Chapter 135: Nightmare

Liu Xiangsheng trudged step by step along the small path on Black Dragon Mountain, a coal basket strapped to his back.

He passed his family's tenant fields and saw the wheat covered beneath a thin layer of snow; a trace of joy showed on his face, and his steps homeward quickened.

Xingping Village was the same as ever. Liu Xiangsheng glanced from a distance at the largest and finest house built in the village, then turned and walked into a small detached courtyard on the west side.

He had just set down the coal basket and was rubbing the bloody welts the straps had left on his shoulders when his wife came out and asked, "Well? Is the county hiring any winter laborers?"

Liu Xiangsheng shook his head. He went inside, sat on a stool, and paused a long while before saying, "I dug a bit of coal. After the new year, you just don't move around. Eat less — we can tough it out. I'm going to haul coal for the Prefect's uncle."

Digging coal was bitter work. In the past, you could dig coal right there in Black Dragon Mountain, but now the mountain coal pits belong to the Prefect's uncle, and ordinary folk aren't allowed to dig at will.

Before, the people of Black Dragon Mountain would take a day or two each winter to go into the mountains and dig coal, just enough to heat their homes through the cold.

No one opened pits, and no one sold it elsewhere.

There was more coal nearby than could ever be used; haul a cartload out to sell and no one would buy it. Selling to common folk wouldn't even cover the porter's fee.

Now it's different. The Prefect's uncle has opened pits in the mountains and sells the coal directly through the yamen's works bureau to the iron-smelting households and those mountain-heads who run kilns — at a price twenty percent above market, and you have no choice but to buy.

If you don't buy, you get no work. No work means starving to death.

The woman had no objection to sitting idle through winter, but she mocked him quietly: "That Prefect's uncle must have lard smeared over his heart and a death wish, daring to seize property belonging to your Liu clan. If you ask me, you're just stubborn. Xiangliang the carpenter followed them to Liu Family Village — why don't you go?"

Liu Xiangsheng answered sullenly, "Going there means being a tenant under Xiangyu's family."

"And by staying here, did you keep your fifty mu of land? You're still a tenant."

The woman spoke with the frustration of one who sees iron but not steel: "Why are you so stubborn! You asked Xiangyu for help twice — once to be a constable in Mizhi, once to be a tax clerk in the prefectural city. So he didn't let you go — let it be. It's not like he rejected you alone. Are you still holding a grudge?"

"When Xiangyu's family built their big house, I even hauled a cartload of bricks for them. I installed those eaves tiles myself... If everyone leaves, who will tend the ancestors?"

At this, Liu Xiangsheng could say no more. In the end, he sat on the heated brick bed and muttered a single sullen line: "A man still has to rely on himself."

But if you lack the ability yourself and can't be relied on, then what do you do?

Suddenly, from Black Dragon Mountain came the tune of a two-stringed fiddle, accompanied by the booming of drums.

Liu Xiangsheng felt dazed — the tune seemed familiar, yet in that instant he could not recall it. He hurriedly ran outside.

Only when he had run past the courtyard gate did it suddenly strike him: this was the tune that thieving musician prisoner, locked in the coal-pit cave, had often played!

Quite a few people in the village heard the drums and fiddle moving into the mountains. They all ran to the village entrance and gazed toward the mountain pass.

Amid swirling snowflakes that filled the sky, mounted soldiers in red armor galloped along the field paths, holding high a great crimson banner bearing the character Liu.

Banner after banner, of various colors and sizes, halted at the mountain pass. Leaving the mules behind, the mounted soldiers advanced first toward the village, while the infantry formed columns and marched swiftly.

Two four-wheeled war chariots, each drawn by a pair of horses, rolled one after the other along the field road. On the foremost chariot was mounted a heavy cannon, and Song Shouzhen sat astride it, head bowed as he drew the bow across his fiddle.

The chariot behind carried a war drum, struck with heavy force by a stout warrior.

The official servants in their great padded coats and fur robes, along with the family and dependents of the Prefect's uncle, stood frozen for a moment on the rooftops and at the village entrance.

