Chapter 38: Outrageous

(Thanks to everyone for the support. On my way home from work, I saw the follow-read count hit 31. Today, I’m daring to aim for 45 follow-reads. Many thanks!)

Right now, Li You has neither grain nor money, but trying is far better than doing nothing at all.

Although he has yet to show any real capability and his status as a formal mountain bandit is even in question, he has been waiting for an opportunity; or, if all else fails, winning over these miners and salt slaves under his command could also be a way out.

It took a full half-stick of incense worth of time for Li You to finish distributing the meat to everyone. Those who ate early had already finished and were staring longingly at the meat still boiling in the pot.

However, at least everyone had something warm in their bellies, and the edge of their hunger had dulled, so finally, some people began to chat and laugh, unlike the deathly silence from before.

Once Li You finished serving the meat, he found he had no appetite himself, so he walked down among the crowd and struck up casual conversations. When he was cutting the meat earlier, he had asked very brief questions because they were hungry.

Now he really wanted to ask what professions they had practiced before and what skills they possessed—for instance, if there were any masons, potters, tailors, kiln workers, or tanners. In his view, these were all highly skilled talents, far better than someone like him who could only talk.

While serving the food, he noticed that almost everyone didn't even have a coarse ceramic bowl. If there were potters, they could at least make bowls so people wouldn't have to scramble for food during meals.

If people are forced to scramble for food like this for a long time, they will be subtly domesticated into animals. The damage to their humanity is immense, and they will naturally become walking corpses.

Furthermore, the weather is getting colder by the day. Once winter truly sets in, sleeping in this stone hollow in the open air, no matter how big a bonfire is lit, will still freeze people to death; it’s useless.

If there were some masons, stonecutters, or carpenters, they could unite—not to mention building a large compound—to at least put up some mud-brick or thatched huts that could shelter them from the wind, rain, and snow!

If there are no such professionals and one has to rely on a modern person like Li You, that would be like trying to light a lamp with a fart; if he could even craft a tiny wine cup, it would be a miracle that would make his physics and chemistry teachers spin in their graves.

Li You’s inquiry actually yielded results. There was an uncle and nephew named Liu Erniu and Wang Dashun who were potters and also knew masonry, and the Xiang and Dang families also had people who knew carpentry. Although they couldn't be called master craftsmen, building some rough houses shouldn't be much of a problem.

Liu Erniu and Wang Dashun were from Hu County. By the beginning of the Chongzhen era, there was basically no work to be had. Localized famines had already started, and people were abandoning their homes and fleeing, so their livelihoods were completely cut off.

During the great locust plague in Lianghuai in the ninth year of Chongzhen, Liu Erniu’s family had no harvest again. The land they rented belonged to temple monks. When the monks came to demand the grain rent and couldn't get it, they violated his wife. His wife couldn't bear it and hanged herself right in front of their three children.

His mother, to save food for her grandsons, also hanged herself, but later, the three children all starved to death one after another.

Liu Dashun’s parents also starved to death. When he was digging a pit to bury them, he wasn't paying attention, and his five-year-old younger brother was stolen; he was likely eaten by someone.

After his grief, he had no choice but to follow his uncle Liu Erniu to flee the famine. They had been to the three capitals, encountered roving bandits, and begged from wealthy families. Finally, they fled from Shandong to Henan, just in time for the great drought in Henan. They entered Shaanxi from Huayin and headed straight for Chang'an, but the road was plagued by roving bandits. Finally, they changed course toward Hanzhong, intending to pass through Mianxian to enter Shu, but were captured and brought to Longmen Shanzhai.

There was also a tanner named Song Jinying. He was a local, living in Fuchuanji, at the border between Ningqiang Prefecture and Mianxian.

From Liejinba to Qipan Pass, banditry was already rampant, and almost everyone around Song Jinying’s Fuchuanji were mountain bandits.

Since the early Wanli era, relying on the mountains to be mountain bandits and the water to be water bandits—wasn't that a normal, locally characteristic side job?

Song Jinying was a civilian during the farming season and naturally a bandit during the off-season. But the great drought and locust plague in the eleventh year of Chongzhen made it impossible to maintain his primary occupation as a farmer. Since Heaven offered no way to live, Song Jinying went full-time. He started as a blade-wielder, then gathered three or five friends and set up a banner at Qingyanzi. Unexpectedly, his first job was a huge success—he robbed a courier horse!

The problem was that the illiterate Song Jinying had no idea he had robbed a 600-li urgent dispatch belonging to Wang Weizhang, the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief inspecting Sichuan. The report detailed that the Shaanxi rebels had broken through Ningqiang Prefecture, were heading toward Guangyuan and Baishui, invading Long'an Prefecture, exiting Jinzhou, and intending to attack Chengdu—all because there was a Shu Prince of the Zhu family in Chengdu!

The crime of causing the fall of a princely fief was something even ten heads wouldn't be enough for Wang Weizhang to lose. But the illiterate Song Jinying didn't give a damn about Wang Weizhang or Hou Liangzhu. He killed the man, stripped the clothes, burned the flags and letters, took the horse, and was still hesitating whether to kill it for meat or sell it to buy meat.

Before he could reach a conclusion, he was spotted by Zhang Zhuanggen, who was then entrenched in Mount Nulang...

Big fish eat small fish, small fish eat shrimp, and shrimp can only eat shit.

Song Jinying had no choice but to accept his fate. He worked as a leather armor maker under Zhang Zhuanggen for a year. Later, when Zhang Zhuanggen allied with Wu Zhuge, they moved their camp to Mount Longlin together.

This spring, Song Jinying, who hadn't tasted meat in a long time, was truly coveting Wu Zhuge’s woman, Dayu'er, and would wander around Wu Zhuge’s courtyard every morning.

One day, perhaps hallucinating, he heard the sound of Wu Zhuge’s courtyard door closing early in the morning and thought Wu Zhuge had gone out.

He became instantly and abnormally excited. To facilitate his crime, he took off half his pants before even entering the door, swaggering and swaying as he charged in...

It turned out Wu Zhuge was sitting by the bed, and he was given a huge fright by this guy swaying in...

Song Jinying was castrated on the spot, and his life was almost lost as well. If it weren't for his leather armor-making skills, the grass on his grave would probably be growing for the second time by now.

In the end, he was sent to Nanshan to be a mine slave, bare-bottomed and bleeding...

Just hearing this made Li You feel so awkward that he could curl his toes into the ground and dig out a three-bedroom apartment, let alone the awkwardness of the scene back then.

He felt that the experiences of Liu Erniu and his nephew, while tragic, were still considered normal in the late Ming.

But the experience of this guy Song Jinying was truly outrageous—it really was outrageous. How could it feel like he deserved it? No wonder everyone in the Shanzhai called him "Eunuch Song."

Logically speaking, since this Longmen Shanzhai even had a eunuch, shouldn't an Emperor naturally emerge?

This was also an important reason why Li You had hoodwinked Wu Zhuge that day, leaving Wu Zhuge feeling puffed up for a while.

"No wonder that blockhead Wu was so easy to fool that day?"

Li You couldn't help but be speechless; so that was where the damn root of it all lay.