Chapter 777: Self-Made

Liu Chengzong felt a complex mix of emotions about Li Zicheng's arrival — something like "the emperor has come to join me" — but deep down he was still very happy.

This kind of benign absorption between forces could provide the Marshal's Manor with a great deal of new blood; Zhang Xianzhong's faction was a perfect example.

At the same time, it meant that ever since the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, all four forces that had distinguished themselves at the Qingjian Alliance back then had now been gathered under Liu Chengzong's command.

Wang Jiayin's successors were Zhou Qing and Hui Dengxiang, entrenched in Hengshan; Gao Yingxiang's faction had always been an ally of Lion Liu; and Lion Liu himself was a leader of his own faction from the start. Now Li Zicheng, who had inherited Bu Zhan Ni's forces, had also joined the Marshal's Manor.

For Liu Chengzong, this held an even more profound significance.

The calamity that had plagued the soldiers and civilians of Xuan-Da for over two hundred years — the northern caitiffs of the desert — had, under his rise, been united into one family, with no more strife of clashing spears.

The affliction that had been a dagger at the heart of Shaan-Gan soldiers and civilians for over a hundred years — the sea bandits of Qinghai — had, under his persuasion, turned wholeheartedly toward virtue, relocating to the snowy mountains to pay tribute to the Buddha.

The mortal enemy of the Liaodong soldiers and civilians for nearly fifty years — the Jurchen eastern caitiffs — had their nests smashed and tombs burned by him, their grand army dealt a heavy blow, and their arrogant bluster of reaching into the desert south extinguished.

And now.

The chaos of the roving bandits that had ravaged Qin, Jin, Chu, and Yu over the past decade would, with the incorporation of the Dashing General's forces, finally vanish without a trace, becoming a fleeting ripple in the tide of history.

Who quelled this vast and surging Shaanxi refugee uprising that began with Wang Er of Baishui?

Was it the Chongzhen Emperor and his court officials?

Of course not.

It was the great guardian of peace — Chengzong!

Of course, aside from this historical significance, what mattered more to Liu Chengzong was that Li Zicheng was an old acquaintance.

Back when he was still scrounging meals in the Mizhi County jail, he had already gotten to know Li Hongji, who had inherited his father's post as a relay station runner — truly a friendship forged in humble beginnings.

Though their paths in life had diverged, they knew each other's roots and background, and emotionally they were a bit closer than to others.

To welcome his old friend's alliance, Liu Chengzong rolled out the most ceremonious welcome he could muster during wartime, ordering the Vice Minister of the Rites Office, Prince Han, to escort them from Xi'an, and the Minister, Zhang Xianzhong, to go to Mizhi to receive them and bring Li Zicheng and his subordinate generals over.

Li Zicheng's journey was utterly surreal.

From Xi'an Prefecture to Yan'an Prefecture, all along the way he saw many old friends who had once rampaged through counties and prefectures, now transformed overnight into seemingly proper government garrison troops.

But that actually felt tolerable; after all, back when everyone was still roving bandits, a bunch of leaders had already played the game of holding court and judging cases.

In Baishui County, the very place where the great Shaanxi uprising began with the rebel leader Wang Er raising his troops, he even saw a scholar of the Great Ming imperial clan named Zhu Jionghong serving as the county magistrate for the rebels.

Moreover, whether Baishui County belonged to Liu Chengzong or to the Great Ming, like Hancheng, was actually hard to say.

Before Zhu Jionghong took office, Baishui County had not been governed by officials or defended by troops from the Marshal's Manor.

Likewise, Baishui County had no Great Ming officials or troops either; the last Ming militia there had followed Sun Shoufa, Liu Jinjue, and other Han-He joint camp soldiers to campaign against Liu Chengzong, and had been crushed within a single encounter.

After that, the gentry of Baishui County convened at the county office, collected the taxes, and, under the pretext of paying taxes to the imperial court, transported the money and grain to Xi'an Prefecture.

These were basically the second or even third batch of gentry in Baishui County, who had survived by picking sides and using various means during successive rebellions and roving bandit incursions.

Liu Chengzong was busy requisitioning grain at the time, and seeing that Baishui County was so sensible, he crossed the county off his hostile list and moved it to the category of prefectures and counties that had already submitted — and even ranked it as first-class loyalty.

