Chapter 1029: The Incident at the River Gate
His nearly one thousand men shed their marked vests, furled their war flags, and dispersed among several villages along the canal. The moment soldiers entered a village, they seized complete control—permitting entry but forbidding exit. Each night, squad leaders and company commanders led teams out in batches to pillage. Kong Youde forbade sporadic excursions, fearing his isolated men might be counterattacked and captured by local militia. Only after scouts were dispatched daily to spy out and identify wealthy households did the raiding parties venture forth at night, their faces blackened with soot.
He never lingered anywhere too long, moving every two or three days without fail. Since his subordinates rode exclusively on horseback, their route choices were unrestricted. Sometimes he would suddenly shift the entire army dozens of li away from the canal, then double back from an entirely different direction, rendering his movement patterns and encampment locations impossible to predict.
Part of the plundered wealth was surrendered to the "supply depot," the remainder distributed to officers and soldiers according to rank. Within days of arriving in Dongguang, everyone's bags bulged with valuables. The soldiers ate well and had silver jingling in their pockets, and their courage swelled proportionally. Some began ignoring Kong Youde's orders, venturing out in groups of three or five to rob and rape at will.
We can't stay here any longer, Kong Youde thought. If we linger too long, the soldiers will grow slack. Besides, secrecy cannot be maintained—it's impossible for "horse bandits" of this scale to operate in Hebei unnoticed. The local officials are merely pretending ignorance, not truly unaware.
If he permitted his officers and soldiers to continue making trouble, sooner or later the local officials would be unable to maintain cover. When real trouble erupted, let alone himself—even Sun Yuanhua might lack the influence to resolve it.
The time had come. They needed to return immediately to the main road and continue toward Shanhai Pass.
The night before, Kong Youde had ordered the central army to summon all officers of squad-leader rank and above to his quarters, where he would announce the specific itinerary for the next phase.
What he encountered was not obedience but opposition.
During these ten-odd days of looting, the officers had earned handsomely. This proved intoxicating for lower and middle-ranking officers who had long been stranded in Dengzhou with no income beyond embezzled military pay. They had suffered enough from the Shandong and Southern soldiers in Dengzhou, accumulating a bellyful of grievances. Now, having just tasted real profit, they were being ordered to Liaodong again. Many were unwilling to abandon their chance to "continue getting rich"—and even less willing to march to Liaodong to "die."
Kong Youde found himself isolated in that meeting. Apart from a handful of confidants, most officers expressed reluctance to proceed to Liaodong. Li Jiucheng, who had arrived not long before, not only failed to help persuade them but had been working privately among the soldiers and lower-ranking officers, inciting them to "return to Dengzhou."
This caught Kong Youde completely off guard. He had hoped Li Jiucheng would help suppress the troops—he had never anticipated being undermined from within.
Due to the generals' strong opposition, Kong Youde dared not order immediate departure. He was forced to remain another day locally—in a small village by the canal—preparing to make another attempt at persuasion that night.
The following day, Kong Youde had just finished washing up and was contemplating how to approach Li Jiucheng and the others when a subordinate rushed in with a report: a group of suspicious cavalry was active more than ten li away.
Because his current activities could not bear scrutiny, he maintained twenty-four patrolling cavalry scouts around the clock, capable of detecting abnormal movements within roughly twenty li. Recent reports had indicated that unidentified reconnaissance cavalry were tailing his forces. His scouts had attempted several times to intercept them, but the opposing riders consistently spotted his cavalry's movements first and evaded conflict. The appearance of these scouts was among the factors contributing to his anxiety about remaining in the area.
"How many?"
"Just over twenty, all in civilian clothes. Armed with swords." The scout hesitated. "But they're riding excellent horses!"
"Martial artist types?"
"Doesn't look like it. The formation is strict, lines orderly."
"Go rest first." Kong Youde's unease deepened. After dismissing the scout, he ordered messengers to notify commanders at the various encampments to gather at his location that night, preparing for one final attempt at persuasion.
Chen Sigen and his squad had now arrived within twenty li of Kong's forces. Upon receiving word that Kong's scouts had detected their presence, he ordered an immediate turnabout, rapidly withdrawing beyond the scouts' detection range.
In a small grove, he posted sentries and dispatched reconnaissance cavalry to confirm the specific location and circumstances of several candidate targets.
More than twenty young operatives wore the cotton jackets and raw sheepskin coats favored by local peddlers and farmers. Though the outdoor temperature had already dropped below freezing, they remained in high spirits.
"How is it—didn't freeze your balls off, did you?" Chen Sigen cracked a joke, and the squad members all grinned, white vapor streaming from their mouths and noses.
"Alright, we rest here briefly, then move out tonight!" Chen Sigen announced, picking up a branch and scratching a simple diagram into the frozen earth. "Our target tonight is a sluice gate on the South Canal, roughly twenty-five li from Dongguang County City."
