Chapter 116: Section 24: The Feudal Backlash

"Lord Mao is appointed Vice Commissioner-in-Chief and Regional Commander of Dongjiang, with hereditary rank of Battalion Commander in Dongjiang Town."

Huang Shi announced the imperial court's appointments to the assembled officers of Changsheng.

"Zhang Pan is appointed Assistant Commissioner-in-Chief, Assistant Regional Commander of Dongjiang, with hereditary rank of Vice Company Commander in Dongjiang Town, commanding the Lüshun Regional Military Commission…"

Zhang Pan had also leapt to a military rank of the third grade. Huang Shi's subordinates held their breath as they heard this, quietly waiting for what came next.

"Huang Shi is appointed Assistant Commissioner-in-Chief, Assistant Regional Commander of Dongjiang, with hereditary rank of Vice Company Commander in Dongjiang Town, commanding the Changsheng Regional Military Commission and the West Zhongdao Regional Military Commission."

"Congratulations, my lord!" the assembled officers shouted in unison.

A faint smile also hung on Huang Shi's face. "Not finished yet. Each of you has your own rewards as well."

"Zhao Manxiong, Jin Qiude, Yang Zhiyuan, He Baodao — all are appointed Garrison Commanders of Dongjiang, with hereditary rank of Squad Leader in Dongjiang Town."

"We thank you, my lord, for the promotion." The assembled officers bowed together again. When these men died, their eldest sons by the principal wife would no longer have to start as common soldiers; their families would also receive land and military household status in Dongjiang Town.

"Finally, there is one more matter — the question of army supervision. Now that our Dongjiang has been established as a garrison, by ancestral custom the civil officials control the military, and every garrison must have a civil official as Army Supervisor…"

"There are no outsiders here, so I will speak plainly. The civil officials of the Great Ming regard us military officers as slaves. The officers of every division in Dongjiang have submitted letters to Lord Mao, opposing civil official army supervision." Huang Shi and Zhang Pan had also jointly signed a letter to Mao Wenlong; their letter stated that Dongjiang Town was located overseas and requested the court to handle the matter flexibly.

"What was the result?" He Baodao could not help speaking up.

Huang Shi savored the suspense with great pleasure. "Eunuch army supervision is also ancestral custom! Lord Mao has requested the court to dispatch eunuchs to our Dongjiang Town as army supervisors." Mao Wenlong, after all, still had to speak for the Liaodong Ming army; his roots were firmly planted in the Liaodong military group.

"The Office of Transmission won't reject such a request?" Zhao Manxiong and Jin Qiude exclaimed at the same time.

"His Majesty issued an edict ordering Lord Mao to submit another detailed memorial on the course of the Lüshun battle. Lord Mao's detailed memorial was enclosed within the victory report. The Office of Transmission could not reject it."

In the end, the Grand Secretariat's draft rescript requesting civil officials to supervise the Dongjiang army was held by the Tianqi Emperor and not issued. Instead, he ordered Eunuch Wei, the Director of the Eastern Depot, to draft a list of candidates for army supervisor. Eastern Depot affairs did not need to pass through the Grand Secretariat, so although the Grand Secretariat objected several times, all objections were held by the Son of Heaven. When the news reached Dongjiang Town, it was met with another burst of cheers.

Eunuchs are the personal attendants of His Majesty; their memorials and reports do not need to pass through the Office of Transmission. This way, military merits and grievances can also be reported directly to the Great Ming Son of Heaven. The officers all believed that the Son of Heaven was the most just and most understanding of conditions below, and that their past mistreatment was entirely because the civil officials had monopolized power and deceived the Son of Heaven.

…

"Our Changsheng Island will also receive one Eastern Depot eunuch and two Embroidered Uniform Guard officers. Find a way to investigate their backgrounds." Huang Shi handed a slip of paper to Li Yunrui; on it were three names and their posts.

While awaiting the arrival of the army supervisors, Huang Shi was troubled by certain concerns — namely, the feudal backlash. Although they had passed through the battle of Lüshun, the Huang household had continued to expand through constant replenishment and now had nearly fifty retainers.

"My lord, this is what Garrison Commander Yang ordered this humble officer to prepare." Bao Jiusun spread out a map of Changsheng Island. A large tract of land was marked on it, with one thousand mu of farmland drawn in. Bao Jiusun said that all of this was Huang Shi's land.

