Chapter 501: Luck

Bai Yiqing was not a person who insisted on getting to the bottom of things.

In the past, as Grand Coordinator of Gansu, he had discovered many problems — minor ones like officers falsely claiming rations for deserters and fodder for dead horses, major ones like powerful officials and landlords annexing farmland — and he chose to turn a blind eye to all of them, pretending not to see, acting as if he had not heard.

Because nothing could be done about them.

But this time he wanted to get to the bottom of things with Liu Chengzong, so he would go out and see what the Marshal's Army soldiers ate and what their military discipline was like.

Liu Chengzong was delighted by his insistence on getting to the bottom of things. Hearing him say this, he simply asked, "Have you eaten your fill?"

Bai Yiqing had not yet grasped what those words meant. He answered blankly, and then saw Liu the Lion pick up seven or eight slices of cold-dressed lamb with his chopsticks in one go, sweep the plate clean, and stuff them straight into his mouth to chew without even dipping them in salt. He lifted the bowl of gluten-and-meat soup and poured it straight down his throat.

In a few swift moves, he swept the table clean like a storm wind rolling up the clouds, eating every last bit. Only then did he catch his breath, raise his hands and clap, and say, "Let's go! I'll take you to see my soldiers."

Bai Yiqing was not frightened by Liu Chengzong's eating style. He too had led troops and fought battles. When he served as Military Defense Circuit Intendant in Shaanxi, he had clashed with the peasant armies and won seven great victories. He also knew many generals. From soldiers to generals, they generally all ate quite fast.

Because the battlefield is an extreme environment. No one knows how many double-hours a pitched battle might last. In the single day from before a battle begins to after it ends, a person's body weight can fluctuate by four or five jin, even eight or nine jin.

There is no food when battle begins. Those who have the means stuff themselves before going to the battlefield. After coming off the battlefield, they deal with food swiftly and decisively, gorging and drinking to excess, because no one knows when the next battle will come.

They eat a lot, stretching their stomachs wide. Soldiers, whenever they have the means, can eat and can pack it away.

The general's belly in ancient portraits is very realistic. That solid belly is a man's capital for surviving on the battlefield. War, after all, is not a contest — it has no weight classes, no need to cut weight. Very brawny men generally all have a bit of a belly.

A person with extremely low body fat does not even need to fight upon reaching the battlefield. They march to the place, stand in the sun for half a day, and collapse. Of course, the belly would not be too large either. The bellies in portraits look big because they are all wearing armor. The abdomen area of lamellar armor has padding inside, which also makes the belly look rounder.

In reality, when these big-bellied fierce men first come off the battlefield, every one of them has the arms of an ape and the waist of a wasp again... for no other reason — the extreme environment forces it. When there is no food to eat, the body feeds on its fat.

But Bai Yiqing truly had never seen anyone eat as fast as Liu Chengzong.

Faced with his astonishment, Liu Chengzong took no offense. He knew Bai Yiqing had fought in wars and understood military matters, so he laughed and said, "I have been on the battlefield all along, five years now. Slowly keeping you company for half a double-hour — it was nearly stifling me to death."

The two men led their guards out of the yamen and across the street. The streets were still under martial law, eerily desolate, gloomy and terrifying.

Every household had shut its doors for safety. Guards stood on the main streets and in the alleys. Several street corners they passed were not very clean — some had bloodstains mottling the ground, others simply had a corpse in soldier's garb or civilian clothes lying there, and at one street corner two severed hands were hung up.

Every few steps, they could see squads of three soldiers going door to door, knocking and searching, registering the city's household rolls.

On the streets, mounted troops in full helmets and armor patrolled, beating gongs, reading the proclamation to reassure the people over and over, urging the common folk to stay behind closed doors and register their households. If anyone stirred up trouble during this change of power in the city, they could inform the soldiers — theft and robbery meant chopping off hands, murder meant beheading, with no leniency whatsoever.

Although the Marshal's Army soldiers were carrying out punishments at the street corners, making every intersection a gory sight, Bai Yiqing secretly nodded in approval and even said to Liu Chengzong with praise, "Since the Grand Marshal entered the city, Ganzhou Township has become much more stable."

Liu Chengzong nodded as well and said, "The two battalions nearest the city earlier had too many surrendered troops, and their discipline was lax. Once the household registration is complete, the city can return to its normal work and life as before."

