Underworld entries, starting with ghost stories.

Wu Qing, Dou Xianniang, Shan Ailian, and the others from Wuji Village escorted the 80,000 taels of tribute silver, avoiding the official road, and returned to the village.

The tribute of 80,000 taels of silver allowed Wuji Village to further stockpile weapons and provisions, and recruit more people.

Wu Qing and Master Cen were assigned to the same courtyard.

This courtyard was only temporarily built, since the original mountain stronghold had already been burned down.

In this day and age, having a place to stay is already a blessing; nobody cares much about such things.

Not far from this courtyard is the Great King's Palace.

Although it's called the King's Hall, it's actually the main hall where the bandit leader, who rules the mountain, gathers his men to discuss important matters. Every mountain stronghold has such a King's Hall.

The main seat in the Great King's Hall is where the Mountain King sits. Wu Qing, as the advisor, is very fortunate to have a sandalwood chair with a backrest a little to the right front of the Mountain King's throne.

Although it cannot compare to the mountain king's throne, which is covered with a thick tiger skin and looks majestic, it is exquisite and elegant.

Behind the Great King's Palace, Dou Xianniang lived with her maids and female soldiers. After Shan Ailian entered the mountain, she also lived with her.

During the time that Dou Xianniang and Wu Qing were away, Dou Bin and Dou Kui led the villagers to further set up rolling logs and stones at the village gate and to drill the troops on the back mountain.

Deeper into the mountains behind the village, the villagers who had abandoned Doujiazhuang and moved there, along with many tenant farmers and refugees from the surrounding areas, were building terraced fields and cultivating the land.

Wuji Village had already been massacred by government troops, but even so, many people still abandoned the land rented to them by landlords and tyrants and came here to cultivate the land under harsh conditions.

Because the exorbitant taxes and levies imposed outside are simply unaffordable.

Even more terrifying than the exorbitant taxes and levies was the forced labor. During the conquest of Liaodong, a large number of adult men were forced to perform endless forced labor. When there were not enough men, women were used instead, resulting in corpses littering the roads of Liaodong.

Wang Bo launched an uprising at Mount Taibai, which was met with widespread support, and hundreds of rebel groups emerged to oppose the imperial court.

It was because Wang Bo wrote a poem called "Song of Dying in Liaodong".

That day, Wu Qing sat on a stone bench in the courtyard, basking in the sun, and received a message from outside.

As a time traveler, he knew the importance of intelligence.

He waved his hand, signaling the messenger to leave, and then unfolded the note and read it over.

Then he looked at Master Cen beside him and laughed in anger: "That tyrannical emperor issued an edict to build castles in every prefecture and county and move the people into them."

"Not only are they only allowed to farm near the castle, but they are also held jointly accountable. If one of them runs away, the rest of the team and their families will be punished."

When I was in school, the books would simply describe the suffering and misery of the common people in a few words.

Only after actually traveling through time do you realize how absurd this world can be.

He shook his head and said, "Why do people run away? It's because if they run away, they will have a hard time surviving, but if they don't run away, they will have an even harder time surviving."

"In this situation, instead of trying to appease the people and reduce taxes, this ruler further oppresses and enslaves them. Is this incompetent ruler suffering from a disease where he will die if he doesn't force the people to rebel?"

Master Cen sat to one side, a book in his hand, and asked, "Does Qing-ge'er know the Five Arts of Governing the People?"

Wu Qing nodded and said: "The five arts of governing the people are: keeping them ignorant, weakening them, exhausting them, humiliating them, and impoverishing them."

"To be precise: if the common people are not allowed to access knowledge, they will not know how to resist. If their weapons and resources are confiscated, they will not be able to become powerful."

"By keeping the people busy with various forms of forced labor, they will have no time to think. Only by making the people lose their dignity and become accustomed to living in humiliation and fear can the nobility of the monarch and the dukes be demonstrated, and the people be made to obey."

"If the people do not have any surplus grain in their homes, they will not dare to slack off in order to make a living, and at the same time they will not have the strength to rebel."

Master Cen said, "After Qin Shi Huang unified the world, he perfected these five arts of governing the people, and then the dynasty only lasted two generations, didn't it?"

Wu Qing shook his head: "History is indeed a cycle. The only lesson people learn from historical experience is that they cannot learn anything from historical experience."

He waved the note in his hand: "The landlords and powerful families in Cheng'an County have begun to cooperate with the government in doing this."

"They're cooperating with the government, forcing their tenants to build castles that will imprison them—they seem even more desperate than a tyrant!"

Master Cen said, "That's natural, because those who are now gathering to rebel are all the lowest-level refugees and rioters. They are seizing their land and robbing their grain."

"Whether they are powerful clans or wealthy landlords, they are all like tyrannical rulers, unable to tolerate rebellions by people like us. But the more they do this, the more people will flee here."

Wu Qing stood up: "We are bound to have a battle with the officials, soldiers, landlords and powerful families of Cheng'an County."

"They will do what they did last time: kill everyone here who dares to rebel, to set an example for the common people."

"It's not just here; now, the only method this tyrant uses against rebel armies across the land is brutal suppression—killing, killing, and more killing!"

Master Cen asked, "Qing-ge'er, where are you going?"

"I'll go practice too!" Wu Qing waved his long, thin arm. "No matter how good your literary or military skills are, in the end, you still have to resolve things through force. In this chaotic world, it's either you kill me or I kill you."

Master Cen looked at the boy who had been thin and frail but had regained some fair skin recently, and was taken aback... "You want to go and practice?"

Wu Qing left the courtyard and headed towards the stable.

Before he even arrived, a soldier took the initiative to lead his horse over.

"Master, where are you going? If you're going outside, you'll need to take more men with you."

"No! I just wanted to take a stroll in the back mountain!" Wu Qing said with a smile, and mounted his horse.

I rode my horse toward the back mountain, where large groups of able-bodied men were undergoing intensive training.

Dou Kui was leading the warriors of the manor, teaching these able-bodied men simple moves for fighting the enemy.

After watching from horseback for a while, Wu Qing had to admit that most of the men were already doing quite well if they could just grab their wooden poles and spears and charge into battle.

They were mostly illiterate, poor people who had the courage to stand up against the government, which was quite remarkable.

A single spark can start a prairie fire. When more and more ordinary people dare to rebel, those people will be afraid.

"Qing-ge'er!" Dou Kui stepped forward, looked up at him from beside the horse, and asked, "Do you have any instructions?"

Wu Qing laughed and said, "I just came to borrow a weapon."

He knew he didn't know much about training troops, so he didn't dare to give unsolicited advice.

He rode his horse to the weapons rack, grabbed a large axe with embroidered patterns, and lifted it with force.

Good weight!

Although he managed to lift it up, he nearly fell off the horse because he was so wobbly.

How did those warriors manage to wield such large axes and hack people down on horseback?

He placed the large axe across the horse's back and slowly paced back, trying to maintain his composure.

As a clerk, one must never let anyone see one's guilty conscience; this is called "keeping calm and composed."

Dou Kui watched in bewilderment as his advisor struggled to grab a large axe, placed it across the horse's back with some difficulty, and then slowly rode away into the distance with a blank expression.

Looking at the advisor's silent back, he scratched his head... The advisor's actions must have a deeper meaning!