Chapter 7: The World's Dangers and Hardships

  The next day when he woke up, it was already three poles of the sun.

  In the narrow bedroom, only Wu Ming was left alone. Cheng Zong had gotten up at some unknown time and was nowhere to be seen.

  Wu Ming stretched his slightly sore limbs, put on a Taoist robe lined with deerskin, and wore shoes with soles made of layered cloth. After making himself presentable, he opened the door to his bedroom and saw a girl of twelve or thirteen standing at the entrance with a basin of hot water in her hands. She must have heard him getting up and had been waiting there all along.

  The girl served Wu Ming to wash his face, then blushed and asked Wu Ming to sit down. She took out a comb from somewhere and wanted to give it to Wu Ming to comb his hair. Her black and white eyes were full of respect. Wu Ming waved his hand, took the lukewarm water to rinse his mouth, and thanked him in a low voice. The little girl's tender face suddenly turned red, and she quickly picked up the wooden basin and left.

  Wu Ming was no longer surprised by such customs, but still not used to it. He shook his head, stood up, put on his hat, and walked through the dark corridor to where he had treated the wounded last night. There, he found several rows of wooden tables and benches neatly arranged, with a few village elders and Cheng Zong gathered around a charcoal fire drinking tea and chatting quietly. It wasn't until he looked around that he realized this was the village's private school.

  Several village elders saw Wu Ming hastily get up and salute, Wu Ming stepped forward politely to return the courtesy, took a cup of tea handed over by Cheng Zong, held it in his hand and asked in a low voice: "How is the injured person?"

  "The other two are getting better, but the one you saved is still unconscious and has a high fever that won't subside. I don't dare say whether he'll make it or not. I've already applied medicine to his wounds and had someone go into town to fetch more medicine according to the prescription." Cheng Zong gave Wu Ming a happy smile.

  The villagers nearby thanked Wu Ming repeatedly, but Wu Ming hastened to explain that the person was not necessarily saved yet. If they wanted to thank someone, they should thank the one who had tied a grass rope around the injured person's leg root. Without this grass rope to stop the bleeding, the injured person would have bled to death long ago. Even now, he still hadn't escaped danger.

  Although Wu Ming did not take credit, he could not stop the villagers' respectful thanks. Everyone humbly sat down and Wu Ming took a few sips of tea.

  The old man opposite, wearing a pair of reading glasses, still had a long braid in the style of the Qing Dynasty, holding a roughly printed newspaper in his hand, smiling at Wu Ming. The other village elders also looked at "Wu Daozhang" with reverence on their faces, admiring his "excellent medical skills".

  Cheng Zong whispered to Wu Ming that they would have to stay in Tianjia Village for a few more days. Two days later was an auspicious day, and the two deceased needed to be buried. The village had already sent someone to invite Master Bingzhen to come down from the mountain to perform the rituals.

  Wu Ming nodded, knowing that Cheng Zong had not yet obtained the certificate issued by the Dragon Tiger Mountain Ancestral Hall, equivalent to not having a diploma for Taoist work, and could not preside over rituals alone, so he had to trouble Zheng Zhen Daochang to take care of it.

  Although he is a high-ranking official of the Zhengyi sect, he has been cultivating in Taijin Mountain for several years and bears the responsibility of educating and helping the people within dozens of miles around him. What's even more rare is that he is naturally unassuming and his virtues are renowned far and wide, without any pretentiousness or selfishness of a so-called accomplished person, never refusing the requests of the people.

  Under the introduction of the village elders, Wu Ming learned that Tianjia Village is a medium-sized village with about 130 households and more than 500 people, old and young. The land is not much but it's drought-resistant and flood-resistant, and during the slack season, they can also collect mountain goods to sell for money. Life is much better than in other surrounding villages. Therefore, for hundreds of years, villagers have attached great importance to the education of their children. What the villagers are most proud of is that they have produced three scholars, and the village's private school has a history of over 100 years. Basically, every boy in each family can recognize characters.

