The world is like a prison, my body is holy

Zhao Dadan, fully armored, stood at the bow of his ship, gazing at the river blocked by iron chains connecting boats, and the dock with fluttering banners behind it.

"Somebody come!"

A messenger strode forward, clasped his hands, and said, "Your subordinate is here."

Zhao Dadan: "Order Zheng Hesheng of the vanguard battalion to issue a warning, ordering the Hangzhou garrison to clear the river and withdraw from this area within 25 minutes. If they fail to withdraw by then, the General's Mansion of Demon Slayer will consider it as obstruction of official business and deliberate provocation, and they will bear all the consequences!"

"Here!"

The messenger hurriedly withdrew, giving orders.

Zhao Dadan continued to observe the pier with its fluttering flags, pondering which angle to use as a breakthrough point later.

As a seasoned general, Zhao Dadan has his own methods of commanding troops. Regardless of whether the General's Mansion has other arrangements for this battle, or whether there will be any supreme experts who can single-handedly influence the battle, he will fulfill his duties and carry out the General's orders. He will not become complacent or wait to win simply because the General's Mansion has sent a supreme expert to assist him.

Before long, a unified shout rang out from the three large ships facing off against the chained boats, ordering the Hangzhou garrison troops to clear the waterway and withdraw from the area.

But neither the iron chains linking the boats in front nor the dense banners inside the dock showed any sign of moving.

Two quarters of an hour passed in the blink of an eye...

Zhao Dadan, his face grim, summoned a messenger and was about to order the vanguard battalion to move closer and probe the enemy when they heard a loud "bang" of water splashing.

He looked up abruptly and saw a figure in a black robe with long, flowing hair rushing out from in front of his ship.

Strangely, the figure in black robes clearly emerged from underwater, yet there wasn't a single drop of water on its body...

The figure in black robes stopped in mid-air, turned around to reveal a strikingly handsome, almost otherworldly, pointed face, and looked down at Zhao Dadan, saying, "Come with me."

Zhao Dadan, looking completely bewildered, opened his mouth to respond, only to see the black-robed figure transform into a blur, flashing towards the iron chained boats blocking the river.

In an instant, the calm river surface was stirred up by his advancing figure, and when the wave reached the iron chain connecting the boat, it suddenly surged up to seven or eight zhang high!

Amidst a series of clanging sounds as the iron chains snapped, seven or eight large ships that had been blocking the river were suddenly propelled into the air by the surging waves!

The black-robed figure, who had been hovering in mid-air, flicked his sleeve at the opportune moment, and seven or eight large ships, like flies swatted away by a hand, flew through the air toward the Jiangzhang Bridge dock, which was covered with banners...

It's too late, but it's soon.

Even Zhao Dadan, whose eyes were following the black-robed figure, had not yet seen the figure's movements when seven or eight large ships crashed violently into the flag-covered dock, creating a series of earth-shaking roars.

When Zhao Dadan rubbed his eyes hard and looked again, there wasn't a single flag standing upright on the dock. Through the broken wooden fortress, he could still see a few Hangzhou soldiers running around like headless flies, panicked and disoriented...

Zhao Dadan stared blankly, mouth agape: 'Is this a lion pouncing on a rabbit? This is clearly using a cannon to kill a mosquito!'

Finally, he slapped himself across the face, forcibly restarting his brain that had crashed.

"March with drum beat!"

He shouted, but his voice trembled violently as soon as it came out.

However, he called out two or three times but received no response.

He turned around abruptly and found that the many messengers and officers behind him were also staring blankly with their eyes wide open and their chins almost touching their chests.

Not to mention them, even Han Jiu, the well-versed expert of the Demon Suppression Guard not far away, was staring in disbelief, gripping the ship's railing and shouting hoarsely, "Awesome, awesome..."

Zhao Dadan shook his muddled brain vigorously, turned and ran, slapping anyone he saw with a light slap: "Beat the drums and march! Beat the drums and march! Beat the drums and march!"

In his daze, he accidentally slapped Han Jiu across the face, who was still jumping around...

Han Jiu wasn't annoyed at being slapped. Instead, he grabbed Han Jiu's wrist and excitedly asked, "Is this a top-ranked expert? Isn't he awesome? Isn't he awesome?"

"Awesome, awesome, incredibly awesome!"

Zhao Dadan forced a hand back and continued slapping people indiscriminately, shouting, "Beat the drums and march! Beat the drums and march!"

The messengers and officers, who had just been subjected to a fierce competition, suddenly realized what had happened and quickly took their positions.

Before long, the powerful and stirring drumbeats resounded throughout the venue.

