Chapter 154: Guanzhong Troops

Master Gao was extremely doubtful about what exactly he had come to Xizhou to do.

Was he here to find a job?

He had broken the news to Liu Chengzong, and just like that, he became a hired laborer.

Riding at a gallop back to Shilou, Gao Ying'en learned of the matter while besieging the city.

He stared wide-eyed and stunned for a long time before slowly uttering, "Liu the Lion is truly audacious. Everyone is dodging the Shaanxi government troops while they still can, yet he, of all people, is going back to pick a fight with them."

Gao Yingxiang remained noncommittal about this.

Perhaps a bit audacious indeed.

However, if it were him, Gao Yingxiang, at twenty years of age, would two thousand elite frontier soldiers be willing to lay down their lives for him?

Even if a mosquito were to bite him, he would set up a cannon to blast it, let alone when government troops were setting out to deal with his parents.

"Talking about these things is useless. If Liu the Lion wants to return to Shaanxi, let him return. We will enter Pingyang Prefecture through the path he cleared. He has already battered two garrisons into ruins, and the garrison troops here cannot stop us."

With that, Gao Yingxiang thought of his own tasks and said, "Remember to carry away any bronze statues you see along the way. Liu the Lion has put the artisan unit under my charge and asked me to accomplish two things for him."

"What things?"

"The artisan unit is to enter Pingyang Prefecture to cast cannons. If the banner soldiers of the Pingyang Garrison surrender, let Hu Sanhuai lead them."

Gao Ying'en scratched his head anxiously, "This Liu the Lion is as sly as a fox. Why doesn't he recruit soldiers himself instead of making you recruit them for him... Soldiers need grain!"

Soldiers needed grain; everyone needed grain.

The better the soldiers, the more cost-effective it was for the leader to feed them.

And the banner soldiers of the Pingyang Garrison were simply the finest source of troops in Pingyang Prefecture.

"This bargain isn't a loss. In Pingyang Prefecture and Fenzhou Prefecture, only the two of us are left. For Liu the Lion to return to Shaanxi—think of how much grain is there! He has already established a stronghold in the Lüliang Mountains."

Gao Yingxiang didn't mind it at all in his heart, only saying, "Shi Chengwu, the leader of the Lion Camp's craftsmanship guard, knows how to cast Red Barbarian cannons, and He Xin can handle bird-guns. Let's take this opportunity to have our clumsy-handed artisans follow them and learn properly."

"They manage to hammer a knife completely lopsided."

On the other side in Yan'an Prefecture, Luo Rucai was racking his brains to advance into Shanxi.

Last year, following the battle against Li Bei, Luo Rucai had obtained a considerable amount of armor from Liu Chengzong, equipping the core members of his faction, after which he began frantically recruiting soldiers.

He turned away no one—begging refugees and roving bandits from all over flocked to him.

By the onset of winter, his force had briefly swelled to nearly four thousand men.

For many leaders, winter was a rare and precious opportunity to train troops.

However, that was not the case for Luo Rucai.

A great many of his men froze or fell ill and died. With limited food supplies and uneven distribution, his subordinates grumbled incessantly every day, hurling abuses and even attacking one another.

In the end, Luo Rucai grew thoroughly annoyed. He simply took his women and retreated into another fortress he had captured, leaving his childhood friend Yang Chengzzu to command his troops.

Later on, the faction suffered an internal conflict, fighting three consecutive battles against itself.

By spring, only four hundred men remained.

Luo Rucai was delighted. He looked at the remaining four hundred plump and robust troops, praised Yang Chengzheng for his adept military leadership, and specially went out to plunder a pretty woman for Yang Chengzheng to warm his bed.

To him, since he found this matter deeply vexing and handed it over to a friend to handle, whatever state his friend managed to bring the matter to was ultimately his friend's own affair, and he could not blame him.

Seeing the frost descend and crop yields diminish after spring, and hearing that Liu Chengzong had entered Shanxi, he wanted to run off to Shanxi as well.

Yet he felt that taking merely four hundred brothers to defect to the fourth-ranking major leader would be rather disgraceful, so he spent nearly a month touring around northern Shaanxi once more, pulling his force back up to over two thousand men.

Yet it was at this moment that he discovered a problem.

