Mo Zhou contends with the flow
The jolting of the prison cart and the coldness of the chains gnawed at Xiao Yuxuan's bones and mind like maggots. When the heavy wooden door finally closed behind the rusty iron bars deep within the Imperial Prison of the Court of Judicial Review, it cut off not only the sunlight, but also the last vestige of the frontier's atmosphere, a blend of wind, sand, and freedom. The unique dampness of the prison, carrying the stale stench of blood and despair, silently seeped into every inch of his skin, attempting to freeze the still-burning flame within him.
However, the young locust tree, deeply rooted on the banks of the Wei River, its roots piercing the blood-soaked soil, did not wither in the darkness of imprisonment. Gu Yan's cunning maneuvering had finally pried open a crack in the rigid legal net. Half a month later, a royal decree, its wording obscure and implying compromise, arrived at the imperial prison: General Xiao Yuxuan was to be stripped of his rank by three grades, stripped of his command tally, and temporarily given the nominal title of "Supervisor of River Works and Pacifying Displaced People." He was to be dispatched immediately to the newly established agricultural settlement in Hexi to oversee the construction of the "Changli Canal" irrigation project, in order to atone for his past transgressions. He was not to leave the territory without the decree.
This was more like an exile order. Stripping him of his title and power was a punishment from the Legalist court for his desire to "stop the war"; but banishing him from the core of power to this Hexi region, far from the battlefield yet crucial to the nation's foundation and the livelihoods of countless people, was a deeper calculation. This area was plagued by frequent floods and large numbers of displaced people. The Legalist elites had already seized fertile land and exploited the displaced like cattle, a deeply entrenched powder keg of problems. Placing this guilty man, accused of "spreading heresy," here was like throwing a spark into a tinderbox—if the irrigation system was successful and the fields fertile, the credit would go to the court for its skillful management; if it incited a rebellion or the project failed, it would solidify his crime of "harming the country and the people," adding another piece of irrefutable evidence to the slanderous books, ensuring he could never recover.
The day Xiao Yuxuan stepped out of the imperial prison, the sunlight was blinding. He wasn't wearing his official robes, but a faded dark blue cloth robe, the red marks from the iron chains on his wrists still lingering. Behind him were the towering, imposing walls of the capital; ahead lay the billowing yellow dust rising from the long road leading to Hexi. He glanced back at the city walls that had swallowed countless loyal and wronged souls, his eyes as calm as an ancient well, devoid of joy or sorrow, only a cold indifference born of a profound understanding of the world. Stripped of his title and power, rank and position were as fleeting as clouds; a criminal, his heart already bound by chains. The court had banished him here, but he would sow the seeds of another possibility.
In the Hexi Corridor, the scorching sun baked the cracked riverbed, and the wind whipped up dry sand, lashing at the ragged refugees. The turbid Luo River meandered in the distance, like a festering wound on the earth. At the construction site of the Changli Canal, there was a cacophony of voices, yet no sign of life. Tens of thousands of refugees crawled like ants under the whistling whips and shouts of the overseers. They were emaciated, their eyes sunken, carrying huge stone blocks and rammed earth on their shoulders and in their hands. Their heavy work chants were hoarse and desperate, each step leaving bloody footprints on the scorching sand and gravel. The air was thick with the stench of sweat, dust, and a deeper, more numb, deathly aura.
Xiao Yuxuan's arrival brought no change. He held the title of "Supervisor of the River Works" but was effectively sidelined by layers of legal officials. Real power lay in the hands of Yan Song, the Director of the Hexi Water Conservancy Bureau. This man was as fat as a pig, his narrow eyes, hidden in greasy wrinkles, gleaming with a sharp light. Behind him stood several stern-faced, well-armored legal officers—those who had been severely punished by Xiao Yuxuan for mistreating prisoners at Yan Hui Pass and harbored resentment. Yan Song offered a forced smile, his words watertight, yet he kept Xiao Yuxuan's close associates (Sheng Guo, due to his sensitive status, was left in the capital) firmly confined to the paperwork at the work shed, preventing them from approaching the core work area.
