Chapter 1547: No Keeping Slaves in the Army

No matter what he felt inside, holding out for two days and two nights while surrounded by far more enemies than his own number, and saving his own life and the lives of several comrades — that was true courage. The Crown Prince believed in judging the deed, not the heart; those who deserved medals should still get them. Besides, the man had been willing, when no one else would have known, to admit he had been afraid and wanted to run. That was honesty, and the Crown Prince felt a man should not be punished for being honest.

"Come, give me the medal."

At the Crown Prince's command, the tray beside him was brought back. He picked up the medal from the tray, then walked over to stand before this soldier.

"Keep up the good work," he said once more, then reached forward with the medal.

Liao Xiaoshuan, who had already stopped his tears, stared dumbstruck as the Crown Prince continued to confer the medal on him. He had originally thought that after saying all that, he would be disqualified, and he had mentally prepared himself for it, but he had never imagined that His Highness the Crown Prince would still award him the medal and even praise him before the entire army.

Tears rolled from his eyes once more, but this time they held no fear — only overwhelming gratitude.

"Your Highness… thank you, Your Highness!" His lips trembled, his words coming out disjointed. "Thank you, Your Highness!"

The Crown Prince merely smiled faintly and pinned the medal to his chest. The iron medal gave off a silvery-white gleam, lending this slight, skinny soldier a touch of steadfast resolve.

"Your Highness… please let me go with you to fight Japan!" Liao Xiaoshuan suddenly shouted. "I'll fight with everything I've got for you!"

"All right." The Crown Prince still wore a smile. "I'll be sure to bring you along when the time comes."

Then he walked past this still-weeping soldier and came before another man, tall and powerfully built. Judging by the style of his uniform and his insignia, he was a regiment commander, a senior officer.

"This is Bi Su, commander of the Eighth Regiment. The regiment Liao Xiaoshuan belongs to is his." The officer providing explanations for the Crown Prince had not yet recovered from the earlier incident, so his commentary was somewhat distracted. "A few months ago, he led his regiment on a westward advance. During the operation, they sent the remnant bandits of the Mongol Khorchin tribe fleeing with their tails between their legs. The spoils were extremely rich, and his unit's losses were very light. They returned victorious to Shenyang. After review by the Liaodong Army's Military Council and with Marshal Chen's approval, it was decided to award him a third-class Silver Orchid Medal."

Amid gazes mixed with admiration and envy, Bi Su stood as immovable as a mountain, but the hint of self-satisfaction and excitement in his eyes was something he could not conceal no matter how hard he tried.

The Silver Orchid Medal was the highest grade of medal apart from the Golden Plum, which was exclusive to marshals. Even the third class was not something an ordinary man could easily obtain; only a senior officer who had accumulated merit over many years and was favored by the higher-ups could receive it. To be awarded such a medal meant that he was valued by the high command and had the possibility of further promotion.

The Crown Prince picked up a silver orchid medal from the tray beside him and reached toward this regiment commander.

"Keep up the good work." Because this regiment commander was so enormously tall, the Crown Prince had to stand slightly on tiptoe to smoothly pin the medal to his chest. Of course, no one laughed aloud at this rather comical sight.

After being awarded the Silver Orchid Medal, Bi Su's face flushed slightly red, as if he had been drinking.

"Thank… thank you, Your Highness the Crown Prince! I shall continue to fight to the death in the future, in service to the nation!"

"Commander Bi, were you advancing into Mongolia earlier?" After the award ceremony was complete, the Crown Prince voiced the question in his mind. "Mongolia… isn't Mongolia the responsibility of the Duke of Cao's main army?"

This casual question from the Crown Prince put Bi Su in a difficult spot.

In truth, the Crown Prince was correct. When the Great Han was first founded, in order to clarify operational responsibilities, the court had divided the various armies across the Great Han's territories into their respective areas of authority and theaters of war. The Liaodong Army, headed by Chen Sheng, was responsible for Liaodong and the theater further north, while the Duke of Cao, Ji Xiang, was responsible for operations across the entire Mongolian region.

In the beginning, Liaodong had the Jianzhou Jurchens. Even after defeating Nurhaci, there were still many remnant forces that the Liaodong Army could strike at, providing a steady stream of merit and firmly securing the Liaodong Army's position as first among the armies. However, the good times did not last. Starting a few years ago, the Jianzhou Jurchens had been nearly wiped out. Even by advancing ever further north, they often could not achieve good results.

Without glorious victories, there was no merit; without merit, it was difficult to compete with the other armies. Soon Shenyang fell into vexation. Some even privately complained that the Liaodong Army had been too aggressive and ruthless in exterminating the bandits, to the point that they had wiped them all out.

Complaints aside, the Great Han's military discipline was ironclad. Playing the game of "nurturing bandits to bolster one's own importance" as had been done in the former Ming dynasty was absolutely forbidden; they had to think of another way. After much deliberation, they finally came up with the method of "expanding the theater of war." West of Liaodong lay Mongolia, and along that route were many Mongol tribes. They too counted as enemies of the Great Han, and exterminating them would also build merit.

