Chapter 647: Return in Force

Outside Xi'an Prefectural City, the siege encampment.

As the locust swarms that had risen in Shanxi and Henan descended upon Shaanxi, Weinan County broke without a fight; Nan Juyi and the other gentry surrendered in the end after all.

Liu Chengzong exchanged three rounds of letters with Nan Juyi, and they finally settled on a surrender policy: the gentry would offer up gold and silver to be absolved of their crimes, sixty percent of their lands would be confiscated, and the remaining forty percent would be divided among the great clans by household and parceled out.

In Weinan, Lion Liu was uncharacteristically lenient on the matter of land, because the absolution of guilt in exchange for monetary contributions had been proposed by Nan Juyi on behalf of the city's gentry, and the sums involved left Liu Chengzong, a man of northern Shaanxi pauper origins, fairly satisfied.

Nan Juyi contributed fourteen thousand taels of silver; his clan uncle Nan Zhongqi contributed ten thousand taels of silver; there were also miscellaneous contributions of silver from Nan Juye and others who held examination degrees — the entire clan combined produced gold and silver worth over seventy thousand taels.

Liu Chengzong was very pleased with this outcome.

Because gold and silver were the only things he could get out of the Nan clan — after all, their lands lay outside the city; after he routed the government troops, he had already dispatched soldiers to measure the fields and confiscated sixty percent of the Nan clansmen's land.

This single great clan held an enormous amount of land, so much that Liu Chengzong clicked his tongue in amazement — mountains, forests, fields, and ponds, over eight thousand qing in total, with fourteen hundred qing devoted solely to summer and autumn grain and vegetable plots.

Lion Liu had only one thought at the time: the good land in Guanzhong was truly plentiful — the fine fields of a single county nearly matched the entirety of Hehuang.

Rather than grinding down the Nan clan and driving every member to death, what Liu Chengzong cared about more was using Weinan to establish an example of breaking a powerful clan into small households.

To strike a balance between extortion and conciliation that people would find easier to swallow, so as to facilitate the implementation of policy and bring stability to Guanzhong before next autumn arrived.

If Liu Chengzong were a warlord who had risen in the plains of North or East China, what he would be seeing right now was the bleak reality of decline — soil erosion in the northwest, large-scale waterworks fallen into disrepair, a Guanzhong too withered to sustain a great enterprise.

But Liu Chengzong happened to be a pauper who had scraped by for over twenty years on the borderlands; even tiny Hehuang had been enough to serve as the land where he built his rise.

Now he had entered Guanzhong, and moreover had seized most of its territory outside Xi'an Prefectural City.

That familiar feeling from when he first entered Hehuang came again — the shock of mixed-grain flour costing ten taels of silver per dan in northern Shaanxi and one tael per dan in Hehuang, it had returned.

The values in Liu Chengzong's mind underwent another earth-shaking transformation.

In this age, the Central Plains emperor who held the east might not place much importance on a Guanzhong whose waterworks had fallen into neglect, but there would never be a single steppe khan who did not covet Guanzhong's thousand-li expanse of fertile fields.

This was nothing less than a land ordained by Heaven!

But Lion Liu had not yet had the leisure to linger in Weinan and gaze longer upon those lovely fields before he handed the surrender matters over to Left Guangxian's division of the Tiger Guard Camp, turned around, and hurried back to Xi'an Prefectural City with Gao Yingdeng and Ma Ke.

Because Chen Qiyu inside Xi'an Prefectural City had made a move — he had written him a letter.

Chen Qiyu had not written to surrender, but because he had a matter in which he wished to ask Liu Chengzong for help — Lian Guoshi was dead.

"How did Lian Guoshi die?"

When Liu Chengzong brought up the Shaanxi Grand Coordinator, his tone carried a loathing that was exceedingly rare for him.

It made Zhang Xianzhong, the Minister of Rites seated in the central army headquarters, shoot him a sidelong glance, his pair of large, round thief's eyes swiveling craftily in their sockets.

In the entire Marshal's headquarters, the person most devoted to studying Liu Chengzong was this very Zhang Xianzhong.

From what Zhang Xianzhong understood, the makeup of his family's Grand Marshal was exceedingly complex — not only could he not be measured by the standards of an ordinary man, but even if you tried to figure him out by the standards of someone not quite normal, you still couldn't make sense of him.

At the very least, Old Zhang felt that he himself was not quite normal, but compared to Grand Marshal Liu, he was at best a perfectly healthy ordinary person.

Take the matter of rising in rebellion, for instance — in Zhang Xianzhong's view, it was a thing of absolute clarity: they had to sever all ties with the Great Ming, the Great Ming's soldiers, the Great Ming's officials and gentry, the Great Ming's emperor — all had to be cut apart, physically.

