He had a house now, but the Tin Can House was completely empty, without a single piece of furniture.
The village chief carried a large bundle of hay into the house to serve as Li Da's temporary bed and lent him an old quilt.
Gao Yiye also brought him a large bowl of rice topped with cooked chicken and cabbage, letting Li Da enjoy a hearty meal.
While they bustled around tending to Li Da, San Shier reported what had happened in the county seat to Li Daoxuan.
Wang Er of Baishui's rebellion came as no surprise to Li Daoxuan; he simply had not expected it to happen so soon. After hearing the report, he had little to say and merely sighed for the innocent people in the city who had lost their lives in the fighting.
It was completely dark now. Li Daoxuan took another sheet of metal and temporarily blocked the half of the gateway whose door had yet to be finished, and the villagers returned to their homes to rest.
The Scenery Box entered its "non-static scene."
There was nothing much to watch anymore.
Li Daoxuan looked away from the box and glanced out his window. Night had fallen over Shuangqing City too, but the city glittered with lights, and its nightlife was only just beginning.
He sat back down at his computer and clicked Cai Xinzi's avatar on QQ. "Cai, how's my Hakka Walled House coming along?"
Cai Xinzi: "It's nowhere near done. I'm still building the framework. How could it be that fast? Ask me again in a month."
Li Daoxuan: "..."
Well, that walled-house model really was a lot of work. There was no rushing it.
He opened the History and Military Forum he frequented and made another anonymous post: "If you traveled back to the late Ming dynasty and had a sturdy castle, firearms, and iron armor, solving your basic security problems, what would be the second thing you did?"
Reply 1: Pick up more girls. Don't let the good girls down, and don't let the bad girls go to waste. Put them through all eighteen positions.
Reply 2: Moderator, get over here and mute that moron in post 1. I've put up with him long enough.
Reply 3: Kill, obviously! First kill off the Eunuch Faction, then kill off the Donglin Faction. Kill all of Li Zicheng's roaming bandits, kill all the Jianzhou Jurchens in the northeast, kill everyone who won't obey me, and kill everyone who offends me. Then take a bunch of obedient followers, establish a new country, and sweep through Europe and America.
Reply 4: If you have no grand ambitions, do what post 1 says. If you have grand ambitions but your head is full of shit, do what post 3 says. If you genuinely want to resist the Qing and save the country, and want the Chinese Nation to sweep across the globe, then you need to honor worthy people and humble yourself before them, recruiting every kind of talent you can. Use capable people from the Eunuch Faction, use capable people from the Donglin Faction, and use capable people from the roaming bandits. Even use capable people from that Wild Boar Hide's side... The more capable people you have at your disposal, the greater the things you can accomplish.
Reply 5: Post 4 is talking pure bullshit. Why would I need to use that trash? I'd train my own team from scratch.
Reply 6: Starting with children? How many years would it take for them to grow into adults who could help you get things done? Great Ming will fall in Chongzhen Year Seventeen. Will you still be hiding in some mountain hollow teaching at a village school then?
Reply 7: So forget training a team. Raise little girls instead. It only takes a few years before they're ready to eat.
Li Daoxuan: You fucking imbecile. You're back again?
The discussion ended, and the moderator locked the thread. If they kept talking like this, he feared he would be invited in for tea.
Li Daoxuan carefully read through the earlier replies. After turning them over in his mind, he still felt that post 4 made the most sense.
Never mind the distant future; looking at the immediate situation, his little village of a few dozen people urgently needed manpower. They did not even have to be talented-anyone would do. Men could fell trees, cut timber, and build the gates; women could cook, wash clothes, and do odd jobs. They really needed people everywhere.
Just as he was thinking this, a faint chorus of voices rose from the Scenery Box. It sounded as though many people were talking at once, their voices merging into a noisy hubbub. Li Daoxuan turned to look. Things were getting lively: several hundred people had gathered together, pushing carts large and small and carrying torches as they followed Loess Road to the outskirts of Gao Family Village.
They had probably intended to enter Gao Family Village, but the village was now surrounded by a "gigantic city wall" built from Lego bricks. In the pitch-black night, with only moonlight and torches to light their way, their visibility was so limited that they could not even find the gate.
The hundreds of people were thoroughly bewildered and began whispering among themselves. Their discussion was what Li Daoxuan had just heard.
He leaned over the edge of the Scenery Box with interest and immediately spotted a tall, brawny man at the head of the group. It was none other than Wang Er of Baishui.
Apparently, after rising in rebellion that day and killing County Magistrate Zhang Yaocai, he had opened the granary, seized the Official Grain, loaded it into the carts behind him, and fled the city. He had traveled more than thirty li to reach Gao Family Village.
Wang Er was getting anxious!
He knew pursuers might arrive at any moment, so he wanted to finish "repaying Gao Family Village's kindness" as quickly as possible. Yet this bizarre village had somehow gained an enormous city wall out of thin air in the blink of an eye, leaving him unable to find a way inside.
Wang Er first quieted the people around him, then raised his voice and shouted into Gao Family Village. "People of Gao Family Village, can you hear me? I'm Wang Er of Baishui, from neighboring Wang Family Village. I stole your water, but you didn't hold it against me and gave me plenty of flour instead. We've come to repay your kindness today. I have grain now, and I've brought you two cartloads... People of Gao Family Village! Can you hear me?"
Li Daoxuan could not help chuckling. This Wang Er of Baishui is a decent fellow. The moment he seized the Official Grain, he hurried over, eager to repay the favor. No wonder he could become one of the leaders of the Peasant Rebellion Army. Anyone who could make a whole crowd willing to lay down their heads and spill their blood for him had to possess considerable personal charisma.
"People of Gao Family Village..." Wang Er of Baishui shouted a couple more times, and a dark silhouette appeared atop the wall. Gao Chuwu had arrived.
With his usual guileless expression, he called down outside the wall, "Huh? So you're the thief who stole our water."
Wang Er felt a little embarrassed. Fortunately, the night was so dark that, with only moonlight and torchlight, no one noticed his face reddening slightly. "Yes, I stole it. Ah, but now isn't the time to talk about that. Please open the gate. I'll give you two cartloads of grain, then I have to leave right away."
Gao Chuwu was simple-minded, the sort who could not make a judgment on his own unless someone gave him orders. For the moment, he had no idea what to do.
Li Daoxuan spent half a second thinking it over. They certainly could not accept those two cartloads of grain, nor could they let Wang Er's group into Gao Family Village. The peasant rebellion was still in its early stages, the situation throughout the realm remained fairly stable, and the Imperial Court still held strong control. If Gao Family Village became entangled with Wang Er's group now, it would bring serious trouble.
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