Di Ming

Chapter 415 Even your new magistrate can't protect you!
The siblings met again by chance and chatted for a long time under the lamp until they finally rested at 9 PM.

The next morning, before dawn, Zhu Yin invited Cen Xiubing aboard the boat to enjoy the river scenery. Cen Xiubing readily agreed.

The group then boarded several riverboats and sailed downstream.

On the riverbank, the river breeze tinkled the bronze bells hanging at the Yuwang Temple. Hao Yunlai pointed to the barren hills on the north bank:

“Child Tiger, there lies the armor cave of Emperor Ming Yuzhen of the Xia Dynasty, with Taoist talismans carved on the stone gate. Because Ming Yuzhen was kind to the people of Bashu, he is still worshipped to this day and is known as Emperor Xia.”

Zhu Yin nodded: "Ming Yuzhen can also be considered a great hero. There were more than one person who claimed the throne at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, and he was a kind and generous man."

The river breeze faintly carries the old fisherman's boat song:

"Pangu transformed into a hanging coffin, Yu the Great cleaved a wine jar with his axe! General Ba's head fell into the Yangtze River, Du Fu's tears froze, and the bells and drums grew cold..."

The desolate song drifted across the vast river, adding to the loneliness between the river and the sky.

Chongqing is less a mountain city and more a city of rocky cliffs.

The turbulent current propelled the boat downstream, and the Chaotianmen Wharf came into view. The gray-blue city walls clung to the jagged rock face, and the eight-zhang-high stone steps glistened with dew.

The porters, their backs bent, carried bags of salt, hanging precariously on the steep ladders above the rocks, resembling a line of wriggling ants.

Chongqing is where the two rivers converge, making water transport highly developed. Here, the Jialing River joins the Yangtze River, and at the confluence, the two streams of water, one turbid yellow and the other dark blue, surge together to form a huge whirlpool.

Countless ships have sunk here throughout history; truly, a place where sunken ships stand alongside a thousand passing sails. Even the old boatman's expression grew solemn. Everyone stood on the vast, treacherous waters, trembling with fear. Even a hundred men like Lan Cha would feel apprehensive.

Zhu Yin was used to adventure, but even he felt a chill run down his spine at the sight of the raging river. If their boat capsized here, survival would be unlikely. But to be fair, the experience of being tossed about on the turbulent waters was quite thrilling.

On the south bank of the Longmenhao River, Taoist priests and Nuo masters are burning paper horses to worship the river god.

The Nuo master, dressed in a fire-resistant robe, struck a bronze gong and roared the incantation "Dragon King, open the way!" The shouts echoed with the sound of the river waves, startling flocks of seagulls that fluttered and danced on the river surface reflected in the morning glow.

Above the middle of the river, white waves surged to the sky, and for a moment, everyone was disoriented, unsure of what time it was, who they were, or where they were.

Zhu Yin was a poet whose reputation was growing. Moved by this, he composed the following poem:
Yu the Great looked towards the Xia Emperor, and locked the Dragon King at the Dragon Gate.

The mountain city is surrounded by mountain scenery, and the Ba River flows through the Ba Kingdom.

Dangerous shoals and treacherous waters, when will I return, and where will I be?
We met again in Chongqing, but the old friends were not from our hometown.

Hao Yunlai couldn't help but say, "Zhihu, what a fine poem! No wonder people say that Zhu Lang of Jiangzuo uses simple words that even women and children can understand, yet his meaning is profound and expansive, containing the words of a great hero. Indeed! Especially the last line, 'Reunited in Chongqing, old friends are not from our hometown,' is the best. You and I, you and Xiubing Niangzi are all old friends, but Chongqing is a foreign land."

Hao Yunzi had a high opinion of himself, but what he said was from the heart. Zhu Yin's poem is indeed very good; although the words are extremely simple, it has a natural and wonderful quality.

