Entrepreneurship in the Late Tang Dynasty

Chapter 168 Heavy Rain
A small boat, adorned with a red flag, sailed down the Huangshui River to the river bend campsite.

A quarter of an hour later, drums thundered in the camp, and thunder echoed through the valley. A quarter of an hour later, the eight hundred soldiers completed their formation in the camp. A quarter of an hour later, the entire army boarded the ships and, amidst shouts, flew south to the foot of Yinshan Pass and the source of the Huangshui River.

Then a thunderclap exploded in the valley, shattering a huge rock on the left mountain peak, and a torrential downpour suddenly began.

……

In the torrential rain, boats sailed upstream to the rhythm of the oarsmen's chants.

Zhao Huai'an and Zhang Guinian were talking inside the shed when the torrential rain pounded against the shed outside.

"Old Zhang, it's true, the disaster in the Central Plains is getting worse."

In the past few days, he received several more intelligence reports from merchants in the Central Plains at his camp in the river bend. In fact, at this time, merchants in the Central Plains had almost completely stopped traveling, and there were disaster victims and starving corpses everywhere, a truly tragic sight.

Yuan Xi, having come from a poor background, had an accurate grasp of the rural ecology and the mentality of the farmers.

After the locusts devoured the crops, the people of the Central Plains did not immediately turn to thieves or become bandits. Instead, in a state of great panic, they began to borrow grain from local wealthy people to survive.

Because they had survived the disasters in previous years in the same way, their land had become the property of those local tyrants through repeated grain loans, and they themselves had become tenant farmers of these tyrants.

A year of disaster is a major calamity for farmers, but a bumper harvest for the wealthy.

The wealthy people initially lent out grain as usual, after all, why wouldn't they take money when it's offered to them? But when their relatives and friends in other counties started sending word, it was a complete shock to all of them.

It turned out that the locust plague was not limited to their county; several other counties also suffered complete crop failure.

At this point, the wealthy people started to panic and began to stop lending rice.

As more and more news came from the outside, everyone realized that this was not a small locust plague, but a major disaster that affected seven or eight states in the Central Plains.

At this time, the countryside began to stir more and more, and everyone was thinking about finding a way to make a living.

This was the message that came back from Zhao Huai'an's caravan; they also brought Zhao Huai'an the true extent of the disaster.

Take the Songzhou area they arrived in as an example. The local people had already eaten all the grass in the mountains. Those who had no grass had started eating tree bark. After that, what would they eat? They would eat dirt, but they would only die within a few days.

Therefore, the situation in Songzhou was that any place with even a little bit of storage was looted by the disaster victims. The local tyrants in Songzhou began to mobilize their local militias, and under the leadership of Zhang Rui, the governor of Songzhou, they began to attack the looted disaster victims.

As a result, a large number of disaster victims poured into the Mangdang Mountain area.

One of the scribes in the caravan even remarked in his letter:
“My lord, if you die of hunger, you will also die as a thief. Rather than sit and starve to death, why not die as a thief, at least you can be a well-fed ghost?”

Yes, this is the most basic need of the disaster victims.

The scribe also told a story he had witnessed firsthand.

Their caravan was carrying the official seal of the Prefect of Guang Prefecture, so upon arriving in Song Prefecture, they were quickly housed in the post station by the Prefect of Song Prefecture.

The prefect of Songzhou was named Zhang Rui. He attached great importance to the caravan that came from the prefect of Guangzhou, not only because of the Yue kiln tea they were selling, but also because of the prefect of Guangzhou, Zhao Huai'an.

In fact, Zhao Huai'an's reputation was far greater than he thought.

This was mainly due to the fact that the various vassal armies that had crossed the border into Xichuan last year had gradually returned to their own territories. And if that great battle was very exciting, Zhao Huai'an accounted for eight out of ten points. Everyone who was drinking would mention it.

That is Zhao Dalang, the righteous and filial son in the army.

Then Zhao Huai'an's reputation spread wider and wider, especially in the Jianghuai and Central Plains regions. In Huainan, people needed to get to know Zhao Huai'an, so they had to learn more about him. In the Central Plains, it was mainly the loud voices of the Zhongwu Army who made the fame.

People like Li Shitai and Pang Cong, after returning to their hometown, started praising Zhao Da to the skies, and finally added, "Yes, that's Zhao Dalang, my brother."

Songzhou is right next to Zhongwu Army, how could it not know Zhao Huai'an? So it is known that the most capable fighting force in the Jianghuai area right now is Zhao Huai'an's elite troops.

The sense of impending chaos varied across different prefectures, but the most profound sense of it came from places like Songzhou and Bianzhou, where everyone knew that great turmoil was about to break out.

At this time, how could Zhang Rui not want to maintain good relations with a state that had elite troops and was not too far away?

