Chapter 1787: Shenyang, Zhang Squad Leader

In the last days of the second month of the third year of Tiancong of the Great Jin, in Shenyang.

This foremost capital of the Great Jin now looked like a half-finished construction project abandoned when the boss ran out of money — everywhere one looked there were worksites stopped halfway through.

The expansion of Shenyang had only begun after Hong Taiji took power. The Shenyang chosen by Nurhaci as his lair had originally been the guard city of the Ming's Shenyang Central Guard, small in area and not particularly strong. It had also been badly damaged by war, and by the time Nurhaci made it his capital, the walls of the Shenyang Central Guard had been almost entirely destroyed, leaving only the north gate and a stretch of wall around it.

But Nurhaci was frugal and his purse was empty, so he never rebuilt Shenyang. This year, near the site of the old north gate, a palace for the Great Khan had been thrown up in a slapdash fashion, and that served as the central seat of the Great Jin.

After Hong Taiji ascended the throne, however, he felt that as a proper Great Khan he ought to have a somewhat sturdier capital. So he hardened his heart, dug deep into his coffers, and set about expanding and repairing the walls of Shenyang. The plan was to build on the old wall foundations, making the walls thicker, taller, and stronger; and to change the original four gates, which were not very auspicious, into eight gates, which were more "prosperous." Each of the Eight Banners would guard one gate, and the area inside the gates was likewise divided into eight districts for the bannermen to live in.

If this project could be completed smoothly, Hong Taiji would have a brand-new fortress as his capital and his base.

Unfortunately, this great project had come to a halt after last year's "First March Beyond the Yan Mountains" campaign. The four walls were only half piled up, and all eight gate towers had only their foundations built. The moat outside the city had taken on some shape, but in the eight districts inside the city where the bannermen were to live, half-built residences could be seen everywhere. Where there were no half-built residences, there was either empty wasteland or very crude shacks — almost no brick or stone houses, all rammed earth and timber, all of them drab and gray, not looking at all like places where great officials lived.

As for the commercial district, the whole city had just one street, located north of the Khan's palace, called Siping Street. Along the street were scattered a dozen or so shops, mostly selling grain, mountain goods, medicinal herbs, and mules and horses, with a few eating houses and wine shops, and two coffin shops. None of the shops had any business; they were cold and quiet, looking as if they were about to go under — ever since Hong Taiji, the second-generation Great Khan, had taken power, the market in Shenyang had grown more depressed by the day!

And the reason for the depression in Shenyang was, of course, that the Tiancong Great Khan had lost money on his wars. The campaign against Joseon had run into an epidemic; the campaign against Ningyuan and Jinzhou had run into the Hongyi cannons and Yuan Chonghuan; and last year's incursion had been the worst loss of all — it had run into a little Ming emperor, Zhu Youjian, who was "brave as Lü Bu, cunning as Zhongda, ruthless as the traitor Cao," and that too had been a losing war.

Of course, the matter of the Great Khan always losing money on his wars could not be openly discussed in Shenyang. The Great Khan was as wise as Zhuge Liang — how could he possibly lose? Spread out a map and one could see that the Great Khan had not lost at all. The gains from the "First March Beyond the Yan Mountains" were far greater than the gains from Zhuge Liang's First March Beyond the Qishan Mountains! Not only had he taken Ma Meng Mountain — roughly half of the Yan Mountains east of the Chahar loop — but he had also seized the city of Jinzhou, which had not been taken in the Ning-Jin campaign of the first year of Tiancong, taking advantage of the moment when the Ming forces in western Liaoning had moved east to reinforce.

Moreover, the territory the Tiancong Great Khan had taken in the "First March Beyond the Yan Mountains" was not merely drawn on a map without actual garrisons; troops were truly stationed there and farming the land! Half the men of the Plain Blue Banner and the Bordered Blue Banner had been drawn from the Eight Banners, along with eight newly formed Mongol banners (the Eight Banner Mongols) and a portion of Han troops (there were as yet no Eight Banner Han troops, only Han niru), and these were stationed to farm and garrison the lands east of Ma Meng Mountain and around Jinzhou.

This was true expansion of territory, truly pushing the border between the Great Jin and the Southern Court forward by several hundred li!

