Chapter 196: Scorched Earth

The wounded soldiers at Lion Bay crowded around Huang Shengxiao, watching him drain the wine in his teacup in one gulp.

"Well, Huang Yong, how is it? Good? What's it taste like?"

Huang Shengxiao's expression was odd — it was his first time drinking this precious stuff, and it tasted rank and strange, but he was unwilling to show it, so he nodded and said, "Not bad. Gets the blood moving."

Truth be told, the wine did most of the work, with a little calcium on the side.

But it genuinely worked on people of this era, because the diet of ordinary soldiers and commoners ensured they were universally deficient in all sorts of vitamins and trace minerals.

To put it simply, people a few centuries later might get kidney stones from drinking a bit of river water.

But in this year of great disaster, it might actually supplement their calcium.

Their bodies were starved of everything.

The chief of the supply outpost, Chengyun, was a notorious miser. Although Ren Quan'er had sent a sizable quantity of goods, it was measured for Liu Erye's personal use alone.

If those things were divided among all the wounded and even the entire Lion Camp, they wouldn't amount to much.

Chengyun also wanted to keep some in reserve for unforeseen needs — not to mention how precious and rare these things were.

So he didn't have the medics distribute everything. Instead, he selected a few men from the wounded camp who, by merit, were qualified to have a taste.

The rest had no such luck.

Chengyun had also told Liu Shizi about this. Liu Chengzong thought his younger brother's angle was remarkably unique, turning these items into a symbolic honor and benefit.

Liu Chengzong felt that from now on, these plundered goods would have their uses too.

A pity they had no place to settle long-term, or else they could even build a storehouse dedicated to keeping things for rewarding meritorious men.

Still... meritorious men?

Liu Chengzong always felt that using that term now seemed somewhat off.

Song Shouzhen's writing was indescribably bad — at any rate, you could tell he really was a musician household.

But it was just a literate draft, after all. Liu Chengzong didn't need to read it verbatim; he only needed to explain things clearly to the wounded soldiers.

The day he gave his lecture in the wounded camp, the camp was filled with the sound of weeping.

Even having become rebels against the court, these former border troops were still brimming with grievances. Someone wept and asked him, "Why did the court embezzle our military pay?"

In truth, everyone knew the answer. Liu Chengzong's answer was just a bit deeper than the festering disaster in the east.

Thanks to Liu Laoye having served as a tax official, he spent nearly half a shichen explaining to the soldiers, item by item, how the summer tax and autumn grain the court collected in Shaanxi were used.

But he was selective in what he said, after all — the starting point was to channel hatred, directing enmity squarely at the colluding officials and imperial clansmen of the court, and by extension, the ultimate enemy, the Eastern Slaves.

In reality, the court's current deficit could no longer be made up by the imperial clan's share alone.

Even if Chongzhen slaughtered all the imperial clansmen now, took back all the princely estates and lands, and there was no corruption in the process, the accounts still couldn't be balanced.

Still, such an explanation was more than enough for the wounded soldiers of Lion Camp.

They didn't care how many expenses the Chongzhen Emperor's court had. What the Emperor lacked was a huge sum of millions of taels.

Without that money, the court still stood.

They only wanted to know why the Emperor allowed the court to embezzle their pittance of five qian a month.

Without that pittance, their families were destroyed, their people dead.

Liu Chengzong told them: "Because we were useless. Give me one tael, and I'll guard the frontier for the court. Give me five qian, and I'll still guard the frontier."

"Finally, when they wouldn't give me even one qian, I'd still guard the frontier for those rations. So why should the court still pay me?"

Liu Shizi raised a hand and pointed at his own head. "Later, I figured it out. Even if the court didn't have that much money, it still had to pile every last bit of it into Liao Garrison. Why? Does anyone know why?"

The wounded soldiers were silent, until a bold Ningxia soldier said, "Liao Garrison is close to Beijing!"

