Chapter 179: A Clever Plan Gone Awry

Liu Chengzong planned to rename this place from Golden Basin Bay to Lion Bay.

Heaven-Climbing Monkey took a few auxiliary soldiers who knew how to farm and followed the river for two days.

He delivered an oral report to Liu Chengzong on reclaiming wasteland along the Cloud Rock River area.

In summary, it came down to two points.

First, it was miraculous.

Second, they could raise horses here.

Why raise horses? Because this place was exceptionally suited for growing pasture grass and hunting, but not for living people.

As for hoping to be self-sufficient on this land, Heaven-Climbing Monkey said, "Twenty thousand people, spending five years."

The Cloud Rock River originates from Nine Dragons Spring, twenty li southwest of South Muddy Bend. The river flows northeast to the low-lying area of South Muddy Bend, where it splits into two branches — one flows northwest for twenty li, the other arcs from northeast to southeast.

With this terrain, from the source through South Muddy Bend to Golden Basin Bay, it is especially good at retaining water.

When other places in northern Shaanxi suffer drought, it suffers drought too; when other places are no longer dry, this place gets waterlogged.

After waterlogging, the groundwater level rises, bringing salt from underground to the surface. Once the water evaporates, what remains is salt.

With good irrigation, you can sow widely and reap thinly; but if canal irrigation and drainage are poorly done and the salt accumulated in the soil cannot be washed away, over time this land will inevitably go barren.

After lying fallow for a year or two, rain turns it into a muddy bog, and after waterlogging it becomes vast sheets of hardened saline-alkali soil — then even fewer people will come to reclaim it.

For farmers in northern Shaanxi who know how to open up wasteland, land is never in short supply anywhere — what is scarce is water.

But reclaiming this land, which does not lack water, requires far too much labor — it is not something one or two households can accomplish.

It would take at least four or five hundred households working together, with the ability to dig canals, to reclaim this land.

Yet reclaiming wasteland has never been a simple matter. For one household to open up land, it means the family must have a year's worth of grain stored; for five hundred households, they must have five hundred households' worth of grain for a year.

After explaining the land conditions to Liu Chengzong, Heaven-Climbing Monkey pursed his lips and shook his head. "The common folk living here say that when spring comes and the earth's qi rises, the ground is white all over. One step leaves a print. General, I'm afraid this won't work."

Liu Chengzong slowly nodded.

He assessed the environment and had to admit that Lion Camp currently lacked the ability to reclaim this land.

And most critically, his target was too large. Even though this river valley wedged between Yellow Dragon Mountain and Lao Mountain was sparsely traveled, as long as Du Wenhuan headed south, he would follow the traces and find him.

Still, reclaiming this place would have to be done sooner or later.

Liu Chengzong thought to himself that the prospects here were genuinely good — better than Apricot River's Wang Village.

Although Apricot River had over ten thousand mu of farmland, most of the income came from tenant rent. The wheat harvested there this year was basically just enough for self-sufficiency.

Moreover, across the entire vast area of Apricot River, the residents were all people who had pledged themselves and their land. Agriculturally, it was very hard to expand further, though with enough hands, mining and stonework still had room for further development.

But the same problem was that once there were enough hands, the locally produced grain would no longer be sufficient.

And this valley he intended to call Lion Bay — its advantage lay precisely in having many places that could be reclaimed and used. Once war came, this place was emptied of people, so whatever they reclaimed would all count as theirs.

The prerequisite for reclamation was preparing twenty thousand dan of grain.

In truth, even without reclamation, he still had to prepare tens of thousands of dan of grain.

Summer had already arrived, and winter was not far off.

He realized that for Lion Camp, the most frightening thing was not a government punitive expedition. On the contrary, what they feared most was the government troops forgetting about them.

Even enduring hunger, those generals serving the court would go to any lengths to deliver their last remaining grain to him, and would even bring him fresh meat supplies.

Thanks to these living bodhisattvas, a big eater who normally needed two jin of grain could now eat a bit of dried meat and be full on just one jin of grain.

Everyone was a living bodhisattva to Lion Camp — only Du Wenhuan was a great villain.

