Chapter 5 The Predators of Carp Sixty Rods

  Two strings of fish weighed nearly twenty catties, which could be sold for about two hundred coins at market price. However, the town of Chishan was by the sea, and fish were not a rare commodity. Moreover, the common people's goods had always been cheap, and the person buying the fish was clearly not an ordinary citizen. He offered one string of money, which was equivalent to one hundred copper coins, and it wasn't even considered a forced sale.

  It's just that the fish was originally given to Li Jing by Xiao Shi, and it wasn't all given to him, another string was to be taken back to Xiao Shi's home. Moreover, this person in front of him had a very deep connection with Li Jing's family, so when Li Jing saw that the person buying the fish was him, he immediately rejected him.

  The person who wanted to buy fish was also a young man, about the same age as Li Jing, in his early twenties. However, he wore black clothes on his body. In the Tang Dynasty, both xuan and zao were black colors, but xuan had a reddish tint, while zao was plain black. However, these two colors of clothing were prohibited from being worn by ordinary commoners. Xuan color, like red and yellow, was an imperial dress color. Zao color, on the other hand, was stipulated as the dress color for yamen runners and officials, which is why there were zao clothes, zao boots, and zao hats in government offices.

  The man who bought the fish was dressed in a suit of black clothes and boots, but he was not from the yamen, rather, he was from the Red Mountain Garrison.

  "Isn't this Li Xiuciai? Why isn't he at home reading the classics today, but instead ran to town? Coming to town and not even looking for me, his brother, to have a chat?"

  Li Jiong saw this person and knew that he would have to spend some time today. He walked to the edge of the city wall, put down his load, and coldly said: "The fish was brought back by Xiaoshi Tuo to our village, if you don't have anything else, I'll be leaving."

  "What's the hurry, let's talk more. I'm not my sister, crying and shouting that you must marry me, if not, I'll hang myself." Wang Liang said with his hands clasped together, his eyes narrowed, with a hint of anger in them.

  Li Jiong fell silent for a moment, what Wang Liang said was true. The Li and Wang families had been on good terms for generations, and they were even neighbors when they lived in Qingzhou. Wang Liang's grandfather and Li Jiong's grandfather were both officers of the Pinglu Army, and later they both died in battle fighting against the imperial court's attack on the separatist regime of the Li family in Zibo. They then moved to Wangli Village together. Later, Li Jiong's father became an official and served as a county recorder in Tancheng County, so he invited Wang Liang's father to be his attendant, but unfortunately, both men died in the chaos caused by Qiu Fu's troops. Then, Wang Liang's older brother also went with Li Jiong's older brother that year to deliver grain to Xuzhou and never returned. The two families had indeed experienced similar tragic events.

  Wang Liang had a younger sister, two years younger than Li Xuan. One day, while picking wild vegetables outside, she encountered a wolf and almost got eaten. Luckily, Li Xuan happened to pass by and rescued her from the wolf's jaws. As a result, Wang Liang's younger sister told her family that she would only marry Li Xuan in this life. This was actually a good thing, as Wang Liang's sister was decent-looking and had good manners. Li Xuan's mother also agreed to the marriage, but Li Xuan strongly opposed it. For some reason, he just didn't want to marry Wang Liang's sister, perhaps because he still had plans to take part in the imperial examination and become an official to revive his family's fortunes.

  The matter was handled very stiffly, and the Wang family's younger sister asked a matchmaker to come to the door several times to propose marriage, but it didn't work out. The news spread like wildfire, and the reputation of the Wang family's younger sister was tarnished. In a fit of anger, the younger sister hanged herself, but was rescued by her family in time. Within a few days, she jumped into a well again, and this happened five or six times before she was finally persuaded to stop. Now that the younger sister is 18 years old, there isn't a single family within dozens of miles around who dares to propose marriage to the Wang family.

  At the beginning of this year, Wang Liang's family asked a matchmaker to come and wanted to marry off Li Ju's fourth sister, Yuanying, to Wang Liang. However, Yuanying did not refuse, but instead made a request: she would not accept any betrothal gifts from the Wang family, but she would only agree to this marriage if they gave her two dan of millet. Madam Han was originally unwilling to add this condition, but Yuanying insisted repeatedly, saying that otherwise she would not agree.

  With just this little thing, the Wang family really couldn't bring it out. As a result, Wang Liang was convinced that the Li family had no sincerity, and from then on, the relationship between the two families was completely severed. With resentment in his heart, Wang Liang's mother even ran to the gate of the Li family and scolded them several times, and Wang Liang also destroyed two vegetable fields of the Li family.

  Although Mrs. Han repeatedly asked the Li family to tolerate Wang Liang's behavior, in her heart, Li Yu still didn't have a good impression of Wang Liang.

