Flourishing of the Ming Dynasty Novel - Chapter 24

Chapter 24 Identity Problem
Natural creations were always so mysterious. Wonders that many people didn’t even dare to imagine would always appear in front of them in an unbelievable manner. The scene before Lu Zhen right now was like this.

The withered grass on the grassland continued to spread towards the south, but somewhere, as if it had been cut by an invisible sharp knife, the grassland and desert suddenly disappeared, replaced by fertile land and rolling hills.

If he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes, Lu Zhen wouldn’t have dared to believe that the boundary between the Central Plains and the grasslands would be so distinct. With just a single line, one could intuitively see where the grasslands were and where the rivers and mountains of the Han people were. Then, a voice rang out in Lu Zhen’s mind, “I’ve finally entered the real Great Ming Boundary! I’ve finally arrived in the Central Plains!”

His heart was filled with joy and he heaved a sigh of relief. Ever since fleeing Rahab Clan that night, Lu Zhen had been walking on the desolate grassland for almost twenty days. Every day, he was worried that he would be attacked again by someone else. However, it was clear that he had overestimated the courage and power of the Meng people. Apart from some grazing Meng people, he had never encountered any decent Meng tribes along the way.

Decades ago, Great Ming suppressed the attacks of the grassland tribes, and the effect of killing them was still there. Even though the current Ming army was mainly focused on defense, the grassland tribes were still used to being far away from the border of the Central Plains, fearing that they would be attacked. This, on the other hand, gave Lu Zhen an advantage, allowing him to safely cross hundreds of miles and safely arrive at the Great Ming border.

This situation was completely unimaginable after ten to twenty years. At that time, the Ming army had invested hundreds of thousands of troops to defend against the invading Mongol people. However, even so, there were still many border towns that were always harassed by the Meng people, and the people had been living in a desperate situation, panicking endlessly.

Thinking about the future he knew and looking at the broken and old collapsed wall in front of him, Lu Zhen’s expression became complicated. This section of the city wall was obviously used by the Central Plains Imperial Court to garrison troops and defend against the strong enemies in the north. However, all of this was now completely abandoned. But I wonder what this place will look like in a few years’ time.

Very quickly, Lu Zhen put aside his macroscopic view of history, suppressed the joy in his heart, and began to make ideas for his future. With this thought, the smile on his face quickly disappeared and was replaced by a trace of confusion and worry.

If his knowledge of history wasn’t wrong, it wouldn’t be that simple for him to enter the Central Plains. The key was his identity.

After the founding of the country, Great Ancestor Zhu Yuanzhang had issued a series of decrees in order to consolidate his rule and quickly restore his national strength. Among them, people were bound to their hometown land, and ordinary people were not allowed to leave their hometown for ten li. If something really happened, they had to issue a decree in the government to guide them along the way, which was a huge gap in front of Lu Zhen.

As a transmigrator, as a person who had struggled back from the grasslands, he didn’t have any evidence that he was a Great Ming citizen. If he went to a certain city, he would most likely be arrested as a spy, and he wouldn’t even know how he died.

This was not alarmist talk. In order to guard against the Mongol invasion in the north, Daming had never relaxed in this regard.

What was even more troubling was that Lu Zhen could not even enter the city as a refugee. If this were to happen decades later, especially after Jiajing, he would still be able to muddle through with the increasing number of refugees who had lost their land and the government turning a blind eye. But now, Great Ming had not fallen to that level, and his control over the population was only slightly weaker than when the country was founded. As for places like the border, the government would only keep a closer eye on them, and there would definitely not be such a big mistake.

Moreover, Lu Zhen was wearing a masked leather robe. Just this alone was enough to arouse the suspicions of too many people. Therefore, if he were to crash into him like this, his fate would definitely not be too good.

When he understood all of this, the joy of escaping from the grasslands and returning to the Central Plains was completely abandoned by him. “What should I do? I have no money and no identification, but I can’t even enter the county, let alone survive in Daming …”

As long as the other transmigrators arrived at a brand new dynasty, they would be able to swiftly integrate into the times and mix with the wind and water. Why did they fail like this? Not only did they have to endure all the hardships on the grasslands, they managed to escape with great difficulty, but they actually encountered such an awkward problem.

However, since they had all come, it was impossible for them to turn around, so they could only take one step at a time. Hopefully, this horse from the grasslands would be able to sell for a good price, thus temporarily alleviating a series of troubles. As Lu Zhen thought, he patted the horse behind him and let out a long sigh.

Thinking of this, Lu Zhen pulled the horse and slowly walked forward. There was no decent official road here. There were only rugged mountain paths. On both sides of the narrow road, there were unknown hills several zhang tall. There were even some rocks standing on the edge that looked unstable, making him shiver. He was worried that a stone would fall from the sky if he wasn’t careful.

