Chapter 86

Chapter 86

"Are there families you're close to in the other villages?" The soldier didn't head in the direction the Village Head pointed, his toes still pointed toward Dongtou Village.

"Huh?" A flicker of confusion crossed the Village Head's face, but his feet didn't dare stop as he hurriedly followed.

"How many households did you say Wanxia Village had before?" The soldier's voice betrayed no emotion. As he walked, the scabbard at his waist clinked crisply against his armor, a sound that, to the Village Head at this moment, was no different from the summons of the King of Hell.

His heart trembled, and he answered honestly, "Th-thirty-some households."

"Remote location, difficult paths, inaccessible by carts or horses." The soldier snorted coldly. "Thirty-some households, dozens of corpses. I'm supposed to ignore five large villages and run all that way to catch a few people hiding deep in the mountains? Do I have a fucking hole in my head?!"

"Or is there some brilliant general or wise chancellor in that godforsaken place worth my trip?!"

His words were already tinged with anger. He'd had it with this old man for a while now, and he was trying to pull a fast one! For this conscription, why did the county yamen post the notice one moment and have the runners spread the word the next, with us following right behind to go straight to the villages to grab people, giving the common folk no time to react?

Wasn't it precisely to prevent them from fleeing service, striking while they were unprepared!

The situation in Qingzhou Prefecture was more difficult than anyone imagined. For the past two months, the prefectural city had been running short on troops. At that time, the higher-ups, under the banner of "broadly recruiting talent," had recruited many country bumpkins and people who were about to become refugees from the surrounding villages. During that period, the court had also sent people, but for some unknown reason, like the previous one, they were intercepted and killed halfway.

It's said it was some general, with a retinue of about a hundred men. When they were found, the bodies had been stabbed into sieves, chopped into mincemeat. Not a single complete corpse could be pieced together from the entire force. The cruelty of the attack was simply hair-raising.

When the news reached the capital, His Majesty was furious. The Son of Heaven's wrath, however, seemed to be just that—wrath.

Since then, the court never again mentioned sending anyone to Qingzhou Prefecture. It's said even Vice Minister Yu and Duke Chen stopped submitting memorials. Whether there were hidden circumstances outsiders didn't know, this group of low-ranking soldiers couldn't access important figures. The information they knew was still inadvertently revealed by their superiors, who only said that Qingzhou Prefecture could no longer rely on the court and had to rely entirely on themselves.

Because of this, the current city guards were divided into two factions: those with deep resentment towards the court, and those who still held hope for the court.

What no one expected was that two months later, the court suddenly issued a conscription decree, ordering the people of Qingzhou Prefecture to jointly drive out the refugees.

It wasn't that the capital was unwilling to send people, but that they had sent them twice in succession—one civil, one military—both of whom died tragically on the way to their posts. The road from Qingzhou Prefecture to the capital was now completely and utterly controlled by the refugees.

The northern war was real, the southern foreign enemies were real. As for the neighboring prefecture being Prince Cheng's fiefdom, if he said there was civil unrest, outsiders wouldn't dare ask if it was true or false. They weren't fools; Prince Cheng was clearly unwilling to get involved. He also wasn't afraid of the court sending people down. Prince Cheng was the emperor's blood brother, the Empress Dowager's most beloved youngest son. Forget the emperor issuing an edict to question him; probably showing even a hint of dissatisfaction would drown him in the Empress Dowager's tears.

Qingzhou Prefecture's current situation was both awkward and dangerous. The court wanted to manage it but couldn't produce people of great capability. The capable generals were all on the northern and southern borders, where both fronts were tense, and they simply couldn't be spared. The neighbor was quite powerful, but he was unwilling to intervene. Prince Cheng was still the highest of the high nobility. If he wasn't willing, no one dared question him.

And before the autumn harvest, the refugees who had been causing trouble everywhere suddenly receded like a tide overnight. The prefectural city guards felt very uneasy, sensing a kind of calm before the storm.

