Chapter 31: The World Has Its Heroes, But I Am No Such Impostor!

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By the time Li Gui emerged from the command tent, drenched in blood from head to toe, the battle outside was already over.

Groups of compliant soldiers knelt obediently across the drill ground, their foreheads pressed to the earth, not daring to move. Huang Silang and the others stood nearby in ordered ranks, watching them, while dozens of corpses lay scattered beneath their feet.

In a military camp of a thousand men, only a few dozen had resisted.

Old Seventh Li had been busy setting fires earlier and was now occupied with putting them out.

Zhu Fu had long since located the warehouses containing the weapons and provisions. He had led his men in stripping them bare and was now loading everything onto donkey carts.

When they saw Li Gui return with murderous intent, leaving a bloody footprint with every step, everyone felt a shiver of fear and dared not approach. Only Zhu Fu was bold enough to hurry over and claim credit.

“Brother, we’ve confiscated and loaded all the swords and shields, spears, bows, and arrows—more than a thousand pieces in all. There are also more than a dozen carts of grain. We probably can’t carry everything in one trip; I’m afraid we’ll have to come back several times.”

Li Gui glanced at the prisoners and lightly tapped his steel saber.

“Ask them whether any are willing to come up the mountain with us.”

Zhu Fu ran to the center of the drill ground and shouted several times. After having the men counted, it turned out that more than two hundred were willing to join the outlaws.

Once those men had been separated from the others, Zhu Fu reported back to Li Gui. Li Gui merely tossed out a single sentence:

“Have them present a pledge of allegiance.”

Then he paid them no further attention.

When Zhu Fu had first gone up the mountain, Li Gui had spared him the pledge because he was already one of Liangshan’s men. But Zhu Fu himself was a man of the martial world; how could he not know what such a pledge entailed?

He immediately ordered the more than two hundred men to choose prisoners and kill them. After a number had been slaughtered, the remaining half realized that refusing to join the mountain meant death. One after another, they declared that they were willing to become outlaws.

Apart from the seasoned soldiers originally brought by Liang Wanshen, these men had all been carefully selected from the county. They were strong and healthy, ideal material for soldiers.

Li Gui ordered them to slaughter one another, then took the half who survived back to the mountain.

Huang Silang led the spearmen in surrounding the prisoners. The long spears were raised, their points aimed inward. Then several dozen steel sabers were thrown into the center. Huang Silang began shouting loudly, ordering the men inside to fight one another.

The surrendered soldiers had thought that surrender would be the end of it. At worst, they would have to kill a few other prisoners as a pledge of allegiance. Who could have imagined that every one of them had surrendered, yet they would still have to fight one another to the death before they could live?

They were all struck dumb.

But faced with the spearmen pressing in step by step, someone finally rushed forward, snatched up a steel saber, turned around, and began hacking wildly at anyone within reach.

In an instant, the space inside the ring of spears became a living hell. Even the closest of brothers could not be sure that they would not be stabbed in the back.

Zhu Fu watched in horror and stepped forward to plead, “Brother, armies have always spared surrendered soldiers. Why not accept them all, then find passing merchants and travelers to serve as their pledges of allegiance?”

Li Gui gave Zhu Fu a faint glance, his eyes cold and grim.

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“Prisoners are spared so that more people will surrender in the future.

“Whenever battle comes, soldiers refuse to fight with all their strength. The moment they suffer a setback, they surrender. Even if they are enslaved like pigs and dogs, at least they keep their lives.

“Such cowards who cling to life and fear death deserve nothing better than death!

“When a snow mountain collapses, not a single snowflake is innocent.

“Now that they have surrendered, their lives are in the hands of others, to be butchered at will.

“I kill when I wish to kill and spare when I wish to spare. It all depends on my mood. Why should I care whether they live or die?”

Overcome by the killing intent in Li Gui’s eyes, Zhu Fu hurriedly lowered his head and said, “I only fear that word of the killing of prisoners will spread. It may damage your reputation and give petty men an opportunity to slander you. You are a great hero, Brother, but you must know that public opinion can be terrifying.”

