Chapter 21: Making Arrangements

What are your plans?

The two brothers sat to the side. The elder, Chengzu, shook his head first. "To answer Father, at first we just wanted to come home, eat a few full meals, then think about the rest. On the road, we fought a band of thieves at Qingjian and seized a great deal of grain, fodder, and valuables. Now we don't quite know what to plan."

Their mother's surname was Cai, given name Miaoshan. Her maiden family were simple, honest folk of modest means in Sanyuan County. Her father was a Buddhist devotee, so he gave Chengzong's mother this name.

She had thought the father and sons would be discussing matters in the hall, so Lady Cai was about to go tidy up the rooms for the two boys. Suddenly hearing this, she couldn't help but cry out, "You fought bandits!"

She hurriedly turned back, looking them over left and right, and only when she was certain neither son was injured did she let out a long breath, clutching her chest. "Don't ever cross blades with those desperadoes again. Listen to your mother. You're no longer border soldiers, so come back and live a good, steady life. Our family isn't short those two bowls of rice."

"Tomorrow morning, have your eldest cousin take you both to the Guandi Temple to pay your respects. Coming and going amid swords and spears — you must properly thank Lord Guan for his protection!"

"It's fine, Mother. It wasn't dangerous."

Liu Chengzong smiled as he comforted her. He meant it from the heart. After so many years of martial training, he had actually drawn bow and blade against men in real combat only a handful of times. It was just that his mother, with her limited experience, imagined border troops fought battles every day... Where in the world were there so many battles for them to fight?

As for exterminating the White Hawk bandits, they had been far easier to deal with than the Ordos Mongols they'd encounter on routine burn-off operations beyond the border wall.

Chengzu was even more direct. He said bluntly to his mother, "Mother, set your mind at ease. Those petty bandits couldn't withstand a single blow."

With that, he cupped his fists toward Liu Xiangyu. "Father, tomorrow I'll have the border troops hide their armor. Are there any unclaimed fields in the village? It would give them something to do."

Lady Cai, seeing she couldn't dissuade her sons, sighed sadly. In truth, she knew full well that in chaotic times, only martial strength could protect the clan. But in the end, her heart feared the risks her two sons took by wielding blades and spears.

For now, she didn't press the argument and went out to tidy the rooms.

Just as Lady Cai left, Chengyun also rose with an apologetic smile. "Second Uncle, you all keep talking. I'll go chop fodder for my brothers' horses so they won't have to get up again in the night."

With that, before anyone could stop him, he opened the door and slipped out himself, leaving Liu Xiangyu beneath the landscape painting chuckling in spite of himself. He shook his head helplessly. "That child runs around everywhere with the bookkeeper. I don't know where he picked it up, but he uses all that skill at reading people's expressions on his own family."

Before Liu Chengzong could press for details about Chengyun's recent situation, Liu Xiangyu was already smiling. "Last year, when the new Emperor ascended the throne and granted a general amnesty, Litigator Wang from the prefectural seat came seeking a marriage alliance. He originally wanted to arrange a match with your eldest brother, but since you two were at Fish River Fort, it was arranged for Chengyun instead. Count it as double happiness."

"'Tobacco shreds' — you know of them, right? The Gansu border troops are fond of them. I reckon the border troops where you were like them too. Chengyun went to the prefectural seat specially to bring you two some tobacco shreds, fine sun-cured shreds cut in Jingyang."

A complex sorrow flickered in Liu Xiangyu's eyes. He sighed, then forced the corners of his mouth upward. "I prepared silver for bribes at every level and twenty dan of broomcorn millet, intending to settle the matter of Shishi's military commission."

Chengzu and Chengzong exchanged glances, reaping a double dose of shock.

With twenty dan of grain, why buy a military commission at all!

Broomcorn millet wasn't as valuable as rice, but it was still grain — grain — and at this moment in Shaanxi, it was precious beyond measure. Its value could no longer be reckoned in silver.

Take it to the prosperous markets of Yan'an Prefecture, and a dou of grain priced at three qian of silver would have buyers but no sellers. Take it to the impoverished, dilapidated Fish River Fort, and no matter the price you called, it was useless — they hadn't been paid for years, and silver didn't circulate there at all.

At most — at the very most — people would come in droves shoving their wives and daughters at you. Hey! This fool's so flush he's selling grain — his wife and children are bound to get a mouthful of broth if they follow him.

But this stuff couldn't buy a very high post, even a military one.

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "Father, our Squad Leader Gao borrowed three dou of rice and had the nerve to come knocking, wanting to buy back the wife he sold the year before last... Twenty dan of broomcorn millet, to get me a squad leader or company commander post? It's a good thing Commandant He mustered me out."

It clearly wasn't worth it. He knew all too well: military posts in the border forces weren't worth much these days. Even when no one had enough to eat, the border army was still divided into ranks. Those battle-hardened, starving veterans with years of complete training, ample experience, and strong combat ability were all kept as trusted men in the officers' hands.

What you could get through connections was either a bare-stick officer with no troops, or, like Liu Chengzu last year, a company commander commission to train refugees.

Actually, the latter wasn't bad. Hadn't Liu Chengzu trained his company of men rather well? But the situation this year left no chance to drill troops again. Even if you managed to get a company commander post, you'd be rushed in unprepared, and once on the battlefield, you'd be dead.

