Chapter 114: 112: Zero Casualties, Ten Thousand Bandits Routed

Ji'an Prefecture has many prominent clans, but which surname has the most people?

The Liu.

Liu Fa, son of Emperor Jing of Han and Prince Ding of Changsha, had sixteen sons in all. One of them was enfeoffed as Marquis of Ancheng, governing Anfu, Yongxin, Taihe, and other counties.

Generation after generation they multiplied and spread, until they now fill every county of Ji'an, and even all of Jiangxi.

Ji'an has over a thousand villages — entire villages, every single person surnamed Liu!

At this very moment, Chen Maosheng is inside the home of a Liu family of the Jizhou Hall branch — a great clan's main line and ancestral residence would certainly never be inside the city, because the city simply could not contain it.

This household made its living in trade and so moved into the city to settle, but they also own farmland out in the villages.

"Great King, spare us! Great King, spare us!"

Thinking Chen Maosheng had come to plunder, they all dropped to their knees in a rush. They even offered up their wealth and grain of their own accord, hoping only to sate the rebels' appetite and praying the rebels would not kill anyone.

But Chen Maosheng said, "Mr. Zhao founded the Great Unity Society. What is Great Unity? In the countryside, Great Unity means everyone has land to till, everyone has food to eat, everyone has clothes to wear. There are not many peasants in the city, but the city has many household slaves…"

"In Great Unity there is no high or low, no noble or base. The gentry and merchants are human — are servants not human? Under Mr. Zhao's rule, there are no more household slaves; all household slaves have been set free. We do not want your silver, we do not want your grain. The Great Unity Society stands up for those who have suffered bitterly. Bring out the household slaves' sale contracts at once!"

Liu Dingzhong stared dumbly at these rebels, for a moment thinking he had misheard.

The rebels did not want gold or silver, nor grain — they had actually come to free household slaves?

"Hurry up, bring out the household slaves' sale contracts. I still have the next house to visit!" Chen Maosheng barked.

Liu Dingzhong shuddered in fright and said hurriedly, "I… I will go get them now."

Before the sale contracts had even arrived, Chen Maosheng went on proclaiming: "Brothers and sisters among the household slaves, do not be afraid. I will not hide it from you — Mr. Zhao himself was once a household slave…"

"What!"

The whole courtyard erupted in noise. The household slaves were utterly shocked — the rebel chief who had seized the prefectural city had himself been a household slave!

Beyond the shock, there was also a stir of excitement.

Chen Maosheng went on: "Mr. Zhao was a household slave, and I was once an actor — we are all lowly folk. But under heaven, who is not lowly? Tenant farmers are tenant-slaves, farmers are farming-slaves, laborers are hired slaves, soldiers are military slaves. Even those scholars — are they not slaves to others? Become an official and you are an official-slave; sit the examinations and you are a scholar-slave. Who is nobler than whom?"

"Those willing to come with us will henceforth be brothers and sisters. If you want to farm, we will allot you land; if you want to work, we will find you jobs. No one will dare bully you again, no one will dare beat or curse you again. You yourselves will be your own masters. Look at the men behind me. Chen Huai, what did you do before?"

"Actor."

"Liu Zhenzong, what did you do before?"

"Heh heh, I was a household slave of Old Master Liu of Meitang Town."

"Liu Gao, what did you do before?"

"I was a household slave of Old Master Liu of Baisha Town."

"Xiao Zhong, what did you do before?"

"I was a household slave of Old Master Xiao of Huangqiao Town."

"And now, do you all eat your fill?"

"Every meal we eat our fill."

"Does anyone dare beat or curse you?"

"To hell with them!"

"…"

Watching the imposing Chen Maosheng and his men, many of the household slaves began to feel envy stir in their hearts.

Whether a household slave lives well or poorly depends entirely on the master's character — and that is often the most unreliable thing of all.

Take Xu Xiake, for example: he treated his household slaves fairly kindly, but what of those besides him? One of Xu Xiake's sons was later killed in a household slave uprising.

When the Southern Ming rump court resisted the Qing, countless household slaves rose up in revolt — they would rather throw in their lot with the Manchu Qing than not overthrow their own masters!

In history, the Shaanxi roving bandits had only just reached Huguang when household slaves in every province south of the Yangtze rose up one after another.

The Great Ming was a land full of powder kegs — the slightest spark and it would explode.