But the thinking that their Grand Marshal revealed through his actions was clearly not that.

A mass of primordial chaos, as if he were the concept of Heaven itself made manifest.

He could spout nonsense with a perfectly straight face.

For example, telling an enemy garrison commander, "You govern the locality well — I won't attack you, and I'll even commend you."

Just half a month ago, the Grand Marshal had even had the Old Master in Hehuang draw up this year's Outstanding Merit commendations, ten people in all — men like Yang Dingrui of Xining, Song Xian of Suzhou, Feng Shilin of Zhuanglang, and so on — cited for their achievements, each awarded one sable coat, one suit of brocade robes, and one hundred taels of silver.

The strangest among these ten was Left Maodi, the magistrate of Hancheng, who had yet to surrender; his commendation was delivered to Hancheng by a court gentleman as well.

How did Zhang Xianzhong know about this matter in such detail? Because by regulation, the Ministry of Rites was also supposed to host a banquet for the officials who had received the Outstanding Merit commendation.

But Left Maodi clearly had no intention of coming to eat, so with one word from the Marshal, this Old Zhang here ended up owing someone a meal.

Lately, outside Xi'an Prefectural City, Zhang Xianzhong had seen no shortage of Liu Chengzong spouting nonsense.

For instance, after a battle, Liu Chengzong would have the Tiger Guard officers compile the field reports, then abandon all awareness of being a rebel leader, personally rewrite a nonsensical version of the report, and have it shot by arrow onto the west gate tower of Xi'an Prefectural City.

'Marshal's Headquarters Native-Rank Colonel Gao Yingdeng reports: Suddenly hearing the eastern watchtower's beacon-fire, a portion of the Pass-gate Liaodong troops under Zu Kuan had run amok and were pillaging Xingping. Thereupon I led Chiliarch Tang Tong and others, leading horse and foot troops, racing to Xianyang Tableland, valiantly engaging the rebel troops in battle, repelling them with full force. The rebel soldiers, knowing they had violated the laws of the realm, dared not loose a single arrow in return; their morale collapsed, and they fled helter-skelter south across the Wei River to save their lives.'

'A post-battle investigation found that the rebel leader Zu Kuan, man and horse together, was struck by seven spears and died on the spot. His head has been collected, sealed, and prepared, awaiting inspection and merit-recording by officials of the Ministry of War.'

'Yunyang Grand Coordinator Lu Xiangsheng, secretly harboring resentment and privately colluding with the Miao barbarians, his wild ambition now revealed, is in truth a man of Cao Cao and Wang Mang's ilk, having without authorization crossed the border and led troops into Shaanxi. Fortunately, Marshal's Headquarters Native-Rank Colonel Zhang Tianlin discovered this and, by virtue of moral conduct, persuaded him to turn back. His crime is unpardonable; we hope the Supreme Commander will discipline him properly and demote him to herd horses in Qinghai.'

Say he's serious, and he turns black into white, calling a deer a horse.

Say he's fooling around, and yet he genuinely nominates Ming officials who refuse to surrender for Outstanding Merit.

It always gave Zhang Xianzhong a kind of illusion — that when others rebelled, it was out of deep hatred for the world, wanting to overturn everything; when their Grand Marshal rebelled, it was out of deep love for the world, wanting to take the throne by force.

This long study had led Zhang Xianzhong to consider himself the number-one expert on the Grand Marshal under Heaven.

Yet this time, the hatred that unconsciously surfaced when Liu Chengzong spoke Lian Guoshi's name still gave Zhang Xianzhong a new insight.

The Grand Marshal did not hold goodwill toward all capable court officials.

He clearly had no goodwill whatsoever toward Lian Guoshi — the man was already dead, and the loathing was still there.

Wang Wenxiu, seated upright to the side in the army tent, heard Liu Chengzong's words and let out an involuntary soft laugh. Only then did he cup his fist in salute to Lion Liu and say, "Replying to the Grand Marshal, Chen Qiyu says Lian Guoshi died of accumulated overwork and illness. However, your subordinate believes that Lian Guoshi was angered to death by those field reports of the Grand Marshal's."

Liu Chengzong's face showed displeasure. He shook his head. "This man died the wrong way. It let him off too easily."

At his side, Gao Yingdeng, the sole remaining Grand Camp Colonel, heard this and burst out laughing. "The Grand Marshal is right! Your humble subordinate believes he should have been blown to death by a landmine!"

Gao Yingdeng knew exactly where Liu Chengzong's hatred came from. Back when the Marshal's army crossed the Yellow River to attack Xigu City, Lian Guoshi had prepared an ambush with everything in place — the cabins of the ferryboats at the shore were packed with gunpowder, the riverbank at the crossing was buried with steel-wheel landmines that would explode the moment you stepped on them, and he had also dispatched Zhang Yingchang to set an ambush with musketeers and gunners at Lama Ridge.

