Chapter 116: He Who Has the Dao Prevails (For Alliance Leader

One family, three jinshi; across the river, two grand councilors; within five li, three Zhuangyuan; in a hundred paces, two Ministers; ten li, nine Provincial Administration Commissioners; nine sons, ten Prefects.

The lines above speak of Jishui County, which ranks first in the entire realm for the number of jinshi it has produced.

The Li clan of Gu Village — just one village, one surname. If you count those posthumously honored, in these last few decades alone, they have produced eleven Ministers.

Of course, the current number of sitting Ministers still stands at eight. They must wait until the court has no one left to use, until Chongzhen has no choice but to recall Li Banghua to office — only then will his father, grandfather, and great-grandfather be granted or posthumously honored with the title of Minister.

In the morning, a farm lad in the fields; by dusk, he ascends to the hall of the Son of Heaven.

This saying fits Li Banghua perfectly. His family had truly fallen into decline; when his grandmother passed away, they did not even have a thin-plank coffin, and could only wrap her in rice stalks and bury her in secret.

Seeing his nephew driven back by the rolling stones, Li Banghua immediately began pondering how to break the enemy.

To repay the imperial grace, to rid the state of rebels — even the old, the weak, women, and children must be killed!

Li Banghua dared not launch a frontal assault. He led his troops to block the road down the mountain and dispatched soldiers to scout for other paths up.

The two sides began a standoff.

One side dared not retreat, the other dared not attack — they simply stared at each other like that.

After a while, a militiaman came back to report: "Uncle, two li to the right, there is a way to scramble up the slope, but rebels are guarding the top of the slope too."

With no path for a surprise attack, the only option was a direct frontal assault.

"Men, follow me and kill the rebels!" Li Banghua drew his sword from its sheath and personally led the charge.

Pang Chunlai immediately gave the order: "Release the rolling stones!"

Stones of varying sizes tumbled continuously down the slope, and more than a dozen militiamen were struck down one after another.

Unfortunately, the slope was not steep, and the stones rolled down slowly.

Two unlucky souls had their shinbones snapped; the rest merely had their feet pinned or were knocked over and quickly scrambled back up.

"Sisters, kill the corrupt officials!"

Xiaohong organized the women and children, who grabbed fist-sized clods of earth and rocks and hurled them at the charging militiamen.

This stuff, surprisingly, proved more lethal than the rolling stones. A hit to the body only caused pain, but a hit to the head was guaranteed to split skin and draw blood.

Even Li Banghua himself, the dignified former Minister of the Ministry of War, was struck on the head by some village woman — a large, dark bruise swelled up on his forehead.

The mountain pass was narrow; too many villagers could not spread out into formation.

Seeing how effective the women and children's stone-throwing was, the villagers in the rear who could not reach the front line all began picking up rocks and clods of earth and flinging them downward.

The militiamen's first charge was actually beaten back by the villagers throwing stones.

Three thousand people hurling stones at once, countless small pebbles flying wildly through the air — the scene was as spectacular as a storm of bullets and arrows.

"Quick, gather stones! Not the big ones, just the small pebbles!"

At Xiaohong's command, she and Xiaocui led the women and children in gathering pebbles. The nearby pebbles had already been picked clean, and some people simply took off their shoes and hurled them downward.

Li Banghua withdrew his troops to the foot of the slope, utterly disheveled and bedraggled.

Not only did his forehead sport a large dark bruise, but during the retreat he was also struck on the back of the head, traces of blood faintly seeping through his hair.

Several militiamen were even knocked unconscious outright by small pebbles and had to be dragged back by their comrades with considerable effort.

"We won, we won!"

The villagers cheered loudly, while the militiamen wore grim, dejected faces.

Li Banghua was seething with pent-up rage and also felt a deep sense of defeat. He had never fought a battle like this in his life.

Under normal circumstances, the villagers should have scattered at the first charge, yet now it was the militiamen who had been repelled.

Pang Chunlai could not help laughing. "That official down there — 'He who has the Dao finds many to support him; he who has lost the Dao finds few.' Do you not even understand this principle? Surrender quickly, and do not aid the tyrant in his oppression."

Seeing that there was a learned man among the rebels, Li Banghua stepped forward a few paces and said in a clear voice: "I am Li Banghua. To what divine sage do I owe the honor of your presence?"

