Chapter 14: Year Seven of Tianqi
Chapter 14 of "The Great Ming in the Box" opens introducing characters: Gao Yiye said: âThis guy wonât say the emperorâs name. Great deity is really angry.... Find out more!
Gao Yiye said: âThis guy wonât say the emperorâs name. Great deity is really angry. Everyone, grab your chaotic equipment and beat him up badly.âGao Chuwu was the first to pick up a big wooden stick. Several other youths also tightened the sticks in their hands. The villagers each began to search for weapons.
Under the setting sun, a huge crowd of villagers raised all kinds of chaotic equipment: clay pots, hoes, table legs, shoulder polesâŚ
Seeing this scene, Thirty-Twoâs face darkened. Before the villagers could strike, he immediately screamed: âZhu Youxiao, Zhu Youxiao, the current emperor is called Zhu Youxiao.â
He could no longer care about the taboo of not uttering the emperorâs name. As the saying went, in this remote place, imperial power didnât reach the countryside. So his priority was to save his own life, regardless of breaking taboos. He even forgot to summarize every sentence the way he usually did.
âHmph, it really is Zhu Youxiao.â Li Daoxuanâs face darkened. âYiye, ask him about the state of the realm.â
Gao Yiye quickly turned to ask.
Terrified by the variety of weapons around him, and unsure what she meant by âstate of the realm,â Thirty-Two recited an official document he had just seen at the county office: âOn the eleventh day of the fifth month, Jurchen troops surrounded Jinzhou. The court dispatched soldiers to rescue Jinzhou. On the twenty-eighth day, the Jurchens divided their forces and attacked Dingyuan City again. Commander Yuan Chonghuan, along with eunuch Liu Yingkun and deputy Bi Zisu, led the troops to defend the walls. They set up camps in the ditches and used artillery to repelâŚâ
Reciting to that point, he saw the villagers around him looked confused and clearly didnât understand. He felt a bit uneasy. But since their weapons werenât lowered, Thirty-Two knew he was on the right track and continued: âMan Gui led You Shilu and Zu Dasha with soldiers to come to the rescue. A big battle occurred outside the city, causing casualties on both sides. Man Gui suffered multiple arrow wounds. The Jurchen army soon withdrew, increased forces to attack Jinzhou, but failed to capture it either. Due to the severe heat, they returned with their troopsâŚâ
He paused at that point!
He couldnât remember the rest. Sweat poured down. He thought: Damn, I canât recite more. I donât know if theyâre satisfied. Will they beat me to death? This situation was incredibly critical.
In reality, he had recited enough.
Hearing this, Li Daoxuan was certain that inside the scenic box wasnât some Tiny Kingdom from another world, butâGreat Ming.
And it was the late Ming Dynasty, the most difficult period.
No wonder Gaojia Village was desolate, and the villagers couldnât get enough to eat. Wasnât this exactly the life of ordinary people in the late Ming Dynasty? Seeing it only in history books wasnât vivid; witnessing it in the scenic box made him empathize deeply.
Now Li Daoxuan understood everything: âFine, donât trouble him anymore. Iâve asked all I wanted. Seeing he was captured and is tired and hungry, give him some food to eat.â
After saying that, he had no mood to bother with the scenic box anymore. He quickly opened his computer, opened the browser, opened Baidu, searched for information on the late Ming Dynasty⌠plunged into it, and roamed in the sea of history.
His last words were relayed by Gao Yiye. The villagers immediately put down their weapons, kowtowed to the sky, scattered, and returned to their homes.
Thirty-Two sighed in relief. He thought: Iâve saved my life. These villagers are strangeâthey all obey this girl, who acts like a divine being with a typical scammer look of âI talk for the gods.â Could it be a cult organization like the White Lotus Society? Facing danger in cult hands, I must go along to stay alive and get home. This is known as compromising to survive.ruly massive, like a millstone in size. Against the wall leaned a piece of cabbage leafânot a whole leafâjudging by the veins it was just a small slice, but as big as the entire wall.
Gao Yiye casually picked up a few broken rice grains and tore off a piece from the enormous cabbage leaf. She put them in a bamboo basket and walked into the kitchen. It seemed she planned to cook him a meal with those things.
Thirty-Twoâs jaw dropped open in shock. It stayed gaping for a long time.
What was wrong with this rice? With this cabbage leaf? And what was wrong with this village?
Oh my god!
Thirty-Two was a typical ancient intellectual.
Though he knew far more than an illiterate and wasnât easily fooled by divine beings, he still couldnât shed all his âsuperstitions.â That is, he didnât believe White Lotus nonsense like âVenerable Mother, Void Homeland,â but he wasnât an atheist.
He did believe gods existed in the world.
After standing rigid for dozens of seconds, he darted to the kitchen door and yelled at Gao Yiye cooking inside: âWhich great immortal bestowed you these foods?â
Gao Yiye: âTold you, I donât know.â
Thirty-Two said: âYou havenât even gotten that clear? For shame, youâre supposedly a divine envoy. Youâve made the villagers kowtow without knowing to whom. When building a temple for the deity later, they wonât know what to enshrine. Itâs downright muddle-headed.â
Gao Yiye: âAh? Youâre right! Educated people really think more thoroughly.â
She tilted her head back and shouted at the sky: âGreat deity, Great deity, how should we address your honorable title?â
The sky remained quiet. No one answered her.
Li Daoxuan was now reading history books. The shameful history of the late Ming saddened him deeply. The faint sound of the girl figure in the box was impossible for him to hear.
Gao Yiye spread her hands at Thirty-Two: âGreat deity doesnât want to say.â
Thirty-Two: âEh?â