Chapter 111: Homemade Firearms

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Chengyun returned to Sky-Piercing Mound. A few days later, he sent men to deliver four firearms.

Fire lances and bird guns were nothing new.

At Yanshui Pass, they had captured a great many firearms: single-barreled and three-barreled guns, small cannons operated by one or two men, and even medium-sized pieces that had to be carried on mule carts. Most of them had been abandoned there.

They had no way to take everything with them. In the entire mule battalion, few soldiers knew how to operate firearms proficiently. Handing them a three-barreled gun to use as a cudgel would have been less effective than giving them a bow or a saber.

They had brought back quite a number of small cannons. Cao Yao’s artillery detachment numbered fewer than a hundred men, yet it carried a full fifteen small guns that could be transported on mules.

They also had three three-hundred-pound Frankish cannons drawn by mules.

But the two bird guns and two double-barreled handguns Chengyun sent over were something new.

They were firearms made locally in the Liu Family Estate, crafted by He Xinzhi, a bird-gun maker from Sanyuan who had been brought there by the younger brother of Cai Zhongpan’s wife.

“The workmanship is excellent. Far better than those things from Yanshui Pass—not inferior to anything made by the craftsmen of Shanxi.”

On the drying ground at King Mountain, Cao Yao examined the firearm. He raised the wooden stock to his nose and sniffed it, then grinned.

“Damn it, a newly made stock. The last time I smelled this scent was in the capital’s military camp, back in the forty-sixth year of the Wanli reign!”

Hearing this, Liu Chengzong breathed a sigh of relief. He knew nothing about firearms.

Cao Yao, however, was an expert in their use, and an especially exacting judge. He had even advised abandoning many of the firearms at Yanshui Pass.

So long as the old bandit said there was no problem, the Liu Family Estate’s craftsmen must truly be skilled at making guns.

Even so, his words left Liu Chengzong puzzled.

“I know Shanxi is famous for making fine blades, but they’re good at firearms too?”

“Hah!” Cao Yao burst out laughing. He patted the wild-goose-feather saber hanging at his waist, then weighed the bird gun in his hand.

“Do you think there’s any difference in the skill required to make these things?”

He pointed toward the courier soldiers drilling with tasseled spears nearby.

“The spearhead’s socket is rolled. The gun barrel is rolled too. And this…” He bent the bird gun’s serpentine lock and pulled the trigger. The cock dropped with a click. “It may look intricate in here, but what difference is there between the spring leaf and the crossed scissors mechanism? The hardest part is drilling through the forged barrel. It has to be smooth and straight, or it won’t shoot far or true.”

“That was sometime during the Tianqi reign—I’ve forgotten the exact year. Anyway, it was in Shanxi. A Governor-General named Sun, who happened to share your name, sent Zhang Daojun back to his native place to manufacture guns and cannon. You know Zhang Daojun, don’t you?”

Liu Chengzong shook his head, his face blank.

“A Commander of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. He isn’t important either. The point is, he was a native of Zezhou in Shanxi.” Cao Yao raised one finger. “In a year and a half, with a principal investment of more than thirty thousand taels, do you know how many weapons Shanxi’s master craftsmen made for Liaodong?”

Liu Chengzong shook his head again.

“I can’t remember the exact figures. There were seven thousand five hundred waist sabers.” Cao Yao sounded almost boastful, and his pride was plain to see. “More than ten thousand three-barreled guns, over two thousand mule-drawn Frankish cannons, and Wind-Chasing Guns.”

“Were there really that many?” Liu Chengzong knew about the Wind-Chasing Gun. “Is that the gun you wanted the craftsmen to make when we raided the Wang Estate?”

“That’s the one. I used to own one. I took it during that raid. Wonderful weapon. Once properly made, it could hit a large shot at two hundred paces wherever you aimed. With shot, it sprayed death at fifty paces.”