Feng Menglong said: "The repetition of two words in every sentence from beginning to end is already quite ingenious. Moreover, the shifting of time and space, the fusion of reality and illusion, makes one unaware of what day it is or where one is. If it is described as realistic, it is difficult to define whether it is ancient or modern. If it is described as imaginary, it is very real. In just a few sentences, there is an emptiness and boundlessness. In the end, it suddenly ends, returning to the reunion and separation of life, which is both joyful and sorrowful, truly giving a sense of life being like a dream."

Sun Chengzong and Gao Panlong nodded in praise: "My lord's poem is worthy of a toast!" (This is not self-praise, but for the sake of the plot.)
Although Cen Xiubing didn't understand poetry very well, she thought it was good, so she laughed and said, "Then let's just have a few drinks on the boat."

Hao Yunlai instructed his attendant, "Bring the wine!"

Then his attendants brought out autumn dew white wine, roast goose, salted beans, braised meat, salted fish and other snacks to accompany the wine, and prepared a boat banquet at the bow of the boat.

As they drank, they recited poems and composed verses. Hao Yunlai, after a few cups of wine, felt a surge of heroic spirit and couldn't help but recite:
I've been in Chongqing for another year now.
Which level is the Lemaba Kingdom?

I dare not claim to be a fish-hanging guardian.
I only wish there were clear skies over this place.

"Excellent!" Zhu Yin laughed and clapped his hands. "Brother Huaji, even if you are not the Prefect of Xuanyu, you are still a good official loved by the people. As the Prefect of Chongqing, you have truly brought blessings to this region."

Hao Yunlai's poem is really unremarkable, much worse than his other poems, but Zhu Yin appreciates the love for the people expressed in Hao Yunlai's poem.

Disappointed in his failure to pass the imperial examination, Sun Chengzong drank heavily, reciting poetry with a drunken fervor:

My home is in the splendid land of Yanyun.
People are located on the edge of a mountain city in Sichuan.

I once sharpened my Wu hook to reflect the stars and moon.
In the past, the pursuit of fame and fortune led young people astray.

The young scholar in his green robes remains, but the traveler's boat has gone far away.
The Yangtze River flows mightily, and the waters of Chongqing are cold.

If he were a corporal at the Golden Terrace
Ningjiao sat in the southwest.

After listening, Zhu Yin took a sip of wine and said with admiration, "Brother Zhisheng, what a fine poem! How wonderful... The scholar in his green robe remains, the traveler's boat is far away, the Yangtze River is vast, and the Yu River is cold!"

Zhu Yin's eyes welled up with tears, and he was even somewhat moved. Although Sun Chengzong's poem was not as good as his, the desolate and melancholic atmosphere of the poem made people feel sad when they read it.

Sun Chengzong was a man of great talent, but unfortunately, he was powerless to reverse the political corruption of the late Ming Dynasty. Now, further affected by the time traveler, he couldn't even pass the imperial examination.

Gao Panlong, though also disappointed in the imperial examinations, still retained his passion and, unwilling to be outdone, recited:

Striking the oars midstream, wine sipped from the boat.
Thirty autumns have passed since I drank in the bitter cold.

Like migratory birds, they travel back and forth between north and south.

Flying around to Chongqing.

Please allow the river to flow through the Wu region.
A letter to my friends in my hometown:
Although Gao Lang was a guest in Bashan,
How dare I scheme solely for Liang Dao?

"How dare you scheme solely for Liang Dao's sake!" Zhu Yin raised another large cup of wine. "Brother Cunzhi, this is the voice of a gentleman!"

Everyone congratulated each other and raised their cups to drink.

The great scholar Feng Menglong also clapped his folding fan and recited:

Drunk on the boat, I patted the duckweed and listened.
A cup of autumn dew and a scholar.

Looking towards the distant Tushan Temple,
A fisherman's song, a poem.

Xuanxuan was unaware of the existence of the Dragon Palace.
A misty expanse of water overlooks the mountain city.

Why bother with wine at the Qionglin Banquet?
The landscape before me is even more breathtaking.

