Chapter 53: Starving Ghosts

"With the way the Yan'an garrison troops behave, who's going to suppress who? I'll slap those idiots flat as bean jelly with one hand!"

Cao Yao was shooting his mouth off in front of the cave dwellings at the foot of Xingping Hamlet's hill.

Liu Chengzu leaned against a tree trunk and said irritably, "Just eat your fried dough twists. Raising grain is for those two thousand seven hundred mu of land in Changping Hamlet. If we fight the government troops, not only will the land be lost — Xingping Hamlet will be lost too."

This wasn't a matter of whether they could beat the government troops or not. Several hundred men, women, young and old — they had nowhere to flee even if they wanted to. And even if there were somewhere to go, others might not be willing to follow.

They were clearly flesh-and-blood kin, yet if they let temper scatter the clan, driving them from their homes with even the ancestral graves abandoned — who could bear such a sin?

"My father is putting up a thousand jin of broomcorn millet for us — that empties the family coffers. For the rest, he'll see about borrowing some from Xingping Hamlet. But they've been building the fort on Liujiabang these past months and need grain too. The village doesn't have much surplus. Maybe he can borrow another one or two thousand jin?"

Cao Yao bit into his fried dough twist with a crunch, and said through the mouthful, indistinctly, "I've got ten dan of rice grain — call it fifteen hundred jin."

"The borrowed grain has to be repaid before the New Year."

Liu Chengzu folded his arms, calculating. He asked, "Before the sixth month, you'll need to scrape together another three thousand jin of rice grain just to have enough to eat. Lion, in the fields at Old Temple Village, is there any flax or beans we can harvest?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head.

Cao Yao pinched up the scattered crumbs of fried dough twist left on the cloth spread over the rock and put them in his mouth, saying crossly, "The fields have all been ravaged by bandits — cleaner than the dry moat at Yuhe Fort."

The three looked at each other in silence.

Until the silence was broken by the thudding of a drum.

Xingping Hamlet had a large drum, up on Liujiabang. It was only beaten when something major happened.

Cao Yao still did not know what was going on, but the Liu brothers' faces had already gone pale with shock. They turned and sprinted outside.

They ran straight into Guo Zhashi, who was hobbling toward them.

The pig-slaughterer had a sharp knife tucked at his waist and a long iron prod in his hand. He passed over a leather belt hung with a knife and a bow-and-arrow bag, saying, "Master, people have entered the mountains!"

Faced with sudden upheaval, Liu Chengzu's training proved somewhat useful — it made the village's chaos very orderly.

Women grabbed their children and rushed home; able-bodied men shouldered weapons and headed out. Liu Laoye and Yang Dingrui, surrounded by clansmen, also made their way toward the village entrance.

Liu Chengzong leaped up, climbing step by step onto the wall, and gazed out toward the valley. Only then did he understand what Guo Zhashi meant by "people have entered the mountains."

A dark, seething mass of people had appeared from nowhere, like a plague of locusts.

Spreading two li from the mountain pass, hundreds upon thousands surged straight into the valley, scattering across the fields and furrows.

The old, the weak, the women and children carried bamboo baskets and sickles as if rushing to harvest, cutting swaths of the just-sprouting broomcorn millet into bundles. Some, too ravenous to wait, grabbed the green shoots and stuffed them straight into their mouths.

The men did not do this. Armed with clubs and sharp tools in groups of three or five, they pressed close to the village entrance, forcing back the dozen or so strong young fellows who had rushed out at the news.

Further back, on a raised earthen ridge a hundred-odd paces from the village entrance, stood five or six people.

Some wore half-sleeved coats of mail, some wore padded jackets with crimson-lacquered helmets bearing the character "Brave," and some wore the black uniforms of yamen runners or the long robes of scholars.

These men clustered around a fellow in a blue cloth surcoat and a helmet marked with the Hundred-Leader flag, who was speaking to two bare-assed men.

Afterward, those two men had clothes draped over them and began walking toward the village entrance.

They were two figures who barely looked human anymore.

They carried no weapons, bony and emaciated, barefoot. Though someone had draped them in ragged clothes picked up from who knows where, the garments still could not hide their swollen bellies.

At this distance, Liu Chengzong could not make out their faces or expressions — he could only see the distended bellies, exactly like the starving ghosts in ancient paintings.

They walked slowly forward, bellies thrust out before them.

The village militia of Xingping Hamlet had already blocked the road into the village with a wooden barricade. Men took up bows, crossbows, and anything that could serve as a weapon, standing ready in full battle array.

The militia had trained only a short time. Seeing the bandits spread across the fields and furrows without end or edge, fear did stir in their hearts.

The bandit soldiers, for their part, had not expected so many armed men to pour out of this village, and they were somewhat flustered as well.