Seeing Liu Chengzong lost in thought, Cao Yao raised his brows and asked eagerly, “What do you say? Planning to have the craftsmen make you a Wind-Chasing Gun for amusement? With your family’s craftsmanship, making one of those would be child’s play!”

Liu Chengzong shook his head. He looked up at the sunlight overhead, then glanced around at the many people nearby. Pulling Cao Yao toward the cave where they stored grain and kept the cooking hearths, he said as they walked, “I intend to establish an arms factory. Well… a Bureau of Military Equipment.”

Cao Yao was startled by his secretive manner. He followed him into the cave and frowned.

“Then do it. Why all the secrecy? Are you afraid someone might overhear?”

Liu Chengzong turned and looked at him as though he were a fool.

“Of course I am. Think about it. If government troops come, we can leave, and we can take the craftsmen with us. But can you put a pair of rings on a smelting furnace and carry it away on your back?”

Cao Yao nodded, though inwardly he disagreed. All they needed was to bring their people along. Steel could be seized anywhere, and a furnace was not difficult to build. The fundamental reason, of course, was that he had no faith in establishing a Bureau of Military Equipment in the first place.

He merely agreed because he trusted Liu Chengzong.

Besides, during this return to Yan’an Prefecture, he had seen what the Liu family had done and examined the maps they had drawn up. They were indeed extraordinary.

Yang Dingrui, formerly an assistant government official; Liu Xiangyu, who had served as a county magistrate and a prefectural tax official; and Liu Chengzu, who understood military affairs—when this band of professionals began plotting rebellion, even Cao Yao, a veteran bandit who had roamed across three provinces, felt he ought to step aside.

A man had to know his own limitations.

Cao Yao considered himself a professional at being a bandit chieftain, a fugitive, and a survivor.

But manipulating the imperial government from within a prefecture’s borders was something he genuinely could not do.

They simply did not think on the same level.

“You should make the decisions on the great matters. I’m only a dog-headed strategist dragged into the role. At most, I can use my experience to find leaks and patch holes.”

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Cao Yao reminded him, “Anyway, in my opinion, even if you hide the craftsmen in the mountains, and they make forty guns a year, by the twenty-seventh year of the Chongzhen reign we’ll have made only a thousand guns. By then, trees will be towering over both our graves.”

“As long as trees have grown over our graves by the twenty-seventh year of the Chongzhen reign, doesn’t that mean we died awfully young?”

Liu Chengzong grinned impishly, then sobered.

“Everything else can be discussed later. The greatest problem right now is finding a place. I’ve been studying the terrain maps these past two days, and I have two promising choices.”

“Where?”

“The Xichuan River.”

“You mean… the Wang Estate?”

Cao Yao knew the Xichuan River all too well. It was where they had raided the Qin Prince’s estate.

Liu Chengzong nodded.

“We didn’t know it before, but that area has kilns, water, and farmland. It’s extremely suitable. The problem is that it lies closer to Fuzhou than to the prefectural city, so government troops would notice it at once.”

“The other place is in Ansai, northwest of the Xingzi River. It’s another Wang Estate, larger than the first. In earlier years it was pastureland belonging to a prince, where sheep and horses were raised. Later, it was turned into farmland and estates. I’ve sent Guo Zhasi and Wei Qian’er to investigate. If it hasn’t already been looted, it will suit us perfectly—we’re short of grain as it is.”

“How far away is it?” Cao Yao asked.

“One hundred and forty li.” Liu Chengzong spoke of the distance easily, then shook his head with a smile. “It’s much easier now. A hundred li in any direction is no longer a problem.”

Wrongdoing could not be allowed to be seen.

There were two ways to remain unseen. The first was to stay beyond other people’s sight at all times, moving by night and resting by day.

That was why, during their last raid on the Wang Estate, they had traveled at night and transported the supplies in separate groups. They had made countless journeys over those hundred li, and it had taken nearly ten days before they finally brought all the grain back.

The second method was to cover other people’s eyes.

By now, the Liu family had already covered the eyes of Yan’an Prefecture’s city.

