Chapter 945: Behead!

Compared with their eldest brother, Qin Dayong, who could put on armor, mount a horse, and ride off to assemble and prepare with the army, his younger brothers Qin Eryong and Qin Xiaoyong were nowhere near as fortunate.

Truthfully, Old Qin really had become someone with “face and standing” in Jin’an Fort. Even he himself sometimes marveled that, after all these years, he had finally gotten to live like a human being.

But this old farmer, born a field slave, had probably achieved the only thing in his life he possessed any real talent for: farming. In everything else, the limits of his background remained far too obvious.

As one of Jin’an Fort’s “Four Officers,” he possessed no administrative authority because his was a technical post, but he still had at least a little standing.

For example, in this age when everyone desperately wanted to become a Standard Household, Old Qin—already a Standard Household himself—had merely followed the minimum requirement and sent his eldest son to serve as a Standard-Household soldier. He had made no arrangements whatsoever for his second and youngest sons.

Was that because he was selfless and scrupulous in public duty?

Not really.

Father-son and brother units were far too common among Standard Households.

Old Qin not only received the ration benefits allotted to Standard Households; his Agricultural Head position also paid a salary, and the family had the produce from the acreage assigned and contracted to them.

Three incomes, each more stable than the last.

Equipping his second and youngest sons with armor, sabers, and horses would have been entirely affordable.

Invite Lieutenant Zhang of Jin’an Fort to drink once or twice, and the two younger boys could have caught up quickly enough to secure places during each large-scale muster. By the time a real war came, they might have possessed the same qualification as their elder brother to enter the combat ranks.

But Old Qin had simply never thought of it.

He genuinely did not have that sort of mind.

Other Standard-Household fathers began teaching their sons horsemanship and martial skills before the boys even reached adulthood, letting them become accustomed to mounted archery early. The moment a son came of age, the father took him to be registered among the Standard-Household soldiers.

Most of those fathers were veterans.

They had been the first group to eat the crab.

They understood exactly how valuable Standard-Household status was.

The problem was that the status did not automatically spread through every branch of a family once the household divided.

Approval after division was strict.

The status passed only to the descendant who actually became a Standard-Household soldier and went onto the battlefield.

The other sons did not inherit the same benefits.

Years ago, on campaign, Zheng Fan had ordered the Sword Saint to handle something for him and promised in exchange that eastern Jin would one day abolish the poll tax.

That had really only been a pretext.

The Sword Saint himself understood that the man surnamed Zheng had already intended to abolish the tax anyway, so he had never claimed credit for it.

To the Blind Man and Siniang, a poll tax was a terrible form of taxation.

At its core, it drained the pond to catch the fish.

Not only did it cause large numbers of people to hide from the population rolls, it directly encouraged customs such as female infanticide.

The poll tax was gone.

The household-registration tax remained.

Most commoners in eastern Jin had their household registration tied directly to the land.

According to the Residence’s law, if a family had only one son, the household did not need to divide.

If there were multiple able-bodied sons, then once they reached the required age and had no disability, they were required to establish separate households, open up new land, and assume their own tax obligations.

That was why veteran Standard Households desperately wanted their special status to continue through their descendants and spread farther through the family.

Those families that had not obtained Standard-Household status spent the entire year staring at the benefits enjoyed by the Standard Households in their settlements until they practically drooled. The instant any opportunity appeared, they pushed whichever sons were eligible straight forward.

Only Old Qin... had drifted along muddleheadedly and somehow missed the best opportunity entirely.

As a result, Qin Eryong and Qin Xiaoyong had spent day after day hurrying southeast, exhausted nearly beyond endurance.

Auxiliary troops and laborers were sent wherever manpower was needed.

They were the largest body of men on any battlefield.

They were also, at first glance, the least visible.

After one day of rest, they began building camp.

The camp itself was fairly crude.

Their File Leader said a true military camp was far more rigorous and solid than this. Combat soldiers normally built those themselves, while auxiliaries merely helped.

One day, the Qin brothers’ unit was assigned to a fortified settlement.

From a distance, it looked no different from Jin’an Fort.

Only after drawing near did they realize the place actually had walls and an inner town.

Inside... granaries towered high.

The two brothers, both raised in farming households, were stunned.

