Chapter 488: Circumstances

"Zhang Zhongqi, come out and follow me." Cherge's voice sounded outside the door.

Zhang Zhongqi came out with a fawning smile plastered on his face, looked at Cherge and said ingratiatingly, "Master Cherge, where are we going for labor duty this time?"

Cherge was the fende bosoku in charge of Zhang Zhongqi. In the past, out of respect for the old Niu Lu Ejen, he had treated Zhang Zhongqi fairly well. But now that the new Daidaku had arrived, he no longer showed Zhang Zhongqi any courtesy. He just looked at him with a hint of mockery. "Who told you it was labor duty? Are you still thinking about the old master's days, when you were always sent to boil salt, hunt, and reap the benefits? You're a Nikan who got banner status — do you have the right to pick and choose?"

Zhang Zhongqi smiled sheepishly. "This slave wouldn't dare. This slave obeys whatever the master says."

Cherge looked coldly at Zhang Zhongqi and said, "Bring your own marching rations and horses, and follow me to Shenyang. The Great Khan wants to train Han troops."

"Master, aren't Han troops chosen from among the Aha?"

"The bondservants in our Niu Lu were nearly wiped out at Lushun. We don't have that many bondservants left, but there are quite a few Nikans who got banner status. You're a Nikan with banner status — if the master chooses you to go, you have to go."

Zhang Zhongqi swallowed a mouthful of saliva. Just then, Taketan passed by outside the door. Hearing Cherge's words, he let out a cold, mocking laugh. "A Nikan is a Nikan. Don't go forgetting you're a slave just because you got banner status." He finished speaking, coughed, and spat a thick wad of phlegm onto Zhang Zhongqi's clothes.

Zhang Zhongqi didn't dare wipe the phlegm off, nor did he dare show any anger. He knew Taketan still remembered the time he had hit Hailan. Later, he had made a special trip to explain in person, but Taketan and Hailan had beaten him up and thrown him out before he could even get a word in. He couldn't exactly stand outside yelling that he had been trying to block the Niu Lu Ejen that time, so he had no choice but to swallow this loss in silence.

After cursing him, Taketan turned and left. He was now a White Armor Soldier, one of the few remaining in this Niu Lu. Although Hailan had offended Daidaku last time, she had only been fined one ox. Her status was still far above Zhang Zhongqi's.

Zhang Zhongqi cursed inwardly a few times. He had saved Taketan several times, and that business with Hailan had also been a well-intentioned attempt to help, yet this was how he was treated. In the end, Taketan had never regarded him as an equal. Everything was—

Cherge finished giving his orders and headed to the next house, which was Zhang Zhongqi's neighbor. Zhang Zhongqi hurriedly followed behind and said cautiously to Cherge, "Master Cherge, the autumn harvest is almost here. Should we wait until after the grain is collected before leaving?"

"Of course you'll leave after the harvest. Your household will hand over five dou per mu. If you're short by even one dou, your head will roll."

Zhang Zhongqi stood frozen on the spot. Although he had fifty mu of land, much of it was barren and far from water sources. In a severe drought year like this one, only about twenty mu could yield any grain, and most of that was only around nine dou. The other twenty-plus mu had virtually no harvest. After paying this amount, he would have no grain reserves left at all.

By now, Cherge had reached that neighbor's door and was about to kick it open. Zhang Zhongqi quickly ran to Cherge's side, pulled a five-tael piece of silver from his bosom, and secretly slipped it to him. "Corporal, I beg you to show some leniency. This slave's land is all poor-quality, it can't produce much grain. I beg the Corporal to reduce my quota."

Cherge felt the silver, tucked it directly into his own bosom, and waved Zhang Zhongqi off without saying whether he would reduce it or not. Under Zhang Zhongqi's fearful gaze, Cherge stepped up and kicked the neighbor's front door. The battered door immediately burst open with a large hole. Cherge kicked a few more times, knocking the wooden boards aside, and walked in through the hole.

