Chapter 77: Chen Qiyu

The other chiliarchs also voiced their agreement one after another. They all came from the Yongwei Camp, so their loyalty went without saying. Their purpose in joining the army was to establish merit and win glory, to earn titles for their wives and inheritance for their sons. Staying in Shandong meant their lives were safe, but equally there was no merit to be won; with sharp blades at their waists, killing intent naturally rose. After nearly a year of training, watching their subordinates gradually take on the appearance of elite soldiers, with the court providing increasingly fine equipment and ample military pay and provisions, and their superiors never skimming a cent, the men's craving for battle merit grew ever more intense.

Huang Degong listened while mulling things over: he and Old Zhou had won the Emperor's appreciation, and in less than a year had been promoted several ranks. Old Zhou had originally been an Assistant Regional Commander; the Emperor transferred him to Shaanxi, and in one stroke he became a Vice Regional Commander, on equal footing with himself. He had heard that Sun Chuanting was forming the Qin army, over ten thousand men strong. Old Zhou could fight — if he won more battle merit, a Regional Commander post was right before his eyes. If he himself were still a Vice Regional Commander, then next time they met, he'd have to kneel and bow in salute. Damn it! No — this time, no matter what, he had to stay in the Central Plains to suppress the bandits, and not let Old Zhou outshine him!

Having made up his mind, Huang Degong scooped up the fried noodles and gulped them down in big mouthfuls, saying vaguely around his food: "Enough, enough! I've got my own plans! Eat up quickly! After you finish, each of you check your men — see if any have caught heatstroke! If so, call for the Bureau Directors to treat them at once!"

After the meal, the army began to rest. The soldiers on perimeter watch were relieved and came down to eat. Many soldiers, unable to bear the heat, ran back into the water to frolic; others, heedless of the scorching weather, found a shaded spot behind a bare boulder and lay down to sleep soundly; still others gathered in small groups of three or five, chatting idly.

The chiliarchs each made their rounds inspecting their men. Close to a hundred men showed symptoms of heatstroke. Fortunately, most cases were relatively mild — some were thirsty, had lost their appetite, suffered headaches, dizziness, and excessive sweating; others felt fatigued, weak, nauseated, vomiting, and experienced heart palpitations.

The dozen or so Bureau Directors accompanying the army hurriedly began treatment. They ordered the heatstricken soldiers carried to cool, dry places, had their clothes removed, wiped their bodies down with wet cloths, and then administered powdered medicinal decoctions and salt water. The heatstroke remedy developed by Wu Youxing, who had already been summoned into the Imperial Academy of Medicine by Chongzhen, had passed clinical trials and been approved; Chongzhen then ordered the Imperial Academy of Medicine to mass-produce it and issue it to all armies as military supplies.

As for the army's military doctors, the Embroidered Uniform Guard had scoured the regions around the capital for itinerant healers and then "invited" them to the capital. After a short period of training under Wu Youxing and others, during which they learned some simple methods for treating external wounds that Chongzhen had dictated, the Guard also hired a number of clever, sensible apprentices from the larger apothecaries, forming small-scale medical teams that were sent to serve under Lu Xiangsheng and others.

Of course, although the Embroidered Uniform Guard's coercion played a part, what mattered more was the generous treatment: each Bureau Director received ten taels a month, and each apprentice or helper who came along received two taels. Faced with such enormous benefits, these Bureau Directors and apprentices came to the army willingly.

After simple treatment, most of the heatstricken soldiers had their symptoms alleviated; a few more hours of rest and they would recover to normal. Only a few severe cases remained — after taking the medicinal decoction, the Bureau Directors still had to wait a while for the medicine to take effect before deciding whether the men could march on or should be sent to Huaiyuan city.

The original plan had been to set out half an hour after the meal, but because of the sick and wounded, a full hour or more was wasted before everything was settled. At Huang Degong's command, the army began packing up. They left the riverbank and formed up on the main road. The baggage camp left some able-bodied men behind to bury the refuse, pack up the cooking gear, and extinguish the open fires before catching up with the army. Fortunately, the marching pace was not fast, so the able-bodied men could finish cleaning up in short order without falling behind.

