Chapter 371: Gifts

All five armies sallied forth together — the faster they marched, the faster they were defeated.

Within ten days, the Ming court's military situation in the northwest collapsed completely. News of the four-route defeat spread throughout Lanzhou.

While He Huchen and the others were locked in a life-and-death struggle with Liu Chengzong in the Hehuang Valley, Wang Xingshan, the northern-route commander leading the Gansu army, had not even managed to climb from the Yongdeng mountains to Liancheng.

His army was ravaged by smallpox. The march resembled an old hen laying eggs — every two hours, several dozen soldiers breaking out in pox had to be left behind.

Upon suddenly hearing that every route had been defeated, Wang Xingshan did not hesitate for an instant. He ordered the chieftain Lu Yunchang, who was stubbornly holding out in Liancheng, to retreat, turned back to gather up all the eggs he had laid, and led his troops into the Yongdeng city garrison of the Zhuanglang Guard.

He could not lead his troops to Lanzhou. The Gansu army was different from the other four garrisons — everyone else was on the far bank of the Yellow River; only the Gansu Garrison and Xining were on the near bank. Now that all four routes had collapsed, the slightest misstep would bring the flames of war into his own defense zone.

Where there is retreat, there is advance.

Liu Chengzu lacked siege equipment and was besieging a mountain fort. A direct assault was unlikely to succeed, so he had to spend time constructing equipment. Before the equipment was finished, the enemy abandoned the city and fled.

Having gathered all their strength only to be denied a siege battle, the Xining troops under Liu Chengzu were all seething with frustration. Fortunately, the grain stores, wealth, goods, livestock, cattle, and horses left behind by Chieftain Lu greatly heartened the soldiers who stormed the city.

The enormous haul directly cost Liu Chengzu's army the ability to continue advancing.

On Liu Chengzong's side, orders were sent suggesting that Liancheng be reinforced to further pressure Wang Xingshan's Gansu army at Yongdeng city. On Liu Chengzu's side, he left Li Wanqing to hold the city, first dispatched a messenger, then personally escorted the convoy of wealth and supplies on a winding retreat back to the Hehuang Valley.

Liu Chengzong spotted the unbroken line of wagons from afar, knew it was his elder brother coming, and spurred his horse forward. He heard Liu Chengzu say, "Shizi, did Chengyun come over?"

"I sent Chengyun to deliver rafts. He's still out west. Are all these things from Chieftain Lu's mansion?"

Liu Chengzong urged his horse forward and looked into the distance. The wagon convoy stretched beyond sight. The faces of the Xining Guard banner troops bore an indescribable joy, and an involuntary laugh escaped him: "Ha, this much?"

He had never imagined that a chieftain's yamen, which he had held in rather low regard, could possess so much wealth and goods.

But to his surprise, Liu Chengzu shook his head and said, "If it were only this much, I would have marched east. I have no idea how much wealth and goods there are, nor what they consist of. I only know that over there we could only find eight hundred and ninety wagons. I've even put my warhorses to hauling things."

As he spoke, Liu Chengzu tilted his head slightly toward the convoy: "Five hundred and forty thousand jin. Once we unload and go back for more, we'll need at least another fifteen hundred wagons."

Who would ever complain about too much plunder?

Liu Chengzong was instantly overjoyed and asked, "Grain — is there a lot?"

The elder brother was baffled by the question. Liu Chengzu turned to look at the convoy behind him, then back at Liu Chengzong, thinking: Haven't we already left northern Shaanxi?

He said, "There is some, but it's all in the chieftain yamen's granary. What we've hauled over are ceramics, gold and silver jewels, rare copper and iron objects, mirrors, vases, chairs, beds, armor, weapons, silks and satins... Are we short on army rations again?"

The people in the Marshal's Manor all had an abnormal sense of value, constantly oscillating between famine-year prices and peacetime prices.

Before the campaign, everyone was in a famine-era mindset. With the capture of Hehuang and the rear area smashing open the granaries of chieftains, landlords, and wealthy households, the frontline's worries about provisions had resolved themselves, and people gradually shifted back to peacetime valuations.

Even if the provisions seized in this Hehuang campaign still could not completely close the army's grain deficit, it would be close enough, and the remainder would pose no major problem.

But Liu Shizi's single question about whether there was a lot of grain instantly dragged Liu Chengzu back into the famine-scarcity pricing of utter starvation.

