Chapter 51: Bewilderment

On the road back to Black Dragon King Mountain, Cao Yao grumbled the whole way.

"Damn it all, they promised a dozen carpenters and blacksmiths, and what do we get? Three carpenters, four blacksmiths, two scribes, and seven engravers. They're even counting miners as craftsmen now — what damn use are they? And they brought a whole gaggle of wives and kids!"

Liu Chengzong and Cao Yao rode at the front, while Cheng Yun and Lu Bin brought up the rear. In between, the tattered, ragged tenants of Liu Family Village guarded the grain carts as they wound along — a truly magnificent sight.

They looked exactly like a migration of beggars.

Liu Chengzong, newly crowned chief of this Beggars' Sect, was in rather good spirits. He consoled Cao Yao: "Come now, Brother Cao, they're all talents. Once we get through this, Liu Family Village is bound to flourish with culture and thriving commerce."

"You're the only one with such a big heart." Cao Yao said irritably. "Sure, they're all talents. In peaceful times, those two scribes and seven engravers could run a bookshop; those two barbers and the physician would be useful in any village. But what the hell are a distiller, a brewer, and a sugar-painter supposed to do?"

"The worst part is they even counted the damn suona player, the firecracker maker, and the fortune-teller as craftsmen. What kind of craftsmen are they?!"

Refugees came in all grades. Honest, hardworking farm boys and skilled iron or wood craftsmen were naturally the most sought-after — such people had no trouble signing indenture contracts in the prefectural city. Those who fell so low that the authorities had to assign them were few and far between.

This bunch could run a bookshop, a barbershop, a winery, or a sugar-painting stall. Setting up a fortune-telling booth or scouting feng shui burial sites wouldn't be hard for them — after picking a grave plot, they could even hire the funeral musician on the spot at a thirty percent discount. But they couldn't fill their own bellies.

What they had wanted were craftsmen; what Zhang Pan had given them were laborers and entertainers.

Liu Chengzong wasn't heartless. But since things had come to this, even if he couldn't let it go, he had to let it go.

"Anyway, now that they're here as tenants, we can't send them away. Even if they were all blacksmiths, we don't even have a kiln. We're short-handed for farm work, so they'll all just have to be farmers."

Liu Chengzong smiled. "This Liu Family Village is the foundation on which the two of us will make a name for ourselves. Once you're done complaining, hurry up and help me think about serious matters."

"Damn. I figured we'd break even once we planted two hundred mu. Now with all these extra mouths, we'll need five hundred mu just to break even. And look at them — I doubt they even know how to farm."

Cao Yao wheeled his horse around and took one last look at the column of tenants stretching out behind them. Leaning forward in the saddle, he asked, "Them? Make a name for ourselves?"

The old deserter was utterly disillusioned with the tenants the county office had assigned.

Liu Chengzong understood his thinking. They had hoped the authorities would assign a dozen craftsman households so they could set up a small military workshop — they'd have been happy to support them even at a loss.

But now, with so few proper craftsmen and the rest being mostly useless people, he just couldn't stomach it.

Liu Chengzong's smile faded. "Two thousand seven hundred mu of land, over eighty people — breaking even won't be a problem. Growing extra grain will be harder, but as long as we pull through... Brother Cao, the world is falling into chaos. As long as you have grain, you won't lack for people."

"I know that's the logic, I get it. But the thought of feeding them—" Cao Yao tapped his own head with his riding crop. "It gives me a headache!"

Meals must be eaten one bite at a time; tasks must be done one at a time.

Liu Chengzong had great expectations for this estate named after his own family.

He said, "Now we're not short on people. Old Temple Village has cleared plenty of land, but it still needs work if we want to increase the yield. The main shortages are rations, seed grain, farm tools, and oxen. I'll figure out the tools from Black Dragon Mountain. We can borrow a bit of rations and seed grain. But buying oxen — that can only fall to you, Brother Cao."

"Fine, I'll handle the oxen. I'm just worried the rations won't be enough. Over eighty people."

