Water Margin: The Tale of Li Erlang of Guankou

Chapter 111 The Second Young Master Retreats from Jizhou City, Chief Li Devises Land Strategy

Li Hanxiao knew that Zhang Shuye was a capable minister, one of the few loyal and capable generals during the reign of Emperor Huizong of Song. Now that he had been transferred to be the prefect of Jizhou, it was as if Li Hanxiao had brought a formidable enemy.

Of course, in Li Hanxiao's eyes, this was also an opportunity. If he could find a way to win Zhang Shuye over to his side in the future, it would undoubtedly be another top talent.

He also knew that this process would not be accomplished overnight, because Zhang Shuye was a staunchly loyal minister of the Song Dynasty. To persuade him to surrender, it would require a long-term effort. At the very least, he needed to let Zhang Shuye know that Liangshan Marsh was not only not what he imagined, but would also be stronger than the corrupt and treacherous emperors and ministers of the Song Dynasty.

Only in this way could they possibly persuade him to surrender. Of course, even then, there was no guarantee that he wouldn't die for his country, since Zhang Shuye in the original history did exactly that...

Li Hanxiao knew he couldn't rush things, but letting his two sons go was a gesture of goodwill. If Zhang Shuye understood, he would naturally see through it.

Li Hanxiao, upon learning of Zhang Shuye's arrival, was well aware that Zhang Shuye posed a significant threat to the development of Liangshan Marsh.

During the previous prefecture of Jizhou, Li Hanxiao had crippled the entire prefecture, and Huang An had been killed. The entire Jizhou prefecture was no longer capable of resisting or attacking Liangshan Marsh. Therefore, Li Hanxiao could lead his troops out to roam freely without worrying about anything behind him. If the Jizhou prefecture was foolish enough to dare to attack the mountain, then Wen Huanzhang could lead his troops to wipe them out.

Now things are different. Zhang Shuye is probably an opponent who can rival Wen Huanzhang. If Li Hanxiao goes out again and Zhang Shuye attacks the mountain, it could pose a direct threat to Liangshan Marsh.

However, Zhang Shuye is new here, and the leadership team and core members have not yet been established. Relying solely on his two sons is far from enough. Li Hanxiao knows that he needs time to develop.

This period is precisely when Li Hanxiao's attacks are most effective, because once he has formed a force, it will be much more difficult to defeat him.

After much deliberation, Li Hanxiao decided that he should still adhere to Zhu Yuanzhang's nine-character mantra for seizing power: "Build high walls, store up grain, and delay declaring yourself king." He should not rush to attack Jizhou Prefecture and occupy the city.

If Liangshan Marsh were to capture a city, it would become the most powerful of all the rebel armies and bandits in the region. At present, "King of Jin" Tian Hu, "King of Chu" Wang Qing, and "King of the South" Fang La have not yet launched their uprisings, captured prefectures and cities, and there is no one to share the pressure with Li Hanxiao. If he were to take the lead, he would immediately attract the imperial court's conquest army.

As for the other mountain strongholds, none of them have any powerful figures. The mountain strongholds in Shandong have either been incorporated by Li Hanxiao or were destroyed in the battle of the birthday tribute. Li Hanxiao's Liangshan Marsh is now unique in Shandong.

Therefore, Li Hanxiao planned to take advantage of the fact that Zhang Shuye had not yet formed a force to begin the strategy of "encircling the city from the countryside".

Although Li Hanxiao cannot attack the prefectures and cities like Jizhou at this stage, he plans to expand his influence to the villages and towns near Liangshan Marsh, bringing some villages and towns directly into the sphere of influence of Liangshan Marsh and making direct use of their land.

As I just mentioned, we should "build high walls, store up plenty of grain, and delay declaring ourselves king." Now is the crucial moment for "building high walls" and "storing up plenty of grain."

So how to "build high walls"? Li Hanxiao did not only want to build passes and fortifications inside Liangshan Marsh, but also to develop the masses around Liangshan Marsh and establish a strategic buffer zone.

These villages and towns near Liangshan Marsh were even more important. First, Li Hanxiao brought them into the sphere of influence of Liangshan Marsh and stationed troops to guard them, which directly freed these villages and towns from the control of the government. Naturally, the exorbitant taxes and various corvée labor imposed by the government would not fall on the people in these areas.

