Chapter 158: A Pincer Movement from Both Sides

Just as Liu Chengzong acquired the two Hongyi cannons.

Throughout the Fen River valley, Shanxi government forces were mobilizing toward the Lüliang Mountains line.

Pingyang Guard deployed two thousand banner troops to garrison Daning and Pu County separately, and sent a chiliarch leading troops to station at Liulang Fortress in the Lüliang Mountains, holding the throat of the route from Xi County into Huo Prefecture.

At the Kulong Pass inspection office northeast of Shilou County, Ji'nan Defense Circuit Li Shi'en set down his letter and let out a sigh.

Toward Pingyang Guard he felt nothing but pure envy.

Pingyang Guard had no princely estate dragging them down, and even had a permanent Assistant Administration Commissioner; out of their five-thousand-odd banner troops, some ran and some stayed, yet they could still field thirty-three hundred men for defense.

The meaning was also perfectly clear: so long as the bandit troops did not disturb Pingyang Prefecture, they had no business with other places.

His own case was different — his full official title was Vice Commissioner of the Ji'nan Circuit Branch, overseeing Lu'an and Fenzhou, two prefectures.

It sounded quite capable, but in reality these two prefectures contained three princely estates: Qingcheng Prince Estate, Yonghe Prince Estate, and Shen Prince Estate.

The names Fenzhou and Luzhou clearly read "subprefecture," yet they were prefectural-level administrative units, precisely because the three princely estates had once run rampant, and the subprefectural rank left officials oppressed by the two prefectures.

That was why Luzhou was upgraded to Lu'an Prefecture during the Jiajing Emperor's reign, and Fenzhou was upgraded to Fenzhou Prefecture in the twenty-second year of Wanli.

On this point, Lu'an Prefecture was even harder to manage than Fenzhou Prefecture; Lu'an Prefecture had two very important counties, one called Changzhi and one called Pingshun.

In ancient times, place names were given to entrust fine hopes — "An" meant not peaceful, "Ping" meant not level, "Shun" meant not smooth, "Zhi" meant not governed.

In Pingshun, there was once a minor clerk named Chen Qing who gathered a following and rebelled in the Taihang Mountains, fighting the court from the tenth year of Zhengde until the seventh year of Jiajing, and at his peak strength seized seven subprefectures and prefectures in the southern Taihang range.

So Li Shi'en, as the Defense Circuit overseeing these two prefectures, was like a man bound hand and foot under limited resources — it was very difficult to accomplish anything.

These past few days, he had forcibly recalled part of the troops from various princely estates, and mobilized civilian braves from Fenyang, Xiaoyi, Pingyao, Jiexiu, and other places, barely scraping together a force of six thousand men for defense.

They were stationed separately at Wu Town in the northern section of the Lüliang Mountains, and at Kulong Pass in the middle section.

As for this force of his, how to put it.

Last year, Shanxi's king-serving army mutinied and fled in rout; Li Shi'en, fearing the four counties of Fenzhou Prefecture would suffer plunder by the routed troops, had devotedly supervised the drilling of civilian braves all winter until early spring.

So Fenzhou Prefecture's civilian braves were fairly well trained, and each township had considerable numbers; moreover, Shanxi's iron smelting was especially developed.

They could not be called a rabble.

But it was the busy farming season.

After several years of drought, snow had finally fallen last winter.

The killing power of this busy farming season upon civilian braves and banner troops was almost equal to rain falling upon a peasant rebellion.

And the bandits had not yet entered Fenzhou's borders — getting them to march out and fight was very hard.

One could only say they were reluctant and unwilling.

Relying on them alone was not enough to lift the siege of Yongning Prefecture; as for the trouble in Xi County, Li Shi'en had even less time to bother.

And subjectively, Li Shi'en was not very inclined to bother anyway. These two days, he had sent scouts through Shilou into Yonghe County, and in the intelligence gathered and sent back, that bandit force led by "General Liu" seemed to have done only three things.

Annihilated Zhang Zhan's banner troops, set up a valley yamen, and executed over four hundred banner troops guilty of crimes.

Besieged an earthen fort in the western township of Yonghe County; the common folk said a lord official lived there — which lord specifically, the scouts did not know.

Then sent men to Zaowang Mountain and Fanjia Mountain to collect and bury the corpses of the victims among the common folk, and after holding a memorial ceremony, led the troops away.

