Farming to Defy My Fate 53

Chapter 53: The Consequences of Having Every Wish Granted

The dozen or so homemade hand grenades couldn’t kill all three hundred cavalrymen. In fact, the reason they were injured was mostly because their horses were startled, threw them off, and then they were trampled.

But even in such a chaotic situation, the number of actual casualties would not exceed fifty. However, Hu Sheng and his men obviously wouldn’t give the cavalry a chance to regroup.

While the commander was still struggling to control his horse’s reins and constantly ordering the troops to reassemble, Hu Sheng had already flown onto his horse and twisted his neck. His fine steel armor, though it could withstand arrows, could not withstand close combat.

After losing their commander, the entire troop became even more chaotic. Zhang Wei and his men also took the opportunity to kill several more.

Then he shouted, “The commander is dead! Run!”

It was clear that these cavalrymen, who could be scared witless by a few hand grenades, were not truly battle-hardened elite soldiers, but just for show.

Hearing their shouts, some of the cavalrymen who had already left the battlefield and controlled their horses actually turned and fled.

The villagers of Zhaojia Village also saw this scene. They all stood up from the ground and picked up stones from the roadside, beginning to approach the yamen runners menacingly.

The yamen runners were not real soldiers. They held iron chains and iron rulers, but no real lethal weapons. And there were only a dozen of them facing several hundred common people with stones. They all became turtles in their shells.

Just as the first stone was about to be thrown, County Magistrate Zhang, who was being supported by others, fell to his knees with a thud and kowtowed to the villagers. “Grandpas, I was wrong! I was really wrong! Don’t kill me!”

Seeing him like this, the usually gentle villagers suddenly hesitated.

But unexpectedly, Scholar Zhao, who had been cut, was not yet dead. He staggered up from the ground and shouted, “Kill him!”

The court and the officials all wanted the people of Zhaojia Village to die. They had no way out, so they had to see blood today. Only by making the villagers realize that there was no turning back would there be a chance of survival.

With Scholar Zhao’s shout, Liu Huan was the first to throw the stone in his hand, but it missed. However, after him, several, dozens, hundreds of stones were thrown over. This young County Magistrate Zhang was directly smashed into a pulp.

Hu Sheng and his men finally rode over at this time. After seeing this scene, Zhang Wei laughed and clapped. “You’ve got guts! All members of the guard team, assemble! Go and get those horses for me, then line up and follow us.”

For the past three years, it had been Zhang Wei who had trained the members of the guard team. They were also used to following his orders. They quickly brought over all the ownerless horses, a total of one hundred and twenty.

With Hu Sheng and his men present, the people of the village also had a pillar of support. No one even suggested going to pack their things and just followed Hu Sheng and his men. In fact, there wasn’t much to bring. In the time it took for Hu Sheng and his men to go up the mountain and come back, before they were dragged to this market dam, their homes had already been ransacked and destroyed by those government soldiers.

Four shichen after the people of Zhaojia Village had left, it was already dark. Another large group of government soldiers arrived. They surrounded Zhaojia Village and searched house by house, but they didn’t see a single person. They could only burn down the already dilapidated village.

It was indeed very difficult to travel a long distance with more than five hundred old, weak, sick, and disabled people. Fortunately, they had gotten more than a hundred horses before they left. Whenever someone couldn’t walk, they would let them ride on a horse, and those who could still walk would lead the horses and continue.

But after leaving the territory of Changxi County and entering Jiaozhou, everyone began to be on tenterhooks.

They were afraid of meeting people on the road, who would then bring government soldiers to capture them all. The fate after being captured was to be a slave or a servant. If it were three years ago, they might not have resisted at all, because they felt that it was the emperor’s order and must be obeyed. But now, for some reason, they had something that could be called “thoughts” in their minds.

They began to not accept being punished when they had done nothing wrong, and they also felt that they could resist.

So they picked up their weapons, the same sharpened wooden sticks that Zhao An had given them when he first trained them.

When they were about to leave the territory of Jiaozhou and were about to step into the land of the Nanyue Kingdom, the government troops that had kept them on tenterhooks finally appeared in their sight.

But at this time, no one in Zhaojia Village was afraid anymore. They raised the wooden sticks in their hands, intending to fight to the death with this group of government soldiers.

But Hu Sheng waved his hand, telling them not to act rashly for the time being. He saw a bearded man walk out from the group of government soldiers and say with a laugh, “Brother Hu, we haven’t seen each other in a long time.”

Hu Sheng cupped his hands. “Greetings, Garrison Commander. You’ve brought so many troops. Are you trying to capture me for a reward?”

Garrison Commander Wang Taigu of Jiaozhou laughed heartily. “Don’t joke. What good would I get even if I captured you? Those old men in the court won’t let me go back to the capital.”

He turned his head and shouted to the soldiers behind him, “Play the music!” Then, the joyous sound of gongs and drums came from the ranks of the government soldiers.

