Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 163 Locked Gate
Zhang Guinian was at a loss. After all, he was from Xichuan and had only been in Guangzhou for a short time. It was already a great learning spirit of him to have a clear understanding of the local customs and culture of Guangzhou, not to mention the Dabie Mountains, which he had never set foot in before.

The other generals were in a similar situation. If you asked them what tactics to use and where to attack, they could give you some ideas, but if you asked them how to block the escape route from the mountain hut, they had no idea.

The generals under his command were not all from mountain strongholds. For example, Zhang Dai had been living in the Qionglai Mountains and was very familiar with the terrain.

Why have refugees always fled to the mountains? It's because these places are impossible to block. There are so many mountain passes, and a group of a dozen or so people can go anywhere.

But your large army is not so good; it can only march along the valleys of the river. These places are usually winding mountain ridges, and the mountain huts only need to stay here. With high up and falling rocks, even a thousand troops cannot get through.

This is why mountains and dense forests have always been a good place for outlaws to settle down.

Now, the Baoyi Army is also facing such difficulties in clearing the mountains. However, Zhao Huai'an delegated the command of the troops from the beginning, allowing each unit to choose its own direction for searching the mountains.

These forces infiltrated in small groups, attracting little attention while possessing the combat capability to annihilate a settlement. They often caught people off guard and achieved frequent victories.

But that's all there is to it. Now the mountain shelters near the Huangshui waterway have been basically cleared away. If we want to go deeper, we need to move the campsites to the mountains, which would be too risky.

Therefore, at this time, the mountain strongholds themselves also began to retreat into the deep mountains, which squeezed the space in the mountains. Some mountain strongholds near Huangzhou naturally received manpower replenishment and began to come out of the mountains to plunder Huangzhou.

No one had a good solution. After all, the person had legs; what could they do to stop them from running away? But they didn't want to just sit and think about it; would they still be able to enjoy the wine?

Therefore, Fatty Bean was the first to cry out in the crowd:

"My lord, it's not that the brothers haven't thought it through, but we're really not familiar with this place. And those thieves and local tyrants we captured only know about this area. We don't know what the situation is like deeper in the mountains, and we can't figure it out!"

Fatty Dou spoke first, and then everyone chimed in, their general idea being that if they could find someone familiar with the mountain area, things would be much easier.

Hearing these complaints, Zhao Huai'an was about to scold them when he suddenly remembered something and turned to ask Old Mo, who was waiting behind him:

"Old Mo, has a Taoist priest come to pay his respects these past couple of days?"

Upon hearing Zhao Huai'an ask about this, Lao Mo quickly remembered and replied:

"There was such a person, who said he was a Taoist priest from Baiyun Temple on Baiyun Mountain. At that time, you were busy, so I let him stay in the camp."

Zhao Huai'an nodded and quickly gave the instructions:

"Go and call that Taoist priest. I want to ask him if he knows anything about the area."

Old Mo sighed and went out of the tent to find the Taoist priest.

Once Lao Mo left, Zhao Huai'an realized that everyone was racking their brains but couldn't come up with a solution, so he brought up everyone's recent situation.

Now the generals had something to say, and they mostly talked about how many mountain strongholds he had conquered and how many strongholds that person had conquered, in short, they had gained a lot.

At this moment, Du Zongqi, the official in charge of finance, had also compiled the month's confiscation information and hurriedly brought in the account book.

Zhao Huai'an took it and looked at it, beaming with joy. Then he addressed the generals:
“Not bad, not bad. I thought the nearby mountain huts had been cleared out, but I didn’t expect you to achieve such results this month. Ninety-eight settlements, four thousand seven hundred people, three hundred and twenty mules, four hundred sheep, three thousand dan of tea permits, eighteen tea mountains and seventy tea gardens were discovered.”

"good very good."

As he spoke, Zhao Huai'an had someone bring in wine, intending to have a good time with his brothers and have some fun.

This round of clearing the mountains went relatively smoothly, especially the Wudang Army, which he had formed with the Qingyi Qiang as its core. They were like dragons entering the sea in this mountain forest, moving through the mountains and forests as if walking on flat ground. Those poorly armed mountain huts could not stop them at all.

