Chapter 1636: White Lotus?

In the main hall of a high-end Huizhou-style residence that used a large amount of wood.

The local black boss and a few lackeys were kneeling on the ground, Zhao Erhu and Jiang Wuyang were guarding the door with knives, Liansheng was sitting in the corner, and Wang Yan was sitting on a chair beside the desk with his legs crossed.

"In this county, there are three major households: Liu, Bai, and Yang. Even the County Magistrate has to discuss things with them. Sometimes we also do things for them, leading people to gamble, smoke opium, and helping them bully men and women, seizing fields and land. The villagers in the county are stupid; they don't know anything and think we are the bad guys, while thinking those three major households are kind and virtuous. If you want to punish the evil and promote the good, you have to deal with these three households."

"Besides that, there is another group in the county that follows the Liu family, called Liu Shanghe. Oh, I work for the Yang family. There is also the Bai family; they have their own guards and other manpower, but they don't stand out in this county. Speaking of which, it's interesting—this Bai family is the kindest. I heard the eldest young master of the Bai family even believes in Buddhism and some Western God."

Wang Yan raised an eyebrow: "Believes in Buddhism? And also believes in God?"

This sounded like the White Lotus Sect. This was a proper rebel organization, just like the Heaven and Earth Society, which had been rebelling all along. From the Song Dynasty, they had rebelled until the Qing Dynasty, with doctrines blending Confucianism, Buddhism, and Daoism. Now, in the midst of the great changes of the century, they had connected with the West and linked up with God.

Amidst the magnificent Taiping Rebellion, whether it was the White Lotus Sect or the Heaven and Earth Society, they had actively participated, firmly implementing the rebel platform and helping the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom overthrow the Qing demons.

"That's right. They say the eldest young master of the Bai family traveled abroad and met some bishop, and he himself believes in Buddhism. After returning, he persuaded people to do good and helped the neighbors; they are much better than the Liu and Yang families."

Wang Yan nodded, basically confirming that the one surnamed Bai belonged to the rebel faction. As for whether they were good or bad, in this era, those who wanted to do things were not good people, not to mention that they were running a cult organization; the evil they had committed was just as much.

"Continue, are there any other powerful figures?"

"Apart from the masters in the county yamen, who else would dare to call themselves formidable? If there is anyone, it would be the Huoshan Martial Arts Hall in the county. That Master Huo is surnamed Huo, called Huo Shan; he came over from Jinmen, practices Xingyi Quan, wields a staff as long as his eyebrows, and possesses great martial arts skills."

"When he first came to the county, he beat up the group surnamed Yang, becoming famous in one battle. The villagers all practice boxing with him. Now he has over a hundred people under him, and no one in the county dares to provoke him. He often takes on escorts for the three major households to make a living. I heard the disciples of the martial arts school are living quite well."

The more Wang Yan heard, the more he felt something was up. With his preconceived notions, he thought there was a problem with the Bai household, so looking at Huoshan, there were problems everywhere. Hearing about this martial arts school taking on escorts with over a hundred people under him, he also felt things were very wrong.

After all, Huoshan was a small county, and over a hundred people already accounted for one percent of the county's population. These people were practicing martial arts, playing with sticks, and dancing with knives and guns; they were all the strong laborers of each family. Especially this kind of martial arts work—surely there were other brothers and sisters in the family farming, so they could come out to scratch a living. Calculated this way, each family covered at least five people. That was five percent of the population.

At the same time, they had all practiced martial arts, gone on escorts, and practiced mutual coordination. Even if they had practiced a little, it was better than those who hadn't. These people, picking up knives and guns, were soldiers! They could sweep through all of Huoshan in a very short time.

Going out from Huoshan, there was Liu'an, Shucheng, and then Hefei!

There was Chaohu Lake, the Dabie Mountains, and the Yangtze River; relying on the mountains and water, one could advance to attack and retreat to defend. The Central Plains of the north had no barriers and was flat as a plain.

At the same time, because Huoshan was surrounded by mountains on all sides, it could be considered hidden deep and secret enough. Behind it were deep mountains, convenient for hiding and running away. No matter how you looked at it, it looked like a bandit's den...

"What is your relationship with the Yang family?"

"I am a relative of the Yang family within five generations. Because I have a bit of ruthlessness, I work for them. I am on par with Liu Shanghe; we each have a gambling den, an opium den, and a brothel. On weekdays, we lend out high-interest loans and introduce people from out of town to sell themselves."

"The bulk of the silver earned goes to the Yang family, the small part goes to those in the yamen who eat people without spitting out bones, and what's left is for us poor wretches. You see me as quite majestic, but in reality, I am just their dog."

"How many people do you have under you?"

