Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 517 Complicity
"Do you still want to buy them?" Ding Xiu guessed Tong Deng's thoughts at once.

"Dead people's heads can be bought and sold, and of course living prisoners can also be bought and sold. It depends on whether Brother Ding is willing to give them up." Tong Deng said with a smile.

Hu Zengshou and Lu Liushi shuddered at the sight of these words. The scene in the room was already terrifying enough to make one's heart beat faster than a drum. Tong Deng's words made Hu and Liu feel no different from the heads on the table in the eyes of these people.

"Brother Tong," Ding Xiu asked, "I'm afraid this living prisoner isn't necessarily better than a dead head, right?"

"Why do you say that, Brother Ding?" Tong Deng asked back.

"Living people can talk. If they don't cooperate, and the business affairs are revealed when the civil officials are inspecting their work, I'm afraid we won't be able to hide it," said Ding Xiu.

"So they can't be allowed to see the officials alive." Tong Deng's smile widened. "The inspection of merit has always only been conducted on Han and Yi people, young and old, male and female, but it doesn't matter when the heads were chopped off. At most, they'll be asked about the killing process, as long as they don't reveal their true identity when asked." Tong Deng casually gave an example: "It's the same as raising pigs. Keep them alive on weekdays so they can still do some work. When needed, just kill and remove the heads. Keeping live animals fresh is much more reliable than freezing or pickling."

This theory of treating humans as pigs stunned even the ruthless Ding Xiu. "When is it needed?"

"Brother Ding doesn't have a son yet, right?"

"No."

"You'll know once you have it."

Tong Deng's words were spoken softly, but they frightened Hu Zengshou so much that he felt numb. Beside him, Shunyi, who couldn't understand Chinese, felt a gust of wind brushing against his neck.

Tong Deng keenly noticed Hu Zengshou's reaction and pointed at him and asked Ding Xiu, "Does that prisoner understand Chinese?"

Ding Xiu's expression was a little subtle. "He and the woman with him were both Han captives we rescued."

"What!" Tong Deng suddenly became excited, and the smile on his face disappeared. "Brother Ding, why didn't you say so earlier?"

"You didn't ask." Ding Xiu spread his hands and curled his lips, "I didn't know you were planning to take advantage of them."

"They look like this, I thought they were... Oh no! Forget it, there's no point in saying this." Tong Deng gathered his emotions, glanced at the knife hanging in the room, and asked quietly, "Brother Ding, how did you deal with the interrogation along the way?"

"Of course I'm telling the truth." Ding Xiu said.

"How can you tell the truth!" Tong Deng sighed and felt his liver aching.

"Don't worry, they won't tell anyone," Ding Xiu turned and looked at Hu Zengshou and Lu Liushi. "Right?"

"No, no, no!" Hu Zengshou knelt down and kowtowed repeatedly, saying, "I heard nothing! I saw nothing!"

Mrs. Lu Liu was stunned for a moment, and when she understood what Tong Deng meant, she was completely paralyzed by fear. She fell to the ground, too weak to kowtow, tears of fear streaming down her face.

The Jurchen "Shun Yi" didn't understand the situation, but he still followed Hu Zengshou and Lu Liushi to kneel down and kowtow to Ding Xiu.

"Look," Ding Xiu smiled and turned around to look at Tong Deng. "I'll tell you what I'm saying."

"I don't believe what a living person says." Tong Deng clenched his fist lightly and looked at the knife again.

"I believe it." Ding Xiu shrugged.

"Then I can only follow Brother Ding and trust them." After saying this, Tong Deng immediately shouted towards the door: "Someone come!"

The atmosphere was already tense, and Tong Deng's shout made everyone's hair stand on end. Yan Nian, Li Xian, and Cui Laoliu even moved their hands to their swords. They stared at Ding Xiu intently, ready to draw their knives if he slammed the table, stood up, or gave the order.

However, Ding Xiu did not react until a young man who looked to be in his early twenties came over.

The young man didn't go in, but stopped at the door. When he saw the people at the table, he didn't say anything polite, but asked directly, "How much silver do you want?"

"Two hundred and forty taels," Tong Deng said, looking at Ding Xiu and almost pausing over each word, "Give this old man Ding two hundred and forty taels of silver. He wants to sell us four heads."

"Yes." The young man turned and left, as if he had never been there.

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When the captives left the blacksmith's shop, they were no longer carrying a bag of human heads, while Ding Xiu had a backpack of silver on his back. The exchange of money and goods was as normal as any other transaction.

