Chapter 74: Section Two

Kong Youde stroked his beard and said nothing. Zhang Pan glanced at him a few times, then spoke: "The third reason is that across a thousand li of the Liao Sea, our army can transport troops by ship and land anywhere, so the Jianzhou slaves cannot defend against every point."

"True, true." Huang Shi felt some disappointment inwardly, but still clapped and laughed heartily. Zhang Pan laughed too. Only Kong Youde remained deep in thought with his head lowered, and the two gradually stopped laughing and looked at him.

Kong Youde finally said: "That is not the third point I had in mind. I believe that with the Jianzhou slaves enforcing a maritime ban, the fishermen either flee to Lord Mao's banner or move inland to become farmers. Our naval forces naturally grow stronger by the day, while the Jianzhou slaves can never build a navy of their own. The Jianzhou slaves' abandonment of the coast may temporarily disadvantage our army, but in the long run, they are allowing our army to grow and strengthen."

Huang Shi listened with quiet delight — this sworn brother was truly worth having!

Kong Youde continued: "Once our navy becomes powerful, battles will naturally grow more frequent. This thousand-li coastal frontier will see unceasing beacon fires. Every time the Jianzhou slaves lose, they must retreat a step; but even if they win, they cannot shake our foundation. Heh heh, our army is already in an invincible position."

"Invincible — does that not mean certain victory? If the Jianzhou slaves can only hold their battle line, then our army pushing that line northward is merely a matter of time." Huang Shi immediately picked up the thread, and at the end did not forget to add: "Elder Brother speaks well — Lord Mao is a man of grand vision and great strategy."

"Lord Mao is a man of grand vision and great strategy," Zhang Pan and Kong Youde echoed in unison.

After the banquet ended, Zhang Pan summoned his private secretary and dictated a letter to Mao Wenlong: "...Kong Youde excels in military affairs, decisive in attack and execution — your subordinate congratulates Your Excellency on gaining yet another fierce general. As for Huang Shi, Huang Shi..."

The private secretary waited a long while without hearing what followed and could not help asking: "Proprietor, what about Huang Shi?"

Zhang Pan thought for a long time, then nodded and said: "This man's talent seems to lie not in military matters but in strategy and planning, so your subordinate cannot judge him. Your subordinate feels that this man Huang Shi devises stratagems within the command tent, rather like a civil official. Today he made many astonishing remarks, which your general attaches with this letter..."

In Huang Shi's understanding, the words he had spoken were unquestionably military matters, but the Ming dynasty's military officers clearly disagreed. Since the founding of the Ming, what Ming army commanders mainly considered was how to govern troops and train soldiers, how to slay enemy generals and seize their banners.

Therefore, what Huang Shi said sounded more like what a civil official ought to say, not what a military commander would consider. To say a military officer is like a civil official was a very high compliment in the late Ming — similar to how in Huang Shi's original time and space, one might appraise someone from a certain place by saying: "You really don't seem like one of those people." (Author's note: this is merely to aid the reader's understanding; please absolutely refrain from taking it personally or quoting out of context.)

The next day, Huang Shi and Kong Youde led their personal troops and moved to the rear. According to Mao Wenlong's orders, all routed soldiers who had fled to them were to be sent to the rear for reorganization; front-line commanders were forbidden to take them in on their own. As for the Liao refugees, they were to be sent even further back to the various military farming islands, where they would engage in productive labor under the direction of Pi Island.

Outside Lüshun Fort, refugees were everywhere. The garrison had built over a hundred mat-sheds and provided rice gruel daily to keep them alive. Along the road to the harbor stretched an endless sea of refugees and their crude shanties. The Ming army provided the necessary thatch for them to build shelters against the cold, but the Ming army lacked the means to supply enough firewood. Many of these Liao refugees, surviving on rainwater and thin gruel, would not live to see the day they were evacuated to the rear.

"To let the common people suffer such misery — this is truly the shame of us soldiers of the Great Ming!" He Baodao, now recovered enough to move, said indignantly.

Huang Shi sighed at these words and turned to ask Yang Zhiyuan: "Our army has newly received some military provisions — is there any surplus?"

"Your subordinate will check at once."

