Chapter 216: The Way of Heaven

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Old Jackal Li's backside cost Zhenyuan County Magistrate Xu Zongxian the best chance to lay down his life for the nation.

On the day of the assault, Lion Camp seized three sides of the wall and the southern parapet, and Zhenyuan County fell shortly after.

But Liu Chengzong did not let the main army enter the city. Instead, he sent Liu Chengzu's own troops in as the advance force to secure six street intersections, post proclamations to calm the populace, then immediately set up a gruel station east of the city, announced the city's fall to the countryside folk, and summoned starving commoners from inside and outside the city to eat.

Afterwards, the combined forces camped east and west of Zhenyuan, with only a small contingent entering the city. Liu Chengzong took up residence in the county yamen and issued a stream of orders.

First, recruit the city's physicians and purchase its medicines, then add them to the two casualty camps Cheng Yun had set up east of the city to treat wounded soldiers from both sides.

Next, recruit the city's craftsmen and their families, assigning them by trade into Shi Chengwo's Artisan Squad.

After that, offer amnesty to those in the city with some degree of education — government students, scholars, painters, and private tutors.

Their resistance was far greater than the previous groups, and the process was not gentle, because no one came forward willingly. Those who could hide, hid; those who could evade, evaded. In the end, every last one was caught and brought in.

In the yamen hall, Liu Chengzong asked Magistrate Xu Zongxian, "Why didn't you surrender?"

Magistrate Xu was a sorry sight. A cannonball fragment had first split his forehead, then Old Jackal Li's backside had tripped him, and on the wall he had knocked out half a tooth. Now his speech whistled as he said, "I, Xu, am a court-appointed official with a duty to defend this land. Now that the city has fallen, kill me if you will — no need for more words."

Liu Chengzong glanced at him, then turned to Zhou Riqiang, who had deliberately shed his official robes beside him, and asked, "Prefect Zhou, should I kill him or not?"

Zhou Riqiang's eyes went wide. Ten thousand exquisite hometown curses flashed through his mind. In the end, he sighed, clasped his hands, and said, "General Liu, defending the city was Magistrate Xu's duty. You cannot fault him for that!"

Liu Chengzong had no intention of killing anyone to begin with. Grinning, he said, "Fine, then I'll follow your advice."

Now it was Xu Zongxian and the government students in the hall whose eyes bulged. Xu Zongxian stretched out a hand. "You — Prefect Zhou — you've joined the bandits?"

"I have not, I did no such thing!" Zhou Riqiang denied flatly. "It was Grand Coordinator Yang who sent me to offer General Liu amnesty and recruitment."

Xu Zongxian said nothing. Offering amnesty all the way to attacking me in Zhenyuan City? Now I'm the prisoner, and you, Prefect Zhou, sit beside the bandit chief like his private secretary.

Liu Chengzong smiled and said nothing at all. He suspected that Zhou Riqiang now wished this magistrate would not live much longer.

Cheng Yun strode into the yamen hall and presented the casualty report, saying, "Brother, the wounded are taken care of. My men are now inventorying the county treasury and reserve granary supplies — it may take two shichen."

Liu Chengzong took the report and scanned it.

Old Jackal Li's unit had thirty-two killed in action; Feng Rang's squad, seven. The outright fatalities were nearly all from cannon fire. The extremely low death toll was matched by a great many light wounds.

The garrison had little will to fight and lacked combat skills. Once the wall was scaled, they dared not engage in close quarters.

Thus, almost all the light wounds came from being struck by fire arrows at a distance — nothing serious. The sole exception was an artilleryman hit by a fire arrow near the bridge of his nose; he likely could not be saved.

He set the report down and addressed the crowd in the hall: "The city has fallen. You are all prominent figures in the Zhenyuan region. I, Liu Chengzong, wish to do good — do not force me to do evil. Those willing to join me will be richly rewarded. Those unwilling — every man has his own ambitions, and that is no obstacle."

Having said this, Liu Chengzong shifted his posture and added, "But should anyone oppose me, do not blame me for slaughtering your entire family. What the Zhu emperor can do, I can do as well."

