Chapter 39
Chapter 39
At the very end, Prefect Liang personally took the stage. He displayed several chests of gleaming silver and guaranteed that everyone who excavated the mountain would receive wages, along with a subsidy for padded winter clothing. The people cheered, their enthusiasm soaring.
Zhu Xiaobiao and Jing Ze returned to the prefectural yamen. Xie Chengze was roasting a pigeon in the courtyard. Seeing them, he raised a thumb in praise. “Our young Lord Zhu gave an incredible speech!”
“Your Highness, what are you saying?” The title “young Lord Zhu” made Zhu Xiaobiao’s face burn red. “It was Jing Ze who wrote it so well. This lowly one merely recited his words.”
Xie Chengze smiled. In the original novel, Jing Ze was extraordinarily talented and possessed a brilliant literary style. Because he had endured so much suffering, his writing always carried an incendiary sense of fighting toward life through death. It easily stirred readers’ emotions and made them feel and identify with whatever he sought to express.
The final poem he wrote before dying at the Qionglin Banquet moved countless scholars to cry injustice on his behalf and condemn the original prince’s atrocities with voice and brush. The original Xie Chengze flew into a rage and cursed that he would kill every scholar in the realm.
That was why Xie Chengze had specifically asked Jing Ze to write a “speech” whose emotions built step by step according to his intentions, then had Zhu Xiaobiao translate it into plain language.
Zhu Xiaobiao was bold and unafraid of crowds. Having grown up surrounded by officialdom, he naturally carried an invisible air of authority that made others obey. Blended with the roguishness and willfulness of a young dandy, it made him particularly suited to the rebellious persona of “defying Heaven.” The common people, long oppressed by floods and drought, could see themselves in him and wanted to follow him in rebelling against Heaven.
Just listen to the force with which he shouted “Fuck Heaven!”
In Xie Chengze’s opinion, Zhu Xiaobiao and Jing Ze working together were damn near perfect for running a cult – or a pyramid scheme.
“But Your Highness, I have a question.” Zhu Xiaobiao asked in puzzlement, “Wasn’t Yu Gong ninety years old? In the story, he took his three strongest sons and grandsons to dig the mountains. Then his sons must have been over seventy and his grandsons over fifty… They couldn’t have done much digging either. Why didn’t he bring his great-grandsons instead?”
Xie Chengze burst into laughter. “If the young men went to dig the mountains too, who would farm and feed the family? What family would let their daughter marry into that household? Yu Gong’s family saw that he was old and muddleheaded, so they humored him and let him make a spectacle of himself. They supported *him* in digging, but never said they supported the young men doing it. His claim that his descendants would continue without end was merely Yu Gong’s idealized fantasy.”
Zhu Xiaobiao’s mouth fell open.
It felt as though the heroic idol at the center of his faith had collapsed.
“Then our…” Zhu Xiaobiao began to doubt whether the people of Yizhou could truly succeed in excavating the mountain.
“We are different.” Xie Chengze arched a brow and tapped him on the head with his gold-threaded fan. “We pay wages and provide grain. We certainly won’t lack women willing to marry!”
Zhu Xiaobiao rubbed his head. That did make sense.
“Your Highness, Jing Ze also has a question,” Jing Ze said. “To immortals, Yu Gong was like an ant that could be crushed at will. Why would the mountain gods fear one Yu Gong excavating the peaks? Is it a flaw in the story itself, written that way merely to emphasize Yu Gong’s spirit?”
“Exactly! What’s the explanation for that?” Zhu Xiaobiao immediately looked at Xie Chengze.
Xie Chengze gave Jing Ze a meaningful glance.
“A story is only a story. Its author may have wished merely to express Yu Gong’s spirit, but different readers draw different meanings from it. Whether it contains a flaw therefore depends upon the reader.” His voice was mild. “The brilliance of Yu Gong moving the mountains reaches far beyond the simple lesson that one should never give up. If someone fully comprehended all the levels it can express, it could even bring the calamity of execution.”
Zhu Xiaobiao stared in astonishment. It was merely a short story of a few hundred characters. How could it involve losing one’s head?
