Chapter 75: Section Three

In front of others, Kong Youde acted as if he didn't care, but when chatting privately with Huang Shi, he still seemed deeply resentful about losing his personal troops.

"Big Brother, do you still remember what Zhang Pan's post was at Guangning?" Huang Shi asked Kong Youde coldly.

"Seems he was just a common soldier," Kong Youde still recalled Zhang Pan's self-introduction at the banquet.

"And Zhang Pan?"

"Seems he was a common soldier too."

"Indeed," Huang Shi sighed. Not having been able to catch up with Mao Wenlong's march on Sanchahe was a pain in his heart that would not fade. "Zhang Pan is now a Mobile Corps Commander, and Zhang Pan is a Company Commander. A year ago, all the officers under Lord Mao were common soldiers. Pick any man from the Guangning routed troops and he'd have more seniority than them, yet now they all rank far below."

The speaker had clearly forgotten himself. Huang Shi had risen through the ranks at a dizzying pace, going from common soldier to general in a few months, yet from his tone he still seemed far from satisfied.

Kong Youde also failed to recall the anomaly before him. Hearing this, he sighed repeatedly. If the Guangning routed troops had not been broken up and redistributed, and the defeated generals stripped of their personal troops, then Mao Wenlong's batch of newly promoted officers would never have been able to command men who had been the superiors of the superiors of their superiors just a year ago...

The silent Kong Youde slowly furrowed his thick brows into a deep knot, burying his head in careful thought about something. Huang Shi did not disturb him. It seemed that becoming Mao Wenlong's adopted son was Kong Youde's destined fate.

Huang Shi walked out of the cabin and gazed quietly at the sea. He considered his performance at Lüshun to have been quite good, and the impression he left on Zhang Pan was surely deeper than Kong Youde's — and that impression would certainly be conveyed back to Mao Wenlong.

"That move I planted at Zhenjiang is finally about to be used. I am far stronger than Kong Youde." Huang Shi had pondered this matter for a long time. When he came back to his senses, he discovered a guard sent by Zhang Pan standing close behind him, protecting him the whole time.

"Thank you for your trouble," Huang Shi said to the young soldier with a smile.

"My lord Huang is too kind. For this humble soldier to guard a hero like my lord Huang is my honor." The soldier looked only sixteen or seventeen, his eyes radiating fervent admiration.

After the Battle of Guangning, Huang Shi had seen this look many times. Sixteen or seventeen was just the age of pure and hot-blooded youth. "What is your name?"

The youth performed a qian salute and answered solemnly in a loud voice: "This humble soldier is Hong Antong."

"Hong Antong?" The name slightly startled Huang Shi. "How are the three characters written?"

"Replying to my lord: Hong as in flood, An as in peace, Tong as in smooth passage," Hong Antong answered without hesitation.

"Your name doesn't sound like that of a military household son. Why are you in the army?"

"General Huang sees clearly. This humble soldier was originally a son of a prominent Shenyang family. When the Jian slaves invaded our Liaodong, my entire family was slaughtered. I swore to avenge my kin. When I heard that Lord Mao was counterattacking into Liaodong, I came to enlist in Lord Mao's army."

"How old are you this year?" Huang Shi asked kindly.

"Replying to General Huang, this humble soldier is seventeen this year."

Still a child not yet grown. Huang Shi swept his eyes over Hong Antong's thin, underdeveloped frame. The respectful young soldier still had a boy's face, but his features revealed a look of firm resolve. "This general sees you are agile in movement. For your age, that is quite impressive."

"Reporting to General Huang, this humble soldier's family originally had many martial arts instructors and bodyguards. I also learned some martial skills."

"Oh, what have you learned?"

"This humble soldier has trained in the Thirteen Great Guardians Horizontal Training."

Huang Shi gave the youth an increasingly odd look, wondering if he had arrived in some wuxia world with kung fu. He probed: "I've heard that this skill requires virgin boy training."

