gnovel Chapter 7 Success
Chapter 7 Success
The entire Zhao residence was in chaos. Besides Li Chengye and his group, there were about twenty other people running around the house, carrying Zhao family belongings in their hands.
Li Chengye found Yang Chongwang, who was guarding the back gate, looking somewhat anxious. Upon seeing Li Chengye arrive, he was overjoyed and hurriedly went to greet him: "Chengye, that old dog Zhao tried to escape through the back door, but he was stopped by Wang Laoqi and his men, whom we had arranged to be there beforehand!"
Li Chengye glanced at the back gate, which was tightly closed. He could vaguely hear hurried footsteps and suppressed voices coming from behind it.
He asked in a low voice, "How many people are inside now? What's the situation?"
Yang Chongwang frowned: "There should be two more servants, the rest are Zhao Laogou's wife, children, maids and servants. Besides, this back door is made of solid wood, and we don't have the right tools, so we can't break it open in a short time."
He paused, then pointed to the door hinges: "These thresholds and door hinges are made of stone and iron, so they can't be pried open from the outside. They're holed up now, and if we try to force our way in, we'll probably lose a lot of lives."
Li Chengye said to Yang Chongwang, "Brother Yang, you stay here for now. We need to tidy up the yard first; we can't let these people run wild like this. I'll go find a ladder, an axe, kerosene, or something like that. If all else fails, we'll set them on fire."
Yang Chongwang nodded. "Alright, you go ahead. I'll stay here and keep watch."
Li Chengye summoned Shi Tou, Cheng En, and two other people he knew before, and had them block the entrance.
He then drew his goose-feather saber and pounded on the door, shouting, "Quiet down, everyone!"
The goose-feather dagger struck the vermilion gate, producing a dull echo.
The noisy crowd gradually quieted down. The twenty-odd villagers who had rushed into the Zhao residence turned around; some were carrying silk, some had money in their pockets, and others had half a sack of grain on their shoulders.
They looked at Li Chengye with greed and wariness in their eyes, but mostly with primal excitement.
Standing on the stone steps in front of the gate, Li Chengye loudly asked, "Fellow villagers, how many years has this old dog Zhao exploited us? How many people have he driven to their deaths? Today we are taking action on behalf of Heaven! But the things in this house must be distributed according to the rules!"
"What rules?" a pockmarked man shouted. "Whoever grabs it first gets to keep it!" Several others joined in the commotion.
Li Chengye was stunned for a moment, then glanced over and recognized the man as Wang Mazi, a good-for-nothing from the village.
He usually idled away his time, engaging in petty theft, yet in the midst of a famine, his complexion was surprisingly better than that of others.
Li Chengye brandished his goose-feather saber and stared at him: "You walk over here now and see if your hand is faster than my blade."
Wang Mazi shrank back, not daring to speak again. But the villagers around him gripped the things in their arms even tighter, and the atmosphere in the courtyard suddenly became tense.
Just then, a man's scream came from the backyard. It turned out that the servants in the courtyard had heard the outside quiet and tried to peek over the wall to see what was going on, but they were spotted by Yang Chongwang and the others guarding the gate, who then poked them down with a bamboo pole.
Li Chengye pointed the tip of his knife at the backyard and shouted, "You can take what you want, but you'll have to put in the effort! Zhao Shouren hasn't been caught yet. If he escapes, do you think you can take these things safely?"
That's very effective.
The villagers who originally intended to cause trouble thought about it and realized that it made sense.
If Zhao Shouren had escaped alive and returned with the government officials, they would have been torn apart alive.
Seeing the change in the atmosphere in the courtyard, Wang Mazi rolled his eyes, then threw the things in his arms on the ground and said loudly, "Brother Chengye is right. If we don't kill Zhao the old dog, none of us will have peace."
With him taking the lead, several others who had been observing chimed in, "Yes, let's kill that old dog Zhao first."
Li Chengye understood perfectly well that Wang Mazi was the most cunning person, and he had clearly assessed the situation and was eager to show his loyalty.
But he did need manpower at the moment, so he said, "Wang Mazi, you take a team to the kitchen and see if there's any kerosene or anything like that. The rest of you come with me to find some tools."
People tend to follow the crowd. After Wang Mazi, the troublemaker, submitted, everyone else obediently followed Li Chengye's orders.
Before long, the ladder, axe, and kerosene were found, and once everything was ready, it was all brought to the backyard gate.
