Chapter 487

Wei Shen came to his senses, incredulous, "What do you mean? You even want a rabble?"

"Huh? What rabble? They're all lovely commoners!"

Wei Ke put down his chopsticks, interested, and said, "Tell me about it?"

"Although the Pengcheng Uprising was suppressed, I had thought back then that such uprisings would definitely not be lacking in the future. And look, here we've run into another one. This Youchuan, judging by the news we've received, has just risen; there's still time for everything?"

"So?"

The King crossed his arms, "Join them!"

Wei Shen: ……

Just like that, the King's itinerary took another turn.

Recalling the image of the Pengcheng Rebel King that Changli had reported to him, the King first ruled out himself and Wei Ke. He's too young, Wei Ke lacks the bandit spirit. Looking at Wei Shen, he's lacking…… the King isn't reassured.

Just seeing Wei Shen's excited state tells you that leaving this guy in the south for a long time would surely cause a big incident.

The King summoned the personal guard battalion that had come ashore with him—fifteen in all, all core members of the Xiaoqi.

"Who's the captain of this unit?" Ling Yin pointed at Chen Liang and the King's beloved general Tie Zhu; these two are the commander and deputy commander of this personal guard detail.

Tie Zhu needs no saying—an honest, simple, big black face; his temperament over the past few years has barely been forged, and he's not easily fooled. As for Chen Liang, the King also understands him: this fellow's mind is more active than Tie Zhu's; otherwise, the King's beloved general wouldn't still be just a deputy among these people.

The King walked two circles around Tie Zhu, "So down-to-earth, so in touch with the ground—a born leader of peasant uprisings!"

?

Everyone looked puzzled, but the King had already decided, "We'll support Tie Zhu as the leader of the Youchuan Rebel Army, keep Chen Liang by his side as military advisor—this Youchuan, I'm taking it!"

Wei Ke frowned, "Your Highness, are you serious?"

"Absolutely certain. Donghai Mianyang is practically the ends of the earth; even the Tao family's little fort wants to flee. I don't know how many days my warning letter will stay useful—once the south descends into total chaos, it's just one straw away from breaking."

The people of Youchuan have already gathered; scattering them won't be easy—who knows if they'll just move elsewhere and keep stirring?

"Whether it's to prevent those rebel armies from developing like the Pengcheng Uprising, or to reduce future troubles for the Northern Border…, it's best to keep this rebel army in our own hands."

Wei Ke nodded, giving his approval.

Wei Shen understood the reasoning, but "How are they more suitable than me? What does 'down-to-earth' mean?"

The King didn't say he looked like just a tall, thin youth—harder to win over the crowd, and his image lacked Tie Zhu's peasant look. He said, "Tie Zhu and Chen Liang can obey and control the situation; if it were you, and I and my older cousin left, could you guarantee you wouldn't cause trouble?"

Just as Wei Shen was about to say he could, the King and his elder brother spoke up together: "No."

"I don't believe it!" they almost shouted in unison, successfully angering Wei Shen.

The King laughed loudly, "You've been playing with me and my older cousin for so long—don't even think of fooling me~"

The King settled the matter just like that; everyone headed toward Youchuan while discussing plans. The preliminary plan: the personal guard would pretend not to know each other, split into two batches to join the rebel army, support each other; if the plan succeeded, the guard would stay to control Youchuan, and the King's four-person party would withdraw.

You say, let the King stay out of it and just send the personal guard?

How could that be possible!

The King insisted, "I've never taken part in a rebellion before—no one can stop me!" And indeed, no one could stop him now……

Youzhou was still there calculating on its fingers—how could the King not be back soon? With four ships, they should already be full by now. The Chancellor had specially ordered the lighthouse guards at the dock to report any news immediately to the city; they didn't know the King had already joined the 'Glorious' peasant rebel army, raising his own family's revolt under his own leadership.

"Share food, share money, and everyone under heaven will be warm and well-fed!"

"Heavenly drought and cracked earth are not Heaven's will; it is your dragon vein sucking the people's marrow!"

"March on Chang'an and overturn the Jianzhang Palace!"

Wei Shen's face twisted as he watched the King, dirty-faced, wearing a patched-up outfit, shouting hoarsely just like the others, "…It is your dragon vein sucking the people's marrow!"

