Chapter 683: Rotten to the Core

On the first day of the eighth month, Guide Prefecture city.

This place would later be known as Shangqiu City — a land of outstanding people and natural treasures, which over the millennia has produced a great many emperors, kings, generals, ministers, and renowned heroes.

Confucius’s ancestral home was here; Liu Bang rose up by slaying a serpent here; Zhang Xun resisted An Lushan’s hundred-thousand-strong army here; Zhao Kuangyin first made his mark here; Sima Xiangru, Fan Zhongyan, Su Shi, and others all left their traces here.

Yet this city was also a place where military calamities and natural disasters struck frequently. At this moment, atop the Gongchen Gate on the city’s north side, Guide Prefect Li Zhenpeng was gazing out with a heavy heart at the countless roving bandits, so densely packed they seemed to blanket the entire earth.

As far as the eye could see, not only the rural plains but even the outer city had been occupied by their troops and horses.

The layout of Guide Prefecture city was a highly distinctive outer-round, inner-square design — city wall, city lake, and outer rampart formed a single entity, resembling a gigantic “ancient copper coin.” When the city was built during the Hongzhi reign, it was modeled on the principles of imitating heaven and earth, conforming to heaven and responding to earth, and drawing from nature.

During the Jiajing reign, the outer rampart was added, which also served as a great levee to protect the city — the outer city was round, the inner city square, ultimately forming the unique outer-round, inner-square configuration.

Because of the protective levee and the city’s ingenious drainage system, even the Yellow River’s periodic overflows, inundations, and breaches could not pose a major threat to Guide Prefecture city.

However, although the outer rampart was broad and thick, it was after all only meant for flood control — the levee was far too long and not high enough. If it had to be defended, the troops inside the city were likewise insufficient, so they had no choice but to abandon it and concentrate on defending the inner city, leaving only the old city south gate of Suiyang in the south of the city.

Fortunately, the prefectural city walls were tall and thick, with a moat on all four sides — the south side was especially broad, over one li wide and nearly three li long.

Though called a moat, it was more fitting to call it a lake. Beneath its waters lay submerged six ancient cities: the capital of the State of Song from the Spring and Autumn period, Suiyang City from the Qin-Han and Sui-Tang eras, the Yingtian Prefecture southern stables from the Song dynasty, and Guide Prefecture city from the Yuan dynasty.

So even though the roving bandits attacked fiercely day and night, the prefectural city had held out until now. But whether it could ultimately be held, Li Zhenpeng had no confidence in his heart. At the east gate, west gate, and north gate, the moat was relatively narrow at each of those city gates, and years of drought had considerably depleted the moat’s water level.

The roving bandits lacked many things, but manpower was not one of them. Day and night they filled the moat with mud, and slowly, many sections of the moat were about to be filled in by them.

“Can the city be held?”

Li Zhenpeng murmured in his heart.

The roving bandits had been assaulting the city for many days, exhausting every method. Both banks of the moat were littered with all kinds of broken siege equipment and the corpses of men and horses. Especially outside the old city wall of the southern outer city, in that narrow stretch of ground, the base of the wall was piled high with the bodies of roving bandits, and the blood that had flowed out had even congealed into a reddish-brown color.

The roving bandits had even used boats. Scattered across the moat on all four sides were quite a few damaged small boats, along with the corpses inside them.

Just as he was thinking, footsteps sounded. A sturdily built general, wearing a tasseled helmet and a battle cloak, came to Li Zhenpeng’s side — it was Assistant Regional Commander Yang of Guide Prefecture.

His face now bore deep weariness as he said, “Prefect, the roving bandits have been assaulting the city for many days, yet there is still no word of relief troops. I fear…”

Li Zhenpeng’s heart trembled slightly — this was also what he feared.

The current situation in Guide Prefecture was that roving bandits were everywhere, their troops likely numbering in the hundreds of thousands. With so many bandits, the government forces on all sides were each terrified and fearful, and holding their own defensive positions was already good enough — how could they even speak of coming to the rescue?

As far as Li Zhenpeng knew, on the Shandong side across the Yellow River, those Shandong troops were merely holding the river line tightly and ignored Li Zhenpeng’s pleas for aid.

