Taiheiki

Chapter 4 Gift
"Boss, this guy's bag feels cold and slippery. I wonder what kind of leather it's made of!" Wang Shou, a stocky little man, pointed at Wei Cong's backpack and said, "Touch it yourself if you don't believe me!"

"You don't know where he came from. If he breaks something, you won't be able to pay for it even if I sell you off!" Cai Buyi cursed.

Although Wei Cong didn't understand what the two were arguing about, he could guess a little. He unzipped his pants, reached in and fumbled around for a while, took out a lighter, and handed it to Wang Shou. He pointed at the lighter and then at Wang Shou, obviously wanting to give it to the other party.

"You want to give this to me? How can I do that?" Wang Shou said he was embarrassed, but he had already taken it. He looked at the exquisite object in his hand, but he didn't know what it was used for. Wei Cong smiled at this, reached out to take it, fiddled with it twice, and a ball of fire jumped out.

"Oh, it turns out to be a flint! It's so exquisitely made!" Wang Shou learned it after fiddling with it twice. He couldn't help but be overjoyed and hurriedly bowed to Wei Cong: "Thank you for your generous gift! Hey! Cai, what are you doing? Why are you stealing my things!" But it was Cai Buyi who snatched it away from the side.

Cai Buyi could see clearly from the side: the flint the stranger had given Wang Shou had a crystal-clear shell, only the size of a finger, and it produced a steady flame, not just a spark. He had never seen or imagined such a delicate object existed, let alone where he had bought one. How could he give such a treasure away so easily? He carefully lifted the lighter with both hands and held it to Wei Cong, then shook his head, clearly not wanting to accept it.

"This guy is quite a meticulous person! But these things have been exposed. There is no use in keeping them in my hands, and they may even bring trouble. I just arrived here, and I will need to ask these people for many things in the future. It is better to send them out to improve my favorability!" Wei Cong had thought about the pros and cons clearly in his mind, so he shook his head, handed the lighter back to Wang Shou, took out a nail clippers from his bag, handed it to Cai Buyi, and smiled: "I am new here and lost my way. I will ask for your help from now on!" After that, he stretched out his finger and wrote down the words on the ground, obviously intending to have a written conversation.

Cai Buyi took the nail clippers and saw their gleaming silver. He had never seen such an exquisite object before. Although he could not fully understand what Wei Cong said, he could clearly tell that he was speaking Chinese, just with a different accent. Later, when he saw the words written on the ground, he was even more certain that the other party must be from a noble family.
It should be noted that people in the Eastern Han Dynasty mainly wrote in seal script and clerical script. However, in fact, many changes towards medieval fonts had already occurred among the literati. For example, Cai Yong and Zhong Yao of the same period were among the best. Zhong Yao was the founder of regular script, and regular script was not far from modern simplified characters.

As a student, Wei Cong had also put some effort into calligraphy. Although Cai Buyi could only recognize about 60% of his simplified characters, the structure, strength, and flow of his handwriting were undeniable; they were definitely not something an ordinary person could produce. As for the differences between Wei Cong and regular seal and clerical scripts, Cai Buyi simply believed it was a new style popular among the Luoyang literati, and that his inability to recognize it was simply due to his limited experience as a country boy.

As Cai Buyi spoke, he wrote on the ground: "Don't worry, my dear. It's dark now and you can't go down the mountain. We will escort you down the mountain after dawn!" Then he bowed to the ground again before stepping away.

"Boss, where does this guy come from? Why are you suddenly so respectful? He's even kneeling on the ground!" Wang Shou asked carefully.

"Shut up!" Cai Buyi shouted. He and Wang Shou walked to the side and whispered, "I suspect this man is a student from the Imperial Academy!"

"Imperial students from the capital?" Wang Shou glanced back at Wei Cong. "How is that possible? How can Imperial students not even speak the same language as us?"

"That's not surprising!" Cai Buyi laughed. "I heard there are 30,000 students in the capital. Among these 30,000, there are not only locals, but also talented people from all over the country, even from the Xiongnu, Qiang, Hu, and Nanman tribes, who come to the capital to study and seek guidance. With so many people coming from all over, it's not surprising that some of them speak with accents we don't understand. Didn't you see the words he wrote on the ground just now? This handwriting is not something that an ordinary person can write! I guess he's not just a student, but also a very special person, a leader among the students!"

"Then what's the matter with his hair? Why did the student have his hair shaved?" Wang Shou asked.

"Don't you remember that you accompanied me to the county government office two days ago and heard the news from the capital?"

"what news?"