"And Magistrate Xu — the city you defended is breached. You committed no error, so I will not kill you. But the court's punishment of you will be anything but light. The court offers me amnesty, yet will punish you. The world is so unjust — why not join me?"

Xu Zongxian looked at Zhou Riqiang, then at Liu Chengzong, and sighed.

He was deeply lost.

In truth, when the city fell, he had meant to leap from the gate tower — only to be tripped by Old Jackal Li sticking his rear out.

Even after that, he had never considered surrender. When it truly came down to it — never mind whether he could accept it emotionally.

To put it bluntly in terms of pure self-interest: in Liaodong, along the border walls, even if you surrendered to the Eastern Slaves or the Northern Barbarians, at least they had territory. Even if you bore a traitor's name for all time, your family would be safe, and you yourself, for better or worse, would have some kind of future.

What sense did it make to throw in with roaming bandits?

Following them as they plundered east and west — the day the roaming bandits were finished, you would be finished right along with them.

Yet what Liu Chengzong had said also made him very angry.

The court truly had no way to punish Liu Chengzong, but it certainly had ways to punish him.

His official career was already a wreck to begin with — a seventh-rank county magistrate, he had been scheming just to land an eighth-rank prefectural clerk post. Now, with Zhenyuan City breached, any hope of promotion was utterly gone, and he might well end up in prison.

Under these circumstances, for the moment, there was no path forward and no path back for him.

Thanks to the warning Liu Chengzong had planted earlier, none of the government students behind him dared utter a word, terrified that someone else's troubles would implicate their own families.

So much so that Xu Zongxian found himself isolated in the yamen hall, surrounded by a crowd of people.

Seeing his hesitation, Liu Chengzong was inwardly delighted and pressed the advantage: "Should you join me, Master Xu, when I, Liu, carve out a foothold in the future, I will certainly entrust you with heavy responsibility."

Xu Zongxian looked at Liu Chengzong. That Liu Chengzong harbored the ambition to build a lasting domain eased his mind a little, but in his heart, he truly could not conceive of any way a roaming bandit could ever secure a domain.

So he clasped his hands and said, "General, allow me a little more time to think it over."

"Good!"

Liu Chengzong clapped his hands, greatly pleased, and pointed toward the rear. "Then Master Xu, please retire to the back hall and rest for now."

In the back hall was a professional persuasion team composed of Master Yang, his father, and others. As long as Xu Zongxian walked into that back hall, Liu Chengzong felt the matter was already more than half settled.

After Xu Zongxian departed, the resistance among the government students in the hall visibly weakened. Even the county magistrate was wavering — what were they still foolishly stiffening their necks for?

Several painters and storytellers surrendered in succession. Then a licentiate named Chen Yingxuan stepped forward from the crowd and asked, "General, do you intend to garrison Zhenyuan permanently?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "We will be stationed here for a time, but will move on soon. If you join me, bring your families when we leave. I guarantee you will not want for food or clothing."

Chen Yingxuan asked again, "Then, General, what did you mean when you said that if we do not join you, Zhenyuan will have no further use for us?"

"Does that even need asking? If you do not join me, I naturally have no need to consider your interests. The city has fallen. So many commoners outside lack food and clothing — the wealthy households within the city will naturally have to contribute more, to aid the poor and relieve the distressed."

Liu Chengzong's words were mild, but to his listeners' ears they seethed with murderous intent. "And what of provisions for my troops? Do the poor have any? The rich households here do."

At these words, the hall erupted in uproar.

Chen Yingxuan clasped his hands and said urgently, "I pray the General will see clearly — we are all good and decent people. We have always repaired bridges and roads and never wronged the common folk."

Liu Chengzong's expression shifted. "The world has always had rich and poor — that has nothing to do with good or evil. Among the poor there are scoundrels; among the rich there are good men. But when thousands upon thousands of the poor starve to death, you still think this has something to do with decency? You are a government student?"

"Yes, I am Chen Yingxuan, a government student of Zhenyuan."

