Chapter 204: Investigating Beauties

A beautiful woman sat among the banquet, and for the Qingyang Prefecture leaders, she triggered the catfish effect.

Han Chaojai and Tian Jin'an, the two of them, one sentence after another, faces animated and spittle flying, recounted their experiences of besieging cities and attacking forts, occasionally critiquing each other's art of war.

Just listening to their chat, you'd think they were gods descended from heaven.

Amidst their boasting, they kept stealing glances at Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue from the corners of their eyes.

Liu Chengzong was the exact opposite — he was very silent.

Fan Sanlang crept over on tiptoe and quietly advised, "Marshal, move your eyes away — you're making the two girls shy."

Liu Chengzong snapped back to attention and smiled, asking in a low voice, "What were you off doing?"

"Walking the horses. Red Flag needed water, and I helped Commander Dai settle her people into camp."

Liu the Lion said, "Come, come, sit down and watch together."

Fan Sanlang frowned at this. What kind of person was this — watching on his own wasn't enough, now he was dragging her into it too: "Do not look at what is improper."

This completely baffled Liu Chengzong.

He thought to himself, aren't those girls wearing clothes?

And wrapped up extremely thoroughly at that.

"Sit down, quick, sit down. I'm not as good-looking as you two, so if you look at each other, that evens things out." Liu Chengzong said seriously, "We can't take advantage of them for nothing."

Liu Chengzong was exceptionally bored.

To his left sat Han Chaojai, and beside Han Chaojai was Tian Jin'an; beside the two of them were Han Shipan and Han Shiyou, who were there to keep them company. These two chattered endlessly and from time to time would throw a remark his way.

The key problem was that what they talked about was incredibly boring — all sieges, battles, and the like. Liu Chengzong couldn't muster the slightest interest.

You two brothers are so impressive.

Qingyang Prefecture has one district and four counties, five cities in all — and so far you haven't taken a single one.

Of the ten post cities, only Song Village and Shao Village at Malan Mountain, and Pengyuan and Zhengping in Ning County — four horse-post stations — are gone. But of those four post cities, three fell because Yang Yao incited the post soldiers to defect during his western raid.

The remaining one, Zhengping Post, was due to the postmaster's mismanagement — he skimmed even more ruthlessly than the postmaster Wei Qian'er beat to death, driving the post soldiers to revolt.

So what exactly have you two brothers done?

Why call it "besieging cities and attacking forts" instead of "storming cities and seizing forts"? Because you didn't take them.

Fan Sanlang was dumbstruck, standing there blankly as Liu Chengzong pressed her down to sit beside him.

Hearing Liu the Lion praise her looks for the first time, and then looking at Bai Liuxi's little earrings and hair ornaments, Fan Sanlang felt utterly wronged inside.

She had always thought Liu the Lion treated her like a man — wouldn't let her sleep in a bed, threw her around on horseback and muleback, made her toss away anything that resembled an accessory.

Made her wear thirty jin every day and run all over the mountains, and hack with a saber hundreds of times… It was heartbreaking. Now you realize I'm a woman — but even the most beautiful person can't hold up under this kind of torment day after day!

Liu the Lion was just shaking his head in reflection. She had the height — over one meter eighty — but her weight was clearly still lacking. Otherwise, the number one heroine general under heaven would truly be a dream shining into reality.

He turned his head and saw Fan Sanlang steadying her emotions, so he asked, "What's wrong?"

Fan Sanlang shook her head and said quietly, "If you like them, just keep them here."

"What do you think of her people?"

"Commander Dai said…" Fan Sanlang struggled to describe Bai Liuxi's followers and borrowed Dai Daozi's words: "A pond of horse soldiers wouldn't have great odds of beating them."

This statement was actually a bit complicated for Fan Sanlang — she didn't understand it — so she added another line: "Commander Dai is probably being a bit arrogant. There are seven or eight hundred of them, after all."

Liu Chengzong shook his head. He now had a clear measure of Bai Liuxi's people and said, "Then we can't keep them."