At last, Liu Dingzhong found the household slaves' sale contracts and, trembling with fear, presented them into Chen Maosheng's hands.

Chen Maosheng read out the names one by one. When he finished, he asked, "Whose contract has still not been brought?"

"Mine!"

One household slave stood up: "My contract is not here."

Chen Maosheng smiled faintly. "Old Master Liu, you are not being honest."

"Find it, go find it at once — it must have been missed!" Liu Dingzhong said hastily.

Before long, several more contracts were brought over.

Chen Maosheng burned all the sale contracts in front of everyone and said to the household slaves, "Who is willing to come with me? No more putting up with your master's crap!"

One after another, three people stepped forward.

Chen Maosheng asked, "Did he ever skim your monthly wages?"

"Every single month they were skimmed," one household slave said.

Chen Maosheng pointed at the silver on the ground. "Take back what was skimmed from you. Do not grab too much recklessly."

Those three household slaves immediately went to take the silver, daring to take only two or three taels extra.

Seeing this, several more household slaves came forward, took silver, and stood behind Chen Maosheng.

Among them, remarkably, was a brother and sister — the elder brother twelve or thirteen, the younger sister only seven or eight.

"The rest of you are unwilling to leave?"

Chen Maosheng swept his gaze over them. "It is fine if you do not leave — you are all brothers and sisters who have suffered. I will help you exchange your sale contracts for hired-labor contracts."

New contracts were drawn up on the spot — this thing was certainly useless; the master would turn hostile and deny them the moment they left.

But as long as the master refused to honor them, the household slaves were bound to harbor resentment.

Chen Maosheng took the eight liberated household slaves and set off at once for the next house — he truly did not plunder any silver or grain.

Liu Dingzhong sat dumbly on the ground, looking at the money and grain beside him, looking at his household slaves, with the absurd sensation of being in a dream.

After visiting every great mansion in the south of the city, Chen Maosheng took away a total of fifty-one household slaves. Most of the household slaves were still unwilling to leave their masters, even though they would continue to be abused and beaten in the future.

Immediately after, Chen Maosheng recruited more than ten opera singers.

He even went to the brothels and pleasure houses. Six prostitutes were willing to leave with him, and as many as nine pimps voluntarily followed — Chen Maosheng and those pimps were all of the music register, men who wore green hats!

Zhang Tieniu, meanwhile, went to the docks to recruit men, enlisting over twenty laborers and bringing along more than seventy of their family members.

The two scholars, Xiao Huan and Ouyang Zheng, watched those household slaves, laborers, prostitutes, and pimps, their expressions all rather strange.

Ouyang Zheng sneered disdainfully: "This great lord of yours plans to conquer the realm with people like these?"

"Ah," Xiao Huan sighed with emotion, "our teacher is truly a man of divine ability. Under the whole of heaven, who else would look upon the lowly and despised with respect? The teacher has delivered them, so they will surely follow him to the death."

Just at that moment, countless people came running, spreading the word, and in groups they went of their own accord to join the army.

These people were a special group, one that had almost formed an entire social stratum in the Great Ming.

The stratum of drifting people!

A great number of peasants who had lost their land flooded into the city to work for a living. In the countryside they were fugitive farmers; in the city they were unregistered drifters, able to do only the most lowly and despised jobs. Some threw in with the strike gangs, some became street peddlers, most went to work as laborers, and many more became beggars.

You could think of them as the Ming-dynasty version of migrant workers — and these migrant workers had no identity papers.

When Zhang Tieniu recruited laborers at the docks, the news spread quickly, and countless drifters swarmed in to join the army. They were the true propertyless, and many of them were bachelors with no family at all.

Even Zhao Han was startled — over two thousand people came to enlist!

……

Anfu County.

The rioters north of the Heshui River had turned into roving bandits. They crossed the mountains and reached Anfu County, swelling their numbers along the way to over ten thousand!

With such numbers at his back, the bandit chief forgot just who he was and actually went to assault the county seat.

Well, it wasn't entirely senseless.

Under normal circumstances, never mind ten thousand men — a thousand could take a county seat.

As it happened, the Governor had traveled fast by boat, setting out later but arriving first with his troops, and had already made camp outside the county seat.

Scouts reported that the roving bandits were walking right into the trap. Xie Xuelong immediately ordered the boats to sail elsewhere. He himself led a thousand men into the city to hide, sent another fifteen hundred to conceal themselves on Menggang Ridge, and dispatched a thousand more to lie in ambush in the woods southwest of the county seat.

