Chapter 105: Master

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The Mule Camp formed ranks on the hilltop, observing from the high ground as the peasant army crossed the river in force.

Wei Qian'er's eyes went wide. He pointed at the opposite bank, his hand trembling. "This... General, have the Taolu invaded?"

For these Shaanxi folk who had lived on the frontier for generations, even if they'd turned rebel, if the Taolu Tatars broke through, they'd turn right around and help the border troops fight them.

"Look at you, never seen a thing in your life. Would the Taolu let border troops march them in to raid?"

Cao Yao loved to bicker with Wei Qian'er. Now he could finally put his wandering experience to use. He raised an arm and explained to the leaders: "I don't know which leader that is across the river, but he's got surrendered soldiers, barbarian auxiliaries, and border troops who guarded the Great Wall all under his command."

Liu Chengzong asked, "How can you tell they guarded the Great Wall? Their armor looks no different from ours to me."

"Look at their formation. Troops out here don't have strict formation requirements, but it's different on the Wall. I once guarded the Second Border Wall at Datong."

The Second Border Wall Cao Yao mentioned was the Great Wall. The zone between the two walls served as the Ming dynasty's military buffer zone.

"To march atop the border wall, they always drill in files of five horses abreast and ten men abreast. Us troops out here don't have that requirement."

With that, Cao Yao pointed at the border troops marching behind the Mongol auxiliaries on the opposite bank, shouldering long battle pikes, bird guns, and three-eye guns. "Those are definitely Great Wall border troops."

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly, then waved a hand to the group. "Shift the column a bit east. There are pack cannons on the horses in the rear. Don't let them hit us."

The men across the river had pack cannons on their horses too.

In truth, Liu Chengzong was more concerned about the government troops who had marched out of Yonghe Pass and formed ranks than he was about the peasant army across the river.

Not every officer was as brave as Lu Cheng.

Take the Company Commander at Yonghe Pass, for example. He led over three hundred men out in formation, but halfway there, he realized the peasant army's numbers were immense. He ordered them to halt and observe the situation.

They stood a while longer. Then, from the mountain path on the opposite bank, the surrendered barbarian auxiliaries in heavy armor emerged.

That Company Commander was very tactful. Seeing this, he said nothing, turned around, waved a small banner, and led his troops straight back into the pass.

Liu Chengzong saw it clearly from the hilltop. That was the right move.

A man can't just think about promotion and riches.

Think of your parents, your wife, your children. Then think about your monthly grain and silver pay.

Don't bother forming up for field battle. Just stand on the city wall for a bit. That's enough to repay His Majesty's grace for all those years of not paying your wages.

"Now we just see if they're friend or foe. Listen up, everyone. If things look bad, we form up and descend the hill from the east. Don't go west. If they want to climb the hill, they'll have to circle around from the west. And don't scatter."

The three Sentry Commanders all acknowledged the order with solemn faces and turned to relay the command to their respective squad leaders. The squads found their positions and formed ranks according to the central army's location.

Just as the Mule Camp was forming ranks, the peasant army on the opposite bank noticed the government troops retreating back into the pass. A sky-shaking roar of jeering laughter erupted from the crowd.

Two famine refugees in tattered clothes had even already crossed the river. They deliberately ran to a spot not far from the pass, dropped their trousers, and swayed left and right.

Liu Chengzong frowned, his smile strained. "Are those two pissing at the garrison?"

That was going too far.

Even Cao Yao was shaking his head as he laughed. "Being a soldier these days is too damn hard. Either you're a brave dead man like Mobile Corps Commander Lu, or you're a coward like this Company Commander, letting men practically shit on your head... Damn it, why not blast them with cannon? I sure as hell couldn't take it."

"Can't take it, but you have to. There are thousands of them, over a thousand armored fighters alone. If you don't take it, you're dead."

Liu Chengzong shook his head, then suddenly raised an arm and pointed. "Look across the river. Mounted troops are coming over."

Judging by the stir, they'd probably spotted them on the hilltop.

But the peasant army didn't do what Liu Chengzong expected — treat them as enemies and form ranks below the hill. Instead, mounted troops crossed swiftly over the pontoon bridge, passing orders in sequence for the men to detour around the hill.

