Chapter 2192 - The First Step Starting from Yangshan

When Peng Shouan first received his assignment to Yangshan, everyone considered it a hardship posting. He hadn't minded. Though the county boasted more mountains than arable land and suffered from Yao unrest, it remained sufficiently remote. The Hair Thieves who roamed the four seas would certainly never bother trekking to such an impoverished backwater to trouble him.

His ambitions had been modest from the start: extract what profit he could, then resign and return home when his three-year term expired.

This plan had nearly succeeded. Just as his term concluded peacefully and he prepared to hand over authority to his successor, news arrived that Guangzhou had fallen and the Hair Thieves were establishing an administration there.

Once Guangzhou fell and the Hair Thieves began installing officials, subsequent developments required little imagination. Peng Shouan had perused enough geographic gazetteers to understand terrain and strategic positions. If the Australians intended to govern Guangzhou long-term, they wouldn't remain confined to a single location. They would inevitably push north beyond the Five Ridges—and this remote county seat of Yangshan offered no sanctuary from the wider world.

He awaited his successor Zhou Liangchen with mounting anxiety. When Zhou Liangchen finally arrived, a document accompanied him. Though delivered by a Hundred Household of the Guangzhou Guard, it bore the signature: "Grand Song Liangguang Pacification Commissioner Wen Desi."

The letter's content proved predictable enough—a demand that he surrender the city, with assurances that Great Song would "cause no difficulties" and allow him to "stay or depart freely." Peng Shouan had intended to thrust this burning coal into Zhou Liangchen's hands, but after reading the letter, Zhou Liangchen harbored other plans. He insisted Peng Shouan delay his departure, urging him to "help weather these difficult times together." The situation was critical, Zhou argued, precisely when experienced hands were needed most. As a newcomer unfamiliar with local conditions, he required his predecessor's assistance.

Peng Shouan attempted to flee several times, only to be intercepted by Zhou's family servants. Eventually, Magistrate Zhou simply placed him under house arrest.

Peng Shouan understood perfectly what calculations drove the younger man. Should the Hair Thieves actually arrive, Zhou could simply walk away, leaving his predecessor to bear the blame. If they never came, he could continue his magistracy unmolested. So Peng Shouan spent several days in this stalemate with Zhou Liangchen. Then fresh news arrived: Qingyuan and Yingde counties had fallen to the Hair Thieves in succession. Yingde County hadn't even held out a full day—it capitulated in less than two hours.

Yingde lay only one day's travel by water from Yangshan. Those Hair Thieves could appear beneath the city walls at any moment. Yangshan possessed neither adequate soldiers nor capable commanders, and grain supplies fell far short of requirements. Everyone recognized that Yangshan County lacked the capacity to resist the Hair Thieves. This left Peng Shouan facing two stark choices: fight and either die in battle or commit suicide for the city's sake. Neither Peng Shouan nor Zhou Liangchen wished to die. Initially the two had avoided each other's company, but circumstances now forced them to convene and discuss this existential question.

According to Zhou Liangchen's calculations, he had prepared to abandon the city should the Hair Thieves actually attack, claiming he had never formally assumed office in Yangshan and thus bore no responsibility for "surrendering to the enemy." However, current conditions made "fleeing" an impossibility. Surrounding counties had surrendered to Great Song one after another—that proved secondary to the fatal reality that lawless elements everywhere were exploiting the chaos to turn bandit. Not only did the "people outside civilization" descend from their mountain strongholds to plunder, but even registered commoners from the valleys had transformed into brigands, waylaying merchants and murdering travelers on the roads. Should the two magistrates attempt to flee the city, they would become prime targets before clearing Yangshan County's borders.

Peng Shouan couldn't flee. Neither could Zhou Liangchen. The assembled officials in the county, high and low, found themselves equally trapped—many had brought their families along. Without the protective prestige of Great Ming, they would find themselves unable to advance a single step beyond Yangshan County's gates.

The two consulted with other officials throughout the city. Everyone spoke obliquely and hypocritically about "difficult circumstances," lamented the "critical current situation," and bemoaned how "the people's livelihood suffers." From the angle of "alleviating the people's burdens," they resolved to "submit to Great Song to preserve the common folk's safety."

They promptly drafted a letter of surrender, declaring that Yangshan County's yamen officials, from highest to lowest, "all admired Great Song's heavenly grace, anticipating the Senate's arrival like drought-stricken farmers awaiting sweet rain," willing to "serve like dogs and horses" on the Senate's behalf.

Beginning with Zhou Liangchen, every civil and military official of Yangshan, regardless of rank, affixed their signature. When Peng Shouan inscribed his name, his hand trembled slightly, conveying entirely the sentiment of "being compelled to collaborate with bandits." After all had signed, Zhou Liangchen ordered three trusted family servants to carry this surrender letter and travel day and night with the messenger back to Guangzhou, delivering their capitulation to the Hair Thieves' high officials.

After the servants departed, an elderly man in the yamen office—whether Instructor or Jail Warden remained unclear—began sobbing. Several others followed suit with hollow wailing. Peng Shouan joined the chorus of grief for quite some time.

Weeping was weeping. Surrender resembled selling oneself to a brothel: before the transaction, one suffered endless torments and harbored a thousand varieties of worry. Once the deed was done, well, there it was. Without Great Ming, Great Song would suffice. At least they possessed a nominal authority to shelter behind. This thought alone allowed them to unite under the Yao siege and assault, holding out until Huang Chao arrived with relief.

