Chapter 103: Section Eleven

Changsheng Island is not like the islands of the Yellow Sea — it too has a season when the sea freezes over. However, the southern side of the island roughly follows an inner current, so Zhongdao and Xizhongdao do not have this problem. The freeze at Beixinkou does not last long, far better than what Juehua suffers inside the Bohai inner waters.

At first Huang Shi let his imagination run wild and planned to build walls from blocks of ice, but he soon discovered the progress was painfully slow. The broken ice had to be reinforced by splashing water over it, and the weather was not yet cold enough to freeze water the instant it dripped. Yet waiting for that kind of weather before building the ice walls would be far too dangerous.

Once that beautiful dream shattered, Huang Shi had no choice but to grit his teeth and use some of the firewood to lay the wall foundations. At the same time he ordered the soldiers to stop gathering firewood and instead cut down large timbers, which only worsened the shortage of manpower.

“A wooden wall three hundred meters long, my lord — that is far too long.” Bao Jiusun could not help complaining. The soldiers’ physical strength was draining fast, which meant the food rations were exceeding the plan. “Can we make it rougher and sparser, not so dense?”

“No. We need to splash water on the wooden wall so that it freezes solid.” Huang Shi watched over a thousand soldiers laboring in the freezing wind. The fishing work had already been suspended, the temperature was dropping day by day, and twice a day they had to go out and break up the floating ice to keep it from freezing together. “Throw in some more firewood. Whatever it takes, we must get this wall built.”

“My lord, this is not working.” A few days later Zhao Manxiong and Bao Jiusun came together to offer their counsel. “We still need to fill it with stone, then spread earth over it, and finally splash water. There is simply no way we can finish the wooden wall in time.”

“If only we had sandbags — we could collect sand and earth to pack the base of the wall.” What Zhao Manxiong said was pointless talk. The island had too little cloth and could not spare any for making sandbags.

The biting north wind howled across the sky above Changsheng Island. The dark blue sea rolled faintly, its surface heaving with broken ice of all sizes, slowly carried through the strait by the current and the wind. Overhead the clouds were not thick, and the sunlit tops of the white clouds were still visible, yet the scenery around Huang Shi gave off a gray, dreary feeling.

Huang Shi stood by the shore, gazing at the land on the opposite side. That dry, cold continent seemed to hold not even a trace of wild beasts. The absence of snow foretold yet another year of disaster. The winter wheat seedlings in the Nine Frontier Garrisons were probably struggling to hold on once again.

……

“My lord, if this goes on, we will all be dead from exhaustion long before the Jianzhou slaves come to attack.”

When Zhao Manxiong reported to Huang Shi, he was practically on the verge of tears. It was already the end of the twelfth month. Large sheets of floating ice kept forming at Nanxinkou and Beixinkou. Huang Shi had ordered the entire army divided into several shifts to break the ice every morning and evening, absolutely forbidding the ice layer from freezing solid. The current through the Changsheng Island strait was swift, and with the roaring north wind, the floating ice was constantly being swept away.

“Continue breaking the ice,” Huang Shi ordered, his voice devoid of any emotion.

Ever since Changsheng Island had been designated as the base, Huang Shi had never for a moment forgotten the Juehua tragedy from the histories, and he constantly feared that the same catastrophe would befall his own Changsheng Island.

In the historical Battle of Juehua, the Later Jin army crossed that natural barrier by exploiting the frozen sea surface. Over three thousand Guanning soldiers and nearly five thousand military dependents were slaughtered to the last person. All of it happened because the Guanning Army failed to strictly carry out orders — the defending general did not break the ice according to regulations. As a result, the sea ice spread and froze all the ships fast to the shore, and nearly ten thousand soldiers and civilians could not even flee out to sea.

At the end of the twelfth month the weather grew ever colder. Huang Shi assigned men to patrol, and the moment ice was found forming along the shore, a work party was immediately dispatched to break it. Even in the middle of the night men were sent out with torches to inspect, breaking the ice as fast as it formed. Otherwise, within a single night the ice surface could cover more than half the strait.

“Today two more soldiers fell into the water. One was already frozen dead by the time they fished him out, and ten more soldiers have fallen ill.” During today’s routine report, Yang Zhiyuan hesitated and stammered. Seeing Huang Shi’s tightly set face, the words of remonstrance ultimately never left his lips.

The wall-building project had essentially been abandoned. The earth was frozen as hard as steel, and the Dongjiang soldiers, lacking proper tools, could no longer dig out much earth or stone. So Huang Shi poured all his energy into the ice-breaking campaign. The moment ice was spotted protruding above the water along the shore, it had to be broken open at once.

“How wide is the unfrozen sea surface now?”

“A bit over forty zhang, less than fifty.” Every day Changsheng Island sent out fishing boats to chip away at the ice surface extending from the eastern shore. Combined with the erosion of the sea current, half the strait had still not frozen over.

“Very good.” Huang Shi nodded. “I will go see the sick.”

Huang Shi remembered very clearly: the defending general of Juehua Island had allowed the ice layer to grow thicker and thicker. Only after the Later Jin army had set out did he organize men to break the ice all through the night. In the end they labored the whole night and still failed to break through. At dawn the Later Jin army attacked, and the utterly exhausted Ming troops were incapable of mounting any effective resistance.

The Juehua tragedy must never be repeated on Changsheng!

Huang Shi stepped into the military camp that housed the sick. The soldiers boiling water saluted him one after another, and the sick men also struggled to salute him. After the inspection ended, He Baodao quietly followed behind Huang Shi out of the tent.

Silver-gray clouds churned across the sky, and the howling north wind made it nearly impossible to stand steady. Huang Shi shouted at He Baodao with effort: “Company Commander He, is there something you need?”

“My lord,” He Baodao, though standing right behind Huang Shi, also had to raise his voice and yell, “we cannot keep breaking the ice. Already a hundred and twenty men have fallen ill, and nearly ten have died.”

“We failed to finish the shore wall — that is my responsibility. But right now we must persist in breaking the ice!”

Once the ice layer freezes thick, it can no longer be broken. We cannot count on luck. Huang Shi felt that his will was firmer than this freezing ice. The mistake with the shore wall had already been made; Changsheng Island could not withstand yet another blunder.

……

Today Zhao Manxiong, He Baodao, Yang Zhiyuan, and all the officers came together to Huang Shi’s tent. Once admitted, they uniformly dropped to their knees in a row: “We beg my lord to show compassion for the soldiers.”

Huang Shi shot to his feet, shocked and furious, his voice trembling with rage as he spoke: “Are you all planning to mutiny?”

The moment those words left his mouth, Hong Antong behind him gave a snort. Several other retainers also put their hands on their sword hilts and gathered close behind Huang Shi.

Not one of the kneeling officers raised his head to speak, which only filled Huang Shi’s chest with even greater fury. “This general’s order is absolutely final! Anyone who disobeys will be dealt with by military law.”

Below, there was still dead silence.

“Withdraw!”

“All of you, withdraw!”

“Every last one of you, withdraw!”

To yield now would mean losing all authority. You forced me into this — Huang Shi was so enraged that he gave a savage laugh. “Guards, drive them out for me.”

Hong Antong immediately led several retainers forward. They swung scabbards and clubs and began striking. At first the blows were relatively light, but even a coward like Zhao Manxiong refused to retreat.

Seeing that Huang Shi’s face had turned ashen, Hong Antong finally gritted his teeth and brought his weapon down hard. Yang Zhiyuan in the front row took a blow to the face, and instantly a bloody welt appeared. Huang Shi saw his body lurch sideways, but then he straightened back up and knelt perfectly erect once more.