Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 513 Tragedy
"I understand!" Cui Liu no longer had any doubts. He nodded, put away his hammer, drew his sword, and locked onto his target with a glance.

Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, Cui Laoliu strode towards a male captive. He then grabbed his braid, wrapped it around his wrist, and pulled the man halfway up.

"Wait!" Ding Baiying wanted to say something else, but this time, Cui Laoliu didn't listen to her.

A flash of cold light flashed beneath the orange-red sparks. Cui Laoliu plucked off a still-shocked head. The artery was severed, and a gushing stream of blood shot into the air like a thin column, then turned into a warm, wet, and bloody shower that showered down upon the captives.

The horrific sight of a living person being beheaded stunned everyone present. Even Ding Xiu, who had given the order, was horrified. He keenly noticed that the head's eyes seemed to blink twice after being removed.

Under the bloody rain, Cui Laoliu, with a calm face, looked like a killing god crawling out of hell.

"You, I..." Ding Baiying felt an unprecedented chill. In just a moment, her back was soaked with cold sweat. "What on earth are we doing?" Ding Baiying muttered to herself.

"Murder," Ding Xiu adapted quickly. He blinked, and the dread he felt was gone. "That's all." From this moment on, Ding Xiu would no longer experience the slightest emotional fluctuations from similar scenes.

"Heh, heh." Ding Baiying's eyes twitched slightly. She felt that Cui Laoliu's expression clearly showed that he didn't regard these tribesmen as human beings.

"Old Yan." Ding Xiu retracted his gaze and turned to look at Yan Nian.

Yan Nian's nerves were also very tense, and he was so shocked that he didn't hear the call.

"Yan Nian!" Ding Xiu raised his voice and shouted again.

"Ah?" Yan Nian shuddered and subconsciously touched his neck.

"Don't just stand there. The guard you shot is still lying on the ground intact. Go and take off his head." Ding Xiu said.

"I know." Yan Nian paused for a few moments before finally coming to his senses. "I'll go harvest it now." Yan Nian turned his head away and walked sideways towards the entrance he had previously locked. As if this would isolate him from the tragedy that was so close to him.

"Li Er!"

"Ah? Here!"

"Put the head there." Ding Xiu pointed to the open space in front of him and nodded towards the two frightened captives. "Follow those two and fill the bag."

"Who are they?" Li Xian then noticed Hu Zengshou and Lu Liushi.

"Han prisoners."

"Yes." Li Xian gave a relieved smile. "I'll go right away!" The presence of these two Han Chinese captives made him feel that Brother Ding and his group still had some humanity.

"Is everything packed?" Ding Xiu finally looked at Ding Baiying.

"It's packed," Ding Baiying retracted his gaze, not daring to, or perhaps unable to, look any further. "There wasn't anything valuable in that room to begin with. Besides this musket, there were only some small pieces of gold and silver jewelry and a few copper coins, which together wouldn't add up to five taels."

"It's not surprising. The most valuable thing these Jurchen barbarians have is their heads." Ding Xiu said, "You have to get used to things like this."

“What if I can’t get used to it?”

"There's nothing you can do if you're not used to it. This is the way the world is, and you can't change anything. Cui Laoliu's methods are indeed a bit scary, but even if someone else were to go in, at most they would just stab you in the heart and let you bleed." Ding Xiu said.

"Just like what you did just now?" Ding Baiying glanced at the headless female corpse.

"Right! Until the Nu chief surrenders and the war ends, this kind of situation will only increase." Ding Xiu nodded heavily, but his tone was surprisingly friendly. "If you really can't stand it, after we go back, I can ask Marshal Hou to remove your name from the register. I will also give you every penny of the silver you deserve."

Ding Xiu was so amiable, firstly because of Ding Baiying's unfathomable martial arts, and secondly because she hadn't abused her own strength to forcibly stop Cui Laoliu from killing and taking the head. This made Ding Xiu wary of her, but also a little more respectful of her.

Ding Baiying was silent. She stared blankly at the musket in her hand.

