Sweep Yuan

Chapter 19 A Bandit's Nature Is Hard to Change
Hu Pingren immediately evaded the accusation of spreading rumors and even changed the story of maintaining the corrupt rule of the Tartars to his duty of maintaining local stability, which immediately evoked sympathy from some of the villagers.

The public trial of Hu Pingren, which involved gathering the Hu clan members at Shishan's risky location, was not intended to elicit sympathy or mislead the crowd. Shishan immediately refuted this, saying:
"Marshal Li raised an army to kill the Tartars in order to restore the Han people's land. The Red Turban Army does not harm the innocent and good; it only kills the lackeys who are determined to help the Tartars oppress the people. As for whether you have done anything immoral or not, your fathers and elders will be the judge!"

No sooner had the words been spoken than a farmer cried out in surprise.

"Ah! There's a fire!"

Everyone looked in the direction of the sound and saw that thick smoke was rising from the capital. It must be because Chang Tietou, who was furious at being unable to capture Hu Pingren's family members who were hiding in the house, had lost his patience.

Hu Pingren's family is completely ruined!
The thought immediately crossed everyone's minds. The old head of Huxi Village, who had been trembling with fear, instantly sobered up, straightened his body, stepped forward, pointed at Hu Pingren who was looking in his direction of despair, and "kindly" advised him:
"Second Brother, if you had known this would happen, why did you do it in the first place?"

The old president's words were subtle, but they revealed his eagerness to draw a clear line.

Many villagers had suffered under Hu Pingren's bullying in the past, but dared not speak out. Now that the old village head had clearly given up on Hu Pingren, how could they let go of the opportunity to take revenge?
"Hu the Skinflint, thirty years ago your family only had two rooms and a few dozen acres of land, but now you have such a large business, and even shops in the city. Did the government also give you all of this?"

"You heartless murderer! You forced my mother to her death for half a bushel of tax grain. Today you deserve to have your whole family killed by the righteous army!"

"Yes! Master—this dog only told us to tell people that the government troops were going to come back because King Li took over the shops in the city. He also said that when the government troops come back, all the rebels—no, those Master Chen, Master Tan, and Master Tian who wear red turbans—will be beheaded, and then we'll get land to go around!"

Perhaps because they had been oppressed by the government in the past, or perhaps because they were afraid that the thieves would turn on them in a bloodthirsty manner, at this moment, villagers, whether they had a grudge against him or not, rushed to accuse Hu Pingren of his crimes in order to distance themselves from him.

The villagers were filled with righteous indignation, gritted their teeth, and were extremely excited, wishing they could get rid of this scourge on the spot.

"Hahaha! Hahaha—"

Seeing the faces contorted into unfamiliar shapes by excitement, and knowing that he could not save his family and that he himself was doomed, Hu Pingren went all out, laughing wildly with a distorted face, like a demon.

"Grandpa doesn't want to rebel and lose his head, but you bastards are eager to die. Brainless idiots think you can turn the tables? Dream on! Grandpa's going first. When you get down there, you spineless cowards will still have to take orders from me, hahaha—"

Some timid women clutched their clothes, letting out muffled sobs; but many more, the villagers who knew that only killing Hu Pingren could resolve the situation, roared in fury:

"Kill, kill him!"

……

Hu Pingren died at the hands of his own clansmen, but the story of Huxi Village was far from over.

The first priority is to deal with the assets left by Hu Pingren.

Preliminary statistics show that the Hu family possessed 614 shi of grain, including rice, millet, and sorghum; 43 head of livestock, including cattle, horses, sheep, and pigs; over 100 poultry, including chickens and geese; approximately 24 bolts of cotton, hemp, and coarse yarn; 16 raw hides of cattle and sheep; and dozens of sets of clothing for men and women for all seasons. They also possessed oil, salt, soy sauce, wine, bedding, mosquito nets, mats, bronze mirrors, iron kettles, and porcelain jars. Those who accompanied Chang Tietou into the capital were all seasoned bandits, highly "professional" at petty theft. After the battle, they only turned in a little over 100 guan of cash—this was only after Wen Sijiu arrived at the capital to supervise.

However, after Hu Pingren was executed, according to Hu's wife's confession, the group took out nearly two thousand strings of copper coins, a dozen silver ingots, and some copperware from Hu's cellar.

The paper of the Zhizheng era was so dull and worn that even the villagers found it uncomfortable to hold and wipe their bottoms with. These copper coins and precious metals truly solved Shishan's urgent problem.

It is extremely difficult to prevent the concealment of spoils and trophies, but it is rare to see bandits like Chang Tietou's gang doing their work so sloppily. Knowing that he was in the wrong, Chang Tietou secretly went to Shishan and presented him with a bag of gold, silver and jade.

Shi Shan was well aware of the extreme importance of military discipline and wished he could publicly execute a few bandits as a form of punishment. However, when he chose to cooperate with Chang Tietou, he had anticipated such problems. It was unrealistic to expect the horse to run without feeding it.

The more critical issue is that he currently lacks effective means and reliable personnel to restrain such behavior.

Without hesitation, Shi Shan took out a gold chain and a pair of white jade bracelets (which he then gave to Sun Xun and Zhou Shier), and returned the package to Chang Tietou on the grounds of "compensating the wounded and lest the brothers bleed and feel disheartened."

It's absurd that Chang Tietou's men were all fierce and brave, and the attack came without warning. As a result, they suffered three deaths and two injuries. One of them was even injured by his own brother while fighting for the spoils of war.

All we can say is that a mob is a mob. The simplest way to boost the morale of a mob is to give them money and food. There's no room for pretense. Just because you're a time traveler and can talk your way out of things doesn't mean you should have any unrealistic fantasies.

If Shi Shan really lacks discernment and accepts this package of jewelry, let alone expecting Chang Tietou to continue working for him, it's hard to say whether he can even keep the remaining bandits.

He also considered using the landlords' armed forces to intimidate Chang Tietou and forcibly kill his ruthless bandits.

But after doing so, how can we weaken the landlords' power and truly control this team?
Although this incident resulted in a significant reduction in the amount of money seized, Ishiyama had promised to "distribute the spoils," and he could not go back on his word after the war.

Thirty percent of all supplies were allocated for military use, which Chen Cheng registered and recorded, and handed over to Wen Sijiu for safekeeping. The remaining portion was converted into money and grain, which was considered the "settlement allowance" promised before recruitment and had to be distributed to all the local militia who joined the army.

However, the team was about to attack Chulan and Fangshan stations, and these supplies were inconvenient to carry with them. Shishan first announced the specific amount each person would receive, and then sent people to deliver them to each household in each village.

The remaining supplies were rewards for this battle, distributed to the "respectable people" who led the troops in each village and community, who would then decide whether to distribute them on the spot—this was a power structure that had been clearly defined when recruiting soldiers in each village beforehand, and Shishan was not allowed to interfere.

This situation is certainly not conducive to the unification of military orders, but Shishan does not even have its own core team at the moment. It is in the stage of borrowing a chicken to incubate an egg, which has not yet hatched. No matter how much they dislike it, they can only grit their teeth and accept it.

To Shi Shan's slight comfort, Tong Si'er was rewarded for his efforts in making the connections, and was given priority in choosing the spoils. The boy only picked a small foal, and gave the rest of the rewards to a poor family he was close to, entrusting them to look after his deceased father's grave.

This shows that Tong Si'er is truly determined to join the army and deserves to be properly trained.

(End of this chapter)