Tang Dynasty Bandits

Chapter 202 Gao Yan Goes South
A gentle breeze stirred, and the stars and moon shimmered on the lake. Under the night sky, an exquisite painted boat was adorned with lanterns and colorful decorations. Its roof was painted yellow, and its pillars were carved with dragons and phoenixes. The lanterns were made of silk and painted with various figures, birds, and animals, all lifelike.

Zhu Wen sat with Tian Jun at the bow of the boat, gazing at the bluish-green reeds illuminated by colorful lights in the distance.

His background made him averse to luxury, but occasionally indulging in the decadent lifestyle of the wealthy was indeed quite intoxicating.

Three Rakshasa shield-wielding women rowed the boat at the bow and stern. They were incredibly strong, and the pleasure boat sped across the water as if flying.

As female warriors with Viking blood, Mira and her companions could row simple longboats, cutting through the waves of the turbulent seas and traveling thousands of miles. Using them to row pleasure boats for lovers under the moon and flowers was actually a waste of their talents.

Tian Jun looked expectantly into Zhu Wen's arms, and Zhu Wen reciprocated her affection, turning his face to kiss her passionately, their love as intense as thunder and fire.

The woman's usually strong and upright body went limp in the man's arms, making her look exceptionally pure and lovely.

Zhu Wen kissed her from her red lips to her chin, then adored Tian Jun's swan-like long neck, before sliding up her fragrant shoulders and collarbone, leaving a few plum blossom-like kisses.

Three blonde Rakshasa women rowed their boats, staring intently at the pair of lovebirds entangled in a passionate embrace.

What the two did wasn't particularly outrageous, but with several rowing women watching, it was quite suggestive.

Zhu Wen and Tian Jun are both extremely beautiful women, and such a scene is pleasing to the eye for anyone.

Mira and her two friends blushed and their hearts pounded, yet they remained glued to the screen.

Tian Jun wore a lake-colored, high-waisted ruqun (a type of traditional Chinese dress), with her cover-up unbuttoned to one side, and her underarm hair completely removed.

Her skin wasn't naturally dark; she just tanned easily. Her shoulders, however, were much fairer, like a pair of jade mountains.

Zhu Wen was moved, so he lifted one of her arms, tilted his head and snuggled in, playfully teasing her.

A tingling sensation and shame made Tian Jun's face flush red, and her body felt as if it were being roasted.

She squinted her dreamy, starry eyes, her voice carrying an unusual allure: "Your Majesty, I am very susceptible to illness, please have mercy on me..."

Before she could finish speaking, the sudden, intensified itching under her armpits made her unable to hold back any longer, and she burst into laughter.

Zhu Wen stopped what he was doing: "You can't say things like that. Who taught you?"

Tian Jun said with a slight blush, "Miss Duan said that men like it when they say these things during intimate moments."

“This girl,” Zhu Wen sighed, “dares to say anything. She clearly has no experience herself, yet she comes to instruct others.”

But Tian Jun's clumsy yet adorable attempts to please others are truly endearing.

Zhu Wen lifted Tian Jun's chin, their eyes met, and they were about to share another long kiss.

A voice broke the enchanting atmosphere.

“Everything is going to... be in trouble.” A small boat drifted in from the water, and Lan Suting shouted urgently, “Commander Huang wants you to immediately prepare your troops and head north with Sister Hongyan to resolve this.”

The two boatmen steering Lan Suting's boat were also women. Lan Suting knew that the intimate scene between Zhu Wen and Tian Jun was not suitable for other men to see.

"what's up?"

"Gao Yan and Qian Liu led their troops to conquer Chaozhou and Xunzhou. The soldiers left behind, as well as the gentry who were close to the rebels, were all slaughtered and turned into a mound of corpses. Gao Yan used the excuse that the people had joined the rebellion to allow his troops to burn and kill indiscriminately in the two prefectures, and the number of dead was countless. After looting, they cut off able-bodied men and strangled infants with spears, making them dance around as a game."

Zhu Wen's heart skipped a beat. The imperial court would certainly not stand idly by if the rebel army invaded Lingnan.

