Chapter 360

The sun blazed fiercely. Across Shanxi, only a single rain had fallen since the start of spring this year. Under the unrelenting drought, the peaks of Mount Taixing had lost their green hue, taking on a scorched, withered yellow. Year after year of natural disasters made one human tragedy after another unfold day after day in this calamity-ridden land.

In the city of Pingshun County, Lu'an Prefecture, smoke rose everywhere. Countless roving bandits surged through the streets and alleys. The city was strewn with dead and wounded commoners; everywhere rose a din of weeping and shouting. Atop the eastern gate tower, a man in civil official robes knelt on the ground, his hands bound tightly behind his back. His official robes were tattered, his black gauze cap knocked off and tossed on the ground beside him, still bearing several muddy footprints.

The official's hair was disheveled as he hung his head, staring at the ground. Before him on the ground was a pair of black Tatar boots. Following those boots upward, their current owner stood right in front of him — a middle-aged man, broad-shouldered and thick-waisted, clad in a fine suit of mountain-pattern armor, a faded black-red cape behind him. His sallow face was covered with a wild, weedy beard, and his eyes held a brutal cruelty that made men dare not meet his gaze. At that moment he stood with arms akimbo, a circle of guards behind him.

"Lord Xu, so this is what you meant back then by 'dying to repay the nation'?" The sallow-faced man forced an awkward grin onto his face, revealing a few yellowed buckteeth. He crouched down, brought his head close to the official's, and said with narrowed eyes, "When you stood on the wall cursing this old man, did you foresee today's outcome?"

The official raised his head, his disheveled hair falling before his eyes. His bloodstained face still bore a look of resolve. He was Xu Mingyang, County Magistrate of Pingshun. He stared straight at the sallow face before him. "To slay bandits for the nation is the duty of men like me. I only regret that I, a mere scholar, lacked the strength to kill you wretches. Now that I have fallen into your hands, there is no need for many words — only death! Pah!" With that, he spat a mouthful of saliva onto that sallow face.

"Insolence!" Several guards beside them shouted in rebuke and surged forward to kick and beat him.

The sallow-faced man waved his hand, signaling them to step back. He did not even wipe the saliva from his face. He forced out another smile and looked at the official with keen interest, as if admiring a work of art.

"'Only death' — then, my lord, how about you choose a death? I have prepared several ways of dying here for Lord Xu. A vulgar man's crude methods — I beg Your Lordship not to laugh."

As he spoke, he extended his left hand, ticking off his fingers as if enumerating family treasures: "There is dismemberment by five horses, flaying alive, boiling alive, death by a thousand cuts..." At this point he added helpfully: "Lingchi — three thousand cuts. If he dies before reaching three thousand, I will kill the executioner to be buried with Your Lordship. How about that?"

County Magistrate Xu began to tremble, yet his mouth still cursed unceasingly: "Zhang Xianzhong, you have utterly forsaken all conscience, you poison the common people. Though I die today, you shall surely suffer Heaven's punishment hereafter."

"Heaven's punishment?" Zhang Xianzhong froze. He stood stunned for a long moment, then suddenly sprang up and kicked the official violently, with ferocious force. After only a few kicks, the county magistrate was already spitting bloody froth and collapsed on the ground.

"Heaven's punishment! Heaven's punishment!" Zhang Xianzhong cursed as he kicked, his momentum like a mad tiger. After more than ten kicks, he suddenly stopped and abruptly turned his head, staring fixedly at the several guards behind him. His eyes were blood-red, filled with murderous intent. The guards all stepped back in unison, watching him in terror, not daring to speak.

After a long moment, he suddenly seemed to remember something and burst into loud laughter. "Someone, drag a cannon over here for this old man."

Immediately someone scrambled away in panic to relay the order. In a short while, several roving bandits escorted a few Ming army gunners, hauling a small cannon over.

Zhang Xianzhong bellowed: "Set up the cannon! Today this old man will strike Heaven's punishment first."

