Chapter 848: Despair

Within the Great Shun realm, there were indeed clear-headed individuals aware of the hidden dangers brought by the campaign to recover stolen goods and solicit contributions. For instance, on the first day of the fourth month, Military Advisor Song Xiance used celestial phenomena to make his case: "The heavens are bleak and fierce, the sun dim and lightless; punishments must be halted immediately."

On the seventh day of the fourth month, Li Zicheng passed by Liu Zongmin's residence and saw over three hundred people crammed into the courtyard, their wails half-choked. Li Zicheng said, "The heavens have shown a warning. Military Advisor Song says punishments should be moderated; it is fitting to release them at discretion."

But from the very moment they entered the capital, the relationship between Li Zicheng and his subordinates had undergone a subtle shift, just as the interests of an emperor and his ministers are never entirely aligned. The relationship between Liu Zongmin himself and Li Zicheng had likewise transformed.

Li Zicheng wanted Liu Zongmin to release the prisoners, saying, "Why do you not help me be a good emperor?"

Liu Zongmin, however, disagreed, saying, "The authority of the emperor belongs to you; the power of torture and plunder belongs to me. Say no more about it."

The psychology of ordinary soldiers toward the Shun high command had also changed. For example, when they first entered the capital, Li Zicheng allotted the veteran core—the old camp—only a few hu of rice and a few sheng of horse beans per day, and the men were deeply resentful. They felt that before entering the capital, the rebel high command had been generous and bold, drinking from great bowls and dividing gold by the scale; now that they had taken the realm, they were miserly and petty, and their hearts were filled with discontent and bitterness.

And to be frank, whether the former Chuang army or the present Shun army, it was never a strictly disciplined military force, nor a political organization with ideals and aspirations. Its backbone was made up of border households who could no longer survive, post-station runners, steppe horse bandits, and then masses of coerced refugees sifted and winnowed into squads of veterans.

In their bones, they were still refugees, an assemblage of plundering gangs.

The slogans they put forward were also absurd and laughable—no corvée, no grain tax—which fundamentally destroyed any basis for their legitimate existence.

If their own survival depended solely on plunder, how could they bring stability to anyone else?

In wartime, to stay alive and to conquer the realm, the Chuang-Shun high command could restrain their subordinates with harsh military discipline. But now that the realm was won, a dazzling world beyond their former imagination suddenly appeared before their eyes, and all around them were ants utterly incapable of resistance. The former refugees lost their way.

Moreover, when those above show a fondness, those below outdo them. Li Zicheng himself, originally a man not given to wine and women, now began to indulge in sensual pleasures, drinking all day long. Needless to say, Liu Zongmin and other high commanders spent their days either torturing for silver or taking pleasure with prostitutes.

Niu Jinxing and his ilk spent their days bellowing and roaring before the surrendered officials, venting all their former frustrations to the fullest, while incidentally collecting wealth and beautiful women, and gilding their own sedan chairs with gold powder. The same went for Li Guo, Yuan Zongdi, Liu Xiyao, and others—each seized luxurious mansions and surrounded themselves with dozens of beautiful women for their amusement.

When the upper beam is crooked, the lower beams go askew. All of this was a powerful stimulus to the middle and lower ranks.

Moreover, the Shun army was now a motley mix of good and bad, complex in composition. Beyond the tens of thousands in the inner battalions, there were far more in the outer battalions, plus countless—at least several hundred thousand—surrendered Ming troops. These men were either refugees or utterly devoid of loyalty, each harboring unspeakable evil desires deep within.

The campaign to recover stolen goods and solicit contributions was like breaching a dam, and the madness, greed, and irrationality in each man's heart instantly poured forth.

Not to mention that the high command was busy venting its own desires and never even thought to restrain them; even if they wanted to restrain them now, it was already impossible.

They had ample reason and spoke with righteous conviction: "You let him be emperor, but won't let us have gold, silver, and women?"

Even when Li Zicheng wished to ascend the throne, some officers actually said, "Mounted bandits bowing to a mounted bandit—who is willing to bend the knee?" And also: "We fought and bled to win this realm; it is not his doing." Liu Zongmin himself told the officials, "I was a mounted bandit alongside him; why should I bow to him?"

