Chapter 131: Starving and Freezing

On the day Commander Yang Yanchang led his troops to embark on the campaign to relieve the capital, Zhang Nian, the Prefect of Yanan, led the common folk to line the streets in farewell. Musicians blew their suonas, and the sound of firecrackers crackled through the air.

It was said that before departing, Commander Yang had personally written letters to various counties, warning the local rebel leaders not to take advantage of his absence to harm the officials or the people. He referred to the roaming rebels as starving children of the imperial court who should be made aware of the greater cause.

As it turned out, the rebels indeed laid low, and Yanan Prefecture appeared as peaceful as if in a golden age, a sight that left many in wonder. On the mountains flanking the Yan River, the rebel leaders entrenched within Yanan Prefecture all offered their distant respects to the Commander as he led his troops away. People remarked that General Yang had always possessed such prestige that he could keep the Yanan rebels in check.

Liu Chengzong was also on the mountain that day, standing in the very same concealed pit that had been dug out half a year ago when he watched Li Bei move his troops. But his state of mind was vastly different now. In his eyes, this was no scene of imperial troops marching to relieve the capital. It was his merchant caravan, setting out with their cargo.

Du Laowu walked beside Yang Yanchang, forming, along with ten other border soldiers, the contingent of deserters serving as guides for this mission. Watching their backs, Liu Chengzong clenched his fists tightly: "You must come back alive!" If luck turned bad and they lost money, that didn't matter; three hundred warhorses were precious, but human lives were always more precious than horses.

The new military uniforms were excellent in every way—warm, comfortable, and not unsightly—but their greatest flaw was that they showed dirt easily. Liu Chengzong had tricked Shangtianhou into washing himself spotlessly, but after wearing the new clothes for only a few days, the uniform had already changed color on him, as dirty as if he had been rolling in the mud.

The weather soon turned cold, and Liu Chengyun ran to Wangzhuang Fortress again to practice archery. After hearing the report, Liu Chengzong stood on the fortress wall and watched for a while. Seeing him fail to hit the target once, he called out loudly, "Chengyun, stop shooting, come inside."

The lad was stubborn. If you couldn't hit the target, you should move it closer, yet he insisted on shooting from so far away, only to walk back and forth to retrieve his arrows. It gave people the illusion that his goal wasn't archery, but running.

Once inside the fortress, Chengyun clapped his hands and sighed, "Brother, why is your archery so accurate?" He still remembered the day they raided the prison at the county office; Liu Chengzong had held his bow and hit whatever he aimed at. Looking at his own movements, they were almost the same, so why could he only hit wherever he happened to point?

"Diligent practice, that's all. I've been learning this since I was a child; you've only been at it for a few days." Liu Chengzong smiled and led Chengyun into the room. He lit the fire stove outside to heat the kang and warm water, then squatted by the fire and rubbed his hands. "How is it? What has the logistics patrol harvested lately?"

"That's it." Liu Chengyun answered bluntly. "The newly collected fabric, plus the old cotton we gathered later, will make about two thousand uniforms by the end of the year, along with over seven hundred pairs of cotton shoes. That's all there is; I brought two hundred and forty uniforms today."

Two thousand?

"Are the uniforms at the river valley? I'll send them to Yang Yao's side later." Liu Chengzong sat on the edge of the kang, tapping his forehead in thought. "Can we get any more? Other cotton-padded clothes will do. We must speed up the tailoring. It’s getting colder by the day, and I’m afraid people will die if we’re too late."

Liu Chengyun nodded. Freezing to death in winter was all too common. He shook his head and said, "It’s just bad timing. If Li Bei had come to attack two months earlier, we would have had all the uniforms finished by now."

"Pah, if he had come two months earlier, the imperial troops wouldn't have spared me anyway." Liu Chengzong sneered. "This current breathing space is only because the weather has turned cold and the imperial troops lack winter gear, so they won't go to war. With over a thousand deserters and surrendered soldiers, many are still wearing the clothes of the dead, and we’ve barely managed to scrape together seven or eight hundred sets of cotton armor."

"If we don't demand standard uniforms, I'll find a way; I might be able to buy some more cotton-padded coats, but not many. Brother, between the front, back, middle, left, and right wings, plus the artillery and logistics..." Chengyun also huddled by the fire to warm his hands, turning his head as he squatted. "With the house guards and the instructor corps, that’s over four thousand men in eight patrols and two teams. Everyone needs a cotton coat and trousers—in just over a month—it’s too hard."

"It's alright, do your best. We’ll try our best. Leading troops... leading troops is truly difficult, isn't it?" Liu Chengzong walked over and patted Chengyun on the shoulder to comfort him, shaking his head with emotion. "I’ll find a way too. Since they follow me, I cannot let them freeze or starve to death."

Liu Chengzong had promised them: he would not let them die in vain, nor would he let them die of starvation or cold.

He sat back at the table to write for a while. Once Chengyun had warmed himself by the fire, he picked up a stack of papers and asked, "I'm going down the mountain; are you coming?"

