Zao Ying followed Cheng Xu as they headed south.
The militia did not move quickly. Everyone was clad in heavy armor, and that kind of load was not something you rushed with unless you were trying to die early. By the time they finally made their way out of Huanglong Mountain, night had already fallen completely.
Once they stepped onto the open loess plains beyond the mountains, the terrain became much easier to traverse. Their footing lightened, and their pace naturally picked up.
Up ahead, the private salt traders who had ridden out earlier were already waiting with the five hundred warhorses.
Cheng Xu raised his voice and shouted, "Mount up, mount up. It is already dark. If we keep trudging back on foot, who knows when we will get home. Everyone get on a horse."
Gao Chuwu scratched his head. "But we do not know how to ride."
"Then lie flat on the horse and hug its neck."
That method sounded ridiculous, but Gao Chuwu actually had experience with it. Back when Zhong Guangdao and Zheng Yanfu launched their night raid on Gao Village Family, he had rushed to Bai Yuan for help by clinging to a horse's neck all the way back.
Now he repeated the same trick with practiced ease. He climbed onto a horse, wrapped his arms around its neck, and held on for dear life. The others copied him one after another.
Even with five hundred horses, it was still not quite enough. Some of the private salt traders had to share, two people to a horse. Only then did they barely manage to fit everyone.
Five hundred riders, plus Zao Ying's one hundred and twenty, surged south together in a wild gallop. With horses beneath them, distance seemed to shrink instantly. The journey from Du Zhong Village to Gao Village Family, which normally took half a day on foot, now required barely over half a shichen.
Soon enough, lights appeared in the distance.
The glow of Gao Village's commercial district spread out ahead, bright and lively, a patch of dazzling illumination in the dark.
Zao Ying could not help but let out a soft sound of surprise. "Hm?"
The night had already settled in, yet there was such a stretch of light ahead. This was supposed to be a remote mountain region, not some bustling city. How could there be a place this lively out here?
Cheng Xu grinned. "That is our place."
Zao Ying still believed he was part of the Guyuan rebel army. She could not help but think to herself, so these rebels have already built a town deep in the mountains, and not just any town, but one glowing with lights and life. No wonder they invited me so confidently. They are not afraid of their base being exposed at all.
With so many civilians living here, if the location were going to leak, it would have happened long ago.
The fact that it had not meant only one thing.
These rebels had won the hearts of the people.
The common folk were unwilling to betray them for a bit of reward from the authorities.
That alone earned Zao Ying's respect.
She had always prided herself on being a righteous bandit, someone who never touched the belongings of ordinary people and only targeted officials and the wealthy. If these Guyuan rebels had truly gained the people's support, then they were not enemies of the common folk either.
That meant she could trust them, at least enough to make friends.
Cheng Xu continued, "We cannot go to the commercial district right now. Showing up in full armor like this would not look right. We will head to the military camp first."
Zao Ying nodded. "That makes sense."
Following Cheng Xu, she arrived at the camp.
She had expected something crude and chaotic, a typical rebel encampment full of disorder and rough edges. Instead, what greeted her eyes was a massive stone fortress-like structure, grand and imposing, occupying an entire valley.
Even in the darkness of night, the camp was brightly lit on all sides. Lamps illuminated the valley so thoroughly that it almost looked like daytime.
What she did not know was that after the militia expanded to five hundred men, they could no longer fit inside Gao Family Fort. That place only had a little over two hundred rooms, nowhere near enough to house everyone. So Li Dao Xuan had long since arranged for a new military base to be constructed outside.
This base stood not far from the Firearms Bureau and was built using massive stone vats turned upside down. The walls of those vats were several centimeters thick. Once placed inside the box, the effective thickness became absurd. Even a nuclear blast might struggle to break through.
As a military camp, it was more than suitable. It was ridiculous.
After placing the stone structure, Li Dao Xuan had left the interior details to the craftsmen. They partitioned the inside into numerous small rooms for the soldiers, set aside storage areas for weapons, and even stocked some grain.
