The band of horse bandits below numbered only a hundred or so, yet they were working with burning fervor, radiating the impression that they were here to take root and earnestly build a grand enterprise.
The problem was that the stronghold site they had chosen was barely twenty li from Hanyang Pass, one of the world's most renowned fortresses. This was no longer merely strutting under the noses of the imperial troops—it was outright dancing on their faces.
A thought arose unbidden in the minds of the elders: In this day and age, had even horse bandits grown so arrogant?
Yet on second thought, it seemed hardly surprising. Had there not been an equally arrogant gang of horse bandits before—the Heaven-Battling Gang? They had even captured Hanyang Pass itself.
Watching the hundred-odd bandits busily toiling below, not one among the many dharma idol elders dared make a rash move, nor did anyone fly into a rage.
At this moment, a shadow enveloped them. The elders looked back to see that Wei Boyang's flying boat had returned at some point and hovered right above them. Standing at the prow, Wei Boyang was watching the bandits below with keen interest.
An awkward silence hung between heaven and earth, broken only by the noisy shouts and hollering of the bandits below.
One of the elders leaned closer and asked, "You are building a stronghold here—do you have official paperwork?"
The question was inherently absurd. Why would horse bandits need paperwork to set up a mountain stronghold? The elder was merely making conversation for lack of anything better to say.
To everyone's surprise, a bandit sub-leader replied, "Why wouldn't we? We've got paperwork personally approved by the commandery governor permitting us to choose any spot in the commandery to establish our stronghold! Our grand chief studied feng shui with an old Daoist in the mountains for seven sevens, forty-nine days. After traversing the whole commandery, he took a liking to this precious mountain. From this moment on, everything within twenty li of this treasure mountain belongs to our Heaven-Destroying Gang!"
The elders of the Xu family were stunned. Even Wei Boyang wore an astonished expression; he quietly descended from the flying boat and stood behind the elders.
The elder asked again, "Aren't you horse bandits? What paperwork do bandits need? Besides, would the lord commandery governor actually issue deed documents to horse bandits?"
The sub-leader gave the elder a roll of his eyes and said, "Looking at your ripe age, I can tell your thinking is stuck decades behind, completely out of touch with the modern era. Let me tell you, bandits need to grow bigger and stronger too; we can't remain a loose plate of sand forever.
"With deed documents in hand, our Heaven-Destroying Gang is now a licensed gang of horse bandits! We can develop at our own pace, and the government troops can't just come suppress us whenever they feel like it! Of course, government soldiers get pathetic pay these days. What person of vision would ever join the imperial army? Only by throwing in your lot with the Heaven-Destroying Gang can you fulfill your grand ambitions and realize your dreams.
"As for where the deed came from, do you even need to ask? As long as the silver is right, we can fill in whatever we like on the deed, then send it over to the governor to stamp with his big seal. Hey, you don't even know common sense like this—have you never been an official? If you've never been one, surely you've seen one; if you've never seen one, surely you've heard of them?"
Berated so thoroughly, the elder's face turned green and pale by turns, unable to offer a single retort. Wei Boyang and Xu Lanshan, on the other hand, mulled over the phrase "out of touch with the modern era," sensing that crude though the words were, they carried a deeper implication.
Composing his Dao heart, the elder swallowed his pride to inquire further: "Then might I ask, brave warrior, does the Heaven-Destroying Gang only have these hundred-odd men?"
The sub-leader rolled his eyes at him again: "Old man, we aspire to be the foremost horse bandits in all Great Tang! How could we have so few men? The measly handful you see here won't even be enough when we dispatch them across the land as county magistrates later on."
The elder was shocked once more. Horse bandits were already planning to establish commanderies and counties?!
The elder simply could not hold back: "Brave warrior, Great Tang is still the sovereign lord of the world! What you speak of is rebellion!"
"Who said we're rebelling? You rotten old coot, you're full of bad intentions! Our grand chief said the motto of our Heaven-Battling Gang is 'Revere the King and Expel the Barbarians'! The King refers to none other than the Great Tang Son of Heaven."
The elder asked again, "And who are the barbarians?"
The sub-leader said, "Whoever attacks us is a barbarian!"
