Forty-three, kill

  Zheng Yanfu saw Zhu Yuanzhang and was suddenly taken aback: "You... how are you here?"

  "Why can't I be here?" Zhu Yuanzhang smiled: "I'm giving you advice, of course I have to come and see how things are going."

  "I was saying... you walked through the villagers I brought, how come they didn't attack you?" Zheng Yan was truly baffled. At this time, all the villagers were bloodshot and would beat to death anyone from the government who came into sight. When a stranger suddenly appeared, they should have been at each other's throats. Even if Zhu Yuanzhang had exceptional martial arts skills, it was impossible for him to win against so many farmers wielding farm tools... yet he actually let him swagger all the way into the government office... this was truly unbelievable.

  "There's nothing strange about it." Zhu Yuanzhang exaggeratedly laughed and said: "Now they judge whether the people around them are their own kind, not by appearance... but by aura. Whoever has a bloody smell on their body, with that kind of frenzied sentiment of killing officials and rebelling, they will take that person as one of their own..."

  Here is the translation:

  "By the time I got here, Zhu Yuanzhang paused for a moment and smiled: "When I walked in, I put on an air of wanting to kill someone, muttering to myself 'Kill Zhang Douyao... find Zhang Douyao and kill him...' Just like that, the people who were originally going to attack me all put down their weapons, and some even apologized to me, saying they almost hurt one of their own brothers. Then I walked in and stood before you."

  "Silk!" Zheng Yanfu felt a chill in his heart, he had long known that Zhu Yuanzhang was extremely formidable, to the point where it could be said that he was skilled at deception and calculation. He hadn't expected him to be so formidable that even the atmosphere and momentum could be utilized. If an officer or soldier were also as skilled at disguise as him, sneaking up behind oneself and stabbing oneself in the back, one would probably think until death that the person behind was a comrade.

  He swallowed hard and asked: "Is Zhang Douyao at home?"

  "Hmm!" Zhu Yuanzhang nodded and said: "You leave fifty people behind, open the county warehouse, distribute silver coins and grain, and take everyone else to Zhang Deyao's house. Act quickly... If Zhang Deyao organizes his household troops well, these villagers of yours may not be a match for him." He spoke casually, but his tone naturally carried a commanding flavor, and since he said it as if it were only natural, Zheng Yanfu didn't feel anything was amiss.

  "Will you go with me?" Zheng Yanfu asked urgently, not knowing why he felt an intense need for Zhu Yuanchang to be by his side. Only then did he feel at ease in his heart and able to find direction to move forward.

  "Of course, I'll go!" Zhu Yuanzhang said seriously: "I also have a reason to kill Zhang Douyao's whole family." As he spoke, the face of Empress Ma flashed quickly in his mind, overlapping with the face of Miss Ma San. Whoever had designs on this woman, aside from himself, would have to die.

  Zheng Yanfu was overjoyed, turned around and shouted: "Brothers from Nanyao Village stay here, move out all the silver and grain from the county warehouse. I'll be back soon and distribute them to everyone. The rest of you brothers follow me, let's go to Zhang Douyao's house to kill him."

  "Good!" The villagers replied with great enthusiasm.

  Zhu Yuanzhang covered his head with a bamboo hat and followed closely behind Zheng Yanzhong.

  Zheng Yanfu, with a blood-stained pig-killing knife, led over 100 brothers and rushed towards a large mansion several streets north of the government office. It turned out that this mansion was Zhang Douyao's home.

  Zhang Douyao had already received the news that the yamen was occupied by the rioters, so he closed the gate of the courtyard and hid in the backyard. His servants were carrying out fake mountains from the back garden to block the door.

  Zheng Yanfu arrived just in time, if he had come any later, the fake mountain would have blocked the gate and everything would have been too late. The wealthy families' mansions of this era all had simple defensive functions, with high and thick walls that could not be easily jumped over. If the courtyard door could not be opened, it would be very difficult to attack inside.

  Zhu Yuanzhang saw the servants inside moving the artificial hill through the door crack, and without thinking, he kicked the door with one foot. The door was blocked by a wooden bolt, and three servants were desperately pushing against the door with their shoulders. Zhu Yuanzhang's kick surprisingly didn't budge it.

  Zheng Yanfu shouted: "I'll kick too..."

  He lifted his foot, which was as big as a bear's paw, and with all his might, he kicked out. The heavy gate creaked and cracked, the wooden beam that was inserted into the door frame suddenly snapped in two, and the three guards who were leaning against the door simultaneously fell backwards.

  What a powerful kick!

  The villagers behind Zheng Yanfu saw that their own brother was so fierce, and their morale was greatly boosted. More than a dozen people rushed up together, turned sideways and slammed the gate with their shoulders, only to hear a loud "bang" sound, and the three family guards behind the door were knocked out, the courtyard gate opened wide, and the villagers behind poured in.

  Behind the gate, a dozen or so servants were moving artificial hills. The gate suddenly burst open and there was no need to move these artificial hills anymore. The servants shouted and ran towards the backyard.

  Zheng Yanfu shouted loudly: "Kill... brothers, kill all of Zhang Douyao's running dogs."

