Chapter 128: A Fine Head — Who Shall Be the One to Cut It Off?

Saving a life is like fighting a fire — not a moment's hesitation can be allowed. In his desperation, Heifu had no choice but to step in himself, using the battlefield first-aid he had learned in school in his past life but had mostly forgotten, to give Dongmen Bao emergency treatment.

Blood is a vital substance that sustains life. With injuries like Dongmen Bao's, where he had suffered multiple wounds, ruptured blood vessels lead to acute hemorrhaging and massive blood loss. If the bleeding is not stopped in time, it will often cause shock and cardiac arrest, ultimately resulting in death.

Right now, Dongmen Bao had already gone into shock, fainted, and lost consciousness, so the first thing Heifu had to do was stop his bleeding!

The others all came over and pitched in, clumsily stripping off Dongmen Bao's cumbersome armor. Heifu found that his main wound was the one on his leg slashed open by a dagger-axe, which had hit an artery — blood kept seeping out. Fortunately, there were no foreign objects like arrowheads or wood splinters left in the wound.

What did Heifu have on hand? Iodine? Disinfectant? None of it.

A rubber tourniquet? Even less likely. Heifu could only make do with what was available, having everyone undo their waist sashes, and then, with somewhat rusty technique, began bandaging Dongmen Bao.

The men's waist sashes were either rough cloth strips or simply a length of hemp rope. In later ages, using such materials to stop bleeding was limited to temporary emergency use when no tourniquet was available. Because cloth and hemp rope, unlike rubber, have no elasticity, they can hardly achieve the true purpose of stopping bleeding, and if bound too tightly, they can even cause limb damage and ischemic necrosis!

But at a time like this, there was no room for such concerns. If the bleeding could be stopped, all would be well. The priority was to keep Dongmen Bao alive until he could be handed over to a professional wound doctor at the military camp.

"The tourniquet must be placed at the correct spot — on the lower limb, at the middle-upper part of the thigh. There must be padding, and the tightness must be moderate… Padding…"

Heifu muttered these mostly forgotten tricks to himself. He looked left and right; everyone's clothes were filthy, soaked in blood and grime. The only relatively clean thing was the Wei flag that the men had torn down from the archery tower — it was, in fact, quite new.

Heifu's eyes suddenly lit up. "Go, bring that Wei flag over here!"

The crisp sound of tearing silk rang out. The crimson Wei flag, made of silk tabby and bearing a depiction of a prancing, clawing auspicious beast, was now torn into strips, becoming the padding for the middle-upper part of Dongmen Bao's thigh.

"The bandage tightness must be appropriate, and the knot must avoid the wound and areas that shouldn't be compressed…"

Immediately after, Heifu used a waist sash to apply pressure over the padding, wrapping it once around the leg, pulling both ends tight forward, and tying a slipknot.

"An arrow shaft!"

At his shout, Xiao Tao immediately picked up a long arrow from the ground, removed its fletching and arrowhead, and handed it to Heifu.

Heifu used this arrow shaft as a windlass rod, inserted it into the outer loop of the band, lifted the rod and twisted it tight, then inserted the other end of the tightened rod into the small loop of the slipknot to secure it…

At this point, the main wound on Dongmen Bao's leg had been treated.

After finishing all this in one smooth sequence, seeing that the bleeding from Dongmen Bao's leg had been stopped, Heifu finally wiped the sweat from his forehead. Thankfully, at this life-saving juncture, he had actually managed to recall most of the battlefield first-aid procedures and hadn't dropped the ball.

Afterward, Heifu used the silk strips torn from the Wei flag as bandages, dressing Dongmen Bao's other wounds of varying sizes. Some areas were wrapped with triangular bandages, others with spiral bandaging.

Before long, Dongmen Bao's body was covered entirely in crimson flag strips. At a glance, he looked almost like a martyr's remains wrapped in a flag…

"Bah!" Heifu quickly drove this unlucky thought away. He firmly believed that Dongmen Bao was a man of tough fate and would certainly not die.

