Second-hand time travel: Liu Bei, the big-eared bandit

Chapter 217 Zilong's Ambition
My name is Zhao Yun (Yun), and I am from Zhen Ding, Changshan.

Everyone in my clan practices martial arts, and we live a relatively prosperous life in Zhengding.

Zhen Ding was not a peaceful and tranquil place. There were corrupt officials in the county, wicked bandits in the mountains, powerful local tyrants in the countryside, and many wandering knights who violated the law in the mountains and rivers... It seemed that there were evil people everywhere.

This is also why my Zhao family has passed down martial arts as a family tradition.

My clan members are often employed, sometimes by county officials, and sometimes by wealthy merchants.

In the countryside, the affairs are nothing more than disputes over mountains, rivers, fields and forests. If a clan has several hundred able-bodied men skilled in spears and clubs, it is difficult for the government to force them, mountain bandits to plunder them, and wandering knights to be polite and courteous. Naturally, they can make a living.

From a young age, I often saw my people fighting with enemies.

At that time, I thought that practicing martial arts was for the sake of strength and the ability to defeat enemies, so that I could live a better life.

But my paternal grandfather, who taught me about spear and sword, said something else entirely.

At the age of fourteen, I went into battle for the first time with my clansman and repelled a group of mountain bandits who were trying to plunder Zongting.

My marksmanship is decent enough; I managed to knock down a guy who looked like a bandit leader.

I intended to kill him, but my clansman stopped me.

My paternal uncle forbade me from killing bandits, saying that except when my life was in danger, I should try not to kill them, even if I defeated them.

The clan father then released the thief.

I asked my paternal uncle why he didn't exterminate them all?
The clan elder said that if the thieves came to kill, we should stop them with our own. But if they came only for money and food, we should teach them a lesson and drive them away. If we always try to exterminate them, it will only bring endless hatred to the clan, leading to generations of revenge and unrest for generations to come.

My paternal uncle told me that the clan did not pass down martial arts, but rather benevolence and filial piety. Practicing martial arts was for self-cultivation, for cultivating a heart of benevolence and forgiveness. Protecting the family and expelling enemies were merely secondary abilities that came with martial arts skills.

Is practicing martial arts for spiritual cultivation?
At that time, I didn't quite understand the reasoning behind it.

I don't know if my paternal grandfather was right or wrong, because the following year, the thief who had been released by my paternal grandfather came back.

I defeated him again, and again I didn't kill him.

I spoke with the thief for a while.

I asked him why he was still robbing again? Was he not hurt enough last year?

He said there was no farmland in the mountains, and there was famine every year, so he couldn't survive. He went down the mountain to rob people just to get some food for his family.

He said he was grateful to his paternal uncle for sparing his life last year, but only wealthy families like the Zhao family had surplus grain. Last year, he failed to plunder any grain to bring back to the mountains, and most of the elderly people in the mountains jumped off cliffs to their deaths in order to save food.

He said that Heaven and Earth are indifferent, and the people in the mountains also have wives and children to support. In order to survive, they have no choice but to become bandits year after year.

I asked him, since you have such strength, why don't you join the army?

He laughed, a laugh that looked like crying.

He said he was a county soldier in his early years... but after joining the army he learned that the county officials colluded with powerful clans, and the powerful clans reported banditry every year, so the county soldiers would suppress the bandits every year.

In reality, the purpose of reporting the rebellion was to avoid miscellaneous taxes, while the military supplies and provisions for suppressing the rebels were divided among the county officials and various powerful families.

The county officials embezzled salaries without working, forced soldiers to become slaves, and then used the proceeds to bribe officials, and soon they would be promoted.

Then a new prefect will arrive, and the process will repeat itself.

If any soldiers disobeyed, they would be sent to "suppress bandits," then reported as having died in battle, their property confiscated, and those "killed in battle" would be made into mining slaves to mine and smelt iron in the mountains.

He had been "killed in battle" and removed from the county army. His family property was also "confiscated." He mined in Tieshan, Beizheng Township for half a year. Unable to bear the abuse any longer, he joined the miners in a rebellion and became a bandit in the mountains.

