Chapter Fourteen: Speaking Without Choosing One's Words

  Lin Chunhong and Zheng Tiancheng were thinking about how to get their hands on some weapons, but they couldn't come up with a plan. So, they went to the Jin Jiulong Wine House in Jingzhou to have a drink. The Jin Jiulong Wine House was located by the riverbank, and because of its high location, you could see the rolling Yangtze River flowing east beyond the long dike. The two men ordered a quiet, elegant table and sat down to enjoy the view of the river. It was spring, and the rainy season had arrived. The rain was pouring down nonstop, and on the wide surface of the river, the rain created a misty veil that obscured the distance. You could vaguely see the sails of boats passing by along the riverbank. Lin Chunhong had been to the Jin Jiulong Wine House several times with his father before, and no matter whether it was his father, Zhou Wang, or Chen Gouzzi, they all loved the aged wine here. Unfortunately, now his father, Chen Gouzzi, and two older brothers were all gone, and Lin Chunhong couldn't help but feel choked up as he spoke to Zheng Tiancheng.

  Zheng Tiancheng knew the bitterness in Lin Chunhong's heart, and repeatedly advised Lin Chunhong to stop drinking. But Lin Chunhong was filled with worries, and one cup after another of old wine went down his throat - how could Zheng Tiancheng possibly stop him? Before long, Lin Chunhong became drunk and began to curse: "That little kid in the Forbidden City is a complete disaster! He's fine when he doesn't do anything, but as soon as he does something, it has to be a huge mess. His mother's bandits are popping up one after another - we should eliminate them! His father died unjustly!"

  Zheng Tiancheng was shocked, and could only pick up his wine cup to cover Lin Chunhong's mouth. Lin Chunhong took the cup and drank it in one gulp. After all, he wasn't thinking clearly, and immediately cursed again: "I want to serve my country, I want to eliminate bandits, I want to have a real battle with Jian Nu, I want to use machine guns to kill those wild boars! You should give me a chance!" Zheng Tiancheng was stunned for a moment - what's this thing called a machine gun?

  "Bullshit monopoly on salt and iron, I want to get a few guns but can't even get them, do you want me to fight the Japanese with bare fists? Hey, Tiancheng, why aren't you drinking? Come on, pick up your cup, let's drink!" Zheng Tiancheng had no choice but to pick up his wine cup and down it with Lin Chunhong.

  Zheng Tiancheng knew that Lin Chunhong's heart was under great pressure. Since his father and brother died in battle, he had been afraid of Wu Gan's revenge and moved to Yiling, where he had been the subject of much gossip in Xiaowan Village. Some people even thought that Lin Chunhong was not a man, only knowing how to hide. These words had more or less reached Lin Chunhong's ears. Driven by poverty, he had finally found a way to make a living by chopping wood, but now he was being threatened by the local people and couldn't even get a few guns for self-defense. The government soldiers were not to be relied upon, and they would only come to extort money. Everything could only rely on oneself, everything could only be solved by oneself. Zheng Tiancheng often saw Lin Chunhong practicing martial arts early in the morning, but that practice was not really practice, it was a venting of emotions. Every time he finished, Zheng Tiancheng could see the knife marks on the trees nearby, which had penetrated into the trunk, shocking people who saw them.

  Zheng Tiānchéng was just about to pull Lín Chún Hóng away, back to the guest room to rest, when unfortunately, the sound of silk and bamboo came from next door, and a woman's elegant voice sang: "Since spring arrived, the green is dismal and the red is anxious, my heart is full of worries..."

  That voice was sweet and melodious, worthy of being called a heavenly sound. For a moment, Zheng Tiancheng and Lin Chunhong stood there, listening to the woman continue singing: "The flower stem, the oriole wears a willow belt, still presses the fragrant quilt to sleep. The warmth disappears, the cloudy sky is high. All day long, I am tired of combing my hair. Alas! Regretting the thin affection that has gone, there are no letters or news. If I had known earlier, I would have regretted not locking the carved saddle at the beginning. Facing the chicken window, only with the barbarian zither and ivory pipe, I am constrained to recite poetry lessons. Let us follow each other, don't throw it away. The needle and thread are idle, accompanying her as she sits. Harmonize with me, so that the years of youth will not be wasted in vain."