So in the eyes of the various soldiers, if officers could plunder, why couldn't they?

If you high officials and dignitaries could plunder the Ming's noble and official households, I can just as well plunder the Ming's wealthy households and common people!

Within just a few short days of the campaign to recover stolen goods and solicit contributions, the latent evil desires in human nature were suddenly unleashed. The situation took a sharp turn for the worse and spread in a terrifying direction.

In the end, everything spiraled out of control.

…

When the Shun army first entered the city, Yang Bagu and her family spent two days in great fear and trepidation. But on the twentieth, the Great Shun authorities posted notices to pacify the people, strictly forbidding killing. That same day, four Shun soldiers who had looted a silk shop were executed by dismemberment.

Yang Bagu went with great interest and relish to watch the execution, and returned home excited, saying, "Good days are ahead."

She took her daughter Niannu and Zhang Shouyin out shopping without a care. Near Chongwenmen, they bought several ready-made outfits so the family of three could wear new clothes. They also bought rice, flour, tea, oil, and so on, and even generously bought some meat. The total cost was no more than one or two silver coins.

Calculating carefully, she planned to use the remaining money to start a small business.

But shops in the capital were expensive, so Yang Bagu planned to set up a small stall with Zhang Shouyin. While they were still planning, the campaign to recover stolen goods and solicit contributions began. From the twenty-third to the twenty-sixth, the streets were filled with the arrest of scholar-officials.

Regarding these officials being detained and tortured for silver, Yang Bagu and her neighbors discussed it with a certain schadenfreude, all saying, "These corrupt officials deserve a beating."

Yang Bagu even said loudly on the street, "The Great Shun Heavenly King is truly wise; he knows what the scourge of the previous dynasty was."

She eagerly sought out news, though occasionally when she ran into Shopkeeper Tian, she noticed his expression had changed to one of worry.

Starting on the twenty-seventh, the wards of the capital began organizing households into groups of ten for mutual guarantee; if one household fled, all ten would be executed together. At the same time, Shun officials led squads of constables to hunt down hidden stores among officials and civilians. Each ward had fifty constables, mostly local ne'er-do-wells serving as guides.

That day, one after another, local gentry were taken away and forced to contribute silver, men like Zhou Qiang, Liu Yuyou, Liang Yizhang, Mi Wanzhong, Wu Bangchen, and Shen Zizhang—all immensely wealthy. The constables swarmed in, plundering at will, no different from outright confiscation.

Yang Bagu still felt a sense of satisfaction. Toward these wealthy officials, merchants, and gentry, she had always been resentful; seeing them suffer filled her heart with glee.

Yet, unbeknownst to her, a faint panic began to stir within her.

On the twenty-eighth, many Great Shun soldiers appeared on the streets, carrying hemp ropes. If they saw a passerby with a stout, fleshy face, they suspected him of having wealth, immediately looped the rope around his neck, and dragged him away. They would not release him until silver was paid. Some were even taken to their homes and only released after the soldiers had picked through everything.

Those were the lucky ones. If they were dragged to Liu Zongmin's residence, it was all over.

Yang Bagu had already reduced her trips outside. When she had no choice, she walked with her head down. The Shun soldiers paid her little mind, though a few glanced at her new clothes.

On the twenty-ninth, Shun soldiers began entering every street and alley. Whenever they encountered a wealthy household, or even a scholar's or commoner's home, they immediately barged in to demand silver. At noon that day, Yang Bagu heard heart-rending wails from a nearby house. She knew that family—they were by no means wealthy, at most a modest middle-class household.

That day, the ward constables came and ordered that all private households possessing horses, mules, or bronze vessels must surrender them to the army camp. Yang Bagu's family had several sets of heirloom brass vessels, musical instruments, and round mirrors, passed down for countless generations. Yang Bagu was reluctant in her heart, but seeing all her neighbors surrendering their bronze, she dared not refuse.

Watching the ancestral brass vessels being carted away, leaving her home without even a mirror, her heart was filled with a vast emptiness.

