian and Shaanxi, and in each post extended the equalized corvée system. In the tenth year he was appointed Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief and Grand Coordinator of Gansu, where he submitted twenty-eight proposals for securing the frontier. His proposals to relocate frontier Rong communities, resettle An's displaced subjects, and streamline tribute missions were especially pressing affairs of state. The following winter Wu Chen, Grand Coordinator of the Two Guangs, died. The court decided that Ying's earlier standing in Guangdong made him the right man to succeed Chen.
48
自韓雍大征以來，將帥喜邀功，利俘掠，名為「雕剿」。 英至，鎮以寧靜，約飭將士。 毋得張賊聲勢，妄請用師。 招撫瑤、僮效順者，定為編戶，給復三年。 於是馬平、陽朔、蒼梧諸縣蠻悉望風附。 而荔波賊李公主有眾數萬，久負固，亦遣子納款。 為置永安州處之，俾其子孫世吏目。 自是歸附日眾，凡為戶四萬三千有奇，口十五萬有奇。 帝甚嘉之。
Since Han Yong's major campaigns, commanders had grown fond of inflating their battle honors and profiting from captives and plunder in what they called "hawk-strike" sweeps. When Ying took office he restored calm and issued strict orders to his officers and men. They were forbidden to exaggerate rebel strength or recklessly demand additional troops. Yao and Zhuang who came in peacefully were registered as regular households and granted three years' tax relief. Thereafter the tribal peoples of Maping, Yangshuo, Cangwu, and neighboring counties submitted in waves. Even Li Gongzhu of Libo, who commanded tens of thousands and had long held out, sent his son to tender submission. Ying created Yong'an Prefecture to resettle them and arranged for their descendants to hold hereditary clerkships. Submissions then multiplied daily until the registered households exceeded forty-three thousand and the population more than one hundred fifty thousand. The emperor was deeply pleased.
49
鎮守中官與督撫、總兵官坐次，中官居中，總督居總兵官左。 時總兵官陳政以伯爵欲抑英居右，英不可，奏乞裁定。 命解英總督，止為巡撫，居政下。 尚書余子俊言英招徠功多，當增秩褒賞，乃反削其事權，恐無以鎮諸蠻。 乃擢英右都御史仍總督，位次如故。
At formal seating, the garrison eunuch sat in the center, with the grand coordinator to the regional commander's left. The regional commander Chen Zheng, holding an earldom, tried to seat Ying on his right; Ying refused and asked the throne to settle the matter. The court stripped Ying of the grand coordinator title, leaving him only as grand supervisor and ranking him below Zheng. Yu Zijun argued that Ying's success in winning people over deserved promotion and reward, and that stripping his authority would leave him powerless to hold the tribes in check. Ying was therefore promoted to Right Censor-in-Chief while retaining the grand coordinator post, with his precedence restored.
50
田州酋黃明烝其知府岑溥祖母，欲殺溥。 溥出走思恩，明因肆屠戮。 英將進討，檄溥族人恩城知州岑欽殺明雪恥。 欽遂誅明並其族屬，傳首軍門。
Huang Ming, a Tianzhou chieftain, assaulted Prefect Cen Pu's grandmother and plotted Pu's death. Pu fled to Si'en, whereupon Ming carried out a wholesale massacre. As Ying prepared to march, he ordered Cen Qin, prefect of Encheng and a kinsman of Pu, to kill Huang Ming and restore the family's honor. Qin duly executed Ming and his kin and delivered the head to headquarters.
51
英淳厚，然持法無所假借。 與市舶中官韋眷忤，眷摭奏英專權玩賊。 潯州知府史芳以事見責，亦訐英奸貪欺罔。 按皆無驗，乃鐫芳二官，諭眷協和共事。
Ying was mild and upright by nature, yet utterly unyielding once the law was engaged. He fell out with Wei Juan, the maritime-trade eunuch, who manufactured charges that Ying abused his authority and coddled the rebels. Shi Fang, prefect of Xunzhou, having been disciplined over another matter, joined in accusing Ying of corruption and deceit. Inquiries cleared Ying on every count; Fang was demoted two ranks and Juan was ordered to work with him in good faith.
