Chapter 228: Duck

Tan Laizi's disguise still served its purpose. He reached the monastery without trouble. Three characters were written above the gate. Tan Laizi didn't recognize the first two; he only knew it was some kind of temple.

At this hour the monastery's main gate was tightly shut. Fortunately the roving bandits truly did not enter monasteries, and few people were nearby. Tan Laizi circled around a short way and spotted a crooked willow leaning against the wall.

He tossed aside his torch and club, summoned a burst of desperate strength, climbed the willow onto the wall, then slid down the inner side into the temple grounds.

The moment his feet touched the ground, Tan Laizi's heart finally settled. He leaned against the wall, panting heavily. This seemed to be the inner courtyard. Some people nearby were talking in anxious voices. Tan Laizi dared not go looking for those monks. Hugging his knees, he hid behind a tree by the wall, his whole body trembling uncontrollably — not from the cold, but because he kept his mouth covered, sobbing in low, muffled wails.

Outside the walls, harrowing screams rose without end. The pitch-black sky reflected the flames blazing through the city, outlining vague contours of dark clouds like the dim faces of demons in the night sky.

Hiding there in the corner, he had no idea how much time passed before a little light gathered around him. When Tan Laizi looked up, the sky had paled to a faint dawn. The courtyard was still in chaos; those monks were bustling about, he could not tell what they were doing.

Shouts suddenly erupted from the front courtyard, followed by pounding on the gate. Tan Laizi stole a glance from behind the tree and saw a group of Red Turbans already striding into the courtyard.

The tall, burly bandit leading them bellowed at the abbot, "Call out everyone in this nunnery temple! None may stay except the monks."

As soon as he finished, his underlings began herding people through the courtyard. Tan Laizi prayed to every god and buddha in his heart, shrinking behind the tree and wishing he could turn into an ant, so tiny no one would see him.

"That monk, get over here too!"

A shout rang out nearby. Tan Laizi could not tell if they had spotted him. He still dared not move, remaining motionless, huddled behind the tree.

A moment later, a sharp pain struck his backside. Tan Laizi looked up to see a tall, gaunt bandit cursing and kicking at him. The blows sent Tan Laizi tumbling and scrambling into the courtyard.

Quite a few people were already kneeling in the center. Tan Laizi's legs went weak, and he dropped straight to his knees. Stealing a glance around, he saw both monks and commoners. He immediately ducked his head low.

The burly bandit headman waved a hand. The commoners, those with hair on their heads, were dragged out of the temple gate one after another. None of the many kneeling monks dared to stop them. Tan Laizi knelt on the ground, drenched in cold sweat. Despair filled his heart. Everyone except the monks was to be seized. Outside these few temples, the rest of Hezhou at this moment was a realm of carnage and hell.

Just then, a grip tightened on the back of his collar. Someone was about to drag him away. A jolt shot through Tan Laizi, and he immediately cried out, "Thousand-Year Lord, see clearly! This lowly one is also a monk — look at my hair!"

The bandit grabbing him tilted his head to look. Because of his scabby scalp, Tan Laizi had kept his head shaved these past two years. Though a little stubble had grown, he indeed looked completely bald — but his clothes did not seem to match.

The roving thief turned to the abbot and demanded, "Is he a monk of your temple?"

The abbot looked at Tan Laizi, his expression a mix of terror and doubt. He seemed on the verge of admitting it. Tan Laizi's face twitched. He stared at the abbot with pleading eyes, not a single word spoken, yet it seemed as if a thousand words were pouring out.

The abbot's expression slowly shifted. He gave a gradual nod. That one simple gesture decided whether Tan Laizi would live or die.

The bandit released his grip. Every ounce of strength drained from Tan Laizi's body, and he collapsed limply to the ground.

The other bandits finished rounding up the people. The burly headman waved a hand, and they all began filing out. Tan Laizi gasped for breath. His life was finally spared. This tiny temple was practically heaven itself.

"Hold on, let me take a look… Scabby Monk, hahaha! Do you still recognize your old master?"

A voice suddenly came from behind, with an accent he seemed to have heard somewhere before.

Trembling with fear, Tan Laizi looked up — and was instantly scared out of his wits, plummeting from heaven straight back into hell in a single heartbeat. The man before him had a cloth wrapped around his head and a chunk missing from the side of his nose. It was unmistakably that same bandit from the well earlier, with a servant following behind him.

"I've been looking everywhere for you — so you're a monk!" The bandit was tall and powerfully built. He seized Tan Laizi by the collar and hoisted him up like a chicken.