It infuriated Liu Chengzong so much that he desperately wanted to write a bunch of big-character posters reporting to Du Wenhuan: Grand Commander Du, just wait a little longer and I'll have robbed enough to make it ten thousand taels for you.

And post them on the city walls of Yulin!

Liu Chengzong planned to find a way to dig the canals and level the fields in autumn, so that next spring when the earth's qi rose, they could scrape up the saltpeter crusted on the topsoil of the fields.

After scraping, they would open the canals and flood the fields heavily for seven or eight days to dilute the salt, then they could plant cotton.

The scraped salt and saltpeter would be given to that firecracker craftsman from Liu Family Village for leaching and refining — it could yield both low-grade salt and saltpeter.

That said, by this point Liu Chengzong actually already knew where saltpeter could be found.

Lord Guan's hometown, Xiezhou in Shanxi — that place had salt ponds and saltpeter ponds, though the saltpeter ponds produced mirabilite. The saltpeter for making gunpowder had to be taken from the mountains of Xiezhou: saltpeter mineral deposits.

Liu Chengzong rested at Lion Bay for two days, distributed over forty-nine thousand taels of silver to his subordinates, and kept ten thousand taels for Ma Maoguan as promised.

Afterward, he ordered each outpost commander to split their troops and lead them to the villages around Yanchuan to spend money.

He and Cao Yao, with a portion of trusted men, divided the nearly ninety thousand taels from the camp headquarters plus the Huo Family Village haul into four shares.

One share stayed with the camp headquarters, one was transported to his father at Drill Sky Peak, and one was transported to his elder brother at Apricot River.

The last share — he and Cao Yao found a cave at Lion Bay and buried it.

This money was to be kept as Lion Camp's restart fund.

If one day they were scattered and wiped out, with this money in place, no matter who survived, starting again would at least be a little easier.

While burying the silver, Liu Chengzong said to Cao Yao, "If I die someday, you come here, dig up this money, use it to recruit troops and buy horses, and keep fighting the court to avenge me."

"Forget it. You'd better stay alive. If you're gone, I'm quitting — I'll take the money and go back to Black Dragon Mountain to have kids."

"Six or seven kids." Cao Yao chuckled and snorted. "Named Cao Chengshu, Cao Jishu, Cao Bingshu, Cao Xishu, Cao Yanshu, Cao Xushu, something like that. I'll raise them with this money and make them do it. I'm done."

For a moment, Liu Chengzong didn't know what to say to him. He pointed at the nearly buried chest. "All this money, and you're only raising seven?"

"Seven is plenty!" Cao Yao said as if it were perfectly obvious. "For raising kids, if I don't know something I'll ask Fourth Master. I'll do everything exactly the way Fourth Master raised you. When they grow up, I'll send them to seven different provinces. One uprising together, and they'll take half the life out of the Great Ming first."

Not a bad plan.

Liu Chengzong shook his head and kept burying the chest. "You're right. I'd better stay alive. This matter can only be done by our generation."

If they lost, what the next generation would have to do was oppose the Qing and restore the Ming.

In Suide Department to the north.

When Wang Zuogua received the verbal message Liu Chengzong had sent, he was busy having his secretary write a statement of vindication, intending to appeal his grievance to the Three Borders Governor-General Yang He, asking the Governor-General to seek justice for him.

In truth, Wang Zuogua really had been wronged. The one robbing in Suide was not him, but a subordinate of his who had not followed him in accepting amnesty — a man called Ke Tianhu.

After he accepted amnesty, Ke Tianhu followed Sweeping King Zhang Yichuan and kept raising hell in Suide without end; they tried to persuade him to go somewhere else, but he wouldn't listen.

Because it rained in Suide in the spring.

This time last year, for most of the chieftains in northern Shaanxi, rain was still terrible news.

But this year many weren't afraid anymore — even if northern Shaanxi got a bit better, Shanxi was still suffering drought; worst case, they'd just turn around and head for Shanxi.

The truth was, Sweeping King Zhang Yichuan's reason for staying in Suide was very simple.

