You useless lot, why didn't you protect my family

The soldiers were once again dumbfounded.

Searching this murdered family to find someone who wasn't completely dead yet?

How did General Ren know someone wasn't dead?

Wait, surviving is a good thing, but why find them?

Judging by General Ren's words, he definitely wouldn't take them back to the military camp to comfort them. He clearly wanted to... pull up the weeds by the roots!

Everyone couldn't help but feel their hearts skip a heavy beat.

Isn't this... a bit inappropriate?

But military orders were like mountains; no one dared to disobey.

They all buried their heads and rummaged through the pile of corpses.

Before they found any living person, they discovered another issue instead.

"General Ren, these are people from the Li family of Huaiqing."

Deputy General Wang Ming reported, handing over the clue he had found.

It was a tin of tea leaves.

"They must have crossed the border to sell tea leaves to the barbarians. This is something their family often does, and there has never been much risk in the past."

"Presumably, it's because of this that they let their guard down. This time, they probably brought along all their clansmen, likely with the idea of letting them broaden their horizons."

"They just didn't expect the barbarians to act without honor this time."

"They attacked them, wanting to snatch the gold and silver treasures they had traded for. Fortunately, your divine brilliance and foresight predicted it, General, which is why they didn't succeed."

Ren Tianye took the tea tin. Upon opening it, a rich tea fragrance wafted to his nose. One sniff was enough to tell it was top-grade Pu'er.

His already stern face grew a few degrees colder.

He asked in a cold voice, "Is this Huaiqing Li family a state-run tea estate?"

Deputy General Wang Ming was quite clear about it. "General, they are not state-run. They are private tea merchants. However, their ancestors have been selling tea for generations, and they have quite a reputation in our Great Yu."

"Private?" Ren Tianye's voice grew even colder. "A private tea estate—who allowed them to sell tea to the barbarians?"

"Don't they know that the barbarians have a vigorous demand for tea, and using tea to control the barbarians is a national policy of our Great Yu?"

The barbarians had lived on the grasslands for a long time. Their diet consisted mainly of beef, mutton, and dairy products, all of which were high-fat, high-protein foods. Thus, they needed to drink a large amount of tea to relieve the greasiness of the meat and the heat of the highland barley.

It could be said that tea was a necessity for the survival of the barbarians.

Because of this, the sale of tea from the Central Plains to the barbarians had been strictly controlled since ancient times.

The Central Plains dynasties needed to use tea to control the barbarians, and they could also use tea to exchange for the warhorses they needed from the barbarians.

After Ren Tianye transmigrated, he occasionally flipped through an ancient book while in the military camp. It clearly recorded that only fifty catties of tea leaves were needed to exchange for a warhorse from the barbarians.

The immense profit of tea leaves could well be imagined.

The importance of tea for the Central Plains dynasties to rule the barbarians could also be imagined.

But now...

A privately-owned Li family dared to go to the grasslands to sell tea so blatantly?

Who gave them the nerve?!

"Gen... General..." Deputy General Wang Ming stammered, "After Her Majesty ascended the throne, she proclaimed to the world that she wanted to forge eternal friendly relations with the barbarians, so she gradually relaxed the control over tea."

"Now..."

"Now, anyone can go sell tea to the grasslands."

Female Emperor?

Ren Tianye was taken aback for a moment, and then he laughed.

He laughed out of pure anger.

The barbarians rode south to pillage every year, treating the people of Yu like two-legged sheep. They burned, killed, looted, and committed all kinds of atrocities. How many families were destroyed and perished, and how many soldiers buried their bones on the battlefield?

Could she not see that?

And she still wanted to forge eternal friendly relations with the grassland barbarians?

Not to mention the five thousand years of history Ren Tianye had read, just speaking of this world, how many Central Plains dynasties had used lessons of blood and tears to clearly tell their descendants: alien races will always harbor treacherous intentions!

And she still wanted to form a fucking alliance!

