The fiercest soldier of the border army

That night, the Flying Fox Camp was brightly lit.

On the open ground where thousands of people had eaten, the bowls and chopsticks had been removed, and the tables had been returned, leaving only a patch of muddy footprints and a few wooden stakes that hadn't been taken away.

The camp was mostly quiet; the daytime hustle and bustle had dissipated, leaving only sporadic laughter and chatter drifting from a few barracks.

Shi Hanshan stood with his hands behind his back on the open ground in the center of the camp.

He wasn't wearing armor, just an old cotton robe with a hemp rope around his waist, but his figure, standing in the night, still resembled a mountain.

A man stood beside him, not tall, thin, wearing a faded old military uniform, with a short knife hanging at his waist.

The man was about forty years old, with a dark complexion and two old scars on his cheekbones, one on the left and one on the right, like two centipedes crawling on them.

This is Ma Yue, the Commander of the Capital Garrison, an old comrade of Shi Hanshan who was in charge of military discipline and had followed him all the way from Tingzhou.

Ma Yue spoke up, "Commander, what's your opinion on today's events?"

"What did you see?" Shi Hanshan asked in return.

Ma Yue's voice was very low, as if afraid of being told: "The money will be paid monthly, directly into your hands."

"That's not all, they even have to distribute it in front of our five thousand brothers."

"Everyone is saying that this move by the man surnamed Tang is probably aimed at Liu Bang."

Shi Hanshan did not respond.

Ma Yue continued, "The man sitting next to me today is a veteran from the Feng Battalion, surnamed Zhou. He's been with us for three years."

"He received his salary for half a year, but after deducting the cost of cloth and rice, he received less than one and a half taels of silver."

"His hands trembled when he saw the eight chests of silver on the stage."

"Everyone says that this old soldier is the most honest one, and he never complains."

"But he didn't smile or say a word the whole time. He didn't even blink when he watched the soldiers receiving their silver."

Shi Hanshan turned his gaze away from the barracks.

Ma Yue continued, "And there's that captain from the Lin Battalion, Zhang Biao, you all remember him, right? The one with the loudest voice, the one who always liked to nitpick."

"He didn't say a word when he came back from the drill ground today. He went into the barracks and lay down without making a sound."

Shi Hanshan finally spoke, "What do you want to say?"

Ma Yue stared into Shi Hanshan's eyes and said, word by word:

"They all mean that the issue of pay has been going on in Beiting for more than just a year or two."

"From top to bottom, layer by layer, every single layer is peeled away."

"The soldiers aren't unaware of this; it's just that it's the same everywhere, so there's no point in talking to them."

"But today, someone showed them silver that they shouldn't have taken."

"That guy surnamed Tang used eight boxes of silver to carve a hole in the hearts of five thousand people. This hole won't be finished today."

"Every month thereafter, when the soldiers received their pay, someone would chisel a hole in this hole."

"You mean, think about it, three months from now, six months from now, a year from now, will we still be able to control the people under our command?"

Shi Hanshan remained silent for a long time.

Back in Tingzhou, Li Qing'an once said something to him after drinking.

Soldiers are not afraid of fighting; what they fear is not knowing who they fought for after the battle is over.

He hadn't taken it to heart at the time, but now, standing in the open space of the Flying Fox Camp, listening to the footsteps of the night patrolling soldiers in the distance, he suddenly realized that those words carried far more weight than he had imagined.

"Ma Yue"

"exist."

"What do you think Tang Shun's motives are?"

Ma Yue paused for a moment, then frowned, thought for a long time, and finally shook his head:

"I can't see through it."

"While he was driven by fame, his ruthless killings have earned him a notorious reputation among intellectuals."

"They say he was greedy, but he didn't pocket a single penny of that silver; he spent it all on the soldiers."

"But to say that he doesn't want anything in return, I don't believe it at all."

"In this world, who would give away money for nothing?"

This matter became a thorn in the side of Ma Yue and other senior officials of the Right Capital.

"What do you think he's after? Let me tell you." Shi Hanshan raised a hand, "Five thousand soldiers are enough to defend Lingzhou."

