The fourteenth year of the Zhizheng era. The autumn frost was biting and grim.
Each autumn rain brings more cold. It had just rained last night, and the morning air was even colder. The soldiers patrolling the city walls held long halberds, their hands and feet numb from the cold, yet they dared not slack off.
Outside the dilapidated city walls were refugees in ragged clothes everywhere. The weather grew colder, and the number of refugees outside the city swelled. These refugees had no food to fill their bellies or clothes to cover their bodies, surviving only on tree bark and grass roots. When the bark and roots were gone, all that awaited them was to freeze or starve to death.
In a chaotic era, human life is the cheapest thing.
The city’s grain supply was limited, as was the population it could accommodate. As more and more refugees gathered outside, it was highly likely that once they had gnawed through all the tree bark and grass roots, they would risk everything to storm the city and plunder for food just to survive.
The defending soldiers didn’t know how the officials above would handle the situation. All they knew was that without orders, they could not let the refugees in.
If these refugees entered and could not be controlled, their city would descend into chaos.
Three months ago, Zhu Yuanzhang had led his troops to capture Chuzhou City and had brought his family over from Haozhou, temporarily escaping the chaotic power struggles there.
The trees by the road were left with only bare branches. Though the sky had just begun to lighten, the sounds of people already filled the streets outside.
Mu Ying rose early. Dressed and ready, he strapped on his short saber and slung his bow over his back. He first peeked into the next room to make sure his younger brother was sleeping soundly in bed before quietly heading out.
He went to meet up with the brothers who had recently moved in, and then they all headed to the training grounds to drill with the soldiers.
In the room, the five or six-year-old child stirred and groggily opened his eyes. He stared at the rather antiquated blue cloth curtain above him, then rolled over and pulled the covers over his head, letting out a sigh unbefitting of his age.
Who would have thought that something like transmigration actually existed?
The unlucky soul who had personally experienced it rolled around under the covers, then lay limp like a puddle, his eyes vacant.
His journey of transmigration had begun half a year ago. He had been scrolling endlessly through history-explainer videos on a certain website and, on a whim, decided to start his own channel. After his first few videos did well, he rode the wave of momentum, pulling all-nighters to finish editing a video series on the entire Ming Dynasty.
He never, ever expected that the instant he clicked “upload,” he would transmigrate.
The weather was gloomy, and the air was filled with an indescribable, strange smell that made one’s head spin.
Or maybe the dizziness was from starving for too long.
In short, he had gone from a fine young man living in an era of peace to a little beggar in some unknown age of famine and chaos, who had just died of sickness and starvation.
His new body was small and scrawny, looking to be only two or three years old. Beside him was another child in tattered clothes, who looked to be about seven or eight.
The clothes on both brothers were in tatters, revealing the chilblains and bruises on their skin. The older brother beside him wore a pair of long-worn-out straw sandals, while he didn’t even have a broken pair on his feet.
What was even more terrifying was that all the adults and children around them looked the same.
His brother had been crying his eyes out, thinking he would never wake up again. If he had opened his eyes a moment later, his brother would have wiped his tears and dug a hole to bury him.
Mu Qing, who had caught the transmigration trend, trembled as he surveyed his surroundings. He was so overwhelmed that he nearly went to see the King of Hell for real.
The two brothers hugged and wept, the little unlucky soul’s cries being particularly heartfelt.
People living in peaceful times who thought of chaotic eras only imagined heroes rising from the turmoil, unconsciously casting themselves in the role of the “hero.” But only those who truly understood such times knew that “heroes” were a tiny minority; the vast majority were the “white bones” in the line “white bones lie exposed in the wild.”
He had just been poring over a mountain of research on the late Yuan and early Ming for his video editing, and in the blink of an eye, he was in a similar disaster of natural and man-made calamities. If he didn’t cry, who would?
Death is but a finality. What sins had he committed in his past life to deserve this torture? Waaaah.