When dealing with barbarians, one must either exterminate them!

Or provoke them into fighting among themselves!

Or, like cutting wild grass, severely thrash them every once in a while.

This Female Emperor was something else; she even took the initiative to send them the tea they desperately needed. No wonder Great Yu had strong military power, yet the grassland threat could never be eradicated and instead showed signs of growing more intense.

So the root cause lay with the Female Emperor!

No, how could there be a prosperous era under the rule of such a brainless Female Emperor who was so obsessed with the stand-in romance trope?

Could this be the formidable power of female-oriented web novels?

Regardless of whether it makes sense or not, just conjure it up first?

As he was thinking, a soldier not far away shouted, "General Ren, there's a survivor here."

Ren Tianye immediately turned around.

He knew it. They definitely weren't all dead. Twenty years later, they would surely seek him out for revenge, causing him to lose his reputation and perhaps even his life.

He strode over and saw the soldier helping up a young man of about eighteen or nineteen. The young man had clearly been knocked unconscious by some heavy object. Now, splashed with clean water, he slowly woke up.

"Father, Mother..."

As soon as the young man opened his eyes, he shouted in terror. Deputy General Wang Ming immediately leaned over to comfort him, simultaneously using his body to block the young man's line of sight so he wouldn't see the tragic scene.

However, it had little effect. The young man still saw clearly through the gaps in the human wall. He abruptly got up, darted out, threw himself onto the corpses, and began to wail in grief.

"Dad..."

"Mom..."

"Sister..."

"Brother-in-law..."

He cried so heartbreakingly that Deputy General Wang Ming couldn't bear to watch anymore. He walked over and consoled, "Young Master Li, please restrain your grief and accept fate."

"The barbarians who attacked you have already been slain by our border army. We have also avenged you, so you can rest assured."

"We..."

He glanced at Ren Tianye and found that Ren Tianye was turning around to get something from his horse, so he quickly added, "We will help you bury your parents and clansmen."

"Please do not grieve too much."

Deputy General Wang Ming was soft-hearted. He originally wanted to sincerely apologize. After all, guarding the border was their duty. Now that the barbarians had crossed the border and killed people of Yu, no matter how you looked at it, it was their dereliction of duty.

But when he spoke to Ren Tianye just now, it made him realize something.

The route the Huaiqing Li family took back to Great Yu was not the main road they guarded. It was obvious that in order to evade tariffs, they had chosen a winding, narrow trail, which led to this disaster.

Then it had nothing to do with their border army.

In fact, if it weren't for the fact that this family was almost completely wiped out, he would still have to follow his duty and demand the tariffs from this sole remaining Young Master Li.

Tariffs were the economic lifeline of their border army!

"You are the border army?"

Young Master Li suddenly turned around, staring at Deputy General Wang Ming with burning eyes.

"Yes, we are the nearby border army," Wang Ming explained. "The hidden sentries deployed by General Ren discovered barbarian movements. General Ren sensed that the barbarians might take action, so..."

Before Wang Ming could finish, Young Master Li let out a furious roar: "You are the border army, yet you let the barbarians slaughter my Li clansmen right under your noses?"

"You pieces of trash!"

Deputy General Wang Ming's expression instantly changed.

"Young Master Li, what do you mean by this?"

The soldiers, who were still burying their heads in the search according to Ren Tianye's military orders, also stood up one after another and looked over.

Their eyes were all filled with anger.

However, the coercion formed by more than twenty border soldiers did not seem to calm Young Master Li down. Instead, he became even more irritable and furious.

He pointed an accusing finger at everyone and cursed loudly, "You bunch of trash! You usually collect so much tax silver to enjoy yourselves. Has it all been eaten by dogs?"

"You couldn't even protect the lives of my Li family! What's the use of us paying taxes to you?"

"If you are not worthless, then who is?"

"You are the most worthless of the worthless!"

"Absolute good-for-nothings!"

...