In years of famine and drought, their village even rejected fatty meat.

Chapter 442 The Terrifying Land of Taiping County

It is located at the foot of the Cangmang Mountains, west of Ding'an County.

This area originally had several villages where villagers lived and thrived for generations, making a living by farming and obtaining mountain products from the outskirts of the Cangmang Mountains.

However, with the arrival of the defeated army, the original villagers no longer became the masters of this place.

After the defeated army wandered to Ding'an County, they immediately saw this place, nestled against the vast mountains, a strategically advantageous location that could be attacked or defended at will, and so...

Several villages at the foot of the mountain were ravaged by war.

The defeated soldiers used their blades to forcibly "persuade" the local villagers, seizing the houses and land that originally belonged to them, and becoming "local emperors" riding on the villagers' heads.

After a small-scale massacre, the villagers had no choice but to submit to the tyranny of the fleeing army, handing over their houses and land to them and becoming their servants, doing odd jobs such as cooking and tending fires. Even the little food they had left was seized by the fleeing army.

Furthermore, families with daughters fared even worse. Most of the defeated soldiers were hot-blooded men who naturally wouldn't spare the young girls in the village. Many villagers with young daughters had to hand them over to serve the military officers...

In short, since the arrival of the defeated army, the villagers who were originally alive here have been living in dire straits. Not only are they starving every day, but the women have also suffered greatly from the brutality of the defeated army.

At this moment, in the house that originally belonged to the village chief, Xie Cang, the leader of the defeated army, was sitting casually on the ground, drinking one of the few cheap wines available in the village.

Few people may know the name Xie Cang, but the Xie family is a household name in the capital.

The Xie family's ancestor, Xie Canglan, was one of the founding dukes of the Xia Dynasty, a man of great military achievements. In the Xia Dynasty, which did not enfeoff kings of different surnames, a duke was already a position of great power. The Xie family, which produced a duke, was naturally one of the most prominent families in the capital.

What's even more terrifying is that after Xie Canglan, the Xie family produced several more generations of military generals with outstanding military achievements, which made the Xie family even more prominent and one of the top families in the capital.

Logically speaking, Xie Cang, who came from the Xie family, should not have ended up as a defeated soldier, but unfortunately...

Although he was born into the Xie family, he was not a direct descendant, but a collateral descendant, and was even the son of a concubine of the collateral descendant.

In the Xia Kingdom, which follows the primogeniture system, non-legitimate sons cannot inherit the family business. Therefore, Xie Cang had no connection with the Xie family's title.

However, because he was born into a wealthy family like the Xie family, Xie Cang was never short of food and clothing from a young age. He even had no shortage of resources for martial arts training. The Xie family even arranged for him to be a mid-level general in the Beijing Garrison.

But Xie Cang was clearly not satisfied with his life!

In the eyes of outsiders, he was a powerful general in the Beijing Garrison, a scion of the Xie family with boundless prestige. But only Xie Cang himself knew that while he was indeed very prestigious outside, the lowly commoners at the bottom of society didn't even have the courage to look him in the eye.

Within the clan, however, his status was lower than that of a dog!

A son born to a concubine from a collateral branch cannot hold his head high even in front of the legitimate son of the collateral branch, let alone in front of the legitimate son.

It's no exaggeration to say that even the favored maids and servants in the clan could order Xie Cang around, which made Xie Cang feel extremely aggrieved, but he was helpless and could only hide in the capital camp all day drinking and having fun, unwilling to return to the clan to suffer.

However, even within the Beijing Garrison, Xie Cang's situation wasn't exactly favorable, as the garrison was filled with sons of powerful and influential families. Some of the garrison's generals even came from more illustrious backgrounds than the Xie family, and were even direct descendants of their families…

In this situation, Xie Cang, born to a concubine, would inevitably be looked down upon.

After all, in a country like Xia, where etiquette and law were strictly enforced, his status as a son born to a concubine destined him to be inferior to others.

Fortunately, at the beginning of the year, Xie Cang saw hope for changing this situation.

At the beginning of the year, the imperial court appointed the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery to lead 25 troops from the capital garrison to Liangzhou to quell the rebellion. Xie Cang was among those selected to lead the expedition!

Xie Cangyuan thought he could gain a title and be respected by others based on his military achievements in suppressing the rebellion, but it was clear that things were completely the opposite of what he expected.

The 25-strong army not only failed to quell the rebellion, but also collapsed at the first encounter, defeated by the poor peasants of Liangzhou who couldn't even get enough to eat...

Even now, Xie Cang still remembers what the battlefield looked like. Yang Zheng's peasants were like they had been injected with chicken blood. Their fearless appearance even shocked Xie Cang, a peak seventh-rank martial artist, let alone the old, weak, sick and disabled people in the capital garrison who couldn't even put on armor.

After only half an hour of fighting, the government army's front line collapsed, with soldiers either surrendering or fleeing.

The soldiers who turned and fled then charged into the rear ranks, causing the entire formation to collapse instantly.

Less than an hour into the battle, the 25-strong army was completely routed. Unable to accept this, the Marquis of Loyalty and Bravery committed suicide by cutting his throat. Generals like Xie Cang from the capital garrison fled for their lives, wishing they had more legs.

Because Xie Cang was a general in the capital garrison, had a horse, was a martial artist, and had personal guards protecting him, he was able to escape quickly and was not captured by the Liangzhou rebels.

After escaping, Xie Cang did not choose to return to the capital, but instead fled south. He and his personal guards took some remote paths to avoid the sight of the Liangzhou rebels and successfully arrived at Taiping County, which is adjacent to Liangzhou.

Along the way, Xie Cang encountered many fleeing soldiers from the Beijing garrison. After some thought, Xie Cang allowed these soldiers to join his ranks. By the time they reached Taiping County, Xie Cang's force had grown to five hundred men.

They thought that with these five hundred people, they would have no problem surviving in Taiping County. But who would have thought that so many martial artists would suddenly appear in Taiping County, and those martial artists were often accompanied by powerful strange beasts...

Upon entering Taiping County, Xie Cang and his men, who were starving and skin and bones, were about to plunder a village to fill their stomachs when they were met with a fierce attack from the martial artists of Taiping County!

Those martial artists from Taiping County who called themselves the Chen Family Army appeared before them with strange beasts, and then... quickly routed his troops. If Xie Cang hadn't escaped quickly when he saw the situation was bad, he probably would have died in Taiping County long ago.

After that incident, Xie Cang became afraid of Taiping County. He dared not stay there and hurriedly gathered the other defeated troops while continuing south.

Finally, after gathering a full three thousand defeated soldiers, Xie Cang led his troops out of Taiping County and into Ding'an County.