[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-assuming-the-langya-surname":3,"chapter-assuming-the-langya-surname-assuming-the-langya-surname-chapter-11":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","The False Clan of Langya",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},2273807,4442,"Chapter 11: Jiangling","assuming-the-langya-surname-chapter-11",11,"\u003Cp>After returning to his tent, Xue Duizhu undressed and prepared to rest, when a voice outside called: “Captain, are you free now? May I come in?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Hearing the voice, Xue Duizhu smiled: “Come in.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man entered with a grin, and Xue Duizhu teased: “Aren’t you supposed to be serving Young Master Wang? Still remember me?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man feigned fear: “How would I dare forget the Captain? Serving Young Master Wang is just helping the Lord lighten his burden.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Enough with the flattery! I know your tricks—you just want to get out of military service,” Xue Duizhu said, lying on his bed as the black-haired man expertly began massaging him.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xue Duizhu closed his eyes, his voice lazy:\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Look at how grain prices have soared this year—how many are starving, eating sesame and swallowing lotus roots? Even the worst soldier households still get bread. Every few days you get barley-meal porridge—barely enough to keep you alive. Besides, this year’s special: normally you get three to five sheng of grain daily, never shortchanged. What more do you want?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man rubbed diligently, his face worn with exhaustion but his eyes hopeful: “If it were just me, I’d be fine. But I’ve got a daughter at home—never mind. Captain, aren’t you heading to Jiangling tomorrow? Can I join as guard? I’d get to visit home and take my leave this month.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Didn’t you just send grain home? Still sending more?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“No grain this time—just want to see my daughter.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Xue Duizhu, relaxed under the massage, drawled: “You want to see your daughter—or are you just trying to curry favor with that little aristocrat?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man chuckled: “Both, both.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“You all think clinging to aristocrats brings benefits. Ding Jiu wants to too—he even gave me five sheng of grain. Let me tell you this: don’t get your hopes up. They might step into their relative’s gate and forget you the next moment. You’ll have wasted your time for nothing.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man pressed hard on the Captain’s shoulders; his dark face flushed faintly from fatigue, yet his eyes glowed with hope.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang slept poorly that night—tossing between strategizing and half-sleep, dreaming of Xue Duizhu dragging him into the tent like a demon, of Xu Bianji lying dead on the grass, even of the Handsome Boy and Strong Man returning to the modern world to accuse him of murder. He woke up startled three or four times.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>This tense mental state, a psychological pressure he’d never known, triggered a physical nausea. Luckily, the lower classes ate only two meals a day: “chao shi” around eight in the morning, and “xi shi” around four in the afternoon. So Wang Yang arrived at camp and “successfully” missed mealtime.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Added to the camp’s hardship, Xue Duizhu had no decent food to offer Wang Yang as a “treat”—otherwise, Wang Yang might have vomited outright.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At dawn, the black-haired man brought clean water to help Wang Yang rise.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After washing his face, the black-haired man offered a pinch of salt. Wang Yang paused, then asked: “This… for brushing teeth?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man nodded. It was the Captain’s order—common folk wouldn’t waste salt on brushing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang, thinking no one brushed teeth then, recalled the phrase “morning chewing of toothwood,” and asked: “Do you have willow branches?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man frowned: “What would Young Master want willow branches for?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Don’t you use willow branches to brush your teeth?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man was baffled: “Can willow branches brush teeth?” He thought silently: So aristocrats use willow branches to brush teeth—I’ll tell my daughter when I get home.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang asked curiously: “Then how do you brush your teeth?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man said: “With fingers.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang suddenly understood—he remembered the Tang dynasty murals in Dunhuang’s Mogao Caves, showing a monk squatting and brushing his teeth with his index finger. This was the ancient norm!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In truth, aristocrats had already begun using toothbrushes, but neither the black-haired man nor Wang Yang knew. Willow-branch brushing originated in India, spread with Buddhism to China, and was then only practiced by a few monks—it wouldn’t become widespread until the Sui and Tang dynasties.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>At the time, common folk most often brushed with fingers—called “kai chi.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As a modern man, Wang Yang found it unnatural to use his finger as a toothbrush, and with the pressure mounting, he had no energy to care—he simply asked for water, sprinkled salt, and rinsed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ding Jiu brought Wang Yang breakfast: his first meal in ancient times—a bowl of barley porridge, a few dried fish, a dish of salted vegetables, and a boiled egg.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Though simple, this meal was cobbled together by Xue Duizhu and Wang Wenshu. The dried fish came from Xue Duizhu’s stash—called “ku yu” or “gan yu”—he’d barely managed to get a jar and ate one or two occasionally. The egg was what Wang Wenshu brought back last night. The hardest part was the barley porridge.