Chapter 62: Smugness

[Big chapter, continuing to beg for a push to 100 follow-reads, please, please, please!]

"A bunch of dog-brained bastards, my own gear was snatched away by these ***, otherwise I’d have split that piece of trash in two with one strike!"

Gao Conglong followed Li You to the wooden shed and was so angry he was howling!

"Damn his ancestors! This is truly suffocating!"

Even someone as taciturn as Zhou Yin couldn't hold back his anger and cursed along with them.

"Why don't we just kill Wu Dading and be done with it, take over as the masters of this Shanzhai, and stop swallowing this bile?" Wu Dading said, filled with righteous indignation.

"Kill Wu Dading now? Have you lost your mind?"

A position is never created by an individual alone; it should be the manifestation of the will of a group or a class. The person in the position is often just a spokesperson for a period of time. In the end, power creates positions, not the other way around. So, if we kill Wu Zhuge, who holds the position of Great Manager, will the Longmen Shanzhai be paralyzed?

Clearly, it will not. Could it really be like the power-brokering methods of Mei Changsu in *Nirvana in Fire*, where simply removing various ministers in the imperial court one by one is equivalent to uprooting the conflict and hollowing out the court? This is obviously anti-logical.

"What the hell is the use of you killing Wu Dading? If we kill him, can we become the masters of the mountain? In the end, won't we just be wiped out by the second, third, and fourth managers? What are you thinking?"

Li You scolded.

"Donkey... so we just keep playing the grandson like this? Really act as a bandit and risk our lives for Wu Dading? I may be a lowly soldier with a cheap life, but many people in this Longmen Shanzhai are just animals, damn it!"

Guan Hongxin said with a sullen face.

Great Ming soldiers were all very insecure; the consciousness of being "lowly people" was deeply rooted in the hearts of all soldiers. Furthermore, they were generally so poor they had to sell their wives and children.

During festivals or times of mourning for ancestors, they couldn't afford decent offerings due to their poverty, which made them feel they had disgraced their ancestors even more. People like Guan Hongxin were the few who hadn't been corrupted by this great dye vat; they had their own principles and personal dignity.

"Right, my life was saved by you, Mr. Li, time and again. I am willing to risk my life for you, but to be a bandit and risk my life for scum like Wu Dading who kills like he's mowing grass, I'd rather have died that day!" Gao Conglong also growled.

Li Qin did not speak, but he looked at Li You with burning eyes. Suddenly, everyone stopped, including Cripple Liu, Qian Chengzhi, and the others, all staring straight at Li You.

Li You stopped and said, "Are you afraid of death?"

"Heh, we are nothing but withered grass between heaven and earth; we wouldn't even know if anyone would come to bury us if we died... As for fearing death, I've never thought about it... I'm just afraid of living without hope!"

"Follow me, and there will be hope!"

Li You said solemnly: "If we feel our dwelling is poor, we should build it! If we feel we have no grain to eat, we start farming and hunting! If someone bullies us, we forge blades and spears! The place where we are is our Heaven; whatever we become, Heaven will become..."

As for who to risk our lives for, there is no need to consider that at all. We only need to risk our lives for ourselves. Surviving in this bandit den for now is forced by circumstances!

I know you are all brave men who cannot swallow this insult, who want to vent your rage and fight to the death. You are brave enough, but can you survive?

If you die, can you leave behind descendants to carry on the family line? Can you bring glory to your ancestors?

You have been soldiers for half your lives, each with unique skills. Before you die, can you save children like Xiao Juzi, Xiaoniang, and Yu Zhengchun? Can you save women like Li Xiujuan and Wang Xiugu? Can you repay your parents for the grace of raising you? Finally... can you repay the brotherhood I have shown you by helping you time and again?"

Li You's words were long, making the eyes of Li Qin, Gao Conglong, and the others turn slightly red. Even the tough-as-nails Guan Hongxin was sniffing hard at this moment.

"Alright, since a fit of rage won't accomplish anything, you might as well trust me once!"

"I swear to follow you to the death, sir."

"I swear to follow you to the death, sir."

Gao Conghu, Qi Jingkun, and Wu Dading were the first to kneel and shout loudly.

Li Qin didn't think much either and followed suit, pledging his loyalty.

Next, Gao Conglong, Zhou Yin, and the others, all filled with hot-blooded passion, knelt and shouted along.

Only Wang Youting seemed slightly hesitant, but in the end, under Li You's gaze, he knelt as well.

Li You hurriedly helped them up: "We will definitely survive, and live even better!"

He knew that besides the grace of saving their lives, his status as a scholar still played a major role.

But he couldn't help but feel a bit smug; such a group of unruly people had now all submitted to him.

