The mysterious world: Start working hard from the beggar camp!

Chapter 489 Nothing can be accomplished overnight, Hong Chengchou's assertion
"Yes, Father."

Xu Nianzu was rarely taught a lesson by Xu Bengao, and he immediately felt a huge sense of crisis.

Although he is the eldest son of the Xu family, he has two younger brothers.

The second brother Xu Jiye was okay. His innate talent was relatively mediocre and he could only be considered a genius.

But the third brother Xu Chengzu is different.

If we were to ask who among the contemporary descendants of the Changxing Xu family has the best innate talent, it would be none other than Xu Chengzu.

Even though Xu Nianzu is only 23 years old this year and his cultivation has already broken through to the middle stage of level five, he is not at the same level as his third brother Xu Chengzu, who is only 17 years old and has reached the peak level of level five.

Fortunately, the third brother Xu Chengzu is a martial arts fanatic who devotes himself to practice and never gets involved in the trivial matters of the family. He does not pose a threat to the eldest brother Xu Nianzu.

After all, managing such a huge Xu family is not something that a martial arts fanatic who doesn't care about worldly affairs can do.

Xu Nianzu has always been the undisputed heir to the family's patriarch.

Under normal circumstances, this throne is naturally as stable as Mount Tai.

However, the rules of heaven and earth have changed greatly today, and the restrictions on practitioners seem to have been relaxed too much. The recovery of spiritual energy between heaven and earth has become more and more intense, and even various rare treasures of heaven and earth have begun to emerge in an endless stream.

Especially the head of the family, Xu Bengao, has broken through to the sixth level, his lifespan has greatly increased, and he has refined his natal artifact, the Haotian Tower, through extremely bloody means. In the future, he may be able to break through to the spirit refining realm and become a legendary land immortal.

In this case, Xu Bengao might live longer than his three sons, and Xu Nianzu's succession as the head of the family is probably a long way off and full of variables.

This forced Xu Nianzu to worry about his future status and whether he would be replaced by his brothers or the next generation of descendants.

The best way to prevent this crisis from happening is for Xu Nianzu to break through to the sixth level as soon as possible, or even break through to become a strong man in the spirit refining realm in the future, so that he can maintain his position as the second most powerful person in the Xu family.

"Joer, as long as you understand."

Seeing his eldest son come to his senses after being beaten by him, Xu Bengao nodded with satisfaction and said, "Tomorrow you will come with me to Wucheng to meet with the Xie family to discuss. Don't lose face for our Xu family!"

When he said this, his face looked a little gloomy.

The Xie family has been passed down for tens of thousands of years, and its foundation is unfathomable.

Compared with the Xie family, their Xu family is like a nouveau riche, and it is impossible for them to compare with the other party in terms of foundation.

This cast a shadow on Xu Bengao's prospects for cooperation between the Xu and Xie families.

However, in the past thousand years, the Xu family's growth and development speed is not comparable to that of the Xie family, especially after Xu Bengao refined the Haotian Tower, the national treasure of the Ming Empire, he became more confident.

There is also the family's Flying Eagle Guard, which has already been formally formed and is powerful enough to overwhelm the Xie family.

In any case, the two families have to withstand Emperor Chongzhen's round of revenge before they can start their next plan.

"Chongzhen!"

"You may be too proud too soon!"

"Do you think that with the sixth-level late stage cultivation and an innate divine weapon, you can unscrupulously tear apart our Jiangnan family alliance?"

"I have to say, you think too much."

"It's time for you to see the true power of us, the deeply rooted aristocratic families!"

Thinking that Emperor Chongzhen, a dead fish, could turn over, a cold light flashed in Xu Bengao's eyes, and all kinds of calculations came into his mind.

……

In Guiyang City, blood flowed like a river inside and outside the city.

After capturing this big city where the chieftains were the main dignitaries, Hong Chengchou ruthlessly ordered 500,000 soldiers of the Hong family to launch a large-scale purge.

Hong Chengchou had a clear understanding of the chieftains entrenched in the Yunnan and Guizhou regions.

These barbarians are unreliable.

It takes a long time to teach and assimilate them, and only then can their wildness be slowly eliminated and they can be tamed for one's own use.

But the world is in chaos now, and Hong Chengchou, who has just led a large army here, lacks time the most. He simply does not have enough time to complete such a time-consuming and long operation.

In this case, the only option left is the Great Purge.

Only by gradually eliminating these large numbers of local chieftains who were acting independently and replacing them with Han people can we completely eliminate future internal hidden dangers, thus creating a qualified jurisdiction and allowing the Hong family army to grow and develop rapidly.

