The pork butcher is smoother than a pig butcher!

Chapter 414 A History of Blood and Tears
Just after Xiao Jin had flown a hundred miles away...

On the cliff of Eagle's Beak Cliff, hundreds of people emerged from the forest.

Arriving was none other than the ruler of the Miao Mountains, the Miao King, and his people.

There are no way to catch all the Miao spies.

They originally lived in the mountains, and their eyes were hidden everywhere—in caves, in trees, and in the grass.

Below the cliff, the situation of the camp ten miles away could be clearly seen by these people.

Upon the arrival of the Miao King, someone immediately reported the situation to him:
"The Drum Chief (a Miao term of respect for a king) has caused chaos in the Han camp. According to our scouts, at least three thousand people have been afflicted by the master's 'Disease Curse.' It's a pity that the master's identity was exposed a few days ago, and that dog emperor ordered him to be torn apart by five horses."

The death of the Gu King was a huge loss for the Miao people.

There is only one person in the hundreds of miles of Miao mountains who can be revered as a master for raising Gu poison.

Pain and ruthlessness flashed in the eyes of the Miao King:

"Master, you have come out of seclusion to assist me, the leader of the Drum-Hidden, in dealing with the imperial army. Now, it has come to a point where it is either you or me who must die. I, the leader of the Drum-Hidden, will only ask you one question: Do you want to die?"

"Chief Gu, we don't want to die! They're the ones who deserve to die!"

“They killed our little drum leader, they killed our master, we will pay with our blood.”

"Once you're here, you're not leaving! Kill their dog emperor!"

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Clearly, the mountain people's enthusiasm was not enough to move the Miao king.

He turned his gaze toward the enemy camp and said in a low voice:
"When I was ten years old, my great-grandfather told me a story of blood and tears about the suppression of our people by the central government over the past few hundred years."

He said that before the founding of the Bei State, our people were divided into two branches, one in Lingnan and the other throughout the entire southwest. Our southwest branch had a population of up to one million.

But after the Han people established the State of Bei, Emperor Taizu of Bei sent a large army into the southwest and even tried to conquer our ancestors by force.

In order to survive, the people had no choice but to unite. A Miao village often had thousands of people. Only such large villages could resist the Bei army.

Unfortunately, they encountered the well-equipped and powerful Bei army, and within ten years, a third of their men had died.

Perhaps it was because the Miao people had never been conquered by the Central Plains dynasties, or perhaps it was because the Miao men were all fearless warriors. Even though they eventually lost most of their settlements in the southwest, the Bei army never relaxed its vigilance against our ancestors.

After the Bei army occupied the southwest, they began to use deceptive tactics in the areas where their people lived.

They overthrew the headman system that our ancestors had passed down through generations and replaced it with officials (temporary officials) appointed by the imperial court for a fixed term to manage the area.

Those officials who served in various dynasties were utterly corrupt.

They are insatiable; they are bottomless pits that can never be filled.

They don't want us to retain our own customs and are trying to assimilate us with theirs.

Anything that is unique to us is prohibited!

One emperor of the State of Bei, following the advice of a provincial governor in the southwest, relocated hundreds of thousands of people from the Central Plains to the area where their ancestors had lived.

These people from the Central Plains who came here were born with the skill of farming. But the amount of land was limited!

What can we do? We can only fight!
But these people were backed by the entire Central Plains court; how could our ancestors possibly compete with them?
At that time, the State of Bei was at the height of its power. After several unsuccessful attempts to resist, the ancestors could only retreat again and again, from their original settlements that occupied half of the southwest to the present-day Miao Mountains, which stretch for hundreds of miles.

The world is changing.

The enemy is strong and we are weak.

The enemy is weak, but we are strong!

Especially during the last ten years or so of Emperor Beiwen's reign, the power that this Miao king had painstakingly built had infiltrated the officialdom and military garrisons in the southwest.

The Miao people living in the hundreds of miles of mountains and forests of Miaoling have returned to their peak population, numbering in the millions!
The larger the population, the more difficult life becomes.

Especially in food and daily necessities.

Their planting capacity is limited, so medicinal herbs have become commodities traded in the Miao region.

However, they have no say in the purchase price of medicinal herbs.

A shop at the foot of the mountain that buys medicinal herbs.

Once the harvest is good, medicinal herb merchants will be very picky, saying that the herbs are not of good quality or that their medicinal effects are not as good as in previous years, and they will drive down the purchase price.

Before the Miao King and Zan Jiu reached a deal, the mountain people lived as if someone was choking them, making it difficult for them to breathe.

It will only take these three years.

The world is in chaos.

The opportunity is here.

The Miao king was granted the title of Southwest King by the eunuch emperor of the previous dynasty.

The mountain people of southeastern Guizhou trembled.

Unfortunately, the good times didn't last long.

First, the Miao king lost his beloved son, and then Emperor Qianwu came to his doorstep to attack him.

In order to deal with this war, the Miao King finally managed to invite a master to come out of seclusion and help him.

The master's methods are truly effective.

This gave him enough confidence to win the battle.

The mountain people were hearing this history for the first time, and naturally believed Gu Zangtou's words without a doubt.

Everyone looked solemn, their fists clenched and pressed tightly against their right sides, their hearts—their most loyal vows.

We vow to live and die together with the Miao Mountains!
The Miao king calculated with his fingers and said, "Two days from now, two days from now will be an auspicious day."

(End of this chapter)