Chapter 194: The Human Market

The night was deep. After hastily eating a bowl of millet porridge that Lin Wan'er had simmered, Zhou Shixiang went to do the task he performed every day — patrolling the city.

As he left, Zhou Shixiang hesitated for a moment, then turned and told Wan'er to go to sleep on her own and not wait up for him. Wan'er mumbled an acknowledgment, but her expression clearly showed she had no intention of following Zhou Shixiang's wishes.

Seeing this, Zhou Shixiang said nothing more, gave a slight nod, and went on his way. To be honest, even now he did not know how he ought to treat this girl.

Although everyone in the army assumed Lin Wan'er was his concubine, in his heart he knew he would not take Wan'er as a concubine.

It was not that he looked down on Miss Wan'er for having lost her chastity, but rather that his departed wife and child still firmly occupied his heart.

Whenever he thought of his wife, who had willingly let the Qing army slaughter and eat her in order to protect him, and of An'er, who had been dashed to death before his very eyes by the Qing soldiers, Zhou Shixiang's heart ached terribly and felt utterly powerless.

The memories and emotions of the xiucai were too heavy — so heavy that they nearly suffocated him, the man who had come from a later age.

With the blood-soaked hatred for his family and his nation laid bare before his eyes, how could Zhou Shixiang ever forget the scenes of tragedy buried deep in his memory? Wan'er was a good girl.

Zhou Shixiang knew her goodness. He had never had any obsession with virginity, nor did he hold any prejudice against this ill-fated girl.

But he simply could not bring himself to cast aside his hatred, could not let himself forget his wife and child so quickly and accept another woman. Perhaps he deliberately wished to become another Huo Qubing of a thousand years later.

The Champion Marquis of old had said: while the Xiongnu remain unvanquished, how can one establish a home? Today's Zhou Shixiang said: while the Manchu slaves remain unslaughtered, he would speak no more of family.

Home. Every man wants a home.

Every man once had a home. But when that home has been shattered, what can a man do?

Take up blade and spear, and hack savagely at the enemy who broke his home — hack them to pieces! If he does not do this, he is no man!

A man who does not do this is fucking no man at all, not even human!

As he left the small courtyard, several personal guards silently fell in behind him. These personal guards were all men Zhou Shixiang had selected from the Guard Battalion, men whose hands had been stained with Qing army blood.

They were not many in number, but every one of them was a first-rate man.

Over the past few months, these personal guards had all come to know their Battalion Commander's habits. They followed behind in silence.

Although Zhou Shixiang could hardly be in any danger within the city, they still vigilantly kept a proper distance, their hands never leaving their saber hilts. Should an assassin appear, they would rush forward at the fastest speed to shield their Battalion Commander.

As usual, Zhou Shixiang sent someone to the rear camp to summon Song Xianggong, and another to the county yamen to notify Liao Ruixiang, then began his inspection of the city. Zhou Shixiang never followed a fixed route on his inspections.

Sometimes he went first to the southern part of the city, sometimes to the eastern part. One thing, however, was certain: no matter where he went first, he always climbed the city wall to make a round of inspection.

Even if he said not a word and merely walked along the wall, it was all so that the soldiers guarding the city could see his figure and know that their Battalion Commander had come.

Today, Zhou Shixiang went first to the eastern part of the city. Although the Qing army's two fierce assaults had failed, they had caused several sections of the eastern wall to show signs of loosening and collapse.

Fortunately, after emergency repairs by the captives and laborers, the weakened sections had all been reinforced and now looked no different from the other intact sections of wall.

Unless one inspected very carefully, one would absolutely never notice anything wrong with these sections.

Although the Qing army was no longer launching fierce assaults, to guard against any contingency, Zhou Shixiang had Ge Zheng, who defended the eastern wall, assign extra men to those problem sections, and had also ordered Jiang He to transfer a squad of musketeers from the Guard Battalion to assist in the defense.

After Zhou Shixiang climbed the city wall, Ge Zheng and the two probationary company commanders Ge Yi and Song Erniu hurried over upon hearing the news.

After briefly listening to their three reports, Zhou Shixiang waved them off to attend to their duties, saying he would take a look around the wall himself and then leave.

Ge Zheng and the others knew this habit of Zhou Shixiang's, so they said no more, clasped their fists in salute, and departed one after another.

After completing a circuit of the city wall, Zhou Shixiang strolled through the city at leisure, with no deliberate plan for his next destination, simply walking as he pleased.

Along the way, patrol squads of able-bodied young men organized by the county yamen passed by from time to time. When they saw Zhou Shixiang's group, they did not come forward to salute but continued on their way.

This was something Zhou Shixiang had specifically ordered: officers and soldiers carrying out their duties need not come forward to salute unless he summoned them.

After the patrol squad passed, Zhou Shixiang looked around at the three-way intersection, then walked toward the street on the west side. This street had once been Xinhui's commercial street, with many shopfronts along it.

But ever since the Qing army had held the city, no shop along either side of the street had ever opened again. The once bustling, lively place had become a dream of the past, and even after Li Dingguo's great army lifted the siege, the street never recovered its former glory.

After the Taiping Army occupied Xinhui, because the army lacked firewood, Zhou Shixiang ordered the demolition of houses in the city. These shops, which could not accommodate many people, became the Taiping Army's first choice for demolition.

Over the months, only a few shops still stood; the rest had all become piles of rubble.

After walking along the ruins for a while, recalling the scenes of the xiucai's family shopping on this street in former days, Zhou Shixiang was overcome with emotion.

Amid his feelings of nostalgia, he could not help but feel somewhat lonely, so he lifted his foot, intending to go look at the residential area where the rear camp was quartered.

Just as he was about to leave, he noticed what seemed to be people moving about in the ruins a dozen or so zhang ahead to his left.

So late at night, who was moving about there?

Zhou Shixiang found it strange. Without betraying any reaction, he signaled his personal guards to follow. The guards had also seen the figures there. The two in front had instinctively already half-drawn their sabers.

The group advanced quietly under cover of darkness. When they drew near, Zhou Shixiang signaled the guards to keep silent so as not to startle the people there.

He himself moved a little closer, climbed over a pile of bricks lying across the way, and the scene that met his eyes made his heart give a sudden lurch — he drew a sharp, cold breath.

What made Zhou Shixiang draw a sharp breath was people — to be precise, several dozen women. These women knelt in two rows in the narrow alley, every one of them with a straw marker stuck in her hair.

Their ages varied: the older ones were in their twenties or thirties, while the youngest were only seven or eight years old. Their clothes were mostly tattered and torn, and many of the women wore garments patched so many times the patches were beyond counting.

What was this?

The moment the scene first entered his eyes, Zhou Shixiang had already guessed what these women were doing. But when he truly confirmed it, his hands could not help trembling, because he could hardly believe that such trafficking in human beings could occur in a city under his control.

Damn it!

Zhou Shixiang's face turned livid, and the fury in his chest nearly burst forth.