Volume Three: Heroes Silent, Heaven and Earth Grow Old - Chapter 30: Gaizhou III

Even without Deng She emphasizing it, the army's marching speed was naturally slow due to the wounded soldiers in the ranks. Fortunately, most of the heavy weaponry had been destroyed in the afternoon's battle, allowing them to travel light. By the early hours of the next morning, they had left Dongmou Mountain far behind.

Throughout this time, there had been no sign of any blocking maneuvers from the Yuan forces. Riding in the hazy, faint morning light and feeling the crispness of dawn, Deng She finally set down the anxiety that had kept him on edge all night.

Xu Ren, who was bringing up the rear, galloped up breathlessly and requested instructions from Deng She: "General, the Tatars' attention should be entirely focused on Dongmou Mountain; it seems they won't come after us. After half a day of fierce combat followed by a forced march all night, the brothers are at their breaking point, and many are falling behind. Should we halt temporarily for a rest?"

The terrain of Liaodong is surrounded by mountains on the east, west, and north. The western side features the Greater Khingan Mountains, which stretch continuously to the northeast where they merge with the Lesser Khingan Mountains in the far north, before turning southeast to join the Changbai Mountain range. Thousands of miles of mountains are covered with dense forests.

The location where Chen Hu's garrison was stationed lay precisely to the southeast. If the two armies were to rendezvous directly, they would need to cross the Qianshan Mountain range—a southwestern offshoot of the Changbai Mountains—which would cause delays. To save time, Deng She chose the Posuo Inspectorate on the western bank of the Yalu River as the meeting place.

In this way, Deng She could smoothly arrive by following the relay stations set up by the Mongols along the southwestern border, while Chen Hu could easily reach it simply by heading down the Yalu River to the west.

The Posuo Inspectorate had originally been a prefecture before being downgraded to an inspectorate. It had a small population, numbering at most tens of thousands even at its peak. Several years ago, the King of Goryeo captured Shuangcheng, then crossed the Yalu River to the west and overran the three stations including the Posuo Inspectorate. A few months ago, Deng She captured Pyongyang, and commanders such as Wen Huaguo, Zhao Guo, and Qing Qianxing led their forces northward to recapture it all, restoring it to Han rule.

In terms of southeastern Liaoning, the strategic position of the Posuo Inspectorate was significant. Situated a hundred or so miles from Gaizhou, it connected southern Liaoning to the west with Goryeo to the east. To put it metaphorically, it served as the hub linking Goryeo and southern Liaoning. In times of peace, the Yuan and Goryeo frequently traded here; in times of war, it was entirely capable of serving as an outpost and transit station.

Therefore, after retaking the area, Deng She placed great importance on it, personally appointing trusted thousand-man commanders to garrison it, relocating numerous Han people, repairing the city walls, and supplementing military supplies—building it strictly to the standards of a military fortress.

Deng She shaded his eyes with his hand and looked back at the endless trailing rear guard. True to what Xu Ren had said, morale was high, but physical stamina was limited. Coupled with a sleepless night, almost everyone had bloodshot eyes and was yawning constantly. He nodded, agreed with Xu Ren's suggestion, and said, "We haven't eaten since last night. Order the three armies to rest in place, set up cauldrons, and cook. ... Let's make it two hours. After two hours, we resume the march."

Xu Ren acknowledged the order and left to have the various officers relay the instructions. Before long, apart from the troops assigned to guard duty, the exhausted soldiers collapsed right across the main road. Some were so tired that they didn't care whether the ground was dirty or not; they dropped their weapons and fell asleep instantly. In an instant, the sound of heavy snoring filled the air.

Deng She frowned with some dissatisfaction. What if they were attacked by the enemy right now? Wouldn't that be the end of everything? He said, "Slumped about like this, what does this look like? Tell the hundred-man commanders to stay sharp, no scattering of weapons, and no mixing up of military units. ... Notify all thousand-man commanders and above to come here for a military council."

