Chapter 99: Scholars Are Truly Wicked

Besides Jirghu'adai and Borjigin, the two other veterans from the revolutionary army who advanced to the semi-finals were named Sabechi and Li Su.

As the final began, Borjigin raised his hand and requested the target be set at a distance of seven hundred paces. Gazing at the target which had become a black dot, Borjigin encouraged himself not to be nervous; he was Borjigin, the bravest warrior on the grassland, and would not lose to anyone.

After steadying the rifle, Borjigin quickly pulled the trigger. Following the consecutive bangs of the shots, the voice of the range officer came from afar.

"Borjigin, one hundred points."

Hearing the range officer's voice, the scene erupted in a clamor; they truly did not expect two competitors capable of scoring one hundred points to appear today.

Sabechi and Li Su exchanged a glance, their eyes filled with helplessness; they had thought the championship of this shooting competition would be born between the two of them, but who could have expected two dark horses to emerge from the new recruits.

They simply could not compare to these two monsters; unlike the others, Jirghu'adai's gaze toward Borjigin held no shock, but rather a considerable amount of appreciation.

"Scoring this result proves you are a very formidable genius, but there is still a gap between geniuses. If I were not here this time, the weapon capable of killing enemies from fifteen hundred meters away would have belonged to you. Pity there is no 'if'." Having spoken, Jirghu'adai put away his previous laziness, his expression becoming serious. Raising his hand, he shouted, "I request the target be moved to a position eight hundred meters away."

Upon hearing this, the people present erupted in a clamor; Jirghu'adai's tone was truly bold. At a distance of eight hundred paces, he might miss the target entirely, and that would be a resounding slap in the face.

Under the shocked gazes of everyone, Jirghu'adai pulled the trigger. After ten gunshots rang out, the voice of the range personnel spread throughout the entire field.

"All ten shots hit the target, a score of ninety-five points."

Hearing this result, Jirghu'adai looked completely relaxed and unsurprised; after all, he had great confidence in himself, but Borjigin was utterly dumbfounded.

It was as if you exerted all your strength to achieve a result, only to find it was merely someone else's threshold; that feeling was truly quite unpleasant.

However, Borjigin soon stopped feeling unpleasant, because the top ten all received rewards. He was also awarded a sniper rifle; although its performance was inferior to the one in Jirghu'adai's hands, it was far superior to his original Type 56 semi-automatic rifle.

After the so-called shooting competition concluded, the reorganization of the army was preliminarily completed. A force of twelve thousand troops, plus the previous captives and tribal members who had enlisted, totaled approximately fifty thousand people.

One brigade was expanded into one division. After the army reorganization was completed, they annihilated the Taichi'ut tribe. During the troop engagement, Temujin and his party took advantage of the chaos to flee.

At the same time, seven strange people arrived on the Mongol grassland: a blind man, a butcher, a woodcutter, a groom, a small merchant, a scholar, and a delicate young woman.

These seven were the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan. Traveling from south to north, they tracked Duan Tiande all the way to the great desert, after which they heard no more news. For over six years, they had searched for Duan Tiande and Li Ping's whereabouts in the deserts and on the grasslands; all seven had learned to speak Mongolian, but Duan and Li remained completely without a trace.

The Seven Freaks of Jiangnan possessed resolute characters and were extremely competitive. Having made this wager with Qiu Chuji, let alone merely searching for a woman, even if the task were ten times more difficult or ten thousand times more perilous, they would absolutely not stop or retreat. All seven shared the same thought: if they could never find Li Ping, they would continue searching for eighteen full years, and only then go to the Drunken Immortal Tower in Jiaxing to admit defeat to Qiu Chuji.

Moreover, Qiu Chuji might not necessarily find Bao Shi, the wife of Yang Tiexin. If both sides failed to find their targets, resulting in a draw, they might as well propose another challenge and compete again.