By this time, the west city gate had already been opened. Heifu immediately called for Ji Ying and a few others to carry over a door plank that had been used to fill the moat during the assault. They carefully placed Dongmen Bao on it and hurriedly carried him toward the military camp.

They gradually receded into the distance, but Heifu's suspended heart still could not settle.

After the bandaging was done, Bu Cheng had checked Dongmen Bao's pulse and breathing. Though weak, they were still steady — he had, after all, survived. But what worried Heifu most was the subsequent wound infection.

The entire bandaging process had involved no disinfection whatsoever, and there was no way to guarantee the cleanliness of the cloth used for bandaging. So, from here on, Dongmen Bao's life or death…

"…can only depend on whether the Arbiter of Fate and the Lesser Arbiter of Fate are willing to take him!"

With that, Heifu turned away and put the matter out of his mind. When he returned to the top of the wall and saw that there was still some of the Wei flag left, he decided to go the extra mile and also bandaged the hand of the First-to-Climb company commander, whose palm had been shot through by an arrow.

"Thank you."

The company commander finally opened his eyes. Looking at the silk strips tied in a figure-eight knot on his hand, he nodded to Heifu in gratitude, his eyes full of thanks.

"My name is Huaimu. I and the men of the company are all from Jingling County in Nan Commandery."

"Jingling and Anlu are only two days' journey apart. You and I are fellow countrymen. It was a mere trifle — no need for thanks."

Heifu smiled. When he turned back, he found that not only Bu Cheng, Li Xian, Gong Ao, Xiao Tao, and the others from his own company, but even the dozen or so remaining men of the First-to-Climb company were looking at him with eyes full of admiration.

"We never knew our company commander knew the art of wound medicine!"

…

Heifu had no way to explain why he knew it, so he simply opted to be deliberately mysterious. Over the next quarter-hour, he played the role of a medic, bandaging the wounds of several men who were not seriously injured. Regrettably, those in the First-to-Climb company who had suffered severe injuries — severed hands, sword wounds to the chest or abdomen — had already died before the fighting ended.

At this moment, the west side of the city had been completely occupied by the Qin troops. Large numbers of Qin soldiers, numbering in the hundreds, poured in and began advancing toward the south of the city and other areas, mopping up the remaining enemies still putting up desperate resistance within the walls.

The military law officers also ascended the city wall and began tallying the number of heads taken during the assault.

It must be understood that the Qin placed the highest merit on taking heads, to the point that they would "discard armor and run bare-chested toward the enemy, holding a head in the left hand and a live captive in the right." In the eyes of the Six States, this was utterly terrifying.

In reality, however, during combat, a Qin soldier would not squat down to sever a head and tie it to his belt after every kill. Over the past hundred-plus years, the Qin army had long established a rule: the taking of heads was to be done after the battle ended, and under the watchful eyes of the military law officers. Only in this way could they avoid the soldiers' scramble for heads leading to a reversal on the battlefield.

"West of Waihuang City, a total of forty-two enemy heads taken."

The military law clerk held two large wooden boards — one for recording deserters, used to assign guilt, and one for recording the headcount, used to assign merit. That said, although the Qin army's casualties during the wall assault were relatively high, the number of enemies killed on the spot was not large. These forty-two heads still had to be divided among the several companies according to their respective contributions to the assault.

The First-to-Climb company was allotted ten heads, so that they could reach "full merit" and allow those who had died in battle to all receive ranks. Naturally, no one had any objection to this.

Heifu's company had contributed greatly, and Dongmen Bao had even held the battlements alone against multiple foes, so their company was assigned twelve heads. Their company had lost five men in the battle; now that the number of heads taken exceeded the number of casualties, Heifu had at least escaped the danger of being held accountable.

The two companies of tread-crossbow elite soldiers and archers were each assigned five heads — this was their due, especially the tread-crossbow elite soldiers, who had shot dead far more Wei soldiers than that number.

In addition, the company that filled the moat and the company that carried the bamboo ladders were also each given five heads. They too had suffered significant casualties below the wall; they could not be punished simply because they had no heads to show for it.

