Chapter 330: Aftermath

However, Lu Wenyan and Chen Sigen still disagreed with releasing the rebel prisoners, believing it to be a sign of weakness. In the end, they reached a compromise, releasing only four hundred combat prisoners and transporting the auxiliary troops back to Lingao to be used by the labor camps.

As for the corpses littering the ground, Zhu Mingxia wanted to cremate them on the spot, but there was not enough firewood. Burial was also difficult in the freezing weather. In the end, it was decided that Lu Yang would send out Hafa-class landing craft to transport the corpses to the open sea for sea burial.

The received wounded were all handed over to Xie Yao and his team of medics. Although Zhu Mingxia had instructed Xie Yao not to be stingy with medicine as long as the wounded could be saved and would not be left with severe disabilities, and Shi Niaoren had made it clear before departure that he wanted the naturalized medics to get more practice, the abilities of him and his team were ultimately limited. In short, dozens of people died every day.

However, those who could survive, whether they were missing limbs or not, would have a use for them in Lingao.

Ma Linxi was “picked up.” After falling into the sea, although he had climbed onto a floating ice floe, he was soaked and blown by the cold wind, and his body was almost frozen stiff. He had only relied on a strong will to live to climb onto the sandbar and wrap himself in a rebel banner. However, his body temperature gradually dropped, and he began to enter a daze. If it hadn’t been for a hard kick, he would have frozen to death.

The laborers in the refugee camp for receiving prisoners were very careful. Whether they were lying on the ground or on their stomachs, as long as it was a basically complete human figure, they would kick it. If there was a slight reaction, they would quickly load it onto a handcart. Master Lu had said that for every living person found, a piece of biscuit would be given.

This kind of biscuit was now hard currency in the refugee camp. Although the masters were kind, they never gave the refugees enough to eat. So when receiving prisoners, everyone was eager to find the most living people—anyway, the masters had said that as long as they were still breathing when they were sent to Dr. Xie, it would count.

Ma Linxi was thus lifted onto a handcart, next to a combat soldier who had been shot in the chest and was constantly bleeding. The blood dripped all over him on the way. He was taken to Xie Yao’s temporary aid station.

Dr. Xie’s temporary aid station was like a slaughterhouse, with blood and severed limbs everywhere. Dr. Xie was covered in red, holding a pair of bloody pliers. Ma Linxi was almost scared to death.

Dr. Xie first instructed his subordinates to cut off Ma Linxi’s tattered clothes, carefully examined his body, and asked him a few questions. Then he shouted, “It’s frostbite! Prepare the big pot!”

Ma Linxi thought they were going to boil him alive. Before he could beg for mercy, two strong young men came over, lifted him up, and walked a dozen steps. He saw a shed in front of him, and inside there was indeed a large pot, probably used in the kitchen of a large temple. A fire was burning underneath, and the steam was rising.

Before Ma Linxi could scream, the two men had already put him in the pot.

Ma Linxi had originally been prepared to be skinned and boiled alive, but to his surprise, the water in the pot was very hot, but not scalding. He was lying on a bamboo board. He only felt that his body, which had been numb from the cold, was gradually regaining feeling.

The two young men soaked him for more than ten minutes and then took him out of the pot. They let him dry himself by the fire and gave him a padded robe made of recycled cloth, filled with reed catkins, and a pair of straw sandals made of reed catkins. Although it was not very warm to wear, at least he would not freeze to death.

Ma Linxi was taken to a man who looked like a clerk. He reported his name, age, and place of origin. After hearing that he was a carpenter, he was given a C card. This kind of card was specially issued to refugees with technical skills. According to the form formulated by Yang Yun, the director of the Labor Department of the Civil Affairs People’s Committee, the craftsmen among the recruited and received refugees were divided into thirteen categories and fifty-one types. Anyone who met one of these fifty-one types could enjoy the C-class card supply standard.

This standard was slightly higher than the A-card standard for ordinary refugees and slightly lower than the Z-card standard. They were also housed in a separate camp within the refugee camp. They were also arranged for transport as early as possible—especially since Taiwan and Jeju currently needed a large number of technicians such as blacksmiths and carpenters to assist.

Ma Linxi did not know that he had received special treatment. However, seeing that he had clothes and shoes, and after registering, he received a bowl of warm porridge, he was already moved to tears of gratitude. At least he felt like a human again!

Here, Zhu Mingxia summoned several captured company and platoon commanders. Many of these junior officers had been captured. Some of them had been beaten to death by other refugees as soon as they entered the refugee camp. Zhu Mingxia instructed the soldiers not to stop them and to let the refugees vent their anger, fully demonstrating the glorious image of our Senate standing up for the people.

Zhu Mingxia instructed that seven or eight of them who had a higher status or were close associates of the main rebel generals should be singled out and asked to take a few words to Li Jiucheng, Kong Youde, and others. Then he handed over the four hundred combat prisoners to them and let them take them back to Dengzhou.

The several officers had originally thought that they would be beheaded this time. Hearing that they were allowed to return to Dengzhou and could also bring back four hundred combat soldiers, they were all moved to tears of gratitude. Just as they were about to be pushed out, one of them suddenly stood up and bowed with his hands clasped.

