Chapter 65: Tie Them All Up for Me

Yang Qili and the others seized this opportunity to hurry forward and calm the commoners, telling them not to act rashly and to speak slowly if they had any grievances.

The Night Scouts had rescued the commoners and given them food to stave off hunger, so the commoners were willing to listen to Yang Qili and the others' words; only then did both sides each take a step back and completely separate.

Huang Degong then stepped between the two sides and asked, "What's the situation here?"

A Company Commander with a bruised and swollen face walked out from among the government troops. He came before Huang Degong and said, "General, these stubborn commoners are too detestable—they actually dared to beat government soldiers! You must seek justice for us!"

As soon as he said this, it immediately drew rebuttals from the commoners. The common folk all began speaking at once in a hubbub, and the government soldiers naturally refused to be outdone, joining in the shouting match.

Huang Degong bellowed, "All of you shut the hell up—you're deafening me!"

Huang Degong's voice was extraordinarily loud, making everyone around him's ears ring; only then did both sides stop their quarreling.

Sun Yingyuan, who was nearby, heard the gunshots and followed the sound to the scene. Seeing Huang Degong there, he asked, "Old Huang, what's going on?"

Huang Degong said, "I just arrived and was about to question them. I heard other parts of the city are also in an uproar. Old Sun, you'd better go check it out—don't disturb His Highness. Leave this to me!"

Seeing that Huang Degong had the situation under control here, Sun Yingyuan figured nothing more would happen, so he led his men to various parts of the city to quell the disturbances and pacify the commoners.

After Sun Yingyuan left, Huang Degong pointed at a man in the commoner crowd whose half face was bruised black and blue, and said, "You speak first—what happened?"

Seeing that this general of no low rank was asking him, the man immediately said, "General, while this humble one and my wife were separated searching for my old father, these government soldiers took liberties with my wife. This humble one couldn't stand it and reasoned with them, but unexpectedly they resorted to beating me. Several of my fellow villagers couldn't bear to watch and helped me—"

Huang Degong nodded, then looked toward the government troops and casually pointed at one soldier, saying, "You, lad, tell your side."

This soldier said, "General, this lowly one discovered that that slut of a woman was secretly carrying Tartar silver on her person, so I began to search her—"

Hearing this, that woman naturally refused to admit it, crying and shouting that she had nothing to do with the Tartars.

The woman's husband, seeing his wife humiliated, flew into a rage, pointing at the soldier and cursing him endlessly; the two sides began bickering and arguing again.

At this moment, a bow-legged man came out from the commoner crowd and said, "General, while this lowly one was taking a piss, I saw these government soldiers searching everywhere for valuables. Out of curiosity I followed them, and to my surprise I saw them find quite a lot of silver in a small storeroom—they divided it all among themselves, at least several thousand taels!"

Huang Degong's eyes widened as he sized up these government soldiers, and he found that quite a few of them indeed had bulging waists and chests. Especially that Company Commander—he was carrying large and small bundles on his back, clearly stuffed with plenty of goods.

"You're spouting nonsense!" A portly government soldier, seeing someone expose this matter, said with a red, flustered face.

He instinctively felt around his body and casually tightened his clothes, only for several silver pieces to fall off him. Just as this soldier was about to bend down to pick them up, with a clatter, more than a dozen bits of loose silver tumbled out from his chest.

The Company Commander among the troops looked somewhat embarrassed. He berated his subordinate, "Are you trying to burn paper offerings for your own father's grave? Bringing real silver to burn?"

Seeing this scene, every commoner's face showed contempt and anger. Burn silver at a grave? Who the hell do you think you're fooling!

Yang Qili's expression was very ugly. He shouted sternly, "I told you to pacify the commoners, and this is how you do it? You even plunder the city's valuables? Hand over all the stolen goods immediately!"

This Company Commander said with a straight face, "Battalion Commander, the valuables in Liangxiang city are all our own Liangxiang folk's property. Why shouldn't we take them?"