Tan Laizi had never imagined he would see this well bandit again. He froze for a moment before wailing and pleading, "Thousand-Year Lord, spare me! I clearly saw that woman daring to resist you, my lord — I threw the stone to hit the woman!"

The bandit chuckled, looking down at the utterly terrified Tan Laizi with an expression of keen amusement. "When I kill a man, I've got a particular habit — I make sure he's convinced, heart and mind. You hit the woman? Heh heh heh. Then afterward, when you asked the girl if she was still alive — were you asking me, your old master?"

"I… I…" Tan Laizi froze, stammering, unable to get the words out. This bandit had been wounded yet made no cry of pain, and had even overheard what he said afterward.

"Nothing to say? Then come with your old master. We'll settle this back in the well."

Tan Laizi knew he was doomed this time. In a final, desperate struggle, he threw his arms around the bandit's leg and wept with heart-rending anguish. "Thousand-Year Master, spare me! I was hitting that woman! After hitting her, I had to ask whether she was dead or not, right? If she wasn't dead, I'd have to hit her again… Wahhh…"

The bandit dragged Tan Laizi by the back of his collar, laughing loudly as he walked. "Your old master will tell you — she's not dead. Dragged her up together with you. Face got burned, ugly now. Your old master will let the two of you be a pair of short-lived ducks together."

A servant beside him hastily added, "Reporting to Company Leader, sir, for your information — it's mandarin ducks."

The noseless Company Leader kicked the servant to the ground. "Your old master says ducks, so ducks they are. With that scabby head, where does he look like a mandarin duck?"

Having finished scolding, the Company Leader looked down at Tan Laizi. "Scabby-Head Monk, are you a duck or not?"

"This lowly one is a duck, truly, truly a duck." Tan Laizi answered frantically. "This lowly one absolutely refuses to be a mandarin duck!"

The Company Leader put on a dead-serious expression. "Ducks all know how to swim. Do you?"

Tan Laizi nodded rapidly. "This lowly one grew up by the river. I'm no good at anything else, but I can swim. If my lord ever goes to Jiangnan, this lowly one will carry my lord across the river on my back."

The Company Leader suddenly kicked Tan Laizi to the ground. "You're clearly harboring evil intentions — you want to be like that turtle that carried the Tang Monk and flip your old master into the Flowing Sand River."

The servant got back up and sidled over. "Company Leader, sir, the turtle was in the Heaven-Reaching River."

"Then last time you told me it was the Flowing Sand River?"

"The Flowing Sand River is where the Sandy Monk lived. Look, it's got the word 'sand' in it."

The Company Leader furrowed his brow and pondered for a moment. Finally, he nodded slowly. "Makes sense. The word 'sand' is the key point. Your old master is convinced, heart and mind."

He turned his head and fixed his stare on Tan Laizi. "Are you convinced?"

Tan Laizi hurriedly knelt up straight. "This lowly one was convinced long ago. Could not possibly be more convinced."

The Company Leader stared blankly at Tan Laizi, staring until every hair on Tan Laizi's body stood on end. Then suddenly — "Ha!" — the Company Leader burst out laughing, flailing his arms and legs in glee. "Convinced? Then tomorrow you go swimming!"

Tan Laizi faced that grinning, noseless face, his own mouth hanging wide open in utter bewilderment.

…

Chongzhen Eighth Year, the twenty-ninth day of the twelfth month — the day before New Year's Eve. The sky was overcast and gloomy. Scattered snowflakes drifted down, vanishing without a trace the instant they touched the flowing waters of the Yangtze River.

Tens of thousands of commoners gathered outside the south gate of Hezhou. Countless roving bandits surrounded them, weapons in hand, herding the crowd slowly toward the north bank of the Great River. The entire road was filled with earth-shaking wails and cries.

"Heaven-cursed Jiang Fan! Heaven-cursed Garrison Commander Pang! I've been done to death by you two turtle-spawn bastards!"

Amid the crowd, Tan Laizi wept and howled toward the sky. Like everyone else, his padded cotton coat had been stripped away, leaving him in nothing but a single thin garment.

"The scabby duck's going to float! Die and you're a dead duck — a pair of ugly ducks!"

A loud shout came from outside. Tan Laizi looked over through tear-blurred eyes. That noseless Company Leader, his face brimming with excitement, was flailing his arms and legs in glee.

"Heaven-cursed bandit spawn! You go try that in Anqing — see if you can afford to mess with me!"

Tan Laizi finished cursing through his tears and moved to wipe his nose, but when he tried to lift his hand, he couldn't raise it. He turned his head to look. On his left was a woman. A patch of her hair had been burned off, and the left side of her forehead was a bloody mess of torn flesh. Her right hand was bound by rope to Tan Laizi's left hand. She was walking with a limp, stumbling at times and having to lean against Tan Laizi for support.