Why were the movements of the various bandit groups in northern Shaanxi so peculiar?

Wave after wave of roving rebels were lining up to march from Yichuan to Yanchuan, and from Yanchuan to Qingjian.

When asked what they were doing, they wouldn't say, but some would hand over small iron plaques.

Those in his unit who were literate said the two characters on top were "Exemption from Death."

This terrified Luo Rucai. He figured this must be some kind of evil cult; holding a plaque was supposed to keep you from dying—wasn't that fooling fools?

Right on the spot, he did his utmost to restrain his subordinates, forbidding his brothers from having any contact with these White Lotus believers.

Having just experienced internal strife in the winter, Luo Rucai certainly did not wish for his newly assembled force to suffer another internal collapse because of an evil cult.

The White Lotus Society was simply too terrifying. His peasant army fell far, far short of those professional rebellion masterminds when it came to agitating the common people.

Not daring to look for Liu Chengzong via Yanchuan, Luo Rucai had no choice but to take a detour and head south, where he ran into the routed King of Shaking Heaven and the Yan'an Regional Vice Commander Ai Mu behind them.

Caught off guard, his force was shattered into pieces. Luo Rucai led his remnant soldiers in a desperate flight westward, desiring nothing more than to escape back to the city of Yan'an Prefecture.

Coincidentally, however, Ai Mu also desired nothing more than to assume his post in the city of Yan'an Prefecture.

When Liu Chengzong marched west from Yanshuiguan, it was already late March. Bidding farewell to Battalion Commander Fu Renxi, who had escorted him out of the boundary, Wei Qian'er led his detachment to dispatch scouts in all directions as the main army marched westward.

They had not traveled far when scouts galloped back to report that dozens of corpses lay in the valley ahead, along with scattered weapons and armor lying all about.

This instantly struck Liu Chengzong as unusual. He promptly led his troops forward to investigate, ordering all guards to secure the surrounding defenses.

Weapons and armor scattered all over the ground?

In this era, whether in Shaanxi or Shanxi, such a scene would never follow a battle.

Regardless of whether the peasant army fought landlord militias or engaged in internal strife among themselves, whichever side won would always scour the battlefield—and scour it with absolute thoroughness.

Not even a single scale of armor or a cotton shoe would be left behind.

They had a use for everything.

Upon investigation, further south along the valley lay another battlefield where combat had occurred just yesterday.

Those who had fallen here had been hunted down and pursued.

Quite a few were not yet dead, though they were severely wounded and unable to speak, nearing their end.

Only two could be rescued. These two wore frontier army armor and had lost a great deal of blood, but their wounds were not fatal; in other words, they had simply been run into the ground from exhaustion.

Li Wanqing remarked, "That one looks like Yang Chengzheng."

Liu Chengzong carefully ransacked his memory for the name, but found not the slightest impression. He asked, "Who is Yang Chengzheng?"

"Cao Cao's close friend. That fellow was too lazy to command his troops, so he dumped them on Yang Chengzheng." Li Wanqing shook his head, his brow filled with caution, "The two of them never part ways. General, this must be Cao Cao's force."

When the military medic stripped away Yang Chengzheng's armor, even Liu Chengzong, standing right beside him, could not help exclaiming, "What a brave fellow!"

The man's upper body was covered entirely in wounds. Once the blood was wiped away, patches of bruised and battered skin merged into one, and minor cuts dotted his entire body—one could only guess how many times weapons had struck him through the gaps in his armor.

The only major, critical wounds were two: one on his head, where his helmet had been dented by a mace, injuring the scalp; the other on the inner side of his left arm, a spot unprotected by full plate and iron arm-guards, where a blade had sliced open a gash.

The medic stated that the wound on the arm was older than the others and had already been bandaged, likely two days prior.

Whether he could be saved, Liu Chengzong's medics could not tell; the only certainty was that Yang Chengzheng's chest was still rising and falling, and he was not yet dead.

However, Liu Chengzong soon learned who was hunting down Luo Rucai.

Yang Yao, guarding the mouth of the valley, sent someone to report: "General, dozens of foot soldiers and cavalry are approaching from the western post road. Judging by their banners, they are government troops."

Government troops.

