Chapter 100: Section Eight

After he finished, Huang Shi swept his gaze across all the officers, giving them a moment to digest it. "Any further questions?"

"None, my lord." The reply thundered back in unison.

"Very well. Gentlemen, go brief your personal guards. Every Company Commander is to sit in and observe; correct any ambiguities immediately. After that, the personal guards will brief the soldiers, with the Squad Commanders observing."

The briefing would take a long time, but Huang Shi was not at all impatient. The first step is always the hardest; once this system became habit, everything would be easy.

The intelligence this time had been scouted very thoroughly. Li Rui had been watching this village for a long time and had found out its population clearly. Moreover, the village's grain and hay had not yet been handed over; it was fat, very much worth a bite.

The three hundred soldiers finally all boarded the ships. The vessels sailed silently toward the target, holding offshore until the planned time before closing in on the shore. The small boats first landed He Baodao's vanguard, then Jin Qiude's unit, then Yang Zhiyuan's unit...

By the time Huang Shi came ashore, Yang Zhiyuan's unit had already moved far ahead. The remaining two units advanced together with him. When Huang Shi reached the objective, the Ming army had already secured the village and gathered the people in the village center, waiting for Huang Shi to address them.

Several old men were led over by Yang Zhiyuan. The moment they saw Huang Shi, they dropped to their knees with a thud. "General, spare our lives."

Huang Shi had instructed He Baodao and Yang Zhiyuan not to disclose the purpose of this operation, so the elders' reaction did not surprise him at all. He stepped forward and helped the foremost old man to his feet. "Elder, please rise. We are the Imperial Army of the court."

"We humble folk have long yearned for the Imperial Army," the old men immediately wept, tears streaming down their faces, and together they kowtowed toward the southwest. "Your Majesty, ah..."

Huang Shi had no choice but to join them in two bows. After the old men made a fuss for a while, they turned back to ask Huang Shi, "Does the General need provisions? Though our village is poor and shabby, we are willing to offer forty shi of grain and five fat pigs."

Although he had long known this scenario might occur, the villagers' attitude still somewhat disappointed Huang Shi. He had fantasized about being seen as a liberator by the elders of Liaodong.

Disappointment aside, proper business still had to be done. Huang Shi used his gentlest tone and said, "By order of the Ping Liao Regional Commander, I am to relocate coastal residents to the islands. Elders, the Jianzhou slaves are brutal and murderous; you had better come with us."

The old men exchanged glances for a moment, then all threw themselves to the ground. The lead elder spoke again in reply: "General, we have lived here for generations. To drift out to sea on this journey, with winter approaching and no houses to shelter us from the cold — our old bones are not worth regretting if we die, but the village has newborn infants and women in their confinement month. We beg the General for mercy."

The aged voice was full of bitter suffering. A continuous stream of "General, show mercy" rang out without pause. These men, old enough to be Huang Shi's grandfathers, kowtowed desperately, blood streaming from their foreheads down their faces.

Yang Zhiyuan behind him barked, "You are originally children of the court, which is why the court sent us to receive you. Why would you rather pay taxes and render service to the Jianzhou slaves than return to the court's governance?"

The lead elder was probably the village headman. Upon hearing Yang Zhiyuan's question, he dared not make a sound and only kowtowed toward Huang Shi. Behind him, another old man spoke up, trembling: "General, our village are all law-abiding, honest folk. For generations we have never defaulted on the imperial grain tax. The fields outside the village have been passed down from our ancestors; we dare not abandon them."

Another one, emboldened, continued: "This General is so divinely martial; the recovery of our homeland can be expected any day. If we stay here and keep the land from going to waste, we can then provide grain and conscripts for the General when the time comes."

Although this was not the best outcome he had imagined, Huang Shi still had to take them away. Changsheng Island was in ruins and waiting to be rebuilt, desperately needing manpower and resources. Besides, leaving this village here would provide the Later Jin with at least two hundred shi of grain and several hundred jin of hay each year.

"I can understand the feelings of you elders, but I am under military orders and have no choice." Huang Shi murmured a brief apology, then raised his voice to address all the villagers: "Fellow countrymen, please go back and pack. My subordinates will help you move your household goods. We depart in two shichen."

The sky gradually darkened. Most of the villagers seemed resigned to their fate and began tying up their farming tools and strapping them onto the backs of their livestock. Over a hundred soldiers stood outside the village holding torches, forming a tight cordon. The soldiers inside the village pitched in, helping the villagers bundle up the grain and hay to be transported together. The villagers valued the hay no less than the grain; without it, the livestock could not survive the winter.

Huang Shi stood in the darkness with his hands clasped behind his back, his eyes completely hidden by the shadow of his helmet. He watched the stirring village in silence. Yang Zhiyuan hurried over, saluted Huang Shi, and began his report: "Your subordinate has made a rough tally. This village has thirty-five able-bodied men, eleven oxen, and over a hundred people. Five hundred shi of grain, over two thousand jin of hay, and over a hundred farming tools. Our army's harvest is quite substantial."

"If our army had not come, how much grain would they have to hand over to the Jianzhou slaves?" Huang Shi asked in a tone devoid of emotion.

"The tax set by the Jianzhou slaves is *, which is three hundred shi of grain."

"And each household survives on ten shi of grain?"

"Just barely avoiding starvation. Besides, they can always hunt some small game and dig up wild fruits and vegetables." Yang Zhiyuan vaguely guessed what Huang Shi was pondering and gave a light laugh. "When they relocate to the island, they might even get a bit more grain."

"Winter is coming, and it will snow soon. We still have many more villages to sweep." Huang Shi seemed to be murmuring to himself. "I wonder if the makeshift thatched huts will be enough to shelter them from the cold. This winter will be very harsh. I hope no old people or children freeze to death."

Tools were scarce on the island, and the main daily work was very heavy, so the existing houses were still very crude. Huang Shi's question made Yang Zhiyuan pause for a moment, but he immediately said, "Upon returning, your subordinate will immediately organize manpower to fell trees, build shelters, and gather firewood."

This optimistic remark drew another dry laugh from Huang Shi. If they had that much manpower, the Huang Shi gang wouldn't be here relocating residents. This operation could net over two hundred shi of grain — he just didn't know how many lives each shi of grain would cost.

"My lord, our army has no choice in this matter," Yang Zhiyuan finally said what was in his heart.

"True. Indeed, we have no choice." Huang Shi repeated it softly, but his tone was far from resolute.

Just then, Jin Qiude came over in a fluster, hastily cupping his hands in salute. "My lord, there are ten old men who refuse to leave no matter what. Your subordinate cannot use force. I request your instructions."

The ringleader of the "disturbance" was still that village headman. After Huang Shi walked over, the old man, who had already collapsed motionless on the ground, struggled to kneel up again. "General, this commoner is already old and has no strength left. I would rather stay here and wait for death."