52
十六年，交阯攻老撾，議者恐其內寇，詔問英處置之宜。 英對言：「彼不過爭甌脫耳，諭之當自悔懼。」 帝從其言，果上表謝。 潯、梧、高、廉賊起，偕政等分道擊之。 再戰，俘斬甚眾。 十九年，桂林平樂蠻攻城殺將，英、政復分兵十二道擊破之。
In the sixteenth year Jiaozhi attacked Laos. Fearing an incursion into the empire, the court asked Ying how the situation should be handled. Ying answered, "They are only quarreling over grazing rights on the frontier. A stern warning should bring them to repent and stand down. The emperor took his advice, and the Annamese soon sent a memorial of apology. Rebels rose in Xun, Wuzhou, Gaozhou, and Lianzhou; Ying and Zheng divided their forces and struck on several fronts. After a second engagement they took and slew a great number. In the nineteenth year the Pingyue tribes of Guilin stormed towns and killed officers; Ying and Zheng once more routed them with twelve columns.
53
明年入掌都察院事，尋加太子少保。 又明年正月，星變，疏陳八事：請禁邊將節旦獻馬； 鎮守中官、武將不得私立莊田，侵奪官地； 燒丹符咒左道之人，當置重典； 四方分守監槍內官勿進貢品物； 罷撤倉場、馬房、上林苑增設內侍； 召還建言得罪諸臣； 清內府收白糧積弊； 治奸民投獻莊田及貴戚受獻者罪。 權幸皆不便，執政多持之不行。 英造內閣力爭，竟不能盡從也。 時流民集京師者多，英請人給米月三斗，幼者半之，報許。 其年秋卒。 贈太子太保。
The following year he took charge of the Censorate and was soon named Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent. The year after that, in the first month, an irregularity appeared in the heavens and he submitted eight reforms: he urged an end to border generals' holiday gifts of horses; that garrison eunuchs and officers be barred from founding private estates or seizing government land; that alchemists, sorcerers, and other practitioners of heterodox arts face severe punishment; that regional gunnery eunuchs cease sending tribute goods to court; that superfluous eunuchs attached to granaries, stables, and the Imperial Park be removed; that officials punished for forthright remonstrance be recalled; that abuses in the palace grain levy be rectified; and that both the commoners who "donated" estates to the powerful and the nobles who accepted them be punished. The proposals offended every vested interest at court, and the ministers in power mostly shelved them. Ying pressed his case before the Grand Secretariat, yet in the end most of his program went unenforced. With refugees crowding the capital, he asked that each adult receive three dou of grain a month and each child half that amount; the request was approved. He died that autumn. He was posthumously honored as Junior Grand Guardian of the Heir Apparent.
54
英為總督承韓雍、吳琛後。 雍雖有大功，恢廓自奉，贈遺過侈，有司困供億，公私耗竭； 而琛務謹廉； 至英益持清節，僅攜一蒼頭之官。 先後屢賜璽書、金幣，英藏璽書，貯金幣於庫。 其威望不及雍，而惠澤過之。 在甘肅積軍儲三十萬兩，廣四十余萬，皆不以聞。 或問之，答曰：「此邊臣常分，何足言。」 人服其知大體。 正德中，追謚恭簡。
As grand coordinator, Ying followed in the footsteps of Han Yong and Wu Chen. Yong's campaigns had been magnificent, but he lived on a grand scale and his lavish gift-giving drained both the treasury and the provinces that had to supply him; Chen, by contrast, was scrupulously frugal; and Ying surpassed them both in austerity, arriving at his posts attended by a single aged retainer. Imperial edicts and gifts of gold were bestowed upon him again and again; he filed away the edicts and locked the gold in the public treasury. He never matched Yong's renown, yet the people benefited from his rule far more. In Gansu he built up three hundred thousand taels of military reserves, and in Guangdong more than four hundred thousand, yet he never mentioned either sum at court. When questioned, he said only, "Stockpiling supplies is what a frontier official is supposed to do—why make a fuss? All who heard it admired his sense of proportion. Under the Zhengde reign he was posthumously given the temple name Gongjian, "Respectful and Simple."
55
子守孚，進士，刑部郎中。
His son Shoufu, also a jinshi, rose to bureau director in the Ministry of Punishments.
