Chapter 580: Deceiving Oneself and Others

The person most shocked by Liu Chengzong's army marching into Guanzhong was still Shaanxi Grand Coordinator Lian Guoshi.

Because the mental blow Lian Guoshi suffered wasn't just shock — it was double shock.

At first, Shaanxi Grand Coordinator Lian Guoshi had done his job well, traveling back and forth between Qinzhou and Xi'an for this campaign, persuading local gentry, retired generals residing in the countryside, and imperial clan princes to contribute funds to support the army — with considerable success.

For one thing, over these four years, Liu Chengzong's Marshal Manor had built tremendous momentum in the northwest, and the initial news of the eastern expedition reaching Guanzhong had already terrified all of Shaanxi far and near; for another, with Mount Liupan as the campaign's front line, the Guanzhong Plain served as Shaanxi's deep rear area, making the threat of war just right.

Lian Guoshi also had strong confidence in the campaign. Although news came from Sichuan that Marshal Manor troops were advancing, they were quickly routed by a detached force of Yunnan reinforcement commander Long Zaitian's troops, fleeing in disarray into the highlands — it could be considered an initial victory. Feng Shuangli probably never dreamed that just by coming down the mountain to raid two county seats, he'd hand the Great Ming its first campaign-level major victory against the Marshal Manor.

The key thing is, the Ming court's battle reports weren't lying — Feng Shuangli had only brought two thousand men down the mountain, but who could have known? He seized Feixian Pass, and within days broke through Diaomen, bypassed Yazhou, captured Mingshan, and plundered Lushan. Everywhere he passed, he opened granaries to distribute grain and recruited soldiers. By the time Long Zaitian received word, his force had already swelled to seven thousand men.

The moment those seven thousand-odd men saw Long Zaitian, they turned and ran. In the end, over three thousand of them transported money, grain, tea, and silk back to Kangning Prefecture under the Grand Marshal's rule — their troop strength hadn't decreased, but increased instead.

The other three thousand-plus didn't make it across. Some attached themselves to bandit groups, plundered for a while, then disbanded and went home on their own. Some followed halfway, then fell into banditry. Some were intimidated by government forces and scattered in all directions. Still others were hunted down and encircled by Long Zaitian's troops, their heads ending up on the merit rolls.

This was, in itself, the normal operational process for the former Western Camp and indeed most peasant armies: I breach the county seat and open the granaries; you, with nowhere to turn, attach yourself to the rebel army; he, each serving his own master, is ordered to kill bandits. Everyone seeks fortune amid danger, and survival naturally depends on one's own abilities.

Those with ability wear silk, sleep with women, and become veteran master bandits, living it up one day at a time. Those without ability fill the trenches, their heads tied to someone else's belt — and there's nothing to complain about.

But in the Ming court's battle reports, Long Zaitian had routed three battalions of the Marshal's Army, sending them fleeing like rats, achieving a glorious great victory and dealing Liu Chengzong the first major blow since he began his rebellion.

At least in Lian Guoshi's view, that campaign in western Sichuan had greatly boosted the morale of his Ming army colleagues.

High morale, combined with the strategically difficult terrain along the Mount Liupan line, meant that any defensive line could, under fierce assault from the Marshal's Army, rely on the terrain to resist the ferocious attacks of several of its battalions.

But the boost ended there — and then Deng Qi was killed by a city wall.

Yet at the time, no one had anticipated that Deng Qi could be killed by a city wall.

When Lian Guoshi received this news in Xi'an, he suffered a cerebral hemorrhage.

A real cerebral hemorrhage — his head hurt so badly he couldn't get up. He was bedridden.

No one's death hit Lian Guoshi harder than Deng Qi's, because the reason Deng Qi was stationed west of Longzhou was that he and Chen Qiyu had deliberately arranged it — the two of them thought Liu Chengzong wouldn't break through from Longzhou.

Because the Mount Liupan road west of Longzhou was too winding and narrow, unsuitable for a large army to traverse. On the contrary, Pingliang to the north and Qinzhou to the south were both possible points for the Marshal Manor to focus a breakthrough. Longzhou alone was almost certainly a direction of attack Liu Chengzong would never choose.

Both he and Chen Qiyu were well aware of the pressure Deng Qi and his Sichuan troops had been under from years of continuous combat. With a major battle ahead, they couldn't possibly pull the army back, so their original intent was precisely to give the Sichuan soldiers a break, worried they were under too much strain.

After all, the enjoyment of life lies in the balance between tension and relaxation.

They never imagined that the officers and soldiers of the Sichuan Army camp had already been stretched to the breaking point — Deng Qi died suddenly, and the defensive line collapsed.

