Chapter 487

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Protagonist:

Lv Muzhi

Outside Hue City, beneath the former imperial city walls.

Inside a lavishly decorated manor, a dense crowd was packed together.

The owner of the manor was named Ruan Fuyuan; by seniority, he was a distant clansman of Emperor Bao Da, known as Ruan Huangshu!

He owned thousands of mu of fertile land around Hue and was the undisputed great landlord of this region.

Ruan Huangshu stood on a high wooden platform, waving a silk scroll bearing a forged jade seal, shouting loudly at the farmers below.

"Fellow villagers! His Majesty has already reclaimed the Great Treasure in Bangkok, and the Thai army is escorting the Holy Carriage, rushing day and night to Hue!"

"The current Unity Party is nothing but a group of treacherous ministers and rebellious sons; if we rise up now to rally to the king, we shall be heroes of the restoration!"

"Anyone who joins the rally-to-the-king army will have a chance to be ennobled and made prime minister after taking Hanoi! Your household taxes will be exempted for ten years by the court!"

Hearing the promises of ennoblement and ten years of tax exemption, the farmers below, who could not read a single character, instantly became excited, whispering to one another.

On this land, being exempted from ten years of land tax was, to them, nothing short of a heavenly grace.

The people were stirred with fervor, but some young men in the corner curled their lips in disdain.

Li Wensong had long carried heavy sacks at the wharf and was well-informed.

He tugged the sleeve of a fellow villager beside him and lowered his voice.

"Don't listen to Master Ruan's nonsense; I heard from merchants coming from the North Side that the Youth Army has directly divided the landlords' land."

"Divided among whom?"

"Divided among farmers like us! Once the land is in the farmers' hands, we don't even have to pay rent, so why do we need him to exempt our taxes here?"

"If we really wait for the emperor and the landlords to return, we'll still have to pay rent every day, and who knows, we might even have to hand over our grain rations."

The fellow villager came to his senses: "Right, if we don't pay rent, what will they eat?!"

Although their voices were not loud, they were overheard by a landlord's lackey standing nearby.

The lackey glared, said nothing more, rushed over, raised the wooden stick in his hand, and smashed it down on Li Wensong's head and face.

"You dog who bites the hand that feeds you! Dare to spread heresy here and ruin Lord Huangshu's great plan!"

After a beating of punches and kicks, Li Wensong was battered and bruised, lying in the mud coughing.

"Stop playing dead here! Now you're also a member of the rally-to-the-king army; whoever dares to run, I'll beat him to death on the spot!"

Just like that, Li Wensong and the other farmers from nearby villages were forcibly incorporated into this so-called "Hue Rally-to-the-King Army."

Ruan Huangshu looked at the more than one thousand men he had cobbled together and felt quite pleased with himself.

Once Emperor Bao Da returns, won't I be rewarded with the title of a great general?

However, when this army composed of farmers and house servants marched onto the defensive line, the sight before them left everyone completely stunned.

From the very beginning of the combat, it exceeded the rally-to-the-king army's understanding.

A whistling sound came from the sky; several BF109 Fighters flew almost at treetop level.

The tremendous roar of the engines pressed down overhead, and the airflow directly lifted the thatched roofs of the sheds on the rally-to-the-king army's defensive line into the sky.

Li Wensong, conscripted by force, turned deathly pale, crouched on the ground holding his head, and dared not lift it even once.

Before the planes had flown far, a muffled thunder came from the horizon in the distance.

That was the sound of the Youth Army's mountain guns opening fire.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Shells landed a hundred meters in front of the rally-to-the-king army's position, exploding into huge fountains of mud.

The earth trembled violently, mud and gravel rained down on the farmers' backs, scaring many into crying for their fathers and mothers on the spot.

Li Wensong secretly raised his head, glanced at the rally-to-the-king army he was in, and felt utter despair in his heart.

More than one thousand men, but fewer than two in ten had guns; the rest were all broadswords and spears.

As for cannons and machine guns, they were nowhere to be seen.

The Youth Army did not intend to carry out a massacre; the artillery fire and planes were more a kind of chilling deterrence, showing off their muscles to the rally-to-the-king army.

The farmers of the rally-to-the-king army were still shaken; on the distant earthen slope, more than ten steel monsters appeared.

Sanhao Tanks and Armored Vehicles roared with their engines, their tracks crushing the bushes and stones by the roadside, swaggering toward the rally-to-the-king army's position.

The house servants on the defensive line shouted and fired their rifles; bullets striking the tanks' frontal armor only sparked, proving useless.

A few bold house servants charged forward with spears, hoping to stab the tanks' tracks, but the spears snapped in two directly.

These armored vehicles of the Youth Army did not fire a single shot or shell from start to finish, simply ignoring the rally-to-the-king army's attacks and continuing to advance.

These armored vehicles drove directly onto the rally-to-the-king army's position, scaring the farmers on the position out of their wits.

Ruan Huangshu, supervising the battle from afar, froze completely, rubbed his eyes, and dared not believe everything happening before him.

How is this battle being fought like this?

When the French came to colonize, my ancestors, as the imperial family, naturally also led troops to resist for a while.

But later they couldn't win, and the imperial family had to become the Frenchmen's puppets.

Back then, everyone could circle around in the woods and still put up a fight.

Later, the Yixin Society guerrillas also carried rifles in the mountains to fire cold guns.

But these Youth Army men before him drove tanks straight onto the position; how could his farmers and house servants with broadswords and hunting rifles play against that?

