Taiping Dao at the end of the Han Dynasty

Chapter 31 The Fourteenth Man Murder! (Thanks to reader "Igarashi Setsukatsuki" for the generous donation!)
"Whoosh!"

"ah!…"

This turn of events happened so suddenly! The "young knight-errant" raised his hand and fired an arrow, a polite smile still on his face. Shen Pei, however, was struck in the chest, his face still showing shock, when the force of the arrow sent him sprawling backward.

"Lang Jun!"

Shen Pei's closest attendant reacted instantly. He frantically clung to his young master, glancing at the five men opposite him who had drawn their weapons. Then, without hesitation, he dragged Shen Pei towards the horse tied to the tree.

As a close attendant of a gentry family's direct descendant, no matter how the fighting progressed, his primary and only responsibility was to take the young master to the nearest city, Neihuang, for medical treatment!
"Hold them off!"

Seeing Shen Pei struck by an arrow, the burly man who had shouted earlier was now furious. With a clang, he drew his ring-pommel sword and, along with the remaining two men, charged towards the boy who had shot the arrow! Zhang Chengfu, however, didn't even glance at them. He simply took a deep breath, drew his bow again, aimed for a few moments, and then abruptly released it.

"Whoosh!"

"Uh! Hehe..."

The attendant, carrying Shen Pei, had already reached the tree where the horse was tethered and was frantically untying the reins. Suddenly, a gust of wind blew, and he froze. A bloodied iron arrowhead protruded from his neck! He stiffly tilted his head, glanced at the young master he was carrying, and then collapsed to the ground beneath the tree with a thud!

"How dare you, Zhu Zi!"

The burly man leading the group, enraged, brandished his ring-pommel sword and lunged at Zhang Chengfu! But Gao Daonu had already shouted and swung his long iron staff, clashing with the man's ring-pommel sword!
"boom!"

"die!"

On the other side, Jiang Qian, Jiang Kun, and Jiang Li, the three brothers from Youzhou, advanced side by side. Relying on the advantage of their long weapons, the three swung their long iron staffs in unison! And this skillful combined attack was aimed at the same Shen clan warrior!
"clang!"

Three iron staffs came flying at him, two striking horizontally at his waist, and one smashing down on his head! The Shen clan warrior, wielding his ring-pommel sword, barely managed to block the first two staffs before being struck heavily on the head by Jiang Li's third staff!
"Thump!..."

"ah!…"

The armored soldier screamed, his iron sword falling from his hand, a dent appearing on his cheek. He staggered and fell to the ground. The three Jiang brothers looked over again and saw that the last armored soldier from the Shen clan had stopped in his tracks. He had been hesitant to act, and now, seeing the menacing look at him, he was terrified and turned to flee!
"You evil thief!"

The burly man at the head of the group blushed as he resisted Gao Daonu's powerful attacks. He glanced sideways, a chill running down his spine, and cried out anxiously.

"Shen Fu, come back! Save the young master!!"

Zhang Chengfu raised an eyebrow, nocked an arrow again, and aimed at the fleeing Shen Fu.

"Whoosh!"

An arrow pierced the air and struck the man who was examining the talisman squarely in the back. He groaned and fell forward, dropping his ring-pommel sword. But just a few breaths later, he scrambled to his feet on the snow. With an arrow still lodged in his back, he fled frantically forward once more.

"Hmm? Nice armor!..."

Zhang Chengfu understood immediately; the armor of the Shen family members was indeed quite good. An eight-dou hunting bow and ordinary iron arrows wouldn't be able to penetrate their armor at a distance of thirty paces. He took another deep breath, aimed at their heads, and shouted in a low voice.

"middle!"

An arrow streaked across the sky, leaving a slightly downward trajectory, catching up with the fleeing man. Then, with a "thud," the arrow pierced flesh, striking his vulnerable neck!

"Ah! Ho..."

The fleeing man stumbled forward, blood streaming down his face, his body still convulsing in the snow. Zhang Chengfu exhaled a long breath and looked ahead. He saw the burly man from the Shen family being attacked by four men, struck repeatedly with four iron staffs. He could no longer withstand the blows and was struck in the knee!

"No!"

"die!"

"boom!!"

Gao Daonu's eyes were icy cold. He relaxed his grip and slowly lowered the red-stained iron staff, like a long spear. The burly man was already dead on the spot, his head covered in yellow and white, his face unrecognizable.

"Whoo~"

The group relaxed slightly, exhaling a long breath that turned into cold white mist. In less than a quarter of an hour, all four Shen clan warriors had fallen to the ground, their bodies leaving four red patches in the snow, like the four corners of a plum blossom. Zhang Chengfu glanced at them indifferently and said in a deep voice.

"Finish them off with one last stab, leave no survivors. Dao Nu, take your men and dig a pit to bury them... Jia, stay here!"

