Chapter 133: Command Manual

The cold wind howled. After winter set in, Shaanxi grew colder by the day, and the days slipped by faster and faster.

Although Liu Chengzong had drawn up a training plan, every unit was too busy digging pit-houses to bother with drills. It wasn't until the eleventh month arrived that scheduled training was finally put on the agenda.

"Now that we're into the twelfth month, this weather really is getting colder and colder."

Shangtian Hou shivered as he burrowed into Liu Chengzong's room, like a little black coal ball. With a whoosh he crouched right beside the fire pit. Feeling the warmth wash over him, he let out a comfortable sigh.

Liu Chengzong was writing a command manual he would need later, using the light by the window. He set down his brush, turned his head to look, and asked, "Where's your soldier's coat? You've got a new padded jacket and you won't wear it — if you're not cold, who is?"

"Gave it away."

Shangtian Hou was wearing a mandarin-duck battle jacket he'd gotten from who-knows-where, so thin it looked like a single layer, with two guard-station studded brigandines thrown over it. His hands and legs were wrapped in tattered cloth strips too. He looked utterly wretched.

In the eyes of a proper military officer, a deputy commander like this had no dignity whatsoever.

And the fellow said it so casually that Liu Chengzong felt a surge of anger: "You can just give away your soldier's coat?"

"Why yell at me? I gave it to your soldiers too. Every post has a few dozen auxiliaries with no padded jackets to wear. I'm filthy — I couldn't bear to put on that new padded jacket anyway."

"You!"

Liu Chengzong understood the reason now. His anger faded, leaving only helplessness. He raised a hand, pointed at Shangtian Hou and wagged his finger, then sighed: "If every command officer had your kind of heart, why would Lion Camp fear the government troops?"

In truth, he had been thinking about Shangtian Hou's role for a while.

Ever since the camps merged, Shangtian Hou had completely placed himself in the position of one whose force had been absorbed. Any authority handed to him, he pushed away — he took nothing.

He had only asked for the nominal title of deputy commander. In practice, he had not a single soldier he could command.

His entire status in Lion Camp could be summed up in two words: surplus.

Shangtian Hou huddled up and warmed himself by the fire for a while, then turned his head and said, "I went to the work post to check. The old weapons and armor are all repaired. For new weapons, the post leader says he's got several hundred novices over there — should he make them bowyers or firearms craftsmen?"

Liu Chengzong said, "Firearms craftsmen. Although most in the camp use bows, firearms are easier to make. At this critical juncture, where am I supposed to find sinew and horn to laminate bow arms?"

"Alright. Let me warm up a bit more, then I'll head back over."

"No, send someone else for that." Liu Chengzong stopped him. "I have something to discuss with you."

At that, Shangtian Hou rose from beside the fire pit, pulled over a bench, and sat down across from him. "What is it?"

"What are your thoughts on rebellion and amnesty?"

Liu Chengzong got straight to the point, then smiled. "You definitely know I don't want amnesty, but feel free to speak your mind. I just want to know your view on the matter."

Shangtian Hou pursed his lips. "I don't know."

"You don't know?"

What kind of answer was that?

"I've never thought about becoming an official. If the court said they'd make me a battalion commander, I might just take it?"

Shangtian Hou looked at Liu Chengzong, very honestly. "But if the court wanted me to be a battalion commander and lead troops to suppress the old brothers, I might refuse amnesty then. If they sent me to fight the eastern invaders, I'd probably go... I really don't know whether I would accept amnesty or not."

"Even less do I know whether, after accepting amnesty, the court would deny us rations and pay, and whether I'd rebel again."

Shangtian Hou scratched his head in frustration and gave a self-deprecating laugh. "I'm just a refugee chief. Why are you making me think about all this? Anyway, if I get surrounded and captured by government troops, just remember to rescue me."

Liu Chengzong felt the dirty monkey wasn't lying.

Aside from the most extreme individuals, the vast majority of ordinary people, until they actually face a situation, find it very hard to be certain how they would choose.

Even at the critical moment of choice, it also depends on the surrounding circumstances.

Even the same person, when surrounded by government troops with no chance of victory, will make a different choice than when their power is at its height.

But at the very least, he could be certain of one thing: Shangtian Hou subjectively had no thought of surrendering to the imperial court.

That was enough.

Liu Chengzong thought for a moment, raised his hand to point at the book he was compiling on the table, and said, "Zuantianmao, go over there and do some studying."

"Stu-studying?"

Shangtian Hou was baffled. "Study what?"

"Basic literacy. Study for as long as you can manage; the more characters you learn, the better... Forget it, you won't learn much going over there. How about this: I'll teach you to read myself. What do you say?"

Liu Chengzong pondered for a moment, then said to Shangtian Hou, "Here's what I'm thinking. You're the deputy commander of Lion Camp — you can't be illiterate. We've got time this winter. The posts have each run four drills, and we've had two full-camp assemblies. There are big problems. I'm planning to compile a few manuals. You can study alongside me."