Overall, this method of the military law clerk distributing heads to each company based on combat contribution was fairer than awarding them to whoever chopped them off first.

However, even with this distribution, not everyone could be fully satisfied. Because aside from the First-to-Climb company, which calculated heads under a special rule allowing everyone from the company commander down to the rank-and-file to advance one rank, the other companies all had to be calculated according to the Military Rank Code.

"Those who take thirty-three heads or more achieve full merit; the centurion and company commander are granted one rank."

Calculated this way, a hundred men needed to take thirty-three heads to achieve full merit. For fifty men, the heads taken had to reach at least half — seventeen heads — to count as full merit.

As it stood, Heifu's company had only been allotted twelve heads…

This meant that although the soldiers under him, such as Dongmen Bao, could advance in rank through the heads they took, Heifu as company commander could not achieve full merit and earn "collective merit."

Having risked his life and fought for so long, Heifu was naturally unwilling to come away empty-handed. So after a brief rest and reorganization, leaving the wounded behind, Heifu led the remaining forty men and began advancing into the city.

They had to pursue the fleeing enemy and chase the routed foe, killing until they had taken enough heads!

…

As the Qin army ascended the city wall, the Waihuang Magistrate Zhang Er's plan to "resist for a while, then flee" also fell through. He had no choice but to lead the people in the city and retreat to the north. Following him, besides the county soldiers and his retainers, were many able-bodied men of the city, probably over a thousand in total.

That thick-bearded youxia who had fled right in front of Heifu — perhaps by now he really had reached Zhang Er's side and left together with him? Unfortunately, Heifu was not very familiar with Zhang Er; he only felt he had heard the name in his past life but could not recall this man's deeds or achievements. He was probably just a minor figure from the late Qin and Chu-Han period.

Thus, he was even less able to guess that the thick-bearded youxia retainer was, in history, the Exalted Emperor of Great Han…

Considering the relatively small number of assaulting troops and fearing that the people inside the city, once left with no escape route, would fight like cornered beasts, Yang Xiong had not completely encircled the city but had left one side open. This allowed Zhang Er to flee from the north of the city with a considerable number of people.

But there were also those who failed to escape. Some youxia were trapped by the Qin troops flooding into the city, and upon realizing escape was difficult, they threw down their weapons and prepared to surrender.

Yet to their astonishment, they found that the Qin soldiers, eyes bloodshot with slaughter, had no intention of stopping at all. They still charged up excitedly, speared the wandering knights dead in one thrust, and then, under the platoon commander's direction, men were specially assigned to crouch down and cut off heads…

This was the Qin army's way of war, dictated by the military merit ranks. Even when the battle was over, as long as each platoon had not reached its "full tally," the Qin soldiers would keep on killing, regardless of whether the other side intended to surrender.

The commanding general was only too happy to see this and would not stop it. In a siege battle, an army of tens of thousands needed eight thousand decapitated heads for the general to be promoted; a siege force of several thousand needed eight hundred heads. Yang Xiong was carefully calculating in his mind — only when the decapitated heads were sufficient would he order the Qin troops to sheathe their blades.

The remaining gallant youths and able-bodied men inside the city realized that surrender still meant certain death. Compared to prisoners, the Qin soldiers seemed far more interested in their fine heads, so they continued fleeing in panic — and Qin soldiers were everywhere in the lanes and alleys, hunting them down!

After this battle, in the hearts of the gallants and conscripted laborers of Waihuang, only one verdict remained for these fanatical, head-obsessed Qin soldiers.

"Truly tigers and wolves!"

Heifu's platoon was among them. There was no helping it — for the sake of those remaining five heads, exhausted as they were, they had to keep fighting.

In one lane, Heifu and Li Xian caught up with a wandering knight. Heifu raised his hand-crossbow and shot the man; Li Xian went over and ran him through with a single sword thrust!

"Now you have a decapitated head too." Heifu smiled at Li Xian and told him to sever the dead man's neck.

"At last I can rise to Gongshi."