56
秦纮，字世纓，單人。 景泰二年進士。 授南京御史。 劾治內官傅鎖兒罪，諫止江南采翠毛、魚魫等使。 權貴忌之，蜚語聞。 會考察，坐謫湖廣驛丞。
Qin Hong, whose courtesy name was Shiying, came from Shan County. He passed the jinshi examination in the second year of the Jingtai reign. He was appointed a censor at Nanjing. He prosecuted the eunuch Fu Suo'er and remonstrated against the Jiangnan missions sent to collect kingfisher feathers and fish maw. The powerful took offense, and calumny reached the throne. At the next personnel review he was demoted to assistant at a Huguang courier station.
57
成化十三年擢右僉都御史，巡撫山西，奏鎮國將軍奇澗等罪。 奇澗父慶成王鐘鎰為奏辯，且誣纮。 帝重違王意，逮纮下法司治。 事皆無驗，而內官尚亨籍纮家，以所得敝衣數事奏。 帝嘆曰：「纮貧一至此耶？」 賜鈔萬貫旌之。 於是奪奇澗等三人爵，王亦削祿三之一，而改纮撫河南。 尋復調宣府。
In the thirteenth year of Chenghua he was made Right Assistant Censor-in-Chief and Grand Coordinator of Shanxi, where he impeached State-Stabilizing General Qi Run and others. Qi Run's father, Prince Qingcheng Zhong Yi, petitioned in his son's defense and slandered Hong in turn. Unwilling to offend the prince, the emperor had Hong arrested and handed over to the judiciary. None of the charges held, but the eunuch Shang Heng searched Hong's home and reported back with nothing but a few threadbare garments. The emperor exclaimed, "Can Hong really be this poor? He rewarded him with ten thousand strings of paper money in recognition of his integrity. Qi Run and three others were stripped of their titles, the prince's stipend was cut by a third, and Hong was reassigned to Henan. He was soon transferred again to Xuanfu.
58
小王子數萬騎寇大同，長驅入順聖川，掠宣府境。 纮與總兵官周玉等邀擊，遁去。 尋入掠興寧口，連戰卻之，追還所掠，璽書勞焉。 進左僉都御史，巡撫如故。 未幾，召還理院事，遷戶部右侍郎。 萬安逐尹旻，誣纮旻黨，降廣西右參政。 進福建左布政使。
The Little Prince led tens of thousands of horsemen against Datong, swept deep into the Shunsheng River valley, and raided the Xuanfu frontier. Hong and Regional Commander Zhou Yu intercepted the raiders and drove them off. When they struck again at Xingning Pass he beat them back in successive engagements, recovered the booty, and received an imperial letter of commendation. He was promoted to Left Assistant Censor-in-Chief while retaining the grand coordinator post. Shortly afterward he was recalled to the capital to handle Censorate business and appointed Vice Minister of Revenue. When Wan An drove out Yin Min he smeared Hong as one of Min's partisans and had him demoted to Vice Commissioner of Guangxi. He was later promoted to Left Administration Commissioner of Fujian.
59
弘治元年以王恕薦，擢左副都御史，督漕運。 明年三月進右都御史，總督兩廣軍務。 奏言：「中官、武將總鎮兩廣者，率縱私人擾商賈，高居私家。 擅理公事，賊殺不辜，交通土官為奸利。 而天下鎮守官皆得擅執軍職，受民訟，非制，請嚴禁絕。 總鎮府故有賞功所，歲儲金錢數萬，費出無經，宜從都御史勾稽。 廣、潮、南、韶多盜，當設社學，編保甲，以絕盜源。」 帝悉從其請。 恩城知州岑欽攻逐田州知府岑溥，與泗城知州岑應分據其地。 纮入田州逐走欽，還溥於府，留官軍戍之，亂遂定。 復遣將討平黎賊陵水，瑤賊德慶。
In the first year of Hongzhi, on Wang Shu's recommendation, he became Left Vice Censor-in-Chief and Superintendent of Grain Transport. The following third month he was made Right Censor-in-Chief and placed in overall command of military affairs in the Two Guangs. He memorialized: "The eunuchs and generals who hold supreme command in the Two Guangs routinely let their retainers harass merchants while they themselves live in private mansions. They seize civil authority, murder without cause, and collude with tribal officials for illicit gain. Moreover, garrison commissioners everywhere have taken it upon themselves to command troops and hear civil suits, which is contrary to statute; I ask that this be forbidden outright. The commander's headquarters maintains a reward fund of tens of thousands of taels each year with no proper accounting; it should be placed under the censor-in-chief's oversight. Guangzhou, Chaozhou, Nan'ao, and Shaoguan are rife with bandits; local schools and baojia militia should be established to dry up the roots of disorder. The emperor approved every proposal. Cen Qin, prefect of Encheng, attacked and expelled Cen Pu, prefect of Tianzhou, and together with Cen Ying of Sicheng carved up Pu's domain. Hong marched into Tianzhou, expelled Qin, restored Pu to office, and left government troops to garrison the region until order returned. He then dispatched generals to suppress the Li rebels of Lingshui and the Yao rebels of Deqing.
