Chapter 340: The Homecoming Corps

Guan Dadi was hoisted onto the shoulders of several teenage students. Looking down at the waving arms below, he smiled awkwardly — the wounds on his face were still wrapped in cotton cloth, making his smile look even more twisted. The injuries on Guan Dadi's chest and face were no longer a problem, but his calf had been wounded. The injury was not very serious, yet it prevented him from participating in training. As it happened, Zhao Xuan was in Lushun, and the two signed a leave slip granting him leave, allowing him to return to Wendeng with the severely wounded to visit family. The leave period was two months.

Several youths carried him through the sea of people. The countless enthusiastic commoners made the shy Guan Dadi very uneasy, yet in his heart there was also an inexplicable sense of fulfillment. The parade ground was just east of the naval port, and the commoners could not enter. The youths set him down at the gate, clapping excitedly and shouting loudly at him, "You are a hero, a true man!"

Guan Dadi scratched his head, not knowing what to say. A few soldiers came over and helped him inside. Passing through the inner wall beyond the main gate, a vast training field opened up before him. There was no training this afternoon, so the large parade ground had been divided into five ball courts. Many soldiers in armor were chasing a flat, oval ball. The soldiers watching around the courts howled loudly, and the whole parade ground was a scene of noisy chaos.

This sport called rugby was also Guan Dadi's favorite. The area around Jinzhou was all wasteland, and the soldiers often played this ball game — it was said to have been invented by Lord Chen as well. When playing, the soldiers still had to wear their armor; it was a form of disguised training, though it was more popular than formal drills.

He did not know that Chen Xin was also a half-baked amateur. Lord Chen had no idea about the rules of rugby, so Lord Chen simplified it to scoring by carrying the ball and charging into the goal. The whole game lacked much technique — it was a brutal sport of team coordination, fierce charges, and violent breakthroughs. Guan Dadi was one of the strongest soldiers and often a main player on the field. Seeing it now, his hands could not help but itch.

There was also a kind of football, which had quite a few enthusiasts in the army as well. Chen Xin had promoted it in the army back when he was in Wendeng. The ball was first made using a pig's bladder as the outer shell, then stuffed with chicken feathers and duck feathers and sewn shut. The rules were similar to cuju, but an offside rule had been added. This rule increased the amount of running for both sides, but to Guan Dadi it seemed somewhat baffling. Now he heard that this sport was also being carried out in the fortified villages and schools.

A harsh hierarchy inevitably existed in the army. The year-round training was extremely tedious, and coupled with the officers' corporal punishment and shouting at the soldiers, it certainly placed great mental stress on the soldiers. These sports were just the thing to let them vent. These ball games consumed extreme amounts of physical energy and were the best way to cultivate a spirit of competition and collectivism. Naturally, Chen Xin wanted to promote them vigorously, but for now they were only carried out relatively well in the army and a few vocational schools. The other village households labored all day, and their nutrition was not so excessive that they needed to go kick a ball.

No matter how much Guan Dadi's heart itched, he could not join in at this moment. A few soldiers helped him to the aid station in the southeast corner. There, Guan Dadi received a pair of crutches. He kept only one, and then, led by the captain of the Fourth Battalion's medical team, he went to the Military Affairs Office to report.

The Military Affairs Office was right next to Chen Xin's official residence. It was very spacious inside. After Guan Dadi and the others handed over their leave slips, an officer pasted a piece of paper on the back of his waist token and then stamped it with a seal. Written on it was that he could stay in Wendeng and Dengzhou for two months.

The officer at the Military Affairs Office asked clearly for Guan Dadi's address. This batch of wounded soldiers mostly came from the Long Qibing of the Fourth Battalion. This Company Commander's unit had been converted from the First Farmer-Soldier Brigade and came from four fortified villages, all in Weihai and Wendeng.

The officer arranged for them to stay in a row of dormitories on the east side, then told them to first receive treatment in Dengzhou for a few days. Once their injuries were healed, they would wait for the sand ships delivering supplies from Wendeng and take a favorable wind back to Weihai. The wounded from Wendeng could also save two hundred li of travel.