Zhang Zhongqi peered inside from outside. This household also belonged to a bondservant who had been granted banner status, named Wang San'er. During the Battle of Lushun, he had somehow managed to cut off a Dengzhou soldier's head. At that time, their Niu Lu had suffered devastating losses among the banner soldiers, so this bondservant had managed to obtain banner-man status. However, he had never gone out raiding and had no savings. He even had to rent an ox from Zhang Zhongqi's household. He lived a very hard life. Although he had the status of a banner-man, he was worse off than the village heads under the masters. There were four people in his family: a wife and two small children. Recently, they had been eating only sporadically. Zhang Zhongqi had helped them out at first, but later, when he himself didn't have enough to eat, he stopped lending grain to Wang San'er.

Cherge stood in the courtyard and shouted a few times. There was no response from inside. Cherge headed toward the main house. Zhang Zhongqi, afraid he would kick down the door of the main house too — which would make the winter cold unbearable — hurriedly followed him in. The courtyard was extremely bare. The horse stable and ox pen were both empty. Only the firewood pile in the southeast corner was still fairly large.

The previous owner of this house had been an armored soldier who died in Fuzhou. Generally, when a true Jurchen died in battle, if he had no direct lineal relatives, his remaining assets, wife, concubines, and minor children were all disposed of by the Ejen of the Niu Lu. But before disposal, they had to report to the Banner Lord Beile. This armored soldier had only a wife. In the end, no one knew who took her in, and the house was assigned to this newly promoted Wang San'er.

Zhang Zhongqi rushed ahead of Cherge to knock on the main house door. The door swung open at a touch. As the door leaf slowly opened, Zhang Zhongqi stared wide-eyed at the scene inside the main house.

Wang San'er and his woman were huddled together, leaning against the grain chest in the main house, holding their two children in their arms. The four of them were emaciated, skin and bones, lying motionless beside the grain chest.

Zhang Zhongqi stretched out a trembling finger to check their breathing. All four were already dead. The bodies had long since gone cold. He looked inside the grain chest — not a single grain of food remained. The entire family had starved to death.

Many people in their Niu Lu had already starved to death. Zhang Zhongqi had relied on things he secretly pocketed during each campaign, saving up quite a bit of silver, and had barely managed to survive the famine. Being able to eat until half-full every day was already a tremendous blessing.

Someone like Wang San'er, who had just been granted banner status, had no savings and a family to support. His circumstances were far worse than Zhang Zhongqi's. Bondservants of the Later Jin could have their own families, though their children also counted as the master's bondservants. They could also own a small amount of property. They were not the kind of complete slaves. In the past, when times were good, even bondservants could eat their fill. When the masters returned from raiding, there were always some benefits.

Now, with a famine like this, grain prices had risen to more than six times the usual. Not to mention bondservants, even the true Jurchen in their Niu Lu had starved to death in large numbers. Many true Jurchen households also had little money. When the grain ran out, it ran out for them too. No one pitied them. Wealth was still rapidly concentrating in the hands of the military aristocracy.

Seeing that Wang San'er was dead, Cherge cursed loudly. He stood there calculating for a moment, considering which other households under his jurisdiction could provide bondservants, then walked straight out the door, leaving Zhang Zhongqi alone in the empty, silent courtyard.

Zhang Zhongqi had long grown accustomed to life and death and quickly recovered. He crouched down, kowtowed to the corpses, and said, "Brother Wang San'er, don't blame me for not lending you grain. I didn't have much left myself. If I'd given it to you, someone in my own family would have starved. Anyway, I won't eat you... I've never eaten anyone either, but I can't guarantee others won't eat you. I'll come back tonight to bury you, so no one sees where you're buried and digs you up again. You're dead, so just stay dead. Don't come looking for me afterward."

After he finished speaking, the room was utterly silent. This wasn't a battlefield, after all. On a battlefield, there were all kinds of sounds to distract one's attention. Zhang Zhongqi felt a bit panicked by this silent, gloomy environment. He hurried out the door and went home.

As soon as he entered his own courtyard, he immediately felt much more at ease. He quickly closed the gate. The sound of his son crying came from the house. A smile surfaced on Zhang Zhongqi's blank face. He slightly raised his head, looked at the blue sky above, and murmured, "Going to Shenyang to be a Han soldier? What kind of life is this... If Huang Shan had stayed, maybe it would be him going. Or maybe he'd have starved to death already. I wonder how he's doing. Is Dengzhou really as good as Bai Youwu said?"

