The Ming Dynasty: Starting with the border troops, it was overthrown and the Qing Dynasty was destro

Chapter 133 The people do not fear death, so why threaten them with death?
The next morning, just as dawn was breaking, Chen Ping was still asleep when he was awakened by a cacophony of footsteps and shouts.

Chen Ping quickly got up and saw that the entrance to the cave had been blocked by more than twenty men wielding knives and sticks.

The leader was a middle-aged man dressed in silk and who appeared refined and cultured. This was none other than Huang Tao, the wealthy man from the nearby Yunyan Village.

Chen Ping's heart sank; he couldn't understand what had happened.

They arrived in the evening, so why were they blocked at the door early the next morning?

Little did Chen Ping know that shortly after they entered the village, someone from the village secretly went to Yunyan Village to inform Huang Tao.

It turned out that Huang Tao had already spread the word that anyone in the nearby villages who discovered bandits returning from outside should report it immediately.

As long as you tell him, you can get a bushel of millet.

That's a bushel of millet! What does the bond of kinship matter when it comes to food that can save lives?
Huang Tao waved his hand and gave an order to the steward beside him:

"Tie up all these traitors!"

Chen Ping and his men had just woken up, and were hungry and exhausted, so they were powerless to resist.

They were quickly tied up tightly and dragged like livestock to an open space at the village entrance.

A few sparse, emaciated villagers gathered around, mostly watching the spectacle with apathy.

The steward brought over a chair and a table, and had Huang Tao sit in the open space in front of him, facing the bandits below.

"You bunch of audacious traitors, how dare you come back!"

"Today, I, Huang, will act on behalf of the government and thoroughly interrogate you!"

Huang Tao slammed his gavel down and shouted angrily, acting as if he were setting up his own court.

Chen Ping struggled and shouted:

"Master Huang, we've been wronged! We've already accepted the imperial court's offer of amnesty and are now law-abiding citizens!"

"The government issued us pardons!"

As he spoke, Chen Ping kept shaking his body, causing the pardon to fall from his chest.

The steward stepped forward, picked up the dark wooden plaque from the ground, and presented it to Master Huang.

Huang Tao took it, glanced at it casually, spat it out, threw the pardon on the ground, and even stomped on it.

"What a load of bull!"

He sneered,

"Do you think having this sign will absolve you of the crime of rebellion?"

"Back then, you bandits robbed four or five of my Huang family's estates!"

"You think you can just wipe the slate clean with this lousy sign?"

"dream!"

Chen Ping panicked and immediately retorted:
"Master Huang, it wasn't us who robbed your estate!"

"Back then, we followed Commander Wang in the north."

Before Chen Ping could finish speaking, Huang Tao rudely interrupted him:
"fart!"

"You're all traitors, I don't care who did it?"

"This debt will be settled with you today!"

"You must compensate me for my losses. If you can't afford it, then pay with your worthless lives!"

Huang Tao didn't listen to any explanations. He came today to take revenge on the group of traitors who had once made him live in fear.

He wanted to use the blood of traitors to re-establish his authority in the surrounding area!

Huang Tao glanced at the rebels below and asked coldly:

"Who among you is the leader?"

But Huang Tao was met with silence; everyone lowered their heads, unwilling to betray their comrades.

Seeing this, Huang Tao was furious. It seemed he really had to teach these traitors a lesson!
"Somebody come!"

Huang Tao pointed to the two rebels on the open ground.

"Hang those two up first, give them a good beating, and then we'll talk!"

"I'd like to see whether their bones are harder or my whip is harder!"

The two men were quite tough. Hanging from a dead tree at the village entrance, they endured the whipping until their skin was torn and bleeding, but they gritted their teeth and remained silent.

Seeing that he couldn't get any information from him, Huang Tao became both angry and furious. His eyes reddened, and he gave the order:

"Change the stick, and beat him! Beat him to death!"

The sounds of clubs being struck, screams, and bones breaking were incessant.

Only after the two men were beaten to death did Huang Tao impatiently wave his hand, ordering his men to put the bodies down.

"Hmph, still so stubborn!"

Master Huang wiped the sweat from his brow and then casually pointed to three more people.
"These three don't look like good people either! Drag them away and chop them up!"

Under the numb gaze of the villagers, three more fellow villagers were dragged aside and beheaded.

The remaining dozen or so people, including Chen Ping, were also hung up and severely beaten, leaving them all battered and bruised.

Finally, Master Huang seemed to be tired, so he ordered that heavy wooden shackles be put on Chen Ping and the others, and that they be made to kneel at the village entrance bare-chested as a public spectacle.

For an entire day, Chen Ping and his men were subjected to the scorching sun and scorching heat, like livestock.

