Chapter 2: Struggle for Hegemony in a Poor Mountainous Region

  It's clear that this guy is a time-traveler, but he's really bad at it.

  Just a moment ago, he was still crossing the road by sneaking through the railing, and then an eight-wheeled truck came roaring with a terrifying gust of wind. The next moment he opened his eyes, he had already crossed over.

  The first impression after crossing over - "I'm counting on you to at least give me a house with four walls... what's going on with this place that doesn't even have complete walls?"

  He could barely tell from the clothes and hairstyles of his new family members that it was in ancient China, but which dynasty, there was no clue at all - the only thing that could be confirmed was that his father's hair was not shaved clean, and he had no queue behind his head, so it should not be the Qing Dynasty.

  After figuring out his strange experience, he started pretending to be stupid and didn't say anything. He just listened to the new family members of this body and searched for the information he needed from their conversations. However, soon he no longer had to think hard because the original consciousness of this body, or rather the fragments of consciousness, gradually floated up in his mind, helping him fill in the gaps of his past life.

  It turned out that this new body was a thirteen-year-old boy named Afei - or maybe it was Afai, Afei, Ahui, or something like that, anyway no one in the family could read. The most frustrating thing was that he wasn't even Han Chinese, but which ethnic group did he belong to? He had no idea. All he knew was that he was a local indigenous person, living together with the Han people, and gradually their clothing and language had become Sinicized, except for some customs, they were not much different from the Han people.

  A Fei's family was a poor tenant farmer, with a father, a mother and himself, renting less than 10 mu of land in the most remote mountainous area of a nearby county town. Every year, 70% of the harvest had to be used to pay rent, and the remaining 30% still had to be used to repay high-interest loans. After struggling through a long winter, they often couldn't even afford seeds for the next year's crop, so they usually had to fill their bellies with wild vegetables.

  He initially couldn't stand the food at home, smelling it made him want to vomit, but there was no choice. After going hungry for three days, he finally realized that he not only wanted wild vegetables, but even dog feces were something he wanted to gnaw on.

  Of course, Ah Fei's family couldn't afford to raise a dog, the dog belonged to their neighbor, Old Wang Hanmin...

  About half a month after crossing into this strange era, apart from being very poor at home, he finally figured out some things. First of all, this place should be north of the Yellow River, because it was already winter, and the weather was extremely cold, in early October, the temperature had definitely dropped below zero, and the three of them were wrapped in dirty animal hides all day, huddled around the fire pit.

  Secondly, the young man named A Fei was picking firewood outside when he was hit on the head by a falling tree branch and fainted. He was fortunately found by Old Wang from next door in the woods and brought back, but had lost half his life to the cold. It's unclear how it happened, but he took over A Fei's body as his new vessel after crossing over.

  Thirdly, the dog next door at Old Wang's is very fierce. I heard that Old Wang raised this dog to go hunting in the woods during his spare time - and besides, dog poop really stinks and can't be eaten.

  Apart from this, there are too many things that he can't understand, mainly the specific years and addresses. The farm tools and utensils at home are mostly made of wood, clay, and stone, with hardly any metal in sight, not even a kitchen knife, replaced by stone chips. But this doesn't explain anything, he's very clear that China's remote rural areas have made no progress for thousands of years until the 20th century, and although such impoverished families are rare, they can still be found in some corners.

  He asked his parents, what year is it now? His parents only told him that it's the Year of the Rabbit... He asked again which dynasty and which emperor was in power? His parents stared at each other with wide eyes, and instead asked him, "What is an emperor? Can you eat it?"

  "I won't be able to survive if I were to travel back to primitive society!"

  It's still the old Wang next door who is more knowledgeable, he can at least say the name of the nearby county town, called Nahen - this name is indeed enough to make people wonder if they have crossed into a different world. Old Wang also knows that the biggest official in the county is County Magistrate Zhang, and the land they rent is actually the land of County Magistrate Zhang's cousin, as for whether these two are surnamed Zhang or Zhang, Old Wang is not clear - he can't read.

  There are counties, there are county heads, at least it shows that this is at least the mid-to-late Warring States period... The time span can finally be narrowed down to from the mid-to-late Warring States period to the Ming Dynasty, only his "short" two thousand years, and then, guess?