The name surprised Pang Chunlai considerably. He cupped his hands in salute and said, "So it is Li Meng'an. I had the good fortune to see you once in Tianjin back then. It is lamentable that today, the men and the world are no longer what they were."

Seen him in Tianjin?

Li Banghua searched his memory carefully. If they had met in Tianjin, it must have been when he served as Governor of Tianjin.

He had once vigorously reorganized the Tianjin New Army, at one point making it the strongest force in the Northern Metropolitan Region.

But this man before him — he seemed to have no impression of him at all.

Pang Chunlai smiled. "Brother Li, do not tax your memory. That year, you were the Governor of Tianjin, and I was merely a minor private secretary. You could not possibly remember me!"

"May I ask whose private secretary you were?" Li Banghua asked, curious.

"Heh heh, I will not say. To speak would surely bring trouble upon my former master." Pang Chunlai's smile was full of delight.

Just at that moment, a signal smoke suddenly rose from the south.

Li Banghua was startled and uncertain, unable to figure out what was happening.

Pang Chunlai, however, wore a strange smile. Those were the sentries he had dispatched. The signal smoke should have risen the moment government troops appeared.

There were six sentries in total.

Two were on the mountain near Lijia Guai, responsible for scouting for enemies coming from the east.

Two were on the high mountain to the west, responsible for scouting for enemies circling around to the rear.

Two were stationed at the inn in Wuxing Town; even if they could not send up the signal smoke, they could run on foot into the mountains to deliver the warning.

Yet all the sentries had failed — no one knew what had gone wrong.

Li Banghua looked back at the signal smoke, his heart full of worry. All his provisions and fodder were on the boats.

Fearing he lacked sufficient troops, Li Banghua had not dared to split his forces and send them into the mountains. He had left only one soldier to guard each boat; the rest were all boatmen from Yongxin County.

Seeing that the assault on the mountain was hopeless and that signal smoke had risen behind him, Li Banghua suddenly gave the order: "All troops, withdraw to the riverbank!"

"You come and now you think you can leave?"

Pang Chunlai abruptly drew his sword and bellowed: "Even if half our number must die today, we will keep you, Li Meng'an, here!"

"Withdraw!"

Li Banghua ordered the retreat and personally led a hundred militiamen to cover the rear.

Pang Chunlai scrambled out from behind the makeshift barricade and shouted, "Everyone fifteen and older, all able-bodied men to the front — hold these bastards back!"

Nearly six hundred able-bodied men, armed with farm tools, came out to form ranks — all of them men Zhao Han had rejected. Most were males aged fifteen to eighteen or forty-five to fifty; barely over a hundred were between eighteen and forty-five.

A man covered in wounds suddenly came over the mountain from the rear, gasping for breath. "Mr. Pang, it rained in the second half of the night — the firewood and cow dung are soaked through. We can't get the wolf-smoke lit for a while. Huang Zhuang is still trying to start the fire. He sent me running back first to report!"

He glanced back, then forced a grin. "It's lit. It's lit now."

"I'll deal with punishing you two later," Pang Chunlai said, half amused. "But a mistake that works out is still a win — this time we've hooked a big fish."

Pang Chunlai led the six hundred able-bodied men and slowly advanced toward Li Banghua. But he dared not get too close — these men were untrained, and most would likely break and scatter at the first charge.

The more it went on, the more panicked Li Banghua became. In the end, he simply had his entire force run for the riverbank.

Pang Chunlai, afraid of being hit by a sudden counterattack, only dared to follow at a distance with his men. He truly had no soldiers to spare.

…

Now, as for the two sentries left at the inn — one was asleep, the other standing watch.

But Li Banghua had come downstream far too quickly, and with no wolf-smoke warning from upriver, the sentries at the inn spotted him far too late.

They woke the sleeping man, and the two of them were about to head into the mountains to pass the word, but Li Banghua had already landed on the river shoal upstream. What's more, he had swiftly sent out local militia to scout in all directions and had blocked off the nearest mountain path.

In their panic, one sentry took a roundabout route into the mountains to notify Pang Chunlai, while the other fled toward Lijia Guai downstream.

The one who took the roundabout mountain route had no idea Pang Chunlai was coming down the mountain, and even now had still not found the main force.

But the one who ran to Lijia Guai had already met Huang Shunfu.

"Deputy Town Chief Huang, quick, bring men into the mountains — government troops are here!" the messenger said.

