Chapter 301: The Inside Man

To avoid trouble, Huang Ande had been hiding in Sun Yuan’s house in the barracks of the water city. Though called barracks, it was more like a small village, inhabited entirely by local soldiers and their families. It was a bustling place, and people other than soldiers and their families also lived there. So, in the past few days, the yamen had been conducting a household registration check, strictly investigating for any suspicious outsiders. Many people had been arrested, and it was said that a few had even been beheaded. Sun Yuan was the governor’s personal retainer, so he was spared such hassles. Huang Ande knew that although the Chiefs were strict, they were not bloodthirsty and were always cautious in their actions. Despite their fierce slogans, they never killed people casually. The Ming officials, on the other hand, though they spoke of benevolence and righteousness, killed people with great ease, especially in tense situations like this. Just walking on the street, a wrong look or gesture could get you arrested and beheaded on the spot.

Huang Ande was taking a great risk by staying in the water city. Because by tomorrow night, the water city would fall, and in the chaos, no one knew what would happen. History only recorded the fate of the great figures; the Grand Library had found little information on what happened to the common people, artisans, and soldiers after a city fell.

Huang Ande’s situation was not good. Both he and Sun Yuan were soldiers from Dengzhou and had always been at odds with the Liaodong men of the rebel army. Even if Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng wanted to win over the people, their soldiers might still kill out of revenge.

Although Kong Youde treated Sun Yuanhua with special regard, not only sparing his life but even intending to make him king, this did not mean he would be lenient towards people like Sun Yuan and treat them with favor.

Huang Ande did not know that the water city would fall tomorrow. But before the siege of Dengzhou, he had been dispatched back into the city, and the Chief had personally summoned him and given him instructions.

Lu Wenyuan had told him clearly, “Dengzhou cannot be held, and neither can the water city.”

The mission assigned to Huang Ande was simple: to try and hide in the water city, use the “connections” he had previously developed in the city to keep a close watch on Sun Yuanhua’s movements, especially after the city fell. If possible, it would be best to stay by Sun Yuanhua’s side.

“The mission is very dangerous—firstly, you have to survive safely in the city,” Chief Lu had said. “Do you have confidence?”

“Yes!” Huang Ande had replied without hesitation.

From the first day he had changed his disguise and been sent to Dengzhou to “find connections,” he knew he was going to be a spy.

Being a spy meant risking his life. He was mentally prepared for this.

Huang Ande was not a man of great ideological conviction, but Lin’gao had given him an unprecedented opportunity for personal development. Moreover, he also believed in “seeking wealth and honor through danger.”

Relying on fighting battles and expanding the army to get promoted was too slow. To get promoted to lieutenant and captain as quickly as possible and live in the beautiful houses for senior officers in the base, Huang Ande was willing to take this risk.

As for why the Chief wanted him to pay attention to Sun Yuanhua’s movements, although Chief Lu had not said, it was undoubtedly because the Chiefs wanted to save Governor Sun.

As for why they wanted to save Sun Yuanhua, the only reason Huang Ande could think of was that Chief Lu and Governor Sun shared the same religion. Although he felt this was far-fetched, his experience in the Fubo Army had taught him not to ask what he shouldn’t.

The only doubt he had expressed was: what if Sun Yuanhua committed suicide?

Having served in the Ming army, Huang Ande knew that a high-ranking official like Sun Yuanhua, once a city fell, would either die in battle defending the city or commit suicide. He would never fall into the hands of the rebels, otherwise the court would not spare him later, and he would end up in disgrace.

“Don’t worry, Governor Sun will definitely not commit suicide,” Lu Wenyuan had said.

As for why not, Chief Lu didn’t say, and Huang Ande didn’t ask. Besides the principle of not asking what he shouldn’t, he had become quite accustomed to the Chiefs’ “god-like” abilities—their predictions, especially on matters of state, were often incredibly accurate.

Outside the house, the night watch had begun to sound. In the dead silence, Huang Ande heard a sound in the courtyard. He rolled off the kang, grabbed his revolver, and cocked it.

Then, he heard three stones fall in the courtyard in succession. He quickly uncocked the revolver—it was his men arriving.

Since his first visit to Dengzhou, Huang Ande had developed over twenty “connections” in the water city through “renewing old acquaintances,” “swearing brotherhood,” and “finding relatives.”

Some of these connections were only for gathering information and were not very reliable. Others were his childhood friends, accomplices with whom he had once engaged in the capital crime of stealing and reselling from the official granaries.

Following the knowledge he had learned in the classes given to him by the Chiefs, Huang Ande had selected twelve of the most reliable and daring individuals. Through small acts of kindness like “sending charcoal in snowy weather” and continuous, subtle ideological work, he had gradually formed a small clique around him. Sun Yuan was one of them.

This small clique had no political ideals, but they all shared a common characteristic: they were at odds with the Liaodong people in Dengzhou, had no fondness for the Great Ming, were in difficult financial situations, and had an urgent desire to change their circumstances. Finally, they were very loyal to each other.