He knew Bai Yiqing's words were not mere flattery. Order was better than no order. Before he entered the city, Ganzhou had truly experienced a period without order. Wave after wave of disorderly troops entered and left the city, defeated surrendered soldiers and routed troops burrowed into the city — it had been far more chaotic then than now.

In truth, just as Liu Chengzong was observing Bai Yiqing, Bai Yiqing was also observing Liu Chengzong.

At this moment, he no longer wanted to die. Wanting to die is easy in itself — hot blood rushes to the head, the will to die arises, and once the emotion reaches its peak, in a single instant, life is gone. But once that instant passes, one must make the resolve all over again.

As long as one wants to die, solutions always outnumber difficulties.

Even being bound hand and foot would not be a problem. The day the cart driver delivered him to Zhang Tianlin's main camp, he could have opened his mouth and spat in a young soldier's face — one goose-quill saber thrust over, and all under heaven would be at peace. The moment Liu Chengzong entered the yamen and untied him, he could have slapped him across the face — and all matters would be settled.

Having not died then, it would be very hard to want to die later.

But three questions lay before Bai Yiqing. First, should a captive die for his integrity? If not dying for his integrity, should he surrender? If he surrendered, should he serve with full effort?

These three questions progressed layer by layer. The first was decided by whether he was a hero. The second was decided by Liu Chengzong's personal charisma. The third choice decided whether he was a man without shame.

As things stood, it seemed he could not be a hero. Rising from a mere scholar to a high frontier official, then suddenly discovering he had fallen from his pedestal, that his deeds and actions were utterly unworthy of his past honor and pride... the vast majority of people would be tormented by this inner hurdle for a lifetime.

Liu Chengzong led his guards all the way through the heavily guarded streets and ascended the southern city wall.

Before they even reached the top of the wall, Bai Yiqing heard the clamor and loud shouts from within the barbican. When they climbed the gate tower, the view suddenly opened wide before them. The barbican was filled with square tables large and small, two tables pushed together, six long benches seating twelve men. Nearly a thousand soldiers of the Marshal's headquarters were packed in tight, feasting with great relish inside the barbican.

Liu Chengzong leaned on the battlements at the gate tower, pointed down below the wall, and said to Bai Yiqing, "Look. See what they are eating."

Only at this moment did Bai Yiqing understand what Liu Chengzong had meant at the start of their meal when he said, "This is enough for a squad of ten." On every joined table in the barbican were laid out the same four meat dishes they had eaten, only the portions were somewhat larger than what the two of them had.

Some of the soldiers were still wearing their armor, but more were not. Their standard-issue padded jackets were open at the chest. Some, in high spirits from eating, had stripped to the waist and were squatting on the long benches, their muscular bodies fully exposed, wearing nothing but a pair of ragged padded trousers, with a saber at the waist and a musket on the table.

"This... the entire army eats this?"

As Bai Yiqing stared dumbfounded, Liu Chengzong raised his hand and pointed around them, saying, "Grace-Enveloping Gate, Broad Virtue Gate, Eternal Peace Gate, All-Bright Gate — at the barbicans of the four gates, one hundred and ten tables at each. Today, my soldiers have nothing else to do but eat and enjoy themselves."

"The four gate districts inside and outside Ganzhou are under martial law, so there is no fear of soldiers disturbing the common folk. The large companies eat below the walls. Once they have eaten their fill, the company commanders take them to tour the Eight Scenic Spots of Ganzhou. Once they have had their fun, the whole army returns to camp to study."

Bai Yiqing mused to himself that these were unlike any soldiers he had ever seen. They were just like a bunch of government students and licentiates — sit down at a tavern, order four meat dishes, eat and drink their fill, go out to tour the sights, and when they have played enough, go home to read books. Where did soldiers ever get such treatment?

And to be honest, when he saw those heavily guarded soldiers on the market streets, their armor gleaming like sunlight, he had rated the Marshal's Army's military bearing and discipline extremely highly. But seeing these soldiers in the barbican, their military bearing a mess, eating and drinking with abandon, his inner assessment plummeted straight to rock bottom.

He looked at the soldiers in the barbican, stripped to the waist, eating and drinking in great mouthfuls, then turned his head to look at Liu Chengzong on the wall, fully armored and helmeted, arms folded, his face full of pride. He weighed his words and asked, "Lord Grand Marshal Liu's method of organizing troops seems somewhat different from what I understand. If you let the soldiers out, will they still come back?"

Liu Chengzong looked as if he had heard the most absurd joke. He turned his head and asked Bai Yiqing in astonishment, "If you let them out and they do not come back, what kind of troop organization is that?"

