Chapter 84: A Haven of Tenderness

Several transport ships from the Great Wave Shipping Company were anchored in Foshou Bay. These ships arrived on a fixed schedule, approximately every ten days. The refugee columns were also organized around this cycle.

The number of ships from Jeju was not fixed, but each trip could carry away at least three thousand people. In reality, the number of refugees stranded here was rarely below that figure. In addition to the continuous stream of refugee columns sent from the Cloud Ascension Temple, many other desperate refugees arrived here on their own. The news that ships were picking up refugees at Foshou Bay had spread throughout the region. Although they didn’t know where the ships would take them or what their future held, the imminent threat of death drove the refugees to this path. All they wanted was to survive. Since ships were coming to transport them, it was unlikely they were being taken out to sea to be killed and fed to the fish.

When Wang Ruixiang arrived at Foshou Bay, a thousand refugees were, as usual, sleeping in the open outside the camp. These people had no shelter or food, surviving only on the small amount of relief gruel distributed daily by the Foshou Bay garrison. Every night, a hundred of them would die. But new refugees arrived every day to replenish their numbers, so the crowd gathered outside the camp was always large.

Wang Ruixiang dismounted and wiped the clear mucus from under his nose with a handkerchief. He watched as the refugees, under the command of the camp guards, collected the bodies. The corpses of those who had frozen and starved to death during the night were collected at dawn. Frozen solid and covered in ice, the bodies were stacked like logs on crude sleds, dragged to the seashore, loaded onto small boats, and then cast into the sea.

The people doing this work were all the half-dead refugees sleeping outside. The reason was simple: working for the transit station earned them an extra bowl of relief gruel.

To survive in this era, one had to be hard-hearted. Wang Ruixiang listened to the crunch of the snow and ice under his boots as he walked through the refugees with a grim expression. The refugees gathered outside the camp had already cleared a wide path. Those still lying in the way were either dead or dying.

The camp gate was open. The person in charge of the Foshou Bay transit station, Huang Xiong, stood ramrod straight at the entrance. He wore the winter uniform of the Northbound Detachment, a gray woolen coat with an incongruous white sheepskin vest over it.

“Re-report! Foshou Bay Detachment Squad Leader, Infantry Lieutenant Huang Xiong, reporting to you! The detachment should have fifty-five men, thirty are present, awaiting your orders!”

His voice was a bit rushed, as if he hadn’t expected Wang Ruixiang to arrive in person.

“At ease.” Wang Ruixiang’s gaze lingered on the officer’s face for a moment, noticing his unease. It seemed the report from the Ten-Man Group was true.

“Dismiss the formation! Take me to your command post!”

“Yes, yes…”

Huang Xiong’s command post was located in the beacon tower. The tower at Foshou Bay was just a smoke beacon. Its body was made of rammed earth, without a brick facing. Due to years of neglect, much of it had collapsed. Surrounding the tower was a four-meter-high, hundred-meter-long wall, with a trench outside.

Inside the tower’s wall, a row of houses for the guards had been built on the left side. Next to the houses was a well, but the water had long since turned brackish and was undrinkable. Drinking water had to be fetched from a nearby stream. In winter, they could melt ice and snow, which was slightly more convenient.

On the right side of the wall were the guards’ stables and storehouses, used to store various military supplies. Although these buildings were in disrepair, with broken windows, rotten doors, and leaky roofs, they were still much better than the huts outside. After some repairs, these houses were used as barracks and a command post for the detachment.

Wang Ruixiang walked in. The place was swept clean, without a trace of ice or snow. Trash was sorted, and firewood was neatly stacked.

Huang Xiong’s quarters and command post were in the best room. It was a two-room structure. The front room had been the kitchen and main hall, while the back was the bedroom, with a heated kang that ran through both rooms. After Huang Xiong moved in, he converted the front room into a command post and the back into his bedroom.

As soon as Wang Ruixiang entered, he smelled the scent of cosmetics. Seeing Huang Xiong’s anxious expression, he knew the accusations in the report were true. But he was in no hurry to expose him. He calmly examined the documents, maps, and stationery on the table, then looked at the rifle hanging on the wall. He noticed that the curtain to the bedroom was new, and the room was excessively tidy.

“Captain Huang,” Wang Ruixiang sat down. “You’re living quite comfortably.”

Huang Xiong, already on edge, was startled by Wang Ruixiang’s words. He immediately stood at attention and said, “Reporting to you, sir, my conditions here are indeed better than those of other detachments…”

“Nonsense!” Wang Ruixiang cut him off. “This room smells of women!” He pointed to the curtain. “Everyone else is braving the ice and snow, working hard to rescue more refugees, and you’re busy hiding a beauty in your golden house!”