Driven by the beat of drums, the massive fleet barged into the dock. Before the ships had even come to a complete stop and the gangplanks had been lowered, the soldiers from each battalion, as if they had taken some kind of drug, jumped over the gunwales and rushed into the dock in a frenzy, howling and hacking at anyone they saw. They drove the remaining Hangzhou garrison troops away, abandoning their armor and weapons, and fled for their lives toward Wulin Gate.

Zhao Dadan calmly and collectedly directed the operation, ordering the commanders of each battalion to gather and restrain their troops, while also ordering the vanguard battalion to relentlessly pursue the tail of the Hangzhou garrison troops. He also designated two captains to remain at the dock to clean up the mess and secure the retreat route.

Two or three thousand soldiers surged towards Wulin Gate in a chaotic chase. Upon seeing this, the commander of the garrison troops left behind at Wulin Gate, disregarding the fact that there were still comrades outside the city who had not yet entered, hurriedly ordered the city gates to be closed...

But just as the two heavy city gates began to creak and groan from their old bearings, a massive, gloomy palm strike, as large as a hill, descended from the sky and landed on the city gate tower.

"boom."

Another earth-shaking roar resounded, and the city gate tower, which had stood majestically just a moment ago, was reduced to rubble in the blink of an eye, its ruins scattered and falling everywhere.

The city gates, which were closing, suddenly stopped...

Zhao Dadan, who was riding his warhorse at full speed outside the city, saw this scene and a thought suddenly popped into his mind: 'With such a peerless warrior as the vanguard, even if you replaced the army with a dog, they could still sweep through, right?'

He dismissed the idea with a wry smile and diligently relayed orders to the battalion commanders, instructing them to proceed according to the battle plan.

……

The army was defeated like a mountain!
It was too fast, everything happened too fast!

When the messenger arrived in a panic at the secret residences of the Qian, Chai, Wang, and Hong families to deliver the news of the Xiang Army's defeat to the heads of the five families, Zhao Dadan's four battalions of troops were already on their way to seal off the city gates.

Upon hearing this news, the five family heads practically thought they were too old to hear human speech...

With a 5,000 to 2,000 advantage, how could such a dominant situation be so easily turned into a complete defeat?
Even if it's five thousand pigs, and two thousand people are chasing after them to kill them, it would still take them a day or two to finish, right?
When they heard that a peerless expert had stepped in to clear all obstacles for the army of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion, the heads of the five families all felt as if they had escaped death.

'That little bastard actually came in person…'

They thought to themselves with relief, "Thank goodness our children and grandchildren were moved beforehand, otherwise this would have been a real disaster... That little bastard wouldn't dare to defy the world and massacre the entire city, would he?"

Because Zhao Dadan marched south in silence, by the time the five families received news that General Dangmo's mansion had sent troops south, Zhao Dadan's forces were already not far from Hangzhou.

In such a short time, they simply didn't have time to relocate their entire tribe to another location on a large scale; that would be too conspicuous.

If they really did that, not only would it be difficult to hide it from the spies of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion, but even the local powerful families of Hangzhou could swarm in and devour them.

When a wall falls, everyone pushes it down; when a drum is broken, everyone beats it. This has been the way of things since ancient times. Therefore, they could only secretly disperse their close relatives and clansmen to various residences in the city.

As the saying goes, a cunning rabbit has three burrows. Any long-established family will have a large number of places to live that are independent of its own businesses, just to prevent the family from being wiped out!
But the relief felt by the five family heads did not last long.

Soon, news flew to them like snowflakes, constantly informing them that their sons, who were hiding in a certain neighborhood, and their grandsons, who were hiding in a certain alley, had been captured by the people of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion.

It was as if the people from the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion knew where they were hiding all along. There were two or three hundred houses on the street, but the people from the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion didn't even bother to ask the other residents; they went straight to their secret hideout...

Upon receiving this news, the five family heads were filled with both impotent rage and utter terror.

The once light and pleasant river of time suddenly became exceptionally long and agonizing as it passed through their area.

They prayed that their beloved child and grandchildren would not fall into the hands of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion, and that the people of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion would not find their way here...

But perhaps because they had committed too many evil deeds in the past, too numerous to count, God did not hear their prayers.

The people from the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion were also methodically digging out their secret strongholds hidden in the city one by one, capturing their "innocent" children and grandchildren.

The quick-witted Prince Ning and the head of the Hong family had long abandoned all illusions. They changed into peasant clothes and reluctantly jumped into the tunnel themselves. They crawled along the dark and suffocating tunnel towards the city, encouraging themselves as they crawled.

'Once I escape, I will definitely…'

'Once I escape, I will surely call...'

