Chapter 662: Hold to the Death

Governor-General of the Five Provinces — that title had once been Chen Qiyu's lifelong glory.

But if Heaven gave him a chance to start over, he would rather never have taken this post.

Fighting Liu Chengzong — and being besieged inside a city on top of that — is pure torment.

By now he no longer even knew what point there was in holding this city; the defending army's morale had long since collapsed from a direction no one could have imagined.

Two Ming princes of the blood — one inside the city, one outside.

The old Prince of Qin inside the city would not part with a single hair, his only words being "at worst this prince dies inside this city"; the young Prince of Han outside the city shouted day after day that the Grand Marshal bore Heaven's mandate and urged the troops inside to surrender early.

That was nothing. The crux was that a few days ago, real trouble broke out right here inside Xi'an Prefecture.

The West Gate garrison mutinied and opened the gate for a full half shichen, beckoning the Marshal's army to enter — and the Marshal's men did not even spare them a glance, simply refused to come in!

In the end, three hundred mutinous defenders raised a clamor, tied up their commander Li Kecong, and marched out of the city to surrender with him in tow.

In truth, by the time this siege — in which blades had never once crossed — had dragged on this long, what the soldiers and civilians inside the city were thinking about was no longer how to hold it.

Because what the Marshal's army had been doing outside the city these days was essentially an open hand of cards.

Not only did they let the defenders on the walls see it, they made no effort to hide it from the garrison troops and banner soldiers who came down to the foot of the wall to buy meals or do a little peddling — they were free to ask around.

The military fields of the four Guards, the ownerless civilian fields, the estate lands of the Prince of Qin's fief — any land no one came forward to claim during registration was ownerless land.

Ownerless land all became official fields of the Marshal's headquarters; they had not only finished harvesting everything there was to harvest, they had even planted new crops.

Chen Qiyu had tried to seize this opening, selecting from his army a hundred death-sworn men who owned land outside the city, each carrying armor plates, arrowheads, gunpowder, and the like, to infiltrate the besieging camp and stir up trouble when the moment came.

The result: some men went out of the city and immediately informed on them. Not only the death-sworn men who had been selected, but along with them over a hundred unlucky souls who had merely gone down to buy food — whoosh, in a flash — their military registrations were transferred straight to the Military Administration West of the River.

And the men themselves were escorted all the way into Dalai Taiji's training camp, where they happily received a one-way ticket to tour the Tianshan Mountains.

By this point, Liu Chengzong's intent was already blindingly obvious.

He had no desire whatsoever to storm the city, still less to enter it — so what, exactly, are you defending?

With the Xi'an Prefecture garrison tormented like this, there was simply no defending will left to speak of. Now, the hundred thousand and more soldiers and civilians in the city were all pondering one question: if this went on, would Liu Chengzong starve them to death this winter?

Many were even convinced that Liu Chengzong's objective was precisely to starve them to death.

Because by this time, the soldiers and civilians inside the city had figured it out: to Liu Chengzong, the significance of Xi'an Prefecture was merely Xi'an Prefecture itself.

There had never been much grain in the city to begin with — after all, the farmland was all outside the walls. When the gates were shut, the grain had not yet ripened, and now Liu Chengzong had harvested it all.

What the city did possess was nothing more than gold, silver, valuables, and goods — things you cannot eat. Those things cannot be consumed; the people would all starve to death, and the things would still be there, the city would still be there.

Despair hung over Xi'an Prefecture like a shroud.

During this period, Chen Qiyu's main energy had actually gone into having the garrison guard against the common people storming the city gates.

Because of starvation, and with the Marshal's army refusing to attack or enter the city, the contradiction between Xi'an's officials and soldiers on one side and Liu Chengzong on the other — the contradiction between us and the enemy — had evolved into an internal contradiction between the soldiers and commoners on one side and the officials and military officers led by Chen Qiyu on the other.

Among them, the native Xi'an officials, because of their families, were either conservatively urging Chen Qiyu to let people leave the city, or, more radically, beginning to lean toward advising Chen Qiyu to consider what came after.

Reading between the lines, it was time to start thinking about surrender.

But Chen Qiyu could not surrender.

Driven to the wall, he gritted his teeth and wrote Liu Chengzong a letter, saying that the city's rations were exhausted and demanding he lift the siege — otherwise he would release the city's commoners.

When Liu Chengzong first read this letter, he laughed, thinking to himself that Chen Qiyu did not seem very bright — a big Governor-General of the Five Provinces, and this was what he threatened him with.

Had his brain gone bad?

For an official defending a city to treat the commoners inside as a burden and release them, tossing them at the besieging army — that in itself was a colossal joke and scandal.

This was no longer a matter of dereliction of duty; it was abandoning legitimacy, a self-demotion.