Farmers, oppressed by powerful clans, could not even afford to pay their taxes each year, and were thus forced into serfdom. Joining the army meant becoming a slave in the household of a county official; if they didn't want to be slaves, they would become mine slaves. Either way, they were destined for slavery…

He asked me, "Why should good citizens be slaves?"
I was fifteen years old at the time and never thought such a thing could happen, so I asked him which officials and powerful families were so despicable.
The thief looked at me, smiled strangely, and said, "Which official or powerful family isn't despicable?"

I said that my Zhao family has always been known for its benevolence and filial piety, and we often repair bridges and roads to help the poor. We would never do such a bad thing.

The thief laughed, and tears streamed down his face.

He said that every clan claims to uphold benevolence and filial piety, every wealthy family claims to be kind and generous, every scholar has a reputation for being magnanimous, and every rich person will build bridges and pave roads and do good deeds...

But is spending money on charity really out of kindness? Isn't your Zhao family's relief of the poor just to get those poor households to become your tenants?
He asked me, "Do you know where your Zhao family got so many weapons and supplies from?"

Changshan County has always been an iron-producing county. The imperial court has iron officials, and there are iron mines and smelting sites in Jingxing and Beizheng Township.

Our clan owns a lot of farmland and ironworks in the Beizheng Township area, and all the weapons in the clan are made by ourselves.

I said that my Zhao family obtains grain through farming and money through hard work.

He laughed maniacally, saying that everyone in the world wants to farm and works hard, but why do most people not survive, while only the Zhao family has been able to become wealthy to this day?
At that time, I felt that this thief was always attacking my Zhao family, perhaps because he was jealous?
However, I do not believe that the clan has done anything to oppress the good. The elders have always encouraged us younger generations to be kind and forgiving, and my father was indeed a generous and virtuous man.

So I asked him, "Although this world has its unbearable aspects, my Zhao family has not harmed anyone. Why don't you go after corrupt officials and instead come to plunder my Zhao family?"

He sneered and asked me, "Does your Zhao family really not harm anyone? Why don't you ask your elders why they receive money and grain from the county official every year... Ask your elders what the Zhao family was doing when they were employed by the government."

Not understanding why, I went to ask my paternal uncle.

The clan elder said that the clan often did things for the government, sometimes construction, sometimes transportation, and sometimes fighting thieves.

Two years ago, there was a rebellion in the mines, and the clan was also recruited by the state and county to suppress the rebellion.

I asked my paternal uncle if those rebels had been oppressed and wronged.
The patriarch sighed and said, "If there were no oppression or injustice, who would rebel?"

However, as people of Changshan, it is our duty to be conscripted by the Changshan government. If any member of our clan refuses to be conscripted by the government, then we will also be considered rebels.

I asked my paternal uncle, "Isn't this the government harming people?"
My paternal uncle said it didn't really count.

The imperial court established iron officials, and the prefectures set quotas for iron smelting that they had to submit. This was a normal requirement of the imperial court; otherwise, the imperial court would not have iron to manufacture military equipment.

If the imperial court lacks iron, the Han Dynasty will face difficulties from foreign enemies, and paying taxes on iron is the proper course of action.

However, the Jingxing Mountains were occupied by bandits from the Taihang Mountains, making it impossible to operate the mining area. As a result, the quota for iron mining, smelting, and iron smelting all fell to the smaller Tieshan in Beizheng Township.

To avoid being pressured to pay taxes by the imperial court and to reduce the amount of tax owed, local officials had no choice but to have local powerful families report banditry and disturbances every year.

The imperial court never paid the soldiers in the prefectures. In order to raise military funds, the prefectural officials had to send troops under the pretext of suppressing bandits in order to obtain military funds from the state.

At the same time, in order to guarantee the quota for iron smelting, the only option was to send criminals from various counties and soldiers who disobeyed orders to work in the mines to atone for their sins.