That day, Shun cavalrymen galloped down the main street holding beautiful women, for the Great Shun Heavenly King had bestowed the remaining palace maids upon his officers and men. Those who received these beauties paraded them with gleeful pride.

On the thirtieth, Shun troops and horses choked the lanes and streets, in uniforms of every color and with every accent imaginable. All used the pretext of searching for horses and bronze to search house by house. And wherever they passed, a chorus of wailing followed; every household was drained dry.

Yang Bagu had already hidden the family's rice, flour, money, and grain tightly away, and had changed out of her new clothes. Yet the unease and terror in her heart continued to spread and fill her.

At noon that day, the three of them had just finished a silent meal. Niannu was about to help her mother wash the dishes when suddenly the main door was kicked open with a crash. All three cried out in alarm, then fell silent, mouths clamped shut. They saw five or six Shun soldiers burst in, all in black uniforms, swaggering with arrogance, looking at the three of them as if they were mere weeds and ants.

Yang Bagu, clutching Zhang Shouyin's hand, stood up trembling. Her daughter Niannu also nervously clutched her mother's sleeve.

The leader of the group seemed rather amiable. He clasped his fists and said with a smile, "This master, this madam, this young lady—our humble unit has just entered the capital, but the Great Shun King has yet to issue us rations or pay. We humble ones can only seek aid from the common people, and hope that you, our esteemed fellow countryman, can lend us some cooking silver and grain."

Yang Bagu said, trembling, "In reply to the Heavenly Soldiers, this humble woman truly has no silver or grain left."

Seeing that the Shun soldiers seemed unconvinced, she hastily pulled Zhang Shouyin and Niannu down to kneel.

The leader smiled faintly. "No silver? That can't be right. How is it I heard that just a few days ago, your whole family was wearing new clothes?"

He then looked at Zhang Shouyin with a beaming smile. "This master, rise and speak."

Zhang Shouyin hurriedly stood up. The leader sized him up for a moment and said, "You've been a soldier before?"

Zhang Shouyin said respectfully, "In reply to the Heavenly Soldiers, this humble one was formerly a rotation militiaman."

The leader's amiable face suddenly twisted into a ferocious snarl. He roared, "You remnant scum of the Ming, you dare stand and speak to your father?"

He suddenly delivered a heavy slap across Zhang Shouyin's face, instantly drawing blood from his mouth and nose. Zhang Shouyin stumbled and fell to the ground, unable to get up for a long while.

Yang Bagu cried out in alarm, "Brother Shouyin!"

Her heart felt as if it had been stabbed hard by a knife, and she immediately burst into loud, broken sobs. She kowtowed and said, "I beg you, spare this humble woman's family."

Her daughter Niannu likewise wept and pleaded along with her.

The leader, however, ignored them entirely and simply roared, "Stand up straight!"

Zhang Shouyin, his face and nose covered in blood, struggled to his feet.

The ringleader roared, "Stand straight!"

He swung his thick arm and delivered another vicious slap across Zhang Shouyin's face, sending him staggering again, blood streaming even more from his mouth and nose.

The ringleader roared again, "Stand up straight!"

Another heavy punch struck Zhang Shouyin in the stomach. Zhang Shouyin doubled over in agony, blood gushing from his mouth.

Yang Bagu wept bitterly. She said, "Stop hitting him. This humble woman will give you silver."

From a hiding place under the bed, she took out four silver dollars and some loose silver bits, and with the utmost reluctance handed them to the ringleader.

The ringleader said, "Yo, silver dollars. Rich folk after all."

He sighed, "Tell me, you three — if you'd just given the silver earlier, wouldn't that have been the end of it? Why suffer this? You won't shed tears until you see the coffin."

A Shun soldier beside him said, "Master Sun, this household still looks to have money. Want to press them a bit more?"

The ringleader said, "Forget it. We brothers got into the capital late, and now there are more and more battalions. Hurry up — let's go to the next house."

He tossed the silver dollars in his hand, making a clinking sound, and said to Yang Bagu's family with a beaming smile, "Many thanks."

Then the several of them turned and left, laughing loudly.

