Chapter 388: The Horse King Temple

From Ju'er Bay, traveling south along the Yaoshui River, passing Silver Gully Fort, the New City gun factory, and the Sun-Moon Mountain ironworks, a single day's march brings you sixty li out. Here stands an ancient Tang-dynasty city built against the mountains, called Yingpan City.

Yingpan City occupies a strategic position of critical importance — backed by Sun-Moon Mountain, facing Wild Bull Mountain to the south, gazing across at the watershed divide to the east, and forming a mutual horn-angle defense with Stone Fort City to the north.

Only, the Yingpan of today hardly deserves the name "city." Its sturdy earthen walls have long since crumbled under the gnawing erosion of time. Across the vast mountain platform, only rampant wild grass, beacon towers reduced to broken walls and rubble, and a solitary Horse King Temple remain.

The Horse King Temple was built no earlier than the Wanli reign. After the Tumed tribe migrated here, tea-and-horse smugglers erected it to pray that their horses would not drop dead on the return journey. The deity enshrined within is neither Yin Jiao nor Ma Yuan, the Horse Kings commonly worshipped in the Central Plains, but rather Jin Midi — the Western Han Marquis of Du and crown prince of the Xiongnu Xiutu King.

Incense smoke curled and wreathed. The spirit altar of the Horse King Temple loomed dark and forbidding. The three-eyed, six-armed Horse King glared with bulging sideways eyes, his countenance terrifying.

Below the spirit altar, an attendant military officer presented an offering tray. Liu Shizi, his expression solemn and reverent, fetched a bowl of clear water and a bundle of clean grass, placed them respectfully upon the spirit table, then bowed his head once more in salute, murmuring apologies for the disturbance.

Only after completing these rites did he step back two paces, straighten his spine, and transform from a devout, superstitious fool back into a battle-hardened commander. He said, "Come in."

At his words, the Tiger Guard Battalion soldiers arrayed in neat formation in the temple courtyard filed in, carrying several newly sculpted divine statues into the five-bay-wide main hall.

What they carried in was the statue of Chu Xu, a man who had once served as deputy commander under Huangfu Weiming, the Tang Military Governor of Longyou, and who fell in battle during the assault on Stone Fort City. Liu Chengzong had commissioned artisans to sculpt his image, enfeoffed him as an Earth God, and ordered him to receive and guide the wandering souls of the dead here.

And in the gallery halls flanking the Horse King Temple to the east and west, Tiger Guard soldiers clutching cloth bundles filed inside, neatly stacking skulls — washed clean of dirt — row upon row within the halls. One group exited as another entered, as if the procession would never cease.

There were simply too many remains here.

From New City to Yingpan City, and even extending another twenty li to the southeast and southwest — a full eighty li of deep hinterland — all of it had once been a Tang-dynasty battlefield.

In the past, the area was so sparsely populated that no one noticed anything amiss. It was only after Sky Monkey took charge of establishing the ironworks and Shi Chengwo built the new gun factory that large numbers of craftsmen, soldiers, and civilians moved into the river valley. The immense demands of daily life then spawned one market town after another along the banks of the Yaoshui River.

The military and civilian families, unsatisfied with merely carving terraced fields from the mountainsides, set their sights on reclaiming the flat, fertile valley floor. Thus, the ancient warriors buried underground for nine hundred years finally saw the light of day again.

How could ordinary commoners have ever witnessed such a sight? Plowing two mu of land would turn up seven or eight skulls; digging a house foundation would snap three or five shinbones.

The corpses were all buried extremely shallow. No one knew what had happened here. Even the seven tribes of Sun-Moon Mountain indigenous peoples who once lived in the highlands had no knowledge of the origins of the bodies buried in the river valley.

They could only deduce, from place names passed down by word of mouth — some spots called Dead Man's Gully, others called the Pit of Ten Thousand — that a terrible war had once erupted here.

The naturally developing new market towns were cut short by a war nine hundred years past. People retreated back into the mountains to search for arable wasteland, no longer setting foot below.

It was not until Liu Chengzong led his army south and soldiers digging camp ramparts and trenches at Yingpan City unearthed nine-hundred-year-old skulls that he understood the full story. Only then did people learn that buried beneath them were Tang soldiers.