"What a talented voice!" Zhu Yin exclaimed with admiration. "Brother Youlong truly lives up to his reputation for exceptional talent and refined elegance."

Feng Menglong laughed and said, "You flatter me, my lord. It's a pity that Mr. Wenchang is not here. If he were here, that would truly be the voice of a talented scholar."

The poets praised each other, and everyone was happy and harmonious.

At this moment, the boat had reached the river surface near Fotu Pass. Looking westward, one could see the caravan's packhorses emerging from the morning mist along the ancient road of Fotu Pass, the sound of their bells startling flocks of crows into flight.

The shadow of the mountain city floated and sank in the river mist, like a mirage.

The hanging buildings of Hongyadong are attached to the cliff, and are densely packed like a honeycomb.

"Clang, clang, clang—" The temple bell of Huayan Temple reverberated through the mountains, and the entire city suddenly became clear from the chaos. From the river, it looked as if the thousand stone steps had transformed into a ladder to the clouds, and the mountain city was a palace in the heavens.

The smoke from the morning meal rose from inside and outside the city, swirling around the beacon towers, battlements, and rocks, like an incense offering to the ancestors of the Ba people.

The morning glow illuminates the river, sky, and city, creating a magnificent and picturesque scene.

"Magnificent! Magnificent!" Everyone was mesmerized by this scene.

Zhu Yin never imagined that the view of Chongqing from a riverboat at dawn would be so magnificent.

The group spent the whole day playing on the river until nightfall.

A gentle river breeze swept by, dispelling the summer heat and leaving everyone feeling cool and refreshed. As night fell, the group decided to moor at Chuqi Gate for the night. Upon reaching Chuqi Gate, they saw the lanterns of the flower boats swaying in the breeze, as if they were about to shatter the starry sky.

On the riverbank, the boatmen sang a duet in the darkness: "Let the stones crack under your feet—hey zuo! Straighten your backs—hey zuo! After you're done, go home and feed your wives—"

The traces of tow ropes on the cliff face, bathed in moonlight and lamplight, resembled silver ribbons, like wounds that had never healed for a thousand years.

There are many stilted houses along the riverbank. At the Chuqimen dock, porters and laborers are still working, unloading cinnabar from the Qijiang River. The seeping cinnabar powder falls onto the bluestone pavement like rouge.

These laborers work from morning till night, and who knows how many copper coins they can earn.

Hao Yunlai sighed, "Child Tiger, do you know how much money these laborers earn, working like oxen and horses all year round? Twenty coins a day!"

"Twenty coins?" Zhu Yin frowned. "Twenty coins for a whole day's hard work? Even if you work every day in wind and rain for a month, you'll only get six hundred coins?"

After working so hard, I only earn six coins a year, which is barely enough to support my family.

Zhu Yin said, "The guild took all the silver, didn't they?"

Hao Yunlai nodded: "Chongqing Prefecture has convenient water transportation and busy shipping. There are more than 30,000 boatmen and porters on the river, accounting for nearly 10% of the young and middle-aged men in Chongqing Prefecture. They are all organized. The boatmen are boatmen and the porters are porters."

"Although the boatmen's gang and the pack animals' gang manage all the boatmen and porters, they are actually bandit gangs that exploit the laborers, and each of them has a powerful backer. The boatmen's backer is the Prince of Shu's Mansion, and the porters' backer used to be the garrison eunuch, and now it is the tax supervisor Qiu Chengyun."

"The laborers work so hard, they could have earned seventeen or eighteen taels of silver a year. But most of it was taken by the guild. Then the guild would supply the Prince of Shu's mansion and the eunuch's office with thirty thousand taels each year, and then bribe other officials. The guild leaders were all rolling in money, but the laborers could hardly support their families. It's pitiful."

"But I, the prefect, can't do anything. I issued official documents to the tow gangs and pack animals, asking them to raise the wages of the laborers by only ten coins a day, but they ignored me! Relying on the Prince of Shu's mansion and the eunuchs as their backers, they don't take me, the prefect, seriously!"