Knowing that whenever Liu Chengzong went down the mountain, it was to the artillery or engineering patrols, Chengyun stood up and patted his cotton trousers. "I'm coming too!"

Liu Chengyun was very interested in the Frankish hand cannons and also in what Liu Chengzong had written. On the way, he kept asking questions, and upon hearing it was the training plan for the eight patrols and two teams, he opened the floodgates of conversation.

"Training once every three days? With them eating so well, shouldn't they train every day?"

"What's this 'patrol drill every ten days'? And what is the 'grand drill every twenty days' for?"

Chengyun’s eyes lit up as he asked, pestering him with questions. Liu Chengzong, tireless, explained the reasons in detail: "We didn't store enough winter grain, so everyone had to go out to find food and had no time to train. Now that the grain is sufficient, we naturally must train daily. But we aren't drilling in full formations yet; the squad leaders are mainly training the men in weapons, strength, and running. There's only a little bit of formation practice."

"Each unit consists of one combat soldier and two support soldiers. The combat soldiers are veterans who teach the support soldiers, and the squad leader checks the results of their training. The 'training every three days' is for squad-level combined drills, focusing on formations, techniques, and cooperation between squads."

"As for the 'patrol drill every ten days,' that’s for the entire patrol, covering changes in formation and the use of the patrol’s logistics and guard teams. The reason it’s only every ten days is that on the day of the grand drill, they have to bring the troops over."

At this, Liu Chengzong smiled, greeting the soldiers carrying supplies up the mountain, before turning back to Chengyun. "I cannot help but look at my soldiers. I must speak to every single one and encourage them."

This training plan was almost entirely copied by Liu Chengzong from the border troops of Yuhe Fortress, combined with the training methods of the Heilong Mountain militia, and then adapted to their current environment.

The banks of the Xingzi River were suitable for training everywhere, but only the open ground outside Wangzhuang Fortress was large enough to spread out the entire camp for collective drills. The more it came to this, the more Liu Chengzong felt the lack of officers. Among the more than four thousand men in the camp, not a single one had ever had contact with how to drill more than four hundred men at once.

Li Bei was indeed locked up in Wangzhuang Fortress, and Liu Chengzong had considered asking for his advice, but the man wouldn't teach him.

Mentioning Li Bei, Chengyun asked with interest, "By the way, Brother, I heard Patrol Leader Cao say that General Li wants to offer you an amnesty and recommend you for the rank of Thousand-Man Commander. It’s spreading like wildfire in the camp. Is there any truth to it?"

"There is. I wanted to ask him how to drill my camp of soldiers. Not only did he refuse to tell me, but he also wanted me to be a Thousand-Man Commander for the Emperor and follow him to Liaodong to fight the Eastern Barbarians. Isn't that ridiculous?"

"I told them, you just got back so you don't know, this just proves that there is definitely a path forward in rebelling with your brother."

Liu Chengzong gave a disdainful scoff. "Oh, if you don't rebel, you're just a small house guard; if you rebel and defeat a Regional Vice Commander, you can become a Thousand-Man Commander. Next time I beat up Wu Zimian, I'll be promoted to Yanan Regional Vice Commander, and then I'll fight the Five-Towns Allied Army. After that, I'll be the Regional Commander of Yansui Town, and you lot can all be my..." He suddenly stopped. "Almost forgot something important!"

The words died on his lips, and he patted Chengyun. "Maybe I don't need to beat up Wu Zimian. Soon, the imperial court will probably make me a Regional Vice Commander."

Chengyun was stunned halfway up the mountain, blurting out, "Then who do you have to defeat to become a Regional Vice Commander?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head. "Don't tell anyone about this. Think about it: if the Three Frontiers Governor sends someone to offer amnesty, what about the Zuantianmao side? Or the Gao 'Chuangwang' side?"

Recently, he had been busy with Yang Yanchang’s campaign. Confirming that the breathing space had arrived had caused Liu Chengzong to lose his vigilance, and he hadn't considered how Governor Yang He might deal with him. But chatting with Chengyun about Li Bei’s attempt to turn him made him remember that there was still such a person as Yang He in Guyuan.

Yang He had no men left. Earlier, he only thought that the elite troops of the Five Towns of the Three Frontiers being away on the campaign had reduced the military pressure significantly. But now, thinking it over, the man also had the skill of offering amnesty.

If the relief army returned early next year, Yang He would definitely mobilize troops to deal with him; if they returned late, leaving Yang He with no elite troops to use, he would very likely use amnesty to deal with him.

Amnesty. Since he rebelled on the twenty-second of the sixth month, the team had been under immense military pressure, leaving him no time to consider other matters. Now that he thought about it, amnesty and sowing discord were always a combined strike.

He didn't fear amnesty, nor did he intend to accept it. But what if this command was offered to someone else?

Liu Chengzong couldn't worry about others right now; he had to look after his own troops first. Descending the mountain, he happened to run into Wei Qian'er, who was returning from walking the horses. He beckoned him over and checked the time. "Wei Qian'er, have the scouts send orders to the eight patrols and two teams. Summon three hundred commanding officers to the fortress tonight."

