Chapter 55: Buying the People's Hearts
Chapter 55: Buying the People's Hearts (Extra Update for Jin Gua Po Luan Han Cuo)
Under the night.
Zhang Yu rode a tall horse and, surrounded by more than 200 soldiers, charged up Dongliupo.
In front of the Huang Mansion’s gate, a lantern fell to the ground.
He pointed his whip and said with a smile: "Go in and capture Huang Batian alive. This village chief will reward you handsomely!"
Holding torches and guns, the crowd rushed into the gate of the villa.
"kill!"
"Kill!"
With the old brothers of the Wild Wolf Gang as the skeleton and the minions of the Black Wind Village as the branches, this team was hastily trained. They cannot be said to have tacit understanding and the formation is messy, but it is enough to deal with Dongliu Villa.
Zhang Yu did not go in, but led more than 20 people to guard outside the main gate to prevent any fish from slipping through the net.
The front and back gates of the villa have been blocked by Qingfeng Village. The situation of catching Huang Batian in a jar has been established and there is no way he can escape.
"Capture Huang Batian, and you will be promoted to a higher level and rewarded with 100 taels."
"Those who seize and return the property to the public but keep it for themselves shall be flogged 60 times, and if they do it again, they shall be beheaded immediately.
Zhao Xia shouted the seven rules of the village issued by Zhang Yu while wielding a long-handled Xuanhua axe as the vanguard. The fifty or so guards of the Huang family had neither the will nor the ability to fight, and a few diehards could not survive more than three turns before they were killed by the axe.
Bullies can oppress the good, but they cannot defeat bandits.
The battle ended quickly.
Resist, die, surrender, that's all.
The guards were driven out of the house, and the wives, concubines, maids and servants were all detained separately. Teams of soldiers came out of the mansion, but they only arrested the unlucky second son of the Huang family, Huang Fugui, but took away Huang Batian and his son Huang Fuchun.
These two people are the ones who control Dongliu Villa.
Huang Fugui tried to escape through the back door but was shot in the left leg by an arrow and started bleeding profusely.
"Reporting to the village chief, Huang Fugui is here!"
Zhang Yu glanced at the long-armed man carrying a long bow. He was a former small leader of the Black Wind Village archery team and a deserter from the border army. Because he had been stationed in the mountain village for many years and had not committed any bloodshed himself, he escaped the purge.
"Mr. Huang, we meet again."
Huang Fu knelt on the ground and said in a trembling voice, "Master Zhang, the visiting card has already been handed over to my father. Why did you come here in person?"
Zhang Yu laughed and said, "I've been waiting for three days, but no food or grass has been brought up the mountain. I'm impatient, so I have to come and get it myself!"
Huang Fugui kowtowed and said, "Everything in Dongliu Villa belongs to King Zhang. I just want to save my life!"
Zhang Yu didn't answer him, but asked with a smile: "Where is Huang Batian?"
Huang Fugui hesitated: "My father...my father..."
Zhang Yu's voice turned cold: "If you don't want to tell me, then I'll kill you first, Chen Wu, and chop off Master Huang's head."
The big man with a bow on his back was worried that he had no chance to show off, so he quickly agreed. He tied up Huang Fugui's hair with his left hand, drew out the beheading knife with his right hand, and held it to his neck. This was the standard posture for cutting off heads in the army.
Chen Wu looked at Zhang Yu, waiting for the order, and then he killed Huang Fugui.
"Please spare my life, my dear. There is a tunnel in the mansion that leads directly to the bottom of the mountain. My father and my brother must have left through the tunnel."
Zhang Yu smiled and said, "Then why didn't you leave? Is your father partial to you? Is he keeping you here to cover for him?"
Huang Fugui said with a sad face: "I am biased, but it's mainly because my room is far from the secret passage, so I didn't have time... just..."
Zhang Yu was about to give the order to search for Huang Batian and his son when he suddenly saw several ragged men escorting two men up the slope.
The two men were the Huang family father and son who were usually so majestic and arrogant. They promised countless benefits on the way, but it was difficult to change the poor men's iron will. When Huang Batian saw the black-robed swordsman riding on the horse, his face turned pale.
"I am Sun Tong, a humble man, and I am honored to meet the great kings of Black Wind Village. The Huang family father and son have been captured and are being presented to the great kings for disposal."
The leading man stepped out. He was skinny and holding a rusty kitchen knife in his hand, looking a little ridiculous.
