Chapter 39: Requisitioning Grain

It wasn't that Liu Chengzong was narrow-minded, or that he didn't know the government troops were marching north to suppress the bandits and could save their lives.

It was simply that the government troops of this era had rotted and fallen to a degree beyond all remedy — he was a government soldier himself, and a frontier soldier at that, with treatment far better than the hereditary garrison troops of the guard posts.

Back at Yuhe Fort, would He Renlong have dared to let his soldiers go out hunting?

The reason he absolutely had to send Liu Chengzong, a household retainer, out to hunt was precisely because he knew full well that when frontier troops went out, it wasn't hunting — it was plunder.

To say nothing of the guard post troops, whose treatment was far worse than the frontier forces.

The Great Ming's military system was complex. It originally relied on the guard post armies established by the Founding Emperor — guard posts spread across the realm, each post comprising 5,600 households with their own military farmland, serving as soldiers by hereditary occupation generation after generation.

Later, as guard soldiers were enslaved by officials and their military farmland was seized, desertions appeared and combat strength plummeted with shocking speed, giving rise to the camp soldiers and recruited soldiers.

During Zhang Juzheng's administration, every corner of the Great Ming experienced a brief dying flicker of revival, but by this time it was once again in rapid decline.

How does that saying go? Bandits pass through like a comb; soldiers pass through like a fine-toothed lice comb.

If this unit had looked to be in good spirits, with armor and equipment complete and morale high, that would have been one thing.

But the way they looked, no matter how you saw it, was nothing like that.

If they really ran into a bastard of a commander, it wasn't impossible that he'd start by butchering Xingping Village and taking their heads to claim military merits.

After all, the strong swing their blades at the strong; the weak draw their swords on the weak.

Liu Chengzong's attitude toward this unit was mostly one of guarded vigilance.

Guarded vigilance meant staying alert in his mind, but in reality, he had no way to act on it.

He could set up wooden barricades to keep bandits blocked at the foot of the mountain — if they dared come up, it would be a fight to the death — but he could never do the same to government troops.

Fortunately, Xingping Village still had Liu Xiangyu.

Liu Xiangyu had once served as the Tax Bureau Commissioner of Yan'an Prefecture. Though he had never dealt directly with the several leading officers of Yan'an Guard, he was acquainted with them to some degree. Hearing that government troops had arrived at the foot of the mountain, he took his sons to welcome them at the village entrance. Once they met and recognized each other, the words that followed came much more easily.

"Fourth Master Liu!"

The chiliarch leading them wore bright armor and kept one hand on the saber at his waist, a jade pendant hanging from his belt. He looked exceedingly sharp and capable, even bearing a touch of the refined scholar-general. Catching sight of Liu Xiangyu standing at the village entrance, he swung down from his horse and strode over, smiling as he stepped forward and clasped his fists in salute: "This junior is under the Prefect's orders to head north and exterminate the bandits. I should not have come to trouble you, but circumstances truly... I beg the old gentleman's generous forgiveness."

"General Zhang, your words are mistaken. You gentlemen protect our homeland by marching north to root out the bandits — we village elders ought to do our duty. Whatever the government troops need, say it plainly, and the people of Xingping Village will do their utmost to supply it."

"In a famine year, no one has it easy. With those words from Fourth Master, my heart is much more at ease."

Chiliarch Zhang kept his posture humble and his speech far from overbearing. Smiling genially, he raised four fingers: "I need to eat one meal here, and take two meals' worth with me. If Fourth Master can manage that, the banner troops will camp outside the village."

The "banner troops" he spoke of were the guard post soldiers. Liu Chengzong, standing behind his father in his padded jacket with his elder brother, heard the unspoken half of those words — there was a sentence left hanging.

'If you can't manage it, the banner troops will camp inside the village.'

Old Master Liu nodded repeatedly and smiled. "Three meals. How many soldiers' rations does General Zhang need our humble village to prepare?"

Liu Chengzong watched the chiliarch surnamed Zhang spread the fingers of his raised hand wide open: "Five hundred men. I won't insist on meat or vegetables, but the dry rations must fill their bellies."

Five hundred men?

Liu Xiangyu forcibly stopped himself from turning his head to look at Liu Chengzong. After a brief moment of thought, he agreed readily and said, "General, in that case, this old man will first instruct the village women to prepare this meal, and then make dry rations for the road. But I must trouble your many soldiers to rest a while outside the village."

Seeing his wish granted, Chiliarch Zhang kept that same genial smile on his face, bowed slightly with hands clasped, and said, "This junior thanks Fourth Master. Let me also set Fourth Master's mind at ease — once we set out on this campaign, we will surely slaughter every last one of those bandits and restore peace to the prefectural seat."

