Chapter 126: Handling Affairs

Ren Quan'er joined the battle too.

He served as the Chief of a Hundred under Liu Chengzu's unit, holding the rank of Hundred-Household of Yan'an Guard.

In battle he charged at the very front, leading the banner troops of Yan'an Guard to engage the government forces.

Ren Quan'er had been battered black and blue by maces; hearing that Commander Liu was summoning him, he immediately trotted over at a run to report in.

Back in Yan'an Guard, Chief Ren had often taught the banner troops under him: don't listen to Battalion Commander Yang, listen to Commander Liu Chengzong.

Whenever he did so, he would use himself as an example to explain to those banner troops who did not know Liu Chengzong.

Before he met Liu Chengzong, he was just a lowly banner soldier, ordered around and shouted at by officers since he was five years old.

What kind of days were those — so exhausted he never even had time to trim his toenails; only when they grew unbearably long would he borrow a pair of scissors and squat on the communal sleeping platform in the middle of the night, cutting his nails by the moonlight through the window.

One careless moment and he'd jab his toe; if he got hurt there was nowhere to treat it; he'd never been granted leave in his life, yet still had to rush about between fields and ridges.

Was his life so wretched because he wasn't loyal enough?

He'd even gone to deliver cannons to the rebels for Commander Yang — wasn't that loyal enough?

But that loyalty was useless.

With Commander Liu it was different: seeing he was wounded, he personally treated his injuries, changed his dressings, let him rest, and even gave him food. What was that? Was that a commander?

That was a second father and mother!

He heard Liu Chengzong say he was to guard Li Bei.

Chief Ren said not a word of objection; hugging his helmet, he walked out of the army tent and his face turned solemn. He said to Wei Qian'er, "Where is Li Bei? Brother, please take me to him... What kind of Regional Commander is he, costing our Yan'an Guard over a hundred good men — what a crime!"

Leaving Li Bei in Ren Quan'er's custody, Liu Chengzong was completely at ease.

Even Li Bei could not offer Ren Quan'er a higher rank than Chief of a Hundred.

After the battle, affairs were many; they could not withdraw for the moment, and it was just as well to wait for Cheng Yun to arrive with the wagon convoy, so they simply made camp on the spot and rested for a day.

Early the next morning, not long after Liu Chengzong had woken, Gao Yingxiang walked into the tent and said cheerfully, "General Liu, you're surrounded."

Seeing how lightly he said it, Liu Chengzong took it as a joke, thinking to himself that was a rather startling way to wake someone up.

Only when he stepped out of the camp tent did he discover they really were surrounded.

Corpses lay everywhere in the fields, still uncollected, and the thick stench of blood drilled straight into the nostrils.

Liu Chengzong looked up between the two mountains.

On the western mountain, several hundred starving people clustered in groups.

On the eastern mountain, several hundred village able-bodied men were assembling.

Liu Chengzong stood in the river valley, the millet grains beneath his feet trampled into the soil, and frowned. "What are they trying to do?"

Wei Qian'er stepped forward and said, "The villagers have been in the mountains all along; that village over there is their home. A few days ago, when King Gao's troops withdrew this way, they hid in the mountains."

Having said that, he looked again at the starving people on the western mountain and said, "Those people, I don't know where they came from. They've been standing there since last night, as if waiting for the troops to pull out."

"Tch!" Luo Rucai laughed. "I'll go ask them what they're here for."

Luo Rucai was the most cheerful of all; the hundred sets of frontier-army armor Liu Chengzong had promised him had already been delivered. As soon as he woke, he couldn't wait to put on his armor and come out; wherever he went, he had to make a round first so people could see.

He led a few riders galloping toward the western mountain, but someone came down from the eastern mountain first.

Several young lads supporting an old gentleman came over and immediately knelt and bowed, calling him "Great King."

Startled, Liu Chengzong hurriedly helped the old man up and asked, "Old sir, I dare not accept that — what is this about?"

The old man bowed his head and said, "Great King, we humble folk are all honest households from Guaizichuan here, living entirely off the riverside fields. A few days ago when the great army came through, we all fled into the mountains. Now the battle is over, and over a thousand people in the village depend on this grain to survive. We only beg the Great King to show mercy... and leave us some grain."

Liu Chengzong lifted his gaze and looked out; the fields they had used as a battlefield had indeed been badly ravaged.

Where troop formations had marched, swath after swath of millet had been trampled flat. In truth, the fields at the main battlefield were relatively fine; Li Bei's army discipline was not bad, and they had only cut a dozen or so mu.

Further back, near the camps of Li Wanqing, Gao Yingxiang, and Wang Ziyong, the fields had been nearly completely harvested.

Fighting a battle in autumn and pitching camp right beside the fields — wasn't that exactly the idea?

When the mess cooks saw mealtime approaching, they'd shoulder a sickle and push a cart out; they might even carry a bucket, draw some water from the river, cut some grain from the field, come back, set up the big pot, and steam the rice.

