Chapter 118: Farming and Eating

"Governor, tear down the houses," Li Zongxue urged.

Xie Xuelong's face was full of misery: "The rebels didn't tear down houses, yet the Governor is going to tear them down — what kind of official am I even being?"

Generally speaking, a defending army will proactively demolish civilian houses outside the city, and even burn the woods near the city walls. This is to make it harder for the attackers to get materials for siege engines, and also harder for them to set ambushes.

But when Zhao Han defended the city, he deliberately did not tear down the houses — he left them precisely for Xie Xuelong!

Ji'an had seen no warfare for many years; there were even many illegally built civilian dwellings right at the foot of the city walls.

If Xie Xuelong wanted to assault the city, he would have to tear all these houses down. Otherwise, if Zhao Han threw torches down from above, they would ignite a huge swath at once, and the siege would inevitably turn into a giant barbecue.

Moreover, after tearing down the houses, the timber could be used to construct siege engines.

But did Xie Xuelong really dare demolish civilian homes?

Li Zongxue said, "Governor, the Prefect and the County Magistrate are dead — they died for the city, died for the realm. The prefectural seat has fallen, and when the court assigns blame, you, Governor, will bear the brunt. The garrison eunuch also bears grave guilt, but the eunuch is far away in Nanchang and took no part in the fighting here. To shift the blame, the eunuch will certainly dump all the fault onto your head. If you do not retake the prefectural seat quickly, dismissal, imprisonment — that will be the least of it!"

The Governor had several private secretaries, but now they had all fled, leaving only Li Zongxue.

Even Zuo Xiaocheng, who had come to offer his services days earlier, vanished without a trace the moment he learned the prefectural seat had fallen.

"Wait a little longer, wait a little longer," Xie Xuelong was caught between a rock and a hard place; he truly did not dare demolish civilian homes.

Inside and outside the city, the two sides thus fell into a standoff.

While defending the city, Zhao Han still had time to train new recruits in rotation; every morning and afternoon, he drew five hundred soldiers each session for drill.

On Xie Xuelong's side, if his troops had not been encamped on White Egret Isle, surrounded on all sides by the Gan River, his local levies would probably have all run off by now.

This was a decisive battle, not a chance encounter.

A decisive battle cannot be rushed; both sides were patiently making preparations.

Zhao Han was busy training new troops, and Xie Xuelong was likewise drilling his. The Governor, while sending men to neighboring prefectures to requisition grain, also begged the gentry to recruit local levies — because with the handful of troops he had, breaching the city was impossible.

Two more days passed in the blink of an eye.

Several hundred newly recruited levies mutinied before they even reached the riverbank; in the middle of the night they knocked out their officers and simply ran off.

Immediately after, two of Xie Xuelong's war junks also fled, and the levies on White Egret Isle began jumping into the river to escape. They knew the assault was hopeless and were unwilling to follow the Governor to their deaths; in just two or three days, his force shrank by one-eighth.

Faced with such dire straits, Xie Xuelong actually managed to keep his composure, sending trusted aides to strictly guard against desertion. At the same time, he gave the soldiers extra rations and rewarded those who performed well.

Deserters still slipped away, but the tide was at last stemmed.

Xie Xuelong still clung to a sliver of hope; he was on good terms with Left Provincial Administration Commissioner He Yingrui. He Yingrui had helped him smoothly raise troops for the Ruijin campaign before, and he hoped this time he could again send him more men and grain.

Yet no sooner had he written a letter and sent a man off with it than he suddenly received a secret letter from He Yingrui.

The letter contained only ten words: The eunuch slanders and backbites; I hope you will look after yourself.

Xie Xuelong set down the secret letter, his face the color of dead ashes. Everything was over.

On the surface, the letter said the eunuch was going to lodge a treacherous complaint, and that Xie Xuelong should prepare early. The subtext was: You are doomed this time; there is nothing I can do to help you.

During the Chongzhen reign, the Emperor incessantly pressed for tax revenue, yet Jiangxi province alone dared defy the imperial will and defer collection year after year.

What is deferred collection?

It means that when various disasters occur locally, this year's taxes are deferred and collected next year.