Other than that, they seemed to have simply garrisoned at the earthen fort; no one knew what he intended.

Based on these three matters, Li Shi'en believed he should first defend the four counties of Fenzhou Prefecture with his limited forces, at least preventing the bandit troops from crossing the Lüliang Mountains.

Then transfer reinforcements from Luzhou Guard to deal with General Gao, who was letting his troops plunder the wealthy households of Yongning Prefecture.

Che Cai, temporarily serving as Defense Circuit staff, asked: "Then what of that General Liu in Yonghe County? Set him aside for now?"

"General Liu?"

Li Shi'en drew a deep breath, raised his hand and placed his fist to his lips, and exhaled a heavy breath through his nose: "I have already requested reinforcements from Datong."

Che Cai blinked, suspecting he had misheard.

He could not grasp the logic of the matter, and asked: "He hasn't done anything. Datong reinforcements — even if we must request reinforcements from Datong, shouldn't we use Datong troops to strike that General Gao?"

"Brother Che, whether it's Bu Zhan'ni or Gao Chuangwang, none of them are as good as this General Liu. He collected and buried the common folk's corpses, punished the guilty banner troops — he is not a bad man."

Li Shi'en shifted his body in his chair to face Che Cai, and said earnestly: "But you have seen bandits, you know what bandits are like. Is he a bandit?"

Che Cai nodded, then shook his head, his expression deeply troubled.

Since General Liu had collected and buried the corpses on Zaowang Mountain, his own family members must surely have been among them.

Government troops had killed his entire family; the bandits had avenged him and buried his entire family.

Che Cai could no longer tell who was the bandit and who was the soldier. He asked: "Whether he is a bandit or not — does it matter?"

"I know Brother Che means to say he is not a bandit. I also feel he is not a bandit. Whether he is a bandit or not does not matter — but what he is, if not a bandit, matters very much."

Li Shi'en sighed; he too did not know what that General Liu was: "No matter what, I draw the court's salary and enjoy the Emperor's favor. With what I have on hand, I cannot deal with him."

Che Cai was silent for a long time, then raised his hand and tapped the table lightly twice: "Strike Gao Chuangwang first."

Regrettably, matters did not go as they wished.

Luzhou Guard's banner troops received their transfer orders on the twelfth day of the third month, and that very day drew three thousand banner troops; they set down their hoes, donned armor, and advanced rapidly through Qin Prefecture toward Fenzhou Prefecture.

Their advance was swift — departing on the afternoon of the thirteenth, by the morning of the sixteenth they had already crossed two hundred li of mountain roads and reached Qinyuan County.

But that was as far as they got.

On the very night those banner troops set out, the remaining banner troops garrisoned in Pingshun County, in collusion with the king-serving army deserters hiding in the Taihang Mountains, raided the Shen Prince Estate's manor outside the city.

The Shen Prince Estate sent fast riders to seek aid from the departing banner troops, and these banner troops had no choice but to dispatch fast riders to inform Li Shi'en of the situation, then led their troops back to Lu'an Prefecture.

Meanwhile, on the other side, the force Li Shi'en had dispatched to garrison Wu Town had gotten into a fight with someone.

Not with Gao Yingxiang, nor with Bu Zhan'ni heading north — they had unexpectedly discovered a mountain bandit stronghold.

The leader was called Ba Shanhu, originally surnamed Gao, a native of Fenxi County. During the drought in the sixth year of Tianqi, he had slipped into the Lüliang Mountains with fellow townsmen; they did not rob homes or plunder houses, but simply lived their own quiet little lives.

The local government had once attempted to send inspectors to arrest them, but they were all locals, and in the end it was said they had run off and could not be found, and the matter passed.

Ba Shanhu's life had originally been quite comfortable; it had nothing to do with the Shaanxi peasant army striking into Shanxi. Suddenly receiving word that court troops had entered the mountains, his instinct was to assume these troops had come for him.

He hastily mustered over five hundred men and horses, packed up, and prepared to slip away, while sending men to keep watch on the government troops' movements.

But he discovered this group showed not the slightest intention of preparing for battle — over a thousand men split into front and rear columns, marching single file through the mountains like a long snake.

How could he not hit them?

Ba Shanhu's mood was volatile, a fierce struggle raging in his heart.

His nickname, chosen from Journey to the West, was truly rather inauspicious.

