Chapter 288: The Sound That Shook the World

Bai Lang looked at the young man before him—said to be a young man, but actually his age is a bit older than Bai Lang's. Bai Lang counted on his fingers, he really couldn't figure out how old he should be—twenty-three? twenty-four? Should the time spent crossing over count? Ah, it's really a long stretch of years...... Bai Lang laughed and shook his head; he now has a full beard, plus a pair of drooping eyebrows and hair that's grown quite long, saying he's in his twenties nobody would believe......

Bai Lang brushed aside these thoughts, looking at the unfortunate fellow who was a bit stunned before him, "Poor thing, can't even speak. Alas, there's no saving you. I'll now treat your illness!" After Bai Lang said that, he extended his claws and already grabbed the heads of these two fellows. The force penetrated to the bone; although he was holding their skulls, his fingers wouldn't pierce the cranium and crush the brain, but instead directed all that force onto the vertebral column......

At this moment Li Tianfan finally shouted, "Don't kill me, I'm Li......" Unfortunately he didn't finish his sentence, his head had already been severed...... Bai Lang directly pulled off his head, letting his body slump limp to the ground, while in his hand he pinched two heads, "Just now he said Li what?" At this time the Wagang Army had already collapsed in defeat, half fled into Luokou City, and half followed Li Mi in escape.

Pei Renji's army advanced swiftly, killing over two thousand Wagang troops and capturing over three thousand prisoners. However, this band of bandits' talent for fleeing is also strong—Li Mi indeed managed to retreat successfully again—together with Xu Shijie, who ought to have been inside Luokou City, they all fled, leaving only a rabble behind in the city.

So what are we waiting for? Attack the city!

This time Bai Lang did not take the vanguard—his merits couldn't be taken by him alone, that wouldn't be good for unity. Thus Pei Xingyan was made the vanguard commander, donning armor and wielding sharp weapons to lead the assault on the city. This sudden attack began immediately after Li Mi fled, so the interior was still in chaos and hadn't yet had time to rally morale and organize the troops; thus Luokou City fell in one go, Pei Xingyan easily broke through the gate and rushed into the city.

He didn't even need to climb the city walls......

Luokou City was taken, and Pei Renji then accepted the surrender of over ten thousand more people; this basically eliminated the Wagang Army's threat to the Great Sui granaries once and for all, though the Wagang Army could still threaten Luoyang.

After this battle Bai Lang's fame once again spread throughout the world, a lone rider charging into formation to smash a thousand troops, and even Li Mi's son Li Tianfan died at his hand. Afterwards someone recognized the corpse and head as whose, so Bai Lang placed this head atop the Victory Monument. Bai Lang's bravery was such that even the Turkic peoples on the steppes had heard of it—indeed, there are rumors that not only did Heavenly Blade Song Que write this person's name on his whetstone, but the Turkic Martial Sovereign Bi Xuan also said he would surely want to meet such a fierce general someday.

The Wagang Stronghold lost the momentum it once had as almost the number one rebel army under heaven; one day it couldn't sweep across Henan Circuit and capture Luoyang City, the next day it couldn't regain its spirit—continuing like this, daily losses would surely doom it sooner or later. "Two times! Already two times! And he killed my beloved son! This Bai Lang I will certainly not forgive!" Li Mi also seethed with hatred; he himself never had a chance to clash with Bai Lang, but seeing Bai Lang's slaughterous ferocity, Li Mi actually didn't want to fight this guy— a son of a thousand gold pieces doesn't sit under the hall, why would he take this risk?

As for the clever military advisor Shen Luoyan? Ah, for this guy who just charges in headfirst, slashing and killing indiscriminately, and is even impervious to blades and spears while trampling a thousand troops, what use are ordinary schemes? To deal with such a person you must lure him into a death trap; fire and water might work, or perhaps a falling-rock scheme could also do— even with innate divine strength, he couldn't possibly hold up a boulder weighing tens of thousands of catties. If such schemes aren't used, relying purely on Shen Luoyan's talent for schemes of the human-heart demon realm, it probably wouldn't work......

Or it's Bai Lang's manner of acting—this person is just a brute, yet he's not the type who lusts after power; and the commandery troops of Yingyang Commandery now number only seven hundred, the rest having been dismissed home by him. So where could one start to stir up trouble? Moreover, such a fierce general, his troops look to him like ghosts; letting ghosts bite a vicious tiger? They'd also need the guts for that. So the matter is difficult; we still have to rely on sheer strength to solve this problem......

Those who contend for the world all know one thing: if Bai Lang doesn't go to Yingyang, it won't fall; if Yingyang is stable, then Henan Circuit is stable. If Henan Circuit is stable, the Great Sui might just be able to prolong its life—"I never expected that after Zhang Xuetu there would still be Bai Lang as a state-protector great general, only regrettable that Bai Lang's garrisoning of Yingyang is more than enough, but his strength to attack and suppress world rebels is insufficient." Indeed, seven hundred men cannot sweep across the world...... Everyone can see that.

But Yingyang Commandery and even Henan Circuit probably have no rebel army that can withstand a single strike from Bai Lang leading those seven hundred men—before they grow strong enough to block it, they'll already have been smashed.

At this time Bai Lang parted ways with General Pei Renji; he refuses to take any surrendered soldiers, saying, "These people have grown accustomed to banditry; they probably can't honestly till the soil. If I were to say, those who have been bandits longest should simply be beheaded." Bai Lang did say that, yet he still declined the offer to take some surrendered soldiers to fill the commandery troops. Bai Lang's selection of commandery troops is also simple: they must be of pure background, preferably self-sufficient farmers or sons of small landowners.

He took a portion of the spoils, mainly a share of the weapons and grain discarded by the Wagang Army, loading it onto over a hundred big carts to bring back. Of course it was also agreed that Pei Renji would memorialize the emperor to report merit, while Bai Lang would continue cooperating when he next attacks the Wagang Stronghold. "I estimate my merit rank could still rise a notch; I don't know if it will reach Equal to the Three Dukes." Bai Lang felt he could most likely add a rank of General—promoting his military prefecture general by one grade would indeed be a General.

Bai Lang never wanted to expand the commandery troops—more troops mean more trouble; he came to be the lone "Great Sui loyalist" facing the world, not to raise troops in preparation to become another player contending for the world. Light taxes and corvée are extremely rare nowadays, yet many refugees have fled into Yingyang Commandery; following Bai Lang's intention, he directly distributed the ownerless fields to these people and had them plant crops— for a while it actually resembled the atmosphere of Emperor Wen's era.

After repelling the Wagang Army and retaking Luokou City, for a while no one dared to have designs on Yingyang anymore, and Bai Lang also received a batch of warhorses sent from the Flying Horse Ranch—they sold a hundred warhorses to Bai Lang at a quite favorable price, presumably hoping to build good relations. Even the escort for this batch of warhorses turned out to be Shang Xiuzhen herself...... Of course, when Bai Lang received her, the merchant proprietor said she was coming to look at her good sister Wei Zhenzhen, and incidentally delivered the purchased warhorses.

Bai Lang took her at her word, since Bai Lang also didn't think Shang Xiuzhen, having met him just once, would specially come to find him; although Bai Lang is quite confident in his handsome appearance, he's not so narcissistic as to think that......