But Zhao Huai'an also knew in his heart that this number was the limit at this stage, and those mountain huts were not stupid.

Initially, because of the existence of the tea plantation and the river bend market along the river, these mountain settlements that had settled here did not want to relocate. Back then, in order to get closer to this trading point, each of them lost more than a dozen lives.

Not to mention that the tea plantations cultivated by generations of people are right here, how could they possibly leave? Moreover, they didn't take the Baoyi Army seriously at first, regarding them as just another group of local tyrants from outside the mountains.

But after two months of brutal beatings, who would dare to fight the Baoyi Army anymore? They all wanted to stay far away from them.

Before the wine was even served, the Taoist priests from Baiyun Mountain were ushered into the main tent.

Zhao Huai'an glanced at the man and saw that he was dressed in hemp clothing and straw sandals, and his hair was only held up with a wooden fork. He nodded and thought that the man was not frivolous.

The Taoist priest remained calm. Surrounded by the gazes of the assembled generals, he slowly bowed to Zhao Huai'an and smiled, saying:

“Wuliang Temple, the hermit Pu Sanzi, has met with the believer.”

Then he smiled and looked Zhao Huai'an up and down, becoming more and more certain in his heart.

Zhao Huai'an, seeing the white-haired, youthful-looking old Taoist priest, felt a sense of unease:

"Could this guy be a fake? How could someone his age climb mountains and cross valleys to get to our camp?"

So he asked:

"Where is your Baiyun Mountain? How many people visit it, and what wonderful scenery does it offer?"

This Pu Sanzi bowed and said:
"Reply to the believer, Baiyun Mountain is located forty li northeast of here. There are no particularly beautiful sights in the mountain, but there are a few peach trees that bear large, crisp, and delicious peaches."

Zhao Huai'an laughed heartily, then asked:

"Taoist priest, let me ask you, do you know the situation in these mountains? This prefecture has been ordered to clear out the mountain shacks and restore a peaceful place for you mountain people, but these shacks are only avoiding this prefecture. Do you have any solutions?"

Zhao Huai'an didn't hide anything at all, leaving all the questions to the Taoist priest, even though it was their first meeting.

It took Pu Sanzi quite a while to react; he hadn't expected the governor to be so direct.

Park Sanja knew the man in front of her, and that was exactly where she had come from.

Faced with Zhao Huai'an's question, Park Sanja thought for a moment and replied:

"My lord, although the Dabie Mountains are vast, they are actually divided into four groups: the bandits of Guang Prefecture, the bandits of Huoshan, the bandits of Shu Prefecture, and the bandits of Qihuang. If you wish to quell the bandits in the mountains, you must deal with them one by one."

Zhao Huai'an was taken aback. He hadn't expected the old Taoist priest to be so knowledgeable. He quickly asked Lao Mo to give the Taoist priest a stool so he could sit down and chat.

Park Sanja sat on a small stool, having gained some understanding of the governor's character, and then, without hiding anything, said directly:
"These four bandits are different. Among them, the Guangzhou bandits are the most brutal, because most of them are impoverished warriors who were dismissed from Huaixi Town. They went into the mountains to become outlaws, robbed merchants, and acted with impunity. This should be the reason why the magistrate went into the mountains to suppress them."

"The bandits of Shuzhou are mostly local people from the mountains, some even tracing back to the Yue people of the Three Kingdoms period. These people often have their own alliance system and can be roughly divided into three groups, all of which are mountain strongholds passed down through generations, and the court cannot control them."

"Then there are the Qihuang bandits. Although they live in mountain strongholds, they are actually the hideouts of local tyrants in Qi and Huang prefectures. Their leaders are often the lackeys of these tyrants and have deep connections with people outside the mountains. This bandit group is also loosely organized, consisting of dozens of families." "Finally, there are the Huoshan bandits. These people are mostly tea farmers and herb growers. They are neither near the Yangtze River nor the Huai River, so they live freely in the mountains. Among the four bandits, they are the most loosely organized, yet the most harmless."

