Everyone Came to Carry Things
Hu Tieniu said, "Young master, we've already checked, and none of the main figures of the Pan Household are here. There are only a few stewards, accountants, and a few people from collateral branches of the Pan Household. None of the main figures are here. We've asked them all, and they're all at that other estate. That estate is big; it's their most important estate outside, and they have most of their money and provisions there."
"Alright, take these back to the stronghold first, and bring the people back to the stronghold to be kept under guard."
Shen Jingchuan said, "I'll wait for you here. We'll continue smashing the kiln later tonight."
"Great!" Hu Tieniu exclaimed excitedly.
Shen Jingchuan said, "Call out everyone in the village who can move and carry things. With only a few dozen horse-drawn carts, I don't think we'll have enough."
Hu Tieniu said:
"Yes, young master! There's still a lot of stuff in this village that hasn't been hauled out yet. I left fifty men here to watch over it. I was planning to go back and call for more, but I didn't expect there to be so much grain. I'll call out everyone in the village who can move around in a bit. There are at least several thousand people. We'll use wheelbarrows, baskets, anything that can be used to transport things, and try to carry as much as possible back in one trip."
While some men were left to load the vehicles, the remaining soldiers were not idle either. They carried food and other supplies back, and these more than a thousand soldiers essentially became civilian laborers.
Shen Jingchuan found a place to sit down, took a Mid-Grade Qi Nourishing Pill, and continued meditating.
After he took two more Mid-Grade Qi Nourishing Pills and calmed his mind to circulate his Qi twice, he closed his eyes to regulate his breathing when he heard a bustling crowd coming from afar, accompanied by a continuous stream of torchlight.
A moment later, Hu Tieniu came running over, panting, and said, "Young Master, we're back!"
Shen Jingchuan opened his eyes and stood up:
"Alright. You leave some men behind to continue moving the goods, the rest of the soldiers come with me, we'll continue smashing the kilns."
"Alright!" Hu Tieniu was beaming with excitement and immediately turned around to arrange the manpower.
Shen Jingchuan mounted Big Black, and the assembled soldiers followed behind. The scouts led the way, carrying torches, heading straight for another large estate owned by the Pan Household outside the city.
The first battle was fought decisively and cleanly. Shen Jingchuan knew the strength of his own forces and was no longer bothered to hide it, so he simply went all out.
He instructed Hu Tieniu to have everyone light torches. The moonlight was dim in the latter half of the night, and traveling in the dark would only waste time. It would be better to travel openly and quickly.
The procession, carrying a long line of torches, headed straight for the Pan Household's main estate along the main road. The torchlight cast long, fiery trails in the darkness, visible from afar.
The guards on the village wall watched as a fiery dragon pressed down on the village, terrified out of their wits, and screamed at the top of their lungs:
"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!" he shouted as he ran frantically towards the village to warn his master.
Ignoring the chaos inside, Shen Jingchuan stopped about 200 meters away, and with a thought, the 23mm cannon, along with its mount, landed heavily and was installed.
He held the cannon barrel, aimed it at the heavy gate, and pulled the trigger. The shell, trailing sparks, whistled out, followed by several deafening explosions. The iron gate was instantly blasted apart, splintering wood and cracking the walls. Within a few shots, a large hole collapsed, and smoke and fire shot into the sky.
The soldiers of Azure Cloud Stronghold swarmed into the village gate.
Pan Household Manor was the largest manor of the Pan Household outside the city. It was located in the northeast of Yuxi Prefecture, covering an area of about one and a half miles. It stored most of the family's grain, silver, and large quantities of goods. The manor employed nearly a hundred guards and servants, along with tenants and servants, totaling over a thousand people. It was the foundation of the Pan Household's wealth and resources.
The news of the small village in the east of the city being vandalized in the first half of the night was brought by two village servants who had desperately escaped. The two were recognized by the people on the village wall and were let into the village gate. Zhao Kui had just rested for a short while and rushed over after putting on a coat.