After the siege of Dengzhou began, Huang Ande had secretly sounded out their attitudes in private gatherings, to see if they would be willing to help when the time came. These twelve men had expressed that for anything “Big Brother Huang” or “Brother Huang” wanted to do, as long as it wasn’t for the “Liaodong people” or the “Tartars,” they would do it for anyone, and would go through fire and water without a second thought.

Tonight, he had instructed a young brother in Sun Yuan’s house to go to each of their homes and notify them of a meeting tonight.

He quickly opened the door and went out. Seven or eight men were already standing in the courtyard. In the dim light of the night, he could see they were all men he had personally recruited.

They had not come through the main road and knocked on the door, but had jumped over the wall from the back alley. To be caught wandering the streets tonight would mean certain “execution.”

“Let’s talk inside!” he whispered.

The men quietly entered the house. After they were all inside, Huang Ande turned back and instructed Sun Yuan’s brother to keep a quiet watch in the courtyard.

Looking inside, there were seven men in total. Besides Sun Yuan, who was on duty at the governor’s yamen, four others had not come.

“Old Nian Lü has chickened out. He said he has diarrhea and can’t come,” said Zhu Si—the brother of Zhu San, his accomplice in stealing from the official granaries back then. After Zhu San took the blame and was beheaded, Zhu Si, with the help of his sworn brothers, had also joined the army. He harbored a deep resentment towards both the army and the Great Ming.

After contacting Sun Yuan, Huang Ande had made a special visit to the Zhu family, cried at Zhu San’s grave, gave the family a considerable amount of silver, and swore brotherhood with Zhu Si, promising to take care of him. After this series of gestures, he had won Zhu Si over.

Besides the cowardly Old Nian Lü, Huang Yang had also made an excuse not to come. The other two were on duty and couldn’t make it.

“It doesn’t matter,” Huang Ande said without lighting a lamp. There was no need for light to talk—besides, with the entire camp in darkness, a single lamp would be very conspicuous.

“Thank you all for coming,” Huang Ande said without much ceremony. “You all know that Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng are outside the city. Today, Commander-in-Chief Zhang suffered a great defeat, and his southern troops are almost wiped out. The city is full of Liaodong people. Even the governor’s central army is composed of Liaodong men—they all served as adopted sons under Commander Mao back then. Their bond is extraordinary. It’s uncertain when they might open the city gates to the enemy. I don’t think this city of Dengzhou and Penglai Fort can last much longer.”

This was not an alarmist statement. The Liaodong people in the city had been restless since November, and the government had only managed to maintain a fragile peace through a combination of hard and soft tactics. Although Sun Yuanhua did his best to show his trust in the Liaodong generals to maintain their loyalty, others did not think so.

“The city will fall in a few days,” a soldier named Cao Qing said. “The talk of the Liaodong people responding to Kong Youde is practically an open secret among them. A few days ago, Commander Sun even ordered gunners from the navy to be transferred to the cannons on the water city—I hear it’s to guard against someone from the Eastern River responding to Kong Youde.”

Although the chaos in the Eastern River garrison had been quelled, the Commander-in-Chief, Huang Long, clearly had little control over his Eastern River subordinates. Moreover, his embezzlement of military pay and forcing soldiers to dig for ginseng in the mountains had made the old hands of the Eastern River hate him to the bone. Even a common soldier could see that the old hands of the Eastern River were very likely to mutiny in response to Kong Youde.

Everyone was very worried that once the city fell, the rebel army would carry out a large-scale massacre and arson in the city and fortress to take revenge on the old Shandong soldiers.

“I don’t think there will be a large-scale massacre and arson. After all, this is also his old nest. If he really lets his men loose to burn and kill, I’m afraid even a large number of his own people will die.”

Once an army begins to slaughter and plunder, it becomes completely uncontrollable, a bloody carnival of killing. The chaotic army wouldn’t care if you were from Liaodong, the south, or Shandong. If Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng didn’t want to lose the hearts of the people, they wouldn’t do this.

Zhu Si said, “As long as we don’t have any enemies among the Liaodong people, and we survive the first three days after the city falls, we’ll be fine afterward. But then, we’ll have to follow him in rebellion.”

The rebel army would inevitably force the military and civilians in the city to “join the bandits,” and then there would be no choice.

The word “rebellion” made the men in the room fall silent.

“Rebellion it is then,” Cao Qing said in a low voice. “But this kind of rebellion is pointless! The Liaodong people will call all the shots. We’ll just be cannon fodder for them.”

“No, we don’t have to rebel,” Huang Ande said in a low voice. He noticed that in the darkness, everyone’s eyes turned towards him.

“Brothers, as the saying goes, ‘wealth and honor are sought through danger.’ The fall of the city to the rebels is certainly a danger, but we can’t just hide and let others decide our fate. There is a great fortune waiting for us all. It just depends on whether you’re willing to go for it.”