Chapter 329: Dying at the Hands of Such People?

The valley echoed with heartrending wails of despair.The bandits in Wang Zuogua’s army had long been rattled to the core by the Gaojia Village Militia’s explosives. Even when bombed on ordinary open terrain before, they’d scatter uncontrollably. Now trapped inside a small valley? Forget about holding formation.

This bombardment was utterly terrifying. Steep mountain walls enclosed them on all sides—impossible to scale. Grenades rained down, bursting everywhere amid the crowd. Who on earth could withstand this?

Only then did Wang Zuogua begin to regret camping in this wretched place.

To be blunt, he’d never learned how to set up camp.

Even the lowest-ranked military officers in the Ming army wouldn’t make such a blunder. The Ming Dynasty’s martial examination system tested candidates first on aspects of Military Strategy like “Command and Control” and “Camp Setup.” Only after passing military strategy could one proceed to tests of martial skill.

Those skilled only in fighting, never mastering strategy, never passed the first gate.

Yet, someone like Wang Zuogua, who couldn’t even find the gate, commanded tens of thousands. He was just a beast swept up by the currents of his time—merely a pig who could improbably fly.

“Boom!”

“Boom!”

Grenades exploded without end. Screams of agony filled the surroundings.

Miao Mei panicked: “Big Bro! What do we do now?”

While Wang Zuogua couldn’t fight, he was an expert at fleeing. He instantly knew what to do, roaring: “ALL CHARGE! CHARGE THE MOUTH OF THE VALLEY!”

The moment he issued this command, he hissed to his trusted fierce bandits beside him: “We retreat backwards. On the other side of the valley, there’s a small ditch. Crawl through a small cave tunnel, and we escape!”

His trusted bandits understood immediately. Second Leader Miao Mei also got it. Cupping his hands towards the chaos outside, he yelled: “Third Brother! Fourth Brother! CHARGE! CHARGE THE VALLEY MOUTH!”

Feishan Hu and Big Honglang were already stunned silly by the explosions. Hearing the order, their simple minds churned briefly—charging the valley mouth was indeed their only way to survive. They frantically shouted at their disintegrating subordinates: “Stop scattering! The only way out is to CHARGE THROUGH!”

Feishan Hu and Big Honglang immediately led their men in a ferocious headlong rush forward.

Miao Mei and Wang Zuogua’s troops poured large numbers of their bandit troops into this charge as well. Rallied together, they formed thousands strong. Like a tide, they bore down on the narrow valley entrance.

Cheng Xu was waiting precisely for this charge. His three hundred firearm soldiers aimed at the valley mouth. His command was a single word: “FIRE!”

Rapid “BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!” gunfire rang out without pause. Fierce bandits charging from the valley entrance instantly took multiple shots, collapsing lifelessly.

There was simply no way they could hope to blast their way through like this.

Meanwhile, Wang Zuogua and Miao Mei seized the moment their subordinates were sacrificing themselves at the valley mouth, distracting the militia. Quietly, they led one hundred fierce bandits, slipping to the other end of the valley. They crawled into the ditch, inching along on their bellies. They squeezed through the narrow tunnel and finally emerged outside the valley.

Here, the sounds of explosions and gunfire were much fainter.

Wang Zuogua glanced back. His army of tens of thousands had shrunk to barely a hundred followers. Third Brother and Fourth Brother were lost; only Second Brother Miao Mei had made it out with him. A surge of intense dissatisfaction rose within him. Yet, escaping with his life was paramount. There would still be chances to rise again, wouldn’t there?

“Once this lord reaches Yichuan and rebuilds my forces,” Wang Zuogua snarled, “I WILL return for vengeance! Bai Family Fortress, you—just YOU wait for me!”

He had barely finished the curse when a head popped out from the trees ahead. It was Ground Rabbit, brandishing a gleaming silver longsword in his right hand. His voice boomed: “Wang Zuogua! Where do you think YOU’RE going? This Rabbit Lord anticipated your every move! Knew you’d flee through here! Hahaha! You aren’t going ANYWHERE!”

Wang Zuogua saw only one man, but instinctively knew it was a trap—ambushes had people. How else would someone dare leap out alone like this?

“Ambush!” Wang Zuogua shouted in terror. “All CHARGE! Charge him! KILL HIM!”

His trusted fierce bandits surged forward directly at Ground Rabbit.

One hundred fierce bandits charged toward him, but Ground Rabbit wasn’t afraid at all. With his right hand, he brandished a long sword and roared: “Heaven! Rabbit! Break! Dominance! Sword!”

People on this side were all startled, thinking he might have some incredible move to fight one against a hundred, only to see Ground Rabbit move his left hand from behind, holding a grenade with a burning fuse.

He threw that grenade forward…

“Boom!”

The hundred fierce bandits charging forward instantly fell in a pile.