Liu Chengzong nodded heavily and said, "Fifteen thousand surrendered troops."

The moment Liu Chengzu heard this, he frowned and shook his head repeatedly.

Because the Marshal's Manor was constantly at war, Liu Chengzu had long wanted to have a proper talk with Liu Shizi about the problems with their army, but there had never been a suitable opportunity.

Their army was far too large, especially the low-efficiency troops.

In fact, ever since this battle began, Liu Chengzu had been thinking that after it ended, he would persuade Liu Chengzong to disband the Xining Guard's structure, purge the guard's banner troops, and simultaneously purge and streamline the three Mongol and Tibetan battalions under Xie Erhu, Ahai Daiqing, and Basang.

Those four armies alone, over twenty thousand men, consumed the harvest of nearly three thousand qing of land in a single year.

The two battalions under Yang Yao and Wang Wenxiu together ate only half that amount in a year. Without those twenty-thousand-odd men, the Marshal's Manor could support four more training battalions.

Now they had population and they had territory. With reorganization and training, sitting on two combined infantry, cavalry, and artillery legions of ten thousand men each as their main force — what could they not accomplish in the northwest?

But this was clearly not the moment to make that suggestion. Even Liu Chengzu, who had never fought shoulder to shoulder with the Mongol and Tibetan soldiers, knew deep down that he could not use them to finish a war and then immediately turn around and say they were useless.

He merely said, "We can't sustain them like this. When the time comes to reward merit, we must find a way to have some of the soldiers take up herding and farming."

"Elder Brother, you and I are thinking the same thing."

Liu Chengzong smiled and ordered Basang to lead a team to organize the wagons and haul all the grain, forage, wealth, and goods back from Liancheng. Then he beckoned to his elder brother: "Come, let's go to the tent and discuss the plan going forward."

The wisdom of later generations always stands on the shoulders of predecessors. The greatness of predecessors lies precisely in spreading their ideas and wisdom.

It is like the difference between a famed general and a military strategist. There was only one Xiang Yu, but after Sun Wu, anyone could be Sun Wu.

Liu Chengzong, coming after the Hongwu Emperor, naturally knew the guard system the Hongwu Emperor had established like the back of his hand. He too had thought of farming colonies, but he believed the matter could be put off for a while.

The war was still ongoing. He wanted to scoop up everything that could be scooped up during the war before considering postwar matters.

Along the way, Liu Chengzong chatted with his elder brother about the plan to advance on Lanzhou. He had not expected that as they neared the central-army command tent, his brother would retrieve two items from horseback and, upon entering the tent, place them on the commander's desk.

One was a wooden box; the other was a long scroll.

Opening them for a look, the wooden box contained a pile of official seals — the camel-knob gold seal of the Yuan dynasty's Prince Anding, Tuohuan, the turtle-knob silver seals of his generals, and so on. The long scroll was a map, drawn by Liu Chengzu along his line of march, of the mountains, rivers, market towns, villages, roads, and watchtower forts in places like Nianbo and Liancheng.

This Hehuang topographic map was to be handed over to Liu Chengzong, with the suggestion that it be recompiled into a comprehensive map back in Xining. The Prince Anding gold seal, meanwhile, was plunder Liu Chengzu had seized when he stormed Chieftain Lu's yamen.

For his part, Liu Chengzong produced a thick roster for his elder brother to review. It was a directory of wealthy households reported by the surrendered soldiers, covering over seven hundred households across the entire Lintao Prefecture, with rough estimates of their wealth and goods, livestock, locations, defensive strength, and the like.

Liu Chengzong said the roster was not yet fully compiled, but by his estimate, these people already possessed the capacity to resolve the Marshal's Manor's grain and forage deficit. There was only one problem: the unit of wealth measurement on the roster was taels of silver, not dan of grain.

Seventeen households had fortunes exceeding ten thousand taels; one hundred and eighty households exceeded five thousand taels. The minimum threshold to make the list was one thousand taels.

So they might plunder more precious metals than they could ever spend, yet fail to secure enough grain to eat. Therefore, the granaries outside the prefectural seat of Lintao, Didao County, Hezhou City, and Lanzhou City remained their targets.

