Chapter 146: Sudden Rain (Part 16)

Inside the county government office of Shenwu City, Guo Yong, that thoroughly unfortunate county magistrate, was now sitting on the rooftop, merely observing the movements of Xu Le and his party.

A fine drizzle continued to fall in sheets. Several domestic servants held oiled-paper umbrellas to shield him from the rain, but whenever the wind shifted, numerous raindrops still struck his body. Having sat on the roof for a long time, he was soaked to the skin, yet Guo Yong remained entirely oblivious to it.

The county town was once again buzzing with activity.

They had just endured a military chaos, suffering considerable casualties. The common people were busy licking their wounds. Yet now, nearly half the town’s populace had been mobilized, helping to transport grain and fodder from the storehouses, and gathering military provisions and equipment stored locally, loading them onto carts that were continuously sent to the temple where Xu Le's group was stationed.

Virtually all the stocked inventory of Shenwu County was being hauled away. Although Wang Rengong had concentrated the wealth and grain of the entire commandery into Shanyang City, Xu Le’s contingent was, after all, small in number. Now that they had swept clean the meager remaining assets of Shenwu County, the grain, equipment, and wealth being transported to the temple were still sufficient to sustain Xu Le’s group for two to three years!

By now, Guo Yong had also figured out how much strength Xu Le commanded. The core forces directly under this Young Master Le consisted of no more than fifty elite riders wearing the armor and attire of the Mayi Elite Cavalry. Zhong the Iron Arm and Chen Fengpo had sworn allegiance, each bringing twenty or so men, while those from broken households within Shenwu City who had trickled over to pledge allegiance amounted to no more than another twenty or so. Combined, it was a force the size of a hundred-man squad.

Meanwhile, the large army led by Commander Liu, of whom Xu Le spoke, was nowhere to be seen.

Normally, this force was simply too insignificant compared to the formidable military might possessed by Wang Rengong. As the county magistrate of Shenwu, the sensible course of action now was to secretly gather strength; the moment Wang Rengong launched a counterattack, he should rise in revolt within the city to assist him, thereby washing away the stigma of losing Shenwu. If he could manage to capture this Young Master Le, there might even be some merit, large or small, to be claimed.

Yet Guo Yong had not the slightest desire to make such preparations now.

His domestic servant had mingled with the team of laborers and gone to transport grain once. Every word of what Xu Le had said had been heard clearly by the servant, who repeated it back to Guo Yong word for word. It deeply moved this county official, who had languished on the frontier for many years.

Back in the day, Guo Yong had also been a famously clever figure in his home village, capable of deducing ten things from hearing one. He had even learned a bit of swordsmanship and horsemanship, and once held lofty ambitions, striving to rise above the rest.

However, his family had always been attached to the powerful Wei clan of Guanzhong, and his father was merely a bailiff managing one of the Wei family's hundred-odd manors. Although, through personal favors, he had been allowed to study classics and arts alongside the Wei clansmen, the chasm of birth could never be bridged no matter what.

Those good-for-nothing sons of the Wei clan, arrogant and overbearing and utterly useless, were nevertheless recommended for posts one after another. Some remained in Guanzhong, while others went to vital commanderies; all of them obtained prestigious and pure official positions, and some even served as attendants by the Son of Heaven's side, destined to enter the imperial court's core administration in the future.

Guo Yong did not want to repeat his father's destiny, continuing to manage a manor for the Wei family and ending his life thus. Having expended countless thoughts and curried favor with members of the Wei family, he was finally recommended for an office, only to end up in a border commandery or county as a turbid, low-ranking official akin to a county magistrate.

For more than ten years, it was he who braved wind and rain to press for taxes and levies; it was he who escorted laborers to do corvée labor at the canal; it was he who transported grain and provisions while eating in the wind and sleeping in the dew. And when the news of the Tujue invasion arrived, it was still he who held a saber and climbed the city wall with a trembling heart to command and keep watch!

In contrast, the county magistrate above him, owing to his prestigious lineage, hailed from a pure and noble background, yet did nothing in the county office other than chant poetry to the wind and moon.

Guo Yong clearly remembered a time when he had escorted laborers to corvée duty, laboring outside for half a year, and had finally managed to bring back the majority of them. Covered in dust and ashes, as he reported back to the magistrate of that time, the magistrate merely looked at his appearance, waved his hand dismissively, and spat out two words:

"Turbid!"

With just those two words, Guo Yong was dismissed from the room. The compassionate relief funds for the laborers who died or were injured on corvée duty, the completion of all associated procedures, and various documents were still handled single-handedly by the already exhausted Guo Yong.

As for that magistrate—whose aristocratic clan background he could no longer remember—he had stayed in this place for less than a year before being promoted to the central court in Luoyang, even receiving an official appraisal praising him as "rare material for the borderlands."

