Chapter 18: Ruined

The memories in his mind caused him to immediately dismiss the idea of running away, for outside lay the purgatory-like life of the displaced.

In the ninth year of the Chongzhen reign, Li You’s parents contracted the plague and, being old and frail, both passed away.

In the tenth year of the Chongzhen reign, Wu Yicheng, who worked as a groom for the Wang family of scholars, had his old wounds flare up; he could not pull through and also died.

This spring, the dry, yellowed grain from the previous year had been exhausted, and the green shoots in the fields could not grow; with such a gap between harvests, people died of hunger in droves.

The terrifying phenomenon of "cannibalism" kept occurring around them, and with no other choice, the two finally began to flee the famine, becoming members of the vast, surging tide of refugees.

Rushing east and west along the way, they encountered either the scourge of war, the drought that scorched the earth for a thousand miles, or the scourge of bandits, witnessing too many horrific sights on the road:

"In Chongzhou, there were five brothers of the Yuan family who took their mother and fled with the crowd. By evening, they had no food, so the crowd chose the fattest among them to kill and eat. Four of the five brothers were killed, but the fifth son managed to take his mother and escape to another county, miraculously avoiding the disaster." [Note]

"Meeting a dozen starving people who blocked the road, they saw the crowd dared not approach, yet they shouted wildly: 'If you cannot pass, leave two people behind to serve as our rations.'" [Note]

If it weren't for their sturdy frames and over a decade of martial arts training, the two would have died many times over.

In early September, following the refugees and preparing to head south into Shu, they arrived at Lueyang County.

Here, apart from there being slightly more elm bark, their situation had not improved much; the refugees were so hungry they all looked like green-faced ghosts. Those with children could trade them for a peck of millet; those with wives sold them by the catty.

Most of the orphans, widows, and elderly died in the corners of town walls or in the wilderness where no one would ever know...

"Sigh..."

Li You sighed, stood up, and found a place to put the clay pot away. He was now preparing to take a walk over to the wooden shed, wanting to stimulate himself to see if he could trigger his middle-school chemistry knowledge and invent something like aluminum or titanium alloy.

Soon he arrived at the wooden shed on the west side. Under the watchful eyes of the mountain bandits, work was still proceeding in full swing, with only the area near Qian Chengzhi’s shed being relatively more relaxed.

His two apprentices, Qian Zhong and Qian Yong, were vigorously swinging iron hammers, while a boy of about twelve or thirteen was helping to pull the bellows.

Qian Chengzhi had already seen him. Their eyes met, and Li You walked in naturally.

"Who might you be, Mr. Li?"

"I am ashamed, that is indeed me!" Li You cupped his hands in greeting.

Qian Chengzhi invited him to sit on a log by the furnace and said with a smile, "Where are you from?"

"I am... wait, where are you from?" Li You suddenly realized and said, "Cantonese... are you from Guangdong?"

"No... I am from Funing Prefecture..."

"Funing Prefecture?"

Li You frowned and thought about it. He really didn't know this place, but Qian Chengzhi’s accent was slightly different from Cantonese, though the difference was minor. He must surely be from that Guangdong or Fujian region.

After chatting with him for a while, Li You learned that Qian Chengzhi was actually a cannon-maker, not a blacksmith at all. Brothers in his guild had sent word that the current Emperor valued the power of firearms and that the Bureau of Military Equipment was offering a large reward, so they told him to head to the capital to seek his fortune. Qian Chengzhi, who was already living a hard life, thought it over and decided to drag his family to the capital...

Unfortunately, in this world, going on a long journey was almost like walking through the gates of hell. Jiangbei, Huguang, Sichuan, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Henan, Shandong, Hebei... half of China was plagued by severe famine and rebellion everywhere. Large groups numbered in the tens of thousands, medium groups in the thousands, and small groups of hundreds were everywhere.

South of the Yangtze River, Hunan, Jiangxi, Fujian, and other places also suffered from famine and riots. Even the so-called "land of fish and rice" around Suzhou and Jiaxing encountered droughts and locust plagues, with grain prices soaring and commoners constantly gathering in groups of thousands to openly seize grain and cause trouble.

So, how could a journey of ten thousand miles be easy?

First, the carriage they hired was raided by mountain bandits, then they were captured by routed soldiers halfway, and later, after wandering and taking detours, they were confusedly scattered to Xiangyang, only to run headlong into the rebel forces. They just kept running west and arrived in the Xixiang region, where they were forcibly abducted to Longmen Mountain this spring.

Fortunately, Qian Chengzhi was a skilled craftsman whose services were in demand, so the group remained intact; both apprentices were by his side, though his son had been taken hostage.

Having basically understood this, Li You was just about to delve deeper into the iron-smelting process with Qian Chengzhi when an uninvited guest charged in...

"Qian, you grandson of a turtle, have you made my waist saber yet?" The newcomer was One-Eyed Zhao. He did not see Li You sitting on the log as he entered.