From assembly to forming ranks to setting out, nearly ten thousand men took another half hour or so. By the time the vanguard reached Huaiyuan city, it was already around the hour of wei. The baggage camp at the rear was only just beginning to move. It looked like they wouldn't reach Fengyang today. Fortunately, no other time had been wasted along the way — even arriving at Fengyang tomorrow would still be three days ahead of the deadline Lu Xiangsheng had set.

In the office of the Zhongdu Garrison Command in Fengyang Prefecture, Chen Qiyu, the Governor of Fengyang, was discussing Lu Xiangsheng's military intelligence report with Chen Liangmo, the Censor and Regional Inspector.

Chen Qiyu was a native of Baode in Shanxi, with the courtesy name Yuxuan. He passed the jinshi examination in the bingchen year of the forty-fourth year of Wanli, in the same cohort as Hong Chengchou. In the fifth year of Chongzhen he was promoted to Governor of Yansui, where he led his forces to sweep through the various bands of roving bandits, quickly wiping out all the major bandit groups within his jurisdiction. To be honest, Chen Qiyu was quite capable, strategic, and skilled at warfare. For his merits he was specially appointed by the Emperor as Governor-General of the Five Provinces — the very position Hong Chengchou now held.

After Chen Qiyu assumed the post of Governor-General of the Five Provinces, relying on his outstanding strategic vision, he meticulously deployed his forces, summoning government troops from all directions to converge in a joint suppression. Within just a few months, he defeated Zhang Xianzhong, Zhang Miaoshou, Xiezi Kuai, and others in succession, finally driving them into a desperate siege in the Chexiang Gorge near Xing'an.

More than ten consecutive days of heavy rain caused the bandits' swords to rust, their bows and arrows to fall apart from the soaking, their clothes and armor to be drenched through, and their warhorses to be struck by epidemic one after another. Worse still, their food was cut off, and large numbers of bandit soldiers fell ill. At this point, there was no need for a great army — even sending a single fresh force of a thousand men into the gorge would have left these tens of thousands of bandits utterly helpless to resist.

In that desperate, cornered situation, the cunning Zhang Xianzhong proposed a feigned surrender. Chen Qiyu, his head already addled by the imminent great victory and daydreaming about what official post he would receive, and moreover looking down on this pack of local bandits from the bottom of his heart, readily accepted the bandits' request to surrender.

The bandits gathered up large quantities of gold, silver, and jewels. Zhang Xianzhong secretly sought out men he had known among the government forces and used heavy bribes to corrupt officers at every level as well as Chen Qiyu's staff. In the end, under everyone's vigorous persuasion, Governor-General Chen made the absurd decision to accept the surrender without disbanding their organization — he even sent only a few dozen clerks to escort the bandits back to farming. The result was predictable: once free of government surveillance, the bandits killed the escorting clerks and fled back into the mountains, destroying a magnificent situation in an instant.

Afterwards, Chen Qiyu, who had been careless and overconfident and had squandered a golden opportunity, was impeached in a barrage of memorials by court officials. In a fury, Chongzhen sent the Embroidered Uniform Guard to arrest him and bring him to the capital, where he was locked up in the Imperial Prison. By the time Zhu Zhenqing had crossed over, he had already been in the Imperial Prison for over two years.

Chen Qiyu, who had already grown disheartened and assumed he would be granted death by the Emperor within the prison, was surprised one day when a palace eunuch came to visit him. The eunuch stated that he had come on the Emperor's behalf to ask him a question: had he reflected on his error in letting the enemy go that day, and did he still have the heart to serve the court?

Over the past two years, Chen Qiyu had regretted the loss at Chexiang Gorge countless times. In quiet reflection on the events of that day, he had come to understand the crux of the matter with perfect clarity. Upon suddenly hearing the eunuch's words, Chen Qiyu was overjoyed, realizing clearly that the Emperor had given him a chance to rise again. Stirred and inspired, Chen Qiyu asked for brush, ink, and paper, and wrote down over two years' worth of regret and insight, handing the text to the eunuch who had come on imperial orders, entrusting him to present it to His Majesty. He also stated that if the Emperor reinstated him, he requested an audience. The eunuch offered a few words of comfort and then returned to the palace with his text.

