Chapter 162: Troops of Guanzhong

Master Gao was deeply suspicious — what exactly had he come to Xizhou to do?

To look for work?

The news told Liu Chengzong that he had become a hired hand.

Riding at full gallop back to Shilou, Gao Ying'en, who was besieging the city, learned of this.

Eyes wide, he stared blankly for a long moment, then said slowly, "Liu the Lion is brazen beyond belief. Everyone else can't run from the Shaanxi government troops fast enough, and here he is, wanting to go back and have a go at them."

Gao Yingxiang was noncommittal.

Brazen, maybe a little.

But if he, Gao Yingxiang, at twenty years old, could have two thousand frontier-army toughs willing to die for him?

Even if a mosquito bit him, he would wheel out the cannons and blast it — never mind government troops going after his own parents.

"No point talking about this. If Liu the Lion wants to go back to Shaanxi, let him. We'll take the road he opened and enter Pingyang Prefecture. He mauled both guards; the garrison troops here can't stop us."

As he spoke, Gao Yingxiang remembered his own task and said, "If you see bronze statues along the road, remember to haul them away. Liu the Lion left the artisan corps with me and told me to handle two things for him."

"What things?"

"The artisan corps is to enter Pingyang Prefecture and cast cannons. If the Pingyang Guard's banner troops surrender, Hu Sanhuai is to lead them."

Gao Ying'en was so agitated he scratched his head furiously. "That Liu the Lion is cunning as a fox. Why doesn't he recruit soldiers himself, but makes you do it for him... soldiers eat grain!"

Soldiers eat grain — everyone eats grain.

The better the soldier, the more cost-effective his grain is for the leader.

And the Pingyang Guard banner troops were the best source of soldiers in Pingyang Prefecture.

"This deal isn't a loss. In Pingyang Prefecture and Fenzhou Prefecture, only we are left. Liu the Lion going back to Shaanxi — how much grain is that? He set up a stockade in the Lüliang Mountains."

Gao Yingxiang didn't mind it at all and simply said, "The Lion Camp's worksite foreman, Shi Chengwo, knows how to cast red-barbarian cannons. He Xin can make bird guns. We should take this chance to have those blockhead artisans of ours learn properly from them."

"They can't even forge a blade without it being lopsided."

On the other side, in Yan'an Prefecture, Luo Rucai was trying every way he could to push into Shanxi.

The previous year, after the battle with Li Bei, Luo Rucai had received quite a lot of armor from Liu Chengzong, equipped his core followers, and then began recruiting madly.

Starving refugees begging everywhere, bandits on the run — he turned no one away.

By the onset of winter, his force had ballooned to nearly four thousand men.

For many leaders, winter was a rare window for drilling troops.

But for Luo Rucai, it was not.

Many of his men froze or sickened to death. Provisions were limited and unevenly distributed; every day his followers were full of grievances, cursing each other out, even attacking one another.

In the end, thoroughly fed up, Luo Rucai simply took his women and holed up in another fort he had captured, leaving his childhood friend Yang Chengzu to command the troops for him.

Afterward, the force fell into infighting and fought three battles against itself.

By spring, only four hundred men remained.

Luo Rucai was delighted. He looked over the four-hundred-odd remaining troops, all sturdy and strong, and even praised Yang Chengzu for his capable leadership, then made a point of going out and seizing a pretty woman for Yang Chengzu to warm his bed.

To him, since he found the matter vexing, he handed it to a friend. Whatever the friend made of it, that was his own problem — you couldn't blame the friend.

Seeing the spring frosts cut the harvest, and hearing others say Liu Chengzong had gone into Shanxi, he wanted to follow and run off to Shanxi too.

But he felt that showing up with only four hundred brothers to join the fourth-ranked great leader would be too humiliating. So he made another circuit through northern Shaanxi, spending nearly a month pulling a force back together to over two thousand men.

But then he noticed a problem.

Why were the movements of the bandit gangs in northern Shaanxi so strange?

Wave after wave of roving bandits were queuing up, marching from Yichuan to Yanchuan, and from Yanchuan to Qingjian.

