Chapter 305: All Under Heaven at Peace

News from the north threw all of Kangning into chaos — in an instant, hearts across seven counties spanning a thousand li were seized with panic.

Liu Chengzong set out from Dajianlu on the fourteenth day of the fourth month, traveling day and night without rest.

Zhang Tianlin urged him not to rush so frantically, suggesting he let the dispatch riders race ahead first, but Liu refused outright.

He said, "The reconnaissance cavalry are in Nangqian."

Zhang Tianlin laughed. "That hothead who carries a knife — he'd ditch his own troops to go scout on his own. He's definitely already headed north."

The reconnaissance cavalry answered directly to the Marshal's headquarters. Lion Army had no standing peacetime emergency protocols for this; strictly speaking, without transfer orders, the reconnaissance cavalry could not leave their post without authorization. But Lion Army officers had considerable autonomy, and Liu Chengzong's control over his officers had not reached the level of puppets on strings.

Dai Daozi had very likely, just as Zhang Tianlin said, already set out to do what he was supposed to do.

But Liu Chengzong shook his head and said with absolute certainty, "Not this time. Because Cao Yao is in Nangqian."

Zhang Tianlin did not understand what that meant, and he could not talk Liu out of it, so he could only select fifty veteran riders skilled in hard riding to race alongside him the whole way. They changed mules four times at garrisons along the route, covering one thousand four hundred li in thirteen days of riding, and finally reached Nangqian at dusk on the twenty-seventh day of the fourth month.

When they reached Nangqian, Zhang Tianlin was dumbfounded. The reconnaissance cavalry had been dispatched to the Yushu Hundred-Household domain at Nangqian's northernmost edge, where the prefectural office had arranged horses and transported arms, ready to advance north at any moment.

But Dai Daozi had stayed obediently right there in Nangqian, having made every preparation, waiting only for Liu Chengzong's order to arrive before beginning his reconnaissance northward.

The moment he laid eyes on Dai Daozi, Zhang Tianlin forgot all the exhaustion of the grueling journey. Hobbling on aching legs, he pressed him, "Why are you still here? Why haven't you gone north?"

Dai Daozi folded his arms across his chest and said irritably, "Go ask General Cao. He wouldn't let me leave."

In that instant, Zhang Tianlin's admiration for Liu Chengzong knew no bounds. The reasoning behind it baffled him utterly — he could only stare wide-eyed, speechless.

Cao Yao was equally astonished by Liu Chengzong's arrival. "I haven't received a single order yet, and the Grand Marshal is already here? I figured you'd be another four days."

Liu Chengzong merely hooked a thumb backward over his shoulder and strode toward the torchlit estate. "The orders are all still on the way — none of them travel as fast as I do. Dai Daozi, set out at once. Brother Cao, we'll talk later. First, tell me the situation in Nangqian and what preparations you've made."

Dai Daozi took his orders and left. He had been barely able to contain himself — if Cao Yao had not firmly held him back, he would have already crossed the Yellow River by now.

Liu Chengzong did not dwell on the reconnaissance cavalry matter. Zhang Tianlin's cavalry company still needed at least ten days to reach Nangqian, and assembling troops from various regions would also take time. A few days' delay in the reconnaissance cavalry's departure hardly counted as holding up military operations.

Besides, this was exactly Lion Army's most standard system. If Dai Daozi had gone scouting on his own, Liu Chengzong would not have blamed him — but staying put in the nest was absolutely not wrong.

He knew Cao Yao very well and understood exactly why Cao Yao would have persuaded Dai Daozi to stay and wait for orders. There was no need to lay the matter out in the open.

Cao Yao also did not feel the matter required any explanation. He had urged Dai Daozi to stay not because of military discipline — moral principles, military law and discipline, the lives and deaths of others, the outcome of battles — in his eyes, all of these were trivial matters. As long as you stayed alive, that was enough.

Only staying alive was a major matter. The unity of the Marshal's headquarters directly affected whether everyone could stay alive — so that was a major matter.

If he had been the garrison commander of Lincong, then Dai Daozi, stationed in Nangqian, could go wherever he pleased. But as the highest-ranking military officer in Nangqian, he had to persuade Dai Daozi to obey Liu Chengzong's orders.

