Chapter 209

Banner people opposing the Qing has never been news; within two hundred years you'll see many Banner people who have turned against the Qing and joined the revolutionary party—now they merely appear earlier, even if out of necessity for survival. Now under Bai Lang's death threat, these Banner people, together with the Green Camp and even officials who have passed the imperial examinations, shout to expel the Tartars and restore China, then switch to opposing the Qing and restoring the Ming, so as not to let their ancestors and the Yongli Emperor monopolize the glory.

What are they going to do? Will they be killed by Qianlong in Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)), wiping out their whole family? This is hard to say; given the current situation of the Qing, if their families are not in Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)), it hardly matters, and even more so for those stationed in the Eight Banners and the Green Camp.

Bai Lang abandoned that female slave Huo Qingtong; rather than saying he abandoned her, it's more like she left him—she probably went to live in the Red Flower Society. At bottom, Bai Lang is nothing but a "bandit"; what he does is no different from seizing a mountain to become king and abducting the stronghold lady. Moreover, he doesn't look like someone who will accomplish anything—he doesn't rally his subordinates, doesn't occupy a prefecture, merely goes around killing Tartars. No matter how you look at it, he seems like a vanguard for a king, yet his martial ability is absurdly high.

The Manchus, if they want to oppose the Qing and restore the Ming, let them do so. After a few days, once the local resistance forces have also taken shape, Bai Lang crosses the river. Although the Yangtze is wide, whether in the north or south there are those who wish he would drown in it immediately; even with only a small sampan, Bai Lang's martial skill still lets him cross the Yangtze easily. Even if someone wanted to intercept him on the river and feed him wonton noodles, they'd first have to catch him.

Water ghosts are courting death; the moment the chisel touches the plank, Bai Lang's force can penetrate the water and strangle a person, and if one gets too close with a bow and crossbow, Bai Lang can easily cover that distance, board the ship, and kill. Bai Lang himself knows this perfectly well, but the Yangtze navy does not; of course they certainly won't come out to intercept Bai Lang's lone sampan. Now half the realm is in turmoil; everyone is watching the winds, and who knows whether the Qing court can hold out this time.

The saying that barbarians have no hundred-year fortune was made by Ming Taizu; although this Tartar court has already lasted a hundred years, if it were to fall now, one could not really say Ming Taizu was wrong. In fact, if it weren't for Yong the Fourth, letting the Qianlong emperor ascend the throne now would already be about over. This grandson resembles his grandfather in his later years—both are wastrels; if not for his father…… Looking at it this way, perhaps his father is actually a seed taken from the Chen family?

After losing the Jiangnan tax grain, the north could still survive on its own—except those with the ironclad estates. They run the ironclad estates, and that huge sum of tax grain becomes difficult. Bai Lang now also can't be bothered to do more killing; he has turned his sampan onto the canal, preparing to kill along the canal. Actually, the speed isn't slow either.

The canal nowadays is all wealthy places—starting from Yangzhou, all the way up counts as prosperous territory. Bai Lang sees that these places are also panic-stricken, though the Qing's rule is more firmly based in the north. Of course he also heard of Qianlong's thunderous wrath—entirely thanks to the magistrate kneeling before him, begging for mercy and demanding to oppose the Qing and restore the Ming. As soon as this Manchu opposition to the Qing came out—and moreover he is a general—Qianlong immediately thundered in an edict that these are utterly heartless scoundrels.

The hatred bursting from the lines—of course Bai Lang appears fierce outwardly but weak within, and indeed there's nothing to be done about Bai Lang, the world's top rebel. Moreover, the edict proclaiming to the world says that the Qing's realm did not come from usurping the Ming, nor did the Qing destroy the Ming; on the contrary, it was those rebels who destroyed the Ming, and the Qing entered the pass to avenge the Ming. Such talk is only good for fooling ghosts; perhaps there are still some literati in the north waving flags and shouting, while in the south it's basically just damn that big-headed ghost.

All along Bai Lang's journey, there has been no interception on the water—even if the grain transport gang were present, they wouldn't dare block his way. I hear the gang's chief is a woman, which probably explains why they're so weak. Watching Bai Lang swagger grandly in the middle of the river, driving his sampan, not a single person comes out to intercept him for the court. The officials along the route, big and small, run faster than Bai Lang's advance; only the Manchu city and the garrison can't escape and get soundly beaten by Bai Lang.

Killing them doesn't kill many; although these people aren't as shameless as those few in Nanjing, they still have the talent to scatter in a riot and flee at the wind. As for the various Dutongs and generals, those who can abandon their posts and flee back inside Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)) are already considered loyal and good; many simply ran off, changed their names and hid. Others even ran straight past Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)) to the outside of the pass.

Palace masters? Court guards? These are just big trash snacks, they dare not even appear before Bai Lang.

This stretch where Bai Lang now is is a water gate; the canal has narrowed considerably here. As soon as Bai Lang's sampan arrives, there's a clack of the wooden block, and immediately the cannons on both banks fire in succession; the various guns that had been aimed beforehand all open fire at once, the shot vowing to blast this rebel into mincemeat. "I've had a vague premonition! One can't assume the Qing court is all dead!" Bai Lang, quick to seize the moment, stamps his foot on the sampan, breaking it, and his whole body sinks into the water with the momentum.

Can the innate true qi's Golden Bell Shield block the cannonball? If it were in the original world, perhaps it could, and it's very likely, but here? After the world limits Bai Lang's martial arts ceiling, it probably can't withstand it. No matter how strong the Golden Bell Shield is, facing an iron cannon fist it can only be a spear versus shield contest. As it stands, the Golden Bell Shield is at a disadvantage—so Bai Lang dove into the water, using the water to reduce the cannonball's kinetic energy.

Bai Lang swam underwater, while the turning of the cannons on shore was not that fast, and besides, the smoke made it impossible to see where Bai Lang was—anyway, the splashing water had already enveloped the sampan's position. When the smoke thinned a little, the shore burst into cheers: "We've killed the world's top rebel! We've killed him!" The sampan's fragments floated on the river surface; Bai Lang's disappearance without a trace could only mean he was blown to bits by the shot. "Fish him out! Alive you want to see the person, dead you want to see the corpse!"

Bai Lang drew a long breath of true qi, and he swam underwater for more than a li before surfacing to catch his breath; what he saw was a group of people who had brought over a dozen boats to that spot, dragging nets everywhere, and several people splashing in the water, diving. "Looking for me? Should I kill them first…… or better yet, pretend to be dead?" Bai Lang thought it over, decided to have some fun, and dove straight into Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)), then planned to leap out during the court assembly—sure to be a blast.

Bai Lang swam several li before finally coming ashore, his internal force evaporating the moisture everywhere, though he was about to start stinking. "No problem, no problem—if he directly uses the Myriad Li Solo Journey, he can reach Capital (Jingcheng) (Capital (Jingcheng) (Jingcheng)) in at most two days; then he'll take a bath, change clothes, and properly kill that little Hongli, after which there'll be nothing left to do in this world. He'll just casually train his martial arts awaiting his return."