Chapter 113: Apricot River Valley

In the quiet Apricot River Valley, the robust steward of Prince Qing's estate, Lin Wei, led his servants up an earthen hill.

On the opposite bank of the river valley, hundreds upon hundreds of famine refugees were hauling stone and earth to the nearly completed mountain fortress.

Lin Wei was the son of an instructor at the Ningxia Central Garrison School. Because he was handsome, after earning the title of Cultivated Talent, he was taken in by the Prince Qing estate as the consort of Shajing Village Princess.

For insulting his liege lady, he was sentenced to military exile, but according to the law, as long as his liege lady still lived, he could not be exiled, so he was thrown to the prince's estate in Ansai to serve as steward.

Holding a single-tube crystal-lens telescope, he raised his arm to point at several spots on the mountain fortress and said to those beside him, "This fortress, and the three watchtowers on either side, must be completed before winter sets in."

The estate servants around him looked at each other in dismay. One bold enough spoke up: "Steward Lin, winter is barely over a month away. This… there's no way it can be finished in time."

Another servant beside him chimed in, "Yes, Steward Lin, pushing the labor will kill people."

A prince's estate consort was originally an official post, but because the husbands of county princesses and village princesses were often chosen from among the consorts, over time, like "imperial son-in-law," it became a term for the liege lady's husband.

Lin Wei was the husband of a village princess, and therefore held the official rank of Gentleman for Fostering Service, lower sixth grade. Even though he had committed an offense and broken the law, he was still a relative of the imperial clan and could not be treated as a commoner.

Hearing their words, Lin Wei lowered his telescope and turned his head, looking at these estate servants with contemptuous eyes and sneering, "Dead people… Before I came, did you few fatheads force any fewer people to their deaths?"

At these words, the servants grew displeased. This steward was a disgraced convict, not like the other stewards.

One man's face turned vicious: "Steward Lin, your words are going too far. You might leave at any time, but we estate households of the prince's manor are here for generations. Let's just make do and get along for a few years. When the time comes, you'll go off to your military exile. Don't end up dying here and making things bad for everyone."

"I'd be more than happy to die here, to tell you the truth."

Though Lin Wei was an outsider, he feared nothing: "My liege lady has been ill for many years. The day she passes is the day I go into exile. I come from a northwestern border garrison background — where worse could they exile me? Going to Liaodong would just mean death anyway. Keeping this estate safe is my hope of staying alive. If you all decide to oppose me…"

He looked over each servant one by one and said with a soft laugh, "Before I die, I'll take every one of you with me."

He really could frighten the servants. They were all estate households of Prince Qing's manor. Never mind killing him — if a consort died here, the entire estate's people would suffer.

But conversely, this consort was a man doomed to die sooner or later. A man who wants to live but is certain to die, when he sets his mind to something, is far more terrifying than a man with no fear of death.

The boldest of the servants from before spoke again, his tone now softened, and asked, "But what does building this stone fortress have to do with saving your life?"

"A bunch of useless fatheads. Told to recruit famine refugees, and you don't know why you're recruiting famine refugees; told to build a fortress, and you don't know why you're building a fortress."

Lin Wei lifted his chin and cursed, then explained helplessly, "Bandit gangs are stirring near the prefectural city. This prince's estate in Ansai knows much, but the prefectural city knows little. Recruiting famine refugees for the estate's use, quarrying stone to build houses — give them a mouthful of grain and they won't turn to banditry. If a small band of raiders comes, the estate can also hold them off."

"Some time ago, a letter came from Yulin requesting the purchase of horse fodder — you all know that. And you also know that Li Bei is about to take up his post as Yan'an Regional Commander."

Lin Wei, coming from a family of garrison school instructors, had grown up watching his father teach common soldiers to read and explain the principles of the classics. Now, just like his father, he looked at the servants with an expectant gaze and patiently guided them: "Between these two things, what connection is there to us building a fortress? Think about it."

The servants looked at each other. "What connection? General Li is invincible against the bandits. Once he becomes Yan'an Regional Commander, the bandits will be gone. Peace will reign. If it's peaceful, why build a fortress?"

"If all bandits were like you, the realm really would be at peace. Occupy a fortress and farm there? When government troops come, can't they just run away?"