Jing Ze seemed about to ask more, but Zhu Xiaobiao hurriedly covered his mouth. “Stop asking, stop asking. Your head is more important.”
Jing Ze had no choice but to stop asking.
The pigeon on Xie Chengze’s rack finished roasting just then. He handed it to Zhu Xiaobiao with a benevolent expression. “Here, this is for our great hero! Look how much weight you’ve lost since coming to Yizhou!”
Zhu Xiaobiao hurriedly shook his head. “Your Highness! I couldn’t possibly – mmph!”
Xie Chengze forcibly stuffed the entire roast pigeon into his mouth. Zhu Xiaobiao could only thank him and begin eating. Halfway through, something suddenly occurred to him. “Wait, Your Highness. There’s a famine here. Where did this pigeon come from?”
Xie Chengze smiled with malicious amusement. “Exactly. Where could the pigeon have come from?”
Meanwhile, several wealthy gentry had gathered elsewhere in the city. Prefect Liang had forcibly requisitioned the silver in their homes, leaving them seated together with faces full of anger and gloom. One man said, “That bastard Liang has actually changed sides! Now he’s turning the knife on us and plans to let thirty thousand refugees enter the city. Isn’t he afraid the lord above will hold him accountable?”
“Ah, the city gates are sealed. We cannot even send out a letter! What are we to do?”
The man seated at the head sneered. “Gentlemen, do not panic. That lord specially gave me a carrier pigeon. I already sent a letter. It should reach its destination shortly, and when it does, Liang Wanda’s life will be over!”
The others were delighted. “Truly? Wonderful!”
Another man said, “And that fellow Shen Yuan – hmph! The ignorant rabble may not see it, but this old man’s eyes are not blind. Since when did Liang Wanda possess such courage and ability? Shen Yuan must be advising him behind the scenes. That brat cannot be spared either!”
“Then…” someone suddenly asked, “what of the Second Prince?”
The common people might not know that the Second Prince had also come to Jiangdu County, but these well-informed gentry did.
“The Second Prince?” The man at the head roared with laughter and mocked, “Who doesn’t know that he is a greedy, mediocre good-for-nothing? He hides in the prefectural yamen every day, loafing around while he waits to enjoy the fruits of others’ labor! He is no threat, no threat at all!”
“Quite right! Hahahahaha!”
Laughter erupted through the wealthy residence. Back at the prefectural yamen, Zhu Xiaobiao finished gnawing the roast pigeon clean and beckoned to the watchdog. “Here, boy~ Come here~ Have some bones~”
The watchdog immediately ran over. “Woof, woof, woof!”
–
The following afternoon, the second and third waves of refugees from Yizhou’s eastern counties arrived.
The city gates opened wide again. This time, the elderly people, women, and men distributing and guarding the buns had all been replaced by new faces. Their smiles were genuine when they welcomed countrymen who likewise came from the eastern counties.
Their counties lay close together and often traded and intermarried. Some people even recognized one another. Naturally, that made the newcomers much easier to con. In commerce, this was commonly called –
Exploiting familiar faces.
The new refugees had no idea they were stepping into a steadily maturing routine. Buns tucked into their clothes, they streamed into the city.
Inside, they saw elderly people and women weaving grass baskets and cooking thick grain porridge. Men carried iron pots and blades, chopped wood, and forged iron. Young men and women worked together to empty wells fouled by the flood, while little children sang ballads telling some story of a mountain immortal and Yu Gong.
“Long ago stood mountains, blocking every road. Yu Gong said, Move the peaks! The wise elder laughed: You are old, cannot pull grass, and death comes first!”
“Yu Gong laughed: I have sons, sons have sons, sons have more sons, descendants without end. Move the mountains, bless all people!”
“Now stands a mountain, blocking water’s flow. A thousand li lie parched – we must dig! Yizhou’s people, tens of millions strong. Dig it through, and blessings flow!”
Behind them, the city gates swung heavily shut once more with a deep, grating creak.
Another great brainwash – no, another inspiring speech was about to begin…