Qiang Jin Jiu (Author : Tang Jiuqing 唐酒卿)

Chapter 104 : Elder Brother

All votes and comments are much appreciated :)

—————

Lei Changming was a native of Chazhou. In his early years, he served as an armed escort with the others and carried out manual labor. He never studied or attended school. During the reign of Yongyi, the commander of the Duanzhou Garrison Troops took his younger sister as a concubine, and she pretty much gained favor in the commander’s residence. Because of this, Lei Changming had a comfortable life for a period of time and spent all day at the gambling dens. A pity the good times did not last long. The Duanzhou commander was not a devoted man, and within a few years, he spurned Lei Changming’s younger sister. With no one to repay all those debts he owed, Lei Changming could only set out once more to work as an armed escort. 

At the end of the reign of Yongyi, Lei Changming took on a job from the Yan clan of Hezhou. During the journey, he risked his life to fight off the robbers and protect the youngest young master of the Yan clan, Yan Heru. Consequently, he got into the Yan clan’s good books. In the reign of Xiande, after the defeat of the Zhongbo troops, he used money borrowed from the Yan clan to recruit men and buy horses. He then started a mutiny against the Duanzhou garrison battalion and killed off the commander that the Imperial Court had appointed at that time. From then on, he became a bandit of Duanzhou. 

Lei Changming initially only had a few thousand men, but with the imperial court’s passive course of action after the defeat of the troops, Zhongbo was never able to recover from the heavy blow. People who were reduced from being commoners to being bandits increased, and he gradually became an overlord of sorts in Duanzhou. To date, the troops under his command had already far exceeded the numbers of garrison troops soldiers in the various Zhongbo prefectures. 

“Half a year earlier, Lei Changming had a total of 14,000 people or so in the prefectures of Duanzhou and Dunzhou.” Zhou Gui held up his sleeve and pointed at the map for Xiao Chiye. “He used Mount Luo between Duanzhou and Dunzhou as his base camp and established his own nest of brigands. When the imperial court rebuilt the garrison troops of Dengzhou, they once tried to besiege Mount Luo, but they always returned empty-handed the few times they tried. Thus, they gave up, and no one bothered about it anymore.” 

As Xiao Chiye secured his arm guards, he leaned partially against the table to look at the map. He said, “He’s bringing 40,000 people to Cizhou. No doubt he still has to leave behind enough men and horses to keep guard at Mount Luo. So it seems that he has at least 60,000 soldiers and horses. This number is two Qidong commanderies’ garrison troops worth of men.” 

Although Xiao Chiye had no intent of blaming anyone, he still made Zhou Gui sweat. This was because the Six Prefectures of Zhongbo all fell under the jurisdiction of legitimately appointed prefectural prefects, and yet, in the span of six years, they simply just watched the bandits grow in dominance until they were on the same scale as a regular army. 

“Although His Excellency has no dealings with Duanzhou and Dunzhou, there are usually field officials who would go forth to handle the military garrisons’ cases.” Kong Ling sat in his chair and said, “He has assembled this many people in just half a year, and to think we never got wind of it.”

“Your Lordship.” Zhou Gui said earnestly. “I originally thought that Lei Changming has merely 10,000 men or so, and besieging him to annihilate him would be merely a matter of a month or so. But now, he’s charging towards Cizhou with 40,000 troops, and we only have 20,000 men from the Imperial Army. I fear we are in a perilous position! Why not…” 

Why not get someone to head for Libei immediately to pass the news to Xiao Fangxu and have him deploy the Libei Armored Cavalry troops guarding the Northeast Provisions Bridle Path south to provide reinforcements?