by Luo Guanzhong
10
Just as they were catching up, Zhao Hong and Sun Zhong led their bandit army in an attack on Jun. Jun saw that Hong's army was powerful, and withdrew for the time being. Hong took advantage of the situation and again took control of Wancheng. Jun traveled about ten li, then made camp. Just as he was about to mount an attack, he suddenly saw a group of horses and men approaching from due east. In the lead was a man with a wide forehead and broad face, a torso like a tiger's, and a waist like a bear's; he was from Fuchun in the Wu Commandery. His surname was Sun, his given name was Jian, and his style name was Wentai; he was a descendant of Sun Wuzi. When he was seventeen years old, he traveled with his father to Qiantang. Along the way, they spotted more than ten pirates who had robbed some merchants, and were now on shore dividing up the loot. Jian said to his father, "I must arrest these pirates." He then took out his sword, and made his way onto shore with much bravado, screaming and shouting, and giving commands to his east and to his west, as if giving instructions to a bunch of men. The pirates assumed that government troops had arrived, ditched all of their loot, and fled the scene. Jian chased after them and killed one of the pirates. Because of this, he became somewhat of a local celebrity, and was recommended for the position of captain. Later on, the evil bandit Xu Chang from Guiji started a rebellion, calling himself the Yangming Emperor, and had amassed a force of tens of thousands. Jian and the commandery's military clerk recruited a force of more than one thousand brave men. They came together from the various cities and counties in order to quash the rebels, and to behead Xu Chang and his son Xu Shao. Provincial governor Zang Min wrote a glowing letter of praise to the emperor; as a result, Jian was made an assistant governor of Yandu, Xuyi and Xiapi Counties. Recently, he saw that the Yellow Turban bandits had staged an uprising, so he gathered together all of the local youths and traveling merchants, along with more than 1,500 elite troops from the area around the Huai and Si Rivers, and set out to intercept them.
Continued next week. Tomorrow's installment from Lays of Ancient Rome by Macaulay.
This is one of four great novels from China, published when it was the most highly civilization in the world. Map shows China at the time of this story.
Chapter Summary: Zhang Yide gets angry and whips the County Inspector; Royal uncle He plots the murder of the wretched eunuchs.
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This translation from Wikipedia. See license CC-BY-SA.
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