Chapter 289: Time Is on My Side

Liu Chengzong was sizing up Zhang Yuanheng, and Zhang Yuanheng was also secretly observing Liu Chengzong.

Lion Liu was very young, but a man's name is like a tree's shadow — the three characters Liu Chengzong were a unique, gilded signboard among the old-generation rebels of northern Shaanxi.

After all, in our Great Ming, many people rebel, but those who rebel to the point of expanding the Great Ming Empire's map with new frontiers are very few.

Zhang Yuanheng had spent only twenty-two days traveling from Beijing to Xining, but traversing the Xikang Road had taken him a full twenty-six days.

Part of the reason was admittedly the somewhat poor road quality, but the sheer size of the territory Liu Chengzong controlled far exceeded Zhang Yuanheng's estimates; he believed Liu Chengzong ruled at least six hundred thousand people, and could not help feeling troubled by the Great Ming Empire's future troubles both at home and abroad.

What did six hundred thousand people mean?

More than half of the Later Jin.

Not the three Jurchen tribes, but over half of that rising regime formed by the Jianzhou, Haixi, and Wild Men tribes together with Han, Mongol, and Korean peoples.

And they too had a corridor, the Hehuang Valley. Zhang Yuanheng believed Liu Chengzong's next military move would be to sever the link between Lanzhou and Gansu, further annex Gansu Garrison, and seize all the land northwest of the Yellow River, which would pose a threat to the court no less than the Later Jin did in Liaodong.

Most critically, the Later Jin rose beyond the passes, so fighting their way inside faced great resistance; Liu Chengzong, however, rose in Shaanxi — staying here meant great resistance for him, but fighting his way back into Shaanxi would be easy, with all those fellow provincials, rebels and non-rebels alike, craning their necks in anticipation.

Such things did not bear thinking about; just considering them made Zhang Yuanheng shudder with fear.

Zhou Riqiang was busy greeting Liu Chengzong, cheerfully complaining about the exhausting journey by cart and horse. Seeing him like this struck Liu Chengzong as novel, and he said with a smile, "I know the road is very hard going, yet you're so happy — it seems the Vice Prefect has encountered some good fortune."

Zhou Riqiang's face was full of delight. He looked toward Zhang Yuanheng and said, "All thanks to Eunuch Zhang. You may not know, Marshal, but he is my fellow townsman, also from Baoding Prefecture. When he returns, he will use his Embroidered-Uniform Braves to bring my family to Xining."

In that instant, Liu Chengzong's smile paused slightly, then he continued smiling and said, "Bringing your family to the northwest — not planning to go back, then?"

He had caught the implication: Zhou Riqiang did not know his intentions and was using these words to save Zhang Yuanheng's life.

Zhou Riqiang had seen him freeze for that brief moment, but his expression remained unchanged. He turned his head, waved a hand, and laughed, "Ah, we'll talk about going back when the time comes. My family is so far away, I miss them dearly in my heart!"

Old Lord Zhou thought to himself: Now that we've already carved out such a vast territory, if I don't bring my family here, the day you suddenly presume to call yourself King Biang and raise a hundred thousand horse and foot soldiers to launch an eastern campaign, the court may not be able to kill you, but could they not kill my family in Baoding Prefecture?

Zhang Yuanheng caught the implication too. He glanced secretly at Zhou Riqiang, his heart full of gratitude.

Then he heard Liu Chengzong say to him, "I heard in Kangning Prefecture that Old Lord Zhang is a man of outstanding talent, and since you have the idea of working together, that makes us family. Don't stand — please, sit."

In this era, minor eunuch functionaries under a great eunuch, without a specific official rank, were generally called "Eunuch," while the major figures were called "Grand Supervisors," drawing on the meaning of their duties in oversight and army supervision.

But Liu Chengzong felt that calling them Grand Supervisor seemed fawning and unbefitting his own status, while calling them Eunuch felt awkward, so he used Old Lord instead, sidestepping the eunuch identity and granting them respect.