On the gun barrel, the inscription written by the Han craftsman is so eye-catching: the 46th year of Wanli, weight six pounds and seven ounces, Tieling Wei, Li Han.

This is indeed a captured bird gun. From whom did the people of this tribe take this bird gun and how did they take it?

Thinking of this, Ding Baiying still shook his head. "I won't become like you, but I will try to get used to it."

--------

About a quarter of an hour later, the three people finished their work and gathered in the open space at the entrance of the camp.

Ding Xiu chopped off six heads in a row, plus the head of the small chief Sengge beheaded by Ding Baiying himself, the two Dings took a total of seven heads.

Yan Nian chopped off two heads: one from Tong'er and the other from the second male tribesman who had attempted to escape. As for the boy, Yan Nian couldn't bring himself to kill him, nor did he need to. Cui Laoliu's harvest was surprisingly small. The "Shun Yi" had pledged his allegiance to Ding Xiu by offering the heads of other tribesmen, thus sparing his life. The Han male, Hu Zengshou, was not among those killed. Excluding these two, Cui Laoliu's harvest was reduced to three heads.

Cui Laoliu originally wanted to kill a few more women who looked like men to stop the loss, but the veteran Yan Nian stopped him. This was certainly not because Yan Nian was kind, but because Yan Nian was well aware of the trivialities in the process of testing his skills.

After hearing the explanation about the hairstyle and sunburn, Ding Xiu also threw away the useless woman's head. Since it couldn't be exchanged for silver or military merit, the woman's head was just a meaningless burden, no different from taking a piece of stone for nothing.

In total, Ding Xiu's team had taken eleven intact heads, each with a high probability of being reported as meritorious. They had essentially killed every male in the camp. Only a few children, because they were "useless," were allowed to keep their heads attached to their bodies.

After collecting the other spoils, Cui Laoliu also brought Su Jiu's body over and placed it on the ground. Everyone looked at Su Jiu's relatively peaceful remains with different expressions, and then turned to look at Ding Xiu.

"Should we take him back?" Yan Nian was the first to speak. As a veteran, he had seen too many deaths and lives.

"A man who dies on the frontier should return wrapped in his horse's hide. How could we not bring him back?" Ding Baiying heard the hidden meaning in Yan Nian's words. Ding Baiying was a little surprised. In the entire team, the person she respected most was the veteran Yan Nian. She had never expected Yan Nian to say such a thing.

"How can we carry him?" Yan Nian replied to Ding Baiying, but his eyes were still fixed on Ding Xiu. "We came here on foot. We only found two chickens and a dairy goat in this camp. We can't carry him all the way back, can we?"

"There are eight of us. We can take turns carrying it. It should be possible." Ding Baiying insisted.

"There aren't eight of us," Ding Xiu said. "Old Yan has to lead the reconnaissance and can't carry heavy loads. Cui Liu has to carry the food and escort the rear guard, and Li Er has to carry the valuable spoils and the armor and tokens. We'll need people to transport the heads too. Even if you include Hu Zengshou, Lu Liushi, and that 'Shun Yi', we don't have much extra labor."

Ding Baiying asked with a sorrowful face, "If you died in battle, would you want others to leave your bodies on the border?"

Li Xian didn't say anything, but shook his head in accordance with Ding Baiying's meaning, while Cui Liu was completely indifferent.

"Of course I don't. Returning home would be the best, of course. But if circumstances force me, and there's no other way, I don't want my body to be a burden to my brothers," Yan Nian said. "In the Battle of Sarhu, over ten thousand of our soldiers died. In the end, we couldn't even bring back the bodies of Generals Liu, Du, and Ma, let alone the generals. Master Ding, this is still the enemy's territory. We still have dozens or even hundreds of miles to go. We can't take him with us."

"Okay, enough talking." Ding Xiu didn't want to discuss it any further. "We can't let the dead drag down the living. The best we can do is take him away from here and find a quiet place to bury him. We can build a cenotaph for him when we get back." If he could find livestock, Ding Xiu would still be willing to take Su Jiu back. However, the vast majority of donkeys, mules, and horses in almost every settlement had been taken by Nurhaci for his western plunder. Only the larger tribes, as well as the farms and horse ranches further back, retained large livestock for farming and breeding.

