A Good Landlord in the Tang Dynasty: Starting from the Village Chief

Chapter 487 Fenglong Mountain

On the 18th day of the tenth month of the fourth year of the Wude era, the solar term "Major Snow" occurred.

Last night the north wind was strong, and this morning snow is falling, just in time for the Great Snow solar term.

The city gates of Yuanshi County in Zhao Prefecture opened half an hour later than usual today. The soldiers guarding the city removed the heavy bolts from the gates and slowly pulled them open. A strong wind rushed in, carrying snowflakes.

An old official came through the snow.

A notice was posted at the city gate.

The gatekeeper on duty, carrying a long, hard spear shaft, stood behind the old official, but he was illiterate.

"Zhao Shuzuo, what kind of notice has been posted this time?"

Old Zhao wrapped his sheepskin robe tighter around himself. Last night, strong winds blew and the temperature dropped sharply. Lying on the couch, the blanket felt like ice on his body. This morning, he woke up with a runny nose and a bit of dizziness.

He said impatiently, "The proclamation of amnesty, issued in October of the fourth year of the Wude era, states that Li Shi, the Minister of Works, concurrently serving as Grand General of the Right Guard, Grand Governor of Mingzhou, and Prince of Wu'an... all those who surrender will have their fields, houses, and properties restored to their former status..."

Old Zhao's voice was a little hoarse and unclear.

Upon hearing this, a goalkeeper holding a gun simply turned his head and spat a thick wad of phlegm on the ground, muttering, "Ah, te!"

The city gates opened.

People slowly started coming and going.

Although it was freezing cold and snowing heavily, a time when people should be huddled around a stove burning charcoal to keep warm during the winter, for many people who rely on manual labor for their livelihood, they still had to work hard even when it was snowing heavily.

A newly posted notice at the city gate
It attracted a lot of passersby to watch, and those who could read recited it to everyone.

A man wearing a sheepskin veiled hat sneered, "Lord Dou surrendered, but died suddenly half a month after entering Chang'an."

It was said that all the officials and generals in Hebei would retain their positions, but once they went to Chang'an, they were all detained.

That would make us believe this nonsense.

His words immediately resonated with many people.

"That's right. Wasn't it this same Chief Steward Li who said that Dou Gong's subordinates, once they were discharged from the army and returned to their fields, would be allocated land and their properties would remain the same? But what happened?"

As everyone on the list knew, during this period, Dou Gong's former subordinates in Hebei, regardless of whether they were officials, clerks, or soldiers, became easy prey after retiring and returning to their hometowns, subject to extortion, blackmail, exploitation, and plunder.

A peddler carrying a load said, "I heard that Chief Steward Li has returned to Mingzhou City. I heard he plans to merge prefectures and counties, dismiss officials, and borrow money from wealthy and powerful families to provide relief to disaster victims, resettle displaced people, and support commerce and industry."
We also need to check household registrations and measure farmland…

These words drifted in the cold wind, drawing complaints from a group of people.

"This is going to drive us Hebei people to our deaths!"

"It's nothing more than a disguised form of robbing us."

“Those people from Guanzhong never intended to let us go.”

Liu Wei led his horse and several people through the crowd. His thick veil was pulled low, and he didn't speak like the others. His gaze swept over the notice and finally landed on the four words "no leniency for past offenses".

His lips curled into a sneer, full of disdain.

Once bitten, twice shy.

He no longer trusted any so-called imperial proclamations.

Outside the city, the wind was strong and the snow was heavy.
Liu Wei turned and left, mounting his horse and riding off into the vast snowstorm.

They traveled westward.
Passing by Panlong Lake,
The lake had long since frozen over, and many people were harvesting ice from it. After the heavy snow season, it was the time when wealthy and powerful families would chisel ice and store it in ice cellars for use the following summer.

Blocks of ice were chiseled off, dragged ashore, and loaded onto trucks. The workers worked in perfect harmony, oblivious to the freezing weather, working with great enthusiasm, their heads practically steaming.

