Chapter 3: Impersonating a Surname

While the soldiers were laughing, the bows and arrows were no longer aimed at the three. The sturdy man dared to think and act, suddenly turning and running west, shouting: "Run east! Hide your money!"

This sentence contained two layers of intention. One was to make Wang Yang and the youth run east, distracting the soldiers' attention. The second was to hint to the soldiers: Wang Yang and the other had money and were more valuable to capture than himself.

The sturdy man's thinking was not bad, but in actual operation, it was completely different.

First, the youth was scared, unable to distinguish east, west, north, or south, and followed the sturdy man.

Secondly, Wang Yang stood in place without moving. It wasn't that he didn't want to escape, but he felt that the other party had nine people and carried bows and arrows, so the chance of successful escape was too small.

Finally, the sturdy man underestimated the soldiers' reaction speed and the power of cold weapons.

He had only run a few steps when an arrow shot in front of his feet!

The sturdy man raised his hands reflexively, not daring to run again. The youth was also scared into standing still.

"Run! Keep running! This is a mulberry bow; I can shoot you like a rabbit even if you run another twenty steps! Two little rabbits dare to run? Watch how I deal with you!"

The squad leader pointed, and four soldiers stepped forward, two in a group, pressing the sturdy man and the youth down roughly from left and right. The sturdy man shouted: "I know how to make salt! Make refined salt! I can—ah!"

Before he could finish, his lower abdomen was heavily smashed by a knife hilt. He was immediately in so much pain that he couldn't straighten his waist.

While the sturdy man was shouting, the youth was also shouting: "The wind is swift, the sky is high, the monkeys wail in sorrow; the islets are clear, the sand is white, the birds fly back; the boundless falling trees—"

Then he suffered a similar fate to the sturdy man; his mouth was heavily smashed by a knife hilt, his lips swelled up immediately, and his teeth were full of blood.

He couldn't figure out why others could be romantic and happy after time travel, but here he was in such a state! He was clearly the protagonist!

"What are they shouting?" the squad leader asked in confusion.

The black-faced man holding the spear beside him also had a puzzled expression: "It seems one said he sells salt? The other is reciting lyrics?"

The so-called "winking at a blind man"—the two time-travelers each shouted their "unique skills," but what they got in return wasn't "favor," but "being hammered." The reason for this was not only the "rough" identity of the soldiers but also the era.

At that time, most ordinary people only knew about yellow salt and white salt, and according to specific forms, there were end salt, granular salt, loose salt, and large salt. There was no concept of refined salt at all! Not only was there no concept, but the term "refined salt" didn't even exist at the time.

If modern refined salt were placed in front of these soldiers, they would naturally regard it as a "good thing," but just by saying it, don't blame these "country bumpkins" for being unable to "grasp the spirit."

As for Du Fu's "Climbing High," it was naturally a masterpiece of all time. Unfortunately, in the era's background, poetry was dominated by four-character and five-character lines, especially five-character poetry, while seven-character poetry was mostly folk songs and ballads. Although there were occasional serious creations of seven-character poetry by scholars, they were like a drop in the ocean, and in terms of quality and quantity, they could not compare to five-character poetry.

If there were someone who understood poetry here, they might want to hear the youth continue, but the soldiers present were all rough men, and even the black-faced man holding the spear who knew many characters couldn't hear the meaning in the poem, let alone the others.

The squad leader pointed at Wang Yang: "Catch this one too. This one is more obedient; the squad leader will definitely like him."

Two soldiers walked toward Wang Yang, stretched out their large hands, and grabbed Wang Yang's arms!

Wang Yang's face changed, he took a step back, widened his eyes, used all his strength, and shouted loudly: "I am a son of the Langya Wang clan; those who offend me shall be exterminated!"

Wang Yang's shout had been brewing for a long time, and he was prepared to "succeed or die." Like a wolf in a desperate situation, a trapped beast fighting, he burst out with unimaginable power in the desperate situation, so the sound was like a thunderbolt, and the spirit was like a tiger or leopard, stunning the two soldiers.

The so-called "exterminated" meant exterminating the clan. Wang Yang's shout was like throwing a bomb, stunning everyone.

Everyone looked at Wang Yang, and for a time, no one spoke.

Wang Yang had considered this lie.

Previously, he had judged the era he was in through phonology, and the person just now mentioned "northern spies," so it was likely that they were in a period of North-South confrontation. And his current location was precisely in the territory of the Southern Kingdom.

Although the Eastern Wu of the Three Kingdoms period also belonged to a North-South confrontation situation, and the late Tang and Five Dynasties also had a North-South confrontation pattern, in terms of time, none were as long as the Northern and Southern Dynasties period. So from a probabilistic perspective, he bet on the Northern and Southern Dynasties.

The Northern and Southern Dynasties was an era of aristocratic families, with extremely strict barriers between the noble and the commoner. The children of high families held power, while the commoners ran like cattle and horses. If he could successfully impersonate an aristocrat, he would definitely be able to deter the soldiers!

