Chapter 95: Within the City

On the city wall of Shouzhou, Prefect Liu Zhiyuan stood with his hands clasped behind his back, gazing at the roving bandits' camp stretching for dozens of li, his heart weighed down with extraordinary heaviness. Behind him, Vice Prefect Wang Wei, Assistant Prefect Xu You, and Shouzhou Guard Commander Li Long were quietly discussing something among themselves.

On the broad wall walkway, under the direction of several guard station chiliarchs, hundreds of able-bodied men were bustling back and forth, hauling various implements for defending the city. Beneath each crenellation were piled lime pots and rolling stones, and at every alternate embrasure were placed logs. Over a thousand soldiers of the Shouzhou Guard sat resting in squads, conserving their strength as they awaited the bandits' assault.

Wang Wei stepped forward and clasped his hands toward Liu Zhiyuan, who had his back to him, saying: "Your Excellency, from the look of things, the bandits show no sign of attacking for now. Your Excellency should return to the yamen to await word—leave the defense of the city to Commander Li here."

Li Long clasped his hands and said in a loud voice: "Please, Your Excellency, return to the yamen and rest. With this old Li keeping watch here, that's enough! Rest assured, Your Excellency—if the thieves want to break this city, they'll have to step over my dead body first!"

His family had held the post by hereditary succession for generations, and his home was within Shouzhou city itself. With a wife, concubines, and several children, plus over a dozen servants, he counted as a man of considerable estate. To preserve the accumulations of his ancestors across generations, he had no choice but to fight with everything he had.

Liu Zhiyuan slowly turned around and said in a solemn voice: "From this day forward, the prefectural yamen moves into the arrow tower! All bureau secretaries of the various offices are to report here for orders! I will eat and sleep here! Unless the bandits break the city or march elsewhere, I will not leave!"

Wang Wei and Xu You exchanged a glance, then clasped their hands and accepted the order.

Liu Zhiyuan continued: "Order the Bureau Secretary of Justice to immediately muster the constables, yamen runners, and corvée laborers, dividing them into ten groups of twenty men each, to patrol the four city gates and the main streets in rotation. The common folk within the city are not to leave their homes without cause! Anyone who takes the opportunity to stir up trouble—kill without mercy! This matter is entrusted to Your Excellency Xu!"

Xu You clasped his hands and hurried down from the wall.

Liu Zhiyuan looked at Wang Wei and said: "Your Excellency Wang, the officials and gentry originally in the city, as well as the various local gentry who have fled with their entire families into the city in recent days, all bear responsibility for defending this soil! At this critical moment of survival, all must unite their hearts and join forces to guard our homes together! Please, Your Excellency Wang, on behalf of the government, summon the officials and gentry to donate money and grain, so that we may recruit able-bodied men from within the city to defend it! I trust that with their breadth of vision and experience, they will hardly cling to a few possessions when the blade is already at their necks! Afterwards, use the raised funds and grain to widely recruit hands within the city to come and await orders!"

Wang Wei clasped his hands solemnly and replied: "Rest assured, Your Excellency. Your subordinate will reason with them and appeal to their sentiments! I will strive to raise more money and grain! And recruit more hands!"

Liu Zhiyuan nodded, and Wang Wei turned and hurried away.

Li Long clasped his hands and said: "Your Excellency, why not take advantage of the thieves all being on the south side and open the north gate to let the city folk evacuate?"

Liu Zhiyuan smiled bitterly: "Once we open the gates and let the people leave, do you think the soldiers defending the city will have any morale left? With hearts panicked and fearful, the thieves will break the city without much effort—and then how far can the fleeing folk run? Besides, most of the people harbor a wishful hope that even if the thieves take the city, they won't lose their lives. Little do they know the thieves treat human life like weeds. Even if they flee, once the thieves give chase, how many of the people will survive?"

Li Long disagreed: "The people can flee to remote villages, or hide in the mountains—that's still better than being slaughtered like livestock after the city falls!"

Liu Zhiyuan nodded: "What you say is not without merit. The reason I ordered this strict defense is that I received a written order from Governor Chen of Fengyang, who stated he would dispatch relief troops. He hopes we will hold Shouzhou to the death and keep the bandits from breaking the city. Once the reinforcements arrive, Shouzhou will surely be kept safe!"

As a civil official of the fifth rank, Liu Zhiyuan had no real obligation to explain himself to a guard commander, but at this moment morale was paramount. Speaking of the relief troops could give the soldiers hope, and under the support of such spiritual strength, they would unleash even greater fighting power. Morale must be bolstered, never deflated—that was the principle. Though he himself had no idea when the reinforcements would arrive, having hope was still better than having none, was it not?

He also knew that Chen Qiyu had ordered this defense to the death precisely to block the roving bandits outside Shouzhou, the gateway to Fengyang. Who knew what the Founding Emperor had been thinking back then—the very place where the dragon arose had never been given city walls. Fengyang was like a naked beauty, just waiting for the bandits to come and ravage her. Perhaps His Majesty could never have imagined that his own descendants would sink to being bullied by bandits.

