Hyperdimensional Player

Chapter 342 A Wildfire Spreads! Heads Roll (Part Four)
Qiongzhou.

This is the present-day Haikou. When Duncan arrived here, a group of experts from Baoxuan Cave Heaven had already secretly gathered near the port.

Duncan actually had two plans for starting a rebellion. One was to directly assassinate Liu Chang and kill the many demonic sect masters around him. However, he did not have a strong foundation in this world. If he could not quickly take over the entire Southern Han after Liu Chang's death, the situation would inevitably become more and more turbulent, resulting in a large number of civilian casualties, and it might even benefit neighboring countries.

Another option is to start the uprising in Hainan, snowball the conflict, and push all the way to Xingwangfu, which later became Guangzhou.

The Southern Han's control over Hainan was relatively weak, with only three thousand troops stationed there, mostly old, weak, sick, and disabled, and their military preparedness was lax. There was only one powerful eunuch serving as the military supervisor, who was the adopted son of Li Tuo, the core of the eunuch group.

"Lord."

As night fell, Yun Zhike was already waiting on the beach. He watched Duncan walk across the strait in the distance and couldn't help but sigh, "My lord's cultivation is becoming more and more profound."

He had occasionally seen a strange woman in a blue robe that resembled blood beside his lord. Her movements were like those of a ghost, and her strength was unfathomable.

At first, I thought it was an illusion, but later I realized that my lord had a trump card up his sleeve.

I heard in recent days that some demonic sect masters in the Southern Frontier died at the hands of the red-clothed female ghost. It was probably the work of that strange woman. However, Yun Zhike is very smart. There are some things that should not be asked, so he will never ask too much.

Duncan walked across the waves to the beach and slowly asked, "How's the setup going?"

Upon hearing this, Yun Zhike immediately replied respectfully, "It has been arranged."

"Qiongzhou and Yazhou (later Sanya) only have three thousand garrison troops. With Fu Jianhan's help, they can be taken down with just three hundred men."

“The local Luo, Yue, and Li ethnic groups are all willing to support our uprising.”

"I have already sent people to recruit fishermen to form a navy. As long as we take Qiongzhou, we can go straight to Xuwen Port on the Leizhou Peninsula the next day."

Xuwen Port was one of the important ports in ancient times.

It was also a transit point for maritime trade, but the maritime trade of the Southern Han Dynasty was not particularly developed. The real bulk of the coastal customs duties came from Wu and Yue. Their business even extended to places like Qingdao in later generations, and they had a sizable black market trade, which accounted for a significant portion of the national treasury.

Upon hearing this, Duncan slowly nodded and said, "Then let's prepare to make our move?"

Who is the military supervisor here?

Yun Zhike replied, "The military supervisor here is the eunuch Li Wenzhi, who is Li Tuo's adopted son."

"Li Tuo gained Liu Chang's trust and respect by currying favor with the emperor."

"He had recently presented Liu Chang with two beauties, a pair of sisters, one of whom was made a Noble Consort and the other a Beauty."

"Li Tuo thus became the military supervisor of Shaozhou."

Liu Chang relied heavily on eunuchs to control the army. Li Tuo, a man of many beauties among the common people, selected two sisters, adopted them as his goddaughters, and presented them to Liu Chang. After entering the palace, the two sisters were successively named Consort and Beauty, and were extremely favored. They were often favored together, and the palace was at its peak.

Li Wenzhi was originally a Confucian disciple. In order to become an official, he castrated himself and then became Li Tuo's adopted son.

He was a skilled martial artist who practiced the Sunflower Manual. He was extremely greedy and after arriving in Hainan to supervise the army, he plundered the land, directly causing the indigenous minority groups to revolt multiple times. However, the indigenous people were disorganized and it was difficult for them to achieve anything.

Upon hearing this, Duncan asked, "Is Lu Shanjun currently in Xuwen Port?"

Yun Zhike nodded and said, "The Mountain Lord has already set off."

