Chapter 664: A Bright Future

The change brought by the families entering the city was dramatic.

In just three days, Chen Qiyu sent his younger brother Chen Qihuang out of the city and into Liu Chengzong's main camp.

Three days earlier, Liu Chengzong had been deeply impressed by the Chen brothers, led by Chen Qihuang — each one like a noble scion, scholarly honors and talent all gathered in one person.

Yet in only three short days, the noble air about Chen Qihuang had nearly all faded; entering the camp and seeing him, he didn't stand on ceremony, opening with: "Grand Marshal, might I first have a meal?"

One look at that unsteady gait and the feeble voice, and Liu Chengzong knew the lad was starved half to death.

Chen Qihuang was much younger than Chen Qiyu; he was born of the concubine Lady Bai, same father different mother, and not long after his birth his father passed away, so he was raised entirely by his mother alone.

He was about the same age as Liu Chengzong.

This request of his was very easy to satisfy.

Thanks to the battlefield trade inside and outside the city, the shops in the siege camp kept their fires burning twelve double-hours a day, ensuring that whenever the defending troops' God of Wealth rappelled down from the city wall, they could buy a meal.

Any change at first grows wild and unchecked, until those in power come to understand it, and then either push it along or impose restrictions, gradually bringing it under regulation — this was also the case at the Marshal's headquarters.

When Liu Chengzong observed the siege trade, understood the underlying reasons for this phenomenon, and then lent it his support, using one problem to solve another, the markets and shops outside the city became regulated.

Liu Chengzong's solution to this matter was that dredging is better than damming.

He did not mind the army running shops during a siege; in fact, he even considered it an excellent method for extracting gold, silver, and valuables from within Xi'an Prefecture.

So he simply arranged for a batch of wounded soldiers from the earlier Xianyang Plateau campaign to be reassigned, specifically planning market towns in the four gate suburbs outside the city, and establishing a trading firm with restaurants and eateries as its line of business, named Tiande Sheng.

Tiande Sheng followed Shaanxi merchant tradition, forming a share system based on the ten-thousand-gold ledger and the traditional six-tenths capital, four-tenths labor split, in which Grand Marshal Liu Chengzong contributed the land, shop construction, and early costs as the financial backer, holding sixty percent of the shares.

The remaining forty percent was held by the actual operators — the head manager, shop managers, cooks, and clerks of each establishment — contributing their labor as their share.

The head manager was effectively the chairman, responsible for actual operations; he was an unlucky fellow under Gao Xiandeng, with the official rank of Centurion, who had been rammed and injured by a Liao cavalry horse, breaking the bone in his right arm — even after it healed he dared not exert force, so he transferred to Tiande Sheng as head manager.

As for the shop managers, they were squad leaders and company-grade officers wounded in the earlier Xianyang Plateau campaign; the cooks were wounded mess soldiers; and there were also senior clerks, who were wounded soldiers responsible for tasks like purchasing and raising livestock.

Of course, recently they also recruited a batch of junior clerks from the commoners released from Xi'an Prefecture, filling out the various shops of Tiande Sheng to serve as a reserve force for future mess soldiers.

At this point, the siege trade outside Xi'an Prefecture was essentially separated from the Marshal headquarters' regular army, preserving its function of boosting the besieging troops' morale while reducing the negative impact of regular troops participating in commerce.

Through the Tiande Sheng trading firm, Liu the Lion could already foresee the siege war giving birth to a crop of century-old establishments at Xi'an Prefecture.

Setting everything else aside, take just the mutton soup alone — each of those shops run by mess soldiers used top-quality ingredients for their master stock.

The great cauldrons supplying the army's daily meals had been boiling for months without the fire ever going out; the chickens and pork hocks they bought, the army's mutton bones stripped of meat, stewed in the broth until they dissolved, yielding a bone broth milky white and rich.

Slice some paper-thin mutton, ladle boiling broth over it to blanch, sprinkle on a little salt and crushed pepper, and if available add a bit of scallion or other greens — a perfect balance of meat and vegetable, wonderfully fragrant.

A shop like this could utterly crush any civilian competitor — after all, who among the common folk had Liu the Lion's cost advantages?

