Chapter 176: Nurturing Brigands to Bolster One's Own Importance

???

Ma Maoguan followed the silver-transport convoy out of the Guanzhong Plain, journeying north the whole way.

When the great plain receded behind them, they followed the mountain road along the winding Qishui River valley, with deep ravines and vast gullies on either side, the land breaking into a patchwork of large tablelands among the mountains.

The tablelands were thick with human habitation — villages and fields stretching as far as the eye could see, everywhere the bustle of plowing and sowing in the farming season.

Heaven had favored them with rain, and people said it was a fine omen for a bountiful harvest.

Nearing Golden Lock Pass, the road grew narrower and narrower, and the great tablelands on either side shattered into small, broken plateaus carved by a thousand gullies and ravines — no more flatland stretching endlessly to the horizon.

Once past Golden Lock Pass, Ma Maoguan finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the gaze he cast toward the carts hauling the silver grew more fervent by the day.

But that very day, he suddenly heard someone up ahead shout: "Ma Maoguan! Ma Maoguan, come forward!"

Ma Maoguan's heart gave a violent lurch. He turned his head to glance at his brother-in-law, Qi Shuangquan.

His brother-in-law's face still bore the scars from a horsewhip's lash, equally full of vigilance, his hand already pressed to the saber hilt at his waist.

Ma Maoguan shook his head, drew a deep breath, and strode forward.

Ahead he saw a mounted detachment halted on the path. The elder at their head wore a crimson official robe with a peacock rank badge; behind him, officers attended on horseback.

Ma Maoguan's heart jolted in alarm. A thousand thoughts flashed through his mind, but there was no time to dwell on them — he hurried his pace and stepped forward to salute.

"This humble one, Ma Maoguan, kowtows before the Military Defense Grand Coordinator."

This man was called Zhang Yundeng. Years ago he had served as magistrate of Ma Maoguan's home county, Xianyang — a father-and-mother official who brought prosperity to the region and had a reputation for good governance.

His examination patron had been Tang Binyin, leader of the Xuan Faction, who had selected him as a Presented Scholar. But he did not attach himself to Tang Binyin, so Tang Binyin disliked him; and the Donglin partisans, because of the Xuan Faction connection, disliked him as well.

Yet his administrative achievements in Xianyang were outstanding — the most outstanding in the triennial local-official evaluations at the time.

He was therefore recommended by Shaanxi for Exceptional Distinction, and the court promoted him to Secretary in the Ministry of Justice, then sent him out as Prefect of Yanzhou, where he handled a mutiny and later took part in suppressing the She-An Rebellion in Guizhou.

He had originally been slated to go to Huguang as Administration Vice Commissioner, but did not go last year due to illness. This year, in recognition of his merits in the Shuixi campaign, he was sent out as Shaanxi Administration Vice Commissioner, concurrently serving as Judicial Surveillance Vice Commissioner for the Yanqing Defense Circuit.

"You're coming with me," Zhang Yundeng said with a nod. Turning to the officer, he said: "Commander Yang, take your troops and guard the relief silver. Stay vigilant and cautious the whole way."

On the road to Fuzhou, Zhang Yundeng had Ma Maoguan walk beside him. Throughout the day's march he said nothing at all.

Not until dusk, when they reached Yijun City, did Zhang Yundeng drop him at Cloud Sun Courier Station City and go himself to the county yamen.

Shortly afterward, the attendants of the Defense Circuit all went out to transport relief grain beyond the city walls.

Ma Maoguan was restless and ill at ease, constantly wondering whether his secret contact with Liu Chengzong had already been exposed, whether he should flee — yet afraid that fleeing would implicate his family.

He waited until the sky was fully dark before Zhang Yundeng returned, looking quite angry. But he cursed and grumbled in a thick Sichuan accent, speaking so fast that Ma Maoguan could barely understand him.

He could only gather that it was something about wealthy households all being plague-ridden pigs, showing no enthusiasm for disaster relief.

But to his surprise, Zhang Yundeng was very warm toward him. Catching sight of him, Zhang smacked his own forehead: "I forgot all about you — it's the middle of the night and you still haven't eaten. Come, eat with me."