Liu Chengzong remembered this Ningxia soldier — a Baoding man, formerly He Huchen's huobing. He raised a hand in appreciation and said, "Right, Liao Garrison is close to Beijing. But that's not the whole picture. Otherwise, why would the court dare short the pay of Ji Garrison?"

"Let me tell you."

A ruthless edge showed through Liu Chengzong's smile. "Because your Zhu family Emperor dares to short the Liao army's pay for three months, and by the fourth month, they'd dare go pay respects to the Great Khan of the eastern troops."

The wounded soldiers began to laugh, but Liu Chengzong cut them off. "This is not funny! The people of Liao — what difference is there between them and the common folk of Yulin, Xuanfu, and Datong? They've been fighting for over twenty years. The front line has retreated again and again. Their homeland fell to the enemy long ago."

"Those still fighting for the court on the front lines now — the veterans and old officers past thirty, how many of them were born in Shenyang? And their families? Their families were captured and kept by the enemy, while they themselves fight on the front. Even so, they haven't surrendered."

"They're all Han people. If there were any path to survival, who would willingly bow to a Great Khan?"

Talking about the Later Jin to soldiers of the Three Frontiers of Shaanxi didn't stir much feeling. But mention the Great Khan, and what came to their minds were the Northern Caitiffs. Instantly, national vengeance and family hatred surged into their heads.

Liu Chengzong was swept up by emotion too.

He had originally meant to analyze things very rationally with the wounded soldiers, but the more he spoke, the angrier he got.

Because even though he understood — understood perfectly how the massive pay arrears had come about, the whole sequence of events clear as day.

It was really just a gradual process. Starting from the three enormously costly campaigns of the Wanli era, military pay had already begun to fall behind, but it wasn't a big problem yet.

Later, the finances didn't improve; they only got worse. By the Tianqi era, they built the Three Great Halls. Anyway, the old leatherheads of the Nine Frontiers weren't kicking up a fuss, so they took a bit more.

When the eastern troubles grew more frequent and forts needed building, they shifted a bit more over.

Bit by bit, the border troops were like frogs in a pot. At first, they thought it was fine and didn't want to jump out. By the time they wanted to jump, they found the damn pot lid was welded shut.

Liu Chengzong knew very well how these things had happened, but he was still baffled.

He asked himself and answered: "Who gave this court such colossal nerve to dare withhold army pay? It was us. Every one of us border soldiers, living at dawn and dead by dusk, had a hand in it. We soldiers gave it to them ourselves!"

"Such things will not happen again. Because there is me, and there is you. You can lay your lives on the battlefield in bloody war against the Northern Caitiffs — can you use your lives to make them know the consequences of withholding military pay?"

"We can!"

The wounded soldiers, seething with righteous fury, applauded and roared. Crutch after crutch and fist after fist were raised to the sky. The people's rage echoed through the river-bend valley floor.

The shouts frightened Liu Laoye and Mister Yang into hurrying back from the mountain. They thought the wounded soldiers of Lion Camp were about to march to war.

The Han brothers bristled with fury. Fan Sanlang clutched her merit medal tightly, tears of fervor in her eyes, and jumped the most wildly — she was crying out against the injustice done to the dead Fan Sanlang.

Song Shouzhen, infected by the emotion, shouted along too. But after a few shouts, he noticed Ren Quan'er beside him was utterly unmoved, sitting upright at the edge of the camp — the very picture of supreme lucidity in a mad world.

He asked, "General Ren, you're a soldier too. Why no reaction?"

Ren Quan'er didn't know either. He scratched his face, equally puzzled.

He decided to stop thinking about it and simply said, "There ought to be a painter to capture this scene. Call it 'The General, the Commander, and the Troops.'"

Only after Liu Chengzong walked out of the wounded and sick camp did Ren Quan'er follow. He trailed behind for a long time before finally stammering awkwardly, "Commander, you, ah, how should I put this... could you issue me a pay?"

Liu Chengzong didn't think much of it, assuming Ren Quan'er was short on money, and laughed, "What's the matter, a chiliarch's salary not enough for you? How much do you want?"

