The Revolt of the Three Feudatories: All-in at the start in Beijing

Chapter 285 Open Trading

With the defeat of the Russian cavalry, the savages of Siberia and other regions also surrendered. They had no warhorses and could not escape.

There were estimated to be nearly 600 people. The rest were either dead or wounded, or they ran away. Huang You also sent people not to pursue them. These people were originally herdsmen and hunters captured by the Russian cavalry, not soldiers. If they ran back, it would only mean one more mouth to feed.

Only the Russian cavalry were of paramount importance; their contribution to military achievements was comparable to that of the Eight Banners.

After the Han army dragged all the dead bodies to an open space outside the city and lined them up, they counted them and found that there were fifty survivors.

Most of them were disarmed after being knocked down by fleeing soldiers in the musket formation, while a few were injured, fell off their horses, and were then held down and tied up.

After the prisoners were counted, Huang You was about to leave, as there was still intelligence to report. However, Wu Ancheng, the head of the Wu family, jogged out of the city gate and bowed from afar. His face was still sweaty, and the hem of his silk robe was tucked into his belt. He walked with a powerful stride, showing no trace of the tears he had been wiping behind the battlements earlier.

"General Huang! General Huang, please wait!" Wu Ancheng ran to Huang You's horse and grabbed the reins. "If it weren't for General Huang's timely arrival, my entire Wu family of several hundred people would have perished in this dilapidated city."

"So no matter what, the general can't leave. He absolutely must come into the city for a drink. I've already had ten sheep slaughtered, and tonight we'll set up a few tables in the ancestral hall. It's all from the heart of the Wu family!"

Huang You initially intended to refuse again, but after glancing at the sky and seeing the soldiers' expectant eyes, he dismounted and chuckled, "Master Wu, the wine is welcome, but my troops cannot enter the city; this is the rule of the Han army."

"Got it, got it, Lao Liu!" Wu Ancheng shouted back, "Clear that open space outside the West Gate, set up tents, start a fire, and slaughter the sheep to send to the brothers first! We can't send any wine, but there's plenty of mutton!"

Old Liu, with bandages still wrapped around his shoulder, responded and led a few servants out of the city gate.

Inside the Wu Family Ancestral Hall, a dozen oil lamps were lit, and three square tables were placed in the center. On the tables were a bowl of hand-pulled mutton, a bowl of stewed radish, a basket of freshly baked white flour pancakes, and several dishes of pickled vegetables brought from Yangzhou, all neatly arranged in porcelain dishes.

Wu Ancheng seated Huang You at the head of the table, while he sat beside him. Wu Jianxiong sat at the lower end of the table. After a few rounds of drinks, Wu Ancheng put down his chopsticks and leaned forward. "General Huang, I have something I'd like to ask you."

"Master Wu, please speak."

"Those prisoners—I mean those indigenous savages squatting at the foot of the city walls—is the imperial court planning to sell them?"

Huang You put down his wine cup, glanced at Wu Ancheng, and a slow smile appeared on his lips. "Patriarch Wu has good judgment. The imperial court has already given instructions on this matter. There's no need for me to go back and ask for instructions; I can give you an answer now."

As he spoke, Huang You moved his wine cup to the side and drew a circle on the table with his finger. "These native savages, including disarmed Russian soldiers, as long as they are captured on the battlefield, are all allowed by the imperial court to be sold to local county magistrates."

"However, the current estimated price is one hundred taels of silver. This price was not set by me, but by an official document jointly issued by the Governor-General's Office of Shuozhou and the Ministry of Revenue."

Wu Ancheng glanced back at the outside of the ancestral hall and whispered to his son, "Go and ask your second uncle to bring the account books."

Wu Jianxiong put down his chopsticks, got up, and went out. A moment later, he returned carrying a thick account book with a blue cloth cover. Wu Ancheng took the account book, flipped through it, and then looked up and asked, "Three hundred native savages, that's thirty thousand taels. I don't have enough cash on hand; could I get some on credit?"

"No need for credit," Huang You said. "The Great Han Empire Bank has already opened in Shuozhou City. It was established this spring. County lords can get loans with their titles and land deeds issued by the imperial court. The interest rates are much fairer than those of the private money shops in the past. Master Wu can take the documents to the Shuozhou Bank and withdraw the money on the same day."

Upon hearing this, Wu Ancheng assumed it was an old money lender, the kind that lends out nine times and returns thirteen times. He quickly slammed the ledger shut. "No loan. I have cash. Last year, I spent a lot on timber and lime for building the city, but I haven't emptied my coffers yet. I can come up with 30,000 taels. But I don't want those Russian soldiers. If they cause trouble in the city, my family's two hundred or so able-bodied men won't be enough to fill the gaps."

Huang You was not surprised and nodded: "I will take the Russian soldiers back to the Ural Mountains front. They are in dire need of laborers to build fortifications there. The three hundred natives are yours. We will check the registers first thing tomorrow morning, and once they have their fingerprints on it, the handover will be complete."

Wu Jianxiong poured his father a full glass of wine and whispered, "Father, what are we going to do with these people after we buy them? The county government office isn't even finished yet, and there aren't any prisons. They're all locked up outside the city; they're afraid they'll freeze to death."

Wu Ancheng downed his drink in one gulp, wiped his mouth, and said, "Tomorrow, arrange for someone to take them to clear the land. Winter came late this year, so we need to clear it before it freezes so we can plant crops next spring. They'll be provided with food and lodging, no wages, just enough to keep them from starving. In two or three years, we can recoup the cost of hiring these people, and after that, it'll all be pure profit."

She glanced at her son again and said, "This family isn't just about the two of us. You'll have to learn from that."

Huang You listened from the side, chuckled, and didn't interrupt. He was stationed in this area all the time. The Wu family, who bought their way into the position of county marquis, were all the same; they were shrewd in their calculations.

Wu Ancheng had just finished crying on the city wall when he turned around and began to calculate the benefits of the prisoners' land reclamation. People like him would live well in the Northwest.

The next morning, Huang You ordered his men to count the prisoners in the open space outside the West Gate. More than 300 native savages were divided into five rows, separated by race and physique—Kalmyks, Siberian natives, several Tatars from the Volga River basin, and a few Cossacks of mixed Turkic descent.

Wu Ancheng personally checked the names one by one from the roster, marking each name he checked with a circle. Then he had Lao Liu lead the people to the city gate to form another line.

Fifty Russian soldiers were bound hand and foot with a long hemp rope. Huang You was about to take them back to the front line to build a fortress. The Russian soldiers were still cursing while they were tied to the rope. Huang You couldn't understand Russian. A Tatar prisoner next to him who could speak Mongolian shrank his neck and translated, "He's cursing you, saying you're a wolf from the steppe."

Huang You glanced at the Russian soldier, smiled, and slapped him across the face. Because of the armor on the back of his hand, the slap knocked out three of the Russian prisoner's teeth.

Huang You then looked at the Tatar prisoner and found that he was nearly 1.8 meters tall. He patted his strong arms twice and nodded.

"You're quite good. From today onwards, you'll follow me, Centurion. When we return to the Urals, I'll assign you to the Imperial Army!"