[{"data":1,"prerenderedAt":-1},["ShallowReactive",2],{"origin-stealing-ming":3,"chapter-stealing-ming-stealing-ming-chapter-2":6},{"origin":4,"title":5},"chinese","Stealing Ming",{"chapter":7,"nextChapterSlug":19,"prevChapterSlug":20,"totalChapters":21,"novelImage":22},{"id":8,"novel_id":9,"title":10,"slug":11,"index":12,"content":13,"wordcount":14,"created_at":15,"updated_at":15,"volume":16,"translator":17,"content_hash":18},1220619,1614,"Chapter 2: Section One","stealing-ming-chapter-2",2,"\u003Cp>The old man surnamed Zhang who picked up Huang Shi was a military householder of the Great Ming. He had three sons. The eldest was called \"Youdi,\" the second \"Youdi,\" and so, as if heaven had granted his wish, a third son was born. Old Zhang, deeply moved, named the third \"Zaidi,\" but this time the spirits seemed to take offense and sent no more children.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the days that followed, Huang Shi lived together with Old Zhang's family. The whole household treated Huang Shi kindly and believed without question the background he fabricated. Before meeting Old Zhang's family, Huang Shi had encountered a dying beggar, a man from Kaiyuan. After the Jianzhou Army breached Kaiyuan and slaughtered the entire city, that beggar had hidden among the corpses for days before struggling free to save his life. Huang Shi copied the beggar's experience wholesale onto himself. This tragic tale immediately drew sighs of sympathy from everyone in the Zhang household. By the third month, when spring warmth brought blossoms, with Old Zhang's financial help and the aid of his sons, Huang Shi built his own small hut and, with Old Zhang acting as guarantor, became a Great Ming military householder and obtained his household registration.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>On the twentieth day of the seventh month in the forty-eighth year of the Wanli reign, Huang Shi went up the mountain again in the afternoon to cut firewood. The axe had just been sharpened at Blacksmith Chen's place the day before, so his work today went easily. As he swung the axe, he could not help recalling the events of the previous day, and a smug smile immediately spread across his face.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Blacksmith Chen had a daughter who had just turned seventeen. Yesterday, while Huang Shi waited inside the shop, the girl was called out by her father to serve water. At the time, he had felt the girl's expression was somewhat unusual. After the young lady went back inside, Blacksmith Wang, without leaving a trace, began praising how frugal and hardworking his daughter was, and added that a physiognomist had said she had the look of one who would bear sons. Huang Shi's physical advantages meant that whether farming or cutting firewood, his yields surpassed those of others. Blacksmith Chen's implication was that if a young man had plenty of drive and could provide his daughter a good support, then paying the betrothal gift over a few years would not be a big problem.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Of course it was not a big problem. Blacksmith Wang had three daughters and one son — how could there possibly be any problem? Old Zhang had suffered precisely on this account. He had named his first two sons Youdi and Youdi, and as if heaven had granted his wish, not a single daughter was born. Now he was racking his brains over the marriage arrangements for his second son. Although Huang Shi did not currently have the few strings of cash for a betrothal gift, he was confident he could save it up within a few months. Only, he would not use it to take a wife for himself. Until Old Zhang's second son's marriage was settled, Huang Shi would not consider his own affairs. But the moment he thought of history, an absurd feeling surged in his chest. In the end, it would all still come to nothing.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the first year of the Tianqi reign, the Jianzhou chieftain Nurhaci invaded Liaodong. In the six years that followed, five million Liaodong commoners were slaughtered down to five hundred thousand;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the second year of the Chongzhen reign, the Later Jin Great Khan Hong Taiji broke through Shanhai Pass. In the fifteen years that followed, seven million Chinese people were brutally killed, and three million were abducted into slavery;\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>In the seventeenth year of the Chongzhen reign, the Manchu Qing Prince Regent Dorgon led his army through the pass. In the twenty years that followed, of one hundred and fifty million Chinese people, one hundred and ten million perished unnatural deaths.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Next year would be the first year of the Tianqi reign!\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>Knowing the course of history yet being able only to watch helplessly as it unfolded was truly a terrible feeling. In his bitterness and frustration, Huang Shi felt all his drive drain from his body in an instant. After gathering today's harvest, Huang Shi set out early on the small path home. As he reached the edge of the woods, he was suddenly drawn to a very strange sight. Just as he drew closer, preparing to look carefully, he heard a loud shout.\u003C\u002Fp>\n\u003Cp>\"Don't touch my bird!\"\u003C\u002Fp>",771,"2026-06-04T07:54:30.907Z",1,"Novelzhen Translator","6e1998bcc5bf03126e55da2dd9d325e0c1f6e6ec085fa0732169d9b2ae02651f","stealing-ming-chapter-3","stealing-ming-chapter-1",323,"https:\u002F\u002Fnovelzhen.com\u002Fimages\u002Fcovers\u002Fstealing-ming-cover.jpg"]