It could be said that was one of the most dangerous situations in Liu Chengzong's entire life — he had nearly been blown to death.

It was all thanks to a secret report sent by He Yong, the head of the household retainers under He Renlong's command, which allowed Liu Chengzong to grasp the situation on the shore in advance, enabling his army to crawl up from the Yellow River like ghosts, accurately evade every minefield, surround the Grand Coordinator's Garrison Battalion on Lama Mountain, raze Xigu City, plunder the wealthy households of Lintao Prefecture on a grand scale, and leisurely transport the grain, goods, and wealth back to Hehuang.

"Lian Guoshi is dead — forget it, it's not important."

Liu Chengzong looked at the assembled commanders and waved his hand. "What matters is how to use this matter to break Chen Qiyu's will. What do you, my elder brothers, think of his request?"

Chen Qiyu's request was very simple: he hoped Liu Chengzong would permit the gates of Xi'an Prefectural City to be opened so that Lian Guoshi's coffin could be sent out, and the city's military officers could transport it back to his hometown in Henan for the funeral rites.

On this matter, the opinions of Wang Wenxiu, Shi Xiang, Zhang Xianzhong, and the others were nearly identical.

They all agreed to let the Ming troops escort the coffin into Henan. Where they differed was that Wang Wenxiu and Shi Xiang recommended opening the coffin to examine the body.

Wang Wenxiu wanted to confirm that Lian Guoshi was indeed dead; Shi Xiang's train of thought was a bit more eccentric — he was worried that if they opened the coffin, lying inside would be a very much alive Chen Qiyu.

Zhang Xianzhong had no interest in the coffin; he was very interested in opening the city gates. He rose and said, "Grand Marshal, you can send the Western Brigade's Wang Ziqi to receive the coffin. Seize the moment the gates open to fight your way into the city. Twenty good hands will be enough to take the city defenses and hold until the main army storms in!"

Liu Chengzong had an impression of the Wang Ziqi Zhang Xianzhong mentioned.

This man was originally a border soldier. When Zhang Xianzhong rose in revolt, he brought his Jiazhou clan to join the Western Camp, becoming Zhang Xianzhong's right-hand man.

Therefore, when absorbing the Western Brigade, Liu Chengzong, with the aim of dividing power, gave the rank of Assistant Regional Commander to his younger brother Wang Ziyu, but granted no official post to Wang Ziqi.

So he had always remained by Zhang Xianzhong's side as a mounted archer and head of the bodyguards — truly a fierce officer willing to throw his life away.

At the siege of Qianzhou, Wang Ziqi led the death squad and was the first to charge through the breach in the city wall.

In the night battle at Baoji, when the Ming general Long Zaitian seized a tactical opening and used war elephants to break the formation of the Lintao Brigade's Zhang Yunqi unit, it was this same Wang Ziqi who took up a long blade and fought hand-to-hand, severing an elephant's trunk and forcing the war elephant to turn and trample Long Zaitian's Yunnan troops.

Having earned merit twice, Liu Chengzong could understand Wang Ziqi's eagerness for an official post; moreover, he rather admired such a ruthless man.

So he smiled and said, "Brother Bingzhong, there is no need to rush to find work for Wang Ziqi. I have already sent word to the Military Office for One-Hand Zhao Kebian to come over. The army has thousands upon thousands of men whose merits need recording. Soon he will have the chance to lead troops independently."

"One-Hand?"

Zhang Xianzhong was stunned. "Isn't he the Director of the Hexi Bureau of Evaluations in the Military Office?"

Liu the Lion chuckled and said, "Most of the army's registries are in Hexi, so of course someone from Hexi has to come."

Institutions are always lagging, because plans cannot keep up with changes.

And this was even more true for the Marshal's Manor, which was advancing by leaps and bounds across the map.

Their recruitment, training, selection of officers, and even personnel appointments all suffered from mismatches.

This crude and simple system had already become the greatest problem Liu Chengzong currently faced.

After all, human strength has its limits. A snake-swallowing-an-elephant style of military victory often brings a rapidly expanding territory and a surge of surrendered officers and troops.

This touches on why people surrender en masse — interests. Their vested interests have not been completely destroyed, and they might even gain greater and more interests.

The conquest of Shaanxi was precisely a snake-swallowing-an-elephant victory for the Marshal's Army.

Liu the Lion could no longer clutch all power tightly in his hands; he had to delegate a portion of authority to others.

Before, it was because he could not familiarize himself with every single soldier, so he had to hand the power of managing the troops to Assistant Regional Commanders and establish separate battalions.

Now, he had to hand a portion of personnel appointment authority to the Military Office — this was also the reason for the existence of a Military Office and Personnel Office, or a Ministry of War and Ministry of Personnel.