Hong Chengchou had already prepared a plan to deal with local forces like the Tusi.

In fact, it is very simple: as long as the chieftains are killed one by one, the barbarian soldiers will quickly collapse, and then you can take advantage of the situation to pursue them and start a massacre.

For Hong Chengchou, who possessed the innate and top-grade divine weapon, the Blue Lotus Flag, it was very simple.

Using his own sixth-level cultivation to activate his innate divine weapon and riding on the fifth-level peak spirit bird, he launched a surprise attack on those chieftains. It was so easy as taking something out of a bag.

For Hong Chengchou, this unethical sneak attack did not cause any psychological burden at all.

The winner is the king. What does a mere act of unscrupulousness count for?
Three hours later, the shouting and screaming in this Guizhou city with a population of millions finally subsided.

Hong Chengchou personally rode on a level five peak spirit bird, with his mind fully open, and carefully patrolled the air before nodding with satisfaction.

At this time in Guiyang City, millions of barbarians had been slaughtered, leaving only about one million Han people.

These people are exactly what Hong Chengchou needs.

As for those barbarians, let them all die.

In this respect, Hong Chengchou and Li Dingguo are somewhat similar. Both of them are ruthless people who like to root out the evil.

With the strong fertility of the Han people, it will take less than a hundred years to fill all the population gaps within their jurisdiction and completely eliminate internal hidden dangers.

Over the past year, Hong Chengchou personally led 500,000 soldiers of the Hong Family Army and nearly 2 million military dependents southward. Along the way, he wiped out countless chieftain forces and created countless uninhabited areas!
It was through this ruthless method of fighting to support the war that he not only solved the problem of the supply of military supplies, but also gathered tens of millions of Han people and even launched a number of warrior recruitment training camps.

At most three months later, the millions of new soldiers who have completed the warrior selection will join the Hong family army, which will inevitably lead to a dramatic increase in the strength of Hong Chengchou's troops, allowing them to occupy this vast and wild area and truly gain a foothold.

Although the number of Han people in Yunnan and Guizhou is far less than that in the Central Plains provinces, there are still billions of them. If Hong Chengchou can gather and integrate these Han people, the war potential should not be underestimated.

"Grand Governor!"

As soon as Hong Chengchou arrived at the City Lord's Mansion, a figure flashed over and reported to him, "The secret guards of our Hong Family Army used a level 4 spirit pigeon to send back an urgent message!"

The person who came was Hong Bo, the chief steward under Hong Chengchou.

With the strong support of Hong Chengchou, Hong Bo's cultivation also broke through to the peak level of level five, and he finally caught up with his own pace.

Since Hong Chengchou went south to establish himself, in order to keep a low profile and to justify his status, he adopted the method of deceiving the world and stealing fame from the Three Kingdoms period, and appointed himself the Grand Commander of Yunnan and Guizhou.

Therefore, there is nothing wrong with Hong Bo calling him the Grand Commander.

"Oh?"

"What happened?"

Hong Chengchou looked at Hong Bo with a slightly cold gaze and said.

Although he had sent people to pick up all the members of the Sun family from their hometown in Jiangnan before the army marched south from Hanzhong Prefecture, he now has no shortage of civil and military officials and confidants under his command.

But Hong Bo and Hong Yuanfeng are still Hong Chengchou's right-hand men and are most valued by him.

"Grand Commander, the situation in Jinling City changed not long ago!"

Hong Bo's tone was filled with shock. "Ever since the capital was moved south to Nanjing, the Chongzhen Emperor, who had never been involved in state affairs, suddenly rose to power. Not only did he miraculously break through to the late sixth level, but he also suddenly launched an attack and successfully carried out a major purge of Nanjing City, regaining control of the military and political power!"

"The rich and powerful class headed by Duke Wei and Duke Cheng, as well as a large number of officials and noble families, were confiscated and exterminated. At least millions of people were killed in Jinling alone. It can be said that rivers of blood flowed!"

"What's even more shocking is that Gao Jie's troops in the north were suddenly annexed by Lu Xiangsheng, and Liu Zeqing's troops in Yangzhou were also annexed by Sun Chuanting. Together with the troops of Huang Degong, who was Chongzhen's confidant, the new armies of the three towns in northern Jiangnan of the Ming Dynasty all fell into Chongzhen's control!"

"The latest intelligence shows that the Southern Ming Dynasty has given up the vast area north of the Yangtze River and handed it over to Li Dingguo's Fuxing Army. As a result, the Fuxing Army, which had eaten too much, had to stop its southward expansion."