Shaanxi and Shanxi had turned into such hellish messes, yet even their Provincial Administration Commissioners dared not defer taxes year after year — but wealthy Jiangxi, of all places, dared!

He Yingrui, as Left Provincial Administration Commissioner of Jiangxi, had already been singled out and criticized by Chongzhen several times. It was not that he was especially bold, nor that his graft was too egregious, but that Jiangxi's taxes simply could not be collected in full.

The land had all been seized by the gentry; small landlords and freeholding peasants were few — how was the government supposed to collect the land tax?

This was the one and only, no other branch — in late Ming Jiangxi, there was never a single year when the taxes were collected in full.

Even now, Chongzhen still believed Jiangxi had suffered major disasters year after year…

He Yingrui had no way to send Xie Xuelong more troops; he had to scrape together every last coin and grain of rice and obediently deliver it to the Emperor. He would send whatever he could; it would never be the full amount anyway, and the Chongzhen Emperor had long grown used to it.

"Ah, withdraw the troops," Li Zongxue said.

Xie Xuelong replied with a bitter face, "The rebels are right at the prefectural seat — how can I possibly withdraw? The moment I withdraw, I'll likely face execution!"

Li Zongxue shot back, "Then just keep staring at them?"

"That's all I can do," Xie Xuelong sighed. "Even if only a single soldier remains, I must stay on White Egret Isle. If I leave, that is abandoning the city and fleeing."

Zhao Han did nothing at all, merely holding the city, and Xie Xuelong was already at the end of his rope.

Who told him to march out and suppress the rebels?

If Xie Xuelong had not tried to play the hero, if he had stayed obediently in Nanchang, he would not have to bear the brunt of the blame for Ji'an's fall.

The more you do, the more mistakes you make; the less you do, the fewer mistakes; do nothing, and you make no mistakes.

Whoever does the work gets hit with the disaster!

Standing on the shore of White Egret Isle, Xie Xuelong gazed at the prefectural seat across the water, his heart already dead as ashes.

He could not attack, and he could not leave; he could only stare helplessly.

In all of Jiangxi, no one was willing to help him; he was confronting the rebels entirely alone.

By rights, it should be Zhao Han the rebel who was encircled and suppressed, yet the world was so absurd that it seemed instead the Governor was the one besieged. Xie Xuelong was crushed under the weight, unable to breathe.

Li Zongxue came to Xie Xuelong's side: "Governor, we cannot drag this out any longer. Even if defeat is certain, we must find a chance to attack, otherwise our levies will quietly run off on their own."

"Muzong, tell me, what in the world has become of the Great Ming?" Xie Xuelong looked up at the heavens.

Li Zongxue remained silent.

Xie Xuelong pointed toward the docks south of the city: "Just because the rebels have stopped plundering, those gentry and merchants outside the city act as if everything is normal. Not only do they refuse to help me suppress the rebels, they instead blame me for stirring up war. In the end, am I the bandit, or is that Zhao Yan who seized the prefectural seat the bandit?"

Li Zongxue said, "In their hearts, they actually know perfectly well. They are simply waiting and watching."

"Waiting and watching?" Xie Xuelong gave a cold laugh.

"Yes, they are watching," Li Zongxue said. "Right now, the rebel Zhao is strong and can send men out of the city to kill at any time; their lives hang by a thread, so naturally they resent you, Governor, for stirring up trouble. But if the troops in your hands, Governor, were not a few thousand rabble but ten thousand elite soldiers of the court — then you, Governor, would be the strong one, holding the power of life and death, and they would naturally help you kill the rebels."

Xie Xuelong shook his head with a bitter smile, utterly dispirited: "Muzong, you see through it all so clearly. Such is the human heart. So it is at court, and so it is in the provinces."

Li Zongxue said in a low voice, "It is also because the court has lost its authority. A vast province like Jiangxi cannot even scrape together a few hundred regular troops. Otherwise, how could a petty rebel be allowed to make such a racket?"

Xie Xuelong suddenly pressed his hand on his sword hilt and said with a solemn face, "Muzong, if I die, you should go surrender to the rebels."

"Governor, why do you say that?" Li Zongxue did not understand.