Qin Xiaoyong could not help exclaiming:

“Heavens. How much grain must be stored in there?”

The Qin family could now be considered a proper farming household.

They had a small granary at home too.

Inside it lay the joy of harvest and the confidence to face the days ahead.

But that modest farmer’s happiness... before this one enormous granary—no, before row after row of vast granaries like these—could only kneel in shock.

Both brothers remembered hunger from childhood.

Deep in their bones, grain inspired reverence.

Only this sight made that reverence almost impossible to put into words.

Columns of men continuously carried grain inward.

At the same time, other columns continuously carried grain out.

This place had become the rear logistics hub for Zhennan Pass.

More accurately, it would serve as the main logistics transfer point for the entire first stage of the coming campaign.

“What are you staring at? Move! Don’t fall behind!”

“Yes!”

The Qin brothers hurried after their superior and entered.

Inside stood a broad field packed with handcarts and animal-drawn wagons.

Qin Eryong and Qin Xiaoyong were assigned to one of the handcarts.

Eryong went in front, looped the hauling rope over his shoulders, and began pulling.

Xiaoyong stayed behind, helping keep the load balanced while pushing.

Their grain-laden column eventually returned to the broad camp they had built earlier.

Hauling grain was genuine hard labor.

Once the load was delivered, the officers allowed everyone to rest.

The Qin brothers returned to their tent.

Army medics moved through the camp distributing herbal wash and gauze.

The army maintained different supply standards for different classes of troops.

Combat soldiers received the best Golden-Wound Medicine and similar supplies.

Laborers and auxiliaries received simpler herbal preparations.

That day, many inexperienced men had rubbed their palms, shoulders, and other places bloody while hauling grain.

The wounds needed treatment.

Xiaoyong helped his second brother apply the herbal wash.

Every time the liquid struck raw skin, Eryong clenched his teeth and sucked in a sharp breath.

Even so, he kept marveling:

“Mother of mine... this much grain. Our family couldn’t finish it in ten lifetimes.”

“Hehe.” Xiaoyong laughed with him. “Second Brother, how many troops can this much grain feed?”

“You’d have to ask Eldest Brother. I can’t estimate something like that.”

Eryong at least knew his limits.

“But if Eldest Brother knew they had this much grain behind them while they were fighting at the front, he’d probably feel a lot steadier.”

Xiaoyong nodded.

“Yeah. Just like Father always says. If there’s grain in the storehouse, no matter what happens, you don’t panic.”

...

After another night of rest, the camp became busy early the next morning.

The main work... was setting up cooking pits and steaming buns.

There was no specialized cook unit here.

But among auxiliaries and laborers, it was genuinely difficult to find anyone who did not know how to cook.

More importantly... nobody expected refinement.

Some kneaded dough.

Some boiled water.

Others loaded bamboo steamers.

The entire camp became a furnace of activity.

Naturally, men stole a bite here and there while working.

The most popular food was the Prince’s own “stuffed mantou.”

The officers mostly turned a blind eye to this kind of theft.

Eat as much as you wanted now.

Just do not hide any away.

According to eastern Jin military custom, troops ate a great feast when the forces first assembled.

The next time they could expect another one... would be before a bloody battle.

That afternoon... troops arrived from the north.

The food here was already prepared.

“Huh? Savages?”

Sharp-eyed Qin Xiaoyong was the first to notice.

“These should be the Savage auxiliary troops Eldest Brother mentioned,” Qin Eryong said. “The Prince summoned them from the snowfields.”

There were Savages inside eastern Jin too.

Almost every military fort had some.

The largest concentration of Savages was in Fan City.

Some Savages possessed Standard-Household status.

More remained ordinary registered households.

Generally speaking, among all the different groups living in eastern Jin, Savages occupied the lowest rung.

They sometimes suffered bullying and exclusion.

The Residence knew perfectly well.

But it had never deliberately ordered local officials to show Savages extra concern or affection.

It required only equality under the law.

Savage households understood their position as well.

During sacrifices, market days, and public events, they usually placed themselves toward the rear.

After several years of integration, people saw one another every day.

The vicious group attacks on Savages that had happened in the earliest period had largely disappeared.

Everyone lived in the same settlements now.