Lin Wei was furious, regretting only that there was no desk before him to slam. "Right now, the bandits are gathered in clusters, hiding all over Yan'an Prefecture. On the surface it looks peaceful, but do you know what all those bandits are doing behind the scenes? That Cao Cao, in the half year since he rose up, how many wealthy households has he robbed? Liu Chengzong, who went far away to Shanxi, killed a Mobile Corps Commander and broke through Yanshui Pass, yet Shanxi hasn't made a single move. You think he won't come back?"

"If you don't strike them, the bandits all stay hidden. If you do strike them, won't they scatter in every direction like a hornet's nest that's been poked? Government troops are few and bandit troops are many. Can you guarantee no bandits will come here?"

Who could possibly guarantee that?

The several servants were all like eggplants hit by frost, heads drooping in silence.

The previous estate stewards had mostly been eunuchs — hard to serve but they managed little, and in the end there were still ways to deal with them. But against Lin Wei, they had no solution at all.

He couldn't be coaxed or intimidated, couldn't be provoked and couldn't be beaten, and they couldn't even keep up with him in conversation.

And yet this man saw managing the prince's estate as his lifeline. With him here, the estate servants would never know a comfortable day.

Lin Wei paid them no more attention. Chin raised, face full of pride, he stood with hands clasped behind his back on the earthen hill, though his tightly locked brow betrayed his worry.

He hoped that the large shipment of wealth and goods sent to Weizhou would please Prince Qing, and perhaps his punishment would be pardoned.

Just then, someone looked toward the lower reaches of Apricot River Valley. In the distance, the estate households gathering firewood suddenly scattered and ran toward the village. The man urgently called out, "Steward Lin, look over there!"

Lin Wei turned his head. His expression changed drastically. He raised the telescope to his eye and looked — and felt his hair roots tighten.

At the far end of the river valley, in the direction of Ansai, a cavalry column was advancing.

The hundred-strong cavalry column made no shouts or battle cries, drew no blades and charged. It was very quiet.

They wore red and blue border-army armor — some were concealed armor with cotton fabric facing outward, some were exposed armor with plates facing outward.

Every man rode a donkey or mule and led a warhorse or large mule. They wore four-panel bowl helmets topped with tall helmet plumes, spreading out slowly and in orderly fashion on both banks of the river valley, driving the estate households before them in formation as they advanced.

Just looking at their battle array clearly imprinted a preconceived certainty in Lin Wei's mind — this was an army.

Though their numbers were few, the one-man-two-mounts formation spread their line very wide, and their unit organization was extremely clear.

Every third rider carried a lance, and from the lance hung a small red triangular flag.

The hundred-some-strong cavalry column had twenty-five small triangular-flag lances and five large triangular-flag lances, none of the flags bearing any writing. Behind the vanguard, several riders clustered together. One man held a white flag, and on the flag was painted a lance-bearing cavalry general.

Lin Wei recognized it — that was the Marshal of the Four Directions banner.

Marshal Ma of the West, white as snow.

He hurriedly swept his gaze across the river valley.

Very quickly, on a hilltop across the river, he spotted rolling dust. Same banners, same organization — a cavalry column arrayed on the hilltop, all bearing blue flags. In the center, a blue flag was painted with a cavalry general holding a wolf-tooth club.

Marshal Wen of the East, blue as indigo.

And there was more!

On the mountain ridge behind him, dust also rose. A cavalry column bearing black flags passed through the mine and swiftly headed northwest. The great banner they raised was a white painting on a black field — the general on it rode a tiger and held a whip.

Marshal Zhao of the North, black as iron.

Right behind them, another cavalry column bearing red flags halted on the mountain ridge. The cavalrymen reined in their warhorses, donkeys, and mules. Several men who looked like officers gazed down upon the pastureland prince's estate. Behind them, the red flag was painted with a great-blade-wielding cavalry general.

Marshal Guan of the South, red as blood.

The four cavalry columns split into four directions. Before the estate could even react in its chaos, they had already sealed off the river valley on all four sides. Only then, on the westernmost riverbank, did another yellow-flagged cavalry column belatedly arrive.

The flag was painted with a single-whip infantry general — it was Marshal Wang, the Divine Agent of the Center.

Beneath the flag, the mule troops were more numerous than the four-direction cavalry columns. They were split into two units. One unit carried firearms, and the mules' backs were all laden with cannons.

