Chapter 60: Section Eight

He Baodao’s mouth hung open, panting heavily. He suddenly jabbed a finger at Jin Qiude beside Huang Shi: “My lord, was it this wretch who proposed it?”

“It has nothing to do with Company Commander Jin,” Huang Shi answered flatly. “Nor with Company Commander Zhao. It was entirely my own idea.”

Yang Zhiyuan lowered his head at these words. He Baodao’s face was full of disbelief, his head tilting to one side as he stared at Huang Shi for a long moment: “My lord, I do not believe you.”

“Carry out the order.”

“My lord, there are things your subordinate must say!” He Baodao pulled his shoulder back to evade Yang Zhiyuan’s reaching hand, then shoved him backward, making him stumble: “We are the Great Ming’s imperial army. Our duty is to protect the realm and bring peace to the people!”

“Have they shaved their heads and kept the queue? If so, then they are Jian slaves too!” Huang Shi sneered in retort. “Our troops need hot water and warm campsites. If we do not plunder the villagers, where will those come from?”

“True, they do keep the queue, and your subordinate does not think plundering them is wrong. But they were originally subjects of the Great Ming. When our Great Ming imperial army recovers Liaodong, they will still be His Majesty’s innocent children.”

Huang Shi fixed his gaze on He Baodao and watched him for a moment. In the end he decided to “persuade by reason,” so that He Baodao would fully grasp the meaning of this order: “You think killing them is unnecessary, don’t you. Then let me ask you: what if they go and report our army’s movements to the Jian slaves?”

“Make them swear a binding oath,” He Baodao said without a second thought. “Make them swear by their ancestors’ tombs and their descendants’ well-being.”

Several dozen villagers — if a single one of them coveted a reward from the Later Jin, it would bring disaster on the entire army. Huang Shi still remembered his last encounter vividly. He laughed in extreme anger: “Company Commander He, the army’s safety is my foremost concern. I must guarantee the absolute safety of my men.”

Unexpectedly, these words only made He Baodao angry too. He took a great stride forward, both hands clenched into fists: “My lord means this is for self-preservation? Killing people is for self-preservation?”

“What is wrong with self-preservation?”

“My lord, do not deceive me. Your subordinate has read the books,” He Baodao retorted in a ringing voice. “The ancient sages of Huaxia taught us that even beasts know self-preservation. Self-preservation is the nature of barbarians. But we of Huaxia possess a sense of honor and shame. The great principles of our Huaxia are benevolence, loyalty, filial piety, and righteousness…”

Ever since arriving in this world, the transmigrator Huang Shi had swept all before him by relying on utter shamelessness. At this moment a strange feeling arose in him — perhaps he was not, in the Ming-dynasty sense, a man of Huaxia at all.

…

“What sets Huaxia apart from the barbarians is that we possess the Huaxia ethical teachings,” a thousand li away, Old Mr. Zhao’s family had safely reached Shanhai Pass. He was lecturing a group of children who had traveled with them: “We study precisely to learn the Huaxia ethical teachings, and then go forth to civilize the myriad people, so that all descendants of Huaxia understand honor and shame, and know the great principles. For instance, killing a person is a violation of benevolence…”

“Then what about killing barbarians? Wouldn’t that also be a violation of benevolence?” These children were filled with hatred toward the Later Jin.

“The Sage said that barbarians are akin to beasts. However, wanton killing is still a violation of benevolence. The Sage also said: repay enmity with justice. If the barbarians do not attack our Huaxia, we do not go and kill them. If the barbarians do attack our Huaxia…”

Old Mr. Zhao taught the children serenely. In the distance, his two daughters were washing rice to prepare the evening meal, whispering together the intimate confidences of young girls.

“Sister, that Guangning soldier who traveled with our family the day before yesterday — his new bride seems to have met General Huang!”

“Really?”

“They say this woman was a bondmaid of that traitor Sun Degong, and the personal bondmaid of the Sun family’s young lady at that. She saw General Huang many times…”

The young girl was yearning after an illusory idol. She told her sister she would go and get friendly with that bondmaid from the Sun household; she wanted to dig up some gossip about that legendary figure.

“I want to go too.”

“You?” The elder sister was startled. “Aren’t you terribly afraid of General Huang?”

“General Huang is indeed a frightening man. I truly do not like him. But I want to go and hear the stories too.” Long lashes lowered, veiling her eyes and the faint curiosity within them: “A man who could harden his heart to kill his betrothed — may the Bodhisattva protect me from ever meeting such a man.”

“You think far too ill of General Huang. Didn’t Father say so? General Huang is a hero who sacrificed his own kin for the greater good.”

“Thank heaven there are not many heroes in this world. If every man were a hero, there would be no way for us women to survive.”

…

They argued for a long time.

Huang Shi now saw his mistake. He should have simply assumed the posture of a superior officer from the start. Instead he had to go quoting classics and debating the distinction between Hua and barbarian with He Baodao. As a result, Jin Qiude and Zhao Manxiong just stood there wide-eyed, utterly useless. Huang Shi cursed Jin Qiude inwardly — the man also claimed to be a scholar. What on earth had he read, and where had it all gone?

Still, he had finally sorted out He Baodao’s logic. Human life was a matter of the utmost gravity; killing must accord with the great principle of “loyalty and righteousness”: “Those villagers shaved their heads and changed their clothing, abandoning the Huaxia rites, dress, and music. Therefore they are barbarians!”

Seeing He Baodao draw breath to argue again, Huang Shi cut off the discussion with a wave of his hand: “Stop. No more arguing.”

