Chapter 42: Abandoning the City and Fleeing?

Looking at the information from the reincarnation mark upon his retina, a trace of trance flickered across Li Chang'an's face.

To die at the mere age of ten?

Was it not just leading the rebel army to capture two more county towns, with the grander acts yet to come!

Was there truly a need to be so tense?

Li Chang'an calmed his mind and carefully pondered his actions over this recent period of time...

Well, it did indeed seem rather explosive.

Originally, the news of the Taiping Army capturing Sanhuang County had already spread through various channels, and rebel forces everywhere were closely watching the situation here!

As a result, a year had passed and not only was the Taiping Army not extinguished, but they had instead captured two nearby county towns like a sudden clap of thunder.

What did this indicate?

This indicated that not only had the Taiping Army not been snuffed out by the imperial court, but their strength had grown even more formidable!

Furthermore, this time they were even more direct, almost without any concealment telling everyone under heaven—I, the Taiping Celestial Master, have raised the banner of rebellion!

One must know that before this, although it was true that rebel forces were active in various places, the Taiping Army was still the very first to openly and honorably capture county towns and shout the slogan of rebellion.

When this act of publicly slapping the face of the Demonic Qing imperial court was brought to light.

It instantly triggered a chain reaction, and the originally scattered rebel forces all across the lands, as if they had found their backbone, rose up in succession, refusing to be outdone.

In the span of just a few short months, beacon fires of war erupted everywhere across the five provinces and sixteen commanderies of the entire Demonic Qing!

In a certain sense, compared to the rebellion itself, the fact that the Taiping Army rebelled openly and remained completely unscathed was the true fundamental blow that shook the Demonic Qing rule!

The bird that sticks its head out gets shot first.

The Taiping Army enjoyed the honor of 'firing the first shot of the uprising', so they naturally had to accept the immense pressure hidden behind this honor.

"The reincarnation mark didn't even give me a trajectory of fate, but directly pronounced my death sentence; it seems this time it is likely a true certainty of death with no survival!"

Combining the known information, Li Chang'an was not at all optimistic about his own future.

Yet matters had already reached this point, and thinking too much was useless.

All Li Chang'an could do was to meet the soldiers with generals and block the water with earth, continuing to stride forward; as for exactly how far he could go, or if he could reach the opposite shore, it was not a problem he could afford to worry about at present.

...

After occupying the territory of the three counties, Li Chang'an began to implement new policies without a moment's pause.

With practiced ease, he raided the homes of those unscrupulous and corrupt gentry, confiscating the obtained fields for the rebel army, and then redistributed them, returning them to the landless peasants.

After a smooth succession of moves, the basic foundation of the rebel army around Sanhuang County was thoroughly stabilized.

However, before the rebel army could enjoy their good days for long, the Demonic Qing imperial court, having suffered a double blow to both its land and prestige, finally made a major move.

Before the troops moved, provisions went first.

Hundreds of thousands of tons of grain and fodder were escorted in batches from Chizhou and Hezhou by water and land routes to Fengzhou; at the same time, fifty thousand elite imperial soldiers from the Fengzhou prefectural city set out in a grand and magnificent procession, marching to the outskirts of Sanhuang County.

This great army was personally led by the biological uncle of the current Emperor and the nominal supreme commander of Fengzhou Prefecture—Ha'erchi, with the grand banner officers of the Hell Prison Bureau, both chief and deputy, bringing up the rear to anchor the formation.

The sheer magnitude of the momentum in deploying generals, and the staggering volume of assembled troops, could be said to be the first of its kind since Emperor Yongzheng washed the Central Plains in blood three hundred years ago!

One could well imagine exactly how monumental an impact Li Chang'an's actions had caused this time!

Faced with this, Li Chang'an felt an unprecedentedly massive weight of pressure.

One must know that the fifty thousand elite soldiers sent by the Demonic Qing imperial court were all crack troops clad in armor and wielding halberds, whose combat effectiveness was far beyond what ordinary soldiers could hope to match.

Not to mention a rebel army that had not yet formed large-scale combat capability.

Yet not only did he not panic, but his mind grew even calmer.

The imperial army's forces were five times theirs, and their combat effectiveness was more than five times their number; logically speaking, this was a battle with absolutely no suspense.

But Li Chang'an did not think so.

Though fifty thousand troops were many, when placed upon the lands of three counties, the number was actually just so-so; as long as the rebel army was not foolish enough to clash head-on with them, a turning point could be found for everything!

Thus, after long deliberation, Li Chang'an directly ordered the rebel army to abandon the newly occupied Qingpu, Sanhuang, and Pingdong counties, breaking up into whole units to slip directly into the nearby mountains and wilderness.

Once this order was issued, it still stirred up no small wave of unrest within the rebel army.

After all, these three counties were territories they had fought so hard to conquer; before the imperial army had even fought its way over, what was the meaning of abandoning their armor and handing them over on a silver platter?

But the Li Chang'an of today was already the leader of the Taiping Rebel Army in the truest sense, possessing absolute authority.

Consequently, although many people did not understand this order, they still strictly chose to execute it.

...

In the outside world, the mountain rain was about to come and the wind filled the pavilion, as the heroes of the world all gazed toward Fengzhou from afar.

They were waiting for a result.

Waiting for a result that was already predestined, yet one they were still unwilling to accept, wishing to witness it with their own eyes.

The Li Chang'an of today and the Taiping Rebel Army under his command were a banner in the hearts of the world's heroes.

A centipede dies but never falls prostrate.

If the Demonic Qing imperial court wiped out the Taiping Rebel Army with the force of a crushing avalanche, it would prove that the foundation of the Demonic Qing imperial court was still intact, and they would have to prepare to retreat and concede.

If the rebel army could withstand the great army, even if only for ten days or half a month, it would be not only a massive psychological encouragement to the heroes of the world, but a once-in-a-lifetime tactical opportunity!

One must know that to flex its muscles, the Demonic Qing imperial court had transferred elite soldiers and vast amounts of grain and fodder from several neighboring provinces and commanderies.

Under these circumstances, the defenses of the provinces and commanderies from which troops and provisions had been drawn became empty and vulnerable.

If the battle on the front lines went poorly and the elite combat forces could not extricate themselves at the first moment, then the other rebel armies everywhere could completely seize the opportunity of the counter-insurgency to wildly expand their territories and develop their power.

Therefore, all the ambitious figures under heaven who harbored discontent toward the rule of the Demonic Qing imperial court hoped that the Taiping Rebel Army could drag out the imperial army.

Dragging it out for two or three months would be best.

They might very well become the greatest winners.

However, though they thought this way, everyone knew this was merely their wishful thinking.

In reality, no matter from which perspective one looked at it, this was a battle without any suspense whatsoever.

One side was an imperial elite force armed to the teeth, while the other side was merely a group of local rebel forces that had not long since risen; between the two, whether in equipment or numbers, they were completely not in the same weight class.

To say it was using a butcher's knife to kill a chicken was already an overestimation of the rebel army.

To call it a dimensional reduction strike would not be an exaggeration at all.

Yet just when everyone was curious as to how Li Chang'an would respond to this crisis where the slightest misstep would lead to eternal damnation, news suddenly spread near Sanhuang County that the rebel army had abandoned the cities and fled.

Instantly, an uproar broke out among all factions.

Particularly the many ambitious figures harboring sinister designs, none of whom could believe their ears.

The rebel army had abandoned the cities and fled?

This Li Chang'an, they had initially thought him to be a hero of the age, but who would have expected that at the critical moment he would actually be so incapable of withstanding a single blow, purely wasting their expressions!

...