"Oh, Master Xu, there hasn't been time... These past few days, the Second Master has been pressing us hard, and we've been forging these iron ingots every day. There really hasn't been time to forge a saber..."

Qian Chengzhi hunched over, looking terrified and uneasy as he said, "In these two days, I will definitely forge it for you, Master Xu..."

"Go to hell!"

Upon hearing this, One-Eyed Zhao flew into a rage and kicked Qian Chengzhi in the chest. Qian Chengzhi, who was as thin as a hemp stalk, flew backward like a shrimp, slammed into the wooden pillar of the shed, and curled up on the ground.

The incident happened too suddenly; Li You wanted to get up and intervene, but it was too late.

"Master, Master..."

The two apprentices dropped their tools. Qian Zhong rushed over to help him up, while Qian Yong grabbed an iron hammer and glared at One-Eyed Zhao with fury, looking ready to fight.

"Oh... come, come, come, what do you want to do with that broken hammer? Come and greet me with it!"

One-Eyed Zhao patted his forehead and laughed while staring at Qian Yong. His arrogant voice made the whole wooden shed rattle.

Qian Yong’s eyes turned bloodshot and tears streamed down, but he ultimately dared not move...

"Pah!"

One-Eyed Zhao spat a glob of yellow phlegm directly onto Qian Yong’s face, walked up, slapped Qian Yong to the ground, picked up the dropped iron hammer, and was about to strike Qian Yong’s legs...

Suddenly, a sharp scream rang out. It was the boy who had been tending the furnace fire who had rushed over and bitten One-Eyed Zhao on the thigh. Blood instantly seeped through his trousers!

"Ah..."

In his pain, One-Eyed Zhao dropped the hammer and grabbed the boy with both hands to lift him up, but the boy’s mouth was clamped tight like a dog’s. He didn't lift him at first, but with a sudden burst of strength, he finally pulled him away, though the boy had a chunk of flesh in his mouth.

"You little bastard, you little bastard, today I’ll send you to your grave!"

One-Eyed Zhao roared in anger and threw the boy out. The direction he fell was toward the mouth of the furnace, where the raging flames were mixed with molten iron... it was at least eight hundred to a thousand degrees!

The ferocious expression on One-Eyed Zhao’s face did not fade; he seemed to have already seen the boy struggling and screaming in the furnace fire, eventually being roasted to death, but a figure flashed by and steadily caught the boy...

"Mr... Mr. Li!"

One-Eyed Zhao was shocked. He truly had not noticed Li You here from start to finish. The incident with Tian Si this morning was still fresh in his mind. Seeing Li You now, his legs went weak, and he stammered as he backed out of the shed and ran away.

Li You stared at One-Eyed Zhao’s retreating figure for a long time. This man was from the North Camp and should be a squad leader under Zhang Zhuanggen.

He suddenly remembered what Wa Qingyun had said: this Nanshan area was not entirely under the control of Cao Er. Apart from the debauched Shi Dayong, every leader would send a team of men to take turns on duty every ten days, which meant they were supervising each other.

This ten-day period happened to be the turn for Zhang Zhuanggen’s men.

This One-Eyed Zhao was from Suizhou and a fellow townsman of Xu Lifang. In his youth, he had followed Xu Lifang and served under Xu Lifang’s clansman, Xu Dingguo, as an old soldier who had drifted through the army, serving in Liaodong, Shanxi, Henan, and other places.

In the eleventh year of the Chongzhen reign, they were separated and drifted to Mianxian together, where they were saved by the swordsman Zhang Zhengxiong, eventually following Cao Er up the mountain.

Li You went over to check on Qian Chengzhi’s injuries. He felt his bones and they were all intact; Qian Chengzhi was conscious and not spitting blood.

This at least meant the injuries were to the muscles and skin, but that did not mean the injuries were insignificant; severe damage to tendons and bones often affected the circulation of Qi and blood in the liver and kidneys.

Whether one could survive in this living environment was entirely up to fate. Li You couldn't help but regret why he hadn't spoken up sooner.

He did have some basic medical knowledge; in his previous life, he had often followed his grandfather, a local physician, around as a child. Tomorrow, he could go further up the mountain to gather some medicinal herbs.

Qian Zhong and Qian Yong carried Qian Chengzhi on their backs and returned to the stone cave on the north side. Some miners followed them, but the guard leader Cui Shan urged Qian Zhong and Qian Yong to finish their work and return quickly.

The other two blacksmith families wanted to follow and take a look, but the sound of the whip was fierce, so they could only stretch their necks like chickens and peek a few more times.

Li You composed himself and was just about to say a few more words to the boy when a commotion broke out in the mining area. Li You walked out of the wooden shed and looked up; it turned out that mud and rocks were rolling down the hills on the mining side, like a black waterfall, kicking up a sky-high cloud of black dust.

Instantly, screams and exclamations were heard everywhere!

"It's ruined... Dading..."

[Note]: *Chongqing Prefecture Gazetteer*, Volume 12

[Note]: *Shu Chaos*