Only bandits occupying a city would do such a thing.

But after Liu the Lion mulled it over carefully, he summoned Zhang Xianzhong.

The two of them holed up in the command tent and talked it over for a long while, and realized that Chen Qiyu's threat — stupid as it was — still carried a certain destructive power.

If all the commoners inside Xi'an Prefecture were released, Liu the Lion truly could not afford to feed them.

After all, at this season, with winter approaching, settling the commoners was genuinely difficult, and it would consume a great deal of their grain.

But what they spent was grain, and what they gained was hearts, minds, and population — while the imperial court's side would suffer a net loss, even forfeiting its legitimacy. How much longer could this Xi'an Prefecture hold out then?

It was killing two hundred of the enemy at the cost of eight thousand of your own — sheer madness.

Liu Chengzong said to Zhang Xianzhong, "Having thought it through carefully, I do not consider this a bad thing."

Xi'an Prefecture had always been a hidden danger to the Marshal's headquarters — this was determined by Liu Chengzong's strategic policy for entering Guanzhong.

If he had wanted to take the prefectural city, he would have taken it long ago.

It was just that the Marshal's army had swelled so rapidly it exceeded Liu Chengzong's imagination, and also surpassed the Marshal's headquarters' capacity to absorb it, making it impossible to handle everything perfectly.

So, they swallowed up the military garrison fields, swallowed up the farmland outside the city, and while people were hiding inside the prefectural city, seized this year's entire harvest from outside the walls.

That in itself was already pretty inhuman.

Feeding on those inside the city to keep those outside alive.

But the problem still remained — this was not a matter of "if the city folk starve to death, so be it; if they don't, then Chen Qiyu has skill." It had to be resolved.

Now that Chen Qiyu could not hold on any longer and was going to release the city's commoners, it happened to give Liu Chengzong a chance to deal with them in batches.

Still, no matter how he looked at it, Liu the Lion could not shake the feeling that Chen Qiyu resorting to such a desperate measure meant his brain had gone bad.

If you cannot even protect the commoners, what city are you still defending?

When the young Prince of Han learned this news from Zhang Xianzhong, he came to Liu Chengzong holding up his wide sleeves: "Grand Marshal, this young prince has heard that Chen Qiyu intends to release the hundred thousand commoners of Xi'an to eat up the Grand Marshal's army provisions?"

"Grand Marshal, do not let him provoke you. Give the word, and this young prince will send a letter back to my princely state. My brothers of the Prince of Su's line in Pingliang will immediately lodge a complaint before the throne of that fourth great-granduncle of mine and impeach Chen Qiyu harshly."

Liu Chengzong was stunned.

Your way of thinking is rather... unique.

You can actually file a complaint with the Emperor about this?

"Don't waste the effort. It's not worth it."

Liu the Lion thought to himself: Chen Qiyu's entire family is in my hands, and the man himself is inside Xi'an — the Emperor has absolutely no way to touch him.

Besides… although sending that border report to Chen Qiyu was a bit absurd, it was meant to break Chen Qiyu's will.

Filing a complaint against the Chongzhen Emperor from two thousand li away — that would be breaking the Chongzhen Emperor's will.

There's no point to it.

"Chen Qiyu must have lost his mind writing this letter. He's started making demands of me as if he were the Emperor."

Liu the Lion spat on the ground. "Does he need to demand it of me? I'm already worming my way into the imperial robes on my own. He doesn't want the duty of shepherding the people — I do."

"If he's willing to release people, let him release them. I'll take however many he sends. Even if I can't feed them, I'll force myself to feed them. The sacred vessel returns to the virtuous — he's utterly squandered the court's virtue in Shaanxi!"

That very day, Liu Chengzong had men shoot letters tied to arrows onto the walls of Xi'an — over a hundred of them in a single volley.

The message was simple: you have no grain, I have no grain. If you release people, you're sending them out to starve. So, defending brothers on the wall, tell the people inside the city: when you come out, bring some grain with you. You'll be given land when the time comes — don't starve to death before you even reach the land you're meant to clear.

Inside the city, Chen Qiyu received the news. He looked at the letter and thought to himself, That damned Liu Chengzong is full of crap.

In all of Shaanxi right now, who has more grain than you?

If you have no grain, then everyone else has already starved to death.

To be honest, the letter Chen Qiyu sent Liu Chengzong, and his lowering of his own status to adopt the desperate measure of releasing commoners from the city — his real target was not Liu Chengzong. It was the Prince of Qin.

To be precise, he did want to ease the pressure on the city's grain supplies, but more importantly, he wanted to put pressure on the Qin feudal nobles and the wealthy grain-hoarding households inside the city, forcing them to bring out their grain.

Because Chen Qiyu no longer knew what he could do.