"You woman, keep your distance! I've been done to death by you." Tan Laizi jerked his left hand, shoving the woman away so she couldn't lean on him.

Still unable to vent his hatred, he cursed at the woman. "Tell me, why did you have to run? If you were going to jump into a well, couldn't you have jumped into some other one? You got me killed for no reason at all! I had clearly already saved my life in that temple, and then — wah…" Tan Laizi covered his face with his right hand and wept bitterly.

The woman staggered but kept her head lowered, not uttering a sound. She was actually a little taller than Tan Laizi. Even with her head down, Tan Laizi could still see the side of her face. The right side had not been burned. Her features were not exactly delicate, but Tan Laizi found them rather pleasing. Her skin was also very fair — especially since she was wearing nothing but a bellyband.

As Tan Laizi wept, he couldn't help but open his eyes and peer carefully through the gaps between his fingers, secretly swallowing a mouthful of saliva.

But that still wasn't enough to make him forgive the woman. He thought for a moment, dropped his hand, and cursed again. "When that bandit spawn grabbed you, fine, you wouldn't come up — but why did you have to fight him? If he hadn't burned you, how could I have lost control and hit him with a stone? I got myself into that temple and saved my own life — how could he have dragged me here? Do you know how hard it was for me to escape to the temple gate? It was you, you who killed me!"

Tan Laizi, feeling the injustice welling up inside him, plopped down on the ground and wailed loudly. The woman could not walk either, but she did not sit down, just stood there blankly in place.

The team leader, watching from outside, shouted angrily, "Duck walk!"

"I'm not walking anymore." Tan Laizi sobbed, "Dead either way, sooner dead sooner reborn."

Suddenly a miserable scream came from nearby. Tan Laizi's crying stopped abruptly. He hurriedly turned his head to look and saw, not far away, five or six commoners kneeling and begging for mercy. The one in front, an old man, was cut down first. A crowd of Roving Bandits surrounded and hacked at them, killing that family one by one. In the end, only an elderly woman with silver hair remained. She knelt on the ground, shrieking desperately, and was still stabbed to death with a single spear thrust.

The crowd panicked and shrank away from that spot. Tan Laizi sprang up with a whoosh, dragged the woman, and hurried forward a few steps, moving a little deeper into the crowd. Only then did his heart feel somewhat steadier.

No one knew how the Roving Bandits would deal with them. The fear of the unknown fermented ceaselessly, and a sky-shaking chorus of weeping rose. Tan Laizi, grief surging from within, cried even more sorrowfully.

The woman beside him then spoke faintly, "I never thanked you for your rescue. It is my heartless fault for dragging you into this. I have wronged you."

Tan Laizi had not expected the woman to speak. He stopped crying, mouth agape, and glared sideways at her. "What use is saying that? Does Tan Ye here get any benefit from it?"

The woman lowered her head. "In the next life, I will serve you and repay your kindness."

Tan Laizi turned his head and looked her over again. That figure, that face — if her face wasn't ruined in the next life, he'd still come out ahead. But on second thought, the next life was too vague, and this life was about to end right now. Still not a good deal.

"I never even got married in this life." Tears streamed down Tan Laizi's face. "And now we're talking about the next life."

The woman's face was ashen as death. After a moment, she said, "Then I shall marry you right now, and wait upon you on the road to the Yellow Springs."

"Marry right now..." Tan Laizi stopped crying and sized up the woman as he walked. She was probably of middling looks. In normal times, women like her would never marry Tan Laizi. Even those who put themselves up for sale with a straw marker, Tan Laizi could absolutely never have afforded before.

Tan Laizi thought for a moment, then asked, "Uh, last night, were you ruined by that Roving Thief... forget it. Then you're my wife now." He figured having something was better than nothing. His left hand wanted to wrap around her waist, but as it happened, his left hand was tied up, making it hard to fulfill that wish for the moment.

A strange excitement stirred in Tan Laizi's heart. He thought for a bit and asked, "So what's your maiden name?"

"My family name is Sun, maiden name Red. I'm from Jiye Ward in Hezhou city. My father and brother both made tofu." The woman said quietly, "My sister-in-law jumped into the well with me. They all died yesterday."

The woman's voice trailed off as she spoke. Tan Laizi reached over with his right hand and supported the woman's bound hand, helping her walk more steadily. Both were dressed in thin single layers, but because there were so many people around, it didn't feel excessively cold. Now, as Tan Laizi held the woman's hand, he felt his palm grow somewhat warm.