"No, I have money, it's just, sigh."

Ren Quan'er paused, thinking and organizing his words for a good while before saying, "It's just seeing everyone else like that, I also want to know what receiving military pay feels like."

Liu Chengzong froze, then understood a moment later.

Ren Quan'er was different from the border troops. The border troops had their pay withheld; Ren Quan'er had simply never received military pay at all.

He had never had military pay. Military households lived well or poorly — those with large families, those who had earned merit in battle, and hereditary officers all lived quite well.

But someone like Ren Quan'er, who had no family and relied entirely on military farmlands for food, clothing, and all necessities, had no idea what it felt like to have pay withheld.

Compared to his own background and experience, even having pay withheld was a kind of happiness.

"Oh right, Commander, General Yang sent someone back. He couldn't find you, so he found me, then went back to report."

After Ren Quan'er finished, Liu Chengzong asked, "Commander Yang?"

"Yes."

Liu Chengzong smiled and asked, "How is he doing in Beijing? I read the gazette last month — it said he earned merit and received twenty taels of silver from the Emperor."

"He did earn merit, but his next assignment isn't known yet. He wants to return to Shaanxi, but Marshal Wu suggested Shanhai Pass keep him."

Ren Quan'er said with a solemn expression, "The court ordered him to recruit civilian laborers. Others recruit three to five hundred; Wang Ziyong recruited twenty thousand for him."

Twenty thousand?

Liu Chengzong was filled with emotion.

This was the benefit of working for the court. Pity he was stuck with a luckless court that failed at everything it attempted.

If only the court operated normally and people's hearts were normal, so that those who did proper work could be promoted — how pleasant would that be?

What was happiness?

Recruiting twenty thousand men without needing to worry about provisions and pay — that was happiness!

Liu Chengzong thought to himself, if I had enough grain to feed twenty thousand men for a year, I wouldn't need to do anything else. Today — today I'd raise troops and march on Yulin.

"With ability like that, why would he need to return to Shaanxi? Where in Shaanxi could even hold him?"

"Commander, this doesn't really count as merit." Ren Quan'er's expression was complicated. "I asked around. He recruited twenty thousand men for the court, established eight battalions — there are canal workers from the Luo Sect, followers of the Yellow Heaven Way, and also the Smelling Incense Sect."

Liu Chengzong's eyes widened the moment he heard this. What was all this?

The Luo Sect and the White Lotus Sect were neither orthodox Buddhist schools, yet they were the most influential sects in the world.

The Luo Sect was relatively moderate. Many Buddhists even regarded the Luo Sect as a Buddhist school. Now it mainly influenced the canal workers' community, functioning as a civilian mutual-aid society. Later, one of its branches formed the Green Gang.

Because the White Lotus Sect was officially designated a cult by the Great Ming, it had many offshoots. The Yellow Heaven Way and the Smelling Incense Sect were both its branches.

The Yellow Heaven Way had no connection to the Yellow Turban Rebellion of the Three Kingdoms era. Liu Chengzong was fairly clear on this, because the Yellow Heaven Way was founded by a border soldier from the Wanquan Regional Military Commission during the Jiajing period.

That border soldier was named Li Bin. After enlisting, he was stationed at Wild Fox Ridge. He was blinded in one eye by an arrow during battle. After leaving the military, he followed the Wuwei Sect — that is, the Luo Sect. 'The Vacuous True Homeland, the Unborn Parents' was the Wuwei Sect's eight-character true formula.

Later, Li Bin founded the Yellow Heaven Way. Because of his injured eye, he was called the Tiger-Eye Chan Master.

Since the Jiajing Emperor was a Daoist Sovereign, various sects proliferated across the land. The Yellow Heaven Way founded by the Tiger-Eye Chan Master was outwardly Buddhist and inwardly Daoist, and also incorporated some Confucian elements.

As for the Smelling Incense Sect, the sect didn't matter, nor did the faith. They used guided techniques to evade the court's pursuit of cults. They generally didn't hold large gatherings to preach — when they gathered, it was professionally to raise banners in revolt.

