Chapter 262: Section 19: Adoration

On the twenty-fifth day of the second month of the sixth year of the Tianqi reign, in Jingcheng.

Two days earlier, after the Dongjiang army had encamped outside the South Gate, this area of Jingcheng had grown bustling. Today, the imperial way leading from the South Gate to the Great Ming Gate was so packed on both sides that it was a solid sea of people. There were many residential houses lining the imperial way, and today their owners were repeatedly startled by knocking at their doors; strangers kept standing outside their gates, politely asking if they could spend a few copper coins to have the owner yield a small spot on the rooftop or atop the wall.

At first, only a scattered few climbed onto the rooftops, but as time passed, the tops of the walls were soon crowded with many people as well. Quite a few scholars set aside their refinement, hitching up their long robes and rolling up their sleeves to climb the walls. In the end, even womenfolk appeared on the rooftops lining the road; they carefully spread cloth sheets or straw paper beneath their skirts, then began to gaze around happily in all directions.

Near the city gate, a huge crowd had already gathered at daybreak. Waves of clamor erupted again and again from the onlooking masses, as they argued incessantly over what manner of bearing the officers and soldiers of Zhangsheng Island would display when they made their entrance. Among the waiting crowd, many had once witnessed the troop-dispatched ceremonies of generals like Du Song and Liu Ting; back then, those Liao officers had each spurred their horses and galloped out of the Jingcheng city gate, and Du Song among them had even bared his torso and performed a whole road's worth of broadsword play for the common folk.

"First we took Shanxi's twelve prefectures,"

"No separate orders needed to strike the chieftain's lair,"

"Looking back, Qin's passes seem low as horses,"

"Gradually we see the Yellow River flowing straight north."

The faint sound of a military song drifted from afar, seemingly accompanied by the indistinct throb of drums, rising and falling together in the spring breeze. Though this sound was still distant, it was like a spark flying into a powder keg, causing the waiting crowd to erupt into a roaring clamor. After a moment of instant excitement, everyone held their breath, stood on tiptoe, and strained all five senses to catch that elusive, half-hidden sound in the wind, waiting with eyes worn out from longing.

"Heaven's might sweeps the earth past the Yellow River,"

"For ten thousand li, the Qiang people all sing Han songs."

"Do not dam the flowing waters of Hengshan,"

"Let them go west to become waves of grace."

The resonant singing came through from outside the city wall. Under He Dingyuan's strict instruction, the officers and soldiers enunciated every word with perfect clarity, and paired with the rumbling waist drums, it was rich with northwestern flavor. Some in the crowd had heard the Qin army's military songs before and could not help muttering in puzzlement: the Zhangsheng Island soldiers were clearly Liaodong frontier troops, so why were they singing the victory songs of the Ganshan frontier army? But most people paid no mind to such details; they were all stirred by the rugged singing, and the unbroken, deep drumming displayed a martial grandeur that awed the heart.

The voices of a thousand men singing in unison pressed in upon them. The common folk of Jingcheng craned their necks toward the South Gate in eager anticipation, one and all; children were hoisted onto their fathers' shoulders, sucking their fingers in silence, their childish faces bearing pairs of jet-black eyes opened wide and round.

Gradually, the originally resounding singing sank low, and the final trailing note faded into the distance, so faint it could barely be heard. At the very instant the sound was about to vanish, suddenly, a Dongjiang standard-bearer holding aloft a great red snake banner had already passed through the city gate tunnel and strode into the view of the capital's people, head high and chest out.

Huang Shi, his left hand resting on his sword, followed close behind the standard-bearer. He had been singing loudly along with his subordinate officers and soldiers the whole time. After entering the city gate, he swung his right arm straight back and kicked his legs high, the second man to step onto the imperial way. At this moment, in direct contrast to the silence of the singing, the impassioned waist drums were thundering fiercely.

Five meters behind Huang Shi was an entire row of drummers. They stared straight ahead without a sidelong glance, just as if they were on a battlefield leading their comrades in a charge, their mouths taut as they struck the drumheads with all their might, blow after blow. They beat out this magnificent drumming with the passion of their whole hearts and souls; only the officers and soldiers of Zhangsheng Island, who regarded death as a homecoming, could radiate such soaring fighting spirit; only the pride of an invincible army could inspire such a mighty and imposing aura.

