CH 51

The Tartar in the North were like the Wukou in the South, they were both a terror-invoking nightmare.

During the middle period of the Ming Dynasty, the Tartar had replaced the Oirat Mongols to become the Great Ming’s number one enemy, their leader, An Da, had repeatedly tried to invade the Ming borders, making the Ming Dynasty court badly burnt at the head1. Sometimes, those officials at the border who were a bit more capable, were able to immediately make them retreat, but if they were able to encounter one of the good-for-nothing Generals then the Tartar were free to enter into the land of the Ming to plunder and destroy everything in their path without a second thought. 

The garrison of Liaodong and Xuan were the hardest hit by the Tartar, and the residents there suffered unspeakable misery. Maiden He was a young woman from a village close to the border, one time, the Tartar came to loot the village and killed off most of the men and r*p*ed all of the women. They then gathered up all of the people, preparing to take them away as slaves.

Luckily, at this moment, the Ming Court had dispatched troops to counterattack, expelling the Tartar from the village, and consequently the women were able to escape. Four months later, Maiden He discovered that she was pregnant.

She did not commit suicide like the other women of the village who wished to remain chaste, and she did not tell anyone about her pregnancy, instead she secretly sneaked into the mountains and had the child. The only issue was that a child born of such a background was destined to not live a joyous life. Luckily, the people there could still be considered simple and honest folk, and did not force mother and child to jump down a well, but they were not particularly friendly to them either. He Zizhong had grown up in this type of poverty-stricken and starved environment. 

When he was ten years old, his mother died, and the villagers did not want him to stay, so he started to wander aimlessly across the land.

One year later, he met Wang Huan.

The name Wang Huan is perhaps rarely mentioned in history, but his Governor-General was a prominent name —— Zeng Xian, the official who was the Governor-General of Shaanxi and Gansu Provinces and the Surrounding Areas, resolved to recover the Ordos Loop, and in the end was executed thanks to Yan Song.

Back then, Yan Song borrowed Jiajing’s hands to kill Zeng Xian, everyone under the heavens believed this case to be a miscarriage of justice. It was just a pity that the Emperor ignored the will of the people, and no one dared to ask for the verdict to be reversed. After Zeng Xian died, his wife and child were exiled thousands of miles away. Zeng Xian had entrusted Wang Huan with his wife and child before he died, so the latter, not caring for his own life and safety, escorted them on the road day and night, until mother and child arrived at their place of exile. As they were headed all the way up north, he bumped into He Zizhong.

He Zizhong’s name was given by Wang Huan. Zizhong was the courtesy name of Zeng Xian. Wang Huan decided to use the name of his former unlucky commander as a remembrance of what he had done for his country. He was Hui and a military man, he did not understand any great logics or reasonings to cultivate one’s moral character to govern the country. He kept He Zizhong by his side for many years, teaching him martial arts. When He Zizhong was fifteen years old, Wang Huan left and where he went was still unknown.

Naturally after that, He Zizhong continued to wander around, stopping here and there. Since he was a good fighter, he didn’t often encounter any dangers.

He did not understand books, in fact, he wasn’t even able to recognise the most simple characters, so naturally he wasn’t able to tell right from wrong, black from white. All the so-called principles that he remembered were all from what Wang Huan had once taught him such as one must repay others for their kindness.

So Zhao Su’s serendipitous charity back then, became his coincidental luck today.

Wang Huan was not Han Chinese and had never studied before, but could still be considered much better than many of those so-called scholars in this world.

Repay someone for their kindness – this was easier said than done, when the world’s might does not stand in your corner, when the entire world just continues to vilify you, could you still keep your morals?

At that time, the Yan faction’s power was like the sun at noon2, Wang Yuan’s action would most probably have incited the Yan faction to retaliate. When everyone kept their silence, even if he had retreated, no one would have excoriated him.

But he chose to fulfil the promise that he had made.

Perhaps he knew the saying – a gentleman must keep his promise, and was able to carry out what many “gentlemen” were unable to do.

To slaughter dogs in the name of righteousness, the majority of the heartless are all scholars3.

After hearing his background, Zhao Su didn’t know whether he should take pity on him or rejoice in his own good fortune to have been charitable that day. He stayed silent for a long while and then sighed: “Wang Huan was indeed righteous!”

One, it was impossible for one to survive so one became a bandit for the money, or two, it was like Zhai Rang and Li Mi, who were bandits in name but desired all that is under heaven.

As for Li Zi-De, he clearly didn’t seem like the first kind, otherwise he would not have cared to try to get Zhao Su to join him after finding out he was a scholar, and even offer up the silver ingots. If this had happened to Zhao Su, who had just arrived in the Ming Dynasty and had nothing to his name, then perhaps, he would have been moved by this and decided to stay to join his cause.

He thought about it, and then decided to still ask He Zizhong. “Do you know what kind of person Li Zi-De is?”

“Mountain bandit.”

“…….. I know he is a mountain bandit, what I mean is, do you know his background, where he comes from?”

“Don’t know.”

He looked at Zhao Su who had a ‘I knew it’ kind of expression written all over his face, so He Zizhong added: “I heard him talking to others behind closed doors, he mentioned some sort of sect.”

“How did you hear it?”

“I was eavesdropping on the roof.”

“……”

Zhao Su frowned whilst in deep thought, a sect?

The White Lotus?!

He was shaken by his own conjecture.

Due to the unreliability of Jiajing Emperor, peasant uprisings in various places had become very common in many places. It was also the golden development period of the White Lotus, so it was highly probable..

“Did they say where the Sect Leader was?”

He Zizhong grunted and then said: “He said that the Sect Leader was dead, and the others had gone up North to join An Da.”

There was no doubt about it, it was the White Lotus.

