By the ti Chuge had just dealt with his second case, Lu Heng had already begun his fourth life.
Being a beggar was obviously different from any other identity he had assud.
Every ti he started anew, Lu Heng encountered different situations.
The first ti, he was born into a tenant farr’s family, living in a thatched cottage and herding cattle for the landlord since childhood, participated in corvée labor, and was lucky enough to return ho and start a family. Just when life seed to be improving, a great disaster struck; he and his children could not escape and ended up swelling to death from eating Goddess Earth.
The second ti, he was born into a self-sustaining farr’s family, whose living conditions were much better than those of tenant farrs. However, to his surprise, he lived even shorter because he encountered a sudden drought in his childhood. The land was barren, and family mbers died one after the other, either of starvation or illness, leading to collective annihilation.
The third ti, born into a rich farr’s family, he led a rather decent life, colorful enough to be considered substantial. However, he then faced the oppressive levies and exploitation by officials.
The imperial court had issued orders, but the layers below kept adding to the burden. A levy of one percent from the court would beco three percent by the ti it reached the province, eight percent at the state and county levels, and even more than ten percent by the ti it got to the local officials, eventually multiplying the amount by dozens of tis.
Ordinary smallholder families selling houses, land, and even children could not afford to pay and had no choice but to leave their hos.
Fleeing with his elders, nearly all the family’s property had to be left behind; houses, land, farming tools, and bedding were all abandoned, taking only a small amount of valuables with them. After settling down sowhere new, they had to start from scratch.
However, it wasn’t long before they encountered the sa oppressive levies again, and this ti he couldn’t escape. He was thrown into prison and his family was destroyed.
This was already Lu Heng’s fourth life.
Therefore, he had beco quite numb to all of this.
The only good news was that each life was not very long, experienced in a fragnted manner.
In his fourth life, he was born again into a tenant farr’s family. This ti, a flood struck in his childhood, washing away the few remaining family mbers he had, leaving him separated from his wife and children.
Lu Heng managed to survive by clinging to a large tree, but when he looked back, his village had beco an endless marsh.
After traveling a great distance, he found a dilapidated Taoist temple and went in to ask for so food, only to discover it had long been deserted. There he encountered two desperate thieves who beat him without a second thought.
As for what would happen next, Lu Heng didn’t dare to imagine.
In his fifth life, he finally had a connection with the experiences of Emperor Taizu of Sheng; after all his family mbers died of an epidemic, Lu Heng found a monastery after much inquiry and beca a monk.
But it wasn’t long before famine struck again, and even the old monks in the monastery were swollen and black around the eyes from hunger. Thus, Lu Heng and so of the other novice monks were expelled to fend for themselves.
Ard with monastic credentials and a broken bowl, they said he could go and beg, but in reality, he was just another beggar. Having the title of a monk did not make begging any easier.
So, Lu Heng aimlessly wandered with his broken bowl.
After a great disaster always ca a great plague, the nearby villages had already been nearly emptied.
Holding his broken bowl, Lu Heng trudged on for thirty miles, scarcely seeing any living soul along the way. When lucky, he could beg half a moldy bun; when unlucky, he endured a beating.
Finally, in a place where there was no village ahead or inn behind, he fell down exhausted and never got up again.
By his sixth life, he was too lazy to go through the previous steps again and simply took a broken bowl, stole so food, and ran away from ho, prematurely leading a beggar’s life.
He had set out early to the wealthier neighboring states and counties and saw that when famine arrived, thousands were without food. Starving citizens stord the governnt office, and the County Magistrate, with righteous indignation, said, "Why are you without food? There is plenty in the city; I have never gone hungry."
Enraged, the famished populace surged into the governnt office, drove away the County Magistrate, and seized the grain from the wealthy households.
But it wasn’t long before the County Magistrate returned with troops, captured all the leaders of the starving citizens, executed them, and hung their bodies on the city gates as a warning to others.
Besides, he also saw nobles order their subordinates to beat civilians to death in the street with no consequences, as no governnt office dared to prosecute; the County Magistrate was recklessly extorting and living lavishly and when higher officials ca to inspect, they left amicably after a cursory examination.
Not to ntion how the superior Northern Barbarians rampantly slaughtered, leaving severed limbs everywhere, and fertile fields turned into grazing land.
He had also casually talked with other beggars, who said that capturing and beheading all officials above the county level wouldn’t wrong many.
While Lu Heng disagreed, saying that wasn’t accurate; the correct statent would be: to capture and behead all officials above the county level would definitely wrong so, but skip one and behead ten, and certainly so would slip through the net, drawing applause and agreent from the other beggars.
Lu Heng had traveled great distances and encountered many farrs.
And from what he had seen, the suffering of these people was only rarely due to laziness or misfortune.
In this era, hard work was a condition for survival; those who were not hardworking had long starved and wouldn’t have made it to the present.
Despite their hard work and toiling all day, they were still not clothed properly nor fed adequately, and the majority of reasons could still be traced back to those high-ranking bureaucrats.
Sotis he would chat with down-and-out scholars or other sowhat literate beggars, saying how wonderful it would be if there was such a law: if a civilian oppressed by an official could go to the capital and file a lawsuit under the protection of the law, with any official who dared to block the way beheaded. How good that would be.
The others either laughed loudly or looked at him as if he were mad, thinking he was out of his mind.
The officials were the emperor’s claws after all, and the emperor and the officials were one and the sa. How could they possibly allow civilians to sue officials? A re commoner daring to face the emperor? What a foolish daydream.
In today’s world, it was totally justified for officials to randomly throw civilians in prison and fabricate charges to execute them.
Lu Heng said nothing, rely picked up his broken bowl, passed the moldy bun inside to a nearby beggar, and felt lucky once again that he had the talent for "enduring hunger."
...
anwhile, Yun Ying, pretending to be part of the Rebel Army, was planning the next target.
"Now that the Rebel Army has occupied Chuzhou City, I also have three to four hundred soldiers under my command. But the current situation is not very optimistic.
"The Northern Barbarians constantly launch attacks, and although the ones encountered before were easily defeated, it doesn’t rule out the possibility of a strong enemy in the future.
"It is said that a Northern Barbarian General with the surna Dong is secretly planning to attack Chuzhou City, but there is no confird news yet. Was there such an event in history? However, from previous records, there seems to be no ntion of Chuzhou City being conquered.
"Even without a powerful Northern Barbarian General to attack, the situation in Chuzhou City is not necessarily good.
"There are four marshals in the city who do not see eye to eye and always disagree during etings. And as a nobody, I clearly can’t have a say...
"Of course, the most important thing is, Chuge told to keep an eye on Gu Yuan, a greatly trusted general of Emperor Taizu of Sheng. If I could latch onto this golden leg, many problems would surely be easily resolved.
"But the problem is... up to now, I haven’t found anyone with the surna Gu at all?"
Yun Ying knitted her brows, puzzled.
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