Chapter 19: Local Militia

The local militia were a local militia organization first established during the Zhengtong era, constituting one of the four statutory corvée levies under government authority.

Because the local militia assembled for drill twice a month under the local magistrate, they were also called "Group-Drill Local Militia" or "Tuanlian"; in different regions they acquired different names based on the skills they relied upon, such as Firearm Troops, Quick Hands, Strikers, Bow Troops, and so on.

The dwellings and cave-houses of Xingping Hamlet all stood on the mountainside, while Liujiashan was a small flat-topped hill ringed by folk houses — set upon the Loess Plateau, this flat-topped hill itself was not high in elevation.

Ascending the hill, on the leveled yellow-earth small drill ground, a dozen or so sturdy men in farming clothes and seven or eight children stood waiting to the side; Juren Liu stood in the center, wearing a square scholar's cap and a blue Daoist robe with a wide sash, hands behind his back holding a small rod, directing four local militia.

Beneath a tree in one corner of the small drill ground, there was also a martial officer clad in armor — judging by the style of his helmet and spear, he should be a low-ranking guard officer from Yan'an Garrison.

Liu Chengzong's archer's eyes were exceedingly sharp; at a single glance he made out that the firearms the four local militia held were bird-beak muskets, and some twenty-odd paces beyond them stood a row of wooden targets.

The bird-beak musket is a muzzle-loading matchlock; it entered China via the Battle of Tunmen in the sixteenth year of the Zhengde reign of Emperor Wuzong of Ming, and by now has a history of one hundred and eight years — no longer a novelty.

In those one hundred and eight years, with the Ming-Japanese War in Korea erupting during the Wanli years and the unprecedented boom in the silk trade with the Spanish colony of the Philippines, nearly every prototype of firearm produced by the various nations of this era could be found in the Great Ming.

The bird-beak musket, then, was the most universally issued small-caliber muzzle-loading matchlock among the armies of the various states of the present day.

By now the Ming dynasty had made great strides in firearms, possessing infantry bird-beak muskets, cavalry bird-beak muskets, and even developing, on the foundation of the native quick-gun — a hybrid cold-and-hot weapon — the Frankish-style rapid-fire bird-beak musket and the musket-sword.

Liu Chengzong had seen them at Yuhe Fort: bird-beak musketeers equipped with a straight-bladed short sword, which could be fixed into the muzzle for close combat during battle.

Local militia who used firearms were also called Firearm Troops.

When the government issued a summons, the local Firearm Troops would be incorporated into the regular army as musketeer reservists.

At this moment the four Firearm Troops, match-cords wrapped around their hands, held their bird-beak muskets level; the small drill ground was utterly silent, every face taut with tension.

Juren Liu raised his hand and dropped it; they stood their four-chi-long bird-beak muskets upright on the ground, unfastened the powder flasks at their waists, and poured powder into the small powder tubes.

After several breaths, Juren Liu again raised his hand and dropped it; the Firearm Troops poured the powder from the powder tubes into the musket barrels; at the next command, they drew the ramrods from beneath the bird-beak musket barrels, flipped them in their hands, and thrust them into the barrels, pressing down to compact the powder — their movements practiced and deft.

The fourth command was to load the shot into the barrel; the fifth command, to compact it again with the ramrod.

Only at the sixth command were the bird-beak muskets finally leveled; the Firearm Troops took out the small priming flasks at their waists and poured priming powder into the small flash pans on the sides of the bird-beak muskets.

At the seventh command, the Firearm Troops unwound the match-cords wrapped around their arms and fixed them onto the serpentine levers of the bird-beak muskets; only at this point were the muskets finally in a ready-to-fire state.

The four men, two in front and two behind, raised their muskets and took aim with the front men half-kneeling and the rear men standing, but Juren Liu clasped his hands behind his back and gave no word, waiting quietly until the Firearm Troops' rigid arms could barely bear the weight of the bird-beak muskets and began to tremble — only then did he finally open his mouth and command: "Fire!"

There was none of the bird-beak musket report Liu Chengzong had imagined; all four Firearm Troops pulled their triggers at the same moment, and the match-cords clamped in the serpentine levers fell accurately into the flash pans, but not one of the four muskets discharged.

This scene seemed to be within everyone's expectations — only he did not know.

Shi Wanzhong quietly explained: "The government allots very little powder; the Old Master rarely uses it for drill. What they pour into the powder and priming are all fine earth."

Once a complete bird-beak musket firing drill had concluded, Juren Liu stepped forward with a small wooden strip and delivered a lecture to each Firearm Trooper; it seemed none had met the standard in his mind, and he ordered each to extend a hand and receive a few lashes on the palm from the small wooden strip.

This action was extraordinarily familiar to Liu Chengzong, watching from the side; back when he and his elder brother studied, their father had urged them on in their studies in just this way.

Though he had not yet begun his elementary learning at the time — perhaps Old Master Liu had found the trick to spurring a young child to diligent study — whenever a mistake was made, he would make Chengzu extend his hand to take the beating, and have Chengzong watch from the side.

Precisely because of this, the first idiom Liu Chengzong ever learned was "kill the chicken to frighten the monkey," and he was the most earnest and assiduous in his studies.