  Wang Liangnian initially proposed marriage but was rejected, and later found a job in the town through connections. It wasn't a serious job, just serving as an assistant to the warehouse manager of Chishan Town, which meant being a personal attendant, running errands, delivering messages, going shopping, and doing other miscellaneous tasks.

  "Xiucai Lang, today our family's official is hosting a banquet at home to entertain Zhao Ya'nan, the red man beside Liu Zhenjiang. Zhao Ya'nan doesn't like seafood but loves eating fish from this river. These few fish of yours are very fresh and delicious, Zhao Ya'nan will definitely love them. How about this? We're all from the same village, I won't take advantage of you. Sell these two strings of fish to me, and I'll have someone give you a dou of high-quality millet later, that's fair, right?"

  Li Jiong saw Wang Liang take a step back, but he didn't want to insist too much either. He said: "I'll give you this string of fish for free, no need for money or grain. I'm giving it to you as a gift. However, the other string is promised to Xiao Shitou's family, so I can't give it to you. This string of fish weighs almost ten catties, which should be enough for your use. What do you think?"

  Two men were talking, when a stout man with a big belly and a green round-necked official robe in the distance shouted at Wang Liang: "You rural bumpkin, I told you to buy a fish, why are you still dawdling?"

  That man walked a few steps forward, with an arrogant face, his eyes didn't even glance at Li Xuan, and he flung down a string of money in front of Li Xuan: "You rascal, this is your fish money." He then turned to leave.

  Li Jing recognized at a glance that the string of money on the ground was not enough for one hundred coins, this kind of string usually only had seventy coins, and was called "one mo" by the common people. One mo was less than one hundred, often used by official families and wealthy households to buy from ordinary common people.

  "This official, I've heard that the mansion is having a banquet today, and I'd like to offer this string of fish as a gift to you. The other string was entrusted to me by someone else, please forgive me for not being able to sell it to you." Li Jing said with a bow to the storehouse official.

  His words were very reasonable, and in Li Xuan's view, after giving that person a string of fish, he shouldn't have made things difficult for himself. However, he obviously underestimated the complexity of human relationships in the late Tang Dynasty officialdom.

  The green-robed official stopped in his tracks, turned his head and looked at Li Jing for a moment before saying: "I'll give you the money, just take it. I want all of this fish, no need to say more."

  "Sir, this is really a bit too much for anyone." Li Jing was still arguing.

  Unexpectedly, the green-robed official suddenly turned hostile and shouted angrily: "You refuse to drink the toast, now you'll be forced to drink a penalty cup! You little scoundrel! Guards, bind him up for me and take him away!"

  "Sir, what are you going to do?" Li Jiong was shocked, he didn't expect this fatty to turn his face faster than turning a page.

  "What am I to do?" The fat man sneered coldly and said to the surrounding onlookers, "In the 3rd and 19th years of the Tang Dynasty's Kaiyuan era, the imperial court twice 'banned fishing for carp throughout the country'; there was a regulation that 'those who catch carp should release them immediately, and it is not allowed to eat them'. Those who sold carp were flogged sixty times. This is the law, you are just a commoner, yet you disregard the national law, openly catching and eating carp, don't you know your crime? Come, take him away, flog him sixty times."

  As the green-robed official's fat face sneered, everyone present carefully observed and indeed found that among the two strings of fish in Li Jiong's hand, there was a dragon-whisker red-scaled carp.

  Tang Xuanzong indeed issued a decree banning the eating of carp, but the reason was not simply to avoid using the national surname. "Not eating carp" was originally a rule of Taoism. Taoists believed that carp could become dragons, with 36 scales on their body, each scale having a black spot, and considered carp to be worshipped as the sun god, hence called "Red Carp Lord". Eating carp would lead to heavenly punishment. The Li Tang dynasty claimed to be descendants of Laozi Li Er, who was also revered by Taoism as its founder. Therefore, the Li Tang dynasty not only prohibited common people from cooking and eating carp but also punished those who caught and sold carp with sixty heavy blows.

  Although there were such edicts banning the catching of carp, they could not be truly enforced among the people. Especially by this point in late Tang, these laws had basically become empty words, and the common people continued to catch and eat carp. However, when the officials used this law as a pretext to arrest Li Jing, everyone suddenly discovered that they could not even come up with a reason to oppose it.

  Li Jing naturally also knew that the fat man's words were not false, but it was clear that this law had long been a dead letter and that the people had never really stopped eating carp. However, at this time, it was impossible to use this as an excuse to offset his "crime".

  There was a saying that went, "A good official can bring ruin to a family, and a bad one can destroy a clan." Now, even a lowly military depot officer could render Li Jiong immobile. Faced with this sudden disaster, he couldn't help but regret; if only he had known earlier, he would have simply sold those two strings of fish and been done with it.

  PS: Those who don't vote for recommendation will be sentenced to sixty lashes for the crime of catching carp!