"Replying to General Huang, this humble soldier's entire household left only me alive," the youth said, his head lowered, but Huang Shi seemed to see murderous intent thick with hatred slowly rising from his body. "I have also heard people say this. My late father's original intention was merely to use it to strengthen the body. Once I married, even if all prior effort was wasted, it would not be a pity."

"This humble soldier knows I am unfilial, but how can I not avenge this blood-deep hatred that wiped out my entire family?" The youth's chest heaved violently several times, and his voice grew slightly hoarse, yet not a single tear was ever seen. He steadied his breathing and continued:

"General Huang, my eldest brother shielded me with his own body. Of the entire family, only I — only I alone survived. At that time, I watched with my own eyes as my mother and sisters were dragged away by the Jian slaves. I heard the cries of my mother and my sisters, and the laughter of those Tartars, but I dared not make a sound."

To the hero he revered, Hong Antong poured out a secret long hidden, yet his tone was as calm as if recounting someone else's story: "I gathered the bodies of my grandfather, my father, my uncles. At the grave mound of my family's dozens of members, I swore an oath: no matter what, I would train my martial skills diligently and slaughter every last Tartar. So long as I have one breath left, even if I never marry, I must have my revenge."

"Under Company Commander Zhang Pan, you are just a common soldier, correct?"

"Yes, General Huang."

"Did you enlist before the Battle of Zhenjiang?"

"Replying to General Huang, this humble soldier enlisted as a sailor at Sanchahe."

Huang Shi looked at him silently. He knew well the hardships of soldiers, and knew even more that in the army, sailors held even lower status than soldiers. Huang Shi could hardly imagine what fierce emotions burned within this youth to sustain him. "So are you now a soldier?"

"Yes, General Huang." Hong Antong's tone remained unusually calm, without a trace of pride or self-satisfaction. "This humble soldier fought bravely and slew the enemy under Company Commander Zhang Pan, taking two heads, and was thus specially permitted to join the ranks."

"Mm," Huang Shi hesitated, deciding to confirm the world he was in. "Having trained in the Thirteen Great Guardians Horizontal Training, can you fight ten men at once?"

"I cannot."

"Oh, then can you administer poison? You know, the kind that requires an antidote once a year?"

"...I cannot."

"Cannot, right? Then do you know any twin-headed ascetics?... No? Then do you know Lu Gaoxuan?... Not him either... Then can you raise venomous snakes?"

"..."

It seemed he had not arrived in a wuxia world. Huang Shi secretly breathed a sigh of relief. He would not need to trouble himself learning the Bone-Dissolving Cotton Palm.

"Since the Jian slaves rebelled, many people in Liaodong have had their families destroyed and their homes ruined. You are not the only one." In any case, Huang Shi did not believe in any virgin boy training. Wasn't it just about burning calories and protein? Meat had all that; at most, eat some fish and shrimp to supplement phosphorus. That stuff, if not offered up to women, only benefited the hand. He decided to try offering some counsel: "There are three ways to be unfilial, and having no heir is the greatest."

"What General Huang says is most true, but this humble soldier's resolve is set." Hong Antong's face was full of stubbornness.

"Is that so? Do you think the spirits of your family in heaven wish this for you? Your eldest brother gave his life to protect you, and you would have your ancestors' line end without descendants?"

Hong Antong instantly fell silent. After a moment, he suddenly erupted violently. The unrestrained wailing startled Huang Shi, who had not expected those words to carry such devastating force.

What Hong Antong had told Huang Shi was not entirely complete. The Later Jin soldiers had violated his mother and sisters right before his father's corpse, but Hong Antong had hidden beneath his eldest brother's body, not even daring to breathe loudly. Every time he recalled his cowardice in that moment, his heart ached as if being wrung, the pain so intense he could scarcely breathe.

Now Huang Shi's words once again made him recall his craven clinging to life. All the men of his clan had died protecting their families. His eldest brother had shielded him with his own body — that blood-drenched face appeared once more before the youth's eyes, and the shrieks of his mother and sisters rang again in his ears:

"General Huang, this humble soldier's resolve is set. Until this blood debt is avenged, I will never willingly disperse my martial skill."