Chapter 15: Dividing the Spoils and Making Empty Promises

In these times, even bandits have their sense of loyalty. Or rather, when loyalty is required, they can indeed be loyal.

After all, every gang leader knows their men inside out and can easily find their homes at any time. Bandits also have parents, wives, and children at home. They use aliases outside precisely to avoid dragging their families into trouble.

As long as the men aren’t foolish, they understand that if anyone betrays the code of loyalty and never returns, their whole family will face trouble once the leader is free.

So Liu Bei imprisoned the leaders of each gang and then sent the recruited enforcers to search for horses, which they would bring back to ransom their leaders.

However, because of what happened with Zhang Fei, the leaders were prematurely released by Liu Bei. Of course, they escaped prison—so Zhang Fei escaped alongside them.

After the jailbreak, Liu Bei brought the leaders to the Ten-Mile Pavilion shelter, effectively still detaining them there.

The Ten-Mile Pavilion housed the Taiping Dao sect’s temple and disciples, along with some wandering knights following Liu Bei, so there seemed to be quite a few people.

In truth, Liu Bei was always playing a clever game, getting things without paying upfront. Those wandering knights weren’t truly his subordinates but rather his friends.

Yet, in the eyes of these leaders, Liu Bei already controlled land, had troops and followers, came from a large family, and even respected county official Jian Yong obeyed him. He was undoubtedly the dominant force in Zhuo County.

They believed Liu Bei’s power was considerable and thus dared not rebel. In fact, they were inclined to follow him.

But to pledge their allegiance, they first had to prove their loyalty.

This proof wasn’t complicated and matched the leaders’ wishes perfectly.

They simply had to find and eliminate those disloyal men who never returned.

Killing them could even be counted as a merit—bandit suppression—since they were, after all, genuine bandits.

During this time, most of the men returned in groups.

Most gangs brought horses back to ransom their leaders.

There were nine leaders imprisoned initially, and Liu Bei had said each leader needed only one horse to be freed.

But in reality, since many men acted separately, they brought back more than twenty horses, along with other items—such as carts and silk.

And this was only from seven small gangs returning.

Yes, two leaders’ gangs had all their men vanish without a trace—disloyal and foolish people do exist after all.

Those two leaders, accompanied by Jian Yong and the knights, went to capture their former comrades, telling Liu Bei, “You must make sure they are killed.”

Originally, 210 enforcers were registered, with 142 returning. Two gangs disappeared entirely, others lost a few men each, and only one gang returned intact.

But this number already exceeded Liu Bei’s expectations.

People are like that: if bandits were asked to pay ten thousand coins or ten bolts of silk to ransom their leaders, most would simply disappear.

Yet Liu Bei asked each gang to find a horse, and most returned—not only with one horse but often with several.

In truth, one horse costs far more than ten thousand coins; a good horse often worth over a hundred thousand.

But cash and livestock differ.

Without needing to consider how to cash it or hide afterward, getting a horse wasn’t difficult for these bandits.

After all, most had been horse thieves themselves, skilled in stealing and robbing horses.

Those who didn’t return were soon found by their leaders, with only a few remaining lost.

Of course, some men took the opportunity to pilfer additional goods and hid them outside, not bringing them back.

But under their leaders’ questioning, most of these goods were recovered.

No leader tried to outsmart the others or secretly stash goods because whoever recovered the goods handed them directly to Liu Bei, who then distributed them on the spot as they wished.

To hide anything would mean infringing on the interests of their own gang.

Apart from some horses and a cartload of white silk, Liu Bei distributed all other items. Whoever brought them back received them, and whoever’s leader recovered them got them, then shared them immediately.

Whether they privately re-divided them later, Liu Bei didn’t care.

Aside from Liu family property, no other owners could be found. So far, only Liu Yuanqi had come to Liu Bei for restitution, and Liu Bei only recorded items belonging to the Liu family.

Naturally, it was expected that other prominent families in the county would come to Liu Bei seeking restitution in time.

While the leaders pledged their loyalty, Liu Bei also discussed life with them.

For Liu Bei, managing these former gang leaders meant he could manage all the enforcers together.

The enforcers—those men—were mostly stable after Liu Bei’s distribution, and most accepted his allocation without complaint.

They knew Liu family property must be returned since Liu Bei was a member of that family.

Those prone to causing trouble had not returned.

Though numbers had decreased by a third, since those missing were the disobedient ones, the overall efficiency of the enforcers improved several times over.

Yet these men were once bandits, uneducated, and losing so many was still unsettling.

But the leaders of these small gangs felt no anxiety and were deeply grateful to Liu Bei.

However, gratitude alone wasn’t enough. Liu Bei needed to grant these leaders better-than-expected treatment, then have them restrain their own men.

You can’t manage a team forever by splitting loot—that’s the way of third-rate thieves.

True grand bandits govern their men with life goals.

These life goals are commonly called “dreams” or “vision.”

What Liu Bei painted for them was hope for the next generation.

For example, having their children grow up in a good environment, giving them a head start, enabling them to study under famous teachers, and ultimately ensuring they could hold official positions.

On this land, every parent shares the same hope, a process unchanged for thousands of years.

In truth, everyone wants to be an official; who in their right mind wants to be a bandit?

But nowadays, commoners hardly become officials.

Even someone of Liu Bei’s noble background was not yet an official—his temporary military rank was a local officer. Without significant military achievements during the limited term, he would remain a civilian once the enforcers disbanded.

Bandits were commoners, and criminals at that.

So the big dreams were mostly over; it was time to focus on smaller goals.

Indeed, Liu Bei did not preach about rising through the ranks by serving a lord and completing social leaps—that was too complicated, and these underworld leaders barely knew Liu Bei and might not believe such words.

Most of these men were in their thirties, with wives and children.

What Liu Bei promised was the smaller dream: training the next generation to have the chance to earn official salaries.

That was the hope he painted for them.