Chapter 160: Bandits Incoming

At the tail of the column, Wang Wenxiu drove his troops forward in a rush, still two li from the battlefield.

Soldiers from the battalion artillery post were already policing the battlefield.

Agonized groans sounded everywhere.

Liu Chengzong passed through the outer edge of the corpse-strewn field; artillery post soldiers were escorting banner-army prisoners as they carried the wounded.

In a shallow creek that barely covered the soles of the feet, Old Bandit Cao sat on a four-wheeled red-barbarian cannon cart, his face covered in blood, leisurely chewing horse-meat jerky, tamping tobacco into a porcelain pipe painted with nothing but spring-palace blue designs.

This was Master Huo's pipe.

The day they stormed Huo Family Fort, this cracked pipe had been turned in by a soldier, and he had casually given it to Cao Yao.

Seeing him approach, Cao Yao sprang up from the cannon cart, his face brimming with pride, and jerked a thumb behind him: "General, did I fight beautifully or what?"

"Truly beautiful. Stay seated — the pursuing cavalry won't be back for a while."

Liu Chengzong offered the praise, then dismounted and asked: "What happened to your face?"

Cao Yao wiped his face with the back of his hand and shook his head: "A crouching-tiger cannon did it — just bad luck. They fired a few rounds, none of my men were hit, but a cannonball bit a chunk of flesh off my face."

His luck wasn't bad — the enemy had fired the cannon from too far away, and the wound was on his cheekbone.

A fraction higher and he'd be a one-eyed dragon from now on; had the cannon fired a moment later, they would have lost a whole extra row of men.

Liu Chengzong let Red Flag graze by the creek, then went over and sat beside the cannon cart, handing him a cloth to wipe with: "When we get home, your wife will scold me — you followed me out and got your looks ruined."

"Give it a rest — I'm not like Lin Wei, living off my face."

Cao Yao laughed, then immediately called over a gunner who was running past carrying a weapon, got a match-cord to light his pipe, and only then said: "This was the first battle. Let me fight two more, and I'll be able to lay out every formation for mixed infantry and artillery, large and small."

"Give it a rest — fight two more and there'll be nothing left of you."

"Mm…"

Cao Yao waved a hand, his tone utterly relaxed: "This was the hardest one. I only fought it this way because I saw they'd be easy to handle. The artillerymen are up front now tallying how many were killed by cannonballs. Next battle, we open fire at a hundred paces."

Good heavens — hearing this old bandit actually knew to crunch the numbers, Liu Chengzong raised a thumb: "Brother Cao, you were simply born too late. Had you been born a few years earlier, you'd be Qi Yuanjing!"

"And had you been born a few years earlier, you'd be Tan Zili." Cao Yao took the pipe from his mouth and spread his hands: "We were both born too late — what can you do?"

Liu Chengzong said: "Tell me all your ideas."

"Fifty paces, a hundred paces, a hundred and fifty paces. The crouching-tiger cannons are loaded with crushed stone, the rolling-pearl cannons with six-mace iron scatter-shot, the falconets with three-mace iron scatter-shot."

Cao Yao raised three fingers, each corresponding to a distance, and calculated: "At each distance, three types of cannon, matching up to five, six, seven… mm, nine — nine types of enemy casualties."

A smile surfaced on Liu Chengzong's face. He had assumed Cao Yao's hands were just itching for a fight; he hadn't expected him to be searching for patterns with such rigorous discipline.

He had also considered close-range fire-gun volleys.

But the era was wrong, the weapons were wrong, and the enemy was wrong.

A close-range volley from a fire-gun squad could inflict heavy casualties, but with insufficient numbers of fire-guns, they lacked the power to shatter the enemy, and at such close range, they were easily counter-charged.

Most of the time, the winning tactic is determined by the enemy's weakness.

The Great Ming frontier armies of this era studied the drill manuals of Qi Jiguang, printed by the Ministry of War.

