Chapter 44: Graves

Among the riders traveling with them was a tenant farmer named Liu En. Once he confirmed there was no danger at Old Temple Village, he rode back to Xingping Hamlet to deliver the news.

Liu Chengzong, Cai Zhongpan, Cao Yao, and Lu Bin searched through the ruins of the old village, haunted by wandering lonely ghosts, until they found a house. They carried the two owners' corpses from where they lay inside out to the courtyard, and after eating, planned to make do sleeping indoors for the night.

The backgrounds of the three men who had come over from Black Dragon Mountain all enabled them to suppress their fear of death.

Lu Bin was a survivor of this village. There was no time for them to run back to Black Dragon Mountain to sleep at night, and besides, none of them could be bothered to run back again the next day, so they made this decision.

Never mind that the weather was still cold — even if the spring breeze were mild and pleasant, sleeping outdoors was still not as comfortable as sleeping inside a house.

In the days that followed, Liu Chengzong stayed on at Old Temple Village, carrying corpses and digging graves amid the ruins.

Fortunately, the weather was still cool, which kept the work from becoming too grueling. But because it was the busy farming season and Black Dragon Mountain could only spare twelve able-bodied men to help, and the number of corpses was truly overwhelming, they were severely shorthanded.

Fortunately, starting from the second day, the cooking smoke rising again from Old Temple Village drew the attention of surrounding settlements. The first to come were the common folk left behind at Ding Family Station. No one knew what mindset they came with to help, but Lu Bin drove them off anyway. The two sides quarreled and cursed, swearing oaths to kill each other someday, their tempers extremely violent. In the end, Cao Yao fired his blunderbuss to drive them away.

Later, several groups of people came in succession from the more distant Song Family Gully and Paper Mill. At first, it was just able-bodied men with bows on their backs and blades at their waists watching from a distance. Only after they confirmed that the people in the ruins were merely hauling corpses and digging pits did they dare to steel themselves and come closer to ask questions.

Both villages had a few survivors who had fled from Old Temple Village. When they met Lu Bin and his brothers, they naturally embraced and wept bitterly, having survived the calamity.

With their help, the common folk who had perished at Old Temple Village were able to be buried two days earlier.

Four hundred and seventy-two desolate graves were buried in the bleak farmland. Without tombstones, the earthen mounds looked especially terrifying in the gloomy wind. The mere dozen or so villagers remaining from Old Temple Village threw themselves upon the mounds, weeping as if heaven and earth had gone dark.

The people who had come to help were solely focused on preserving the final dignity of a proper burial for the dead villagers. Carrying them to the fields and burying them in the earth — that was considered a job well done.

The weeping of the survivors stirred a pang of sorrow in everyone's heart. Who did not fear such a calamity befalling their own head?

"What's there to cry about? Can they even tell who's buried in which mound? Might as well take this chance to scatter some seeds."

Cao Yao was on horseback in the distance. Over the past few days, he had been too lazy to do the work of carrying corpses. On the first day, he dug a few grave pits, but the next day, when he saw villagers coming to help, he stopped working altogether. He spent the whole day riding his horse in circles, claiming he was keeping watch on the perimeter in case the bandits came back for a surprise attack.

Liu Chengzong knew that old scoundrel Cao just found it bad luck and was too lazy to help with this task.

Now, right beside Liu Chengzong's ear, he was making snide remarks again: "Look, not even a reed mat — very few were even wrapped in cloth when they were lowered. If no one's here next year, I'll bring the lads over and plant grain on every damn one of them. This land is so fertile."

This idle, nonsensical talk was a bit out of place. Liu Chengzong merely shot him a glance and said irritably, "Live until next year first, then we'll talk. The bandits have quite a few mules and horses, and they've even got pack-howitzer. If they come back, we won't be able to stop them either."

That the bandits had cannon was something Liu Chengzong had deduced. While carrying corpses from the village's sturdiest compound, he had noticed half a wall riddled with fist-sized holes and dense small shot marks — the only weapon that matched such traces was a cannon.

A mix of large and small iron balls, loaded together — the standard method the Ming army used when firing cannon.

The marks of cannonballs made these roving bandits extremely dangerous in his mind.

Blades, swords, bows, and crossbows — flesh and blood clad in armor could barely withstand them. But even wearing heavy armor, one could hardly escape unscathed from a direct hit by a firearm, let alone a cannon.

This discovery of his, however, seemed to be within Cao Yao's expectations: "I know. Two breech-loading swivel guns, carried on mules. As soon as these bandits arrived here, I was looking for a chance to seize the cannon."

