Chapter 42: A Wild Fancy

"Substitute Imperial Law Enforcement, under Alliance Leader Huang's command, Left Sentinel Vanguard General Gu Xiaowu, delivers one Acting Emperor Fire-Exemption Banner. The Shen Family receives the banner!"

On the street outside the Shen Family's grand residence — a wealthy household at Bean Family Bridge in the Tongcheng County Seat — the crowd was so dense that not a drop of water could trickle through. Under the blazing August sun, everyone streamed with sweat like rain, yet no one was willing to leave.

The crowd formed a semicircle before the mansion's steps. Inside stood over twenty core members of the rioters. Gu Xiaowu stood at the very center, with a dozen or so rioters behind him. Half of them carried an assortment of weapons; the other half held two or three yellow banners, and two more clasped incense burners, each with three thick incense sticks planted in them.

Amid the crowd, Pang Yu craned his neck and lifted his chin high, peering over the head of the person in front of him to gain a decent view. He could just make out Gu Xiaowu's back. He Xianya, standing beside him, lacked such stature and could only keep tilting his head from side to side, laboring to observe through the gaps between people.

The Shen Family steward said politely, "Vanguard General, please wait a moment. This old servant will first burn incense and wash his hands in order to receive the banner. It will only take a moment."

Gu Xiaowu replied with an arrogant expression, "Washing hands and burning incense won't be necessary. This general still has several more households to visit. Quickly accept the Fire-Exemption Flag so this general can return early to report."

The steward wiped the sweat from his forehead, turned his head to glance at the dense crowd of onlookers packed before the gate, and said uneasily, "Lord Vanguard General, might it be somewhat inappropriate to conduct the handover here in public?"

Gu Xiaowu turned and looked back. The street was crammed with people — truly a case of countless watching eyes. Counting silver would indeed be somewhat inconvenient. Impatiently, he said, "Why so fussy? Then we'll go inside your gate."

The steward hastily assented and threw the main gate wide open. Gu Xiaowu, leading five or six men and carrying the yellow Fire-Exemption Flag, strode in with his head held high.

The common folk watching outside buzzed with discussion, all craning to peer through the main gate. Every face was alight with excitement, as if they themselves were the ones collecting the silver.

After a short while, several figures reappeared at the gate. The steward came out holding the Fire-Exemption Flag, while the men behind Gu Xiaowu carried two red chests, one large and one small. The watching commoners erupted in cheers.

"The Vanguard General is mighty!"

"How much flag-request silver did the Vanguard General collect from this household? Could you tell us all?"

"This family runs a salt business — you must demand two thousand taels to let them off. General Gu, don't let them deceive you."

Gu Xiaowu stood on the steps before the gate, looking down at the commoners below from a lofty vantage. He seemed to thoroughly relish the sensation of being the center of all attention. He did not answer the people's questions. After slowly sweeping his gaze around, he suddenly flung open the large chest. Inside it was piled with copper, tin, and the like, and among them lay countless copper coins.

The crowd below instantly boiled over. Ear-splitting shrieks rose to the heavens, and every arm shot out.

Pang Yu, mixed in the crowd, grimaced and bared his teeth. His eardrums were nearly deafened by the shriek of a woman beside him. This feverish atmosphere — even a concert in the old days was nothing more than this. At this moment, Gu Xiaowu was a superstar, and those below were all his die-hard fans.

Gu Xiaowu grabbed a fistful of copper coins and flung them out into the crowd, driving the concert-like atmosphere to a climax. Countless hands waved toward Gu Xiaowu, shrieks erupting everywhere. Wherever the shrieks were loudest, Gu Xiaowu would fling the coins. The crowd instantly converged toward where the coins concentrated, everyone tumbling and scrabbling on the ground, fighting over the copper coins. Those on the outside burned with impatience; the strong and sturdy simply hurled themselves bodily onto the people on the ground, forcibly crushing out a space for themselves. It was a living, breathing ancient live-action version of a red-envelope-grabbing scene.

Gu Xiaowu roared with laughter, grabbed another fistful, and hurled it to the other side, shouting, "Off they go over here now!"

The crowd immediately surged and pressed in that direction. Those who failed to secure a spot howled in desperation. People squeezed immobile in the throng sobbed and wailed without cease, while those whose hands or feet had been trampled cursed and swore unendingly.

Pang Yu was also shoved back and forth by the crowd. In the end, he finally found a chance to retreat to the very back, already drenched in sweat from the crush. On the outermost fringe stood a few others who had not joined the scramble. Pang Yu hid among them, observing Gu Xiaowu on the platform.

