Chapter Fifty-One: A Cruel Beginning

  The shrill cries, wails, groans and hoofbeats, mixed with shouts of killing, reached the ears of Xiao Tianjian and his men. Thick smoke rose up and fell into their line of sight. After leading his men over a mound, Xiao Tianjian gazed forward, only to see an extremely tragic scene.

  Only to see Wang Tianlong leading his dozen or so horse-riding subordinates, galloping back and forth outside the high-ranking Fan family fortress, while the tenant farmers outside the village were clearly working in the fields, seemingly caught off guard by their arrival.

  But Wang Tianlong suddenly led the crowd to rush out, and as a result, these tenant farmers who were working hard in the fields, fled in panic towards the gate of Fanjia Village.

  But how can two legs outrun four legs! As a result, Wang Tianlong's men soon caught up with them and launched a massacre against these innocent tenants. Anyone who ran towards Fanjia Fortress was chased by them, cut down to the ground with a random knife, and driven like ducks towards the manor gate.

  These tenants, in a state of panic, seeing that escaping into Fanjia Fortress was hopeless, began to scatter and flee, but immediately several of Wang Tiandong's subordinates on horseback surrounded them and brought them back. Anyone who refused to listen would be killed instantly with a spear or waist knife. In an instant, the scene outside Fanjia Fortress became like a hell on earth. The bodies of the slain tenants lay in the fields, while the wounded groaned pitifully on the ground. The women and children of the tenant families wailed and threw themselves onto the bodies of the dead or injured, crying out in anguish.

  An old woman was kneeling on the body of a murdered old man, wailing loudly and cursing with the most vicious curses those bandits who had brought disaster to them. When one of Wang Tianlong's men galloped past her on horseback, the old woman suddenly stood up, pointing at him and scolding him in the most venomous language, cursing their ruthlessness.

  That man had already galloped past, but when he heard the old woman's vicious curses, he turned his horse around and rushed back. With a swift kick to the horse's belly, he charged forward, his waist knife flashing in the light. The old woman's curses suddenly stopped as a blood arrow shot up into the air. Her head flew off, rolling through the air before landing next to her husband's corpse. The headless body convulsed a few times before falling still.

  Xiao Tianjian's temple vein suddenly bulged, and he clenched the hilt of his long gun tightly, almost bursting with rage on the spot. As a leader, he had also killed many people since he set foot on this path, with at least a dozen lives lost to him, including innocent ones. However, he had never been so wantonly murderous before. As long as the opponent did not threaten his life, he would not take action against innocent people. Not only did he do so himself, but also required his subordinates to do the same. Therefore, when he saw Wang Tiandong behave in such a manner today, Xiao Tianjian was instantly furious.

  Fortunately, this kind of thing was only done by Wang Tiandong's subordinates. He saw Shi Rang leading the big cow and others to stand still in the distance, not doing such things with them. So he shouted: "Shi Rang!"

  Shi Rang saw that Xiao Tianjian and his party had arrived, so he quickly circled the horse and brought several men to gallop over. Before Shi Rang could speak, Xiao Tianjian pulled him off the horseback, not caring about his own poor riding skills, flipped himself onto the horseback, jerked the reins, and sat on the horseback, crookedly rushing towards Wang Tiandong's location.

  Da Niu and several horsemen hurriedly whipped their horses to chase after Xiao Tianjian, while Shi Rang and the infantrymen looked on nervously as Xiao Tianjian rode clumsily towards Wang Tiandong, afraid that he would fall off his horse at any moment.

  A shout of surprise rose from the crowd: "Watch out for the flying saucer..."

  Xiao Tianjian's blood rushed to his head, and he desperately clung to the horseback, controlling his body from falling off. Amidst the crowd's cries of surprise, he galloped all the way to Wang Tiandong's face.

  At this time, Wang Tiandong and his men had basically controlled the tenants on the outskirts of Fanjia Fortress. In a short moment, they killed twenty or thirty tenants of Fanjia Fortress, and then surrounded one or two hundred tenants together, constantly beating them with gun butts or horse whips to make them behave, all squatting together as ordered.

  "King Wang is here!......" Xiao Tianjian crookedly and twistedly rode on horseback, rushing over and shouting loudly from afar.

  At this time, Wang Tiandong also saw Xiao Tianjian's actions and looked at his clumsy riding skills on the horseback. Wang Tiandong and his men showed disdainful expressions, and some people even pointed at Xiao Tianjian and burst out laughing.

  When Xiao Tianjian rushed to the front of Wang Tiandong, his anger that had filled his chest and almost made him lose his mind was suppressed again after a short while. After all, they were now allies, no matter how Wang Tiandong acted, he couldn't cut him down with a knife, so he forcibly held back the flames in his chest, swept his gaze over the terrified tenants of Fanjia Fortress who had been rounded up, grasped the reins tightly and steadied himself.