The other unit numbered over two hundred, all riding warhorses and leading donkeys and mules, clustered around an extremely finely made great banner of red background and yellow border bearing the character Liu.

Lin Wei stared blankly, his eyes dazed as he watched the five cavalry columns surround the estate, yet he made no move whatsoever.

Ever since he had been sent to Ansai to oversee the prince's estate amid the widespread chaos in the northwest, he had imagined countless times what it would be like to encounter bandits.

He had even actually encountered them once — several hundred people, clothes too ragged to cover their bodies, every one of them so starved their bellies were distended, carrying clubs and farming tools, surging from the direction of Ansai toward the Apricot River Valley.

At that time, Wang Village had not yet built its mountain fortress — only twelve stone-laid courtyard houses had been constructed at the East Official Estate in the river valley.

The estate households each held light bows and repeating crossbows to defend the stone houses. Seven or eight arrows were enough to scare the bandits into retreating beyond range.

After two days of siege, eleven men had been killed by bows and crossbows or speared to death, over forty had starved or gorged themselves to death, and more than a hundred had fled and scattered.

In the end, Lin Wei's fear of the bandits storming the estate vanished entirely. He sent men to pick out a hundred or so who had not eaten guanyin clay and still had a chance at life, found a patch of land at the East Official Estate for them to rent and farm, set up a gruel station, and put them to work digging stone and gathering grass.

It was precisely because of this experience that he had always believed he did not fear bandits.

He had not been afraid then, and now, with large stretches of stone-laid courtyard houses built across the four official estates — east, west, south, and north — and the mountain stone fortress only a month or so from completion, he feared bandits even less.

But... but these men now surrounding Wang Village — Lin Wei did not know how to describe them.

Call them an army? He was born in Ningxia's Zhongwei, and he had never seen any army whose smallest unit was four men.

Besides, government army formations were always three mounted to seven on foot. For a man to have two or even three horses required a huge amount of time drawing warhorses from the army and local horse-registry households.

In his impression, a bandit gang so destitute that men would starve to death just standing still — their bandit chief would be lucky to have a big mule to ride.

Calling them bandits was certainly not wrong, but... who would dare call a force like this bandits?

Only behind that great red banner with yellow borders bearing the character Liu, those three or four hundred men in padded cotton coats, standing barehanded in formation — those you might call bandit elites.

Counting the six banners and six squads up front, this had already shattered Lin Wei's imagination of what bandits could be.

Just what in the world are they?

"Steward Lin, what are you spacing out for? What do we do?!"

Amid the servants' urgent cries, Lin Wei barely steadied his nerves.

Looking out, the river valley was utter chaos — cattle and sheep running wild, donkeys and horses charging blindly, and those estate tenants who had once been able to hold bows and crossbows against bandits were now all fleeing for their lives, yet not knowing where to run, they could only scramble headlong toward the mountains.

"Right — move fast. Rally the estate households to me. We can only strike the two squads to the west first. If we wait until they close the encirclement on all four sides, there will be no chance of survival!"

As he spoke, Lin Wei tucked the telescope into his coat and led the servants, hands on saber hilts, running down the earthen hill.

Just as he was racing toward the East Official Estate, the five posts of Liu's camp were moving — the mule squads on the north and south sides wound their way down the mountain paths, while those on the east and west slowly pressed inward toward the center.

All of them were following Liu Chengzong's orders: the intent was not to kill, but to use the pressure of a strict military formation to break the estate households' psychological defenses and force their collapse and surrender.

In truth, that objective had already been achieved.

The sturdy stone-laid courtyard houses of the east and west official estates were the best defensive ground in the river valley, but under the slow pressure of the mounted troops, most people abandoned the buildings and fled inward.

Only a handful remained, standing on rooftops with bows and crossbows, putting up a desperate last stand.

But times had changed.

Beneath the yellow banner, Cao Yao of the camp artillery post waved his hand, and the post's gunners unstrapped the crouching-tiger cannons and rolling-bead cannons from the mules' backs.

In teams of five, they lifted the cannon barrels and carried the ammunition chests, running forward. They set up thirty paces from the buildings, and behind their tall shields and full suits of iron armor, they treated the incoming arrows as nothing at all, loading their ammunition in orderly fashion.