"My land?" Huang Shi was startled.

"Exactly." Since Huang Shi was now a Vice Company Commander of Dongjiang, Yang Zhiyuan had instructed Bao Jiusun to immediately select some able-bodied military households for Huang Shi, each household to be granted twelve to fifteen mu of prime land. The produce of these one thousand mu would belong to Huang Shi and could be used to subsidize the Huang household's retainers.

Yang Zhiyuan, He Baodao, and Jin Qiude had also gone to stake out land. As hereditary Squad Leaders, they were provisionally assigned five military households each, with each man receiving fifty mu to start. As he explained these circumstances, Bao Jiusun could not help showing a face full of envy.

But Huang Shi did not hear Zhao Manxiong's name. "What about Garrison Commander Zhao?"

"Garrison Commander Zhao seems to feel that Changsheng Island is not safe. He personally took his retainers to West Island to measure the wasteland."

"Retainers?"

The four great officers under Huang Shi had also begun recruiting retainers. He heard that they had privately agreed upon everything and had already set the tacit baseline at ten retainers each.

Hong Antong was ordered to investigate, and indeed they had already drawn up the rules. Huang Shi privately guessed that this was most likely proposed by Zhao Manxiong — the total number of retainers for the four men, which was to say the total amount of privilege, should not exceed that of the commanding officer. Without a doubt, once Huang Shi's retainers grew more numerous, they would still raise the number.

The relationship between a retainer and his household master was one of absolute master and slave, which made them more reassuring to use and helped strengthen cohesion. But Huang Shi worried that these retainers would become somewhat psychologically twisted and grow estranged from the common soldiers.

Sure enough, what one fears always comes.

"By order of my lord, private fighting is forbidden in the army…"

Today Jin Qiude came to report a brawl to Huang Shi. Seven or eight men had come to blows over some trivial matter, and one was injured.

"According to the military regulations set by my lord, the five soldiers are fined ten days of latrine cleaning and transporting night soil to the compost heaps…"

In the Changsheng Island firefighting camp, Huang Shi had already replaced indiscriminate beatings with punishments such as confinement and hard labor. Moreover, Changsheng Island prohibited defecating anywhere at will, and many latrines had been built on the island.

"There are two more whom this humble officer has also brought before my lord. I request my lord to deal with them severely."

Jin Qiude was the military judge of the firefighting camp. That he would bring a matter involving just two men to Huang Shi greatly surprised him. "How to deal with them is your decision. Why bring them to me?"

"It is Huang Aqi and Huang Yiliu. The army has military law, the household has household rules. This humble officer dares not presume sole authority." Because of the issue with Huang Shi's name, the retainers skipped every number ending in zero. Someone had also pointed out that Huang Jiu sounded too much like Huang Shi's name, so starting from Huang Da, the character "A" was uniformly added to distinguish them.

Military law does not override household rules? Huang Shi was taken aback for a moment.

Jin Qiude, however, thought Huang Shi wanted to shield his retainers and quickly offered counsel. "This humble officer boldly requests my lord to deal with them severely according to the Huang household rules, lest the hearts of the officers and men grow cold."

"I haven't set any household rules." Huang Shi was dumbfounded.

"This…" Jin Qiude was greatly shocked. After recruiting retainers for so long, Huang Shi still had not set household rules. He, Jin Qiude, had long since set his own household rules and had read them aloud when recruiting retainers. As thoughts turned in his mind, he first offered a flattering remark. "My lord handles a myriad affairs daily; your subordinate is full of admiration."

But Jin Qiude was still somewhat dissatisfied with Huang Shi's carelessness. "No wonder those two retainers had such audacity."

Huang Shi had Zhang Zaidi bring those two men in.

"Your subordinate obeys."

Jin Qiude did not wish to pry into the Huang household's private affairs, so he immediately slipped away.

"Household master, forgive us." The two men surnamed Huang threw themselves to the floor the moment they entered and did not get up.

"Big brother, let it go this time. Set the household rules first, then you can properly deal with them. Otherwise, it's just, just…"

"Punishing without first instructing." Huang Shi had recently begun teaching Zhang Zaidi idioms and literacy.

