Chapter 583: A Cautionary Example

Liu Shizi's marching route made Chen Qiyu's hair stand on end.

Chen Qiyu had no means to determine the main force's marching route under Liu Chengzong; he could only rely on the fall of cities to make his own judgment.

He had been waiting in the Xi'an prefectural city for news that Xingping and Hu County to the west had been taken, but even when Qianzhou was already under attack, Xingping on the north bank of the Wei River and Hu County on the south bank still seemed as if nothing was happening, intermittently sending back reports of the Marshal's cavalry passing through and the riverside scenery.

This was far too abnormal — it was as if Liu Chengzong knew he intended to use Qianzhou as an external defensive support for the Xi'an prefectural city.

Now, when Chen Qiyu looked at everyone around him, including Lian Guoshi lying immobile on the couch, as long as he stared for three seconds, he felt that person's face revealed traces of being a rebel spy.

Meanwhile, on the southern gate tower of Qianzhou city, Duan Fuxing's face went numb as he cast a helpless gaze toward the great plateau to the south.

Qianzhou had always been a prosperous region, named after the Qian Mausoleum on Mount Liang to the north, where Emperor Gaozong Li Zhi of the Tang and Wu Zetian were buried together.

The city of Qianzhou was vast and sturdy, with both inner and outer walls. The inner city was called the Acropolis, five li in circumference, the old Fengtian city of the Tang dynasty; the outer city was called the Outer Wall, a newer expansion built later, ten li in circumference, two zhang and two chi high, with a rampart walkway three zhang wide, and outside the city a moat likewise three zhang wide and two zhang deep.

The rammed earth of both inner and outer walls was a triple-lime mix of lime, sand, and saltpeter, extremely strong, and had been faced with brick in the second year of the Wanli reign. The entire city had six gates, and from above it looked like a turtle lying with its head facing north.

Thus it was also called Turtle City, and there was a local folk rhyme: "Qianzhou city, nine li and three, Turtle City gazes at Mount Liang, nine towers and eight pools, seventy-two and a half alleyways."

However, now only half of Mount Liang remained. Back then, when Huang Chao led his great army past the Qian Mausoleum to dig up the tomb, they dug in the wrong direction, leaving a Huang Chao Trench north of the city over a dozen li long and over a dozen zhang deep.

The reason Chen Qiyu ordered Duan Fuxing to defend this place was that this Turtle City not only looked like a turtle but also possessed the defensive capability of a turtle shell. Its wall height was moderate, and its base thickness of nearly twenty meters and ten-meter top width allowed it to maintain extremely strong defensive capability in artillery battles.

The most critical factor was the top width — that is, the thickness of the top of the wall. The base thickness was of little use in defending against cannon fire, since no cannon could collapse a rammed-earth wall. Many city walls were breached by cannon because the top width was insufficient to deploy Red Barbarian Cannons.

After all, the Red Barbarian Cannon was a modern artillery piece of the Wanli, Tianqi, and Chongzhen reigns, with a long barrel and an even longer gun carriage. Most city walls had been built in earlier times and had never been designed with the placement of such cannons in mind.

When it fired, the gun carriage would recoil. If the rampart walkway was even slightly narrow, the cannon would fall off when fired.

So in many places, to avoid this weakness, defending gunners would simply use wheeled gun carriages in battle, employing fixed wooden-frame gun emplacements as defensive armaments; or they would build supporting shed towers on the inner side of the wall to extend the width of the walkway.

At this moment, Duan Fuxing and Qianzhou Prefect Yang Dianyuan stood side by side atop the Xintai Gate on the western gate tower, gazing at the two opposing encampments on the flat great plateau to the south. Both held their breath, their expressions more solemn than the other.

Because although these two camps outside the city had fought a battle last night, they had begun exchanging envoys this morning and were currently negotiating.

To the west was the camp of Brigade Commander Shi Xiang of the Marshal's Mansion's Lintao Brigade. He had arrived outside the city first yesterday afternoon with three thousand Lintao soldiers, urging Qianzhou to surrender while constructing his camp.

