Taiheiki

Chapter 188 Speech
Under the protection of his attendants, Wei Cong rode his horse for several miles and arrived at a small hill. From a distance, he saw Wen Sheng and Nie Sheng coming to meet him. When they were still twenty or thirty paces away, the two dismounted and bowed to Wei Cong, saying, "Greetings, Governor (Godfather)!"

"Alright! What's the situation?" Wei Cong dismounted and asked, "Where is that King of Linyi?"

"Over there!" Wen Sheng grinned and pointed behind him. "There were also dozens of nobles captured with him, who seemed to be his relatives, and some priests of Indra, all prominent figures. In addition, there were dozens of large and small boxes, carried by six elephants and mules. I took a quick look, and they were full of gold, silver and jewels, and other valuables. Hahaha! We've really struck it rich this time!"

"With so many distinguished guests, there must have been guards, right? Why didn't they put up a desperate resistance?" Wei Cong asked.

"There were about four or five hundred men with him! We surrounded them on this hill!" Wen Sheng pointed to the hill. "They charged down several times, but we shot them back with our crossbows. There's no water up there, and the sun is blazing. They couldn't hold out for more than an hour or two. Soldiers started coming down in twos and threes to surrender. We killed a few, but even more came down to surrender. Seeing that there was no other way, the King of Linyi and his nobles bound themselves up and went down the mountain to beg for surrender!"

"No water on the mountain? No wonder!" Wei Cong looked at the small hill, which was only forty or fifty meters above the ground. It was bare and full of rocks, with nothing to provide any shelter except for a few waist-high shrubs. Although it was already December, the temperature in the middle of the day at this low latitude was still twenty-seven or twenty-eight degrees Celsius. After fighting and running for several hours under the scorching sun without water, even a god couldn't endure it.

"Then take me to see the King of Linyi!"

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The King of Lin-yi was held alone by a rock. He was dressed in a light red ramie robe and deerskin boots. He looked very ordinary. The only thing that could connect him with a king was the gold necklace around his neck.

“This person is the King of Linyi!” Wen Sheng said.

The man turned around, and Wei Cong sized him up: beneath thick eyebrows were a pair of deep brown eyes; his sunken cheekbones and sharply defined jaw were covered by a short, neat black beard, which could not conceal his haggard appearance. He clenched his teeth, his right hand clenched into a fist, his neck and shoulders tense, looking at Wei Cong with full vigilance. Finally, he had no choice but to kneel before Wei Cong in humiliation, lower his head, and press his face to the ground.

“Get up! I’ve heard some things about you!” Wei Cong said.

Upon hearing the interpreter's voice, King Lin Yi stood up and said with a wry smile, "I can guess what you've heard: I am a tyrannical and cruel king who oppresses his people, plunders everywhere every year, is ambitious, and is an insatiable fellow!"

"For a king, that sounds like a pretty good compliment!" Wei Cong smiled. "Do you have any requests? Like food or drink?"

"May I ask what punishment I will receive?" King Lin Yi asked nervously. "For example, whipping, execution? Gouging out my eyes, or being locked in a dungeon?"

“I cannot answer that question!” Wei Cong shook his head. “I am the governor of Jiaozhou, ordered by the Emperor to conquer you, but the Emperor has not given me the authority to deal with you. You will be escorted to Luoyang and presented as captives to the Emperor. At that time, the Emperor will decide how to deal with you! But you can rest assured that our Han Dynasty is a land of propriety. Even if your crimes are heinous, at most you will be executed, and we will not deliberately mistreat you!”

Upon hearing Wei Cong's explanation, the King of Linyi breathed a sigh of relief, revealing a relieved expression: "What about the Kingdom of Linyi? And its capital?"

“I cannot answer you now! But one thing I can be sure of is that from now on, the people of Jiuzhen, Rinan, and Jiaozhi will no longer worry about being invaded by barbarians, and a hundred years from now, the people of the Linyi Kingdom will forget this history and be proud to be citizens of our Great Han!” With that, Wei Cong turned to Wen Sheng and said, “Treat him well and don’t mistreat him!”

