Taichang Ming Dynasty

Chapter 518 On merit
Seeing Hou Shilu's reaction, Ding Xiu breathed a sigh of relief. He quickly said, "I didn't go there on my own initiative. I was stopped as soon as I entered the city."

"That's not unusual," Hou Shilu said, glancing back. "Who bought those four heads of yours?"

"A man named Tong Deng." Ding Xiu replied.

Hou Shilu raised his eyebrows and asked, "Did Tong Deng take you to a blacksmith shop?"

"You know all this?"

Hou Shilu smiled slightly and said, "I also know that his family is a craftsman. They have been making iron in Weining for over 200 years. Outsiders can't do this kind of business. How much did he offer you for a human head?"

"Sixty taels." Ding Xiu answered honestly.

"A 20% premium isn't bad." Hou Shilu nodded slightly. As the head of the Weining Camp, Hou Shilu was not only aware of the existence of various black markets, but also understood their underlying market conditions. However, he never intervened in the market. As long as the black marketeers didn't abandon their main business and didn't transfer their sales elsewhere, he remained indifferent.

"Where are the other heads?" Hou Shilu asked.

"In those two packages." Ding Xiu turned sideways and pointed at the captives carrying human heads.

"Take them all out," Hou Shilu beckoned. "Hurry and take a look."

"But you are having a meal." Ding Xiu said.

"Don't worry about it," Hou Shilu said. "When I was young, I even slept with corpses as pillows. I've seen at least eight hundred, if not a thousand, heads of corrupt people. Don't be picky, just bring them all out."

"Yes." Ding Xiu turned and waved, shouting in Jurchen: "Bring the head here."

Hu Zengshou, carrying the head, and the "Shun Yi" immediately approached, trembling. Hu Zengshou was very clever. As soon as he handed over the head package, he knelt down and kowtowed to Hou Shilu. "Your humble servant Hu Zengshou greets Marshal Hou."

Seeing Hu Zengshou kneeling, the "Shunyi" also knelt down. "Your servant pays homage to 'Grandpa Tianjiang'!" Although the "Shunyi" could not understand Chinese very well, he knew very well that his survival depended on what this "Grandpa Tianjiang" said.

"Hu Zengshou?" Hou Shilu was a little surprised, and his expression changed slightly. "Are you Han Chinese?"

"I am Hu Zengshou, a registered soldier from Fushun. Three years ago, the shameless rebel Li Yongfang surrendered the city. My two elder brothers swore to defend the city to the death and died in fierce fighting. After the city was broken, I was unable to escape and was unfortunately captured. I was enslaved and humiliated by the bandits. Fortunately, I was rescued by Captain Ding and was able to escape and live a new life." Hu Zengshou kowtowed three times to Hou Shilu, and then bowed to Ding Xiu again and again.

"Well, very good." Hou Shilu nodded, his eyes turning to Ding Xiu with a hint of admiration. A captive with a face and hairstyle so thoroughly resembling a barbarian could easily be beheaded and reported as the first meritorious service. As long as the perpetrators themselves didn't disclose the truth, it would be impossible to trace the cause. The fact that Ding Xiu had brought the man back unharmed proved that he hadn't been blinded by money and military merit to the point of losing his basic humanity.

"What about that woman? Is she also Han?" Hou Shilu looked at Lu Liushi again.

Lu Liushi knelt on the spot and kowtowed to Hou Shilu. "I am a commoner, Lu Liushi, from Kaiyuan Wei. I was captured when the city fell in the 47th year of the Wanli reign."

Hou Shilu's eyes flickered. A woman who had been abducted and then rescued wouldn't necessarily have a good life, unless her entire family was wiped out.

However, Hou Shilu didn't say much in the end, only announcing his policy: "According to the regulations set by General Xiong, you will be sent to Liaoyang for further questioning. Once the facts are clarified and the suspicion of being spies is eliminated, you will be free to move. In the meantime, the government will provide you with food."

"Thank you, Marshal!" Hu Zengshou and Lu Liu kowtowed to Hou Shilu again.

"Alright," Hou Shilu waved to a guard on duty. "Take these two away."

"Yes."

Hu Zengshou and Lu Liushi left with their personal guards. Meanwhile, Ding Xiu and Ding Baiying placed the remaining six heads on the open ground.

As the footsteps faded away, Hou Shilu's expression gradually changed. "Ding Xiu, are you crazy?" Hou Shilu said in a deep voice.

"What's wrong?" Ding Xiu's breath stagnated and he quickly knelt down. The others also became nervous.

"What else is going on? Haha," Hou Shilu chuckled and said quietly, "How can you openly talk about the human head trade in front of the captives?"