He’d actually encountered a “branch” of the White Lotus, and was able to escape without being harmed. If they had known that he was an official of the Ming Court, Li Zi-De would not have let him leave so easily.

Zhao Su thought it over, and then took out a brush pen and paper, and wrote a letter to Zhang Juzheng to inform him of this matter.

He knew that Zhang Juzheng would definitely tell his teacher, Xu Jie, and then however they decided to treat the matter would not be something that he could question.

With the addition of a skilled fighter like He Zizhong, Zhao Su and his pageboy continued their journey south without a hitch. He Zizhong was employed to be Zhao Su’s personal bodyguard, and earned twice as much salary as Zhao Ji. He Zizhong did not object in the slightest, nor was he disappointed. Zhao Su later found out that this person was seemingly uncommunicative, and had a mysterious but capable manner about him but he was actually very stubborn.

He Zizhong was very easy to keep, he wasn’t bothered about what he ate, he didn’t care if he had to sleep on the floor. He obeyed Zhao Su completely, he also wasn’t bothered by Zhao Ji running his mouth off. Naturally, Zhao Su never asked him to do anything out of order.

The three of them travelled all the way down south from Henan, when they arrived in Jiangxi Province, there was a sudden heavy snowfall which continued on for a few days. The road was blocked, and they couldn’t continue their journey. Zhao Su was forced to stay in an inn there for a few days.

It would be Lunar New Year in a few days, the inn was full of travellers and merchants who were looking to rush home. Everyone was gathered together to keep warm as well as gathering information about the outside, except that all the merchants were sitting on the left side, and a few young page boys were sitting on the right with a table to themselves. The divide between them was quite obvious and it was evidently for fear of catching any disease or to get away from the rancid smell.

Coincidentally, Zhao Su and his companions were sitting right in the middle.

The merchants were well-travelled and naturally were also very well informed. Not long after, they began talking about the problem of the Tartar people in the North, saying that these people were blood-thirsty killers, and didn’t even let go of the women and children. They also added that not long ago, they’d finally been beaten to retreat, and probably would not dare to come back for a short while.

Zhao Su noticed that He Zizhong was not particularly attentive to what they were saying, and he looked fairly worry-free, he had finished eating the plate of beef in front of him, and was staring at Zhao Su’s plate, expressing his desire silently.

“Why don’t you go and get us some wine from the innkeeper, the weather is cold, so it will warm our bodies.” Zhao Su pushed his own plate of beef and put it in front of him, whilst he said that.

He Zizhong nodded then got up to leave.

Zhao Ji turned towards him, and then started to blabber on beside Zhao Su’s ear: “Shaoye, is this person a bit stupid, on the road I’ve been speaking to him a far bit, but he doesn’t really answer me, or sometimes he just evades my question.”

“Do you think everyone has to be like you, chirping all day without end?”

Zhao Su tore a piece off the mantou and then put it in his mouth and then said pensively: “Su Dongpo said life’s misery begins with literacy, do not record your name crudely6. Sometimes, the more you know, the more problems you have to overcome. He Zizhong is not stupid or retarded, it’s just that he does not have any worries in his heart, and does not have any ambitions for wealth and glory like some other people. His life is simple, unselfish and rigid. Tolerance is a virtue, this way he can be completely carefree and focus on his martial arts, do you understand now?”

Zhao Ji shook his head.

Last day of the Lunar Year.

The Zhao clan had settled in Fujian for hundreds of years. One must pay great attention to parental funerary rites, and offering gifts and respect for one’s ancestors was upheld with the utmost importance. Generally speaking, on the afternoon before the Lunar New Year’s Eve reunion dinner, any direct descendant of the Zhao clan had to send a male to the ancestral temple to participate. The ancestral worship ceremony was being held with no exception this year.

After weishi, the descendants of the Zhao clan had already started to arrive. Zhao Xifeng’s family sent Zhao Jin8.

Three years was sufficient for someone to grow up, Zhao Jin had indeed grown a lot taller, it was just that the arrogance that was displayed in between his eyebrows was even more prominent. He had succeeded in the provincial examinations a few months ago, even though his ranking was not particularly high, he now still held the title of juren. And from then on, could be referred to by others as juren laoye, and he now had the right to participate in the metropolitan examinations next year. This made him extremely pleased, and he always had a smile on his face these days.

Because this added another layer of status to his identity, he was suddenly more valued in the clan, and when many people saw him they would also bow. Zhao Jin continued to smile, talking with others, whilst displaying an attitude of faint superiority.

It was already forty-five minutes past weishi, it seemed that most people had already arrived, but it didn’t look like the Clan Leader was getting ready to begin. Everyone was a little confused, Zhao Jin couldn’t resist asking: “Zongbo, are we not all here?”

The Clan Leader, Zhao Shenhai made a “urm”, his gaze floated to the outside, as if he was waiting for someone else.

Zhao Shenyu who was on the side said: “Zhao da-ren is arriving soon, we should all wait for him.”

“Zhao da-ren, what Zhao da-ren?” Zhao Jin asked with suspicion.

The entire clan looked towards the only person of the senior generation who had ever become an official in their clan. It was their Bo-fu9, Zhao Xiyi, but last year, he had already retired from his official post and returned to his hometown. He had arrived long before and was sitting on a chair on the side chatting with a couple of the juniors.

Without waiting for Zhao Shenyu to reply, the Clan Leader cut in with a smile and said: “Shaoyong is now a fifth-rank official, and he is also the princely heir’s teacher, it makes complete sense to address him as da-ren.”

Zhao Jin was livid.

“Why would a concubine-born b*stard be allowed to enter into the ancestral hall?”

Author Note:

Some of you had some questions about Zhao Su being kidnapped, so let me explain.