In the era when Qi Jiguang garrisoned Ji Garrison, the requirement for wagon-battalion gunners and artillerymen was to fire five hundred and twelve No. 4 falconets in sequence, pursuing fire continuity through extreme discipline.

Because the Mongols generally would not fight positional battles against the Ming army.

"Once I've calculated it and see which cannon is best, from then on we'll use only that cannon, and open fire at the most suitable distance."

Cao Yao put it very simply: "I hope it's the rolling-pearl cannon — that thing is light, handy, and durable. The falconet isn't bad either, but it's too heavy. As for the crouching-tiger…"

The old bandit raised a hand and pointed at his own cheekbone: "It didn't kill me, but I'd say it's not great against armored troops."

The crouching-tiger cannon had a high firing angle and long range, but it wasn't a direct-fire weapon, and its projectiles were light, so it did less damage to armored enemies than other cannons.

Liu Chengzong, however, did not follow that thread. He changed the subject: "Do you know where I most want to go once we enter Shanxi?"

"The Yonghe Prince's Estate and Qingcheng Prince's Estate in Fenyang City?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head: "The prince's estates have no grain — the grain is out in the princely manors. Shaanxi's harvest was poor this year; grain is very important, but what I want even more is the ironworks. There are ready-made tools there. We'll go and cast a batch of cannons ourselves — cannons best suited for us."

"What kind of cannon?"

A faraway look came into Liu Chengzong's eyes: "A kind of red-barbarian-style small cannon — under two hundred catties, four hundred catties with the cart, pulled by two mules at a run, enough power for field battles."

By using modular ratios for each part of the barrel, making the thick parts thick and the parts that needn't be so thick a little thinner, the cannon would be lighter and more durable at the same power.

Then at the same weight, its power would naturally be greater.

Cao Yao narrowed his eyes, wiped the blood from his face again, and grew intensely excited: "Just wait. Once we cross the Lüliang Mountains, let me roam around a bit — I'll haul back a few Buddha statues. Don't use iron; use bronze."

His standards were quite high.

Liu Chengzong smiled and nodded, spotting in the distance the cavalry that had gone to chase down the enemy now returning in formation, escorting several hundred prisoners.

Zhong Bao, who commanded the cavalry, rode over, dismounted, and prostrated himself: "General, a few dozen still got away — they vanished into the mountains and we couldn't catch them."

"No matter. Send someone else to the villages outside Pu County's city gate and ask how those banner troops behaved in camp — what their discipline was like."

"As long as they haven't done anything to anger heaven and man." Liu Chengzong thought for a moment, then suddenly patted himself down and said: "Those willing to surrender, we'll take them; those unwilling… Brother Cao, do you have any silver?"

"Silver? How much do you need?"

"Three to five taels — a dozen or so would work too."

"Easy!"

As he spoke, Cao Yao jumped down from the cannon cart, handed the pipe to him, crouched down and rummaged inside the red-barbarian cannon's cart, laboriously lifted the cascabel, and after a moment stretched out a hand: "Is this enough?"

Two flattened ten-tael silver ingots.

Liu Chengzong stared, dumbfounded: "You keep silver under the cannon?"

Cao Yao said it was for good luck — some superstition he'd picked up who-knows-where.

"Those willing to follow will eat their fill and drink well. But some have families back in the guard posts — we won't force them. Give each one a mace or six or seven candareens of silver for travel expenses. Tell them clearly: we were soldiers too once. Times are hard for everyone. Let them go home."

As he said this, he himself laughed.

If so, why chase them at all?

Yet sometimes things are just that strange. Not chasing, and chasing then releasing — on the surface the result is the same, but in reality, for those released and for those who hear of it, the difference is vast.

If the court could actually afford to pay military wages, Liu Chengzong would never have done this.

It only takes a tiny bit of travel money to ensure that when troops are next mustered, everyone will still bravely enlist, make up the numbers for the generals and officials, and enthusiastically surrender once the fighting starts.

