Chapter 92: Whereabouts

Guerilla General Lu Cheng reached Jingjiagou at night.

His troops had failed to send scouts to report back on schedule — according to the prior agreement, that meant something had gone wrong.

The Company Commander stood solemn-faced on the threshing ground; the four-hundred-odd government infantry and cavalry under his command were silent as winter cicadas.

Another Company Commander had stripped off his armor and was kneeling bare-backed to one side; his two-hundred-odd soldiers were scattered through the village, searching for any possible traces.

They all knew the general was furious.

The village exuded an eerie stillness; under the torchlight of the outriders, the courtyard walls still bore the holes punched by lead balls and arrows.

Helmeted and armored, Lu Cheng stood expressionless on the threshing ground beneath the night sky.

At his feet was a compacted shallow pit — the mark left by a crouching-tiger cannon's recoil when it fired.

Not far from this mark lay a wrecked cart and a large swath of bloodstains covered over with yellow earth.

It seemed the corpses had all been taken away; the bandits had left in haste, their traces hastily and carelessly concealed.

Soon, someone ran out from the main courtyard shouting, "General, we've found them!"

Lu Cheng shot a glance at the Company Commander kneeling to the side, his expression dark: "What are you still kneeling here for? Get in there and see to your men!"

In truth, Guerilla General Lu Cheng was not all that angry with his subordinates.

The order for his eight-hundred-odd troops to forage across four villages had come from his own mouth.

It was not a case of his two Company Commanders and eight Squad Commanders acting on their own.

When he gave the order, he already knew that such a decision made them easy to ambush, easy for the bandits to defeat in detail.

But was there any other way?

By court regulations, government troops could only receive supplies at their designated post on the day after mobilizing.

Besides, even if the Yanchuan county office wanted to supply them, it lacked the means.

Ten days earlier, Lu Cheng had led his troops into Yanchuan; the rations they carried were eaten up, and he had even thought Yanchuan County had already fallen into bandit hands — every post station along the official road had been looted clean.

The express relay stations had all been burned down as well.

His men had gritted through three days of starvation to run back, eaten their fill for a few days, and only then crossed through Anding County via Qingjian to come here again.

As a commander, Lu Cheng knew better than anyone exactly what sort of men his soldiers were.

Jingbian Fortress likewise had no means to supply them with rations; at the absolute most, they had scraped together three days' worth — six meals — of dry provisions.

Those six meals of dry provisions were meant for pursuit or being besieged; they could not be eaten.

The soldiers of Qin were all stout fellows, the best at enduring hunger, and they never once compromised in carrying out any of his orders.

Lu Cheng had ordered them not to eat, and unless they were on the verge of starving to death, his men would absolutely not take a single bite.

He had to suppress bandits, he had to feed his soldiers, yet Yanchuan was destitute — the common folk were gnawing on grass roots, and there was not even a single large village where they could eat their fill.

What could he do?

He could only let his soldiers scare the common folk off, and then let the soldiers eat whatever was left behind.

Even for that, he had to scatter his subordinates — if they didn't scatter, a single village not providing enough to eat was the lesser problem; they still had to leave something for the common folk, didn't they?

As for being ambushed or not — that he could only leave to fate.

Some roads, you know full well they lead nowhere, yet you can only steel yourself and walk them anyway.

"General, Squad Commander Wang is still alive."

Helpless as he felt, the moment he heard his subordinate Squad Commander was still alive, Lu Cheng grew angry all over again. He strode into the rear residence of the main courtyard, took one look, and walked right back out.

He said to his attendants, "Get them some water. Damn it all."

The scene in the rear residence was infuriating: rows upon rows of border troops, mouths tightly gagged, hands and feet bound, stripped stark naked, lying one next to another on the floor.

The bandits, apparently worried they might freeze to death, had considerately fetched cotton quilts from the village and covered them evenly.

Head to head, feet to feet, four men to one quilt — every one of them was quite warm.

Lu Cheng walked out of the courtyard; the Banner Commander from the other side also came running over and reported with head hung low, "General, the bodies of our comrades are over there."

"Have Squad Commander Wang put on some proper clothes and come see me."

The government troops' corpses were laid out across two courtyards, arranged very neatly; their armor, weapons, and all carried items were gone.