"Lord Xiao must be weary from his journey. These menial matters will be handled by your subordinates and the soldiers. You may simply stay in your tent, review the documents, and await good news." Yan Song's words were like poison coated in honey.
Xiao Yuxuan remained silent. He stopped arguing, spending his days dealing with mountains of insignificant paperwork in the work shed, or walking alone along the long, painstakingly forming canal bank. Dressed in coarse cloth, indistinguishable from the refugees, and wearing straw sandals, he trudged across scorching sand and through swirling dust. He crouched down to examine the softness of the rammed earth at the bottom of the canal; he approached the refugees swaying precariously under the blazing sun, offering them a bowl of murky, cool water; he silently noted the figures groaning in the shadows after being whipped, the times when the overseers withheld rations, and the enormous, hidden pits in the riverbed, increasingly visible due to excessive sand extraction, threatening the foundation of the dikes. His silence was a silent observation and measurement, measuring the depth of this human hell, and also the faint possibility that the locust tree in his heart could take root here.
At the heart of the construction site were the massive stone weir and its associated locks newly built along the Luo River. Originally a vital water diversion and irrigation hub, this site had been subjected to chilling modifications by the French engineers under Yan Song's command, under the guise of "ensuring the construction schedule and deterring troublemakers." The enormous winches were fitted with iron spikes, capable of easily tearing apart approaching ships once turned; sharp steel blades were embedded in concealed locations inside the lock gates; the gentle slopes originally used to regulate water flow were deliberately transformed into steep steps, covered with slippery moss and sharp pebbles. Even worse, the engineers excitedly sketched plans on blueprints to install suspended towers atop the lock gates, capable of launching oil canisters and boulders, and to establish ambush positions on the high ground on both banks! A vital waterway, meant to nourish vast fields and support the flow of boats, was being twisted by fanatical hands into a weapon of war, strangling life and devouring human life! The Legalist school's malignant tumor of "agriculture and warfare" is completely distorting its original intention of "benefiting the people."
One evening at dusk, Xiao Yuxuan, evading surveillance, quietly arrived at a secluded river bend upstream. The setting sun stained the murky river water blood-red. He squatted by the water's edge, picking up a clump of mud with his fingertips, feeling the coolness of the river water and the parched earth. Just then, his gaze sharpened. On the mudflat near the water's surface, beside several extremely fine footprints almost smoothed by the current, stood a sharpened bamboo stick. At the tip of the stick was tied a small, inconspicuous piece of dark linen, soaked with river water. On the cloth, in powder from some kind of mineral, an extremely simple pattern was drawn: a boat cleaved in two!
The Mohist Order Against Aggression!
Jing Zhi! She really was here! This pattern was a warning, a desperate cry—she saw the sluice gate sliding into the abyss of war! A chill instantly gripped Xiao Yuxuan's heart. He abruptly looked up, his gaze like a hawk sweeping across the twilight-covered riverbank and the bustling construction site, but he only saw the swaying of withered grass in the wind and the blurry whip shadows of the distant overseers. She was like an ink mark blending into the shadows, omnipresent yet elusive.
A few days later, a sudden downpour swept across Hexi. The turbid Luo River swelled instantly, its muddy waves crashing against the newly joined, yet not fully reinforced, stone dam. Chaos reigned at the construction site; displaced people struggled and cried out in the mud and rain, while the overseers' whips grew even more brutal. In this stormy, anxious atmosphere, near the core of the stone dam—the key load-bearing points supported by massive wooden beams using mortise and tenon joints—several crucial supporting beams had been ingeniously chiseled through from the inside overnight, penetrating to the very core of the wood! The chisel marks were fine and precise, reaching the wood core, yet the surface was covered in wet mud as a disguise. Had Xiao Yuxuan not relied on his battlefield intuition and familiarity with the fortifications, braving the torrential rain to carefully inspect the site, it would have been almost impossible to detect! This was damage sufficient to cause the stone dam to collapse instantly under the impact of a flood, leading to a catastrophic disaster! The method was calm, precise, and deadly, carrying a resolute will to destroy—the very style of the Mohist mechanical arts!
