Chapter 85: Lion Camp Commander

About that battle, Liu Chengzong's final memory was Red Flag running toward him as they swept the field.

Once he mounted the horse, he fell asleep.

How he followed the column, how he ended up lying on a bedroll — he knew none of it.

He had never been so utterly exhausted.

No one disturbed him, and he had no idea how long he slept, until the growling of his stomach woke him.

The light around him was dim. He propped himself up on his arms and looked about, still dazed.

This seemed to be a temple. A Dragon King was enshrined inside. A few men had lit a campfire nearby and were chatting in low voices.

Mei Dianmei was curled up in his arms. Little Whirlwind lay a bit farther off; it had already risen and was watching him with a bone club in its mouth.

"Master, you're awake?"

Guo Zhashi came in from outside the temple, stripped to the waist, his arm wrapped in clean cloth from some unknown wound. Seeing him awake, he hurried back out at once.

Before long, he brought a bowl of water and set it beside him, then went to ladle millet porridge and pickled vegetables and rolled four griddle cakes. "There are dishes too, but they've gone cold. I'll have someone heat them up."

Liu Chengzong drank water and waved his hand at the same time, mumbling indistinctly, "No need to heat them. Bring them, bring them all… Where is this?"

The cold cucumber stir-fried with meat was brought over. Wrapped in griddle cakes and eaten, it gave Liu Chengzong an extraordinary satisfaction.

Guo Zhashi said this was Cao Yao's hideout in the mountains.

The day before, after slaying Zhang Xiong, Liu Chengzong had withdrawn from the battlefield and fallen asleep slumped on Red Flag's back, but the fighting and the sweeping of the field did not end until dusk.

Zhang Tianlin's horse troop joined the battle at dusk, trapping Zhang Xiong's remnant forces on the western slopes of Phoenix Mountain, and then they attacked the two guard-city forts north and south of Yan'an Prefecture.

The two forts together held only a little over thirty defenders. The North Pass fort surrendered at the mere rumor of their approach, and a good deal of weapons and supplies were carried out.

The commander defending the South Pass fort was resolute, and with five hundred taels of silver he preserved the last government-troop strongpoint in the vicinity of Yan'an Prefecture.

Mm… Guo Zhashi said the defending commander was named Yang Yanchang.

For two whole days, the situation in Yan'an Prefecture was utterly chaotic, and Yang Yanchang could not become a deserter.

On the day Liu Chengzong took his revenge, the prefect had slipped over the wall to hide in a commoner's house next door to the prefectural office; only in the afternoon did he dare emerge to steady the situation. Once the fighting outside the city ended, he urgently summoned the commander of the South Pass guard fort into the city.

And so Yang Yanchang, in a muddled daze, became the provisional defender of Yan'an Prefecture.

Yang Dingrui did nothing proper. Once the battle was over, he came up with a rotten idea and arranged for Liu Chengzu to take the guard troops' corpses outside the city.

They fought a sham battle with the defending commander Yang Yanchang, leaving behind Battalion Commander Wu and several dozen corpses of guard-unit banner troops before departing.

They reckoned Yang Yanchang was certain to get a substantive officer's commission this time; he might well become a chiliarch outright.

Only after eating, with something in his belly, did Liu Chengzong feel he had come back to life. He drew great gulps of air and had Guo Zhashi help him up.

The day before, from morning to night, he had fought seven or eight engagements. Today his body was in appalling shape — his arms no longer arms, his legs no longer legs, his whole body aching and limp, unable even to lift his hands.

But his mood was excellent. He asked, "So how many men do we have now? Over a thousand?"

Guo Zhashi shook his head. He had no idea about such matters.

He set Liu Chengzong against the wall, went out, and before long returned with Chengyun, who was carrying the account book.

Here was someone who knew things.

"Second Brother, you're finally awake. Sleeping a whole day and night — were you trying to scare us to death?"

Seeing him, Liu Chengyun let out a huge breath of relief and grinned. "Brother, whatever you want to know, your little brother will tell you."

Standing was tiring too, so Liu Chengzong simply went back and sat on the bedroll. He asked, "How many men does Lion Camp have now?"

"While you were sleeping, Second Uncle, Big Brother, and the headmen reorganized the column. Don't worry, it's still by the rules you set, Second Brother."