To the east, in the adjacent Fengyang Prefecture of Southern Zhili, Fengyang Viceroy Ma Shiying was also strictly holding his defense line and had even transferred Regional Commander Huang Degong from Luzhou to the Central Capital, paying no heed to the fighting in Guide Prefecture either. He of course had a ready justification — he was the Fengyang Viceroy, and Henan affairs were not under his jurisdiction.

What worried him most now was instead the endless stream of roving bandits entering Xuzhou. If the grain transport route were cut off, he, as Fengyang Viceroy, would also bear responsibility, so he had even less attention to spare for others.

So looking all around, there were no relief troops to be found. Regional Commander Ding Qirui, leading Zuo Liangyu and others, was dawdling in Runing Prefecture. The officials and generals in Kaifeng city were also up to who knew what schemes — relief troops had long been overdue, and now even communications inside and out were cut off, leaving them ignorant of the outside situation.

Inside Guide Prefecture city, at present there were only Assistant Regional Commander Yang’s two-thousand-odd garrison troops. No wonder he was weighed down with worry, fearing the city could not be held.

After a long silence, he turned around and gazed toward the Zhang Xun Shrine south of the city. Li Zhen finally said with righteous fervor, “Whether or not there are relief troops, we eat the sovereign’s grain and must be loyal to the sovereign’s cause. As local fathers of the people, how can we fear the bandits and shrink from our duty? Now the common people have all entered the inner city, and the open ground between inner and outer city is gone. It is our bounden duty to protect our homeland! In years past, Governor Zhang defended Suiyang — a tale praised through the ages. Though I am untalented, I wish to emulate him in some small measure. Even if I die, I will let the roving bandits know that our Great Ming is not without men.”

Looking at Li Zhen’s resolute expression — his hair and beard already all white, his bearing like that of an old man — Assistant Regional Commander Yang knew that Prefect Li was only a little over forty, about the same age as himself. Yet his appearance already made him look like his own father.

Thinking of all that Prefect Li had done in ordinary times, a surge of heat welled up in his heart. He was a straightforward man and said loudly, “To fight for the nation is our duty. I am willing to hold the whip and follow by your stirrup, staying by the Prefect’s side.”

Li Zhen bowed deeply: “The duty of defending the land rests on us. I entrust it to you, General.”

That exchange, instead, allowed the two of them to set everything aside. At worst, they would die for the city — that was all.

They discussed military affairs in even greater detail. Relying solely on government troops, their strength was too thin — over the long term, it would be hard to hold the city. They had to establish more community troops and local militias.

Within Guide Prefecture itself, there were many prominent local families of military household origin. These military aristocrats, who held hereditary privileges, often possessed private armed forces, and their descendants had even entered officialdom through the imperial examinations, forming influential great clans in Guide Prefecture and other places.

Although this had caused the malignant expansion of the power of local gentry and strongmen, making all kinds of conflicts in Guide Prefecture exceptionally acute — and in ordinary times, these clan strongmen paid only lip service to government decrees, with much of Li Zhen’s white hair being caused by these very people —

Yet their clans had strong cohesion and were irreconcilably opposed to the roving bandits.

They knew that if the roving bandits breached the city, they would absolutely not be spared, for they were all great households. Their will to defend the city was quite resolute, and the forces under these men’s names could be incorporated into the city’s defense, just like the community troops in the Luoyang defense battle back then.

The local scholars also firmly stood on the government’s side. At this time, Hou Fangyu, Wu Boyi, Wu Boyin, Jia Kaizong, Xu Zuolin, Zhang Wei, and others had formed the Xueyuan Society in the prefectural city, known at the time as the Six Masters of Xueyuan. They traveled back and forth, urging the local gentry and strongmen within the city to unite their hearts and strength to jointly resist the roving bandits.

With the aid of these gentry, the defending forces inside the city could be estimated to reach five thousand, and the prefectural city could hold out for quite a long period.

In particular, a large portion of the government troops inside the city also possessed the fine bird guns of Xuanfu Garrison, which played an important role in the defensive battle.

These Li Zhen had purchased from Xuanfu Garrison through his relationship with Wang Dou. Wang Dou was a man who remembered old ties — not only did he give him a favorable price, but even when the sale of bird guns was in short supply, the quota list was tilted in priority toward Li Zhen, and the gunpowder and shot gifted to him were far more than what others received.

In the past, Li Zhen had been roundly attacked by the local scholars for this, but now, it had all become a far-sighted act praised by everyone in the prefectural city.

He had also sold the purchased bird guns to Assistant Regional Commander Yang at a favorable price, which was one reason for the good relationship between the two.

