Chapter 137: The Satisfaction of Avenging a Great Grudge

Although the Southern Song army's combat effectiveness was poor, it still exerted some military pressure on the Jin Kingdom's southern border, preventing them from withdrawing to fight a civil war in the short term.

In the eastern region, the lands of Qi and Lu are about to fall into his hands; in the central Hebei region, they are already in his grasp. With a broad mass base and superior firepower and equipment, any enemy that dares to invade can be annihilated here.

As for the Jin army in the west, Nie Huaishang and Guo Jing must have already set out by now.

Several states in the west have a large number of internal sympathizers within their revolutionary army; I believe they can capture them without lifting a finger.

In four or five months, their new army must have already completed its expansion.

The Western Xia Liberation Zone where Guo Jing is located can mobilize roughly three hundred thousand troops, while the Mongol Liberation Zone where Nie Huaishang is located can mobilize one hundred thousand troops.

At this very moment, Heizi, who has been reorganized as a member of the revolutionary army, is marching forward cheerfully, humming a song with his comrades.

If the him of half a year ago had seen his current self and the things he is about to do, he would have been incredulous, just as the current him finds it incomprehensible to look back on his own and his neighbors' past actions.

He doesn't understand why he used to fight, kill, rob, and set fires for the slave masters, doing countless bad deeds, only for the stolen money to end up in the masters' pockets.

The territories they conquered became grazing grounds for the masters; at that time, if the masters were willing to bestow a tiny, insignificant gift out of great mercy, they would kneel on the ground, kowtow, and thank the masters for their benevolence and compassion, feeling that their efforts over these days had not been in vain.

This behavior is like a stray dog in a poor place that, even without anyone feeding it, will lick up a pile of human excrement and think it smells delicious.

But will a dog that has eaten good meat think excrement smells good? Heizi has never seen the dogs of high officials and nobles eating excrement.

It is just like how, after living under the People's Government for only half a month, he was already afraid that Standing Committee Member Guo would leave.

He remembers how many Western Xia people at the time were clamoring to enthroned Standing Committee Member Guo as the King of Western Xia, only to be taken away by the police for criticism and education for over ten days.

When they learned that Standing Committee Member Guo had no intention of becoming the so-called King of Western Xia, he and his nearby neighbors were sad and distressed for a long time; after all, from birth until now, their kings had never let them eat their fill for more than ten consecutive days. An old man in the village, who was over seventy, said that since his birth, he had never eaten his fill for so many days.

When he was young and ate his fill, it was usually only when battles required suicide squads that army commanders would let these squads eat a full meal; for the sake of this full meal, the lives of those who marched with him were lost.

Only he was lucky enough to survive and return; he stayed in the army until he reached sixty before going home, but when he returned, only he was left in the house. His son, his old mother, and his wife had all died under the burden of heavy taxes.

He remembers when the revolutionary army first broke in and opened the granaries to distribute grain to the villagers; the old man specifically took a bag of grain and placed it before his family's graves. That night, the usually taciturn old man talked a lot, rambling on about matters from his youth at home.

In the end, the old man cried for a long time before his family's graves. He said how much better it would have been if Standing Committee Member Guo had been born a few decades earlier; if he had become their King of Western Xia, not only would his family not have starved to death, but they could have eaten their fill at every meal. At that time, his son would have already married, and he could have been playing with his grandchildren.

He remembers when Western Xia people from ten miles around were clamoring for Standing Committee Member Guo to stay and become the King of Western Xia and were arrested; the old man fainted directly from anger and only recovered after a long while. His first words upon waking were, "Sons, I plan to deal with those monks being held in the prison today. Standing Committee Member Guo must be unwilling to stay here because he fears these people will oppose him."

The old man is old, has lived long enough, and has no family left; today he is willing to sacrifice his life to leave a cleaner world for you young ones.

Regarding the monks, they held them in awe from the bottom of their hearts; they believed this group held control over their lives after death and the families they would be reborn into in the next life, and under no circumstances could they offend them.

However, the old man was not afraid. In his youth, to honor the gods, his wife's wedding night was given to the monks, yet in his entire life he was both bitter and poor, and he failed to protect his family.

He felt that everything the monks said was just tricking fools like them who understood nothing. This remark resonated with the brave young men in the village, and that same day, several of them pressed their handprints to go deal with the monks being held in the prison.

Unfortunately, they were discovered by the alert revolutionary army while infiltrating the prison, and in the end, their efforts came to nothing. The director of the Public Security Bureau, who was in charge of the interrogation, listened and said with a mix of laughter and tears, "You guys, just put your hearts at ease. Standing Committee Member Guo does not intend to be the King of Western Xia, but that does not mean he plans to leave."

"If Standing Committee Member Guo doesn't want to be our king, what is he staying here for?" The few of them were somewhat confused.

"Kings trample on you to exploit and squeeze you, and the governments they establish are for you to serve the king. But Standing Committee Member Guo intends to establish a government where people like you are the masters of their own destiny, where you have the final say." The director in charge of interrogating them explained patiently.

Although they did not understand what the director meant by a government where the people are the masters, they were still very happy to hear that Standing Committee Member Guo was not leaving.

Since their actions caused no damage and served as excellent propaganda material for Western Xia people yearning for the People's Government, the few of them were detained for over ten days and then released.

After being released, they felt a comfort unlike anything before. During those ten-plus days, the police in charge of guarding them told them many things; simply put, from now on, they would be the masters of the country here.

They could walk with their heads held high and meet officials without kneeling, because officials were not their "parents" but public servants serving the broad masses of laboring people like them.

After being released, their lives got better and better. First, the revolutionary army vigorously carried out land reform here, distributing the things that monks and bureaucrats had acquired through cunning and force to them.

They now had land, cattle, sheep, and grain. The most satisfying part was the struggle sessions, where they, the poor and lowly who had to kowtow and kneel whenever they saw a master, could point at their noses and scold them.

For the local tyrants and evil gentry who oppressed the people, as well as the monsters and demons, not only must they be struggled against, but they must be overthrown. Local tyrants and evil gentry who had oppressed the people were sentenced according to the law; those with blood on their hands were immediately shot. Monks who used religion to monopolize women's first times were sentenced to life imprisonment, with the possibility of commutation based on their later performance.

Cases involving three or more people were considered serious circumstances and immediately sentenced to death. It must be known that the status of Western Xia monks was very high; even the first times of the wives of princes and nobles had to be handed over to them.

Cases involving fewer than three people were almost non-existent, and bureaucrats and local tyrants with no blood on their hands were virtually extinct. The promulgation of this set of laws meant that the revolutionary army would be executing people in droves; almost all adult ruling classes in Western Xia, and even a portion of the minor ruling classes, were to be executed.

For a time, heads rolled throughout Western Xia, but the lower-class Western Xia people felt no fear or tension; instead, they experienced a sense of satisfaction from having their great grudge avenged.