Li Gui let out a cold laugh.

“There are heroes in this world. I, Li Gui, am certainly not one of them.

“A hero must be noble in character. A hero must save the suffering and rescue the afflicted. A hero must turn back a collapsing tide and hold up a crumbling edifice…

“A hero cannot demand anything of others; he can only wrong himself.

“A hero is not a man. Only a sage can live up to that name!

“A person lives once, while grass and trees live through only one autumn. If one cannot act according to one’s heart and indulge one’s desires, then even a hundred years of life are wasted.

“I appreciate your good intentions, Younger Brother, but I have made up my own mind. You need say no more.

“As for those petty men who squabble over scraps and crawl for personal gain—if any of them dare chatter in my presence, I will cut him down with one stroke and wipe out his entire household. Then we shall see who still dares utter another word.”

Zhu Fu stood there wide-eyed and tongue-tied. He did not dare speak again, and withdrew with repeated bows. Yet in his heart he was certain that Old Lord Liu would sooner or later suffer Li Gui’s backlash.

A short while later, the outcome in the center of the drill ground had been decided. Corpses lay everywhere, while the remaining two hundred or so men, covered in blood, still staggered about and hacked at one another without cease.

Li Gui waved his hand. Huang Silang immediately led his men forward, shouting and cursing as they forced the survivors apart and confiscated their weapons.

Some had gone completely mad with bloodlust and now dared raise their sabers against the spearmen. But it was already too late. The moment they lifted their blades, more than a dozen holes appeared in their bodies, and they fell dead where they stood.

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When the group once again knelt in the center of the drill ground, the spirit within them had changed completely. Though they were kneeling, each carried an unmistakable air of bloodlust.

Once their hands had been stained with the blood of their own kind, there was no going back.

Even if they later returned to their villages and resumed ordinary lives, they would still draw their blades and kill over the smallest matters.

Once a tiger has tasted human flesh, it no longer has any interest in other prey.

After everything had settled, Li Gui ordered the wounded to be given simple bandages. He then had every corpse stabbed again, silencing the clever men who had tried to feign death and escape. Only afterward did he lead his followers away, driving the donkey carts while the more than four hundred surrendered soldiers carried the various spoils of war. Together they left the military camp and returned to Yushan Stronghold.

Before departing, Li Gui naturally did not forget to set fire to the military camp once more, giving the people of Yishui County a warning. Otherwise, several days might pass before the town even learned that the entire garrison had been wiped out.

After the people of Yushan had gone some distance, all sorts of people began appearing around the military camp one after another. They craned their necks and crept about, trying to discover what had happened.

By then, dusk had begun to fall. The towering flames of the camp could be seen from within Yishui County, with thick smoke billowing into the sky. Yet not a single person emerged from the camp to put out the fire. Clearly, something had gone terribly wrong.

What was more, the wind carried the nauseating smell of burning human flesh straight into their noses. There was no avoiding it.

Only after the fire had died down somewhat did someone finally summon the courage to enter the camp and investigate. The blood-soaked drill ground left him utterly stunned.

Countless charred bodies had been discarded across the field like rubbish. They bore countless wounds from blades, both front and back, making it obvious that a fierce battle had taken place.

The scouts who witnessed the scene dared go no farther. Their legs trembling, they fled the camp and hurried back to the county town to report what they had seen.

When Magistrate Ding received word of the disaster at the military camp, he was so terrified that his soul nearly left his body. He feared that the bandits would descend upon Yishui County at any moment, breach the walls, and kill him as a sacrifice before their banners.

He could no longer afford to worry that the local militia was useless. He urged Constable Li Yun to find men at once and send them to defend the city walls. Whether it would help was uncertain, but at least it would offer some measure of comfort.

Only now did he begin to regret not allocating more funds to repair the walls back then. But starting repairs now would certainly be too late.

All he could do was hope that the bandits would leave after destroying the government garrison and would not come to harass the county town. Even more, he hoped that Assistant Song would successfully reach an agreement with Old Lord Liu, so that both sides could maintain an understanding and leave each other in peace.

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