This left the elder completely speechless. After a moment, he managed, "And what if no one attacks you?"
"In that case, simple enough. Our grand chief said that if no one comes to attack us, we just climb high, gaze in all four directions, and everything we see is barbarians!"
"And what if the Tang dynasty dispatches troops to suppress the bandits?"
"To act so perversely against the right path? Then we must purge the wicked ministers from the sovereign's side."
The elder had nothing to say. This band of horse bandits was clearly more learned than he was, having thought through every slogan with utter clarity. With the questions of moral justification and legitimate standing resolved, all that remained was to see whether they could actually fight. At present, within Hanyang Pass, there was an army of five hundred thousand!
A glint of ferocity flashed through the elder's eyes as he asked casually, "Since you are so strong and well-armed, brave warrior, where are the rest of your troops?"
The sub-leader pointed toward the distance. "Aren't they coming right now?"
At the far end of the road, dust billowed as thousands of horse bandits came rolling forward with astonishing momentum. Above the main body of bandits, black qi converged into clouds, within which soared a giant eagle beating its wings!
Including Xu Lanshan, all the elders were greatly astonished. Even horse bandits possessed military qi?!
Moreover, it was top-grade military qi that had condensed into a tangible form, proving that the army below was a rare elite force capable of relying on this military qi to campaign across thousands of li in hostile territory without needing resupply.
Though the Xu family had five hundred thousand men inside Hanyang Pass, not a single unit could compare to the horse bandits before them. In the entire Xu family, only one unit possessed military qi of this caliber, numbering merely ten thousand—half garrisoning their ancestral lands and half stationed on the northern frontier.
As for the forces inside Hanyang Pass, judging solely by military qi, even fighting ten to one, they might not necessarily defeat these bandits.
Soon, a bizarre force charged out of the dust. At its vanguard were five hundred cavalrymen, each cloaked. Yet through the parted folds of their garments, one could glimpse heavy armor glinting with a faint dark-green luster beneath. This five-hundred-man cavalry was composed entirely of rare heavy cavalrymen!
The upkeep of a single such heavy cavalryman was equivalent to ten light horsemen or a hundred infantrymen; only great noble houses could afford to maintain them. Behind the heavy cavalry marched three thousand foot soldiers, all clad in medium armor and equipped with fire guns and curved sabers. A single glance at their synchronized strides revealed an army forged in iron and blood.
Behind the ranks came dozens of large wagons. Some cargo was so massive it was hauled directly on flatbed carts. Most conspicuous were two thick, hollow cylinders of refined steel, gleaming with a dim greenish luster.
Wei Boyang was profoundly surprised, a sharp gleam flashing in his eyes.
Most of the Xu family had no idea what these zhang-long thick tubes were for, but suddenly an elder had a flash of insight and cried out in shock, "It's a cannon! Those two are cannon barrels!"
Below, the bandit sub-leader sneered with utter disdain: "As expected, a bunch of ignorant country bumpkins! This is clearly a fire gun—just a bit bigger and thicker, that's all. But no matter how big and thick it gets, it's still a fire gun."
An elder near him couldn't help but correct him: "Brave warrior, you are mistaken! This object is called a cannon; it is not the same as a gun. A cannon takes several men to operate, whereas a gun can be used by a single person."
The sub-leader snapped impatiently, "This thing is ours, and we'll call it whatever we damn well please! With us, it's a gun! If you can't stand it, go home and buy a few yourself, then call them whatever you like—call them your daddy for all anyone cares."
The elder was choked with speechlessness, nearly unable to draw breath. However, having already extracted a good deal of information from this sub-leader, he suppressed his temper and said patiently, "Might I ask, brave warrior, where did these two... guns come from?"
"Isn't that obvious? Stuff some silver into the warehouse guard's hands, and you can haul off as many as you need."
Now the elder finally knew the sub-leader was spewing pure nonsense. A burst of anger flared within him, and he wanted to reprimand the man. As for attacking him, he did not dare.
Just then, the sub-leader initiated conversation for the first time: "Old man, let me ask you: are there any formidable powers around here? Our boss heard there's a Military Commissioner in this area who seems pretty tough to beat. Do you know of him?"