“Good. Since you’ve chosen the place, I’ll have the artillery detachment make preparations. When Guo Zhasi and Wei Qian’er return, we’ll discuss what else needs to be done.”

Cao Yao nodded. Whether they established a Bureau of Military Equipment was irrelevant to him, but obtaining grain was important to everyone.

“It’s a good thing,” he said. “We’ll also get to see what Yang Yao is capable of. By the way, why has there been no word about joining forces with Chengzu since you returned?”

“We’re not joining forces.”

Liu Chengzong shook his head.

“We oversimplified matters before. Crossing Heaven Star, Monk Wang, and Collapsing Heaven each maintain their own camps. Though they advance and retreat together, their situation is the same as ours with Master Gao. Their troops cannot be integrated.”

“If we joined forces with my elder brother alone, we’d leave them without enough manpower. What the family is doing now is important too, and in the future it will prove even more useful.”

The shortage of grain and fodder had driven the leaders of the rebel armies toward two extremes.

Some leaders, such as Unstained-by-Mud, Heaven-Crossing Monkey, and Chaos-Splitting Monkey, swept up the common people and were pushed from place to place, plundering like locusts.

Others, such as Liu Chengzu, Liu Chengzong, and Zhang Wu, knew how powerful the frontier armies were. They were extremely cautious about the number of troops they maintained, trying to absorb only experienced soldiers who could earn their own provisions.

Their forces were smaller, but as a result, the pressure on their supplies was lighter, giving them the opportunity to plan before they acted.

Neither approach was healthy.

“Think about it,” Liu Chengzong said. “What do you think the things my elder brother, my older brother, my younger brother, and I are doing will become in the future?”

He painted Cao Yao a beautiful picture of what lay ahead.

“Yan’an Prefecture will pay us stipends. The common people will belong to us. When government troops come, the people will provide us with intelligence. Villages will be evacuated by our people. Wherever we go, we won’t need to chop wood, light fires, bury cooking pots, and prepare meals. The people will provide us with a meal of dry rations.”

“While the government troops are still pursuing us, the people will already be building camps and digging trenches ahead of us. We’ll move in, and the government troops will be beaten back…”

Cao Yao raised a hand, cutting off his beautiful fantasy.

“But what your elder brother, your other brother, and your younger brother are doing now isn’t that. They’re merely resisting the taxes imposed on the people. If the entire old Liu family were madmen like you, forcing a pack of deserters and bandits to dig irrigation canals for the people, Yan’an Prefecture would have been transformed long ago.”

“Three feet of ice are not formed in a single day. What in this world is not learned?”

Liu Chengzong countered, “I’ve charged into battle several times, and I still depended entirely on the wholehearted support of several brothers before I could make the soldiers do what they didn’t want to do. Now all the men under us know that you never harm the innocent, and that if you repair irrigation canals for the people, then whenever the people are robbed, they’ll send word to you.”

“My elder brother is a scholar by nature. Mr. Yang carries himself like an official. My other brother has the bearing of a military officer. They don’t understand. In their hearts, they simply want everyone to remain in their proper places, and they’re close to forgetting what ordinary people even look like. Their purpose in doing these things is to cover the eyes of Yan’an Prefecture. They ask for what they want and receive it. That’s perfectly normal.”

There was not the slightest trace of blame toward his father or brothers in Liu Chengzong’s words. For them to have accomplished as much as they had was already remarkable.

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In an age ruled by imperial authority, officials and commoners were never truly the same species.

Herdsmen, sheepdogs, and sheep all lived upon the grasslands. A herdsman might build a sheepfold, but it would be difficult for him to change places with a sheep and crawl inside to experience what it felt like to eat grass. Conversely, even if a sheep entered a house, it would never think of lying down on a bed to sleep.

Liu Chengzong’s voice softened.

“Only my younger brother runs back and forth among the people, so only he knows what they truly want… My younger brother can understand them. My elder brother and my other brother have the ability.”