Fight? He couldn't win. Defend? He couldn't hold. Flee? Nowhere to flee. Surrender? He couldn't surrender.

All he could do was wait to die.

The problem was, even delaying death was extremely difficult — there was no grain.

This was no longer something that could be solved by borrowing grain, never mind whether the city would descend into chaos from the shortage.

Even Chen Qiyu himself wanted to lead troops to loot the wealthy households in the city.

So the only solution he could think of was to release all the people and soldiers in the city who were not so resolute.

If sixty or seventy thousand ran out, those remaining in the city could unite against a common foe. Then the Qin feudal nobles and the wealthy households would have no choice but to bring out their grain and fodder, and they could hold this city until next spring.

If over a hundred thousand ran out and not many were left in the city, then that was even easier to deal with.

It would mean he had taken the wrong path — that this city should never have been defended in the first place.

He was at his wit's end.

As Liu Chengzong's letter spread through the city, the city consequently… grew even more chaotic.

The authorities told people to leave, but people were scrambling to flee and hide within the city; everywhere in the city, people were privately buying grain, or even seizing money and grain and sneaking out over the city walls on their own.

But the turmoil did not last too long. Within a few days, Chen Qiyu truly opened the gates and released over two thousand old, weak, women, and children who had no grain.

Liu the Lion took one look and had Chen Qiyu's intentions pretty much figured out.

Releasing over two thousand of the old, weak, women, and children was clearly a test to see whether he would accept and provide relief for them.

To him, this was not a problem at all. He immediately gave the order for his troops to set up porridge stations around the perimeter of the siege camp.

At the same time, he also dispatched Li Rujue, a Battalion Commander under Luo Rucai, to lead a Company Commander's unit to find a Battalion Headquarters outside the city and begin setting up a refugee camp that could survive the winter.

This was also Liu the Lion's test for Li Rujue.

This fellow was a fierce general under Luo Rucai. Leading small cavalry detachments in night raids, he had successively shot dead Cao Wenzhao's subordinate officer Cao Dingjiao and Zuo Liangyu's subordinate officer Luo Dai — cunning and brave.

Based on his battle merits, even promoting him to Regional Commander would not be out of line. It was just that Liu the Lion did not quite trust the organizational and management skills of Luo Rucai's old brothers.

So he handed the task of resettling the refugees to him, to test his mettle.

If he did well, Liu Chengzong planned to make him a Mobile Corps General in Zhang Zhen's Yanqing Brigade.

For seven consecutive days after that, Chen Qiyu released people from the city. He started with the old, weak, women, and children, and later simply released entire families. He didn't even close the city gates anymore, and kept releasing them until Liu Chengzong got angry.

There was no other reason. Chen Qiyu releasing people was one thing, but he actually forbade them from bringing grain, and forbade them from bringing gold or silver. Anyone who ran out with money on them had to have it smuggled down over the city walls in secret.

Liu Chengzong thought to himself, You miser. Not letting people bring grain is one thing — you're eating it in the city, I understand.

But what's the deal with not letting people bring money? You can't eat gold, silver, or copper coins in the city!

The most critical thing was the trouble it caused.

Silver was a critically scarce resource at the Marshal's Manor.

If Chen Qiyu kept this up, once the Marshal's Manor took Xi'an, Liu Chengzong would have to issue an order to dig three feet deep into Xi'an and turn the whole place over.

Liu Chengzong couldn't be bothered to get angry at Chen Qiyu. He simply gave the order: "Invite General Zhou over. Bring Chen Qiyu's entire family to the foot of the city wall!"

Zhou Qing, the All Over the Sky Star, was not a general of the Marshal's Manor, but his intention to align with the Marshal's Manor was extremely clear.

Liu Chengzong had Zhang Zhen ask Zhou Qing and Hui Dengxiang to borrow a few skilled men who had been into Shanxi to serve as guides, and dispatched several dozen men to enter Baode Prefecture to bring Chen Qiyu's family over.

As it turned out, as soon as Zhou Qing heard it was an order from the Grand Marshal, he directly left his troops behind, led eight hundred soldiers in a grand procession crossing the river from Fugu, and stormed into Baode Prefecture. He brought back Chen Qiyu's entire clan — over four hundred and seventy people. Basically, he brought back to Shaanxi every relative within the five degrees of mourning, relocating the entire clan.

And he handled the matter with exceptional care. Aside from Chen Qiyu's sixty-odd close relatives, the remaining clansmen and the elderly who were not convenient to move were all settled in Suide.

The most impressive thing was that Zhou Qing's All Over the Sky Star troops were never known as an elite force famed for military discipline, yet in this operation, they managed to endure curses from Chen Qiyu's clansmen without retaliating.

The only blemish, however, was that Zhou Qing did not bring over Chen Qiyu's birth mother, leaving her in Suide, and only brought Chen Qiyu's stepmother, Lady Bai.

