General Wang Cheng'en, the newly appointed Shaanxi Commander-in-Chief, came from a family with a name that still carried weight even in these chaotic times.
His ancestor, Wang You, had followed the Yongle Emperor Zhu Di during the Jingnan Campaign, earning merit in the founding struggle and being granted the noble title of Marquis Qingyuan.
Wang Cheng'en himself had inherited the hereditary post of Deputy Commander of Xining Guard at the age of eighteen. From then on, he had spent his entire career on the frontier, fighting mounted patrols of various ethnic groups along the borderlands. He never achieved earth shattering battlefield glory, but he also never made a single catastrophic mistake. In military terms, he was the kind of commander people quietly trusted. Stable, predictable, and extremely hard to blame.
Compared to someone like Yan Sui's border general Wu Zimian, who was widely regarded as utterly incompetent, Wang Cheng'en was on an entirely different level.
After Yang He became the Grand Coordinator of the Three Borders, he urgently needed someone capable of suppressing peasant uprisings in Shaanxi. So he pulled Wang Cheng'en off the frontier and appointed him Shaanxi Commander-in-Chief, instructing him to coordinate with Shaanxi Provincial Governor Liu Guangsheng to quickly clean up the bandit problem.
Wang Cheng'en did not disappoint. A few months earlier, he had crushed Fan Shanyue in Heyang so thoroughly that Fan Shanyue surrendered and accepted pacification. That incident directly led to the so-called "returning home bandit deserters" situation that had troubled the region afterward.
When Li Dao Xuan saw this man enter Cheng County, he paid a bit more attention than usual.
Fortunately, Wang Cheng'en was quite disciplined. Unlike the last visiting general Li Ying, who let his troops harass civilians, Wang Cheng'en kept strict control over his men. They camped outside the county walls and did not randomly enter the city.
As Wang Cheng'en looked around Cheng County, he noticed several newly built concrete roads stretching out in different directions like veins.
He could not help but frown inwardly.
What kind of place is Cheng County supposed to be? In a year of disaster and famine, they still have the resources to build roads on this scale?
Before he could think further, the county magistrate Liang Shixian came out to greet him.
After exchanging a few meaningless formalities, they quickly moved to the main topic.
Liang Shixian asked, "May I ask what brings General Wang to our humble county?"
Wang Cheng'en sighed. "I am only passing through. The day is already late, and the troops are exhausted. We will camp outside the county for the night and resume marching at dawn."
Liang Shixian was surprised. "May I ask where the general is heading?"
"To the east," Wang Cheng'en replied, his expression turning slightly heavy. "To Heyang County. That Fan Shanyue has started causing trouble again."
That immediately put Liang Shixian on alert. "What happened?"
Wang Cheng'en said, "You already know that a few months ago I defeated Fan Shanyue and forced him to submit to pacification. The Grand Coordinator granted him the official post of Heyang Garrison Commander to stabilize him."
Liang Shixian nodded. "Yes, I am aware. When he disbanded his forces, those returning home bandit deserters caused some trouble for our county as well."
Li Dao Xuan, listening from above, could not help but curse inwardly.
Some trouble? That is putting it lightly. It was a massive headache. It forced me to constantly switch vision points like I was running a real time strategy game at insane APM. I even had to trigger multiple divine-level interventions. The Gao Village militia, the reform-through-labor convicts, and Bai Yuan's militia all had to act repeatedly just to suppress those so-called "returning home bandit deserters."
Wang Cheng'en continued, "Fan Shanyue behaved for a few months as Heyang Garrison Commander, but bandits are still bandits. Not long after, he relapsed. His subordinates began extorting local gentry and robbing civilians, exactly like that border patrol officer Li Ying. The Heyang magistrate was furious and reported the matter to Xi'an. The provincial governor is also very angry."
Li Dao Xuan clicked his tongue inwardly.
So you do recognize Li Ying is basically a bandit too?
Liang Shixian did not hold back at all. Right in front of Wang Cheng'en, he complained, "That Li Ying is simply a disgrace to the Great Ming. He behaves more like a bandit than an official. And Wu Zimian, the Yan Sui general, is even worse. He is rumored to be selling military grain and horses. It is no surprise Fan Shanyue followed their example. Such corrupt officers should all be arrested immediately."
