Song Of Exile Chapter 115

Chapter 115: Learning the Truth

Wenchang smiled faintly and leaned against the cliff wall . “Sorry, buddy, I’m not really in the mood for chatting on this tottering, crumbling gallery road . ”

“If you’re afraid then you would never have taken this route through Yegu . Why the lack of confidence? Have a seat! The road ahead is dangerous . Listen to my explanation, there is still time to turn back . ”

“Heheh! I’m kind of odd that way . Once I start out, I don’t turn back . ”

“Haha! Buddy, you are still young . You look like someone who has not yet tired of living!”

“Heheh! Yes, I’m just a young man, way too early to be tired of living, don’t you think so?”

The man opened his lazy eyes . They gleamed with an unnatural light . He laughed . “Yes, hahaha! It really is way too early . Buddy, where are you coming from? What’s your name? Who sent you?”

From his tone he seemed to be a road guard . Wenchang s.h.i.+fted his travel bag and pipa and smiled . “I’m coming from Mei County, to Hanzhong . I’m an itinerant singer . Brother, can you tell me where your stronghold is, and why you’re stopping me?”

“Haha! From your deportment and bearing, how could you be a jianghu drifter? Buddy, do you think my eyes are useless? Since we’ve crossed paths, why not speak frankly”

Wenchang’s smile disappeared . “You really want to inquire?”

The man was also inwardly on his guard . He said evenly, “Yes, Warrior G.o.d Ba of Cold Spring Mountain Stronghold does not allow anyone of unknown origin to pa.s.s .

“Oh! So this is a an important stronghold of a man of the Greenwood . Heheh! Brother! There are very few people out on this ancient road, profits must be low . I’m puzzled why anyone would build a stronghold in a place like this . ”

“We don’t do business here . On the contrary, we protect the travelers coming through our area; they are our cash cows . But we don’t let through hired thugs who are exploring through here . Your dress is very conspicuous, so you are no doubt a suspicious character . That’s why I asked . Our men have had their eye on you for the last ten miles, sir . It’s a dangerous time right now, so if you don’t state your purpose in coming here and reveal your ident.i.ty, I’m afraid I will have to stop you here . ”

“You really have to interrogate me?”

“No no, just asking . ”

Wenchang took two steps forward and said calmly, “The Fugitive Cai Wenchang, pa.s.sing through to Hanzhong . Hmph? Your chieftain must be Black Flag Sovereign’s faithful henchman . Let me tell you, don’t provoke me, okay, or else…”

The man’s face broke out in a joyful expression . He took two steps ahead and roared with laughter . “Hahahaha! Brother, are you really The Fugitive Cai Wenchang? The Cai Wenchang who ran amok in Chang’an and Luoyang and went up against several of the Thirteen Greats?”

“Whether you believe it or not is up to you,” Wenchang said coldly .

The man reached out and took Wenchang by the arm . “Brother, the heroes of the world are all overrated fellows, only you are a remarkable man worth celebrating . I, Warrior G.o.d An Baping, am a man who is ordered about by no one, a brave bandit who drifts about from place to place . Let’s be friends, brother . Knowing a person by his reputation is not as good as meeting him in person . As expected, you are different from others . Are you willing to be friends with this man of the Greenwood?”

Wenchang relaxed and put his arm around the guy and laughed . “Brother Ba, you’re too polite . I’m just an exile of the jianghu, I’d be social climbing by being friends with you . ”

“Haha! Brother Cai, you deserve a flogging for that kind of polite talk . Come on, stick around for a bit . I just came back from Luoyang a few days ago . I heard about the mess you made on Mount Mang and I have to say I admire you deeply for it . I’ve been itching to travel the world seeking to get close to you . Me and Black Flag Sovereign are sworn enemies . I’ve never paid protection money to Nine Palace Fortress, so I had to set up this stronghold deep in the mountains . He can’t do anything about it . I can tell you all about the sons of b.i.t.c.hes who showed up that day at Mount Mang . Even why that chief of Endless Valley, who calls himself the alliance head of the light path, sent men to find you, and what happened after . ”