Lian Guoshi lay bedridden for seven days. Fortunately, aside from work exhaustion, he had no bad habits, which was why Deng Qi didn't take him along. When he opened his eyes again, his mind was still stuck on the situation of Deng Qi's sudden death. The first words out of his mouth were: "Dispatch Marshal Tang to advance quickly into Longzhou — he must stop that bandit Liu!"

At his side was Shaanxi Assistant Administration Commissioner Duan Fuxing, who nearly coughed up blood at these words. "Your Excellency Grand Coordinator, Longzhou fell long ago. Qianyang, Fengxiang County, and Baoji have fallen too. The bandits are almost at Xi'an!"

Lian Guoshi, lying on the couch, had forced himself halfway up. Hearing this, his eyes rolled back, and he lay down again.

"Grand Coordinator! Grand Coordinator!"

Duan Fuxing was left silently mouthing curses: Damn it, asleep again.

The person under the greatest pressure during this period was Duan Fuxing, because he was an official with relatively rich combat experience and extremely deficient work experience.

He was thirty-four years old this year, a native of Yanggu in Shandong — the same Yanggu where Wu Dalang sold his baked wheat cakes. The surrounding areas, like Dongping Prefecture, Dongchang Prefecture, and Gaotang Subprefecture, were all famous places the world had known by heart ever since Water Margin came out.

The local folk were fierce and tough, producing in abundance outstanding men who followed the rules. As long as there were rules, whatever kind of man the rules required, they could — and were skilled at — becoming that kind of man.

Though these rules didn't necessarily have to be set by the authorities; the ones Song Jiang set would do just as well.

Because rules themselves are simply the accepted outcome of everyone's bargaining, the final rules everyone can live with. The imperial court or Song Jiang — both are just part of the bargaining process.

There is only one circumstance in which people willingly follow rules — when following the rules brings benefits.

Rules are an artificially woven dream. Everyone can dream, but only a few are destined to have their beautiful dreams come true.

Duan Fuxing was a textbook practitioner of the Great Ming Dream. He lost his father early and was raised by his widowed mother, née Tian. His family background wasn't bad, but it wasn't particularly good either. From childhood, he farmed and studied, enduring twenty years of bitter study by the cold window. He passed the county exam and married his wife, née Yang; passed the provincial exam and took concubines, née Niu and née Zong, to care for his widowed mother and manage the household — all the way until last year, when he passed the highest exam.

Forty-third place, second class, of the 1634 metropolitan examination cohort.

The presented scholars of the 1634 cohort were all formidable, because that year's palace examination topic consisted of eight questions personally posed by the Chongzhen Emperor.

It was just that their postings varied in rank, depending mainly on courage. A third-class presented scholar given provincial examination equivalency being sent south as a rank-7 county magistrate was nothing strange; a first-class presented scholar staying in Beijing as a rank-7 compiler was also perfectly normal. Duan Fuxing, however, was rather impressive — his very first official post was Shaanxi Assistant Administration Commissioner, a full rank-5 position.

The court had this vacancy. Others didn't want it and didn't dare come. Duan Fuxing, on the other hand, fought and scrambled to get to Shaanxi. Given his native place of Yanggu, Shandong, the post of Shaanxi Assistant Administration Commissioner was practically made for him on his resume.

To be honest, as a long-tested, firm-stanced warrior of the landlord class, Duan Fuxing had already figured out where he ought to go while answering questions in the palace examination hall.

He wasn't afraid to die. He followed the rules very strictly, because the rule was: study, pass the exams, and you can live like a proper human being. So he studied. Whoever created obstacles to his studying, he'd fight to the death.

When Duan Fuxing was a county-level scholar, Xu Hongru rose up in Shandong under the name of the Smelling Incense Sect — he led his schoolmates to fight the White Lotus Sect. After passing the provincial exam, the Wu Bridge Mutiny occurred, and he was summoned by the local authorities to lead his fellow villagers against Kong Youde — over thirty lives on his hands.

Now, having passed the highest exam... Shaanxi.

This was Heaven's arrangement, and also his destiny.

He'd seen plenty of thorny situations, but before coming to Shaanxi, Duan Fuxing had never imagined the situation would be this thorny.

He had just arrived in Shaanxi this year to take up his post. His official title was Left Assistant Administration Commissioner of the Provincial Administration Commission, in charge of the Hexi Circuit. This "Hexi" meant west of the Yellow River along the Shaanxi-Shanxi border, and his main responsibility was military provisions and supervising granaries for Yan'an and Qingyang Prefectures and the various Ningxia Garrisons.