Li Xian was so emotional he nearly wept. Heifu had made it clear beforehand: within the platoon, the distribution of heads was based on who killed the enemy. Take Dongmen Bao, for instance — Heifu had counted two heads for him, so the man could rise two ranks at once, a fitting reward for his fight to the death.

By now, the platoon soldiers had regrouped from the various lanes and alleys, handing over their respective decapitated heads. Before long, four heads, their hair tied together, were laid out before Heifu — a truly horrifying sight.

"Platoon Commander, it's… it's only four heads."

Little Tao was somewhat ashamed. Though they had been hunting down remnant enemies for nearly half a shichen, they had only gotten four decapitated heads and still could not meet the quota, so he felt deeply sorry toward the platoon commander.

Heifu, however, did not blame them. The entire Waihuang County had been taken by the Qin army; the battle was drawing to a close. The enemy were either dead or fled — it was already very hard to gain any more heads.

At that moment, Li Xian had an idea. He glared fiercely at a household beside the neighborhood gate, then kicked the door open with one foot. Inside were an old Wei man with graying hair and a young boy of just over ten, their eyes full of terror as they stared at the Qin soldiers who had burst through the door!

"Platoon Commander, why don't we just…" Li Xian turned his head back, his face revealing a vicious look!

"No!"

Heifu knew perfectly well what Li Xian intended to do, and refused him flatly and decisively.

"But Platoon Commander, you're only one head short of the full tally!" Everyone began urging Heifu. After experiencing a bloody battle and losing sworn brothers, they all harbored some hatred toward the Wei people.

By now, the old man inside had also realized what these Qin soldiers were planning. He hurriedly hid his grandson behind him, then kowtowed toward the doorway, pleading for mercy in a Wei accent.

"Perhaps this old man also went up the walls to resist. Perhaps in a few years, this boy will become a rebel wandering knight!"

Li Xian pointed at the two, his face vicious: "Kill them — kill either one, and Platoon Commander can become a Bugeng!"

Heifu looked at the two inside the house. The old man kept kowtowing heavily, tears and mucus covering his face. Heifu could understand a little of the Wei speech coming from his mouth — it was roughly, if you must kill, kill me, spare the little grandson. The young boy, only eleven or twelve, was pressed against the wall, trembling in terror.

"My decision is made!"

Heifu drove everyone out of that household, bowed with clasped hands toward the terrified old Wei man, and closed the door.

He had his own bottom line.

Killing enemies in formation battle, chasing the fleeing and pursuing the routed, taking decapitated heads — though he could not say he liked this life, he could accept it. He could even stomach killing prisoners, since those prisoners had once resisted the Qin army and had even killed their sworn brothers.

But killing the innocent to fake merit, using the heads of blameless people as stepping stones — that was something Heifu utterly loathed.

This old man and boy — in the eyes of the Qin, they were foreigners. But in Heifu's eyes, they were all common people of Huaxia. Why distinguish between Qin and Wei? Before enlisting, his own men had lived the same hard yet peaceful lives in their own hometowns.

True, in war there are no innocents. But if Heifu, today, for the sake of his own rank promotion, raised his butcher's blade against unarmed commoners and cut off their heads…

Then the day would not be far off when he turned into a villain without a bottom line, giving the order to massacre a whole city and letting his men run rampant with rape and plunder!

Heifu would rather delay his rank promotion than be completely assimilated by this chaotic era and become the very thing he loathed!

Li Xian and the others looked somewhat uncomprehending at their platoon commander's decision, all feeling sorry for him. But just then, outside the neighborhood gate, Bu Cheng came running over, panting heavily.

"Platoon Commander, big trouble!"

He had been operating together with Gong Ao, yet now he came running back alone. Heifu immediately sensed something was wrong and asked, "What happened?"

Bu Cheng's face was full of urgency as he said, "Gong Ao is fighting with men from another platoon over a decapitated head! He's been seized by the military law officers!"

…

PS: Got up a bit late, but seeing as this is a big four-thousand-character chapter, everyone will surely forgive me.

(End of chapter)