Government troops appearing here immediately brought to Liu Chengzong's mind Ai Mu, the newly appointed Regional Vice Commander of Yan'an Prefecture.

This meant that anywhere from a thousand to three thousand government troops were within a hundred *li*.

"Surround them. Not a single one must be allowed to escape."

The vanguard immediately deployed a frontal ambush, while the left and right wings spread out slowly like two fists from both flanks. At the same time, the left guard continued its advance, with the rear guard filling the left wing's position to complete the encirclement.

Without knowing the exact location of the government troops, Liu Chengzong did not permit the use of artillery, opting instead to encircle them entirely with infantry and strike with cavalry, trapping them dead in the center.

The officers trapped within quickly formed a battle array, but realizing the overwhelming numbers of the rebel forces, they shouted orders in the Qin dialect to attempt a breakthrough. After four failed breakout attempts and with their soldiers captured one by one, they had no choice but to surrender.

Before the auxiliary troops could even escort the captives over, Yang Yao had already ridden back to report, "General, they are troops from Guanzhong!"

As Yang Yao spoke, an indescribable hint of hatred showed on his face.

He was intensely jealous.

These Guanzhong soldiers were all well-fed and robust, with fine armor and weapons, permanently garrisoned near Xi'an Prefecture.

Why should his Guyuan Camp be starved to the point of mutiny just to survive?

There were forty-four government troops in total. Two had been killed in combat by arrows piercing their cheeks, while the remaining forty-two laid down their weapons and surrendered.

Liu Chengzong had his men watch the prisoners and summoned the commanding officer of the detachment to be interrogated.

The man was in his early thirties, sporting a thick beard much like Wang Wenxiu's. He looked every bit a veteran, with a scar slicing across his cheek.

His name was Ma Maoguan, a squad leader in the Capital Commander's Camp.

At first, he was utterly unresisting in spirit, shouting about bullies overwhelming the few with numbers.

Yet after being escorted a few paces, he noticed that this bunch of men were all seasoned veterans, sending a drumbeat of anxiety through his heart.

It wasn't as if he had never fought the peasant army of northern Shaanxi.

Just around this time last year, when Wang Zuogua attacked Sanyuan, the imperial court had dispatched him to follow Regional Commander Chen to defend Sanyuan.

Although he thought that battle was deeply humiliating, he had at least laid eyes on the peasant army.

At that time, Wang Zuogua's peasant army advanced to Fen Village, forty *li* north of Sanyuan County. Hong Chengchou had mobilized over ten thousand local braves and militia to block the roads at a distance.

He had thought that was when the great battle would commence.

To his surprise, after drawing provisions and rations from Sanyuan County with Regional Commander Chen, the Capital Commander's Camp abruptly issued an order transferring them to Yaozhou.

To avoid battle.

In the camp, people whispered that Regional Commander Chen had accepted bribes from Wang Zuogua.

The moment they broke camp and departed, the rebel hordes leaped onto their horses and charged straight into the militia camp, breaking through eleven lines of local militia and killing over a hundred men in return.

The Capital Commander's Camp merely watched from afar, under strict orders from the camp not to fire a single arrow.

If they had joined the fight, Wang Zuogua could never have escaped.

Later, a torrential thunderstorm broke out, and Wang Zuogua fled from the heavy encirclement. What followed grew even more chaotic.

Many government troops went to plunder the militia's spoils of war; numerous militia members did not die at the hands of Wang Zuogua, but were instead slain by government troops, while some government troops were killed by loyalist militia.

To Ma Maoguan, as long as one served long enough as a soldier, the most bizarre things would happen in this world.

The Capital Commander's Camp had been ordered to protect the people of Sanyuan, yet in that battle, the majority of them had merely stood upon the soil of Sanyuan County, while a few dozen saw blood—killing the very people they were supposed to protect.

Clearly, it was the armed gentry of the loyalists who had turned the tide, yet in the end, the credit was recorded under the name of Hong Chengchou, who had not appeared on the battlefield once.

Perhaps that was simply life.

Ma Maoguan had his helmet removed and his arms bound, and was pushed forward by two combat soldiers wearing red cotton armor until he stood before Liu Chengzong.