Early that year, over a hundred rebel kings had gathered at Qingjian.

The others went to the Qingjian gathering to join forces and plunder in Shanxi; Zhang Yichuan went to Qingjian to find someone to follow.

At the time he had only a few hundred men under him — he didn't even qualify to enter the house.

But he arrived before anyone else and just fixed his eyes on the third empty chair.

He didn't know who would end up sitting in that third chair, but he had long since made up his mind: he would follow whoever sat in the third chair.

Before going, Zhang Yichuan raided a village, dragged out a schoolteacher, and had the man recount the Water Margin to him from beginning to end.

He memorized all those characters, mainly the ones ranked near the top.

The one ranked first was fierce for sure, but the government troops favored him too — he'd definitely die early.

Zhang Yichuan figured he couldn't follow that one.

The one ranked second might well be a Song Jiang type trying to contend for top spot, maybe even angling for amnesty and getting all the brothers killed — couldn't follow him either.

Third — third was good.

Lu Junyi, with martial skill so high he could fight to the very end; he, Zhang Yichuan, didn't expect to amount to much — he just wanted to sweep away the filth of the world.

So if he was going to pledge himself, it had to be to the third.

While the many chieftains arranged the seating inside the house, he stood at the doorway watching with eager eyes, watching Liu Shizi and Gao Yingxiang defer to each other.

So he let the heavens pick a good big brother for him.

Just as he finished praying — splat!

Gao Yingxiang plopped his rear down onto the third chair.

And so Sweeping King Zhang Yichuan believed that Gao the Dashing King was the big brother destined for him, arranged by the heavens — he had to follow him.

Once the Qingjian meeting ended, he chased right after Gao Yingxiang's heels and pledged himself.

Gao Yingxiang saw he didn't have many men and told him to choose for himself: follow him into Shanxi, or stay in Shaanxi to build up local support and guard their rear line.

The moment Zhang Yichuan heard "guard the rear," he thought to himself, Big Brother's treating me like a hero — so he'd guard the rear.

So he guarded the rear — and before the big brother in the first chair had even died, the second brother went and fucking took amnesty.

And the third brother got pounded by hail and went missing.

All at once Zhang Yichuan had no idea where to go. He'd originally planned to pull a couple of raids, fill his belly, and leave Suide — who knew that Wang Zuogua, who'd taken amnesty, would start getting cocky and even dare to give him orders.

In a fit of rage, Zhang Yichuan decided he wasn't leaving.

He said he'd nail himself dead in Suide and see what this amnesty-taking traitor could do about it!

What could Wang Zuogua do about it? He couldn't do a damn thing. The men under him who couldn't fight had already fallen behind on the escape route; the ones who could fight had been nearly all dispersed by the government troops after the amnesty.

While the government troops were dispersing his elite soldiers up front, Sweeping King Zhang Yichuan was recruiting them from behind.

Now Zhang Yichuan and Ke Tianhu together had four or five thousand men between them.

It would've been better if Liu Chengzong hadn't sent word to Suide — the moment that message arrived, Wang Zuogua felt so wronged he just wanted to cry.

"Liu Shizi speaks reason, but the one raising hell in Suide isn't me — what use is it for the government troops to kill me!"

He said it, but Wang Zuogua felt he really had to find a way to flee.

If not for this letter from Liu Chengzong, Wang Zuogua felt that whether he fled or not was honestly a toss-up — he truly didn't much want to keep stirring trouble.

He didn't care what official post the court gave him; even if they sent him to Liaodong to fight the eastern barbarians, it made no difference — fighting was fighting, whoever the target.

Fighting the eastern barbarians, the worst that could happen was death — among those who rose up in northern Shaanxi, who was afraid of dying?

But Hong Chengchou wanting him to follow along and fight the righteous armies — Wang Zuogua felt that wouldn't do.

Morality was one side of it; on the other side, if he died fighting the eastern barbarians, he'd at least die a hero. But a peasant-army chieftain who took amnesty and then died fighting other peasant-army chieftains — what would that make him?

Besides, with the paltry force he had, who could he even beat?

