Chapter 58: Section Six

The villagers first tied Huang Shi up, then gathered together to discuss how to handle this windfall. They decided to escort him overnight to the Liuhe government office, which had a proper jail and iron chains — leaving him in the village would only invite trouble, as no one knew what changes might occur with the Zhang family.

Once the plan was set, they acted immediately. The one leading the escort was the village chief's eldest son. When Huang Shi was taken out of the village, Old Zhang's whole family hid themselves and did not see him off.

After leaving the village entrance, Huang Shi suddenly heard Zhang Pan shouting from behind: "Brother Huang, my father told me to accompany you for a stretch."

Zhang Pan ran over holding a lantern in his right hand, his left arm still clutching a jar. When he drew near, he stopped in his tracks and looked timidly at Huang Shi: "Brother Huang, will you let me come with you?"

"Go back." Huang Shi shook his head — no grief is greater than the death of the heart.

At these words, tears welled up in Zhang Pan's eyes, and the lantern in his hand fell to the ground. He held up the jar: "Then will you at least accept this food?"

Looking at this child who had been his little tag-along for three years, Huang Shi felt his heart, which he had thought tempered as hard as solid ice, soften a little: "I'll take it. Go back and thank your father for me."

A village soldier upon hearing this went to take the jar. Huang Shi, having spoken, walked away without looking back. After slowly covering about two li, he kept turning over Zhao Manxiong's movements in his mind. His personal guards would have left men behind to keep watch — the commotion when he was taken out of the village was so great, they must have noticed. By now there were surely men trailing behind.

Given Zhao's steadiness, he would likely come to rescue him first, rather than enter the village and alert the enemy. In a moment of carelessness, Huang Shi stumbled and fell to the ground. When he was pulled up, he saw a lantern some distance behind the column — so Zhang Pan was still following at the rear.

Huang Shi sighed, and the killing intent in his heart faded. He had someone call Zhang Pan over from the back.

"Stay right beside me and support me," Huang Shi said to Zhang Pan with a smile. The boy nodded heavily, his face full of excitement. Huang Shi sighed again — so be it, let him unknowingly save the lives of his fellow villagers.

After walking side by side for a while, young Zhang said in a low voice: "Brother Huang, I'm sorry!"

"Your mother did nothing wrong." After calming his killing intent, Huang Shi began to see things from others' perspectives. Old Zhang's wife wanted to live too — she could not risk her whole family for an outsider. This reflection stirred a hidden pain in Huang Shi's heart: that merchant from Liaoyang — hadn't Huang Shi also betrayed them to save his own life?

Let it go, let it go — where it is possible to spare someone, spare them. Huang Shi decided that today he would kill no one.

"No, my mother..."

"Shut your mouth. What does a child like you understand?" Huang Shi rebuked him sharply. "When you have children of your own, you'll understand."

After walking several more li, a villager suddenly let out a cry of alarm. Startled, everyone turned back and stared dumbfounded as a fiery dragon came winding toward them. Huang Shi said loudly to Zhang Pan: "Stay close to me, and don't move recklessly."

Huang Shi's words instantly made the villagers even more bewildered and uncertain. One by one, their mouths gaped open as they stared nervously at this trussed-up fellow. Seeing that they had already lost their composure, Huang Shi grew even more assured. Grinning, he swept his gaze over them and pointed with his chin at Blacksmith Chen's only son:

"Brother Chen, your old man once wanted to take me as a son-in-law — we nearly became half-brothers. You come over and stay close to me too, so you don't get hurt."

The fiery dragon swiftly closed in on them. By the time the villagers could hear the urgent sound of hoofbeats, a voice rang out from the darkness not far away: "Here! His lordship is here."

This was the voice of one of the personal guards who had followed Huang Shi to Liuhe. Immediately another voice also shouted: "His lordship is over here!"

Seeing that the approaching torches numbered a full hundred, the twenty-some villagers surrounding Huang Shi were all dumbstruck. Huang Shi coolly scanned them — a few seemed so terrified that the muscles on their faces began to twitch. At this sight, he quickly shouted: "Fellow villagers, drop your weapons and gather around me. I guarantee none of you will come to harm!"

This voice was brimming with confidence and carried an irresistible authority. The villagers completely collapsed. One after another, they threw down their weapons, clung to Huang Shi's legs, and began wailing. By the time the troops arrived, they saw Huang Shi gently comforting those who had already been scared out of their wits.

When Huang Shi's personal guards untied his ropes, all the villagers except Zhang Pan were pulled aside. Jin Qiude looked toward Huang Shi, but Huang Shi shook his head.