"Big Brother, why do the tribes on this great desert fight so often, making our search for people so unsettled during this period?" Recalling recent experiences, Han Xiaoying couldn't help but sigh; within a short year, several major battles had occurred consecutively on the grassland.

"Sigh, every time there is war, it is the common people who suffer. However, we fear Li Ping and her son may have died in the turmoil." Speaking thus, Zhu Cong couldn't help but sigh.

"Forget it, ahead is the Tatar tribe. Let's search there; perhaps we will find Li Ping and her son." After Ke Zhen'e finished speaking, he led the Seven Freaks into the Tatar tribe.

Upon entering, they discovered the entire tribe was exceptionally lively, with every person wearing a smile that came from the heart. They had never seen such a state of mind. Thinking of this, Zhu Cong grabbed a passerby and asked, "Brother, may I ask, what day is it today that everyone here is so happy?"

"Hey, what else could it be? Let me tell you, the current tribe has overthrown the shamans and slave masters of the past. The things they exploited from us have been returned by the government. Now, this is a place where the people are the masters, a place where we common people have the say." The passerby, speaking thus, almost began to dance with joy.

Zhu Cong was somewhat bewildered; he truly did not expect anyone here to shout slogans of democracy like the Confucian Mencius. Just as he was about to ask something else, the passerby sized him up, and after inspecting him, shook his head repeatedly, saying, "Your attire looks a bit like the 'scholar' described in operas. Forget it, I won't talk to you; scholars are truly wicked."

Hearing this, Zhu Cong was somewhat bewildered; how did these people know that scholars are truly wicked? Seeing the usually sharp-witted Second Brother at a loss, the other six wanted to laugh. Quan Jinfa, the hidden hero of the bustling market, quickly stopped the man and asked, "Brother, don't go! Tell me, how are scholars wicked?"

Hearing Quan Jinfa's words, the man widened his eyes and asked, "You people actually don't know? Forget it, I'm not much better myself. If it weren't for the representatives exposing the shamans' deception, we wouldn't know we had been exploited and oppressed by the shamans."

"Let me tell you, you must stay far away from scholars. This group is even smarter than the shamans. I heard they force poor people to the point where they cannot survive, selling their daughters to places where women sell their bodies, while at the same time using the money from exploitation to go to these places to enjoy the poor people's daughters. This place should be called a brothel, right? Am I wrong?" The passerby slapped his thigh and asked the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan.

"Yes, that's right, it's called a brothel." Except for Zhu Cong, whose face was ashen, all of the Seven Freaks of Jiangnan nodded while holding back their laughter, even the usually stern Ke Zhen'e was no exception.

"That aside, this group is said to have written many stories to beautify themselves, depicting their visits to places where women sell flesh as the romantic poetry of literati. A few dozen-year-old old lechers ruining teenage girls; how shameless must one be to call that a romantic story of wind, flowers, snow, and moon? Tell me, are scholars wicked or not?"

After finishing, the man glanced at Han Xiaoying and said earnestly to the other six, "Let me tell you, if scholars treat you well and are good to you, it is mostly because they have set their sights on this fresh and lively girl and want to take her as a concubine. You must be careful."

"If such a matter of taking a concubine actually occurs, report it to the police station over there. Just keep walking to the right. The people in charge here all serve us people. You don't need to kneel, kowtow, or shout 'Great Lord of the Clear Sky,' you don't need to pay money, and they won't beat you or torture you."

Hearing the man's words, the six who had been holding back their laughter instantly stopped smiling. Ke Zhen'e, the leader of the Seven Freaks, stepped forward and asked, "Friend, you say you don't need to kneel to report a case; then how do you act when you meet the officials in charge?"

The man looked puzzled and said, "What do you mean 'how'? Our new rule here is that kneeling is forbidden. You are not allowed to kneel before anyone. Standing Committee Member Guo and Standing Committee Member Nie have already said that no one is worth kneeling to, because we are the people."