Wei Qian'er looked puzzled but didn't ask, acknowledging the order and running off to deliver it. Soon, the scouts were on their way, galloping toward the eight encampments. Wei Qian'er returned and asked, "General, is there anything else?"

Liu Chengzong shook his head, then looked at the training plan in his hand. "Nothing else... call the house guard team over, and then put this back in my room."

Since he was calling all the commanding officers to the fortress, there was no need to send this training schedule patrol by patrol. He would let them take it back when they returned to their units to show the squad leaders, team leaders, and patrol leaders.

Down in the river valley, Liu Chengzong and Chengyun led the house guards to carefully inspect the delivered uniforms. The uniforms were made by the women of Wangzhuang, and minor flaws were inevitable. Basically, they were very careful where requirements were specified, but where there were no requirements, they were quite imaginative.

Putting two uniforms together, it was hard to believe they were the same pattern of cotton-padded clothes, at most the same color. But put ten together, and you could see they were the same.

It was harmless. Liu Chengzong only cared if the clothes were warm. Each uniform had a name stitched into the hem of the jacket and trousers so that if there were any problems, they could be easily tracked. The house guards used scales to weigh each uniform. There was no obvious corner-cutting, but there were indeed instances of short weight; that was when the house guards had to make a trip.

If the weight difference was within two taels, since they were made by the village women, they would just ask for the labor fee back. If the artisans of the engineering patrol did it, there was no labor fee—they ate the camp's grain. But since they couldn't spit out the grain they’d eaten, they would get a flogging.

However, the engineering artisans had not embezzled the cotton. They had both camp rations and income from repairing weapons, mending clothes, and making saddles for the soldiers; they were much wealthier than the common folk.

The camp of the engineering patrol was in the northwest of Wangzhuang Fortress, near the charcoal kilns. It was the liveliest place in the Xingzi River basin, connecting to the artillery and logistics patrol camps on one side and leading to several tenant villages in the mountains on the other.

Rounding the hill of Wangzhuang Fortress, even before nearing the camp, one could see the smoke rising from the blacksmith's forge. The camp was bustling with noise and excitement. There were not only soldiers coming to have their weapons and armor repaired but also villagers carrying the farm tools they would need for the coming spring, their hands tucked into their robes to protect an egg, asking the craftsmen to fix them. Some artisans even set up stalls outside the camp to sell their wares, making it look like a small market.

Liu Chengzong liked seeing such scenes; it made him feel alive, and the corners of his mouth curled up before he had even entered the camp.

Happy as he was, he was neither a villager nor a soldier. He let out a laugh and said to Chengyun, "Look, if we don't establish a training system, it’ll be a mess."

Seeing a house guard cart pushing its way over from afar, someone in the artisan camp quickly went to call Patrol Leader Shi Chengwo. When the people saw who it was, they were overjoyed. Without needing Liu Chengzong to notify them, the entire patrol assembled directly and formed ragged lines on the open ground outside the camp.

The combat team leader assigned to the artisan patrol was a tall, thin man named Hu Sanhuai, who had been a team leader in Guyuan. Seeing Liu Chengzong, he looked back at the crooked formation of artisans, knelt on one knee to salute, bowed his head in great shame, and even his greeting was very soft: "General..."

"Stand up quickly, no kneeling." Liu Chengzong helped him up and asked with a smile, "The engineering patrol will inevitably have to fight in the future. Patrol Leader Shi manages the people, but training depends on you. Are there any difficulties?"

Hu Sanhuai cupped his hands and said, "The time has been too short, for one. There are few combat soldiers, and the tasks are heavy. Since the camp was reorganized and the units formed, I have only specifically trained each team for, at most, an hour or two."

"Hmm..." Liu Chengzong glanced at the artisan formation and nodded. "No matter. We finally have time now. Team Leader Hu, go ahead and organize the lines. Have the brothers who haven't received their uniforms form fifteen rows; I will distribute them myself."

Hu Sanhuai took the order and organized the lines. The house guards behind Liu Chengzong smiled at each other and, having already weighed the clothes and checked their thickness, divided them into three columns—large, medium, and small. This wasn't their first time distributing uniforms; in fact, no matter what they were handing out, their General always did it hand-to-hand, and they were used to it.

The artisans stood in rows of fifteen, facing Liu Chengzong, involuntarily smiling. People hoped to please this young man who led them to victory. People also wanted to be remembered by him.

According to each person's height and build, Liu Chengzong selected a folded uniform and placed it into their hands personally. Whenever Liu Chengzong approached someone, that person would loudly state their name and unit. As each row stood holding their uniforms, Liu Chengzong would speak to them before moving on to the next.

"Back in the border fortresses, the imperial court made me wear coats without cotton padding, and I was curled up in the cold all winter. I know it hasn't been easy for you brothers. The first thing I do after a battle is to provide warmth for you. Since you follow me, I will never let you go hungry or cold!"