"Therefore, if Your Excellency wishes to quell the bandits in the mountains, you must deal with them differently. The bandits of Guangshan are the most ferocious, and you must attack them to quell the chaos and wipe out their strongholds before Guangshan can be at peace. As for the bandits of Shuzhou, they are hereditary mountain chiefs, and if you want to pacify them, it will be difficult to eliminate them by simply suppressing them; you must use both suppression and appeasement."

"The bandits of Qi and Huang are mostly local strongmen from the two prefectures. To deal with these people, we need to start from the two prefectures, not from the mountains."

"Finally, the Huoshan bandits can be sincerely recruited and employed. Moreover, I have heard that you, the magistrate, are from Huoshan and are fellow villagers. Once this group is recruited, it will surely be twice as effective with half the effort."

As expected, it was necessary to listen to the advice of experts. Originally, Zhao Huai'an only obtained information about the situation in the mountains from those wealthy people in Guang Prefecture, which was fragmented and could not be pieced together to form a complete picture.

Now, after listening to what the Taoist priest said, I immediately understood the situation in the mountains.

So he asked for a number:

"Taoist priest, do you know how many people there are in these eight hundred miles of mountains?"

Park Sanja bowed again and replied:

"This mountain range spans eight hundred li and contains three hundred and sixty peaks, but only the southeastern slopes of the entire mountain range are flat and sturdy enough to accommodate people. These are the areas where the Huoshan bandits and the Shuzhou bandits reside. Therefore, among the four groups, these two bandits have the largest numbers, roughly two hundred thousand in total."

Seeing that the governor before him seemed unconvinced, Pu Sanzi added:
“Since the founding master established the temple, he has traveled extensively in the mountains and forests, so he is very familiar with the situation there. The number I mentioned is only an estimate. Because of the major disasters in the Central Plains in recent years, more refugees have entered the mountains, so the number should be even greater now.”

Zhao Huai'an was still thinking when Zhang Guinian, who was standing next to him, added:
"What the Taoist priest said is probably true. With the Central Plains in turmoil, the Dabie Mountain Pass, where Guang Prefecture is located, will become an important route for refugees to travel south to Jingzhou and Xiangyang. For example, during the Three Kingdoms and Six Dynasties period, there were always refugees traveling south through this pass."

But Zhao Huai'an wasn't thinking about that. Instead, he was still thinking about what the Taoist Pu Sanzi had said: that the bandits of Qizhou and Huangzhou were mostly from the local tyrants of the two states. He suddenly realized that if these people were supported by the local tyrants of the two states, then whose idea was it to plunder Huangzhou now?
Clearly, the governor of Huangzhou either didn't know about this situation, or he had a deeper meaning behind it.

Is this a case of the thief crying "stop thief!"? And then they try to throw mud at themselves? Fine, now we have another reason to deal with you.

After hearing Zhang Guinian's supplementary information, Zhao Huai'an nodded and asked Pu Sanzi:

"I'm currently dealing with the Guangshan bandits. To be honest, I've mostly cleared out the outer areas of the mountains, but I dare not venture deep into the mountains themselves. You must know the reasons behind this. So, how should I wipe them out?"

Park Sanja had already seen the huge screen behind Zhao Huai'an, and then bowed and said:
"My lord, may I borrow the screen?"

Without hesitation, Zhao Huai'an moved the screen over and asked Pu Sanzi to paint on it.

Park Sanja pointed to three spots on the south side of the camp, then said to Zhao Huai'an:

“My lord, the mountain bandits are also human beings, and they need to eat. However, due to the population explosion in the mountains in recent years, it is difficult to support them with the output of the mountains alone. In the past, these people traded tea for grain from outside, but now that you have taken over this river bend, they are actually facing a shortage of supplies.”

"So if they want to get supplies, they have to get rice from other channels. And in Guangshan, there are only three places that can connect with the outside world. And these three places are three passes. They were all built by the Northern or Southern Dynasties when the North and South were in confrontation. They were just abandoned for a long time and fell into disrepair. People outside the mountains don't know this, but people inside the mountains know it."