The sky had already darkened. Liu Chengzong sent his scout riders out ten li and made camp at the site the government troops had bivouacked.

In the middle of the night, Zhong Bao stood outside the tent and said that the household retainer sent to Pu County had returned, bringing back word of what this Pingyang Guard banner troop had done in Pu County.

"They bivouacked two days at Qiangou in Pu County. Old Lady Du said they tore down her door plank to sleep on and didn't put it back properly when they left. They stole four bundles of hay meant for feeding mules and used it for bedding. They also tried to lead the mule away, but Old Lady Du spotted them, so they didn't take it."

"Also, Old Man Mi from West Village said two banner soldiers stayed at his home. When they left, they stole his padded trousers and didn't even leave their own ragged ones behind. And there's Old Man Chen's nephew — a squad leader under Company Commander Song made a deal with him: four fen of silver to sleep with his wife for one night. They slept two nights, and when they left, they only gave five fen."

After Zhong Bao finished, he glanced at Liu Chengzong and said quietly, "Their discipline is still passable."

Liu Chengzong licked his lips and mulled it over for a moment, then nodded. "Fine. They're just a bunch of old scoundrels. No big problem."

He could clearly sense Zhong Bao let out a long sigh of relief.

Early the next morning, Liu Chengzong had the prisoners brought out — over six hundred of them. He also went to Zhong Hu and the others to borrow a bit of money, scraped together seventy taels of silver, and registered everyone on the spot.

Truly, not many were willing to follow him.

They hadn't wanted to turn bandit in the first place. If the bandits release you and even hand out money, who would still join them?

In the end, only fourteen men said they had no family left in the guard station anyway, and becoming bandits themselves wouldn't get their relatives punished by conscription dragnet. So they joined the bandits and were assigned to the various squads.

The rest all collected one qian of silver from Liu Chengzong and went back into the prisoner camp.

As each man was about to leave, Liu Chengzong admonished them: "Don't harm the common folk on the road back. If you run out of food, come back. I'll feed you for a few days. If you don't want to follow me, that's fine too — eat a few full meals before you go."

They couldn't leave just yet. Liu Chengzong struck camp and departed, leaving behind the porridge already cooked in the camp. Let them drink a bowl, each man gather up whatever grain remained, and only then depart.

After that, the troops galloped at full speed, rushing toward Daning County, then immediately chased them to Yonghe County, nearly making a full circle before relying on their marching speed to catch up with another unit of Pingyang Guard government troops.

This government unit was not nearly so well-behaved.

They refused to fight a pitched battle at all. From the moment they spotted Wei Qian'er's scout riders northeast of Yonghe County, the entire army scattered and fled at a dead sprint.

It made Cao Yao so furious he was howling. The cavalry from each squad pursued and accepted surrenders all along the way, chasing them along the small northeast mountain road all the way to Shilou County.

By the time they reached Shilou County, this banner troop was down to just over four hundred men. Having discarded armor and weapons all along the way, they were already a completely routed force.

The Shilou county seat dared not open its gates to them. After their mad dash of nearly sixty li, they had not a shred of strength left.

In the end, they formed ranks outside the shallow moat, their backs to the drawbridge.

The one pursuing them was still Zhong Bao, and he was utterly at a loss with these men.

He'd originally had quite a large mounted pursuit force under him, but he couldn't stop these banner troops from surrendering in droves along the way, all while discarding armor and weapons and leaving weapons and equipment strewn everywhere.

Surrendered men required guards posted over them, and the weapons everywhere only made guarding them harder.

By the time he reached Shilou, he had only a vanguard of fifty-odd riders left.

The two groups faced off right there outside Shilou, beside the Dragon Spring waters, holding until an hour later when Liu Chengzong arrived with the main force. "Tell them Shilou County isn't going to provide them grain anyway. Come with me — have a full meal first, then we'll talk."

No one listened.