"My name is Tan Erlin, second in the family. The Eight Characters said I lacked Wood. I've always worked at the brokerage on Sheng-Tang Wharf in Anqing." As soon as Tan Laizi mentioned the wharf, he suddenly raised his head. "Everyone on the wharf calls me Tan Ye. When you get to Anqing, go ask around the whole city — who dares mess with Tan Ya..."

Before Tan Laizi could finish his lines, the crowd stopped. Those at the back, not knowing the situation, looked around anxiously, wanting to know what was happening. The crying and wailing lessened somewhat.

Because Tan Laizi feared death, he had walked very slowly the whole way, always thinking about whether there was a chance to run. His current position was in the middle-right, toward the back of the crowd. That team leader was outside, gesticulating wildly the whole way, so Tan Laizi had kept moving inward. Now he could not see outside at all.

But Tan Laizi was short. Even on tiptoe, he couldn't see outside. He had no choice but to squeeze outward a few steps. Peering through a gap between people, he looked out — they had actually reached the riverbank.

"It's over, it's over. Today I'm dead for sure." Tan Laizi muttered.

When the Roving Bandits had marched the city's commoners out of town today, everyone had vaguely sensed something was wrong, but no one knew what method the bandits would use. Now, seeing the Great River, many seemed to have guessed the ending.

The panicked cries and wails in the crowd grew louder and louder. Tan Laizi saw that team leader looking around outside again and hurriedly pulled the woman, squeezing deeper into the crowd. The crowd was instinctively shrinking inward; the closer to the center, the more packed it became. Tan Laizi only stopped when he could squeeze no further and strained to untie the rope on his hands.

The rope was tied very tightly. This was purely the team leader's twisted amusement. He hadn't had the patience to bind the two people's hands securely; he only wanted to fulfill his wish for a pair of dead ducks.

Tan Laizi worked at the hemp rope one-handed. All around, weeping shook the heavens. He could not get the rope untied. Frustrated and restless, he turned his head to look. All around were the old and weak. There was only one young man, his inner clothes also stripped away. He had found a woman's skirt somewhere and put it on, crying especially loudly.

Tan Laizi kicked him. The man looked up, eyes blurred with tears.

"What are you crying for? Hurry up and help me untie this rope."

The man tugged at his skirt, then obediently reached over, untying the rope as he cried.

Tan Laizi was burning with impatience. Sensing the woman looking at him, he instantly wiped the mourning from his face, gave a dry cough, and said, "Wife, what was your surname again... Sun, Sun-wife, remember this in a moment — your husband here can swim. Don't go where the crowd goes. The Roving Bandits are definitely guarding the bank. You must follow your husband."

A trace of life actually returned to the woman's utterly hopeless eyes. She looked at Tan Laizi. "Then where do we go?"

Tan Laizi leaned in and whispered, "Your husband here has hidden a boat, not far from here."

The woman listened and nodded seriously. The way she looked at Tan Laizi changed somewhat.

The man, trembling, untied Tan Laizi's rope. Because he was so close, he had also heard Tan Laizi's whisper. He couldn't help but grab Tan Laizi's trouser leg. "Benefactor, can you take me with you!"

"Get away from me." Tan Laizi kicked him aside, but the man refused to give up, insistently clutching at Tan Laizi's clothes, terrified he would run off.

The sound of horns came from outside. By now, the crowd had reached the riverbank. The surrounding Roving Bandits shouted and yelled. From the rear came the thudding of horse hooves, as if driving those behind forward. The commoners stirred in response. Panicked screams rang out from the back, and the crowd surged forward.

The three were carried forward involuntarily. The crowd grew more and more packed. Tan Laizi was not tall; his eyes could only see the backs of others. He gripped the woman's hand tightly, completely unaware that his other hand was being desperately clutched by that man.

Thousands upon thousands of people wept loudly at the same time, the sound shaking heaven and earth. Yet none resisted or fled anymore. Just like that, they walked slowly toward the river water. Tan Laizi held his Sun-wife's hand, pushed along by the crowd, walking forward step by step. Suddenly, an icy cold pierced to the bone beneath his feet — the river water gradually covered the tops of his feet.

Note 1: Lu Kezao, "An Account of the Fall of Hezhou in the Yihai Year of the Chongzhen Reign": "On the twenty-ninth day, the scholars and commoners fleeing inside and outside the city who were driven into the river by the bandits were beyond counting. The bandits boasted that in recent years, only at Fufeng had they killed the most people; now Hezhou was an even greater pleasure."

According to Lu Kezao's records, after this battle, of the men of Hezhou, one in ten survived; of the women, one in twenty survived. The houses were all burned to the ground; only the temples and monasteries were spared.