Chapter 67: Cannot Avoid Battle

  It's hard to be a husband, and even harder to be a father! My wife just got out of the hospital, but my son is now hospitalized again due to severe respiratory infection! It's tough! Wanting to calm down and write is really difficult! My son is more important than anything! I need to stay in the hospital with him for a few days, luckily I still have some drafts saved up, or else this update would definitely be missed! Here are the stored drafts, no explosive updates for now! Sorry, brothers!

  "What a crappy thing! I clearly aimed accurately, how did I still miss?" Xiao Tianjian muttered to himself.

  Yan Chongxi followed, a hint of mockery on his face, and said to Xiao Tianjian: "The palm plate is unknown, this thing is really not easy to use. It's only thirty or so steps, it's already very difficult to hit people. The palm plate is still rubbing against the tree edge, which is already considered good! If it's fifty steps away, wanting to hit someone is just a matter of luck! Seventy steps away, don't even think about it! Scaring people is just barely enough!"

  "Besides, this thing has limited power. Within fifty steps, it's still usable. Thirty steps can break armor, and fifty steps can knock down an unarmored person. At seventy steps, you'd be lucky to kill someone unless they're stark naked! And even then, you'd have to hit a vital spot!"

  After listening to Yan Chongxi's words, Xiao Tianjian really felt disappointed with the power of this era's firearms. This thing doesn't have much advantage over bows and arrows, and its accuracy is probably not as good as a skilled archer! At least an archer can control the accuracy of the arrow, but this thing relies entirely on luck! The shooter also risks blowing up the barrel, and if they're not careful, they'll end up killing themselves! No wonder Yan Chongxi doesn't think much of this thing, it's really trash!

  "Whatever! It's better than nothing! Let's just make do with it for now! The main problem is that these few guns are of poor quality. If they were finely crafted, their power would be much greater! We can't say that firearms are useless just because these things are trash! I'll think of a way to get some more powerful ones later and let you see what's what! You go pick out the people from the new recruits who know how to use this thing, we'll start doing something about it soon!" Xiao Tianjian helplessly tossed the gun to Yan Zhongxi, saying.

  If it weren't for this fight with Wang Tianglong, Xiao Tianjian would have been able to take down the Fan family fortress, after all, he still had some savings, enough to support his men for a while!

  However, he now has to stay here and continue to attack Fanjia Fortress. Not for anything else, but because the number of people he needs to support has suddenly increased by nearly 200 mouths, far exceeding his grain storage capacity. He must immediately obtain a corresponding amount of grain to sustain himself; otherwise, so many people will starve to death and cannot follow him. This is how the world works: if you have money and food, people will follow you; without money or food, hum! Sorry, not many people will follow you to starve!

  So from the morning and Wang Tiangong's fire, Xiao Tianjian has been considering whether to fight or not. After he subdued Wang Tiangong's many subordinates and added dozens of tenant households in Fanjia Fortress, he made up his mind to continue fighting.

  But how to do it? Xiao Tianjian didn't have a better way, he could only learn from Wang Tiandong's method for now, and think about it while fighting. However, the first problem he had to solve was still the issue of people's hearts. With so many people under his command, most of whom were newly surrendered, it was hard to guarantee that they wouldn't have second thoughts. The first thing he had to do was to rally these people before anything else.

  After dinner, everyone was gathered again by Xiao Tianjian. Since they had just merged and hadn't conducted any integration among themselves, Xiao Tianjian could only separate the new and old members. Seven people who knew how to use firearms were selected, as well as several archers, and formed a special group. The remaining new recruits were uniformly organized into one large team and temporarily placed under Yan Chongxi's command.

  More than 200 people reassembled outside Fanjia Village, making the atmosphere tense once again.

  "Brothers! Yesterday's matters are over and done with! Let bygones be bygones! But now you are all my brothers, Xiao Tianjian's brothers! I want to ask you, what did we come here for? Do you all still remember?" Xiao Tianjian stood on a mound of earth in front of the troops, loudly asking everyone below.

  "Come and beat the landlord..." The people below immediately followed with loud responses.

  "Good! It's good that you haven't forgotten this matter! I'll ask you again! What right do these rich old men have to ride on our heads and act tyrannically? Why should we suffer from poverty and hunger, while they are all well-fed and fat? Why should we work ourselves to death all year round, without even enough food to fill our bellies, while those officials and wealthy landowners hoard large quantities of grain and live in comfort? Why should we starve to death with our eyes open, while they ignore us?" Xiao Tianjian stood on the mound and continued to shout at the people below.

  Everyone was at a loss, and some couldn't understand! Because most of these people were born into poor families from a young age, they had been living like this since childhood, and hardly anyone thought about these issues. Many even believed that they were born with bad luck, destined to be poor, and should just suffer in silence! That's why they're doing this now, only because they can't make ends meet, and are desperately fighting for a mouthful of food! Suddenly, Xiao Tianjian asked them such questions, and they really didn't know how to respond.