"He once said that he could take over the Leizhou Peninsula by himself without the need for an army."

We still need an army.

If Duncan were to start an uprising, he would have to quell the situation. Even if the main fighting force consisted of only 800 men, there would still be a considerable number of auxiliary troops to maintain order.

He hesitated for a moment and then asked, "Has the enforcement team arranged its personnel?"

Yun Zhike's eyes revealed a hint of admiration as he bowed his head and said, "It's all arranged. Most of them are experts from the Hundred Flowers Lion Formation, as well as soldiers, and most of them are upright men."

"With them keeping the situation under control, innocent people will not be harmed."

Even at this critical moment, our lord still has the strength to take care of the local people, preventing them from being slaughtered by the chaotic soldiers.

Duncan nodded in satisfaction and said, "Good."

"If anyone commits rape or kidnapping, just kill them."

When it comes to killing, Duncan never hesitates.

Talented people are developed through experience.

Although Yun Zhike was a novelist from a low-class background, he was more than capable of being a strategist. The people around him could influence public opinion and conduct large-scale propaganda, which could be a great help if used well.

Duncan, with an air of heroic spirit, gazed at the bright moon in the sky and said, "Then let's get started."

"A new era begins today."

The night is getting darker.

A figure suddenly appeared outside Qiongzhou City. Then Duncan's figure leaped over the city wall and landed in a mansion in the south of the city. Behind him were several experts from Hundred Flowers Valley. More than a dozen silver needles shot out and instantly knocked down all the guards at the city gate.

The mansion was brightly lit, and several scantily clad concubines were dancing. In the seat in front of them sat a fair-skinned, beardless man, about thirty years old, holding a pretty young girl in his arms. Around him were burly men dressed as military officers, each holding a woman and enjoying themselves.

Although Li Zhiwen had his manhood cut off, he was very good at socializing and became close with the officers in Qiongzhou, often hosting banquets for them to enjoy themselves.

"Who?"

His martial arts skills were not low. As if he heard something, he pushed away the woman beside him in an instant, drew a soft sword from his waist, and flew out. His movements were swift and agile, no less than those of a first-class martial arts master. The sword moves he used were full of yin energy, ghostly and swift, somewhat similar to the Evil-Repelling Sword Technique.

There were more than 10,000 eunuchs in the entire Southern Han Dynasty. Those who were highly valued by Liu Chang had all learned some secret techniques passed down from the Tang Dynasty.

"I need to borrow someone's head!"

As soon as he finished speaking, Li Zhiwen's head flew into the air, and Duncan's figure flashed behind him. The Water Maiden and Fire Maiden on the side brandished their sharp sword energy. Before the Southern Han officers who were enjoying themselves in the hall could get up, they were beheaded by these two women with exotic appearances.

The smell of blood permeates the air.

Only then did the screams of the maids begin.

Duncan glanced coldly at the mansion, turned and left, ordering, "Anyone who dares to resist will be killed without mercy."

"Arrange for a raid on their home!"

He has no money, no soldiers, and no food; he has to rob everything.

The entire city of Qiongzhou was filled with shouts of battle. Duncan looked at the flames rising in the distance, leaped a hundred feet, and quickly appeared in front of the commotion in the military camp.

The officers and soldiers inside seemed to be quite capable, as they managed to keep the soldiers firmly guarding the gate until dawn.

Big clumsy hands!
Duncan struck out with his palm, and the gate in front of him collapsed with a crash. His figure walked through the air and arrived directly above the military camp.

"Fire the arrow! Fire the arrow!"

A burly middle-aged man frantically ordered the arrows to be fired, but before the soldiers could react, a thirty-meter-long palm print descended from the sky.

Rumble!
Blood spread, and the ground was covered in a mass of flesh. The entire military camp fell into complete silence.

"Those who surrender will not be killed!" Yun Zhike shouted, and soon a dense crowd of people knelt down to surrender.

