Chapter 24: Words Must be Deeds

  Xiao Tianjian temporarily didn't bother with the people of Zhaojia Fortress, and had Tie Tou and Shi Rang first keep watch on the road outside the manor, to avoid accidentally following in the footsteps of the group of officials and soldiers from earlier. Then he ordered someone to bring the captured military officer under the big tree, where the officer continued to beg Xiao Tianjian for mercy, crying repeatedly.

  Xiao Tianjian sneered and said, "You damn bastard, don't make a racket here first! I'll ask you some questions, you give me honest answers. If you dare to utter half a lie, I'll skin you alive!"

  The officer hastily nodded and promised, vowing to answer all of Xiao Tianjian's questions truthfully and thoroughly, and finally begged Xiao Tianjian to spare his life.

  To be honest, Xiao Tianjian knew some of the major events and celebrities of this era, but he was not certain about the timing of many events. A while ago, when he was having dinner, he also heard a lot of news, but it was all hearsay, and much of it was not true, with a huge amount of misinformation.

  Since he had made up his mind to make a living in this chaotic world, he had to understand these things first and prepare for future plans. He led people hiding in the mountains for almost a month, knowing very little about external news. Today, he caught such an officer, and naturally, he would not miss such a great opportunity.

  So Xiao Tianjian began questioning the officer. After a good while of questioning, Xiao Tianjian roughly understood the current situation.

  The officer who was originally caught was a battalion commander of the Hezhou Wei Army in Lintao Prefecture. Some time ago, he received orders from Chen Qiyu, the governor-general of five provinces, to go to the Shangluo area to suppress bandits. However, because his troops had not been paid for a long time, they dispersed on their own after receiving the order and before arriving in the Shangluo area. He led more than 20 men under him and lost contact with the main force, so he simply turned to robbery as a business, making a living by robbing along the way.

  Yesterday, they inadvertently broke into Zhaojia Fortress, a remote mountain village. When they saw that the village was not as heavily fortified as others, they thought of making some money and grain to take back to Hezhou. So, relying on their identity as government soldiers, they demanded that the villagers open the gate and let them in to rest!

  But who would have believed that such a defeated army could be so bold? As a result, a conflict broke out between the two sides. A wealthy Zhao family in Zhaojia Fort gathered their men to try and stop these soldiers from entering the village, but this only enraged them. After all, they were seasoned veterans, ruthless and cunning, and knew exactly how to handle such situations. In the end, it took them a whole day, and several casualties on both sides, but they finally managed to breach Zhaojia Fort.

  Because the people of Zhaojia Village did not give them money and grain, but instead killed several of their officers and soldiers, they began to massacre the village after entering it. They completely annihilated two wealthy households in the village, taking all their belongings. Later, when some of them were harassing young women in the village, one soldier was beaten to death by a villager. This led to even more brutal retaliation from them, almost wiping out everyone in Zhaojia Village except for over a dozen men who escaped quickly. Over 100 people in the village died at their hands, leaving only seven or eight young women behind. However, what they did not expect was that while they were still reveling in their victory, Xiao Tianjian and his men arrived on the scene. The rest of the story is unnecessary to tell; this military leader was captured, and most of his subordinates were killed, with only two people managing to escape.

  As for the current situation in the world, this guy can't make it clear, and only knows that the current master is Chen Qiyu, the governor of five provinces, who is leading the army to suppress the rebels in Henan, Shaanxi, Sichuan, and Hubei. The largest force among the rebel troops should be Gao Yingxian, and there are also Lao Huaihuai, Zhang Xianzhong, Li Zicheng and others, each with a different number of rebel troops, causing chaos everywhere. This guy's unit, the Hezhou Army in Lintao Prefecture, has been ordered to go to the Shangluo area to suppress the local rebels, but even this guy can't make it clear who they are going to fight.

  However, from this guy's words, Xiao Tianjian roughly understood many things. Combining what he knew later on, Xiao Tianjian roughly figured out some of the current situation. That is, for now, the righteous army has not yet become a big deal, Li Zicheng is still not famous, and Gao Yingxiang is currently the king of the bandits, considered the most prominent figure in the righteous army. Li Zicheng should roughly be one of Gao Yingxiang's subordinates, far from controlling millions of righteous soldiers.

  Xiao Tianjian vaguely remembers some fragments of this era. Since Chen Qiyu is the governor of five provinces, it means that the time when Gao Yingxiang, Li Zicheng and Zhang Xianzhong were besieged in Chezhou has not yet arrived, and the various righteous armies should not have returned to Shaanxi territory.

  After figuring out some things, Xiao Tianjian also lost interest in continuing to interrogate this guy. He secretly pondered what he should do next. According to his knowledge, the Righteous Army had been trapped at Chezhou Canyon, but later escaped through a fake surrender and expanded again within Shaanxi Province.

  But these things seem to have little to do with him, and now he is just a small stick that can't be smaller, and it's impossible for him to make any impact on this world. If he could figure out where Gao Yingxiang was right now, he would go find Gao Yingxiang and tell him not to go to Che Xiang, maybe even get a position as a leader under Gao Yingxiang. However, Xiao Tianjian immediately dismissed this idea from his mind. To this world, he was just an outsider after all. Although Gao Yingxiang seemed powerful now, Xiao Tianjian knew that Gao Yingxiang wasn't someone who could achieve great things, and would be captured by the government troops within two years and sent to Beijing to be executed. So there was no need for him to go fawn on Gao Yingxiang now, and following Gao Yingxiang might even lead to a disastrous outcome of being eliminated along with the rebels.

