91: The Walking Scout
By the small specific accumulating reading at the noon of the third day of the second moon of the eleventh year, the small accumulating *fifty's* training was at the small accumulating *holding-shape* against the wing-attack. Heizi, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two months, had — by the small accumulating *staff-officer's accounting* — laid in the small accumulating preparation. The small accumulating *fifty* was — by the small specific reading at this noon — ready, by the small specific accumulating reading I am giving, to hold against Yang Yichen's accumulating wing-attack at the spring's accumulating engagement.
By the small specific accumulating reading at the noon, however, the lad needed a small specific accumulating *eye* on the small specific accumulating *real* shape of the lower country at the small accumulating *now*.
He had not — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past ten months at the southern command — been on a small specific accumulating *walking scout* of his own. The small accumulating *fifty's* engagements had been at the small accumulating *military* shape of the engagement-itself. The small accumulating *political eye* of An Ashi had laid in the small accumulating reading of the lower country's small specific accumulating peddler-saying. The small accumulating *medic's eye* of Ah Chou had laid in the small accumulating reading of the lower country's small specific accumulating health.
The small accumulating *common-people eye* — the small specific accumulating *direct seeing* of the small specific accumulating villages and the small specific accumulating households at the lower country at the small accumulating *now* — had not, by the small specific reading at the past ten months, been laid by anyone of the brothers.
Heizi decided.
He said in the small low voice at the morning fire of the third day of the second moon: *brothers. By the small specific reading at this morning — I will, in the next four days, walk alone at the small specific accumulating lower country south of the southern command. By the small specific accumulating reading I am giving — the lad needs the small accumulating *common-people eye* on the small specific accumulating *real* shape of the lower country before the spring's accumulating engagement.*
The brothers nodded.
Wang Er said in the small low voice: *brother. Alone is — by the small accumulating reading at the past ten months' engagements — risky. Take the boy.*
Heizi shook his head.
"Boy is at the small accumulating *political eye* and the small accumulating *quartermaster*. The boy cannot, by the small specific reading I am giving, leave the *fifty's accumulating accounting* at the small accumulating *now*. I will go alone. I will go in the small specific accumulating *peddler's-apprentice* shape we used at Yangzhuang at the past spring. Three days down, one day at a small accumulating village or two, three days back. By the small specific reading at the dusk of the seventh day, I will be back."
Wang Er paused. He nodded.
Heizi went down at the dawn of the fourth day.
He went in the small specific accumulating *peddler's-apprentice* shape — without the *横刀*, with the militia knife at the inner sleeve, with a small accumulating bundle of trade-goods (a small folded length of finer hempen cloth, three small clay jars of *huang lian* salve from Ah Chou, a small folded handful of dried mushrooms, a small folded packet of pine slivers). He went south by the small specific path Ah Chou had returned by at the spring of the sixth year and An Ashi and Heizi had returned by at the spring of the eighth year and the seven brothers had walked south at the past year's going-down. The path was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two years — at the small accumulating *Wagang-affiliated* shape; the small accumulating peddlers of the path knew the small accumulating *Wagang's accumulating *runner-cash* of the past year.
He walked.
By the dusk of the first day, he was at a small specific accumulating village called Xiamen — perhaps fifty houses set in a small flat at the bend of a small lower-country watercourse. He had not, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two years, been at Xiamen. The village was — by the small specific accumulating reading at his arrival in the small specific accumulating *peddler's-apprentice* shape — at the small accumulating *holding* shape of a small specific accumulating lower-country village at the small accumulating eleventh year of Da-ye.
He took a small specific room at a small accumulating inn at the southern edge for two strings of cash.
He listened.
He listened, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past five years' careful watching, at the small accumulating dusks at certain small accumulating tables of the small accumulating inn.
The small accumulating village said:
The small accumulating canal had — at the past spring — taken twelve more men of the village. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past spring, the village had perhaps seventy men of working age before the past spring. By the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk, the village had perhaps fifty-five.
The small accumulating *white-cord lists* had — at the past spring — been read at the village for the first time. Three young women had been — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past spring — taken at the small accumulating canal-camps. None had — by the small specific accumulating reading — done what Mei-er had done in Da-ye one. They had gone. They had not, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past spring's accumulating saying, returned.
The small accumulating Sui-magistracy at the small accumulating county-seat of Xiamen-and-the-eight-villages-around had — at the past spring — laid a small accumulating *new* tax: the small accumulating *grain-and-half* of the previous year's accumulating tax. By the small specific accumulating reading at the past dusk's saying — the village had perhaps the small accumulating two months of grain remaining for the small accumulating winter, with the small accumulating spring's planting being delayed by the small accumulating shortage of the small accumulating young men to work the small accumulating fields.