In truth, they were not all Tang troops. Longyou, Hexi, Shuofang, Tujue, Tubo — for decades, forces had seesawed back and forth across this narrow Yaoshui River valley in a war that lasted scores of years. The soldiers buried in the earth had long since become indistinguishable from one another.

But to Liu Shizi, it mattered little whom those remains belonged to — rib bones and leg bones that crumbled at a touch, leaving only the relatively hard skulls behind. What mattered was building them a cemetery and giving them a proper burial.

This was not merely to accomplish what predecessors should have done but left undone; it was also because with these ancient warriors buried underground, at least seventy thousand mu of irrigable land in the Yaoshui River valley could not be put to use.

Until the cemetery was completed, these skulls — offered up by the common folk along the Yaoshui River at his command — could only be temporarily housed in the temple of the Horse King.

This also served as Liu Chengzong's compensation to the Horse King. Ever since the Marshal's Headquarters advanced into Qinghai and cracked down on smuggling with unprecedented force, this residence of the Horse King Jin Midi had fallen into utter disrepair, receiving no incense offerings for nearly three years.

So he decided to send Jin Midi a few hundred little companions to keep Master Jin company and liven things up a bit.

Liu Chengzong's central army command tent was pitched right in the courtyard of the Horse King Temple. Clutching a Kaiyuan Tongbao coin, he raised his eyes northward, gazing toward the red mountain peak not far away — that was Stone Fort City.

Stone Fort City was not a city at all, but a mountain peak that could serve as a natural fortress and watchtower. The emerald mountains had twelve sheer, towering peaks locked in a single horizontal chain, and the most strategically perilous among them was called Stone Fort Mountain.

The mountain rose fifty to sixty zhang high, with sheer red cliffs on three sides and one steeply pitched slope, making it look just like a city. Only a single narrow path called Ga Gully provided access.

The snow on the summit platform did not melt in spring, autumn, or winter. Several cartographers from the Marshal's Headquarters tasked with drawing military maps were up on that mountain right now — it offered them a vantage point to map the entire open expanse from Yingpan City to Wild Bull Mountain.

Beyond that, Stone Fort City also had a smaller hilltop platform with the foundations of several houses. If repaired, it could garrison a squad of troops to wave signal flags and conduct surveillance, taking in all intelligence from this area at a glance.

After Liu Chengzong finished negotiating the temporary loan of this precious site with Master Jin, Sky Monkey — who had been escorting the guns, cannons, and baggage — arrived. Once he had properly stowed the ammunition and provisions, he came to report.

For this campaign, the Marshal's Headquarters divided the army into three columns, with correspondingly three supply routes. The western route was the responsibility of the Naval Office, with Xie Erhu's two garrison-farming battalions providing support; the eastern route was the responsibility of Xining City, with Basang's two garrison-farming battalions providing support; the central army's supply route was the responsibility of New City, with Sky Monkey from the ironworks providing support.

Relatively speaking, the central army headquarters — serving as a defensive and supporting force — had the shortest supply line, and Sky Monkey's job was the easiest. Therefore, in addition to his responsibility for baggage, he was also tasked with planning the cemetery construction and land reclamation in the Yaoshui River valley.

Transporting baggage was no problem for Sky Monkey. However, when it came to reclaiming the Yaoshui River valley, even before the work had begun, Sky Monkey was already looking for a way to back out.

He worried that even if a cemetery were built, the common people would still be unwilling to reclaim land in this river valley, so heavily saturated with yin energy.

This worry was not unfounded. At root, the problem was a shortage of people. There were very few proper civilians in the Yaoshui River valley area — it was all military families and craftsmen's dependents.

Under the Great Ming, such status guaranteed that a family line would die out within three generations of poverty. But in the Marshal's Headquarters, up until the moment Liu Chengzong awarded medals to the entire army, they represented the wealthiest cohort of people under his rule.

The craftsmen were the first to receive silver from the Marshal's Headquarters. What they received was not military pay, but "work-and-provision silver." Under the old government practice, work-and-provision silver was given when there were jobs to do; when there was no work, there was no need to support the craftsmen.

But the Marshal's Headquarters did not follow that custom. Their craftsmen labored daily, so the work-and-provision silver naturally became a monthly wage. The headquarters also allocated them rations, making them very well-off.

Moreover, the river valley lacked population, and the ancient roads, long neglected and in disrepair, made transportation inconvenient. Without the market towns that immigration would have spawned, it became a barren backwater where trade was nearly impossible.

