Chapter 84: The Importance of Transportation
Outside Gao Family Fortress.
"General Cheng, it's been a long time, truly a very long time," San Shier said with a smile. "Ever since Wang Er from Baishui caused trouble and I fled the county town, I haven't seen you. To meet you again today, I'm simply overjoyed."
Cheng Xu glanced at him askance. "I was just here a few days ago. Didn't you greet me then?"
San Shier feigned surprise. "Oh? Was I? I don't recall such a thing."
Cheng Xu's heart skipped a beat. *Indeed,* he thought. *The place I went to back then wasn't Gao Family Village at all, was it? I must have fallen victim to dark magic, entered a ghost village, and a female ghost had taken on San Shier's appearance to trick me into entering. Good thing I didn't go inside then, or I'd have been eaten alive by now.*
Sweat poured down his face at the thought.
*Forget it, that's in the past. I'm still alive and well, no need to be timid now,* Cheng Xu rallied his spirits and pointed at Gao Family Fortress. "When did this small Gao Family Village build such a formidable fortress?"
San Shier smiled. "Mr. Bai from Bai Family Fortress provided the funds, and I also contributed some silver. With all the villagers from the surrounding ten li pitching in, we painstakingly built it. This is called collective effort."
"Bai Yuan paid for it?" Cheng Xu wasn't sure whether to believe him. *Could a mere gentry member afford to build a ten-meter-high fortress wall?* But never mind that. This was no time to cause further complications. He only had three days before the Donglin Party's new magistrate took office; he had no time for messy affairs. Feigning ignorance was the sensible approach.
San Shier had long heard the rumors Wang Er had spread and understood his careful planning. How could he not cooperate? He immediately put on a triumphant expression. "Absolutely true."
Cheng Xu asked, "Where are the corpses of Zheng Yanfu and Zhong Guangdao?"
San Shier pointed to the hillside nearby. "They're buried there. Look, there are two stones placed over there, right beneath them."
Cheng Xu was overjoyed and quickly sent men to dig. A few shovels full, and they indeed unearthed several charred corpses, badly decomposed and emitting a foul odor.
Cheng Xu wasn't particular, nor did he bother to verify their identities—there were no technical means for forensics in those days. "Chop off the heads of these two charred figures and put them in bags."
His soldiers quickly complied.
It was a truly disgusting task, but his subordinates, true to their training as regular soldiers, had seen plenty of corpses and didn't even frown, whether faced with charred or decomposed bodies.
Cheng Xu was in an excellent mood. "San Shier, you and Mr. Bai have achieved a great merit. When the new magistrate takes office, I'll take you both to him so you can take credit. You certainly deserve some reward."
San Shier said, "We only killed some minor rebels. These two rebel leaders were personally slain by General Cheng. All the villagers of Gao Family Village witnessed it. General, the true glory is yours."
Cheng Xu curled his lips into a smile. "San Shier, you truly are very sensible."
After a moment, his expression instantly darkened. "In which direction did Wang Er escape?"
San Shier pointed his hand towards the northern slope. "That way!"
He wasn't lying; he truly pointed out the direction Wang Er had gone, knowing that since Wang Er dared to spread the news, he must have already had a plan.
Without another word, Cheng Xu pointed towards the northern mountains. "Pursue!"
Leading over a hundred of his men, he plunged into the mountains and soon vanished into the distance.
Only then did San Shier retract his gaze and let out a "Tch." He returned inside the fortress, stood on the high wall, and thought for a few seconds. "No wonder Bai Yuan said the road to the county town would soon be clear. So that's it... with the news of Wang Er's serious injuries out, and Cheng Xu active again, the rebels around here will quiet down for a while."
He turned around and shouted towards the village. "Gao Chuwu, Zheng Daniu, get ready. After General Cheng stirs things up for a few days, it'll be safe outside. We'll go to the county town and buy some horses, and I also need to hire some assistants there."
Gao Chuwu popped his head up from a rooftop. "Huh? No one here knows how to ride a horse. Even if we buy them, how will we ride them back to the village?"
Zheng Daniu popped his head up from another rooftop. "Do you mean we should both carry the horses back?"
Gao Chuwu grinned foolishly, opening his mouth wide. "Oh, right! If we both carry them, our combined strength will be enough."
Zheng Daniu declared, "I'm very confident in my strength."
San Shier exclaimed, "You two fools, quiet down! Even if you can't ride, you can lead the horses back. Why would you need to carry them? Do people ride horses, or do horses ride people?"
The two men were silent.
Li Daoxuan found their silly exchange amusing. After his laughter, he thought carefully. Although Gao Chuwu was foolish, he had raised a critical question: "horse riding is a skilled art."
It's not easy to master!
Even if the villagers of Gao Family Village had horses, learning to ride would be a very long process, and ultimately, only a few people might ever use them effectively.
Moreover, the carrying capacity of horse carts was very limited. In the future, if the villagers wanted to transport some of the strange items he provided, such as those plastic catapults, horse carts would likely be insufficient.
Transportation must be taken seriously.
He simply opened a historical military forum and posted anonymously: "To all the experts, I'm back again. I want to ask, given modern materials and technical data, what's the highest level of land transportation that could be achieved in the Ming Dynasty?"
Reply 1: "The Apollo program."
Reply 2: "First, bury the guy upstairs! Even with modern materials and technical data, Ming Dynasty people wouldn't understand it, so they couldn't build anything proper. By the time you train people who *can* understand these materials, it'll be at least ten years from now. Stick with horse carts."
Reply 3: "I've seen steam trains in those transmigration-to-Ming Dynasty novels."
Reply 4: "Those authors just want to rush the tech development for reader gratification. Without proper foundational science, all those brilliant ideas stay on paper. It's like the 'Wubei Zhi' from the Ming Dynasty—tons of bizarre weapons in there, but have you seen any that were actually built? You actually believe those transmigration novels?"
Reply 5: "I do! Especially the parts about buying dozens of concubines and having orgies at home—that's highly feasible and totally achievable in the Ming Dynasty."
All the replies immediately cursed: "How are you not banned yet? Where's the moderator? Is the mod dead again?"
Li Daoxuan realized it was hard to get useful information from the forum. He couldn't explicitly state how his special power actually worked, so there wasn't much netizens could help him with.
Never mind, I'll just look myself!
He opened all the shopping websites and searched for miniature toys...
As the saying goes, if you set your mind on buying something, and it's not illegal, you'll definitely find it online—it just depends on whether you're willing to search.
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