They walked the gallery road side by side toward the south side of Cold Spring Mountain . Warrior G.o.d walked and talked, “Endless Valley’s looking for you because you spread word that Gold s.n.a.t.c.hing Silver Sabre murdered Tang River Refined Guest Luo Changcheng, so they want to take you back to Endless Valley to get to the bottom of it . Haha! You really are wrong about Tang River Refined Guest . It wasn’t Gold s.n.a.t.c.hing Silver Sabre who killed him . ”

Wenchang said angrily, “Brother Ba, how could it not be Silver Sabre? Besides, I never said for sure it was him, I just said what Refined Guest told me right before he died . ”

“Haha! Only I know the details about that case . The day before it all went down I was staying at an inn by the Chang’an souther pa.s.s and happened to overhear some secret talk about it . You might not believe me if I told you, but it’s true . ”

“Tell me,” Wenchang said .

“Tang River Refined Guest was buried in the Wei River, not in that valley . You and Outcast Androgyne are good friends, so don’t blame me for being blunt, I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings, and I surely don’t want to spread rumors to defame others, but the eight guys who died were Black Flag Sovereign’s trusty running dogs, the Eight Invaders of Yunzhong, killed by someone posing as Tang River Refined Guest . ”

“Brother Ba, how do you know that someone was posing as Refined Guest?”

“I overheard it with my own ears and saw it with my own eyes while I was at that inn in Chang’an . It was two jianghu beggars, one called Mad Beggar Lang Xiatian, the other Odd Beggar Feng Tao . There were other men in black there, one who looked really familiar to me . Looked a lot like Outcast Androgyne’s trusted subordinate, Wild Wind Xu Tianlu . That night, they already had Tang River Refined Guest in their possession, and those two beggars tied him up and secretly dumped him in the Wei River . Then, Wild Wind Xu Tianlu lured the Eight Invaders of Yunzhong out of the city and killed them, disguised as Tang River Refined Guest . I happened to seethem conspiring, that’s why I know . The beggars are in fact Outcast Androgyne’s henchmen, and Wild Wind Xu Tianlu is one of Outcast’s top aides, so…”

“I don’t believe it,” Wenchang denied flatly, cutting him off .

But inside he was confused . He remembered back when he was captured at Mysterious Altar Temple when he first saw Mad Beggar . Hadn’t he suspected that Mad Beggar was the one who tricked him and captured him? That meant Outcast Androgyne was only playing a ruse when he seemed to risk his life to save him that time .

Warrior G.o.d smiled faintly . “If you don’t believe it, I won’t argue with you, but I told you the truth of what I saw and heard . In short, it was an extremely common jianghu revenge killing, no need to meddle with that . In fact, Endless Valley and Nine Palace Fortress are of the light and dark paths respectively, they’re as incompatible as fire and water . There’s no way they would work together on something, so it was really a bit overboard for you to spread word that they were colluding and make everyone in the jianghu suspicious of each other . ”

“Hmph! As far as I know from that night on Mount Mang, there were men from Endless Valley and Nine Palace Fortress there . The facts speak louder than words . ”

“They were each after their own ends, they weren’t working together but doing their own thing . That incident led to Nine Palace Fortress and Endless Valley clas.h.i.+ng in public several times, and both sides launched retaliations against the other . Brother, you probably weren’t aware of that . ”

“I don’t feel like worrying about their business . ”

“They day after you wreaked havoc in Luoyang, they had an open fight at Longmen with more than a dozen casualties on each side . The light and dark paths, normally living in peace with each other, formally went all out against each other . There was an even more brutal fight in Yunniang . Brother, they believe the one who started it all was you, so you’ll have to be extra careful when you roam the jianghu in the days to come . If I were you, I would lie low for a while and go incognito . From what I know, there’s a lot of people among the jianghu who really admire what you have done and your behavior, myself included . I regret that we didn’t meet sooner . Forgive me for speaking my mind frankly even though we don’t know each other well . ”