After the tears, life had to go on. Since he was here, and there was no going back, he would live one day at a time.
The fleeing commoners, young and old, supported each other. Those who fell never got up again. Those who could still walk were so numb they couldn’t even shed tears.
The refugees outside the city gate huddled in sheltered spots. They didn’t know what the situation was elsewhere; they just followed the large group on the long trek. With so many people moving forward, there had to be hope of survival ahead.
If not for this thought sustaining them, even more would have collapsed on the road.
Mu Qing felt his luck was decent. He didn’t have to endure the hunger for too long before a high-ranking official in the city opened the gates to let the refugees in. To his even greater surprise, a wealthy family was willing to adopt him and his brother.
Alright, it was mainly his brother; he was just a tag-along.
He had thought that stumbling upon a once-in-a-lifetime event like transmigration was already incredible enough, but he never expected something even more shocking was to come.
The city they had wandered to was called Haozhou. The wealthy family that adopted them had the surname Zhu, and the mistress of the house had the surname Ma.
There were five marshals in the city, and the one their new father followed was named Guo Zixing.
If he still couldn’t figure out the situation after all that, it would be a true betrayal of all the research he’d done for his videos. Wasn’t this Old Zhu’s entire family?
No wonder there were so many refugees outside the city, and no wonder the people inside were also on edge. It was the end of the Yuan Dynasty; it would be strange if things weren’t chaotic.
His name was Mu Qing. When he was making his videos, he used to joke that he shared a family name with the Mu Prince of Yunnan. Well, now it was true.
This wasn’t just a similar disaster of natural and man-made calamities; this was the very same turbulent and chaotic era described in his research materials.
“Better to be a dog in a peaceful time than a man in a chaotic one.” He really couldn’t handle this era. Waaaah.
The crowing of roosters and chirping of birds gradually reached his ears from outside as the eastern sky began to show the pale light of dawn. Mu Qing, his eyes vacant, dawdled until the sky was bright, then with a messy mop of hair, he slowly got dressed and climbed out of bed.
He was a child, so no one cared about his hairstyle when they were wandering. The biggest change after settling down was that his hair had been shaved, leaving only a tuft on his forehead.
This hairstyle was said to symbolize good fortune, and it was the standard for most children under five. His age was a little older than he’d thought, but since he was still on the cusp of five, he was stuck with this “Afu” hairstyle.
Ma Xiuying, who was busy in the courtyard, saw the sleepy little child come out. Her brow smoothed into a smile, and she put down her work to help him wash up.
She had only been married for a short time and hadn’t had any children of her own yet, but there were already four kids in the house calling her “Mother.”
One nephew, one maternal nephew, and two children she had taken in.
The two children were found in Haozhou City. The two little brothers had entered the city with the refugees, covered in dust and grime, their faces dirty. Only their eyes were still bright, making them look utterly pitiful.
The tree bark and grass roots outside the city had all been stripped bare, and the common folk inside didn’t have much grain to spare either.
In good years, wealthy households would set up soup kitchens, but in the last two years of increasing chaos, even they had no surplus grain. For children so young with no one to rely on, they couldn’t even find a good spot for begging. It was likely they wouldn’t have survived long even after entering the city.
Unable to bear it, she had brought both children home.
Ma Xiuying pressed down the tuft of hair sticking up on the little child’s head and, once he was neat and tidy, gave him a task. “Wenqing, go to the front courtyard and call your father and your brothers back for breakfast.”
Mu Qing was now completely numb to this name. He acknowledged her and trotted off to the front courtyard to call for them.
Back in Haozhou, he and his brother had only had their surnames changed, being called Zhu Ying and Zhu Qing respectively.
After coming to Chuzhou, Old Father Zhu’s nephew and maternal nephew came to seek refuge with him. Overjoyed to find he still had living relatives, Old Zhu immediately kept both of them by his side to raise as his own sons.