A few days later, the imperial edict came down: the Emperor sent him to Fengyang to serve as Governor, instructing him to vigorously develop water conservancy upon taking office, reclaim wasteland, expand grain cultivation acreage, and prepare against famine years; if circumstances permitted, he could also recruit soldiers to protect the region. He was to devote himself earnestly to his duties and guard against impatience. If he achieved notable results during his tenure, the court would not stint on promotion. As for the audience — that would not be necessary.

After leaving prison, Chen Qiyu immediately wrote home, asking his clan to select capable, loyal, and reliable members to come to the capital and accompany him to his post in Fengyang.

The Chen family was also a great and established house in Baode. Although the clan had never produced a notable figure with a jinshi degree, it had produced quite a few juren and government students. Successive heads of the Chen family made full use of their connections in officialdom, engaging in diverse business ventures, and gradually amassed a considerable family fortune.

Chen Qiyu was a member of the second branch of the Chen family and the family's first jinshi. As his official career advanced, the family's business expanded accordingly. Bearing the title of kin to the Governor-General of the Five Provinces, officials great and small throughout Shanxi all had to show the Chen family face. Those clan members who had passed the juren examination years ago and knew they had no hope of advancing further also used their connections to enter official service. The Chen family had become the preeminent gentry household in the region.

After Chen Qiyu was arrested for the defeat at Chexiang Gorge, the family's various businesses plummeted. Many officials and gentry who had formerly shown respect only because of the Governor-General's position seized the opportunity to rob and plunder openly and covertly, stripping away all of the Chen family's most profitable enterprises. Several Chen clan members serving as officials elsewhere were also dismissed from their posts one after another and returned home in disgrace — a common occurrence in officialdom.

Many in the Chen family consequently harbored extreme resentment toward Chen Qiyu. The members of his branch suffered no small amount of abuse and harassment from their clansmen. At family meetings, some even proposed striking Chen Qiyu's branch from the genealogy and expelling them all from the Chen family to fend for themselves. Fortunately, the clan head, mindful of the benefits the Chen clan had received since Chen Qiyu entered officialdom, sternly rebuked those who called for expulsion, barely managing to suppress the clan's anger.

There were also clan members who were on good terms with Chen Qiyu's branch and quietly looked after his family. With the clan head maintaining a measure of fairness, his family barely managed to get by.

Just as everyone assumed Chen Qiyu could not escape the death sentence, a letter from the capital was carried back home. After reading it, the clan head immediately convened a meeting of the family's leading figures to discuss Chen Qiyu's request. Those who had thought the second branch would wither away listened as the clan head read the letter aloud, and many secretly regretted their past actions. They realized their usual behavior would certainly be reported to Chen Qiyu by the second branch. Seeing that he was poised to rise again, they wanted to swallow their pride and make amends, but for the moment they could not quite bring themselves to do so.

Chen Qiyu's father had long since passed away. His elderly mother was past seventy, her health gradually failing. His wife was gentle and weak-willed, with no opinions of her own in any matter. The affairs of the second branch were managed by his younger brother, Chen Qifan.

Chen Qifan was five or six years younger than his elder brother and had idolized Chen Qiyu since childhood. After passing the government student examination, he recognized that he was not cut out for scholarship, so he gave up his studies and devoted himself to managing the clan's business. With his flexible mind and capable methods, and borrowing his elder brother's reputation, he ran the Chen family's enterprises with great flair.

With Chen Qiyu's imprisonment, Chen Qifan's authority was stripped away by the clan, and the second branch's various clan subsidies were also cancelled. They could only live off the silver they had saved in better days. Chen Qifan was not a greedy man — when he managed the clan's business, he had devoted himself single-mindedly to the clan's interests and had not siphoned off much private profit.

For over a year now he had endured the clan's accusations, abuse, and harassment, serving his elderly mother with all his heart and looking after his elder brother's entire household. He had always firmly believed that his brother's talents were recognized by both the Emperor and the court officials alike, and that he would absolutely not sink into obscurity, nor lose his life — he would surely be reinstated.