Li Chengye and Yang Chongwang discussed how to break through.
Yang Chongwang spoke first. Now that everything was ready and his side had a significant numerical advantage, they could simply use axes to break down the gate and storm in.
After thinking for a moment, Li Chengye made a suggestion: "Brother Yang, why don't I take some men to the back door, wait until the front door is wide open, then climb over with ladders and attack from both sides? That way, casualties will be fewer."
Yang Chongwang agreed, saying that it made sense since everyone would be too crowded at the front gate to move around freely. He suggested that they split up at the back gate instead.
Afterwards, Li Chengye led about ten people to the back gate, where Wang Laoqi and a few others were guarding it.
Upon seeing Li Chengye arrive with his men, everyone was overjoyed.
Li Chengye told everyone to hold their breath and remain quiet so as not to attract Zhao Laogou's attention prematurely. He placed the two ladders he had found on the ground, and once the front door was broken open, he would stand the ladders up and then rush down.
The front door was clanging loudly. Although it was made of solid wood, it would eventually be opened with repeated chopping from the axe.
As the banging on the door grew closer, the women in the courtyard began to scream. Zhao Shouren grew increasingly panicked, shouting, "Listen up, all of you! Retreat now, and I might spare your lives and let you go unpunished. But if you continue, when the officials arrive, they'll all behead you! My son is a centurion in Xi'an Prefecture, commanding elite Ming troops. You won't escape!"
Zhao Shouren's words made the people next to Li Chengye tremble.
Seeing this, Li Chengye said, "Cut off our heads? I think we should cut off his head first. If we don't get the grain, we won't even be able to survive without him contacting the government. Even if the King of Heaven himself came today, he wouldn't let us pass."
These words reassured the soldiers. Indeed, no matter what the government did in the future, if they couldn't seize food today, they wouldn't survive the New Year.
The clanging of axes grew closer, followed by a loud bang—a gunshot.
Then, a gasp was heard.
Li Chengye shuddered in shock. How could there be a gun here?
"Big brother, shall we go?" Li Chengen asked him expectantly.
Li Chengye realized that now was not the time to dwell on it.
"superior!"
He hurriedly directed people to place two ladders directly against the wall, then gritted his teeth, grabbed the knife, climbed the ladders, and scaled the wall.
Upon landing, Li Chengye saw that Zhao Shouren had fired a shotgun, and someone had fallen near Yang Chongwang's side at the front gate. The crowd gasped and seemed about to collapse.
But at this moment, Zhao Shouren and his servants were focused on what was ahead and didn't notice them. However, a few maids noticed Li Chengye climbing over the wall. They had barely screamed a few times when Li Chengye rushed up behind Zhao Shouren and slashed him in the back with his knife.
Zhao Shouren screamed and immediately prostrated himself on the ground. Seeing this, the other servants lost their composure and scattered like birds and beasts. However, with both the front and back doors blocked, they had nowhere to escape and had no choice but to kneel down and surrender.
Li Chengye, panting heavily, looked around the messy backyard.
Zhao Shouren's mansion had quite a few wives, concubines, and maids, totaling about ten people. At this moment, they were either collapsed to the side or screaming.
He saw Wang Mazi pinning a woman in a silk dress down on the ground, preparing to take off her pants; he was clearly impatient.
Li Chengye didn't tolerate him and stepped forward, smashing him with the back of his knife.
Wang Mazi, who was originally preparing to do a good deed, was immediately deflated by this attack. He was about to get angry, but when he turned around and saw Li Chengye holding the Blood-Dripping Goose Feather Blade, he immediately shrank his neck and forced a smile.
"Brother Chengye, it was my fault for not knowing the rules. You should go first."
"Get out of here. Now is not the time to do these things. Go find some rope and tie these people up first."
Wang Mazi readily agreed and went to find a rope.
Immediately, Li Chengye looked towards the front door and discovered that the person who had been hit earlier was actually Yang Chongwang.
"I never expected that Zhao Shouren had prepared a pistol."
Yang Chongwang hissed, found a clean piece of cotton cloth and wrapped it around his left arm. Li Chengye went up and helped him tie it tightly in a knot.
The lead bullet from the pistol only grazed his arm.
According to Yang Chongwang, these were all minor injuries, and he had seen many of them while guarding the border in Yulin.
The next step is to take stock of the harvest.