Liu Chengyun laughed. "Good heavens, no one in all of Yan'an Prefecture dares provoke you now. Do you know what they're saying about you in the ranks?

They say Old Master Liu's second son is a living Lü Bu — with a bare blade in hand, a hundred men cannot stop him; with a single piece of armor on his body, a thousand foes cannot match him."

Chengyun delivered it with such color that Liu Chengzong threw his head back laughing. "What 'living Lü Bu' — that title sounds awful. Just tell me, how was the column reorganized?"

"Third Brother Gao told Second Uncle the Lion Camp's table of organization, and then everyone seized every opening, slotting themselves into the officer posts they fancied.

The vanguard company commander is Li Wanqing, 'Shot-down Sky'; the rearguard company commander is our uncle; the center company commander, Big Brother wouldn't let anyone else take; the left company commander was originally said to be Squad Leader Cao, but he refused it and gave it to squad leader Feng Rang.

The right company commander is squad leader Third Brother Gao. Squad Leader Cao said no one else knows a damn thing about cannons, and said the camp artillery company commander had to be him."

Liu Chengzong laughed. "So in other words, they first grabbed all the company commander posts. Where are there over three thousand men?"

"Don't be impatient, I haven't finished. There's still Second Uncle. Doesn't your Lion Camp have a camp instructional company? Second Uncle is the instructional company commander, and he also pulled in Teacher Yang as deputy commander."

"Wait, my father is the instructional company commander?"

Liu Chengzong froze and spread his hands. "What's he doing as instructional company commander? And Teacher Yang as deputy commander — I… do they want to teach people classical learning and propriety?"

Actually, thinking about it, it was quite good — only it was different from Liu Chengzong's original conception.

In his mind, the instructional company was an eighty-man officers' corps formed from surrendered officers, dedicated to discussing strategy, training officers, and intensifying soldier drill.

This unit, it seemed, had turned into a roving-bandit private school in Old Master Liu's mind.

As he spoke, Chengyun first pointed at Guo Zhashi, then at himself, and cupped his fists with a grin.

"Now the only post left is the camp engineering company commander. Brother Guo, camp household-guard captain — and me, a new post Second Uncle added, camp supply company commander, Liu Chengyun."

Good heavens.

Liu Chengzong calculated in his head: five hundred men per company, plus a hundred-man camp household guard, plus an eighty-man camp instructional unit — a full-strength Lion Camp would be over four thousand one hundred men.

His gaze swept suspiciously over Chengyun's and Guo Zhashi's faces. "You've just grabbed company commander posts. Are there that many troops?"

Chengyun opened the account book and answered very crisply: "No. Vanguard, rearguard, left, right, center, plus artillery and supply — seven companies. Combat troops authorized seven hundred, actual strength five hundred forty, shortfall one hundred sixty.

Auxiliary troops authorized one thousand four hundred, actual strength forty-four, shortfall one thousand three hundred fifty-six.

Supply troops authorized five hundred sixty, actual strength four hundred twenty, shortfall one hundred forty.

Mounted scouts and household guards, camp-wide authorized one thousand one hundred men, actual strength two men: household-guard captain Guo Zhashi and deputy captain Han Lin.

Oh, Han Lin is that veteran who killed people with you in the prefectural city."

Liu Chengzong laughed. So in the end they had just over a thousand men.

This was actually rather heartening. He was far more afraid of all eight companies being at full strength, with four thousand men suddenly appearing — before long they would have no grain left.

He laughed. "You've all taken the squad commander spots — what about me?"

"You? We've saved a place for you." Liu Chengyun said with a straight face. "Lion Battalion Commander, Liu the Lion.

All these squad commanders and team leaders only came together because of you. If anyone else were battalion commander, Li Wanqing would take his men and leave.

And if we put Li Wanqing in charge, our own people wouldn't accept it.

What's more, the two big operations — storming Royal Manor Fort and the Yan'an Prefecture jailbreak — were both planned by you alone, and both succeeded."

After Liu Chengyun finished, the smile on his face gradually faded. He pressed his lips together and said, "And this isn't a good job. The biggest problem is staring us in the face right now — what do we do next?

Once Big Brother and those two leaders from Yanchuan get back, Second Brother needs to discuss it with them. Do we stay or go? Fight or surrender?"