Chapter 161: A Good Horse Gets Ridden

The Military Clerk of Weicheng Commandery was named Chai Rong, courtesy name Tongwu.

If one were to speak of his family background, there would be quite a tale to tell…

In short, after his ancestor Chai Wu aided Han Xin in the Battle of Gaixia, he was enfeoffed by Emperor Gaozu of Han as Marquis of Jipu.

Later this place was renamed Wei County, and the Chai clan settled there. During the reign of Emperor Wen of Han, the marquisate was abolished for rebellion; it was not restored until Emperor Xuan of Han, when the descendants of founding meritorious officials were shown favor. But when Wang Mang supplanted Han, the Chai family, unlike the local Marquis of Ping'en in this commandery, had no ties of friendship with the Wang clan, and thus lost their marquisate once more.

The Chai family became local magnates, yet they were still the third most powerful great house in Wei. In the west of the commandery the Li clan ruled like separatist lords, and in the east there was the Chai clan. Taking advantage of the Commandant's garrison at Wei County, over several generations they had sunk their tentacles deep, molding the Commandant's office inside and out into the shape of the Chai clan and virtually monopolizing the post of Military Clerk. Without Chai Rong's orders, the arrogant and slippery commandery troops could not be commanded by the government at all.

This time, when Yuancheng came under attack and sent urgent appeals for help, it gave Chai Rong the chance to observe the commandery's Grand Governor Diwu Lun and the Subordinate Prefect Shi Xiong, to see whether they were as easy to bully as their predecessors.

In terms of family background and age, Shi Xiong far surpassed Diwu Lun, but in terms of practical ability, he was as green as a young lad.

Chai Rong observed that after Yuancheng sought help, Shi Xiong was frantic, sweat pouring down his face, and cried out: "Under no circumstances can we let the imperial temple and Shalu come to harm!"

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He wanted nothing more than to rush to the rescue at once, as if it were his own ancestral tombs in danger. The House of Liu Han had been more than generous to the Du Ling Shi clan, his maternal relatives — generations of wealth and honor, one weighty charge of child-emperor guardianship after another — yet they turned right around and threw in with Wang Mang.

Chai Rong secretly laughed at Shi Xiong's frantic hopping about, while he himself only quietly watched Diwu Lun's reaction after the latter had excused himself to "change clothes" and gone out with Ma Yuan for a spell before returning.

"Of course we must rescue them!"

Diwu Lun also put on the posture of a loyal servant of the Great Xin, expounding at length on how repaying the Son of Heaven's profound grace was precisely today's task — but then his tone shifted.

"Yet we cannot fix our gaze solely on the corner that is Yuancheng."

Diwu Lun had Ma Yuan spread out the government-drawn map and, pointing to Qing Province and Yan Province, said: "General Jing Shang is campaigning east against Mount Tai, striking to destroy Fan Chong, and our Wei Commandery serves as his flank. At a time like this, for the Plain bandits to suddenly invade — could it be that they have joined forces with the Mount Tai bandits?"

"The bandit host numbers in the thousands; behind them might there be tens of thousands more? Wei County has only two thousand usable troops. If we rush to the rescue recklessly, what if we fall into the bandits' trap?"

"Therefore, we must first dispatch scouts to reconnoiter thoroughly within a hundred li all around."

Frantic as he was, Shi Xiong felt there was some sense in this. Although he had spent time in the Northern Army, he had never fought a battle, whereas Diwu Lun had risen through military merit — listening to him should not be wrong.

Chai Rong, however, found it laughable and thought to himself: "An ambush? This Diwu Lun imagines the bandit rabble to be far too formidable. They're nothing but a pack of wild dogs scrounging for food wherever they go."

Yet after mulling it over, he felt that since Diwu Lun had been able to gain the upper hand in his contest with the Li Neng brothers, he must be a man of considerable cunning — it would not be that simple.

"Could he be stalling for time deliberately? And why?"

Caution was always better than rashly raising troops. While scouts were dispatched to search for the bandits' nonexistent ambush forces, Diwu Lun made further dispositions.

Wasn't Shi Xiong in a desperate hurry to rescue Yuancheng? Fine. On the march, let him go together with Chai Rong, leading fifteen hundred commandery troops as the vanguard!

The true loyal servant of the Great Xin was in the front; the false loyal servant of the Great Xin, Diwu Lun, transferred five hundred commandery troops, added the three hundred men he had brought with him, and held the rear position ten li behind.

