Chapter 290

Chen Wuji sent people to summon the Young Strongmen from each household in the village to the Lìng camp.

Under the hazy night, several bonfires lit the Lìng camp with alternating light and shadow, shadows shifting.

Chen Wuji sat beside the fire, with Chen Li, Chen Wushuang, and other MainVein Young Strongmen standing behind him.

Just now, Chen Wuji also formally organized the MainVein people.

Taking Chen Luozi and Chen Li as captain and vice-captain (Duilu), they led twenty-eight MainVein Young Strongmen to temporarily serve as the Personal Guard.

This is all the able-bodied labor of the MainVein, and also Chen Wuji's greatest reliance going forward.

"Chen Wuji, why did you hurriedly call us over?" someone in the crowd shouted.

The atmosphere in the camp was overly stern, making even those who usually had no decorum become honest; although they stood in disorder, they at least stood properly, showing a semblance of attentive obedience.

Chen Wuji glanced at everyone and said, "Do you all know why so many soldiers have gathered in the village?"

"You've been promoted to office, we've heard about that," someone answered eagerly.

"Yes, but not entirely," Chen Wuji said. "The Qiang People will descend from South Mountain to attack our Nan Jun; I have been ordered to block the enemy, and we will take the battlefield tomorrow."

"We have lived together in Xishan Village for dozens or even hundreds of years; now that great calamity approaches, I and my Chen clansmen are willing to take the lead and resist the enemy on South Mountain—what do you, fellow villagers, plan to do?"

The crowd immediately became noisy, with whispers buzzing like bees.

"How could that be? How could the Qiang People come down from South Mountain?"

"Could Chen Wuji be deceiving us?"

"Why would they deceive us with this? Look around—everyone is armed with knives and spears; they have so many people, what need is there to trick us?"

"If he wants to fight, let him fight; why tell us this? We are ordinary folk with no weapons—what can we do? Does he even expect us to go to the battlefield?"

"The Chen family are also commoners; if they can go, why can't we be asked? Surely they want us on the battlefield—otherwise why summon us?"

"I won't go; if he's capable, let him kill me—I want to go home."

"I won't go either—going to the battlefield means death. I think he's just bored; no matter who is emperor, he couldn't possibly kill all the commoners, since officials still need us to farm and pay taxes. Even if the Qiang People take over, what does it matter to us?"

"Exactly, how many emperors have changed, yet we still live here generation after generation. We need to unify our stance; later, no matter what he says, we must not agree. If the Chen family wants to die, let them go—this Chen Wuji, having obtained a petty post, now truly treats a chicken feather as a command arrow."

……

Chen Wuji calmly tossed firewood into the fire, waiting for their discussion to end.

The two sides weren't far apart, and everything those people said, bit by bit, reached Chen Wuji's ears.

Their reaction was no surprise to Chen Wuji.

Having been neighbors for many years, Chen Wuji more or less knows what sort of people they are—if anyone even takes a scrap of advantage from his household, they will pick it apart, grind it down, and calculate it with exhausting meticulousness.

But if it involves righteousness and asks them to give something up, that's another matter entirely.

Previously, when the village's Young Strongmen jointly resisted mountain bandits, it had already become an extremely rare occurrence in recent years.

There are many reasons, but essentially it's only when the bandits truly reach the doorstep that the two major clans, the Yuan Family and the Chen Family, are stirred into action, forced to risk their lives for their own safety.

This time, Chen Wuji will give them time to discuss, but he will absolutely not give them any room to choose.

Xu Zengyi's words were quite reasonable.

Chen Wuji could not, for the sake of these irrelevant people, chill the hearts of his own clan.

Even if they weep for their fathers and mothers, Chen Wuji must keep this bowl of water level.

Whether they are willing or not, it's a forcible conscription.

If they resist, Chen Wuji here now has fifteen hundred knives, enough to kill them several times over.

"How have your considerations gone?" Chen Wuji brushed sawdust from his hands and asked loudly.

A middle-aged man from the Yuan Family stepped forward, his face full of worry, and said: "Ah, Chen Wuji, although you are now an official, you are still one of our villagers; you know very well what we are like—letting us farm might be okay, but asking us to go to war, we truly lack the ability."

"What about this: you take people to fight, and we each household contribute some grain as military provisions, so everyone can eat their fill before going out to kill the enemy—what do you think?"

Chen Wuji looked at the others and asked, "Do you all think the same?"

"I'm different," a tall and sturdy man walked over, saying, "I'll go to war with you."

Chen Wuji smiled.

This man is the one the villagers often call "someone else's child," Liu Tiechui.

Because of his tall build and great strength, Liu Tiechui has been earning well in the city these years; his household never lacks grain, and every few days he even gets meat.

"Chen Li, take Liu Tiechui to get the supplies," Chen Wuji ordered.

"Yes!"

The Yuan Family middle-aged man watched Liu Tiechui stride out head high, shot him a hateful glance, and muttered, "You clueless fool, tomorrow your mother will have to collect your corpse."

"I... I'll go too," suddenly a hand shot up in the crowd, and then two people pushed their way out.

It was Yuan Youwei and his younger brother Yuan Zuowei.

"Chen Wuji, we two... we also want to go to war," Yuan Youwei said, his voice trembling, whether from nerves or fear.

Chen Wuji was somewhat surprised; Yuan Youwei seems to have genuinely turned over a new leaf.

Chen Wuji gestured for them to stand aside for a moment, then asked the others, "Anyone else?"

"Me, me."

A figure pushed out from the crowd.

He was a simple-looking young man whose gaze seemed unfocused no matter what he looked at.

His name is Xu Guanshan.

He is quite a notable character in Xishan Village.

To call him foolish, he doesn't seem so, yet his speech is always nonsensical.

His parents are deceased; although he has a home in the village, he rarely stays there year-round, often wandering about, leaving for one or two months at a time.

At first the villagers thought he would surely die outside once he left, but after a while he came back drifting along, most of the time still carrying food and money.

Later, everyone grew accustomed to his ways.

No one knew what he was doing out there, where the grain and money came from; when people asked him, Xu Guanshan always said he got them from the mountains, though he himself couldn't say which mountain.

This person, who is close to being a true fool, because of all these oddities, the villagers not only never called him a fool, sometimes they even willingly helped him out; even when someone got into trouble, they would go to him seeking a way to resolve it.

Because Xu Guanshan's name was given by a Daoist, and his speech and actions always seemed to carry a hint of foolish mystery, the villagers came to believe he had some connection with the spirits.

On the contrary, Chen Wuji and Chen Bushi, these two utterly foolish ones, were called fools by the villagers in unison.