Chapter 99: Mistaking Fierce Bandits for Gods of Wealth

The rain that had been drizzling for two days stopped, and County Magistrate Village was just about to wake from the morning mist.

Zhu Xiuer rose before dawn, while the man beside her was still snoring like thunder.

Everything was quiet all around, and she carried a wooden bucket to the lake to fetch water. County Magistrate Lake was calm today, and among the wild grasses on the shore, mountain peach blossoms were shyly blooming with small pinkish-white flowers. White mist swirled between the water and the sky, making the lake view look like a fairyland.

Zhu Xiuer stood dazed for a while, and only when a string of bubbles emerged on the nearby lake surface did she grab the bucket and walk back with a stumbling gait.

If other village women were here, they would likely laugh at her for having too little strength, as the bucket was only eighty percent full.

Passing by the County Magistrate Shrine, she glanced inside, and her footsteps stopped.

The County Magistrate Shrine was the most exquisite building in the entire County Magistrate Village, with white walls and blue tiles; the brick walls were laid out neatly, and the tiles had been specially transported from outside, shining brightly whenever washed by the rain.

No matter the time, only two spirit tablets were enshrined in the County Magistrate Shrine. But she saw now that one of the tablets was broken.

It was broken into two pieces, with the top half fallen onto the offering table.

Perhaps it was some child's prank. Zhu Xiuer did not go closer to look, and carried the bucket away.

Returning home, she hurried to light the stove to boil water and knead dough to make pancakes, then went to the pen behind the house to feed the chickens and pigs.

Then, the two children woke up.

The babies were still small, one two years old and one four years old; dressing, putting on shoes, and washing their faces all had to be done by her.

Once the children cried, her parents-in-law also woke up, rubbing their eyes as they walked out, shouting at her to hurry up with the meal.

She brought the salted fish, pickles, pancakes, and grain porridge to the table, then took a basin of warm water into the inner room to wake the man: "It's dawn, Father said we need to harvest the last of the wheat today."

The man grumbled twice, very displeased, and dawdled for over a quarter of an hour before getting up.

Only after sending the father and son off did Zhu Xiuer catch her breath and sit down, leaning against the doorframe.

Her mother-in-law walked over and threw two pieces of clothing at her: "Don't be lazy, mend them."

As the children played nearby, she was sewing the second piece of clothing when a commotion suddenly broke out in the village.

Zhu Xiuer paid no mind, yet before long, four or five people came to her door and dragged her away without a word.

Her mother-in-law was terrified; she chased after them and saw several villagers throwing her daughter-in-law in front of the County Magistrate Shrine. The village head's face was livid as he pointed at the spirit tablet in the shrine and asked her: "Was this your doing?"

"Doing what?" Zhu Xiuer asked blankly, "I didn't do anything."

"Did you break it? The tablet was fine last night."

"It has nothing to do with me." Zhu Xiuer protested, "Maybe it was the village children."

"Old Seven."

As soon as the village head called out, a thin, small man stepped out from the side: "This morning, I only saw Zhu Xiuer walk past the shrine."

Zhu Xiuer said coldly: "You were here too; maybe it was you who broke it."

Old Seven slapped her across the face.

The village head said: "We will wait for your man to return; we want justice."

Having said that, two villagers locked her inside the shrine.

Her mother-in-law cursed her for causing trouble outside, then soon left as well.

That evening, the farmers who had gone out to work returned, and surprisingly, a merchant caravan was traveling with them.

This caravan had about thirty or forty people, driving ten large carts. The village children went up to ask for candy, but the other party spread their hands—they had none.

The village head went up to greet them, and the leader immediately held up several ten-tael silver ingots: "We would like to stay here tonight and set off early tomorrow morning."

This man was tall and sturdy with a booming voice. Zhu Xiuer watched him through the gaps in the shrine's bricks and felt that he didn't match the silk robes he was wearing.

The village head had been suspicious at first, but felt at ease upon seeing the large silver. The other party had money, so what could they possibly covet from them? Thus, the caravan settled in, dispersing to stay at various households.

With outsiders present, it was inconvenient for the village head to deal with the matter of the shrine's spirit tablet; as the saying goes, family scandals should not be aired in public.

The caravan leader asked him: "I thought the place where the High Ancestor raised his army would be very prosperous."

"Those who leave never come back." The village head sighed, "They are all ungrateful wolves!"

"This place is good, peaceful; and there are so many people, more than I expected." Other villages had two hundred people at most, but this County Magistrate Village had over three hundred, and the place was large. The leader smiled, "Coming along the way, I saw the wheat fields were all harvested; you all really worked hard today. Is everyone back?"

"Yes, we can plant rice in two days." The village head took a beat to recover; how did these outsiders know they had been especially hard-working today? "How did you..."

The caravan leader suddenly whistled, one long and two short.

In the quiet little village, this whistle was especially loud.

The village head sensed something was wrong and shouted "Help," but before he could even finish the word, the caravan leader knocked him unconscious.

Immediately after, screams and wails rang out everywhere in the village.

The young, strong men in the village grabbed their tools to resist, but who knew that two hundred people would suddenly emerge from the surrounding bushes, surrounding them completely. When the other side used the old and weak as hostages to threaten them, the men dropped their farm tools.

Within a quarter of an hour, the chaos had ceased.

The men, women, and children of the village were all driven empty-handed to the open space in front of the village shrine, surrounded by two or three hundred people glaring at them, each holding weapons with fierce glints in their eyes.

The County Magistrate villagers finally understood that they had mistaken fierce bandits for gods of wealth and welcomed them into the village.

The caravan leader was just about to speak when a red-tailed falcon flew down from the sky and landed on his shoulder, speaking in human language: "Government troops are coming here from the southwest, three or four hundred of them, fifteen miles away."

The bandits were startled, but the villagers were overjoyed.

The government troops were here; were they saved?

A bandit said: "General, the pursuers are here!"

"If they are pursuers, why would they come from the southwest?" The leader frowned and asked the red-tailed falcon, "Are you sure they are government troops?"

"They are government troops, but their uniforms are different from the ones we fought at Woling Pass; they have green armor on their shoulders." The red-tailed falcon added, "By the way, there are women in that group!"

The leader's expression settled, and he even chuckled: "Why would pursuers bring women with them?"

His subordinate remained worried: "They are coming here, what should we do?"

The leader sneered: "They have people, and we have people, what is there to fear? We cannot let them ruin things; find someone to go to the town and report this."

A confidant leaned in and whispered a few words, and he nodded: "That's a good idea."

Then he gave an order to the villagers:

"Those who do not have children under eleven years old at home, step forward."

The crowd hesitated, not daring to step forward.

The leader smiled: "Those who don't come out will be the ones in trouble."

So a large group of villagers stepped forward.

The leader ordered these people to walk to the water's edge, then raised his blade and chopped off the head of the nearest person.

"Kill them all!"

The villagers screamed, and some struggled to resist.

But with women, children, the old, and the weak in the group, how could they be a match for the wolf-like, tiger-like fierce bandits? It was a one-sided massacre.

By the time the last person's cries for help were extinguished, the lake water was dyed red with blood.

Corpses lay scattered in all directions, numbering over a hundred.

(End of chapter)