"This humble one thanks the Gr-, the Grand Marshal."

Zhang Yuanheng hurriedly clasped his fists, nearly blurting out "Great King" by slip of the tongue. He waited until Zhou Riqiang sat down before slowly seating himself opposite, not daring to sit fully, his heart still tense with fear. Imitating Zhou Riqiang's form of address, he asked, "For what matter has the Marshal summoned this humble one?"

"No need to be so formal. I simply heard that the court had dispatched Old Lord Zhang to Xining. Being in Kangning myself, I could not welcome you from afar, so I had to invite Old Lord Zhang here for a chat."

Liu Chengzong smiled easily and asked with keen interest, "What official post did Old Lord Zhang hold in the palace before?"

He wanted to know exactly why Zhang Yuanheng had come to Xining — mainly, he wanted to know if he had offended Cao Huachun, if someone in the palace wanted him dead.

He needed to determine two things from this: first, what the court intended by sending a eunuch; second, whether this man could be used by him.

He never expected that Zhang Yuanheng's face would show a very complicated expression, tinged with grievance and shame, as he said, "This humble one dares not deceive the Marshal. This humble one has never entered the palace."

Liu Chengzong expressed understanding. At this moment, he still had not realized that the man sitting before him was a colossal unlucky wretch. He nodded and said, "I see. Then in which prince's estate did Old Lord Zhang serve?"

Zhang Yuanheng said, "This humble one has never entered a prince's estate either... I heard that the Marshal took the licentiate exam in his youth?"

Oh ho, now he's asking me questions!

Liu Chengzong laughed, wondering if he had been acting too friendly. But he did not change his expression — he was very sympathetic toward eunuchs — and nodded, saying, "Not exactly my youth, but I did take the licentiate exam."

"I was also a government student."

Liu Chengzong was dumbfounded at these words. "Then, then how...?"

The little eunuch before him had no trace of a government student's bearing. Normally, scholars all had some pride of their own, but Liu Chengzong saw not the slightest arrogance in him; the impression he gave was that of a lowly eunuch.

He said, "Tell me about it."

Zhang Yuanheng originally had no desire to pour out his experiences, but since Liu Chengzong asked, he dared not refuse, and so briefly recounted his story.

The expressions on Liu Chengzong's and Zhou Riqiang's faces became very complicated.

Zhang Yuanheng's story was filled with sorrow, the result of both natural disasters and man-made calamities, as well as his own personal choices.

For a moment, people did not know how to describe it. Unlucky? He was indeed very unlucky, but that misfortune was almost fated and unavoidable.

A good family background gave him knowledge and vision surpassing others, but natural disasters and family misfortunes cost him the chance to rise further, leaving him stranded in a middling position. Entering the palace to become a eunuch became a shortcut to power and wealth under his actual circumstances.

Shortcuts carry risks. People only want to hear about those who succeeded, seeking wealth amid danger; those who bore the risks but gained no reward mostly remain unknown.

Zhang Yuanheng's expression was as usual. He smiled obsequiously and said, "Before coming to Xining, I was mainly carrying bricks to repair city walls at Songpan Guard."

Liu Chengzong nodded. He was basically certain now that the court had sent Zhang Yuanheng to Xining with ill intentions.

This bird of a man was probably the court's humanoid weapon. In ten years, he had been present for two great earthquakes, one in the northeast and one in the southwest. Sending him to Xining was, without a doubt, meant to jinx him to death.

But Liu Chengzong had a method to avert such things. He looked at Zhang Yuanheng for a long moment and said, "You go to Songpan Guard."

"Huh?"

Zhang Yuanheng was stunned by Liu Chengzong's words. Earlier he had been all amiable, and now suddenly he was going to banish me again. Who the hell did I ever offend?

Liu Chengzong said, "The court sent you to Xining to supervise the tea-horse trade. How many horses do they require you to deliver each year?"

Four hundred.

Zhang Yuanheng thought to himself. The court had expectations about this; they knew they could not get many horses from Xining, so four hundred warhorses would satisfy them.

