Taiping Dao at the end of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 24 No one gets what they don't work, not even leopard cats.

The mud houses of the farmers in the village are only 2.31 meters high and simply decorated. The four walls are made of mud bricks, and the roof is covered with thick thatch and tiles to guide rainwater. There are no proper windows, only a straight-lattice window and a wooden door that let in some light.

The furnishings inside consisted of a straw mat for sitting, a straw couch for sleeping, a small table, a wooden storage box, and a ceramic jar for storing water. That was all the family's possessions.

At that moment, Zhang Chengfu knelt on the straw mat and finished writing the letter on the table. Then, he folded the yellow paper, covered it with a small, grooved piece of wood, tied it tightly with a sealing rope, covered the knot with a lump of clay, and pressed his fingerprint on it. This was how he "sealed" the letter, preventing others from opening it beforehand. Hmm, this kind of sealing is only effective against honest people, not against treacherous ones.

"Huh? Should this letter be sealed?"

Gao Daonu was somewhat puzzled. He looked at Zhang Chengfu, who had a serious expression, and hesitated.

"My fellow countryman should be reliable; there's no need to be so wary..."

"It's not about guarding against him, but against that Mr. Liu."

Zhang Chengfu smiled but didn't explain further. Then, he took out a wooden box, placed the sealed letter underneath, and held out his hand.

"What about the unsold talisman book? Give it to me."

"what are you up to?"

"Send off Mr. Guan."

"What?! This is a hundred bushels of grain, plus ten oxen and an oxcart!"

"No. This talisman book isn't worth that much; it's the reputation of my Taiping Dao that's valuable. Give me the talisman book."

"...That's still fifty strings of cash..."

Gao Daonu muttered a few words of dissatisfaction, but still took out the unsold copy of the *Taiping Jing*. Zhang Chengfu took the book, thought for a moment, and then took out two pages of his own *Taiping Xin Jing* from the box, placing them at the very beginning. Then, he rolled up the book and put it in the wooden box. Finally, he sealed the lid of the wooden box with clay.

"Being so cautious... Is this Lord Guan really that important?"

"He's very important. If I can get his help, I can take my revenge. And if I invite him over, he can teach you martial arts. Of course, the most important thing is this person. He's a true and righteous knight-errant, someone I can entrust my life to."

Zhang Chengfu smiled and said a few words, then handed the wooden box to Gao Daonu and gave him some instructions.

"Give this wooden box to your fellow villager and have him pass it on to Lord Guan. Tell him it's a letter from you requesting instruction in martial arts. Hurry up and ride off! Be quick and come back!"

"Row!"

Gao Daonu nodded, tucked the wooden box into his robes, and strode out the door. Soon, the neighing of horses echoed outside, stretching out into the distance. Zhang Chengfu watched Gao Daonu's departing figure with a hint of envy, muttering to himself.

"Horses move with incredible speed, three times faster than galloping. In this great era of the late Han Dynasty, how could one survive without knowing how to ride a horse? One must learn to ride!..."

"When Dao Nu returns, I'll have him teach me. For now, let's keep digging!"

Horses galloped swiftly, shovels swung ceaselessly. Gao Daonu returned after three days, still dashing and radiant, his lips smeared with oil. Zhang Chengfu, on the other hand, had been digging for three days, emptying a small amount of soil, his head and face covered in dirt. When the two met, they glanced at each other, both wanting to laugh.

"Delivered?"

"Delivered!"

"Eating meat and drinking alcohol again?"

"Mmm, the meat is delicious, and the wine is good too!"

"Now that you're full, come down and help dig the pond! Xuanli, give your shovel to Master Gao, and you can get a wooden one instead. Yes! He's good at digging!"

"what?"

Zhang Xuanli huffed and puffed as he ran over and shoveled a shovel into "Master Gao's" hands. Then, he jumped into the pond and started digging, still huffing and puffing. Gao Daonu, holding the shovel, stroked his chin with one hand and muttered a complaint.

"When I came back to my hometown, he called me a talented young man and a young hero, and he would invite me to drink and eat meat... But when I came back, all you did was tell me to dig in the dirt? You didn't even let me rest for a couple of days."

"Is it better to drink alcohol and eat meat, or to dig ditches and build ponds?"

"Can I choose both?"

"Not yet. You can only choose one."

"Forget it, let's just dig and repair the pond! After all, drinking and eating meat may be enjoyable... but only repairing the pond is truly saving lives!"

Gao Daonu sighed, jumped down from the riverbank, and stood shoulder to shoulder with Zhang Chengfu. Then, the two of them, facing the loess soil with their backs to the sky, skillfully began digging, like two large groundhogs. As he dug, he kept talking.

"Do you think that Guan Jun is someone who can dig the dirt with us?"