Right now He Baodao did not resemble a soldier at all, but rather a Confucian scholar. It seemed he had indeed read no small number of books, and all of them were the decayed and backward Confucian classics. Once Huang Shi reached this judgment, he knew there would be no settling right and wrong today. The modern mind and the Confucian scholar were utterly incompatible, existing in completely different parallel universes.

“Company Commander He, go and ask your men. Would they rather kill and then have a hot meal, or would they rather squat in the snowy wilderness gnawing on frozen cornbread?”

“My lord, those words are mistaken. We officers exist precisely to restrain the soldiers. Otherwise, what difference would there be between our Huaxia and the Jian slaves?”

There was truly nothing to be said to a Confucian scholar whose mouth was full of “Huaxia” and “barbarian.” Huang Shi sighed. Deep in his bones there still lingered the dregs of a fiery young patriot; the two words “Huaxia” still carried tremendous lethal force against him: “Forget it. You go and take charge of making them swear the oath.”

“My lord is wise and clear-sighted.”

He Baodao left in high spirits, and Yang Zhiyuan followed him out. The four who remained — Huang Shi, Jin Qiude, Zhao Manxiong, and the personal guard Zhang Zaidi — sat in a room so silent that the fall of a needle could be heard.

“Confucians use letters to subvert the law; knights-errant use force to defy prohibitions.” Huang Shi delivered his verdict on the argument just past.

“My lord is wise and clear-sighted.” Jin Qiude had always looked down on the Confucian doctrines of “benevolence and righteousness,” and Zhao Manxiong had very nearly been throttled to death by the knight-errant He just moments ago.

“But do not wound Company Commander He’s heart.”

“Your subordinates understand. My lord, be at ease.” The two men saluted and withdrew.

“Elder brother,” Zhang Zaidi asked uneasily, “with such a great commotion, won’t word leak out?”

“Old Zhao handles matters very securely.” Huang Shi had great confidence in Zhao Manxiong. He himself had already thought of several strategies — for instance, locking all the villagers in a single building, and when leaving, having a trusted man set a fire so that neither gods nor ghosts would know. Zhao Manxiong, with his deep and careful deliberation, would naturally have no problems.

“Elder brother, why do you take the bad name for Jin Qiude? It was clearly he who proposed the killing. Let him go and fight it out with Company Commander He to see who wins.”

“He is my subordinate, so I must bear it for him. I must bear it for every single one of my subordinates.” Huang Shi’s expression was solemn; he had his own set of logic. He immediately added another sentence: “Even more, I cannot let them go and fight it out themselves.”

Zhang Zaidi half-understood, then broke into a smile: “When they are in front of you, elder brother, they all become very strange.”

According to Zhang Zaidi’s description, behind Huang Shi’s back Jin Qiude did not always wear a gloomy face — he even told jokes. Zhao Manxiong would also talk nonsense, and likewise speak without thinking.

Huang Shi gave a thoughtful grunt. Jin Qiude knew he was appreciated for his ruthlessness, his heartlessness, and his cold-bloodedness; Zhao Manxiong also knew Huang Shi valued his steadiness and resourcefulness; likewise, He Baodao and Yang Zhiyuan had won Huang Shi’s favor because of their own particular charisma.

“So they all do their utmost to display their distinctive traits in front of me. This must be what they call ‘divining the superior’s intent,’ right?” Huang Shi thought to himself. “No wonder I feel that each of their ideas can move me — because when they are before me, each reflects some facet of my own character. When they argue, it is in truth several branches of my own thought struggling against one another.”

Huang Shi’s force continued to advance toward Lushun. Horses kept dying in great numbers. Huang Shi’s force still numbered over a hundred and several tens of men, but of their four hundred and fifty horses, fewer than two hundred remained alive. The surviving horses had also lost serious weight after more than ten days without fodder.

In the twenty-first century, a small force of a hundred-odd men penetrating deep into enemy territory without being annihilated would be unimaginable. But fortunately this was not modern society. There were no railways or highways here, still less telephones or telegraphs. Across the vast Liaodong land, villages were sparse.

At this time, the Later Jin’s method of rule here was basically the same as the Ming dynasty’s — they came down to collect grain taxes at harvest time, but in daily life they still let the village elders govern autonomously. Therefore Huang Shi’s greatest enemy was not the Later Jin regular army, but the village self-defense forces meant to guard against bandits.

Because they had absolutely no one familiar with the geography, Huang Shi’s army once went a full day and night without hot water or a warm campsite. In the second month of the lunar calendar, spending a night in the open wind of the northeast was no romantic affair. The next day Huang Shi discovered he had two more men down with illness.

Fortunately, Huang Shi’s current captain of personal guards was very capable. He was a condemned soldier of bandit origin, surnamed Ma. Because he always proclaimed he would be Huang Shi’s “vanguard pawn,” everyone gradually forgot his original name.

Ma Qianzu brought out his special skill — the art of reading qi — and time and again helped the army find new prey. Ma Qianzu’s qi-reading art was also a branch of learning within the army. Although Huang Shi observed on the spot, he still could not grasp all of Ma Qianzu’s techniques.

Finding a village by watching for cooking smoke at dusk was easy enough to understand, but judging a village’s size, its general layout, and its approximate population from the cooking smoke — that was no simple craft. Be that as it may, Huang Shi and his men could always successfully plunder some unfortunate little village.

“But relying on plunder all the time is no solution either.” Huang Shi’s army had more and more sick and wounded, and their speed grew slower and slower. Without a stable base, the sick and wounded were all jolted along the entire way.

“Hold on, hold on. Once we reach Lushun, everything will be fine.” Huang Shi consoled himself: “At least we haven’t run into a large enemy force. That’s already quite good.”