Li Tiao was an ambitious fellow, but ultimately not skilled in land warfare. From Chang'an's perspective, Lingnan was much safer under Li Tiao's control than under the control of the rebel army.

If the imperial court hadn't been worried that General Lei and Gao Pian would seize Lingnan after heading south, it would have been General Lei himself who came to their aid this time.

However, after receiving Qian Liu's help, Gao Yan was no easy opponent.

"They arrived so quickly?" Tian Jun stood up from Zhu Wen's arms, surprised. "The previous news was that Gao Yan's troops were still in Fuzhou..."

“Using looting to boost morale doesn’t require carrying much supplies,” Zhu Wen said coldly. “A scumbag like Gao Yan wouldn’t feel any burden doing this.”

He immediately saw through Gao Yan's scheme.

Huang Chao's southward campaign was different from his usual campaigns; he intended to take over Lingnan and use it as a base for his rebel army.

For the people of Chaozhou and Xunzhou who actively submitted to us, we had an obligation to protect them.

In the upper reaches of the Yue River, the three small towns of Rongguan, Yongguan, and Guiguan have also organized reinforcements to sail downstream. Huang Chao, who is confronting Li Tiao, will inevitably have to send a detachment to deal with Gao Yanfen's plundering of Chaozhou and Xunzhou.

Li Tiao could never have used such brutal and ruthless tactics as Gao Yan.

A rabbit doesn't eat the grass near its burrow. Li Tiao tolerated the Hu people's oppression of the Han people because it helped him gain more benefits. But Lingnan East Road was his territory. If all the people were killed, who would pay taxes and perform corvée labor?

“The people will flee and hide their wealth. Looting alone cannot achieve the highest efficiency in exploiting them. Gao Yan must have other methods.”

Lan Suting nodded: "Chen Liqing and Bo Chulong, two of the Five Swords of Burning Heaven, have also joined Gao Yan's ranks. These two use torture devices to plunder the wealthy, inciting people to denounce each other, creating widespread guilt by association, and extorting money from them. Even middle-class families are not spared."

Chen Liqing and Bo Chulong were responsible for doing the dirty work for Marshal Zhen Ranyu when he was alive. Chen Liqing, in particular, was the daughter of Chen Xizhen, the culprit who instigated the Qiu Fu Uprising nineteen years ago. Her practice of exploiting the people was a family tradition.

The idea of ​​recovering stolen goods to fund military expenditures might sound appealing to some. However, this kind of short-sighted exploitation will inevitably lead to a blurring of lines between good and bad, causing irreversible damage to society.

When Huang Chao led his troops, he consistently emphasized that the exploitation of wealthy households should not be excessive. A society with a suitable number of wealthy and middle-class families is far more beneficial and conducive to development than one where the entire population is impoverished. The way to govern is to minimize the oppression of the poor by the wealthy and maintain a balance.

Complete redistribution of wealth is something only riot gangs would do. The result would inevitably be that everyone is plundered and left for the violent group to exploit.

Gao Yan completely disregarded the will of the people in Guangdong; his army was nothing more than a riotous gang.

"Gao Yan has arrived in haste and has offended the Han people of Yue. I'm afraid he doesn't have enough soldiers. Is he planning to mobilize the barbarians again?" Zhu Wen asked.

Lan Suting nodded: "Gao Yan used our enslavement of the barbarians in Fujian as an example to tell the barbarians in the mountains of Guangdong that Huang Chao was extremely hostile to foreign races. If he were to take control of Lingnan, not only would the Arab merchants be killed, but these barbarians would also be wiped out."

"Is he going to use the order to kill the barbarians to win their hearts..." Zhu Wen twirled his fingers.

He who wins the hearts of the people wins the world; more precisely, he who wins the strength of the people wins the world. And these "people" don't necessarily refer to the Han Chinese.

Like Gao Yan's ancestor, Emperor Gao Huan of the Northern Qi Dynasty, who was clearly a Han Chinese, he relied on the military force of the Xianbei people to dominate Guandong.

Gao Yan acted with ruthlessness far surpassing that of his uncle Gao Pian, and had no bottom line whatsoever.

However, with Qian Liu's help, which made up for his weakness in commanding infantry, Gao Yan has become a formidable opponent!

(End of this chapter)