Chapter 85: Section Thirteen

"Men, seize this wretch and give him twenty heavy strokes of the board." At Fang Zhenru's command, two attendants rushed forward, pinned Huang Long down, and pulled down his trousers — nearby, someone had already raised the rod.

"My Lord Fang," Huang Shi hastily spoke up to plead for Huang Long; it was the right thing to do both publicly and privately. Moreover, as a fellow military officer, he felt the sympathy of one fox mourning the death of another: "This humble general dares beg Your Lordship to quell your anger."

"We beg Lord Fang to quell his anger." Huang Shi's subordinates were tactful and promptly joined in the plea.

Just moments before, Huang Long had been frantically confessing his guilt, and his personal guards had all slunk off to the side. Now, seeing someone take the lead in pleading for mercy, they immediately knelt down in droves, adding their voices to the clamor: "We beg Lord Fang to forgive his offense."

Huang Long's subordinates knelt for a long while before the woodenly silent Fang Zhenru finally said to him coolly, "For General Huang Shi's intercession, I shall spare you one stroke. For the sake of General Huang Shi's subordinates' face, I shall spare you another. You will take eighteen strokes, then."

"I thank Lord Fang." After speaking these words of gratitude, Huang Long gritted his teeth and endured the eighteen heavy strokes. As each rod fell, fresh blood splattered, and beads of sweat the size of soybeans rolled down in torrents.

When the beating was over, his personal guards helped Huang Long into his clothes and dragged him away, supporting him. Judging by his injuries, he would not be getting out of bed for several days.

Fang Zhenru had been preoccupied with tidying his torn cuff the entire time. Only after Huang Long had fled with his head in his hands did he remark, under the fearful gazes of Huang Shi and the others, "These soldiers of Liaozhen grow more lawless by the day."

When chatting idly with Huang Shi about the hardships they had shared, Fang Zhenru's face softened into a smile again, and the official majesty from moments before vanished without a trace. The two talked as they walked, and when they reached the Provincial Surveillance Commissioner's residence, Fang Zhenru went in first to change his clothes, while Huang Shi and the others waited in the courtyard.

"Do you understand now why I want to go to Liaodong?" Huang Shi asked the two men behind him in a low voice. They were both military officers now, and the drama they had just witnessed should have given them some insight into the prospects of a career in Liaozhen.

He Baodao was twenty this year by nominal age, and Yang Zhiyuan was two years older, but both were still too young to grasp the stakes — mere rookies who had just become officers. When they first left the Grand Coordinator's government office, they had been listening in on the side, occasionally laughing and joking. Ever since Huang Long was beaten, these two had not made a sound and had retreated far to the rear.

Now, hearing Huang Shi's question, they exchanged a glance and said in unison, low-voiced, "Your Excellency is wise."

Huang Shi said quietly to the two of them, "Dongjiang may be impoverished, but there are no civil officials there. We military officers can hold our heads high and live with dignity. Changsheng Island is our home, and only in our own home can we avoid suffering such indignities."

As a modern man, although Huang Shi had grown accustomed to kowtowing and kneeling, he still yearned for a life of dignity. For a military man, Dongjiang was truly a paradise under Great Ming rule. And the two young officers behind him, still full of youthful spirit, nodded vigorously at these words.

Huang Shi reflected on the day's events: Fang Zhenru had first made him clash with Wang Zaijin, then immediately came to his rescue, and then there was the scene that had just unfolded — could all this be mere coincidence?

Fang Zhenru sent Yang Zhiyuan and the other rank-six officers to eat in the kitchen; he wanted to speak with Huang Shi privately. Dining with Fang Zhenru, Huang Shi felt even more uncomfortable than when he had eaten with Li Yongfang and Hong Taiji. It was not because the food was simple — he could see Fang Zhenru was very poor — but mainly because, in the presence of a Great Ming civil official, Huang Shi also had the feeling of "not being treated as a human being."

