Chapter Forty-Five: Why We Fight

Zhu Cilang studied them closely.

These were the soldiers of the right wing of the Wujun Camp in the capital garrison, men who had all been stripped of their posts and dismissed. Every one of them had come of their own will to leave the capital with him. On the surface, most of them seemed to have no one and nothing, as though they were without kin or burden. In truth, of course, they all had wives and children, fathers and mothers. But they were mutineers, with the word rebel blazing over their heads. In the capital, no one would take them even as beasts of burden.

With such a stain on them, life was bound to be bitter in every possible way.

Fortunately, they had met Zhu Cilang, this lord of suddenly overflowing kindness. So long as these much-despised mutineers were not wholly hopeless in spirit, he took them all in.

Before leaving the capital, each man had been given ten taels of silver as settling money. That sum at once altered the place these mutineers held in their households, men ignored and scorned by wives, children, and parents alike, and restored them to the role of the family’s mainstay. On the eve of departure, who knew how many wives and children had earnestly urged them to follow Lord Qin and work hard, not to squander this hard-won chance.

For that very reason, their determination to follow Zhu Cilang only grew firmer.

Even though they had become Zhu Cilang’s private soldiers, quietly setting aside the laws of Great Ming once more.

Even though, under Fu Rugui, they were trained at three or five times the intensity of before.

Even though, hundreds of li from the capital, they might never be able to return.

“Inspection begins! Salute!” Fu Rugui suddenly drew the sword at his waist and barked the order.

One after another, all of them raised a hand to their chests. It was a gesture close to a military salute, and the men performed it with practiced ease.

Zhu Cilang could see at a glance that the ranks were not perfectly even, and that this force was still not fully drilled to elite standards. Yet after seeing them, he was seized by a joy as sudden and explosive as a detonation in his heart.

These are my men. These are my soldiers.

“Salute!” Zhu Cilang also raised his fist and pressed it to his chest, his voice cracking like thunder. “I, Qin Xia, have come to see my soldiers!”

“Long live the lord!” More than four hundred voices roared back in unison.

Not bad morale, Zhu Cilang judged inwardly.

Then he turned his gaze to the personal guard detachment not far behind him, led by Lao Seventeen. Compared with this guard unit, carefully selected from veteran fighters, the new troops still lacked something. Good morale alone was not enough.

So Zhu Cilang reined in his horse and let it move at a slow pace. That allowed him to look steadily at the faces before him, each one different, each eyes filled with a mixture of emotions.

Then, when he saw a soldier who was gaunt and distracted, Zhu Cilang raised his voice.

“Your lord, Qin Xia, has taken a new name today. He is called Qin Yiming! He does this to accomplish everything beneficial to Great Ming, to forge anew a Great Ming that is beneficial to all the people under Heaven!”

“Just yesterday, I, Qin Yiming, swept clean the tax bureau, swept clean the bamboo and timber extraction office, and swept clean every customs station. I took in a full twenty-seven hundred taels of silver without shame or regret! And from this day on, you will officially become my militia. Follow my brothers, and your rewards, your grain, and your pay will all be secured!”

More than four hundred men answered with greater fervor than before.

“Wise lord!”

“Wise? Perhaps so. I, Qin Yiming, have reformed the bureaucracy so that petty clerks can no longer prey on the people. I have merged the bamboo and timber extraction offices, adjusted the tax rates, and abolished advance levies. I have lightened the burden on merchants, lowered prices in Qinglin City, and brought great benefit to the common people. All of this, everything I have done, is for the good of our Great Ming countrymen, for the good of the realm and the dynasty. Now you should understand what it is that I have been after all these days!”

His voice rang out clearly.

The whole field fell solemn, not a sound to be heard.

Zhu Cilang let out a soft breath, then suddenly asked in a loud voice, “Then do you know why I have taken you in, fed you until your bellies are full, clothed you until you are warm, and provided you with grain and pay? Why have I ordered you to fight and kill for me? What, in the end, are you fighting for?”

Lao Seventeen and Fu Rugui both froze. They had received no warning in advance, so naturally they had no answer to give.

They did not know how to respond, and the others understood even less.

In an instant, the scene went utterly still; a pin dropping could have been heard.

Then Zhu Cilang rode over to a veteran standing at the very front of the formation.

He looked at this soldier, who was in truth only thirty but already seemed to be forty, and said in a low voice, “Tell me, soldier. Why do you obey my command?”

“The lord gives me food, gives me clothes. Gave me silver so I could hold my head up in front of my woman. The lord gave me everything. I’ll repay it with this very life!” The veteran did not flinch. Even with the field deathly silent, he answered at the top of his voice.

When he finished, he even looked a little regretfully toward the personal guard detachment in iron armor, standing in rigid ranks under Lao Seventeen’s command. Originally, he too had had the chance to stand among them, to become one of the lord’s intimate household retainers, where the treatment would be better and the chance to repay Zhu Cilang greater. But he had foolishly run home first, only to discover that there was no way out, and then come back. In the end, that only made his resolve to follow Zhu Cilang even firmer.

Zhu Cilang nodded, then rode up to another man, a company officer.

He was a low-ranking military officer wearing a beast-faced, helmeted visor. Zhu Cilang also remembered him clearly: he was Fu Zhen, the head of the Fu family’s household troops.

“Fu Zhen, answer me. Why do you obey my command and follow me into battle?” Zhu Cilang asked loudly.

Fu Zhen’s body shuddered slightly. He met Zhu Cilang’s gaze, then slowly closed his eyes, as though he were seeing once more those scenes from the Imperial Academy. He had fulfilled the promise he once made: when he was needed most, he had appeared at once; where the danger was greatest, he had arrived first; and at the final stand, there had been no hesitation at all.

Later, after he had come here to help the young master drill the troops, he had even heard that in order to make these mutineers surrender in peace, Zhu Cilang had personally stayed with them through the night, utterly winning them over.

This was a leader worth following with one’s life.

“Because my lord has always treated us fighting men like human beings! I, Fu Zhen, am willing to give up this life and heed my lord’s command, no matter the cost!” With this plain and unadorned answer, Fu Zhen stirred the crowd.

Which officer in the imperial armies had ever truly treated men like them as human beings? Which one had not wrung them dry with every trick of embezzlement, pocketing grain allowances and drinking the soldiers’ blood? Only Zhu Cilang had truly let them eat their fill and wear warm clothing. He had given them, before the eyes of their parents, wives, and children, the standing of a family pillar, and rekindled their hope for life.

Among the ranks, Liu Sheng watched all this in silence and suddenly felt that something different was beginning to gather within this army. It was a sight he had never seen in the capital, nor anything he had ever heard of from the mouths of his elders. He suddenly felt a little frightened, and at the same time, a little expectant.