Chapter 9: Treat You to Sashimi

  （0009）

  Zhang Jun pulled out the bamboo spear, picked up the carp and placed it on a rock. Then he cleaned the surrounding area of the rock with seawater.

  Seventeenth-century seawater was basically free of industrial pollution and had a very strong self-purification capacity, although it was salty, it was still relatively clean.

  He split the bamboo with a machete, cut out a sharp piece of bamboo, and then skillfully scaled, sliced, and deboned the carp. These were all learned in the army before, although it had been several years since he last practiced, fortunately, they hadn't completely rusted away. Soon, the crispy fish slices were done. He directly threw a few pieces of raw fish into his mouth and started chewing with relish.

  Yang Yinghua looked at him as if he was a monster and said with some concern: "Yu Lin, you ate raw fish slices... you're going to get diarrhea."

  Zhang Zhun smiled and said: "It's okay, you have one too."

  As he spoke, he handed her a bamboo slip.

  Yang Yinghua hesitated and didn't dare to take action.

  "Really delicious, can I still cheat you?"

  The sentence worked. Yang Yinghua finally gathered the courage, slowly picked up a piece of raw fish, and slowly put it in her mouth. After chewing for a while, her expression was strange, and her mouth stopped moving. However, she eventually swallowed the fish slice.

  "How was it? Was it delicious?" Zhang Zhun asked expectantly.

  "It's tasteless." Yang Yinghua frowned and said.

  "The fish's fresh body is a rare word, extremely delicious and rich in nutrition." Zhang Zhun naturally couldn't let his masterpiece go unappreciated, said with a smile.

  "But uncooked food can make you sick if you eat it." Yang Yinghua was still worried.

  "No. Only dirty, poisonous and spoiled food can make you sick after eating it. This fish slice is fresh, clean and non-toxic, how could it make us sick?" Zhang continued to persuade.

  Yang Yinghua thought what he said made some sense, so she ate two more pieces and gradually got used to the taste of raw fish. However, Zhang Zhun still wanted her to eat, and she said she was really full. She took out two rice balls and handed them in front of him, saying: "You eat it."

  Zhang Zhun took over the rice ball without hesitation and ate it up.

  I'm really hungry, stop pretending.

  He ate a lot of sashimi and finished off two rice balls, and Zhang Zhun finally felt full.

  After eating, they had the strength to work. Zhang Zhun found a shallow bay with fish again and used the firelight to lure out the hidden fish, then made consecutive fierce strikes. As a result, he caught six big yellow croakers in a row, each weighing over five or six catties. Zhang Zhun got a bamboo pole and hung all the fish on it, and the two of them carried it back one after the other.

  Looking up at the position of the morning star, it should not be midnight yet. The first month has short days and long nights. The raw fish just now barely counts as a midnight snack. Having a beauty to accompany me for a midnight snack is not bad, this is probably one of the most primitive forms of entertainment in ancient times.

  Back in the shanty town, Zhang Zhun suddenly found that Yang Rui and Haozi were lighting torches, preparing to go out and find someone. Seeing the two carrying a bamboo pole with fish back, both of their expressions were strange, wanting to speak but stopping themselves. Yang Yinghua's expression was naturally very unnatural, lowering her head and hastily hiding into the house. Zhang Zhun also didn't bother explaining, handing the fish over to Haozi, and went back to sleep himself.

  In the second half of the night, Zhang Zhun slept very soundly.

  The next day, it was already sunny. Yangjiatun never had an accurate time, and everyone did things according to the sky. When I arrived at Haizi's house, Yang Yinghua, Yang Ruijing, Huang Shi and others had all gone to Laoshan to collect firewood with other people, only Yang Kaidi and Haizi were at home.

  Breakfast is ready, and surprisingly, it's thinly sliced fish pieces. It seems she still understands pretty quickly. Unfortunately, she doesn't know that having fish pieces for breakfast is a bit... Fortunately, there's also wild vegetable congee and mantou.

  After drinking two bowls of wild vegetable congee and gnawing on four steamed buns, Zhang Zhun and Haozi arrived at Hongshi Beach.

  The five Yangs from the neighboring household have been waiting here, all of them looking eager to try out their skills, each person holding a sharp bamboo spear that they had prepared.

  "Two slats!"

  Just as Zhang was about to speak with Wu Yang, someone suddenly called out from beside him.

  Turning his head, it turned out to be the three young men he met yesterday. They all looked at him with expectant eyes. It seemed that they also wanted to join Zhang Zhun's fishing team.

  "Anything wrong?" Zhang Zhun asked directly.

  "Second Brother, can you also teach us how to catch fish?" The young man who was leading asked hopefully.

  They spoke with a "also" tone, indicating that they must have communicated with Wu Yang, but Wu Yang didn't dare to agree readily. After all, this was something that only Zhang Zhun could decide. The three of them were not giving up and waited for Zhang Zhun's arrival right here.

  "Alright!" Zhang Zhun said casually.

  "Master!" The three of them immediately changed their form of address.