Once Xi'an Prefecture falls in the future, the gold, silver, and valuables inside the city will be hauled out and distributed to the troops as pay; when the Marshal headquarters' big eaters garrisoning Xi'an are on leave, they can eat their fill, and once they've eaten and drunk their fill, that silver will all flow right back into the Grand Marshal's hands.

After all, the wool comes from the sheep's own back.

Very soon, a soldier brought Chen Qihuang four oil-swirl cakes and a bowl of mutton soup with glistening fat floating on top.

Chen Qihuang's eyes lit up at the sight; he immediately thanked Liu Chengzong and fell to eating with ravenous delight at the side.

Exactly like a starving ghost reincarnated.

That bowl of mutton soup surpassed every delicacy and fine dish he had ever eaten in his life.

There was no helping it — the only full meal he'd had was at the Marshal army's siege camp before entering the city.

After entering Xi'an Prefecture, in three days he went hungry nine times, having in total just two bowls of thin congee and two pastries given by Chen Qiyu.

Liu Chengzong's family-member offensive was something Chen Qiyu could not withstand in the slightest.

The most critical problem was that over four hundred people entering the prefectural city amounted to a mob of unemployed vagrants.

Chen Qiyu was not an independent ruler like Liu Chengzong; if it were just his own household of a few dozen, perhaps the Prince of Qin could have solved the problem for him.

But over four hundred clansmen — that was practically the manpower of a full Battalion Commander's unit. Where was he supposed to find food for the entire clan, young and old?

At most, he could give the limited meals first to the elderly and children; someone like Chen Qihuang, who wouldn't die from skipping a few meals, could eat a little less for now.

Besides, it is human nature to seek advantage and avoid harm, to bully the weak and fear the strong.

All the misfortune of the Chen clansmen originated with Liu Chengzong; if not for Liu Chengzong, they would still be far from the war in Shanxi, enjoying worldly wealth and comfort.

Yet who dared say a single word against Liu Chengzong?

Of course there were those who dared — the Old Matriarch had already cursed him — but even if they cursed Liu Chengzong till their mouths were bloody, what damn use was it?

With a wave of his hand, the man had delivered them right into Xi'an Prefecture, and these three days they had lived worse than dogs.

And yet, there was absolutely nothing they could do about Liu the Lion.

So they could only blame all the suffering they endured on Chen Qiyu.

And Chen Qiyu, in turn, could only blame himself for his own incompetence.

Even his extremely resolute old mother, once inside the city, did not once urge Chen Qiyu to defend the city to the death.

In this era, when it came to a son's ultimate test of integrity, mothers were often more resolute than fathers.

The Chen family's Old Matriarch had been deeply shamed by Liu Chengzong bringing up the matter of Duan Fuxing; with her pride on the line, she was ten thousand percent set on dying with honor.

But this was not a matter of just their household of a few people.

To be fair, Duan Fuxing died heroically, but the Old Duan family's uncles and elders back in Shandong did not die; those who perished in Qianzhou were only Duan Fuxing's wife, children, and aged mother.

Liu Chengzong had even carried Chen Qiyu's third granduncle into Xi'an Prefecture in a sedan chair — from ninety-nine years old down to those not yet able to walk, five generations under one roof.

With the entire clan facing self-sought annihilation here, who could harden their heart to that?

Let alone Chen Qiyu — even if you put the Chongzhen Emperor in his place, he would have to find a way to save a few lives.

The old madam could only use mealtime to tell Chen Qiyu: "Leave the city to someone else to surrender, preserve the common people and the clan, and your mother will hang herself alongside you."

Chen Qiyu flatly refused this.

This was not something that could be left to someone else to surrender; now, among the high-ranking officials in the prefectural city, his entire Chen clan was present, so surrendering carried no burden at all.

The next-ranking official was Wang Qiaonian, serving as Administration Vice Commissioner; Wang Qiaonian was a native of Sui'an County, Yanzhou Prefecture, Zhejiang — no matter how loudly Liu Chengzong boasted, he lacked the ability to go to Zhejiang and haul the man's entire clan over.

If he had Wang Qiaonian lead the city in surrender while he himself simply died, wouldn't that be ruining the man?