  The unfavorable factor is that the village is surrounded by mountains, and wild boars and even wolves appear from time to time on the mountain. For more than a decade, the villagers have suffered great losses in livestock, and no matter how hard they try, they cannot drive away these ferocious beasts. A few years ago, the whole village raised money to buy back three guns, which made things slightly better. However, after a few years, two of the guns are now out of order, and at this critical moment when crops are withering, those hungry beasts on the mountain frequently come down to wreak havoc.

  The villagers sighed and lamented, the village chief with a worried face brought up another difficult matter: County Magistrate Wang Donghan and the Garrison Brigade sent people to each village and town to issue recruitment notices. Tianjia Village was assigned ten quotas, after the Spring Festival, ten young men would be selected to report to the county seat and then go to Fuzhou for military training. If not, the land tax would be doubled for the whole village.

  Wu Ming furrowed his brow: "There are two or three hundred villages and towns in Shangrao County, so Wang Donghan and the others want to recruit two or three thousand soldiers throughout the county?"

  "Who says it's not? For twenty years, nothing like this has happened. I've heard that tens of thousands of troops from Jiangnan and Jiangbei have been fighting to the death, with every battle resulting in over a thousand deaths, corpses scattered everywhere, blood flowing like rivers, and no one to clean up the mess. It's terrifying! Now our village is facing such a disaster again, and we're being asked to send ten young men off to fight. Which family can bear it? Alas, trouble doesn't come alone! It seems that these days are impossible to get through." The deep wrinkles on the village elder's face twitched repeatedly, his face filled with sorrow, making one unable to bear looking at him again.

  Everyone was silent, staring at the charcoal fire that had just started to smoke in the brazier, with a heavy feeling in their hearts.

  The old man with a long braid let out a deep sigh, patted the newspaper in his hand and lamented: "The world is already in great chaos. Commander-in-Chief Chiang Kai-shek has just won a major victory in the Central Plains War, but the two parties of the KMT and CPC have started fighting again under one roof. Under the rapidly changing situation, I heard that in the past few days, our entire province of Jiangxi has been plagued by gunfire and war fires, with countless deaths. Now it seems that soon we ordinary people will be affected too, and there is no longer any safe haven in this world!"

  Before the sighs had faded away, several young and strong men from the village came hastily, paid their respects to Chengzong and Wuming, and told them that the seriously injured person had woken up, but could not speak, his eyes moved a few times before falling into a deep sleep again.

  Cheng Zong and Wu Ming hurried to visit, after careful examination, they were also uncertain. Wu Ming suspected that the injured person's coma was due to excessive blood loss, he himself had type O blood and could donate a few hundred milliliters, but without blood transfusion equipment, no one could do anything. Wu Ming didn't dare to take risks, fearing that if things went wrong, the injured person would die even faster, so he could only instruct the injured person's family members on some precautions.

  After busy taking care of the other two injured people, Wu Ming and Cheng Zong had a simple but warm meal at the village head's house. When they returned to the private school where they were temporarily resting, it was already noon. The elderly villagers in the private school also returned to their own homes, leaving only the clever girl to serve tea and water for Wu Ming and the others.

  Wu Ming sat beside the brazier, finished reading four newspapers borrowed from the private school teacher, carefully folded the papers and placed them on a grass mound aside, turned to Cheng Zong in a low voice and said: "From the current situation, major cities in the Yangtze River basin have started strikes and boycotts, Nanchang has also had two suspensions of classes and markets, the Nationalist Party military police in Nanchang are arresting Communists everywhere, four divisions of Nationalist troops are attacking southern Jiangxi, our western neighboring county town of Yiyang has been attacked three times by Fang Zhimin's peasant Red Guards in half a year, provincial chairman Xiong Shihui has dispatched heavy troops to encircle and annihilate them, it is possible that the war will reach us one day."

