As the soldiers laughed and joked, their bows were no longer aimed at the three men. The burly man dared to act on his ideas. Suddenly, he took off running west, shouting, "Run east! Hide your money!"
That one sentence served two purposes. First, it told Wang Yang and the handsome youth to run east, splitting the soldiers' attention. Second, it hinted to the soldiers that Wang Yang and the youth had money on them and were more worth pursuing than he was.
The burly man's plan sounded good, but putting it into practice was another matter entirely.
First, the handsome youth was so frightened that he could no longer tell east from west, north from south. He simply ran after the burly man.
Second, Wang Yang stood where he was without moving. It was not that he did not want to escape, but that there were nine men on the other side, armed with bows. His chances of getting away were far too slim.
Finally, the burly man had underestimated the soldiers' reflexes and the deadly effectiveness of cold steel.
He had barely run a few steps before an arrow struck the ground in front of his feet!
The burly man raised both hands on instinct, not daring to run any farther. The handsome youth stopped in fright as well.
"Run! Keep running! This is a mulberry bow. Even twenty paces farther out, I could shoot you like a rabbit! You two little bastards think you can run? Watch how I deal with you!"
The ten-man squad commander pointed, and four soldiers strode forward. In pairs, they roughly pinned the burly man and the handsome youth from either side. The burly man shouted, "I can make salt! Refined salt! I can-aargh!"
Before he could finish, a sword hilt slammed into his lower abdomen. The pain immediately left him unable to straighten his back.
While the burly man shouted, the handsome youth cried out as well, "The wind is fierce, the heavens high, the apes cry mournfully! The islet clear, the sand white, birds wheel in flight! Boundless falling leaves-"
Then he suffered a fate much like the burly man's. A sword hilt smashed into his mouth, swelling his lips at once and leaving his teeth covered in blood.
He could not understand it. Why could other people travel through time and enjoy romantic, carefree lives, while he ended up like this? I'm supposed to be the protagonist!
"What are those two shouting about?" the squad commander asked in puzzlement.
The dark-faced spearman beside him looked equally baffled. "I think one said he sells salt? And the other was reciting song lyrics?"
As the saying went, they were "making eyes at a blind man." The two time travelers had each announced their "special talents," only to receive not "favor," but "a pounding." This was not merely because the soldiers were "rough men." The era itself was also to blame.
At the time, ordinary people generally knew only two kinds of salt: yellow salt and white salt. Depending on its physical form, it could also be classified as powdered salt, granulated salt, loose salt, or coarse salt. What concept did they have of salt being refined or otherwise? It was not merely that they lacked the concept-the term "refined salt" did not even exist then.
Had modern refined salt been placed before these soldiers, they would naturally have recognized it as "good stuff." But with words alone, one could hardly blame these "country bumpkins" for failing to "grasp the spirit" of the message.
As for Du Fu's "Ascending the Heights," it was, of course, a masterpiece towering over the ages. Unfortunately, in that era, four- and five-character verse were considered the proper forms, with five-character poetry especially prevalent, while seven-character lines were mostly used in Music Bureau ballads. Though scholars occasionally composed formal seven-character poems, these were mere grains in the vast sea, nowhere near a match for five-character poetry in either quality or quantity.
Had someone versed in poetry been present, he might have wanted to hear the handsome youth continue reciting. But all the soldiers there were rough fellows. Even the dark-faced spearman, who knew quite a few written characters, could not hear the meaning woven into the verse, much less the others.
The squad commander pointed at Wang Yang. "Grab this one too. He's more docile. The Squad Leader will definitely like him."
Two soldiers strode toward Wang Yang, reaching out with their large hands to seize his arms!
Wang Yang's expression changed. He stepped back, opened his eyes wide, and roared with every ounce of strength he had, "I am a son of the Langya Wang clan! Harm me, and your entire clan will be exterminated!"
Wang Yang had been preparing that roar for some time, ready to "succeed or die trying." Like a wild wolf at the end of its road, a cornered beast still fighting, he unleashed unimaginable strength in his desperation. His voice cracked like thunder, his breath roared like a tiger or leopard, stunning the two soldiers into momentary stillness.
"Exterminate your clan" meant wiping out an entire lineage. Wang Yang's shout was like a bomb hurled into their midst, blasting everyone senseless.
Everyone looked at Wang Yang. For a moment, no one spoke.
Wang Yang had given this lie some thought.
Earlier, he had used historical phonology to judge that he was in the medieval period. Just now, that man had mentioned "northern spies," so this was most likely an era in which north and south stood opposed. His present location was within the southern realm.
Although Eastern Wu during the Three Kingdoms period had also stood in opposition to the north, and a similar north-south divide had emerged during the late Tang and Five Dynasties, neither had lasted as long as the Northern and Southern Dynasties. In terms of probability, then, he had placed his bet on the Northern and Southern Dynasties.
The Northern and Southern Dynasties were an age of aristocratic clans, with an exceptionally rigid divide between the highborn and commoners. Scions of great houses could summon wind and rain, while lowly commoners toiled like oxen and horses. If he could successfully impersonate an aristocrat, he would surely intimidate the soldiers!