After hearing the general outline of what had happened, Zhao Kui's heart sank, and he dared not delay for even a moment. He immediately pointed to two of his trusted and capable servants and said in a deep voice:
"You two immediately ride to the city gate, find a way to open it, and go into the city to inform the old master and the clan chief! Tell them that some bandits have attacked the village, and ask the clan to quickly find a way to deal with them!"
The two trusted men turned and ran towards the stables. A moment later, two horses burst out of the manor gate and galloped towards the prefectural city.
After dismissing the messenger, Zhao Kui turned to his personal guards and shouted:
"Go! Wake everyone up! No one is allowed to sleep until the middle of the night. Get dressed and all on the stockade walls! Bring up bows and arrows, logs, and boulders. Anyone who slacks off will be punished according to the family rules!"
The guards rushed down to relay the order, and the entire village sprang into action instantly. Torches were lit one by one, and the village men grabbed their weapons and ran towards the village walls, making quite a commotion.
Once the arrangements were nearly complete, Zhao Kui turned around, staring at the two returning servants, his face so grim it could drip water:
"What exactly did you do? There were fifty or sixty guards protecting the village, and it even had brick walls. How did you let the bandits break through so easily? How many of them were there? And who were they?"
The servant who brought the news had a mournful face and his voice trembled:
"Chief Zhao, we don't know either! I wasn't on night duty that night, I was sleeping, when I heard a few loud thuds outside, like thunder, and then people rushed in, and all I could hear were shouts of killing."
It was pitch black, and there were countless people everywhere. They all wore red hats and identical clothes, and their crossbows were incredibly accurate; they didn't seem like ordinary bandits at all...
"Red hats... neatly dressed..." Zhao Kui muttered to himself, then his expression suddenly changed, and he cursed fiercely, "Damn it! They're from Azure Cloud Stronghold!"
He had previously been ordered to investigate Azure Cloud Stronghold and knew that the group wore strange equipment, including red helmets and black armor. He never expected that they would come to the Pan Household's estate to vandalize it!
Zhao Kui guarded the stockade wall for two hours. Seeing that everything was in place, he figured that the enemy had destroyed one village and would have to carry away most of the night's worth of things, so they wouldn't have the strength to attack a second place. He then went back to his room to sleep.
I had barely lain down for a quarter of an hour when a heart-wrenching scream suddenly came from outside the courtyard, "Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"
Zhao Kui sprang up instantly, all sleepiness vanishing in a flash. He grabbed his clothes haphazardly, threw them on, and ran towards the village wall.
When he climbed to the top of the wall and took a closer look, he was dumbfounded—below, in the fields, torches stretched as far as the eye could see, and there were at least a thousand people pressing in on the manor. His manor only had about a hundred guards and servants at most, not even enough to cover half a wall.
"Quick! Go and wake up all the tenants in the village! Grab your weapons and get them on the walls! Hurry!" Zhao Kui roared at the top of his lungs, and his personal guards hurriedly stumbled down to call for help.
No sooner had the words left his mouth than a masked man in black was seen squatting on the ground under a torch two hundred paces away, fiddling with a black metal object whose nature was unclear.
Just as Zhao Kui squinted to take a closer look, a flash of fire suddenly appeared in front of the iron lump, followed by several deafening explosions, causing the stockade wall beneath his feet to tremble.
The heavy iron gate was instantly blasted into pieces, with wood chips and bricks flying everywhere, creating a large hole.
Then the soldiers wearing red hats rushed over.
"Fire! Fire arrows!" Zhao Kui roared, his eyes bloodshot.
But as soon as the guards on the wall peeked out, a dense barrage of crossbow bolts rained down from below, the arrows so thick and accurate that it was impossible for them to lift their heads.
A crossbow bolt grazed Zhao Kui's scalp, the gust of wind making his ears sting. He quickly ducked, narrowly avoiding being shot through the head.
In the short time it took to delay, the people below surged in through the blown-open gate like a tidal wave. The dozens of guards on the wall were no match for the charge of thousands of people. In the blink of an eye, shouts of battle reached deep into the village, and any sporadic resistance was instantly drowned out by the sea of people.