Part 273: The Sluice Gate Incident
His force of about a thousand men took off their vests, furled their banners, and dispersed among several villages along the canal. As soon as the soldiers entered a village, they took control of it, allowing entry but no exit. Every night, led by captains and lieutenants, they went out in batches to plunder. Kong Youde did not allow them to go out sporadically, fearing they would be counter-attacked and captured by the local militia. He only sent out spies every day to scout, and only when they had identified a wealthy household would they go out at night with their faces blackened.
He never stayed in one place for long, usually moving every two or three days. Because his troops were all cavalry, their choice of route was very flexible. Sometimes he would suddenly move his entire force dozens of li away from the canal, and then return from a different direction, making it impossible for anyone to figure out his movement patterns and camping locations.
The plundered property was partly handed over to the “quartermaster,” and partly distributed to the officers and soldiers according to rank. In just a few days in Dongguang, everyone’s bags were full. The soldiers were well-fed, had some silver in their hands, and their courage grew. Some began to disregard Kong Youde’s orders and went out in groups of three or five to rob and rape.
“I can’t stay here any longer,” Kong Youde thought. If they stayed too long, the soldiers would become lax. Besides, they couldn’t keep it a secret—it was impossible for there to be such a large-scale “horse bandit” force in Hebei. If they stayed any longer, they wouldn’t be able to conceal it. The local officials were just pretending not to know; they weren’t truly ignorant.
If he let his officers and soldiers continue to cause trouble, sooner or later the local officials would not be able to cover it up. When that happened, not to mention himself, even Sun Yuanhua might not be able to handle it.
Now, it was about time to immediately return to the main road and continue towards Shanhaiguan.
The night before, Kong Youde had ordered his adjutant to invite all the officers above the rank of captain to his residence to announce the specific itinerary for the next step.
Unexpectedly, at the meeting, his order for the entire army to reinforce the main road to Shanhaiguan was opposed by many of his subordinates. In the past ten days of looting, the officers had made a considerable fortune. This was a great stimulus for the middle and lower-ranking officers who had been stuck in Dengzhou for a long time with no extra income besides embezzling military pay.
They had had enough of the bullying from the Shandong soldiers and the southern soldiers in Dengzhou and were already full of complaints. Now that they had just gotten some benefits, they were being sent to Liaodong again. Many were unwilling to give up the opportunity to “continue to get rich,” and even more unwilling to go to Liaodong to “die.”
Kong Youde was quite isolated at the meeting. Apart from a few of his confidants, most of the officers expressed their unwillingness to go to Liaodong. And Li Jiucheng, who had just arrived, not only did not help to persuade them but also privately moved among the soldiers and lower-ranking officers, inciting them to “return to Dengzhou.”
This was completely unexpected for Kong Youde. He had originally counted on Li Jiucheng to help suppress the troops, but he never thought he would secretly undermine him!
Because the opposition from the generals was so strong, Kong Youde did not dare to order their departure immediately. He had to stay in the local area—a small village by the canal—for another day, preparing to try to persuade everyone again in the evening.
That day, Kong Youde had just gotten up and finished washing, and was thinking about having a good talk with Li Jiucheng and the others. Suddenly, someone came to report that a suspicious cavalry force was active about ten li away.
Because what he was doing was not something that could see the light of day, he sent out 24 reconnaissance horsemen day and night, who could detect abnormal movements about 20 li away. The latest news all indicated that unidentified reconnaissance cavalry were trailing his men. His scouts had tried to capture them several times, but the other side did their best to avoid conflict and always managed to spot his cavalry’s movements first and avoid them. The appearance of these reconnaissance cavalry was also one of the reasons why he was eager to leave this place.
“How many of them?”
“No more than twenty, all in civilian clothes, with swords and sabers.” The scout hesitated. “But they are all riding good horses!”
“Are they from the martial world?”
“They don’t seem to be. Their formation is neat and their ranks are orderly.”
“You can go and rest first.” Kong Youde was secretly worried. After dismissing the scout, he ordered someone to go to the various camps to inform the officers to come to his place for a meeting in the evening, preparing to try to persuade everyone again.
Chen Sigen and his small team had already reached a place less than twenty li from Kong’s troops. After hearing that Kong’s scouts had discovered his tracks, he ordered the whole team to turn back and quickly leave the detection range of the scouts.
In a small wood, he sent out sentries and then sent out reconnaissance cavalry to confirm the specific location and situation of several candidate targets.
The twenty or so young team members were dressed in the cotton coats and plain sheepskin jackets commonly worn by small merchants and farmers here. Although the outdoor temperature had already dropped to zero, they were all in high spirits.
“How is it? Haven’t frozen your balls off, have you?” Chen Sigen joked. The team members all grinned, white mist puffing from their mouths and noses.
“Alright, we’ll rest here for a while, and then we’ll go out to do business tonight!” Chen Sigen said, picking up a branch and drawing a simple diagram on the ground. “Our target tonight is a sluice gate on the Southern Grand Canal, about twenty-five li from Dongguang County.”