A moment later, the weakened Squad Commander Wang, dressed in cloth garments found in the village, came forward and fell to his knees: "General, your subordinate was incompetent — we were ambushed by the bandits…"

"Where did the bandits come from? How many were they? How did they fight? Where did they go?"

Lu Cheng, expressionless, walked among the corpses, closing the eyes of subordinates who had died with eyes wide open, and fired off four questions in a row.

When he reached one particular corpse, he stopped. He recognized this as another of his Squad Commanders. He lifted the blood-soaked undershirt clinging to the body; the bloodstain on the chest had already discolored.

The spearhead, its shaft gone, was still embedded in the body.

Lu Cheng narrowed his eyes. The fury brewing in his chest could no longer be contained. He turned and glared at Squad Commander Wang: "His soldiers — how could they let the enemy get close enough to kill him? His whole unit deserves to die!"

Squad Commander Wang knocked his head to the ground and spoke at a rapid clip: "The bandit soldiers came from nowhere — over four hundred of them, mostly light cavalry, sweeping in with a roar, arrows falling like rain.

We held our ground in the courtyard and returned fire with flying-rocket cannons. The bandit troops were a rabble; our unit had already routed them with the flying-rocket cannons, and it was then that Squad Commander Qi led his troops out.

Unexpectedly, the bandit chieftain was exceptionally fierce. Hiding himself alongside his horse, he charged our formation alone, hurled a spear and killed Squad Commander Qi with the throw, then fired his bow left and right and brought down several more of our men.

The bandit mob was greatly roused by this; their cavalry regrouped and swept in from both flanks. We were outnumbered…"

"And then you surrendered to the bandits?"

No joy or anger could be read on Lu Cheng's face. He glanced down at Squad Commander Wang from beneath lowered eyelids: "Not a single wound on you. Stripped clean as a whistle, trussed up like a live pig."

Squad Commander Wang had nothing to say; he knocked his head to the ground once more.

Lu Cheng did not dwell on the matter. He had seen many enemies surrender after their cause was lost. Irritably, he asked, "What did this bandit chieftain look like?"

The world was full of fierce and valiant men.

It was only among a disorderly rabble that individual valor could reverse a losing battle.

Because a disorderly rabble understood neither combat nor war.

One cannon shot could send them scattering in all directions; one man's bravery could rally them back together.

Scattering and clustering are merely two forms of a rabble's collapse.

They should neither scatter nor cluster — they need only hold their posts, immovable as a mountain.

"Northern Army helmet, two-panel, crimson-border long armor, cavalry issue, and... and that horse." Squad Leader Wang raised his head and said urgently, "Red-maned piebald northern horse."

Lu Cheng suddenly understood — this bandit was a deserter ringleader.

Northern border army armor, skilled with bow and horse, destroyed every relay post and courier station from Yan'an Prefecture to Yanchuan.

It all matches — it should be Liu Chengzong, the one who stormed Yan'an Prefecture a while back.

"Showing himself saves us the trouble."

Lu Cheng nodded slowly.

When he received orders from the Yansui Central Route Mobile Corps Commander's headquarters, he had worried — the brothers Liu Chengzu and Liu Chengzong, who had stormed Yan'an Prefecture to break the jail, had served in the border army, and their father was a Provincial Graduate who had held a minor post.

This family knew the border army inside out and might have long since gone into hiding, making them hard to catch.

He had even sent men to Yuhe Fort to inquire about them, and it was mentioned that Liu Chengzong had a red-haired horse with a dyed head.

He never expected them to be so bold — not only did they not flee, they dared ambush government troops.

At this thought, Lu Cheng's mood lifted again. "Any idea where they went?"

"Your subordinate... your subordinate heard someone outside the courtyard quietly mention Shanxi."

Shanxi, Shanxi... Lu Cheng pondered, then his expression turned grim. "Damn it — they've taken your uniforms and armor, and they've served in the border army. They're likely planning to trick Yanshui Pass!

Quickly, assemble all units, rush to reinforce Yanshui Pass!"

In the night at Jingjiagou, the government troops lit torches like a winding fire dragon across the loess ridges, bypassing Yanchuan county seat and speeding toward Yanshui Pass forty li away.