"In this way, although it may seem that the Southern Ming court has lost Jiangbei, it has actually taken the opportunity to relieve the huge pressure brought by the Fuxing Army and put aside the heaviest burden on them. At least it can buy two or three years of precious time to deal with the chaotic affairs in Jiangnan."

As we all know, the force that poses the greatest threat to the Southern Ming Dynasty today is undoubtedly Li Dingguo's Fuxing Army.

As long as the threat posed by the Restoration Army can be temporarily eliminated, with the prosperity of Jiangnan, if the internal hidden dangers can be resolved, there will be enough resources and population advantages to compete with the Restoration Army.

"Dare Chongzhen do this?"

"Isn't he afraid that those Jiangnan noble families will unite and launch endless revenge?"

"It's not like they haven't killed emperors before. For these people, replacing an emperor is as easy as eating and drinking!"

Upon hearing this incredible news, even Hong Chengchou, who usually did not show his emotions, was quite shocked.

Others may not know, but Hong Chengchou knows it clearly.

Among the Ming emperors throughout history, at least ten died at the hands of these officials and gentry. The only difference was that they died in different ways.

Throughout the tens of thousands of years of history of the Chinese nation, the real holders of power have never been the emperor, but rather those deeply rooted aristocratic families.

This was also true during the Qin Dynasty, which was at the peak of China's prosperity.

Qin Shihuang, the first emperor to establish a unified dynasty, died of chronic poisoning due to the schemes of aristocratic families and officials, which led to the disintegration of the once glorious Qin Dynasty and the death of the second emperor.

From ancient times to the present, there has only been an outlier like Li Dingguo. The Fuxing Army he founded has subverted the original power structure model and truly made his words law.

But what virtue and ability did Chongzhen have to dare to learn from Li Dingguo and suddenly launch a challenge against those official families?
So what if he has reached the late sixth level of cultivation?
As long as one fails to protect the country alone, he will eventually be plotted against and killed.

No matter how powerful Chongzhen was, could he be stronger than the legendary Qin Shihuang, who had reached the peak of the Spirit Refining Realm?
Even though Hong Chengchou was ruthless and broke with the imperial court and established his own regime, he only targeted those aristocratic families and officials who were at odds with him, but he did not dare to make enemies with all the officials and aristocratic families in the world.

It can be said that from ancient times to the present, only this young man Li Dingguo dared to defy the world and not only dared to do it, but also succeeded.

The news that the Fuxing Army was able to occupy the entire Jiangbei area did not come as a surprise to Hong Chengchou.

He had anticipated this, otherwise he would not have voluntarily given up the prosperous Hanzhong Prefecture and retreated to the desolate Yunnan-Guizhou region.

If for no other reason, it was to avoid Li Dingguo's attack, gain time to develop peacefully, and put himself in a position where he could advance or retreat.

"Grand Commander, Chongzhen now has a powerful Blood Palace artifact, which has great combat power."

Hong Bo then said, "According to intelligence, during the purge of Jinling City, most of the enemy's level 5 masters were killed by Chongzhen himself using his life-defining artifact in one blow. They had no power to resist at all. This is probably where his confidence comes from."

"If it goes as expected, Chongzhen must have inherited the bloodline of Zhu's great ancestor, which is why he was able to achieve such a rapid increase in cultivation in such a short period of time."

"This unconventional way of increasing one's cultivation level will inevitably leave behind great consequences. It is normal for one to suffer backlash and die in the future."

He has reasons to say this.

Emperor Taizu of the Ming Dynasty was invincible and dominated his time, but in the end, he died suddenly, didn't he?

Emperor Chongzhen, who rose to power at an incredible speed, was obviously repeating the same mistakes and would end up in the same way.

"Well, that's true."

Hong Chengchou nodded and said, "Nothing can be achieved overnight. Chongzhen's current situation is obviously not in line with common sense."

"It's a pity that he wants to copy the path of Zhu's great ancestor to dominate, but the possibility of success is very slim."

"Let's not talk about Li Dingguo, who has an unfathomable background. Just the backlash from the Jiangnan aristocratic families alone will be difficult for him to overcome."

"Even though he has millions of troops at his disposal, raising an army is not a quick task. Without enough resources and materials that can be consumed over a long period of time, how can he maintain the morale of the army for a long time?"

"Although the Jiangnan region is rich, most of the cultivation resources are still controlled by those aristocratic families."

"If things go as expected, Emperor Chongzhen's road to recovery will come to an abrupt end soon."

"In today's world, no Qi Refining Realm cultivator can be invincible unless he breaks through to the Spirit Refining Realm first!"

In Hong Chengchou's mind, Chongzhen's chances of ruling the world in the future were far less than Li Dingguo's, and it was ultimately just a fantasy.

(End of this chapter)