Later, Liu Chengzong observed the Shilou county seat and saw they had no intention of sending troops out to attack. So he simply had men bring over the pots they'd picked up along the road, fetched water from a nearby village, and added some dried horse meat the combat troops carried with them.

They stewed a horse-meat broth.

The moment they started drinking it, the banner troops couldn't hold out any longer.

After the meal, it was the same routine of accepting surrenders and releasing men. They were all from Pingyang Guard, and when they'd passed through Daning County, Liu Chengzong had also sent men to ask around.

Their conduct was about the same as that Pu County banner troop — also a bunch of old scoundrels.

This time, however, Liu Chengzong had learned from experience. He had Chengzu send over some silver in advance, repaid the squad leaders their money, and the standard for releasing prisoners remained the same.

He was quite pleased with this battle. The banner troops had lost the fight but suffered few casualties, so no one's mood was particularly bad.

Only Shilou County got a real fright. At first, seeing only a few dozen riders, they hadn't been keen to light the wolf-smoke. Later, when the numbers grew, but they saw Liu Chengzong had no intention of besieging or attacking the city, they didn't quite dare light the wolf-smoke either.

Only after they'd moved south did the county finally breathe a sigh of relief and send men out of the city eastward to deliver a message to Li Shien, who was garrisoned at Kulong Pass: the bandit troops from the south had crossed the border and besieged the city; failing to take it, they had left.

Perhaps as retribution for lying, just one night after Shilou County sent Li Shien that message about being besieged, Shilou County truly was besieged.

Amidst a sea of great banners bearing the character "Chuang," the magistrate of Shilou atop the city wall wanted to weep but had no tears, wishing only that he could trade in his mouth for one that hadn't been so jinxed.

Gao Yingxiang led several dozen riders south, growing more and more bewildered the further he went.

The first two villages he passed had both been burned. He thought to himself, This Liu the Lion tells me to enforce strict military discipline, yet he's the one destroying villages?

But further south, the situation was completely different.

These villages weren't afraid of bandits, hey!

The common folk looked at them as if they weren't even there.

It was simply that if they marched along this road, the villagers would carry their manure buckets along the other road.

There were even people gripping iron tools and following behind them.

At first, this made Gao Yingxiang quite nervous, but later he realized the villagers were merely keeping a hundred-odd paces back, following them to collect horse dung.

He'd never seen anything like this in Shaanxi!

Hard to say what he felt inside. Gao Yingxiang wasn't the least bit happy; in fact, a surge of irritation rose in his heart.

He had seen fear in others, and he had seen adoration. Either one sat quite well with him.

Over fifty fully armed cavalrymen — there were even Mongol Tatars among them — and more than a hundred and sixty horses. If they didn't scare you into kowtowing and begging grandpa to spare your life, you could at least show some respect and flee into the mountains, right?

To be completely ignored like this?

Chuang King Gao could not accept it in his heart. One village was like this, a second village was still like this.

At the third village, when people were still trailing behind the column collecting horse dung, he couldn't take it anymore and sent a cavalryman doubling back.

"Hey! Old man, stand still and don't move!"

The old man jumped in fright. Clamping a flattened piece of horse dung with his iron tongs, he pointed at the horse bandit and said, "You — what do you want?"

The old man had never seen anything like this either — a bandit who actually spoke to people!

"You're not afraid of us? Following behind picking up horse dung the whole time!"

The old man froze for a good long while, then slowly furrowed his brow and asked quietly, "Which outfit are you fine heroes with?"

"What do you care which outfit I'm from... I'm asking you — aren't you afraid of us?"

The old man asked again, "General Liu's men?"

The horse bandit shook his head.

"Border army?"

The horse bandit shook his head again.

"Banner troops?"

The horse bandit still shook his head.

The next moment, the old man flung aside both the iron tongs and the wooden basket of horse dung, turned tail and sprinted for the village, running so hard his straw sandals flew off. As he ran he bellowed, "Get up the mountain, quick! Bandits are here!"