This official post itself was perfectly normal — it was just that carrying out the work was far too difficult.

As for the affairs of the Ningxia Garrisons, Duan Fuxing, stationed in Xi'an, could not reach that far. Yan'an and Qingyang Prefectures, meanwhile, were so ruined they didn't even look like proper places, utterly lacking the capacity to handle any military provisions or granary storage.

The previous prefect of Yan'an was called Zhang Nian. The Chongzhen Emperor suspected him of colluding with bandits but never found any evidence, so he had the Embroidered Uniform Guard throw him into the imperial prison to serve as a minister-in-reserve.

The current prefect of Yan'an is called Zhang Yungong. For the entire several years since taking office, he's been in a complete state of lost contact. Ever since entering the Yan'an prefectural seat, he hasn't come out again. The Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commission only knows this man is still alive — as for anything else, they don't know much.

In any case, orders the court sent him sank like stones into the sea, and official documents he wrote to the court were like lead weights dropped into a well. Both sides saw messages left on read with no reply — but who exactly read them, no one knows.

His administrative orders couldn't even get out the gates of the Yan'an prefectural seat — they couldn't even get out the main door of the prefect's yamen. Once past the main hall, that gang of petty clerks simply refused to acknowledge them.

To this day, what exactly the situation in Yan'an Prefecture is, the Shaanxi Provincial Administration Commission simply doesn't know. Lian Guoshi did send people to the prefectural seat. What they saw and heard along the way was far more normal than in other departments and counties without officials — it was just that, no matter what, they couldn't collect any taxes.

The personnel sent also met with Prefect Zhang Yungong. Prefect Zhang expressed that he felt everything in Yan'an Prefecture was perfectly normal. If His Majesty or the court felt it wasn't normal, then he could offer two solutions: send the Embroidered Uniform Guard to haul him off to the imperial prison; or have someone move Yan'an Prefecture into the imperial prison.

Lian Guoshi, of course, didn't listen to his nonsense. He sent someone again, asking just one question: "Will Yan'an Prefecture descend into chaos?"

Zhang Yungong couldn't say for sure, and only had them reply: "If nothing moves, Yan'an Prefecture won't descend into chaos."

Lian Guoshi then truly left Yan'an Prefecture alone. With Liu Chengzong kicking up such a ruckus in Qinghai and Gansu, he genuinely couldn't spare attention for Yan'an Prefecture.

The situation in Qingyang Prefecture, however, was much better. The prefect there was called Ju Sirang, a remarkable man famous among Shaanxi officials for his benevolence and righteousness.

He and Duan Fuxing were fellow Shandong natives, though Duan Fuxing was born in western Shandong, while Ju Sirang was born in eastern Shandong, a native of Wendeng County in Dengzhou Prefecture. He had, however, been serving as an official in Shaanxi all along.

As early as the beginning of the great chaos, when Wang Er of Baishui first rose up, Ju Sirang was serving as magistrate of Zhen'an County in Xi'an Prefecture. Several thousand peasant soldiers passed through his territory. The Shangluo Military Defense Circuit Intendant Liu Yingyu planned to suppress them, but Ju Sirang pleaded on the peasant soldiers' behalf, saying they were all poor, suffering commoners fleeing taxes in hunger and cold, barely clinging to life among the wilds. To avoid bloodshed, he volunteered to go and persuade them to surrender.

He rode in on horseback, bringing four highly respected village elders, and with astonishing boldness entered the main camp of the peasant army at the time. He even dared to stay and sleep a night in a tent within the rebel camp. Using both reason and emotion, with words alone he persuaded several thousand men to lay down their weapons and return with him to Zhen'an County to farm.

Moreover, Ju Sirang was not only able to persuade people to farm — because of this achievement he was promoted to Bandit-Suppressing Deputy Prefect of Xi'an Prefecture and transferred by Hong Chengchou to serve in the military. The internal strife at Iron Horn City, held by Flying Heavens He Chongwei and Hao Lin'an, was his idea proposed to Hong Chengchou, and he likewise used a stratagem to take the head of the leader Big Red Wolf.

Later he was promoted to Prefect of Qingyang, and returned to his old line of work, settling refugees and surrendered bandits in places like Huanma Ridge and Fengchuan in Qingyang Prefecture. He distributed oxen and seed, taught the common people to farm and weave, and by sheer effort created a paradise free from the scourge of war in northern Shaanxi during those years.

But while his work went smoothly, Duan Fuxing's work did not. The moment any request came to supply military provisions and army necessities, Ju Sirang would curse him out.