"There was just no opportunity." He pursed his lips and shook his head. "Besides those two big guns, the bandits also have two flying thunder bomb launchers."

Liu Chengzong had originally thought the bandits having one cannon would be impressive enough — he never imagined they had two breech-loading swivel guns, and also this newfangled thing he had never heard of. He couldn't help asking, "How do they have cannon, and four of them?"

"The flying thunder bomb launcher isn't a big cannon. It's similar in concept to a three-barreled hand cannon — both are mounted on a pole. But the front end is a foot-long iron gourd that fires explosive shells. When firing, you first ignite the propellant charge, then ignite the iron gourd, and that launches the explosive shell. The range isn't far, but it's very formidable — it can blast a whole group of people. Only problem is, sometimes it's a dud."

Similar to... a mortar?

Cao Yao's description was very abstract.

Fortunately, Liu Chengzong had another set of memories, so it was easy to understand. It was essentially a small-caliber mortar that lobbed explosive shells in an arcing trajectory. It had many advantages, and only two drawbacks.

Short range, and prone to being a dud.

But in Liu Chengzong's eyes, these couldn't even be called drawbacks. If this thing could shoot fifty paces, that was enough. As for the dud problem, that was even less of an issue. As long as one out of ten shots exploded, the psychological shock to the enemy would be far greater than ten solid cannonballs.

Once the formation was broken, who could still fight?

"As for the bandits having cannon, it's not strange at all. This isn't the Jiajing era anymore. Even breech-loading swivel guns are antiques from a hundred years ago. Nowadays, which fort along the Nine Border Garrisons doesn't have a dozen or more cannon? These bandits have deserters from everywhere — Yansui Garrison, Gansu Garrison, and especially those from Guyuan Garrison, who are genuine rebels."

Cao Yao grew more and more animated as he spoke, and even began lecturing Liu Chengzong: "Now the imperial court is all about red-barbarian cannon. I reckon they're similar to Master Huang's cannon. The old Minister purchased dozens of skilled cannon-makers from Fujian and sent them to the capital garrison. The cannon they made are longer than you are lying down — two or three thousand catties. To fire them, you have to dig two pits. You light the fuse, then run and jump into a pit, otherwise the blast can injure you."

Having said this, he still hadn't had his fill: "Once you've seen those cannon, you stop being afraid of these little miscellaneous guns."

"I'd still be afraid."

Liu Chengzong was very serious. Who could not be afraid of cannon? Old scoundrel Cao was just bragging: "Even if you just set a breech-loading swivel gun in front of me, I'd be afraid."

Hearing these words, Cao Yao seemed pensive. He paused for a moment, then looked at the undulating grave mounds in the distant wasteland and said, "Lion, what do you say I take the lead and make a tour of the surrounding villages — we set up a Coiled Dragon River Self-Defense Pact, how about it?"

"A Coiled Dragon River Self-Defense Pact — how would we defend ourselves?"

"I've looked at the fields along the river. Where there's irrigation, there's a harvest. From Paper Mill in the north to Black Dragon Mountain in the south, a stretch of forty li, we station four or five of our riders in each village. Every month, they provide ten dan of grain. Our border army brothers get someone to support them, and when bandits come, we can relay messages and come to each other's aid, protecting the villages together."

Liu Chengzong listened to him say this and nodded. "If it can be done, that would of course be best. I'm only afraid others won't be willing..."

The fate of Old Temple Village had already proven that an isolated village could not withstand a bandit raid, and Battalion Commander Zhang had proven that government troops could not be relied upon. In truth, even if Battalion Commander Zhang had led his troops and fought the bandits head-on, it would have been of no use to the dead souls of Old Temple Village.

"Leave that to me — I'll handle the talking. But no rush."

Cao Yao stroked the stubble on his chin and raised a hand to point at the surrounding land. "These people need to eat. Let's partner up and buy the land of Old Temple Village."

Note:

"Master Huang's cannon" in the text refers to the Luzon great bronze cannon. In the forty-seventh year of the Wanli reign, Minister of War and Grand Tutor to the Crown Prince Huang Kezuan funded the recruitment of sixteen skilled Luzon cannon-makers from Tong'an County, Fujian, and sent them to Beijing to cast cannon.

The Ming dynasty's red-barbarian cannon had four channels of development: Xu Guangqi's first purchase and import; Fujian's reverse-engineering of Dutch cannon salvaged from the sea; Huang Kezuan's commissioning of craftsmen familiar with Spanish bronze cannon casting to produce imitations; and Xu Guangqi and others studying and disseminating Western artillery theory.

This was a gradual process, and the craftsmanship used to manufacture the cannon remained indigenous technology throughout.