If this city was to surrender, he alone could lead it in surrender.

The blame for surrender was something only he could bear.

In the central army command tent of the siege camp, Chen Qihuang slurped loudly at his mutton soup, chewing big mouthfuls of crispy oil-swirl cakes, his lips glistening with grease.

Liu Chengzong sat upright on a folding chair to the side watching, an unconscious expression of kindly affection on his face, like someone feeding a pet.

"Good, isn't it? Eat slower, don't choke. I'll have someone fetch you some jujubes in a bit." As Liu Chengzong spoke, he suddenly remembered something and raised a hand. "Right, I knew something was missing — wine. Bring another pot of wine."

"Huh?"

Chen Qihuang was so stunned he choked. He quickly gulped down a mouthful of mutton soup to force it down, then hastily shook his head. "No need, Grand Marshal. A full meal is more than enough."

"No, no, no. That won't do."

Liu Chengzong, however, was completely serious. "When I was little, eating in prison this time of year, every meal was either mutton noodles or mutton soup, with pumpkin, a red apple, and a pot of thick wine. That's what made a satisfying, proper meal."

"Red apples aren't in season right now, so jujubes will have to do as a substitute — still counts as eating some fruit."

Chen Qihuang, half an oil-swirl cake still in his mouth, stared blankly.

What a villain!

Eating prison food since childhood?

And the way that treatment sounded — why did it so closely resemble a last meal before execution?

Chen Qihuang had already wolfed down most of a large bowl of mutton soup and three oil-swirl cakes. He was full, but had been so famished he still wanted to eat.

Now, with the association of a condemned man's last meal, the oil-swirl cakes lost their appeal.

He quickly sat up straight and said, "Grand Marshal, the truth is, my coming out of the city this time was on my elder brother's orders, to discuss with the Grand Marshal the matter of the prefectural city's surrender."

The moment Liu Chengzong heard this, he burst out laughing.

That's it?

Holed up in the city for three months without a word of surrender, but the moment his family and clansmen are sent into the city, he folds in three days?

Liu the Lion lightly tapped his knee with his fingers on the arm of the folding chair, silent for a moment before he spoke. "Has he thought it through? Not holding out for another three months? Hold until spring — no, he'd best hold until next summer."

Of the people Chen Qiyu had released earlier, aside from the old, weak, and young children, the remaining able-bodied had not been idle. For the time being, most had become tenant farmers hired with grain wages by the Marshal's Manor, tasked with turning the soil and planting seedlings on the cleared military farmlands.

If Chen Qiyu held out until next summer, he could open the city gates just in time to come out and harvest the wheat for him.

But such a pleasant dream was only something Liu the Lion could indulge in. Chen Qiyu absolutely could not last until next summer.

Yet that he could only hold out for three days truly exceeded Liu the Lion's imagination.

By now, Chen Qihuang had no mind to care about the mockery. His face full of bitterness, he said, "The Grand Marshal may not know, but Xi'an has long since run out of both soldiers and grain. When my family's four hundred-plus members entered the city, there was simply no food for them. How could we possibly hold out another three months?"

Oh, so you people still need to eat!

Liu Chengzong was not being sarcastic here — he genuinely had not considered this aspect.

Now that Chen Qihuang mentioned it, he had no trouble guessing Chen Qiyu's predicament. The officials great and small in that prefectural city, along with their families, likely did not even outnumber Chen Qiyu's own clansmen.

It was just that... Liu Chengzong shook his head slightly, a trace of disgust toward Chen Qiyu rising in his heart.

Without a doubt, Chen Qiyu's surrender came with conditions. Otherwise, there would have been no need to send Chen Qihuang over now.

But for one, Liu Chengzong disliked people setting conditions for him, and for another, he disliked self-contradictory, twisted people.

He liked the kind who burned bright — men like Yang Jiamo and Duan Fuxing.

In the grand sense, true heroes whom wealth could not sway, rank could not alter their resolve, death could not stay their course, men even Heaven itself could do nothing about.

In the smaller sense, they were tenacious heroes of integrity, consistent in word and deed, undaunted by hardship in pursuing their convictions.