Between this line of drummers and Huang Shi, Deng Ken walked alone, clutching his beloved Scottish bagpipes to his chest. After receiving his reward for the great battle at Nanguan the previous year, Huang Shi had secretly ordered a set of bagpipes made for him, and the Jesuits had finally managed to find one in Macao. In the middle of last year, Huang Shi had given the bagpipes to Deng Ken as a birthday present. Ever since then, whenever he had a free moment or not, he would play them on Zhangsheng Island.

The common folk also heard this melodious music at the same time. Though the music was as exquisitely plaintive and sorrowful as could be, it still stubbornly pierced through the earth-shaking drumming, like a flash of lightning tearing through dark clouds and black mist, or like pines and cypresses standing firm on sheer cliffs and precipices. Within that weeping, lamenting tune, there was a proud, unyielding, and unbreakable integrity.

By now, Deng Ken was already immersed in his own performance. This year, aside from serving as military music, he had also played this piece at many funerals. Zhang Pan had even written several reports to Huang Shi about it, arguing that Deng Ken's instrument was very suitable for promotion within the army, especially at funerals, possessing both delicate lingering sentiment and heroic aspiration — a report that ran to tens of thousands of words in a sweeping style. In any case, he had already arranged for several pastors to go and learn from Deng Ken.

Besides Zhang Pan, He Dingyuan had also grown fond of this instrument after hearing Deng Ken play. Later, whenever he encountered the burial of fallen officers and soldiers, He Dingyuan would stand quietly behind Deng Ken and listen for a while. He had even told Huang Shi: if one day he failed to return home, they must not forget to ask Deng Ken to play a double portion for him. But compared to Zhang Pan, He Dingyuan's appraisal of the instrument was very brief, only two short sentences: "This music is very fitting for a warrior's death, and therefore it is very fitting for me."

The officers and soldiers of Zhangsheng Island uniformly held their long spears or firelocks with their right hands, resting their weapons against their own shoulders. Each man kicked his legs high to the horizontal, marching in orderly goose-step as they filed into Jingcheng through the South Gate. Under the control of the drumbeat, from the commander of the entire army like Huang Shi down to the lowest-ranking common soldiers of the two battalions, nearly five thousand officers and soldiers moved with a uniformity of step as if a single giant were striding forward, producing heavy footfalls that made the very earth tremble.

Now, in addition to its original red tassel, Huang Shi's helmet also bore a white plume feather over a foot tall. It was not just him alone, but also Deng Ken behind him, the drummers behind Deng Ken, and behind the drummers — the five thousand officers and soldiers inside and outside the city — every single one of them had a white tail plume standing erect on their helmet.

This batch of snow-white plumes, which included peacock feathers, was among the rewards issued by the Emperor the day before yesterday. The Tianqi Emperor had decreed: from this day until the end of the world, the officers of the Firefighting and Vanguard battalions of Dongjiangzhen would be entitled to wear white peacock plumes on their red tassels, and ordinary soldiers could also use white feathers as helmet ornaments; additionally, the battalion banners of these two battalions had each been adorned with three golden sable tails at the top, and now they were fluttering in the air alongside the snake banners.

Besides the peacock plumes and golden sable tails, the Tianqi Emperor had also bestowed twenty tiger skins and two hundred bear skins upon the officers and soldiers of the two battalions. Now, Huang Shi and the officers below him had all removed the cotton cloth flaps from their helmets and decorated their helmets with tiger-skin ear guards and headscarves. And the soldiers of the two battalions had all donned bear-skin neck wraps.

The white plumes, the red tassels, the tiger skins, the battle armor, and the impassioned drum music and uniform steps — all of this caused the common folk of Jingcheng, who had originally prepared to cheer wildly, to lose their ability to make a sound. They watched in silence as the Dongjiang iron army marched past like a machine; many people began to swallow their saliva involuntarily, and a vast sense of unfamiliarity forcibly drove a wedge between the soldiers and the civilians.

Huang Shi walked along the silent imperial way. The crowd ahead of him was always more animated than those beside or behind him; among the people in front, there was no shortage of jostling, jumping spectators. But as they got a clear look at the military bearing of the Zhangsheng Island officers and soldiers, the curiosity of these people seemed to vanish without a trace in an instant. The originally undercurrent-surging crowd also rapidly quieted down. Ordinary people, and even those Jingcheng government office runners maintaining order, could not help but freeze their smiles on their faces, and the gazes they cast over were tinged with awe and reverence.