  Cheng Zong gently poked at the charcoal fire, recalling what Wu Ming had told him about receiving help from Communist Party members while in prison. After a moment of contemplation, he raised his head and asked: "I remember you mentioned some things about the Communist Party, which made me very curious. From what I've learned over the past two months, it seems that the Communist Party is ultimately weak and outnumbered, and probably won't be able to hold on for much longer?"

  "No, the Communist Party cannot be killed or eliminated. How to put it? The spark can start a prairie fire!" Wu Ming could only answer vaguely.

  Cheng Zong was slightly surprised: "You mean the Communist Party can get things done?"

  Wu Ming let out a long sigh: "They are the party of the toiling masses, and as long as they can mobilize all the poor people, they won't have to worry about not becoming powerful. However, this will probably take many years to achieve. It's easy to talk about it, just a few words, but actually doing it is difficult."

  "If it's really like this, isn't it the same as the great chaos of all previous dynasties?" Cheng Zong felt a bit of realization.

  "It's always been this way, every time there's a change of dynasty in history, it's accompanied by great chaos. The current situation is no exception. The difference is that in the past, the chaos was caused by armies clashing with spears, swords and arrows. Nowadays, it's different. Each faction has its own clear political ideology, such as Three Principles of the People, Communism, and so on. When they fight, they use guns, cannons, bombs, and even planes and tanks, which have an even greater destructive power. The battles are more intense, the scale of war will only get bigger, and more people will die. In the end, whoever can hold out is the winner." Wu Ming said this with a sigh.

  Cheng Zong thought for a moment and nodded: "This is indeed the case, alas! When I think of the guns on the soldiers' backs in the city, my heart feels suffocated. No matter how good one's martial arts are, they can't withstand a single bullet. The world has changed too quickly."

  "Ah! Let's not talk about the distant past, just look at what happened yesterday evening. A group of wild boars entered our village, and if our fellow villagers had a few rifles in their hands, there wouldn't have been two deaths and three injuries. And we brothers wouldn't be in this situation either... I really wish we had a gun!" Wu Ming sighed deeply.

  Cheng Zong stared at Wu Ming with a warning gaze: "You mustn't do anything rash, these past few months the county government and the defense corps have repeatedly emphasized that private ownership of firearms is strictly prohibited. All villages in the county, except for bird guns, all firearms must be handed over. Otherwise, once discovered, you will be arrested and punished. At this critical juncture, I don't want anything to happen to you again."

  Wu Ming could only nod: "I understand, I'll listen to you! However, I estimate that the situation will change soon, and at that time, I'm afraid no one can stop private individuals from having guns."

  Cheng Zong thought back to the troops he had seen entering the city recently: "This is true, but guns are only for the military, ordinary civilians are still the same as before, no matter what, the laws are still in place."

  Wu Ming didn't know how to explain it to Cheng Zong, so he thought for a moment and said: "Laws are laws, but they only work on obedient citizens. They're useless against local gentry and wealthy merchants. You've seen it yourself - the rich families in Xiuning County town and the landlords in the surrounding towns all have private militias. Which family doesn't have a few guns? The young masters of the prominent families in the county town all carry shiny German-made pistols on their waists, swaggering around and showing off their power. Who among the guards dares to take away their guns? Isn't it just turning a blind eye? The more this happens, the more unfair the common people feel. The rich gentry and landlords with guns become even bolder and will be even more ruthless in bullying the people. The common people will become even angrier, and sooner or later, they'll provoke heavenly wrath and public outrage. If someone were to stir up trouble and incite the people's anger, it wouldn't just be the Communist Party that would cause chaos - even if it were spontaneous, the ordinary people could still create a huge disturbance. Isn't that right?"

  Cheng Zong was taken aback for a moment, as if he had thought of something, nodded silently and fell into contemplation. Upon careful consideration, it indeed turned out to be the case.

  Wu Ming saw Cheng Zong fall into deep thought again, and he closed his mouth to pick up the newspaper once more. However, in his heart, he couldn't stop thinking: should he find a way to get a gun back?

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