  The villagers, with bloodshot eyes, didn't need to be told what to do. They grabbed their hoes and sickles and chased after the family's servants. The entire Zhang compound immediately erupted into chaos. Several guards wielding wooden clubs emerged from inside, their blades flashing as they cut down two villagers. But the villagers behind them surged forward, dozens of hoes swinging in unison, smashing the guards to pulp.

  "Has Zhang Douyao run away?" Zheng Yanfu said to Zhu Yuanzhang, "We came in with such a big fanfare, I'm afraid he's already slipped out the back door..."

  "No way!" Zhu Yuanzhang furrowed his brow and said, "You don't understand the rules of officialdom. In the Ming dynasty, a county magistrate has the responsibility to defend his territory. If rebels come and he flees the city, leading to its fall, even if he escapes today, tomorrow he will still lose his head. Therefore, officials whose homes are attacked by rebels will not flee the city, but instead hide in the back garden, find a dark corner to shrink into, wait for the rebels to retreat, then come out and report to the imperial court: 'Under my leadership, the people of the county united as one, fought to the death, and finally drove the rebels out of the city.'"

  Zheng Yanfu was shocked again and sighed: "I didn't expect you to have some understanding of officialdom... Who are you after all?"

  "Never mind who I am, just find Zhang Douyao quickly." Zhu Yuanzhang pulled the bamboo hat down even lower, completely covering his face, and led the way running towards the backyard.

  At this time, the Zhang family's courtyard was in great chaos. Zhu Yuanzhang and Zheng Yanfu ran a few steps, passing through a small corridor, only to see several green-clad and hat-wearing servants lying on the ground. The yard was full of people moving about, and the resistance from the Zhang family's servants was much more intense than that of the yamen in the county government office. The sound of clashing weapons kept coming, and every moment someone let out a miserable cry as they fell to the ground.

  After passing through several corridors, they saw the hanging flower gate of Zhang's mansion, which was the dividing line between the front and back yards. Several house slaves guarding the door were also killed, and there were even a few corpses of villagers, it seemed that the battle here was quite fierce, so the villagers who had the upper hand also suffered casualties.

  As soon as they passed through the gate, Zhu Yuanzhang and Zheng Yanfu were shocked to see three villagers pinning a young girl dressed as a maid to the ground, tearing at her clothes. The maid's face was covered in tears as she struggled, but she was no match for the three men. In an instant, her upper body was stripped bare, revealing her snowy white chest.

  She used her last strength to tightly grasp her pants, weakly crying: "Don't treat me like this... I'm also from a poor family... why do you have to bully me too..."

  "Heh heh heh! I've been wanting to taste a woman for a long time..."

  "Tsk, tsk, rich people's maids are so much better than ours... that black woman at our house is nothing compared to this one..."

  "Bastard!" Zheng Yanfu was furious, without thinking, he kicked out three times. He kicked with great force, and the three villagers let out a loud cry, flying backward one after another into the flowerbed, moaning for a long time before they could get up. Zheng Yanfu's eyes were wide open as he cursed loudly: "Are you three here to kill officials and rebel or are you just taking advantage of the situation? I actually have such brothers, wasting my eyes."

  Standing beside him, Zhu Yuanzhang smiled wryly after his initial surprise. This scene was all too familiar to him. In the previous life at the end of the Yuan Dynasty, when he led his soldiers in attacking cities and plundering lands, such scenes were everywhere to be seen. Resolving this kind of thing was a very headache-inducing problem for generals throughout the ages. If resolved well, military discipline would naturally be strict and upright, but if not resolved properly, it would lead to the loss of the army's loyalty to him.

  Zheng Yanfu kicked someone and still didn't feel relieved, then picked up a butcher knife and made a gesture as if he was going to go up and kill someone.

  Zhu Yuanzhang, however, reached out and stopped him, saying in a low voice: "This is not the time to deal with this matter. First, we must kill Zhang Douyao, and then we can discipline the troops. We'll take care of this later." As he spoke, he whispered to the maid on the ground: "Don't you hurry up and find a place to hide?"

  "Thank you, sirs!" The little maid was in tears, her clothes were torn to shreds, and she could only hold her chest with both hands and quickly ran into the garden. Zhu Yuanzhang knew that this backyard would be turned upside down soon, and the little maid had nowhere to hide, she couldn't escape this chaos. He could only hope that next time she met a villager who was more honest and wouldn't bully her. Even in such chaotic times, there are always good people!

  The two continued to run forward, Zheng Yanfu was still angry and extremely unhappy in his heart, but Zhu Yuanzhang did not comfort him at all, he just said in a low voice: "Those three people... you can secretly deal with them, don't solve it in front of other villagers... killing our own people at the beginning of the uprising will easily cause everyone to lose heart."

  "Isn't it necessary to kill one as a warning to the others and maintain discipline?" Zheng Yanfu asked strangely.

  Zhu Yuanzhang sighed and said seriously, "When you have only a hundred brothers under your command, killing one to warn the others will result in the other ninety-nine no longer listening to you, thinking that you are biased. They will escape from your side and no longer regard you as their leader. However, when you have ten thousand brothers under your command, if you kill one hundred of them, the others will not run away, but instead will be even more fearful of you... Do you understand?"

  "This... I don't understand!" Zheng Yanfu scratched his head and sighed: "Most of the things you said, I couldn't understand... Compared to you, I'm really too stupid..."