Bondservants

Late November was, by any reckoning, the depths of winter. When Liu Cheng and Liu Jili woke in Jiangsheng, daylight had already spread across the sky, yet neither had any intention of heading straight back to camp. For one thing, the camp's morale was largely settled now; having Tall Liu oversee security and distribute grain was plenty, and even if troublesome matters cropped up, they could wait an hour or two. For another, now that the two of them had a bit of money and grain tucked away, they felt the need to improve their standard of living. If nothing else, trudging into Jiankang every few days with loads of firewood meant they at least had to trade for a new pair of hemp sandals from Old Wang, didn't it? In summer and autumn one could bathe in the river, but in winter one needed hot water. True, the camp lacked no firewood, but it had no walls to block the wind; wiping oneself down in a crude shack was hardly the same as taking a proper wash here. Even going without a bath was bearable—it was midwinter, after all—but one simply had to wash one's hair! Catching lice while discussing the realm's grand strategy with Huan Wen might be celebrated as the era's supreme romantic anecdote, but Wang Meng was Wang Meng, wasn't he? Who were they to compare? Moreover, as circumstances shifted, a new notion had taken root in Liu Cheng's mind. Needing to bring Liu Jili around first, he took advantage of this chance to wash their hair. "Invite Liu Ren Gong back?" To avoid wetting his clothes, Liu Jili was leaning forward bare-chested over the basin, thoroughly puzzled at the suggestion. "Didn't we say we'd wait until spring, after the government issues the seeds, before inviting him back?" "Circumstances change," Liu Cheng explained with a smile, wringing a hemp cloth soaked in hot water over Jili's head. "I know what you're thinking..." Liu Jili was clearly somewhat displeased. "Letting Ren Gong's family go back now means they'll have enough money and grain to make it through winter, but have you considered what you told me back at the start? You said that if the two of us held those thousand-odd people together, we could build our reputation. If we hand them back halfway through, whose reputation will it be—his or ours? This isn't about grain and money. We agreed we were going to build our renown!" "I have a few points of reason," Liu Cheng said, rinsing the hemp cloth in the hot water before reaching for the honey locust pods. "Care to hear them?" Liu Jili kept his head down, only sighing. "You always have your reasons... But Ah Cheng, don't always keep pushing your luck." "If the reasoning is sound, what's wrong with pushing further?" Feeling that the soaked honey locust pods were soft and mushy, Liu Cheng quickly mashed them into a paste with his fingers. "Let me first ask you, Brother Jili: haven't we already won renown? Do the Celestial Masters not know this is our doing, or are the people in the camp unaware? If we hadn't gained reputation through this, we might never have established a connection with the Celestial Masters in the first place. And Steward Qian—sure, we backed him into a corner, but wasn't he also shaken by the fact that a thousand-odd people behind us were starving? Even he knows what we're capable of." "But who ever complained of having too much renown?" Liu Jili could not resist looking up to argue. "To be blunt, if word of this reached Liu A'gan and his father and made them yield to us in admiration, I'd concede. I wouldn't mind letting Ren Gong go back early then." "And that brings me to my second point." Liu Cheng turned, pressed Jili's head back down, and carefully worked the water mixed with locust paste into his hair. "Brother Jili, having Liu A'gan and his father yield is one thing, but wouldn't having Ren Gong and his son yield to us mean just as much? Besides, at this stage, which is more useful to us: winning over Ren Gong and his son, or winning over Liu A'gan and his father?" "Why can't we have both?" Keeping his eyes shut and head bowed did not stop Liu Jili from shooting back immediately. "Giving that tiger skin to Liu Huzi was already more than fair to conscience. All that boy does all day is draw bows and shoot arrows in the garrison town... If you ask me, if Liu Ren Gong knows his son has a future ahead of him, he might not even want to return to our camp." "Because it's not worth it," Liu Cheng cut him off, raising his voice and ignoring the long complaint that followed. "What's not worth it?" Liu Jili's tone softened. "Wanting it all isn't worth it. It's just like doing business..." Liu Cheng resumed his former smile. "Brother Jili, over the past month and a half, we accomplished what we set out to do. We've already won renown across Jiangsheng, the Celestial Masters, and Garrison Commander Gao. In the next