This conscription decree came just in time. Even if it hadn't come, they would have had to continue recruiting militia. It was true that the treatment was equal to that of border troops, true that meritorious service would be rewarded, and true that they wouldn't actively go kill refugees. But whether the refugees would kill you, whether you could survive the fighting—that wasn't a question of truth or falsehood, but a question of whether you had the skill.

Wealth is sought in danger, but danger also easily claims lives.

And the common folk of Qingzhou Prefecture knew nothing of these matters.

They didn't know that their current stable days were bought with the lives of the prefectural soldiers fighting on the front lines. Some things just weren't said openly. For example, if they didn't conscript, once the receded tide surged back with even greater ferocity, when the city gates were breached and the first line of defense collapsed, the refugees would have no more scruples, and Qingzhou Prefecture would become a true living hell.

If they hid now, fled now, once their homes were gone, their parents, wives, and children would completely become the souls under the refugees' blades, objects for their pleasure.

Especially this time, not knowing what evil those refugees were brewing, they were also frightened and panicked. That's why they were so eager to grab more people to guard the prefectural city gates, precisely to deal with everything that might happen next.

Goods become more valuable when far from home; people become cheap when far from home. As people of Qingzhou, they should shed their blood for this land, exerting all their strength to defend their homeland.

They were like this; the common folk should be too.

Whether this old man in front of him was trying to divert his attention or had other selfish motives, he only wanted to conscript the most militia in the limited time. A moment later, and there would be more cowards who got the news and hid everywhere. Qingzhou was already densely forested; once people dove in, it was like a drop of water entering a river, impossible to find again.

They had even less extra time to waste patrolling the mountains. The prefectural city couldn't be left unattended. Coming down to the villages to grab people this time was already taking a huge risk. Right now was when the prefectural city's defenses were at their weakest. They had to hurry, conscript the militia, and rush back. That so-called Wanxia Village—if it were a large village, fine, it might be worth a trip. But with half the village's men dead, and many more having fled to the mountains and not yet emerged, what was he going all that way for? To help them search the mountains for people?

When the nest is overturned, how can there be no broken eggs? Remote places have their advantages, remote places have their drawbacks. In urgent matters, expediency is the rule. The soldier had made up his mind. Later, he'd inquire at the other villages. If that Wanxia Village really had dozens of dead people, if it was true and not the nonsense of this wretched old man, then there was no need to waste military strength on an extra trip.

Dongtou Village was right before them. The lead soldier waved his hand, and two men went to block the path at the back of the mountain.

"Men, guard the village entrance, get the household registers, check the registers and round up the men..."

...

The people of Wanxia Village didn't know they had escaped a calamity.

Meanwhile, Zhao Sandi and his group, returning from exchanging grain, hid and dodged all the way, not even daring to take the main road, only daring to hide in the mountains.

The reason was that on their way back, they ran into a runner on horseback rushing urgently towards Shilin Town. His face was so anxious, not even rushing to a funeral would be that hurried. At that moment, Zhao Sandi's heart lifted, because they had long known about the conscription after the autumn harvest. Back when his younger sister dreamed of the scene, his parents later recounted it to them in detail, and it included an official riding a horse down to the villages.

This seemingly ordinary yet unusual scene made Zhao Sandi, who had eaten a mouthful of dust, decide immediately: abandon the main road, take the mountain paths!

"I have a bad feeling. I reckon the county has sent people down to notify about conscription." Zhao Sandi didn't hide or cover up, directly voicing his worries. "We can't take the main road. We'll take the mountain paths. Not knowing the way is fine; just recognize the direction and avoid people." What he feared now was running into the officials coming down to grab able-bodied men halfway. What difference was there between that and bumping right into their faces? It would save them the trouble; they could grab them and take them away.

As for whether he might be overthinking it? Overthinking was fine. Being cautious was always better than losing your life.

When traveling outside, the others unconditionally trusted the Zhao brothers. Wu Dazhu and the others didn't even ask, shouldered their carrying poles, identified the direction, and directly stepped into the dense undergrowth, entering an unfamiliar mountain.

"Sandi, are you sure it's officials from the county coming down to notify about conscription?" Only after leaving the main road and entering the woods did Wu Dazhu and the others dare to speak. Everyone's faces were panicked, their hearts beating fast, palms sweaty.

