Chapter 332: The Curtain Rises

In the twelfth month of the fifth year of Chongzhen, outside New City, several dozen women riders in bright clothes and on fine horses galloped across the snow.

The women were all in sturdy riding attire; they spurred their horses, raised their whips, and raced along laughing merrily, only slowly reining in at a crisp whistle when the horses grew tired, each dismounting to tend to her mount.

The common folk kept well away, eyeing this strange spectacle, though they did not stare for long — such scenes were common enough; the Marshal's manor's Autumn Forest Society ladies were out on an excursion.

Northwest of Juer Bay lay a wooded hill the locals called Autumn Forest, beautiful in scenery. After the Lion Army moved west, several estates were built there not far apart — first funded by Marshal's manor senior general Cao Yao, and later completed by Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu once the southern campaign began.

Before New City was built, those were the residences of the Marshal's manor's high-ranking officers.

The Autumn Forest Society, however, was not an association of Lion Army officers, but one initiated by Sister-in-Law Cao, its members all officers' female dependents, and its president Liu Chengzong's mother, Madam Cai.

The society was founded because Cao Yao had told Sister-in-Law Cao that the Lion Army did not fear government troops, but the setup with an unmarried second son as leader was unstable; they should use their experience running mountain strongholds to help the Lion more.

Cao Yao was a bandit king — his sense of honor won men's loyalty, and Sister-in-Law Cao, raised by him, was just as honorable and just as able to command loyalty.

Her life in Xining Prefecture was essentially the process of gathering the female dependents whom civil and military officials of all ranks had left behind in Xining and Juer Bay around Madam Cai.

The Autumn Forest Society offered many courses: archery and hand-to-hand combat, horseback riding and hunting, reading and literacy, zither-playing, calligraphy, and painting, military law and regulations, organization and strategy, embroidery and cookery. They brought in no outside teachers, but taught and learned among themselves — every member had something she excelled at.

For the vast majority of skills, mastery was not required; broadening one's horizons was enough, and it was no bad thing if it brought a touch of novelty when their men returned from campaign.

Only horseback riding was an exceptionally strict course, and each of them studied it with particular diligence… for it bore directly on whether they would hold their men back at times of relocation.

After one ride, the wife of Yang Dingrui was utterly exhausted. She had always been delicate and well-protected, and in horsemanship she could never keep pace with the other women, so that every ride seemed to cost her half her life, drawing laughter from the others.

The Mongol wife of Wailiangzi was different — mounting a horse was like walking on flat ground for her.

Sister-in-Law Cao was even more formidable; not only was her riding superb, her courage was great too. She could charge straight up steep ridges and sheer slopes, and when crossing shallow rivers or deep waters, she would either stand on the horse's back or clutch its mane and tail to swim across. Around Xining, no river could stop her.

When everyone had stopped, Sister-in-Law Cao smiled and encouraged the few women whose riding was poor, then sat down openly beside Fan Sanlang with a laugh. "Sanlang, your riding is far better than Bai-niang's and Yun-niang's. The Grand Marshal has raised you well."

Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue, seated beside Fan Sanlang, tittered at this. Fan Sanlang was not terribly shy, but before she could speak, Sister-in-Law Cao laughed. "What's there to be shy about?"

Sister-in-Law Cao took a food box down from her horse, sat, and counted on her fingers. "You were only sixteen the year you came from Shanxi, and now you're nearly nineteen. Of course you were raised by the Grand Marshal. I was raised by my Cao Liu'er too — riding, archery, which of those didn't he teach me?"

Fan Sanlang paused at first, then could not help nodding in agreement. "In the blink of an eye, it's been so many years… How did Sister-in-Law learn to ride?"

"What's there to 'how' about learning to ride? Cao Liu'er was terribly lazy. He grabbed a big army horse, had a craftsman make a large saddle, and carried me all the way from our hometown by the Yellow River in Northern Zhili into Shanxi and Shaanxi — he sat behind, I sat in front."

