With 100,000 elite soldiers at the start, what should you call me?

……

When the explosions rang out, soldiers rushed into Lijiazhai. All the residents of the village gave up resistance, and anyone who disobeyed was immediately riddled with bullets.

In less than an hour, Li Tian completely occupied Lijiazhai.

"Reporting to the commander, ten people were lightly wounded, but none died."

Li Tian was very happy to hear the report.

Each of the 100,000 elite warriors is a talent; he needs time to discover their abilities and to understand them.

"General, spare my life! I don't know why you attacked my Li Family Village. We are all good people, the most loyal citizens of the Ming Dynasty."

Li Zhenyan got up from the ground, knelt down, and begged Li Tian for mercy.

"Yes, yes, we are all law-abiding citizens." The eldest son, Li Xiangshan, also knelt down and begged for mercy, just like his father.

"Hmph, still pretending to be stupid?" Kong Yunfei said coldly, kicking Li Zhenyan to the ground. Several soldiers stepped forward, grabbed him, and pointed guns at his head.

Li Xiangshan trembled with fear, a burning heat rising in his groin. He kowtowed repeatedly, begging for mercy: "General, spare us! General, spare us! It was our fault for misbehaving. Our men attacked the Heavenly Soldiers without authorization. We are willing to accept punishment and compensate you, General."

The father and son were in tacit agreement, resolutely refusing to admit that they had given the order, since the soldiers guarding the city were already dead.

"I really want to shoot you both dead!" Kong Yunfei suppressed his anger. If Li Tian hadn't been there, he really would have killed the two of them.

"Are you the chieftain?"

Li Tian ignored their conversation and turned to ask other questions.

"Yes, I am the chieftain. In Li Family Village, my words carry weight. Whatever the general wishes to do, I will immediately instruct my men to carry it out."

Li Zhenyan immediately replied, subtly implying that he was the one in charge and that things would be difficult to handle without his input.

However, Li Tian suddenly retorted, "Landlords and powerful families."

Upon hearing this, Li Zhenyan felt inexplicably uneasy, but he still nodded.

"Kong Yunfei, if you encounter a similar situation in the future, I'll tell you how to handle it."

"Go and call everyone out of the village."

"Yes, Commander."

Lijiazhai has more than 300 households and more than 1,300 people, a dark mass standing on the threshing ground in the village.

They were surrounded by soldiers wielding Hanyang rifles.

"What are they doing? Wait, aren't those the chieftain and the eldest son?"

"Erzhu, Erdan, are these the traitors you saw this morning...?" Pighead, hiding in the crowd, trembled with fear when he saw the similar figures. He dared not utter the word "traitor."

When Erzhu and Erdan saw Li Tian, ​​they were immediately terrified. They had been questioned by Li Tian before, which was how they knew him.

"Yes, it's them, they've broken in!" Erzhu was terrified and grabbed his eldest son's hand.

"They're not here to see us, are they? We told the chief about them..." Erdan said in a panic.

After Wang Erzhu and Erdan were released, they were summoned by the chieftain for questioning. Of course, the two dared not hide anything and told him everything they had seen.

But to my utter surprise, only a few hours later, they had already come knocking on our door!

"Fellow villagers of Lijiazhai, I have a few important things to announce."

Li Tian stood on a small mound of earth, holding a rough copper megaphone in his hand.

"From now on, Li Family Village is the territory of my new army."

The name "New Army" was something Li Tian came up with on the spur of the moment, since an army must have a name for the outside world.

"Since this is my new army's territory, then it must be handled according to my new army's rules."

"First, register the population, remeasure the land, then distribute the land equally according to the population, abolish all exorbitant taxes and levies, and only collect taxes based on the land area, with a tax rate of 40% per mu."

"Secondly, under the jurisdiction of my new army, the buying and selling of people, gambling, and prostitution are strictly prohibited!"

Li Tian spoke slowly, word by word, not only to the people of Li Family Village, but also to the soldiers and officers present.

From now on, the new army must follow these rules when occupying any territory.

Upon hearing this, the villagers below Lijiazhai began to whisper among themselves.

"Sigh, they've changed people again."

"I wonder how much grain we'll have to hand over this time; my family has no grain left!"

"First the Tartars, then the Ming army, and now a new army has suddenly appeared. How are we supposed to survive?"

Li Tian announced his policies, but the common people seemed to care nothing. They were all emaciated and struggling to make ends meet. What did these new policies have to do with them?

"Third, our new army came to Li Family Village not to occupy it for the sake of occupation, but for fairness!"