Those who enjoy these ice cubes in the summer,

At this moment, they are collecting fresh snow from the branches, melting it to make tea, listening to songs and watching dances, unaware of the hardship of ice harvesting.

Liu Wei and his entourage drove past Panlong Lake and finally climbed Fenglong Mountain.

Fenglong Mountain, also known as Feilong Mountain, is located west of the Taihang Mountains and east of the plains.

Rising majestically, it is magnificent and spectacular.

It stretches for more than 20 miles from east to west.

Legend has it that when Yu the Great was controlling the floods, he sealed this mountain off from a dragon that was causing havoc and bringing many disasters to the people in Hebei, hence the name Fenglong Mountain (Sealing Dragon Mountain).

This mountain valley is deep and densely forested, with strange peaks and rocks.

Leading the horse on foot, we arrived at Black Dragon Cave. Fenglong Mountain not only has many famous temples and courtyards, but also some dens of bandits.

Black Wind Cave was a den of mountain bandits.

During the Daye era, Liu Wei was originally a wealthy man in Luancheng County, Zhao Commandery. However, due to the corruption of officials and the constant famine, Liu Wei was exploited by corrupt officials and robbed by displaced people and bandits. In the end, he killed the officials in anger and fled to Fenglong Mountain, where he also became a bandit.

He once gathered thousands of men at Fenglong Mountain, and later became a follower of the Xia King.

"Second brother!"

Someone from Black Dragon Cave came out to greet them.

"Hurry inside the cave to warm up by the fire."

Black Dragon Cave is very large, with interconnected caves of all sizes. It could have housed more than a thousand of Liu Wei's brothers back then.

"Second brother, what's the situation down the mountain?"

"Li Yi has returned to Hebei and issued a notice to offer amnesty," Liu Wei told everyone what he had learned at the foot of the mountain.

"Second Brother, is the imperial court really going to offer amnesty?" a tall, thin man asked. "You believe what those corrupt officials say? How did Li Yi trick us into retiring from the army and returning to our fields? And what became of us?"

"When we go up Fenglong Mountain again, aren't we all the ones who trusted those corrupt officials, only to be punished by them later and forced to go back because we couldn't survive? Don't you think you've been deceived badly enough?" Someone immediately cursed him.

The tall, thin man lowered his voice, "Those who bully us are the local powerful families and those corrupt officials in the government. Those people have nothing to do with Li Yi, right?"

"How can it be unrelated?" several people retorted.

The tall, thin man's voice shrank a few decibels, "But we're hiding in this mountain now, and the heavy snow has blocked the mountain. We have no food reserves. How are we going to survive the winter?"
"The government troops are coming to encircle and annihilate us? We don't even have weapons or armor, how can we possibly fight back?"

Someone said, "Second Brother has his own ways of handling these matters."

Second Brother Liu Wei was actually at a loss. He had rushed up the mountain without any preparation, and although he had gathered about a hundred old brothers,
They had no grain, no weapons, and with only a dozen or so horses and a hundred or so swords and bows, what could they possibly accomplish?

He went down the mountain this time for two reasons: first, to gather information, and second, to obtain some food.

However, food control is very strict now, and even if you have money, you can't buy food at will.

Fortunately, there is some good news: there are many people like them in various places who are suffering the same fate they experienced before.

Many people's anger is building up.

However, many people still haven't dared to speak out.

"Where is Mr. Liu?" Liu Wei asked.

"This teaching assistant, Liu, is too frail. He caught a cold and is lying in bed."

Liu Wei got up and went to visit Liu Xian in the small cave next door.
"Mr. Liu, are you feeling any better?"

"I feel better after taking the medicine." Liu Xian lay there weakly, his heart filled with longing for his elderly mother and wife at home.

He felt extremely guilty thinking about how his wife had traveled all the way from Chang'an to accompany him back to Hebei. He was still unaware of how much she was worried about him.

"Lord Liu, I want to go back to Zhao Prefecture. My mother and wife must be looking for me."

Liu Wei sighed.