Even though at the time, Baishui County was an autonomous, lawless territory.

But Liu Chengzong didn't care whether it was autonomous or not; just like his own hometown, even if he moved troops in, he couldn't requisition any money or grain.

Yet Baishui County, on its own initiative, delivered the money and grain themselves — wasn't that loyal enough?

Just at that time, Zhu Jionghong, a member of the Shen Prince's clan from Luzhou in Shanxi, was studying at the Imperial Academy as a tribute student and had been selected by the Ministry of Personnel as the magistrate of Baishui, arriving with his appointment in hand.

The gentry and commoners of Baishui County had no resistance whatsoever to this imperial-clan magistrate; after all, in their eyes, the scapegoat destined for the chopping block had arrived.

So they deceived both sides.

To the Marshal's Manor, they paid taxes and delivered grain; to the Great Ming, they were utterly loyal — if asked, the money and grain for this year had already been handed over to Chen Qiyu.

Everyone figured they'd stall one day at a time; the next grain delivery wasn't for another half a year anyway, and who knew what great changes might occur in this bizarre and bewildering world by then.

Zhu Jionghong's tenure as magistrate was also fairly normal. Every time an official document needed to be sent to the imperial court, the runners would take it out the door to the Six Offices for revision before delivering it to the Provincial Administration Commission in Xi'an Prefecture. When replies came back from Xi'an Prefecture, they would first be revised by the county's Six Offices before being handed over to Zhu Jionghong.

Even when Li Zicheng passed through this time, Zhu Jionghong assumed they were imperial troops suppressing the rebellion and pulled "General Li" aside for a long, cordial chat.

To be honest, at first Li Zicheng didn't even notice anything wrong. The Marshal's Manor was such a madhouse that no matter what happened, he just thought, "That's just how it is," and that it was his own limited experience.

Baishui County was just another Hancheng, another special feature of the Marshal's Manor.

Nothing surprising.

Until he walked back to his hometown of Mizhi... The massive shock came from the Minister of the Rites Office, Zhang Xianzhong.

This Minister Zhang, wearing an iron headpiece, clad in mercury-bright armor, with a goose-feather saber at his waist, constantly calling him "Yellow Wa" this and "Yellow Wa" that, was actually performing the duties of Minister of the Rites Office with complete peace of mind.

Li Zicheng found it very hard to accept.

Really, even if the Minister of the Rites Office were a useless lump like Prince Han, Li Zicheng could at least feel a hint of propriety.

But the Eighth Great King... how the hell could this guy be a minister?

Li Zicheng's assessment was: he's worse than Zhang Tianlin!

Although Zhang Tianlin's personality wasn't likable either, with his tail cocked to the heavens, Li Zicheng could at least sense that Zhang Tianlin's overflowing arrogance was merely pity for the weak.

Annoying as it was, Zhang Tianlin had his own internal code and recognized strength and weakness.

I am strong, you are weak, so I look down on you. But if you need help, as the strong one, I ought to help you. Yet by helping you, I prove the fact that I am stronger than you, so I look down on you even more righteously.

This kind of personality meant Zhang Tianlin could hardly become a great leader; he was more like a supporting general, and it was hard for someone with leadership ability like Li Zicheng to feel threatened by him.

Zhang Xianzhong was different. This guy was... the kind who came from the lowly ranks of runners, fierce and ruthless, yet good at playing dumb. He had ample leadership internally, but externally he'd take every advantage he could without ever being satisfied. Just standing there, he was a threat — the kind of villain who couldn't get along with anyone.

Li Zicheng could understand that Liu Chengzong had sent the Minister of the Rites Office to Mizhi to receive him, intending for him to have a moment of glory in his hometown before going to Yulin to pay his respects.

But this bastard Zhang Xianzhong, bringing along Mizhi Magistrate Wen Yingxing and a group of local gentry, the second thing he said after greeting Li Zicheng was to point at a nearby hill and say, "Yellow Wa, this turtle magistrate tells me you used to herd sheep over there!"

Magistrate Wen Yingxing dared neither show anger nor utter a word.

He had only just taken office recently. Mizhi was like a bandit's den; being magistrate here was no better than being the prefect of Yan'an — his decrees didn't make it past the office gate.