But there were many great houses south of the Yangtze: Wang, Xie, Yuan, Xiao, Gu, Lu, Zhu, Zhang-the list went on and on. Which clan should he pretend to belong to?
Wang Yang reasoned that since he would be an impostor either way, he might as well impersonate the foremost great house south of the Yangtze-the Langya Wang!
He remembered that Mao Hanguang had compiled statistics on the backgrounds of officials of the fifth rank and above during the Eastern Jin and Southern Dynasties in his "A Study of Aristocratic Politics in the Two Jin and Northern and Southern Dynasties." The Langya Wang had accounted for the largest number!
From the Eastern Jin to Southern Chen, the political standing of the aristocratic clans had risen and fallen, but the Langya Wang had always remained an undisputed first-tier great house.
Claiming the Langya surname was the safest bet.
Of course, "safe" was only relative.
If this happened to be the time of Wang Dun's rebellion during the Eastern Jin, when Wang Dao led the Wang clan's sons to plead guilty before the palace gates, or if he were under the rule of the Sun clan of Eastern Wu, pretending to be a member of the Langya Wang might cost him more than he gained.
Besides, the great aristocratic clans all had genealogies and household registers. How could impersonating one of their members be so easy?
And Wang Yang did not even know which dynasty he was in. How could he invent the details?
In short, the risks were considerable. But to keep his chrysanthemum from being ravaged, Wang Yang could only steel himself and make a desperate gamble.
The squad commander stared blankly for a moment, then was the first to burst out laughing. Had he been drinking water, he would have sprayed it a considerable distance.
The soldiers all roared with laughter as well, as though Wang Yang were the greatest joke in the world.
The squad commander doubled over, pointing at Wang Yang. "You... you really have the fucking nerve to make things up! A pauper like you wouldn't be born into the Wang family in another eight lifetimes! Hahahahaha!"
Hearing the squad commander's words, Wang Yang first breathed a sigh of relief. His greatest worry had been that these men had never even heard of the Langya Wang. Their reaction now showed that he had placed the right bet!
The era he had traveled to was indeed the Eastern Jin or Southern Dynasties!
But as the saying went, "a man depends on his clothes, a horse on its saddle." Wang Yang's clothes were truly too ragged. He did not even have a belt around his waist, only a hemp rope. Never mind the Langya Wang-even ordinary commoners dressed better than he did. Unless he could plausibly explain his clothing, this performance could not continue.
Wang Yang had first claimed to be a Vagrant, then changed his story to say he belonged to the Langya Wang. It was already difficult to believe him. Someone a little slower-witted would surely have rushed to explain the inconsistency, but Wang Yang showed no intention of explaining himself. Instead, he gave a cold laugh.
"Poor? Any coral tree in my house would be enough to buy the lives of every one of you, and you call me poor?"
He glanced casually at his clothes and said slowly, "I changed into these clothes to evade bandits. You judge the clothes rather than the man. No wonder you have eyes but no sight." With that, he shook his head and sighed.
"I don't have time for your bullshit!" The squad commander's face hardened. "Third, Ding Jiu, pin him down and slap him twice!"
The two soldiers advanced on Wang Yang. He stood motionless and sneered, "If you two want your three degrees of kinship wiped out, come ahead."
Seeing Wang Yang standing firm as a mountain and speaking with such certainty, Third and Ding Jiu hesitated.
The squad commander cursed, "Have you gone stupid? You still believe him? Even a real member of the Langya Wang couldn't wipe out someone's entire clan! He's obviously some troublemaking commoner pretending to be one! Can't you see something that simple?"
"Hahahaha!" Wang Yang threw back his head and laughed, as though the squad commander had told the greatest joke in the world.
In truth, however, Wang Yang was the one telling a joke. The squad commander was right.
Wang Yang had to admit that his threat to "exterminate their clans" had gone a little too far. He had simply been too frightened at the time, and wanted to intimidate the soldiers immediately, so he had used clan extermination to scare them. Given enough time to prepare, he would certainly have constructed a more convincing lie. But the situation had been urgent, leaving him no chance to think it through carefully.
Now he had to make that lie hold together.
Note: In medieval historical sources, "Langya" was often written as "Langye." The "Explaining Graphs and Analyzing Characters" states, "Xie: Langya Commandery. Composed of the settlement radical, with ya indicating the sound." Here, xie was pronounced the same as ya (ya). For convenience, "Langya" is used consistently throughout.
Salt administration varied from dynasty to dynasty and cannot be summed up simply as a state monopoly. Even where it was state-run, the precise meaning of that differed between dynasties. Private salt production was prohibited under the Western Jin, with violators sentenced to four years of punishment. From the Eastern Jin through the Southern Dynasties, however, the restrictions were lifted, allowing private salt boiling while levying a salt tax. This was a taxation system, so when the soldiers heard the burly man mention refined salt, their first reaction did not concern illicit salt. Further details of salt administration at this time will appear later.
Before you continue