The men sharing a room with Guan Dadi were all from the same fortified village as him. Five had severe leg injuries, and the other seven had hand injuries — either severed or fractured — and could not continue serving. Although the training officers had repeatedly said that Dengzhou Garrison would take care of their livelihood, they were still somewhat worried about the days ahead, because they were all the able-bodied laborers of their families. If they could not do heavy work in the future, it would affect their families' standard of living.

They did not worry for long. The Vice Battalion Commander who had returned with the team soon brought the deputy director of the Military Affairs Office. He registered the waist token numbers and names of the wounded soldiers one by one, and also checked the literacy level on the back of their waist tokens. Then he told them that within a month, posts would be arranged for them. Those with high literacy levels could enter the civil affairs system, including the fortified villages and schools, serving as instructors. Those who knew fewer than two hundred characters could be given priority to engage in trade. Those who wanted to farm would have mutual aid arranged by the fortified village. In addition, thirty taels of silver in compensation for each person would be distributed immediately. They could choose whether to withdraw all the retirement pension they had paid in or continue to receive dividends.

With their worries behind them, the wounded soldiers' spirits immediately lifted. They talked and laughed loudly with one another, discussing whether or not to withdraw the retirement pension. The man from the Military Affairs Office came over and flipped over Guan Dadi's waist token. Seeing that it was a wounded soldier on family leave, he left without a word. Guan Dadi hurriedly said, "Sir, my compensation silver… this…"

"What compensation silver? You still have to return to the army to serve. Compensation silver is only for those killed in battle or discharged due to wounds." The officer finished coldly and paid him no more attention.

"Then what do I do if I need to use silver?"

"Use your own military token to go to the Military Supply Office to collect pay tickets. The other wounded soldiers can also go collect them first." The officer did not turn his head. He himself had been discharged due to wounds, so naturally he would not worship the wounded soldiers the way those students did.

The several officers soon left, and then training officers came in to talk to them. These training officers were all eloquent. They did not preach any grand principles, but merely chatted about everyday matters and told some interesting recent happenings in Dengzhou. The group of wounded soldiers listened with rapt attention, and the two lords they had just met were already forgotten to the far side of the moon.

Guan Dadi was still thinking about his own silver. He scratched his head. "What are pay tickets?"…

"Your Fourth Battalion is stationed in Liaodong. Military pay is only collected upon returning to Dengzhou." An officer at the Military Supply Office took Guan Dadi's waist token and looked at it. "How many people in your Company Commander's unit need to collect military pay?"

"Me, just me."

The officer shook his head. "Don't come one by one. It's inconvenient for our Military Supply Office to keep accounts that way. Have the officer who led your team back make a clear tally and collect it by company."

Guan Dadi did not know what to say. Since the man had said so, he could only salute and leave. Leaning on his crutch, he walked out the main gate of the Military Supply Office. He had always been in field units, doing everything as his officers said, and had never been to this kind of government office. The Military Supply Office had two courtyards. A large wooden sign hung at the door of every room, with some characters written on them. When he came in, he had searched for a long time, and it was only when a passing guard showed him the way that he found it. In the end, he still did not get his military pay.

Every department of the Dengzhou Garrison was busy with its own affairs. There were always many things to deal with after each battle. The Vice Battalion Commander leading the team was constantly being notified by various departments to go verify situations. Guan Dadi only felt that the people in this courtyard were all very formidable, because he did not understand a single thing they talked about.

It was not until the afternoon of the next day that the Vice Battalion Commander found time to tally the people who needed to collect military pay. Guan Dadi requested five taels. The Assistant Regional Commander went for the better part of an hour before returning, taking out a stack of papers and distributing them to everyone.

Guan Dadi looked at those papers strangely. The wounded soldiers also looked at each other in dismay. Clearly they wanted silver, so how had it become a stack of paper? The Vice Battalion Commander said as he handed them out, "Everyone listen carefully. These are pay tickets. They can be exchanged for ready silver at any branch of the Four Seas Money Shop. The military supply officer suggests you take the pay tickets directly home. There are branches at Mazidun and the old Wendeng camp. Exchange them once you get there, so you don't have to carry so much silver on the road."

