Chinese Generals Summoning System

Chapter 28: The Border Defense Mission in Qi County

In fact, when his uncle Chen Yan offered to secure him the position of military captain in the army the Chen family had formed, Liu Ji’s first instinct was to refuse; the whole business of asking his father, Liu Hao, for his opinion was nothing but an excuse. It wasn’t that Liu Ji was afraid of joining the army and fighting on the battlefield. Having traveled back to this turbulent era and spent some time adjusting, he was mentally prepared for battle. Besides, he already had several highly skilled generals under his command; to make a name for himself in these chaotic times, he knew he’d have to fight tooth and nail. The problem was that Liu Ji, having grown accustomed to a life of leisure in his previous life, was unwilling to become a vassal of the Chen family—even though they were his mother’s clan. He firmly believed in the adage: “Better to be the head of a chicken than the tail of a phoenix.” Chen Yan then led Liu Ji and his party away from the Chen family’s farmstead and headed for the county seat of Qi County. Chen Yan planned to house Liu Ji and his men in the Chen family’s grand mansion; after all, the mansion had plenty of empty rooms. Not only could it easily accommodate Liu Ji’s small group, but it could comfortably house ten or even twenty times that number. Not long after Chen Yan, Liu Ji, and the others had left the farmstead, Liu Ji’s other uncle, Chen Qi, returned to the farmstead on his warhorse, accompanied by four cavalrymen. The steward, Chen Baocai, immediately briefed Chen Qi on the details of the trip to Wan Prefecture. Upon hearing that 441 able-bodied young men had been recruited in a single go, Chen Qi immediately broke into a smile and lavished praise on Chen Baocai. However, Chen Baocai had excluded Cheng Yi—the man sent to Liu Ji to serve as a stablehand—from the recruitment of disaster victims and did not even mention the matter to Chen Qi; after all, he was merely a male disaster victim. However, when Chen Baocai mentioned encountering Liu Ji’s party along the way, Chen Qi furrowed his brow and asked, “Does my nephew really have six personal guards clad in iron armor under his command? And of those six, do five of them actually have warhorses?” Chen Baocai nodded and said, “Young Master, it’s absolutely true. Moreover, the personal guards of those young cousins are exceptionally skilled in martial arts. This old servant feels that their skills may be on par with those of the First and Second Young Masters.” “Where are they now?” “Second Young Master came by a moment ago and took the cousin’s party to the county seat.” “Hmm. My nephew’s mother is the same mother as my second son, so it’s only natural that my second son is a bit closer to this nephew. However, our Chen family’s army is currently short-handed. It would be best if my second son could persuade my nephew to assign those retainers to our Chen family’s army. If they truly have what it takes, I, as the Captain, won’t hesitate to grant them the rank of Military Lieutenant.” Then Chen Qi sighed and said to Chen Baocai, “We really owe it to you, Steward, for recruiting so many able-bodied young men this time. Otherwise, things would have been much more difficult.” Chen Baocai hurriedly asked, “Young Master, what’s happened?” “County Magistrate Wang has ordered all the families in Qi County to muster eight hundred troops within seven days and march north to Qianzhou to garrison the border!” Chen Qi said with a wry smile. “Defend the border! Young Master, why are they sending us people from Qi County to defend the border? The families of Qi County raised armies specifically to guard against marauding bandits!” Chen Baocai turned pale with shock the moment he heard this. After all, going north at this time to defend the four prefectures bordering the grasslands was essentially a one-way trip. The four northern prefectures of the Great Jin Dynasty—Qianzhou, Pizhou, Qinzhou, and Xiangzhou—had already become hunting grounds for barbarian cavalry in many areas. Numerous key border strongholds were virtually defenceless, and quite a few had even fallen into the hands of nomadic tribes from the grasslands. Under such circumstances, the perilous situation facing those sent to garrison the borders of these four prefectures with the grasslands was all too clear. Chen Qi said with a look of helplessness, “This border garrison mission is by imperial decree. To rebuild the Great Jin Dynasty’s