Liu Chengzong was amused when he saw the list of Chen Qiyu's family. Their naming for this generation was quite interesting — the 'Qi' generation, with a naming pattern just like the Han imperial clan at the end of the Han dynasty.

Yu, Huang, Lian, Hu, Ying, Zhang — all were rare ceremonial jade objects with the 'jade' radical. Aside from Chen Qiyu, all of them were Xiucai degree holders.

On this matter, Zhou Qing even made a point of explaining to Liu Chengzong that it was because Chen Qiyu's birth mother was very fierce. The whole journey, she cursed at everyone she saw, as if she were rushing toward death.

All the brothers in the family begged Zhou Qing, saying that if this Grand Matriarch reached the foot of the city wall, she would surely commit suicide and ruin everything. If you want to persuade Chen Qiyu to surrender, we will all help persuade him together.

Chen Qiyu originally had a younger sister, named Chen Jing.

When their father, Chen Jiajian, was serving as a Clerk in the Guangning Guard in Liaodong,

she had been betrothed since childhood to a son of the Guo family of Baode Prefecture, and Chen Qiyu had also taken a daughter of the Guo family as a concubine.

When Chen Jing turned sixteen, it was time for the marriage to be completed. Chen Qiyu, already prominent, looked down on the Guo family good-for-nothing his sister was to marry and wanted to break off the engagement. But his sister wanted to marry him. Upon hearing the news of the broken engagement, she locked herself in her room.

No matter how their mother called, she would not open the door. They only heard Chen Jing inside say, "Your daughter wishes to bathe." The mother heated water outside for her. When the water was heated and she entered, Chen Jing had already hanged herself.

So the old madam of the Chen family had always been full of remorse and had long since lost the will to live.

So Zhou Qing, also afraid of ruining things, had first left Chen Qiyu's mother in Suide under guard, then came over to talk.

But as soon as Liu Chengzong heard this, he had the old madam brought over anyway — in times like these, he'd seen plenty of people rushing to their deaths; what was so special about this?

Liu Chengzong's order had just been given, and not long after, the old lady's cursing could be heard from far off as she made her way through the camp.

When she reached the outside of the camp and saw Liu Chengzong, the old madam cursed even more fiercely: "You treacherous villain, kill me if you will, but I, of the Chen clan, will never persuade Yuxuan to surrender!"

Even Chen Qiyu's brothers, following behind her, their faces ashen as death, stiffened their resolve as well.

They had no choice. Earlier they'd been pliant because they felt Zhou Qing had treated them kindly along the way, and there still seemed a chance to live.

Now, with the old madam cursing like this, once this rebel leader flew into a rage from shame, the entire Chen clan was surely doomed right here.

Kowtowing and begging for mercy meant death; being defiant also meant death — so why hold back? Better to anger him thoroughly and seek a quick end.

But unexpectedly, Liu Chengzong listened to the old madam curse for a long while without saying a word, only a mocking look in his eyes, and from time to time he even broke into a smile.

There was simply no way the old Chen madam's meager attacks could break through his defenses.

Instead, he waited until she had tired herself out cursing, then, looking at her as if she were a fool, asked with puzzlement: "Who told you that I had Chief Zhou bring you here to persuade Chen Yuxuan to surrender? Who do you think he is?"

Zhang Xianzhong, standing in attendance to one side, wore an expression of complete understanding.

As expected, his guess had been right.

As early as when he learned Liu Chengzong had sent men to fetch Chen Qiyu's family, he had guessed that Liu Chengzong, even if he had them all killed beneath the city walls to vent his fury, would never use family to force a surrender.

From what he knew of Liu Chengzong, this Grand Marshal had always looked down on everyone — he would never stoop to such a petty, villainous act.

"If he wanted to fight, the Five-Province Allied Army would be annihilated in a day; if he wanted to defend, he defended until he even threw out the city's own civilians and abandoned them; now all of Shaanxi is in my hands, and still he won't surrender, insisting on a fight to the death… heh."

Liu Chengzong let out a short laugh as he spoke, raised his head, and gazed far into the distance at the towering gate tower of Xi'an: "You think I would have you persuade him to surrender, or kill you all right here? The ones who kill you won't be me."

"Ming Army Consultant Duan Fuxing, ordered by Chen Qiyu to defend Qianzhou, piled firewood beneath the drum tower and placed his aged mother, wife, and daughters atop it. When the city fell, he set the tower ablaze, fought fiercely, and died in battle."

Liu Chengzong raised a hand and pointed toward the city: "The defending soldiers' families are all inside the city. By what right is his, Chen Qiyu's, family back in his hometown? All of you, get into the city for me, and teach Chen Qiyu a proper lesson in what it means to fight to the death!"