Liu Chengzong raised a hand and pointed at them. "When we attacked the city, every one of you was on the wall, shooting arrows at my men. That was your decency toward the Zhu emperor. But no matter how decent you are, if you cannot be used by me, what is that to me?"

With that, he addressed the crowd: "When you walk out that door, in this city, for every male in a household, any wealth exceeding ten taels, grain stores exceeding ten dan, land exceeding fifty mu, shops exceeding one, or livestock exceeding one head — the surplus will be taken in full."

Liu Chengzong thought he had set the bar low enough, yet to his surprise, some in the hall still breathed sighs of relief.

This infuriated him, and he singled out those who had sighed. "The court has left you this wretchedly poor — what are you waiting for? Why not join me now?"

At that, one man gritted his teeth, steeled his heart to reckless courage, stepped forward, prostrated himself, and declared, "This student is Wu Panlong, a candidate of Zhenyuan. I have no surplus wealth at home, nor any family. I am willing to serve the Grand Commander."

Liu Chengzong rose and stepped forward to help him up, then picked out two soldiers and said, "You two go with Martial Candidate Wu. Go back and tidy up his house, then move everything into the county yamen. From today on, Wu Panlong is the Assistant Magistrate of Zhenyuan County."

Wu Panlong bowed again, rose, glanced once at the people in the hall, and walked out through the crowd with the Lion Camp soldiers.

After that, several more people knelt and offered their allegiance — all were unsuccessful candidates who had fallen on hard times.

Zhou Riqiang stood beside Liu Chengzong. Every time someone stepped forward, his expression soured a little more.

Inwardly, he burned with righteous indignation at the low political awareness of the court's local stipend students!

Zhou Riqiang already knew that Liu Chengzong had once been a licentiate himself and greatly cherished talent. Even if these stipend students did not join him, their lives would hardly be in danger — yet they still rushed to offer their allegiance one after another.

It made him itch to pull out a little notebook and record every one of these rebel-collaborators, so that later he could go back and tattle to Yang He!

There was, however, one licentiate who stepped forward, made a bow, and said, "Commander, this student has a household of seven, four hundred mu of fields outside the city, four small rooms inside the city, thirty dan of stored grain, no shops, and eight large livestock. When the city was being defended, I pretended to have diarrhea and dared not go — I never opposed you, Commander."

Having said this, the licentiate added, "If there's nothing else, I'll head back. When the soldiers come by, I'll donate a horse to you, Commander."

This fellow had accepted Liu Chengzong's arrangements with perfect ease.

Liu Chengzong had no way to deal with someone like that either, so he called over a soldier and told him, "Wait a moment. Have someone escort him home. The streets are still under martial law — don't let him wander around."

Zhou Riqiang's expression brightened. Yes, that was exactly how it should be — without desire, one stands firm!

Was joining a bandit gang some fine path to advancement? It meant tying your head to your belt. Once Cao Wenzhao arrived — slash, slash — he'd chop every last one of you down.

The others were not so comfortable, especially Chen Yingxuan. He seemed to have considerable family wealth, and he pressed further, "Commander, if I join you, when the army leaves I'll have to flee with it — my family fortune won't survive either way!"

Liu Chengzong set his brows and said, "You talk a lot. Even if you join me, any excess family wealth still has to be donated. The difference is, if you join me, you'll earn far more than this in the future. Join or don't — just stop all the chatter!"

Chen Yingxuan lowered his head. He figured he'd never make provincial graduate in this lifetime anyway. Gritting his teeth, he knelt and said, "This student Chen Yingxuan — truth be told, my family doesn't have much money, but I am very interested in taking from those who have too much to supplement those who have too little. I wish to offer my allegiance to you, Commander."

The Chief Clerk of Zhenyuan County now had a candidate.

In a brief span, the people in the hall either pledged allegiance or departed. In the end, those who stayed and those who left were split roughly half and half.

Those who stayed were led home by combat soldiers to fetch their families and bring them all to the magistrate's yamen. They took over the yamen's six offices and, under Chen Yingxuan's direction, began inventorying the city's wealthy households. Based on the wealth they knew of, they calculated whether, after equalization within the city, there would be a surplus of grain or a net loss.