After doing this for more than half an hour, Lu Zhen still did not encounter any pedestrians. Apart from a few squirrels that were foraging for food for the winter, he did not even see any other animals. This made his heart look even more hesitant, and he could only barely cheer himself up and continue walking towards the south.

At this moment, he was rather conflicted in his heart. He hoped to arrive at a town as soon as possible, but he was also worried that he would be taken down by someone. This made his footsteps even heavier, and his gaze swept around more cautiously. He did not know what he was looking forward to.

Suddenly, Lu Zhen’s gaze focused on a bush in front of him. Because of the winter, the branches and leaves of the shrub had almost withered away, leaving behind only a large cloak full of barbs, and what attracted his attention was the faint outline–the person who looked like he was curled up and lying on the ground!

Seeing this, Lu Zhen hurriedly took a few steps forward to see what was going on. After carefully identifying it, he confirmed that it was indeed a man wearing a brocade cotton robe!

“Hey … are you alright?” Lu Zhen leaned forward and shouted tentatively. However, that figure did not react at all. Not to mention him, he did not even move a single bit.

This made Lu Zhen even more curious. He hurriedly took a few steps forward and nudged the other party, but his tentacles were stiff.

“He’s dead. This is a corpse!” This knowledge only stunned Lu Zhen for a moment, but he didn’t panic too much. If he had seen such a situation when he had just transmigrated to this era, he would have definitely felt very nervous, but after experiencing all sorts of changes on the grassland, especially after personally killing people, his courage was much greater than before.

After a while, Lu Zhen reached out and pulled the corpse out of the bush. Looking around, he knew that this person had fallen from the mountain forest above and died. This was also confirmed by careful observation of the corpse. Not only were there many scratches on the limbs of the corpse, but there were also many tears on its clothes. There were also a few depressions and holes in its forehead and back of its head. It was obviously a fatal injury caused by the fall of the corpse.

The only thing that surprised Lu Zhen was that this person didn’t look bad. Why did he come to this place where birds don’t shit and even stumble to death? Thinking of this, he straightened himself up again and looked at the other party’s face. He discovered that this face had already been twisted into a ball by pain and fear. Other than looking very young, his appearance was not very clear.

‘”Hiss” Lu Zhen’s heart suddenly stirred as he sized up the other party’s appearance. He felt that this face seemed to be somewhat familiar to him, but he couldn’t remember where he had seen it for a while.

But very quickly, he threw away this strange idea. How was this possible? He had always been in the grasslands since he came to this era. How could he know this person from the Central Plains?

Lu Zhen quickly dispelled his eccentric thoughts. He looked at the corpse and thought for a moment before finally deciding to bury him. Later generations of people would pay attention to burying themselves in the ground after their deaths, let alone the people of today. Since he had discovered it, it would be hard for him to expose the corpse in the wilderness.

After making up his mind, Lu Zhen took out the engineer shovel that had helped him many times from his bag and dug a hole on the spot. This shovel’s performance was indeed good. In just half an hour, he had dug a small pit that was enough to bury people. He did not continue, and he dragged the corpse and wanted to bury it in the pit.

But at this moment, a thought suddenly flashed through his mind, “Am I not worried that this dress is too eye-catching? Also, since the clothes on this person’s body are not bad, there must be some money, why don’t I …”

Although Lu Zhen knew that it was inappropriate to do so, he had no choice but to bow to the corpse. “Brother, don’t take offense. I’ll help you bury yourself in the ground. Just give me everything you have. It can be considered a deal between us. Moreover, it’s not rude to leave naked when people come and go, right?”

He muttered to himself, but his hands became honest and impolite. He immediately took off the clothes on the corpse, and finally peeled off the corpse until it was no longer inch long. Only then did he pull the corpse into the pit and cover it up with some dirt on the shovel.

However, for some reason, Lu Zhen had a strange feeling when he completely covered up the person and looked at the dirt covering his twisted face, but he couldn’t say what it was for a moment.

Afterwards, Lu Zhen picked up the clothes that he had just put on the ground and took advantage of the heat from his body to change them.

Although the clothes of this season were different from those of later generations, they were still dressed properly after a bit of torment. Just as Lu Zhen was pulling on the brocade robe outside, wanting to find something valuable on him, or see if there was any road guide or something like that, he heard a slap and something slit out of his sleeve and landed on the ground …

@ @ @ @

A new story, a real prelude ~ ~

Wearing it was indeed harder to do than wearing soul clothing. At least, it was like this until the Great Ming Dynasty. Therefore, I hope that all of you can forgive me if the contents are somewhat farfetched. . . .

Moreover, this week’s results were too tragic. . . . Yesterday, he was clearly the number one on the history books list, but today, he couldn’t even see the top ten. . . It was simply tears running down his cheeks! ! ! Therefore, I beg for your support! ! ! !