Under the steward's coordination, dozens of Wei Mansion's house servants and able-bodied women worked together to barely hold off the refugee assault and defend the wall's top. The Bald man patrolled back and forth, rushing to wherever the danger was to block it, and several times, he hacked down refugees who had climbed onto the wall.
Wei Yuan sat in Wei Youcai's arms, quietly watching as one sharp arrow after another pierced through people's bodies and then, with a spray of blood, embedded into the ground; he also watched a trembling house servant scream and hurl stones downward; and he saw a refugee, pierced in the stomach by an arrow, rolling on the ground in agony, desperately clutching at a comrade's trouser hem, only for that man, finding him a nuisance, to hack into his head with a sickle and continue his charge toward the mansion without a second glance.
The hot, pungent smell of blood mixed with dust rushed in waves. Unable to bear it, a house servant on the wall clutched at the battlements and vomited violently, but in the blink of an eye, received a stone to the head, was dazedly pulled over the wall by refugees, and then was torn and bitten until he was an indistinguishable bloody mess, with his screams echoing continuously.
Atop the corner tower, Wei Youcai sat calmly, as if the fierce slaughter before him was merely a group of children playing roughly. Little Weiyuan leaned against him like leaning against an unmovable mountain.
In the blink of an eye, both sides had been fighting for the time it takes to eat a meal; the house servants were all panting heavily, every one of them wounded, and the defense line was gradually showing weaknesses. A group of refugees finally surged onto the wall and climbed up the corner tower. A chaotic battle ensued immediately atop the tower!
A robust refugee kicked the steward aside and charged at Wei Youcai with a sinister smile. Wei Youcai was not at all flustered and stood up to draw his sword. However, being accustomed to living in comfort, his movements were slow, and before he could lift his sword, he was kicked to the ground. The man raised a firewood cleaver, ready to chop down at Wei Youcai's head!
Just as the cleaver was about to fall, Little Weiyuan's mind suddenly went blank, and he grabbed a short spear from the ground and thrust it into the refugee's abdomen!
The man, who had not paid much attention to Weiyuan because he was just a child, was shocked and enraged by the unexpectedly heavy spear. He kicked Little Weiyuan away and then forcefully pulled out the short spear. A jet of fresh blood immediately spurted from the wound, splashing all over Little Weiyuan.
The man's strength drained away like water, and he weakened and fell to the ground.
Suddenly, Little Weiyuan charged forward and wrested the short spear back. The robust refugee felt a force not belonging to a child transmitting from his hand, and the short spear was snatched away without resistance.
Little Weiyuan took another step and thrust the spear again, piercing the refugee's chest.
In pain, the refugee grasped the shaft of the spear and wrestled with Little Weiyuan, while his other hand groped for the firewood cleaver, aiming to chop down on Weiyuan's head. Little Weiyuan did not even glance at the cleaver above him, but mustered all his strength, slowly pushing the short spear deeper into the refugee's heart.
The refugee suddenly saw Wei Yuan's eyes, deep and bottomless, as if they hid another world. His small face was utterly calm, as if he was not killing someone, but simply performing an ordinary task. Chilled inexplicably to his core at the sight of Weiyuan's face, the refugee's last breath left him, and the short spear plunged deeply into his heart with a 'pfft'.
Just then, the steward, along with the others, finally managed to hack down all the refugees atop the corner tower and began to throw their bodies over the edge. The refugee horde was instantly thrown into disarray, their momentum faltering.
Seeing the refugees' morale waver, the steward immediately picked up a red flag and hurled it with force towards the center of the refugees.
The eyes of the Bald man battling on the wall top lit up, and he said with a grim smile, "The time has finally come! Brothers, follow me and kill!"
He leaped down from the wall, knocking down several refugees upon landing, and charged directly towards where the red flag had landed. Five house servants clad in leather armor also emerged from within the mansion, having not taken part in earlier wall defense and conserving their strength. They too jumped down from the wall, following behind the Bald man as they cut towards the center of the refugees.
The bald man let out a furious roar, and a thick blood-red glow suddenly burst around him, like a bloody torch! With a single slash forward, three refugees were instantly cut in half, and then with another sweeping slash, seven or eight refugees around him were cut at the waist!
After the blood-red glow appeared on his body, every move the bald man made was immensely powerful, leading his elite squad as if they were entering an uninhabited territory. In the blink of an eye, he had killed over a hundred refugees, charging into the center of their formation.
The morale of the refugees finally collapsed. It was like a landslide in a defeat, and in the blink of an eye, all the refugees scattered in a rout.
The steward finally breathed a sigh of relief, immediately collapsed on the ground, mumbling, "Thank goodness they're just a mob."
As he let out that breath, the steward only then felt an intense pain in his body, realizing that he had been slashed in the back by someone at some point.
In just a short fight, the area outside the Wei Mansion was littered with the bodies of several hundred refugees, with many more missing hands or feet, not yet dead, only able to lie on the ground screaming in agony. Many of the house servants on the courtyard walls were ordinary peasants who had never seen such carnage. Some leaned against the walls vomiting, while others were both laughing and crying.
Wei Youcai struggled to his feet, cradling Little Weiyuan in his arms, checking for any injuries. Only when he saw that there were no wounds on Little Weiyuan and that the blood was all from the enemy did he let out a long breath, his complexion ashen.
Wei Youcai patted his chest and then used his sleeve to wipe the blood from Little Weiyuan's face.
Little Weiyuan, looking up, asked again, "Why do they want to kill us?"
Wei Youcai held him and stood up, walked to the corner tower, and pointing to the northeast, said, "They were originally just like us, but now they're too hungry, so they want to eat our grain. But there's not enough grain, so they have to eat us to survive. If we were starving and couldn't survive, and had to go somewhere else for food, we would become just like them."
Wei Youcai then pointed to the southwest and said, "Over there, beyond these mountains, there are many people who don't look like us. Let's just say they are people. Hungry or not, they want to eat us too."
"These are the ones who want to eat us directly," Wei Youcai continued, gesturing towards the north, "In those far-off directions, there are many large cities, and the people living in the center of those cities actually eat people as well, only not as directly, and more refined. But when it comes to cannibalism, they are the ones who eat the most."
Little Weiyuan listened, half understanding and half confused.
Wei Youcai smiled, then pointed to the sky, saying, "If we stood up there, maybe we'd see something different. But from our current position looking..."
"...this is a world of cannibalism."
Little Weiyuan furrowed his brow in thought and said with a frown, "Why eat people though? People aren't tasty."
Wei Youcai gestured with a swipe, saying, "Because there's only so much land, and it can't support everyone. Whether it's by eating, killing, or starving, a bunch of people have to die. When enough people die, things will quiet down a bit."