Friend or foe, whether they went through fire and water or were hacked to pieces, their deaths were certainly brutal — but all men must die in the end.

Every endeavor indeed has its success or failure, yet the human will is free, and it is very hard to judge the success or failure of a way of life.

But only those who, if they knelt, knelt outright, and if they fought, fought to the bitter end — only those who steadfastly enacted their will could win Liu Chengzong's genuine admiration.

Realizing that Chen Qiyu, a man who constantly made choices against his own conscience, now at the end of his rope still intended to set conditions for him, Liu Chengzong's expression toward Chen Qihuang turned cold.

His tone lost its warmth as well. "Surrender, is it? Then surrender. How does Chen Qiyu plan to do it?"

Hearing this, Chen Qihuang immediately sensed that Liu Chengzong seemed none too pleased about Chen Qiyu's surrender.

Of course, he could not understand the deeper reasons, and Liu Chengzong would not explain them to him — if you turn traitor, then those who persevered in the past died for nothing.

Duan Fuxing's entire family died for nothing. My soldiers who fell at Duan Fuxing's hands died for nothing.

And of course, there was that good brother Yang Guodong, who followed his elder brother through hardship and displacement, finally emerging into better days, only to show his face atop the city wall as an envoy and be struck dead by a single whip from Duan Fuxing.

What was the point of all that suffering?

The omens of defeat did not just appear now.

But whatever Liu Chengzong was thinking in his heart at this moment, Chen Qihuang had his own mission. He said, "Grand Marshal, my elder brother wishes to ask the Grand Marshal to show leniency and allow the Administration Commissioner and Education Intendant Wang Qiaonian and seventeen other provincial officials from outside the province, along with their families, to depart eastward from the city."

"On what grounds?"

"After they leave, the blame for the defeat shall fall entirely on my elder brother alone. His sins are grave. Our Chen clan surrenders to the Grand Marshal and is willing to serve as your vanguard, with absolutely no concern of us turning back east."

Liu Chengzong paused, then laughed. "Your brother is clever — reducing my concerns? It's not impossible for me to agree to this... but if we're going to do it, let's do it thoroughly."

"Thoroughly?"

Chen Qihuang's smile faded. With a solemn expression, he said, "Please, Grand Marshal, give your clear instructions."

"Before those people leave, have Chen Qiyu issue an order to confiscate the assets of all wealthy households in the city with grain stores exceeding five hundred shi or family wealth exceeding one thousand taels. Then, seize every single member of the imperial clan, from the Prince of Qin on down, male and female alike."

Chen Qihuang's eyes went wide. You call this "thorough"?

Never mind the question of degree — do you think my brother is you? Where would he get that kind of control over the army?

Confiscating property and toppling a prince — just that order alone would set the city fighting itself. And once the fighting and looting start, how do you control military discipline?

But to his surprise, Liu Chengzong continued expressionlessly, "Then release the officials to return east, restore military discipline, detain the soldiers who broke the law and violated discipline during the looting, open the city gates, and offer surrender."

Truth be told, Chen Qihuang could easily guess the script that would follow.

Liu Chengzong would enter the city, execute the soldiers detained for violating law and discipline during the confiscations, and release the Qin princely clan members as commoners. The impact of the war on the city of Xi'an would be reduced to a minimum.

The Marshal's Manor could then enter and rule Xi'an with full legitimacy, like a true sovereign power.

He had personally experienced Liu Chengzong capturing them from Shanxi and stuffing them into the city.

Knowing how vicious this man was, once inside Xi'an, he would very likely tie up the entire Chen clan, including Chen Qiyu, all over again and send them back the same way to Baode Department in Shanxi.

After that, the Great Ming and the Marshal's Mansion would make peace, the Chongzhen Emperor and Marshal Liu Chengzong would be overjoyed, and Chen Qiyu, as the chief culprit, would have his whole household executed and his head paraded around the nine border garrisons — everyone would have a bright future.

Chen Qihuang still wanted to argue his case a little more.

But Liu Chengzong had already risen to his feet. "Go back and relay my demands to Military Governor Chen. Of course, he could also seize the prefectural seat and the princedom and keep defending the city until next summer — that's fine. I won't force him to surrender. Just deliver the message."