In front of officers and soldiers, Zhang Zaidi always referred to himself as "subordinate." Only when Zhang Zaidi and Huang Shi spoke alone would Zhang Zaidi call him "big brother." But if only retainers were around, young Zhang had no inhibitions and would freely call him big brother this and big brother that.

"You are also fined to clean the latrines." Huang Shi felt that everyone in the army should be treated equally, so he ignored Zhang Zaidi's plea for leniency.

"Yes, we understand." Huang Aqi and Huang Yiliu seemed to have no resistance to this… That was rather good.

"Fine by me," Zhang Zaidi also seemed to think it was workable. He smiled at Huang Shi and said, "Big brother, after they finish cleaning your latrine, lend these two to me. I need to build a latrine too."

Huang Shi had his own private washroom, and Zhang Zaidi seemed quite envious of it.

The two Huang household retainers, seeing that Huang Shi had not spoken, assumed he was tacitly agreeing and hastily said, "We are willing to serve the Second Master."

Only then did Huang Shi realize what Zhang Zaidi meant. "Wait. What I said was for them to go together with those other men — to clean the army's latrines."

Zhang Zaidi seemed slightly taken aback. The two Huang household retainers sprawled on the floor also secretly raised their heads to look at Huang Shi's expression, and just as their eyes met Huang Shi's gaze, they immediately lowered their heads again.

"How can that be? They are men of the Huang household. How can big brother send them out to be humiliated?" Zhang Zaidi found this baffling. No matter how badly the retainers had erred, Huang Shi ought to shut the door and handle it himself.

"They violated military discipline and are dealt with according to military law. Is there anything wrong with that?"

"Big brother, you are mixing public and private affairs!"

……

In the end Huang Shi compromised, letting the overjoyed Zhang Zaidi borrow the two delighted retainers for his use.

After they left, Huang Shi called Hong Antong over and asked him about it. If Zhao Manxiong's retainers broke the rules, they were all handed over to their own master for punishment. Penalties existed, but they were an entirely separate system from military regulations. Huang Shi pondered for a long while and still felt confused, unsure whether this tradition should be considered a clear separation of public and private matters, or a complete blurring of them.

"My lord, this one is for Army Supervisor Eunuch Wu," Li Yunrui handed the simple intelligence he had gathered to Huang Shi, with another sheet beneath it: "This one is for the two brothers from the Embroidered Uniform Guard."

Huang Shi read through them and formed a rough judgment in his mind: "Li Yunrui, what do you make of these three men?"

"Replying to my lord. All three come from hardship, especially Eunuch Wu and Brother Chen of the Embroidered Uniform Guard. Like most soldiers, they are illiterate, so they should not be as difficult to deal with as civil officials…" Li Yunrui immediately pulled himself together and began his analysis.

"Very good," Huang Shi praised him after listening. Being able to analyze independently was always better than mechanically executing orders.

After Li Yunrui left, Huang Shi said to one of his retainers: "Go tell Squad Commander Liu to come here. I have instructions for him."

On the whole, retainers were still very useful, and Huang Shi could not help but grow fond of this feudal system. He felt that compromising a little with tradition was not such a bad thing. As long as no one went too far out of line or too overboard with these things, he intended to turn a blind eye and not carry out a thorough reform.

The person Huang Shi was waiting for had not yet arrived when Zhang Zaidi pushed open the door and came in: "Big Brother, I've brought someone for you to see."

That form of address made Huang Shi's heart lurch — this kid hadn't taken on retainers too, had he? That would be somewhat out of line.

Behind him followed a soldier in his twenties, a very unfamiliar face. Huang Shi was certain he had never seen him before, but before he could look further, Zhang Zaidi had already cheerfully performed the family salute for meeting an elder brother.

As usual, Zhang Zaidi reached out to drag a stool over to sit. He was always very casual when alone with Huang Shi, just like back in their hometown of Liuhe. But today, he had only just started the motion when he stopped abruptly, put on a stern face, and said to the soldier behind him: "Bring it here for me."

That soldier, who looked a year or two older than Zhang Zaidi, was utterly deferential to young Zhang… The sight left Huang Shi half petrified.

The soldier set the stool in place and even wiped the dust off it for Zhang Zaidi:

"Father, please sit."