month or two, doing the exact same things won't yield nearly as much reputation. There's no need to keep stringing things along. Handing the camp back to Ren Gong frees our minds to focus entirely on building a ladder to the Xie clan... Am I right? If we win over Xie Dongshan, we might step straight into official posts. And when that happens, as you said, what if Liu Ren Gong refuses to go back because his son already has a future? Yesterday Xie Dongshan lectured on the Mao Commentary on the Classic of Poetry: 'All have their beginnings, but few see them through to the end.' Isn't that what he meant? What we need to consider now is seeing the camp's affairs through to a proper end. If we secure a future for ourselves, the camp will still need Liu Ren Gong to manage it. We shouldn't put the cart before the horse." Liu Jili looked as though he wanted to speak, but held back, simply dunking his head into the basin to rinse it in the hot water. "There's one more thing; I don't know if you've noticed," Liu Cheng said, picking up the hemp cloth once more for a final question. "Life here in Jiangsheng isn't easy—and it's getting harder by the day." Liu Jili met this with continued silence. Seeing this, Liu Cheng said no more. He finished washing Jili's hair. Having already washed his own earlier, Liu Cheng turned to put on a newly bought unlined inner robe he had prepared, layered his regular clothes over it, and went outside to find a bench. Sitting by the foot of the wall with his long hair draped loose over his shoulders, he basked in the sun... He certainly didn't dare hit the road right now. With hair this long and no hair dryers in this day and age, setting out wet in the dead of winter could easily plant the seeds of some lingering ailment. Of course, only Liu Cheng was so particular. People like Liu Huzi and even Liu Jili routinely relied on their youth to do as they pleased. Liu Huzi had actually gotten up and washed his hair that morning too—after all, the honey locust pods had been filched from Steward Qian by Liu Cheng and Jili—but the moment the boy finished washing, off he went to shoot arrows, no different from an internet-addicted teen of later generations. As for Liu Jili, while Liu Cheng sat sunning himself before the earthen wall chatting with Liu Huzi's eldest sister about grain prices and the like, the fellow vanished without anyone noticing when... Heaven knew what he had gone off to do. After quite some time, with his hair mostly dry, Liu Cheng wrapped his crimson headcloth on and prepared to head back, but Jili still hadn't returned. Left with no choice, Liu Cheng went looking for him. To be frank, life in Jiangsheng was indeed grim, as evidenced by the local sanitation. Liu Cheng had visited just before winter set in; back then, though chaotic from the influx of Liu kinsmen, the roads had remained relatively clean and free of foul odors. Now, barely a month later, the place had degenerated into utter squalor. Nor was this due to any incompetence on Liu Ren Gong's part in failing to discipline his kinsmen. The man had kept things in fine order back at the refugee camp; how could he suddenly fail after gaining proper lodgings here? By Liu Cheng's reckoning, the main cause was the ever-growing number of scattered refugees drifting into Jiangsheng. These stragglers had no clan to lean on and no old acquaintances to rely upon. Jiangsheng's capacity was inherently limited; the earlier wave of Liu kinsmen had already severely overcrowded this small market town nestled against the garrison post and the thoroughfare to Jiankang. Where was there any room for newcomers to survive? Garrison Commander Gao held the adjacent garrison town, and most of his subordinate officers shared his Gao surname. When it came to provisioning, hauling cargo, or borrowing boats to fish on the river, if those opportunities weren't given to the Gaos and the Lius, were they supposed to be handed to outsiders? Without work, resources, or kin, within three to five days they lost all dignity, reduced essentially to beggars. Once reduced to begging, even selling one's sons and daughters became difficult, let alone worrying about sanitation. This was the real reason Liu Cheng wanted Liu Ren Gong to return. What he had just told Liu Jili about life here being rough had been entirely in earnest. Simply put, things were that dire. Earlier, they had reasoned that coming to Jiangsheng offered a better chance of survival than staying in the camp, so they had let them come. Returning to the camp now didn't mean survival rates there were necessarily higher; rather, if the Lius moved back, many people here would find room to survive. Still, there was no need to rush, for thus far the situation was developing gradually, not yet spiraling into a crisis that couldn't be handled. In