Chapter 128: Mao Shisan

He heard that some of the generals on the islands had also taken their men to join Li Jiucheng. Recently, people had been constantly coming to Zhenjiang Fortress and the nearby Dongjiang garrisons, inciting the officers and soldiers to go to Shandong to fight. These people all brought shining silver, which made many people’s eyes turn red. With a grit of their teeth, they took their weapons and followed.

Mao Shisan was also tempted, but temptation was one thing; whether they would even want a boy as thin as a reed was another. Besides, to cross the sea to an unfamiliar place like Shandong to fight the imperial court, Mao Shisan had no confidence. The most crucial problem was that no one could guarantee whether there would be anything to eat on the way to join the army. If he starved to death halfway, what was the point of talking about silver?

The matter of joining the army was temporarily set aside, but the hunger in his stomach was an urgent matter. It had been snowing for the past few days. He should have been huddled in his shed, resting as much as possible to conserve energy, but Mao Shisan was so hungry he couldn’t stand it anymore—there was not a single bite of food left at home.

Mao Shisan had lost his parents at a young age and was adopted by a fellow countryman of his father’s. The two of them depended on each other for survival. His stepfather had a salary, although it was only paid for less than a month a year. Moreover, although the various fortresses of Dongjiang Town were dilapidated, and the soldiers were poorly clothed and fed, not much better than beggars, it was a place where rice was as precious as pearls and firewood as expensive as cassia. A shi of rice was several times, even dozens of times, more expensive than in Jiangnan, let alone the capital.

A similar situation existed in all the border towns. The generals, who had made embezzling military pay their main source of income, disliked bulky grains and cloth that were difficult to convert to cash and demanded that the court transport silver instead. For the officials in charge, transporting the much smaller volume of silver was also more convenient than transporting bulky grains and cloth.

The influx of a large amount of silver inevitably led to soaring prices. Therefore, although the soldiers in the various border towns seemed to have a military pay higher than the national average, the local prices were several times, even dozens of times, higher than the national average.

The situation in Dongjiang was even worse. Not only did Dongjiang have a large population to feed, but its territory was also a cold and barren place where the soldiers could not even grow their own food to support themselves. Although the generals could obtain income through smuggling goods with the Manchu Qing, collecting protection fees from smugglers, digging for ginseng, and hunting for fur, this income had nothing to do with the military households and soldiers. On the contrary, it increased their burden—in history, the trigger for Huang Long being beaten and detained by mutinous soldiers was forcing the hungry and cold soldiers to dig for ginseng.

After Li Jiucheng’s rebellion last year, most of the court’s military pay and merchant goods transported from Dengzhou were cut off. The lives of the soldiers and the masses, who were already half-starved and barely surviving, became even more difficult. To a certain extent, this became the driving force that motivated a large number of Dongjiang soldiers to cross the sea to participate in the rebellion.

Those who were strong and dared to take risks all fled, leaving behind the old, weak, sick, and disabled. Mao Shisan’s stepfather was assigned a task yesterday. At least he would have a meal today. When he came back tomorrow, he might even bring back some leftovers. But Mao Shisan was already dizzy with hunger and couldn’t wait until tomorrow.

He dragged his weak steps to the coast. The frozen coast showed no sign of life, let alone the food he wanted. He felt that he was already hallucinating. Not far away, a small boat was rowing towards him. His vision blurred, and he fell down, and then he knew nothing.

Mao Shisan only felt a ball of fire in front of his eyes. He wanted to open his eyes, but his eyelids were very heavy. But one thing he was sure of was that it was very warm, even warmer than sitting by the fire at home. People feel particularly safe in a warm environment. He didn’t know if it was a hallucination, but he didn’t feel so hungry anymore and felt an urgent need to sleep. He remembered his stepfather and many others telling him that he must not fall asleep when walking outside in winter. Once you fall asleep, you will never wake up again.

However, he really had no strength to open his eyes. He thought, if I die, I die, and so he fell asleep again.

When Mao Shisan woke up, he was already lying in the cabin of a ship. It turned out that he had not died but had been rescued by a group of strange short-haired people.

A young man with short hair and a short coat was busy beside him. According to him, the “Chief” had found him fainted on the beach. It was snowing at the time. If not for the Chief’s kindness, he would have frozen to death on the beach long ago.

“You’ve been asleep for a day and a night. I’ve fed you sugar water several times,” the man said. “Otherwise, you would have died long ago. Have a bowl of gruel.”

He had no impression of having drunk sugar water, but his body was indeed not as weak as before.

“Come, have a bowl of gruel.” The young man brought a large bowl containing more than half a bowl of steaming hot gruel-like stuff made of mixed flour. Mao Shisan hadn’t seen proper food for many days. Seeing this bowl of gruel, his mouth watered as if a floodgate had opened. He couldn’t even say a word of thanks, his throat choked with emotion.

The hot gruel he drank was real food, and the delicious taste was something he had never experienced in his life. This also made him feel a little at ease. After finishing the gruel, he wanted to get up, only to find that it was not so easy. He seemed to be sleeping in a net.

“You eat one bowl first, and have another one later. You are very hungry, and eating too much can easily make you sick. Don’t rush to get out of bed. Rest for a while, the Chief wants to see you.”