The soldiers couldn't entirely be blamed for a lack of discipline. Even he himself felt his legs floating the moment he dismounted, and despite his long military career, the insides of his thighs were rubbed raw by the saddle. As the commander-in-chief of an army, others could complain, but he absolutely could not. Wearing a calm expression and pushing aside the pain from the wounds sustained in yesterday's battlefield, Deng She first went to the wounded soldiers' camp to offer his condolences.

During the short march of the night, this was already his third time inspecting the wounded soldiers' camp. As the saying goes, love your soldiers like your own children; relying solely on strict military discipline is clearly not enough, and one must also win over the hearts of the people.

To avoid affecting morale and to prevent the spread of disease, the wounded camp was kept strictly independent. A buffer zone was established between it and the regular camps, with guards stationed on the perimeter to prevent unauthorized people from wandering through.

Deng She had gathered all the remaining carts in the army, and the severely wounded were placed upon them. Two to three hundred men tossed and turned, groaning. A thick stench of blood hit the face, attracting numerous flies and winged insects that buzzed incessantly, crawling in swarms over their wounds and bodies.

Seeing Deng She arrive, some of the more lucid ones struggled to sit up and salute, while others remained unconscious, their cracked lips muttering indistinctly about something. Deng She hurriedly took a few steps forward and stopped a wounded man who was trying to get up: "Don't move, ..." The wounded man was barely thirty, with a broken leg. "Were you trampled by the Tatars' horses?" Deng She asked.

"Two horses. I'm lucky to be alive to have avoided the second one."

There were only two possibilities for being trampled by horses: either routing in the face of battle, or fighting bravely forward. This wounded man's injuries were in the front; besides the broken leg, there was also a sword slash across his chest. After taking a brief look, Deng She instantly deduced the scene when he was wounded.

Undoubtedly, the enemy cavalry had charged head-on, and he had thrown himself forward to block them, armed perhaps with a spear, a halberd, or a heavy axe. However, the interception failed, his leg was broken first, and then the Yuan cavalry rode past, casually slashing his chest with a short sword.

Deng She questioned the wounded soldier then and there, and his guess proved entirely correct. To dare to face mounted enemy soldiers with mere flesh and blood required a veteran, a man of true courage. Looking at the wounded soldier's honest and rustic features, and his heavily calloused hands, Deng She asked, "Tell me, brother, were you a farmer before joining the army?"

"Yes, General."

"Where did you enlist?"

"Yongping."

So he was part of the core headquarters. Deng She smiled and said, "You survived even that—you've got a great destiny! The elders have a saying: those who survive a great disaster are bound to have future fortunes. Good, well done! ... What's your name?"

Flattered by the praise, the wounded man became deeply emotional and instinctively puffed out his chest: "Tie Niu!"

Deng She nodded, straightened up, and looked around. Carts and ground alike were stained with blood, strewn with filthy weapons and discarded armor. Military doctors ran back and forth drenched in sweat, accompanied by occasional unconscious groans and agonizing screams from unbearable pain in their wounds.

Many pairs of eyes looked toward him. Amidst the thick scent of blood, a morning breeze blew by, and Deng She caught a faint fragrance of the black earth—light, mixed with the stench of blood, sweet and cool. He asked the crowd, "Did you smell that?"

His question was abrupt, and no one understood what he meant. Even the wounded men who had been wracked with pain turned their gazes toward him. Deng She asked again, "Did you smell that? ..." He closed his eyes, inhaling deeply and contentedly, "How fragrant, how sweet."

The wounded camp gradually quieted down. Deng She maintained his deep-breathing posture. After what seemed like a long time, a wounded soldier timidly and softly replied, "I smelled it, General." He hesitated, "It smells like sorghum stalks."

Someone retorted, "No, it's wheat stalks."

Years of warfare had left many farmlands abandoned. Far off in the distance beyond the main road where Deng She and his men were stationed, faint green waves rippled. To be honest, Deng She couldn't tell what it actually was—perhaps harvested rice, or collected cornstalks.