But delegating power was not the problem; the degree was crucial.

After all, with anything, it is easy to give it away and hard to take it back.

So his talk of the Military Office handling merit recording was really just a polite remark. The Marshal's Manor's Military Office did not have the authority to appoint mid-ranking officers.

Zhang Xianzhong also knew that within the Marshal's Manor, the Military Office still had some use in appointing officers below the rank of Squad Commander.

But for appointing officers above the rank of Battalion Commander, the Military Office was just a toy; it was entirely decided by Liu Chengzong's single word.

But since the Grand Marshal was talking nonsense with his eyes wide open, putting on a show of caring greatly about procedure, what could he do? He could only smile and say, "Then, shall we not use this opportunity to take the prefectural seat of Xi'an?"

"Don't attack. Why attack it?"

Liu Chengzong looked at the eager Zhang Xianzhong, then swept his gaze over Wang Wenxiu and the others, and said, "I know you brothers are all impatient to earn merit, but the most important matter right now is locust prevention. Even if the prefectural seat surrendered this moment, I would not accept it."

"Ah?"

Now not only Zhang Xianzhong, but even Wang Wenxiu was stunned on the spot. He spoke up: "Grand Marshal, the Prince of Qin's estate is inside that city. If they reach a certain degree of starvation, the Prince of Qin, pressed by circumstances, might just open his granaries to provide military funds."

The implication was clear: the wealth, grain, and fodder of the Prince of Qin's estate had long been seen as the Marshal Army's possession; they could not bear to let the Ming troops squander it.

Liu Chengzong, however, said, "This prefectural seat — let the two elder brothers, Shi and Zhang, keep it besieged for now. Your urgent task, elder brother, is to transfer the Yang Chengzu Battalion under your command to Baoji, and call Luo Rucai's battalion over. Have them coordinate with the Tiger Guard Battalion to handle one specific matter."

Wang Wenxiu rose to await orders, then said, "Please give the command, Grand Marshal."

"All the guard troops of Xi'an's four garrisons are inside the city. Let them eat the Prince of Qin's grain inside the city. Luo Rucai has experience preparing for locusts in Baoji; call him over to deal with the locusts."

"Take one Thousand-Commander unit of the Tiger Guard Battalion and focus solely on clearing the military farmlands. Clean up the twenty-four thousand qing of military farmland belonging to the four garrisons thoroughly. Those who have encroached on the military fields — expel those who should be expelled, arrest those who should be arrested. I want those twenty-four thousand qing of military farmland."

As soon as Liu the Lion said this, Wang Wenxiu, Shi Xiang, and Zhang Xianzhong all understood.

The Grand Marshal had long had his eye on this military farmland, which was why he did not want Xi'an's prefectural seat to surrender early — to clear the military farmland and avoid unnecessary trouble.

Wang Wenxiu was immediately overjoyed and accepted the order.

He had never before thought about the military farmland of Xi'an's three garrisons and one escort guard. Although everyone knew the official acreage of these four garrisons was two hundred forty thousand mu of farmland, that land supported the four garrisons' guard troops.

It could never have occurred to Wang Wenxiu that Liu Chengzong had no intention at all of accepting the surrender of Xi'an's four garrisons.

Or rather, even if he accepted their surrender, he had no intention of letting them continue as military households.

That made these fields immensely important. After all, they were all already cultivated land. If military farms were re-established, under the Marshal Manor's military farm system, they could support at least eight battalions.

For Wang Wenxiu, who had lately been racking his brains over military rations, logistics, and such matters, this was undoubtedly tremendous good news.

Wang Wenxiu cupped his fists and asked, "Then this prefectural seat of Xi'an — is the Grand Marshal not going to attack it?"

"Attack, I will not. But Chen Qiyu..." Liu Chengzong smiled. "I still want to toy with him a little. I'll write him a reply."

That very day, a letter was shot by a Plumed Forest rider drawing his bow from horseback outside the city, landing on the western gate tower of the prefectural seat.

Chen Qiyu unfolded the letter and saw it read: "Lord Lian's talent is, after all, a pity. Returning home to mourn is a matter of common human feeling. This junior can send my adopted son Eje to lead troops and escort you, guarding the coffin as far as Wu Pass. However, now that Guanzhong is settled, the Supreme Commander should also consider his own situation."

"The fields outside the city have all been distributed to the people's households. Outside the prefectural seat, there is no relief; inside, there are no troops or grain. There is a risk of mutiny. Why not — tomorrow night at the third watch, this junior will draw away the patrols, and the Supreme Commander can lower himself by rope from the city and shift to Shanxi, to supervise the armies of four provinces. The affairs of the realm may yet allow you to rally and return."