Chapter Eighty-Nine: Jingjia Valley

Liu Chengzong climbed the ridge to survey Jing Family Gorge.

He had fought alongside the villagers there against the tax collectors and even led them in sacking the Grain Overseer’s house.

So he knew the village very well.

This ravine produced salt, iron, coal, and pottery. It was rich in pasture, herbs, and timber, but short on arable land.

It had once been a coal mountain. Later, the easy coal had all been dug out, leaving people to settle here; even in ordinary years, they could only survive by eking out a living through handicrafts.

They made drinking bowls, earthen jars, and roof tiles from clay, and fashioned rough farm tools from the poor iron ore in the hills, hauling them out by cartloads to sell for cash.

Life for the common folk was harsh. They would gladly scrape up last year’s unsprouted grain from the fields and eat it. Yet once the imperial troops occupied the place, they seemed to grow comfortable enough.

On the ridge stood a villager messenger named Jing Xiaoliu. He pointed down into the gorge with fierce resentment and said, “Everyone in the village has fled. They’ve taken over the place, dug through everything left in the houses, and they’re even boiling noodles!”

Northern Shaanxi was a strange land, cut through with ravines and gullies.

The two places looked close enough; Liu Chengzong was only about half a mile from the village. But to get there, no matter which road he took, he would have to go seven or eight miles around.

The imperial troops had set their defenses sloppily in the village. Aside from the obvious sentries at front and rear, Liu Chengzong also spotted two hidden posts.

“See there? My brother often places hidden sentries in spots like that.”

Liu Chengzong said this to Cao Yao, then frowned and asked Jing Xiaoliu, “You killed the horses because you meant to sell them, didn’t you?”

In the grain overseer’s grand courtyard there were two pots set over fires, and the camp servants were dropping meat into them.

A large crowd of soldiers sat all around, packed three layers deep around the pots.

From Liu Chengzong’s position, he could only make out the skeletons of the larger beasts.

“Who could bear to kill horses? We sold three for grain, and there was also the grain overseer’s fine horse. The remaining three couldn’t be sold, and when the imperial troops arrived, they were led into the hills.”

Jing Xiaoliu sounded bitter. He pointed toward the village and said, “That was the grain overseer’s lame horse. It couldn’t walk, and it wouldn’t obey. The villagers couldn’t take it with them, and the imperial troops couldn’t ride it, so they butchered it.”

As he spoke, Jing Xiaoliu shuddered. “I was hiding on the mountain over there when they killed it. That horse screamed horribly. They had to stab it several times before it died, and they even snapped a knife trying to hold it down.”

Liu Chengzong had no interest in how the horse died. He asked instead, “Do you know where these imperial troops came from? How many are there?”

“Five hundred!”

Jing Xiaoliu was utterly certain. He spread his hands wide. “They told Jing Family Gorge to prepare food for five hundred men, so we all ran.”

Cao Yao laughed so hard he nearly choked. “Damn it, no matter how I look at it, I can’t see three hundred men here!”

The village lay along a single road through the gorge, with the official road to the mountain pass on the east side and the mining site further into the mountains on the west.

The imperial troops were all tucked into the mansions and kiln yards. At most, there were only about two hundred of them.

The number of soldiers could rise or fall due to phantom payrolls, battle injuries, leave, and other causes, but the number of regular officers and noncommissioned officers could not be faked.

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Two company commanders and three platoon commanders were drinking in the grand courtyard, while another platoon commander, who looked like an ostracized wretch, was riding around the village with a few attendants.

The count of officers matched the count of soldiers.

Cao Yao came over and asked, “Lion, what do you think? Should we go down the mountain and talk it over with Gao Laosan and Rangzi?”

“There are good points and bad points. The good is that they only have two hundred men. We can move on them.”

Liu Chengzong took a deep breath and said through tightly pressed lips, “The bad is that they’re nearly at full strength. Xiaoliu says the imperial troops are led by a guerrilla general surnamed Lu, spread out across four villages, damn it.”

Using his real name was meant to draw the imperial troops’ attention. After all, if he used a name like Tiger General or Lion General, the imperial troops would not know who it was.

Only Liu Chengzong was known to them as the man who had plundered Yan’an Prefecture.

He had not expected that using his real name would draw so many imperial troops.

By this reckoning, that guerrilla general was likely bringing a force of a thousand men or so to find him.

Not easy to deal with.

