Chapter 113: Section 21: Return

Hundreds of massive watchtowers and scaling platforms lay toppled in every direction, many blazing fiercely. During the battle the Ming army had no time to rescue the horses, and the Later Jin army had no strength to rescue them either, so large numbers of warhorses were burned alive on the spot.

"Send out more scouts." Huang Shi ordered He Baodao to keep probing north without pause, lest the Later Jin army turn and strike with a counterblow. After seizing the battlefield, the Ming soldiers began gathering spoils of war — cutting off heads from unclaimed corpses and checking for any silver taels or copper coins along the way. This work would not stop until it had drained the very last shred of their strength. Thus, including Huang Shi's own men, most of the Ming soldiers sat exhausted on the ground, panting.

The scouts returned in wave after wave. All they saw were the backs of the enemy fleeing north in a torrent, abandoned banners littering the entire path, and men who had run until they vomited blood and died.

"We've won." Huang Shi let out a long sigh. His heart finally settled at ease.

……

Earlier, after the Later Jin vanguard had been shattered, their main army stood dumbstruck at the Ming troops who had appeared before them as if divine soldiers had descended from heaven. Most of their weapons and armor were still loaded on the large carts, and their combat troops and support troops were all jumbled together with no semblance of military organization whatsoever. Faced with the Lushun army's sudden assault, the utterly exhausted Later Jin main army fell into utter chaos in the blink of an eye. A few brave soldiers hurriedly threw down their tow ropes to don armor and grab spears, but far more let out a cry and scattered in all directions, fleeing to the rear.

By the time the Ming army set fire to the baggage train, the Later Jin army had plunged into complete disorder. Some officers wanted to counterattack, some wanted to form a defensive line, and others wanted to fall back and regroup. Amid this vast chaos, the Later Jin officers and soldiers had long since disintegrated — soldiers could not find their officers, and officers could not find their soldiers.

The Ming soldiers charging down from the high slopes set fires as they went while hacking and slaughtering. The Later Jin army collapsed entirely. The tide of men swarming north in flight also swept away the Later Jin rear guard that tried to reinforce them...

Corpses lay scattered across the battlefield in utter disarray. Huang Shi walked it twice. Those with fatal wounds on the front of their bodies numbered no more than thirty or forty — the Ming army's several dozen casualties had all been caused by these very men. But those cut down from behind while fleeing numbered a full twenty times that. It was a pity that this was only a rout; the fruits of battle were rather meager. Yet Huang Shi understood well enough — without a strong cavalry force, how could one even speak of a battle of annihilation?

Counting this battle, the defense of Lushun, and the ambush of the Later Jin vanguard, the Ming army had collected over a thousand several hundred heads on the battlefield. The two Later Jin banners in Liaonan no longer had the strength to mount an offensive. At the same time, Chen Jisheng and Wang Chongxiao had ambushed the equally arrogant and careless Later Jin Plain Blue Banner at Changcheng, taking over a hundred heads. The Liaodong Ming army had essentially thwarted the Later Jin spring offensive.

"General Zhang seized over a thousand horses this time. Let's form a mounted unit of our own." Both He Baodao and Jin Qiude were eager to give it a try.

Huang Shi, however, gave a sigh. A mounted unit was fine, but horses ate far too much. It was just like Li Mu of the Warring States period with his iron cavalry that roamed across the north — the state of Zhao had cut even the newly sprouted green wheat to feed the horses. Right now on Changsheng Island, there was not even enough grain for the people to eat; there was simply nothing extra to raise horses with.

After Huang Shi voiced his concerns, Jin Qiude reluctantly agreed. But He Baodao had grown frantic: "My lord, let Brother Yang figure out the means — we cannot give up the horses!"

"How many horses does Brother Huang want?" Zhang Pan's laughter came from behind. He had arrived just in time to catch He Baodao's last sentence. "Over the next few months, I'll send them to Brother Huang in batches."