But Zhang Yuanheng could not say it like that. If he came right out and told Liu Chengzong the court wanted four hundred horses, Liu Chengzong might only give him two hundred.

"I don't know. The Grand Supervisor garrisoning Shaanxi told me to act with a free hand and absolutely procure warhorses for the court."

"Act with a free hand — what colossal gall." Liu Chengzong chuckled. "That means the Shaanxi garrison Grand Supervisor never intended for you to get any horses at all."

Zhang Yuanheng was stunned by these words and hurriedly defended himself: "Marshal, that is not what the court meant!"

"What the court means is not important. I heard you say just now that you have no family left in Baoding Prefecture, only a younger sister who has already married off. You could be considered free and unencumbered."

Liu Chengzong waved his hand. He did not care what the court intended by sending Zhang Yuanheng here. Anyway, now that the man was here, he had to listen to him. "You have only this one chance, coming to Xining. If you fail to seize it, you will never in this lifetime be able to put your talents to use or earn glory and riches."

He raised a finger and smiled. "But think about it — even if you fulfill the court's orders, what will you get? Enter the palace, become a eunuch, live one day at a time... Is that the sum of your life's ambition?"

Being a eunuch in the late Ming, in Lion Liu's eyes, truly was a job of living one day at a time.

If you became a great eunuch who deeply won the emperor's favor, you'd live a dozen or so years and then perish along with this dynasty; if you failed to become a great eunuch and remained a minor functionary, you might well die even earlier than the Chongzhen Emperor.

Liu Chengzong wore a smile, his tone brisk: "Do you know what the situation in the northwest is right now?"

Zhang Yuanheng thought it over carefully, then looked at Liu Chengzong with caution and said, "The imperial court dares not speak of war in the northwest — all because of you, Grand Marshal."

He absolutely dared not voice his private guess that Liu Chengzong intended to attack Lanzhou.

Liu Chengzong burst out laughing at that, waving his hand. "I'm not so arrogant as to think that. The court isn't refusing to fight me because of me — my handful of troops don't count for much. The court doesn't want to fight because it doesn't want to make more trouble for itself."

Liu Chengzong had a desire to lay out his strategy. He chuckled and said, "Here in Xining, if the court wants to strike me, it can only mass troops at Lanzhou, Hezhou, and Taozhou. If the Gansu Garrison's army dares cross the mountains to come, I'll dare to recruit every last one of them to surrender."

That was real bluster — he wouldn't dare.

Before resolving the problem of the Mongol tribes west of Jiayu Pass, recruiting Gansu Garrison soldiers would put him in a passive position strategically, but that didn't stop him from bragging.

Because that passivity was predicated on his hope that the realm would not lose Jiayu Pass — and aside from him, no one thought that far ahead.

"And if they mass troops at Lanzhou, it can only produce a standoff. A force that crosses the Yellow River may not be able to beat me, and one that doesn't cross serves no purpose beyond adding to the burden of pay and provisions."

Liu Chengzong shook his head. This was a moment when he ought to laugh, but that a great nation had fallen to such a state filled him with genuine sorrow. He sighed and said, "That is the real reason the court won't fight me. Of course, I won't deny that militarily, I have no way to deal with Lanzhou either."

Liu Chengzong's concept of eastward expansion was not war, but building momentum.

War was necessary, but he understood the border troops — he had been one of them, after all. Those border army bastards were all hard-boned. Before the general trend was set, it would be siege warfare, city by city, stronghold by stronghold.

People would surrender when casualties grew too heavy and they had no strength left to fight — even he would surrender under those conditions.

But before it reached that point, the vast majority would fight him to the bitter end.

The only difference was that because he was Han, the government troops would maintain a normal will to resist, unlike in Liaodong, where battles often ended with the commanding officer and all his chief generals dead in the field.

But by the same token, his own army would only maintain a normal will to attack. In war, the sympathy soldiers on both sides feel for each other is mutual and cheap — it cannot play a decisive role.