60
纮之初蒞鎮也，劾總兵官安遠侯柳景貪暴，逮下獄。 景亦訐纮，勘無左證，法司當景死。 景連姻周太后家，有奧援，訐纮不已。 詔並逮纮，廷鞫卒無罪。 詔宥景死，奪爵閑住，而纮亦罷歸。 大臣王恕等請留纮，不納。 廷臣復連章言纮可大用。 居數月，起南京戶部尚書。 十一年引疾去。
Soon after taking command he impeached Liu Jing, the Marquis of Anyuan and regional commander, for rapacity and cruelty and had him thrown into prison. Jing counter-attacked with charges of his own, but the inquiry turned up nothing against Hong while the judiciary ruled that Jing deserved death. Jing was related by marriage to the Zhou empress dowager's clan and enjoyed powerful backing, and he kept accusing Hong. The throne ordered both men brought to the capital for trial; in the end Hong was cleared of every charge. The throne pardoned Jing from the death sentence, stripped him of his title, and confined him to private life, while Hong too was removed from office and sent home. Wang Shu and other senior ministers pleaded that Hong be kept in office, but the court would not hear of it. Court officials again submitted memorial after memorial urging that Hong be given a post commensurate with his talents. A few months later he was recalled to serve as Minister of Revenue at Nanjing. In the eleventh year he pleaded illness and resigned.
61
十四年秋，寇大入花馬池，敗官軍孔壩溝，直抵平涼。 言者謂纮有威名，雖老可用。 詔起戶部尚書兼右副都御史，總制三邊軍務。 纮馳至固原，按行敗所。 躬祭陣亡將士，掩其骼。 奏錄死事指揮朱鼎等五人，恤軍士戰歿者家。 劾治敗將楊琳等四人罪，更易守將。 練壯士，興屯田，申明號令，軍聲大振。
In the autumn of the fourteenth year the raiders poured into Huamachi, routed government troops at Kongba Ditch, and pressed on to Pingliang. Memorialists argued that Hong's name alone still inspired fear and that, despite his age, he remained fit for service. He was recalled as Minister of Revenue and Right Vice Censor-in-Chief with overall command of military affairs on the Three Frontiers. Hong rode posthaste to Guyuan and personally surveyed the scene of the rout. He offered sacrifice himself to the men who had died in battle and saw their remains laid to rest. He memorialized that Zhu Ding and four other commanders who had died in action be entered in the rolls of honor, and that the families of soldiers killed in battle receive relief. He impeached Yang Lin and three other defeated commanders, had them punished, and replaced the frontier garrison leaders. He drilled picked troops, expanded military colonies, and enforced discipline until the army's morale and reputation soared anew.
