Chapter 103: Mention Fairness to Me? Are You Worthy?

“Based on what!?”

Outside Wuya Village, a man’s loud shout rang out in a camp.

This was the leader of Yin Mountain Fortress, named Zhu Wanli. He looked to be in his thirties, with a very fierce appearance.

He was in a somewhat tense confrontation with Li Xiao, questioning aggressively.

“Our Yin Mountain Fortress has a full three hundred households, yet I was only appointed as a Hundred-Man Commander.”

“While Tang Mountain Fortress only has two hundred households, on what basis was he appointed as a Vice Thousand-Man Commander?”

“This is unfair!”

“I refuse to accept this!”

Zhu Wanli had a look of indignation on his face, as if he had suffered a great grievance.

Yin Mountain Fortress was a large fortress among the Nine Fortresses and Eighteen Villages. Its strength was considered among the toughest, and it had even more population than the initial Hexi Fortress.

In this registration of the population, Yin Mountain Fortress was divided into three Hundred-Man units, and Zhu Wanli himself only served as the commander of one of them.

The number of households under his management shrank directly by two-thirds.

This seriously infringed upon the interests of Zhu Wanli himself and his family.

Most importantly, Tang Mountain Fortress, not far from Yin Mountain Fortress, although also divided into two Hundred-Man units, its Fortress Master concurrently held the position of Vice Thousand-Man Commander while serving as a Hundred-Man Commander.

In other words, the Fortress Master of Tang Mountain Fortress had actually become Zhu Wanli’s superior.

How could the always proud and self-proclaimed powerful Zhu Wanli swallow this anger?

Of course, Zhu Wanli’s anger was not solely directed at Tang Mountain Fortress.

In reality, it was implicitly pointing at Li Xiao.

Before this, the strength of Yin Mountain Fortress was even a notch stronger than Hexi Fortress.

But just because of this war, Li Xiao had risen abruptly.

Becoming directly the Vice Military Governor of Jin Prefecture, the de facto second-in-command.

This made Zhu Wanli feel very uncomfortable in his heart.

Subconsciously, he believed that he was just not as lucky as Li Xiao.

Aside from crawling under women’s skirts, what else could he do?

So, thinking that he would have to listen to a young brat in the future, he felt extremely awkward.

Thus, taking this opportunity, he jumped out directly to make trouble for Li Xiao.

Listening to Zhu Wanli’s words, the expression on Li Xiao’s face didn’t change in the slightest.

His gaze turned to Gu Zizhong beside him.

This was Xiao Sima’s trusted strategist. As someone who came from a background of wielding a pen, he was most suitable for this kind of complicated work of registering the population.

Therefore, when carrying out the registration of the population for the Han tribes of Jin Prefecture, the opinions of Li Xiao and Gu Zizhong were prioritized.

“Mr. Gu, what do you think?” Li Xiao asked calmly.

Gu Zizhong was a smart person and naturally understood the root cause of Yin Mountain Fortress making trouble.

So he smiled gently at Li Xiao and said, “I am merely cooperating.”

“On such major matters, Governor Li’s opinion should be the main one.”

Worthy of being the person who could deceive that trash Zhaogu Yachi round and round; indeed a slippery loach.

Knowing that the work of registering the population was not easy, he pushed the difficulties to Li Xiao.

But the key was that this matter concerned Li Xiao’s own prestige and interests, so he had to act.

Thus, he nodded gently to Gu Zizhong, then looked at Zhu Wanli and said in a calm voice, “What do you want?”

“What is fairness?”

At this time, the process of registering the population had already reached Yin Mountain Fortress. This place was the gathering point for more than two hundred soldiers of Yin Mountain Fortress.

So Zhu Wanli was full of confidence and shouted loudly with an excited expression: “Even Tang Sancai can be a Vice Thousand-Man Commander; on what basis can I not be one?”

Tang Sancai was the Fortress Master of Tang Mountain Fortress.

Zhu Wanli didn’t mention Li Xiao’s position as Vice Military Governor at all, but instead kept using Tang Sancai as the spearhead.

Li Xiao naturally knew that Zhu Wanli was a thorn, and coincidentally, Li Xiao also needed someone to help him establish authority in the matter of registering the population.

So he sneered coldly: “You want to be a Vice Thousand-Man Commander? Do you want me to give you my position as Thousand-Man Commander, or even Vice Military Governor as well?”

Before Zhu Wanli could answer, Li Xiao raised the horsewhip in his hand directly and lashed it down at Zhu Wanli.

With a ‘snap’, it hit his face. Accompanied by Zhu Wanli’s scream, a bloody welt appeared on his face.

“Just based on you? Mention fairness to me? Are you worthy?” Li Xiao said in an icy voice.

“Ahhh!”

“Little bastard, you dare to hit me!”

“I’ll kill you!”

Zhu Wanli, enraged by Li Xiao’s unabashed words, shouted out what was in his heart directly.

The root cause was still that from the bottom of his heart, he didn’t think Li Xiao was anything special.

Just luckily winning a few battles and climbing into the bed of a Liao princess with a handsome face.

Not worth fearing.

Looking at Zhu Wanli screaming while covering his face, Li Xiao gave a disdainful sneer: “Kill me? You can’t!”

At this moment, the atmosphere between the two sides instantly became tense.

Li Xiao’s personal guards and the soldiers of Yin Mountain Fortress subconsciously placed their hands on their sword hilts.