Using branches and stones for markers, he swiftly explained the topographic orientation. This location had been carefully selected from over a dozen backup sites reported by scouts. The attack site needed first to be a place where canal boats moored overnight—typically a relatively prosperous riverside market or village. This ensured sufficient witnesses. Second, the location had to be reasonably close to the village where Kong Youde's subordinates were camping.
Although Kong Youde had taken care to conceal his movements, Chen Sigen knew from scout reports that the local populace was already aware that soldiers were looting in the area—they simply didn't know the soldiers' origin. The county magistrate had mobilized local militia, and villages had fortified their defenses.
This particular sluice gate, however, had no defensive measures. Though it wasn't a tax collection station with stationed officials, it remained a small branch agency under the Water Transport Office.
The South Canal lay to the north. To maintain the canal's water levels across varying terrain, many sluice gates had been constructed along its length to regulate flow.
These gates were guarded and maintained by lock-keepers who opened and closed them daily to manage water levels and boat passage. It was still an official institution—ordinary bandits and mutinous soldiers wouldn't dare strike here lightly. After all, this was territory under governmental authority.
Striking this place would implicate not merely Dongguang County but the entire Water Transport Office. The severity far exceeded massacring a few villages. At that point, Kong Youde—encamped nearby—would have no choice but to rebel.
Originally, Chen Sigen had considered whether to blow up the sluice gate itself—he carried some C4 explosives. Destroying the gate would obviously amplify the chaos. However, Zhu Mingxia and Lu Wenyuan judged this would far exceed Kong Youde's apparent capabilities. Moreover, the motive would be impossible to explain. Therefore, the attack would be limited to economically valuable targets near the sluice gate.
The most valuable targets were the residences of several local lock-keepers. Living off the canal's commerce, with authority over when gates opened and how conveniently boats could navigate, the officials managing the gates naturally extracted rent. Every one of them was filthy rich. Chen Sigen intended to start with them.
"Is everyone clear on the targets? First, the residences of the lock-keepers. Second, the grain boats at the dock." He indicated directions on the makeshift sand table. "Remember: we are soldiers. Though we're doing dirty work beneath the table, we are not bandits. During the operation—no indiscriminate killing of innocents, no raping women, no arbitrary arson. All loot goes to the common pool!"
"Understood!" The squad members answered crisply.
Night descended. Kong Youde and his generals were meeting to debate their next move. Most still insisted on returning to Dengzhou. Kong Youde's efforts at persuasion had failed repeatedly, and the gathering was sliding toward chaos. Several generals had even revealed an intention of "we must do it," appearing ready to fight Kong if he refused to comply. Li Jiucheng constantly surfaced as mediator, but his true purpose was forcing a decision.
Just as arguments grew heated and the atmosphere turned dangerous, a personal guard rushed in: black smoke and firelight could be seen seven or eight li away along the canal bank, and faint sounds of killing drifted on the wind. The soldiers and horses in camp were growing restless.
"What?" Kong Youde shot to his feet and strode to the window. Sure enough—firelight reddened the distant horizon. He turned sharply, scanning the assembled generals. All his subordinate commanders were present here, so it shouldn't be his own men.
Yet only those of squad-leader rank and above were present. Whether some team leaders or petty officers had taken men out privately to cause trouble remained uncertain.
The generals exchanged baffled glances.
Kong Youde immediately dispatched scouts to investigate. In less time than it takes to eat a meal, they galloped back bearing terrible news: more than a hundred cavalrymen were burning, killing, and looting at the sluice gate.
"Whose troops?" Kong Youde demanded, his anxiety peaking. The sluice gate was official territory—causing trouble there was no small matter. He turned and fixed Li Jiucheng with a fierce glare, inwardly convinced that nine times out of ten, Li Jiucheng had orchestrated this—a stratagem to force his hand in rebellion.
"Ruitu!" Li Jiucheng saw his hostile stare and understood the accusation forming in his mind. Fearing a disastrous misunderstanding—after all, these troops had been raised by Kong Youde personally, and a genuine falling-out would benefit neither party—he immediately declared: "Everyone simply wants to return to Dengzhou, not march to Liaodong to die in vain! We harbor no other intentions! We absolutely did not do this! If I, Old Li, dare speak half a word of falsehood, may heaven strike me with five thunderbolts on the spot!"
"Reporting to the Assistant Regional Commander," the scout said, "we couldn't identify whose troops they were." He had only glimpsed that they rode excellent Mongolian warhorses, wore rough robes and sheepskin coats on the outside, but... appeared to be wearing military vests beneath.
Most significantly, this cavalry's weapons were remarkably uniform—nothing like the disorganized armaments of ordinary bandits. They were definitely soldiers from some battalion.
(End of Chapter)