The moment Li Long heard there were reinforcements, he was indeed elated. He raised his voice and laughed: "Hahaha! So Your Excellency had it all planned! Since there are reinforcements coming, why should this old man fear these dirt thieves! I was prepared to die for my country with my whole family—now I don't have to! Haha! It's good to be alive!"

Li Long's voice was booming, and the soldiers sitting nearby who heard him say the words "reinforcements"—men who had long since been terrified—suddenly found their courage swelling. The tense, worried expressions vanished, and smiles appeared on every face. Soon, word that relief troops were on their way spread rapidly across the entire wall, and the soldiers' excitement infected the busy civilian laborers as well. In no time, the wall was filled with laughter and cheerful voices.

Liu Zhiyuan found himself unconsciously infected by this joyful mood, and his originally leaden heart felt somewhat lighter. He looked at these simple, lively faces and sighed inwardly: after this great battle, how many of these faces would he still see? How many days would the parents, wives, and children waiting at home spend in endless agony over the loss of their loved ones?

In the second hall of the prefectural yamen, Wang Wei, wearing a black gauze cap and a blue official robe embroidered with an egret rank badge, sat in the seat of honor. This seat had always belonged to the prefect—as the deputy official, how could a vice prefect ever have the chance to sit here? Today, with Liu Zhiyuan delegating authority to him, Wang Wei finally had the opportunity to taste what it felt like to occupy the master's seat. The clerks of the revenue office and several scribes sat to one side, with brushes, ink, and paper laid out on the tables before them, prepared for record-keeping.

On two rows of seats below the hall sat several dozen city officials and gentry, along with local gentry who had fled into the city to escape the roving bandits. Some who were acquainted with one another were whispering among themselves, their topics nothing more than whether the city could hold, and what purpose the prefectural official had in summoning them.

Wang Wei surveyed the assembly with a dignified bearing, then cleared his throat and spoke: "I am Wang Wei, Vice Prefect of Shouzhou. Today, entrusted by His Excellency the Prefect, I have summoned all you esteemed worthies and gentry to discuss matters. I imagine you can all guess what is to be discussed. The roving bandits have arrived, and Shouzhou stands in peril of falling! What we discuss is how to hold Shouzhou, how to hold our homes, how to protect the common people, and how to safeguard the lives of the old and young in our households!"

Seated at the head of the left row was Yu Tengjiao, who had once served as Vice Minister of the Ministry of Works in Nanjing and had now retired to his hometown at the age of seventy. He gave a slight clasp of his hands and spoke: "Your Excellency Wang need say no more! The roving bandits have plagued the Great Ming for a long time now. Wherever they pass, it is like a plague of locusts—countless gentry and common folk have been cruelly slaughtered! Now that the thieves have arrived, there is nothing else—only the giving of our lives! If we can give our lives, how much less our wealth?! The court has nurtured us scholars for over two hundred years—now is the time for us to repay that grace! This old man donates five thousand taels of silver and one hundred dan of grain!"

Seated below him was Zhou Fengxiang, who had once served as Vice Surveillance Commissioner of Yunnan and had now retired at the age of eighty. The old man's hair and beard were entirely white, but his voice boomed like a great bell as he declared loudly: "To sacrifice one's entire estate for the nation's peril—that is the mark of a true hero! This old man donates three thousand taels of silver and two hundred dan of grain!"

Wang Wei, at thirty years of age and in the prime of his passionate years, felt his blood surge at the sight of these two elders' conduct. He clapped his hands together sharply and declared in a loud voice: "Excellent! You two venerable elders are truly models for our generation! Your subordinate will certainly propose to His Excellency the Prefect that a memorial be submitted to the court reporting this matter, to serve as an example for all court officials under heaven!"

Yu Tengjiao and Zhou Fengxiang stroked their long beards and smiled without speaking. At their age, they had grown indifferent to all things, and Wang Wei's words stirred no ripples in their hearts.

The two men's generous contributions set an excellent precedent. The rest—whether retired officials, gentry with family members serving at court, or local magnates who had grown rich through connections to officialdom—all rushed to declare their pledges in the face of life and death. Though no one's donation could exceed those of the two retired court officials, the grain contributions were considerable. The final tally left Wang Wei quite astonished: at this solicitation, the thirty-some attendees donated a total of eighty-four thousand taels of silver and five thousand two hundred dan of grain. The largest grain donor was a local Shouzhou grain merchant named Li Jinxian, who alone contributed two thousand five hundred dan.

Li Jinxian, a grain merchant of Shouzhou, alone donated two thousand five hundred dan of grain.

The scribes tallied each person's donations of money and grain and handed the record to Wang Wei. Wang Wei immediately ordered the revenue office to arrange men and carts to transport these supplies from the donors' residences to the yamen storehouses. After requesting instructions from Liu Zhiyuan, the Shouzhou Guard dispatched one hundred men to guard the storehouses—anyone without a writ from the prefectural yamen was forbidden to approach, on pain of summary execution.

Liu Zhiyuan also stated that after the roving bandits were driven off, he would erect a stele before the prefectural yamen, inscribed with the names of all donors and their amounts, for posterity to remember and revere. This move won strong praise from the assembled gentry—in this era, what people desired most was to leave their names in history. Liu Zhiyuan's method scratched precisely where they itched, and the fundraising drive came to a thoroughly satisfying conclusion for all.