To the east was the rebel camp of mutineer Yang Guodong, three thousand men with deserting frontier soldiers as its backbone. They had arrived outside the city yesterday evening and, without even pausing to rest their horses, launched an assault on Shi Xiang as he built his camp. In just half a shichen, several hundred double-armored heavy troops had forcibly filled in one trench and torn down two layers of camp palisades, nearly fighting their way to Shi Xiang's command gate.

This man was no hereditary veteran general. It was just that the name Yang Guodong was too common — even under the Marshal's Mansion there were now two Yang Guodongs, one a chieftain and one a meritorious official.

This Yang Guodong was a veteran of the Shaanxi Grand Coordinator's Garrison Battalion. That background was actually quite prestigious; at least soldiers of the Grand Coordinator's Garrison Battalion had not gone hungry in recent years, so he was someone who had not endured much hardship.

When Yang Qi was serving as Garrison Vice General under Grand Coordinator Li Qiyuan, Yang Guodong was already a soldier in the Garrison Battalion. It was only when Yang Qi was transferred to Guyuan that Yang Guodong finally obtained an officer's rank, serving as a Company Commander in the army.

Later, when Chief General Yang went missing during the campaign against the northwestern rebels, Yang Guodong fled back to Guyuan Garrison, only to encounter drought and halted pay. Thereupon, with the support of several hundred soldiers, he became a mutineer... After all, for an officer from the Grand Coordinator's Garrison Battalion, enduring drought and halted pay — this life was just too damn bitter.

It was just that in these times, being a rebel was even harder than being a Ming soldier. Without heavy weapons, they were at a great disadvantage in field battles and sieges against government troops. He happened to hear that the court had established a Mobei Protectorate in the north, and the Protector-General shared the same name as his old Chief General Yang Qi — perhaps it was the same man.

Liu Chengzong's name was so renowned. It wasn't that he hadn't thought of going to join Liu Chengzong, but Yang Guodong truly did not want to go any further west. The farther west he went, the poorer it became.

So he thought of finding an opportunity to raid Guanzhong, then flee north beyond the frontier to join his old Chief General.

Lian Guoshi's earlier judgment of him had been correct. Yang Guodong had no sincere desire to be amnestied; he wanted to use the name of amnesty to find an opportunity to infiltrate the Xi'an prefectural city and seize control of its defenses.

But at the time, no one was willing to grant him amnesty. Now, Duan Fuxing, who had come with a resolve to die, had granted him amnesty, and to him, Duan possessed great personal charisma, so he thought of coming to help him fight a battle.

Last night, he had fought all the way to Shi Xiang's command gate. On one hand, it was dark and he feared a trap; on the other, he was unwilling to provoke the colossal entity that was the Marshal's Mansion. So he gradually withdrew his troops, merely wanting to teach Shi Xiang a lesson and let him retreat quietly under cover of night.

Yet when morning came, Shi Xiang's battalion was still standing there. Not only standing there, but after being beaten, they even dared to send an envoy over, brazenly demanding his surrender.

It just, well, left Yang Guodong rather baffled.

While they negotiated up ahead, Liu Chengzong, on the march, was scrutinizing the amnesty proposal sent by Shi Xiang, pondering carefully.

Zhang Xianzhong, dressed somewhat comically, was riding behind. Seeing Liu Chengzong receive the report and say nothing on horseback, he urged his horse forward a couple of steps and asked, "What's wrong, Great Commander? Those disorderly troops at Qianzhou won't surrender?"

The moment Liu Chengzong looked at Zhang Xianzhong, he laughed. No joke — anyone would laugh if Guan Yu suddenly appeared beside them wearing a red robe and a green hat.

Zhang Xianzhong's iron cap was wrapped in a green cloth, his body clad in gold-lacquered fish-scale armor, draped with a crimson shoulder-baring battle robe... This robe was the military officer's uniform of the Marshal's Mansion, made of crimson satin with slanted gold hidden patterns. However, unlike the right-shoulder-baring style of military robes since the Song and Ming, this one bared the left shoulder.

If not for the green cloth wrapped around Zhang Xianzhong's head, this battle robe, designed and woven by the Office of Attire and Headwear under the Marshal's Mansion's Ministry of Rites, was actually quite beautiful in itself, and contained many small touches meant to please Liu Chengzong and catch his eye.