Then a mounted soldier cautiously approached and shouted, "Is that General Liu on the hill?"

General Liu?

Liu Chengzong was about to step forward and answer when Cao Yao stopped him. "Careful, it could be a trap."

Then Cao Yao stepped forward, staying out of sight from the high ground, and only asked, "Which General Liu?"

"General Liu from Yan'an Prefecture!"

Cao Yao turned his head and glanced back at him. The meaning was clear: He's looking for you.

He asked again, "What business do you have with General Liu?"

Liu Chengzong frowned, staring hard at the opposite bank. His heart pounded with uncertainty.

Could it be that his father and elder brother were so formidable that, while he was away, they'd absorbed a bunch of border troops and Mongol auxiliaries, expanded their force tenfold, and come looking for him?

But in his heart, he felt that was too fantastical.

Besides, if it were his father, brother, or an old acquaintance from Yan'an Prefecture, they'd have sent someone he knew. He knew so many people in Yan'an Prefecture; surely there'd be at least one old friend.

Then he heard the mounted soldier below the hill, his voice booming: "Our great leader is named Gao. He says... says you still owe him a meal!"

Liu Chengzong desperately wanted to leap off the cliff and clamp a hand over this mounted soldier's mouth.

He didn't need to turn around. He could feel his subordinates' eyes swiveling to stare at him in unison.

Up ahead, Cao Yao also turned his head, eyes wide, and mouthed silently: "Is that true?"

Liu Chengzong owed a meal to many people. But all those people had died in the autumn.

Only one man named Gao was still alive. He knew who it was.

If it was Gao Yingxiang, Liu Chengzong figured he could probably guess why he'd come looking for him.

The rebel armies in Shaanxi were all huddling together for warmth. Gao Yingxiang was no exception.

The mounted soldier below the hill was just wondering why the hilltop had gone silent after he'd delivered the king's message... when suddenly he heard a furious roar.

"He still owes my family a bronze beast-head door ring!"

Below the hill, silence fell too. But the sound of clopping hooves gradually receded.

The mounted soldier led his horse behind a hillock, out of range of bows and fire lances, and only then shouted: "The leader said, if you won't fight, wave a flag!"

With that, he slapped his horse's rump, vaulted onto the saddle, and bolted toward the pontoon bridge.

The small-time lackey wiped sweat as he fled, secretly rejoicing. He really had just cheated death.

It had sounded so friendly at first. How had it suddenly felt less like old friends and more like neighbors?

The kind of neighbors who build their courtyard wall three extra inches high and shift their field markers thirty feet over. Neighbors with a grudge.

He urged his horse onto the Yellow River pontoon bridge and gazed ahead.

On the hill of the western bank, a great banner emblazoned with "Chuang" swayed back and forth;

looking behind, on the eastern-bank ridge, a crimson flag fluttered in the wind.

It seemed the grudge had vanished after all.

Who could have guessed that just as he reached the opposite bank, Gao Yingxiang was already leading several chieftains down the hill, charging over like a whirlwind on horseback, his face taut as he demanded: "Is it Liu Chengzong? What did he say?"

"He said, he said the Chieftain owes him a bronze beast-head door ring."

Gao Yingxiang first stared blankly, then burst out laughing with a pfft, raising his guandao and shaking it as he laughed: "Ha, hahaha! That little lion really does hold a grudge!"

With that, he planted his guandao on the ground, reached out a hand, and said: "Go ask again — ask if he dares to come meet me on the pontoon bridge!"

The cavalryman, helpless, turned back once more to deliver the message.

The grimy Heaven-Soaring Monkey rode up beside him and asked curiously: "Since when does the Dashing King owe someone a bronze door ring? Why don't you just return it — no wonder he won't let you off."

"Return my ass!" Gao Yingxiang laughed. "That was after the county magistrate released me — I went back at night and smashed his door ring. That little lion had already eaten my last meal; if I hadn't done it, how could I have settled the anger in my heart?"

