Zhutian: Starting from the Space-Time Merchant

Chapter 636 They are brutal, so we will repay them tenfold or a hundredfold!
"That felt great! That really felt great!"

In Master Zheng's house, a burly man with his chest exposed, his chest covered in black hair, and his face covered in a thick beard, casually threw away an empty can of luncheon meat.

"These traitors, they certainly know how to make delicious meat."

"Speaking of which," the burly man said, glancing at Master Zheng, who was drinking beside him, "this isn't some kind of boiled pork belly, is it?"

"The chief is joking."

With a beaming smile, Master Zheng reached for the wine jug and poured him some wine. "What does the white meat taste like? Can't you tell, Chief?"

“That’s true.” The burly man didn’t take the wine cup, but instead snatched the wine pot and poured the wine directly into his mouth.

A flash of disgust crossed Zheng Yuanwai's eyes, but it quickly vanished without a trace.

He wouldn't have cooperated with these bandits from western Hunan if he hadn't had no other choice.

"I'm flying on the grass now!" The burly man downed the wine in the jug in one gulp and shouted "How exhilarating!" a few more times.

He patted the official document tucked in his belt. "It's the imperial army now."

"Hey!"

"After being a bandit in western Hunan for decades, he's now an official. This world has changed so fast."

Zhuang Han, nicknamed "Grasshopper," was a notorious bandit in western Hunan.

Some time ago, he was granted amnesty by the imperial court and appointed as a captain. He led his brothers out of western Hunan to fight the Taiping rebels.

Ordered to cooperate with this wealthy man Zheng, they launched a surprise attack and poisoned him, beheading more than a hundred Taiping rebels.

“Master Zheng, you are rich and powerful.”

Grasshopper, with his triangular eyes, chuckled, "More than a hundred heads, take them to the Imperial Envoy in Changsha Prefecture, and you can get at least a thousand taels of silver."

"You're so easygoing, you just throw it away like that!"

The newly appointed imperial commissioner for suppressing bandits, Mu Zhang'a, immediately devised a vicious scheme upon arriving in Hunan: he extensively recruited bandits from various regions, granting them the status of military trainers and ordering them to attack the Taiping Army.

For this reason, an extremely high reward was offered.

Even the most ordinary auxiliary soldiers of the Taiping Army could exchange a head for ten taels of silver.

In Mu Zhang'a's words, since they are all thieves anyway, letting them kill each other will only bring benefits and no harm.

As for where the money came from, apart from a portion allocated by the emperor and the court before departure, the majority came from the local gentry and landowners.

Of course, as is customary, most of it had already been eaten up long ago.

"The chief is joking."

Master Zheng raised his eyelids slightly. "I don't lack this little bit of money. I just want revenge!"

At this point, his breathing became heavy as he recalled his relatives who had managed to escape and ran to Changsha Prefecture to report to him how brutal the Taiping Army's work team had been when they arrived!

His own relatives and clansmen were all arrested and publicly tried, and ultimately they all died at the hands of peasants.

My father was nearly seventy years old, yet he was brutally killed by those peasants with hoes!

This hatred is irreconcilable!
As for himself, he was studying at the prefectural school in Changsha at the time. After learning the news, he went to seek help from Jiang Zhongyuan, the head of the Hunan militia.

Having received their identity tokens, they gathered their clansmen from Changsha Prefecture and, in coordination with the recruited outlaw, launched a counterattack to settle scores!

He had some sense; he didn't just blindly rush back to seek revenge.

Instead, he disguised himself and sneaked back to his hometown, then pretended to be a villager, delivering water and food to the Taiping Army. After the poison took effect, he coordinated with the Taiping Army from the inside and outside to achieve his goal in one fell swoop.

"I, Zheng, want the Taiping rebels to know that I've come for revenge!"

"These hundred-plus heads are just the beginning; there will be many more to come!"

"The hatred for the murderer of my father is irreconcilable. I, Zheng, will exterminate these Taiping soldiers!"

"Good!" Grasshopper raised his hand and slapped his thigh. "Well done, Master Zheng."

"You are brave, resourceful, and generous. You made up for the beheading reward of over a thousand taels for the brothers."

"We brothers admire you."

"From now on, let's cooperate closely and wipe out these Taiping rebels!"

"Good!" Master Zheng laughed, picked up his wine cup and was about to speak when screams and commotion came from outside the courtyard.

Grasshopper suddenly stood up, drew his waist knife, and rushed out.

Master Zheng hurriedly followed and arrived in the courtyard.

'Whoosh~'

Amidst the strange noises, several oddly shaped canisters trailing long plumes of white smoke flew in from outside the courtyard wall.

After landing, the canister violently spewed out smoke, quickly enveloping the yard.

'Cough cough cough~~'

Everyone in the courtyard started coughing violently.

Grasshopper grabbed the dazed Zheng Yuanwai and dragged him back into the house. "Close the doors and windows tightly!"

Hastily closing the doors and windows, Kusakabe Hibiki gripped the knife handle tightly and shouted loudly to his brothers outside.

The only response he received was a continuous series of coughs, the kind that sounded like his lungs were about to burst out.

As for Zheng, who was previously full of ambition and wanted to kill all the Taiping Army, he was now completely frightened and at a loss by this sudden change.

For these scholars, ruthlessly scheming against others is no problem; they can come up with the most vicious plans.

The problem is that they are at a loss when an emergency occurs around them.

Thick smoke billowed outside, and even some smoke seeped in through the cracks in the doors and windows.

Grasshopper moves incredibly fast, tearing clothes into strips and pouring alcohol over them to seal the cracks in the door.