Xie Xuelong said, "The Great Ming is beyond saving. I eat the sovereign's grain, I am loyal to the sovereign's cause — I can only repay my lord with death. Yet the drifting rebels of the northwest and the Tartars of the northeast alike lack the power to forge a new order. The rebels in every region are also men of short sight. Only this rebel Zhao before us, after seizing the prefectural seat, can still restrain his subordinates and keep the outskirts of Ji'an as prosperous as before. Should the Great Ming realm collapse, the one who succeeds will surely be this man!"

Li Zongxue shook his head repeatedly. "I am a juren — how could I join the rebels?"

"As you wish," Xie Xuelong said, too weary to discuss it further, and added only, "Tomorrow, demolish the civilian houses outside the walls and press on with building siege equipment. Within ten days we must storm the city."

Xie Xuelong had already steeled his heart for death. This was not a siege — he was throwing himself against the city walls to die!

Year after year pressing levies without paying taxes at the full quota — in all the realm, Jiangxi was the sole exception.

A governor unable to openly establish his own command, unable to lawfully recruit his own guard troops — in all the realm, Jiangxi was likewise the sole exception.

Had he been sent as governor to any other province, Xie Xuelong would never have suffered such humiliation. He could at least have trained two thousand governor's guard troops, with formal military establishment status, and the local authorities would have been obliged to supply funds and grain without a word!

The next day, Xie Xuelong sent out the local militia and began demolishing civilian dwellings outside the city on a large scale.

The gentry and commoners were stunned and enraged. Even the rebels had let them keep their homes when they came — and now the governor was tearing their houses down?

"Brazen corrupt official, how dare you harass my children!"

Zhao Han stood atop the gate tower and roared in fury, "Ruhe, take troops out of the city at once and protect the people's houses and property!"

"Right away!"

Fei Ruhe was inwardly overjoyed. He immediately led five hundred soldiers out of the city to attack the troops demolishing the houses.

The government soldiers turned and fled in terror, and Fei Ruhe gave chase, cutting them down.

Zhao Han gave another order: "Dashan, get out of the city quickly and help the people repair their houses!"

Jiang Dashan set off cheerfully — and indeed brought soldiers and some carpenters with him, going to help the common folk repair their dwellings.

"Our clear-sky lord!"

Countless commoners of the lowest station knelt as one and cried out, kowtowing again and again toward Zhao Han on the gate tower.

Xiao Huan, watching this, did not know whether to laugh or cry.

Who, in the end, was the official, and who the rebel?

Ouyang Zheng was also on the wall, no longer bound — though he had not joined the rebels either. The man stared, dumbstruck, then turned toward the direction of White Egret Isle and burst out cursing, "Rebel Xie, you disgrace the title of a court-appointed official — you are worse than a rebel!"

Xie Xuelong was also boiling with rage, feeling as though he had been made a capering clown.

"Follow me ashore and kill the rebels!"

Zhao Han had sent a thousand soldiers out of the city in two waves, and Xie Xuelong seized the opportunity at once — he had been afraid Zhao Han would stay holed up inside the city and refuse to come out.

"Sound the horn!"

Zhao Han ordered the bugler to blow the assembly call on the suona.

He kept just over a thousand soldiers to hold the city himself and sent all the rest out, determined to fight the government troops in an open, aboveboard decisive battle.

Xie Xuelong feared Zhao Han would hide in the city, and Zhao Han feared Xie Xuelong would hide on White Egret Isle.

The two sides seemed to reach a tacit understanding: both massed their forces north of the city, unwilling to do battle in the prosperous southern districts.

Xie Xuelong's troop strength... well, it was hard to reckon.

Because in the brief moment it took to sail over from White Egret Isle, yet another boat had fled.

The conscripted laborers especially, seeing that a real fight was about to begin, ignored the cold river water and threw themselves into the stream to flee.

Many of the army's civil clerks, unwilling to follow the governor ashore, hid inside the White Egret Isle Academy and refused to show their faces.

The two sides drew up their formations.

The righteous army numbered three thousand men, under the overall command of Fei Ruhe.

The government troops numbered nearly three thousand, under the overall command of Xie Xuelong.

Neither side had any ranged units; they would engage purely with infantry, and both employed a simplified version of the Mandarin Duck formation.