He then called Ma Maoguan into the official quarters, had the courier station prepare a meal, and even asked if he drank. Hearing that he did not, Zhang Yundeng said with a beaming smile: "Good that you don't — brewing the stuff wastes far too much grain."

Once they were seated, Zhang Yundeng asked: "I've heard it said that you are a Xianyang man?"

Ma Maoguan hurriedly replied: "Yes, this humble one is indeed from Xianyang. Come to think of it, the Grand Coordinator was this humble one's father-and-mother official."

"Right — it's a Xianyang man I was looking for. A Xianyang man who fought at Wen'an Courier Station. Tell me about it."

Ma Maoguan blinked. "Tell... tell what?"

"What can I tell?"

Zhang Yundeng said cheerfully: "This official knows that you were once a Company Commander, and that you were stripped of your post when you returned. But a man can always be reinstated. A mere Company Commander — a little merit and you can be restored to your original rank. Even advancing a step further is not out of the question."

"Liu Chengzong — how many troops and horses does his force number? How are their weapons and armor? Where is his lair? How are his provisions? And why..." Zhang Yundeng said, "Why did he let all of you go?"

Zhang Yundeng had always been intensely curious about Liu Chengzong. He had heard that name very early on.

Last year, while recuperating at home, he had learned of the Yan'an Prefecture jailbreak from a friend's letter.

In his eyes, this bandit was different from the others.

Most of the bandits in northern Shaanxi did more or less the same thing — rob. Wherever they went, they robbed. That was perfectly normal.

Zhang Yundeng could understand it. A man must eat — that is the law of Heaven.

But if a man fills his belly by robbing, then when he lacks clothes he will rob, when he lacks money he will still rob, when he lacks a wife he will rob all the same. The Great Ming Code has already become useless — all that remains is robbing.

That was why, the moment he assumed the post of Hexi Defense Circuit, he considered the most important direction of his work not to be drilling the troops, but to exhaust every possible means to provide disaster relief.

Only by relieving the disaster first could he prevent more commoners from turning into bandits. And then — would roving bandits with nothing but robbery on their minds really be so hard to deal with?

Thus, beyond disaster relief, he paid particular attention to bandits who were different from the rest.

And so he discovered Wang Jiayin and Liu Chengzong.

How to put it — these two were a bit... simple.

Wang Jiayin was the bane of Fugu County. And what kind of place was Fugu County? The key choke-point linking Yulin with the Xuan-Da defense zone. There were only two cities like it — Fugu on one side, Hequ on the other — guarding both banks of the Yellow River.

Yet this Fugu County, for all its impregnable defenses, might as well have been built by Wang Jiayin's own father, so conveniently did it leave a gate-hole just for him.

In the first year of Chongzhen, he raised his troops and began by breaking through Fugu — clang, clang, clang — leading surrendered soldiers and local bandits to smash through a string of military forts, and finally broke Fugu County again.

In the second year of Chongzhen, he repeated the whole process. And this year, when spring came and he wanted to go to Hequ, he first broke Fugu County once more.

Anyway — if he could beat the government troops, he had to break Fugu first to boost his brothers' morale; if he couldn't beat the government troops, he still had to break Fugu to find himself a hideout; if he was leaving Shaanxi, he still had to break Fugu to leave a memento.

That Wang Jiayin could fight was understandable — from the very beginning he had been locked in struggle with the border troops. It was border troops fighting among themselves.

But Liu Chengzong was different. Zhang Yundeng knew very little about Liu Chengzong. He had never heard of Liu Chengzong besieging any county seat or prefectural city, nor had he ever heard of him breaking one.

The sole exception was Yan'an Prefectural City — and that was just a great commotion during the jailbreak, routed in the blink of an eye by a Probationary Company Commander from Yan'an Guard. That showed he had not yet grown into a real force at the time.

But that was precisely what puzzled Zhang Yundeng. By the usual bandit playbook, this Liu Chengzong should have gone to plunder the wealthy households and gentry — yet Yan'an Prefecture had no reports of that kind.

Only petty bandits like Shot-Down Sky, Passing Sky, and Cao Cao were looting everywhere — and then the courier stations were gone.

By the time Zhang Yundeng discovered Liu Chengzong again, it was when Li Bei's Yan'an Battalion of over a thousand government troops had been defeated, and then when Ai Mu's nearly full-strength Yan'an Battalion was defeated.