“Thank you, Brother Ba . For now I don’t plan to go incognito . ” In fact, he knew the road ahead would be difficult . If the dark and light paths were both after him, the consequences would be terrible . The thought of living in seclusion suddenly sprang to mind . He had to find a good place to train his qigong so he could expel the cadaverine poison remaining in his body . But he couldn’t do that right now . He had to escort the s.h.i.+ family safely back to Chengdu before he thought about anything else .

Warrior G.o.d shook his head with a wry smile . “If a man of the jianghu makes enemies everywhere he goes, then he’ll have adversaries all over the jianghu, and that’s never a good sign, having to live your life on tenterhooks all the time . That’s too agonizing, brother . ”

“Ah! It can’t be helped . ”

“Lying low for a while is a good idea . They’re gradually forget about you before long . Brother, judging by the way you’re traveling, you must be planning to head over the gallery roads into Sichuan . There’s a lot of fierce warriors along the way . I’ll tell you the people I know who are on good terms with both the light and dark paths, and I will tell you about my close friends . If some problem comes up, you can seek them out to help you . These are all upright and courageous friends, willing to spill their own blood and give their lives for a just cause . Oh! Let’s head right, up the mountain, my stronghold is just up ahead . ”

♦♦♦

The next day, Wenchang was courteously seen off by Warrior G.o.d, and he headed down the southern route . The night before they had talked, and he learned the names of the people who had ambushed him on Mount Mang . He became suspicious of Outcast Androgyne’s motives, and he now knew that there was no collusion between Endless Valley and Nine Palace Fortress .

His thinking had matured . He was now capable of dispa.s.sionately weighing right and wrong . Being headstrong and taking rash action was not a good habit . One-sided stories and impulsiveness clouded his reasoning and made him act out on emotion .

He refused the traveling money Warrior G.o.d offered him, and he headed out on the road with empty pockets as before .

Fang Song and his daughter, who were secretly trailing him, lost him, and headed two miles or more ahead and went on to Hanzhong prefecture .

Hanzhong prefecture was originally called Xingyuan prefecture . This was the vital pa.s.sage into Sichuan and a strategic military point . To the north was the Qin Gallery Road (North Gallery Road), also called Chencang Road . From the north, starting from Dasan Pa.s.s, over the Qinling Mountains, through Fengzhou, to Bao City . The southern gallery road was also called Gold Ox Road . Leaving from Hanzhong, it went south to Jiange .

Early another route had been opened up south through the Ba Mountains, through Lonely Cloud Mountain, Two-Horn Mountain, to Mount Cang, and then arriving in Bazhou in Sichuan . But there were packs of dangerous wild animals like tigers along that route, and the gallery roads were even more dangerous and rickety, so people rarely took that route . So traveling merchants from Qin going to Sichuan had to go through Hanzhong prefecture and take the south gallery road to Sichuan . Consequently, the city was swarming with merchants from all over the empire, and from here they partnered up and traveled together . The markets flourished . The prefectural city was on the north bank of the Han River and the markets were out the southern end of the city . Many wooden boats loaded with local goods and medicinal herbs waited to transfer down to Xing’anzhou, and merchants traveling over land and by water gathered there . The southern wall went straight to Tiger Head Bridge where the government had constructed warehouses, “droop houses”, where goods were piled up like mountains, and the proprietor dealt with tax officials constantly .

This waterway went nonstop through the Hu-Guang area . It was Han River Bald Flood Dragon’s source of revenue, and wealthy men were his bread and b.u.t.ter . However, the real place where he could squeeze some profits began at Xing’anzhou, because the current in the upper reaches there was turbulent and dangerous, and many small boats risked the currents anyway, and no one paid attention to the extortion enacted there .

