Chapter 141: Mountains Beyond Endless Sight

The commander guarding Yonghe Pass had not changed.

The last time, Liu Chengzong had crossed over under the cover of night, wary of the imperial troops behind him. Several cannons on the Yanshui Pass had their touchholes spiked before being rolled into the Yellow River.

This time, he had no such fears. He crossed the pontoon bridge in broad daylight. Experience makes things familiar; whether small field pieces or heavy siege guns, he simply drove the mules and pushed the artillery carriages right across.

The commander of Yonghe Pass was not overly distant either—they were not meeting for the first time. Moreover, upon catching sight of the large banner bearing the character "Liu," he knew precisely who was coming. With practiced tact, he sent a bold subordinate out to inquire about the situation and state his own grievances.

"There is a grain shortage inside the pass, and the court hasn't issued our pay in over a year. Even if the Great King sets up cannons outside the pass, it's of no use; we truly have nothing to offer as tribute. There is a cart-accessible path to the north, so second master Liu, please head that way."

To put it mildly, Liu Chengzong was dumbfounded. "How did you know I rank second?"

The soldier who had come to point the way replied that Li Bei had previously sent people to ask about this.

Liu Chengzong suddenly shouted, "Chengyun!"

The soldier was terribly startled.

How could he possibly know that Liu Chengzong was overjoyed?

After ascertaining the number of garrison troops at Yonghe Pass and the name of their commander, Liu Chengzong directly ordered boxes of silver to be brought over.

He distributed the silver according to head count, giving each man five qian to buy grain, and specially awarded twenty liang to the *bazong*.

Dispensing nearly two hundred liang all at once was no small sum.

All eight sentinel leaders in the camp failed to grasp his intention, and the *bazong* atop the city wall was equally dumbfounded, stuttering as he spoke: "This... Great King, I, Fu Renxi, have guarded the border for four generations; I cannot go with you! Please take your silver back."

With that, an argument broke out atop the gateway. A moment later, the *bazong* shouted again: "I am not leaving, but if there is anyone among my brothers that catches your eye, feel free to take them!"

Little did he know that Liu Chengzong merely rode his red-flagged horse around the pass once and cupped his fists toward the ramparts.

Li Bei had once mentioned to Ren Quan'er that during the pursuit of the rebel leader Gao, Li Bei's marching speed was very slow, and he had always kept a detachment in the rear. This had given them the opportunity to handle things calmly in Yanxu County, all because of this Fu Renxi at Yonghe Pass.

When Li Bei had sent men to ask if he had seen Liu Chengzong, Fu Renxi claimed he had not. Furthermore, he twisted the fact that Liu Chengzong had arrayed his troops along the Yellow River in Shanxi into a story that he himself had led troops to array and frighten away the rebel leader.

Such a dishonest and cowardly spy, one who fabricated false intelligence for the imperial court and brought his own rations, deserved a handsome reward.

Effort always pays off. Atop the city gate, Fu Renxi's feelings were complex.

The imperial court owed over a year's worth of military pay, yet it was a rebel leader who ended up paying his garrison.

The enemy knew enough to pity him, while his own people did not. This left Fu Renxi feeling somewhat ashamed before Liu Chengzong.

Thus, he sent someone out once more to pass along a second piece of intelligence.

After autumn rains and winter snows, the drought in Shanxi had been somewhat alleviated, but this year, free of drought, the land was even more chaotic than the year before.

This was because Shanxi's eight thousand elite reinforcement troops had mutinied in Liangxiang last December and subsequently fled back to Shanxi in a rout.

Fu Renxi said that winter had been a bit better, whether because the border troops had gone into hiding to survive the cold or because news traveled more slowly in the winter months.

In any case, he had only noticed the chaos after spring arrived. Currently, eight thousand hungry border soldiers who had lost their military structure were roaming all over Shanxi, and the civil and military officials in various localities were equally unsettled.

The reason for the mutiny of the Shanxi reinforcement troops was simple, spanning a mere three days.

According to the court's old precedent, when imperial troops arrived at their designated post, the locality would not provide provisions on the first day.

These eight thousand reinforcement troops consisted of five thousand Shanxi soldiers led by Regional Commander Zhang Honggong and three thousand troops from the Provincial Governor's personal guard led by Governor Geng Ruqi.

The day the five thousand Shanxi troops arrived in Beijing with Zhang Honggong, the Ministry of War issued an order for them to garrison Tongzhou, located east of the capital.