"My lord," Jin Qiude said urgently, "you must not show the mercy of a woman."

These people had seen Huang Shi's unit and might well escape in time to report them.

Jin Qiude was not wrong in the slightest. But since Zhang Pan had come along, Huang Shi knew he could not do it — after all, he could not make it impossible for Old Zhang's family to face anyone, still less let the whole village turn their anger on Old Zhang and send his entire family to the Later Jin.

"Tie them all up. Tie them to those trees over there."

Jin Qiude acknowledged the order and was about to leave, but Huang Shi seemed to catch a cold glint flash through his eyes. He hurriedly called out: "Zhao Manxiong, you go tie them up. Jin Qiude, you come with me."

Jin Qiude walked over to Huang Shi somewhat unwillingly, only to be suddenly grabbed and yanked by him. Huang Shi, gnashing his teeth, roared at him: "Only I decide who lives and who dies."

Jin Qiude and Huang Shi stared at each other for a moment. Under that ferocious glare, Jin Qiude backed down and answered in a low voice: "Yes, my lord."

"Whatever you think, you obey. Do not presume to decide on your own."

"Yes, my lord."

"Answer loudly." Huang Shi raised his voice.

Jin Qiude drew a deep breath and shouted at Huang Shi: "Yes, my lord."

"Good." Huang Shi released Jin Qiude and pushed him back a step.

Then Huang Shi turned to Zhang Pan and said: "Little brother, I did not want to drag you into this, but I have to tie you up too, or your parents will be in trouble."

"Brother Huang, I want to go with you to Lüshun," Zhang Pan suddenly said.

Huang Shi said slowly: "Little brother, following me is very dangerous. You are still too young — I cannot let you take that risk with me."

"I made up my mind before I left home." Zhang Pan's eyes grew very bright. "Brother Huang just now called out Old Zhao's name, but none of those three men was Old Zhao — I knew then that Brother Huang had men outside. Since I followed you out here, I've already resolved to go with Brother Huang."

"Childish. What about your parents? Won't they worry about you?"

Zhang Pan took off his leather cap, revealing a clean-shaven forehead. "The hair and skin of one's body are received from one's parents — not daring to harm them is the beginning of filial piety. Though I have never studied and cannot read, every person of Huaxia knows this passage. We have remembered it by heart ever since we could remember anything."

Once Zhang Pan removed his cap, his queue immediately fell behind his head. Huang Shi watched in silence as he took the end of the queue from around his neck and threw it to the ground. "When I left the house, I cut it off. Brother Huang regards glory, wealth, and rank as dirt. These days I dared not say it aloud, but in my heart I was so proud to know Brother Huang. I have always been ashamed of this pig's tail. After what the villagers did today, I can never live among them again."

Truly a child — he has no understanding of the darkness of this world. Huang Shi sighed and said: "Following me will be extremely dangerous. At any moment you could die without a burial place."

Young Zhang calmly continued: "To be honest with you, Brother, for a long time now I have had a faint feeling that my destiny is to follow Brother Huang. When you said you were going on campaign with Mao Wenlong, I once felt you would take me along. Later I thought it was just my imagination. Today I hesitated too, but when my father told me to bring food to Brother Huang, that feeling came back. I understand now that this is indeed my destiny. So please, you must take me in."

"Destiny?" Huang Shi murmured the word to himself. Since arriving in this era, one other person had spoken these two words to him — it was the "Later Jin spy" he had interrogated, on the day Sun Degong had him transferred away from Zhang Yuanzhi. That man had been dead for a long time now.

"Perhaps destiny does exist..." Huang Shi's gaze grew somewhat lost. Zhang Pan's confession had, for an instant, nearly shaken his conviction — but he immediately returned to normal. There is no such thing as fate for man!

"Very well, follow me."

After agreeing, Huang Shi pondered briefly, then ordered the soldiers to take the village chief's son along as well.

"Go back and tell those in-laws," Huang Shi mocked the villagers who were tied up tight before he left, "tell my two benefactors of tonight not to think of collecting their son's corpse. I will burn him to ashes and scatter them into the river — he'll be a lonely, wandering ghost."

The village chief's son had to vanish without a trace. Huang Shi hoped that this way, he would not be able to insist that Old Zhang's son had defected to him. This method might not work, but it was better than nothing. Huang Shi handed that unlucky wretch over to Jin Qiude to deal with — Jin Qiude would absolutely not disappoint him on a task like this.