Wang Cheng'en sighed. "In any case, this cannot continue. The provincial governor has ordered me to go to Heyang, capture Fan Shanyue, and escort him back to Xi'an for judgment."
Li Dao Xuan sneered silently.
Li Ying, Wu Zimian, Fan Shanyue. All of them are doing the same dirty work. The difference is not what they did, but whether they have backing. If you have support, you can do anything and call it governance. If you do not, you get dragged back in chains.
He felt a wave of irritation.
This entire system is just a hierarchy of who gets punished and who gets protected.
Liang Shixian sighed. "Then I wish General Wang success in bringing Fan Shanyue to justice."
Wang Cheng'en nodded, ended the conversation there, and led his trusted guards back to camp outside the county. He did not enter the city or disturb the civilians.
From above, Li Dao Xuan observed his disciplined behavior.
This man was unusually orderly for a military officer in this era.
He scanned the camp from above.
The soldiers were eating dry rations, barely more than hard biscuits, washing them down with plain water. Their meals were extremely poor.
Yet despite their hardship, they did not harass civilians or extort food from wealthy households in Cheng County.
That alone made him look more favorable.
Then a thought occurred to him.
Since you are here, I might as well give you a proper meal.
Li Dao Xuan had always been fond of organizing strange "divine festivals" for Gao Village, like the "Heavenly Lord Sudden Inspiration Festival" or the "Heavenly Lord Hotpot Festival." After giving Zao Ying the Eight Great Bowls last time, he even turned the leftovers into a celebration for Gao Village called the "Heavenly Lord Eight Great Bowls Festival."
But he had never organized a proper feast for an entire county of tens of thousands before.
Now felt like a good opportunity.
He shifted his attention back to Liang Shixian.
After the magistrate returned to the yamen, Li Dao Xuan printed a piece of paper and placed it in front of him.
"In half an hour, I will provide food for all citizens of the county. Gather laborers and prepare distribution. Also send some to General Wang Cheng'en's troops."
Liang Shixian immediately bowed toward the empty space.
"Dao Xuan Tianzun is benevolent."
Li Dao Xuan then picked up his phone and ordered takeout.
Having just moved into the Zhaomu Mountain villa area, he was not yet familiar with the local delivery options. After searching briefly, he found a shop called "Tujia Cured Meat Potato Rice."
The image showed steaming rice mixed with diced potatoes and cured meat. It looked genuinely appetizing.
In this era, potatoes had not yet been widely introduced. Most people in the northwest had never tasted them. This was a perfect opportunity to let them experience it.
It could also serve as a kind of promotional test. If they liked it now, they would be more willing to cultivate it later.
Order placed.
Half an hour later, the meal arrived.
Li Dao Xuan took a large ladle and scooped out generous portions, placing them in the open square outside the county office.
The laborers Liang Shixian had already gathered rushed forward. They chopped and divided the rice, potatoes, and cured meat into smaller portions, mixed them again, and distributed them into bowls for the people of the county.
The entire city quickly fell into a strange but joyful distribution scene.
Meanwhile, General Wang Cheng'en remained an interesting figure.
He was a high ranking military officer who had participated in numerous campaigns, against Mongol forces, peasant uprisings, and even the Manchu Qing. He fought across almost every major battlefield in the late Ming era. In the end, he was promoted to Junior Guardian of the Crown Prince and Left Commander-in-Chief. He eventually died in chaos in the capital during the seventeenth year of Chongzhen, aged fifty seven, when he responded to the emperor's call to defend the city.
Yet strangely, he was never vilified in Qing historical revisions.
Everyone knew the Qing Dynasty heavily revised Ming history, blackening most emperors and officials alike.
So why was Wang Cheng'en not defamed?
Perhaps because this man truly had no stain worth blackening.
Trivia
Pacified bandits were often given official posts not as rewards, but as containment devices. It worked only as long as supervision did.
Potatoes would later save countless lives in northern China, precisely because they thrived where grain failed. History's quiet heroes rarely arrive with banners.
In late Ming armies, not looting civilians while underfed was considered exceptional discipline—an uncomfortable standard that says more about the era than the men.