Jing Zhi! She was no longer merely issuing warnings; she had already taken action! Her target was the very core of this structure, which was being transformed into a weapon of war! Xiao Yuxuan's heart sank to the bottom. He immediately summoned Yan Song and a group of officials, pointing to the fatal chisel mark, his voice unusually grave in the wind and rain: "The key support of the dam foundation has been damaged. If a flood peak occurs, it may collapse! Work must be stopped immediately, and reinforcement and repairs must be carried out!"
Rain streamed down Yan Song's fat face, and his small eyes scanned back and forth between Xiao Yuxuan and the chisel marks, first showing surprise and doubt, then turning into a hint of barely perceptible coldness and ecstasy. He slapped his thigh abruptly, his voice rising to a crescendo that drowned out the wind and rain: "Stop work? Reinforce? Lord Xiao! The construction schedule is urgent! The king's orders are absolute! How can we allow delays! How can the sabotage of a few petty scoundrels shake the foundation of my Legalist fortifications?" He turned to the Legalist officers behind him and shouted sternly: "It must be those resentful vagrants and scoundrels, incited by enemy spies! Issue the order to send more soldiers to guard key passes and strictly check entry and exit! Anyone who slacks off or makes irresponsible remarks will be whipped fifty times! As for these small chisel marks..." He kicked the soaked soil with his toe contemptuously, "Just fill in some more rammed earth! Heaven blesses my king, the laws are strict, what can mere ants do to me?" His last glance at Xiao Yuxuan was full of provocation and calculation—he was just looking for a reason to completely destroy Xiao Yuxuan, and this sabotage was a godsend! If the dam collapses, it will be irrefutable evidence that Xiao Yuxuan "failed to supervise the construction and colluded with displaced people to undermine the foundation of the country"!
Yan Song's orders were brutally carried out. More whips and shouts rang out in the wind and rain, and the despair of the displaced people, like the surging river, silently overflowed. Reinforcement? It was nothing more than a symbolic application of mud to the chisel marks! Xiao Yuxuan looked at the stone embankment trembling slightly under the impact of the turbid waves, at the undisguised contempt and malicious intent to shift blame on the faces of Yan Song and his men, and a cold rage burned in his chest, almost bursting from his throat. This was no longer ignorance, but naked murder using the lives of countless people as pawns!
That night, a torrential downpour shrouded the world in chaos. The Luo River roared like a raging dragon breaking free of its restraints. A slender figure, shrouded in a dark oilcloth cloak, moved like a ghost, clinging to the slippery cliff face, avoiding the dim light of the patrolling soldiers' lanterns, and silently crept to the most concealed sluice gate below the stone dam. Here, the current was most turbulent, the immense water pressure pounding against the heavy ironwood gate, producing a heart-stopping groan. Jing Zhi's face appeared unusually pale in the shadow of the cloak, only her eyes burning with an almost insane, resolute flame in the darkness. She unloaded a long, narrow oilcloth bundle from her back, inside which were several oddly shaped tools, gleaming with a cold, metallic luster—a "black drill" as thin as a steel needle yet incredibly strong, a "ruler blade" with precise serrations capable of cutting ironwood, and several dark iron balls engraved with fine patterns.
Her movements were lightning fast, yet breathtakingly precise. The black drill silently pierced the tiny gap between the massive iron axle of the sluice gate and the supporting stone mortar, the ruler's blade swiftly cutting along the most crucial mortise and tenon joints of the wooden structure. Cold rain streamed down her forehead and temples, mingling with the murky spray from the sluice gate, but she remained oblivious. Each strike of the tool carried a painful yet exhilarating force, like the destruction of a lifelong belief. She remembered her senior brother Ji Zhai's withered hands, the agricultural tool designs he had painstakingly created that were ultimately transformed into murder weapons, the last glimmer of light in his eyes… Technology! Technology in the hands of power is destined to be a monstrous beast! Only utter destruction can stop it from devouring more lives! This sluice gate, about to become a weapon of war, is the next Ji Zhai! It must be destroyed! Destroyed in her hands!
"stop--!"
