Introduction

Excerpt from Wu Lai’s parchment diary in his youth:

“May 5, the 120th year of the Julian calendar. I have been in this world for a full ten years. But every time I look up at the night sky and see the two moons, one large and one small, my heart is still filled with loneliness, fear and helplessness…”

"On July 11, the 122nd year of the Julian calendar, my father in this world died. Thank God, he no longer had to endure the torture of alcohol, illness, and his third wife. He used his arrogance and indifference throughout his life to create a vivid image of a miser and dreamer. Now, he can finally take this 'good habit' to the grave, because I just heard the woman downstairs ordering the servant to buy the cheapest coffin..."

"July 17, 122nd year of the Julian calendar. I just buried my father when I heard that there was another battle in the Assyrian Valley. This is the seventh battle in the past 15 years. I really don't understand how these guys who are still in the slave society can have the ambition to dominate the world? Could they all be Americans reincarnated here?"

"On July 24, the 122nd year of the Julian calendar, my father's third wife finally came clean. She actually wanted to drive me, the real Mr. Green, out of this family. This was undoubtedly a tragic thing, but I felt a little happy in my heart. This was too strange..."

Note: The above diary has never been understood by anyone, because although it was recorded during the rise of Assyria, which is known as the "Turbulent Age", its font is not the Assyrian or Hurrian characters commonly used at the time, but a square font with complicated strokes. This strange text was eventually called the "First Citizen's Book" by later generations...

Chapter 1: The First Bucket of Gold (Part 1)

On July 25, the 122nd year of the Julian calendar, Woolley moved out of the Greendo Manor where he had lived for twelve years. Actually, calling it a manor was a bit of an exaggeration, because although there were still a few unconnected vineyards and farmlands around it, its building was the smallest and most dilapidated of all the manors in Seneca City.

Wu Lai did not inherit much from his drunkard father, because he was ranked fifth in the inheritance order of his drunkard father, which was even lower than his younger brother who was less than three months old. So when Wu Lai left the manor, in addition to a package of clothes and a sheepskin book, he had five silver coins on his waist. This amount of money was not small. If they were frugal, it was enough for three adults to eat bread for a month.

When the news spread that Woolley was leaving, the thirty-five slaves in the manor felt very sad, because Woolley was the first person they had ever met in their lives who had no airs of a master at all. He was very active, but never bullied slaves. He would even secretly steal food from the kitchen to share with slaves who were not full. Although he had been punished by the male master for this many times, he never stopped doing this kind deed.

The slaves all remembered what Woolley had said: "Classes do exist, but everyone should be given the minimum respect, unless he has degenerated beyond redemption."

The slaves also could not forget the song that Wu Lai had sung for many years. Although no one could understand the lyrics, every time Wu Lai sang this song under the tree at night, the slaves could not help but feel sad. Wu Lai said that this song came from an ancient tribe and the name of the song was "No Longer Afraid".

When Wu Lai walked out of the manor gate, he smiled and waved to the slaves who were watching him...

"My God, he's just a child," one slave said through tears.

In response to her, she was met with sighs from the other slaves.

Woolley walked into the cheapest tavern in Seneca City. The owner of the tavern was called Moff. Four years ago, he bought this two-story earthen building only 400 steps away from the city gate. Half a month later, this place became a paradise for fishermen, drunkards and low-class prostitutes, filled with the smell of flesh, wine, sweat and fish.

Woolley came here because, in addition to being the cheapest tavern in town, it was also the cheapest hotel in town.

When Wu Lai walked into the tavern with a frown and his nose covered, the people in the tavern were silent for two seconds. Then, all kinds of discussions and whistles sounded, and several drunkards and fishermen who knew him began to tease him unscrupulously.

"It turns out to be Master Wu Lai. What's the wind blowing today? The young master of Glyndwr Manor has come to where the poor people live..."

"You were driven out by Madam Leah, that must be the case. Of course, if you were older, Madam Leah might not have done this. If you were still very 'talented', I guess Madam Leah would not mind marrying you like she married your father, ha ha ha ha..."

Wu Lai walked to the counter expressionlessly and said to Mo Fu, who was standing there desperately covering his mouth and winking, "Give me a room and a bottle of wine."

"Wu Lai, you can't drink at your age, unless you want to do something else." Mo Fu took a key from the key plate on the wall while laughing, but he didn't rush to hand it to Wu Lai. Instead, he asked, "Wu Lai, how long do you want to stay?"

"How long can I stay with two silver coins? The kind that includes food and drink." Wu Lai took out two silver coins.

Mov glanced at the silver coin: "Six days."

"Eight days, plus a bottle of wine, or I'll find another place," said Wu Lai.

"No, Woolley, I guarantee you won't find anything cheaper in Seneca City, not to mention you want a bottle of wine." Muff raised his chin proudly.

"I happen to know one. Do you want me to tell you its name? It just opened a few days ago." Wu Lai made a gesture to take back the two silver coins.

"Well, since Master Greendo often visits us, even though he has ascended to heaven." A smile appeared on Mov's face.

"Then I'll stay for four days, and this one is yours." Wu Lai took back a silver coin with a smile, "Don't look at me like that, Mofu, give me the key and the wine."

Mov hesitated for a while, then threw the key to Wu Lai with a helpless look on his face. One silver coin for four days' accommodation was definitely not a good price, because he also had to take care of Wu Lai's three meals a day during these four days, so there was basically no profit.

Four days later, Woolley left the Moff Inn and boarded an oxcart bound for the Assyrian Valley. His package contained several large rolls of coarse hemp ropes, a piece of fine linen ten cubits long and wide, a bag of rye bread, and the untouched bottle of wine, which he had bought for two silver coins. In order to ride on this oxcart, he spent his last two silver coins - the distance from here to the Assyrian Valley was more than 140 miles, and he couldn't walk there.

