Chapter 140

By the Yishui bank.

"Are you Abatai?"

Lin Dao sat on the Ma Zha, holding a dagger in his hand, slicing meat off a roasted lamb leg.

Before him, Abatai, covered in blood with blood seeping from his mouth, nose, and ears, glared at him with red eyes.

Liu San Dao, also red-eyed beside him, suddenly yanked his queue: "The Marshal is asking you!"

Beside them, a bodyguard quietly said, "His ears seem to be deafened."

When the drone beheaded them earlier, Abatai, who had sensed the danger in advance, fled on horseback.

Though he escaped the lethal range at the scene, the shockwave and sonic boom had ruined his hearing.

Lin Dao looked toward the scribe.

"The captive identification is complete; it is indeed this person."

"His great seal and golden helmet are all present."

Lin Dao picked up a slice of mutton, put it in his mouth, and carefully surveyed the man before him.

He was very burly, with a full face of beard.

His narrow eyes were full of bloodshot veins, his cracked lips revealing the large yellow teeth inside.

Stubble topped his scalp, and a Qian Shu Wei Ba queue was held in Liu San Dao's hand.

This was the Jurchen commander of this entry into the pass.

"Tell him."

"Tell us all the Jurchen intelligence you know, and we can leave him an intact corpse."

Immediately, a bodyguard loudly relayed Lin Dao's words in his ear.

"Cough cough~~~"

Abatai struggled a bit, his voice hoarse: "Give me some water to drink."

This request was not excessive; the Yishui was right beside them, and there was no shortage of water.

"Bandits came to my home to plunder and slaughter." Lin Dao sliced off a piece of mutton. "And you want water?"

"The water here, you are not qualified to drink."

Abatai, staring at the lamb leg in his hand, closed his eyes: "Then kill me; there's nothing more to say."

After decades of warfare, he still had this resolve.

"Sprinkle some more chili powder; the flavor isn't strong enough." Lin Dao instructed a bodyguard beside him, then responded to Abatai: "You have so much blood on your hands; how do you think you should die?"

"Pah!"

Abatai opened his eyes and spat a glob of saliva onto the lamb leg.

"Kill me if you want! If you have the ability, bring those who are dead back to life!"

Liu San Dao, wearing iron gloves, smashed a fist into his mouth, and fresh blood mixed with teeth spurted out.

"I truly don't have the ability to bring people back to life."

Lin Dao regretfully put down the lamb leg, stood up, and looked down at him: "Dealing with you by using your own methods against you is no problem."

"You must hate him very much, right?" Lin Dao asked, looking at Liu San Dao.

"Marshal~~~" Liu San Dao knelt on the ground, crying. "They are all beasts; almost all the Liaodong people have been killed by them."

"Kill men on sight, rape women on sight, impale three-year-old children on spears, cut open pregnant women's bellies for fun—they are all beasts~~~"

Once there were several million Liaodong people; not one in a hundred survived the slaughter.

This was only the Liaodong people's vendetta; in previous entries into the pass, even more were killed, with countless tragedies.

Lin Dao knew history; this was only the beginning.

If he hadn't come, there would be more later, more and more.

"A real man, what are you crying for."

Lin Dao lightly instructed: "If you have a vendetta, avenge it; don't wipe away tears."

He turned and walked toward the riverbank: "He's yours."

"Thank you, Marshal!"

"Thank you, Marshal!!"

"Thank you, Marshal!!!"

Liu San Dao kowtowed repeatedly, his forehead striking the ground until it bled.

After Lin Dao led the bodyguards away, he drew his waist knife and kicked Abatai to the ground.

He threw himself onto Abatai, cutting him, cut after cut~~~

"Father~ Mother~ Brother~ Sister-in-law~ Younger sister~ Younger brother~"

"Erhu~ Xiaotang~ Uncle Bo~ Elder Chen~"

"Butcher Shao~ Teacher Zhou~ Blacksmith Wang~"

"Sister Yue~ Xiangniang~ Sister Spitting~"

"Elders and fellow villagers!"

"~~~"

"I have avenged you all!!!"

Abatai's screams echoed with the waves of the Yishui, rising and falling endlessly.

Lin Dao came to the riverside, where several hundred captives had gathered.

It was also rare, after all, a single head was worth one hundred and fifty taels of silver.

Though the price of captives equaled that of heads, guarding and escorting captives meant fewer opportunities to chase and kill.

Lin Dao frowned slightly. "It's my fault; I didn't explain clearly enough."

He instructed those around him: "Remember this. When facing the Tartars in the future, aside from those of higher status who can be kept for interrogation, deal with ordinary Tartars directly. No need to take prisoners."

The bodyguards first accepted the order, then asked what to do with these people before them.

"What to do? You ask me what to do?"

"You're the ones who brought them here, and now you ask me what to do?"

"Why not take them back, keep them at your respective homes? Wouldn't that be fine?"

Lin Dao flicked his sleeve and left; the bodyguards exchanged glances.

"What to do?"

"What else can we do? Slaughter them all!"

Soldiers brandishing long spears surged forward.

Screams, pleas for mercy, curses, weeping, splashing, and sounds of resistance never ceased.

Once the riverside gradually quieted, the soldiers took up their hammers and delivered finishing blows one by one.

"Don't use hammers."

A bodyguard shouted: "The heads must be kept for merit and for display."

The soldiers switched to waist knives and began severing heads.

Lin Dao rode forward and arrived at the Tartars' old camp outside Yanzhou City.

By now the Tartars' main force was already gone; those who fled were no threat. Even if the Ming Army were terrible, they could still defeat scattered soldiers and rogues.