The army rumbled mightily along the imperial way in full fervor, but on either side of this vibrant long serpent, it was as if a cold wind had blown through, freezing all vitality and fluctuation. The deathly silent crowd, and the fiery military column — though soldiers and civilians were pressed close together, they were as starkly distinct as ice and fire confronting each other. Until it was shattered by a high-pitched cry...

"My lord Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent."

A woman suddenly screamed and burst out of the crowd. Her shrill cry, which tore through the silent masses, made even the drumming falter for a moment. Huang Shi looked at that panic-stricken face: a face covered in wrinkles, weathered by wind and frost. And those eyes, filled with anxiety, hope, and a thick color of entreaty. It made him slow his steps involuntarily.

This cry also startled the government office runners maintaining order awake. They immediately seized the woman who had rushed out, but she struggled with all her might, and her strength was so great that the two runners could not restrain her for a moment.

"My lord Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent."

By the time the cry rang out again, the woman was already on the verge of being dragged away by the runners. Huang Shi raised a hand to stop those men, and at the same time halted the drummers behind him.

"Many thanks, my lord Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent." Seeing this, the woman wrenched herself free with a burst of strength and threw herself toward Huang Shi, and the men grabbing her, caught off guard, did not pursue. The woman knelt at Huang Shi's feet, clutching the hem of his garment and pleading: "My lord, I beg you, please save my son."

Without waiting for Huang Shi to answer, the woman turned her head and shouted toward the crowd. After she had called out a few times, Huang Shi saw several men squeeze their way out. Cowering and shrinking back, they were dragging a bound person. These men's gazes shifted uneasily over the several government office runners, their waists bent so low their faces nearly drooped to the ground. Unlike them, the woman ran back like a tigress, desperately dragging them toward Huang Shi.

The column had come to a complete halt. Under the gaze of the multitude, this woman ran back to Huang Shi and clutched his trouser leg as if afraid he might fly away. The men behind her dawdled and shuffled as they carried the bound person over. It was a young man who appeared to be in his twenties, the light in his eyes scattered and lifeless, his mouth bound with a rope, and his person tied tightly to the door board beneath him.

By the time they arrived, the woman had already been babbling her pleas to Huang Shi for a long while. The gist of it was that she had been widowed young and had with great difficulty raised her son to adulthood, but some days ago, he had somehow gone mad, and she had invited many monks and Daoist priests but none had been able to expel the ghost: "...My lord Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent, you are the Star Lord of Military Valor, I beg you to display your divine might and drive away the ghost that has possessed him..."

Huang Shi helped the woman to her feet. Her son had already been laid flat on the ground. Huang Shi swept his gaze over the surrounding crowd; they were all looking at him with eager expectancy.

— This might fall into the eyes of those with ulterior motives, and they could pin the charge of currying public favor on me... Most crucially, this cannot possibly work. Not a bit of use at all.

The woman beside him pleaded in a continuous stream. Huang Shi walked over to the madman and crouched down. The man twisted and struggled before him... Although he was a madman, Huang Shi could see that he had originally been a delicate-featured young man. His hair had been combed neatly by his mother, his clothes from head to toe were all clean, and beneath the ropes binding his hands and feet, cloth had been carefully padded.

— Pity the hearts of parents everywhere.

Huang Shi gently placed his hand on the young man's forehead, trying to calm him a little. Then he turned his head to look at the mother, whose eyes were brimming with grateful tears, and asked softly: "What do you need me to do?"

No miracle occurred. Huang Shi cursed fiercely enough, and even delivered two hard slaps, but the evil spirit still refused to leave. The moment they untied the rope from the madman's mouth, he spat a faceful of saliva at Huang Shi. Amid the exclamations of the crowd, Huang Shi stood up, his face full of apology, and said to the pitiful mother: "I am sorry, I did my best."

"Much better, already much better." Contrary to Huang Shi's expectations, the woman's face was full of gratitude. She called to the people who had come with her to carry her son away again, and as she left, she thanked Huang Shi profusely: "Once the haunting leaves in a couple of days, this old woman will certainly have my son set up a longevity tablet for my lord Junior Guardian of the Heir Apparent."

"He will surely get better. What evil spirit can withstand the killing aura of the Star Lord of Military Valor?"