Therefore, when the caravan from Guangzhou arrived in Songzhou, they were treated very well. Not only did the governor Zhang Rui personally taste the Xiaoguangshan tea, but he also gave Guangzhou a shop as a base for selling tea.

However, the merchants from Guangzhou came to Songzhou not just to sell tea, but more importantly, to plant spies in the Central Plains and establish an intelligence network.

Therefore, the caravan did not remain in Songzhou City, but moved to several surrounding counties.

The experience the scribe described was what he encountered on his journey from Songzhou City to Chuqiu.

He saw a father and son walking in the procession. They seemed to want to follow the caravan, but the person in charge of the procession thought they were a burden and told them to follow behind the caravan on their own. He told them to blame themselves if they couldn't keep up.

At first, no one noticed the presence of the father and son. It was only because the scribe took pity on the child that he decided to give him one of his pancakes.

He then walked to the back of the convoy, but did not see the father and son.

Worried, the scribe walked back with the county soldiers sent by the governor of Songzhou to escort him.

Then the scribe witnessed a scene he would never forget for the rest of his life.

In a small grove where the trees had been stripped of their bark, a group of people rustled like wild beasts. They had their backs to the scribes, yet a strange aroma of meat wafted from them.

The county sergeants immediately understood and tried to persuade the scribe to go back, but the scribe stubbornly went forward and saw those people hiding in the woods cooking meat in a large pot.

The scribe felt dizzy and disoriented. Seeing that the robes the father and son had been wearing were now on the two of them, he immediately vomited.

Finally, the county magistrate took the scribe away and told him that since August, several large pits had been dug every day outside the county to bury the bones on the road.

They also told the scribe that those people wouldn't actually live much longer; their faces were already swollen and red, which meant they were close to dying.

This world.

These county sergeants also told the scribe with envy that they really envied the people of Guangzhou, where at least they could eat rice, unlike now, where people are living a life worse than death.

This incident greatly shocked the scribe, so he added it in small print at the end of the intelligence report. He had no idea that this work diary would end up in Zhao Huai'an's hands, after all, he was just a low-level scribe.

……

At this moment, the rain was pouring down, but Zhao Huai'an's thoughts were not on Yinshan Pass in the south.

Because that's not the problem.

According to the intelligence reported by Gao Renhou, he fought quite well, even quite well.

Yinshan Pass is clearly incomparable to the other two passes. The mountain huts here have already developed an organizational structure centered around a single family. By relying on the passage of Yinshan Pass, they control the mountain huts on both sides of the mountain, which is already the level of organization of a large tribe.

But for Zhao Huai'an, this was not bad news.

What he was most worried about was the kind of mountain search battle that had taken place in the previous two months.

Despite the considerable gains the Baoyi Army has made in the past two months, the cost of attacking the mountain has been even higher.

The conditions in the mountains, especially the occasional stray arrows and falling rocks, were constantly eroding the morale of the officers and soldiers.

If Zhao Huai'an wants to keep his men enthusiastic about searching the mountains, he needs to not only reward them more promptly, but also ensure adequate logistical support.

In the past two months, Zhao Huai'an has consumed tens of thousands of catties of mutton, in addition to the money, grain, and silk he has been rewarded with.

Therefore, from an economic perspective, it's hard to say whether we made a profit or a loss in these two months.

What was even more unacceptable to Zhao Huai'an?

The three thousand elite troops he nurtured were meant for field battles to determine the outcome, not for being stationed in the mountains indefinitely. The fastest way to reduce the army's combat effectiveness was to turn the war into a counterinsurgency campaign.

Therefore, Zhao Huai'an knew that it was no longer realistic to search the mountains and forests as he had done in the previous two months. He could not rely solely on force to occupy this mountain; he needed to calm down and focus.

Only by getting some of the local strongmen to voluntarily submit to him could Bao Yidu control the mountains at the lowest possible cost.

Zhao Huai'an had a very clear idea of ​​the extent of his occupation of the Dabie Mountains. He was not there to establish grassroots organizations; he didn't have the time. He only needed the supplies from the mountains.

Whether it's manpower, tea, mules, horses, or herbs, all can add fuel to his grand undertaking. And what's the best way to achieve such a level of conquest? It's to establish chieftains.

The Dabie Mountains were divided into several chieftainships according to the principle of interlocking teeth. Those chieftains who were willing to cooperate with the Baoyi Army were promoted and given the management of the mountains. The chieftains themselves only needed to control the mountain areas in the valleys and the surrounding passages.

Zhao Huai'an's plans for the Dabie Mountains are becoming increasingly clear. If he follows this approach, the entire 800-mile-long Dabie Mountains can be put to his use in just a few years, instead of the previous chaotic battles of searching the mountains.

