Chapter 1061: A Pledge of Loyalty (Seeking Subscriptions)

Exiled to America Bay, tens of thousands of li away!

That place doesn't even have a bite of steamed bun to eat — the "meat sandwich buns" there are two huge slabs of North American bison meat with one tiny sliver of bun in between. How terrifying! And bison meat is so tough! If your teeth aren't good, you can't even chew it, so you'd have no choice but to eat seafood every day. How is anyone supposed to live like that!

A place that terrifying — of course nobody was willing to go!

"Lord Wang Shi, those two are Fan Yongdou and Fan Sanba!"

"Lord Wang Shi, that short fat old man is called Fan Fu, and his sons Fan Li and Fan Tai are both Fan Yongdou's running dogs. Just like Fan Yongdou, they're all great traitors to the Han — kill them too!"

"Right, right, right — and Fan Yongdou's youngest son Fan Sanqian is no good either. Kill him along with the rest."

"There's not a single decent person in that family — killing them all is the only right thing!"

"Their whole clan should be executed!"

The eyes of the masses are sharp. Before Wang Shi could even call for blood, they were already shouting for it!

Fan Yongdou, Fan Sanba, Fan Sanqian, Fan Fu, Fan Li, and Fan Tai had all been waiting at the gate of Fan Family Manor to welcome Wang Shi. The moment they heard these ungrateful manor tenants shouting, they panicked. They knew the Ming dynasty's current policy toward traitors — death by slow slicing! With the crimes the six of them had committed, was there any way to escape it?

"General, General — just a small token, a small token."

Fan Douyong was quick-witted. He hastily took a large platter of eastern pearls from his youngest son Fan Sanqian, then in three quick steps reached Tian Yiqing and raised it above his head with both hands.

Tian Yiqing certainly liked eastern pearls, but he could not let these six Fans go.

"Men!" Tian Yiqing shouted. "Tie up all six of these Fans for me!"

Black cavalry armored soldiers had long since prepared ropes. At Tian Yiqing's order, they went up and bound the men. Meanwhile, the tenants of Fan Family Manor, none of whom wanted to go to America, had already pushed out all the men of the Fan Yongdou and Fan Fu households on their own initiative.

These tenants were not old hands who had followed Fan Yongdou for years. The Fan family had traded beyond the northern border for generations and did not have many old farming hands. So the tenants here at Fan Family Manor were mostly newly recruited after Fan Yongdou took over, and they had no particular attachment to the Fan family. They certainly weren't going to protect the Fans and end up in some desolate backwater like America!

Fan Yongdou was desperate too, and cried out repeatedly: "Spare me, my lord, spare me! This lowly one still has three hundred thousand taels of silver deposited at the Jiale Exchange — I can offer it all up, all of it to you, my lord!"

The Jiale Exchange, indeed! If the Jiale Exchange hadn't exposed him, the Ming army would never have caught Fan Yongdou so easily! Who knew where he lived?

A Ming officer of Tian Yiqing's rank certainly knew that the Jiale Exchange had already "switched sides" (he didn't know that Jobs had been with the Embroidered Uniform Guard all along), and that it was now managed on behalf of the Joseon regent consort. If he accepted Fan Yongdou's silver notes, it would be no different from turning himself in to the Censorate.

So he immediately put on a stern face: "This official is an honest official! You traitor dare to try to bribe me — your crime should be increased by one degree!"

What? An honest official? Fan Yongdou was truly speechless. Honest officials in the Ming were so rare! He had run smuggling operations on the Ming frontier for so many years and had never once encountered an honest official.

How was it that now, at the moment his life was on the line, he had to run into an honest official?

Corrupt officials want your money; honest officials want your life!

Fan Yongdou, Fan Sanba, and the others had run into a life-taking honest official — of course there would be no good end for them!

The old and young of both households (the Fan Yongdou and Fan Fu households) were quickly dragged out one by one and bound hand and foot. It wasn't just the six — Fan Yongdou, Fan Sanba, Fan Sanqian, Fan Fu, Fan Li, Fan Tai. When a whole clan is implicated, how could only those six suffer? When Fan Wencheng was executed, Kong Sizhen had also been subjected to "slow slicing." So several dozen people from the two households were all seized and tied up in an open field outside Fan Family Manor.

Tian Yiqing also dispatched several squads of cavalry to round up the common folk from all the surrounding villages — not, of course, to watch the killing, nor to eat "human-blood steamed buns." Tian Yiqing was a "progressive officer" who had attended the military academy. How could he do anything so pointless?

