Chapter 41: Mother's Brother

The next day was the same as before.

Though the government troops from Yan'an Garrison had already marched on Old Temple Village to exterminate the bandits, the Black Dragon Mountain militia still dared not relax.

Liu Chengzong held his post firmly, brought his warhorse and armor, dug the trench with Stone and Guo assisting, and slept through the night.

In the morning, after eating, idle time was idle time — the food back home was far better than at Fish River Fort, so Liu Chengzong resumed his training.

The training was partly for him, and partly for his warhorse.

As the saying goes, a long illness makes a doctor; a man who has soldiered long enough can devise his own training plan.

His training plan for the warhorse was even more mature than the one for himself.

The daily exercise load he set for Red Banner was different each day: the first day was a slow walk, the next day a fast run, the third day practiced explosive charges, the fourth day practiced pursuit, the fifth day practiced collision drills — and so on, cycling endlessly.

He also put his mount through a daily routine: over a one-li distance, first a short stroll, then a slow trot, then letting the hooves fly in a full gallop, then slowing to a canter, and finally a flat-out sprint.

Kept up over time, the warhorse would not only have excellent endurance and speed, but would also remember to conserve strength during a charge, and grow familiar with the combat sequence of a single engagement: approach, mounted archery, pursuit, skirmishing, and even the charge to rout the enemy.

Red Banner remembered all these old skills; at Fish River Fort, during firearms drills, it was often led out to listen to the gunfire, so it feared neither arquebus nor cannon. Setting aside the stamina damaged by two years of frequent hunger, this was truly a warhorse of superb foundation.

With ample rations and half a year of careful feeding, Red Banner could carry a fully armored Liu Chengzong sixty li in a day and still fight ten bouts.

That was nearly the limit for a charge-fighting horse; any farther and you would need two extra mounts.

By the time Red Banner's training ended, the sun had already climbed high. Liu Chengzong craned his neck to look north but saw no movement, so he had to lead his horse back to the mountain path — yet to the south, he caught sight of figures.

On the official road through Coiling Dragon Stream, two figures approached from the south; their faces were similar.

The slightly older one wore a red-tasseled felt Fanyang hat, a purple-flower short jacket, and a bundle on his back; his face and neck were covered by a white cotton sand-shield scarf, and he strode boldly forward carrying a pole-blade.

The younger one wore a blue hair-wrap, a blue cotton robe, a plain wide sash at the waist, and short cotton boots; he carried a long blade on his back, followed step for step, and from time to time glanced warily left and right.

Both looked powerfully built, and the older one was clearly in charge; they headed straight for Black Dragon King Mountain.

Such men appearing on the official road naturally drew Liu Chengzong's attention. He roused Shi Wanzhong, mounted Red Banner, and rode down the mountain. From over thirty paces away, he loosed an arrow that struck the ground at their feet and shouted, "You two — where are you from, what sort of men are you, each carrying weapons and skulking about — what business do you have on my mountain?"

"Hey, you are mighty rude! We—"

The younger man in the blue robe, startled by Liu Chengzong's arrow, angrily shrugged off his bundle, raised his long blade, and was about to advance, but the older man stopped him. That man pulled down the scarf covering his face and laughed: "Lion, you've got some nerve, daring to shoot arrows at your own mother's brother!"

Once the scarf came off, Liu Chengzong stared hard, then tumbled from the saddle, ran forward, and prostrated himself: "Uncle!"

The visitor was his maternal uncle, named Cai Zhongpan, who lived in Sanyuan County in Yaozhou, north of the Wei River. In his youth he had served as a recruited soldier, and later delivered goods for merchants in the commercially developed Sanyuan-Jingyang region. Whenever he passed through Yan'an Prefecture, he would bring the two brothers some toys and treats.

Seeing it was his uncle, Liu Chengzong, after the formal greeting, turned to Shi Wanzhong and said, "Brother Shi, make a trip home for me and tell my mother that Uncle has come."

Hearing this, Shi Wanzhong agreed and turned to go, but Cai Zhongpan, wearing an awkward expression, stopped him: "Ah, Lion, there's no rush to tell them that. Hear me out first."

Liu Chengzong nodded, of course, but Cai Zhongpan did not speak until Shi Wanzhong, tactfully, had moved off to one side; only then did he open his mouth and quietly recount the whole story.

The young man beside Cai Zhongpan was his wife's younger brother, named Chen Ruji.

Since the previous year, bandit gangs had begun appearing around Sanyuan County in Yaozhou, where Cai Zhongpan lived. Large numbers of civilians had flooded into the county seat, causing a severe grain shortage inside the city; surrounded by bandits, the city would fall without a fight the moment it was besieged.

North of the Wei River, in Shaanxi, Sanyuan and Jingyang formed the commercial center of the northwest, giving rise to a great many local and traveling merchants.