“I will never forget your kindness, my lord! I also ask that you return the body and head of General Mao. If the two marshals, Li and Kong, know of this, they will surely be moved by your kindness…”

“You have come to attack us without reason. It is already merciful of me not to attack Huang County and Dengzhou,” Zhu Mingxia sneered. “And you still want the body and head? You should think about your own heads first.”

The several men trembled all over and looked at the officer who had asked for Mao Chenglu’s body with resentful eyes. Fortunately, the other party did not say much and just waved his hand for them to leave.

Zhu Mingxia instructed that the remaining dozen or so officer prisoners and a large number of heads treated with lime, as well as the rebel’s flags and documents, should all be loaded onto a ship and sent to Laizhou by Lu Yang to be given to Sun Yuanhua, to bring some fresh excitement to the listless city of Laizhou.

Zhu Mingxia estimated that after this great battle, Li Jiucheng and Kong Youde had only two choices: either to gather a large army and launch an all-out attack to crush Qimu Island, or to pinch their noses and acknowledge the freedom of action of the Northern Expeditionary Detachment in Huang County and other places, and even choose to cooperate with them.

Zhu Mingxia believed that the first possibility was not very likely. At its peak, the rebel army in Dengzhou, including the old Dongjiang subordinates who had crossed the sea and the conscripted able-bodied men, had no more than ninety thousand men. Now they had at most thirty or forty thousand men, of which the truly combat-effective were only the original Dongjiang Liaodong people and the remnants of the Lu and Nan soldiers who had surrendered to them. These troops would not exceed ten thousand.

The troops brought by Mao Chenglu were already quite strong in terms of the rebel’s true strength. If even these people were utterly defeated, Li Jiucheng and the others would definitely not be so hot-headed as to launch a full-scale attack—even if they could take Qimu Island, it would greatly damage the rebel army’s vitality. They would be finished off by Sun Yuanhua without the need for the court to send troops.

This was obviously not in the interests of the rebels. Besides, their primary task was to capture Laizhou and expand their room for maneuver, not to fight to the death here.

The rebels in Dengzhou, in the final analysis, had no real strategic objective. What they were after was nothing more than immediate interests, and it was impossible for them to have any long-term plans. The subordinates also had different intentions. So it was unlikely that they would fight to the death with the Northern Expeditionary Detachment. There was room for coexistence between the two sides.

“Hmph, let’s see if you dare to refuse my terms,” Zhu Mingxia was very pleased. This time, besides capturing a large number of prisoners, he had also plundered many horses, so that each of his reconnaissance cavalry could be equipped with two or even three horses. Their mobility was greatly improved, and their deployment frequency was also much higher.

After finishing the matters at hand, Zhu Mingxia took a bath and thought of Ruyun. He immediately instructed someone to go to the Z camp to bring Ruyun and the others.

Zhu Mingxia saw that Ruyun had taken a bath, rested for a few days, and had enough rations, and her complexion had recovered a lot.

By the standards of the time, it was hard to say that Ruyun was a beauty. Her height, figure, and large feet did not conform to the prevailing aesthetic tastes of the time. But in Zhu Mingxia’s view, Ruyun’s level was enough to score 85 points. Especially her figure, which was very similar to a female student he had once coveted.

He felt more and more that his judgment was brilliant. To be on the safe side, he decided to first ask about her background and origins.

Ruyun’s background was not particularly rare in the society of the late Ming Dynasty—it could not even be called tragic. It was just a small microcosm of the struggles of many ordinary people in chaotic times.

Ruyun was born in a small village at the foot of a mountain in northern Jiangsu. She was the eldest in her family. Her father was a local hunter. The family did not have much land, but her father was skilled in hunting, and the family lived well on the skins he hunted. Perhaps because she had eaten a lot of various kinds of meat since she was a child, at the age of twelve, she was taller than most girls.

Last year, there were bandits near her hometown. The county government organized a militia to suppress them. Because her father could shoot a bow and arrow, he was recruited to suppress the bandits. A few days later, the bandits were suppressed, but her father came home with an arrow wound. He soon developed a high fever and became unconscious. Her mother sold all their belongings but could not cure her father. Instead, she incurred a large debt and had no choice but to sell her to a large household in the neighboring village as a domestic slave. For some reason, this large household took a fancy to this big-footed woman and wanted to take her as a concubine. They had planned to do it on an auspicious day, but before the auspicious day arrived, this large household fell into a river and drowned while playing. The original wife of the large household identified her as a poisonous woman who had killed her husband, beat her half to death, and threw her out of the house. She wandered outside for several months and was finally taken in by Liu. Because she was too old to have her feet bound again, she was given the name Ruyun and specialized in playing the pipa to accompany Siyu’s singing.

When Ruyun finished telling her story, it started to snow again. Zhu Mingxia walked outside and watched the falling snow for a while. He turned his head and said to Ruyun, “The name Ruyun is too ugly. You are not allowed to use this name in the future. Hmm, a thousand-li frog’s cry declares summer, and a ten-thousand-li snow falls in the quiet cold. From now on, you will be called Jinghan. Tell your troupe leader that you have all been bought by the Senate. Go and sign the indenture.”

Zhu Mingxia requested that Jinghan use her original surname. Ruyun was changed to Zhao Jinghan. After Zhao Jinghan left, Zhu Mingxia called for a messenger and gave him a few instructions.