Only then did the wounded soldiers feel at ease. Guan Dadi planned to exchange his right at the branch in the Dengzhou naval port — silver still felt more comfortable to hold. The Vice Battalion Commander continued, "Right, these pay tickets can be used directly to buy commercial goods at those general stores."

"What about other shops?" Guan Dadi asked cautiously.

"Some are willing to accept them, some aren't. These tickets just came out. I spent half the day asking around before I got it clear, and even made a special trip to the naval port branch to try it out. They really can be exchanged." The Vice Battalion Commander grumbled a few times. "But the Military Supply Office won't cheat anyone. When exchanging, bring your military tokens. Those discharged due to wounds, give me your military tokens later to send to the Military Affairs Office for dyeing and marking."

Guan Dadi stood up leaning on his crutch and limped out of the gatehouse. A neighbor behind him asked, "Big Guan, where are you running off to again?"

"I'm going to exchange the silver first," Guan Dadi replied, then muttered to himself in a low voice, "How can a piece of paper feel as comfortable as holding silver?"…

Five days later, Guan Dadi returned to Wendeng's No. 3 Fortified Village with the first batch of wounded soldiers heading home. He boarded a returning supply ship in Dengzhou. After disembarking in Weihai, he received another warm welcome. There was no Military Affairs Office here, but the fortified village system was everywhere. Several fortified villages in Weihai arranged over twenty ox carts and donkey carts and sent the Wendeng wounded back to the old Wendeng camp.

The fortified villages around Wendeng were dense. Along the way, many people set off firecrackers to welcome them. Huang Side had devised a complete plan this time. He made a special trip to southern Liaoning and deployed a series of propaganda activities everywhere from Lushun to Dengzhou and Laizhou. The mood of the common people in Dengzhou and Laizhou had already been stirred up. After the wounded soldiers returned home, there would also be a grand parade of Jianzhou Bandit captives, with a route covering all fortified villages and densely populated township areas. This would both boost the people's morale and demonstrate the deterrent power of the Dengzhou Garrison to those potentially hostile elements.

Some family members from the No. 3 Fortified Village rushed over upon hearing the news. They had already been notified. The moment they saw their own kin, they were so overjoyed they laughed and cried at once.

The students of the Wendeng vocational school turned out in full force, welcoming the wounded soldiers home with shouts that shook the heavens. There was also a student team that followed the whole way, playing the infantry march with drumbeats and brass flutes. Hearing this familiar tune, Guan Dadi could not help but marvel that among these youths there were so many drummers and buglers. He did not know that those vocational schools all actually had military training, and beating drums was one of the most basic training contents. Their future prospects were far higher than those of a farmer like Guan Dadi.

The lively atmosphere infected Guan Dadi, making his spirits very high as well. Finally, they reached the vicinity of the main gate of the No. 3 Fortified Village. Here, however, the mood was extremely low. Only the village head led nearly a hundred people waiting. White and yellow circular paper money drifted everywhere along the roadside. Among the people behind the village head, many were still wearing white clothes or were in mourning attire of sackcloth and hemp.

Guan Dadi's mood plummeted at once. The Third Company he belonged to had the No. 3 Fortified Village as its main force, mostly the first batch of farmer-soldiers. This time in Fuzhou, the casualties had been extremely heavy — over sixty killed in action, and more than thirty severely wounded. Adding some losses from the Battle of Dengzhou, this fortified village of five Company Commander had suffered a grievous blow to its vitality.

Guan Dadi got off the ox cart. Some familiar neighbors came over to talk warmly, but a kind of sorrow always permeated the conversation. Guan Dadi did not find his mother, and without saying much to the neighbors, he limped forward hurriedly. As he passed by the village head, he only heard him saying to the Military Affairs Office officer escorting the wounded soldiers, "My lord, in the future when conscripting soldiers, could you… not conscript people from one village into a single battalion unit? When the casualties come, they're all from one village. Our village's performance evaluation this year is hanging by a thread, not to mention the people's morale — it's all extremely low."

"We have also taken note of this matter and have already reported it to Lord Chen. The lord is currently discussing strategies with the Mobilization Office…"

Guan Dadi did not finish listening. He hurried to his own alley. The familiar street scene made him extremely emotional. He rushed to his door and knocked gently.

(To be continued)