"The Emperor wished to issue an edict to the entire nation, arresting the fugitive conspirators. Grand Marshal Chen Fan refused to sign the edict, so it could not be issued. (According to Han Dynasty regulations, edicts required three equal signatures; one missing was invalid.) Furious, the Emperor imprisoned the conspirators at the Huangmen Beisi Prison and interrogated them by eunuchs. I suspect this man is a student of the imprisoned conspirators. As for his shaved head, he may have escaped after being tortured."

"Hearing what you said, it does seem quite similar. Our Nanyang County is adjacent to Henan in the north. If Luoyang escapes south, our Xinye is indeed the only way!" Wang Shou nodded. "Hey! You just said that the court has issued an edict to capture him. So there must be a lot of rewards, right?"

"Bullshit!" Cai Buyi was furious. "Those listed as members of the Party are all renowned gentlemen and virtuous men. The Emperor is foolish and has been misled by the eunuchs, so he issued an edict to arrest them. How could we, for the sake of wealth and fame, betray them?"

Wang Shou was frightened by Cai Buyi's harsh rebuke. Unlike the later dynasties when the imperial examinations were prevalent, during the Han Dynasty, officials were not separated by family. Small officials like the Three Elders, the Patrolmen, and the Stewards were all prestigious people in the village. The basis of their power was the appeal of the village and the influence of the clan rather than just the official position granted by the court. Their social status and power were far beyond the comparison of the small officials who were banned from taking the imperial examinations in the Ming and Qing Dynasties. For example, Bingji in the Western Han Dynasty started as a prison guard and finally climbed to the pinnacle of the Western Han Dynasty - the prime minister. This was impossible in the Song, Ming and Qing Dynasties.

Although Cai Buyi was only a roving porter, the Cai family was a well-known and powerful clan in Jingzhou. At that time, there were many prominent families in Jingzhou, including the Cai, Huang, Pang, and Xi families. However, the Cai family was the most powerful among them. Therefore, Xi Zaochi's "Xiangyang Ji" written in the Eastern Jin Dynasty recorded: "At the end of the Han Dynasty, the Cai family was the most prosperous!"

Zhang Wen mentioned earlier in this article, Liu Biao of the late Han Dynasty, and Zhuge Liang's father-in-law Huang Chengyan all married daughters of the Cai family. Twenty years later, Liu Biao was able to ride alone into Jingzhou, kill the clan thieves, and sit on the edge of the world while holding a state. A big reason for this was that he was the son-in-law of the Cai family and had the support of the Jingzhou clan headed by the Cai family.

Cai Buyi looked at Wang Shou and snorted coldly, "They just gave you a treasure, which was a great favor. How could you repay kindness with hatred? Besides, if the news of you betraying the son of a member of his party were to spread, his family wouldn't even need to take revenge. There would probably be countless knights who would want to take your head and make a name for themselves. Even if you were to gain wealth and glory, would you be able to enjoy it?"

"Don't worry! Even if I, Wang Shou, am no more worthless, I will never betray those who have done me a favor!" Wang Shou patted his chest, but his pale face betrayed his inner feelings. Cai Buyi breathed a sigh of relief and said in a low voice, "When you return, go to my house and get two dan of wheat and five rolls of coarse silk to share with the others. Everyone has worked hard up the mountain tonight. When you return, be careful with your mouths and don't talk nonsense and cause trouble!"

"I understand! Don't worry, my lord. The people who come this time are all sensible and know the importance of things!" Hearing that there were benefits to be gained, Wang Shou's eyes were already wide open with laughter. He agreed without hesitation. Only after the soldiers' affairs were taken care of did Cai Buyi breathe a sigh of relief. As a member of the Cai family, he must have considered much more than these local soldiers. Although there were many ways to enter the officialdom during the Han Dynasty, the most important one was undoubtedly the recommendation. And the most important and promising one among the recommendations was naturally the recommendation of filial and honest officials.

The problem was that according to the rules established since the reign of Emperor He of Han, counties with a population of 200,000 or more were entitled to only one vacancy per year, counties with a population of 400,000 or more were entitled to two vacancy per year, and so on. Cai Buyi's family was powerful, but he was only a branch of the family, and his Nanyang County was the "imperial capital" of the Eastern Han Dynasty, renowned for its powerful clans and wealthy families, and numerous sons of noble families. Unless something unexpected happened, it would have been impossible for him to rise to prominence.

There were only two ways to get ahead in the imperial examinations: one could either curry favor with powerful relatives, eunuchs, the Three Dukes, or the governor of one's own prefecture or state. The problem was that there were so many people trying to take this path that Cai Buyi felt he wouldn't be able to succeed. The other way was to try to raise one's reputation, becoming so well-known that the governor would find it unacceptable not to include one on the list of recommended candidates. This was the path of the famous scholar.