The Mongol tribes' servants and warhorses ran fast; several thousand fleeing together, many likely escaped beyond the pass.

At this time, many bondservant slaves left in the old camp had mostly become captives.

Besides these, there were camels, horses, mules, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats, gold, silver, various jewels and antiques plundered by the Tartars along the way, as well as tens of thousands of men and women.

"Commander."

Scribes came forward with their respective tallied booklets.

"Captured gold: over eight thousand taels."

"Silver: over one million two hundred thousand taels."

"Copper coins: too numerous to count, temporarily impossible to finish tallying."

"Camels, horses, mules, cattle, donkeys, sheep, goats: over twenty thousand head."

"Men and women: nearly one hundred thousand."

Lin Dao took out his phone to calculate: "Eight thousand taels—that's three hundred thousand kilograms, or three hundred kilograms. Only that much."

The captured gold was too little, leaving Lin Dao greatly disappointed.

In the Modern World, gold prices surged, and it was very easy to sell.

Unfortunately, it was too little.

As for silver: "Tally the military merit, and immediately distribute the rewards."

"Give silver now to those who want it. Those unwilling to exchange military merit for silver, record it, and distribute fields when they return."

The Tartars slain in this battle, including the armored bondservants among them, numbered over ten thousand.

Lin Dao's military merit calculation here was simple.

On the battlefield, anyone armored—whether iron armor, leather armor, or cotton armor—counted as an armored soldier.

Armored soldiers were counted as True Tartars: a hundred taels of cash reward distributed immediately, or Military Merit Five Turns worth fifty taels, at individual choice.

Just these captured items alone were nearly enough to cover reward expenses.

Copper coins weren't mentioned; take them back as military pay to increase small-denomination currency liquidity.

"Slaughter all injured large livestock. At dinner, give the big guys an extra meal."

The meat rations Lin Dao provided were usually mainly meat cans.

Last time he went to South Africa, he even bought a large batch of cans from many years ago, very cheap.

Occasionally an extra meal was also frozen meat, zombie meat and such.

Fresh meat raw materials like this couldn't be said to be nonexistent, only extremely rare.

Bring some beer over, eat and drink to celebrate the victory.

"Large livestock that can still move, have the Shou Cai care for them well, and take them all back."

Large livestock were very useful, especially cattle and horses.

Cattle could plow fields, horses could ride and pull carts; no wonder later generations used cattle and horses to refer to workers, after all they could really work.

Then there were the men and women the Tartars had captured along the way.

No old people or children could be seen; they had long been slaughtered.

Captured men would become bondservant slaves, plowing fields and working until death.

As for the ladies, their role was only one: to become tools for the Tartars' venting, and maidservants for labor and service.

Lin Dao's gaze swept over the men squatting in rows on the ground, and in his heart he was also angry at their lack of fight.

They didn't dare to fight desperately; biting off one Tartar's ear would be something.

Shaking his head, Lin Dao walked past tent after tent.

Lifting the curtain, peering in to look at the miserable appearance of the ladies inside, Lin Dao remained silent all the way.

It was truly too miserable.

Among them were farmers' daughters and also daughters of official families in the city.

But having fallen into the Tartars' hands, their fates were all the same.

Most of them would die miserably along the way of violation, not even having the chance to be taken back to Liaodi.

Lin Dao halted his steps, brows furrowing slightly. "Back during the Jingkang Incident, the women of the Song Dynasty suffered just as miserably, didn't they."

At this moment, his anger toward the Ming Imperial Clan, toward the court civil officials, also soared to its peak.

"You lot feast on the people's blood and sweat, and this is how you repay them?"

"If you can't even protect the people, then being alive is just a waste of grain!"

Lin Dao did not continue looking further down; the tens of thousands of womenfolk on this side all met the same fate.

He strode over to the group of men and drew his handgun.

The muzzle pointed at a man trembling violently. "You, stand up."

The man's legs trembling, he rose, expression fearful, head lowered, not daring to look at Lin Dao.

Lin Dao turned his head and instructed his personal guards. "Drag a bondservant over here."

Before long, the personal guards dragged over a bondservant slave who had shaved his hair and changed his clothes, and threw him on the ground.

"You." Lin Dao signaled the man. "Slaughter him."

"Ah?" The man lifted his head.

Realizing the meaning, his expression fearful, he waved his hands repeatedly. "Can't do it, I can't do it~ I don't dare~"

Bang!

His shout cut off abruptly, and he fell heavily to the ground.

Lin Dao's muzzle pointed at another man beside him. "You, slaughter him."

This man was so frightened he couldn't even stand, half-lying on the ground, trembling all over.

Forget going to slaughter the bondservant, he couldn't even speak.

Bang!

The man stopped trembling.

Lin Dao's muzzle pointed at a third man. "You, go slaughter him."

Finally ran into one with courage.

The man struggled to his feet and pounced on the bound bondservant, punching and kicking.

The long-starved man had little strength; it looked about the same as scratching an itch.

Lin Dao gave a look, and immediately a personal guard took off his waist saber and shoved it into the man's hand.

Emotions running too high, plus no strength.

He stabbed for a long time, yet all were superficial wounds, while the bondservant kept struggling and wailing, voice loud and clear.

"Never killed a chicken at home?"

"Slit the throat!"

"Truly stupid!"

The man panted heavily, both hands pressing the saber against the bondservant's neck.

The back-and-forth sawing sound of 'hiss-hiss' made one's hair stand on end listening to it.

By the time the bondservant had completely stopped moving, the man also lay on the ground wailing.

"Bao Er~ my child~ Father has avenged you~"

(End of Chapter)