New Trickster

  When Lv Shimu sat still and motionless, the villagers around him slowly gathered around him, waiting for this all-powerful master to take out a program, but seeing Lv's appearance, they didn't dare disturb him, so they waited for him to wake up on his own, until Zhao Dahai couldn't bear it anymore and shouted to wake up the entangled Lv Shimu.

  Also thanks to this shout, Lü might have been tormented by his own heart demon otherwise.

  Lu Shijie looked up to see the anxious eyes of his fellow villagers, and then stood up in reality. "Fellow villagers, this matter originated from me, so I will solve it myself. I'll go to Zhangjiabao immediately to reason with the Zhang family. They just want my windmill design, and I'll give it to them. As long as we can save our fellow villagers' lives, nothing else matters." In fact, Lu Shijie didn't have a good solution at this moment, he was just trying to comfort everyone.

  At first, everyone heard that Lü Shi was willing to take the lead for himself and others, each with a joyful expression, and some even began to express gratitude. However, when they later heard that Lü Shi would go alone on horseback to reason with Old Master Zhang of Zhangjiabao, everyone's faces fell in disappointment and worry.

  Reason with the Zhang family? That's simply a pipe dream. Look, in the past hundred years or so, which villager has ever managed to reason things out with Old Master Zhang? Which person who went to reason with them was still able to walk out of the Zhangs' gloomy gate unscathed?

  What about the king's law? That dark and gloomy water dungeon of the Zhang family, does it tell you about the king's law? Do the layers upon layers of white bones in that dungeon tell you whether what you said is true or not?

  Lü Shì saw the disappointment of everyone, but he indeed had no other way, and couldn't help but raise his eyebrows and open his hands to ask: "Fellow villagers, is there another way besides this method?"

  No one answered, really no one could answer, because the answer was there - a dead end.

  "There's another way."

  The speaker was a man in his fifties with one lame leg, who hobbled out of the crowd. Everyone's eyes lit up - he was the only soldier from the border army who had returned alive after many years of service. In everyone's eyes, he was a knowledgeable person, and his suggestions might be able to break the deadlock. So everyone surrounded him in a flurry, asking for his solution.

  "We'll die if we surrender, we'll die if we don't have enough grain to pay taxes, everyone will starve and die in the ditches. No matter what, it's all death. Why not try another way to die? Maybe that way our wives and children can live a little longer, maybe there's a glimmer of hope for survival." The soldier stood in the middle of the courtyard, waving his arms furiously, shouting at everyone and at the heavens.

  The cripple's words were like pouring cold water into a boiling pot, the whole crowd fell silent, with only the torches crackling in the yard.

  Everyone knows what the next sentence of that man is - rebellion.

  Rebellion is a hurdle that cannot be crossed for the people who have been oppressed for five thousand years.

  The uprising broke out, and the people in other places were also continuously carrying it out. However, everyone saw the results: the continuous uprisings were constantly suppressed by the brutal border army, and even the villagers in the surrounding villages suffered from the disaster of the fish pool. As the saying goes, "bandits pass like a comb, soldiers pass like washing", bandits can still take care of the poor people when they come, but the opened ones are all the strongholds of landlords and wealthy families. Sometimes, those sympathetic sticks can also distribute the heavy objects that cannot be taken away and the excess grain to the local people. When the government army came, not only could they not eliminate those wandering stick bandits, but also extorted and plundered the people along the way, and even killed people to take heads and invite merit.

  The harm of soldiers is even greater than the harm of bandits.

  Lü Shi fell silent like all the other villagers, but in fact he knew even better that China's common people were the most resilient. Even when they were oppressed to the tightest extent, even when they had no food for the next meal, they would still endure the bullying of the officials willingly, and even if they couldn't see a glimmer of hope, they would imagine that hope was just in front of them, not far away.

  Rebellion is really being pushed to the end of the road, there is no longer any way out, and there is no longer a glimmer of hope.

  Lü Shi knew from his historical knowledge that in the early days of the peasant uprising at the end of the Ming Dynasty, which was around this time, those so-called rebel armies that rose up were actually some vagrants who had been forced to flee due to natural disasters and human calamities.

  These refugees often fled in whole villages, bringing their families with them, and the groups were disorderly. The so-called leaders were just one or two brave and fearless individuals who were elected to lead the group, risking their lives to plunder grain from wealthy households' granaries to fill their bellies and survive. Although they sometimes numbered in the tens of thousands, they actually had no real organization or discipline. When they agreed, they followed each other; when they disagreed, they went their separate ways. One day you came, the next day he left, like a swarm of locusts that devoured everything in one place before moving on to the next, passing through provinces and prefectures, sometimes hungry, sometimes full, without a fixed destination. Some occupied strategic passes and extorted ransom from traveling merchants and road passengers by taking them hostage, but where was the real rebellion?

  The current Ming dynasty has not yet truly weakened to the point where it was later vulnerable to a single blow, weak enough for the destitute and lightly clad peasants who put down their hoes and picked up clubs as weapons to rise up in a storm and destroy this dynasty.

  It is now the first year of Chongzhen in the Great Ming Dynasty. Although the Ming army is not strong, it still has a certain fighting power, and even if it faces the brave and warlike Manchu Tartars, it will have the strength to fight one battle. Otherwise, the Emperor Taizong of the Qing Dynasty would not have gone so far as to find a monk to communicate with Yuan Chonghuan, with the condition of giving up the emperor's title and preserving the country's territory in exchange for peace talks with the Great Ming.