"They already know," Ding Xiu lowered his head, "and Tong Deng even said he wanted to buy them out as well."

"How dare you bring them along when discussing this kind of business?" Hou Shilu's tone already contained some blame.

"This is my first time doing this kind of business," Ding Xiu said, "I'm not prepared."

"Hmph, no preparations!" Hou Shilu rolled his eyes at Ding Xiu. "You brought them here, so you must have been prepared, right? Now that I've said all those things in front of them, you've dragged me into this."

Ding Xiu's forehead was covered in sweat. "How dare I? I simply felt I should honestly inform you, Marshal, of the transaction."

"Honest?" Hou Shilu snorted again. "You look so cunning, it's hard to believe you're honest."

"I am willing to accept the punishment!" After Hou Shilu said this, Ding Xiu could only kowtow.

"Look at me." Hou Shilu's tone was still steady.

"Yes." Ding Xiu raised his head.

Hou Shilu stretched out his right hand, clenched his four fingers, and then scratched his chin with the nail of his thumb. "Can you do it?"

"You want me?" Ding Xiu was shocked, and so were the others. Ding Baiying's eyes widened. No one had expected that a high-ranking general of the Ming Dynasty would blatantly hint at murder in the courtroom.

"I'm asking you if you can do it?" Hou Shilu took another bite of the cake.

"I, I haven't thought about it." Ding Xiu shook his head.

"I'm asking if you can do it?" Hou Shilu repeated.

Ding Xiu knew he couldn't get around it, so he said directly, "These two are Han Chinese, completely different from slaves and thieves. I can't bring myself to kill them." Hou Shilu turned around and smiled. "You still have some conscience." At this remark, everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

"Since you've dragged me into this, I'll give you a plan," Hou Shilu continued. "Since that man named Hu Zengshou is a military household, just recruit him. I'll put him in your team. He'll go on a mission, earn some money, and then we'll share the money. All the hidden dangers will be eliminated. As for that woman named Lu Liu, don't worry about her. She's definitely unfaithful, and no one will believe her."

"Thank you for your concern, Marshal." Ding Xiu kowtowed again.

"Now that you're in my tent, you're effectively my son or nephew. I'll naturally help you with anything I can. Just let me know." Hou Shilu stood up, walked over to Ding Xiu, and pulled him to his feet. "But don't ever play those little, see-through tricks on me again. You weren't even born when I was playing them."

"Yes." Although Hou Shilu had indeed misunderstood, Ding Xiu was still inexplicably moved. Hou Shilu's warm, elder-like smile made him feel as if he were seeing his long-deceased father.

Hou Shilu patted Ding Xiu's shoulder and walked over to examine the heads. If it weren't for the crimson military officer's robe that held him up, Hou Shilu would have looked like an ordinary old man squatting in front of a street stall buying vegetables. "This old man is completely useless. Of the remaining five, three are too young, without even a beard, like children, and may not be eligible for reward, but I will still give you the reward. Take it if you can, don't think about it if you can't. For the remaining two heads, I will give you a seventh-rank general flag. As for the rank, I'll leave it as it is for now. It's too fast to be promoted to captain after just one month of enlistment, and you don't even have the military honors yet."

"Thank you, Marshal." Ding Xiu knelt down again.

"You deserve this. Get up." Hou Shilu stood up, patted his lapel, turned around and waved to a personal guard. "Take these five heads away. And have the clerk write the letter I just mentioned. This old man, take him directly to the public cemetery and bury him."

"Yes." The personal soldier came over and prepared to bend down to pick up the head.

"Please wait a moment." Ding Xiu stopped the guard and said to Hou Shilu. "Marshal Hou, I have something else to report."

"explain."

Ding Xiu bowed again and stood up, pointing at Sengge's head. "This head belongs to the youngest son of that tribe, the stove keeper, named Sengge. We also recovered his armor, the tribe's flag, and a musket made by the Tieling Guards." He turned and looked at Ding Baiying. "What are you standing there for? Hurry and bring your things over here."

Ding Baiying was still hesitant about whether to speak, but she hadn't expected Ding Xiu to bring up the matter. Coming to her senses, she quickly untied the bag of armor tokens and placed it on the ground. Upon hearing this, Li Xian also stepped forward and placed the bird gun on the ground.

Hou Shilu didn't look at the head again, but walked over to Ding Baiying and examined the tokens. He only took a glance and was sure that these things were useful. "Didn't Tong Deng say he wanted to buy these things from you?"

"He said he offered two hundred taels." Ding Xiu replied.