When asked what they were doing, they wouldn't say, and some even handed over little iron plaques.

He asked someone in the band who could read, and was told the two characters on them were "Exempt from Death."

It scared Luo Rucai witless. He wondered what kind of evil cult this was — carrying a plaque and you won't die? Wasn't this just fooling idiots?

On the spot, he did everything he could to restrain his subordinates, forbidding any of the brothers from contact with these White Lotus believers.

Having just suffered infighting in the winter, Luo Rucai had no wish for his newly assembled force to tear itself apart again over an evil cult.

The White Lotus Sect was simply too terrifying. When it came to rousing the common people, his peasant soldiers were far, far outmatched by those professional rebellion ringleaders.

Luo Rucai dared not go through Yanchuan to find Liu Chengzong, so he had no choice but to take the long way around, heading south, where he ran into the routed Chaos Heavenly King and, behind them, Yan'an's Assistant Regional Commander Ai Mu.

Caught off guard, his force was scattered. Luo Rucai led his remnant defeated troops in a fleeing retreat west, wanting only to escape back to the Yan'an prefectural seat.

Unfortunately, Ai Mu also wanted only to reach the Yan'an prefectural seat and take up his post.

By the time Liu Chengzong traveled west from Yanshui Pass, it was already late in the third month. He bid farewell to Company Commander Fu Renxi, who had escorted him out of the pass, and Wei Qian'er deployed scout riders as the army marched west.

They had not gone far when a scout rider reported that in a valley ahead lay dozens of corpses, along with weapons and armor scattered everywhere.

This immediately struck Liu Chengzong as unusual. He hurried over to take a look and ordered every outpost to secure the perimeter.

Weapons and armor scattered all over the ground?

In these times, whether in Shaanxi or Shanxi, such a thing would never happen after a battle.

No matter if it was peasant soldiers fighting landlord militias, or peasant soldiers fighting among themselves — whichever side won would always sweep the battlefield, and sweep it utterly clean.

Not a single armor scale, not one cotton shoe would be left behind.

They had a use for everything.

After scouting, they found another battlefield further south along the valley. The fighting had occurred just the day before.

These fallen men had been pursued.

Many were not yet dead, but all were too gravely wounded to speak, and death was near.

Only two could be saved. Both wore frontier-army armor and had lost a lot of blood, but their wounds were not fatal — in other words, they had collapsed from exhaustion.

Li Wanqing said, "That one looks like Yang Chengzu."

Liu Chengzong searched his memory carefully for the name but had no impression of it at all. He asked, "Who is Yang Chengzu?"

"Cao Cao's friend — that fellow was too lazy to lead troops himself, so he dumped them on Yang Chengzu." Li Wanqing finished and shook his head, his brow full of caution. "Those two won't be apart. General, this should be Cao Cao's force."

The surgeon removed Yang Chengzu's armor, and even Liu Chengzong, standing to the side, couldn't help but cry out, "A true warrior!"

The man's entire upper body was covered in wounds. Once the blood was wiped clean, the skin was a continuous patchwork of blue and purple, small cuts everywhere — impossible to tell how many times a weapon had struck through the gaps in his armor plates.

There were only two major wounds that mattered. One was on his head, where a mace had dented his helmet and cut the skin of his scalp. The other was on the inside of his left arm, a place the full-body armor and iron arm-guards could not protect, where a blade had sliced open a gash.

The surgeon said the arm wound was older than the others and had already been bandaged — it should have been two days old.

Whether he could be saved, even Liu Chengzong's surgeon did not know. The only thing certain was that Yang Chengzu's chest still rose and fell — he was not dead yet.

But very soon, Liu Chengzong would learn who was hunting Luo Rucai.

Yang Yao, holding the valley mouth, sent a man to report: "General, several dozen horse and foot are coming down the western official road. The banners mark them as government troops."

Government troops.

Government troops appearing here immediately made Liu Chengzong think of Yan'an Prefecture's newly appointed Mobile Corps Commander, Ai Mu.