You can't see anything outside, you can only hear coughing and screams.

Master Zheng collapsed to the ground, his eyes glazed over.

Grasshopper gripped the knife hilt tightly, his chest heaving as he stared intently at the door.

After an unknown amount of time, the smoke outside gradually dissipated, but the coughing and screaming stopped.

Heavy footsteps sounded, gradually approaching.

The head of the gang and Master Zheng instinctively stepped back.

The footsteps seemed to stop outside the door. Grasshopper's eyes darted around, filled with regret.

If I had a shotgun at that moment, I could fire a shot at the door, and that would be...
'puff! '

The window, covered with thick peach blossom oil paper, was violently smashed open, leaving a hole.

A can trailing white smoke was thrown in.

Although stained glass windows were gradually appearing, ordinary landlords still couldn't afford them.

Normally, they use ordinary window paper, which is thick oiled paper. The kind of window paper you see in movies and TV shows where you can just tap it open with a finger dipped in saliva—unless you're using strong acid.

As for the poor, it's basically a blank space; they don't have the money to put up window paper.

In winter, they simply block it with dry grass.

Thick, pungent smoke quickly filled the room.

Grasshopper gritted his teeth, pulled up a strip of cloth to cover his mouth and nose, and suddenly rushed forward, opened the door, and ran out.

The knife in his hand missed its mark.

There was no one outside the door at all.

The next moment, a large hand suddenly reached out from his side, grabbed his wrist holding the knife, and twisted it.

With a crisp sound of bones shattering, Grasshopper had just opened his mouth and let out a scream when he was pulled away by a tremendous force.

He fell to the ground, bleeding from his mouth and nose, and suffering excruciating pain all over his body.

He struggled to his feet and turned around to look behind him.

A strange man dressed in odd clothes, with a bizarre, pig-snout-like mask on his face, dragged the limp and coughing Master Zheng out of the house.

Grasshopper turned and ran.

A tremendous force came from behind, and a piercing pain shot through my back.

Grasshopper, knocked down again, is still struggling.

The strange man strode over, bent down, grabbed the braid at the back of his head, and dragged him out of the courtyard and outside.

The force was immense; the scalp on the back of the head was torn open, and blood gushed out—a truly gruesome sight.

Grasshopper screamed and howled all the way, tears, snot, and blood flowing together, no longer the imposing figure of the leader.

'Tear~'

In the end, the entire scalp connected to the braid of this notorious bandit from western Hunan was torn off.

Lin Dao casually tossed his braid aside and took off his gas mask.

First, they stepped forward and stomped on the two people, breaking their limbs.

Only after eliminating its ability to resist did they begin to question it from a superior position.

"Names, identities, Taiping soldiers, and villagers—were you the ones who killed them?"

Grasshopper was a ruthless bandit. Although he was in unbearable pain all over his body, he saw his brothers lying haphazardly outside, as well as Master Zheng's militia.

He knew he had met his match this time, but he remained stubborn.

"I admit defeat."

"If you're a true hero, give me a quick death!"

Lin Dao glanced at him without saying a word, then looked at Master Zheng, who was writhing and crawling on the ground in pain and groaning.

"You say~"

Master Zheng was in excruciating pain, howling with all his might, and had no mind to respond.

Lin Dao wasn't worried at all; it wasn't him who was in pain.

He found a stone mill, sat down, glanced at the corpses of several naked children next to the millstone, and sat there with a cold expression.

After an unknown amount of time, Master Zheng stopped shouting; he had fainted from the pain.

Even with its teeth clenched to pieces, it was still stubbornly resisting.

A dense and rapid sound of footsteps rang out, and a large number of Taiping soldiers finally arrived.

They were all panting heavily and covered in sweat.

Yang Xiuqing stepped forward to greet him, "Head of the Association!"

“These two,” Lin Dao pointed at Master Zheng and Grasshopper, “are the main culprits.”

“There are still some incapacitated accomplices in the village; arrest them all.”

He stood up and gestured to the blood-stained stone mill beside him, "Use this to carry out the execution."

"Leader!"

Before being thrown into the millstone for execution, Master Zheng was awakened by being splashed with cold water.

He cried and wailed, begging for mercy.

The words of pleading flowed like a never-ending river.

'Pooh! ’

Grasshopper shouted, "So what if you're going to die? Why be so shameless!"

"I thought you were a real man before, but I never expected you to be such a piece of trash."

"Pooh!"

Lin Dao's gaze turned towards them.

"I am Huang Erhu, a native of Guzhangping, Yongshun Prefecture, Xiangxi!"

"My brothers in the underworld give me face, my bandit name is Grasshopper!"

"Brother, could you please wait until I die, burn me to ashes, and send them back to Guzhangping?"

"I'll repay your kindness by being your ox or horse in my next life!"

"You're quite the tough nut to crack," Lin Dao sneered. "But a tough nut to crack who's capable of anything."

"You still want to send the ashes back to your hometown?"

"Think about the people who died at your hands, is that even possible?"

Grasshopper lowered his head and remained silent.

Throughout his life, he killed countless people.

To want a final resting place after death is indeed a luxury.

"Go and find some dogs."

Lin Dao instructed Yang Xiuqing, "After you've dealt with these bandits, feed them all to the dogs!"

"In the future, when we encounter these local bandits, we should deal with them in the same way, without taking them prisoner."

"They are brutal, so we will repay them tenfold or a hundredfold!"

"Kill them one by one, kill them all if you see them, kill them all if you see them."

"In the end, they were all killed."

(End of this chapter)