He raised his head to look at the young rebel general, wondering whether he should curse him out first, when he heard the man laugh. "How interesting. The troops of Guanzhong run all the way to northern Shaanxi to seek death. Is your general Ai Mu?"

Hearing those words instantly roused Ma Maoguan's temper, and he spat onto the ground beside him.

With Guanzhong enjoying such favorable weather and peaceful harvests, only a bastard would want to come to northern Shaanxi.

"Being a soldier is never easy. Each serves their own master, and I have no desire to kill you. If you don't talk, someone else will. With over forty people here, we won't miss you."

With both hands resting on his leather belt, Liu Chengzong patiently cajoled him, "My name is Liu Chengzong. You shouldn't have failed to hear of it when troops were deployed to northern Shaanxi, right?"

If no one had heard of him in Shanxi, so be it; but having returned to the soil of northern Shaanxi, Liu Chengzong figured there couldn't possibly be anyone who didn't know him.

Especially the troops of the Yan'an Prefecture Vice Commander, seeing as the previous Vice Commander had perished at his hands.

To his surprise, the moment Ma Maoguan heard the name, his eyes widened. "You—you are Cai Zhongpan's nephew?"

Liu Chengzong frowned. "You know my uncle?"

Shouldn't it rather be that Cai Zhongpan was Liu Chengzong's uncle? People shouldn't only know Liu Chengzong as Cai Zhongpan's nephew!

Ma Maoguan shook his head. "I met him in Sanyuan."

Last year, he was still a squad commander in the Capital Commander's Camp, yet he could not keep his soldiers in line.

Although Guanzhong enjoyed favorable weather and harvests, it amounted to no more than a full belly; military pay was still delayed or unpaid, a problem that plagued the entirety of Shaanxi.

When soldiers had nothing to do, they would go out to do odd jobs for landlords; there was simply no helping it, as no one could restrain them.

Logically speaking, a squad leader who could not control his soldiers would find it hard to get promoted without military achievements.

However, his commanding officer had led his trusted confidants to plunder the spoils of the Sanyuan commoners and killed a local militia member, only to be shot dead by a man named Cai Zhongpan using a firearm.

Ma Maoguan had been standing right beside him at the time with a rather complicated state of mind, so he issued an order telling everyone to protect the Capital Commander.

As a result, apart from the commander's two loyal confidants who charged forward and were cut down by Cai Zhongpan, everyone else obeyed very obediently, genuinely allowing Cai Zhongpan to escape.

Later on, he made inquiries and learned that Cai Zhongpan's brother-in-law was a licentiate of Yan'an Prefecture. After some more time, he heard that this licentiate had been captured by the government, whereupon his son launched a prison break, rebelled, and even defeated the Yan'an Prefecture Vice Commander.

Today, he was meeting the real person face-to-face.

A person's reputation was like the shadow of a great tree. This band of veteran soldiers gathered in the valley, together with the three words "Liu Chengzong," served as a golden signboard in northern Shaanxi.

It instantly caused Ma Maoguan's rebellious sentiments to vanish without a trace. He shook his head and sighed, "General Ai is currently encamped near Wen'an Post to the west. Two thousand seven hundred men, all of them Guanzhong troops."

Ma Maoguan said, "We didn't want to come to Yan'an Prefecture either. If the General lets us go home after the battle, no one will continue setting themselves against the General."

Liu Chengzong had never imagined his name would hold such sway. He sighed and said, "If I let you go, do you expect the imperial court to reassemble troops and come attack me again?"

Wen'an Post. Liu Chengzong calculated—Ai Mu was only about twenty *li* away from them.

The garrison troops of Guanzhong were well-nourished and well-trained, but these men had chased Wang Zuogua and the King of Shaking Heaven all the way from Hancheng, enduring numerous battles and a long-distance raid.

With night falling soon, while wiping them out entirely might be unlikely if things went smoothly, defeating them in a single battle was entirely possible.

"Where are they encamped in Wen'an Post? Tell me everything."

-
Note:
The Battle of Yunyang, the government forces' retreat, refusal to deploy troops, and the course of the battle are referenced from the *Zhongtong Daily Records* and *Loyalist Militia and Local Society in Sanyuan, Shaanxi at the End of the Ming Dynasty*.