Chapter 194: Section Eleven: Communication

Huang Shi had no desire whatsoever to answer this question. He snorted and borrowed a phrase from his past life: "I do not answer questions about things that have not happened."

He Dingyuan mulled it over for quite a while before he grasped the convoluted meaning Huang Shi was trying to express, which only made him angrier. He could not hold back and burst out: "And what if it had been Brother Yang who did this? What if it had been Brother Zhang? How would my lord have judged and punished them?"

"Brother Yang would absolutely never violate military law, absolutely never!" Huang Shi also could not hold back and burst out. If there was anyone among the army's senior ranks who liked to treat flouting Huang Shi's authority as a bit of fun, then He Dingyuan was surely the only one. "As for Brother Zhang, if he had any grievance he would certainly come to me to pour out his troubles. He would absolutely never act first and report later!"

He Dingyuan was infuriated by Huang Shi's attitude. He stood up and bellowed: "Does my lord mean to say that if I went to settle a personal vendetta — no matter whether it was a blood feud that could not share the same sky — my lord would kill even me?"

Huang Shi sternly shot back: "Do you think that soldier was wronged?"

He Dingyuan waved his fist in the air and shouted: "Yes, he was deeply wronged."

Huang Shi's tone grew even harsher as he asked the next question: "And you still think he did not deserve to die?"

"Of course he did not deserve to die." He Dingyuan's voice grew so loud that even the personal guards standing watch outside could not help poking their heads in to look, their faces turning very tense.

Huang Shi, his face taut, waved them away. He cast a sidelong glance at He Dingyuan and sneered: "Then why didn't you secretly let him go?"

This question instantly choked He Dingyuan. Huang Shi followed with several more cold sneers: "Why didn't you let him go? Answer me. Why did you obediently supervise the execution?"

He Dingyuan's face flushed redder and redder as he held it in. He slammed a fist fiercely onto the tabletop: "I truly regret that I did not let him go at the time."

"Get out. Do not come in unless I call for you." Huang Shi waved again to drive out the personal guards who were craning their necks, then turned leisurely to look at He Dingyuan and suddenly spat out a curse: "Bullshit!"

He Dingyuan was so startled by this sudden curse that he jerked backward. Huang Shi let out another cold chuckle: "Brother He, I know you. Even if you are unconvinced in your heart, as long as it is my order, you will still carry it out. You will come argue with me, you will come quarrel with me, but you will not..."

Huang Shi heavily emphasized his tone: "You simply will not go against my orders."

He Dingyuan, his face bright red, panted heavily, still searching his mind for a rebuttal, but after holding it in for a long time he only managed: "That soldier was very pitiful. There truly were extenuating circumstances."

A mocking smile appeared on Huang Shi's face. He also stood up and, while pacing around the table, said: "Brother He, today let us speak plainly. That soldier was very pitiful — I acknowledge that. But let me tell you what was in his heart. He was surely thinking — I have rendered meritorious service, I have also toiled through hardship, so even if I kill a man nothing will happen. The higher-ups won't hold me to account over one dead Han soldier."

Huang Shi stopped in his tracks and stared straight at He Dingyuan, shaking his head: "If everyone thought this way, then how could this army still be led? Hmph. I want to tell them precisely this: disobeying orders — there will be consequences. Do not think that past meritorious service gives you a death-exemption plaque."

"But those veteran soldiers have followed my lord through life and death. Over these years they have rendered my lord sweat-and-blood merit," He Dingyuan thought for a moment, then added: "For thousands of years, armies have always been led this way. Our Huaxia law has always emphasized consideration of merit, consideration of past service."

"Consideration of merit, consideration of past service — ha. This time I considered his case, next time someone will think — I have meritorious service, I also have toiled through hardship, so even if I flee once on the battlefield I will be given a chance to atone for my crime through further service." Huang Shi was a very stubborn man. He firmly believed that even a tyrant's order was better than no order at all. He also feared that a thousand-li dike could collapse from an ant hole. Huang Shi held that military commands were stricter than existing laws, and that on the battlefield many orders were even more unreasonable than military law, precisely to drive men into desperate situations — but soldiers must execute them mechanically: "In our Great Ming, there are always those who think forgiveness is ten thousand times easier than permission, but that only applies within a family. On my Changsheng Island, without prior permission, there is no forgiveness."

Seeing that He Dingyuan was still angry, Huang Shi snorted again: "Brother He, let me ask you — if that soldier had not taken it upon himself to kill, but instead came weeping to you, begging you to kill on his behalf, what would you have done?"