Then Park Sanja pointed to three places and said:
“These three passes, from west to east, are Baisha Pass, Muling Pass, and Yinshan Pass. They each control a passage connecting Guang Prefecture and Huang Prefecture.”

Then, Park Sanja revealed another secret:

"In fact, the only way to enter Jingzhou from the Central Plains is through the Xiangyang Road in the north and the former Yiyang Three Passes. But those three passes are rarely used now, and instead these three passages have become channels for selling tea and salt."

"Therefore, if you, my lord, can take these three passes, you can completely block the mountain strongholds around Huoshan. You only need to seal off the mountains for half a month to subdue ten thousand people without a fight."

Zhao Huai'an clapped his hands and laughed:

"Alright, alright, I knew you knew a lot, Taoist. That old Mo really messed things up by stopping you. If I had met you two days earlier, would I have been worried for two days? After hearing what you said today, I know your temple is a good one. After I wipe out the bandits, I will definitely go to your temple to sit and taste the mountain peaches."

Zhao Huai'an's meaning was clear: he would reward Baiyun Temple handsomely as a reward for Pu Sanzi's clever scheme, provided it was effective.

But Park Sanja bowed again and said earnestly:

"Before I left the mountain, I had already sent everyone away from the temple. Only my disciple and I came here, hoping to seek refuge under the governor's command and earn a living."

Zhao Huai'an was stunned for a moment. He looked at the old Taoist priest in front of him suspiciously, wondering why a Taoist priest would join the army!
He hesitated for a moment, then said:

“You are knowledgeable, and joining my ranks is certainly possible. But you must understand that being in the army is not the same as being in a temple. I’m afraid you, an old Taoist priest, will not be able to endure the hardships of marching. How about I send you to the prefecture and you can also receive a stipend? In short, based on your plan today, I will take care of you until the end without any problem.”

When Park San-ja saw that Zhao Huai-an wouldn't accept her, she felt that he was too old, and even with her high level of self-cultivation, she was a little angry.

So he remained silent and, in front of all the generals, performed a set of punches.

He was seen in a horse stance, his shoulders shaking, his waist and hips moving from side to side as he bent over, his hands alternately touching his calves, displaying remarkable flexibility.

Suddenly he stood up again and performed a set of boxing techniques with great force, showing no signs of his age.

After finishing his punches, the old Taoist priest suddenly did a backflip on the spot, which completely frightened the group of tough men. This was something an old man could do.
Zhao Huai'an was also dumbfounded. Thinking of the Taoist masters in his previous life, he immediately realized that this person had great abilities.

So he quickly smiled apologetically and said:
"Taoist, stop practicing your boxing. This prefecture knows how powerful you are. Since you want to stay in the army, then stay. From now on, you will be paid two shi of rice a month. However, your apprentice will not be supported, so the rice will still be deducted from your salary."

Pu Sanzi didn't care about the small amount of rice. Seeing that he could stay in the army, he bowed deeply to Zhao Huai'an.

Because Zhao Huai'an wanted to drink with his brothers, he didn't keep the Taoist priest and sent him away.

Looking at the old Taoist priest, Zhao Huai'an shook his head:
“There are many hidden talents in these mountains; he might actually be a powerful Taoist priest.”

Then he stopped thinking about these things, called Fatty Bean to get some wine, and ate and chatted with the other generals.

It was quite lively for a while.

……

Meanwhile, the old Taoist priest, who had returned to a tent alone, saw his disciple chopping wood. He said nothing, but instead went into the tent and sat down cross-legged.

At this moment, he felt much calmer. Gazing at the Huang River flowing to the east, he sighed:

"When the Purple Star dims and Venus shines in broad daylight, war breaks out everywhere. Only by entrusting oneself to a hero can one survive and uphold the Way. Now it seems that our governor is no ordinary man."

Thinking of this, I couldn't help but smile and close my eyes to rest.

That set of punches and kicks just now really took a toll on me; I can't be so reckless in the future.

(End of this chapter)