A thunderous roar pierced the clamor of the wind and rain! Xiao Yuxuan's figure shot down from the shadows of the embankment above like an arrow! He couldn't bear to leave, so he risked sneaking back to the core section during the heaviest part of the downpour, only to witness this scene of destruction! He had no weapon in his hand, and in desperation, he grabbed a hard stone half-buried in the mud and hurled it with all his might at the ruler blade that Jing Zhi was about to press into the final crucial tenon joint!
"clang--!"
A piercing clang of metal clashing rang out in the wind and rain! Sparks flew everywhere!
The rectangular blade was knocked from her hand by the stone slab, flying into the surging, muddy water and disappearing instantly. Jing Zhi's arm went numb from the sudden force, and she staggered back a step, then looked up sharply. The hood of her cloak was blown off by the wind, revealing a face washed dry and bloodless by the rain. Those eyes, burning with fire, were now fixed on Xiao Yuxuan, churning with shock, anger, and a deep, piercing pain of being exposed by the person she least wanted to see.
"It's you!" Her voice trembled slightly with excitement and cold, each word sounding as if it had been quenched in icy water. "You really are with them! You're going to protect this man-eating beast?!" She pointed to the huge sluice gate behind her, which was trembling and groaning in pain under the impact of the torrent. Her voice suddenly rose, filled with bitter sarcasm and despair.
"A ferocious beast? It could have been a life-saving water source!" Xiao Yuxuan stepped forward, blocking Jing Zhi from the sluice gate. Cold rain streamed down his resolute face, his gaze sharp as a knife, meeting the crazed flames in Jing Zhi's eyes. "Look at this riverbank! Look at those refugees you regard as ants! If this canal were completed, hundreds of thousands of acres of parched land downstream could be irrigated, and tens of thousands of refugees could be fed! It carries the hope of survival! You destroyed it, how are you any different from those cruel Legalist officials who drove your senior brother to create weapons of mass destruction?!"
"Hope?" Jing Zhi let out a shrill laugh, particularly jarring in the stormy night. "Xiao Yuxuan! How naive you are! What hope is there in technology that falls into the hands of the powerful?! It only becomes chains, swords, traps that devour more innocent people! Wasn't my senior brother Ji Zhai's lesson enough? He pursued 'universal love' and 'frugality' his whole life, designing a water-diverting cart, only wanting to lessen the farmers' toil! And what was the result? The blueprints were stolen, he was imprisoned, and the cart was converted into a water-battering machine, smashing countless..." "So many lives have been lost to these boats and ships?!" Her voice was hoarse with extreme grief and indignation, rain and tears streaming down her face. "These sluice gates, which can draw water today, can be used to flood enemy cities tomorrow! Today they can allow boats to pass, tomorrow they can be turned into guillotines to cut down ships! Technology itself may be neither good nor evil, but the power to wield it is inherently tainted with greed and tyranny! Tell me, besides completely destroying this 'possibility,' besides severing the roots that breed this beast, what other way is there to stop it?!"
Her words were like poisoned arrows, each one piercing the ideals Xiao Yuxuan was trying to mend. The collusion between power and technology, and Ji Zhai's tragedy, are wounds that will never heal in the hearts of the Mohists, and the cruelest footnote to Jing Zhi's actions.
"Destroy it, and hundreds of thousands of lives downstream will instantly become fish and turtles! Is this your Mohist 'universal love'?" Xiao Yuxuan's voice was low and suppressed, like a wounded beast roaring, "To throw the baby out with the bathwater, to sacrifice the lives of thousands of people for that possible 'evil consequence'? Is this the 'stopping war' you seek?!"
"Then what do you suggest?!" Jing Zhi took a sudden step forward, rainwater gushing from her clenched fists, her eyes filled with utter despair and accusation. "Wait for it to be transformed into a murder weapon, wait for it to devour more Ji Zhai, wait for it to flood more cities? And then what? Like you, futilely pleading under the pen of the court? Laughably maneuvering within the Legalist net? What is your 'stopping the war'? Is it compromise? Is it waiting? Is it using the blood of more innocent people to exchange for that slim possibility of making the jackals lay down their butcher knives?! Xiao Yuxuan! In the face of power, naivety is the greatest accomplice! Your trust is handing the butcher the sharpest knife!"