Along with a thriving economy came a flourishing culture and education; the Shaanxi Education Commissioner's Office was stationed in Sanyuan, there were extremely many families with examination honors, and this also produced a steady stream of famous officials from Sanyuan, forming a stable gentry class.

Under these conditions, facing an external enemy, the Sanyuan gentry, at the initiative of the official Wang Zheng, who was in mourning at home, established a landlord armed force called the Loyal United.

Wang Zheng was a jinshi of the second year of the Tianqi reign, a prefectural judge of Guangping, and later prefectural judge of Yangzhou. He was well-versed in machinery and possessed outstanding military and administrative ability.

On the first day of the second month this year, after obtaining the county magistrate's approval, Wang Zheng and others distributed leaflets for the North City Defense Alliance throughout Sanyuan, summoning the city's scholar-officials and wealthy families to the City God Temple, where they smeared their mouths with blood and swore an oath, founding the Loyal United Righteous Army to defend their homeland.

Thereafter, these gentry and wealthy families each took up their duties: some took overall command of the righteous army, some contributed money to hire men to forge blades and spears. The commoners who answered the call drilled on the third, sixth, and ninth days of each month, mounting the walls to stand guard, and received from their recruiting patrons a monthly wage of three mace of silver, plus food and armaments.

They agreed that once the bandits were pacified, the Loyal United would disband, and the weapons and equipment would be returned to the recruiting patrons.

Cai Zhongpan, who escorted merchant convoys back and forth between Sanyuan and Jingyang and had traveled far and wide, was a well-known martial man in the county, and was therefore specially invited into the Loyal United Righteous Army.

On the twelfth day of the second month, he led a squad of militia in the Loyal United Righteous Army's first battle, attacking the bandits entrenched at Yangshe Hamlet in Sanyuan County, routing them and driving them toward Fuping.

At the time, however, the Loyal United Righteous Army defended the north city, while the Sanyuan county troops defended the south city. Thanks to Wang Zheng's guidance in firearms and the financial resources of the many wealthy merchants, the Loyal United Righteous Army had already surpassed the south city defenders in equipment, and the leaders of the Loyal United had also come into conflict with the county magistrate.

When they sallied out to fight, the Loyal United Righteous Army bore the brunt of the enemy's attack, yet the various government battalions halted their horses and refused to advance. When the bandits launched a surprise assault on the Loyal United camp, they fought eleven consecutive engagements, while the government troops camped nearby did not loose a single arrow at the bandits.

Worse still, some officers, bribed by the peasant army, refused to send out troops, and after the battle ended, came instead to demand the heads the militia had taken so they could claim the rewards.

Cai Zhongpan had a close friend who, in the fighting during the third month, took two heads. Over a dozen government soldiers cornered him in an alley to seize them. His friend refused to hand them over, so the government soldiers hacked off three of his fingers. He still refused, and in the end the government soldiers killed him and took the heads.

Because of this, Cai Zhongpan brought his wife's brother to demand an explanation. In the chaos, they fired guns and swung blades, wounding and killing several government soldiers, then packed their bundles and fled Sanyuan — which was how they came to Yan'an Prefecture.

"If I go to your home to rest, I fear I'll only bring disaster. You must not make a big show of it and let anyone know. I've only come to borrow a few taels of silver and a few days' rations. After a drink of water, I'll be on my way."

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "Where else can Uncle go? The journey here was already fraught with a thousand perils. Since you're used to fighting bandits, why not stay right here in Xingping Hamlet? Besides, there are bandits to the north, and government troops too — you certainly cannot leave now."

"I'll take you to see my parents right now. They'll surely say the same thing when we get there."

Notes:

①. Wang Zheng, courtesy name Liangfu, pseudonym Kuixin, was a Ming dynasty scientist and mechanical engineer, and the earliest Catholic convert from Shaanxi.

Before entering official service, he researched hydraulic, wind-powered, and load-bearing machinery, and wrote the Illustrated Explanations of Newly-Built Machines. Together with the Swiss missionary Johann Terrenz, he co-compiled the Illustrated Explanations of Marvelous Machines from the Far West, published in the seventh year of the Tianqi reign (1627).

The work primarily describes Western knowledge of statics from antiquity and the Renaissance, including the geocentric theory, center of gravity and its calculation, methods for determining the volume of water and floating bodies, specific gravity, and simple machines and their combined use.

He and Xu Guangqi were called by contemporaries "Xu of the South, Wang of the North." When Li Zicheng broke through Xi'an and sought to employ him, he steadfastly refused; later, upon hearing that the capital had fallen, he fasted until he died.

②. The Loyal United gentry armed force was established in the second month of the second year of the Chongzhen reign. Reference: The Daily Record of the Loyal United.