The small accumulating Wagang Rebellion had — at the past spring — sent two small accumulating runners to the village to ask for small accumulating cash and small accumulating grain to support the small accumulating southern command. The village had — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past spring — given perhaps a small accumulating one-tenth of the village's accumulating remaining grain.
The village had — by the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk — perhaps the accumulating two months of grain plus the small accumulating *one-tenth* given to the Wagang.
By the small specific reading at the past dusk's saying, the village would — by the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk — be at the small accumulating *small specific famine* by the small specific accumulating reading at the small specific accumulating sixth moon of the eleventh year, perhaps.
Heizi listened.
He filed each piece of accumulating saying.
He filed: *Xiamen. Fifty houses. Fifty-five working-age men remaining. Twelve taken at past spring's canal. Three women taken at past spring's white-cord. Two months grain at this dusk. Famine perhaps by sixth moon. Wagang took one-tenth of remaining grain at past spring.*
The Wagang.
He filed it.
The small accumulating Wagang Rebellion — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past dusk's saying — had been at the small specific accumulating *taking* of the small accumulating villages' grain at the small accumulating *runner's accumulating asking* of the past year. The small accumulating *runner's asking* had been — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past dusk — perhaps in the small accumulating *no-questions* method at the small accumulating shape of the rebellion's small accumulating *recruitment*. The villages had given.
The villages would — by the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk — by the small specific accumulating *running out of grain* of the next four months — be at the small accumulating *real* shape of the rebellion's accumulating *real cost*.
Heizi filed it.
He had not — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two years at the rebellion — fully understood the small accumulating *one-tenth* the small accumulating Wagang took at every village.
He understood it now.
He sat at his small accumulating inn-room that night, with the small specific accumulating filing of the past dusk's saying laid in his head.
He thought of his foster father at the threshold: *the canal does not take what it can return. The camps do not.*
He thought now: *the rebellion takes what it can return. Or it does not. The country has, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past two years, become the small accumulating shape of the small accumulating *failure* of every accumulating thing it touches — the canal, the camps, the magistracy, the rebellion.*
He thought: *the small accumulating *Mandate of Heaven* the master had laid at the past four years' political philosophy is — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past dusk's saying at the small accumulating inn — at the small accumulating *withdrawing* of the country itself from the small accumulating *foundation*. The small accumulating people are no longer at the small accumulating *foundation*. The Sui has taken from them. The Wagang has taken from them. The bandits have taken from them. The country, at the small accumulating *failure*, is — by the small specific reading I am giving — taking from them at every direction at once.*
He filed it.
He thought, slowly, about the small accumulating *fifty's accumulating *staff-officer's pay*. The pay was — by the small specific accumulating reading at the past year — at the small accumulating *runner's accumulating cash* of the small accumulating villages' small accumulating *one-tenth*. The cash he had been sending to Liu Sanlang's wife and Cao Daniu's daughters and Yan Wugou's mother had been — by the small specific accumulating reading at this dusk — *taken from the small accumulating villages' small accumulating remaining grain*.
The small specific accumulating *cash* the lad had been laying at the *staff-officer's accumulating accounting* was, by the small accumulating reading at this dusk, at the small accumulating *cost* of the small accumulating villages.
He thought.
He filed it.
He thought: *I will, by the small specific reading I am giving at this dusk, lay this at the small accumulating reading I am giving when I return to the southern command.*
He went to sleep with the small specific accumulating *Xiamen* filed in the small accumulating darker-and-lighter accumulating shape of his head.
In the morning, before the second cock, he set off again — south of Xiamen, by the small specific accumulating reading at the past day's saying that the small accumulating villages further south were at the small accumulating *worse* shape of the past spring's accumulating *new tax*.
He walked.
He walked at the slow accumulating careful pace of the small accumulating *peddler's apprentice* shape, with the small accumulating *common-people eye* now — by the small specific reading at the past day at Xiamen — at the small accumulating *real* opening it had not, by the small specific reading at the past two years, fully had.
By the noon of the second day south of Xiamen, he came out of a small accumulating wooded fold of the lower country into a small accumulating clearing.
In the clearing, at the small accumulating *eastern edge*, sat a small accumulating family.
A man perhaps thirty-five. A woman perhaps the same. Two small accumulating children — a girl of perhaps eight and a boy of perhaps four. They sat at a small accumulating flat stone beside a small accumulating cold ash of the previous evening's fire.
The four of them were — by the small specific reading at perhaps thirty paces — thinner than the small accumulating *thin* of any small accumulating family Heizi had seen at the past two years.
The small accumulating family looked up at his approach.
The small accumulating *eyes* of the small accumulating four were — by the small specific reading at this noon — the eyes of a family that was, by the small specific reading I am giving, at the small accumulating *small specific edge* of running out.
Heizi stopped at fifteen paces.
He filed it.