Battle was about to begin. The propaganda officers mixed among the troops kept up a steady stream of pre-battle exhortation: "Kill the corrupt officials, and every man will have land to till, every man will have clothes to wear, every man will have food to eat. If we lose, our land will be seized by the officials! New recruit brothers, win this fight, and Mr. Zhao will lead you all to divide the land!"

Xie Xuelong also shouted, "My lads, be loyal to the sovereign and serve the nation, defend your native soil — follow me and wipe out these rebels!"

Boom-boom-boom-boom-boom!

The war drums beat, and the troops advanced slowly.

Neither side's central division moved. Each sent out three pickets to engage, while the left and right pickets advanced and stood ready.

Even more absurdly, neither side dared to move too fast. The moment they sped up, their formations fell into chaos — every last one of them a damned rabble.

Before the lines even met, soldiers on both sides were already fleeing.

Xie Xuelong immediately dispatched his battle-supervision squad to behead the militiamen who deserted in the face of battle.

On the righteous army's side, however, the enforcement squad blocked the deserters with staves, while the propaganda corps shouted frantically, "Cousins, if you run, there'll be no land to till — if you run, you'll live a bitter life! We want to farm and eat!"

The propaganda officers kept shouting, chasing after the fleeing soldiers as they shouted.

Shouting and shouting, the deserters turned back one after another, howling as they charged forward again: "Farm and eat! Farm and eat!"

"Farm and eat!"

"Farm and eat!"

The righteous army roared as one, as if possessed by gods, charging forward with utter disregard for life or death.

Except for the eight hundred veterans of Wuxing Town, every new recruit's formation collapsed completely. No matter what weapon they held, they simply charged ahead, having forgotten every skill they had learned in training.

Wu Yong, who came from a guard-station background, had long since had his background uncovered, but Zhao Han had not expelled him.

Having earned merit many times over, Wu Yong had by now been promoted to squad leader.

His aging mother back home could be looked after by his brothers for now. He wanted to follow Mr. Zhao and go to the countryside to divide the land. If he came across a widow, he might even be able to take a wife.

Wu Yong dreamed of having his own land, dreamed of finding a wife.

"Farm and eat, farm and eat!"

Wu Yong leveled his spear and charged forward. He forgot to command his ten-man squad, and his squad members would not have heeded their squad leader's orders anyway.

In any case, just charge and be done with it!

Wu Yong even charged out of the formation, ran ahead of the wolf-brush spearmen, and hurled himself recklessly into the enemy ranks, shouting only one thing over and over: "Farm the land and eat, farm the land and eat!"

The fight was decided swiftly. The uprising army did not fear death, but every one of the village braves clung to his life.

The vast majority of these village braves were sons of respectable families. They had land at home and no worries about food and clothing — why would they want to throw their lives away against mud-legged peasants?

Xie Xuelong's battle supervisors could not hold them back. The Governor could only take personal command of the line, leading his central-army troops in a charge: "Slay the rebels to repay the nation, defend our native soil!"

"Farm the land and eat!"

"Farm the land and eat!"

The uprising army shouted even louder. Even the veterans lost their reason, and their formation gradually fell apart.

Of course, there was no need to keep formation any longer.

"Du-du-da, du-du-da-du-da-du-da, du-du-du-du-du-du wuuuuuu~~~~~~"

"Du-du-da, du-du-da-du-da-du-da, du-du-du-du-du-du wuuuuuu~~~~~~"

The sound of suona horns rose over the battlefield, and the uprising army went completely berserk. Even Fei Ruhe's central army charged together with them.

Xie Xuelong's village braves had collapsed along the entire line.

Xie Xuelong had intended to lead his central army to steady the line, but instead he was scattered by the routing troops. His eyes turned bloodshot. Suddenly he drew his sword and laid it across his neck, turned to gaze north, and murmured: "Your Majesty, your servant has not failed his sovereign — but may the sovereign fail his servant?"

Xie Xuelong, who was supposed to drown himself in the river at Nanjing to die for the dynasty, ended his own life by the sword outside Ji'an more than ten years early.

When word came that Xie Xuelong had been defeated and taken his own life, his private secretary Li Zongxue, far away at White Egret Isle, resolutely threw himself into the Gan River to die. He did not die for the dynasty — he followed his patron. The court meant nothing to him.

(End of chapter)