How did anyone dare?!!!

Wu Pei’s chopsticks froze in midair as he watched Zhù Ying’s expression with careful, cautious eyes. Ordinary folk generally did not dare come to a military camp to lodge complaints, because soldiers — even the imperial army — operated by a different logic than common people. Ordinary yamen were already unreasonable enough; how much more so common foot soldiers? Where would a regular person find the courage to confront a military camp?

He glanced over at General He.

General He was also eating. He had arrived later than the commander-in-chief and had rushed to get here, not having had time for breakfast that morning, so he was shamelessly helping himself to a meal. The food at Zhù Ying’s table was entirely unworthy of a military commissioner’s station — no exotic delicacies, no unusual preparations — but the taste was acceptable and there was plenty of it.

He had barely gotten half full when, out of nowhere, word came that someone was filing a complaint against him. He had no time to get angry before an expression of utter disbelief crossed his face — I only arrived yesterday! What could have possibly happened?

General Ye said, “Could there not be some misunderstanding?”

Zhù Ying simply pointed to Fan Sheng and told him to accompany General He to take a look: “Whatever the situation is, you two handle it.”

General He wiped his mouth and gave a fist salute: “This subordinate will go and return shortly.”

Once he left, the others no longer ate with much attention. Lang Rui wanted to ask something, but glanced at Zhù Ying — who was still calmly eating breakfast. Lang Rui thought about it and decided not to ask, burying his head in his bowl as well. The others gradually resumed eating, though their hearts were full of doubt: was that really all that was going to happen?

Zhù Ying finished quickly. The others were just beginning to put down their chopsticks. Zhù Ying said, “You’re only eating that little?”

They dutifully picked their bowls back up and continued eating. Only Lu Danqing set her bowl and chopsticks down — she had genuinely finished.

Just as everyone had truly finished eating, a soldier came sprinting in: “Commissioner! Magistrate Yao has arrived! He is coming to the main tent along with General He and Official Fan, and they have brought the old woman who filed the complaint.”

The personal guards swiftly cleared away the bowls and chopsticks, wiped the tables clean, then picked up the buckets and headed out. The tent flap was lifted — they had arrived.

Zhù Ying looked toward the tent entrance. Yao and He walked side by side at the front, with Fan accompanying them slightly to the rear and side. Three men entered; last came a hunched elderly woman.

The old woman had features characteristic of the local people. The skin near her cheekbones and along her jaw was a dusky reddish-brown, the look of someone weathered by wind and sand. She appeared to be in her sixties or seventies. Her head was wrapped in white cloth, and her clothing bore a few inconspicuous patches. The colors of her garments were dark and muted — brown coat, black shoes — with no jewelry save for two small silver rings hanging from her ears.

A person of the utmost simplicity.

Yao Chenying first exchanged greetings with Zhù Ying. Zhù Ying said, “Please sit. You arrived quite early.”

Yao Chenying sighed. “I heard something had happened, so I had no choice but to come.”

General He did not sit down yet. He gave another fist salute and said, “Commissioner, this subordinate’s troops only arrived yesterday. There must be some misunderstanding. I have already sent men to make inquiries in the camp.” He had not yet had the chance to ask questions himself before Yao Chenying arrived.

The old woman spoke, and tears began to fall along with her words. She spoke with an accent — though thankfully not as difficult to understand as a southern accent — and if one made some effort, her words could be heard clearly: “The chickens and the man are both dead…”

“Hmm… hmm?” General Ruan could not hold it in any longer. “Chickens? What chickens?”

Yao Chenying said, “Old woman, you’re speaking so incoherently. Have you no other family? Where is your husband? Where are your children and grandchildren? Have them come and speak.”

The old woman sat down right there on the ground!

She slapped the floor and began to wail: “The one who’s dead IS my husband!!!”

Yao Chenying ordered her to stop, but she sat on the ground and refused to get up, muttering and wiping her tears all the while. Lu Danqing cautiously stepped forward and said, “Please get up first. Let’s talk this through calmly.”

Zhù Ying did not object. Lu Danqing had someone bring a small stool for the old woman and got her to sit down first. General He was somewhat ill at ease; General Ye gave a small, discreet cough. Zhù Ying said to General He, “Old He, don’t just stand there — sit down.”

Yao Chenying asked the old woman again, “And your children and grandchildren?”

“They’re… they’re at home.”

Yao Chenying said sharply, “How dare they hide away while leaving an old woman like you to step forward on their behalf?”

“They’re… they’re arranging the funeral!” the old woman said.

Her eyes shifted evasively. Zhù Ying found this interesting. She glanced at Yao Chenying and said, “This is the magistrate’s territory, so I must trouble the magistrate to send someone to summon her children and grandchildren, the village headman, and the senior clan elders as well. The body should be brought here too. Old He, have the men you sent to investigate in the camp pressed to move faster — both parties involved must be present.”