62
初，寇未入河套，平涼、固原皆內地，無患。 自孛來往牧後，固原當兵沖，為平、慶、臨、鞏門戶。 而城隘民貧，兵力單弱，商販不至。 纮乃拓治城郭，招徠商賈，建改為州，而身留節制之。 奏言：「固原主、客兵止萬八千人，散守城堡二十四。 勢分力弱，宜益兵。 舊臨、鞏、秦州諸軍歲赴甘、涼備禦。 及他方有警，又調兵甘、涼，或發京軍征討。 夫京師天下本，邊將手握重兵，而一遇有事輒請京軍，非強幹弱枝之道。 請自今京兵毋輕發，臨、鞏、甘、涼諸軍亦宜各還本鎮。 但選知兵宿將一二人各守其地，人以戍為家，軍以將為命，自樂趨役，而有戰心，計之得者也。」 纮見固原迤北延袤千里，閑田數十萬頃，曠野近邊，無城堡可依。 議於花馬池迤西至小鹽池二百里，每二十里築一堡，堡周四十八丈，役軍五百人。 固原迤北諸處亦各築屯堡，募人屯種，每頃歲賦米五石，可得五十萬石。 規畫已定，而寧夏巡撫劉憲為梗。 纮乃奏曰：「竊見三邊情形，延綏、甘、涼地雖廣，而士馬精強。 寧夏怯弱矣，然河山險阻。 惟花馬池至固原，軍既怯弱，又墩臺疏遠，敵騎得長驅深入，故當增築墩堡。 韋州、豫望城諸處亦然。 今固原迤南修築將畢，惟花馬池迤北二百里當築十堡。 而憲危言阻眾，且廢垂成之功。 乞令憲制三邊，而改臣撫寧夏，俾得終邊防，於事為便。」 帝下詔責憲，憲引罪，卒行纮策。 修築諸邊城堡一萬四千余所，垣塹六千四百餘里，固原屹為重鎮。 纮又以意作戰車，名「全勝車」，詔頒其式於諸邊。 在事三年，四鎮晏然，前後經略西陲者莫及。
In earlier times, before the raiders pushed into the Ordos, Pingliang and Guyuan had lain deep inside the empire and knew no threat. Once Bolai had moved his herds into the region, Guyuan stood in the path of every campaign and became the gate guarding Pingliang, Qingyang, Lintao, and Gongchang. Yet the city was cramped, the people impoverished, the garrison thin, and merchants would not venture near. Hong widened and strengthened the fortifications, drew traders back, petitioned to elevate the district to a prefecture, and stayed on himself as its military commander. He submitted a memorial stating, "Guyuan has only eighteen thousand regular and auxiliary troops, spread across twenty-four forts. Their strength is divided and too thin on the ground; the garrison should be reinforced. Year after year the forces of Lintao, Gongchang, and Qinzhou have been sent to Ganzhou and Liangzhou for frontier defense. Whenever trouble flares elsewhere, men are stripped from Ganzhou and Liangzhou, or the capital sends out its own expeditionary forces. The capital is the root of the empire, and frontier commanders already hold substantial forces—yet at the first alarm they clamor for troops from Beijing. That is not how one keeps a strong center and capable periphery. Henceforth the capital armies should not be committed lightly, and the troops of Lintao, Gongchang, Ganzhou, and Liangzhou should each return to their home posts. Choose one or two seasoned commanders who know war and let each hold his own ground. Let the men treat their garrison as home and the troops take their general as their fate; they will serve willingly and fight with heart. That, I believe, is the sound course. Hong observed that the country north of Guyuan stretched a thousand li with hundreds of thousands of mu of unused land—open steppe along the frontier with no fortifications to shelter it. He proposed that along the two hundred li from Huamachi west to Xiaoyanchi a fort be built every twenty li—each with a perimeter of forty-eight zhang and garrisoned by five hundred men. Along the northern approaches to Guyuan he likewise built colony forts, recruited settlers to farm the land, and reckoned that at five shi of grain per qing in annual rent the yield could reach five hundred thousand shi. The plans were already settled when Liu Xian, grand coordinator of Ningxia, threw himself in the way. Hong then submitted a memorial: "In my view the Three Frontiers present this picture: Yansui, Ganzhou, and Liangzhou cover vast ground, yet their troops and horses are seasoned and strong. Ningxia's forces are the weakest, but rivers and mountains make its terrain formidable. Only the stretch from Huamachi to Guyuan combines weak troops with watchtowers spaced too far apart, allowing enemy horsemen to ride deep without check. That is where forts and beacon towers must be added. The same holds for Weizhou, Yuwangcheng, and the like. Work south of Guyuan is nearly finished; only the two hundred li north of Huamachi still requires ten forts. Yet Xian has sown alarm to block the project and would abandon work already within reach of completion. I ask that Xian be placed in overall command of the Three Frontiers while I am reassigned to pacify Ningxia, so that I may see the frontier works through to the end. That would serve the public interest best. The emperor issued an edict rebuking Xian. Xian confessed his fault, and in the end Hong's plan went forward. More than fourteen thousand frontier forts and castles were built or repaired, with ramparts and ditches stretching over six thousand four hundred li, until Guyuan rose as a mighty bastion. Hong also designed a war chariot of his own devising, which he called the "Chariot of Total Victory," and an edict distributed its specifications to every frontier command. During three years in command the four frontier districts knew peace, and none who had governed the western marches before or since could equal his achievement.