However, that was not his focus. He opened his eyes, slowly scanning each person's face, and said, "My adoptive father died seven months ago during the breakout battle at Fengzhou. I wasn't by his side at the time. For my sake, and for the sake of eight hundred brothers, ... he covered our retreat and died under the Tatars' blades. He was struck by many arrows, and he loved using his wolf-tooth club. ... But I was incompetent; I couldn't take his body back. Falling leaves return to their roots, yet as his adopted son, I couldn't even manage that much."

Deng She smiled. "I couldn't even snatch back his wolf-tooth club; it fell into the hands of the Tatars. That's fine too. My adoptive father was brave and skilled in battle during his lifetime, and the Tatars who died beneath his wolf-tooth club numbered at least eighty. Let the Tatars take it as a trophy to remind them that Deng San's son—myself, Deng She—is still alive!

"A century! The Tatars have ruled the Central Plains for a century now. The glorious attire of our magnificent China has been lost for a century as well. Look at what they have done to us! They seized our lands to use as pastures, seized our sons and daughters as bonded slaves. Twenty households of ordinary citizens are allowed only one kitchen knife! Why, even we Han and Southerners are not permitted to own a simple slingshot! In the temples, even the true blade of our Lord Guan is missing. Why? The Tatars forbid it! They forbid us to raise horses, forbid us to ride horses, forbid us to hunt. When a Mongol kills a Han person, they merely pay a small burial compensation fee; if a Han person kills a Mongol, what is the fate? And despite this, there are still people—actually Han people—complaining that the compensation fee is too high! Is this truly the land of China, or the realm of the foreign barbarians?

"To escape the humiliation of the Tatars, Han daughters would rather become boat prostitutes. Why? Because boat prostitutes have no designated tribal masters and can avoid desecration. How absurd, how laughable! Where is the majestic spirit of the Han and Tang dynasties? In the past, the cavalry of our Han people could destroy a nation single-handedly! Yet today, we cannot even protect our own women and daughters. This is a supreme disgrace. When has our vast China ever suffered such humiliation?

"As for those who forgot their roots, recognized thieves as fathers, and willingly served as the lackeys and hunting dogs of the foreign barbarians—the Han armies and newly surrendered troops—what of them?"

Deng She raised his voice, showing anger and the look of one deeply insulted: "Only when there is a war! Only when they are ordered to massacre our compatriots do they have the right to take up weapons. Once they finish killing us, once they finish killing their own compatriots, their weapons must all be returned to the Tatar storehouses! What are they? What are we? And what are those officials in their grand crimson robes?

"Those high officials serving in the Tatar court—every time they attend court, they place their hands behind their backs in a posture of being bound, shamelessly and without a shred of dignity trading for wealth and glory. Do they not feel ashamed before their ancestors? Do they not feel they have disgraced the sages? Today's scholars have become beggars! Instead of feeling that civilization has been swept into the dust, they are immensely proud of it. Yes, they have indeed read poetry and books extensively and are deeply versed in the classics of the sages, but in my eyes, they are far inferior to you all! The people of Wu call them beggars; the northerners call them cured chickens... and they are entirely right.

"Even so, from the imperial court down to the prefectures and counties, how many Han people can hold managing positions? At most, they are minor deputies. The superiors are invariably Mongols or Semu people. For a century, the hundreds of millions of Han descendants have thus submitted beneath the hooves of Tatar horses.

"When foreign surnames alter the dynastic titles, it is called the destruction of a state; when benevolence and righteousness are choked off to the point where beasts are left to devour men and men resort to eating each other, it is called the destruction of the world. ... To preserve the state is the concern of the ruler, ministers, and those who feast on fine meat; to preserve the world, even the lowliest commoner bears a share of the responsibility! Those barbarian northerners use death to threaten me; I do not fear death, so why attempt to frighten me with it!"

Although the soldiers could not fully grasp the classical Chinese of his final sentence, they generally understood the core meaning. The morning sun rose brightly. Deng She stood amidst blood and weapons, full of passion and vigor. Returning to the beginning of his speech, he said, "When my adoptive father died, as you all know, I was not by his side. Later, one of my uncles told me that right before he died, he said only one sentence: 'This land... damn it, it smells so good.'"