Yet Guo Yong had labored for ten arduous years without advancing a single inch. The difference in family background meant that no matter how great your ability was, there was always a massive boulder pressing down upon your head, one that you could never smash through!

If this was the case for someone like Guo Yong, who still had a semblance of a background and had attained an official post, needless to say what it was like for the common folk. In the eyes of the aristocratic clans, they were merely numbers in the household registry, never treated as living human beings!

Following the hundreds of years of chaos and turmoil at the end of the Jin Dynasty, Yuwen Heita eventually rose in Guanzhong and established the Northern Zhou. Compared to the Gao family's Northern Qi, which inherited most of the fertile and prosperous lands of the Northern Wei, Yuwen Heita was in a weaker position and for a time had to heavily employ sons of humble families. This fresh atmosphere enabled the Northern Zhou to crush Northern Qi and unify the northern territory. Eventually, the Emperor of the Kaihuang reign usurped the Yuwen family's realm, establishing the great hegemony of the Sui Dynasty.

Beginning with the Kaihuang Emperor, imperial examinations were instituted to select talented individuals, and the military also heavily employed men from humble soldier backgrounds.

Sons of humble families throughout the realm believed that the rule of the aristocratic clans had loosened. Who could have anticipated that after the ascension of the Daye Emperor, they would encounter an even more frenzied counterattack from the aristocratic clans?

The Daye Emperor buried his greatest reliance—the elite troops and fierce generals of the Twelve Guards—entirely in Goguryeo. In the end, he had no choice but to flee far away to Jiangdu amidst the wave after wave of rebellions stirred up by the aristocratic clans.

This realm of the Great Sui had once again become a fat deer carved up by the aristocratic clans, simply waiting for the final victor to emerge. In this process, how much sacrifice would the sons of humble families and the common folk of the realm have to pay once more?

All of this was a repetition of the history from the end of the Jin Dynasty. The hundreds of years of civil war and chaos in the Central Plains seemed about to curtain-raise once again.

And yet this Young Master Le, at a time when this darkness was about to descend, right here in Shenwu County, had actually shouted out such words!

We are human beings just like those sons of the aristocratic clans!

If they dare to trample upon our heads, even if we have to use our teeth, we will bite chunks of flesh out of them!

Guo Yong sat blankly on the rooftop, then suddenly began to chuckle softly.

He himself could not go and pledge allegiance to him. This Young Master Le might be overthrown in the blink of an eye. That dash of heroic spirit would ultimately become nothing more than a joke for the sons of aristocratic clans to banter about over tea.

Yet neither would he cause trouble for this Young Master Le. Let us simply see how far he can go...

Several domestic servants nearby were also whispering in low voices, every word drifting into Guo Yong's ears.

"This Young Master Le is a local of our very own Shenwu!"

"Chen Da's men said that Young Master Le was recruited by Commander Liu in Yunzhong. Zhang Wansui invaded and was captured in one fell swoop by Young Master Le. The commandery governor, furious and not daring to head north to Yunzhong, took it out on Young Master Le's family. The entire battalion of the Mayi Elite Cavalry was sent to execute this dirty job, but Young Master Le rode back single-handedly, defeated the Mayi Elite Cavalry in one stroke, and even captured Shenwu!"

"Such an outstanding figure, why have we never heard of him before?"

"You must recognize Young Master Le's companion; he also has some fame among the chivalric youths of Shenwu—none other than Han Yue, the Lesser Door God! With a companion like that, how could Young Master Le be ordinary?"

"Governor Wang truly does not hold our Mayi heroes in his eyes. After all, being from a Central Plains aristocratic clan, he only thinks of plundering. Now that heads are about to be sent his way, Governor Wang's expression must be quite magnificent to imagine!"

Most of these domestic servants had been recruited locally in Shenwu. Speaking of Young Master Le, who hailed from their hometown, everyone puffed out their chests with immense pride, completely forgetting that if Wang Rengong were enraged and marched down to slaughter them, even Guo Yong might be wiped out in one fell swoop.

Guo Yong gave a light laugh, at which the domestic servants finally stopped talking. Bowing, they asked, "Master, do you have any instructions?" (Note: During the Sui and Tang transitions, servants addressed their masters as "Langjun" or "A-lang" — Oskara)

Guo Yong supported himself as he slowly stood up, and casually instructed, "Pack up our belongings, hang up the official seal, and let us move the entire family toward Hedong... As for being an official under this Wang Rengong, and a lowly, insignificant petty clerk of this Great Sui, I have had quite enough of it!"

He pointed at one of the sharper-witted domestic servants: "There are still some storehouses that even Chen Da knows nothing about. Point them all out to Young Master Le, and let him take away whatever he can use! Toward this era, I am powerless. I only hope this Young Master Le can hold out a little longer!"