He Dingyuan tilted his head and began to think. Huang Shi waited patiently for a long time. Finally, He Dingyuan said very grudgingly: "I would have spoken with my lord and Brother Yang, and asked my lord to uphold... uphold justice."

"And you would certainly have received it. I have at least a hundred ways to vent his anger for him, to avenge him. But not now — and certainly not today, when I have just issued a proclamation far and wide across Liaozuo granting amnesty to the Han soldiers!" Huang Shi swiftly picked up the thread. He knew that once he pardoned a single person, no matter how sternly he spoke, the officers and soldiers of Changsheng Island would go everywhere seeking out their old enemies, and would find ways, overt or covert, to kill them — if overt means wouldn't work, were covert means not still possible? Once this kind of hatred began to spread, Huang Shi feared it could never again be controlled: "That prisoner-soldier knew I would not permit it. He felt his private matter was more important than the regulations of my Changsheng Island. He would rather openly violate the regulations than endure a little patience. This kind of behavior that challenges military law — I will not tolerate it, nor can I encourage such a climate."

"He did not challenge my lord's military law." He Dingyuan's voice rose again.

Huang Shi actually laughed again: "Brother He, whether it is an intentional challenge to Changsheng Island's military law, or an unintentional mistake — I have always distinguished clearly between the two. Take you, for example — you unintentionally violated military law, and I did not say anything about it."

"When has this subordinate ever violated military law?" He Dingyuan's tone remained high, but without his noticing, his self-appellation had changed.

"Have you not gotten married?" Huang Shi gently reproached, tapping his fingers on the tabletop at the same time: "That violated my military law."

He Dingyuan's neck immediately turned red and swollen, the veins bulging: "It was arranged by my old family home. The person was also sent to the island by my old family home."

"Haha, yes, that was an unintentional mistake." Huang Shi's mood seemed to have turned quite good. He raised his eyes as if recalling something amusing, and his mouth unconsciously split into a grin. Huang Shi leaned forward slightly and said in a low voice: "Let me secretly tell you a story. It's about that fellow Li Yunrui. You know he came to my Changsheng Island because of a sex case. Commissioner Li has always been desperately hungry for women, haha."

Huang Shi again burst into hearty laughter, entirely to himself. He Dingyuan looked at him, baffled. It was a long while before Huang Shi reined in his laughter and told He Dingyuan the story his personal guard spies had reported to him: "Someone saw Li Yunrui secretly go to the stables to fuck... hahaha... a mare, and more than once, haha. The stench of the stables — how he could stand it, haha... You must not tell anyone."

Huang Shi's expression then immediately grew calm again: "Because I stipulated that officers may not marry before half of their subordinates have married, and more than half of the officers in the Military Intelligence Division have not married, so Commissioner Li has also not married. He once came to sound out my attitude."

Huang Shi swallowed a mouthful of saliva. A look of guilt and emotion surfaced on his face: "I told him: do not touch women. If any trouble arises — for instance, if you get some family's daughter pregnant and she ends up crying and shouting that she must marry you — I will not let it go lightly. In truth, I also specially arranged for him to go to Shandong for some pleasure, but it was still not enough for him. In the end, rather than touch a woman, he went and fucked a mare..."

"And Zhao Manxiong, Jin Qiude, Yang Zhiyuan." Huang Shi lowered his head and counted them off one by one on his fingers. That look on his face, mingling guilt and emotion, grew even stronger: "Over these past two years, Mobile Corps Commander Zhao reached an understanding with at least two families' daughters. But in the end he gave them up. Those two families' daughters could not wait and both married other men. He never spoke to me about these things. But I am aware of them all in my heart."

Huang Shi raised his head and glanced at He Dingyuan again, shaking his head weakly with a sigh: "Over these years, everyone has sacrificed a great deal for Changsheng Island — and that includes you, Brother He."

He Dingyuan thought of the coarse grain cakes he ate, the alfalfa soup he drank, and his wife's pitifully small ration. He could not help but feel his eyes grow hot with tears: "My lord has sacrificed even more."

"If you all can do it, then I, as the master of this army, absolutely have no reason not to." Huang Shi smiled faintly. Although he had established the military law, he had never given himself special treatment within it, much less set special provisions for what Huang Shi the man could or could not do... Like all the officers, each day he merely had one more fish than the combat soldiers. And as for women — he did not let Li Yunrui and the others reach out their hands, so he would not reach out his own either. "You are all old comrades who have followed me since Guangning. If I do not give even you special treatment, then on what grounds should I pardon that common soldier? If I pardoned that common soldier, how could I then not pardon others in the future?"

