Chapter 88: The Haul from the Seizure

The bandits howled and wailed: “The soldiers of the Left Sentinel are using us to lure out the rest — when they execute bandits, they all use long spears, so the blades at their waists won’t get nicked, and they can practice their spear skills on the side.”

Most of the long-spear soldiers in the Shunxiang Army could hit a target from twenty paces away; at this close range, it was even easier. Without even glancing, they could thrust their spears accurately into the bandits’ hearts. Very quickly, over a hundred bandits lay dead on the ground.

Finally, the supplies seized from the bandit stronghold were fully inventoried. Zhong Xiancai, in his refined voice, reported to Han Zhong: “My lord, the soldiers of my Left Sentinel have seized a total of 3,575 taels of silver, 753 shi and 6 dou of grain and rice, 87 mules and horses, 246 sets of blades and spears, 353 sheep, and 27 head of cattle. My lord, the haul is bountiful!”

The officers gathered around all beamed with delight. Wang Dou’s rewards were extremely generous — he would take at least thirty percent of the seized goods and distribute them as rewards. By their reckoning, each man would receive quite a sum this time.

Han Zhong was also grinning from ear to ear. Filled with righteous indignation, he cursed: “These bandits and thieves have no conscience — everything they stole is the very flesh and blood of the common people. It is fortunate they ran into the royal troops of our Shunxiang Fort. If we take this money and grain back, we can save countless disaster victims.”

In high spirits, all the officers praised Han Zhong, saying that as one who had long served at the side of the Defense Commissioner, he had truly absorbed his master’s teachings and possessed a benevolent heart — indeed, taking from the bandits and using it for the people.

Han Zhong muttered another remark: “Damn it, with this much money and grain, transporting it back is going to be a bit troublesome.”

With so much seized loot, even if all the military households of Shunxiang Fort worked the fields for several years, their toil would probably not yield as much as the haul from destroying this one bandit stronghold. However, the Meiyu Defense Thousand-Household Station was quite far from Shunxiang Fort, and the roads were difficult. Wiping out the bandit stronghold was easy; hauling the seized goods back was somewhat hard.

Zhong Xiancai gently reminded him: “My lord, did we not seize over eighty mules and horses? There are also some carts inside the stronghold. If we load the seized goods onto the carts, we can use the mules and horses to pull them back.”

Han Zhong nodded and said: “Quite right. I was just thinking of that, and you brought it up. Very good.”

Thereupon, with an air of authority, he ordered the entire force to set to work together — load all the seized goods onto the mules and horses and haul everything back, and drive off all the cattle and sheep. Finally, he gave the order to set a fire and burn the entire stronghold to ashes.

The journey back was uneventful. Seeing the elite bearing of the Shunxiang Army’s Left Sentinel — over two hundred men, each as brave as a household retainer — no one along the road dared entertain any schemes. On the eleventh day of the fourth month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Han Zhong led the Left Sentinel soldiers, hauling a great quantity of seized goods, swaggering proudly back to Shunxiang Fort.

For a time, the whole of Shunxiang Fort was astir. Although the Shunxiang Army had been suppressing bandits everywhere recently and had destroyed over a dozen bandit strongholds, the total haul from all of them did not match the bounty Han Zhong had brought back this time. With this grain, rice, silver, and coin, at least for this year, everyone in the fort, high and low, could be free from worry about food and clothing.

Wang Dou was also overjoyed. After the large-scale disaster relief, his own money and grain had been nearly depleted. But with the previous destruction of those strongholds, he had seized over a thousand taels of silver and more than four hundred shi of grain and rice, and now with this additional 3,500-plus taels of silver and 750-plus shi of grain and rice, at least for this year, the soldiers and civilians inside the fort, as well as the disaster victims outside, would not have to worry about food and drink.

Wang Dou had previously harbored a worry: in the latter half of the year, the Qing troops would invade, and after autumn the entire Shunxiang Fort would be unable to farm and would have to strengthen its defenses and clear the countryside. How would the soldiers and civilians be fed then? With this silver, coin, grain, and rice, even if the countryside were swept clean by then, what did he have to fear?

He personally went out of the fort to welcome Han Zhong and his party, and instructed the overjoyed Lin Daofu to store the various silver, coin, grain, and rice in the warehouses, and to properly settle those cattle and sheep as well.

After returning to the fort, Wang Dou immediately assessed merits and distributed rewards, registering each man’s military achievements. He took thirty percent of the seized goods to reward the soldiers, granting each according to their battle record. The wounded and fallen soldiers were given even greater compensation and honorable burials. Many of these soldiers’ families had already been allotted farmland. Now these soldiers were all granted a few days’ leave. When they returned home with large amounts of reward silver, grain, and rice, their families were overjoyed. For a time, the fort was filled with happy laughter and cheerful voices.