"Trust?" A terrifying light suddenly flashed in Xiao Yuxuan's eyes. He pointed to the muddy ground washed by the rain at his feet, and to the distant, storm-swept camp of refugees, which resembled a ghostly realm. His voice, like thunder, drowned out the roar of the Luo River. "I don't trust the imperial court! I don't trust the Legalists! I trust the will of these people to survive! I trust the countless parched fields beneath the canal that cry for rain! I trust those you regard as ants, yet who still struggle to live under the whip! To destroy it is to extinguish their last path to life! Whether technology is a weapon or a way to survive depends not on the technology itself, but on who wields it and why it is used! If we stifle life because of fear of potential evil, what essential difference is there between this and the Legalists using 'agriculture and war' as a pretext for cruelty?! Wasn't the Mohist school's ambition to protect the people? When did it become an executioner of life?!"
"Guardians?" Jing Zhi's voice suddenly turned sharp and mournful. She pointed to the top of the sluice gate, where the figures of French soldiers could be vaguely seen moving about in the makeshift watchtower. "Look at those guards! Look at the overhead crossbows that are about to be installed! Xiao Yuxuan, open your eyes and look! From the moment it was modified, it was no longer a path to survival! It has become part of the power machine! A sword hanging over the heads of the people! My destruction is not the destruction of life, but the severing of shackles! It is to strangle this ferocious beast in its infancy before it fully takes shape and begins to devour its prey! Even if... the price is this brief 'path to survival'!" A mad, resolute glint flashed in her eyes. She lunged to the side, no longer trying to damage the sluice gate's structure, but instead lunging at a large, inconspicuous bronze winch that controlled the gate's counterweight stone lock! There, there was an extremely fragile bronze pin used for emergency flood discharge! If it were removed, the thousands of pounds of counterweight stone lock, now out of balance, would crash down under the force of gravity, enough to completely destroy the core water gate below!
"Are you insane?!" Xiao Yuxuan's eyes were bloodshot! He saw through Jing Zhi's intentions completely! It would be a complete and devastating collapse! The flood would instantly breach the still unstable downstream embankment, swallowing up all the villages and fields along the way! Without further hesitation, like a tiger fighting for its life, he pounced!
"Bang!"
The two collided heavily on the narrow, slippery sluice gate platform! Mud and water splashed everywhere! Jing Zhi's oilcloth ripped in the tearing, revealing a tightly bound dark-colored outfit underneath. Her movements were unpredictable and agile, like a fish swimming in water; elbow strikes and knee strikes were ruthless and deadly, all aimed at the winch bolt. Xiao Yuxuan, however, was rooted to the spot, relying on the fierce strength and fighting instincts honed on the battlefield to block her path, parrying and seizing, each strike powerful and heavy, trying to force her away from the deadly winch. The cold rain lashed at them, and the muddy ground made every movement fraught with the danger of slipping. Metal tools fell during the struggle, making a dull thud, and were instantly swallowed by the roaring river. This was a primal, desperate struggle of will and belief! A fierce clash between "protecting the possibility of life" and "cutting off the inevitable evil"!
"BOOM—!!!"
A deafening roar, more terrifying than thunder, ripped through the stormy night sky without warning! It didn't come from the winch that Jing Zhi was trying to sabotage, but from above them—from the massive stone dam itself, already overburdened by the continuous impact of the flood and the hidden danger of its key internal supports being breached!
Before Xiao Yuxuan and Jing Zhi's horrified eyes, a section of the dam, several dozen feet long and hastily "reinforced" by Yan Song, was snapped in two as if by the hand of a giant! Countless tons of boulders, soil, and rammed earth, mixed with towering turbid waves, collapsed with a deafening roar! The murky mudflow, like a prehistoric beast breaking free of its cage, carried broken logs and jagged rocks, cascading down with earth-shattering force into the narrow valley below and towards the densely packed camp of refugees on the construction site, which resembled ants!
The world lost its color, leaving only a torrent of destruction and desperate howls!
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