Chapter 670: Boundless and Without Limit

Xi'an City.

Liu Shizi passed through the moon fortress of Anding Gate and rode his horse down West Street.

Between the rows upon rows of government offices and civilian dwellings, soldiers of the First Brigade had already set up defensive cordons along both sides of the road.

Ahead of the column, Zhu Cunji — the common-born son of the Prince of Qin — rode a black donkey at the head, wearing a cloak and carrying a saber at his hip.

As he went, he turned back to introduce the sights: "Grand Marshal, on the left are the City God Temple, Chang'an County office, and the Surveillance Commission; behind them are the Provincial Examination Hall, Yongfeng Granary, the Military Farm Circuit, and the Regional Inspector's Court."

"And in the northwest corner of the city, the Almshouse and the Pauper's Cemetery."

Having said this, Zhu Cunji waved his hand again and introduced the right side: "South of West Street are the Education Circuit, the Yichuan Prince's Estate, the Yongshou Prince's Estate, the Forward Guard, the Armory and the Miscellaneous Works Bureau, and the Tea Inspection Court — all government offices."

Zhu Cunji's current job was to serve as Liu Chengzong's guide.

He worked at it with great zeal.

This was part of the Qin Prince's estate's plan.

Back when Liu Chengzong was besieging the city, the old Prince of Qin, in order to preserve his fiefdom, had long since decided the future fates of his sons.

The heir apparent, Zhu Cunji, was to conceal his identity and flee, striving to make his way to Beijing.

The common-born son Zhu Cunji was to defect to Liu Chengzong, while Zhu Cunqi would remain with the old Prince in the Qin Prince's Palace, relying on the defending troops to hold the city.

In short, three methods, one goal: to ensure the Qin Prince's fiefdom continued at all costs.

In the end, before Xi'an's walls were breached, the defending troops inside the city came to the palace complex to seize people first, forcing the Qin Prince's clansmen to activate their escape plan ahead of schedule.

The heir apparent, originally meant to conceal his identity and flee Xi'an, concealed his identity a little too successfully — he was captured by mutinous soldiers as an ordinary scholar, and ended up dying in a clash between two groups of mutineers fighting over spoils.

The old Prince of Qin and Zhu Cunqi, who had remained to hold the palace, successfully turned themselves into prisoners.

Only Zhu Cunji, whose original plan had been to defect to Liu Chengzong, charged out of the palace complex and headed straight for the southern battlefield.

Amid the defending Ming troops all fleeing northward, he became a lone figure moving against the tide, and was successfully captured by the vanguard troops of Ren Quan'er's unit.

When captured, Zhu Cunji was still shouting: "I am the heir apparent of the Qin Prince's estate — you cannot kill me!"

This truly made the soldiers think they had a rare prize on their hands, but when they delivered him before Ren Quan'er, they discovered this lad was merely a common-born son of the Qin Prince, not the heir apparent.

However, for Ren Quan'er, this was hardly a problem.

Because Zhu Cunji was relatively brave — even meeting Ren Quan'er's gaze, he showed no fear, and his mouth was even quite tough.

"I've already defected to the Grand Marshal — can't I at least be made an heir apparent?"

This one sentence was the correct password for Ren Quan'er, and he promptly took Zhu Cunji as a kindred spirit.

Too right — what the hell is the Qin Prince's heir apparent worth? Let the Grand Marshal make you the Crown Prince of the Great Ming!

On Ren Quan'er's strongest recommendation, Zhu Cunji became Liu Chengzong's local guide for entering Xi'an.

Hoofbeats clattered as Liu Chengzong looked at the government offices lining the streets north and south, full of curiosity at the city's street planning.

To be precise, this was the first city Liu Chengzong had ever seen.

In truth, this strange feeling did not afflict Liu Shizi alone — the trusted officers who followed him into the city all felt this odd sensation to varying degrees.

The rows upon rows of government offices and civilian homes lining both sides of the road could make their heads spin.

Because this mighty, impregnable city — built in the third year of the Hongwu reign, with walls a full forty li in circumference — contained not the slightest trace of military planning within.