Getting someone’s money and saving people from disaster . Nature was deadly and men surmounted it only with difficulty . Han River Bald Flood Dragon’s petty waterborne thieves knew they couldn’t be too hard on people, or else they’d cut off their source of revenue, so on the upper reaches of the river above Xing’anzhou, they sent men to keep a watch and didn’t charge a fee there . Only at Ziyang, s.h.i.+quan, Yang County, and the four areas of Hanzhong did they set up lookouts to guard their sources of revenue .

Last month, there was a great disturbance in Hanzhong prefecture . Jewels from a foreign region coming through Sichuan were being escorted under guard by a group of fugitives who came through the area .

It was said that the group had been sent from the imperial court 2,000 miles outside the border to purchase the jewels . They had gone deep into Turpan and brought back a lot of cat’s eye, emeralds, redthorn stones, North River was.h.i.+ng stones, diamonds, lazulite, amethyst, yellow topaz, greenblack stone, etc . [1]

At this time the emperor was very interested in gemstones and he levied a tax, heedless of the people’s fate, to buy gems for the consecration of Buddha and immortals . Envoys went out west ten thousand miles into the deserts, and all the way to the Land of Lions (Sri Lanka) by sea . Each journey lasted ten years or more, and when they came back they were certainly bringing with them countless rare gems and unique jewels . Some of the border officials purchased these for the emperor, as precious stones and miraculous herbs were a must, but at the same time they took the opportunity to extort, embezzling some of the funds and creating a lot of turmoil .

For these treasures the group of fugitives left Jade Pa.s.s for the frontier and detoured through Dartsedo and came back, over ten thousand miles . When they left they were close to 500 strong, but when they came back there were fewer than 50 people remaining, 90% of them buried in a foreign city, or fell victim to savages and wild animals .

1 . Some of these jewel names are obscure so I had to do my best with a translation 

Chapter 115: Learning the Truth.

Wenchang smiled faintly and leaned against the cliff wall . “Sorry, buddy, I’m not really in the mood for chatting on this tottering, crumbling gallery road . ”.

“If you’re afraid then you would never have taken this route through Yegu . Why the lack of confidence? Have a seat! The road ahead is dangerous . Listen to my explanation, there is still time to turn back . ”.

“Heheh! I’m kind of odd that way . Once I start out, I don’t turn back . ”.

“Haha! Buddy, you are still young . You look like someone who has not yet tired of living!”.

“Heheh! Yes, I’m just a young man, way too early to be tired of living, don’t you think so?”.

The man opened his lazy eyes . They gleamed with an unnatural light . He laughed . “Yes, hahaha! It really is way too early . Buddy, where are you coming from? What’s your name? Who sent you?”.

From his tone he seemed to be a road guard . Wenchang s.h.i.+fted his travel bag and pipa and smiled . “I’m coming from Mei County, to Hanzhong . I’m an itinerant singer . Brother, can you tell me where your stronghold is, and why you’re stopping me?”.

“Haha! From your deportment and bearing, how could you be a jianghu drifter? Buddy, do you think my eyes are useless? Since we’ve crossed paths, why not speak frankly”.

Wenchang’s smile disappeared . “You really want to inquire?”.

The man was also inwardly on his guard . He said evenly, “Yes, Warrior G.o.d Ba of Cold Spring Mountain Stronghold does not allow anyone of unknown origin to pa.s.s

“Oh! So this is a an important stronghold of a man of the Greenwood . Heheh! Brother! There are very few people out on this ancient road, profits must be low . I’m puzzled why anyone would build a stronghold in a place like this . ”.

“We don’t do business here . On the contrary, we protect the travelers coming through our area; they are our cash cows . But we don’t let through hired thugs who are exploring through here . Your dress is very conspicuous, so you are no doubt a suspicious character . That’s why I asked . Our men have had their eye on you for the last ten miles, sir . It’s a dangerous time right now, so if you don’t state your purpose in coming here and reveal your ident.i.ty, I’m afraid I will have to stop you here . ”.