Sister-in-Law Cao laughed as she spoke. "Sometimes when we lost a battle, he'd just throw me onto the horse and flee. I don't even know when I learned."

"General Cao didn't train you like a soldier." Fan Sanlang laughed as she listened, then added, "He was far lazier. He set military law for me — made me patrol day and night on a mule. Back then I could sleep sitting up, sleep standing up, eat while sleeping, patrol while sleeping, and even make the mule turn a corner in my sleep."

Laughter broke out all around. Sister-in-Law Cao said cheerfully, "You had it rough then, right when the Grand Marshal was drifting from place to place. If it had been earlier, when they'd just come home, I could have taught you at Black Dragon Mountain… And you two, how did you learn to ride?"

As she spoke, she and Fan Sanlang both looked at Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue. Bai Liuxi said, a little embarrassed, "Sister-in-Law, we two never learned to ride."

Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue were on extremely good terms with Sister-in-Law Cao — closer even than with Fan Sanlang.

On the westward march with the army, as minor leaders following along, Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue had never been formally attached anywhere. Their force was too small to be merged into the Lion Camp, and the battalion commanders of the Yu Camp dared not absorb them either, so they simply followed along the whole way — a very hard journey.

Both camps had complete baggage-train systems: combat troops need not worry about supplies, and supply troops need not worry about defense. But their force was different, relying entirely on grain and fodder rewarded for storming cities. Yet as it turned out, all the way west, their force actually grew somewhat.

Most of the wretched women and children they met along the road joined their ranks.

Once inside Xining, however, their days grew harder. The combat troops were organized into three training camps, and the Yu Camp, slightly weaker in fighting strength, was also reorganized into the Xining Garrison. The force's provisions ran short, and any men with a little ability went to seek a living with the Xining Garrison as well.

The remaining crowd of women had no other recourse; through Sister-in-Law Cao's recommendation, many entered the Weaving Bureau.

The several-hundred-strong women's force dissolved with a crash, leaving in the end only Bai Liuxi, Yun Jiaoyue, and a few others… The two of them knew only how to wield blade and spear, not how to weave.

In the end, it was Sister-in-Law Cao who arranged for them to live with Madam Cai, where they could both provide the old lady protection and chat with her to relieve her boredom.

And because they had not gone south with the army, every day they helped Sister-in-Law Cao run the Autumn Forest Society's various courses — they were both students and teachers of combat and weaponry.

Sister-in-Law Cao and Fan Sanlang both stared wide-eyed. "Never learned?"

Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue exchanged a glance, then turned back with a smile. "We two sisters come from opera performers' stock — where would we get horses to practice riding? We relied entirely on waist-and-horse stance training. Later, when we did get horses, we could manage to ride after a fashion."

Sister-in-Law Cao understood at once — they had built their waist and leg strength through horse-stance training. Something suddenly occurred to her, and she chuckled to herself.

Bai Liuxi, baffled by her laughter, asked, "What is Sister-in-Law laughing at?"

"I'm laughing at you." Sister-in-Law Cao pointed at the three of them. "The Old Madam is very fond of you, and the Grand Marshal is too. When the happy event is held someday, you'll be three sisters from then on — you must stay as close as you are now."

Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue shrieked in embarrassment. The most composed was Fan Sanlang, who was right there in the army. She had never been this confident before, but after the southern campaign, having grown used to the roar of guns and cannons, to life-and-death partings, and to a compassion born of witnessing the suffering of all beings, she was now hardly swayed by emotion.

Not only was she not shy, she even said with a smile, "In the past the Grand Marshal was so busy his feet never touched the ground; now that he finally has a place to settle, we can be close. I never thought of it that way before, but in the future there will be more sisters… Sister-in-Law, if General Cao brought a woman back from the south, what would you think?"

"Ah, I'd wish for nothing more."

The cheerfulness on Sister-in-Law Cao's face suddenly dimmed. She shook her head. "We two have no one to rely on. My parents have long been gone; whether his parents in Henan are still in this world, neither of us knows."