General He said, “Yes.” He went out and berated his personal guards: “A bunch of fools — you’re being swindled and don’t even know it! Bring them all here, bound if necessary!”

Inside the tent, the old woman was displeased. She looked at Yao Chenying, then quickly fixed her gaze on Zhù Ying: “My lord! We don’t dare swindle anyone! Our ancestors going back generations have been law-abiding commoners! Just last night — the troops were passing through — late it was, I couldn’t sleep, and in the second half of the night I’d just managed to close my eyes when the dogs started barking. My husband couldn’t sleep well, went out to check, saw the chicken coop stirring, went over, and there he saw several soldiers stealing our chickens!”

General He had come back in by this point and, hearing the old woman’s account, was already inwardly convinced that there was something to what she was saying. Everyone in the tent was thinking the same thing. Military discipline was always a matter tied to the individual soldiers. Given the diet of most imperial troops, sneaking out at night to steal a chicken and supplement their meal was not entirely incomprehensible.

Even the imperial guards, who were reasonably well provided for, did not get to eat chicken every day. And these were all young, robust men who had traveled long distances and had enormous appetites. Running into some chickens and quietly snatching a few to eat — it was probably not a deliberate scheme to extort.

Let alone stealing a chicken; even if they’d emptied the entire coop, it would not have been a major matter. For troops with lax discipline, the food would be eaten and that would be the end of it; for troops with strict discipline, the most you’d get would be some military strokes and restitution.

The old woman continued: “My husband told them to give the chickens back to us. When they let go, we saw — the chickens’ necks had all been wrung! So I said, we don’t want the chickens anymore, just pay us the money, consider it a purchase. But they wouldn’t agree! My husband argued with them, and they beat him to death!”

The old woman wailed on and slid from the small stool back down to the floor, slapping the ground and crying: “Old man! How could you just leave like that! Not a single day of ease did you enjoy! Leaving me all alone in this world…”

General Ruan snapped, “If you’ve come to seek justice, stop making a scene!”

Startled by the shout, the old woman’s tears stopped short. Lu Danqing had no choice but to step forward again to soothe her; the old woman’s hands left several dirty fingerprints on Lu Danqing’s sleeve.

By this point, everyone felt the facts of the case were more or less clear. Zhù Ying looked at Yao Chenying with keen interest and asked, “How does the magistrate see this?”

Yao Chenying said, “I would ask the commissioner to enforce strict military discipline.”

General He’s face darkened as though water were about to drip from it. “Is the magistrate saying my command of the troops is lax?”

No matter how disciplined an army, no commander could truly manage every single soldier; being able to punish errors when they occurred was already commendable. Yao Chenying’s remark amounted to a reproach. General He naturally refused to accept it: “Commissioner! This old woman is far too suspicious — and so are her children and grandchildren! Can arranging a funeral be grounds for pushing their own mother forward to speak?”

The old woman was about to start crying again.

Zhù Ying asked her, “Were you present at the time?”

“It was just myself and my husband who encountered them. My lord, a life must be answered with a life!”

Zhù Ying found Yao Chenying increasingly interesting. She said, “Understood.”

Young General Leng, who had been half-asleep, had his drowsiness thoroughly shaken away. He looked anxiously at Zhù Ying, made up his mind, and gave a fist salute: “Commissioner! This matter — it would be sufficient to hand it to a captain to handle! You…” You came to command troops. You have few directly subordinate forces of your own; making an example of someone else’s men at this juncture isn’t appropriate. And isn’t this supposed to be a time for winning over hearts?

Just then, a clerk came over carrying documents. He stood at the tent entrance, hesitated a moment, and did not dare to enter. Zhù Ying said, “Come in.”

The clerk obediently entered, set the documents on the table, and stood to the side with his hands at his sides. Zhù Ying said to Young General Leng, Yao, and the others, “Don’t be in such a hurry. If this matter is handled poorly, there will always be a knot left in people’s hearts. It’s better to untie such knots before getting on with real business, is it not?”

General He thought to himself: what kind of a big deal is this? What kind of knot could it leave? Fine — even if his men were in the wrong, they’d be punished and then it would all be forgotten; is that worth setting aside the affairs of tens of thousands of soldiers? Does this commissioner actually have the competence everyone says she does?

Both he and General Ye harbored some doubts about Zhù Ying’s ability to command troops, and both were waiting to see.

But Zhù Ying simply bowed her head and began reading the documents. They concerned the situation of the two “flanking forces,” along with official requests for grain and supplies.

Flipping through them quickly, she found things were passable. Since the battles in the north, the formerly lax imperial troops had tightened up somewhat; discipline was acceptable, and the practice of padding payrolls and skimming funds had lightened considerably.