“No one knows when relief troops will arrive — we must use powder and shot sparingly.”

The two discussed in detail.

“The gunpowder in the storehouses, though not as powerful as Xuan Garrison’s, can still be used. Lead balls that are not the right size can be sorted through one by one…”

…

On the third day of the eighth month, the roving bandits attacked with extreme urgency. Just as Li Zhen and Assistant Regional Commander Yang were both on the walls roaring and directing the battle, suddenly their side sounded the gongs to withdraw troops, and they receded like the tide.

Li Zhen and Assistant Regional Commander Yang were overjoyed. Standing on the battlements and looking out, they saw the bandits striking camp, bandit horses galloping, dust blotting out the sun, heading southeast. The two exchanged a glance, each seeing the joy in the other’s eyes — could it be that relief troops had arrived?

Sure enough, that afternoon, scout riders came galloping — they were men under Jingnan Count Cao Bianjiao and Ningnan Count Wang Tingchen, saying that the two counts’ great armies were already not far from Guide Prefecture city.

Everyone in the prefectural city, high and low, was jubilant upon hearing this. Relief troops had indeed come, and they were the famous crack troops of the border garrisons — now Guide Prefecture had nothing to worry about.

As expected, on the fourth day, Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen each led their main battalions to arrive first. The rolling tide of iron cavalry made Li Zhen and the others’ confidence soar even higher. On the fifth day, their infantry battalions also arrived beneath the prefectural city, making a combined force of nearly ten thousand horse and foot troops.

In ordinary times, the various departments, counties, guard battalions, and prefectural cities had always harbored a fearful and exclusionary attitude toward government troops passing through. But now, everyone in Guide Prefecture, high and low, greatly welcomed the arrival of Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen.

Though government troops might harass the common people, it was still far better than having the roving bandits breach the city. Moreover, the military discipline of the two counts’ troops was relatively strict.

These troops were also exceedingly elite — no wonder they could frighten away the overwhelming horde of bandits outside the city. In Li Zhen’s eyes, although they were not as good as the Jingbian Army, they were still among the strongest troops in the Great Ming. Local officers like Assistant Regional Commander Yang were even more awestruck, as if beholding celestial beings.

Though it strained him, Li Zhen did his utmost to supply grain and fodder to the nearly ten thousand troops that had arrived. Of course, they also hoped the roving bandits within their territory could be exterminated as soon as possible — after all, relying on the strength of a single devastated prefecture to supply grain and fodder was still rather difficult.

Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen halted briefly at the prefectural city for a few days to rest their troops, and the two analyzed the enemy situation.

After their troops arrived, the large bands of roving bandits seemed to be flowing toward Xuzhou and Fengyang Prefecture in Southern Zhili.

However, within the territory — Suizhou, Ningling, Zhecheng, Luyi, Xiayi, and also nearby Haozhou in Southern Zhili and other places — quite a few bands of roving bandit troops, large and small, still remained. These bandits could be exterminated first to clear and pacify the Guide Prefecture region.

Moreover, the news that Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen had successfully forced back the great bandit army at Guide Prefecture reached Kaifeng and Runing Prefecture. Over there, Regional Commander Ding Qirui, Regional Commander Zuo Liangyu, and others were all stirred and also wanted to lead troops over to exterminate the bandits.

The roving bandits’ strategy had changed — they were no longer pressing toward Kaifeng. Their own side naturally could not remain in place indefinitely.

Even Yang Wenyue, the Baoding Viceroy who was now Ding Qirui's deputy, upon receiving Ding Qirui's summons, wanted to lead Hu Dawei, the Vice Regional Commander, and his own Personal Battalion Central Army Assistant Regional Regional Commander Jiang Mingwu and others to "force" their way to Guide Prefecture. Only the Henan Provincial Governor Gao Mingheng still hesitated, keeping Chen Yongfu at Kaifeng City without moving.

The Fengyang Viceroy Ma Shiying was furious and submitted a memorial impeaching Cao Bianjiao and Wang Tingchen, accusing the two of driving the roving bandits into the various prefectures of Nanzhili and ruining state affairs.

All sides stirred restlessly; over a hundred thousand troops seemed to be set in motion by the roving bandits, yet none knew that the bandits were basically acting according to the strategy Li Dingguo had proposed at the time. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to Qidian to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes. Mobile users please read at

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