"General Zhang..."

Huang Shi had barely begun when Zhang Pan cut him off. "Brother Huang and I have joined strength against the enemy — let's not stand on such ceremony. We both serve under Lord Mao's command, so let us address each other as brothers."

"Brother Zhang," Huang Shi said with a smile, "I don't intend to take many horses. Fifty will be enough."

Zhang Pan was taken aback. After a moment's thought, he assumed Huang Shi had misunderstood and thought he meant to keep them all for himself. He hurriedly explained, "I said I'd send them to Brother Huang in a few months because there aren't enough boats, and horses are delicate and die easily. We agreed to split them evenly — let's say five hundred, then."

After stating the number, Zhang Pan hastily added, "Too many horses are wounded. If their legs are ruined, we can only slaughter them for meat. The truly sound ones really number only about a thousand."

Huang Shi answered with a smile, "On Changsheng Island, there's not even enough grain for the people to eat — how could there be anything left to feed horses? I appreciate Brother Zhang's kind intentions."

"Has General Huang never considered planting alfalfa? It yields a great deal and can also be eaten by people." Lushun had already planted vast fields of alfalfa, which yielded several times more than millet.

"But Changsheng Island lacks arable land." Huang Shi briefly explained his difficulties.

Zhang Pan, however, said that was no obstacle. He suggested that Huang Shi go develop West Island and Zhongxi Island himself — that way the land would increase. Those two barren islands were not small in area either.

"I am only the Changsheng Supervisory Commissioner..." Huang Shi still hesitated somewhat.

"What is there to fear? Occupy them first, then request this assignment from the lord later. Even if the lord does not grant it, would he really reproach Brother Huang for opening up land and bringing in people?"

"Hmm, Brother Zhang is right." Huang Shi reflected that he had been shackled by old notions of authority and jurisdiction. In feudal society, a superior's constraints on his subordinates were not particularly strict, especially under the present circumstances.

"Then it's settled. I owe Brother Huang five hundred horses. This time we also found quite a few large carts, all piled full of armor and weapons. Brother Huang, pick out some of those as well." Zhang Pan, in fine spirits, laughed quite happily. "And Mang Gultai still had the reputation of a fierce and valiant barbarian — yet he led his personal guard and fled so early that not even a shadow of him could be seen."

"That man is rash and impulsive — the exact opposite of the lethargic Daišan. If it had been Amin or... or Hong Taiji who came," when he spoke the name Hong Taiji, the oppressive weight that the owner of that name had once laid upon Huang Shi made him pause for a moment. But the feeling was no longer as suffocating as before, and Huang Shi soon continued, "especially Hong Taiji — he campaigns with deep foresight and careful planning and rarely makes mistakes. Brother Zhang must be on your guard."

"Understood — a somewhat clever barbarian." Zhang Pan smiled dismissively. Had Huang Shi not been renowned for his valor, Zhang Pan would have nearly mocked him for destroying his own prestige and boosting the enemy's morale.

……

Before the battle, Lushun had one thousand two hundred combat troops and two thousand support troops. Those who survived the battle numbered only a little over two thousand two hundred. Of Huang Shi's five hundred men, over a hundred were gone, and more than seventy others had wounds that were already inflamed — it was clear they would not survive either.

In this era, all an army could do was clean wounds with salt water. But if fragments of cloth were torn into the muscle tissue, then once a wound became inflamed, it essentially meant death. The Lushun Ming army had a special mercy-killing squad to spare the grievously wounded from dying in too much agony.

Huang Shi adamantly refused to let his own men be given the mercy stroke. But he could only watch helplessly as his subordinates struggled in their pain. One wounded soldier, after his wound became inflamed, screamed without cease. Huang Shi had no antibiotics and no painkillers. All he could do was personally sprinkle salt on the man's wound.

"My lord, give me a quick end." Every time Huang Shi intensified his suffering, that soldier said the same thing.