The roving bandit chief, "Shake Luoxiao," did not even send out scouts, but foolishly led his ten thousand men forward to attack the city.

"Kill the bandits!"

Suddenly drums sounded from the gate tower. Xie Xuelong raised his own command banner, and a thousand local braves and yamen runners put up countless flags.

Shake Luoxiao was stricken with terror and cried out in fear: "It's an ambush! Retreat at once!"

The ten thousand roving bandits immediately fled in panic. Xie Xuelong personally led his troops out of the city in pursuit, frightening the bandits so badly that they even abandoned their grain supplies.

The ambushing troops to the southwest suddenly burst out, and the bandits collapsed entirely.

Of the fifteen hundred ambushers on Menggang Ridge, a thousand had already circled around to the south to cut off the bandits' line of retreat.

The bandits spotted the banners in the distance and fled eastward in terror. Immediately after, the five hundred ambushers on Menggang Ridge charged out.

Many bandits fell to their knees and begged for mercy. Even more fled to the northeast, utterly desperate and heedless of the path, for what awaited them there was the Lushui River.

Ten thousand roving bandits were annihilated in a single battle. Government troop casualties: zero.

"The Governor's command of troops is divinely inspired, as if Lord Yangming himself walked the earth again," Zuo Xiaocheng said, bowing with clasped hands in flattery. "This junior is filled with the deepest admiration!"

Xie Xuelong, however, frowned deeply: "Why has that rebel Zhao still not appeared?"

Li Zongxue guessed: "He must have detected the government troops' movements and fled in fright to hide in some great mountain."

"Until this rebel is eliminated, my heart cannot rest," Xie Xuelong instructed. "Send out more scouts to search. The moment any trace of the rebel Zhao is found, even if we must enter the mountains, we must go and swiftly exterminate him!"

Several thousand roving bandits were taken prisoner. Xie Xuelong did not slaughter them indiscriminately.

He identified the bandit chiefs and beheaded them, selected three hundred able-bodied young men to serve as local braves, and held the rest to be released next year for the spring planting.

He waited bitterly in Anfu County for two more days. Scouts rode mules and horses everywhere, yet there was still no news whatsoever of Zhao Han.

Xie Xuelong began to grow irritable. This state of affairs was truly unbearable.

"Urgent military intelligence! Urgent military intelligence!"

A fast boat came speeding over, someone aboard shouting frantically from outside the city.

The man was brought before the Governor. He fell to his knees with a thud and said: "Governor, the prefectural seat of Ji'an is lost. The officials of Ji'an Prefecture and Luling County, great and small, have all given their lives for the dynasty!"

"What?"

Xie Xuelong was so shocked he stood frozen to the spot. His several private secretaries and officers were likewise dumbstruck.

Li Zongxue rose and asked: "The prefectural seat had eight hundred guard troops, its walls high and its moats deep. How could it have fallen to the rebels?"

The messenger said with a mournful face: "According to the guard troops who escaped, the eunuch Zhang Yin forcibly took seven hundred and fifty men out of the city to defend his customs post and his great mansion. The rebels launched a night raid on the customs post camp, then tricked the city gates open and entered, killing all the officials and officers in one stroke!"

"That vile eunuch cur! He deserves death, death!"

Xie Xuelong shook with rage, suddenly drew his sword and struck, shearing off a corner of the table.

This battle was impossible to fight. The moment he turned back to relieve the prefectural seat, the rebels would surely flee. And if they did not flee along the river, Xie Xuelong, who had no cavalry, would be utterly powerless to pursue them.

His troops were far too few, and poorly trained besides; he could not even attempt a large-scale encirclement.

Even knowing that returning to relieve the prefectural seat was useless, even knowing he would be led by the nose by the rebels — Xie Xuelong still had to go back. Losing a prefectural seat was a grave crime. Should it result in enormous losses, the gentry would collude with officials to impeach him, and they could easily bring down a governor like him and throw him into prison.

"Return to relieve the prefectural seat!"

Xie Xuelong felt utterly weary at heart, and very much wished he could strangle that eunuch with his own hands.

And far to the west, in Yongxin County, Li Banghua, who was tasked with the great flanking maneuver, wanted to strangle the County Magistrate with his bare hands!

(End of chapter)