Their daring to go out this time was also based on past experience, figuring out the time when the town's grain tax collection usually ended. Logically, it shouldn't be these two days!

"Can't say for sure." Zhao Sandi shook his head. "Anyway, being careful won't lead to big mistakes. We'll just take the mountain paths; walking a few extra days is fine."

"If it's true, we need to hurry back and report, get into the mountains to hide before the officials arrive!" Li Mancang was anxious. How could they walk for days? If they really walked for days, it would be too late when they got back!

Zhao Sandi, however, smiled, seeming not too panicked. "If the officials really come down to grab people, my brother-in-law will rush over to notify us first thing. Last time before they left, we agreed: Luoshi Village is in front, our village is behind in the mountain hollow. Even if they grab people, they'll grab the front villages first. He can make it in time taking the mountain paths. As long as the village gets the news and enters the mountains, nothing major will happen."

Marriage ties, marriage ties—isn't it about helping each other out in critical times by running around?

There's never closeness that's only one-sided.

Hearing this, everyone immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Good, good. Then they just had to be careful not to get caught themselves; they didn't need to worry about the village.

"The town's tax collection stalls probably aren't even cleaned up yet, and they're already in such a hurry to grab able-bodied men!" Once the worry faded, belated anger surged up. Zhao Quan gnashed his teeth and said, "One hand takes our grain, the other uses hemp ropes to bind us. These damned officials are truly a bunch of heartless things!"

Even though they had long known about the conscription after the autumn harvest, now that it was really happening, they still found it somewhat hard to accept, especially when the town might still be collecting taxes, and the county couldn't wait to send people down.

What difference was there between this and calling someone 'mother' when you have the bowl, then cursing her when you put it down?

Oh, there was a difference, Zhao Quan thought bitterly. When they collected the grain, not only did they not call anyone 'mother,' each one acted like the King of Heaven, daring to curse 'mother' even before putting the bowl down.

"If only we hadn't handed over the grain," someone muttered, immediately drawing a few murmurs of agreement.

Planting fields honestly, handing over grain honestly—what use was it? Not eating enough, not sleeping well. In front were refugees who killed people, behind were officials who grabbed able-bodied men. It really was fucking meaningless to be alive!

But it was just complaining. Did they dare not hand it over? Were they tired of their necks being too long, wanting a chop to shorten them?

Sure enough, not long after they entered the mountains, a group of soldiers indeed appeared on the official road.

The procession was so conspicuous that Zhao Sandi's group walking in the mountains saw it and were so frightened they immediately squatted down, hiding in the mountains and staring intently below.

Zhao Quan and the others had never seen soldiers. The Zhao brothers had been to the prefectural city and could tell the difference at a glance. They saw clearly: a group of runners led several groups of soldiers who split up and took small paths down to the villages. Tongjiang Town had dozens of villages under it, and Shilin Town had even more. At that time, they were still quite a distance from the three-way fork. What they saw were naturally the soldiers going to grab able-bodied men from the villages under Shilin Town's jurisdiction.

The ones grabbing able-bodied men had come, they had really come. Everyone felt a chill run through their bodies. Chen Daniu's legs went so soft he directly plopped down on the ground.

The mountain path they were on also had villages below. They saw with their own eyes the soldiers enter the village, guard the path to the back mountain, block the village entrance, and grab people. They watched the villagers flee in all directions, diving into holes, hiding in water vats, concealing themselves in firewood piles, running to the back mountain... The densely scattered human figures were like ants, and they were the lucky ones standing high up, watching the ant nest that had been poked open, its inhabitants fleeing frantically for their lives.

Everyone was terrified, hiding in the mountains, too scared to move.

The sky had darkened at some point, and torches twisted along the main road like a long, coiling dragon. Screams and cries could be heard from across the mountain, as if weighed down by an inescapable despair.

They dared not descend the mountain, nor continue their journey, fearing they might run into someone and be captured.

Countless fiery dragons converged in the darkness, stretching as far as the eye could see.

They moved slowly, inch by inch, along the official road, vanishing into the distance.