The Ming Dynasty: Starting with bandits, it swept across the land.

Chapter 8 Clan Chief

They smashed the lock on the warehouse door and swallowed hard when they saw the stack of grain sacks piled up to the rafters. They then found several more chests of silver in Zhao Shouren's bedroom, and a large stack of land deeds and IOUs in his study.

There were five oxen, three donkeys, two mules, six horses, and more than a dozen sheep in the livestock shed behind the yard.

Looking at these things, Shi Tou and the others were at a loss. Before the uprising, they thought that Zhao Shouren should have accumulated some wealth after years of plundering and extortion in the village, but they didn't think that much.

Those who had helped earlier were now clamoring for a share of the spoils, and Li Chengye knew he couldn't stop them.

They first gave each of these people a bag of grain and told them to carry it back. Wang Mazi and his men thought they would get a share of the silver, but seeing Li Chengye and Yang Chongwang's attitude, they didn't dare to say anything. They awkwardly carried the grain away, but kept looking back.

With all the irrelevant people gone, only the core members of the Zhao family remained. They then discussed their next steps. Furthermore, what to do with the Zhao family members who had been arrested was also a problem.

Yang Chongwang, with his arms in slings, walked up to Li Chengye.

"I think we should just kill them all, so they won't come after us for revenge."

Li Chengye looked at Yang Chongwang with some surprise, but after thinking about it, he realized that this was indeed the best way.

Since a blood feud has already been formed, then we must nip it in the bud.

Zhao Shouren had three children. Apart from his eldest son who was in Xi'an Prefecture, his other son and daughter were at home and were currently in their care.

"I have no objection to killing Zhao Shouren's entire family. But we've already killed the steward and servants who were his accomplices. Should we also kill the remaining maids and servants? They also came from humble backgrounds."

Yang Chongwang paused for a moment, then said, "Let's release them."

"Yes, we all come from humble backgrounds, there's no need to hurt our fellow human beings."

The two reached an agreement, and the others had no objections. They then released the maid and servant, and gave each of them a bushel of grain and a tael of silver.

As for Zhao Shouren's two children, they were each beheaded with a knife.

However, when it came to how to proceed, differing opinions arose.

Wang Laoqi, who had been guarding the back gate, spoke first: "I think we should just do what we agreed on before, prepare the food and go to Huanglong Mountain. Huanglong Mountain is high and deep, with many hills and ravines. People have evaded taxes and run into it before, and the government couldn't catch them."

That makes sense. Huanglong Mountain is just north of their Qingshi Village, just past Shiguan Town.

These people, driving their livestock and carrying their provisions, would arrive in three or four days if they traveled slowly. Once inside the mountains, the government could do nothing to them unless they conducted a thorough search of the entire area.

Moreover, they had heard before that some tax evaders and those who couldn't pay their taxes had fled there, and the government didn't care.

Ordinary people could simply run away without paying taxes, but this time they killed Zhao Shouren, whose son was working in Xi'an Prefecture. The government would have to send people to arrest them, unlike before when they couldn't be found and were dealt with casually.

Li Chengen, who was standing next to him, said, "My father is seriously ill. If we go to Huanglong Mountain, he might not be able to hold on."

Several people nodded in agreement with these words. They also had elderly, weak, women and children in their families. It was fine for them to go into the deep mountains themselves, but it would be a bit difficult for them to send the elderly and children.

Li Chengye said, "We absolutely have to go to Huanglong Mountain. There's indeed more grain than we expected, more than we can carry, and several of my family members, like my second uncle, aren't really suited for long journeys. So we need to distribute the grain. Once the grain is distributed, things will be much easier."

"That's right. At the time, we were thinking that we couldn't survive. And that old Zhao was rich but heartless, so we went to rob his house. But we can't just let ourselves survive. If we secretly take all the grain for ourselves, how are we any different from that old Zhao? Besides, the villagers are all our fellow villagers, we are all related by blood, we can't just ignore them."

Yang Chongwang expressed his support for Li Chengye.

That makes sense. Moreover, once the grain is distributed to the villagers, everyone in the village becomes an accomplice, and they will help cover it up when the government officials come.

Having figured this out, everyone nodded.

Someone asked, "Do we still have time to distribute the rations?"

"There are plenty," Yang Chongwang chimed in. "We didn't touch Liu Laizi at the village entrance to avoid alerting him, and he's already run away. But even if he goes to the county town to file a complaint now, and the government sends troops, it'll be over a hundred miles round trip, so it'll be the day after tomorrow morning at the earliest. It would be good if he could even get here by then."

"You all know how the government behaves. They always fight tooth and nail for money. If it really comes down to it, who will you see? By the time they finish their wrangling, we'll probably be at Huanglong Mountain by now."

"But what if Liu Laizi tells on us and exposes our family members who stayed in the village?"

Some people expressed their concerns.

"That depends on the individual," Li Chengye said calmly.

"Who?" everyone immediately asked.

"Our clan leader, Li Jiaxuan."

Li Jiaxuan is the oldest living elder in Lijia Village. Although he is over sixty years old and his hair and beard are all white, he is still in good spirits.

His house was not far from Zhao Shouren's house; it was one of the few decent tile-roofed houses in the village.