Liu Chengzong said, "I'll lead the infantry battalion and the hunting battalion to besiege Lanzhou. Yang Yao will go to Jin County. Elder Brother, you go to Didao — there are still troops of the Lintao Guard over there. Plunder if you can; if you can't, wait for Yang Yao to finish up and come south to help, then sweep Hezhou, and finally return via Lanzhou. How does that sound?"

Liu Chengzu looked at the roster. To be honest, without the experience of being a Shaanxi roving bandit, no one could have produced a roster like this.

The person who wrote the roster had listed the estimated wealth and goods of each plunder target, and beside them were annotations added by Liu Chengzong — reference troop strengths for raiding the various targets.

For example, wealthy grain-merchant households were the top-priority, number-one targets: low risk, high reward. Recommended troop strength: two hundred.

Princely estates, the Imperial Horse Administration, and official granaries were second-tier targets: high risk, high reward. Recommended troop strength: no fewer than one thousand.

Next were wealthy households of officials and gentry, which generally offered modest rewards and were mixed in among the common populace. Recommended: a four-hundred-strong detachment with strict discipline to carry out the mission.

Finally, there were the military officers of the guards. In fact, many of the wealthy households reported by the surrendered soldiers were of guard-officer origin. Some surrendered soldiers even reported that their own commanding officers had money and grain at home — only for those same commanding officers to be among the surrendered troops themselves.

Plundering this lot required mobilizing at least two thousand troops, because guard officers lived clustered together, all had household guards and military dependents in their compounds, and robbing them was considerably more difficult.

Extremely professional.

Liu Chengzu could find no fault whatsoever.

The only misgiving in his heart was that quite a few of the people on this roster could actually be won over. But unfortunately, at present the Marshal's Manor had no need to win anyone over. They were only short on grain.

Liu Chengzu only cared about what was right in front of him. He had no interest whatsoever in the things Liu Chengzong talked about, like seizing the Guanzhong region.

Those things were fine to daydream about — after all, their decisions didn't count for much anyway. All it would take was one drought this summer, and no long-term goal would matter. If things went badly, they might even lose Hehuang and have no choice but to enter Shu through Dajianlu.

Do your best and leave the rest to Heaven.

On the broad direction, however, Liu Chengzu had no objections. But on the details, he put forward four suggestions.

"The captive officers on the list — let them ransom themselves. Send them back to fetch grain and then release them. Otherwise, keeping them here is just asking for trouble."

"As for the banner troops and native soldiers, the ones we plan to release can work and transport grain first. The ones we don't plan to release, pick them out and take them with us. Like with Yang Qi — bring their families into Hehuang to settle their hearts."

"Beyond that, there's Yongdeng. We need to advance troops there as well. The Zhuanglang River area has been grain-producing land since the Han dynasty. The name itself means eternal abundance of the five grains."

"And lastly, the maps. Every unit raiding the various counties must bring along army painters. Since we're preparing to seize Guanzhong within a few years, this is the perfect time to draw maps."

Liu Shizi followed this advice readily.

In the few days spent waiting for Cheng Yun to deliver the raft prisoners across, he stabilized the newly surrendered troops on one hand, and on the other dispatched Dai Daozi eastward to scout military intelligence. Word soon came back from the east — Lanzhou was in utter chaos, a perfect moment to advance.

On the twenty-eighth day of the third month, Dai Daozi's men captured a scout along the Yellow River line and brought him back — an old acquaintance, He Yong.

Liu Chengzong no longer remembered how many times this fellow had been his captive. He only felt that He Yong still had that same sneaky old look about him — the outer robe covered in boot prints kicked in by the outpost soldiers. Escorted quietly into the command tent by a guard, He Yong immediately performed a grand salute and said, "Lion General — no, He Yong kowtows before Grand Marshal Lion."

Liu Chengzong wanted to laugh the moment he saw his old friend. He pointed to a felt rug off to the side, gesturing for him to sit, and asked, "We already let you all go free — what are you doing coming back here?"

He Yong had been quite nervous too. Times had changed, and no one knew what fate awaited him coming here. But now, seeing Liu Chengzong, he relaxed as well. Rubbing his hands together, he grinned and said, "I came to see if Grand Marshal Lion still wants the court gazettes."

"Heh, you've been saving the gazettes for me?"

Liu Chengzong let out a laugh. He knew the man was joking — after all, he wasn't short on gazettes here — so he didn't follow that thread. He simply smiled and said, "I heard General He got promoted. What, he didn't get you an official post?"