Gao Daonu nodded, still holding his long staff, the murderous aura on his face lingering. Zhang Chengfu, however, had already put away his hunting bow, his expression calm, and walked towards Shen Pei under the tree.

Shen Pei leaned against a tree, one hand clutching his bloodied chest, the other tucked into his waistband, watching the approaching "young knight-errant." His eyes were filled with hatred as he struggled to breathe and spoke.

"You...you're not a wandering knight...you're a member of the Way of Peace?!"

"Hmm. Taiping Dao, Zhang Chengfu."

Zhang Chengfu nodded and stopped three steps away. Given the other man's intelligence, he clearly understood. His eyes were calm, revealing no emotion, and he bowed again.

“Shen Jun, we have no personal grudges. But for the sake of the Way of Peace, I have no choice but to take your life to prevent you from going to Luoyang to file a complaint!”

"Heh! The righteousness of the Way of Peace? Bah! You heretic! Bah! You thief!"

Shen Pei's chest heaved, stained with crimson, like a splash of dark red blooming on a scholar's blue robe. He gritted his teeth and said hatefully.

"You heretic! You wreak havoc on the world! You thief! You murder scholars!... You all deserve to die!..."

"It is not we who are causing chaos in this world, but you!"

Zhang Chengfu stood three steps away with a sullen face and said calmly.

"Shen Jun, look around! These are graves everywhere. The bones buried there are those of the common people and refugees who died in this natural disaster and man-made calamity! Why did they die? The reasons are not only the endless plagues and droughts, but also the taxes and exploitation imposed by the imperial court and the lending and plundering by powerful families!"

"Seeing these people lying dead, seeing so many displaced people dying outside Ye City!... Do you feel not even the slightest bit of guilt or shame in your hearts?"

"Heh! If it weren't for your Taiping Dao colluding with officials, wreaking havoc in Jizhou, gathering crowds to resist taxes, and slandering the Mandate of Heaven and the hearts of the people... how could the world be like this? The court will provide relief to those disaster-stricken people; it's none of your business, you scoundrels! And the powerful families will be generous and kind, taking them in as tenant farmers!..." Hearing Zhang Chengfu's words, Shen Pei's face remained unmoved, without the slightest shame. The will of a scholar is unbreakable; how could it be swayed by the wicked words of refugees and bandits? He merely spat out a mouthful of blood and cursed.

"This disorder, this loss of the law, is the root cause of all the calamities that befall the world! Demonic forces! Traitors!..."

Seeing Shen Pei's reaction, Zhang Chengfu lowered his eyes and shook his head. He simply replied with a calm expression.

"Whether they are heretics or thieves... all we wish for is for noble families and commoners to die together!"

"Shen Jun, drop the dagger in your hand! Let me send you on your final journey."

"Ha! You thieving moth!"

Upon hearing this, Shen Pei took a deep breath, mustered his last strength, and threw the hidden dagger toward Zhang Chengfu. Zhang Chengfu took a step back, glanced at the fine iron dagger that had landed at his feet, and calmly bent down to pick it up.

"Thank you for the dagger, Lord Shen! I will use this dagger to send you on your way."

As he spoke, Zhang Chengfu calmly stepped forward and took Shen Pei's arm. Then, he slowly, resolutely, and forcefully thrust the dagger into the young man's heart!

“Ah! You…”

The young man before him suddenly opened his eyes wide, a look of pain on his face. Then, his pupils gradually dilated, his head lolled to the side, and he died at the boy's hands.

"He committed murder at the age of fourteen."

Zhang Chengfu sighed softly and closed the other person's wide eyes. Then, he looked around at the people digging the pit in the snow and the four corpses dragged to the edge of the pit. Finally, he lowered his head and whispered to the young man with his eyes closed.

"Farewell, my lord! This snowy, secluded forest, where you will be buried alongside the people, is a fitting resting place!"

"The Han emperor is in the south; I will ensure your corpse faces south."

The snow fell heavier and heavier, and the pit was dug deeper and deeper. The five of them worked together, using the small shovels they had prepared beforehand, and dug until it was more than ten feet deep.

Then, Zhang Cheng carried Shen Pei as if he were carrying the victims who had died of illness, cold, or starvation. He gently placed the young man, with his eyes closed and head facing south, at the deepest part of the pit, and in his hand appeared a jade pendant engraved with the character "Shen." Then, several sounds came from the pit, and four more of Shen's close followers emerged, their armor stripped off. None of them had any identifying objects on their person.

"Bury it! Just like the other graves!"

"promise!"

Everyone was skilled at digging, working quickly and efficiently. Soon, layers of yellow earth mixed with snow covered everything, forming a small mound. This mound looked inconspicuous, no different from the surrounding rolling hills, and no one would bother to examine it. After all, they had encountered far too many such mounds along their journey.