Just as Ruan Huangshu was doubting his life, the Youth Army's tanks and armored vehicles stopped directly on the position.

The loudspeakers on the vehicle roofs crackled simultaneously, and then standard fluent local dialect came out.

The huge broadcast voice echoed across the battlefield.

"Elders and fellow villagers of Hue! The Youth Army is here to give you land, not to kill you!"

"Your real enemy is the landlord Ruan Huangshu hiding behind! He is an imperial relative, just an ordinary commoner for now, no need to be cannon fodder for them!"

"As long as you lay down your weapons, the Youth Army guarantees everyone will get their own land, and never pay land rent again!"

The broadcast voice echoed over and over on the position.

Li Wensong, conscripted into service, stood dumbfounded; the enemy opposite was clearly strong enough to kill everyone, yet still did not move.

The Youth Army's tanks drove onto the royalist army's position—just to broadcast?!

These words in the broadcast were like a heavy bomb, exploding directly in the hearts of Li Wensong and countless farmers.

Land redistribution! No rent!

Wasn't this the path to survival they had dreamed of for generations?

The loudspeaker's voice continued, gentle and firm.

"Brothers willing to surrender, lay down your weapons and run toward the direction we came from!"

Li Wensong looked at the tank tracks right before him, gritted his teeth, and was the first to throw the spear in his hand onto the ground.

He crawled out of the ditch and tentatively moved his feet toward the tank.

With Li Wensong taking the lead, the farmers on the position began throwing away their weapons in droves.

"I want to surrender! I want land!"

"I won't serve Ruan Huangshu anymore! I want to go to the other side!"

Groups of farmers ran wildly toward the path the tanks had come from.

The Youth Army's tanks, meanwhile, used the loudspeakers to spread policy while reversing back to their own camp.

Ruan Huangshu in the distance saw this scene, trembling with rage, pointing outside and cursing loudly.

"Rebelling? All rebelling! Where is the Supervise Battle Team? Shoot for me, execute all these traitors by firing squad!"

The lackey captain beside him had a face full of despair:

"Imperial Uncle, it's too far, we can't hit them."

"Besides, how dare we shoot! Their machine guns and cannon muzzles are aimed right at us!"

Ruan Huangshu watched helplessly as the royalist army he had painstakingly raised was more than half disbanded so quickly.

They didn't even fire a single shell into the crowd.

For those royalist troops who still had not surrendered, the Youth Army had plenty of patience.

Because from beginning to end, Ruan Huangshu and the royalist army had never entered the Youth Army's sight, nor were they in a hurry for a quick battle.

In the following two days, the Youth Army occasionally fired several shells at the remaining royalist troops for firepower intimidation, then drove the tanks up to their position again, sticking their faces close to spread policy, infuriating Ruan Huangshu but leaving him helpless.

Every time the Youth Army openly came to persuade surrender, they could take away a group of surrendering royalist troops.

If they did not surrender, firepower would be upgraded again after a few hours, then broadcasting and persuading surrender would continue.

Under this endless, escalating psychological and physical torment, the hardliners' psychological defense line completely collapsed.

After two days, of the originally mighty force of over a thousand royalist troops, hundreds had deserted and more than half had surrendered.

About eighty hardline retainers were eliminated and killed by the Youth Army.

By the morning of the third day, only thirty-plus personal retainers remained by Ruan Huangshu's side.

The Youth Army had already shown forbearance to the utmost, demonstrating to the locals that they were an army of benevolence and righteousness.

Given a chance to surrender, Ruan Huangshu and his remaining vassals still refused, and the Youth Army's patience was finally exhausted.

The tanks drove straight into Ruan Huangshu's command headquarters, fully armed Youth Army infantry carrying Garand Rifles swiftly stormed in.

The soldiers dragged out this imperious imperial clansman.

"Take him away! Send him to the public trial meeting!" a Youth Army captain coldly waved his hand.

That afternoon, in the central square of Hue City, tens of thousands of peasants crowded in, among them not a few surrendered royalist troops.

For the lower-ranking soldiers of the royalist army, the Youth Army chose to let bygones be bygones and let them return home to live in peace.

The Land Reform Work Team had officially stationed themselves, and a high trial platform was erected in the center of the square.

Ruan Huangshu and his confidants were bound and pushed onto the stage.

The work team publicly read aloud Ruan Huangshu's counter-revolutionary crimes of colluding with foreign enemies, exploiting the common people, and resisting land reform.

The peasants below were somewhat afraid—the one bound to the gallows was, after all, an imperial uncle of the Ruan clan!

If the Thais brought back Emperor Bao Dadi.

The emperor's majesty was not something they could bear.

With a crack, the execution began.

Accompanied by the sound of the gallows plank dropping, this imperial uncle, without a word, was directly hanged by the Youth Army!

The work team captain stood on the stage, waving the thick, brand-new land deeds in his hand, and loudly announced:

"Fellow villagers, quiet down! Starting tomorrow, the work team will go to the townships to measure fields!"

"As long as registered Hue households, land will be distributed by household, land deeds issued on the spot, absolutely no delay!"

The peasants below were stunned for a second, then erupted into cheers that soared to the clouds.

"Who said the Unity Party is a traitor party and the Youth Army is an invading army? They are simply heaven-sent great officials!"

"What emperor's majesty? I think the emperor is the traitor party!"

"Lived for decades, and this is the first time dividing a landlord's land!"

"The Youth Army has come, and heaven's justice has arrived!"