usatvline Chapter 7 Running away
Chapter 7 Running away
As the sun set, Shao Shuyi walked westward along the Loujiang River home.
When they passed through Dongyidu, there was another chaotic scene.
A piercing roar almost ripped through the evening sky: "In the first month of the lunar calendar, the officials detained our boats, saying they were to handle the summer transport. For months, I couldn't transport goods or fish, and I was barely making a living. Now, we have to buy tribute supplies and provisions for our boatmen, which are incredibly expensive and unbearable. After years of transporting grain, I'm already destitute, and my wife is even being held as collateral. I've lost all face, and all I hope for is to raise my two children. You won't even give me this means of survival. What debts? We've truly lost them all."
At the height of his emotions, the man cried out "Ah!" and tears streamed down his face. He grabbed his large axe, rushed to the boat moored by the river, and began chopping away with all his might. Wood chips flew everywhere, just like his drifting tears.
Upon hearing the sound, Shao Shuyi quickened his pace and approached, only to see four or five burly men rush forward and pin the man to the ground.
The man struggled incessantly, weeping to himself, "This ship is a scourge, a scourge! If it weren't for this ship, the transport commissioner wouldn't have repeatedly forced me to go to sea, and I wouldn't have lost everything. Let me destroy it, destroy it!"
"You scoundrel!" A brand-new leather boot stomped on his face, grinding it hard before its owner said, "Li Fu, I know you have grievances. But in this world, who doesn't have some injustices? Since becoming the village head, I've lost over three hundred ingots in compensation, and I've sold off a lot of the mulberry groves and fields passed down from my ancestors. Originally, I could have stepped down after a year and stopped dealing with this matter, but the prefectural and county governments are forcing me to serve another year. You're wronged, but I'm even more wronged! Today I'm telling you the truth: if you don't hand over two ingots, I'll demolish your house and sell your two children. I mean what I say."
Li Fu's crying subsided slightly, but his eyes gradually became vacant.
The men who held him down took the axe and slowly released their grip. Li Fu didn't get up; he just lay there on the ground, dumbfounded.
An official standing next to the village head sighed upon seeing this, "Never mind, the summer transport is the priority. Since he's going to sea, let's wait until he returns. There will be a payment for the water transport then; I'll give the order, and the official in charge can simply withhold it."
The village head's tense expression relaxed slightly.
A moment later, he kicked Li Fu and said, "You good-for-nothing, get up."
Li Fu's eyes gradually regained focus, as if escaping a calamity temporarily had restored some of his energy. As for whether he would still have to pay his debts in the future, that was a matter for later; in this world, one should live one day at a time and not think too far ahead.
Shao Shuyi quietly disappeared behind the crowd and whispered to a bystander, "Weren't you supposed to collect the arrears at the end of the month? Why are you taking action now?"
"The government doesn't have that kind of patience," the man said in a low voice. "They said tomorrow was the deadline, but some people fled with their entire families. The government couldn't sit still, so they sent archers from the patrol office to the countryside to collect the arrears. Speaking of Li Fu, he's really a scoundrel. Years ago, some people sold their boats to escape, or falsely registered their boats under other people's names to avoid corvée labor. Li Fu was law-abiding, but in the end, he suffered the most, even worse than those who sold their boats to escape labor."
Shao Shuyi was taken aback. This truly proved the saying: in the final years of a dynasty, those loyal to the emperor and patriotic were the ones who suffered the most tragic deaths!
"So the due dates for each region's arrears collection are different," he said subconsciously.
"Yes," the man sighed, "The world is in a bad state, and the number of absconding households is increasing day by day. My family barely managed to pay our taxes, and we have almost nothing left. The head of the household is no good either; he helps the village head bully us and is capable of anything. To be honest, Master Chen of the Second Capital is the best; he held out for a long time and made sure the absconding households paid their taxes by the end of the month. But—"
"But what?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"You'll have to pay sooner or later. If you don't, they'll arrest you, and the consequences will be dire."
"During the spring and summer fishing seasons, boatmen brave the sea and risk their lives. Why are they still arresting people from the rear? Won't that affect morale?"
"You're not very knowledgeable. Every year, there are a few such incidents. I've heard from the elders that Emperor Wuzong treated us seafarers the best, but while the seafarers were transporting grain at the front, the government was arresting their families and imprisoning them in the rear. This happened during Emperor Wuzong's reign."
"And then what?"
"They'll pay off their debts before they get out. Their families will inevitably suffer; many have even died in prison."
"Is there really no other way?" Shao Shuyi asked.
"What can we do? Unless we sell ourselves into slavery, and even then, we'd have to find a good family to take us in."
Shao Shuyi fell silent.
In his view, this was not necessarily a safe bet. Even the gentry and wealthy people were not guaranteed to keep their businesses now. If the situation continued to deteriorate, who knew that officials and nobles would not run into trouble? Such a situation of "officials living in misery" was common at the end of dynasties, especially in the Yuan Dynasty.
But then again, what can you do?
For now, seeking refuge with officials and powerful gentry is the best option, as the constables are unlikely to dare cause them trouble for the time being. Refusing to pay debts, on the other hand, inevitably leads to imprisonment and a high risk of death.
