CH 49

Within the borders of Henan.

Two little donkeys trotted along on the main road unhurriedly.

The young man in front was dressed as a scholar, he was looking particularly carefree, humming out some off-key tunes from time to time. Fortunately, there was no one around to run out and protest. The pageboy who followed him looked quite weak and unfocused.

“Zhao Ji, what are you doing back there?”

“Shaoye, you said that we are not without money, so why didn’t we hire a carriage?” The pageboy couldn’t help complaining. 

“Shaoye, you said that we are not without money, so why didn’t we hire a carriage?” The pageboy couldn’t help complaining.

“To be hardworking and thrifty in running one’s household1, don’t you understand that?” The scholar knocked him on his head. “Furthermore, we are not in a hurry. We can get home within a month. What’s the rush?”

“Well, at any rate, we should buy two horses, riding a donkey is so shameful! …… You are now a fifth-rank Academician Expositor-in-waiting for the Hanlin Academy!”

The scholar answered with an “en” in agreement: “Your Shaoye, I, have never rode a donkey before, we’ve learnt from experience now. When we get to a bigger town, if we see horses, let’s buy two. 

Zhao Ji was delighted: “Okay shaoye, let’s go faster!”

“How fast can the donkey go?” The scholar cursed with a smile.

“Shaoye, the clouds are looking a little dark, as if it’s going to rain. I’ve asked around before we set off, there are no staging posts when heading south on this main road. It’s better if we take a shortcut. We have luggage here, I’m afraid when it starts raining they will get wet.”

“Ok.”

The situation proved that the master did not recognize the way, and the pageboy was not particularly bright; they were lost. Zhao Ji looked at the three crooked paths in front of them, completely dumbfounded: “Shaoye, what can we do, which one should we choose?”

They had traveled for dozens of miles, but unexpectedly had not seen a single person pass by. It was a bit weird, but when they came out of Kaifeng, they had asked for directions, and everyone had said that there are many peddlers in this area, so it couldn’t be considered remote.

Zhao Su lifted his chin and signaled: “Let’s go down the middle one.”

Although Zhao Ji was young, he was very loyal to his master. He ushered the donkey to move forward and then trotted to the front: “Shaoye, I will lead the way. If you see something strange, just leave by yourself, no need to care about me. ”

Zhao Su was blessed with a refined appearance and looked gentle and harmless. He was also accompanied by a young servant so the villagers quickly put down their guard and greeted them enthusiastically, even the village chief came out to personally receive him.

Zhao Su was welcomed into the village chief’s house, only to discover that the majority of the village were made up of women and children.

The village chief was over fifty years old with grey hair. Compared to the wealthy elders living in the Capital, his appearance looked a lot older than his age.

“Could I ask where this esteemed guest is headed off to?” The village chief had seen something of the outside world, and knew how to speak appropriately. Hearing that Zhao Su was a scholar, his words became even more courteous.

Zhao Su got up and accepted the coarse steam buns that the other handed over, and smiled: “My name is Zhao Su. As my elder, please address me by my name directly. We are going down south and just happened to pass by here. We were originally following the main road, but ended up becoming impatient, and decided to take a shortcut through the smaller paths before arriving here.”

The village chief said: “If you are going down south, you have to go the opposite way, you have to go out of the village and go east all the way down.” He hesitated, and said: “You can rest here and then head off again. There are no other houses nearby, so if you travel faster, you can get to the relay station about twenty li3 away before it gets dark.”

Zhao Su hadn’t originally thought about spending the night there. He thought the tone that the village chief was using was rather strange.

“Dare I ask the village chief, why are there so few men in this village?”

The village chief was taken aback for a moment, hesitated for a long time, and then said: “Life has been hard here, the men have all left to work elsewhere to make a living, and they only come back during the holidays.”

Zhao Su nodded and asked again: “When I was in Kaifeng, I heard that this area is very lively, have we gone the wrong way?”

The village chief sighed several times: “That was three years ago. In the forty-first year of Jiajing, there was a locust plague and all of the grains were completely destroyed. After that, it didn’t rain, so it became extremely difficult to survive here.”

Zhao Su remembered the desolation he saw when he first entered the village, presumably what the village chief said was true.

But, how did that explain the absence of the men? It couldn’t have all been completely destroyed. The woman and children, plus the elderly were still here.

At midnight, in his sleep, Zhao Su awoke with an odd feeling. He slowly opened his eyes and saw the dark shadow moving in front of him. He was shocked and wasn’t sure if he should jump up. He picked up the wooden pillow beside him and threw it.

After all, he was not a weak scholar who didn’t even have the strength to truss a chicken. Years of exercise and training had greatly improved his physical fitness. The pillow hit the target, making that person cry out, which woke up the sleeping Zhao Ji.

This place could be called a mountain stronghold, but in fact it was just a mountain adjacent to the village. Due to years of natural disasters in the nearby villages, the villagers were struggling to survive. It just so happened that one day a man named Li Zi-De arrived, not only providing them food, but setting up camp upon the mountain, telling the villagers that those who were willing to follow him, would have food every month and even some money.

Such a deity-like person who descended from the heavens, those ordinary villages who were struggling to survive, naturally went to take refuge. With the sudden help of a few hundred people, Li Zi-De started to plan his operation. Every time a merchant passed by here, they would be robbed. It’s just that Li Zi-De did not want to take anyone’s life. As long as the money was given, he would let them go, and would still leave them some travel expenses. Compared with other murderous robbers in this world, he was extremely benevolent. Over time, the reputation of benevolent thieves grew, and for some reason, even if someone reported it to the government, in the end, the matter was still left unsettled.

When Zhao Su first arrived, he didn’t know that all the men in this village had gone up to Li Zi-De’s mountain stronghold, and only the women and children in the village were left behind.

But he only brought Zhao Ji with him, and he didn’t look like a wealthy man. The reason he was spotted was because Li Zi-De heard from the village chief that Zhao Su was a scholar, so he came up with another idea.

He Zizhong settled the person in his house, turned around and went to the backyard to take a shower.