Chapter 33: Getting on the Right Track!

The battle at the Yan clan estate endured but a fleeting moment; from the instant Li Changan shattered the towering wall, all suspense had long since vanished.

As for the decapitation strike attempted by Cao Tian and the two Liang brothers, it was, quite naturally, the grandest jest among jests.

Among the trio, even the most formidable, Cao Tian, was nothing more than a martial master; Li Changan had previously slain three such men in succession, and dispatching them now posed absolutely no challenge.

With those few put to the sword, the rebel army swiftly suppressed the private militia within the estate.

By virtue of the explicit commands Li Changan had issued beforehand, those who surrendered were spared from slaughter.

Yet, as the principal evildoer, Master Yan was apprehended by the rebels, held in custody to await his ultimate disposal.

When the insurgent soldiers flung open the gates to the Yan family’s inner courtyard, beholding the mountain of grain and glittering, radiant jewels within, every jaw dropped in involuntary amazement.

In days past, they had imagined that an emperor’s life differed only in that he tilled his fields with a golden hoe.

Never could they have conceived that a mere country squire, sequestered in a remote corner of the realm, could hoard a treasure so vast it could not be squandered in ten lifetimes, or even a hundred!

Wealth stirs the darker impulses of the human heart.

In that very instant, the feet of not a few wicked-minded men became rooted to the earth, unable to turn away.

Others were far more brazen, rushing directly into the inner vaults to frantically stuff their pockets with gold and silver; surely, from such an ocean of treasures, the loss of a coin or two would pass entirely unnoticed!

Yet, even as their hearts leapt with greed and they plundered in a frenzy.

Li Changan strode into the chamber, bearing a long blade that still dripped with fresh blood, and without a word, he clove one of the insatiable thieves in twain, cold voice ringing out: "Seal the treasury; anyone who dares lay a hand upon it without permission shall be executed without mercy!"

Upon hearing that bone-chilling, piercing voice.

Within the inner vault, a collective shudder ran through the crowd.

Glancing at the gold and silver before them, and then at Li Changan standing behind them like a god of slaughter, the vast majority of the rebel soldiers lost their nerve, daring not to make another move.

Yet a stubborn few, their minds utterly unhinged by the sight of wealth, continued their frantic packing and bagging.

Toward these wretches, Li Changan showed no leniency, claiming them one by one with his long blade.

Though fresh blood sprayed directly toward his face, he did not so much as blink.

Scoundrels of this stripe, if left alive, would only prove a blight upon the world.

……

With the deed done, Li Changan ordered the old Taoist priest and Lu Changning to guard the inner vault, while the rest followed him to the domain of yet another landlord.

This command provoked a brief, turbulent murmur within the ranks of the rebel army.

Having just endured this clash, the soldiers were thoroughly exhausted; should they not rest for the night and resume their campaign with the dawn?

Furthermore, the inner treasury of the Yan estate overflowed with such vast stores of coin and grain, and every man's heart still lingered upon it...

However, Li Changan’s authority at this hour was no longer what it once was; though the rebels were loath to accept the order, they had no choice but to carry it forth.

Before long, the army arrived under the cover of darkness outside the gates of the Wang estate.

Just as everyone assumed Li Changan would repeat his previous tactic and bombard the gates with artillery, they watched as he leapt high into the air, traversing several hundred meters in a few swift bounds.

The formidable courtyard walls, which ordinary men would deem insurmountable, seemed as though they did not exist beneath his feet, and he scaled them with effortless grace.

Moments later, the din of clashing blades and roaring shouts erupted from within the mansion.

The clamor arose swiftly, and subsided faster still.

In about the time it takes an incense stick to burn, the rebels beheld the tightly shut gates of the Wang estate burst open with a resounding crash...

Gazing at the throng of private guards within the courtyard, all trembling in absolute terror.

The rebel soldiers felt entirely numb.

Recalling how, during the assault on the Yan estate, their force of thousands had been frightened into immobility by a mere hundred men, they knew not whether they should weep or laugh at this moment.

……

In a span of a mere three days, Li Changan led the rebel army across the length and breadth of Sanhuang County, trampling every estate of the wealthy gentry to dust!