When Li Chengye and his men started shouting and threatening to kill each other in the Zhao residence, Li Jiaxuan heard it. He told his family to close the door tightly and had his farmhand Lu San lie on the wall to observe the situation in the Zhao residence.

After hearing that things had calmed down over there, Lu San said that someone was carrying grain out.

He knew the Zhao family was finished.

Li Jiaxuan was born in the 44th year of the Jiajing reign. That year was also a year of severe drought and famine in the village. The elders in his family said that life was getting worse day by day, but they still managed to get through it.

Later, he grew up, married, and had children, and his son married and had grandchildren.

Now, the things he talks to his grandson are the same things his grandfather used to talk to him about – that life is hard.

But life has to go on even when it's tough.

Under the rule of the Ming Dynasty, it was not uncommon for ordinary people to encounter famine or natural disasters every few years; it would always pass.

But this year's drought is different from previous years, as it is the third year in a row.

In ordinary households, even with favorable weather, it would take three years to accumulate enough famine food to last a year. Two years of famine would be enough to destroy a once-prosperous family, let alone this being the third year already.

Since last year, people in Lijia Village who have no land have begun to abandon their land and flee. Those who are still in the village now at least have some land at home.

Those who stayed were reluctant to leave the land, so they didn't run away.

Chinese people are attached to their homeland and will not flee famine as long as there is any hope.

The day before yesterday, Qiu Mingliu, a tax collector from the county town, came to tell him that the Liaodong tax would be increased this year, even more than last year, and he knew that something bad was going to happen.

If the government can provide relief grain and reduce taxes during a drought, people can still survive. But if taxes are increased during a year of great disaster, it will truly drive people to their deaths.

Ever since he learned about the additional tax levied on Liaoning this year, he knew something bad was going to happen in the village, especially since he wasn't the grain chief this year, but Zhao Shouren.

Since ancient times, the grain chief was a government official who, to save trouble, would find a local wealthy household to set a tax rate, and the wealthy household would pay the tax first before collecting it from the local people.

During this period, wealthy households collected more taxes, and the government tacitly approved of this. Many wealthy households amassed their fortunes through this tacit understanding.

But Li Jiaxuan was different. His father was a scholar who had passed the imperial examinations in the village. He was a stickler for academics and never passed the imperial examinations. He believed in the principle of "respecting the elderly as one would one's own parents, and caring for the young as one would one's own children."

Because of this, his father's official career ended at the level of county instructor.

Li Jiaxuan's talent in academics was not as good as his father's, but he had inherited his father's virtue of benevolence and love for others.

Therefore, when he was the grain chief, he basically collected as much grain as the government asked for openly, without ever collecting more than that. He would also provide subsidies to some poor families.

Because of this, his house has not increased in twenty years, and the land in the village has actually decreased, but this has earned him a good reputation in the village.

After the previous clan chief passed away, the clan members unanimously elected him to succeed as clan chief. At that time, he was only in his early thirties.

Just as he was thinking about these things, Lu San, who was perched on the wall, shouted loudly, "Master! A group of men from the Zhao family has come, carrying knives and guns, and they're covered in blood!"

The people in the courtyard immediately panicked. Li Jiaxuan slammed his copper-plated cane heavily on the ground and shouted, "What's the panic? I'm here, they won't dare to cause trouble. Lu San, you come down and open the gate."

The group that arrived was none other than Li Chengye and his entourage. Zhao Shouren's family had a considerable number of weapons, and after searching around, they found not only some swords, spears, and clubs, but also two muskets. In total, each of them had two pieces and some to spare.

Immediately, everyone threw away their hoes and sticks and put on these weapons, which was a significant upgrade from rags to riches.

When they arrived at Li Jiaxuan's door, they were about to knock when they discovered that the door had opened by itself.

The door slowly opened, and Li Jiaxuan stood inside, leaning on his cane. The setting sun shone from behind him, casting a long shadow. His eyes were calm, showing no sign of panic.

Li Chengye and his group stood outside the door, many of them covered in blood and holding knives and guns, making the scene somewhat eerie.

Li Chengye took a deep breath, clasped his hands in a salute, and the people behind him followed suit, still clutching their weapons.

Li Jiaxuan's gaze swept over each of them, finally landing on Li Chengye, who was leading the group. He said, "Chengye, your father, Li Youtian, fed the government horse to death at the post station two years ago. I vouched for him and the government didn't pursue the matter."

Li Chengye was taken aback; he did indeed remember this incident.

He quickly said, "Thank you for your help back then, Chief Xie."

Li Jiaxuan gently shook his head: "I only did what a clan leader should do. Did you come here today to repay a debt of gratitude, or to wipe out the entire clan?"

Before Li Chengye could reply, Zhu Yao, Wang Laoqi, and the others beside him hurriedly explained, "Clan Chief Li, how could we possibly be here to wipe out your entire family? You have done a great favor for the village; we would never dare to treat you the way we treated Zhao Shouren!"

Li Chengye continued, "That Zhao Shouren was rich but heartless. In these famine years, he dared to increase grain taxes and colluded with the government to drive everyone to their deaths. We had no choice but to rob his house and kill his people."

Hearing this, Li Jiaxuan felt a slight sense of relief, but remained outwardly calm, and asked, "So, what brings you here today?"

Li Chengye replied, "Clan chief, we would like to ask you to gather the entire village to do something."

"What is it?"

"Distribute the grain."