The Assyrian Gorge is the dividing line between the Anubis Mountains and the Assyrian Mountains, and also the dividing line between the Assyrians and the Hurrians. It is more than 700 miles long and less than 20 miles wide at its widest point. The Athanasius River, the common mother river of the Assyrians and the Hurrians, meanders through the gorge.

To the north of the Assyrian Gorge is the territory of the Hurrians, and to the south is the territory of the Assyrians. The steep and towering mountains on both sides of the gorge are an indisputable natural barrier, which not only blocks the enemy's army from advancing directly, but also blocks the restless thoughts of our own army. There are only a few places in the Assyrian Gorge that can lead to the other side's territory, and these places have become the customary battlefields for both sides, because only here can accommodate large-scale military confrontations.

What was the largest scale? Thirty thousand people versus thirty thousand people.

Where is the largest battlefield? How big is it? The answer is - Wu Lai's destination this time is the Red Valley Bay in the Assyrian Gorge. The battlefield is nearly 20 miles long and nearly 10 miles wide. The terrain is flat and there are many ditches. Perhaps it was a battlefield deliberately designed by God for both sides. The more than 700-mile-long Athanasius River suddenly became narrow in this section and split into dozens of ditches.

The war was certainly brutal, but in Woolley's eyes, the bloody war between the Assyrians and the Hurrians had no entertainment or practical value. It was at best a reality show planned by the ruling classes of both sides in order to consolidate their territorial power. Even if one side won, it would not have enough power to occupy all of the other side's territory - the number of troops that could be mobilized by both sides was less than 100,000.

When Wu Lai arrived near the Red Valley Bay in the Assyrian Gorge, the battle between the two sides was almost over. If nothing unexpected happened, this battle would be a draw again - although both sides continued to fight at multiple points at the same time, they also continued the habit of using Red Valley Bay as the direction of victory or defeat. In the next few days, both sides will retreat to their own fortresses and block the gates of the pass. Then the nobles will accumulate strength while sending messengers to deliver letters to each other. As for whether the content of the letter is insults, humiliation or something else, it doesn't matter at all. Anyway, every once in a while, the two sides will fight again like this.

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Wu Lai did not follow the ox cart into the fortress. Instead, he carried his package and walked more than 30 miles along the mountains toward the downstream of Honggu Bay. This took him most of the day. The next morning, he climbed up a steep cliff along a rugged path. After lying on the edge of the cliff and observing for a while, he walked more than three miles downstream, and then lowered himself down the steep slope with a rope - there was no way to go here at all.

This place was told to him by Wu Lai's alcoholic father. When Wu Lai told him the reason why he liked this place, Wu Lai, who always believed that his father's brain had been rotten by low-quality alcohol, felt for the first time in his life that this miser had a pretty good imagination.

My father was drunk and said, "Hey, there's money everywhere. There are thousands and thousands of silver coins waiting for us to pick up..."

When Wu Lai heard this, he suddenly felt sad, because he knew that his father would never be able to go there again - he obviously understood that he was terminally ill, otherwise why would he be willing to drink the good wine that he had treasured for many years in big gulps instead of continuing to drink the inferior wine that he could buy four bottles for half a coin as before.

Forty paces ahead of the hillside was a bend in the river, one of the rarest on either side of the turbulent Athanasius—so calm that it had nothing to do with the turbulence further away.

The money that Daddy mentioned was in the river bend. Wu Lai just took a glance and felt dizzy. It was not because of excitement, but because of fear, because the scene in front of him was absolutely creepy for everyone - in the river bend, which was about five meters vertically away from the river bank, there were at least fifty corpses quietly soaking in the water, motionless. Some of the corpses had begun to rot, and some looked incomplete.

This is what Daddy called "money" - he meant the things on the corpse, such as armor, money bags, gold and silver ornaments...

The reason for the appearance of corpses is not only because of the river bend and the battle terrain, but also because of the war habits of the Assyrians and Hurrians. At the end of each day's battle, both sides like to plunder the bodies of the other side's soldiers who died on their side, and then throw them into the Athanasius River for fun. Of course, most of the corpses will drift with the waves and eventually be carried into the sea, a small part will be smashed into pieces by the big rocks on the bottom of the water, and only a very small part will float to this calm bay and stay here - you know, not all corpses will be looted in time, because the time for looting and insulting the corpses to provoke the other side is often not too long.

The moment he saw the pile of corpses, Wu Lai had mixed feelings. He felt sad and happy that his father's words had been confirmed, but he was also uneasy about what he was going to do next.

"I didn't expect that the first pot of gold in my life would be made from a dead person. Amitabha, God bless you." While enduring the increasingly strong feeling of nausea, Wu Lai prayed to two great gods who had never appeared in this world.

Although it was still some time before dark, Wu Lai began to prepare for camping. It was not the rainy season, so even if he camped by the river, he would not have to worry about being washed away by the surging river water in the middle of the night. However, prevention of mosquitoes and poisonous snakes was also indispensable, so Wu Lai chose a big tree with many branches on the hillside near the river and reviewed his outdoor skills again in this world. Of course, treating the many scrapes on his body and picking off the blisters on the soles of his feet and palms were also urgent tasks.

After finishing all this, the setting sun slowly disappeared. Wu Lai munched on a few pieces of bread in the last ray of light of the day, then climbed onto the rope bed and covered his thin body with the linen.

After a while, Wu Lai felt tired and fell asleep - he was too tired that day. After all, he was only a twelve-year-old boy.

As the midnight breeze blew across the rope bed, Wu Lai dreamed again. In his dream, he returned to the day of his college graduation, the bachelor's cap and gown, the teachers' smiles, the classmates' tears, and the book pages flying in the wind...