He just kept picking on the Yan'an Battalion.

So Zhang Yundeng thought this bandit was a bit simple. The ones who defeated him were from Yan'an Guard — why did he keep hounding the Yan'an Battalion and refusing to let go?

One was guard troops, the other was battalion troops — was the distinction really that hard to make?

Zhang Yundeng desperately wanted to get intelligence on Liu Chengzong.

But Yan'an Prefecture was, to put it mildly, a complicated story.

On one hand, he was corresponding with Prefect Zhang Nian of Yan'an. The prefect said that although intelligence was hard to transmit, the countryside had a few petty bandits, commoners occasionally resisted taxes, and the tax clerks were timid as mice—

But the problems were minor. To the north, Chiliarch Ren Quan'er garrisoned the border pass; to the south, Vice-Chiliarch Shi Wanzhong garrisoned the siege perimeter; to the east, Vice-Chiliarch Chen Ruji garrisoned Zuantianmao.

The vicinity of the prefectural seat was entirely under control.

He only hoped that the Hexi Military Intendant could quickly capture Liu Chengzong. That villain was extremely fierce—even when he went home in winter, he still killed people near the prefectural seat.

The men Zhang Yundeng sent over also reported that conditions at Yan'an's prefectural seat were not bad. As long as no one tried to collect taxes, everything proceeded smoothly, and the commoners' morale seemed fine too.

But the problem was, this place had only collected a little over twenty taels of silver in taxes over the past year. In fact, when other counties transported tax silver near the prefectural seat, the silver would simply vanish. Some motley little bandit would always pop up and rob it.

The registered population here had plummeted. The remaining commoners could no longer be described as destitute, and given that both the prefectural and county seats were still functioning well, the taxes should not have been uncollectable.

This made no sense.

But his question was a bit difficult for Ma Maoguan.

Ma Maoguan did not want to tell him, yet after mulling it over, he could not come up with a reason to claim ignorance.

He had no choice but to steel himself and say, "When this lowly one was captured last time, I observed that Liu Chengzong's troops were indeed elite. He has four thousand men under his command, fully equipped with arms and armor, and their provisions seem fairly ample."

Ma Maoguan thought it over—these things could not be concealed anyway—and added, "He fed the captives congee with dried meat in it, and even treated the wounded soldiers. Then he asked whether we were willing to follow him. Those who refused were given a few mace of silver for travel expenses, two or three catties of millet flour, and were let go."

Zhang Yundeng pondered for a moment, then asked, "What about his lair?"

"This lowly one truly does not know his lair. I only know that last time he came from east of Yanchuan."

"That settles it."

Zhang Yundeng raised his hand and tapped the table heavily. He lifted his head, closed his eyes, and let out a sigh, his face grave and sorrowful.

It seemed his guess had been correct.

Why would Liu Chengzong move from east to west? Either someone was colluding with the bandits and tipped him off about General Ai taking up the post of Assistant Regional Commander, or he was heading back to Yan'an's prefectural seat and ran straight into Ai Mu.

His lair was near the prefectural seat of Yan'an.

If Liu Chengzong's lair was near the prefectural seat of Yan'an, then the prefectural seat should not appear to be functioning normally.

If every place looked problem-free, then where did the problem lie?

Zhang Yundeng left Ma Maoguan to eat alone. He rose from the table, walked out of the official residence, found Brigade Commander Yang Xun, and said in a low voice, "General Yang, my guess was correct. That Ma Maoguan does not know where Liu Chengzong's lair is, but he led his troops from east to west, most likely heading back to the Yan'an prefectural seat."

Brigade Commander Yang Xun was briefly stunned. The Hexi Military Defense Circuit had mentioned to him the suspicion that something was wrong with the Yan'an prefectural government. He then asked cautiously, "My lord Military Intendant, do you mean to say…"

Zhang Yundeng nodded slowly. "I now strongly suspect that Prefect Zhang Nian is fattening bandits to boost his own importance and embezzling tax silver."

Yang Xun said, "This… if this is true, then Liu Chengzong must already know the transport route for the official silver. The roads to Fuzhou and Yan'an Prefecture will likely be cut off by him."

"Exactly. Go find other crates in the city and eight thousand catties of stone blocks. At midnight tonight, we will secretly dispatch trusted men to break the seals, remove the official silver, and store it elsewhere."

