Chapter 38
Chapter 38
“Isn’t the truth simply that immortals moved the two great mountains away?” a villager could not help shouting.
Zhu Xiaobiao shook his head and said mildly, “The truth is not that immortals moved the mountains. The mountains moved themselves.”
The mountains moved themselves?
The villagers became even more bewildered. How could mountains possibly move on their own?
“Does everyone know what an earthquake is?” Zhu Xiaobiao asked.
They did know that. Earthquakes had occurred in Yizhou before, though they had only made the houses tremble slightly and had not been severe enough to kill anyone.
Zhu Xiaobiao smiled. “Perhaps you do not know that earthquakes can be large or small. A small earthquake merely shakes the ground. A somewhat larger one can collapse houses. An extremely powerful earthquake, however, can split mountains and crack the earth, swallow an entire enormous peak, and even make a mountain move into the distance on its own.”
“The two tall mountains in the tale of Yu Gong were separated by an earthquake, opening a road for people to travel. The ancients did not know what earthquakes were, so they thought Heaven had revealed its divine power. Little did they know, Heaven would never care about one foolish old man!”
The villagers stood rooted in shock, their scalps itching as though something were about to sprout inside their heads.
The scholars’ jaws dropped as well. Never had they imagined that a myth would ultimately point toward the study of mountains, rivers, and terrain.
So Yu Gong moving the mountains had nothing to do with immortals at all?
And earthquakes could truly be so powerful?
“Then do immortals not exist at all?” someone could not help asking.
“Whether immortals exist is unimportant.” Zhu Xiaobiao stepped forward as the bronze gongs behind him began beating a brisk, cheerful rhythm. He declared, “Everyone knows that so-called immortals begin as ordinary people. Only after performing good deeds and accumulating merit do they transform into immortals. Without the earthquake, Yu Gong’s descendants would still have cut a road through the mountains and benefited later generations. Perhaps he would have become a mountain immortal himself. It is hard to say whether his luck was good or bad, since he happened to encounter an earthquake.”
The people were filled with emotion. They did not know whether to feel glad that Yu Gong had been spared thousands of years of excavation or sorry that he had consequently lost his chance to become an immortal.
“Let us put aside whether it was good or bad.” Zhu Xiaobiao smiled, and his tone changed. “The true lesson of this story is not how to persevere without giving up. It is that we can use Heaven to rebel against Heaven.”
Use Heaven? Rebel against Heaven?
For some reason, the idea sounded absurd yet made the crowd vaguely excited.
They had long suffered enough under Heaven’s cruelty and heartlessness. Naturally, they too wanted to trick Heaven for once and take their revenge.
“How do we rebel against Heaven?” someone hurriedly asked.
Zhu Xiaobiao said, “Seeds always sprout in spring and yield a harvest in autumn. Our ancestors used this rule of Heaven to obtain grain that filled their stomachs. Since mountains can move during earthquakes, that means we can also use earthquakes to move mountains. We cannot do so now only because we have not yet discovered the laws governing earthquakes, nor invented something capable of sensing them in advance.”
“If we can invent something that detects earthquakes before they strike, people threatened by them can escape Heaven’s games with their lives. If we can cut through Mount Yuji, then people suffering drought can defy Heaven too and make it watch us eat our fill!”
Zhu Xiaobiao’s voice grew increasingly impassioned as the gongs behind him beat faster and louder. “In Heaven’s eyes, we are no different from insects. Do you not want to resist its cruel heartlessness? Do you not want to make it open its eyes and see that no matter how it bullies you, you will never surrender?! Perhaps you cannot feed yourselves, but your children and grandchildren can. They will be proud and grateful for your sacrifice. Because you dared rebel against Heaven, they will no longer fear its games. They will even dare follow your example and strike Heaven with their fists, never surrendering to it!”
“What do parents live for, if not their children? Once Mount Yuji is pierced, our descendants and their descendants will be able to farm with ease. They will no longer suffer drought and hunger and can devote more time to study, travel, and learning how to rebel against Heaven. Why should we not do this for them?”
