Back to the Beginning of Ming to do Charity

*Edited by LazyCat

On the day of the attack on Gaoyou there was rare good weather.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e ir on tr ee bl oo ms. c o m )

There was no wind, thousands of miles without clouds, and the sky was blue and clear like it had been washed. Lin Yuan led an army of more than ten thousand. Zhu Yuanzhang, Chen Baisong, and Li Congrong all followed him. Gaoyou had 10,000 permanent troops, but it was only called ten thousand strong. Among them, there were many old, weak, sick and disabled. The military households have been military households for generations. The father died and his son inherited the titles and land, and when his son died the grandson inherited everything. In terms of fighting strength, Lin Yuan's army was not their opponent.

But many years have passed.

The Mongolian warriors who were brave and superior in fighting have gradually lost their former glory.

Moreover, most of the people in the army were of ethnic Han, and the Han were at the bottom of the society in the Yuan Dynasty. Even in the army, only very few could climb up in status.

Some of them joined the army for their livelihood, but some were forced into the army.

It goes without saying that the people's hearts and loyalty were unstable.

Weapons and equipment have also not been updated for many years.

Once they began to worry about whether they could win this battle, they had already lost half of it.

People on Lin Yuan's side worship Lin Yuan blindly, and they think that as long as they follow Lin Yuan, there was no unwinnable battle.

In terms of momentum, Lin Yuan's army has an advantage.

Sometimes the commoners were not necessarily worse than the official army, and sometimes the so-called faith could indeed make people brave.

The soldiers followed Lin Yuan, and no one whispered to each other. All the training under a collective system was indeed useful.

Although the soldiers have not been trained to march, but because the soldiers were in good spirits, they actually all marched neatly on the road.

Wanhu Ulaanbaalsi of Gaoyou was lying on the bed when he heard that someone was attacking the city, with his arms around a beauty offered by his subordinates. As soon as he heard the news, he immediately threw aside the woman in his arms. The woman rolled to the ground and finally stopped with her limbs spread out, a purple palm print on her neck——she was already strangled to death by Ulaanbaalsi before he fell asleep. (TN: wanhu: ducal title meaning lord of 10,000 households also translated as Marquis)

Ulaanbaalsi cursed, but he hurriedly put on his clothes, and then went to get his longbow and knife.

"What happened?" Ulaanbaalsi asked his confidante as he walked.

The confidante followed him: "They are attacking the city, wanhu, our people will not be able to resist for long."

Ulaanbaalsi widened his eyes and roared: "What did you say?!"

The confidante swallowed and fearing that Ulaanbaalsi would turn his knife on him, kept a distance from Ulaanbaalsi as he said: "Wanhu, we have only 7,000 people! Among them, there are nearly half who are old, weak, sick and disabled! The enemy has explosives, wanhu!"

Ulaanbaalsi was very self-preserving. He turned his head and asked, "Everyone has gone over?"

The confidante nodded: "All the troops that can be mobilized have gone."

Ulaanbaalsi asked again: "How many people are in the other party? Do you know who is the leader?"

The confidante said: "There may be more than ten thousand, and the leader……I am afraid it is the South Bodhisattva of Taizhou."

Ulaanbaalsi knew about this South Bodhisattva, and many people in the army believed in him, but these people did not dare to speak out. As early as a month ago, Ulaanbaalsi had killed several followers of the South Bodhisattva. These people felt that there was no future in following the Yuan army. They had originally planned to call on some in the army to go to Taizhou and join the South Bodhisattva, but were betrayed to Ulaanbaalsi who killed them all for the sake of restoring stability to the military.

But though the people were killed, the only result was that the people in the army dared not talk about the South Bodhisattva anymore.

Ulaanbaalsi's eyes flickered and he said to his confidante: "You go over first, and I will write for help."

The confidante did not suspect him, and he went to the city wall.

But Ulaanbaalsi returned to his house.

He was a wanhu, and knew that even if he asked for help now, it would not be possible for the reinforcements to come over in such a short time.

Moreover, there were now many calls of rebellion, even if they asked for help, there may not necessarily be reinforcements coming.

He knew his own military strength. If he lost, he would surely die, and he couldn't see the hope of winning.

He kicked away the body of the woman in the house and started to pack up valuables.

——

Zhou Siwu followed behind a fellow soldier, holding a rusty knife in his hand. He didn’t even have a helmet and was only dressed in cloth. His armor was his flesh and blood. It was the first time Zhou Siwu went on the battlefield. He was a forcibly recruited soldier. He only remembered that he was a farmer in a village and there was a girl who was his childhood sweetheart. But then a group of soldiers appeared. Because his childhood sweetheart was the best-looking girl in the area, she was called to serve the leader of that group of soldiers.

At that time, he was so angry that he wanted to rush to rescue his sweetheart with his axe.

But when he was near the yard, he thought of his family.

He squatted on the ground, and finally couldn't help crying in pain. He seemed to hear the screams of his sweetheart, but he couldn't do anything but listen numbly.

For a moment, he felt that he might as well die.

He squatted there until dawn broke the next day, and the sound of a rooster crowing reached his ears.

He thought in his heart that even if his sweetheart was defiled, he still admired her and was willing to marry her. He could treat it as if it had never happened in his life.

But the heavens did not give him a chance.

After his sweetheart was sent home, she committed suicide while her family was away.