Yet Diwu Lun took personal command, because Ma Yuan, that elder of his wife's family, had at last spoken a single word: "No."

He loved the sheer exhilaration of charging into the fray; as for filthy matters like micromanagement, Diwu Lun had best handle those himself.

Next came the free-performance hour for the troops of Weicheng Commandery.

On the day the army set out, the sky was barely light. Shi Xiong rose early, donned his armor, and arrived at the Wei County parade ground. Finding that the men had actually all assembled, he was overjoyed and waved his banner to give the order: "We shall eat our morning meal once we reach Yuancheng!"

But to his surprise, from Chai Rong down to the Majors, no one stirred, and the rank-and-file soldiers stared at Shi Xiong as though he were an idiot.

Chai Rong explained: "Subordinate Prefect, those who said 'destroy the enemy before breakfast' — as a rule, they all lost. It is inauspicious."

"What's more, to reach Yuancheng from here, even at top speed one must march a full day. In this season when warmth has just returned but cold still lingers, if the soldiers' bellies are empty, when they meet the enemy they will be unable to bear their armor, lift their blades, or move their legs — what then?"

Shi Xiong was somewhat embarrassed. When he further heard that Diwu Lun's side had arranged for the soldiers to eat breakfast, he could only order the stoves hastily lit to make up for it.

After the meal, the commandery troops began to move out at a leisurely pace, their legs and feet seeming loath to stir. Shi Xiong was anxious and wanted to urge them on, but was told: "If you race fifty li for advantage, you will topple the commanding general, and only half your force will arrive. It is exactly fifty li to Yuancheng; rather than arriving swiftly only to be defeated by the bandits, better to advance slowly."

Shi Xiong could not make up his mind, so he sent a man to ask Diwu Lun in the rear. Grand Governor Diwu could not have wished for another day's delay and immediately agreed, only instructing him on encampment matters: "Pitch camp one li to the left of the old course of the Great River, using the river embankment as a rampart, to prepare for the unexpected."

So they rested for the night. Little did they know that Diwu Lun had also been using these two days to observe the commandery troops. He saw nothing he had not seen before, and after looking, he was not the least bit surprised: they were the exact same sorry lot as the commandery troops in Yecheng.

First was the headcount. Nominally two thousand, in reality only fifteen hundred — which already made Diwu Lun exclaim that the officers of Weicheng were quite conscientious: "Had it been me, I would certainly have eaten another five hundred in phantom payroll."

Second was the age. Among the "five hundred men" Diwu Lun had transferred to accompany him, one hundred were phantom slots, one hundred were gray-haired old men far too aged, and one hundred were child soldiers far too young — they could not even don their armor or lift their weapons. Only two hundred were fit to fight, and of those, the greater half were substitutes serving on others' behalf; some had been serving as substitutes for ten years straight. This had become a trade in commanderies across the realm.

And among these two hundred "elite troops," only one hundred wore armor. Wei County also had an armory, larger even than Yecheng's. Why was it that Diwu Lun could produce several hundred sets of armor to equip the refugee soldiers, while the Commandant's office had an even lower armor-wearing rate?

"Because a great many armored troops have been used by Military Clerk Chai Rong to maintain his own private soldiers, or even treated as assets to trade with other powerful houses in the east of the commandery."

Ma Yuan had guessed it. He had seen similar situations when he served as Inspector of the Capital Commandant's office; the Li clan of Wu'an had done the same when they served as Bandit Suppressors. This was also why Li Neng dared not rely on the commandery troops and would rather flee back to his home territory — the commandery troops were far inferior to the clan troops in elite quality and reliability.

As for training, that went without saying. On ordinary days, the soldiers of Weicheng Commandery still had to help the Subordinate Prefect and the officials farm the land; training once a month was considered good.

With soldiers like these, how could one fight?

They marched again the next day. After crossing the old course of the Great River, Yuancheng loomed distantly in sight.

On the early-spring plain, the snow had not yet fully melted in some places, a vast expanse of gleaming white. Yuancheng stood towering there, but when they rounded to the south of the city, they saw a great mass of refugee bandits gathered to the east of the city, most in tattered clothes and bearing a motley assortment of weapons — a rough count put them at four to five thousand at least.