What kind of men were those behind Liu Chengzong? They were born in the borderlands — in places like Yansui, Ningxia, Gansu, Yan'an, Guyuan, and Xining.

Every one of them had a military background to some degree, and everything they had ever seen and absorbed was connected to war.

War was not some distant legend they had never witnessed — it was life itself, or rather, an inherent component of the world as they understood it.

So much so that, until they entered Xi'an Prefecture, none of these men had even realized that they had never actually seen a true "city."

The cities they were familiar with were all fortresses with military functions.

The large fortress-cities of the East were not merely defined by external defenses like moats and trenches, towering walls with protruding bastions, forests of arrow towers, barbican gate-fortresses, and enemy watchtowers.

There were also T-junction streets and dead-end alleys where gates did not face each other and roads did not connect, designed to guard against charges and establish defensive lines, along with crooked gates and twisting paths for ambushes — all so that even after losing the walls, the enemy could still be driven out.

And Xi'an Prefecture had none of these internal wartime arrangements whatsoever.

This was a city that truly gave them the feeling of being in the "hinterland."

Its four city gates stood directly opposite one another in pairs; two ten-li-long boulevards divided the city into four quarters. Standing at the west gate, you could see the east gate; standing at the north gate, you could see the south gate. The layout was that simple — you could ride a horse through without ever needing to turn.

The functions of the government offices were even more concentrated.

The northwest was a whole district of administrative government offices.

The southwest was dominated by auxiliary offices: the Education Circuit, Tea Inspection, Armory, and Miscellaneous Works Bureau.

The southeast flourished with literary culture; near the Dongzi Shrine were the county schools and archery grounds of the two attached counties, Xianning and Chang'an.

The northeast held the Qin Prince's Estate and the Altars of Mountains, Rivers, Soil, and Grain.

And interspersed among all these were the commandery princely estates of the Qin fief — Yongshou, Yichuan, Yongxing, Heyang, Qianyang, and Bao'an — along with the residences of large numbers of artisan households, military households, and civilian households.

Beyond this, outside the prefectural city's east gate, past the moat, lay an expanded new outer city, Dongguo. There were hardly any government offices there; it was mainly the market and shops of the Ten-Li Ward, with only a single official hall office used for collecting commercial taxes.

But as far as Liu Shizi was concerned, that official hall was basically useless now.

After all, the taxes previously collected outside the east gate were levied on goods traveling west from east of Tong Pass, or on Shaanxi merchants traveling east.

Now, that customs checkpoint existed in name only.

"Emphasize agriculture, suppress commerce" — sometimes that is the cause. But Liu Shizi's Marshal's Manor was more straightforward: the cause was a lack of people, the process was official monopoly operations, and the result was emphasizing agriculture and suppressing commerce.

Xi'an's streets were very long, but Liu Chengzong walked them with great satisfaction.

Because the administrative buildings in this city were far more complete than the administrative departments of his Marshal's Manor, and all of them could be put to use.

As they walked, the Marshal's Manor's Guards of the Feathered Forest took notes, and soon they would be able to produce a planning map of this city.

Before long, the party entered the Qin Prince's Palace.

Even before Liu Chengzong had entered Xi'an Prefecture, he had received word from Ren Quan'er: the prefectural city had been taken, troops had been dispatched to seal off the Qin Prince's Palace, and they were waiting for him to return and enter the city.

However, before Liu Chengzong entered the city, he had already sent the Tiger Guard Battalion into the Qin Prince's Palace to sort through the buildings and valuables, and to clear out the side halls.

The Tiger Guard Battalion worked efficiently; as Liu Chengzong entered the palace complex, they had already come forward to report: "Grand Marshal, the halls have been prepared."

Liu Chengzong nodded at once and led his officers straight to the side hall to convene a military council.

The city of Xi'an Prefecture was strange and novel to him, but the palace compound was not — he had long ago entered Prince Su's residence in Lanzhou, so the Prince of Qin's residence, built to roughly the same specifications, held nothing particularly special.

It was likewise a double-walled city with an outer screen wall and an inner palace wall. Entering through the Lingxing Gate on East Street, the Altars of Mountains and Rivers and of Soil and Grain lay to the west, and the Prince of Qin's ancestral temple to the east.