The rooftop crossbowmen's equipment was poor — all light bows and repeating crossbows — and their skill was poor as well. The crossbow bolts flipped sideways halfway through their flight, and the feathered arrows fell sparsely to either side, not a single one hitting its mark.

Cao Yao gripped his three-eyed gun and stood beside the two cannons, waiting only for Liu Chengzong's single order to fire and blast these men away.

But unexpectedly, Han Shipan of the household guard squad reined in his horse and stepped forward, saying, "General, let us brothers go. There's no need to waste gunpowder."

Liu Chengzong knew in his heart that these two brothers wanted to show their skill before him, and he was curious to see what these two powerfully built Guyuan household guard leaders were capable of.

So he waved his hand and said, "Go ahead."

Having received the order, the two brothers spurred their horses through a gap in the artillery post's formation. The two riders drew together and exchanged a few words, then wheeled their horses apart — one left, one right — raising their war bows and nocking broadhead arrows as they flanked toward the stone house.

The broadhead arrow has a wide-bladed tip. Compared to the common spear-point swift arrows, needle-like armor-piercing arrows, and many other arrowheads, the wide blade cuts more muscle and sinew. Against an unarmored target, one arrow makes escape very difficult.

The drawback is that the broad blade face shortens the range and causes the arrow to veer at distance.

Liu Chengzong did not watch their arrows — he only watched how, as the two brothers galloped, their bodies and the heaving of their warhorses moved in such natural harmony. Their horsemanship was exquisite.

With horsemanship like that, mounted archery comes as naturally as water flowing into a channel.

An ordinary mounted soldier needs to carry two bows — a sixty-jin foot bow and a forty-jin cavalry bow. An elite mounted soldier uses a seventy-jin foot bow and a sixty-jin cavalry bow. Men like these two only needed to carry one bow.

But what Liu Chengzong had not expected was that the two brothers had no intention of closing in before shooting.

Still over twenty paces from Cao Yao's artillery and nearly sixty paces from the stone house, the two brothers — one left, one right — drew their bows full and loosed their broadhead arrows.

At that distance, Liu Chengzong would have needed swift arrows to have any confidence of hitting.

Han Shipan's arrow missed by a mere inch, striking the rooftop parapet and sending up a few sparks. From the other side of the roof came a startled cry — someone fell to Han Shiyou's arrow.

In the next instant, two more arrows flew, and two more men collapsed on the rooftop. Both brothers had scored hits.

A divine feat of skill!

After that, the figures on the rooftop vanished without a trace. The remaining three vaulted over the wall, abandoned the stone house, and fled west.

Only then did the brothers spur their horses past Cao Yao's artillery, kicking up two trails of dust as they gave chase.

In the blink of an eye, the three fleeing figures toppled one after another.

Liu Chengzong saw several figures further away running toward them from the earthen hill. The two brothers were wheeling their horses to return to formation when, apparently spotting those figures, Han Shipan on the left lightly nudged his horse's belly and rode toward them.

Still over a hundred paces away, Liu Chengzong saw the figures seem to realize they could not escape death under mounted archery. The foremost man, with incomparable valor, drew his blade and held it before him in an arrow-deflecting stance — he actually meant to meet cavalry on foot.

He was promptly tackled to the ground by the men behind him in a flurry of hands and feet. They kowtowed toward Han Shipan from afar, said something, and then actually marched the man toward the front of the formation under guard.

A moment later, the two riders briefly met. Han Shiyou spurred his horse back to the formation, tumbled from the saddle, and knelt. His face brimming with delight, he cupped his fists and reported, "General, my brother has captured the steward of Wang Village — and he's a princely son-in-law of the district too!"

Note:

①. For the princely son-in-law official post and criminal punishments, refer to the thesis "A Study of the Princely Son-in-Law Group in the Ming Dynasty."

②. The Shanxi Grand Coordinator reviewed the drill of two battalion commander divisions on the Datong Eastern Route — 840 cavalry in total. At eighty paces (120 meters), forty-seven men could score five to seven hits out of ten shots. One man scored eight out of ten; his name was Du Jiyue, and he was enrolled in the Iron Cavalry Squad.

— Shanxi Grand Coordinator Wu Rendu, "Collected Works of Wu Jishu," Volume 9