The only regret was that Wang Dou’s dispatch of troops to suppress bandits at the Meiyu Defense Thousand-Household Station had been carried out privately and in secret. It could not be reported as a military achievement, and the higher authorities could not bestow any commendations or rewards upon them.

With money and grain in hand, things were easy to manage. Wang Dou’s plans — expanding the army, enlarging the scale of mining, constructing fort walls, and incorporating the disaster victims outside the fort — could all be put into action.

On the twelfth day of the fourth month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Wang Dou summoned the military officers, clerks, and functionaries within the fort to discuss a series of matters.

Clerk Feng Dachang first reported to Wang Dou with a smile: “My lord, the number of disaster victims outside the fort has been tallied. There are a total of 3,155 individuals, of whom 1,847 are males — 1,622 adult males and 225 underage males. There are 1,308 females — 1,100 adult females and 208 young girls.”

“According to the statistics, these individuals form 472 complete households, comprising 2,378 persons. The remaining 777 individuals are either those whose wives and children have died, or orphans and widows left alone, not forming complete households.”

Wang Dou waved his hand: “Have all these people join the military households of Shunxiang Fort. Any who are unwilling to join — drive them all away!”

He smiled at Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie: “Gentlemen, now you can each command a sentinel of troops.”

Wen Fangliang rubbed his hands together in delight: “Excellent! At last I won’t just be leading a handful of soldiers anymore.”

Sun Sanjie was also beside himself with joy.

Wang Dou pondered. Shunxiang Fort probably could not accommodate so many people; they could only be settled outside the fort. In this border region, fort walls certainly had to be built. At present, among the forts close to Wang Dou, Jingbian Fort had 170 households, of which over sixty had always lived outside the fort without any fort walls built.

He could send one Company Commander to Jingbian Fort, send some people to the Koujiagou Iron Works, and keep the rest all at Shunxiang Fort.

However, building the walls for the two forts would probably cost quite a lot. If they were built hastily and roughly, he feared the defensive strength would be insufficient.

Since the start of this year, in his daily conversations with everyone, Wang Dou had always, intentionally or unintentionally, revealed his worry that the Later Jin troops would invade again this year. Everyone found this baffling. Could it be that the Defense Commissioner could foresee the future and knew that the Jurchen slaves would again breach the passes to plunder this year?

Now Wang Dou again revealed this worry. Everyone looked at each other. Wen Fangliang smiled and said: “My lord, to my knowledge, to the west of our Shun Fort lie the ancient ruins of Hanpan County seat. If we build a new fort there, the cost would not be great, and moreover —”

He continued with a smile: “My ancestors were from the Central Plains. In our region, a land crisscrossed by war, bandits and thieves ran rampant. Every village had to build a fortified stronghold. For those strongholds, they would first build a high loess platform, about one zhang and more in height, and then build the fort walls, taking the earth from around the walls. Because of the construction, the area within a hundred zhang around the stronghold would be filled with loess pits, each over one zhang deep. If bandits wanted to attack, they would first have to navigate around these pits — the dense mass of loess pits was extremely difficult to traverse. After getting past the pits, they would have to climb the earthen platform. After climbing the platform, there were still the fort walls. From the slope of the earthen platform to the top of the fort wall, looking down from a commanding height of several zhang, a single rolling log or stone tumbling down the platform could smash a whole swath of men. Truly brutal!”

Everyone present listened with keen interest. Wen Fangliang smiled and said: “Of course, these fortified strongholds also have a drawback. Just as it is difficult for the enemy to enter the fort, it is equally difficult for our military households inside to get out.”

Wang Dou slapped his thigh and said: “Getting out is not important. What matters most is safety and sufficient defensive strength!”

He smiled: “Jingbian Settlement can also be handled this way!”

The group discussed and calculated for a while. Building the fort walls for these two forts would require about over a thousand taels of silver. If grain and rice were included, it would need half in silver and half in grain. However, Wang Dou currently had plenty of silver but little grain, so he would use silver wherever possible. Even if the price of rice and goods was high, he would still spend silver to buy them.

The matter was thus decided. From now until the Qing troops invaded, there were probably only a few months left. All affairs had to be pressed forward urgently.