"Heh" Ding Baiying laughed at herself bitterly. She raised her head and exhaled a long breath of helpless air. "You are right."

"What should we do with the twenty or so women and the remaining six children?" Cui Liu, who had remained silent until then, took the initiative to bring up the still-mobile captives. His tone was filled with regret.

If all these captives could be brought to Han territory, they could fetch at least three or four hundred taels on the human black market. Although inflation was severe in Liaodong, this was still a considerable sum of money. Even if it was divided into six equal parts, it would be enough to keep people comfortable for a long time.

"We can't take them away and sell them, and it's not good to leave them unscathed either." Ding Xiu glanced at Ding Baiying. "But there's nothing else to do now, so let's not waste time on killing more people. So, chop off both thumbs of everyone." The thumb is the most important of the five fingers. Without it, a person loses some of their ability to work and most of their fighting ability, becoming half-crippled.

No one raised any objections, and Ding Baiying didn't raise any objections either. Even she had to admit that compared to these people's usual attitude, this was already merciful.

"Everyone grab a knife and get moving. Master Ding, just stand here and watch." Ding Xiu took the lead, holding up the knife, and walked towards the prisoners. "Hurry! Chop them up and leave!"

The captives saw these devils coming back and screaming, but they had no way to retreat or hide, and could only let themselves be slaughtered.

However, they should really be grateful to Ding Baiying. If it weren't for this kind-hearted southern woman who intervened, Ding Xiu would have issued the order for a massacre.

--------

Hu Zengshou and Lu Liushi, who were rescued and released by Ding Xiu, also participated in this action to "reduce future troubles." However, they did not kill the female captives, but "volunteered" to go after the six surviving boys.

To Hu Zengshou, the entire Jurchen camp, regardless of gender, age, or status, was nothing but beasts. These barbarians treated him like a human being, not only starving him of food but also beating and scolding him for fun. The young children among them even teased him for no reason. Hu Zengshou could only smile along, enduring their daily abuse and humiliation.

However, Hu Zengshou did not want to take the opportunity to retaliate against them because of these things. Instead, there was a very special child among these children, and Lu Liu wanted to protect him as much as possible, and to protect this child, Hu Zengshou's cooperation was necessary.

"Brother Hu! Please, please help me. Just say this child is your son and mine. Let's take him away, to the Han area." Lu Liu's face was filled with struggle, collapse, and a strange kind of love. She had just cut off a Jurchen boy's thumb with a knife, and now she selfishly wanted to protect her own son.

The visual horror, the moral contradictions, and the fear of the word "go home" intertwined together, almost causing Lu Liushi's spirit to collapse.

"I pity you, and I have done my best to cover up for you. I can never tell anyone about this, but I can't give myself such a son!" Hu Zengshou flatly refused.

"No! Brother Hu, I'm not asking you to treat this child as your own. I'm just asking you..." As he spoke, another horrifying scream, accompanied by a shattering skull, echoed from the crowd. A female tribesman attempting to escape had her head smashed in by Cui Laoliu's six-sided warhammer. To Cui Laoliu, these women were now completely useless, so he didn't hesitate to strike with any restraint. Dare to escape? Just one blow of the hammer; killing someone is much quicker than chopping off their hands.

"I only ask you to help me cover it up for a while longer!" Lu Liu gritted her teeth, feeling her heart was about to burst out. "Once we return to Han territory and are interrogated, I will take him away. I will never bother you again."

"Are you crazy?" Hu Zengshou said, "This is the illegitimate child of the Jurchen barbarians!"

"But, but this child, this child is also my son!" Tears welled up from the corners of Lu Liu's eyes. Of course she knew that this was the son of a slave thief, and the rationality in her heart kept telling her not to say anything, forget the time when she was abused, forget this child, just pretend that nothing happened, and return to the Han area to live a normal life. This is the best option. But as a mother, her emotions overwhelmed these rational thoughts for no reason. "He is still so young, he doesn't know anything, please, please!"

(End of this chapter)