"Mr. Liu, when my brother was in trouble and imprisoned in Zhao Prefecture, you took good care of him. Without you, he might not be alive today. When we went to rescue my brother, we happened to encounter corrupt officials in Zhao Prefecture who wanted to harm you."

My brother said he must save you to repay your kindness, but the situation was urgent and we couldn't bring your mother, wife and children back.

We are currently facing difficult circumstances, and it's inconvenient for us to bring your mother, wife, and children here. It's also difficult to contact you, lest we be discovered by those corrupt officials. We hope you can understand.

What can Liu Xian say?

He was just a county school assistant teacher, and after only a few months in the job, he was regarded by the government as a former subordinate of the Dou family and was extorted by them several times.

Liu Wei was right. If Liu Wei and his men hadn't taken him away that day, he would have been exploited to the bone by the clerks, and might even have been killed.

He did harbor resentment, but he lacked the courage to join Liu Wei and the others in their rebellion. He also couldn't bear to leave his family and felt that the tide had turned, so there would be no good opportunity to rebel now.

"Mr. Liu, I would like to ask you to help me write a manifesto."

I know that Mr. Liu is a man of great talent. He was famous in his hometown when he was young and later went to study in Chang'an.

Please write a proclamation against the Tang Dynasty for us. We want to rally our brothers in Hebei, who are suffering injustice, to oppose the Tang.

Dou Gong has been defeated, but we Hebei people will not be slaughtered; we can still fight.

Liu Xian fell silent.

Once this manifesto was written, there was no turning back.

With his wife, Wang, in his mind, Liu Xian felt heavy-hearted.

On one hand, he suffered oppression and injustice at the hands of officials; on the other hand, he had an elderly mother and a helpless wife.

"Sir, this place used to be Changshan Prefecture. Zhao Zilong of Changshan was born here. How many heroes like Zhao Zilong are there in Changshan?"

How can we afford to be so humiliated and pathetic now?

"Yes, a real man shouldn't be a coward," the crowd agreed.

Liu Xian sat up.

He traveled in Chang'an for several years. Although he was frustrated by his lack of opportunity and was very down on his luck, eventually unable to even afford the cost of a hotel or food, he still gained a broad perspective and understood the Tang Dynasty better than Liu Wei and other people from Hebei.

"Lord Liu, I know everyone is angry, and to be honest, I've been holding my breath too. But I still have to remind you all that the Tang Dynasty has almost unified the entire country, and Hebei is now under the control of the Tang court."
Hebei still has more than 20,000 elite central government troops, as well as newly reorganized 48th Army troops.

Moreover, Li Yi, Tian Liuan, Shuang Shilu, Qiu Shili, Wang Junkuo, and others stationed in Hebei were all renowned generals.
Especially Li Yi, who was a renowned general in the Tang court, second only to Prince Qin, Li Shimin, in terms of fighting prowess.

"Liu Gong intends to raise an army on Fenglong Mountain with our mere hundred or so men; to put it bluntly, that's like throwing an egg against a rock."

Liu Wei laughed heartily several times.

"Sir, in the seventh year of the Daye era, was the Sui Dynasty strong or weak? How many soldiers did it have? How fierce were its generals? And when Wang Bo, the Prince of Zhishi, raised an uprising in Changbai Mountain, how many men and how many weapons did he have?"

Liu Xian remained silent.

Yes, the Sui Dynasty was much stronger than the Tang Dynasty is today, but Wang Bo and others still rose up in rebellion.

When faced with injustice, when driven to desperation, when officials force the people to rebel, then they will rebel.

"Screw him. When a man dies, his eggs fly to the sky. Just fuck him. I was forced to go to Fenglong Mountain back then, and now that I'm going back, I'm not afraid."

"We're all grown men. If anyone doesn't want us to live, we'll kill them first!"

Liu Xian was so moved by Liu Wei's words that he sat up straight on his sickbed, clenched his fists, and roared, "They've rebelled! Let's fucking get them!"

(End of this chapter)