Then, Li Hanxiao could resolve the land issues in these places. The simplest way was to "equalize the land distribution," drag out those landlords and wealthy people who were deeply resentful and deserved to die, and "publicly try and sentence" them in front of the people. Afterward, he could distribute all their land and wealth to the people in exchange for their support.

In this way, the popular support for Liangshan Marsh can be widely spread in various villages and towns, and at the same time, a richer base of soldiers can be formed.

The main source of soldiers for Liangshan Marsh now comes from the remnants of the small hills that Li Hanxiao annexed. They are all bandits who are used to burning, killing, and looting, or petty thieves who rob and ambush. They used to be lawless, but after joining Liangshan, the rules and discipline there are much stricter than before, so these people are very difficult to manage.

There are indeed many ruthless bandits here, skilled in fighting and killing, but they are too difficult to manage; none of them are easy to deal with.

The second largest source of manpower was the surrendered troops from the Zhu Family Village, all the troops from the Hu Family Village, and the retainers of Li Ying from the Li Family Village, which were taken over during the attack on the three villages of Dulonggang. The combined strength of these three villages was considerable, and although they had received non-professional training, they had a certain degree of organization and discipline, making them much stronger than those guys. Li Han jokingly asked "Leopard Head" Lin Chong and "Blue-Faced Beast" Yang Zhi to give them intensive training, as they were the most likely to become the backbone of Liangshan Marsh in the future.

As for the soldiers who came from other sources, apart from a few civilians who came up the mountain, they were all people who came to join them because of their reputation. Among these people, there were very few good people. They were either bad bandits or convicts who had committed crimes, or people who sought protection. The quality and discipline of the soldiers were very low. They could be used in the early stages, but if Liangshan Marsh wanted to grow and expand, it would be better to recruit more "good people".

The principle is simple: when you're forced to, you can pan for gold in a pile of rubbish, but you can't keep your eyes glued to the garbage heap.

As mentioned before, "good family members" here refers to people from respectable families with no criminal record.

The practice of recruiting sons from good families into the army existed long ago, with the earliest records dating back to the Han Dynasty. After the Warring States period, war was no longer the exclusive domain of the nobility; commoners began to take to the battlefield, gradually leading to a state of universal conscription. The State of Wei, selecting the best of the best, first created a formidable force called the "Wei Wu Zu," laying the foundation for its dominance. The selection criteria for the "Wei Wu Zu" included physical strength and a certain amount of wealth; only then could one have a chance of being chosen.

The demand for family property stemmed from two main reasons: firstly, for military equipment, and secondly, from the idea that those with stable assets have stable minds.

However, this situation changed in the Northern Song Dynasty. The Northern Song Dynasty always faced a powerful enemy in the north with the loss of the Sixteen Prefectures of Youyun. Without the natural defenses of mountains and rivers, it had to rely on military force. Military expenditures even accounted for more than 70% of the national treasury revenue. Even so, the treatment of soldiers provided by the Northern Song Dynasty and the later Southern Song Dynasty was still not high. In particular, the local soldiers and the garrison soldiers outside the Imperial Guard were treated like second-class citizens, and most of them could only barely make ends meet.

In addition, starting with Zhao Kuangyin, the Song Dynasty often adopted the method of recruiting young men from displaced people and disaster victims to maintain stability. This also resulted in the fact that although the number of local soldiers in various prefectures and counties was large, they were useless and could only undertake some auxiliary work on the battlefield, with a role almost similar to that of civilian laborers.

In addition, given the Song Dynasty's policy of emphasizing civil affairs and suppressing military affairs, it is easy to imagine how low the status of soldiers was. It is no wonder that when faced with Di Qing's pleas for mercy, Han Qi would say something as ironic as "Only those who are called out outside Donghua Gate are true men."

The conscription system in the Song Dynasty was an extreme example. The court could recruit anyone into the army, resulting in a mixed bag of people, who not only lacked combat effectiveness but also had extremely low social status.

The saying "Good men don't become soldiers" originated in the Song Dynasty. In such a social environment, respectable young men would not choose to join the army.

As the saying goes, those with stable property have a stable mind, while those without stable property have no stable mind. The absence of respectable men led to a large influx of commoners into the army. Soldiers joined the army only for survival, not for loyalty to the country, so it was no surprise that the Song army was weak.

Li Hanxiao's Liangshan army cannot learn from the Song Dynasty. It would be best to recruit more "good men" to expand the army. If they continue to use people with criminal records, military discipline and combat effectiveness will be difficult to guarantee.