truth, quite a few single households that had followed Liu Ren Gong here had already returned, and Liu Cheng had taken them all in as best he could. Beyond that lay a hidden motive Liu Cheng could not easily confess to Liu Jili: his dream of a fortified manor. After enduring most of this winter, whatever Liu Jili felt, Liu Cheng had grown acutely aware of just how difficult it was for a host of this size to survive and thrive. A fortified manor was not built in a day. Come next spring, even if the authorities truly provided seed and permitted them to clear wasteland, the hurdles would still be immense. Wasn't that what "clearing brambles in hempen rags" meant? For an undertaking like that, one truly needed the deep foundation of someone like Liu Ren Gong to preside. Two youngsters relying on crooked paths just to scrape through the winter was already a stroke of divine luck; could they really expect to lead all these people in taming the wilderness? So whether Xie Dongshan might suddenly offer them official posts was one thing, but if Liu Ren Gong refused to return because his son had bright prospects, the camp would be in serious trouble. Yet the difficulties surrounding this fortified manor dream could only be kept close to the chest, unfit to be voiced aloud. He could only tell Liu Jili that if Xie An gave them posts, they wouldn't be able to manage the camp... Yet thinking about it, what if Xie An really did give them office? Could they truly keep running the camp anyway? Amid these wandering thoughts, Liu Cheng crossed through the Jiangsheng marketplace. Though he hadn't found his companion, he heard a commotion coming from the direction of the riverside garrison town and walked that way. Many among the onlookers were familiar faces, and they stepped aside of their own accord. Once the crowd parted, there stood Liu Jili, watching the spectacle. "Ah Cheng, look..." Liu Jili said with his arms crossed, jutting his chin forward. "What happened?" "Folks say winter is hard, so Garrison Commander Gao drove out all the bondservants and workers the garrison post had taken on previously to replace them with people from the Gao and Liu clans... These people refused to leave, but Garrison Commander Gao enforces strict military discipline, so he had them beaten out with cudgels. Now they're just kneeling before the garrison post, weeping and begging." At this point, even Liu Jili sounded helpless. "It's not just bondservants," chimed in a voice beside them. It was Old Liu San, who had appeared out of nowhere, looking rather grieved himself. "They've even driven out the corvée laborers." Liu Cheng froze, a bitter knot tightening in his chest. The words had almost leaped to his lips: Isn't releasing corvée laborers home a good thing? But on second thought, what else could it be? Livelihoods were desperate. If a laborer could work in the garrison town in exchange for hot meals, it saved a substantial amount at home, allowing family members to eat a bit more and increasing their chances of surviving the winter. That was why they would rather endure the cudgel than leave, begging for a reprieve. And yet, corvée laborers were already on the yellow register—either locals or long-settled migrants who had undergone the land residency registry. In any case, they were people who possessed their own lands and houses. If even people like this were begging to stay in the garrison town for the winter, what hope was there for this year's refugees? At this thought, Liu Cheng felt an inexplicable wave of despondency... His own thousand-odd people had once been pushed to the brink of total collapse, to the point where he was scheming to bring Liu Ren Gong back early just to hedge against the risks of spring. How could he possibly spare a thought for the forty or fifty thousand refugees across Jingkou this year? And if his thoughts drifted further, with the realm in great turmoil, rivers of blood were surely flowing across Hebei—was he supposed to worry about those people too? The two capitals and twenty-one provinces of the Great Jin Dynasty were burdens for men like Xie An to shoulder. For himself, to build a fortified manor and save maybe ten thousand souls in this lifetime would already be more than fair to heaven and earth. "Give me some more time to think about what you said while washing hair," Liu Jili spoke up gruffly, perhaps reminded of when he himself had been cast out with nowhere to go. "Ah Cheng, let's have Ren Gong step in and bring these driven-out bondservants back to our camp first... It's only a few dozen men, all able-bodied laborers. We can still afford to feed them." Liu Cheng naturally had no objection, but beside them, Old Liu San visibly hesitated, words hovering on the tip of his tongue. "What is it, Uncle San?" Sharp-eyed, Liu Cheng naturally caught the elder's