Huang Shunfu asked, "How many came?"

The messenger answered, "Didn't have time to count. Maybe several hundred. And a lot of boats came too."

"Erzi, go quickly and notify the villagers — pack up and get ready to head into the mountains." Huang Shunfu thought for a moment, then added, "Have Liu Laosi and his bunch take fishing boats out to see what's going on."

Several fishing boats soon reached Wuxing Town and drew near the large and small vessels along the shore. The fishermen and the boatmen on board stared at each other in mutual bewilderment.

"The rebels are coming! Run for it!"

The boatmen panicked and instinctively wanted to cast off and flee.

"Don't panic!"

Li Banghua had left one local militiaman on each boat — all of them his own men brought from Jishui.

Those militiamen were enough to intimidate the boatmen, and order was quickly restored.

The fishermen hurried back to Lijia Guai to report that there were hardly any soldiers on the boats. Huang Shunfu immediately led his able-bodied men to rush and seize the vessels.

Seeing over two hundred rebels bearing down on them, the boatmen finally cracked. Ignoring the militiamen's efforts to hold them in check, they cast off one after another and fled downstream, not stopping until they had passed Lijia Guai.

"Government troops are here!"

Huang Shunfu was still pondering how to pursue the enemy when Li Banghua suddenly emerged from the mountains with his troops. Startled, Huang Shunfu hurriedly organized the villagers to retreat.

Li Banghua pursued Huang Shunfu from a distance, while Pang Chunlai, in turn, pursued Li Banghua from a distance.

Li Banghua gave the order to turn and strike, and Pang Chunlai immediately withdrew. A full half-li stood between the two sides.

The whole battle was absurd — one side was insecure, the other cautious, like two men beating each other with hemp stalks, each terrified of the other.

The main problem was that neither side had enough troops. Li Banghua could not spare men to guard the boats, and now that the boats were lost, he was deeply uneasy.

As for Pang Chunlai and Huang Shunfu, the villagers they led might have been numerous, but they had not a shred of training. Half a li from the enemy, they could still follow orders, but if they were closed with on open ground, they would certainly scatter in an instant.

They had Fei Yinggong to thank, in large part — his baffling night raid last night had cost Li Banghua forty men, a full sixth of the government force.

And most of those had not been killed in combat, but had drowned when their boats struck rocks in the dark.

Otherwise, if Li Banghua had left forty militiamen to guard the boats, why would he have feared villagers sneaking up to seize them?

After a great deal of fuss, Li Banghua finally located his boats downstream and secured his provisions and fodder.

"Ah, we still couldn't hold them," Pang Chunlai could only sigh.

The villagers could only watch the government troops depart. They dared not pursue — in close combat, they would surely be defeated.

Li Banghua was equally dejected. He had come on a flanking raid, only to find the bandits long prepared. What baffled him even more was: where had Xie Xuelong's main force gone?

The original plan had been that even if the raid failed, they could still pinch the enemy from front and rear.

Now his ally had vanished without a trace, and with fewer than two hundred men, how was he supposed to pinch anyone? He was the one about to get pinched!

At Wuxing Town and Lijia Guai, and at Huangba Village across the river, rebel bands were appearing everywhere. Even on the river, fishing boats were shadowing him from a distance.

Li Banghua could only choose to strike at one route, and he still had to split his force to guard the boats and supplies. This battle was simply impossible to fight.

Left with no choice, Li Banghua boarded his boats and slipped away, not daring to land again until he reached Yongyang Town.

Once ashore, he made inquiries and learned that Xie Xuelong had long since withdrawn his troops.

Li Banghua could only raise his eyes to heaven and sigh. He then took a boat to Sanjiangkou, where he finally got a more detailed military report: Xie Xuelong had first gone up the Lu River to Anfu County, smashed over ten thousand bandits, and then returned by boat to relieve the prefectural seat — because the prefectural seat had already fallen to the rebels.

The prefectural seat of Ji'an had fallen?

Li Banghua was utterly stupefied. No matter how he turned it over in his mind, he could not fathom how the rebels had taken the prefectural city.

What came next was even more absurd.

Li Banghua sailed on toward the prefectural seat, intending to link up with Xie Xuelong. Passing Shishan Town, he received further news — Governor Xie Xuelong's entire army had been annihilated!

(Seeking monthly tickets.)

(End of chapter)