Zongwu: Aspiring to be the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 283 The Conquest of Jiangnan, River Bandits

To say that you could memorize hundreds or thousands of martial arts manuals is actually nothing special.

There are quite a few people in this world who possess the ability to remember everything they see.

Wang Yuyan's true strength lies in her ability to directly discern the flaws in an opponent's martial arts techniques during combat and to offer guidance accordingly.

It should be noted that Wang Yuyan had memorized hundreds of martial arts manuals, but she never actually practiced any of them. At most, she would just read them a few times and simulate them in her mind.

Those whose martial arts weaknesses she pointed out had often been practicing for several years or even decades.

However, their mastery of this martial art was still far inferior to Wang Yuyan's.

Therefore, compared to memory, Wang Yuyan's greatest strength and her greatest treasure lies in her ability to comprehend and see through martial arts.

As for martial arts... although she is not a legendary martial arts prodigy who can enter the Inner Breath Realm without any foundation building or energy cultivation, with Zhou Ming's help, her martial arts progress is no slower than that of so-called martial arts prodigies.

As for how to utilize this person in the future.

That depends on her comprehension and how far she can go.

But in any case, we must first break Wang Yuyan's obsession with Murong Fu.

That way we can keep her firmly in our grasp.

While Zhou Ming was training Wang Yuyan in his dream, the expansion of the Sun Moon Cult was also in full swing.

Centered on Suzhou, it quickly spread and occupied the entire Jiangnan region.

After capturing each town, a new distribution of benefits will be carried out based on the previously established profit-sharing plan.

In this process, the ones who actually benefited the most were not the Sun Moon Cult, but the various families.

Because what the Sun Moon Cult aims to achieve is not to become the sole overlord of Jiangnan, but rather to become a force worshipped by all families, similar to the Murong family.

In other words, the Sun Moon Cult does not occupy any fixed properties, but instead entrusts these properties to various families under its control, and then signs protection and patronage agreements with them.

These properties will belong to them in the future, but these families must make regular offerings to the Sun Moon Cult.

The first offering was stipulated to be made three months later.

In other words, until the offering time three months later, these families did not receive, but rather enjoyed the benefits!

Under these circumstances, these families naturally went mad, closely following the footsteps of the Sun Moon Cult, frantically plundering and occupying territory.

During this period, there were naturally some forces that wanted to join the Sun Moon Cult.

The Sun Moon Cult selects the best candidates, choosing only one or two of the most powerful forces in each town and giving them a chance while demanding that they offer tribute in return.

After that, they will be allowed to join the Sun Moon Cult.

This force, like a pack of mad wolves, swept across all directions under the leadership of the Sun Moon Cult, a tiger.

During this period, it also continued to absorb other wolf packs.

Ultimately, it escalated into an overwhelming force.

Faced with this momentum, no one in the entire Jiangnan region could rival it.

Those forces that were not absorbed by the Sun Moon Cult had no choice but to withdraw from Jiangnan in tears in order to minimize their losses.

Their withdrawal caused officials throughout Jiangnan to weep.

In the State of Song, any power that wanted to securely occupy a territory had to first pay money to the local officials.

Those powerful forces will receive less, mainly to prevent officials from causing trouble.

Those weaker forces, who need the protection of the government, will naturally receive more. Some forces exist entirely by relying on the government, and have even become the government's money bag.

But now, the forces in various parts of Jiangnan have either been incorporated or fled. So, where will the officials get their money for future expenses?
Logically, they should have contacted the Sun Moon Cult.

However, officials in Jiangnan all knew that the Murong family had clashed with the government in the past, and the government eventually gave in.

The Sun Moon Cult has just wiped out the Murong family and has always been known as the Demonic Cult in the martial arts world, so they are clearly ruthless.

No one can say for sure whether the Sun Moon Church will assassinate them in a fit of anger.

After discussing the matter, the officials decided to pass it on to their superiors.

That is, the prefect of Suzhou.

After all, Suzhou is the most prosperous area in Jiangnan, the former stronghold of the Murong family, and now the headquarters of the Sun Moon Cult.

If Suzhou can take over the Sun Moon Sect, then they will naturally follow suit.

But if the Sun Moon Cult were to take Suzhou, they would naturally behave themselves.

The prefect of Suzhou was named Xiao Qinyan.

He was also very dissatisfied with this.