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ordinary soldiers got barley porridge only every two days—but not the thick, whole-grain kind Wang Yang ate. They got thin gruel made from ground barley, called “mai xie zhou.” Making this bowl of whole-grain porridge for Wang Yang used up several men’s rations.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang had no idea how hard-won this meal was—his mind was fixed on visiting the Wang clan’s ancestral home. When he smelled the dried fish, he found it foul and repulsive, so he didn’t touch it. He only ate the porridge, using the oddly flavored salted vegetables (perhaps kuai vegetable?) for saltiness alone.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>After a few spoonfuls, he glanced up and saw the black-haired man and Ding Jiu staring hungrily at the fish. He remembered the black-haired man’s testimony about “Sanqi Vice Minister,” and said: “Blackie, take this fish and eat it.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man startled, bowing low: “I dare not!”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I’m giving it to you—why dare not?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man only shook his head.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang adopted the Young Master’s tone: “This is my gift—you cannot refuse.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The black-haired man knelt and kowtowed, then accepted the fish with both hands, but made no move to eat.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Why not eat?” Wang Yang asked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“I… I want to take it home for my daughter.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang nodded. Seeing Ding Jiu staring fixedly at the fish, he said: “Ding Jiu, you’ve done well. I have nothing else to reward you now—this egg is yours.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>“Egg?” Ding Jiu blinked.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang realized: “Egg” was a late term—he’d spoken too soon. “Oh, you call it ‘ji zi,’ right?”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Ding Jiu nodded: “Also called ‘ji luan.’” He assumed “egg” was some new aristocratic term and didn’t care much, thanked him, took the egg, and though he hadn’t eaten one in ages, his face showed no joy.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It’s not scarcity one fears—it’s inequality.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang realized he’d handled that poorly, but he had no energy to dwell on it—greater danger was coming…\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The great city loomed, its walls like endless clouds.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Wang Yang, Xue Duizhu, Wang Wenshu, the black-haired man, and Ding Jiu set out at dawn and reached Jingzhou’s city gate by noon.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Jingzhou was the largest province of the Southern Dynasties after the capital province of Yangzhou, spanning southern Chu and governing ten commanderies. The saying then was: “The great towns of Jiang left are none greater than Jing and Yang.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>The foremost commandery under Jingzhou was Nanchun; the foremost city under Nanchun was Jiangling.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>As the central capital of both Jingzhou and Nanchun, Jiangling was also called “Jingzhou City” and “Nanchun City.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>It was the city Guan Yu lost through carelessness, and the city Li Bai returned to after a thousand li!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Had he not impersonated the Langya Wang clan, Wang Yang would have gladly visited this historic city with reverent curiosity. But thinking of facing the real Langya Wang clan, all his interest vanished.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Throughout the journey, he fabricated stories, crafted speeches, hunted for logical flaws. He even invented a family genealogy and forced himself to memorize the names of all relatives within five generations. But when the moment came, he sadly realized: if he had to recite five generations of lineage, failure was already sealed.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>————————————\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Note: ① “Hu ma” in medieval sources means sesame. Jingzhou was a sesame-producing region, so during famines, sesame substituted for grain. For example, during the Eastern Jin war between Yin Zhongkan and Huan Xuan: “Jiangling was thrown into panic; the city lacked food, so sesame was issued to soldiers.” (Zizhi Tongjian, Jin Records). Eating lotus roots during famine is recorded in the “Biographies of Good Officials” of the Book of Wei (Yang Dun).\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>② Toothbrushes have been unearthed from Han tombs, but none have been found among Six Dynasties artifacts. My depiction of aristocrats using toothbrushes is purely inferred from Han practices—there seems no reason such a tool would vanish… though perhaps, amid chaos, some things were lost. For instance, the popular Tang game of danqi was forgotten by Song people, who no longer understood its rules. As Lu You wrote in Laoxue’an Biji: “I only lament its art is lost.”\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Thus, the aristocrats using toothbrushes in this book is speculative, lacking evidence, and possibly wrong. Even the so-called toothbrushes from Han tombs remain disputed in academia. Still, personally, I lean toward accepting it.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>③ During the Northern and Southern Dynasties, the term “zhou” was roughly equivalent to a province—imagine a large province. Below zhou were commanderies, below commanderies counties, and some counties had townships. Yangzhou here is not today’s city, but a vast province: during the Southern Qi, Yangzhou was the capital province, covering roughly southern Jiangsu, Zhejiang, and areas south of the Yangtze. Interested readers may consult Tan Qixiang’s Historical Atlas of China, Volume Four.\u003C\u002Fp>",1610,"2026-06-19T23:36:03.373Z",1,"Qwen3-Next 80B","a26ccaa4783dc0983e8d9957f4f2f9beab67c789657af6292879189c8ffcc171","assuming-the-langya-surname-chapter-12","assuming-the-langya-surname-chapter-10",62,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fthe-false-clan-of-langya-cover.jpg"]