Chapter 437: A Crafty Commoner

Inside the Lanzhou Regional Commander's yamen, Regional Commander Shi Xiang sat in the hall, utterly distraught.

As the twelfth month drew nearer, every officer in the Lanzhou Battalion who saw Shi Xiang felt deeply puzzled.

Though their Regional Commander had used silver and connections to secure a substantive post, he was born a hereditary officer of the Lintao Guard and was indeed a man of genuine ability.

The Lintao Guard was a place full of Li-family men; most successive substantive Guard Commanders were surnamed Zhao, descended from the Count of Huichuan. The Shi surname was not large, but not small either, its earliest traceable ancestor being Shi Fu, who followed Feng Sheng against Li Siqi and was enfeoffed as Lintao Centurion.

Moreover, a hereditary Guard Commander might lack real ability, but a hereditary Guard Assistant Commander, whose family oversaw military discipline and training for generations, was a post that demanded exceptional diligence — rarely held by a fool.

If the Guard Commander was a fool, the Guard Assistant Commander could still manage discipline and training; but if the Guard Assistant Commander was a fool, then all was truly lost.

The deepest impression Shi Xiang left on his subordinates was that this man had great courage. Even during this year's autumn defense, when the Marshal's Mansion deployed troops at the river mouth and the standoff was so tense, Shi Xiang's expression remained as usual, calm and composed.

Only these past few days, day after day, Shi Xiang's nervousness had grown more severe. Anyone could see that the Regional Commander had something on his mind — and it had to be something major.

Yet when his subordinates asked, Shi Xiang would say nothing at all.

He could not explain, because his worry stemmed from being unable to attend the Grand Marshal's wedding.

He had spent three thousand taels of silver to buy this post, and it was never about the mere assignment of Lanzhou Regional Commander — what he wanted was the future.

What was the future? Take the ancestors of the Zhao family, hereditary Guard Commanders of the Lintao Guard. Zhao An's family had originally been trusted generals under Li Siqi; they betrayed Li Siqi and joined the Ming dynasty. Later, Zhao Qi was implicated in the Lan Yu case and executed by the Hongwu Emperor, and his cousin Zhao An was punished by banishment to Ganzhou as a conscript.

The Zhao family had entrenched themselves in the Hexi Corridor for generations. Since the Song dynasty, they had loved raising horses, always keeping over a thousand large horses at home. The family custom was to select the five finest horses each year as tribute to the court, a tradition spanning the Song, Yuan, and Ming dynasties.

Even as a conscript, Zhao An persisted in sending five fine horses to the court every year, all the way through the Jingnan Campaign, winning the Yongle Emperor's favor and receiving the post of Lintao Centurion. Later, he earned merit and, during the Zhengtong era, was enfeoffed as a count, with the hereditary post of Lintao Guard Commander.

In forty-nine years, from a convicted conscript, he transformed into the exalted rank of count.

The wisdom of the forebears who built their legacy lay plainly before Shi Xiang. The opportunity of a dynastic change was rare, but if one encountered it and seized it, one could make one's clan prosper for a hundred years.

Mencius put it well: only the wise can serve the great with the small.

In this tiny patch of land in the northwest, scraping out a living, what matter could be greater than personally delivering a gift on the Grand Marshal's wedding day?

There was none.

The value of the gift did not matter — value merely reflected one's means. Whether one gave a gift at all concerned one's intentions, and intentions mattered greatly.

So here was the problem: the Emperor's eyes and ears, Cao Huachun, had now entered the New City, making it impossible for Shi Xiang to go there in person to deliver his gift. Was this not worth his anxiety?

As the wedding day loomed, Shi Xiang was as frantic as an ant on a hot pan.

Just then, a subordinate reported to him: "General, a great disaster — Xi'an is under attack! Over ten thousand roving bandits, raising the Chuang banner, are bombarding Xi'an Prefecture!"

Shi Xiang was first startled, then delight crept over his brow. Was this not a pillow delivered just as he felt drowsy?

He inquired into the details thoroughly, and once he had clearly probed the situation at Xi'an Prefecture, his mind relaxed completely.

