Sweep Yuan

Chapter 23 The Demon Thief is Very Strange

"Report! My lord, the Red Scarf Demon, the demon thief is here!"

Wang Baiyin, the postmaster of Chiyi Station in Chulan, was vigorously whipping the station guard who hadn't cleaned the saddle when he heard the sound. He was so frightened that he almost dropped the whip.

"Where are the demon thieves? How many have come?"

"To the north, about six or seven miles away, there are several hundred."

"several hundred?"

The rebels who have just started their rebellion are not particularly feared because they lack soldiers and armor and are untrained. What is truly frightening is their ability to coerce ignorant civilians, sometimes numbering in the thousands or tens of thousands. If they are willing to sacrifice lives and engage in attrition warfare, they can conquer cities and seize strongholds.

Xuzhou City was seized by the Red Turban rebels, and Chulan Station, which was closest to the city, was the first to be attacked. Wang Baiyin had long been mentally prepared to face the rebels head-on, but how could the rebels, who had been causing trouble for so long, only bring a few hundred people to attack Chulan?
Feeling insulted, Wang Baiyin's eyes widened, his nostrils flared, and he raised his blood-dripping whip with his right hand, lashing out at the scout who was reporting military intelligence.

"You dog slave, how dare you mock your master!"

The poor scout took a solid lash, and his left cheek swelled up on the spot. He dared not reach out to cover it, and to prevent being whipped again, he could only lie on the ground and kowtow desperately.

“The number of people is clear. The demon thieves are not moving fast, so it's easy to count them. There are only four or five hundred, at most five or six hundred.”

Wang Baiyin angrily raised his whip again, as if to strike her once more.

"Is it four or five hundred, or five or six hundred?!"

The scout spotted the Red Turban bandits in the distance, roughly estimated their numbers, and immediately rushed back to report. He was so eager to act that he gained nothing and even got beaten; he was extremely frustrated and his mind wasn't working properly. He muttered to himself:

Five, five hundred?

"roll!"

Five hundred scouts of the Red Army could easily launch an attack in suitable terrain and disperse several times or even more than ten times the number of loosely organized rioters, but they were not confident of breaking through a fortress with only a hundred soldiers stationed there.

Although Chulan Station was not a military fortress, it had a numerical advantage due to the fact that the station staff and their relatives had been gathered there in advance. In addition, it had the defensive advantage of having a wall and arrow tower, so it was not difficult to repel hundreds of bandits.

Of course, there is one more prerequisite—that government troops from surrounding cities arrive in time to provide assistance.

Now that the administrative center of Xuzhou has been lost, people in various prefectures and counties are in a state of panic. They are barely able to protect themselves, let alone risk sending reinforcements for a station that is destined to be lost.

But Wang Baiyin was not a loyal subject who would die for the Yuan Dynasty; he never thought of fighting to the death to defend Chulan Station.

After all, since the rebellion in Yingzhou, some local officials have died for their country, but many more have fled at the sight of the bandits. With these incompetent people as a contrast, any official who dares to face the bandits can be called a loyal and brave man of the Yuan Dynasty.

Baiyin means wealthy in Mongolian. Wang Baiyin's original name was Wang Bairen, but he changed his name to ensure a smooth career. He was an extremely opportunistic fellow.

His thinking was simple: with Xuzhou fallen and the Darughachi nowhere to be found, he, as the postmaster, was directly threatened by the enemy's army. By not fleeing immediately, he had already done right by the court.

If one can fight the bandits and prove one's loyalty and bravery before retreating, then one will have made a real contribution.

Upon learning that the invading bandit army numbered only a few hundred, Wang Baiyin felt a mixture of doubt and a sense of impending promotion. He immediately made up his mind, spat disgustedly at the fallen guard, and cursed:

"Consider yourself lucky, get out of here! If we defeat the demon thieves today, we'll spare you the rest of the whipping! Beat the drums, gather the troops!"

Thump—thump thump— The dull drumbeats sounded, and the soldiers living in dilapidated houses, thatched huts, or even shacks picked up their crude weapons and rushed to the central barracks of the station. Amidst the shouts and curses of their respective station chiefs and centurions, they lined up in a panic.

The station households were neither soldiers nor civilians. They were cattle and horses that provided their own food, carriages, horses, saddles, bridles, fodder, etc., and served the court for generations. They were lowly creatures that were at the beck and call of nobles, and servants who did private work for their superiors.

Due to brutal exploitation, the contradictions between the upper and lower levels of the station were extremely sharp.

Most of the station guards hated the "superiors" at all levels who oppressed them, and wished they could kill all these beasts who ate human food but did nothing human. However, the Red Turban bandits outside who "slaughtered villages, wiped out households, raped women and children and ate human hearts and livers" were obviously more terrifying.

In fact, anyone with discerning eyes could see that the rumor, supposedly first spread by the postmaster, was unreliable. But there were plenty of unreliable things in the Great Yuan Dynasty, and no one dared to gamble their own and their family's lives on whether the rumor was true or false.

Knowing that his station guards harbored deep resentment, Wang Baiyin, after learning of the fall of Xuzhou, gathered the station guards' relatives and soldiers together and took control of them. He also took the opportunity to kill several disobedient scoundrels to establish his authority.

His method of training the soldiers was very simple: he used hunger, whips, killing, and rumors to intimidate these lowly and stupid soldiers, so that they had no energy to think about anything and only knew how to numbly carry out his military orders.

At this moment, Wang Baiyin, mounted on his horse, looked down at the group of soldiers with blank expressions.

"The Red Scarf Demon Thief who eats human hearts and livers is here!"

"what!"

In the crowd, a resident suddenly cried out in surprise, then immediately stopped.

The man recalled the beatings he had suffered during training these past few days, fearing that he would attract the attention of the postmaster and be beaten again. Fortunately, his cries were very brief, and the postmaster seemed not to have noticed him, thus escaping a calamity.

Seeing that the soldiers all looked tense yet numb, showing no fear or resentment at the prospect of going to their deaths, Wang Baiyin felt reassured and continued to rally them:

"The bandit leader is a fool. He only brought three hundred men, yet he dared to come to Chulan to cause trouble for you, sir. Tell me, what should I do, sir?"

Upon learning that the attackers were so weak, the guards seemed relieved, their expressions noticeably less tense than before, but none of them responded to Wang Baiyin's question.

In reality, they are so used to being insulted and whipped that they have long since become numb and don't know how to respond.

In the oppressive silence, the impetuous fellow who had previously screamed in surprise suddenly had a flash of inspiration and, before the messenger could erupt in anger, timidly uttered:
"Kill them! Kill them all!"

The slogan was correct, but unfortunately, the oppressed residents were used to silence, and not a single person in the crowd responded to him.

Just like how Wang Baiyin only gave four ounces of rice per day based on a person's hair, the soldiers could only eat bran and chaff to fill their stomachs. Their stomachs rumbled loudly during training, but no one dared to say a word against it.

For those who constantly struggle on the brink of life and death, thinking is a luxury, shouting is a waste of energy, and silence is the only way for the living dead to cope.

Wang Baiyin knew he couldn't fight like this, so his eyes darted around, and he had an idea. He shouted:
"I won't let you risk your lives for the court for nothing. For every demon bandit you behead in this battle, your entire family will be exempt from a year of corvée labor!"

The station guards, unaware of the Red Turban Demons' power, were well aware of the allure of being exempted from station duties, and immediately became restless.

"Kill! Kill!!"

"Kill them all!"

"Kill them all!"

(End of this chapter)