In truth, the best place for basic literacy was still Zuantianmao; they had the most professional teachers there.

But they'd already been studying for over a month. If Shangtian Hou went over as a late enrollee now, he wouldn't be able to study long before spring arrived.

Once the weather warmed, there would be no time for study.

The results probably wouldn't even be as good as learning at Liu Chengzong's side.

"Excellent! Master above, please accept your disciple's bow!"

Shangtian Hou performed a salute with great formality, even patting himself down as if looking for a gift. He searched and searched but found nothing, and in the end could only shamelessly sit back down on the bench. Looking at the book on the table, he read aloud, "Tang, Ling, San..."

"Command Manual. This is a manual written specifically for command officers. It sets out the requirements for them. Right now, command officers are all posted beside squad leaders. In the future, we'll also establish command officers beside company leaders and post leaders. For now, the camp commander's command officer is you."

Shangtian Hou looked utterly bewildered and gave a simple, silly laugh. "I'm the biggest command officer? I don't even know what a command officer does."

"Don't think you're the only one who doesn't know. Many of the command officers below don't know either. That's exactly why we need this."

Liu Chengzong spread his hands as he spoke; he was also quite troubled. "I want to explain things to them in detail, but with over three hundred command officers, I don't have the time to teach every single one personally. Besides, what our command officers need to do is also somewhat different from the court's command officers. And none of them can read — they'll just have to learn bit by bit later."

"The first major duty of a command officer is to unite the soldiers — to bind the twelve combat soldiers and auxiliaries under each squad together, to cultivate the troops' loyalty, to encourage the timid, praise the brave, comfort the weary, punish evil and promote good, and to win the men over through fairness."

Shangtian Hou's eyes brightened as he listened. He nodded. "I can do that!"

"Don't be hasty. That's only the beginning. You must also educate the soldiers in the army to treat the common people kindly and observe military discipline; to publicize the evil deeds of the imperial court, the emperor, the feudal princes, corrupt officials, unvirtuous officers, and wicked local gentry. During training, encourage the soldiers to drill and urge them to study. On the battlefield, inspire courage and undermine the enemy's morale."

Liu Chengzong looked at Shangtian Hou, whose face now showed difficulty, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile. "On the march and in camp, engage with the common people, proclaim that our Lion Camp is a righteous army, personally lead the troops to help the people, punish soldiers who commit crimes, so as to win the hearts of the people and gain their support in intelligence, supplies, and recruits."

"Beyond that, conduct security education within the camp. Arrange non-training duties for soldiers at the post, company, and squad levels while in camp, so they don't get idle and stir up trouble or leak intelligence to civilians and enemy troops. At the same time, nip trouble in the bud — detect the court's attempts to incite defection and sow discord in advance. When a commanding officer or soldier acts suspiciously or with unclear purpose, report it early or gather evidence and seize them."

Having said all this, Liu Chengzong closed the manual and said to the dazed Shangtian Hou with a smile, "Even if a post commander wants to surrender to the government troops or switch sides on the battlefield, let him run off alone — he must not be allowed to take control of the unit."

When he finished, Shangtian Hou waved his hands repeatedly. "General, I can't carry this job."

Shangtian Hou reflected to himself that each of these conditions was harder than the last. Just being able to unite the soldiers was already extraordinary — out there in the famine-ravaged land, that alone would be enough to make someone a minor mountain bandit chief.

Who would have thought the later ones were even more formidable? Even if he scoured his mind for every capable person he knew, picked out the most talented, and combined all their abilities into a single person, that person still might not be able to meet all of Liu Chengzong's demands.

"No one is born knowing how. Everything is learned step by step. As the saying goes, a journey of a thousand li begins with a single step. We'll start with learning to read, then worry about everything else."

Liu Chengzong raised a hand as he spoke, spreading his five fingers. "Five years. If we both survive, by the eighth year of Chongzhen, if you can train the orderlies in the ranks so they all can read and follow the requirements in this manual, that will count as success."

"Five years?"

Heaven-Reaching Monkey mulled it over. His face still showed some difficulty, but he nodded. "With that much time, it might be possible. But if we're both still alive in five years, how many troops will you have by then? This handful of men won't be enough!"

"It's enough. Do you know where the Lion Battalion came from? It started when my elder brother was training the village braves. Back then, I wanted every militiaman to have the ability to serve as a squad leader."

A sly grin spread across Liu Chengzong's face as he spoke. "If the squad and company backbone can hold things together, the unit can expand again. One company expands into a squad, one squad into a platoon, one platoon into a battalion — that's over twenty thousand men."

At that, the grin on his face froze. "But speaking of expansion, it really is a headache. The Lion Battalion's had over thirty platoon drills and two full battalion drills, and none of them went well."

"Huh?"

Heaven-Reaching Monkey blinked. "I thought they went pretty well. The troops are way sharper than before."

That's because your old unit got way sharper.

