Chapter 45: Order in Chaos

  Wei Yue Xiang sat quietly alone in his hanging foot house, with the ancestral tablet of his parents placed in the center. He gazed at the tablet, unable to hold back his sorrow, and his tiger eyes were filled with tears. In front of others, he had always been able to control his emotions, making everyone think he was a strong man. But when alone, as soon as he thought of his parents, he couldn't help but feel overwhelming grief.

  "Dad and mom, my sister is doing well now. Tonight, I'll let Ruan Zhihuan kowtow to you!" Wei Yuxiang said secretly in his heart. As soon as he thought of Ruan Zhihuan, he gritted his teeth with hatred, and his hands involuntarily clenched into fists.

  Why didn't he have the hatred for Lin Chunhong before cutting down the tree? Wei Yuxiang found this question very strange. What he couldn't understand was that from Lin Chunhong, he had gained a precious self-awareness. This was inseparable from Lin Chunhong's emphasis on every individual below him. Thinking of Lin Chunhong, a sentence that Lin Chunhong said popped into Wei Yuxiang's mind: Don't let suffering, hatred and sorrow affect your judgment, the only basis for making decisions is facts! This was a sentence that Lin Chunhong had said when giving a speech to the guards, which made Wei Yuxiang remember it deeply. Whether or not Wei Yuxiang admitted it, he was consciously or unconsciously imitating Lin Chunhong.

  Wei Yue Xiang hastily gathered his thoughts and repeatedly went over tonight's plan, thinking about what was missing. As he thought, he felt that there was a detail that hadn't been considered: if Ruan Zhi Huan had already taken notice of these twenty or so people, what would happen? In that case, they wouldn't even have the chance to set fire. Wei Yue Xiang secretly felt a chill in his heart, and so he thought to test whether someone was monitoring him. He found a large wooden beam in the house, and with a loud noise, he opened the door wide and threw out the beam. Then, he quietly listened for any movement around him. Sure enough, outside there were faint rustling sounds, probably because the person monitoring him had seen his strange behavior and thought he was coming out, couldn't help but want to take action, but after realizing it was just a wooden beam, they hid again.

  Wei Yue Xiang closed the wooden door, and for a moment, his whole body was covered in cold sweat. He didn't care about losing himself, but he would definitely implicate his sister and her family, and those twenty or so brothers would probably not survive either. Wei Yue Xiang was stunned for a while before thinking of a plan, turning it over in his mind several times, feeling that it should work, then piled up all the flammable materials in the house together, using a firestone to ignite them, and a fierce flame burst into the sky.

  Wei Yuxiang picked up a steel knife, opened the door and rushed out, shouting "Fire! Fire!" while running.

  The four people watching Wei Yue Xiang were stunned for a moment, looking at each other in confusion, not knowing whether to catch Wei Yue Xiang or go put out the fire, or continue hiding. Taking advantage of the four people's daze, Wei Yue Xiang rushed towards Wang Liang Quan's house like an untethered wild horse.

  Wei Yue Xiang's loud roar startled all the military households, including more than 20 people who had returned from outside to pay their respects to their ancestors. The entire Da Tianbao was in an uproar, and most of the military households rushed to put out the fire with buckets. Meanwhile, more than 20 military households brought back by Wei Yue Xiang, those who were smarter followed the sound of his roar and ran after him, while those who were dumber also rushed to put out the fire with buckets.

  Dai Weiyue Xiang met Wang Liangquan in front of the temple in the fortress, and when he turned around, he saw more than a dozen brothers following him, and his heart finally felt a little more at ease. He hastily told the brothers: "Ran Zhihuan has become suspicious, is monitoring me, and is very anxious. We will take action now! Regardless of whether Captain Lin has arrived or not, we will open the fortress gate and guard it!"

  More than a dozen brothers heard this and without saying another word, followed Wei Yue Xiang to charge towards the gate of the fortress, not caring whether they had any weapons in their hands.

  The eight military households guarding the gate saw Wei Yue's house on fire, and they all stood at the door to watch the excitement. When they saw Wei Yue and others rushing over with steel knives, they were about to go forward to ask what was going on. Wei Yue and others didn't say a word, and as soon as they saw people, they hacked them down. In no time, the eight gate-guarding military households fell into a pool of blood and lost their lives.

  Wang Liangquan was just about to open the gate, when Wei Yuxiang hastily stopped him: "Ran Zhihuan doesn't know we're preparing to open the gate yet. Don't rush to open it, or he'll bring those dogs to attack us. We have too few people and can't hold out."

  After finishing, he looked back at the other brothers and saw that they were excited after seeing blood, had already changed to their own handy weapons tightly held in their hands, waiting to kill. Wei Yuxiang nodded secretly and said: "Now just wait for Captain Lin to come over and kill, everyone don't be anxious, tonight will definitely be successful."