They had ruined the people's fields. In the heat of battle there was no time to think about it, but now, seeing this, Liu Chengzong knew they had to leave.

If they kept the troops here two more days, this village's ripened millet fields would be gone.

Liu Chengzong helped the old man up, looked at the young men beside him, then at the common folk on the distant hill. Their clothes could not be called tattered, but they truly all looked like people who had suffered.

If they were not suffering people, they probably would not have dared to walk right into an army camp over a bit of farmland.

Especially the camp of a rebel army that had just defeated government troops.

"We will leave today. Please rest assured, old sir, we will definitely not damage the crops any further. Hmm..." Feeling some guilt in his heart, he paused for a moment, then said, "I'll help you harvest the fields."

"No, no, that cannot be! It is enough that the Great King leaves us the fields; we dare not trouble the Great King to labor."

The old man turned pale with shock and immediately crouched to prostrate himself, saying, "Great King, just let this old man kowtow to you and spare us!"

But held up by Liu Chengzong's arms, no matter how he tried, he could not bow down.

Then he heard Liu Chengzong say to the several terrified young lads from Guaizichuan standing to the side, "Go back and tell every household with fields to come. I will send men to help you harvest the grain. Go quickly."

How could those lads dare go? They and the old man outside the camp were nearly in tears.

This Great King doesn't want to leave us a single grain! And from the sound of it, he wants to take the lives of everyone in the village too!

Not only did they think so, even Gao Yingxiang stepped forward and said, "Chengzong, enough is enough. Let them go."

Liu Chengzong's face was full of question marks. What did he mean, "enough is enough"?

Cao Yao stepped forward and said to Gao Yingxiang, "King Chuang, this is how General Liu handles things."

"What do you mean, 'how he handles things'?" Gao Yingxiang's face was also full of question marks, and he said angrily, "Bullying common people counts as handling things?"

Cao Yao knew he had misunderstood and said, "In Yanchuan, he made a bunch of rebel soldiers dig irrigation canals for the common folk."

Not only was Gao Yingxiang stunned, but the old man who had come to plead, and the other leaders, were all stunned — even Liu Chengzu was stunned.

The Liu family had led the people of Fushi County to resist taxes — that was to oppose the government, to stop the officials from collecting taxes.

But what did it mean to have soldiers harvest fields for common folk?

Trampling fields in the course of battle was unavoidable.

As for those fields that had been cut, Liu Chengzu could not control others, but his own troops had not cut the common people's fields, so his conscience was clear.

Liu Chengzu thought it over, and then he understood.

Only, this understanding was not necessarily the same as what Liu Chengzong had in mind.

What he had in mind was obedience and discipline. What was obedience? Letting soldiers do what they wanted to do could win their support, but making soldiers gladly do what they did not want to do — that was called command.

This was also a form of troop training.

The old man had also heard Cao Yao's words. He looked at Liu Chengzong and asked incredulously, "Great King, do you truly mean to help us cut the fields? We have people to cut them; there is no need to trouble the Great King to send troops."

"Elder, there is no need for such formality. On the battlefield, guns and cannons show no mercy, and we chieftains brought insufficient provisions. Damaging the fields was truly not my intent. I know you do not lack hands, so just give me a chance to make amends."

With that, he said to several of the young men, "Go and call all the field owners here. Quickly."

This time, the old man nodded, and the young men sprinted off, running up the mountain to spread the good news.

Liu Chengzong turned and beckoned to Wei Qian'er, saying, "Go pass the order to assemble. In a while, everyone will go harvest the panicled millet for the common people. If anyone dares bully the common people, don't blame me, Liu Chengzong, for turning hostile."

Wei Qian'er was fairly familiar with this kind of order. He smiled, accepted the command, and went down to relay it.

Gao Xian and Feng Rang were fine with it — both had taken part when the canals were dug. It was Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu, the two newly joined centurion officers of the border army, who were utterly baffled by Liu Chengzong's order.

What was the meaning of this? Telling border troops like them to harvest fields for the common people?

But baffled as they were, since Liu Chengzong's decisions had all been correct so far, they figured they would just do whatever he said.

When the order was passed down, the soldiers' thoughts were basically the same. Except for the wounded who were not with the unit, everyone assembled.

Before long, groups of common people came down from the mountain. The border army men shed their armor, picked up hoes in their soldier's clothes, and followed the farmers one by one to identify the fields.

Liu Chengzu's unit also joined in. At Liu Chengzong's instruction, several literate clansmen were specially assigned to record whose fields had been destroyed and how many mu had been ruined.

While they were handling this, Luo Rucai returned. He had seen the activity in the fields from the mountain and, unlike the other chieftains, was not bewildered.

Luo Rucai had top-tier comprehension skills. He ran over to Liu Chengzong and said, "General Liu, those are just famine refugees. They came over when they heard the commotion. They saw there was grain and even wanted to fight us for it. I already told them — they won't get a thing from us here."

His manner suggested he was waiting for Liu Chengzong to praise him.

