Chapter 34: Developing Rapidly

Having thoroughly eradicated the resistance forces near Sanhuang County that opposed the rebel army, Li Chang'an did not slacken in the slightest; instead, he quickened the pace of his actions.

After all, to him, occupying a piece of land was merely the first step in realizing his grand ambitions, and the true journey of a thousand miles had only just begun beneath his feet.

Though the court of the Demonic Qing was currently corrupt, the time had not yet come where a falling wall would be pushed by everyone, and under such circumstances, the sheer difficulty of Li Chang'an's desire to rebel successfully could well be imagined.

Every single window of opportunity available for growth was something Li Chang'an had to grasp firmly!

After taking inventory of the plundered grain, fodder, and wealth, Li Chang'an overrode all dissenting opinions and began distributing land and grain to the common people around Sanhuang County.

As long as they were citizens of Sanhuang County and willing to till the soil, everyone could receive a share of land and grain based on the per capita average.

In name, the land still belonged to the rebel army, but the rebel army only collected ten percent of the grain each year as a tax; compared to the actions of the landlords and gentry, who habitually demanded thirty, fifty, or even eighty percent, this was practically no different from giving it away for free.

Floods, plagues, famines...

This seemed to be a year fraught with many disasters and misfortunes.

Yet to the common folk living near Sanhuang County, these were actually just tribulations they had to face once every eight to ten years anyway.

Indeed, for many, it was not even the first time they had experienced it, and their nerves had long since grown numb.

"Of the people of Wuzhong, those who own land number one in ten, while those who work as tenants for others number nine in ten. The autumn grain ripens but once a year, and the harvest of a single mu cannot reach three dan, while the lesser yields amount to no more than a dan and change.

Yet the heavy private rents reach as high as one dan and two or three dou, and even the lesser rents are seven or eight dou.

The tenant exhausts a whole year of labor, manuring and working the fields, and the expense of a single mu can reach one string of cash, yet the proceeds of the harvest are no more than a few dou, to the point where they pay their rent today and beg for loans tomorrow."

This was the truest state of existence for the people at the very bottom.

Now, what astonished the common people beyond measure was that after the natural disasters and human calamities, they received no relief from the government, but instead received a generous bounty from a band of 'rebels.'

Could it be that the heavens had finally opened their eyes, showing pity to this lot of mud-legged peasants?

Until the very day the grain and land were distributed, the common people still bore the vacant expressions of those whose souls wandered outside their bodies.

They felt that everything before their eyes seemed altogether unreal, wondering if they were still trapped in some beautiful dream born of illusion while on the verge of extreme hunger and thirst.

Until the grain filled their bellies.

Until the land was planted with new crops.

Only then did the common people truly taste the sweet flavor of reality.

At the same time, Li Chang'an's position in the hearts of the folk around Sanhuang County instantly elevated to a certain height.

He was nothing short of a second parent who had given them life anew!

An expression of gratitude akin to a rising tide swept over from all directions.

Because word had spread that Li Chang'an was half a disciple of the Daoist master, Li Chang'an gained the title of 'Daoist Sovereign of Peace' among the populace.

There were even quite a few commoners who placed statues of Li Chang'an inside their ancestral halls, offering incense and worship to him daily.

In the same year, the rebel army began conscription.

Yet they had merely released a single piece of news to the outside world, and before it had even officially commenced, the common people who heard the news rushed over almost overnight, lining up in their desire to join the righteous army.

Looking at the common folk spontaneously forming long queues at the conscription office, let alone the soldiers of the rebel army, even Wang Su and Lyu Changning could not help but suck in a sharp breath of cold air.

In this day and age, the people avoided the government as they would snakes and scorpions, to say nothing of a rebel army that was hardly any better than bandits and highwaymen.

Under normal circumstances, they would hide as far away as possible.

Terribly afraid of being entangled with them.

An act like today's 'spontaneously lining up to join the rebel army,' had they not witnessed it with their own eyes, they would sooner believe that Li Chang'an had hired actors, and would refuse to believe it even if beaten to death.

Looking at the silently queuing crowd outside, the expression on Wang Su's face grew somewhat flushed, and he could not help but speak out: "Excellent, excellent, grandly excellent! Chang'an is truly one destined for great things!"

Because this approach was still somewhat too far ahead of its time.

At the very beginning, even Wang Su did not quite understand what purpose Li Chang'an hoped to achieve by distributing the grain, fodder, and land to the common people.