The two sides formed a standoff at the village entrance, thirty or forty paces apart.

As they walked, one of them raised his head to look at the sky. His body swayed, and he fell heavily backward onto the ground, dead.

Only his swollen belly remained, turned translucent by the sunlight, revealing the green intestines within.

The other big-bellied man did not even glance at him, only trudged forward with his head down, making the field path under the bright morning sun seem like a road through the underworld.

In just this brief moment, Guo Zhashi had already fetched the armor from the inner room. When Liu Chengzong jumped down and donned it, he led his horse forward.

By the time he squeezed into the crowd, the big-bellied man, walking extremely slowly, had only made it to ten paces beyond the wooden barricade. He summoned all his strength, but his shouted words still came out weak and feeble.

"Our great king is Commander Zhong, a valiant general under the Second Brother of White Water! Quickly bring out grain, and offer up your oxen, donkeys, and fine horses, and your safety shall be guaranteed! Otherwise, not a chicken or dog will be left alive!"

The common folk of Xingping Hamlet, hearing these words, looked at one another, none daring to make a sound. Even the clan elders had lost their wits and could only turn their eyes toward Liu Xiangyu.

Liu Laoye was a man who could shoulder responsibility. He stepped forward, raised his arm, and declared, "Go back and tell that bandit chief — this old master is the head of the civilian militia of the northern townships of Yan'an Prefecture. I pity you in your starvation. You have one quarter-hour to withdraw from the mountains. Otherwise, do not blame our blades and guns for being blind!"

Even a clay man has a spark of temper — whose family wouldn't be furious seeing their fields destroyed?

Yet these starving bandits, half-human and half-ghost, coming to shout demands, also made one feel they were truly at the end of their rope, stirring a measure of pity for no reason.

Liu Laoye's words were hard, but his face ultimately showed no sense that he wanted to fight them.

Liu Chengzong pressed forward and said beside his father, "Father, this bandit won't live long enough to carry back the message. Use the horse team to drive them away."

Yang Dingrui could not bear to look any longer either, and said, "These people too are children of the court. Drive them away. Otherwise, if the crops are ruined, we won't make it through the autumn."

Hearing Liu Chengzong's words, Liu Laoye still felt some hesitation in his heart.

It was only when he heard Yang Dingrui say "if the crops are ruined" that his gaze finally turned resolute and cold.

He could not let his own clansmen end up like this!

Liu Xiangyu looked around at the clansmen and nephews to his left and right, his gaze finally settling on Liu Chengzu's face. "Chengzu, the bandits number over a thousand. Can we win?"

That single sentence was tantamount to agreeing to open hostilities.

Liu Chengzong, holding his helmet, stepped forward and said, "Father, the bandit chief is over there. I can kill him."

Liu Chengzu nodded in agreement with this plan and said, "The front rank of militia and machine troops will first fire a volley with bows, crossbows, and fire lances. Then Lion will lead the border-army horse team in a direct strike at the bandit chief. The bandits will certainly scatter."

Having said this, he turned his head and gave a signal.

Squad Leader Tian Shoujing, who usually assisted in drilling the militia, immediately led the village troops to form ranks at the village entrance.

Liu Chengzong strung his bow, specially selecting three arrows with armor-piercing cone points, and moved them to the easiest-to-reach spot in his quiver.

Gao Xian, having received Liu Chengzu's instruction to "look after Lion," brought four cavalrymen, leading their horses, and followed beside him, checking weapons and armor and making final preparations.

This time it was Cao Yao's turn to be the idle one, but he couldn't stay idle either. Seeing the fear spreading among the village soldiers after their first battle, he blended into the ranks, raised a three-eyed gun high, and launched into a pre-battle rally.

"Don't let a soft heart cost you your lives. These hairy wretches have nowhere left to run. If they don't want to die, they have to slaughter us all. They don't dress like men, they don't eat like men, and they don't do the deeds of men. They aren't men! What are they?"

Amid the old bandit Sarhü's hoarse roar of the words "hairy wretches," the North Village machine-gunner squad's fire lances thundered. Through the gunpowder smoke, the village soldiers facing battle for the first time loosed their arrows at the starving bandits beyond the village.

Amid the battle cries, Liu Chengzong tightened his saddle and mounted his horse. The five cavalrymen behind him followed his every move.

The gunpowder smoke gradually dispersed. After three volleys, the village soldiers parted to open a path for them at the village entrance.

His mount paced forward. Liu Chengzong drew a deep breath, pulled out his goose-quill saber, raised his arm to point it sideways, and leaned forward on the saddle, rising slightly in the stirrups.

Sensing its master's intent, the red horse shook its head from side to side, unleashed all four hooves, and charged relentlessly through the gunpowder smoke, plunging into the enemy ranks.