Recovering Yangshan brought Huang Chao little satisfaction. First, Lianshan had been devastated so thoroughly that his plan to replenish grain supplies there collapsed entirely—not only would his troops struggle to resupply here, but grain would need to be transported from outside to sustain the local population. Second, they possessed no "mass foundation" whatsoever in the region. This remote backwater suffered from severely underdeveloped transportation and commerce. The External Intelligence Bureau had stationed no personnel locally, and merchants from the Five Mountains and Five Banks rarely ventured here. The name "Australians" carried minimal recognition among locals. This meant they had no trustworthy people on the ground and must rely entirely on retained yamen personnel—whom the Senators had always regarded with deep suspicion.

"Let's inspect the county seat. This location will serve as an important support point for us." Huang Chao truly couldn't fathom how such a substantial city as Yangshan had been occupied by a mere few hundred Yao fighters armed with primitive weapons. But upon reaching the southeastern corner of Yangshan County and observing the wall section being repaired by concentrated manpower—collapsed from flooding—understanding dawned immediately. The accompanying Peng Shouan explained that after the city wall had been soaked and destroyed by floods several years prior, though money and grain for repairs were raised swiftly, the work had never been completed properly, and construction progress remained glacial.

"For this wall repair alone, I personally donated thirty taels. However, the collapsed section exceeds a hundred zhang—a mere few hundred taels of silver proves wholly inadequate..." Peng Shouan overflowed with complaints on this subject. To repair the wall, he had spent months scrambling to extract more than two hundred taels from local gentry, wealthy households, and merchants, yet after over a year the work remained unfinished. After Zhou Liangchen assumed his post, he had been "observing the situation" with no inclination to prioritize wall repairs. The breach remained gaping until the Yao forces poured through it.

Huang Chao sighed and shook his head repeatedly. The efficiency of this ancient bureaucracy truly defied belief.

He ordered an immediate assessment of material losses throughout Yangshan County. Though the Yao fighters hadn't set fires after breaching the city, they had looted exhaustively. Beyond soft goods and valuables, they hadn't even spared tables, chairs, benches, or wicker baskets—one could imagine how impoverished their usual existence must be.

"It seems that without addressing the underlying economic problem, this Yao chaos cannot be quelled."

Huang Chao summoned the captured Tianchang Gong from several Yao stockades. The Yao people of Yonghua Township traded regularly with Han people from Yangshan County, so all spoke the Han dialect and required no interpreters.

"As I understand it, the Yao people of Yonghua Township have traditionally been law-abiding. Why did you suddenly rise in rebellion alongside the Eight Row Yao?"

"Majian Row coerced us. Had we refused, they would have descended from the mountains to raid our stockades," Pan Tianshun took the lead in responding.

"They coerced you, so you rebelled? Your four stockades feared a single Majian Row?"

"Our four stockades have few people. Counting children and elderly, we barely muster four hundred able-bodied men. Majian Row combined with the other seven rows commands two or three thousand fighters. Our four stockades couldn't match them. Besides..." Pan Tianshun trailed off.

"Besides what?" Huang Chao pressed.

"Sun Dabiao at Dalang Market forbids anyone else from selling us salt. We can only purchase his salt. Recently he raised prices. If we buy salt, we lack sufficient funds for grain. Harvests have been poor in recent years, and now we're in the hunger gap between spring and summer. Without salt we'll die; without grain we'll also die. The Magistrate dared not restrain him, so..." Pan Tianshun hesitated once more.

"So what? Speak quickly!" Huang Chao's patience wore thin.

"So we had no choice but to join everyone else, first to eliminate that salt profiteer Sun Dabiao and his entire household—though he managed to escape."

Huang Chao knew of this Sun Dabiao. Through the Intelligence Bureau's Yangshan materials compilation, he understood that Sun Dabiao operated ostensibly as a salt merchant at Dalang Market, but functioned in reality as a bandit chieftain. He commanded over a hundred direct followers and three to four hundred home-dwelling bandits who answered to his orders. Small wonder the Yao people of Yonghua Township both hated and feared him.

The Yonghua Township Yao rebellion might be partially excusable, but Huang Chao found Pan Tianshun's self-pitying performance deeply unsatisfying. He pressed further: "Setting aside your burning and looting of Sun Dabiao's household—he deserved it. But the common people of this county seat bore you no grudge, did they? You customarily attended markets in the county seat. Now observe what ruin you've reduced this city to! You robbed quite a few Yangshan County residents, correct? Where are the people you abducted? And the stolen goods?"

The four Tianchang Gong exchanged glances. Three of them fixed their gazes on the Tianchang Gong from Baimang Stockade.

Pan Tianshun immediately kicked his ally while he was down: "The looting in the city was all conducted by Baimang Stockade people. Many in their stockade serve as bandits under Sun Dabiao, and they maintain constant contact with the Eight Row Yao. Their entry into the city served purely to seize plunder."

Baimang Stockade's Tianchang Gong blanched with terror. He hastily prostrated himself in defense: "Lord, Baimang Stockade wasn't alone in taking plunder, was it? Nor were we the only ones communicating with the Eight Row Yao! Everyone had a share!"

Huang Chao had no interest in thoroughly investigating the veracity of Baimang Stockade's Tianchang Gong's claims. The matter of Yao forces looting Yangshan County required a scapegoat, and slaughtering the entire Yonghua Township Yao population proved impractical. Baimang Stockade would have to bear the blame.