Chapter 66: Government Troops

In another set of memories, someone said the only thing that can truly unite a group of good friends is a corpse in the backyard.

That dead Tiger General was that corpse.

Liu Guoneng was also a Xiucai. His ancestors had guarded the border for generations — fathers, brothers, sons: the dead fell in battle, the living filled their ranks, all dying beyond the Great Wall.

Only his elderly mother remained at home.

As the village's sole Xiucai, Liu Guoneng naturally became the commoners' leader.

When drought came, he led the villagers to build irrigation works.

When bandits came, he forged blades and spears to resist them.

Until the government agents came.

Liu Guoneng gathered the able-bodied men of four villages, surrounded Wangtian Fortress with sharp weapons in hand — his goal was utterly humble.

He only wanted to harvest grain from the Wang fields to pay the imperial taxes.

Now, with grain in surplus, Liu Guoneng was instead very lost.

The villagers no longer intended to be bandits. People pinned their hopes on the drought not continuing into next year.

They believed life could always return to its proper course.

But he knew there was no going back.

In a Guandi Temple on South Jia Mountain, Liu Guoneng laid out a banquet to entertain the three men.

Amid the toasts and exchanged cups, Liu Guoneng poured out his grievances: "The grain we left for the commoners' households will probably last another half month. After half a month, the area around the prefectural city will fall into chaos again. I don't know what to do!"

"Not just the area around the prefectural city. Brother Guoneng, I see you haven't trained any local militia here."

Liu Chengzong urged, "Train them. Organize the able-bodied young men under the pretext of resisting bandits. Right now, with food and drink available, it's the best time to train troops."

"I don't know how to train troops. Besides, Battalion Commander Yang can't come over every day."

Liu Guoneng spread his hands. His father had been a veteran, but had died in battle beyond the Great Wall on the northern frontier very early on. He himself had grown up on South Jia Mountain.

His family was poor; studying was very difficult. He could only get hold of the Four Books and Five Classics tested in the imperial exams, and by relying on his intelligence, he passed the Xiucai exam. But as for extracurricular books like military texts —

He had never read them.

"If you don't know how to train troops, I can find a friend to come. Just as you said, the commoners nearby have no grain. Even with grain here, you'll still face chaos. So Shaanxi has no grain, but Shanxi and Henan have grain — can they just stay out of it?"

Liu Chengzong drank a cup of wine. "A great uprising is inevitable!"

"I'm not so sure... That Tiger General who stole your name — he gathered several hundred men, spent two days getting his name into Yan'an Prefecture, and spent another two days getting onto Li Bei's merit roster."

Liu Guoneng shook his head. "Besides, the Son of Heaven is sagely and wise. He will soon see what northern Shaanxi looks like now."

Great. Another loyalist devoted to sovereign and country.

"You don't know what to do — I'll tell you. In the face of life and death, there is no right or wrong, black or white."

Liu Chengzong said, "The great drought has ruined Shaanxi and Shanxi. The eastern barbarians are dragging down Liaodong and Northern Zhili. She Chongming is tying up the four southwestern provinces. The entire Great Ming relies on a single Grand Canal to stay alive. The Son of Heaven cannot spare attention for Shaanxi.

The imperial court's expenditures exceed revenue year after year. Every province's lost tax is another hole. The holes grow more and more, tax collection grows more and more brutal — the nation's strength is already exhausted."

Liu Guoneng frowned. "You want to rebel?"

Plundering was not rebellion — it was a desperate expedient forced by circumstance.

So he did not consider himself to have rebelled, and he also now thought inviting Liu Chengzong home had been a mistake.

Liu Chengzong did not answer that question directly. He only asked in return: "The drought turned Shaanxi into this. It's been two years. The court should have waived taxes. Did they? Who forced you to become a bandit? The imperial court."

Liu Guoneng was speechless. The other two, however, grew excited.

"Right!"

Li Wanqing echoed, "If the court hadn't refused to waive taxes, I wouldn't have had to take in over two hundred tax evaders in the mountains."