For example, baring the left shoulder was, first, to distinguish it from the shoulder-baring battle robes favored by Ming court officers, and second, to allude to the oath sworn by Grand Commandant Zhou Bo of the Western Han with the Northern Army officers when suppressing the Lü clan: "Those who support the Lü clan bare the right shoulder; those who support the Liu clan bare the left shoulder."

The slanted gold hidden patterns on the battle robe were the same, referring to the "Golden Knife" prophecy that the Liu clan would rise.

What made Liu Chengzong laugh, however, was not the battle robe, but his own Minister of Rites playing dress-up as a battlefield general.

He shook his head. "I'm not pondering Yang Guodong. The seven or eight hundred double-armored heavy troops he commands alone are worth a Regional Commander's rank. We can afford the rations and pay for three thousand troops."

Zhang Xianzhong smiled but said nothing at this.

The dozen or so battalions the Marshal's Mansion had currently dispatched were all in arrears on pay, and their rations constantly needed local replenishment. This was not a question of whether they could afford it at all, but rather that if Yang Guodong submitted, he would at the very least have to go and secure the rations and pay for two battalions for Liu Chengzong.

Clearly, this battalion of disorderly troops under Yang Guodong was not the reason Liu Shizi was deep in thought.

Zhang Xianzhong then asked, "Then what is it, Great Commander? Your humble subordinate can share the burden!"

Liu Chengzong shook his head slightly, then glanced at Zhang Xianzhong before asking, "What does my brother think of Brigade Commander Shi Xiang?"

At this moment, with troops deployed, as long as Yang Guodong's battalion was willing to submit, Liu Chengzong would certainly welcome them with open arms. There was nothing much to ponder there.

What he was pondering was Shi Xiang.

"The Great Commander is asking about Brigade Commander Shi..."

Zhang Xianzhong slowly repeated Liu Chengzong's question, his mind spinning rapidly as he assessed the current situation of the Marshal's Mansion, his own status within it, Shi Xiang's status within it, his relationship with Shi Xiang, and the present circumstances.

And most importantly — Liu Chengzong's intention in asking this question, or rather, what kind of answer he wanted to hear.

Zhang Xianzhong was exceedingly clever. He immediately grasped the crux of these matters and swiftly deduced three possibilities: Liu Chengzong wanted to trap him, Liu Chengzong wanted to promote Shi Xiang, or Liu Chengzong wanted to see what kind of person he was.

Because they were on the march in broad public view — if Liu Chengzong wanted to make a move against Shi Xiang, he certainly wouldn't ask for his opinion. Moreover, Shi Xiang was currently a frontline commander, so asking his opinion likely meant he didn't want to hear anything negative.

Besides, he had joined the Marshal's Mansion later; by all accounts, Shi Xiang was his senior. Zhang Xianzhong was truly afraid that Liu Chengzong would transfer the two remaining Regional Commanders of the Western Brigade, Wang Ziyu and Liu Tichun, to the Lintao Brigade.

As for the possibility of deliberately trapping him, it wasn't impossible. If he spoke ill of Shi Xiang in broad public view, others would see him as a petty man who spoke ill of others behind their backs. Who in the Marshal's Mansion didn't know that Grand Marshal Liu Chengzong most valued men of personal loyalty?

Personal loyalty existed not only between sworn brothers; in truth, it existed between husband and wife, father and son, and sovereign and subject as well.

But, well, often being clever was one thing, and character was another.

Cleverness allowed one to figure out many things, but what decided the next course of action was character.

Zhang Xianzhong opened his mouth and said, "Great Commander, Brigade Commander Shi has no outstanding qualities. I am better than him!"

Liu Chengzong stared at Zhang Xianzhong with baffled eyes, blinking. "What makes you say that?"

Lionheart said: What's it to you? I was asking Shi Xiang.

"You led three thousand crack troops to a standstill beneath the city walls. Failing to force Qianzhou's surrender is one thing, but you couldn't even defeat three thousand disorderly soldiers outside the city, and still had to send word back for reinforcements."

Zhang Xianzhong curled his lip disdainfully: "Had the Grand Marshal sent a thousand Tiger Guards with me, your humble subordinate would rout those disorderly soldiers tomorrow and take Qianzhou by the morning after!"