  Ran Zhihuan was in the midst of a fierce battle with his concubine when he suddenly heard a commotion outside. He hastily sent someone to investigate and only then did he learn that Wei Yue's home had caught fire, but his whereabouts were unknown. Ran Zhihuan was shocked and immediately summoned all the household guards to conduct a thorough search for Wei Yue and others. Before long, they captured several military households who had not followed Wei Yue into action. Just as they were about to interrogate them about Wei Yue's whereabouts, someone came to report that Wei Yue had killed the gatekeeper and was now occupying the gate, confronting the household guards.

  Ran Zhihuan was even more shocked, could it be that Wei Yuxiang had outside help? He hastened to gather his troops and rushed towards the fortress gate. At the fortress gate, there were already over a dozen household guards shouting and scolding, but under the threat of bows and arrows, they did not dare to move forward. On the ground lay several corpses, which were the household guards who had been shot dead. Ran Zhihuan saw this and was furious, shouting: "Wei Yuxiang you treacherous dog, I treated you kindly, how could you dare to rebel?"

  "How dare you say that I treated you poorly? Who among us doesn't have a deep-seated grudge against you? I'll take your head to offer sacrifices to my parents!" Wei Yue Xiang cursed loudly, these words made the brothers unite in their hatred, and what Wei Yue Xiang said was not wrong, more than 20 brothers had deep-seated grudges with Ran Zhi Huan.

  Ran Zhi Huan flew into a rage and shouted: "Kill these few dog thieves for me!"

  The crowd of guards rushed forward, only to hear the sound of arrows flying towards them. Several guards fell to the ground with a pained cry. The guards retreated in disarray. Wei Yuxiang's speed was particularly impressive, his rapid-fire archery technique sending arrow after arrow flying towards the enemy, earning cheers from his comrades. Even the captured soldiers below couldn't help but cheer.

  The cheers were like a jeer, making him even angrier. He roared: "Bring these rebellious dogs up here, I'll chop them off one by one!"

  Jia Ding brought the seven men forward, ordering them to kneel down. However, none of the seven men knelt down. One of them even cursed, "You, Ruan! Your doomsday has arrived! Three years ago, my wife was driven to death by you, and I have been waiting for this day ever since. Today, I must use your head as a urinal!"

  "Cut him down! Cut him down!" Yan Zhihuan yelled hysterically.

  Only a flash of the knife was seen, and fresh blood spurted out. A head rolled to one side, but the body remained half-kneeling. The bloody scene caused the soldiers in the back to exclaim in surprise, and it made Wei Yue Xiang's eyes widen in anger. Rang Zhi Huan burst into loud laughter and shouted: "Surrender! Wei Yue Xiang, if you don't surrender now, I'll kill another one!"

  The brothers couldn't help but rush forward and engage in a fierce battle with Ruan Zhihuan's family guards. Wei Yuxiang hastily stopped the brothers, saying: "If we charge up now, we'll all be dead for sure, and we'll also ruin Lin Dianshi's big plan. What we need to do now is stall for time."

  "Listen up, you surnamed Ruan! Do you know why we're rebelling? My old man was beaten to death by you, and just now, Wen San's brother's wife was also forced to death by you. Who among us doesn't have a deep blood feud with you? Look at how poor our brothers have become! And you've married seven concubines, and taken over Shi Zhu Guang's wife too - it's been years since the Shi brothers saw her, did you kill her off?! We're toiling away outside, and you swiped several tens of thousands of silver taels from us. You're sucking our blood dry! Are we not justified in rebelling against you?"

  A single remark made Ruan Zhihuan's family servant fall silent, and the surrounding soldiers were even more shocked, discussing it among themselves. The gaze they cast at Ruan Zhihuan was also somewhat off. Ruan Zhihuan turned his head to look back, extremely anxious, and furiously shouted: "Will you surrender or not? If not, I will kill all of the remaining people!"

  "Don't be in a hurry to kill, the more you kill, the more brothers will hate you. Look at the brothers behind you, are they obedient or hateful? Look at Lin Dianshi, working there for a year can earn at least 15 taels of silver, and also give land to the brothers, one mu of land only pays three cents of silver per year. You don't even have the qualifications to lick Lin Dianshi's ass! Today I will avenge all the military households, you are dead today. Brothers, what are you waiting for? Ruan Zhihuan is just 50 or 60 dogs, we hundreds of people can bite him to death."

  The eyes of the onlookers around the military household grew more and more fervent, and Wei Yue Xiang continued to stir them up: "Brothers, take action! Lin Dian Shi has already sent people to support us. Today we must make Ren Zhi Huan's dog head roll! Lin Dian Shi also said that as long as we kill Ren Zhi Huan, every household here can go back to work and plant fifteen acres of land, and our wages won't be embezzled by Ren Zhi Huan anymore! Brothers, hurry..."

  Ran Zhihuan's roar interrupted Wei Yuxiang: "Cut off the remaining six people!"

