The curtain rises

  The area near the mouth of the river, which was once a land of abundance and prosperity, free from famine and hunger, has recently fallen on hard times. Not long ago, it was ravaged by those fierce Viking pirates, and even the villages that were lucky enough to escape their attacks are now empty and deserted.

  When these late-arriving Japanese pirates landed near the coastline, they suddenly found that there was nothing to plunder. If picking up pots and pans that locals didn't have time to take away counted, then their gains on this trip weren't too shabby.

  Realizing that they had arrived in a completely unfamiliar land, the Eastern Sea pirates did not dare to venture too far into the foreign country. They lingered around the mouth of the Yangtze River, waiting for an opportunity, hoping to ambush a few merchant ships loaded with goods. As can be expected, such a large group of outsiders who were out of place in terms of their attire, language, and hairstyle among the residents of the Great Qin Empire would certainly not be able to hide from the local forces.

  Several groups of the Great Qin Empire's water bandits took an interest in these foreign colleagues. After a round of chicken-and-duck-style gestures and exchanges, they managed to achieve some communication results with difficulty, and then the local forces decided to take joint action with their foreign counterparts.

  They were vastly outnumbered, and their overall combat strength and individual martial arts skills were far inferior to those of the local pirates in Eastern Japan. After carefully weighing their own strengths, they willingly took on the role of guides. They were responsible for leading the Japanese pirates to attack the prosperous villages downstream of the Yangtze River, and then sharing a portion of the spoils.

  No extraordinary insight is needed for ordinary people to know that the great Qin Empire, which once flourished and shook the world, is now a shadow of its former self.

  Those counties in the interior, due to long-term peaceful life and the chaos of court politics, local officials' corruption, resulting in extreme neglect of military preparedness, and the quality of soldiers has also declined seriously. This situation has even developed to the point where many local garrisons, with weak combat effectiveness, can only bully the unarmed and weak common people in the market, and it is difficult for them to accomplish their daily tasks such as going out of the city to suppress bandits. It's hard not to wonder whether these rascals really originated from that powerful Qin army under Emperor Zhao Zheng who once swept across the six directions.

  If you want to rely on such a decadent and incompetent army to defend the country, it would be better for the common people to burn incense and kowtow in front of temple gates. After all, this world still has true gods to bless us, and the effect of divine intervention is much stronger than relying on those useless soldiers.

  The Guanzhong Plain in the northwest and the Hebei Plain are the core areas of the entire Qin Empire, where elite soldiers and powerful generals are deployed to ensure their safety. According to governance theory, this is called "strong trunk and weak branches". Areas like Huainan and Jiangnan, with sparse populations and underdevelopment, only have a small number of local troops stationed in cities above county level, and the number of soldiers is far from enough to guarantee the security of coastal areas, let alone that no one cares about the appearance of pirates.

  It is said that when there are many lice, they do not bite; when there are many debts, one does not worry. Nowadays, in the great Qin Empire, thieves and bandits have risen like a swarm of bees. Local officials consider it not worth mentioning in official documents if the scale of the bandits is less than a thousand people, because such bandits are as numerous as cow hair!

  As long as these bandits do not openly fly the flag of rebellion and threaten the imperial court's orthodox position, local officials who serve their own interests with all their heart will be happy to turn a blind eye. Anyway, whether those common people living outside the city live or die has nothing to do with these officials, the official hat is bestowed by the superior, and has nothing to do with the people below, what's wrong with the bad reputation of officials? What really matters is that they can get promoted and rich, let alone having a good reputation, the superior might even suspect you of being disloyal!

  The local officials of the Great Qin Empire were so indifferent and negative towards the Viking pirates, as if it had nothing to do with them. From this, it can be inferred that they would not have a positive attitude towards the Eastern Pirates either.

  As long as the pirates did not actively attack the county and prefectural cities after landing, even if they were already close at hand, local officials simply followed the usual procedure of ordering the city gates to be closed and strengthened defenses, seemingly unrelated to what was happening outside.

  After repeatedly raiding villages with ease and encountering no obstacles, these pirates from a foreign land also thoroughly saw through the external strength and internal weakness of this vast empire. The Eastern Pirates disbanded their army corps, which had always been cautiously maintained and ready to break out at any time, and instead adopted a small team action method with 20-30 people per group, cooperating with local guides provided by fellow villagers to plunder villages along the river, further improving the efficiency of their looting operations.

  "What did you say? Another batch of pirates? Didn't those Vikings pass by already?"

  Having said that, Lin Xu stood up from his chair, one hand rubbing his forehead, revealing a very worried look.

  As the activities of the Eastern Yi pirates intensified along the Yangtze River, the number of refugees fleeing to Huo Mountain reached a new level, increasing almost daily by hundreds.

  Lin Xue was naturally delighted that he didn't have to exert himself to promote the event, and the population of Jiufeng Town could increase quickly. However, he wasn't one of those officials who drew a salary for doing nothing, so some issues still needed to be considered. As a result, he called over a few subordinates to ask about the reason, and Lin Xue was immediately startled. Some time ago, he had personally witnessed the magnificent scene of the dimensional fusion, and at the same time, he had also seen the hometown of the Vikings, which was a cold peninsula located in the distant northwest.