As for the place called Tongzhou, during the recent Later Jin invasion into the pass, it treated all imperial civil and military officials alike. Whether it was the Governor-general of Ji-Liao, regional commanders, vice ministers of the Ministry of War, or local governors, none were granted entry.

Unless one launched a siege—and the only one who did so was Hong Taiji when he retreated, taking the grain stores with him.

Consequently, they had nothing to eat on the day they arrived in Beijing.

The next day, the Ministry of War issued another transfer order, dispatching Zhang Honggong's forces to garrison Changping, northwest of Beijing, a distance of one hundred and twenty li. Naturally, they had nothing to eat the following day either.

On the third day, Zhang Honggong's forces were ordered to garrison Liangxiang, another one hundred and twenty li from Changping. Still, there was no food.

As it happened, during these exact two days, Man Gui and Hou Silu from Xuan-Da were also executing a five-day tour of the capital under the strategic orchestration of the Ministry of War.

These regional commanders had never been treated with such indignity within their own jurisdictions.

Take Hou Silu alone: on his way to reinforce the capital, he even brought a gift for the Emperor. During the autumn defense, a Mongol general had strutted about in golden armor before the battle lines, so Hou Silu had killed him, stripped him of his armor and warhorse, and presented them to the Emperor.

Yet ever since he led his troops through Juyongguan Pass, his run of bad luck had never ceased.

One evening his men were still in Jizhou; by the early hours of the morning, leaving his artillery behind, he had reached Tongzhou. His New Year's pay was issued in the first lunar month, but no sooner had he woken from sleep than a portion of his troops was requisitioned to march toward Shunyi. Hoping to return to Huailai for a meal, as luck would have it, he ran into Man Gui and Hong Taiji.

Man Gui fought while retreating back to Beijing; Hou Silu's forces were shattered. After gathering his men, he finally managed to eat a meal in Huailai, then galloped with his personal guards to Beijing to participate in the Battle of Guangqumen.

When Hou Silu's trials reached the ears of the Shanxi reinforcement troops, Zhang Honggong proved unable to restrain his soldiers. The army sacked Liangxiang and fled back to Shanxi.

However, if things had stopped there, three thousand of the eight thousand Shanxi reinforcement troops would still have been in the capital.

Emperor Chongzhen grew furious, arresting Zhang Honggong along with Provincial Governor Geng Ruqi and casting them both into prison.

Geng Ruqi suffered a grave injustice. While serving as a governor, he had received two imperial edicts stating that entry to guard the capital was unnecessary. Zhang Honggong had entered Juyongguan Pass on the twelfth day of the eleventh month, whereas Geng Ruqi had only arrived at the capital on the twenty-sixth day of the twelfth month. He had done nothing at all, yet he was thrown into prison.

Shanxi was shaken, a reaction Liu Chengzong could well understand.

Geng Ruqi was merely reaping the reward of his own integrity. During the Tianqi reign, he had served as the Vice Censor-in-charge of Zunhua military preparations. At a time when everyone was building living shrines for Wei Zhongxian, he refused; when Wei Zhongxian's portrait hung in the central hall and others paid homage, he would not bow.

Later, he was framed on false charges of corruption involving sixty-three hundred liang of silver, imprisoned, and sentenced to execution.

Just as the execution was about to take place, the Tianqi Emperor died, and the Chongzhen Emperor ascended the throne, sparing Geng Ruqi's life.

Geng Ruqi recalled that while locked in the Zhenusansi, every day people were dragged out and killed, which terrified him. Fortunately, the Emperor granted him amnesty. With his panicked wits finally settling, he had asked to return home to recuperate from illness.

The Emperor refused, instead promoting him to Right Assistant Censor-in-chief and appointing him Governor of Shanxi.

When the regional commander's troops mutinied, tossing him in prison was one thing, but the governor had led his troops to reinforce the capital with a heart full of loyalty, only to reinforce himself straight into a dungeon.

After this, who would ever step forward to reinforce the capital?

Liu Chengzong felt rather conflicted. Over dinner that night, he remarked to those around him that when they eventually overthrew the Ming Dynasty, they must reserve an official post to confer a posthumous title upon Geng Ruqi.

Cao Yaowu let out a scoff of laughter. "Posthumously honor Geng Ruqi?"