Even if Liu the Lion somewhat overestimated the martial skill of Bai Liuxi and the others — after all, Han Chaojai hadn't made it clear whether it was performance spearplay, and he had assumed it was Shaolin spearplay.

But that didn't change the fact that Dai Daozi's assessment of their followers' combat effectiveness was extremely low.

The subtext of that assessment was: they had received no military training.

To put it plainly, martial skill varies in strength. If Bai Liuxi were a master of the spear, or a master of fist and footwork, and Liu the Lion took off his armor and used fists or the same weapon, it was indeed possible he couldn't beat them.

There was even a sliver of a chance he'd get beaten so badly he'd be picking his teeth up off the ground.

But that didn't stop Liu Chengzong from thinking that a dozen or so skilled fighters leading six or seven hundred common folk who'd turned bandit out of hunger — he could probably, by himself, ride and shoot from both flanks and scare them into trampling each other as they fled the arrows.

He could do it, Dai Daozi could do it, a pond of horse soldiers could do it even more. Whether it could be done had more to do with courage and intelligence than with martial skill.

Cao Yao sat down on the other side. He was an old fox — noticing Liu Chengzong staring at Bai Liuxi and her companion the whole time, he grinned, cupped his hands from afar, left the tent, and before long returned with Sister-in-law Cao.

Once Sister-in-law Cao sat down beside the two of them, Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue were far less awkward, and the three women began chatting.

Only then did Liu Chengzong stop looking in that direction and focus on talking with Fan Sanlang.

"Why can't we keep them? They're beautiful — keep them by your side so you can gaze at them every day." Fan Sanlang was intensely curious. "Don't they say, marry a wife for virtue, take a concubine for looks? I've never heard of seeking one out for her fighting ability."

Fan Sanlang had been speaking quietly the whole time, but this remark made Liu Chengzong burst out laughing: "Where's your mind going? I'm not thinking of taking a wife."

Fan Sanlang said with a grin, "Not thinking of taking a wife, yet you kept staring at them."

Liu the Lion said, as if it were the most natural thing in the world, "Is it not normal to be stirred by beauty?"

The man in his mind was stirred by beauty who knew how many times a day, but it always arose from emotion and stopped at propriety.

Liu the Lion had no desire to take a wife. The Great Learning speaks of self-cultivation — one must investigate things and extend knowledge in order to make the will sincere and the heart correct. If you've never seen a few beauties, how can you know what you truly want?

Only when stirred by beauty do you want to understand, and only then can you know whether it's what you want.

Is Master Yangming only permitted to investigate bamboo, while I, Lion Marshal, am not allowed to investigate beauties?

"Not… normal?"

Seeing his utterly matter-of-fact expression, the words on the tip of Fan Sanlang's tongue suddenly lost their confidence.

She didn't really understand the minds of men either.

Anyway, she had discovered that Liu Chengzong was different from others. She had always thought that when seeing a beauty, looking secretly or simply not looking at all was normal.

She never expected that after hearing Liu Chengzong's explanation, she'd be left in a daze, feeling that maybe looking openly and frankly was actually normal.

She was convinced by Liu Chengzong's twisted logic, so she started looking too, nodding as she looked: "They really are beauties!"

But she still felt Liu the Lion placed too much importance on combat strength. She said, "I think we can keep them. Let them move together with the unit. There are many women in the ranks — they can help with a lot of things."

"I'm so tired every day I can barely keep my eyes open washing clothes — I'm a soldier and a servant girl at the same time. Find some women specifically to do the laundry and tidying up."

Hey, you know, the little guy actually has a point.

When Liu Chengzong was wounded a while back, blood would always seep from his sleeve and stain his clothes.

Those clothes were all washed by Fan Sanlang, who was so exhausted every day she could barely keep her eyes open — several times she nearly toppled headfirst into the washbasin.

The baggage train had a few women, but they couldn't possibly finish all the work for Lion Camp.

Actually, having women in the ranks was a perfectly normal thing for every faction leader.

In some men's forces, women even made up a third of the troops.