He used branches and stones as markers and quickly explained the terrain and orientation. This location was carefully selected from more than a dozen alternative locations reported by the reconnaissance soldiers. This attack location first had to be a place where boats on the canal moored for the night, usually a relatively prosperous riverside market or village, in order to ensure there were enough witnesses. Secondly, the location had to be not far from the village where Kong Youde’s subordinates were spending the night.
Although Kong Youde had been very careful to hide his tracks along the way, Chen Sigen knew from the reconnaissance cavalry’s reports that the local people already knew that a group of government soldiers was looting in the area. They just didn’t know their origin. The county magistrate had already raised the local militia, and all the villages and forts had strengthened their defenses.
However, this sluice gate had no defensive measures. Although it was not a customs house where tax officials were stationed, it was still a small branch of the canal administration.
The Southern Grand Canal was located in the north. In order to maintain the water level of the canal and cross the watershed, many sluices were built along the way to regulate the water volume.
These sluices were all managed and maintained by sluice keepers, who opened the gates to release water and let boats pass at regular times every day. Therefore, it was also an official institution. Ordinary bandits and rogue soldiers would not dare to attack this place easily, as it was under official protection.
Attacking this place would involve not only Dongguang County but the entire canal administration. The seriousness of its nature was far greater than slaughtering a few villages. At that time, Kong Youde, who was nearby, would have no choice but to rebel.
Originally, Chen Sigen had considered whether to blow up the sluice gate—he had brought some C4 explosives with him. Blowing up the sluice gate would obviously be more helpful in exacerbating the chaos of the whole incident, but Zhu Mingxia and Lu Wenyuan thought this was beyond Kong Youde’s capabilities. Besides, it would be difficult to explain the motive. Therefore, the attack was limited to economically valuable targets near the sluice gate.
The most valuable targets were the residences of the several sluice keepers stationed there. Those who lived by the water ate by the water, and the opening and closing of the sluice gates were related to the time and convenience of the boatmen’s shipping. The officials who managed the sluices, since they had power, naturally sought rent, and therefore were all rolling in money. Chen Sigen was preparing to make an example of them.
“Everyone is clear on the target. First are the residences of the several sluice keepers, and second are the canal boats at the pier,” he pointed to the locations on the temporary sand table. “You must all remember, we are soldiers. Although we are doing a dirty job that can’t see the light of day, we are not bandits or robbers. During the operation, no indiscriminate killing of innocents, no raping of women, no arbitrary arson, and all spoils must be turned over to the public!”
“Understood!” the team members answered crisply.
At night, Kong Youde and his generals were in a meeting, discussing their next move. The generals still mostly insisted on returning to Dengzhou. Kong Youde was unable to persuade them, and the meeting gradually got out of control. Several generals even showed a “do-or-die” attitude, as if they would fight on the spot if Kong Youde did not comply. Li Jiucheng constantly appeared in the middle as a mediator, but in reality, he was also forcing him to make a decision.
Just as everyone was talking themselves hoarse and the atmosphere was gradually becoming tense, a personal guard suddenly came to report: there was black smoke and firelight on the bank of the canal seven or eight li away, and the sound of killing could be faintly heard. The soldiers and horses in the camp were getting restless.
“What?” Kong Youde was startled. He got up and looked out the window. Indeed, there was firelight in the distance, and the sky was red. He suddenly turned his head and scanned the generals. All of his generals were present; it shouldn’t be his own men.
However, only those with the rank of captain and above were present. It was hard to say whether any lieutenants or even squad leaders had taken men out on their own to cause trouble.
The generals were also baffled and looked at each other.
Kong Youde immediately ordered a scout to go and see. In less than the time it takes to eat a meal, the scout had galloped back with a terrible piece of news: more than a hundred cavalrymen were burning, killing, and looting at the sluice gate.
“Whose men are they?” Kong Youde was very anxious. The sluice gate was official land, and if things got out of hand, it would be a major incident. He turned his head and glared fiercely at Li Jiucheng, guessing that this was most likely done on Li Jiucheng’s orders—this was to force him to join them!
“Ruitu!” Li Jiucheng saw his unfriendly gaze and knew what he was thinking. Fearing a misunderstanding—this force was, after all, brought up by Kong Youde himself, and if they really fell out, he would not be any better off—he immediately came forward to state his position: “We just want to go back to Dengzhou and not go to Liaodong to die in vain. We have no other intentions! We have certainly not done anything to wrong you! We didn’t do this! If I, Old Li, dare to speak half a lie, may I be struck by lightning!”
“Reporting to the Acting Commander, I can’t tell whose men they are,” the scout said. He only vaguely saw that they were all riding good Mongolian war horses, wearing robes and sheepskin coats over their clothes, but it seemed they were wearing vests underneath.
Most importantly, the weapons of this group of cavalry were very uniform, unlike the motley collection of weapons of ordinary bandits. Therefore, they must be government soldiers from some battalion.