He raised a hand and pointed his thumb at himself.

“And I have the desire to do it. All I lack is one victory.”

Every person benefited from his own experiences, and every benefit reinforced his character and manner of thinking.

In Liu Chengzong’s understanding, youth constrained him, while the prestige brought by victory could offset that weakness.

“So that’s why you want to raid the Wang Estate?” Cao Yao asked.

“It’s too small. It wouldn’t be enough to unite the camps and establish rules.” Liu Chengzong shook his head, then drew a deep breath. “The government troops. The armies from Guyuan and Qingyang.”

That very afternoon, after he and Cao Yao had finished discussing these matters, Gao Yingxiang sent men from Yanchang County.

They brought not only the troops of Heaven-Crossing Monkey, Chaos-Splitting Monkey, and Unstained-by-Mud, but also the men of Zhang Yingjin, the Heaven-Confounding King of Yanchuan.

They had come to make contact and acknowledge the Liu family’s territory.

This meant that the leaders across the Hexi Circuit of Yan’an Prefecture in Shaanxi—Yijun, Zhongbu, Luochuan, Ganquan, the prefectural city, Yanchang, and Yanchuan—had now formed a continuous alliance.

For the moment, they had more than ten thousand men. Soon… Liu Chengzong believed that number could triple.

Over the following days, Liu Chengzong kept busy meeting with Collapsing Heaven, Monk Wang, Crossing Heaven Star, Yang Yanchang, and others, exchanging their views on the government armies.

In the end, they reached an agreement. If government troops attacked, they would withdraw to Yanchuan and fight the decisive battle there.

That was the difficulty of joining forces. With so many leaders standing as equals, concentrating their strength became exceedingly difficult.

He needed prestige more than anything.

The fifteenth day of the eighth month soon arrived. Chengyun sent two sheep to King Mountain and called Liu Chengzong to Sky-Piercing Mound to reunite with their parents and brothers.

At the dinner table, it was difficult to see the relaxed expressions of the past. Their conversation was filled with assessments of the situation and anxieties about the future.

Liu Chengzong ate only half his meal before hurriedly taking his leave. He galloped across Panlong Valley, returned to King Mountain, and joined his soldiers for a second round of celebration.

This time, they did not drink.

Liu Chengzong had originally intended to find a way to get them some wine. Unexpectedly, not only did several squad leaders object, Cao Yao himself had no intention of drinking.

The time was not right.

After disgracing himself in front of so many people the last time they drank, Cao Yao felt especially humiliated. He now strictly observed the artillery detachment’s ban on alcohol.

When Liu Chengzong returned, he brought Chengyun with him. He knew the boy wanted to accomplish something great.

Although he had no intention of letting Chengyun “accomplish something great” just yet, he could first observe him and let him learn.

As he considered the role each person around him might play, Liu Chengzong saw in Chengyun an uncut piece of jade.

He could oversee the baggage train and also move deep among the common people.

He had a talent for bribery and intimidation as well. In time, after learning from Monk Wang how to stir up the people, he could become a versatile man useful for purposes beyond war.

That very day, Wei Qian’er and Guo Zhasi finally returned from Ansai County after traveling day and night beneath the stars. They brought good news.

The Wang Estate’s pastureland along the banks of the Xingzi River had not merely escaped looting; after several years of drought, it had absorbed the surrounding fields as well.

The people on both banks of the Xingzi River had offered up their land, while those driven from their homes had sold themselves into household servitude in exchange for shelter.

The place was exceptionally prosperous, utterly unlike Ansai City, which resembled a hell on earth.

“And, Master…” As Guo Zhasi spoke, his eyes seemed to blaze. He excitedly told Liu Chengzong, “The convoy carrying rent silver to the Prince’s Palace is about to pass the prefectural city.”

Note: The figures concerning Zhang Daojun’s production of military equipment after returning home are drawn from the memorial collection attributed to Zhang Sili.