Chapter 115: Narrow Road

The Registrar of Yongxin County was hacked to death — just last month.

No one knows who did it; it was a gang of bandits, and there seemed to be women among them too.

There were also black fellows, wielding long staves, immensely strong, their whole bodies scorched black as ink.

This gang of bandits came by boat. First they looted the county yamen, then they forced the yamen runners into hard labor and swaggered off with the entire contents of the government treasury. After that they left the city and seized several more boats — in broad daylight, under the bright heavens, they sailed away without a care.

Li Banghua, leading over two hundred local braves, had abandoned their boats and marched overland to reach this place. The County Magistrate's first reaction was to bar the city gates.

After much pleading and arguing, Li Banghua was finally allowed inside the city, but the local braves were ordered to camp outside the walls.

That was, after all, the rule — guest troops were generally not permitted to enter the city.

Yet when Li Banghua, wielding the Governor's command, pressed the Yongxin County Magistrate to promptly provide grain and requisition boats, the man kept stalling and did nothing.

The county had no grain. What little of the autumn tax had just been collected was completely stripped away by the bandits.

The County Magistrate promised Li Banghua he would certainly help raise provisions, but the gentry all wailed poverty. As for boats, only two small ones were requisitioned; no one was willing to lend out the large ones.

"They're taking advantage of my army's strict discipline!"

Li Banghua had been left cooling his heels for days and could finally contain himself no longer.

His two hundred-odd local braves had made a long detour along the Lu River, and along the way they had committed not the slightest offense against the people. Under Li Banghua's restraint, they would not even trample the crops, and if they borrowed peasants' straw to spread their bedding, they returned it afterward.

So well-behaved, so virtuous — that no one feared them at all!

"Chang!"

The fifty-year-old former Minister of War suddenly drew his sword. "Follow me to the docks to seize boats. No wanton killing — one man per boat, to establish authority!"

The local braves, long seething with pent-up fury, followed Li Banghua as he charged to the docks.

Li Banghua assigned the killing quotas, designating exactly who was to strike the fatal blow on each boat. The other braves dared not disobey, but they found ways to vent their rage, storming aboard and delivering a flurry of punches and kicks.

After seizing the boats, Li Banghua left some braves to guard them and personally led troops to the county outskirts to seize grain.

The first one robbed was the Chiliarch of the Yongxin Guard Chiliarchy!

Next they robbed a landlord. To establish authority, they cut down more than ten people in succession.

Li Banghua brought the grain and provisions aboard, chose a large boat as his flagship, and stood at the prow shouting the order: "Set off!"

In this absurd age, following the rules truly got nothing done.

The County Magistrate stood atop the gate tower, his face drained of all color from terror. It was not that he had been deliberately stalling — he genuinely had no grain to levy — but he was also loath to spend his own silver to buy any.

Downstream they sailed, and in a single day they reached Tianhe Town.

Here, great mountains rose on both banks, with the He River cutting through the middle. Villages and towns mostly lay in the foothills along the river.

As night fell, they dared not continue sailing, for this stretch of water was swift and treacherous, and the riverbed held hidden reefs.

Not wishing to disturb the local people, Li Banghua did not choose to moor at the town. Instead, a little further downstream, he anchored the large boats fast and lashed the small boats to them. He sent twenty braves ashore to stand watch; all the rest remained on the boats to rest.

This gentleman enjoyed immense prestige in Ji'an Prefecture. By his prestige and personal charisma alone, he kept over two hundred local braves perfectly obedient.

This motley force was not much inferior to Zhao Han's in military discipline.

Outside the town, in the mountains.

Inside a large residence.

"Fourth Master, government troops are here! Several large boats, over twenty small ones!"

Fei Yinggong sprang to his feet, drew his sword, and sneered. "They dare come seeking death? Tell the brothers to prepare a night raid."

Fei Yinggong had no particular Great Unity ideals, but his methods were remarkably similar to Zhao Han's.

This fellow had first killed the landlord of this town, seized the landlord's house to live in, and bestowed the landlord's womenfolk upon his followers as wives. Even the black fellow, Tie Nu, got himself a widow.

Then he divided the land. He himself became the great landlord, his followers all became small landlords, and he also distributed land to many of the poor, turning them into independent farmers.

In an instant, he had firmly established himself in Tianhe Town!

The terrain here was even more formidable. Both banks were lined with mountains pressing against the river. The farmland lay either deep within the ranges or in a thin strip along the water's edge. If government troops attacked, one could simply run into the mountains — switching between offense and defense with perfect ease.

The middle of the night.