"Why honor him? No, posthumously honor Zhu Youjian, Minister of the Ministry of Punishments, Vice Minister of the..." Finding a suitable official post proved rather difficult, until Liu Chengzong finally slapped his thigh. "Supervising Secretary for the Ministry of Punishments! Don't laugh, I'm being serious. Reporting for duty at the Ministry of Punishments suits the Emperor's personality of detesting evil like an enemy to a T."

After a separation of half a year, Liu Chengzong returned to Yaitoushan in Yonghe County, Shanxi.

Before coming, he had imagined what Shanxi would look like, but he never expected it to be even more chaotic than Fushi and Ansai in Yan'an Prefecture, Shaanxi.

In Shaanxi, after waves of refugees had fled and perished, leaving only the villages along the river valleys, the Liu family had rebuilt order while holding military power, thereby restoring order to Fushi and Ansai.

Regardless of whether it was official order or underground order, having order was always better than having none at all.

In Shanxi, however, the countryside had completely lost all order.

Half a year ago, there had been only a single household here; now, a mountain stronghold had been built, occupied by more than seventy bandits.

The eight sentinels and three teams under Liu Chengzong's command never dreamed that their very first battle upon entering Shanxi would involve helping the common folk of Yonghe County suppress bandits.

They were familiar with the terrain here, and few of the bandits possessed any genuine skills. Once the hilltop was surrounded, the bandits surrendered before the meal could even be cooked.

"We've interrogated them. The ringleaders were three deserters who came back to plunder and pillage. In the three courtyards, they had locked up twelve women, seven men, and more than a dozen corpses."

Cao Yao walked out of the courtyard with a grim look. "These bastards have no human decency. They abducted people not for money or grain, but to torture them for amusement... What should we do?"

Liu Chengzong led the eight sentinel leaders on a tour of the courtyard, then returned to hold a show of hands.

Execute the bandit ringleaders and accomplices: unanimous.

Release the women and men: seven votes.

Absorb the remaining captives into the ranks: six votes.

Execute the remaining captives: two votes.

Liu Chengzong summoned the women and men who had been plundered and kidnapped into the courtyard; the sight was too tragic to behold.

The women had been tortured beyond recognition, and the men had fared no better. The moment they entered the courtyard, they fell to their knees, kowtowing and weeping bitterly.

One man, who had lost a hand and four fingers, fainted directly from weeping, which ruptured his wounds. Even the medics from the baggage train could not save him, and he died before long.

Five of the women wished to return home. Liu Chengzong had clothes found for them and let them go.

The remaining seven women wept so despairingly that one drowned out the other, giving Liu Chengzong a pounding headache. He had never considered the matter of accommodating women within the army.

Along their journey, they would inevitably have to fight imperial troops, and dragging these women along would be a severe encumbrance.

Eventually, those women pushed forward the spiciest among them, who summoned her courage to step forward and bow. "Great King, we sisters were all originally wives and daughters of decent folk from nearby. We were seized by the bandits, and our chastity has been ruined."

"Then why won't you go back?"

"How could we still have the face to go home? Even if we returned, we would only end our own lives."

After a brief consultation, it was temporarily decided that these women would remain on the mountain and be incorporated into Chengyun's baggage train.

The remaining three men were easier to handle. Much like the women who wished to return home, they were assigned administrative officers to escort them back and help them identify their homes.

Liu Chengzong gave strict instructions to the two administrative officers to gather intelligence from them along the way and scout out surrounding targets.

Wei Qian'er's men were not idle either. Disguising themselves slightly, the scout cavalry scattered in all directions to gather information.

When they had passed through here the previous year, the region was still gripped by drought. Now, however, it showed signs of vigorous revitalization, and many common people had returned.

Within a mere two days, two of the five women who had previously returned home came back.

They were folk from Chaokoushan on the border of Yonghe County and Shilou County to the north. In this era, ordinary women who suffered the loss of chastity at the hands of bandits were left with virtually no paths to survival.

Even if they managed to live on, they could not escape the idle gossip and stigmatization of their fellow villagers, who would point fingers at them behind their backs.

Ultimately, crushed by psychological pressure, they would often end up hanging themselves or throwing themselves into wells.

That they had dared to return home was entirely because they had infants waiting to be fed.

In truth, they had harbored a complete resolve to die, planning only to raise their babes before seeking their own ends.

They simply had not expected that fate would deny them even that chance.

The vanguard's administrative officer reported: "The banner troops of Fenzhou Garrison went out on a bandit suppression campaign, crossed their jurisdiction to plunder a village, burned down many houses, and dragged away all the young women in the village to sleep with them."