Beyond the second wall was the Duanli Gate of the palace wall, with a pair of bronze lions before it, cast with exquisite craftsmanship.

Inside the palace compound, a bamboo grove and a study hall lay to the east, and the West Garden to the west. Along the central axis of the front hall stood the Chengyun Hall, the royal residence, the Round Hall, and the Cunxin Hall. The rear palace consisted of two residential halls, front and back, plus a rear garden of considerable size.

On the whole, these palace complexes and the hundreds of side rooms and annexes could satisfy every need of Liu the Lion.

East side hall.

A map of the Marshal's Headquarters hung in the hall, and a long table cobbled together at short notice let the headquarters officers sit in two rows on either side.

Several maps of Xi'an city were spread across the long table. Plumed Forest cadets, brush in hand and ink ready, moved among them, adding strokes to the city map from time to time as ordered.

"East and west in front of Duanli Gate — build the Six Offices. The three corners of the city, northeast, southeast, and southwest — convert them into three Regional Commander headquarters."

Liu Chengzong pointed his saber scabbard at the northeast corner of the city map. "Xi'an Rear Guard — convert to the Field First Brigade Regional Commander headquarters, permanently station one grand battalion."

Then he pointed at the southwest corner. "Prince Yichuan's residence — convert to the Field Second Brigade Regional Commander headquarters, permanently station one grand battalion."

Finally he pointed at the Xi'an Left Guard in the southeast corner and said, "Convert this one to the Guannei Regional Commander headquarters, give it to Zhang Tianlin, likewise permanently station one grand battalion."

Zhang Xianzhong rose and said, "Marshal, stationing these three grand battalions inside the city — it's not convenient."

Liu Chengzong took no offense and nodded. "I know. Set it up this way for now. Outside the city to the west there's the training ground — they won't all be stationed inside the city."

He understood what Zhang Xianzhong meant. The Marshal's Army drilled without pause every day, firing muskets and cannons, cavalry and infantry charging — there was no room inside the city to deploy.

But he was truly reluctant to set up yet another force specifically to defend the city of Xi'an.

Because the troops that had entered Xi'an with him, by a rough count, already exceeded thirty thousand.

This grand battalion alone was over fifteen thousand, but besides them, there were also the Plumed Forest and Tiger Guard battalions that Liu the Lion intended to station outside the Prince of Qin's palace wall.

Not to mention that he was moving his household here. The academy, the children's camp, and the eight ordu from He-Huang all had to be relocated to Xi'an.

Add to that the Marshal's Headquarters' multitude of administrative personnel, and thirty thousand was a conservative estimate.

Thinking of this, Liu Chengzong slowly shook his head, then asked, "How goes the arrangement for the people being relocated outward?"

"Reporting to El… ah, Marshal."

Ren Quan'er rose, clasped his fists, and gave an embarrassed laugh before continuing. "Famine refugees, surrendered troops, and imperial clansmen — over fifty thousand in total. This year they'll build camps outside the city; grain rations will be apportioned among the prefecture's various counties."

"Once spring arrives, they'll be moved elsewhere. Famine refugees to unclaimed wasteland within the prefecture, surrendered troops mainly to Guyuan, Jingning, and Pingliang. The imperial clansmen will still need grain allocated from various places to sustain them for half a year."

As he spoke, Ren Quan'er picked up a letter from the table. "The Old Master has already replied. This group will first be relocated to the Lanzhou and He-Huang area for a brief period of training, then sent to Gansu in the summer to support the Tianshan front."

To be honest, Liu Chengzong did not want to support these imperial clansmen for even a single day.

But there was no choice — the mountains and rivers were far-flung. Of the territory the Marshal's Headquarters currently held, apart from Xi'an Prefecture, only the He-Huang Valley, cultivated for many years, could sustain an influx of outside population.

Once he nodded, Ren Quan'er added, "Brigade Vice General Zhu Zhiyu is currently recruiting men willing to deploy to Tianshan from among the surrendered troops and famine refugees."