This meant no fewer than a thousand, perhaps as many as three thousand government troops were within a hundred li.

"Encircle them. Don't let a single one escape."

The vanguard immediately deployed an ambush to the front. The left and right sentinels, like two fists, slowly spread out from the flanks. At the same time, the left sentinel continued advancing forward, and the rear sentinel filled the left-flank position, completing the encirclement.

Not knowing the government troops' position, Liu Chengzong did not permit them to use the cannons. They surrounded them directly in the center with infantry closing the ring and cavalry charging in.

The officer trapped inside quickly formed his men into a formation, then realized the bandits had overwhelming numbers. Shouting orders in Qin opera cadence, he attempted a breakout. Four breakouts failed, his soldiers were captured one by one, and in the end he could only surrender helplessly.

Before the auxiliaries had even escorted the surrendered troops over, Yang Yao had already ridden back and reported: "General, they're soldiers from Guanzhong!"

As Yang Yao spoke, a trace of ineffable hatred showed on his face.

He was deeply envious.

These Guanzhong soldiers were all broad-shouldered and thick-waisted from eating well, with good armor and good weapons, garrisoned year-round near Xi'an Prefecture.

Why was it that their Guyuan Camp had to starve to the point where mutiny was the only way to survive?

Forty-four government troops in total. Two had been struck in the face by arrows during the fight and died. The remaining forty-two all laid down their weapons and surrendered.

Liu Chengzong had men watch the surrendered troops and summoned the leading squad commander for questioning.

He was a man in his thirties, with a big beard like Wang Wenxiu's — clearly an old veteran, a knife scar beside his mouth.

His name was Ma Maoguan, squad commander of the Regional Command camp.

At first he was quite defiant, still grumbling about many bullying the few.

But after being marched a few steps under guard and realizing these men were all veterans, his heart began to pound.

He had fought the peasant armies of northern Shaanxi before.

Just last year around this time, when Wang Zuogua attacked Sanyuan, the court had transferred him to follow Commander Chen to defend Sanyuan.

Although he felt that battle had been pretty wretched, at least he had seen the peasant army.

Back then, Wang Zuogua's peasant army had advanced to Fen Village, forty li north of Sanyuan County. Hong Chengchou had mobilized over ten thousand local militiamen and village troops from all over, blocking the routes from a distance.

They had thought the great battle was about to begin.

They never expected that after following Commander Chen to draw rations and pay from Sanyuan County, the Regional Command camp would suddenly issue orders to transfer to Yaozhou.

Avoiding battle.

Throughout the army, everyone said Commander Chen had taken a bribe from Wang Zuogua.

Just as they struck camp and rose, the bandits spurred their horses straight into the militia's main camp, charging through the village troops' lines eleven times — and were instead beaten back with over a hundred of their own killed.

The Regional Command camp only watched from afar. Strict orders were issued throughout the army: not a single arrow was to be loosed.

If they had joined the fight, Wang Zuogua could not have escaped.

Later, a great thunderstorm broke, and Wang Zuogua fled through the heavy encirclement. What followed was even more chaotic.

Many government troops went to seize the militia's spoils of war. Many militiamen did not die at Wang Zuogua's hands but were instead killed by government troops. Some government troops were also killed by loyalist village troops.

To Ma Maoguan, as long as you'd been a soldier long enough, anything bizarre could happen in this world.

The Regional Command camp had been ordered to protect the people of Sanyuan. In the end, after a battle, most of them had merely stood on Sanyuan County's soil for a while. A few dozen had drawn blood — but it was the very people they were supposed to protect that they killed.

Clearly it was the loyalist gentry's armed forces that had turned the tide, yet in the end the credit was recorded under Hong Chengchou's name — a man who had never once appeared on the battlefield.

Perhaps that was just life.

Ma Maoguan was stripped of his helmet, his arms bound, shoved along by two soldiers in red-padded armor and brought before Liu Chengzong.

He looked up at the young bandit general, wondering whether he ought to curse him out first, when he heard the man say with a laugh, "How interesting. Troops from Guanzhong coming all the way to northern Shaanxi to die. Is your general Ai Mu?"