Both men fell silent, each absorbed in his own thoughts. After a while, He Dingyuan asked in a low voice: "My lord, then you should at least go to the execution ground and offer that prisoner-soldier a cup of wine."

"Did you not offer it on my behalf?" Huang Shi lowered his head and sneered. His expression instantly darkened again, and his tone turned icy: "Brother He, if you have discontent in your heart, by all means come and speak to me about it. But it would be best not to shout about it outside. Especially do not shout at the entrance of my main camp, or at the execution ground, or other places crowded with people."

Huang Shi narrowed his eyes and let out a long breath: "I imagine there are quite a few people harboring discontent. They will think you are backing them up, and their courage will grow even bolder."

"This subordinate requests my lord's punishment."

"There is no need for punishment. There is no such provision in the military law regulations." Huang Shi waved his hand magnanimously. He knew that He Dingyuan simply could not control that mouth of his, so Huang Shi had never included a similar clause in the military law regulations: "What military law does not forbid is permitted. Right now, I am merely asking you, as a brother, to help me with this one thing."

"My lord's words are too weighty." After He Dingyuan modestly declined, his eyes shifted: "My lord says there will be many people harboring discontent?"

"Of course. Many people have deep, blood-deep hatred with those Han soldiers." Huang Shi took a couple more steps, then walked back to his seat and sat down.

After a while, seeing that Huang Shi had nothing further to say, He Dingyuan cautiously asked: "Since my lord knows this, does he not fear that army morale will become unstable?"

"Will army morale become unstable?" Huang Shi's eyes turned very bright, and his sharp gaze shot straight onto He Dingyuan's face. In the years since the garrison was established, Huang Shi had never drawn a single tael of salary, had never eaten a single meal from a private kitchen. He had taken everything he had and shared it with the soldiers. Other commanders could not achieve this even for their personal retainers and personal guards, let alone for their slave-soldier households. Every regulation he established — whether concerning ice-cutting, rations, or marriage — Huang Shi personally practiced, never placing himself above the regulations. And then there was war...

Huang Shi had never used his soldiers' lives to trade for career advancement. In moments of crisis, he would be on the front line fighting shoulder to shoulder with his soldiers, and time and again he led the soldiers under his command from victory to new victory... These facts, along with the tireless propaganda of the Loyalty to Sovereign and Love of Country Society, had long since made Huang Shi's image exceptionally towering.

"Army morale is not unstable." He Dingyuan admitted this and at the same time sighed. Although he was very dissatisfied with Huang Shi's handling of the matter this time, he had always counted himself fortunate to have followed a superior like Huang Shi. This incident would fundamentally not shake the Changsheng Island officers' and soldiers' respect and affection for Huang Shi. That soldier's elder brother might be the angriest person at the moment, but even he had merely redirected his hatred onto other people — for instance, the military judge who conducted the initial trial, who had not directly issued a verdict of innocence; or Yang Zhiyuan, who had insisted on escalating this case. As for Huang Shi — that prisoner-soldier's elder brother would, in his heart, make excuses for his idol.

He Dingyuan finally said hesitantly: "It is just that... there will always be the problem of personal vendettas."

"Report them, and I will naturally find ways to handle them... just not right now." Huang Shi was very dismissive of using hatred as the pillar of army morale. If hatred were so useful, then historically there would have been no reason whatsoever for the five hundred thousand soldiers and civilians of Dongjiang to rebel and defect back to the Later Jin. As for human emotions, Huang Shi also considered them far too fickle. What he believed in was order, and ironclad rules and regulations. And also interests — one could say that Changsheng Island did not have private soldiers so much as all several tens of thousands of men were the private soldiers of Huang Shi alone.

Huang Shi strove with all his might to construct a system that was different from the rest, and to ensure that the vast majority could benefit from it. Once this system took shape, those enveloped within it became members of an interest bloc, bound to share glory and disgrace with Huang Shi. At least for now, Huang Shi believed that even if He Dingyuan were bought off by someone else, he absolutely would not have the power to pull the troops away from under Huang Shi's command.

"Those who trust me — like you, like Yang Zhiyuan, and also like Li Yunrui — will all seek my permission in advance, and I will repay you with the greatest warmth and goodwill. But those who violate military law without first seeking my permission either know full well that I would absolutely never permit their demands, or feel that I am not a person worthy of trust. That being the case, I will not make a fool of myself by going out of my way to look after them. Otherwise, I would most likely be mocked by them in their hearts, and they would probe my bottom line again and again." Huang Shi waved his hand to indicate that this conversation could come to a close: "Go prepare for the expedition. Tomorrow morning at first light, we march for Fuzhou."