The remaining ones could probably have hacked Ground Rabbit to pieces by charging a few dozen more steps, but they all simultaneously fled to both sides without hesitation, escaping without even glancing back at Wang Zuogua.

Wang Zuogua: “!”

“Now it’s just one against two.” Ground Rabbit giggled strangely: “Wang Zuogua, Miao Mei, both of you have only death ahead. Mr. Rabbit will finish you two with no effort at all.”

After saying this, he bellowed fiercely and charged toward the two. His movements showed not a shred of hesitation, with firm strides, a ruthless gaze, and his long sword glowing silver—it seemed he didn’t doubt for a moment that he could take on two fighters.

Wang Zuogua: “!”

Miao Mei: “!”

Both were filled with fear: “This man calling himself Mr. Rabbit seems like an expert. If the two of us fight him together, we might really lose.”

Just at that critical instant deciding life or death.

Miao Mei suddenly jumped behind Wang Zuogua and gave him a hard kick on the backside. Wang Zuogua, caught unprepared, stumbled forward and landed right in front of Ground Rabbit.

Ground Rabbit struck downward with his sword at once, splattering blood high and staining it all over his head and face.

Miao Mei took that chance to scramble wildly toward the side and run off.

In a flash, she had raced away one or two zhang. Seeing that the chasing Ground Rabbit couldn’t catch up, Miao Mei was just about to rejoice, when suddenly Zheng Gouzi sprang out right in front of her.

He swung his waist knife and sliced toward Miao Mei.

Miao Mei quickly countered with a backhand slash from her knife. With a sharp clang, Zheng Gouzi dropped his waist knife, terrifying him into rolling over several times: “Mr. Rabbit, this enemy is too tough, hurry and help me!”

Ground Rabbit laughed uproariously: “Can’t even handle a mere Miao Mei? Gouzi, you’re too weak. Watch how Mr. Rabbit deals with her!”

He strode forward to catch up, raised his long sword, and slashed it toward Miao Mei’s back.

Seeing Ground Rabbit approach, Miao Mei panicked: this person clearly looked skilled and would be hard to handle. “I, Miao Mei, might well perish here today. Never mind—I’ll fight with all I’ve got!”

She fiercely swung her knife backward to meet Ground Rabbit’s long sword. As she struck, she readied over a dozen moves in anticipation of his sword technique changes.

But surprise—there were no changes!

Ground Rabbit knew no sword fighting at all. How could he change anything?

“Clang!”

Their blades clashed, and Ground Rabbit’s long sword went flying from his grip.

Miao Mei followed through with a kick, knocking Ground Rabbit flat to the ground.

“This guy is so weak? Damn it!” Miao Mei raged. “If I’d known, I wouldn’t have betrayed Big Brother. Big Brother’s hundred men really didn’t need to flee at all.”

Deep regret surged inside her!

But regret was useless now. She had to angrily raise her knife and slash down at Ground Rabbit.

“Twang!”

The sound of a bowstring rang out as Zheng Gouzi shot a crossbow bolt at her.

Miao Mei swiftly dodged to one side to avoid the arrow. As she started to lift her knife to strike again, she saw Ground Rabbit leap far away, instantly diving into a muddy ditch a distance off. He grabbed Zheng Gouzi too: “Run! This woman is too strong; we can’t win!”

Both instantly scampered far away.

Miao Mei held her knife high and glanced around, confused: “We actually got beaten by such people?”

“Enough! Escape!”

She took big strides and fled toward Yichuan County.

Historically, Wang Zuogua accepted the court’s appeasement, but Miao Mei refused appeasement, so they went separate ways.

After accepting appeasement, Wang Zuogua stationed troops at Suide to try starting another revolt, and was killed in a plot by Hong Chengchou.

Miao Mei traveled west and was killed at a place called Hejiawan by Li Panlong, an insignificant licentiate from Qingjian.

These two were classic early leaders of the peasant uprising army. They had no real skills, only stirred up trouble without ambition, plundered and killed. Their acceptance of appeasement wasn’t sincere, so their deaths were no injustice.

Moreover, their uprising wasn’t popular with the masses. Li Panlong was just a minor licentiate with no army—what did he use to kill Miao Mei? Clearly, it was the militia, the power of common folk.

When Hong Chengchou served as Grain Transport Commissioner, he repeatedly defeated Wang Zuogua and crushed Wang Jiayin. Back then, he had no regular army; he still relied on the militia, the strength of ordinary people.

Militias everywhere constantly resisted the roving bandits, until finally Li Zicheng died at the hands of the Jiugongshan militia too.

In recent and modern times, some people, for political aims (as everyone knows), always portrayed the roving bandits as a righteous force, claiming wherever they went, the common people fiercely supported them—all that is nonsense!

Only during that phase of “The King of Disruption comes with no taxes” did people back Li Zicheng. But after he set up his Shun dynasty and realized he had to collect taxes, that slogan turned into a joke.