Chapter 26: Uninvited Guest!

In the first month of the twenty-three hundred and fortieth year of the Demonic Qing Royal Calendar, Li Chang'an turned seven years old.

Having seized the magistrate’s office of Sanhuang County and severed the heads of several local gentry, he reorganized his troops, striking a grand posture as if ready to raid their estates.

All at once, a sudden panic gripped the entirety of Sanhuang County, turning every rustling bush and shadow into an imaginary foe.

Upon receiving the news, the collective gentry lost all composure, their tempers flaring in agitation.

The rebel army was massing its forces, visibly stirring, yet not a single representative sent by the clans to negotiate at the magistrate's office had returned; what did this imply?

It implied the negotiations had utterly failed.

The rebels were resolutely determined to tear off their masks of civility and break with them completely!

At the very beginning, the gentry had harbored lingering apprehensions.

After all, when things depart so wildly from the norm, an underlying monstrosity usually lurks within.

Yet, when the scouts they dispatched to gather intelligence returned, reporting that the rebel army numbered barely over a thousand men in total, and that their leader was nothing more than a child whose hair had not even fully grown, the expressions on every gentleman's face shifted, transforming into quite a spectacular spectacle!

With such a pathetic display of strength, how did they even dare?

Had they truly never considered that such a table-flipping act of defiance would cause the gentry of the entire Fengzhou Prefecture to unite against them?

One must understand that they did not even need to defeat the rebels outright; they merely had to gather men and maintain a stubborn resistance for a brief period, and once the provincial troops mobilized by the imperial court completed their deployment, the rebels would be reduced to begging heaven and earth, fleeing in utterly frantic disarray.

Having repeatedly confirmed the veracity of the report, the gentry felt themselves insulted, and moreover, insulted in an unprecedented fashion!

Under the looming threat of the rebel army, this flock of gentry, who usually spent their days in mutual intrigue and would not part with a single copper, rarely achieved a unified front, resolving to band together and teach the rebels a lifelong, unforgettable lesson.

Among them, those with wealth contributed gold, those with grain contributed provisions, and those with manpower contributed men, assembling a private army of nearly a thousand souls in the short span of a mere half-month!

The vast majority of the cannon fodder in this private army consisted of disaster-stricken peasants from the surrounding areas, while a small elite portion was comprised of retained retainers and full-time household guards.

Because they had heard rumors that the rebel ranks very likely harbored extraordinary masters well-versed in martial arts, the gentry even went to neighboring Qingpu County to invite several martial arts hall instructors and retired veteran soldiers, putting on a grand show of conducting intensive training for the rabble under their command.

Of course, allowing a group of martial artists to deal with a band of mud-soaked peasants was somewhat too extravagant.

Consequently, the martial artists and retired old soldiers who had been invited were, in reality, mostly there to serve as mere talismans of good fortune.

Unless a truly peerless and arrogant master of the martial path manifested within the rebel army, they would not take action; their symbolic significance far outweighed their practical utility, serving purely to 'stabilize the morale of the troops.'

With these multiple layers of insurance in place, the confidence of the gentry suddenly became thoroughly robust.

They had firmly made up their minds: the moment the rebels dared to set foot even a single step into their sphere of influence, they would immediately resort to violence, completely expelling these ungrateful, ignorant peasants!

With confidence multiplying at the upper echelons, the lower ranks were consequently greatly encouraged.

The numerous private soldiers rubbed their palms and paced with impatience, eagerly waiting for the rebels to deliver themselves to their doorstep.

——After all, the landlord masters above had declared that for every rebel slain, a reward of one tael of silver would be given!

Men die for wealth just as birds perish for food.

With their backs against the high gates and grand estates built by the gentry, dealing with a band of mud-soaked peasants who had come from afar and were exhausted from running, that silver was practically no different from picking it up off the ground!

……

However, amidst the eager anticipation of the various factions, Li Chang'an, who should have made a move, took no further action, choosing instead to submerge himself in silent concealment.

Every day he remained inside the county magistrate's office, clutching the dozens of volumes of captured martial manuals and secret techniques, unable to put them down, utterly enraptured and intoxicated, as if he had entirely forgotten everything in the outside world.

This behavior of his very quickly provoked widespread criticism and murmurs within the ranks of the rebel army.