Even Cui Cong, the Director of the Directorate of Astronomy whom Liu Chengzong had been thinking about constantly, surrendered — for much the same reason as Magistrate Xu Zongxian: fear of the punishment that would follow.

Of the two-thousand-some warhorses at Qingping Pasturage, Zhang Tianlin and Yang Yao had nearly cleaned them out, one striking from the west, the other from the east.

If one were to assign blame, Cui Cong's was far greater than Xu Zongxian's — which left him no room to choose.

Chen Yingxuan proposed an even better equalization plan to Liu Chengzong: "Commander, this city has many wealthy households, but also many poor. Land, coin, and grain are easy to equalize, but houses, livestock, and shops — I fear there are not enough such things in the city to equalize."

"Therefore I suggest, following what you said about confiscation, we equalize only coin and grain. Farmland will be distributed according to whether the commoners are rich or poor. Those without shops we leave alone. The surplus livestock we supply to the army. This way, our work will also be simpler."

Liu Chengzong thought it over, nodded, and said, "Then do as you suggest."

While these calculations were being tallied, results also came in from Chengzu's side — and the results were heartening.

The county treasury of this city held little silver, but grain — especially horse fodder — was truly abundant, filling two entire granaries.

Beyond that, the most significant find was gunpowder.

"Brother, the gunpowder in the city, after inventory, amounts to over eighteen thousand jin. And that's after that Director took thirty-five hundred jin to set landmines in the barbican, hoping to blow you sky-high once you entered the city."

As Chengzu reported this, he clapped his hands and grinned. "Luckily, the soldier stationed in the room by the city gate was a coward. When he saw Patrol Leader Feng's men charging down, his hand trembled and he lit the fuse."

As for those landmines, Liu Chengzong still felt a lingering fear.

The barbican's floor was paved with stone slabs. With that much gunpowder buried underneath, if the troops under Cui Cong had been just a bit more elite, he might have been blasted into the sky today.

He frowned. "Why does this city have so much gunpowder?"

"It was reserved for the Guyuan Garrison. But the garrison mutinied the year before last and had no troops left. They kept saying they'd ship the powder back, but Guyuan didn't have many soldiers, so it just stayed here."

That night, the officers of Lion Camp and Yu Camp — everyone from patrol leader and above — gathered in the yamen to review the gains and losses of the siege and discuss their next move.

Even Li Laochai, bedridden as he was, was carried over.

Liu Chengzong did not know whether to call Li Laochai's luck good or bad. Among all the wounded and fallen soldiers in this siege, not a single person had been hit by cannon fire twice.

Only Li Laochai — first struck in the leg by a shot, then struck again in the buttocks.

By all accounts, that was terribly bad luck. Yet the iron ball had only gouged a chunk of flesh from his leg, and the iron pellet had pierced through his buttock — all superficial flesh wounds.

His bones were completely fine. In two months of recovery, he'd be hopping around lively again — he wouldn't even end up a cripple like Liu Guoneng.

And on top of that, he had fought on despite his wounds and claimed the highest merit, including being the first to scale the walls of Zhenyuan and capturing two court-appointed officials — the county magistrate and the director of schools — alive.

This left Liu Chengzong too embarrassed to even scold him. He merely asked, "Why didn't you use the wooden mantlets?"

"I didn't know that thing was meant to be used that way, and my men didn't either. Aiyo, Commander, stop scolding me — I'll know to use them next time."

Their siege plan could have had even fewer casualties, but Li Laochai had dropped the ball on this one point.

Yet he had also been undeniably brave.

Seeing that he knew he was wrong, Liu Chengzong sighed and let the matter drop. Then he said, "We'll leave a detachment to garrison the county seat. The wounded will recover here in the city. Big Brother Dahe will stay. Any grain that's hard to transport will also be left in the city for now. The rest will come with me to Guyuan. No more sieges — we'll raid the horse pasturages north and south of Guyuan, then come back and wait for Cao Wenzhao!"