A one-armed man stepped out from the commoner crowd and said angrily, "When the Tartars attacked the city back then, Garrison Commander Ding Shiqi died in battle, while you cowardly bastards who feared death voluntarily surrendered to the Tartars to keep your worthless lives. Now you dare call yourselves men of Liangxiang? Do you deserve it?"

"That's right—some of you even became second-hand Tartars. You're worse than beasts!"

The commoners jabbered on, and these government soldiers all found it hard to keep face, glaring back at the surrounding commoners.

Yang Qili said angrily, "Damn it—you lot of unranked trash, and some of you even served as second-hand Tartars!"

Huang Degong listened for a good while, then said, "Hey, Little Yang, you can't say that. Government soldiers are still officials—how can you use your authority to bully them?"

Hearing Huang Degong say this, the commoners' hearts turned cold, thinking to themselves that officials indeed protected one another.

Yang Qili beside him said urgently, "Assistant Regional Commander Huang, they—"

Hearing that the highest-ranking official here seemed to be subtly defending them, this Company Commander's heart leaped with joy. He immediately cut off Yang Qili's words and called out, "This general is right! We government soldiers also eat the imperial grain—"

Before he could finish his sentence, Huang Degong suddenly kicked him flying five or six meters away. The man clutched his abdomen, curled up like a boiled lobster, with traces of blood seeping from his mouth.

Huang Degong spat at him and said, "With that cowardly look of yours, you still have the nerve to say you eat the imperial grain? Shameless disgrace! Tie up all these cowardly soldiers for me!"

The soldiers of the Yongwei Camp pounced on them like wolves and tigers, immediately subduing these government troops who wanted to run.

Seeing this awe-inspiring general act so decisively and satisfyingly, the commoner crowd erupted in cheers and loud praise.

In the county yamen of Liangxiang city, Zhu Cilang, having recovered his composure, carefully surveyed the yamen's surroundings. In his past life he had visited the Ye County yamen—the only fully preserved Ming-dynasty county yamen—and it had left a great impression on him, as if he had traveled back to the Ming dynasty.

Now that he had truly traveled to the Ming dynasty and was personally standing in a county yamen of this era, Zhu Cilang felt an indescribable sensation in his heart.

As the office of the county-level government in the Ming dynasty, the county yamen was the political center of a county. The county magistrate, deputy officials, chief clerks, and other court officials, along with the six-bureau clerks, were all required by regulation to reside and work in the county yamen, and a large number of attendants and runners also waited there for orders.

The county yamen of Liangxiang city was quite large in scale. Inside and outside the yamen there were also prisons, granaries, county schools, guest houses, post stations, transport depots, and other related institutions and facilities—but after the destruction wrought by the Qing soldiers, it was already in a dilapidated state.

Zhu Cilang asked Xu Sheng beside him, "Where has Liangxiang's County Magistrate gone?"

Xu Sheng immediately replied, "To answer Your Highness: when the city fell, County Magistrate Jiang Bingcai refused to surrender and hanged himself in martyrdom for the country. His corpse was hastily buried by the Qing army behind the rear office."

"What about the city's Garrison Commander and other officials?"

Xu Sheng said with a grave expression, "According to intelligence gathered by the Longxiang Night Scouts: Liangxiang's Garrison Commander Ding Shiqi died in battle; Company Commander Chen Yanwu and Company Commander Ma Ruzhi died in battle; Constable Zhang Biao and Instructor Lu Dengfu all refused to surrender and died as martyrs for their country."

Hearing this, Zhu Cilang stood speechless for a long moment. After a while, he finally said, "All loyal martyrs! This Prince shall memorialize Your Majesty to posthumously honor each of them! Transmit this Prince's order: give the martyrs a grand burial and build a shrine of martyrs in the city, so that future generations will know they sacrificed their lives for the Great Ming!"

Xu Sheng immediately acknowledged the order, deeply moved. At this moment, he thought of his own old father who had also died in battle for the country.

Just then, gunshots rang out from the city. Xu Sheng quickly composed himself and dispatched the Eastern Palace's personal guards to investigate.