Bai Yiqing shook his head and looked worriedly at the soldiers in the barbican. "They look... like the roving bandits I saw in Shaanxi."

The proud smile on Liu Chengzong's face instantly went cold. "On what grounds do you people call bankrupt peasants with nowhere to turn and border soldiers enraged by unpaid wages 'roving bandits'?"

Although his tone was still very calm, it frightened Bai Yiqing even more than a roaring rage with bristling hair and beard. But Bai Yiqing did not back down. He still said, "They are roving bandits. County towns lay in ruins, village lanes became wastelands — I saw it with my own eyes. The Grand Marshal also came out of Shaanxi. Do you still intend to turn black into white on this matter?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head and said, "They killed people, they looted. One leader after another was cruel and suspicious. Most of those who died under their blades were innocent people. That is true."

"But how did they set out on this road? Peasants without even a sliver of land to stand on, years of drought leaving even rented fields without a single grain to harvest, the authorities not only failing to provide disaster relief but bleeding them dry to collect taxes. Dozens, even hundreds of border soldiers, unpaid for three years, selling their children while still having to risk their heads in bloody battle against the northern barbarians — is that not slaughter?"

"They could not survive at home or in the army, so they ran out and set up a stockade somewhere, and were chased all over the ground like rabbits by the loyal ministers and fine generals of the Great Ming, relying on sturdy armor and divine weapons. You people..."

Liu Chengzong raised his hand and pointed at Bai Yiqing. "The world has come to this pass. Can you high officials and nobles still push through new policies and reforms? If reform is impossible, then the time has come to change the dynasty."

"Since Kong Jia succeeded to the throne, the people of the Xia Dynasty had no means of livelihood — King Tang of Shang could rise in revolution. When King Tang's dynasty reached Di Xin, who wallowed in wine and lust — King Wu of Zhou could rise in revolution. Ying Zheng standardized the script and the axle-width of carts and unified all within the seas, and the Han Emperor Gaozu overturned the Great Qin. Several centuries later, the common people of his dynasty still cried out that the Blue Heaven was dead."

"Which dynasty at its founding did not plead on behalf of the people? And which dynasty at its end did not leave the people without means of livelihood? It is nothing more than these parasites lying on the merit ledgers of their ancestors for generation after generation. You people sharpen your heads to snatch what is left, and after snatching it, you learn from those very parasites."

"I studied hard for ten cold years, trained in the dog days of summer and the bitterest cold of winter, learned a full set of civil and martial arts. They would not let me take the imperial exams — fine, I stopped trying. I went to be a soldier selling my martial skills. They did not pay me as a soldier — I went home. Back home, if I really had no choice, I could be a martial arts instructor or a knife grinder. To eat my fill and dress warmly was enough. If even that was not allowed, what was I supposed to do?"

"You people call those who refuse to be robbed, who refuse to fill the trenches, who are beaten and run all over the place yet survive — you call them roving bandits. Who wants to rove? It is just that the flesh and blood of common folk cannot stop cannonballs and lead bullets. If they could, they would have long since trampled the bones of the nobles all over the Heavenly Streets, and would not be listening to your noise!"

"Roving bandits!" Liu Chengzong turned his head and spat in disdain. He asked Bai Yiqing, "What, did our Founding Emperor, when he established the Great Ming, truly believe it would endure for ten thousand generations? The year after he passed, the Jingnan Campaign broke out!"

Bai Yiqing was rendered speechless by Liu Chengzong's words. On one hand, it was because anyone who had read books knew that no dynasty could endure for ten thousand generations. But from his standpoint, the Great Ming had many problems, very big ones, but the impact was not great.

On the other hand, he had never considered from the roving bandits' perspective why exactly they had to rove.

He could see that Liu Chengzong's emotions were somewhat stirred, so with a placating mindset, he asked a question he already knew the answer to: "But Lord Grand Marshal Liu did not become a roving bandit as they did. Why is that?"

The placation was very effective.

Liu Chengzong shot Bai Yiqing a glance. "Why else? Because I am brave and skilled in battle, quick-witted and intelligent, I use troops like a god, win every battle, maneuver with ease, am magnanimous and benevolent, and wily as an old fox? Because my luck is good. If my luck were bad, I would have been beaten to death long ago."

Bai Yiqing's reaction to this answer… was inwardly rather tumultuous. Hearing Liu Chengzong praise him as brave in battle and quick-witted, he felt it sounded quite fitting, but when he heard the string of self-praise that followed, he thought that for a warlord in such chaotic times to have reached this point, he must have relied on sheer shamelessness.