hesitation. "What can I say?" Old Liu San spread his hands. "You want to do good; could I stop you? But Ah Cheng, I know you're clever and capable. These past days you opened up connections with the Celestial Masters and Jiankang, laying up quite a bit of rice and grain... But have you considered this? There are so many starving souls in Jingkou. You can save these few dozen, but can you save more? Winter is only half over; things will only get harder from here. If you take these people in, and later on other folk from our homeland hear of your fame and head back to the camp, only for the camp to run out of grain, are you going to shut our own townsfolk out on account of these outsiders? "Besides, is Garrison Commander Gao doing this out of malice? He drove those men out to make room for our Liu kinsmen! You have a bit of surplus right now, and you go and take in the very people he expelled—what will outsiders say about Garrison Commander Gao, about our Ren Gong, and about you?" Liu Cheng had no reply. Even Liu Jili was rendered speechless. It was true. Old Liu San was usually loose-tongued, but what he said today was undeniable wisdom... Garrison Commander Gao was no villain, especially when his actions were intended to save their kinsmen. One couldn't saddle someone else with a bad reputation just to perform a good deed! Furthermore, winter was indeed only half spent; things wouldn't merely possibly get worse—they certainly would. Liu Cheng had understood this from the very beginning. Winter food supplies were a fixed store; as grain was eaten away, the deterioration of conditions would only accelerate, growing increasingly dire. "Then maybe..." Liu Jili looked at Liu Cheng with slight embarrassment, his meaning obvious. Indeed, Liu Jili had actually been swayed by Old Liu San's words—and utterly convinced at that! "No rush," Liu Cheng said calmly, having sorted it out in his mind. "Let's go back and take stock of the accounts—the head count, stored grain, money, and cloth—before we decide." Liu Jili could only nod. And so, around midday, the two Lius left the rice traded for the peachwood firewood at Liu Ren Gong's house and set out for camp carrying only their empty shoulder poles. Both clearly had heavy thoughts on their minds and did not speak along the way as they usually did. It wasn't until they reached the fork in the road where Liu Jili had previously gone fishing that Liu Cheng suddenly stopped and turned to his companion. "Brother Jili, do you remember our first encounter by the brook?" "How could I forget?" Liu Jili shook his head with a bitter smile, the empty shoulder pole resting on his back. "I doubt I could forget it in this lifetime." "You remember, then," Liu Cheng continued. "I told you back then, I didn't even own a single long robe—just a coarse short jacket and hemmed trousers. I was a guest at Garrison Commander Gao's, and someone looked down on me, so Liu Huzi had me steal your clothes." "Liu Huzi is a rascal!" Even though much time had passed and neither of them cared about the clothes anymore, Liu Jili couldn't help swearing when he remembered it. "Actually, no one looked down on me. Liu Huzi was just young and overly sensitive." Liu Cheng didn't dispute Jili's assessment of Huzi's character, speaking slowly in an even, measured tone. "Back then, it was just a young bondservant attached to the garrison town. While clearing the wooden plates and bowls, he glanced at me an extra time because I was dressed just like him and about the same age... But Gao Jian, being a military man and respecting Ren Gong, drove that young bondservant out on our way out. By now, I don't even know if he's alive or dead... Truly, I don't know, and even if I saw his corpse or saw him alive, I wouldn't recognize him." "All right, I see your point," Liu Jili said, bowing his head. "Still, what Uncle San said makes eminent sense. Regardless, let's have Tall Liu handle it—have him discreetly gather these people from the outskirts of Jiangsheng and bring them to camp, and we'll figure out the rest later... How about that?" Liu Cheng simply nodded. The two spoke no further until they returned to camp, calmly assigning duties as always, as though nothing at all had transpired during their journey to Jiankang and stay in Jiangsheng. — *Divider: As if nothing had happened* — Taizu... while residing in Jiangzuo, harbored ambitions that encompassed the entire realm. Though destitute and impoverished, possessing but a single robe and a lined jacket, even weaving mats, selling sandals, and playing the flute to entertain others, he still exerted every ounce of strength to protect and provide for men of righteousness. At the tender age of fifteen, more than a thousand followers adhered to him. — *New Book of Qi*, Basic Annals, Volume 1, "Emperor Taizu Gao, Part One"