Chapter 1291: Who Here Isn't an Undercover Agent?

If you spread out a map of Jingzhou Prefecture, it isn't hard to see that Tiger Tooth Mountain is truly a fine place for stirring up trouble. It's a "no-man's-land" — although administratively it belongs to Yiling Subprefecture, its actual location sits at the junction of three jurisdictions: Yiling Subprefecture, Yidu County, and Changyang County. Moreover, the place lies where the Jianghan Plain meets the western Hubei mountains, right by the Yangtze waterway, and across the river stretch the unbroken Jing Mountains. Near Tiger Tooth Mountain there is also the Qing River, which leads to Shizhou Guard.

Tiger Tooth Town sits at the foot of Tiger Tooth Mountain, right next to a Yangtze dock. Its transport links could be called convenient in all directions, so inevitably it became a place where dragons and fish mixed together.

Yet such a place of constant coming and going, where dragons and fish mixed, had long gone without strict control by the Yiling Subprefecture office — like most county-level subprefectures in the Great Ming today, Yiling enjoyed a high degree of self-governance. The subprefectural official was nominated by the local major taxpayers, reviewed by Hubei Province and Jingzhou Prefecture, and finally reported to the court, which then made the appointment.

As long as Yiling Subprefecture met its tax quota, the court didn't much bother with its administration. As for local law and order, that was directly managed by Jingzhou Prefecture's police office, judicial office, judge's office, and garrison commander's office. But Jingzhou Prefecture's finances were limited, and it also bore responsibility for security in Badong, Changning, Guizhou, Xingshan, and other places on the Yangtze front to the west, so it had little spare energy to manage Tiger Tooth Mountain in Yiling. As long as the local bosses — a group of farm owners headed by Ding Bapi — could keep up a surface calm, the officials of Jingzhou Prefecture were happy to mind their own business.

Recently, however, Jingzhou Prefecture had indeed grown terribly negligent. Tiger Tooth Town had become a rebel stronghold. Once night fell, who knew how many swift boats and fast horses were moving across the plains, hills, and river around Tiger Tooth Town, carrying all sorts of messages. The four law-and-order offices of Jingzhou Prefecture knew nothing at all — at least, in the eyes of the good fellows in Tiger Tooth Town, the officials knew nothing!

The swift boat carrying Young Master Li likewise only drew up to the dock mysteriously after nightfall on the tenth day of the second month.

The moment the boat touched the dock, a group of men with waist sabers and bulging clothes — most likely wearing chain mail and cotton armor underneath — surrounded it.

Only after the pudgy merchant-looking man in Niu Jie's party disembarked and respectfully saluted with clasped hands, then stepped aside, did these men relax. One of them even went up to the fat man, exchanged a few words in a low voice, and then ran off toward the town.

Niu Jie also disembarked and looked around, spotting several open and hidden sentry posts, a few of them with matchlock guns on their backs.

"Fat Liu," Niu Jie asked the fat man in a low voice, "are all your people assembled?"

"All assembled!" Fat Liu said. "One thousand and fourteen men in total, all here!"

These 1,014 men were the true backbone of this "Tiger Tooth Mountain Uprising"! They were also the fruit of years of planning by the Trade Bureau of the Shun Ministry of Revenue — and don't imagine that the Great Ming's Ministry of Justice, Embroidered Uniform Guard, and Eastern Depot were all do-nothing blind men and deaf men. Over the years, Shun agents ruined at their hands numbered in the thousands!

Behind these 1,014 men stood at least two or three times as many Shun martyrs.

But as long as they could raise a spectacular ruckus in Jingzhou, the martyrs' blood would not have been shed in vain.

On his way to Tiger Tooth Mountain, Niu Jie's subordinates had already informed him of the dire news that Ming troops had entered Hanzhong — his subordinates, of course, did not know that Shang Kexi and Shang Zhixin had died in battle at Hanzhong. That was being kept secret. The current unofficial news openly circulated by the Ming court was still that the situation was excellent!

Excellent — not just good!

Wu Sangui, advancing south by the Sanguan Road, had already fought his way to Lueyang! Shi Dewei, attacking by the Qishan Road, had also taken Qiuchi Mountain, Xuanshui Town, and Zhifangtou Post — these three places together might not add up to a county, but Niu Jie knew how important they were!

The Qishan Road was already half lost. Once Cheng County and Xiaochuanzipu fell (actually Xiaochuanzipu had already fallen, and the county seat of Cheng County was under fierce assault by Liu Sheng and about to fall too), the entire Qishan Road would be finished.

Once the Qishan Road and Sanguan Road were lost, Hanzhong was bound to fall, and if Hanzhong fell... could Sichuan still hold?

At that thought, Niu Jie drew a breath and said in a low voice, "Let's go! We're heading into town!"