Li Banghua was sleeping in the cabin when he was jolted awake by shouts of battle. Countless torches blazed along the shore.

Of the braves standing watch on the bank, a few were cut down by the bandits, a few were so terrified they leaped into the river to escape, and a few, quicker-footed, fled back to the boats.

The braves were stricken with panic. They hurriedly weighed anchor and cut their mooring lines, steering the boats to flee this place at once.

In the darkness, one large boat had the misfortune to strike a reef, and several small boats capsized in the rushing current.

Li Banghua was filled with fury and hatred, but he could do nothing. To row back upstream, he would need trackers, and here not a single tracker could be found.

Why?

Because all the trackers were Fei Yinggong's men. They had already received land, and occasionally moonlighted as bandits raiding Yongxin County.

"Fourth Master, we've caught one alive!"

A local brave was brought before Fei Yinggong, already so terrified his whole body had gone limp.

Fei Yinggong conducted the interrogation himself. "Who leads these troops?"

"Minister Li," the brave answered honestly.

"What? A Minister?"

Fei Yinggong thought he had misheard. He had merely seized a poor village and town, done nothing more than loot the county yamen's treasury — was a Minister really needed to personally lead troops to suppress him?

The brave explained, "Master Li of Jishui, Minister Li."

A strange expression crossed Fei Yinggong's face. He had once traveled to study at White Egret Isle Academy. At that time, Li Banghua had been dismissed from office and was living at home; he had been invited to teach at the academy, and Fei Yinggong had attended his lectures for several months.

In other words, Li Banghua was Fei Yinggong's teacher.

Fei Yinggong hastily demanded, "How did Minister Li come to lead troops here?"

The brave answered, "In Luling County there are bandits — righteous men — killing landlords and dividing the land, causing a tremendous uproar. The Governor is leading troops to suppress them, and Minister Li brought us to cut off their rear."

Fei Yinggong could scarcely believe it. He murmured to himself, "What on earth has that kid done? To draw both Minister Li and the Governor here."

With that, he cut the brave down with a single stroke of his sword.

The next morning, Fei Yinggong assigned men to stand sentry upstream and downstream around the clock. The moment government troops were spotted, they were to bundle up their bedding and withdraw into the hills.

As for Li Banghua, who had been attacked for no apparent reason — when he counted heads at daybreak, he was so furious he wanted to turn back and slaughter the bandits of Tianhe Town.

Of over two hundred and thirty local braves, barely a hundred and ninety remained.

Landing at Huangjia Town, Li Banghua immediately sent scouts to probe the enemy situation, while he himself led the troops in a brief rest on the riverbank.

The scouts soon returned to report: not a single person was to be found inside or outside the town.

Li Banghua's brow furrowed deeply. He had marched his troops in a wide circle, spending twenty days in all — and still ended up grasping at empty air?

Li Banghua climbed the steps and came to the inn's entrance, where the signboard seeking to buy corn and sweet potatoes still hung.

Leading his troops out of the town, as they passed several commoners' houses, Li Banghua fell into thought.

Those houses all had earthen walls, whitewashed with propaganda slogans: EVERY PERSON HAS LAND TO TILL.

They came to another house: EVERY PERSON HAS A ROOF TO LIVE UNDER.

After that, a whole array of varied slogans —

EVERY PERSON HAS CLOTHES TO WEAR.

EVERY PERSON HAS RICE TO EAT.

THE ELDERLY HAVE SOMEONE TO LAY THEM TO REST; CHILDREN HAVE SOMEONE TO RAISE THEM.

WIDOWS, REMARRY AT ONCE.

THOSE WHO KEEP CHILDREN FROM STUDYING SHALL BE FINED IN GRAIN.

EQUALIZE THE LAND, LEVEL THE HIGH AND LOW.

Li Banghua sat cross-legged on a paddy ridge, staring blankly at "EQUALIZE THE LAND, LEVEL THE HIGH AND LOW."

Though the Li clan was a great lineage, Li Banghua himself had come from poverty.

Both he and his father had passed the juren examination, but their studies had cost far too much money. The dozen-odd mu of land the family owned could not cover their expenses; they did not even have enough travel funds for the capital examination, and had to set out together, father and son, walking all the way from Jiangxi to Beijing. The farmland in his village had all been seized by several local great families — even after he became a juren, no one came to offer him land.

How bitterly the peasants at the bottom suffered, Li Banghua knew all too well; he himself had once worked the fields.

All of a sudden, Li Banghua very much wished to meet Zhao Han, to speak with that rebel face to face. He wanted to persuade the rebel that Great Unity under Heaven was not to be achieved this way — that one should strive through the examinations to become an official, and then regulate the family, govern the state, and bring peace to all under Heaven.

