Sweep Yuan

Chapter 20 Strike while the iron is hot

Hu Pingren had been a tyrant in the countryside for many years, accumulating considerable wealth, including numerous fields, houses, estates, and shops.

In terms of true value, real estate is more valuable than paper wealth.

The real estate cannot be directly distributed to the village militia members whose homes are in various villages. Even if Shishan insists on doing so, few village militia members will want it, and even if someone does want it, they will most likely lose it in the end.

After all, Xuzhou was not a rear base, and the powerful Li family would not support Shishan's "land redistribution" policy, not to mention that the landlords under Shishan's command would betray their class interests.

Including Li Wu and Wen Sijiu, none of them had ever considered distributing land to the local militia, and Shishan could only respect his subordinates' opinions.

All the real estate outside of Huxi Village was divided up by "respectable people" such as Chen Cheng, Tan Buwei, Tian Changcai, and Deng Li, which can be regarded as a reward for these small landlords who stood with Shishan at the critical moment (or at least did not explicitly oppose him).

Tan Buwei received nearly 30% of the prize money, but at the cost of abandoning his village's militia and leaving the team.

This man has no ambition and is timid. He was so scared by Hu Pingren that he almost wet himself. Forcing him to go to the battlefield would only harm himself and others. Going back to the village and becoming a wealthy man might not be a bad choice—provided that the world still allows him to be a wealthy man.

All real estate within the Huxi Village area that was proven to have been forcibly seized by Hu Pingren shall be returned to its rightful owner.

The remaining portion was designated as "clan land" and entrusted to the old head of the community for management.

President Hu was quite sensible and "voluntarily" donated some of his own stockpiled money, grain, cloth, and other supplies, exchanging his wealth for real estate and the protection of the Red Turban Army. In the long run, he still made a profit—if you can say that in the long run.

After dealing with these matters, Hu Pingren's remaining family members also needed to be dealt with.

Excluding servants, the Hu family consisted of nineteen people. Eight of them were killed on the spot in the previous battle, and four more died from their injuries after the battle. Finally, seven people were captured, mostly the elderly, women, and children.

Since Shishan was from a later era, and Hu's wife had honestly confessed to hiding their family's wealth, he couldn't bring himself to kill all the women and children. So he asked his subordinates for their opinions.

Because his men had suffered heavy casualties in this battle, Chang Tietou set fire to force the rebels to surrender and then killed all the able-bodied men of the Hu family in a fit of rage. His attitude was clear: "If you don't cut the weeds at the root, you'll only leave trouble for the future."

Although Wen Sijiu had stopped Chang Tietou, who intended to kill the entire Hu family, he now stood with Chang the Bald, saying, "Since the deputy commander has already taken out the hidden silver, why not let Hu Pingren's family reunite?"

Li Wu still said, "I'll listen to Third Brother," but then added, "We've killed all the big ones, so what difference does it make if we kill a few more small ones?"

Sun Xun put it more tactfully, "If the deputy commander can't bring himself to do it, why not let the Hu clan handle it themselves?"

Tian Changcai and Deng Li only cared about the land they were allocated. Chen Cheng was still resentful about being controlled during the operation. He kept a tense face and didn't say a word, but his eyes softened noticeably when Sun Xun proposed "clan self-determination".

The opinions of the crowd were actually quite clear; they were just waiting for Shishan to make a decision.

Before Hu Pingren's entire family had even died, his relatives and friends had already squandered their wealth, leaving the remaining women and children in their hands. The outcome was predictable.

On the very night Shi Shan transmigrated, he personally killed Yang Chaolu. He thought he was ruthless enough, but compared to the group of guys under his command who slaughtered women and children without any conscience, he realized that his bottom line was still far higher than the moral bottom line of this era.

After much deliberation, he accepted Sun Xun's suggestion—not out of succumbing to the prevailing moral standards, but because keeping Hu Pingren's family alive would indeed do him more harm than good. Well, the flexible moral standards of later generations are really not that different, not much higher than those of their contemporaries.

After dealing with Hu Pingren's matter, the most urgent task is to reorganize and train the troops.

After defeating the local tyrant and receiving a share of the spoils, they slaughtered pigs and sheep that same day to reward everyone, which significantly boosted the morale of the team.

Meanwhile, the villagers of Huxi Village who had actively participated in the "Kill the Hu Dogs" operation, spilled blood, and even divided Hu Pingren's property had no way out and all eagerly joined the army, which expanded again to more than 500 people (including the villagers who came later that afternoon).

Taking advantage of this opportunity, Shishan put forward a new military reorganization plan.

Apart from Tan Buwei, who voluntarily left the team, the landlords in each village were all "partners" who had invested capital and could not be easily moved for the time being. Shishan appointed the sons of the village chiefs or their henchmen as centurions or deputy centurions based on the number of men they had contributed to their villages.

Soldiers below the rank of centurion must form three-person groups, with each group of three forming a sign. The head of each sign is to be chosen by the centurion and deputy centurion through mutual consultation.

The militia from Tanyan Village, Huxi Village, and another small village without a landlord's agent were all incorporated into the Hundred-Household Team led by Shishan, with two deputy Hundred-Households, Sun Xun and Zhou Shier.

It should be noted that, in order to "compensate" Chen Cheng for the grievances he suffered during the operation to eliminate Hu Pingren, Shi Shan entrusted him with the important task of organizing military supplies and capturing spoils, and also gave him another important responsibility—to serve as a military advisor.

Chen Cheng understood Shi Fuqianhu's intentions and knew that he lacked the talent to command troops. The key was that he lacked the courage to confront Shi Shan. Therefore, he could only take advantage of the situation and gradually shift his focus to "civilian" affairs.

In addition to reorganizing the infantry, Shishan also selected skilled riders to join the cavalry, appointing Chang Tietou as a centurion and Li Wu as his deputy.

There is no doubt about Li Wu's horsemanship. He and Shishan came from a military household in Yidu Road, one of the fourteen official ranches of the Great Yuan Dynasty. From a young age, in addition to honing his combat skills, he also had to cut grass and feed horses for the officials of the Hundred Households for free.

Raising horses is not like raising pigs. In addition to needing plenty of water and grass to ensure that the horses gain weight, it is also necessary to combine them with a lot of daily exercise to train their endurance. If you just let the horses eat their fill and gain weight, even the best horses will be ruined.

Therefore, horse herders usually possess excellent riding skills.

In addition to the infantry and cavalry, all the skilled personnel in the local militia who were proficient in driving carts, raising horses, blacksmithing, leather tanning, tailoring, carpentry, and bricklaying were organized into the supply corps and placed under the management of Wen Sijiu.

After reorganization, the team consisted of three centurion infantry teams, one cavalry team, and one supply team. The number of people in each team was not uniform. For example, the centurion team led by Shishan had nearly two hundred people.

After completing the initial personnel formation, the next step was team training.

Shishan, knowing his own limitations, never imagined he could transform the clueless villagers into disciplined soldiers in just a few days. His training plan was simple, consisting of only two parts:

The first is the three-person team offensive and defensive training, which mainly aims to familiarize the most junior soldiers with each other's cooperation, so that in the event of battle, the soldiers know that they have their comrades to cooperate with, which will give them a little more confidence.

The training method is also very simple: first, arrange a few groups to explore and demonstrate, and then let each group train and work together on their own.

Secondly, don't expect the various hundred-household teams to be able to assemble and disperse in neat and swift formations, or to change formations freely. Shishan only requires that each team can stand in a basic formation and not panic like headless flies when encountering unexpected situations.

(End of this chapter)