Chapter 56: Section Four

At the very beginning there were one hundred and fifty followers, and Huang Shi’s personal guards unanimously supported him. They had no room to choose, because their futures were already tightly bound to Huang Shi, and they had not the slightest interest in going to Liaoxi to start over as common soldiers.

Huang Shi’s trump card was to hint to the soldiers that if they went to Liaoxi, they would likely find it hard to return home any time soon, and if their luck was bad they would simply die as strangers in a foreign land. Playing on the era’s fear of becoming wandering ghosts after death, Huang Shi finally scraped together the two hundred soldiers he needed. Fang Zhenru and Gao Bangzuo very generously gave Huang Shi and his men four hundred and fifty warhorses.

Although many of his old subordinates did not intend to follow him, Huang Shi still wanted to leave them something. What is a feudal army? The Ming army was exactly that — whether soldier or officer, a man followed one commander his whole life, sharing honor and disgrace with his superior.

Since these soldiers were leaving Huang Shi, they would have to start from scratch in Liaoxi. No one would know their past merits, and no one would remember their strengths.

Huang Shi handed his own armor to the accompanying blacksmiths and ordered them to dismantle it into scales. He planned to imitate the medals of later ages and leave a keepsake for every soldier who followed him back to Guangning to suppress the rebellion, so that when they reached Liaoxi it would be easier for them to “find work.”

Gao Bangzuo happened to come to see him, intending to further instruct this clever student in moral principles. Upon hearing of Huang Shi’s plan, Prefect Gao was surprised, but he liked the idea very much.

“What mark does General Huang intend to add to these scales?”

“I had originally thought to engrave the four characters ‘Guangning Pingpan’ — Suppressing the Guangning Rebellion — but I fear there is not enough time.” Huang Shi planned to part ways the morning after next. They would be marching during the day, and in two nights the blacksmiths could not possibly engrave characters on several hundred scales.

“Nothing at all? That won’t do. Who would know the origin of these armor plates then? This official does have an idea.” Gao Bangzuo proposed that a silk ribbon be fastened to each scale, with the four characters simply written on it.

Huang Shi thought it over; this was somewhat like a service ribbon. “Prefect Gao has excellent insight. However, I hope this item can be rather small, and that the scale can be hung on the uniform.”

Gao Bangzuo did not know that Huang Shi had fine calligraphy, so he volunteered to take on the task of writing the characters.

Jin Qiude, Zhao Manxiong, and Yang Zhiyuan were already formal Company Commanders under Huang Shi. This time He Baodao had taken the initiative to bring over twenty men to join him, and Huang Shi decided to make him a Company Commander as well.

Although there were many Company Commanders, there were only four Squad Commanders, and all were Huang Shi’s old personal guards. The one remaining personal guard was his current captain of the personal guard.

Under the normal system, Company Commanders would appoint Squad Commanders on their own authority. In a feudal army, the soldiers and Squad Commanders owed their loyalty to their Company Commander, and the Company Commanders owed their loyalty to Huang Shi.

The solution for high-ranking generals was to seize twenty to thirty percent of the officer slots from the lower ranks and directly appoint their own personal guards to those positions. In the end, this would form a clan-like group. As time went on, generation after generation would become so tangled together that it formed a great knotted mass impossible to cut or unravel.

Huang Shi disliked this model intensely, but at the moment he had no solution, so he used the small size of the force as an excuse to stall, hoping to think of some way out before expanding the army.

Gao Bangzuo finished writing the several hundred ribbons in a single night. Imitating the experience of later ages, Huang Shi personally pinned the “medal” on every soldier who had followed him back to Guangning. Out of consideration for the impression it would make, he invited Fang Zhenru to sit to the side and observe the ceremony. This arrangement was fairly appropriate, since a civil official would never condescend to pin medals on soldiers.

It was undeniable that the effect of this gesture was excellent. The soldiers were deeply moved and declared one after another that they would take this item with them to the grave, to show their ancestors the merits of their descendants. Moreover, the practical significance of this item was that it proved their worth, and in the future, before other generals, they would have indisputable proof of military merit.