Gu Xiaowu and his men on the steps were flushed red with excitement, continuously flinging copper coins into the crowd. Nearly every commoner present had joined the scramble. A few days earlier, they had followed Huang Wending in plundering several gentry mansions, but whenever there was gold, silver, or the like, Huang Wending's clique confiscated it all, only permitting them to loot goods. Much of what people carried home was actually of little use and hard to convert into cash.

Over these past two days, carrying out the Xingxiang and banner-requesting in the city, as long as those wealthy households paid to request the Fire-Exemption Flag, they could not be robbed. Everyone had lost their motivation. So Wang Guohua, considering everyone's welfare, demanded that each household, when requesting the flag, provide copper coins in addition to silver. The silver was collected by the core members, while the copper coins were used to continue rallying the masses.

Copper coins were, after all, hard currency, and today they were a rare commodity. Thus, everyone scrambled fiercely. People across the entire square crawled back and forth on the ground, utterly heedless of any semblance of dignity.

After a while, He Xianya retreated, clutching his hand. He circled around twice and came to Pang Yu's side.

"Second Brother, why didn't you go grab some?"

Pang Yu kept his eyes on the platform and replied, "I don't care for copper coins. And why did you stop grabbing them?"

"Someone trampled my hand."

Pang Yu turned his head to look at him and saw a red, swollen patch on the back of He Xianya's left hand. He couldn't help but laugh. "Better not have injured the sinews and bones. The few copper coins you grabbed won't even cover the medicine."

He Xianya shook a coin pouch in his hand. "I've already grabbed over a hundred copper coins today — enough to exchange for a few mace of silver. Copper coins can still buy and sell things. Second Brother, if you don't care for copper coins, what do you fancy?"

Pang Yu leaned his head close to He Xianya's ear. "Look at what's on the oxcart they brought."

He Xianya didn't even look. "Who doesn't know? Those are the five chests of silver they collected today."

He finished speaking and suddenly froze, staring at Pang Yu. "Second Brother, do you mean…"

The Shen Family steward had set up a ladder and was reverently hanging the Acting Emperor Fire-Exemption Banner high above the gate. Pang Yu narrowed his eyes and watched him for a long moment, then said in a low voice to He Xianya, "Count up how many Fire-Exemption Flags they've issued."

He Xianya lowered his head and thought back. "Yesterday there were two routes. The one we watched had seven flags. Today is also two routes — this one has already issued five. I'd estimate they've issued twenty or thirty."

"From what I've gathered, it should be thirty-one." Pang Yu fixed his gaze on He Xianya. "Look at the way they're carrying those chests. How much silver is inside?"

"Why even look? Yesterday, people were saying it everywhere: a Government Student household, one thousand taels; a gentry household, two thousand taels; a great wealthy household, two thousand three hundred taels; a minor wealthy household, one thousand three hundred taels." (Note 1)

Pang Yu stared at He Xianya. "Thirty-one households. That's at least forty thousand taels of silver, and more will keep coming."

Hearing that figure, He Xianya suddenly felt his throat go dry, unsure whether from excitement or fear.

"But, but Second Brother…"

"Third Brother, take a look — do they have the ability to be great bandits or mighty outlaws?"

He Xianya turned his head to look. He saw Gu Xiaowu and three others struggling to lift that red chest. Because one layer of chests was already on the oxcart, the four men couldn't lift it up. They had to call over three more men, and only then did they barely manage to heave it onto the oxcart. Three of them were so exhausted they leaned against the cart, panting heavily.

Pang Yu's eyes flickered as he looked intently at that oxcart. "That one chest is at most a little over two thousand taels — just over a hundred catties. Yet it took seven men to lift it onto the carriage, and three are left gasping for breath. And look at them holding polearms and swords, striking poses — they clearly have no idea how to use them. Calling them a rabble would be flattering them."

He Xianya also looked at the oxcart and licked his lips. "On that point, Second Brother, you've seen correctly. I've met half the men in this gang — most are crafty, slippery sorts from the various villages. Of the hundred or so they've gathered, only Huang Wending and Wang Guohua count as capable. Another dozen or so have some brute strength. The rest are all Green-Skins and riffraff like these — neither strength nor courage."

"But this gang with neither strength nor courage has forty thousand taels of silver."

"Perhaps they've already divided it up and scattered it among their various homes."

"Or perhaps it's all stored in one place, waiting for someone destined to take it. Who knows?"

The two men spoke in low tones on the crowded street, their eyes fixed on the oxcart opposite them. Between the oxcart and the two men stretched the street, still filled with people tumbling and scrabbling on the ground.

He Xianya's hands trembled violently. When such a thought hadn't existed, it was fine, but once someone voiced it, the notion kept bobbing up and sinking down in his mind.