  Xiao Tianjian glanced at these subordinates, knowing they would definitely not be able to answer, so he continued to shout: "You must not be able to answer! So okay! Now I'll tell you why! It's because of this damn world and this damned system! Officials and the rich don't have to pay taxes, but all the taxes for the imperial court are borne by us poor commoners, so we get poorer and poorer! This can't be blamed on others, only on this damned imperial court and the officials' incompetence! They don't care about our lives or deaths! So they force us to do this line of work!

  Since the world has forced us to do this, we can only ask these damned wealthy bastards for a way out! The imperial court and these rich people won't take pity on us, so we don't need to take pity on them either! Our lives are in our own hands, and to survive, we have no choice but to rob them! Only by robbing these despicable wealthy bastards can we make a living! Do you understand?

  "This world relies on who? Only by relying on our own two hands, to fight, to grab, can we survive! Otherwise, even if you starve to death in front of these rich people's doors, no one will pity you! Do you understand?"

  Xiao Tianjian stood on the mound, waving one hand non-stop, barely pausing for breath, and suddenly spoke out such a long passage! When he stopped, even he himself was impressed by his own speaking skills, and unexpectedly found that he could speak so well now, compared to before, his eloquence seemed to have improved a lot!

  To these people, he could only use the most vernacular and easy-to-understand words to explain to them, which was also what he could think of at the moment. Although he knew a lot about revolutionary principles, it was obviously impossible for him to pour all of this into these rustic people in a short time. So he started from the simplest things, that is, to encourage these people to sacrifice their lives and follow him first, and let them understand that their robbery had a noble reason!

  This is said in simple and easy-to-understand terms. After listening to it, the people below thought about it and found that it was indeed the case. Most of the good land in the world has been occupied by these officials and local tyrants, leaving only poor land for ordinary people to cultivate. Moreover, these local tyrants try their best not to pay taxes, and various miscellaneous taxes are basically imposed on the heads of these ordinary people. Throughout the year, they can barely grow enough grain to pay the various taxes and fees to the government. As for tenant farmers, it's even more unbearable. They have to rent land from these local tyrants and bear even heavier taxes and fees. Throughout the year, they can hardly afford a few meals of full food for their whole family.

  But they all saw that the grain hoarded in these wealthy families was enough for them to eat for many years. Now, when a disaster struck, these wealthy people tightened their grip on the grain even more, not taking out a single bit to relieve the victims. The price of grain was driven higher and higher by them, causing countless people to starve to death before their very eyes.

  They were all people who had been through these things, and as long as someone gave them a little push, they naturally understood. After listening to Xiao Tianjian's words, they couldn't help but get more and more angry, and one by one, they began to rally.

  It was Xiao Tianjian and his gang of brothers, each immediately raising the weapons in their hands, shouting loudly: "Understood! Take it by force!……" The remaining people heard this and also followed suit, more than 200 people shouting together, the momentum was quite impressive, gathering together like thunder, rolling towards the distant horizon.

  The roar naturally also spread into Fanjia Village, making everyone in the Fan family extremely surprised, their faces all turned pale.

  "Listen, listen! Is there still justice in this world? Today, I, Fan, have made a promise to you all. As long as you defend our village, I will never treat you unfairly. You've all seen it, if those bandits break in, none of us will have a good ending. Here, I provide for your food and drink. If our Fan family falls, where can you go? If they dare to come and fight, I want you to fight back fiercely, beat their brains out! For every one you kill, I'll reward you with two taels of silver. Even if you kill them all, I'll still give you the silver as a reward, even if it means our family goes bankrupt! And hurry up and slaughter the pigs, let these brothers eat their fill. Everything is in your hands now!"

  Fan Lao was really scared, he also saw that this matter would not end well. If he didn't take out some substantial incentives for these strongmen, he might not be able to get through this ordeal! Although the money was painful to spend, it was still better than having his family killed and his house destroyed. So at this moment, he couldn't afford to be stingy anymore, publicly announcing that anyone who killed a bandit would be rewarded with two taels of silver, wanting to encourage these strongmen to fight to the death for him.

  Fan Lao Cai said that, Zhuang Ding actually came in handy. Two taels of silver are not easy to earn, usually they can't get two taels of silver in several months. Fan Lao Cai is also a stingy and cruel person, although he provides food for them, but what he gives them to eat is very ordinary, at most it's just coarse grains that can fill their stomachs halfway. It's basically impossible to have good food. Now Fan Lao Cai agreed to take out silver as a reward for killing the enemy, and also killed pigs to treat them, which really excited them, and they all rushed to thank Fan Lao Cai, saying "Master Fan is benevolent!"

  Only the robust man with the surname Luo glanced at Old Man Fan with a slanted eye, revealing a hint of disdain on his face, and secretly cursed: "Old man, you're scared now? You're also willing to spend money? I told you long ago to move the tenant farmers from outside into the farm, but you didn't listen. Let them take out more grain, let these farm workers eat their fill and train every day. You were too stingy, now you know it's urgent? It's probably too late!"