"You and I will bypass Fuzhou together, head straight for Yichuan, then go north through Yanchuan to deliver it to Yulin Garrison. As for the official silver crates, Ma Maoguan will lead men to transport them toward the Yan'an prefectural seat."

Breaking the seals was a serious matter.

Yang Xun hesitated somewhat and said, "My lord, even setting aside the unauthorized breaking of the seals, simply rerouting through Yichuan—that road is long. If Liu Chengzong strikes at Fuzhou and discovers the crates are filled with stones, he will certainly march on Yanchuan again."

Zhang Yundeng nodded. "So we must be fast. I will write a letter at once to secretly report to the new Grand Coordinator Hong of Yansui, requesting that he dispatch troops to meet us at Yanchuan."

Yang Xun no longer hesitated and immediately agreed.

Only then did Zhang Yundeng return to the official residence. His brow seemed far more relaxed as he said, "Squad Leader Ma, would you like to continue serving the imperial court?"

Ma Maocai's heart and liver trembled at his words, terrified that his own intentions had already been exposed. He hurriedly asked, "My lord, what do you mean? This lowly one has always been serving the imperial court!"

Zhang Yundeng shook his head. "You are a man of Xianyang. I trust you completely. Just now, a report came from Yanchuan of bandit incursions. If you were to escort this batch of silver, transporting it through the Yan'an prefectural seat to Yanchuan, I will be waiting for you there."

"Can you accomplish this?"

Ma Maocai furrowed his brow. He sensed something was off about this.

It sounded as if… as if Zhang Yundeng was afraid of Liu Chengzong, which was why he made such an arrangement.

But he knew very well that Zhang Yundeng had participated in suppressing the She-An Rebellion in Shuixi. He should not be the type to cower in fear.

However, before he could answer, Zhang Yundeng, seeming to perceive his hesitation, said, "If you accomplish this and wish to remain in Hexi, I can recommend you for the post of Centurion. If you intend to go to the frontier, I can also recommend you to Grand Coordinator Hong of Yansui, to serve at his side."

Ma Maoguan was dumbfounded.

Whether serving as a Centurion at the side of the Military Defense Circuit, or serving at the side of the Grand Coordinator of Yansui—either was a meteoric rise to the heavens.

If such a good thing was on offer, why didn't you say so earlier!

Wasn't the whole reason he resorted to desperate measures precisely because his post as squad leader had been stripped?

If only he had not been stripped of his post after losing that battle, if his family and kin were all living well, even if he were just a squad leader, he would never have thought of contacting Liu Chengzong.

Never mind whether Liu Chengzong was willing to share five hundred taels or two hundred taels—could drifting destitute for that pittance of silver possibly compare to being a military officer for the imperial court?

But now it was too late to say any of this. Liu Chengzong already knew about this silver. The man was waiting right in Ganquan County. Who could possibly safeguard this silver?

"This lowly one is naturally willing to serve my lord, but… your humble subordinate fears encountering bandits on the road."

Ma Maoguan thought for a moment and said, "My lord, why not let this lowly one escort the silver and accompany you north through Yichuan? That road, though somewhat longer, is the mountain path I took when I was released last time. I am familiar with the route."

Zhang Yundeng said nothing. He gave Ma Maoguan a long, meaningful look.

Look at that—even Ma Maoguan knew that going through Yan'an Prefecture was unsafe. So how could Prefect Zhang Nian of Yan'an not know, and still claim everything was under control!

The matter was becoming easier and easier to discern. Either all the officers, bannermen, officials, and clerks of the guard battalion and prefectural seat had problems, or Prefect Zhang Nian had a problem.

Which of the two possibilities was more likely?

It was obvious. Others might or might not have problems, but Zhang Nian definitely had a problem.

Could it be that everyone was fabricating lies just to deceive the prefect?

"Squad Leader Ma, you are a clever man. If you encounter bandits on the road, you need only ascertain one thing for me: whether the one who comes is Liu Chengzong."

Zhang Yundeng said, "If the one who comes is not Liu Chengzong, I trust you can hold them off. If it is Liu Chengzong, then abandon the official silver and withdraw. Afterward, I will still recommend you for an official post—and one even greater than Centurion."