Chen Wu was good at shooting, so he could tell the difference between good and evil. He stepped forward and said, "The Black Wind Village has committed crimes, angering the gods and the people. It has brought destruction upon itself. Now we are in front of the Qingfeng Village. Our village leader Zhang is a chivalrous man who is always on the side of justice. If you have any problems, you can report to him."
Zhang Yu thought to himself that there were talented people within ten miles, and Chen Wu was also a talent who could be used in the future.
Seeing these poor men, with tattered clothes and shoes, shivering in the snow, he asked, "Are you the farmhands of Huang?"
Sun Tong said: "I am a tenant farmer, and they are farmhands."
Zhang Yu looked at Chen Wu and said, "Strip off the clothes of the Huang family father and son and wrap them for the four warriors!"
Upon hearing the order, Chen Wu immediately stripped them naked. Each of them had at least three pieces of clothes on, which was enough for Sun Tong and others.
Huang's father and son were both fat, like three fat pigs. They folded their arms and shivered as they stood on the snow.
Sun Tong and others put on silk clothes that were as soft as clouds, and felt a warm current in their hearts. A gentleman will die for his friend. How could they, little people whose lives were as worthless as grass, have ever received such courtesy?
The four men bowed their heads and said, "We are willing to die for the village leader!"
"Get up,"
Zhang Yu nodded slightly. These four men dared to capture Huang Batian, which showed that they had some courage. Qingfeng Village was in need of people at that time, so he was trying to win people's hearts and minds, which naturally meant that he wanted to accept the four men.
Huang Batian's face turned pale, and he begged bitterly, "Zhang...Zhang Village Master, I have already prepared the money and food according to the visiting card. For the sake of Gang Master Sikong, please give my father and me some respect."
Zhang Yu ignored him and said to Sun Tong, "The village chief is going to open the granary to distribute grain. You four should inform all farmhands and tenants to gather in front of Dongliu Villa before dawn."
Sun Tong and others were overjoyed. After bowing to express their gratitude, they quickly went down the slope.
Zhao Xia walked up to Zhang Yuma. The woman was almost as tall as the horse. She was wearing a white satin mink robe, and her chest was bulging like the undulating mountains.
Zhang Yu was in a commanding position, with a commanding view of the entire scenery. He felt a little embarrassed and deliberately looked away into the distance.
She placed the still bleeding long-handled axe on the ground and happily reported, "Sir, we are rich!"
"We found eight hundred dan of grain, two thousand jin of tea, and twenty cans of Yunwu Xian Tea."
"Eight fine horses, and more than thirty cattle, donkeys and other livestock."
"In a cellar, we also found 80,000 taels of silver, 3,000 taels of gold, two baskets of antique paintings and calligraphy, and 100 pieces of jewelry. The value is unknown."
Zhang Yu was very happy after hearing this, thinking that the battle was not in vain.
He said to Zhao Xia: "The most urgent task is to spend the money and grain as quickly as possible."
Zhao Xia said: "If we want to recruit soldiers, we can issue a recruitment order in the martial arts world."
Zhang Yu nodded and said, "Those who share the same ideals can come to the mountain. For the martial arts masters, we will issue a recruitment order to win them over. As for the ordinary village guards, we can recruit them from the tenants and farmhands tonight."
In front of the gate of Dongliu Villa, three or four hundred ragged people gathered one after another. There were few old, weak, women and children, and most of them were men who were so cold and hungry that they were just skin and bones.
The two vermilion doors had been taken down and were being burned as firewood.
Two iron pots were set up on the open space, cooking thick white rice porridge. Under the pressure of swords, Miss Huan put Huang Batian's treasured ginseng, deer antlers, and ham into the pots and stewed them as if they were free. The fragrance wafted far away.
Those who were originally skeptical about Sun Tong's words, thinking that the Huang family wanted to lure them to death, but were attracted by the meat porridge and went up the slope.
Thank you Mr. Han for the reward. I feel ashamed to accept it. For online literature, the life of a book may not be long, but some fragments are shocking and can be remembered for a long time. Look at Han Cuoda's hammer that turned the tide in "Zai Zhi Tian Xia", Gao San and Princess Li's final farewell in "Da Tang Eunuch", and the ending of the male protagonist and Xiao Xia in "Tosa Dream". I hope that this book can leave you with a fragment that you can occasionally think about many years later. That is the author's greatest honor. Thank you again to all the book friends.
(End of this chapter)