He closed his eyes once more, breathed in deeply, and opened his arms: "Did you smell it? This land that nourished us, raised us, where our ancestors and forefathers have lived and multiplied for thousands of years—it smells so good."

He said, "Though my adoptive father is dead, I am proud of him. I know that sooner or later I too will die, and I only hope that I can die with a clear conscience." His thoughts soared, connecting antiquity to the present. On this very land, a nation that had endured countless hardships had walked through wind and rain. It had weathered many difficulties and faced many choices, and right now was one of the critical and heavily burdened turning points.

He seemed to have found his goal in life. He murmured softly, recalling a poem, and said, "And then I die, even my feathers rotting in the earth. Why are my eyes filled with tears? Because I love this land so deeply."

Oh, this land where we were born and raised, this root of the Yan and Huang emperors. For five millennia, countless benevolent and heroic souls of the Chinese nation have stepped forward as others fell behind. His eyes shone brightly. "They, and you, ..." He borrowed a phrase from Fang Buzhen, "Who says you are dead? You stand as stern and alive as ever! ... Every single person who has ever raised a sword to fight and died without regret, you shall be immortal for eternity.

"This land is ours! Once we lost it, but hereafter, forever, in the future—as long as they exist, as long as you exist, it shall forever be ours! The Tatars say that wherever their sabers reach becomes their pasture; we say that wherever there are Han people, there is China!"

He was truly moved. His words became somewhat chaotic, a thousand thoughts choking him for a moment. The brilliance of the morning sun illuminated everyone's face. He recited the poem softly, in a low voice—not for others to hear, but solely for himself. He bent down, scooped up a handful of soil, brought it to his nose, and inhaled its fragrance as he chanted:

"If I were a bird,
I would sing with a hoarse throat:
This land battered by storms,
This river forever surging with our grief,
The endlessly blowing, enraged wind,
And the incomparably tender dawn coming from the forest...
— And then I die,
even my feathers rotting in the earth.
Why are my eyes filled with tears?
Because I love this land so deeply."

The wounded camp was dead silent. The soldiers didn't have much formal education or grand notions of country and nation, but their personal, firsthand experiences were the best education—they understood what Deng She meant. Many of them, who shed blood without tears on the battlefield, now held tears in their eyes. One after another, they struggled, wanting to reach out and grab a handful of soil from the ground, imitating Deng She by bringing it to their noses to sniff.

Strict rewards and punishments can make men take death lightly; guiding them with righteousness can make men die for a just cause.

—
1. Driven captives (*Qukou*): Originally meaning "people captured and driven to labor," referring to those captured in wars and forced into slavery for others. The term first appeared in the Jin dynasty. During the Mongol conquest of the Jin, the phenomenon of plundering civilians into slavery was extremely severe. According to records, after Ogedei destroyed the Jin, the captives obtained by nobles and military officers amounted to about half of the remaining population in the former Jin territory. During the Mongol conquest of the Southern Song, although the plundering of civilians as captives was somewhat reduced, it remained quite common. Records of individual driven captives persisted until the early Ming dynasty.
This concept was not created by northern ethnic minorities, but derived directly from the so-called "driven laborers" of the Tang dynasty.
"Driven captives" were mainly used for domestic servitude, with some engaged in agriculture, livestock, and handicraft production. They held the lowest social status in Yuan society and were the private property of their owners, with their children also belonging to the master.
Yuan law stipulated: "A person's 'driven captives' are treated the same as property." As long as legal procedures were completed, they could be bought and sold at will. A "driven captive" who killed or injured a master was put to death; if they intentionally injured a master, they were executed by a thousand cuts. If a "driven captive" intended to kill their master and other "driven captives" knew of it but failed to report it, they too were executed. Meanwhile, a master who intentionally killed an innocent "driven captive" was punished with eighty-seven strokes of the heavy stick; if killed while drunk, the punishment was reduced by one degree. If a master beat a captive to death, they could be absolved of guilt merely by setting the entire captive family free.
The law stipulated that "driven captives" could not marry commoners. If they married privately in violation of this, a commoner woman who married a "driven captive" as a wife was demoted to a "driven captive," whereas a "driven captive" woman who married a commoner as a wife became a commoner—reflecting male-chauvinistic feudal ideology. The law also stipulated that while ordinary brawlers who killed others faced death, a commoner who killed another person's "driven captive" received only one hundred strokes of the heavy stick, a law specifically tailored for low-status people like "driven captives."

