YA Ch47: Rebellion

“I say, if you’re caught with your pants down, come over here quickly. Someone might show up to catch you in the act,” Lu Yu said, not a blush or a hitch in his breath.

Hua Wenyuan casually grabbed a coat that was drying in the courtyard and put it on, furious. He went inside, knocked the woman unconscious, then came out with a large bow and complained to Lu Yu, “She is the daughter of a military household, recently widowed. She was threatened by a Qianzong to seduce me, hoping to ruin my reputation and undermine my authority.”

In his previous life, he had seen all sorts of dirty tricks. This minor inconvenience was hardly a bother, but he couldn’t stomach using weak women and children to frame others. Regardless of whether the scheme succeeded, bait without the power to resist has no chance of survival in this chaotic world.

“Don’t be angry, don’t be angry.” Lu Yu comforted Hua Wenyuan like a child, patting his head. This guy was really adorable—brave, upright, kind, yet not blindly idealistic. His decisiveness in killing made Lu Yu look forward to the life of bringing Hua Wenyuan back to the real world.

Hua Wenyuan, who had his head patted, was a bit dumbfounded.

From childhood to adulthood, no one had ever comforted him like this. The killing machine General Hua, who had never blinked while killing, was momentarily at a loss. After a light cough, he instructed his second uncle and aunt not to wander around, called his personal guards to take care of matters, and then took his large bow and sat on the roof, waiting for someone to catch him in the act.

“Heh heh, I learned this from you—the special hand gesture for taming puppies. Easy control,” Lu Yu waved his hand with a sense of pride.

Ming Yan: “…That wasn’t for taming dogs.”

Lu Yu nudged his head against Ming Yan’s shoulder. “Taming a lover and taming a dog isn’t all that different. Either way, I quite like being tamed like this.”

Ming Yan turned his head to look at him. After a moment, he pursed his lips and smiled lightly.

Before long, the people who came to catch him in the act arrived. The moment they pushed open the courtyard gate, Hua Wenyuan shot an arrow through one of their thighs. The man screamed in agony and collapsed to his knees. One after another, the first three men who entered were brought to their knees, making those outside hesitate to advance.

“Young General Hua, we are here looking for a girl. The illegitimate daughter of Chen Qianzong is missing, and someone saw her coming into your courtyard,” someone outside shouted.

Hua Wenyuan sneered, “Chen Qianzong is truly generous, sending his own daughter as bait. I’m truly honored.”

With that, he drew his bow, pulled it to full, and released. A red-feathered arrow shot through the flimsy firewood gate and “thunked” into the shoulder blade of Chen Qianzong, standing in the front row. The massive force sent him flying to the ground. Only a moment later did he cry out in pain.

Panic ensued outside. People, terrified, dared not move forward or back, huddling on the ground trembling.

Lu Yu hugged Ming Yan and scooted further against the wall. “See? Crouching against the wall was the right choice. If we were peeking over the wall, we’d be dead with an arrow through our hearts. Then I’d have to come back to life as Third Uncle, and you’d be the poor Second Aunt, following brother after brother.”

Ming Yan elbowed him. “Will you cut it out?” The plot was intense, and he was playing with ethical jokes, ruining the atmosphere.

“This is serious business too,” Lu Yu muttered softly.

Hua Wenyuan’s archery skills were godlike, scaring the people who had come to catch him in the act so badly that they didn’t even dare help the injured Chen Qianzong. After a brief standoff, Hua Wenyuan’s personal guards had already captured the remaining three Qianzongs. One of them was clearly dragged from his bed; his clothes were in disarray, and he was cursing loudly.

“Since none of you want to sleep, why not come and drink?” Hua Wenyuan jumped down from the roof and invited everyone to the largest banquet hall in the Jiangzhou garrison camp.

He ordered someone to light candles. Hua Wenyuan sat grandly in the main seat, broke open a wine jar, and called for Xie Chongyun to pour wine for the four Qianzongs, who were pale with fear.

Xie Chongyun found it amusing and, with a single finger, hooked the wine jar and carelessly poured the wine for them. The wide-mouthed bowls were filled from high up, the wine splashing everywhere, almost as if he were about to pour it directly over their heads.

The arrow in Chen Qianzong’s shoulder was splashed with strong liquor, causing him to grimace in pain.

After a while, Lu Yu finally got a packet of melon seeds from Ming Yan, and happily cracked them while sitting at the head of the table, even enthusiastically sharing a handful with Chen Qianzong beside him. “Come, come, have some with the wine. Don’t be shy.”

Chen Qianzong’s lips trembled, unable to speak.

The Qianzong still in his undergarments questioned, “Hua Wenyuan, what do you mean by this?”

Hua Wenyuan didn’t answer, just slowly drank his wine.

In his previous life, he had endured these four old bastards for a long time, waiting for the Cheng family scholars to settle the accounts before he acted to seize their military power and redistribute the military land. This time, he had no intention of holding back.

Ming Yan, feeling bored, drew a handful of shelled melon seeds for himself, slapped away Lu Yu’s attempt to steal them, and quietly passed them under the table to Hua Wenyuan. Hua Wenyuan calmly popped them into his mouth and continued drinking elegantly.

They kept drinking until dawn. When the sun rose, the personal guards brought several large chests, followed by many people. Each military household sent one person. The guards told them to come and collect their grain, one person per household.

Hearing there was grain, everyone showed up neatly and on time.

Hua Wenyuan stood up and ordered Xie Chongyun to pry open the chests. Inside were stacks of white loan notes.

“Military land is allocated to military households for farming and guarding the borders, to sustain the troops, not to feed the Qianzongs of the army!” Hua Wenyuan grabbed a handful of loan notes. “Some people become Qianzongs and think they’re marquises, seizing military land, embezzling military rations, and even lending money at usurious rates.”

At this point, an old man suddenly rushed out, knelt on the ground, and wailed, “General, please seek justice for me. My family of eight was forced to death.”

These four Qianzongs, taking advantage of the constant natural disasters, used the excuse of insufficient military rations to seize the military households’ land, then rented it back to them at high rents. The military households couldn’t make ends meet after paying rent, so they had to borrow grain from the Qianzongs, thus incurring debt. When the debt couldn’t be repaid, they had to sell their children.

Hua Wenyuan didn’t need to listen carefully; he already knew the details. He burned all the loan notes in one go and, in front of everyone, directly beheaded the four Qianzongs.

Everyone was stunned. The old man who had been crying trembled as he said, “General, the Qianzongs are also officials of the imperial court, and you just killed them…”

Such a drastic move was completely against the norm.

Hua Wenyuan chuckled, lifting the old man from the ground with one hand. “No worries. To me, they were not officials, and from now on, you don’t have to be military households either.”

With that, he distributed the military land to those currently farming it and announced that all soldiers in the army would have land to divide. For now, it would be given to the former military households, and after defeating the rebels, there would be new land to divide.

Those with insight already realized what Hua Wenyuan intended to do—he wasn’t here to be a general; he was going to rebel!

But everyone chose to remain silent.

[A Song of Red Silk Countless Times: He’s rebelling! The cheat code is coming! Lu Dog, hurry up and take me along—I want to see that cheat, you know what I mean!]

[A Song of Red Silk Countless Times gifted 600 Supreme Banana Leaf Yachts]