৫৯. প্রজার কল্যাণে যত প্রয়াস (প্রথম অংশ)

বহud years later, when Li Xiu led his own troops to fight their way into the city of Yanjing, he would recall that morning when he first met Liu Huai.

At that time, Li Xiu was merely a mountain chieftain who had taken to a life of banditry with a few dozen sworn brothers at Mount Dayi.

Unlike hard-boiled and ruthless figures like Song Jiang and Fang La, Li Xiu cut a rather pathetic figure as a bandit leader. Not only did he lack the heart to plunder local villages and towns, but he rarely even troubled passing merchants.

On ordinary days, apart from extorting a few wealthy households, his only other activity was staging raids on the territories of the Meng'an and Mouke households.

He bore somewhat the air of a chivalrous outlaw.

Because of this, while their reputation was relatively untarnished, their daily lives were rather miserable. The score of men still had to till the land themselves, barely managing to scrape by.

However, the turmoil of the twentieth day of the seventh month threw Li Xiu, a bandit leader who usually possessed a reasonably quick wit, into utter confusion.

First, word came that a regular government army had marched from Qushan County and stationed itself within Dayi Town.

Just as Li Xiu was pondering whether to abandon the stronghold and make a run for it, night fell on that very day, and Dayi Town suddenly descended into chaos. Voices roared, fires lit up the sky, and the din of battle and weeping reached the heavens, clearly audible even from the mountains several miles away.

Startled from his sleep, Li Xiu had no time to overthink. Snatching up his broadsword and taking several loyal retainers with him, he headed down the mountain toward Dayi Town to investigate. Before he had even covered half the distance, he saw Master Zhou, a man of thoroughly wretched reputation in Dayi Town, scrambling up the narrow path with a panicked expression.

Though Li Xiu had always looked down upon this fellow, he had extorted money from him a few times in the past and knew that the Zhou family owned several brick kilns and employed three hundred kiln workers, possessing formidable strength. Normally, he was the one bullying others; how could he be in such a sorry state?

Before Li Xiu could even ask, Master Zhou wailed that disaster had struck and military bandits were slaughtering the town.

Gazing at the fires burning in Dayi Town down below, Li Xiu still could not fathom what was happening, when countless townspeople from Dayi began streaming up the mountain via every available path.

For a moment, Li Xiu could only force himself to remain calm, groping in the dark to arrange lodgings for the villagers.

Truly groping in the dark, not even daring to light a torch.

As for what kind of state the military bandits down the mountain were in, Li Xiu was entirely in the dark. Although under normal circumstances an army would not attack a mountain at night, who could say for sure?

Li Xiu led his subordinates to maintain order and had his trusted men guard the mountain gate. Working through half the night, he even killed a dozen local vagrants who tried to take advantage of the chaos to loot. It was not until the eastern sky grew pale with dawn that he managed to initially settle the nearly one thousand people who had fled up the mountain.

The small mountain stronghold, originally designed to accommodate a hundred people, was packed to bursting.

Shelter was relatively easy to resolve; it was just the beginning of autumn, and the weather remained scorching hot. At worst, people could lie out in the open for a night. But food was genuinely in short supply.

Li Xiu calculated that the grain reserves in the stronghold could last ten days at most.

Yet before the people in the stronghold even had time to worry, the subsequent turn of events became even more baffling.

First, on the morning of the second day, the Jin army in Dayi Town departed in a flurry of panic. Then, just as Li Xiu was hesitating whether to drag his dark-rimmed eyes down the mountain to investigate, the Jin army came streaming back in twos and threes along the official road, fleeing in utter disarray.

Most of these Jin soldiers had discarded their armor and weapons, looking thoroughly wretched. They merely seized some provisions and wealth in Dayi Town before hastily resuming their flight northward.

Swiftly, by the afternoon, another wave of troops arrived in Dayi Town and hoisted the banner bearing the character for "Song" upon the low city towers.

When night fell, someone finally came up the mountain to bring news: the Song army was on a northern expedition and had already dealt a crushing defeat to the Jin army, while the townspeople of Dayi who had been pressed into service by the Jin army the previous night had all been released.

