Chapter 16 Giving Grace

Chapter 16 Giving Grace

Chapter 16 Giving Grace
Zhu Shenzui glanced at Zuoshanhu, then looked at his brothers, but did not speak for a while.

"Boss Wang..."

Seeing Zhu Shenzhui's hesitation, Zuoshanhu couldn't help but plead again. Before he could finish the rest of the words, Zhu Shenzhui suddenly laughed out loud: "Jinwu, take the weapon!"

"Yes!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Wang Jinwu put the knife back without hesitation, which surprised Zuoshanhu.

Zuoshanhu didn't react for a while, until Wang Jinwu sheathed his knife and asked him with a smile why he couldn't get up yet, Zuoshanhu subconsciously touched his neck and realized what was going on.

Zuoshanhu did not pick up the knife he had thrown aside, but stood up and walked towards Zhu Shenzhui. Wang Chuer and others were immediately alert when they saw this, and just wanted to step forward to stop Zuoshanhu, but Zhu Shenzhui raised his hand to stop him.

When he was a few steps away from Zhu Shenzui, Zuoshanhu stopped and bowed down to Zhu Shenzui without saying a word, repeatedly saying that he was not doing anything wrong and thanking Zhu Shenzui for not killing him.

"There is no need to do this, brave man. Get up, get up..." Zhu Shenzhui hurriedly stepped forward and tried to support him with both hands. However, he could not lift him up. He praised him in his heart and exerted more strength with his hands. Finally, he pulled Zuoshanhu up from the ground.

"What strength!" Zuoshanhu was surprised. He didn't expect that Zhu Shenzui, who looked weak, had such great strength in his hands. He always claimed to be strong, but he had already experienced Wang Jinwu's supernatural power when he competed with him just now. If it really came to strength, he was actually slightly inferior to him.

Now, Zhu Shenzhui's strength is not small, even if he is not as strong as himself, he is not much behind. Look at the people behind Zhu Shenzhui, each of them is a strong man, and most of the weapons they hold are military standard. Especially their positions and postures clearly have a military formation, no wonder they have the courage to smuggle salt.

For a moment, Zuoshanhu really regretted that he had offended someone he shouldn't have offended today. He saw that the other side had few people and relied on his own numbers to not observe carefully. Now he finally understood that if a fight really broke out with Zhu Shencui's gang, although Zuoshanhu felt that he might be able to kill a few people on the other side with his own abilities, the casualties on his side would definitely be far greater than that of Zhu Shencui's side.

"Master Tiger..."

"I dare not call you Master." Zuoshanhu shook his head and said with a wry smile, "Boss Wang, my surname is Li and my given name is Hu. You can call me Li Hu or Lao Hu. Master Hu is just a nickname I made up."

"Hahaha, it's okay, it's okay." Zhu Shenzhui laughed. At this time, he was relieved. Although Li Hu had a ferocious face and great martial arts, he was not a bad person. What's more, he was loyal and straightforward. Just now, the knife was on his neck, but he still disregarded his own safety and pleaded for mercy for his brothers. Such a person would never go back on his word as long as he was convinced.

People nowadays are not like people in later generations. They are relatively simpler.

Of course, this only refers to ordinary people. The so-called righteous people are mostly butchers, and the so-called unfaithful people are mostly scholars. If my guess is correct, Li Hu should be from the border army, a man who has experienced fighting in the battlefield, and what he cares most about is a spit and a nail.

The atmosphere softened.

He helped Li Hu up, found a rock to sit on, and asked a few questions. As Zhu Shenzui had expected, it turned out that Li Hu was from a frontier army. Previously, he was not only a small flag officer of the Left Guard of Datong Town, but also a personal soldier (house servant) of the former deputy garrison commander Deng Guozhong.

In the 45th year of the Wanli reign, the Tumed tribe marched southward, attacked the Great Wall and looted. The garrison fled in the face of the enemy. The deputy garrison commander Deng Guozhong led more than a hundred border troops to actively meet the enemy, but unfortunately died for his country due to being outnumbered.

After the war, the Mongols entered the Great Wall to loot and caused heavy losses. In order to shirk responsibility, officials at all levels not only did not honor Deng Guozhong who died in the battle, but instead put him in the wrong. His family was exiled and his wife and daughter were sent to the Jiaofangsi. The upright Li Hu was implicated for speaking out for Deng Guozhong. Under the suppression from above, he was arrested and imprisoned, his military position was reduced, and he was finally convicted and sent to Wuxiang Coal Mine to work as a miner.

No one expected that fighting for the country would end up like this. Li Hu felt disheartened.

Life is even worse at the coal mine. Neither the mine supervisor, the tax collector, nor the managers below are good people. They do not treat the miners as human beings at all. It is common for them to deduct and exploit them, and they will beat or scold them for no reason.

