These underlings began begging for mercy one by one, but you ignored them, preoccupied with the aftermath of killing Er Laizi.
The country you are in is called the Great Jing Dynasty, already in its twilight years. Rebellions were already erupting everywhere, and the recent widespread drought has forced countless people to join the rebel armies. In Youzhou, where you are, you know of several uprisings.
Previously, you were unwilling to live your life as a farmer. But after killing Er Laizi, you felt your opportunity had arrived. On one hand, killing Er Laizi would give you a certain prestige in the village. On the other hand, you now possessed money, food, and resources, which could initially help you recruit soldiers.
Thinking of this, you forced Er Laizi's underlings to lead you to Er Laizi's vault. You found a lot of silver and treasures, roughly four to five thousand taels. Then, you went to Er Laizi's west room, which contained many land deeds from the village, roughly a thousand acres at a glance. You thought to yourself, this is the foundation for my rise.
You killed Er Laizi's underlings and then found Ergouzi, Sanhuzi, and a few other young men of similar age. You told them that you had killed Er Laizi. They were all shocked, and then they looked at you with admiring eyes. Next, you did something even more shocking: you dragged out boxes of Er Laizi's treasures and silver, one by one, and then brought out the land deeds.
"Do you still want to live the hard life of the past? Follow me, and you'll have silver to spend, a lot of land, and you can eat steamed buns and meat every day."
As these words were spoken, the young men became breathless, staring intently at the silver and land deeds you dragged out. They had never seen so much silver before. Then, Ergouzi took the lead in pledging allegiance to you, after all, you helped him avenge his father's death. Next, several other young men also pledged allegiance to you. You nodded in satisfaction. You roughly counted ten strong men, which would be your starting subordinates.
"Brother Lin, we'll follow you. You killed Er Laizi. You are our benefactor. If we don't follow you, who else would we follow?"
"That's right, Brother Lin, we'll follow you!"
Just like that, you initially had your first group of subordinates. The next day, you announced to the whole village that you had killed Er Laizi. As this news spread, your prestige in the village increased again. So, you recruited about twenty more strong men, of course, after distributing quite a bit of Er Laizi's land.
This was nothing to you. Then, you turned your attention to the surrounding villages. Occupying one village with twenty soldiers was not enough for you. You wanted more territory and more subordinates. You initially formulated your policy: to attack the local tyrants and divide the land, killing those village landlords and bullies like Er Laizi, and then distributing their land to the peasants of each village, and then recruiting soldiers. In this way, your power would grow day by day.
Thinking like this, you first spent half a month training Ergouzi, Sanhuzi, and the others for fifteen days, giving them enough to eat every day. After that, you began to attack everywhere, going to other villages to kill those bullies, then distributing the land to the people of the village, and then recruiting soldiers.
In this way, five months later, you conquered one village after another. Your power expanded like a snowball. Soon, you expanded from a small village to hundreds of villages, almost the size of a county. Now you have two thousand soldiers and one hundred thousand people!
On the other hand, your reputation has also spread. Almost everyone knows that an insurgent army has emerged in the south of Youzhou, led by someone surnamed Lin, whose slogan is to fight the landlords and divide the land. In just half a year, he has built up a formidable force.
However, the expansion of power made you feel worried. Half a year ago, you were just a farmer, and now you have two thousand elite soldiers and one hundred thousand people. You are almost a local emperor, but you have a sense of crisis.
Faced with various insurgent armies, the Youzhou government sent troops to suppress them. A few days ago, you heard the news that the leader of the largest insurgent army in Youzhou, called the Northern King, had five times more power than you, with ten thousand soldiers. Now the Youzhou government is mainly focused on suppressing him, sending out ten thousand elite soldiers.
You are very worried. Although the Northern King has ten thousand soldiers, you know that the combat power of such rebel soldiers is very low and it is difficult to fight against the elite of the imperial court. You think the Northern King will definitely not be able to resist the Youzhou government. If the Northern King is destroyed, the next to be wiped out will definitely be you, the medium-sized insurgent armies. You have a great sense of crisis.
Then on the thirteenth day of April in the eighteenth year of Emperor Xuan, you received a message that the officials of Youzhou and the Northern King were fighting a decisive battle in the north of Youzhou. The Northern King was defeated. This news made you even more worried. At this rate, I am afraid that the Northern King will not last a few days, and you must make a decision.
It was on this night that you summoned several of your generals, Ergouzi and Sanhuzi, and pointed to a map behind them, telling them that if the Northern King was destroyed, the next to die would be them, so they must take a risk now.
You pointed to a city on the map. This city is Xuanyang City in Youzhou, a large city with a population of 300,000. You told these subordinates that they must take a risk and capture this large city. After capturing this large city, there will be 300,000 people, from which another 10,000 soldiers can be drawn. Moreover, there are granaries and iron armor in this city that can be used to raise soldiers.
Most importantly, the Youzhou government sent out 10,000 elite soldiers and drew 3,000 soldiers from Xuanyang City, so Xuanyang City may now only have 2,000 elite soldiers left to guard it. Now is the weakest time for Xuanyang City.
Hearing your words, these generals agreed to follow you, saying that they would capture Xuanyang City. You also looked very confident, saying that you would definitely capture Xuanyang, but in fact, you were not completely sure. Xuanyang City is easy to defend and difficult to attack. Even with only 2,000 people, it would take 10,000 people to capture it. Now you only have 2,000 soldiers, but you must take a risk, you have no choice.
Your only advantage is to catch Xuanyang off guard. After all, no insurgent army in Youzhou has ever dared to attack Xuanyang City.
In this way, on April 16th, you gathered your troops, gathered two thousand soldiers, and set off for Xuanyang City. After three days of marching, you arrived at Xuanyang City. After resting for one night, you began to attack the city the next day.
Whether it was your good luck or something else, the Xuanyang City soldiers who were left behind did not seem to expect an ambush. You miraculously conquered Xuanyang City in less than a day. In this way, this large city with a population of more than 300,000 was conquered by you!
The moment you entered the city, you laughed loudly. Because you knew you had bet right. With Xuanyang City, you have a population of 300,000. You have a lot of food, a lot of weapons and armor, and you can draw another 10,000 soldiers, so even if the Youzhou government attacks, you are not afraid.