  As the music ended, Zheng Tiancheng and Lin Chunhong finally came back to their senses. Lin Chunhong held his wine cup and said: "Tiancheng, look at this, it's all just this kind of decadent sound, don't you see that the Great Ming dynasty is in a state of chaos, with fires burning everywhere, don't you know that the Jurchen slaves are invading?"

  Lin Chunhong raised his wine cup, drank it in one gulp, and said: "Listen to me sing for you!" After clearing his throat, he sang loudly: "Anger fills my crown, leaning on the railing, the rain has stopped. I raise my eyes, looking up at the sky and shouting...". As he sang, Lin Chunhong's head fell onto the table, snoring sounds came out, knocking over wine cups and dishes all over the floor, and he fell asleep.

  Zheng Tiancheng was so startled that the wine cup slipped from his hand, and he didn't even notice. At this time, a knocking sound came, Zheng Tiancheng opened the door, only to see a young servant outside bowing: "I don't know which two gentlemen are here? My master invites you to meet."

  Zheng Tiancheng helplessly tidied up his clothes and followed the book boy to a nearby elegant room.

  Upon entering the elegant room, he found three people drinking wine, with a woman playing the zither and another singing clearly, exuding an air of elegance. Zheng Tiancheng composed himself and bowed, saying: "Zheng Tiancheng from Jiangling pays his respects to everyone. Just now, my younger brother was slightly intoxicated and disturbed your refined gathering; I hope you won't mind."

  After finishing, Zheng Tiancheng raised his head and swept a glance at the three people. What surprised him was that there was actually a Westerner sitting inside, looking very pleased with himself. One of the scholars saw Zheng Tiancheng's surprise and smiled slightly: "The two of you are indeed straightforward and outspoken, but do you know that trouble often comes from one's mouth?" This scholar had a slightly long face, with a pair of eyes that were particularly spirited. Zheng Tiancheng thought to himself: this person has a resolute heart and dares to do things that ordinary people dare not do.

  Zheng Tiancheng composed himself and replied, "My brother and I have always had the ambition to serve the imperial court, but seeing the internal troubles and external threats of the Great Ming, we are distressed that there is no way to repay our country, so we spoke out of turn."

  Another scholar sneered and said, "Country folk, yet claiming to report to the country, it's truly laughable. Don't they know that one should not discuss politics when not in office?"

  Zheng Tiancheng retorted: "This gentleman's words are quite wrong, the great Ming is made up of thousands and millions of people, if everyone thinks this way, disaster is not far off."

  The scholar burst out laughing and said: "If every person in the great Ming dynasty is as involved in politics as to discuss the affairs of that little kid in the Forbidden City, disaster will befall the great Ming immediately!"

  Zheng Tiancheng was shocked and speechless. Chang Lian Wenshi said, "Don't joke, Brother Bieshan, the Ming dynasty has many children, what do you two rely on for a living now?"

  Zheng Tiancheng was deeply grateful to see the long-faced scholar dispel the siege with one word, and said: "My brother and I went deep into the mountains to cut wood, relying on a bit of brute force to make a living."

  Chang Lian Wen was secretly amazed, the two woodcutters could actually see the shortcomings of Emperor Chongzhen's lack of political acumen, and couldn't help but sigh: "In the mountains and fields, there are often talented scholars!"