Yang Bagu hurried over and shut the door tightly, then dragged a table over to brace it. She saw Zhang Shouyin sitting in pain. Her daughter Niannu brought water and was wiping the bloodstains from the corner of Zhang Shouyin's mouth, softly asking if it hurt.

Yang Bagu came to his side and sat down in a daze. She said numbly, "How can this be? Aren't the Heaven's troops supposed to not wrong the people in the slightest... Yes, it must be the underlings acting lawlessly. The Great Shun Heavenly King will not ignore this..."

On the first day of the fourth month, more terrifying news arrived. Not only were the Great Shun soldiers spread throughout the city, breaking down doors and entering, everywhere they went they plundered everything bare, like locusts swarming the fields until grass and trees were stripped clean. And they had begun confiscating women and children.

In particular, those officers and soldiers who had not been allotted palace women were seething with resentment. Unwilling to wait for the higher-ups to assign them wives, they took to the doors themselves to rape and plunder. At first they sought out prostitutes and singing girls; now they gradually moved on to women of good families. The Great Shun had also decreed that all unmarried women within the capital were to be forcibly assigned as wives to Great Shun officers and soldiers.

Yang Bagu had already heard reports that women of good families had been seized, and after being violated and ravished to death, when Shun army officers sometimes passed by, the soldiers, fearing they would be held accountable, simply threw the corpses outside the city walls.

Some households, after being defiled, had already hanged themselves. Yang Bagu had also seen Shun army cavalry passing in the street, some with a woman held in front of them, and the spare horses carrying two or three women each.

On the second day, matters grew even worse. The number of women defiled was great. It was heard that even the wives and concubines of surrendered officials were not spared; only the family members of those officials who had died for their loyalty were absolutely untouched by the Shun soldiers. Yang Bagu had already hidden her daughter Niannu in the rear courtyard, and she herself would not go out unless absolutely forced to.

That day, she again heard the sound of doors being kicked in from house to house outside, and a neighbor wailing, "Heaven's troops, my lords, we beg you — this is the last bit of grain in the house. Without it, we cannot go on living..."

Their weeping carried a profound despair, each cry piercing to the bone. Someone else was shrieking in anguish, "My daughter... my daughter! I beg you, do not take my daughter..."

Yang Bagu shrank into Zhang Shouyin's embrace, her face deathly pale, her body trembling ceaselessly. She murmured, "Why is this happening? Weren't we told good days were coming?"

Suddenly, their front door was kicked open again. A gang of Shun soldiers surged in, all wearing red uniforms. The one in the lead was tall and burly. He swept a glance around the room, then looked over the ashen-faced, stunned Yang Bagu and Zhang Shouyin and said flatly, "Yang Bagu? We know your household has a daughter, Li Niannu, aged fifteen — just the right age to be matched as a wife to a soldier, to boost army morale and serve the nation in killing traitors... Where is your daughter?"

Yang Bagu and Zhang Shouyin rose and both knelt on the ground, kowtowing ceaselessly. Yang Bagu sobbed, "This humble woman has no daughter. It has always been just my husband and me."

The lead Shun soldier smiled. The Shun soldiers around him also burst into laughter. The lead Shun soldier waved his hand, "The same old line. Search. A small house and courtyard like this — she can't be hidden far."

They overturned chests and cabinets, searching everywhere. Yang Bagu watched in frantic desperation. Before long, she heard her daughter's struggling cries and the cheers of those Shun soldiers.

Then she saw two Shun soldiers dragging her daughter out from the rear courtyard. Yang Bagu's tears fell in large drops. She said in a trembling voice, "No..."

She hurried forward, took out the household's last two silver dollars from another hiding place, and held them up with both hands. Wailing loudly, she begged, "Heaven's troops, my lords, this is the last silver money in the house. Take it all. I only beg you to let my daughter go."

The lead Shun soldier took the silver dollars from her hand and said, "Yo, more silver dollars. The brothers before us weren't thorough."

He put them away unhurriedly, then waved a hand: "Take her away!"

The Shun soldiers laughed wildly and dragged Yang Bagu's daughter out the door. Niannu wept loudly. She turned her head back, struggling, and cried, "Mother..."