"His recruitment of soldiers is not excessive. Lingzhou City has been breached before, and he wants to retain some of his own resources. Anyone in that position would have done the same."

"But he used the name of a government soldier to act as a war soldier."

"They deliberately prevented the yamen soldiers from entering the counties, allowing them to station themselves next to my regular troops. They even paid my five thousand men twice as much as my soldiers."

With each "pianpian," his voice grew louder, and when he said the last "pianpian," he suddenly let out a cold laugh.

"He called me 'brother,' and I thought he was still thinking of old times, remembering that we both came from Youdu. Who would have thought he wanted the whole of Youdu!"

"This matter must not be tolerated." Shi Hanshan made up his mind. "We must report this to the military commander."

When Ma Yue heard this, a chill ran down his spine.

The most dangerous thing about morale in an army is comparison.

Those who received more pay and those who received less pay, if the two groups stand together, within three months, the one who received less pay will inevitably harbor resentment.

If you have grievances, you need to vent them. Who should you vent them on? Your superiors.

If superiors can't control things, trouble is bound to happen.

Once trouble arises, if Tang Shun extends an olive branch, people's hearts will follow suit.

Shi Hanshan is right. Every single one of these things seems a bit off.

"Understood."

Ma Yue clasped his hands in a salute and said, "I will immediately draft a document, clearly stating today's events and all the details here, and send it to Tingzhou for the commander's decision."

Shi Hanshan nodded and didn't say anything more.

He turned around and was about to walk towards the barracks when suddenly a rapid sound of horses' hooves came from outside the camp.

The sound of hooves was fast and frequent, approaching from afar, and in the blink of an eye, they arrived at the camp gate.

The patrolling soldier shouted, and the man reined in his horse, jumped off, and strode inside.

The moonlight shone on his face; it was Wei Zong, followed by four or five men, all veterans of the original Third Company of the Left Army Right Capital Mountain Battalion, now called regimental commanders.

Ma Yue narrowed his eyes, his hand unconsciously resting on the short sword at his waist.

Wei Zong is Tang Shun's man. What does he want to do by bringing his men to the military camp in the middle of the night?

He took a step forward, blocking Shi Hanshan's path, and asked in a deep voice, "Vice Envoy Wei, what is this all about?"

Wei Zong calmly stopped, cupped his hands in greeting to Shi Hanshan, and spoke in a gentle tone, as if he were a neighbor coming to visit:

"By order of my master, I have delivered a weapon to the Commander-in-Chief."

Shi Hanshan didn't move, his gaze passing over Wei Zong's shoulder and landing on the people behind him.

A horse was carrying a long wooden box wrapped in coarse linen, so the contents of the box were not visible.

"Weapons?" Ma Yue repeated, his brows furrowing.

Delivering weapons in the middle of the night? And to the barracks? What kind of rule is that?

Wei Zong didn't explain further, and simply turned to the side and waved his hand behind him.

The two leaders carried the wooden crate to the open ground, untied the burlap, and opened the lid.

The box was lined with a layer of dry grass, on which rested a pair of heavy hammers. The hammers had sharp tips, which could be used for smashing or stabbing. They were silver and shiny, with stripes that looked like the texture left after being hammered a thousand times.

The hammers are huge and heavy, each weighing fifty pounds, and the two are placed side by side in the box.

Ma Yue stared at the pair of hammers and was momentarily stunned.

Even from a distance, the cold, menacing gleam of the hammer sends chills down one's spine.

If you smash this thing down, your armor will be no different from being made of paper.

"My master said that everyone knows the kindness he has shown him is as heavy as a mountain, and it must be repaid."

Wei Zong looked at Shi Hanshan and said in a calm tone, "These hammers were made by blacksmiths from Lingzhou under the arrangement of the Prefect. They used the steel-forging method and double-liquid quenching to forge more than a dozen hammers before finally making this pair."

"The Lord said that Brother Shi is a hero. These hammers are for Brother Shi to sweep away all enemies."