Chapter 38: Absurd

(Thanks everyone for the support; I saw the number of readers following along hit 31 on my way home from work. Today I'll dare to push for 45 followers. Many thanks!)

Now Li You has neither grain nor money, but trying is far better than doing nothing.

Although he currently has no opportunity to show himself, and even his status as a formal bandit is doubtful, he has been waiting for an opportunity; or, if all else fails, gathering these mine workers and salt slaves under his banner would at least be a way out.

It took a full half stick of incense before Li You could distribute the meat to everyone; those who ate early had already finished, and now they were staring hungrily at the meat still boiling in the pot.

But at least their bellies had something warm, and the gnawing hunger had eased, so finally someone started talking and joking, unlike before when it was dead silent.

After Li You had finished serving the meat, he himself had no appetite, so he walked down among the crowd and casually struck up conversations with people; earlier, while cutting the meat, because they were hungry, his questions had been very brief.

Now he really wanted to ask what professions they had held before and what skills they possessed, such as masons, potters, tailors, kiln workers, leatherworkers, and so on; in his view, these were all highly skilled talents, at least far superior to him, a man who could only talk.

When serving the food earlier, he noticed that almost everyone didn't even have a coarse ceramic bowl; if there were potters, they could at least make bowls, so that during meals, they wouldn't have to fight over food.

Such long-term fighting over food would, subconsciously, slowly train people into animals; the damage done to human nature is great, and naturally they become walking corpses.

Secondly, the weather is getting colder day by day; when winter truly arrives, sleeping in these stone hollows, even with the largest bonfire in the open air, would still freeze people to death; it would be utterly useless.

If there were masons, stonemasons, or carpenters, even if they couldn't build a large courtyard together, they could at least make mud-brick houses or thatched huts that could block wind, rain, and snow!

If there were no such professionals, relying on Li You, a modern person, would be like blowing out a lamp with one's fart; even making a tiny wine cup would be a miracle, as if the physics and chemistry teacher's coffin lid were sealed tight.

Li You's question actually found some; there was an uncle and nephew named Liu Erniu and Wang Dashun who were potters and also knew masonry, while among the Xiang and Dang families, some people knew carpentry; although they weren't master craftsmen, building rough houses should be no problem.

Liu Erniu and Wang Dashun, the uncle and nephew, were from Hu County. In the early years of the Chongzhen reign, there was basically no work; by then there were already localized famines, people abandoned their houses, and most fled to beg for food; naturally, the two of them had completely lost their livelihood.

During the great locust plague in the Lianghuai region in the ninth year of Chongzhen, Liu Erniu's family had another failed harvest; the land they rented was temple land owned by monks; the monks came to demand grain fees, ruined his wife, and his wife, unable to bear it, hanged herself in front of their three children.

His old mother also hanged herself to save food for her grandchildren, but later the three children still died of starvation one after another.

Liu Dashun's parents also starved to death; when digging a pit to bury his parents, he wasn't careful, and his five-year-old younger brother was stolen, probably eaten by someone.

After his grief, he could only follow his uncle Liu Erniu to flee for food; they had been to the Three Capitals, encountered bandits, and eaten from wealthy households; finally, they fled from Shandong to Henan, just as Henan suffered a great drought; then they entered Shaanxi from Huayin, heading straight for Chang'an, but bandits ravaged the road again; finally, they changed course to Hanzhong, preparing to cross Mianxian to enter Sichuan, but were captured and taken to Longmen Stronghold.

There was also a leatherworker named Song Jinyin, who was a local, living at Fuchuan Market, at the border between Ningqiang Prefecture and Mianxian.

From Liejin Ba to Qipan Pass, banditry was already common; around Song Jinyin's entire Fuchuan Market, almost everyone was a bandit.

Since the early Wanli era, living by the mountains made one a mountain bandit, and living by the water made one a water bandit; wasn't that a normal part-time job with local characteristics?

Song Jinyin was a farmer during planting seasons and naturally a bandit during the off-season; but in the eleventh year of Chongzhen, there was a great drought and a great locust plague, so farming as a main occupation was completely unsustainable; since Heaven offered no path to survival, Song Jinyin went full-time; first he became a blade-wielder, then gathered three or five relatives and raised a banner at Qingyazi; unexpectedly, his first raid was a roaring success, stealing a relay horse!

The problem was that Song Jinyin, who couldn't read a single character, had no idea he had stolen the six-hundred-li urgent dispatch of Wang Weizhang, the Right Vice Censor-in-Chief governing Sichuan; it reported the major event of Shaanxi bandits breaking through Ningqiang Prefecture, advancing on Guangyuan and Baishui, attacking Long'an Prefecture, emerging from Jinzhou, and intending to assault Chengdu; after all, Chengdu had a Zhu-family Prince of Shu!

The crime of trapping a prince was so grave that Wang Weizhang couldn't survive even with ten heads; but Song Jinyin, who couldn't read a single character, didn't care about Wang Weizhang or Hou Liangzhu; he killed the man, stripped his clothes, burned the flag and the letter, led the horse away, and still hesitated whether to kill and eat him, or sell him to buy meat.

Before he could figure out the answer, he was spotted by Zhang Zhuanggen, who was then still lurking on Nülang Mountain...

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

Song Jinyin had to admit defeat and worked as a leather-armorer under Zhang Zhuanggen for a year; later, when Zhang Zhuanggen allied with Wu Zhuge, they moved their stronghold together to Longlin Mountain.

This past spring, Song Jinyin, who hadn't seen any meat for a long time, was desperately coveting Wu Zhuge's Dayu'er; every morning early, he lingered around Wu Zhuge's courtyard.

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

He instantly became extremely excited; to facilitate the crime, before even entering the gate, he pulled down half of his pants, swaggered in a loose and careless manner, and rushed inside...

But Wu Zhuge was sitting right by the bed and was so startled by this fellow's swaggering that he nearly jumped...

Song Jinyin was immediately castrated on the spot; the upper part was also nearly lost; if not for his leather-armoring skill, the grass on his grave would have already grown a second crop.

Finally, naked and bleeding, he was sent to Nanshan to become a mine slave...

Li You, just listening, felt so awkward that one could use one's big toe to scratch out a three-bedroom, one-living-room apartment on the ground; let alone the awkward scene at that time.

He felt that Liu Erniu and his nephew's experiences, though tragic, were still normal for the late Ming.

But this fellow Song Jinyin's experience was utterly absurd, truly absurd; it felt entirely like he got what he deserved; no wonder the entire stronghold called him "Song the Eunuch."

By logic, if Longmen Stronghold already had a eunuch, shouldn't it naturally produce an Emperor?

This was also the important reason why Li You was able to bluff Wu Zhuge that day, making Wu Zhuge feel momentarily elated.

"So that's why Wu Datou was so easily fooled that day?"

Li You couldn't help but be speechless; so the root of the problem lay right here.