But Liu Chengzong was deeply resistant to this. He always remembered that stretch of road after he and Battalion Commander Wu had killed themselves, when Zhang Xiong chased and harried them.

Back then, the ranks were all famine refugees. Those running at the rear were either the old or the women. They hadn't yet endured many days of hunger or much hardship — they were still ordinary people. The most capable fighters were always at the very back, covering the retreat time and again.

Many who weren't so capable, or whose luck ran out, died on the road, killed by the Yan'an Garrison banner troops.

So deep down, he always felt that women and the old were burdens — that their lack of ability would get others killed.

Even when Fan Sanlang joined, he wouldn't let her sleep in a bed, just so she could drill this skill of fleeing day and night without rest.

But it proved remarkably effective.

Now Fan Sanlang still couldn't manage to wear heavy armor for long, so wherever she went, she kept her mail shirt on, letting her body grow accustomed to the weight.

After several months, she was already doing very well, and she could sleep in the saddle as adeptly as a veteran — she'd never tumble off again.

She was looking more and more like a soldier.

Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue, though, looked like they had some real skill and wouldn't become burdens. But they were leaders too, with several hundred people behind them depending on them for food.

Those people were the burden.

He couldn't keep them. Whether it was telling others to disband their forces the moment they met, or recklessly squandering the spoils Lion Camp's entire army had bled for — either would make him feel like a piece of scum.

Liu Chengzong wasn't the only one feeling bored. Lion Camp's sentry chiefs were all chatting among themselves, except for one Li Laochai, who couldn't stand Tian Jin'an's boasting.

He said, "Chief Tian, if you're so formidable, why not take Heshui County seat? It's lying right across the way. If we don't take that town, even if we had grain, there'd be no way to haul it west!"

What had started as Li Laochai's needling remark was picked up by Yang Yao, who said, "Heshui Town is indeed a problem. It guards the nearest main road to Qingyang Prefectural City. The town wall is three li around, built against the northern mountain. There's a beacon tower on the mountain — once the beacon is lit, Qingyang Prefectural City and Qingyang Garrison forty li away will know."

"East of town, the north-south Beichuan River and the east-west Dongchuan River converge into the Heshui River flowing west. The only crossing is a single stone bridge over the river outside the eastern pass."

The moment he heard carts couldn't get through, Cao Yao grew frantic: "If we can't get through, what about my cannons?"

Yang Yao added, "Small carts can cross, large ones can't. Before I entered Qingyang, the Grand Commander ordered us not to harm the common people. I was afraid that if I tried to seize the town, the magistrate would rally the people to defend it to the death, so I left this town alone. I thought we were heading back to Yan'an."

Liu Chengzong found this amusing. Large carts couldn't cross, and grain carts carrying a thousand jin couldn't either. No grain left, and he was still worrying about cannons?

The Heshui County seat blocking their path had to be broken. It was just that these local bosses of Qingyang Prefecture probably wouldn't be of much use.

He turned to Tian Jin'an and asked, "Chief Tian, you're stationed in these mountains year-round — how many garrison troops does Heshui County seat have?"

"The garrison is just the three-bureau runners, town guards, post station soldiers, and the gentry's militia. Altogether a bit over five hundred men. But with high walls and deep ramparts, and sitting at the confluence of two rivers, it's truly easy to defend and hard to attack."

Liu Chengzong could tell this town wouldn't be easy to deal with. Wanting to avoid casualties among his own men, he extended a hand and said, "A thousand dan of grain. Find a way to break it."

Tian Jin'an's face showed difficulty.

A thousand dan of grain was no small temptation to him.

But after thinking it over and over, he simply clasped his hands and begged off: "Grand Commander, I'll be honest. I only have six hundred men under me."

"We tried encircling it once a while back. That magistrate, Jiang Yingchang, is already on guard. We couldn't take it."

Liu the Lion grinned. This fellow couldn't even draw ghost payroll from the imperial court, and now he wanted to draw ghost payroll from the rebels?

He turned to the others. "Is there any chief willing to break this town?"