The Ming soldiers hurriedly found a few planks of wood, propped up the front to elevate it, and aimed the muzzle toward the sky. They loaded the iron shot, knowing things were dire, but did not dare to fully load the powder charge. Zhang Xianzhong personally lit the fuse and fired three shots in succession. White smoke spread across the gate tower, and no one knew where the shots had gone. After the three shots, Zhang Xianzhong laughed heartily within the smoke, raised his head to the heavens, and said: "This old man has fired three shots at you. I shall count to ten. If you let loose a thunderclap, I will spare this dog-official's life today."

He counted out ten on his fingers, then suddenly his face broke into a grin again, delighted. "Even Heaven will not protect you. It is not I, the Eighth Great King, who wants you dead — it is Heaven punishing you."

Xu Mingyang spat out two mouthfuls of bloody froth and coughed several times but could not speak. The Eighth Great King said smugly: "Dog-officials like you — this old man has seen plenty. Wearing a layer of dog-skin, doing nothing but wicked deeds, yet when you speak, you sound so righteous. Horse-balls! You still end up kneeling before this old man all the same. And the womenfolk of your household have all been given to my lads to enjoy."

After he finished speaking, he suddenly turned and grabbed a minor underling. The smile on his face transformed in an instant into cold cruelty. The underling trembled all over. After a moment, Zhang Xianzhong slowly grasped the soldier's headscarf and wiped the saliva from his own face. The underling tilted his head aside, fearful that the Eighth Great King might find it inconvenient.

After wiping his face, the Eighth Great King bared his teeth in a grin and said to the underling before him: "Go find a physician to treat this dog-official's wounds. Heal him, and tomorrow we execute him by lingchi. If this dog-official dies tonight, I will slaughter the physician's entire family."

"Great King, but — but — more than half the people in the city have been killed. What if we can't find a physician?"

The Eighth Great King said with a beaming smile: "Then this old man will kill you." Then he suddenly flung aside the young soldier, whose face had gone white with terror.

"Every night a new bridegroom, after looting Shanxi we'll loot Henan, murder and arson, then receive amnesty!" Zhang Xianzhong roared toward the sky, then laughed heartily and descended from the wall.

Bucktooth, in his rush-woven uniform, crouched behind a large tree chewing on a grass root, his eyes fixed on the area below the mountain. Several other team members lay concealed in the surrounding brush and thickets. Their newly issued earth-yellow uniforms were similar in color to the nearby terrain, and with some dead grass added for camouflage, no flaw could be detected from a distance.

A small stream flowed past him. The drought in Shanxi and Henan was extremely severe; it had rained only once this year. Even the mountain springs were somewhat parched, their water volume far less than before, exposing most of the streambed. The trickling flow carefully gathered into a river below the mountain. The water in that river was also very low. It flowed north into a pond — the only water source in the vicinity. Beside it was a village. The thatched huts in the village had long since all been burned down, leaving only the stones that had formed the walls.

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With a splash, water sprayed everywhere in the pond. Someone screamed loudly — a woman's voice, by the sound of it. Bucktooth raised his telescope from behind the tree and carefully observed that area. Through the telescope he could see a woman being thrown into the pond. The woman's clothing was quite fine; she was likely a young lady or wife from a wealthy household.

More than ten brawny, bare-chested men howled loudly by the pond. Their accent was indistinct from this distance. Several of them jumped into the water and began tearing off the woman's clothes. Her garments were ripped to shreds, revealing stark white flesh. She shrieked in terror, provoking even more raucous laughter from the surrounding bandits.

"Squad leader, let me have a look, will ya?"

Bucktooth turned his head to look. It was a lean, dark face, its eyes full of longing.

"What do you want to see? This telescope was purchased all the way from Guangdong. Do you know how expensive it is? Is it for you to look at that sort of thing?"

Bucktooth cursed him out and did not hand it over, continuing to observe the official road. This time a special-duty banner squad was accompanying them, comprising four small squads in total. Bucktooth was the leader of one of these small squads. He had come from Shanxi Garrison and was relatively familiar with the nearby terrain. When the special-duty squad drew personnel for bandit suppression this time, they had specifically selected Bucktooth.