Duncan personally led two hundred demon soldiers and took Qiongzhou in just half a day. Not long after, good news came from Yazhou. Fu Jianhan beheaded the supervising officer and also defeated thousands of people by himself, taking Yazhou and other places. There was almost no decent resistance along the way, and even clans in Hainan and other places rose up in response.

The people of Guangdong and Guangxi have suffered under Liu Chang for too long!
Before dawn, after settling the surrendered soldiers into the new regime, Duncan personally led six hundred men across the sea to Leizhou. The city gate was deserted, except for a huge palm print that had shattered the gate tower.

Lu Shanjun sat alone on the collapsed city wall, drinking, with a roast chicken prepared by someone else beside him.

He ate with grease dripping from his mouth, and upon seeing Duncan in the distance, he laughed loudly, "Those eunuchs are too weak to handle."

"After taking off a hundred or two heads, they obediently surrendered and stayed in the army camp."

The city was filled with blood, and there were severed limbs and pieces of flesh pounded into a paste by clumsy hands everywhere.

Lu Shanjun went on a killing spree overnight, and only at dawn did he sit at the city gate drinking.

"Thank you for your trouble, Lord Sanjun."

Duncan smiled and nodded, gesturing to the Ming Cult experts beside him. Soon, someone took over the area. The Ming Cult had the Five Elements Flags, and they also had some knowledge of military command.

Overnight.

The entire territory of Southern Han was turned upside down. After Duncan started his uprising, he arranged for people to suppress the rear, open granaries to distribute food, relieve famine victims, confiscate property and exterminate families, and collect money, grain and supplies. Yun Zhike and others came from a background of collecting rumors and records, and had long since figured out the local powerful gentry and local magnates very well.

Duncan set a hard target: kill half and keep half, and even those who are kept must first hand over their wages and provisions.

The Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.

To put it bluntly, even if Duncan had only eliminated half and spared the other half, many would have escaped, giving many a chance to repent and start anew.

He couldn't possibly kill them all; he still had to keep some for use.

Southern Han was shaken!

By the time Liu Chang learned of the Red Army uprising, several days had already passed. He hastily ordered the mobilization of the northern army to suppress the uprising, but before the army could be fully assembled, news began to arrive one after another.

Once Duncan takes action, it's with lightning speed, advancing by both land and sea.

The army advanced from Xuwen Port along the official road to Huazhou, Gaozhou and other places. He personally led 300 cavalrymen to capture 12 towns in succession. By the time Liu Chang learned of the news, the vanguard had already reached Foshan in later generations, which can be considered the southwestern gateway to Guangzhou.

Duncan divided his forces, and even the 800 vanguard troops couldn't be assembled. Three hundred cavalrymen headed straight for the gateway to Foshan.

Military expansion is imperative.

The navy sailed down the West River and headed straight for Guangzhou, capturing Gaozhou, Xinxing, Zhaoqing and other places along the way.

After capturing Ruizhou (Zhaoqing), the entire Xijiang River was cut off, directly severing Guangzhou's connection with the west.

Half a month later, the initial eight hundred demon soldiers who rose up suddenly expanded to more than ten thousand.

Once the snowball of war started rolling, no one could stop Duncan's fierce offensive. Duncan personally led his elite troops straight to the gate of Xingwangfu (Guangzhou). Lu Shanjun cut off the rear route in the southwest and killed many demonic sect masters. Fu Jianhan followed the navy and advanced. Although he encountered some powerful enemies along the way, a strange woman in green clothes with blood-red skin frequently appeared and killed more than ten demonic sect masters.

In just half a month, Guangxi was completely occupied, and Guangdong was also opened up.

The Southern Han dynasty was already showing signs of collapse.

Guo Chongyue, the eunuch stationed in Guizhou, was beheaded by Lu Shanjun. After his body was hung on the city gate, the people of Guizhou cheered and some even set off firecrackers as if it were a festival.

kill!

kill!kill!kill!