Facing this tense scene, Li Xiao walked leisurely in front of Zhu Wanli and said in a relatively calm tone.

“During the rebellion of the Three Karluk Tribes, Tang Mountain Fortress faced the Karluks’ solicitation, refused sternly, and even raised troops to resist.”

“While your Yin Mountain Fortress was entangled with the Karluk tribe, your attitude unclear.”

“When the Eastern Capital Army attacked and destroyed the Karluk tribe, not wiping out your Yin Mountain Fortress along with them was already Lord Xiao Sima’s magnanimity.”

“But you didn’t repent. Later in the Battle of Altai Mountain, Tang Mountain Fortress was always first in battle, never fearing the enemy, while you, Zhu Wanli, feared battle and didn’t advance.”

“In more than twenty days, you didn’t advance a single step.”

“After that, it was the decisive battle with Tayang Khan…”

“Do I still need to list these matters one by one in detail?”

Li Xiao revealed a fierce look and shouted explosively.

He kicked Zhu Wanli directly in the stomach. Accompanied by another scream, Zhu Wanli was kicked to the ground.

This time, he was thoroughly enraged.

His eyes bloodshot, he stood up, drew the straight saber at his waist, pointed angrily at Li Xiao, and said, “This is slander!”

“Fabricating things out of thin air; clearly you are making wild accusations!”

After the Battle of Beishan, the Karluk forces were powerful. Facing the threat of the Karluk military edge, it was inevitable for Yin Mountain Fortress to have some other thoughts.

Not only Yin Mountain Fortress, but even other fortresses and nomadic tribes—hadn’t they wavered?

It was only the news of Li Xiao destroying the Arslan tribe that gave them a shot in the arm.

Otherwise, not only Yin Mountain Fortress might have submitted to the Karluks, but other fortresses might have too.

So, in Zhu Wanli’s view, this was just an instinctual choice made by human nature when facing danger.

Li Xiao using this to attack him was simply irrational arguing.

Thinking like this, Zhu Wanli looked somewhat angry from embarrassment and shouted to the people of Yin Mountain Fortress around him: “What are you waiting for?”

“Do it! Tie them up for me!”

“As long as we make a big scene and unite with people from other fortresses to explain the situation to Lord Xiao together.”

“Lord Xiao will definitely clear our names and won’t listen to the one-sided words of this brat.”

Zhu Wanli still had some means. He knew to use Xiao Sima’s psychology of not wanting more trouble and urgently needing to stabilize the situation in Jin Prefecture before returning to the Eastern Capital.

Preparing to coerce more fortresses to blow the matter up.

Facing this surging public sentiment, Xiao Sima would definitely have to take it into consideration and use some conciliatory measures to appease the people.

Plus, Zhu Wanli had been the Fortress Master for so many years and had accumulated heavy prestige in Yin Mountain Fortress. Under his shouting, there were still some soldiers of Yin Mountain Fortress poised to act.

Li Xiao’s personal guards and the people brought by Gu Zizhong tightly protected them in the middle.

Li Xiao’s face remained calm throughout, only looking down at Zhu Wanli with cold eyes, and said indifferently: “This Governor already gave you a chance. You sought death yourself, so don’t blame this Governor for not showing mercy.”

As his voice fell, a personal guard behind Li Xiao took out a bull horn and blew a low horn sound.

“Woooo—”

In just the time of a few breaths, a low rumbling sound rang out on the earth.

The soldiers of Yin Mountain Fortress, who lived on horseback all year round, naturally could hear what this sound was.

Thus, panicked expressions began to appear on these soldiers’ faces, and they looked around with terrified eyes.

Sure enough, they saw a mass of black cavalry galloping frantically towards them on the earth.

In a short time, they surrounded this camp of Yin Mountain Fortress.

At a rough glance, the number of cavalry was five or six hundred, all holding bows and arrows aimed at the soldiers of Yin Mountain Fortress.

The scene instantly became tense, and the soldiers of Yin Mountain Fortress began to panic.

Zhu Wanli’s face turned even paler.

Clearly, he had realized the seriousness of the matter.

Li Xiao was actually prepared long ago.

“I already know about your plotting.”

“Including those accomplices of yours, I won’t let any of them off,” Li Xiao said in a faint voice.

This reform touched the interests of many people.

Just like Zhu Wanli, there were some original Fortress Masters and Village Chiefs whose power was weakened in this reform.

Some accepted their fate, but Zhu Wanli and these few people were unwilling.

Privately discussing and preparing to incite the crowd to make trouble, pulling chestnuts out of the fire.

Naturally, Li Xiao could not tolerate this.

Preparing to catch Zhu Wanli and his gang in one net.

Saying this, Li Xiao looked at the soldiers of Yin Mountain Fortress and shouted loudly: “I know you were all bewitched by Zhu Wanli.”

“Lay down your weapons and surrender, and I guarantee to let bygones be bygones.”

“If anyone dares to follow Zhu Wanli down the dark path, not only will you not see tomorrow’s sun…”

“Even your families won’t have a good end.”

“Zhu Wanli bewitched the army’s heart, gathered a crowd to make trouble, and disobeyed superiors. His crimes are heinous.”

“He wants to rebel; do you want to be executed along with your nine relations?”

Hearing Li Xiao’s words, the fighting will of the Yin Mountain Fortress soldiers disintegrated instantly, and some began to put down their weapons.

The reason for this was not only because Li Xiao understood human nature but also because he knew how to use the general trend.