Chapter 25: The Yang Family Village Guard is Officially Formed

  （0025）

  Zhang Zhun then slowly stopped his stabbing motion and quietly concentrated on listening to the movements around him.

  All of the enemies have indeed withdrawn completely.

  It's safe here for now.

  "This sturdy man..."

  The woman in the fur coat said to Zhang Zhun.

  "Go away!"

  Zhang Zhun said bluntly.

  He didn't mean to hit on her.

  Due to Lao San's relationship, Zhang Zhun indeed didn't have a good impression of Yan Xiao, even though she was a beautiful woman.

  The woman in the fur coat was slightly stunned, she didn't expect Zhang Zhun to react like this.

  If he has no good feelings towards himself, why should he still save himself?

  She suddenly realized that her original ideas were all wrong.

  In her anxiety, she asked somewhat uncomprehendingly: "Why did you save me?"

  "Saving you, does it need a reason?"

  The woman in the fur coat was completely stunned.

  Do you need a reason to save you?

  What's this?

  Zhang Zhun ignored her and walked towards the location where Yang Yinghua was hiding.

  "Yu Lin, are you okay?"

  Yang Yinghe has come down from above, asked anxiously.

  She asked Zhang Zhun to rescue the woman, but after Zhang Zhun left, she regretted it and was worried that something unexpected might happen to him. Her heart was truly in a state of anxiety and unease. Fortunately, Zhang Zhun successfully rescued the woman without getting hurt himself. However, Yang Yinghua secretly decided that from now on, she would never let Zhang Zhun do such dangerous things again.

  "It's nothing."

  Zhang Zhun threw away the three-pronged spear in his hand.

  Such small-scale slaughter is his forte, and there's no difficulty at all.

  When two armies are at war, with rifles and cannons, bullets flying everywhere, shells exploding all over the place, that's when you really need to be careful. Even someone as fierce as Wild Boar Hide was killed by a cannon blast.

  The woman in the fur coat saw Yang Yinghua and suddenly lit up, immediately walked over and said to Yang Yinghua: "Sister, thank you for saving me!"

  Yang Yinghua said honestly: "It wasn't me who saved you, it was Yulin who saved you."

  The woman in the fur coat seemed to sense that Zhang Zhun didn't have a good impression of her, and if she continued talking to him, it would probably not end well. So she didn't continue to pester Zhang Zhun, but instead firmly grasped Yang Yinghua's hand and said with a smile: "You two are together, this favor I'll put on your account. Little sister, what's your name? Where are you from? Are you just passing by here?"

  "My name is Yang Yinghua, I'm from Yangjiatun. We're just passing by here to collect herbs."

  The woman in the fur coat immediately said: "Yinghuan sister, you are my elder sister's benefactor, my elder sister really doesn't know how to thank you..."

  She reached out and took off a jade pendant hanging in the middle of her neck, handed it to Yang Yinghua's face, smiled and said: "This is what sister has been wearing since childhood, although it's not worth much money, it's also sister's heart. Sister will give it to you."

  Yang Yinghua hastily declined and refused to accept it no matter what.

  "Come on! They're still waiting for us!"

  Yang Yinghua thought of the injured relatives in Yangjiatun and hastily said: "Good."

  The two picked up the herbs and turned to leave.

  The woman in the fur coat held a jade pendant, staring blankly as the two of them left, wanting to speak but hesitating. Only after they had walked far away did she mutter to herself: "Yangjiatun... it seems I really have met a noble person..."

  After the two left, the empty space in the mountains was left with only corpses all over the ground, and the air was filled with a strong bloody smell. Her four followers had already stood up and packed their bags. The Salt Thieves had always been open-minded about their own lives, whether it was companions or enemies, once they were dead, there was no need to even bury them. Everything would return to nature.

  "Let's go too!"

  The woman in the fur coat let out a soft sigh, put the jade pendant back around her neck, and with only four remaining followers, simply cleaned up the battlefield before disappearing into the darkness.

  The night wind blew by and extinguished all the torches.

  A cloud drifted over, blocking out the moonlight.

  The mountain valley where the bodies of the salt bandits lay scattered was completely shrouded in darkness.

  ……

  Zhang Zhun and Yang Yingwan returned safely to Yangjia Village before dawn.

  The injured personnel's injuries have not worsened for the time being. The doctor has prescribed the corresponding medicine, but there is a lack of sufficient herbs. Yang Yinghua immediately grinds the herbs according to the prescription and applies them to the wounded. Someone else helps to decoct the medicine and gives it to the injured to drink. The doctor says that as long as the injured personnel are well taken care of, they should not have any major problems, and Zhang Zhun and others finally feel at ease.

  After having breakfast, Yang Yinghua went to sleep. Zhang Zhun still had things to attend to. Yang Kaidao gathered a dozen core military households from Yangjiatun together to discuss the next step. Zhang Zhun and eight core members of the Zha Yu team also attended the meeting.