2. Paying burial compensation (*Shaomai yin*): "Any Mongols who, due to disputes or while drunk, beat a Han person to death shall be sentenced to military service and shall fully pay the burial compensation silver. Any Mongols who slash another person's slave and wish to reconcile through mutual consent are permitted to do so." A "Han person who beat a Mongol to death" not only faced execution, but "their family property was confiscated and awarded to the victim, while others were assessed burial compensation silver."

3. Rather become boat prostitutes: "The disaster of the northern soldiers brought boundless slaughter. They even tied young children to high poles and bet sheep and wine on hitting their orifices with arrows. After the chaos, more than 100,000 bones were collected and buried northwest of Taowu at Zhoushu Bridge, with a tombstone inscribed 'Ten Thousand Loyal souls.' Since the dynastic transition (the Yuan conquest of the Southern Song), twenty households were organized into a *jia*, with a northerner (mainly Mongols and Semu people) appointed as the *jia* master. Clothing, food, boys, and young girls were all at their command." Countless people committed suicide. ... After the transition, *jia* masters were ubiquitous in towns and villages. With men wishing to protect their wives and daughters from being enslaved and violated choosing self-destruction. ... Many families with beautiful daughters, hoping to avoid defilement, resorted to the poor measure of letting their daughters become "boat prostitutes" (singing girls on boats who entertained with music) because "boat prostitutes have no designated *jia* masters, allowing them to escape defilement."
—The theory of "jus primae noctis" among Mongols is not recorded in official histories, appearing only in unofficial accounts.

4. Every time they attend court, placing their hands behind their backs in a posture of being bound: "Southerners serving at court, whenever they completed ceremonial duties, would invariably cross their hands behind their backs in the posture of being tied backward. Even high-ranking [Southern] officials did this to show their submission." Outsiders unaware of the true situation mistakenly thought southern Chinese liked standing with their hands behind their backs to show "elegance," when in fact they were forced to adopt the pose of being tied backward to show obedience to the Mongols.
Locally, facing provincial officials, "peers [Han and Southerners] dared not look up, kneeling and rising to report like petty clerks."

5. Single-handedly destroying a nation: Wang Xuance of Luoyang during the Tang dynasty was sent as an envoy to India. The newly usurped king, Arjuna, hearing that the Tang envoy had entered the territory, dispatched two thousand soldiers to ambush them halfway. Except for Wang Xuance and Jiang Shiren, all the accompanying guards were killed, and Wang Xuance was captured and detained. Later, Wang Xuance and Jiang Shiren seized an opportunity to escape and vowed to annihilate India to wash away the shame of the murdered envoys!
The two of them rode north, borrowed seven thousand cavalry from Nepal, issued a proclamation summoning nearby Tang vassal states, and had King Songtsen Gampo of Tibet dispatch 1,200 elite cavalry, bringing the total force to nearly ten thousand. Wang Xuance served as commander-in-chief with Jiang Shiren as vanguard. In a foreign land, using foreign troops against an army of war elephants (which had previously defeated tens of thousands of Tianzhu war elephants), they repeatedly won with inferior numbers, capturing fortified camps and impregnable cities with unstoppable momentum, destroying northern and central India in a few battles.
Because eastern India aided Arjuna, Wang Xuance prepared to wipe out eastern India as well. King Jikumar of eastern India was frightened out of his wits and hastily sent ten thousand head of cattle and horses, bows, swords, necklaces, and treasures to apologize to the Tang army, declaring submission to the Tang Empire. Only then did Wang Xuance halt his troops, return to court to report on his mission, and drag Arjuna back to Changgan in cangues and chains.

