Reclaiming Wasteland: Carefree Mountain Farmer

Chapter 102 Obedience
Tiger Mouth Fort

Ten generals led an old man and a child into the prison cell.

Upon hearing the noise, Niu Zhifu, who was eating in his cell, immediately dropped his bowl, lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and remained silent.

"This way, please." The jailer ushered the old men in and then called out to Niu Zhifu in the cage, "Master Niu, some people have come to see you. They are all the commanders of Tongzhou, as well as your father and children."

As soon as Niu Zhifu opened his eyes, he quickly sat up.

"Son!!" Old Man Niu looked at his son and quickly urged, "You must surrender now! Otherwise they will kill our whole family! Now our whole family is in Tongzhou and we are safe. Your sworn brother and the others are also serving the Shan Nong tribe. You should hurry too!"

Upon hearing this, Niu Zhifu looked at his former superior, Cen Tianrui, and a group of familiar colleagues.

"My son, I would rather die than surrender!" Niu Zhifu closed his eyes, still choosing to refuse.

Qin Hefu drew his long knife and stabbed it directly at Niu Zhifu's youngest son.

"Ahhh! Dad!"

The child screamed loudly.

Niu Zhifu opened his eyes and looked at the blood all over the ground and his dying son. His eyes widened in terror.

Before he could even shout, another commander grabbed the old man's thinning hair and slit his throat with a knife.

The father's blood was splattered on Niu Zhifu's face.

Niu Zhifu looked on in horror as his kind-faced colleagues transformed into vengeful ghosts.

Niu Zhifu looked at Cen Tianrui and Ma Weiming, both of whom were expressionless and seemed very unfamiliar.

One of the commanders of a thousand households in Tongzhou said directly, "The clan chief said that we should either surrender or die! We have all surrendered, and you are the only one who is stubborn and unyielding. Fine, we'll send your whole family on their way!"

Niu Zhifu's body was trembling as he witnessed the passing of two loved ones in a very short time.

"I surrender!"

Niu Zhifu didn't know how he managed to shout those words.

Niu Zhifu, who had long been prepared to die and had once refused to surrender, actually chose to surrender after his father and young son were killed.

"late!"

However, no one was willing to give him the opportunity to be a treacherous minister, as he had wasted too much of everyone's time.

If you don't want to surrender, just die sooner. Your family can survive, and you'll suffer less.

They insisted on dying rather than surrendering, which made things very difficult for everyone.

Just as everyone was about to hack him to death, Ma Weiming shouted, "We've all surrendered. If he doesn't, wouldn't that make us look bad?"

“Let’s spare his life. We’re all the same. Besides, the clan chief wants him to surrender. If we kill him after he says he’s willing to surrender, it will be hard to explain later.”

Ma Weiming's words made the other commanders put down their knives.

Qin Hegui sighed to Niu Zhifu, "General Niu, we have offended you this time. We all have wives, children, and elderly parents, and we cannot disobey the emperor's orders."

Looking at his tragically murdered family members and then at his polite colleagues, Niu Zhifu quickly stood up with mixed feelings. "Life is unpredictable, and I have become indifferent to matters of life and death. Now that my family is safe, I am willing to surrender and serve the Shan Nong tribe."

Ma Weiming walked over and said, "Let's not talk about the past. Now it's a new beginning. I'll take you home to recuperate. Your wife and children are waiting for you to come back and reunite with them."

Qin Hegui said with a smile, "Now we've just changed masters, but the people are still the same. The Shan Nong tribe is willing to pay us money and take care of us soldiers. The whole town praises the Shan Nong tribe!"

A group of people walked out of the dimly lit, decaying cell, which was reserved for him alone.

The rest of those who committed the crimes are all dead. Now, Shannong County is managed by a group of rebels and surrenderers, and they are all violent people at heart.

Everyone in the Arctic is violent; anyone who violates the rules set by the Arctic martial arts community will die.