Liu Chengzong looked toward the mountain. Seeing the famine refugees still there, he asked, "Then why haven't they left? Are they planning to rob the common people here later?"

Luo Rucai noticed the old man from Guaizichuan standing there. He stepped forward, clapped the old man on the shoulder, and bared a mouthful of big yellow teeth in a grin. "It's nothing, old man, don't be afraid. If they dared to kill, they wouldn't have starved to that point. They can't beat your village's young men. When we leave later, just don't clean up the corpses here."

After that, he turned to Liu Chengzong and the others and said, "I know you're all upright men, so I told them to come down later, to spare your eyes... but they really are about to starve to death. How about letting a few of them come down to carry the corpses away?"

Liu Chengzong did not catch on at first. He frowned, paused, and only then worked out the implication. He glared sharply.

But it lasted only an instant. He shook his head and said to Liu Chengzu, "What kind of world is this... Brother, is there still some grain in Li Bei's camp?"

The camp still had seven dan of grain.

Luo Rucai vehemently tried to dissuade Liu Chengzong from the idea of giving this grain away. He blocked his path and said, "Don't. Give them this grain, and if they eat sparingly, it's two days of meals; if they eat more, it's just two meals. Two meals from now, after we're gone, they'll still have to dig the corpses back up. Two more meals after that, they'll fight that village. Those who live, live; those who die, die."

"It's completely useless!" He swept his hand across in front of him. "I can't stand seeing this either, but what can be done? There are over a thousand of them — who can feed them through the whole winter!"

Luo Rucai was calculating this army's grain supplies. Not counting the dead and those who had run off, over five thousand men would eat through several dozen mu of land's worth of grain every single day.

Just last night, he had even been thinking that after dealing with the troops coming from Qingyang, he would have to find a way to persuade Liu Chengzong to push Gao Yingxiang's men right into the faces of the government troops.

Even if he didn't push them, once the fighting was done, he had to make Gao Yingxiang get far away from Fushi County as soon as possible.

Right now, Gao Yingxiang's force was the largest in the army. If they ended up lingering in Fushi County, they would be competing with them for food this winter.

Luo Rucai was also working his own little calculations. It was not that he loved raiding the wealthy; rather, he had long since seen one truth clearly — the wealthy would one day all be raided dry.

Every one someone else took was one less for him. Better to take early than late.

Liu Chengzong hesitated too.

A matter is simplest when it can be analyzed by weighing pros and cons. It becomes more difficult when that analysis turns into a moral choice. And when that moral choice becomes a dead end, it is meaningless.

His hesitation came from disappointment with the world.

In the end, he decided to leave the choice to those people themselves.

"Go ask them again. Do they dare to kill? If they dare, come and eat grain. If they don't... then forget it."

With that, he had Wang Ziyong's men dig pits to bury the battlefield corpses.

Putting himself in their place, Liu Chengzong felt that if he were dead, and someone was about to starve to death, and just one meal could extend their life, and that extension meant they could find a way to survive —

he would not mind if someone really came and took a bite out of him.

If one bite per person could save a hundred-man squad, then he would even feel it was worth being bitten.

But if someone bit him and still couldn't survive, then forget it. Not only would he not have wanted to be bitten, he would even want to rise up and slaughter every one of those people.

He said to Liu Chengzu, "For a moment, I thought to myself: if they don't dare to kill, then I will go and kill them all."

Liu Chengzong suddenly recalled that Cao Yao had once said it didn't matter. The good and evil of small people — it no longer mattered.

Back then, he had only thought Cao Yao was too pessimistic. Only today did he realize that Cao Yao had been utterly right.

This was disappointment, and also despair.

Disappointment with himself, despair at the world.

Out of the corner of his eye, he happened to see Liu En standing behind Liu Chengzu. Liu Chengzong said, "Go, have Ren Quan'er ask Li Bei — when faced with this, what should I do?"

Liu En was gone for a long time.

Only after a long while did he come running back, panting heavily. "General Li started by saying he didn't know. Centurion Ren kept asking until General Li got annoyed and told you to give the grain to the famine refugees, disband your troops, and surrender yourselves. Then..."

"Then what happened?"

Liu En looked like he wanted to laugh. He composed himself, then said, "Then Centurion Ren beat General Li up and told me to bring you a message. His exact words were: Chief Liu, don't ask this dogshit Assistant Regional Commander anything ever again. He doesn't know a damn thing!"

Liu Chengzong laughed too. This Ren Quan'er was absurd — he had no idea what the point of asking Li Bei was.

He asked, "He wasn't injured, was he?"

"No, only General Li was very angry. He told Centurion Ren to untie him, saying three of Centurion Ren couldn't beat him alone. Centurion Ren ignored him."

In truth, Ren Quan'er's exact words were: Do you think I'm stupid? I'm beating you precisely because you're tied up.

Luo Rucai returned, followed by a vast, sprawling crowd of over four hundred people. They were slower running than walking. As they ran, many collapsed, charging toward the grain in Li Bei's camp.