Looking out, the winter wheat seedlings stretched lush and green; Li Banghua gazed at them with a surge of fondness.

As he looked on, Li Banghua abruptly sprang to his feet and bellowed, "No one trample the wheat shoots!"

One of the local braves said, "Sir, these are the rebels' wheat shoots. Better to destroy them all."

"Horseshit!"

Li Banghua said furiously, "Rebels are rebels, crops are crops. Once crops are planted, how can they be ruined and cast aside? Anyone who destroys more wheat shoots will be dealt with by military law!"

The local braves looked at one another, all thinking this Mr. Li was far too pedantic.

But none dared disobey. They scattered into the commoners' houses, trying to search out any valuables that had not been carried away.

Just as Li Banghua was preparing to withdraw his troops, a scout suddenly came to report: "Sir, the rebels have come down from the hills!"

Li Banghua froze for an instant, then drew his sword and shouted, "All of you, lads — follow me and slay the rebels!"

……

Pang Chunlai had already led his people into the mountains over twenty days ago. The villagers were all clamoring to go back, to weed and fertilize the winter wheat they had planted before retreating.

If they did not get back to work soon, the harvest would be ruined!

Moreover, the weather was growing colder by the day. Any further delay and it might snow; by then, people and livestock would surely freeze to death or be frostbitten.

Since the government troops had withdrawn many days ago, Zuo Xiaoliang had already led the villagers back to Reed Dam Village, a little downstream on the opposite bank. After settling things there, he crossed the river, entered the hills, and went in search of Pang Chunlai.

The two conferred and concluded that the government troops would not come again, so the entire population of Wuxing Town also began descending from the mountains.

The scouts Li Banghua had sent into the hills ran straight into the scouts Pang Chunlai had sent down from the hills.

The two sides' scouts, barely a dozen paces apart, stared wide-eyed at each other, then fled in fright to report the enemy's presence.

"Don't panic!"

Though Pang Chunlai's eyesight was poor, he knew the contours of the terrain.

He immediately gave the order: "We've got our families, the old and the young, plus grain and livestock — there's no way we can outrun government troops. Pull back to the ridge behind us. Pile the grain and supplies together as a barricade. Gather stones, quick! Able-bodied men to the front, women too — protect the old, the weak, and the livestock!"

Li Banghua, leading over a hundred and ninety local braves, hurried and rushed into the hills, only to be met by makeshift fortifications.

Sacks and baskets filled with grain, along with wheelbarrows and other supplies, had been arrayed as a defensive barrier. Every person with any strength, man or woman, had taken up a hoe or a carrying pole, and had brought over heaps of stones to hurl down.

One able-bodied adult had been conscripted from each household to serve as a soldier, and Chen Maosheng's propaganda corps had also drawn away some; very few able-bodied adults remained, the majority being the old, the weak, women, and children.

Pang Chunlai strained his eyes wide, trying to make out the enemy's situation, but could only see vague shapes shifting about.

Zuo Xiaoliang raised his hoe high and shouted to boost morale: "Fellow villagers, the curs of officials have brought troops, wanting to snatch away our land and grain. Will you let them?"

"We won't let them! We won't let them!"

The old, the weak, the women, and the children roared in unison. Though fear gripped their hearts, they feared losing their land and grain even more.

Besides, the terrain favored them; the government troops could only attack frontally, uphill.

Zuo Xiaoliang shouted again: "Kill the curs of officials!"

"Kill the curs of officials! Kill the curs of officials!"

The villagers' shouts grew louder and louder. Even children of just a few years joined in the cry, as if this were all great fun.

Li Banghua's expression was exceedingly complicated. He had been loyal to his sovereign and served his country, diligent in governance and devoted to the people — and in the end, the Emperor had stripped him of office and sent him home, and now, campaigning against rebels, he was cursed as a cur of an official.

"Uncle, they're mostly the old, the weak, women, and children — at most three or four hundred able-bodied. They have no proper weapons. If our men fight hard, we can take them in one assault," his nephew advised.

Li Banghua remained silent.

First, the enemy held the high ground and their morale was high — could they really be taken in one assault?

Second, the enemy were mostly the old, the weak, women, and children. Would slaughtering them all be any kind of glory?

After pondering a long while, Li Banghua said to his nephew, "Go and offer them terms of surrender. Tell them that as long as they submit to the authorities, all past offenses will be pardoned."

His nephew at once began climbing the slope. Before he could even open his mouth, several head-sized stones came tumbling down.

(End of chapter)