Now, the situation at Yinshan Pass is a pleasant surprise for Zhao Huai'an. Since there is already an organization there, as long as he defeats it and selects an easy-to-control person from within to become the commander there, he can directly pacify the entire region in one battle.

Therefore, Zhao Huai'an was not actually worried about Gao Renhou ahead. He only needed to lead his troops south to annihilate the mountain strongholds that had been gathered together, and then support one of his own men, and the battle would be over.

However, the letter written by the scribe gave Zhao Huai'an a clearer understanding of the situation in the Central Plains.

At this point, it seems that the various vassal states in the Central Plains have completely lost control of the countryside. Under such circumstances, within a few months, the Central Plains will be teeming with bandits, and the real battle will have only just begun.

After thinking for a moment, Zhao Huai'an asked Zhang Guinian:

"Is this scribe named Lu Wenyuan? Is he a scribe we recruited in Yazhou?"

Zhang Guinian nodded, recognizing the man, and replied:

“My lord, this Lu Wenyuan is from a poor family in Yazhou. His grandfather was a private tutor in the countryside, so he also studied the Five Classics. Because of his neat handwriting, he was recruited as a scribe in the prefecture. Later, when Yazhou fell, he and his men were captured by the Nanzhao army until we rescued them. Among the group of people who came to Guangzhou with us, he was very serious about his work and understood how the officialdom worked, so I assigned him to work for the Songzhou merchant caravan.”

After saying this, Zhang Guinian sighed:
"I never expected that Lu Wenyuan would have such a kind heart. It's rare."

Zhao Huai'an nodded, and in a few words, he decided the man's future:

“My shogunate is going to promote people like this. We should prioritize talent when employing people. But if someone is both talented and virtuous, then we should make good use of them. One person like him can set a good example for others.”

Zhang Guinian noted it down and planned to discuss it with Cao, the official in charge of transferring officials in the yamen, to see how to promote him.

At this moment, amidst the torrential rain, the shouts from ahead grew louder and louder:

"We've reached Yinshan Pass ahead."

After hearing this, Zhao Huai'an stepped out of the boat and saw a majestic pass appearing and disappearing in the mist amidst the torrential rain. On the right bank, a fortified village still had a white flag flying. He felt reassured.

So he ordered the drummer at the stern to beat the large drum, signaling the fleet to come ashore.

Moments later, amidst the sound of torrential rain, all the boats were shouting "Get ashore!" Some shallow-draft boats rushed directly onto the riverbank, from which more than ten warriors wearing straw raincoats and carrying leather bags jumped off.

Then more and more came, and soon the beach was filled.

……

When Zhao Huai'an arrived at the camp with the Eighth Prince's personal guards, Gao Renhou and all the generals were waiting in the pouring rain.

Upon spotting the magistrate's banner in the distance, they ran over under Gao Renhou's guidance, splashing mud and water into the pond without a care.

Gao Renhou was a little upset. He was an ambitious man, and the magistrate valued him and promoted him to the rank of general, hoping that he could play a role in the region.

Yet, this was the first time he had led troops into battle as a general, and he had encountered such a situation, even having to rely on the magistrate to rescue them in the pouring rain.

At that moment, Gao Renhou knelt on the ground far away, his head buried in the mud, and shouted to Zhao Huai'an:
"This humble general is incompetent, and I have troubled you to come in the rain. I am guilty."

But the next moment, he was helped up by a pair of warm, large hands, and then he heard that familiar laughter:

"Old Gao, what crime have you committed? You fought this battle very well. Without your battle, I don't know how long it would have taken me to sweep through this mountain. And now, I think you've lured out all the surrounding huts. This is a classic case of luring the snake out of its hole, very good!"

Gao Renhou dared not truly accept credit, and said with shame:
"My lord, we are now trapped in this riverside camp, and we haven't even captured Yinshan Pass on the other side. We have truly failed to live up to your trust!"

Zhao Huai'an patted Gao Renhou on the shoulder and taught him a lesson:
“Old Gao, sometimes when I give you orders, I don’t just look at the results, but also the process. War isn’t static; it’s not something I can just calculate in my office and then you frontline commanders have to do this or that. Sometimes I misjudge the situation, and sometimes the situation changes on its own. And you generals have to make your own judgments.”

As he spoke, Zhao Huai'an punched Gao Renhou lightly, laughing and scolding:
"So I don't know how much I thought before promoting you all. Even if you, Gao Renhou, don't trust yourself, you should trust my judgment!"

Seeing Gao Renhou rush over without even putting on a raincoat, and coughing occasionally, Zhao Huai'an draped his own raincoat over him, complaining:

"Old Gao, this is where you're wrong. Is this some kind of 'bearing thorns to apologize' gesture? You didn't even wear a raincoat in this downpour. What are you going to do if you catch a cold? Who's going to take care of the four quarters of the left wing for me?"