Not only Heaven-Soaring Monkey Liu Jiusi, but even Mud-Free, Heaven-Roiling Monkey, and the others who had ridden over were all stunned.

In their minds, the so-called "owing a meal" should have been a beautiful story, something like the grace of a single meal.

How on earth did it get tangled up with a condemned man's last meal?

Mud-Free said blankly: "He's got no shame at all — eating someone else's last meal!"

"More than just eating it — forget it, I won't tell you about all that."

Gao Yingxiang waved his hand, recalling the scene of that chubby book-reading, martial-arts-practicing boy in the jail, clutching a braised lamb trotter and slurping lamb noodle soup from a great big bowl.

This was something that simply could not be described — if he told them, he'd make these starving ghosts die of craving.

Mud-Free's eyes drifted upward and to the side as he pondered what eating a condemned man's last meal might taste like.

Even without Gao Yingxiang saying a word, he was already swallowing his saliva nonstop; he lifted his armored tunic, reached inside his clothes, and rubbed his own parched belly, muttering to himself: "No good, I've got to get a lamb to eat tonight… Hey, Dashing King."

Mud-Free said: "I still don't get it. Even if you're old acquaintances, just send someone to say the word — from now on we join forces and fight together wherever we're told. Why insist he come over here? And anyway, will he even come?"

"He will."

Gao Yingxiang said it with absolute certainty, though in truth it had been so many years since they'd last met that he had no real confidence either. Still, he warned those around him: "When he arrives, no matter what the two of us say, none of you butt in and ruin my plans. I came here precisely to join forces with him."

Heaven-Roiling Monkey Zhang Mengjin asked: "Why do we have to join forces with him?"

Why else — because he's useful!

Gao Yingxiang shot Heaven-Roiling Monkey a glance: "The four of us join forces… I actually don't even know how many men you three have. Say seven thousand — could we annihilate a Mobile Corps Vice General?"

Not only did Gao Yingxiang not know — Mud-Free, Heaven-Soaring Monkey, and Heaven-Roiling Monkey didn't know themselves either.

Even if you investigated and got a clear headcount, the number today would be a different number tomorrow — maybe more, maybe fewer. Not even the Zhenwu Emperor could make sense of it.

They had all risen in revolt because of hunger, surviving raid after raid by sheer strength and luck; their subordinates were the same — if they didn't become bandits they'd starve, so it was only natural that once they weren't hungry, they'd stop being bandits.

"Not necessarily."

Mud-Free answered easily: "Ambush — catch their cannon and firearms off guard. My three divisions drive the troops into battle; once they're exhausted, the Dashing King brings out the heavy armor. Victory won't be hard."

Using the starving people as cannon fodder — a tactic cruel but effective.

"Victory isn't hard. Men facing death can still fight with their lives, but getting them to obediently carry out an ambush is very hard."

Gao Yingxiang wasn't mocking anyone, nor did he look down on anyone — he was simply stating a fact.

An ambush demands far more of soldiers than a conventional engagement.

If it were just three to five hundred men gambling on luck for a single fight, that would be one thing; with thirty percent regular troops leading the peasants, one man managing two, you could attempt an interdiction strike.

But the more troops you mobilize on your side and the larger the enemy's objective, the wider the scouts and outriders will sweep the battlefield, and the entire ambush encirclement will expand accordingly.

For people like them, six or seven thousand strong, to stage an ambush, the encirclement would have to begin tightening from at least sixty li out, evading enemy eyes on all sides — staying out of the enemy's line of sight while clinging tightly to them without letting go, until the enemy reached a suitable ambush site.

Never mind what happens after battle is joined — this alone is enough to drive a man to despair.

"Think about it further — Wang Daliang struck Hanzhong, Zhou Dawang stirred up trouble in Wudu, Han Chaozai ran wild in Qingyang, and even Left Hanger and Second Brother Wang fought all the way to Hancheng."

Gao Yingxiang said: "Which of them didn't loot wherever they went? And of course there's us and King Hengtian — we've nearly fought our way through every military fort along the Fugu border wall. What good has any of it done for the larger situation?"