"Hmm. That's possible."

"What about the other renowned heroes?"

"That's very, very rare. The vast majority of those aristocratic families and powerful clans would never bend down and jump into this pit to work."

"Ugh! Look at the dish you chose! Fine, I'll do it with you then..."

Gao Daonu shook his head and focused intently on digging. Slogans of labor echoed across the fields, and hundreds of able-bodied children were busily working. Fellow heroes were few and far between, but fellow ordinary people were many and far between.
August passed in the midst of busy farming and hard work, sweat pouring down and the air filled with the fragrance of ripe grain. September brought frost, the chill of late autumn, and it was time to prepare winter clothes. The women of the village came down from the pond to sew winter clothes for the children: two layers of hemp cloth on the outside, stuffed full of straw, reeds, and hemp fibers inside. This was the farmers' simple winter clothing.

As for aristocratic families, they would wear fur garments such as fox fur and sable fur. More common were silk-cotton garments, which were made by filling silk fabric with silk floss. For example, the silk-cotton garments produced in Mawangdui could be up to 3 centimeters thick, and the silk and fabric used in just one garment were worth ten thousand coins.

"Alas, the autumn air is so desolate! The grass and trees wither and decay."

"How sorrowful the autumn atmosphere is! The earth is desolate, the grass and trees are withered and yellow." On the yellowing fields, Zhang Chengfu hummed the mournful "Nine Arguments," his body motionless. He struggled to ride on the back of a yellow horse, slowly pacing along. Beside him, Gao Daonu, holding the reins with one hand, lay directly on the back of a red horse, gazing at the vast and profound autumn.

"Chengfu, if you don't ride faster, I'm going to fall asleep."

"Then you should go to sleep! We can't go any faster, or I'll fall off. Without stirrups, how do you stay upright when the horse runs?"

"What's a stirrup? You mean the rope that hangs down on one side to make mounting easier?... "

Gao Daonu scratched his head, and using only his waist strength, he naturally went from lying down to sitting up. He looked at Zhang Chengfu's awkwardness and said with a smile.

"Don't fight against the horse's strength! How can you stay steady? Go with the horse's rhythm, and you'll naturally stay steady. Let it move up and down with its energy, relax your whole body... Watching you strain to control the horse like that, I don't know how tiring that is!..."

"Relax? Let it run its course?"

Zhang Chengfu slowly relaxed, and the annoying creature on his back finally loosened its grip... The yellow horse beneath him immediately leaped forward, then with a powerful jerk, Zhang Chengfu vanished from its horse's back...

"Huh?!...This guy?! Ugh, ugh, ugh!"

Zhang Chengfu, his face covered in mud, got up from the ground. Fortunately, there were no stirrups, so he didn't have to worry about getting stuck and being dragged along by the horse. He watched the yellow horse galloping away, his fingers cracking as he clenched them. Gao Daonu, standing beside him, was laughing so hard he was practically swaying like a gourd, his red horse swaying back and forth with him.

"Hahaha, that's hilarious! Horses are the most intelligent and perceptive animals! Your horse is probably already fed up with you! You need to brush it properly and feed it delicious fresh grass and dried beans to gain its trust and affection..."

"Giddy up! Giddy up! I'll go get your horse first!"

"Alright! I'm going to keep digging!"

Zhang Chengfu dusted himself off and galloped towards the riverbank. His daily half-hour horseback riding practice was now over. And his current horseback riding speed was even slower than running. At least when he ran, both feet were on the ground, allowing him to utilize his astonishing strength and run faster than anyone else!
As the sun rises and sets, the ponds along the riverbank, like sand sculptures on a beach, are gradually shaped by countless busy hands and sweat. Most of the hundred-acre pond bottom has been excavated, and the ramming work has begun. At least three layers must be compacted, creating a solid rammed earth layer over a foot deep, to ensure the stored water won't leak.

"Bang! Bang! Bang!"

"Hey! Yo! Hey! Yo!"

The wooden mallets resounded with a deafening clang, like drumbeats striking the earth. The rhythmic chants of the crowd resembled the oldest sacrificial songs of the land. This kind of collective labor truly shapes the human spirit. On the pond, both able-bodied men and children alike had sun-tanned faces, bearing an air of unwavering resilience.

The busy work continued until the end of September, when the soybeans and mung beans planted in summer finally ripened one after another. The growing period for beans is significantly shorter than that for millet, just over three months is enough. The fields were filled with the aroma of beans, a fragrance with a hint of sweetness. This scent of harvest quickly attracted gray doves, gray-black field mice, and even leopard cats that hunt birds and field mice.

"Awooo!..."