"This is fucking Avici Hell!" Huang Shan collapsed limp on his bed, wailing.

Tang Wei's head drooped on the bed opposite him. They had been training for nearly two months, and the intensity was increasing. Today they had run twenty li.

Tang Wei had participated in bandit suppression in Henan and knew the use of forced marches, but running twenty li like this was truly beyond his physical endurance. He heard that tomorrow they would have to march seventy li carrying armor. The new recruits had no armor, so they used stones placed in their backpacks to simulate the weight.

Every day was endless drill, indoctrination lectures, and physical training. The dry-fire practice with the matchlock had been drilled into him until he felt like vomiting. He now felt nothing but loathing for the combat battalion. Even the handsome red autumn military uniform no longer looked pleasing to his eye.

But now, even if he wanted to leave, he couldn't. Any slackness meant a beating. At first, they used bamboo switches. At the end of August, when the weather cooled slightly and they added more clothing, the bamboo sticks were replaced with short wooden clubs. In winter, they would switch to military canes, which hurt even more. At the very least, Tang Wei's backside had been wounded many times.

Xie Fei, beside him, said in exhaustion, "Damn it, there are still two hundred push-ups tonight. My whole body's falling apart. How am I supposed to do them?"

Tang Wei shot a resentful glance at Yuan Guzi in the middle of the room. That kid wasn't even seventeen yet, an orphan refugee from Henan. He'd had the good luck to be chosen as Yuan Gusheng's adopted son. He joined the army as soon as he finished at the Tunbao school. Who knew if he'd been brainwashed by those training officers? He did everything the instructors said without the slightest discount, and on top of that, he would report anyone who slacked off. So with this inside informant watching, they couldn't even think about slacking off and skipping those two hundred push-ups at night.

Qing had already grown a mustache on his upper lip. His name was Peng Yunfei, from Aoshan Guard. His family were fishermen. Although they had no money, he hadn't lacked for meat, so he was built big and burly. Although he and Tang Wei hadn't known each other before, the two were fellow townsmen, their accents almost identical. So even though they weren't in the same squad, they had quickly become close.

He whispered to Tang Wei, "Fatty, you got any smokes left?"

Tang Wei said impatiently, "No, finished the last ones I bought. No time to go buy more now."

"I heard someone over at the Tenth Company got some. You can go buy there, just have to pay a high price."

Tang Wei glanced over at Yuan Guzi. "Do I dare go out? During today's long-distance cross-country march, I took a shortcut, and that dog Yuan Guzi reported me again."

Peng Yunfei ground his teeth a few times. "I've been reported by him twice too. We can't just put up with this. Back home, I would've beaten him up long ago."

Xie Fei beside them quickly leaned in. "Yeah, how do we deal with him?"

Tang Wei's eyes darted around, and he beckoned to Huang Shan. Huang Shan had already heard. He waved his hand and said, "Don't call me. I'm afraid the instructor will deal with me later. You guys shouldn't do it either. The punishment for beating a teammate is really severe."

Peng Yunfei went over, grabbed Huang Shan, and dragged him over. He cursed at him in a low voice, "If you don't join in, no more smokes for you from now on, and no share of the liquor either."

Huang Shan thought it over with a worried frown for a moment, then nodded. The four of them put their heads together. Peng Yunfei turned his head to look at Su Cutui, who was right beside them. Su Cutui pretended not to have heard anything.

Tang Wei whispered, "Ignore him. Tonight, we'll..."

The military camp was silent late at night. Even those who did extra training at night were already asleep. Only the night sentries and the patrolling garrison provost soldiers were still moving about here and there. Everywhere was pitch black.

The soldiers in the Thirteenth Company barracks were all asleep. The high-intensity training had left these soldiers utterly exhausted. The room was filled with thunderous snoring.

Several dark figures quietly rose from the long brick bed. Peng Yunfei was closest to Yuan Guzi. He crept over to Yuan Guzi's pillow. Once all four were in position, Peng Yunfei suddenly grabbed Yuan Guzi's blanket and pressed it tightly over his head. The other three, without a word, started beating Yuan Guzi's body wildly.