63
十七年加太子少保，召還視部事。 以年老連章力辭，乞致仕。 詔賜敕乘傳歸，月廩歲隸如制。 明年九月卒，年八十。 贈少保，謚襄毅。
In the seventeenth year he was made Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent and recalled to the capital to resume his duties at the ministry. Citing his advanced age, he memorialized again and again, pressing his refusal, and petitioned for retirement. The throne granted him an imperial letter of commendation and post-horses for the journey home, with monthly grain and annual retainers as prescribed. He died the following ninth month, at the age of eighty. He was posthumously honored as Junior Guardian and given the posthumous name Xiangyi, "Assisting and Resolute."
64
纮廉介絕俗，妻孥菜羹麥飯常不飽。 性剛果，勇於除害，不自顧慮，士大夫識與不識稱為偉人。 在兩廣被逮時，方議討後山賊。 治軍事畢，從容就道，儀衛騶從不貶損。 既逾嶺，始囚服就系。 謂官校曰：「兩廣蠻夷雜處，總制體尊，遽就拘執，損國威。 今既逾嶺，真囚矣。」 其嚴重得體如此。 正德五年，劉瑾亂政。 纮家奴憾纮婦弟楊瑾，以纮所遺火炮投緝事校尉，誣瑾畜違禁軍器。 劉瑾怒，歸罪於纮。 籍其家，無所得。 言官張九敘、塗敬等復希瑾意劾纮，士類嗤之。
Hong was incorruptible to a degree that set him apart from his age; his wife and children often went hungry on nothing but vegetable broth and barley gruel. Firm and decisive by nature, he struck at wrongdoing without regard for his own safety, and men of letters, whether they knew him or not, hailed him as a towering figure. When he was arrested in Guangdong and Guangxi, the command was still debating an expedition against the bandits of the Back Mountains. He saw the military business through to its end, then set out on the road at an unhurried pace, his full escort and retinue undiminished. Only after he had crossed the mountains did he don prisoner's dress and submit to restraint. He told the escort officers, "Guangdong and Guangxi are lands where barbarians mingle with the settled population. A supreme commander's station is a lofty one; to seize him at once would diminish the empire's dignity. Now that we have crossed the mountains, I am in truth your prisoner. Such was the gravity and tact with which he bore himself. In the fifth year of the Zhengde reign Liu Jin threw the government into chaos. A household slave of Hong's, bearing a grudge against Hong's brother-in-law Yang Jin, turned over to the secret police a cannon Hong had once given away and falsely accused Jin of stockpiling forbidden arms. Liu Jin flew into a rage and turned the blame on Hong. His property was confiscated, yet nothing of value was found. The censors Zhang Jiuxu, Tu Jing, and others again impeached Hong to curry favor with Jin, and men of learning held them in contempt.
65
贊曰：項忠、韓雍皆以文學通籍，而親提桴鼓，樹勛戎馬之場。 其應機決勝，成畫遠謀，雖宿將殆無以過，豈不壯哉！ 賞不酬勞，謠諑繼起，文法吏從而繩其後，功名之士所為發憤而太息也。 余子俊盡心邊計，數世賴之。 朱英廉威名粵嶠，秦纮經略著西陲，文武兼資，偉哉一代之能臣矣！
The historian remarks: Xiang Zhong and Han Yong both rose through the civil examinations, yet took up the war drum in person and won their laurels amid the clash of arms. In seizing the moment, carrying the day, and executing far-sighted designs, they outshone even seasoned commanders. What could be more splendid! Yet reward never matched their service; slander followed slander, and the pedants of the law courts came after to snare them. It is over such fates that men of merit clench their fists and sigh. Yu Zijun gave his whole heart to frontier strategy, and generations reaped the benefit. Zhu Ying won fame in Guangdong through integrity and stern authority; Qin Hong's frontier governance made him a legend on the western marches. Civil and martial talent in one man—what magnificent servants of the state a single age could produce!