Death is the final destination. Whether noble families or commoners, only after death do we finally achieve equality for the first time. And the only difference now is that the snow has not yet covered the new grave, and the flesh and blood within are not yet decayed.

"Hmm, let me see, this is the standard armor for the imperial army..."

Zhang Chengfu skillfully buried the grave, then picked up the lamellar armor he had peeled off from beside it and examined it carefully for a while. This was the most common standard lamellar armor used by the government troops; it was sleeveless, made of a mixture of leather and iron, and only protected the front and back of the chest. The inner lining of the armor was a layer of soft linen, the middle layer was a skeleton-like cowhide armor, and the outermost layer was iron plates inlaid on the leather and strung horizontally with fine hemp rope.

"Sleeveless lamellar armor, 2mm plates, weighing over 20 jin (approximately 10 kg). From thirty paces away, civilian arrows simply cannot penetrate it… Is this the standard equipment for the government army?…"

Zhang Chengfu frowned, glancing at the suit of armor he had shot. The lamellar armor was only slightly damaged, with a dent in the metal plate on the back. Simply replacing the metal plate and patching the leather would restore the armor to normal. Even without repair, its overall defensive capabilities wouldn't be affected.

This type of standardized armor was likely extremely common among government troops. Aside from the imperial court and powerful families, it was incredibly difficult for ordinary civilians to obtain such a set of strictly controlled iron armor! The enhancement of soldiers' combat effectiveness by such armor was simply too significant!
In this battle, if he hadn't launched a surprise attack first, taking advantage of the enemy's unpreparedness... if both sides had been fully prepared and the enemy's armored soldiers had been able to unleash their true fighting power, even if they had won, they would have lost at least two people!
"Standard lamellar armor...the armory of Handan and Ye City is indeed the most crucial!"

Zhang Chengfu pondered for a moment before speaking to Gao Daonu, who was staring blankly at the burial mound.

"Daonu, put this armor away carefully! Hide it carefully in the baggage behind the horse... I'm going to check on the horse again."

"Oh!"

Gao Daonu paused, then nodded, as if only now recovering from the fierce battle. Zhang Chengfu thought for a moment; Daonu, like him, was probably killing for the first time this time.

"However, after seeing so many corpses during the past two years of disaster relief and epidemic control... this kind of fighting is nothing."

Thinking about all this, Zhang Chengfu walked back to the tree and carefully examined the five tethered horses. Sure enough, three of them had the official seal of the government on their rumps, with the characters "Ye Chuan" and "Jia Yi/Jia Er/Jia San". And each of these horses had a small cut in its left ear, indicating that they were official horses.

"Hmm. These three horses can't be kept! They can be made into roasted horse meat... Opportunities to eat meat are always rare."

Zhang Chengfu was thinking this. His thoughts were unusually active at the moment, making it difficult for him to calm down.

"Let's go! This place is all cleaned up. Let's find another spot, slaughter these three horses, and turn them into horse meat. Then, we'll go to Liyangjin, find a place to stay, eat the meat, and wait for Master and the others to head south! Hmm, I should leave some horse meat for Master too… I hope he won't punish me for acting on my own…"

As Zhang Chengfu spoke and laughed, he mounted a horse, holding the reins of another. But he soon realized that this was beyond his riding skills, so he handed the reins to Gao Daonu.

"Here you go! Don't keep a straight face, smile! All the meat from this horse is yours!"

Gao Daonu forced a smile, still somewhat dazed. He turned his head from time to time to look at the receding burial mound, and then at the iron staff on his horse.

"Dao Nu, how old are you this year?"

"Phew! Eighteen!"

"Hmm, eighteen is his first time killing someone... you'll get used to it!"

Zhang Chengfu nodded, appearing remarkably composed. The three Jiang brothers behind him exchanged glances, their eyes filled with genuine respect as they looked at Zhang Chengfu.

Fourteen kills with a laugh, without batting an eye. What a born hero!

However, at this moment, only Zhang Chengfu himself knew the turbulent emotions surging within him, as if he were drunk. He rode his horse through the heavy snow, his heart churning with pent-up feelings. After a moment, he could no longer contain himself, and with seemingly boundless pride, he loudly chanted and sang a long, haphazardly pieced-together song.

"A chivalrous knight-errant roams south of Handan, sword in hand, surveying the vast wilderness. He can kill a man in ten steps, a single thought to save the common people!"

"I knew locusts would ravage the land, causing immense suffering to the people and the king's subjects. I was not born to vie for power, but to avenge the Yellow Emperor... Kill! Kill! Kill!"

A long song drifts away, snow falls and covers the horse's hooves. The young man gallops away, blood staining the yellow sky. The blood of heroes from the late Han Dynasty flows from this place.
Thank you so much to reader "五十岚雪月" for the generous donation! I'm truly grateful for your support! I'll work hard on the new book!
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(End of this chapter)