Thus, starting a few years ago, Shenyang frequently deployed punitive expeditions to the west. Unit after unit was constantly dispatched to the Mongolian region on campaigns of subjugation, bringing immense terror to the various Mongol tribes, especially those settled extremely close to Liaodong — such as the Khorchin tribe, which that entire regiment had campaigned against.

The Khorchin tribe had originally been considered a powerful Mongol tribe, possessing formidable strength, and had been heavily courted during the rise of the Jianzhou Jurchens. They could be said to have been the Jianzhou rebels' greatest support. After the founding of the Great Han, they also became a key target of the Great Han's strikes. The Duke of Cao, Ji Xiang, commanding the Mobei Army under him, launched several punitive expeditions against them. In several pitched battles, the tribe's main forces were shattered and scattered, never daring to contest the Great Han's armies again. To escape subjugation, they split into many small bands, fleeing in all directions, let alone harassing the Great Han's borders.

But even though they could no longer pose any threat to the Great Han, they still could not escape the Great Han armies' strikes. Although the Mobei Army, having many larger objectives, had shifted its main force further west, the Liaodong Army did not let them go, making them a target of their campaigns.

Suffering under the ceaseless blows of the Great Han's two great armies — the Liaodong Army and the Mongolia Garrison Army — the already weakened Khorchin tribe was now even weaker, on the verge of extinction, never to regain its past glory.

The Mobei Army was well aware of these little maneuvers by the Liaodong Army. However, the Mobei Army always had more enemies to fight, so they were not particularly averse to this practice. Moreover, Marshal Ji Xiang was very mindful of old ties, so he raised no objections. The court, naturally, was not entirely oblivious either. However, they sympathized with the Liaodong Army's difficulties and also felt that the Liaodong Army needed to be kept fighting constantly to maintain its combat effectiveness, so they did not say much either. Of course, this was no long-term solution, so within the court there had always been discussions about transferring the Liaodong Army elsewhere to continue fighting. The current campaign against Japan likely involved similar considerations.

As a regiment commander, Bi Su knew these internal army struggles like the back of his hand, but he also knew he should not speak of them to the Crown Prince, so he hesitated and faltered.

"The Khorchin and other Mongol tribes have long harbored bandit hearts, constantly raiding and slaughtering our Great Han people. Moreover, their movements are erratic; they follow the water and grass, and do not stay solely in Mongolia. Instead, they often come into Liaodong to forage for food." After thinking for a moment, he answered in a prudent manner. "When we go forth to kill the enemy for the nation, campaigning in all directions, we have no leisure to worry about whether they are Jurchen or Mongol! This time we advanced all the way against the wind and snow. When we reached the great desert, the blizzard was so fierce that even our guides lost their bearings, which is why so many of our soldiers became separated. Fortunately, the officers and men of the three armies gave their all, doggedly overcoming the hardships, advancing on all fronts through the blizzard, and finally, through bloody battle, annihilated two thousand Mongol warriors, capturing countless cattle, sheep, women, children, and military supplies."

"Women and children?" The Crown Prince's attention was diverted by this phrase. "Must women and children be taken away too?"

"Yes, Your Highness. In Liaodong, according to Marshal Chen's directives, for any tribe that stubbornly resists the Great Han's heavenly troops, once defeated, all able-bodied men who dared to resist are to be executed, and the women and children must also be taken away," Bi Su answered with perfect calm. "These tribal people live as nomads, do not submit to royal civilization, and are difficult to search for in the great desert. If we only kill the tribal warriors who resist, then with their women and children still there, they can quickly recover their vitality, then multiply endlessly, becoming a scourge for generations. That is why the Central Plains' repeated punitive expeditions in the past could never fully exterminate them. In light of such lessons, the Marshal felt it necessary to eliminate the roots to cut off the grass, so that the myriad people of the Central Plains may have peace. What applies to the Liaodong tribes naturally applies to the Mongol tribes as well."

Though he spoke in a flat, unremarkable tone, as if long accustomed to it, the bloody undertone between his words still made the Crown Prince shiver slightly. One could well imagine how utterly ruthless and merciless the Liaodong Army was when carrying out exterminations. Eliminate the roots to cut off the grass — how much blood and how many tears were hidden within those four short words?

"Then those women and children… how are they dealt with after being captured?" the Crown Prince could not help asking further.

"As for the women, there are quite a few veteran soldiers in the great army who have never married, so they can be assigned to veterans as wives. The remainder are granted to settlers. After all, settlers are mostly men, with very few women," Bi Su answered at once. "As for the children… they are also granted to settlers, to be prepared as labor for future land reclamation."

"This dynasty forbids the keeping of slaves. Do not, for petty gain, compromise the greater principle!" The Crown Prince was alarmed at this.

In the former Ming era, laws were practically dead letters. Powerful and wealthy families kept large numbers of private slaves, especially in Jiangnan, where great landlords possessed multitudes of servants, sometimes numbering over a thousand. This practice, on the one hand, violated human ethics, and on the other, intensely inflamed social tensions. In the late Ming, Jiangnan repeatedly saw instances of servants rising up in revolt, unable to endure their oppression any longer.