Chapter 9: 009: Offering a Stratagem

"Elder sister, has His Excellency the Magistrate not yet returned to the yamen?"

"He came back once last night, slept only four hours, and went out again early this morning."

"If His Excellency returns again, might I trouble you, elder sister, to let me know?"

"Rest easy, young master, I have it all in mind."

Watching the maidservant leave, and once the herbal brew on the table had cooled enough, Zhao Han propped his little sister up to drink the medicine.

They had been staying in the county yamen for a day and two nights now, and his little sister's illness wavered between better and worse. Sometimes her fever barely subsided, sometimes it flared up fiercely — back and forth with no telling which day she would finally recover.

But the medicine was nearly all decocted, and Zhao Han had no money left.

And Fei Yinghuan and Wang Yongshi seemed to have forgotten Zhao Han entirely. That was only natural — who would keep two famine-fleeing children in mind?

By the afternoon, Magistrate Wang still had not returned to the yamen, and Zhao Han could wait no longer.

He found the maidservant and said, "Elder sister, I must go out for a while. I must trouble you to look after my little sister."

The maidservant was assigned solely to attend Magistrate Wang's daily needs; with the master not at home, she too had nothing to do. Zhao Han's tongue was honeyed, and with a hairpin as a bribe besides, the maidservant agreed readily and without fuss.

Carrying his long spear and going out, Zhao Han invoked Fei Yinghuan's tiger skin and made inquiries around the yamen, but no one could say for certain where the magistrate was.

With no other choice, Zhao Han had to leave the yamen, asking his way as he went in search of a pawnshop.

"Dong dong dong dong dong dong!!!"

Suddenly, from the direction of the bell tower came wave after wave of tolling, and the yamen runners throughout the county all rushed toward the various city gates.

Just as Zhao Han was puzzling over this, he saw Wang Yongshi, Fei Yinghuan, Wei Jianxiong, and the others come sprinting over from the distance, flanked by several low-ranking military officers.

"Your Excellency…"

Zhao Han made to step forward and speak, but was directly shoved aside by a yamen runner, and the whole group headed for the north gate.

Something terrible has happened!

…

Wang Yongshi had used thunderbolt methods to confiscate the property of the greatest local magnate in the city.

He had also allied with Assistant Magistrate Lu, who held no real power, and, wielding that awe, turned the pressure on the local bully Registrar Li, spending an entire day seizing control of the yamen's three squads and six offices. Immediately after, he had summoned the city's prominent households for a meeting, forced the grain merchants to stabilize rice prices, and semi-coerced the gentry into donating money and grain.

All these measures, one could say, were exceedingly brilliant, and it looked as though by the next day they could open the granaries to relieve the famine victims.

It was at this moment that a deputy patrol inspector appeared, bearing wounds, and brought word that the disaster victims had risen in revolt.

The Willow Green Town Patrol Office was the equivalent of the Willow Green Town police station. Although the town's post station (courier relay) had been relocated to Tianjin, the Patrol Office had been retained, and it was now surrounded and under attack by a peasant force that had smashed its way in.

The patrol inspector, a rank-nine official, had been torn limb from limb on the spot; the deputy patrol inspector had narrowly escaped with his life, fled in blind panic by jumping into the river, and after making a wide detour had come to the county seat to report the news.

Ascending the northern gate tower, Wang Yongshi strained his eyes to the horizon but saw no sign of the peasant army.

Deputy Patrol Inspector Zhang Fen said, "Your Excellency, at this very moment, the rioters are likely pillaging Duliu Town."

Duliu Town lay between Jinghai County seat and Willow Green Town, another large town that had flourished because of the canal transport.

From a military standpoint, Duliu Town was even more important than Willow Green Town, for it was here that the South Canal, the Ziya River, and the Daqing River merged into one — hence the origin of the town's name, "Duliu," meaning "a single confluence."

"Clop clop clop clop!"

A lone rider suddenly came from the north — it was Song Chunming, head of the Duliu Town Patrol Office, riding alone to the county seat to bring word.

Why was he the only one?

Because there was only one horse, and the office chief had simply mounted it and slipped away!