Neighbors grew tired of feuding forever.

The village operas performed around the forts also frequently included Savage stories.

Those plays portrayed ordinary Savage commoners suffering helplessly under natural disasters and exploitation by Savage chieftains and nobles, deliberately seeking sympathy from other commoners.

After all, before the Prince arrived in eastern Jin and built this “peach-blossom land beyond the world,” most ordinary people here had themselves lived through the same drifting misery and insecurity.

In the plays, the Prince appeared.

He rescued the lonely, enslaved Savage commoners.

He gave them grain to eat.

He gave them land to farm.

Convenient propaganda, certainly.

But not entirely fabricated either.

The Savage army that had once entered the pass to burn and pillage had been nearly annihilated after the Prince sealed their retreat through Snow Sea Pass.

Most remaining captives had been worked to death rebuilding the pass.

The bones had piled high.

The Savages now living in eastern Jin came from several sources.

Some had been forcibly relocated.

Others had migrated willingly.

Either way, eastern Jin had actively absorbed them to replenish its labor force.

The Savages arriving now were different.

They rode horses.

They carried bows.

Few wore armor.

Their sabers and bows often looked battered and old.

Yet the raw aura of true snowfield Savages still clung strongly to them, creating a sense of discomfort.

At least... that was how Qin Eryong and Qin Xiaoyong felt.

The Savage households in their own fort sent their children to community school.

They no longer wore Savage hairstyles.

Their clothing followed Yan styles—or, one could simply say, Xia styles.

A Yan officer from the camp stepped forward to negotiate.

Before long, the Savage auxiliary cavalry began entering the camp.

They came like packs of starving wolves, following the smell of food.

Each man received one bowl of meat broth and two large stuffed mantou.

That was obviously nowhere near enough to fill them.

The rest was made up with flatbread.

Fine white flour was too precious to distribute without limit.

“Come on. Mantou. Don’t rush. Line up. Line up.”

“You. Two. You too. Two.”

The Qin brothers had been assigned to distribute the buns.

When the bamboo steamer before them emptied, they carried another one forward.

“Damn it. I’m starving.”

“Yes, Young Master.”

Qin Eryong glanced up in surprise.

Most of the Savages who had passed through spoke their own birdlike language.

It was unusual to hear one speak the Xia tongue this smoothly.

This Savage wore armor.

Not only that... it was standard eastern Jin military armor.

Several Savages around him wore armor as well.

Among Savage auxiliary troops, equipment this good could be called extravagant.

“Here. Two for you.”

Qin Xiaoyong handed over two mantou.

“How are two supposed to fill me?”

The armored Savage tossed both buns back into the steamer.

Then he reached down... and simply picked up the entire bamboo tray.

He turned to the retainers beside him.

“Come on. We’ll take these and eat slowly. I’m telling you, only the stuffed mantou from the Jin lands have the real flavor. I love sending people into Snow Sea Pass to buy them.”

Qin Eryong and Qin Xiaoyong immediately stepped forward to stop him.

Qin Xiaoyong shouted:

“Two per man! You’re taking too many! You’re taking too many!”

The armored Savage laughed.

“Hey. The Prince is a generous man. What does it matter if I eat a few extra mantou from him? Get out of the way. Grandfather here is hungry and doesn’t have time to argue with you.”

“The officer ordered two mantou per man!”

“Fuck your mother. What kind of thing are you, to give me orders? Do you know who I am?”

One retainer beside him immediately announced:

“Open your dog eyes and look clearly. This is the Young Master of our Hailan Tribe!”

Qin Eryong immediately answered:

“Doesn’t matter who you are. This is military law. It has to be obeyed.”

“I’m hungry. Why the hell am I wasting words with you?”

The armored Savage kicked Qin Eryong hard enough to send him crashing to the ground.

Seeing his second brother struck, Qin Xiaoyong immediately lunged forward.

“You dare hit people! You dare hit people!”

Several retainers beside the armored Savage seized Qin Xiaoyong together.

Then they hurled him face-first away.

Thud!

The disturbance immediately drew attention from everyone nearby.

Hailande snorted in disdain.

Still unconcerned, he hugged the entire bamboo steamer to his chest and continued outward.

He felt completely secure.