They did not attack Yuancheng either, only kept watch outside the city, because Chi Zhaoping's main objective was Wulu Township, where the Wang clan's ancestral tombs lay. The Magistrate of Yuancheng had only a few hundred men under him, and the local powerful houses refused to open the gates, so he could only watch from the city wall, frantic and helpless.

When they spotted the relief force finally arriving from afar, they were naturally overjoyed, but the city gates remained tightly shut, with not the slightest intention of supporting their allies.

Up front, the tense and trembling Shi Xiong gave Chai Rong the order: "Armored troops, advance one hundred paces. Skilled archers and crossbowmen, advance ninety paces."

Diwu Lun watched from two li behind, not interfering, simply wanting to see, given the quality of Weicheng's commandery troops, just how badly an order from above would be distorted as it was passed down level by level.

The result was an eye-opener. The armored troops among the commandery forces advanced perhaps only thirty paces before stopping — half a pace more would have counted as their loss. The archers followed too closely, as if they meant to stick right onto the front rank, leaving no space or formation at all for a volley.

Shi Xiong issued the same advance order several times in succession; it was not until the sun was three poles high that he managed to shift the commandery troops' formation to a little over a hundred paces from the disorderly refugees.

This bunch of refugees, however, were bold. Perhaps they had long since witnessed the incompetence of commandery troops everywhere along their route. Even at such close quarters, they still taunted and jeered. After all, they could run unburdened, and being unarmored, they were fast as well.

Shi Xiong had by now adapted to the "battlefield" and stopped trembling. Drawing on what he had picked up by osmosis in the Northern Army, he began to direct and command: "Order the skilled archers to loose arrows in a high arc! Three arrows!"

But unlike before, even after three successive commands, none of the three or four hundred archers and crossbowmen made a move. This left Shi Xiong utterly baffled. It was Chai Rong who came over and explained to him: "Subordinate Prefect, the weather is too cold. The soldiers' fingers are frozen stiff. They must breathe on them to warm up for a while before they can shoot."

Was this something that could wait? Seeing the bolder refugee bandits already probing their way forward, Shi Xiong grew frantic. Bows could not be drawn — fine, what about crossbows? Still nothing. The commandery troops indicated that the trigger mechanisms on the crossbows were frozen solid too.

What was to be done? Shi Xiong stared dumbfounded, until an assistant clerk beside him prompted: "Subordinate Prefect, you need only issue an order for a reward, and fingers as well as trigger mechanisms will be able to move at once!"

Meaning no reward, no drawing of bows? Shi Xiong had never encountered such a thing, but with the situation now urgent, he could only have the cart carrying the money intended to reward head-taking merit brought forward and promise to distribute it to the soldiers.

"Many thanks, Subordinate Prefect!"

The skilled archers who had just been "frozen stiff" instantly came to life, eagerly drawing bows and spanning crossbows. But because the reward was in coin, of low value, they grudged using more than a modicum of strength, and the arrows flew only a dozen or so paces. It was not until Shi Xiong was forced to raise the price, directly granting cloth, that the commandery troops began to exert themselves, using several hundred arrows to shoot dead a few of the refugees who had probed too close.

In the rear, Diwu Lun watched this world-famous tableau. Ma Yuan drew near and asked him: "Aren't you afraid the refugee soldiers will learn from this example, Boyu?"

"If one learns it, kill one," Diwu Lun said, utterly cold. He was a good man, but military discipline must be strict.

The seemingly disordered refugee bandits began to retreat and shift. Chi Zhaoping only had a few canal chiefs hold Yuancheng with their men; she did not commit them to battle. Since government reinforcements had arrived, they would withdraw toward Wulu City to regroup with Matron Chi. The gambling-house boss still had some tactical sense — she could probably fight Shi Xiong to a draw.

"Pursue!"

Shi Xiong saw the refugees moving and assumed they were afraid. He immediately ordered pursuit, but within his force, no one stirred — they all looked up at him. The junior officers wore faint, mocking smiles, while the commandery conscripts clutching spears, halberds, shields, and blades watched with sardonic expectation.

Pursue? Fine — but what about the reward? The skilled archers got theirs for shooting. We'd be spending our strength in pursuit, and we'd risk tripping over rocks. Surely we shouldn't get less?

Truly, the good man is bullied, the good horse is ridden. Shi Xiong was dumbfounded — how could he have foreseen this? He had not brought much cloth to begin with, and had just given it all away to make the archers shoot. What was he to do now?

"Anyone who disobeys will be executed!"

