Chapter 149 Revenge

"Damn that Zhu! Give me back my wife's life!"

A shout rang out from beside the campfire in the dead of night, causing everyone who was eating to freeze.

The troops from Luhe Gully had just returned victorious, only to be greeted by the grim sight of their base camp raided. Though the enemy had withdrawn before their return, and the military funds had long since been hidden away by Xu Wenshan, the morale of the soldiers was inevitably affected.

The soldiers had been sitting in silence around the campfires eating their meal, until a soldier who had lost his wife could no longer contain his grief and cried out.

"What are you babbling about! Your wife wasn't killed by the Great Knight Zhu!" another soldier nearby snapped back. "Your wife was crushed by a burning ceiling beam. The fire was set by those garrison troops! What does that have to do with the Great Knight Zhu?"

The bereaved soldier retorted, "If he hadn't conscripted us into the army, would our village have suffered this disaster?"

Another soldier argued, "The villagers had already led your wife out, but she stubbornly insisted on running back to haul out your family's rice! Who else can you blame?"

Furious, the soldier shoved the other to the ground, and the two began to grapple. The other soldiers rushed over to pull them apart, and after a long struggle, finally managed to separate them.

After this scuffle, the high morale brought by the consecutive victories was completely shattered, and faint cracks began to form even among the ranks of the soldiers.

Lei Laohu nearby intended to punish the soldiers, but Li Dachang waved his hand to stop him. Their force had expanded too rapidly, and their authority as officers over the men was no longer what it used to be. If they resorted to harsh punishments now, it might trigger a mutiny.

"You feel hatred, do you?"

Under the moonlight, Xu Wenshan walked slowly into the midst of the soldiers and posed a question to them all: "You feel hatred in your hearts?"

"If you feel hatred, that's entirely right," Xu Wenshan said. "When someone destroys the peaceful life of your own village, you'd be beasts not to feel hatred."

"Of course there is danger in joining my army—this is rebelling against the imperial court. By now, you must have realized what that danger is. Therefore, anyone who does not wish to take this risk can take off their armor right now, and I will not hold any of you accountable."

The soldiers stared blankly at Xu Wenshan. It was only when he repeated himself that they finally understood:

To take off the armor meant no longer being a follower of this Great Knight Zhu.

He was driving people away. Lei Laohu and Li Dachang exchanged an even more anxious look. If they let the soldiers leave like this, it would deal an even heavier blow to morale, and it would also expose many of their secrets.

The soldier who had lost his wife forcefully wrenched himself free from the men holding him back and angrily stripped off his armor.

The entire assembly of soldiers sat in silence, watching him undress.

"I... I still have children at home," a soldier with a dark, weather-beaten face stood up, stammering the words before slowly beginning to shed his armor.

"I have an elderly mother to care for." "I am the only son in my family..." Slowly, a few more soldiers stood up and took off their armor.

As more and more men stood up, the heads of the soldiers who still believed in Xu Wenshan sank lower and lower.

Xu Wenshan waited a long time, until no more soldiers stood up, before he asked, "Anyone else?"

"Anyone else?"

"Anyone else?"

He asked three times, but no one spoke.

A gust of wind swept by, making the campfire leap and dance wildly, casting distorted, thrashing shadows upon the ground.

Xu Wenshan said every word with deliberate weight: "Then, there is no one else."

"Those of you who have removed your armor may bury the fear and hatred in your hearts and live out your lives in peace; I will not make things difficult for you. When military pay is settled next month, you will receive every coin of what is rightfully owed to you."

"The rest of you who have not taken off your armor, follow me to exact revenge!"

These words acted like a torch, igniting the fire in the hearts of all the remaining soldiers. Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!

Nothing could strike their hearts more directly than the call for revenge.

What was the point of bickering and splitting hairs at a time like this? Every injustice has its source, and every debt its debtor—revenge was the only answer!