The troop movement unquestionably had to be kept secret. Several hundred thousand Guangning civilians were traveling south with them, and Huang Shi did not believe there were no Later Jin spies among them. But the medal ceremony could at least be shown to these civilians. Huang Shi believed that helping soldiers build a sense of honor was, in any case, a meritorious deed.

Fang Zhenru and Gao Bangzuo sat upright and solemn at the very top of the earthen platform. Below them, the common people stretched like a mountain and sea of humanity. Having been protected by the Guangning army since fleeing the disaster, they had developed considerable goodwill toward these soldiers they normally looked down upon. And in an era with no film or television entertainment, such a novel spectacle was naturally not to be missed.

Elder Zhao was among the watching civilians. He had run a private school in Guangning and had fled south with his entire family after the chaos of war. At this moment, Elder Zhao was stroking his beard, squinting as he observed the ceremony, and said admiringly to his two sons standing behind him, “Though General Huang is of military background, he placed righteousness above family loyalty, and possesses both wisdom and valor. Truly, heroes emerge from the young.”

“Yes, Father. Seeing General Huang’s martial bearing, your son also wishes to join the army and serve the country.” Although the eldest Zhao brother was a frail scholar, stirred by the atmosphere, he too seemed eager to give it a try.

They then heard someone nearby remark, “Within General Huang’s martial authority, there seems even to be a touch of a scholar’s refined air.”

“A pity.” Elder Zhao nodded, stroking his long beard. It was unclear whether he pitied his son’s frailty, or pitied that Huang Shi was not of Provincial Graduate or Licentiate background.

Behind the pressing crowd, some young women were also watching the excitement, their mothers like so many mother hens guarding these young girls.

Two girls dressed in dark green jackets and lake-blue long skirts stood side by side, clearly a pair of flower-like sisters. Their mother constantly swept the surroundings with a wary gaze, fearful that any fly might approach her treasures.

The one on the left, though maintaining the demure pose of a modest maiden, strained to stretch her already slender neck as far as it would go, swaying her body left and right to find a wide enough gap to see clearly.

“Little sister, General Huang is so tall and striking.” No sooner had the words left her mouth than a knock landed right between the girl’s double topknots.

“Bing’er!” Her mother turned halfway around and scolded in a low voice, “A young lady, acting so wild and crazed — next time I won’t let you come out.”

“Mother.” The girl on the left, called Bing’er, called out in a honeyed voice, shyly hugging her mother’s arm and wagging her head and hips in a spoiled, coquettish manner.

“Look how demure your younger sister is. Have you no shame?” The mother stroked her daughter lovingly, the stern reproach delivered in a tender tone.

As a result, it had no effect whatsoever. The elder daughter immediately retorted, “Little sister is so struck that she can’t even speak.”

“Talking nonsense again.” The mother lightly rapped her elder daughter once more, and the girl immediately put on an exaggerated display to show it hurt terribly.

“You are a child who cannot be kept at home,” the mother threatened her elder daughter. “In a moment I’ll tell your father to find some random person by the roadside and marry you off in a lump, to save you from stirring up trouble for the family.”

“Mother—” The elder daughter was not the least bit afraid and threw herself into her mother’s arms to continue her spoiled, coquettish act.

“Your daughter has heard…” The voice of the girl on the right was very pleasant to the ear, clear and bright as an oriole, yet without losing the alluring charm of a cuckoo.

“That General Huang took his betrothed bride…”

Her moist red lips were both full and soft, and between two rows of clean white teeth flickered a delicate tongue tip:

“And killed her!”

Hearing this mood-killing blunt truth, the elder sister’s body stiffened. Her teeth unconsciously nibbled lightly on her lower lip as she stared blankly at her younger sister beside her. The bloody fact was laid before the young elder sister who had refused to face it squarely.

By now the medal ceremony had concluded. Elder Zhao, leading his two sons, walked back with measured steps. He nodded first to his wife, then looked happily at his two daughters, as exquisitely made up as if fashioned from powder and jade. “Bing’er, Xue’er, let’s go home.”