Wang Jiayin? Absolutely couldn't beat him — even the government troops had a hard time beating him, let alone Wang Zuogua.

Gao Yingxiang? Hard to beat him too — word was Gao Yingxiang had been eating quite fat in Shanxi.

Liu Chengzong? Forget it. Among the chieftains who rose up south of Suide, no one was stronger than Liu Shizi.

It really was strange, come to think of it — the man had risen up from Yan'an prefectural seat; how had he gathered so many border troops under him?

Hong Chengchou hadn't said anything either.

Wang Zuogua hadn't thought it through carefully, but now, hearing the messenger relay Liu Chengzong's analysis, he realized that in the eyes of the government troops, he was a man who absolutely had to die.

He finally understood why, when he explained to the government troops that the one causing trouble now wasn't him, Hong Chengchou wouldn't listen.

The government troops were about to move south — as long as he was alive here, he had rallying power; if he rose again, Ke Tianhu and Zhang Yichuan could still link up forces with him.

The government troops certainly didn't want to see several thousand men attacking Yulin Garrison while they were away.

If he had to die no matter what, then what was he waiting here for?

Wang Zuogua prepared to act — but his action wasn't to flee; it was to send someone to the government troops with a letter for Hong Chengchou, who was stationed at Yulin, saying he'd come around and would follow Governor Hong in suppressing the peasant armies from now on.

Seeking a promotion and a fortune.

For two days, Yulin said nothing. On the third day, Mobile Corps Commander Li Mingfu, who had shifted camp to Suide with Du Wenhuan, came and asked him: "Come around, have you?"

"I've come around."

"Who made you come around?" Li Mingfu asked. "That person who came through from Qingjian a few days ago — who was it?"

Wang Zuogua froze; he nearly went for his blade. Suppressing his alarm, he said, "Someone from my old home in Qingjian. Said that with me surrendering to the court, the villagers were all quite pleased and didn't hold it against me anymore."

Mobile Corps Commander Li Mingfu responded with a mirthless, skin-deep smile, then looked at Wang Zuogua and said, "Then it's settled. You'll be temporarily assigned to my camp. Trim down your forces. In a few days we march — the Grand Coordinator will assess your effectiveness at killing rebels and grant you an official post."

Wang Zuogua muttered to himself, thinking this Hong Chengchou was truly ruthless.

Granting official posts based on success in killing bandits meant the more peasant army men you suppressed and killed, the higher the post you'd get.

He asked, "Who are we sending troops against? I might know them. I could help the court talk them into surrendering... Isn't the court also offering amnesty and recruitment?"

Li Mingfu had been about to leave, but at these words he halted his steps and let out a mocking laugh. "Where would we get that much grain for amnesty and recruitment?"

As he spoke, Li Mingfu seemed to recall something and asked, "Do you know Li Laochai, who answered Wang Jiayin's call? What about the men under him?"

Li Laochai?

Wang Zuogua shook his head. "Not well."

"You must know Liu Chengzong, at least. I've heard people say you met in Qingjian."

"I've met him."

This time Wang Zuogua nodded readily. "Met him once. A very young lad."

Li Mingfu's expression turned cold. "That 'young lad' you speak of wiped out over four thousand government troops."

Wang Zuogua thought to himself, isn't that obvious? As if I don't know what Liu the Lion is capable of?

"He is quite formidable."

He echoed in agreement, then abruptly shut his mouth and stared at Li Mingfu. Only then did he ask cautiously, "General, we're not going to attack Liu Chengzong, are we?"

"Don't get any crooked ideas. Plenty of eyes are on you. Besides, Regional Commander He from Ningxia is bringing his troops into Yan'an. Prepare yourself well — both regional commanders will be watching to see what you're made of."

Wang Zuogua saluted and acknowledged the order, his heart turning cold as if a stone had been stuffed inside it, his chest throbbing with each beat.

He had originally wanted to use this opportunity to lull the government troops into lowering their guard so he could escape. Who knew they were about to march out at once?

He couldn't defeat Liu Chengzong, and he certainly couldn't defeat two regional commanders.

Now, his clever scheme had backfired completely.