These words struck a chord of sorrow in all three women — they were all people with no one to rely on. In such chaotic times, who would not feel alone?

Seeing everyone's spirits sink, Sister-in-Law Cao shifted tone and said with a light laugh, "If he found a few sweet, pretty younger sisters like you to come back and keep me company and chat, one big happy family in harmony — that would be a good thing… Of course, if he dared bring back some ugly, ill-mannered ones, then I wouldn't stand for it."

As she spoke, Sister-in-Law Cao raised a hand and laughed heartily at the three. "When that time comes, you just wait at home and watch me go weeping to the Grand Marshal to demand justice!"

They all laughed until they could barely close their mouths. They had just finished eating when a rider came galloping from the direction of New City. Sister-in-Law Cao stood up, gripping her bow, and watched the cavalryman halt at a distance and call out loudly, "Madam Cao, the Grand Marshal summons Commander Fan and the two leaders Bai and Yun back to the city."

Fan Sanlang sprang to her feet at these words, briskly sorted the gear on her horse, and had already led the horse forward before she caught herself. She smiled, clasped her fists, and bowed to Sister-in-Law Cao. "Sister-in-Law, the Grand Marshal has business for us, so we shall head back now."

Even as she spoke, she did not forget to urge Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue, who had just risen, in a low voice: "Quickly!"

Sister-in-Law Cao smiled and bade the three farewell. Watching the three riders follow the messenger galloping toward New City, she remained standing where she was, her face tilted slightly upward, pondering Fan Sanlang's instinctive reaction upon hearing the summons.

That bearing was even more professional than when Cao Yao had been a squad leader in the border army.

At this thought, she could not help but smile. Both had been raised — but Cao Yao had raised her as his wife, while Liu Chengzong had raised Fan Sanlang as an officer. And Fan Sanlang would clearly, in turn, teach these habits to Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue.

When the Marshal's manor was run in the future by military law — what sort of scene would that be?

As Fan Sanlang and the others galloped back to the city, they saw the outskirts in all directions filled with soldiers leading youths and children into the city. She said to the other two, "The Grand Marshal called us back — it must be that the Children's Camp is finished."

Entering the city, it was indeed so.

The Children's Camp was a compound in the northwest corner of New City, with a palisade and guard bastion outside, and streets and an academy inside. In winter, aside from breaking ground for farmland, large-scale construction was difficult, so only the academy and the gruel kitchen had been built; the living quarters all consisted of felt tents.

This was the camp Liu Chengzong had built specifically for orphans. Seeing the three women approaching together from a distance, he went forward to meet them, his face wreathed in smiles. "From this day on, homeless orphans will no longer have to compete with adults for grain at the gruel stations, nor must they labor or beg to survive. They can study and practice martial arts here — they have a home."

Just then, his bodyguard Tianbao stepped forward. "Grand Marshal, the children have all been given numbered tags. There are one thousand three hundred and forty-nine in total. The three hundred felt tents we prepared are more than enough to house them — there's still plenty of room."

Liu Chengzong laughed. "That's about right. Five to a tent — have they been mixed by age?"

"Yes. The boys' and girls' tents are each assigned two over ten years old and three over five. If we squeeze more in later, it can still work." Tianbao checked his ledger. "Annual grain consumption will be roughly between four thousand and six thousand shi."

Liu Chengzong nodded with satisfaction. Children that age were at their hungriest; it was very hard to give a fixed figure for how much grain they would need.

He was very generous with the children — even more generous than the spending he had allocated to the crafts system under Shi Chengwo. He nodded directly and said, "Good, we'll do it that way."

With that, Liu Chengzong turned to the three of them and said, "Sanlang, you'll be in charge of this Children's Camp from now on. You two, assist Sanlang. Take good care of these children, teach them to read and practice martial arts every day."

Fan Sanlang was troubled. "Commander, at most we can give the little ones basic literacy. We can't really teach them much more than that."