“If we were born in Yizhou and live in Yizhou, then we will change Yizhou! Whether our fate is bitter is for us to decide, not Heaven! We have believed in Heaven and begged it for so long, yet it refuses to spare us even a little extra grace. Then we need not believe in Heaven any longer. We will believe in our own two hands!”
“Fuck Heaven! Fuck the floods and drought! I can do it myself!”
Zhu Xiaobiao threw both hands into the air and shouted with impassioned fury!
Exactly! Why should they live at Heaven’s whim? The means to change their cruel fate now lay before them. With their own two hands, they could transform their circumstances, so neither they nor their descendants would ever again be cursed sinners and everyone could eat their fill every day!
Every villager’s blood surged. Raising both hands with Zhu Xiaobiao, they shouted, “Fuck Heaven! Fuck the floods and drought! I can do it myself!”
“Then what should we do?” Zhu Xiaobiao immediately called out.
“Dig the mountain! Dig the mountain!”
“Cut the channel! Cut the channel!”
“Exactly! And when we dig stone, we won’t work for nothing. We’ll earn silver! There will be no need to make the women and children at home worry about feeding the family like Yu Gong did!” Zhu Xiaobiao suddenly changed tack and dropped the final, weighty bait.
What? They could earn silver for digging stone?
The crowd’s eyes widened, and they instantly came alive.
“Our Prefect has said that anyone who registers to dig the mountain will be paid, and the more you work, the more you earn! When the relief grain arrives, you can use the silver to buy food. You won’t need to fear hunger at all!” Zhu Xiaobiao said with a smile.
“But isn’t relief grain normally distributed free of charge?” a villager could not help asking.
“Ah, that makes me furious!” Zhu Xiaobiao suddenly slapped his thigh. The gong-and-drum troupe behind him immediately launched into an angry rhythm. “Some County Magistrates are utterly inhuman! They embezzled all the relief grain, then lied that mountain floods washed it away and deliberately drove the people of their counties toward us! Since they are here, we must take responsibility for them, mustn’t we? We cannot let them starve to death!”
The crowd thought about it. That was true. Had the people of Jiangdu County not taken responsibility for them?
“But grain can only be bought with silver! The court did not send much silver. If we both purchase grain and pay wages, how can the funds withstand that expense? Besides, digging the mountain is for your own good. The people of Jiangdu County took us in and gave us buns. We cannot eat their food and take their money too, can we? Naturally, we must spend money to buy grain, then let Prefect Liang use that money to purchase more grain from other prefectures and counties. Only by repeating the cycle can everyone survive!”
The villagers’ heads ached from listening. All they understood was “digging the mountain is good,” “we cannot eat and take,” and “everyone can survive.”
But those few phrases were enough. They knew it was right and that this was what they should do.
The matter was being explained outside the prefectural yamen, so it had to be official business. They might be uneducated commoners, but they knew to obey the officials’ instructions. As long as they did not go hungry, they would naturally comply.
“Young man, you just said some counties deliberately sent their people here. How many are coming?” someone asked curiously.
Zhu Xiaobiao sighed. “A full thirty thousand.”
The crowd sucked in a breath. Thirty thousand? That had to be the population of nearly ten counties!
“With so many people, will there be enough grain to feed everyone?”
“Will they help us dig the mountain?”
“Digging will take ages. Won’t they need to farm their own land?”
Zhu Xiaobiao cleared his throat. “Everyone, do not worry. There will certainly be enough grain, and farming will not be a problem. The only problem is…”
Everyone’s heart rose into their throats as they leaned in to listen.
“There are simply too many people. Prefect Liang is kindhearted and unwilling to conscript them by force, but he cannot persuade them one by one either! We need many, many people to help con – ah, help them understand that coming here to dig the mountain and work is a good thing that benefits everyone!”
The people: “Oh~ Oh~~~”
Understood! They merely had to help con – no, help persuade people to work and dig the mountain!