The craftsmen, soldiers, and civilians had silver but nowhere to spend it. The nearest market was the Ju'er Bay market sixty li away. People routinely entrusted horse caravans to bring back daily necessities, and some simply settled their families outside New City.

Even if they wanted to reclaim wasteland for themselves, the irrigated fields at the headwaters of the Huang River near New City were a far better choice than this corpse-burial valley.

Sky Monkey asked, "Commander, even if the cemetery is built, if the common folk still refuse to reclaim the land, what does the Marshal intend to do?"

"The land will be opened up one way or another."

Liu Chengzong was unconcerned. Without raising his head, he marked strongholds and drew defensive lines on the map. "Ground strewn with bones isn't so terrifying. Where under the yellow earth are the dead not buried?"

Liu Shizi chuckled and turned his head toward Sky Monkey. "Go back and ask again. The craftsmen, miners, soldiers, and civilians have toiled hard for the headquarters' armaments. For any willing to open up land, grant thirty mu per head — it's at least some income. If they're unwilling, don't force them."

As soon as Sky Monkey heard the Marshal say "don't force them," the weight hanging in his heart finally dropped. His greatest fear had been Liu Chengzong issuing him a military order that the river valley must be reclaimed. As long as it wasn't a military order, the burden on his mind was far lighter.

But immediately after, Liu Jiusi caught the implication behind Liu Chengzong's words. "Then what does the Marshal intend?"

Liu Chengzong smiled. "If these people won't open it, other people will."

In his view, reclaiming the sixty to seventy thousand mu of irrigable land was an imperative that had to be carried out.

Although the amount of valley floor here was not large, to Liu Shizi, the value of farmland lay not in quantity but in quality.

Drought was the perpetual backdrop of this era. Even though Hehuang had not yet been affected by drought at this moment, Liu Chengzong kept that string of drought-awareness taut in his mind at all times.

It was precisely for this reason that he paid excessive attention to the fields on the Hehuang valley floor while lacking concern for the Hehuang highlands... Once drought struck, all the fields in the mountains would have to be abandoned. Only fields close to rivers, equipped with water-lifting irrigation works, could possibly allow people to survive a catastrophic drought.

To keep people alive — that was the greatest merit one could achieve in this age.

Liu Chengzong said with a smile, "If the military and civilian families are unwilling to farm, then have Huang Cheng slip across to Lanzhou and recruit a force of seven or eight hundred men — specifically targeting those who don't know where their next meal is coming from. They shouldn't mind digging up a couple of old skulls while turning the soil."

Liu Jiusi couldn't place who Huang Cheng was for a moment. He paused, then asked uncertainly, "That ringleader who rose up in Hehuang?"

"Yes, Third-Class Commandant of Resolute Charge." Liu Chengzong nodded. "Sent to study at the Xining Prefectural Academy."

Third-Class Commandant of Resolute Charge was the lowest honorary rank in the Marshal's Headquarters, equivalent to a battalion deputy squad officer, a garrison-farming deputy centurion, or a deputy commander of the Five Garrisons militia.

Before the medal conferral, Huang Cheng's assignment had given Liu Shizi quite a headache. A man who had come to join him ought to be given a roughly commensurate official post, but at the moment, there truly was no suitable place for him.

A deputy squad officer assisting a captain in managing sixty men needed to be literate; a garrison-farming deputy centurion required experience leading troops and skill in arithmetic.

Huang Cheng came from the ranks of the garrison troops, so he could certainly meet the requirement that a Deputy Commander of civilian auxiliaries know how to drill soldiers. But Liu Chengzong had no vacancy for a Deputy Commander of civilian auxiliaries in his five garrisons… that rank was originally intended for ordinary soldiers who had achieved battle merits meriting several jumps in grade.

Still, Liu the Lion soon thought it through.

If he didn't meet the requirements, he would send him to study. Study is always useful to a person; only study can help a person rise. Gaining experience in military affairs is study; reading at an academy is even more efficient study.

Send him off to study, to get basic literacy and learn numbers. Wherever a vacancy opens in the future, that's where he'll be placed. Anyway, now that they had prestige titles, a Third-Class Commandant of Resolute Charge received a monthly silver stipend of one tael and six mace, a monthly grain ration of one dan and five dou, thirty bundles of horse fodder, plus corresponding allotments of tea, sauce, butter, dried meat, and dried fish.

