Chapter 100: I Come from Yan'an

The former grain-chief's house at Yatou Mountain.

Three sentry chiefs and sixteen squad captains crammed into the largest room, still packed shoulder to shoulder — not even room to set a foot down.

Liu Chengzong sat cross-legged on the kang, let his gaze pass over every face, then drew a deep breath, opened the Yanshui Pass account book he was using as a notebook, and said, "A few days ago, I asked you all to have the squad leaders and soldiers inquire into the gains and losses of the battle at Yanshui Pass. What were the results?"

The squad captains all looked to their respective sentry chiefs.

The Mule Battalion's current structure was headed by Liu Chengzong, with three sentries and one company under him — over five hundred men in the whole battalion.

The three sentries were Feng Rang's Left Sentry, Gao Xian's Right Sentry, and Cao Yao's Cannon Sentry, each sentry commanding five squads.

The one company was the Scout Cavalry Company under Wei Qian'er, composed mostly of outstanding light cavalrymen, though their professional scout-cavalry knowledge was lacking.

Feng Rang said nothing, so Gao Xian spoke first: "Right Sentry's squads suffered nearly half dead, wounded, and fled. Though we've replenished with surrendered government troops, morale is low."

Cao Yao nodded in agreement and said, "These past days I've had the surrendered government troops training the men, but we were mortal enemies not long ago — expecting one man to truly teach another is no easy thing. If you want my honest opinion, we should avoid night battles from now on."

Liu Chengzong noted down their words, then turned to look at Feng Rang and Wei Qian'er.

Wei Qian'er hastily waved his hands. "We lost seventeen brothers, but the chief kept his word — no one starved. While they lived, they ate their fill, took no abuse, and running around wasn't as exhausting as before. That's enough."

His words brought the room to roaring laughter. Liu Chengzong laughed too. "The scout cavalry brothers don't ask for much. Looks like from now on we'll recruit by that standard — guaranteed to die an unnatural death."

Everyone burst out laughing again. Only then did Liu Chengzong ask Feng Rang, "Brother Rangzi, what about you? If you've got thoughts, just say them."

"I… I just feel that Yanshui Pass…"

Feng Rang started and stopped, meeting Liu Chengzong's expectant gaze. He thought it over again and again before finally saying, "I think the chief's arrangement wasn't good. Taking the pass and firing the cannon — that should have been the Cannon Sentry's job. Left Sentry took hardly any casualties, but we didn't do any real work either. The Cannon Sentry fought as infantry and suffered plenty of dead, wounded, and runaways."

At this, the smiles still lingering on people's faces froze solid. Even the grinning Cao Yao stared wide-eyed at Feng Rang.

Only when he'd stared Feng Rang into lowering his head did he turn to Liu Chengzong and say, "Rangzi didn't mean it that way."

Liu Chengzong was the chief of the Lion Battalion, and right now this room held more than just their old acquaintances — there were outsiders.

Four or five squad captains among the three sentries had been promoted from surrendered troops. At this point, they were here purely for a meal; there was no sense of belonging to speak of.

If Feng Rang's one remark further undermined the chief's authority, the outcome would be even worse.

And this man was his old subordinate.

Cao Yao feared this would affect how Liu Chengzong regarded him in his heart.

Liu Chengzong said nothing. No one in the room said a word. The atmosphere rapidly congealed.

Only Wei Qian'er, eyes wide, looked left and right, utterly at ease — even a little tempted to laugh.

He thought to himself: The chief's heart is broader than the Yellow River.

With a mouth like his, back at the post station the postmaster had never missed a chance to make trouble for him. Yet here in the Lion Battalion, even after he'd cursed Liu Chengzong to his face while guarding the post station, he'd never suffered any different treatment afterward.

That was treatment he'd never received in his entire life, from childhood on.

"Brother Cao, what do you take me for? It's nothing."

Liu Chengzong had stayed silent because he was thinking. After a moment, he nodded. "Mm. Brother Rangzi is right. If we'd sent the Cannon Sentry up then, our gunners could have learned from the fighting too."