The moment Ma Maoguan heard that, his anger flared. He spat on the ground to the side.

Guanzhong had good weather and favorable conditions — only a bastard would want to come to northern Shaanxi.

"Being a soldier isn't easy. Each serves his own master — I don't want to kill you. If you won't talk, someone else will. Forty-some men — you're not indispensable."

Liu Chengzong rested both hands on the leather belt at his waist and coaxed him patiently: "My name is Liu Chengzong. Transferring troops to northern Shaanxi — you must have heard of that, no?"

It was one thing if no one in Shanxi had heard of him, but now that he was back on the soil of northern Shaanxi, Liu Chengzong felt there could not be anyone who did not know him.

Especially the troops of the Yan'an Prefecture Mobile Corps Commander — after all, the last Mobile Corps Commander had fallen at his hands.

Who would have guessed that the moment Ma Maoguan heard the name, his eyes went wide: "You — you're Cai Zhongpan's nephew?"

Liu Chengzong furrowed his brow. "You know my uncle?"

Shouldn't it be, Cai Zhongpan is Liu Chengzong's uncle? People ought to only know Liu Chengzong as Cai Zhongpan's nephew!

Ma Maoguan shook his head. "I saw him in Sanyuan."

Last year, he had still been the squad discipline officer of the Regional Command camp, but he could not keep the soldiers in check.

Guanzhong might have good weather and favorable conditions, but that only meant you could eat your fill. Military pay was still in arrears — that was the same across all of Shaanxi.

The soldiers, with nothing to do, would go out and work as day laborers for landlords. There was nothing to be done about it — no one could stop them.

By all reason, a discipline officer who could not keep his soldiers in check would have a hard time getting promoted without battle merit.

But his squad commander — because he had taken his trusted men to rob the Sanyuan commoners' spoils of war and killed a village soldier — had been shot dead by a man named Cai Zhongpan with a fire lance.

At that time, Ma Maoguan was standing right beside him, his state of mind rather complicated, so he gave an order for everyone to protect the Commander.

In the end, aside from two of the squad leader's trusted men who rushed forward and were cut down by Cai Zhongpan, everyone else was very obedient and simply let Cai Zhongpan escape.

Later, he made some inquiries and learned that this Cai Zhongpan's brother-in-law was a Provincial Graduate from Yan'an Prefecture. After another stretch of time, he heard that this Provincial Graduate had been arrested by the authorities, that his son had broken him out of prison and rebelled, and had even defeated the Yan'an Prefecture Assistant Regional Commander.

Today, he was meeting the man in person.

A man's reputation precedes him like a tree's shadow. This group of veterans gathered in the valley, along with the three words "Liu Chengzong," were a gilded signboard in northern Shaanxi.

It directly dissolved Ma Maoguan's will to resist. He shook his head and sighed: "General Ai is encamped nearby, just west of Wen'an Post Station. Two thousand seven hundred men, all Guanzhong troops."

Ma Maoguan said: "We didn't want to come to Yan'an Prefecture either. After the battle, the General let us go home. No one continued to oppose the General."

Liu Chengzong had not expected his own name to be so useful. He sighed and said: "Let you go, so the court can reassemble its forces and come attack me again?"

Wen'an Post Station. Liu Chengzong calculated — Ai Mu was only twenty li away from them.

The Guanzhong garrison troops were well-nourished and well-trained, but these men had been chasing Wang Zuogua and Huntianwang all the way from Hancheng, having endured several battles and a long-distance forced march.

Night was falling soon. If everything went smoothly, total annihilation was unlikely, but it was not impossible to break them in a single battle.

"Where exactly in Wen'an Post Station are they encamped? Tell me everything."

Note:

For the Battle of Yunyang — the government troops' retreat and avoidance, their refusal to send out soldiers, and the combat process — refer to the *Zhongtong Daily Record* and *Zhongtong Gentry Militias and Late Ming Sanyuan Local Society in Shaanxi*.

Source of *Stubborn Bandits*: