Chapter 4: Longmen Shanzhai

On the way under escort, Li You encountered quite a few large and small bands of bandits, all of whom were acquainted with the mountain bandits who had bound them.

The man riding the piebald horse exchanged a few brief words with them; some of the bandits turned back directly, while others intended to enter Lueyang City to try their luck.

After walking for about three hours, they finally left the territory of Lueyang County, crossed the Ju River, and seemed to be heading toward Yangping Pass to reach Mianxian.

Logically speaking, twenty-some people tied to a single wooden pole could not possibly move quickly.

However, these mountain bandits were ruthless killers who simply hacked to death two who could not keep up, and their speed picked up immediately.

Before the sky had turned completely dark, of the seventeen women abducted along the way, five had already been played to death by the bandits in turns; in particular, a mountain bandit with a tumor on his forehead had killed two in succession.

One of the young girls had been brutally deflowered by him and died of shock; judging by her appearance, she was only about fifteen years old.

For Li You, who had once lived in a peaceful and prosperous age, all of this was a series of heavy blows that left his heart feeling leaden and suffocated; he was forced to breathe hard, yet he felt as if the air he inhaled was like shards of broken glass, piercing his lungs with pain.

But he would not, as he had just done at the East Gate of Dongyi Street, fly into a fit of rage in a muddled state.

With these eighty-some mountain bandits and horse thieves, even if his strength had grown, it would be futile.

As for escaping, that was even more unrealistic, unless he abandoned Wu Dading, whose foot was injured.

He kept his head lowered, slowly digesting the memories of this body while pricking up his ears to silently listen to the low conversations of the other young men; sufficient information was what he needed most right now.

After listening for a long time, he was shocked to discover that this group of mountain bandits actually had connections with the gentry and wealthy families of Mianxian; this... what immense audacity!

Was this a disregard for the Great Ming imperial court?

What kind of world was this?

In truth, the finances of the Great Ming had been near collapse as early as the Shenzong era, and by the Chongzhen era, the imperial court simply lacked the financial resources to conduct macro-level adjustments to resist famine.

With the famine raging, the world order had instantly disintegrated; bands of bandits, organized swordsmen, and petty thieves were visible everywhere, and only some powerful local clans who controlled local autonomy,

were able to rely on manpower and material resources to occupy dangerous terrain and build stockades to survive the chaotic times, while most people, in order to survive and avoid becoming displaced refugees, had no choice but to become thieves.

Thus, in the final years of Chongzhen, various types of thieves were as numerous as hair on an ox, categorized by nature into: roving thieves, soldier-thieves, entrenched thieves, official-thieves, local thieves, horse thieves, mountain bandits, water bandits...

Among them, the roving thieves had the greatest momentum; such as the peasant armies of Zhang Xianzhong and Li Zicheng, they were the heart-and-gut trouble of the imperial court and were considered first-rate.

Next were the likes of the Qingshan thieves of Henan and the Yaohuang thieves of Sichuan, which were second-rate.

These petty bandits entrenched in one area were the lowest tier; they brought disaster to the region, yet were even worse, and people of the time habitually called them "bandits."

These mountain bandits were located at the junction of Lueyang, Ningqiang, and Mianxian counties, in the ravine between Mount Longlin and Mount Puming.

The deep ravines of the Mount Daba range were mostly high in the west and low in the east, but the location of this Longmen Shanzhai defied the terrain; nearby villagers used to call it "Inverted Scale Dam."

This Inverted Scale Dam was surrounded by mountains like lotus petals, with flat land inside, completely occupying a natural stronghold; with over a hundred men, it was considered a significant force within the territory of Hanzhong Prefecture.

The man riding the piebald horse just now was their primary leader, whom they internally called the "Big Cabinet" or "Big Boss," with the nicknames "Martial Zhuge" and "Martial Big Head."

Besides these, Li You also learned that among these Longmen bandits, there were currently four great bosses, which corresponded to the saying of "four beams and eight pillars."

The key figure was the "Corner Beam," the second boss known as "Mr. All-Calculator," who was not only literate but also had the background of the Mianxian gentry; people called him Second Master Cao, and he utilized his own connections and background.

He was in charge of the "Eight Gates" of Longmen Shanzhai, and his subordinates were mostly ruffians, thugs, and yamen runners from Mianxian, playing a crucial role in the development and direction of the Longmen bandits.

The "Ruthless Beam," responsible for killing, beheading, and deciding whether to slaughter villages or burn houses after a raid, was the third boss, Zhang Zhuanggen, who came from a background of Hanzhong Prefecture thugs; he was like a glazed monkey, cunning and sinister.

The vanguard, also called the "Cannon Head" or "Welcome-Gate Beam," was the fourth boss, Shi Dayong; it was said he was one of a group of deserters who fled from Shanbei in the ninth year of Chongzhen, and he had joined the group and taken this fourth chair by relying on the number of deserters under his command and their equipment and horses, though he seemed to never manage affairs and was a drunkard.

Besides these, there were the "Water Tank," "Accountant," "Horse Station," "General Urger," "Line-Hanger," "Bureau-Understander," "Water-Presser," "Scale-Hand"...

Because he had the memories of the original body, Li You understood them very quickly.

Gradually, the voices ceased.

Li You raised his head to look at the moonlight, which was excellent that night; Li You could even clearly see several wood chips and dirt particles in Wu Dading's hair in front of him.

The journey was extremely arduous; by the second half of the night, they began climbing mountains, and Li You knew they were almost there.

It was not until the fifth watch that they passed the Qinghe Tablet and crossed two more mountains.

The mountain shadows were abrupt, and the starlight was brilliant.

Lights flickered on the watchtower, and a low wooden clapper was being struck...

Someone mimicked the cry of a fox, and immediately, the cry of a nightingale responded from within the ranks.

They finally arrived at the lair of these mountain bandits in a ravine; the response from the Shanzhai caused an immediate commotion.

"The Big Boss is back..."

"The Boss is back..."

A crowd of remaining mountain bandits scurried out like wolves; some helped lead the horses for the cavalry, some helped carry large and small bags, and some came over to escort the young men.

More of them were pulling and dragging the women who had already been tormented once, pointing and gesturing, chattering away—it was quite lively.

Li You took advantage of the gap to carefully observe this "Inverted Scale Dam," but before he could look for long, he was pushed next to five or six water prisons surrounded by fences at the foot of the mountain; the wooden poles on their shoulders were removed, but their hands were retied, and even more securely.

"Hey, is this a fat ticket? A scholar?"

When it was finally Li You's turn to be tied, a mountain bandit named Shi Youchun could not help but shout.

"Don't know, snatched him outside the city... Look, a lot of people died over at Nanshan again, Second Master told the Big Boss to find some replacements!" said the half-grown mountain bandit who was escorting them; his name was Wa Lan, and he was only sixteen this year.

Li You's heart stirred; he put on a smile, cupped his hands, and said, "That's right, I am indeed a scholar. I have long admired the might of the heroes of our Longmen Shanzhai and came specifically to join you!"

"Hahaha..." Shi Youchun sneered, "Join your mother's, get down there... Grandpa still needs to find those noble ladies to taste some meat... Scholars, bah... This world was ruined by you scholars!"

As he spoke, he kicked Li You into the water prison, and soon they were speaking lewd words and left impatiently.

Finally, the half-grown child soldier named Wa Lan hesitated for a moment, then called out to Li You timidly: "That... the north side of the pond, the water is shallower there..."

Having said that, he also ran off in a flash.

This water prison was five or six feet deep and about three zhang in circumference; the water was very cold and foul, with the stench of soaked corpses, and it submerged them up to their chests—for the young men who had walked over mountains and ridges all day, this was simply a slow death.

Only Li You and Wu Dading were thrown into this spot; Wu Dading was already gasping for air due to his foot injury from the journey, and the bottom of this pond was not level, being high on one side and low on the other.

Li You felt secretly pleased, because Shi Youchun had been so busy cursing him that he forgot to tie his hands; he supported Wu Dading, taking deep and shallow steps, and arrived at the north bank of the pond, thinking he could lean against the pond wall to save some strength.

Upon reaching the edge of the pond, he discovered there were six other people already occupying the bank.

These six people were clearly not from their group and must have been thrown into the water prison earlier; they stared coldly at the disheveled Li You and Wu Dading, and there was a faint aura of ferocity about them.

"They've killed people!"

The moment Li You met their gaze, this thought popped into his mind.

Such a fierce aura was not something ordinary commoners or typical thieves and swordsmen could possess; they had likely been tempered in mountains of corpses and seas of blood to have such fierce, beastly eyes.

"Come over and squeeze in."

Suddenly, the tallest of the six let out a grunt; hearing this, the others squeezed together, leaving a small space.

Li You felt grateful and half-dragged Wu Dading over.

He was exhausted to the point of death; as his body relaxed slightly against the wall, his consciousness began to blur.

But the wound on his chest still pained him, forcing him to wake up again; he braced himself to sort through the various pieces of information he had collected today, only to find their utility was limited.

But at least he could be certain of one thing: the Longmen mountain bandits had gone to such trouble to abduct them, so they certainly would not want their heads!

Having figured this out, Li You pulled up the inner lining of his clothes to prevent the things inside from getting soaked.

In a daze, the sun was already high, and a series of chaotic footsteps approached the river ravine at the foot of the mountain.

"...Start, press the water and sift them..."

"Heh, there are quite a lot of tickets recently."

"The Big Boss said, bring them all up today, calculate them one by one; keep the useful ones, why keep the useless ones to fill the stuffing."

The mountain bandits mixed in their jargon, and soon there was the sound of chains, curses, and pleas for mercy...

Li You pricked up his ears and heard the words "sift them," and his heart immediately grew tense.