Not much, but enough to study in peace.

Skyward Monkey asked, "But what if the people we recruit still have their taboos?"

"Still taboo?" Liu Chengzong turned his head and said with an easy smile, "Even a fierce ghost that hasn't had anyone collect its corpse for nine hundred years will steer clear when it runs into a poverty ghost."

"Poverty means the drive to yearn for a life of plenty. As long as there's a chance to turn things around, you should seize it. If they're still hung up on taboos, leaving good land that can grow grain unbroken—"

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "Then I'll give them travel expenses and send them back to Lanzhou, so they can go back to never knowing where their next meal is coming from. That's the life they deserve… The flag's waving."

Even as he spoke, Liu Chengzong saw relay soldiers on Stone Castle Mountain far to the north waving a flag. He immediately raised his telescope to look, and only relaxed when he made out that the waving flag was yellow — the relay riders had returned.

A moment later, someone at the camp fort blew the horn signal announcing the arrival of a messenger.

The relay soldier skirted around the Tiger Guard Battalion troops who were building earthen walls and digging trenches, and went straight to the central command holding the yellow flag, reporting: "Grand Commander, urgent report from the Southern Mountains."

As he spoke, the letter was passed by the central command bodyguards into Liu Chengzong's hands. He unfolded it and looked — it was a long letter from Dai Daozi.

The twenty-five relay soldiers under Dai Daozi had shaved their heads into the single small braid of the Oirat hairstyle, donned the Oirat chainmail and small red-tasseled helmets, and penetrated deep into the Heka Grassland swarming with enemy troops, scouting out the places where the Oirat coalition grazed their livestock west of the Yellow River, as well as the army encampment areas.

The Oirat coalition had set up camp along the radiating Chaka River, forming a T-shaped chain of camps across the Heka Grassland. Dai Daozi's relay riders had scouted out seventeen divisions along one route, each a small camp of seven or eight hundred men, each herding several hundred head of livestock.

When the intelligence reached Southern Mountain Fort, Yang Yao deduced that even counting enemy divisions the relay riders might have missed, the enemy troops stationed west of the river did not exceed twenty thousand. Weighing the relative strength of the enemy and his own forces, he decided to request permission to attack.

The objective was to plunder livestock and destroy fodder and provisions.

Liu Chengzong weighed the gains and losses. If Yang Yao's division struck first, it was very likely to draw support from the enemy forces in the east. If the Oirat seized the ford southeast of the Heka Grassland, they could, at very little cost, prevent Wang Wenxiu's army from crossing the river to provide support.

In that case, the crisis for Eight Corner City and the Chahar Khagan would be resolved, but it would not serve Liu Chengzong's interests.

Because the Oirat were very mobile. The crisscrossing river valleys and hills between Ulan and Dulan were countless, and they would very likely pull their main force back to the area around Golmud, Chuaidan, and Dulan, establishing de facto separatist control.

At best, that would mean a protracted guerrilla war. If the Oirat merely rested and recuperated a little before retreating, Liu Chengzong would have provoked a powerful enemy for nothing, inflicted no real damage, and would sooner or later have to fight a second battle.

Compared to that scenario, Liu Chengzong would rather trap the Oirat coalition in the more hospitable environment of Huangnan, imposing a de facto blockade on them. Even if the fighting would be more brutal, he wanted to thoroughly smash and rout this army, to devour it completely.

So his first order was not issued to Yang Yao, but rather to relay the current situation to Eastern Route Brigade Commander Wang Wenxiu, garrisoned at Guide City, ordering him to assemble his troops in two days and launch a feint to the south, threatening the Oirat forces east of the river and pinning down their ability to shift troops eastward.

The second order that followed was issued to Yang Yao, ordering him to sortie four days later and sweep the Heka Grassland — first seize the mountain passes leading to Ulan, Dulan, and other places, then sweep all the way east, plundering livestock, destroying fodder and provisions, and annihilating enemy troops.

Beyond that, Liu Chengzong also mapped out an attack route for his own central army. His three battalions would likewise sortie four days later, coordinating with Yang Yao to seize the Yangqu Ford in the southeastern Heka Grassland, occupy the mudflats on both banks, and sever communication between the eastern and western sides of the Yellow River.

In the end, he and Yang Yao would successfully link up and cross the river with the main army to support the eastern route.