With land and grain, they could completely buy horses and recruit soldiers, rapidly expanding their power; those desperate people who had no way to survive would have no choice and would naturally join the rebel army.

In this way, they could both save the populace and strengthen the rebel army, making it a win-win situation!

To give it all away for free—was that not saving the people while utterly ruining themselves?

Although the old Daoist possessed a heart set on delivering the world and saving its people, he was no naive saint; on the contrary, he clearly distinguished between ideal and reality.

He who cannot sacrifice anything can gain nothing.

If the rebel army could not succeed, the people of the Central Plains would still live in the direst suffering under the rule of the Demonic Qing, and events like the Sanhuang County flood would continue to occur without end.

Today, you imitate the Buddha by cutting your own flesh to feed the eagle, but what of it if you save only a handful of commoners?

You are no true immortal; you can extinguish the fire before your eyes, but you cannot quench the disaster in the distance!

On the contrary, this behavior of treating the symptoms rather than the root cause would not only harm yourself, but would also harm the common people.

But now, having seen this crowd of people spontaneously rallying around the rebel army, Wang Su finally understood a little.

...

At the same time, the regularization of the rebel army's training was also placed upon the agenda.

Li Chang'an intended to forge an army of peace that possessed faith, strength, and strict discipline; to this end, he personally formulated the rebel army's training programs as well as their codes of conduct.

As Li Chang'an's very first confidant within the rebel army, Xiong Er was responsible for the specific implementation.

In the first month of the two hundred and forty-first year of the Demonic Qing Calendar, Li Chang'an was eight years old; through his continuous reorganization and optimization, the internal structure of the rebel army had gradually stabilized.

And he was finally able to spare the time to do other things.

He began to pore through every manual of martial arts, secret text, and historical document he could lay his eyes upon, attempting to create a system of martial arts methods suitable for the vast majority of ordinary people to cultivate.

From ancient times to the present day on the Tianyang Continent, the martial path had always been held in the hands of a select few, becoming a tool used to consolidate rule and increase privilege.

Particularly under the current court, the cruel and high-pressure tyranny exerted upon the martial practitioners of the Central Plains surpassed even that of the previous dynasty.

And what Li Chang'an desired to do was not only to break the monopoly that the local gentry and powerful clans held over land and wealth, but he also intended to shatter the autocratic control that the martial families maintained over the martial path.

In short, as a reincarnator, if Li Chang'an wished to continuously break his destiny, he had to wrench himself free from his shackles time and again, daring to think what those before him dared not think, and doing what those before him dared not do!

Just as development on Li Chang'an's side was proceeding like a raging fire, the court of the Demonic Qing finally made another move.

The neighboring Qingpu County and Pingdong County assembled thirty thousand elite troops to encircle the rebel army, launching a pincer attack from two sides, seemingly prepared to snuff out the rebel army in a single blow.

The prefectural city of Fengzhou went so far as to place Li Chang'an's name and identity information onto the imperial kill list, offering a reward of ten thousand taels of silver.

Yet what left Li Chang'an somewhat perplexed was that the court seemed to have no intention of deploying its troops for a direct clash; they merely blocked off the several roads leading into and out of Sanhuang County, taking no further substantive action thereafter.

Despite this, the court's consecutive mobilization of troops within a short period still caught the attention of many, and the name Li Chang'an was simultaneously delivered into the hands of the high officials and noble lords throughout Fengzhou Prefecture.

...

The direct consequence of this series of events was that even before the court's troops had made any clear move, Li Chang'an had already suffered several assassinations by bounty hunters of the martial world.

Most amusingly, three separate groups of bounty hunters arrived at the Sanhuang County magistrate's office on the exact same night.

Upon discovering that Li Chang'an was actually just an eight-year-old child whose hair had not even grown in fully, these three groups of bounty hunters unexpectedly fell into internal strife first.

After all, in their eyes, Li Chang'an was purely meat upon the chopping block, easily handled.

Though they did not know why the court had placed such a high bounty on such a small child, the foul affairs within the court were altogether too numerous; as long as there was money to be made, they were far too lazy to care about that much.

Seeing the three waves of bounty hunters arguing incessantly over how to divide the spoils, they even broke into a direct, murderous brawl right then and there inside the magistrate's office.

Li Changan was genuinely amused by the spectacle, stepping in to mediate, "Gentlemen, spare yourselves the squabble. Since you have graced this place with your presence today, you shall leave something behind—either the martial arts techniques you have mastered, or your very lives; the choice is yours."

...