This was a place within Wu'an territory near Mount Taixing. Here the ruggedness of Mount Taixing softened, forming rolling hills and knolls. Several dried-up river channels passable for travel lay between the mountains. The landscape between the hills was a withered yellow. Occasional small patches of flatland lay among the mountains, but now there was no one to farm them; they were completely desolate.

To the northwest, a winding main road followed a dry river channel and turned at the small village, heading east. To the west was Shexian. The entire territory of Shexian lay within the Mount Taixing range. Passing through Shexian would lead to Licheng in Lu'an Prefecture, Shanxi, where many roving bandits had poured in. Between Shexian and Wu'an lay the Wueryu Pass, a road passable for travel to Shanxi, which had now become a corridor for bandit movement.

On the main road, riders came and went, shouting and whooping. Most wore red coats (Note 1), some with red cloth wrapped around their heads. This band of roving bandits before them had only appeared today, and they carried no banners. Those running at the front looked like elite troops — all had horses, and the riders were mostly sturdy and strong. On their horses were mostly placed various bundles, large and small, and occasionally one could be seen holding a woman in his arms.

Bucktooth turned his telescope toward the northwest. The main road swarmed with figures, a mass of people in every color. Countless roving bandits were heading toward Wu'an. As they drew closer, he could see more clearly: the crowd included both old and young, many dragging children along. Nearly everyone was in tattered rags. The men among them generally carried clubs, hoes, and the like. Many bore bedding, pots, and bowls on their backs, resembling a parade of beggars.

"Record this: coerced refugees, roughly two thousand; elite mounted fighters, two hundred. Look at those coming behind — damn, these are more like roving refugees than roving bandits," Bucktooth said in a low voice to the team member beside him.

"Squad Leader Bucktooth, aren't we going to save that woman? She looks so pitiful," the lean team member said after finishing his notes.

"Roving bandits everywhere. If you've got the ability to wipe out this whole band of bandits by yourself, then go ahead." Bucktooth couldn't be bothered to turn his head, speaking as he continued to observe. "All along our way here, not a single village still has people in it. The common folk suffering from war number in the tens of thousands. Who could possibly save them all?"

By now the woman had been dragged back onto the bank. A gang of roving bandits were committing their bestial acts in broad daylight. Many minor underlings had gathered around, adding their voices to the raucous din.

Bucktooth shook his head slightly. In his former days as a Night Scout, he had seen many such scenes. Whether bandits or soldiers, both did plenty of this. But ever since he had been recruited into the Wendeng Battalion during the Jisi year when they marched to aid the Emperor, he often heard propaganda lectures from training officers telling them to treat the common people kindly. Although he had found it utterly boring at the time, after hearing it for so long, his thinking had genuinely changed somewhat. Especially after experiencing the people's support in Dengzhou — at the very least, he now felt that these deeds were deeply wrong.

Bucktooth silently observed the official road and casually asked the team member: "Zhang Wei, you're from Laiyang. Have you ever traveled this far from home before?"

This lean team member beside him was named Zhang Wei, a mountain dweller from Qixia, Dengzhou, and considered a veteran team member. The year before last, he had run from Qixia to join the Wendeng Battalion. Before the Fuzhou campaign, he had been selected for the special-duty squad, training while fighting. He had participated in the battle for the Fuzhou crossing, killed one fish-skin Tatar, and wounded a true barbarian. Bucktooth privately felt that Zhang Wei might have better prospects than himself, because Zhang Wei was better at reading than he was. He had long since passed the basic two-hundred-character exam and was now at over four hundred characters. Next time he could take the five-hundred-character exam. If he passed, his chances of being promoted to officer later would be much greater.

Zhang Wei licked his lips. "I've never traveled far. Going to Fuzhou was the farthest I'd ever gone. Who'd have thought this time we'd go over a thousand li in one stretch? I keep muttering to myself — will we even make it back this time?"

"Bah, I'm asking you a question, don't go saying 'we' this and 'we' that. I'm definitely going back." Bucktooth cursed, then added, "Another record: able-bodied men on foot carrying government-issue weapons, roughly five hundred."