  Originally, this long-faced scholar was Qu Shiyu, a student of Qian Qianyi. Qian Qianyi lost in the struggle with Wen Tiren and Zhou Yanru, which affected Qu Shiyu, who is now demoted to a commoner by the imperial court. With nothing to do at home, he went to Huguang to visit his good friend Zhang Tongxuan, that sloppy scholar was Zhang Tongxuan, and also brought along Italian missionary Ai Ruole. Qu Shiyu was influenced by Ai Ruole and joined the Jingjiao Church, with the religious name Duomo.

  That Tong Xiang was the great-grandson of Zhang Juzheng. During the Wanli era, he experienced a change in his family's fortunes and became sharp-tongued and dissatisfied with the imperial court. This time, he also played a trick on Zheng Tiancheng.

  Guo Shihe and Zhang Tongkai saw that the two were not what they seemed, so they revealed a lazy attitude. Zheng Tiancheng saw this and bid farewell to leave. After leaving, he found his undershirt was completely wet, and the fright he had just experienced was not light. He then supported Lin Chunhong back to the guest room.

  Lin Chunhong woke up on the second day, remembering nothing. He heard Zheng Tiangong talk about yesterday's events and secretly regretted it, making a secret decision to never drink too much again. The two of them pondered and felt that the three people from yesterday were definitely high-ranking officials with great power, and also thought that they had open-minded hearts, so they started thinking about befriending them. However, they didn't know the names of the three people or where they lived, so they went to ask the songstress from yesterday for information. The two of them again ordered wine at Jin Jiulong and called the same songstress as yesterday to inquire about the identities of the three people. The songstress thought that the person who spoke coarsely yesterday must be a martial artist, but today she saw Lin Chunhong speaking elegantly and was secretly shocked.

  The singer also couldn't say anything impressive, only saying that they called each other Bie Shan, Si Ji and Qi Tian. The two didn't know who these three people were either, so they returned to their guest room in a huff. Zheng Tiancheng saw Lin Chunhong looking listless and said: "You said you're iron deficient, I thought of a solution."

  As expected, Lin Chunhong's spirit was lifted, and he asked: "What method?"

  "Agricultural tools are all made of iron. Why don't we just buy some agricultural tools? It's just that the iron quality is too poor, so let's send it back to the furnace and find a blacksmith to re-smelt it."

  Lin Chunhong clapped his hands and laughed: "This is really a good idea, what farm tool is the heaviest? Right, just buy the heaviest hammer, buying more will do."

  "But buying so many hammers at once would still arouse suspicion from the authorities." Zheng Tiancheng questioned.

  "This time we brought ten loggers and had them scatter around, each buying a few." Lin Chunhong said with increasing pride.

  "It's just a pity that this is still too little and can't make many weapons!"

  "Never mind, never mind, let's get through this first."

  The two men acted quickly and within two days, they had collected over 600 catties of iron materials through the woodcutters. Lin Chunhong estimated that after re-melting them, they could probably forge a batch of emergency weapons. He and Zheng Tiancheng then headed upstream from Jingzhou to Baili Zhou. When they arrived at Sanwang Temple, they found three small boats surrounding a flat-bottomed boat. The helmsman had already fallen behind the boat, unconscious, and several people were trying to board the surrounded small boat. Lin Chunhong and his men knew immediately that someone was being robbed by river bandits.

  Lin Chunhong ordered the workers to row forward, and they understood that Lin Chunhong wanted to help with his sword. Since the workers had been training in battle formation for nearly two months, now seeing that there were not many Jiang bandits, they all jumped at the chance, rowing the boat extremely fast. In the blink of an eye, they were only one arrow's distance away from the Jiang bandits.

  Lin Chunhong drew his bow and arrow, shouting: "You bandits by the river, hurry up and get out of here! Otherwise, I'll shoot!"

  That bandit chief saw someone intervening, and scolded: "You walk your Yangguan Road, I'll walk my solitary wooden bridge, don't meddle! Otherwise, I'll sink you all into the river!"

  After the threat, seeing Lin Chunhong and others still coming at high speed, he ordered Jiang Fei: "Solve the ones who came later first, this boat can't run away!"