As the sun set and night fell, the battle that would determine the fate of the Red River Delta and the Mekong Delta for the next century came to an end. The massive army, stretching for miles and consisting of 30,000 soldiers and 100 war elephants, was gone. Apart from a few who escaped, the majority of the army had become corpses and prisoners on this narrow promontory.

Aside from the mountains of weapons, supplies, and money, the most valuable spoils the Han army acquired were sixty-two war elephants. These ferocious beasts, in the hands of a skilled general, would be a terrifying force. To celebrate this great victory, Wei Cong held a grand ceremony after nightfall at the foot of the small hill where the King of Lin-yi had been captured. He cremated the more than six hundred Han soldiers who had died in battle and addressed his victorious comrades during the ceremony.

"My soldiers, my comrades!"

It's hard to express my admiration for you. Just a few days ago, this arrogant king attempted to conquer the entire Jiaozhou with his army and become the master of millions of Han people. Now, his army has been annihilated and no longer exists. Even he, his ministers, and his relatives have become your prisoners. The one hundred war elephants he painstakingly collected and treasured have either been killed by you or become spoils of war.

This is all because of your bravery, resilience, and extraordinary spirit of sacrifice. As your general, whenever I give you orders, you always do even better than what I ask. I am deeply proud to have soldiers like you!
When we talk about victory, we must not forget our fallen comrades, who won the victory for us with their lives. War is dangerous and can take the lives of any of us; those who survive are fortunate. As survivors, we must take good care of the families of our fallen comrades, do our best to make amends, and ensure that their families live prosperous and happy lives.

I hereby declare that, in addition to the land and titles they were rightfully entitled to, the family of each fallen warrior will receive an annual stipend of one thousand coins and five bushels of millet, to be paid for fifteen years from my personal treasury. If the deceased had a son, this stipend will be used to raise him; if he had no son, he may adopt a child from among his relatives, and this stipend will be used to raise this adopted son to ensure that his ancestral rites will not be interrupted!

Upon hearing Wei Cong's speech about distributing allowances to those who died in battle, a burst of enthusiastic cheers erupted from the neatly arranged ranks of soldiers, lasting for a long time. For these soldiers, the most terrifying thing was not death in battle, but the extinction of their lineage. After all, given the living conditions in ancient times, even farmers in their hometowns might not live to a ripe old age, but joining the army meant that their small families would lose their main able-bodied laborer, putting them at a disadvantage in the brutal competition for survival. If any unforeseen events occurred, their small families could very well go bankrupt, and young children would often be the first victims. Without children, wives would often be forced to remarry in order to survive. These soldiers serving far from home would be childless, and after death, they would become lonely ghosts with no one to offer sacrifices—this was what these soldiers, accustomed to death, feared most.

Wei Cong promised to provide subsidies to all those who died in battle for fifteen years. The amount of 1,000 coins and 6 shi (about 180 kilograms) of millet per year may not seem like much, but it was enough to raise even a posthumous child to the point where they could support themselves. This relieved all the soldiers of their greatest fear—their worries about the future—and naturally earned them cheers.

Wei Cong remained silent for a moment before raising his hand to signal the soldiers to quiet down. Once the soldiers had calmed down, he continued his speech: "At dawn tomorrow, we will leave here and head south along the route the Lin-yi people took. We will surround their capital and conquer it."

Since the Cham people seized this land more than thirty years ago and made it their stronghold, they have accumulated wealth plundered from all directions there. They recruit unscrupulous people from all over the world there and send them to invade and plunder more wealth, land and people, and have become a great force.

This attack on the Han Dynasty was not solely the effort of the Lin-yi Kingdom. The King of Lin-yi, through promises, bribery, and marriage alliances, borrowed more soldiers and weapons from distant states, equipping them with a large number of war elephants to attack the Han. Those who aided the King of Lin-yi, and those states that did so, must be punished for their misdeeds. Only in this way can we ensure that similar tragedies do not occur again! I declare that after capturing the capital of Lin-yi, I will send envoys to these states to make them pay the price for their actions!