The troops had been drilling for over a month now. The eight platoon leaders had each led their units in four platoon-level exercises at Wangzhuang Fort, and the whole battalion had held two full assembly drills.

From Liu Chengzong's perspective, combat effectiveness had dropped dramatically.

Combining battalions — his own men had high military quality, Heaven-Reaching Monkey's men had low military quality. Now merged, it was basically three plus one equaling less than two. A decline across the board.

"Take rapid marching alone. The platoons are all stationed ten or twenty li from Wangzhuang Fort. Running back and forth, the fast ones wait for the slow ones — look how many stragglers there are."

They were lucky the Emperor had only issued an edict to rescue the capital. If the court had turned that same energy toward suppressing them, Liu Chengzong felt they wouldn't even be able to flee after merging the battalions.

"Fortunately, they're all training. Coordination will get better with time. In the last few drills, the auxiliaries are starting to shape up too. A pity there still isn't enough time."

Liu Chengzong rubbed his hands together. "And I have another worry."

"What?"

"Grain."

Heaven-Reaching Monkey frowned. "What about the grain?"

He turned it over in his mind but couldn't see any problem with the grain. Before winter set in, they had gathered enough grain to supply the entire battalion through the cold season — even a bit of surplus. It would last until the second month of next year, by which time spring would have long arrived.

"The grain is enough for now. But what if mutineers and deserters from the capital-relief army come to join us? If just two hundred men show up with horses, our grain won't last until the second month. And what if even more come?"

Heaven-Reaching Monkey smacked his forehead. Trouble.

They really hadn't factored incoming recruits into their grain calculations. Yet in their actions, they had already made arrangements to recruit deserters.

"This is exactly why I can't make up my mind. Of my two Yaos — Yang Yao of the Vanguard Platoon is from Guyuan. He suggests going west to recruit deserters. Cao Yao of the Cannon Platoon spent a few years in Shanxi and suggests going east to recruit deserters."

Sometimes having nothing but talented men under your command was its own kind of headache.

Both suggestions were excellent. But if you factored in Yang Yanchang, who had set out with Wu Zimian, and assumed each brought back three hundred men — their grain wouldn't be enough to feed them all.

And to make matters worse, in Fushi County and Ansai County, there were few wealthy households easy to hit. The ones left all had strong forts and high walls — small cannons couldn't breach them, and big cannons couldn't be moved.

"Fuzhou."

Heaven-Reaching Monkey said, "I'll make another trip to Fuzhou. Take a platoon of men and go seize some grain... but then I won't be able to stay and learn from you."

"Is there anyone else — someone familiar with Fuzhou?"

"Flying Mountain Tiger. When I brought my troops over, he was a chiliarch. Now he's a squad leader under Platoon Leader Feng in the Left Platoon. He knows Fuzhou well — used to operate around Yichuan. We could send Platoon Leader Feng south to bring back some grain and fodder."

Liu Chengzong nodded slowly. "If that's the case, we can have Platoon Leader Feng lead troops south, Platoon Leader Yang go west, and Platoon Leader Cao go east. Those two platoons can also gather grain and fodder along the way. Our stores at Wangzhuang Fort will be enough to last until next year."

If the opportunity weren't so rare, Liu Chengzong actually wouldn't want to split his forces.

But this court-ordered capital relief — in his view, it was bound to be a disaster for the elite frontier troops of the three border commands and five garrisons.

No one could resist being deeply tempted by that.

Just as Liu Chengzong and Heaven-Reaching Monkey were discussing the details of dispatching the split forces, someone knocked on the door.

The one who entered was Wei Qian'er. His expression was grave. He looked at Liu Chengzong, then at Heaven-Reaching Monkey, hesitating to speak.

Liu Chengzong said, "What is it? Out with it."

"General, a letter intercepted by common folk was delivered from Zuantianmao. We still don't know who it was meant for. The Centurion Shi who delivered it said the Old Master ordered that no one but you may read this letter."

As he spoke, Wei Qian'er handed the opened letter to Liu Chengzong.

Liu Chengzong unfolded the letter. The recipient was not clearly named. The tone was condescending. The gist was telling the recipient not to be impatient — the official post the court had promised would be granted after the deed was done. The recipient was to continue lying low under the chieftain's command.

Once the court settled on a campaign strategy, they were to proceed according to the original plan. If someone was sent to offer amnesty, the recipient was to oppose amnesty. If someone was sent to suppress them, the recipient was to oppose surrender.

The goal was to ensure the chieftain fought the government troops to the death — only then would there be merit. After the deed was done, the promised posts were chiliarch and commander.

The signature was the Three-Border Supreme Command of Guyuan.

"Who else has seen this letter?"

Wei Qian'er shook his head. "I brought it straight to you, General, the moment I received it. No one else has seen it."

Heaven-Reaching Monkey asked, "What's it say? A surrender demand?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head, drew a deep breath, and said, "Yang He has made his move. Sowing discord."