That Liu-character banner was their nightmare. Though they had bolstered themselves ten thousand times by daylight, telling themselves the Liu family would not dare return.

When night fell and they slept, they still feared the neighing of warhorses — and now, the nightmare had stepped into reality.

No one knows who started it first, but everyone ran madly toward the mountain fortress.

Liu Chengzong rode past the familiar fields, raised his whip, and said to Chengyun with a smile, "That bastard even built an embroidered pavilion in his courtyard. I've figured something out."

It was laughable, really — though the great house on Black Dragon Mountain was built exquisitely and beautifully.

For a very long time before this, Liu Chengzong had never truly felt, in his heart, that this place was home.

Whether it was the west office of the Mizhi County jail warden or that sunken cave dwelling in Yuhe Fort, both felt far more like home to him than Black Dragon Mountain did.

After all, at most, he had lived here less than three months in total.

This place felt more like Chengyun's home.

But Black Dragon Mountain was his homeland.

Liu Chengyun rode a donkey, wearing no armor, with neither bow nor crossbow nor blade on his person.

He only had a Frankish hand cannon tucked at his waist — he didn't even know how to use it, and carried it merely to bolster his own courage.

He asked, "What has Brother figured out?"

"Avoiding Black Dragon Mountain is not the way to deal with this. If we avoid it, then someone will occupy it. The ancestral graves and the spirit tablets are all in the mountain caves. If someone occupies it, it becomes a hindrance. There's no need to tell people they can't occupy it."

As he spoke, Liu Chengzong turned his head: "Whoever occupies it dies. Then others will know what to do."

Two columns of soldiers filed forward past them. The troops brought out this time were Gao Xian's unit, and this was their first real combat since the combined-camp reorganization and training. The opponent was very weak — merely holed up in a strong fortress — so they had hauled along a heavy cannon.

What Liu Chengzong was more concerned with, however, was the twelve-man squad after the camp merger, this mixed formation of combat soldiers and support auxiliaries, and what effect it would have on the soldiers' fighting strength in battle.

Two squads of mounted soldiers, in groups of three riders each, sealed off the key roads throughout the village. Two herald officers led the support auxiliaries into the village, awkward and uncertain as they pacified the common folk.

It was a first for both sides — the villagers looked at them in fear, and they looked at the villagers in fear.

After that, the infantry continued to advance in formation toward the mountain fortress.

By the time Liu Chengzong rode into the village, many of the villagers had already fled. Only the old, the weak, the women, and the children of the tenant households remained, hiding in their homes, along with a few tenants standing in their own courtyards watching.

These tenants were all unfamiliar faces — only Liu Xiangsheng stood there, both startled and timid, in front of his courtyard gate.

"Uncle Xiangsheng is still at home? Why didn't you go to Liu Family Village?"

Liu Xiangsheng looked and looked before recognizing Liu Chengzong. He opened his mouth but for a moment did not know what to call him. He paused, then said, "Shiwa, the family has land here, so we didn't leave."

Truth be told, he was not close to Liu Chengzong. It was nothing more than village clansmen chatting, mentioning things like how both of Liu Xiangyu's sons were licentiates, or how both sons had gone off to be soldiers, and so on.

Only after the two of them had left Yuhe Fort and returned had he seen them a few times, exchanging greetings from a distance.

It was Liu Chengzong, rather, who had an impression of Liu Xiangsheng.

In truth, if he had seen anyone else, Liu Chengzong would have been somewhat puzzled — they had told everyone to hide in Liu Family Village; how could there still be people staying on Black Dragon Mountain?

But if it was Liu Xiangsheng, it was not strange.

Because Liu Xiangsheng had actually wanted to flee with his wife very early on — he had wanted to flee right after Xingping Village was plundered by the famine refugees. It happened that very night, Liu Chengzong had reaped a cartload of heads and jumped into Coiling Dragon Creek to bathe.

Uncle Xiangsheng saw it and thought it was the ancestors manifesting their spirits, and was frightened into staying.

He only found it somewhat amusing — the power of the ancestors manifesting was far mightier than hunger and hardship.

Liu Chengzong asked, puzzled, "That little brother-in-law of Zhang Nian's — he didn't seize your family's land?"