defensive line against the steppes, every prefecture and county must send troops to garrison the northern provinces. Our Changping Prefecture has been assigned the task of sending five hundred men.” The Prefect then had each county draw lots. As it turned out, our Qi County was rather unlucky—we drew the worst possible lot. We’re required to muster five hundred men and send them to the border garrison in Qian Prefecture. However, County Magistrate Wang Ji, to prevent any mishaps along the way that might leave us short-handed upon reaching the Qian Prefecture border, has decided to dispatch an additional three hundred men.” After a brief pause, Chen Qi continued his complaint: “Now Wang Ji is demanding that the prominent families of Qi County provide a total of eight hundred men, yet the Wang family isn’t contributing a single soldier—it’s truly infuriating! What’s even more frustrating is that Wang Ji says that since there are 800 men this time, the commander must be a military officer—he claims this is a regulation of the imperial court. He added that if no military officer volunteers to lead the troops to Qianzhou within the next three days, they’ll hold a lottery. All 19 military officers in Qi County will have to draw lots, and whoever is chosen will lead the 800 men to Qianzhou to guard the border!” Chen Baocai said angrily, “Young Master, if we’d known this would happen, our Chen family would never have aligned ourselves with the Wang family. This is just sending people to Qianzhou to die! Young Master, how many men will our Chen family have to send?” “These days, if you don’t have a few troops under your command, you can’t even sleep soundly. Our Chen family aligned ourselves with the Wang family precisely to gain legitimate control over an army! There’s no point in discussing anything else. this time, our Chen family must provide 90 men. If you hadn’t brought back over 400 able-bodied young men this time, we would’ve had to select nearly half of our existing 180-plus men to send to Qianzhou. These 180-plus men were all chosen from our Chen family’s collateral branches, household servants, and tenant farmers—they are the most loyal to our Chen family. To send nearly half of them to Qianzhou to die in vain,I would have been utterly heartbroken. But now it’s all right—we can select 90 men from among these 400-plus able-bodied young men to send over,” Chen Qi said with a sigh. Chen Baocai hesitated for a moment before saying, “Young Master, I doubt any of the captains would volunteer to go to Qianzhou. If we draw lots…” “Pah, pah, pah! Steward, don’t jinx me. With 19 captains, how could I possibly be that unlucky? Hurry up and select 90 men from the more than 400 able-bodied young men so we can get this matter out of the way. Oh, and remember to pick some who are in poor health or older—it’s just a death sentence for them anyway.” Chen Yan led Liu Ji and the others in high spirits all the way to the county seat of Qi County. After Chen Yan exchanged greetings with the soldiers at the city gate, Liu Ji and the others entered the county seat without incident. The soldiers didn’t even search the carriage carrying the twin sisters, Lin Xiya and Lin Xiwen—the second young master of the Chen family still carried considerable clout throughout Qi County. However, after Chen Yan brought Liu Ji and the others to the Chen family’s ancestral home, they were stopped at the main gate by another steward of the Chen household. The steward said that the master had invited only Liu Ji to come inside. Consequently, the others had no choice but to wait outside the gate, while Chen Yan escorted Liu Ji into the Chen family ancestral home. As Liu Ji walked deeper into the compound, he pondered the situation, unable to fathom what his grandfather—whom he had never met—meant by refusing to allow his family and subordinates to enter the Chen family gates and insisting that he alone come to see him. Liu Ji followed Chen Yan and the butler through a series of twists and turns inside the Chen family ancestral home until they arrived outside a room. The butler then said, “Second Young Master, and this young cousin, the Master is inside his study.” Chen Yan walked up to the closed door of the study. “Father, the son of Fifth Sister has arrived.” “Bring him in!” came an aged voice from inside the study. Liu Ji followed Chen Yan into the study and saw an elderly man with snow-white hair and a white beard, seated upright behind a writing desk. This must be his maternal grandfather.