Jin Qiude began to grumble loudly: "How could there possibly be any? Lüshun only gave us fresh water and rice for a few days at sea, and they don't have much either."

"My lord, that is not what your subordinate meant." He Baodao felt Huang Shi had misunderstood him: "Your subordinate was merely expressing his feelings. Your subordinate also knows our army's supplies are limited. Recalling the journey to Lüshun, the villagers we encountered were all innocent subjects of our Great Ming. Our army could not protect them, and even had to plunder them — your subordinate feels nothing but shame, and only hopes we can soon fight our way back to Liaodong to wipe away this disgrace."

Behind him, Jin Qiude rolled his eyes.

The ships arranged for Huang Shi, Kong Youde, and their several hundred personal troops were several dozen fishing boats of varying sizes. The weapons and armor of the ordinary soldiers had already been handed over to Zhang Pan, and the horses were all left behind as well — only the officers and some personal guards retained their own equipment. The Lüshun Ming army, having continuously absorbed the equipment of routed soldiers, now possessed fairly considerable combat strength.

Before boarding the ships, Huang Shi issued orders that every boat must prepare sufficient firewood and, more importantly, must carry chamber pots. Huang Shi strictly commanded that everyone must drink boiled water, that every person must use the chamber pots, and that everyone must wash their hands with seawater. Kong Youde smiled but said nothing while Huang Shi issued these orders, and the orders were carried out to the letter.

In the fourth month of the second year of the Tianqi reign, Huang Shi and the others arrived at Guanglu Island, which served as the collection station for routed soldiers from Guangning. Most of the Guangning routed soldiers had no commanding officer. After being identified and assessed here, they would be distributed to reinforce the various garrisons of Dongjiang. The officer in charge of collecting routed soldiers was Zhang Pan, the Dongjiang Drill Regional Military Commissioner.

"I have long heard that General Huang is peerless in loyalty and righteousness." Zhang Pan's face was full of admiration when he met Huang Shi. "General Huang placed righteousness above family loyalty and executed the traitor Sun Degong — we who have heard of it all hold you in the highest esteem."

"I dare not accept such praise. In the end, I still could not hold Guangning."

"General Huang once said that if one could not preserve Guangning, one would have no face to enter the Pass — we who heard this were also deeply admiring." Zhang Pan continued with a stream of compliments.

Although food was scarce on the island, the welcome banquet for a high-ranking officer like Huang Shi was still quite sumptuous. Zhang Pan, like a monkey offering a treasure, even presented Kong Youde and Huang Shi each with a large bowl of fatty pork.

Faced with the large bowl of fat, Kong Youde beamed with delight and ate until grease ran down his chin, while Huang Shi felt waves of nausea. Although he had been in this world for several years, he had still not developed the slightest interest in slabs of fat. In the end, under the astonished gazes of everyone present, Huang Shi gave his large bowl of glistening white fat to Kong Youde.

Another thing that set him apart from the others was that Huang Shi had no interest whatsoever in drinking. Once again, it was Kong Youde who got him out of the awkward situation, testifying that Huang Shi basically did not drink.

On the journey from Guanglu to Pi Island, only a few of their personal guards accompanied Huang Shi and Kong Youde. In addition, Zhang Pan sent a small squad of soldiers to protect them — this squad could replenish the personal guards they had lost. Kong Youde let Huang Shi pick first, and the rest would go to him.

Huang Shi and Kong Youde had come to surrender with fully formed units — a situation that was extremely rare. Zhang Pan, somewhat apologetically, told them that the soldiers had to undergo selection and be assigned tasks based on their physical condition. Most of the soldiers would be sent to farm military lands, while the remaining soldiers would be distributed to reinforce commanders across Dongjiang who urgently needed combat troops.

As for Huang Shi and Kong Youde, they had to travel to Pi Island to pay their respects to Mao Wenlong. Both were Mobile Corps Commanders, so only Mao Wenlong himself could decide their future assignments. And the troops they would command in the future would be replenished according to their positions — which also meant they would lose their personal troops.

However, Zhang Pan would not take away all their men. Their personal guards would be retained, and their officers could also request to be kept. Kong Youde very freely declared that he would not retain any officers. Huang Shi, on the other hand, reorganized the officers into his personal guard unit and took them with him.