Chapter 56: A Bowl of Rice That Won't Reach the Mouth

People all said the road to the county office wasn't safe.

Liu Chengzong and a few others were pushing a cart to the county office when they got robbed outside town by the riverbank.

The ones who robbed him — call them timid if you like, but six of them dared to rob his group of four.

They were all dressed like the desperately poor, the leader carrying a tasseled spear, wearing a leather belt, with bells hanging from it — most likely dismissed post-station runners.

They said they only wanted money, not lives, and just wanted what was on the cart.

His uncle Cai Zhongpan, who looked like a war god on the wanted posters, reached into his coat for his firelock, but Liu Chengzong stopped him.

Highway robbery in the old days was certainly no good thing, but in Shaanxi in this era, it was just how the poor fought to stay alive.

And they didn't eat anyone, didn't kill anyone, and didn't spout vicious threats like "if you don't hand it over, I'll slaughter every last chicken and dog of yours."

What they did was human.

He led his uncle and the others aside and let the bandits lift the plain cloth covering the cart and take what they wanted.

In the end, those six bandits went over, lifted the cloth, saw the heads packed in tight rows, and five of them were scared off.

The one left had gone weak in the knees and couldn't move. He slowly forced a smile, put down his firewood knife, held onto the cart and stood there a while before gradually backing away.

Receiving the commendation at the county office was no trouble. The honor and exemption came as ten sheets of official paper: five years' exemption from corvée labor, and permission to build a Righteous Citizen memorial arch in their hometown — though they couldn't afford to build it.

The Rank-Nine cap and sash for personal honor meant they were issued the green regular uniform and black gauze cap of a Rank-Nine official — no official post, but the social standing of a Rank-Nine official.

While he was receiving the commendation, his uncle went to see the Household Office clerk Zhang Pan.

When they came out of the yamen, Cai Zhongpan was already waiting on the street. "Got the official uniform?"

Liu Chengzong nodded and asked, "Uncle, what did Clerk Zhang want with you?"

"Nothing major. The southern trade route's open. The prefectural office has been selling these lately to raise silver — they want to form a merchant convoy to go to Weibei and haul grain back."

The "these" Cai Zhongpan pointed at was the cap-and-sash honor. "He knew I used to guard merchant convoys in Weibei, asked me about conditions on the road. Perfect timing — let Rugui go along and bring your aunt back."

Liu Chengzong nodded, but his attention was fixed on the grain. "Buying grain — how long before it's back?"

"Five hundred li round trip, at least half a month at top speed, and that's without hauling grain. I figure if everything goes smoothly, a month."

Liu Chengzong thought to himself: this grain shipment — he might want to keep part of it in mind.

Outside the city, Liu Chengzong had only Guo Zhashi, Cai Zhongpan, and Cai Zhongpan's brother-in-law Chen Rugui with him.

Of the three, one was a trusted man he'd taken in when he had nowhere else to go, one was his own uncle, and the other was his uncle's brother-in-law on the run with him — all trustworthy enough.

And his uncle was still wanted down south — neither of them were like his father and elder brother, men who still held out hope for the court.

The official road was deserted on all sides. Only then did he ask Cai Zhongpan, "Uncle, the mountain clan elders have talked and talked, and in the end it's just every man fending for himself, foraging for food. My father has no better plan either. What do you think?"

"Set your mind at ease on that. No need to be like your father, stiff-backed and nearly crushed under the weight. The boat will straighten itself when it reaches the bridge."

Cai Zhongpan was far more open-minded than Liu Chengzong had imagined. He laughed. "Your mother's brother is a killer and a wanted man. I can't feed a mountain full of people, but even if it comes to working as an assassin to settle private grudges, I won't let you all go hungry."

That was true enough. Even in a famine year, a strong, able-bodied man willing to treat the law as nothing could, before he met a violent end, feed a family without much trouble.

It was just that how long he could feed them depended on luck.

"But I want to feed the whole mountain full of people."

Cai Zhongpan laughed, but the laugh carried a bitter edge. "Don't be foolish, Lion Cub. What do you have to feed a whole mountain full of people with?"

"Robbery."

Cai Zhongpan raised a hand and pointed at Liu Chengzong. He said nothing, just pushed the empty flatbed cart forward. Only after a dozen or so paces did he set the cart down and say with a grave face, "Your Liu family is a proper house of books and learning. Your father would sooner starve than become a bandit. That's the first thing."