In all seriousness, apart from the minor offense of embezzling salaries without working, the officials in the prefecture had done nothing wrong.

But every family has its difficulties, and no matter what people do, they always have something in mind.

If the county officials didn't embezzle some money, they wouldn't have money to bribe their superiors or pay the "palace administration fee" for buying an official position... If they didn't embezzle, they would lose their positions, and they had many grudges with bandits and miners, so losing their positions would easily mean losing their lives.

My paternal uncle said that no official is truly motivated by a desire to harm others, and the benevolence and filial piety touted by various powerful families are not empty words; in fact, everyone wants to be a good person.

But if Heaven and Earth are ruthless, then man cannot be ruthless either.

I asked my paternal uncle, "Since Heaven and Earth are so indifferent, what is the use of us cultivating benevolence and forgiveness?"
The clan elder smiled and said, "It is precisely because Heaven and Earth are ruthless that we must practice benevolence, otherwise the world would be full of demons."

Perhaps my paternal grandfather was right, but I also saw tears welling up in his smiling eyes. He let the thief go again.

The bandit leader was named Zhang Yao, the same Yao as in Yao and Shun.

From then on, Zhang Yao never came to my neighborhood to commit banditry again.

But other thieves still cause trouble, and they can never be completely eliminated.

Not long after, the Taiping Dao uprising broke out, the Yellow Turban Rebellion broke out, and Ji Province was thrown into chaos.

The Yellow Turban Rebellion was gaining momentum, and the government attempted to conscript our clan to quell the rebellion, but this time no one in our clan responded to the call.

My paternal uncle was seriously ill at the time. Before he died, he said that no matter what he did, it would be unkind, and told the clan elders to move into the mountains to avoid disaster.

Perhaps because our patriarch was kind and forgiving and did not kill easily, the mountain bandits did not make things difficult for our clan and even gave us a place to live.

That place is Tieshan in Beizheng Township.

However, after the imperial court quelled the Yellow Turban Rebellion, the number of bandits in Changshan actually increased.

Zhang Niujiao gathered tens of thousands of people and rose up in Jingxing; Chu Feiyan roared among the mountains and rivers; the remnants of the Yellow Turbans formed alliances in all directions; and bandits from the northern Taihang Mountains marched south in a large-scale invasion.

Another distant branch of the Zhen Ding Nan Xiang clan, Zhao Fu, a distant uncle from Shi Yi, was summoned to lead his clansmen in suppressing the rebellion.

I heard that Zhang Niujiao and the remnants of the Yellow Turban Rebellion are seeking revenge against Huangfu Song, who killed hundreds of thousands of people.

I've also heard that Zhao Fu of the Southern Sect killed Zhang Niujiao, and was later killed by Chu Feiyan in revenge. The Zhao family of the Southern Sect is now seeking revenge on Chu Feiyan...

I finally understand why my paternal grandfather didn't kill people easily back then, and I also understand why we should talk about the principles of benevolence and forgiveness.

It turns out that everyone is just trying to make a living.

Later, Chu Feiyan became Zhang Yan, and transformed into the Imperial Censor-in-Chief in charge of suppressing rebellions. Her clan was implicated by the Southern Sect and was regarded as a traitor by the officials of the prefecture and county.

Zhang Yan knew where my sect was, but he didn't exterminate us. Instead, he had my sect merge into Black Mountain.

The clan elders were unwilling to become thieves in the mountains, so they sent my eldest brother, Zhao Lin, to lead us young men out to seek a living.

That's how I met my lord, Liu Bei.

I still remember what the Lord looked like when I first met him. At that time, he and his wife, Sister Zuo, were distributing food to the refugees in Beixin City.

The mistress was pregnant, but she kept smiling as she distributed food to the refugees.

The lord was rescuing the wounded and settling the people, constantly arranging manpower to take the satiated refugees to other places.

I initially thought this was some powerful clan taking the opportunity to recruit servants, but it turned out that the lord seemed to accept all comers, not only taking away thousands or tens of thousands of people, but even the old and weak.