At the entrance of the blacksmith shop, Ding Baiying was waiting.

"You haven't left yet?" Ding Xiu looked at Ding Baiying.

"Leave?" Ding Baiying asked coldly, "Where to?"

"Didn't I give you all those things?" Ding Xiu took a step forward.

"What should I say when we get to the general's residence? Just say that Captain Ding sold the head to a middleman?" Ding Baiying followed with a frown.

"It doesn't matter. Even if you didn't say it, I would have said it." Ding Xiu shrugged.

"Haha." Ding Baiying's anger escaped from this sneer. She thought she had seen all sorts of dirty things in her life, but what she saw in Liaodong repeatedly refreshed her worldview.

"Don't moan. The four heads sold for a total of two hundred and forty taels." Ding Xiu patted the backpack filled with silver. "After deducting the commission for the General's Office, there's still two hundred taels left. I'm taking two heads to report my merit and get a promotion, so I don't want the money. The two hundred taels will be divided among the five of you. Li Er didn't kill anyone, so he'll take less, twenty taels. You, Su Jiu, Old Yan, and Cui Liu will each get forty-five taels."

"I don't want it. Give it to them." Ding Baiying looked at Ding Xiu with a complicated expression. As a person, she was sure that Ding Xiu was not a good person at all, but he also seemed to be not so completely "bad".

"As a person, you should be sociable. If you don't take it, others will feel uneasy when they take it." Ding Xiu said.

"Get along?" Ding Baiying pointedly asked, "Isn't this just going along with the crowd?"

"Where in this world is there a pure stream without any dust?" Ding Xiu rolled his eyes at her.

"You want me to go along with you, which means there are still some clean people in this world," said Ding Baiying.

"As expected of an educated person, you have a sharp tongue," Ding Xiu said sarcastically, "You should disguise yourself as a man and take the imperial examination, become a Jinshi, and become the top scholar. Instead of living a life of hardship like us, you must take this money. No negotiation."

"What if I don't?"

"Then get out of here before I kill you and silence you."

————————At noon, in the lobby of the General’s Mansion, General Hou Shilu, the garrison commander of the Weining Camp, was having lunch.

Ever since the sudden reports of military emergency in Shenyang and Fengji, Hou Shilu rarely left the General's Mansion. He ate and slept there, fearing that the messengers would be unable to reach him in time if urgent military reports or new orders were delivered.

Hou Shilu was known for his bravery. When he was in Liangzhou, he led his troops out of the border many times to drive out the Tatars who were blocking the border wall, and brought back a few heads.

According to his usual style, since Shen and Feng were in a state of emergency, he should have led his cavalry to find a way to gain some advantage over the enemy. However, he could not do so. Because along with the military reports from Shen and Feng, Xiong Tingbi also sent a unified order to the commanders of all the towns to Weining.

The order was simple: The commander-in-chief must defend the territory first and must not leave the city to engage the enemy before receiving orders from the general. Anyone who disobeyed the order would not be credited with any victory, even if they achieved something.

"Report!" While we were eating, another scout came to report.

"Speak." Hearing the tone of Ma Tan's "report", Hou Shilu knew that this was another ordinary reconnaissance military report, so he didn't even raise his head and continued to eat.

"Reporting to Marshal Hou," Ma Tan swallowed, "As of the day before yesterday, the two bandits, Zhenglan and Xianglan, were still besieging Fengji, but there are signs of retreat." Fengji and Weining are nearly seventy miles apart, with only a small path in between for horses to ride. Even if there were no obstructions, it would take nearly two days to travel.

"Have you contacted Marshal Li Zhen?" Hou Shilu asked.

"The enemy has surrounded the city very tightly and has troops stationed on all sides, making it difficult to get close," Ma Tan replied.

"Well. Go back and have a good rest," Hou Shilu waved his hand. "Tell someone else over there to investigate and report back."

"Yes!" Ma Tan saluted with his fists and turned to leave.

To gain real-time military intelligence, Hou Shilu prepared three teams of 150 scouts. Two teams of 100 men each took turns conducting reconnaissance along the Weining to Liaoyang and Weining to Fengji routes, respectively, following a relatively fixed schedule. The remaining 50 men served as replacements or backups.

