Chapter 159: Forced Labor

In Xinhui city, the blazing sun burned like fire, yet countless able-bodied men, stripped to the waist, bore loads on their shoulders.

Seen from afar, beneath the towering city walls swarmed a dense mass of heads, like ants carrying basket after basket of earth and block after block of great stone and wall-brick to fill the breach more than ten zhang wide.

The dense crowd endured the scorching sun, yet not one dared utter a word, still less let out a groan. They only mechanically repeated the work that had numbed them long ago.

Everyone's body was burned dark by the sun, and the shoulders of those carrying loads had shed a layer of skin, exposing raw red flesh; when the carrying pole pressed down, the pain bored straight into the bone.

Even so, no one dared pause for even half an instant, still less cry out in pain, for they knew no one would show them sympathy, and no one would pity them. Begging and pleading would only bring more savage flogging, or even being dragged out and beheaded before the crowd!

Compared with staying alive, the pain of the body was utterly beneath mention, and the torment of mind and body even more so.

At last, the clear sound of a gong rang out, and the laborers who had toiled half the day welcomed the brief rest they had long been waiting for.

Although the rest lasted only the time it takes a small stick of incense to burn, and the food they received was no more than a bowl of vegetable rice soaked in salt water, to these laborers already pushed to the very limit of their bodies, this little rest was the most comfortable and happiest time of their lives.

Sadly, happy times are always short. After they wolfed down their food, the gong for returning to work sounded.

After greedily licking clean the last trace of grease in their bowls, the laborers straightened up, summoned their spirits, and headed for the work site. Behind them, the breach in the wall that had been blasted open was already more than half filled.

On the intact wall on either side of the breach, some soldiers of the Taiping Army were straining to hoist up cannon that had fallen from the wall, while many other able-bodied men conscripted from the city labored to carry log after log up to the parapet.

The air was thick with a stench mixed with the smell of oil, for in over a hundred great cauldrons, "golden juice" mixed with excrement was being boiled.

"One, two, heave!"

Amid the rhythmic chant, more than a hundred captured Qing soldiers of the Bordered Blue Banner were straining with every ounce of strength to haul blocks of stone taller than a man up onto the wall.

Each time they moved one up, their strength seemed to vanish into thin air, and they had to pant for a long while before they could carry the next.

From the start of the work until now, several dozen Bordered Blue Banner captives had already died or been injured, most of them crushed by the great stones they were lifting. Even now, below the wall one could see patches of earth mixed with blood and gore.

Heaven only knew whether bodies lay buried beneath that soil.

"Dare to slack off!"

Crack! A whip sounded, and a Green Standard soldier clutched his face and wailed, yet his legs did not dare slow in the slightest. Enduring the searing pain, he hoisted an empty basket and trotted back, not daring even to glance at the Taiping soldier who had lashed him.

The crack of whips and shouts of abuse rose one after another.

Driven by the swords of the Taiping Army, several hundred Qing prisoners, together with yamen runners and able-bodied men conscripted from the city, toiled under the blazing sun to repair the breach the Taiping Army had blasted open in the city wall.

Through a day and a night without pause, more than ten men had already been worked to death, and several dozen more had been injured by falling stones or beaten to death outright.

Several Bordered Blue Banner Qing prisoners had been made an example of by the Taiping Army: their bloody heads, still wearing the rat-tail queues, hung on either side of the breach as a warning to those prisoners still harboring illusions, lest they act rashly.

"Qi Lao'er has fainted! Qi Lao'er has fainted!"

Among the crowd carrying earth below the wall, someone suddenly cried out in alarm, but it stirred no commotion in the surrounding crowd. They woodenly continued the work in their hands, and not a single person looked at Qi Lao'er as the Taiping soldiers dragged him away.

After panting heavily and stacking a wall-brick onto the foundation stones, the yamen runner Huang Si could not help but spit, then cursed under his breath: "That xiucai Zhou is truly ruthless. We're all from the same place, and he still has the heart to do this to us!"

The companion beside him heard this and could not help but sneer: "Who's from the same place as us? Don't forget, we're not from Xinhui. How many of Zhou the xiucai's fellow townsmen are even left in this city?"

"We may not be his fellow townsmen, but if he wants revenge he shouldn't take it out on us. It wasn't us who ate his wife and children!" Huang Si said indignantly, feeling deeply wronged by his own plight.

"You didn't eat his wife and children, but there's someone else in your belly, isn't there?" the companion shot back without even raising his head.

At these words, Huang Si was struck speechless, and then his face flushed red. When the old bandit chief besieged the city, there was a reason yamen runners like them had survived.

The runner beside him, seeing Huang Si still standing there foolishly, urged: "Get back to work. The sooner we seal up this wall, the sooner we can rest.

Otherwise we really will be worked to death." He then pursed his lips toward the banner soldiers laying bricks on the wall.

"Even the court's own troops are working themselves half to death over there.

What are we? Hurry up and work."

"Ah..."

Huang Si let out a long sigh and silently hoisted the bamboo basket now full of earth onto his shoulder. Whether he was thinking of what lay in his belly or of Zhou the xiucai, his movements had become very slow.

The companion who had sneered earlier saw this and mocked: "What's the matter, Boss Huang, finding it too hard? If it's so hard, why didn't you leave with the county magistrate when the bandit soldiers broke through the city?"

"You—!"

Huang Si was beside himself with rage. Magistrate Huang had burned himself to death with his entire family! What did this fellow mean by telling him to leave with Magistrate Huang!

Seeing Huang Si about to throw down his load, the onlookers quickly said: "Enough, both of you say less. What's the point of talking about this now? If the bandit soldiers hear you, they'll chop off your heads!"

At the mention of having his head chopped off, Huang Si shuddered and could not help glancing at the heads hanging on the wall.

Those heads, strung up on the wall by their rat-tail queues, gleamed in the sunlight and sent a chill through the heart, extinguishing every last spark of his anger and silencing him completely.

On the wall, Zhou Shixiang stood at a crenel, silently watching the prisoners working below.

After hearing reports from several subordinates on the progress of the work, Song Xianggong nodded with satisfaction, then walked to Zhou Shixiang's side and reported: "Battalion Commander, before tonight is out, this breach can be sealed.

Then the Qing army will have no way to deal with us." After speaking, he hesitated a moment, then added: "After days of forced labor, the prisoners' deaths are of no consequence, but the city's common folk have also suffered undeserved calamity.

I imagine the dead and wounded are many..."

"There is no need to speak of this, Master Song."

Zhou Shixiang withdrew his gaze, waved his hand, and slowly turned to face Song Xianggong.

He said: "If one death can save ten lives, a hundred deaths can save ten thousand; if the loss of one household can save ten households, the loss of a hundred households can save ten thousand—then there is nothing to regret."

"But the city's common folk have, after all, narrowly escaped death. For our army to work them like this inevitably invites the charge of cruelty. Battalion Commander, perhaps..."

Song Xianggong knew that matters had reached this point, and that to preserve the Taiping Army they could only push men beyond their limits.

Yet being a scholar at heart, he still retained some compassion, and thought to persuade Zhou Shixiang to show a little consideration for the surviving people of Xinhui.

But before he could finish, Zhou Shixiang cut him off again and said coldly: "The people of Xinhui should have died long ago. I, Zhou Shixiang, should have died long ago too.

From the day their kin died so wretchedly, the people of this city lost all right to live on alone. Driving them today is merely making them atone for their sins.

Before, I was guilty of womanly softness, but today's situation is a matter of life and death. If we do not sacrifice them, we must sacrifice the entire camp.

Which is heavier and which lighter—you know well, sir."