Previously, the Murong family had a wide influence and connections at the highest levels. In addition, they did pay tribute regularly, although the amount was small, at least they paid tribute.

Now that the Sun Moon Cult has taken over, it's an outside sect, and its members all rely on those who have pledged allegiance to the Sun Moon Cult for support. It has absolutely no connections at the top.

But they didn't even give us that little bit of tribute.

Therefore, he was holding back his opinions.

The reason for the lack of action was that they were waiting for officials from all over Jiangnan to come and petition them.

As a result, all the officials in Jiangnan would owe him a favor.

Only after accepting these favors did Xiao Qinyan begin to take action.

Of course, they didn't directly approach anyone to cause trouble for the Sun Moon Cult, nor did they issue any orders. Instead, they found an excuse to hold a banquet.

After eating and drinking his fill and accepting gifts from officials from various places, he said, "They say that monks from other places know how to chant sutras, haha, but in my opinion, these outsiders are ultimately not as sensible as us locals!"

He didn't say it explicitly, but everyone understood what he meant.

Soon, shops in Suzhou under the control of the Sun Moon Cult encountered various troubles, and the grains grown on the lands and estates directly belonging to the Sun Moon Cult suffered considerable damage overnight.

Anyone with eyes to see can tell that this must be the government taking action.

How should the Sun and Moon Church respond?
Dongfang Bubai smiled coldly and uttered only one word.

kill!

Within Suzhou, all gangs that had not yet submitted were completely eliminated.

Even the Beggars' Sect is the same!
It's impossible for an official to do such dirty work himself, and even his stewards and servants in the mansion would not be involved in such matters.

Especially when dealing with people in the martial arts world through such dirty tricks, one must be extremely cautious.

Why do martial arts practitioners rely on their strength and always try to rob the rich to help the poor?
Not only was the Song court weak and incompetent, but it also paid tribute to those foreign tribes every year and became their vassals. Countless people in the world harbored resentment and suppressed their anger.

Many martial artists in the martial arts world might not find an excuse on ordinary days, but once they do, they might use it to vent their frustrations.

Normally, the government tends to ignore cases involving martial arts practitioners if possible.

Now that there's no way to avoid it, we should wear as many layers of gloves as possible.

Ultimately, they turned to small gangs in various regions.

These small gangs are weak and have no way to join the Sun Moon Cult. They also lack intelligence capabilities and have no idea that the shops they vandalized were actually owned by the Sun Moon Cult.

However, after such a large-scale purge, where they were willing to kill the innocent rather than let the guilty go free, almost everyone knew about it.

When the officials discovered that the Sun Moon Cult was unharmed and prepared to try the same trick again, they found that the Black Gloves who usually eagerly helped them with their dirty work were nowhere to be found. After receiving orders, the servants in the mansion wandered the streets for several hours, but they couldn't find a single gang member, let alone thugs or beggars.

They finally found two thugs, but as soon as they heard that they were supposed to smash up some shops, they shook their heads like rattles.

In fact, they didn't even know which shops belonged to the Sun Moon Cult and which didn't.

But the Sun Moon Cult was too ruthless; in one operation, they wiped out all the gangs, big and small, in the entire city of Suzhou.

Even the Beggars' Sect was forcibly eliminated.

Although outwardly, no one saw a single corpse or head.

But that's what makes it even more terrifying.

Nobody wants to risk their life for a little money, so nobody wants to take the job.

The news was quickly reported to Xiao Qinyan.

boom!
Xiao Qinyan slammed his fist on the table: "It seems that the Sun Moon Sect is determined to fight the imperial court to the bitter end. This is no ordinary martial arts sect; we must strike hard!"

Despite his heavy-handed approach, Xiao Qinyan still dared not directly use the power of the government.

Instead, they contacted river bandits.

Suzhou is located on the shore of Taihu Lake, and not far to the east is the mouth of the Yangtze River.

In such places, the aquatic industry is highly developed, and there are many fishermen.

However, due to the rule of the Song state, the people lived in poverty.

In many inland areas, some villagers, if they cannot survive, often turn into bandits.

Fishermen who could no longer make a living near major waterways naturally turned into river bandits.

That's why mountain bandits are so hard to wipe out.

Because most of them are villagers from the surrounding area, they usually farm peacefully and hunt in the mountains, only turning into bandits when business comes their way.