He admitted, "That's my fault. I'll pay more attention going forward."

Liu Chengzong very seriously noted this down, then said to Cao Yao, "Still, I don't think night battle is the biggest problem. That day at Yanshui Pass, the government troops fell into chaos too."

He said, "But very quickly, they were able to reorganize. Many of our men scattered outright and still hadn't returned even after the battle was over."

Cao Yao waved his hand with a laugh. "They're used to routing. Good riddance — let the ones who love to run go. As long as we don't fight at night, we'll be even better at tough fights."

The battle of Yanshui Pass had been a survival of the fittest for the Mule Battalion. After that fight, not many of the old bandits who'd fled Yellow Dragon Mountain remained in the ranks.

Those bandits had already been at the very bottom under Old Huihui's command to begin with; they'd scattered when they couldn't keep up with the main force — one batch ran off at Yan'an Prefecture, another batch at Yanchuan.

Rationally, Liu Chengzong rather agreed with Cao Yao's view.

"Actually, reorganizing the troops in Shanxi was an idea I'd had ever since we crossed the Yellow River. Our current force composition is excellent — mainly guard-soldiers from the wei and suo, relay-station runners, post-station couriers, and garrison and border troops. We have every kind of weapon and armor, all five-hundred-plus men in the battalion have mules or horses, and our grain can still last twenty days."

At this, Liu Chengzong's tone shifted. "But there are also plenty of problems. Over a hundred lightly and seriously wounded, casualties from the recent fighting, and the troops' morale is low. The newly joined border-army brothers are also struggling to fit in. Those squad captains, no need to wave your hands in a hurry — everyone here knows this perfectly well. Find the problem, solve the problem. I want everyone to speak openly from the heart."

After saying this with a smile to the squad captains who'd come from the Yanshui Pass and Jingbian Camp border troops, Liu Chengzong continued, "And there's what Sentry Chief Cao just said about avoiding night battles… Brothers, we are building an army from nothing."

Growing animated, Liu Chengzong rose from the kang and spread his arms wide. "Where this army goes, its military system, its discipline, its equipment, its strength — all of it bears on each man's life and death. Ask yourselves: Who are we? Where do we come from? Where are we going?"

The men in the room looked left and right. No one had an answer.

Cao Yao said, "Chief, whether it's the Lion Battalion or the Mule Battalion, you built them both… I don't even know where I'm going, and you actually want us to tell you where we're going."

This wasn't philosophy — just a matter of purpose.

People laughed. Those with a purpose in this world are few, and even among those few, how many can press forward unwaveringly?

Most people simply choose a way of surviving — or don't even choose it themselves, just drift with the current.

Six mace of silver a month to scrape by, two taels a month to live a bit more comfortably — it's all just staying alive.

"You don't know?" Liu Chengzong swept his gaze over them. "I'll tell you. Patrol officers, local militia, guard-soldiers, government troops — they all want our lives. We are at war with the imperial court, and the court is far more powerful than any of us can imagine.

If we want to survive, we must combine our strengths and overcome the government troops' weaknesses. If the government troops march sixty li a day, we must march eighty. If they carry three days' rations, we must carry six days' dry provisions. If the government troops are just going through the motions, we must be fully alert. If they plunder the common people, we must not touch a single hair. If they do not touch a single hair, then we must help the common people.

The world has tales of the few defeating the many — but have any of you ever seen the weak defeat the strong?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head. Between individual people, the weak defeating the strong might perhaps exist. But between the tightest-knit organizations of human beings, the weak defeating the strong is nothing but a fairy tale.

He believed only that victory must rest upon something one possesses.

"We will survive. We will stand with the poor and suffering common people of all under heaven. We will be the court's enemy, and in the end we will prevail. I am Liu Chengzong. I come from Yan'an, and I am going to Beijing. We are people who cannot eat our fill. We come from all under heaven, and we are going to Beijing!"