By Huang Shi's orders, both the village chief's son and Zhang Pan were bound and placed onto horseback in full view of all the villagers. The tied-up villagers hung their heads in dejection, their mouths also gagged.

Before leaving, Huang Shi noticed that Blacksmith Chen's only son had lost his cap in the snow. This boy looked quite like his delicate younger sister. Recalling that girl's shy expression and the warm smile their father had once shown, Huang Shi, whose heart had already softened, instantly forgot his anger — if the boy got frostbite, it would grieve those who loved him, wouldn't it?

Huang Shi dismounted, walked over, and picked up the leather cap. He put it on the young man, whose ears were already turning blue, and gently comforted him: "It's all right, Brother Chen, just as I promised. Remember to give your father my regards."

His exhaled breath formed a white mist in the firelight. Huang Shi swung back onto his horse and said to Zhao Manxiong, who was standing to one side: "Light a fire for them, and check the ropes again."

"As you command, my lord," Zhao Manxiong replied with great deference.

As Huang Shi spoke, Jin Qiude behind him had been staring fixedly at Zhao Manxiong. When Huang Shi turned to leave, Zhao Manxiong gave a quick nod, and only then did Jin Qiude withdraw his gaze and follow in Huang Shi's steps.

After returning to camp, the soldiers, who had been up half the night, hurried to seize what rest they could. Not long after, Zhao Manxiong's company commander unit also returned. The night passed peacefully.

"The Zhang family — it seems to be a... a weakness of his lordship's," Jin Qiude said privately to Zhao Manxiong. In truth, the word he wanted to use was "fatal vulnerability."

Zhao Manxiong sighed and said nothing. A chaotic age has the laws of a chaotic age. Those who struggle through such times and do not abide by its laws will be mercilessly eliminated.

Everyone was concerned for their own safety, everyone valued their own life — Huang Shi was no exception, Old Zhang’s family and the villagers were no exception, and his subordinates were no exception either.

“Will my lord…?” Jin Qiude hesitantly probed Zhao Manxiong for his opinion; Huang Shi’s fury that day still left him with lingering fear.

Zhao Manxiong still said nothing. Privately, he believed that deep down Huang Shi did not care either — otherwise he should have stayed behind himself, rather than immediately hurrying back to rest. Zhao Manxiong felt this showed that in Huang Shi’s heart, his subordinates and his own person mattered more; he had already made his choice, only thinking he could avoid facing it. But this line of thought he did not intend to share with Jin Qiude.

“In any case, this is our secret.” Jin Qiude stated a pointless remark, and Zhao Manxiong nodded at that pointless remark.

Huang Shi did not have ears that could hear from afar. He was pondering the arrangements for their next move. These ten-plus days of marching had made him feel his military ability had made substantial progress. Before, Huang Shi had always stayed inside his own camp and had no understanding of the soldiers’ billeting conditions, but these days he had lived together with his men the entire time and had fully grasped the circumstances of this era.

What disgusted him most was the soldiers’ problem with relieving themselves. The Ming army of this era had no concept of latrines; they basically did their business on the spot whenever the urge struck. The next morning the whole campsite would be one giant latrine, and after the soldiers finished their business, they would casually grab a couple handfuls of dirt and call it cleaned up, pull up their trousers and walk away — to say nothing of washing their hands.

Now Huang Shi strongly suspected that much of what the ancients called “unacclimatized to the water and soil” was not a water-and-soil illness at all, but dysentery. Within a few days, Huang Shi issued strict orders that latrines must be dug first when making camp, and every soldier must go to the designated spot to relieve himself. Huang Shi also made some simple toilet sticks and stipulated that the soldiers must use these sanitary items.

Huang Shi’s party finally reached Sanchahe. To their dismay, the Later Jin’s sea ban order had already been relayed here, and it was simply impossible to find enough fishing boats for a hundred and fifty men.

Now there was only one road left — to bypass Haizhou and Fuzhou and take the land route to the Liaodong Peninsula.

Perhaps because of that minor clash that night, Jin Qiude had been listless this whole time. Noticing that the soldiers seemed somewhat shaken, Huang Shi deliberately used this opportunity to make Jin Qiude pull himself together.

Catching the glance Huang Shi threw his way, Jin Qiude drew his waist saber, let out a great shout, and hacked it into a tree: “A true man advances, never retreats! Whoever dares speak of returning to Liaoxi shall be executed!”

On the third day of the second month of the second year of the Tianqi reign, Huang Shi’s unit crossed the Liaohe and set foot into the Later Jin heartland.