  The whole gang turned the bow of the boat and rushed towards Lin Chunhong.

  Only Lin Chunhong took aim at Jiang Fei's head, and unintentionally relaxed his fingers, the arrow flew straight towards Jiang Fei's head. Jiang Fei had been intently watching Lin Chunhong's bow and arrow, seeing the arrow fly over, he used his wooden sword to deflect it, just about to burst out laughing and boost morale. But then another arrow came flying swiftly, before he could react, the arrow pierced his throat, and Jiang Fei fell to the ground dead.

  Lin Chunhong knew that Jiang Fei had prepared for this, so the first arrow would not be able to harm him. After shooting the first arrow, he quickly shot out a second one at an extremely fast speed. As expected, Jiang Fei was hit by the arrow and died. The other pirates saw their leader die, shouted loudly, and the three boats scattered and ran away. Lin Chunhong did not chase after them, but instead looked towards the ships that had been hijacked earlier.

  The three people on the hijacked ship were Qu Shi, Zhang Tongkang and Ai Ru. Qu Shi hid in the cabin and saw clearly that Lin Chunhong shot two arrows to kill the leader of the bandits, and the bandits escaped. He came out of the cabin and shouted: "Which brave warrior saved me? I'm here to thank you!"

  "It's just a small matter, no need to worry about it. If there are any villains causing trouble, everyone will get rid of them!" Lin Chunhong stood at the bow of the boat and shouted loudly.

  The three of them suddenly felt that the tone was very familiar, and when they saw Zheng Tiancheng crawling out of the cabin, they suddenly realized: "It's you!" They thanked him repeatedly.

  Zheng Tiancheng was not skilled in martial arts, and just now he was hiding in the cabin according to Lin Chunhong's instructions. When he came out and saw Qu Shiye and the other two, he was overjoyed and said to Lin Chunhong: "After searching everywhere without finding them, we've finally found them without any effort! These three are indeed the same three people we met that day!"

  A few people met and exchanged names, then invited each other to drink wine in Zhijiang County.

  "Qiu has been idle for many years and has not achieved anything in the imperial court. Now he can only indulge his emotions in mountains and waters, and end his miserable life!" After three rounds of wine, when Lin Chunhong asked about Qiu Shi's plans, Qiu Shi replied.

  Yiru saw Lin Chunhong's archery skills and praised in his unskilled Chinese: "Today, thanks to meeting little brother, otherwise we would have had to jump into the river to feed the fish!" After finishing speaking, he picked up Lin Chunhong's bow and looked at it for a moment, saying: "This is just an ordinary hunting bow, if you use a strong bow, there's no need to shoot a second arrow!"

  Lin Chunhong smiled awkwardly: "That powerful bow is a national treasure, how can ordinary people possess it?"

  Guo Shi sighed: "Lin brothers' martial arts are beyond ordinary people, it's a pity that they are buried in the countryside."

  "What a pity, it's better than being killed by the military clerks." Zhang Tong said.

  Guo Shi saw Zhang Tongxiao again, and he didn't care about him. He just smiled and asked Lin Chunhong: "I don't know if Brother Lin is willing to join the army. The Great Ming Dynasty is now in a state of war everywhere, and it's also an opportunity to make achievements."

  "For the time being, I have no intention of joining the army. Now, I am in a remote mountain with a group of brothers, logging wood. Although it's hard work, we get along well and can often return home to take care of our mother."

  "Lin brothers are indeed filial sons, while we who travel the length and breadth of the land are unfilial. " Zhang Tongxuan's words always pierce like a needle. Lin Chunhong didn't get angry, but smiled: "If you want to talk about true filial piety, I've heard of one such person. Last May, Huang Zongxi, son of Censor-in-Chief Huang Zunsu who was tortured to death by cruel punishment by Xu Xianchun and others, appeared in court during the trial at the Ministry of Justice, pulled out a dagger from his sleeve and stabbed Xu Xianchun, then publicly beat Cui Yingyuan and plucked out his beard to offer as sacrifice to his father's spirit. This is what I call true filial piety!"