The grain was there for a very unlikely scenario, one where the militia might have to hole up inside the camp and defend to the last man. In that case, they would at least have food.
Of course, the chance of that happening was extremely small. Those supplies would most likely sit there forever.
The moment Cheng Xu reached the entrance of the camp, he started shouting inside, "Where are the logistics troops on duty? Get the kitchen team up and running right now. We marched dozens of li today. Everyone is starving."
At the mention of food, Zao Ying snapped out of her awe at the massive camp.
She thought to herself, this is a year of famine. I wonder if they even have enough food. Feeding one hundred and twenty horse bandits is no small expense.
Just as that thought crossed her mind, the head of the kitchen team came running out of the camp, his face glowing with excitement. "Instructor He, you are back."
Instructor He?
Zao Ying blinked in confusion. Was he not Ghost Qianhu?
Cheng Xu noticed the man's grin and frowned slightly. "Why are you so happy?"
The kitchen head chuckled. "Not long before you returned, Dao Xuan Tianzun bestowed food upon us. He said the militia achieved great merit today, so you are to be rewarded with a special feast."
Cheng Xu's eyes lit up. "Oh? What kind of good food?"
Zao Ying echoed blankly, "Dao Xuan Tianzun?"
The kitchen head turned and shouted into the camp, "Bring out the food bestowed by Dao Xuan Tianzun."
A large group of kitchen staff and logistics soldiers filed out. Each person carried a large basin. They formed groups of eight, each group holding eight different dishes, every basin containing something unique.
Zao Ying took one look and sucked in a sharp breath.
"Braised chicken with sauce, steamed pork with rice flour, jujube square meat, whole pork knuckle, wind-dried chicken, salted meat, eight-treasure rice… this… this is extravagant."
What she did not know was that while they were on their way back, Li Dao Xuan's food delivery had already arrived. He took the Eight Great Bowls, scooped a small portion from each dish, placed them into the box, and handed them over to the kitchen team.
From there, the kitchen staff expanded those portions into massive servings, dividing them into multiple basins. Every eight basins formed a complete set, and they prepared a total of five full sets.
Behind Zao Ying, her one hundred and twenty horse bandits once again made deeply embarrassing swallowing sounds.
"This… this is the Eight Great Bowls of Xi'an, right?"
"It definitely is, but they are serving it in basins."
"This is not Eight Great Bowls. This is Eight Great Basins."
"Are we really in a famine right now?"
"There is starvation everywhere. How can they make something like this here?"
"What kind of household lives like this?"
Even Cheng Xu himself felt shaken.
He had been about to thank Dao Xuan Tianzun for the generous reward, but hearing the shocked whispers behind him, he immediately realized what was going on.
This display was clearly meant to boost the militia's prestige and overwhelm outsiders.
He could not afford to ruin the moment.
He swallowed his gratitude for now, turned back to Zao Ying, and put on a calm, almost casual smile.
"Just eight simple dishes. We eat like this all the time."
Zao Ying stared at him. "All the time?"
The horse bandits behind her froze in collective disbelief.
Cheng Xu was laughing wildly inside, but on the outside he remained completely composed.
"Why are you all still standing there?" he said. "Everyone must be starving. Grab your bowls and chopsticks. Time to eat."
Ming Context
The "Xi'an Eight Great Bowls" (西安八大碗) were once a signature banquet of northwest China — a mix of braised meats, cured fowl, and glutinous rice desserts served in large porcelain bowls. In famine years of the late Ming, such a meal was an impossible luxury; having it appear here shows the almost divine abundance under Li Daoxuan's "management."
Trivia
The real "Eight Bowls" set was often used in Shaanxi wedding banquets. Here, Li Daoxuan unintentionally hosts the most morale-boosting dinner party of the Ming collapse.
Cheng Xu's deadpan "We eat like this all the time" became a running joke among later villagers — the official slogan of Gao Village prosperity.