Chapter 362: Naming a Price

"Deputy Battalion Commander Zhong, remember to follow orders and don't act on your own. Lord Chen specifically instructed me after the meeting: if you violate orders again, you'll be transferred back to Dengzhou Military Academy to teach."

"Ah? Fine, fine." Zhong Laosi nodded with a stiff, insincere smile. Zhao Xuan was now not only the training officer of his own company headquarters, but also the training officer of the Fifth Battalion. Zhong Laosi had heard from Zhu Daichun that Lord Chen had deliberately assigned Zhao Xuan, a battalion-level officer, to concurrently serve as this company's training officer, precisely so Zhao Xuan could better manage a troublemaker like him.

The official road was filled with swaying spears. Dengzhou Garrison had deployed the First and Second Companies of the Fifth Battalion, along with two cavalry platoons and fifty scouts from the central army. This force served as the vanguard, led by Deputy Battalion Commander Zhong Laosi, with Training Officer Zhao Xuan accompanying them. They had marched two days from Linzhang to Cixian. The area around Cixian had long been visited by roving bandits; the villages were reduced to broken walls and ruins. The road was sparsely populated, with many white bones left by the roadside, not even clothes remaining. Any commoners encountered along the way were ordered to head east to prevent word from leaking.

After passing Cixian, the scouts returned to report that Yatouzi was several dozen li to the northwest, marching along the edge of the mountainous area, looting as they went, and moving at a moderate pace.

"Tell me, Training Officer, when you were with the White Lotus Sect, did you ever see scenes like this?"

Zhao Xuan frowned with displeasure and said, "I've told you before, don't bring up those heretical cults again."

Zhong Laosi chuckled slyly. "I'm just curious—didn't you ever ruin a few daughters from the households of those sect believers?"

Zhao Xuan ignored this half-crazed deputy battalion commander and turned his head to look at the roadside, but the endless white bones held no beauty. He had no choice but to turn back and stare at the horse's head in front of him.

"Not talking. Then you definitely did, probably even someone's young wife." Zhong Laosi gloated.

He teased Zhao Xuan the whole way, until a scout horse came rushing from the front.

"Reporting to the Deputy Battalion Commander: Yatouzi's cavalry have appeared at Chenjiapu, ten li ahead. They have already engaged our scouts."

"Finally." Zhong Laosi let out a loud shout, called over the battalion staff officer accompanying the army, and after a brief discussion, took a small triangular command flag from the flag-bearer and said to the courier, "Go tell Huang Yuan to lead the First Company Headquarters' First Platoon and the Second Cavalry Platoon to advance at speed, reinforce the scout team, and after repelling the enemy cavalry, secure Chenjiapu. The First Company's Second Platoon is to deploy in a security formation, march southwest, and block the bandits from fleeing south."

The courier repeated the order without error, turned, and was about to run off when Zhong Laosi suddenly called him back. "Forget it, I'll go notify him myself."

"Deputy Battalion Commander Zhong!" Zhao Xuan leaned over and grabbed his horse's reins, saying loudly, "Your place is under the deputy battalion commander's command flag. We are already near enemy territory. Bearing the weight of an entire army, how can you run around as you please? Delivering orders is the courier's job. Let the courier do it."

Zhong Laosi's eyes shifted. "Training Officer, you see, I still have some things to discuss with Huang Yuan. I'm afraid the courier might not explain clearly."

Zhao Xuan said angrily, "Afraid the courier won't explain clearly? Couriers practice delivering orders every day; short orders must be repeated word for word without error. On the march, you never demanded they train extra, and now you say you're worried they won't be clear. Don't think I don't know your little schemes."

Zhong Laosi said somewhat guiltily, "What little schemes could I have?"

Zhao Xuan turned to glance at the soldiers around them, urged his horse closer, and said in a fierce, low voice, "You just want to throw your weight around in front of Huang Yuan. To make Huang Yuan squirm."

Zhong Laosi opened his mouth, and after a long pause, chuckled. "Training Officer Zhao, you truly are my bosom friend."

Zhao Xuan snorted. Zhong Laosi had originally been Huang Yuan's subordinate. Because of the Luanzhou incident, Zhong Laosi had gone back and complained everywhere with his big mouth, and Huang Yuan, in a fit of anger, had reported him to the central army headquarters, sending him to the peasant-soldier company.

