“You mud-dwelling wretches, hurry up and hand over this year’s grain!”
“Esteemed sirs, we truly have no more grain. This year’s taxes increased again, and all the grain has been confiscated.”
“Hmph, you hand over grain to your court, but not to us? You’re asking for death. If you don’t hand over the grain, I’ll chop all of you down.”
“Sir, we found the grain.”
“Hmph, you clearly have grain but dare to say you don’t? I see all of you are asking for death.”
“Officer, sir, we are relying on this tiny bit of rations to get through winter. The rest are seeds for next year! If you take the seeds, how will we live next year?”
“I don’t care how you live. I only know that if I don’t bring back enough grain today, I won’t live today.”
“Men, tie up all these young women and take them away!”
“Daddy, Mommy, save me!”
“Beasts! Let go of Erya! I’ll fight you!”
With that, an old man rushed out with a hoe. Before he could reach the girl, he was decapitated with a single strike, his head flying off to who knows where, and blood splattered all over the girl. The girl was instantly terrified into a daze.
“Husband!” A shrill scream rang out. A woman ran out, but before she could reach the corpse, she was knocked unconscious with a club.
“Take her away!”
As the massacre began, screams and smoke filled the village.
“Tie up all the women and take them away. Kill everyone else!”
The others received the order and raised their weapons, preparing to unleash a great slaughter on the village.
Just then, a figure on horseback galloped from a distance, it was Tianbao.
Normally, the Tartars would only rob grain and valuables. They generally wouldn't trouble defenseless common folk. At worst, they would take them back north as slaves. Upon closer inspection, it turned out to be a group of Han traitors. These people, when they were in Great Ming, couldn't defeat the Tartars externally, and internally, they only knew how to oppress the common people. Now that they had surrendered to the Tartars, they bullied the common people even more cruelly than the Tartars. No wonder so many Han people were ultimately ruled by a few million Tartars. These Han traitors were even more detestable than the Tartars.
Seeing only one person approaching, this group of Han traitors relaxed. So, they only sent five people to capture him.
No sooner said than done, at the moment the two sides met, Tianbao hugged his horse's neck and ducked down, dodging the opponent's attack. Then he rose, spun, and with one strike, dealt with all five of them. Afterward, he landed steadily back on his horse and continued to charge forward. The remaining enemies were stunned, having never seen someone with such high martial arts skills. Before anyone could react, Tianbao had already dealt with two or three more people. The remaining people immediately swarmed him.
Now there were only seven left, and they were all ordinary soldiers. How could they be a match for Tianbao, the strongest Shaolin martial monk? In a few moves, Tianbao had dealt with most of them.
“Stop! If you don’t stop, I’ll kill her!”
The leader from earlier had, at some point, run to Erya’s side and was holding a knife to her neck.
Even with a knife at her throat, Erya remained in a daze, showing no reaction. Clearly, the recent death of both her parents had terrified her into shock, and she hadn't yet recovered.
“You, a Han person, are even more cruel than the Tartars. You are simply not worthy of being human!”
“Let me go, or I’ll drag someone down with me even in death!”
“Let him go and I can let you leave.”
“You drop the knife first.”
“Alright, I promise you. I’ll throw the knife, and you let her go.” With that, Tianbao threw his knife aside.
The bandit leader dragged Erya slowly to a horse. He quickly mounted it, then, with a backhand, tried to stab Erya.
“You’re asking for death!”
Tianbao immediately kicked the hilt of the knife.
The knife flew directly into the bandit leader’s neck, killing him instantly.
“Hmph, I originally intended to let you go, but you are so vicious. You truly brought this upon yourself.”
Seeing Tianbao kill so many government soldiers, the remaining villagers were both respectful and fearful of him.
Tianbao knew that the common people of this era were like this. So he said to the villagers, “Fellow villagers, these are not the court’s soldiers. They are soldiers who surrendered to the northern Tartars.”
“Tianbao, now that you’ve killed them, will the Tartars come for revenge?”
“Don’t worry, fellow villagers. If the Tartars come again, I will lead you all to fight them off. You saw just now, they kill without batting an eye. Even if you don’t resist, you will still die. If they don’t let us live, then we might as well rebel against them together.”
“Tianbao, how can we rebel against them? We have no weapons, no grain. We don’t even know if we’ll survive this winter.”
“Don’t worry, fellow villagers. Just now, I received guidance from the Heavens. The Heavens gave me a batch of grain and weapons. At least enough to help us survive this winter. Now, to our north are the Tartars, and to our south is Shanhai Pass. Even if we wanted to return inside the Pass, the court wouldn’t allow it. Since that’s the case, why don’t we unite and form a third force here? If they don’t let us live, then we must live well.”
“Good! Anyway, we’ve all already died once. What more can we hope for if we can live?”
“Village Chief, please arrange for a portion of people to collect the bodies of the deceased villagers. Also, ask a dozen or so young men to come with me to get weapons and grain to distribute to everyone. We will now form a team to protect everyone. First, we protect the villagers, and then we’ll talk about other things.”
Tianbao had the System place some grain in his bamboo house in advance. He saw that over twenty people had joined his team. So, he had the System purchase over twenty flintlock rifles and over twenty broadswords.
“Everyone, now that you have taken this grain and these weapons, from now on you will follow me. In these chaotic times, I cannot promise you anything, but at least as long as I live, I will never let you starve.”
“You already saved us once; our entire village owes you a life. Now you’ve brought out so much grain and so many weapons, what more can we say? We can only repay you with our lives. From now on, we will call you Leader.”
“Starting tomorrow, I will drill you, so you can protect yourselves and the villagers. Now, take this grain back and distribute a little to each family. This grain can also be used as seeds; it can still be planted in this season. In a few months, our grain will become more and more abundant.”
“Leader, what kind of grain is this? We’ve never seen it before.”
“These are potatoes, corn, and sweet potatoes, all produced from the other side of the world. They are gifts from the Heavens to us. They can grow in two or three months, and their yield is much higher than our previous grains. Tomorrow, I will lead everyone to plant these grains and also tell you how to eat them.”
From that day on, Tianbao led these villagers in training day and night, sometimes secretly raiding some Tartars or Han traitors. As for the Ming army, as long as the Tartars didn't invade, they dared not leave their gates. They had already collected the summer grain here and then no longer cared about the common people. In one or two months, Tianbao also made contact with several surrounding villages. Some villages accepted his help and joined them. Others were unwilling to join and just muddled along. Tianbao did not make things difficult for them, adhering to the principle of voluntariness; they would all join him eventually. It wasn't yet winter, and the Tartars were not short of grain for the time being. Moreover, their forces were dispersed, and Tianbao's side was also just small skirmishes, with most of the deaths being Han traitors. So, it hadn't yet attracted too much attention from their side.
Three months passed like this, and it was almost October; the autumn harvest was approaching. Even with these small skirmishes over the past few months, Tianbao had eliminated several hundred Han traitors and dozens of Tartars, and just a few days ago, he even ambushed and killed a Niulu Zhangjing with a rifle. This would definitely make the Tartars furious.
Now, he had two hundred seventy-five subordinates, and each was equipped with a flintlock rifle and a broadsword. The next battle would surely be a tough one. If they fought well, they would be able to temporarily establish a foothold.