"Foolish talk. That's an official rank!"

With a slap, Liu Xiangyu's hand struck the tea table, making the pipe bowl jump. He glared. "The clansmen at Black Dragon King Temple Mountain can still eat their fill because I and your Third Grandfather led them to dig an irrigation canal for four months last year!"

"If your father held no scholarly rank, what would make young and old alike follow me to dig a canal? What would make them set aside fine grain and plant millet instead?"

"The worst hasn't come yet. Panlong Creek is so shallow there's barely a foot of water left. And after extreme drought comes locusts — we won't make it through the summer."

Liu Xiangyu's voice had flared with anger only in those first two sentences, then dropped low. At the end, speaking of the locust plague he felt certain was coming, his tone betrayed deep exhaustion. "No matter how fast the world changes, men's hearts always lag a step behind. The common people recognize official rank."

But even if the common people recognized official rank, saying all this was useless now. Liu Xiangyu's words stopped abruptly. He clutched that pipe but couldn't bear to take a single draw, only gently tapping the small brass bowl against the cloth cap on his head.

In Liu Chengzong's eyes, his father was a man of wide learning — not like the two brothers, who had been trained with the narrow purpose of passing the civil exams and had read only the Four Books, Five Classics, and exam-related texts. Father read everything, studied everything, had held various posts, and there was almost nothing in the world he didn't understand.

Yet now, beneath his father's weary face, he saw the palest sense of helplessness.

That helplessness came from having dug an irrigation canal but being unable to stop the river from drying up, from having organized and trained militiamen but being unable to control the course of events — planting millet and panicled millet this new year meant no defense against locusts; planting peas, sesame, or flax meant no drought resistance.

What was the point?

Liu Chengzu, whose heart yearned for order, leaned his broad back against the chair as if a piece of his soul had been ripped from his spine. He asked, "Why doesn't the court provide disaster relief?"

"The court?"

His father's only answer was a resolute shake of the head. "Northern Shaanxi is already in chaos. The county magistrate does not know his county, does not know the extent of the disaster for dozens of li around. The prefect does not know his prefecture, does not know the scale of the disaster for hundreds of li around."

"As for the court... it does not know."

Liu Chengzong looked at his father. The old Provincial Graduate had spoken those words — 'it does not know' — with his eyes closed.

He guessed it wasn't that his father didn't know, but that he was uncertain or unwilling to say.

Never mind his father with his Provincial Graduate status — even he, a lowly border soldier, knew what the court had been busy with these past two years: purging the eunuch faction.

Factional strife, in his eyes, was a muddled account, because 'faction' meant a clique of partisans, not a political party. There was no party membership application, so it became a label anyone could slap on at will.

Whether Donglin, Zhe, Qi, Chu, Xuan, Kun, or the so-called eunuch faction, a huge portion of their members overlapped.

At least from what Liu Chengzong had seen and heard as a border soldier, the border troops all said that during the brief period of 'the worthy filling the court' in the early Tianqi years, the Yansui Garrison border troops had indeed received their pay.

But that was unlikely to ever happen again. Eunuch Wei gained power, and the capable men of the Donglin faction were basically wiped out clean. Whether the Nine Thousand Years could collect taxes from the southeast, he didn't know. But he knew with absolute clarity that from that year on, the Yansui Garrison border troops had resumed unpaid wages.

And now, the reigning Son of Heaven had dealt with Eunuch Wei, once again implicating hundreds of officials. Anyone who had praised Wei Zhongxian, even with a single sentence, was finished. Anyone who had cursed Wei Zhongxian, even with a single sentence, could be promoted.

Factional strife — the terrifying thing was not the strife itself.

Mutual backstabbing and court chaos were terrible, but for a vast empire with a huge population like the Great Ming, they were by no means the most terrible thing.

Looking across the empire, the talented men of the Donglin faction being completely wiped out in the factional struggle couldn't truly break its bones. But after the talented Donglin men were completely wiped out, when the talented scholars of the eunuch faction — formed from the Zhe, Qi, Chu, Xuan, and Kun factions — were wiped out clean in turn, that was terrifying.

In such a short time, where could you go to find so many reserve talents for the empire again?

Especially when this empire had changed four emperors and ten Senior Grand Secretaries in seven years. A company that changes its chairman twice in a row is enough to leave everyone above and below in a state of panic.

Never mind a mere drought in Shaanxi — even if the whole nation were in drought, the court wouldn't have the attention to spare.

He was extremely pessimistic about how events would unfold. The pessimism came not only from memories of another time and space, but even more from the result when reality matched the final verdict in those memories — there was no saving it.

"Father, you should leave."

Liu Chengzong's words came out of nowhere, but his voice was fast and his tone urgent. "A Provincial Graduate can go anywhere. Take Mother and Eldest Brother. One month — twenty dan of broomcorn millet can be exchanged in Yan'an for a hundred taels of travel funds. Even a bit less would do."

"Go to Jiangnan. Go to the Southern Seas."

The old juren snorted, fixed his gaze on his youngest son, and after a long pause suddenly smiled, saying softly, "The whole clan, five or six hundred souls, all depend on your father... I'm not going anywhere."