"I have already written to Brother Yueying, hoping to obtain an imperial edict to allow the prefectural government to directly manage the laborers' guild."

Zhu Yin sneered, "Do you think the Emperor would issue an edict involving the Prince of Shu? Don't you know that the Emperor is very reluctant to be known for mistreating vassal kings? Even if Zheng Guojiu intervenes, the Emperor will not touch the Prince of Shu's interests. This matter needs to be considered carefully."

"Don't worry, as long as I'm here, I'll help you solve this problem sooner or later."

Hao Yunlai laughed and said, "Alright. Zhihu, I'm counting on you."

In a good mood, he immediately pointed to the rows of pleasure boats along the riverbank and said:
"Chihu, the night view of the river in Chongqing is no less beautiful than that of the Qinhuai River. Although it is not as bustling and glamorous as the Qinhuai River, it has its own unique charm."

On the flower boat, amidst the hazy lights, Baling, wearing an exquisite and mysterious mask and dressed in a colorful dress like a witch, sang while holding a moon lute:
"Since I left this world, I will never return... leaving behind only a lonely soul, awaiting reincarnation..."

Hao Yunlai said, "These Ba Ling are also witches, known as goddesses. They can accompany guests to sing songs, drink wine and flowers, dance, burn incense, worship gods, invite gods, and perform divination, but they do not sell their bodies."

Sun Chengzong, being a man of bold character, asked directly, "You've put on this show, yet you refuse to sell yourself? I really don't believe it. You're just trying to hold out for a higher price and being mysterious."

Hao Yunlai laughed and said, "Brother Zhisheng is right. Isn't that so? If you really want to have a night with them, it's not impossible, but it's very troublesome. There's a whole set of mystical rituals, and you need to ask the Goddess of Wushan for permission. Only if the Goddess of Wushan agrees can the guest have sex with her."

"Haha!" Sun Chengzong couldn't help but laugh. "Are the guests the King of Chu? And the Goddess of Wushan has to show up. So mysterious, I must say, many people actually enjoy this kind of thing."

Zhu Yin asked curiously, "Brother Huaji, can their masks be taken off?"

Hao Yunlai laughed and said, "Only with the consent of the Goddess of Wushan will the Witch of Baling remove her mask and let guests see her face. Otherwise, they will not see her true face. Even guests who have seen the witch's true face must swear to keep their mouths shut and not reveal her identity, otherwise they will be cursed."

Feng Menglong asked, "Could it be... that the sorceress Baling wasn't a Han woman? Our Han women don't seem to be so superstitious."

Hao Yunlai explained, "Most of them are indigenous women such as Miao and Tujia, and there aren't many Han women. By the way, at least 30% of the Baling people here come from Jiuli City in Pengshui County, which is the place with the most Miao people in Chongqing."

Zhu Yin asked in surprise, "The people under my jurisdiction?"

Hao Yunlai laughed heartily, "That's right! Many of them are people under your jurisdiction as the magistrate of Pengshui County. Zhihu, tell them that you are their benefactor, and that they should serve you well..."

Cen Xiubing, standing behind, spat and raised her eyebrows, saying, "Prefect Hao, you may like this yourself, but don't corrupt Zhihu; he doesn't like it!"

Hao Yunlai shrugged. "I don't have a taste for this kind of thing, so please don't spread rumors, Lady Xiubing. If it gets to my wife's ears, I won't be able to explain myself."

He really wasn't into that; he only loved power, official positions, and fame.

Because it's a dock, the riverbank here is very bustling, and the night view is as dazzling as a starry river. In addition to many decorated boats and pavilions, there are also many small vendors selling fruits, incense, flowers, vegetables, fresh fish, snacks, and other items, which support many people.

Not only do the passengers on the ship get off to spend money, but many people in the city also go out to spend money.