The woman's figure vanished into the crowd, and her muttering voice gradually faded from Huang Shi's ears. Huang Shi reached up and wiped away the saliva the madman had spat on his face, and looked helplessly around at the surrounding crowd: one wooden, expressionless face after another. The onlooking common folk of Jingcheng, and his own Huang Shi's guards, standard-bearers, and drummers, had all fallen into a deathly silence.

Huang Shi swallowed a mouthful of saliva. For a moment, he could not think of anything good to say. Under the gaze of countless eyes, Huang Shi slowly walked back to his position, coughed in the direction of the drummers, and prepared to resume the march. After seeing Huang Shi's look, those drummers also listlessly readied their preparatory movements, their faces also bearing awkward expressions, like a flock of deflated leather balls.

From within the crowd behind Huang Shi, a solitary shout suddenly erupted:

"His Excellency Huang has cured a madman!"

This sudden cry soared into the clouds, and like ripples spreading across a lake's surface, it diffused through the crowd at a speed faster than a galloping horse.

"Yes, I saw it too."

"That's right, he was cured."

"His Excellency Huang, a living Buddha to ten Battalion Commander!"

The estrangement born from the mutual unfamiliarity between soldiers and civilians, and from the killing aura exuded by a battle-hardened army, had seemed like ancient, everlasting ice. But with this spring-thunder-like roar of cheers, it melted and disintegrated like snowflakes under the rising sun. The frenzied common folk of Jingcheng had no time to ask what exactly had happened, and surged toward the Zhangsheng Island officers and soldiers, shouting.

In the blink of an eye, Huang Shi was surrounded by a crowd of admirers. They all considered it an honor just to touch Huang Shi's garment or armor, and all clamored for Huang Shi to lend them some of his noble aura and righteous spirit. Huang Shi was squeezed by the capital's common folk until he could hardly move an inch. The government office runners who were supposed to maintain order practically threw themselves onto him, grabbing Huang Shi's arm and bellowing at the common folk around them: "I saw it, I saw it with my own eyes, His Excellency Huang is truly a Star Lord descended to the mortal world!"

Huang Shi at first tried his best to distinguish himself: "Elders, you have misunderstood."

But his voice was mercilessly drowned out by the overwhelming shouts, and finally, Huang Shi's voice also became: "Yes, elders, all come share in my good fortune."

At this moment Huang Shi found his face already streaming with tears — this is the nation I swore to defend, all of this was bought with the blood and sweat of my Changsheng Island brothers. O Lord, how fervently I love all of this!

……

The officers and soldiers of Changsheng Island were now also thrown into chaos. Li Gen, the Firearms Squad Commander of the Firefighting Battalion, had several strings of cash stuffed into his arms. Just a moment ago someone who couldn't squeeze close to the troops no matter what had flung a silver ingot at Li Gen from a distance, hitting him square and causing his nose to stream blood. The soldiers around him had also been stuffed with all sorts of things.

For example, Dugu Qiu, right behind Li Gen — a plump middle-aged man had just squeezed over and, without any explanation, thrust a sack of fruit into his arms, then shouted at him in a tearful voice: "Poor child, I suppose you've never had a few full meals in the army camp."

"Big brother, you've surely never tasted this in Liaodong!" The dazed and dizzy Dugu Qiu felt someone else drape something over his head and around his neck. When he struggled to keep up with the column, he discovered yet another heavy, round, coarse-cloth sack hanging on his chest, inside which was a jade-green winter melon.

……

Since ancient times there has been no principle of the Son of Heaven waiting for his ministers, and the Great Ming was certainly no exception. The Tianqi Emperor was at that moment seated in the great hall drinking tea, while eunuchs from time to time ran in to report the situation on the Imperial Avenue.

"Your Majesty, we have found out clearly. It turns out a madman borrowed the killing aura upon General Huang to drive out a possessing evil spirit, and as a result the people outside have all gone mad..."

The intelligence the eunuchs had gathered delighted the young Emperor, who listened with keen interest. After he had laughed heartily, Senior Grand Secretary Gu, who had come today to keep the Son of Heaven company, suddenly spoke with a thoughtful air: "The common people are scrambling to stuff money into the soldiers' hands? So General Huang is so beloved by the people — I truly never saw that coming."

These words seemed to prick Tianqi, bringing his bright laughter to an abrupt halt. Seeing the Emperor sweep a cold glance his way, Senior Grand Secretary Gu was about to rise from his seat and beg forgiveness, when an indignant voice sounded from nearby: "Elder Gu, your remark is mistaken."