Nevertheless, he had six wooden stakes erected outside the gate of Fan Family Manor, and had Fan Yongdou, Fan Sanba, Fan Sanqian, Fan Fu, Fan Li, and Fan Tai stripped naked, gagged, and tied to the stakes. Before each of the six men was placed a table, and on each table lay a small knife sharpened to a gleaming edge.

The setup made it plain: this was to be death by slow slicing!

The women, children, and infants of the Fan Yongdou and Fan Fu households were all bound hand and foot and made to kneel on both sides, every one of them weeping like figures of tears.

The common folk who had come to watch the spectacle were divided into two groups. One group was the tenants of Fan Family Manor, who were quite cheerful. They were merely hired laborers of the Fan family, and here beyond the pass there were few people and much land — were they afraid they couldn't find work as hired hands?

The other group consisted of "bannermen's women and children" rounded up from several neighboring manors. Most of the men of their households had gone off to war with Duoni. Now, seeing so many Ming cavalrymen burst into the manors where they lived and drag them to Fan Family Manor to watch a killing — how could they not be anxious?

Had Duoni's entire army been wiped out?

Was the Great Qing thoroughly finished?

"All you tenants of Fan Family Manor, listen up!" a loud-voiced black cavalryman suddenly roared. "General Tian has ordered: the old and young of the Fan Yongdou and Fan Fu households are all traitors and enemies of the nation, deserving of death ten thousand times over. The six ringleaders — Fan Yongdou, Fan Sanba, Fan Sanqian, Fan Fu, Fan Li, and Fan Tai — are all to be cut a thousand times and sliced ten thousand times, to be executed immediately. You people are all law-abiding commoners, persecuted by the Fan family for many years, and must surely harbor resentment in your hearts. General Tian specially permits you to cut the flesh of these traitors to vent your hatred. All law-abiding commoners over the age of 13, line up before these six stakes!"

What? Cut flesh to vent hatred? They didn't have that much hatred!

The tenants and hired laborers of Fan Family Manor were all stunned. What was this about? They were all honest, simple farmers. How could they cut human flesh — and from living people at that?

Seeing the tenants of Fan Family Manor not moving, the loud-voiced black cavalryman said sternly: "What? Not enough hatred? Did you perhaps receive some benefit from Fan Yongdou? Did any of you take part when Fan Yongdou went smuggling beyond the pass? If so, even as coerced accomplices, you'll be exiled to America Prefecture!"

"Right! Are you traitors to the Han?"

"Speak up!"

"Confess honestly!"

The black cavalrymen standing guard around them all produced their firearms, the dark muzzles all pointed at the tenants and hired laborers of Fan Family Manor!

Not cutting was not an option!

The people of Fan Family Manor had to prove themselves! They had to draw a clear line between themselves and the traitor Fan Yongdou!

How to prove it? By taking a knife and cutting Fan Yongdou's flesh! Refuse to cut, and heh heh...

Frightened into submission, the tenants and hired laborers all steeled themselves and lined up. Cutting someone else's flesh was easier than cutting their own, after all!

Fan Yongdou, Fan Fu, and the others were now truly miserable — being cut alive! The tenants and hired laborers of Fan Family Manor had no skill at this either. Their knife hands trembled as they cut, and a single slice of flesh might take who knew how many cuts to come off. It was truly a living death.

Muffled screams echoed outside the gate of Fan Family Manor. Time passed very slowly, and for most of the people there it was pure torment. Except for the veterans long accustomed to the sight of blood, everyone — those doing the cutting, those being cut, those watching — was plunged into hell.

The slow-knife cutting continued until evening. Of the six men being cut, four were dead. Only the blood-drenched Fan Sanba and Fan Li remained, still groaning.

Amid the wailing of the two dying men, Tian Yiqing walked smiling into the midst of the ashen-faced crowd. Then, with a sudden cold snort, he spoke in icy tones.

"All you people of Fan Family Manor, listen well. Fan Yongdou and Fan Fu were Duoni's good lackeys. You have cut their flesh, and you have also lost the several hundred thousand shi of wheat the Fan family had prepared for Duoni. Duoni will not let you off! So you had better defend Fan Family Manor well!"

What? Defend Fan Family Manor? What did that mean? Could it be that Duoni had not been completely wiped out after all...

"As for the rest of you," Tian Yiqing said coldly, "the old and weak may return home. The able-bodied will stay to drive carts and haul grain for the government troops!

This official knows you are all the families of rebels! Put in some effort for the court, and atone for your menfolk!

The Ming army nowadays does not slaughter the innocent indiscriminately, but neither will it let people like you off!"

(End of Chapter)