2024-09-02 08:57:32
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Chapter 662
Zhang Hu woke to the taste of mud and blood.His head pounded like a war drum. Pain burned in his neck and thigh where the needles had struck.For a long moment he lay still, listening. No shouts. No clash of steel. No crackle of torches. Only the wind moving through dry grass and the distant croak of frogs.He pushed himself up on one elbow. The field stretched empty in every direction. The ten thousand men who had marched with him were gone. No bodies. No abandoned weapons.The ground where they had stood was trampled flat, but the rebels themselves had vanished as if the earth had swallowed them whole.Zhang Hu staggered to his feet, sword still clutched in one numb hand. "My men!" His voice cracked across the empty plain. "To me! Form ranks!"Nothing answered him but the wind.He searched for an hour, moving in widening circles, qi flaring from his Core Formation senses. He found only a single dropped sickle and a torn strip of rebel cloth caught on a thorn bush.No tracks led awa
Chapter 661
The moon hid behind thick clouds, leaving the borderlands in absolute blackness. A perfect night for thieves and rebels.Thousands of Yellow Turbans moved like a dark tide across the dry fields outside Willowbrook, the outermost town in Yan Province.Most of the rebels were peasants—gaunt, hollow-cheeked, and half-starved. They marched with little more than rusty sickles, crude spears fashioned from farming poles, and a handful of stolen swords.That was why they moved so slowly.At their head rode their leader, the wiry cultivator Zhang Hu, perched atop a gaunt horse. Torchlight danced across his face as he raised the flame high, his eyes blazing with years of accumulated fury.“Burn everything in this village and the next!” he snarled, glancing back at his ragged army. “Take what you can carry. Leave the rest in ashes. All the way to Changyi—we burn them all!”A savage cheer rose from the mob. They had done this before. Villages fell easily when the central government was rotten and
Chapter 660
Alex stood at the tall window of the governor’s private study, the city of Changyi spread below like a living map.Lanterns glowed in the evening haze. Behind him, Zhuge Liang waited in silence.“The projects will continue without me,” Alex said. “The dikes. The irrigation. The roads. Gaia will monitor the numbers. You will handle the officials. If any man steals or delays, punish him publicly. Make an example once. After that, they will remember.”“Your name is already ruined thanks to those thousand women. This might make it worse.”Alex smiled coldly. “Perfect. Warlords are everywhere. If the masses want to despise me and spread tales of my cruelty, who am I to disappoint them? Let’s hand them more ammunition.”Zhuge Liang inclined his head. “And the Yellow Turbans?”“I’ve prepared everything for our guests,” Alex said with a smirk. “Truth be told, I’m already bored. They crawl like snails. But you needn’t concern yourself. When they finally reach our perimeter, Gaia will activate
Chapter 659
A month had slipped past since the day Alex rode into Changyi at the head of five thousand Wudang disciples.The rumors still burned through every teahouse and barracks in the two provinces. But the compound that had once served as the province’s primary military training ground now bore almost no resemblance to its former self.What had been a place of sweat, steel, and shouted orders had become something else entirely: a palace built for silk, perfume, and the legend of a governor lost to his own appetites.Alex walked the central avenue with measured steps. At his side walked Zhuge Liang.“A month, my lord,” he said quietly. “The renovations are finished. Every hall, every private wing, every courtyard has been prepared exactly as you instructed. And in that time we have done as you commanded.”“We opened recruitment to every merchant, every clan head, every family in Yan and Qing that possessed a daughter or woman of notable beauty. Every woman slave we could find. Some came willi
Chapter 658
Alex stood at the central window, hands clasped behind his back. Below him, Changyi moved with the cautious energy of a city still learning who its new master was.Zhuge Liang stood a respectful pace to his right, a stack of reports in one hand and a faint crease between his brows.“Governor,” Zhuge Liang said quietly, “are you certain about sending the soldiers into the fields?”Alex did not turn.“Not exactly as you mean it. A strong country is built on steady food first. Trade follows abundance. Content people come after that. Right now our farmlands are fragile because the Yellow River has never been properly tamed. The soldiers we kept will not simply plant rice. They will build dikes, strengthen flood controls, and expand irrigation channels along the river’s course. Those works will prevent disasters and make the plains reliable. That is the foundation of real wealth.”He finally glanced at Zhuge Liang. “Our drones and the Gaia network will make the work faster and more precise
Chapter 657
The imperial palace in Chang’an had never felt smaller.Sunlight slanted through high windows draped in crimson silk, falling across the dragon throne where a nine-year-old boy sat lost in robes far too large for him.Liu Xie’s feet did not reach the floor. His small hands gripped the carved armrests and his eyes kept flicking toward the man who truly ruled the empire.Dong Zhuo filled the hall the way a storm fills the sky.He occupied the seat beside the throne rather than the throne itself—an open declaration that the boy was emperor in name only.Gold thread strained across his shoulders. A single finger tapped the lacquered wood in a slow, deliberate rhythm that made every courtier in the chamber hold his breath.Li Ru entered without hurry. The advisor’s footsteps were soft on the polished stone, his dark robes immaculate, his posture precise.In one hand he carried a rolled report sealed with the mark of their southern spies. He stopped at the proper distance, bowed deeply, and
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Very interesting read
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