Yang Yanchang very earnestly offered Liu Chengzong a suggestion: "Brother Chengzong, I saw it that day — you're all border troops. But Li Bei truly is not easy to deal with. Relying on the thousand-odd men we few can gather, we can't beat him."

"How do you know you can't win if you don't fight!"

Li Wanqing, perhaps tipsy from the wine, stood up and waved his hand. "Tiger General, lead us in rebellion! I, Li Wanqing, will be your vanguard. Let's kill to our hearts' content first, then accept amnesty and become generals ourselves — no more putting up with this crap!"

Liu Chengzong asked, "What use is being a general? The world hasn't changed. The rich have grain and coin piled up, rusting and rotting, while the poor sell wives and children and still cannot sustain themselves.

You fight bloody battles, killing this one and that one, just to ride on the commoners' backs and flaunt your power — then turn around and slaughter them when they rebel against you."

Li Wanqing fell silent, slowly sat back down, and said, "Then what can we do? Even if we took Yan'an Prefecture, we couldn't possibly hold it. If we don't surrender and accept amnesty, are we just eggs dashing ourselves to pieces against a rock?"

"Well said — we can't hold it!"

Liu Chengzong turned to Liu Guoneng. "That's precisely why we must train troops now. Once you truly rebel, there'll be no chance. When the time comes, being able to run will be more important than being able to fight. Getting pinned down by government troops in a decisive battle means death."

Liu Guoneng remained silent for a long time. He no longer argued about loyalty to the sovereign, but asked, "Then tell me your plan. What do you intend to do?"

"Of course I want to build up strength and wait for the right moment.

But the times won't allow me to say 'wait for the right moment.' We are all like the court — candles in the wind, unable to bear the slightest risk."

Liu Chengzong always used his own family as a reference point.

His family was the kind that, under normal circumstances, would not rebel.

Rebellion requires a popular base. Once even his family was driven to rebel, that would mean the moment for rebellion had arrived.

"We've fought side by side — that makes us friends. If we rebel in the future, don't think about amnesty. Amnesty has no good end. Either don't rebel, or if you do, overthrowing the court is the only goal."

This was too difficult — so difficult that when Liu Chengzong spoke these words at this moment, they sounded like a joke to the three men's ears.

Even if the Great Ming Dynasty was a candle in the wind, it was not something the likes of them could overthrow.

But nothing in this world is ever decided by whether someone wants to or can.

Halfway through the meal, someone came stumbling into the temple and shouted, "Eldest son of the Liu family! Thirty-some government troops have surrounded Youcai Village! They want grain, and they want young women!"

Liu Guoneng froze for a moment, then erupted in fury. "Where are these curs from? Grain isn't enough?"

Yang Yanchang also asked, "Who's leading them?"

The villager shook his head. "Don't know him. They say they're troops from the south, chased Wang Zuogua all the way here."

"Isn't that bullshit? Zuogua ran toward Qingyang — what's he doing coming to Yan'an!"

Perhaps Liu Chengzong's earlier words had taken effect, for Liu Guoneng forcefully suppressed his anger as he walked out the temple gate, adjusting his mood as he said, "Give them some grain and send them on their way."

The others followed out the temple gate as well and looked down the mountain. They saw that in the valley, a village no more than two li from Liu Guoneng's home had its entrance blocked by a unit of soldiers.

Several dozen villagers had gathered there, and someone went out to parley with the government troops.

No one knew what was said, but the officer doing the negotiating returned to the ranks.

The scene that followed made Liu Guoneng's eyes split with fury.

A row of gunpowder smoke rose as soldiers in border garrison uniforms fired a volley from three-eyed guns, and swaths of villagers collapsed.

Those behind scattered and fled into the village, while the soldiers, blades drawn and bows in hand, charged in.

Liu Chengzong ran out and saw the slaughter unfolding in the valley village. Liu Guoneng stood frozen, eyes wide.

As he stripped off his official robe, he shouted to Liu Guoneng, "What are you standing there for? Rally your people! Those are not government troops!"