But there were many high families in Jiangzuo, Wang, Xie, Yuan, Xiao, Gu, Lu, Zhu, Zhang, he could list a long string of them, so which clan should he choose to impersonate?

Wang Yang believed that since he was impersonating anyway, he might as well impersonate the number one high family in Jiangzuo—the Langya Wang clan!

He remembered that Mao Hanguang had counted the origins of officials above the fifth rank in the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties in "Research on Aristocratic Politics in the Two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties," and the most numerous among them was the Langya Wang clan!

From the Eastern Jin to the Southern Chen, the political status of the aristocratic families rose and fell, but the Langya Wang clan was always a well-deserved first-class high family.

Impersonating the Langya surname was the safest.

Of course, the so-called "safest" was only relative.

If it were the time of Wang Dun's rebellion in the Eastern Jin, and Wang Dao led the Wang clan children to plead guilty before the palace; or if it were under the rule of the Sun clan of Eastern Wu, then impersonating the Langya Wang clan might not be worth the loss.

Furthermore, aristocratic families all had genealogical records and household registrations, so how could it be so easy to impersonate!

Besides, Wang Yang didn't even know the specific dynasty he was in, so how could he fabricate details?

In short, the risks involved were really not small. But to keep his chrysanthemum from withering, in a moment of urgency, he could only bite the bullet and take a risk.

The squad leader was stunned for a moment, the first to hold back his laughter. If he had water in his mouth, he could definitely spray it far away.

The soldiers also laughed uncontrollably, as if Wang Yang were a huge joke.

The squad leader bent over laughing, pointing at Wang Yang: "You... you really dare to make things up! With your poor appearance, even if you were reborn eight times, you wouldn't be born into the Wang family hahahahaha!"

When Wang Yang heard the squad leader's words, he first breathed a sigh of relief. What he was most worried about was that these people had never heard of the Langya Wang clan. Now the soldiers' reaction showed that his bet was right!

The era he traveled to was indeed the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties!

But the saying "people rely on clothes and horses rely on saddles," Wang Yang was dressed too poorly, without even a belt at his waist, only tied with a hemp rope, let alone the Langya Wang clan, even ordinary people were dressed better than Wang Yang. If he couldn't reasonably explain the clothing problem, he wouldn't be able to sing this play.

Wang Yang first said he was a floating drifter, and now he turned to say he was of the Langya Wang clan, which was already hard to believe. If it were an average person with a slower mind, they would definitely be anxious to explain why the statements were different, but Wang Yang didn't show the slightest intention to explain, but gave a cold laugh:

"I'm poor? A single coral tree in my house is enough to buy all your lives, and you say I'm poor?"

He looked at his clothes very casually and said slowly: "I changed into this outfit to avoid thieves. You don't look at the person but at the clothes, no wonder you are blind." After finishing, he shook his head and sighed.

"I don't have time to listen to your nonsense!" The squad leader straightened his face. "Lao San, Ding Jiu, hold him down, and slap him twice!"

Two soldiers approached Wang Yang. Wang Yang stood still and sneered: "If you two want to be exterminated to the third degree, then come."

Lao San and Ding Jiu saw Wang Yang standing still like a mountain, looking so certain, and hesitated.

The squad leader scolded: "Are you stupid! Still believe him? Even if he really is of the Langya Wang clan, there's no reason to exterminate the whole clan! This is clearly a commoner impersonating! Such a simple truth, can't you see it?"

"Hahahahaha!" Wang Yang laughed up at the sky, as if the squad leader had said some huge joke.

And in fact, the one telling the joke was Wang Yang, and the squad leader was right.

Wang Yang had to admit that his words about "exterminating the clan" were a bit too much. It was just that he was really too scared at the time, and wanted to deter the soldiers immediately, so he used the words of exterminating the clan to scare people. If he had enough time to prepare, he would definitely have made the lie more appropriate. But the situation was urgent, and he really couldn't think carefully.

Now, he had to round off this lie.

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Note: In Middle Ages historical materials, "Langya" is often written as "Langye". "Shuowen Jiezi" says: "Ye, Langye Commandery. From the city, ya sound." The pronunciation of ye is the same as ya. For the convenience of writing, it is uniformly written as "Langya".

Salt administration has been different in every dynasty, and it cannot be summarized by the term state-monopoly. Even if it were state-monopoly, the specific connotation of state-monopoly in each dynasty was different. In the Western Jin Dynasty, private salt was prohibited, and violators were punished for four years. But after the Eastern Jin Dynasty and down to the Southern Dynasties, the salt ban was opened, allowing private boiling by the people and levying salt taxes, which belonged to the tax system. So when the soldiers heard the sturdy man talk about refined salt, their first reaction did not involve private salt. The specific details of the salt administration at this time will be written later. ===== CHAPTER 4 =====