Racing to the foot of the wall, Song Chunming shouted, "I am Song Chunming, Patrol Inspector of Duliu Town! I come with urgent military intelligence! Let me into the city at once!"

Wang Yongshi gave the order: "Hoist him up."

Abandoning even his mount, Song Chunming came up to the gate tower in a willow basket and said in a panic, "Your Excellency, the famine victims have risen — Duliu Town is lost!"

Wang Yongshi asked without any sign of haste, "How many rioters are there?"

"Several thousand, maybe ten thousand," Song Chunming said.

Fei Yinghuan frowned and cut in, "Is it several thousand or ten thousand?"

Song Chunming said, "At least several thousand, at most ten thousand."

Wang Yongshi suppressed the anger rising in his heart and asked, "Where are your men?"

Song Chunming said, "All gone — either killed or turned bandit."

Zhang Fen, the deputy patrol inspector from Willow Green Town, said with a barbed tongue, "I traveled over twenty li on foot to get here, and Patrol Inspector Song, with only ten li to ride, arrives only now?"

Song Chunming flew into a rage and demanded, "Then why didn't you come to Duliu Town first to bring word? At least I would have had some warning, instead of being caught completely off guard by the rebel bandits!"

Zhang Fen shot back angrily, "You have the nerve to say that! When I reached the Duliu Town Patrol Office, there wasn't a soul there — the patrol office yamen was empty. Where had you and your subordinates gone off carousing?"

"I… I had taken my men into the countryside to hunt bandits at the time," Song Chunming said haltingly.

Zhang Fen sneered, "Hunting bandits? More likely using the pretext of hunting bandits to lead your men into the villages and prey on the villagers!"

"You spew venom with your mouth full of blood!" Song Chunming's neck flushed crimson.

A deputy chief of a township patrol office and a chief of a township patrol office thus began quarreling right in front of the county magistrate.

"Shut your mouths!"

Wang Yongshi could listen no longer and silenced their squabbling. He said to Fei Yinghuan, "Brother Dazhao, the rebel bandits are pillaging Duliu Town today, and I fear they will come to the county seat tomorrow. Help me defend the city, and when the time comes I will lend you an extra ten taels of silver for traveling expenses."

"Ten taels? At least a hundred!" Fei Yinghuan haggled.

These two — even with the flames licking their brows, they still had the mood to jest.

Just then, Assistant Magistrate Lu Hui and Registrar Li Xing hurried over and asked in alarm, "Have the rioters really come to kill?"

Wang Yongshi did not answer directly, but instead his face lit up with delight. "Registrar Li, you have come at just the right moment!"

"Why just the right moment?" Li Xing was utterly baffled.

Wang Yongshi smiled broadly and said, "This magistrate would like to ask Registrar Li for a small favor."

Sensing something amiss, Li Xing asked reflexively, "What favor?"

"To borrow your head for a use!"

Before the words had faded, Wang Yongshi suddenly spun around, reached out, and drew the treasured sword from Fei Yinghuan's waist.

A flash of the blade — blood sprayed — Registrar Li Xing clutched his throat and collapsed, convulsing.

This County Magistrate Wang, it turned out, was highly skilled with the sword!

Everyone was stunned; the two disgraced patrol chiefs were so terrified they dropped straight to their knees on the ground.

Assistant Magistrate Lu Hui cried out in alarm, "Your Honour, why have you done this?"

Wang Yongshi said, "This brute has entrenched himself in Jinghai for years; his crimes are too numerous to record. The rebels now appearing in this county are all the result of his oppressive misrule driving the people to revolt. Men — take this wretch's head and go outside the city to pacify the disaster victims. First quell the people's anger, then we'll talk. The county yamen, the county school, the Confucian temple, the academy, the examination hall — clear them all out to shelter the city's outskirts populace and the disaster victims. Before daybreak tomorrow, not a single person is to remain outside the walls!"

Outside the city were large numbers of people dwelling against the walls, as well as countless disaster victims who had fled famine and come this way.

If these people were not let into the city, then when the peasant army reached the walls, they would likely all be swept up in its ranks, and the enemy's numbers would multiply several times over.