His father’s tribe had been among the earliest Savage tribes to submit to the Prince.

Prince Pingxi Residence trusted them deeply.

Both his elder brothers had once served among the Prince’s personal guards.

His eldest brother had since returned to the tribe.

His second brother now held office in Fengxin City.

Outside the pass, Savage auxiliary troops were generally gathered and organized by the Hailan Tribe before being restrained and sent inside to obey the Prince’s military orders.

Recently, Hailande’s father had fallen ill.

His eldest brother needed to manage tribal affairs.

So Hailande had been sent to bring in this first wave of auxiliaries.

In short... so what if he, Hailande, ate a few extra buns?

Did that even count as a problem?

“Pah. Blind little things.”

...

“I thought you’d miss this one. In the end, His Highness still dotes on you.”

“Brother, listen to yourself. Doesn’t Father dote on you too? If he didn’t, with all the reckless things you’ve been doing around the Wei River, anyone else would have been stripped of office and investigated long ago.”

“Hahahaha. I won’t hide it from you, Little Brother. I only dared indulge myself because I knew our Prince wouldn’t have the heart to beat me with the stick. Hahaha.”

Chen Xianba wore golden armor.

This set had originally been bestowed upon the Prince by the late Emperor when Zheng Fan received his Marquis title.

The Prince had later passed it to Chen Xianba.

Beside Chen Xianba walked a young man in silver armor.

Who else could it be but Tian Tian?

“Oh, right, Little Brother. When will Father’s carriage arrive?”

“Probably still some days. Father has affairs in Fengxin City he must settle before he can campaign with an easy mind. That is why he sent me ahead to establish the traveling headquarters first.”

“Good. When the Prince arrives, say a few words for me. Ask him to transfer you into my command as my deputy. Your elder brother guarantees you’ll get to kill until you’re satisfied.”

“Father will make his own arrangements.”

“The Prince dotes on you. Go ask. Why would he refuse? Just say we brothers haven’t seen each other for a long time and you want to accompany me more.”

Tian Tian shook his head.

“Brother, if I actively ask Father for that, there is a very good chance Father will transfer you back to the central command tent as a personal guard. Then you can accompany me every day. Brother, would you like that?”

“This...”

The two continued talking as they walked.

Then the commotion ahead drew their attention.

“What happened?”

Chen Xianba frowned.

Noise and fighting inside a military camp were major taboos.

Sometimes one small misunderstanding, mishandled, could erupt into mutiny.

A soldier quickly stepped forward and reported what had happened.

...

Because the Qin brothers had been beaten, the auxiliaries had stopped distributing food and begun gathering around.

Hailande’s retainers had crowded around him as well.

The two sides were already shoving one another.

Hailande continued eating his mantou.

He did not take any of it seriously.

Then... a silver-armored young general charged directly into the crowd.

He lunged forward and shoulder-smashed two of Hailande’s retainers out of the way.

Then he reached down... seized Hailande by the neck... and slammed him onto the ground.

Bang!

Hailande landed face-first.

At the same time, he heard the man sitting on him draw a saber.

“Violation of military law. Refusal to correct himself after instruction. Deliberate provocation. Assault upon comrades-in-arms. Capital offense!”

Tian Tian’s voice carried a terrifying chill.

Supported by blood qi, the sound surged outward with extraordinary force.

In an instant... the pushing, shouting crowd froze.

Hailande’s retainers had originally planned to rush forward and seize their Young Master back.

Then they suddenly discovered ranks of fully armored Yan regulars had appeared around them.

Not one dared move.

Pinned to the ground, Hailande finally lost his earlier calm when he heard the man intended to kill him.

He shouted desperately:

“You can’t kill me! My father is chief of the Hailan Tribe! I am the son of the Hailan chieftain!”

Slice!

The saber... did not hesitate for even an instant.

It swept across Hailande’s throat.

Tian Tian had pulled his hair backward, raising his head.

When the blade passed, blood sprayed from the opened throat in a high arc.

Hailande’s eyes remained filled with terror and disbelief.

He truly had never imagined... that one day he would lose his life... because he had eaten a few extra mantou.

Even stuffed ones.

“I... am the Regent Prince’s son.”

[End of Chapter 945]