Shi Xiang had been to Xi'an city. Ten thousand-odd men meant nothing to that mighty fortress. The city had been rebuilt during the Hongwu era atop the old imperial city of the Sui and Tang dynasties. The walls stood over three zhang high, five zhang wide at the base, three zhang wide at the top, with a circumference of fully twenty-seven li — rammed earth clad in brick. Along the walls were 5,984 crenellations, ninety-eight bastions, and a broad moat.

Compared to Xi'an Prefecture, Lanzhou hardly counted as a large city.

Against walls as thick as a mountain, never mind a thousand-catty heavy cannon — even if a hundred ten-thousand-catty cannons were arrayed and fired twenty- or thirty-catty shot nonstop for a day and a night, pouring three hundred thousand catties of gunpowder down, they still could not blast this city down.

Whether they brought cannons, or how many they brought, meant little. Only grain — how much grain they brought, how many troops they brought — held meaning.

To take such a city, one relied on the greater momentum, on human lives and human hearts.

One had to eliminate all mobile heavy troop groups around Xi'an Prefecture, sweep away every rebel force outside the city, possess the vast stores of grain to sustain an encamped army, besiege until hearts within the city crumbled and the gates opened in surrender — or fill every obstacle with human lives.

At present, that Chuang bandit force possessed none of these conditions.

Shi Xiang therefore judged that this roving bandit force besieging Xi'an Prefecture had ulterior motives — they were most likely aiming to plunder grain supplies in the Guanzhong region. Lanzhou would not be affected for now. Only then did he feign alarm: "This is terrible — Eunuch Cao is still in Hehuang!"

Shi Xiang slapped his thigh and shouted: "Saddle the horses — saddle them at once!"

That very afternoon, the Lanzhou Regional Commander abandoned his post, galloped across the Yellow River into the valley, and, leading his trusted men and bearing gifts, rode all the way toward the New City under the guidance of the Hehuang eastern pass garrison.

He arrived at the New City just in time for the first day of the twelfth month. The Marshal's Mansion had begun hosting banquets that day to entertain guests, kin, and friends. The whole city was decked in lanterns and colored banners, with the sound of firecrackers everywhere. The great courtyard beside the Marshal's yamen was filled with feasts, strains of music rising and falling, entertaining guests who had traveled from all over.

Gift-bearing carts clogged the streets. The gate stewards announcing the good news had shouted themselves hoarse. Guests clad in flying-fish and dou-niu robes, official robes, Tibetan robes, and Mongol robes threaded through the streets — a scene of extraordinary bustle and festivity.

Suddenly, an announcement rang out from the gate: "Shi Xiang, Regional Commander of Lanzhou of the Great Ming, respectfully congratulates the Grand Marshal on his joyous wedding. Gift list: four large fireworks."

The gate steward making the announcement was dumbfounded. The guests, too, set down their cups and chopsticks one after another, staring agape toward the gate.

This man was truly bold — he actually dared announce the title of a Great Ming Regional Commander. Never mind that half the courtyard was filled with rebel officers; Cao Huachun and his crew of Embroidered-Uniform agents and military eunuchs were right next door, separated by a single wall.

And the gift list was even more absurd. Though all comers were guests — and students of the New City Academy had indeed offered congratulations with two hundred copper cash — what in the world were "four large fireworks"?

He might as well have not announced his name and just slipped in for a free meal.

Cao Huachun, eating next door, was stunned when he heard it.

Liu Chengzong was still kind-hearted. Though he had once coerced Cao Huachun as a hostage all the way to Xining, that was because coercing him had been useful. Now that coercing Cao Huachun was no longer useful, he treated him rather well, setting two special tables in the yamen's eastern tower so Cao Huachun and his accompanying Embroidered-Uniform agents and military eunuchs could dine inside the yamen.

Cao Huachun had been quite pleased at first, but when he heard the official title bellowed by the loud-voiced gate steward next door, he bolted out at once.

In a flash, the guards saw a blur — a great scarlet rat, a three-peaked hat atop its head and the hem of a flying-fish robe lifted below, shot like the wind out of the Marshal's Mansion yamen and dashed straight for the courtyard filled with banquets.

Cao Huachun was determined to see for himself: where had this Lanzhou Regional Commander come from, daring to abandon his post and come to the New City to congratulate Liu Chengzong? This Regional Commander's career was finished!