It wasn't until evening that Huang Tao finally left with his men, satisfied. Before leaving, he declared that Chen Ping and his group should compensate him for his "losses" within ten days, or he would come back to deal with them again.

When the shackles were removed, Chen Ping was almost completely exhausted and lay in the cave for several days.

When they set off from Qingyang Prefecture, there were a total of thirty-two fellow villagers.

Six people starved to death on the way, four were beaten to death at Luochuan Ferry, and five were directly beaten or hacked to death by Master Huang.

In the following days, eight more people died due to the severity of their injuries and the lack of medical supplies.

Thirty-two comrades had hoped to be granted amnesty and live a peaceful life, but in the end, only eleven remained.

Holding the body of his fellow villager who had died from his injuries, Chen Ping could no longer hold back and broke down in tears!

Chen Ping was not the only one to have suffered the same fate.

Throughout northern Shaanxi, almost every village was witnessing similar scenes of counterattack and retribution.

Those farmers who had once pinned their hopes on "amnesty" finally despaired completely in the face of the bloody reality.

"Benevolent governance?"

"forgive?"

“It’s all bullshit!”

In the eyes of these officials and gentry, these peasants, as long as they had ever taken up arms to resist,

They will always be "thieves," always "traitors," and must be purged and eliminated!
But these officials and gentry seem to have forgotten that these people were rebels before, and had already mustered the courage to resist once.

When a rebel tries to surrender but finds that he still cannot survive, he will only embark on the path of rebellion again.

Moreover, their will will be even more resolute than before, and their methods will be even more drastic.

After lying in the cave for four or five days, surviving on wild vegetables dug up by his fellow villagers, Chen Ping's injuries gradually healed.

But while the physical wounds were healing, the hatred and anger in his heart burned ever brighter.

He knew he couldn't wait any longer.

When Master Huang returns, none of the remaining eleven of them will survive.

Chen Ping, along with the remaining ten fellow villagers, quietly left Nanyaogou under the cover of night.

He was going to find his brothers who, like him, had been sent back to their hometowns and driven to desperation.

So, for the next period of time, Chen Ping and his companions wandered like ghosts through the mountain valleys surrounding Yichuan.

They kept contacting the returning peasant army in nearby villages.

These people, like Chen Ping, were subjected to brutal persecution by local officials and gentry, and the two sides quickly reached an agreement.

Soon, Chen Ping had gathered about a hundred men, all of whom were peasant soldiers returning to their hometowns. They had no weapons and couldn't even get enough to eat, but their eyes burned with the flames of revenge.

Chen Ping led them back to Nanyaogou in secret.

The first thing he wanted to do was to target Huang Tao!

Chen Ping first sent two clever fellow villagers to deliberately run into the village and shout loudly, insulting Huang Tao.

They said things like "Huang Bapi will die a horrible death" and "Sooner or later we'll lead people to raze Huang's village to the ground."

Just as Chen Ping had predicted, the fellow villager who had betrayed him for a bushel of millet ran off to inform Huang Tao.

The next morning, Master Huang arrived with his entourage as promised.

He still maintained that arrogant and haughty demeanor.

He led seven or eight armed guards and a dozen or so thugs, heading menacingly towards the dilapidated cave where Chen Ping was hiding.

"Reverse! Reverse!"

"You bunch of bastards, how dare you curse me!"

Master Huang stood outside the cave dwelling, shouting loudly.

"I'm going to kill you all today!"

However, this time, he was not met with pleas and fear.

Chen Ping slowly walked out of the cave dwelling, his face carrying a cold calm.

He looked at Huang Tao, a hint of mockery on his lips.

Then, he suddenly put his finger in his mouth and blew a sharp whistle!

call out!
The sound of whistling broke the tranquility of the mountain valley.

The next moment, as if struck by lightning from a clear sky, more than a hundred men emerged from behind the earthen slopes, bushes, and gullies around the cave dwelling!
These people were all dressed in rags, emaciated and pale, but their eyes were as fierce as those of hungry wolves.

They had no decent weapons, only sharpened wooden sticks, stones, and even dismantled door panels.

"kill!"

With a roar from Chen Ping, more than a hundred men surged forward like a tidal wave, launching a fearless charge towards Huang Tao and his guards!
Huang Tao was stunned. They never expected that these lowly people would dare to resist, and that they had even ambushed so many people!

"Didn't they accept the imperial pardon?"

The seven or eight guards were well-trained and immediately drew their swords and formed a defensive formation, attempting to resist.

But what they faced was a group of madmen who had long since disregarded life and death and were only after revenge!

The first few men who charged forward were cut down with a single blow, but those behind them were fearless and continued to charge forward, stepping over the corpses of their comrades.