The heads of the two Qian and Wang families, who were unwilling to give up, only let out a bitter laugh when their last direct descendant fell into the hands of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion.

'Those thieves knew where I was all along; they were just toying with me…'

'If only you had listened to me earlier, things wouldn't have come to this, wouldn't have come to this...'

In the end, the two family heads who climbed out of the city through the tunnel, after lifting the tunnel cover, had their eyes filled with relief at escaping before they could even light up.

However, outside the tunnel cover, a group of demon-suppressing guards dressed in black and wielding black swords were already watching him with great interest, having been waiting for a long time!
"Prince Ning, you're climbing way too slowly! You're almost too late for dinner!"

"Wow, Boss Hong, you're in great shape! You've climbed seven or eight miles in just one hour..."

Meanwhile, the three family heads inside the city, their faces ashen, finally heard the heavy footsteps they had been waiting for.

"Bangdang..."

They watched helplessly as their old servant, who was protecting them, fell to the ground, bleeding profusely, and watched as a pair of shackles fell heavily at their feet.

"Lord Qian, would you like to put it on yourself, or would you like us brothers to put it on for you?"

"Old Master Qian, you're a respectable man, so please put it on yourself... But wait, don't do anything reckless! If you die here, none of your children and grandchildren will die a peaceful death!"

When the five white-haired patriarchs of powerful families, dragging heavy shackles and leading a long line of equally shackled clansmen, walked from all corners of Hangzhou toward the execution ground outside the city, the entire city of Hangzhou was in an uproar.

All the people of Hangzhou were running back and forth, crowding around to see these five great families.

Someone recognized a certain young master in the crowd, saying that his niece had been kidnapped by him, and when they found her, she was barely recognizable as human...

Someone recognized a certain manager in the crowd, saying that he had served him at a certain building a few years ago. Back then, he was treated like royalty, even more so than an official. A servant once accidentally bumped into him and was dragged to the back door and beaten to death on the spot...

The buzzing discussions gradually coalesced into a deafening chorus of curses, which then transformed into a rain of excrement, urine, and pebbles that hurtled towards the members of the five great families.

Human nature has a scale, but sometimes this scale is suppressed by power.

Just like that righteous fellow, he always seems to be late whenever he encounters someone powerful or influential...

The generals and soldiers escorting the five great families ignored the people who were throwing filth at the young masters and ladies.

Only when they broke down in tears and collapsed on the ground would they draw their knives and stab him, reminding him not to miss the appointed time.

The five great families have thrived in Hangzhou for hundreds of years, each a large and influential family with deep roots and numerous branches.

The number of people who were eventually escorted to the execution ground exceeded one thousand!

And this has not yet affected the three clans and the nine clans...

Zhao Dadan, who had been transferred to the position of executioner on the spot, took advantage of the execution ground to announce the pre-prepared charges to the tens of thousands of onlookers through his hundreds of messengers. He emphasized that these five powerful families had disobeyed the orders of General Wang of the Huainan Demon-Slaying General's Mansion. Instead of thinking about providing food to save the country and its people during this time of drought and crop failure, they had defied public opinion by raising grain prices and hoarding grain, resulting in widespread famine and cannibalism in Jiangnan.

"...His crimes are too numerous to count, and he is utterly unforgivable!"

Zhao Dadan shouted in a loud and forceful voice, "By order of the General, the entire family is to be executed immediately as a warning to others!"

A hundred or so burly messengers shouted in unison, "...the entire family will be executed immediately as a warning to others!"

Before the words were even finished, the dozens of militiamen who had been standing for a long time, holding decapitation swords, turned around in unison and raised their swords high, their blood-stained blades glowing.

"Pfft."

The sound of sharp blades cutting through flesh rang out, and dozens of heads rolled to the ground. Crimson blood gushed out like a fountain, instantly staining a large patch of soil below the execution ground.

The tens of thousands of onlookers at the execution ground fell silent for a second, seemingly not expecting that they would actually behead someone so readily...

The next second, cheers erupted.

"it is good!"

"Good kill!"

"Thank God..."

The overwhelming cheers drowned out the wailing and lamentation of the five great families on either side of the execution ground, which sounded as if their fathers had died.

Facing the surging heat, Zhao Dadan, his face flushed, waved his large hand and shouted, "Bring the next batch!"

Not only him, but all the soldiers of the Demon-Slaying General's Mansion in the execution ground had their hearts pounding like war drums.

Never before have they been so certain that what they were doing was right and meaningful!

Such passionate emotions are slowly but surely elevating their minds and character, gradually making them taller and more noble, and less petty and calculating.

"cut!"

"Pfft..." (End of Chapter)