This kind of messed-up thing has nothing to do with right or wrong, and has little to do with the headman or the village head, because they themselves lost a lot of money trying to meet their tax quotas. A perfectly good gentry and wealthy family was forced to sell their land and property, and even their whole family had to flee.
This is systemic oppression, a manifestation of the Yuan Dynasty's failed governance. Everyone is caught up in it, forced to hurt each other. The only solution is to shatter the old order and start anew.
Shao Shuyi left the crowd.
On his way home, he saw the patrol officers and soldiers with swords and bows at their sides. There were only thirty of them, and they didn't look like they were particularly good fighters, but they were more than enough to deal with a disorganized group of seafarers. Admittedly, there were more than ten thousand seafarers, but they were scattered across multiple thousand-household units, and even fewer in any particular village or township.
Thirty archers, plus more than twenty constables, were enough to pose a fatal threat to him.
Some things need to be done at a faster pace.
******
Upon returning home, Shao Shuyi, who was starving, immediately began cooking.
He didn't plan to be frugal anymore. After rinsing the rice, he casually chopped some vegetables, sprinkled some salt, and cooked a pot of rice and vegetables together.
After eating three large bowls, I gently patted my slightly full belly, feeling very satisfied.
He had already figured it out: if he had to flee in the future, carrying all this food would be a huge hassle. With his still-developing body, even traveling light would be exhausting, let alone carrying any equipment.
It's good to have some cash on hand; it'll be useful when you're on the run, at least it'll give him a little more time to hold on until things turn around.
But I still feel very heavy-hearted.
That's how cruel the world is. No one deliberately made things difficult for him, nor did anyone deliberately mock him, just waiting for him to show off and be proven wrong.
Some are simply numb, indifferent to the plight of others, at most feeling a sense of shared sorrow when they see the misery of others, and offering only a few sighs.
In this world, you can't even find a specific target for hatred; it can only be a broad and generalized "Yuan Dynasty".
After a sigh, Shao Shuyi decided to start trying to save himself from tomorrow. It would be his last effort before fleeing, since running away to an unfamiliar place might not end well.
Starting from the tenth day of the lunar month, the weather was gloomy for several days in a row.
Shao Shuyi worked for four days and earned two strings of cash and five hundred coins.
On the tenth day, a boat came from Ganpu, carrying a number of knives, porcelain, and rattan. The boat carried these items all day and earned 600 coins.
On the 11th, I unloaded Goryeo blueware, Goryeo bronzeware, and Silla lacquerware at the dock and earned 600 coins.
On the 12th, Hui merchants returned from overseas with two large ships full of exotic goods such as spices, pearls, and sharkskin, which were ready to be shipped. They earned 600 cash.
On the last day, he went to work as a helper at a wealthy family's wedding. The work was easy, but it was the day he earned the most money, seven hundred coins.
After four busy days, he was almost exhausted.
It must be admitted that he not only couldn't physically endure the long hours of hard labor, but he also found it difficult to bear mentally.
He was ultimately not a man of this era. What his contemporaries considered commonplace, he found utter misery; he simply couldn't overcome these people. If he continued like this, he'd definitely be riddled with injuries before he even turned thirty. Would he have the money for treatment then? Dream on.
On the 14th, just as Shao Shuyi was gritting his teeth and preparing to leave to continue saving up "travel expenses", a large group of government officials appeared outside the village to the east.
They were extremely arrogant, directly seizing the house of the wealthiest man in the village, Master Wu, and driving his family out. Then, chaos ensued. The Liu family, whose house was right next to Master Wu's, had their door broken into by the officials. Soon after, the Liu family was dragged out, crying and wailing, utterly miserable.
Some officials shouted and cursed at them. Because they were far away, they only vaguely heard the gist of it: if the Liu family could pay their debts, they would be fine; if not, they would be arrested today and put in cangues as a warning to the public.
Shao Shuyi tensed up upon hearing this.
Seeing that the two archers from the patrol office were heading west, he didn't hesitate for a moment. He rushed back into the inner room, looked at the remaining few bushels of rice, gritted his teeth, slung it over his shoulder, opened the back door, and slipped out.
He ran very fast, his lungs pumping like bellows.
He leaped across the shallow ditch, stumbled a bit upon landing, and almost twisted his ankle.
The dense branches tore his clothes, but he didn't care and continued forward.
After running for dozens of steps, he crossed the small wooden bridge and hid in the reeds on the riverbank.
It was only then that he realized how disheveled he looked: his clothes were tattered, his right ankle was uncomfortable, and there were tiny cuts from reed leaves on the back of his hands and even his face, from which blood was seeping out.
He carefully parted the reeds and gazed at the opposite bank of the river, where his home and the village where he grew up were located.
The shouts, cries, and curses in the village grew louder and louder, occasionally mixed with the sounds of doors being broken down and cabinets being ransacked.
Shao Shuyi sighed inwardly and turned to leave the riverbank.
But he didn't know where to go. The world was vast and there was nowhere to stay for a while.