A minor demon under the Gold Horn and Silver Horn brothers, paired with Yi Hailong, killed with a single staff strike by Sun Wukong.

He also had a brother called Yi Hailong, who clashed with government troops several years ago and died.

But looking at the mountain stronghold he had lived in for so many years, he truly couldn't bear to just run — in the end, he decided to hit them.

He promptly divided the two hundred-odd able-bodied men under his command into four squads, set an ambush along the mountain path, and routed the thousand-plus utterly unprepared government troops in a direct assault.

Ba Shanhu's face was a mask of question marks. He led his men to collect the weapons and armor the government troops had abandoned, and took their banners and warhorses.

He thought to himself: I haven't left the mountain in years — have government troops gotten this weak?

Who knew that upon questioning the prisoners, they hadn't come for him at all.

When word reached Hollow Pass, Li Shien, who was in the middle of eating, choked.

Being routed by mountain bandits was somewhat undignified, but understandable — the intelligence work hadn't been done well, he could accept that.

But the Luzhou Guard troops withdrawing was utterly absurd. That prince of yours is sitting in his palace — could bandit soldiers really dare enter the city and kill you?

Just then, another man came to report: "Military Defense Circuit Intendant, the civilian conscripts are making a fuss about going home to farm."

This became the straw that broke the camel's back.

It enraged Li Shien so much that he smashed his bowl. After smashing it, he reflected that every grain was hard-won, and in a huff, scooped the rice grains back up from the ground and continued eating.

A subordinate urged: "My lord, let me ladle you another bowl. Eating unclean food easily brings illness."

"Illness? If illness doesn't kill me, sooner or later I'll be angered to death. Dead, I won't have to worry anymore."

Li Shien took a deep breath and shook his head, saying peevishly: "Dying at my post would at least repay the Emperor's grace in recognizing my talent — killing two birds with one stone."

Truth be told, he was tempted to go to the capital, speak some pleasant words, pull some strings, and get transferred elsewhere.

He had no idea what evil he had committed in his past life to end up serving as an official under a vassal prince.

Before he could even get the scooped-up rice into his stomach, another piece of news sent Li Shien's blood pressure soaring past his height: "Military Defense Circuit Intendant, General Liu... General Liu seems to have left Yonghe."

Li Shien stared at his subordinate. The messenger's wording was off: "What do you mean 'seems'? What do you mean 'left'?"

At least tell me where he went!

The subordinate delivering the message was also aggrieved: "Our scouts at Shilou were eliminated. The last message came yesterday afternoon. Xizhou City also sent no word back today. This humble officer can only confirm that the two cities have not fallen."

"The scouts were eliminated?"

That meant the odds were grim.

Li Shien slowly shook his head. It was just as he had thought — this was not a man he could handle with the manpower and resources at his disposal.

His own men had crossed through the mountains without thinking to post sentries, yet the other side, at the slightest move, knew to first eliminate the opponent's scouts. How could he contend with that?

He pondered back and forth, decided to give up, and told his subordinate: "Send a final message to Yonghe County, Shilou, and Xizhou City. If the cities are besieged, light the beacon fires. Have the scouts relocate to Renjiazhuang. Don't let them probe around those three cities anymore."

Renjiazhuang lay between the three counties, roughly twenty li from each city.

In his view, his current energy was limited. He lacked the ability to deal with Gao Yingxiang in the north while also worrying about Liu Chengzong in the south.

Anyway, Liu Chengzong didn't harm the common people, and on the other hand, he didn't seem to have any intention of attacking cities. So let him play around in Xizhou. As long as he didn't come over, even if he wanted to open a little county office in the valley, it didn't matter.

After all, that was Pingyang Prefecture. The Pingyang Guard, holding the army, hadn't even planned to come north to help him. He had no need to press his warm face against someone's cold backside.

He rose and went to the hall to write another letter, addressed to Prince Shen, telling the princely establishment not to cling to the banner troops.

He believed Prince Shen was deeply righteous and would surely understand his well-meaning intentions.

Actually, Prince Shen was not bad. Last winter, when training the civilian conscripts, provisions and funds ran short — the seven counties of Fenzhou Prefecture all gave him no money or grain — but Prince Shen, upon learning of this, donated grain to him.

Moreover, the Prince Shen estate often, after collecting rent from its tenant households, would set aside a portion of grain to ship to Xuan-Da to supplement military supplies.

Though still not enough, it was already heaven knows how much better than others.