Liu the Lion nodded heavily. "This is a serious matter. Make sure Jin Chanzi does it properly and picks the candidates well."

Though all were being sent to Tianshan, different people had different uses.

Women of the imperial clan were going to Tianshan to live a good life.

Of course, that depended on the rank of the imperial daughter — those titled ladies would certainly find life there incomparable to the past.

But for Liu Chengzong, this was already the most merciful course. At least by joining the Tianshan Army, their lot would be far better than being casually married off to commoners in the interior.

Liu the Lion also needed their aristocratic way of life and breadth of experience to go there and expand the Marshal's Headquarters' influence.

The Tianshan Army had been dispatched over there, yet far from spreading royal civilization, they had instead been largely assimilated by the Oirat — that was far too humiliating.

As for roving bandits, brigands, mountain outlaws, gamblers, ruffians, convicts, and the useless imperial clansmen — these were the personnel assigned to Zhou Riqiang and Dai Daozi.

Dumping trash.

Send this lot over, issue them blades and guns — the vast expanse of Siberia is a land of boundless opportunity, let them go and wreak havoc.

If they have the skill to survive, all the better; if most of them die, that counts as ridding the people of a scourge.

As for the weeded-out surrendered officers, surrendered troops, and military households — these were, in Liu Chengzong's eyes, the professionally suited backbone for opening up the northwest.

He had already thought through exactly how to use this group.

First send the scoundrels over, form them into night-patrol scout squads to blaze the trail ahead. Behind them, the weeded-out surrendered officers and troops would serve as the vanguard battalion of the Tianshan Army, storming cities and seizing strongholds.

Once the land was conquered, these military households would go and hold it, forming guards together with the local natives, strengthening military support and spreading agricultural techniques.

Finally, the imperial daughters would go to the Tianshan Army and the guard military households to start families and bear children, ensuring cultural dominance and bringing the barbarians a small taste of imperial shock and awe.

This approach naturally had its pros and cons, but the downside, in Liu Chengzong's view, was negligible — namely, that all the newborns would carry the bloodline of the Founding Emperor.

But that godforsaken place — without the logistical support of the Marshal's Headquarters, even if they wanted to come back, they couldn't.

And the upside was enormous. The greatest advantage of the imperial clan women was their high level of education — they were literate.

A literate mother could guarantee her children's home education.

In ten or twenty years, when this batch of children grew up, they could completely overwrite the languages, scripts, and customs north of the Tianshan range.

On that foundation, whether they were on the same side as the Central Plains or not wouldn't matter — though being on the same side would of course be best, it was fine if they weren't.

Taxes couldn't be collected anyway. If they could trade and exchange goods, and occasionally provide mutual support, that would already be enough.

"In that case, there's no rush to send them over. We'll wait for Zhou Riqiang to return and let him personally take his people back. Until then — "

Liu Chengzong looked at Ren Quan'er and said, "Follow my father's idea — settle them in He-Huang and have them learn more about surviving in a world of ice and snow."

With that, he turned to look at the Marshal's Headquarters map hanging behind him.

The Tianshan Oirat's Baatur Khong Tayiji, Liu Chengzu, Zhou Riqiang.

Subadi, Gombu, and Sholoi of the northern desert; Yang Qi, Wang Cheng'en, He Huchen, and Chao Tu of the southern desert.

Guru, Baeyan, and Lhazün of Ü-Tsang; Liu Guoneng, Liu Jiusi, and Muya of Kangning.

With Shaanxi taken, the Marshal's Headquarters was at the height of its prestige and power — this was the perfect moment to summon all subordinates and allies to Xi'an for a grand assembly.

Even those who were not allies could be sent a summons. As long as they came, the bond of alliance could be forged.

Of course, a strong state cannot have true allies.

Either it is not truly strong, or it is not a true alliance.

The Marshal's Manor is a powerful force beyond all doubt, so this alliance is naturally the latter — merely a prettified term for vassalage.

But… Liu Chengzong raised a hand and scratched his brow in frustration, then pointed to a corner of the map. "Summon them, tentatively set for next summer?"

Damn, isn't this way too big?