Chapter 17: The Plan

After wandering for a while, Li You had eaten with a group of mountain bandits; now he sat alone on a large stone before the small courtyard, one hand covering his still-empty stomach, feeling somewhat lost and at a loss.

"My heavens, even being a mountain bandit in this world doesn't fill the belly! In movies, aren't mountain bandits always drinking from big bowls, eating meat from big bowls, and occasionally snatching a 'lady of the mountain fortress'?"

The bandits' food was better than that of the mine workers and salt slaves, but only slightly so.

Though there were two meals of dry food, there was basically no oil or grease, and it was just steamed corn buns again.

In his right hand, he held a clay jar given to him by Wa Qingyun; inside were some mustard greens covered in green mold, the mold hairs a good inch or two long. Li You had once suspected Wa Qingyun wanted to poison him and was about to throw it away when he suddenly froze, stared intently for a moment, and said in bewilderment...

"Could this stuff be penicillin?"

In ancient times, when tailors cut their hands, they would treat them with moldy paste; the use of antibiotics like penicillin and xanthomonas wasn't limited to modern times.

For instance, chloramphenicol, chloromycetin, and terramycin—all three originated from traditional Chinese medicine.

In the Ming Dynasty, the Tianning Temple in Changzhou used large jars to hold mustard greens, first exposing them to sun by day and dew by night to induce mold, growing green mold hairs three or four inches long, known as "green mold"; then the jars were sealed and buried in the earth. Ten years later, when opened, the mustard greens inside had completely turned to water, and the mold hairs were gone; this was called "aged mustard brine," the earliest form of penicillin.

Chloramphenicol and terramycin originated from yellow earth soup, made from earthworms and yellow earth.

Furthermore, the prototype of nitroglycerin came from the "Miscellaneous Remedies" section of the *Jin Gui Yao Lue*, treating "corpse syncope," by placing cinnamon powder under the tongue; the usage was exactly the same.

Li You decided to keep this clay jar; if he ever developed a fever like Wu Dading did last time, this stuff might just reduce the inflammation.

However, this substance would certainly need improvement.

In his past life, Li You's grandfather was indeed an old farmer, but also a folk doctor; he knew a bit about that.

Today, he not only gained a certain understanding of the Nanshan mining area, but also, since Wa Qingyun no longer guarded against him and opened up, Li You gained a deeper understanding of Longmen Shanzhai.

Meanwhile, the various bandits in the current world were deeply impressed in the original body's memory...

The so-called mountain bandits were green forest heroes in the style of Liangshan heroes, gangs raised by local swordsmen.

The so-called habitual bandits were those who specialized in robbery, arson, murder, and kidnapping for ransom; wherever they went, they spared neither the innocent nor the guilty, neither the poor nor the rich, the good nor the bad, stripping everything bare, though they rarely committed village or household massacres. They had certain internal rules, passed down through generations, with sons inheriting their fathers' trade; sometimes entire surnames or villages were habitual bandits. In peaceful times, they farmed and hunted; when the world grew slightly chaotic, they took up their swords and went up the mountain. Wu Ying, Wu Zhuge, and others belonged to this category of standard, hereditary habitual bandits.

The so-called soldier-bandits were mostly disbanded or routed chaotic armies, filled with a vengeful spirit against the world.

The so-called official-bandits referred to collusion between officials and bandits, harming the common people.

The so-called horse bandits naturally had cavalry units that raided swiftly, coming and going like the wind, with extremely strong power.

The nature of Longmen Shanzhai was extremely complex: it had a cavalry unit, connections to gentry and government officials, deserters from the border army, and even Wu Zhuge, a habitual bandit leader whose ancestors were bandits. From top to bottom, there were over one hundred and seventy people, plus a host of mine workers and children, making the total number truly staggering.

When a forest is large, internal infighting is inevitable. Under Wu Zhuge, the pillar holding up the sky, Longmen Shanzhai had three other speakers, each with different backgrounds and compositions, making their interests difficult to align.

Wu Zhuge held the strongest power, dividing his eighty-plus subordinates into four squads and appointing squad leaders he called "Squad Commanders": Wu Nai, Zhang Cang, Wang Qiong, and Niu Jinku. He firmly controlled the mountain stronghold's core forces: the cavalry and the archers.

This cavalry unit had twenty-six horses, a small minority of which were brought by Shi Dayong. In these times of war, having a horse meant having an extra life; the archers were a technical combat unit, where from the bow to the arrows to the men themselves, everything was extremely costly.