Unity — wasn't that just rallying around Liu Chengzong? Anything that challenged his authority was not unity.

The civil and military officers of Nangqian followed closely behind. As he walked, Cao Yao said, "Nangqian got the news earliest. I drew six hundred artillerymen from Huang Xiao's fort garrison, summoned all the nobles of every rank in Nangqian, and have them confined in the camp. It's up to the Grand Marshal to decide how to handle them. I suggest we reorganize them into a military unit and send them north."

The name Huang Xiao sounded a bit unfamiliar to Liu Chengzong at first. Only after thinking for a moment did he realize it was Huang Shengxiao, who was garrisoned at Nangsuo Qianmo Palace.

Cao Yao's order to conscript the nobles brought a smile to his face. He raised a hand and said, "Old Brother Cao, you've read the situation like a god. My order for you to conscript the nobles should reach Nangqian the day after tomorrow."

"What 'read it like a god'?" Cao Yao sighed and shook his head. "War breaks out in the north, the great army marches on a northern campaign, Kangning's hearts are restless — rebellion is nailed to the board. It's only a question of how far it spreads."

"That's exactly what I was thinking, no matter how the situation in the north turns out."

The two men entered the estate as they spoke. Liu Chengzong paused, hand on the stair rail, and said, "We can't look after our heads and ignore our backsides. No matter who we're fighting in the north or how big the conflict is, we seize this good opportunity to pull together an army of seven or eight thousand men to take back with us — and free up some grain for the Lion troops."

As he spoke, Liu Chengzong glanced at Cao Yao. "Once the rebellion here erupts, we'll execute another batch of nobles dead set on restoration. The grain problem for settling immigrants into Kangning gets solved, the volatile situation stabilizes completely — and what follows will be an era of great order."

As they talked, the group climbed to the third floor and entered the main hall. Liu Chengzong sat down on the couch in the hall, and his aching legs, waist, and back finally found relief, making him narrow his eyes in comfort. Once everyone was seated, he continued, "We still don't know who the opponent is in the north?"

Cao Yao nodded, then said, "We have some guesses. It might be Chuoketu."

Chuoketu?

Liu Chengzong looked blank. "Who is that?"

"A taiji of Daiching. He's been roaming beyond the Gansu border for quite a few years now, having come down from Mobei. Chen Qindai's cipher book has records on them."

Liu Chengzong shut his eyes and pondered for a long while. Then sudden understanding dawned. His eyes snapped open, and he slapped his thigh. "You mean that unlucky wretch from the Khalkha?"

Chuoketu — Chen Qindai had told him about this man.

But at the time it had just been told as a joke, so Liu Chengzong had not taken it to heart. It had even taken Cao Yao's reminder for him to recall that such a person existed.

This man was born in Mobei, where the Mobei Mongols beat him savagely. He migrated beyond the border, where the borderland Huihui gave him a vicious thrashing. He went to Gansu, where the Gansu border troops hammered him hard.

That was the quality of his life's record. After all that thrashing about, he still was not dead — he had an extremely ample wealth of experience in getting beaten, and he would not be easy to deal with.

Liu Chengzong raised a hand to scratch the back of his neck, utterly baffled. "He can't beat anyone, and now he's come to fight me? Is this the kind of prestige my Qinghai Marshal's Headquarters commands beyond the border, or did his mother eat too much sand during those ten months of pregnancy? You must be mistaken. Where did you hear this?"

Cao Yao gently shook his head. "Nine times out of ten, it's him. Daiching said he originally moved into Haibei precisely to scout the way for Chuoketu. But because we seized the Kokonor region so quickly, he never even made it back."

Liu Chengzong leaned back against his chair, closed his eyes, and let out a long sigh.

The Oirat league master launching a great eastern campaign, the Yarkand Hami governor losing his mind, Khutughtu having eaten too much and having nothing better to do, Hong Taiji coming down with an epileptic fit — anyone could come, anyone at all... why did it have to be Chuoketu?

Liu Chengzong was deeply vexed. He truly could not bear to accept the news that he was being invaded by forces under Chuoketu.