"Basic literacy is enough. After that, send them to the city academy to study — the teachers there will naturally teach them better things." Liu Chengzong smiled as he spoke. "The oldest child right now is only fifteen. The camp will support them until they're eighteen. By spring, the Marshal's Manor will be holding the civil examinations. They'll certainly have a place to put their skills to use."

Fan Sanlang glanced at Bai Liuxi and Yun Jiaoyue, then nodded in acknowledgment. "As you command."

Standing at the entrance of the Children's Camp, Liu Chengzong watched the children running in and out of every felt tent, carrying bedding. He took a deep breath and nodded firmly.

As for the adults outside the city, they had now been organized into one hundred and eighty work teams. Seven hundred and twenty camp soldiers were drawn from Wang Wenxiu and Yang Yao's forces to serve as team leaders, assistants, and clerks. Land was parceled out to each team, and the Marshal's Manor provided farming tools, livestock, and carts for clearing fields and manual labor.

The team leaders were responsible for assigning each person their labor tasks. Each day, based on how much work they did, they received meal tokens to exchange for porridge at the porridge station. They could basically eat their fill.

There were also over a hundred other fragmented households — people who were disabled, aged, ill, or injured and unable to work. Liu Chengzong did not simply ignore them and leave them to die.

He sent physicians to treat the sick and also issued them wooden tokens so they could get porridge at the porridge station. But this was only life-sustaining porridge — not enough to fill the belly.

Beyond this, with grain and fodder so tight, there was no more help Liu Chengzong could give. Whether they could survive until next spring would depend entirely on their own fortune.

Before the Children's Camp was established, these orphans could only drink life-sustaining porridge outside. Now things were different.

Seeing him so full of pride and satisfaction, Fan Sanlang couldn't help but smile too. But then she heard him sigh and asked, "Is the Commander worried about rations?"

"Rations are secondary." Liu Chengzong nodded. "In other areas I can cut back and always manage to pull through. But for these children, we cannot cut back. Ten years — in ten years, this generation will be the backbone of the army."

Having said that, Liu Chengzong gave a carefree smile and shook his head. "As for what's actually troubling me, it's the land distribution. The Children's Camp is in your hands now. I need to go back and think this over."

Finding grain was very difficult, but the problems facing land distribution were actually even harder than finding grain — because for finding grain, there was still the ultimate solution of just throwing caution to the wind, but for land distribution, there was none.

First, there weren't that many people. Second, there wasn't that much land. Third, there wasn't that much grain.

Not that many people meant not that many people who knew how to farm. Even among the Han, not every peasant knew how to farm, let alone the fact that the main population of these refugees were Mongols.

Not that much land meant not that much cultivated land. The Marshal's Manor had plenty of newly cleared raw land, but scatter a few jin of seed across one mu, and come autumn you'd harvest a field of stalks.

And not that much grain was the greatest difficulty in distributing land. You couldn't plant in winter, there'd be no seed come spring, and you'd have to wait until autumn to harvest after sowing — but the refugees didn't even have the rations to survive the winter.

In other words, even if Liu Chengzong gave them oxen, seed, and land in the spring, there'd be no need to wait until autumn. As soon as that ox was eaten, everyone would become refugees again.

He would have to feed everyone at least until the autumn of next year.

Liu Chengzong walked and thought, heading straight into the Marshal's Manor. Only when he entered the room did he realize that the footsteps of his guards had not stopped.

Frowning, he slipped his hand through the lanyard and gripped the saber hilt, very naturally taking a sudden large stride forward before turning around — only to find that Fan Sanlang, Bai Liuxi, and Yun Jiaoyue had followed him into the room. "Hey, you—"

Without a word, the three of them walked into the canopy bed. Bai Liuxi spread out the bedding, Yun Jiaoyue arranged the pillows, and Fan Sanlang, standing beside the bed, untied the curtain cord and looked at him. Then the bed curtains slowly descended.

Behind him, the main door had already very sensibly shut itself. Tianbao's footsteps gradually faded away down the corridor.

Liu the Lion lowered his head to look at the hand gripping the saber, slowly released the hilt, and walked into the curtains.