6. Today's scholars have become beggars: "A master of wit, mocking scholars, said: 'According to our Great Yuan legal code, people are divided into ten ranks. Officials and clerks are ranked first and second because they are valued. They are valued because they are useful to the country. Artisans are seventh, prostitutes eighth, scholars ninth, and beggars tenth, because they are despised. They are despised because they are deemed useless to the country. How lowly indeed! Ranked below prostitutes and above beggars are today's scholars. The so-called beggar households—the people of Wu still despise them today.'"

7. Northerners calling them cured chickens (*Laji*): "Therefore, according to the system of the dynasty, no Han or Southern person could serve as primary officials. Those who managed to do so reached at most minor prefectural or county posts, while prefectural *darughachi* were all Mongols or Semu people. Such appointments were virtually nonexistent. Later, there were two paths: purchasing grain for office or gaining merit through contributions, and wealthy men often sought advancement this way. When the decree was first issued, such posts were still granted; but later, as applicants surged, they were absolutely denied to Southerners. Those seeking official positions in the capital were nicknamed 'cured chickens' by northerners, to the point of using it to hurl insults at each other. This was because cured chickens were items sent as tribute from the south to the north. Hence the name."

8. Superiors invariably Mongols or Semu people: In the second year of Zhiyuan, Kublai Khan issued an imperial decree: "Let Mongols serve as *darughachi* in all circuits, Han people as prefectural governors, and Huihui people as assistant administrators. Let this be established as a permanent system." In addition, the Censor-in-Chief "shall not be appointed to anyone outside the imperial clan," and each circuit's surveillance office had to select Mongols as commissioners, "or if vacant, fill them with the descendants of hereditary Semu vassals, and secondarily mix in Semu and Han people."
The Yuan dynasty mainly selected officials based on their family background, known as *genjiao*, rather than achievement. Southerners were "taking the examinations year after year, wearing scholar caps until old age." Meanwhile, Mongol and Semu youths of privileged background "need not know how to read characters, yet become high officials at twenty."
There were no imperial examinations in the early period; they were restored in the middle period, but by the fall of the Yuan, only sixteen examinations had been held, with just over seventy people per exam. Quota allocations also favored Mongols and Semu people, with Southerners taking only half. From these figures, it can be seen that throughout the Yuan dynasty, Han scholars who managed to enter official careers numbered at most five or six hundred, and they remained mired in lower-level posts throughout their lives, serving merely as window dressing for the Great Yuan's rule.
Among the 22,490 officials in the mid-Yuan dynasty, 30.12% were Mongols and Semu people, while 69.88% were Han and Southerners. Comparing these to ethnic population proportions reveals a stark disparity. Furthermore, the Han and Southerners who held office mostly served as minor local officials—so-called "shepherd of the people" officials—because the Yuan dynasty was forced to use them, as most Mongol and Semu officials did not understand written Chinese and were unable to govern.
The upper echelons of Mongol-Yuan rule fundamentally did not understand the spoken language. As for high-ranking officials, driven by profit and largely composed of Semu people, they naturally cared little for matters between the lines. Many were illiterate, signing documents merely by pressing three fingers dipped in ink onto the paper. Better ones used seals instead of signatures. Most Mongol and Semu officials today cannot hold a brush to sign their names, relying instead on ivory or wooden carved seals. Prime ministers and close imperial aides reaching the first rank were granted imperial permission to use jade personal seals to sign documents, and unauthorized individuals dared not use them.

9. When foreign surnames alter the dynastic titles, it is called the destruction of a state; when benevolence and righteousness are choked off to the point where beasts are left to devour men and men resort to eating each other, it is called the destruction of the world: From Gu Yanwu's *Records of Daily Knowledge: On Orthodoxy*.

10. Strict rewards and punishments can make men take death lightly; guiding them with righteousness can make men die for a just cause: "The principle of warfare: instruction and discipline make men take death lightly, while righteousness makes men die for a righteous cause." ("Dao" here is interchangeable with "dao" meaning to guide or instruct; "zheng" is interchangeable with "zheng" meaning political order/principles.)