"It's fine, Grand Marshal. Look at the man's disposition — beaten everywhere he goes. He's definitely not too bright," Cao Yao said. "If it's him, he shouldn't be hard to deal with."

Liu Chengzong waved his hand. "It's not that I'm afraid he'll be hard to deal with. How should I put this — you can't look at things from only one side. We tell it as a joke, call him not too bright, say he loses every battle. But think about it the other way — he's never surrendered. He's got backbone. And the soldiers who've stayed with him are all true men."

A person who's been beaten every day since childhood will most likely grow up into a cringing coward who nods and bows to everyone he meets. But a very rare few become extremely fierce — vicious to others, and even more vicious to themselves.

Liu Chengzong's gaze turned fierce as well. "If the opponent is Chuoketu, we cannot afford to lose a single battle. It would devastate morale... Summon Shili. Let's get some intelligence on Chuoketu."

A plan to conquer the borderlands had already taken shape in Liu Chengzong's mind. If the opponent truly was Chuoketu, this war would bring him not a single benefit.

Crushing Yarkand would prove that the Qinghai Marshal's Headquarters was a separatist regime that ranked among the powers. Fighting the Four Oirat Tribes to a standstill would cement the Qinghai Marshal's Headquarters' dominance south of the Tianshan Mountains. Clashing with the Later Jin Eight Banners and holding off their offensive would make the Qinghai Marshal's Headquarters a northwestern power that awed all directions.

But fighting a battle against a bare-assed wretch like Chuoketu — what would that count for? Winning would not make you a hero, and losing a single battle would send you slinking back to your old home in Shaanxi in utter disgrace.

In a war like this, merely defeating Chuoketu could not possibly satisfy Liu Chengzong's needs.

Shili, the Turpan emissary living in exile in Kangning Prefecture, could not offer anything meaningful about Chuoketu either. They had certainly fought Chuoketu plenty of times, but their impression of him was just a gang of desert bandits — they had never had much real understanding.

Liu Chengzong simply set aside the matter of the enemy and threw all his energy into the affairs of securing Kangning Prefecture's rear.

Cao Yao very briskly formed a battalion, thinking he would be able to lead this newly organized battalion in the northern campaign. Instead, Liu Chengzong handed him a single sheet of paper appointing him Kangning Deputy Regional Commander, making him the senior general defending Kangning Prefecture with overall authority over Kangning's military affairs.

Along with him, Luo Rucai and Li Laochai were also promoted. Both received the rank of Regional Commander, one garrisoning Lincong and Luhuo, the other garrisoning Nangqian and Changdu, assisting Cao Yao in holding Kangning Prefecture and preparing for the rebellion-suppression campaigns that could break out at any time.

Conveniently, he also gave his maternal uncle Cai Zhongpan an official post as Garrison Farm Commander, responsible for gathering immigrants in Changhexi.

Also in charge of garrison farming, Chengyun had experience managing the army's logistics and supplies, so Liu Chengzong appointed him to a very high official position, serving as Kangning Prefecture Vice Prefect to assist Yang Dingrui in overseeing prefectural affairs.

Liu Chengzong believed that the civil and military team he had left for Kangning Prefecture was sufficient to handle anything that might happen on this land.

As for the army to be taken north, Liu Chengzong issued a conscription quota of three thousand six hundred nobles to the seven counties. There were not that many nobles on this land, so the conscription net was cast very wide — anyone who had served as a cavalryman or heavy infantryman for a noble in the past counted as a noble.

Of course, Liu Chengzong did not forget to make promises. He instructed each county, when conscripting soldiers, to tell the people that those who joined the army would have ample rations and would fight with valor.

Whether a landed noble, a landless noble, or a landless soldier — as long as they followed into battle, past deeds would not be held against them. Moreover, Han, Mongol, and Tibetan would be treated as one; as long as one could speak Han Chinese, meritorious service in the army would earn the same opportunities for promotion.

Those who could not speak Han Chinese would have their merits recorded first and be sent to study; they would be promoted after they learned.