But when he heard the very last part, it was solidly practical, and Bai Yiqing couldn't help nodding slowly: "Everyone has luck, but whether you can rise from obscurity to the top still depends on ability."

"I am their luck. Follow me, and they live — and live well."

Liu Chengzong strongly agreed with this statement. He raised a hand, pointing at the shirtless soldiers eating below, and said: "Look at the flesh on their bodies. Any with a layer of fat are newly surrendered Ming troops; the lean, wiry ones are all my veterans. When we broke camp in Qinghai, every man was plump and strong. By the time we reached Jiayu Pass, each had lost ten to fifteen jin."

Liu Chengzong pointed a thumb at himself: "I lost twelve jin… What they have now, they've earned. Follow me, and they endure hardship and toil, but when it comes to what they're due, not a thing will be lacking."

Just then, although Liu Chengzong had long since ordered the soldiers on duty atop the wall not to inform those eating, someone in the barbican still spotted Liu Chengzong on the wall. Amid a few whispered exchanges of 'The Grand Marshal is here' and 'The Grand Marshal is on the wall,' a shirtless officer in the barbican suddenly barked an order: "Stand! Fall in!"

In an instant of chaotic footsteps, with two sharp clangs, over a thousand soldiers in the entire barbican — whether wearing armor or not, whether in padded jackets or not, whether surrendered troops or veterans — all set down their chopsticks and swiftly formed neat ranks in the gaps beside the tables and benches. Even shirtless, every man held his weapon.

The veterans, moreover, all grabbed their leather belts and fastened them around their waists as they fell in… It was just that this left the officer standing in the middle somewhat embarrassed, because every soldier was uniformly aligned, each unit facing outward from the city with weapons in hand, presenting Liu Chengzong on the gate tower above the inner gate with a long row of cloth-wrapped buns at the backs of their heads.

"About face!"

The troops spun around swiftly, though this movement was not nearly as uniform — the veterans all turned back to the right, while the surrendered troops turned some left, some right.

Liu Chengzong called down from the wall: "Was today's field ration good?"

The soldiers in the barbican roared back like a mountain: "Delicious! Our thanks for the Grand Marshal's grace!"

"All of you, remember military law. When you go out, follow your officers. Do not harass the common people or violate military law. Otherwise, there will be no leniency. Do you understand?"

"The Grand Marshal may set his mind at ease!"

"When you return this evening, study your books well. Once we take Liangzhou, we'll eat even better." Liu Chengzong pressed his hand downward from the wall: "Sit!"

"Yes, sir!"

The soldiers then sat down in perfect unison, though this time it was not as natural as when they had been eating moments before. Each sat ramrod straight, spines stiff as boards, and some of the shirtless ones even slowly put on their padded jackets without daring to turn their heads.

Liu Chengzong said nothing about this. Outside the city, there were still two battalions on garrison duty who would not get their turn to eat until evening; there was no problem with the soldiers relaxing a little during their meal.

He turned and told Bai Yiqing to follow him down from the wall, leaving the soldiers to eat in peace in the barbican. As they walked, he said: "Soldiers are people too, not tools for killing the enemy. They are merely bound by military law. You saw those corpses in soldiers' garb at the street corners inside the city — those were all troops who had surrendered to me. The harsh words were spoken well in advance. If you charge into a city killing and looting indiscriminately, if you defy military law, this is the result."

"But we have marched out from the Yellow River in northern Shaanxi, across a thousand mountains and ten thousand rivers, storming the high mountain fortresses of Ü-Tsang, advancing against the very heavens. We have seen the grasslands and marshes of Zoigê, where man and horse sink the moment they step. We have charged across the iron-chain bridge over the Jinsha River, where my general directed a night battle from the river waters. We have gazed upon the Yellow River, made offerings to the Yellow Emperor, seen the great desert and the long river under the setting sun. We have fired cannons amid the roaring waves of Lanzhou's Rainbow Bridge in spring flood. We have hunted cattle and chased horses along the shores of Qinghai Lake, firelocks on our shoulders. The world they have seen is not one bit less than what you officials have seen."

Having said this, they descended the wall ramp. At the city gate, Liu Chengzong asked Bai Yiqing: "Now it is your turn to choose. Is the lasting peace and stability of Gansu — protecting the region, securing the people, and rebuilding order — your luck?"

Good evening!