So the Han commoners and the Khan's booi bondservants who ran businesses on Siping Street dared not say that the "First March Beyond the Yan Mountains" had lost money.

Although the Great Jin had not lost, Zhang Squad Leader, the booi bondservant now watching a shopfront for his Bordered Red Banner master, had lost!

He had gone along on the incursion, managed to see battle a few times, but in the end had gained nothing, and after returning he was still a bondservant of the Bordered Red Banner. Being a booi bondservant was not even the worst of it; the worst was that Zhang Squad Leader's father and mother had died in the famine that began in the winter of the second year of Tiancong. Zhang Squad Leader was not very old, but his parents were no longer young — he was the youngest son of his father and mother, born when they were already in their forties.

And in this age, people in their late fifties approaching sixty, unless they lived in comfort and paid attention to keeping fit, were all terribly old, unable to do heavy labor, and no longer able to take up a blade and go to war for the Great Jin.

To the masters of the Bordered Red Banner, the old couple naturally had no value. If Zhang Squad Leader could obtain the status of a bannerman, he would of course have a way to earn food for his parents.

But he was only a bondservant. Though he was a young bondservant with room to grow, he still had no way to save his parents' lives.

Even if he was willing to give his own rations to his parents, it would not do — he was a booi bondservant, and he did not have the freedom to starve to death. Only when his master decided he must starve could he starve!

And the people who became masters were all shrewd; they would not put old people who had to starve together with filial sons!

He still remembered the moment of parting with his parents. The two old people had been conscripted in the bitter cold and sent to the front at Jinzhou to serve. In truth everyone knew the Jinzhou front had no need of them — what were they going there for at that age? To hand their heads to the Ming troops? And the masters would not provide rations for the journey.

In effect, it was driving out the surplus population to starve. Yet Zhang Squad Leader, who had always been filial, had parted from his parents with a smile!

He had to smile. When booi bondservants of the Great Jin marched out of the city on campaign, how could they weep? Fan Wencai, who had saved Zhang Squad Leader's life in the last incursion, had led the Bordered Red Banner Han troops in "escorting" this group of old booi (not only Zhang Squad Leader's parents — there were many others) to their deaths. If Zhang Squad Leader had wept and wailed as he sent his parents off, Fan Wencai would have had no choice but to kill a chicken to warn the monkeys!

The moment he thought of how he had smiled as he sent his father and mother to their deaths, Zhang Squad Leader's heart ached! His eyes stung, and tears welled up in them.

Just then, the sound of bridle bells and hoofbeats rang out, and several sturdy horses swept past along the street like the wind. The lead rider wore commoner's clothes and had his head shaved bald. Zhang Squad Leader recognized him — it was Fan Wencai, the beiyu of the Bordered Red Banner Han troops, the elder brother of Fan Wencheng. After escorting Zhang Squad Leader's parents out of Shenyang, he had not returned; he had not even been seen during the New Year. Zhang Squad Leader had not expected to see him today.

"Master Fan!" Zhang Squad Leader shouted.

Fan Wencai had already slowed his horse. Hearing someone call him, and in a familiar voice, he reined in his mount and looked back, and saw a teary-eyed Zhang Squad Leader.

"Squad Leader." Fan Wencai looked at the gaunt, bony boy and sighed. From the look of him, he was starving! So he reached into his bosom, pulled out a small money pouch, and tossed it over. "Take this money and eat a few good meals, build up your strength. Don't you dare be stingy!"

"Master Fan." Zhang Squad Leader caught the pouch and understood at once. Zhang Squad Leader was seventeen this year, with no father, no mother, and no ties. When the Bordered Red Banner marched to war, they would surely take a bondservant like him along.

Fan Wencai nodded and said loudly, "Squad Leader, this time you must not miss the chance again. You must become a bannerman! That was your parents' dying wish. In times like these, only by becoming a bannerman can you live properly — live like a human being!"

Zhang Squad Leader clutched the pouch of money tightly, nodded hard, his eyes brimming with tears. "Master Fan, I understand. This time I will definitely become a bannerman!"

Only by becoming a bannerman could one live like a human being! That was the only path of advancement laid before the booi, the Han commoners, and the Mongols of the Great Jin.

And it was absolutely a path that could be walked — as long as one was willing to stake one's life on it!

(End of Chapter)