Flourishing of the Ming Dynasty Novel - Chapter 1

Chapter 1 This Isn’t Filming
In the clear blue sky, a red sun hung high above it, emitting a blazing light towards everything below.

A young man who was walking alone on the grassland unconsciously stopped. He raised his head to look at the sky, then lowered his head to look at the road that was covered with weeds and sand. The worry and unease on his face became even more intense.

He was in his twenties, wearing the most common sports T-shirt and sweatpants, wearing a pair of sneakers of a certain brand and carrying a mountaineering bag as tall as half a person on his back. His appearance was quite handsome, especially the pair of eyes under his long eyebrows, which shone brightly. Adding on the tall bridge of his nose, it gave off a distinct feeling of edges and corners.

The young man’s name was Lu Zhen, and he had just turned twenty this year. He was a college student. His parents were history and language teachers, which allowed him to receive far more cultural influence from his classmates since childhood. Even large historical books like the Twenty-Four History books were swallowed up by him long before he graduated from high school.

Coupled with the heavy burden of schoolwork, Lu Zhen had never enjoyed his youth. It was not until he entered university, with less schoolwork, and having grown up, that he had the opportunity to make his own decisions. So this time, we took advantage of the summer vacation to arrange a few classmates and friends to visit Inner Mongolia.

Originally, everything went smoothly. Lu Zhen not only enjoyed the vast scenery that was completely different from the city, but also learned to ride horses and shoot arrows and other local customs. Unexpectedly, just three days ago, when they were strolling around under the guidance of the guide, they were caught off guard by a sudden thunderstorm and gale.

When the terrible weather finally ended, Lu Zhen was surprised to find himself alone on the empty grassland. Although the surroundings didn’t look too different, there was a faint sense of uneasiness in his heart that plagued him.

Now that he was running out of food and water, he took out his phone again and found that there was still no signal, a trace of fear had invaded Lu Zhen’s heart.

Previously, he had seen news on his phone or on his computer that some of his fellow donkeys, especially college students, had committed suicide in a remote place and ended up getting lost and trapped in it. Most of these people would be rescued by rescue teams that arrived in time, but there were also a few who were unlucky enough to disappear completely or had their bodies found many days later.

The environment he was in now looked more like the latter. In a place without any cell phone signal, Lu Zhen really felt helpless and helpless. He even began to regret his decision to travel earlier.

Right now, the only hope was to meet some Mongolian herdsmen on the grasslands. According to the local custom of hospitality, he could definitely eat a few good meals with them, and then return to the city with the help of the other party. Thinking of this, Lu Zhen felt a burst of chattering in his stomach, but he was even more hungry.

But the remaining bread and biscuits did not dare to be eaten casually. Lu Zhen could only clench his teeth and endure it. After drinking a mouthful of water, he continued to walk forward. However, there was no big difference in the scenery between the front and back or left and right. This made him feel as if he was circling around in place.

Luckily, after walking for a while, Lu Zhen saw a faint high slope ahead of him, which made him suddenly feel refreshed. If he could climb that high slope, he might be able to find someone with a wide field of vision. He hurriedly quickened his pace, hoping to reach the place before dark.

The journey went smoothly, and soon it was not far from the high slope. Then, something exciting happened to him, because he heard a horses hissing in front of him. Although this voice was a little loud, as if hundreds of people were approaching from the other side of the slope, which was somewhat contradictory to the silence in the vicinity just now, Lu Zhen could no longer care too much about it. He just wanted to find someone to help him quickly.

Although the high slope was a little steep and Lu Zhen was very tired, he still struggled up the slope with the support of the engineering shovel in his hand. He struggled to climb the seven or eight meters steep slope, and then the scene below was completely visible!

“Holy shit!” After seeing the situation below, Lu Zhen couldn’t help but let out a sigh of surprise.

On the grassland two to three miles away from him, there were actually over a thousand people rushing forward. Half of them were riding horses, while the other half were tied by ropes and staggered forward. When these people fell to the ground unsteadily, some of the people on the horses would suddenly wave their whips and drive them up from the ground, forcing them forward like cattle without stopping.