  Rebellion now? That's no different from seeking death. Lü Shi could only smile bitterly, as a transmigrator, he still had this basic historical knowledge.

  Now, even if there's no hope of survival, how can these old, weak, women and children in the courtyard accomplish anything? It's better to just forget about rebelling.

  Look at all the old and young women and children in the courtyard losing their voices, and then slowly moving their steps backward, which means they do not support this military initiative.

  Lü Shì looked at him and knew what everyone was thinking, so he smiled wryly at the awkward man and said: "It's too early to talk about giving up now, we haven't reached the point of being exhausted yet, let's not mention this matter for now."

  That man jerked his neck and said: "Is there any other way for everyone now? Speak up and let me hear?"

  He looked around and saw that the whole courtyard, old and young, men and women, were all silent. The man spoke loudly: "Our children have been taken to the county town, our elderly have been taken into Zhangjiabao. Don't even mention the county prison, let's just talk about Zhangjiabao. Everyone knows how treacherous the water dungeon is. Once you go in, where can you still hope to survive? Have any of you seen a fellow villager come out alive?"

  The women and children who had retreated a step back were even more silent than crows and sparrows, with despair written all over their eyes.

  This is true, in Zhangjiadi Prison, out of ten people who go in, only one survives, where is the chance to see the sun again? Those are flesh and blood relatives.

  But is this rebellion really a way out? Rescuing loved ones is just prolonging the agony for a moment, where is the road?

  In this deathly quiet courtyard, this is what everyone wants to know.

  A long time.

  Lv Shi stood up and said calmly, "Everyone go back first, I want to go to Zhang's house to reason with them. That's where I have the upper hand. Have you all forgotten? During that negotiation in spring, even Zhang's family was helpless against me."

  The villagers recalled that in the spring, Master Lu had indeed bravely fought against the evil slave owner Zhang, using his eloquence and wisdom to deter him from acting rashly. This time, it seemed that something might really happen, so everyone reignited their hopes and looked at Lu Shi with eager anticipation, although the hope was slim, but there was still hope, and for a moment, they all secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

  The lame-legged soldier saw that everyone did not agree with Zhang's proposal, and he also lost his temper and hit his own disabled leg. He shook his head helplessly. After thinking for a moment, he said again: "As long as we can save our family members back, the hundreds of old and young people in this village will all follow Master's orders." The rest of the villagers also nodded in agreement.

  Lv Shi tried his best to put on a confident smile and said, "This matter doesn't require everyone's attention for now. Everyone please return to your respective homes and pretend to be busy with household chores. Then wait for my and Zhao Da Hai's news."

  Everyone was stunned, what's the solution? But looking at Lü Shixian's confident and composed appearance, they could only bid farewell and return home to prepare according to his words, this is also a helpless hope.

  After everyone dispersed, Lü Shi pulled that brother and Zhao Dahai into the house together, closing the door tightly. Before Lü Shi could speak, Zhao Dahai couldn't wait to ask:

  "Brother, I'm just a rough and simple man who only knows how to fight, unlike you with your twists and turns. Why don't you speak your mind and let everyone be at ease? If not, for the sake of Zhang Laoshi's brother, I'll take the risk."

  That lame-legged soldier also stared at Lü Shi with a trusting gaze.

  Lü Shixiao smiled and said: "The two brothers' idea is just to satisfy their momentary anger, but have you two thought it through? Can we really rise up now? No, because there's no foundation for a rebellion in this mountain village. Everyone is still thinking about living a peaceful life, struggling to survive, who would want to do something that would shame our ancestors and be treasonous? Moreover, what's left of us are just the old, weak, women, and children. Relying on these people to attack Zhangjiabao County Castle is no different from sending everyone to their deaths. When that happens, we won't even be able to save our loved ones, and we'll have to sacrifice the lives of these villagers, it's not worth it."

  Nà jūn hàn hé zhào dà hǎi lì kè chén mò bù yǔ, yí qiè dōu zài yǎn zhōng, shì shí bǎi zài nà li, hái yǒu shén me huà shuō?

  Translation:

  The two men fell silent at once, everything was in their eyes, the fact was there, what else could be said?

  "Even if everyone's minds are the same, and we have young and strong people, we still can't go against the authorities because this place is closest to Yanjing, and the military strength of the nine towns in Yanbian is something we cannot withstand. Once we start a rebellion, the outcome will definitely be suppression by the imperial court's fierce storm. We, these ragged and hungry mobs with little equipment, are we a match for the government troops? The result would still be a tragedy."

  It was silent again, both of them knew that Lü Shiyans words were reasonable, and they also knew that they had just been momentarily enraged earlier without considering so much, but the relatives imprisoned in Zhangjiabao still needed to be rescued, and they couldn't just watch them die in the Zhangjia water dungeon.

  "This won't do, that won't do, we must come up with a solution. As a friend of Zhang Laoshi's and having received favors from the Zhang family, you can't just stand by and watch as the Zhang family falls apart." Zhao Dahan said anxiously.

  "Big brother Hai, don't worry, I think this matter still depends on you."