……No, you're getting too into character, shouting too loudly!?

Hear this slogan—can your imperial mausoleum's coffin lids hold up?! Not to mention your father, what about your revered great ancestor?

Oh, the King is still shouting from the front row.

You ask how they managed to get to the front? It's simple.

Back then, Wei Ke thought they were being presumptuous—the rebel army already had its leaders; joining was easy, but climbing to high positions and taking charge in a short time was hard. The King was quite pleased with himself, saying he had his own clever plan.

The so-called brilliant plan was simply to take out a few banknotes of Great Jin official silver and exchange them for a pile of shiny silver.

Exactly, the Great King's door-knocking brick is just smashing silver!

A few hundred taels is nothing; that silver shop, after pulling out everything, came up with over three thousand taels of silver—now that's a huge pile, just looking at it is shocking. The visual effect is also maxed out; the Great King doesn't believe that the penniless rebel army wouldn't be moved.

This time the Great King wasn't reluctant at all; he had read too many books on this subject, knowing that being able to exchange these banknotes for actual silver was already not bad, and two carts of silver might soon be worth less than a cart of grain.

Tiezhu and Chenliang, along with a few others, brought the Great King and his four, dragging two carts of silver, swaggered over to join 'Justice'.

They claimed that their family was so poor they could barely get by, with only a few male members left after counting the household population; just then they heard about the Youchuan rebel army, and the Niu family, long oppressed and exploited by the local gentry, impulsively seized the southbound convoy of the local gentry from their hometown and, without hesitation, joined the rebel army.

The 'Niu brothers', dragging their shiny silver and wearing ragged clothes with honest faces, joined the rebel army; by now this group had snowballed into over thirty thousand people, and these two carts of silver plus the Niu brothers' bravery caused a huge sensation.

Tiezhu's honest appearance now carried a lot of persuasive power; with an honest face he said that the damned Tao family had enslaved them for three generations, and this time robbing their two carts of silver counted as revenge and venting anger; he believed that only by following General Fang and his brothers could they survive in this world and live a good life.

Ah, Tiezhu, with that honest and simple expression, even aside from Fang Meng, the Great King felt he would believe him.

The leader of the rebel army was called Fang Meng, who self-styled himself as a general; after this General Fang figured out the ins and outs, he immediately clapped Tiezhu on the shoulder and shouted 'brother!'

Youchuan wasn't exactly a wealthy place; after all their tossing about, their storeroom had hardly saved up any family wealth, yet the Great King produced over three thousand taels of shiny silver ingots—what a visual impact! Money means hope! To encourage the Niu brothers' enthusiastic participation in the rebellion and also to win hearts, Fang Meng immediately appointed the head of the Niu family, Tiezhu, as a steward.

According to Weike's analysis, barely counting, aside from Fang Meng's close confidants, only five people ahead of him held higher rank. In the early stages, these six leaders weren't worth much either.

Thanks to the silver, they also moved into the prefectural governor's residence, which only high-ranking officials could inhabit; although the whole extended family of brothers and nephews was assigned just one room where a crowd slept on a large bunk, it was still far better than sleeping on the ground at the bottom level.

At night a few people lay down, and the Great King, unable to sleep, poked his fingers and calculated: '…a bit of a loss. The Fifth Leader is a pig-butcher; during the rebellion he killed a few extra people, and now he's riding above our Tiezhu?'

The Great King was unwilling to accept it!

Weike sat one person away from the Great King; he asked Ling why the Great King's expression kept changing, muttering something, and Ling Daxia, with a blank face, said: 'The paying player feels the trade is a loss.'

Weike: ……

Weishen turned over, just about to say something, when he heard the Great King quickly shift from worry to joy: 'It's fine; once Tiezhu becomes the chief leader, the silver will come back.'

Weishen, whose stomach was growling, softly said: 'Aren't you hungry? Do you think these people don't need to eat?' With so many mouths, three thousand taels wouldn't even buy meat buns… Thinking of himself lying there, he quickly began to pah! pah! pah! What a lousy metaphor!

The King's joyful little bubble 'pop' shattered.

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【Forgot to mention this, I said it on the scarf, wrote an invalid plot and deleted it, delayed these two days' updates, starting tomorrow resume normal (T＿T)】