Completely eliminating it was impossible, but what she saw was manageable.

She finished reading the documents and set them aside without signing anything. On the other side of the tent, arriving one after another, several soldiers from the right flank were brought in, along with the son of the victim’s family, the village headman, and a senior clan elder.

The moment the old woman saw her son, she cried out and flung herself toward him: “You’ve finally come!”

She clutched him, then turned to face Zhù Ying and acknowledged her with a word of thanks. Zhù Ying looked at the son — he was indeed wearing mourning clothes, and under them his garments were also drab gray. He was more composed than his mother, and first paid his respects to Yao Chenying along with the village headman and clan elder. Yao Chenying said, “Have you not yet paid your respects to the commissioner?!”

The three then kowtowed. On the other side, the soldiers first saluted General He, then bowed to Zhù Ying.

Zhù Ying said, “Now that everyone is here, let each side speak in turn.”

The son said, “My lord! They were supposed to protect the people, yet they have killed a gentleman of standing!”

“Oh?” Young General Leng let out a puzzled sound and looked the mother and son over again. They really didn’t look like people of standing.

People of standing — even if not dressed in silk and adorned with gold, they should at least look presentable. Even in plain cloth, the clothing ought to be neat. The mother and son were somewhat incongruous. As a general rule, the higher one’s status, the more voluminous one’s robes and the longer the hemline; the pair’s clothing was not of the short working type, but it also wasn’t particularly full or long. One could only say it had few patches and was relatively new.

He then looked at the village headman, and then the clan elder. The two were a bit more presentable than these supposed “people of standing”; the clan elder even wore a silk garment.

The mother and son were also thin — clearly from years of insufficient nourishment.

Had the son not announced it, everyone would simply have taken him for a farmer.

Several of the secretariat officials who had studied at the National Academy wore expressions of sympathy, also feeling that a man who kept to “farming and study,” who was not afraid of the imperial army, was a person of backbone. They all looked toward Zhù Ying with eyes full of entreaty.

The village headman said uncomfortably, “Their family is just… frugal…”

The word “frugal” was said with exceptional reluctance. In truth, it meant miserly. The clan elder said, “If they weren’t this thrifty, they never would have accumulated this much property! They didn’t dare eat well, didn’t dare dress well — that’s how they have what they have today. They’d just managed to send their grandson to study, and now, just when things were looking up, the old man died.”

This family was one of those rare cases of people who grew wealthy through their own hard work. The old couple had toiled their whole lives — once a year at New Year they might buy two catties of meat with the bone still in. When it got dark, they didn’t just burn a single lamp wick — they didn’t light any lamp at all. Even the daughter-in-law was not taken in through a proper betrothal; she was a child bride, sent to their household at eight or nine years old and set to work from the start, saving the cost of a bride price. The women of the house were only allowed to drink gruel. Even when a woodcutting knife rusted through, they couldn’t bear to replace it. All of it was to save money to buy land.

The mother and son wept as though the sky itself were falling.

On the other side, the soldiers shouted their grievances too: “They were trying to swindle us! For one chicken, they wanted a whole guan in coin!”

The old woman retorted, “That chicken was raised for two full years — how much grain did it eat? And the fright we got from them — we’d need to hire a ritual master to settle our nerves.”

Even Yao Chenying’s face went stiff. This really was an attempted swindle.

Zhù Ying said to the soldier who had spoken up, “Tell it from the beginning.”

“We were hungry after traveling, and it’s true we went looking for food, and true that we took their chicken. But that old bastard… I got angry and just…”

Young General Leng said, “The body is outside. Don’t lie — the truth or falsehood of it can be verified with one examination.”

“I just kicked him aside and went back to camp.”

The old woman said, “And they took my chicken!”

Zhù Ying said, “Bring the body.”

The body was carried in. There were no other injuries. The old man had been kicked and had his ribs broken; the broken rib had pierced his internal organs, and that was how he died.

The mother and son began weeping again.

Wu Pei barked, “Silence!”

Among everyone in the secretariat, Wu Pei had arrived relatively late. Although he and Zhù Ying were from the same home region, they had not been close before, and so he had been cautious, remaining quiet and unobtrusive. But now he could no longer hold himself back!

One chicken, and they wanted a whole guan in coin! Not even his own household kitchen would dare put one chicken down as a guan on the accounts.

The central army was already smaller than the left and right flanks to begin with. Getting them in line was difficult enough, but for the sake of military discipline, you couldn’t ignore a disturbance to the local people. And on top of that, the magistrate was the Zheng prime minister’s maternal cousin!

The commissioner, though nominally supreme commander, in reality could not afford to deeply offend either the subordinate troops or the local authorities.

Wu Pei was anxious on Zhù Ying’s behalf.