Cao Yao seemed swayed by Liu Chengzong's optimism. He shook his head, casting off his own negativity, and even felt a touch of shame. "I never imagined the officials would dump refugees on us. It's been hard on you — spending money and grain, leaving Black Dragon Mountain to come here and suffer."

Liu Chengzong said nothing for a long moment, then finally shook his head. "I wanted to come too."

He said, "I'm not afraid of hardship, and I'm not afraid of work. Anything I've been tasked with, I've never messed up — not once. I've always been able to get things done. But I don't know what to do."

Cao Yao chimed in with a laugh. "Don't say it's just because you're the second son. When I was your age, I didn't know a damn thing either, never thought about the future. My old man said I was useless at farming, just wasting grain at home, so I strapped on four steamed buns and joined the army."

"Never thought I'd never go home again."

Liu Chengzong knew that Cao Yao couldn't truly understand what he felt. Cao Yao had no other choice; he did.

He jabbed a thumb at himself. "From childhood to now, I've never decided a single thing. At home, my father always taught and arranged things for my elder brother; I just followed. My father was a general — he gave orders. My brother was an officer — he led the troops and carried them out. I was just the soldier at the very back."

"But I never thought that was wrong. My brother was formidable, my father even more so. Every decision they made was right. Like when my father was dismissed from his post and thrown in prison, and I couldn't take the civil or military examinations. Others might think he was overcautious and pedantic, but I knew what he did was right. When something is right, you do it even if it costs you your head."

"Only this time — I thought that once I got home, my father and brother would have a good plan."

No one had a good plan anymore.

The Great Ming Empire, which had descended upon the world three hundred years ago with the noble cause of comforting the people and punishing tyranny, had made life unlivable.

Just as his father had said: the world changes too fast, and the human heart always lags a step behind.

On one hand, people still trusted the court, recognized official ranks, remained loyal to the sovereign and devoted to the nation, and wished to help the court quell the unrest.

Yet on the other hand, strip away the veil from those bandits and outlaws rampaging everywhere, and they were merely starving people led by deserters, people who didn't want to die of hunger.

Even a provincial governor could be bewildered by this. When reports of bandits ravaging Shaanxi reached the Grand Coordinator's office, the messenger was beaten and thrown out. He said they were not bandits — they were famine refugees.

Let alone Liu Xiangyu and Liu Chengzu.

Others were lost in bewilderment before the coming apocalypse, but Liu Chengzong's bewilderment — his bewilderment at his father and brother's helplessness — gave birth to his own reflection.

"Great chaos is coming. Black Dragon Mountain can't defend itself. If not for your suggestion to buy land, Brother Cao, I truly wouldn't have known what to do."

This, in turn, puzzled Cao Yao. He asked, "Black Dragon Mountain has village militia and is building rammed-earth walls. It can't accomplish great things, but surely it's not so bad that it can't defend itself?"

Liu Chengzong nodded. "That's what I thought at first too. But when we planned the earth walls at Black Dragon Mountain — my father, my brother, and I drew up the plans and chose the site together — we all overlooked one thing. Liu Family Ridge has no water."

In truth, "overlooked" wasn't the right word.

As subjects living under the court's rule, they had unconsciously factored the nearby Yan'an Garrison's government troops into their calculations.

When the Liu Family Ridge earth fort was being built, it was conceived purely as a refuge. As long as it could hold off bandits when they came and give the old, weak, women, and children a place to shelter, that was enough.

In a place only a few dozen li from Yan'an Prefecture, if bandits struck one day, government troops could arrive the next.

Back then, no one could have imagined that the court's soldiers would not only dare not fight the bandits, but would even trade with them.

"There are two wells in the village below the ridge. Once the village falls, surround that earth fort for three to five days, and without reinforcements, it will collapse on its own."

Liu Chengzong raised a hand and smiled. "The only solution I could think of was to be the reinforcements myself — from the outside."

"By the way, Brother Cao, let me ask you something." With his mind at ease, Liu Chengzong suddenly remembered his uncle's wanted notice. He asked Cao Yao, "Have you ever been a wanted man?"