"Taken," Liu Xiangsheng said sullenly. "Took twenty mu of mine, then leased fifty mu back to me — three dou of rent per mu."

"What was the point of all this? Liu Family Village is all our family's land — no rent, no grain tax, you plant as much as you can. Coming here was just suffering. No matter… Auntie's come out too."

Just as Liu Chengzong was speaking, Liu Xiangsheng's wife also came out of the house and asked, "Chengzong, riding a horse and wearing armor — so impressive. You say Liu Family Village has no rent and no grain tax — is that true?"

"Why would I lie to you about that? But it doesn't matter now. I'm back. Whoever took our family's land, I'll make them spit it back out."

Liu Chengzong hadn't come just to chat. He asked, "Uncle, Aunt, how many people are in the fort up on the mountain? How many soldiers does that brother-in-law of Zhang Nian have? Do they have guns or cannons?"

The couple were both honest, simple farming folk. His question startled them badly. It was Liu Xiangsheng's wife who proved bolder. "Seventy or eighty people in the fort, I'd say. Lion, you be careful — they've got no cannons, but your aunt's seen guns."

No cannons — that was enough.

Liu Chengzong turned his head and saw the familiar Herald Jin Pu calming the people while holding his horse's reins. With his gentle expression, he actually looked quite the part. Liu Chengzong waved and called out, "Herald Jin."

He was rather fond of this herald. It was Jin Pu who had taken Lu Cheng's body back to his hometown — a man of loyalty and honor, and fate had tied them together.

In all of northern Shaanxi, Jin Pu, after burying Lu Cheng, had not wanted to return to his unit. He wandered a circle, ended up under Yang Yao's command, and then followed Yang Yao in surrendering to Liu Chengzong.

Fate.

Jin Pu heard the shout and hurried over with two auxiliaries. "General, what is it?"

"They've got guns in that fort. Have two men shield you and go to fifty paces from the fort to call for their surrender. Tell the people inside to kill the bastard who seized my family's property, and I'll spare their lives."

The fort on Black Dragon Mountain was already in chaos.

Zhang Nian's so-called brother-in-law was named Xing Xuan.

This man was also a local of Yan'an Prefecture. His parents had run a medicinal herb business in Yaozhou. In earlier years, the family had considerable wealth, but he was spoiled rotten by his parents and dabbled in every vice — drinking, whoring, gambling. His father had a temper, and seeing his son was worthless, in a fit of rage he fathered another child and threw Xing Xuan out of the house.

He loafed around the prefectural city, and thanks to his younger sister's repeated financial help, his days weren't too bad. But then the drought hit, and his parents left the shop here to him and his sister and went to Yaozhou.

He had no business skills whatsoever. His fair-weather friends couldn't point him to any honest path to make a living. The medicine shop soon closed, cutting off his source of income.

Someone gave him an idea: his younger sister was beautiful — why not sell her?

Delivering his sister to the bed of the Prefect was the biggest, and most brilliant, thing he'd ever done in his life.

From then on, borrowing the name of Zhang Nian's brother-in-law, and with a pack of scoundrel friends to scheme for him… These people couldn't accomplish anything in a proper world, but when it came to crooked paths, they were truly second to none.

A county magistrate was already a local emperor, let alone a prefect. And with the post roads cut off, no one knew what you did out here.

What's more — what's more, he was living in Liu Chengzong's own house.

When people first heard he was the Prefect's brother-in-law, they were somewhat unimpressed. Then they asked around and learned he lived on Black Dragon Mountain. Good heavens — even the Liu brothers, who had besieged the prefectural city so many times, didn't dare provoke him. This brother-in-law must be formidable.

Coal from the prefectural city, ore from Ansai, women from the brothels, cattle and horses from the border markets — everything except grain, wherever there was a chance to stick a foot in, they'd meddle.

They'd wanted to meddle in grain too. The moment they reached out, someone — they never found out who — slapped their hand down. They sent two men to stir up trouble at the grain shop, and both were thrown into jail by the prefectural city's runners.

He didn't dare tell Zhang Nian. Telling anyone else was useless, and no one told him what was really going on.