Professional bandits, on the other hand, are much easier to eliminate.

Unless there is a martial arts master in charge.

The river bandits were actually the same; once they landed, they were just ordinary fishermen, and even on the water, they lived like normal fishermen.

They only gather together and become bandits when business comes their way.

Of course, every force has its organizers, liaisons, and high-ranking members.

But these people didn't stay on the river all year round. On the contrary, they spent most of their time on the shore, only becoming street vendors, storytellers, and wealthy landowners.

Thanks to the great river as a natural barrier, river bandits often required the deployment of naval forces to deal with them, making them even more difficult to suppress than mountain bandits.

Even martial arts practitioners, if lacking in strength, could be knocked into the water by a group of ordinary people and drown.

The river bandits near Suzhou were more difficult to deal with than ordinary river bandits because they gathered at the estuary, and if things went wrong, they could simply run out to sea.

Because of this characteristic, even though there were no martial arts experts among the river bandits, they were still a major force in Suzhou.

In the past, they had always treated the Murong family with the utmost respect and enjoyed the same treatment as the government officials.

In other words, the Murong family offered them money voluntarily, asking them not to cause trouble.

The government also completely ignored the river bandits.

The bandits also had some reservations about the Sun Moon Cult.

After all, even the Murong family had to spend money to avoid disaster in the past, let alone a foreign Sun Moon Divine Sect like yours.

Although you have taken over Suzhou, your Sun Moon Cult must still send money to us here!

However, the river bandits dared not show themselves, originally intending to cause trouble for the Sun Moon Cult's business on the river in the future.

However, during this period, the Sun Moon Cult was frantically occupying various parts of Jiangnan and had no time to do business, so the river bandits couldn't even find a reason to cause trouble.

At this moment, the government came knocking, and the two sides immediately reached an agreement.

However, the two sides had just reached an agreement the very next day when Tong Baixiong led a group of men into the home of Li, a famous philanthropist in Suzhou, and killed him.

When ordinary people learn of this, they only feel that the Sun Moon Cult is cruel and kills people without any reason.

Only a few high-ranking members of the bandits knew that their leader had been killed by the Sun Moon Cult!
But how could the Sun Moon Cult know that the wealthy Mr. Li was the leader of their river bandits?

Before they could figure it out, a furious knocking on the door interrupted their thoughts.

Within a single day, the bandit leader and many of his high-ranking members were all eliminated.

Without their leadership and communication, the remaining people were nothing more than a disorganized mess.

They dared not offend the Sun Moon Cult again.

"How...how could they have known?"

Xiao Qinyan was also shocked when he learned of this news.

Even he didn't know the identity of the bandit leader.

He was only able to cooperate with the bandits through a high-ranking member of their ranks.

But the Sun Moon Cult knew this.

Not only did they know the leader, but they also knew all the high-ranking officials below the leader.

How much else do they know?
Moreover, why do they possess such powerful intelligence capabilities?

How strong can this ability be?
Soon, Xiao Qinyan learned the answer.

The next day, hundreds of officials, clerks, and even stewards and servants in Suzhou were brutally beaten. Some were covered in bruises, while others had several broken bones.

This is already a very unusual thing.

What's even more unusual is that Xiao Qinyan discovered that everyone here was involved in the previous incident against the Sun Moon Cult.

Officials who give orders, clerks who offer suggestions, stewards who follow orders, and servants who carry out tasks.

Not one was missing.

Not one more!
Xiao Qinyan's expression changed drastically.

This is no longer a matter of intelligence capabilities; they have completely taken control of the entire city of Suzhou!

Sun Moon Cult.

An external force.

Having occupied Suzhou for less than a month, he has already accomplished something that neither the Murong family nor he, the governor of Suzhou, could do!

Xiao Qinyan was certain that the Sun Moon Sect had not only set its sights on Jiangnan and Suzhou recently, but must have been eyeing them for many years and had been planning and strategizing for many years.

I heard that the alliance that opposed the Sun Moon Cult had been fighting the Sun Moon Cult to a standstill, but as soon as Murong Fu became the leader of the alliance, it was immediately defeated and even wiped out a month later.

Looking back now, there are many strange things about this matter.

Perhaps it was all a grand scheme orchestrated by the Sun Moon Cult, just to wait for Murong Fu to return.

Then, just eliminate it!
(End of this chapter)