“You really have to interrogate me?”.

“No no, just asking . ”.

Wenchang took two steps forward and said calmly, “The Fugitive Cai Wenchang, pa.s.sing through to Hanzhong . Hmph? Your chieftain must be Black Flag Sovereign’s faithful henchman . Let me tell you, don’t provoke me, okay, or else…”.

The man’s face broke out in a joyful expression . He took two steps ahead and roared with laughter . “Hahahaha! Brother, are you really The Fugitive Cai Wenchang? The Cai Wenchang who ran amok in Chang’an and Luoyang and went up against several of the Thirteen Greats?”.

“Whether you believe it or not is up to you,” Wenchang said coldly

The man reached out and took Wenchang by the arm . “Brother, the heroes of the world are all overrated fellows, only you are a remarkable man worth celebrating . I, Warrior G.o.d An Baping, am a man who is ordered about by no one, a brave bandit who drifts about from place to place . Let’s be friends, brother . Knowing a person by his reputation is not as good as meeting him in person . As expected, you are different from others . Are you willing to be friends with this man of the Greenwood?”.

Wenchang relaxed and put his arm around the guy and laughed . “Brother Ba, you’re too polite . I’m just an exile of the jianghu, I’d be social climbing by being friends with you . ”.

“Haha! Brother Cai, you deserve a flogging for that kind of polite talk . Come on, stick around for a bit . I just came back from Luoyang a few days ago . I heard about the mess you made on Mount Mang and I have to say I admire you deeply for it . I’ve been itching to travel the world seeking to get close to you . Me and Black Flag Sovereign are sworn enemies . I’ve never paid protection money to Nine Palace Fortress, so I had to set up this stronghold deep in the mountains . He can’t do anything about it . I can tell you all about the sons of b.i.t.c.hes who showed up that day at Mount Mang . Even why that chief of Endless Valley, who calls himself the alliance head of the light path, sent men to find you, and what happened after . ”.

They walked the gallery road side by side toward the south side of Cold Spring Mountain . Warrior G.o.d walked and talked, “Endless Valley’s looking for you because you spread word that Gold s.n.a.t.c.hing Silver Sabre murdered Tang River Refined Guest Luo Changcheng, so they want to take you back to Endless Valley to get to the bottom of it . Haha! You really are wrong about Tang River Refined Guest . It wasn’t Gold s.n.a.t.c.hing Silver Sabre who killed him . ”.

Wenchang said angrily, “Brother Ba, how could it not be Silver Sabre? Besides, I never said for sure it was him, I just said what Refined Guest told me right before he died . ”.

“Haha! Only I know the details about that case . The day before it all went down I was staying at an inn by the Chang’an souther pa.s.s and happened to overhear some secret talk about it . You might not believe me if I told you, but it’s true . ”.

“Tell me,” Wenchang said

“Tang River Refined Guest was buried in the Wei River, not in that valley . You and Outcast Androgyne are good friends, so don’t blame me for being blunt, I don’t want there to be any misunderstandings, and I surely don’t want to spread rumors to defame others, but the eight guys who died were Black Flag Sovereign’s trusty running dogs, the Eight Invaders of Yunzhong, killed by someone posing as Tang River Refined Guest . ”.

“Brother Ba, how do you know that someone was posing as Refined Guest?”.

“I overheard it with my own ears and saw it with my own eyes while I was at that inn in Chang’an . It was two jianghu beggars, one called Mad Beggar Lang Xiatian, the other Odd Beggar Feng Tao . There were other men in black there, one who looked really familiar to me . Looked a lot like Outcast Androgyne’s trusted subordinate, Wild Wind Xu Tianlu . That night, they already had Tang River Refined Guest in their possession, and those two beggars tied him up and secretly dumped him in the Wei River . Then, Wild Wind Xu Tianlu lured the Eight Invaders of Yunzhong out of the city and killed them, disguised as Tang River Refined Guest . I happened to seethem conspiring, that’s why I know . The beggars are in fact Outcast Androgyne’s henchmen, and Wild Wind Xu Tianlu is one of Outcast’s top aides, so…”.