Wang Yongshi added, "Assistant Magistrate Lu, go summon the great households of the city and have them immediately contribute grain to relieve the common people. If we let them in but don't let them eat their fill, I fear the city itself will fall into disorder."

With someone now taking responsibility, Lu Hui steadied himself, clasped his fist in salute, and said, "This humble official shall go at once."

Wang Yongshi continued issuing orders: "Constable Chen, you are in charge of public order within the city. Patrol Chiefs Huang, Song, and Zhang — you three will assist Constable Chen in recruiting local braves from the city. By daybreak I want one thousand volunteer soldiers!"

"Yes, sir!" The four men acknowledged the order.

Wang Yongshi went on, "The three squads and six offices of the county yamen — each attend to your duties. Prepare military pay, fodder, and weapons. If you cannot find swords, spears, halberds, or pikes, use kitchen knives, clubs, and staves. Gather nightsoil broth, vegetable oil, bricks and stones, and rolling logs. This magistrate intends to use them to defend the city tomorrow!"

Just as all his orders were given, a guard from the north gate suddenly came to report: "Your Honour, a young gentleman seeks an audience, claiming to be a junior kinsman of Your Honour."

"What junior kinsman do I have here? Send him away!" Wang Yongshi said impatiently.

The gate guard reminded him, "He says he has a plan to defeat the enemy to report."

Wang Yongshi gave a cold laugh, thought it over, and said, "Bring him here for questioning."

News that the rebels were about to attack the county seat had already spread through every street and alley; clearly, many officials had no idea what keeping a secret meant.

Even Zhao Han, walking along the street, had overheard it in passing, and so he plucked up his courage and came to offer a plan.

Just offering a plan — he wouldn't have to do the fighting himself. If it succeeded, wouldn't that be a gain?

Zhao Han was brought up onto the gate tower. Wang Yongshi found his face somewhat familiar and soon recalled that this was the child he had settled in the county yamen.

"A descendant of an old friend of yours?" Wang Yongshi asked Fei Yinghuan.

Fei Yinghuan found this rather interesting and answered ambiguously, "You could say so."

Zhao Han cupped his fist and said, "Greetings, Your Honour."

Wang Yongshi asked bluntly, "At your tender age, what plan to defeat the enemy could you possibly have?"

Zhao Han asked in return, "May I ask how many men the rising rebels number?"

Wang Yongshi answered, "Several thousand, perhaps ten thousand."

Zhao Han asked again, "And may I ask, of these several or ten thousand rebels, how many possess armour, how many swords, how many bows and arrows?"

Wang Yongshi said, "Starving peasants in revolt — without having seized an armoury — what armour and weapons could they have?"

Zhao Han pressed further, "May I ask where the rebels are at this moment?"

Wang Yongshi said, "They are currently pillaging Duliuzhen, ten li away."

Zhao Han asked once more, "It will be dark before long. May I ask whether the rebels will march through the night to attack the county seat?"

Wang Yongshi said, "Certainly not. Tonight they will surely rest at Duliuzhen. Tomorrow…" At this point, Wang Yongshi's face suddenly lit up with wild joy. He burst out laughing. "Haha! Truly an excellent stratagem — indeed, the young are to be held in awe. Quickly, call Constable Chen back! Immediately recruit five hundred stout fellows with heavy pay, prepare plenty of torches, slaughter pigs and cook a meal. This official shall personally lead the troops on a night raid! Brother Wei, ride at once to Duliuzhen to scout the enemy's situation."

"A trifling matter — leave it to me!" Wei Jianxiong said with a laugh.

Wang Yongshi turned and asked Zhao Han, "You have rendered service by offering this plan. What reward do you desire?"

Zhao Han cupped his fist and bowed deeply. "My little sister is gravely ill, and I have no money for medicine. I beg Your Honour to extend a helping hand."

"That is easily done. Hahahaha!" Wang Yongshi laughed heartily, his mood suddenly incomparably buoyant.

(I don't dare use scheduled posting anymore, afraid something might go wrong. Heading out soon, so I'm releasing the eight o'clock chapter early.)

(End of Chapter)