"Household troop centurion." He Yong smiled. "Grand Marshal Lion is a man who does great things — a centurion isn't worth mentioning."

"A good thing. When General He becomes Regional Commander someday, you'll be sure to get a staff battalion assistant regional commander post." Liu Chengzong toyed with the gold seal of the Prince of Anding in his hand and asked He Yong, "Did General He send you? What's the matter? Speak."

Hearing Liu Chengzong mention the post of staff battalion assistant regional commander, He Yong's brows shot up sharply. That was a rank he never dared even imagine.

Even if this war went perfectly smoothly for the Ming army, He Renlong would at most be granted Mobile Corps Commander. Only with luck good to an extreme degree would he make Assistant Regional Commander. Where on earth would he, He Yong, ever become an Assistant Regional Commander?

But this was no time for idle daydreams. Terrified of angering Liu Chengzong and getting thrown out, He Yong hurriedly got to the point: "Is the Grand Marshal going to attack Lanzhou?"

Who asks a question like that?

Liu Chengzong smiled. "Is General He planning to be my inside agent and help me break the city?"

"Huh?" He Yong froze, then hurriedly shook his head. "General He wants to ask the Grand Marshal — could you please not attack the section of wall we're defending?"

Liu Chengzong rubbed his chin. "What's in it for me?"

"The General hopes that, for old times' sake, the Grand Marshal won't wipe out the Yansui Army completely."

After saying this, He Yong glanced left and right. The gesture puzzled Liu Shizi — there was no one else in the command tent.

"I also have a piece of intelligence."

He Yong leaned forward on the felt rug and said in a low voice, "Grand Marshal, don't seize the ferry boats. The cabins are packed with gunpowder. Lian Guoshi has also buried mines at the crossing — steel wheels, they explode the moment you step on them. And Zhang Quanchang has set an ambush at Lama Ridge with musketeers and gunners to kill you."

Liu Chengzong's face betrayed nothing, but his heart gave a violent lurch. Boats, the crossing, mountain ridge ambush — they were utterly determined to kill him.

He asked, "Why tell me this?"

"Afraid your brother will massacre the city."

He Yong was quite sincere. He felt that if he didn't reveal this, Liu Chengzong was as good as dead, and then Liu Chengzu in his fury would be capable of anything.

He spoke slowly and clearly: "Thanks to the Grand Marshal's favor years ago, I saved up some silver. I got married the year before last — married the Chang family's former cook. Last year, we had a baby."

Having said this, He Yong raised his head and looked at Liu Chengzong with a very strained smile. "I want to live. I don't want to die here."

The Chang family cook — Liu Chengzong had an impression of her. Back when he was still studying martial arts in Mizhi, that young cook was already famous as a beauty. But as he recalled… that girl seemed to have been taken as a concubine by someone back when his father was promoted to tax officer in Yan'an Prefecture.

Liu Chengzong: "You killed a man and stole his wife?"

He Yong thought to himself, aren't you going to congratulate me? He hastily waved his hands. "No, no, no, I didn't. Zhang Yichuan — the one called King Sweeper — he killed Master Qi and seized all his wives and concubines. I happened to know Zhang Yichuan, so I asked for her back."

What could Liu Chengzong say? He Yong had some wild methods himself. He cupped his fists. "Congratulations, congratulations — a good thing… a gift for the baby."

He Yong froze. He saw Liu Chengzong toss over a piece of gold. Only when he caught it did he realize it was a third-rank princely seal from the Yuan dynasty. Startled, he hurriedly tried to return it.

"Keep it. Those landmines can't kill me. But every single one of my soldiers is worth more than these few taels of gold."

This was a seal of a former dynasty, now an antique. By rights, its value far exceeded its weight. But in Liu Chengzong's hands, it held no significance — he could carve as many as he pleased. Its value was only its weight.

And in He Yong's hands, the thing was equally unsellable. If he didn't keep it as a family heirloom worth his very head, he could only melt it down or cut it up to use. So it really was just a few taels of gold.

As he spoke, Liu Chengzong pointed at He Yong. "Mount the city and hold your position. Plant seven banners on the wall, and I'll know General He is there. If the landmines and ambush turn out to be real, I'll have another gift for you when the battle is over."