In Yan'an Prefecture, from top to bottom — county runners, clerks, prefectural runners, clerks, even the Vice Magistrate — all drew their grain from that shop. You think they'd let a bastard like you get his fingers in it?

Everyone understood this unspoken rule. Only Xing Xuan didn't know.

Even now, he believed the grain supply in Yan'an Prefecture was controlled by Zhang Nian from behind the scenes. After all, who else but Zhang Nian could arrest his men?

After that, he no longer dared to swagger around the prefectural city. He moved into the mountain fort.

Just before Liu Chengzong entered the mountains, though it was already afternoon, Zhang Nian's brother-in-law was still lying in a thousand-laborer canopy bed, sleeping comfortably.

This thousand-laborer canopy bed had been commissioned at great expense by a Yan'an-born eunuch during the Tianqi reign, intended as a gift for the Nine Thousand Years, Wei Zhongxian. But before the bed was finished, the Nine Thousand Years had reached the end of his life.

He'd acquired this bed without spending a single tael of silver.

Today, however, for some reason, Xing Xuan had a nightmare.

In the dream, Liu Chengzong had returned with troops to take his life. It scared Xing Xuan so badly he crawled off the bed drenched in cold sweat. Irritably, he chased away the two women attending him and went back to sleep with the covers over his head.

He had just fallen asleep when the two women woke him with shouts: "Master Xing, Liu the Lion is back to kill us!"

This time, when woken, Xing Xuan was perfectly calm. He stepped out of the canopy bed without even putting on clothes and muttered softly, "Seems I can't wake up from this dream."

The fort was in turmoil. The men and servants were all on the fort wall looking down. Some were trembling all over; others had eyes darting shiftily. But then they were all startled by Xing Xuan.

Where had this naked monkey come from?

"Master Xing, several hundred men, they've got cannons, and they're shouting demands right now."

Xing Xuan was gradually realizing this was no dream. He grabbed a garment from someone and wrapped it around himself, then had someone bring him a padded coat. Leaning on the thick rammed-earth parapet, he looked down. One glance made his head spin.

Soldiers everywhere.

A heavy cannon had already been unloaded from its cart. Jin Pu was in front, shouting loudly: "You thieving wretches dared to occupy General Liu's hometown! Zhang Nian is already dead! Kill his brother-in-law and open the fort gates, and you may yet save your lives! Otherwise, in one quarter-hour, not a single one of you will live!"

The moment Jin Pu's words rang out, chaos erupted atop the fort wall.

Liu Chengzong, listening from behind the formation, smiled. This Jin Pu had real talent — he understood how to attack the mind and compel surrender.

Zhang Nian wasn't dead, of course. But whether he was dead or not didn't matter. What mattered was that the people on this fort believed he was dead.

What ability could a man who sold his own sister possibly have? All his clout came from Zhang Nian. As long as these people thought Zhang Nian was dead, the fort would not be defended to the death.

It suited Liu Chengzong's thinking perfectly.

Although he had brought a cannon, he truly did not want to fire on a fort his own family had built.

Besides, he'd had a hand in building this fort himself. He knew perfectly well that a rammed-earth fort with a base two zhang wide and a top one zhang wide could not be breached in a short time.

Yet however strong the fort, in the end it all depended on the men defending it.

When they'd built this fort, they'd relied on the Liu family having frontier soldiers and trained militiamen. Given a chance to trade fire with muskets and bows, no bandits could gain the upper hand.

But now it was different. His combat troops were far more formidable than the men guarding the fort.

He had already given orders to his subordinates: push right up to the fort in a moment, auxiliaries shielding the combat troops, use bows and muskets to kill twenty or thirty men on the wall, and the fort would open.

Who could have imagined that Jin Pu's call for surrender would take effect immediately?

A gunshot rang out on the fort wall. Moments later, someone threw a head down and, leaning on the parapet, shouted below: "General Liu, we surrender! Can you spare our lives?"

Liu Chengzong spurred his horse in a circle beneath the fort, gazing at the wall and blinking.

To be honest, he wasn't much inclined to spare them.