"You asked me earlier what else we discussed afterward, didn't you?" With no outsiders present, Fang Zhenru's form of address grew more intimate.

"It was rash of this humble general."

"Not rash at all. This is precisely what I intended to discuss with you tonight."

After listening for a while, Huang Shi understood that the topic at hand concerned the strategic policy toward the Later Jin. When Wang Huazhen took office as Provincial Governor of Liaodong, he had vigorously advocated taking the offensive to recover Liaodong territory. Now that Wang Huazhen had suffered a catastrophic defeat, the offensive faction had been dealt a fatal blow.

According to Fang Zhenru's account, the voice of the offensive faction could no longer be heard at court. The two remaining factions were active defense and passive defense:

The central idea of passive defense was to temporarily abandon the territory beyond Shanhai Pass and hold fast along the Great Wall;

The theory of active defense was to build cities and fortifications step by step in Liaoxi, restoring those castles that had been burned down.

The current grand border official Wang Zaijin supported the passive defense view. He vigorously advocated using Shanhai Pass as the main gate, constructing a network of fortresses between Shanhai Pass and Beijing, while simultaneously reinforcing the Great Wall line.

Fang Zhenru briefly outlined the situation, then asked Huang Shi for his opinion: "Huang Shi, you now have some reputation at court. Even His Majesty has inquired about you."

"My humble name has actually reached the imperial ear? How can this be?" Huang Shi had not anticipated this turn of events and was flustered, unsure how to properly express his overwhelming gratitude.

Fang Zhenru, however, thought he was simply overjoyed to the point of foolishness and said with a smile, "Aside from Zu Dashou and those other hereditary military officers of Liaoxi, Grand Secretary Sun also wishes to hear the opinions of Liaodong military officers. He specifically named you."

Sun Chengzong was one of the rare civil officials in the Great Ming who valued military officers. He had long been crying out to "empower the generals," advocating that the opinions of frontline commanders be given greater weight, and that authority should be delegated to generals so that frontline officers could exercise their own judgment in command.

"Come, tell me your views." Fang Zhenru encouraged him again, smiling.

Huang Shi pondered and offered his counsel: "Lord Wang's thinking is naturally prudent. First, if the Jianzhou slaves march on Liaoyang, Shanhai Pass will have ample warning time. Second, Shanhai Pass is flanked by the sea and the Great Wall, so it cannot be encircled and cut off from supplies. Third, Shanhai Pass is close to the capital, making it easy to receive reinforcements and relatively easy to transport supplies — it saves money."

"The way you lay it out, one-two-three, you sound rather like a Senior Grand Secretary at court," Fang Zhenru said dismissively. "Save money? What business does a military officer have worrying about saving money? The Great Ming is rich beyond the four seas — what does a little money matter? Just speak of your vision for recovering Liaodong territory."

A little money? Historically, the Wanli Emperor had been miserly to the extreme. When raising military funds for the Three Great Campaigns, he had fought for years in Korea against one hundred to two hundred thousand Japanese troops and spent only four million taels of silver, grudging every copper as if he wished he could split each coin in two.

Then the Tianqi Emperor succeeded the throne, and this generous sovereign waved his great brush — in a single year, the supplies for the Guangning army — military pay, provisions, cannons, gunpowder, and the like — were worth ten million taels of silver. Had Huang Shi not counterattacked at Guangning, the fifty thousand sets of armor in storage, the several million taels of silver, the over one million shi of grain, and the other supplies would have changed hands as well. These things he had personally burned had already caused Huang Shi to grieve many times over on Changsheng Island.

Seeing Huang Shi remain silent for a long while, Fang Zhenru withdrew his smile and tapped lightly on the table: "What leaves your mouth enters my ear alone. There is no third person here. Huang Shi, you need not be constrained by the Grand Coordinator. Whatever thoughts you have, speak freely — there is no need for any concern at all."