  Zhang Zhun felt that this title was a bit incongruous, feeling as if he had aged twenty years. In fact, Er Dangzi was not even seventeen years old, but looked sturdy and seemed to be in his twenties. However, "Shifu" was a very common honorific term, and since he taught them martial arts, it was acceptable for them to call him that.

  Wu Yang also changed his mouth and called him Master when he heard three people calling like this.

  "It's alright, don't be polite. You can call me Shifu or Yulin, we're all brothers in front of and behind the house, no need to be so formal. Sorry, you three are from the same village as me, but I really can't remember your names. You know my memory has never been good." Zhang Zhun said straightforwardly.

  "We three are called Zou Mingjia, Hao Linyong and Yin Fengyi." The three of course wouldn't mind, hastily saying out their own names.

  These three young men, of course, were also military dependents, and their whole family was military dependents. The relatively clever one was called Zou Mingjia, the dark-skinned one was called Hao Linyong, and the other one was called Yin Fengyi, who was said to be very fast. They all came from Yangjiatun's miscellaneous households, and they had migrated from Sichuan.

  Fushan was established during the Hongwu period, and there wasn't a single local person among the military households; they were all transferred from different provinces. The founding emperor Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely sensitive to rebellion and treason, and he didn't hesitate to kill on a large scale for this reason. Regarding the Wei-Suo system, he insisted that only when the military households came from different places could they effectively prevent mass uprisings.

  Due to his regulations, the military households of Fushan Village came from eight different provinces and formed the original eight villages. The most distant ones even came from Yunnan Province. Each village came from a different province, with different customs and habits, and different interests and demands, so it was not easy for them to rise up in revolt.

  However, Zhu Yuanzhang was still not at ease and ordered that in each garrison, some miscellaneous households be added. The so-called miscellaneous households were those whose place of origin differed from the majority in the garrison. For example, most of the military households in Yangjia Garrison came from Huguang, so military households from Sichuan, Henan, and Yunnan became miscellaneous households.

  Zhu Yuanzhang set up the miscellaneous households mainly to monitor the movements of various garrisons and prevent people from gathering and making trouble. If there was any wind or grass movement in the garrison, the miscellaneous households could report it at any time. Behind their backs, these miscellaneous households were also called "er wu zai", which is said to be a term coined by Yuan Chonghuan, and its meaning can be understood by everyone themselves.

  Because the miscellaneous households undertook such a bad surveillance task, in their respective villages, they would naturally be looked down upon by others. Others were all from the same province's military households, but you came from different provinces, who else to bully if not you? In the 21st century there is still regional conflict, let alone during the Ming dynasty?

  The eight households in Yangjia Village were naturally the most vulnerable group, and even Yang Kaitai was not very friendly to them. Of course, he wouldn't go too far either. After all, most of the people in these households were also extremely poor. Poor people bullying poor people is meaningless.

  Being born into a military household is already miserable. Being born into a miscellaneous household is even more miserable. If unfortunately, being born as a leftover in a miscellaneous household, it's really miserable to the extreme. Coincidentally, all three of them were leftovers in miscellaneous households.

  The abnormal rules of the Great Ming Dynasty were that the old son was a military household, and the whole family was a military household. The eldest son inherited his father's position, known as "Zheng Jun". If the father had an official position, it was called "She Ren". Others became candidates, known as "Jun Yu" or "Yu Ding". For example, in Yang Kai's family, Yang Rui Feng, the eldest son, was Zheng Jun, while Yang Kai and his younger brother Yang Gan Sheng were both Yu Ding.

  The regular army is the one that receives money and grain from the imperial court, even if it's overdue, at least the imperial court still acknowledges the account. If the imperial court has money one day, they should cash in. But the military surplus is miserable. The military surplus does not receive money and grain, can only rely on itself to make a living, and cannot leave the jurisdiction of the thousand households. The country does not give money and grain, and is tied up by the law with a rope, this is the tragic situation of the remaining soldiers.

  The military dependents had no entertainment activities at night and did not know how to avoid pregnancy, so they could only keep having children until their wives were unable to give birth. Therefore, even with a high infant mortality rate, most military dependent families would have five or six children. Families with seven or eight children, or even ten or more, were also common.

  The whole family's livelihood depends on one soldier's salary, the pressure is imaginable. Especially now that the salary has been owed for almost half a year, it's already a miracle that they haven't starved to death. No wonder eating a meal of fish would bring tears of excitement, it's really too pitiful!

  The three men's home was really poor, not even a mouse would come, they had no food for the next meal after finishing the previous one. They had no choice but to come to the seaside every day to try their luck. Because there were no professional guides, their fishing skills were indeed not good, and their harvest was basically zero.

  Yesterday, they wandered around for a whole day and only caught one fish. The three of them didn't know how to divide it. Seeing Zhang Zhun bring back so many fish, the three of them were amazed. Although they knew they were not welcome as outsiders, in order to survive, they still mustered up the courage to find Zhang Zhun.