  After yesterday's ordeal, every single person in Yangjiatun has come to realize that they are now in a very dangerous situation. Wang Shixin wants to put them to death. They want to protect themselves, and compromising is definitely not an option anymore; the only way out is to arm themselves and confront head-on. Otherwise, who knows what kind of hardships will befall everyone.

  Wang Shixin is the hereditary qianhu of Fushan, an official of the imperial court, with unparalleled advantages. Yangjiatun are all poor and humble military households, with nothing to their name, and their confrontation with Wang Shixin was fundamentally not on the same level. However, due to Zhang Zhun's existence, this asymmetrical contest has already given Yangjiatun the upper hand.

  Now, Yangjiatun wants to maintain this advantage and even expand it further. They have the determination and willpower to do so, and they will not waver or retreat. However, in order to maintain this advantage, Zhang needs to make a comprehensive plan.

  Yang Kaidao said in a hoarse voice: "Yulin, no matter what decision you make, we old bones will support you unconditionally! Even if we are crushed to pieces, we won't frown!"

  "Right!"

  "Absolutely support!"

  "Yu Lin, what do you say, how are you going to handle this?"

  Other military households also expressed their views, with sincere words and firm determination.

  Zhang Zhun also didn't mince words and said in a deep voice: "We must form a guard team to protect ourselves! Implement armed protection!"

  "Bodyguard?"

  "Armed escort?"

  Yang Kaidi and others looked at each other.

  "Good!"

  "Form a guard squad!"

  "Implement armed escort!"

  Without a moment of hesitation, Yang Kai and the various military households quickly expressed their support.

  It doesn't matter what name is called, but once a formal name is called out, it's openly challenging the Thousand House Lord, and that's the key.

  "What a professional team!"

  "Professional training!"

  "A professional weapon!"

  Zhang Zhun continued to say affirmatively.

  He explained in detail that the guard team would be the open armed force of Yangjia Village, a "regular army", and would fully implement militarized training and management. The guard team would conduct armed patrols inside and outside the village every day for 12 hours. At each intersection outside the village, checkpoints would be set up to intercept and inspect all strangers. At the same time, in some secret places, ambush sentries would be set up to prevent anyone from launching a surprise attack on Yangjia Village.

  Someone asked: "Yulin, how many people should this guard have?"

  "Less than one hundred people."

  Yang Kai De said: "No problem. We have plenty of young men."

  Zhang nodded silently, without saying a word.

  Yangjiatun has many young people, and it is completely possible to select 100 of them. However, due to long-term malnutrition, the physical quality of these young people cannot meet Zhang's requirements. If they were all recruited, they would be unable to withstand high-intensity training. Therefore, he had to wait until these young people improved their diet for a period of time and caught up with the team's standards before recruiting them into the team.

  The guard team does not have a special supply source at present and cannot open a small stove for the guards alone. At the end of each day's training, everyone still goes back to their respective homes and finds their own mothers. The food levels of various families are uneven, and Zhang is also hard to control. If the guard team wants to become a real army, it must first find a stable source of "military expenses".

  Money is not omnipotent, but without money, nothing can be done.

  Look at the Chongzhen Emperor and his ministers in the late Ming Dynasty, who were all so worried about the source of military expenses.

  Later historians even believed that the Ming Dynasty was destroyed because of a single word "money". The financial collapse, it's impossible not to be destroyed.

  The final number of the Imperial Guard was fixed at eighty men.

  Zhang Zhun encountered some pressure on whether team members would be detached from their posts.

  Zhang Zhun insisted that the guards should be completely detached, and apart from fulfilling their military duties, they would no longer be responsible for any other matters. This put a lot of pressure on Yangjiatun. Because the young men who joined the guards were the main force in both firewood chopping and salt boiling. Now requiring them to be fully detached had a great impact on both firewood chopping and salt boiling. Although they had fish to eat every day, there was less salt boiling after all. Less salt boiling meant that the already meager income of each household was even smaller.

  For example, Yang Ruiqiang really wanted to join the guards, but he couldn't. He had to chop firewood and boil salt every day to support his family's livelihood. Otherwise, they would really have nothing to eat but fish. The conditions in Yangjiatun were so simple that Zhang Zhun didn't know what good way to make a living there was. Some common ways of getting rich in ancient times that he knew about, such as glass, perfume, and looms, were obviously useless now.

  February 20, Yangjiatun Guard Corps was formally established.

  Zhang Zhun served as the captain of the Imperial Guard.

  Yang Qianqiang, Yang Zhiyuan, Zou Mingjia, Hao Linyong, Yin Fengyi, Yang Zhiwen, Li Jiaxi, and Yang Junjie, among others, served as the leaders of the guard team. According to the common organization of the Ming army, ten people formed a squad, with a squad leader and a group leader, each managing five people. They were all backbone members of the guard team.

  Because of the framework of the Zha Yu team, the guard team was quickly formed. The thirty young men who had just joined the team began to practice assassination with the backbone of the Zha Yu team from that day on. The Hong Shi Tan training ground became even more majestic due to their joining, and every day there were shouts of killing sounds.