Even when a major rebel figure like Zhang Xianzhong came to Mizhi in person, he was the last person in the entire city to know.

He had originally planned to run, but as soon as he climbed over the back wall of the office, he was caught by Zhang Xianzhong's personal guards, who escorted him, pressing him all the way to the front gate, where he was bestowed the title "Turtle Magistrate" and swept into the procession to welcome Li Zicheng.

Li Zicheng had no idea how to respond to that remark.

He really didn't want to stoop to Zhang Xianzhong's level.

But Old Zhang was long accustomed to pushing his luck, never wasting energy on self-doubt before getting hammered — the man who could shout "three years tax-free" the moment he first set foot on Liu Chengzong's turf, what kind of decent fellow could he be?

So how could he possibly drop it just because Li Zicheng gave him a sour look? All the way, his smug self-satisfaction and swaggering arrogance had Li Zicheng's temple veins throbbing with rage time and again. Li Guo's hand never left his saber hilt the entire journey, and the whole group nearly came to raising their banner and heading back to Yunyang to fight Lu Xiangsheng.

The officers of the Chuang Camp faction would rather be hammered for another year by the Ming army's dream team — Lu Xiangsheng, Zu Dale, and the rest — than endure this aggravation around Zhang Xianzhong.

It was laughable, really: the more rotten the Marshal Manor's local administration proved to be, the firmer Li Zicheng's resolve became to seek an audience with Liu Chengzong and throw in his lot with the Marshal Manor.

The year before, he had followed Liu Chengzong on the eastern campaign and passed briefly through Shaanxi. Back then, what filled people's ears was talk of the Marshal Manor's great governance in Qinghai.

A Qinghai Marshal Manor with a complete administrative structure, encompassing Han, Mongol, and Tibetan military, civil, industrial, and commercial sequences — that held little appeal for Li Zicheng.

But now, a Marshal Manor that held Shaanxi yet whose administration was a complete mess — that, on the contrary, held enormous appeal for Li Zicheng.

In his youth, Li Zicheng had been a mediocre man content with the status quo. But now, after years of campaigning, having tasted the sweetness of power over life and death and the thrill of plunder like a migrating beast, he found it very hard to accept being a mediocre man again.

Clearly, the Marshal Manor in Shaanxi had laid bare four words: a time of need for talent.

It was precisely this conviction that sustained Li Zicheng as he fiercely suppressed his subordinates' desire to flee back to Yunyang and throw their lives away. Under Zhang Xianzhong's loathsome, swaggering attitude, he endured all the way to Guide Fort, forty li south of Yulin's Zhenbei Tower, outside the second border wall.

To the north, cannon fire rumbled.

Li Zicheng had just emerged from the border wall when he saw, outside the desolate, ruined Guide Fort, the striking imperial procession regalia.

With Li Zicheng's arrival, the yellow dragon banners rose high. The Rao-song guards struck their bronze bells and played, the Jian drums beat, the stone chimes rang crisp and clear, the Xun ocarinas harmonized, the panpipes blew in unison, the waist drums patted, and twenty-four dragon drums clashed — until the yellow dragon banners lowered, the bamboo whisk swept across the standing piece on the crouching tiger's back, and the drum music ceased.

Then over a hundred guards bearing staffs, banners, fans, and canopies fanned out. Warriors holding leopard-tail spears, ceremonial sabers, and bows and arrows formed ranks left and right. Twelve saber-bearing personal attendants — ten in front, two behind — rode out on horseback. Liu Chengzong spurred his horse forward from the center. Spotting Li Zicheng in the distance, he urged his mount ahead.

Li Zicheng and his men were still reeling from the shock of seeing an emperor's procession — such awe-inspiring regalia — for the very first time, when Liu Chengzong, wrapped in the windblown dust of his horse's hooves, galloped up before them. He dismounted in a single motion and, with one hand, yanked up Li Zicheng, who had just been shoved hard by Zhang Xianzhong and was about to bow.

"Ha ha ha! Yellow-Baby Brother!"

"Ever since Zhang Tianlin told me you'd come inside the passes, I've been waiting day and night. I've finally waited you here... Guo-Baby!"