Before he could even see her one last time, she was taken away.

Zhou Siwu had waited all this time. He thought, weapons have no eyes on the battlefield, and he would have a chance to kill that leader.

He endured the suffering in silence and waited year after year, finally waiting for this day.

Zhou Siwu held the hilt of his knife tightly and looked at the leader ahead.

This was the only way he could think of that would not implicate his family.

When the leader died, he would also end his life.

He remembered that his fellow soldier had said that the people under the South Bodhisattva had a good life. He also said that serving as the South Bodhisattva's soldiers would not face unfair treatment, and the leaders there would not be able to take civilian girls, otherwise they would be subjected to military law.

Looking at the sky Zhou Siwu thought, if the man who was in charge of the place where his family lived was the South Bodhisattva, would his sweetheart not die, would he be able to marry her and have a few children? Men farming and women weaving, just living a normal life.

Zhou Siwu lowered his head, fearing that the resentment in his eyes might be seen.

The soldiers around him did not speak.

Apart from fear, everyone felt only numbness.

When they climbed up to the top of the city wall, Zhou Siwu joined the soldiers stationed there. The leader scolded him: "Useless thing! Take up your knife!"

Zhou Siwu glanced at the leader.

The leader saw his red eyes, and thinking he was afraid, mocked: "As expected of Han people, all cowards!"

Suddenly Zhou Siwu knelt down, shaking all over.

The leader felt that he had frightened the other and spat: "You dare not kill the enemy, but you kneel very quickly."

Zhou Siwu crawled over slowly and hugged the leader's leg.

The leader wanted to kick him away, but found that he was hugging too tightly, and cursed: "Let go!"

Zhou Siwu gritted his teeth and suddenly pulled out the knife. He raised his hand and inserted the blade into the leader’s stomach then he slid to the side. The leader looked shocked as his intestines fell out of his stomach, hurriedly trying to hold it with his hands but he was kicked down the city wall by Zhou Siwu.

Someone came to suppress him. Zhou Siwu kneeled on the ground motionless like a dead man. He was ready to die a long time ago. Anyway, this battle would definitely be lost. He would be dead by then, and no one would pursue his crimes. It would not affect his parents and brothers.

Just when he thought that he was bound to die, suddenly someone killed the person who was holding him down.

Zhou Siwu looked up and saw a fellow soldier who he was close to standing in front of him.

He heard him say: "I quit! I have been using my life to defend this Mongolian empire! I f**king rebel! I'm going to open the city gate! Welcome the South Bodhisattva into the city! I would rather serve as a soldier under the South Bodhisattva!"

The soldier looked around, a long and hideous scar on his dark face. At this time, it shifted with his expression like a centipede.

The soldiers in their team did not speak.

They were already desperate, no matter how obedient, they would always be punished for the mistakes of their superiors instead. The young people come in, thirteen or fourteen years old, and because of unreasonable charges they were administered with the military stick until beaten bloody. And then struggling all night before dying.

"I don't want to swallow my grievances anymore!"

"Brother! We listen to you!"

"Anyway, if advance and retreat all mean death! Then, it's better to take a bet!"

Zhou Siwu didn't expect that he would survive. He stared blankly at everything in front of him, and he didn't understand why all of a sudden, his fellow soldiers had rebelled and were going to open the city gate.

He just hated the leader. He didn't have the guts to rebel, and he didn't have the guts to fight against the court.

He was afraid of implicating his family.

Weren't his fellow soldiers afraid of implicating their family?

Zhou Siwu's mind became muddy, and he couldn't figure out anything, climbing down the city wall with his fellow soldiers in a daze.

When they got close to the soldiers guarding the city gate, he finally came back to himself, and said to his comrades in fear: "No, no, we can't rebel, what would happen to our families if we rebel? What would happen to our parents?!"

The soldier suddenly laughed: "Who knows if they are still alive."

"The world has fallen into chaos and so many people have been displaced, how do you know that your parents have not become refugees?"

"I want to live, I don't want to die, I'm unable to care about that many things!"

Zhou Siwu wanted to persuade them, he burst into tears, grabbed the hand of the soldier, opened his mouth and said hoarsely: "I don't know if my parents are still there, but I dare not gamble, let's not open the city gate. Let's escape! Let's escape! We can still live!"

"How to escape? Where would we escape?" The soldier smiled with difficulty, "Look at it for yourself, where can you escape? Can you escape? There is no way! Zhou Siwu! Let's open the gates now! The South Bodhisattva comes in, and we still have a chance to survive! If the gate is not opened, if they charge in, then we will have to die!"

Zhou Siwu said in a trance: "Being a soldier one must be prepared for death……"

"But that doesn't mean we should die for that group of beasts!"

Zhou Siwu took a step back in fear.

He did not dare to oppose the imperial court, after all it was the imperial court!

How could they dare to open the city gate!

Zhou Siwu turned to run, but his comrade strangled his neck with a rope from behind.

Zhou Siwu struggled with hands scratching randomly, eyeballs protruding from his eye sockets.

Before losing consciousness, he heard his comrade say: "We saved you, but you still want to be a dog for the court. It's better that you go die."

Zhou Siwu's body collapsed limply at the foot of the city wall.

His eyes were open.

You c an fi nd t he la te st cha pte rs at ( th e ir on tr ee bl oo ms. c o m )

He had died with remaining grievances.