  So should he follow Li Zicheng? Xiao Tianjian quickly dispelled this idea, to be honest, he really looked down on Li Zicheng and his peasant uprising army. Although Li Zicheng eventually forced the Chongzhen Emperor to death, in a way, Li Zicheng also did something that invited wolves into his home. He didn't secure the throne for himself, but instead benefited those Qing dynasty bastards, resulting in China entering nearly three hundred years of darkness. Following Li Zicheng would be useless, judging by his current abilities, Li Zicheng probably wouldn't even look up to him. For now, it's better for him to just stick with his own plans and enjoy the thrill of it all.

  So Xiao Tianjian pondered for a while before standing up.

  The captured military leader saw that Xiao Tianjian had stood up and there was nothing more to ask him, so he immediately thought that this was the time to decide his life or death. He hurriedly rushed to Xiao Tianjian's feet, repeatedly crying and begging Xiao Tianjian to spare his life, saying that he had already truthfully answered Xiao Tianjian's questions and that Xiao Tianjian couldn't just kill him without any sense of justice.

  At this time, more than a dozen men from Zhaojia Village suddenly appeared in front of Xiao Tianjian under the leadership of Zhao Er Liu. Zhao Er Liu said to them with some pride: "Tell you, this is our Palms! Today, it's because our palms saw that you were being bullied by these officials and soldiers, so we took the lead in avenging you. If you want to thank someone, thank our palms!"

  These dozen or so men knelt down in front of Xiao Tianjian, repeatedly kowtowing to thank him. They thanked Xiao Tianjian for avenging them and saving their wives, daughters, and sisters. Xiao Tianjian somewhat looked down on these men from Zhaojia Fort and didn't try to persuade them, letting them continue to kowtow to him. After a while, he said to them: "Get up! We all come from poor families, the government is corrupt, forcing people to have no way to live. Today, since we've met, I won't just sit back and do nothing!"

  After finishing speaking, Xiao Tianjian turned his head to look at the military leader who was kneeling on one side. When he saw this group of people from Zhaojia Fortress, he had already been scared to the point of being pale and bloodless. He knew what he had done by leading his men here, and these people from Zhaojia Fortress must have hated him to the extreme. So, he wailed again and threw himself at Xiao Tianjian's feet, hugging one of Xiao Tianjian's legs and cried out: "Good sir! I'm doomed, I'm doomed! Considering that I answered your questions truthfully, good sir, please spare my life! You old folks promised not to kill me! You must keep your promise!"

  Xiao Tianjian looked at him with disdain and coldly laughed, saying: "When you did these things, didn't you think about the consequences? Now you're just realizing you're afraid? Fine! I promised not to kill you earlier. I keep my word!"

  As soon as he heard that Xiao Tianjian was not going to kill him, he immediately became overjoyed and knelt down on the ground, repeatedly kowtowing in gratitude: "Thank you, good sir! From now on, I will never dare again! Thank you, all of you good men! I'll leave now! When I get back, I'll set up a longevity tablet for all of your esteemed selves! Thank you, good sir! Thank you!"

  "Can't let him off...!..." One of the men, who had apparently experienced similar disasters at home before, immediately exclaimed when he heard that Xiao Tianjian was going to spare his life.

  "No need to say more, since I'm a Xiao, what I say must be done. Otherwise, what kind of person would I be?" Xiao Tianjian raised his hand to stop his subordinates from speaking and said to them.

  These people saw that Xiao Tianjian seemed to have made up his mind, so they didn't dare say anything more. Today, Xiao Tianjian beheaded Li Ma Zi, greatly intimidating them all. They were even more obedient to Xiao Tianjian, but each of them glared at the military leader with anger in their eyes, harboring resentment towards Xiao Tianjian's decision in their hearts. The men from Zhaojia Fortress also gazed at Xiao Tianjian with resentful eyes.

  Looking at the expressions of the crowd, and then looking at the military commander who was scared out of his wits and trying to escape on all fours, Xiao Tianjian chuckled and continued: "I said I wouldn't kill him, but I didn't say that people from Zhaojia Fortress couldn't kill him. This matter has a beginning and an end, it's up to you men of Zhaojia Fortress to see if you still have any backbone! I've done what I should do, don't expect me to finish the job for you!"

  Today is my birthday, so I'll just update this chapter! Celebrate a little for myself! Also accompany my parents! And take the opportunity to ask everyone for some red tickets, although the ranking results have been good during this period, but the number of collections has been too weak! Also, I'd like to announce the update situation next week, starting from next week, there will be at least two updates every day, and more depending on the situation! Daily updates of four chapters are not a scam! As long as the collection increases by 200, I'll add one more chapter, and if the daily red tickets exceed 200, I'll add another chapter! I'll work hard to write better books to repay my brothers! Remember to save your red tickets for me to use on Monday! Hehe!