Chapter 65: Reunion

The Prefect's yamen was quite interesting.

Many gentry came; officials living in retirement and sons of officials serving in other provinces had seats in the main hall.

Great merchants and men like Liu Xiangyu — those who had held minor posts or were provincial graduates who never took office — had seats in the large courtyard outside the hall.

The younger merchants and Confucian licentiates, all of whom had purchased their caps and sashes through donations, stood outside the hall.

Like Liu Chengzu and Liu Chengzong.

Those who had earned their caps and sashes through bandit heads were at the very bottom of the yamen assembly's food chain — just find some out-of-the-way corner and squeeze in.

Anyway, Black Dragon Mountain's whole image was so poor they'd pawn their pants, the whole mountain practically starving to death; the Prefect had no expectation of them donating money or grain.

So the great officials had the Prefect himself keeping them company while funds and grain were raised; the great merchants had the Vice Prefect and the Assistant Prefect attending them; the lesser merchants and donation licentiates even had the Magistrate of Fushi County attending them.

For cap-and-sash men like them, only an old servant of the Prefect's yamen led the way — once they were seated in the pavilion, no one paid them any more attention.

The two brothers had talked the whole way to the prefectural city, exchanging what each had gained during this time.

Liu Chengzu's feelings were mostly lingering fear.

Tending the wounded often reminded him of that night they raided Wangzhuang Fort.

The soldiers had all scattered, with no organization left — even without government troops outside, had the surrendered banner troops turned on them, they might not have been able to win.

So during this period, Liu Chengzu had focused his efforts on teaching the border troops to take this problem seriously.

Inside the Prefect's yamen, the two brothers were far more restrained.

Many things could not be discussed, and they had no desire, like the others, to curry favor and network.

For Liu Chengzong, this felt more like — more like infiltrating enemy lines.

His eyes kept darting furtively into the yamen's main hall; any one of the men seated there, plucked out at random, was worth half a Zhang Qing.

Liu Chengzong was just thinking that if trouble arose in the future, he could seek these people out, when he felt his elder brother nudge his arm. "Look at that man."

Following his brother's gaze, he looked over.

Among the crowd of donation cap-and-sash licentiates stood a scholar of refined, gentle bearing, chatting and laughing with those around him.

As if sensing the gaze, the man glanced indifferently toward the pavilion, then turned his head away, utterly unconcerned.

Immediately after, he whipped his head back around, his expression as if he'd seen a ghost.

It was Collapse-the-Sky!

So it wasn't just their brothers infiltrating enemy lines — Collapse-the-Sky had infiltrated even deeper than they had, chatting away merrily with the Fushi County Director of Schools.

After that one glance, it seemed Collapse-the-Sky could no longer converse with others with a heart as still as water.

Before long, he cupped his hands to the people around him in apology and strolled unhurriedly over to the two of them.

He cupped his hands and said, "I find you two elder brothers somewhat familiar. I am Liu Guoneng of South Jia Mountain. May I ask your names?"

The moment South Jia Mountain was mentioned, it was definitely Collapse-the-Sky.

"I am Liu Chengzong, of Black Dragon Mountain."

"Liu Chengzu."

Liu Guoneng smiled. "Once matters in the prefectural city are settled, how about I invite you both to South Jia Mountain as my guests? Would you do me the honor?"

Liu Chengzu clasped his fist in apology. "Since Brother Liu is so gracious, let Chengzong go. We still have guests at home."

"That works too. Then later, we'll meet outside Shunyang Gate."

After Liu Guoneng left, Liu Chengzu explained, "Squad Leader Cao has a guest coming these next few days. When you go, come back early — you might just catch him."

"A guest for Brother Cao?" Liu Chengzong asked. "Who?"

His elder brother did not elaborate, only whispered a name: "Squad Leader Zhang."

Zhang Wu, the squad leader who had once left Yuhe Fort.

Now he too was a bandit chief, called Crossing-Sky-Star.

Ever since leaving Yuhe Fort, Cao Yao had wanted to find this man, but back then he'd only seen a peculiar wanted poster in Qingjian and hadn't located him.

Qingjian had a great many wanted posters; bandit chiefs emerged in an endless stream.

But none matched Crossing-Sky-Star — other men's notices were a single sheet of paper; Crossing-Sky-Star's notice could plaster half a wall.