"Two hundred taels? Ha!" Hou Shilu shrugged and smiled. "These things are worth ten heads. It's a good thing you didn't sell them."

"Ten heads!" Ding Xiu was shocked.

"Yes. Maybe even more," Hou Shilu explained. "You just said you went outside the Great Wall and massacred a village. But I don't plan to report this, because those six heads alone don't prove anything. Even if I believed it and reported it to the higher-ups, they wouldn't accept it. The governors, prefects, provincial governors, and even the Ministry of War and the Xiantai could all think you just randomly slaughtered six slaves and wanted to falsely claim great achievements."

"But we brought back three prisoners." Hu Zengshou and Lu Liushi were taken away, so Ding Xiu could only point at the "Shun Yi" who was kneeling on the ground.

"Words alone are useless for things like this. Without physical evidence, there's no physical evidence." Hou Shilu shook his head and continued, "With these things, the story of 'breaking the stronghold and slaying the general' can be documented and reported to the Ministry of War. Physical evidence, on the other hand, is useless. It can be used anywhere and passed on to someone else. A story like this, which would earn even mid-level military officers a promotion, could easily fetch five hundred taels."

Military law states that those who are in charge of more than 500 soldiers are not allowed to personally behead them.

In other words, military officers at the rank of captain and above could not directly exchange their kills for merit. To be promoted, these mid-level and senior military officers could either systematically accumulate merit by reporting on their subordinates' first achievements, or report on achievements such as "destroying a stronghold and beheading a general" and then have an outstanding achievement listed when reporting on their merits.

"Haha," Ding Xiu grinned and looked at Ding Baiying. "Luckily I didn't sell it to that profiteer."

Ding Baiying didn't respond, still looking at Sengge's head. "Where is this head?"

"This head is useless. The youngest son guarding the stove is also the youngest. Using a head of this quality to report the general's death is just adding to one's troubles." Hou Shilu asked Ding Xiu, "Why? Did he kill this man?"

"Yes, she was the one who killed Sengge." Ding Xiu nodded and said, "She was very powerful. With one shot, she pierced through the cotton armor with iron plates and the chain mail inside, and killed the small bandit chief who led the charge. Once the bandit chief was dead, their morale collapsed." On the way back to Weining Camp, Ding Xiu discussed the distribution of heads with his subordinates, and also reviewed that brief confrontation.

"Oh? You're a martial artist!" Hou Shilu became interested and looked directly at Ding Baiying and the gun behind her. "Look up, let me see you."

"Yes." Ding Baiying raised her head, and Hou Shilu was stunned. "Are you a woman?"

"Yes." Ding Baiying replied.

"Southerner?" Hou Shilu asked again.

"Yes."

"Why are you in my camp?" Hou Shilu did indeed have considerable cooperation with Tong Zhongkui's reinforcements from the southwestern Tusi. The local guides Tong Zhongkui employed were all found for him by Hou Shilu, but Hou Shilu's own newly formed "hunting camp" contained no Tusi soldiers from the southwest, let alone any female soldiers from the southwest.

"I was originally a bodyguard. Knowing that the country was in danger, I wanted to join the army to serve my country, so I left Shanhaiguan. After entering Liaodong, I went all the way to Liaoyou and saw the recruitment notice of the "Hunting Camp", so I signed up to join the army." Ding Baiying replied.

"Huh?" Hou Shilu was stunned again. "Aren't you a soldier from the southwest?"

"No." Ding Baiying shook his head. "I'm from Yangzhou Prefecture in Southern Zhili."

"Good girl!" Hou Shilu had never been to Yangzhou, but he knew how far it was between Nanjing and Liaodong. "What's your name?"

"My humble surname is Ding, and my humble name is Baiying."

"Your last name is Ding too?" Hou Shilu looked at Ding Xiu. "Are you relatives?"

"Marshal Hou, you know, I am from Kaiyuan. How could I have relatives in Nanzhili?" Ding Xiu shook his head.

"He's a distant relative beyond the fifth degree of mourning. That guy is even a distant relative of the Earl of Ningyuan." Hou Shilu smiled and glanced at Li Xian. He then said to Ding Baiying, "How about this? I'll decide. I'll give you one of those two heads and report it as 'decapitated'. I'll keep Ding Xiu's head and report it as 'destroyed the stronghold'. I'll also promote him to the seventh rank general. How do you think?" Hou Shilu addressed the last two words to Ding Xiu. Without any military merit, Ding Xiu's promotion to the seventh rank of captain was the limit.

Ding Xiu glanced at Ding Baiying furtively and replied with a subtle expression, "Everything is up to Marshal Hou."

(End of this chapter)