Liu Chengzong and Cao Yao and the others withdrew from the mountain. On the way, they were all thinking about what to do after striking this force of imperial troops.

Just as they reached the hollow where their camp was set, they heard the sound of hoofbeats.

Wei Qian’er returned with two men, controlling four horses. A person was tied across one of the saddles.

When they arrived, they threw the captive to the ground, where he landed in a daze.

Wei Qian’er planted his eight-foot red-tasseled spear in the ground, leapt from his horse, and strode over with his head held high, bursting with pride. “Commander, I caught a messenger.”

He even casually grabbed at the captive’s head, snatched off the iron helmet, and clapped it onto his own. It looked surprisingly convincing.

“Well done!”

Liu Chengzong smiled as he walked over. The captive had a gag stuffed in his mouth, and his body was tightly bound. A signal flag was still tucked into the back of his armored coat.

A mounted courier from the beacon towers.

He had come from elsewhere and very likely knew something about the guerrilla general surnamed Lu.

Liu Chengzong gave Cao Yao a look, and sent the sentry captain, Feng Rang, to take the captive away for interrogation.

Only then did he ask, “This is a beacon courier. How did you catch him?”

“We strung a rope across the road and tripped his horse, then gave him a beating.”

Liu Chengzong lowered his eyes. Both of Wei Qian’er’s fists were bruised purple and green, and one of his palms had been torn open. “What happened to your hand?”

“Burned. He was trying to start a fire.” Wei Qian’er said, “I crushed the fire starter in my fist.”

A ruthless fellow.

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A fire starter was a large skyrocket, a kind of firework that shot high into the air when lit.

Among common folk it was used as a toy, but in the army it served to relay warnings.

Especially at night, its shrill cry and flashing light could rouse an entire camp.

Liu Chengzong found him a clean cloth to wrap his hand, then turned to Cao Yao and Gao Xian, who had gathered around him, and said, “If there are no other hidden posts, they’ll probably spot us from about a mile away.

“Fortunately, Jing Family Gorge is enclosed on all sides. We can bottle them up and fight from within the ravine, so there’s no need to worry about them escaping.

“But if they have enough time to form up, once they’ve taken shape on the field, it’ll be hard for us to win.”

Cao Yao said, “Not just hard. Those two donkey carts by the grand courtyard gate, covered with cloth—judging by the size, I’d say they’re carrying two or three hundred catties each. I reckon they’re cannons.

“They’ve formed up right there on the threshing ground, which puts us squarely within range.

“If they’re commander’s cannon, they can blast us twice. If they’re falconets, we’ll have to swallow at least four rounds of shot.”

Cao Yao’s meaning was clear.

Their recent successive assaults on the postal strongholds had gone smoothly, and morale among the five hundred or so men under him was high.

Even knowing they would face imperial troops in battle, there was no obvious fear.

The enemy was few in number after all, and even if they had strong bows and matchlocks, by pressing in close and hurling four small cannons against them in a full exchange, there was a chance to break them without much hard fighting.

But after two or even four rounds of cannon fire, whether solid shot from three hundred paces away or scattershot at a hundred paces, they could not endure it.

After thinking for a moment, Feng Rang stepped forward and said, “I’ve asked everything out. The whole force is a little over nine hundred men, from the Jingbian Battalion and the Jingbian Thousand-Man Garrison. This side has two hundred.

“Guerrilla Lu Cheng divided them into four detachments, the farthest twenty miles away, the nearest eight.”

Then he lifted his chin toward Liu Chengzong. “They came to find you.”

Liu Chengzong smiled faintly and asked, unconcerned, “What message was the beacon courier carrying?”

“Routine report. Once every two hours.”

As soon as Feng Rang finished speaking, Cao Yao narrowed his eyes. “Then if this courier doesn’t go back, the imperial troops in the village will grow suspicious. We don’t have much time... fight or not?”

“Fight. Since they have cannon, then we won’t let them form ranks. Wei Qian, didn’t you say you wanted to knock out all my teeth?”

Liu Chengzong laughed. “You’ve got guts. Dare to ride with me and punch straight through the village on horseback?”

“What’s there to dare?” Wei Qian’er said, stiffening his neck. “If you dare, I dare.”

But as he spoke, he could not help swallowing hard, and only then muttered in a lower voice, “My name is Wei Qian’er. Wei Qian is my elder brother.”

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