Chapter 213: Incognito Travel

During the snow disaster from the last year’s twelfth lunar month to the beginning of the first month, Qingzhou Prefecture allocated 5,000 dan of rice and flour in total. More than half of this grain was given to the city’s residents. Since the roads in the surrounding areas were frozen and the grain stores in the city ran out, the people had nothing to eat, while those in the countryside, who had stored more grain, could barely make ends meet. Zhucheng, located southeast of Qingzhou Prefecture, sent 300 strong laborers to clear paths and transport grain, allowing the life-saving provisions to reach the city.

Yet now, as spring arrived, it was the farmers who faced troubles. The wheat planted last autumn was growing well, but many livestock died from the cold during the winter, making it difficult to plow the fields. The Yang family, living east of Zihedian Village, used to be prosperous, owning two plowing oxen. But their barn collapsed under the snow in the middle of the night, killing both oxen. Now, the father and son had to plow the fields by hand. The frozen soil was extremely hard to plow; the son, Yang Gouer, whose feet were bare, had his face turned blue from the cold, with cuts all over his legs. The old Yang felt heartbroken but could do nothing.

After an hour of hard work, both father and son were exhausted. The old Yang wiped his sweat and sighed, “I had planned to find you a wife after the New Year, but who would have thought the barn that had stood for so many years would collapse… Sigh, we finally managed to get two plowing oxen, and now they’re gone!”

“Dad, haven’t you heard what was said at the Buddha’s scripture meetings? This world is too filthy. Last year’s snow disaster was a punishment from heaven! If we could overthrow this corrupt system and establish a pure Buddhist kingdom, the world would be at peace…”

Before he could finish speaking, the old Yang angrily slapped him across the face. “I told you not to listen to those misleading ideas. You just won’t listen—sooner or later, it will bring disaster! What pure kingdom? Those in power are all the same kind of people. No matter who takes over, they’ll be ruthless. Don’t you think I know that? You’re my only child. Be a good person, work hard farming, save money, and find a wife—that’s your fate!”

Yang Gouer was young and full of passion, but he dared not openly defy his father. He could only grumble resentfully, “What fate? Why should some people be noble while others are not? Why can those people wear silk and gold?”

“Shut up! A carriage is coming. Be careful, or the authorities might catch you and throw you in jail!”

The ten mu of land owned by the Yang family was located near the main road leading out of the village, so the road ahead was clearly visible. Old Yang caught sight of a carriage approaching from afar and immediately warned his son. As the carriage got closer, he took a closer look and saw that the newly painted wooden planks were black and shiny, and the strong horses pulling it were clean and well-cared for. He wondered whose wealthy relative this could be.

While he was thinking, the carriage stopped right in front of him. Soon after, the curtain was lifted, and a teenager around sixteen or seventeen years old jumped down from the carriage and bowed politely to him. Seeing that the boy was wearing a sapphire-blue robe, Old Yang guessed he must be a scholar. He hurried onto the road to return the bow and asked with a smile, “Young sir, are you looking for directions or visiting relatives in the village?”

The person who jumped down from the carriage was Zhang Yue. He had intended to say he was just browsing around, but changed his mind and said, “Uncle, I’m here to visit relatives. Since it’s my first time back, I don’t know the way, so I stopped to ask. Are you plowing the fields? Although heavy snow indicates a good harvest, last winter’s heavy snow caused damage to the crops. Did it have any impact?”

Old Yang was deeply impressed by Zhang Yue’s polite manner. There were a few scholars in the village, but this one hadn’t even passed the exams yet and acted as if he would become the top scholar tomorrow. Look how well-mannered this scholar was! Zhang Yue asked questions he couldn’t answer, but he knew a lot about farming, so Old Yang smiled.

“You’ve come to the right person, young sir. It’s true that heavy snow means a good harvest. As long as it doesn’t snow at the beginning of spring, the heavier the snow, the better the crops will grow. Wheat, in particular, isn’t afraid of the cold. If it snowed heavily in the south during winter, that would be a disaster. After all, farming is possible in the south too, and a heavy snowfall could destroy everything. Here, after a winter of snow, the wheat grows well, though a few of the village’s weaker houses have collapsed and many animals have died from the cold. Otherwise, nothing serious has happened.”

“Dad, those two cows are the result of ten years of hard work in farming! Without them, the work that could be done in five or six days will take at least half a month. How can you say nothing serious has happened?”

Seeing a young man with his pants rolled up to his knees climb onto the road from the field and hearing his tone of address, Zhang Yue realized he must be the old man’s son. Sure enough, the old man immediately turned around, scowled, and cursed a few words before explaining, “Young sir, don’t be influenced by his rough manners. This is my son, Yang Gouer. Just call me Old Yang. I know everyone in this village of Zihedian. May I ask whom you’re looking for?”