At this moment, Zuo Tuanjiang, who had been waiting nearby, explained:
"My lord, when we came here, we didn't expect the battle to last so long, and we didn't get any raincoats from the camp. The few we had were distributed to the brothers on duty outside, which is why Lao Gao didn't wear a raincoat."

He hesitated for a moment before adding:
"My lord, Lao Gao's cough is not due to a cold, but because he was hit by a bandit general and fell from his horse a few days ago. Although he has been recuperating for a while, he still coughs from time to time."

Zhao Huai'an was just laughing when he suddenly heard this news and turned to look at Gao Renhou:

"Old Gao, are you injured?"

After saying this, he shouted to all the waiting generals:

"Let's go back to camp first and have the brothers start making ginger soup to ward off the cold."

Then Zhao Huai'an pulled Gao Renhou closer to the camp.

Behind him, eight hundred cavalry and infantry, wearing straw raincoats and leading mules, filed into the camp.

A moment later, the large white banner above the camp was lowered, and two other large flags were raised:
On one hand, he was the "Prefect of Guang Prefecture," and on the other hand, he was the "Guardian of Justice."

……

After entering the camp, the generals sat on stools and drank freshly boiled ginger soup. The adopted sons helped Zhao Huai'an take off his wet cloak and armor and put on a dry robe.

Then Zhao Huai'an casually sat at the head of the table, looked at these military officers, and his first words were:
"A general is like a parent to his soldiers. Children are often willful or think too little, so parents need to protect them and provide them with security. Today's downpour was indeed unexpected, but the four commanders of the left wing didn't even bring raincoats, which shows their arrogance. The brothers below can't think that far ahead; they would rather carry more arrows than carry things that seem unnecessary. But you cannot be so inconsiderate."

"Take this torrential rain for example. If I hadn't come, given your situation, if the mountain huts attacked in the rain, and you fought in the rain with the cold seeping into your bodies, even if you were lucky enough to repel the enemy once, you would all fall ill the next day."

"Many heroes who could endure bone-scraping surgery couldn't withstand an illness! Do you, the commanders, really want our brothers to fall ill in the camp and be slaughtered by those mountain bandits?"

At this moment, none of the generals in the camp dared to utter a sound; they all lowered their heads.

Zhao Huai'an glanced at everyone present and sighed:

“Each of you has followed me, Zhao Da, all the way here. I know how much hardship you have endured. And now, we have indeed achieved some results, winning every battle, and seem to be a victorious army. But if you become complacent and arrogant because of this, then you are not far from a great defeat.”

"Back then, the Hegemon-King of Western Chu won every battle, but he suffered a crushing defeat in the final one. What was the point of winning so many battles before? Do you want me, Zhao Da, to become the Hegemon-King of Western Chu?"

"No? Then why are you so careless and negligent? Don't think these are minor issues."

"It is these details that determine the outcome of a war: whether the brothers' shoes fit, whether the officers' and soldiers' clothes are warm enough, whether the sleeping bags are warm enough, and even whether you have prepared rain gear in advance. These are all details that determine the outcome. I don't want you to lose because of these kinds of details one day. If that happens, you will be fully responsible for the lives of the brothers who died in battle!"

These words made the generals present, especially those from the Left Wing Four Capitals, lower their heads even further.

Upon seeing this, Zhao Huai'an's previously calm tone suddenly turned stern:

"What are you bowing your heads for? Stand up straight! Damn it, we're risking our lives. We can lose everything, but we can't lose our spirit. The moment you hear about a defeat, you all look dejected and miserable. You think you're some kind of invincible army? I, Zhao Da, am telling you, here, you can lose, as long as I think your defeat is justified, I'll give you a chance. But if you lose your spirit, then pack your bags and get out! I, Zhao Da, don't tolerate cowards!"

"Now, all of you, lift your heads up and look at me! Tell me, can I hit you or not!"

At this moment, Gao Renhou and his generals, their faces flushed crimson, raised their heads and roared:
"We can fight!"

Zhao Huai'an slammed his fist on the table and roared:

"Then what the hell are we waiting for? Let's go into battle, wipe out those bastards, and show them who the hell owns this mountain!"

As soon as he finished speaking, all the generals in the tent stood up, clasped their hands in greeting, and then filed out of the tent.

Moments later, amidst the torrential rain, the sound of drums thundered, tearing through the valley's stillness like a clap of thunder.

Those bandits who had set up their tents in the valley hid in their tents, looking blankly to the north.

There, after drinking ginger soup, the Baoyi Army, wearing straw raincoats, suddenly marched out of their camp and charged straight towards the thousands of mountain shelters huddled together in the valley.

(End of this chapter)