  Qu Shiyu knew about Huang Zongxi's affair in the capital, but Zhang Tongxuan had heard of it for the first time and couldn't help but look a bit downcast. He thought that his own ancestor was also a famous prime minister, but ended up with a bleak posthumous reputation, and he himself had no way to restore his ancestors' glory. For a moment, he couldn't control himself and said: "The people in the Forbidden City are always acting arbitrarily, without any restrictions, and the chaos of the world originates from this!"

  Lin Chunhong admired Zhang Tongxiao's words, could this be the pioneer of the late Ming Dynasty? Lin Chunhong nodded and said: "The Forbidden City indeed needs to be restricted. Since ancient times, it has been used to intimidate people in the Forbidden City with 'heavenly changes'. When Wang Jinggong said 'Heavenly changes are not to be feared', he fell into a lower position. But using 'heavenly changes' to restrict, after all, is limited and not a foolproof strategy."

  Zhang Tong was equally astonished by Lin Chunhong's words, and didn't expect that a rustic villager would also be thinking about this issue. The more he spoke, the more excited he became, finally concluding: "All men of insight in the world should jointly seek ways to restrict it!"

  Although these words made Qi Shi Wei disdain, they also evoked his memories: In the early days of the imperial court, he was full of vigor and vitality, impeaching this one and that one. But after being framed by Wen Ti Ren and Zhou Yan Ru, he could no longer distinguish right from wrong, and had to demote himself to a commoner, with a heart full of resentment. However, this resentment could not be expressed to others, otherwise he would be accused of harboring grievances and would be finished. Since ancient times, rulers have always emphasized the idea that "thunder, lightning, rain, and dew are all manifestations of imperial grace".

  Zhang Tongkai, on the other hand, didn't have as many concerns and said: "The imperial court is disappointing, it's better to do some business and make a living, so as not to be depressed for no reason! Come, let's drink!"

  After drinking a cup of wine, Lin Chunhong said: "We are all on the ship of the Great Ming now. If this ship sinks, everyone will be finished!"

  One sentence shocked everyone, and they were surprised that Lin Chunhong directly mentioned the topic of the fall of the Ming Dynasty. Although it was very subtle, everyone felt that although the Ming Dynasty had many problems now, it had lasted for more than 200 years and wouldn't collapse so easily. Now, following Lin Chunhong's point of view, thinking about it, the Ming Dynasty is in internal chaos, with strong enemies outside, and the court has no strategy to deal with it, and there are indeed signs of its downfall. For a moment, everyone was speechless, secretly pondering. Especially Qi Shiye, who had been in high positions for many years, knew more about the financial difficulties and corrupt governance of the Ming Dynasty, and the emperor above was stubborn and self-willed, not understanding the way to govern the country, and being impatient.

  Qū Shì Yǐ and others didn't have much to say to Lin Chunhong and Zheng Tiānchéng, after all the two groups of people lived very differently and didn't have much common language. However, Qū Shì Yǐ also noticed that Lin Chunhong understood poetry and books, was skilled in martial arts, and observed the overall situation of the world from his rural home, which he greatly admired. He couldn't help but encourage him to read more poetry and books, practice his martial arts well, and if the imperial court really had difficulties, he would definitely make contributions to the imperial court.

  The crowd bid farewell, and Qu Shi continued their journey, while Lin Chunhong and Zheng Tiancheng went to Baili Island, bought a hundred acres of good land near Liu Xiang, and ordered Zheng Tiancheng to recruit personnel to build a warehouse there. Pay attention to finding people who are skilled in shipbuilding and sailing. Once the skilled sailors are recruited, they will form a fleet to transport wood to Qingjiang. Zheng Tiancheng was overjoyed, and according to Lin Chunhong's words, he is now the governor of the logging industry.