Zhang Wei hurriedly lowered his head to write with his charcoal pencil. Bucktooth cursed under his breath: "Damn it, they don't even have a single banner. I've been recording for half the day and still don't know which band of roving bandits this is."

"Maybe they're still further back. Brother Bucktooth, staring through this telescope so long makes your eyes ache. Let me help you look."

After surveying for a while longer, Bucktooth finally handed the telescope to Zhang Wei, then pulled up two more grass roots and began chewing them.

As soon as Zhang Wei got it, he hurriedly aimed it toward the pond bank, but all he could see was a crowd of bare-chested men; he couldn't see anything else. After watching for a good while, he remembered his proper task and had to turn to observe the main road. That wave of refugees was passing through below the mountain.

Through the telescope, the refugees were almost all gaunt and emaciated. Many walked unsteadily, swaying as if they might collapse at any moment. Zhang Wei slowly shifted his angle of view. As he turned toward the village entrance, a refugee happened to collapse right then. Zhang Wei paused.

Then the scene that unfolded left him utterly dumbstruck. The moment that refugee fell, people nearby gathered around. The refugee seemed somewhat elderly and struggled a few times but could not stand up. A roving bandit shouted, and the surrounding crowd surged forward, surrounding the fallen refugee in the center. Amid piercing, miserable screams, strings of blood droplets and chunks of flesh flew out from the crowd.

Zhang Wei involuntarily raised his head, his mouth agape as he watched this horrifying scene. People kept leaving the crowd, holding severed limbs or chunks of meat in their hands, cheerfully calling out to their relatives and friends to set up cooking pots. Many excitedly picked up pots and bowls and went to the pond to fetch water, completely ignoring the woman still screaming beside the pond, as if long accustomed to such sights. Others went to gather firewood.

What they were going to cook and eat was obvious. Zhang Wei could be considered a man who had seen battle; he had not flinched at mountains of corpses and seas of blood when killing Tatars. But now his hands were actually trembling. He had never imagined such a scene could exist in this world. Even though the training officers had told them about the situation in Shanxi and Shaanxi, those were merely rumors. What was before his eyes now was the real eating of living people.

"Still want to look?" Bucktooth bared his teeth.

Zhang Wei lowered his head and returned the telescope to Bucktooth. "I don't want to look anymore."

"Good for you all to see this. These roving bandits, ah..." Bucktooth shook his head and smiled wryly, not knowing how to describe it. In truth, he knew it was not just the roving bandits — even among those genuine refugees and famine victims, cannibalism was everywhere.

"Brother Bucktooth, what do you reckon these roving bandits did before?" Zhang Wei suddenly asked.

"What could they do? Nothing but worthless tenant farmers, or else convicts, deserters."

Zhang Wei pressed on: "Then how did they turn into cannibals? If it were me, I'd rather die than eat."

"Then you haven't been hungry enough yet." Bucktooth put away the telescope. "Get ready."

Zhang Wei froze for a moment. "Get ready for what?"

"Capture someone alive for interrogation, or else we won't even know which band of roving bandits his mother belongs to." Bucktooth pointed ahead. Zhang Wei squinted to look. Many refugees were searching for firewood around the village. Two of them were walking toward the foot of the mountain on this side, weaving aimlessly through the underbrush along the way, apparently looking for wild fruit on the mountain. The places near the road had already been stripped clean by the roving bandits ahead. They were getting farther and farther from the main bandit force in the village.

"Neither of them has weapons. The two of us will go empty-handed and grab them." Bucktooth finished speaking and let out a bird call. Someone on each side responded with a call. They had also seen the men approaching and knew what Bucktooth intended to do. Zhang Wei removed his waist saber. Together with Bucktooth, using the grass and trees as cover, they slowly moved forward. (To be continued. If you enjoy this work, welcome to Qidian to cast your recommendation votes and monthly votes.)

PS Note 1: The Daring General and the Purple-Gold Beam wore red and gold, and the bandit horde imitated them, so they all used red robes as their insignia.

Xiaoshuo Wang