They threw stones at it, poked it with sticks, and some even pounced on it and bit it with their teeth and grabbed it with their hands!

The people are not afraid of death, so why threaten them with death?
Chen Ping took the lead, wielding a thick jujube wood stick, and smashed it down hard on the head of a guard!
The guard was held tightly by four or five people and had no way to dodge. His head was smashed by a single blow!

In the end, relying on sheer numbers and a relentless, reckless charge, Chen Ping and his men wiped out the seven or eight guards.

The remaining scoundrels, who were used to bullying ordinary people, had never seen anything like this before.

Seeing the guards with swords fall, they were all terrified.

They threw down their sticks and knelt down with a thud, kowtowing repeatedly.
"Hero, spare us! Hero, spare us! It's none of our business!"

Master Huang was completely panicked at this moment, his whole body trembling uncontrollably, and his previous arrogance had vanished.

He scrambled to his knees before Chen Ping, weeping and begging for mercy:

"Hero, hero, spare my life!"

"I was blind to your true worth! I was so foolish!"

"You're so kind as to spare me! Take whatever money and grain you need from the Huang family!"

Chen Ping looked at Huang Tao, who was kneeling on the ground in a ridiculous state, and then at the brothers who were dead and wounded around him. There was no pity in his eyes, only cold killing intent.

But he did not kill Huang Tao immediately.

Chen Ping first ordered the execution of all the scoundrels who knelt and surrendered, as well as the fellow villager who had informed on them.

He then ordered his men to tie Huang Tao up and temporarily detain him.

"brothers!"

Standing amidst corpses and blood, Chen Ping proclaimed in a loud voice:

"The imperial court deceived us, and the high-ranking officials in Shaanxi also deceived us!"

"Since no one is willing to give us a way out, then we'll fight our way out ourselves!"

"That's outrageous!"

So, in the following days, Chen Ping led this team to contact and recruit many other peasant soldiers who had also been driven to desperation.

The team quickly expanded to more than 300 people.

It was night, the moon was dark and the wind was high.

Chen Ping personally escorted Huang Tao, and had his men change into the clothes of guards and thugs, disguising themselves as Huang's group, and slipped out of Yunyan Village.

With Huang Tao, the "hostage," shouting from the front, and the guards being careless, the village gate was easily opened.

The team swarmed in and wiped out the defenders.

The peasant army, which had been unable to contain themselves any longer, pounced on the key locations in the village like tigers released from their cages!
Many of the guards had no time to react before their heads were chopped off.

The entire Yunyan Village was awakened from its slumber and immediately descended into chaos and slaughter!
Chen Ping's goal was clear: leave no one alive—not the patrolling officials, local gentry, landlords, or the stubborn local militia!
In less than an hour, the resistance forces in the village were completely wiped out.

Once everything had settled down, Chen Ping led his men straight to Huang Tao's residence.

The grand Huang family compound was now wide open, and the house was completely empty.

All the servants and guards were killed, leaving only the trembling Huang family members gathered in the main hall.

Chen Ping looted all of the gold, silver, grain, and cloth that the Huang family had accumulated over the years, and used it as military supplies.

Chen Ping then ordered his men to lock all twenty-three members of the Huang family, regardless of age or gender, in the main hall.

The main gate was blocked from the outside, the windows were also nailed shut, and dry firewood was piled up all around.

Huang Tao was terrified upon seeing this and immediately knelt down to beg for mercy:
"Good sir, didn't you say that as long as I tricked my way into opening the gate, you would let my Huang family go?"

You can't go back on your word!

However, Chen Ping merely sneered, revealing a mocking smile.

Then, in front of Huang Tao, he threw the torch into the dry firewood.

The fire started and quickly engulfed the entire house.

Heart-wrenching cries, desperate screams, and the pounding on doors and windows echoed continuously from the sea of ​​fire, heart-wrenching and chilling.

"Help! Open the door! Open the door!"

"Father! Save me!"

Outside the fire, Huang Tao was pinned to the ground, forced to watch helplessly as his own house was engulfed in flames.

Hearing the heart-wrenching screams coming from inside the house, I completely broke down.

"Hero, Grandpa! Please, spare my family!"

"You've taken all the money and provisions; I only beg you to spare their lives!"

Huang Tao was in tears, kowtowing repeatedly until his forehead was bleeding.

However, Chen Ping simply stood there quietly, watching the raging fire before him, feeling immense satisfaction.

He slowly turned his head and looked at Huang Tao:
"Master Huang, did you hear that?"

"Your wife, your son, your daughter, and your elderly parents—how pitifully they cried out!"

Chen Ping's voice was filled with immense pleasure.
"So it's you lot, distinguished guests. Get up."

"They're just as miserable as us peasants!"

(End of this chapter)