Hearing this, Li Xiu spent almost another sleepless night.

How should one put it?

This was purely the anxiety of an ordinary person standing at a crossroads in life.

Yet Li Xiu was a hero after all. Following a night of inner turmoil, on the morning of the second day after the arrival of the Song army, he still took several companions along with Master Zhou—who was anxious to descend the mountain and look after his property—and disguised himself as a mountain hunter selling furs, heading down toward Dayi Town.

Some might wonder: with Dayi Town having just suffered such a calamity, would any small merchants or peddlers still enter the city to conduct business?

The answer, naturally, was yes, and quite a few at that.

The small-scale peasant economy of feudal society was precisely like this, possessing virtually zero capacity to withstand pressure.

An ordinary family usually held only a few dou of grain in reserve. The roe deer they hunted, the cloth they wove, and the firewood they chopped had to be swiftly converted into food; otherwise, a catastrophe would ensue.

Coming to Dayi Town right now might not necessarily mean death, but not coming meant a high probability of starving to death.

In fact, not only merchants, but even figures of hardworking farmers appeared in the fields surrounding Dayi Town. Many farmers wore sorrowful expressions and were wrapped in mourning cloth, clear signs that someone in their families had just died.

Yet so what? The dead were already dead, and the living still had to go on.

"Third Master Li, could we be going to see the commander of the Song army?" Passing through the low city gate, Master Zhou quivered his jowl-fat and asked impatiently.

Li Xiu was glaring with bloodshot eyes, secretly observing the guards coming and going at the gate, marveling inwardly that not only did they not extort travelers, but they did not even collect an entry tax. Hearing this, he smiled faintly and asked in return, "Master Zhou, why ever not?"

Master Zhou was momentarily taken aback, then immediately offered an ingratiating smile, "Third Master Li, when I fled my home in a panic the night before last, I didn't manage to look after my family, young and old. I'd like to go home and check on them first. I also invite Third Master Li to drop by my humble home for a spell."

Li Xiu felt nothing but contempt in his heart.

The Zhou family was a large household spanning generations. The night before last, not to mention his wife and children, Master Zhou had even abandoned his elderly mother to the military bandits and fled for his life alone—truly a despicable act.

It was questionable whether such a man even possessed a spine.

"What are you putting on airs for?" One of Li Xiu's companions immediately chimed in with a sneer, "If you were truly worried about your wife and family at home, why didn't you fight the Jin bandits to the death? Instead, you tucked your tail and ran!"

The flesh on Master Zhou's face trembled. Though he felt deeply embarrassed, he lowered his voice and replied, "When things came to a head, I was scared."

"Why aren't you scared now?" Li Xiu mocked.

Master Zhou hesitated for a moment, then cupped his hands and said, "Third Master Li, do you know why I dared to grope my way up the mountain stronghold the night before last? Because Third Master Li, you are a man who abides by rules. No matter how harsh the rules may be, rules are still rules. They won't be like the Jin bandits, who were speaking politely two hours ago, only to start slaughtering people without a word two hours later. Now, seeing that the streets are orderly, it's plain to see that the Song army's commander abides by rules. In this world, as long as there are rules, I can endure them, no matter how harsh."

Li Xiu asked, "Then why didn't you dare come with me directly to see that commander?"

Master Zhou was at a loss for words, but instead, one of Li Xiu's companions retorted in a sarcastic tone, "Isn't it because Master Zhou has failed to cultivate virtue in ordinary times, and is afraid of having his hypocritical facade pierced?"

"I still need to prepare some tokens of regard..."

Before Master Zhou could finish his sentence, the pedestrians on the street suddenly burst into an uproar.

"They're killing people again!"

"They've only rested for two hours..."

"It lets them off too lightly, letting them live two more hours..."

"No, I have to go take a look... Younger brother, hold our father's spirit tablet..."

Seeing that both merchants and commoners on the street were swarming forward as a flock, Li Xiu turned his head to signal, then hoisted his furs as well, leading his companions to follow the flowing crowd onward.