The young man who took care of him had a very good attitude. He looked to be about the same age as himself, but he exuded a sense of competence that was not common for his age.

“Now that you’re on the Chief’s ship, you can just wait to enjoy life,” the young man said with a mysterious smile at the end. “It’s better for everyone to know. Be mentally prepared for what’s to come.”

After lunch, Xue Ziliang “received” Mao Shisan. Mao Shisan had never heard of the short-haired bandits, but this Chief Xue was obviously a high-ranking official on this ship, he just didn’t know where he came from. He had seen officials of the Great Ming, but they didn’t dress like this. The officials of Korea dressed similarly to those of the Great Ming. But the words spoken by this Chief Xue were genuine Chinese, and they were quite similar to the official language of Liaodong. His dress was also different from that of the Tartars. Besides, he didn’t have the Tartars’ queue on his head. And the Tartars couldn’t even build a decent ship themselves, so they certainly wouldn’t have such a good ship.

Although he couldn’t figure out their background, he at least had enough to eat and was warm on the ship. Not only was there delicious gruel to fill his stomach, but he was also given a new set of clothes, which not only had no patches but were also close-fitting and warm.

After a few words, he knew that Chief Xue was at least not a bad person. He was very kind and didn’t put on official airs. Especially after knowing that he was a military household of Dongjiang Town, he seemed quite indignant and said a lot of bad things about the court. Mao Shisan, who was only the size of a first-year junior high school student by the standards of this time and space, and whose knowledge was even more pitiful, was so coaxed by a few good words from this old hand, Xue Ziliang, that he wished he could pour out his heart.

“So your family is a military household of this Zhenjiang Fortress?”

“Replying to your honor: I have lived here with my stepfather since General Mao recaptured Zhenjiang Fortress. I have never been anywhere else except for Lüshun Fortress.”

“Then tell me, what do the military households of Dongjiang rely on for a living? I’m afraid you can’t survive on the court’s pay alone.”

“Isn’t that the truth? The pay doesn’t reach us. We are called military households, but we have no land to cultivate. Besides, it’s not easy to grow crops in this land of Liaodong. The weather is very cold. A few years ago, we relied on grain transported from the court and Korea, but not much of it reached us. We also have to rely on some fishing and hunting, and digging some wild vegetables to get by, barely half-starved.”

“After General Mao was killed by Governor Yuan, some people said that General Mao died unjustly. I don’t know if he was wronged or not, but life has become harder day by day. The generals have been killing each other, and many brothers have died. We are neither family retainers nor personal soldiers, so we don’t know what’s going on. We just have no money and no food. What little food and pay there is all goes to the combat soldiers and family retainers. To be honest with you, Chief, if I hadn’t seen proper food for more than two months, I wouldn’t have ventured out in the middle of winter to look for food.”

“You are close to the Yalu River here. I hear that Korea also hates the Tartars to the bone and is a vassal state of Korea. Why don’t you cross the river to Korea for food? At least you could get by for a while.”

“Your honor may not know, but although Korea is wary of the Tartars, they are also wary of us. It’s not easy to grow any grain in this area of ours. Korea has already provided a lot of grain, weapons, and ships to Dongjiang. How can they be willing to provide more? They don’t have enough to eat themselves. In recent years, there have been constant conflicts just from hunting and fishing on the border. It’s fine for a large group of people to go out, but a lone person like me would be beaten to death by the Koreans if I crossed the river—and I still have to be wary of the Tartars. If I were captured by the Tartars, I would be skinned alive even if I didn’t die.”

“There seem to be many forests here. Are there any large trees in the forests that can be used to build ships?”

“That’s true. When the weather gets warmer, people go to the mountains to cut wood, float it down the river to the fortress, and then tie it into rafts. But there’s too much of this stuff, and it’s not very useful. Recently, I heard that they are going to build more warships and have cut down a lot. But the people in the fortress have also secretly salvaged some.” At this point, Mao Shisan lowered his voice, “I hear they are going to build ships to join General Li.”

“So, this Li Jiucheng’s prestige in Dongjiang is not low,” Xue Ziliang thought to himself. They still don’t know that Kong Youde and Li Jiucheng have been defeated! But this was not surprising. What kind of news could a military household’s child, in a remote place like Zhenjiang Fortress, know?

“General Li used to be the deputy general of Dongjiang. His prestige here is very high.”

“I hear that Dongjiang Town is now under the command of Governor Huang. He is a great loyal minister. Are the soldiers below still willing to follow Li Jiucheng to rebel?”

“I don’t know if Governor Huang is a loyal minister or not. We just want to have a few full meals. After Governor Huang came, we still had no food. Your honor, you are my great benefactor. If not for you, I would have been done for.”

“So the military households of Dongjiang are still fighting for a bite to eat.”

“Isn’t that the truth? The Tartars are too cruel. Falling into their hands is worse than being a pig or a dog. But the court doesn’t like us either—they say they despise us for only taking pay and not fighting. Heaven is my witness, how much rice from the court can a small military household like us eat in a year? We can’t go out to fight like beggars,” Mao Shisan even started to complain.