Just then, a commotion suddenly arose from the riverbank steps not far away, followed by a shout:
"His Majesty has decreed! From this day forward, every pleasure boat and every painted pavilion shall pay one hundred taels of silver per month! The payment shall be made on the eighth day of each month! This month's payment shall be made tonight! If even one tael of silver is missing, the boat shall be seized and the people arrested immediately!"

Immediately afterwards, the gongs rang out loudly, and several eunuchs led squads of soldiers to relay orders and collect money among the pleasure boats and painted pavilions.

"What?!" Many of the masked Baling witches were stunned. "One hundred taels per ship per month? Why don't we just rob them!"

Actually, taxes were already paid, and they had already been paid. The county magistrate's office collected them, fifty taels per boat per year.

Now, it's even possible to pay to the mining tax office, and it costs 1,200 taels every year!

This is making life unbearable! If taxes are paid like this, who would continue to operate a business?

Upon seeing this, Hao Yunlai's face turned ashen. The taxes collected by the prefecture and county were indeed meager, but fifty taels was certainly not a small amount. More importantly, if the pleasure boats and painted pavilions disappeared, the entire riverside night market would suffer a severe downturn, affecting countless people's livelihoods.
This is not just about collecting taxes!
If Qiu Chengyun collects taxes like this, isn't that killing the goose that lays the golden eggs or draining the pond to catch all the fish?

Soon, a conflict broke out between a pleasure boat and the soldiers. The shamanic nuns on the pleasure boat refused to pay taxes.

“Sir!” the masked Miao woman, Baling, cried out, “Our pleasure boat only earns this much a month, yet we have to support dozens of people! We’re in a job that relies on our youth, it’s not that easy! If we pay all the taxes, we’ll starve to death!”

A group of women on the boat and the boatman shouted together, "Too much! This is money that could kill us! We won't pay!"

The boat was full of Miao people from Jiuli City in Pengshui County. They did not have the same strong awe for eunuchs as the Han people, so they dared to resist directly.

A junior eunuch, his hand on his sword, roared, "Shut up! Hand over the money now! Or I'll arrest everyone and seize the ship! I don't have time to waste with you! One! Two! Three..."

"We won't pay even if you shout it out ten times!" shouted the masked leader. "We can't afford it! We'd rather die than pay!"

"How dare you!" the young eunuch roared in a shrill voice, "You bet I wouldn't dare kill anyone?!"

Suddenly, he drew his embroidered spring knife and stabbed forward.

"Ah..." The Miao woman screamed, grabbing the knife piercing her abdomen, and vomiting mouthfuls of blood from behind her mask.

"Murder!" shouted the people on the boat, filled with shock and anger.

As the young eunuch drew his sword, he kicked out, sending the Miao woman flying, and shouted sharply:
"Dare to resist taxes, that is to defy the imperial court, to defy His Majesty, to defy the Emperor, that is rebellion! If she dares to resist taxes again, she will be the one to set an example! Pay up!"

The Miao girl clutched her bleeding belly, her mask falling off to reveal a face contorted in pain. She was at most sixteen or seventeen years old, still a young girl.

But he was already dead.

The young eunuch, carrying a blood-stained embroidered spring knife, chuckled:
"Wasn't she supposed to be some kind of witch? All that mystical stuff, I thought she was unkillable? And she's dead already?"

"You're all from Pengshui County, aren't you? Let me tell you, those from Pengshui County deserve even more respect! Even your new magistrate can't protect you!"

"If you dare not hand it over, not only will we seize the boats and arrest the people, but we might even burn down your entire Jiuli City in Pengshui County!"

Hao Yunlai, Zhu Yin, and the others were furious to see the eunuch openly committing murder!

So brave!

……

P.S.: This chapter is the only one I can finish because I spent too much time writing several poems, each one completely original. However, I still managed to write 5,000 words today, which is pretty good. Thank you, goodnight! I'm feeling disheartened by the monthly ticket rankings. Also, today's chapter saw Sun Chengzong, Feng Menglong, and others get the worst treatment because my poems clearly don't do justice to them. I'm sorry. Please bear with it and don't take it too seriously.

(End of this chapter)