Incorporating the disaster victims outside the fort as military households went very smoothly. During this time, everyone at Shunxiang Fort had been able to survive, and they were already grateful. Their homes had suffered disaster, and there would be no good days if they returned. Looking at the example of the Shun Fort military households, life here was stable. As long as one was willing to work, one could live on. After reclaiming wasteland, everyone would even have land allotted to them. It was truly a paradise.

As for the status of civilian households — in these times, staying alive was more important. What did civilian household status count for? At least the military households of Shunxiang Fort would not wander destitute and displaced, starving or dying of illness, as they themselves had.

Better to stay here and treat Shunxiang Fort as their own home.

The over three thousand disaster victims outside the fort basically all stayed at Shunxiang Fort. Wang Dou ordered Clerk Feng Dachang to register them all into the books one by one and issue each a military household certificate. Henceforth, these new military households would be the new registered population of Shunxiang Fort.

With a single order from Wang Dou, the several thousand disaster victims were all assembled in the western part of Shunxiang Fort to build new military household barracks there. The original shacks were also burned to the ground in one fire. Any remaining refuse and excrement was buried deep in pits to prevent pestilence. At the same time, Wang Dou selected one hundred new military households and sent them to Jingbian Fort.

The construction of the fort walls at both Shunxiang Fort and Jingbian Fort was overseen by Lin Daofu and the old craftsman Wu Shihuan. Wu Shihuan had previously performed outstandingly in building the fort walls at Jingbian Fort, and Wang Dou thought highly of him.

For building the fort walls and barracks, loess was easy — they just took earth from the surrounding area, and the more pitted and pockmarked the ground became, the more large pits they dug, the better. However, various materials like lime, glutinous rice, and timber had to be purchased from outside. Stone and other materials also required large numbers of laborers to quarry. All of this needed large sums of money and grain. In no time, the silver in Wang Dou’s pockets was again rolling away.

Ramming and building the fort walls required a large labor force. Unlike the previous construction of Jingbian Fort, Wang Dou now had sufficient manpower. Digging earth, mixing mud, molding adobe bricks, drying them in the sun — the several thousand new military households were all thrown into the effort.

At the same time, Wen Fangliang and Sun Sanjie were joyfully selecting able-bodied young men from among the new military households and choosing officers from the veterans of the original two sentinels. Many soldiers who had distinguished themselves in this bandit-suppression campaign became new officers. Two more sentinels of troops were formed within Shunxiang Fort, and according to the training regulations, they began drilling with furious energy.

On the twentieth day of the fourth month of the ninth year of Chongzhen, Wang Dou, accompanied by Han Chao, Han Zhong, and some guards, returned to Jingbian Fort.

Having received word, Zhong Diaoyang welcomed Wang Dou and his party at the fort gate.

This was Wang Dou’s first return to Jingbian Fort in the several months since he had left for Shunxiang Fort. When they saw Wang Dou before the Yongning Gate, the military households inside the fort were astonished and overjoyed. They seemed scarcely able to believe their eyes. Then they rushed to spread the word: “The lord is back! The lord has not forgotten the elders of Jingbian Fort!”

They crowded around Wang Dou, all talking at once, and together with Zhong Diaoyang, they ushered Wang Dou and his party into the fort. Qi Tianliang and Tao, who had come upon hearing the news, both had tears in their eyes: “My lord, you have returned!”

Wang Dou exchanged pleasantries with them for a while. Looking at the several old comrades from the former watchtower days, Wang Dou was filled with emotion. After he had left, Jingbian Fort had truly become much quieter.

Jingbian Fort originally had 170 households, of which over sixty had always lived outside the fort. However, all their able-bodied men had already been organized into soldiers — seven squads of combat troops, two squads of support troops, and one squad of night scouts. Of these soldiers, six squads had followed Wang Dou to Shunxiang Fort, one squad had followed Gao Shiyin and Yang Tong to Dongjiazhuang, and only three squads remained in Jingbian Fort.

With few males and few able-bodied young men in the fort, the vitality had declined. Although every soldier Wang Dou and the others had led out from Jingbian Fort had become an officer, and they would sometimes return during holidays — which made the military households in the fort speak of them with pride — the quietness was still quietness; that was a fact. Recalling the days of old at Jingbian Fort and then thinking of the present, the sense of loss felt by the military households of Jingbian Fort was understandable.

However, on the fifteenth day of the fourth month, Wang Dou had sent one hundred new military households to Jingbian Fort, along with numerous laborers to help Jingbian Fort build new fort walls. Outside the fort, construction was bustling. This comforted the military households of Jingbian Fort somewhat — the lord had not forgotten them.

Today, Wang Dou had even returned to his home village, making the military households of Jingbian Fort even happier.

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