If a person or a squad didn't return for five consecutive days, they would be considered dead. The military officer in charge of the cavalry scouts would report to Hou Shilu, who would then find a skilled rider to replace him or his squad. This ensured the cavalry scouts always had around 150 men. Therefore, even if there was a two-day gap between Wei and Feng, or a three-day gap between Wei and Liao, Hou Shilu would still receive a delayed military report every day, or even every few hours.

As soon as the Ma scouts left, Ding Xiu's team arrived at the General's residence. Unlike the Ma scouts, who had special markings on their helmets, Ding Xiu and his team were stopped by the guards before they even reached the door.

"Which battalion are you from? What are you doing here at the General's Mansion? And who are those three people behind you?" The guard frowned as he approached Ding Xiu and his group. He smelled a distinct, unpleasant odor, distinct from the sour smell of sweat. It was both nauseating and unsettling.

"I'm Ding Xiu from the hunting camp, and I'm here to report my achievements. The three behind are the captives we brought back." Brave men like Ding Xiu who left the garrison area of ​​Weining Camp and went out of the city lightly to earn beheading money were all assigned to a "hunting camp" directly under the general.

"No wonder." The guard finally understood where this unsettling smell came from.

"What?" Ding Xiu didn't hear the guard's mumbling clearly.

"Nothing," the guard waved his hand. "You wait here. I'll go in and report."

"Okay. Thank you for your work."

--------

"Report!" Hou Shilu had just finished half of his lunch when the guard came in front of him.

"Speak." Hou Shilu still didn't look up.

"The hunting camp is here to report the first achievement." said the guard.

"Let them in." Hou Shilu ate a piece of brown sugar-sweetened bread with a mouthful of greasy chicken soup. Sugar was a rare and expensive commodity, and only a few people in the entire Weining Camp could afford it.

Seeing Hou Shilu eating, the guard kindly said, "Those people have a strong odor. Why not ask them to wait a little longer?"

"No need. They are just some corrupt heads. We have seen them before. Just let them in." Hou Shilu said nonchalantly.

"Yes." The guard was impressed and turned away.

After a while, Ding Xiu and his four companions arrived at the main hall with the three captives. This time, no one was escorting them, not even the guard who had reported them.

Upon arriving in the main hall, everyone's attention was drawn to a glittering object: a full set of goose-feather lacquer and gold-scale armor that shone brightly in the sunlight. Ever since Shen and Feng's emergency call, Hou Shilu had this armor brought to the main hall. If there was an emergency, he could immediately don the gleaming armor and appear before everyone, quickly calming the crowd.

"I, Ding Xiu, pay my respects to Marshal Hou!" Ding Xiu came to the open space about five steps in front of the main table, opened his front lapel, knelt, and bowed. The others followed suit.

"Ding Xiu?" Hou Shilu raised his head. "It's been almost half a month. I thought you were dead." Hou Shilu had many personal soldiers under his command, but he knew the name and face of each of them.

"Thanks to the general's good fortune, I am lucky to survive." Ding Xiu kowtowed to Hou Shilu.

"That's quite sweet," Hou Shilu smiled and nodded. "Everyone, get up."

"Thank you, Commander!" Ding Xiu bowed again and stood up.

"Have you all had lunch?" Hou Shilu asked.

Ding Xiu felt a warm feeling in his heart. "General, not yet."

"Go," Hou Shilu turned to look at a guard on duty. "Tell the kitchen to light the fire and prepare a hot meal for the brothers."

"Yes." The guard turned around and left.

"We'll have to keep the stove going for a while longer. Until then," Hou Shilu said, taking another bite of the bread. "Tell me briefly what you've been doing these days."

"Reporting to the commander, I led my brothers to avoid the slave soldiers, passed through the Great Wall near Yagu Pass, and slaughtered a village with loose defenses." Ding Xiu summarized briefly.

"Wow!" Hou Shilu's eyes lit up. "You're really brave, kid. You actually dared to leave the Great Wall!"

"I believe that the bandit chief's large-scale invasion will inevitably lead to a lack of rear areas, so I dared to take the risk of going out of the border," said Ding Xiu.

"Good boy! You're worthy of being my soldier, brave and resourceful." Hou Shilu praised him generously, and also praised himself. "How many heads did you chop off and bring back?"

"I cut ten, but..." Ding Xiu paused. "I just sold four."

"Wow, you sold four more?" Hou Shilu was stunned, and his smile widened. "You're quite good, kid. You're so smart. You're selling heads right after joining the army."

(End of this chapter)