  "King of the house! Why bother killing these poor tenants? We're after the wealth of the Fan family, why treat these wretched people like this?" Xiao Tianjian struggled to suppress his anger and asked Wang Tiandong as calmly as possible.

  Wang Tiandong listened to Xiao Tianjian's inquiry, with a hint of disdain on his face, and casually put away the blood-stained horse knife. He turned his head again to look at Fanjiapu, which was already in a state of panic, and coldly said: "It seems that Xiao Dangjia is still a bit tender for this! Actually showing such feminine benevolence! Haha!"

  Since that's the case, I'll make an example out of Xiao Dangjia! In our line of work, being soft-hearted is not a good thing! The reason I'm doing this is to first block off these tenant farmers from escaping into the fortress. If they run in and join forces with the stubbornly resistant Fan family, won't that just give us more trouble when we attack the fortress?

  Xiao Tianjian listened to Wang Tiandong's words and nodded, suppressing some of his anger. He said somewhat discontentedly: "This is reasonable, Wang Dangjia does this, Xiao Mou has no objection, but it's not necessary to kill so many people, isn't this a bit too much?"

  "Hmph! I told you, you're still too soft on them! If we don't take control of these tenants first, how can we get anything done? These people will be useful to us later, but if we don't intimidate them and show them our power, will they listen to our orders? Besides, Xiao Dangjia, I'm putting my trust in you, but you're still too inexperienced for this. If we didn't make a sudden move and give them a scare, would the Fan family inside the manor be afraid of us? Take a look around! After I made that move, the servants inside the manor are already getting nervous! When we take action later, these people will naturally lose their courage to fight back against us! Learn from me, little brother!" Wang Tianlong said with a scornful and mocking cold smile, looking down on Xiao Tianjian.

  Xiao Tianjian was indeed left speechless by him, the education he received in his later years naturally formed his own values, and for good and evil, he had a completely different standard from people of this era. In this matter, he couldn't help but look down on Wang Tiandong's indiscriminate killing, yet he also had to admit that what he did made sense, after all, these tenants were people from Fanjia Fortress, to some extent, they came to attack Fanjia Fortress, and these people were their enemies. For his enemies, Xiao Tianjian knew he couldn't be soft-hearted, but doing it this way, no matter what, he still couldn't agree with it.

  But Wang Tianlong's words had already reached this point, and if he continued to argue with him, it would be meaningless. So he suppressed his anger, nodded and smiled wryly: "Wang Dangjia is indeed ruthless! Xiao Mou admires you! However, I'd like to advise Wang Dangjia that although we've been forced into this line of work, we're all from humble origins. For the sake of these poor people, it's better for us to show mercy and spare their lives whenever possible. As long as they don't oppose us, I think it's best not to kill them unnecessarily. It's also a way for us to accumulate some good karma, so that we won't suffer retribution in the future!

  As soon as Xiao Tianjian mentioned the concept of retribution, Wang Tiandong's face changed color. In this era, many people believed in the saying that "those who kill innocents will suffer heavenly punishment and fall into the eighteen layers of hell after death." Apparently, Wang Tiandong also somewhat believed in this, but his expression only changed for a moment before he quickly regained his ferocious demeanor. He suddenly spat on the ground and cursed, "Don't mention that crap about retribution to me! I've been doing this line of work without thinking about getting a good reputation. I'm still struggling to make ends meet in this life, how can I care about what happens after death? Brother, don't say any more. Now that I've cleared the outside of Fanjia Fortress, let's discuss how we'll infiltrate it."

  Xiao Tianjian took a look at the corpses of the killed tenants, sighed in his heart, and also knew that because of this matter, he couldn't turn against Wang Tiandong for the time being. Now they had to consider how to take down Fanjia Fortress. For him, this was his first time using strong attack tactics to attack a fortified stronghold. In many ways, he still needed to learn from Wang Tiandong.

  Then he dryly laughed and cupped his hands to Wang Tiandao, saying: "Wang Dangjia is right! This matter will not be mentioned again! Without deceiving Wang Dangjia, this time I came to attack Fan Family Fort, my brother really didn't have any strategy. This was the first time my brother led people to attack such a fort, and everything still relied on Wang Dangjia!"

  Xiao Tianjian's face had already softened, and it was clear that he wanted to take charge, so Wang Tiandong's expression also improved a lot. He laughed and said: "Since that's the case, then I'll just have to obey! Xiao Dangjia should listen to my orders! Someone, go tell that old thing surnamed Fan inside to open the door and let us in quickly. If he's smart, I'll spare his whole family and not harm anyone inside the fort. We'll only take money and grain, and leave this fort for him. Otherwise, I'll have to use force! Once I break in, he'll regret it too late! I'll kill them all, leaving no chicken or dog alive!"

  My lover is hospitalized! Today it seems that bursting out is impossible! However, I will maintain the speed of two updates! Hope brothers continue to hold on!)

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