The leopard cat's call was quite deep, just like a leopard's. Zhang Chengfu, carrying the harvested beans, looked up at the sound and saw a leopard cat, a good arm's length long, with its half-arm-length tail upright, crouching around the bean bin, carrying a field mouse in its mouth. Its body was covered with black spots or rose-shaped markings, with white eyeliner on its face and black behind its ears, making it look exactly like a small leopard, full of wildness.

"The leopard cat, a crouching beast, resembles a raccoon dog but is smaller... This kind of leopard cat can drive away mice and is a beneficial animal around the granary. Seeing how thin it is, it must be extremely hungry. In years of drought, even leopard cats can't get enough to eat..."

Zhang Chengfu put down the beans, smiled, and said a few words to the boys around him. Then, unable to resist the itch, he stepped forward and called out to the leopard cat.

"Good kitty! Don't move... wait for me to come closer and pet you..."

Before the boy could finish speaking gently, he suddenly leaped forward with a powerful push of his feet. He was incredibly fast, and his attack was swift and fierce! Then, he missed, only managing to grab a tuft of cat fur.

"Aww! Woohoo!..."

The leopard cat cried out in pain twice, leaping like lightning onto the top of the granary, its fur bristling as it stared at the boy below, nearly dropping the field mouse it was chewing. Zhang Chengfu looked at the cat fur in his hand, smiled awkwardly, and then addressed the boys around him.

"Hair, including eyebrows, hair, and animal fur! It can be used to make writing brushes and for warmth. Hmm, if we could raise a flock of wool-producing sheep, shear them, spin their wool into clothing, or stuff it into winter clothes... winters wouldn't be so cold!..."

Zhang Chengfu smiled and spoke, then put his hands behind his back, once again concealing the youthful spirit within this body. He remained composed, discussing the principles of Chinese characters and even writing them on the muddy ground. And the most important word he wanted to discuss today was "abundance."

“丰, meaning budding. It resembles the shape of abundant vegetation.”

“Rang means abundant grains. It signifies the abundance of grains.”

"The so-called 'abundance' refers to both outward prosperity and inner abundance. Good years, full grains, plentiful harvests, and overflowing granaries... This is the greatest aspiration and pursuit of our Way of Peace!..."

As he spoke, Zhang Chengfu paused, pointed to the pile of bean stalks that had formed a small mountain, and smiled broadly.

"This is the harvest we obtained by sowing together, weeding together, harvesting together... working together! This harvest of grain! We will share this grain together, and eat it together. This is farming, harvesting, and nourishing the people!"

Then, Zhang Chengfu's smile vanished. In front of the drying threshing ground, amidst the wafting aroma of beans, he solemnly instructed the children, also explaining his own understanding of the Way of Heaven.

"Sow the hundred grains, and a bountiful harvest of millet and sorghum will follow. Only through diligent farming can one achieve a good harvest and fill granaries. To cultivate and obtain food is the mandate of Heaven, the proper application of the Way! The *Taiping Jing* says, 'The way to achieve peace in the world is nothing more than ensuring that the people have enough to eat…'"

"Then how do we obtain food, and how do we distribute the spoils? One of the fundamental principles of our Way of Peace is 'those who work for food,' and 'those who do not work for food!' Even leopard cats are the same; they obtain food by catching mice..."

"You must all remember this: every meal comes from the fields. Those who toil deserve a reward! They produce grain, and they should be well-fed, not have it all confiscated to support idle noble families and government officials! These high-ranking meat-eaters are not even as good as leopard cats; they are nothing but giant rats stealing from the granaries!..."

"Big rats, big rats, don't eat my millet! Big rats, big rats, don't eat my wheat! Big rats, big rats, don't eat my seedlings!"

"In today's world, those who own land do not cultivate it, those who are well-fed do not work, those who labor cannot be protected, and those who follow morality fall into poverty. This is the beginning of great chaos! Only when those who till the land are fed, those who labor are clothed, and everyone engages in labor and does not become greedy, tyrannical, and plundering rats, will there be true peace in the world!..."

After saying this, Zhang Chengfu tilted his head slightly, looked at the setting sun with the children, looked at the full granary, and sang softly.

"The sky is clear and the earth is bright, the Yellow Heaven is above; I plant these beans, hoping for a bountiful harvest. One hoe, one seed, fulfilling the promise of farming; one seedling, one wish, hoping for peace and prosperity. May the old and young be well-fed, and may all people's wishes be fulfilled; may the wicked be eradicated, and may peace and prosperity prevail!..."

"Awooo! Awooo!..."

A clear song rises, accompanied by the meowing of a cat above the barn. This is guardianship, guarding the abundant grain within the barn. But to whom will the responsibility of guardianship fall? Outside the barn, children's eyes shine brightly, while able-bodied men are busy drying beans.

(End of this chapter)