Only then did he say to Hu Sheng, “I’m here to see you off. Didn’t expect that, did you?”

Hu Sheng finally guessed something. “You’ve already met the team led by Ma Chuan and the others.”

Wang Taigu nodded. “They were all riding mules and draft horses. They were two days faster than you.”

Hearing the news that Zhao An was safe at this time, Hu Sheng’s heart was happy again. “Then thank you, Garrison Commander.”

Garrison Commander Wang clapped his hands with a smile. “No thanks, no thanks. I should be the one thanking you for helping me vent my anger. If it weren’t for these big eaters under my command who need to be fed, I would have rebelled long ago.”

As for the reason Garrison Commander Wang wanted to rebel, it was because he was actually a trusted subordinate of the late emperor. The late emperor had only lived to the age of thirty-one before he had suddenly died of a heart attack. The late emperor’s legal mother had immediately adopted Li Xiuye and made him the crown prince, which had made many people dissatisfied, including this Garrison Commander Wang.

And he couldn’t control his mouth. He had accidentally gotten drunk and said some words of dissatisfaction, so he had been exiled from the position of deputy commander of the imperial guards all the way to Jiaozhou, where it was impossible to achieve military merit, to be a minor garrison commander.

He looked at Hu Sheng with some envy. “You’re the carefree one, brother. Your men can make money and are obedient, so you have no worries no matter what you do.”

Hu Sheng smiled, neither proud nor humble. He cupped his hands to Wang Taigu again. “Then I’ll be on my way.”

Wang Taigu had originally wanted to say “take care” and leave, but he suddenly remembered that there was one more thing he hadn’t said. He immediately called out to Hu Sheng, “Do you know why you’ve suffered this disaster?”

“Because the court is wary of my strength and wants to get the money-making formulas from my Ah An,” Hu Sheng said. Although he said that, he knew that since Garrison Commander Wang had specifically brought it up, there must be a deeper reason.

As expected, he saw him shake his head triumphantly. “Then you only know one part of it and not the other.” Then he showed a disgusted smile. “It’s that sister of your man’s. She wasn’t satisfied after getting a room full of glassware. She wanted Li Xiuye to build her a palace made entirely of glass. Later, they investigated, and oh my~, it turned out that the formula for glass was in your man’s hands. Do you think Li Xiuye was angry?”

Don’t look at this Garrison Commander Wang’s burly appearance. When he talked about gossip, his lively energy was exactly the same as the expression of the old aunts at the village entrance when they were gossiping.

Hu Sheng really didn’t know this. But he thought his intelligence work was very thorough. Why hadn’t he heard such important news?

Seeing Hu Sheng’s expression change, Garrison Commander Wang laughed heartily and patted his chest. “I was a commander of the imperial guards, after all. I also helped a few pitiful little eunuchs in my early years. They still remember my kindness and occasionally pass on some trivial news to me.”

For the upper echelons of the court, the empress wanting to build a glass house was indeed not important news. And given the emperor’s doting on the empress these past few years, let alone a glass house, even if she wanted the moon in the sky, the emperor would probably find a way to make a moon for her.

It could be said that Zhao Qingcheng had been thoroughly spoiled. She didn’t know that a casual word from her could bring disaster to all the people of Zhaojia Village.

After learning this, Hu Sheng was almost angered to the point of laughing. But he still maintained the expression on his face, thanked Garrison Commander Wang for his kind information, and then, as he rode his horse closer to him, said in a low voice, “The Nanyue Kingdom is surrounded by water on three sides. The sea salt there is very cheap.”

This time, Garrison Commander Wang said in a very low-key and soft voice, “Brother, you’re the considerate one.”

After arriving in the Nanyue Kingdom, Zhao An finally began the salt-making work he had dreamed of for many years, using the terraced method to draw water and sun-dry the salt.

And those villagers who had just been brought out of Zhaojia Village and were still uneasy, now had a safe place to stay and new work, and their hearts gradually settled down.

In just one month, Zhao An was tanned five shades darker, but he had also produced more than one hundred thousand tons of salt. But the Nanyue Kingdom was not short of salt at all. It was not easy to smuggle it to the Xu Kingdom. At most, he could sell some half-price to the Jiaozhou Garrison Commander who had once helped them.

The market that Zhao An had really set his sights on was Ü-Tsang, where they had always maintained a horse caravan trade. That plateau, far from the ocean, was truly in need of salt.

As long as the horse caravan could transport the salt there, they could exchange it for a large amount of dried yak and mutton, and even horses. Although the breed of plateau horses was far inferior to Mongolian horses or Western Regions horses, having some was better than none.

And plateau horses also had an advantage that other breeds did not have: their lung capacity was particularly strong, making them especially suitable for transporting goods.

However, while Zhao An and his group were developing prosperously in the Nanyue Kingdom, a great chaos suddenly broke out in the capital.