These words made Liu Chengzong's eyes light up — not because Zhang Xianzhong believed he could fight, though that was true enough, but because he felt more and more that his own decision-making was brilliant. He laughed inwardly: Brother Bingzhong, keeping you by my side as Minister of Rites was truly a stroke of genius!

The Marshal's Residence Tiger Guard Battalion had never been an impenetrable wall. Especially for the high-ranking officers of the marshal's residence, this battalion was a vast net centered on Liu Chengzong, connecting every strand of the entire Marshal's Army.

His every word and deed, every like and dislike, would travel through this net and reach the ears of every battalion's officers with perfect accuracy.

With someone like this around who could step on people and play devil's advocate, constantly drawing the hatred of colleagues, didn't that make his own regard and trust for Shi Xiang all the more apparent?

If Shi Xiang fared poorly on the front lines, today's disparagement from Zhang Xianzhong would ensure he fought harder to redeem himself next time; if the front lines went well, it would only highlight Liu Chengzong's skill in recognizing and employing talent.

He opened his mouth and climbed right up the ladder offered, saying: "Elder brother has his own unique skill in storming cities and seizing strongholds. Brigade Commander Shi still lacks experience, but he has extraordinary courage and a meticulous mind. He excels at turning peril into safety and snatching victory from danger. Would elder brother believe me if I said that before our army reaches the front, news of victory will surely come from Qianzhou?"

Zhang Xianzhong naturally did not believe it. He looked down on Shi Xiang to begin with.

Someone like Shi Xiang, who started as a hereditary military officer of the upper fourth rank in the guard-battalion system — Zhang Xianzhong had beaten to death who knew how many of them along the way. Compared to the leaders of the various peasant armies, guard-battalion officers had one glaring flaw: they couldn't fight.

And in the eyes of a peasant army leader, if you couldn't fight, you were worthless.

Liu Chengzong, however, did not see it that way. It wasn't that he thought Zhang Xianzhong's assessment was wrong — it was very accurate. Compared to those captured and surrendered Ming officers, Shi Xiang was utterly unremarkable. His martial prowess and his ability to lead troops into battle were indeed nothing outstanding.

But this man had drive and all-around quality.

Because among the officers who had voluntarily come over to the Marshal's Residence, Shi Xiang had the highest background. He was good at planning things and seeing them through, especially when it came to persuading people to surrender — he must have had extraordinary talent. After all, he had even persuaded himself to surrender.

Shi Xiang's family had fallen on hard times, and he nearly failed to inherit his post. He got the money by imitating Liu Chengzong and raiding the wealthy. Though he managed to secure his hereditary military post, he also incurred criminal charges. He then sought the position of Lanzhou Regional Commander, schemed to sell Lanzhou to Liu Chengzong, and finally succeeded in bringing Lanzhou and its garrison over to the Marshal's Residence, clearing his own black marks with the Ming court.

That was also an ability.

And a very formidable ability at that.

The reason the Marshal's Residence had not previously entrusted Shi Xiang with heavy responsibility was precisely because this ability of his to leap between tightropes was so formidable. In a single year, he had gone from being an alternate military officer without even a hereditary post, to substantive Assistant Commander of Lintao Guard, to Ming court Lanzhou Regional Commander, to Brigade Commander of the Marshal's Residence Lintao Brigade — his status rising with every step.

Liu the Lion could not be certain that he wouldn't take the Marshal's Residence's troops and equipment and turn around to reinvent himself as the Ming court's Lintao Chief Regional Commander. Because the officer corps of the Lintao Brigade had complicated relationships, and if Shi Xiang lacked ability, he would most likely die in an internal feud.

But now that concern was gone. The Lintao Brigade had not suffered an internal feud, the relationships among the subordinate surrendered officers had been smoothed out, and three thousand troops had even been drawn from it and transferred to Monan. It was a time when everything needed rebuilding.

Liu Chengzong thought to himself that Shi Xiang must be nursing a fire in his heart right now, just waiting to earn merit in this campaign.

This message sent to the main army was probably not really about asking for reinforcements, but about letting Liu Chengzong know that he wanted to persuade Yang Guodong to surrender.

Liu Chengzong was also very eager to see what surprising skills Shi Xiang could bring to the battle for Qianzhou!