Moreover, these guys were dressed very strangely. Only a few of them wore extremely dull and crude leather armor on horseback, and most of them were clothed in linen. Moreover, their hair was very long, and some of them were missing in the middle, as if they were bald. Lu Zhen, who had been studying history for some time, thought of a word-Kun Fa, a hairstyle passed down from history that was popular among many nomadic people in the grasslands.

The people following behind the horse also had long hair. Some of them had their hair crossed up and had a wooden hairpin inserted on it. However, their bodies were unsightly. Apart from a few people who were ragged, most of them were barefooted and even walked barefooted on the sandy road.

Seeing all of this, Lu Zhen was dumbfounded. What era had this been? Was there actually someone dressed like this? The Mongolian people he had met before were not much different from the people in the city. Only when there was a celebration would they wear their own national costumes. However, the attire of these people in front of him was too backward.

“Could it be that they are shooting some kind of movie?” Soon, another thought flashed through Lu Zhen’s mind. This was not impossible, although it seemed to be very different from the costume drama he knew.

Edified by his parents, Lu Zhen had a much better understanding of history than his peers, which made it easy for him to pick out all kinds of problems when he watched TV dramas about history. The so-called historical dramas that were filled with modernity, from clothing to utensils to dialogue, were truly unbearable to him.

In addition to the fact that some crews only used a few group performances to perfunctory scenes in order to save money, historical plays had always been synonymous with coarseness, and only a few works could satisfy the Lu Zhen family.

The current scene was very realistic. One could easily imagine that this was the scene of the Mongols or the nomadic grassland people invading the Han border to graze the valleys and returning with full loads to plunder the population. Lu Zhen would be very interested if all the movies and TV dramas on the subject of ancient costume history could reach this level in the future.

But then another puzzling question arose-where were the actors, the crew, and the most important cameras?

Everything below the slope was so clear that apart from this group of people, there were no other people around, let alone photographic equipment. Lu Zhen subconsciously raised his head to look at the sky. He did not notice the presence of an aerial camera. This was truly strange.

Could it be … a crazy and frightening thought suddenly arose from the depths of his heart, but it was quickly denied by him: “This is impossible, this is not scientific!”

At this moment, an even more shocking scene suddenly appeared in front of Lu Zhen–

In the crowd that followed the horse team, someone suddenly broke the rope tied to his body, then shouted loudly, turned around, and ran to the side. Apparently, this person was going to escape.

After this sudden change, the captive crowd was in a commotion, as if more people would run away with that person at any moment.

When the knights in front of them saw this scene, they immediately shouted loudly. Then, someone raised the whip in their hand and fiercely whipped it down, causing many prisoners to roll all over the ground and let out miserable screams. This sound could clearly reach Lu Zhen’s eyes even from a distance.

But at this time, He didn’t put his mind to these people who were suffering at all, because he saw an even more shocking scene-two knights, after the man had escaped a few metres, The bow and arrow had been swiftly taken from the side of the horse-two very crude wooden bows-and without any hesitation, pulled the string, aimed, and let go, the two sharp arrows transformed into two shadows that crossed the distance and plunged into the back of the fugitive.

A mournful scream immediately sounded before his death. It overwhelmed the cries of the prisoners and entered Lu Zhen’s ears clearly, causing him to be shocked.

Even though they were separated by a distance, he was still able to make a clear judgment that the scene of the arrow shooting into his back was not fake. The fugitive who had only struggled twice before not moving was really dead!

Really dead! This was not a movie at all, but a real slaughter!

Together with this thought, Lu Zhen could only feel a wave of cold energy rushing into his spine from his tail vertebra, causing him to feel a bone-chilling chill on this hot summer day. “How … how could this be? What exactly is going on …”

Just as Lu Zhen was filled with fear, something even more frightening happened-the knights below the slope had suddenly turned their heads and stared at Lu Zhen, who was standing on the top of the slope staring down at all of this-he had exposed his hiding place.

Without any hesitation, two knights took off their bows and arrows and shot them over. Just as Lu Zhen sensed that the situation was not good and was about to dodge, two sharp arrows shot towards his body, one in front and one behind.

In the blink of an eye, the arrows had already arrived in front of him, and the energy they brought made Lu Zhen feel a stab of pain …