A chill ran down Huang Xiong’s spine. He was indeed hiding a beauty. Since they had established the transit station at Foshou Bay, refugees had been arriving not only from Yizhou but from all over. To save as many lives as possible, Zhang Daochen and Wang Ruixiang had authorized the detachment to use a certain amount of relief rations daily to aid the refugees, giving them some chance of survival. However, these refugees were “off the books.” There was no record of how many came, how many died, or how many were lost. The Civil Affairs Department only recorded the number of “extra refugees” who eventually boarded the ships.

To survive, the refugees were willing to do anything. For women who had lost everything, selling their bodies became their only means of livelihood. Some women used their bodies to seduce the soldiers of the detachment.

Although these women were disheveled and haggard, this was not a problem for the long-serving soldiers, who would find even an old sow attractive. Not to mention that among them were many daughters and wives from well-to-do or even wealthy families who, despite the ravages of disaster, still retained a certain charm.

With long-term duty in the field, discipline inevitably slackened. Some daring soldiers took action. At first, it was just a bowl of gruel in exchange for a night of pleasure. Gradually, the soldiers developed feelings for some of the women. They also needed someone to help with mending and washing, so they quietly formed temporary couples.

Huang Xiong was soon drawn in. As an officer, he disdained the idea of casually messing with refugee women. He spent some time selecting a sixteen-year-old girl who was both beautiful and talented, from a scholarly family, and considered her his “wife.”

With the officer leading the way, what was once a clandestine affair became an open secret. By now, most of the soldiers in the detachment had “temporary wives.” Some even kept a woman by their side while continuing to sleep with others outside. As long as they offered a bowl of gruel, countless women would lie down for them.

“What a disgrace to military discipline!” Wang Ruixiang berated him. “Are you even fit to be soldiers of the Yuanlao Yuan?! Women, women, can’t you live without that hole?!”

Huang Xiong’s face turned red. He knew the Yuanlao Yuan’s attitude toward soldiers was completely different from that of the Ming. The soldiers of the Fubo Army not only had good pay and high status but also received preferential treatment wherever they went. Insulting a soldier was forbidden, and even committing adultery with a soldier’s wife was a crime.

But in Lin’gao, there were far more men than women, and the soldiers had almost no contact with the general public. Let alone the common grunts, even an officer like Huang Xiong, who had served for several years, couldn’t find a wife. Being a soldier was never an attractive profession for women.

Now, seeing ship after ship of women being transported away right under their noses, and with women being so easily available, their long-suppressed desires naturally erupted.

Wang Ruixiang continued his tirade: “Do you have any conscience left?! Countless refugees are starving to death outside, and you’re using relief rations to play with women!”

Huang Xiong dared not reply. The Elder’s fury was expected. The Yuanlao Yuan considered military discipline to be of utmost importance, and they were particularly strict about soldiers getting involved with women while on duty. Prostitution during leave was permitted, as long as it was with licensed prostitutes. But once on duty, even mentioning the word “woman” was practically forbidden.

The thought of the clause in the “Field Disciplinary Regulations” that prescribed the death penalty for rape made the back of Huang Xiong’s neck turn cold. He knew a little about this Elder Wang. It was rumored among the naturalized citizens that he was fond of using an axe and had chopped off countless heads during the battles against the various pirate chieftains.

If this Elder were to say, “Take him out and shoot him,” he would immediately become one of the corpses loaded onto a small boat and thrown into the sea.

But at this moment, he didn’t know what to say. The Elder had clearly come prepared. Any defense would be futile, and kneeling and begging for mercy was not the way of the Fubo Army. He could only stand there in silence.

Wang Ruixiang saw him standing there, speechless and red-faced. He walked a few steps, lifted the curtain to the inner room, and found it warm and clean. A few changes of clothes were neatly folded on the kang. A standard-issue shirt was being mended on the kang.

Wang Ruixiang snorted coldly and asked, “Where are the people?”

“Reporting, reporting to you, sir, they… they’re all hiding in the refugee camp…”

“You knew I was coming, didn’t you?”

“Yes, yes,” Huang Xiong suddenly realized this was intentional deception of an Elder. He quickly corrected himself, “No, no, that’s not it…”

Wang Ruixiang waved his hand and walked out again.

Huang Xiong, pale and trembling, said, “I’ve been possessed these past few days. I failed to discipline my troops and even led them in breaking the rules. Please punish me severely, sir. I won’t say a word if you have me shot right now.”