When he turned back around, his gaze toward Liu Chengzong, who stood holding a horse at the edge of the small drill ground, flickered sharply with his brows; he turned back, put on a stern face, and said to the Firearm Troops: "Clean the barrels and rest for a quarter-hour. Think carefully on your movements. Afterward, we will have a minor examination on the staggered retreating firearm volley."

Having said this, he turned his head again and addressed the garrison officer standing to the side: "Chief Flag Officer Peng, a moment later, please issue the flags and distribute the gunpowder."

Juren Liu was in the prime of life; because his family had been poor in his youth, while others began putting on weight at thirty, he had not yet started to grow stout even past forty after a year in prison — his build remained well-proportioned, and his spirits were quite good.

"Father."

"Why have you come back?" Liu Xiangyu furrowed his brows, his gaze fixed on his second son's face shifting from fair to foul — clearly the current situation had led him to an unpleasant association — and said bluntly: "Go home first. Do not go out, and do not see anyone."

At first Liu Chengzong did not understand; upon hearing this line, he understood — his old man had taken him for a deserter. He hurriedly said: "It's not just me; Elder Brother has come back too."

He briefly explained to Liu Xiangyu the circumstances of their return, including the routing of the White Eagle Bandits, and said: "Big Brother sent me back to find men and carts to help bring in the grain. The grain carts are too heavy; we truly could not haul them back."

Knowing that his son was not a deserter, Liu Xiangyu relaxed considerably.

After all, he was a man long accustomed to office; spreading his hands, he at once issued orders, calling over several young lads from the small drill ground: "Go to the fields and summon the people. Have every household bring donkeys and carts. The Minzhuang are to take up their weapons and descend the hill — follow this old man to Qingpingchuan to receive them."

"You've run forty li — go home for a meal, or come along? Then we'll talk as we walk."

With that, Liu Xiangyu turned his head to speak with Chief Flag Officer Peng, who had been waiting to the side; Officer Peng merely nodded without much speech, had a village child lead him away to rest, and before leaving cupped his hands in salute toward Liu Chengzong.

In but a moment, a dozen-odd Minzhuang took up spears, tridents, waist sabers, and other weapons from the small drill ground and followed Old Master Liu in a mighty procession down off the hill.

At the foot of the hill, several villagers had likewise assembled; on the small paths, people were pushing handcarts and donkey carts, converging on the village.

The days just entering spring were not, by rights, the agricultural off-season — it was only that the drought had left people with nothing to do, and time that had once been busy now stretched out abundantly.

"How does Father know how to drill troops?"

"This is drilling troops, not leading troops. To drill troops, one needs only regulations, drill manuals, and authority — surely you don't think your father lacks even the prestige to make others obey?"

Liu Xiangyu's tone as he said this brooked no doubt, and Liu Chengzong did not question it; he was merely a bit puzzled. Removing his helmet and holding it, he walked in silence for a few steps before saying: "Father naturally has prestige — but this is different from before."

His old man was a juren and had been an official for over a decade; though not a county magistrate or chief official, among the common folk and in his home region he commanded ample respect from village elders and kin.

But respect was not prestige — and what he had seen and heard this time, with everyone obeying every word, had already gone beyond respect.

What was more, the Minzhuang Tuanlian had never before been their family's affair; add to that how his homeland was now unlike other places, with that vibrant, hopeful air of vitality — the doubts in Liu Chengzong's mind were so numerous he did not know where to begin.

Liu Xiangyu maintained his lofty air for a moment, but seeing his son's silence, he turned back, a complex smile — part pride, part sorrow — hanging on his face: "Your father was condemned for his words, and knows better than anyone that the years of calamity have arrived."

"Last year, by grace of the new emperor's ascension and the general amnesty, upon returning home I convened the clan uncles and elders, settled the year's planting affairs, mobilized the villagers to dredge the Panlongchuan water channels, and planted more drought-resistant grains."

"By last year, I heard from the prefectural office of the Guyuan mutiny and the bandits swarming across northern Shaanxi, and so requested Chief Flag Officer Peng from Yan'an Garrison to teach the village children martial matters... it is only a pity about the young ones."

As he walked, Liu Xiangyu halted his steps and let out an exceedingly soft sigh: "Why is it that those of my family have no fate with the palace examination?"

Notes:

① Ming Dynasty Tuanlian.

The Ming Minzhuang were selected from among the common people, their main members all being rural peasants who had received no formal training.

To give the Minzhuang capabilities approaching those of the regular army, the Ming court adopted a series of measures to train them, and during the Tianshun and Zhengde eras even provided training grounds, arms, and military pay.

Later, the officials responsible for this matter mostly handled it perfunctorily or embezzled central funds for their own pockets, and this once-potent armed force gradually fell into neglect.

② The Frankish-style bird-beak musket and musket-sword appear in the Records of Armaments by He Rubin, Vice Regional Commander of Ningbo-Shaoxing in the Great Ming and a master of crude illustration, Chongzhen third-year printed edition, in juan twelve, "Methods of Manufacturing Implements and Smelting Iron," pages twenty-six (complete form of the mother-and-son musket) and twenty-seven (disassembled form of the mother-and-son musket).

This book was destroyed in the forty-fifth year of the Qianlong reign.