Yet the Clerk of the Scribe's order rang hollow. Though his personal guards moved to seize and behead men, several hundred soldiers blocked their way.

Chai Rong again played the good-hearted mediator and came to advise him: "Clerk, do not press a desperate foe. What if we fall into an ambush? Better to advance slowly on Wulu City and win by orthodox means."

Indeed, that was the only course. Could Shi Xiong turn around and leave? The imperial temple and ancestral tombs at Wulu City were not merely the Emperor's and the court's most tender parts — they were the most tender parts of the commandery's two-thousand-bushel officials too! The commandery troops had this figured out perfectly, and every squeeze hit the mark.

Diwu Lun had seen enough from the rear. He merely sighed to Ma Yuan: "Now I truly understand why the Mount Tai Army and the Greenwood Army can defeat commandery troops time and again, almost without opposition."

These commandery troops and the imperial army were a perfect match — a turtle staring at a pea, each finding the other exactly to its liking.

When commanders do not know their soldiers and soldiers do not know their commanders, a field officer is this stifled. That was why Diwu Lun would rather train refugee soldiers and convict soldiers from scratch — men who only wanted to stay alive and would repay kindness — than count on rotten commandery conscripts.

Squandering a battle opportunity was a small matter; not selling out the commander outright was already good enough.

Diwu Lun gave a cold laugh. "Believe me, once we advance on Wulu City, the commandery troops will have Shi Xiong by the throat and keep swindling him for rewards and bonuses. If Shi Xiong refuses, they will retreat at speed and abandon their Clerk to the refugees. After all, apart from the few dozen personal guards Shi Xiong brought himself, no one else would be held accountable for his death in battle."

It had been days, and this high-born son raised in women's arms still had not grasped the crux of the matter. Diwu Lun, on the other hand, felt he had watched the show long enough — the commandery troops had exhausted their repertoire of tricks. He sent a subordinate clerk forward, not to seek out Shi Xiong, but to summon the man truly in charge: the Military Section Head, Chai Rong.

"Military Section Head Chai, the bandits ahead are retreating. Why do you not pursue?"

Chai Rong tried to fob Diwu Lun off with the same words he had used to stall Shi Xiong, but Diwu Lun's face hardened. "They have greater numbers. If we do not strike and rout one part while they are dividing their forces, are we to sit and wait for them to reunite? This is abetting the bandits. What crime does that warrant?"

Chai Rong was about to explain when he suddenly felt a chill. He raised his head and glimpsed Diwu Lun, composed and commanding from start to finish, authority emanating without anger. Beside him, Ma Yuan's phoenix eyes were narrowed, measuring Chai Rong's head, his hand resting on his sword hilt as though contemplating exactly where on the neck to cut.

A glance to either side showed only Diwu Lun's trusted guards. Chai Rong's own men were more than ten paces away. If Diwu Lun showed the same nerve he had when toppling Li Yan, Chai Rong would not come out of this well.

Chai Rong instantly changed his expression, admitted defeat, and bowed in submission to beg forgiveness.

Diwu Lun, however, had no desire to kill him. If Chai Rong died, the commandery troops might mutiny on the spot, and every powerful family east of the commandery seat might be drawn to the Wuan Li clan — detrimental to the larger picture. This man could still be used.

He merely softened his tone and said: "Since the bandits have already withdrawn and pursuit is too late, we can only advance on Wulu City and engage them there."

"Understood. This humble clerk will go at once to the forward position and inform the Clerk." Chai Rong finished speaking and prepared to slip away.

"Hold!"

Diwu Lun smiled. "No need to divide into forward and rear positions. Military Section Head Chai, accompany me to the front to observe the battle. If you have any words to convey to your subordinate officers and men, you may send them together with my command flags."

With that, he had a cart provided for Chai Rong and assigned personal attendants with blades at the ready to watch him. This left Chai Rong utterly dumbfounded.

"Let me speak plainly first. When the two armies are on the verge of battle, if the commandery troops still cannot loose an arrow, cannot raise a spear, cannot take a step forward, Military Section Head Chai…"

Diwu Lun's manner was even more genial than Shi Xiong's, but the words that came out were those of a truly ruthless and iron-hearted general.

As if in jest, he pointed at Chai Rong's head. "I fear I would have no choice but to borrow one particular item from you, a senior officer, to rouse the troops' morale!"

……

PS: Bonus chapter tomorrow.