"This time we originally planned to keep attacking the forts, but it wasn't until word of Liu Chengzong seizing the post stations reached the north that we realized — without the stations and express relay posts, the link between Shaanxi and Yansui Garrison is severed. On the map, Yan'an Prefecture is as empty as nothing."

Mud-Free's eyes swiveled as he nodded repeatedly — he understood: "Fighting alongside him can keep us alive a couple more years. Is that what the Dashing King means?"

"Exactly. Besides, the Shaanxi government troops are powerful — sooner or later the court will launch an encirclement campaign. Old Huihui was so formidable in Yellow Dragon Mountain, and still he was chased into the northern desert by just two hundred government cavalry. A lone bandit — what does he have to fight the government troops with? Whether they're raiders who prey on the rich, pillaging bandits, or mutinous rebel soldiers, no one can go it alone. Joining forces is the great trend."

The three bandit chieftains of rough-and-tumble origins looked at one another — three different faces, all written with the same blank bewilderment.

Gao Yingxiang turned to look at the three bewildered men, sighed, and fixed Mud-Free with an expectant gaze: "Do you know what 'the great trend' means?"

Mud-Free knew, but he couldn't answer — he didn't know how to put it into words.

Instead, it was the filthy, lice-infested Heaven-Soaring Monkey who edged forward, a fierce look on his face: "Comparing big and small — the bigger one wins!"

"Right! The great trend is linking Fugu to Jinsuo Pass in one unbroken stretch — advance and you can raid in all four directions, retreat and you can rest and recover; hold the border army in the north, strike Guanzhong in the south, and establish a separatist standoff against the government troops!"

Gao Yingxiang finally understood where his burning desire to join forces with Liu the Lion came from.

These chieftains around him — they had courage in spades, bravery too, but every one of them came from a poor background; their rebellion was driven by nothing more than a hot head and a pair of strong arms.

It wasn't that they couldn't achieve great things — everything is learned. Gao Yingxiang himself came from a poor background too, but after so many years as a horse bandit, the more setbacks he'd suffered, the more he'd naturally come to ponder.

Given time, all these chieftains could achieve great things.

Only — they didn't have that much time.

The court would not give them time to grow, and the emperor in the Forbidden City would not give them time to learn.

Heaven-Roiling Monkey's mind had wandered.

He couldn't understand what Gao Yingxiang was saying, nor was he interested. He trusted Gao Yingxiang anyway — just tell him directly what to do; all this beating around the bush was annoying: "Dashing King, just say it — we grab him, and that's the great trend… Whoa, he came on his own!"

The group raised their heads and looked toward the opposite bank — the cavalryman they had sent to deliver the message was returning, leading several riders at a gallop.

Gao Yingxiang gazed over. The young man in the lead had broad shoulders and a wide back, helmeted and armored, his face sharply angular — not a trace remained of that chubby boy from the Mizhi County jail. He laughed heartily: "Well now, Liu the Lion — you see your master and won't even dismount?"

"Tch, using seniority to put me down the moment we meet — not good." Liu Chengzong did not dismount; his legs pressed against the red horse's flanks, ready to retreat at any moment. He laughed: "Where's the master who smashes his disciple's door ring?"

On the pontoon bridge, Gao Yingxiang turned his head and laughed to the others, "I told you he holds grudges."

Having said that, he turned back and asked, "I'll compensate you, then. What do you want?"

What else could Liu Chengzong want? He said, "Grain. My men don't have enough grain."

"No problem. I'll compensate you with grain, enough to feed all of you... However."

Seeing Gao Yingxiang agree so readily, Liu Chengzong swung his body to dismount, but suddenly heard Gao Yingxiang add another sentence. His body, braced on the saddle, halted. "However what?"

"I'm returning your door knocker, so you ought to return that final meal of mine, too."

The same question, just from a different mouth.

Liu Chengzong asked, "Then what do you want?"

"Come back to Shaanxi with me. Finish what you left undone. Tear down every post station and express relay north of Golden Lock Pass."

Liu Chengzong raised his face in a smile. "That's easy to agree to."

As his words fell, he flipped off his horse, clasped his fists and cupped his hands. "This student Liu Chengzong pays respects to Master Gao."