Right — the "others" he referred to was the Prince Qingcheng estate, which did nothing but churn out babies.

After all, this was a princely line that single-handedly changed the Ming dynasty's rules on imperial clan wives and concubines.

Before the Hongzhi era, the court had imposed no limit on the number of wives and concubines for the imperial clan. As a result, Prince Qingcheng banged out ninety-four children, prompting the court's Shanxi censor to suspect the Prince Qingcheng estate of adopting infants from outside to defraud the court of stipend rice.

Upon investigation, all ninety-four children were Prince Qingcheng's biological offspring.

Later, a rule was simply issued: a vassal prince could have at most four concubines. But even with this rule, it was useless — the next generation's Prince Qingcheng promptly sired seventy sons.

At one point, this caused the Shanxi imperial clan's stipend rice to exceed Shanxi's tax grain by two hundred ninety thousand shi.

If a villain appears among normal people, that villain might fade into the crowd due to lack of ability.

Then the probability of a villain emerging among vassal princes is only higher, not lower, because they themselves hold power and influence.

If other princely estates produce one villain out of five people, then the Prince Qingcheng estate produces ten villains out of fifty.

Who could withstand that kind of destructive power!

Every day, what Li Shien saw was either King Chuang Gao's troops having looted this or that manor.

Or Lin County begging for reinforcements, already besieged for five days.

But he dared not let the army enter west of the Lüliang Mountains, and could only station his troops at Hollow Pass.

Where Gao Yingxiang's main force was, he could roughly guess by following the trail of breached gentry strongholds. But Liu Chengzong's force had completely vanished from his field of vision — vanished for three whole days.

Each day passed like a year.

He had even asked Che Cai: "Do you think that General Liu might have already returned to Shaanxi?"

But this was merely a fond hope in his heart.

On the evening of the nineteenth day of the third month, a dust-covered express relay station courier came racing from the direction of Fenyang, bearing a letter requesting reinforcements from Pingyang Prefecture.

"Where the hell do I still have spare strength to send reinforcements!"

Hearing him curse in the street, Che Cai asked curiously: "Brother Shien, what does the letter say?"

"Their Liulang Stronghold in the Lüliang Mountains was easy to defend and hard to attack — and what happened? The letter says the main force of Lion Bandit Liu Chengzong surged into the Lüliang Mountains, set up red-barbarian cannons and bombarded Liulang Stronghold. The Pingyang Guard banner troops stationed there were blasted so badly they didn't dare show their heads. The main army then abandoned its baggage and slipped eastward under cover."

Li Shien handed the letter to Che Cai. "They've entered Huo Prefecture!"

Che Cai rubbed his eyes, took the letter, and after reading it in a moment, let out a sigh.

The letter also said that the government troops currently garrisoned in Pu County had already struck camp and moved north, intending to pursue the bandit army from the rear. Meanwhile, the troops left behind at Pingyang Guard were also moving north, attempting a two-pronged pincer attack to trap this Lion Bandit in the Lüliang Mountains.

Because the banner troops stationed in Pu Prefecture numbered only a thousand, they were worried the force blocking the rear was insufficient and hoped the Pingyang Guard banner troops could send men south.

Liulang Stronghold was indeed easy to defend and hard to attack, but it was a Song-dynasty military stronghold. The position chosen for the garrison in that era had never taken defense against cannon fire into consideration.

But that was not what puzzled Che Cai the most.

He asked Li Shien, "Brother Shien, among the men you can mobilize, are there any red-barbarian cannons?"

"How would we have something like that? Those are for sieges and city defense."

"Then why does Lion Liu have them?"

"Ah, how would I know? Brother Che, why don't you go ask the Qingcheng Prince's Estate — see if the prince had them made for him. Right now, I think the greatest enemies of Fenzhou Prefecture are right inside those two cities, east and west. No—"

Li Shien's face was utterly serious. He was pondering why others couldn't just be like him — honestly hold one place and not move.

When you clearly can't beat them, if you don't make a move, you can't make a mistake. The moment you make a move, you're just feeding them.

"They're all enemies — those who cross borders without permission, those who request reinforcements and transfer troops, those who go home to farm, those ambushed on the road. Can't they use their brains? Zhang Zhan's seventeen hundred men all died — can a thousand men block his rear? Every last one of them, if convicted, is guilty of colluding with the bandits. Not a single one wronged!"

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