Who could have known that the peasant-soldier company would soon be converted to combat troops? Zhong Laosi was able to participate in battle after battle—Dengzhou, Jinzhou, Fuzhou, he was at all of them—and he gained Chen Xin's favor. Relying on military merit, he rose all the way to deputy battalion commander. Huang Yuan, meanwhile, had stayed in Lu Chuanzong's company headquarters, later went to the newly formed Third Battalion, and after Shenmi Island only fought in the Dengzhou campaign, where his role was unremarkable. Now, in the reorganized Fifth Battalion, he was a company commander, and Zhong Laosi had become his superior.

So Zhong Laosi was extremely smug. Zhao Xuan had worked with Zhong Laosi for a long time and had heard him talk about this many times back in Jinzhou. Therefore, Zhao Xuan was determined not to let Zhong Laosi exploit this pretext, to ensure that military orders were not affected by personal emotions. This was precisely the sort of thing he, as training officer, was supposed to manage.

"You go deliver the order to Company Commander Huang." Zhao Xuan spoke directly to the courier.

A short while later, the First Company's First Platoon's formation-change cannon sounded, and the company commander's flag led the First Platoon as they sped away...

"... Truly a flirt, truly a flirt, if you don't lock your door I'll come two or three times a day; if the old master doesn't return, I won't run."

A bare-chested, burly man with two small tufts of hair tied with red string atop his head sat high on his horse, singing with swaying head and body. In front of him, he held a woman wearing only a dudou, who helped him hold a bowl of wine. Around him moved a group of cavalry wrapped in red headscarves, some even riding two horses each. Behind them was a large mass of refugees, many pushing single-wheel or two-wheel carts.

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The burly man finished singing and closed his eyes. His large, rough hands kneaded the woman's snow-white thighs vigorously, his expression one of great enjoyment. Then he said loudly, "Hey."

The woman hurriedly brought the wine bowl to the red-stringed man's lips, carefully steadying it on the swaying horse to avoid spilling. The red-stringed burly man was Yatouzi, one of the Thirty-Six Camps. This name was among the crudest even among the local bandits of the Thirty-Six Camps, but he himself didn't think so. Some said he was born to a servant girl; others said he had stolen a servant girl and then killed her master, so when he took to the hills, people called him by this nickname, and it had never changed since.

"The big chief sings well! But brother, what if that flirt locks her door?"

Yatouzi downed the wine in one gulp and sang again: "Come midnight, knock on the back door, pull a handful of chicken tail feathers. The woman says a weasel's come to steal the chickens, throws on a thin skirt to chase the wildcat. Out she comes, and I grab her."

The surrounding cavalry roared with laughter. One horse bandit said shamelessly, "Big brother, when you steal women, have you ever been caught?"

Yatouzi slid his hand under the woman's dudou and groped her chest wildly. The woman's face was bright red, but she dared not resist, nor could she even show displeasure. She forced an awkward smile onto her face. She could only do this, because she had seen with her own eyes many women who showed the slightest defiance get cooked and eaten by the refugees.

The horse bandit beside him ducked his head down, hanging his body off the horse, peering up from under the woman's dudou, making strange cries. "Eee, eee, I see it too."

Yatouzi laughed heartily. "How could I not get caught? The master wanted to beat me to death, so I beat that household's master to death and ran off to the mountains."

"Big brother is mighty!" the bandits all cheered in unison.

"Eh." Yatouzi's expression changed, and he peered ahead. The lead cavalrymen at the front were running back for their lives. Seeing this, the bandits began to spread out. They were all old hands, fighting government troops day in and day out. At first they had been very afraid, but gradually they discovered that government troops were nothing special. Now, roving was a way of life for them. Although these bandits had decent individual skills, they did not fight tenaciously; only their scouting was quite good. Some newly joined refugees even voluntarily provided them with intelligence on government troop movements, so they were often able to ambush government forces.

The leader of the vanguard ran back and said, somewhat panicked, "Big chief, a group of Ming soldiers came from somewhere up ahead. No banners or insignia. They didn't even exchange words before attacking. Those retainers are fierce. Shang Shuji is still tangled up fighting them with his men."

Yatouzi's face turned grim. With a sudden, forceful motion, he flung the woman in his arms to the ground. Several bandits on foot immediately rushed up, grabbed her, and dragged her aside, taking the opportunity to grope her. Yatouzi paid no attention, twisted his mouth, and asked, "How many? Which direction did they come from?"

"Probably from Cixian. We encountered twenty or thirty. They all look like retainers, wearing a kind of short jacket I've never seen before—not the mandarin-duck uniform either. Chain mail over it, and they also have a kind of short firearm."