The nephew, Lü’er, was given the formal name Zhu Wenzheng, and the maternal nephew, Bao’er, was given the formal name Zhu Wenzhong. His and his brother’s names were then changed accordingly to Zhu Wenying and Zhu Wenqing.
It sounded strange at first, but he got used to it.
He could even accept transmigration, so why would he care about a name?
Hah, it was nothing.
Back to the topic at hand. Chuzhou had been conquered by Zhu Yuanzhang. Even though he had handed over military command to Marshal Guo Zixing, who had been pushed out of Haozhou, the residence his family lived in was by no means shabby.
The mansion was originally the residence of a high-ranking court official. The Mongols were used to the freedom of the grasslands and built their houses large. The front and back courtyards were clearly demarcated, and one had to pass through several gates to get to the front.
The situation outside had not been good lately. The imperial court had once again dispatched a large army to suppress the rebellion. This time, the mobilization was quite significant; Chancellor Tuotuo himself was leading a million-strong army. Although their main target wasn’t Chuzhou, it still gave Old Zhu a good scare.
And so, for several days in a row, Old Father Zhu had been dragging his brothers into meetings before dawn to discuss countermeasures.
With a massive army at their doorstep and Guo Zixing in the city occasionally holding them back, if he were Old Father Zhu, he’d be worried sick too.
The mansion was large, but few people lived there. Old Zhu came from a humble background, and Ma Xiuying was no delicate lady from a noble family. There were only a few maids and servants in the house; they handled most of their daily needs themselves.
With so few people, the place felt empty. Mu Qing had to run for quite a while before he saw soldiers clad in leather armor with red turbans wrapped around their heads.
The autumn wind swirled fallen leaves, and the chill grew heavier each day. The little child hadn’t gone hungry since being adopted, and a bit of baby fat had appeared on his face. However, his body had suffered greatly during their time as refugees, and the physician said they couldn’t be complacent. Thus, the delicate and frail child was bundled up in a small padded jacket early on.
Key point: a small padded jacket and small padded shoes, handmade by Mother herself.
Mu Qing pumped his short legs, running with all his might. To the personal guards, he looked like a small, round dumpling rolling all the way from the back courtyard to their feet.
These guards, whose current simple wish was for a wife, kids, and a warm bed, were all powerless against the allure of a fair, tender, and well-behaved child. They all dreamed of having a kid like this, and they greeted Mu Qing with smiles.
Mu Qing patted his chest to catch his breath, then beamed at the guards at the door. Without needing them to announce him, he stood at the entrance, took a deep breath, and shouted with all his might, “Father—! Mother is calling you back for breakfast—!”
Man is iron, food is steel; skip a meal and you’ll feel the ordeal.
As the saying goes, there’s always a way when you get to the mountain. Even if you have to dismantle your cart and sell the wheels, there was no point in racking their brains for a good countermeasure right now. It was better for everyone to go home and eat.
In the main hall, Zhu Yuanzhang rubbed his temples with a headache. He waved his hand, dismissing his brothers to go fill their stomachs. They would continue their discussion tomorrow morning.
There was no other way. His brothers all had their own duties, so they could only gather everyone by meeting early.
Just as they were getting up to leave, a golden light suddenly flashed at the doorway. Everyone instinctively shut their eyes.
The light vanished in an instant. When the people in the hall came to their senses, a screen of light had appeared out of thin air where the flash had been.
Images flickered across the screen, and along with them came a lively, youthful male voice.
【Hello, my dear viewers! I’m your beloved uploader, Qingqing Moshan Sang. Today, let’s talk about the last emperor of the Yuan Dynasty, Emperor Huizong of Yuan, the man who turned the Great Yuan into the Great Song.】
Mu Qing: ???
Mu Qing: !!!
Listening to the familiar voice from the light screen and seeing the familiar images within, the terror in Mu Qing’s eyes was plain to see.
I’m seeing a ghost! Aaaaaah