Murder doesn't require laws or trials. Niu Zhifu, led by Ma Weiming, reunited with his family and returned to their hometown in Tongzhouwei.

As soon as several soldiers carried the wounded Niu Zhifu off the carriage and onto a stretcher to the gate of the house, twenty or thirty people came out to greet him.

"master!"

Niu Zhifu's wife, daughter, and sons looked at him with a mixture of grievance and joy and comfort.

“Master, you’re finally back. During the two months you were gone, the family lived in constant fear and suffered a lot of injustice.”

Niu Zhifu's wife complained to him.

Ma Weiming laughed and said, "If you don't surrender today, all the men in your family will go down with you, and your wife and daughters will be sold to those barbarians as female slaves."

Niu Zhifu looked slightly embarrassed, as did his family members.

Ma Weiming continued with a smile, "Those who know when to yield are the heroes. Serving someone else is the same as serving them. Besides, the Shan Nong tribe has treated us well. My family is all doing well, and our official positions haven't been touched."

"You saw it when you came in. The city is completely safe, except for killing a few stubborn people. It's exactly the same as it was before."

“From now on, we brothers will follow the mountain farmers. If we want to be Han Chinese, we can continue to be Han Chinese. If we want to be mountain farmers, we can cut our hair and become mountain farmers. We know how to lead troops and fight battles. In the future, we can make great achievements and be enfeoffed as marquises of ten thousand households for our descendants. Wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

Niu Zhifu still remembered how he was almost killed by this group of people, but now he accepted it all.

After all, he never expected that he would be so afraid of death, and that he would surrender after his father and son died tragically on the spot.

Now we can only continue on this path; there's no turning back.

“Yes, that’s right.” Niu Zhifu nodded and agreed repeatedly.

Ma Weiming said, "You've worked hard these past few days. I won't disturb your family reunion any longer. I'll go back and reunite with my family too. After I've rested for a few days, our two families can get together again."

“Okay,” Niu Zhifu agreed.

After Ma Weiming rode away, Niu Zhifu, supported by his family, returned to his home, which felt both strange and familiar.

The family returned to the bedroom, where the injured Niu Zhifu lay on the bed.

"What happened at home while I was away?"

Niu Zhifu lay in bed and gently asked his wife.

The wife, Chen, sighed, "At first, after we learned that my husband had been captured, we were worried sick all day because we were unsure of his fate and had no idea what to do."

"Later we learned that the master was still alive, the general and my uncle had been captured, and the Duke of Qin had died in battle. There were so many things happening in the city that no one cared about us."

"After the mountain tribe invaded a while ago, they killed several hundred people on the city walls and at the general's mansion. After the city surrendered, they stopped killing people, and people could walk on the streets and do business during the day."

"After that, nothing happened. Uncle Ma sent someone to inquire about the family's situation. After a few days of calm, he raided several wealthy households, but no one was hurt. He also distributed some grain and salt to each household, telling us to just live our lives honestly."

"A few days ago, Uncle Ma called Father and Cheng'er over and said he was trying to persuade you to surrender. Yesterday, he told us that the two men had escaped but were killed and buried outside Tiger's Mouth Fortress. He told us not to ask any more questions."

“My father couldn’t have gone far, so how could he have run away with a child? His death was unclear, but as a woman, I dare not ask too many questions.”

Mrs. Chen wiped away her tears with a handkerchief, her face full of grievance.

Niu Zhifu knew very well how his father and son had died, but now he could only sigh helplessly.

"It's all in the past, let's not talk about it anymore. I'll be fine once I recover from my injuries. Things are different now than before, so let's all behave ourselves."

Chen was well aware that Tongzhou City was now under the control of the Shan Nong tribe, and she also knew that these people were particularly capable of killing. She nodded with a wronged expression, "Yes, I will listen to you, Master."

Children can be born again after they die, and as long as life continues peacefully, everyone accepts their fate.

(End of this chapter)