"Good family sons" have always been the best source of soldiers. After the Song Dynasty, the meaning of "good family sons" referred more to a family with a clean background and no criminal record, rather than emphasizing "permanent property". After that, the combat effectiveness of the army still depended on "good family sons".

When Qi Jiguang recruited soldiers in the Ming Dynasty, in addition to requiring them to be tall, skilled in martial arts, strong, and clever, he also emphasized that they should not be commoners or seasoned veterans. In his view, the most suitable people were honest people from the countryside, who should be "sons of good families".

When Zeng Guofan recruited the Xiang Army during the Qing Dynasty, his criteria were the same as Qi Jiguang's: only honest villagers from the countryside. In their view, martial arts skills and strength were very important, but courage and spirit were secondary.

Therefore, to build a powerful army, what is needed is not those street urchins, criminals, thugs, or scoundrels, but honest people with good discipline and obedience, or "good family lads" with clean family backgrounds and no criminal record.

Li Hanxiao, a seasoned soldier who had experienced military life in his later years, realized that the logic was quite simple: if a soldier lacked physical strength or martial arts skills, a few months of training would bring about improvement. However, a deficiency in spirit and willpower was not something that could be easily resolved through simple training.

Therefore, for an army dedicated to building strong combat capabilities, cunning and treacherous individuals must be avoided as much as possible. In later generations, the requirement for political vetting for enlistment was essentially the same idea.

In addition, after gaining the support of the local people by distributing land, Li Hanxiao could also develop the remaining wasteland and farmland into military settlements to achieve self-sufficiency.

Li Hanxiao understood very well that land reform was not a one-time solution, nor could it be accomplished overnight. Many people thought that once the land was distributed and the landlords were overthrown, there would be no more land consolidation, and taxes and labor costs would increase. This was a big mistake.

In the eyes of a normal dynasty, peasant armies were nothing more than peasants who could not accomplish anything significant. Their so-called land reform would inevitably offend powerful clans, aristocratic families, and clans. They were essentially standing in opposition to those who controlled wealth, knowledge, and social classes. To carry out land reform in such an ancient place was suicidal. The emperor would send troops to suppress them, win over their leaders, and cut off their living space. In the eyes of the people, they were nothing more than a traitor.

Without the corresponding power, it is not a good thing to completely offend the ruling class, because in this era when education was not widespread, intellectuals belonged to the ruling class. If you completely offend them, your source of talent will be completely cut off.

It's not that talented people can't emerge from the farming community, but rather that the probability and chances are too low.

The final example is from the heyday of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom. Even Zuo Zongtang, upon hearing of its power and influence, wanted to see if he could help them.

However, when Zuo Zongtang heard that the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom did not respect Confucius and Mencius and worshipped Western religions, he quickly decided to stay far away and not join the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Because they burned down Confucian temples, ancestral halls, and libraries wherever they went, their actions almost alienated them from the scholars of the world. Although they were powerful, Zuo Zongtang predicted that they would not receive any real help from talented people. In contrast, Hong Xiuquan's God Worshipping Society of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was able to gather a group of lower-class people and form a strong fighting force in the early stages, but it was difficult to attract intellectuals.

Therefore, even with emphasis, there was a lack of talent in this area. Even though Yang Xiuqing, Chen Yucheng, and Li Xiucheng were exceptionally talented, their cultural level was limited, especially their limits. With the internal strife in Nanjing and the collapse of their faith, it was difficult for them to turn the tide. Hu Linyi, Zeng Guofan, Zuo Zongtang, Li Hongzhang, and others who took Confucianism very seriously gathered landlords, peasants, merchants, artisans, intellectuals, and people from all walks of life, and destroyed Hong Xiuquan's Taiping Heavenly Kingdom.

Li Hanxiao felt that even if land reform were to be carried out, it would be impossible to complete it in less than twenty years. Therefore, what he needed most now was to unite all forces that could be united. His stance should naturally be on the side of the working masses, but he couldn't afford to offend all social classes.

For the local people near Liangshan Marsh, the abolition of exorbitant taxes and levies was like removing a heavy burden from their heads.

Then, the landlords who oppressed them were publicly tried and sentenced, and their land and property were divided among them. This was enough to win them over.

As for the other territories, let's keep them firmly in the hands of Liangshan Marsh for now; after all, it's not the right time yet...