“I don’t believe it,” Wenchang denied flatly, cutting him off

But inside he was confused . He remembered back when he was captured at Mysterious Altar Temple when he first saw Mad Beggar . Hadn’t he suspected that Mad Beggar was the one who tricked him and captured him? That meant Outcast Androgyne was only playing a ruse when he seemed to risk his life to save him that time

Warrior G.o.d smiled faintly . “If you don’t believe it, I won’t argue with you, but I told you the truth of what I saw and heard . In short, it was an extremely common jianghu revenge killing, no need to meddle with that . In fact, Endless Valley and Nine Palace Fortress are of the light and dark paths respectively, they’re as incompatible as fire and water . There’s no way they would work together on something, so it was really a bit overboard for you to spread word that they were colluding and make everyone in the jianghu suspicious of each other . ”.

“Hmph! As far as I know from that night on Mount Mang, there were men from Endless Valley and Nine Palace Fortress there . The facts speak louder than words . ”.

“They were each after their own ends, they weren’t working together but doing their own thing . That incident led to Nine Palace Fortress and Endless Valley clas.h.i.+ng in public several times, and both sides launched retaliations against the other . Brother, you probably weren’t aware of that . ”.

“I don’t feel like worrying about their business . ”.

“They day after you wreaked havoc in Luoyang, they had an open fight at Longmen with more than a dozen casualties on each side . The light and dark paths, normally living in peace with each other, formally went all out against each other . There was an even more brutal fight in Yunniang . Brother, they believe the one who started it all was you, so you’ll have to be extra careful when you roam the jianghu in the days to come . If I were you, I would lie low for a while and go incognito . From what I know, there’s a lot of people among the jianghu who really admire what you have done and your behavior, myself included . I regret that we didn’t meet sooner . Forgive me for speaking my mind frankly even though we don’t know each other well . ”.

“Thank you, Brother Ba . For now I don’t plan to go incognito . ” In fact, he knew the road ahead would be difficult . If the dark and light paths were both after him, the consequences would be terrible . The thought of living in seclusion suddenly sprang to mind . He had to find a good place to train his qigong so he could expel the cadaverine poison remaining in his body . But he couldn’t do that right now . He had to escort the s.h.i.+ family safely back to Chengdu before he thought about anything else

Warrior G.o.d shook his head with a wry smile . “If a man of the jianghu makes enemies everywhere he goes, then he’ll have adversaries all over the jianghu, and that’s never a good sign, having to live your life on tenterhooks all the time . That’s too agonizing, brother . ”.

“Ah! It can’t be helped . ”.

“Lying low for a while is a good idea . They’re gradually forget about you before long . Brother, judging by the way you’re traveling, you must be planning to head over the gallery roads into Sichuan . There’s a lot of fierce warriors along the way . I’ll tell you the people I know who are on good terms with both the light and dark paths, and I will tell you about my close friends . If some problem comes up, you can seek them out to help you . These are all upright and courageous friends, willing to spill their own blood and give their lives for a just cause . Oh! Let’s head right, up the mountain, my stronghold is just up ahead . ”.

♦♦♦.

