The estate guards were determined to defend the walls, but once the walls were breached and the bandits entered their homes, a different thought immediately took over.
No one needed to shout, and they ignored the guards' cries. Everyone immediately ran toward their own homes!
You went to defend the wall, but no one was home. What if the bandits came in and harmed your wife and children? No one else would care whether you lived or died! After all, they were not soldiers.
Throughout history, many rebel armies burdened with families had been defeated this way.
The most regrettable case was undoubtedly Zheng Chenggong. Perhaps thinking he could fight and relocate at the same time, he had actually taken soldiers' families aboard ships into battle.
He had already held a huge advantage, but the moment the families were attacked, the army's morale collapsed.
Even someone as formidable as Zheng Chenggong could be defeated by such tactics, let alone some rural estate?
The estate guards hurried back to their homes.
Widow Quan promptly sent people to seize the estate gates and the high points along the walls.
At Zhao Han's reminder, she did not rashly send people into the estate to attack.
That would only cause greater chaos and might even drive Manager Huang and the others to burn the granaries and flee amid the confusion.
She merely held the walls, forming a counter-encirclement.
The estate guards were both frightened and relieved when the bandits did not take advantage of the darkness to loot. Instead, they raised torches and shouted through bamboo megaphones:
"Only the chief culprits will be killed! The coerced will not be punished!"
"Hand over Huang Youde and the granaries, and we will not harm the common people!"
"Stay in your own homes! Don't come out looking