"The second thing — look around you, yellow dirt everywhere. Who are you going to rob? Those six thieves? Today's take — one rusty firewood knife."

Liu Chengzong was just as serious. "I've thought about this a long time. Every single decision my father makes is right, every single one is good — but they can't keep people alive."

"The coffin-maker's son died. He saw thieves in his family's field and went mad, charged in by himself to drive them off, and got slashed three times. Why? Because he'd trained for two days total and didn't know that military regulations exist to keep you alive."

"Why only two days' training in all this time? Because of the busy farming season — morning drill and regulation classes were both suspended."

"Xingping Hamlet, one hundred and ten households. First four fled, then six more. Dozens of people walked out — either starved to death or were killed. When the bandits come again, more clansmen will die."

Liu Chengzong did not want to see any more of his relatives — those still within the five degrees of mourning — die.

He stiffened his neck and said, "I've studied the books. I know — a scholar's heart must nurture a vast, righteous spirit. A man must strive upward, be loyal to his sovereign, serve his country, and not fear death."

"But people have to eat, have to live. I went to be a soldier — I was a good soldier, but the court wouldn't pay me my wages. That bowl of rice wouldn't reach my mouth. I came back to be a commoner — I broke no laws, but the hundred mu of land the clan gave me couldn't feed my own family. I emptied the family savings to buy land, and that bowl of rice still wouldn't reach my mouth."

"It's not that I was born with rebellious bones and know no loyalty or righteousness. It's not that I never tried. I have martial skill enough to stand between heaven and earth — why should I live a life where soldiering brings no pay and farming brings no grain?"

Cai Zhongpan didn't know what to say. And truly, there was nothing to say.

Because he was the same. He identified too strongly — he was already furious.

He'd been a soldier too. When the pay stopped, he'd run home to be a humble commoner. What he asked for wasn't much.

As long as his wife and children lived well, as long as he could eat wheat flour once in a while, three liang of soy milk in the morning, two liang of small wine in the evening — that was enough to content him. Whatever the court told him to do, he'd do.

Only a son of a bitch bastard would want to be the war god on a wanted poster.

When Wang Zuogua let his bandits pillage Sanyuan, the north city's defenses were lacking. The gentry took the lead in raising a militia. To defend his home, he stepped forward and enlisted, fought the bandits in bloody battle for three months. As long as the court looked after his family, he wasn't afraid even of death.

But in the end, the militia brothers he'd fought alongside were killed by government troops for their heads, just because they'd killed bandits. What real man could stand by and watch that?

In the end, it came to this: a life on the run.

"It shouldn't be like this."

Liu Chengzong shook his head. He laid his hand gently on the cart still dusted with lime and said, "Now I've thought it through. Robbery is the only way. Not robbing the poor — the poor have no grain to steal, and taking a life for nothing isn't worth it. Rob the great households — the kind where one job gets you a thousand dan of grain."

"They're either in the city or have walled compounds outside the city. So we can't just surround them stupidly like starving refugees. We need to pick an earthen fort far from the prefectural seat. First, prepare gunpowder and a big cart. Along the way, find a few caves five or six li apart where we can stash grain."

"Go at night, faces covered, everyone using false names. Best if we can climb in. If we can't, blast our way in. No need to kill many. Take half the money and grain, leave the rest for the poor commoners around the fort. If the master's a good man, the commoners will let him go. If he's a bad man, the commoners won't spare him either."

Liu Chengzong raised his hand and held up one finger. "Just once. One time. Once the Black Dragon Mountain clansmen are off the land, they can do anything — they'll all be able to survive."

"Lion, no matter how meticulous your plan, what if — what if it leaks? Have you thought about that?"

At the mention of this, Liu Chengzong thought again of being extorted for fifteen hundred meals by Commander Zhang.

He said fiercely, "Black Dragon Mountain's two hundred village soldiers train for three months. If the garrison troops still dare to come, we'll wipe them out. They don't dare fight bandits — the only pity is that then we'd have to become roving rebels. Uncle, will you help me?"

Cai Zhongpan nodded slowly, exchanging a glance with Chen Rugui. "I figure once the grain is pushed into Black Dragon Mountain, the timber's already a boat — your father won't say much. Still, we must make thorough preparations!"