And if one wants to follow the path of a celebrity, what better way is there than to help the party members who are being persecuted by the eunuchs? Not to mention that the Cai family originally had a thousand connections with these persecuted party members. If they don't stand on this side, then how can they stand on the side of the eunuchs?
"What about arresting Zhao Yannian?" Wang Shou asked.

"Arrest Zhao Yannian?" Cai Buyi was stunned when he heard this, and then he realized that he had actually forgotten about this matter. He thought for a moment and smiled, "It doesn't matter. We are not the only team going into the mountains to arrest this thief. The mountains are so vast, it's normal that we can't meet him. We can't stay here forever. At most, we will go back in a month, at least seven or eight days!"

"That's right! It would be best if we don't meet that guy!" Wang Shou's eyes lit up. Cai Buyi's words clearly showed that he was planning to slack off, which was just what he wanted. Unlike the soldiers of the counties and states in the Western Han Dynasty, which were strictly trained and had a considerable number of long-serving officers and knights as the backbone, after the establishment of the Eastern Han Dynasty, the emperor learned the lesson of the county and state officials who quickly used the county and state soldiers as the backbone to raise tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands of troops to fight the civil war. The system of training young and middle-aged people in the counties and states according to the standard of field troops was abolished during the Western Han Dynasty, and a large number of veteran officers and knights were maintained as the backbone.

Although the prefectures and kingdoms of the Eastern Han Dynasty had a considerable number of standing armies, they were generally used as security forces and their combat effectiveness was far inferior to that of the prefecture-state soldiers of the Western Han Dynasty. Despite their superior numbers, inland prefecture-state soldiers like Wang Shou were still intimidated by Zhao Yannian, a veteran of the wars against the Qiang and the Nanman.

"It's getting late. Arrange the night watch and get some rest!" Cai Buyi smiled and looked towards the campfire not far away. He saw the strange uninvited guest standing next to the campfire with his back straight. Although he was just sitting, he was more than a head taller than the soldiers next to him. He was wearing a black suit that fit his body, outlining his elegant lines. He was like a green pine standing in the snow, with an extraordinary bearing.

He became more and more certain that this person was of extraordinary identity, most likely a famous scholar from Luoyang, Hanoi, or Yingchuan. He should take this opportunity to make friends with him and forge a deep bond with him.

The surroundings were dim, the scent of wood and moss wafting on the wind. Before him, tongues of bonfire flickered, and the sound of a flowing stream reached his ears. Wei Cong looked around blankly. People stretched out their hands for warmth, chatted quietly, and some had already lain down to rest, appearing lazy yet comfortable. Only then did he realize that he had left the past forever and entered a completely unfamiliar world. From everything he knew, this new world was extremely dangerous, and death was within reach.

"Brother!"

Wei Cong turned his head and saw Cai Buyi looking at him with a smile. He quickly stood up. Although he didn't quite understand what the other party was saying, the man's kindness towards him was obvious. Moreover, the other party should be the leader of this group of people. If he wanted to gain a foothold in the new world, he naturally had to find a way to make friends with him.

"Sit down and talk!" Cai Buyi gestured for Wei Cong to sit down, then he stretched out his finger and wrote on the ground, "May I ask your name?"

"Wei Cong!"

"Where are you from?"

Wei Cong was stunned. He really didn't know how to answer this question. After all, he knew nothing about the geographical divisions of the New World, and he would be exposed as soon as he answered.

Seeing Wei Cong's hesitation, Cai Buyi became more certain of his guess - a child of a noble family would only be reluctant to reveal his hometown when he was on the run. He smiled and was about to comfort Wei Cong when he suddenly heard a sentry's cry not far away.

"Who? Who!"

Cai Buyi stood up and shouted, "What's the matter?"

"There's movement. Someone must be spying in this direction from the bushes!"

"Damn it!" Cai Buyi raised his ring-handled sword and shouted, "Follow me and see what's going on!" He took two steps forward, then stopped and said to Wang Shou who followed him, "You stay here, take three people with you, and protect this young man well!" Then he led his men to the place where the voices came from.

Wei Cong was confused by the sudden change. He saw everyone rushing into the darkness with weapons in their hands. Only four people were left behind. He didn't know whether they were there to protect him or to monitor him, or maybe both. He thought about it and finally sat down. Since he was here, he might as well make the best of it. It was dark in the mountains now. Instead of running around, he might as well stay where he was. At least there was fire and people here.

Wei Cong's behavior seemed calm and composed to Wang Shou, who couldn't help but give him a thumbs-up: "See? This is what a gentleman should be like. He's calm and composed, unlike those country bumpkins who get jumpy and ignorant when encountering things!"

(End of this chapter)