That was why he needed to build a general trend in the northwest — a trend where cooperating with Liu Chengzong, even surrendering to him, was no big deal, where doing so brought personal benefit, and where everyone else was doing it.

"But time is on my side."

Liu Chengzong looked at Zhang Yuanheng and said, "You don't work for the court here in Xining, and the court can't do a thing about it. If you want to earn a few sheep through smuggling, or buy horses from the Tibetans in Hezhou and Taozhou, I won't stop you. But what I can give you is far more than the court ever could."

Zhang Yuanheng drew a deep breath, leaned forward, and asked, "What does the Grand Marshal mean?"

"I need farming tools — a lot of farming tools. You go to Songpan Guard, or Sichuan will do as well." Liu Chengzong said, "Use your status to get me farming tools. The more, the better."

"Sichuan, Songpan..."

Zhang Yuanheng felt a knot of difficulty in his heart. He had endured endless ridicule from people at Songpan Guard. Even now that he had the status of a surveillance eunuch, he was still unwilling to return to that place. He said, "Grand Marshal, what if I get farming tools from Hanzhong or Shaanxi and trade them for horses?"

Liu Chengzong looked at Zhang Yuanheng and smiled. To be honest, Zhang Yuanheng's refusal to go to Songpan Guard for this task surprised him somewhat, because this was a man who liked shortcuts — and throwing in his lot with Liu Chengzong was the biggest shortcut in the northwest.

They had only just risen to prominence, a time when anything was possible. Moreover, it was still very safe. Perhaps Zhou Riqiang had brought his family over not because he thought joining Liu Chengzong was especially reliable, but because if this side couldn't beat the court later, they could still retreat to Kangning. If it really came to that, Zhou Riqiang's family could even withdraw into Tibetan territory.

To put it bluntly, Liu Chengzong as a warlord seizing cities and lands would face enormous resistance in Tibetan territory, but no one would refuse a court official and his family fleeing the chaos of war.

A man like Zhou Riqiang, if you looked across the whole Han realm, might not yet be called a dragon among men, but here in the borderlands, his wisdom and knowledge could easily transform a kingdom's politics, economy, military, and technology.

"In Hanzhong, they wouldn't need you to get farming tools. This kind of fine opportunity lies in Songpan Guard and Sichuan. It depends on whether you want to do it or not."

Liu Chengzong smiled as he enticed him. "With the court, no matter how well you do, you're still just a eunuch. I'm very short of officials right now — you know that, right?"

Zhang Yuanheng felt his mouth go dry. He pursed his lips and dared not speak.

"County Magistrate. Do this job well, and within three years, if the court tries to transfer you elsewhere, you don't have to go. I guarantee you a county magistrate post. The fanzi under you will each get posts like Patrol Inspector as well. If any have real talent, even general is not out of the question. How far you go after that depends on yourselves."

Liu Chengzong said, "And if you do well as county magistrate, I can guarantee that within six years, the seat of department magistrate will be waiting for you."

Zhang Yuanheng drew a sharp breath, his body leaning back involuntarily. He screamed inwardly: The two prefectures of Xikang have no departments!

Liu Chengzong really did intend to swallow up Gansu!

All his life he had waited for a chance to be recognized for his worth. Now Liu Chengzong had truly laid that chance before his eyes, and it made his whole body go numb. He could barely speak. "Grand, Grand Marshal, what was it you just said you wanted me to do?"

"Farming tools. Songpan Guard, Sichuan."

"I'll do it!"

Zhang Yuanheng nodded heavily. "I'll do it!"

Liu Chengzong revealed a satisfied smile. He smiled at Zhou Riqiang, then turned his gaze to Zhang Yuanheng and said, "As expected, Master Zhang is a man of discernment. When you go to Songpan Guard, if you see destitute military dependents, or Han commoners in Sichuan who've lost their land, don't forget to tell them — come to the territory of the Qinghai Marshal's Manor."

"As long as they come, each household gets one ox, six sheep, and two hundred mu of land."