The eldest brother then stepped forward and asked the mistress, "Why did you take in the old and weak along with them? Why didn't you choose them more carefully?"

The mistress laughed and said, "How can you choose who settles in Yasuda? Shouldn't the whole family be together?"

My elder brother and I found it hard to believe that the food was distributed to the refugees without any expectation of return.
The mistress shook her head, saying that she also wanted something in return; it was to exchange the virtue of saving the people for the lifelong happiness of the child in her womb, and that she also had something to ask for.

The elder brother asked the mistress, "There are countless refugees here. We have been providing them with food and shelter without asking for anything in return. We are wasting money and land. Isn't this a waste of resources?"
The mistress said, "Let him squander the money if he wants to. He can squander it with me. As long as he's open-minded, that's all that matters."

The mistress looked at me with a smile and said that there weren't enough people to squander the money. She asked if any of you who looked strong and healthy could help maintain order so that the money could be spent even faster.
I don't believe anyone would squander their wealth and fortune just to achieve a peaceful mind. I think such a thing is probably just trying to win people's hearts, and these refugees will likely pay with their lives...

But in any case, the mistress smiled warmly at the time, and my eldest brother and I still helped maintain order.

After helping for a few days, he saw that his lord indeed did not ask for anything in return. He even put many refugees in other people's homes as tenants and helped them negotiate rents—as long as people could live, he did not care where they lived.

I asked my lord, "Why do you spend so much money and resources without expecting anything in return?"
But the lord said that he always sought a reward for his actions, but many people were unaware of it.

Seeing the light in people's eyes brings peace to one's own heart; this is the greatest reward. Isn't the purpose of life to find peace of mind?
For peace of mind?

The lord said he was a willful man, and everything he did was simply because "I wanted to"... Fortunately, his wife and brothers were also willing to indulge his willfulness.

At that moment, I knew that I should help this willful ruler.

I've always been a bit foolish, and I've never been able to find a way to make a living.

But the other day the master said that a group of ordinary people, doing ordinary things, can together achieve extraordinary things...

Suddenly, everything became clear to me, and I understood what Mrs. Zuo meant by having a clear mind.

The lord is certainly an extraordinary person, as are Lady Zuo, Guan Yu, Zhang Yide, Jia Wenhe... the people around the lord are all extraordinary people.

But the lord was willful; he wished that everyone in the world were ordinary people.

Heaven and earth are indifferent, therefore people must be benevolent.

The ruler is willful; he wants to change to a benevolent world, a world where ordinary people can truly do ordinary things.

A world that no longer needs extraordinary people, a world that is ordinary and normal.

This is truly an extraordinary achievement.

I think I know what I want to do in my life.

Zhao Zilong of Changshan wanted to be an ordinary person.

……

In late May, I followed a few ferrymen and floated across the Yellow River with bamboo.

The Yellow Turbans from Gaotang did not attack us on the river because that's how the Yellow River ferrymen operate every year at this time.

Most of the time, ferrymen carried bamboo slips across the river, for example, to relay messages for merchants or to facilitate communications for powerful families.

The more communication is cut off, the more valuable a message becomes.

Sometimes they would smuggle valuable goods across the border—this was to help merchants evade taxes and also avoid robbery, since the soldiers at the ferry crossing were no different from bandits; they would openly rob, it was just a matter of how much they robbed.

When the boat drifted to the riverbank in the northern suburbs of Gaotang, thieves blocked the way and searched the area.

This is normal; whether it's thieves or government officials, a search is required.

The bamboo tubes that were used to cross the river this time were full of bamboo slips, which were indeed messages between merchants from the two places, as well as a few family letters from powerful clans.

The thieves had no reason to rob these things, since the ferrymen wouldn't get paid until the goods were delivered to their destination.

With the ferrymen's cover, I crossed smoothly.

But to my surprise, just after I crossed the river and arrived at the bank of the Ji River, and was about to cross it, someone recognized me.

That's Zhang Yao.

He is Zhang Yu, the leader of the Yellow Turbans in Gaotang.

(End of this chapter)