All Heavens and Worlds Modified History System

Chapter 289: There is a road to heaven but you don’t take it, there is no door to hell but you break in
"Prefect Wei ordered us to provide 30,000 strings of cash to the Hedong Road to prepare for the Zhenwu Army."

Inside the Huang's fortress, Huang Chao, with a gloomy face, was discussing important matters with his relatives.

As soon as these words were spoken, everyone jumped up and down like a cat whose tail was stepped on.

"Two months ago, they asked for 15,000 strings of cash in aid in order to guard against the Uighurs. Are they asking for it again now?"

"Whether the Shatuo people rebel or not, what does it have to do with us Caozhou people?"

"So, next time I should ask for 60,000 strings of cash?"

"Chief, we don't have that much money to give now."

Amid all the chaos, the most important thing is that there is no money.

Huang Chao's family had been selling illegal salt for generations, and they had indeed accumulated a lot of wealth.

But if the family is big and the business is huge, the expenses will naturally be high as well.

What is particularly important is that I spent a huge amount of money to buy a house from Chen Ran some time ago.

I thought I could make the money back quickly, but I didn't expect that the Central Plains would suffer from floods and droughts one after another. The people were starving, so how could they have money to buy salt?

In history, Huang Chao did give what he asked for this time.

But it is different now. Chen Ran has squeezed out 50,000 strings of cash. The last time Governor Wei asked for it, Huang Chao had already done his best to collect the money, and he almost sold his pants to give it to him.

Now he wants another 30,000 strings of cash. Even if he sells his entire family, he still can't raise that much money.

Huang Chao wanted to give it. After all, the people should not fight against the officials. His family was wealthy and he had the formula for refining rock salt, so his future was promising.

But the government really doesn't give me a way out~~~
Two years later in history, the Nanzhao Kingdom invaded Sichuan and the Tang Dynasty sent troops to fight back, and another war broke out between the two sides.

The governor of Caozhou once again demanded financial aid to resist the Nanzhao Kingdom, and the amount was not small.

At that time, Huang Chao really couldn't stand it anymore, so he simply rebelled against his mother.

Wang Xianzhi in Puzhou enjoyed similar environment and treatment.

After all, the ordinary peasants were almost starving to death and could not squeeze any money out of them, so they could only squeeze the rich families.

At this time, Huang Chao was facing the same difficult situation two years later in history because Chen Ran withdrew funds in advance.

"Leader!"

Amid the discussion, Huang Chao's nephew Lin Yan ran in and shouted, "News from the prefectural governor's mansion: Governor Wei has ordered the mobilization of the garrison. If the wealthy families like us don't pay the salary, we will directly destroy our homes and seize our people!"

"This is too much!"

Huang Chao slammed the table and stood up. "He is really a county magistrate who ruins the family and a prefect who wipes out the clan! Do you really think that he, the Jingzhao Wei family, can do whatever he wants?"

At this moment, he recalled the scene when he went to Chang'an City to take the imperial examination, but was bullied and ridiculed by those children from aristocratic families.

"You, a country bumpkin, want to be an official?"

'I am dying of laughter, hahahaha~~~'

"Li? Cui? Lu? Zheng? Wang? Wei? None of them? Then what makes you so famous?"

"Huang family? Which Huang family? I've never heard of them."

"Our family has worked hard for generations, but you want to surpass us with just ten years of hard study. How can there be someone as stupid as you in this world?"

"That's right, we are just here for the sake of formality. We have already been selected. So what? Are you going to bite me?"

"Go home and farm. You are a small town test-taker, you are not qualified to be an official!"

The humiliation of the children of noble families seemed to be right before their eyes.

"On the eighth day of the ninth month of next year, I will bloom and kill all the flowers! The fragrance will spread through Chang'an, and the whole city will be covered with golden armor!"

Huang Chao's face was slightly distorted as he recited word for word the poem "Poem on Chrysanthemums after Failing the Imperial Examination" which he had written before leaving Chang'an City.

If Huang Chao had been unknown in history, this poem might not have had a chance to be passed down to later generations.

The prerequisite for a poem to be famous is that the person is famous first.

"Leader!~~~"

Everyone in the Huang family looked at Huang Chao, waiting for his decision.

"Since the imperial court won't let us live, then we will rebel against it!"

Huang Chao roared, and everyone echoed him loudly.

The people at the end of the Tang Dynasty lived a very miserable life, and their dissatisfaction with the court had already reached its peak.

After the excitement, Huang Chao calmed down and the first thing he did was to tell Huang Cun, "Go to Puzhou quickly and find out what Chen Zihou means. If we can start an uprising together, that would be the best."

"Don't worry, leader." Huang Cun immediately said, "The governor of Puzhou must be blackmailing Chen Zihou. He has been training troops in private for a long time, so he may have had some plans."

"So best."

When he met Huang Cun, Chen Ran asked about his purpose with a smile on his face, and immediately stated, "Go back and tell Brother Huang that if the government forces the people to rebel, then we should rebel! Let's start an uprising together in Caozhou and Puzhou respectively."

With Chen Ran's promise, Huang Chao had no more worries. On June 11, the 13th year of Xiantong, he officially raised the flag and issued a manifesto to denounce the court officials for corruption, heavy taxes, endless wars, and increasingly urgent taxation, leaving the people displaced and dying with nowhere to complain.

He called himself General Chongtian and gathered thousands of troops to attack Zuocheng, the provincial capital.

At this time, the prefectures and counties in the Central Plains were directly governed by the imperial court and their defenses were very weak. Huang Chao successfully broke through Zuocheng and killed the governor of Caozhou.

However, Chen Ran, who was in Puzhou, did not respond immediately.

It's not about trapping Huang Chao, but about waiting for benefits.