…

Not long after the medal ceremony ended, Huang Shi’s unit broke away from the main Guangning army and set out on campaign. “At last we’ve cast off the shackles.”

Jin Qiude, half a horse-length behind Huang Shi, caught every word and interjected, “Fortunately, my lords Gao and Fang are not of the Donglin Party, otherwise we could forget about setting out.”

“Oh? Qiude has studied the various court factions as well?” Huang Shi was in a good mood and teased, “Then which faction does Brother Qiude belong to?”

Jin Qiude shook his head. “Your subordinate is a follower of the Legalist school. I do not believe in Confucianism.”

It seems every would-be hero is a Legalist, Huang Shi thought. Facing forward, he recited aloud: “Harbor the heart of a king, wield the blade of a hegemon, carve up the realm, a million corpses strewn, slaughter filling the fields, blood flowing enough to float shields.”

“Exactly so! Well said, my lord!”

Huang Shi was now short of men and provisions, but Jin Qiude knew full well that Huang Shi’s loyalty to both the Great Ming and the Later Jin was highly suspect. He had cast aside wealth and rank easily within reach and did not shrink from embarking on a harsh campaign. To abandon small gains and not do so must mean there is a greater scheme. He looked like a master willing to plunge the realm into chaos — Jin Qiude had finally found one.

On the twenty-seventh day of the first month of the second year of the Tianqi reign, Huang Shi once again arrived near Guangning. According to information gathered from the surrounding civilians, they knew that the main Later Jin army had occupied Guangning days before, restored order within the city, and posted proclamations calling on the people hiding in the nearby mountains to return home.

Although the Later Jin had become the masters of this territory, in reality they had not yet established firm rule. Large numbers of scattered Ming troops everywhere had seized the hills and set themselves up as kings, becoming large bands of bandits, and villages throughout the region had all fortified themselves for self-protection. For now, the Later Jin forces were still concentrated within Guangning city and had not dispersed to deal with the bandits spread around Guangning’s periphery.

Thus, Huang Shi’s small Ming force moved almost as if through uninhabited land. The local bandits dared not provoke two hundred cavalry, and even those villages that had surrendered to the Later Jin lacked the ability to come out and attack such a force. The Liaodong landlords and local strongmen who had not fled even sent some wine and food, hoping that Huang Shi would not go and cause trouble on their lands.

The biggest immediate problem was the horses. Previously, the Ming army had firmly controlled the surrounding territory, and wherever they went, the horses could obtain fodder from local military depots. But now Huang Shi and his men dared not go near forts or main roads. So the horses could only eat green grass, and after two days the horses had all become listless.

Huang Shi’s plan was to take advantage of the time while the main Later Jin army was still in Guangning, make for Sanchahe, gather some fishing boats, and head straight for Lüshun. If that failed, they would hide by day and travel by night, bypass Haizhou while it was empty, and take the land route to the Liaodong Peninsula. Because they constantly had to be on guard against Later Jin scouts, and further lacked supplies and reconnaissance, the marching speed grew slower and slower, and they often had to make detours.

On the first day of the second month of the second year of the Tianqi reign, when Huang Shi emerged from his camp, he saw Jin Qiude already waiting at the entrance. “Your subordinate is incompetent. Another eight soldiers left last night.”

“Did they take horses?”

“No. Your subordinate assigned large numbers of men to guard against it.”

Over the past few days, quite a few of Huang Shi’s subordinates had deserted. Counting these eight, Huang Shi’s force numbered only one hundred and fifty-three men. Because the horses had only green grass to eat, nearly a hundred had already died. Fortunately, by evening, Huang Shi’s party had slipped near Zhao Manxiong’s old home, the mountainous area beside Liuhe Guard. Beyond this point was Sanchahe.

“My lord, ahead is Liuhe Guard. What do you intend to do?” Zhao Manxiong asked.

“Liuhe Guard, eh. I’ve heard the entire guard surrendered to the Jianzhou slaves. Is that so?”

"The woodcutters around here all say the same."

"Mm." Huang Shi nodded. "Manxiong, you're familiar with the local terrain — arrange their camp. I'll take some personal guards to the village."

"Take care on the road, my lord."