Upon breaching each mansion, Li Changan decreed that those who surrendered be spared, while the chief culprits were bound for judgment; furthermore, the rebels were strictly forbidden from disturbing the common folk, let alone plundering like common bandits.

Any who violated these decrees were to be executed without mercy!

Under normal circumstances, such orders would have been nigh impossible to enforce upon a restless crowd.

After all, the brethren had followed him through life and death, hoping for nothing less than titles, riches, and a place above their fellow men once cities were conquered and lands seized.

Who could stare into mountains of gold and silver and remain entirely unstirred?

Yet the rebel soldiers dared not defy Li Changan's command.

Aside from Li Changan's peerless, solitary martial might, the greater truth was that these estates of the wealthy gentry had, strictly speaking, been thrown down by his hand alone.

Save for shedding a modicum of blood during the battle at the Yan estate, the role played by the army at the other strongholds was merely to count the treasures of the inner vaults and escort the grain captured along the way.

Having bled not, nor sweated, the men.

Found peace within their hearts.

Coupled with the fact that the army had already witnessed Li Changan’s terrifying demeanor—immovable as a mountain, yet striking like a thunderbolt—who would dare practice deception or play petty tricks beneath his watchful gaze?

……

Because the advance of the rebel army was so breathtakingly swift, many wealthy gentry were still immersed in their golden dreams, dragged from their warm beds before they could even comprehend what had transpired.

The so-called alliance formed by these local magnates appeared unified on the surface, yet in truth, each harbored his own selfish designs.

Consequently, before they could even truly coalesce into a single force, they were shattered one by one by Li Changan with the speed of a sudden thunderclap.

Li Changan ordered these fellows hoisted up and hanged in the open streets, leaving the oppressed commoners to decide their ultimate fate.

It was worth noting that three days prior, the rebel army had posted proclamations in every village and town, announcing that the local populace could gather near the county seat in three days' time to receive relief grain.

When the news first broke, the surrounding peasantry disbelieved it entirely.

After all, the repeated cruelties of life had taught them that no meat falls from the heavens without a price.

They might covet the rebels' relief grain, but who knew what the rebels coveted from them?

Perhaps it was merely a ruse to lure them into a trap!

Yet when word spread that the rebel leader was none other than the young physician Li Changan, who had saved countless lives during the plague, the peasants' resolve softened, and they began to waver between doubt and belief.

After several days of deliberation.

Finally, some desperate souls, driven by the philosophy that a wretched life is better than a good death, arrived at Sanhuang County, where they happened upon the spectacle of the landlord lords dangling in the street.

Initially, the peasants knew not what game the rebels were playing.

Thus, not a single soul dared step forward.

But as Li Changan appeared in person and, beneath the gaze of the multitude, executed the master of the Wang family—who had long oppressed the folk and allied with bandits to traffic human beings—the public fury ignited instantly.

Countless peasants pointed at the gentry, shouting curses in a torrent of rage so intense that they wished nothing more than to feast upon their flesh and drink their blood.

……

For several consecutive days, the blood of those unprincipled, avaricious landlords of Sanhuang County dyed the cobblestones of the street crimson.

It was, in truth, a magnificent cascade of rolling heads!

When the folk realized that the rebel leader was indeed Li Changan, and saw that he had slaughtered the tyrannical landlords who had long ridden upon their backs, while distributing vast stores of relief grain to them, they wept with profound gratitude, regarding Li Changan as their second parent.

Only because they had not been in contact for long, the common folk remained somewhat estranged, not daring to mingle with the rebel army.

To this, Li Chang'an was in no hurry.

At this very moment, he was listening to Wang Su and Lyu Changning as they tallied the spoils of this estate-looting expedition.

Though it was merely a minor county seat, the wealth and grain the rebel army had gathered from the backyards of those wealthy landlords were enough to recruit and expand their force from one thousand men to five thousand!

Hearing this figure, Li Chang'an nodded in satisfaction.

Having secured a foundational base, the rebel army now possessed a steady supply of provisions, and the troops' morale soared; the next step was to consider how to set everything on the right track.

...