  Judging from the divine light shining in the sky above the peninsula, there is a god with considerable power present locally, at least not inferior to Lin Xu's ability. However, the convenient northern sea route from the Viking homeland to Central Plains has been blocked by the new land that appeared after the fusion of the fragments.

  Although sailing around this newly added land from a more northerly sea route to the east is still possible, that extreme northern sea area is perennially cold and has many floating icebergs, making navigation extremely dangerous.

  In the face of those massive icebergs, human-made ships are not much more robust than matchboxes. Take the famous Titanic, wasn't it sunk by an iceberg? So Lin Xu believed that the Vikings would have a hard time coming again. Unexpectedly, just as things had calmed down for a few days, another batch of pirates emerged. Lin Xu couldn't help but feel a sense of inexplicable regret. Is it because of the poor economy, leading to a recent trend of going out to sea to make a living?

  The faith in the land gods has obvious regional characteristics, but there is an opportunity to increase some followers outside the jurisdiction, and it is believed that no one will be foolish enough to deliberately refuse. For the gods, incense is something that is never enough.

  Just as Lin Xu was seriously considering whether he should reveal his true self and play the role of a savior, a white light flashed before his eyes, and a white dove flew in, flapping its wings.

  Seeing this, Lin Xu stretched out his hand and the pigeon turned into a letter that fell into his hands. He looked down at the envelope and muttered to himself:

  "Why did all these things happen at once? How strange!"

  The Landlord of Jiang's Village, Huang Shiren, is Lin Xu's most important ally. Although he can't help Lin Xu much, without this ally, some things will indeed be more difficult to handle.

  With that in mind, Lin Xu carefully considered it for a moment, and then arranged for his subordinates to make preparations. He himself extracted a strand of divine sense and attached it to the incarnation placed at the Jiang family's residence.

  As soon as they met, Huang Shiren, who looked old and frail in appearance, immediately stepped forward and grasped Lin Xu's hand, saying:

  "It's another trouble for you, young brother. If I had any other way out, I wouldn't have bothered you to make a special trip here."

  Hearing this, Lin Xu smiled and said:

  "Hey, you're being too polite. Didn't I help you out a lot in the past? Returning a favor for a peach is just doing my part!"

  It is said that one cannot have both fish and bear's paw. The homing pigeon, which delivers messages quickly, does not guarantee confidentiality. If the paper pigeon is intercepted midway, its contents may be revealed, so Huang Shiren took great care to use a cryptic method. In his letter, he wrote about cloudy mountains and foggy forests, but Lin Xu only knew that he had encountered big trouble, and until now, he was still in the dark about the specific situation. It wasn't until he heard Huang Shiren's explanation face-to-face that Lin Xu was shocked. Afterwards, the two gods left the Temple of the Land and came to the streets outside together.

  The old land god with a worried face led Lin Xu to a street corner in Jiangjiaji, pointing at the group of people shouting loudly at the crossroads in front, dressed in strange attire, and said:

  "Brother, take a look, those people with yellow turbans on their heads are the White Lotus Sect disciples. Their magical powers aren't great, but their ability to intimidate is considerable. If they continue to indoctrinate day after day, I'm afraid that in the future..."

  He had just heard the name of the White Lotus Sect in the Temple of Earth, and Lin Xu immediately raised his vigilance, preparing for any unexpected situation. This was not him being overly cautious, for the White Lotus Sect was no ordinary group to be compared with.

  Apart from Taoism, other indigenous religions of the Huaxia may not be well-known, but this White Lotus Sect is absolutely a notorious character. The reason why the White Lotus Sect is more famous than other Huaxia religions is not that they have any incredible abilities or unique ideas, but because they have persisted for hundreds of years, diligently working towards rebellion, and never giving up even after failure. Even the later Li Master, who caused quite a stir and claimed to have delayed the destruction of the universe by N years with just one move, may also be connected to the White Lotus Sect in some unclear way if one traces back to its roots.

  In the mortal realm, the main duties of the Land God are to comfort and pacify the local people, and also to report major events and minor matters that occur in the mortal world to the Heavenly Court, so that the Heavenly Court can formulate corresponding policies based on this.

  To put it bluntly, the role of Tudi is similar to that of a neighborhood committee's chairman or chairwoman. If we talk about actual combat power, let's not mention Lin Xu, who has a million-strong army under his direct command as a genuine mountain god. Even if we were to randomly pick a few Yao Wang from Mount Huo, they would all be much stronger than this Tudi, who is essentially a civil servant.

  It is often said that when a scholar encounters a soldier, he cannot reason with him. When encountering the White Lotus Sect, a professional violent group that rebels without reason, it seems that there is no good solution to thoroughly solve them except for bloody suppression by force, and this is precisely the weakness of Huang Shiren, the landlord. No wonder as soon as he realized it was the White Lotus Sect, he immediately cried out for help from Lin Xu, and indeed, it had reached a point where external forces were needed.