"Hold on. Hold on." Huang Shi always encouraged him thus. But in the end, he still died a miserable death.

Watching Huang Shi furiously draw his blade and hack wildly at a tree, both Jin Qiude and He Baodao could not help but remonstrate: "My lord, summon the mercy-killing squad. Why make them suffer further?"

"Brother Huang." Zhang Pan also consoled him. "Leave them in Lushun for now. Once their wounds have healed, I will send them back."

Knowing that Huang Shi could not bear to do the deed himself, he intended to urge Huang Shi to return to Changsheng Island first.

"If anything untoward happens, would it not be fitting to let them remain here in Lushun? They defended this land. When I make offerings, I will not forget their share of incense." Zhang Pan had already built a new burial ground outside Lushun. He recalled the words Huang Shi had spoken before the expedition: "I will not let their souls suffer in the netherworld below. Brother Huang may set your mind at ease."

"How could I not trust Brother Zhang? But I led these five hundred sons out here," Huang Shi smiled a bleak smile, "so whether dead or alive, I must bring these sons of Changsheng back with me."

Huang Shi had long racked his brains for any substitute for antibiotics. In the end, he decided to try a desperate remedy.

"Go ask General Zhang for horses. First, bring two."

Huang Shi ordered that the knives be boiled again in scalding water, then set to work scraping the flesh of the wounded soldiers.

"Scraping away the rotten flesh is useless — it will just keep rotting. My lord, life and death are ordained. Let them be reborn sooner." He Baodao several times suggested that he wield the knife himself, saying his blade technique was practiced and sure to let the wounded men pass without any pain.

"Scrape." Huang Shi ground the word out fiercely from between clenched teeth.

First, the wounded soldiers were bound tightly to the beds, then several soldiers held them down with force, and then they began scraping away the rotten flesh. The sound, like cutting through rubber, set everyone's teeth on edge. After the first soldier was scraped, he could no longer even cry out. The remaining wounded soldiers all struggled and begged for death, but under Huang Shi's strict orders, they were scraped one by one.

"Slaughter the horse and take its meat." Huang Shi had his men butcher one of the horses. Using a knife likewise boiled in scalding water, they cut strip after strip of fresh horse meat, removed the fat, and then laid the fresh meat over the wounds.

Animal flesh has natural antibacterial properties. Huang Shi did not know if this would work and could only pin his hopes on it. After half a day, he grew uneasy about one horse and had it taken away to be boiled for food, switching to another horse and continuing to slaughter it for fresh meat. The uninjured soldiers took turns ceaselessly applying fresh meat to the wounded men's injuries. Huang Shi mandated that they must bathe every day, their clothes must be boiled in scalding water, and before handling anything, they must soak their hands in salt water.

……

A few days later, Zhang Pan came to look again. One soldier had still died — his wounds were probably too severe, or perhaps there were remnants of cloth and metal that had not been removed. But the wounds of the remaining soldiers had already formed scabs, and their fevers had begun to subside.

Zhang Pan smiled and said to these fortunate ones, "If you had failed to survive, you would have failed General Huang and those dozen or so horses he slaughtered. Two horses exchanged for one of your lives."

When those soldiers recovered, they immediately came to pay their respects and thank Huang Shi — a commander willing to trade horses for his soldiers' lives. Their words were full of tearful gratitude.

In early May, Huang Shi had the coffins finished. Every corpse was properly laid to rest and loaded onto ships for transport. The imperial court had already received the victory report from Lushun. It was said that formal discussions on officially establishing the Dongjiang garrison were already underway in the court, and the Ministry of War and the Ministry of Revenue had been ordered to deliberate on the soldiers' pay and provisions.

When Huang Shi and Zhang Pan parted ways, needless to say, Huang Shi took all the arquebuses. In addition, he also carried off six hundred long spears and suits of armor. The Firefighting Battalion was on the verge of trading its bird guns for cannon.