Chapter 788: Chapter 598 Entering Tao, Spatial Transformation
"So we can only nest in this small valley, letting those corrupt officials oppress the common people?" Chen Buyu said.
He wanted to revolt, detested the government, felt sympathy for the suffering common people, and longed to save them.
But he knew he couldn’t achieve anything by himself.
He needed the support of Yang Mingzhao and also looked forward to doing something big and grand with him.
Yang Mingzhao sighed, "This matter is not as simple as you imagine!"
"But!" Chen Buyu still wanted to persuade.
Yang Mingzhao waved his hand, interrupting: "To the southeast of Bashu is Southern Border Town with a hundred thousand elite troops, Southern Border Town has Duke Xing, who is an Innate Martial Artist!"
"To the southwest of Bashu is Yunling Town, currently the General there is Marquis Pingjiang Chen Yu, who was once the commander of the imperial guard, highly skilled in military training, and his soldiers are certainly elite!"
"Let alone anything else, if the court dispatches elite troops from both towns into Bashu to suppress the rebellion, do you think the rebel army could still roam freely?"
Chen Buyu said, "But haven’t they always failed to suppress the rebellion in Bashu? It’s been so many years, why haven’t they suppressed it?"
Yang Mingzhao was taken aback, yeah, why hadn’t the court sent the border army to suppress the uprising?
The garrison soldiers in Bashu were useless, so why not send the border army to quell the rebellion?
Yang Mingzhao was also not very clear about this.
After all, Yang Zhenshan had left the court more than ten years ago, and Yang Mingzhao did not know much about the current court.
"What are you hesitating about, young master?" Chen Buyu seemed to see the concerns in Yang Mingzhao’s heart.
Yang Mingzhao took a deep breath and said, "Let’s wait a bit longer, let me go home and ask my elders first!"
After a brief silence, Chen Buyu slowly stood up and then knelt on the ground, "Young Master, it’s not that I want to use you, it’s just that I can’t bear it anymore."
"Thirteen years ago, Kui Prefecture suffered a severe drought, my family’s hundreds of acres of land yielded no grain, yet the county government still collected grain from us, they took away all the grain from my family, and even most of our savings!"
"For the sake of saving a bite to eat for my younger sister, my grandmother starved to death."
"My mother died falling off a mountain while scraping off tree bark!"
"More than ten of my clan members starved to death."
"In order not to starve, we stormed the county government, and over a hundred people died!"
"These years there hasn’t been a severe drought, but the people still can’t get enough to eat, they are becoming more and more brazen, they’ve started to forcefully rob, forcing the common people to sell their children."
"Young Master, how innocent are those common people?"
Chen Buyu knelt there, his eyes red with emotion.
He used to be a spirited young man, also once dreaming of standing out, but reality had given him a life of suffering and left him with a broken family.
Natural disasters could not be avoided, but man-made disasters could not be forgiven.
What had pushed him to his current state was not a natural disaster, but a man-made one.
He hated those corrupt officials, hated those evildoers who oppressed the common people, and wished he could provide a haven for them, allowing them to have peaceful lives.
Yang Mingzhao was somewhat moved looking at him.
Chen Buyu’s hatred came from his experiences, experiences that Yang Mingzhao himself had not undergone, which is why he couldn’t fully empathize, but he could understand Chen Buyu, as he had seen too much of the world’s suffering over the years.
He had witnessed throngs of starving people, encountered many instances of officials oppressing the common people, he had even seen someone boiling a human arm.
His heart had been through torment time after time.
Yang Mingzhao helped Chen Buyu up, saying, "I understand how you feel, but this matter must be thought through carefully!"
"Young Master!" Chen Buyu was a bit impatient.
Yang Mingzhao stood up and said, "Don’t worry, we first need to train our men, and also need to scout out the situation in various prefectures and counties, acting rashly will only lead us into an unrecoverable situation!"
Chen Buyu’s eyes lit up, "Does this mean you agree, young master?"
Yang Mingzhao didn’t answer; he indeed had the impulse to do something, but he was still uncertain.
"Old Deng!"
"Young Master!" Deng Xing entered from outside the door.
"Starting tomorrow, you are responsible for training the able-bodied men in the village, understand?" Yang Mingzhao said.
In the valley, there were more than five thousand common people, but only about two hundred able-bodied men within the fortress, of which a small part was Chen Buyu’s clansmen, and the rest were strong men trained by Chen Buyu, specifically responsible for guarding the fortress and preventing outsiders from entering.
In terms of the strength of these able-bodied men, they actually had some capabilities, after all, Chen Buyu came from a military household and had a Martial Arts heritage, so those trained by him could not compare to the border army soldiers but were still stronger than ordinary farmers.
However, there was a severe shortage of armaments in the valley; besides a dozen long knives, there were no other decent weapons.
To train them into soldiers would take at least a few months.
"Young Master, shouldn’t we ask the Family Head about training troops?" Deng Xing asked vaguely.
Yang Mingzhao shook his head slightly, "You stay to train the troops, I will go home first."
"Not to mention training the troops in the fortress first, then select eight hundred able-bodied men from the villagers, making up a thousand strong men for training!"
"Old Deng will be the chief military instructor, and you’ll be in charge of logistics, following Old Deng’s orders as he has the experience!"
Chen Buyu looked at Deng Xing in surprise, knowing that Deng Xing was impressive, but he had not expected that Deng Xing could also train troops.
Deng Xing and Han Lin were some of the earliest guards of the Yang family, what they did the most in Capital City was to train the Yang Family Guards; when it comes to training soldiers, each of the Yang Family Guards was professional.
"Your orders will be followed!" After his surprise, Chen Buyu quickly responded.