General He spoke first: “Commissioner, though my troops were in the wrong first, surely not all blame can fall on them?”

Yao Chenying said, “That may be so, but a human life is at stake.”

Both sides looked toward Zhù Ying.

The enemy was before them; the strategy had not yet been laid out; and they were all looking at Zhù Ying.

Zhù Ying said, “Understood.”

It was Lu Danqing who carefully ventured a question: “Adoptive father, so how will you judge this?”

Zhù Ying said, “Beat the drum!”

…

Zhù Ying ordered the three armies to assemble, with officers and commanders lined up on both sides. She stood atop the newly erected platform and selected soldiers with loud voices and clear speech to relay her words one by one down the lines.

First she judged the soldiers for violating military discipline by going out late at night — twenty military strokes; for theft — twenty strokes; for disturbing the people — twenty strokes; sixty total, to be administered in two sessions.

For causing death through reckless conduct — exile.

Exile was no better than staying to fight; receiving sixty strokes and then being exiled was arguably more dangerous than going into battle. In battle one did not necessarily die; to be exiled two thousand li while carrying injuries — the probability of death was considerably higher.

The central army listened in respectful silence. The left and right flanks, as one might have expected, showed some signs of resistance.

Zhù Ying said, “Jin Biao!”

Jin Biao strode out and restated the military regulations one by one, with the relay soldiers passing the words outward one line at a time. Generals He and Ye both pressed their lips together, their faces expressionless. The state of the soldiers in the left and right flanks could be even more easily imagined. General Ruan, watching it all, felt a drumbeat of unease in his heart.

When Jin Biao finished reciting and the words had been fully passed along, Zhù Ying rose with her hand on her sword: “As your military commissioner, I have only one thing to say: eat your fill, and receive your full pay!”

Fan Sheng saw the moment and stepped forward to say to Jin Biao, “Quickly — pass it on. The commissioner says everyone will eat their fill and receive full pay.”

The words were relayed down the line, until finally only two phrases remained: “eat your fill, full pay.”

Young General Leng thought to himself: just as expected. Worthy of her reputation. Letting soldiers eat and not withholding their wages was absolutely enough to make soldiers willing to lay down their lives.

Sure enough, the soldiers’ cheers came rolling back in waves. The resentment from Zhù Ying’s refusal to shield the soldier who had stolen the chicken vanished in an instant.

Zhù Ying said to Young General Leng, He, and the others, “We’ve spent quite some time on this. Come then — let us sit down and work out together how we are going to proceed.”

The gathered commanders exchanged glances and dutifully followed her.

Back in Zhù Ying’s main tent, with all extraneous personnel cleared out, Zhù Ying said to Lu Danqing, “In a little while, draw five guan from the funds and send it to the bereaved family — that will be the military’s compensation for the funeral expenses. Also give the man sentenced to exile two guan for the journey.”

“Yes.”

Only then did Zhù Ying begin giving orders. She first dispatched Chen Fang as an envoy to deliver an edict, reproaching Kun Da Chi and demanding to know why he had raised troops without reporting the mourning period first.

She then said to Generals He and Ye, “There is no logic in sending men into battle on an empty stomach. Shortly I will have people go to each of your camps to renegotiate the grain supply arrangements — the soldiers must eat their fill.”

Generals He and Ye thought to themselves: Is she trying to get her hands on our troops? What a ruthless person!

Both of them had an idea. What kind of “imperial envoy” could she send? The envoy would be just one person; sidelining someone like that would be extremely easy.

Both gave vague agreements: “We were just about to request the commissioner’s guidance — all grain, supplies, and transport must be allocated by the commissioner as well.”

General Ruan tried to signal them with his eyes. They didn’t notice. General Ruan withdrew his gaze and thought to himself: You have no idea!

Zhù Ying immediately pointed to him: “You — first select forty people: twenty to each camp, to handle this matter.”

Along the way she had trained quite a number of people; there were enough to work with, and this would serve as a test of the results. She also assigned four civil officials to each camp to work alongside them — for calculations and record-keeping, civil officials were always more useful.

Then Zhù Ying gathered the officers of the left and right flanks together: “Even as military officers, you cannot be completely illiterate. As it happens, I have the time — I’ll teach a proper course. You two as well.”

General Ye said, “Commissioner, we are here to repel the enemy!”

Zhù Ying said, “I am the military commissioner. You follow my orders.”

She gave the order decisively, detaining the captains of the left and right flanks in the central camp to begin classes. Young General Leng’s troops and the central army’s imperial guards would rotate with each other, taking turns to rest; and during rest periods, the officers and commanders would also have to attend classes and training.

Young General Leng was taken aback: “This may not be…”

Zhù Ying said, “It’s fine. I have my arrangements.”