Before he even reached the gate, he heard the courtyard erupt in noise again. Entering to look, he saw that people had already ceased to pay Shi Xiang any mind, because Liu Chengyun had personally risen from his seat to welcome this Lanzhou Regional Commander.

"Let us fellows see — which one is General Shi from Lanzhou!"

Cao Huachun was seething with rage. Even Chengyun, who was just then leading Shi Xiang toward a seat, was taken aback for a moment.

Chengyun, too, was thrown off. He was inwardly wondering: did Shi Xiang not know Cao Huachun was here? And if he knew, why did he still dare to come?

Just as he was about to step in and deflect a few words for him, he saw Shi Xiang pat his hand, giving him a reassuring look, then turn and prostrate himself: "Eunuch Cao, your humble subordinate has come to protect you! May I ask to step aside for a word?"

Cao Huachun's anger caught in his throat. He suppressed his fury and walked outside. Chengyun watched the two men's backs as they walked off side by side, then turned to look toward Liu Shizi at the seat of honor. He saw his second brother glance outside with an easy expression, nod lightly, then turn back and pull Cao Yao and Yang Dingrui into some conversation. So Chengyun followed them out.

He had just stepped out when he heard Shi Xiang, standing outside the courtyard with Cao Huachun, say: "Eunuch Cao, great chaos has broken out again in Guanzhong. Roving bandits calling themselves the Dashing King, with massive momentum, have raised the rebel banner and besieged Xi'an Prefecture itself!"

"Your humble subordinate feared for your safety, and so abandoned his post and risked death to enter Hehuang. Eunuch, should the Hehuang rebels stir at the news and jointly seize Guanxi and Guanzhong, I fear your life would be in peril... Return to Lanzhou with me?"

Cao Huachun was thoroughly taken in by Shi Xiang's tale. He knew what Xi'an Prefecture's city was like, but Shi Xiang had not told him all the details — he only said the momentum was massive, which made the matter exceptionally grave to him.

If a city as large as Xi'an Prefecture was besieged, how dire must the situation be?

In turn, all of Cao Huachun's anger dissipated, and the look he gave Shi Xiang held a trace of gratitude: "Regional Commander Shi, you are both brave and resourceful. We fellows will remember your goodwill, but we cannot return without authorization. Having received the Emperor's decree, even if it's a mountain of blades or a sea of flame, we must tread it."

Shi Xiang said nothing, only pressed his lips tightly together, gazing at Cao Huachun with reverent eyes, and clasped his fists heavily.

Everything was unfolding just as he had envisioned — until someone poked out from behind Shi Xiang. Chengyun, all smiles, patted his shoulder: "What's Regional Commander Shi talking about, so mysteriously... I hear rebel troops have struck Guanzhong?"

Cao Huachun recovered his composure and said with a smile, "General Three need not worry overmuch — it's nothing more than some unruly folk stirring up trouble."

Chengyun smiled inscrutably and clapped his hands. "Well then, since it's nothing, shall Master Cao go back and keep drinking? Is General Yang over there, or shall we head over?"

To Shi Xiang's ears, these words carried a double meaning — the question was eerily unsettling.

Fortunately, Cao Huachun gave him no chance to make things difficult. He smiled and said, "Since General Shi has come all the way here, we fellows won't keep hiding indoors. With such a joyous occasion upon us, it's only right we go over and share a couple of cups with the Grand Marshal."

Chengyun said no more. He led the two straight back to the banquet, ordered chairs added for Cao Huachun and Shi Xiang, then plopped himself down. Meeting Liu Shizi's questioning gaze, he said with a smile, "Colonel Shi says roving bandits have struck Guanzhong. Master Cao says it's just a bunch of unruly folk making trouble."

He deliberately bit down hard on the words "unruly folk" in his speech.

In Liu Chengyun's eyes, unruly folk might exist in this world — but he had never met any.

Moreover, as for who was appearing in Guanzhong at this very moment, every last one of the marshal's generals sitting at ease in this courtyard knew it was Gao Yingxiang.

Liu Chengzong threw his head back and laughed. "Those are no ordinary unruly folk!"

But Cao Huachun did not know it was Gao Yingxiang. He could only force himself to stay calm and try his utmost to save face for the Chongzhen Emperor. "The Grand Marshal jests — what ordinary or extraordinary could unruly folk possibly be?"