Ding Bapi's large residence had already been requisitioned by the head of the Shun Ministry of Revenue's Trade Bureau, who had arrived in Tiger Tooth Town ahead of time, and had become the general headquarters of the Tiger Tooth Mountain armed uprising!

By the day after Young Master Li arrived in Tiger Tooth Town, the spacious courtyard of the Ding residence was already packed with jianghu good fellows who had come from all over the town and from nearby Tiger Tooth Mountain.

Scholar Zhang and Wang Sihu counted as the hosts of Tiger Tooth Town. Both had changed into the narrow-sleeved archer's jackets worn only by good fellows — both blue — and were greeting guests at the courtyard gate.

However much Wang Sihu had roamed the jianghu, he was still a working man at heart. Seeing so many "great heroes" at once made his head spin, and he had long since forgotten how to speak — every one of these gang leaders, hall masters, and society chiefs was a figure of note in the Huguang jianghu! On ordinary days Wang Sihu didn't even have the standing to meet them, yet today he could sit with them as an equal!

What glory in life!

Scholar Zhang, though, was a person of consequence. His family had been scholar-officials for generations! In the Ming, jianghu figures — unless they reached the level of Zheng Zhilong or Shen Tingyang — still stood a head shorter before scholar-officials. So Scholar Zhang was not in the least intimidated by this crowd. Whether he knew a face or not, he took them by the hand and exchanged pleasantries, never forgetting to praise "Young Master Li's" generosity and benevolence.

"Rest assured, old brother — Young Master Li didn't come empty-handed. He came on a riverboat traveling with the favorable wind, and the boat carried nothing but weapons and gold and silver... no less than a hundred thousand taels, I'd say! There's a share in it for you!"

"Rest assured, old brother — Young Master Li is a kinsman of the Roving King Li, and a Commandery Prince over in Sichuan. If we follow him, need we fear going without the savory and the spicy?"

"Yes, yes, yes — gold and silver for all! When the time comes, we'll count heads and divide the gold and silver..."

Hearing Scholar Zhang's assurances, the whole crowd of jianghu heroes beamed with delight — not because of the hundred thousand taels of gold and silver, but because of Young Master Li's identity!

This was a big fish!

If they bound him up and presented him to Marshal Zhu or Superintendent Pan, they'd surely win high office and fine horses to ride!

What? These heroes really thought that way?

Of course they did!

Nowadays there really were criminal forces across the Jing-Chu region — in the late Ming, this was how the world was. Organizations like the First Official Party and the Sand Boat Gang would all have been swept away in later ages! But did the Zhu emperor have that kind of strength? Since he couldn't sweep them away, he could only co-opt some of them.

Of course, sweeping still had to happen — mainly by having those co-opted into officialdom go sweep out those still roaming the jianghu! It couldn't wipe them all out, but it was better than no sweeping at all.

In the Jing-Chu region, because there was still the great enterprise of guarding against bandits and rebels, and because too many landless peasants had flooded into the cities with suddenly no way out, the jianghu forces had even more room to survive, and the court did its utmost to co-opt and control them.

As for the good fellows of the Jing-Chu jianghu, all those who could grow powerful had secretly thrown in their lot with the authorities, willingly serving as running dogs and claws.

Even those stockade chiefs who came from the mountain valleys around Badong and Guizhou were fellows with a foot in each boat — anyone who didn't play it that way would have gone cold long ago!

But this secret allegiance to the court had to be kept confidential — not because being a running dog was dishonorable; it was a fine thing for the country and the people! It was just that these heroes also had to serve as the court's eyes and ears, watching the remnants of rebels in the Jing-Chu region, so their identities had to remain secret.

Of course, there were also many jianghu figures in the Jing-Chu region who had found no path to pledge themselves to the court... and some of them had also received "Young Master Li's" invitation!

It was just that some of these people lacked the nerve to come to Tiger Tooth Mountain and join the Roving King. Others lacked the character, and reported the rebels to the court. Still others ran into an official anti-gang sweep on the way to Tiger Tooth Mountain and were now already on the road to exile in the Tianshan Mountains!

Scholar Zhang invited all the good fellows into the courtyard and arranged food and drink for them, then led the dazed Wang Sihu off to report to Niu Jie: "Young Master Li! The good fellows are all assembled, waiting only for your address and the distribution of rewards..."

"Good!" Niu Jie barked. "The time has come — we're going to do great things!"

He had been so excited he hadn't slept for several nights, and he was also a little nervous — he knew the Ming's depots and guards were not so useless, and that the gathering of several thousand men at Tiger Tooth Mountain would surely be detected by them.

The army sent to suppress them was surely already on its way. Right now he was racing against them for time!

(End of Chapter)