  Ran Zhihuan's order was not executed immediately, and the hesitant eyes of the six family guards were cast towards Ran Zhihuan. Ran Zhihuan's anger could not be suppressed, and with one whip, he lashed out at the hesitant guard: "Dare to disobey orders? I'll kill you first!"

  The hesitant house servant was unable to raise the steel knife, just as he was about to chop down, a shout suddenly came from the gate: "Haha, come on, Lin Dianshi has finally arrived!"

  The astonished household troops looked towards the gate of the fortress and found that the gate had already been opened, with hundreds of fully armed soldiers rushing over.

  Lin Chunyi led 200 men and arrived at the Otada Sennetsu's place, hiding in the mountains, sending two people to keep an eye on the Otada fortress. When they saw fire rising from within the fortress, Lin Chunyi gathered his troops and rushed towards the Otada fortress, coincidentally running into Ren Ziruan who was about to kill someone.

  When Lin Chunyi led his men to storm the gate, how could the fifty or sixty family guards resist? The soldiers who were stirred up saw that reinforcements had arrived and also beat the fallen dog, the family guards knelt down and surrendered one after another. Rang Zhihuan retreated to the government office under the protection of a few die-hard members, but before he reached the government office, his guards were all killed, and he was shot in the thigh by Wei Yuxiang's arrow and could not move. The military household who killed with red eyes was about to cut off Rang Zhihuan's head, but was stopped by Lin Chunyi: "Leave him alive for now, Lin Dianshi has other uses for him!"

  Under the leadership of the military household, all the deputy thousand households, townships and several hundred households in the fortress were caught without anyone escaping. Lin Chunyi put all the officers except Ruan Zhihuan on the platform, allowing all the military households to publicly try these officers. Which one of them did not bully people with their power? For a time, there were many grievances that came forward to recount their sinful history. When they reached the point of anger, some even took to the stage to beat and kick these officers. By the end of the public trial, several officers were beheaded as an example to the crowd.

  The years of resentment from the military households were finally vented, and they were all excited, some even crying bitterly for their loved ones who had died. Some even wanted to kill Ran Zhihuan to vent their anger, but were blocked by the fierce soldiers at the door.

  When Lin Chun-yi ordered all the military households to move to Baili Island, even if some people were unwilling to leave, they thought of the blood of the military officers on their hands and had no way out. They could only go to Baili Island under the escort of soldiers.

  Lin Chunyi had long arranged for someone to guard the gate of the fortress, and none of the people inside the fortress had escaped, ensuring that the Shizhou Garrison did not know what was happening inside the fortress.

  One day after the military household set out, Lin Chunhong arrived at Dadianbao and saw the withered Ran Zhihuan.

  Ran's eyes were dull and lifeless, but upon seeing Lin Chunhong, he slightly regained some spirit and asked: "Why didn't you kill me?"

  "Keep it and you will find it useful." After finishing speaking, Lin Chunhong took out a document and continued to say: "Lord Rang, please sign and stamp."

  Ran Zhihuan glanced at the official document and saw that it said: "Wei Yue Xiang, Wang Liang Quan incited the military households to rebel, after learning about it, he led his troops to successfully quell the rebellion, and all the deputy commanders and pacification envoys were killed in battle."

  He snorted and roared: "Lin Chunhong, you are plotting a rebellion, and will die without a place to bury your body!"

  Lin Chunhong was unusually calm, "Sign or not sign?"

  Ran Zhi Huan gritted his teeth and said word by word: "Want me to sign? Dream on!"

  Lin Chunhong sneered: "Look at your good skin, it turns out to be a silver-plated gun head! Do you think I'm so kind and leave your family behind? They're useful!"

  Ran's face turned red with rage, and he almost spat blood as he bellowed: "You dare!"

  Lin Chunhong no longer paid attention to Ruan Zhehuan, and turned his head to instruct Lin Chunyi: "Bring over Ruan's family members, kill one and ask one, see if he responds!"

  A mouthful of blood finally spurted out from Ruan Zhihuan's mouth, his whole body suddenly losing strength, collapsing to the ground, and whispering: "I sign, I sign..."

  Lin Chunhong walked forward, patted Ran Zhihuan's shoulder and smiled: "Good cooperation, I won't make it difficult for you, you can live a happy life with your seven concubines!"

  After finishing speaking, he handed over the official document to Lin Chunyi and didn't look at Ruan Zhihuan again, leaving the Ruan Mansion.

  Immediately, Lin Chunhong ordered Zhou Wang to garrison at Dadianbao, fully handling the affairs of Yiren, and transferred most of the bowmen to Dadianbao for garrison training. He also concentrated all skilled craftsmen who were proficient in making weapons and armor at Dadianbao, going all out to make sharp weapons.

  From then on, large-scale expansion and preparation for war became a reality. Lin Chunhong's tiger teeth became even sharper, ready to devour people at any time.