Book Synopsis
Book Tags
Donation Rankings
Comment
0 Comments
You May Also Like
墨書 Inktalez
At that moment, arrows suddenly rained down from the city walls and the second-floor windows, accompanied by shouts that shook the air. The crowd was taken aback, realizing they had fallen into a trap. In a flurry, they drew their swords and mounted their horses, but it was too late.
Li Youjun commanded with an imposing presence, his troops filled with high morale. They struck almost every target, taking advantage of their advantageous position. In less than a moment, they had nearly annihilated the entire Tai Ping Army. However, amidst the chaos, the bandit leader Wu Guang managed to escape. Aside from that, Li Youjun achieved a resounding victory, defeating over twelve hundred Tai Ping soldiers with fewer than five hundred of his own—a historically renowned battle of the few overcoming the many.
After this battle, Li You deeply understood the harm that war inflicted on ordinary people. Yet in such chaotic times, how could one hope to remain unscathed amidst the turmoil?
Upon returning home, Li You asked his family servant where his father had gone. The servant replied that he had gone to the palace with the Deputy Minister Zhang Han. This Zhang Han was no ordinary figure; he was the right-hand man of Li Si and overseer of the Qin Shi Huang Mausoleum. This layer of identity was not unknown to Li You.
Inspired by this revelation, Li You pondered that while the outside world was in turmoil, the underground mausoleum remained untouched. Could he not also construct a sanctuary independent of the chaos?
Thus, Li You began secretly gathering information and selecting a site for his project. As for why he chose Ba Shu as the location, Third Granduncle Master analyzed that it might be related to the war environment at the time—Ba Shu was far removed from the political struggles centered in Xianyang and was effectively isolated by treacherous mountain paths, making it a true haven.
"Of course, there may be other unknown reasons," Third Granduncle Master remarked as he closed his notebook. "Since they are unknown, later generations should not speculate too much." He continued, "In any case, Li You favored this place. The subsequent events are recorded on the stone wall; what was burned earlier likely pertained to these matters."
Third Granduncle Master's words lingered in the air for quite some time as everyone remained lost in thought, seemingly still immersed in Li You's tale of capturing Wu Guang.
I couldn't help but recall A Li's Bronze Armory. As a general who had dedicated his life to warfare and achieved great military success—being the son of the current Prime Minister Li Si—Li You could easily leverage his political and economic standing to acquire blueprints for underground tombs from his father (perhaps he even secretly participated in their design). Building such a private armory within his own tomb wouldn't be impossible.
A Li sighed, "In those days, all able-bodied laborers were either conscripted by Qin Shi Huang to build the mausoleum or drafted into military service. In desperation, Li You had no choice but to purchase weak child laborers from the black market to fill in. But how can this be considered truly caring for the common people?"
The Witch seemed to take issue with A Li’s statement; whenever A Li spoke up, she felt compelled to interject: "This is not hard to understand. People of that era had deeply ingrained views on geography and social hierarchy. Li You was a Qin person; purchasing child laborers from Ba Shu meant employing Shushi people as laborers without any sense of guilt—by the way, this might also be one reason why Li You chose this location in Shu. Moreover, as you mentioned, these child laborers were children from impoverished families living at society's bottom rung—essentially slaves. For a prominent young master like him to spend money on a few child laborers serving him is actually showing them respect; they should not harbor resentment but rather feel grateful!"
Finally, the Yellow Witch insightfully summarized, “Therefore, when considering historical figures, we cannot simply categorize them as good or bad based on one or two events. Good people can do bad things, and bad people can do good things. Moreover, the standards for judging good and bad vary with time, place, and customs. We should view them through a dialectical lens of history, avoiding sweeping generalizations and hasty conclusions.”
This was the first time I had heard the Yellow Witch speak so much. I was surprised that someone with her perspective could offer such profound insights. Her analysis was logical and well-structured, reminiscent of Old Qiao! It seems the old saying “Don’t judge a book by its cover” holds true; perhaps I should take the time to understand the profession of Tu Fuzi.
Given A Li's temperament, she would not let this go unchallenged. “So according to you, if a bad person does a good deed, they can be forgiven? And if a good person does something bad, they are doomed forever? Ha! What nonsense! Good is good, and bad is bad. People can change their circumstances but not their nature—unless you want to deliberately excuse the wrongdoings of bad people!”
The Yellow Witch reacted as if someone had stepped on her tail, her expression exaggeratedly alarmed. She exclaimed in Min Nan, “Miss, don’t just throw accusations at me! You can detest evil as much as you want; I can also distinguish between right and wrong—there’s no contradiction! I’m not a public defender; how could I possibly excuse a bad person? Boss, everyone in my team is a good person!”
“Enough already! Let’s all keep our voices down!” Third Granduncle Master waved his hand impatiently and suddenly pointed ahead. “Look! There’s light!”
Everyone was taken aback and craned their necks to see. After staring for a while without spotting any light, someone on the first boat finally screamed, “It’s an opening! We’re coming out; we’re finally out!”
I soon saw it too. About five or six meters ahead, there appeared an extremely narrow mountain opening—approximately four meters high, with the widest part barely half a meter across. It could only accommodate one person at a time, and not a stout one at that.
I had to admire Third Granduncle Master ’s keen eyesight; our boat had three large lanterns illuminating the water cave like daylight. Despite being so far away earlier, he could still distinguish natural light from lantern light as if we were the ones with failing eyesight.
As we approached closer, I increasingly felt that this opening and the water cave were indeed just like what was described in Peach Blossom Spring: “When the forest ends and the water source appears, there lies a mountain with an opening that seems to emit light.” It seemed that this old fox Third Granduncle Master had spoken some truth for once.
Just as I was thinking this, the Yellow Witch suddenly let out a sharp scream. We followed closely behind but hadn’t had time to ask her what was wrong (she often acted strangely anyway, so her scream didn’t immediately raise our alarm), when our boat reached the cave entrance.
I heard Third Granduncle Master mutter under his breath, “No way…” Just then, the bow of the boat suddenly dipped downwards, and I felt as if everything was spinning around me—a sensation akin to weightlessness.
When I opened my eyes, cold sweat broke out all over me. Oh no! This place turned out to be a massive waterfall!
...
Comment 0 Comment Count