The stranger they were, the more frightening. Yatouzi now hesitated. "Could they be southern troops? Could it be that Qi Grandpa's Zhejiang troops have come? What do you all say we do?"

His two subordinate leaders stared dumbly at their chief, not knowing what to do either. Qi Jiguang's fame was widespread on the northern frontier, and many among the bandits were deserters, so many had heard of the Qi family army's reputation.

The second-in-command's bandit nickname was Tang Xiaoshan, a name considered refined among them. He scratched his head and said, "Twenty or thirty retainers in the vanguard isn't that many. I reckon they've only got about a thousand men, with no more than a hundred retainers. Running would be easy for us, but we've had a hard time rounding up all these people. If we really turn tail and run, we'll have to abandon them all. Right now, everyone's heading for Henan. Big brother, look around—this road's already been looted by others, and Linxian is said to be about the same. Where are we going to find so many people again in a hurry?"

Yatouzi slapped his thigh. "That's the point. Take more brothers and go scout again for me. See how many they've got. I'll get our men sorted out and follow right behind."

The second-in-command regretted it deeply in his heart. He hadn't expected that making a suggestion would land him such a dangerous job. Had he known, he would have suggested fleeing instead. But since the chief had spoken, he dared not disobey. He took his twenty-odd cavalrymen and galloped off toward the front.

Once they were far away, Yatouzi looked around. To the southwest were mountains; directly south in the distance was Chenjiapu. He said to the third-in-command, "Take men and count the troops. Anyone with a weapon, drag them all the hell out. Form ranks at Chenjiapu."...

Half a shichen later, the second-in-command came fleeing back with his cavalry, pursued by several dozen Ming outriders. Behind the Ming outriders were over a hundred more cavalry, split into two groups, advancing slowly in tight formation behind the outriders. Farther away, there appeared to be some infantry.

Yatouzi finally saw that Ming army. The cavalry were indeed all in short red jackets, looking very spirited. The tightly packed cavalry were clearly well-trained at a glance. Yatouzi couldn't train troops like that himself, but after fighting so many battles, he could tell at a glance whether an army was strong or not. Among Ming armies, Cao Wenzhao's men were completely different from Zuo Liangyu's.

The Ming outriders halted a li away. They were spread out very wide; the farthest had already ridden past the bandits' flanks, circling around from the outside to observe the rear formation.

Yatouzi's refugees and infantry had formed a chaotic battle line. The front row consisted of the stronger refugees, some armed with weapons, some with farm tools. Behind them were the infantry with government-issue weapons, and at the very back were the horse bandits. The horse bandits were Yatouzi's indispensable elite; everyone else was expendable. The old and weak among the refugees, unable to tell a strong army from a weak one, banged pots and pans behind the formation, making a loud racket to bolster their own courage.

"Bastards, that's way more than just a hundred retainers. There are over a hundred right here in the vanguard. The commander behind them must have several hundred more retainers with him. Counting the regular troops, it's got to be close to two thousand." Yatouzi quickly drew his conclusion based on his common knowledge of Ming armies.

The two sides stood off like this. Yatouzi still hadn't finished forming his ranks, so he had to send out his cavalry to hold the flanks. The leaders in the center kept cursing and beating the refugees to get them into position quickly.

Behind Chenjiapu, on the official road, drums beat steadily. A unit of infantry appeared in view, arranged in a diamond formation of four groups: two groups in the center, one in front and one behind, and one group on each flank. Each group was roughly a hundred men strong.

Bugle calls sounded continuously as they marched. The infantry formation continuously unfolded, shifting from a marching column into a battle line to meet the enemy. On each flank, another fifty or sixty men spread out. Then, several horses dragged a small cannon to the front.

The third-in-command hurried over and said, "Big brother, we can't fight this."

Yatouzi snorted. "You think I don't know that? Send someone over to ask their price. If we can negotiate, we each go our own way."

The third-in-command said worriedly, "I'm just afraid they'll ask too much. The better they can fight, the more expensive they'll be."

"What's there to fear? Once we get to Henan, we'll just loot it back. In our line of work, you've got to think clearly. Those government troops understand too—who doesn't like shiny silver? We're not afraid of them asking for a lot. What we're most afraid of is..."

Before Yatouzi could finish muttering, a cannon boomed from the opposite side. Yatouzi's eyes bulged, and he added dumbly, "What we're most afraid of is them not naming a price."

PS: Requesting monthly tickets.