After a long while, He Xianya forcefully clasped his arms together to steady his nerves, then said, "Riffraff and scoundrels though they may be, they still number over a hundred men, with thousands upon thousands of hangers-on. Huang Wending and Wang Guohua have both martial valor and cunning, and their methods are vicious. Relying on just the two of us — isn't that too wildly fanciful?"

Pang Yu gave a soft "Mm" and said, "From what I've seen these past two days, they are indeed a rabble. No matter how valiant Huang Wending's fists and feet, no matter how formidable Wang Guohua's stratagems, they can't possibly achieve anything great with this bunch. Sooner or later, the yamen will defeat them. When they are locked in a struggle with the yamen, that will be our opportunity."

He Xianya panted, "Second Brother, why did you suddenly bring this up today?"

Pang Yu said coldly, "Because only today do they have forty thousand taels of silver. Otherwise, let them riot or not — we'd just keep ourselves safe and be done with it. But after today, things are no longer the same as before."

"But one misstep, and you and I will die without a burial place."

Pang Yu smiled. "Back then, Yin Deng asked me whether one life was worth ten thousand taels. In my heart, I answered: it isn't. That's the honest truth. Even if I managed two or three Silver Chests a year, that's at most three hundred taels of silver. After splitting the profits, just a hundred taels. Over a lifetime, it wouldn't add up to ten thousand. Today there's forty thousand or even more — why shouldn't I take this life, not worth ten thousand, and gamble it?"

He Xianya felt his mouth parched and tongue dry. A few days ago, when they were together looting goods haphazardly everywhere, Pang Yu had treated it like child's play — grabbing things with no method at all, as if he just found it amusing. He hadn't even matched an ordinary commoner with a bit of sense. But now, Pang Yu's eyes gleamed, showing he was absolutely not joking.

He Xianya had never imagined this Second Brother could be so utterly reckless — at a time when Huang Wending's gang was at the height of its power, he was actually thinking of robbing the robbers. His heart pounded fiercely. "They might also be Recruited to Surrender. Wouldn't we have busied ourselves for nothing?"

"Then we'll take it one step at a time. But if an opportunity truly arises and we're utterly unprepared, wouldn't we be letting a golden chance slip by?"

He Xianya could not refuse the temptation of forty thousand taels. Gritting his teeth fiercely, he said, "Then Second Brother, tell me — what do we do right now?"

The rioters holding weapons on the steps descended to the street and drove away the commoners on the ground. The procession resumed its march toward the next household. Gu Xiaowu swaggered along behind the oxcart.

Pang Yu did not answer He Xianya. Under He Xianya's astonished gaze, Pang Yu pushed straight through the crowd ahead and squeezed in beside Gu Xiaowu.

"Brother Xiaowu." Pang Yu wore a warm, sunny smile.

The moment Gu Xiaowu saw it was Pang Yu, his mouth split into a grin, then he said evenly, "So it's Brother Yu!"

"That day you said you were going to take refuge elsewhere, and I've been worried about you ever since. Just now I suddenly caught sight of you, Brother Xiaowu, looking so imposing and impressive — I'm both delighted and envious. If you don't find me beneath you, Brother Xiaowu, could you give your little brother a leg up too? If it works out, I'll certainly work diligently for Brother Xiaowu and the Huang Alliance Master. I could even help you gather intelligence from the yamen."

Gu Xiaowu laughed heartily and patted Pang Yu's shoulder with a touch of superiority. "I've always been on good terms with Brother Yu — I ought to lend you a hand. I've thought of you often these past two days, just never had the free time to seek you out. As it happens, the Huang Alliance Master has set up a General Command Platform to recruit heroes far and wide, which is the perfect chance to recommend Brother Yu to him and ask him to assign you a suitable post. To be honest with you, Brother Yu, our Huang Alliance Master and Strategist Wang are both talents beyond compare, men fit to be great generals. Rest assured following them — in the days to come, wealth, office, and a career path will all be within reach."

A glimmer of tears welled in Pang Yu's eyes. He looked at Gu Xiaowu with deep emotion. "Thank you, Brother Gu, for not forgetting a friend from humbler days. I will surely repay your great kindness one day."

……

Note 1: The Tongcheng Incident Record: (Tongcheng) The local gentry then laid out lavish provisions. When the bandits arrived, they were invited in; embroidered silks were displayed and a thousand gold pieces offered as tribute. The bandits bestowed in return the Acting Emperor Fire-Exemption Banner, which was erected at their gates… The village elders and neighborhood heads all led every household, vying to be first and fearing to be last; not a single Knight or commoner was spared.