"I, Li Tian, ​​will never let any of those powerful and tyrannical figures who hoard goods, traffic people, oppress the people, or massacre them during years of famine go unpunished!"

Li Tian looked at Kong Yunfei, who understood and immediately pulled Li Zhenyan and his son Li Xiangshan up.

"It's the master and the eldest son!"

Li's relatives and servants immediately recognized the two men, as did the common people below.

The sight of Master Li, who was usually so rare to even meet, now kneeling in disarray before the crowd shocked countless people.

Someone actually made the high and mighty Master Li kneel down!

This scene was like a hammer blow to glass, shattering everyone's worldview.

"These two are wealthy and powerful landlords; they own vast fortunes and countless fertile fields. But aren't you curious about where their wealth came from?"

Upon hearing this, some people lowered their heads and remained silent, some looked angry but dared not speak, and some were filled with fear and unease.

"Now I'm giving you a chance. Those who have been oppressed by them, whose land has been seized, and whose family members have been killed by them, can all stand up and identify them. As long as the evidence is conclusive, the case will be carried out immediately!"

These words terrified Li Zhenyan and his son Li Xiangshan, and the crowd below erupted in commotion, but ultimately no one dared to be the first to step forward and identify the culprit.

Because of Li Family Village, there are quite a few members of the Li family. They stood in the crowd, threatening some people and even causing trouble.

"Anyone who dares to utter a single word will be punished severely by the Li family!"

"The master and the eldest young master are both very kind people, how could they have done anything so despicable?"

"Yes, this winter, the master even opened the granary to save quite a few people!"

"Release the master and the young master!"

"Yes, Master and Young Master are good people, let them go!"

Li Tian frowned, his gaze sweeping across the area below, confirming that there were no fewer than three hundred people speaking up for the Li family!

Lijiazhai, the village of the Li family.

boom!

"Quiet!" Kong Yunfei fired his gun and shouted, and the commotion below quieted down.

At this moment, Li Tian's eyes caught sight of a familiar face, whose expression held a mixture of eagerness and apprehension.

"If you have anything to say, feel free to come up."

When Wang Erzhu was called out, he was startled and gripped his eldest son's hand even tighter. The people around them also put some distance between them, and their eyes were focused on the father and son.

Wang Erzhu gritted his teeth and instructed his eldest son, "Don't leave here. Stay with your Uncle Erdan. I'll be right back."

After saying this, he stepped out of the crowd and came to Li Zhenyan. He did not speak, but turned to look at the crowd, his eyes seeming to be searching for something, and then shouted loudly.

"Da Ya, Er Ya, where are you?"

He called out, but there was no response from below. Wang Erzhu's heart sank, and he felt a chill run down his spine.

The second time, his voice was even louder: "Da Ya, Er Ya!"

However, there was still no response.

This time, Wang Erzhu seemed to understand something. His eyes reddened, and he questioned Li Zhenyan with a sob and anger.

"Li Zhenyan! Where are my Da Ya and Er Ya?!"

Li Zhenyan was at a loss when asked this question. He looked at his eldest son beside him and saw that Li Xiangshan had turned his face away, obviously knowing something.

Wang Erzhu also noticed that something was wrong with Li Xiangshan and stepped forward to grab his collar.

"Li Xiangshan, my daughters Daya and Erya were bought into your Li family by the Third Young Master! Where are they now? Where are they?!"

"This... I, I don't know..." Li Xiangshan quickly shook his head and pretended to be stupid.

"Kong Yunfei, is everyone from the Li family here?" Li Tian asked, turning his head.

"Reporting to the commander, they're all here."

"Take men to the Li family home and search the place thoroughly, leaving no room or corner unsearched."

"Yes!" Kong Yunfei immediately led two teams to search the Li family's residence.

The Li family's house had already been searched once, and the second search only left some hard-to-search areas, such as the basement, well, and livestock sheds.

Kong Yunfei returned shortly afterward, but he brought with him a mangled corpse.

"Reporting to the commander, we have found a body in the pigsty, which appears to be the corpse of a child."

Upon hearing this, Wang Erzhu rushed forward as if he had gone mad and knelt before the body.

"This bracelet...it's Er Ya's bracelet, my Er Ya!"

"Where's Da Ya? Where's my Da Ya?"

Wang Erzhu grabbed a soldier's sleeve and asked in a somewhat frantic manner.

"I know." At this moment, a kind-looking middle-aged man stepped out from the crowd; "One night I came back late and saw the eldest young master and the third young master taking Daya to the cliff. I haven't seen Daya since."