The elder was already in a foul mood, and he had clashed with Wei Yuan before, having been severely injured by Wei Yuan's Jade Mountain in a single encounter. He had harbored this grudge in his heart ever since.
Hearing the sub-leader's question, the elder snapped, "Oh, you mean Wei Yuan! Let me tell you, his greatest fame isn't for anything else—it's all his bedroom skills!"
The sub-leader perked up and hurriedly said, "There's such a thing? Tell me the details!"
The elder said, "This fellow is lecherous and lustful, yet practically impotent! It is said he can bed a woman only once every seven days, and each time he manages only three thrusts. And do you know which three: enter, pause, withdraw!"
Under his mask, the sub-leader's face instantly contorted, overflowing with murderous intent. Wei Yuan chanted repeatedly in his mind: *Patience in small things averts ruin in great ones. Patience in small things averts ruin in great ones.* Only then did he suppress the urge to strike.
Worst of all, Wei Boyang was watching from the sky. If he discovered that Wei Yuan had tried to fish for praise through someone else's mouth only to drop a rock on his own feet, the great general would probably laugh so hard he fell out of the sky.
Gritting his teeth, Wei Yuan waved his arm forcefully and shouted, "Put your backs into it, expand the grounds! The vanguard behind us will be here any second!"
The elders in the sky shuddered again. So the five thousand-odd men who had just arrived were merely the vanguard?!
Yet considering the Heaven-Destroying Gang's backing, they found it hardly surprising. It was just that back in the days of the Heaven-Battling Gang, Wei Yuan had at least bothered to keep up appearances. Now, in the era of the Heaven-Destroying Gang, he didn't even bother pretending—he had brought out heavy cavalry, artillery, and line infantry in broad daylight.
In the blink of an eye, the subsequent forces arrived. The hill was not high. The heavy cavalry dismounted, and several knights hoisted a cannon barrel, effortlessly carrying the ten-thousand-jin barrel to the summit. Right after came the carriages, assorted parts, and cannonballs.
In moments, two heavy cannons were established on the hilltop position, their muzzles aimed squarely at Hanyang Pass.
Throughout the entire process, the Xu family elders merely watched in silence. Since Xu Lanshan remained quiet, none of them were foolish enough to stick their necks out. Wei Yuan was notorious for his ruthless brutality; back when he was only at the Dao Foundation, he had already slain numerous dharma idols, and now that he had attained the Dharma Idol realm himself, slaughtering peers of the same realm was like butchering dogs to him. The fellow had always been treacherous; he might very well be lurking in some shadow right now.
Xu Lanshan frowned slightly. From the moment she stepped out of the pass, two faint, icy threads of murderous intent had locked onto her. Her intuition told her that if she dared make a rash move instead of remaining on full alert, the two killers concealed in the dark would strike her with grievous wounds in an instant. If she suffered severe injuries now, there was no telling when she would ever break through to Scenery Command.
With Xu Lanshan's spiritual perception, she was unable to detect the hiding spots of the two killers, which proved they were not only Scenery Command powerhouses, but professional assassins.
Seeing the cannons assembled, several soldiers loaded cannonballs and began calibrating and measuring coordinates and data. The sub-leader waved his hand and barked, "Men, go mark our boundary!"
Several bandits hollered in agreement and actually walked toward Hanyang Pass.
They strode straight up to the pass gates. Right in front of the defending soldiers, they drew a line one zhang outside the gate, planted a flag, and announced, "Don't say we didn't warn you! From now on, everything beyond this line is Heaven-Destroying Gang territory. Cross the line and you die!"
The bandits strutted arrogantly away. Only then did a defending colonel spit on the ground and curse, "What are horse bandits putting on airs for?! I'm crossing this line right now, what can you do about it?"
With that, he stepped across the line, stopped about a zhang past it, bounced around a few times, and turned back laughing. "See? Nothing happened, right? These bandits are all bluff and blus—"
Before his words had fully left his mouth, a strange, piercing shriek filled his ears. Before he could react, his body was swallowed by the fiery blast of an explosion!
The cannon blast was immense, obliterating a dozen defending soldiers at the city gate along with him.
Chapter 571