So if Yang Yanchang dared to bring him people like that, he would directly have Ren Quan'er place Yang Yanchang under house arrest until death.

Ren Quan'er said, "Wu Zimian saw something off about him and didn't want him returning to Shaanxi, but he sent someone with a very important piece of news. The court seems to intend to transfer the Guanning Army into the interior to suppress the rebellion."

Other news meant little to them, but this piece of news was highly significant.

"The Guanning Army entering the interior to suppress the rebellion?"

This was not what Liu Chengzong had imagined. He had always thought he would be dealing with a joint punitive expedition from two provinces. He never expected the court would prepare to transfer the Guanning Army, garrisoned beyond the passes, inside.

Liu Chengzong raised a hand and adjusted his headscarf. "Guanning, huh... This news is very important. I need to find the Guanning Army men under my command."

Lion Camp had Guanning veterans.

In truth, if Liu Shizi had been born earlier and enlisted earlier, he too could have gone to the Guanning defense line to make a name for himself.

Back in the Tianqi era, Sun Chengzong had transferred battle-hardened troops from the Nine Borders and various interior regions to reinforce the Guanning defense line.

These included the two garrisons of Shanxi, Xuanfu, and Datong, and the three garrisons of Shaanxi — Yansui, Guyuan, and Ningxia. They took the picked household retainers and elite soldiers of officers from the rank of Regional Commander down to Mobile Corps Commander.

The five garrisons of the Western Army contributed over ten thousand men, poured into the Guanning defense line.

Besides them, there were also the Sichuan Army, the Huguang native chieftain troops, the Zhejiang troops, and the Capital Garrison.

It was equivalent to an officer corps of over ten thousand men, recruiting new soldiers east of the capital to form an army.

Li Bei had gone to Guanning at that time.

So Lion Camp could not be said to be completely unfamiliar with the Guanning Army.

Precisely because they were not unfamiliar, Liu Chengzong was all the more cautious. Any unit transferred into the interior must have fought the Eastern Invaders and fought well, to be recalled.

If it were a unit that suffered repeated defeats in the east, there'd be no need to drag them all the way west.

Thinking this, Liu Chengzong suddenly laughed.

Ren Quan'er asked very cautiously, "Commander, why do you laugh?"

"I was just thinking, this Wang Ziyong — if he were transferred back to Shaanxi together with the Guanning Army, what kind of scene would that be?"

Could the Guanning Army's combat strength reach another level with a White Lotus Sect boost?

Joking aside, Liu Chengzong remained deeply wary inside. He said to Ren Quan'er, "Come, let's go find Chengyun."

Liu Chengzong did not fear the government troops of Shaanxi and Shanxi. He only worried about being surrounded, pincered, or encircled — situations where the government troops used superior numbers against his smaller force.

But the Guanning Army was a stronger enemy.

In weapons, armor, and military tactics, there was little difference. But those men received a monthly pay of one tael and four mace of silver — that made them very difficult to deal with.

Chengyun was in the supply camp checking material reserves. Seeing Liu Chengzong heading straight for him, he set down the work in his hands and asked, "Brother, what's wrong?"

"Commander Yang sent word — the court plans to transfer the Guanning Army to suppress the rebellion. I reckon they'll enter Shanxi first, then Shaanxi."

"Moving eastern troops west to quell a rebellion — no need to worry about local ties." Chengzong didn't know much about the Guanning Army, but he immediately put his finger on the crux of the matter. "Brother, just tell me what you need me to do."

"Send men to work Yan'an Prefecture. From Yanchuan southward, any common folk with surplus grain willing to relocate — bring them all to Lion's Bend to break new ground. For those unwilling to move, make sure they understand what it means when outside troops come to suppress a rebellion. We need to..."

Liu Chengzong raised a hand. "We need to make sure that when the government army enters Yan'an Prefecture, they won't find a single handful of flour. Empty the countryside."