Two prefects, neither with any spare capacity to supply grain to the army. The granaries were all empty. Qingyang could at least still collect a bit of money and grain, barely able to provide Chen Qiyu with a pittance; Yan'an Prefecture was even more a land of pixiu — when disaster struck, it was a disaster zone and paid no tax; when there was no disaster, the tax grain was paid but then looted. In any case, the court could forget about seeing a single grain.

At this very critical juncture, Liu Chengzong launched his great eastern campaign, and the Grand Coordinator stationed in Shaanxi, Lian Guoshi, was still bedridden. The immense mental strain was nearly driving Duan Fuxing mad.

Fortunately, at this moment, he received word that Chen Qiyu was hurrying over from Qingyang Prefecture!

Upon entering Xi'an, Chen Qiyu did not first visit Lian Guoshi, nor did he seek out Duan Fuxing. He directly dispatched men to host a banquet for the city's gentry and retired officers, hoping to call upon them to contribute their household servants and sons, and to bring their own provisions to aid the army, in order to address the crisis of Guanzhong falling.

It was not until that very night that Duan Fuxing finally received a summons. In the study of the rear residence of the prefectural yamen, he met a nearly drunken Chen Qiyu.

The moment Chen Qiyu saw him, he raised a hand to stop him from performing the salute, then pointed to the desk. "Spare the formalities. Take a look — the battle report from the Supreme Commander of the Three Frontiers."

Duan Fuxing complied, picked up the battle report and read it, only then discovering it was all news of victories from the Ningxia border army marching south. Delighted, he said, "Commander, Jinglu, Zhongwei, Fengjia Fort, Guyuan Garrison, Sanying, Xiaohe Fort, Huining County — it's one victory after another!"

Chen Qiyu's nose exhaled heavily with the fumes of alcohol, but his expression was not as good as the battle report described. He waved his hand emphatically. "Deceiving themselves, that's all!"

The Ningxia border army under Hong Chengchou's command had indeed won battle after battle, but it was of no help to the overall war situation. The northern route commander of the Marshal Army was Brigade Commander Cao Yao. His troops were not as elite as the main force, but with the convenience of Gansu horses they came and went like the wind, employing a city-abandonment tactic: after taking a city, they would empty it of people and wealth, then abandon it and leave.

Some captured forts, because they were built at strategic passes, were even dismantled and razed. The belatedly arriving Ming army would plant a flag on the leveled ground and consider the city recovered.

Chen Qiyu was very clear on Cao Yao's tactics, because Cao Yao's rallying cry for the offensive had been relayed back by Ai Wannian, who had just arrived at Pingliang Prefecture: "Fellow townsmen, the Grand Marshal has taken Gansu and is distributing land — fifty mu per household, just waiting for you to enjoy it!"

Even among the common people of Pingliang Prefecture, there were those who, upon hearing these words, bundled up provisions and set out on the path of migration, let alone the situation west of Liupan Mountain.

"Xi'an is a key strategic town. When the bandit Liu comes to attack Guanzhong, he must take Xi'an first. Xi'an's walls are strong and its moats deep, easy to defend and hard to attack, but with only an isolated city, its fall is merely a matter of time. You are the Hexi Circuit Intendant. At this moment of peril, someone must lead a single army to garrison Qianzhou. Advancing, it can serve as external reinforcement for Xi'an Prefecture; retreating, it can disperse the enemy's forces. But it is a near-certain death. Assistant Administration Commissioner Duan, do you dare?"

Duan Fuxing laughed at these words. "Commander, there is no need to goad me. I, Duan, am but a scholar. Having received imperial grace and been appointed Assistant Administration Commissioner of the fifth rank, having married one wife and three concubines, I have basked in success and enjoyed every wealth and honor. Today is precisely the time to give my life. If defending the city fails, death is all. Though this life be short, I have no regrets."

Having spoken, Duan Fuxing saluted and said, "After I take leave of my elderly mother, I shall set out for Qianzhou tomorrow."

Unexpectedly, Chen Qiyu waved his hand. "Bring your mother, and your wife, concubines, and children — bring them all to Qianzhou. In this battle, Xi'an is the bait. The four passes are locked shut. We will lure the tens of thousands of elite bandits under the bandit Liu into the Qin heartland to encircle and annihilate them. Xi'an is more dangerous than Qianzhou."

"Commander, set your mind at ease. I shall do my utmost to ensure Qianzhou does not fall. The man lives, the city stands!"

As Duan Fuxing departed, Chen Qiyu's drunken eyes watched his ramrod-straight back. He drew a deep breath and slowly clenched his fists. "Liu Chengzong, let us see then — is your army fiercer, or is the might of my imperial celestial troops greater!"