  What era did he end up in? It wasn't until the following March, when spring had arrived and flowers were blooming, that he finally figured out this crucial question.

  A Fei ate wild vegetables every day until he vomited, and what was even more deadly was that not even the wild vegetables could fill his stomach halfway. The young man was growing up at a time when it seemed like his belly was always empty. It wasn't until the seventh day after he crossed over that Old Wang from next door finally hunted down another scrawny rabbit in the forest and, as an extra act of kindness, sent their family a steaming bowl of bone soup - although A Fei always felt like there were already gnaw marks on those bones...

  Half a bowl of hot soup went down his throat, and the stench that had no spices, no salt, and no MSG surprisingly stimulated his appetite and lifted his spirits. Suddenly, he came up with an idea that would shock his parents, something that he himself had never thought of in twelve years (thirteen in virtual age) - to learn hunting from Old Wang next door!

  Old Wang really didn't hold back, and taught his entire set of hunting skills - Old Wang was a solitary person, with no wife or children, and originally quite liked the little kid next door, although they were different species and breeds. So, Ah Fei followed Old Wang into the forest, spending an entire day finally finding a rabbit that came out to forage, and then throwing out the sharpened tree branch in his hand.

  Result: The branch broke, the rabbit ran away, and the two returned home empty-handed.

  Old Wang comforted him, "Hunting is not an easy thing to do. I usually have to spend seven or eight days in the forest before I can hit a rabbit or a hedgehog. If it weren't for the cold weather that made farming impossible, who would go out hunting?"

  A Fei silently raised his middle finger at Old Wang in his heart.

  The next day, he went out alone, braving the biting cold wind to wander aimlessly in the woods. After great difficulty, he finally found a suitable branch and tied the previously prepared grass rope to both ends of the branch, making a small bow that would probably make even the cave people on the mountain top laugh.

  On the third day, he finally used this thing that didn't look like a bow at all, paired with a dozen sharpened thin branches that didn't look like arrows at all, and shot a hapless rabbit. He then chased it for two miles before finally pinning down the exhausted rabbit beneath him.

  That night, secretly from old Wang next door, the three of them happily devoured a steaming hot meat soup and gnawed clean half of a rabbit that no longer had any tooth marks - leaving half behind, Old Dad said to slowly stew it and eat it until New Year's Eve.

  On the fourth day, he painstakingly cut the rabbit skin into thin strips and replaced the grass rope on his bow.

  On the seventh day, as if he had won a big prize in the lottery, he actually hunted down a plump quail, and behind the sharpened thin branches, there were more arrow feathers...

  On the eighth day, Old Wang from next door turned around and became Ah Fei's apprentice.

  The long winter is finally coming to an end, and after the spring begins, Ah Fei no longer has the leisure time to go out hunting. He has to help his parents with farm work, dig wild vegetables, and pick wild fruits everywhere. However, this winter's harvest was not small, he and old Wang from next door hunted a total of seven rabbits, two hedgehogs, and six quails. At the same time, his archery skills, which were honed in the struggle for survival, became more and more proficient.

  If only I had a real bow and arrow, I might be able to shoot down those flying birds - Ah Fei thought to himself, swallowing his saliva as he gazed at the geese flying in from the southern horizon.

  However, before he could shoot down the flying bird, he first bumped into a small deer that didn't open its eyes. It's unknown how the deer's parents taught it, but this little deer was extremely dull and didn't know the dangers of the world, so it wasn't very afraid of people. Even when A Fei had already walked ten steps away, it still lingered over the grass roots under the snow and refused to turn around and run. So A Fei shot an arrow, and the little deer fled at the sound...

  A Fei, who had not hunted for food in seven days, was frantic and shot the remaining arrows one after another, finally hitting a small deer's buttocks with one of them, and then the man and the deer chased each other for seven or eight miles before the cruel and hungry hunter emerged victorious.

  "Wow, you're amazing!" After carrying the small deer back, Ah Fei received praise from Old Wang next door. Then Old Wang suggested that he skin the deer and take it to the county town to sell, maybe they could exchange some urgently needed salt and rice. Ah Fei's father was initially unwilling, probably due to his rural bumpkin nature, he had an instinctive fear of going to the county town, as if it were a den of demons... No, he shouldn't understand what "demon" means. But he couldn't resist his son's repeated requests, and besides, they really didn't have even a grain of salt at home.