The next day, Wenchang was courteously seen off by Warrior G.o.d, and he headed down the southern route . The night before they had talked, and he learned the names of the people who had ambushed him on Mount Mang . He became suspicious of Outcast Androgyne’s motives, and he now knew that there was no collusion between Endless Valley and Nine Palace Fortress

His thinking had matured . He was now capable of dispa.s.sionately weighing right and wrong . Being headstrong and taking rash action was not a good habit . One-sided stories and impulsiveness clouded his reasoning and made him act out on emotion

He refused the traveling money Warrior G.o.d offered him, and he headed out on the road with empty pockets as before

Fang Song and his daughter, who were secretly trailing him, lost him, and headed two miles or more ahead and went on to Hanzhong prefecture

Hanzhong prefecture was originally called Xingyuan prefecture . This was the vital pa.s.sage into Sichuan and a strategic military point . To the north was the Qin Gallery Road (North Gallery Road), also called Chencang Road . From the north, starting from Dasan Pa.s.s, over the Qinling Mountains, through Fengzhou, to Bao City . The southern gallery road was also called Gold Ox Road . Leaving from Hanzhong, it went south to Jiange

Early another route had been opened up south through the Ba Mountains, through Lonely Cloud Mountain, Two-Horn Mountain, to Mount Cang, and then arriving in Bazhou in Sichuan . But there were packs of dangerous wild animals like tigers along that route, and the gallery roads were even more dangerous and rickety, so people rarely took that route . So traveling merchants from Qin going to Sichuan had to go through Hanzhong prefecture and take the south gallery road to Sichuan . Consequently, the city was swarming with merchants from all over the empire, and from here they partnered up and traveled together . The markets flourished . The prefectural city was on the north bank of the Han River and the markets were out the southern end of the city . Many wooden boats loaded with local goods and medicinal herbs waited to transfer down to Xing’anzhou, and merchants traveling over land and by water gathered there . The southern wall went straight to Tiger Head Bridge where the government had constructed warehouses, “droop houses”, where goods were piled up like mountains, and the proprietor dealt with tax officials constantly

This waterway went nonstop through the Hu-Guang area . It was Han River Bald Flood Dragon’s source of revenue, and wealthy men were his bread and b.u.t.ter . However, the real place where he could squeeze some profits began at Xing’anzhou, because the current in the upper reaches there was turbulent and dangerous, and many small boats risked the currents anyway, and no one paid attention to the extortion enacted there

Getting someone’s money and saving people from disaster . Nature was deadly and men surmounted it only with difficulty . Han River Bald Flood Dragon’s petty waterborne thieves knew they couldn’t be too hard on people, or else they’d cut off their source of revenue, so on the upper reaches of the river above Xing’anzhou, they sent men to keep a watch and didn’t charge a fee there . Only at Ziyang, s.h.i.+quan, Yang County, and the four areas of Hanzhong did they set up lookouts to guard their sources of revenue

Last month, there was a great disturbance in Hanzhong prefecture . Jewels from a foreign region coming through Sichuan were being escorted under guard by a group of fugitives who came through the area

It was said that the group had been sent from the imperial court 2,000 miles outside the border to purchase the jewels . They had gone deep into Turpan and brought back a lot of cat’s eye, emeralds, redthorn stones, North River was.h.i.+ng stones, diamonds, lazulite, amethyst, yellow topaz, greenblack stone, etc . [1].

At this time the emperor was very interested in gemstones and he levied a tax, heedless of the people’s fate, to buy gems for the consecration of Buddha and immortals . Envoys went out west ten thousand miles into the deserts, and all the way to the Land of Lions (Sri Lanka) by sea . Each journey lasted ten years or more, and when they came back they were certainly bringing with them countless rare gems and unique jewels . Some of the border officials purchased these for the emperor, as precious stones and miraculous herbs were a must, but at the same time they took the opportunity to extort, embezzling some of the funds and creating a lot of turmoil

For these treasures the group of fugitives left Jade Pa.s.s for the frontier and detoured through Dartsedo and came back, over ten thousand miles . When they left they were close to 500 strong, but when they came back there were fewer than 50 people remaining, 90% of them buried in a foreign city, or fell victim to savages and wild animals

1 . Some of these jewel names are obscure so I had to do my best with a translation .