With those words, the two parted and returned to their own sides. Before long, cooking smoke rose from the village, and the guard soldiers outside the village, after a cheer, had also chosen their campsite.

It was plain to hear — Xingping Village providing the meals made them very happy.

But the villagers were not happy about this matter. Amid the grumbling complaints passing from mouth to mouth, Liu Chengzong accompanied his father and brother through the streets back home. Cao Yao, who had returned earlier, was sitting on the stone steps at the main gate, spitting on the ground: "Goddamn it. If the government office won't give them grain or pay, can they even march? Barely three hundred men in total and they've got the gall to demand rations for five hundred. Shameless. Ptui!"

"Seeing that grinning face of his makes me want to fire a blunderbuss right at it."

Liu Chengzu stepped forward and waved his hand dismissively. "Always spouting useless talk. Having government troops come is a good thing. Those banner troops in the guard posts don't get enough to eat and have no strength — you want them to go into battle and throw their lives away? It saves the village folk from having to fight the bandits to the death. Each household gives up three to five days' worth of dry rations — just give it and be done."

Liu Chengzong, behind them, pursed his lips and said nothing. What Cao Yao had said was exactly what he was thinking in his heart.

Just look at that General Zhang — smiling genially, speaking a few soft words, yet blatantly using his power to pressure them, and getting everything he wanted.

He didn't get involved in the two men's bickering. Both were elder brothers to him, and it wouldn't be right to take either side. So he simply stepped forward and said to his father, "Da, give Brother Cao one of the matchlock arquebuses from the machine corps."

"He used to be in the capital army's firearms battalion. He's a crack shot with a firelock. If trouble comes later, having an arquebus will make things easier."

Liu Xiangyu turned his head, puzzled. "What, does Lion think Chiliarch Zhang can't put down the bandits?"

Liu Chengzong pursed his lips. He was honest, and shook his head. "I don't know. If they really fight, they can probably win, but I'm just afraid these banner troops won't give it their all."

"What makes you say that?"

Liu Chengzong spread both hands. "A soldier eats for serving — that's the natural order of things."

"If the court provides food, the soldiers can fill the ranks. If it provides money, the soldiers can go kill. If the court gives them the hope of a good wife to sleep beside and a fine house to live in, the soldiers can carry their own heads into battle. Da, look at the court, look at what that General Zhang can give those banner troops outside."

"I don't really understand the business of war either, but when the banner troops have to beg even the grain to fill their bellies from us, you can't judge a campaign solely by the morale of the court and the commanding officer."

He tried to phrase it as pleasantly as possible, but in truth he believed that the grain Xingping Village provided was utterly meaningless — it would even make defending against bandits harder in the future, because in his eyes, this Chiliarch Zhang was nothing more than a transport battalion commander leading troops to deliver weapons to the bandits.

Even if they did fight, counting on this bunch of militia — their combat strength might not even match the able-bodied men of Xingping Village, who had forty or fifty frontier soldiers among them.

War — war is the manifestation of a nation's total capability, and that manifestation feeds back into every aspect, shaping everything in turn.

Wasn't Cao Yao's appearance in Shaanxi precisely the feedback from the Battle of Sarhū?

Old Master Liu stood at the doorway thinking for a long while. No one knew what was on his mind, but his expression grew darker and darker. Finally, he turned his head and shot his second son a fierce glare, saying crossly, "Soldiers and civilians each have their place. If the government troops want grain, this old man will give grain. No one's dragging you north on campaign — what are you so resentful about?"

Liu Chengzong's thinking was, after all, a bit unorthodox. His elder brother Liu Chengzu was far more righteous, and seemed prompted by his younger brother's words. He looked first at the second brother, then at Cao Yao, and said, "Leaving it to them isn't safe enough after all. How about we don our armor, mount up, and go with them to suppress the bandits? We could watch each other's backs..."

Before he could finish, Cao Yao waved his hands repeatedly and cried, "Not going, not going!"

"There's not a shred of benefit in going, to say nothing of the casualties in battle. Liu Dalang, let me ask you — after the fighting, if he demands my warhorse, my armor, and my weapons, will you hand them over or not? If you hand them over, what do I use to protect myself? If you don't, can I just cut them down?"

"Forty or fifty men with no proper identity, yet their armor and equipment are better than the government troops'." Old Bandit Cao narrowed his eyes and gazed far off toward the village entrance. "Just stay put here and wait for word. If you want to go, go yourself. I'm not going, in any case."