Yuan Guzi, suddenly smothered and beaten in his sleep, cried out in panic. The sound was mostly absorbed by the blanket, turning into a muffled, hollow tone.

The dark figures punched and kicked. Yuan Guzi's legs flailed wildly from the beating. The basin and bowls at the foot of the bed were kicked, clanging loudly. Several teammates around him were startled awake and sat up in alarm, shouting questions.

Tang Wei and the others quickly pressed down on Yuan Guzi's legs. Xie Fei delivered a final hard punch to Yuan Guzi's stomach, making him curl up, unable to even make a sound.

Tang Wei and the other two seized the chance to jump off the long brick bed and, in the darkness, crawled back to their own spots along the central aisle. Peng Yunfei, who had been holding the blanket, punched Yuan Guzi in the head one more time, then took advantage of Yuan Guzi's dazed confusion to turn and dart back to his own bed.

By now, most of the people in the room were awake. Yuan Guzi gasped for breath a few times, then began groaning loudly. Tang Wei, Huang Shan, and the others all asked from their beds, "What's going on?! What's going on?! What happened?"

People in the room scrambled to find a light. Wang Zhanqing shouted, "Nobody fucking move! I'll go get a light! Nobody talk! Squad leaders, count your men! Those counted, answer up! Anyone gets off the bed, I'll beat the crap out of them!"

Xie Fei coughed and began calling roll. Huang Shan and Tang Wei both answered loudly. For a moment, the room was filled with the sounds of roll call and responses. Then, the door burst open with a bang. Two lanterns rushed in swiftly. The patrolling base provost soldiers stormed in and roared, "All quiet! No noise allowed after lights-out!"

The room immediately fell silent. Since entering the base, these new recruits had been beaten into submission by these provost soldiers and instructors. The variety of physical punishments was bizarre and endless. Tang Wei had even been punished by being made to squat on the four legs of an overturned stool for half an hour. Now, whatever the instructors said, no one dared disobey in the slightest — including someone like Wang Zhanqing, who claimed he wasn't afraid of a beating.

Instructor Liu Liu rushed over quickly. He asked Wang Zhanqing about what had happened. Wang Zhanqing had been sleeping in a daze at the time, and it took him a good while to figure things out — there was no way he could fully reconstruct the events.

Liu Liu held up a lantern and leaned close to Yuan Gusheng. He saw a swollen spot on Yuan Gusheng's face. This Yuan Gusheng often reported teammates for slacking off and the like. In his heart, Liu Liu actually did not much care for this sort of informer, but as the instructor he could not say so. Today, clearly those teammates were retaliating against Yuan Gusheng. Brawls and fights were common in the military; as long as no one was crippled or killed, they were ultimately left unresolved, and the one who got beaten simply had it coming. But that was in the combat battalions. Among recruits, this kind of retaliation was a challenge to the instructor's authority.

Liu Liu asked coldly, "Do you know who hit you?"

Yuan Gusheng clenched his teeth and looked around, then shook his head. "I don't know. They covered my head when they hit me, and they didn't make a sound. I can't say."

Liu Liu shook his head inwardly. This Yuan Gusheng was truly honest — he did not even know how to make a false accusation. In the corner, Tang Wei and Huang Shan exchanged a smug look.

He had no choice but to ask, "You didn't see anything at all?"

"N-no... I didn't see."

Liu Liu straightened up, tilted his head to look at the ceiling, and finally let his gaze fall on Wang Zhanqing. "Since we can't find who did it, this is how it has to be. Aside from Yuan Gusheng, the entire squad is punished with ten laps around the parade ground and two hundred push-ups. Wang Zhanqing has led the squad poorly and is removed from the position of squad leader. From today, Yuan Gusheng will serve as squad leader."

"Ah!" Tang Wei's mouth fell open, and he could not hold back the sound.

Everyone in the room was stunned. Liu Liu ignored them and shouted, "Get dressed and move out immediately!"

Two garrison soldiers promptly drew their short wooden clubs. Shadows scrambled chaotically through the room as everyone began dressing at top speed. As Su Cutui pulled on his clothes, he leaned in close and cursed Tang Wei in a low voice, "You bastards have screwed me over badly. If there's a next time, I'll kick you to death."