Zhang Yue had come today originally to check on the spring plowing and to see how the winter wheat, covered in snow all winter, was doing. Searching for relatives was just an excuse; he quickly made up a name to fit the situation. To his surprise, Old Yang took it extremely seriously, so he had to claim he was new here and had never known such relatives before. At that moment, Yang Gouer next to him grew impatient.
“Dad, stop talking to them. Do we still need to plow the fields? Hey, if you want to find relatives, go to the village yourself. We don’t have time to waste on you!”
Seeing Old Yang dragged away by Yang Gouer, Zhang Yue couldn’t help but laugh silently before getting back on the carriage. He wandered around Zihedian Village, where the houses were neat and low. Most of the men were busy plowing the fields, and the sounds of weaving and reading from the village school could be heard everywhere. From this, he knew the local people were simple and hardworking. Thinking that he had visited over a dozen villages near Qingzhou Prefecture in these three days and learned quite a bit about local customs, he thought of several common crops from later generations—corn, potatoes, sweet potatoes, tomatoes… Other crops might not matter, but sweet potatoes and corn could really help during famines. Didn’t legends say that Zheng He discovered America during his voyages? Could he ask them to try growing them when he returned to the capital?
After leaving the village, Zhang Yue planned to head back to Qingzhou Prefecture along the main road. But when passing by Yang’s fields, he saw Old Yang and his son standing in the middle of the road from afar. This time, the father and son seemed to be arguing with someone, and their shouting could still be heard from a distance. Seeing Old Yang arguing fiercely while his usually noisy son was desperately pulling him away, he was filled with curiosity.
“Borrowing oxen for free? There’s no such thing in this world! I know your Buddha Mother is very powerful now, but you can deceive others, not me! I can read a bit—anyone who claims a Manifest King has been born or the Buddha Mother has appeared ends up in disaster. You may not know this, but I do!”
“Dad, they’re being kind. It’s just borrowing oxen for a few days.”
“Shut up, you brat! There’s no such thing as free food. If I lend you oxen this time, next time you might end up as a thug!”
“Old Yang, consider this a favor from our group. From now on, no one will care about your family’s affairs!”
Hearing this, Zhang Yue immediately told the coachman to slow down. Only after seeing the thin middle-aged man who was leading the oxen shout a few words and leave did he rush forward, pretending not to know anything as he asked questions.

“You, young master, are a scholar, so of course you don’t know such things!” Old Yang was a talkative man. Angrily, he glared at his son who was still pulling his arm, then sighed. “There are always many people in these villages who claim to know various skills. The Buddha Mother cult isn’t anything special in itself, but they keep preaching about ‘the Buddha Mother’s descent and a peaceful Buddhist kingdom.’ It just doesn’t seem right to me. Besides, earlier they led a few tenant farmers to cause trouble in another village demanding lower rents, almost drawing the attention of the authorities. How can one afford to provoke such people?”
“What are you saying, Father? If we don’t stand up for ourselves, they’ll just take advantage of the weak! Besides, one person’s strength isn’t enough, but ten people together make a difference. If there are a hundred or a thousand, they can go anywhere in the world…”
“Shut up! Don’t try to use those ideas you learned outside to argue with me! You ignorant young people are easily deceived. Look at those older generations in the village who are educated—how many of them believe in that nonsense? It’s fine for everyone to help each other in a group, but it needs to be led by scholars. I can’t trust that Niu San at all; he clearly seems cunning and dishonest…”
Hearing Old Yang’s endless chatter, Zhang Yue was intrigued. Over the past few days of wandering around, he had learned that scholars in various villages were indeed respected, but schools weren’t available everywhere. Scholars were too busy preparing for exams to handle village affairs. This old Yang seemed like a sensible farmer—quite interesting.
With this thought, he immediately abandoned the idea of returning to Qingzhou Prefecture and talked with Old Yang for some time. Seeing it was already noon, he casually mentioned his regret at not finding his relatives and asked to visit Old Yang’s home. The middle-aged man readily agreed. Yang Gou wanted to object at first, but when Zhang Yue offered to give them a ride in his carriage and shared some of his experiences from outside, he asked many questions and learned a lot. So, upon arriving at their home, he took the initiative to prepare food.
Old Yang was amazed and said with a smile, “When we still had two cows at home and things were fairly prosperous, this kid hated coming here to freeload. But today he’s changed his attitude—probably because he sees you, young master, as someone well-informed.”

Zhang Yue was speechless with laughter at this moment, thinking that the boy who dared to argue with his father was quite straightforward and lacked any scheming. When several bowls of dishes were served, he saw roasted radishes, Chinese cabbage, and pancakes—none of them seemed to have any oil. He took a bite of the pancake and found it sweet, but the roasted radishes and cabbage were bland and tasteless—this was the life of the people under his rule: nothing but cabbage and radishes!

Just as this thought crossed his mind, a shout came from outside: “The meat is here! Mother just cooked some boiled beef!”

Seeing Yang Gouer place the steaming plate of meat on the table, Old Yang immediately smiled and nodded at him, “At last, there’s some sense of hospitality.”

Then he turned to Zhang Yue and said with a smile, “The cow died from the cold, so we’ll have to eat the beef sooner or later. If we wait any longer, it’ll go bad! Young master, although we have meat, there’s really no salt. Please make do! Alas, the price of salt has long exceeded that of meat—three silver coins per pound—and they only accept cash, not paper money or copper coins. Every household is in great shortage these days!”