Compared to when Wei Cong announced the distribution of allowances to the fallen soldiers, the cheers around him were much less enthusiastic. Most people were bewildered and whispered in disappointment. Even for the soldiers of Jiaozhi, Linyi was already a distant country, let alone places even more remote than Linyi.

These soldiers' greatest wish was to end the war as soon as possible, return home safely, and resume their peaceful peasant lives. They would be even better off gaining spoils of war, more land, and the privilege of tax and labor exemptions. However, according to Wei Cong's speech, capturing the capital of Lin Yi was not the end of the war; they would have to continue fighting other countries, which greatly exceeded their expectations.

Wei Cong keenly sensed the soldiers' discontent. He raised his right arm and extended one finger: "Of course, I know this will affect your family businesses, since your fields all need people to cultivate them. I will compensate you for your losses. Anyone willing to serve will be exempt from all taxes and labor service for that year, and will also receive a slave from the prisoners to work the fields in your place!"

This time, the soldiers cheered even more enthusiastically. After all, last time only the families of the more than six hundred fallen soldiers benefited, but this time, everyone could get a share. Moreover, there were large tracts of vacant land in Jiaozhou waiting to be cultivated. In a sense, labor was much more valuable than land, and Wei Cong's promise of one slave per person was a real benefit.

Having satisfied the soldiers' emotions, Wei Cong took the torch from Nie Sheng and walked to the neatly arranged piles of firewood. The bodies of the fallen Han soldiers had been cleaned, wrapped in hemp cloth, and placed on the firewood. Wei Cong lit the nearest pile of firewood, and flames immediately rose. He turned around and shouted to the crowd:
"Now, let us bid farewell to our valiant comrades, sending them to another world, where they will enjoy the sacrifices of their families and watch over us. We, on our own, will embark on a new journey. The most powerful enemy has been defeated, and now it is time to reap the rewards of our past hardships and sacrifices! Brave men, prepare to set off! Wealth and glory await you!"

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Wei Cong took the cup from the attendant and took a large gulp. Cheers from the soldiers came from behind him, as if from another world. Yuan Shao looked at Wei Cong with a strange gaze, as if he were looking at a strange monster. After Wei Cong finished the water and handed the cup back to the attendant, he noticed Yuan Shao's unusual expression: "Benchu, what's wrong with you? Why are you looking at me like that?"

"It's nothing. I just didn't expect you to be so good at dealing with soldiers!" Yuan Shao sighed. "Honestly, if I were one of these guys, I'd be willing to follow you to the ends of the earth!"

"Really?" Wei Cong laughed. "Then it seems I did a pretty good job?"

"Not just good!" Yuan Shao shook his head. "I've never seen, no, I've never heard of a general speaking to his soldiers like that! Giving each person a slave? How is that possible? Isn't that a joke?"

"Why is it impossible?" Wei Cong asked, frowning.

Yuan Shao looked at Wei Cong's face and, realizing the man wasn't joking, exclaimed in surprise, "Are you serious? You have nearly ten thousand men in your army, right? You really intend to give every soldier a slave?"

“Yes! Since I’ve said it, I’ll definitely do it!” Wei Cong said, “Besides, it’s not difficult. There are at least 10,000 prisoners of war in this battle alone. Next, we’ll besiege the capital of Linyi. There are at least tens of thousands of people in and around the city! And then there are those forces that are secretly colluding with the Linyi Kingdom. It’s very simple!”

"So how long are you going to stay here?" Yuan Shao asked anxiously. "The imperial court has already issued an order to send troops to suppress the E'zhai next year."

"It will be at most March next year! The rainy season will be here, and even if we want to do something, we won't be able to!" Wei Cong laughed. "Linyi has been a country for decades, and the people are used to its rule. The gods they worship are different from those of our Han Dynasty. If we don't take drastic measures, it will rise again in a few years. So I plan to relocate as many of its people as possible!"

"What about the city, the fields, and the houses? Burn them down?"

"That's a bit of a pity! I haven't figured out the specifics of how to proceed yet!" Wei Cong shook his head. "Let's wait until we take over the capital of Lin Yi Kingdom first!"

(End of this chapter)