Wei Daya happened to be passing by. She was extremely busy, as she had to arrange meals for so many people.
She was about to go find Director Ji Feiyu when she heard Xie Aixia complaining that Xie dared to directly name the leader.
She was furious, but her respect for the leader was deeply ingrained in her bones.
"Xie Aixia, do you not want to work in the cleaning department anymore?"
Xie Aixia knew Wei Daya.
Those who provided them with food and clothing were their providers, and Wei Daya was an official, albeit a minor one.
She suppressed her frustration and could only greet them with a smile: "I'm happy to work in the cleaning department, it's just a bit tiring."
Wei Daya snorted, too lazy to argue with her, and pointed to the side, saying, "Hurry up and dig. With so many new people coming, we can't have too few latrines."
"I'll get to work quickly." Xie Aixia was good at reading people's expressions and knew that Wei Daya didn't want to argue with her, so she hurriedly picked up the shovel and got to work.
After the patients were cleared from the West Gate and the area occupied by Feng Tao, Chen Xi ordered the cleaning department to quickly enter and carry out cleaning and sanitation work.
The leader of Feng Tao's men, who had already been checked and found to be without problems, was ordered to lead the remaining 3,000-plus men to the North Gate to attack it.
Wang Datong has already sent people to inquire about the situation here, hoping to take advantage of the changes to capture the West Gate in one fell swoop.
The North Gate was occupied by Feng Tao when he withdrew, along with the area around the North Gate.
Unexpectedly, the enemy sent men to attack the North Gate again, and he wanted to send reinforcements to the North Gate.
Little did they know, the enemy was prepared and had set up an ambush on the only route. The thousand men he sent were surrounded and killed, with more than six hundred of them losing their lives.
Qi Xiuwu brandished his large iron hammer, still shouting from the front: "Call Wang Datong to fight me!"
Upon seeing how brave and valiant he was, Wang Datong didn't dare to come up himself, but instead sent men to besiege Qi Xiuwu.
These were mainly refugees, with some bandits among them. Their fighting strength was not very strong. When they encountered Qi Xiuwu, who was truly skilled in martial arts, they were beaten without any chance to fight back.
After witnessing Qi Xiuwu kill three of his skilled leaders with a hammer, Wang Datong completely abandoned any intention of personally taking to the field.
He led his men directly into the headquarters, only to find that the headquarters was in chaos.
He didn't know what was going on, but suddenly more than three hundred enemies appeared in his headquarters, stirring up his rear.
Wang Datong hurriedly suppressed the three hundred people. He was not afraid of the three hundred people, as he had more than a thousand people here.
But he underestimated these three hundred men. These young and strong men were well-mannered and commanded by a fierce general.
He had a headache. Which side's troops were these?
Judging from their attire, they were also refugees.
However, their fighting style is not that of a rabble.
They were even more ferocious than when he was a bandit. They were also more obedient to orders than any regular army soldier he had ever encountered.
His more than a thousand men not only failed to gain any advantage, but were also repeatedly defeated by the enemy.
Qi Xiuwu also led his men to attack directly, and he scattered the hundreds of men left behind by Wang Datong.
Upon seeing Zheng Anxiang, Qi Xiuwu exclaimed, "Brother Anxiang, let's have a contest to see who can capture Wang Datong first!"
Zheng Anxiang responded loudly, "Okay."
Zheng Anxiang was ordered by Shenxi to lead his men into Wang Datong's headquarters through a secret passage outside the county town.
When Shenxi heard that Wang Datong's headquarters were located in the large Zang family estate, he was immediately delighted.
With such inside and outside cooperation, even if Wang Datong had great abilities, he would find it difficult to gain any advantage!
As expected, Wang Datong was caught off guard and in a panic, he tried to escape through the east gate. Outside the east gate, Lin Yanjun and more than two hundred men were waiting in full force.
With only a few hundred men left to follow him, Wang Datong revealed a fierce expression. He was already being chased and beaten by the imperial army when he was a bandit, but now he was being beaten by refugees. He was unwilling to accept this.
He carried a large machete and headed straight for Lin Yanjun.
Lin Yanjun also grabbed a large machete and started fighting him.
The two fought to a standstill, but Wang Datong harbored thoughts of escape and was not as wholeheartedly committed to fighting as Lin Yanjun.
After a dozen or so rounds, Wang Datong tried to escape, but in that moment of distraction, Lin Yanjun's large cleaver swept across his ankle.
Wang Datong cried out in pain, presumably his ankle bone was broken.
Wang Datong, covered in blood, tried to escape but was struck on the shoulder by Qi Xiuwu, who caught up with him.
Wang Datong suddenly sat down on the ground, and Lin Yanjun swung his broadsword horizontally, beheading him.
Wang Datong died with his eyes wide open, unable to close them in peace. He probably never knew why he had suffered such a crushing defeat.
With Wang Datong's death, his men scattered like birds and beasts, only to be surrounded on all sides. Qi Xiuwu roared, "The commander said, surrender and you will not be killed!"
The surrounding Chenxi troops also shouted, "Put down your weapons and surrender or you will be spared!"
After several dozen who put up a stubborn resistance were killed or captured, the remaining hundreds of people were no longer able to fight and surrendered, laying down all sorts of weapons.
Wang Datong was killed, and his confidants were either killed, fled, or captured.
Shenxi fought a brilliant battle. Her side suffered few casualties, and she managed to gather all of Wang Datong's several thousand men.
Moreover, the grain, gold, silver and jewelry collected by Wang Datong were all inventoried and managed by Shen Rongxuan of the Shenxi Sect.
This inventory revealed the problem: according to Song Zhen, the government granaries were nearly empty, and the county magistrate had secretly opened the granaries and distributed grain to the people.
According to Wang Datong's confidants who were captured, the government granaries were indeed short of grain, the county government offices were also short of grain, and even the county magistrate's personal property consisted of only one bag of rice.
The grain they obtained all came from large families and private granaries within the county. It was common for granaries to hoard grain, but the fact that so many large families in the county had so much grain privately surprised Shenxi.
Behind the red gates, meat and wine go to waste; on the roads, the bones of those frozen to death lie.
That's true.
The large families in the county town were not true aristocratic lineages; they were either independent large households or collateral branches or offshoots of aristocratic families.
The grain that Wang Datong collected from these people's homes is more than enough to feed the current thousands of refugees and more than 10,000 residents for more than a year!
If you eat sparingly, you can stick to it for two years.
With the grain stored in private granaries, we'll have no worries for three years!
And the gold and silver jewelry stored by these people is countless.
This small, lawless county town is surprisingly teeming with hidden talents and wealthy people.
Although Shenxi knew that he would gain grain and money after capturing the county town, the amount was still beyond his expectations!
Song Zhen angrily cursed, "They all complained to me about being poor, but in the end, they were all wiped out by the rioters."
Zang Huatian's face was equally grim. His family had donated the most grain, so they were the first to be attacked by the rioters. But who knew that these wealthy families had far more grain than him?
This is the third year of drought. The first two years were not so obvious, and although there was a disaster, there was still some harvest. This year is the worst, with almost no harvest at all.
These people actually had far more grain stored up than the government did!
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