As time went by, Li Hu could no longer bear this anger. Once, the manager beat two miners to death in front of everyone because of a trivial matter, which immediately aroused the miners' resistance.

Li Hu, who was already dissatisfied with this, suddenly exploded. After all, he had served in the frontier army and as a low-ranking officer. In addition, Li Hu's straightforward personality and good skills made him respected as the big brother among the miners. Li Hu led his men to kill the mine manager and vented his anger.

Killing someone, and the person who killed him was a mine supervisor, was no small matter, but since it had been done, it was impossible to turn back.

Li Hu used to be a border soldier. Afterwards he understood very well that they could not stay in this place any longer. If they stayed here and waited for the mine supervisor to come to his senses and mobilize troops, none of them would be able to escape.

In this way, Li Hu decisively packed up his brothers who had resisted together and fled the mining area overnight, then turned south all the way, hiding from place to place for several months before running from Wuxiang to here. Arriving at Yangtou Mountain, Li Hu and his brothers temporarily settled down on the mountain. Although they were far away from Wuxiang and avoided the pursuit of the mine supervisor, the most important thing was how to survive.

These people have nothing except their personal belongings. Even the place they stay in Yangtou Mountain was found temporarily in the past few days, not to mention other things.

The weather is getting colder, and we will not be able to survive the winter without food. Moreover, if we want to stay here permanently, we have to think of other ways besides food, and all of this requires money.

After much thought, Li Hu now had only one solution, which was to occupy the mountain and rob the rich to help the poor.

They had no choice but to do so, so Li Hu and others raised the banner of "Mountain Tiger" and started a business with no capital in Yangtou Mountain.

But he didn't expect to run into Zhu Shenzhui's tough gang the first time he opened his business. Not only did he fail to scare them, but he accidentally fell into their hands. When the gunshot rang out and Wang Jinwu's knife was on Li Hu's neck again, Li Hu was completely desperate and ready to die on the spot.

After listening to Li Hu's story, Zhu Shenzui suddenly realized. No wonder he thought that Li Hu and his gang were not real strong men before. After all the fuss, it turned out to be such a thing.

"Sixth Master, I am blind and have offended you today..."

"Ignorance is not a crime. There is no need to mention the past." Zhu Shenzhui waved his hand and then asked Li Hu how many people there were in his group and where they were settled.

Li Hu told Zhu Shenzui that there were more than a hundred of them, and those who followed him out today were mostly young and strong, while the rest and their families who escaped with him were all settled in the mountains.

As for where to stay, Li Hu sighed and said that they would stay temporarily at the Laojun Temple.

This place was found by chance when I arrived at Yangtou Mountain. Although the Laojun Temple had been abandoned long ago, there were still some ruins that could be used as shelter. These days, Li Hu and his men built some thatched huts in the Laojun Temple, hoping to survive this winter.

"It's not easy for any of them." Patting Li Hu on the shoulder, Zhu Shenzhui sighed, thought for a moment, then turned back to Wang Jinwu and said, "Go! Bring some rice!"

Wang Jinwu responded, but did not leave immediately. He asked Zhu Shenzhui in a daze how much he should take.

Zhu Shenzhui cursed with a smile, and said directly that he only needed to leave three days' supplies and the rest could be taken. Wang Jinwu grinned and agreed, then ran back happily.

"Sixth Master, what are you doing...?" Li Hu heard the conversation between Zhu Shenzhui and Wang Jinwu clearly. He asked with his eyes wide open in disbelief.

"We didn't bring much rice with us when we went out, so we can only leave some for you for now." Zhu Shenzhui waved for Wang Chuer to come over, took the silver money that Wang Chuer had just asked him to get, weighed it in his hand, and stuffed it directly into Li Hu's arms: "Take these first, and when I return in a few days, I will send you some more rice and farm tools."

"This this……."

Li Hu didn't know what to say for a moment. He held the change and leather coins that Zhu Shenzhui stuffed into his hands. Listening to Zhu Shenzhui's words, his eyes turned red despite his being a strong man. Thinking of his previous disrespect to Zhu Shenzhui, Li Hu knelt down with a plop and kowtowed to Zhu Shenzhui repeatedly.

"Big brother...!"

Li Hu's action caused a commotion among the people not far away. They thought something had happened. A few anxious men couldn't help but shout loudly and walked towards this side.

Afraid that Zhu Shenzhui would misunderstand, Li Hu quickly turned around and shouted to his brothers, then stood up, raised his hand to wipe the corners of his eyes, and then walked towards his brothers.

When he got closer, Li Hu told his brothers what had just happened. After listening to Li Hu's explanation, everyone looked at each other in surprise, and then their brows were filled with joy.

They never expected such an outcome. Logically speaking, Zhu Shencui had already been very kind by sparing Li Hu's life, and now Zhu Shencui actually gave them silver and rice. This... this was really...

(End of this chapter)