  In Ah Fei's memory, his 13-year-old self had never been to the county town, and it seemed that Old Dad had only been forced to go there less than twice in his lifetime.

  They lived in a small mountain valley, surrounded by several small hills and sparse forests. The land was poor, but with primitive farming methods, they could harvest four grains for every one grain sown... Of course, it was also because these two families of four people were extremely primitive in their farming methods, almost not even knowing how to use fertilizer.

  A Fei was thinking about how to increase grain production - in his previous life, he had never farmed before, but at least when he was studying, he had come into contact with some classmates from the countryside who would do farm work, so he knew a thing or two about fertilizing and weeding, and could talk about it on paper and plant seeds with his tongue - while following Old Wang from next door out of the mountain valley, they walked for a whole day and finally entered the county town.

  It's called a county town, but it's actually just a big earthen enclosure. The city wall is probably less than two meters high and can't even compare to the fence of our own residential area in the previous generation. On the arch above the city gate, a piece of tile was embedded in the desolate sky, and Ah Fei finally saw the first set of Chinese characters in this world on this tile - it turned out not to be "Na Han", the first character had "yuan" on the left and "ren" on the right, and the second character had "gan" on the left and "yi" on the right.

  "I'm coming, it's a small seal script. Luckily, my old man had studied calligraphy and seal carving for a few days - the second character should be 'Han' from Handan, but what about the first one? How do you read it?"

  At the city gate, two old soldiers were leaning against each other, without helmets or armor. The short shirts on their bodies had patches but no holes, and they looked similar to what they themselves wore. Their heads were wrapped in headscarves, but there was no emblem of any kind. Next to them stood rusty long guns with specks of rust, which also lacked any distinctive features of the era.

  Entering the county town, it seems that there is only one main street with several hundred households. There are not many pedestrians, most of whom wear rough clothes and look emaciated, with dull eyes and none of them seem to be literate. They huddled under the eaves of a house for the whole night, and at dawn the next day, they started shouting loudly to peddle their deerskins.

  It wasn't easy, but Ah Fei finally saw a young boy who looked like he was only 14 or 15 years old, wearing thick cotton-padded jacket that reached his knees, and a fur hat on his head. What was most astonishing was that he had a long sword hanging from his waist! As if seeing an old friend, Ah Fei quickly ran up to him, made a deep bow, and then asked:

  "May I ask, what dynasty and era is it now? Which sage son of heaven is on the throne, and what is his reign title?"

  The young man gave him a strange glance and replied casually: "In the fifth year of the Taiping era, in the year of Wuchen."

  In an instant, two streams of desperate tears flowed uncontrollably from Ah Fei's eyes...

  I am the dividing line of explanation

  It's been a long time since I last wrote about the Three Kingdoms period. To be exact, it was after I finished writing "The Legend of the Three Kingdoms" and decided to end it there. Although I did write another book, which is the third volume of "A Young Reader's History of China", titled "Where Are the Heroes?", published by Shanxi People's Publishing House.

  Of course, I continued writing. In addition to the Japanese Warring States-themed "Ran Long" and "Ai Zhi Chuan", I was also influenced by the current popular trend of transmigration, and dug three pits in a row... Oh, no, let's not mention this boring word again. I mean, I started three drafts, but my inspiration didn't last, so I haven't been able to finish them yet.

  I recently started reading this book, and I have to say it's still under the influence of Three Kingdoms Afly. The first Three Kingdoms-style time-travel novel I read was Afly's "Three Kingdoms Traveler" back in the day, when I was still working at Dasheng, my wife was still my girlfriend, and our kid hadn't been born yet... it's been so many years since then, time really flies! So, let's just say that Kong Jia'er is on the riverbank... never mind, no need to waste words. Anyway, Afly has started writing "Doushan Three Kingdoms" again, and it's got me itching all over! Inspiration is gushing out like a fountain, spewing out black ink. So, let's just use "Afly" as the name of our protagonist, in tribute to Brother Afly!