Next was Zhang Zhuanggen; under him were two Squad Commanders, Lu Fengzi and Zhao Duyan, totaling around fifty or sixty men.

His men were of mixed quality, mostly formed by merging smaller gangs. They were responsible for "laying lines and suppressing water," had average combat strength, and were mainly in charge of interrogations, intelligence gathering, and scouting locations.

Next was Cao Er; the number of men under him fluctuated greatly. The Cao household employed many Retainers, but those he often kept by his side were mostly the ruffians and vagabonds of Mian County and the porters' guild, such as Shi Jiu'en, Huang Mao, and Gu Laosan, as well as some clerks and constables from the government who had committed offenses, such as Mu Qianjun, Chen Shu, Zhang Zhengxiong, and Xu Lifang.

Finally, the smallest portion consisted of those who had defected from the former Great Commander Wu Ying, such as Wa Qingyun and Liu Longjin. This group mostly engaged in mining operations in the Nanshan mining area, rarely participating in robberies, road blockades, or other bloody affairs; their combat strength was undoubtedly the weakest.

The one with the fewest men was the current Fourth Commander, Shi Dayong. When he first came to join the shanzhai, he had not only thirteen war horses but also twenty-eight followers.

However, Shi Dayong was depressed and drunk all day. His former subordinates felt that following him meant starving to death even as mountain bandits, so many were lured away by other commanders. Even his personal guard, Niu Jinku, had followed Wu Zhuge, so currently, he had only seven men left.

In short, the current bandit gangs possessed a deeply ingrained traditional Chinese family structure, but unlike families, the authority in bandit gangs was fraternal rather than paternal, meaning it was egalitarian. It was precisely this equality that created the "democracy of the mountain bandits."

For example, if Li You wanted to join the gang, it wasn't simple. Besides having a recommender stand as guarantor, if one wanted to volunteer alone, one must have "iron window camaraderie." Without iron window camaraderie, without a recommender, and without equipment or weapons, joining was basically impossible; even if one did join, one would only be a "kid."

A "kid" was the most miserable in the bandit gang: charging forward in hard battles and retreating last; if marching during the day, tasks like chopping grass, feeding horses, washing clothes, and cooking were unavoidable; at night, they certainly had to take turns standing guard and scouting, and even sleeping in stone hollows. When dividing the loot, they could only wait until the bandit leaders and various commanders had taken their share, then the old bandits had taken theirs, and finally eat what was left. This was the rule of the trade; almost all old bandits had lived this way.

However, Li You had already managed to infiltrate the shanzhai by virtue of his fake scholar identity and his silver tongue. Now he focused more on thinking about how to live better under the current shanzhai system.

"The democracy of the mountain bandits..."

Li You murmured. Every advantage has its disadvantage, especially something like "democracy." An egalitarian organizational management system naturally disperses power, causing each commander to have their own little agenda.

Just like a bandit member such as Wa Qingyun, he often remained loyal to his own leader, namely Cao Er, rather than to Wu Zhuge.

This situation was likely orchestrated by Cao Er himself; probably all commanders were like this. This could be seen from Wa Qingyun's derogatory nickname for Wu Zhuge. Moreover, Li You even felt that Wa Qingyun wouldn't be loyal to Cao Er either.

"Even a small bandit gang of mountain thieves has so many factions; just imagine how the Great Ming court must be!"

Li You muttered to himself, feeling even more depressed in his heart.

He had currently achieved his basic goal: surviving by virtue of this fake scholar identity. But what next?

Should he shout, "I want to change this world..."? Or shout, "I want to be the Emperor..."? Or perhaps, "After I pacify the world, I will become an Emperor, drunk with beauty on my lap, and soberly holding the power of the world..."?

Why be an Emperor? It's quite taxing on the kidneys.

These thoughts flashed through Li You's mind for an instant, and he grew too lazy to fantasize. As the saying goes, "Gold will always shine." This pea-sized grain of gold, in the relatively fair era of his past life, had endured until thirty without shining or glowing, not even securing the basic right to reproduce.

With such an astonishing record, did he really believe he could defy heaven and change his fate in this man-eating feudal chaotic world? Just by suddenly gaining a few extra jin of strength? Or relying on his martial arts?

Li You murmured to himself: "Be down-to-earth. Stick to the original plan; becoming a bandit commander is more practical. But exactly how to operate?"