Of course, such pie-in-the-sky treatment was essentially psychological comfort offered after forcibly dragging noble conscripts away. The main goal was still to sweep up, in one net, all the people in Kangning Prefecture who had both the will and the ability to rebel.

The composition of Liu Chengzong's forces for this northern expedition boiled down to three numbers: three-three-four. That is, thirty percent core loyalist troops, thirty percent surrendered soldiers, and forty percent conscripted nobles.

Soon, as intelligence relayed from Huangyuan Post Station in the north further confirmed the enemy's scale, the armies of Kangning Prefecture began marching out from various places toward Nangqian.

Zhang Tianlin was promoted to Brigade Commander and served as the commanding general of the core loyalist forces for this expedition, leading his own twelve hundred cavalry, Huang Shengxiao's six hundred artillery troops, plus six hundred cavalry belonging to Gao Yingdeng — that battalion had been split in half and the other half left to Cao Yao.

The reinforcements that arrived immediately after were infantry and cavalry who had marched from west of the Changhe River.

The Grand Marshal was going to war, and quite a few troops were still garrisoned on the west bank of the Dadu River. Having received word, Muya reciprocated the favor by providing three hundred cavalry and three hundred heavy infantry as support, led by the steward's eldest son, Wasi, to take part in this distant campaign.

It truly was a distant campaign. For all the soldiers Muya sent, including Wasi, this deployment was no less than a parting between the living and the dead. Looking back eight generations, none of their ancestors had ever gone so far to fight a war.

Muya's dispatch of troops was indeed an enormous show of support for the Marshal's Mansion. In the days after Wasi led his troops in, the arriving envoys from every county brought good news... Muya was a living example: as long as one was loyal enough, Grand Marshal Liu could cooperate with nobles.

To repay this support, Wasi was appointed Left Battalion Left Company Commander.

This Left Battalion was formidable. Wasi thought to himself, what kind of divine colleagues are these?

The Brigade Commander was General Basang, whose name was renowned far and wide across Xikang though few had ever seen him in person. The battalion staff included a military physician, a mute named Awang. His fellow Company Commander was Buchi, a madwoman who clamored every day about earning merit alongside her husbands.

There were also two Company Commanders, one old and one young, both named Qijia. People had given them the bandit nicknames Old Iceball and Little Iceball. Both were said to be fierce tiger heroes. After the King of Baili was defeated and fled into the great marshlands, they lost contact with the army and hid on a snowy mountain from autumn until late winter. In the end, Little Iceball was nearly frozen to death, and Old Iceball carried him down the mountain to surrender.

By then, the Lion Soldiers had all gone off to prepare for the New Year, and no one was around to accept their surrender. In the end, the two men made their way to Nangqian and announced themselves, finally getting a hot meal.

The two Iceballs spent the whole spring learning Han Chinese. As a reward, Basang allowed them to write whatever they wanted on their military banners.

In any case, for their unit, what was written on the banner made no difference — they mainly relied on the cloth color to tell each other apart. The monk Awang alone could not raise the cultural level of the entire battalion, though writing Han characters meant a few more people might recognize them.

Now, each of the two hundred-man companies flew a banner. Apart from the different colors, the company banners, edged with wind-horse flags, bore crooked, sprawling characters written by the two men themselves, three large characters on each side.

On the left was written "Release Horses on the Southern Slopes," on the right "Enduring Peace and Order," and across the top, "All Under Heaven at Peace."

Two generations of fierce tiger heroes had been frozen into worldly clarity by the bitter winter on the snowy mountain. The first Han Chinese phrase they learned was "Long live the Grand Marshal," the second was "All Under Heaven at Peace," and the third was "Bring me another tsampa."

Thus was achieved the unification of the nation's fate and personal prospects.

By May, the old-generation Sichuan rebel, former subordinate general of the Great Liang King, and Right Battalion Brigade Commander Aliu finally arrived at Nangqian with a massive army blending the Yongning Battalion and nobles. All units were now fully assembled and ready to march.

They were given little time to rest. This force, ostensibly the great northern expedition army but in reality an armed escort convoy transporting over a thousand noble offspring large and small and two thousand noble retainers, finally marched north with heads held high to the booming drums of the Nangqian grand camp.