Chapter 95: The Hemp-Clad Guard Shines Once More

Once the county magistrate had been dealt with, the next targets were the Zhang and Zhao clans.

Duncan contacted the other two members of the local Hemp-Garbed Guard, Manu and Murray, and obtained evidence of the great families’ crimes.

As soon as Chen Mu saw that the proof was solid, he immediately led his troops to the Zhang estate.

He brought two thousand one hundred men. One hundred were his personal guards, all fully armored. The other two thousand were flood-relief workers, each carrying a shovel. That should have been more than enough to deal with two great families.

When the army reached the Zhang residence, the guards stepped forward and knocked, but no one answered. Chen Mu ordered the door forced open. Once inside, there was still no sign of anyone.

Chen Mu thought, They haven’t fled, have they?

“Advance in a broad sweep. Guard against an enemy ambush.”

At his command, the soldiers began to move forward.

Chen Mu was giving his orders according to proper battlefield doctrine. Why? Because even if the two great families had received the news, they would not be able to run that quickly unless they abandoned everything.

So Chen Mu suspected they might be preparing to resist.

After all, he had only one hundred regular troops under his command, while the remaining two thousand were flood-relief workers with little combat experience and no armor or weapons.

But Chen Mu was not overly concerned. He had experience fighting private militias, and even with only one hundred guards, that was enough to handle them.

The broad sweep was merely a matter of caution.

Sure enough, after the flood-relief workers passed through the second gate, they encountered resistance. The two sides clashed, and cries of pain rang out incessantly.

Chen Mu immediately ordered the front line to withdraw, then sent in the one hundred armored guards.

The flood-relief workers, wounded and retreating, gave way. Once the armored guards moved in, the situation reversed at once.

Those private soldiers were also fully armed, but they had no real battle experience. Faced with regular troops who killed without blinking, they lost their nerve before the fight even truly began.

The guards under Chen Mu were all elite picks from the Invincible Flying Army, the finest of the finest. Asking them to fight these private soldiers was easier than training.

The Zhang family had also made a mistake in choosing the battlefield: the terrain was too narrow. One hundred guards were enough to fill the line, and the flood-relief workers only needed to cheer from behind.

The guards pressed forward steadily, and the private soldiers were gradually driven back out of the courtyard. At last, the front line reached an open area.

When Chen Mu stepped out of the courtyard, he saw more than five hundred private soldiers standing across the vacant ground.

“Heh. You have some nerve. I said a great family could have at most one hundred private soldiers, and yet you have five or six hundred!”

Across from him, the Zhao family head shouted, “Chen Mu! Wake up. It’s the Zhao and Zhang families together now, and you only have one hundred guards. If I give the order, we could drown you with a spit from every man here!”

The Zhang family head also shouted, “Chen Mu! You’ve driven the great families to the brink, so don’t blame us for being ruthless. We’re not like the Lin family. Our private soldiers have been drilled for a full year! Every one of them is an elite!”

Chen Mu laughed. Elite? They clearly had never seen what true elite troops looked like.

“Very well. Since you’ve gathered together, you’ve saved me the trouble.”

“You have ruled tyrannically, threatening, harassing, and beating your rivals, seizing their shops by force.”

“And now you dare gather private troops and attack the Crown Prince of Great Xia.”

“You are truly courting death.”

The Zhao family head shouted, “I cannot be bothered to reason with you!”

“Charge! Wedge formation!”

As soon as he gave the order, only half the private soldiers formed up and rushed forward, while the other half waited until the Zhang family head shouted his command before moving.

Chen Mu looked at the rabble across from him and slowly drew his longsword.

It had been a long time since he had fought on the front line himself. Today, he would enjoy it properly.

“Flood-relief troops, outflank them from both wings!”

“Guard detachment, charge!”

After shouting his orders, Chen Mu himself surged forward with the guards.

The private soldiers and the guards both fought with single-edged blades, so neither side had an advantage in reach. But once they came to grips, the guards immediately displayed absolute superiority.

Chen Mu’s longsword flashed left and right; anyone who came before him was slain in a single stroke.

The flood-relief troops on both wings had no weapons, but they were soldiers drilled for years. At that moment they used their shovels as spears. The first rank crouched, the second took a horse stance, and the third stood upright. Three rows of shovels formed a hedgehog-like formation, leaving the private soldiers with little they could do.

Although the flood-relief troops were weaker in combat, there were so many of them that it did not take long before the private soldiers were completely surrounded in the center.

Seeing that the encirclement had formed, Chen Mu gave the order again: “No mercy. Leave none alive!”

Such an order would ordinarily stir up the enemy’s resolve to resist, but under the gulf in strength, it no longer mattered.

In less than an hour, Chen Mu’s forces had wiped out both families’ private soldiers. None of the guards were killed, and the flood-relief troops lost only a little over two hundred men.

The two family heads had once stood to enjoy wealth and honor, and now they had met a death so complete that nothing remained of them.

Chen Mu wiped the blood from his treasured sword and sheathed it.

“The wounded stay here and rest. Leave two hundred men to tend to the injured and clear the battlefield. The rest of you, follow me.”

The soldiers took their positions, and Chen Mu led his men back into the Zhang estate. They turned the place upside down and carried away every item of value for official seizure.

After that, Chen Mu went to the Zhao estate as well and thoroughly searched it from top to bottom.

However, the two families must have prepared in advance. Their people had already fled cleanly, and much of their gold, silver, and valuables had been taken with them. Even so, Chen Mu still confiscated large quantities of silver ingots, copper cash, and other treasures.

From the wealth alone, one could see that these two families had already controlled more than half the county’s resources.

Wealth and status bred ambition. Restricting the power of the great families was indeed necessary.

Chen Mu sent another group of men to transport the seized property back to the capital, and separately issued warrants for the arrest of the Zhang and Zhao families’ kin.

The crimes of these two clans already warranted the extermination of nine generations. Not a single one of them would escape.

After handling those matters, Chen Mu once again led the flood-relief troops downstream.

But before he had even reached the next county, another member of the Hemp-Garbed Guard arrived with news: rebels were trying to plunder the northeast rice intended for disaster relief, and the Yin-Tang Organization was likely involved.

Using northeast rice for disaster relief had been a plan Chen Mu had devised back in the capital. Although the grain from the central plains would have been enough to tide the people over, after the disaster there would still be shortages, and grain prices might rise.

Besides, once the rice from the northeast arrived, it could be planted in the newly flooded paddies, allowing more subjects of Great Xia to eat rice.

He had never expected anyone to block the road and attempt robbery.

The rice was being transported by the regular cavalry of Great Xia. Anyone bold enough to rob them was most likely from the Yin-Tang Organization.

This was an important report, and the Hemp-Garbed Guard had earned yet another great merit.

Chen Mu immediately decided to take one hundred of his guards, ride hard in a carriage to reinforce the convoy, and have the flood-relief troops continue downstream according to the original plan.

While Chen Mu split his forces in two, the northeast rice had already entered the Eastern Plains region, escorted by two hundred cavalry.