As Li You felt smug, he couldn't help but sigh: "Impulsive people mostly live at the bottom; those at the top are never impulsive because they are not driven by emotions... It seems I am quite good after all. Perhaps I really can have heaven-defying luck, be enfeoffed as a marquis, appointed as a prime minister, or even become a king?"

Now, in his smugness, he completely failed to recognize human nature, for in the near future, he would regret this.

Since everyone was willing to follow Li You, the next step was naturally to start building houses according to Li You's plan.

To build a simple thatched cottage, one needed tools like axes and wood-cutting knives. Fortunately, there was ready-made iron material here, and even better, there were ready-made craftsmen, so Li You simply decided to forge the necessary shovels, chisels, and other tools as well.

Gao Conglong, Zhou Yin, and the others naturally had eyes shining when they saw so much iron. In this era of backward productivity, iron was extremely precious, let alone in these chaotic times of flashing blades and swords, so they all wanted to forge weapons for themselves.

"Build tools like axes first! As for handy weapons, why the rush? When the time comes, Old Liu and the others will naturally make them for you. Their craftsmanship is truly masterful!"

Li You saw through their thoughts and couldn't help but laugh and scold them.

"Really?"

Gao Conghu said with some excitement. Having been in the army for nine years, to be honest, he had never owned a decent weapon. Who could be like these Longmen bandits, having an iron mountain and everyone possessing one or two shiny weapons!

"Heh, that's good then! But when it comes to forging weapons, it's better if we do it ourselves to make them comfortable. When the time comes, Old Liu can guide us, and we'll forge them ourselves!"

Gao Conglong said excitedly. His own sidearm had been used for over six years, and it was already full of notches!

The dozen or so people worked quickly, but it still took them a whole day.

Mainly because Cripple Liu, Zhou Yin, and Li Qin had been eating poorly and doing heavy labor recently. They had only just eaten two good meals, so their bodies naturally hadn't recovered; after working for a while, they were constantly breaking out in cold sweats.

During this time, Skinny Monkey and Niu Jinku came over. Niu Jinku was purely itching for a challenge, wanting to see Li You's archery, while Skinny Monkey and Wang Qiong genuinely wanted to come and train together. However, seeing Li You busy, they had to give up.

That night, except for leaving five people to keep watch, Huang Mao enthusiastically greeted Peng Yun and the others back to the small courtyard. They certainly didn't dare go to the main room, but the two side rooms were packed full of them.

Even the beds of Wa Qingyun and Liu Long were occupied by them, and from time to time, bursts of laughter like "Suozi, Shizi, Wanzi..." could be heard.

"These people are really too much. Is this the sir training them? They've completely come to Nanshan to act like masters," Wa Qingyun said with a face full of resentment.

"Who told them to have blades and bows!" Wu Dading was quite open-minded; anyway, now that Li You had seen the light, he just had to follow Li You in everything.

"It's fine, let's sleep in the earthen pits tonight! Being a little tired is nothing."

Li You wasn't angry. In his previous life, to get a bite to eat, what kind of anger or suffering hadn't he endured? What was this compared to that?

As for putting in effort and doing hard labor, in the words of the farmers, hard labor is never worth money; if something can be solved by hard labor, it should never be solved with money.

For now, as long as he slowly wins over the hearts of the miners, he will eventually see the fruits of his labor.

The next day, Peng Yun and his group basically didn't move. It was Li You who led the unchained Wu Dading, Li Qin, and others to cut trees on the mountain, then rolled them to the foot of the mountain. A group of miners, led by Dang Xiongxin and Xiang Hu, dragged the timber back to the mining area.

Xiang Hu, Qi Gengxin, and other carpenters, along with Cripple Liu, Qian Chengzhi, and others, led some men to clear the site. The new house was built next to Cripple Liu's dilapidated earthen cave. It was sheltered from the wind by the mountain rock and was on higher ground. Not far opposite, there was some murmuring, un-dried stream water, which made it convenient for the women like the Wang family to fetch water.

In two days' time, the thatched cottage was already taking shape. Before everyone had time to take a good look, Peng Yun suddenly brought a group of people in, and the miners immediately fell silent.

"Whoa... damn, this is truly grand!"

Peng Yun and his group looked left and right like monkeys, and finally set their sights on the largest thatched side room on the north side, and couldn't help but shout:

"Wow, damn it, this is much more comfortable than being squeezed in the side rooms over there. Sanzao, Daniu, go get our bedding..."

Two burly, bearded men were about to go get their bedding and move in!

"Damn it, this is what we saved for the sir to live in. Damn it, whoever dares to take another step inside, taste how sharp my axe is first!"