The Red Army uprising was so fierce that it was like a raging fire that burned away all the evil deeds in the world. In Guizhou alone, thousands of corrupt officials, powerful figures, and wicked servants were executed. Anyone who resisted was exterminated, with their families wiped out, leaving them no chance to regret their actions.

Wherever Duncan led his troops, they slaughtered countless people. He then quickly sent people to quell the situation, appease the people of Guangxi, distribute land and relief rations, and even prepare seeds for next spring's planting.

The rebels distributed land based on the Tang Dynasty system: each adult male was allocated 40 mu of land, and each adult female was allocated 30 mu.

The entire Guangdong and Guangxi region was ravaged by Liu Chang, leaving only two to three million people. Large tracts of land were abandoned. As long as a family of adult men and women registered as naturalized citizens, they could immediately receive an extra ten mu of land, bringing their total to a full eighty mu.

Because of this, many ordinary people's widows and widowers got married overnight, just for those extra ten acres of land.

There's no need to worry about not having enough to go around, as the population of the entire world has already decreased dramatically several times over.

Tens of thousands of people from Guangdong and Guangxi provinces enthusiastically joined the army. They all had some background, and with a little training, they could at least fight a direct battle, if not elite soldiers.

Duncan's staff worked through the night to enact laws, drawing on parts of the Imperial Code and combining them with contemporary laws, to impose severe penalties and restore order.

In just over a month, most of the Southern Han territory, from Hainan to Guangxi, has changed its appearance.

Duncan assembled an army of 10,000 and advanced on Foshan. Once he opened the southwestern gateway to Guangzhou, he could attack Xingwangfu, the capital of the Southern Han Dynasty, at any time.

The world is shocked!

Rumors spread like wildfire. Some said the Red Army was a righteous force that did not harm the people in the slightest, while others said the Red Army was no different from bandits, slaughtering and plundering a large number of gentry and nobles, and that some of their methods were no less cruel than the Huang Chao Rebellion of that time, or even worse.

After all, Huang Chao's rebellion killed aristocratic families and powerful clans, but these Red Army soldiers did not even spare local tyrants whose power did not extend to the county level. Many of them were skinned alive and had their tendons pulled out.

Duncan dismissed this with disdain.

I'll take the blame!
He was determined to take all the benefits for everyone in the world.

Why not go on a killing spree?
Where did he get the money and food to relieve and resettle the people and displaced people?

The first blow was delivered to the powerful, wealthy, and influential local gentry and landlords; the second blow should be delivered to the extremely wealthy Buddhist sects of Jiangnan.

He'll ask whoever has money for him!

Even if Duncan squeezed every last drop of profit from the people, he wouldn't get a single penny out of them if he didn't ask them for money or supplies.

The rebels' offensive was extremely fierce.

Even Liu Chang, who had long neglected state affairs, hurriedly sent people to inquire about Fan Huzi and others. The Southern Han mobilized a large army stationed in the north, plus reinforcements from other routes, including the Qinghai Army, Jianwu Army, Ningyuan Army, and Xiongwu Army, totaling nearly 100,000 men. It can be said that all the troops that could be mobilized were brought over.

However, the Jingjiang Army stationed in Guizhou had been completely wiped out. They forcibly conscripted men to make up the number of 100,000 soldiers.

Liu Chang even sent people to deploy the elephant corps to the front lines and other places.

But things didn't go as everyone expected. Just when everyone thought the Red Army uprising would sweep through Xingwangfu, Duncan suddenly amassed a large force and entrenched himself in Foshan, as if he had slowed down his offensive and was preparing to establish his own independent territory.

This gave the Southern Han a chance to catch its breath and allowed them time to calmly mobilize troops to suppress the rebels.

But they didn't know that His Majesty had temporarily halted the fighting simply because spring plowing was approaching.

There are too many people in this world who are hungry and need to eat.

Spring plowing is their life.

………………

(End of this chapter)