As expected, when the imperial court learned of the civil unrest, it quickly mobilized troops and supplies to suppress it.

When faced with powerful vassal states, the imperial court would mostly swallow its anger.

But when faced with rebellion by the people, he acted swiftly and decisively, killing them without mercy.

The court appointed General Qi Kerang of the Left Jinwu Guard as the governor of Taining Army to lead the army to attack Huang Chao. Qi Kerang brought thousands of Shen Ce troops and escorted a large amount of food and military supplies from Guanzhong to Puzhou, summoning the garrisons from various places to prepare to attack Huang Chao in Caozhou.

The elite troops stationed in these counties and cities directly under the imperial court had already been transferred away.

Although they had gathered tens of thousands of troops, their actual combat effectiveness and fighting will were very poor.

The court urged him more and more urgently. Qi Kerang did not dare to delay and led his troops to attack Caozhou.

At the same time, the clerk of the new governor of Puzhou, Cui, came to Chen Ran again.

"Captain Chen, I've been delaying the payment for you for so long, I really can't delay it any longer." The clerk who had received a bribe and helped Chen Ran delay the payment of the military aid was very polite in his words, "You have to give me something, just for show."

"Okay, okay." Chen Ran nodded with a smile on his face. "I don't want to embarrass you. I will send the aid to the state capital in three days."

After saying this, he called the salt official and presented him with a few more pieces of Shu brocade.

After the clerk left, Li Wende, who was born in Yindao City, couldn't help but step forward and ask, "Chief, when are we going to start?"

Several years ago, almost all of Yindaodu was massacred by the imperial court, and even their families were executed with them. After all, in the Tang Dynasty’s army, families followed the army.

As one of the few who escaped, Li Wende's hatred for the imperial court was overwhelming.

"Didn't I tell you?" Chen Ran, sitting back on the stool, casually replied, "Three days later."

Li Wende was a typical Tang Dynasty warrior, and for a moment he failed to understand what Chen Ran meant.

Wang Wenyu on this side understood almost immediately, "The leader's arrangement is good. The food and military supplies of the imperial army are now concentrated in the state capital."

"Not only that, the subsidies collected by the governor are also in the city."

This is the opportunity Chen Ran has been waiting for.

Before officially launching the rebellion, make a big fortune.

After all, once the war starts, the consumption of money and food will be unstoppable like running water.

Three days later, Chen Ran successfully arrived at the gate of Juancheng in the name of delivering military aid.

Compared to the last time I came here, the guarding of the city gate is obviously much tighter, and it has been replaced by the Shen Ce Army.

Qi Kerang left behind ten generals, leading a thousand soldiers to guard Juancheng, mainly to protect the large amount of military supplies and food in the city.

In the military system at the end of the Tang Dynasty, every city with a thousand people had a commander-in-chief, also known as a dutou, military envoy, or general.

It is in charge of two camps, each of which is divided into left and right wings.

Each camp and wing has a commander.

Below the wing is the most basic organizational unit of the Tang army, the team.

The team has a captain, a full staff of fifty people, and is under the jurisdiction of five groups.

Each group consists of ten people, divided into two teams.

Each squad has a squad leader.

This is the commonly used organization of the Shen Ce Army. Because so many people need to be placed as officials, there are more officers in the organization.

The situations of the local vassal states were different and their organization was different.

Most of the military governorates used the 50-50 system, which was the same for all levels below the battalion. However, at the battalion level, there were 250 people. Five battalions formed a wing, and two wings and a city had two to three thousand people, which was the mainstream.

A team of Shen Ce soldiers guarding the city gate lifted the sackcloth on the cart and saw so much money, silk, wine, meat and food. Their eyes lit up and they immediately started to grab them.

Chen Ran frowned. “This is a gift to the governor.”

At this time, the commander of the wing on the city wall also hurriedly led his men down, staring at the treasures with shining eyes, "What governor or not, we, the Shen Ce Army, don't care about these. All the treasures we see belong to the Shen Ce Army!"

"Move everything away!" The commander laughed and told the soldiers to move their things. He then turned his gaze to Chen Ran and asked, "Who are you? You look quite rich."

Chen Ran naturally understood what he meant. This was an attempt to kidnap and extort money.

"Really." Chen Ran was also so angry that he laughed, "I was originally planning to seduce Wenwu, but I didn't expect you, an idiot, to mess things up."

He put drugs in the wine, intending to capture the civil and military officials first after entering the city.

Unexpectedly, I encountered such a thing at the city gate.

The commander's face darkened and he shouted, "What did you say?"

"I told you there's a road to heaven, but you didn't take it." Chen Ran pulled out his sword and chopped off the commander's head with one blow. "There's no door to hell, but you broke in!"

As he took action, people around him drew their weapons and rushed forward to fight with the Shen Ce Army.

Wang Wenyu hurriedly took out the fireworks and lit them up.

Li Wende, who was hiding in the distance, saw the fireworks and immediately rushed over with a large number of men.

The Shen Ce Army is very famous and once had strong combat effectiveness.

But they had been staying in and around Chang'an City in Guanzhong for many years. After more than a hundred years, they had already become corrupt and their military discipline was extremely poor.

The most exaggerated thing is that most of the newly recruited soldiers were vagrants and civilians in Chang'an.

All the middle and senior military officers are from prominent families and have good backgrounds and connections.

Even the grassroots officers such as captain, foreman, and sergeant were sons of wealthy families in Chang'an City.

When recruiting soldiers in ancient times, the first people not included were city dwellers.

This is not discrimination against city people, but a lesson learned with blood and tears!

When Li Wende rushed over breathlessly, Chen Ran had already successfully killed the defenders at the city gate and captured the city gate.

Chen Ran got on his horse and swung his sword forward, "Charge in, straight to the governor's mansion!"

(End of this chapter)