No one spoke. Just from Yang Yao and Tian Jin'an's description of the place, everyone knew Heshui Town wouldn't be easy to take. It had walls and a moat, mountains to the north, a river valley to the south — a frontal assault would cost who knew how many lives.

Might even be that once all the men were dead, there'd be no grain pressure left to worry about.

Seeing no one speak, Liu Chengzong smiled and said, "Then it seems this town will have to be mine. So it shall be. As for the matter of insufficient provisions that you chiefs have raised, I have a proposal."

At this, Han Chaozao, Tian Jin'an, and the men sent by the Liu brothers from the north all seemed to shrink a little in bearing.

When it came to field battles, with enough mutual courage they might even dare fight the border troops. But attacking a walled town truly wasn't something courage alone could accomplish.

Yet they'd all been quite eager when asking for grain; now that work was needed, none spoke up. Every one of them had lost the face to ask for grain.

"You chiefs all have plenty of hands under you. I have a small favor to ask of you all. I'm short on shoes and socks. Help me get some shoes and socks, and also oiled rain capes and bamboo hats."

The several chiefs felt extremely stifled.

This was too insulting — wasn't he just treating them like petty peddlers!

"Don't be hasty. I mean nothing else by it. The quantity I need is enormous. I can't buy them myself, which is why I need you chiefs' help."

Liu Chengzong waved a hand and said, "Thick-soled cloth shoes, white lined cloth socks — I want ten thousand pairs."

He truly meant no insult. His men went through shoes far too fast. Especially during that earlier battle with He Huchen on the mountain paths in the rain — every step in the mud sucked a footprint so deep you couldn't pull free, and many men lost their shoes entirely.

And they'd also recruited He Huchen's Ningxia soldiers — a whole bunch of them were barefoot too.

Besides, on long marches, cloth soles didn't hold up well to wear. Many under his command were now wearing straw sandals, and some whose feet were rubbed raw simply went barefoot.

Shoes were the most critically scarce piece of military supply in Lion Camp.

"Whether you buy them or make them, as long as you bring me cloth shoes and cloth socks — that counts as one set, and I'll give six jin of millet flour."

The displeasure on the chiefs' faces lessened.

Han Chaozao asked, "Grand Commander, what about worn shoes?"

Liu Chengzong hadn't expected anyone to raise that question. He paused, then nodded. "Worn ones, as long as they're not ruined — four jin. But don't you go robbing common folk of their shoes. 'Shoe-snatching scoundrels' would sound far too awful."

Everyone burst out laughing.

Han Chaozao was a bit embarrassed. What he'd had in mind was going back and having his men take off all their shoes, then go barefoot from now on.

Bai Liuxi especially was overjoyed; both she and Yun Jiaoyue wore looks of excitement.

This was right up their alley.

And the price was extremely high. Even if they sold the grain Liu Chengzong gave them and went directly to the villages to buy shoes, they could trade for quite a lot.

Right after, they heard Liu Chengzong continue: "Ten thousand pairs of thick padded cotton shoes and cotton boots — twenty jin of millet flour per pair. Leather boots too, ten thousand pairs — sheepskin, cowhide, I don't care what leather, same twenty jin of millet flour."

"Also, ten thousand sets of wide-brimmed hats and oilskin raincoats, and ten jin of yellow flour." Liu Chengzong finished speaking, looked at everyone's reactions, and smiled. "As long as you deliver the goods, no problem — just weigh out the grain and take it back. Absolutely no skimming."

After saying this, his tone shifted as he continued: "The price I'm offering is very fair. Even if you went out and bought the goods, you'd still make a profit. If I find out anyone has gone to rob shoes instead, don't blame me for turning hostile and refusing to recognize you."

Just as the several leaders were all pleased to have a grain-for-goods livelihood, Bai Liuxi, seated at the very last place, cupped her hands in salute and asked: "Great Marshal, if my sisters and I infiltrate Heshui County town to act as inside agents, how much grain can we be rewarded when the city falls?"

Source of "The Stubborn Bandits":