Chapter 86: The Ancient Regime's Lax Grassroots Control

For an honest, decent person, killing for the first time often brings fear, even causing vomiting and dizziness.

But for someone who has just been sold into slavery and whose wife was sold to a brothel, killing the very person who sold their wife to a brothel is a different matter.

In that case, the feeling would not be fear, but the sheer satisfaction of exacting revenge, so these thugs suffered terribly.

Three hundred villagers stabbed each thug several times with their long spears before finally stopping.

Li Bapi, who witnessed the gruesome state of these thugs, was so terrified that he soiled himself, believing his own fate would be even worse than theirs.

However, the villagers were not in a hurry to deal with him; after all, these three hundred villagers came from several villages, and it would be truly gratifying to first capture the landlords from the other villages before processing them.

When they grabbed their long spears, determined to fight to the death, they finally realized how hollow and weak those who had oppressed them every day truly were.

These bodyguards, who were supposedly skilled in Wu Gong, did not even have the courage to fight to the death against a group of dirt-poor peasants; they simply ran. It was a shame that these landlord masters had fed them well and treated them to fine wine and food, yet when it came to real combat, not a single one of them was useful.

After capturing these landlords, Zhang Chu'an immediately began a struggle session, dragging them up onto a high platform for the villagers to denounce them.

Under the leadership of several villagers, the entire gathering was filled with righteous indignation; curses and accusations never ceased, as everyone had some grudge against them, however small, but had been too afraid of their status to retaliate in the past.

Now that these people were bound on the platform and their death was imminent, there was nothing left to fear.

After denouncing these landlords, Zhang Chu'an mercifully gave them the same death as that group of thugs.

After killing these people, the three hundred villagers, holding red-tasseled spears to avenge their wrongs, felt a comfort they had never known before; at that moment, they felt that even if they were beheaded, it would be worth it.

Just then, Zhang Chu'an stepped forward and shouted loudly:

"Alright, fellow villagers, now that we have overthrown the landlords and rich capitalists, our next step is to establish a government here where the people have the final say, with no corrupt officials, no Jin people, and no dog Emperor to oppress us. Do you agree?"

"Yes!" everyone shouted in unison.

Over the past two months, the actions of Zhang Chu'an and Zhang Xiaofan had deeply moved them; such people would certainly not deceive or exploit them.

"Then the first thing our government must do is confiscate the property of the landlords and rich capitalists and distribute land according to the population of each household. For those families whose men have joined the army, our government will have a plowing team to farm the land for you." After Zhang Chu'an finished speaking, the crowd below erupted in cheers and jubilation.

Zhang Chu'an turned to look at the troops he had just formed behind him and asked, "Are you willing to stay? Are you willing to fight to defend the government where you are the masters? Are you willing to fight to defend the regime that serves your families? Are you willing to join the cause of serving the broad masses of the people?"

"We are willing," everyone said without hesitation.

Naturally, they were willing to stay here; no matter what, they had an attachment to their homeland, and staying here would allow them to care for their families.

But would it be safe enough to stay here?

Soon, someone in the crowd raised a question: "Mr. Zhang, if we openly rebel right here, won't the government send troops to crush us?"

"There is no need to fear; today you have seen that those who oppressed you every day were nothing but paper tigers. They looked fierce and aggressive, but actually, as soon as they touched water, they went soft. The soldiers in the county town are no better; they do not have the courage to fight you to the death." After comforting them, Zhang Chu'an shifted his tone:

"Of course, although these soldiers do not have the courage to fight to the death, they do have the courage to bully the weak and fear the strong. Therefore, we must train well during this period and take the enemy seriously in our tactics; only then can we defend the place where we are the masters and ensure fewer deaths."

After finishing his speech, Zhang Chu'an sighed again; even in street brawls and arranged fights, people die, let alone in brutal class warfare. He suddenly remembered the words Yuan Lang had said to him in the special forces world: "I admire an old soldier who said that despite his utmost efforts, he dared not speak lightly of victory; he only wished for fewer of his subordinates to die on the battlefield. He said this was the humanity of a soldier."

Now it was his turn to experience this; could they withstand this trial and completely change this world?

Zhang Chu'an did not know; he only knew he had to do every task at hand well, such as distributing land, establishing judicial organs, and organizing the villagers to produce, so that the villagers' living standards would gradually improve.

Only in this way could the newly formed Red Guard understand that what they were protecting was their own interests; no amount of ideological education could compare to them witnessing their own families gradually improving.

Of course, one must also pay close attention to the movements of the county yamen and the government at all times; after all, since they burned the relay station and killed the landlords, the county yamen would definitely send troops to crush them, otherwise they could not explain themselves to their superiors.

Soon, Zhang Xiaofan in the county town informed him of the county yamen's movements; since the relay station had been burned, the yamen was posting wanted notices to hunt down the runaway slaves, and not a single bodyguard who had fled from the landlords' homes had gone to report the incident.

Zhang Chu'an was somewhat stunned but quickly figured it out; as a bodyguard, if he abandoned his master to flee and then reported the incident, it would ruin his reputation; once his reputation was ruined, it would be very difficult to make a living in this trade.

This situation was indeed somewhat beyond his expectations; previously, he had carefully surveyed the local terrain and formulated a battle plan to set an ambush on the necessary route they would take.

As it turned out, they didn't even know that he had raised the flag and rebelled early; the grassroots control was far too weak.

Before coming here to open the night school, he had investigated the deployment of troops in the county; there were a total of three patrol inspectors.

Each patrol inspector had over a hundred men under his command, totaling three hundred people; this was the entire military deployment of the county yamen.

If three hundred patrol inspectors fought against their three hundred guerrillas, even if the guerrillas were exceptionally brave, and even if he and Zhang Xiaofan were highly skilled in Wu Gong, the three hundred guerrillas would still suffer many casualties.

But if they waited until the next time tax collectors came to collect taxes to discover their situation, and the next tax collection was supposed to be in three months, three months! That was enough time for him to establish party organizations and build branches down to the company level.

By then, this unit would be a force with faith, and he could issue Type 56 semi-automatic rifles to them.

If three hundred Type 56 semi-automatic rifles faced cavalry, the outcome would still be uncertain, but if they faced infantry, as far as he knew, the Jin Kingdom was currently extremely short of horses; warhorses had to be purchased from Western Xia, and cavalry, as an elite force, could not possibly be assigned to patrol inspector units.

That said, the county yamen probably shouldn't give him such an opportunity; if they gave him such an opportunity and he used his knowledge of the terrain to ambush them, would that not be a bit like bullying?