Lion Liu grasped Li Zicheng by the arm, then swept his gaze behind him and recognized Li Zicheng's nephew Li Guo in the crowd. This man was only a few months younger than Li Zicheng and had been a common sight in childhood, so he greeted him. Then he nodded in acknowledgment to the group of unfamiliar Chuang Camp officers one by one.

The others hurriedly returned the salute.

His warmth left Li Zicheng somewhat overwhelmed.

And the many officers behind him were all left with their heads buzzing.

Along the way, seeing the attitudes of those three — Zhang Tianlin, Zhang Zhen, and Zhang Xianzhong — they had already formed a fixed mental image of Liu Chengzong as a terrifying and inhumanly aloof figure.

No matter what, they had never imagined Liu Chengzong would be so cordial toward them.

Of course, the greater shock came from Zuo Liangyu, who was advancing behind Liu Chengzong with his hand on his saber.

They had truly fought Zuo Liangyu at Wu'an. Now, as the two sides met and their eyes locked, the air itself seemed to crackle with sparks.

Only Liu Chengzong paid it no mind, saying with a smile: "This is my adopted son Liangyu. Now that we are one family, let bygones be bygones."

"Yulin is still under attack. Let's talk as we walk."

Truth be told, with two arrogant fellows like Zhang Tianlin and Zhang Xianzhong setting the baseline, seeing Liu Chengzong now willing to ride alongside him moved Li Zicheng nearly to tears.

"Elder Brother, you've come to aid me at just the right moment. Look at that procession."

Liu Chengzong raised his whip toward the accompanying imperial procession. In truth, he was still not quite used to these elaborate ceremonial trappings himself. He said: "The Jin Khan Hong Taiji usurped the title and called himself the Chongde Emperor. I fought a battle with him east of the Southern Desert, got lucky and gained the upper hand, and seized his entire procession, banners, and great standard."

"Right now, this territory of ours — it's like a big rock, so ugly you can't bear to look at it."

Li Zicheng's eyes widened. Who would ever complain about territory being ugly?

And besides... you speak so casually about something as monumental as beating up an emperor beyond the frontier?

Just then, Liu Chengzong suddenly turned his head on horseback and fixed his gaze on Li Zicheng. "Elder Brother, do you truly wish to join me and pursue the great cause together? Or do you merely seek a resting place to catch your breath, planning to go out and form your own independent force again in the future?"

Truthfully, with men like Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, Liu Chengzong always felt in his heart that they were ultimately destined to do great things.

Li Zicheng himself, on the other hand, had not thought that far. He was simply, thoroughly stunned by the question.

"Lion... Grand Marshal, your subordinate sincerely submits. Naturally, I will do my utmost to help the Grand Marshal achieve the great cause."

Liu Chengzong turned his head to look at the road ahead and nodded slowly, but in his heart, he still did not believe it.

Still, believe it or not, Liu Chengzong had long since experienced such things. Loyalty was always dynamic. If he could not control others, it was his own lack of skill — there was no need for groundless worries.

So he laughed and said: "In that case, let us brothers join hands and accomplish something great!"

Having said that, he continued: "Right now we are attacking Yulin. Elder Brother has arrived a bit late and can't get in on it. I think we should hand the Chuang Camp's unit over to Li Guo for now, make him a Canjiang. What does Elder Brother think?"

Li Zicheng's face immediately darkened. Who seizes military authority the moment you arrive?

In truth, the best outcome in his heart was to have a prefecture's worth of territory — whether to develop or to garrison — a place to rest and recuperate while giving his subordinate officers a chance to prove themselves.

After all, the Chuang Camp now had around a thousand men. Though few in number, the elite soldiers and strong officers who had campaigned with him across the entire north were not few — more than half could serve as military officers.

But handing the post of Battalion Canjiang to his nephew Li Guo was not exactly a complete seizure of military authority either.

He thought for a moment, then asked: "Then according to the Grand Marshal's intent, where does this humble subordinate go?"

"By my side, of course. Elder Brother has led a camp as its chief for so many years — naturally you should serve as an official. Working as a Zhushi in the Bureau of Military Affairs is more than enough. Don't disdain the low rank."

Lion Liu laughed. "Don't let others say you can't command respect. Consider it getting familiar with the Marshal Manor's military affairs. Once we return to Xi'an, we'll move you up a bit. There will be opportunities to lead troops into battle later!"

?? Good evening!