Wang Yan was bored and picked his ears; there was a lot of wind and sand along the way, and his ears were full of dirt.

"Not many under me, just thirty-something. If they pull in a few more people, there could be fifty or sixty. Plus the Yang family has seven or eight guards, and the male laborers from the tenant farmers, there are over a hundred to drive. But for so many years, besides fighting two battles with the one surnamed Liu, we have never gathered everyone together."

The hooligan boss Yang Sanshui told everything he knew; he didn't dare to spout nonsense, as Wang Yan was too cruel. Although he was still intact, Wang Yan's movements were crisp and efficient, and even Jiang Wuyang didn't blink when he pulled out a knife to bleed someone, stabbing him in the thigh with one knife...

In this small county, being able to pull out dozens of people made one a big figure. Dozens of united people and hundreds of people with different minds—naturally, the dozens had more deterrent power. Not to mention that dozens were directly governed, and those indirectly ruled could also radiate to hundreds.

The yamen runners of the government only had a few dozen people, but they managed all the big and small affairs of the whole county. Even if they were all unranked registered runners, if they were pulled out, they could be called figures in this county; at least they were very familiar with faces, and there was no one in the county they didn't know. Under normal circumstances, no one would make enemies with them...

"Do you want to earn more?"

"Of course I do, but there is no way. I don't understand other things; I can only sell my life to the wealthy households to earn some hard-earned money."

Wang Yan was noncommittal, looking at the other few bruised and swollen little hooligans: "What about you? Do you want to earn more silver?"

"Of course I do, Master. But even Third Master has no way, so we are even less capable." The little hooligan who was at the city gate earlier spoke up.

Wang Yan gave Zhao Erhu a look, and the latter was stunned for a moment, then suddenly realized with a flash of inspiration.

And so Zhao Erhu walked a few steps behind the little hooligan and directly slashed the little hooligan's throat with his knife.

Uh...

The little hooligan's pupils contracted, looking at Wang Yan in disbelief, reaching out to cover his own throat. However, Erhu's cut was very deep, and blood flowed out gurgling from between his fingers, unable to be stopped no matter what.

The big and small hooligans on the side scattered in panic, watching the person fall to the ground, blood staining the floor, gradually losing all sound.

Wang Yan looked at the new little hooligan: "You tell me, do you want to earn more silver?"

"Ah? Me?" The little hooligan's eyes widened like a catfish, subconsciously taking two steps back.

Jiang Wuyang kicked him in the back: "If you are told to speak, speak! Stop dawdling!"

The little hooligan was kicked down, his hands just happening to land in the pool of blood. He was so scared that he stood up with a jolt, then faced Wang Yan's smiling eyes, and then plopped down on his knees again, not blinking an eye—truly iron knees, capable of kneeling very well.

"Master, I am willing to earn silver! I dream of earning silver!"

Quiet for two seconds, not hearing the little hooligan say anything else, Wang Yan seemed very disdainful: "Look at you, is wanting to earn silver such a difficult thing? Why are you acting like you're dying? Who forced you? Hmm?"

"No, no, Master. No one forced me; I just love earning silver!"

Wang Yan turned his head: "You three, speak!"

"Master, I also love earning silver!"

"That's right, you tell us how to earn it, and we will earn it however you say!"

"Look at that, this kid looks the most like a thief, but it turns out he is the least clever. You must remember this in the future."

The little hooligans nodded repeatedly, and then Wang Yan nodded, "Then what are you still standing there for? Why don't you hurry up and send Third Master on his way?"

Ah?

Compared to the little hooligans, the hooligan boss Yang Sanshui's reaction was very intense, kneeling on the ground and kowtowing: "Master, don't kill me, don't kill me! I can also earn silver, I can also earn silver!"

Wang Yan frowned and picked his ears, squinting at the four little hooligans kneeling on the ground: "Didn't hear Third Master is in a hurry? What are you waiting for? Or should Third Master send you?"

As the words fell, Yang Sanshui, whose forehead was already bleeding from kowtowing, stopped his movements, stood up without hesitation, stepped over the corpse on the ground, directly grabbed the eyes of the nearby little hooligan, and punched his neck fiercely.

Ah! The little hooligan screamed.

In an instant, the remaining three little hooligans reacted, pounced on him, pressed the boss under them, and swung their fists to smash him to death.

Yang Sanshui still had two parts of courage, but being approached by his subordinates and piled up like an arhat, he couldn't exert any strength. His desperate struggle didn't last long before he truly lost his life, but he also took away the little hooligan whose eyes he had gouged out—it was him who bit through the throat and bit the person to death...

The three surviving little hooligans, stained with blood, knelt respectfully on the ground, not daring to raise their heads, not daring to look at anyone, not daring to speak, even holding their breath, even though their chests were heaving rapidly.