The soldiers present surged with excitement and began to shout, while those who had stripped off their armor stood frozen in place, utterly at a loss.

"Revenge! Revenge! Revenge!" Someone started the chant, and soon all the remaining soldiers joined in. They had originally been simple, honest farmers, but their native soil meant far too much to them. It mattered little to them whether the State of Cai conquered the State of Chen, as it merely meant paying taxes to a new monarch. But this raid had made them realize a harsh truth: following this Spider Knight might bring trouble upon them, but if they refused to take up arms themselves, they would never be able to protect their homes.

And this Spider Knight was the very man who could place weapons in their hands.

"Revenge!"

amidst the earth-shattering roars, the army set off once more, re-forged with a razor-sharp edge.

...

Late that night, Xu Wenshan summoned Pang Xing from within Sha County and told him that the time had come to negotiate with Sha County and Yu Dingyuan.

"At this hour?" Pang Xing rubbed his sleepy eyes and asked.

"Are you still asking when? Now! Immediately!"

Pang Xing said with trepidation, "It's so late, I'm afraid the authorities won't agree, will they?"

"Trust me, he will accept," Xu Wenshan said.

The reason he was so confident was because Yun Shang had been abducted by Yu Dingyuan.

In the current situation, anyone would naturally assume that Yun Shang and the military funds were the two trump cards held by the bandit leader, the Spider Knight; as long as he controlled these two, he could name his price to the State of Cai.

But in reality, it was nothing of the sort.

Strictly speaking, Yun Shang could not be considered a hostage at all—she was a time bomb.

Although Marquis Yun seemingly appeared to be second only to the ruler in the State of Cai, the higher his status, the more awkward his position. Why else would the army be commanded not by Marquis Yun, but by someone of lesser rank like Wei Xianyong?

The relationship between Marquis Yun and the Duke of Cai at court was certainly not the inseparable, thick-and-thin bond rumored among the common folk. Marquis Yun must have been suppressed by the Duke of Cai in military matters to varying degrees.

The reason Yun Shang was able to escape from her estate, follow the wagons of silver all the way north, and cross the front lines was not out of her own willful caprice, but rather at Marquis Yun's instigation. Or rather, Marquis Yun had tacitly permitted her actions.

At such a sensitive time, why would Marquis Yun send his own daughter to the front lines? What on earth was he plotting?

Upon learning that the person in charge of money and grain at the front was the Duke's heir, everything became clear. Marquis Yun must have struck some kind of bargain with the heir, which was why he dared to send his daughter to the front.

And the reason Xu Wenshan had publicized the news of Yun Shang's capture to the frontline troops was not to bargain with them, but to test them.

Xu Wenshan believed that Wei Xianyong's attitude toward Yun Shang would, to some extent, reveal a glimpse of the deal between Marquis Yun and the heir.

Now, as it turned out, that was precisely the case. To hunt down Yun Shang, Wei Xianyong had stopped at nothing. On the surface, he placated Xu Wenshan, but in reality, he directly dispatched a massive army to crush them, completely disregarding the life or death of Marquis Yun's daughter.

The State of Cai was not as monolithic as people imagined.

So now, Yu Dingyuan had mistakenly carted off this time bomb; what would his attitude be?

Xu Wenshan did not believe Yu Dingyuan would feel any sense of relief right now. As a major general of the garrison forces, capturing the daughter of Marquis Yun—a woman whom the frontline army feared—meant the time had come for him to choose a side!

Xu Wenshan believed that if he simply showed a bit of compliance toward Yu Dingyuan now, the general would understand his intent and let him into the city.

Once he entered the city, he had every confidence of turning Sha County upside down.

Just as Xu Wenshan and his force of over a hundred men lay in ambush outside the walls of Sha County, waiting for Yu Dingyuan's final decision, Pang Xing returned.

"General Yu says it's too late tonight, let's talk tomorrow."

"What?!" Xu Wenshan leaped to his feet.