Quite a few minor rebel chieftains even went so far as to seek out Wang Su, urging him to strip Li Chang'an of his authority and retake command of the uprising.

Wang Su himself, though he maintained his faith in Li Chang'an, could not help but feel a certain apprehension stirring in his heart at this point.

After all, ever since he had executed those gentry who had been invited to negotiate, the rebel army and the entire scholar-gentry class of Sanhuang County had entered into an irreconcilable feud that could only end in death.

Under normal circumstances, the rebel army should have massed its forces at the very first moment, striking with the swiftness of a thunderbolt to catch the gentry completely off guard.

In doing so, they might still have plundered a fortune from the estates of the wealthy clans.

How could anyone, like Li Chang'an, strike a threatening pose only to become hesitant and wavering, conversely squandering the opportune moment for battle!?

Thus, after waiting for nearly half a month, even Wang Su lost his patience, and looking at Li Chang'an, who was buried deep within the martial manuals, he blew at his mustache and glared, saying, "What are you waiting for? If you don't act now, even the cold dishes will have turned to ice!"

Speaking to this point, he perhaps also realized that his tone was somewhat harsh, so he softened his voice and added, "Now the gentry from all quarters have assembled a force of nearly a thousand men. If you delay any longer, the imperial court's troops will practically be upon us. You still want to relieve the common people; with what do you intend to relieve them?"

"Master, I know you are anxious, but do not be anxious just yet. Isn't it rather grand that the gentry are massing their forces? Otherwise, if they were scattered across the lands, how could I easily round them up in one fell swoop and exterminate them root and branch?"

Li Chang'an set down the scroll in his hand, continuing with a smile, "As for the imperial troops, so long as we can properly manage this foundational base of Sanhuang County, they will have no way of dealing with us in the short term... Moreover, I am still waiting for someone; until the person I am waiting for arrives, speaking of such matters is nothing but vanity!"

Hearing his reply, Wang Su caught himself in a daze, and then, with a trace of uncertainty, said, "Waiting for someone?"

A smile played at the corners of Li Chang'an's mouth as he rose and nodded, saying, "Master, you have arrived at just the right moment. Let us together welcome the guests who have been waiting for us for a long time!"

Before the words had fully faded from his lips, his right foot suddenly exerted tremendous force, his entire form drawing a blur of afterimages as he kicked and lunged toward a pitch-black shadow not far away!

"Bang!"

A dull explosion resounded, and the wood splinters in the shadow burst violently apart, accompanied by a slightly agonizing, muffled groan.

Li Chang'an did not halt his steps; his entire body once more traced a fleeting silhouette, and within a few flickering movements, he raised his palm and struck furiously toward the roof beams above.

The shadow upon the roof beams, which had initially seemed entirely devoid of life, suddenly writhed for an instant.

A figure clad in black garments abruptly surged forth, seemingly intent on flight.

Yet Li Chang'an's *Shadowless Steps* were simply too swift, and furthermore, since he had calculated against the unsuspecting, how could he possibly allow him to escape so easily?

Taking several strides to swiftly overtake the fleeing dark silhouette, he violently unleashed a palm strike, slamming him heavily onto the ground!

Only after completing all of this did Li Chang'an finally bring his form to a halt.

Leisurely dusting off his robes and cap, his gaze swept toward several other shadowed corners, and he spoke, "Since you have already come, why bother hiding your heads and showing your tails? Surely the remaining gentlemen do not require me to invite you out?"

Upon hearing his words, the air fell into a brief silence for a few seconds, before several more black-clad figures wielding shimmering blue daggers lunged from those corners, charging in unison to assassinate Li Chang'an.

Li Chang'an gave a cold snort, his hands darting out as swiftly as lightning to violently seize one of the black-clad men, utilizing him as a human shield to block the several other attacks laden with freezing killing intent.

"Pfft!"

The shimmering blue daggers were laced with lethal poison, and the instant they pierced into the body of the black-clad man serving as a human shield, droplets of foul, stench-ridden blood spilled forth.

Seeing the once-empty county magistrate's office suddenly populated by five or six figures all at once, Wang Su, who had been completely oblivious just moments before, finally comprehended what was transpiring, his expression turning exceedingly grim as he said, "To dispatch so many Junior Banner Officers all at once, your Bureau of Imperial Prisons truly possesses a grand style!"

……