Liu Chengzong asked, "Has Master Cao ever seen what unruly folk look like?"

"I have."

Cao Huachun spoke with absolute conviction, even a trace of hatred. "In youth, they eat, drink, whore, and gamble. Grown, they shirk honest work. In middle age, they scheme and cut corners. In old age, they turn vicious and desperate. Frustrated, they blame heaven and everyone else. Given power and success, their character cannot match their station — they slaughter the innocent, fierce as wolves and tigers… Men like Wei Zhongxian, I have seen far too many of."

Cao Huachun had a grudge against Wei Zhongxian — a deep grudge. In his mind, the very template of an unruly person was Wei Zhongxian.

He had been sent into the palace by his family at twelve or thirteen and had always served under Wang An with great trust. He and Wei Chao, who also served under Wang An, were friends.

Later, Wei Zhongxian also entered the palace. By fawning over the junior eunuchs, he gained Wei Chao's trust, and Wei Chao recommended Wei Zhongxian to Wang An many times. And the result? Wei Chao, who had recommended him so many times, was banished to Fengyang by Wei Zhongxian. Wang An, who had trusted him, was locked up by Wei Zhongxian's men to be starved to death — after three days of starvation, finding him still alive, they simply drew a blade and killed him.

And Cao Huachun himself was implicated, banished to Nanjing to await punishment. Had Wei Zhongxian's reign of power not lasted only a year or two, and had there not been so many people to purge that his turn never came, Cao Huachun himself would likely be gone too.

Liu Chengzong had never imagined the unruly folk being discussed was Wei Zhongxian. For a moment, he had no idea how to continue. He could only ask, "They rose in arms because of hunger and cold — how can they be called unruly folk?"

"The Grand Marshal has long been in Qinghai and may not know — if the drought in northern Shaanxi were truly severe, we would not say such a thing."

Cao Huachun spoke with certainty. "This year, the drought in Shaanxi has largely eased. The common people have only just managed to rest and recover. Yet these men rise in rebellion, harming others and themselves. If that is not unruly folk, what is?"

Liu Chengzong gave a scornful laugh, then shook his head. After a sigh, he said, "I fear it is not I who does not know, but rather you, Master Cao, who has dwelled too long deep within the palace and caught the affliction of blindness and deafness… This year, the drought in northern Shaanxi was somewhat better, but a locust plague struck — the people's harvest was completely destroyed!"

Cao Huachun had been forcing himself to appear calm all along. In his heart, he was not calm at all — he was deeply panicked. Otherwise, he would never have brought up the term "unruly folk" in front of Liu Chengzong in the first place.

It was just that, as the emperor's envoy, he had to represent the emperor's dignity — though even he himself could not quite say whether this mission counted as an internal or external assignment.

Only now, when Liu Chengzong brought up something he did not know, did the calm he had forced himself to maintain finally shatter beyond repair. He exclaimed in shock, "This — the Grand Marshal's words are true?"

"You didn't encounter it on your way here?"

Cao Huachun blinked. He had only set out near the eleventh month — the locusts had long since frozen to death. He had no idea any of this had happened. Now he could only shake his head, muttering to himself, "Why did no one report this to the court?"

Once he lost his composure, Liu Chengzong became at ease.

He spread his hands. "Now does Master Cao understand why there are so many unruly folk? Look around Hehuang — are there any of the unruly folk you speak of? I'll tell you: there are. This is precisely why I have never married."

"My soldiers live in crude dugouts outside the city and drill every day — they are not unruly folk. My herders sleep under the open sky and raise livestock — they are not unruly folk. My common people live in dilapidated loess-and-thatch houses and toil bitterly — they too are not unruly folk. So who are the unruly folk of Hehuang?"

Cao Huachun looked bewildered, only to see Liu Chengzong point a finger at himself. "The one who built a city, moved into a mansion, and loafs about every day with nothing to do — I. I am the unruly folk of Hehuang. The good thing is, Hehuang has only this one unruly person."

"But under heaven — those feudal princes and titled nobles occupying every region, are they not unruly folk? The emperor in the Forbidden City and that great household of his who produce nothing, are they not unruly folk either? With so many unruly folk in this world, Master Cao, tell me — how are the law-abiding people supposed to live?"

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Good evening!