At the top was the bandit name Crossing-Sky-Star; below it, six portraits lined up neatly — from Zhang One through Zhang Five, plus a Big Sister Zhang.

A family enterprise.

As the brothers were talking, an uproar broke out between the hall and the outer courtyard.

The officials wanted the gentry to donate money and grain to serve the nation; the gentry demanded that the government first exterminate the bandits around Yan'an Prefecture before discussing sending troops to Yanchuan and Yanchang.

The two sides' demands did not align, and a dispute erupted.

A gentry man from within the prefectural city flung his arms wide and cried out, enumerating the grain and pay he had donated to the court since last year, yet the situation only grew worse.

The gentry from outside the prefectural city demanded that the county and prefecture issue them weapons so each village could defend itself.

There were even some more radical men who directly cited the example of Sanyuan County, where in spring the common people had torn down Buddhist statues to cast red-barbarian cannons to defend against bandits, and demanded cannons be cast.

In summary: it was easy for the government to demand money and grain, but let them restore order to the situation, and they would donate grain.

If order could not be restored, then the gentry wanted firearms and cannons to restore it themselves.

Other than that, there was no possibility whatsoever of donating any money or grain.

They couldn't very well provide the grain, let the government troops run off to Yanchuan and Yanchang to suppress bandits, and then have the bandits come and loot them clean.

Better that you government troops just hunker down right here in Yan'an Prefecture and go nowhere at all.

In the end, nothing was resolved. Only a few officials and gentry donated less than two hundred shi of grain — nowhere near enough for Yan'an Prefecture to dispatch troops — and the assembly broke up in mutual displeasure.

After bidding farewell to his father and brother, Liu Chengzong led his horse himself to the south side of Shunyang Gate, and before long he had made contact with Liu Guoneng.

Liu Guoneng was not alone; he had brought Shoot-Collapse-the-Sky with him, and besides them there was a man who looked like a guard-post officer.

The few of them exchanged no words upon meeting; each mounted his horse and headed toward South Jia Mountain. Only once they had entered the hills did they begin to talk among themselves.

Liu Guoneng said, "I thought Tiger General had died. When the prefectural city paraded a head around the walls, I even went specially to look — that's when I ran into Shoot-Collapse-the-Sky."

As he spoke, Shot-Down Sky cupped his fists toward Liu Chengzong and said, "I am Li Wanqing, a hunter from the south of the city."

Liu Guoneng introduced another young guard officer, saying, "Brother Chengzong, this is Yang Yanchang, Probationary Centurion of Yan'an Guard. He was also at Wang Village that day."

This actually startled Liu Chengzong. He clasped his fists and said, "I thought only those of us without official rank did this sort of thing. Brother Yang, you have a salary — how come you as well?"

"That pittance of a salary is worth fuck-all. Every month, before it's even issued, the poor guardsmen under me have already borrowed it all."

Yang Yanchang shook his head. "Knowing they can't pay it back, I still have to lend it. What else can I do? We go hungry, and then we're supposed to suppress bandits at Wang Village. Fuck his mother — I figured I might as well suppress them first."

"The Tiger General's head — did you both go see it?"

Hearing Liu Chengzong's question, Liu, Li, and Yang said in unison, "All three of us went to see it. I thought one of you three had died."

So everyone else had seen it, and only Liu Chengzong had not. He asked, "By the way, which of you used my name to distribute grain to the common people?"

The three showed smiles. Liu Guoneng said, "We all did. Didn't I ask you what to do since we couldn't take the grain away, and you said to give it out to the poor common folk."

"The fort was breached by you. We got the grain for nothing — how could we then claim credit for ourselves?"

Yang Yanchang said, "Guoneng even sent a batch of grain to the prefectural seat. That Prefect Zhang can rack his brains all he wants, but he'll probably never figure out that the man who wrote threatening letters to him was right inside the prefectural office at the time."

Before long, they arrived at Nanjia Mountain.

Liu Guoneng said, "Come, I'll take you to meet my mother. I've finally managed to bring home a brother who holds an official post — now she can stop complaining that I don't make good friends."

The common people of Sanyuan County stripped the gold from Buddhist statues and cast three bronze Red Barbarian Cannons weighing fifteen hundred catties — from Wang Zheng's *Daily Record of Loyalty and Command*.