Yang Bagu screamed, her heart tearing apart, "No!"

Wailing, she rushed out the door and threw herself onto the leg of one Shun soldier, and was then dragged along just like that.

Zhang Shouyin roared in anguish, "Niannu."

He rushed out the door at the same time, trying to rescue his daughter, but the lead Shun soldier struck him square in the face with a punch, knocking him to the ground. Then three or four others surrounded him, punching and kicking him until he rolled all over the ground, finally vomiting large mouthfuls of blood and struggling on the ground, barely able to move.

The remaining men still dragged Niannu along, walking away with wild laughter.

Yang Bagu wailed the whole way, shrieking, dragged along like that for nearly a hundred paces, her whole body and face covered in blood.

Finally, those Shun soldiers grew tired of the sport and kicked her away with one foot. Yang Bagu watched helplessly as her daughter was taken farther and farther away, weeping loudly.

Yang Bagu slowly climbed to her feet. Her expression was deranged. She laughed shrilly and shouted to those around her, "The Heaven's troops have entered the city! Everyone's living the good life now!"

She clapped her hands and began to sing madly the ballad: "Kill the cattle and sheep, prepare the wine and broth, open the city gates to welcome the Dashing King. The Dashing King has come, and we pay no grain tax!"

"Eat his food, wear her clothes — if there's not enough, there's the Dashing King. No corvée labor, no grain tax — everyone live in joy for a spell!"

She came forward, clapping her hands, still shouting, "Where the righteous army passes, they wrong not the people in the slightest. The Great Shun Heavenly King says: To kill one person is like killing my own father; to rape one woman is like raping my own mother..."

Zhang Shouyin struggled to his feet, his whole body and face covered in blood and dust. Seeing Yang Bagu approach, he said, trembling, "Bagu."

Yang Bagu looked at him with a stranger's eyes. She stared at him blankly and said, "You — why didn't you defend the city? Why did you let these bandits in? You have betrayed the imperial grace!"

She shrieked and lunged at Zhang Shouyin, hitting and tearing at him. Zhang Shouyin let her strike him. Finally, he broke down in loud sobs and slowly knelt on the ground.

In the end, the two embraced and wept together, their cries shrill and harrowing, sounding like blood wept from the heart.

Old Hu watched from a distance, his heart convulsing again and again. He suddenly made a firm resolution: he could not let all this repeat itself in Xuanfu Garrison.

After entering the capital, Old Hu's thoughts had not remained unchanged. He had thought that the Dashing King — no, the Shun King — had won the realm so quickly, and that after his enthronement he would surely bestow generous rewards, and then he himself...

But what followed caught him completely off guard. At first, when they were pursuing illicit wealth and pressing for contributions, Old Hu had even felt a certain schadenfreude. He had no goodwill toward those ennobled officials, wealthy households, and local gentry. But then matters spiraled out of control, and when it finally swept up these ordinary commoners, a voice deep within him whispered, "It should not be like this."

A fear rose within him: if these locust-like roving bandits were allowed into Xuanfu Garrison, would everything before his eyes be reenacted upon his own wife and daughter? Upon the elders and fellow villagers of Xuanfu Garrison? And they were so kind, so sincere toward him — how could he let them be destroyed as he was witnessing now?

Having been long in the bandit camp, he knew that their losing control was only a matter of time, but he had never imagined it would come so quickly, so...

This was no sign of a new dynasty at all.

And now, scenes like this were everywhere in the capital. He could not possibly manage it all. Sometimes, when he tried to stop the rampaging soldiers, they would even draw blades against him. Even his own camp was in chaos — apart from some of the intelligence operatives he had developed, the rest of the camp soldiers were just as frenzied.

He was silent for a long while, then looked at Kong San, who was silent beside him, and said, "Master Kong."

Kong San knew what he was about to say. He said, "Soon."

He looked toward the couple not far away. They were still embracing and weeping bitterly. And it was not just the two of them — the entire neighborhood, all the fellow villagers, were a chorus of wailing.

Their weeping was filled with the deepest, most profound despair.