"Get up." Wang Yan waved his hand.

"Thank you, Master." The three stood up in unison.

"You three, call the disobedient people over and deal with them. Those who submit will prosper, those who resist will perish. Afterward, bring everyone you can contact over; I want to recognize them. From now on, we will do big things and make big fortunes together. Brothers must be familiar and of one heart. Understand?"

"Understand!"

"Alright, change into clean clothes and call the people you can't handle over."

Wang Yan waved his hand, and the three changed into Yang Sanshui's clean clothes in the room, each received ten taels of silver, first went to bring back the people in the gambling den in the front yard, and in a few words, they hacked people to death, and then continued to use Yang Sanshui's name to summon people to their deaths.

If this were a formal unit, this would be killing people during a meeting...

All three were gone. In the courtyard, there were only corpses, blood, and Wang Yan and his group eating the cooked food purchased by the little hooligan, not even afraid that the corpses would ruin their appetite.

"Big Brother, all three of them are out. I don't know why, but I feel unsafe." Zhao Erhu gnawed on a pig's trotter. "You say they won't find people to surround us, right?"

Jiang Wuyang nodded repeatedly, mumbling: "That's right, Big Brother. Why don't we hide for a bit and come back when we are sure there is no danger?"

The two had been stunned by Wang Yan's ruthlessness and decisiveness. Earlier, he had said that causing trouble in a big city couldn't be covered up and they had to run away. They never expected that upon arriving in Huoshan, he would start killing directly. They had thought they would have to settle in the mountains first...

"You two, you just can't stay steady. You have to learn to put yourself in others' shoes. Just say you two are them—having taken ten taels of silver, would you follow the one surnamed Yang, or follow us? Not to mention that they followed the wealthy Yang household before, just say they beat Yang Sanshui to death—if this gets out, do they have a way to live? They can't beat us themselves; look, do they have a choice?"

Wang Yan was also gnawing on a pig's trotter. It had to be said that this braised pig's trotter was really very average. But it was meat, after all, and it was fragrant.

"You have to know that people are never stable and content; they are all greedy. As long as people see profit, then everyone is fine. It's like between you and me—why do you follow me?"

Uh... because we believed your ghost stories...

Zhao Erhu and Jiang Wuyang looked at each other, unable to speak.

Wang Yan shook his head disdainfully: "It's to live a good life; this is our common goal. Now is the time for us to lay the foundation. You also heard that this Huoshan County still has things."

"There is excellent farmland, you can catch fish in the river, you can pan for some gold, there are many medicinal materials, and there is Gua Pian—this is a famous good tea. Plus these shops in the county, as long as we occupy this Huoshan, then the good days will come."

"But just relying on our few people..."

Wang Yan interrupted Zhao Erhu's words: "We now have six people, and later there will be dozens. Once we get Yang Sanshui's business up and running, we can have more people later."

"Isn't there still the wealthy Yang household? Can they just watch us grow big? If they report us to the government..."

"Then kill the officials! We are aiming to go into the mountains to be bandits; if we fear this and fear that, worrying about the future, how can we accomplish anything? Second, if you can't figure it out, just think about it slowly, watch slowly, and don't always ask this and that. Just do whatever you are told."

Being young is like this, always a curious baby asking this and that. But this is actually quite good; otherwise, if you don't say anything and let people guess, that is much more annoying than asking this and that...

Just as Wang Yan said, the three little hooligans were not brainless; they knew they could only go down this path to the end. Only by firmly believing that Wang Yan, this sudden strong man, could hold the situation and lead them to earn a lot of silver was their best choice. Everything else would have a very miserable ending.

So besides moving forward, they had no other choice.

The three discussed very carefully, bringing all the difficult people to the courtyard behind the gambling den. There were debt collectors, kidnappers, opium traffickers—in short, all were ruthless people who managed affairs and were relatively valued in the past.

By the next day, there were over ten corpses in the courtyard. Fortunately, it was early spring; although it was getting hot, the decomposition was still within a controllable range—it was just some bloody smell plus the stench of feces and urine.

The three brought over the remaining little hooligans who were just mixing for food. Right there in the courtyard, beside the dozen corpses, Wang Yan introduced himself to everyone with a smile, chatted with everyone about their current life situation, and talked about future dreams.

This lasted for a whole day. Wang Yan met thirty-two people. By the time evening approached that day, the corpses in the courtyard had finally been cleaned up and sent outside the city to dig pits and bury them.

At the same time, the news that a ruthless man had come to Huoshan finally couldn't be kept under wraps and spread out...

?? Daily thanks to the big brothers who tipped, voted for monthly tickets, recommendation tickets, and silently read the book for their strong support! ===== CHAPTER 1637 =====