A fine village, having first suffered bandits and then soldiers, was completely destroyed.

The two women had no other relatives to turn to, so they had no choice but to return and seek out the Lion Battalion.

This world had reached a certain degree of absurdity: the imperial troops burned villages and violated women, while the bandits suppressed outlaws and sheltered survivors.

Over the following days, the scouting cavalry returned one by one, bringing back a wealth of intelligence concerning Yonghe County.

Liu Chengzong and the others finalized their strategy: they would begin with Yonghe County and thoroughly secure control over this land before leaving Shanxi.

This region was vital to their retreat route back to Shaanxi.

Following this, the troops were divided into eight sentinels.

Gao Xian's sentinel garrisoned Chaokoushan in the northeast to establish defenses, guarding against the direction of Fenzhou Prefecture.

Zhong Hu's sentinel garrisoned Sangbishan in the south, guarding against the direction of Xizhou.

Simultaneously, these two sentinels blocked Yonghe County along the north-south river valley of the Zhi River to prevent any leakage of intelligence.

Shi Chengwo's sentinel and Liu Chengyun's baggage sentinel were stationed locally at Yaitoushan. They were not assigned combat duties, but were tasked only with constructing the encampment and strengthening communications with Fu Renxi, the commander guarding Yonghe Pass.

The remaining sentinels were assigned specific territories to traverse Yonghe County from east to west, implementing equalized land distribution and tax exemptions in the various villages outside the city.

Liu Chengzong, accompanied by Cao Yao, relocated their headquarters to the western mountains of Yonghe County, gazing from afar at the county seat nestled between two ranges.

"We must capture this city before we can consider whether to strike north toward Shilou or east toward Xizhou."

The former belonged to Fenzhou Prefecture and housed the Fenzhou Garrison; the latter belonged to Pingyang Prefecture and housed the Pingyang Garrison.

In truth, the reports sent back by the various sentinels over the past few days were almost laughable. The rural villages in the mountains lacked even local militias, turning them into a paradise for outlaws; all the sentinels were busy mopping up bandits roaming various localities.

Before this, Liu Chengzong would never have imagined that his venture into Shanxi would begin with suppressing bandits.

"I think advancing east toward Xizhou is appropriate. Advancing east toward Xizhou and crossing the Lüliang Mountains will bring us straight into the heartland of Shanxi..."

As Cao Yao spoke, he suddenly posed a deeply exasperating question: "Lion, have you ever seen flat land?"

Liu Chengzong gave him a blank stare. Northern Shaanxi was indeed nothing but mountains; looking as far as the eye could see, it was difficult to find a spot devoid of mountains, yet he had been beyond the Great Wall. "When we burned the wasteland during the autumn defense outside the pass, you ask if I've seen flat land? It was just all sand—who hasn't seen that?"

"Not sand, farmland. Where you can't see a single mountain, completely flat, nothing but fertile fields. Have you ever seen that?"

Liu Chengzong was stumped by the question.

For a man of northern Shaanxi, the notion of looking as far as the eye could see without encountering a mountain was far too difficult to grasp.

Another set of memories in his mind did recognize the concept of plains, yet he had never laid eyes on vast expanses of farmland across a plain; to his mind, a plain was merely an abstraction.

He had no choice but to shake his head.

Cao Yao pointed toward the east. "That territory you and the leaders carved out—south of Taiyuan, it's flat, though still not big enough."

"My hometown is Henan, where farmland truly stretches beyond the horizon so far you can't see the end of it; and your sister-in-law's hometown in Northern Zhili has no loess mounds, no highlands, no mountain ridges—just vast plains. Every inch of soil you step on can grow crops."

Cao Yao reached out with a dramatic gesture, employing an exaggerated metaphor: "If you ride a horse northward from Daming Prefecture along the Yellow River straight until you crash into Changping Prefecture, you don't have to make a single turn. It's as flat as a sheet of paper."

Liu Chengzong was struck dumb. Just how much farmland must there be?

He suddenly understood the origin of the name Taiyuan—even larger than Daling.

And according to Cao Yao, Northern Zhili was even larger and flatter.

This abruptly sparked a colossal urge within his heart: *I must go and see it.*

*I must go across to see it—first the plains south of Taiyuan, and then the great plains of Northern Zhili.*

"This time we cross the Lüliang Mountains first; next time, we'll cross the Taihang Mountains."